I guess I've been playing for about a month or so now, and I've learned a lot, most of it supported by some good advice from these forums. There are a couple of things I've learned though that don't get such frequent mentions on here, so I thought I'd have a bit of a ramble on in the hope that I can help some other newcomers.
Firstly, keyboard and mouse v. HOTAS. Many threads on here strongly recommend a HOTAS, so I bought one a couple of days in (First lesson, don't buy a used one from Cex, it malfunctioned yesterday and I got trashed in combat as a result. New one on its way) I struggled with it at first - not the flight control, but all those buttons! Big difference is that you can SEE the keyboard - it's easy enough to remember "L" for landing gear, and easy to find it. I confess I gave up and went back to KB and mouse - and I would still say that for flight it's just as good. However, there's a big problem with the KB - it needs you to take one hand off the controls to, for example, boost power to system for shield repair - and it just isn't quick enough in combat. Exactly why there's all those buttons!
Next, and following on from the above, combat. At my age (pushing 70) I believed that combat was not for me - and I was assured that you can play the game pretty much without it. Well maybe you can, but, if you do you're missing out on the most challenging and most fun element of the game in my opinion. NOT PvP, I hasten to add - I'd stand a snowball in hell's chance of competing with some hyped up teenager with the reaction speed of a mongoose - but against NPCs. You can, of course, run away, and I had a degree of success with this (thanks again to great advice from these forums) but after a while it got to be frustrating - who likes running away from some computer generated bad- when maybe - just maybe - you could turn round and wipe his butt? Give it a go - it's the best fun I've had with a game for ages.
Next piece of advice relates very much to the above - if you're going to try combat then do it in a cheap ship, an eagle or a viper - NOT in your fully upgraded Cobra MkIII - the advice often given on here to make all your mistakes in the sidewinder is very relevant.
The learning curve for this game is truly daunting - it just doesn't seem to level out, and to be honest if I'd had an appreciation of exactly how much needs to be taken on board then maybe I wouldn't have started - but I'm glad I did, because the rewards are definitely worth the effort.
Lastly (for the moment) DO have a look at, and get to grips with, the "module" function in the RH UI panel. I didn't, to my cost, and suffered another trashing when all my systems failed as I initiated combat. I won't attempt an explanation myself, there's far better than I could manage already out there.
That's all for now, folks, if any of this proves useful to anyone just starting the game then please let me know.
Firstly, keyboard and mouse v. HOTAS. Many threads on here strongly recommend a HOTAS, so I bought one a couple of days in (First lesson, don't buy a used one from Cex, it malfunctioned yesterday and I got trashed in combat as a result. New one on its way) I struggled with it at first - not the flight control, but all those buttons! Big difference is that you can SEE the keyboard - it's easy enough to remember "L" for landing gear, and easy to find it. I confess I gave up and went back to KB and mouse - and I would still say that for flight it's just as good. However, there's a big problem with the KB - it needs you to take one hand off the controls to, for example, boost power to system for shield repair - and it just isn't quick enough in combat. Exactly why there's all those buttons!
Next, and following on from the above, combat. At my age (pushing 70) I believed that combat was not for me - and I was assured that you can play the game pretty much without it. Well maybe you can, but, if you do you're missing out on the most challenging and most fun element of the game in my opinion. NOT PvP, I hasten to add - I'd stand a snowball in hell's chance of competing with some hyped up teenager with the reaction speed of a mongoose - but against NPCs. You can, of course, run away, and I had a degree of success with this (thanks again to great advice from these forums) but after a while it got to be frustrating - who likes running away from some computer generated bad- when maybe - just maybe - you could turn round and wipe his butt? Give it a go - it's the best fun I've had with a game for ages.
Next piece of advice relates very much to the above - if you're going to try combat then do it in a cheap ship, an eagle or a viper - NOT in your fully upgraded Cobra MkIII - the advice often given on here to make all your mistakes in the sidewinder is very relevant.
The learning curve for this game is truly daunting - it just doesn't seem to level out, and to be honest if I'd had an appreciation of exactly how much needs to be taken on board then maybe I wouldn't have started - but I'm glad I did, because the rewards are definitely worth the effort.
Lastly (for the moment) DO have a look at, and get to grips with, the "module" function in the RH UI panel. I didn't, to my cost, and suffered another trashing when all my systems failed as I initiated combat. I won't attempt an explanation myself, there's far better than I could manage already out there.
That's all for now, folks, if any of this proves useful to anyone just starting the game then please let me know.
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