Wondering whether I should change'/upgrade the alloy slot.

Sendraks wrote:The Clipper has the speed to make an effective close range fighter with Fragment Cannon.

The Clipper is great for FA-OFF as it remains very stable and can flip round easily. Which is important as you need to keep that narrow front profile towards the enemy in order for chaff to be effective in defense. Chaff and boost to range with the rear profile are also very strong, as the Clipper has insane speed (mine with engineering does 650ms). Of course you can boost away, flip around and keep guns on target but, that calls for a longer range build.

I only use FA during manual landing anyway, never used it during fights.

What do you mean by 'boost to range with the rear profile'?
I've yet to get into engineering, the next couple of days I'll have to refill my bank account as I currently can't even afford the rebuy costs, much less new upgrades.

On a different subject; I encountered my second pulsar this morning and unlike the first one, did not slow down fast enough and got pulled out of FSD.
Fortunately, even with my current less than optimal load-out, I can boost once every 3 seconds and managed to jump away with 110% heat, but no damage.

Think heat sink is going to be one of the first upgrade I'll buy next.

Thomas Eshuis wrote:Wondering whether I should change'/upgrade the alloy slot.

If you're intending to use the Clipper for combat I would look to upgrade to military grade alloys as soon as you can. The Clipper does not have strong shields nor a particularly strong hull. If your shield goes down, you'll lose the hull quickly to missiles.

Indeed, you might want to look at a larger class of shield but, I suspect that will require an engineered Powerplant to give the Clipper the headroom to run it.

Although as you're primarily intending to use the Clipper for cargo/mission running, its probably not that big a consideration. And pretty much the only NPC ship that can catch a Clipper is another Clipper or maybe a Cobra Mk III.

Thomas Eshuis wrote:I only use FA during manual landing anyway, never used it during fights.

Really? That is impressive. I only toggle on FA-Off for certain maneuvers during combat, I've never had the patience to become a full FA-OFF pilot.

Thomas Eshuis wrote:What do you mean by 'boost to range with the rear profile'?

Run away, making sure the enemy is behind you so you're presenting a narrow profile to them. Face on or rear on, the Clipper is tricky to hit and all the more so with chaff.

This said, I'm not a great fan of chaff and use it on none of my ships.

Thomas Eshuis wrote:I've yet to get into engineering, the next couple of days I'll have to refill my bank account as I currently can't even afford the rebuy costs, much less new upgrades.

That's fair, engineering is worth doing once you've got a ship you're happy with and know you'll keep. However, there's no credit cost attached to engineering for the most part (barring the unlock requirements for a couple of engineers) and you can start acquiring materials whilst doing other activities.

When I started the game, I had no idea FA was even a thing. When I did, I had become accustomed to flying without it.
Nvm, I though FA was turned off by default and I kept accidentally turning it on. It appears I was mistaken.


*Edit, is it a good idea to bypass regular upgrades and go for Eng immediately?

Thomas Eshuis wrote:*Edit, is it a good idea to bypass regular upgrades and go for Eng immediately?

Not sure what you mean by "regular upgrades."
I would only engineer modules that you intend to keep and use in the long term. For me, typically, this means A-rated modules of any sort.

The only exception to this is my D-rated Type 7 or the sensors and life support on most of my ships, which are also D-rated.

Sendraks wrote:

Thomas Eshuis wrote:*Edit, is it a good idea to bypass regular upgrades and go for Eng immediately?

Not sure what you mean by "regular upgrades."
I would only engineer modules that you intend to keep and use in the long term. For me, typically, this means A-rated modules of any sort.

The only exception to this is my D-rated Type 7 or the sensors and life support on most of my ships, which are also D-rated.

I understood Engineering to provide modules that are better than regularly available modules, rather than upgrading modules, my bad.

nvm

I have arrived at Waldrop Gateway, started missions to gather goods for our industry.

Sendraks wrote:

Thomas Eshuis wrote:*Edit, is it a good idea to bypass regular upgrades and go for Eng immediately?

Not sure what you mean by "regular upgrades."
I would only engineer modules that you intend to keep and use in the long term. For me, typically, this means A-rated modules of any sort.

The only exception to this is my D-rated Type 7 or the sensors and life support on most of my ships, which are also D-rated.

Engineering is a great way to round the rough corners off a fully upgraded ship. E.g. Making a python jump just a bit further, squeezing some more power out of a Cobra. It can also be used to push a specific build beyond the extreme, like really squeezing the jump range of an Asp Explorer.

Engineering is a bad way to "upgrade" a ship. Never overclock poor modules because you lack the credits, lower rated modules weakened by high grade engineering trade offs can quickly turn your ship into a death trap. You may find one or two modules where it's more cost effective to eningeer than improve depending on the ship and the build you are going for.

I did eventually buy this during the Christmas sale last year, but after a few hours of jumping about and saving up money, I decided I'd go down and have a look at a planet. Well, it seems I might have needed to prepare a little more for that as I couldn't work out what the fuck I was doing, seemed to get stuck for a considerable time making no progress towards or away from the planet, then ran out of fuel. I promptly logged off and haven't been back to it since!

Sounds like you may have flown down to a high g planet without a-rated thrusters, which would mean you couldn't escape the planet's gravity. The game has a steep learning curve.

I've not checked the game since the new patch landed on April 12 but, I understand its supposed to make for a better new player experience. Not that it effects me in any way but, nice to know FDev are trying to make the game more accessible.

Yeah, it was the complete lack of any form of on-screen guidance about what I was doing that made me feel like I couldn't be arsed further. The only helpful key I could find would have been to self-destruct... but even then I didn't know what that would entail, whether it was desirable, if I had alternatives etc.

It was a pretty, but mostly opaque 6 hours.

Did you do the training missions before starting the game?

Sounds more like it was a non-landable planet. Once you drop out of supercruise you can fly around forever not getting any closer to the surface, as I discovered a long time ago, soon after getting my Sol system permit and visiting Earth.

This is the wrong forum for getting into Elite. This is the one you want. Endless help for the newbie. Although whinging about how hard the game is tends not to go down too well.

You're a member of the Pilots' Federation, @Spearthrower, so man up and 'git gud'.

Sendraks wrote:Did you do the training missions before starting the game?

I don't honestly recall, but it sounds like the kind of thing I would do. I don't tend to leap in and say 'ahh I'll work it out'.

I am pretty sure though that there had been no training mission setting up planetary landing because I literally had no idea what the hell was going on!

TopCat wrote:Although whinging about how hard the game is tends not to go down too well.

You're a member of the Pilots' Federation, OP, so man up and 'git gud'.

Yeah, any attitude like that is one I just walk away from having left my teenage years behind me many decades ago!

Spearthrower wrote:

TopCat wrote:Although whinging about how hard the game is tends not to go down too well.

You're a member of the Pilots' Federation, OP, so man up and 'git gud'.

Yeah, any attitude like that is one I just walk away from having left my teenage years behind me many decades ago!

Ha, you probably don't want to visit the starter systems in Open, then, or engineers' ones like Kuhn and Deciat.

But yeah, it's a game with a steep learning curve. Last time I noticed, I was up to 79 rebuys

TopCat wrote:
Ha, you probably don't want to visit the starter systems in Open, then, or engineers' ones like Kuhn and Deciat.

A not insignificant part of the reason I originally created this thread years back: they took away SP, and I imagined it meant I'd have to spend my precious time in space listening to 12 year olds who'd just found their penises!

https://www.theguardian.com/games/2019/ ... -dangerous

This is a poignant read, but honestly just beautiful. Frontier have obviously done similar things in the past, but this is over and above what you would expect from everyone involved. One of those I'm glad to be associated with this community moments.

There are few times I would agree with the statement "not a game, a way of life" but this honestly applies. There's a weird therapy to playing Elite, especially when you've got the toys for immersion. If I were in a similar situation I would definitely find a lot of comfort in exploring the virtual Milky Way from my hospital bed. In any case I'm going to head out to Michael's Rest in game, and in a weird way that means something far more important than anything I would ever expect from a game.