How to break out of ship jousting
- Thread starter lemon407
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Couple of examples, with minimal FA Off use (cause I'm lazy and my FA-off hitscan aim is pretty sketchy) vs. Elite NPC FDL:
It's a Corvette, but the Anaconda is close enough, especially with the above vettes each carrying several hundred tons of cargo.
Find a rock.
Try orbiting around it and experiment with various thruster controls. Be very aware of whether or not you are in the blue zone. Try to keep the same distance away from said rock and be very aware of when you are boosting.
If you are not aware of the subtleties of orbiting a rock, orbiting a moving object like a ship will be that much harder.
Another method from CMDR TrueSilver
Equip your Anaconda with a slf (fighter hangar)
You fly slf.
Orbit mother ship, she should follow you.
After comfortable orbiting, turn off one weapon. Shoot at mother ship with remaining online weapon whilst orbiting.
Jousting is very very unfun compared to orbiting.
All the best pilots orbit if given the choice. You can do it, too!
o7
Try orbiting around it and experiment with various thruster controls. Be very aware of whether or not you are in the blue zone. Try to keep the same distance away from said rock and be very aware of when you are boosting.
If you are not aware of the subtleties of orbiting a rock, orbiting a moving object like a ship will be that much harder.
Another method from CMDR TrueSilver
Equip your Anaconda with a slf (fighter hangar)
You fly slf.
Orbit mother ship, she should follow you.
After comfortable orbiting, turn off one weapon. Shoot at mother ship with remaining online weapon whilst orbiting.
Jousting is very very unfun compared to orbiting.
All the best pilots orbit if given the choice. You can do it, too!
o7
The thing i have been doing and i feel gross doing it, is if im in a joust, i just putt full pips to shield and to 2 engines and then just ram them.
which actually brings me to my next question, is it possible to bind pip layouts to buttons? Say for example i can press a single button to shift pips to a given layout, then another to shift it to another given lay out?
The only way i can think of it, is to do like a macro where it puts pips to reset then presses the buttons in order to get it to the lay out you want.
which actually brings me to my next question, is it possible to bind pip layouts to buttons? Say for example i can press a single button to shift pips to a given layout, then another to shift it to another given lay out?
The only way i can think of it, is to do like a macro where it puts pips to reset then presses the buttons in order to get it to the lay out you want.
Ramming is fun.... if your shields are up.
A lot of PvPers use pip macros using either Auto Hot Key or Voice Attack. Pip macros are kosher. Your mouse also might be programmable. Others also use the mouse scroll wheel.
Pip management is key. Good on you to recognize that.
Most PvPers use:
420
240
042
024
I use the above distributions for my fdls and Chieftain because during fights, I am almost always using a capacitor to its viable limit. And PvP is hella scary at times. Most of us sit at 240 and 042.
PvE is different. Different ships and loadouts will have different optimal pip distributions.
A lot of PvPers use pip macros using either Auto Hot Key or Voice Attack. Pip macros are kosher. Your mouse also might be programmable. Others also use the mouse scroll wheel.
Pip management is key. Good on you to recognize that.
Most PvPers use:
420
240
042
024
I use the above distributions for my fdls and Chieftain because during fights, I am almost always using a capacitor to its viable limit. And PvP is hella scary at times. Most of us sit at 240 and 042.
PvE is different. Different ships and loadouts will have different optimal pip distributions.
Downward thrusting + throttle in blue + A rated thrusters. Once in awhile I’ll go full reverse. This usually confounds the AI and becomes overwhelmed.
I run my Anaconda with two fixed 3C beam lasers on top. The rest are turret multi cannons. If the enemy happens to slip under me I’m still getting shots off this way. Mind you this is just against AI. I’m not a pvp engineered murder boat.
I run my Anaconda with two fixed 3C beam lasers on top. The rest are turret multi cannons. If the enemy happens to slip under me I’m still getting shots off this way. Mind you this is just against AI. I’m not a pvp engineered murder boat.
Personally my favourite manouver for dealing with those pesky nible ships is called "deploy fighter"
Stick a fighter bay in there, pick up a copilot, send them out in the fighter and either take the hit to your credits when you turn in missions, or fire them before doing so.
Picking up a harmless copilot and training them to elite makes them take a smaller percentage of each hand in than a pilot hired at elite level, but by the time they get there you'll have already paid them a fairly significant amount anyway, as they take a cut of ALL your profits, not just those you make by fighting, whether they're active or on reserve.
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Use laser turrets, just keep the biggest hardpoint for gimbal multicannon. Fixed weapons have far too small time-on-target for big ship v small ship. Run the turrets on "selected target", not "fire at will".
Fly backwards with throttle in the blue as soon as the other ship starts approaching. (Blue because you need pitch rate rather than speed at close range).
Don't go 4-0-2 pips unless the shields are really low. 2-2-2 will give better manoeuvrability.
Pick an orthogonal thrust to put on during the approach. I like down, because it puts the target above you for better visibility.
Smallest laser turrets are nice as beams, because they give you a clue where the target is all the time.
And yes, use a SLF.
Fly backwards with throttle in the blue as soon as the other ship starts approaching. (Blue because you need pitch rate rather than speed at close range).
Don't go 4-0-2 pips unless the shields are really low. 2-2-2 will give better manoeuvrability.
Pick an orthogonal thrust to put on during the approach. I like down, because it puts the target above you for better visibility.
Smallest laser turrets are nice as beams, because they give you a clue where the target is all the time.
And yes, use a SLF.
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The second vid does an excellent job of modeling how FA off (even without short toggling) is not critically necessary to avoid jousting. Really a pleasure to watch.
Yep, flight model has six degrees of freedom in any mode, FA On is just tighter and slower. Definitely has certain advantages, but is not strictly necessary for any maneuver.
Aim to pass your target so it's directly above you (so rotate a lot). Just before your gimble weapons break lock (assuming you're using these) do the following:
1) hold flight assist off and pitch up
2) lateral thrust down
3) apply reverse throttle
Watch your radar as you do this. Your target should begin to shift above you after being behind briefly. You're waiting until the pip is directly above. Keep flight assist off. It may be a bit wobbly but accuracy isn't important.
Then...
4) lateral thrust up
5) forward throttle
This will swing your target back in front of you. As soon as they are...
6) reactive flight assist
7) set throttle to blue 50%
You can optionally set 4 pips to engines (I don't bother, it's not necessary for this move but it'll help). If you time it right, you can start the move before your target passes, literally keeping them in view constantly, but that's quite advanced. Definitely doable though. You sacrifice a little target time for the advantage of getting behind your target before they turn (though that's not going to happen much if your target is very agile).
The Anaconda isn't the most agile so this won't be as effective as using a Corvette or medium ship but it's the fastest way to turn without over complicating things with boost. I'll add that boost turns will work but often ends up just pushing your target further away and requires two boost turns to stay close. I do not think this is much better than jousting plus you'll have to use 4 eng which weakens your shields.
The above method can be done with 4-2-0 pips, keeping your defense up during turning. I often do it 3-0-3, which is my default, and it's fine (krait mk2, Chieftan or vette - might not be great with the conda).
Just to add, it's not actually 7 steps, just 3. You're just applying 3 controls at once (one being pitch up). Once you practice it a bit, it becomes second nature and it's really just "move down, move up" whilst pitching up and then reset to forward vector at the end. The combination of lateral thrust and throttle just speeds the turn up in relativity to your target, which is "above you" the whole time, in theory.
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The other option, if you find you can't get out of the joust, is to lean into it.
Focus on burst damage over DPS, be hard and heavy and try and turn in for a ram.
Focus on burst damage over DPS, be hard and heavy and try and turn in for a ram.
Number one thing to do, if you are not already doing it, is to use your lateral thrusters, these make a huge difference!
When you fly head to head, slow down..depending on the NPC, they might break of to the side instead of flying right past you. This can turn into a turn fight now instead, so here throttle in the blue (having a 50% keybind helps here) helps out here. boosting can help, but most often the boost will last to long, and make the situation worse. So be aware about this, but how will you learn if you not try...
And if you are out of ideas, you can always resort to the most annoying tactic NPC employ from time to time, reverse throttle, also known as reverski. a tactic that be rally good when you are learning to fight and is still good against some jousting prone NPC's or when some NPC's get stuck in a turn battle...
To turret or not is a matter of taste. my advice is to try it, if they make sense or not depends on your fighting style and of course their placement. Turrets on the underside of a ship is often the worst place, as most of the time when we turn around, the enemy is above us, as that is the natural way we tend to orient and chase the target. so turrets tend to be better when they are ontop or the sides. as that gives them more time on target.
you don't have to worry about flight assist off, at least not if all you are fighting is NPC's at the moment. This game was made in the vain of WWII dogfighting in space so if you choose you can fly like normal. the computer AI is hardwired to fly a few hundred meters off your starboard quarter. if you keep turning then they will just keep circling and flying towards you until their health is low and they flee or yours is. in this limited scope your mechanics are simple: the more nimble ship wins, hardpoints withstanding.
a better option to avoid the jousting is to keep your guns pointing at your opponent all the time. do this by flying backwards when a target is running at you then give chase when they pass you. a little trick: when a target is flying toward you and you are flying backwards at a slower velocity (meaning they will catch up with you) about 500 meters away boost while your throttle is still in reverse. use your down thrust and pitch up. you should circle under the target and since you are still throttling in reverse you should keep eyes on.
