First time with an SLF pilot

[DarkMere]

I wish I had bought a Keelback or Dropship ages ago, I love having the little lady by my side

Yes its a learning curve for us both. Learned not to give her a target unless I am well within range otherwise they focus their attention only on the fighter. She lost shields and 20% of her hull by the time I was able to start firing. But all is good. By and large they seem to ignore her and just focus on me. JohnLuke will be pleased to know I have not fired on her once. So it must be his fault I keep firing on him for getting in the way, or having too big a ship lol I just need to find her a healing laser like JL has.

Seriously I am really enjoying the experiance. It will probably wear off and become just something I don't take much notice of. But you know......... I think I might be falling in love

[TorTorden]

They only 1000cr to replace, they are cheaper to restock than a mine launcher.
I don't even bother to tell them to come back in, I just launch them and leave them.

Now if I could just stop her from thinking I actually about the state of the slf that would be great.

[JohnLuke]

Glad you're enjoying the SLF, Darmere. Mine is certainly an asset in the RES. (she'd better be, with the $90mil income that I've paid her) you'll discover all kinds of ways to use your pilot in combat, once she gets some ranks under her belt.

Tor... yes I agree. Stop the damn SLF status messages and comms chatter!! It drives me crazy!

[Sunrider]

Feeling just a little slow, but since I actually fly in wings a lot and the above didn't quite make sense; do you mean those pilots you get that take 33% of your income? I have never heard a kind word about them, and so never really thought about getting some. But generally I fly big ships, and am a terrible dogfighter. (I started following VJ youtube videos to get good enough to go train with JohnLuke and not get us killed. If those fighter pilots are actually worth the money - That could be cool. Or was it something else that I'm just really far off about?

BTW, we need a thread for crews and crewing. My son and I tried it this last week, and it's really ... undocumented. How to's and when to's. I ended up having him just sit and put the extra pip into the system I said needed it as we fought or flew.

[TorTorden]

If you loose 33% on them you are definitely doing something wrong.
That's ok you have apparently been talking to idiots.

First things first.
You only need one pilot.
Hire the lowest possible ranked one, level them up.
They level fast, which is good.
Get the fixed beam slf' s. I use one taipan one g9.
The condor is worthless. Utter utter shit.
The fixed beam slf's has about the same dps as a fixed beam vulture and immune to chaff.
Learn and bind the fighter commands and send them in with a little tactical thought.
For instance when engaging a conda hold the slf back, take down shields.
Then send the slf in when it starts face tanking, send the slf in while holding fire, most likely the conda will turn, expose it's power plant and boom dead conda.

Other slf's Vipers, eagles and cobras she is perfectly able to solo. Even low ranked pythons can't handle a higher ranked slf.

And of course chaff. I hold my slf back for when I need it to divert attention or engage chaffing npcs.

Making money in this game is ludicrously easy, so 10% for what is basically a vulture with weak shields in your pocket is a no brainer deal.

[Datcon517]

The SLF is a huge asset, IMO. Especially when you have a bigger/slower ship. When I'm doing some work at a nav beacon or rez, and see a light show off in the distance, I just send the fighter in, with its superior speed, to get a couple shots in before I miss out on an easy bounty trying to get the Anny into position. It's also fun to switch into the fighter to shake things up a bit during long stretches of hunting

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[JohnLuke]

<<renamed thread to "First time with an SLF pilot" to avoid being confused for a conversation about commanders working in wings.>>

Tor said.....

First things first.
You only need one pilot.
Hire the lowest possible ranked one, level them up.
They level fast, which is good.
Get the fixed beam slf' s. I use one taipan one g9.
The condor is worthless. Utter utter shit.
The fixed beam slf's has about the same dps as a fixed beam vulture and immune to chaff.
Learn and bind the fighter commands and send them in with a little tactical thought.

I agree with all of the above.

I use the GU-97's with fixed beams. Fast, deadly, and I don't care if it's a thinner glass cannon than the Taipan. Lynn knows how to fly that thing like a beast!

Binding buttons for at least "defend" and "attack my target" (or whatever it's called) are the minimum you'll need to be able to control your fighter (or ship if you swap). Using the menu on the lap HUD panel is a joke when you're in combat.

Learn and bind the fighter commands and send them in with a little tactical thought.

This one is a biggie. I see a lot of guys just leave their fighter on defend all the time. That's okay, but an SLF can do soooo much more....

Up against a wing of 3? Send your pilot after one NPC while you attack the other two.

Nose to nose with an Elite conda that's scanning you? Send your fighter after it, and the conda will turn to engage your fighter allowing you to get a LOT of shots in before the conda turns it's attention back to you. (in most cases the fighter will survive the conda attack, too)

Just had two condas spawn? How many times have you killed one, and the other conda has disappeared off of your sensors before you can engage? When two spawn, you can send your fighter after one while you attack the other. When you finish the first NPC, go help your fighter finish the other conda (or whatever ship you sent her after).

Pesky eagle circling your conda/vette/cutter and you can't turn on that damn gnat to save your life? It's childs play to an SFL to take down an eagle.... or a wing of three of them.

See a juicy target, but the NPC you're killing still has 40% hull left? Leave your fighter to do your clean up work while you head off to scan the fresh meat that just dropped into the RES.

These are a few examples of how an SLF can help you in a RES.

***The above strategies assume that your SLF has been ranked up a fair amount and is combat capable.***

[DarkMere]

***The above strategies assume that your SLF has been ranked up a fair amount and is combat capable.***

So what ball park rank do you think should be the minimum JohnLuke?

Great advice everyone btw

[TorTorden]

***The above strategies assume that your SLF has been ranked up a fair amount and is combat capable.***

So what ball park rank do you think should be the minimum JohnLuke?

Great advice everyone btw

At about exper\Master level.
Again leveling a slf pilot is fast, you could probably knock a harmless pilot to Expert in what I consider one or two RES sessions.
Comp nav beacons are also great.
And when leveling a pilot, they only charge 1% more for each rank, so a pilot that starts off as harmless will only charge 10% once fully elite.
That's two points less than a freshly hired Expert pilot of I'm not mistaken.'
Then again, once they pass Master I haven't really seen much difference in ability.

[JohnLuke]

***The above strategies assume that your SLF has been ranked up a fair amount and is combat capable.***

So what ball park rank do you think should be the minimum JohnLuke?

Great advice everyone btw

I'd say master/dangerous is when I noticed that Lynn got her act together and started taking ships out reliably.

As Tor mentioned, if you spend a couple of hours in a CNB sending your SLF after mostly Elite and Deadly NPC's (with your help), you can get your pilot ranked up pretty darn fast.