Tips and Tricks for a Brand New player

[Gorf]

When bounty hunting at RES, Load few tons of Platinium, Gold, or another precious metals on board. Those "I see all!" NCP:s will always attack you first. You're acting like NPC Magnet...

The problem with that approach is you end up scrapping with novices in sidewinders worth only a couple of thousand. The NPC AI (currently) doesn't look at you or your ship's badness and think "Maybe I won't win this fight, doesn't matter what he's carrying".

[KleinerFisch]

Another problem with that is that you'll have to KWS the attacker while he's attacking you and tries to avoid getting targetted. This makes KWS harder then neccessary. Without scanning you'd miss on the additional bounties. Without cargo the NPC will turn his back on you after he scanned you, giving you the opportunity to hit him where it hurts aka. being a PITA

[Loriath]

Another problem with that is that you'll have to KWS the attacker while he's attacking you and tries to avoid getting targetted. This makes KWS harder then neccessary. Without scanning you'd miss on the additional bounties. Without cargo the NPC will turn his back on you after he scanned you, giving you the opportunity to hit him where it hurts aka. being a PITA

Yep, they approach, ask what your hauling, scan, and make some comment like "Nothing? There goes my plan for Riches" or "How do you make a living. You make me sick". Then they go BOOM as they turn and show me their broadside.


More Tips
I usually thrust slightly under and slightly behind to make sure I am not in Weapon Arcs and get a better aim at their Power Plant. (You are configuring keys to allow you to cycle fwd/back through sub-systems, right?) Power Plant Zero=Death.

For the most part I have 4 pips in Weapons, 1 in Systems and Engines, but against Conda's or Pythons, when close I put 2 in Systems, 4 in Weapons. and none in engines, because I don't need to boost if I am close unless I made a mistake, and if I do, I get one shot of boost before I have to change the distribution.

And make sure you have thruster control for left right up down setup. BIG difference when you can slide behind and will help you out turn your opponent. If pitching up, Thrust up as well. Will shorten the radius of your turns. Also helps when in the thick of the asteroids field, you can slide around rocks to get on targets with your weapons on them instead of having to come around with a regular move that then requires you to then turn again to get your weapons to target.

If you run shield boosters and your shields drop, turn off the boosters to get the shields back on faster, then after you get back up to 3 rings, add the booster (or one at a time if you have more than 1, waiting for them to each get back to 3 rings). When the booster is added, you will almost drop a ring, as the power from the shield fills the booster. It takes a bit to get the full ring back as shields charge slower with boosters on.

[Evang]

Another problem with that is that you'll have to KWS the attacker while he's attacking you and tries to avoid getting targetted. This makes KWS harder then neccessary. Without scanning you'd miss on the additional bounties. Without cargo the NPC will turn his back on you after he scanned you, giving you the opportunity to hit him where it hurts aka. being a PITA

Yep, they approach, ask what your hauling, scan, and make some comment like "Nothing? There goes my plan for Riches" or "How do you make a living. You make me sick". Then they go BOOM as they turn and show me their broadside.


More Tips
I usually thrust slightly under and slightly behind to make sure I am not in Weapon Arcs and get a better aim at their Power Plant. (You are configuring keys to allow you to cycle fwd/back through sub-systems, right?) Power Plant Zero=Death.

For the most part I have 4 pips in Weapons, 1 in Systems and Engines, but against Conda's or Pythons, when close I put 2 in Systems, 4 in Weapons. and none in engines, because I don't need to boost if I am close unless I made a mistake, and if I do, I get one shot of boost before I have to change the distribution.

And make sure you have thruster control for left right up down setup. BIG difference when you can slide behind and will help you out turn your opponent. If pitching up, Thrust up as well. Will shorten the radius of your turns. Also helps when in the thick of the asteroids field, you can slide around rocks to get on targets with your weapons on them instead of having to come around with a regular move that then requires you to then turn again to get your weapons to target.

If you run shield boosters and your shields drop, turn off the boosters to get the shields back on faster, then after you get back up to 3 rings, add the booster (or one at a time if you have more than 1, waiting for them to each get back to 3 rings). When the booster is added, you will almost drop a ring, as the power from the shield fills the booster. It takes a bit to get the full ring back as shields charge slower with boosters on.

I did not know this!! Im a master in a vulture with two shield boosters. It always took a long time for my shields to regenerate. I would keep the anaconda on my tail out of range till the shields came back up. But what I do now is I purchased a shield cell bank which overpowered everything. I kept them off. when I needed them, I turned off the two shield boosters and hit the shield cell bank. Once shields were back up, I turned the cell bank off an activated the boosters. It sounds like a lot but its done in seconds

[Loriath]

I did not know this!! Im a master in a vulture with two shield boosters. It always took a long time for my shields to regenerate. I would keep the anaconda on my tail out of range till the shields came back up. But what I do now is I purchased a shield cell bank which overpowered everything. I kept them off. when I needed them, I turned off the two shield boosters and hit the shield cell bank. Once shields were back up, I turned the cell bank off an activated the boosters. It sounds like a lot but its done in seconds

Glad my Rambling helped someone

[JohnLuke]

More Tips
I usually thrust slightly under and slightly behind to make sure I am not in Weapon Arcs and get a better aim at their Power Plant. (You are configuring keys to allow you to cycle fwd/back through sub-systems, right?) Power Plant Zero=Death.

For the most part I have 4 pips in Weapons, 1 in Systems and Engines, but against Conda's or Pythons, when close I put 2 in Systems, 4 in Weapons. and none in engines, because I don't need to boost if I am close unless I made a mistake, and if I do, I get one shot of boost before I have to change the distribution.

And make sure you have thruster control for left right up down setup. BIG difference when you can slide behind and will help you out turn your opponent. If pitching up, Thrust up as well. Will shorten the radius of your turns. Also helps when in the thick of the asteroids field, you can slide around rocks to get on targets with your weapons on them instead of having to come around with a regular move that then requires you to then turn again to get your weapons to target.

If you run shield boosters and your shields drop, turn off the boosters to get the shields back on faster, then after you get back up to 3 rings, add the booster (or one at a time if you have more than 1, waiting for them to each get back to 3 rings). When the booster is added, you will almost drop a ring, as the power from the shield fills the booster. It takes a bit to get the full ring back as shields charge slower with boosters on.

Great tips, Loriath!! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!

[Loriath]

Your welcome.

Here is one more I ran into last night. Once you change your weapons, before you go off to hunt, exit the station and get out of the no fire zone, deploy and test so you don't find out the hard way you have more PewPew than Power.

[Cmdr Kharma]

Yep.....

Happened to me when I first loaded out an Eagle......

Flew into battle......OhhhhhhShittttt..............

[Roger Wilco Jr]

... If pitching up, Thrust up as well. Will shorten the radius of your turns ...

And if you really want to turn fast, turn Flight Assist off. I usually only do this when I'm lined up on my target and pulling straight back on the stick to bring him into my sights. But once he's in my sights, I'll turn Flight Assist back on or I'll lose control. I think I can change that in my key bindings to only be active while the button is held - I should probably do that.


Here's another tip for a new player that I don't think has been mentioned. Sometimes you'll see a red SLOW DOWN message pop up on your HUD. This is not an instruction telling you to slow down because you are going too fast. It's really more of a warning that you are slowing down, or going slower than expected for your throttle setting. This is usually caused by a nearby planetary object. I usually hit maximum throttle when I see that message, but be prepared to throttle back when you clear the object or you may over-speed and shoot past your destination.

[Gorf]

Another problem with that is that you'll have to KWS the attacker while he's attacking youl

Yep - but if they are bothering to scan, their cargo scan takes the same amount of time (10sec) as your KWS, so as soon as they say "what are you carrying?" (or whatever) start your KWS.

If you are being attacked, you can KWS while firing. I do it on all but the weakest targets. The scan always finishes before they pop except for eagles and sideys.