Elite / Frontier Finding it hard to get into this games :S

[peteuplink]

I've been trying to play Frontier from a few days now and I'm finding it really hard going. The biggest problem I'm having is with the space pirates. I can't get to grips with the combat system, so I tend to try and run away... Which is great, fire the engines and away I go, usually leaving my attacker behind. But I have to slow down to make planet fall and the pirate usually catches up with me again, so the whole cat and mouse starts up again, 'til I get frustrated and try to fight and we end up doing some kind of weird drunken ballet through space til we crash into each other, game over.

So far I've not managed to survive more than 2 trips before I fall foul to a pirate... Does anyone know if it's possible to actually run away without having to resort to wasting fuel hyperspacing from the system and back again?

 

[peteuplink]

Ooops... I just realised I posted this in the wrong forum. I thought this was the forum for discussion about the Frontier/Elite games, not a general forum for games made by Frontier dev... Sorry.

 

[Sir.Tj]

Don't worry, michael or smars can move this thread. Your best way is to start on the "milk runs" sol to barnards star so you can build up some money and upgrade your ship before taking on the pirates. Wait until you've bought a Asp and fitted it out with a couple of missiles and ECM etc. Then go and get some kills.

Not sure about if you can run away. Always fought to the death myself. If you lock onto them with a missile and fire it they tend to do a runner, that may then give you the chance to get away or reposition for another attack

And welcome to the forum.

 

[DraQ]

First thing, in most cases it's better to fight than it is to run (well, you have to be good, but practice helps here).

I have never really attempted to shake pirates from my tail, but given that Frontier is strictly newtonian and that enemies physically intercept your ship, not just spawn nearby, I can offer a few pointers.

First, you need a fast ship.

Second, it's obvious that no matter how fast your ship is, if you just accelerate and decelerate while moving straight towards the target, the pirates will be able to catch up with you. If I were you I would try to make their inertia work against them. Pick some destination away from the planet you wish to reach. Accelerate towards it, then, instead of decelerating try to rotate towards the actual target which should be somewhere to the side, then fly normally, possibly comepnsating for your lateral momentum with your side thrusters. Enemy momentum should carry them much further and past you. It helps if your intermediate target is some massive object (gas giant, star, BDSO) - you can use slingshoit effect to tighten your turn radius - of course so can pirates, but, at least, you won't miss your destination that easily.

 

[peteuplink]

Thanks for the advice. I've followed Draq's advice in another thread and I've been practising using thrusters to fight pirates... I cant hit the broad side of a barn with a bazooka, but at least I've stopped flying into what I'm supposed to be shooting at. I've scored a couple of hits but not actually destroyed anything yet.

One problem I am having is a technical one. I use VDMSound to run FE2 because DOSBox runs really slowly and crashes all the time if I try to increase the CPU cycles. VDMSound runs nice and quickly, but the display is set to the lowest refresh rate (60hz) which is quite bad on the eyes, especially when staring really hard to shoot a fast moving spec on screen. Does anyone know how to change it?

 

[peteuplink]

I fixed the refresh rate problem in VDMsound. I just downloaded a program called reforce and it seems to work fine.

I have another problem now though

I'm trying glffe with the new bitmaps, but for some reason I can't set the autopilot using the icon on the left of the screen. I click it but it's not giving me the option to select a target for the autopilot... and I do have an autopilot installed

 

[Steve]

I'm trying glffe with the new bitmaps, but for some reason I can't set the autopilot using the icon on the left of the screen. I click it but it's not giving me the option to select a target for the autopilot... and I do have an autopilot installed

If you can see the target just click on it, making sure you're in nav mode and not combat mode. You don't need to click an icon first.

If you can't see your target use your navigation computer

 

[DraQ]

I'm trying glffe with the new bitmaps, but for some reason I can't set the autopilot using the icon on the left of the screen. I click it but it's not giving me the option to select a target for the autopilot... and I do have an autopilot installed

Try standard JJFFE. Otherwise, use the 'T' key or heed Steve's advice.

 

[peteuplink]

thanks again.

 

[turwhitt]

I've always found combat very easy in Frontier. In case you're missing something obvious, here's what i do:

1) Always use your mouse to fly the ship! It's practically impossible with keys!
2) When the ship attacks, pause the game.
3) Locate the enemy on your screen and select him.
4) Unpause, Point your ship about 5cm to the left or right of the enemy and accellerate hard
5) When you are almost level with him (enemy appears quite large), brake hard and turn towards him.
6) You will get a few seconds to blast him while he is floundering and trying to turn towards you. This is normally enough for most ships but if it's a biggie you will need to need to accellerate away before he turns towards you. Run away to 1k or so and start from 4) again.

 

[Sir.Tj]

I've always found combat very easy in Frontier. In case you're missing something obvious, here's what i do:

2) When the ship attacks, pause the game.

Shame on you Turwitt!!!

Personally when the proximity alert goes off I check the scanner to see where the enemy is Cut engines turn towards him and use my thrusters to maneouvering wait intill he's about 1-2km away and start blasting. tend to fire up my ECM to let him know missiles are pointless and I am a mighty warrior!!! and another one bites the dust...

 

[peteuplink]

Thanks. I'll try that.

 

[turwhitt]

tend to fire up my ECM to let him know missiles are pointless and I am a mighty warrior!!!

Haha!

Good to see that true roleplaying is not dead.

 

[Sir.Tj]

Haha!

Good to see that true roleplaying is not dead.

*ahem*

 

[DraQ]

1) Always use your mouse to fly the ship! It's practically impossible with keys!

bQFT=true;

2) When the ship attacks, pause the game.

Tsk, tsk - so cheap...

This is normally enough for most ships but if it's a biggie you will need to need to accellerate away before he turns towards you. Run away to 1k or so and start from 4) again.

If I was sitting in this biggie you'd instantly become so very irreversibly dead and mostly gaseous. In other words - glaring tactical error. When fighting a large ship, particularly IE fitted with PA, under no circumstances, barring intense fire from other craft, should you accelerate away. Just stick to their six once you get there and don't let go. Otherwise you will find yourself in an extremely uncomfortable situation of being on the receiving end of plasma accelerator.

 

[Sir.Tj]

I love it when you arrive in a dangerous system and get destroyed in a second by a imperial explorer or similar. Don't know why but it always makes me smile. probably just the fact that the game will do that to you.

 

[turwhitt]

bQFT=true;

If I was sitting in this biggie you'd instantly become so very irreversibly dead and mostly gaseous. In other words - glaring tactical error. .

If you were sitting in it probably so. But this was a single player ganme last time i checked, so it'll be your computer sitting in the biggie.

What can i say - my tactics work for me, even if they are as you say, "glaringly erroneous". I find that if you stick around close for too long then you get killed. Perhaps you fly smaller ships than me, and are able to stay level with the enemy constantly, but i fly large ships. Even so, my glaringly erroneous tactics still worked for me when i was flying a cobra

 

[Adrena1in]

Haha!

Good to see that true roleplaying is not dead.

I couldn't agree more. I never bothered with an ECM, as I was usually good enough to shoot down enemy missiles, or just let them circle me over and over before running out of fuel and exploding.

But to go along with the role-playing, I would often communicate with my attacker, saying, "Surrender or die!", always knowing their response, but doing it anyway.

 

[DraQ]

I was usually good enough to shoot down enemy missiles

:salute:

Do try FFE again, you seem able to shine there after short practice.
I've never managed to hit a missile with a laser and I consider myself a good shot.

If you were sitting in it probably so. But this was a single player ganme last time i checked, so it'll be your computer sitting in the biggie.

Then you should die in about 40% rather than 95% of cases. The main weakness of large ships is their poor manoeuvrability, so it's only sensible to use it to your advantage when fighting such behemoth. Moving away nullifies this advantage as, if you maintain the same linear velocity, your angular velocity drops proportionally to the distance. True, you become smaller target when moving away, giving you more time, on average, before you get hit, but you can remain completely outside the enemy crosshair indefinitely if you keep close to them.

I find that if you stick around close for too long then you get killed.

That's usually caused by one of four things:

-physical collisions
-missiles
-being fired upon by other ships
-failure to stick close enough on enemy's tail

Also, my craft of choice is Asp Explorer, but Cobra Mk.III is a very good craft too.

 

[turwhitt]

:salute:

Then you should die in about 40% rather than 95% of cases..

Actually no. I hardly ever die. But what would i know - it's only me we're talking about, perhaps i should bow to your oft-stated superior knowledge of my gameplay.