When I first met t’other half’s grandfather, grandma was in full stream nag from the kitchen.

He just turned his hearing aid down and smiled at me.

I suspect divorce, a discreet patio and landscaping service or ignore is the answer.

I get the constant stream of minor pickiness too. I put it down to the example that grandma set for mother in law that was picked up by the missus as the way that relationships work.

Probably no hope for you, if you have children then there’s a cycle to be broken. Good luck suggesting to a habitual nag that they need to change 🙁

“Our Sales Team have been kicking down doors with our IP arsenal.”

From CEO on a company call.

“Kicking around our collaborative football.”

From a not very good techie who was promoted to a less dangerous position but is still allowed to meet customers 🙁

Cut into slices, drop down toilet, flush and cut out the middle man. The only thing with less taste and worse texture is SiS Gels or wallpaper paste.

From experience a few years ago, a web site disclaimer was sufficient for general call recording. It didn’t need to be announced every call.

The system I looked after did all the company recordings, incoming and outgoing. It was a Telecoms company and the software was the stuff we sold so it was used for demonstration and training purposes – pretty much as the website disclaimer.

Setup was a USB device plugged into a SQL Server, incoming ISDN line fed into the box and then came out into the phone system.

Audio both ways was fired from the USB box, into the database and sat there for as long as you wanted depending on the size of disk you had.

There were some rules about calls including card transactions as there had to be some way of blanking out card details given over the phone, usually a key code the call handler put into their handset that flagged a portion of the recording as card info. You weren’t allowed to record that.

You couldn’t edit the calls within the database, you could export as files and edit but these were legally inadmissible. There was a secure export that did an encrypted self playing file for legal purposes.

Customers that used it were pretty much call centres, usually bought the call recording along with a reporting add on for call stats.

Most people will probably use a backpack.

I find them uncomfortable so for my FS bike I used two Elite Custom Race cages, drilled the plastic sides and zip tied to the top of the downtube. Front of the bottles sit between forks and bars, angled slightly downwards to avoid knees.

Works well for me.

That will be the newbies, big saddle bag, bike from Evans/cyclescheme, reflectors still on wheels, full trade team or manufacturer kit and an upright nodder position as that’s what they like on their mountain bike.

This statement is proof that it’s the attitude not the clothing that defines the bellend 🙁

Only person that gets away with commenting on my choice of cycle clothing is the missus when I get told to cover up as bib shorts are an obsenity.

But they do sit idling at platforms that are filled with hundreds of commuters. Been on the platforms at Birmingham New Street lately? The fumes are horrendous, they feel worse than any road I’ve ever been on.

Don’t often see a diesel train parked up with the engine running outside the local school every morning and evening. Been in lots of stations and the fumes have never bothered me as much as the acrid stench from a row of SUVs 🙂

Only been through Birmingham New Street, never stopped. Isn’t it enclosed with little ventilation anyway?

The cranks on this in the RN ad are what’s bothering most at the moment.

Yup, everytime it’s on. To be hoped they don’t let him fix a naval gun. It’ll be pointing at the deck rather than the target.

Leeroy Jenkins?

Full party wipe on Antiques Roadshow?

Saw them last year at Infest in Bradford and they were bloody awful.

It’s a bit like a sh!t covers band now.

Don’t usually stop cycling these days, keeps me alive and active which keeps the nurse happy when I go for the twice yearly diabetes checkups.

Mountain biking less so, I live near some great rural road cycling so most of my riding has been roads and farm tracks the past 18 months – with a bit of Zwift for the hills.

I did go to a trail centre for the first time in 18 months a few weeks back and really enjoyed it – didn’t enjoy the drive to get there.

How do you fit them, many people tend to overtighten according to the mechanic in my local bike shop.

Finger tight and back off a little should do it, do tight and you shorten the life of the bearings.

Well that’s been a session and a half, started the Ancient Ruin scans.

Travelled over 1000LY, 101 scans in the SRV and finally got the 201,000,000CR message. Flying back to the bubble and home to cash in and make the Anaconda a bit less of a barge. Only 34 jumps and about 700LY to go.

A bit of a long job but not as dull as I’d expected.

I bought mine from Amazon, couple of local places sold MSI, Laptops Direct and CCL but they’re probably no use.

Amazon was best price and is mostly reliable.

I’m procrastinating and not firing it up. Fancied having a go at the Guardian Ancient Ruins scans. 100 and odd scans and some artefact collecting that if you do it all can net a huge amount of cash.

Raining outside so could be an Elite day with a quick Zwift later on.

On the Hotas thing, not sure. Mine is the TFlight Hotas X with the red trim and a PC\PlayStation switch – about a year old. There’s one with blue trim that may be PS4 only and an Xbox One version now. If there’s another new one with extra buttons I might consider an upgrade.
You can setup mode switch on the basic one, in the custom bindings for Elite, press and hold the button you want to use as mode switch and then button you want as a command. So you could have Joy5 as Supercruise and Joy8+Joy5 as Jump. Kind of works, there are loads of keymaps on Reddit if you stand having to look at Reddit. Another place those people who use Twitter and leave YouTube comments live – often need to wash afterwards 🙁

[Edit: Just realised, I play on PC, might not work on PS4 the same]

There’s a link somewhere on their site on how Garmin calculate calories. There’s levels of accuracy with the best being based on VO2 Max calculated during a lab session, through Heart Rate Monitor calculated and down to best guess based on weight, height and profile.

Not sure how Strava works out their figure.

I usually go by the Garmin figure, not a pro-athlete so I’m happy with a rough guess based on HR. No paying for a lab test for VO2 max.

Replaced my last MSI laptop with annother around Christmas time.

Build quality appears to have massively improved with a decent aluminium case, trackpad is still clicky and woeful. Not bothered me too much as I generally use a trackball or mouse for any laptop.

Not sure on HP, got two in the house and they’re OK but next to the MSI, the HPs are a bit plastic fantastic and they both seem to be a bit sluggish for the spec.

i7/i5 is confusing as there are the generations, a later i5 may be better than an older i7. You can usually do a search for the full processor model number and compare with your Sony.

There was a time when i7 started getting a bit rarer in laptops as they were getting a bit hot, I think the latest ones have been developed so they’re a bit cooler running again.

I would guess for photo stuff you’d be better with a decent display size and loads of memory.

As a starter on the MSI front, I would imnagine something of this spec would be OK – I’m not a photo doctoring expert so others may have more opinion 🙂

https://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-7QF-1670UK-Gaming-Laptop-Black/dp/B01NAP5GO3/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1500024417&sr=8-1&keywords=msi

[Even the 17″ version is under £1000]

Dell’s through work have been pretty good recently but the prices seem high at the moment.

If you’ve not seen the Thargoid scanning.

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.

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.

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”

PC here as well, not sure when I’m playing next but will try and remember to add (CMDR Apedemek) as someone else mentioned it’s summer bike riding time.

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.

On my fourth, couple of Partner vans and a 207. Every one has done over 100k. Currently on a 208, stupid glove box is as stupid as suggested above. It goes from A to B and doesn’t cost loads to run.

Main niggles were the 207 ate through front tyres and one of the partners had a dodgy controller unit that kept failing repeatedly.

Found a good garage that does good servicing. Seems to matter more than the badge.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

They’re not heart shaped lights though. They’re sold exactly as you think they look 🙂

http://www.balls.bike/store/bike-balls

All the verges close to home have been left this year, new council advice apparently, leave them to grow and go to seed to help insect life.

First cut late July\August. Anywhere obscuring a junction is still supposed to be cut but like most councils they only have the intelligence to read the first instruction, anything further down the page is just words to ignore.

Scratch that. From the stuff friends in Hamburg are sending the missus it looks like a war zone. Riots and cars being torched all over the shop.

Friend went out on the pretence of checking the resaurant he works at as the owner didn’t board it up.

He’s filmed some of it but hurt himself getting out of the way of one of the Police charges. Not seriously but enough that he’s staying in and hoping the restauarant is still there after the weekend.

Don’t know how contained it is but he’s said there’s burning cars and it looks like a warzone as well.

Talking of Federal Rank, I haven’t seen any specific missions in ages. any idea if this has changed in one of the updates?

Don’t know, they usually appear as a promotion mission as you hit 100% and the length of time between ranks is bigger the further up the ranks you go.

It could be just the normal slow down in experience gain.

Downside is on my build, its a ~35 million rebuy!

Ouch – makes me feel better, rebuy pain is all relative 🙂

One of the people I fly with uses the Corvette and prefers it to the Anaconda he had. I’ve not got the Federal Rank or bank balance yet yet.

So are the pc and console all on a single universe?

We should set up a STW faction/wing or whatever the right technical term is…

Separate sadly, my understanding is it’s licensing issues withthe console owners networks – but with the usual I am not an expert disclaimer 🙂
I guess it’s more likely that XBox One owners could play in the same game world as PC players with the whole Windows 10\XBox crossover.

There’s no in game formal way of having a Wing, the group of friends I play with set up a Wing on the Inara website so we know who is who.
There are Player Factions that you can setup and name and then they go into the game as the minor factions that run systems. You’ve no real control as they’re played by the Background AI.

Maybe I’ll give it another go – I would like to get into it. I have a limited tolerance for grinding these days, though. I don’t mind progress systems but straight up grinding does my nut in.

I might fire it up this weekend.

One tip I was given is that there is no end game and the only grind is the one you create. There is enough variety in mission types that if you’re repeatedly doing the same thing then you can break off and do something else.

The ships are only a rough progression as well, many long term players still fly Asps or other mid-level ships. You don’t need to rush to Anaconda or Imperial Clipper and sit back as finished.

Pushed the button on an Anaconda last night and it’s like steering an oil tanker. Sure when I kit it out with all 8 hardpoints and A rated internals as far as possible it will be devestating when something is stupid enough to fly infront. Many of the harpoints have odd placements, the Huge Multicannon I installed can only attack below the ship, if someone is agile enough to stay above and behind me they’ll be relatively safe.

It’s not quick to turn either and the rebuild cost with a D-Rated build is 8.9 Million so you can’t afford to lose many battles 😯

Python was my favourite ship so far as an all rounder, will see how I get on with the Anaconda. Might trade it all back yet.

Right, so there’s one main ‘hub’ then?

Sort of, there’s the main populated bubble which is still big, but can be traveled sort of quickly.

If you’re looking at Colonia or SagitariusA regions then someone won’t be quick getting back from there as it’s thousands of LY away.

Thrustmaster HOTAS X is a good one and not too expensive.

Not sure how long it will last but it’s done some hours over last winter.

How does that work in a vast universe? Do you all start new characters from the same point, or from a selection of options, or is it a case of sucking it up and flying a long way?

Depends on the friends, most of the poeple I know hang around the main populated bubble so are not far off to jump in and help. We’ve got a player faction with a few systems under our control so if friends are playing then they’re not too far away.

If someone is on a Community Goal or other long distance trip it’s harder to manage.

I’ve pretty much fully upgraded my Sidewinder, and i think i’ll start saving for a bigger ship. I’ll probably go for a combination of fighter / transporter.

Adder, sounds liek a creaky old transit and isn’t bad until you can afford a Cobra. Keelback later on can take a Ship Launched Fighter Bay which makes it pretty formidable.

If you go exploring and get wiped out, do you keep your discoveries, or are they lost with the ship?

Yep, if you end up sucking vacuum then you lose bounties and exploration data. Hand it in when you can.

The websites are useful for data, if you get asked for an obscure item by a passenger to make them happy then a quick look up on EDDB saves the hassle of trying to work out what system and station nearby has an Emergency Tent or something.

The Ship Builder is good for working out how much you need to save to get a ship that will work. The Shipyard versions are basic models. Top tip is to work out what your trade in is and how much extra you need to make the new ship flyable. I can buy an Anaconda now but if I did it would be a pig to fly with next to no jump range so I need about 60 million above purchase price to kit it out.

Those sites are useful tools to take the tedium out of some bits rather than giving spoilers. EDDB certainly is the market utility that is missing from the game as it’s not easy to see up to date trade data.

One thing though…is it me or does anyone else get disconnects all the time?

Some days are worse than others, it’s been stable for a while now but I suspect the recent Alien stuff and PS4 launch may have stretched a server or two.

For anyone starting, the rewards start to scale with ship, so when you see a data mission in your Sidewinder for £60,000 and wonder how the hell you’ll get to £150 million or so for an Anaconda – the rewards do go up as you upgrade, more cargo space is more cash. Reputation helps too, if you stick with a system then do missions for the faction that owns the system and the more reputation you build, the better the missions.

Black Box missions can be good for starters as they only occasionally get interdicted and you only usually need 4 tonne of cargo room. It’s usually fly to target system, scan Nav Beacon, go to revealed destination, pick up the cargo from the wreckage, fly back and collect cash.

Useful Elite Related Sites:

http://inara.cz/

Useful community site for keeping track of wings and player facttions if you get into that side of things.

https://eddb.io/

Good for Trade and working out where stuff is when you need to look for a particular trade item or ship upgrade.

https://coriolis.edcd.io/

Ship build tester.

If you want to explore then either a Diamondback Explorer or Asp Explorer is best bet, with the right build you can easily get 25 to 30 LY jump range from an Asp Explorer. Especially if you D Rate most componentsand stick with the basic Lightweight Bulkheads.

For equipment, E is basic, D is light, C is average, B is better but heavy, A is best.
Going all A is not necessarily a good idea. You have to balance the power and weight to get what you want. So for an Exlplorer, D Rating as much as you can get away with usually means more range.

With some of the engineered options and a really slimmed down build I’m told you can get upto 50LY range. I’d not feel safe as that’s the lightest hull, all D-Rated and engineered kit, bare minimum Optional Components and no weapons\utility or shields.

Access to Horizons gives you Engineer contacts where you can modify the ship components. First engineer is usually Todd “The Blaster” McQuinn who can modify cannons.

It’s a bit of a grind but you can do some good mods that really overpower your ship. If you get into Thargoid exploration then you need some of the engineered bits to get anti-corrosive cargo bays as Thargoid materials eat through a normal ship.

Nav Beacons are the best place when starting out, when you can handle yourself then Resource Extraction Sites are the real place to go. Start off with the Low ones as they will have System Security patrolling to help out. If you can wing up with a friend or two even better. Hazardous ones are usually more fun but anything less than a Python with a decent hull and you might find you’re gettign blown up a lot unless you go with friends.

Python was the big jump in survivability for me, 5 hardpoints and good armour\shielding was a huge jump above anything else I’d flown.

The Vulture is supposed to be a good ship for combat but I’ve never tried it.

The bigger ships also mean bigger cost so an Asp Explorer 5A Frame Shift Drive is just over 5 million, a 6A Frame Shift Drive for an Anaconda is something like 16 million.

Must admit I found it a bit dull at first but there’s loads to do if you just go look. It seems empty as the game isn’t handed to you on a plate.

It’s summer so I’ve not been on as much but I play as CMDR Apedemek on PC if you get stuck.

o7 Commanders.