Is there a way to kill these valks that doesn't take an hour? I'm rated 2/2/1/1/-? I just can't seem to land enough hits on them. I can solo aputech-5 gaurds and only lose 20-30%, but I can't hit these valks for my life.

skill.

Learning to dodge is paramount. Once you can defeat guardians without taking any damage, you should not have any problems with NPC valks.

However, guardians are not the bots you are looking for. They suck, reward-wise.

Notice that you accelerate faster if you accelerate, strafe left, and strafe up, than if you simply do one of those. Sloppy measurements estimate that you do so 1.8 times faster, just enough to get that wing out of the way of incoming fire. Math pwns 'skill' 9 times out of 10.

I'm rated 2/2/1/1/-

If he's not getting the **** shot out of him by NPC valks, they need to fix the valks.

They have "training neutron blasters", which have all the same stats as the regular N1, but only do one damage per shot.

They have "training neutron blasters", which have all the same stats as the regular N1, but only do one damage per shot.

How very "Advanced" :P

The mission is called "Advanced Combat Training II - Enemy Vultures". Valks are not featured anywhere in there. Training Vultures are, I think, based on the most basic variant, but they are a really big step up from shooting drones.

The mission is intended as an intro to fighting tougher ships (border skirmish, NPC pirates), and maybe a light intro to what fighting players might be like. It isn't easy, but that's kind of the point. It does allow an easily repeatable and "safe" mechanism for testing different play styles (joystick/mouse, physics/flight assist) as well as different ship configurations.

steeler: don't give up hope. You might ask other players for advice while you're in-game. One of them might come by and give you some pointers. The license levels don't really mean much when it comes to actual ability, they're only a rough indicator of basic experience.

It might be an idea to add

" The mission is intended as an intro to fighting tougher ships (border skirmish, NPC pirates), and maybe a light intro to what fighting players might be like. It isn't easy, but that's the idea , and you can abort without penalty and have another go later "

to the mission description so that newer player do no feel obligated to finish it at the first attempt .

My main annoyance with it is time. The Vultures don't hit me much. But I find it very hard to hit them. I've done some BS fights and even the NPCs in that don't have the insane dodge abiliity these guys do.

My issue is killing them, not getting killed. Are there better weapons or ships for hunting these things? My level missles never hit, even if I manuver them so they get 2-3 passes and I'm using a 170 spead weapon and they still dodge even with auto aim on and I'm at about 200m.

if you don't already try firing single salvos ...npc only seem to start dodging after the first hit or near hit.

You may want to switch to larger-round weapons, such as the Gauss series S-port or Plasma series L-port. While energy hogs, these weapons have much larger hitboxes for their shots, which helps immensely against small targets. Barring that, get the fastest-moving weapon you can find at the expense of everything else- against Vults, the time-to-target is critical. Also, mr_spuck is right- use single bursts instead of constant fire. While NPCs will try to dodge the moment you fire, very few ships actually have enough thrust or a low enough mass to get out of the way of the first shot, though all others will miss since they were fired using outdated autoaim information.

As spuck said, the NPCs' dodge routines tend to trigger more frequently when you fire in streams. If you fire in short bursts you may have an easier time of hitting.

I find that firing in streams is pointless because you land at most 3 hits before the enemy dodges away. Longest burst I ever use is 1 second long, and that's usually when I'm very close ( >100m). Also pay attention to your roll, vultures have a small vertical cross section, depending on how you spread your fire you want to roll so that you spray wing to wing.

question: will we be seeing NPC pirates again in the future? frankly, trading is rather safe these days.

HINT: I suggest power-strafing. That is, hold hard left/right and navigate up/down and distance from that motion. I have found that with such a tactic the vults will have little choice but to become more predictable. The essential thought in this is to move simply, but dodge. The vults tend to mimic the complexity of your moves and become just as hard to hit as you.

Best of luck, and don't give up.

P.S.- Perhaps you should invest in a mentor?

davejohn: the intro to the mission is:

"This Advanced Combat Training mission is much more challenging than the last one, but helps refine your skills against much more real-world opponents. Be sure you are comfortable with Advanced Combat Training I before attempting this.
This level of combat training is only really required for people intending pursue combative goals within the universe, pure miners and traders do not strictly need this, although all will benefit.

Here you will face multiple waves of Training Vultures: fast fighters equipped with special training weapons that do very light damage, while visually indicating that you have been hit. These enemies are small and relatively maneuverable, their weapons more difficult to avoid than those used by Drones. Training Vultures are much closer to the sort of adversary one might meet if attacked by a Pirate Clan, or if involved in a military border skirmish."

I tried to be clear on the whole "this isn't easy" thing.

I passed through the same agony until I got this small ship with 4 small laser ports.. how is it called... gahh Im a newbie too and I cant remember.., so I placed 2 fast energy eater laser and 2 less energy eater and a bit slower lasers.. and while dogding their shots I got close enough (meaning closer than 200m. even better if its 150m..) and suddenly most shots starting to hit..

So yes, the trick is.. get closer and they wont be able to dodge.. sure they got more hits on me.. thats the problem, you gotta learn to dodge and shoot and close range and thats pretty difficult.

Conclusion: at first I also complained about the mission.. later I really noticed it teaches you to combat.

I got this small ship with 4 small laser ports.. how is it called... gahh Im a newbie too and I cant remember.., so I placed 2 fast energy eater laser and 2 less energy eater and a bit slower lasers.. and while dogding their shots I got close enough (meaning closer than 200m. even better if its 150m..) and suddenly most shots starting to hit..

I really noticed it teaches you to combat.

Yes. Yes, please, please, please come to fight at close range in your quad energy hornet. You will surely PWN ALL!

I dunno... the only annoying thing I found about this mission was that if you log off when it's running, it gets stuck as "active," is unabortable, and stays forever (so far).

Phish: really? That's.. bad. If you or others can confirm that bug, I'd appreciate it.