So, I died a couple of times tonight and I went and grabbed another Moa.
Same set up as the one that died, but where I was smashing through Sansha rats, laying waste to folorn hideaways with a couple of magazines of ammo, it’s just taken me seven full magazines to do the same thing… The number of misses was unreal!
Have I missed something vital in this game that has made this new clone worse than my old one?
Dying doesn’t make you worse. Something else was going on. Try to fight a little inside of your optimal and to minimize your transversal. Additionally, work on your damage application skills (motion prediction, sharpshooter, and trajectory analysis) and fit a damage application mod or two (i.e. a web if fighting up close with blasters, and tracking computers and tracking enhancers if using rails). Also, not be insulting, but do note that different ammos have different ranges.
… does not create any arbitrary mechanical “debuffs.”
A character is no better or worse after it dies in either case. One can “die” 100 times and the character will be the same.
The only exception to this is if one has implants in their character. In which case, losing an “escape pod” will mean losing the implants.
This will not happen if one simply loses and ship and escapes in their “escape pod.”
Can you post your ship’s fit?
And can you describe what ranges you are shooting at?
My speculation is that you are using cruiser-sized guns against small NPCs at close range.
Medium sized weapons, especially the “long range” weapons (in the case of the Moa; railguns), are bad at close range against small targets.
Here are some options for you:
Downship to a Frigate or Destroyer. Their smaller weapons will better be able to hit smaller ships. However you will lose that cruiser level tank.
Swap to “short range” weapons (in your case, blasters) as they can keep up with targets at closer range.
Equip your ship with a stasis webifier (note: this works best with “short range” weapons).
Stay out at range: Equip an Afterburner or Microwarpdrive and try to keep your targets at the edge of your optimal range. Anything within 50% of your optimal range will have tracking issues as the weapon cannot keep up with the movement speed of the target relative to your ship. You will have to put more distance between you and the target(s).
Sadly I am already doing what you suggest in terms of keeping the enemy at range (in my case 16km as I have a 17km optimal on my railguns) and I know that they will have difficulty hitting frigates anyway. That is always good advice though so thank you for making it so clear
The reason I made the post is, having changed nothing with my set up (or implants), I went from clearing the rats quickly to doing minimal damage against them using the same weapons and tactics. If I can get back into the game I’ll see if a new day has bought me better luck! If not, I’ll be back with my fit out for some more advice.
Interestingly I was going to experiment with a blaster equipped Moa as well - might give that a go today.
If you can, gather the following information so more informed advice can be given:
What weapons are you using?
What range are you generally shooting at?
Is your ship moving? How fast?
Are the NPCs orbiting or chasing you?
What kind of NPCs are they? (if you can’t figure it out, what color are the NPC’s icons on the overview?)
What missions are you running? (level 1 / 2 / 3 / 4) Do you remember the name of the mission in question?
The reason for all this info is because not all tactics and weapons are ideal against all NPCs.
You may have to change things up when dealing with certain rats in order to be effective.
Regarding the rest of it:
Just from those ranges I am going to say that you were using Dual-150s, yes?
You may want to work on your gunnery skills as they should be shooting out further.
But this won’t help too much in the damage department as railguns are not well known for their damage dealing abilities.
If you want to continue using railguns, I would suggest slapping on an AB or MWD**. Grab aggro and then lead the NPCs out. Pick off the frigates first and then work on the larger targets.
And don’t be afraid to fight “Falloff range” if you continue to have accuracy issues. Falloff range reduces the quality (damage) of the shots the further out you go. But more range should give you better accuracy.
If you are stilling having issues, then your ship’s fit may need to be tweaked.
Which reminds me… could you post your ship’s fit?
** Note: Do not run the MWD constantly. It will drain your capacitor dry in 20 seconds or less. Instead, PULSE it (turn on, then off) when you need.