Newcomer / Intro CZ confusion (or bug/glitch?)

[Celthon]

Went into a low level CZ for first time today...chose the faction I wished to side with, and was swarmed by Alliance Defence Forces and dead within less than a minute. I saw a cpl. ships tagged as belonging to the faction I'd sided with, and they highlighted green as expected...but all the red 'enemy' ships were Alliance Defence Forces ships and I saw none tagged as being from the faction on the other side of the 'war'.

If all the ships that conned red to me were Alliance Defence Forces ships and not from the other faction, would that be considered a bug/glitch, or (most likely) is there some aspect of the faction war state and CZ's I'm still needing to educate myself about?

Regarding how quickly I died, that was expected as I am old in RL, have never done combat in-game prior to today's little test, and my ship has no upgrades (no engineering, etc.) so I didn't expect to it to go well, but wanted to see just how badly outclassed I'd be since I've never looked in a CZ before this...so I'm not asking about the relative shortness of my life in the CZ, but rather why I saw ships other than the 'other faction' attacking me (hopefully I said it correctly). On the screen where I was able to choose which faction to side with the two factions involved in the war were listed as expected, but nothing was said about Alliance Defence Forces, and so when I saw them appear before me I was confused and did not immediately attack or defend myself because I did not want to 'attack the wrong side'.

Thank you for your time and assistance.

 

[Esteban]

It often helps to wait at a distance for a little bit. The two parties' ships don't always populate the CZ right away. In addition, it helps if you don't go flying into the middle of the conflict, rather finding a duet of ships that are fighting a bit away from the other ships.
If you're careful, you can survive without an engineered ship but (clearly) it will be far better with one. My first CZ experiments were in my Cobra Mk III. That was also un-engineered.

When you're experimenting like this, be ready to run or scoot into the asteroid field for cover, or be ready to... die a few times.

You might try to drop in on RES sites instead (if you have not already). With the exception of "Hazardous" ones, you'll have the assistance of local security forces. RES combat is also quite a lot easier than CZ combat. Ships are much easier to defeat. When trying this, watch the ships fighting and go in for a few shots when one has been almost taken down by security forces. You'll get a reward and it's fun and a learning opportunity too.

In both combat scenarios, be sure to show up with an EMPTY cargo hold (Limpets are fine), or you will end up getting mobbed!
If there's something else, feel free to ask.

Edit: RES = Resource Extraction Site. A location in a body's rings, where you'll find miners and pirates looking to prey on them, plus security forces' ships from the system's controlling faction.

 

[Celthon]

My question is regarding why I did not see ships from the other faction, which has been in war state for several days with the faction I'd sided with, but instead I saw Alliance Defence Forces ships as the 'red' ships? On the window where I was to choose which faction to side with, the two factions (call them A and B) were listed correctly...I chose 'A', and expected to see ships from faction 'B' conned red to me...but in the groups of ships in combat with one another I saw only ships from faction A (conned green to me) but no ships from faction B, but instead many many ships from group 'C' (Alliance Defence Forces), who were red to me, and attacked me right away. My reputation with Alliance is 'Allied', so I did not attack/defend when they came at me, and died.

 

[Phill P]

This sounds like a bug, system authorities should not be there instead of the opposing faction. If it happens again I would screenshot and report it as a bug. But the advice about waiting for a minute when you drop in then moving in slowly is valid. Sometimes it takes time for both factions to turn up and if you have already chosen a side and only the enemy is there they can all attack you at once, with no opposing faction there to soak up some of the attacks.

 

[Esteban]

My question is regarding why I did not see ships from the other faction, which has been in war state for several days with the faction I'd sided with, but instead I saw Alliance Defence Forces ships as the 'red' ships? On the window where I was to choose which faction to side with, the two factions (call them A and B) were listed correctly...I chose 'A', and expected to see ships from faction 'B' conned red to me...but in the groups of ships in combat with one another I saw only ships from faction A (conned green to me) but no ships from faction B, but instead many many ships from group 'C' (Alliance Defence Forces), who were red to me, and attacked me right away. My reputation with Alliance is 'Allied', so I did not attack/defend when they came at me, and died.

IApologies; I missed that. Other than your Rep with the Alliance, how's your Rep with the controlling faction of the system you're in for the CZ? I'm trying to figure out why:
a) you saw no ships from the opposing faction in the CZ (that's weird) and
b) those ADF ships attacked you right away like that.

I have not experienced that in the many CZs that I have visited...

 

[SlickPBW]

It’s possible that there were other allies outside of your sensor range. All good advice above.
Being old isn’t a handicap. You might be surprised how many older folks, like me, play this game. It’s one of the older game communities. A significant portion of us played the original Elite in ‘84; myself as an adult at that time as well. I would recommend learning combat in high RES sites by following the cops around and shoot baddies after they are beat up. You will know when you are ready to move on to more difficult NPC’s and eventually pvp.
Cheers

 

[Esteban]

A significant portion of us played the original Elite in ‘84;

Myself included. Great advice...

 

[MishaTX]

My question is regarding why I did not see ships from the other faction, which has been in war state for several days with the faction I'd sided with, but instead I saw Alliance Defence Forces ships as the 'red' ships? On the window where I was to choose which faction to side with, the two factions (call them A and B) were listed correctly...I chose 'A', and expected to see ships from faction 'B' conned red to me...

If faction 'B' was the controlling faction in that system, then it's actually quite possible for them to show as "system/alliance defense forces" as you're basically supporting an insurrection, so that would be correct behavior. Happens a lot to me with my rebellious ways

As to why you didn't see many 'green' ships, that's probably because they hadn't jumped in yet, as has been mentioned. It always pays to hang out a bit before declaring for one side or the other so you don't potentially get swamped by the other side.

 

[Simon Templar]

Went into a low level CZ for first time today...chose the faction I wished to side with, and was swarmed by Alliance Defence Forces and dead within less than a minute. I saw a cpl. ships tagged as belonging to the faction I'd sided with, and they highlighted green as expected...but all the red 'enemy' ships were Alliance Defence Forces ships and I saw none tagged as being from the faction on the other side of the 'war'.

If all the ships that conned red to me were Alliance Defence Forces ships and not from the other faction, would that be considered a bug/glitch, or (most likely) is there some aspect of the faction war state and CZ's I'm still needing to educate myself about?

Regarding how quickly I died, that was expected as I am old in RL, have never done combat in-game prior to today's little test, and my ship has no upgrades (no engineering, etc.) so I didn't expect to it to go well, but wanted to see just how badly outclassed I'd be since I've never looked in a CZ before this...so I'm not asking about the relative shortness of my life in the CZ, but rather why I saw ships other than the 'other faction' attacking me (hopefully I said it correctly). On the screen where I was able to choose which faction to side with the two factions involved in the war were listed as expected, but nothing was said about Alliance Defence Forces, and so when I saw them appear before me I was confused and did not immediately attack or defend myself because I did not want to 'attack the wrong side'.

Thank you for your time and assistance.

I agree with all of the other comments (including the 'old' thing - I played Elite in the 1980's, too, and in my own head am lethal at combat..!) but just to add do be careful not to hit a friendly ship with your weapons in a cz. One stray shot can suddenly turn all of the blips red, at which point things can start to go wrong pretty quickly...

For early cz work I'd go in in something cheap and learn some tricks to help your survivability. I started in an Eagle, died a lot but had a lot of fun. These days I'm generally in an engineered Mamba and can sit in a high cz until I run out of ammo, but without the getting-killed-lots-in-an-Eagle period, I wouldn't have got there.

o7

 

[Northpin]

Went into a low level CZ for first time today...chose the faction I wished to side with, and was swarmed by Alliance Defence Forces and dead within less than a minute. I saw a cpl. ships tagged as belonging to the faction I'd sided with, and they highlighted green as expected...but all the red 'enemy' ships were Alliance Defence Forces ships and I saw none tagged as being from the faction on the other side of the 'war'.

If all the ships that conned red to me were Alliance Defence Forces ships and not from the other faction, would that be considered a bug/glitch, or (most likely) is there some aspect of the faction war state and CZ's I'm still needing to educate myself about?

Regarding how quickly I died, that was expected as I am old in RL, have never done combat in-game prior to today's little test, and my ship has no upgrades (no engineering, etc.) so I didn't expect to it to go well, but wanted to see just how badly outclassed I'd be since I've never looked in a CZ before this...so I'm not asking about the relative shortness of my life in the CZ, but rather why I saw ships other than the 'other faction' attacking me (hopefully I said it correctly). On the screen where I was able to choose which faction to side with the two factions involved in the war were listed as expected, but nothing was said about Alliance Defence Forces, and so when I saw them appear before me I was confused and did not immediately attack or defend myself because I did not want to 'attack the wrong side'.

Thank you for your time and assistance.

Could be a bug.

For example, last night i was chaining High CZ in my Vulture and in 3 occasions only one side of the conflict was present in the CZ.
As in: i drop in, get the message to chose side, i do it, but in 2 occasions only my enemies were in there and not a single ally, while in the 3rd occasion only the allies were in CZ and no enemies.
The solution was to wake away, further away before returning to the CZ (10ls i think)

A 4th iteration was also semi bugged - as in i dropped in, pick sides, for like 10s there was only one green ship, but the eventually the rest of the green team jumped in in force.