Engineers Getting Elite rank in combat to unlock Petra Olmanova

[Noonien Soong]

Hi Folks

I equipped the Anaconda for battle with hull reinforcements, shield boosters and multi cannons and headed to wolf 363 to an extractions site to scan for ships with wanted status and no team. I got a couple of bounties and unlocked Tod the Blaster and upgraded him to grade 3.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MmYESoW4Bs


I recorded a small session I had this morning before work how I encoutered Bob Ross !and shot him down. Later this evening I got one or two bounties at a resource extraction stie and then decided to take on a team of two and they attacked me. My hull got to 23% when I jumped away. I'm still mostly harmless in combat now.

In this pace Im going to be expert in combat in over a month. Maybe there's some advice to help me?

 

[oblivionmanman 2476]

yes dont forget to collect mats for engineering,a rank is only cosmetic so be aware it doesnt make you a better pilot.have fun

 

[Noonien Soong]

I need the rank to unlock Petra Olmanova. I plan to travel to colonia.

 

[AlSki]

As you rank up, so does what you need to move the needle. i.e. When you were Harmless, killing a Mostly Harmless pilot is a valid kill to count. When you get to Competent it doesn't.
So you will find that you need to move out of the Res sites and tackle alternate foes. Combat zones have lots of Competent, Dangerous and Deadly ships to help. Elite Pirate Lord missions help too.

 

[Noonien Soong]

I need to collect combat bonds for Juri Ishmaak and got my anaconda into a combat zone once and it blew up and i had to pay 46 milions for rebuy.

Soon I wil put some videos of me in a res site on youtube and link it here.

 

[Lhorndra]

I need the rank to unlock Petra Olmanova. I plan to travel to colonia.

The advice to collect materials was sound, though. Collecting them casually along the way while doing what you're doing is way more fun than grinding them later on. Let collector limpets do it for you. Without enough materials, just unlocking Petra Olmanova isn't that helpful.

Ever thought about killing Thargoids?

 

[Ian Doncaster]

We have pirates in Colonia too, so it's not too much of a problem if you don't get the rank before you come out here.


As far as advice goes: if you're new to combat, don't fly an Anaconda: the Krait II has a substantial fraction of the firepower, is considerably faster and more agile so you've more chance of pointing it in the right direction to hit targets with that firepower (and you can usually just boost out of trouble), is a much smaller target so you won't get hit quite as much in return, and if you do mess up and lose it you're paying 4.6 million rather than 46 million in rebuy.

Hanging around a High RES like you were is a good place to get started - relatively high-ranked opponents so you gain at least the early ranks quickly ... but you get the police ships helping you out so you don't have to do all the damage yourself.

Once you get the hang of things, Expert rank will come pretty quickly.

 

[Noonien Soong]

I installed this limpet controller and 64 ton cargo bay for limpets and I try to collect materials as I go along. Sometimes I even get a material. But if I need manufacured materials I can just go to Davs Hope and a material trader. One of my goals in the game is to unlock as many engineers as I can and get them to grade 5 so now I need combat rank.

I got 5 engineers to grade 5, felicity farseer, elvira martuuk, chloe sedesi, professor palin and marco qwent.

 

[AlSki]

I installed this limpet controller and 64 ton cargo bay for limpets and I try to collect materials as I go along. Sometimes I even get a material. But if I need manufacured materials I can just go to Davs Hope and a material trader. One of my goals in the game is to unlock as many engineers as I can and get them to grade 5 so now I need combat rank.

I got 5 engineers to grade 5, felicity farseer, elvira martuuk, chloe sedesi, professor palin and marco qwent.

I seem to remember that getting engineers to Grade 5 is less important than unlocking engineers.
Once you start trying out different builds, the grades come automatically just from engineering, I think it was something 5x Grade 4 upgrades to unlock Grade 5 (someone correct if wrong please).
However, there is no need to rush through this. If you do, you just burnout faster, e.g. "I have a Grade 5 fully engineered Anaconda, now what?"

 

[metatheurgist]

You need some lasers as well as MCs. Full build of your ship would be useful.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Once you start trying out different builds, the grades come automatically just from engineering, I think it was something 5x Grade 4 upgrades to unlock Grade 5 (someone correct if wrong please).

Just 3x at grade X to unlock grade X+1
But because of the way engineer reputation works, you're likely to get them to reputation 5 slightly quicker than 3x at grade 4. If you start off by asking them to engineer up a fresh module you'll generally maximise reputation on the second G4 roll.

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

I would echo what Ian said, the Anaconda is probably a bad choice to get into combat, more so if it isn't engineered. It would help if you could mirror your build in EDSY so we can take a look at it. But unless it has G5 drives, NPCs are probably flying circles around you. A few other random points in no particular order:

You choice of weapon layout is probably suboptimal, too. Unless you have a couple of those MCs engineered for incendiary, you're probably working on the NPC's shields longer than you should. The general rule is: Thermal weapons for shields, kinetic weapons for hull.

I did my early combat stints in a Chieftain; it's very nimble and has a good hardpoint layout, and can be somewhat tanky, if a little weak on the shield side. The Krait II is also very good, as it is very tanky, has a huge distributor even unengineered, and three large hardpoints do a lot of damage.

A Krait does a lot of damage with three large MCs and two medium lasers; I prefer beams, and an engineered Krait distro can handle that, unengineered I would probably fit pulse lasers.

Some say the Vulture is a must for the up and coming combat pilot, because it teaches you how to glue yourself to the behind of other ships. The drawback is it has only two hardpoints (although two large do a lot of damage) and it's pretty power starved. But it's a fun ship to fly.

The best way to build a combat vessel depends on the engineering and materials you have available; maybe elaborate on that. Personally, I prefer hybrid tanking with very strong hull and at least two MRPs, preferrably three, and the largest quickest bi-weave I can fit. Never skimp on MRPs, more so on ships with fragile or exposed canopies. I usually fit one MRP in the largest slot I can fit one in, and one or two in the smallest slots to get the resistance up. Never put our largest MRP in a military slot.

Remember that rebooting is your friend. Unless you start a fight or have cargo, you are not getting attacked in a RES site; so when you're done with a fight and your shields are low or down, come to a standstill and reboot your ship. This will restore your shields to 50%. I think it doesn't restore the shields when you're moving faster than a certain threshold, but I can't remember the number.

When dogfighting, you need to anticipate your opponent's movements and try to preturn into their maneuvers, more so if your opponent is more nimble than you, like when you're in an Anaconda. In general you want to try to be glued to the back of your enemy, but that doesn't always work. Also keep in mind that a lot of NPC builds use turrets, so they can shoot at you at very odd angles.

And last but not least: Your rank progression is tied to the rank of the enemy. The higher your opponent's rank, the more rank progression a kill gets you. On this wiki page is a handy table that gives you the factors of XP gain for different NPC ranks. I am pretty sure you get no progression if you kill an NPC of lower rank, I don't know why those were all changed to "?" in the wiki (the wiki can be bogus sometimes).

Hope this helps.

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

Another thing I noticed in your video is that you're flying pretty much with static 2-2-2 pips until the end where your WEP capacitor is drained. Don't do that. Get into the habit of adjusting your PIPs. All. The. Time. Put them into ENG when you need to turn. Put them into SYS when you're attacked; your shield is 2.3 times stronger with 4 PIPs in SYS. Recharge your WEP when you're not attacked and don't need the turn speed. That sort of thing. Also be aware that, apart from weapons not firing, your weapons will produce significantly more heat when your WEP is low.

PIP management is an important skill to have. Use the PIPs to your advantage.

 

[Noonien Soong]

I entered the Anaconda in EDSY. I like the point and click style of play with the anaconda.

EDSY

EDSY is a ship outfitting tool for Elite Dangerous

edsy.org

I also have a Vulture but I allways have power problems with it and I'm not good at that type of battle that you stick on someone's back.

I made screenshots of the engineers I got available:

 

[Miscellaneous]

Poor deadly bob ross. Yeah, get 'em CMDR Dr. Soong! Now, isn't that a happy little mushroom cloud?

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

EDSY is a great tool to plan your build. You can identify issues before wasting engineering materials. Tip: Instead of sharing gigantic links, click on "OPS>Export" and generate a short link.

Some details in your Anaconda that caught my eye:

• don't waste your money and, more importantly, your mobility on 5E Hull Reinforcements. They are, in the grand scheme, not much cheaper than the 5D, but have less hull boost and twice the mass. Always go with D unless you're really, really strapped for cash. But then you should not fly a Conda .
• Your MCs are mostly unengineered. Overcharged is always my choice, but more important are the experimentals. Have corrosive on one of the smallest ones; don't waste materials on a second one, corrosive does not stack. Corrosive shell gives a damage boost as well as a boost to armor piercing, which makes shredding the NPC's hull so much easier.
• Put incendiary experimental on a few of them. I'd probably put it on two large ones and put them on the secondary fire group. You only need to G1 them to be able to put an experimental on them. In general, you need a weapon that strips your opponent's shields fast, and that usually means thermal weapons. If you want to stay on all MC, a few incendiary are a must.
• on the topic of engineering: Don't assume you have to G5 everything. G3 gets you very far in NPC combat and is much less expensive. If you go to G5, don't waste materials on filling all the circles. The increase to fully G5 a module is often miniscule compared to the material cost. My rule of thumb is: Look how far 4 rolls get me, never roll more than 8.
• ditch the docking computer and learn to dock the Conda manually . Use the small slot for another MRP, which will up your module protection to 84%. On that note, as long as you don't really need the empty C5 slot for something else, swap the 4D MRP to a 5D. The idea behind that is that you have one MRP as large as possible to soak up the damage, and one or more smaller ones to raise the protection.
• Don't put in a 5B life support. B modules are the heaviest, and in case of the life support, it's hardly worth it. I usually fit a D class life support, the 7.5 minutes are usually plenty enough to return to a port or carrier to repair in case you canopy blows. Which it eventually will with just one MRP.
• In the majority of cases you want charge enhanced / super conduits on your power distro. There are only a few edge cases where you need engine focused (speedboats with undersized distros) or system focused.

I know that's a lot now, don't get discouraged. We all had to learn that stuff at one point .

 

[metatheurgist]

Get some lasers
Switch the Sensors and Life Support to D
You don't need the Frameshift Wake Scanner
You don't need the Kill Warrant Scanner either but if you insist on one go with C
The heat sink launcher is surplus to requirements, unless you are overheating regularly
Switch the 5E reinforcement to 5D
You could stick in a guardian shield booster if you have spare power
Biweave is better than a normal shield for PvE if you can get some breaks from getting hit

 

[Noonien Soong]

I engineered the multi cannons as far as I could and went to Jameson Memorial to make some changes in outfitting:

EDSY

EDSY is a ship outfitting tool for Elite Dangerous

edsy.org

 

[HaLfY]

Hi Folks

I equipped the Anaconda for battle with hull reinforcements, shield boosters and multi cannons and headed to wolf 363 to an extractions site to scan for ships with wanted status and no team. I got a couple of bounties and unlocked Tod the Blaster and upgraded him to grade 3.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MmYESoW4Bs


I recorded a small session I had this morning before work how I encoutered Bob Ross !and shot him down. Later this evening I got one or two bounties at a resource extraction stie and then decided to take on a team of two and they attacked me. My hull got to 23% when I jumped away. I'm still mostly harmless in combat now.

In this pace Im going to be expert in combat in over a month. Maybe there's some advice to help me?

Do you have Odyssey? If so, head to settlements (the higher the security, the better; even more bonus points if it's a military one) and kill everyone. I'd suggest you to just do Odyssey missions, but kill everyone in addition to completing the objectives.
You'll see how that combat rank goes up.

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

Okay, just quick and dirty, here is how I would modify your Anaconda, if you want to stick with it. It involves some engineering, but not too much. Key points:

• The hardpoint placement on the conda is a bit awkward in the sense that you have to tip the ship up and down depending on which weapons you want to fire. I would convert the two top large MCs to incendiary, and put two pulse lasers in the mediums to their assistance. Those four go on your secondary fire, I would also put the KWS there. You will need to tip up a bit for kinetic damage, and tip down a bit for thermal damage.
• You would have to engineer two MCs to G1 with incendiary, which converts 90% of the damage to thermal.
• I would swap the shields for bi-weaves, accompanied by three boosters. Your shield engineering will be the heaviest you have to do, if your materials allow it; I would do G3 reinforced with fast charge on the generator, two G3 heavy duty / super capacitor boosters, and one thermal booster with thermo block to plug the thermal resistance hole you have in the shields.
• If you don't already, make sure your power priorities are set properly. With such a large power reserve it matters little, but on ships like the vulture, which you noted has power problems, turning off modules you don't need in combat will be vital. The power priorities will take care of that for you.

That Conda is more tanky, has more shields and is more agile than your first link. I didn't have time to look at your modifications yet.

That said, let me reiterate that learning combat in an Anaconda is a very bad idea in my opinion. Apart from the awkward hardpoint distribution, a large ship will make you lazy and teach you the wrong things. Or the NPCs will just keep flying circles around you and eventually kill you.