Undocumented Alien wrote on Jan 23, 2015, 15:07:
I was in the Aerial System dropping off some supplies and along the way to the Station I noticed a couple of the 'targets' specified "Conflict Zone High Intensity".
What exactly does that mean? If I drop out of Super Cruise there it will be a War Zone where I fight for either the Fed's or Imperials?
I'm in my Type-6 so don't want to drop into some nasty stuff...
Yes. There's low and high intensity zones. If you enter one, everyone will be neutral until you join a faction. So far, it's been less fed vs empire--more whatever system vs a rebel faction. All the slave rebellions on the galnet are hints to locate where the combat zones are.
Low intensity zones have smaller ships...mostly cobra and below. There may be some Anacondas, but if there are, usually, it's just one or two and they are by themselves. It's a good place to practice combat. You get combat vouchers for each kill, which you turn in similar to a bounty. You get $3k per kill (it doesn't scale like a bounty...so an Anaconda==Sidewinder, so don't waste your time hunting the big ships). Not super profitable, but if you're looking to upgrade your combat rating, it's the most efficient way that I've found. There are always ten enemy ships around. Bounty hunting makes more money, but you have to spend time searching around for npcs to spawn.
High intensity zones will have 2-3 times the amount of ships and can vary among any class. You don't have to have a super heavy duty python or anything to join in, but be careful...it can be easy to get targeted by more than one ship at once if you are too aggressive.
Also be very leery of players. A lot of times they might stay neutral, fly behind you, then join an enemy faction and nuke you while you're engaged. Or just engage you while you're in the middle of a dogfight.
Last thing, friendly fire sucks. Sometimes a fool ally flies right into your lasers...and, boom! The entire battlefield is hostile to you. Run your ass away, as you have about 10 seconds to live.
If you are in a t6...move along. Nothing to see here.
Edit:
I've made this seem more high stressed than it actually is. Think of this as "arcade" mode. Endlessly respawning enemies. You fight until you take damage to the point where you leave. This is actually hard, because (at least in my case) I always think I can last longer than I'm able. Please don't be a fool and enter a combat zone with cargo and not enough insurance money. I am flabbergasted at the amount of people not realizing you don't get your ship back when it asplodes.
It is really fun, and helps improve your radar awareness... theres usually a lot going on. And fighting around a constantly exploding super carrier ship is fucking awesome.
Edit:
Also, if you didn't know:
Shields. Pips in them are worthless...unless you put in 4. Then you get 150% shield strength. It's exponential. These numbers are off, but it's about the right percentage...1, 8, 16, 150.
So, if you are in the habit of putting one or two pips in shilds...don't do it in combat.
This comment was edited on Jan 23, 2015, 19:40.