Newcomer / Intro Cobra mk3 trader and fire groups (generic guide on firegroups assignment)

[Alex D]

I've been trying to find generic guidelines on fire groups assignments, but they usually seem to refer to one specific ship and function only.
Is there some guide that would say for example:
1. If you are trader in low-class ship, assign your defense 1 (like chaff) as primary in firegroup 1 and your defense 2 as secondary in fg1
2. Never mix assigning lasers and multi-cannons in one firegroup
etc

Anything that would be generic knowledge that would help new players to start with relatively working fire groups setup, which later can be customized according to their needs.
Right now I am puzzled if for example, I should have my mine launchers assigned as primary in single firegroup with nothing else or shall they be split into primary/secondary in single firegroup...
Assuming I want to leave trail of mines, former would be probably more practical.

 

[Para Handy]

I never assign defensive measures to a fire group. Use hot keys C for chaff and V for heatsink in my case with SCBs as / (not sure if C is a default binding, heatsink and SCB I think you need to assign).

I set up beams on Fire Button 1 with 2 being used for KWS, kinetic or DiscoScan in successive groups.

In big ships I have further settings with gimbal beams / kinetics as 1 and all turrets as 2.



[alien]

 

[Gator Country]

I've been trying to find generic guidelines on fire groups assignments, but they usually seem to refer to one specific ship and function only.
Is there some guide that would say for example:
1. If you are trader in low-class ship, assign your defense 1 (like chaff) as primary in firegroup 1 and your defense 2 as secondary in fg1
2. Never mix assigning lasers and multi-cannons in one firegroup
etc

Anything that would be generic knowledge that would help new players to start with relatively working fire groups setup, which later can be customized according to their needs.
Right now I am puzzled if for example, I should have my mine launchers assigned as primary in single firegroup with nothing else or shall they be split into primary/secondary in single firegroup...
Assuming I want to leave trail of mines, former would be probably more practical.

My current setup (a trading Cobra Mk iii that runs from interdictions) has the mine launchers assigned as primary on my main fire group with the discovery scanner assigned as secondary, while the pulse lasers are in the second fire group as primary.

If your interdiction strategy is, like mine, to boost away leaving a trail of mines in your wake, this works pretty well. If you want to actually engage some of them directly, then this probably doesn't work so well.

 

[CMDR Mr. Boombastic]

I found this (old) video from CMDR Chaos Wulff very helpful in explaining fire groups (and power management) when I first started playing:

Spoiler

[video=youtube_share;oO1E9_sPtvg]https://youtu.be/oO1E9_sPtvg[/video]

Fire Groups are explained @9m:10s

And have set my hotkeys similar to MalcYorks:
Chaff: C
Heatsinks: V (default)
Shield Cell Bank: B (to stop most ships from overheating you need a Heatsink as soon as you fire one or two SCBs)

 

[Alex D]

Thanks guys!

I hoped to keep as little key bindings as possible and I temporary ran out of buttons on my X52 Pro (though I should probably start using other modes etc), therefore I wanted to key chaff and other countermeasures into firegroup, for easier management.
I guess the best option will be to try it in real combat situation and see what suits me most

 

[D.G.Cerberus]

Thanks guys!

I hoped to keep as little key bindings as possible and I temporary ran out of buttons on my X52 Pro (though I should probably start using other modes etc), therefore I wanted to key chaff and other countermeasures into firegroup, for easier management.
I guess the best option will be to try it in real combat situation and see what suits me most

Get the trial version of Voiceattack. Keep chaff/ heatsinks etc bound on the keyboard and then map to VA. (IIRC you can have up to 20 I think commands on the free version of VA)
You can therefore add things like Landing gear, lights, pip management, 75% throttle, boost.......thereby freeing up some buttons on your X52 Pro.

 

[Arry]

I use keyboard exclusively.
I run 2 class 1 turreted beams underneath: Assigned to the second button in fire group 1.
I run 2 class 2 gimbled Multi-cannons on top: Assigned to the first button in fire group 1. (I have the secondary weapon assigned to the first button {A button} because that has always been the trigger button)
Chaff has its own button (M)
Heat sinks and shield cells are both in the second fire group.