Is there a skill to avoid "friendly fire" incidents?

[Skybird]

Like many fellow commanders, I too have fallen foul of the perils of "friendly fire", the most recent during a dual with me in my Cobra against a wanted scum commander, and scourge of the almighty federation, Captain Joubles, where having got his hull down to 10% and the likelihood of the 125k bounty coming my way, a federation authority vessel wandered into the path of my beam lasers with all the blissful ignorance of a hedgehog on the M25.

Instant fine, ok not much granted, but more perilous -- all authority vessels turned their attention to me, slaking through my shields in seconds and forcing me to leave Captain Joubles to live another day, warp to the nearest platform, and pay off my fine like a chav paying off their council tax. Oh, the shame!

Point is, does anyone have a good strategy to avoid this accident? I normally fight between 1-2 km from my targets and before I now what's happening, the authority vessels are between me and my prey. The radar is often to jam-packed with targets to make sense of where everyone is, if only authority ships were a different colour perhaps? Not saying that would fix it, but any clever commanders out there have a good ploy for mitigating these incidents?

 

[ste]

They are a different colour. The enemies are red. Unless you changed your hud.

 

[Skybird]

They are a different colour. The enemies are red. Unless you changed your hud.

Sorry commander, I meant a different colour from every other ship, targeted or not.

 

[Kitiara]

Some suggestions

If you're patrolling USS's trying to find pirates for missions, turn police reporting off. That will avoid having the police come in to assist you when you're attacked by a wanted target.

If you're in a resource extraction site or a nav beacon, then go for short bursts, manovering to keep the target in sight. Dont' get caught up in tracking the target to the exclusion of all else. Constant long duration fire is dangerous.

 

[Ikari]

I normally break fire and boost ahead of the authority vessel

 

[trigg88]

Like many fellow commanders, I too have fallen foul of the perils of "friendly fire", the most recent during a dual with me in my Cobra against a wanted scum commander, and scourge of the almighty federation, Captain Joubles, where having got his hull down to 10% and the likelihood of the 125k bounty coming my way, a federation authority vessel wandered into the path of my beam lasers with all the blissful ignorance of a hedgehog on the M25.

Instant fine, ok not much granted, but more perilous -- all authority vessels turned their attention to me, slaking through my shields in seconds and forcing me to leave Captain Joubles to live another day, warp to the nearest platform, and pay off my fine like a chav paying off their council tax. Oh, the shame!

Point is, does anyone have a good strategy to avoid this accident? I normally fight between 1-2 km from my targets and before I now what's happening, the authority vessels are between me and my prey. The radar is often to jam-packed with targets to make sense of where everyone is, if only authority ships were a different colour perhaps? Not saying that would fix it, but any clever commanders out there have a good ploy for mitigating these incidents?

Hi commander, what I did to overcome this problem was to not be so trigger happy when in combat and imagine that there your friends in the field and you will injure or kill a friend if not careful, get in closer and always be aware of who is in your field of fire.

 

[Yabba Addict]

Wow, I'm gonna give you rep for just asking for strategies rather than demanding that the game/AI/whatever else is broken


The only bounties I've incurred for ages is preemptive firing on criminals before scanning them. It's all in the scanner. If you switch it over to linear and have it set 2 notches above minimum sensor strength it becomes alot easier to read exactly who is where. The main inner circle is about 1 km so it becomes a doddle avoiding friendly fire. I've setup my x52 so that as soon as I enter combat mode my sensors readjust automatically. Just remember not to fixate on your target, keep half an eye on the scanner and let up if anyone else wanders too close.

 

[ste]

There is a bug where they will attack you whether you hit them or not. But I dont believe its that hard to check your fire if something crosses your path. And if you do manage to hit one like you said, just leave, pay the 600cr fine and return. No big deal really

 

[Skybird]

Wow, I'm gonna give you rep for just asking for strategies rather than demanding that the game/AI/whatever else is broken


The only bounties I've incurred for ages is preemptive firing on criminals before scanning them. It's all in the scanner. If you switch it over to linear and have it set 2 notches above minimum sensor strength it becomes alot easier to read exactly who is where. The main inner circle is about 1 km so it becomes a doddle avoiding friendly fire. I've setup my x52 so that as soon as I enter combat mode my sensors readjust automatically. Just remember not to fixate on your target, keep half an eye on the scanner and let up if anyone else wanders too close.

Wow, didn't know you could do this! Thanks a lot commander, will give this a try, cheers!

 

[Warbrand]

There is a skill that reduces friendly fire (FF):

Fire only short busts instead of continous fire,
Check Your Position after burst,
check target position,
check possible collateral targets on scanner
and continue chase,

with some training I managed that taktic quite well and reduced FF to a minimum.

if You are used to it, it doesnt affect the combat speed, but makes You much more effective.

Try it out

 

[graeme.firth]

For me it was simply practice.
Don't wish to come across as obnoxious. But practice, aiming, situation awareness has reduced the number of times I hit friendlys.
I still hit the occasional one but it's no biggy, bug out, pay the fine, fight on.

 

[Seonid]

What Warbrand said, it's the same principles that are used when it's not a game, just takes a bit of practice but soon becomes second nature.

 

[Clav]

Hi commander, what I did to overcome this problem was to not be so trigger happy when in combat and imagine that there your friends in the field and you will injure or kill a friend if not careful, get in closer and always be aware of who is in your field of fire.

This is the best way. As soon as something wanders into your field stop firing, id it, see where it is going and then decide whether to reposition or carry on.

 

[kilvenny]

In addition to the above wise advice I try and position so I am shooting away from other ships and at the same time forcing the opponent into isolation. If they try to run, let them for a short while because that will isolate them. You have to be careful with the smarter AI because they will jump out.

 

[Sandmann]

I think this is the 5th similar thread I've cross posted this into... I do wish people would read what's already there instead of starting new, identical ones. Oh well, here goes again...

Last night I completed the "Kill the General Something for rank progression" mission. It probably took me about 8 attempts to kill a federal dropship with a cobra but I eventually managed it. Every time he would call in friends (system authorities) and I would end up with a bounty, and would have to run away, dock, and pay it off.

That means that at least EIGHT TIMES I ran to a station (not a platform coz it was also the only place in system with a black market and I always had stuff to sell and I'm broke) and got into the station with a bounty AND stolen/illegal goods without being shot at. If I hadn't needed the black market or wasn't to lazy to leave the system I could have landed at a platform instead and it would have been even easier!

I'm not saying the bounty system is perfect, I'm saying follow some simple rules and work with what you have.

1: Probably the most annoying one to hear coz it involves personal responsibility, but learn to not shoot at the cops! True it's sometimes unavoidable, but 4 times out of 5 you do it if you are paying attention. How do I know this? Coz if I can do it with 49 year old dodgy reflexes, eyesight etc, so can you.

2: If you do get a bounty, realise that generally the cops will continue firing on a wanted NPC until he's dead before they turn on you. That means that MOST TIMES you can still get your money.

3: Pick your battles and don't be too proud to run. As soon as the NPC is dead, or as soon as the cops start firing on you GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE! Do not hang around getting all offended coz "you only shot him once by accident" or coz "we were allies"! He's shooting at you and so are his friends... RUN! Do NOT take them on, coz even if you do win you'll just go from a 200 bounty for an accidental shot to thousands for murder.

4: Go for a PLATFORM, not a station. Why? Platforms don't have security ships, duh! This won't work if you have a Type 9 or an Anaconda, but if you've been playing that long you don't need this guide.

5: Pay that sucker off! You don't need to go to the source system to pay off bounties, only fines. ANY system will have a pilots fed in the contacts where you can pay it off, that will stop them shooting at you. Then you can safely go to the source system and pay off any fines before they turn into bounties.

6: Check your map!! If you have a bounty and you're gonna jump to a station check the station out on your system map first. If you highlight it and it says WANTED! in big red letters and it's not a platform DON'T GO THERE!

Again, I'm not defeinding the bounty system, and I agree it's not perfect and needs work, but I'm SO tired of reading whinges from people who got killed by cops, not because the accidentally shot them but because they hung around afterwards feeling offended about it. Follow these rules, and you just might stop getting shot at.

A couple more things to help stop the cops being involved in the first place.
- If you don't want help, stop calling the cops. Turn off "Report crimes against me" in the right hand screen.
- Don't shoot him till you KNOW he's a bad guy. Scan him first, if it doesn't say WANTED, shooting at him will call in the cops.
- Scan him AGAIN before shooting if he jumps systems and you follow him. Just coz he's wanted in system A, doesn't mean he is in system B (unless you have a "Kill Warrant Scanner".)

 

[Hermann]

Tip don't hold down the trigger button continuously or stick to laser as canon shells tend travel a fair distance after missing.

 

[Ben Ryder]

"Is there a skill to avoid "friendly fire" incidents?"

Yes, dont shoot the police. Hold your fire if there's a chance you might shoot an innocent police officer.


I find it funny how peolpe complain that the Police keep wandering in to the paths of Vigilante players.

Police are the Law and have right of way.

Good luck and practice shooting carefully

 

[Bigcheese]

The AI is bad and the 1 hit death warrants are nonsensical.

Just avoid them the best you can. Pretty funny when friendly targets are your biggest concern but until the AI grows a brain you just have to be careful.

I think once more people start using turrets it will get more attention. There's a lot still flying beginning ships or people that don't do much combat trying to tell everyone that everything is fine. It's really not, but hopefully the devs work on how the AI flies and responds to minor accidents.

 

[Remiel]

The AI is bad and the 1 hit death warrants are nonsensical.

Just avoid them the best you can. Pretty funny when friendly targets are your biggest concern but until the AI grows a brain you just have to be careful.

The AI is fantastic and full of flavour, and one-hit death warrants are suitably dangerous for a game called Elite: Dangerous as opposed to being called Semi-Competent: Pansy

 

[Bigcheese]

The AI is fantastic abd full of flavour, and one-hit death warrants are suitably dangerous for a game called Elite: Dangerous as opposed to being called Semi-Competent: Pansy

I'll just paste my edit again:

I think once more people start using turrets it will get more attention. There's a lot still flying beginning ships or people that don't do much combat trying to tell everyone that everything is fine. It's really not, but hopefully the devs work on how the AI flies and responds to minor accidents.

No danger in leaving to clear a fine btw, just annoyance. Use your head. Don't get salty because you got served in some other thread.