Newcomer / Intro Is the combat impossible or what LOL

Chuck_Wagon

C
Alright, I have never been very good at combat, and it seems like I am only getting worse, I was forced to take a combat mission to rank up my federation because I have been unable to find any that are non combat, well when I got to the location the opponent kills me in quite literally about 30 seconds. I thought OK, my ship is built for cargo, let me use some of my credits and go buy a fighter, NOPE even with a fully loaded eagle the exact same thing, about 30 seconds. :eek:

Question secondary to the crying that I am doing, Is there a point when you can't do courier missions for the federation anymore? I seem to only be getting strike and assassinate missions for my level progression to midshipman. [knocked out]
 

Rubbernuke

Rubbernuke
What was the opponent, and what weapons were you carrying?

You might want to practice using the combat training missions too.
 

Rob_the_Sparky

R
Unless they have changed something then you just have to wait for the naval mission of the type you want, no need to do a combat one. While you are waiting you can just carry on doing normal missions as your rank progress does not stop. When you do manage to rank up you will not be at 0% in your new rank as you will have made progress in the meantime doing missions. It is perfectly possible that when you rank up you can be at 100% for the next rank immediately if you have done enough missions while waiting for that naval mission.
 

Frank

Frank
It might have something to do with what's at the end of the rope you are climbing up. A high ranking with the Federation gets you access to military ships. If you aren't interested in fighting then maybe a career with the military isn't an ideal path for you to follow.

Elite is a game where you have to set your own targets: a particular ship, an Elite rank, an amount of money, visiting a particular star system, flipping a particular star system. As you get to know the game you get to know what you want to do in the game. And no paths are closed off to you if you change you mind and backtrack.

If all you can afford at the moment is an Eagle then it might be worthwhile trying some other things in the game that will earn you money for a better ship, then go back to Federation ranking afterwards.
 

Maenden

Maenden
Chuck_Wagon said:
Alright, I have never been very good at combat, and it seems like I am only getting worse, I was forced to take a combat mission to rank up my federation because I have been unable to find any that are non combat, well when I got to the location the opponent kills me in quite literally about 30 seconds. I thought OK, my ship is built for cargo, let me use some of my credits and go buy a fighter, NOPE even with a fully loaded eagle the exact same thing, about 30 seconds. :eek:

Question secondary to the crying that I am doing, Is there a point when you can't do courier missions for the federation anymore? I seem to only be getting strike and assassinate missions for my level progression to midshipman. [knocked out]
Click to expand...

I assume you're talking about being attacked by a NPC.

I also seem to think that NPCs seem a little tougher these days - although it's difficult to tell as they vary such a lot.
Wasn't there a thread recently about NPCs getting extra engineering?

At the end of the day however I would say that it depends what type of ship attacked you and the skill level of the pilot.

Even I can wipe out an Eagle in my FDL in 30 seconds or less. Elite is very unbalanced.

I also agree with your second comment.
What I would call 'ordinary' missions seem very few and far between these days.
If you scroll down the missions list it's full of wing missions for huge amounts of cargo.
Then that's followed by a long list that would give a behavioural psychologist serious cause for concern.

Massacre
Massacre
Destroy
Assassinate
Massacre
Eliminate

etc etc.

The devs from Frontier never seem to realise that there are people who play this game who have higher ideals than destroying everything that moves.
 

the100thmonkey

the100thmonkey
The state of the faction issuing the missions, as well as the economy of the station/system affects the kinds of missons offered. Youll see a lot of assassination missions when the faction you're taking missions from is in war or election, for instance.

With assassination missions, the mission description will tell you the recommended combat rank. The amount of credits offered as a reward will also give you an idea of the combat rank of the target. If the reward is north of 800kcr, you'll be going up against a high-ranked pilot.
 

Frank

Frank
You can see most of the stuff your opponent has by using the "target next subsystem" key to cycle through all of it.

Generally, the easiest way of finding out is by watching they use <grin>
 
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d8veh

d8veh
Combat aginst NPCs doesn't require any special skills, though it does need knowledge of how to do it and a little bit of practice. The first thing is that you cannot do a combat mission in a ship fitted out for hauling or anything else other than combat. In a one on one situation, the NPCs with a rank of competent or higher fight very well, and it can be tricky to defeat them in an equivalent ship. You need the best shields, weapons and thrusters to have any real chance. Obviously, you have a better chance of winning a fight if you have a better ship than your opponent.
 

AxeGaijin

AxeGaijin
Ouch, an Eagle is kinda squishy and only has small hardpoints, I certainly would never recommend it to someone as their first combat orientated craft. That said, against NPC it seems that their skill level plays a big part in the equation. I've taken out plenty of Vipers (III & IV) and even some Anacondas in my Adder because they were low level pilots (one of the Anacondas never even managed to fire at me). A run in with a "Dangerous" Fer-de-lance however.... let's just say I was looking at a rebuy screen the moment I spotted him, which was about a 1/2 second after he spotted me... (this was in a Viper Mk.III)
Have you tried the combat scenarios in training yet? If you don't feel confident in combat, doing them a couple of time can really help.

And finally, if you are not getting the type of promotion mission you want, wait for a bit and continue playing the game how you want until one eventually pops up.
Last two days I got nothing but assassination/combat naval missions offered, until last night when I got a data delivery one (to a system I was going to go to anyhow) So now I made it to Viscount :)
 
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Azreh Helas

Azreh Helas
try upgrading to a viper that has a lot of hull reinforcements and at least one module reinforcement. The Eagle is squishy and it's best flown when you have some sort of back-up
 

aRJay

aRJay
Just noticed yesterday that I was at 100% rank in The Federation so for the first time in a couple of months started looking at missions a Navy data courier mission was the second ranking mission that popped up after I did a couple of missions to get cordial and I am now at 29% Cadet so they are out there and your progression doesn't stop while you wait to find the mission you want.

As always check the rank of the mission as any inbuilt opposition will be based on mission rank not yours.
 

Nero Tacitus

Nero Tacitus
OP: The difficulty in the game is designed to scale. If you take an Eagle out to kill an Elite Conda, when you're inexperienced in combat also, you're obviously in for a bad day. If you took the same contract in a fully engineered Corvette, with an Elite combat rank, it's going to be a walk in the park.

To answer your question, no, courier missions are always viable for rank up. The missions for ascension are random, but influenced by the state and economy of the minor faction offering the mission. So if combat isn't your thing, you can either board flip until you get a mission you like (you continue getting rank, even at 100%), or go to different stations to try and find a more favorable economy/state for the kind of ascension missions you want (while grinding Empire rep, I got offered nothing but Hostage Rescues. So I went to a system in war that I had some rep with, got an Assassination mission on the first board).

Maenden said:
The devs from Frontier never seem to realise that there are people who play this game who have higher ideals than destroying everything that moves.
Click to expand...

I had always assumed they were simply ignoring them in the hope they'd go away .... like the rest of us.
 

Slange Lands

Slange Lands
OP, if you can stand to do the engineering grind as well as do a little research on ship builds and capabilities, you will be able to build such beastly ships that no matter how fail at combat you think you are you will be able to obliterate most NPCs

i just built a fully maxxed engineered battle conda and slowly float around the galaxy shooting stuff .... think Baron Harkonnen..... elite NPC's come at me head on and I don't even bother evading fire anymore, i just sit there and shoot with 3 pips to shields and 3 to weps and none to engines......... my hull has never been damaged....at the same time I slowly hover over the resulting swathe of combat material ejecta to help my limpet collect stuff

and i always get into the top 10% of CG's

and i also am a 53-year-old housewife


In ED, in PvE, having the correctly built ship for a given task is more important than pilot skill. Don't underestimate yourself!

:)
slange
 

Spaceman Si

Spaceman Si
Slange Lands said:
In ED, in PvE, having the correctly built ship for a given task is more important than pilot skill. Don't underestimate yourself!

:)
slange
Click to expand...

That is encouraging :) I have done the training combat mission a few times, but I am still rubbish at getting the second ship that pops up! I was very good at combat in Frontier and original Elite, so I guess it is just practice to some extent, but this game seems far more unforgiving in combat / easier to get it badly wrong very quickly!

I went res farming once.. Got a good kicking, and limped back to the Coriolis for repairs. I have, however, gotten remarkably good at avoiding interdictions, and I am about to go on a trial exploration run out where no one is going to be getting on my case anyway, so I might have some cash for a combat build when I get back ;)
 

ArchEmperor

ArchEmperor
Slange Lands said:
OP, if you can stand to do the engineering grind as well as do a little research on ship builds and capabilities, you will be able to build such beastly ships that no matter how fail at combat you think you are you will be able to obliterate most NPCs

i just built a fully maxxed engineered battle conda and slowly float around the galaxy shooting stuff .... think Baron Harkonnen..... elite NPC's come at me head on and I don't even bother evading fire anymore, i just sit there and shoot with 3 pips to shields and 3 to weps and none to engines......... my hull has never been damaged....at the same time I slowly hover over the resulting swathe of combat material ejecta to help my limpet collect stuff

and i always get into the top 10% of CG's

and i also am a 53-year-old housewife


In ED, in PvE, having the correctly built ship for a given task is more important than pilot skill. Don't underestimate yourself!

:)
slange
Click to expand...

You two should talk.

Or make a video about your ship and strategy. That might be instructional for those in need of expertise.
 

avow555

avow555
To be honest the rank up missions have been an absolute shambles since the begining.

Rng is just in your face in ED all the time and this is a perfect bad example of it.
 
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