Combat: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 00:44, 16 October 2019

Template:RoleInfobox Combat is one of the three archetypal pilot roles recognized by the Pilots Federation. Combat encompasses multiple sub-roles, such as Assassin, Bounty Hunter, Mercenary, and Pirate. Increasing Combat rank requires destroying other Ships, and defeating pilots with higher Combat ranks rewards a greater amount of experience. Combat pilots use Hardpoints equipped with weapons to disable a target's shield, and then deal damage to the hull until the target is destroyed. Combat can be experienced alone, in a Wing, or in Multicrew.

Combat Tips

Learning to use thrusters, keeping the throttle in the blue, situational awareness, good pip control and learning to anticipate rather than react to a target's actions are more valuable skills and habits than learning how to fly with Flight Assist off.^[1]

Flight Assist

Flight Assist (FA) is one tool of many and not the most essential one. It allows pilots to make sharper turns and more agile movements, but there are more important things to learn.^[1]

While it is a non issue in very fast-turning ships, Flight Assist is essential for more boom and zoom style combat where the attacker needs to turn and gain distance at the same time so that the bad pitch rate is less of an issue. Without mastering FA-off, even something small like an Eagle MkII can be troublesome when flying with a sluggish ship if it is equipped with nothing but gimballed weapons.^[1]

Pip Management

Pip management (SYS, ENG, and WEP power management) is an essential skill. Know when energy is needed in shields and when it is safe or advantageous to divert it elsewhere. Assign macros if possible, such as by using the two 4-ways on a HOTAS to quickly switch pip settings. When fighting several enemies at the same time, keeping SYS at a full four pips at all times might be the way to go, but when fighting just one or two enemies, performance can be noticeably improved by using that energy elsewhere.^[1]

Thrusters and Utilities

Using vertical thrusters properly can also be very helpful. They can make a substantial difference when trying to stay out of an enemy's frontal view and thus to avoid incoming damage, while still keeping weapons on target. Also know how to use the throttle's blue zone, and when to leave it and when to return to it.^[1]

Mastering the Chaff Launcher, Shield Cell Bank, and Heatsink Launcher can also mean the difference between victory and defeat.^[1]

Practice

It is recommended take a small ship, such as a Viper MkIII or Imperial Courier, and use it to practice combat and gain practical experience before tackling larger targets and bounty hunting for profit. Learning how to avoid mistakes in a cheaper ship can help a pilot to avoid mistakes in a more expensive one and pay for them at the rebuy screen. This can also help when flying larger ships, since pilots who start learning combat in larger ships tend to rely on their shields and firepower alone to overwhelm a target, and have no experience in avoiding incoming damage. This can be fatal in battles against well-armed fores.^[1]

Ranks and experience

Template:Quote This table below lists the amount of experience points towards Combat rank is earned depending on the Combat rank of targeted ships.

See the chart for a visual explanation of how rank progression works:^[2]
Target Rank	Player Rank
Target Rank	Harmless	Mostly Harmless	Novice	Competent	Expert	Master	Dangerous	Deadly
Harmless	1.00	0.75	0.5	0.25	0	0	0	0
Mostly Harmless	1.25	1.00	0.75	0.5	0.25	0	0	0
Novice	1.50	1.25	1.00	0.75	0.5	0.25	0	0
Competent	1.75	1.50	1.25	1.00	0.75	0.5	0.25	0
Expert	2.00	1.75	1.50	1.25	1.00	0.75	0.5	0.25
Master	2.25	2.00	1.75	1.50	1.25	1.00	0.75	0.5
Dangerous	2.50	2.25	2.00	1.75	1.50	1.25	1.00	0.75
Deadly	2.75	2.50	2.25	2.00	1.75	1.50	1.25	1.00
Elite	3	2.75	2.50	2.25	2.00	1.75	1.50	1.25

Notes

It takes approximately 2,225 experience points to go from Deadly to Elite Combat ranking. This equals 1,780 Elite kills, or approximately 2,400 kills based on a more average distribution of ships.^[3]
If a player has crew members (including AI crew members), combat experience points will be evenly split between them. Having one AI crew member roughly halves the experience points gained, doubling the number of kills required in order to rank up.
Fighting Thargoid Interceptors requires the use of specific weapons that deal Anti-Xeno damage, as Interceptors have special resistances. Thargoid Scouts can be damaged normally with any weapon.
Thargoid Scouts are Elite-rated, making hunting them an efficient method of increasing Combat ranking.

Guides

Videos

References

[:0-1] 1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 ^1.4 ^1.5 ^1.6 https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/459810-Is-FA-off-the-answer-for-combat-flying/page4

[2] Answers from the Devs #3

[3] Statistics collected by CMDR Remy Monsen

[1]

[2]

[3]

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 | image             = ATR unit 2.png
 | risk              = High
-| reward            = High
+| reward            = Medium
 | timeinvestment    = Medium
 | suggestedships    = [[Alliance Chieftain]]; [[Cobra MkIII]]; [[Eagle MkII]]; [[Fer-de-Lance]]; [[Federal Corvette]]; [[Federal Assault Ship]]; [[Mamba]]; [[Python]]; [[Viper MkIII]]; [[Vulture]]; [[Krait MkII]]
@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 == Combat Tips ==
-Learning to use [[thrusters]], keeping your throttle in the blue, situational awareness, good pip control and learning to anticipate rather than react to your targets actions are more valuable than [[Flight Assist]] off.<ref name=":0">https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/459810-Is-FA-off-the-answer-for-combat-flying/page4</ref>
+Learning to use [[thrusters]], keeping the throttle in the blue, situational awareness, good pip control and learning to anticipate rather than react to a target's actions are more valuable skills and habits than learning how to fly with [[Flight Assist]] off.<ref name=":0">https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/459810-Is-FA-off-the-answer-for-combat-flying/page4</ref>
 === Flight Assist ===
-[[Flight Assist]] is one tool of many and not the most essential one. It allows you to make sharper turns which you couldn't have done without it, but there are more important things to learn.<ref name=":0" />
+[[Flight Assist]] (FA) is one tool of many and not the most essential one. It allows pilots to make sharper turns and more agile movements, but there are more important things to learn.<ref name=":0" />
-While it's a non issue in very fast turning ships, Flight Assist (FA) is essential for more boom and zoom style combat where you need to turn and gain distance at the same time so that your worse pitch rate is less of an issue. Without mastering FA-off, even something small like an [[Eagle]] can be a real pain to deal with when flying with a sluggish ship with an all gimballed setup.<ref name=":0" /> You can set FA Off on Hold for a handy button on the throttle. It can be used for drift/strafe, boost turns etc.
+While it is a non issue in very fast-turning ships, Flight Assist is essential for more boom and zoom style combat where the attacker needs to turn and gain distance at the same time so that the bad pitch rate is less of an issue. Without mastering FA-off, even something small like an [[Eagle MkII]] can be troublesome when flying with a sluggish ship if it is equipped with nothing but gimballed weapons.<ref name=":0" />
 === Pip Management ===
-The most essential one is pip management (systems, engine and [[weapons]] power management). Know when you need energy in [[shield|shields]] and when you can afford to put it elsewhere. If you have a tool which allows you to assign macros, make some. For example use the two 4-ways on a HOTAS to quickly switch pip settings. However, while macros are helpful, the essential thing is to learn and know, when you can put power to weapons, when you should put them to engines and when you absolutely need them in systems. When fighting several enemies at the same time, permanent 4 pips in systems might be the way to go, but when fighting just one or two enemies, you can noticeably improve your performance by having energy elsewhere.<ref name=":0" />
+Pip management (SYS, ENG, and WEP power management) is an essential skill. Know when energy is needed in [[shield]]s and when it is safe or advantageous to divert it elsewhere. Assign macros if possible, such as by using the two 4-ways on a HOTAS to quickly switch pip settings. When fighting several enemies at the same time, keeping SYS at a full four pips at all times might be the way to go, but when fighting just one or two enemies, performance can be noticeably improved by using that energy elsewhere.<ref name=":0" />
-=== Thrusters ===
+=== Thrusters and Utilities ===
-About as important is to learn to use vertical [[thrusters]]. They can make substantial difference when trying to stay out of an enemies frontal view and thus to avoid incoming damage, while still keeping your [[weapons]] on target. Connected to that, know how to use the blue zone, when to leave it and when to return to it.<ref name=":0" />
+Using vertical [[thrusters]] properly can also be very helpful. They can make a substantial difference when trying to stay out of an enemy's frontal view and thus to avoid incoming damage, while still keeping [[weapons]] on target. Also know how to use the throttle's blue zone, and when to leave it and when to return to it.<ref name=":0" />
-=== Chaff, Shield Cell Banks, Heatsinks ===
+Mastering the [[Chaff Launcher]], [[Shield Cell Bank]], and [[Heatsink Launcher]] can also mean the difference between victory and defeat.<ref name=":0" />
-After that, also know when to use [[chaff]], when to use your [[Shield Cell Bank|shield cell banks]], [[Heatsink Launcher|heatsinks]] etc.<ref name=":0" />
+=== Practice ===
+It is recommended take a small [[ship]], such as a [[Viper MkIII]] or [[Imperial Courier]], and use it to practice combat and gain practical experience before tackling larger targets and bounty hunting for profit. Learning how to avoid mistakes in a cheaper ship can help a pilot to avoid mistakes in a more expensive one and pay for them at the rebuy screen. This can also help when flying larger ships, since pilots who start learning combat in larger ships tend to rely on their shields and firepower alone to overwhelm a target, and have no experience in avoiding incoming damage. This can be fatal in battles against well-armed fores.<ref name=":0" />
-All in all, it's very much a matter of training and experience. You should take a small [[ship]], e.g. any kind of [[Eagle]] or [[Viper]] or the [[Imperial Courier]] and go fighting. Everybody makes mistakes when learning to fight. Mistakes usually are paid for at the rebuy screen. Thus learning in a cheaper ship is advantageous.<ref name=":0" />
-As a side-note, people who learned to fight in smaller ships generally are also better [[pilot|pilots]] when going for bigger ships. People who started learning in big ship often just learned to rely on [[shield|shields]] and firepower to overwhelm the enemy. People who learned in small ships usually are better on the defensive side. This is all generally speaking. There are great pilots who started in big ships and people who started in small ships and just never learned.<ref name=":0" />
 == Ranks and experience ==
 {{Quote|Combat works slightly differently, this is done on the number of kills, but the points you get for each kill are based on the combat rank of the target relative to your combat rank so if you are harmless and kill an Elite ship you will get a large number of points, for example, if you are Deadly and kill a ship below Expert you will not get any.|Unnamed developer<ref>[https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=167367 Answers from the devs #2]</ref>}}
-This table is the current data of what experience points you earn for killing target ships with certain ranks.
+This table below lists the amount of experience points towards Combat rank is earned depending on the Combat rank of targeted ships.
 {| class="article-table" style="font-size:75%;"
 |+See the chart for a visual explanation of how rank progression works:<ref>[https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=171025 Answers from the Devs #3]</ref>
@@ Line 141: / Line 138: @@
 ==Notes==
-*It takes approximately 2225 experience points to go from Deadly to Elite combat ranking. This equals 1780 Elite kills, or approximately 2400 kills based on a more average distribution of ships.<ref>[https://1drv.ms/x/s!Ar0FSkyFAeo_l_sqLZ_kByyQHSFerA Statistics collected by CMDR Remy Monsen]</ref>
+*It takes approximately 2,225 experience points to go from Deadly to Elite Combat ranking. This equals 1,780 Elite kills, or approximately 2,400 kills based on a more average distribution of ships.<ref>[https://1drv.ms/x/s!Ar0FSkyFAeo_l_sqLZ_kByyQHSFerA Statistics collected by CMDR Remy Monsen]</ref>
-*If a player has crew members (including AI crew members), combat experience points will be split amongst them. The exact split is unknown, though having one AI crew member roughly halves the experience points gained, doubling the number of kills required in order to rank up.
+*If a player has crew members (including AI crew members), combat experience points will be evenly split between them. Having one AI crew member roughly halves the experience points gained, doubling the number of kills required in order to rank up.
-*If you want to fight [[Thargoids]], such as [[Thargoid Scout|Scouts]] and [[Thargoid Interceptor|Interceptors]], you'll need an entirely different set of weapons.
+*Fighting [[Thargoid Interceptor]]s requires the use of specific weapons that deal Anti-Xeno damage, as Interceptors have special resistances. [[Thargoid Scout]]s can be damaged normally with any weapon.
-*[[Thargoid Scout|Thargoid Scouts]] are Elite rated, so if you're looking to improve your combat ranking or your NPC's combat ranking, scout-hunting is a fast way to do it.
+*Thargoid Scouts are Elite-rated, making hunting them an efficient method of increasing Combat ranking.
 == See also ==

Fandom>Clockpuncher