How in the hell.. Are you people targeting specific weapons?

[Derkylos]

If you have a class 10 VHF shield and mk 8 armor, it will take a very long time for you to die to a 2 debs/4 faction hullbusters fighter. Equally, it will take a similarly long time for you to kill them. The key to shortening a fight is to get to grips with all the weapons at your disposal. Missiles, mines and torpedo slot weapons can end a fight very fast if employed correctly.

To more specifically address the points you raise:

Component subtargeting. Look at the bottom left pane on your HUD (the contact list). Along the top are a series of icons. I think it's the 2nd from thr right is an image of a ship in a square. Click this icon while targeting something to switch to a wireframe image. From here, you can select individual components (guns, launchers, even thrusters and shields). This is only really useful when firing missiles...targeting someone's thruster then firing missiles into it can leave them crippled and an easy target.

Top level NPCs. These hurt any fighter-class ship badly, and, in some cases, can even hurt things up to cruiser size (BSes are practically invulnerable). My advice would be to either start RPing in "safer" zones (O-49, Gamma and places with Nomad patrols hurt most, while house space hurts least), or press tab before you press enter to type. this will leave you in thruster, and you can dodge with your mouse while typing.

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