First impressions of combat...not so good.

[SpiritSharD]

I'm an utter noob; literally started playing this game a few days ago and been getting to grips with ship handling, mechanics etc. I did my first trade mission today. So, yeah, inexperienced.

Regardless, I thought I'd try my hand at some combat. "Oh, there's a conflict zone over there. Let's fly over". Eventually, I did, after several attempts since Supercruise seems very "touchy" (approaching very slow and still no sign to safe disengage, using blue marker for guidance and yet still overshooting. Most likely me being a novice, but still, seems odd).

"Ooooo! My first target. Lock on, deploy weapons, annnnnnd...engage!"

PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW

All shots fired are hits. Shields go down. Recharge. Reduce hull to 97% in second volley of laser fire with also 100% accuracy (visual cues such as shield/hull damage).

Enemy speeds up and flies away, recharges shields, turns around FLYING STRAIGHT AT ME with a volley of fire that reduces my shields to 0% and my hull integrity to 60%. Second volley kills me as I try to fly away.

What. The. Hell.

This was Sidewinder vs Sidewinder, in a system about one or two systems away from the starting zone (or what I assume is the starting zone). I can't imagine that player was kitted out by much, if at all.

What gives? Hit detection issues? Connectivity issues? Cheats?

Don't say "Bad aim" like you're some 12 year old COD player. Be constructive and help someone out, please.

 

[MadDogMurdock]

They may have better weapons and hull than you.
They may have been using their power management as well.

 

[deusx_ophc]

well if it was a player that was to be expected really. crazy money can do crazy things with a sidewinder. if it wasn't a player...

are you balancing your shields, weapons and power. smart use of this makes a difference ^^

 

[Asp Explorer]

Try the combat tutorials again, pay attention to systems power, switch between shields, engines and weapons as appropriate. Keep trying them all, it's a lot of fun with no risk of interruption.

 

[SuBSynk]

Firstly was this a NPC or real player?

If a real player then i assume that they adjusted the energy going to their shields to absorb much of your damage. Also its worth pointing out that you can be hitting a target but with only one of your weapons whilst they could be waiting until you are closer and hitting you with both.

Different weapons of course deal different damage, without knowing what you were using i cannot comment but if they had burst lasers and you pulse this also can make a huge difference.

Lastly they could have a better class shield generator or upgraded hull.

 

[SJT]

Regardless, I thought I'd try my hand at some combat. "Oh, there's a conflict zone over there. Let's fly over". Eventually, I did, after several attempts since Supercruise seems very "touchy" (approaching very slow and still no sign to safe disengage, using blue marker for guidance and yet still overshooting. Most likely me being a novice, but still, seems odd).

Did you target the zone first? You won't get the safe dropout unless it's you target.

Check the rating of you opponent. Even an NPC can have an upgraded ship.

Practice.

 

[Viajero]

Hmmm, it is very hard to judge what happen there exactly, but here a few tips just in case:

- If you havent got ahold of a copy of the wonderful Beta 2 (a bit outdated now) manual by Forger. So you can read the bits about ship control and combat aspects just in case you may find somehting you may not know yet etc: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=34437

- Damage seems to be affected by distance. I.e. a hit at close range makes more damage than the same hit long range. Was your opponent hitting you at a close(r) range when he came back than you did initially? that could help explain why you felt your ship went down faster.
- Different weapons and same weapon ratings do different damage. Yes, it was a sidewinder vs sidewinder but I am unsure as to what weapons or weapons ratings your opponent had.
- Ship energy management: The pips you have in Shields will affect how fast they go down. The more pips the stronger they are. It is possible that your opponent had more pips in shields than you in that confrontation, which would also explain why you perceived you went down faster.
- Speed management: a subset of the above, you mentioned that your opponent somehow got away from you and had time to recharge shields. If it is a sidey vs sidey (and unless he got a better Thruster module) you should have been able to chase him at comparable speed. Once you have your enemy has shields down and tries to get away, do not let go. Speed up and chase. To do that you need to manage your pips again. Put 4 of them in ENG to maxime energy to engines and throttle up to chase at max speed.

The balance between ENG (shieds), WEP (weapons energy and heat disipation) and SYS (shields) is delicate. That is part of the fun of dogfighting in Elite. You need to get skilled at knowing when is the best time to have the pips in the right modules.

- Maneuvering: As a general tip practice at using the 6DoF you have at your disposal. Also use the blue sweet spot at your speed hud since that wiould be the one taht d make you turn faster. Turn management will help you keep your opponent in your sights longer than he can do you.

 

[SpiritSharD]

Well, like I said I'm a complete noob at this, so a lot of the following is assumptions on my part based on what I saw. It was definitely a player though (I assume a lot of people were taking up the same combat mission).

For clarity - I was in a newly spawned Sidewinder. No upgrades or anything (new save, in fact, since my previous ship got blown up by some twit who flew into me when docking ).
I wasn't expecting to be successful at all.

- They appeared to have the same equipment as me. Their attacks were identical to mine.
- I made use of power management. My shields still went down very quickly and my attacks didn't seem to be much at all.
- I was still attacking them when they were flying away with no shields, visual cues to indicate I was hitting them, yet it didn't seem to disturb the recharge time of their shields.

 

[CaptainKremmen]

What gives? Hit detection issues? Connectivity issues? Cheats?

No, there are quite a large number of things that an experienced player will be doing during combat... and can have done to their ship before going into combat.

It's simply not realistic to expect to down other pilots after you've been flying for only a few days.

For clarity - I was in a newly spawned Sidewinder. No upgrades or anything
- They appeared to have the same equipment as me. Their attacks were identical to mine.
- I made use of power management. My shields still went down very quickly and my attacks didn't seem to be much at all.
- I was still attacking them when they were flying away with no shields, visual cues to indicate I was hitting them, yet it didn't seem to disturb the recharge time of their shields.

Your ship, then, had the cheapest shields (there are different classes), the worst reactor (again, classes), lowest spec power capacitor, etc.

Your power distribution also affects your shield strength - 4 pips to SYS bolsters your shields a lot, 0 pips is bad when under fire.


If you're shooting someone while their shields are down but recharging, no, it doesn't affect the recharge time. Back in May/June, sure... it did then... but not in the later versions.

You also had stock hull. You don't know if the other player had stock hull - they could have had expensive mirror armour, which is very good indeed at shrugging off damage from energy weapons. Or military hull, which is quite balanced against a variety of weapons.

 

[CMDR Gerakis]

Hi Spirit

Well, a player with an upgraded ship and an armor adapted to your weapons could make a difference.... Most of other beta testers could tell you what went wrong with a video but hell.. practice first and shoot wnated NPC.. then target players who's ship configuration is definitely weak to your weapon style ("appear" to have the same equipment means nothing = you need to see that for sure in the sub-systems tab).

 

[AndersonDG]

Hi Spirit. It doesn't seem unreasonable to me that as a new player you were destroyed relatively easily by someone with experience, that's just how gaming in general is. You might have better luck practicing in the Federal Distress Signal found near Eranin 4. If you sign up on the Eranin side you'll be facing off against Federal Fighters which are much weaker than Sidewinders and might help you improve quicker.

 

[Yabba Addict]

Should've been led 'First impressions of combat...I suck at it'

Seriously though the pew can be hard to learn at first, but you'll get a handle on it soon enough, just remember that npcs upgrade their ships too, if you use a starter 'winder then you're gonna be fighting an uphill battle

 

[CDR TSquared]

This is as it should be. It isn't easy. There are many factors. You just learned a lesson. Get back out there and learn more!

 

[EGH]

Are you sure it wasnt a cobra? they look awefully similar to the sidewinder (i made that mistake myself the 1st time i played)

 

[Marcns007]

First rule.
Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned