How do you effectively manage threat in a combat zone?

[Bacalao]

No matter how careful I am about positioning myself well behind the green dots (allied ship on the nav display), and not directly aggroing more than one red dot (enemy ship on the nav display) and killing it, after about 10-20 minutes I'll find another enemy target foolish enough to get itself on our side of the sky and I'll engage, on doing so 3-4 of the bigger red dots that were engaging green dots stop, ignore their attackers and chase me down. Distance doesn't seem to be a problem for them, I've been up to 7km away from the main fight and had a couple pythons/anacondas come hunt me down for taking out an overly bold or foolishly isolated asp. In other cases I have ended up 14-15 km away from the main fighting with a breakaway group of a few greens and a few reds, after mopping up the reds I head back over to the main cluster, carefully skirting to an advantageous position and as soon as they get sight of me it's like they hear the dinner bell ringing!

I can only assume that there is some kind of threat built up and since I kill ships much faster than the NPCs I am building it up much faster than the NPC ships. If this is the case, is there a way to manage it other than resetting the instance? How exactly would you shed aggro?

This has been a problem since I started going in a vulture and even more of an issue in an Anaconda.

Don't get me wrong, I expect to get some attention, it's just that it is like a switch is suddenly flipped and despite being pummeled by greens, the reds want me more than anything. I had a particularly close call in my anaconda when no less than 3 pythons and two anacondas engaging other NPCs broke off and flew straight through the thickest part of my allies (who vastly outnumbered the enemies) to very quickly take me down to 50% hull and blow out my thrusters, the high wake was only just in time.

Like I said, I am very careful in combat zones, even low intensity can get hot quickly if you aren't paying attention to your position, I lost an A-rated cobra in my early days because I isolated myself behind enemy lines and took the lesson to heart. This aggressive attention doesn't seem to be position dependent (I fully expect to get the brunt of the fire if I go blazing into the heart of the red dots), and it happens very suddenly.

For information, I never use turrets so those things ticking people off aren't an issue.

Thanks for any advice/tips/info.

 

[Darrett]

As far as I know, there is no threat mechanic. If you shoot a target as a player, they come after you regardless of whatever else they were fighting. The multiple anaconda/python group seems to occur after you've gotten a certain amount of combat bonds.

 

[Brimstone]

Kill everything before it kills you.


I've found I get ganged up on a lot more often in low intensity combat zones, as opposed to high intensity zones.

 

[shadragon]

OP is correct. I used to go into the CZ and engage in a series of 1 v 1 combats with little if any interference. Now I'm jumped by multiple aggressors and while more challenging all I seem to be getting good at is running away to recharge my shields. They pursue with the attitude that I killed their brother or something; quite aggressive.

 

[Rob_the_Sparky]

Good isn't it? It shouldn't be a risk free shooting range. My advise, find a group of green on the scanner and engage an enemy in that vicinity. If you are the lone green in a sea of red, of course you get attacked by everyone...

 

[Lord_Crazy]

PEW PEW PEW BBOOUUMMM PEW PEW! Usually works. (PS: I am not drunk)

 

[PhanttoM]

When they start chasing me, I usually try to lure them to the nearest friendly ship that has turrets - Anacondas or Pythons.
If they get poked by turrets long enough, they will disengage. (Unless you have fired directly on them of course)

 

[Bacalao]

Good isn't it? It shouldn't be a risk free shooting range. My advise, find a group of green on the scanner and engage an enemy in that vicinity. If you are the lone green in a sea of red, of course you get attacked by everyone...

It isn't that I want a risk free combat zone, I quite enjoy that enemies are much more aggressive than in RESs, but there is a tipping point in combat zones where suddenly, regardless of being in a sea of green and carefully selecting targets, reds want mah booty and I am forced to beat a quick, unceremonious and slightly flabbergasted retreat.

 

[Hootmon]

Maybe its because you are made of tasty Bacalao, and they are hungry.

 

[h347h]

Logistics > tactics. Moving your ship around correctly will minimize the chances of you being targeted by several NPCs at once as well as also allowing friendly NPCs to peel them off of you. Its more an art form than a science so you'll have to learn it yourself with practice. I learned to moved around like the 2nd day I did them and I've never had an issue since, going on 7 weeks of doing them pretty hardcore. Opening up on some larger ships will trigger what appears to be a help the bigger ship AI distress call kind of thing. So if you want to kill a bigger ship take out all of the surrounding smaller ships first.

 

[Cheese Helmet]

I mitigate this by picking the targets my green biddies are shooting, freeing them up to move into the next target. Basically I just wing a anaconda or python NPC and shoot what he's shooting. Eventually you'll get 5+ ships including yourself focus firing target after target. The rapid pace mititgates the problem you talked about, but it will still occur.

 

[Arry]

I use a Cobra and if I find too many are attacking me, I will turn and run, but as the Cobra is fast, I can string out the ships chasing me, thus take them out one at a time and then return to the main fight.

 

[Stanchion Ra]

When I'm in my Vulture I try to stick around other Greens to keep some of the pressure off of myself. Every now and again I'll have a couple of Anacondas or Pythons pop into my area of operation in an aggressive manor. Usually I can burst far enough away to separate one of them from the pack so that I can show him the error in his ways. And then I'll slowly head back to heat of the battle as I let my shields recharge.

 

[IronGremlin]

I mitigate this by picking the targets my green biddies are shooting, freeing them up to move into the next target. Basically I just wing a anaconda or python NPC and shoot what he's shooting. Eventually you'll get 5+ ships including yourself focus firing target after target. The rapid pace mititgates the problem you talked about, but it will still occur.

This.

Engaging "fresh" targets will typically cause the surrounding NPCs to focus fire you, traveling with your green NPC blob helps to alleviate this both because NPCs are "sticky" about who they engage and because your allies are more likely to help take the heat off you.

 

[Bacalao]

consensus seems to be initiating a fight on a fresh target, not matter how isolated they are or how insulated you are, has a high probability of attracting lots of attention, I'll try to experiment with it tomorrow (delivering tea all night tonight).

 

[ocflyer]

Logistics > tactics. Moving your ship around correctly will minimize the chances of you being targeted by several NPCs at once as well as also allowing friendly NPCs to peel them off of you. Its more an art form than a science so you'll have to learn it yourself with practice. I learned to moved around like the 2nd day I did them and I've never had an issue since, going on 7 weeks of doing them pretty hardcore. Opening up on some larger ships will trigger what appears to be a help the bigger ship AI distress call kind of thing. So if you want to kill a bigger ship take out all of the surrounding smaller ships first.

First rule of a battle, establish air superiority. Or in this case, space superiority. Large, slow ships usually don't establish superiority. The top fighters do. So, go after the top-ranked Vultures|Vipers|Eagles|Cobras in the immediate area before taking on larger ships (Python, Anaconda) or low-ranked fighters. I didn't mention Asp because they're too easy to destroy with my Vulture. And when you're taking on that large ship, remember that you're part of a fleet, not a one-ship military force. So, go after the capital ship when it is clear that you have at least one or two other large ships next to you that can join the fight if they haven't already started.

 

[goemon]

your ship-class plays a role, too. if you are in a vulture or a python, or even in an asp (can't tell about an anaconda), they will throw more ships on you (which makes sense... you are going for the pythons, asp or vultures, too). take a small cheaper ship like a courier or dbs to the combatzone, you'll see the difference.

 

[ocflyer]

I use a Cobra and if I find too many are attacking me, I will turn and run, but as the Cobra is fast, I can string out the ships chasing me, thus take them out one at a time and then return to the main fight.

If the multiple ships that are attacking you are all of the same class (large, slow), they will be grouped together. When this happens to me, usually it is 2 or 3 large ships and 1 fighter. While I'm able to take out the fighter if I separate it from the group, I can't take on 2 or 3 large ships with my lone Vulture. So, this strategy usually doesn't work. Better to take out the fighter and then loop around them back to the main group, assuming you're in a fighter yourself, than take them on yourself isolated from your fleet.

- - - Updated - - -

I mitigate this by picking the targets my green biddies are shooting, freeing them up to move into the next target. Basically I just wing a anaconda or python NPC and shoot what he's shooting. Eventually you'll get 5+ ships including yourself focus firing target after target. The rapid pace mititgates the problem you talked about, but it will still occur.

While this tactic makes for easy pickings, you won't learn advanced fighter combat techniques by shooting over your buddy's shoulder. At some point, you need to venture forth into the battle and establish space superiority by taking out the top-ranked fighters. Learn to take the fight to the enemy rather than stay comfortable. Fleet combat requires initiative and courage to prioritize targets which your fleet may not necessarily be good at doing.

 

[Ginrikuzuma]

First rule of a battle, establish air superiority. Or in this case, space superiority. Large, slow ships usually don't establish superiority. The top fighters do. So, go after the top-ranked Vultures|Vipers|Eagles|Cobras in the immediate area before taking on larger ships (Python, Anaconda) or low-ranked fighters. I didn't mention Asp because they're too easy to destroy with my Vulture. And when you're taking on that large ship, remember that you're part of a fleet, not a one-ship military force. So, go after the capital ship when it is clear that you have at least one or two other large ships next to you that can join the fight if they haven't already started.

^This

While I prize targetting condas and pythons on my dropship I occasionally have to target the fighters (especially eagles).

Sure eagles and the other small fry are easy to kill once you open fire on them but if you ignore them they will pepper your shields down so fast while you focus on the bigger prey you'll end up running with your tail between your legs.

Personally I try to keep a 3:2 kill ratio (kill 3 small fry then go after 2 pythons/condas)

 

[Skyrun]

This.

Engaging "fresh" targets will typically cause the surrounding NPCs to focus fire you, traveling with your green NPC blob helps to alleviate this both because NPCs are "sticky" about who they engage and because your allies are more likely to help take the heat off you.

I have the same experience. I just have sometimes problems that some new pack is entering the battle and by bad luck have just found me as their first target but otherwise I am safe winging up with NPCs and helping them killing the enemies.