FDL losing to NPC asp explorer

[zeki]

Greetings fellow commanders,

I'm posting here because i just got my ass handed to me in my FDL while trying to kill NPCs in a pirate activity threat level 5 area in the chakpa system. I was actually blown up in my python at first while fighting a NPC vulture with a burst laser and a railgun, and this python was specifically built for combat albeit un-engineered. He didn't really out-maneuver me in fact i has more time on target than he did on me, but i still lost.

Re-bought it jumped back to shinrarta to get my combat FDL(un-engineered) and jumped back to see if i can make a difference. This time i chose a slightly bigger(?) target, an asp explorer, i thought "hey this guy only has 2 x class 2 hard points and 4 x class 1s, i should be able to pounce on him....right?", turns out i'm wrong. I purposely positioned myself at his 6 before opening fire with 4 class 2 burst lasers and a class 4 multi-canon, chased him and tried my best to be out of his weapon arc by using vertical thrusters and boosting, but for some reason he could get my shields down faster than i could get his down. I saw that he was using a shield bank but it still doesn't seem right, he didn't even have a shield booster or chaff on him or at least i didn't see one among his modules, my gimballed weapons didn't flail around either so i was sure he didn't have chaff. But for some reason he could take down my shields with 5 shield boosters active, then i hear my COVAS telling me i'm receiving corrosion damage. "Corrosion? Don't you need engineering for that?" was my first thought, because of this it got me thinking: Do i really need to engineer my ship to be able to take on NPCs effectively?

I ran by the way, i ran from an NPC asp explorer in my FDL, feels pretty pathetic.

TLDR: Got my ass handed to me by engineered NPC ships, do i really need to engineer my ship to take on NPCs and does anybody has any recommendations or tips on what i can do to be able to kill NPCs effectively...

 

[Factabulous]

Maybe choose locations that have NPCs appropriate for your level of skill / engineering? There are a range of options, so build your way up through the easier ones first?

 

[zeki]

Maybe choose locations that have NPCs appropriate for your level of skill / engineering? There are a range of options, so build your way up through the easier ones first?

Thanks i'll check it out, but i do have a question though: would you go to a threat level 5 area in un-engineered ships?

 

[Factabulous]

Thanks i'll check it out, but i do have a question though: would you go to a threat level 5 area in un-engineered ships?

I haven't- but I bet there are better combat pilots who could. Not me though

 

[Krieger]

Thanks i'll check it out, but i do have a question though: would you go to a threat level 5 area in un-engineered ships?

NPCs in signal sources marked as Threat 5 or higher always have engineered modules and weapons (even more than in Conflict Zones). I would only go there in a unengineered (fast) ship to see what's in it, not to fight.

 

[zeki]

NPCs in signal sources marked as Threat 5 or higher always have engineered modules and weapons (even more than in Conflict Zones). I would only go there in a unengineered (fast) ship to see what's in it, not to fight.

I see...so i can't do anything to lift the lockdown at chakpa now i guess, thanks for the info.

 

[Factabulous]

Umm, there are loads of ways to help with lockdowns other than Pirate Activity, anything that raises Faction Security will work.

 

[TrangleC]

Can't say I am surprised.
They made earning money so easy and fast that they just had to shift the pressure to grind to some other thing, which is obviously engineering.

I played the game for a few months in early Beta 6 years ago.
I quit when I figured out that earning the roughly 1.5 billion credits a Anaconda with good modules cost back then would take me 4 hours of grinding for a full year.
A week or so ago, I came back because I had heard that you can get rich fast now.
I made around a billion in a few days and fulfilled my old dream of owning my own Anaconda and I put all the best modules on it. The military grade hull alone cost me like 5 times as many credits as I had made altogether in the months of playing back in the day.

I was happy for a short while, till I figured out what engineering is and that I would have to do it because even NPCs fly around in engineered ships.

The one thing to understand about this game is that the devs don't want people to get the good stuff too fast and too easily, or else they will get bored and stop playing.
So when they allow people to make billions in a single day, that can only mean they made sure that the stuff you can buy for credits isn't worth too much and that you have to grind something else.
This isn't a "buy cool ships and feel all powerful" game anymore, this is "the engineering game" now.

 

[zeki]

Can't say I am surprised.
They made earning money so easy and fast that they just had to shift the pressure to grind to some other thing, which is obviously engineering.

I played the game for a few months in early Beta 6 years ago.
I quit when I figured out that earning the roughly 1.5 billion credits a Anaconda with good modules cost back then would take me 4 hours of grinding for a full year.
A week or so ago, I came back because I had heard that you can get rich fast now.
I made around a billion in a few days and fulfilled my old dream of owning my own Anaconda and I put all the best modules on it. The military grade hull alone cost me like 5 times as many credits as I had made altogether in the months of playing back in the day.

I was happy for a short while, till I figured out what engineering is and that I would have to do it because even NPCs fly around in engineered ships.

The one thing to understand about this game is that the devs don't want people to get the good stuff too fast and too easily, or else they will get bored and stop playing.
So when they allow people to make billions in a single day, that can only mean they made sure that the stuff you can buy for credits isn't worth too much and that you have to grind something else.
This isn't a "buy cool ships and feel all powerful" game anymore, this is "the engineering game" now.

I understand how you feel, i pre-ordered the game back then and when it came out i was excited, but when i realized it would take me a very very long time to get the anaconda i kinda just gave up. Then i came back because of the lock down, and watching the mighty jingles play it again made me want to play it again as well, and well you know the rest.

 

[zeki]

Umm, there are loads of ways to help with lockdowns other than Pirate Activity, anything that raises Faction Security will work.

huh...i'll look it up, thanks for the info.

 

[TrangleC]

I understand how you feel, i pre-ordered the game back then and when it came out i was excited, but when i realized it would take me a very very long time to get the anaconda i kinda just gave up. Then i came back because of the lock down, and watching the mighty jingles play it again made me want to play it again as well, and well you know the rest.

Then our backgrounds are very similar.
I too was inspired by Jingles to come back to the game.... at least also by Jingles.

In February, I had looked at my library of games, considering whether I should go back to playing some of the old ones and half decided to try Elite Dangerous again. I got my old joystick out, dusted it off, set it up and plugged it into the PC, installed E.D. again and then I never actually did play it.
The thought of having to learn the controls and everything again deterred me.

The joystick just sat there, unused, till Jingles suddenly started uploading E.D. videos again and I saw that you can make money much easier now and that put me over the edge and I finally played it again a week ago.

 

[zeki]

Then our backgrounds are very similar.
I too was inspired by Jingles to come back to the game.... at least also by Jingles.

In February, I had looked at my library of games, considering whether I should go back to playing some of the old ones and half decided to try Elite Dangerous again. I got my old joystick out, dusted it off, set it up and plugged it into the PC, installed E.D. again and then I never actually did play it.
The thought of having to learn the controls and everything again deterred me.

The joystick just sat there, unused, till Jingles suddenly started uploading E.D. videos again and I saw that you can make money much easier now and that put me over the edge and I finally played it again a week ago.

Yea back in the day i bought a joystick too for war thunder and elite, but when i first used it i could barely fly without going into a uncontrollable spin. so now I am using my keyboard and mouse. Looks like we're both followers of the evil gnome lord.

 

[TrangleC]

Yea back in the day i bought a joystick too for war thunder and elite, but when i first used it i could barely fly without going into a uncontrollable spin. so now I am using my keyboard and mouse. Looks like we're both followers of the evil gnome lord.

I barely used it either. I think E.D. is the only game I ever played with a joystick.
In Warthunder I preferred mouse and keyboard too.

For a long time I was a trackball user. We didn't have much space on the computer desk when I was a kid, so I got used playing games like "TIE Fighter" with a track ball and I kept buying track balls ever since, until it became hard finding a decent one and I was forced to finally switch to a mouse.
I still think a track ball is a good way of controlling space flight games. You had the precision of a mouse combined with the range of movement of a joystick. If you wanted to just pull a 180 degree turn, you just rolled the ball around, instead of having to lift your mouse up from the pad several times and without losing the fine pixel aiming ability of a mouse. A pity that hardly anyone still develops and sells good quality ones.

 

[zeki]

I barely used it either. I think E.D. is the only game I ever played with a joystick.
In Warthunder I preferred mouse and keyboard too.

For a long time I was a trackball user. We didn't have much space on the computer desk when I was a kid, so I got used playing games like "TIE Fighter" with a track ball and I kept buying track balls ever since, until it became hard finding a decent one and I was forced to finally switch to a mouse.
I still think a track ball is a good way of controlling space flight games. You had the precision of a mouse combined with the range of movement of a joystick. If you wanted to just pull a 180 degree turn, you just rolled the ball around, instead of having to lift your mouse up from the pad several times and without losing the fine pixel aiming ability of a mouse. A pity that hardly anyone still develops and sells good quality ones.

True, hardly see any of those nowadays.