Im a new player been playing about 3 weeks now. Decided to try my hand at space combat. It is way to hard for way to little pay off. Takes 10 minutes to kill one ship for 20k. Then another ship will spawn and kill you in 3 hits.
Combat for a newbie
- Thread starter Yumalithian
- Start date
You need a lot of practice mate if it takes you 10 minutes to kill low ranked ships. Go to High RES and pick off easy targets, Security will be there to back you up. As you build up some credits and your ship gets better, you will be able to pick on bigger prey.
Practice using your Vertical/Lateral Thrusters by picking an asteroid and orbiting around it while aiming at it. Like circle strafing, but spherical. Do it in each direction. Left/Right and Up/Down.
You will get better, just don't expect to be stomping NPCs in a couple hours unless you are already comfy with flight games.
I can make 10-20 million an hour doing combat Missions, probably 6 or 7 million at RES, and it's quite easy for me. You can get there.
o7
I'm not sure how you're going about it or if you've already completed the Training missions but for 'beginner's combat' just stick to Nav Beacons.
If you're in a Sidey then only shoot Sideys until you get better.
The payouts are low for you because you can really only handle small ships.
As you upgrade your ship, combat will become easier.
Security ships should join your fight and help out plus you can join a wing of bounty hunters which should help a lot.
If you're in a Sidey then only shoot Sideys until you get better.
The payouts are low for you because you can really only handle small ships.
As you upgrade your ship, combat will become easier.
Security ships should join your fight and help out plus you can join a wing of bounty hunters which should help a lot.
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Get your ship engineered.
Flying and especially combat isn't easy for beginners in Elite. As far as I can remember I took my first step in combat with a Cobra MkIII, although I already was very familiar with spacegames like WingCommander, the X-Series and, of course, the former Elite-games.
As 60mm mentioned above, learn to handle your ship well, pick appropriate weapons (lasers for shields and multicannons for hull) and make your way to a LOW resource extraction site. Stick to the local Security Forces within this site and wait until fire was opened by them and then get into the party. Never be the first to open fire and only pick single targets...no wings. You won't earn a pile of credits though, but it's perfect to get a feeling how to maneuver your ship. Everything else is just practice.
Oh...and before I forget...Don't even think about REAL combat (PvP) until your are, literally, one with your ride.
Shoot straight and Fly safe out there.
As 60mm mentioned above, learn to handle your ship well, pick appropriate weapons (lasers for shields and multicannons for hull) and make your way to a LOW resource extraction site. Stick to the local Security Forces within this site and wait until fire was opened by them and then get into the party. Never be the first to open fire and only pick single targets...no wings. You won't earn a pile of credits though, but it's perfect to get a feeling how to maneuver your ship. Everything else is just practice.
Oh...and before I forget...Don't even think about REAL combat (PvP) until your are, literally, one with your ride.
Shoot straight and Fly safe out there.
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I first threw my hat in the combat ring in a Viper IV - great little ship. Made my way to a Python with it. Once I finished engineering my Python, I could literally park in CZ's until I was out of ammo.
It just takes time and practice. If you don't have a wing mate or two, park yourself at a Nav beacon, get use to scanning ships, and use the local cops to bail you out. Pick you fights, and you'll get there. If you got a wing mate or two, as long as they're at least decent you should be fine. Again, it will just take some time and practice.
It just takes time and practice. If you don't have a wing mate or two, park yourself at a Nav beacon, get use to scanning ships, and use the local cops to bail you out. Pick you fights, and you'll get there. If you got a wing mate or two, as long as they're at least decent you should be fine. Again, it will just take some time and practice.
What is engineering?
This must have something to do with your combat rank being elite or close to it. The rank differential for a player with low rank in combat (like the majority of us explorers) is so large, that even with a fully engineered corvette they will have difficulties against deadly/elite NPCs.
Combat doesn't pay as well as other activities, so might want to do trading, exploring, non-combat missions, etc. until you have a good credit balance yo pay for rebuys. This will get you more familiar with other aspects of the game, like engineering.
Once you start the combat aspect, go to low, medium or high resource extraction (not hazardius) sites located at planetary rings or the nav Beacon (not compromised) in every populated systems.
Follow and help local security with fighting "wanted" ships. Follow their lead and help out. You'll get a feel for it in due time.
Good luck commander.
Bob Lighthouse
Banned
[video=youtube;oY8mr7L9LbM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY8mr7L9LbM[/video]
One of the best ways to learn combat is in multicrew flying a fighter.
No risk, no cost or engineering and you get the protection and guidance of the helm commander.
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That's the saddest and truest post on this thread.
OP: Yumalithian, most of the advice you'll get on here comes from people who either joined before engineers were added to the game, or are playing in engineered ships. Their advice, intentionally or not, assumes your ship is almost as good as the NPC opponents you'll face. That's unlikely to be the case until you fit the best modules (usually 'A' class) and have an engineer apply some modifiers to them. Once you've done that, the advice about different places to fight, tactics to use and so forth will both make sense and actually give you a decent chance of success. Meanwhile, before your ship is toughened up, there's no shame in running away from fights you know you can't win.
There's been a balance pass to give NPCs a sense of challenge for 'average' players. That means they have significant advantages over you, in terms of shields, armour, toughened modules and hit points. It gets worse the better your combat rank progresses, until eventually you'll go up against NPCs with engineer grade modifiers to their already inflated statistics. Add in the way the game 'cheats' by spawning enemies on your six (i.e. directly behind you), giving them a complete repair and rearmament in between interdictions and all sorts of other dubious malarkey and you're on a very steep learning curve!
The good news is that the game balances encounters around your combat rank and current ship. As a new player in a small ship, you'll face weaker opponents than an Elite pilot in a warship. The game is pretty well balanced, it's just balanced around the majortity of players, not newbs or veterans!
DeletedUser191218
D
How are you doing combat? I don't understand why a ship is spawning and attacking you unprovoked - unless you have cargo. Also- what are you flying? The first ship i really started to enjoy was a cobra mk3. You'll be able to do pretty basic combat in that. NAV beacon's are a safe bet and, as has been advised, do not attack alone. Use the police as cover. I'd use gimballed weapons at first. And stick to easier ships & ranks - even an experienced commander in a small, unengineered ship is going to struggle against a high ranked Anaconda.
What platform are you on? I'm on ps4 and UK based. If you're on the same platform and similar time-zone, i'd be happy to take you into a high res for some bounty hunting (even in a wing you'd maybe struggle in a haz res right now). DM me.
As a new player, maybe avoid combat until you get a better ship under you and you are able to polish up your own combat skills. A big part of the game for the new player is learning situational awareness and knowing when to run away. As a newer player you will spend a lot of time running away. Stick to delivery missions, etc. for the time being, build up your credit account, learn to beat the interdiction mini-game so you do not lose cargoes and ships and as you do these things your piloting skills will develop to a point where you gain muscle-memory and do not have to think much about the easy stuff like landing and forgetting to ask for docking clearance.