PvP Shields & Armor are pointless. What about stealth?

[Treptower Park]

Casual player here, looking to stay in Open.

I enjoy strolling around in my humble Asplorer, doing Alien stuff, a couple CGs, BH yaddayadda.
Been interdicted & killed 6 times in the last two days in the Pleiades. Reluctantly moved to Mobius. Unfortunately on XBox, which is not too crowded. I like the interaction and would like to stay in Open.

Is there a viable AspX build to with which I could "stealth" my way out of hairy situations that you would suggest from a PvP perspective? I have only a couple engineers unlocked and I´d like to stay agile so I´d like to avoid heavy hull builds and extreme shield enineering. Which kinda only leaves stealth & speed as an option. Any guidelines?

Also any other defence/evading tips are very welcome too. Needs to be AspX or Python related. Although I wont use my Python in High Risk areas for the foreseeable future.

 

[CMDR Cknarf]

A stealth ship with no armor is going to get shredded. Plain and simple. Even if you're not on sensors, they can still see you visually.

Stealth is an advanced tactic that can hurt more than it helps if used incorrectly.

Look up the 'git gud guide to trading'. Sounds dumb, but it covers the basics.

 

[Deleted member 115407]

A stealth ship with no armor is going to get shredded. Plain and simple. Even if you're not on sensors, they can still see you visually.

Stealth is an advanced tactic that can hurt more than it helps if used incorrectly.

Look up the 'git gud guide to trading'. Sounds dumb, but it covers the basics.

Yeah, you need to tell us what you were interdicted by, and we need more info about how the encounters actually played out.

I just spent the better part of a week in my AspX. It has shields and armor, both engineered. I was able to survive an encounter with a Conda, another encounter with two FDLs (gimbal monkeys, though), and when my wingmate's plasmaconda took me out, he had to put some effort into it (and I wasn't even trying to evade or escape).

I'm not saying there won't be occasions where I'm gotten the better of, but if you're outfitted properly and flying with viable escape and evasion tactics, then you should be fine most of the time.

Use this ( https://coriolis.edcd.io/outfit/asp ) to share your build with us so we can help you, and this ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh9AWV_BWo0 ) to learn the basics of flying and outfitting for survival.

P.S. What do you mean by "avoid heavy hull builds and extreme shield engineering"? What, in your opinion is extreme? Because once you go G5, you never go back. And G5 shields and armor are easy cheesy mods to acquire. Almost... almost like FDev planned it that way.

 

[Treptower Park]

Thanks for the video. Took some advice, modified the loadout, went to Elvia and rolled thrusters, shields & FSD.
Rolls were kinda lame but will have to do for now. Here´s the most recent build: https://eddp.co/u/fFVqo9Tz
Let me know waht you think. Will head back to Pleiades and see if I can up my game. See you in the black o7

 

[CMDR Cknarf]

That's actually pretty close to what I came up with earlier today. Not bad. Keep in mind that keeping full pips into SYS makes your shields tougher. I recommend full pips while under attack.

A few tips:

Keep an eye on your comms contacts. It'll show what kind of ships are in the area, and help you detect threats

Hollow triangles in supercruise are other players with hardpolnts deployed. They may be trying to target you. If you throttle to zero, and turn to face them, it will make it difficult for them to interdict you. Watch for their friends, though.

On your left panel, you can set filters. Filter out some unnecessary objects like asteroid belts, or planets/moons. This will make it so you have less to scroll through while selecting an emergency jump destination.

If you are about to lose an interdiction, submit by throttling to zero. This lowers your FSD cooldown.

 

[nightsta1ker]

All good advice.

I would add that while you may feel like modding shields etc will decrease your jump range, if you get the right combination of mods, you can actually increase your speed, weapons, shields and systems while also increasing your jumprange from stock. You just have to be careful which mods to go for and try and get good rolls (IE, do some work and gather enough materials to do quite a few rolls until you get something decent, in this case, rolling for decreased mass with moderate increases in effectiveness may be optimal). I would never take my Aspx into combat, but I'm confident it will get me out of a scrap intact (most of the time) as long as I make the right decisions.

 

[Deleted member 115407]

Yep, that's a solid build module-wise, right there, OP.

After you've spent some time in her, check back in and give us an update.

Also, when you can, get that Distributor modded for Charge Enhanced. The Dweller, at Wyrd does the mod. You can unlock him by trading in 5 black markets.

 

[Marra Morgan]

Thanks for the video. Took some advice, modified the loadout, went to Elvia and rolled thrusters, shields & FSD.
Rolls were kinda lame but will have to do for now. Here´s the most recent build: https://eddp.co/u/fFVqo9Tz
Let me know waht you think. Will head back to Pleiades and see if I can up my game. See you in the black o7

+ rep for the good attitude

 

[Serin Vickers]

In regards to modules and engineering one mandatory thing to be able to run from someone are G5 Dirty Drives. There is no way around getting a good roll on those as you need the speed and in the link you posted there's room for improvement. I'm not saying you should go gamble rolls right now with the Beyond engineering changes on the horizon but if you do find the time and will to farm and do a few rolls you might get a decent improvement that helps to secure a speed advantage. I'd also recommend thermal resistance on the shield generator because you will get pelted with hitscan weaponry a lot when running - there's also no addtional mass penalty over the default on that so your jump range isn't ruined. Technically a SCB is also incredibly valuable but it doesn't go very well with that "as light as possible" approach and the multi-purpose outfit you want to run so it's probably not a good choice.


When you get interdicted by a slow large ship able to mass lock you then try to gain distance as fast as you can while minimizing damage. As others said part of that is immediately putting 4 pips to shields before even taking damage and keeping those there at all times - the 4th pip in particular is very valuable. The other two should be in engines to boost a lot. Not every large ship is slow by the way. The Imperial Cutter for example it turns like crap but in a straight line it will be able to stay relatively close. For that reason you might be better off flying past it once so it has to do a slow 180° turn before it can chase you again and meanwhile you gained some distance. If that's viable depends a bit on which way the both of you come out of FSD though.

When flying away from someone fly in a spiral by fixating on a specific star of the galaxy background and spiraling around that - means pitch and apply a bit of roll. Slightly widen and narrow the path every revolution and apply some lateral thrust in short bursts. That makes it less likely for weapons with flight time to hit and harder for the enemy pilot to compensate aim as you constantly change how much he has to lead manually.


When you face a small ship that isn't able to mass lock you but you can't run from easily for speed reasons it's safer to dogfight with it and joust. That narrows the enemy window of attack and as such your damage taken while the FSD cooldown runs. You don't have to actually fire weapons, merely do the maneuvers to force the other pilot into turning a lot.

Of course also remember to use your chaff and the heatsink. I'd personally drop the chaff first to see how the enemy reacts and what he fires and then the heatsink to bridge time to the next chaff. You could also drop the chaff completely and get a second heatsink instead for more heatsink spam.

 

[StiTch]

I don't have any source quote but I recall FD stating they didn't want any full on stealth mechanics in the game.

Whatever limited uses silent running has can be negated in PvP instantly by use of an emissive weapon.

The better solution is reasonable engineered shields/boosters, chaff and a few minutes spent practising your escape technique.

 

[Dirtbird]

Thanks for the video. Took some advice, modified the loadout, went to Elvia and rolled thrusters, shields & FSD.
Rolls were kinda lame but will have to do for now. Here´s the most recent build: https://eddp.co/u/fFVqo9Tz
Let me know waht you think. Will head back to Pleiades and see if I can up my game. See you in the black o7

I don't think stealth is a particularly effective tactic unless you're facing someone with gimballed weapons who doesn't have experience firing fixed weapons on an unlocked target. When I've faced targets that have gone cold, it is only a minor inconvenience. I don't lose them completely on the radar - their contact becomes "undefined" but still locatable at their approximate location.

I think with that build and some decent situational awareness, you should be able to escape most things via high wake.

 

[Anopheles]

It's not that long ago that the pvp meta was stealth based with black ships silent running. As dull as dishwater and led to the gankering in part.

 

[Powderpanic]

The silent meta was so dull.

The issue you have Stealth is that fundamentally, if it works.. Its almost always OP.

 

[Treptower Park]

Thanks for the advice! The Asp feels way more solid now. Unfortunately it flies like a brick now too. The occasional PvE BH feels very tedious atm.
I guess its time to take on my 5 Kylies for Palin and do some mat hunting for those G5DDs.

 

[Powderpanic]

Thanks for the advice! The Asp feels way more solid now. Unfortunately it flies like a brick now too. The occasional PvE BH feels very tedious atm.
I guess its time to take on my 5 Kylies for Palin and do some mat hunting for those G5DDs.

Visit Farseer and get a decent G5 FSD Boost.

Build this https://eddp.co/u/8l2gloFj

Do the 5k ( usually takes a little over that to trigger Palin tbh ) while watching Netflix. Don't honk, just jump and suicide back to the bubble.

 

[Han_Zen]

I think a stealth/speed/long range combo could work in some situations.

A rail Courier can pack a bunch of heat sinks and you can syth. more of them. The DPS will be limited if you keep range all the time, so it's probably best to bring some friends if you want to take out anything big.

 

[Deleted member 115407]

Thanks for the advice! The Asp feels way more solid now. Unfortunately it flies like a brick now too. The occasional PvE BH feels very tedious atm.
I guess its time to take on my 5 Kylies for Palin and do some mat hunting for those G5DDs.

Visit Farseer and get a decent G5 FSD Boost.

Build this https://eddp.co/u/8l2gloFj

Do the 5k ( usually takes a little over that to trigger Palin tbh ) while watching Netflix. Don't honk, just jump and suicide back to the bubble.

And in the meantime (until you've unlocked Palin), you have access to Farseer, who can give you G3 Dirty Drives. They aren't nearly as good as DD5s, but can still make a significant improvement to stock thrusters.

 

[Treptower Park]

Visit Farseer and get a decent G5 FSD Boost.

Build this https://eddp.co/u/8l2gloFj

Do the 5k ( usually takes a little over that to trigger Palin tbh ) while watching Netflix. Don't honk, just jump and suicide back to the bubble.

Wow. Looks like a plan. Just started to setup a DBX for the trip but this looks way more appealing. Still undecided about the "no honking/harakiri" factor. But, considering this might take 2hrs or so and cost me 2mil, it looks like a viable option. Still feel the urge to do it the "right" way and actually "explore" a bit

 

[Deleted member 115407]

Wow. Looks like a plan. Just started to setup a DBX for the trip but this looks way more appealing. Still undecided about the "no honking/harakiri" factor. But, considering this might take 2hrs or so and cost me 2mil, it looks like a viable option. Still feel the urge to do it the "right" way and actually "explore" a bit

The DBX and AspX both take C5 frame shift drives, you can swap out the module between them.

You'll get better range out of the DBX.