I'm new to VO and recently subscribed after being hooked by the Free Trial. Currently I have a UIT-based trader, named Jerol Troglan with the following license levels: 2/2/2/4/0

I'd really like to get a Centaur for trading, but am finding it difficult to advance in the combat/weapon licenses. I currently pilot the Free Trader Beowulf -- a Wraith MkIII-class vessel -- and have been doing the Beginning Combat Mission, killing collector 'bots. I have focused exclusively on Artemis-class bots, but the progress is very slow. If I have a normal outing, I kill 5-6 of them, trying to put the killing blow in with my Large weapon (a missile launcher). Maybe my technique of fighting is flawed, but typically if I try to turn and pursue after the initial pass, we just run circles around each other, occasionally hit each other and occasionally ram each other. I've had much more success simply turboing out to a safe range, turning, then making another run at the bot.

In any event, you need 5000 points to make License level 3 (going from 3500-8500) and I may make 200 in Heavy weapons per outing if I'm perfect. You can see the problem as it would take 25 (likely more) trips to make the new License level, which, to put it mildly, is rather boring.

Any hints from experienced players on how to make this easier? Am I completely missing some basic premise? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Jerol Troglan,
Free Trader Beowulf

well to be honest, as long as you don't have an energy based large weapon it takes ages to level heavy weapons. But once you can use the plasma dev, you just use the standard tripple dodge manouver, heck even a simple strafe with a sideways movement will already throw most of the bots aiming out of whack and if you make sure that you put your velocity at 0 (so that you won't ram it) you can dance ages like that.

However you do have to keep in mind that any rpg of some fashion has some grinding in it to go up a level. In here the devs have tried to cut the grinding to a minimum, but in its essence the bots do give some basic training that you can't miss in piloting your ship. And as in all 'skills' it takes practice and not the yay I lvld up lets go raiding that sector 2 more months to be able to use skill uber2.

Sounds like you might want to try turning off Flight Assist (Press ' while in your ship). Flight Assist makes your ship act more like a plane in an atmosphere, so that you always fly in the direction you are facing (barring other control input like strafing). With Flight Assist off, your ship acts more like an actual spacecraft (your ship can move independently of the direction it is facing, and does not zero out any sideways motion when you stop pressing one of the strafe directions.)

FA off makes hunting bots much easier, as you can circle them and keep your guns on target.

For more advanced combat (PvP or huge numbers of bots all at once), you'll probably want to get used to switching between both modes on the fly.

Hey Jerol, I saw you in-game the other night. Anyway, you should be able to kill 40-100 bots per run in a wraith. Use the missiles only when you get below 50%, and then only when your target is more than 400m away. Only use 1 per bot, no matter what the circumstance. Equip two plasma cannon HXs in the small ports.

Thanks for the replies/advice.

I am using Flight Assist. When it's off I have a hard time controlling where I'm going and have rammed a few rocks... hard. <grin> Sounds like I should give that another try.

Person: 40 bots per run!? I AM doing something seriously wrong, hehe. I do have two plasma cannon HX's deployed, btw, as well as the Stingray Missile launcher in the large bay.

I'm well aware of the "grind" phenomenon as an original EQ player (talk about "grind"... sheesh). Still, even in EQ, there were hundreds of ways to grind out levels, so the variety kept it tolerable.

A few questions:

What is the "standard triple dodge maneuver"? If your velocity is 0, can you still strafe side to side?

I guess my main gripe is that in this early phase of the game, you can really only do one mission to EFFICIENTLY gain license levels in the combat skills, and you really should continue doing it once you start, since you get the most bonus experience after the 40th kill. Just seems repetitious. Come to think of it, the mining advancement is fairly boring as well... Trading at least lets you travel about and check out what is available on different stations.

Thanks again for the help... I'll give it a try.

Jerol Troglan,
Free Trader Beowulf

I'm levelling up a pilot and have had a similar issue, but I find that Artemis bots require that you chase them down initially. That wastes a good deal of time and effort. Go for Gaurdians instead. They're slow and relatively harmless until they get within 200m.

/Edit: Whups, I was checking in from work, apparently I didn't read the original post well. Nevermind :P

The problem is you don't get the 250/100/100 bonus for every 5th guardian you destroy -- only for the collector bots, so you're sacrificing a lot of experience. In any event, I better get cracking and learn how to do this a bit better... 40-100 per outing... Jeso!

Once you get to combat level 4 the mission is replaced with the advanced combat mission, which offers harder bots and better rewards.

Anyway, you should be able to kill 40-100 bots per run in a wraith.

*Cough, sputter, cough* What kind of Stringray missiles are you talking about, Person?

No, you will not be able to kill 100 bots in a single outing. After you get really well-practiced in bot killing you can usually do dozens pretty easily, but that has nothing to do with your current dilemma, which is to raise your Heavy Weapons license from 2 to 3. This is a real chore, because all that's available is that miserable Stingray.

What you might try is flying to Odia and seeing if you can buy a Plasma Devestator instead. That'll rid you of the ammo problem, and you'll be able to waste plenty more bots per outing.

any rpg of some fashion has some grinding in it to go up a level

Level grinding is 100% unnecessary in VO and I really wish it would be eliminated. It is only necessary to have reputation, and in fact that's the only thing that makes sense given the design goals of the game (i.e., twitch-based instead of dice-rolling).

40-100 isn't an acurate estimate at all. by the tinme you are that good you have no buisness shotting artimes collecters at all.

in truth, the best advice has already been given, turn of flight assist, and get used to flying with it off, it realy does help (especialy with docking). other than that your bigest limit will be with the missiles. seeking weapons aren't perticularly effective, and as was previously inplied there is an optimum range somwhere between 200-800m for every type of missile (i don't recall where stingrays are best).

alternatively if you don't want to use FA off, you should practice using turbo tacticaly as you will need a drasticly different "jousting like" styal in order to keep the needed distance from your enemy.

alternatively you can try killing so many bots with just S weapons that the bonus XP will level your heavy weapons, that may be easier as the 40-100 estimate isn't as insane if you don't have to wory about things like ammo, and lining up the needlesly ineffective stingrays.

For Heavy Weapons XP, I'd suggest Queen hunting in a Wraith with Stingrays. That'll give 2000 Heavy Weapons XP per kill; and once you've got 10, you can get the MegaPositron Blaster, which is an excellent L port energy weapon that you can use for regular botting to get Heavy Weapons XP.

Unfortunately, unless you go to Sedina where the Queens are much more challenging, you won't get Combat XP while Queen hunting.

About Flight Assist: you don't need to turn it off, you can set the speed to 0 (by decelerating) when you are at your preferred fire range (that depends on your weapons); then you can strafe without moving towards the bot. Then use only turbo to move forward when needed.

Switching FA off is fine, but requires some time to get used to, as the ship is less stable.

For the beginner combat mission I found that finding a sector that *ONLY* has Dentek Collectors to be the most profitable in terms of XP gain. I started in Itani space, so I'm not sure if this will present itself to you in the UIT but the sectors in the starting Itani (from a quick glance) for the most part offered mixxed Orun and Kannik (of which you do not get a bonus after a certain amount of kills) with occasional Dentek and Artemis bots mixxed in. I found one sector that had only Dentek Collectors and raised 2 Licenses (HW specifically) in a couple of hours. Trying to get HW3 might take a bit longer (although I've since moved on to the Advanced Combat Mission).

I'm not sure that is the absolute best way but I was quite satisfied with the rate of XP gain for what I was trying to do. However I've always liked flight sims (and dog fights) so the flying/fighting without FA was almost second nature to me from the get go. YMMV.

If all your after is Heavy Weapons, go for queens, if your trying to advance your combat stick with Light Weapons and just keep killing collectors till you get the Advanced Combat mission. You'll eventually get the needed Heavy Weapons points. But as been stated, the advantage to going for queens is that you get the most Heavy Weapons points per kill, and you can get an extra special weapon at the same time after 10 kills, plus all the drops from the Queen and her crew. Perhaps even find another lower licence level player to hunt them with you.

Corvus should let you buy a Taur and Jacks...

I know that's how I got my heavy weapon license level 3... then again... you'll need safe passage through Sedina somehow.

Eh, you can probably just blow through Sedina if you've got a FC battery.

Anyway, I did the Beginner Combat mission last night for a few hours, and made it up to 2/2/2 on a new file, and that was with Stingrays, so if you can take a PlasmaDev or Jacks over there, you should be smokin' bots left and right. Also, you'll be able to carry lots o' booty back from the fight.

Heh... levelling up is alot easier now than it was with the old Bot AI.

Stupid old Bots... just sitting at 300m away and pelting you with the occaisonal lucky shot... bah!

Wylfing's advice was the best: I got a Plasma Devastator and made level 3 in about an hour. The tactic was this: Go to a zone with only Artemis Collectors (these give +35 Heavy weapons per kill) and turn off FA. Cruise right through the middle of the asteroid belt and pick up about four of them, then turbo to a range of just under 500 meters, turn and pelt them. Rinse and repeat when you run out of bots on your tail. Doing this, I killed about 60 of them in an hour.

Thanks again for all the great advice... My new Centaur sure looks nice :)

60 per hour is pretty slow. It goes a lot faster if you pick them off one by one. Go for the ones that aren't looking at you ;-)

Yup, what fooz said, don't bother with the ones that are chasing you. Believe it or not, those are your ticket to ride. Let them chase you (there'll be 2 Artemis). If you don't shoot them then no other Artemis collectors will chase you, so you can go around picking off the rest with impunity.

This only works well when you get good aim, and a Plasma Devestator helps a lot with its great autoaim, so that you can waste the collectors that are mining before they can even respond.

Now when you graduate to assault bots, it's a whole different story. If you don't pay attention they will dissect you pronto.

Beolach said:
I'd suggest Queen hunting in a Wraith with Stingrays

Could that work?!?! I am very curious now and I'll have to try it.