Newcomer / Intro [Combat] - Organizing fire groups ?

SparcT1

SparcT1
Hi CMDRs,

I have started making some progress with my Viper MK3, so just gave a go for a FDL.

Classically, it has 1 pulse laser, 4 multi cannons, 3 shield boosters, 1 electronic countermeasure, 1 Heat sink Launcher and 1 Kill Warrant scanner.
I struggle a little bit organizing all this in a convenient/practical way.
What would be your advice or experience about this ?

07,
SparcT1
 

Helmut Grokenberger

Helmut Grokenberger
Nothing to do wth the shields boosters in terms of "organizing". They are just there doing their job, nothing to assign here.

I never assign stuff like heat sinks or counter measures to fire groups, they all have dedicated hotkeys; I have those on a POV with center click on my left stick - heat sink, silent running, SCB, shutdown field neutralizer, chaff, and ECM (that one needs a shift button, but I never use it anyway).

How you put your different weapons on primary and secondary fire is a matter of preference; I mostly have lasers on secondary and kinetics on primary, but i really depends on the weapons.

If I carry a KWS, I put it on the same trigger as the weapons I damage shields with. I.e. if I carry lasers, I put them both on "2" in the same fire group, so the KWS scans the target while I attack the shields. That way you can kind of "forget" about the KWS, it runs "automatically". This is also why I never really bother with engineering the KWS for long range, but rather for fast scan, and in most cases just juse an E-class for reduced power draw, as I am going to be close up anyway.

My general advice: Don't clutter your firegoups with stuff you have hotkeys for, and have as few firegroups as possible to reduce the need for switching mid-combat.
 

SparcT1

SparcT1
Thanks !
I was not aware of the hotkeys, so obviously, my current configuration is a pure unusable cahos/nightmare/<whatever_you_want>... ;-)
That answer will make my day !
 

Helmut Grokenberger

Helmut Grokenberger
SparcT1 said:
Thanks !
I was not aware of the hotkeys, so obviously, my current configuration is a pure unusable cahos/nightmare/<whatever_you_want>... ;-)
That answer will make my day !
Click to expand...
This gets a bit off topic, but just out of curiosity: What kind of control scheme do you use - KBM, Controller, Joystick, HOTAS, HOSAS? How comfortable you can set up your controls obviously directly correlates with how many inputs you have :D. For the record: I fly with twin VKB Gladiator EVOs, a normal one for the right and an Onmi Throttle for the left hand. I have all ship controls I need on those sticks and still empty buttons left, so I don't need to supplement it with keyboard binds.

Also, in case you don't know, Elite allows to bind button combinations, which opens up the possibility to use one button on your controller or joystick as a "shift" button, instantly doubling your inputs more or less.
 

Ashnak

Ashnak
And just in case those 60 (or 120 if you use a shift button, or even more if you use something like the Virpil throttle) buttons are too much to memorize - EDRefcard can print out a handy reference card that you can put next to your pilot seat in case you forgot which button lets you exit the FSS.
 

SparcT1

SparcT1
Hey, thanks !
I use a HOTAS, an X52 pro.
Ihave programmed 2 profiles on it.
#3 is for explo/exobio
#2 is for combat
#1 is not used. ( i do not like that red light on the stick ;-) )
Was not sure to understand what was a shift key from ED standpoint. Now it's crystal clear.
I will give it a try no later than this afternoon !
Also will look at EDrefcard.
A magic thing with ED is that you learn things any day... ;-)
 

CMDR Saigon

CMDR Saigon
As per CMDR Helmut and to add, I am also on VKB HOSAS and anything possible relating to combat it is on my right hand stick and I stay true to the concept of "hands-on" including a button for FA Off & Landing Gear from a maneuverability point of view.

For all non-essentials then I bind them elsewhere on other peripherals.

o7
 

Helmut Grokenberger

Helmut Grokenberger
This gets really off-topic now, but for me personally it really helped to group controls logically. I have eight POVs at my disposal (center, left, right and thumb on each stick), and I have established the following groupings for me:

Right stick:
  • PIPs on center POV
  • "ship functions" on right POV - landing gear, cargo scoop, lights and NV
  • fire groups on left POV - up and down, nothing on left/right
  • throttle presets on the thumb POV - 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% presets

Left stick:
  • targeting on center POV - up/down is hostiles, left/right is all targets
  • subsystems on right POV - up/down cycles SS, nothing on left right
  • countermeasures on left POV - heatsink, SR, SCB and SFN on the directions, Chaff on center click, RCM on center with shift button (never ever use this)
  • FSD controls on thumb POV - up is SC, down is jump, center click is next route target, nothing on left/right

This covers most of what I need in my day to day gameplay. Of course there's more like HUD mode, FA toggle, boost, that stuff, that's spread over the various buttons. This is my current control set up.

Maybe this helps in any way. If not: Thank you for coming to my TED talk 😁.
 

CMDR Saigon

CMDR Saigon
Helmut Grokenberger said:
This gets really off-topic now, but for me personally it really helped to group controls logically. I have eight POVs at my disposal (center, left, right and thumb on each stick), and I have established the following groupings for me:

Right stick:
  • PIPs on center POV
  • "ship functions" on right POV - landing gear, cargo scoop, lights and NV
  • fire groups on left POV - up and down, nothing on left/right
  • throttle presets on the thumb POV - 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% presets

Left stick:
  • targeting on center POV - up/down is hostiles, left/right is all targets
  • subsystems on right POV - up/down cycles SS, nothing on left right
  • countermeasures on left POV - heatsink, SR, SCB and SFN on the directions, Chaff on center click, RCM on center with shift button (never ever use this)
  • FSD controls on thumb POV - up is SC, down is jump, center click is next route target, nothing on left/right

This covers most of what I need in my day to day gameplay. Of course there's more like HUD mode, FA toggle, boost, that stuff, that's spread over the various buttons. This is my current control set up.

Maybe this helps in any way. If not: Thank you for coming to my TED talk 😁.
Click to expand...

Thought I was going back to a Uni lecture! 😂
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom