The most reliable technique I've found against an evenly-matched opponent (ie the debug start point guy) is to switch to manual control and accelerate (press I) at the lead target, firing constantly under about 4000m. Fire missiles if you've got them, but make them at least a few seconds apart otherwise the explosion from one can take out the other. I usually take a fair amount of damage this way but its the only way I've found to get a few hits on him too.

I'm aware that this is a poor general strategy. Right now there isn't much opportunity to get into a fight, so its hard to a) develop general tactics and b) tweak the game to balance the AI. There is work in progress to arrange more opportunities for a player to get into fights (eg an intercept AI command, convoy missions, etc) but we're not there yet.

In reality though there isn't much chance you'll get attacked in a zippy little fighter like the Eagle - its pretty hard for anything to catch you! That's probably appropriate though - to get attacked you need to be worth the effort, so either you're big enough that its likely you have a rich cargo, or someone is getting paid to hunt you down. If you're big then pirates can catch you, and if you're small but being hunted there's probably easier ways to get hold of you than chasing you through deep space.

I'm still in the default Eagle LRF...I should probably stop taking on those higher paying package contracts. Starting out though, I can't see any other way of making decent money without the game being a grind.

(FYI, I start off by selling the autopilot, missiles, replacing the class 1 hyperdrive with a class 2, leaving me with 5T free, so cargo haulage is really not an option)

I do find that other ships can catch me, though, even when I keep them on my six and have the forward thrusters firing constantly.

Frontier was always a bit of a grind early too (unless you took advantage of the numerous bugs!). In the future I'd hope an improved economic model and some good mission options will give players something interesting to do in the early game to make a bit of cash.

What kind of ships do you see, under what circumstances? The stock modules that spawn hostiles (Pirates and DeliverPackage) typically spawn ships that are much larger (heavier) than default Eagle. The pirates usually spawn too far away for you to ever see them, so I'm guess you're getting the "you're going to regret" guys from the high-risk deliveries. Those are at least 100t - you should be able to outrun them.

This is good information, keep it coming 🙂

happy to gather info for you - how do I determine the type of ship that is attacking me?

The Radar Mapper will tell you what type of ship your current target is.

When I get ambushed on a delivery, I set the autopilot to the delivery location and set maximum time skip. I've never had to fight them (this was in the Eagle LRF). Which is good since I sold the pulse cannon and missiles to get the class 2 drive. I'm too awful and lazy at flying to sell the autopilot.

After many failed attempts, I can defeat the 'debug start' enemy ship without using missiles and without taking much (or sometimes any) damage.

I use the keyboard for manual thrust and the mouse to aim (holding the right button).

My basic technique is to use reverse thrust (k) to make him come to me. Using the lateral thrusters (u, j, o & l) I get directly in front with both crosshairs lined up.

Once within 5km I start firing and within 4km I switch to forward and left thrust (i & j) to avoid the incoming fire.

I find that I have to lead the lead crosshair as we move past each other since we're both accelerating.

Once we've passed I repeat the process. I do try to keep from getting too far apart to keep our relative speed down when we pass again. Though if we don't get far enough apart I don't have time to setup the pass.

I just used this to great effect against several police Ladybird Starfighters with shields and 1MW dual cannons. I was in a Eagle MKIII with a shield generator and a 2MW rapid fire pulse cannon. It's best if you can separate them and deal with one at a time.

One tip for using missiles is that you can select and fire a missile while time is paused.

Great tips!

The delivery enemies are rather heavy, so its no big deal to outrun them in a small ship. Of course a small ship has deficiencies in other areas so its a tradeoff.

I'd call that a bug - you shouldn't really be able to do anything while paused. Don't expect it to work long-term.

I agree but I also think there should be an easier way to fire a missile, like the F or M key.

One should also be able to use a key to arm different missiles. You might not be carrying an homogeneous payload of missiles, and you'd want to fire the most appropriate, rather than whichever the game decided was "next."