NOOB needs combat tips to start out!!!!

Just got the game, and it looks sweet.

Started out, did the basics 'n' all, no probs. Figured out the punks in the tugs - hit thrust as the cinimatic finishses and they only get one shot at ya.

Delivered the package as requested and now going after the Belrano. He spots me and hails me asking questions, sounding very edgy. I start balsting when I can, but the ensuing dog fight becomes protracted and soon I can't tell neutral from foe when I'm dodging missiles.

Any tips guys for combat for a NOOB???????

Do I need to go in slow and get close, then start blasting??

Another thing, when I do nail the Belrano and its escort, how do I dock to its cargo? Do I auto dock with it?? How long does this take and am I going to be bothered by the rozzers while I'm doin it??

A little help here guys would not go amiss. I want to get into this game big time. All that looting and camping on an L point sounds SO cool.

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Going slow is certain death. Stay fast, and use your lateral thrusters to make yourself as evasive as possible. Consider flying with assist turned off, it does make it harder to keep your velocity under control but it lets you be that much harder to hit.

Get in close to your target, and try and stay out of their cone of fire. Your weapons auto-track, so you shouldn't need that long in firing position to do the job, especialy if you can hit their rear where they have no shielding.

Whatever you do, do not be fooled by your crafts low speed maneuvering, this game handles nothing like wing commander unless you are far below combat speed. Its newtonian, learn to fly it on its own terms or get spread across the system.

For missiles, the Storm Petrel should be able to evade just about anything, just fly towards any incoming missiles to maximise the turn rate they need to hit you. You make a small target, so don't be too afraid of incoming fire.

When you get through this, you should be left alone (although people take a dim view of being shot at, so don't hit any neutrals by accident if you want a quiet life) and will have plenty time to dock with the cargo and haul it back to wolfgangs.

That's great, so what you are saying is go in hard and fast, using thruster override (W) with auto assist off.

One other question, do missiles self destruct when you kill the fella taht fired them???

Thanks for the tips!!:D[}]

No, missiles persist after the launcher is destroyed.

So in the Belrano scenario, missiles have been launched at you, you've nailed the bad guys and now need to dock with the pod.

Surely whilst you a pfaffing around docking you will be a sitting duck for the missiles. Can you shoot them out of the sky or what?? How would you deal with them? This will be applicable until you can call Jafs in to colelct the cargo won't it??

Soz if I appear a bit thick [][][]

Missiles have limited life-span: after certain time (about 20-30 seconds) they will explode. You can:

1) Run for your life - use thruster overrides to accelerate to about 3000 m/s, missiles are slower than that. Remember that it takes as much time to decelerate ast to accelerate, but you can tap "L" key rapidly twice to decelerate instanteniously to 1000 m/s, assuming there is no LDSI field, of course.

2) Do it the Matrix style - turn until you see the incoming missile, then, just a few second before it hits you, strafe away from it. When neccessary, repeat the maneuver. The trick is that missiles don´t have much lateral maneuverability and miss you. And you need a fast ship to do this - Storm Petrel is ideal. I use this tactics all the time, in I-War2, Unreal Tournament, and other games and it always works!

3) The worst tactics - hope that the countermeasures lure the missiles away. If you count on this use Smart AI decoys - they´re the best but they come quite late in the game.

And last but not least - keep your eye and ear on missile warning - not only it tells you that there is incoming missile, it also tells the distance to it.