Had a real tense moment, like in a movie.

Cmdr Roma · May 8, 2015

Hi Guys

Had a real tense moment today, it's happened a couple of times in my Cobra actually, I was interdicted and I'd just had a good session at a Nav Beacon where I'd managed to collect 500,000 in bounties. All NPC stuff, I am in the Mobius group. I was fairly confident so I submitted, however this was a toughie! It was an Asp and before I'd even got him targeted my shields were gone, I managed to get some shots off at him and got his shields down but just as I was thinking I'd got him suddenly my canopy was breached. Luckily I had just recently upgraded to the A class Life Support so I had 25 mins to get to a station. I targeted the nearest outpost and did a runner. I managed to get docked and breathed a sigh of relief. Then I realised I could refuel but no repair facility! What are the odds! So I checked the system map and there were two outposts in this system and neither had a repair facility! Not my day. Anyway I launched again and set off jumped to a nearby system and the countdown was on! My life support was draining and I had a race against time to get to a station.. Anyway, I made it thankfully I wasn't interdicted again. My ship is repaired and I can carry on with what was an exploration trip. It's never happened before to me and I asked my friend who has been playing a lot longer than me and he's never had a canopy breached but I've had it happen twice now in my Cobra. The first time there was nothing I could do I only had the basic life support and didn't back to a station on time.

sam445 · May 8, 2015

The tense situation when you have your canopy breached is incredible. You are lucky to have upgraded your life suport to A, I never upgrade it past D. Had it been me I might have died there.

Hexodus · May 8, 2015

Yeah, life support is one of the first things I upgrade. It's a cheap and a valuable upgrade when needed.

Safe journeys!

Cmdr Roma · May 8, 2015

I was really pleased I had the 25 minutes

I had to laugh when I realised I was in a system without a single repair station. I guess it would have been OK I had the money to rebuy if I had of died. But I don't like losing credits. I could use them to buy shoes. Wait, no shoes in Elite Dangerous ;-)

Midian27 · May 8, 2015

Yeah that rails asp load out can pack a punch. Seen it a couple times myself.

Rux · May 8, 2015

Moments like these are awesome! Had similar thing happen in my cobra also. Interdicted, broken canopy, ran for it. Only class D Life Support though. Was a tense 10 min ended up running out Just inside the no fire zone of a Coriolis station. Sucked to lose the insurance money but worth the tenseness of the situation!

msyblade · May 8, 2015

My vulture can't handle the power drain of a beefed up life support module, so I just carry an unopened bag of chips in the cockpit.
It looks like there's enough air in there to last an hour.

KillingTime · May 8, 2015

I filled mine with party balloons... it wasn't until after that I realised it was helium!

EAGLE 5 · May 9, 2015

Normally Asps are usually creampuffs but when one is loaded and with a good pilot man...

I just turned mine from the Explorer that it was into a combat ready Mk.II (I wish..) with dual C2 beams and 4 C1 cannons... small ships disappear within seconds.

JeffRyan · May 9, 2015

Yeah the first time I jumped with a breached canopy I was like 'I am in witchspace! Me! Not my ship!'

It was awesome.

Ancipital · May 9, 2015

msyblade said:
My vulture can't handle the power drain of a beefed up life support module, so I just carry an unopened bag of chips in the cockpit.
It looks like there's enough air in there to last an hour.

Assuming you mean "chips" in the American sense, which we call "crisps"- they tend to fill the bags with nitrogen to stop the contents from going soggy as fast. You might want to rely on another snack food

Pendra · May 9, 2015

If a single AI in a smallish ship almost got you, don't try PVP. You are better off in the junior league.

EAGLE 5 · May 9, 2015

Ancipital said:
Assuming you mean "chips" in the American sense, which we call "crisps"- they tend to fill the bags with nitrogen to stop the contents from going soggy as fast. You might want to rely on another snack food

Leave one in the back of your car for that super awesome insurance fraud they'll never suspect arson... wait wrong thread.

Greyhawk · May 9, 2015

Got my Asp with 2 F2 Gimballed beam lasers and 4 x B1 Missile rails. I suck at combat so I need to kill any threat fast and a hail of missiles usually does the job since I cant actually aim to save my life!

Zenny · May 9, 2015

Ah, so there are more fellow ASP flyboys than I first thought.
I am still experimenting with the perfect ASP loadout, but currently I use 2x Size 2 Beams and 4x Size Autocannons. Sometimes I exchange the Autocannons with Railguns and then I use only two of them at a time and change to the other two when I shot the first ones empty. I might also try a 2x Railgun/2x Missile Rail together with the Beams or something else.

Back to topic: I had a similar situation while I was fighting in Quivira. I was trying to destroy an anaconda when all of a sudden something broke my shields AND my canopy (I think it was an enemy ASP with its railguns). I saw that I had only oxygen left for 7:30 minutes, but I really wanted to destroy the anaconda since it had only 20% hull or so left, but I couldn't properly hit it because together with the canopy most elements of the hud were gone, too (Kudos to Frontier Developments for this great feature). After a few minutes I decided to leave my pray barely alive and hurried back to the nearest station. Flying there with the Friendship-drive was a bit harder than expected because of the aforementioned missing hud. Still, I managed to land with a bit over a minute of oxygen left and repaired my ship.

Ancipital · May 9, 2015

Zenny said:
Ah, so there are more fellow ASP flyboys than I first thought.
I am still experimenting with the perfect ASP loadout, but currently I use 2x Size 2 Beams and 4x Size Autocannons. Sometimes I exchange the Autocannons with Railguns and then I use only two of them at a time and change to the other two when I shot the first ones empty. I might also try a 2x Railgun/2x Missile Rail together with the Beams or something else.

It still counts as lipstick on a pig. While the Asp is multirole, combat is its weakest aspect by far. If you're starting to get heavily into combat, there are far better choices- which cost less to fit for combat, have better and better placed hardpoints and stronger shields. Having a profile resembling an oversized pancake and a really easy to hit powerplant are distinct disadvantages, too.

Guidebot · May 9, 2015

I'll never forget my first death in my Viper, I tracked down an assassination contract and it was an Anconda. He destroyed me almost instantly with massive laser fire, and I remember before I died the canopy smashed and lasers were literally hitting me through the shattered canopy of my exploding wreck.

Then everything went black, and I woke up in the last station I visited... weird.

Petersen · May 9, 2015

I don't really get too bothered by a blown canopy. I have, however, come within 10% of my hull falling apart, though. Those were some pretty intense "RUN AWAYYYY!!!!" moments. Throw 4 in engines and 2 in shields, and hit boost on cooldown, and pray you juke the right ways until your friendship drive launched you off into the black.

yul7896 · May 9, 2015

Before 1.2, the Cobra's canopy breached even easier, I think. I briefly had one, and the canopy popped 3x in a row, in CZ and once while at 100% hull.

Cmdr Roma · May 9, 2015

Pendra said:
If a single AI in a smallish ship almost got you, don't try PVP. You are better off in the junior league.

Love these kind of comments! How do you know how good or bad I am at the game? Every now and then you come across either a top NPC, this was in a heavily loaded Asp and was Elite. I had got his shields down and had turned the tables when my canopy blew out. Also, pve is better because the NPC's don't cheat! Any good game needs powerful NPC's now and then and this guy was. Also an Asp is a medium ship not a small one and as others have mentioned it can be a good combat ship. My friend has one and he swaps the load out, the load out he has now is for exploration but he has had it laid out in a way which makes it what he describes as a "Flying Weapon"

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Petersen said:
I don't really get too bothered by a blown canopy. I have, however, come within 10% of my hull falling apart, though. Those were some pretty intense "RUN AWAYYYY!!!!" moments. Throw 4 in engines and 2 in shields, and hit boost on cooldown, and pray you juke the right ways until your friendship drive launched you off into the black.

I had to dock once with no shields and a 1% hull. That was a very careful dock I can tell you ;-)