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i know if i played in Open i would lose interest quite quickly, i just cant handle people who are only out to ruin other peoples enjoyment of game.
I've played in open since day one. I wasn't really aware that solo was a thing. To be honest I only see a player every now and then. Deciat and Wolf 397. I am not able to go to Shinrata Dezra, but it is generally gank central.
Matt
I like the open world concept, but it's such a strange way to behave, and it could spoil it as a multiplayer world. Maybe there's some resentment at lots of new LTD rich trader elites (like me) appearing at Jameson Memorial at the moment.
Can you switch the same profile between the two? Not sure I'm that bothered playing online with a bunch of nerds with bad intentions.
I'm not sure it's a new thing, or resentment. As Mikkel said they are just looking to ruin peoples day/week etc. I would be more than happy to have some interaction with other players who are contributing to the game. Pirates for instance, if I got pulled out of supercruise with a message to drop 10t of diamonds, I would do it happily. Yarrr
Generally, the interaction I get with players is that they disappear, almost before I can send an 07. Check your Contact History panel, human cmdrs will appear in there.
Matt
In fairness, I got a cheery o7 yesterday in passing from someone, there are probably more good than bad folk out there. I didn't let this cmdr spoil my day, fortunately I'd seen somewhere before that ramming outside Jameson was a thing so I was watching for it, with full shields up, and I escaped ok, just shaken. It was more the worry of a rebuy minutes after purchase and fitting out.
What's o7? 🙂
FSD grade 5'd - bloody hell, that's better! Passenger embarked, off we go a-travelling... 🙂
Shouldn’t it be <o instead?
o7 is the wrong hand.
Not a great start with the big girl, she might not be the ship for me.
Her shields and hull saved your neck!
I use my Anaconda a lot. It's brilliant to have space for so much stuff! Mining gear AND weapons? No problem!
Handling isn't all that bad with A rated thrusters either, and that's before I've engineered it. Only annoyances are the low top speed (still) which lets people escape; the long nose; and the fact that the huge hp and one of the larges are right underneath near the back, so you can't bring all you weapons to bear unless they're in front of you. It's fun when they are though!
Let us know how the FDL works for you, I’m looking for a ship that will last longer than 30s in a CZ; my record in the Viper.
Okay. So these are my initial thoughts after kitting out the FDL and taking on the same assassination missions that kilt me ded in the Vulture.
I had an enjoyable, successful evening. Toughest bits were pirates in a Fed Assault Ship (mega damage but weak shields and armour fortunately, I thought I’d had it for a moment) and a Python, both of whom damaged me to about 60%. The pirate that killed me in a vulture never really stood a chance. I’ve set up the FDL with a huge beam laser and four medium multicannons, which seems a highly effective combination. No engineering on them yet but a little bit on the distributor and shields, and maxed out the FSD (irrelevant to combat but makes it less painful to get about).
But.
I have definitely improved my tactics and load out since the Vulture. I’ve learnt the value of;
Chaff, when the fight becomes a space joust;
Point defence when the missiles are coming to finish you off when your shields go down (automatic defence FTW)
And I’m starting to gitgud with utilising vertical thrusters liberally in combat; Max down when in a turning fight and more gently up or down when pursuing your quarry in order to expose a larger aspect to shoot at. I’m a long way from good at it but there’s definite benefit showing now. It’s also really useful when lining up for the slot shot; I seem to have improved at docking quite considerably over the past 24hrs.
So to sum up; the FDL is definitely a weapon, but actually in hindsight there was something wrong with both my build and how I was using the Vulture, which makes me want to revisit it in the future. FDL for now, though 😎
What sort of combat techniques are people using? I’m experimenting with using both sticks to turn – so when someone flies over my head I nose up but then use down thrusters on the other stick. I don’t technically turn any faster but I’m more able to keep the ship in sights so I can get in behind. A bit like flying with FA off but less mental.
Yeah this works well, depends a bit on the ship, some ships have really good vertical thusters.
FA off is a bit mental but I think the best way to use it is just to flick it off, spin your nose round to the target then flick it back on. I don't do it very often bit it can be useful in getting your nose on target to finish someone off.
I've decided grinding data deliveries would be a soul crushing way to gain Federation rank so I've changed tack and set myself up in Sol.
I look for pirate assasination or massacre missions in a nearby system, then hop to another station (I think there are 12 in Sol, 3 just round Earth) and look for another massacre or assasination mission in the same system against the same faction.
So if the first station gives you "Massacre 16 Pirates from the Barnard's Star Blue Faction" and "Assassinate Molgrips of the Blue Faction" then you go to the second station and you get "Massacre 24 Pirates from the Barnard's Star Blue Faction" then these mission stack. As you kill Pirates both mission counters count the kills and you assassination target also counts towards the total.
Okay its not as quick as courier mission for gaining rank but, its not soul crushingly dull either. You also gain combat rank and get more money from the mission givers and by handing in the bounties. As a bonus you can scoop materials from all the destroyed ships.
I found that turning FA off doesn't mean the ship pitches any more quickly. It seems to need forward thrust as well. Still haven't mastered it. I may go back to the training missions to learn about FA off.
Doesn't gaining combat rank just increase the skill level of NPC pirates who attack you while you're mining the billions in LTD's ?
I'm aiming for Elite in trading and Exploration and Mostly Harmless in Combat before I start getting into deliberate fights
@V8ninety thanks, something to think about.
I'm space trucking for Terra-Ex Astro Corp tonight (selecting high INF really works on those) and gonna try a little smuggling.
Will try the Vulture in the CZ in the next few days, what could go wrong!
Matt
Perchy, if you are at a Nav beacon then you can start a fight with whoever you want. If there is a pirate who is an Eilte FDL, leave him alone, but there will be plenty of harmless - competent Cobras, Adders, Asps. Their tactics are not very sophisticated and their weapons are not great, so you will cope easily.
As Rich said, great for farming materials, ship scans, wake scans and collecting the fragments from blown up ships. If only Technetium floated around Nav beacons they would be perfect.
Matt
Their tactics are not very sophisticated and their weapons are not great, so you will cope easily.
....and increase my combat rating, so that the NPC pirates who come sniffing round my unarmed mining ship full of diamonds are Dangerous rather than Harmless?
@pondo o7 is a salute, Perchy is ignorant of Space Corps Directive 3571-25B.
I've been playing open since I started, maybe there are less arseholes on PC but I've not had any real grief. I think the last issues I had were more down to reckless mission stacking than human commanders.
Doesn’t gaining combat rank just increase the skill level of NPC pirates who attack you while you’re mining the billions in LTD’s ?
After a while you kind of want the NPC players to be a bit tougher, otherwise it ends up like clubbing seals although its kind of funny when a random "Mostly Harmless" NPC in a Sidey interdicts you and you melt them in about 4 seconds
Perchy is ignorant of Space Corps Directive 3571-25B.
No officer with false teeth shall attempt oral sex in zero gravity?
….and increase my combat rating, so that the NPC pirates who come sniffing round my unarmed mining ship full of diamonds are Dangerous rather than Harmless?
To be fair, a tactic I learned from this here parish is to get in place (even plant your first prospectors) and wait a few minutes - sometimes nothing happens, sometimes one or max two pirates will come and sniff around, but if you've nothing on board, they'll leave you be. Then you're clear to mine in safety until the hold's full (I once spent five hours loading 394 tons into my Big Pink Anaconda with not a spot of company after the first couple of minutes.
Where you need to be careful is if you've hit a dry spot and supercruise to try another place in the same belt, the pirates will spawn again when you come out of cruise, and if you've booty aboard, they'll want a share. Hence last week's windmilling Python. 🙁
I think griefing/ganking is really localised and a real minority, Shinrata, Deciat, Borann are genuine hotspots. Outside of these places you see one cmdr every 2-3 days and they are typically doing something else so they blink out before you can send a message.
There will be rare others associated with Powerplay/BGS.
At the minute there is a 'high threat' in Enayex, which I can't work out. It's not an engineer base and there are no player factions there.
Perchy, that's directive 3571-25C, directive 3571-25B: No crew member shall sniff the seat of the exercise bike in the women's gym!
Matt
Yes I never saw another CMDR until I got ganked at Deciat, and even then it was my third or fourth trip. Just don't go late in the evening when the Americans are online.
its kind of funny when a random “Mostly Harmless” NPC in a Sidey interdicts you and you melt them in about 4 seconds
Yes, the time between "I'm going to destroy you!" and "Nooo this can't be happening!" can be amusingly short.
Tried CQC for a combat fix, got no matches. Anyone fancy a bout?
Back in the real world, exploring and discovered some biologicals and a system with 5 stars, two of which are an actual binary star. It's cool.
That *, *, *, * key binding for engine boost. In the Viper or the Asp X it's a bit of a laugh, flip round and back to the pad, but in the space cow, another 9.5M Cr. I swear I'll never make a profit on this ship!
Return to the station who just blew you to smithereens and they tell you how pleased they are to see you again, yeah, didn't say that last time as you were decorating the walls of your dock with the internals of my ship!
Matt
I've swapped select target infront and boost now, so errors should be less costly!
Ouchy - not 100% sure what a space cow is, but maybe I won't get me one of them! 🙁
Type-9, loads of space but not the best to fly. To be fair I have boost issue with every ship, just the Space Cow is so much harder to recover from.
Having fun tonight, annoyed some a passenger so much she jumped out (she wanted consumer goods which were 100Ly away on a 13Ly trip!). Now flying to a station which is 1.7M Ls from the star.
Matt
I'm on a killing spree in the Mamba have taken some kill lots of pirates mission to get the last bit of the way to Rear admiral, but think I will go gather materials so I can engineer more stuff before buying the Corvette
I've decided to try and find interesting stuff that's a bit closer to home. Trying to get to Orion Nebula but Sector Col 70 is annoyingly in the way.
annoyed some a passenger so much she jumped out
Wait, so she ejected into the void of space rather than spend a minute longer in your company? We've all been there, haven't we?
Yeah, you only sit with your back to the door on a date once!
My default position with these passengers is 'no'. They agreed to be ferried around by me in a Space Cow, what the hell were they expecting? I put them in the good cabin, but it's definitely not in the top 1% of all liners.
Actually I'm a bit torn, if you accept the REP option they seem to shoot you up in rank pretty quick. I only did a few on the way back from space trucking and I'm almost Petty Officer.
Matt
Has anybody explored a Guardian site yet? I quite fancy trying to get some guardian blueprints I think. Maybe even as a wing, if people’s schedules tally up?
I haven't, but I would be up for it if schedules match.
No Type-9, I promise!
Matt
Don't eve know what a Guardian site is 🙂 but like the sound of it, what was the squadron setup name again?
Basically, ancient ruins for access to super engineering mods.
I think there are skimmer type things which are quite shooty.
Edit: STW1
Matt
I've done the trip to get the Guardian FSD booster. Its quite a fun little adventure.
Not sure it would work in a wing though. There is only so much guardian tech at each site and I'm sure you can only get 1 Guardian blueprint each time.
I noticed that there was a 'guardian' category of civilisation in the list on the map, and selecting it revealed one system. I was goign to explore it but then I read too much online which has spoiled the surprise somewhat. But yeah I'm up for it, drop me a line on PS messages cos I have it on my phone.
I also want to try CQC. Does anyone actually do it?
I’m just keen to ‘wing up’ again; don’t really mind what for. That evening we did a few weeks ago really enhanced the gameplay for me despite us all being varying degrees of hopeless at that point 😂😂😂
Re CQC; never tried it, it appeals to me much more if it’s amongst us lot rather than just randoms, but I have heard that it’s pretty much dead. Shame really.
I could really have done with a wing last night to takedown the Pirate in an FDL and his two buddies in Vultires.
They beat me twice and then i even re-configured the ship, adding an extra shield booster and a shield cell bank. I flew back feeling a bit more confident and they rocked up with a wing of 4 rather than a wing of 3 and i got killed again!
I would be happy to wing up for something, even if it's not the guardian stuff. I'm still some degree of hopeless, but hopefully less so than a couple of weeks ago.
I haven't tried CQC. As I understand there is a new queuing system which will be implemented when the new Fleet Carriers go live. Perhaps that will increase the interest.
Matt
think i applied to join the squadron..
Matt if you are in a T9 then how about trading or cargo missions - you haul I'll be the escort?
Who else has a big ship?
I don't think we'd be able to share the money if we just trade though. Could maybe do a boomtime wing delivery mission. All cargo on the T9 should do most of them in three or four trips - more if we can get someone else.
Or I don't mind flying my Anaconda with its 380-odd tonnes and someone else can escort.
A couple of (perhaps dumb) questions about mining for LTDs at Borann
I’ve got the ship (AspX) and the kit. I can find and extract the bling. I’m transferring 32T at a time to me Cobra to sell somewhere at a decent price in case I need to fight for it as the Asp is too slow and is unarmed.
I wait before I start for any pirates to scan me and move on.
I still seem to be coming across other ships though. IN the last two hours, I’ve seen another miner laser mining in the far distance, a Search and Rescue Anaconda that constantly circled me for twenty minutes and a wing of two Asps that were circling round but left me alone. I don’t think they could see me because I was inside an exploded core and was too cold for their scanners. Can extended super cold periods damage the ship?
Twice though, I’ve been attacked by NPC pirates as soon as I left the ring, got away once because I had already started my FSD and jumped before my hull got to zero. Second time I got melted as soon as I started to run. Both times I had been AFK for a while (for a phone call and then dinner] and it had jumped me slightly out of the ring. Is this normal?
I thought it was a mostly solitary pursuit.
Bought a Python now but need to kit it out.
I found that pirates respawn if you leave the game and re-join, even if you're still in the ring.
You have to do it all in one go to avoid pirates.
Happy to do something like that, I know various people have got some big ships.
Matt
I've got the final call with my client tomorrow afternoon wether or not the demo's complete, so I will be putting the laptop down and playing a lot more ED over the next few days - and doing a lot more riding 🙂