Dogfighters

[Mr_Average]

Beam and pulse laser as primary, multi-cannon as secondary. Takes a while to kill, but great fun doing it. At my level, the Eagle is useless against Anacondas. Hull is down to 60% in no time. Eranin 4 is a HIGH intensity combat zone. Like 5 Anacondas against all comers high. I found a Cobra or two to shoot at but if they hang around the Anacondas, I'm toast.

[Brightside]

I've upped my thrusters and installed Reinforced Plating to improve my combat effectiveness. I've added 4 kills to my kill count, one of those was the Glory Charger - an NPC Federal Dropship. My Cobra managed it and only took 7% damage.

[Mr_Average]

Been watching some YouTube stuff. Guess that the ship to aim for is the Anaconda with Rail guns. There's a vid with a guy who has 7. One shots everyone.

Hope that its not going to cost 146 million Cr.

[Brightside]

One-shot obliteration probably can be fun, however the only challenge is getting enough credits for the ship and guns.

Update regarding my current loadout (which I forgot to mention now includes a point defense turret instead of a HSL), I have upped my kill count to 17 since my last post and 4 mini-cannons make mincemeat out of everything, provided I can get them in sight for long enough. Put 2.5 pips in Systems and Weapons and 1 pip in Engines and not only do you remain maneuverable enough (with a moderate amount of strafing and FA Off) to battle Eagles but you are almost impenetrable and can keep your guns firing almost constantly.

[SJT]

(Don't tell me to get a joystick or HOTAS system)

erm...ahhh.....can't help you there then.

I'm afraid it makes all the difference. Precise control of pitch, roll, yaw, thrust (including lateral and vertical) is probably the most important advantage you can get. TrackIR helps with awareness and Voice Attack for adjusting Power Distribution during battle. I don't have to touch the keyboard or mouse.

Sorry

[Brightside]

(Don't tell me to get a joystick or HOTAS system)

erm...ahhh.....can't help you there then.

I'm afraid it makes all the difference. Precise control of pitch, roll, yaw, thrust (including lateral and vertical) is probably the most important advantage you can get. TrackIR helps with awareness and Voice Attack for adjusting Power Distribution during battle. I don't have to touch the keyboard or mouse.

Sorry

No worries SJT, I've managed to set myself up decently with my keyboard and mouse.
I've mapped the lateral and vertical thrusters to Q & E and R & F respectively as well as swapping what the mouse and WASD keys do. I know my setup will never let me be as good as somebody with a joystick or HOTAS but I'm good enough to defeat NPCs now I've got used to the controls.

[JonnyCombat]

Good low cost hotas I use myself: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B001CXY ... SX200_QL40

Worth considering.

[LtCasey]

Good low cost hotas I use myself: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B001CXY ... SX200_QL40

Worth considering.

Yepp, this is very handy, and surely does not cost a fortune. I have bought it for the ps3 when hawkx was on sale.

For the Viper, I plan on having a two MG, two RG loadout. What do you think? Useable against npc?

[JonnyCombat]

For the Viper, I plan on having a two MG, two RG loadout. What do you think? Useable against npc?

The only concern with this is the ammo costs. I've heard railgun ammo is horribly expensive, and the multi cannons on my viper cost 5k to rearm them when they run dry.

Cannons are good for damaging big ships, and freighters, although they make attacking fighters tricky (no gimballing as far as I know). May be best off with two standard lasers, and multi cannons/cannons/rail guns. Bit of experimentation may be in order.

[Flip]

There are gimballed multi-cannons. I use a pair of them on my Viper, along with a pair of gimballed pulse lasers.