Something that's really been throwing me for a loop, I have 2 (I think there 2C's) gimbled beam lasers with a 3000m range and I'll have a lock on a pirate say 2500m out, already been mixing it up for a while and suddenly they'll both go wonky. They both start tracking everywhere but the target and I still have a target lock, when I watched a video of a Sidewinder interdicting a Corvette, I noticed he kept going into "Silent Running" and I'm wondering if that could be what the problem is with my lasers? If I get inside 500m they'll reacquire the target.
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Newcomer / Intro Need advice on combat ship
- Thread starter 0threeleven
- Start date
Silent Running reduces the tracking signature of the target so you would lose lock, this behaviour as the Ninja @Zieman just said will be down to them releasing Chaff.
If you get close enough to the target the chaff can't cause the gimbles or turrets to deflect enough to miss all the time but the smaller the ship the closer you need to be and it doesn't work well for ships where the distance between the hardpoints is bigger than the size of the target.
Yea, sounds like they used a chaff or possibly popped a heatsink.
A heat sink should break the lock the same way silent running would.
As stated already that is what Elite calls Chaff - when your target starts chaffing get in close or wait for the chaff to finish or better yet - un-target them (click target ahead when nowt there) and fire on them as if you had fixed weapons.
The last few words of this are really crucial, so it's worth double-checking that you have really deselected your target instead of choosing another - I'm sure plenty of us have learned this the hard way by accidentally targetting a friendly ship! (Followed by bad things happening...)
Did you try that? I keep hearing people mention that on the forum. I tried it, and found it a complete waste of time. Once you de-target them, it' a bit of a faff to re-target them, and what's worse, in the panic of battle, it's possible to retarget the wrong ship, like the police! I find it a lot easier to just wait or move in close to land as much fire as possible. Best still, of course, is to use a fighter with fixed weapons, which stops the targets from using their chaff. It also stops them from shooting aat you most of the time, so that's a win win.
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Okay, that makes total sense.
Got it, fixed weapons won't jump around, they stay right where you point them. Can this game even get more complicated? I love it............
On another note, I made competent today, raked in about 12,000,000 Cr in the process. You guys are a huge help, I wish I could by you all a beer!
I have to be super carful all the time (I've done this with my cannon), those System Authority guys in their huge gunboats (Anacondas) swing around like a battleship, me and the other guy got the full on furball going looping around and it never fails, his loop ends right in front of an Annie, and they'll pop a chaff. I've been told more than once to watch my fire.The last few words of this are really crucial, so it's worth double-checking that you have really deselected your target instead of choosing another - I'm sure plenty of us have learned this the hard way by accidentally targetting a friendly ship! (Followed by bad things happening...)
Sounds like you’re moving on. At first system security are your shield to hide behind, taking pot shots and stealing the glory. A little while later they’re little more than a nuisance, stealing your kills and worse even than that they fly like idiots through your fire and then blame you for their incompetence.
At some point you may find yourself going to Compromised Navigation Beacons where security don’t patrol and higher level npcs are available to hunt, often increasing bounties but certainly increasing your ranking opportunities - unfortunately they’re not as pretty a location or as much fun to fly and boost around as a rocky or icy planetary ring.
Regarding the gimballed beams being thrown off by chaff, I agree with the tactic of either holding fire (save your distributor, recharge shields or whatever you need) or if your power distributor has the power, just keep firing and accept fewer but still some strikes on target. I always target subsystems (shields, FSD, power plant but usually my favourite, drives) and having to re-target the ship and then reselect the sub system is more hassle than it’s worth, especially as some npcs appear to have a vast amount of chaff. I suspect they just love glitter.
At some point you may find yourself going to Compromised Navigation Beacons where security don’t patrol and higher level npcs are available to hunt, often increasing bounties but certainly increasing your ranking opportunities - unfortunately they’re not as pretty a location or as much fun to fly and boost around as a rocky or icy planetary ring.
Regarding the gimballed beams being thrown off by chaff, I agree with the tactic of either holding fire (save your distributor, recharge shields or whatever you need) or if your power distributor has the power, just keep firing and accept fewer but still some strikes on target. I always target subsystems (shields, FSD, power plant but usually my favourite, drives) and having to re-target the ship and then reselect the sub system is more hassle than it’s worth, especially as some npcs appear to have a vast amount of chaff. I suspect they just love glitter.
Hey, that's a good idea, I hate it when they run away. They start moving away fast in a straight line and I keep boosting, draining my lasers hammering away with the cannon. I get about half of them, great tip.........
Oh, definitely worth doing. Shooting out their drives gives me a sadistic tickle but shields are good for obvious reasons but the same can be said for FSD. I can’t think which mission type I have in mind but one of them (probably Assassination or something ) have really annoying npcs that fight until their shields are down, hull plummeting only to jump out and return magically healed. Target their FSD to prevent that.
Targeting the power plant is perhaps the most effective, they will often be destroyed long before it gets to 0%.
Its worth binding a button to ‘cycle subsystems’ if you haven’t already, so you can scroll through them rather than open the left hand panel and do it the long way - whichever way works best for you.
Targeting the power plant is perhaps the most effective, they will often be destroyed long before it gets to 0%.
Its worth binding a button to ‘cycle subsystems’ if you haven’t already, so you can scroll through them rather than open the left hand panel and do it the long way - whichever way works best for you.
What about those massacre missions? Are they pretty tough? I don't want to get mauled by a bunch of NPC wing buddy's, I noticed there're getting tougher (the NPC's), they've actually drained my shields a couple time (wings of 3 or more) but with all the hull and module reinforcements I have, they only get me down to 93% on my modules before I took care of all of them.
Just be aware there was (so it might come back if it has been fixed) a bug where an NPC with damaged drives would drift out of range at full throttle speed, a right pain to deal with.Hey, that's a good idea, I hate it when they run away. They start moving away fast in a straight line and I keep boosting, draining my lasers hammering away with the cannon. I get about half of them, great tip.........
I put it down to the last thing they did was hit full speed just as the drive was destroyed and with no drives they are effectively flying FA-Off so will continue on that direction and speed until they hit something to slow them down.
No, that's not it. It's about the target NPCs' behaviour. You set the fighter on the target ship and wait for it to land a shot. Once the target has gone red, it will chase around after the fighter. It won't chaff because the game knows that the fighter has fixed weapons and therefore has no effect. That means you can shoot the target ship without it chaffing and without it shooting back at you, and it will continue until either the fighter pops or the target ship gets dowwn to about 25% hull. In those cases, it will immediately chaff if it has it, then turn on you, but that's normally too late for it.Okay, that makes total sense.
Got it, fixed weapons won't jump around, they stay right where you point them. Can this game even get more complicated? I love it............
On another note, I made competent today, raked in about 12,000,000 Cr in the process. You guys are a huge help, I wish I could by you all a beer!
Do them from Ngalinn. there's a low RES in the target systen, where the NPCs are all low rank and can hardly fight back. A Vulture there is over-kill. the only thing to watch out for is nission-spawned NPCs that try to interdict you on the way between the star and the planet. their rank will be commensurate with your own. Rather than letting them interdict you, fight the interdiction, which you should always win. if you do get pulled out, just boost away with 4 pips to engines and 2 to shields and get back into supercruise ASAP. Any that messages you and doesn't interdict you or that you run away from will appear in the RES soon after you arrive, so be ready for it. At least you'll have the police helping you there. If your own rank is less than master, none of them will be a problem for a Vulture.
In the low RES, you don't have to do anything like targeting power plants. Just point and shoot to see the NPCs pop after about 3 seconds.
i'm making about 500 mil per trip, which takes about 2 1/2 hrs using an over-kill gun-boat. it takes about another 40 minutes to stack the missions, but i do that by leaving the game running while I do other stuff on my PC so it doesn't really take any time. The mission board refreshess every 10 mins on the exact 10 mins of the clock, e.g. 12:00, 12:10, 12:20, etc.
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Holy crap, I had misunderstood your comment too. That's amazingly dumb AI behaviour... :-S
Well, I screwed up and you guys warned me about this. I was at the HAS Res site and went after a pirate Annie, I like those ships because of the hi-grade mats they yield after they explode. It had gotten into a group of System Authority Annie's and my guns started bouncing around, so I cycled the targeting scanner and locked on to a system cop and started blasting away. All hell broke loose, I had 4 red blips shooting at me and big yellow words on my wind shield telling me I was a fugitive.
I started boosting like mad to break the mass lock and high-waked the hell out of there. I decided to go back to Jaques Station and pay the bounty on me and it wouldn't let me pay it. I logged out and back in still the same, so I googled it, found a post here from last summer and they were saying I had to leave the system and try to find one with no influence from the bounty issuer to be able to pay it. What gives? Why can't I pay it where I'm at? Is there something I'm missing?
I started boosting like mad to break the mass lock and high-waked the hell out of there. I decided to go back to Jaques Station and pay the bounty on me and it wouldn't let me pay it. I logged out and back in still the same, so I googled it, found a post here from last summer and they were saying I had to leave the system and try to find one with no influence from the bounty issuer to be able to pay it. What gives? Why can't I pay it where I'm at? Is there something I'm missing?
You are trying to pay off a bounty - so you need to use an Interstellar Factor.