Elite / Frontier Information Requested: FFE

[OneoftheLost]

Oh you did Draq, I just didn't look at the intercept guide, I was more focused on the basic aspects. Still, great site.

That is interesting, I noticed this as well when I tried to use my horizontal thrusters to dodge an incoming Falcon. I was a bit surprised when they didn't seem to react. It seems odd that the game would still take a little control, when as far as I can tell, the game seems to let you do so much more while flying normally. A very odd decision on Mr. Braben's part I think.

In regards to lasers, I took the plunge. On my earlier save, I had been using a 4MW Beam, simply because I thought of it as the logical next step. However, its 20T space requirement is QUITE steep. This time around, I opted for the 5mw Pulse, and LOVE it. 3T, with so much POWER. I love it. I'm not really a missle guy, since it seems like every pirate out there has an ECM of some sort.

Also related to missles, Is there some magical way to dodge them? I tried spinning and then shooting up at a high speed, but it caught up with me. I tried turning completely around and bolting, but it did the same. Is there a trick to dodging missles without an ECM?

Lastly in regards to the ranking, Nice! I know Geraldine made Elite, and it fascinates me what ships you more experienced pilots favor. For instance, she favors the Sidewinder. I can't imagine flying anything smaller then the Mk III for any amount of time. You mention flying the Adder, and the same applies. While the speed is nice, the lack of options for equipment is really painful.

 

[DraQ]

That is interesting, I noticed this as well when I tried to use my horizontal thrusters to dodge an incoming Falcon. I was a bit surprised when they didn't seem to react. It seems odd that the game would still take a little control, when as far as I can tell, the game seems to let you do so much more while flying normally. A very odd decision on Mr. Braben's part I think.

Yes and an actually stupid one as far as I can tell. I suppose it was an attempt to address problems with jousting, but it's better if computer doesn't try to guess what I want to do, because in most cases it will guess wrong.

In regards to lasers, I took the plunge. On my earlier save, I had been using a 4MW Beam, simply because I thought of it as the logical next step. However, its 20T space requirement is QUITE steep. This time around, I opted for the 5mw Pulse, and LOVE it. 3T, with so much POWER. I love it. I'm not really a missle guy, since it seems like every pirate out there has an ECM of some sort.

I'm not really a missile guy either since I mostly fly an Asp, but some missiles are hardened against basic ECM and NN500 is impervious to all types of ECM (although it lacks punch compared to MV series).

If you need even more firepower and fancy yourself a sharpshooter, you may try 30MW mining laser. It's not meant to be used as a weapon, it has terribly slow rate of fire and it seems to overheat quickly. BUT it's a 30MW pulse laser, if you hit your target you will rarely have to shoot twice. It also weighs only 10t, though you might want to mount a 1MW beam on your rear to avoid having to hit small fighters with horribly slow firing pulse laser, which will bring the total mass of installed laser weapons to 15t - still better than 20t 4MW beam.

Also related to missles, Is there some magical way to dodge them? I tried spinning and then shooting up at a high speed, but it caught up with me. I tried turning completely around and bolting, but it did the same. Is there a trick to dodging missles without an ECM?

Missiles are hard to dodge, because, IIRC they are capable of 60G acceleration, while even the fastest of ships don't exceed 30G. What you can do is use a sort of judo against them by allowing them to accelerate towards you, then using their velocity against them forcing them to overshoot. Repeat till they run out of fuel. The best way of doing this seems to be accelerating towards the center of the curve they make when they home onto you while you're moving, then again, then again.
It's pretty easy to do in FE2, much, much harder in FFE where missiles seem quite a bit smarter, but it is possible.

Of course it's good to always have NECM and some shields to minimize the amount of missiles you will have to dodge and minimize the consequences of failing to do so.

Nice! I know Geraldine made Elite, and it fascinates me what ships you more experienced pilots favor. For instance, she favors the Sidewinder. I can't imagine flying anything smaller then the Mk III for any amount of time. You mention flying the Adder, and the same applies. While the speed is nice, the lack of options for equipment is really painful.

Personally I favour Asp, though I've flown a decent range of ships. The Adder thing was when I was still too poor to afford anything better, and Adder isn't particularly fast, being outdated design, it is relatively small and manoeuvrable, though which aids dodging. Sidewinder is very fast and very flat, I can see why Geraldine likes it. There are doubtlessly some skilled pilots liking light fighters, like Falcon or Osprey for their exceptional performance. Personally I don't find Imperial Courier all that hot, because it's already large and sluggish, despite theoretically being a combat ship. Medium traders are pretty meh, because they are too large and slow to actually succeed in a dogfight or dodge anything, but too small to be capable of becoming flying fortresses. From heavy freighters I like Boa the most, because of elegant shape and good performance, though it has significantly less capacity than Panther. Imperial Explorer can be made pretty powerful, but it's essentially a fighter the size of a superfreighter, so it will have serious problems hitting small attackers.
Then, there are ships like Cobra MK III, Constrictor and such, which are pretty much in Asp's class, and I do know that Viper also has it's ardent fans, being very fast, but spacious enough to pack some actual combat equipment.

 

[OneoftheLost]

Well, I've been putting some quality time with the game in. Have a cool half a mil to my name, and have been doing military missions. Following the guide from that site, I have reached the rank of Sergeant by doing missions from the Eta system.

I tried playing Oolite again, but.. it just felt stale. (combat-wise.) I am really enjoying the freedom and options I have with the new flight-model, as well as the vast quantities of equipment. (I just visited Sol, and WOW. Everything I wanted was there, from that Naval ECM, to the expanded energy banks and military drives.)

I am still flying to Mk III, for posterity if nothing else. Did the Asp require another person to fly? I REALLY don't want to have to hire any crew. The Asp seems the next logical step, and then, maybe an Imp Courior as the final upgrade. (I firmly believe everyone should at least own ONE battleship-like. )

I also did a few of the hand-coded missions as they came up. One was an assassination mission of an assassin, and that ****** was flying an Eagle. I have never been so frustrated. It was rediculously fast, and every time I launched a missle, he would dive into the ground! Quite a pain trying to snipe with a 5mw pulse. That being said, it helped my shooting skills considerably. >.<

Ive missed quite a few of the missions tho, so will I just have to start a new game to experience them? ( I REALLY wanted to take those hitchikers, but I got sidetracked with military missions.)

 

[turwhitt]

Asp requires one extra crew member. Just think of them as a cleaner, there to polish your shiny new dashboard, if it bothers you.

Hand-coded missions take place on a specific date and once only, so if you miss that date you won't be able to do the mission.

 

[Sir.Tj]

I still hold out hope that one day someone will manage to add some extra hand coded missions, was hoping the guys at FFE3D might have been the ones to do it.

 

[DraQ]

I tried playing Oolite again, but.. it just felt stale. (combat-wise.) I am really enjoying the freedom and options I have with the new flight-model, as well as the vast quantities of equipment.

Congratulations, Frontier has broken your enjoyment of spasim genre.

You will now find yourself mostly sitting around these forums with the rest of us farts and complaining a lot about there being no spasims to play.

I am still flying to Mk III, for posterity if nothing else. Did the Asp require another person to fly?

Yes. It's an old design and it uses oversized drive for a ship its class, which is responsible for its fantastic performance, but requires dedicated personnel to maintain it and supervise it during intense use.

I REALLY don't want to have to hire any crew. The Asp seems the next logical step, and then, maybe an Imp Courior as the final upgrade.

Well, if you don't want extra crew, then you're stuck with Cobra or lighter (unless you manage to get Turner class or Thargoid warship).

(I firmly believe everyone should at least own ONE battleship-like. )

TBH, Courier isn't all that awesome. Yeah, it's big and stylish, but it's rather sluggish, easy to hit and lacks customizability with it's irreplaceable hyperdrive and no scoop mounting (to make the best of flying on hydrogen).

If I wanted to fly something genuinely big, I'd probably get either a Boa or an Imperial Explorer. The former works best with moderately powerful lasers on turrets and lots of shields, the latter has serious weakness in form of low manoeuvrability and lack of turrets, so it works best with plasma accelerator and all shields you can fit.
There is also Panther, but it's pretty sluggish and can't mount the scoop.

I also did a few of the hand-coded missions as they came up. One was an assassination mission of an assassin, and that ****** was flying an Eagle. I have never been so frustrated. It was rediculously fast, and every time I launched a missle, he would dive into the ground! Quite a pain trying to snipe with a 5mw pulse. That being said, it helped my shooting skills considerably. >.<

Hehehe. That's why I usually mount 1MW beam on the rear in heavy fighters like Asp or Cobra Mk.III - flying in rear view mode is tricky, but when you are flying away on full burn, even the light fighters will have to spend most of their thrust to just to keep you in their weapon range, which means they will have little thrust to spare for dodging, beam is hard to dodge even in normal circumstances while 1MW is enough power for swatting mosquitoes swarming your rear end.

Of course, if you manage to snipe them with your front pulse laser right away, then all the better, but weak, rear-mounted beam laser is a good investment.

Ive missed quite a few of the missions tho, so will I just have to start a new game to experience them? ( I REALLY wanted to take those hitchikers, but I got sidetracked with military missions.)

Well, FFE dodges "it's just a game" feeling rather nicely. Special events won't wait for you, even the main plot may end up being completed by an NPC, and you will only get to read about it in a newspaper.

 

[gunbladelad]

If big ships are your thing, then I heartily recommend the Panther. Most pirates will simply bounce off your ship, destroying themselves in the process.

Granted, it is a rather gutsy thing with low range and a high personnel (8 crew required, but you can always go for the cheapest crew around...) requirement, but it'll pay for itself in the profits after a few runs.

It's definitely an option if you don't go for the Thargoid or Quest ship in the story, and want to do nothing more than trade. It's also handy when equipped decently to "harvest" the pirates of the anarchic systems, as you won't even need to turn or slow down to blast them into space dust. Just don't expect to make any short deadlines in it.

A few of the other large transports have a problem where attacking from the turret view can result in causing major damage to your own ship - the Panther doesn't have this trouble.

I do know that in FFE (and JJFFE too) there's a bug that can arise when you get it, where it gets over 655k alien artifacts in the hold. Selling this results in almost endless space in your ship, so it's easy to be tempted to cheat with loading up on 250+ shield generators and a couple of hundred passenger cabins.

When this glitch happens it becomes one of the few long-range transports with more cargo space than the Panther, and it's got more than enough range for anything you ever want to do - including exploring the galaxy.

Fighter-wise, I don't really know what to recommend, other than the Cobras. I'm more of a transport person, myself.