Those headtrackers look pretty good fun. Did you DIY it or use a proper one?

Got a proper one, TrackIR 5. It's very good, but if you're thinking about getting one, don't bother with the powered TrackClip Pro accessory. Utterly useless compared to the bog-standard one that clips onto a cap.

And for reverse nail-head-hitting, Transient's spot on. While not essential, the first time you use one, you'll be giggling like a schoolgirl. It works exactly how you think it should. You move your head slightly, and that's represented by amplified movement on screen. If you're one of those gamers like me who occasionally tries to peer around the edge of the screen, it's just incredible. And Elite just feels like it was made with such devices in mind. You start the TrackIR software before the game, and it just works, no extra configuration needed.

My preferred play-style at the moment is assassinations and high-reward kill missions. I finally got bored of bounty-hunting in asteroid belts and decided to risk building up a bounty on my head by playing minor factions off of each-other. The big red Wanted spices up Open play, with players deciding they fancy their chances at claiming the reward on my head. I'm slightly off the beaten track, so it's not excessive, and I've sent all comers packing so far. But I have no doubts that eventually someone will claim that bounty.
My general rule is I won't interdict players. The rush when someone tries their luck and interdicts me is pretty damn cool.

DB, have you tried a decent HOTAS set-up? I've got the X52 Pro here, and using a traditional gamepad feels severely gimped in comparison now. The fine throttle control with full range reverse and forward thrust is an incredible bonus when dogfighting. I can tell a gamepad player straight away, as they settle in to the old joust/turnabout pattern. The X52 gives me a massive range of movement options by comparison, with instant access to lateral thrusters, flight-assist toggles, and granular speed control that completely removes the need to joust other players. I can stay up close and nip around anything in my Vulture while they're constantly struggling to keep a bead on me.

I'm on xbox so no dice doomy. I have a fair bit of combat experience in space games from playing jumpgate which didn't have an autopilot feature so it moved like elite dangerous with no autopilot. You had to dock like that too.

I'm downloading the cqc right now. It looks like what this game was missing for bored people.

Well you'll just have to find me. Better do it before I get an Asp, cause you'll be flying a long time since I'm planning a trip to the center.

Got a proper one, TrackIR 5. It's very good, but if you're thinking about getting one, don't bother with the powered TrackClip Pro accessory. Utterly useless compared to the bog-standard one that clips onto a cap.

And for reverse nail-head-hitting, Transient's spot on. While not essential, the first time you use one, you'll be giggling like a schoolgirl. It works exactly how you think it should. You move your head slightly, and that's represented by amplified movement on screen. If you're one of those gamers like me who occasionally tries to peer around the edge of the screen, it's just incredible. And Elite just feels like it was made with such devices in mind. You start the TrackIR software before the game, and it just works, no extra configuration needed.

Sounds like great fun, I'd like to try one out definitely . Watched a video or two on YouTube and people do seem to look a bit awkward when using them - having to crick their neck and look our the corner of their eyes. A head tracker with a moveable monitor or multi-screens would get around that and be very awesome.

Most important piece of equipment if you're looking to profit from combat?
The Kill Warrant Scanner.
When you see a ship, always scan it, even if it's not currently wanted in the system you're in. The scan will reveal any bounties accrued in other jurisdictions. Only exceptions are System Authority Vessels. They never have additional bounties.

Now for some day-to-day combat profit tips:
To start with, drop in to Navigation Beacons, and take out anything that jumps in that's Wanted.
This can get boring quickly though, and isn't the most profitable place to fight, but will give you a good grasp of fire control and exactly who is likely to be wanted and who isn't. It'll also get you into the habit of scanning everything.

Then you might want to graduate to the ever popular RES, Resource Extraction Sites. These can be very high profit over time. They're also more fun than Nav beacons as they're the only places in the game with environmental hazards. For increased thrills, jump in to one that's currently on the dark-side of a planet. Big rocks suddenly looming out of the dark can be interesting, to say the least. It'll give you a good excuse to use ship lights too.

And when you get bored of those, you can do what I'm doing. You just have to be prepared to pick up a sizeable bounty on your head. Mine's currently at 450K in one system.
Pick a home system, then take all the kill missions you can from the bulletin board. Inevitably, some of these will involve killing ships that aren't wanted in system, so you will pick up a bounty.
However, helpfully all targets will be in systems neighbouring your home one.

My current home system isn't far from Lave, so gets a comfortable amount of PvP traffic, has only one close neighbouring system that all my missions take me to (helps reduce travel time), and has its own RES points, one of which is "High Intensity". That's Arexe, and the station there is also high-tech, meaning good access to ships and upgrades.

I have also been based out of LP 861-12. That's not as catchy, but is probably a better system in all respects except player traffic. It's Federation space where Arexe is Independent, and has all of Arexe's other features plus another in-system station. It also has regular combat zones popping up thanks to wars with the two neighbouring systems, Millese and Beten. It's further from Lave however, so you see FAR less player traffic. A good place to learn the trade.

Combat zones are great when you just want to shoot stuff without thinking and move on to the next target as soon as possible. Not as potentially rewarding on an individual target basis, but the sheer volume of ships to kill makes up for that. Plus once in a while you'll get a Capital Ship warp in and join the fight, which is a cool thing to see.