MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
That's the easiest thing to avoid. Even the Sidewinder holds plenty of fuel, just refuel everywhere you go.
My AspX is nearly maxed out. I was still getting hammered in combat, then I realised that there's more to combat than simply buying the more expensive weapons. I had bought turreted beam lasers for everything thinking that although they have lower damage they'd spend so much more time on target that it would balance out. However I was really struggling to land hits on my targets despite that. Then I realised that the hardpoints on the AspX are poorly placed. Four of them are under the front of the ship, but since cockpit visibility in all the ships tends to be above the plane of view not below I end up pulling up to track my targets - this means that the hardpoints are occluded most of the time, I have to be pointing nearly at the target and hence turreted weapons are quite useless. So I swapped four of them for gimballed beam lasers that have double the damage. I also noticed that the gimballed lasers were confused by chaff which they tend to drop when running away at which point they tend to be manoeuvring less (at least at the lower levels) so I've also gone for two fixed mount lasers for chasing people down.
Previously it took me several minutes to get on top of mostly harmless enemies; now they get six beam lasers in the face and immediately start reconsidering their life choices. Six beam lasers deplete my weapon charge quite quickly, but if I save up til I have a good shot lined up it delivers a lot of damage for that one shot. The lesson here is really think about your loadout and what's actually firing and hitting. I'm suddenly way more confident in combat.
Another couple of tricks I've learned when dealing with the lower class enemies: I submit to interdiction then immediately turn around and start flying backwards which gives me lots of time to get the guy in my sights and hit them a bit. With this loadout they take enough damage that they then start to turn away which means I can get in behind. Another tip is to drop out of cruise as soon as you get the 'Ah, there you are!' message in chat. You have to wait 10-20s for them to find you during which time you can get your weapons out (fnarr), and they always seem to drop out of cruise about 100m or so in front of you and slightly to the right. This gives you an advantage as you can get in behind straight away.
Thanks molgrips, I'll give this a go when I spec out my new ship.
Until then, back to delivering stuff!
Matt
This is a fiver on Steam until the 3rd of April or a tenner with some DLC included (I think).
Yup, I got the commander pack the other day with Horizons.
On advice I just downloaded the manual so I have plenty of reading material. Tried a mining mission yesterday and ended up lost, watching a firefight and earned a fine after picking up stolen cargo. Oh well.
On PC manual docking and takeoff is easy enough, might store the assist and free up some resources. Definitely quicker to get out without auto launch, landing is slightly slower but not much and I'll get better.
I'm sQUIRRELKING. in game, stupid name input doesn't switch between lower and upper case until you get in game and realise you made an arse of it.
I'm downloading it now. Can you just potter on in it, like being a taxi driver/flyer or something? Kind of like Rimmer in his Better Than Life scenario where he ends up on a rainy picnic in a Morris Minor with a wife and two awful kids? 🤣
Yes you can potter. You can avoid combat for the most part, and even if you get stopped by pirates you can just give them your stuff.
Can you just potter on in it, like being a taxi driver/flyer or something?
The great thing about this game is you can generally play it how you want.
Trading and passenger missions is very much as you describe above.
Or if it takes your fancy, combat gets the pulse racing.
Different ships are suitable for different tasks, so at first the best thing is to concentrate on trading and trading missions and making cash.
I am so tempted to buy a HOTAS controller for this. £75 though
Jesus wept, it's nowhere near as easy to pick up and play as the first one, is it? It looks lovely but it's just not my cuppa at all- my fault because I'm nowhere near patient enough to learn how to play it 😐 Are there any games like this that are a bit easier to get into? I love a space game but my attention span is probably more 'Star Wars arcade' than 'flight sim'.
Kayla - I'd say it's about the same for the simple fly and trade, maybe easier as you have a docking computer to start.
Use The eddb website to help with trading.
I found doing the delivery missions the easiest - pick up stuff, fly to place, profit.
Cheers for the fighting advice - I'm useless too, and just avoid, so much so I have no weapons ATM.
Think I have twigged how to surface mine, made just over a mill in 2 hours. Learning how to set up fire sets and how to switch between made the most difference.
Make some more cash this evening and then start trying to work out how to split the asteroids open.
@kayla1 have a look at No Man's Sky. Played that through as did my wife - we played the same game which was fun. Beautiful and fantastical but fairly lightweight. Elite meets Minecraft meets mescaline.
Oh and whilst the user interface is confusing and a bit poor tbh, and there is a lot to learn at first it's really not all that hard after a few hours play even though it looks daunting.
I'm trying to use an Xbox One controller, is that the wrong way to go about it?
Just trickier than a keyboard where you can dedicate keys to one task.
I'm on the the PS4 and like you the buttons can flick between jobs, you can set most up to how you like.
It's only now I've started mining that have needed to bother with it though.
I’m trying to use an Xbox One controller, is that the wrong way to go about it?
I’m using a standard XBox controller too. I am a bit fingers and thumbs with it, when it comes to combat. I don’t know if that’s because of lack of practice or whether using a standard controller compromises your total control of the ship. Although I am an elite trader and almost elite explorer, I am only at Novice on combat.
My game progression so far, has been to earn lots of cash doing the trade and explore missions, so that when I finally turn my attention to combat, I can afford a decent engineered combat ship and the many rebuys I’ll no doubt need. If I struggle with the standard controller, I might upgrade to an Xbox elite controller. They ain’t cheap though.
Been playing on average once a week, for 2 years now, so it is a long term committment.
Are there any games like this that are a bit easier to get into? I love a space game but my attention span is probably more ‘Star Wars arcade’ than ‘flight sim’.
As I said earlier, if you're PC-based then to my mind the peak of the genre was Freespace. Readily available from GOG and there's a load of updated modules for it.
If I struggle with the standard controller, I might upgrade to an Xbox elite controller.
Thrustmaster do a HOTAS stick for the Xbox now.
I’m trying to use an Xbox One controller, is that the wrong way to go about it?
If you're on PC then hell yes. Keyboard and mouse is a million times easier. Flight controls are QWERASDF and everything else is punch as needed. I picked it up in no time and I'm usually ham fisted with flight.
I'm looking at HOTAS but a T.16000M setup. £100 from Box or Amazon or £155 with the yaw pedals which I would actually use for other games if they're compatible with a wheel.
On PS4 I find there are nowhere near enough buttons, even with all the double combinations you have to remember.
The old BBC version with the potentiometer joystick was always the best
I'm running it now on Xbox, getting used to the controls without too many issues, hunting pirates atm
That's bold of you...
Dunno who said about the thrust and flip manoeuvre but if you read the manual....
Disabling flight assist on the fly allows you to independently fire thrusters (like the slide mode in tachyon if anyone ever played it) so you can maintain velocity in one direction whilst flipping round in another. See P46 in the manual for (vaguely) more info.
And yes @drac, the manual is worth reading, it's updated with the game which is handy to know. I'd recommend reading it if you haven't already as it has already helped massively with figuring out easier ways to do things.
That’s bold of you…
Not really, local search and rescue come along after a while and finish off anyone I'm struggling with. Gimballed Lazer us great, fixed cannon to slow to wind up and aiming is pants
Yeah I'd been keeping a kinetic weapon for when their shields are down, but it didn't seem to be any better than the beam lasers, in fact significantly worse. Doesn't help that you can't really hear the sound it makes so you don't know if the turreted ones are even firing.
Just jumped into a 'system' to be told that my target is 0.28Ly (that's light YEARS) away, but for some reason they consider these stars orbiting a distant planet to be the same system so I can't hyperspace there I have to cruise. Set to take about 90 mins.. FFS.
Also, it's my first massacre mission, I have to kill 5 ships. It was listed as a Harmless mission but I'm sure I'm gonna get instakilled and have wasted an hour and a half cruising over there.
The trip to Hutton Orbital in Alpha Centuri is around 90 minutes. Beware of taking that one too, if it ever comes up.
The Hutton Orbital run is a rite of passage for anyone who wants to be bored out of their minds in a game for 90 minutes.
Best do some course corrections and not fly directly past celestial bodies then. Of course if you've done that already then best find a nice book.
It was 0.28Ly of empty space, not sure what I could have done to help that. No celestial bodies around.
Right, I'm earning enough cash to afford to create a wing.
I presume that the name should have STW in there - anything else?
The Gnarpoons?
Clan?
Etc.
Middle Class Whiney Cockbags?
Do you all have to be in the same locale to work as a wing, or what?
Surely it'd be more of a Whinge than a Wing
Whinge Commander Molgrips. I like it.
Just jumped into a ‘system’ to be told that my target is 0.28Ly (that’s light YEARS) away
I fell for that once. There's a bit on the mission select screen that tells you roughly how far away the target is from your witch-space arrival point. Can't remember if you need to go to the navigation screen from the mission screen but the info is there somewhere.
Lol.
As long as the ship is on loan with a good PCP deal you're sorted.
Empty space huh? Ouch, I take it nothing interesting presented itself on the journey?
Thought I'd got my first kill last night, well a share anyway.
I found a bad man hanging around a Nav Beacon and set about gunning him down. Fortunately, before he could kick my ass a couple of other ships joined in to help. In next to no time the resident villain was reduced to space debris, I swear I got a couple of shots in!
My ship then started to overheat dramatically, getting up to 350%, at which point I blew up. Instead of getting a nice 60000 bounty I ended up with a 20000 repair bill.
Does that mean I got 'shot down' or does that happen differently?
As with every day of playing ED so far it finished up with me reading various wikis to learn how to set something up correctly, in this case module priorities. If I wasn't 'shot down' maybe that will help.
Matt
Right, I've been misusing words here.
I'll create an STW squadron, anyone can join. Then we can use this to link together to make a wing easier.
If we can map where people are roughly we can move towards each other to make an actual ships next to each other flying as wing, wing.
For those on the PS4, you can form a "wing" any old way at any distance to get the trophy to pop (once there is 4 in the wing).
I'm in orion inner spur, gamertag is saccades (oddly enough).
I'll link up to V8ninty tonight.
Matt - I suspect you ended up too close to the local sun (Nav beacons are fairly close) and didn't make it out in time.
There’s a bit on the mission select screen that tells you roughly how far away the target is from your witch-space arrival point.
Ah, yes, but my initial target was the nav beacon.
@matt_bl yes you got too close to the sun - it can be quite hard to figure out where they are and how to fly away.
@saccades did you friend me? I'm molgrips on PSN.
Empty space huh? Ouch, I take it nothing interesting presented itself on the journey?
Nope. I left the room, did some tidying, checked work emails.. nothing. Probably took about an hour in the end. However still only got 3/5 pirates because the bastards scattered to other systems as soon as I started firing, rather than fighting for each other.
I’ll link up to V8ninty tonight.
Excellent! STW Squadron is a great idea.
We should also aim to get one of the new fleet carrier things that are coming soon, and call her the ‘Octavia’.
Re the overheating; it’s also possible that you accidentally toggled ‘silent running’ on, which closes all of your exhausts to reduce your visibility to scans, but quickly becomes unsustainable at high power usage states.
That super long supercruise thing is a bit frustrating; I feel like they should just have put another nav beacon by the B star rather than have you traverse the black slooowly.
What’s everyone flying at the moment? I’m enjoying a Cobra Mk3 at the moment. Got a few kills under my belt now. Really looking forward to getting on my next session in a few days time; quite fancy a bit of deep core mining I think.
I've just got this, Doom 64 and Doom Eternal.
Doom 64 is terrific port on the PS4.
Way more enjoyable than Doom Eternal which has just gone so over the top it's almost a bit boring.
Will dig in on Dangerous when I've finished Doom 64.
We should also aim to get one of the new fleet carrier things that are coming soon
Only 5 billion Cr.
My AspX is basically maxed out, if I go any higher on the beam lasers I'll exceed my 5A power supply rating. Getting more confident in combat now.
What’s everyone flying at the moment?
Diamondback Explorer with..well an exploring setup at the moment. I had an Anaconda, Type 9 and a Vulture also all engineered to some extent but sold them all as I didn't see the point when I was off exploring anyway.
Engineered and unladen gives me a 56ly jump range. It's currently stuck in the outpost at Eagle Point however as I went for a drive and it was taken into the hanger so I now have the ballache of trying to get it back (5km drive in the SRV away from the station to recall the ship should hopefully work)
<blockquoteWhat’s everyone flying at the moment?
Asp X and a Python.
Use the Asp for long range passenger trips and the Python for everything else
What’s everyone flying at the moment? I’m enjoying a Cobra Mk3 at the moment. Got a few kills under my belt now. Really looking forward to getting on my next session in a few days time; quite fancy a bit of deep core mining I think.
An AspX for exploration and resources collection duties. Its heavily engineered and can cover 60ly in a single jump.
An Alliance Cheiftain fitted out for Combat / Bounty hunting - its got engineered Multi Cannons with a mixture of Thermal and Corrosive effect to chew through enemies.
A Python that I've not really decided what its doing. Its well armed but nowhere near as manueverable as the Cheiftain, but its can haul nearly 300 tons of cargo. It's mainly been used for trading. I could fit it out for passenger runs or mining too. I'm not sure if I really enjoy it though.
I've got 350 Million Cr burning a hole in my pocket though so I might get something else. I'll maybe mess around with a dedicated fighter build - like a Vulture
When you did the Farseer engineering did you get asked for meta alloys, and did you just look up their locations on eddb?
When you did the Farseer engineering did you get asked for meta alloys, and did you just look up their locations on eddb?
Yeah you need to give 1 or 2 Meta Alloys to unlock her. I did just use EDDB to find them. Elite Dangerous is grindy at the best of times without using the odd shortcut to help you out.
as I went for a drive and it was taken into the hanger so I now have the ballache of trying to get it back
This may sort you out 👍🏼
This may sort you out
Thanks, really useful link, saves spending too much time driving the SRV around on a low gravity planet.
Ah, noob incompetence, the gift that keeps on giving.
Tonight's episode was based on a bounty mission to kick the ass of some guy called Winger. Got to the system, found the beacon, mooched about while squadrons who would fry me in a heartbeat swarmed around like flies. I thought Winger was a no-show, so was winding up the FSD to head home, when he turned up.
I clearly don't have good firepower/aim as I was getting nowhere and he managed to jump into cruise twice! As we're getting into round 3, I realise I can see less and less of the space outside and more and more of the pilot in the cockpit. Pretty soon I can't steer or fight, knowing I'd toggled something I tried to fire up the laptop to see what it was. Surprise, surprise before I found the right search term, Winger had another victim and I was another 20000 down.
I was expecting the cash to flow in the other direction, but at least I now know you press R3 to toggle 'Headlock'. Oh and it was 'Silent Running' the other night, I toggled it instead of 'Flight Assist'. How many more 'death combos' do I need to look out for?
Matt
How many more ‘death combos’ do I need to look out for?
One that caught me out a few times is overloading the power plant causing your weapons to shut down. Saw me get quite a kicking before I learned about module priority.
Thermal overload is another one if using a lot of energy weapons, can lead to weapons overheating. When they released the Mamba ship a couple of years ago that had a problem with overheating although I think they might have patched it (fun ship, insanely fast)
Oh and don’t do what I did last week docking into a station using auto dock and open the throttle by mistake and punt into the back of the station docking area.
What’s everyone flying at the moment? I’m enjoying a Cobra Mk3 at the moment. Got a few kills under my belt now
I have a mk3 cobra, which I’ll never sell due to nostalgia
I have an alliance challenger which I’ll be using soon for combat rank
I have python which I used for trading rank up
I have an orca which I am using at the moment for explorer rank up. I’m mainly carting passengers around on sight seeing missions to far flung corners of the Milky Way.
I’m on furlough from tomorrow so I should finally get explorer elite over the next couple of weeks, and then I’ll be looking at combat.
AspX set up for mining.
Right, any better suggestions than plain old SingleTrackWorld as the squadron name?
Molgrips has found me too.
SingleTrackGalaxy
Logged on to try and mop up the last of the pirates, got another 1hr supercruise 🙁 ah well, got work to do anyway...
Singletrackgalaxy squadron is born.
Tag is STW1 and open for new members.
Can my mate join too? Not an MTBer but a lovely bloke 🙂
Fine by me, think the limit is 500 and we have had 20 separate posters on here max.
I'm in work as usual today so will approve your request and give you the ability to accept new members this evening.
Are Squadrons cross platform?
I'm stuck on the Xbox, not sure I can use this as justification to go out an buy a PS Pro!
There is the odd one on Xbox on here......
Tag is STW1 and open for new members
Shouldn't it be "gofar enterprises"?
Xbox and/or PC players are welcome to join, I'm just not sure if it's cross platform or not.
In hindsight - gofar enterprises would have worked too.
So what’s the consensus on the game. I have plenty of time sinks to get through but for the price would give this a go 🙂
I like it, about 1001 ways to play the game.
PVP (v limited)
PVE
faction wars (background story)
trading
mining
courier
Pirate
wheeler dealer
Fairly confusing to start, as there appears to be 10 million buttons (I'm on PS4, so the controller does a bit of flipping between button sets - but only when I'm mining) and not a lot of info in-game on how to play.
There are massive amounts of external websites to make things much easier (if it wasn't for them I think I would have given up tbh, as I'd be flying around clueless making 30 credits a run), with the videos probably better than reading as not a lot is PS4 dedicated.
Well I'm into it currently so I think it's worth it. It's more along the realism lines than fantasy (although still some bloopers in it tbh), but nowhere near as complicated to fly as a full on flight sim.
Played a bit with my mate Jon last night (yeah yeah) and turns out he hadn't bought Horizons so he couldn't multi-crew with me. Boo.
Cheers. Will give it a go 🙂
Still haven’t been on my PS4 for a few weeks now I’ve got you friend invites through though, might be on soon.
Edit to the above. The deed is done and it’s downloading via steam now :).
I have Witcher 3, RDR2, Nier Automata, Bloodbourne, Nioh and a host of others to finish too. Ah well, I’ve more wont hurt!
Anyone about from 7pm tomorrow for some wing based goodness? PS4, RVP @ Dekker base, Rho Cancri.
Was on last night and couldn't locate the Squadron on XBOX.
I think I'll need to create a specific Xbox squadron
Well I've done the training missions. Even on the PC the number of keys mind bending and the mouse is very sensitive for pitch and roll. Takes a bit of getting used to.
Plus I keep hitting W & S for pitch up and pitch down instead of using the mouse. But again just something to get used to. Quite like the overall feel though and well worth the current entry price.
I have Allied status with a couple of factions at Dekker base.
I thought it was 7.30pm? I'm about to head out on a local spin, will try to be back by 7.
@dannybgoode surely there's an option to adjust sensitivity?
Okay, financial advice for the noobs:
You start in the Pilots Federation District, this is a protected area for new flyers only, if you leave and dock with a station from another juristiction you get barred, same if you get promoted whilst flying outside of the District.
Once you get your first promotion inside the District you unlock the Explore the Galaxy mission, this is worth 100K when you complete it BUT means docking outside of the District. It's the games way of forcing you out the nest. HOWEVER, I was in the middle of a trade run when I got mine so I left it. Then I got another, then another and eventually 16 of them (you run out of mission slots eventually), including several multiples for the same system and often the same station. By the time I pulled out of Dromi last night I was in a Cobra Mk3 with maxed core modules and the cargo modules and fuel scoop that I could pull out my Sidewinder flung in where they fitted plus about 350K in the bank.
If you use the galactic map you will be able to plot a good round trip , mine was/is:
Dromi > HR 8061 x2 > Ehecatl x2 > Veroandi x2 > Ay Indi > Nanabozho > Arare > Ehecatl > HR 8526 > Lauma > LHS 3802
That leaves me with Daho Deti x3 > Burojinura to claim at a later date. As you can see my first circuits nets me 1.3M for nothing more than a minimal amount of time jumping before accepting any decent missions along the way (and there are a few).
Just watch out for some of the outposts though, one of the courier missions I accepted for Ehecatl was to an outpost on the far side of nowhere which took about 10 minutes super cruising to hit. In the end it was quicker to jump back to the previous system and return than do that again.
i used to play ed a lot xb1 and ps4 (xb1 am elite status in exploration and trade about 2 levels away in combat but i suck at combat tbh).
i haven't played the game for a while though as i got burned out with it tbh (100 actual days gametime upwards if i remember).
am stationed at founders world and have a few ships ranging from diamondback explorer to imperial cutter and federal corvette (man the grinding i did for those lol).
i have to be honest i have forgotten how to play the game now.
i will definitely return to the game again one day (am waiting fir space legs and able to land on earth like planets (hopefully like star citizen although i have only watched some streams of the game as no pc unfortunately).
Fuelled up, started a courier mission, ran out of fuel before dropping my cargo off, died. 🙁
Is there, like, a level that precedes noob?
Fuel scoop is your friend
Two days without doing something stupid, a record!
I'm mooching round a Nav beacon, as you do. I found a nice target, bigger (slower) ship, higher rank, but clean. I scanned it with my warrant scanner and found it had a ten grand bounty, all good. I lined up a nice shot and opened fire, whoa incoming bounty, what the hell's going on here.
Oh well, what's the worst that could happen.....the fedaralis could join in that's what. This is where we run away, ha ha catch me if you can. FSD out of the system, then dock feeling pretty smug. When I get to the station they offer to make it all go away, I thought I could just pay 200C and be done with it, but I seem to go to prison LYs away and with a new name for the ship!
Not as costly as my previous mistakes but annoying. Does anyone know what happened with the bounty from the warrant scanner?
Matt
No idea Matt.
Had a cracking laugh tonight, fumbling through wing combat.
Went from 2% to 61% in harmless in 1 go, we were stuck at a port with no mid range ships so I went out in an eagle. 5 rival faction fighters to kill.
Rapidly learnt about module priority (no oxygen in the cabin gives the mind a focus) when equipping big energy sapping guns.
V8ninty navigates like a demon - made me realise loads of better ways to fly.
Matt, sounds like your mark had a bounty on his head from a different system, but was not wanted in the system that you were in currently. That means that when you killed him, you committed a crime in the current system. A jurisdiction thing.
Saccades; really enjoyed that session, despite the comms and (my) noob combat issues 😂 getting a little bit more effective in combat now, with a more effective load out. Will be on for a couple of hours tonight and tomorrow night too if anybody is about.
I may get on yet but I bought Doom in the sale so I’ve been getting distracted by that. 😂
Drac; would be good to see you online bud.
Matt; just reread your post; the bounty will be claimable in a system controlled (or at least with a presence of) the faction that issued it. It should show in your ‘transactions’ tab on the left nav box.
Saccades; did you start a squadron in the end? How do I join it, any idea?
Yeah, it's singletrack galaxy (STW1)
I think you use the menu that arrives from the RHS of the touch pad, flip to the tab on the far left and in there is the squadron bit.
Have a vulture nicely outfitted and balanced for combat if we go that way.
I'm still working, so roughly plan to be available for wing stuff at the weekend evenings and then rest of the time I'll be mining and exploring on and off. I did 180ly in 15 mins last night so can meet up pretty quick.
That combat was funny, struggled to keep up with you, finally dropped into the fight, opened up the hardpoints and the oxygen switched off and the weapons wouldn't fire.
After 20 seconds of panic I enjoyed flying something that wasn't a brick for 5 mins then was blown up.