Newcomer / Intro Introduction & Basic Questions/Comments on ED

[rightsideupsidedown]

Hello! So far I've just been doing small trade/courier missions in a Sidewinder and I can say while ED still feels in development it's really fun. Seeing updates in-game and advertised on the login screen really makes me feel good about the future of ED. Right now I'm doing the basic missions selling discovery data and filling up with cargo that's on a stations import list prior to each jump. I've made about 320,000 credits and I'm looking at getting a Cobra soon. I have seen and chatted a couple of players but mostly I see AI. I have a few initial questions though.

Scanners/Chat

What's up with the scanner? Often it won't complete a scan or give me a player name even if it seems like the ship is nearby. As a follow-up, chat will only give you the ability to message a human player while ability to chat with an AI ship will not populate, correct? Should I get an upgrade? I like to see the NPC names and possibly find other non NPCs more easily.​

Interdiction/Encounters

I've avoided most interdiction attempts but I have failed three one being a (non-master rank) I was able to jump back to supercruise for them. The other two times the NPC that interdicted me is master rank and spams chat with default messages and begins attacking me. I target them with threat targeting but I can't get them to show up in front of me. I hit the breaks from full speed they fly past me on radar but they still don't show up, I spin the ship at 50%-75% throttle they don't show up. The entire time I'm doing this they are hitting me with every shot never missing (might I add) and very quickly I'm destroyed. I completed the fight tutorials in game just fine. Is this common in open play? I can only assume there is a bug where the NPC ships become invisible after interdicting you because that would be gamebreaking to me, or am I just bad? I can land and depart stations really quickly one after another without overshooting or readjusting and I use my thrusters and hotkeys for 50%/0% throttle. I'd actually say I'm pretty good at navigating in both regular and supercruise. So, why can't I get the NPCs that interdict me on screen?

My main complaint was that I use the scanner while approaching a station in supercruise and note which ships look dangerous or may attempt interdiction. I will be about to reach a station and be randomly interdicted by a ship all the way back at the Sun with a seemingly infinite range on their FSD Interdictor. I'm fortunate to have an excellent framerate on Ultra settings so I know that FPS lag can't be the issue. I see some livestreamers use a voice command to auto face their target which seems like a really cheesy cheat to me or is that some sort of upgrade you can purchase? I just found out about debug camera so I will use that next time I have an issue to see if the NPC is really even there.​

Navigation/Approach From Supercruise

Sometimes when I overshoot a station in supercruise my speed gets stuck at 29-30c. I can stay really close in supercruise flying loops but it seems like the gravitational pull locks your speed at 29-30c? If I fly further away I can get the speed to drop enough to receive a safe entry message. Other times I have noticed I can attempt a safe entry before the message appers and I will still be close enough to request docking within a few seconds. I guess my question is, what is the speed range to disable supercruise without using an emergency drop or is it based on the objects nearby?​

 

[Time Streamer]

Scanner - assume you're talking about KWS (Kill warrant scanner) check your range! basic scanner is 2Km
Interdiction - Never had such thing. The target either is there or don't. Ghost ships is new for me. Let's just hope other CMDR's can help you with this issue. Dead end? Submit a ticket.

Navigation - Gravity from bodies pull you to them. Most stations orbit a planet. You can use the planet's gravity to slow you down if you're going to overshoot. This is what i do: Full throttle to the destination. Once the "ETA" (interpret it as bananas if you like. there's already too much discussion on that) reaches 0.07 reduce your throttle to maximum corner speed (the maximum speed you can pull inside the blue range) and let it go. Once speed and distance bars are >parallel< (miss on this and you're going to overshoot) to each other just guive more speed until your engines do that motorcycle roaring, and a red SLOW DOWN appears. Then reduce to idle throttle and let yourself go, sliding into your destination when SAFE DESTINATION or something appears. That last approach will let you speed up the process quite a few seconds.

 

[Undecided]

You have to point your ship at a target to scan it, it takes a few seconds to get their name, rating, allegiance and wanted status. You cannot chat with AI.

You are getting interdicted when getting close to stations because you are decelerating allowing pirates that had been chasing you across the system to finally catch up with you. The scanner scale is logarithmic, meaning that an inch on the scanner represents less distance when it shows something close to you, and it represents more distance the further away from the center a contact is. The NPCs interdicting you are much closer than you think they are.

As for you problems actually fighting the interdictors, high level NPCs (like the 2 masters you mentioned) have much better equipment than your stock sidewinder. It would not surprise me if you didn't have the skills to compete in such a lopsided fight with so little experience.

I have no idea what you mean by objects "locking" your speed, could you explain further? And the maximum safe disengage speed is just under 1 MM per second. The only exception is when locking on to a wingmate outside of supercruise who has their beacon active, in which case you can go slightly faster. (MM is mega meter, or a million meters, or a thousand kilometers. Take your pick.)

 

[Sapient6]

There's a lot here. I'm going to dissect it and cherry pick the stuff I feel like I can respond to.

What's up with the scanner? Often it won't complete a scan or give me a player name even if it seems like the ship is nearby.

For scanning to complete the ship has to be targeted and it has to be in front of you, in view.

As a follow-up, chat will only give you the ability to message a human player while ability to chat with an AI ship will not populate, correct?

Correct, you can not communicate with NPCs, that functionality is not in the game.

I target them with threat targeting but I can't get them to show up in front of me. I hit the breaks from full speed they fly past me on radar but they still don't show up, I spin the ship at 50%-75% throttle they don't show up. The entire time I'm doing this they are hitting me with every shot never missing (might I add) and very quickly I'm destroyed. I completed the fight tutorials in game just fine. Is this common in open play? I can only assume there is a bug where the NPC ships become invisible after interdicting you because that would be gamebreaking to me, or am I just bad?

I doubt they're invisible. I've certainly never seen that... but I did experience what you're describing when I started. It's a skill gap. You'll get better. You're going to need to get better at reading their position on the radar and making the appropriate turns with your ship. You may need to learn ways of using your thrusters to assist your turns, and eventually how to use thrusters and FA Off to assist your turns. If all else fails you can boost away from them before turning, the greater distance will make it harder for them to stay out of your sites.

I will be about to reach a station and be randomly interdicted by a ship all the way back at the Sun with a seemingly infinite range on their FSD Interdictor.

The scale of the radar, which sounds like it's at its default logarithmic setting, is confusing you. The NPC is not all the way back at the sun, they're just far enough away from you to be represented in that range grouping. Higher grade FSD Interdictors do have longer ranges, though, so there are definitely NPCs that can grab you at surprising ranges.

I see some livestreamers use a voice command to auto face their target which seems like a really cheesy cheat to me or is that some sort of upgrade you can purchase?

There's no upgrade that can do this for you. I haven't seen the livestreams you're talking about, but this sounds like either a misinterpretation or a cheat.

Navigation/Approach From Supercruise

SC can be safely dropped somewhere in the KM/s speed ranges. I want to say "under 130 KMs", but I have no idea if that's right.

The standard practice is to approach your destination at full speed until your ETA reaches 7 seconds, then to cut throttle to 75% which will keep the ETA at around 6 seconds for the remainder of approach until the Safe To Exit message appears. You can drop sooner, but keep in mind if you drop too soon you can find yourself hours or days away from the station (at conventional speeds).

 

[rightsideupsidedown]

Thank you. That cleared up a bit for me.

 

[the100thmonkey]

If you look carefully, you'll see that the interdictor shows as hostile (red) during the interdiction, but once you're out of supercruise, they show as normal (yellow) - selecting highest threat won't do anything because your scanner does not interpret them as a threat until after they've landed a shot. Use "next target" instead.

And boost, boost, boost - if you don't boost, the interdictor is immediately in weapons range. If you boost, you'll have a few seconds to select them with next target, look at the ship and decide if you want to engage or escape.

Always submit to the interidction and do this. if you fight it and fail, not only will your FSD take longer to spool up, but you will also take hull damage and end up in a seemingly random orientation to the attacker. If you submit, they're always behind you.

 

[cmdr lowest]

​

Navigation/Approach From Supercruise

Sometimes when I overshoot a station in supercruise my speed gets stuck at 29-30c. I can stay really close in supercruise flying loops but it seems like the gravitational pull locks your speed at 29-30c? If I fly further away I can get the speed to drop enough to receive a safe entry message. Other times I have noticed I can attempt a safe entry before the message appers and I will still be close enough to request docking within a few seconds. I guess my question is, what is the speed range to disable supercruise without using an emergency drop or is it based on the objects nearby?​

This is really odd. Are you sure you are flying at 30c near a planetary body and not 30km/h?

This is the complete opposite of what happens when you are near atronomical objects. They slow you down, not fix your speed to 30x the speed of light. In fact if you are really flying at 30c you will whizz past any planet very fast indeed.