Silent Running and Target lock

[Drakonluke]

Hi,

I recently saw a video on facebook where the commander constantly uses silent running in dogfight in an attempt to disrupt weapon locking from enemy CMDRS.
Is this a real thing or is it just his imagination? Seen the number of other things he did on video I suspect it's only a newb fervid imagination.

I always thought that Silent Running could only affect the distance of effect of enemy Scanners.

 

[Tikas]

Yes, you are right, it decreases the distance someone will be able to lock on to you e.a. Heat Signature. Meaning your heat signature is so low that scanners wont pick it up over 500m (or w/e the distance, depends on what ship you use I think)

 

[Marra Morgan]

Yes, you are right, it decreases the distance someone will be able to lock on to you e.a. Heat Signature. Meaning your heat signature is so low that scanners wont pick it up under 500m (or w/e the distance, depends on what ship you use I think)

This.
Without being able to get a lock, you'd best hope that your skills with Fixed weapons are up to scratch!

 

[DNA-Decay]

Sorry to rehash an anecdote.
But I came across a combat wing of ALD players at my player group's home world.
There were three in station and two of them were marked as being in wing of three.

Didn't get the significance at first.

Got outside the station because some backup had arrived.
And then spotted a star moving.

Gave chase and yeah - their last wingman running perimeter outside the no fire zone on Silent Running.
Didnt get a lock till I was quite close and as soon as he picked that I had visual he bolted.

so yeah, Silent Running is underrated.
Dont use it much myself, but I respect those that do.

 

[Drakonluke]

So, as I was sure about, IT IS indeed useless in dogfight.
And many "so called experts" (much appreciated too!) on youtube are just noobs video-casting enthusiasts that just spam <Ahem>... and 5K people believe them!
Good to know. I could teach them something.

Note that I am not saying Silent is useless in general combat, but I am not talking about the skirmishes out of stations or something.
I am talking about serious interdiction PvP. Where, let's face it, you will don't have time to hide in Silent.

 

[Tikas]

So, as I was sure about, IT IS indeed useless in dogfight.
And many "so called experts" (much appreciated too!) on youtube are just noobs video-casting enthusiasts that just spam ... and 5K people believe them!
Good to know. I could teach them something.

Note that I am not saying Silent is useless in general combat, but I am not talking about the skirmishes out of stations or something.
I am talking about serious interdiction PvP. Where, let's face it, you will don't have time to hide in Silent.

I wouldnt say that perse. It has saved my ass countless of times in pvp combat. Yes, having 2 C.MKIII circling eachother would render SR obselete (usualy <500m), but when you are fighting an Anaconda with a C.MKIII it becomes a whole different story.

 

[Drakonluke]

I wouldnt say that perse. It has saved my ass countless of times in pvp combat. Yes, having 2 C.MKIII circling eachother would render SR obselete (usualy <500m), but when you are fighting an Anaconda with a C.MKIII it becomes a whole different story.

Ok. In fact I am speaking strictly of dogfight and turning battle. That is what it was shown on video.
As I said, note that I am not saying Silent is useless in general combat.

 

[Tikas]

Ok. In fact I am speaking strictly of dogfight and turning battle. That is what it was shown on video.
As I said, note that I am not saying Silent is useless in general combat.

That is what I am talking about too. I had a dogfight once with a CMDR in an Anaconda, whilst flying my smugglers Cobra MKIII. I wanted to see how long I could hold out against him, seeing I could fly away at any point I wanted. He shot down my shields in no time, he used about 4 pulse turrets (why, I have no idea, but he did not look like the finest pilot in the galaxy) and some gimballed weapons. Whilst our first pass was about to happen, he shot down my shields. I inmediatly hit silent running whilst flying past him, and whilst turning I made sure I stayed at a 1 km distance as much as I could without showing up in front of him. Shooting his back, turning on and off SR to cool down (didnt have any more heat sinks), he was unable to be quick enough with targeting and shooting his turrets. I got him down till about 90%, when my systems were overheating to frequently (and he did hit me enough times inbetween the SR on and off) so I had to bail out. Still, without the SR I would have been killed in no time.

This is what you are talking about right? Dogfighting. Not sure what video you are refering too or the peeps you are talking about

 

[Jmanis]

Yup, silent running has been the difference between escape and death in PvP for me.

 

[Marra Morgan]

That is what I am talking about too. I had a dogfight once with a CMDR in an Anaconda, whilst flying my smugglers Cobra MKIII. I wanted to see how long I could hold out against him, seeing I could fly away at any point I wanted. He shot down my shields in no time, he used about 4 pulse turrets (why, I have no idea, but he did not look like the finest pilot in the galaxy) and some gimballed weapons. Whilst our first pass was about to happen, he shot down my shields. I inmediatly hit silent running whilst flying past him, and whilst turning I made sure I stayed at a 1 km distance as much as I could without showing up in front of him. Shooting his back, turning on and off SR to cool down (didnt have any more heat sinks), he was unable to be quick enough with targeting and shooting his turrets. I got him down till about 90%, when my systems were overheating to frequently (and he did hit me enough times inbetween the SR on and off) so I had to bail out. Still, without the SR I would have been killed in no time.

This is what you are talking about right? Dogfighting. Not sure what video you are refering too or the peeps you are talking about

Nice! Good job

Fun fact: SR also masks the "Surge Detected" message your pursuer gets when you spool up the FSD.
From their pov, you just *poof* into nowhere without warning and you've got a head-start on them. Must be quite frustrating.

 

[Tikas]

Nice! Good job

Fun fact: SR also masks the "Surge Detected" message your pursuer gets when you spool up the FSD.
From their pov, you just *poof* into nowhere without warning and you've got a head-start on them. Must be quite frustrating.

Oh really? Did not know that. So do you mean that, when I have SR on, I hit my FSD drive, disable SR, he will still not see it? Or do you need to keep it on?

 

[DrakeAurum]

Check out Isinona's last video, where he uses this technique extensively (and if that's the one you saw via Facebook, then no, he's definitely no noob).

[video=youtube;NQA18gY0rOI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQA18gY0rOI[/video]

In particular, look at the second battle starting around the 7:37 mark. He's joined in battle against the Clipper by a Diamondback Scout rigged for almost constant Silent Running, and if you watch his scanner throughout the combat, you'll see that it almost never resolves into a targetable scanner contact, despite being as close to the action as he is. Not hugely useful against fixed weapons, but still handy.

 

[znôrt]

silent running makes you untargetable at a distance by CMDRs. it should be quite obvious when this can be put to good use and when not.

it should also be pointed out that being untargetable doesn't mean impossible to hit, and that it seems
- not to affect npc in anyway
- not to avoid scans

and this will maybe come as a surprise to those making/watching smuggling videos.

if this is as intended or just broken is unclear to me, never read any official explanation for that.

 

[RhymeRhyme]

A lot of CMDRs are using no shields at the moment but power up their ships with armor to the max and then fly in silent mode. They try to ram you. As they have a lot of hull strengh, they normally take less damage than your ship. The 2nd thing is silent running. They almost all use silent running. It's hard to kill them as you can't lock on the target. But on the other side, if you're good at aiming with fixed weapons, it's possible to take them out. I was fighting against 2 guys with hull max and silent running. They were also dopping a lot of stuff so I got confused. But I could shoot one down pretty much before I decided to escape and cash in my credits that I earned before.

Funny to see how many people are experimenting a lot and come up with creative ideas.

 

[Hannibal07]

A lot of CMDRs are using no shields at the moment but power up their ships with armor to the max and then fly in silent mode. They try to ram you. As they have a lot of hull strengh, they normally take less damage than your ship. The 2nd thing is silent running. They almost all use silent running. It's hard to kill them as you can't lock on the target. But on the other side, if you're good at aiming with fixed weapons, it's possible to take them out. I was fighting against 2 guys with hull max and silent running. They were also dopping a lot of stuff so I got confused. But I could shoot one down pretty much before I decided to escape and cash in my credits that I earned before.

Funny to see how many people are experimenting a lot and come up with creative ideas.

I'd recommend you to also work on your disorderly conduct ingame, it doesn't suit you. As I interdicted you in your cute python the day before and you commenced to cuss me out in chat before the fight even started lol. Too bad that this encounter was already over in 2 minutes. Seems to be a common behaviour lately when opposing players get involved in "difficult" matches they have quite the mouth on them. Heck I rarely even run when being outnumbered 4v1 trying to give them the best challenge as possible.
Anyhow fixed weaponry (preferably railguns, frag cannons, MC's, PA's) is the way to go against silent running builds since gimballed loose tracking assistant and thus mostly act as fixed weapons when the opponent is in SR mode with the difference that fixed ones deal loads more damage

 

[RhymeRhyme]

I'd recommend you to also work on your disorderly conduct ingame, it doesn't suit you. As I interdicted you in your cute python the day before and you commenced to cuss me out in chat before the fight even started lol. Too bad that this encounter was already over in 2 minutes. Seems to be a common behaviour lately when opposing players get involved in "difficult" matches they have quite the mouth on them. Heck I rarely even run when being outnumbered 4v1 trying to give them the best challenge as possible.
Anyhow fixed weaponry (preferably railguns, frag cannons, MC's, PA's) is the way to go against silent running builds since gimballed loose tracking assistant and thus mostly act as fixed weapons when the opponent is in SR mode with the difference that fixed ones deal loads more damage

Ah, cool. That was you yesterday, right? I wasn't talking about yesterday but it's fun to finally "talk" to you. It was funny but sorry, I had too much bounty to cash in, hard earned CG bounty. Didn't want to risk 2,5 hours of work. So, I decided to go and cash it in. I try to get best 5% with this community Goal over at Ch'i Lin. Am 15% already. First time I really take a CG sirious and spending a lot of time. If you're around later, let's meet for a fight. But then with my tiny puny Python full strenghtened. : D

Of course I have to make a comment before the fight starts. It's like boxing. Or even better like Monkey Island, Insulting Sword Play. *hehehe*

Which ship were you flying? Can't remember.

 

[Malkevin]

Check out Isinona's last video, where he uses this technique extensively (and if that's the one you saw via Facebook, then no, he's definitely no noob).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQA18gY0rOI

In particular, look at the second battle starting around the 7:37 mark. He's joined in battle against the Clipper by a Diamondback Scout rigged for almost constant Silent Running, and if you watch his scanner throughout the combat, you'll see that it almost never resolves into a targetable scanner contact, despite being as close to the action as he is. Not hugely useful against fixed weapons, but still handy.

Not the best example video, he's not even using heatsinks and he's often using SR whilst the enemy is facing him at a sub 500m distance, and then turning off SR as he passes to cool down.

The power of SR is to disorientate your slower less maneuverable enemies.
Keeping your distance to stay off their scanner whilst using SR means your enemy can only track you via visual.
Staying off to their sides and continually changing vectors makes it a lot harder for them to bring their guns to bear on you.

 

[Hannibal07]

Ah, cool. That was you yesterday, right? I wasn't talking about yesterday but it's fun to finally "talk" to you. It was funny but sorry, I had too much bounty to cash in, hard earned CG bounty. Didn't want to risk 2,5 hours of work. So, I decided to go and cash it in. I try to get best 5% with this community Goal over at Ch'i Lin. Am 15% already. First time I really take a CG sirious and spending a lot of time. If you're around later, let's meet for a fight. But then with my tiny puny Python full strenghtened. : D

Of course I have to make a comment before the fight starts. It's like boxing. Or even better like Monkey Island, Insulting Sword Play. *hehehe*

Which ship were you flying? Can't remember.

Lol. Actually I give a damn about excuses or the status of opposing players. Sometimes I get interdicted by players or wings while being out of scb's / utility mounts/ ammo whatsoever and still engage without the need to let them know this.

I was running FDL. You can count me in, gonna take the viper tho.

 

[RhymeRhyme]

Lol. Actually I give a damn about excuses or the status of opposing players. Sometimes I get interdicted by players or wings while being out of scb's / utility mounts/ ammo whatsoever and still engage without the need to let them know this.

I was running FDL. You can count me in, gonna take the viper tho.

Well, I have to admit I'm not the brave'st PvP player. With only 14 Mio. credits in total, I think twice if I risk losing my ship and then end up hours of hours grinding to get my insurance back. I'll try to harvest more money so I don't have to care about the insurance anymore and dive intro fights. PvP is one of the best parts of the game. Nothing else gives you so much adrenalin. Especially when living on the edge, credit wise. So, maybe 14 mio. credits only might be a good thing. ;-)

 

[Drakonluke]

Check out Isinona's last video, where he uses this technique extensively (and if that's the one you saw via Facebook, then no, he's definitely no noob).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQA18gY0rOI

In particular, look at the second battle starting around the 7:37 mark. He's joined in battle against the Clipper by a Diamondback Scout rigged for almost constant Silent Running, and if you watch his scanner throughout the combat, you'll see that it almost never resolves into a targetable scanner contact, despite being as close to the action as he is. Not hugely useful against fixed weapons, but still handy.

Yes. But you can see he boosts at 5 Km -> 7km.
In THAT RANGE, SR can be useful. But in this video, before of that, he too uses SR at less than 1 Km (you could read the enemy license plate, if there were one!). This is pretty useless, he just get hit all the time, in fact.
But he still thinks he did a nice job removing shields to use that tactics.
Result? He couldn't take down an HARMLESS in 1 on 1.

Interesting video, too.

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silent running builds since gimballed loose tracking

I don't think this really happens.