Newcomer / Intro Lone Wolf looking to survive Open

FullThrusters · Nov 3, 2020

Can anyone suggest a good starting build and ship for Open play? I would really love to get into it but, i have a few Criteria that I am looking for. 1 Being I do not want to be in a group or wing ( Just a personal personality preference ) 2 What would be a good super power for someone to pledge to that would make it easier for someone who is looking to do combat in Open?

Now in regards to the combat aspect I was thinking of the Imperial Eagle for Starters. Not sure how to explain how I play but I am not a "Ganker" type of playstyle I am more of a honorable type. But at the same time I am finding it hard to play in any of the super powers at work due to not many of them are that "Honorable" at least imo. But in conclusion maybe not pledging to a power and being that lone wolf out there makes the game more interesting. Anyhow thoughts or suggestions would help a lot! thanks!

Maymo · Nov 3, 2020

Well, Aisling Duval says she doesn’t like slavery and abolishes it in her systems. She’d be an ok place to start...

If you stick at it for a month her prismatic shields are a top pick for open play.

Imperial Eagle is a fun and very beautiful ship. You could stick with that and run some imperial data then upgrade to Courier which can be a difficult ship to kill...

Good times

One of the open play enthusiasts will be along shortly to teach you how to build an un-gankable Courier, probably @Bigmaec

Nathan84 · Nov 3, 2020

Maymo said:
One of the open play enthusiasts will be along shortly to teach you how to build an un-gankable Courier, probably @Bigmaec

Heh, I guess I'll keep an eye then, I actually built (well, it's not finished) my Courrier as a hopefully not that gankable taxi for dangerous places.

Sadly it's not fast enough yet (I'm looking at <700 m/s boost speed, and <800 m/s when I'm finished with the thrusters), but I don't know what I could get rid of without hurting the shields/jump range :/

FullThrusters · Nov 3, 2020

@Maymo Thanks for the encouragement! ok then I have a good idea on where to start and i see my ship selection was decent, i did not realize i could do those missions in open i must of forgotten about them Lol. but thanks for that info!

metatheurgist · Nov 3, 2020

Almost no one Powerplays. Been playing since beta without being attached to a power, in and out of open.

Max Bothin · Nov 3, 2020

As you kill mostly trading ships to get your merits, it can be a lot of ships. Other "gankers" won´t take care of you, if you fly a iEagle or Courier, because those ships are so fast, it makes no sense to interdict them.

GroG79 · Nov 3, 2020

Only few systems have other players. Avoid those if unsure

Maymo · Nov 3, 2020

Max Bothin said:
As you kill mostly trading ships to get your merits, it can be a lot of ships. Other "gankers" won´t take care of you, if you fly a iEagle or Courier, because those ships are so fast, it makes no sense to interdict them.

I went to rank 5 through undermining a week or so back, it actually works out to be very well paid work if you stick at it....

First week is about 300 ships to hit rank 5 and 50m credit bonus. That's 150,000 credits a kill which is already much better than regular bounty hunting.
Second week it gets really good, just 150 ships to kill and each ship is now worth 300,000c a pop!

It's a pretty solid way to make long term credits and if you were to couple something like that with LYR's R5 bonus you've got a really sweet gig going for your cmdr...

Weekly 300,000c per kill (up to 50m)
Double payout for exploration data.

Plus you feel a little more connected with the game, more connected than shooting rocks in a ring anyway...

Maenden · Nov 3, 2020

If you're worried by Open then you could join one of the larger private groups like Mobius.

FullThrusters · Nov 3, 2020

Question for you @Maymo would it be possible to have the imperial eagle turned into a fast currier ship for data hauls? I enjoy those missions and well combat i lack in quite a bit but if i get interdicted i just want to be able escape as quick as possible. i guess what i am getting at is it worth it do try this in open or is it just as good in solo play? However concerning open play i see your role is trader and trade rank Tycoon wow! is that from open play? if so that has some interesting aspects i might enjoy LOL

Dragsham · Nov 3, 2020

Op isnt worried about open he wants the immersion it brings knowing at any given point you could be attacked. I too play this way. Building a fast well shielded ship will go along way to ensuring he wont be blown away upon interdiction.
And later down the line no doubt Op might build his/her own murderboat to counter those pesky gankers

o7

Nathan84 · Nov 3, 2020

well, as GroG79 said, only a few systems have a lot of human players and in turn, a decent amount of gankers (ie roughly CG and engineer systems plus Shin Dez, that sort of thing)
you can see people in other systems, but gankers are lazy and generally only hang out in systems with the most traffic

tl;dr in Open you should always keep your eyes,huh ,open, but there's no need to be too paranoid outside of specific high threat systems

the iEagle would suffer in the jump range/fuel capacity/scooping categories, so it could be a courrier but only if you're repeatedly doing the same short route(s)
like Mainani -> the other system and back, for Imperial rank grinding

the iCourrier on the other hand is perfect, once you unlock it (jump range is still meh-ish without engineering the FSD and/or a Guardian FSD Booster)

Maymo · Nov 3, 2020

FullThrusters said:
Question for you @Maymo would it be possible to have the imperial eagle turned into a fast currier ship for data hauls? I enjoy those missions and well combat i lack in quite a bit but if i get interdicted i just want to be able escape as quick as possible. i guess what i am getting at is it worth it do try this in open or is it just as good in solo play? However concerning open play i see your role is trader and trade rank Tycoon wow! is that from open play? if so that has some interesting aspects i might enjoy LOL

Ha, actually my sig is currently lagging. Over the weekend I went trading in a T9 until I got bored of being rich...
Re-started and just bumbling about in an Eagle at the moment. I don't play in open, never really seen the attraction plus I play Ironman which really isn't a good idea for open play...

That shouldn't put you off though, many players enjoy open and go months without getting trouble from players.....apparently.

Imperial Eagle is great at data missions yes. If you get interdicted by npc's you can be gone before they can cause you problems, players though will have engineering and keep up with you. For npc's I find any ship that can reliably break 400m/s will easily escape. So iEagle/Courier/Viper3/Cobra3 are 'safe' ships for the most part...

FullThrusters · Nov 3, 2020

Thanks for all the info everyone! it has helped a lot! I guess there is more than one way to enjoy the game, but hopefully I wont be so worried about open as much as i am but again thanks for all the good info!

Nathan84 · Nov 3, 2020

FullThrusters said:
but hopefully I wont be so worried about open as much as i am

First time I went out of the starting noob area, I was sweating while supercruising to the first station I could land, flying erraticaly thinking it would make me harder to interdict (no, it doesn't)
Hint : never saw anyone in the handful of days I stuck in that system

On the other hand, things can happen fast sometimes. Last CG I tried Open first.
Less than 3 seconds. That's the time it took for a ganker to spot and go after me after jumping in LFT 625. I made it out ok, but still.

Best tip I can think of, remember that you can switch between modes seamlessly. So if you want to do a CG without people trying to interdict you every 2 minutes, if you're carrying weeks or months of exploration data and are not ok with losing everything or simply if you're just not in the mood of checking doors and corners constantly, feel free to chill in Solo or PG.

And don't listen to people telling you it's cowardly, it's not more cowardly than blowing Type 7s in a fully engineered Fer-de-lance (which fyi is the kind of players that whine the hardest about people not flying in Open at all time).
They have the freedom to blow up anyone they want and you have the freedom to not put up with them if you don't want to, kinda balanced when you think about it

FullThrusters · Nov 3, 2020

LOL thanks that all is helpful! and yeah fully engy FDL nioce i am sure my IE would stand a chance lol

Ashnak · Nov 3, 2020

Nathan84 said:
Heh, I guess I'll keep an eye then, I actually built (well, it's not finished) my Courrier as a hopefully not that gankable taxi for dangerous places.

Sadly it's not fast enough yet (I'm looking at <700 m/s boost speed, and <800 m/s when I'm finished with the thrusters), but I don't know what I could get rid of without hurting the shields/jump range :/

Post a link to your build (Coriolis preferred for me), and we can discuss it.

If you want an example, here's mine: https://s.orbis.zone/a1fq
Bl**dy useless for combat, as the hull damage of those missiles is small, and equally annoying for missions due to the short FSD range, but she's fast.

Nathan84 · Nov 3, 2020

Ashnak said:
Post a link to your build (Coriolis preferred for me), and we can discuss it.

If you want an example, here's mine: https://s.orbis.zone/a1fq
Bl**dy useless for combat, as the hull damage of those missiles is small, and equally annoying for missions due to the short FSD range, but she's fast.

Well, my current build is what I could cobble together with what I had access to, so it's not really a reference (but here it is https://s.orbis.zone/a1hB)

The plan is to use it as a taxi/courier that can survive ganking attempts, mostly through sheer speed. The thing is, I can't sacrificed range and the FSD + GFSDB are what's hurting my speed the most, hence why I'm going for an unarmed build and eventually sacrificing shields a bit for more speed and range. I'm just no sure what's the best middle-ground, if there's such a thing.

Anyway, that's the kind of build I'm thinking about, basically those are the 2 "extremes" :

Build 1, ALL The Speed (that's the one I'm kinda inclined to go with) https://s.orbis.zone/a1ho
Build 2, Need More Shields https://s.orbis.zone/a1hH

Ashnak · Nov 3, 2020

How about this:

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

Sacrifice some shields and only use a half size tank (you got a scoop and ample range), step down the PD (who needs to boost if they can thrust at >600 m/s?).
You could step down the shield boosters to E-rated and use the mass budget for some hull/module reinforcements just in case, or go for the full size tank.

Nathan84 · Nov 3, 2020

Oh yeah, that's pretty good, gonna use that as a base. Thanks.

Tbh I'm still trying to get my bearing when it comes to shields, when you throw engineering in the mix I tend to get lost between bigger/A-rated shields and some weight saving measure, or downsizing and/or downgrading combined with reinforcing them. Anyway looks like 3D + reinforcing was, huh, not the most efficient solution.

Only thing I'm not sure about is the PD. I don't really know much about missiles but afaik a PD wouldn't help against pack hounds and I should hopefully be too fast for reverb torpedos, right ?