Great overview. I enjoy the combat zones and personally I use the Frontline solutions route. You get less fights but a breather in between the battles- which at my age I need the time to recover!!!
Just a couple of points to add: Civil war is not the only state that spawns conflict zones. Wars too. So check both in the galaxy map if you are not using Inara. Wars and Civil Wars are identical, the only difference is that Civil wars spawn when two native minor factions are at war, whereas 'War' spawns when at least one of the factions is not native (Expanded into the system). You don't get bounties, you get combat bonds. They are different as redeeming bounties by a faction in a system it is present in (while it is not in conflict) will increase the faction's influence. Combat bonds don't do that, they just contribute to the overall war effort. Wars are best of 7, so every day whichever faction wins more, wins a day. Once you win 4 days the faction wins the war, this is what combat bonds contribute to. It's best to probably consciously choose a side, because you lose reputation with the faction you fought against. Eventually you will become hostile to them, and this means their on-foot NPC's and even their ships in space will shoot you on sight, as well as their stations! You don't want to fly into a station and be shot down immediately as if you were a criminal, so check that out before choosing a side. Odyssey settlements also work differently than other assets in the background simulation. Every asset is owned by a faction (Space stations, land ports, space installations, odyssey settlements, horizons settlements, etc) and when a war happens, whoever wins the war takes over one of the assets. Odyssey settlements however transfer ownership each day to whichever side won the most surface conflict zones on the ground. Only player actions affect this, so you can fight in one of these ground conflict zones, move on to the next and fight, continue doing that and by the end of the war, the faction of your choosing will end up owning all odyssey settlements in a system (or all the ones you fought in). This is useful if you like to do BGS, but even if not, if you find a war between an anarchy faction and someone else, you can give anarchies all the ody settlements in a system, which then make good hunting grounds for settlement raiding and material farming.
I never use Frontline's taxi service but I still visit them at a station or port just to find all of the high intensity CZs, then when I've found the one I know I want to farm, I park my carrier right above it. I also redeem my combat bonds on my carrier just so I'm funding my carrier with that cut the redemption office takes. I often clear 100 million credits per hour. It's insane how fast I received my third mercenary elite rank.
One thing about 'system states' on the galmap which many players are not aware of - it only shows system states affecting the controlling faction, not other factions present in the system. So if there's a war between factions #4 and 5, for example, the galmap won't show the system in a war state. Inara helps, but that will only show info from Commanders who have visited that system while the war is active *and* they're syncing their account to Inara to update it.
Thanks for this. I've also had no trouble with my SRV using this method. I did seem to find a way to choose a side after just walking in without randomly shooting some unidentifiable merc: I interacted with an ammo box and it gave me a choice of sides. Pretty sure that's what I did after a few times of just picking a starting fight I figured I could win. ;)
Built the set. Slowed reload fast handling stable and long range. The reload takes 5 seconds but it helps when your moving to a new locale. Scope has no benefit and magazine size is a maybe, first set had those.
I don't know if it's set up for it. I've never done PvP with it, but I would LOVE a CQC style PvP with this mode. TDM with friends in a CZ would be epic.
I've never flown to a surface CZ myself, I've always used the Frontline Solutions 'taxi' service. So, I'm not sure if this is the same for when you go yourself (as described in this video), but using FS, you never use your own med kits and energy cells. If you have 50 when you go, and use 2-3, you'll still have your 50 when the CZ ends. This could be the same when you go yourself, but like I said, I've never manually gone to one, so I don't know if that's the case or not.
I think you keep your kits because the game basically activates the Frontline Solutions combat mode whenever you enter the CZ, regardless of how you got there.
Would be awesome if you could get materials as rewards, so you could start with easier ones and upgrade gear for the higher difficulties. I played a lot of CZs for the community goal that gave a huge discount for the Cutter, and that's when I found that surface CZs are actually pretty fun. But since credits isn't really my concern, I kinda stopped doing them.
For suit upgrades, I like larger battery capacity (less frequent recharging), and higher ammo capacity (less frequent re-arming). Both mean less downtime, and more combat time. After those it really just depends on personal preference. You could go extra armour for better survivability when your shields drop, combat movement speed, shield regen speed, jump assist, or sprint duration. All of those are useful in combat, and the beauty is that there are no real "you must have this" mods. For my last two, I've gone with faster shield regen and extra armour.
Did they nerf just relogging on foot? last time I did this about a year ago, I am pretty sure that when the CZ was finished you could just relog on foot and it would spawn you right under the entrance Arch of the settlement ready to fight again...
Your SRV has a chance to self-destruct if your CMDR is too far away from it (around 6500-7000km I believe). So if you spawn in a vulture that's very high, there is a chance for it to blow up, but FDev certainly hasn't "nerfed" parking our SRVs. :)
Thanks for this, been a long time since I played, maybe 3 years very early days of odyesey. But I can't believe you made 15,000,000 credits for 15 minutes work. really. isn't that way too much? doesn't seem balanced.
The AI of these CZ's is just so, so terrible. If you just want to farm it to make money you absolutely can, but the last time I did these (a couple of weeks ago,) the AI was just so bad. Never taking points, just staying at their landing zone and never advancing in any way whatsoever... I could literally just farm them basically forever. My friendly AI also didn't do anything. I haven't tried it since then, it was so disappointing.
As Sighman says, that's a rare bug. It can be a quick money farm when it happens though. A well placed shield disruptor grenade to remove the shields from the group, and a kinetic weapon (AR50 or rocket launcher) to hose them, and you can clean up nicely for about 40+ million credits per match. When they are not bugged, they can be pretty effective, especially in the high intensity CZ's. Taking points, using cover, swapping to appropriate weapons, flanking, etc. With the recent engineering changes, it's even easier to get into ground combat. While it's not completely necessary to upgrade your equipment in order to run the CZ's, it does make it easier to survive and deal out damage. G5 plasma pistol does insane damage at close range, sometimes I just use that only, with 2-shot kills. A properly upgraded and modded plasma shotgun can even one-shot most enemies in a high intensity CZ.
Great overview. I enjoy the combat zones and personally I use the Frontline solutions route. You get less fights but a breather in between the battles- which at my age I need the time to recover!!!
Me too lol!
Just a couple of points to add:
Civil war is not the only state that spawns conflict zones. Wars too. So check both in the galaxy map if you are not using Inara. Wars and Civil Wars are identical, the only difference is that Civil wars spawn when two native minor factions are at war, whereas 'War' spawns when at least one of the factions is not native (Expanded into the system).
You don't get bounties, you get combat bonds. They are different as redeeming bounties by a faction in a system it is present in (while it is not in conflict) will increase the faction's influence. Combat bonds don't do that, they just contribute to the overall war effort.
Wars are best of 7, so every day whichever faction wins more, wins a day. Once you win 4 days the faction wins the war, this is what combat bonds contribute to.
It's best to probably consciously choose a side, because you lose reputation with the faction you fought against. Eventually you will become hostile to them, and this means their on-foot NPC's and even their ships in space will shoot you on sight, as well as their stations! You don't want to fly into a station and be shot down immediately as if you were a criminal, so check that out before choosing a side.
Odyssey settlements also work differently than other assets in the background simulation. Every asset is owned by a faction (Space stations, land ports, space installations, odyssey settlements, horizons settlements, etc) and when a war happens, whoever wins the war takes over one of the assets.
Odyssey settlements however transfer ownership each day to whichever side won the most surface conflict zones on the ground. Only player actions affect this, so you can fight in one of these ground conflict zones, move on to the next and fight, continue doing that and by the end of the war, the faction of your choosing will end up owning all odyssey settlements in a system (or all the ones you fought in).
This is useful if you like to do BGS, but even if not, if you find a war between an anarchy faction and someone else, you can give anarchies all the ody settlements in a system, which then make good hunting grounds for settlement raiding and material farming.
I never use Frontline's taxi service but I still visit them at a station or port just to find all of the high intensity CZs, then when I've found the one I know I want to farm, I park my carrier right above it. I also redeem my combat bonds on my carrier just so I'm funding my carrier with that cut the redemption office takes. I often clear 100 million credits per hour. It's insane how fast I received my third mercenary elite rank.
One thing about 'system states' on the galmap which many players are not aware of - it only shows system states affecting the controlling faction, not other factions present in the system. So if there's a war between factions #4 and 5, for example, the galmap won't show the system in a war state.
Inara helps, but that will only show info from Commanders who have visited that system while the war is active *and* they're syncing their account to Inara to update it.
Very nice video, thanks.
Great Video!
I like how your narrative and visuals complement each other and at the same time discuss and demonstrate different aspects of Ground CZs
Thanks, CMDR! I'm really pleased with how it turned out!
Great I didn't know that combat zones can be lucrative and is also fun and quick play. Thanks for your video.
They are also a quick way to get your weekly 400 Arx. Doing the high intensity CZ's, I can get about 380 Arx from just 3 matches.
@@jasonking5405 Nice :)
Nice one Ex. o7 😎👍
Thanks for this. I've also had no trouble with my SRV using this method. I did seem to find a way to choose a side after just walking in without randomly shooting some unidentifiable merc: I interacted with an ammo box and it gave me a choice of sides. Pretty sure that's what I did after a few times of just picking a starting fight I figured I could win. ;)
Thanks for the ammo can tip!!! I’ve never tried that before so I’ll have to check it out!
I pressed E when on foot and it brought up the conflict zone choice. Same button i use when the zone is complete to bring up results
Might try stowed reload on those two weapons. i'm going to try it tonight, just got all the mats.
Built the set. Slowed reload fast handling stable and long range. The reload takes 5 seconds but it helps when your moving to a new locale. Scope has no benefit and magazine size is a maybe, first set had those.
Nice tutorial thank you. I have always wondered why there is not more PvP with this. It seems to be set up for it but doesn't occur?
I don't know if it's set up for it. I've never done PvP with it, but I would LOVE a CQC style PvP with this mode. TDM with friends in a CZ would be epic.
@@CMDRExorcist Exacly what I was thinking.
I've never flown to a surface CZ myself, I've always used the Frontline Solutions 'taxi' service. So, I'm not sure if this is the same for when you go yourself (as described in this video), but using FS, you never use your own med kits and energy cells. If you have 50 when you go, and use 2-3, you'll still have your 50 when the CZ ends. This could be the same when you go yourself, but like I said, I've never manually gone to one, so I don't know if that's the case or not.
I think you keep your kits because the game basically activates the Frontline Solutions combat mode whenever you enter the CZ, regardless of how you got there.
Would be awesome if you could get materials as rewards, so you could start with easier ones and upgrade gear for the higher difficulties.
I played a lot of CZs for the community goal that gave a huge discount for the Cutter, and that's when I found that surface CZs are actually pretty fun. But since credits isn't really my concern, I kinda stopped doing them.
I've just started doing htese, it's a lot of fun. Do you have a vidoe looking at the advantaged of different unpgrades?
Unfortunately, no. I'd like to do something like that in the future.
For suit upgrades, I like larger battery capacity (less frequent recharging), and higher ammo capacity (less frequent re-arming). Both mean less downtime, and more combat time.
After those it really just depends on personal preference. You could go extra armour for better survivability when your shields drop, combat movement speed, shield regen speed, jump assist, or sprint duration. All of those are useful in combat, and the beauty is that there are no real "you must have this" mods. For my last two, I've gone with faster shield regen and extra armour.
@@jasonking5405 Thanks that was very helpful.
@@CMDRExorcist That would be a good one to watch
I've not had any luck parking my SRV anywhere near settlements, especially near the cannons. My SRV has been destroyed every time.
Did they nerf just relogging on foot? last time I did this about a year ago, I am pretty sure that when the CZ was finished you could just relog on foot and it would spawn you right under the entrance Arch of the settlement ready to fight again...
Relogging on foot will return you to the last station you docked at.
tried it, but cause I landed there the AI just stood there and did nothing
Rare bug. Just relog or try a different settlement.
I think fdev has nerfed the SRV method some time ago. Every time I die the SRV is instantly destroyed as well.
Your SRV has a chance to self-destruct if your CMDR is too far away from it (around 6500-7000km I believe). So if you spawn in a vulture that's very high, there is a chance for it to blow up, but FDev certainly hasn't "nerfed" parking our SRVs. :)
I cant see the conflict zone UI and when I die I just have to spawn back at the station, any ideas what Iam doing wrong?
I wish they would include Suit and weapon upgrades as a reward for doing some of these operations.
Agreed. Or maybe some materials as a reward to help with upgrades!
But still no item rewards, only credits? If so, they again missed an opportunity :/
I wish I could earn engineering stuff with CZs...
Yep. Would be nice to get some mats.
Thanks for this, been a long time since I played, maybe 3 years very early days of odyesey. But I can't believe you made 15,000,000 credits for 15 minutes work. really. isn't that way too much? doesn't seem balanced.
The AI of these CZ's is just so, so terrible. If you just want to farm it to make money you absolutely can, but the last time I did these (a couple of weeks ago,) the AI was just so bad. Never taking points, just staying at their landing zone and never advancing in any way whatsoever... I could literally just farm them basically forever. My friendly AI also didn't do anything. I haven't tried it since then, it was so disappointing.
That's a one-off (rare) bug. Normally they're pretty effective, and they don't just stand around.
As Sighman says, that's a rare bug. It can be a quick money farm when it happens though. A well placed shield disruptor grenade to remove the shields from the group, and a kinetic weapon (AR50 or rocket launcher) to hose them, and you can clean up nicely for about 40+ million credits per match.
When they are not bugged, they can be pretty effective, especially in the high intensity CZ's. Taking points, using cover, swapping to appropriate weapons, flanking, etc.
With the recent engineering changes, it's even easier to get into ground combat. While it's not completely necessary to upgrade your equipment in order to run the CZ's, it does make it easier to survive and deal out damage. G5 plasma pistol does insane damage at close range, sometimes I just use that only, with 2-shot kills. A properly upgraded and modded plasma shotgun can even one-shot most enemies in a high intensity CZ.