How do I Elite gud? (Combat Thread)

[Webimpulse]

Hey all!

In keeping in line with my goal of exploring all the combat that Elite: Dangerous has to offer (what can I say, I like explosions), I just purchased an Eagle ship from the Aphra station. The story of how I bought it can be seen in the video below:
[video=youtube_share;H3uHJiyT4F4]http://youtu.be/H3uHJiyT4F4[/video]
But that's not the main point of this thread. The main point is that ever since I got the Eagle, I've been shot at and blown up countless times. The Eagle ship is supposed to be better (depending on how you outfit it, of course) than the Sidewinder for combat, so being the MLG pro I am, instead of blaming the ship, I'm trying to figure out how to be better at combat in Elite.

The above video I think demonstrates my current combat capabilities, but in the case of that target, I pretty much got lucky. When engaging other targets, in my latest forays I either get out-numbered, or the target in question is a large ship with turrets that can laser my bunghole no matter which angle I approach from.

Therefore, I dedicate this thread to improving oneself in combat in Elite: Dangerous! Share your tips here!

 

[Yomamas Fett]

Do the Combat Training missions, the 2 sidewinder hunts and the convoy attack are the best to learn from; when you can shoot out a subtarget on the sidewinders without destroying them then you are ready for combat in the game.

Hunt in RES sites, do not carry any cargo, scan all the pirates but only engage if and when they are getting attacked by Authority ships (preferably after their shields go down).

Stick Military armour on that Eagle ASAP, or get an Adder or Viper, a newbie in a Sidey or Eagle is going to have a hard time so you want to get something with better shields ASAP, and come back to the Eagle once you have more experiance. The Eagle is a fun little bounty hunter, but dies fast to anything that can get a weapons lock on it, and doesn't have the utility slots to carry the KWS, Boosters and chaff that it desperately needs with it's pathetic shields so the Viper what you want to be aiming for ASAP.

 

[I and I Redeye]

Cool story bro.
I really liked your vid editing so I subcribed ha ha.
I can see your enthusiatic, just like I was in start game, sadly end game has nothing to offer.
Moar vids like that.
Hope this thread goes well for ya.

 

[Cmnd Fulsom]

The power slide is real my friend, even turrets have difficulty shooting a target that isn't moving on a predictable trajectory. So slowly rotating while strafing up or down and to one side or the other is very powerful, your boosts are also important, turrets have a 306 degree firing ark on a horizontal plane but cannot have about a 90 degree arc on a vertical plane, so getting behind and below most targets sporting turrets is important for pythons and anacondas with their top and bottom mounted guns being smack behind, slightly above, and right on their ass is the best place to be. The eagle's best asset is it's maneuverability, It's all about finding the blind spot on the ship your fighting and staying there, preferably until your opponent explodes into a billion pieces.

Stay frosty

 

[Chaodiurn]

Claims to be MLG. Uses gimbals. Get gud scrub.

Fixed weapons do more damage then gimbals, while gimbals do more damage than turrets. The percentage differs from weapon to weapon, pulse generally losing less DPS than burst, to give you an idea.
Gimbals are used in three situations:
1) You're too bad to aim ( totally not MLG)
2) You're playing FAoff
3) Your ship is too much brick for MLG-fixed lazor.

For that matter: get informed about how flight assist works. You can turn that on/off by pressing Y, I believe. This will allow you to pilot into each direction independently. Since MLG-skillerz don't have time for long explanations: Is flight assist turned on, you will fly left when you turn left. Is flight assist turned off, you will still fly forward when turning left. This means you can have your thrusters focusing on getting yourself turned, without bothering changing your movement vector. This means you can point your lazors longer on the scrub in the other ship.

Should the other one be a gimbals-scrub-scrub, just use chaff launchers to break his auto-track (you may have seen this sparkles already). You may need a bigger ship to fit that next to your interdictor though.

Giving pips to SYS gives your shields more resistances, so they absorb more damage per shield point. They will not, however, increase in overall strength or recharge faster. For recharges: shield cell banks! For overall strength: shield boosters! (Shield boosters do NOT need activation and apply automatically as long as they get energy.)

Giving pips in ENG raises your blue zone, so you can do faster turns with FAon on higher speeds. A ship on higher speed is harder to hit by scrubs.

The Eagle is actually more fragile than the Sidewinder. Less than half the armour by standard! You'll have to out-manoeuvre your foes to play it's strength over the Sidewinder: more firepower. Luckily, higher manoeuvrability is its second strength. That also means: bigger shields and better thrusters!

Get in touch with fire-groups. You have your lazors and your kill warrant scanner in the same group, always scanning as you're shooting. Check the right panel, where you can set a second fire-group for enhanced pew-pew. This is primarily helpful should you decide to run a Gatling gun next to your lazors, to be able to shoot them separately. Lazors are better against shields, while Gatling guns and the like are better against armour.

You also can select modules of enemy ships. You can, for example, aim to destroy their lazors or -- more sinister -- destroy their power plant for instant fragz. Possible per key bind or on the left panel.

Your lazors will do considerably less damage when no energy's available for weapons. The pips in weapons are for increased energy reg. You won't do more damage per shot with 4 weapon pips. Give them time. (That's what your distributor does: more energy for everything! Like the power plant, but better!)

Use head movement. Bind it to an 8-way or the mouse or whatever. Being aware of what's going on is vital in small ships.

Better sensors are for casuls. Don't upgrade these unless you have the moneyz or want to save weight.

More weight = less manoeuvrability + less jump range. You've got plenty of the first and none of the second, so might as well go for the military armour.

 

[ste]

I think you were lucky that the vulture seemed to forget how to shoot otherwise your sidewinder would be like the eagles.

Basically, you are in a weak ship trying to take on much bigger and better opponents, picking the right fights is probably wise. The eagle is bottom of the food chain.

My tip is if you cant beat them, run... to a spacestation that sells a bigger ship with more guns and stronger shields.

 

[Schmack]

I don't have a lot of cool acronyms to toss at you, but the funnel is toward better ships, not toward better piloting skills. I mean, you can improve your skills with a Vulture as much as you can with an Eagle. So you'll end up with a Vulture and probably a Python enroute to the Anaconda. I think once you get that, you'll flip flop between grind trading, exploring "meh" systems and doing brainless paper delivery boy missions and hunting down Dudley Do Right one system over for a quick few hundred K and a warrant. You'll watch the powers that be expand and contract like cancers on a liver, then you'll wonder where it all went, the fun. Where did it go? I don't know.

 

[Webimpulse]

You guys have some good advice. I'll have to practice some more. All that being said, I did have an encounter tonight that was...odd. Not bad or good, just...odd.

I was on my way to Sumel's Christian Prospect (what a station name ) when I was interdicted by a Lawless pilot. She was Dangerous in combat rank. I had no idea what ship she was piloting, but the encounter actually ended in a stalemate (neither of us got killed)...and my ammo stocks depleted, resulting in a pretty penny spent rebuying my ammo.

What was odd about this encounter was:

• She had no idea how to shoot me - missed with the vast majority of her shots. Sure, she was using Fixed weapons, but with that aim it's a wonder she was considered Dangerous rank...
• I poured pretty much every single one of my over 4000 multi-cannon rounds into her shields. Not a dent, scratch, or paint chip. I don't think her shields were going down at all. Before the encounter I even bought a Fixed Rail Gun as the top hardpoint weapon for my Eagle - I hit her a couple of times with it, and still no effect.

What happened there? Did I not have enough firepower, was a bug/glitch happening, or am I just still a scrub? :S

 

[KombattWombatt]

The eagle is a fun ship. And I think it's a good one to learn in (although the viper is good for that too and more forgiving, once you get the change.)

You can definitely take out anaconda asassinations missions in a fully kitted eagle (well, before 1.3 anyways...not sure how much harder it is now) but you have to get on its belly and be able to stick there. Switch to fixed weapons, it'll pay off in the long run... flight assist off and boost turning are crucial skills to master.

It's significantly easier to get outnumbered nowadays, so awareness is as important as your twitch skills.

Find a buddy, drop into an empty part in space, and see who can drop who to 20% hull first. That's always fun and will teach you more than the AI can, for the most part.

Good luck

 

[Stigbob]

The eagle is a fun ship. And I think it's a good one to learn in (although the viper is good for that too and more forgiving, once you get the change.)

You can definitely take out anaconda asassinations missions in a fully kitted eagle (well, before 1.3 anyways...not sure how much harder it is now) but you have to get on its belly and be able to stick there. Switch to fixed weapons, it'll pay off in the long run... flight assist off and boost turning are crucial skills to master.

It's significantly easier to get outnumbered nowadays, so awareness is as important as your twitch skills.

Find a buddy, drop into an empty part in space, and see who can drop who to 20% hull first. That's always fun and will teach you more than the AI can, for the most part.

Good luck

You can still take the anaconda missions as long as you are ok with running away if it goes wrong, they definitely got better post 1.3.

@the OP use maneuvering thrusters, all the time.

 

[Cmnd Fulsom]

Well, what ship were they in, the game should have told you, if it was an anaconda or some such the shields were probably recovering before you could take a layer off, if you can't keep guns on the opponent will happily recharge their shields while avoiding your fire, getting good at getting the enemy in your sights and keeping them there is a good skill, if it was a smaller ship and you were simply having trouble keeping up then pro tip, all power to shields and full reverse. If they want to continue to engage you they'll have to try and chase you down which will make it very difficult for them to stay out of your cross-hairs. Of course, you'll be in their arc too, so be careful.

Stay frosty

 

[Psycho Romeo]

Use head movement. Bind it to an 8-way or the mouse or whatever. Being aware of what's going on is vital in small ships.

I'd like to bring this front and center.

Yes you can see what the ship is doing in that little display on the bottom left. But seriously - if you have a hand free, you should use it for head look.

I learned how to use my joystick in my left hand. I have head look on my mouse. I can fight on par against any other control scheme (I'm not saying I'm good, I'm just saying I'm not handicapped), but I absolutely guarantee you my life is a lot easier because I can keep my opponent on my screen as long as they're in the window. You even save a few buttons - you can bring up the side panes with headlook.

Also, it's very, very, very fun.

 

[Steve50]

At first glance I thought gud was an acronym. Only after reading on did I realise it was a typo. Doh! Haha

 

[Daffan]

how to own every single npc in the game

equip gimbals

target enemy ship

hold trigger / mouse 1

you win

the AI in this game is sooo easy.

in pvp

use fixed and infinite scb's