No Non-sense Guide to Dog Fighting

[Gameplayer]

So I guess Dog Fighting aka ship combat is challenging,

 

Alright so first up, I noticed that players tend to put too much value on a certain skill cough shields over say Engines and Trusters.

 

Dont get me wrong its nice not taking ship damage and not having subsystems blow up in my face but Thrusters and Engines can give you outright damage mitigation on demand at the press of a button.  So its a matter of which is better the chance that level 4 shields might give you damage immunity from a hit or being able to hit a button and have damage immunity from all sources whenever you want it?

 

Missiles, Thrusters, and You 101, class is in session.

Right off the bat Piloting, of course by now you have already been well informed that you need the skill for flying better ships and using better ship parts, wow that's great!  The first level of the skill allows use of thrusters.

Thrusters are activated using the RB button above your Right Trigger on your console controller, you must hold it down to keep it active, and then when using the left thumbstick you can "drift" horizontally or vertically, this makes it easy to avoid dead on collisions in those games of chicken with space pirates.  Holding down the "thruster" button and using the right stick, changes the ships facing while maintaining the actual speed and heading that you were previously before you engaged thrusters, this allows you to entirely face someone that was chasing you so that you can fire upon pursuit ships all while heading away from same said pursuit ships!

--->Afterburners<---

Afterburners your "quick boost" ability are free for all players, using the ability unskilled does break missile target locks.  New missile target locks are denied while actively using the skill.  However, given that all enemy combatants with missile weapons can fire at least 2 times without needing to recharge you should never ever fully use your "boost meter" up.  To disengage boost, you have to actually decrease ship speed on purpose, effectively pulling back on the left thumbstick.  Doing so will preserve boost ability to allowing you more opportunities to evade missiles.  Due note that if you are in head on collision with a missile simply using boost will not change the fact that you will collide with the missile, also note when you are in head on collision with a ship you dont need a target lock to actually fire your missile and hit said ship!  Also note that when your boost meter is in the red, you cannot use boost, it is effectively the same as being out of boost.

It also needs to be remembered that, your ships engines being fully powered means your boost recharges at 100% of its possible recharge rate.  This means that you should always have engines equipped that you can afford to have fully powered for fights!  Do not overequip your ship with engines you are not willing to commit 100% power to.

 

Piloting Skill, level 2 

Gives the max turning rate skill increase possible that can be gained by skills.  So sure you can of course get better ship modules or even capture a ship with better modules that has better "mobility" aka turning but for the most part level 2 is the cap we are concerned with when it comes to dog fighting, in the early levels of the character we want to min-max our useful skill spread investing more points here does not achieve best possible outcomes for dog fighting in the early game.

 

Target Locking, Damage Given, and Damage Received.

Target Locking Skill available at start of the game as a Bounty Hunter or at level 2 for all other characters.

In order to level the skill one has to actually destroy ships in targetting mode, wait till target lock, and then hit X on your console controller and it may be the same key on the keyboard idk.

At level 2 of the skill, sorry not level 1, the ship that is actively target locked does less damage!  No you dont have to actually be in target mode from what I can see, just maintain the target lock.  

Further levels actually increase the speed that you aquire these target locks and give enhanced damage when using Targeting mode.

Note that the skill is pretty much at least required for some quests and even a main quest to be at level 1 in order to have any chance of actually succeeding so there is no excuse not having at least 1 of your perk points spent in this.

This is effectively Fallout 3,NV, 4's Pipboy VATs mode and functions pretty much the same at much reduced speed when actively using "Targeting Mode."  

Most players can just level this skill to level 2, and forget about going further until after some better skills are picked up.

 

Engine Systems IS better than Shield Systems!  Facts,

   BUT BUT, I hear you say that you have to have shields and OMG shields.  No, you dont understand, I dont need the skill Shield Systems, I can already use those without the skill.  So here is the deal, everyone an their mother in law wants you to get level 4 in shield systems skill so that whenever you are hit by an attack you might resist all damage when you actually have a shred of shield power.

Key word here is "might" as in you might win the lottery once in a while when being shot at by multiple ships each firing away with three weapons each, winning a couple of those damage lotteries might mean something once in a while!

Level 2 Engine Systems doubles your thruster regeneration, meaning you actually get to use your Oh shit missiles button evade, evade button twice as often!  Meanwhile Shield Systems gives you a meagre 20% more health points on your shield.  Derp Derp, what is more important absorbing more damage or outright denial of the most significant damage source in the game completely?  Hey Bear in mind if you fly into a honets nest like the "Lock an Key" you will be shot at with upwards of 7 missiles straight away and those guys get to unload their unholy payload on you at least twice before needing some rest to do that again.

Boy I'm sure glad I toughened up those shields a little bit so I could....No wait, no uh you should avoid getting hit in the first place.

   Level 2 Engine Systems gives twice the recharge rate for Boosting!  Meaning more time can be spent more frequently outright denial of missile weapon hits against you, remember missiles are the most powerful weapon in the game period its like taking a two handed warhammer power attack to the face in Skyrim, you dont walk away from that.

   At level 4, Engine Systems skill gives you outright target lock immunity from all weapon types for the duration of your thruster use!

Does anyone know about pallie bubble from WOW?  Well this is much closer to that than Shield Systems level 4!  The enemy cannot even lazy target lead you with his lasers or hit you with turrets none of that while you are busy thrusting so outside of your accidentally running into the enemies ordinance rather than actually evading oncoming hits you will not be touched.  Yes please re-read the sentence again, you can still run into the projectiles accidentally or because for some reason you decided to fly directly towards a ship that is actively firing on you, kinda hard to miss those even with missiles w/o target lock.

  Essentially you should be investing into Engine Systems before Shield Systems which comes later in how useful it is for survival.

 

Understanding the game literally tells you the importance if you read from left to right.

I know its hard to understand, but in TECH skills, Tier one skills to a point are more important than Tier 2/3/4.

Skills on the left to a point are more important than skills to the right.

So in order of importance here are the survival skills for dog fighting, 

Piloting > Target Control Systems > Engine Systems > Shield Systems > Starship Engineering

 

Wow, that is a lot of text, I think I will just quit for right now.  Got a load of edits I have to do, sorry ran out of time tonight just editing this thing.

 

Later hopefully I will talk about more things that will help players in dog fights, however just understanding what I have written above should go a long way already to rofl stomping places like the "Lock", allowing you to put it on farm rotation.

 

Short and Sweet version, 

For new characters, plan on taking level 2 Piloting, then Targetting level 2, then Engine Systems level 4, and finally Shield Systems can be leveled as needed.  This optimizes your point spread and helps you survive dog fights sooner rather than later.  Those skills in the Tech Tree are far better for ship combat than any of the other options you could take and will help in fights that are larger than 1v1.

Edited September 28, 2023 by Gameplayer

[DocClox]

I have a terrible habit: I tend to boost at the start of combat before anyone has even locked on. I think it's an adaptation of my Skyrim habit of sprinting for cover when combat starts. I know it's a bad idea, but I still find myself doing it. Thanks for the reminder that I can cancel boost by hitting reverse. I know that, most of the time, but the reminder is welcome.

 

A couple of thoughts: remember you have missiles! OK, maybe you swapped them out for something else, but let's say you didn't.

 

Keep a point of power in your missile systems. With no power, you can't fire your missiles. With one point, you have a missile ready to fire when combat starts. Remember, the amount of energy allocated has no bearing on how much damage you do, just on how fast the system reloads. So keep a point in missiles. The thing about missiles is that they do a lot more damage than anything else, and if have target lock, they don't miss. You can use them to knock down shields if you want to capture a ship, or as a quick killer if the shields are down and you want to destroy the ship.

 

About upgrades: the energy bar on the ship builder screen show how much energy a system needs for full function. It is not related to damage output. So don't do what I did and look for the weapon that uses the most energy. Look for one that uses the least energy for the most damage. You'll get better performance from your ship systems overall.

[misterpipes]

My take on this.
Lasers are for shields, ballistics are for hull. Missles for everything. This is a trick. Do not fall for it. You want particle weapons. Why nerf two weapons of your weapons when you can take two weapons that are good againist everything? And unless you are intending to board enemy ships, auto-turrets are better than missles. You don't have to use a slightly awkardly placed key to fire. Particle turrets, obviously.

 

Skills wise: Piloting first > target control system (if you intend to try capturing ships, personally I find it easier to just board them when they are on the ground, well, when the game isn't bugging out on that front) > Starship design.

 

Why particle weapons: equal damage to both shield and hull, plus 3000m range.

Why turrets: they shoot when ever they can, and aren't limited to shooting things in front of you. But they are a hinderance when trying to capture ships. You'll need to power the turrets down.

Why starship design: better reactors, better weapons, better engines. More power means weapons get to fire more often, better weapons means you just do more damage, better engines means more maneuverability.