I’m curious to know how everyone feels about the current state of space battles. It’s a big improvement from Atlas Rises, but to me it still feels somewhat undeveloped.
A typical dog fight for me feels more like a jousting match than a good dog fight:
-charge head first at enemy while shooting at each other
-boost away to recharge shields
-turn around
-repeat until dead
Do the different weapons make much difference? I’m mostly using the default cannon
I find the pirates to be an easy kill. I only have the standard photon cannon with a couple of upgrade modules and 1 shield module. Flying a B class shuttle.
I do like the barrel rolls etc…the pirates put on a good show. It is fun to watch big space battles between NPC’s.
I engage a few barrel rolls myself. I do feel like the flight mechanics have improved especially now that we can fly so close to the surface.
Improvement? Poor pirates have been nerfed to no end! I could take on three in a vanilla Rassamama and didn’t even have to recharge my shields. In survival mode!
Space battles look cool, but gameplay wise, they’re practically non-existant at the moment.
I’m 50 hours in & have been using a mostly unmodified Radiant Pillar (starter ship) for dealing with pirates & space battles. Very easy.
I do like that the class & model is less important now so we can pick the other cool looking fighters etc rather than needing the best to be properly tough.
NMS is primarily an adventure & exploration game so I approve that the fight dynamics have been left for all types of players to enjoy. Not all NMS fans want a deadly battle every time.
Sentinels however are a serious challenge early on with basic everything. I learned my lesson quick about annoying them.
Do pirates get more dangerous as experience (race & guild rank) increases? That would be good. Procedural difficulty to match progressing skill experience.
Except that that of course makes classes and models for ships kinda pointless… 
Not entirely pointless. Just mostly. 
There’s definitely more freedom to make up for a ship’s shortcomings with tech modules…a ship with no hyperdrive bonus can still get to warp for up to 1500-1700 light years and likewise a S class hyperdrive bonus can make up for having less hyperdive tech modules…so there’s certainly more choice there. This does cripple the Exotic ships the most though…because while they have the best bonuses they can never really live to maximize their potential without sacrifices due to so few slots…so a fighter without any hyperdrive bonus and about a third of the shields bonus or a hauler with lesser damage and hyperdrive bonuses can be better day to day ships because they can have 38+12 and 48+8 slots respectively.
Which brings me to my next point…slots are now more important than ever and class becomes extremely important by association…now you WANT a ship with the most regular and tech slots because you want to be able to double down on all you can.
I’m turning my Exotic from being my main ship that I use day to day into my long range warp…push that +64% hyperdrive as far as it can go with hyperdrive tech and support in other areas as much as I can to make it able to win in pirate attacks but that’s about it. I am also converting my S class fighter into my day to day ship…despite far lesser shields bonus it can have more shields than my Exotic could unless I made other sacrifices I’m not willing to make on it. It was sort of a coin toss between my fighter and one of my S haulers becoming primary ship but 0.7 less shields(~23.33%) for another 1500 damage(~75%) and ideally get it to warp for more than 1600 light years will be the goal…the lesser percentage sacrifice in potential shields for a massive percentage bonus in potential damage has to be the best decision IMO.
My thinking’s been pretty much exact same. I’ve just kitted out my s class fighter as my main ship and the squids going to be for longer range only. In Atlas Rises my fighter was just an ornament as I used my exotic for everything, but the shortcomings of the exotic are all too apparent now. Thought about the trying out the s class hauler but ruled it out due to the lower amount of tech slots.
The fighter in NEXT is the most fun I’ve had in a ship. Twice as fast and twice as lethal as any ship pre-next.
Yes…you can’t double down fully on three techs…you can only double down on 2 and 2/3ds…I’m thinking double shields, double photon cannon and the last two tech slots will reinforce hyperdrive.
I rarely used my 38S fighter during Atlas Rises because there was no challenge.
My mildly enhanced Exotic was supposed to be my long range exploration vessel but it ended up being my everyday ship since it was tough enough.
This time I’m settled on a C class Rassa. fighter simply to set a benchmark to gauge what is good vs what is too good & disolves the challenge.
I don’t feel a need to own the best in NEXT as I achieved that in Atlas Rises.
This time I’d like to go through with minimal emphasis on BEST & instead see what I can manage with just the basics.
So far I’m doing ok…
I get what your saying. For PVE a charged up fighter is definitely overpowered. Cyclotron Ballista kills pirates before the are even rendered. When I was kitting it out I had PVP and griefers in mind (lol). With the lack of current multiplayer controls its a handy piece of kit. Last time I got grief I didn’t have it. looking forward to the next run in though.
I’m thinking about slightly altering my philosophy on how to much to push my S class Exotic…under my current plans it would have 4 slots left free to carry stuff off the battlefield…but the more I think about it the more I’m inclined to say screw it and go all in…double down on shields as well, move my hyperdrive techs for the RGB systems in regular slots, then double down on shields too and leave it with only one free slot…which will be used for pulse drive fuel.
That would fully commit to it never carrying anything at all our of any battle but would make it more survivable. It would still just be my long range warping ship but would make it a lot tougher in fights if ambushed. I think I’ll go there too…I don’t really need anything out of the space battles I can’t get easily everywhere else so I might as well just take an extreme approach for the extreme ship.
With the gigantic increase to your exosuit, don’t see why that would be a problem at all
I am not worried about PvP at all…I have no considerations for PvP at all…it is quick and easy to kick someone and I’m inclined to just keep online play turned off unless I plan to play with a friend or someone I know in which case I’d temporarily enable it for the duration of that play session and then just turn it right back off.
I have no reason or purpose to keep online play turned on at all…I can handle all the multiplayer missions by myself no problem…taking down walkers and tough groups of pirates…not a problem.
Well, I mean, sure…but you can’t have stuff you pick up in space go directly to your exosuit and trying to fiddle with manually shifting stuff during battle is too much of a bother.
I’ve been doing exactly that. But I figure, why should I stay offline because there’s a chance some knob might want to hassle me. I’d rather turn the tables 
On the ground the plasma launcher is an instant kill even if you double down on personal shields…so it’s a total coin flip on who gets the first hit in…I rather just not bother with it.
I think HG have embraced the strong representation of solo players in this update by setting things so those of us not into multiplayer can play as per usual.
I’ve enjoyed my brief multiplayer interactions and am in no way against it…I just enjoy solo play for its immersion.
My PS4 is typically offline anyway so there isn’t much chance of a random showing up 
Sean has also told Kotaku that they are looking to implement more options for people who want multiplayer without griefers so we’ll see what comes of that. If I could simply just disable PvP I might keep online play enabled for longer than I currently do but we’ll have to see when/if more options arrive. Not too worried about it regardless.
We need some more pictures in this thread ( beacuse I am a caveman! )
I have no idea. But I’m sure we aren’t the first to think of this. I left Euclid years ago…(well last year or was it before…) and having completed nearly everything I do think the pirates pick on me lol! What I do experience are some tough (but exciting) battles that I didn’t even want to initiate. If you carry a lot of valuable items (like stasis devices or quantum thingies) then I seem to attract them like flies. And they just won’t give up.
They only way I managed to escape was to fly through asteroids or land somewhere. Flying close to other fleets send of the alarm bell sounds and I can get some help from their fighters and guns. So the battling seems intelligent.
If I leave a planet with all red lights lit then I am in for trouble. I haven’t fully kitted out my starship since the update but each battle has been fun. I’m no expert hotshot. ‘Just a kid with a blaster.’
