Elite: Dangerous (Kickstarted Sandbox Space Flight Sim)

Pay special attention to the amount of power you have while upgrading/changing things. I just found out the hard way that all my gear pulls too much power when I deploy hardpoints. It shuts them down according to what level you set them at. Now I know to look at that.

Ender4212_sl said:

Anyone able to offer any help on upgrading ship parts?

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Hardpoint size, Mounting and Class are the things you really want to pay attention to with weapons (of course you need the powergrid to actually unlimber those weapons to use them without shutting your ship down).

Class is the biggest factor, scaling from I (worst) to A (best). IIRC A class shields are 150% more shields, I expect weapons to be similar.
Mounting is the style of weapon, Gimbal, Fixed, or Turret. Gimbal works great against faster ships and NPCs, not so hot against players that can run silent to drop sig radius.
Hardpoint being small 1, medium 2 or large 3.

This thread needs more power shut down, when engaging in combat -stories!

Cobras are a good solid jack of all trades. The Adder is listed as an Exploration ship and cheaper than a Cobra though so if you plan on just running from any fighting that's probably a good way to go.

Really odd problem today. I have the paid version of voice attack and I also purchased that Astra voice pack that's out there. I'm trying to configure everything and for some reason if Voice Attack is running my L key on the keyboard stops working in our out of the game. I close down voice attack and it works again. I don't see any settings in voice attack that are tied to L...anyone seen this?

edit: I think I found it. It was something in the voice attack profile that I imported apparently

Mist_sl said:

I'm still looking for good systems to hunt pirate NPCs in. I don't understand why the map doesn't have a 'color by security rating' feature.

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I got about 54k in bounties in three or four kills in Wolf 865 near the nav point. Not sure what kind of money you consider good, but for my broke ass, that was a good amount for the time I spent there.

Good bounties imo start at 15k. If you consistently get targets like this, you'll pull in way more than the average.

So I bought the game and so far it is...pretty daunting. Mechnically, I'm just fine - I can launch, land, navigate, manage systems and all that shit just fine. But insofar as what I'm actually *doing*...I have no clue. I started with a quest to find some black box so off I went...only to discover that I had absolutely NO idea how to find a black box once I got to the right system. Fly around aimlessly until come across black box did not seem like a good idea. Then I supercruised into a Red Dwarf and died. Errr, awesome!

Anyway, that's totally on me since the game is obviously not set up to guide you. I would have kind of liked a bit more explanation getting out of the gate (the game tells you how to do shit, but offers little or no explanation on what good things there are to do), but its pretty obvious that the only way to really play this game is to watch a bunch of videos, twitch, and do some research. I have no problem with that, I was just not wanting to ruin the experience of everything being new.

So far I'm flying with a gamepad which, again, mechanically is just fine. But it sure doesn't feel as fun as it would with a HOTAS. I figure I'll give the game a week and then if I'm really into it buy one. For now, its fine.

I give the game itself an 8-9 and my ability to play the game a 4-6. Hah hah.

Actually flying around in Supercruise until you find the black box is exactly what you're supposed to do. You look for USS (Unidentified signal sources)...

Can't you buy a stick where you can return it within 14 days?

Oh. Hah hah. I'll go try again then

Yes, I could technically get a HOTAS and return if I get bored, but I'm a serial non-returner. Once that shit gets in my house its there for good unless it breaks.

Dyvim_sl said:

This thread needs more power shut down, when engaging in combat -stories!

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From deep inside the Empire I decided to head over to Alliance space to cash in some bounties. Briefly I got distracted by events around Soch:


...so I wandered a little off course and came across the system of Tiliala, or rather I didn't because you need a permit to get there. Well, this is a sandbox game so I thought "why not?" and decided to hang around and obtain the permit.

How this works is you look in nearby systems for factions belonging to the permit system, and do work for them. Unfortunately it seems the people of Tiliala are an unpopular, inward-looking bunch and I found only three outposts and one station where they had any representation at all. How much representation? The Conservatives of Tiliala had a massive 1% influence in each one. Put it this way, they weren't handing out many missions.

So for the next couple of nights I go round and round... and round, checking all the delivery missions from all the other factions as well in case they deliver to the Conservatives. Fortunately one of the stations was a refinery so I could make cash trading Palladium (though there was so little of it even my Cobra exhausted the supply) and then Beryllium.

Every now and then Tiliala would offer up a mission, but they stayed steadfastly neutral. Then there was a fallow period where the only mission they offered was an assassination mission which I reluctantly accepted. I moved away to kit out my Cobra with mil-spec bulkheads, A-grade shielding and power, and a shield cell. Having tracked down theEliteAnaconda I then make the mistake of fiddling about with the Kill Warrant Scanner while he turns his nose towards me. Noticing this I fumble to get the shield cell ready when he zaps me, and in a second my shields are gone (rendering the shield cell recharge useless for the time being) and he starts chewing through my bulkheads.

Diverting max power to shield regen and the rest to engines I start to run, the problem now being if I turn back I'll be taking on an Anaconda head on, which you don't want to do. So plan B is to stay alive until the space cops arrive, which they take their sweet time over as usual. When the dots show up on radar I boost amongst them and evade until they get the Anaconda's attention. After that, it's just a matter of time before the combined effort brings him down.

After all that, the ungrateful Tilialans are still neutral. Another night of merry-go-round throws up a Reputation mission, the infamous one to obtain Combat Stabilisers. Surely there must be a high-tech dictatorship nearby? No - the nearest one is back at Soch. Time for some exploring on the journey back. Normally you have to use parallax to hunt for companion stars and planets, but not always...


Back I go with a cargo of highly illegal drugs, hoping not to get scanned along the way. Finally, the grateful Tilians reward me with Friendship. Unfortunately, friendship is not enough for a permit, they reserve that honour for Allies. Back to the mission grind, and eventually a second assassination mission. This time I take two shield cells and make sure to stay glued to the Anaconda's tail (and just below him when I can to avoid the turrets). I still can't break his shields before the cops turn up, but I don't take any damage and my multicannons take out his armour before his shields can come back online.

Handing in this mission the Tilians at last acknowledge me as an ally, but there's no sign of a permit. Yes, a permit is handed out by a mission, so you have to wait for that mission to come up. This time, instead of flying between stations, I opt to wait in one and check up every few minutes to see what the mission generator brings while I make dinner. Patience pays off, and after eating I can finally explore the hidden system:

It turns out... there's not much to see apart from the Dark Star station (the planet nearby is 60% metal apparently)

...and they really aren't popular at all

It is one of the few systems I've seen where you can sell Combat Stabilisers, assuming you can find any, and actually locally it offers some good trade opportunities. Financially all the effort didn't make much sense compared to trading, but in future the permit-only systems may offer more.

So I went off bounty hunting after a few cargo quests allowed me to upgrade my ship.

The good news: I found them finally.

The bad news: they were in an Anaconda.

While I can sort of kinda understand that this sort of thing is fine at an intellectual level, part of me thinks, hey guys, maybe it would be a good idea to give me a bit of intel on the target before I spend an hour or so looking for them. I can't see how your average or even above-average gamer is going to put up with too much of that. I don't have a real problem with the game being hardcore, but I just think it could still be as hardcore but maybe also give people a clearer picture of what they're getting into (e.g. "Reports say that Mr Target flies an Anaconda"...okay, nuff said, I'll stay away).

I think overall this game has me pretty conflicted. While I appreciate the game for what it is, I can't help but think that some "gamification" shit like giving you targets you could feasibly kill would go a long way to making the game more enticing. Sure, later on you could throw all that away (targets become classified or stealthy or what-have-you) but it would be nice to be able to have a bit of casual, non-high-impact fun at the start.

Anyway, game rating remains a solid 8-9 but my ability to play has gone up to 6! I can not always fly right past shit now!

I dont quite get you. I started exactly where you are at now, and when I saw these missions, I was like ....
5k, 10k, 12k, 7k... 150k ?!?!? That target has to be pure fucking rape! No, thanks. Not taking that one!

Have to agree with Quineloe here, what did you expect for 150k+ when "normal" ships bounties are 2-30k? On a side note, those 150k+ missions should give 500k+ due to the amount of time you use up to just find the target. They need to start working on balancing out the income threadmill.

That was the first bounty I saw so I had no frame of reference by which to compare. I'd only ever seen 2-3 other fetch missions. Since I'm only in the starter systems (i.e. default jump range) it sort of made sense to think that the bounties would be difficult yet possible.

Anyway, I'm not complaining. I learned the lesson (150K is a lot of money, and it is going to be hard). I just think it is a strange way to go about making the point. If they'd had some kind of intel piece on the bounty (he flies an Anaconda) they could have communicated the same message in a clearer way. I also came across some random NPC in space who told me which system the bounty was in, so I took that for gaming advice that I should go over there and engage. Wrong move.

Anyway, its all good and I'm enjoying the game basically. I just sometimes look at things also from a wider perspective and wonder at some of the design decisions (which, to be honest, seem made to intentionally turn some people away from what is a pretty good game. I just find that odd).