Bug: Class 3 Fragment Cannons now fail to deploy.

[St0rmFury]

I do not understand this. What does boosting with landing gear do? And what does using laterals during the boost do?

Tighter turn rate. If you deploy your landing gear or cargo hatch right after you boost, you will only boost up to half your top speed but maintain the tight pitch/yaw of boosting so you don't overshoot too far when jousting.

Personally, I haven't tried it because my motor skills are not up to par yet

 

[St0rmFury]

The bug where on-foot xp (save for in CZs) goes to Combat Rank, instead of Mercenary rank.

Originally, I just thought there was either a bug where settlement combat didn't give Merc rank OR none of the targets in settlements were high enough level to keep advancing my Merc rank. However, I noticed over that six month period that my Combat rank kept going up and up... faster than it ever did when I was actually trying to raise it.

The final proof was when I was hunting down the last two targets in a Raid Settlement mission. Soon as I killed one of them I immediately received the e-mail "Promotion to Combat Elite I".

You can read about the bug in this thread - https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/combat-rank-increasing-not-mercenary.584732/ - which started back in July of last year, but the issue has persisted and we've made more posts recently.

Sidenote: As I've finally hit Elite in Mercenary rank, I no longer care too much and am enjoying the easy ride to Combat Elite II (already 10-15% of the way there).

Thanks, so to make it simple I only need to go to a high sec anarchy settlement and go wild?

 

[Aleks Zuno]

I do not understand this. What does boosting with landing gear do? And what does using laterals during the boost do?

If I may suggest, at this point the most effective way to understand it is to try it.

In short though, the landing gear limits your speed due to boosting and your laterals are very powerful during those few seconds, giving superior and controlled agility. You also have increased turning, especially if you disable Flight Assist momentarily. You will need to become familiar with the boost duration and retract the landing gear as the boost ends (or earlier if you want to unleash the speed), otherwise you will then have reduced turning until the gear is retracted.

More fully, Aviation is a thorough walkthrough of boosting, starting from its basic behaviour before introducing everything which can modify it or be enhanced by it.

 

[Northpin]

snip...

Killing the criminal Odyssey was the really juicy part

I really love FDev humor

 

[_bryan]

If I may suggest, at this point the most effective way to understand it is to try it.

In short though, the landing gear limits your speed due to boosting and your laterals are very powerful during those few seconds, giving superior and controlled agility. You also have increased turning, especially if you disable Flight Assist momentarily. You will need to become familiar with the boost duration and retract the landing gear as the boost ends (or earlier if you want to unleash the speed), otherwise you will then have reduced turning until the gear is retracted.

More fully, Aviation is a thorough walkthrough of boosting, starting from its basic behaviour before introducing everything which can modify it or be enhanced by it.

Oh my gosh. No wonder I can never catch the NPCs in the conflict zones. I've got to re-work my joystick buttons and give this a try.

Thanks.

 

[Daniel Cloudsifter]

Thanks, so to make it simple I only need to go to a high sec anarchy settlement and go wild?

I'm not sure how much the security level matters. I don't think the vast majority of the ones I raided were High Security.

I would recommend going to an Anarchy system and then taking missions there that lead you to raid settlements. Sometimes you can even stack the type that only cares about kill count with the ones that want you to take out a particular settlement. You can even take missions FOR the reigning anarchy faction as they often have Settlement Raid missions that target anarchy factions in nearby systems. Might as well get some money, rep, and extra mats while you're elevating your combat rank.

Best part of working in an Anarchy system... if you become wanted by any of the other factions, that won't cause you any issues when returning to the anarchy controlled station.

The only settlements that are a real danger are the anarchy military settlements that have a CAP patrolling above their settlement. If you get the "enemy is tipped off" complication... well, I hope you either came in a big, combat ready ship OR you like a LOT of running on foot.

 

[_bryan]

I'm not sure how much the security level matters. I don't think the vast majority of the ones I raided were High Security.

I would recommend going to an Anarchy system and then taking missions there that lead you to raid settlements. Sometimes you can even stack the type that only cares about kill count with the ones that want you to take out a particular settlement. You can even take missions FOR the reigning anarchy faction as they often have Settlement Raid missions that target anarchy factions in nearby systems. Might as well get some money, rep, and extra mats while you're elevating your combat rank.

Best part of working in an Anarchy system... if you become wanted by any of the other factions, that won't cause you any issues when returning to the anarchy controlled station.

The only settlements that are a real danger are the anarchy military settlements that have a CAP patrolling above their settlement. If you get the "enemy is tipped off" complication... well, I hope you either came in a big, combat ready ship OR you like a LOT of running on foot.

Hello, what does CAP mean?

 

[Northpin]

Hello, what does CAP mean?

Combat Air Patrol

(it was started to be used more commonly during the WW2 for the planes flying patterns around their fleet/carriers to intercept the potential attacking planes)

 

[Daniel Cloudsifter]

Hello, what does CAP mean?

Combat Air Patrol

(it was started to be used more commonly during the WW2 for the planes flying patterns around their fleet/carriers to intercept the potential attacking planes)

Sorry for not defining that. As Northpin said, the term refers to planes flying in pattern around fleets/carriers to intercept hostiles.

In this case, I'm referring to the 2 to 3 ships that fly in a circular pattern around certain high security bases. Under normal circumstances, they won't be an issue unless you trip the alarms. In that case, not only will all the base personnel and skimmers become hostile to you, but the ships as well. These ships when hostile will:

1. Attack your ship and/or SRV on the ground with great effectiveness.
2. If your ship was dismissed, when recalled, they will immediately head for it and attack it until it is destroyed or you get away.
3. When on foot, they will fire on you if they can find you. They're not terribly effective at this, but the threat they pose to your recalled ship is high.
4. If you call in an Apex shuttle, they will ignore it until you board, after which they will chase it down and try to destroy it.

So under normal circumstances, if you complete a mission at one of these locations and have set the alarm off, you need to run 3-4 km away from the base on foot to get the mission complete check mark and then decide which extraction method you want to risk (or menu log and avoid the whole issue). I have no complaints with this design, though it is annoying to have to run that far on foot.

However, when these bases are tipped off, everything goes hostile to you as soon as you get within 2-3 kim of the base. If this happens when you're in your ship, you'll need to destroy the CAP before landing. If this happens as you approach the base in your SRV, the ships will engage your SRV. You may make it to the base, but your SRV won't last long once you exit it. It's just a major annoyance...

 

[_bryan]

If I may suggest, at this point the most effective way to understand it is to try it.

In short though, the landing gear limits your speed due to boosting and your laterals are very powerful during those few seconds, giving superior and controlled agility. You also have increased turning, especially if you disable Flight Assist momentarily. You will need to become familiar with the boost duration and retract the landing gear as the boost ends (or earlier if you want to unleash the speed), otherwise you will then have reduced turning until the gear is retracted.

More fully, Aviation is a thorough walkthrough of boosting, starting from its basic behaviour before introducing everything which can modify it or be enhanced by it.

It worked!

Does it also increase pitch? I have a hard time yawing/turning. I was doing pitch most of the time and it worked well.

 

[Aleks Zuno]

It worked!

Does it also increase pitch? I have a hard time yawing/turning. I was doing pitch most of the time and it worked well.

Of course! During a boost, your Pitch, Yaw and Roll are all increased; with "turning" I referred to all rotations. Pitch is the primary means of pointing your starship in a new direction, given that Yaw is weak and Roll alone does not affect the direction. In the context of Flight Assist on, the best you can do is to roll so that the angular direction to your target will involve mostly pitch, but slightly off-axis so that you can at least get some small use out of the Yaw available.

For multiple different reasons, you will be able to turn much faster with Flight Assist off, even just momentarily at the start of a boost. If a pilot only ever disables Flight Assist for one reason, it should be this, to turn during a boost. For best results from one boost, disable Flight Assist for the first half to achieve a turn, then enable it mid-way to help redirect your movement.

 

[_bryan]

One thing I believe I noticed was I could flip on and off the landing gear and go back and forth to/from full speed. So my "algorithm" was like this:

1. Look how close the other ship is.
2. Boost/landing gear near-same-time.
3. Look how close ship is.
   1. If ship is still far:
      1. take off landing gear.
   2. If ship is getting close:
      1. extend landing gear.
4. Repeat back to Step 3

I did much better but I still don't have the good habit of getting broadside hits from direct-above or direct-below. I usually end up behind the enemy and shooting his engines. Very rarely I get direct-above or direct-below hits. I just need practice.

 

[Luftwaffle_]

Where fix?

 

[Aleks Zuno]

As of 3308-05-09, Class 3 Fragment Cannons are still unusable and have been so for 55 days.

@WeComeInPeace - If you did not see it already, I gave Rapid Fire and Screening Shell some attention and a miniature review here.
This was for you!

@_bryan - Warm congratulations to you; you are well on the way to that more effective form of flight in general.
Pulsing the Landing Gear is something I covered in Aviation and gives excellent acceleration control, as does pulsing Flight Assist to trade between rotation and translation. Some of my favourite moments involve aligning carefully during a boost then unleashing the last half-second of acceleration to secure a stab from which the target cannot escape.

@Zac Cocken - If I may ask, has there been any advance with investigating the class 3 gimbal Fragment Cannons in Horizons?
In place of that, an approximate indication of its priority would be quite helpful in the context of how I answer other Commanders when asked about combat options, and whether I should update my main tutorial to account for it. Of course, in one sense I imagine it hardly comparable with conducting the upcoming transfers to PC successfully, yet those Commanders then ought to know prior to committing to PC that they are entering into an Update version where their Fragment Cannons no longer operate.

---

I tried a few alternative weapon combinations with a loose goal of making fixed Fragment Cannons work as well as my usual configuration, though with a Mamba this is only the case when applied to hardpoints on one of the wings at most, or if yielding the central class 4 hardpoint to do it. When aimed into a Power Plant, the former harms the ability of a gimbal Fragment Cannon on the other wing to do the same, and either way there will be fewer decisive shot opportunities.

Three gimbal Fragment Cannons can have their moments, though:

https://iniv.space/s/A7gh3w.mp4

https://iniv.space/s/yu43GH.mp4

Looking back at it, those may be served better with two Cytoscramblers, if the third class 3 Fragment Cannon can take the Corrosive Shell duty. The utility of a class 4 Beam Laser in that hardpoint is very difficult to replace.

Also... this keeps happening in Odyssey:

https://iniv.space/s/2Xwq3f.mp4

I see this impulse mostly just after engaging, as the target deploys a fighter, and often it hits me several times successively. This looked to be the first case involving the target recalling the fighter, but either way I doubt very much that it is intended.

 

[Aleks Zuno]

As of 3308-05-17, Class 3 Fragment Cannons are still unusable in PC Horizons and have been so for 63 days.

I am looking tentatively at the upcoming Update 12 as an obvious opportunity where this might be addressed. That becoming the case, I have accumulated quite the list of Commanders to contact back and mention that Fragment Cannon builds are operational again.

My biggest concern otherwise is for those console Commanders intending to commit to PC, reiterating that they should be wary of the jump from Update 10 to Update 11–12 if they use Fragment Cannons. I will also need to update some of my 3307 material with a caution that PC Horizons is no longer within its scope. A couple of Commanders realised that and showed me their attempts to morph it into using other weapons, but more generally I do not want to present something fundamentally unachievable.

 

[Old Duck]

As of 3308-05-17, Class 3 Fragment Cannons are still unusable in PC Horizons and have been so for 63 days.

I am looking tentatively at the upcoming Update 12 as an obvious opportunity where this might be addressed. That becoming the case, I have accumulated quite the list of Commanders to contact back and mention that Fragment Cannon builds are operational again.

My biggest concern otherwise is for those console Commanders intending to commit to PC, reiterating that they should be wary of the jump from Update 10 to Update 11–12 if they use Fragment Cannons. I will also need to update some of my 3307 material with a caution that PC Horizons is no longer within its scope. A couple of Commanders realised that and showed me their attempts to morph it into using other weapons, but more generally I do not want to present something fundamentally unachievable.

I don't use these, but I support your efforts in trying to get them fixed. I know how annoying it is when a feature you rely on is randomly broken and then goes unfixed for weeks if not months.

 

[Aleks Zuno]

I don't use these, but I support your efforts in trying to get them fixed. I know how annoying it is when a feature you rely on is randomly broken and then goes unfixed for weeks if not months.

Thank you, and a similarly concerning measure I had considered but have yet to mention was that duration proportionally. Odyssey notwithstanding, this gap thus far accounts for a little over 2.3% of the total time since initial availability in late 3300, rising gradually. In reliability terms, this has already dropped well below 3-sigma, and about that much time again will breach 2-sigma.

 

[Luftwaffle_]

This is ridiculous. Absolutely unacceptable. Two months, and not even an acknowledgement that they're actively working on fixing this.

FDev, what the hell is the holdup? This is a MAJOR issue that makes many frag builds completely unusable and should've been fixed IMMEDIATELY with a hotfix.

 

[CMDR X]

Is this something hopefully exclusive to Odyssey? Asking for a friend.

 

[St0rmFury]

Is this something hopefully exclusive to Odyssey? Asking for a friend.

According to OP, it appears to be a Horizons only bug.