Silent running and/or low heat emission in combat

Hi everyone, I was wondering if it makes sense to tailor a ship for using silent running in combat as much as possible to avoid damage, and have a general low amount of heat emission (engineer power plant for that aspect) to be less lockable? Would this work out, also by equipping as much heat sinks as possible and weapons with low thermal loads? If so, how much harder would it be to lock on a silent running ship (depends on the general level of heat, I suppose?) and what would the longest time frame for silent running without getting damaged by growing heat be? Thanks in advance!
 
Stealth builds can be good, but emissive kind of ruins it. Pick a ship with lots of hull and good heat, get rid of the shields, they go down as soon as you hit silent anyway. A DBS can stay in silen for a long time, dont try with big ships. When you fire weapons, you are targetable. Vent hear and fire when they are facing away from you and fly evasively, most people use emissive which lets you be targeted even if you are silent
 
For a smuggler it could work, but for combat? Especially for PvP it's probably useless.
With nightvision everyone can see you anyway and if your opponent has fixed weapons, it doesn't matter if he has you locked, or not.
I'm not sure how NPC's handle that tbh.
 
From what I read in the forums NPCs can track you if you just have a lock on them, even while silent running, and silent running does not stop a scan that has already started.
Silent Running sure has its uses but I'd like it to be a bit more helpful to evade & escape.
Not doing PvP myself, silent running could be more effective versus other commanders or for sniping / torpedo boating.

However, evasive flying while having shields up might be better suited for combat situations. Shields offer an independent layer of resistance through pips, which even reduces absolute damage from plasma and ramming.
Leaving aside Thargoids, most modules are safe from direct damage as long as shields remain up, including sources like rail guns with super penetrator rounds. There are a few specialised exceptions for Shield Generator, Shield Cell Banks and the Frame Shift Drive.
To stay light and low power I stack light shield boosters with high resists and use a bi-weave shield generator, which allows the shield to come up quite fast after silent running. The boosters can be switched off when silent running to reduce heat and to have the shield come up faster.
PS: Larger power plants don't produce more heat, they are just heavier.
 
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Silent running work vs npc's in same way as it work vs humans, but npc's unlike humans use lasers in fixed mode more often and will fire on silent running ship as they "see it", but can't get missile or gimbal lock. In pvp it could be effective especially against opponents overreliant on projectile based gimbals and seekers. Best weapons for such build are cannons, torpedoes and mines, efficient plasma accelerators could work too, but are borderline even on coldest running ship and mixed with frags.
 
I've tried SR in combat with mixed results, depending on the experience of the CMDR I'm dueling with. I've had pretty good success using it as a PvP evasion tactic, though you'll likely need heatsinks once you start charging that FSD in SR.

I can definitely spot the CMDRs who are using night vision to scope me when in SR. I hate NV because of this.
 
The absolute only use I have ever found for Silent Running is....

To super-heat my ship quickly to burn off Thargoid goo.

Actually that's not 100% true, there is one other use, and it's quite limited...

You can use Silent Running to fire Research Limpets at Thargoid ships, and then stay just far enough away from them that they don't notice you while your limpet snips off a piece and returns.

 
From what I read in the forums NPCs can track you if you just have a lock on them, even while silent running, and silent running does not stop a scan that has already started.
Silent Running sure has its uses but I'd like it to be a bit more helpful to evade & escape.
Not doing PvP myself, silent running could be more effective versus other commanders or for sniping / torpedo boating.

However, evasive flying while having shields up might be better suited for combat situations. Shields offer an independent layer of resistance through pips, which even reduces absolute damage from plasma and ramming.
Leaving aside Thargoids, most modules are safe from direct damage as long as shields remain up, including sources like rail guns with super penetrator rounds. There are a few specialised exceptions for Shield Generator, Shield Cell Banks and the Frame Shift Drive.
To stay light and low power I stack light shield boosters with high resists and use a bi-weave shield generator, which allows the shield to come up quite fast after silent running. The boosters can be switched off when silent running to reduce heat and to have the shield come up faster.
PS: Larger power plants don't produce more heat, they are just heavier.
They make less heat, because less of thier total power is being used
 
Stealth hull tank was actual valid tactic before engeners.
Sadly, not anymore.
Stealth needs some love and missions need to be overhauled to reflect that.
Would be great to have/need a stealth runner for any number of things from smuggling to data/black box acquisition or sabotage. Add an engineering feature to reflect it all and there's some pretty decent gameplay not implemented.
 
I've got a hull-tank frag Krait.
She could run a little cooler, but she's pretty cool.

Other than the frags I run PAs with Target Lock Breakers.

So I'm kinda annoying to fight.

Ideally: Boost > FA Off > Heatsink > Silent Running > Joust > hit them with frags and TLBs,
change direction and turn silent running off.
And then back on.

Silent running in PvP seems to work better if you are constantly toggling.
You're on their radar, then you're off again, and they're not quite sure if it's the TLBs or the Silent Running, are you on radar because you're close? Are you out of range?
A lot of PvP enthusiasts don't like to A Rate their sensors (very heavy) so if you're cold and drop a heatsink and you're kinda at the edge of their range, you'll drop off the radar for that reason.

My methods don't work very well and not against very experienced PvPers, but against the mid ranked folks where each encounter presents new things the above method creates enough confusion to get some shots on your opponent.

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How about engineered long range beam lasers with thermal vent (if one can deal with the power requirements) while they are hitting the target your ship heat is 0 percent? Not being a serious PvP player it might not work but with some thruster maneuvering it totally messes up NPCs even firing fixed rails and plasmas.
 
How about engineered long range beam lasers with thermal vent (if one can deal with the power requirements) while they are hitting the target your ship heat is 0 percent? Not being a serious PvP player it might not work but with some thruster maneuvering it totally messes up NPCs even firing fixed rails and plasmas.
I was fighting dual TB beam stealth sidey, was visible on radar but my gimbals never had lock, so half success, fixed projectile weapons can track you.
 
I have often the feelig that low heat or silent running has no effect on NPCs.
While i'm at 2% heat due to heatsink they're happily shooting at me with turreted weapons at 2,6km range.
Also they never loose target lock when i activate silent running. I've tryed several times to get rid of some NPCs in combat zones with hitting silent running at 2km+ range and they happily kept firing at me and locked their PAs without problems on me.

The next problem is, that Hull is very weak compared to shields. My Chieftain with 4k Hull, 65 hardness and 48% resists looses hitpoints very fast and won't regain them. An Anaconda with reactibe surface composite and 1x HRP even won't last long enough to jump away.

So i've got rid of pure hulltanks and SR. Since engineers approached it became useless and still is.
 
The next problem is, that Hull is very weak compared to shields. My Chieftain with 4k Hull, 65 hardness and 48% resists looses hitpoints very fast and won't regain them. An Anaconda with reactibe surface composite and 1x HRP even won't last long enough to jump away.
Depends on the ship. My Vulture is a great shield tank, but my Dolphin is not. My Dolphin has survived many more encounters since I changed it to a stealth runner with an HRP where the shield used to go. Granted, this isn't for "to the death" combat, though I have won battles with smaller NPCs in my shieldless Dolphin. Still, I find escaping a gank just as rewarding as repelling one.
 
Stealth / silent running builds arnt in a good place right now, they aren't really balanced / useful in the current meta and then night vision came along and ruined it even further, (in the sense that SR does not enhance a shield-less HRP hull tank build for any advantage or gain especially Vs NPC, in PVP night vision is a beacon shouting "im over here")

Other than role-playing being a pilot come egg chef & cooking fried eggs on the dashboard, getting rid of thargoid corrosive damage is SR's only other Practical use.

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would you like them sunny side up or down?

Depends on the ship. My Vulture is a great shield tank, but my Dolphin is not. My Dolphin has survived many more encounters since I changed it to a stealth runner with an HRP where the shield used to go. Granted, this isn't for "to the death" combat, though I have won battles with smaller NPCs in my shieldless Dolphin. Still, I find escaping a gank just as rewarding as repelling one.

interesting my combat dolphin has always gone shield tank route, with Guadian reinforce packs, admittedly its lazy ship building as i cant engineer them, nor can i be bothered to engineer so many HRPs and MRPs but stacked with fast recharge shields it's really only the Elite NPC ships & some PVP players who pose an actual threat, in which case with G5 dd and the ability to FSD out its my choice weather i stay or go long before the shields drop. (no point in staying vs a vette for example i'd need a week off work just to get his shields down)
 
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Hi everyone, I was wondering if it makes sense to tailor a ship for using silent running in combat as much as possible to avoid damage, and have a general low amount of heat emission (engineer power plant for that aspect) to be less lockable? Would this work out, also by equipping as much heat sinks as possible and weapons with low thermal loads? If so, how much harder would it be to lock on a silent running ship (depends on the general level of heat, I suppose?) and what would the longest time frame for silent running without getting damaged by growing heat be? Thanks in advance!

Silent running reduces thermal signature to the minimum possible, making a vessel unresolvable as a target until a relatively close range, dependent on the vessel and the sensors being used to spot it. A silent DBS facing a lightweight D4 sensor won't be targetable until about 150m, but a silent corvette facing an opponent with long range A8 sensors can still be targeted almost 2km off.

Anyway, there are all sorts of problems with silent running in combat:

  • Silent running takes a few seconds to engage as the radiator vents close.
  • Silent running does not remove one's sensor contact completely and anyone with any experience is both wary of unresolved contacts and knows how to track them.
  • Firing at someone, or even trying to lock munitions on them, partially resolves you, allowing you to be targeted at any range, though gimbals are still less effective as noted below.
  • Even low thermal load weapons will raise the temperature of most ships very quickly.
  • Emissive completely defeats silent running, with a non-scaling, zero cool down effect, that can easily be applied and maintained at extreme range.
  • Night vision defeats visual camouflage in all but the most well lit areas.
  • Fire-at-will turrets can track and engage targets without a lock (even without functional sensors) and emissive turrets are not uncommon on larger ships.

I was fighting dual TB beam stealth sidey, was visible on radar but my gimbals never had lock, so half success, fixed projectile weapons can track you.

Without emissive a silent, or sufficiently cold, ship will reduce gimbal tracking arc to about the size of the main reticule itself.

They make less heat, because less of thier total power is being used

If you are powering the same modules (same total power used), it doesn't matter how much surplus power you have, just the efficiency of the PP and the thermal capacity of the ship itself.
 
NPCs are not affected much by silent running, so this is a pvp tactic. Contrary to previous postings, most people do not run emissive. I use a silent DBX (and I've taken out bigger ships with it in the wild). If they do run emissive though, you're SoL. The DBS, DBX, and Krait phantom are particularly good silent runners.
 
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