[Closed] Elite Dangerous

I play a mixture of open play and private group, I've not had issues yet but it's early days on the PS4 still.

Open play here and I'm pretty rubbish but haven't been picked on unfairly yet unless going to conflict zones.

I think this may push me over the edge of my puny 'must resist buying a PlayStation' stance; (plus GTA, obvs)... sounds ace

The only thing that has happened to me in open play is i had a missile lock on alert a few seconds before i jumped to the next system.

Open's not bad on PC, in a couple of years of play I've only had one or two idiots. Most people are decent enough. Bit like real life I suppose.

I really should have waited before my last ship upgrade. Not enough to kit it out to any kind of combat ready level and it's got to the stage where the rebuild costs are too risky to chance it.

Parked it up and doing passenger runs until I get enough for a few more upgrades.

Once you build a bit of cash up, it's nice to have a few spare ships in storage. At least that way you don't go all the way back to Sidewinder if you really mess things up.

So what should I kit my Eagle with? It's currently two beam lasers and a missile launcher but I found the missiles rather underwhelming and the beams tend to cook rather fast and are limited in their field of firing.

Also what other parts to fit?

I think this may push me over the edge of my puny 'must resist buying a PlayStation' stance; (plus GTA, obvs)... sounds ace

You could buy an Xbox, that satisfies all of your criteria. (-:

Missiles work best when the enemy shields have gone, I'm still learning about what beams to use.

For the Eagle I'd A-rate all the Core Stuff except Life Support, D-rate that for the weight advantage. Eagle is a bit of an eggshell, if the canopy cracks you're probably about to suck vacuum so life support is a bit redundant.

Weapons I'd go for Burst Lasers on smaller ships. Beams kick out a lot of heat and you don't get many Utility slots to fit a Heat Exchange Module. I usually go with Gimbled mounts as I'm useless with fixed aiming. Use lasers to get the shields down and multi-cannons to rip through the hull. There are a few opinions on what to do. I tend to stick the smaller weapons as lasers and the larger as multi-cannons. If there were three hardpoints I'd go for two burst lasers and one multi-cannon.
I'm not a turret fan except on larger ships where you can multicrew as the people who join can play as your turret gunner.

Single utility on the Eagle, probably Chaff Launcher.

Shield Generator, go for the biggest BiWeave. Slightly less powerful than a full A rated but less power drain and faster recharge. Stick a hull re-enforcement in the Military slot then adjust the rest of the optionals to suit power levels. After a Docking Computer there may not be a lot of room for anything other than cargo bays.

Oh and for hull, reinforced alloy is good. Military is better but may cripple your jump range due to weight. It costs almost as much as the whole ship as well.

The other two sacrifice either shields or hull strength for the other so reflective hulls are weaker physically but increase the effect of shields. Never found it worth the payoff.

Top stuff. Thanks 🙂

nearly had to call fuel rats myself lastnight on a long punt back over to CG, I want to cement my top 25% as it's upto >8M payout now Woohoo!

Had close run ins with the cops on my last 2 slave runs, scanned both times, 1st time I panicked hit silent running and accelerated almost into the station outer wall, 2nd time I calmly engaged silent, quickly entered station and then started to cook my ship as I forgot about silent running. Oops.

Cheers for the tips Allan23 think I'll setup my Cobra as per your suggestions and see if I can make a dent in the bounty CG.

I'm playing solo while I'm trading as I really don't want to lose a shipment of pricey slaves.

Has the interdiction mini game been toned down? I've always managed to escape, thought common advice was to submit then boost/jump away.

Reading this it seems like insanity compared to the older version.

I loved Elite II and even played it a fair bit even recently with a code hack etc. But it was fairly 'simple' when it came to ships/choices. You had the Viper for quick stuff, Cobra Mk1 or 3 for kiling and a Imperial Courier for building up credits quickly carrying illegal goods between systems.

But this version seems insanely complex.

Where can i find the CG in this? currently residing in Everate, I've always had that as my base of operations except i found myself 40 jumps away even on the fasted route when i logged in last night, took a long time to return 🙁

Alright so this thread inspired me to pick it back up again,

I figured out how to navigate the universe, sort of - the galaxy map is still confusing me sometimes.

And I figured out how to kill things!! And got killed myself a few times.

I made about 200k blowing stuff up at a RES. I got blown up myself a few times too, so tonight I;m going to take it a bit more carefully and try and upgrade to that Eagle...

what's your range jolmes? I was in a type 6 last night, something like 29ly hop unladen, 19 laden, without cargo would have been 17 jumps, with a full load of cargo (the whole point of the trip) it was 27. I haven't tried it yet but possibly worth buying a hauler, remove unnecessary parts maxing out the drive and jumping there then paying to get your usual ship transferred.

Weeksy, there's a lot to it for sure, a slight worry is that forum chat suggests for ships bigger=better and everyone wants an anaconda asap, I'm hoping it's a bit more balanced than that. Played a lot of the X3 games and bigger ships packed a punch but were awful to fly and a well kitted out, well piloted smaller ship could run rings around them.

I'm in a cobra MKIV designed for combat not travel, unladen i think my jump range was only like 18ly maybe even less, not 100% on that though. I was 10 jumps away from the bounty hunting CG and the servers went offline, was running out of fuel as well so might be limping home...

I was going to jump on today for the CG missions, the servers are going down for a few hours for an update. 😥

For jump range make sure you have the right option checked in the galaxy map. The default is efficient, choosing speed reduces the number of jumps but increases fuel use.

I can be complex but there's no need to do everything at once. I still learn things a year or so in. Never done mining or a Community Goal.

Bigger ships aren't necessarily better, they're just different. I really liked the Python, just got the Anaconda and it's like steering a barge. First Nav Beacon to test combat and had a wing of Imperial Eagles running rings around me. Going to give the Anaconda a bit more time but I might be back in a Python before long.

Bit obsessive this game!

9 mil credits now, not sure what to buy. My Cobra mk 3 is doing ok, top level everything, and I'm using it for exploration with 22 ly jumps.

Also have a Type 6 Transporter, and an Eagle kitted out for a fight - I've won about 10 fights, and died twice.

It looks like a bigger ship would get me a little more jump range over the Cobra (thinking of an Asp Explorer), but as I'm primarily exploring to make credits, I don't mind more jumps/stops.

Only just figured out that I only have to use my discovery scanner once to net credits for discoveries, I was going and scanning every planet! I know I can get extra credits for surface scans, but it doesn't seem worth the time.

Went to the California nebula at the weekend, was a bit disappointed by the view at first, but then realised that you have to move quite far away from any stars for the background stars/nebula/galaxy's to really show up. Got some nice screenshots and found an outpost with some weird anthill type mounds next to it, with alien fungus growing on them!

Last night I found a system with 3 black holes. I read conflicting reports about flying into them, but though I would edge in and retreat if it looked bad. The warping of the stars as you get close really freaked me out, so I left! Didn't want to loose 60 odd jumps worth of discoveries, but have it bookmarked to return in the future.

How does owning multiple ships work? Do you have to fly back to whichever port you left them to change ships or can you just dock anywhere and you've got access to your hangar GTA-style (which would make more sense gameplay wise but less sense thematically)?

How does owning multiple ships work?

If you don't trade in when buying a new ship it stays in storage at that port.

You can now pay in game credits to transfer a ship to current location, takes a bit of time to arrive but that's often shorter than it would be flying back to pick it up.

I've got mine in a system I chose as home base.

Right, makes sense, ta. Does the game tell you where it is, or do you have to remember where you parked?

Is the same true of parts, do you have a "parts bin" of stuff you've bought but don't have installed?

It shows in a shipyard and on the galaxy map.

Yes parts bin works the same.

Right. So really you need a 'home base' rather than just randomly exploring?

Not really as they can be delivered to you at a small cost and amount of time.

StirlingCrispin
This book has an excellent chapter on how the original game was written and squeezed into under 32MB.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Backroom-Boys-Secret-Return-British/dp/0571214975

Thanks for that recommendation, just been reading the book, sat by a pool in The Algarve, and really enjoying it!

Took an hour to transport my type 7 about 400 ly. Cost about 10,000 credits.

Weeksy - it is more complex than in days of yore but we have google now and tbh I've found that learning a relatively small amount (as I have) quickly makes sense of the game and it's his to play. I reckon that the complexity means more potential life to the game as you progress and will stop it getting repetitive.

Thanks to this thread, I've just started on this. I bought it pre access in 2014, and found to my surprise, I have a bonus Viper Mk IV as well as the starting ship.

Couple of days in, without knowing what I'm doing, up to about cr400,000. But it's as a mmorpg, it all feels very "dead". Its just flying about from place to place. There's no "life" to the game, like orther mmorpgs. And unlike the other mmorpgs I played, I have no guild or friends, which makes it even deader. Is the upgrade to the horizons/commanders pack worth £20?

It's a simulator not World of Warcraft.

This thread has prompted me to try and revisit the game. I am Cmdr "Ross Killer" on pc version. If anyone wants to ping me a msg.

Jujuuk68 - Member
Is the upgrade to the horizons/commanders pack worth £20?

It's a simulator not World of Warcraft

And in that respects its pretty good, but its still no x-wing.

Imagine how ****ing cool a Star Citizen/x-wing cross would be.

A man can dream.

transporting ships to you is cool, but I've been buying 1 set of top end stuff that fits both of my ships and swapping it to the one I want to use, this is rather clunky, maybe there's a better way of doing it or maybe I just need to get the hang of it.

Swapped my mouse X axis from Yaw to roll last night and now in real danger of crashing whenever I try to enter a space station, I'm hoping it doesn't take long to get used to and is actually worth it. Using FAoff to turn and face your target is also proving tricky to master, would be nice if swapping back to FAon set your throttle back to what it was.

Anyone on PC noticed issues with issuing too many commands at once? Simultaneously rolling, lateral thrust, boosting and firing it seems occasionally something gets missed. Also been doing the fly at station at max speed the hit throttle 0% and deploy landing gear to emergency stop and one or the other key stroke doesn't register and nearly crash.

There's no "life" to the game

It's a simulator

And in that respects its pretty good, but its still no x-wing.

Imagine how **** cool a Star Citizen/x-wing cross would be.

A man can dream.

X-Wing was ace, but Freespace was where it was at for me.

Take it from a long time sim combat nerd - these games are a lot more fun with mates or a regular flying group where you start developing tactics.

Simulators are great in that respect, you are playing for the gameplay not progression.

Some of my best online sim gaming experiences have included taking off from an airfield with four or five mates - in say - P-39s tooled up with rockets. Flying for over an hour in formation to the target, entering enemy airspace undetected and then coming in low, fast and smacking the airfield and everything that moved.... in one pass to avoid the AA. It was hours of scanning the skies, keeping formation, engine management and following nav vectors for about 30 seconds of shooty hilarity and swearing from opponents

These games wont give you instant gratification. Back in the old days of IL2 Sturmovik - you might glimpse the enemy for a second after a 30 minute patrol.... only to get brassed up by some sneaky ****er that climbed up under your blindspot.

<tangent>
how have I been gaming for so long and not heard about n-key rollover limits?
Just for fun I tried out 5 different keyboards:
H UCK BON FOX JUMPS OV H LAZY DOG
HE QUIK BRON FO JUPS OER HE LA DOG
HE QUIC BROWN OX UMP OVER HE Z OG
HE QUIC BROWN OX UMP OVER HE Z OG
HE QUIC BROWN OX UMP OVER HE Z OG
</tangent>

Anyone on PC noticed issues with issuing too many commands at once? Simultaneously rolling, lateral thrust, boosting and firing it seems occasionally something gets missed. Also been doing the fly at station at max speed the hit throttle 0% and deploy landing gear to emergency stop and one or the other key stroke doesn't register and nearly crash.

Thrustmaster HOTAS X - no wrries on key strokes 🙂

Couple of days in, without knowing what I'm doing, up to about cr400,000. But it's as a mmorpg, it all feels very "dead". Its just flying about from place to place. There's no "life" to the game, like orther mmorpgs. And unlike the other mmorpgs I played, I have no guild or friends, which makes it even deader. Is the upgrade to the horizons/commanders pack worth £20?

There's an entire galaxy to spread out in - it's not quiet though. If you go upto the messages menu there's one for CMDR contact history. I usually see a few different people just around my own systems and occasionally get an o7 salute from random passers by. Try looking at the list and chatting,

Wing up with other people and visit a RES (High) or Combat Zone and it's far from quiet. Combat Zone are even more fun if you get a couple of people with big ships and then some smaller ship support like a Vulture or Asp.

Horizons is worth it, most of the fun bits were released in the Horizons updates.

It's not a game all handed to you with easy instructions, it's pretty much, "here's a Galaxy and some stuff, go play with it". Like being a kid again making up your own game 🙂

Cmdr "Ross Killer"

Just been reminded about missions to scan some ruins for the Guardian stuff so might dig out the Asp Explorer and go do that, then catch up on Thargoid chasing.

..... this thread is going to have me purchasing a 1080ti...a VR headset... a thrustmaster warthog hotas and a long throw extension for it.... must resist.... more expensive... crack habbit..... than.... MTB and actual crack combined.

highwayyyy to thaaa dangerrrzooone.

It's a simulator not World of Warcraft.

It's Massive. It's multi player. It's online. You create a character, Commander x. Its an MMORPG. They don't *all* have to take place in dungeons.

FSX is a simulator. X plane is a simulator. Rise of Flight is a simulator. Cliffs over Dover is a simulator. Or the Silent Hunter series, or even Trainz/Train Simulator2016. I am familiar with simulators.

I'd argue it's intent and scope is much more than a simulator. It has guns, quests, a money system, and a persistent, online universe which every player logs into, creates a unique character in, and who then progresses through, and has some effect on the world.

An MMORPG doesn't have to copy WOW (or Guild Wars II, LOTRO, Warhammer online or Rift/Valiant which I never tried) in every respect. But Wow has weapons, quests, a money system, and is persistent on the one location that players are required to log into, (albeit over multiple servers) into which each player creates at least one character, who progresses through and has some effect on the world.

So, whilst I see you're point, it does simulate to some extent, something that doesn't actually exist, and without the level of technical complexity the real thing would have, and has to "fudge" some basic mechanics of physics to exist at all. So it's not really that much of a simulator. Its actually a game, a complex to fly simulator style game, one that multi users log into and play at once at the same time.

So again, I'll ask again, politely, why does the game feel so "dead"? It feels like a single player own pc install game.

Or am I just too "new" and that it opens up a bit more, socially? Does the sterility wear off? Wheres the chat? Wheres the people? Wheres the life? The "spark" to the game? The "groups/guilds" of players?

I think the planetary landings, whilst a good idea in theory, should somehow lead to "life" and a dynamic environment. The Spaceships should be lively, dynamic, mini cities, with places mmorpg players can congregate to chat, exchange knowledge, even if "trade/crafting" and those sorts of things you do find in WOW don't exist. Make me feel there's life outside the cockpit. There seems little immediate facility to find friends in the rpg ways.

In fairness, I did spend several years on WOW Guild, and used to spend half my nights monitoring chat channels ensuring our players were playing nicely, being respectful with each other, sorting out arguments, looking after players with communication needs, and being a "shoulder to cry on". (We were one of the few Guilds, happy to take on players with specific difficulties, like players with Aspergers to varying levels, as I used to "look out" for them, and step in if they started to annoy other players). So in one sense, most of my log in time was actually spent not playing, but ensuring the play time of others was enhanced. I certainly don't want to do all that again.

It just feels like a fairly dry simulator, when arguably, (with space, guns) it should be a lot more than that. Presently, it feels like a few non interactive screens operating out of a cockpit seat, then flying through space, which is always going to look pretty the first few times, and then after a couple of flights resembles just more of the same.

hrustmaster HOTAS X - no wrries on key strokes

this one? certainly a lot cheaper than the other hotas I've heard mentioned, but is it really worth it or is it a cheap and nasty version of the probably very nice but definitely out of my price range A grade setups? >£300 for warthog!!

Yep that's the one, it's cheap but not too nasty, button numbers rub off and it's not as smooth as a £300 warthog probably is. I doubt it will last me years but it's better than the cheap price would suggest. Bought mine a year ago and it's not broke yet.

Combine it with Voice Attack and you never need touch a keyboard again.

So again, I'll ask again, politely, why does the game feel so "dead"? It feels like a single player own pc install game.

Or am I just too "new" and that it opens up a bit more, socially? Does the sterility wear off? Wheres the chat? Wheres the people? Wheres the life? The "spark" to the game? The "groups/guilds" of players?

Regular MMOs make you think you're in a changing and evolving world when it's all fake, the world is designed so you are all forced down the same route and given what appears to be choices but ultimately feeds you the same story as every other player regardless of what choice is taken.

Elite doesn't feed you, you're dropped in a horrible system with the cheapest, crappest ship and you make your own game. Pretty much consistently the people I've heard say it's empty are waiting for the game to deliver an experiece but it won't. The game world carries on without you and doesn't care what you do unless you interact.

When the Engineers update was released, the AI worked out optimal hardpoint loadouts and started engineering NPC ships to beat the cr@p out of players. FDev had to tone it down a bit as they were too good - the AI works well.

The group I play with setup a player faction, the faction was added to a system and by incrceasing influence we took over the system and expanded into other ones. Fly into our systems and the owner is something we created and have to maintain or the Background Simulation might just change the balance.

The Thargoid stuff has been added in drips over then past year, even down to the scary warp interdictions that started happening where you were ripped out of the hyperspace jump and scanned by some huge and scary looking alien ship.

You just have to be active and not expect the game to feed you as all you will see is the space between jumps. I've played a few MMOs over the years and this is one of the first ever games that feels like what you do changes how events run. Going back to a standard Warcraft clone now feels emptier than Elite ever does.