So, we get a thread, weekly almost in how CMDRs shoot innocent ships, and then get killed by security for said crime.
Some people think that it's bad game design.
It is not. The mechanic is there to protect innocent ships from assault, and it clearly works as intended, because they assaulted someone, and paid the price.
Don't try to change it, just embrace it, and learn to flee!
The Definitive Guide To Running Away
Before You Even Begin.
Well, the best thing to do really, is not shoot innocent ships.
But before you even begin fighting, or even undock, make sure your ship ready, and always have an escape plan.
What do i mean by "Make sure your ship is ready?"
Priority Power Management.
It's on your modules tab, on the right side panel.
Here it shows your current power usage and maximum power output of your power plant. Try to avoid exceeding this!
Next to nearly all modules listed, are a few single numbers, these are your power priorities, if you've not touched anything, your ship will have assigned the modules the single most ridiculous setting possible, which usually means if you lose some power, everything shuts down!
So, you need to set your most important modules, your thrusters, frameshift drive, sensors, power distributor and life support, to Priority 1. (You need most of these to perform a jump).
This means, in the event of power failure, those will be the last to turn off.
Priority 2 can be for shields, and defences, like point defence, chaff, or ECM.
Priority 3 I personally use for weapons.
Priority 4 is for shield boosters, and fighter bays usually. Boosters are no user once your shields are down, and if you're taking power plant damage, screw the fighter!
And priority 5, the first things to go offline, i reserve for non combat modules, such as scanners, SRV bay, limpets, etc.
You may do things differently, but this is what i use to guarantee, I never lose important systems while trying to escape.
Do a few tests, undock, and deploy hardpoints, if you end up drifting because your engines went offline, you did it wrong.
Remember. Power priorities RESET to 1, if you modify or replace a module.
Check your systems regularly.
With this done, you can move on to..
The Escape Plan!
This one is simple, assuming you're hunting in a Resource Extraction Site (RES), you'll need a good system to hyperspace too (also known as a "high wake"), should things go pear shaped.
The choice is simple, pick a system from your navigation panel, that's not obscured, or close to being obscured, by the planet you're orbiting!
Make sure it points to deep space, not near any other planets either, also pick one that's fairly close to the "horizon" of the ring, that way, you won't boost out of the "top" of the ring, to find your escape route is on the "bottom".
If you're at a nav beacon, just make sure your escape route isn't blocked by the star.
With those bits out of the way, you should hopefully know the pew pew part of bounty hunting. If not, there's a guide somewhere.
So let's skip ahead to when it all goes wrong... Friendly Fire!
Well, actually, let's rewind slightly.
Friendly Fire is when you shoot either security, or an unscanned, or clean ship.
In the heat of battle, it's easy to get trigger happy, and gun down everything in your path.
Unfortunately, security don't like this, and will kill you for it.
Instead, take your time, scan your targets, and double check they're wanted.
Federal Dropships, Asp, Pythons, and many other ships, are not always pirates!
Let the scan complete, every single time.
It's also entirely possible for said ships to decide to fly in between your and your target.
Especially Security. They're excellent at getting in the way, and killing your for it.
A few stray shots usually won't bother them, and you'll be warned via comms.
Having good reputation with the security will help even more.
However, stray shots from high powered weapons, such as Railguns, Plasma Accelerators, Cannons, and Missiles usually WILL gain you an Assault Bounty.
If you target, and shoot a security or clean ship, this will automatically cause an Assault Bounty. Do not do this!
The trick is, amongst all the chaos, is to watch the scanner with your third eye! It's an invaluable tool.
Zoom in to maybe the second or third closest setting.
It helps even more to become friendly with the locals, so they show up as green.
Watch your scanner, and check for anything moving in to your forward cone.
If in doubt, let go of the trigger! It's that simple.
That's trigger discipline. Another valuable tool.
To recap, take your time, scan your targets, double check your target, check the surrounding area, and whatever might be behind them is clear, then open fire.
Slow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast
Remember That. It's from.. Something.!
Anyway, this guide is about escaping.
Let's get to it!
So, a stray shot lands on Security, and they didn't like it. The whole scanner turns red, and you're neck deep in an asteroid belt.
What now?
First things First
Retract your weapons!
Last thing you want, is a stray turret murdering one of the now hostile police that are chasing you. By retracting your hardpoints, you're preventing your ship maintaining the agro that causes the assault. If anyone else is also firing on them, they'll be more likely to turn back and retaliate, taking the heat off your ship.
DO NOT TRY TO FINISH OFF YOUR TARGET.
Second thing is, put 4 pips to Systems. That's right, not engines, Shields!
It'll give you 40% resistance to damage.
Then put 2 pips to engines. This is the 4/2/0 pip arrangement. 4 to systems, 2 to engines, 0 to weapons.
However, if your shields drop, set it immediately to 2/4/0, as your sheikds will not recharge before you make the jump even with 4 pips, so speed is more important now.
Some ships work better if you use 2/4/0 pip arrangement. It's a bit trial and error, and this just a simple guide.
The general rule is, if you can outrun your attackers, put 4 pips to engines, if you can not, but 4 pips to shields.
If you read my previous section about escape plans, you'll have a system selected to jump too.
Boost out of the ring, as fast as you can, drop chaffs, fire off SCBs, or whatever to keep the damage reaching your hull, specifically, your main modules!
Use lateral thrusts to throw off gimballed and turret weapons. Do not just fly straight, even dumbfires missiles will hit you if you do!
Once you hear the "beep" of the masslock dropping, charge your FSD for Hyperspace.
Do not assume you're safe, because your FSD is charging, keep your defenses running, keep boosting, and keep using lateral thrusts. Once your FSD is charged, point to your escape system, and boost once more to quickly align with it.
Engage!
If it all went well, you jumped to safety.
Now just find something to do until your bounty expired, if it's an Assault Bounty, it'll be a few minutes. I use this time to dock somewhere, repair and rearm.
Once the bounty says "On H-Jump", you can return to the system, and no one will care.
Feel free to dock and pay off the fine, but it's not important.
Do's And Don'ts
DO Set your power priorities correctly.
DO test said power priorities before combat.
DO set up an escape system, before combat.
DO scan your targets before shooting.
DO watch your scanner.
DO check your surroundings.
DO check
DON'T try to finish off your target when wanted.
DO retract hardpoints when escaping.
DO use everything at your disposal to reduce damage.
DON'T boost in a straight line.
DO use 4/2/0 pip arrangement, unless shields are down.
And above all, have fun.
CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
Some people think that it's bad game design.
It is not. The mechanic is there to protect innocent ships from assault, and it clearly works as intended, because they assaulted someone, and paid the price.
Don't try to change it, just embrace it, and learn to flee!
The Definitive Guide To Running Away
Before You Even Begin.
Well, the best thing to do really, is not shoot innocent ships.
But before you even begin fighting, or even undock, make sure your ship ready, and always have an escape plan.
What do i mean by "Make sure your ship is ready?"
Priority Power Management.
It's on your modules tab, on the right side panel.
Here it shows your current power usage and maximum power output of your power plant. Try to avoid exceeding this!
Next to nearly all modules listed, are a few single numbers, these are your power priorities, if you've not touched anything, your ship will have assigned the modules the single most ridiculous setting possible, which usually means if you lose some power, everything shuts down!
So, you need to set your most important modules, your thrusters, frameshift drive, sensors, power distributor and life support, to Priority 1. (You need most of these to perform a jump).
This means, in the event of power failure, those will be the last to turn off.
Priority 2 can be for shields, and defences, like point defence, chaff, or ECM.
Priority 3 I personally use for weapons.
Priority 4 is for shield boosters, and fighter bays usually. Boosters are no user once your shields are down, and if you're taking power plant damage, screw the fighter!
And priority 5, the first things to go offline, i reserve for non combat modules, such as scanners, SRV bay, limpets, etc.
You may do things differently, but this is what i use to guarantee, I never lose important systems while trying to escape.
Do a few tests, undock, and deploy hardpoints, if you end up drifting because your engines went offline, you did it wrong.
Remember. Power priorities RESET to 1, if you modify or replace a module.
Check your systems regularly.
With this done, you can move on to..
The Escape Plan!
This one is simple, assuming you're hunting in a Resource Extraction Site (RES), you'll need a good system to hyperspace too (also known as a "high wake"), should things go pear shaped.
The choice is simple, pick a system from your navigation panel, that's not obscured, or close to being obscured, by the planet you're orbiting!
Make sure it points to deep space, not near any other planets either, also pick one that's fairly close to the "horizon" of the ring, that way, you won't boost out of the "top" of the ring, to find your escape route is on the "bottom".
If you're at a nav beacon, just make sure your escape route isn't blocked by the star.
With those bits out of the way, you should hopefully know the pew pew part of bounty hunting. If not, there's a guide somewhere.
So let's skip ahead to when it all goes wrong... Friendly Fire!
Well, actually, let's rewind slightly.
Friendly Fire is when you shoot either security, or an unscanned, or clean ship.
In the heat of battle, it's easy to get trigger happy, and gun down everything in your path.
Unfortunately, security don't like this, and will kill you for it.
Instead, take your time, scan your targets, and double check they're wanted.
Federal Dropships, Asp, Pythons, and many other ships, are not always pirates!
Let the scan complete, every single time.
It's also entirely possible for said ships to decide to fly in between your and your target.
Especially Security. They're excellent at getting in the way, and killing your for it.
A few stray shots usually won't bother them, and you'll be warned via comms.
Having good reputation with the security will help even more.
However, stray shots from high powered weapons, such as Railguns, Plasma Accelerators, Cannons, and Missiles usually WILL gain you an Assault Bounty.
If you target, and shoot a security or clean ship, this will automatically cause an Assault Bounty. Do not do this!
The trick is, amongst all the chaos, is to watch the scanner with your third eye! It's an invaluable tool.
Zoom in to maybe the second or third closest setting.
It helps even more to become friendly with the locals, so they show up as green.
Watch your scanner, and check for anything moving in to your forward cone.
If in doubt, let go of the trigger! It's that simple.
That's trigger discipline. Another valuable tool.
To recap, take your time, scan your targets, double check your target, check the surrounding area, and whatever might be behind them is clear, then open fire.
Slow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast
Remember That. It's from.. Something.!
Anyway, this guide is about escaping.
Let's get to it!
So, a stray shot lands on Security, and they didn't like it. The whole scanner turns red, and you're neck deep in an asteroid belt.
What now?
First things First
Retract your weapons!
Last thing you want, is a stray turret murdering one of the now hostile police that are chasing you. By retracting your hardpoints, you're preventing your ship maintaining the agro that causes the assault. If anyone else is also firing on them, they'll be more likely to turn back and retaliate, taking the heat off your ship.
DO NOT TRY TO FINISH OFF YOUR TARGET.
Second thing is, put 4 pips to Systems. That's right, not engines, Shields!
It'll give you 40% resistance to damage.
Then put 2 pips to engines. This is the 4/2/0 pip arrangement. 4 to systems, 2 to engines, 0 to weapons.
However, if your shields drop, set it immediately to 2/4/0, as your sheikds will not recharge before you make the jump even with 4 pips, so speed is more important now.
Some ships work better if you use 2/4/0 pip arrangement. It's a bit trial and error, and this just a simple guide.
The general rule is, if you can outrun your attackers, put 4 pips to engines, if you can not, but 4 pips to shields.
If you read my previous section about escape plans, you'll have a system selected to jump too.
Boost out of the ring, as fast as you can, drop chaffs, fire off SCBs, or whatever to keep the damage reaching your hull, specifically, your main modules!
Use lateral thrusts to throw off gimballed and turret weapons. Do not just fly straight, even dumbfires missiles will hit you if you do!
Once you hear the "beep" of the masslock dropping, charge your FSD for Hyperspace.
Do not assume you're safe, because your FSD is charging, keep your defenses running, keep boosting, and keep using lateral thrusts. Once your FSD is charged, point to your escape system, and boost once more to quickly align with it.
Engage!
If it all went well, you jumped to safety.
Now just find something to do until your bounty expired, if it's an Assault Bounty, it'll be a few minutes. I use this time to dock somewhere, repair and rearm.
Once the bounty says "On H-Jump", you can return to the system, and no one will care.
Feel free to dock and pay off the fine, but it's not important.
Do's And Don'ts
DO Set your power priorities correctly.
DO test said power priorities before combat.
DO set up an escape system, before combat.
DO scan your targets before shooting.
DO watch your scanner.
DO check your surroundings.
DO check
DON'T try to finish off your target when wanted.
DO retract hardpoints when escaping.
DO use everything at your disposal to reduce damage.
DON'T boost in a straight line.
DO use 4/2/0 pip arrangement, unless shields are down.
And above all, have fun.
CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
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