Farming NPC's for combat Elite

[NCFCpaul]

Combat remains the one area of Elite I'm really not very good at but despite this I have just managed to claw my ranking up to deadly.

My first point on this is that I'm anything but deadly, harvesting NPC's is fine but in truth I know I'm hopeless really. I kind of think this makes a bit of a mockery of it but I'm going to do get Elite anyway.

Secondly despite having a fully engineered Corvette I find I very rarely use it. Mostly I flip between by FGS, which has one large sturdy mount thermal vent beam, with either four rails or four MC's or alternatively my FDL with one large MC and four efficient pulses that can basically fire forever.

I find the FDL the best for harvesting mostly everything, but the FGS the most fun although I know I get better results in the FDL. In truth each is ship is so different the variety is the point

My question is do people think there should be some kind of alternate grading level to actual measure how good people are? After all, I'll get to Elite through sheer time played rather than any notable ability. Sure I've picked up a few tactics that work for me but like I said, a half good PvP pilot will make short work of me. What are people's thoughts?

 

[Vandaahl]

My question is do people think there should be some kind of alternate grading level to actual measure how good people are?

No, its the effort that matters, not the result.

 

[Sugarat]

I'm with you OP.. Elite ranking is not really skill based for any of the professions tbh (CQC something of an exception, tho' can be achieved over time with little skill I guess)..
How that could be improved is beyond me tho'..

P.S. Going up, up, up!!

 

[NCFCpaul]

I'm with you OP.. Elite ranking is not really skill based for any of the professions tbh (CQC something of an exception, tho' can be achieved over time with little skill I guess)..
How that could be improved is beyond me tho'..

P.S. Going up, up, up!!

OTBC

 

[CMDR Alistair Lux]

No, its the effort that matters, not the result.

Currently, it's impossible to gauge how much of a threat a player really is just from their combat rank. The rank doesn't mean much. It's a very general idea, which may be acceptable. The problem I have with it is that there's no way to tell apart actual skill from how much someone has grinded.

Maybe there could be some kind of separate PvP combat rank.

 

[Yaffle]

Skill is very difficult for the game to measure, and waaaay back when rank was purely on NPC kill number. That is easy to measure, hence it's what we have. I understand there is a differential reward - as in you get more 'kill points' for taking out a higher skilled pilot, I guess that's as good as it gets.

Even at PvP I don't see how the game can judge skill.

I'm still 'expert' and I know I am hopeless at combat. It's taken me four years to get there, and I still have no idea what I am doing.

 

[GTwannabe]

Checkpoints in Anarchy systems. Mostly weak ships like Eagles with Elite NPCs. Or Thargoid scout farming.

 

[Vandaahl]

Currently, it's impossible to gauge how much of a threat a player really is just from their combat rank.

It will always be impossible to gauge how much of a thread a player really is, whatever it is they come up with.

In the online (PVP orientated) games I've played where a little skill was involved, ranking boiled down to being called a n00b (or asked if you bought your account) if you had a bad day with a high rank, or being called a cheater if you had a good day with a low rank. Guess what, lots of vets played on new accounts just to mine salt and be called a cheater. Ranks only tell something about effort or dedication. Wondering how 'good' someone is, is a pretty pointless exercise.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

I got Elite in combat, but I wouldn't call myself an elite combat pilot.
I don't use fixed very often, I don't use FA Off, I rarely bother with excessive pip management... Lol

But if Elite rank could go up and down with kills and deaths, my rank would be plummeting with how many times I die against Thargoids. Lol

 

[CMDR Alistair Lux]

It will always be impossible to gauge how much of a threat a player really is, whatever it is they come up with.

Yes, totally fair. I still think it'd be worth exploring a specialized rank based on player-player combat interactions in the main game (not CQC), separate from environment combat interactions. The two are different skills.

 

[Dutchman141]

Skill is very difficult for the game to measure, and waaaay back when rank was purely on NPC kill number. That is easy to measure, hence it's what we have. I understand there is a differential reward - as in you get more 'kill points' for taking out a higher skilled pilot, I guess that's as good as it gets.

Even at PvP I don't see how the game can judge skill.

I'm still 'expert' and I know I am hopeless at combat. It's taken me four years to get there, and I still have no idea what I am doing.

Same.
Combat Elite is the only one I haven't reached yet and although I'm Deadly I sure ain't.
I suck at combat and the only time I actually have fun in combat is when I take my heavily engineered Corvette into a HazRes, that ship gives me enough leeway to survive a Deadly Conda.

It's fun to see an Eagle pop after only one pull of the trigger though.

 

[Schmack]

Since there's no bar or count for some of the numbers we have individual access to, we can only go by the label "elite". In reality there are only a few elite combat players in the game. Everyone else falls somewhere in the middle-ish of the bell shaped curve.

 

[khaos526]

I guess you could always have a "boss" ship or scenario before you graduate to the next rank to really prove your are getting better and getting more experienced per rank by the difficulty of the "boss" round or something...

 

[Stabby_Dave]

I guess you could always have a "boss" ship or scenario before you graduate to the next rank to really prove your are getting better and getting more experienced per rank by the difficulty of the "boss" round or something...

Like you have to do a naval mission to up a rank?

 

[Lightspeed]

It also depends on the ship being flown. I suddenly became better at combat when I bought a Krait II, it just seemed to suit my flying style the best. I became much better when I engineered it so that when my shields went down it would survive long enough for me to escape !

For Thargoids, I bought a Krait Phantom and engineered it for toughness, having taken advice from this forum (thanks, Commanders !). That didn't spoil its agility in combat, and I became Elite in it all the way from 65% Dangerous.

 

[Chaparral]

I recall the old Lord of the Rings Online combat grind ranks. Kill X number of white drakes and get the title "Wrath of Winter" - a typical badge you could display under your name while you were running around.

There were dozens and dozens of titles and achievements. It was part of the random positive reinforcement loop of supporting grind. Combat Elite absolutely does not mean "Elite Combatant". Once you're there - then what?

IMO - FDEV could take a lesson from LOTRO - and think about faction support badges/titles, specific opponent titles etc. Just for fun.

 

[Riverside]

I like that combat doesn't have to be central to playing the game, and that if a player has a goal of becoming 'Elite' there are several options, all of which are just huge targets to aim for.

At different times over ED's life the ranks have changed in difficulty, and comparing one player's rank to another isn't straightforward, the story behind how they achieved it is the interesting part.

I'm not that hot at PvP, mostly because I can't really be bothered to build myself mega-ships that make the rest of the game really boring. I got to Combat Elite in the summer of 2015 (about 6-7 months after buying the game) with most of my kills being in Conflict Zones rather than RESs. I didn't farm cops or fall into piracy. I still use the Python that got me from Dangerous to Combat Elite, it's now a dedicated CZ ship with the same basic loadout it had four years ago, albeit engineered now. Fixed beam under the nose, a pair of C3 multis and a pair of C2 burst turrets for tagging extra BGS points. The beam and one of the turrets are long range, the rest are short range.

Not sure if CZs were ever the meta way to do it but I enjoyed myself and never really had to wait long for another target to appear.

IMO having fun doing it is more important than achieving the end result quickly.

 

[rhiz]

Combat remains the one area of Elite I'm really not very good at but despite this I have just managed to claw my ranking up to deadly.

My first point on this is that I'm anything but deadly, harvesting NPC's is fine but in truth I know I'm hopeless really. I kind of think this makes a bit of a mockery of it but I'm going to do get Elite anyway.

Secondly despite having a fully engineered Corvette I find I very rarely use it. Mostly I flip between by FGS, which has one large sturdy mount thermal vent beam, with either four rails or four MC's or alternatively my FDL with one large MC and four efficient pulses that can basically fire forever.

I find the FDL the best for harvesting mostly everything, but the FGS the most fun although I know I get better results in the FDL. In truth each is ship is so different the variety is the point

My question is do people think there should be some kind of alternate grading level to actual measure how good people are? After all, I'll get to Elite through sheer time played rather than any notable ability. Sure I've picked up a few tactics that work for me but like I said, a half good PvP pilot will make short work of me. What are people's thoughts?

Yes I’m in the same boat as you. Close to 2000 hrs in, own nearly every ship in the game engineered to G5, very experienced in trading and exploration but weak in combat simply because that hasn’t been where my interest lies. Funnily enough, I’ve just reached Deadly myself and only today started a thread about how I was completely owned by a couple of PVP players the other day.

I agree entirely. Yes, it’s much more difficult to measure true skill but FD could make a much better approximation of it. My solution would be to have the Pilots Federation set the player a series of extremely challenging trials once they reach Deadly that actively measure various areas of combat skill. Not only would this mean more, but it would make the path from deadly to Elite something to look forward to rather than dread, and offer something new in the late game. Once you’ve killed your first 500 Thargoid scouts/Elite NPCs, your combat skill probably doesn’t increase that much over the next 1500 odd (whatever absurd number it is). Using mindless repetition to gauge this stuff is the least satisfactory approach possible in my view.

 

[rhiz]

Skill is very difficult for the game to measure, and waaaay back when rank was purely on NPC kill number. That is easy to measure, hence it's what we have. I understand there is a differential reward - as in you get more 'kill points' for taking out a higher skilled pilot, I guess that's as good as it gets.

Even at PvP I don't see how the game can judge skill.

I'm still 'expert' and I know I am hopeless at combat. It's taken me four years to get there, and I still have no idea what I am doing.

I don't know - I'm sure that there would be ways to measure a player's skill in the various areas that constitute overall combat ability (maneuverability, reaction time, situational awareness, aggression, defense etc). If you broke it down in this way I'm sure that you could devise a series of scenarios that were much more satisfying and meaningful than at present. At present it’s just a number in place of content. Perhaps some kind of secret testing grounds?

 

[rrobes]

Combat Elite is just a headcount on killing NPCs. Doesn't make you an ace pilot.

If you want to be an ace, you have to PvP, a lot. Learn the best loadouts and be prepared to die, a lot.

Fly FA/Off, use a keyboard and mouse (mouse allows better aiming), takes dedication, join a PvP group.

Or just be content to kill NPCs.

For the record. I'm too old to be a good PvP, just play for fun, youth must be served.