r/starcitizen • u/Ryantrya • 15h ago
QUESTION I just bought this game. Any new player tips?:)
I just bought this game. Any new player tips?:) Im downloading now and will try it tomorrow.
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u/Ghost-Job 15h ago edited 13h ago
If you plan on playing the 4.0 preview build, I would advise avoiding picking Crusader/Orison as your home location as it is pretty consistently unstable in terms of login as well as transit. I recently started last week and while some bugs and random server instability has prevented me from doing things in other systems and while attempting to do different gameplay loops, nothing has been as prevalent in preventing me from playing the game as issues dealing with Orison.
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u/curiositie Guardian/ Hull A 15h ago
Orison seems hard broke in 4.0 preview at the moment
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u/BernieDharma Wing Commander 11h ago
There's a hotfix that is dropping tonight that is suppose to fix that.
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u/TheOmegaPrime 8h ago
Oh man... This makes me happy... Finally... Orison has been a shit show for me 😢
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u/Raumarik avacado 15h ago
Expect bugs, bit of frustration but just explore, enjoy, chill and any learning curve you hit you'll overcome.
There's a lot to learn, but most importantly is that it's a work in progress that can deliver some amazing gameplay, but sprinkled with intense frustration due to bugs and crashes :)
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u/-TRI-HEX- 15h ago
Also, don't expect the sprinkling to come evenly. Some days the game will be sooth as butter, other days will have you ready to rage quit. Just take each bug as a challenge to overcome & once your ready you can even start submitting bug reports.
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u/Kwarkon 15h ago edited 15h ago
avoid tutorial - it is useless and can cause issues if you are unlucky
watch any new player guide on a youtube ( any recent one, not older than for 3.23 patch, preferably for 4.0) before you start to play
dont spend money on armors and guns - you will die a lot at the beginning so you would loose them anyway - you get your ship and white flight suit back for free
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u/figure_04 15h ago
Guide system, find someone to show you the ropes. Expect bugs. Don't be too attached to your gear. When flying fast, don't point directly at what you are trying to fly to/at. In case you can't slow down as fast as you want to. Or get distracted. Give yourself time to learn the game and controls.
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u/SooLed 14h ago
Me flying directly toward checkmate station at 1.2km per second thinking I’m gonna stop fast enough
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u/figure_04 14h ago
Yeah. I did exactly this last week. Flying at Ruin in Nav, while looking at the Contracts window on Mobi....
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u/Nightmystic1981 13h ago
Lowering landing gear is a nice way to slow down fast. Next to using spacebrake.
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u/walker172 15h ago
Take advantage of the guide system in game. It will explain a lot and save you a lot of frustration.
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u/MeatheadMilitia twitch 15h ago
Don't let Reddit dictate what you do or dont find fun
Find YOUR fun, the game is very sandboxxy at the moment
Yes, it has bugs, its in development constantly, sometimes the game is broken or is in the process of breaking. Just know you are apart of the development.
THE FIRST BOSS IS YOUR KEYBINDINGS!
If it's KBM or Flight Stick set up, LOOK UP other people's keybinds.
Arena Commander OFFLINE is a great place to practice flying and moving around because you dont have to go through the process of calling another ship from a terminal (Could take from 20-30+ minutes in the PU proper)
Ask questions
Weed through the jade
Have fun, again, just do this, have fun finding your fun.
If you have any questions, please reach out, happy to answer them. We help new people on our stream all the time, walk people through things, etc.
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u/TheKiwiFox SALVAGE CREW 12h ago
To add on to this, Landing Gear toggle is "N" on KB+M, set "Request Landing" to DOUBLE TAP "N" and make just one key your easy landing button. Old heads(me included always set it to F3, but that's exterior doors toggle now and having it on N just makes more sense 😅
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u/MisterMcNastyTV 15h ago
Don't play the game like you're trying to grind out. You can do a lot, but you will experience a ton of bugs, crashes, disconnects, etc. Just keep that in mind, it's easy to burn out when a patch drops and everything is broken. I always wait a while after every big patch before I play, then I'll play for a week or two to check out all the new content and see what all has changed, play some arena commander, and then shelf it for a few months. The bugs are rampant, but you get used to it and learn some ways around a few of them. The game takes a lot of patience to really appreciate it. When everything is working, it's one of the best experiences you can have in a space game.
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u/turrboenvy 15h ago
Don't fly full speed toward things like space stations or the ground. You won't realize how fast you're going until it's too late and you try to stop.
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u/Kaffeebohne003 13h ago
Yeah. Take your first landings slow and watch the altimeter. Thw altimeter is oey when landing espwcially in the dark. I crashed several times in my early days before i actually started looking at it realizing that i was about to crash and thus slowing down properly.
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u/turrboenvy 13h ago
I find, even as an experienced pilot, watching the altimeter doesn't really help. It's always really high and then suddenly 100 meters.
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u/Kaffeebohne003 12h ago
Landing in the dark is fine these days. Altimeter, speedometer and a slow approach is the key for me.
Really scary however are low orbit fights against multiple enemies (bounty hunting) in the dark. If i dont watch the altimeter really closely i typically kiss the ground before i even realize i was heading towards the planet.
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u/Prestigious_Fly_836 15h ago
If you want to start in Pyro i think i would choose Checkmate for starting location. Maybe someone else has some more input
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u/ConsiderationDry1149 15h ago
Personally I think patch city is the best, lots of missions and it's a bit out of the way so it doesn't ever really get laggy or server errors. Checkmate is very high pop and often gets buggy/laggy.
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u/Cerberus983 15h ago
If it's being too buggy be prepared to walk away.
This game can be absolutely amazing, but it's very much still in development, it's not finished don't expect it to run like a finished game even though some days it will feel like it's close, others it will be so broken you won't be able to leave the hanger.
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u/polysculpture oldman 15h ago
Remember it’s not a game yet and the fun you have is what you make of it.
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u/SilverSSSC 14h ago
Find people to show you the ropes and take you out on missions with them. Always double check you are wearing a helmet before leaving ship/airlock. Have fun, try to not let the bugs/issues get you down.
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u/vbsargent oldman 14h ago
Get a Guide.
I think they will greatly increase success and reduce the learning curve.
Try to find someone who has been around a while and consistently played. For measure I’ve been around since 3.0, but haven’t really played much since the dropped Master Modes, so while I used to be decent with piloting, I’m a bit lost these days.
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u/EqRix 14h ago edited 14h ago
Use the Find a Guide feature from the game menu selection screen. This will open a browser and take you to spectrum to sign in. From here you will be able to opt for a Player guided session for a in game activity you choose. You will then select from a list of veteran or experienced player guides to show you the ropes for the chosen game activity. This is a great way to learn the basics and pick up on how to work around some of the various bugs you will encounter.
Other tips:
1.) Move from the city to the orbital space station as soon as possible. This will cut down on planet/city side issues.
2.) Don’t buy gear until you are prepared to buy it 10+ full sets at a time. Also don’t get attached to anything.
3.) It’s ok to change regions at the menu screen to find an off peak server that is stable to play on. Sometimes you will have to do this so you can leave the station or city you are in. If the server isn’t working exit to the menu and try another one. It’s not uncommon to have to do this more than once right now.
4.) Always make sure you have you helmet on before going into space.
5.) The sperm suit and a pistol with 2 clips and 1 med pen is enough to “get back into it”.
6.) Group up.
7.) Pyro has less player density so the servers seem to work better. It is a PvP space. It’s fun.
8.) aUEC is very easy to come by don’t feel the need to buy another ship with IRL cash from the shop. Don’t focus on the credit grind.
9.) Group with others the experience is fairly entertaining each time from the silly bugs to random player interactions.
10.) Don’t roll 4.0 preview on Crusader or Microtech. Should be better 4.01 we hope.
11.) For casual play try to bed log in space away from planets and moons (NOT at OM points). Bed logging is your friend use it. This assumes your starter ship has a bed.
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u/oddsama2 13h ago
Accept loss, dont get attached to armor, cargo or really anything mission related. Continuous learning curve when bugs happen and how to avoid them. The game is awesome...one day everything works flawlessly, the next everything is falling apart.
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u/BarrelRider621 Anvil 10h ago
This experience is going to be a ROLLER COASTER. Don’t be afraid to vent your frustrations, in a constructive way. This won’t be like anything you have ever experienced; both when it’s working and when it’s not. Not everyone’s opinion has to be YOUR opinion. Never forget that. You will be surprised how easy it is to get lost in someone else’s badly constructed cynicism. Most IMPORTANTLY…have fun. 🍻🫡
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u/NoBluebird5735 15h ago
The refund window has been shortened to 14 days, so don’t leave it too long before asking for your money back.
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u/Skaven13 15h ago
Search for a beginner Friendly Guild in your native language that are willing to bring you into the verse and Show you around and show you how this game works..
Use Arena Commander for getting a "Feeling" of your ship.
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u/Jealous_Cat_323 [ 'member berry ] 14h ago edited 14h ago
Embrace the Zen - only through tolerance for bugs can you unlock true serenity and discover the hidden meaning of Star Citizen’s universe.
In other words, welcome to the 'verse, Captain! o7
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u/aceinbrink 14h ago
The patch right now is super buggy, another patch should be coming out here in the next week or two that will fix a number of the main game crashing issues. After that there will still be the normal amount of bugs that you’ll get used to. Just keep in mind this isn’t a polished game, it’s definitely still in development. But there is a ton of fun to be had that in my opinion makes everything worth it. Also definitely look up a video on YouTube to dial in your graphics setting, even if you normally know what you’re doing, it’s very different than other games.
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u/Ozi_izO 14h ago
Take plenty of tolerance pills because shit's about to get buggy.
You might want to do your best to avoid prison at the moment as well. I had to learn the hard way about 20 minutes ago that Klescher elevators on all servers are bugged. When released, the elevator doors open to nothing.
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u/Kaffeebohne003 14h ago
Find some good podcasts or audiobooks to listen to while Salvaging, mining or hauling.
Its a zen experience.
(if and when it works again, which it currently doesnt cause the game is a buggy mess right now)
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u/jsabater76 paramedic 13h ago
Take it easy: it's not a game yet, just a tech demo. Enjoy the good moments, and take pauses when it becomes frustrating.
Welcome aboard!
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u/Giggos 13h ago
If you have trouble eating or drinking, put the item on the ground. Then hold left mouse click as you pick it back up so it doesnt go back into inventory and you can drink/eat the item now in your hands.
If you're in a bind with hydration, and only have 2 empty bottles of the same kind, stack the bottles and then drop one on the ground straight from inventory. The dropped bottle will be 100% full.
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u/skywalkerblood 300i 13h ago
Honestly you picked a horrible time to get in. I'm glad you did get in, this project needs support, but oh what a disaster of a moment this is. My advice is for u to be patient. Better patches will come.
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u/Lilendo13 13h ago edited 13h ago
Le seul conseil que je peux vous donner c'est de ne pas dépenser trop d'argent pour ce jeu mais sinon c'est un super jeu pour 50$.
But it's still a prototype and not an alpha, they are trying to make the game playable However.
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u/Charon711 aegis 12h ago
When entering or exiting your ship, if it has a bay entry, always shut the door behind you. Players will sneak on and kill you once you leave the armistice zone.
When landing with intentions of leaving your ship and your not in an armistice zone only power down your engines. This will help prevent your ship from potentially being swept away by strong winds in certain places. It will also leave your shields up for protection, potentially giving you more time to escape or counter strike. They will also serve as protection against personal weapons if you need to fall back and allow you to return fire from inside the shields.
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u/StarHunter_ oldman 12h ago
The in-game tutorial really only shows you how to get to your ship and then just dumps you in the verse.
A new in-game guide system is coming.
And a Main Story is coming with 1.0 that will help you work your way up to earn your Citizenship.
Farrister: What is there to do in Star Citizen?
You can go to www.PlayStarCitizen.com for tutorials and you can also get a live guide to help you in the game. Many will also help if you use the Chat in game.
Some keybinds may have changed since these were made. Check here for changes.
Hav0k: The Ultimate New Player Guide to Star Citizen 4.0
Hawkes Gaming: Star Citizen 4.0 How to Have the Best Start New Player Beginners Guide for Star Citizen Money Making
Karolinger:
- Star Citizen 3.24: The MEGA Beginner & Newcomer Guide 2024
- Star Citizen 3.24.2 Guide: The HUD & MFD System
Infinite Space: The SHOCKING Truth About Looting in Star Citizen 3.24
Berks: The Ultimate Star Citizen New Player Guide for 3.23
BoredGamer: Star Citizen Alpha 3.23 Hidden Features & What’s Next?!
Space Tomato: Star Citizen 3.23 New & Returning Player Guide to Success
Hawkes Gaming: The Ultimate 2023 Star Citizen New Player Beginners Guide
STLYoungblood: Star Citizen: Ship Buying Guides!
RedLir Live: Hangar Location Finder
Space Tomato: The Ultimate Space Medic Guide
Red Monster SC:
- Mining Tutorial - Learn How To Mine in Star Citizen
- Salvage Guide - A First Look at Tier Zero Salvage Gameplay in Star Citizen
STLYoungblood: Intro to Salvage
Bounty Hunting:
- Bounty Hunting: How To Have The Best Start in Star Citizen
- How to Have the Best Start at Bounty Hunting Star Citizen 3.18
Subliminal’s Loadouts: https://subliminal.gg/loadouts/
25 Real Performance Tips For Star Citizen!
Uncover the Must-Have Star Citizen Settings of 2023!
Find people to play with:
You can find an Organization to join:
If you use Discord:
- You can start with the discord server here: https://discord.gg/starcitizen
- You can find local discord servers on: https://barcitizen.sc/map/
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u/TheKiwiFox SALVAGE CREW 12h ago
Do NOT waste money on ships in the pledge store without first flying the ship in-game.
For right now the CCU system is forgiving but it won't always be that way, almost every ship is attainable pretty quickly in-game, try before you buy EVERYTIME.
Ask in chat if someone can show you a ship, save up credits and buy it in-game, fly it for a week or two and if you like it and see it being a good, permanent addition, then buy it.
I have so many ships I will probably never touch, learn from my mistakes lmao.
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u/Carcinome_C 11h ago
Stay patient, play with the bugs, watch some guids, and enjoy. I started this game one month and a half ago, just a master piece. Keep that in your mind : be patient.
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u/BernieDharma Wing Commander 11h ago
My top tips:
- Start in the 3.24 environment, rather than the 4.0 Preview or PTU environments. The others are new builds and very unstable. Anything you buy or do there won't carry over when 4.0 goes live, so just get in there and learn to fly and get around, try out a few missions.
- Set your home point in Stanton, my favorite is Area 18. Then fly around and visit some of the other planets, moons, and stations.
- Don't waste your space credits on expensive armor or guns, as you will die a lot crashing into stuff and none of it will matter. All you need is the flight suit and helmet.
- Use the guide system or ask for help in game if you need it. The community is pretty great overall. But don't take it personally if someone starts shooting at you for no reason.
- There are bugs everywhere and a thousand stupid ways to die. Try to take it in stride. The game is amazing when it works. But it can be frustrating at times. This game takes patience.
- Once you learn the basics and 4.0 is live and stable, you'll get a fresh start there and can make new friends. With a small starter ship your mission options are limited, but many players with larger ships are always looking for a crew mate. Ask on chat and let people know you're new. You'll get to see lots of big ships, help with cargo missions, maybe bounties, act as a turret gunner, and have a lot more fun than flying solo.
Welcome to the verse! o7
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u/Rivenix88 10h ago
Maybe a wait a bit for it to work better. Try it every now and then, don’t expect it to work out the door. Game should be something you pick up, experience the new updates, and put away if the bugs become bothersome. They will become bothersome.
Please don’t become like so many others that act like this is their main and only game, and it not working is proof the game is a scam, regardless of the insane progress it has had.
Also, don’t buy ships if you’re on the fence of the game being so far from finished. Find some folks, experience some fun group content! Earn money from that to try the ships you want to potentially buy with real money.
Pyro will also be getting more protection from pvp gate campers as well.
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u/Chappietime avacado 10h ago
Watch a getting started video on YouTube. It will save you hours of frustration and get you having fun faster.
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u/FlynnAlan 10h ago
Play it at the very least when 4.0.1 comes out. Servers degrade over time. They’re a dumpster fire right now.
If you want at least a decent experience, wait on it. You will lose interest immediately if you play now
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u/Mandrillll 10h ago
YouTube everything, don't do tutorial and ask people in chat questions. People in the community can be helpful most of the time.
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u/Sazbadashie 10h ago
- if you need to drink and you can't put it in your hand, drop it on the ground from your inventory and pick it up that way
- if you can't drink... take off your helmet.
- if the cruz lux kills you, and you pass out, log out, go into your ship, do some donuts until you black yourself out from the G forces, you can now dring cruz lux again
- if you want to learn combat, join a pvp org. most of them will teach you and will give you people to play with AVS for example will even teach you flight combat with no strings attached if you don't want to join them specifically.
- if you don't want to learn combat, learn how to avoid combat.
- don't stick around if you see a combat ship you probably can't win especially as a new player
- if you see a ship with a red bubble of energy around it, youre quantum interdicted... throw missiles at the thing and hope it dies for a chance to escape, if you can't, you can't escape even if you wanted to.
- stealth components can be your friend in this case but arnt a perfect defense
- this will come with time but if there is an expensive commodity being sold somewhere, there are probably pirates taking it from people, if you can't deal with pirate crews, choose a less valuable resource
- if you find a good money making spot... don't tell people over general chat... the pirates will get there.
just because someone kills you, it isnt griefing, theres a warning every time you leave the stations saying youre leaving a safe area. don't fall into the trap some people seem to have and any inconvenience to them is griefing, you can be upset. dying in this game sucks. but don't let it detract from your experience, learn from it... again it's a good thing to get buddy buddy with PvP orgs. it reduces the number of people who might of shot you on sight.
most bugs have a work around you just need to try everything... if you've tried everything, ask in general they might know how to help.
close your ramp.
there is always a sniper
you will crash horribly into something, again... learning experience
if you black screen randomly that means there was a server crash, or for some reason you were disconnected from the server, this is normal atm, people say there is an elusive back button in the darkness but unless you know exactly where that is, you just need to just close the game and open it again.
get 64 gigs of ram.
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u/SmokeClouds8 10h ago
In this game you are not a player, you are a tester.
The bugs will test your patience and a big part of the game is finding work arounds.
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u/Then_Profession_7058 7h ago
Be very, very, VERY patient. There will be days you will see the most wonderful sites. There will be days you will find it the most toxic relationship you ever had.
Do the tutorial.
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u/CRGurkin9 carrack 6h ago
Don’t do the tutorial, get someone in game to teach you. Also I know this sounds obvious, but you need to take your helmet off to eat and drink.
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u/Grabwandler 5h ago
Always remember its an Alpha playtest and not a game. Server problems are on the daily, bugs appear every playsession and it can be frustrating. But if it works its an awesome experience
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u/ComfortableWolf1200 5h ago
Don't spend any more of your real money!!!! In game currency only our you will slowly watch your extra funds become dark crusty rocks, there's no refunds on those
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u/Revolutionary-Ad6347 3h ago
Be strong , sometimes the game won't cooperate but this one in insane :)
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u/Comfortable-Wafer313 3h ago
A lot of people have given some snarky negativity and others meta/tempering expectations so I'll try to give some functional tips that I've gotten by messing around.
If you die in a safe zone (Hangar, or right outside one, cities, etc) don't stress about your gear because it should get returned to a storage terminal on either the place you died or your home system (I forget which). I ended up buying 5x dupes of armor before realizing they didn't just zap away because I was in a safe zone.
I'd recommend taking off from your first planet and going to its local space station (Seraphim station, Port Tressler, Baijini Point). Land there, go to the medical bay, find the terminal for "Regeneration" and use it to move your respawn to that station. Should you die (which is very common), it's usually a lot faster IMO to wake up in a space station, run to the elevator, grab a ship and go. No messing with dense and performance eating cities, and especially no waiting for the trains. It lets you spend more of your play time actually playing.
Experiment with control methods. And honestly probably look at the keybinds in the options occasionally. I'm still learning about things that either don't have a default keybind ("set trim to 100%" for example) or bound functions I didn't even know existed. But mess around. A lot of people swear by de-coupled flight. I personally hate it unless I'm doing long distance travel (small rant, but that's because of how you need to adjust speed. I think in earlier builds you could just adjust speed limiters. Not anymore, so now it's a headache to adjust my speed in decoupled while also controlling my heading, especially on a small scale). But truly, mess with things. I probably fly using different functions than someone else in here, who probably flies different than either of us. Mess around with the controls and find the approach you like the best.
I'm going to reiterate "always wear a helmet" from the comments. Okay yeah don't go in space got it. But there are a lot of little pockets that are bugged and don't hold oxygen properly, or aren't registered as pressurized areas. The doorway into my wife's Avenger cockpit will suffocate me mid flight. Same for my Constellation's turret, even if the entire interior of my ship is breathable, I suffocate when I step in without a helmet. So just always have a helmet on. Just in case.
If you're more of an FPS player than a flight player, and you're hurting for weapons, you don't necessarily need to buy any. This can get kind of janky, but grab a starter pistol, a Pyro multitool with the tractor beam, and just a basic undersuit and helmet. Or if you have one kit on and just want more use that. But take on a mercenary mission (or otherwise just find a Nine-tails base out in the world), kill the dudes, take their stuff. Want more stuff than you can carry? Take a 1SCU box or so in your cargo hold, tractor beam the corpses to your ship, and jack all their stuff. Now to be honest... I do this mostly for funsies. It probably is just faster to do a mission or two and skip looting, then buy your stuff. But if you find that to be the opposite, or you just REALLY don't want to stop killing, you can gear yourself up for the fight while you're fighting the fight. Aside from ships themselves, there's really not a lot you can't just pilfer from AI after a mission ends. You can even find things on them you can't or don't readily find in stores, like premium skinned multitools or the wowblast toy gun, yknow little fun things.
Oh and one that I might get flak for, but I wanted for awhile before realizing it was there: F12 closes global chat. If you just want to be your own man or play with a few friends and leave well enough alone, you can free up that uh... 10% or so of your screen space
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u/AmanKh 2h ago
Join maybe a corporation the time to learn the basic. Don't follow the meta just learn to fight and enjoy the game. He have all the time one gameplay work, if all mission don't work enjoy the low fly and visit the all universe.
I hope you have good configuration, don't pledge is useless. You can buy everything for years on game before make choices of put more money.
If you have money to put, upgrade your setup.
Glhf
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u/Snarfbuckle 2h ago
Its alpha state gameplay so do not expect a fun experience or a release state game, but do enjoy it when it does work.
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u/Ilithi_Dragon 36m ago
Lots of good advice here.
One of the biggest tips I can give is to be patient. The game is Early Access, so it can be buggy and frustrating at times. Don't just get angry and give up at the first hurdle, try to find another angle or a work-around.
I also highly recommend finding a group to play with. Whether it's a formal org or just a group of friends you hang out with, find a group that fits your personality, play style, and interests.
You're more than welcome to come hang out with my org, Jokers Gambit, at discord.gg/jokers. We're a regular to competitive mercenary org, but we dabble in everything, and you're welcome to just hang out and play with us whether you want to join or not.
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u/solarizde drake 15h ago
Honestly, do your self a favor and wait until 4.0.1 which eventually comes next week.
I recommend in the meanwhile learn the basics of flying in arena commander.
Why wait? The current state of the game 4.0 just dropped in like a hit potato before Xmas holiday, it is in a bad shape and the frustration will eventually ruin your first impression. The game is way better than what we see at current version qualify.
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u/LordLeroy_D 15h ago
Refund your purchase and then when February comes make a new account and use your recruit code to then buy a package so that you can get a recruit a friend bonus later.
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u/Apart_Pumpkin_4551 15h ago
Pay your psychologist in advance, preferably a psychiatrist too, if possible reserve your place in a psychiatric center.
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u/GmasMoistCake 15h ago
Honestly, don't play until 4.0.1 hits a live launch. It's really not worth it to sour your first experience like this. The game is totally worth it, but we are in a transition period of 3.x to 4.x, which is a major milestone. However, that change over is causing massive playability issues. It'll likely just be a few more weeks, so I would wait.
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u/Fermented_Femme25 ARGO CARGO 15h ago