Newcomer / Intro What are you up to?

[WeComeInPeace]

Bah humbug to expensive (and heavy!) Hulls. Keep your shields up, and they are nothing but a hindrance.
Never had them, never died due to a lack of them.

I can confirm this. Sort of. I died, but I don't think it was because of the hull, and any extra mass is killing the speed and agility of any ship, which will show at the shield dept. If you engineer the standard hull with heavy duty / deep plating, it still weighs the same (0 tons). However that leaves you defenceless against caustic attacks AFAIK. Like any other ship build it boils down to what you're using the ship for.

Yesterday I tried both plasmas and cannons for the first time. I must say that I like those cannons, but straight from the shop they are weak and difficult to hit with, even gimballed. The plasmas are even harder to hit with, but I guess that's what the always annoying "git gud" is all about. Once they hit though, they are pretty efficient. Honestly my current build is aimed at creating challenges for myself, when I pledge to the albino pirate lord to get my hands on the cytos. If I wanted easy, something like the trusty huge long range beam and frags for the rest is a lot easier to handle, but doing the same over and over doesn't teach you anything new.

 

[Codger]

If I wanted easy, something like the trusty huge long range beam and frags for the rest is a lot easier to handle, but doing the same over and over doesn't teach you anything new.

I like how you think.

Usually, I do want it easy, mostly. And so I build my ships tough and don't take too many chances. But yesterday I was goofing around in my Alt account in an unengineered Viper III, attempting to do a CZ in the newbie zone. Yeah. I was kinda hoping the CZs in the newbie zone would be scaled down. They are not. It was full of Elite and Dangerous ships, FDLs, Pythons, Anacondas, etc.

While I did find it 'challenging' I guess, it was also fruitless. If I drew aggro even for a moment, I was dead. My ship would explode in just a couple hits from one of those guys.

I think they shoulda done something better for newcomers. At least they should change the text that tells you 'practice combat in the relative safety of the newcomer zone'. What relative safety? I guess no gank squads? lol.

I'm attempting a 'combat' oriented startover, so that why I was doing that. I shall have to stick to RES sites for now, though

 

[Para Handy]

Bah humbug to expensive (and heavy!) Hulls. Keep your shields up, and they are nothing but a hindrance.
Never had them, never died due to a lack of them.

Absolutely - never fight without shields and the weightless G5 Heavy Duty armour mod of your stock hull will be enough to survive during escape if needed. (Why everyone should mine that 500 tonnes of ore and get 10 tonne of Painite for Selene.)

 

[WeComeInPeace]

I like how you think.

Usually, I do want it easy, mostly. And so I build my ships tough and don't take too many chances. But yesterday I was goofing around in my Alt account in an unengineered Viper III, attempting to do a CZ in the newbie zone. Yeah. I was kinda hoping the CZs in the newbie zone would be scaled down. They are not. It was full of Elite and Dangerous ships, FDLs, Pythons, Anacondas, etc.

While I did find it 'challenging' I guess, it was also fruitless. If I drew aggro even for a moment, I was dead. My ship would explode in just a couple hits from one of those guys.

I think they shoulda done something better for newcomers. At least they should change the text that tells you 'practice combat in the relative safety of the newcomer zone'. What relative safety? I guess no gank squads? lol.

I'm attempting a 'combat' oriented startover, so that why I was doing that. I shall have to stick to RES sites for now, though

I'm going to try going lawless, and for that I'm going to need a challenge. I have no experience with Power Play. Something along the lines of this:

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

coriolis.io

If I go totally crazy, and that would be quite normal, the beam will be switched to a huge plasma. I already engineered it, but it'll take a lot of practice. I like to get up close and personal when fighting, so it should be possible. Might as well get used to it. The pacifier frags are next, after those cytos.

 

[Tyres O'Flaherty]

Yay! One on one'd my fisrt 'Conda! Same combat rank. Can't have had much in the way of mods

 

[Tyres O'Flaherty]

Started looking into the SLF as I have a size 6 slot free. According to the Wiki:

No NPC Pilot Crew

If there is no NPC Pilot crew, the player can control the fighter while leaving the ship on "autopilot". The ship will follow the fighter and fire its turreted weapons (based on "fire at will", last-targeted before deploying, etc.). It will also use shield cell banks if needed. If you switch back to controlling your ship, the fighter will behave similarly. The uncontrolled fighter cannot dock itself with the ship.

In your opinions, good CMDR's, is it a fun thing to do? Not clear on how to swap between ship and SLF yet but that would come, no doubt.

 

[SpaceGoblin]

I was kinda hoping the CZs in the newbie zone would be scaled down. They are not. It was full of Elite and Dangerous ships, FDLs, Pythons, Anacondas, etc.

While I did find it 'challenging' I guess, it was also fruitless. If I drew aggro even for a moment, I was dead. My ship would explode in just a couple hits from one of those guys.

I think they shoulda done something better for newcomers. At least they should change the text that tells you 'practice combat in the relative safety of the newcomer zone'. What relative safety? I guess no gank squads? lol.

I'm attempting a 'combat' oriented startover, so that why I was doing that. I shall have to stick to RES sites for now, though

What was the intensity of the CZ?

I'm kicking about in a Low CZ just outside the bubble in an un-engineered (and not fully A rated!) Viper IV (gonna try a Viper III soon) and whilst I'm a mediocre combat pilot, I'm managing ok - I have to treat it like a res site in the loaner Didey, hang out with my allied NPC's and mob up with them, and even then I have to bug out to repair + rearm every 3-4 bad guys taken down.

And yeah, eat a rebuy every 8-12 bad guys down (I'm on my 4th now, I think!).

You have to really watch out for getting isolated from your allied npc's, thats when they get you!

 

[Dommarraa]

I wouldn't use slf without an NPC flying one of the ships.

 

[aRJay]

Started looking into the SLF as I have a size 6 slot free. According to the Wiki:

No NPC Pilot Crew

If there is no NPC Pilot crew, the player can control the fighter while leaving the ship on "autopilot". The ship will follow the fighter and fire its turreted weapons (based on "fire at will", last-targeted before deploying, etc.). It will also use shield cell banks if needed. If you switch back to controlling your ship, the fighter will behave similarly. The uncontrolled fighter cannot dock itself with the ship.

In your opinions, good CMDR's, is it a fun thing to do? Not clear on how to swap between ship and SLF yet but that would come, no doubt.

The ships autopilot is about as dumb as the docking computer, an NPC pilot would be a much better bet to leave in charge.
That said I wouldn’t let either of them fly any ship of mine more expensive than an SLF.

The swapping is an option in the window you launch SLFs and SRVs from somewhere.

 

[Codger]

I have occasionally jumped into the fighter and left my NPC pilot in charge of the Corvette.

It is wildly fun, but I don't think it's all that safe. Even at Dangerous my NPC pilot was doing some crazy stuff, made me nervous.

I dumped my pilot anyway, so now I don't even have one.

But yeah, it is fun to fly the little fighter in combat. Sooo insanely zippy. I'm terrible with it, haha.

 

[SpaceGoblin]

Alright, jumped into a Viper III for my next round of CZ action.

Low CZ action, I should say

Something of a theme developing:

Despite not feeling confident - being restricted to a class 3 over class 4 power plant meant I'm running a pair of D rated shield boosters over the A's on my V mk IV. Shield is also smaller. I was surprised that the MK III has the same hardpoints as the MK IV though - 2 med + 2 small, so same firepower output.

5 ships downed in one visit, never really felt in danger, shields stayed up (just barely, at one point - pesky Fed Gunship!), no hull or module damage, ran out of ammo for the Med MC's much faster than in the MK IV!

That extra maneuvering capacity just means a lot more time with 'guns on the target', especially against those Eagles - can be a real pain in the MK IV, in the MK III, couple passes to take out the shield, couple good gun runs with the MC's and boom.

Of course, could be that more practice with both the MK III and now the CZ in general are making a, if not the difference, but at first blush the MK III is better for me.

So I gotta do more runs to the CZ - I gotta down 5 more ships in the next two hours before my masscre mission expires

 

[Tyres O'Flaherty]

Happy New Year all!

 

[SpaceGoblin]

Happy New Year all!

Right back at ya, and too all you CMDR's

Well, my efforts to repeat the success of my first Viper III CZ session where an abject failure (5 aborts (3 for repair + re-arm, two for shield regen)) and two rebuys, and not a single enemy ship destroyed. Bleh. I'll try again another time!

With funds depleted (bought and fitted two new ships, with little income to show for it) I refitted the Adder, and went and tried my hand at Core Mining to refill the coffers:

"It's cold outsiiiiide, there's no kind of atmosphere..."

Anyhoo, made 20 McR even in the tiny Adder, gonna go back and do it again, gonna get me a Chieftain...

 

[Tyres O'Flaherty]

"It's cold outsiiiiide, there's no kind of atmosphere..."

I want to lie, shipwrecked and comatose,
Drinking fresh, mango lager juice
Goldfish shoals, nibbling at my toes,
Fun, fun, fun, In the sun, sun, sun,
Fun, fun, fun, In the sun, sun, sun.

 

[Spaceman Si]

Happy New Year Tyres, and everyone here I hope 2020 is a great one for you all!

 

[SpaceGoblin]

So, this beast is a revelation!

So nimble, much armament, very swoop - wow!

Yeah, I re-jigged the Adder (size 3 refinery and size 2 cargo pod swapped over to increase load capacity!) and made another 33 McR, putting me on 60 McR - blew half of it a Chieftain and some fittings (not yet final form, but enough to dabble with) and with 3 smol gimballed burst, 2 large gimballed MC's and a single medium railgun, this thing a lot of fun to fly!

Been an age since I tried railguns, never realy got along with them - Chieftain is making them possible. Sweet.

Only been out to the high-res in it yet, the re-buy is waaaay more than either of the Vipers, so you know, softly-gently

Also, its 5:30 am, I should probably go to bed. Or commit to the 'all nighter'...

 

[WeComeInPeace]

So, this beast is a revelation!

So nimble, much armament, very swoop - wow!

Yeah, I re-jigged the Adder (size 3 refinery and size 2 cargo pod swapped over to increase load capacity!) and made another 33 McR, putting me on 60 McR - blew half of it a Chieftain and some fittings (not yet final form, but enough to dabble with) and with 3 smol gimballed burst, 2 large gimballed MC's and a single medium railgun, this thing a lot of fun to fly!

Been an age since I tried railguns, never realy got along with them - Chieftain is making them possible. Sweet.

Only been out to the high-res in it yet, the re-buy is waaaay more than either of the Vipers, so you know, softly-gently

Also, its 5:30 am, I should probably go to bed. Or commit to the 'all nighter'...

Happy new year to all

Another great image! And yes, the Chieftain is a very agile ship. It feels slightly less agile than the Vulture though. Have you tried that? It's probably the ship in the game that I find most entertaining. It's not an all-round ship, so it's usage is quite limited, but wow can that thing fly. I have a Vulture equipped with two large frag cannons, engineered with rapid fire / screening shell. It's called "Little Walter", and it does run out of ammo faster than a blink of an eye, but it will kill anything in front of it.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qoa4uQbYojI

 

[Codger]

Yeah, so on my newest 'start over' jaunt, I was focusing on a 'mostly combat' type of approach.

But after a bunch of hours in RES sites, first in the Sidey and then in a Viper, I simply got too bored with the old pew-pew. I don't know how anyone does that for hours on end, lol.

So I decided to take a break, trade in the Viper for a Cobra, and maybe do some combat in that for a while. But then I saw the lovely internals of the Cobra, and thought...I could mine in this...

And mining in it was quite enjoyable. I made 50 mill in a couple hours, and I sure can't do that with combat. Maybe someone can, but not me!

The Cobra really is the 'do everything' ship. It's just a classic.

 

[WeComeInPeace]

Yeah, so on my newest 'start over' jaunt, I was focusing on a 'mostly combat' type of approach.

But after a bunch of hours in RES sites, first in the Sidey and then in a Viper, I simply got too bored with the old pew-pew. I don't know how anyone does that for hours on end, lol.

So I decided to take a break, trade in the Viper for a Cobra, and maybe do some combat in that for a while. But then I saw the lovely internals of the Cobra, and thought...I could mine in this...

And mining in it was quite enjoyable. I made 50 mill in a couple hours, and I sure can't do that with combat. Maybe someone can, but not me!

The Cobra really is the 'do everything' ship. It's just a classic.

View attachment 157380

Come to think of it, I've never flown a Cobra, but I have noticed that people who have, always speak about it with great affection. One thing I've noticed is that a Cobra is difficult to hit head on, due to the "Space Pancake" design. I'll move the Cobra up a few notches on my to do list.

 

[SpaceGoblin]

...the Chieftain is a very agile ship. It feels slightly less agile than the Vulture though. Have you tried that? It's probably the ship in the game that I find most entertaining. It's not an all-round ship, so it's usage is quite limited, but wow can that thing fly.

Yeah, I have a Vulture stashed away somewhere (pardon my linking my own nonsense!), but haven't flown it in a couple of years - I'll wheel it out again sometime, as you say, fun to fly. I've been wanting to try the Chieftain since it first 'launched' (just before I stopped playing last...), and the Void Opals made that a 'lets do that right now' kinda thing, since it was available in my neighbourhood.

But after a bunch of hours in RES sites, first in the Sidey and then in a Viper, I simply got too bored with the old pew-pew. I don't know how anyone does that for hours on end, lol.

Yeah, my 'stick hand' starts to get pretty crampy after an un-broken hour or so of combat. And sometimes you just wanna 'relax in spaaaaaaaace'

The Cobra really is the 'do everything' ship. It's just a classic.

It sure is, still my 'go to' ship whenever I want to try something new.

Come to think of it, I've never flown a Cobra, but I have noticed that people who have, always speak about it with great affection. One thing I've noticed is that a Cobra is difficult to hit head on, due to the "Space Pancake" design. I'll move the Cobra up a few notches on my to do list.

Doooooo eeeeeet!

Sure, there are ships out there that can do each and every thing in the game better than the Cobra MK III, but it can do everything well enough to be worthwhile. It's essentially my main accounts main ship!

Speaking of my main account...

Since I was still down Witch Head Nebula way, ostensibly to unlock the 'new' engineer (Chloe Sedesi) down that way, I thought I'd check in on the Thargoid Armada over in Witch Head Sector GW-W c1-2 for myeslf...

There's a lot more of 'em (91 signals!) than can fit into one screenshot:

Oh lawd, they comin'!

And, since I need 25 units of Sensor Fragments, I reluctantly (see more of my nonsense for a little bit of context on that) sought out a couple of the lowest (Threat lvl 3) NHSS's and went to see if I could tackle some Thargoid Scout ships...

... no. No I can't. Lvl 3 NHSS has two Thargoid scouts, and I couldn't see that my weapons where having any noticeable effect on them. I was able to hang around in my (un-engineered) ASP X for a good 10 mins trying, but eventually had to bug out at 54% hull for no discernable gain.

I'm led by my internets research to understand that standard weapons are enough to destroy them without too much trouble, but I couldn't see it. Either one of them (or even both!) could've been one hit from popping, but I saw no indications of such, and legged it.

So now I'm heading back bubblewards, Chloe still not unlocked, via the Pleiades region, see if I can't scare up the necessary fragments by other means.

And if not, to outfit a better combat ship... (maybe its time for my main to get a Chieftain, too...)