Wanting to Learn Combat: Which Ship?

[Da-Rock]

I have been playing several months now and I am addicted.........but I have a few issues with things I want to do.

1. I have issues with being successful at combat, (I have been trading rates for most of the time and I am in a Mid level ASP).
* Issue #1 is that I have had 3 brain surgeries that left me with motor skill issues on my left side.
* Issue#2 is that I have tried the Eagle and Viper for combat with bad results = instant death.
* Issue #3 is that I really like the look of the Eagle and Vulture, but I have only been successful with a Diamondback Scout. (5 wins and 1 loss)........all PVE in SOLO mode.

Can anyone give me some break downs on what ship can help me farm some RES or something like that. I need a ship that can compensate for my lack of quick hand eye coordination and is basically very forgiving of mistakes.

* Maybe also some advice for someone like me on what missions or combat style I should look at.

 

[ahiredgun]

Might be more expensive but try the imperial courier. Its basically an eagle with way better shields and firepower use hit and run tactics approach target guns blasting then boost away take a wide turn reaproach target repeat. The diamondback scout it actually really good at low level combat fast maneuverable well armed and low heat signature. Try not to hunt anything bigger you until your good enough.

 

[Webferret]

Greetings Cmdr o7

I would think a Vulture (Well equipped - A class shield, some shield booster/Sheild Cell bats) would suit you as she can dish is out well thanks to 2 large weapon points, and she is quite a tough heavy fighter taking quite a few hits prior to having to retire and repair etc. When in my Vulture I feel like I am immortal and also she is my preferred Res hunting ship over my Python.

But also as of 1.4 things are going to change a lot as no more Power plant sniping to kill those big ships really fast, But the Vulture will still be one hell of a bird to fly combat in.

Imperial Courier is a good ship, But Master Rank (Imperial Navy) required which many might not have. If you do though its another option indeed, fast agile and mean

EDIT: I fly with a disabled right arm (Titanium right elbow and partial titanium lower arm bone replacements - I fly on Pain meds daily - So I pray I dont get drug tested by the Security ships in the systems I travel through) I can understand your limitations Cmdr.

Fly safe Cmdr!

 

[Banana's_Are_Good_For_You]

Vulture to learn.
Power management can be crucial though. To get the best our of it you may need to kill things like your cargo hatch and FSD when hardpoints active (right panel, modules).
It's got great turning ability, much like the DBS.

You'll probably find the most rewarding things to be those kill 10 pirates missions if you do them in systems that aren't anarchy.
CZ's you'll need to skirt the outsides of, flying into the middle of one can be fatal.
High Res can be bad if you end up going against 3 guys constantly chipping against you so target selection is very important and knowing when to duck out is as well.
No shame in running away.
Just learn by doing and always have insurance.

 

[Zeeman]

I'd suggest CQC to learn to fight. Use a Condor and learn to manage the subsystems.

It's not quite like combat in the regular game, but if you get good at CQC combat, regular combat isn't that different, and you'll have the basics sorted.

Z...

 

[Crimson Kaim]

Vulture is the best beginner ship to get used to proper PvP and PvE. It is easy to use, relatively cheap and has everything you need for surviveablility.

Vulture: best beginner ship ever. But get rid of it as soon as you can.

 

[DNYI]

Here are some of my thoughts:

1) To help with motor skill issues, try using turreted pulse lasers. The fire fast, do decent damage, and don't drain weapon energy fast. Some ships can maintain continuous rapid fire with 2 or more turrets indefinitely, on as little as 2 pips to weapons. Although turrets do less damage than gimballed weapons, they are much easier to keep a target in their field of fire.

2) Shield cell banks paired with shield boosters and the best shield you can equip, with 4 pips to system/shield will allow you to tank damage effectively. Sometimes tanking the damage is the best strategy for certain ships. Even if you are using a controller, setting the shield cell activation button from the keybinding menu to a button that is easily reached by your right side should help with quick activation.

3) Using a right handed joystick that has multiple hat switches (sort of like an analog stick on a Playstation or Xbox controller) will allow you to set all the flight axis directions (pitch yaw, roll, directional thrust) to your right hand. Throttle controls, and those that just need to be pressed occasionally can be set wherever. The important thing is to maximize the number of useful controls that can be quickly and simultaneously utilized to the side with fewer motor skills issues. Additionally, rudder petals that act like those on an airplane (moving one side also moves the other in the opposite direction) can allow you to operate them with only one foot.

4) Ship that are good with turrets and have good shield setups include the python, anaconda, federal dropship/gunship, imperial courier, both diamondback variants, and the vulture. Ships that are good with turrets but have mediocre to medium shield setups include the Asp and Imperial clipper.

5) The python is an excellent ship for those who like to be able to absorb a lot of punishment and not have to be bothered with alot of fancy piloting. A good loadout for one is 3 A rated shield boosters, Class A6 shields, 6A shield cell banks, 2x class 3pulse laser turrets, 1x class 3 gimballed pulse laser and A rated max size power distributor. The 2 pulse laser turrets can fire continuously at 2 pips to weapons with enough extra power to slowly recharge the weapons capacitor allowing you to fire decent bursts with the gimballed pulse or whatever weapons you have equipped in the two class 2 medium hardpoints. With 4 pips to shields/system and limited use of shield cell banks, only being engaged by multiple targets at once become a problem.

I hope this advice helps.

 

[Da-Rock]

Good advice. I am looking more at the Diamondback Scout as I do not have the funds to buy the correctly fitted Vulture.

 

[ForeverN00b]

Vulture.

A workable build can be had for 10 mil. 20 mil can get you A spec.

Vulture. BEst ship to learn combat in IMO.

 

[Zelos1983]

I'm not a big combat player. But for me, it's the Eagle. It's rather cheap (though it will cost 3 to 4 Million) and you learn a lot about outfitting, combat tactics (you cannot allow yourself to get hit very often) and power management, and it's really fun to do it because it's agile.

 

[Badben]

If you want to get awesome at combat, you need to practice with a sidewinder. If you can kill with a sidey, you'll slaughter in a viper. plus you can die as often as you like, it's a free ship! All you need to do is outfit a default sidewinder with a chaff launcher, keep everything else as it comes, including fixed pulse lasers. super weak, but cheap and disposable, and it will force you to either get good or die.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

I have been playing several months now and I am addicted.........but I have a few issues with things I want to do.

1. I have issues with being successful at combat, (I have been trading rates for most of the time and I am in a Mid level ASP).
* Issue #1 is that I have had 3 brain surgeries that left me with motor skill issues on my left side.
* Issue#2 is that I have tried the Eagle and Viper for combat with bad results = instant death.
* Issue #3 is that I really like the look of the Eagle and Vulture, but I have only been successful with a Diamondback Scout. (5 wins and 1 loss)........all PVE in SOLO mode.

Can anyone give me some break downs on what ship can help me farm some RES or something like that. I need a ship that can compensate for my lack of quick hand eye coordination and is basically very forgiving of mistakes.

* Maybe also some advice for someone like me on what missions or combat style I should look at.

do you use a flight stick? I find that helped a lot for ship control.

do you use gimballed weapons? These help a lot and are very forgiving if your aim is a little off.

The vulture is the ship to go for if you want things to go a little easier, but even then, steer clear of ships bigger than you untill you find your feet. do not forget about toughened armour. it limits your jump range but worth it if you are struggling.

missions wise, keep away from assassination missions. too much chance of coming on a high level anaconda. imo whilst you find your feet stick around low intensity RES (where the police will help you) or take on pirate killing missions where you can pick and choose targets in super cruse who are either low level or not in a wing. (you need a drive interdictor for that)

fly safe cmdr


I also agree with the above, keep trying the practice missions in the sidewinder. back in beta this was all I had early on, but it really helped hone my skills..... Apparently the training missions have changed since i last looked but even so, they will also allow you to use the different weapons and you can experiment with how best to fight without having to risk loss to your own gear.

 

[Stigbob]

As lots of people have already said the vulture is not necessarily the most fun, but it's the easiest combat ship to learn in.

I'd suggest 2x gimballed heavy pulse lasers, and a KWS in fire groups 1 and 2 this way you never need to change weapon groups sand you have extra power for shields and cells.

Never stay in combat with failing shields, embrace running away when it goes wrong and you'll never die (actual results may vary). And make use of lateral/vertical thrust, you can throw the vulture about all over the place and stay on the tail of most ships.

Once you are more confident try different weapons fixed beam and gimballed cannon is fun, but takes more aiming skill.

The vultures only disadvantage is speed in a straight line (it turns like a dream), so small fast ships will escape by outrunning you (sometimes).

Have fun o7.

 

[the100thmonkey]

Do you use a joystick?

Perhaps a HOTAS setup will help mitigate the motor control issues - the throttle itself doesn't require very fine motor control. 100% is 100% after all; same for 0%. An X52 Pro has 13 buttons and 2 directional hats on the stick, which is right handed.

The throttle, which is left-handed, has three buttons (two of which are quite large), a directional hat, a mouse nipple thing like you get on Thinkpad notebooks, a left mouse button, a scroll-click and a wheel. Without knowing your situation, I guess you might be able to make use of some or all of them (they only use the index finger, 2nd finger and thumb to operate) but obviously I don't know. The actual throttle handle is large and comfortable, and it needs about 15cm to slide it through its full range of motion.


As for ships, Scout all the way! It doesn't have the out-and-out punch of the really big, expensive ships, but it's fast, very manoeuverable, and can be a very tricky customer with the right skills. Its low heat signature also makes it suitable as a stealth ship that's practically impossible to target with gimballed weapons.

If it works for you, use it! I love mine.

 

[_Flin_]

1. Get a joystick. That helps a lot.
2. If you have trouble with getting shot to pieces, adjust your setup. Go for big shield, add shield cell banks. Maybe some shield boosters. You will need to handle your power to do so.
3. Vulture is by far the easiest. You will need to turn down a few things, like using gimballed pulses and do some power management to accomodate shield cells and a big shield, but you can design it to take quite a beating.

 

[Serapo]

Here are some of my thoughts:

1) To help with motor skill issues, try using turreted pulse lasers. The fire fast, do decent damage, and don't drain weapon energy fast. Some ships can maintain continuous rapid fire with 2 or more turrets indefinitely, on as little as 2 pips to weapons. Although turrets do less damage than gimballed weapons, they are much easier to keep a target in their field of fire.

2) Shield cell banks paired with shield boosters and the best shield you can equip, with 4 pips to system/shield will allow you to tank damage effectively. Sometimes tanking the damage is the best strategy for certain ships. Even if you are using a controller, setting the shield cell activation button from the keybinding menu to a button that is easily reached by your right side should help with quick activation.

3) Using a right handed joystick that has multiple hat switches (sort of like an analog stick on a Playstation or Xbox controller) will allow you to set all the flight axis directions (pitch yaw, roll, directional thrust) to your right hand. Throttle controls, and those that just need to be pressed occasionally can be set wherever. The important thing is to maximize the number of useful controls that can be quickly and simultaneously utilized to the side with fewer motor skills issues. Additionally, rudder petals that act like those on an airplane (moving one side also moves the other in the opposite direction) can allow you to operate them with only one foot.

4) Ship that are good with turrets and have good shield setups include the python, anaconda, federal dropship/gunship, imperial courier, both diamondback variants, and the vulture. Ships that are good with turrets but have mediocre to medium shield setups include the Asp and Imperial clipper.

5) The python is an excellent ship for those who like to be able to absorb a lot of punishment and not have to be bothered with alot of fancy piloting. A good loadout for one is 3 A rated shield boosters, Class A6 shields, 6A shield cell banks, 2x class 3pulse laser turrets, 1x class 3 gimballed pulse laser and A rated max size power distributor. The 2 pulse laser turrets can fire continuously at 2 pips to weapons with enough extra power to slowly recharge the weapons capacitor allowing you to fire decent bursts with the gimballed pulse or whatever weapons you have equipped in the two class 2 medium hardpoints. With 4 pips to shields/system and limited use of shield cell banks, only being engaged by multiple targets at once become a problem.

I hope this advice helps.

This is the best advice given, considering the motor issues of OP.
The fast and nimble ships that can die rather easily won't do.

A strong tank with plenty of turrets is probably the way to go for you. So Phyton might be your goal. If you can't afford that, maybe put some turrets on your Asp, tank it up and try that.

Or the aforementioned Vulture, but that one will not work with turrets. It turns so well, though, that the whole ship actually is a turret. Just tank it up as much as you can and fit 2 gimbaled pulses.

Be smart about your engagements, do not fight wings of NPCs until they have been engaged by system authority. You should be fine.

 

[Ganjis]

You could try a Viper with turrets. They can get you in and out of most trouble as you will and will constantly pick away at enemies while you focus on flying. Pulse turrets work best overall.

 

[Sire]

To solve issue#1 I'd suggest Voice Attack: it allows you to do with your voice what you can't do with your left hand.

 

[Da-Rock]

Hello All,

Yes, I own a flight stick........I really love it.........(a world of difference from my X-Box game pad). I tried to further my combat experience in the following with failure:

DBS
EAGLE
VIPER

I failed for several reasons that many others would not have.....(they aren't tanky enough to allow me to learn how to fly in combat). I switched to my ASP and was able to win, but it was just so clunky. I then tried and was partially successful with the following:

DBX
COBRA

The DBX Cannon was awesome, but I'm sure I don't have to tell you why it wasn't fully successful, (I did take out a Federal Drop ship). The Cobra is so fun, (minus the cockpit view), but I had to run a lot.

Then I purchased the Vulture.........Holy Moly Can you say "Tanky Little !" I trashed every single ship I went up against.......(but I need to go up against something bigger).

So I will endorse the Vulture as one that you can survive long enough to learn how to fly in combat. I wish they would make a tanky version of the Sidewinder with limited weapon selection that newbies can get cheap and learn how to fly in combat and then switch up to get better at the offensive side of it.

 

[Turrebo]

No matter what ship you're flying: a joystick is, I think, an absolute must-have. I use an old MS Force Feedback 2, which works great. It has a bulky and heavy base so I don't need to hold it in place with my other hand, although a better class Velcro pad will also work great to keep things where they are.

Perhaps a USB (or bluetooth, if such exsists) numeric pad on the side will benefit you as well, as you don't need to reach over to your keyboard. You can even strap it to your left leg so you can rest your left hand in your lap and press buttons without lifting your arm. Just a thought.

Good luck Cmdr!

btw, let us know what ship you like best, ok? I'm currently flying an Eagle and I don't like it much. Looks like a bird, moves like a bird, steers like a cow... And not enough hard points. And power issues. And not much cargo space. And weak shields. Even a Sidewinder flies much better. [/rant]