Newcomer / Intro How do I prevent enemy from running away into frameshift drive?

[jackliu239]

I have tried to google it but I'm very surprised there is no answer to my questions, it seems every time I get into a fight with an NPC, when their hull is at 50% ish they always activate their frame drive and just warp away.... I don't have the firepower to kill it within that 5 second for him to power up so ALL OF MY TARGETS runs away, I am 5 hours into the game and I fought almost 15 dog fights literally destroyed 0 targets.

And something on my end, whenever I feel like the fight is not going my way, I just activate the engine boost, start frame drive and hyper space.... how does anyone kill anyone else in this game???

 

[Cmdr Andy B]

target their engines or frame shift drive, destroy either and they cant go anywhere.

 

[Legionnaire]

or powerplant or power distribution. Also if only 5 hours in what are you using? If your still in the Sidewinder with 2 pulse lasers yeah thats not great for a new player to do lots of damage with. The Eagle with 3 weapon slots hits a lot harder, or you could change the pulse lasers for burst lasers or multicannons, however the multicannons use ammo which has to be bought. also try and fix gimballed weapons to start rather than fixed weapons, whilst the do less damage, the have some auto-aim assist, meaning more shots hit doing more damage.

 

[jackliu239]

target their engines or frame shift drive, destroy either and they cant go anywhere.

Ok, I see the option to select subsystems, so is this how you guys do things? When you lock a target, go to UI, scroll to subsystems, look for Drive, scroll down to select...

I mean that takes about 2-3 seconds minimum, which is kinds cumbersome, is there a faster way to doing things?

 

[Cula-Ta]

or powerplant or power distribution. Also if only 5 hours in what are you using? If your still in the Sidewinder with 2 pulse lasers yeah thats not great for a new player to do lots of damage with. The Eagle with 3 weapon slots hits a lot harder, or you could change the pulse lasers for burst lasers or multicannons, however the multicannons use ammo which has to be bought. also try and fix gimballed weapons to start rather than fixed weapons, whilst the do less damage, the have some auto-aim assist, meaning more shots hit doing more damage.

Rep for Legionnaire. Wasn't aware thats how the gun options worked. Thanks for that

 

[Enride]

Ok, I see the option to select subsystems, so is this how you guys do things? When you lock a target, go to UI, scroll to subsystems, look for Drive, scroll down to select...

I mean that takes about 2-3 seconds minimum, which is kinds cumbersome, is there a faster way to doing things?

There are keybinds for "target next/prev subsystem" that will speed up your targeting by not needing to enter the left menu.
But you still need to click through the subsystems, start by pressing "target prev" as i believe the FSD is usually at the end of the list

 

[jackliu239]

or powerplant or power distribution. Also if only 5 hours in what are you using? If your still in the Sidewinder with 2 pulse lasers yeah thats not great for a new player to do lots of damage with. The Eagle with 3 weapon slots hits a lot harder, or you could change the pulse lasers for burst lasers or multicannons, however the multicannons use ammo which has to be bought. also try and fix gimballed weapons to start rather than fixed weapons, whilst the do less damage, the have some auto-aim assist, meaning more shots hit doing more damage.

Yes, I'm still in the starter ship with starter weapons, I just got the hang of things and having a lot of trouble making any credits.

The missions are another mess, sometimes I select a courier mission and find out I can't jump there, sometimes I select a mission which want me to destroy a ship or pick up something in another system, when I get there I cannot or don't know what to do next when I warp to the designated area, and sometimes when my enemy went into hyperspace after losing a fight with me, I can't pull him out of hyperspace.

And I did trade once, I make about 500 credit per run using my starter ship, each run takes a long time to do, which is pretty terrible way to make money.

Just really frustrated, I learned most of the game tutorial online, the training really don't go that far.

 

[Legionnaire]

you need to set a keybind fr next subsytem and previous subsystem. This way you can press the key 3 or 4 times( or however many needed as it will vary from ship to ship).

Fixed weapons hit harder.
Gimballed weapons have an auto-aim assist.
Turrets fire on their own, and can be generally controlled from your right hand function panel.

 

[CMDR Cartwright]

I just have the frameshift wake scanner equipped so I can follow them and finish the job when this happens. They seem to jump into an adjacent system and drop out of frameshift there, and you can just follow it's wake and kill it off.

 

[Legionnaire]

If your in the starter Sidewinder with starter weapons and very few credits, then the first thing i would advise doing is just concentrate on haulage missions to start with. they aren't glamorous, but they are going to be the best way for you to get money in for upgrading your ship/ replacing your ship.

Haulage missions are the ones on the bulletin board, with one arrow pointing to the right. they dont normally pay that much , but quite often you can find them for hauling to another station in system. If you do have to look at one that means jumping to another system, check your galaxy map in the left UI panel and go to Navigation, at the bottom is a tool that allows you to see how far you can jump depending on how much cargo you can carry. either make a note of that distance when fully laden , or get into the habit of checking it before accepting a mission.

Once you have enough funds, look at upgrading your power distribution, Frame Shift Drive and Powerplant, as those will help increase your jump range. Then you can look at a larger or additional cargo rack, and access missions that pay more.

 

[jackliu239]

Ok I appreciate the advice, do you recommend that after I have some credit, I upgrade my starter ship's weapon/subsystems right away, or save enough money to buy a bigger ship?

I mean is the starter ship worthy of any upgrade?

Also do you have any link that explains power distribution, Frame Shift Drive and Powerplant etc... what do each of them to in respect to what other module etc...

 

[Iskariot]

I have tried to google it but I'm very surprised there is no answer to my questions, it seems every time I get into a fight with an NPC, when their hull is at 50% ish they always activate their frame drive and just warp away.... I don't have the firepower to kill it within that 5 second for him to power up so ALL OF MY TARGETS runs away, I am 5 hours into the game and I fought almost 15 dog fights literally destroyed 0 targets.

And something on my end, whenever I feel like the fight is not going my way, I just activate the engine boost, start frame drive and hyper space.... how does anyone kill anyone else in this game???

I used the Sidewinder for bounty hunting for a very long time and almost never had this happen to me. Larger and more powerful ships, like the Cobra and Viper and Asp never jump away for a lowly Sidewinder. Other Sidewinders and Eagles are killed very quickly so I have no idea if the AI intended to jump.
I only attack ships with bounties and almost never traders like the Hauler and Type 6. Perhaps the typical trader ships tend to jump away quicker when attacked?

I have been flying a Viper for a day or two. There is a difference in how the AI responds. Cobras and Asps try to jump away more often.

I always target subsystems on ships like the Cobra and Asp to keep them from jumping away. I never target subsystems on smaller stuff like Sidewinders and Eagles. They have very little chance of getting away anyway.

Ok I appreciate the advice, do you recommend that after I have some credit, I upgrade my starter ship's weapon/subsystems right away, or save enough money to buy a bigger ship?

I mean is the starter ship worthy of any upgrade?

An upgraded Sidewinder is a very capable and agile fighter. I feel it is very worthy of an upgrade. That is why I stayed in my Sidewinder as long as I did.
A very big plus is also that upgrading it is very cheap. It can be done easily and the insurance is very affordable even when it is fully upgraded. The Sidewinder is an excellent tool to get acquainted with the game's systems.

I am flying a Viper now. The upgrades are much more expensive. So is the insurance.

 

[Legionnaire]

Any money you spend on any ship will a) improve that ship, and b) add to its value when its time to upgrade and move on. I went from Sidewinder to Freagle (Free-Eagle), then got myself a viper, and from there a Cobra MKIII. that ship is currently valued at about 2.5 million when it cost me 357k to buy. You can do quite a lot in the Starting ship.

As for your other question, i dont know of any specific link that will give that information, but there is a rather good help guide, ive been partially reading. https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=80291

Hope that helps.

 

[Mr. Bridger]

A couple of options to make money early on:

Accept the basic Sidewinder isn't your best option for fighting until you can afford to upgrade, dump everything, guns, shields etc to lighten and therefore increase jump range.

You can then just go exploring, every system you land in power up the discovery scanner then sell the data. I made my first 75k in an hour or so. Jumping from star to star limits the risk of interdiction.

Alternatively, swap the scanner out for a 2t cargo hold, increasing your capacity to 6t. Having dropped shields and guns you can now jump further increasing your bulletin board options.

You are obviously taking a risk but if you go everywhere with power diverted to engine just boost away and FSD out of there until you've made enough to get something you can put up a fight with.

 

[Ted Striker]

I just have the frameshift wake scanner equipped so I can follow them and finish the job when this happens. They seem to jump into an adjacent system and drop out of frameshift there, and you can just follow it's wake and kill it off.

Do you also need an interdictor to pull them out of supercruise? I've never tried wake scanner.

 

[Legionnaire]

yes wake scanner only tells you where they went. So you do need theInterdictor to drop them from Supercruise.

 

[jackliu239]

Well... so here is my epic story so far.


Someone mentioned Free Eagle, so I googled it and found out where to get it, turns out it is somewhere within jump range, but at a very far station from me, which took me about 10 minutes to fly there with max speed on super-cruise

When I get there, I'm very excited seeing my new ship, I switched to it, and put on another laser on there and decide to go hunting "Wanted" targeted, I found one and when I lined him up on my overview and pressed fire... my life support decided to shut down and I lost ALL CONTROL of my ship... turns out my new laser exceeded the power output....

In a panic I'm trying to turn off some subsystems to readjust the power output, lucky I hit silent running by blind luck and I gained control of my ship, I think silent running turned off shied which control back to me.

So I decided to go back to station and give mining a shot, I sold my laser (Why can't we store our weapon at the station instead we are forced so sell our equipment when we brought something new to fit?????) brought a upgraded power core, and brought the mining laser.

I fly to one of the belt and started to mine... then it turns out I have no refinery.... so I went back to station again and decide to buy a refinery, which turns out, I only have 700 credit left...

Lucky for me, I have plenty of explore data to sell.... BUT I can't sell any of them because I need to fly 20 light years away....

So of course, I open up the galaxy map and rout a star system about 19 light years away in attempt to sell it in my brand new Eagle

And of course, when I get there, my fuel is pretty much depleted... and when I opened up the navigation... turns out this system..... have NO STATIONS

And... I pretty much logged off the game... so here is where I am... in my brand new Eagle ship, spend all my credit on the latest equipment... 0 fuel... no where to go stuck in a system with 0 stations....

I guess this is just not my day

 

[Legionnaire]

Ouch. Always fit a fuel scoop, that way if you top up each time you come out of a jump you are unlikely to have this happen, I hate to say this, but i think self destruct is going to be your only option, however that will loose the data you were trying to sell, and you might not have the funds to rebuy the Eagle. However, on the plus sde I believe the game should offer you a loan to allow you t rebuy the Eagle and upgrades tht were fitted to it, however, you would have to clear that loan before it could happen again as i understand it.

 

[Karthik]

Well... so here is my epic story so far.


Someone mentioned Free Eagle, so I googled it and found out where to get it, turns out it is somewhere within jump range, but at a very far station from me, which took me about 10 minutes to fly there with max speed on super-cruise

When I get there, I'm very excited seeing my new ship, I switched to it, and put on another laser on there and decide to go hunting "Wanted" targeted, I found one and when I lined him up on my overview and pressed fire... my life support decided to shut down and I lost ALL CONTROL of my ship... turns out my new laser exceeded the power output....

In a panic I'm trying to turn off some subsystems to readjust the power output, lucky I hit silent running by blind luck and I gained control of my ship, I think silent running turned off shied which control back to me.

So I decided to go back to station and give mining a shot, I sold my laser (Why can't we store our weapon at the station instead we are forced so sell our equipment when we brought something new to fit?????) brought a upgraded power core, and brought the mining laser.

I fly to one of the belt and started to mine... then it turns out I have no refinery.... so I went back to station again and decide to buy a refinery, which turns out, I only have 700 credit left...

Lucky for me, I have plenty of explore data to sell.... BUT I can't sell any of them because I need to fly 20 light years away....

So of course, I open up the galaxy map and rout a star system about 19 light years away in attempt to sell it in my brand new Eagle

And of course, when I get there, my fuel is pretty much depleted... and when I opened up the navigation... turns out this system..... have NO STATIONS

And... I pretty much logged off the game... so here is where I am... in my brand new Eagle ship, spend all my credit on the latest equipment... 0 fuel... no where to go stuck in a system with 0 stations....

I guess this is just not my day

Dude.. that really sucks I hate to say it, you may be better off wiping your save and restarting...

 

[CMDR Cartwright]

Actually I thought i'd need the interdictor for this but if you just follow them they will either drop out themselves in the middle of nowhere or they go camp near a planet and drop out there..