First of all, this is not a "which game is better" thread. It´s not a rant either. I like both games, each of them having their own flaws. But I´d like to share my thoughs on them, (ship) combat wise. These are MY opinions, in no way are they supposed to represent anything other than that. And yes, I´m fully aware that SC is not a fully fledged game yet. Combat in ED is great IMO. Sure, it´s slower than combat in SC, but that´s not necessarily a bad thing. If anything it lets you appreciate the nice ship designs :smiley: The flight model is different as well, there´s no drift (although there is decoupled mode). The thing I like the most is the "tactical" aspects of the ED combat. You have to manage your systems, or pips as they´re called. There´s three main systems: weapons, engines and systems. These have to be actively managed during a fight, in order to get the most out of the encounter. Often fights are resolved by the most skilled pilot, meaning the one that can outmaneuver his opponent, not the one with the bigger guns. A well timed boost engines, decouple or backward thrust can decide the outcome of the fight. Pilots with much cheaper and weaker ships can take on dangerous opponents with their fancy, expensive (and deadly) ones. Sometimes it all comes down to the loadout of the ships. For instance, if you´re using only gimbaled weapons (in ED, gimbaled weapons auto fire on the enemy when in range, no need to aim), and the enemy has chaff modules outfitted, you´re pretty much screwed, as you will have a hard time locking on the target. You will have to de-select the enemy ship and use the gimbals in locked position, with manual aim which is not ideal. Granted, the enemy has a limited number of chaff charges, they will run out eventually. While fighting, you have important information about your opponent available to you all the time. The state of their shield, shield recharge rate, hull, speed. Skilled pilots will identify when his opponent has alloted pips on system just by watching the shield recharge rate on the enemy ship. You know exactly how the fight is going, who´s winning and who´s about to be blown up. Basically, combat in ED is a mixture of tactical awareness, luck, and skill. That´s what I miss on SC regarding combat. Informed decisions. Sure, we can watch the enemy ship portrait and see if he´s badly damaged, but I feel we could do with more info. How bad is he damaged, how´s his shields doing, how much hull he´s got left, and all that. Things will get better when there´s better systems management in the game. Yes, I know SC is barely a game atm but I´m already having great expectations about it. Don´t get me wrong, I LOVE combat in SC, but sometimes I feel that when push comes to shove, the result of an engagement often comes to "who has the better ship". I´m sure these things will get sorted out down the road, and I´m excited about the things to come. That´ll do for me, sorry for the wall of text. :smiley: tl;dr: SC could use more "tactical" elements during ship combat.