Fighter Pilot troubles

Terbog · Post by **Terbog** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 8:27 pm

I played a trader for a while and decided to create a new Fighter pilot. I load into the game and accept a mission, usually one that only has 3-4 enemy fighters. I f2 to the location and i'm instantly shredded by the enemy. I can't do anything because I'm being blasted and the whole screen is violently shaking. I understand there may be a learning curve to the whole space combat thing, but how am I supposed to learn when I die within 5 seconds of warping in?

Dengar · Post by **Dengar** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 8:34 pm

From post: 125048, Topic: tid=8463, author=Terbog wrote:I played a trader for a while and decided to create a new Fighter pilot. I load into the game and accept a mission, usually one that only has 3-4 enemy fighters. I f2 to the location and i'm instantly shredded by the enemy. I can't do anything because I'm being blasted and the whole screen is violently shaking. I understand there may be a learning curve to the whole space combat thing, but how am I supposed to learn when I die within 5 seconds of warping in?

Terbog.

AIs are good aren't they!? You might try this little tactic for a while. When you get the contract, open up the nav map and find the waypoint. Create a new one very slightly (and I mean a couple of millimeters) from the contract one and jump there. You should be outside the bad guys weapon range, but still see them on radar. You can then get your act together and then try and take them out one at a time.

Great for multiple bad guys!

Good luck and see you out there sometime.

Terbog · Post by **Terbog** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 9:50 pm

I got one! And I almost got another!
Then I died. Hahaha.
Thanks Dengar!
Any other tips that anyone wants to give would be GREATLY appreciated.

49rTbird · Post by **49rTbird** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 9:57 pm

It seemed to take forever for me to learn how not to die right away. Even though

I still get killed as of today.

Good luck and good flying to you Terbog.

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 10:09 pm

Hi Terbog, welcome to the game and forum...Hope to see you out there some time!...

Keep your speed at all times above 1400, and shoot any incoming missiles as much as possible down and use counter measures sparringly only when you miss a missile that gets to close. Keep your distance to the enemy between 700 and 750 and shoot at any enemy that is in that range but make sure you have the FlareBeam Cannon as this Cannon has the fartest targeting and hit range!.....

Jerpes · Post by **Jerpes** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 10:43 pm

Terbog.

AIs are good aren't they!?

The AI isn't good, they just spam missiles like there's no tomorrow. My experience so far is that even if you try your tactic, they still tend to unleash a massive torrent of missiles that is so large it makes counter measures completely useless.

Jerpes · Post by **Jerpes** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 10:43 pm

What the devs really ought to do is just make it so that enemy fighters can only fire 2 missiles. I mean, they're fighters, not missile boats.

SeeJay · Post by **SeeJay** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 11:25 pm

They have the same amount of missiles as you do (8 max).

When they're "dry", they're dry. If you have 4 ships against you it's 4x8 = 32 missiles!

Dodge, evade and then attack!;)

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 11:31 pm

LOL Seejay, most newbies have only 2 missile slots!.......so yes, they have to do more dodging, evasion and attacking then their enemies!......

:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P

Dengar · Post by **Dengar** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 11:31 pm

And there speaks a pilot of considerable experience.

But I concur. they each have the same maximum as you do - 8.

And they all be shot down with cannon fire. Beam weapons don't do anything to them

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 11:33 pm

From post: 125110, Topic: tid=8463, author=Dengar wrote:And there speaks a pilot of considerable experience.

But I concur. they each have the same maximum as you do - 8.

And they all be shot down with cannon fire. Beam weapons don't do anything to them

Nope, most newbies have only 2 missile slots. I beat you to the post. You have to type faster and act faster Dengheap. Looks like it is still a paperweight that X52....

:P:P:P:P:P:P

[Edited on 1-21-2012 by Maarschalk]

Dengar · Post by **Dengar** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 11:42 pm

Ah Mr MuchTalk. I can rely on you to come up with some inane comment and you have not failed!

Yes you are correct, noobs have 2 missile slots, but the max they can ever get is 8, which is what I stated.

So get yourself sorted or I shall have to strike you down with this "paperweight"!!!

:D;):D;)

See you out there maybe

Flying Brick · Post by **Flying Brick** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 3:09 am

Hi Terbog and welcome!

Don't worry, your experience is precisely identical to what we've all gone through in the beginning! (and some of us still fly like - ahem - bricks...but occasionally they're fairly lethal bricks

)

First of all let me say that you should probably not jump into combat right away, until you get a little more comfortable with navigation and flying around.
Try the IMG quest, if you want - it does an excellent job of introducing you to many aspects of the game that you may not figure out on your own.

Second, it helps A LOT if you wait for combat once you upgrade your equipment a little bit. It's not a _must_ - really good pilots (this is not referring to me) can probably kill stuff flying in a tincan, but in the beginning we need all the help we can get (and some of us keep needing it even after the beginning...).

Try to make some money by doing a few non-combat contracts, or by mining - it can be very profitable in the beginning.

What to do with the money, you ask? There are several things that will help you: a sturdier frame (ship), better equipment, especially: better shields, better weapons, some equipment to improve the capacity and fire rate of your weapons, more expensive missiles, and so on.
Another thing that is usually overlooked is wingmen: you can hire wingmen through the trade console (F4). They cost a pretty penny though, hence my suggesting you get a bit of cash first. It'll be much easier to blast through the reds with 3 buddies, than on your own.

There is a lot of advice about combat in these forums - if you'd like to take a look even only at the front page in the Rookie forum, you'll find lots of good advice.
A few more tips:

- use CMs; Maarschalk is a vet pilot, so he's right, in theory, about using CMs sparingly, but I think it's been a long time since he was new and got all freaked out about a dozen missiles coming at him, and when that happens, you just don't know what do to anymore. I'm still enough of a newbie to remember that well, and my advice in this case is actually - don't skimp on the CMs! Spam them like there's no tomorrow, in the beginning. Eventually, you'll learn to release them once the beep hits a certain frequency (meaning they're close).
You can restock/refuel during contracts, as long as you don't leave the sector. CMs are free with any refueling, so there's no reason to use them sparingly _in the beginning_. You only really need 1 CM per missile, but that can come later.

- another way to deal with missiles: shoot them down. I'm serious, lots of pilots do that a lot. Yes, that means in the beginning you'll do less shooting at the enemy - that's ok. They have 8 missiles, like the other pilots have already said, and once they run out, they're out.

- also, don't go _into_ the pack. A good way of flying in the beginning is to just fly past the pack, enough to be in range of the most outward of their ships.

- don't use IDS mode in combat, only inertial flight (firing thrusters paints you as a target for their missiles)

- fly fast enough for missiles not to be able to catch you, at least during the first few passes through the pack, till they exhaust their missiles; fastest missiles go at 1800, but the AI don't use them, so you never need to go faster than that.

- this method of flying past the edge of the pack and flying at high speeds most of the time is not the most efficient or fastest way of killing reds - but it is one of the safest, and it'll keep you alive until you get more comfortable in combat.

Trust me, you'll learn to ignore all missiles soon enough, and subconsciously hit the C key once the beeping hits a certain pitch, or just shoot them down as an afterthought. It does take a little time, and it's especially hard in the beginning, that's why you should probably upgrade a little bit first...

Anyway, dig a little through the forums, search for combat tips, and feel free to ask specific questions! Also, people in MP will help you practice, and you can fly gunner to see how they fly and learn to improve your flight skills!

Have fun, and don't let the admittedly rather steep learning curve of combat put you off - if you stick with it, you'll get better very quickly!

Post by **Marvin** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 4:05 am

Try this:

Get an Auto-CM launcher.
Have at least 50 CMs available per contract.
Engage inertial before jumping to the enemy waypoint.
Upon exiting hyperspace, use afterburner to get above 1000kps.
Fire one or two missiles when in range of a target.
Swivel your ship and fire guns ... don't disengage inertial yet.
Once you've drifted out of range (1300km), disengage inertial.
Point at the pack and add thrust.
Re-engage inertial and afterburner.
Etc.

erkage · Post by **erkage** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 5:00 pm

Hey Terbog I've been having the same problem you have! If you are in the warzone doing missions, try jumping in, the running over towards your allies and letting them handle a few fighters before you engage! If they are chasing you firing missiles, turn on inertial and turn around and shoot them pesky missiles down!

Also what I did to make some extra money at first was took the gate to Talson (not the war zone) and did combat missions there, the enemies were much easier to take down even 3v1. You will not unlock any new military frames this way but you can get some easy combat experience and some money to purchase weapons and upgrades!

That's what I did and it helped a lot! Good Luck!

Star King · Post by **Star King** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 6:59 pm

Just a suggestion:
Build your confidence by first running non-military contracts like destroying asteroids and mining. Once you master these simple tasks and build up credits to buy the above list.
Once I mastered the basics I made 7.2 billion credits and reached the highest rank in both civilian and military ranks in four in half months of game play.
If you want to run military contracts go with a high ranking veteran pilot, fast money and you learn!
If you try to run before you can crawl you will get frustrated.

[Edited on 12-25-2008 by Star King]