Elite : Dangerous

[Lowe]

Right. Keep seeing lots of people complaining about the AI being too hard, especially when in big ships. So, I've put a video together showing the tactics I employ. If you're getting pasted, perhaps compare it to what you do and see if there's anything you can pick up.

[kalniel]

I'm slowly making my way back to the bubble in order to pick up an SRV and maybe roll the die for a bit of engineering modification before heading out again. How aggressive are the NPCs with cargo harrying at the moment? I'll need some rare for the engineer for at least part of the journey and I don't want to lose this exploration data!

I know how to high wake OK, but I'm not exactly set up to survive any initial volleys!

[Lowe]

Depends on your combat rating. I'm Dangerous, and only get interdicted by FDL or Anaconda that are Dangerous or above. Most are Elites, and they don't pull punches.

If you're worried about the exploration data, why not talk to the guys at Iridium Wing?

https://iridiumwing.space/#/

[kalniel]

Depends on your combat rating. I'm Dangerous, and only get interdicted by FDL or Anaconda that are Dangerous or above. Most are Elites, and they don't pull punches.

If you're worried about the exploration data, why not talk to the guys at Iridium Wing?

https://iridiumwing.space/#/

hmm



But I've heard of them on the FD forums. Might have to do something like that, but always feel bad as I'm often AFK at little notice so not all that well suited to group play.

[cptwhite_uk]

kalniel, I'd be happy to escort you back into the bubble. Just arrange a time in the evening with me (9pm onwards most nights)

But seriously being destroyed by an NPC interdiction is incredibly rare:

1) Plan your exact route to station, so you're highly unlikely to be interdicted until the final system
2) Choose a station as close to the jump in point as possible (check the system map to confirm distance of station)
3) If Interdicted, fight it initially. My evasion rate is around 80%, if the red bar hits 70% or more power down and submit
4) If you submit, 4 pips to engines, 2 to shields, fly straight towards them and power past them (unlikely they will fire straight away). This forces them to have to turn before giving chase allowing you to make some distance between you.
5) If it's a small ship - sidewinder / eagle / cobra / adder / viper / hauler () / courier you can just Low Wake for faster charge up and leave very quickly. If it's a larger ship you have the choice of getting out of it's mass lock range (typically 4-5Km) and Low Waking, or High Waking to another system. Latter is preferable if you aren't sure of all the ship speeds (for example Federal Assault Ship / Vulture / Fer de Lance will likely keep pace with you)
6) If being fired upon, don't fly in a straight line - makes it easy for missiles / rail guns and plasma bursts to hit you. Adjust direction in shallow random directions to avoid dumb fire projectiles (cannons / multi cannons / plasma bursts / dumb fire missiles).

[Lowe]

Likewise - I'm sure between us here at Hexus we could get you back in one piece.

Another thing to consider, set your route one destination further than your actual destination. This way even when you get where you're going, you still have a high wake programmed in which you can call up instantly, rather than having to faff with menus.

If you manage to get to a station on the outskirts of the bubble but want to sell your data elsewhere, consider equipping all hard points with mines. The AI currently don't have any way of avoiding them, so by flying in a straight line quickly, you could potentially do a LOT of damage to an NPC whilst running:

http://plays.tv/video/575d3b244b0c7a...n-shields-hull

[kalniel]

Thanks guys. I'll let you know when I get a bit closer in. Current plan is to get to a station on the edge, upgrade thrusters/get some mines, then move on to pick up the MAs I need for the Engineer, then go visit them. How easy is planetary landing for a newbie?

[Lowe]

Thanks guys. I'll let you know when I get a bit closer in. Current plan is to get to a station on the edge, upgrade thrusters/get some mines, then move on to pick up the MAs I need for the Engineer, then go visit them. How easy is planetary landing for a newbie?

It depends how many G's you're dealing with. The flight model changes DRAMATICALLY once you get into 'normal' flight above a planet surface if you're above more than say 0.75G.Flight assist does its best to hold the nose at 0 degrees and maintain your altitude. Disabling Flight Assist puts you at the mercy of gravity and you'll fall pretty much like a brick. The lore explanation is that the ship diverts power from the main thrusters in order to increase the vertical thrust available.

In practice if you encounter anything remotely close to normal gravity (or even worse above 1G) you'll probably pancake the first time. If you so much as hit the lateral thrust for down for anything more than a split second and don't have several thousand meters underneath you, you'll pancake, holding the opposite lateral thruster. There's a horrid point where you're falling and going through the pros/cons of switching pips from ENG to SYS hoping to absorb the impact, but then realise by diverting power away from ENG you're actually making the impact worse... I've never lost a ship from it, but then I typically fly with a combat fit out - even my trade builds have a decent shield. The only way I've managed to pull out of it is to literally point the nose skyward (falling backwards) and then hit boost.

Just go carefully, take your time and NEVER hit the downward thruster button. If you need to lose altitude whilst maintaining a nose level position, disable flight assist for a second or so, then re-enable it. This is the best way to touch down onto a landing pad too.

[cptwhite_uk]

Depends on the gravity of the planet (but typically it's easy).

Edit: Just a few tips though:

1) Adjust speed to the blue area of your speed indicator, if you come in too fast pull your nose up and circle around till you slow down.
2) Try to approach the target from a 30 deg incline
3) Once you're about 100Km away you'll enter glide mode (this is the transition from "space" to "planet / normal speed"). When in glide mode you'll be going 2500m/s (i.e. very fast for regular flight). Point to target and keep going, this mode auto-brakes you (very quickly) once you're within 10km of target. This is the point at which you enter true flight mode and it's all up to you from here on.
4) Par attention to gravity (0.11G as an example) in the lower right corner of cross hair HUD area). Anything above 1G approach with caution, thrust down should be used in fast short bursts.

[Lowe]

Oh - and another thing, probably obvious but some people don't always consider this...

If you're in super cruise and approaching a planet to which you're thinking of landing on, don't point your nose at the centre of the bloody planet! Point it at the edge else your angle of attack on entry is 90 degrees, good luck pulling out of that one.

[kalniel]

After a mammoth session at the weekend I'm almost home! Only 1.2ly from the bubble now. Strange that heading out felt a lot easier than coming back - I ran into lots of dead ends trying to cross the gap between the spiral arms so had to loop round to the popular route instead. I sooo need an upgraded FSD drive!

[kalniel]

*sigh*

Well I got home fine. Dashed into an outskirts station to upgrade thrusters, grab some mines, hanger, srv, upgrade powerplant to cope with it all (I'm sorry, jump range *sniff*). Then head to pick some meta alloys for the kind engineer..

.. and I get BSODs every few minutes in the system with meta alloys. I also get interdicted every few seconds, but that's a secondary concern since I BSOD before the interdiction finishes in most cases. Once made it to begin a planetary landing, but BSODed again. Not happy.

[cptwhite_uk]

Are your graphics drivers up to date? There were some fixes to ATI cards (super cruise low FPS a few months back). Tried lowering settings?

Also I'll be a farsight (?) station around 8.30 tonight if you want to meet me there I'll gladly bring you a meta alloy (on my way to Maia for it now)

[kalniel]

That's really kind of you. I updated drivers and managed to land to buy an MA. Now will see if it's stable enough to get out of there!

[kalniel]

Heh, someone found Jacques Station!

[background]
Jacques Station is a station that has huge jump drives attached, controlled by a cyborg. He jumps around systems staying at one for a bit before moving around. Recently there was a CG to supply him with fuel for a mega journey out of the bubble and to beagle point (other side of the galaxy).

There was a galnet article that suggested he hadn't arrived as expected, so people presumed he'd failed part way or something, so began searching.

From the station logs, it looks like it was intended that various clues would be broadcast, hinting at his location until people found him. But in the end someone just stumbled across legitimately him using filters on the galaxy map before anyone had discovered the clue messages.

And yes, looks like something witchspace/UA was involved...

In intend to head out again at some point (it's about 22Klyrs out), but need to get my head around material collection and engineer mods first!

[Lowe]

Yeah, his station had plenty of UA's onboard. There's a suggestion that the UA's were 'singing' so I hear people are planning on taking some a long, long way out from the Merope area to see if they can replicate the phenomenon. Interesting times, I bet Frontier will have to bring forward the story plans.