Ship combat is ridiculously hard

[Wolf]

6000 shots later only just broke the enemies shield. Enemy shoots 5-10 shots and breaks my shield and kills me instantly. I am playing on very hard difficulty but man the space combat seems extremely unbalanced I’m level 27 and can’t even win fights with level 12 ships without dying in less than a minute…

[MeGa]

the very hard difficulty is not very balanced

[Lucius Confucius]

What kind of ship do you have? Have you upgraded it? Once you build a master ship, ship combat becomes easy mode.

[Saii]

Originally posted by Lucius Confucius:

What kind of ship do you have? Have you upgraded it? Once you build a master ship, ship combat becomes easy mode.

Careful using that m word. Might hit some feeble nerves somewhere.

[Caramel_Clown]

Don't pound on shields with kinetic weapons. They do peanuts worth of damage to shields. Honestly ship combat is trivial, just like rest of the game. Once you have a semi-decent ship you're set.

[Falaris]

Your ship doesn't improve with your level. It improves with how you ... well... improve it. New shields, new lasers, modules, etc.

Level unlocks new modules, though. Sort of. But if you don't buy them, you won't have them.

I'm partial to the UC Vanguard Obliterators as an early weapon - a decent number of them should shred level 12 ships in no time. (1-2 second on normal) but the particle cannons work too (they are 'hybrid' guns doing equal shield and hull damage).

[....]

To be honest i think its easy its not hard at all.

The main problem of ship combat is that it seems to be 95% stats (ship stats and player perks etc.) 5% skill.

So when you get content that fits your level - similar enemy ships etc. - its easy - if not you pretty much lost on arrival.

Ist just bad space combat with way to few options to actually reward skill and getting better.

[Vox Maximus]

Originally posted by MeGa:

the very hard difficulty is not very balanced

The difficulty slider just turns enemies into bullet sponges in Bethesda games. I'd wait for a mod which can make enemies much more deadly but at the same time not turning them into walking infinite healthbars.

[dot]

As others already said, the level almost doesn`t matter, just the ship parts.
In very hard my experience has been that either you get that pilot 4 and ship design, or you are gonna have to keep one finger on the O during the encounter and enough ship parts to fight almost any space combat in where you are outnumbered.
It definitely contrast with the land combat xD

[Ferret]

There's a perk to fly backwards at full speed. Just get weapons that outrange theirs

[ArmedTerror]

Ship combat is all about maneuvering as a previous poster pointed out. You want to stay behind your main target and try to get behind targets that are hammering you with lasers/weapons when you need to. The ship combat gets harder the more you are up against so upgrading your ship if you are having that difficult of a time. Space combat can be much more difficult than ground combat at the beginning but teach yourself how to maneuver, upgrade your ship and get a better ship class when you can, and always have ship parts on you.

I am also playing on very hard now and I have enough practice on hard difficulty to benefit my skills greatly, but I still die now and then, particularly when there are 3 or more ships. Upgrade from your base ship as soon as possible though. The Frontier is not that good of a ship for combat, or much of anything else. It is basically a junker.

[Froz7y]

Get a lock on, hit R, kill their engines, they cant move. Easy to kill.

[Falaris]

Originally posted by Frosty the Drunk Roadsider:

Get a lock on, hit R, kill their engines, they cant move. Easy to kill.

(requires targeting skill)

[Humble]

Ship had own level system by using upgrade or build a ship with ship modules to get stronger, but ship modules only unlock depend on your level and perk, I think piloting, starship design to unlock those modules, and some quest do unlock modules as well like UC quest, I believe, and maybe automated weapon system do unlock turret on ship as well. 5 level, then 10 level, then 15 level unlock modules to upgrade, but not sure beyond that. Player's Tech skill do help, but core, you had to upgrade your ship, when A Max out, then try max out B or C class starship.

[Tahl]

Im not playing on the highest diff right now but I was having trouble until I changed a few things.

Dont use auto guns. Biggest '♥♥♥♥ you' change I made was not using those damn ♥♥♥♥ guns. They are the ones that drain then need to stop firing. Slapping on the best available normal type weapons, especially for spongy enemies, is huge. Slightly less burst, massive increase in reliability.

Keep your weapons above 3 pips at least, shields max is obviously solid and engines around 90+ speed. But, poooooring more power into weapons will give the best returns. Since healing is a stop gap when already loosing a fight and engines can only do so much(unless you are fleeing), shields cant do ♥♥♥♥ mid fight unless you run... dps is king. Dead ships arent a threat.

My weapons are proton beams(anything that does good mixed damage or at least shield dmg), suppressors(will absolutely dismantle enemies after their shields are down) and the hardest hitting missiles I can find(stack these btw, more launchers = more missiles per button press). Upgrading them when I remember(and can afford) to do so.

Bonus round: The targetting system perks have little bonuses to dmg, power management and I think one even reduces incoming damage. Always worth considering, sometimes worth using.

[Medh]

Originally posted by EntityofDesire:

Ship combat is stupid easy once you learn 2 rules that I quickly picked up, that being -

1. arm your ship with lasers and missiles only. Lasers fire fast, have high replenish and can destroy shields as the ship is approaching you.

2. when the ship is about to pass you, dont' just turn to follow, instead kill your speed and do a 180, even in bulky ship your literally gonna be turning directly behind them and launch a spreed of missiles. Because you have no momentum its almost like turning on a dime.

so basically destroy their shields as they come to you, than do a complete stop as they pass you and rotate around to hit/follow them from behind. I have yet to lose a battle on hardest diff. doing this. If you don't kill 1 enemy ship each time you do step 1 and 2, than your not following step 1 and 2 lol.

bonus - if your shields are down, after you kill ship a just boost away to let them back up, than turn around and repeat steps 1 and 2.

bonus 2 - i really suggest just using 2 weapon types. You have more power than to divert to them vs a third, and again lasers+missiles nuke ships super fast. But you def. have to modify your ship to do this and not just rely on the Frontier basic loadout.

This one is kind of worked like a charm. I bought some long range lasers and kind of clear at least one of the ships until first combat and quickly continue with othersaaa.