Al_B on 10/7/2015 at 07:24
Finally bought it myself. It's just been a little too expensive up to now for the amount of time I'm likely to be able to play it. Plus, I suspect I'll need a new joystick - it's been a little while since PCs supported the old style (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_port) game port :).
henke on 10/7/2015 at 20:45
Bah, I suck at dogfighting. That tutorial mission where you need to destroy 2 enemy ships took me 20 minutes of spinning around firing wildly all over the place and depleting all my missiles. Eventually I figured out that the key to success is putting the ship in reverse and shooting at the enemies while they chase you. I don't have much confidence that these tactics will cut the mustard if I end up facing human opponents tho.
Malf on 10/7/2015 at 22:02
Okay, so, dogfighting tips:
* Keep the throttle in the blue. When it's there, your ship's at its most manoeuvrable.
* Make judicious use of lateral thrusters and yaw controls. They help greatly when trying to keep a bead on the enemy.
* When you've gotten the hang of those, play around with turning off Flight Assist while bringing your ship to bear on the enemy. FA Off allows for the fastest turn rates in the game, but can be tricky to control. I suggest turning FA off purely for fast turns, and once the target's in your sights, turn it back on again. To that end, make sure the toggle's bound to an easily accessible key / button.
* Make sure to balance your power depending on the situation. More pips to engines allows for greater speeds and a wider window of manoeuvrability, while pips to weapons allows you to continue firing longer. Power to weapons does not affect weapon strength.
* If you've got any form of head tracking device, USE IT! My TrackIR assists massively in keeping track of where the enemy is.
* If you're using a HOTAS joystick, make sure the throttle is set to Full Range. This means 0 thrust will be halfway, while reverse thrust is activated when pulling back from centre and forward thrust when pushing forward from centre. And as reverse thrust also has an optimal manoeuvrability blue zone, this makes for increased nimbleness.
Basically, try to avoid situations where you and your target end up circling each other or jousting. As well as being incredibly time consuming, those tactics are also incredibly dull.
henke on 11/7/2015 at 08:11
No TrackIR or HOTAS. Just a 360 pad. The other hints helped a bit tho, redid that combat tutorial and it probably only took me 10 minutes this time. Using the Engine Boost more helped too, but I still seem to end up with a lot of circling and jousting, but when fighting one enemy I guess that's unavoidable? Also turning flight assist off doesn't seem to do much to increase the turning speed.
Thirith on 11/7/2015 at 09:42
If you have some spare change, do consider getting a Thrustmaster HOTAS.X. It's very reasonably priced and makes Elite a lot more fun. I didn't think it'd make that big a difference, but it did.
faetal on 11/7/2015 at 10:46
Seconded - it's a great HOTAS for the price.
henke on 12/7/2015 at 11:02
At this point I think I might have to get a HOTAS just so everyone stops telling me to get a HOTAS.
Thirith on 12/7/2015 at 11:26
Doooo itttt!!!!
... and I promise not to pester you afterwards about getting a TrackIR. Much.
henke on 12/7/2015 at 18:44
Finished all the tutorials and did my first illegal cargo shipment today. Made a bunch of money but I don't seem to have anywhere to spend it on the station I arrived to. Do all the stations not have garage bays where you can upgrade your ship? Also what's the protocol when requesting docking at a new station? I got the denied the first few times, but then let in eventually, not sure why.
I'm CMDR Nicola ap Io, btw. If anyone wants to add me to their friend list or whatever.
