I’ve never known a game that inspires and encourages such player enthusiasm and activity outside the actual game

There does seem to be a great community (gankers/murder hobos aside) around it, but plenty of other games have huge modding communities, elite is obviously locked down so all that creativity is channelled into some really great tools, but they are such a huge QoL gains that I wonder how playable ED would be without them. Obviously tools allow you to min/max, which is a limited audience to nerds* like me, but just simply buying parts for a ship, how get pissed off would you get schlepping from station to station trying to find a 4A PP for your cobra? Part of the explorer experience early game, but annoying later on, difficult to believe there isnt a function in game, did click & collect die out in the 26th century or something? I think there may be an argument that the game & community are great in spite of frontier.

*you can call yourself a powergamer if you want to sound more awesome, but we’re gamer nerds, accept it.

CMDR molgrips requesting boarding: Permission denied – you suck.

🙂

Also – you should be able to give money to or request money from other CMDRs. This would allow you to hire them to do stuff for you.

Yeah, as with so many other obvious features, you do wonder whether frontier have what they deem to be valid reasons not to implement them or its just laziness. (Is there chance of extortion or more chance of hacking with transferring in game money?)

but they are such a huge QoL gains that I wonder how playable ED would be without them

True but I get the impression that ED have realised people are creating the tools for free, so they don’t need to – and they can get on with the stuff we can’t do.

I wish the whole lot were open sourced though. That’d be amazing. Open source the code then charge £2/mo to play.

I think the money transfer was restricted in the days when credits actually limited your access to the top end ship(s).

Now, I think even a brand new player can get the credits to buy a conda in a week (if they’ve read some background) and the actual restrictions now are engineers and materials. Saying that I still don’t have one of the big 3 (4).

I was raging trying to buy 7A thrusters, even with INARA!

Matt

@D0NK – thanks, I’ll work out how to do wing, squadron thingy. I’ve got to work late tonight, probably won’t be online in E:D until 9pm. And I’ve got some time in the evenings this weekend too.

@squirrelking – I’m Mostly Harmless too. I can see the pirates will be bricking it from a Mostly Harmless wing 😀 I’m usually in a Python with a large beam, 2 pulses & 2 multicannons.

I wish Inara had a Fleet Carrier timetable so you could see who had a jump planned and maybe the fare for hitching a lift. You can see departures on the Nav panel but AFAIK you need to look at each carrier. I did find that you can use the fleet carrier ID to search in Inara under the Systems & Stations menu (left hand column) and it’ll tell you where a carrier is. You can favourite the carrier too so if you have an Inara login it retains that shortcut.

Yes, the 3rd party tools are insane. Excel-in-space? I reconcile myself using them by thinking “In 3306 they would definitely have this sort of tool, wouldn’t they?”. Although I’ve tried some trading without the tools by looking at the system and applying logic like “Agricultural, so tea will be cheap”, “Blight, so they want agronomic treatment” plus the market comparison tool for systems you’ve got market data for seems to work.

There would definitely be a means of getting trading data from every system in real life. Even if you bring in the limitation that you can’t communicate faster than light due to technological reasons (even though the existence of Galnet breaks this idea), only send ships via FSD, then you would at the very least have a network of couriers bringing market data around the bubble that is say a day out of date.

They have very clearly manipulated things to control the gameplay that don’t necessarily fit with the universe.

@Molgrips that system of courier drones was used in a SF series by Stephen Donaldson, the ‘logic’ was that data doesn’t have mass, so the technology used to move objects was not applicable.

Matt

Also – you should be able to give money to or request money from other CMDRs. This would allow you to hire them to do stuff for you.

You kinda can, via high price minerals. But it’s not easy. What would really improve the game would be better in game comms; the need for which is kinda proven by the multitude of reddit and discord servers that have sprung up (just counted; I’m a lurking member of seventeen different discord servers, all of which are active little communities in their own right to a greater or lesser extent, plus four subReddits). Probably missed the boat now though; all the disparate comms channels exist and are used. Just a pity it’s so fragmented.

Also, what I’d really like to see is cross platform play. This thread alone shows how good/useful it would be.

Yeah cross platform would be far better.

@son-of-mike I’ll hide behind you in my Cobra!

The tools don’t bother me tbh, I’d far rather have a 3rd party delving into the data and making a database than Frontier spending their time messing about and not getting other stuff done.

Or as I prefer to think; it could be worse, it could be Star Citzen.

Imagine how many less gankers there would be if you could hire mercs for escort duty or if you could sign up for fed patrols. Making them persona non grata in civilised systems or shipping them to a closed penal colony system that you can only get back from by mining enough for passage on a fleet carrier would also discourage rampant asshattery.

Yeah the payment mechanism would need to be tied into a system of contracts.

You could even hire NPCs although that would take more coding.

NKL newsflash:

If anyone is in Velniat, the Ipete Federal Company could use a little love, not much just a couple of points when you are passing. They are non-native and in retreat, they need to be greater than 2.5% (3 for safety).

If IFC retreat the system would only have 6 factions, which means a more aggressive faction could move in.

Matt

They are non-native and in retreat, they need to be greater than 2.5% (3 for safety).

Is that beacuse were taking % points and giving them to NKL?

If the system influence is 100% split over all factions and you increase one faction by 1% does the BGS take 1% from the controlling faction or does it it pro-rata that 1% and take a proportion of it from every other faction?

i.e For every % we add to NKL is it deducting 0.025% from Ipete?

It is definitely a zero sum, so our influence has to come from somewhere. I thought the influence of the other factions was reduced in proportion to their total influence, but I need to read some more background.

In Velniat, IFC were losing a small amount, but have tanked in the last day or so. These are low traffic systems, but that means that one or two missions from other players passing through can have a significant effect.

Matt

Any wing missions need doing?

I think I’ll log on, head over to Kuwembaa and transfer my ships, ready for tonight.

Can’t get on tonight, but I’ll be on tomorrow and Thursday evening for some Merc’ing 😎👍🏼

you on a console mol?
I’ll dip in a bit, but will be online properly later once Ive sent kids to bed

PS4 mate.

So all my ships are now in Kuwembaa. But I need money fast. Any tips for mining or passenger missions? I need to kit out the bus (Beluga) and engineer my Anaconda to invulnerability.

Did you sell your exploration data yet Mol? If so, how much did you get? If not, ask Matt where best to sell for most useful influence 👍🏼

Yes, only got about 35m for it too.

If you’re already set for mining theres a double painite hotspot in Col 285 Sector WP-E c12-17 which isnt too far away (166LY), some mining hotspots in the last couple of planets in the system of goibniugo which is closer (also an FC when I was there, dunno if that does refuels/restock its gone), also hotspots in a nearby system, Ebana.

Done my bit for the cause for tonight.

Killed 30 odd pirates for the NKL Velniat branch and threw in a couple of inf++++ missions for the Ipetes for good measure.

Just about to do the rounds to see how the stats are for NKL.

Report back later

Matt

I did a mission and donated the plusses. Also got some useful mats and I now have maxed out reactive composite armour with thermal resistance on the anaconda. If that’s not a tank I don’t know what else I can do. Also now have 3* engineered shields, need to unlock someone to take it up to 5. Plus I need thruster engineering, I don’t have any.

I will take on some combat missions for the mats next time I think.

Thanks Donk, will do some mining next. Once the bus is kitted out someone can join me for some passenger mayhem if you like?

If you want to grind mats, then Col 285 Sector TY-W b16-6 has a compromised nav beacon, loads of higher grade ships. You’ll run out of limpets!

Thrusters are Palin over at Arque, at least you have the distance! He also likes Thargoid sensor fragments.

Matt

teamed up with son-of-mike tonight which after a few teething issues <ahem – elite level missions and a couple of rebuys> while we figured out how the wing stuff worked, we….well we went off to another system with a high res to shoot some pirates, which was a lot of fun and I swear I only hit his ship 2 or 3 times. 4 max! Will try to do something more NKL orientated soon.

well, that was a laugh. Winged up with D0NK and tried a wing anti-piracy mission in Kuwembaa – both of us got fried. Me in the first 5/10 seconds. The next attempt at action was a RES. Only thing was D0NK went to Nandhs and I went to Nandh. Totally different system – 120LY off course!! 😀 No wonder I had 5 or 6 20+LY jumps. The High RES worked out pretty good though. Team effort made short work of pirates. we may have clipped each other now and then and I took a pasting in the last few mins but got out alive. Learned that my control of menus when I’m under pressure is shocking. all over the place pushing the wrong buttons. A good laugh though and my first time in open.

hehe – teething issues alright. Got my teeth kicked in by that pirate & his 3 pals.

If you want to grind mats, then Col 285 Sector TY-W b16-6 has a compromised nav beacon, loads of higher grade ships. You’ll run out of limpets!

Are you talking about shooting the ships first? Or just cleaning up when other people shoot them?

I need to not check this thread before I clock off work, because I’ll just get tempted to log on and try these things…

That sounds like a great evening. Some of those pirates are tough and definitely come out with all guns blazing.

The wing thing does get a bit smoother with practice, but it’s a hairy moment waiting for your wingman to arrive when it’s all kicking off!

Matt

@molgrips – I thought you only got materials from ships you’ve helped destroy/destroyed solo. Otherwise the place would be awash with materials from all casualties. Cargo might jettison from any fight, though I could be wrong about that.

Yeah, just shooting the ships first. The compromised nav beacons have a better rate of spawning, plus bigger ships and wings. So generally better mats.

It would be nice to sit there hoovering. I think that works in a wing though, I would be happy to try it in the Funship. My mats are pretty much full.

Matt

Edit: After double checking this would work. I am after the combat rank at present, so if anyone wants to give this a go I’m happy to be the gun crazy one!

@molgrips – I thought you only got materials from ships you’ve helped destroy/destroyed solo. Otherwise the place would be awash with materials from all casualties.

They float around in space for a while. However I’ve had good results from using the FSS and looking for transient signal sources. When you find one it has a timer which tells you how long it’ll be there. The types of transient signal source tell you what’ll be there. High grade emissions appear to be aftermath of battles with military or other expensive shops and give you loads of good mats, I got 15 grade 5 manufactured bits last night from one – but there are lots of different signals that are great fun to explore. One last night was called ‘Universal Defence Force’, and when I went there there was a large unusual spaceship. There was a scannable target on the ship but when I tried it jammed my scanner, and then I noticed my sensors were also jammed.. so I legged it!

There was a scannable target on the ship but when I tried it jammed my scanner, and then I noticed my sensors were also jammed.. so I legged it!

Would sir care to try the data hacking Recon limpet controller?

https://elite-dangerous.fandom.com/wiki/Limpet_Controller/Recon

There was a scannable target on the ship but when I tried it jammed my scanner, and then I noticed my sensors were also jammed.. so I legged it!

havent heard of that before….wonder if its old stuff I’ve missed or they’re sneaking something new in. Remember first time I got hyperdicted by thargoids, that was pretty cool.
Will keep an eye out for those.

Typically when you scan a megaship, there will be sub-targets that can be scanned further, they are often described as hackable terminals.

Scanning them with the recon limpets can tick them off sometimes. Don’t scan the guns or fighter bays (don’t ask how I know!).

Matt

The high grade emissions are affected by the superpower and faction states. For example if you want Imperial Shielding (Grade 5) try the 4/5 systems around Benty aligned with the empire.

Pharmaceutical Isolators are linked to Outbreak faction states, but good luck they are super rare. I found my first ones ever in Celeano the other day, the same day I found it was the best price for painite when I was in the next system over!

RNGesus be praised!

Matt

Would sir care to try the data hacking Recon limpet controller?

Sir is afraid of being rapidly destroyed by big scary ship with other ships patrolling it that I cannot see on my scanner and facing a 45m rebuy… It was in Velniat if anyone fancies a crack, let me know how it goes 🙂

It didn’t say anything about being jammed, but I went to use the data link scanner and it instantly stopped, the target disappeared, and there was a red line underneath the usual blue one in the aiming reticule for the scanner.

If you’re looking for a trick to respawn mats at a good signal source try this (got it from Exigeous). Once you’ve hoovered up all the mats from the instance. Exit to desktop, restart the game, resume, once back in space, throttle at zero, jump to supercruise (boost into it), once in SC check your nav panel and you’ll see a new unidentified signal source close by, target it. It’ll probably be behind you. Drop out of SC as you would when approaching it and hoover up the next load of mats.

Each time I do this a little bit of me dies inside though.

@Molgrips I have all flavours of limpets on my DBX, I’ll have pop. It seems like a reasonable risk of a rebuy, so right up my alley (so to speak!).

Matt

@son-of-mike I hate log out and back in and haven’t done it anywhere. Jameson’s Cobra and Davs Hope were once round, listen to the story then off.

I collect HGE whenever I see them, which does make journeys longer, or I’ll do a lap of the planets around Benty, max our Imperial shielding and trade across.

Comparatively, I appreciate I have plenty of time to play.

Matt

Each time I do this a little bit of me dies inside though.

That is totally cheating.

I’ll have pop

I *think* it was Velniat – or maybe a nearby system. I went to a high tech system as well that was the nearest to Velniat, it might’ve been that. Something beginning with S EDIT Salikans

I hate log out and back in and haven’t done it anywhere

If I’d have thought of it as I lay helpless in space fifteen thousand lightyears from home watching the countdown to my own death after getting it wrong at a white dwarf, I’d have done it.