Hello there,
So I have started playing Elite 2 weeks ago or so. I was advised by some fellow streamers to go do bounty hunting for some quick early money. So I did. I soon left my initial Sidewinder
and bought a Viper. In 1n1 scenarios I was heavily outmatched, but my friends kept telling me: "oh, you'll do fine, just upgrade your viper". So finally I made enough money and fully upgraded my Viper..
only to see it annihilated by some Master Sidewinder. Now I understand, I am still a newbie, learning to control my throttle, manouvering etc. But I didn't even have a chance.
That sidewinder had some crazy manouvering, quickly getting rid off me from his 6 and suddenly making the hunter the hunted. Its single burst of pulse lasers completely destroyed my shield
and he was doing 10-20% to my hull per shot. No matter what I did I couldn't outmanouver him and I could hardly outrun him.
I might totally suck but something was wrong. I had no chance. Maybe I am a total noob and I would be totally fine losing that fight but at least as a pilot sitting in a higher tier ship
one would hope to at least participate in a fight and not be murdered like a harmless sheep.
And then my friends said: "Oh it is fine, just attack only the targets that the police is attacking" . And then it occured to me.. What was the point of fully upgrading the Viper? Hell, what was the point of buying it at all. I could have gone in with a basic Sidewinder with 0 upgrades and tag the pirates and let police anacondas shred them to pieces and take those juicy bounties. Is this is how "exciting" bounty hunting is in Elite? Tag enemies and wait for them to be destroyed by equally overpowered allied NPCs?
I had this dream to move on to Vulture after Viper but now I don't know. I have seen youtube videos, demonstrating the new AI on elite, where higher tier ships including Vultures get blown by AI sidewinders, eagles etc. Even if they don't, every fight costs hull integrity which means that after taking out something worth 80k bounty you have to go home and stare at the supercruise screen for 10 more minutes. Dock, repair, go in, 80 k repeat. I have seen people say - Well this is what dogfighting is all about!
No, not really. Even if you look at history, such as WW2 - pilot skill is as important as the machine's capabilities. In Elite, every fighter ship seems to be equal or a bit above your capabilities - I would take that AI's sidewinder over my Viper any day, he basically 2 shot me.
And then in the end, does dogfighting exist at all apart from pvp? Cause I have clocked well over 40 hours+ and most of that time went cruising with the money bag and collecting bounties which I totally did not deserve.
If I was lucky to spot something before the friendly AI did, all I managed to see before dying is the enemy boosting away incredibly fast, doing some matrix crazy thruster stuff rotating, flipping and somehow ending up on my 6 while I was still pulling the stick following the trail and then getting blown to pieces or forced to waste another 10 minutes to return to the base and fix my 1% hull.
I then made a conclusion - there is no point in buying those fighter ships or investing lots of money in improving them.
Because no matter how much thruster/ pitch power, shield strength or weapon power you bring to the table, the AI will somehow outcheat you with its crappy sidewinder/ eagle and some magical manouvers. So you will be better off stealing kills from friendly AI's, for which a 30k Sidewinder will suffice.
I don't find this interesting at all, I don't feel I deserved any of the bounty I collected - those enemy ships would have gone down anyways, since the AI is only good at magic and some unrealistic flipping, but it is not so good at realizing that going in as an Eagle vs 3 anacondas is not such a bright idea. I am disappointed, so much so, I lost interest and immersion in this game. I will try trading just to make some money and buy an anaconda and see how the combat looks when you are at the top of the feeding chain.
So.. here is my rhetorical question - how much more money can your fully outfitted Vulture or Fer-De-Lance make vs my 0 outfitted Sidewinder at the same RES?
And a normal question:
What do you think guys, what's the point of investing 25 million into a Vulture or any other fighter ship in a pve scenario while taking the above things into account and running away from a master lowest tier AI ship?
So I have started playing Elite 2 weeks ago or so. I was advised by some fellow streamers to go do bounty hunting for some quick early money. So I did. I soon left my initial Sidewinder
and bought a Viper. In 1n1 scenarios I was heavily outmatched, but my friends kept telling me: "oh, you'll do fine, just upgrade your viper". So finally I made enough money and fully upgraded my Viper..
only to see it annihilated by some Master Sidewinder. Now I understand, I am still a newbie, learning to control my throttle, manouvering etc. But I didn't even have a chance.
That sidewinder had some crazy manouvering, quickly getting rid off me from his 6 and suddenly making the hunter the hunted. Its single burst of pulse lasers completely destroyed my shield
and he was doing 10-20% to my hull per shot. No matter what I did I couldn't outmanouver him and I could hardly outrun him.
I might totally suck but something was wrong. I had no chance. Maybe I am a total noob and I would be totally fine losing that fight but at least as a pilot sitting in a higher tier ship
one would hope to at least participate in a fight and not be murdered like a harmless sheep.
And then my friends said: "Oh it is fine, just attack only the targets that the police is attacking" . And then it occured to me.. What was the point of fully upgrading the Viper? Hell, what was the point of buying it at all. I could have gone in with a basic Sidewinder with 0 upgrades and tag the pirates and let police anacondas shred them to pieces and take those juicy bounties. Is this is how "exciting" bounty hunting is in Elite? Tag enemies and wait for them to be destroyed by equally overpowered allied NPCs?
I had this dream to move on to Vulture after Viper but now I don't know. I have seen youtube videos, demonstrating the new AI on elite, where higher tier ships including Vultures get blown by AI sidewinders, eagles etc. Even if they don't, every fight costs hull integrity which means that after taking out something worth 80k bounty you have to go home and stare at the supercruise screen for 10 more minutes. Dock, repair, go in, 80 k repeat. I have seen people say - Well this is what dogfighting is all about!
No, not really. Even if you look at history, such as WW2 - pilot skill is as important as the machine's capabilities. In Elite, every fighter ship seems to be equal or a bit above your capabilities - I would take that AI's sidewinder over my Viper any day, he basically 2 shot me.
And then in the end, does dogfighting exist at all apart from pvp? Cause I have clocked well over 40 hours+ and most of that time went cruising with the money bag and collecting bounties which I totally did not deserve.
If I was lucky to spot something before the friendly AI did, all I managed to see before dying is the enemy boosting away incredibly fast, doing some matrix crazy thruster stuff rotating, flipping and somehow ending up on my 6 while I was still pulling the stick following the trail and then getting blown to pieces or forced to waste another 10 minutes to return to the base and fix my 1% hull.
I then made a conclusion - there is no point in buying those fighter ships or investing lots of money in improving them.
Because no matter how much thruster/ pitch power, shield strength or weapon power you bring to the table, the AI will somehow outcheat you with its crappy sidewinder/ eagle and some magical manouvers. So you will be better off stealing kills from friendly AI's, for which a 30k Sidewinder will suffice.
I don't find this interesting at all, I don't feel I deserved any of the bounty I collected - those enemy ships would have gone down anyways, since the AI is only good at magic and some unrealistic flipping, but it is not so good at realizing that going in as an Eagle vs 3 anacondas is not such a bright idea. I am disappointed, so much so, I lost interest and immersion in this game. I will try trading just to make some money and buy an anaconda and see how the combat looks when you are at the top of the feeding chain.
So.. here is my rhetorical question - how much more money can your fully outfitted Vulture or Fer-De-Lance make vs my 0 outfitted Sidewinder at the same RES?
And a normal question:
What do you think guys, what's the point of investing 25 million into a Vulture or any other fighter ship in a pve scenario while taking the above things into account and running away from a master lowest tier AI ship?