Noob Lessons from Star Citizen

  1. Always be at 0 speed and cruise control off when you quantum
    You can pop out of Quantum in a place where you don’t want the speed, AND if you get “Interdicted”, you won’t have to fight to stop your ship in time before you get a Crime-Stat

  2. Never get out of your ship from the big cargo hold
    Other players can, and will board your ship and take it. People suck.

  3. Don’t turn off your ship when you land to get a box or cargo
    Your want to keep your SHIELDS on while you make these brief stops - instead, just shut down your engines.

  4. For the ‘Destroy beacons’ missions, do not engage enemy fighters, and be careful NOT to run into the beacons
    The enemies are just a distraction from completing the mission in time, and you rarely need to engage them; the beacons are hard to spot until you are right on top of them.

  5. Landing gear and ‘automated landing’ !
    I used-to always forget my landing gear (look for the symbol on your HUD); and the automated landing has literally saved my ship in some of the hangers where the ship goes haywire. (Hold [N] briefly after your landing gear is down and you are within an automated landing zone)

  6. [F4] for landing – AFTER you have set your pitch attitude to 0
    The 3rd-person view can be helpful when landing - lots of folks use it - however, be sure your attitude is at the - 0 - mark, or you may be landing on your nose, or strafing unintentionally.

  7. [F4]-[PLUS] to ZOOM OUT, [F4]-[MINUS] to zoom in
    As above, when in 3rd-person view - you can ZOOM OUT to see a little more of the landing zone.

  8. When you get stopped from QUANTUM travel, it may be a police stop – don’t run (Crime-Stat)
    This is with number 0 on my list - If you get INTERDICTED (stopped from Quantum), it can be police to scan your ship, or pirates, or players (soon) to attack you. If it is the 1st, be sure to stay put until the scan is over.

  9. After getting interdicted, WAIT a moment after the SCAN for the police ships to leave – or you risk them hitting you and YOU getting a Crime-Stat
    With #8; those dumb AI police WILL actually run into you - which can result in YOU getting a crime-stat. Just stay put a mmoent after the SCAN is complete, or choose a WIDE path to avoid this.

  10. When you have Cargo or a Box mission – do not stop to dog-fight, ever.
    Dog-fighting while on Cargo missions and Box missions is just not worth the risk. 1 missile or collision and you have wasted your time at best, or lost your cargo at worst.

  11. Land on landing pads, when available.
    Walking a bit further is worth the level landing zone clear of rocks. I have had my Cargo door stick open on some terrains.

  12. Set your destination in the star-chart [F2] – it will make quantum travel easier.
    Sometimes I can see a destination when I activate my quantum, but I can ‘go’ there until I set it as the destination in my [F2] map.

  13. Just because you bought a ton of cargo, doesn’t mean you can sell it all in one transaction.
    As you start cargo missions, there is a whole host of new things to go wrong - one that you can avoid is having a ship full of cargo that you have to sell 1,000 at a time.

  14. If a BOX falls thru your ship – try another server.
    This bug has been around for a long while, the fix is just changing servers. (log out and log in) - or pick something else to do…

  15. If you die while holding a gun, you lose your gun.
    I think this is by design, but it pays to be careful, or bring a friend to watch your back.

  16. If you SPRINT for a long time, you will die from a heart-attack.
    I learned this one watching another player fall over dead…

  17. (HOVER-MODE is gone, so this is not really an issue anymore) Things that will kill you while landing: [Z] – freelook, [V] – decouple mode, moving your mouse while in the 3rd person view (F4)

  18. Things that kill you: holding the [Backspace] key, running into beacons, other ships, planets or asteroids
    The collisions are obvious, but sometimes a quick death is better that 20 minutes wasted on trying to find your way out of the area UNDER the Levski landing pads… …

Feel free to add YOUR noob lessons !
[edited for spelling/grammer]

2 Likes

Great points, all. A few things to consider:

  1. Yes to your statement, but I would add the Acceleration Limiter to 0 as well when entering Quantum. As soon as you notice you are being interdicted, or as soon as you are approaching end of quantum, run your Acceleration Limiter back up to 100. If you are interdicted with Acceleration Limiter at 0, you will not stop, will get a crime stat, and they WILL shoot at you.

  2. Agreed! One ship though does not play nice: Cutlass Black. On occasion, upon landing, if you leave your ship locked, go get the box, come back, the back ramp will refuse to open for you. I typically shut the engines down so I am not sure if this is related, or just happens at random with the Black regardless of what you do with Engines or Power. Leaving your ship unlocked is NOT conducive to being able to return to same ship and finding it where you left it. Which sucks.

  3. Keeping in mind point 1 above, as soon as you come out while being interdicted, start cycling for hostile and friendly targets. If security, you won’t find anything while cycling, but you WILL see blue triangles for their ships. You can point your ship at them and do Reticle Focus to confirm their identity. But do it quick, before they initiate the scan. If you come up with a Hostile target lock while cycling, its NOT security (or you have a crime stat), and you probably want to get the &@## out of there.

Great points, Jonrec. A very good summary.

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  1. I also wanted to touch on this one with regards to the Cutlass Black. Pohlie mentioned that on a rare occasion the cargo bay door will not open. I have encountered this bug before, but only once, and after many hours in game. That said, if you do decide to run a Cutlass Black, a little shortcut I’ve found is that when running up the ramp you can actually spam the F key while looking at the ground and the ramp will close behind you saving a bit of time. I haven’t tried this with other ships, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you can do something similar. This will allow you to close your door pretty quickly without too much fear of someone following in behind you.
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