Newcomer / Intro This Sim can be very unforgiving at Times :(

[Night Hawk]

So I have been doing some trading in my new Cobra trying to build up my credits for upgrades etc. I have been managing the interdictions very well so far, by using the escape vector method as well as submitting then scooting away, however I met my match today....

My ship was empty of cargo and I was probably not in the best "neighbourhood", when I was interdicted. I was not able to evade and was surprised how quickly the escape bar was falling in the favour of the other ship. When I could see that I was in trouble, I quickly dropped the throttle and was preparing my escape plan.

Unfortunately for me the pirate was in a well armed Viper at expert level. He demanded cargo - which I did not have, so I throttled up and boosted to escape I found that my shields disappeared very quickly thanks to laser and missile attacks and before long I was in deep trouble with a heavily damaged ship.

So after my first Cobra was destroyed I am now going to spend more time (and credits) arming my ship and practising my combat skills to avoid future problems like this. I suspect that a well armed Viper could be a handful for the Cobra at the best of times.

I am actually considering trading the Cobra for a Viper and doing some Bounty Hunting for payback

One question I do have is, what is the correct response when you are requested to hand over your cargo, but dont have any to give?

I guess they call it Elite "Dangerous" for a good reason - death can be quick for the unwary and unprepared.

 

[Jaiotu]

The correct response is fight or run.
I'd suggest A-rating a Sidewinder and taking her out for some bounty hunting at an RES. You can take on Anacondas in a good Sidewinder (with the help of the police and hiding behind asteroids for cover.) That should help you earn enough credits to A-rate a Cobra or a Viper. I prefer the Cobra in combat... not because it is necessarily better than the Viper. I just like my old MkIII for the sake of nostalgia.

 

[Night Hawk]

Thanks for the tip - a well equipped Sidewinder was my other option for Bounty Hunting, its relatively cheap and can be deadly with the right skills!!

Looks like its back to weapons school and combat training for me!

Cheers

 

[Night Hawk]

Well a lot can change in 24 hours - I managed to get my first pirate kill today, it was a Competent rated Viper and boy am I happy about it

It wasn't pretty and I struggled for a while, but when I saw his shields go down, I knew that I had a good chance to take him out!

After getting my Cobra destroyed by a Viper yesterday, I spent last night going through the training missions again and again to get some confidence balancing power and deploying the my weapons effectively. Then I installed some G Burst Lasers and G Cannons on my Cobra and hoped that I would not have to use them.

I had a full load of cargo (100K credits) and was heading to an outpost when I was interdicted twice! The first I evaded, but the second one was actually between the outpost and a nearby planet. I am still not sure if the interdiction pulled me out of SC or the planet.

Anyway I decided that this time I was going to stand my ground and hit back - it felt good, but I am not going to get overconfident.

It was a lot of work for a measly bounty of 6K credits, so I dont plan on making a career out of Bounty Hunting for a while.

Well if I was not already hooked on ED, I certainly am now!

Cheers

 

[Blaubart]

Wsa this a player or an AI demanding your cargo? (player ships are hollow on the sensor) Usually those guys are reasonable enough to talk to. It doesn't make much sense for them to shoot an empty ship except for the lols maybe. (be nice)

AI: well they is not much to talk about with them. However you might actually have a better chance of surviving if you enter the dogfight with them until your FSD is back up... the reason is simple: when you try to fly after them and they don't have a turret mountet. They can't hit you. Because they are not able to aim at you. Even if they have a turret mountet, its probably only one mount so you won't take as much damage as you'd take if you flew away from them in a straight line.

Once your FSD is back up, you have to see how much damage you already did to the ship. If you weren't even able to brake their shields, it's definatly a good idea to run for it. Otherwise: well, think for yourself.

Here is how your should probably get out of it the best way: Vipers (and other smaller ships) tend to use the booster in case they can't manage to turn fast enough to hit you the classical way... When they do so (listen for the booster sound, maybe you don't see them at the time) turn around in the oppsite direction an boost as well. Activate hyperspeed, retract your hardpoints and give 2 blips to system and the other 4 to the engines. Boost as often as you can until you jump into hyperspeed. The disance between them and you should be large enought that not every shot from them hits.

P.s: while waiting for the FSD to reload, you should try to follow them when they boost, but don't overshoot. The further they are away form you, the easyer it is for them to hit you.

p.p.s. try to avoid yawing towards your target. Its faster to roll and pull up.

 

[Night Hawk]

Thanks for that advice - power management is certainly the key to give you the advantage.

The reaction to control inputs takes a while to get used to in this sim, its quite different to conventional flightsims that I am used to playing - and yes using yaw should really only be for docking maneuvers, thanks.

I have found that before you come out of an interdiction you have to decide whether to go defensive straight away to prepare for a quick getaway or to deploy weapons and prepare for a fight - take too long to decide your action and you have already lost half your shields. I think if you have time to submit you can get your Frameshift ready fairly quickly so escape is most likely the best plan. If you dont submit then it takes a lot longer to get back into SC, so perhaps then you should try to fight it out.

I had another interdiction later today, so I submitted then prepared to fight, this time it was a Python with Competent rated pilot, so I decided that I might be better off trying to escape - thankfully I could outmaneuver the Python long enough to get my Frameshift ready for a jump.

Still learning, but also having fun

 

[Ian Skippy]

I have found that before you come out of an interdiction you have to decide whether to go defensive straight away to prepare for a quick getaway or to deploy weapons and prepare for a fight - take too long to decide your action and you have already lost half your shields. I think if you have time to submit you can get your Frameshift ready fairly quickly so escape is most likely the best plan. If you dont submit then it takes a lot longer to get back into SC, so perhaps then you should try to fight it out.

Something to consider is what I do when interdicted: submit immediately. When coming out of SC I put all energy to shields, hit boost *once* and turn off Flight Assist (energy to engines is ignored during FA off, you can always reach max speed!). Then you turn around (so you face your enemy), but because FA is off you are still moving the other way, you are now essentially flying backwards at max speed while staring at the enemy. This gives you some time to check his skill level/type or even KWS scan him. You're not feeling confident? Boost towards him while charging the FSD. By the time he has turned around to chase you you'll be 3km out and ready to jump. You want to fight? Put more energy to engines and apply forward thrust. Then get behind him using an FA off turn while he zips passed you.

 

[Night Hawk]

Great advice - thanks, I will give it a try.

I get the feeling that flying with FA on makes you a lot more predictable to the enemy (CMDR or NPC).

I have done some remapping of my X52 profile so that I can toggle FA without taking my hand of the throttle. Up till now I have been using the standard profile for my X52, but I am now making some minor tweaks to get the important controls for dogfighting on the throttle and stick. I am finding that when getting into a combat situation, the cockpit workload increases very quickly, which is as it should be, although its challenging for new players.

Also I think most of my interdictions have been by NPC's, certainly the ones that I have submitted to or have been forced out of SC have all been NPC's.

To get a fast FSD cooldown following an interdiction, should you submit immediately or does it still work if you do it before you are forced out of SC?

 

[ChubbyBunneh]

When a NPC pirate interdicts you they usually slow down and float in front of you to cargo scan you. If you have heavy weapons that's the perfect time to line up an opening shot to give yourself the advantage.

 

[requ1em]

Don't bother with the burst, go for pulse...more time on target. For the bounty hunting you need to go to a RES (look for a gas giant with rings) then you will find that the bounty on NPC's really adds up. I started this route in a cobra, then ASP and now in a FDL making 2M a trip.

 

[Night Hawk]

Great advice guys, thanks.

So I have done some weapons upgrades now, I have fitted 2 Beam Lasers (G) along with the 2 Multi Cannons (G) this really helps put my weapons on target Is this a reasonable loadout for defence and Bounty Hunting?

The problem with upgrading weapons though, is I lose some jump range, not to mention an increase in power usage, looking to do some more ship upgrades so my trading is not compromised.

Managed to take out an expert Viper yesterday that interdicted me, got 30k bounty which was great. I tried disabling the Flight Assist, but found it very difficult to control my ship in combat, so I need to work on that a bit more till I get the feel of it.

I also got interdicted by another Viper, so I boosted and locked him up and prepared to fire, but I noticed that he wasn't "Wanted" ? I quickly made a getaway, but now I am not sure what action I should have taken.

So If I fire on him then I am wanted right? Do I wait for him to fire and hit me, so he is wanted then return fire - bit confused?

I will check out the RES area's now that I have a bit more confidence (and firepower) and see how that works out.

Will report back soon.

 

[willowfan]

Were you in an anarchy system at the time?

The viper would not show as wanted as there is no authority in the system for them to be wanted by.

Also a ship won't show as wanted unless they actually open fire on you (and connect) or you scan them with a KWS to pick up any open bounties applying to them.

 

[Night Hawk]

Yep, I am pretty sure it was Anarchy, so that it explains it then.

Thanks

 

[Matzov]

One small thought - and you may already know this - once the interdiction starts, if you hit H (default key settings for target hostile) you will instantly beable to tell the ship and rating of the interdictor. I use this to begin calculating my plan. Is it a highly maneuverable ship in expert hands? Is it a a heavy ship that will likely outgun me but may not be all that great at the interdiction game due to lack of maneuverability? Is this a gimme bounty that I can submit to and cream in a few minutes? And so on. This way I can make an initial decision whether to submit or play the interdict mini game, and whether I should be preparing on exit to immediately gun-up, or triple boost & FSD.

 

[Night Hawk]

I was not aware of that little trick - excellent!!!

Rep inbound

 

[ReaperAlex]

if you do decide to get a combat ship, keep the cobra! ships like the viper would be horrible to go back to trading in, but they are a ton of fun to hunt pirates with. it's also good to have backup ships should you end up so short on credits that you could not afford the insurance on your best ship.

 

[Night Hawk]

Many thanks for the tips guys, its really appreciated and has been very helpful

Ok so I have finally got into some serious Bounty Hunting in RES areas and I am really enjoying it, I dont know why I avoided it till now. You can make plenty of credits in a very short time, my first attempt netted me 180K in about 10 minutes, this would have taken me a couple of hours in trading.

So now I can afford some decent upgrades for my trusty Cobra - great ship by the way, I am really happy with my decision to jump into it as soon as I could.

One thing I did find out very quickly though, is that you have to be careful how you use gimballed weapons, as they will lock onto anything that is in range, including friendlies.

One minute I am getting a "thanks for helping" from the authority ships, then with one misplaced hit and 200cr wanted tag, they turn on you like rabid dogs. I just managed to get out with 3 Eagles hot on my tail. I bet that I am not the first CMDR to be caught with that one - it would be nice if there was some tolerance for minor infringements like this, maybe a wanted level below 1000cr and you need to leave the site to pay for your fines, above that and you are toast.

Now I am considering swapping my gimballed beam lasers for fixed ones and leaving the cannons gimballed, due to the compromised mount position of the small hardpoints.

I am really enjoying what ED has to offer so far, I think its a great sim, with spectacular visuals and sound, along with great gameplay.

Cant believe that a couple of weeks ago I headed out of my first starport in a Sidewinder with 1000cr in the bank, now I have a Cobra worth over 2 mill plus another 1.6 mill in the bank - great stuff!!

Cheers

 

[ToniB]

So I have been doing some trading in my new Cobra trying to build up my credits for upgrades etc. I have been managing the interdictions very well so far, by using the escape vector method as well as submitting then scooting away, however I met my match today....

My ship was empty of cargo and I was probably not in the best "neighbourhood", when I was interdicted. I was not able to evade and was surprised how quickly the escape bar was falling in the favour of the other ship. When I could see that I was in trouble, I quickly dropped the throttle and was preparing my escape plan.

Unfortunately for me the pirate was in a well armed Viper at expert level. He demanded cargo - which I did not have, so I throttled up and boosted to escape I found that my shields disappeared very quickly thanks to laser and missile attacks and before long I was in deep trouble with a heavily damaged ship.

So after my first Cobra was destroyed I am now going to spend more time (and credits) arming my ship and practising my combat skills to avoid future problems like this. I suspect that a well armed Viper could be a handful for the Cobra at the best of times.

I am actually considering trading the Cobra for a Viper and doing some Bounty Hunting for payback

One question I do have is, what is the correct response when you are requested to hand over your cargo, but dont have any to give?

I guess they call it Elite "Dangerous" for a good reason - death can be quick for the unwary and unprepared.

cobra vs. viper is a tough fight, but you can win!

 

[Night Hawk]

Cobra vs Viper is pretty close and I think it comes down to how each ship is kitted out and piloted.

The first Viper I faced off against got my shields down and the followed up with a couple of missile volleys - ouch!

Since my first encounter I have dispatched 3 NPC Vipers without too much trouble, but I have been working hard on my Space Combat Manoeuvres (is that a real term?) as well as upgrading my ships sytems and weapons.

I am actually considering trying out a Viper for dedicated BH work, although the Cobra is a very good platform and also is great fun for trading and exploring, I might be up for a dedicated fighter platform. I will probably just park the Cobra while I am busy Bounty Hunting.

Will have to see how the credit tally is going

 

[willowfan]

Viper is the slightly better for combat if for nothing else than it's more efficient hardpoint placement, plus it's insurance is much cheaper.

Plus, it's engine noise is way cooler