Tips and Tricks for a Brand New player

[Jace Faolan]

Any tips/tricks/information for a new player? I've never played any of the previous Elite games, I'll be playing with a Thrustmaster Warthog HOTAS once I get my bindings all set up and where I want. Any good piece of information that maybe you wish someone told you or that you knew before you played?

[Cmdr Kharma]

Don't bind your "Boost" button where you can accidently hit it......

Mine is bound to button 3...The nosewheel steering button......On the Warthog

Also the "Jettison Cargo" should be bound out of reach......I don't have mine bound at all......

And practise.....Do all the training missions etc......

Some people have said it's a steep learning curve.....

ALWAYS have enough insurance money to cover the cost of rebuying your ship.....Many people have flown too close to that line and lost it all......

Stay in the sidewinder until you know what you are doing and are confident......Remember they are free.....

When entering hyperspace and exiting SC always throttle right back.....That saves you impacting a rather hot ball or being cleaned off a stations exterior......

Loads more and I'm sure other people will chip in.......

[Boozeman]

Hi,

You probably wake up at Trevithick Dock on LHS 3447. Fly stright to Eravate. It is desent starsystem near by.

Dock at Ackerman Market, Buy 4 tons of Leather and then fly The same Starsystem Cleve Hub.
Sell the Leather and buy 4 tons of Domestic Appliances. Fly back to Ackerman Market and sell those
The next round you can buy Natural Fabrics, sell those on Cleve Hub and buy 3 x Domestic Appliances and 1 x Crop Harvesters

You have now about 5200cr money. Cleve hub is also good starting point to upgrade your brand new Sidewinder

Train especially that docking train mission. That 400cr fine at the beginning feels bad

[Jace Faolan]

Thank you both! I'll be sure to keep all that in mind, it's going to help a lot. @Cmdr Kharma, how do you manage the reverse on your warthog? I've heard some people bind the reverse to a toggle or a button that will make the throttle put you in reverse instead of forward? I can't imagine too many situations where I would need to reverse outside of a station. Again thank you both for your insight

[Cmdr Kharma]

Reverse is bound to button 9 on the throttle....That is boat switch back......

Only used it a couple of times earlier on in beta.......

Mainly when type 9's decided to come through the slot as I was on the way out....

[Xebeth]

Hello and welcome

In reference to reverse, I have it bound to a button on the back of my X55 throttle, I actually use it a fair bit in combat when you are in close quarters to something big like a turning Anaconda and you don't want to get smacked.

For general tips (from a pervious response to another commander)

1. Never fly without the credits to cover your insurance, even if it means carrying less than a full cargo load
2. Was about HOTAS, so you already know this one
3. Always submit to interdictions, the cost of losing the interdiction mini-game isn't worth it when you can very simply submit and then run, as other have said, have 4 pips to engines and 2 in system before entering SC
4. Try out the various 3rd part trading tools (INARA, Slopey's ED BPC, Thrudd's), these can help to find good trade routes, but always check that the data is less than a couple of days old, and estimated profits off more than 1200-1300 will probably be errors
5. Always check the Bulletin Board before you sell your cargo, there are sometimes missions for exactly the cargo you have just landed with
6. The targets in the high value assassination missions will always be big ships (e.g. Anaconda) with very skilled AI pilots and lots of weapons
7. Lowering your landing gear disables boost, or make sure your boost button is nowhere near a button you use whilst landing or taking off
8. Move your jettison cargo button well away from anything else
9. If you zero your throttle as you enter hyperspace you won't fly into the star as you exit
10. Not all stars can be scooped, only A, B, F, G, K, M, O
11. Buy your cargo before you plot your route, or use the weight slider
12. When buying new equipment for your ship, always deploy your weapons somewhere safe to check the power consumption before you go into combat for the first time (you do not want your ship shutting down at the start of a fight)
13. The most money is made from trading, but mixing it up with a few missions and some bounty hunting keeps it interesting
14. If you die any exploration data or bounty claims you haven't handed in are lost, so hand them in a soon as you can. For exploration data the price does not change with greater distances
15. Keep a note of outposts with black markets in your local area, you can then sell any salvage without having to try and slip past security
16. Always let your scan finish before you open fire or you will also become Wanted

Fly Safe

NB: number 13 probably isn't so true since they upped bounty hunting

[Flip]

Lots of good advice, here! I'm gonna make that thread sticky.

In reference to reverse, I have it bound to a button on the back of my X55 throttle, I actually use it a fair bit in combat when you are in close quarters to something big like a turning Anaconda and you don't want to get smacked.

I also have mine bound to a button at the back of my throttle, and I use it a lot (often when docking, and pretty much all the time when dog fighting, where I find it very handy in a lot of conditions and particularly when a nimble Eagle tries to run circles around me). But then, I didn't bind the forward and backward thrusters so I use the throttle instead.

[Emanon]

Some that save me a lot of time or headache when I learned them:

Approach the station/platform/orbital from the planet/moon/celestial body side which will tend to line you up to the entrance.

Create a hotkey for 75% throttle, this gives you the perfect "blue zone" so that when you are approaching any object if you drop to 75% throttle right around 6 - 7 seconds out you will never overshoot it and have to pull the "U Turn - Oops" maneuver - you will always approach at the optimal speed.

With the page up/page down buttons you can scale your radar for objects to be closer or further away, great for making Conflict Zone vs Exploring adjustments.

Don't take a mission from the bulletin board unless you're sure you can/have time to do it - at first I didn't know not completing missions that didn't involve me paying back credits was bad, but then I discovered you do take a hit on reputation with that group so choose carefully.

You can never supercruise into a large object you are heading for like a Star or Planet as you will be dropped out of SC before hitting it, but be careful because you can drop out so close that with a star you will burn up, or sometimes with a station or close multiple star system you could be too much in the vicinity of the large object where you won't have time to slow down and die a miserable death. The tip has already been said, adjust you throttle low when you start your hyperspace countdown just to be safe.

Emergency dropping out of SC manually (double tapping your supercrise/hyperspace hotkey) or because of an object or interdiction, will damage the integrity of your ship. If you want to face or, even run away from your interdictor, submit first by dropping your throttle to zero, then boost out to run or turn and fight. Its not really worth trying to lose them with the interdiction escape target as most times that tends to take longer or if you don't succeed its just extra damage/cost and FSD is slower to charge back up. Just my opinion though as some people like that mini-game.

There are many more, all I can think of for now!

[Blackfoxx]

If you are heading towards station that is quite far away in Ls at full speed (100%), drop to 75% before you get to 200Ls away to prevent the overshooting of your station. (unless you plan to overshoot that is)

[Cmdr Kharma]

When In combat get used to using your thrusters.....They can give you more maneuverability......

Always try and attack at an angle from above or below......This will give you the biggest target...Rather than directly behind or head to head.....ESPECIALLY if you have fixed weapons......

Also learn to use your throttle.......In conjunction with your thrusters to manoeuvre into the best attack position.....

Also with good control of throttle and thrusters you should be able to track your target.....

Giving you more "On target" time to lay down some grief......

With cannons and multi cannons try to get as close as possible........

If you have a plasma accelerator....Have the barrel of it touching the target......

Only J/k with that....But I could not hit a cows arse with a banjo when I used one....

Manage your systems......swapping between System...Engines and weapons as required.....

I think the general consensus amongst combat commanders is forget the Rail Gun......

And final point...Don't be afraid to run if it goes pear shaped......