My combat level is novice. Every time I go to a combat zone, the fighters are all deadly, master, etc. way above my level. Are there combat zones that are more geared to my level, and are there aspects of a star system that would indicate lower level combat zones? Are combat zones just something you have to get to a higher level to participate in?
Combat zones
- Thread starter cloetus
- Start date
There is some variation in them, but it's random as far as I know. They are fairly high end places, not really for beginners. Even the ones in the newbie zone have higher level enemies, it's one of the complaints 
RES sites are easier for practice, as long as you pay attention and don't shoot any clean ships or police ships. You can help the system authority ships kill pirates, and you'll get credit for the kills.
Here's a pretty good video series that explains pretty much everything about combat:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRfYYnnOztJoMUYjeWrY6zLzmeptdaH4b
Have fun
RES sites are easier for practice, as long as you pay attention and don't shoot any clean ships or police ships. You can help the system authority ships kill pirates, and you'll get credit for the kills.
Here's a pretty good video series that explains pretty much everything about combat:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRfYYnnOztJoMUYjeWrY6zLzmeptdaH4b
Have fun
Sort of. Probably more related to a minimum standard of equipment (and knowledge of how to suitably equip a ship) than your actual rank or personal skill level, but they are a different kind of combat to a RES or nav beacon where the police help you and NPCs generally leave you alone unless you attack them.
If you are looking to do some combat with NPCs closer to your own current rank try a Low RES, then a RES, then High RES, all have police in them to help you. A Haz RES is more of a challenge.
A Low CZ is the simplest, there are no extra scenarios to try to complete, just kill 5-8 enemy ships before the other side does & you'll win the battle, it should take around 10-15 minutes, if you can't kill a single ship you'll probably need a bigger gun, any skill will come with practice & paying attention.
OH MY I remember the first time I saw those engineered ships.
I was in a mildly enginered vette.
All jumped on my ship and yes. I was reduced to vapor along with my slf pilot at deadly.
Was a good laugh.
OP, CZ's are not for the faint hearted, all the ships are tough and you can get swarmed by a bunch of nasty ships really quickly so you have to be ready to High Wake out at any point unless you have a very fast ship.
If you need to fight in them to get the Combat Bonds for Engineer unlocks then I advise the following approach:
1. Use a fast ship like a Viper III or Cobra III and fit module reinforcements as well as hull reinforcements or you'll get your thrusters and/or frame shift drive shot out from under you, and you'll be toast.
2. Use gimbled weapons and/or seeker missiles to begin with because you can be 'off center' when you engage the enemy or get a few hits in without having to be in a lot of danger, although some ships have point defense but ships like Viper III's or IV's less often.
3. Don't pick a side right away, the initial fur-ball can be a mess of missiles and dogpiling. Scan a few ships so you can find out who's who, and when you see a pair or small group break off to engage 1 vs 3 (best) or 2 vs 3 (Ok) then pick the side that's got the upper hand in this small engagement and fight with them.
4. You don't need to personally kill the enemy ship you're fighting, just do about 15-20 percent damage to it (this includes shields) and then be within about 2 km when it dies. If you get beyond your weapon range you often fail to get credited for the kill.
5. After your little 'team' has killed a ship STICK WITH IT and engage the next target with them. If they split up or dive into a pack of ships then break off and find another 'team' to join or circle the outside of the main dogfight till you see a ship you think you can handle, preferably a damaged one, but, in the immortal words of 'ol Han -Don't get cocky.
6. Have a High Wake destination already selected on the Galaxy Map, and make sure it's not obscured by the planet or moon you are fighting next to or you'll be toast.
7. If you want practice or are looking to just get a few bonds then you don't have to finish the fight, get out while the going's good and come back, you'll lose the bonds if you die so be careful.
Good Hunting CMDR
o7
If you need to fight in them to get the Combat Bonds for Engineer unlocks then I advise the following approach:
1. Use a fast ship like a Viper III or Cobra III and fit module reinforcements as well as hull reinforcements or you'll get your thrusters and/or frame shift drive shot out from under you, and you'll be toast.
2. Use gimbled weapons and/or seeker missiles to begin with because you can be 'off center' when you engage the enemy or get a few hits in without having to be in a lot of danger, although some ships have point defense but ships like Viper III's or IV's less often.
3. Don't pick a side right away, the initial fur-ball can be a mess of missiles and dogpiling. Scan a few ships so you can find out who's who, and when you see a pair or small group break off to engage 1 vs 3 (best) or 2 vs 3 (Ok) then pick the side that's got the upper hand in this small engagement and fight with them.
4. You don't need to personally kill the enemy ship you're fighting, just do about 15-20 percent damage to it (this includes shields) and then be within about 2 km when it dies. If you get beyond your weapon range you often fail to get credited for the kill.
5. After your little 'team' has killed a ship STICK WITH IT and engage the next target with them. If they split up or dive into a pack of ships then break off and find another 'team' to join or circle the outside of the main dogfight till you see a ship you think you can handle, preferably a damaged one, but, in the immortal words of 'ol Han -Don't get cocky.
6. Have a High Wake destination already selected on the Galaxy Map, and make sure it's not obscured by the planet or moon you are fighting next to or you'll be toast.
7. If you want practice or are looking to just get a few bonds then you don't have to finish the fight, get out while the going's good and come back, you'll lose the bonds if you die so be careful.
Good Hunting CMDR
o7
Yep, the Spec Ops Wing can make quick work on a partially engineered or thin hull ships. I almost lost my Cutter on first encounter when all 4 jumped on me.
Rest assured, a low-intensity CZ is soloable in a perfectly reasonable timeframe (< 15 minutes) using just a vanilla, unengineered vulture, which will set you back roughly 5m for the hull, and another 5-10m for fittings, though I'm sure the Cobra/Viper fitouts are pretty reasonable too, and will come in at less cost too.
On this point..
The best way to do this is to, once the target has been destroyed, make sure you're close to the target/group killing the target and press (H or whatever hotkey you've bound for this function). It'l target the "nearest hostile". Whatever logic it uses to determine this... it's pretty much the same logic that the AI uses. If you aren't near the group or the kill, you may accidentally get a different target and split off accidentally.
Also, if you ever get lost for targets or allies to help, pick out Eagles/Cobras/other small ships until you sidle up to a group of allies again.
Lastly, if you find yourself pounding a big ship, go for a Powerplant kill. Contrary to popular belief, these still work. Once the powerplant is at 0%, each shot you land on it has a chance to destroy the ship. Corollary: Gimballed MCs/Beam Lasers are best for this, and conversely, single-shot/scatter shot weapons like Frag Cannons, Rails, Missiles, PAs etc are poor for this.... if the chance for killing a ship is 1%, 10 well timed rail shots is unlikely to get it to happen, but a full MC clip into it has a very high chance to trigger a PP kill. Ships in a CZ are heavily tanked-out, so PP kills will save you a lot of ammo (My record was a Corvette killed at =~70% hull)
As far as fittings go, it's whatever works in combat for you, but a couple fits or engineer mods that I swear by are:
Hope that helps.
-
On this point..
The best way to do this is to, once the target has been destroyed, make sure you're close to the target/group killing the target and press (H or whatever hotkey you've bound for this function). It'l target the "nearest hostile". Whatever logic it uses to determine this... it's pretty much the same logic that the AI uses. If you aren't near the group or the kill, you may accidentally get a different target and split off accidentally.
Also, if you ever get lost for targets or allies to help, pick out Eagles/Cobras/other small ships until you sidle up to a group of allies again.
Lastly, if you find yourself pounding a big ship, go for a Powerplant kill. Contrary to popular belief, these still work. Once the powerplant is at 0%, each shot you land on it has a chance to destroy the ship. Corollary: Gimballed MCs/Beam Lasers are best for this, and conversely, single-shot/scatter shot weapons like Frag Cannons, Rails, Missiles, PAs etc are poor for this.... if the chance for killing a ship is 1%, 10 well timed rail shots is unlikely to get it to happen, but a full MC clip into it has a very high chance to trigger a PP kill. Ships in a CZ are heavily tanked-out, so PP kills will save you a lot of ammo (My record was a Corvette killed at =~70% hull)
As far as fittings go, it's whatever works in combat for you, but a couple fits or engineer mods that I swear by are:
- A-Rate Life Support. Yes, you can engineer life support, but it costs materials and you have to disengage... but guarantee if you're taking hits your canopy will be first to go. Fit an A-Rate life support and you've got a whole 25 minutes to finish. I can clear over just over half a high-intensity CZ in that time and still make it to a station before I run out of air.
- Corrosive Shell modification. This increases damage (by reducing resistances) against unshielded targets. Great as an individual because it's basically a temporary damage boost for all your weapons, but in a CZ, it's also a damage boost for all your allies, so it's pretty indespensible.
- At least one or two MRPs. CZs love missile spam, and the worst thing is having to leave a CZ with 80% hull left, but all your modules are fried. Takes some experience, but you want a balance so that your MRPs are giving out just as your hull reaches 10-20%.
- HRPs, with the highest-grade heavy-duty modification if possible. Your shields will eventually go down during a CZ, so you want your armour as chunky as possible.
Hope that helps.
-
A lot of correct and useful tips, except for details of the above. The rule is, unless it was changed:
If a player lands even a small hit on the hull (shields down or through the shield) of a target inside 10 seconds of the death of the target, the player gets credited for kill. In case of multiple players, the last player hit counts.
This works also for murder charges: If you hit a non-wanted target on the hull, you will get a bounty. If the target then dies within 10 seconds by enemy fire (e.g. a pirate) or its own stupidity, you will get a murder charge and notoriety.
I look at the left panel, choose the ones with the red bars (the enemy) with the smallest ships and the lowest rank, eg Eagle/Competent.
I'd leave the Deadly Vultures alone for the time being......
I'd leave the Deadly Vultures alone for the time being......
Thanks for this info, I'll give it a test the next time I'm in a combat zone, busy with Maia ATM.
The advice I gave to a player I recently winged up with was to choose the 'flat plate' ships (Eagle, Cobra, AspX/S, Python etc) because they are easier to hit while they are turning. Vipers (both), Chieftains & to some degree Vultures take longer to kill. If I can get an easy scenario win by just killing 7 Asp Scouts I will. The Chieftain variants seem unusually tanky compared to the smaller Federation ships, I haven't gone up against an empire faction for a long time & don't know the relative strengths of their spawn compared to independant, Fed & Alliance ones.
Besides shape, some NPC ships are simply very nimble. Asps, Cobras, Python are not among those and hence easier to kill. Eagles are nimble and sometime hard to hit, but have very little shield/hull.
Chieftains, Challengers, Crusader are hull tanks for their compact size, especially in CZs.
Chieftains, Challengers, Crusader are hull tanks for their compact size, especially in CZs.
Here's my guide for how to do coflict zones for beginners using a sidewinder. It's important that you make it as fast as possible and have the best sensors. Look in my channel for other vids on how to do resource extraction sites.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsJbCB45Iv8&t=1621s
YUPPERS
That's why I love this games npc combat and don't need to fly in open.
Keep dropping ship size and the npc's aren't all that easy to wipe out.
Wiping out haz res sites and hard cz's in a maxed pvp build annie or fdl means nothing.
Yes, that's what the experts do. They don't like to lose.
If it isn't competition. It's not worth doing.
NPCs will target the highest threat to them, if the player rocks up in a Corvette with turrets set to fire at will they are going to attract all the attention
I have two main CZ ships (I have loads, but two I use when I want to win a war rather than just doing it for fun), one is a tanky Python ('Thug') and the other is a flightly FDL ('Velcro'). Both medium ships, both have a fixed long range beam (C3 overpowered on the Python, C4 with thermal transfer on the FDL) and gimballed short range weapons in the rest. I generally only get attacked by whoever I'm firing at and maybe one other that can usually be shrugged off in the Python and evaded in the FDL.
I'm about the same combat level ie. currently 1% competent (which is pretty accurate, btw)
There are plenty of lower ranked enemies in CZs. I spend most of my game time in them atm because I'm learning to use rail guns with a Hotas X (I may be some time <steps outside the tent>)
Starting technique that I used initially was to find a lower ranked ship by scanning through them, fire on it, then draw them 10-15kms away from the the CZ marker...then they're all yours.
Good hunting, fellow noob!
There are plenty of lower ranked enemies in CZs. I spend most of my game time in them atm because I'm learning to use rail guns with a Hotas X (I may be some time <steps outside the tent>)
Starting technique that I used initially was to find a lower ranked ship by scanning through them, fire on it, then draw them 10-15kms away from the the CZ marker...then they're all yours.
Good hunting, fellow noob!
You need to use logic to overcome that. NPCs are stupid and follow simple rules. You can use those rules against them.
Slightly pedantic point here OP, but this kind of stuff can be important.
A CZ is a Conflict Zone, not a Combat Zone.
It’s important because what that means is it’s a war zone, not an area to just go for a bit of combat.
You join a side and that makes you a valid target for every ship on the opposing side.
That’s always going to make it a very different proposition to combat in other situations where you’ll generally be able to select targets and only engage them one or two at a time.
Others have already mentioned Resource Extraction Sites as areas where you can find combat which will be more under control, but you can also try Navigation Beacons, and Weapons Fire Detected USSs. There’s also Compromised Navigation Beacons which are great when you know what you’re doing, but would be tough if you don’t.
Anyway, this is just really an explanation of why CZs are different and won’t provide what it sounds like you’re looking for.
Just to add though, like much of the game it’s not really about your in game rank for CZs, it’s about your actual skill, knowledge and experience.
When you know what you’re doing, you can do CZs in a basic Sidewinder (as @d8veh shows).
Plenty of advice already on CZs already, but as a bit of advice on general principle, you need to approach them as what they are, i.e. a warzone and treat them accordingly. If you treat them as somewhere that’s orientated towards providing you an easy shooting gallery then things are going to go wrong for you.
Hope that helps, and good luck cmdr!
o7