Don't run just fixed or just gimbaled or whatever - fit what suits your flight mode - a little FA off briefly - on/off for quick turns can work well, especially if you have a button on the HOTAS you can bind to it.
For any ship I recomend the following (just add remove numbers\sizes to suit hull) -
For Primary fire - Gimbaled beam with thermal conduit on it as the special effect (can be done at lvl 1 engineering), means you can dump heatsinks, I always try to have 1 mc gimbaled or turret (depending on ship type\size) with corrosive on it also bound to primary fire so it's constantly buffing your dps. Secondary fire can be railguns, plasma or missiles - again pick what suits your flying style and size of ship.
Secondary effects are more important than the base engineering in most cases - so get them early - good for pve and pretty much essentiual if pvp ever comes up - Corrsoive and Thermal conduit are a must as far as I'm concerned , target breaker, emissive, dazzle, super penetrator etc are all quite useull - anything that ups your dps or makes them miss you is good.
If fighting small Thargoids (recommended) - then a few turreted ax mc's mixed with one or two Guardian Gauss cannon can work well and will let you work on your aiming with fixed on the secondary.
Know how to cycle between targets, how to unselect target (to defeat chaff) and what key will cycle through modules on the target - once fight starts this needs to be second nature - same with pip management.
Concentrate on offense over defense in the fight - total time to kill needs to be as fast as possible - this is both fun, efficient and it trains muscle memory.
After the fight if possible have collector limpets to grab everything and repair decontamination limpets as well if possible for repairs in the field.
Know when to run away, shouldn't need it too much in pve, but essential skill to learn - have escape route preplanned - decide what amount of damage means it's time to go ...and stick to it.
I know you say you aren't looking for pvp, but a few points anyway - especially if you ever play in open (which I always recommend - it's more stimulating regardless of any risk).
Most of the above can translate into pvp to some degree, but always assume that any pvp opponent you ever face will have a ship that's built only for that purpose (reason I don't do it much - makes for boring ships that can't multirole well - I personally would never waste a non dedicated slot on a re-inforcement module for example - good pvp practice, but irks me greatly).
Scan player ships on entering a likely "hot" system - CG, engineer etc - if need be sit still facing them till you determine what they are after - wake out and come in again if you don't fancy your chances.
Know how and when to run - it's quite hard to get killed in most cases if you really don't want to hang around - this means having hi-wake targets preselected - also - be prepared to jump more than once if someone is really after you.
If you do get "ganked" and want some payback - start with small annoying ships like Imp eagle, courier , dbx etc - don't aim to kill them - annoy them - scoot in, interdict - thumb nose and leave - this works great for annoying "griefers" but also teaches you good survival skills.
Hopefully that wall of text is of some use to someone - anyone else feel free to chip in
Absolutley correct - well spotted
).
It's more about what your looking for in the game I think - I got bored of straight 1 on 1 or even team pvp back when Quake was new - I like having pvp'rs around as it makes the game more alive and interesting - I expect to survive pretty much any pvp encounter I run into and see the challenge as being able to dictate when and if I leave or stay - dueling someone doesn't really hold much attraction for me - but dodging "griefers" does.
note - and i'm using the term "giefer" here very grudgingly as I have zero problem with folk running around attacking folk - it's just better enemy AI than the NPC's as far as I'm concerend (well mostly
Don't run just fixed or just gimbaled or whatever - fit what suits your flight mode - a little FA off briefly - on/off for quick turns can work well, especially if you have a button on the HOTAS you can bind to it.
For any ship I recomend the following (just add remove numbers\sizes to suit hull) -
For Primary fire - Gimbaled beam with thermal vent on it as the special effect (can be done at lvl 1 engineering), means you can dump heatsinks, I always try to have 1 mc gimbaled or turret (depending on ship type\size) with corrosive on it also bound to primary fire so it's constantly buffing your dps. Secondary fire can be railguns, plasma or missiles - again pick what suits your flying style and size of ship.
Secondary effects are more important than the base engineering in most cases - so get them early - good for pve and pretty much essential if pvp ever comes up - Corrosive and Thermal vent are a must as far as I'm concerned , target breaker, emissive, dazzle, super penetrator etc are all quite usefull - anything that ups your dps or makes them miss you is good.
If fighting small Thargoids (recommended) - then a few turreted ax mc's mixed with one or two Guardian Gauss cannon can work well and will let you work on your aiming with fixed on the secondary.
Know how to cycle between targets, how to unselect target (to defeat chaff) and what key will cycle through modules on the target - once fight starts this needs to be second nature - same with pip management.
Concentrate on offense over defense in the fight - total time to kill needs to be as fast as possible - this is both fun, efficient and it trains muscle memory.
After the fight if possible have collector limpets to grab everything and repair/decontamination limpets as well if possible for repairs in the field.
Know when to run away, shouldn't need it too much in pve, but essential skill to learn - have escape route preplanned - decide what amount of damage means it's time to go ...and stick to it.
I know you say you aren't looking for pvp, but a few points anyway - especially if you ever play in open (which I always recommend - it's more stimulating regardless of any risk).
Most of the above can translate into pvp to some degree, but always assume that any pvp opponent you ever face will have a ship that's built only for that purpose (reason I don't do it much - makes for boring ships that can't multirole well - I personally would never waste a non dedicated slot on a re-inforcement module for example - good pvp practice, but irks me greatly).
Scan player ships on entering a likely "hot" system - CG, engineer etc - if need be sit still facing them till you determine what they are after - wake out and come in again if you don't fancy your chances.
Know how and when to run - it's quite hard to get killed in most cases if you really don't want to hang around - this means having hi-wake targets preselected - also - be prepared to jump more than once if someone is really after you.
If you do get "ganked" and want some payback - start with small annoying ships like Imp eagle, courier , dbx etc - don't aim to kill them - annoy them - scoot in, interdict - thumb nose and leave - this works great for annoying "griefers" but also teaches you good survival skills.
Hopefully that wall of text is of some use to someone - anyone else feel free to chip in
edit - thermal vent not conduit as spotted by Bob
