Ship Combat

The Basics: So you ended up in combat. You may have chosen to attack an NPC ship or are looking for cargo from ship loot. Either way now you’re here let’s take a quick look around.

The first thing to note is that nothing will happen till you are ready to begin. So you have time to evaluate the position and take the correct action. On the left you can see your Shields, Armour, Hull and Speed Stats. On the right, you can see the Enemy Stats as well. These are the current stats and are always up-to-date.

The main part of the screen is spit into two separate windows. The top half is the report from your AI on your activities, and the bottom half is the enemies actions. Keep an eye on these texts, they give information on what is happening in each round of combat.

Weapons: At the bottom of the combat screen, there are a number of boxes and options. The first of these is your weapons slots. If you have weapons fitted, these buttons will appear lit. If you have no weapons in your weapon slots on your ship, these will be greyed out. Missile Launchers do not show in these slots as active weapons, as they are fired from the Missiles sections.

Should you wish to fire your weapons, simply click the button you wish to fire. You will see the report in the top window and the enemy will counter in the window below.

Weapon Damage can be boosted and effected by a number of factors. There is the natural variance of accuracy IE hit, miss and then the effect of items you have fitted to your ship. I won’t go into them here, but there are items in game that will increase your weapon’s damage % efficiency and accuracy.

Drones: Should you have Combat drones in your Ship’s stores that you can use, they will appear in this section with an option to launch a Drone. Drones can only be launched one at a time and are recalled at the end of combat if they have survived. Only drones you have the skill to use and level to command will appear in this list box. If you do not have any drones, this will remain an empty section.

Missiles: If you have a Missile Launcher fitted in either slot 1 or 2 of your weapons slots, you will find this panel is an active panel. It will display any missiles you have in your engineering stores that you have the skill, level and correct launcher fitted to fire. Missiles are a consumable combat source and once gone you will not be able to fire any more in this combat session.

Missiles are not guaranteed to hit and the enemy may use ECM, or he may simply evade the missile. The same goes for Missiles fired at yourself from the enemy. Read the documentation on your missiles to best figure what to use and when. Note, Missiles require certain types of Launchers, so check this as well.

Device: This section covers a range of devices you may have onboarded your ship that can be used in combat. The most common being Matrix’s. These replenish shielding during combat. You must have the skill and level to use them, or they simply will not appear in the Device listing.

Using a Matrix will replenish your shields by the given amount, but bear in mind that the enemy will immediately counter. This may be to hit you again. So please take this into account when using Matrix’s.

Exit Combat: It’s not a good idea to play chicken with a ship either larger than yourself or one where the tide of battle has turned on you. Loosing combat is a costly business. Once your hull is breeched, you will be taken out of combat and a tow signalled to take you back to a given location. (This depends on where you are located at the time). You will lose fuel (dependent on player level) possibly cargo as well, and any bounty on your head will be removed.

So why not play it safe and use the Exit Combat option. This gives you the opportunity to pay a Bribe or Fine (depending on who you’re in combat with) to appeal to their better nature and escape to fight another day.

The cost is based on your level and the ship you’re in combat with. So as you rise in level and begin to fight bigger and bigger ships, the cost will rise.