first impressions

[Speculative]

Well, I joined the Beta today.

What can I say?

I am seriously impressed. I did the first two combat bits, but I suck at the third. The best I have done is knock down that opposing sidy to 68% hull before he blows me away haha

I need more practice it took a while to set up the controls, but after 1 hour of playing, I was setup for basic operation - not sure why people think it is overly complicated!

Give me a day of practice and I will wipe the floor with mission 3! well done FD awesome game!

 

[Thargon]

Well, I joined the Beta today.

What can I say?

I am seriously impressed. I did the first two combat bits, but I suck at the third. The best I have done is knock down that opposing sidy to 68% hull before he blows me away haha

I need more practice it took a while to set up the controls, but after 1 hour of playing, I was setup for basic operation - not sure why people think it is overly complicated!

Give me a day of practice and I will wipe the floor with mission 3! well done FD awesome game!

At first, I found the third scenario hard as well, but after a while, I got used to it, and can do all scenarios (apart from clearing the last one, which I'm not sure you can beat).

The key I found is to use the throttle at 50% or less to make quick turns, you can get on their six then.

 

[ScottGust]

Well, I joined the Beta today.

What can I say?

I am seriously impressed. I did the first two combat bits, but I suck at the third. The best I have done is knock down that opposing sidy to 68% hull before he blows me away haha

I need more practice it took a while to set up the controls, but after 1 hour of playing, I was setup for basic operation - not sure why people think it is overly complicated!

Give me a day of practice and I will wipe the floor with mission 3! well done FD awesome game!

I was the same way at first thinking controls were a bit tough but after an hour or so I really came to appreciate the design...Welcome BTW! See you in the Beta come 29th !

 

[Joe Spivey]

If it is any help to anyone, I spent a worthwhile half hour or so 'playing' with the sidey in 'Your first kill'. Haven't used a joystick for a long time so I played follow my leader with him at about 200m until I was comfortable with the controls and could fly around him without thinking about what I was doing.

 

[Half Giant]

The guy in the third mission is seriously good. I have beaten him but he is going to beat me more times than the other way around. It does help to understand the how the pips work, that the blue section of throttle is the best for turning and how lateral or vertical thrusting can help with turning. I am fairly sure he doesn't like getting hit. So it seems like if you are both charging at each other blazing (jousting) if you can get a hit or two in early then he can break out of his run. So accuracy at medium range is very important. I think the difference between how the mission 3 AI works and some of the less able AIs you come across shows what a great job the dev team are doing.

 

[blacky75]

Well, I joined the Beta today.

What can I say?

I am seriously impressed. I did the first two combat bits, but I suck at the third. The best I have done is knock down that opposing sidy to 68% hull before he blows me away haha

I need more practice it took a while to set up the controls, but after 1 hour of playing, I was setup for basic operation - not sure why people think it is overly complicated!

Give me a day of practice and I will wipe the floor with mission 3! well done FD awesome game!

welcome then, commander I joined in since yesternight (didn't slept much!). Didn't do any combat yet, as I want to get used to the ship, w/o flight assistent, there it's where it gets way more immersive ^^

have fun!

 

[Speculative]

Quick question all. I am slowly getting used to the controls but I was wondering, if i pull back on the stick, and try to use vertical thrust to tighten the turn, it affects the engine power. Is this right? Or do I have the set up wrong?

If I know know what to expect I can plan for it

 

[Neillm]

welcome then, commander I joined in since yesternight (didn't slept much!). Didn't do any combat yet, as I want to get used to the ship, w/o flight assistent, there it's where it gets way more immersive ^^

have fun!

If you want to learn about flight assist off vs on, have a look at this video by Isinona. It's very informative.

I'd also recommend checking out some of his others.

 

[Jack Booted Thug]

Quick question all. I am slowly getting used to the controls but I was wondering, if i pull back on the stick, and try to use vertical thrust to tighten the turn, it affects the engine power. Is this right? Or do I have the set up wrong?

If I know know what to expect I can plan for it

More engine pips = more power = higher speed tight turns

With more pips you'll notice that optimal turn blue zone shifts to a higher speed.


Definitely use vertical thrust as it really helps with turning. Using the lateral thrusters does not impinge on total engine power but the max velocity is for any direction thus high speed lateral use will negate your forward top speed (if that makes sense).

I always use lateral thrusters when turning in combat and often I will even briefly use FA Off mode just to get that little bit of extra turn speed as it widens the turning arc as you slide away (which can be risky as it makes you temporarily easier to target).

With practice you'll learn the capability of the various ships and know how to read a situation. For example I prefer to fly an Eagle (best turning circle) and I use very different tactics depending on whether I am in combat with a Cobra, Sidewinder or Eagle, and even different tactics if fighting multiple targets.

 

[ZaphodBeeble]

Quick question all. I am slowly getting used to the controls but I was wondering, if i pull back on the stick, and try to use vertical thrust to tighten the turn, it affects the engine power. Is this right? Or do I have the set up wrong?

If I know know what to expect I can plan for it

You need to 'pulse' vertical thrust to keep the speed in the blue zone to maintain manoeuvrability. I prefer to fight with no pips in engines as it gives you really tight turns. Higher speed turns means you're turning arc is actually wider than if you were going slower. Also, Stick 4 pips in shields to keep them strong.

 

[Speculative]

Well I smashed the sidy finally (he rammed me when he had 30% hull left?!) and decided I wanted to try the game itself.

I (eventually) worked out how the UI docking worked. straight in, first time. no problems. (handling a 15,000t, 150m merchant ship every day probably helps)

Couldn't get the docking clamps to work though - subsequently found that you have to be the correct way round on the pad (180 degress out aint no good!)

So I can dock, land, set flight paths bought stock, left the station (again no problems!) left all mass lock area and then had to work out how to "align" with the destination...still working it out when I got blown to pieces, didn't see it coming, don't know who it was. good job mate, enjoy your 2 tonnes of liquor!

so my question is (apart from dodging numpties ) how do you align with the destination and make the jump?

 

[teamkill]

so my question is (apart from dodging numpties ) how do you align with the destination and make the jump?

To the top right of your scanner is a small compass, solid block means it is ahead, empty it's behind.

Lock the target and aim before hitting Jump drive or you may over heat before you get there.

 

[insanephoton]

Were you attacked or did you overheat? Your ship can get very hot while charging up for a jump. Once you selected your destination, you can use your 'compass' (the little circle to the right of your scanner) to align yourself to the target. Get the little dot to the middle (if it goes to [] you are facing away from the target). You should see a small reddish circle with the target name. Just get that roughly to the centre of your screen.

 

[teamkill]

By the way, in case you didn't already realise, the blue area on your speed indicator is the sweet spot for maneuvering.

 

[SeraphymC]

I prefer to fight with no pips in engines as it gives you really tight turns. Higher speed turns means you're turning arc is actually wider than if you were going slower. Also, Stick 4 pips in shields to keep them strong.

The problem with this method is that you will never be out of the enemies sights. Slow tight turns are great for keeping the enemy in sight, but your ability to dodge, or to stay on someone's tail where you can dish out the damage but not take it are limited to non-existent.

You need speed to control the fight.

 

[Togg]

I use vertical UP thrust if I want to stay tight on someones 6 o'clock. but some ships want space between them and the enemy, so in those cases in use vertical DOWN thrust.

it allows you to maintain ALMOST (not quite as much) as tight a turn as a vertical UP thrust, but it puts separation between the two ships. larger slower ships that have heavier shields and armor benefit more from this than lighter more fragile ships.

 

[Speculative]

Well there were lasers shooting past me so I am assuming I was under attack


If you just face in the right direction, will you jump automatically after the count down?

 

[forger]

yeaps

i never did use joystick before so i had small doubts how i will do, but after i got all controls right (like 2 minutes, because i had really good help and just copy pasted ready bindings, i have same setup the other guy has so it was as simple)

so at first it was confusing as all was new and i was doing wrong things, but i managed to gather first kill in 3rd round, 4th i lost and since then i only lost 1 (played like 50 times) and only because i run into asteroids (my preferable start is with power max to weapons and rest to system and then after first burst into enemy back i switch one pip from weapon to system, just in case)

3rd mission was a bit trickier as it requires much better movement and aiming, but i was surprised how fast you can beat it, it took me like 10-15 attempts and like 2 hours to beat it and since that i lost only once but i did play that mission almost all the time for 5-6 hours, just to get used to power management and tracking enemy that makes nice moves, here my preferred power distribution is to start with 3 pips to weapons and rest to system and after first head to head (where you should kill his shields or close to) i switch to 4 pips to system and 2 leave at weapons and never give enemy a chance to recharge his shields. 4 pips to system will give your shields a huge boost. when i fly head to head i always set speed to max, also never fly head to head in straight line, use vertical/lateral thrust or just avoid head to head as he's really good at that

just practice and search for best control scheme and you will be fine, i was surprised how much i use yaw, it is so good for fine tuning your aim and if you want to feel little more safe always set 4 pips to system so your shields will be really tough, but still - don't fly in straight lines head to head

 

[insanephoton]

Well there were lasers shooting past me so I am assuming I was under attack


If you just face in the right direction, will you jump automatically after the count down?

Yeah, if you're facing the right way it will jump once the countdown hits zero. You WILL notice when you jump. Once in hyperspace either throttle down or be ready to make a sharp turn because you will arrive fairly close to the star you were pointing at and things could get very hot very quickly.

 

[ZaphodBeeble]

The problem with this method is that you will never be out of the enemies sights. Slow tight turns are great for keeping the enemy in sight, but your ability to dodge, or to stay on someone's tail where you can dish out the damage but not take it are limited to non-existent.

You need speed to control the fight.

Strange how I don't die in PvP then. ;-)

If you're trying to get on someone's tail you won't do it by increasing the turning arc. That makes no sense. You need to tighten your turn.