Turret hardpoint builds?

[Jrtbloke]

Hi all!

I'm a new player, about 20 hours in. And I’m enjoying everything about elite except the combat. Competent foes are utterly wiping the floor with me.

Im thinking I’d like to pursue a turret based build so the computer can shoot for me in single player, and a friend can use them in 2-player crew.

sounds fine in theory, but which turrets to get and where?

anyone got any wisdom to share on what works well and what to avoid?

current ship is an asp explorer.

 

[tafkabb]

If you want to concentrate on combat, the Asp is the wrong ship to choose. On paper its six hard points and wide canopy look good, but in reality its shields are paper and its canopy is so exposed it's often the first thing to go.

Try a Viper Mk III instead. It's very fast, quite manoeuvrable and has a good hull and good shields for its size.
Put two small gimballed beams on it, two medium multi cannons and two lots of chaff.
Practise staying behind your target as much as possible, boosting only when you absolutely have to (boosting takes you out of position and makes it more difficult to get back behind the target).
Assign your chaff to a button combo so you don't have to switch fire groups to use them.
The best place to practise is in resource sites in planetary rings. All except hazardous have system authority ships in them, and you can use them to weaken your target before you finish them off for the bounty.

I hope this isn't too much info all at once. It all boils down to: Don't use the Asp for combat. Use it for everything else.

 

[Garel]

Frankly, I don't know if turrets will solve the core issue here - especially on an asp. If you're struggling with combat, but would like to get into it, really, what I'd recommend is looking into a different ship.
Perhaps a Viper mk3, with gimballed lasers and multicannons and a bit of extra armour. It should be an excellent and affordable combat ship that will help you get a hang of the basics.

But If you're a fan of the aspx, I'm sure someone might offer more insight - I never tried using it in combat myself.

Edit: Really, it's only the largest ships that are (somewhat) effective for a turret build. Type 10's, anacondas and cutters, that sort of thing. You need a huge power generator and loads of armour/ strong shields for it to work.

 

[Garel]

If you want to concentrate on combat, the Asp is the wrong ship to choose. On paper its six hard points and wide canopy look good, but in reality its shields are paper and its canopy is so exposed it's often the first thing to go.

Try a Viper Mk III instead. It's very fast, quite manoeuvrable and has a good hull and good shields for its size.
Put two small gimballed beams on it, two medium multi cannons and two lots of chaff.
Practise saying behind your target as much as possible, boosting only when you absolutely have to (boosting takes you out of position and makes it more difficult to get back behind the target).
Assign your chaff to a button combo so you don't have to switch fire groups to use them.
The best place to practise is in resource sites in planetary rings. All except hazardous have system authority ships in them, and you can use them to weaken your target before you finish them off for the bounty.

I hope this isn't too much info all at once. It all boils down to: Don't use the Asp for combat. Use it for everything else.

Freakin' ninjas :<

 

[tafkabb]

Freakin' ninjas :<

 

[Krieger]

If you want friends or the computer to do the shooting for you a Krait mk2 could be to your liking. I don't know your budget but for 150 million credits you can fit it with A-rated modules and three large pulse turrets, two medium gimballed multicannons and a fighter bay. The Krait is fast and manoeuvrable so you can keep the three turrets in line of sight to the target (conveniently they are all on the top of the ship) and you can bring the multicannons to bear once target shields are down. The fighter will automatically attack anything that attacks you and gets better over time (it quickly ranks up but takes half of your combat rank points). You need good shields though (A-rated shield gen. + 4x 0A boosters). Using engineering you can improve performance of this setup by 60-70% and replace the pulse turrets with beam turrets.

Two friends can join in multi-crew, one on turrets and one in the fighter or both in a fighter if you fit a 6D Fighter Bay.

 

[Jrtbloke]

If you want to concentrate on combat, the Asp is the wrong ship to choose. On paper its six hard points and wide canopy look good, but in reality its shields are paper and its canopy is so exposed it's often the first thing to go.

Try a Viper Mk III instead. It's very fast, quite manoeuvrable and has a good hull and good shields for its size.
Put two small gimballed beams on it, two medium multi cannons and two lots of chaff.
Practise saying behind your target as much as possible, boosting only when you absolutely have to (boosting takes you out of position and makes it more difficult to get back behind the target).
Assign your chaff to a button combo so you don't have to switch fire groups to use them.
The best place to practise is in resource sites in planetary rings. All except hazardous have system authority ships in them, and you can use them to weaken your target before you finish them off for the bounty.

I hope this isn't too much info all at once. It all boils down to: Don't use the Asp for combat. Use it for everything else.

I understand you, but I think you misunderstood me. I chose the asp for the bigger cargo holds and slots for mining and surveying kit. for what I want to do, it’s great until I can get something bigger again.

I don’t want to do combat, I’m not chasing bounties, so no I’m not going to waste time practicing dog fighting in what was intended to be a cargo ship, or invest in a smaller ship with less cargo space so I’m better at it, or waste money on a second ship optimised for something I don’t enjoy anyway.

but it is sometimes forced on me by a mission and when that happens I want to be a porcupine that can fend it off on ‘auto’. Better to throw some in game money at it than repeat what’s just happened where I lost my ship at 400k per respawn three times. then after finally giving in on the delivery run where I was getting mugged as a scripted event, I got hit with 200k in fines for failing and CB losing th

So I hoped a turret build might help achieve that porcupine effect as they fire on auto, and that has a side bonus that another player can hop in from time to time.

Any thoughts on how to achieve the automatic porcupine effect?

 

[Jrtbloke]

If you want friends or the computer to do the shooting for you a Krait mk2 could be to your liking. I don't know your budget but for 150 million credits you can fit it with A-rated modules and three large pulse turrets, two medium gimballed multicannons and a fighter bay. The Krait is fast and manoeuvrable so you can keep the three turrets in line of sight to the target (conveniently they are all on the top of the ship) and you can bring the multicannons to bear once target shields are down. The fighter will automatically attack anything that attacks you and gets better over time (it quickly ranks up but takes half of your combat rank points). You need good shields though (A-rated shield gen. + 4x 0A boosters). Using engineering you can improve performance of this setup by 60-70% and replace the pulse turrets with beam turrets.

Two friends can join in multi-crew, one on turrets and one in the fighter or both in a fighter if you fit a 6D Fighter Bay.

Sounds like something that might well work further in game, thanks.

 

[tafkabb]

Turrets even when set to fire at will need to be started by you firing another, usually gimballed, weapon.
I don't think turrets would be feasible in your case - you'd be better off using speed to boost away from your attackers. I don't have any weapons on my mining Python, I just fly out of range when assaulted by pirates. It's probably even slower than your Asp Explorer so it should work for you, with good thrusters.

 

[Jrtbloke]

Frankly, I don't know if turrets will solve the core issue here - especially on an asp. If you're struggling with combat, but would like to get into it, really, what I'd recommend is looking into a different ship.
Perhaps a Viper mk3, with gimballed lasers and multicannons and a bit of extra armour. It should be an excellent and affordable combat ship that will help you get a hang of the basics.

But If you're a fan of the aspx, I'm sure someone might offer more insight - I never tried using it in combat myself.

Edit: Really, it's only the largest ships that are (somewhat) effective for a turret build. Type 10's, anacondas and cutters, that sort of thing. You need a huge power generator and loads of armour/ strong shields for it to work.

Thanks, the anaconda does look nice, but it’s much further in game - will be a long way away I think. Unless someone knows a station where they are giving them away!

 

[Krieger]

Thanks, the anaconda does look nice, but it’s much further in game - will be a long way away I think. Unless someone knows a station where they are giving them away!

Hutton Orbital in Alpha Centauri.

 

[Jrtbloke]

Turrets even when set to fire at will need to be started by you firing another, usually gimballed, weapon.
I don't think turrets would be feasible in your case - you'd be better off using speed to boost away from your attackers. I don't have any weapons on my mining Python, I just fly out of range when assaulted by pirates. It's probably even slower than your Asp Explorer so it should work for you, with good thrusters.

Well in the example given, running didn’t work multiple times, hence feeling then need for another approach!

General feedback seems to be that current ship is too small to be a porcupine then?

 

[tafkabb]

Well in the example given, running didn’t work multiple times, hence feeling then need for another approach!

General feedback seems to be that current ship is too small to be a porcupine then?

No harm in trying but in an unengineered ship I'd avoid beam turrets, they use a lot of juice

 

[Jrtbloke]

Hutton Orbital in Alpha Centauri.

I’ll take a look this evening!

 

[Jrtbloke]

No harm in trying but in an unengineered ship I'd avoid beam turrets, they use a lot of juice

I’d already upgraded power plant and distribution modules, looks like there’s enough juice to run everything.
If a second player jumps in can the turrets be aimed 360 degrees or still only to front?

 

[tafkabb]

I’d already upgraded power plant and distribution modules, looks like there’s enough juice to run everything.
If a second player jumps in can the turrets be aimed 360 degrees or still only to front?

Line of sight (but the gunner has a 360deg view)

 

[Batterby76]

Hutton orbital will take along time to get to in super cruise, its ur choice if u want to take a trip there but just be warned they may be out of stock when you get there, as for turrets, they are good on a dedicated combat build but as Bongo says they will sup juice like Bjorn Borg at the Wimbledon finals. If you want to avoid combat as much as possible fit Chaff and point defence to cover your strategic retreat or if u want be dead sneaky drop a heat sink, hit silent running and vanish all together, stealth builds are not easy to put together but when it works you'll be glad you built it.
o7

 

[CptArcher]

Asp and turrets will just set you up for further disappointment. Turrets on anything is a disappointment actually. May I suggest building up your cash stockpile a bit more. If you'd like an armed cargo runner, something like a Phantom or Python would work, but you need a lot of $$$ for those ships.... I'm pretty sure if you could get a python, you'd be a pretty happy camper AND you could defend yourself while making money at the same time. If you don't have that kind of money, then you'll have to configure a purpose built ship for combat, or settle for less cargo capacity.

 

[LordJim47]

My first love was trading; and you don't get over your first love, even after being triple elite for a year now.

Watch you tube on avoiding interdictions [https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=elite+dangerous+avoiding+interdiction+], once you can do that you'll be able to choose when to engage, and save a lot of Crs/time.

Success as a trader relies on hauling a lot and being fast enough to avoid combat. My first T-6 made me enough to get into a Python until I could afford a T-9. Went back to the Python rather quickly for its ability to land on med pads, avoid interdictions and fight back (I took breaks from trading by bounty hunting).

First, get a Python as soon as you can, it will finance all the ships you need until you get enough rank to get a Cutter - I skipped the Anaconda until I was triple elite.

Secondly, get the Palin engineer access as soon as possible - clean/dirty drives for speed are trader's must have tool. All my trade ships use speed and agility to evade initial contact, and DD thruster will make any trader substantially more agile.

I have 3 trade cutters with Dirty Drives with drag, one is shieldless and has only been interdicted once when I lost focus. Catchmeifukan carries 792T, no weapons/shields, built light for speed/cargo, 8A Low Emission G5, Stripped Down (Efficiency: 0.14), 8A Thrusters G5 DD w/DD, 7A FSD LR G-5 Stripped Down (32/21LY), 7A PD G5 Engine Focused Stripped Down, 7D Sensor G5 Lightweight, 7D Life Support G4 Lightweight. 3XHeat Sink, 4XPoint Defense. Can make a normal approach to any station/planet facility and silent run without overheating.

Good luck and high profits too you; fly fast and you will be dangerous - have fun, o7 Cmdr