Overheating FdL immediately I fire

[PGP1948]

Hi, being playing for a few weeks only as trader (mostly with Python) and achieved the Elite target really just to build up cash so that I could change to a combat ship and work my way up to a 2* Elite

So checked advice and bought a FdL, copied a fit out for combat and tried a bit of bounty hunting. Immediate disaster, overheated instantly, just got away without being killed. Readjusted all the module priority levels so that 1, 2 and 3 all well less than 100% (total only 104%) and tried firing - same again, instant damaging overheating.

Read a bit, swapped hardpoints as recommended in someone else's thread, tried again, same result, instant overheating! In this build the total power with everything in 1 priority is well less than 100%. I realise that heat build up and power use are not directly linked.

My current Fer-de-Lance build is as below.

Hardpoints: 4A Multi cannon, 2F Pulse laser (x4)
Utility Mounts: 0A Shield booster (x4), 0C Kill Warrant scanner, 01 Heat sink launcher
Core Internal: 1C lightweight alloys, 6A Power plant, 5A Thrusters, 4A FSD, 4A Life support, 6A Power distributor, 4A sensor, 3C fuel tank cap 8)
Optional Internal: 5A Shield generator, 4E Cargo rack (cap 16), 4A Shield cell bank, 2C Fuel tank (cap 4), 1E Advanced docking computer, 1E Super cruise assist, 1l Planetary approach suite

I'm currently only playing in Elite Dangerous on the basis I thought it would be good to achieve 3* Elite in that (trade, combat, exploration) before upgrading to Horizons. Hence, don't have access to engineers. The other problems is that supoercruise assist and auto docking don't work, despite definately being 'enabled'.

HELP PLEASE!

 

[Spacerschoice-00]

Are you using shield cell in same fire group as weapons?

 

[robbyp]

A few weeks and you are Elite.. it needs to be made much harder. In my day it tooks months if not years ..

 

[Vedmo]

The only thing you can really do to avoid heat build up with no engineering is make sure you have 4 pips in WEP when firing, and let off before you have sapped the capacitor. The lower the capacitor gets the more heat (especially those pulse) you'll get.

before upgrading to Horizons. Hence, don't have access to engineers.

Everybody has Horizons now, it is free. I've never used SCA so don't know there, but auto docking if enabled once you have been given docking permission you just go to zero throttle and it takes over. It isn't doing that? (Sorry, not trying to be patronizing)

 

[Nightjar]

Build should be viable. Without engineering it won't be up to much, but a decent starter. Insta-heat? Fire groups (as spacer said above)? Take it out of the no-fire zone and experiment. Multi's don't generate heat much. Pulse's will fire for while. Shield Cells will boil you fast. Learn pips.
It's not quite as simple as you seem to think.
o7

 

[Bottom Hat]

Hardpoints don't affect heat - that is solely weapons, unless you are firing your shield cells when you don't want them! Also, power priorities don't affect heat, unless the above applies too.

My honest advice, would be to go back to the drawing board a bit, ie - go back to the python, and outfit it for combat. It's not the best with heat management, but easier than the fdl, and it can still kick bottom.

As has been said though, engineers are your friend here in general. But a huge amount of choice!

 

[CMDR Serra]

Are you using shield cell in same fire group as weapons?

Agree with this - and others - above. Take the SCB off and try again. If that fixes it, it's your fire groups.

 

[Quantis Trap]

A few pointers OP.

Before engineering:
In medium sized, you might want to try a little more heat tolerant fighter build like a Chieftain, Challenger, Crusader or Krait MkII build.

With a tiny bit of engineering:
Unlock Hera Tani from Liz Ryder and engineer your power plant to be much cooler with "Armoured" engineering.
Unlock the dweller for Thermal Vent Beam Lasers.

 

[Llandrenel]

So I noted a couple of things you mentioned

1;

So checked advice and bought a FdL, copied a fit out for combat

If you straight up copied a combat build someone else has made then you almost definitely need the engineering.

2;

My current Fer-de-Lance build is as below.

Hardpoints: 4A Multi cannon, 2F Pulse laser (x4)
Utility Mounts: 0A Shield booster (x4), 0C Kill Warrant scanner, 01 Heat sink launcher
Core Internal: 1C lightweight alloys, 6A Power plant, 5A Thrusters, 4A FSD, 4A Life support, 6A Power distributor, 4A sensor, 3C fuel tank cap 8)
Optional Internal: 5A Shield generator, 4E Cargo rack (cap 16), 4A Shield cell bank, 2C Fuel tank (cap 4), 1E Advanced docking computer, 1E Super cruise assist, 1l Planetary approach suite

As others have said, those pulses will heat up pretty quick, as well as if you accidentally set your shield cells onto the main fire group with the rest of it.

3;

I'm currently only playing in Elite Dangerous on the basis I thought it would be good to achieve 3* Elite in that (trade, combat, exploration) before upgrading to Horizons. Hence, don't have access to engineers. The other problems is that supoercruise assist and auto docking don't work, despite definately being 'enabled'.

2-parter this one;
- Again as other's have said, horizons became free with the main game some time ago, so unless you're using an install that's a few years old and have somehow managed to play without updating, you're on horizons.

- As for the SCA and AD not working, for docking, all you do is request dock then set throttle to 0, it will take over - assuming of course, the docking computer isn't one of the things set to priority 3 or something so that your overall 104% power is turning it off even when hardpoints are not deployed. Same with the SCA, though you have to manually activate that one, when in supercruise, point at your target, open left panel, select your target and the buttons underneath will be "unlock target" (since it'll already be locked) > "Supercruise Assist" > something > something > darkside.

 

[lotusexcelle]

A few weeks and you are Elite.. it needs to be made much harder. In my day it tooks months if not years ..

I like gatekeeping like this. It takes into consideration the way games and their players never change and are all the same. When I first started the game there weren't all these ships so everyone shouldn't have ships that weren't available in the past.

 

[Llandrenel]

I like gatekeeping like this. It takes into consideration the way games and their players never change and are all the same. When I first started the game there weren't all these ships so everyone shouldn't have ships that weren't available in the past.

While I understand the sentiment put through by your sarcasm, I do in part agree with them, I mean, even as it stands I've been playing this account for... since whenever it was epic did their giveaway ( I have a fully paid for account on steam too, back when horizons was still purchasable dlc, just for the record) and I've been working on nothing but my fed rank / money to buy new ships to get bigger, better missions and I'm still only part way through Ensign.

I'm not saying combat rank should be harder "cause it used to be" but more to give a more relative progression to the other acheivables. Cause I did nothing but trading/mining&selling for the first few weeks and my trade rank still isn't great. But If I were to get into some combat it's easy enough to farm harmless hostiles and still get rank, Or jump into a combat zone and fire off a few rounds at ships that are already being bullied by the NPC and still get exp for it.

And while I'm in no way saying this is what the OP did to acheive combat elite this quickly. Only mentioning that combat elite isn't too difficult to acheive. Only reason I don't have it myself is cause I mostly stick to non-combat missions, I'm a peaceful freighter/explorer for the most part.

 

[Just Paul]

Hi, being playing for a few weeks only as trader (mostly with Python) and achieved the Elite target really just to build up cash so that I could change to a combat ship and work my way up to a 2* Elite

So checked advice and bought a FdL, copied a fit out for combat and tried a bit of bounty hunting. Immediate disaster, overheated instantly, just got away without being killed. Readjusted all the module priority levels so that 1, 2 and 3 all well less than 100% (total only 104%) and tried firing - same again, instant damaging overheating.

Read a bit, swapped hardpoints as recommended in someone else's thread, tried again, same result, instant overheating! In this build the total power with everything in 1 priority is well less than 100%. I realise that heat build up and power use are not directly linked.

My current Fer-de-Lance build is as below.

Hardpoints: 4A Multi cannon, 2F Pulse laser (x4)
Utility Mounts: 0A Shield booster (x4), 0C Kill Warrant scanner, 01 Heat sink launcher
Core Internal: 1C lightweight alloys, 6A Power plant, 5A Thrusters, 4A FSD, 4A Life support, 6A Power distributor, 4A sensor, 3C fuel tank cap 8)
Optional Internal: 5A Shield generator, 4E Cargo rack (cap 16), 4A Shield cell bank, 2C Fuel tank (cap 4), 1E Advanced docking computer, 1E Super cruise assist, 1l Planetary approach suite

I'm currently only playing in Elite Dangerous on the basis I thought it would be good to achieve 3* Elite in that (trade, combat, exploration) before upgrading to Horizons. Hence, don't have access to engineers. The other problems is that supoercruise assist and auto docking don't work, despite definately being 'enabled'.

HELP PLEASE!

It's most likely related to the energy left in the weapons capacitor. If it goes under 30% your weapon fire heats dumps more heat into your ship. Stop firing for a bit and/or put more pips into the weapons cap. Engineering your weapons and PD also helps.
Horizon is part of the base game now and engineering is a big part of the game play. Even higher ranked npcs have engineered ships. I would take the side quest of engineering before continuing with the triple elite quest. The ships are much more fun engineered.

 

[lordzaz]

And while I'm in no way saying this is what the OP did to acheive combat elite this quickly.

He's trader Elite, not combat Elite, he's starting out in combat.


I only recently started out in combat too, I dipped my toe in to see where I am with it and realise I need to learn how to fly again lmao

I haven't gone straight to a FDL like the Op has but I made a similar mistake in picking the Chieftan as my bounty hunter because with just a little engineering to the PD and Beams I run, it's really forgiving, where I perhaps should be knocking about in a smaller ship for a while first, one that teaches harsher lessons..

 

[goemon]

this build is very much like the one i flew before horizons.

you might consider running a less MJ hefty one - but generally, if it IS overheating really the moment you press fire, my guess would be SCB in firegroup as well. the FDL pre engineering can run a bit hot if you outlast the powerplant - but not that much that it overheats as soon as you start firing.

 

[Llandrenel]

He's trader Elite, not combat Elite, he's starting out in combat.

Yes, of course, I misread that, my mistake.

Over all the point still stands though, I believe. Getting elite is too easy in some areas, and take a disproportionate amount of work in others, especially when compared to rank grinding with the superpowers.

Though this is another subject and rather off topic from the OP, for which I gave my piece of advice.

 

[Llandrenel]

this build is very much like the one i flew before horizons.

you might consider running a less MJ hefty one - but generally, if it IS overheating really the moment you press fire, my guess would be SCB in firegroup as well. the FDL pre engineering can run a bit hot if you outlast the powerplant - but not that much that it overheats as soon as you start firing.

Also what he said ↑↑↑

I also just had another thought. Sometimes the different units, whether the core internal or the weapons themselves, while superior overall to another unit, may have worse heat tolerance and cause overheating far more easily than a less powerful one that has better thermal management. You may also want to look into that between now and getting some engineering done.

 

[BL1P]

A few weeks and you are Elite.. it needs to be made much harder. In my day it tooks months if not years ..

Hehehe Months

 

[Ian Doncaster]

4A Shield cell bank

As others have said, almost certainly these are the problem if you're overheating instantly (as opposed to gradually getting a bit hot)

Shield cell banks when used
- generate immense amounts of heat
- recharge your shield substantially

This is why the build has a heat sink - when you (intentionally) use the shield cell bank, you should then a second or two later use the heat sink, to stop the shield cell bank overheating your ship.

As others have said, you shouldn't assign the SCB to your main firegroup. I would recommend not assigning it to a firegroup at all - both SCBs and heatsinks can be set to hotkeys, which is the easier way to use them. Then, when your shields run low (1 ring of 3, probably), fire the SCB and fire the heatsink using the hotkey.

Note: the SCB has four charges, and the heatsink only has three charges, so your final SCB use will just fry your ship. Options to deal with this:
1) Swap one of the shield boosters for a second heatsink. Then you have two spare for other cooling as well, and you probably get a little more use from the extra SCB than you would from the fourth booster.
2) Remember that this will happen and only use the SCB three times
3) Remember that this will happen, and only use it a fourth time if things are desperate and you'd rather take a bit of heat damage rather than lose the shield.
4) Later on, you'll be able to obtain high-capacity heat sinks with a fourth sink, but don't worry about that for now. Just mentioning it for completeness as the build you've found probably expects that you are doing this.

Core Internal: 1C lightweight alloys, 6A Power plant, 5A Thrusters, 4A FSD, 4A Life support, 6A Power distributor, 4A sensor, 3C fuel tank cap 8)

Consider reinforced or military alloys if you can afford them - the FDL doesn't have a strong base hull and you'll be in trouble if the shield drops. (Or see below about fitting some hull reinforcements in, if you can spare the internals)

Optional Internal: 5A Shield generator, 4E Cargo rack (cap 16), 4A Shield cell bank, 2C Fuel tank (cap 4), 1E Advanced docking computer, 1E Super cruise assist, 1l Planetary approach suite

If you swap the fuel tank for a collector limpet controller - this should be in a fire group, but not the same one as the weapons - you can fill that cargo rack with limpets and use them to pick up salvage after you win a fight: the bits you collect will come in useful later. If you're just going from a station to a combat in the same system, you won't need the extra fuel.

If you're comfortable with supercruise and/or docking, you can also get a bit more "in case it goes wrong" protection by putting hull or module reinforcements in place of the autopilot modules ... but that only works if you're not going to blow yourself up crashing into the station, of course.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

So you have silent running mapped to your fire button?

 

[Pug]

If your not doing PvP then buy a Python or Krait Mk2
Pug