Newcomer / Intro Kaboom!

Thwarptide

Banned
Thwarptide
I'm taking up a second path of PVE to break up the monotony of exploration. My combat experience is naught but Competent. I've not enjoyed it thus far. Buuut I thought I'd give it another go with a different ship, hull tank set up based on Cmdr advice.

So I was taking my new hull tanked krait mk2 for some engineering. About 5ls on before final planet approach, an NPC in a PYTHON (expert) ganks me out of SC.
SOMETIMES I like to take some pot shots and sting their tails as they jump out of there since I have nothing of interest in the hold.
Out came my 3D cannons and 2E burst lasers. Apparently he didn't take to kindly to the burst lasers in his rear end. (would you?) Then while I was hammering his butt, he did something I didn't expect at all, he turned around and the fight was on, guns blazing! Keep in mind this is my first one on one with an npc let alone one of such Caliber. I didn't expect the fight to last as long as it did. It seemed we were equally matched ship wise.

Seems to me that fighting is a lot like Jousting. Run, turn charge, and repeat. Bah! I kept him in my sights most of the time, when he slipped me, the turrets kept on him. His sheilds down, 67% hull, 87% mine, I was hoping to keep the edge on. But then he pulled a fast burn out to 6km and held position. I figured he was trying to get his sheilds back. The fights gone on too long for my comfort level. Time for a new tactic.

I remembered reading about targeting systems. Unsure of what would be a good system to target, I went for the power plant then as his sheilds got to the first ring (30%?) I boosted right at em, guns blaze'n and took away his sheilds. A couple flips latter..... KABOOM! My hull got to 74% and nothing on the tank has been engineered yet. Not too bad.

Honestly that fight was a blast! (winning usually is, huh?)
But I'm totally curious about his behavior. I have never taken a poke at an NPC interdiction effort and not had em turn and fight. They have always jumped out.

Why this time?
(and)
Were my tactics pretty sound?
 
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Chris Simon

Chris Simon
Thwarptide said:
I'm taking up a second path of PVE to break up the monotony of exploration. My combat experience is naught but Competent. I've not enjoyed it thus far. Buuut I thought I'd give it another go with a different ship, hull tank set up based on Cmdr advice.

So I was taking my new hull tanked krait mk2 for some engineering. About 5ls on before final planet approach, an NPC in a PYTHON (expert) ganks me out of SC.
SOMETIMES I like to take some pot shots and sting their tails as the jump out of there since I have nothing of interest in the hold.
Out came my 3D cannons and 2E burst lasers. Apparently he didn't take to kindly to the burst lasers in his rear end. (would you?) Then while I was hammering his butt, he did something I didn't expect at all, he turned around and the fight was on, guns blazing! Keep in mind this is my first one on one with an npc let alone one of such Caliber. I didn't expect the fight to last as long as it did. It seemed we were equally matched ship wise.

Seems to me that fighting is a lot like Jousting. Run, turn charge, and repeat. Bah! I kept him in my sights most of the time, when he slipped me, the terrates kept on him. His sheilds down, 67% hull, 87% mine, I was hoping to keep the edge on. But then he pulled a fast burn out to 6km and held position. I figured he was trying to get his sheilds back. The fights gone on too long for my comfort level. Time for a new tactic.

I remembered reading about targeting systems. Unsure of what would be a good system to target, I went for the power plant then as his sheilds got to the first ring (30%?) I boosted right at em, guns blaze'n and took away his sheilds. A couple flips latter..... KABOOM! My hull got to 67% and nothing on the tank has been engineered yet. Not too bad.

Honestly that fight was a blast! (winning usually is, huh?)
But I'm totally curious about his behavior. I have never taken a poke at an NPC interdiction effort and not had em turn and fight. They have always jumped out.

Why this time?
(and)
Was my tactics pretty sound?
Click to expand...
If you destroy NPC's powerplant, there is a chance they're gonna blow up right away. (if that's what you're asking, I got kind of lost in your post :LOL:)
 

[PS4] Lorenzo Waringos

[PS4] Lorenzo Waringos
I'm no combat expert. I do what I can.

They do that jousting thing you talked about, a lot. One key thing I learned is to try ( I know you have eyes all over the place) on your throttle. Trying to keep it in the blue will give you more manoeuvrability. I have also recently been able to mainly prevent that jousting by 'upping and downing' the throttle. I'm in a Python, which is fairly sluggish.

I'm probably the worst person to take combat advice from, plenty of people on here (most in fact) will be able to give you much better advice BUT I would say, just keep at it. You will win sometimes you will lose sometimes but hopefully you will learn a bit more all times. I haven't lost against an NPC in a long time but my ship build is fairly solid, I've not changed the build in so long, I intuitively know when it is time to run. The last time I cut it fine, I escaped with no shields and 3% hull.

Best of luck.
 

Thwarptide

Banned
Thwarptide
Chris Simon said:
If you destroy NPC's powerplant, there is a chance they're gonna blow up right away. (if that's what you're asking, I got kind of lost in your post :LOL:
Click to expand...
Well, yes. Remembering to take the time to target sub-systems was a new tactic for me to employ. Just wish I could have found the time in the craziness to launch the ships fighter too. As it was, the time it took to target the power plant and get on his butt while he tried to get his sheilds back was the right tactic. Anymore time and I think the fight would have dragged on to the wire.

However, I'd still like to know why he chose to fight (over nothing) instead of jumping out like they usually do? Perhaps because both ships were closely matched?
Either way, I made out with a big bounty and some really good salvage.
 

Thwarptide

Banned
Thwarptide
XloubellXX said:
I'm no combat expert. I do what I can.

They do that jousting thing you talked about, a lot. One key thing I learned is to try ( I know you have eyes all over the place) on your throttle. Trying to keep it in the blue will give you more manoeuvrability. I have also recently been able to mainly prevent that jousting by 'upping and downing' the throttle. I'm in a Python, which is fairly sluggish.

I'm probably the worst person to take combat advice from, plenty of people on here (most in fact) will be able to give you much better advice BUT I would say, just keep at it. You will win sometimes you will lose sometimes but hopefully you will learn a bit more all times. I haven't lost against an NPC in a long time but my ship build is fairly solid, I've not changed the build in so long, I intuitively know when it is time to run. The last time I cut it fine, I escaped with no shields and 3% hull.

Best of luck.
Click to expand...
Well Cmdr, I did keep the throttle in the blue line (lower end) and stayed on him pretty well. My bigger challenge was pip management. It all takes a tremendous amount of of coordination effort while yer trying to keep the ship on target. I'm sure that on a long enough time line it will all become 2nd nature.

Last time I got owned by an NPC was in a hi-rez in a Python against an Anaconda and a bunch of security forces envolved. Eventually he got into my hull and started tearing me up. So I switched pip to sys and eng and started hitting the boosters to get out of range and jump out. KAAAAABOOM!
I've out-run Condas before, no sweat. I got real discouraged, jumped in my Phantom and went back to exploring for a couple months.
I'm not intent on picking fights with ships of similar Caliber until I grind out getting mine engineered. Heck, I was surprised I won this fight at all.

So until I understand why the NPC didn't run away, I'm just going to do my best to escape interdictions. When I can't, I'll let em scan me and move on.
 
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Thwarptide

Banned
Thwarptide
aRJay said:
You probably did more damage this time than you did to the ones that just kept on jumping out and annoyed him.
Click to expand...
Well, I must have annoyed him TO DEATH then. (that was a fun kill)
By the way aRJay..... You'll be pleased to know that THIS WAS YOUR BUILD you offered in another thread if you recall. So thanks again. Yer Aces!
1594509734122.png
 

NorthernDevo

NorthernDevo
Thwarptide said:
I'm taking up a second path of PVE to break up the monotony of exploration. My combat experience is naught but Competent. I've not enjoyed it thus far. Buuut I thought I'd give it another go with a different ship, hull tank set up based on Cmdr advice.

So I was taking my new hull tanked krait mk2 for some engineering. About 5ls on before final planet approach, an NPC in a PYTHON (expert) ganks me out of SC.
SOMETIMES I like to take some pot shots and sting their tails as the jump out of there since I have nothing of interest in the hold.
Out came my 3D cannons and 2E burst lasers. Apparently he didn't take to kindly to the burst lasers in his rear end. (would you?) Then while I was hammering his butt, he did something I didn't expect at all, he turned around and the fight was on, guns blazing! Keep in mind this is my first one on one with an npc let alone one of such Caliber. I didn't expect the fight to last as long as it did. It seemed we were equally matched ship wise.

Seems to me that fighting is a lot like Jousting. Run, turn charge, and repeat. Bah! I kept him in my sights most of the time, when he slipped me, the turrets kept on him. His sheilds down, 67% hull, 87% mine, I was hoping to keep the edge on. But then he pulled a fast burn out to 6km and held position. I figured he was trying to get his sheilds back. The fights gone on too long for my comfort level. Time for a new tactic.

I remembered reading about targeting systems. Unsure of what would be a good system to target, I went for the power plant then as his sheilds got to the first ring (30%?) I boosted right at em, guns blaze'n and took away his sheilds. A couple flips latter..... KABOOM! My hull got to 67% and nothing on the tank has been engineered yet. Not too bad.

Honestly that fight was a blast! (winning usually is, huh?)
But I'm totally curious about his behavior. I have never taken a poke at an NPC interdiction effort and not had em turn and fight. They have always jumped out.

Why this time?
(and)
Were my tactics pretty sound?
Click to expand...
NPC's tend to 'joust' because players tend to fly forward - that's why their AI boosts constantly towards the player. It's the most effective tactic for a simple AI to survive against a lower-skilled player - no offence at all intended. By Jousting, the NPC gets hits in while boosting past the player's arc of fire, forcing him to turn into another joust.
It's a total PITA if you don't expect it - and even if you do, if his boost speed is faster than your reverski it's a serious annoyance.

The way to beat a joust is to expect it - and reverse the moment he attacks, while applying full down-thrusters. That keeps him in your arc of fire, forces him to change his trajectory and, if you're quick enough, puts you in firing position once his boost runs out and he turns away, giving you several seconds of a clear shot.at his keister.
WHILE an NPC is Boosting during a joust, he will maintain that attitude - it's only a few seconds so you need to be quick - but if you can get on his stern his components are all yours.
Naturally, the BEST way to beat a joust is to fly FA/off and just drift with the dude, pounding him like crazy, matching him move for move - lower ranked NPC's are pitiful against FA/off. but if you're FA/on, that's your best tactic.
You're alive and he ain't - sounds like you dun good to me!
o7 !
 

the100thmonkey

the100thmonkey
Krait Mk. II? Occasional, non-sustained combat with only single targets?

You need frag cannons. Even vanilla frags put out a frightening DPS, and if you're only interested in winning one fight at a time, they're unparalleled. For RES/CZ farming, you'll need to engineer them (I go for high-capacity because in a CZ a kill is a kill is a kill, and you want as much ammunition as possible in order to win all the scenarios), but for individual encounters, 5 frags in a Krait is just insane.
 

Thwarptide

Banned
Thwarptide
the100thmonkey said:
but for individual encounters, 5 frags in a Krait is just insane.
Click to expand...
By chance, you're not admitting to having a mental health issues while playing with big guns are you?? 😝😁
Actually the one on one was merely an unintended happenstance. I just meant to put a sting in his behind as he was supposed to jump out as per norm. Guess it stung too much. Now he's dead.
I'll look at the frag option for sure Cmdr Monkey 07
 
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Thwarptide

Banned
Thwarptide
NorthernDevo said:
NPC's tend to 'joust' because players tend to fly forward - that's why their AI boosts constantly towards the player. It's the most effective tactic for a simple AI to survive against a lower-skilled player - no offence at all intended. By Jousting, the NPC gets hits in while boosting past the player's arc of fire, forcing him to turn into another joust.
It's a total PITA if you don't expect it - and even if you do, if his boost speed is faster than your reverski it's a serious annoyance.

The way to beat a joust is to expect it - and reverse the moment he attacks, while applying full down-thrusters. That keeps him in your arc of fire, forces him to change his trajectory and, if you're quick enough, puts you in firing position once his boost runs out and he turns away, giving you several seconds of a clear shot.at his keister.
WHILE an NPC is Boosting during a joust, he will maintain that attitude - it's only a few seconds so you need to be quick - but if you can get on his stern his components are all yours.
Naturally, the BEST way to beat a joust is to fly FA/off and just drift with the dude, pounding him like crazy, matching him move for move - lower ranked NPC's are pitiful against FA/off. but if you're FA/on, that's your best tactic.
Click to expand...
I actually found myself doing a bit of this. When he Flys off I just hit the brakes because he's extremely vulnerable from behind and while doing flip, guns blaze'n. As he boosts I go reverse, guns blaze'n and as he gets closer, pummel him with the cannons as I try to flip the throttle. That's the point where keeping the nose on him is tricky. (cannon turrets keep on him while I catch up. But I'm not always successful. BUT I GONNA IMPLEMENT the down thrusters suggestion. Sounds like a dern fine tactic to me. 07
 

Malcolm Tucker

Malcolm Tucker
Hit the brakes and he'll fly right by. Seems to work on nearly every rank, both coming at you and after passing you.

Careful use of ones throttle keeps you on their tail as well.

They don't mind using chaff etc either at the higher ranks, so learn to aim by yourself if using gimpals and/or turrets.

Oh and a corrosive multicannon goes a long way too.
 

Thwarptide

Banned
Thwarptide
Malcolm Tucker said:
Hit the brakes and he'll fly right by. Seems to work on nearly every rank, both coming at you and after passing you.

Careful use of ones throttle keeps you on their tail as well.

They don't mind using chaff etc either at the higher ranks, so learn to aim by yourself if using gimpals and/or turrets.

Oh and a corrosive multicannon goes a long way too.
Click to expand...
Yep, I'm currently fighting in a rez, both training my crew and getting my combat rating past competent. (45% now) so I can unlock the engineer and get the hull tank upgraded. . That's only moved 2 points though I've whacked several pythons, anacondas and quite a few small ships. What kind of gring is this? Sheesh FDEV, I'm not getting any younger.

I've implemented a few of the tactics suggested here. Boy what a difference.
I took on a Python (one on one), security never showed up. Applying the new tactics, he never made a dent in my sheilds. KAAAAABOOM! 🤪

You'll never know how much I appreciate everyones advice and input. It's really coming together, though I feel clumsy atm, I'm sure things will develop into 2nd nature.
Thank you all.
Saaaaalute!
1594667855451~01.png
 
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Thwarptide

Banned
Thwarptide
Hehehe,
Lesson #2
Never start a fight with an Anaconda in hi-rez (let someone else do it).
Thank goodness there was security around, though they can't shoot (they hit me plenty of times.
End result he goes KABOOM and I'm heavily battle damaged (barely got out of this one)
Godda get to Expert, unlock that engineer and get things upgraded.
PS_Messages_20200713_162402.jpg

PS_Messages_20200713_162404.jpg
 
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Chris Simon

Chris Simon
Thwarptide said:
Hehehe,
Lesson #2
Never start a fight with an Anaconda in hi-rez (let someone else do it).
Thank goodness there was security around, though they can't shoot (they hit me plenty of times.
End result he goes KABOOM and I'm heavily battle damaged (barely got out of this one)
Godda get to Expert, unlock that engineer and get things upgraded.
View attachment 180927
View attachment 180928
Click to expand...
Nice scars. :)
And you're quite lucky to have a good life support. I usually equip the D-rated one, so I only have 7 minutes to find a port. It's quite an adrenaline, considering the lack of HUD and everything. :LOL:
 
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