SCBs or Silent Running?

[Roger Wilco Jr]

Just curious. I'm on DW for another month or two, and it's been before the heat problems that I've had my last real combat. I've always been a max shields and SCB fighter (almost never took any hull damage) and have never messed with silent running. I think SR used to be bugged and caused heat damage very quickly, and that turned me off from trying it. But now if SCBs also cause heat damage, is using SR a valid combat technique? I've see a video or two of someone using it, but that was PVP. Does it make a difference whether it's PVP or PVE? I mean, does the AI cheat? Either way, it looks like you may need to load up on heat sinks these days. And how do HRPs and armor affect handling? I never messed with HRPs, but I recall heavy armor causing ships to wallow about, so I stopped using it.

Anyway, I'm kind of itching for combat after so many months trading and exploring. I think I'm going to need to relearn how to properly fight my ships. But first I'll probably need to reconfigure them for what works best these days. Any thoughts you'd care to share?

Thanks.

[Jack Dunhill]

I am pretty sure i have read somewhere that silent running does not work against AI ships and it's only used in PVP.

I would actually love to use silent running on my FAS and FGS because it seems both are good with heat management and have weak shields/strong hull.

[Falcon_D]

Hello,
Have never tried silent running in combat. But I have tried it while smuggling and it does not work against AI.
As for the FAS and FGS, also I guess FDL, they seem to be OP in the silent running category. I tried to silent run on my Corvette and Cutter. But the heat just builds up very fast compared to what I've seen on videos for the FAS.
Personally, I feel the reason for AIs cheating in SR scanning, is if they don't, then you can basically "print" credits using the FAS and FGS.
Have fun, fly safe. o7

[Digga]

Like you I am also on the DW expedition and also been thinking about the SCB heat issue that came in 2.0
I have been considering the following: combining the activation of a cell with deploying a heat sync, using voice attack with an appropriate pause in between the 2 actions.

I would have to give up a shield booster for this, but it is my opinion that there should be more of a side effect to using SCB's and if it costs a shield booster then fair enough.

As for silent running, would be nice to test it out with a few other commanders.
Wouldn't be surprised if Ghost Legion is doing this already, maybe ask one of them. Back when they were Ghost Squadron, some of the experienced combat commanders use to run combat experience sessions for the wing.

[TorTorden]

No pause needed.
Just fire them both fd has synced their cycles pretty darn perfectly, and you have a few seconds of play here as well.

A shield cell only puts you above 90% heat for a 2-3 seconds at most.
Heat sinks has a major boost to them now as well, they take like 150% heat down to practically zero (even if I fire all lasers and scb, my cockpit frosts over when I fire a HS)
You can also deploy heat sinks in super cruise as well now.

The heat from firing off a scb isn't terribly damaging, running a high heat laser build might actually be more damaging in the long run.
Also the least on the ships I fly the most heat seem to stay away from power plant and life support.
So you don't really need to launch a sink with every scb.
I can perfectly fire both a7 banks of cells on my vette and just manage module damage with my amu.

Also scbs where boosted as well. They now give a lot more shield strengt per cell. No more need to fire multiple bank's like before one will do you plenty.
Like on my vetted, I wait til my third and last ring, one 7a cell will at that point charge me up to practically full.
Before horizons on my conda I would had to fire at least 4-5 cells to get close to that kind of charge up.

[JohnLuke]

I used heat sinks when firing an SCB when Horizons first came out, but stopped shortly there after when I saw that the module damage from heat was minimal. I don't even have HS on my combat Vette, or any ship in my fleet for that matter.

Here's what I do..... If I need to use an SCB, I don't use energy weapons for 2-3 seconds so that the ship can cool down some, fire the SCB, then wait until heat is down to 80% or so before using energy weapons again. Done. Yes I sustain a bit of module damage, but it's minimal and I typically never go through more than two full SBC units in a RES session (firing the 7A SCB a total of 10 times). I carry a AFMU on board in the event that I suffer serious module damage but I have never ever used it.

In this video at about 1:30, I fire a 7A SCB. You can watch the heat indicator during the shield recharge.

I hope this helps.

[Phillipus]

Also, here's a handy tip for using SCBs - viewtopic.php?f=24&t=4791

[aaphebus]

..

[Roger Wilco Jr]

Thanks for the info. I'll have to watch those videos when I get home. It sounds like things haven't changed all that dramatically, at least if you aren't running a hot/beam setup, although it may have been a little bit nerve wracking at first when you started seeing sparks and taking heat damage. It sounds like strong shields and judicious use of cells is still the way for me to go - probably won't even need heat sinks (maybe in a CZ). It also sounds like silent running is really a PVP technique and limited to handful of cool running ships. I still may try a tanked up FAS to see what it's about.

[JohnLuke]

You Cmdrs have very big ships, I think they surely can sustain heat damage better than my clipper. I recently built one for bounty hunting and put 7A shield and 6A + 4A SCBs on her. First time I used SCBs (fired both at once) I mostly fried her on-the-spot . I must admit I was still firing weapons during the operation . It's a very impressive situation. Lesson learned.

By the way, I can confirm, like other have done, that silent running doesn't work in PvE. I've stopped smuggling mission long ago essentially because of that, coupled with the improbable ability for NPC to intercepted you while you just end your jump from a previous system. The only way is boost and jump again. Silent Running with NPC is like "don't hide in the dark little boy, I see you anyway".

Yes firing two SCB's at once will generate a LOT of heat! As far as ship size being a factor, I don't use a heat sink on the Python of FDL either. The Python heats up about the same amount as the Vette when firing an SCB, and the Ferdie runs cool as a cucumber.