How easy is it to avoid combat

[Sams]

Your initial questions have been expertly answered. I do have something to add regarding your last sentence about avoiding contact.

For the most part you can speed away without having to engage. Doing a 360 rotation around your super cruise target will make it harder for the enemy ship to hit you.

The biggest problem is when you're being attacked by a larger ship like a type9 or asp. They can prevent you hyper spacing out of there because of their size. If you invest quickly in a decent power unit it becomes easier.

I play in solo mode because I have always played elite and its offsprings on my own so it feels more natural to me.

 

[Dash]

I've only been attacked once by a human, and apparently I was wanted and I was lurking at a nav beacon, so I don't think this was unreasonable.

I see other humans quite regularly but it's unlikely you'll get any interaction from them, some will chat back if you send a message but mostly people seem to keep to themselves. Seems the pre-release gamers are all introverts.

 

[Tactless]

That clears things up nicely. I'm so excited now!!!! I literally spent entire days playing elite of my Amiga 1200!!

Also play solo until you can get a Cobra MK 3 with decent upgrades (shields, power distribution, etc.)

Four pips to engines (2 to shields) and boost yourself away from anything you can't handle. Nothing can catch you.

Use google to search for "elite dangerous ships" and find the wiki entry that has a table listing of the playable ships so far. You will note that the cobra is the swiftest.

 

[irongut]

Join a PVE Group or play solo, that's the only way you will get away from PvP killing pirates..

e.g : https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=38362

Ah the griefer FUD so predictable and so wrong. I play exclusively in Open and have never had a pirate attack me. (Nor have I pirated anyone else.) The only pvp I've seen was in one of the Eranin war conflict zones and that was 1v1. It's rare to see other people at all, especially since Gamma spread us all out a bit.

Screw your courage to the sticking place and join us in open!