Really damn close to giving up...

[RedwoodLynx]

Alright, here's the deal. I bought No Man's Sky and was completely disgusted with the lack of difficulty, no multiplayer, etc. Heard about ED, thought I'd give it a try. Was immensely impressed by what a total improvement it was over NMS. Here's my problem. In NMS I could easily blast away any enemy fighter even with the starter ship. I tried that here, got immediately blasted apart. "Fair enough" I thought; "I'm a total noob in a      ship, that's more or less what I was expected."

But now I'm about 25-30 hours in- I've read up on what ships are built to fight, trade, etc, did the "fly from station to station to grind up a few hundred thousand" bit, saved up, bought a Viper Mk III (that the internet tells me is one of the better fighters), get the hang of the whole "flight assist off" thing, deck out the fighter with a bunch of scary looking guns... and I'm still getting totally clobbered. Took an assassin mission rated "Harmless" with a 40k payout- get clobbered. Take a "hunt down and kill 2 ships from an enemy faction"... get clobbered. Try switching out my fixed lasers for the weaker gimballed in case its my aim... clobbered even harder.

What the     ? At what point does the game allow me to start playing the shooting part? I don't mind (and frankly, kinda like) the hauling and exploration bits, and I certainly respect a game that doesn't just hand you the keys to the best ship in the game, but this is just ridiculous. What am I doing wrong? I don't want to give up yet- I just don't know how much longer I can go having every fight turn into a total blowout.

 

[Lightspeed]

Have you tried the combat training ? ...... the game sucks unless you complete it

 

[Cmdr Frawd Digger]

This game never holds your hand Cmdr...it is you who has to improve if you want to fight the bad guys in combat.

Maybe post your ship build here and let other people critique it:

http://www.edshipyard.com/

Your build may have some fundamental flaw...

Also, maybe make a video of your combats and let others critique that too. It is possible to win against NPCs, it just takes practice and knowledge and practice.

And practice

Frawd

 

[RedwoodLynx]

Yep- did that- at least, I did a few of them. Learned the whole "get your speed into the blue bar." "lasers for shields, kinetic for hull." "Target subsystems to do x y and z." I just feel like I'm dying way too quickly...

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

I'm fine with the game not handholding, but if a mission is rated below your combat level, it should be at least doable. Thus far, no combat mission is.

 

[Turbosnowy]

It's all about knowing the following:

1) Fitting (understand what weapons do what, get best shields or armour you can, engines upgraded etc)
2) PIP management (4 to shields when being fired on, more to engines to get target in sights, 4 to guns when in sight and not being fired on)
3) Practice flying - FA off and boost usage to turn faster and get target in sights faster etc)
4) Knowing which targets you can likely take with your current setup and which you cant
5) Knowing how and when to disengage and bail if things start going south.

Now all of this comes with time and practice, plus watching a few youtube vids, reading a few guides would not hurt.

You'll have fun as you get better at it - everyone sucked when they 1st started out

Addendum: Sounds like you are trying combat missions - would they be the 'kill x enemy ships' ones? If so a combat zone or CZ is not a place for beginners to go as they can fry even the largest ships, and AI ships can gang up on you pretty quickly. Likewise Assassinate missions tend to spawn nasty targets and should be avoided in the beginning. If yuo just want to have fun shooting stuff, try going to the NAV beacon at a local star, scan ships around you and join in with any ships shooting at targets who are labelled as wanted - much easier, good fun and you'll learn to fight without dying so much that way.

 

[Kevris]

How are you playing the game? Are you using a controller or a HOTAS?

Have you played any kind of flight simulator or space simulator before? If I ask you what an Immelman turn is, would you know or would you have to look it up?

 

[Lightspeed]

Take a look at some of the earlier Youtube videos by Isinona ..... google him ..... watch how he manages his ship(s) and uses in game mechanics to best advantage .... I've learned a lot from these and am still not halfway to matching him

 

[ForeverN00b]

Redwood, combat missions generally pay fairly poorly and are not suited towards newer players. If I were you, I would build some bank balance by doing data delivery/hauling missions.

For combat practice, start with the nav beacon in your local solar system. Cruise around in the background until you see a firefight break out. Once this happens, scan the vessels involved and at least one of them will be "Wanted". Start wailing on the wanted vessel who should already be damaged as the fight ensues. You will get a bounty voucher for participating in the kill, assuming he dies.

You can work your way up to resource extraction sites, where the enemies will be a little more powerful. Avoid "Hazardous" RES sites, but all the others should have police to help you.

The problem with mission killing for a newer player is that you fail the mission if you are outgunned. Sometimes your target will make easy work of a Viper MkIII (unless you are a seasoned pilot). With my method, you can practice your combat but if you have to bug out to stay alive, do that! One of the Vipers biggest assets is it's speed, and that speed can save your life.

Edit: Successful bounty hunting at a NAV beacon or RES site will earn you credits, but unlike missions there is no failure penalty if you have to      before your target dies. In fact, you only fight the people you want to fight. Learn to fight by engaging targets on your terms, then you can work up to assassination missions, conflict zones, hazardous RES sites, etc... as your skill set grows.

Also, you have a Viper but are your internals all (or mostly) "A" grade? An un-upgraded ship (any ship) is quite useless in a firefight.

 

[RedwoodLynx]

Using a stick. I've played my share of flight sims before- never a space sim, but the skills are pretty translatable, and zero g makes perfect sense to me- I picked up no FA fairly quick. I don't have too much trouble tracking targets, I just feel like I get ripped apart way too easily.

I'm running 3C and 3D everything when it comes to internals... maybe that's my problem? (that's not sarcastic- I don't know if that's really awful or what). Also, the one thing I'm not so great on is the pips- maybe that's it.

 

[ForeverN00b]

Using a stick. I've played my share of flight sims before- never a space sim, but the skills are pretty translatable, and zero g makes perfect sense to me- I picked up no FA fairly quick. I don't have too much trouble tracking targets, I just feel like I get ripped apart way too easily.

I'm running 3C and 3D everything when it comes to internals... maybe that's my problem? (that's not sarcastic- I don't know if that's really awful or what). Also, the one thing I'm not so great on is the pips- maybe that's it.

For your internals, I would focus on getting "A" grade thrusters and power distributor. This may require an A grade powerplant as well. A ship does not really come into it's own until it is fully "A" rated (some modules like sensors you can get away with less to save weight or save money).

Weapon loadout makes a difference, but that is mostly personal preference. Try different weapons in a consistent battle area to find out what you like and what you don't. I've never flown a Viper so I don't have a worthwhile recommendation on a particular loadout.

 

[Lightspeed]

Using a stick. I've played my share of flight sims before- never a space sim, but the skills are pretty translatable, and zero g makes perfect sense to me- I picked up no FA fairly quick. I don't have too much trouble tracking targets, I just feel like I get ripped apart way too easily.

I'm running 3C and 3D everything when it comes to internals... maybe that's my problem? (that's not sarcastic- I don't know if that's really awful or what). Also, the one thing I'm not so great on is the pips- maybe that's it.

That is a major part of it - you have to be able to set pips quickly, to change from four pips to weapons (attack) to four pips to shields (Defence) ,,,and even four pips to engines to retreat ..... a lot is about pip management.

But you are also likely finding yourself at the mercy of NPCs which are simply outgunning you with engineered mods - there have been a lot of complaints about this, and we are all getting hit badly by them.

Coming to it as a "novice", you should not, in theory, be attacked by Elite or Dangerous NPC pilots equipped with powerful weapons, but who knows what is going on at the moment?

The thing is ... Elite is a game to stick with and get better - it's not a game to master immediately, and there are a lot of dimensions and skills to it beyond conventional flying that you have to, but can't, master all at once . It takes time and patience.

Like others have said, practice at a NAV beacon and help out the local police, they will come to your assistance if you get into trouble ..... and be prepared to run for your life . There is no shame in running in Elite - the trick is to know when to fight and when to get out - fast ,,,, and how to do it !

 

[TuxedoSteve]

Experience and knowledge is a really big deciding factor on combat preformance, take the advice given here, apply it, and you'll get better with time.
Also, you said you got a few hundred thousand for the Viper Mk.III, so it doesn't sound like you've upgraded the internals very much? A rated shields and thrusters (and power plant due to the power use) are well worth having on most small combat ships.

 

[Ragamuffin1979]

Maybe try going to a resource extraction area or a nav beacon to practice your combat, there you can wait until npc ships are attacking wanted ones. You can make some decent cash, and get some practice in while having assistance.

 

[Mc80]

Go to a low, med or high resource extraction site and stick with the police ships. You will learn combat there easier. Wait till the enemies are low on health the first few times you attempt to attack them, then repeat that every time but with them having more and more health left. That way you will slowly build your skills without getting instant killed. Read up on outfitting and pip management, you will have a much easier time with that.

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

One good way of learning how to fight one-on-one with NPCs is bountyhunting from supercruise. Fit a Frameshift Interdictor and cruise around in a system looking for wanted ships. When you see one that you think you can handle, get behind it and interdict it. This is safer than assassination missions, as you have more control over what you are up against.
The interdiction minigame is the same one that NPCs use on you, but from the other side. You will learn a lot about how to beat someone interdicting you.

 

[Frambitam]

Like TuxedoSteve said, it doesn't sound like you have enough money to really kit out a Viper. Getting the best shields you can fit is almost a necessity when fitting out for combat, and upgrading other internals helps massively. If your net worth is only in the hundreds of thousands, that money would be better spent on a Sidewinder or Eagle and fitting some decent shields, armor, and thrusters among other things.

 

[Jack Scallywag]

If you are having trouble keeping enemies in your sights make sure your throttle is in the blue zone when turning.

Also enemy PC rank is important. If you're fighting Elite/Dangerous or even master NPCs its just really hard even against smaller ships.

 

[AeonPrime]

The combat missions are still a pain in the booty, I would recommend to wait with those. I can recommend a few things:

-Resource extraction sites (can be found near planets with rings). They have a few different "difficulty levels", low and High both have system security floating around. Look for a wing of them and make them your best friends. everything they shoot at you shoot at. They tank the damage, you take the credits. helps you to get a little bit of a credit buffer and enough credits for decent modules. Modules rate from H-A (core internals from E-A) with A being the best in performance, tied in weight with D rated stuff and the most power usage.

-Nav beacons. They seem trivial but if you see a nav beacon just drop in and try the same procedure as with the resource sites. Look for the system security in their big anacondas and be their best friend.

Chaff. Holy moly, best thing in the game. try to dodge fire as much as possible but if you have to run - just use chaff and most weapons won't hit. mix that with a bit of random movement and you should be able to at least run away if needed.

-your best friend is knowledge. I know people are going to hate me for this but I take my corvette sometimes into resource sites just for the fun. and I refuse to engage federal dropships/gunships/assault ships because they are annoying to fight. What I mean by that is : pick your fights. If you are in your small C/D rated viper you should not engage that Vulture on your own. unless you know exactly what you are doing.

-Anacondas are great targets. the lower ranked ones have a turning radius of like 15km, just "attach" yourself to the bottom side by following their slow movements and just fire away on the shield and the powerplant after that. easier than most small ship targets.

-lastly PIP management. just practice. 4 pips to shields/2 to engines if you are taking heavy fire for a few seconds (should not happen too often, otherwise work on your positioning)




Things you should NOT do:
-Carry cargo. at all. you have hydrogen worth 63 credits on you? inderdiction and destruction inbound. the NPC wastes more cash on missiles than your cargo is worth but this is the state of the game.
-having a bounty. BAD idea to go near police with an active bounty.
-being pledged to a powerplay faction. Powerplay NPCs from the opposing faction will spawn and ruin your day without any warning. no matter where. (unless you are FAR away from human space)
-Hull tanking. This is not EVE, once your shields are offline you either run or die. especially as a new player. Your modules will get destroyed (thrusters/powerpant) and you are dead in the water.

This is exactly how I started in the game. I died and I learned from my mistakes.

probably a few typos in there but its 2AM

Anyways, feel free to ask further questions on our Discord server (link in my signature).


fly safe!

 

[Zaggeron]

I found combat with a Cobra Mk III much easier than a viper when I first started. That said, here are a few tips. Don't pick a fight with anything larger than you (at least at first). Don't get yourself involved in a situation where you are outnumbered. Use your lateral and up/down thrusters to make the turn angle wider to help keep the guy in front of you. Really you shouldn't need to worry much about pip management or what class components you have when fighting "harmless" class enemies as long as they are in a similar (or smaller) sized ship. For loadout, I'd go with 2 pulse lasers and 2 multi-cannons -- user preference as to which pairs should be class 1 vs. class 2. I've seen people argue both ways.

 

[ForeverN00b]

What Aeon said.

One thing bears repeating, make sure you don't have any cargo in your cargo hold (this can be checked in your right hand HUD menu in your ship, under inventory).
If you have cargo, all the pirates in the area will attack you. If you don't have any cargo, they will ignore you unless you fire on them first, and even then, only that pirate and anyone in his wing will shoot back.