Combat Training Tutorial

[mgsnell]

So, I am a complete newbi and as such probably any problem I have with the game was caused by me, just getting that out there first.

So after spending a lot of time learning how to setup my HOTAS and doing some trial and error I ventured out into the land of training. Did the basic flight training, not too bad hey I think I got this. Next docking and travel, whoa wait a minute this isn't so easy, can't seem to get out of supercruise in time. After an hour of trying I finally got it, or not. Oh well need more practice. On to combat training, I scanned the little guy and found he was wanted got all excited and deployed my hardpoints. Wait a minute why do I have two weapons and only one fires, is this a bug or do the training gods feel like a newbie like me needs an additional challenge? Well I can tell you I don't. Thankfully the little guy had no shields so after 30 minutes of flying in circles finally getting close enough to shoot at him only to have my weapons overheat and stop shooting I dispatched him, but not before my trainer keeps reminding me how easy this one is to kill yea right. So now I go on to the next one, only this guy has shields so I need to deploy my lasers. Hugh, how do I do this. Well I try every key command and nothing changes, I still only have one functioning weapon and this idiot constantly shooting me, and killing me over and over.

So my short question is, did the newbie do something during setup to cause this or is there a problem with the game. Don't care either way just want to know if I should keep hitting my head against the wall or move on

 

[VonBlade]

Look to your right panel, check the fire group page. Usually different weapons are assigned to different buttons. So fire 1 fires something, fire 2 fires something else.

I haven't used the combat trainer, but perhaps it might also be assigned to a different group. So use your switch fire group button.

You can adjust them in the fire group page to all fire off the one button, but usually for heat or energy reasons that's not wise.

 

[Ashnak]

My crystall ball is a bit dusty right now, sorry about that....

Ok, you're giving some information, but unfortunately not the right one.

Let me start at the beginning:

Since you are a newbee and playing the basic combat tutorial - did you swim in with the PS4 swarm, or is this completely unrelated? Or basically, what system are you playing on, and which HOTAS are you using?

Next question: any chance you could (for a start) post a screenshot of what the view through your cockpit looks like once you have deployed weapons? Upload the image on an image hoster and link to here, there's a lot of information in the HUD if you know where to look.

I have to agree with VonBlade - this sounds like a simple issue of assigning (or not) fire groups, but it might be something more fundamental/complicated. A screenshot would help. IIRC, the default assignment has both lasers in one group and assigned to fire 1 - but that was a long time ago.

 

[mgsnell]

My crystall ball is a bit dusty right now, sorry about that....

Ok, you're giving some information, but unfortunately not the right one.

Let me start at the beginning:

Since you are a newbee and playing the basic combat tutorial - did you swim in with the PS4 swarm, or is this completely unrelated? Or basically, what system are you playing on, and which HOTAS are you using?

Next question: any chance you could (for a start) post a screenshot of what the view through your cockpit looks like once you have deployed weapons? Upload the image on an image hoster and link to here, there's a lot of information in the HUD if you know where to look.

I have to agree with VonBlade - this sounds like a simple issue of assigning (or not) fire groups, but it might be something more fundamental/complicated. A screenshot would help. IIRC, the default assignment has both lasers in one group and assigned to fire 1 - but that was a long time ago.

No swimming, Winddows 10 pro, Thrustmaster HOATAS X ps3/pc version not the 4 version. I can do screen shots, but give the newbie a break here, what is a "hoster ? This is my 1st time on this forum so I don't know how to post and link my picture to this thread sorry

 

[mgsnell]

Screen Shot

No swimming, Winddows 10 pro, Thrustmaster HOATAS X ps3/pc version not the 4 version. I can do screen shots, but give the newbie a break here, what is a "hoster ? This is my 1st time on this forum so I don't know how to post and link my picture to this thread sorry

The right weapon is the only one that fires. Tried to show that in the image but couldn't

 

[Ashnak]

No need to be sorry at all. We all had to learn this once - a few of us may even had a hand in designing and building it (not me, though - I may be old enough, but those guys worked in a different lab ).

OK, FD (Frontier Development) doesn't permit posting images or videos directly to this forum, so you'll need to put those somewhere else where everyone could access them, and post a link to them here. This "somewhere else" is a hoster.

For images, a lot of people (including me) use imgur. Others could be Tumblr or Instagram - whatever works for you. If you want to use imgur, go to their website, register with one of your email addresses and think of a good password (preferrably not one you're already using somewhere else, but in this case, it's pretty safe to write it on a post-it and stick it next to the monitor). They'll send you a confirmation mail to the address you used. Click on the link in that mail, and you're in.
You can then simply drag&drop an image from your PC to the imgur window. Once it shows up there, click on it and you'll get a choice of links that will all lead back to that picture. Copy the "direct link" to your clipboard, then go back to the forum article you were writing.
At the top of the write area are some icons (colour, style, size..) - in the rightmost of those icon fields are things like a globe (create a link), the third icon from the left resembles a picture frame. Click on that, and a popup opens. Go on "by URL", then copy your imgur "direct link" in the URL field. Done.

While we're at it: if you're on PC with a HOTAS, you might get acquianted with the reference sheet generator here. This lets you see and publish (if you wish) your HOTAS settings.

 

[mgsnell]

Screen Shot

No need to be sorry at all. We all had to learn this once - a few of us may even had a hand in designing and building it (not me, though - I may be old enough, but those guys worked in a different lab ).

OK, FD (Frontier Development) doesn't permit posting images or videos directly to this forum, so you'll need to put those somewhere else where everyone could access them, and post a link to them here. This "somewhere else" is a hoster.

For images, a lot of people (including me) use imgur. Others could be Tumblr or Instagram - whatever works for you. If you want to use imgur, go to their website, register with one of your email addresses and think of a good password (preferrably not one you're already using somewhere else, but in this case, it's pretty safe to write it on a post-it and stick it next to the monitor). They'll send you a confirmation mail to the address you used. Click on the link in that mail, and you're in.
You can then simply drag&drop an image from your PC to the imgur window. Once it shows up there, click on it and you'll get a choice of links that will all lead back to that picture. Copy the "direct link" to your clipboard, then go back to the forum article you were writing.
At the top of the write area are some icons (colour, style, size..) - in the rightmost of those icon fields are things like a globe (create a link), the third icon from the left resembles a picture frame. Click on that, and a popup opens. Go on "by URL", then copy your imgur "direct link" in the URL field. Done.

While we're at it: if you're on PC with a HOTAS, you might get acquianted with the reference sheet generator here. This lets you see and publish (if you wish) your HOTAS settings.

Thought this might be noteworthy, this only happens when I am in the tutorial when I go to play solo both weapons work as opposed to only the right in the tutorial.

 

[mgsnell]

No need to be sorry at all. We all had to learn this once - a few of us may even had a hand in designing and building it (not me, though - I may be old enough, but those guys worked in a different lab ).

OK, FD (Frontier Development) doesn't permit posting images or videos directly to this forum, so you'll need to put those somewhere else where everyone could access them, and post a link to them here. This "somewhere else" is a hoster.

For images, a lot of people (including me) use imgur. Others could be Tumblr or Instagram - whatever works for you. If you want to use imgur, go to their website, register with one of your email addresses and think of a good password (preferrably not one you're already using somewhere else, but in this case, it's pretty safe to write it on a post-it and stick it next to the monitor). They'll send you a confirmation mail to the address you used. Click on the link in that mail, and you're in.
You can then simply drag&drop an image from your PC to the imgur window. Once it shows up there, click on it and you'll get a choice of links that will all lead back to that picture. Copy the "direct link" to your clipboard, then go back to the forum article you were writing.
At the top of the write area are some icons (colour, style, size..) - in the rightmost of those icon fields are things like a globe (create a link), the third icon from the left resembles a picture frame. Click on that, and a popup opens. Go on "by URL", then copy your imgur "direct link" in the URL field. Done.

While we're at it: if you're on PC with a HOTAS, you might get acquianted with the reference sheet generator here. This lets you see and publish (if you wish) your HOTAS settings.

Tried twice using your instructions and imur with sharex even previewed but after submitting nothing happens, maybe I just have to wait a while for the moderator to approve

 

[mgsnell]

HOATS settings

No need to be sorry at all. We all had to learn this once - a few of us may even had a hand in designing and building it (not me, though - I may be old enough, but those guys worked in a different lab ).

OK, FD (Frontier Development) doesn't permit posting images or videos directly to this forum, so you'll need to put those somewhere else where everyone could access them, and post a link to them here. This "somewhere else" is a hoster.

For images, a lot of people (including me) use imgur. Others could be Tumblr or Instagram - whatever works for you. If you want to use imgur, go to their website, register with one of your email addresses and think of a good password (preferrably not one you're already using somewhere else, but in this case, it's pretty safe to write it on a post-it and stick it next to the monitor). They'll send you a confirmation mail to the address you used. Click on the link in that mail, and you're in.
You can then simply drag&drop an image from your PC to the imgur window. Once it shows up there, click on it and you'll get a choice of links that will all lead back to that picture. Copy the "direct link" to your clipboard, then go back to the forum article you were writing.
At the top of the write area are some icons (colour, style, size..) - in the rightmost of those icon fields are things like a globe (create a link), the third icon from the left resembles a picture frame. Click on that, and a popup opens. Go on "by URL", then copy your imgur "direct link" in the URL field. Done.

While we're at it: if you're on PC with a HOTAS, you might get acquianted with the reference sheet generator here. This lets you see and publish (if you wish) your HOTAS settings.

This is my starting settings

As you can see I have just began to use some of the HOTAS bindings as I get more familiar with the game I will add to them. Hopefully these settings will get me started.

 

[Ashnak]

Ok, pictures are up now.

Problem is the fire groups setting - and since this is the tutorial, this is probably "as intended".

If you look at the picture, you can see those two, well, call them quarter circles, bracketing your central field of view. Those are your weapons indicators. The left one is completely empty, the right one has "Primary 1" on top and the Multicannon with its status on bottom. That means, in your current firegroup, you only have the Multicannon (right side gun) assigned to the primary fire button, the left side gun (looks like a pulse laser) isn't assigned to anything. Try switching through the fire groups (. and , in your setup) and see if anything changes there (might not at this time in the tutorial). Also see that the tutorial in the comms tells you to concentrate your primary fire on the target, so they probably have the laser on secondary and either bring it on later or tell you to switch the fire group.

For the real game, go into your right side HUD ("Role Systems Panel", 3 4 on the keyboard) and tab into the fire groups tab. There you can assign which gun (or other triggerable device) goes off when you press trigger 1 or trigger 2.

Oh, and one completely unrelated hint: instead of posting a screenshot from your browser, the HOTAS generator can also create a shortcut (somewhere on the bottom of the first page there's a checkbox for "permit others to see my bindings" or something like that) link. In your screenshot, it's printed directly under the Keyboard Bindings headline (and should also be on top of the page, at the HOTAS bindings, and again repeated right at the bottom in the small print). For example, if you follow this link: http://www.mcdee.net/elite/binds/ademzj you will find my setup. I'll still have to fiddle around a bit with the camera controls.
If you do chose to post a screenshot of your browser, it might be a good idea to fire up any image editor and remove your shortcuts. The fourth one might give an unfavourable impression .

P.S. Malc Yorks just posted a HOTAS X binding set in a different thread - that might actually be more useful to you than my 16000M bindings.

P.P.S.: Sorry, got the wrong panel identifiers the first time round - for me, it's usually just left/right/up/down through a hat switch

 

[mgsnell]

Thanks for all the advice. After spending days setting up the keybindings, VoiceAttack, installing voices ASTRA and EDEN, EDDI and multi crew and then finally getting to play the game, it was a little disheartening to finally get to try the game out only to have one weapon and have my trainer tell me "you got this one" as I am being killed lol.

Last night after tweaking some of the x,y z HOTAS settings so as not to be so sensitive and make quick movements, I found myself able to complete the basic combat mission with only the one weapon. It is interesting that one is not given any time at the start of the tutorial to get into the fire group panel before being attacked. At one point I did go in while being attacked but the panel was blank no entries of any kind was there. At the start of the second wave the panel was populated and I was able to use both lasers and cannons. Just as an observation, I noted that the cannons seemed to track the target but the lasers didn't is this by design or are there some settings I need to adjust.

 

[DragonIV]

There are a lot of video tutorials you may want to watch. Based on what I've read, you just don't have much knowledge about the game. That's ok, it's a pretty complicated game, but you'll learn it quickly.

In regards to the "cannons tracking and the lasers didn't" comment, weapons come in three variants: fixed, gimballed, and turreted. Fixed weapons fire straight, they do not track. Gimballed have tracking limited to a certain firing arc (pretty much, what you can see on screen). Turrets can fire over a much wider arc, and be set to fire independently.

In general, you sacrifice damage for tracking. That is to say, fixed do the most damage, gimballed less so, and turrets even less.

 

[Ashnak]

Most weapons come in three different flavours:

fixed: almost no tracking at all, you'll have to aim with the ship, only fire when you press the button. "almost" because if you target a ships modules, these weapons can track a little bit to hit those modules.

gimballed: limited tracking, only fire when you press the button, less damage than fixed

turreted: full tracking, can fire on their own, less damage than gimballed

Self-tracking weapons will be thrown off by losing target lock, for which (if you are on the receiving end) are several options: chaff, run silent, hit the other guy with specific engineered guns.

Sounds like the tutorial uses gimballed multicannons but fixed lasers.

 

[Dale Emasiri]

Glad that you managed to get through the Combat Training. I will echo the others in this thread, the game can be daunting at first and there's a lot to learn. If you're finding that you're struggling still after some time in the game, you may consider joining the Galactic Academy Discord server: https://discord.gg/0ov97zGV3VZlCnlX

This is a community-led initiative to give new, fledgling pilots a place to learn from veteran players who have been flying for a little while longer.

It could simply be a setting that's not quite right, or there could be a fire-group setup problem as others have said. Hope you have managed to get through without any further hitches.

 

[mgsnell]

A big thanks to everyone for taking me under their wing (pun intended ) I appreciate the words of encouragement and advice very much.

 

[shadragon]

This is something I repeat constantly. If you're a new player, DO THE TUTORIALS. Make your mistakes there and don't go into the game until you know how to fly, dock, fight and run. Losses in tutorials don't count and if you have troubles there, you're going to have many frustrating issues in the game. Tutorials are a place of learning and I cannot recommend them enough.