Newcomer / Intro Help needed in getting out of tutorial

[PaperHero]

I can't seem to win in the tutorial advanced combat after about 6 hours of trying. Whenever I engage in combat, the 2 enemy ships quickly get behind me and stay there. After maybe a minute of rolling, pitching, and yawing I may get them in front of me for 2 seconds, which is not enough time to do much damage. The only way I found to consistently get them in front of me was this: After they fly by me I would go to full power and fly straight for about 30 seconds. Then I would cut power to the blue area, just use pitch to turn around and fly at them. Doing this at least got them in front of me for a short time. The problem with this method is I am only damaging their shields, and the next time I encounter them their shields are recharged. What am I doing wrong?

I use custom controls. I have my trackball set up to do pitch and yaw, and my logtech gamepad F310 controller to do roll. I am left handed and run the mouse with my left hand. I set it up this way for this seemed the only way to win in basic combat. With the mouse set up with pitch and roll I found I was rolling to much. I think this game needs difficulty settings. I have spent several days now just in the tutorial. Setting up the custom controls was very difficult for me (so I could use both my trackball and controller), and I think it is overly complex, and I probably missing out on how to best set it up.

This looks like a nice game. I would like to focus my game mostly on exploring, mining, and trading for the combat looks tedious and unfun.

 

[YoBuck]

Try playing with flight assist off. By that I mean turn with assist off to face or catch up to his turn speed.

 

[paul1828]

I can't seem to win in the tutorial advanced combat after about 6 hours of trying. Whenever I engage in combat, the 2 enemy ships quickly get behind me and stay there. After maybe a minute of rolling, pitching, and yawing I may get them in front of me for 2 seconds, which is not enough time to do much damage. The only way I found to consistently get them in front of me was this: After they fly by me I would go to full power and fly straight for about 30 seconds. Then I would cut power to the blue area, just use pitch to turn around and fly at them. Doing this at least got them in front of me for a short time. The problem with this method is I am only damaging their shields, and the next time I encounter them their shields are recharged. What am I doing wrong?

I use custom controls. I have my trackball set up to do pitch and yaw, and my logtech gamepad F310 controller to do roll. I am left handed and run the mouse with my left hand. I set it up this way for this seemed the only way to win in basic combat. With the mouse set up with pitch and roll I found I was rolling to much. I think this game needs difficulty settings. I have spent several days now just in the tutorial. Setting up the custom controls was very difficult for me (so I could use both my trackball and controller), and I think it is overly complex, and I probably missing out on how to best set it up.

This looks like a nice game. I would like to focus my game mostly on exploring, mining, and trading for the combat looks tedious and unfun.

4 pips to engines.... put it in reverse and boost back 2 or 3 times.... i also use up and down thrust as req.... this usually gets me up behind.... or hard left or right stick with boost and then pull up keeping in the blue for best turn rate...... not sure about track balls etc tho....

 

[bazza926]

Hi

I had a few goes at this tutorial too and didn't get very far. You don't really need to complete it and I would advise just packing in and start enjoying the game. I was concerned at first that I would struggle in combat if this was the level of competition but I can assure you that the majority of computer controlled enemies (NPCs) are at a much lower level. If you read through some of the other posts on this Newcomers section you wil learn that you can take a out quite a few NPCs in your free Sidewinder. As long as you avoid the assassination missions on the bulletin boards I think you should be ok.

On a side note, when you do start playing, if you play in open move away from your starter system or you will come across some real players who sometimes aren't very nice.

Just make sure you have a go at the non combat tutorials so you can get the basics of flight, supercruise and docking correct.

See you out there.

 

[takesix]

Power management helps

Remember to keep adjusting you power settings for Shields - defense, Engines - maneuvering, weapons - attacking.

 

[Dirkki]

You don't really need to beat the tutorials. Just do them to get used to the controls and after that jump into the actual game.

 

[krysohmyz]

Dirkki's right. You can as well learn as you go. Main thing is to understand traveling and basic ship operations, the rest can be learned later.

And if it'll make you happier, I've got thousands of kills in my bounty hunter carrier, hundreds of Elite opponents defeated, yet I NEVER won that one tutorial. For a long time I even thought it's unbeatable on purpose.
You know, Kobayashi Maru stuff.

 

[Rfc812]

I may end up getting a HOTAS setup to help me fly better....I'm doing okay with the mouse and keyboard, and some things are easier with my XBOX 360 controller, but I just don't seem to be able to get the hang of docking. Part of my problem is getting to the entry port, and the docking itself isn't the easiest thing to do once I get inside.

 

[Vim Fuego]

My advice to the op, and you too Rfc812, would be to invest in a cheap* joystick - one with a yaw/rudder twist ftw - and combine it with your kb. I use the wasd + shift/ctrl for the thruster maneuvers like it's a fps. imo you don't need to spend mega just to get started.

And on the subject of gameplay, op, you are thinking about it all wrong. you don't need to be moving forwards all the time in order to attack. and sometimes slower is better. use your thrusters as you pitch and roll to get out of firing lines and come about onto your target.

*mine cost less than my xbox controller

 

[NewYears1978]

I never once died in any of the tutorials with simple Mouse/KB so I don't know why some have so much trouble. And no this isn't a toot my own horn thing because I pretty much am mediocre at this game I did notice they have made the combat training a bit harder..I redid them the other day.

As others stated it is not required to beat the tutorials, however if you can't beat them and plan on doing combat in game, you might have some trouble.

Remember to keep adjusting you power settings for Shields - defense, Engines - maneuvering, weapons - attacking.

Was going to be my suggestion too.

 

[Rfc812]

I found the Harmless' Guide to the Galaxy in the Forums and followed the suggestions for setting up my keyboard controls....this has helped A LOT as I can now fly much better with more control. Once I get used to the keyboard controls (still having a bit of trouble remembering how to access my UI controls lol) and a little more docking practice (and maybe a little more dogfighting practice as well), then at that point I'll jump into the main game itself.

 

[cmdr lowest]

If you are up against a pilot with a high combat mastery they will always do their best to out-turn you so can't land any fire.

To compensate for this use lateral thrusters in combination with main throttle, pitch, roll and yaw.

And make sure your throttle is in the blue sweet-spot always.

Much easier to do this using a hotas setup though. Im using a 360 controller and have remapped the lateral thrusters to the d-pad. Works ok.

 

[godzirrasti]

I found the Harmless' Guide to the Galaxy in the Forums and followed the suggestions for setting up my keyboard controls....this has helped A LOT as I can now fly much better with more control. Once I get used to the keyboard controls (still having a bit of trouble remembering how to access my UI controls lol) and a little more docking practice (and maybe a little more dogfighting practice as well), then at that point I'll jump into the main game itself.

Thanks for this. This helped me too.

 

[Dolliver]

The purpose of a tutorial is to help teach you, not to punish you with an insurmountable problem (obviously I agree with the original poster having endured several 20 minute turning battles before giving up each time). Saying "you don't have to accomplish the tutorial" speaks to the idiocy of it. "Here are two Red Barons newbie...go out and get them!" (This borders on sadism. It's the 3rd tutorial for gods sake!) I am now going to skip to the next tutorial, and hope I can learn what I was supposed to learn in the tutorial the hard way.

 

[EvulKlowne]

@PaperHero, see https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=129465