I suppose it depends on whether the aim is to stick on their tail, or to get a long period of nice big flat juicy top or bottom target that doesn’t move much (relative to you, so easy to target) as they turn.
It’s situational and I really recommend trying it yourself to get a feel for it, but it can allow you to get your guns on the target much faster, with the caveat that you will probably be further away.
I should have added that coming out of the turn your velocity will probably have you ‘flying in reverse’ still, at which point you immediately boost again to quickly correct that and close distance (another reason why moving pips into engines at the right time is a good thing to do!).
Man, it’s such a cool game. I so, sooooooo want the Rift for this.
What’s the ETA for the consumer version?
Just shoot it and scan a chunk :)
Yeah, that’s honestly what bugs me most about using FAOFF. Ohh lookit, I turned to face 'em real quick, but now they’re 4 clicks away. UGH.
Ohhh, that’s pretty simple. Once I need a break from bounty hunting, I might give mining another go.
That’s not always a bad thing though. If you’re flying a Viper you probably don’t want to be getting into small, slow turning battles with an Eagle for example. Instead you should be putting the Viper’s big speed advantage to good use. Also note that with high end power distributors you can boost a lot, like all the time.
But that’s when you can have the advantage (with a bit of boost) if you have long range weapons and time it right, because they’re inevitably going to have to turn (pitch), and as they do so, their top or bottom will be facing you, and because you have some distance, they’ll be travelling fast, but only moving a short distance of arc relative to you, so you will have a long period when your guns are just hammering the big, fat, more or less stationary (relative to you) juicy target of the top/bottom of their ship (if they were closer, that same speed would be too fast for your pitch to track, they’d be travelling a bigger arc relative to you).
At least, that’s how it is with NPCs, people are going to be more clever than that (though I haven’t tried PvP yet).
And I guess if you have shorter range guns, the tactic is different - you want to stick to their tail, stick behind them pretty close constantly, and hammer their arse, so it doesn’t matter quite so much if you’re not tracking them as you turn, just so long as you can get into position behind them.
Mining in rings is breathtaking beautiful. Well worth doing at least once, just for the vibe.
No idea really, late 2015 is what i heard. Yes you want a rift with this. It is the cat’s fine furry ass.
Range shmange, I wanna be right up in their bumpers when I shoot 'em. ;) Well, except Anacondas, because fuck.
So how does this game handle different level of challenges, if at all? What I mean is, I’m in System A, which has some extraction sites. I’ve been blowing up pirates there, which are mostly flying anything from Sidewinders to Cobras. If I’m ready to step up my game and head to more dangerous waters, how do I go about doing so? Are certain systems/regions more dangerous than others? Do I need to start relying on assassination missions that send me after Anacondas?
That’s what I try to do, oh yessir.
So how does this game handle different level of challenges, if at all?
- Read thread. Find a post regarding tougher AI opponents in Durius.
- Fly to Durius, pick a warzone, fly for Durius Dominion (not Empire). Low Intensity is not. High Intensity is insane.
- Campers will then enjoy a dance
Sharmers post is great, it also reminded me that keeping an eye on the news for potential hot spots is likely a way to find more challenges, if you don’t mind flying to 'em.
I had one of my most awesome times with the game last night. Started on the obligatory pilgrimage to Sol from the Tatil/Maujinagoto area, mostly fuel scooping and exploring on the way. Ran into a system with 4 suns and no planets, which was weird. Found an inhabited system where the planet that the outpost was anchored to hadn’t even been “inception-sound” pinged, which I found strange. I wonder if that means I’m literally the first player to run into it, although it seems unlikely. I stopped at a USS and found some prototype tech, which I want to unload at a black market, but of course since I’m flying into areas that are new to me, I’ve no idea where they’d be, so I’m just landing at every outpost I see while staying away from full-on stations with security till I ditch the contraband.
Finding un-pinged planets (ones which don’t even appear as “unexplored” in your system map) is the coolest thing. You fly perpendicular to the plane described by most of the existing orbits till you’re a good 1000 LS “up” or more, then fly parallel “upside down” fast and look to see if anything’s moving against the background. When you spot something then you fly toward it spamming the D-scanner till you’ve marked it.
Man - I’ve flown to 15+ stations/outposts and I’ve only found 1 mission I was able to complete. Argh! I’ve made the most $ by selling nav data, but even then it’s measly. I suppose I’ll keep moving and hope to find a station with some newbie missions.
I recommend just doing a bit of trading in low-cost items first (say, food cartridges from Industrial stations to refineries), then the factions should start offering more newb-friendly missions.
I started the evening off by going all in on the mining operation. I sold my shields to get a 4 bay Cargo bay. Then I went back to Mining. An hour and a half later, I flew out with 5 platinum, 3 palladium. Pretty nice haul. I upgraded my Sidewinder, got rid of the refinery and mining laser and took a break.
When I came back, I was all set for some combat. So I took a pirate kill mission, and what the heck, took a scrap mission to a neighboring system as well. When I was delivering the scrap, I got interdicted by a Viper. A wanted pirate rated as competent. She took out my shields right away. As I scrambled to get away long enough to get my shields back (reverting power to Systems, using lateral thrusters to dodge, and try to get behind her), it was beginning to look dire for a while. I did get my shields back, but couldn’t quite get her shields down despite several hits.
And then… Feds to the rescue! Two Federation Vipers dropped in and helped me out. Not only getting her shields down, but also being polite enough to back away so that I could get the kill. Thanks guys! 23k bounty on that Megan character.
I did finally get to the pirate killing mission, but as mentioned by someone above, the person I found offered a greater amount for me to go back to the other system and kill Authority figures instead. What was weird was that transaction replaced the other one in my list. And the ship who gave it to me was showing up clean. So I looked for pirates in that system for a while, but then didn’t want to risk any further complications with that mission, so I abandoned it.
A great first foray into bounty hunting for me though. I still think I’d have lost that battle if the Feds hadn’t come in for the rescue. I think I might need more than 2 type E beam lasers to take down enemy shields quickly.
Today I shot down a Cobra with the name Huggy Bear.
@krayz, it helps to explore till you find a Metallic cluster or belt with Major Reserves. Those are the ones that’ll have some roids with gold, platinum, palladium, silver, bertrandite and gallite, in my experience.