Elite: Dangerous [Archive] - SUBSIM Radio Room Forums

CaptainHaplo

06-29-14, 11:13 AM

Well, I had already prepurchased the game itself, but ended up grabbing the premium beta. Gotta say, this is truly ELITE - in the ways that are both good and not so much. Its got a learning curve (think X3ish) but I am really enjoying it. Great joystick support, beauty, reasonable gameplay mechanics (though flight physics is still undergoing a lot of discussion) and some interesting depth make for a game with a huge amount of promise.

Add in what will be a complete (and never the same replay) single player experience as well as persistent game universes (based upon what server you connect to) - and this really is looking like a winner. Given that the universe is procedurally generated past a certain point and won't have an "end", it is the closest to "real space" in many ways. Granted, Supercruise and Hypercruise take some getting use to - but they are workable game mechanics.

For those that enjoy a good space sim, keep an eye on Elite: Dangerous. You can still get into the beta if you want, or pre-purchase, or wait till it releases (which will be late 2014). I can also tell you - the devs are really listening throughout the alpha and beta process. This one is going to be big.....

Lionclaw

06-29-14, 02:04 PM

Do you need to connect to a server for single player also? :hmmm:

Got my eye on it, but I'm just waiting for the release and impressions of it. :)
Haven't watched much of it though, only a couple of vids by Scott Manley.

I did play a bit in the -90's though, mostly Frontier Elite 2. :D

CaptainHaplo

06-29-14, 07:39 PM

As of right now, there is no confirmation on distribution channel or network requirements for the final.

Time will tell. Obviously multiplayer will require online access. Not sure if one could play SP without at least logging in to verify credentials proving you own the game. Then again, they may allow that - who knows. Too early to tell.

johnpera

07-15-14, 03:32 PM

Elite has changed a lot since the last time I played it (which was ages ago).

CaptainHaplo

08-09-14, 06:39 PM

It has indeed. It is in beta-1 right now, and is truly playable (though there is lots of room to grow) as a "game".

eddie

08-10-14, 12:31 AM

Kind of spendy for a beta at $75.00, and does not include any downloadable content. That comes later, which you will pay for,lol Looks good though!

https://store.zaonce.net/elite-dangerous-cat/elite-dangerous-standard-beta.html?_ga=1.19697649.852712157.1407648389

seaniam81

08-10-14, 01:02 AM

CaptainHaplo

08-10-14, 10:54 PM

At one time you could by an "all DLC access" package for like 15 pounds. About 20 bucks. Was well worth it considering where they are going to take this game.

For me it was definitely worth the coin to get to playtest it.

Pappy55

08-12-14, 02:36 PM

I am CMDR Penfold on ED if you want to form a group of us sometime

Egan

08-18-14, 04:14 PM

Bought in to the beta last night. It's already on its way to becoming my favourite game in a very long time. Very impressive.

adrians69

08-18-14, 04:39 PM

I've been keeping my eye on this too. I used to play Frontier:Elite 2 on my Amiga back in the day (which I still own). Can't wait for this to release!! :)

Nippelspanner

08-19-14, 02:40 AM

I can only recommend Elite to everyone who is interested in Space and simulations... and things like trading or tactical combat (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vvl7uaR1sfI) etc.

For me, Elite is what EVE always should have been.
The latter disappointed me quite a bit because of the terrible, terrible community and some typical MMO limitations (everything is automated, not player-skill based) and the fact that you can't fly your ship yourself - you just select targets and tell your ship "go there, do that!" - which is terribad in my opinion.

However, in Elite, you control it all yourself, which is simply amazing. Be it docking/undocking and later (DLC content) even landing on planets seemlessly and manually and board enemy ships.

Elite also offers a great compromise between MMO and SP, cause you can do both and the game will not be "controlled" by players, groups, corporations etc. but stay in control of the NPC factions and developers, which will prevent bs like you see in EVE, where new players are merely chanceless and literally lost in space compared to those who play for some 10 years and control everything.

Since it is tough to describe this game, this board might answer all your questions and sure made me drool a lot:
http://forums.frontier.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=36
Just go through the stickies, they offer a great amount of details to what is to expect of Elite.

Also, I first thought Star Citizen would have the upper hand in comparison, but the more I read about both games, the happier am I to have picked up Elite and not SC... which we may or may not play in late 2016, you know, where you pay a fortune for ships you can't even really use right now :har:

One reason to buy ED was also the fact that you just have to pay once. Done. No hidden costs, no monthly fees. Pay once, play as long as you like. Just like the good old days.
DLC content won't be free of course, though personally, I happily pay for more content if the game is good. And damn it is.

A longer, detailed introduction:
Elite: Dangerous - First Look (Premium Beta) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iJJrk9wGj8)

Pappy55

08-19-14, 11:05 AM

I've been keeping my eye on this too. I used to play Frontier:Elite 2 on my Amiga back in the day (which I still own). Can't wait for this to release!! :)

Me too..

Hell I still have this

C=64 Original Version
http://i.imgur.com/q85MUat.jpg?1

Egan

08-19-14, 12:25 PM

Star Citizen looks undeniably beautiful and I'll think about picking it up when it comes out, but it's not Elite...

I've got 30 years invested in this game. 30 years. First played it on a friends Acorn Electron in 84/85 and it probably changed my DNA in some way. Without Elite I doubt I would have ever bothered playing any of the sims I got into later.

It's still a beta, obviously. But,man, Solar systems - not one planet and a distant star but contact binaries, multiple planets, multiple moons.....asteroids fields....the first time I saw a beam laser flare across the discs of a gas giant I was sold for good. I don't even want to fight, I just want to explore. Stars with solar flares spilling out into space....

Still got to sort out my HOTAS and Track IR and pedals. Having fun enough with KB+Mouse but looking forward to getting everything set up properly. It's so good I'm seriously thinking about getting Occulus Rift just for this, and OR has never once appealed to me before now.

eddie

08-19-14, 02:34 PM

Is the single player option any good?

Egan

08-19-14, 03:03 PM

Is the single player option any good?

Offline solo isn't available in the current build. What you have currently is online solo where you are essentially the only player and everyone else is NPC. The Galaxy wide economic model and all the markets etc are still influenced by everyone else on the servers but you won't see them. What is interesting is that you can switch between multiplayer and online solo (you may have to be docked first - and log in and out) but when offline comes you won't be able to move your commander between the modes.

I'm playing online solo just now as I think most people are until we figure things out. It's fine. Done a couple of mission carrying goods from one place to another. I've barely scratched the surface. Want to find an asteroid field and have a look around. Anyone found one yet?

One thing I think the game really needs are solar system maps. I know there are mock ups kicking around but I don't know when they're coming. Would be useful.

Egan

08-19-14, 03:07 PM

eddie

08-19-14, 03:37 PM

Still on the fence with this, I would want to have my own solo career like you had in the original series, not interested in multiplayer. It sure looks awesome though!

Nippelspanner

08-19-14, 09:44 PM

One thing to bear in mind is that it is SLOW at the start. Maybe not X games slow but it is still going to take you a bit of grinding to get going. The big difference is that in Elite you're going to be spending so much time staring at stuff with your jaw on the floor you probably won't notice how slow it is....:D
True that, although you can be lucky!
I started a week ago and had to grind my way up.
It felt OK though, not as painful as in EVE for example, where you have to invest DAYS to make any sort of progress - or what you convince yourself of to be "progress".

A friend of me got to a Type 6 on day one. How?
Some friendly soul in an Anaconda dropped a few tons of Gold for me - which I gave to my buddy as a kickstart - after I chatted a while with him and asked him how long he needed etc.
He has so much moneyz that he was happy to help out and share, so my Friend could sell Gold worth ~9k per ton (until the black market price collapsed that is) and simply skipped the first painful hours of "Wow, with this trade I made 900 credits! :o" grinding and went straight to the Hauler. From that point (Hauler), it goes rather quickly towards the Type 6, which will make life easier.

If I would not have spend the most time configuring my controls (perfectionism can suck hard) and voice control ("Computer, play some Sinatra!" FlyMeToTheMoonStarts*) I would have a Conda already... but why hurry? :yep:

@eddie
Well, ED is definitely made for multiplayer primarily and is a sandbox game - although you can have careers! You can play it alone and I think it will be fun with the finished product, fleshed out AI and simply muuuch more content, but right now you might better wait if you really not want MP, cause the SP/NPCs are brick-dumb at the moment. It is really just a beta. Very playable but if it is enjoyable is up to you and hard to guesstimate in advance.
The MP though is not as crowdy as one might think. You meet players here and there, but the most contacts are NPCs. This might be beta related, even if not, this is not like EVE, where you have to fear insta-annihalation by some buttface who just kills you because he can.
This can happen in ED too, sure. But it is not the norm at all.

I sure don't regret getting it.

CaptainHaplo

08-19-14, 10:47 PM

There are ways around grinding.

The important thing to remember is that this is not a feature complete game at all - nowhere near it. The various versions have been designed to test major aspects of the game. Premium beta for example - was built around the combat section - so combat paid well and the got to see how the game would work in that arena. Beta-1 is heavily trade loaded.

If your looking to not grind - warp to STYX and cruise around slowly in SC. Hit Unidentified Signal Sources (USS) - if its gold, scoop it. If its not, boost and flight assist off, then hit SC. You can have a hauler in a couple of hours with enough money to fill it.

If your wanting millions - definitely skip the Cobra for a while and get to the Type 6.

For those who are into combat, different ships offer different strengths. Add in the current customizable weapons loadout (MUCH more ship customization on the way) and you really can be a formidable force. I have taken a few Anaconda's in my Cobra Mk III. Just use C4 and C2 Cannons at really short ranges.

CaptainHaplo

08-19-14, 10:50 PM

Still on the fence with this, I would want to have my own solo career like you had in the original series, not interested in multiplayer. It sure looks awesome though!

Eddie - rest assured there IS solo mode. The purpose of "online" solo mode is that your dealing with a truly dynamic economy. If you leave a system knowing they need crop harvesters, it is possible someone else saw that too. If they deliver a load of them, it affects the price. A small load equals a small change. If someone dumps a few thousand in the market - you might find your profit evaporated. Real market conditions - but its based on what other players (that you never see) might do.

On the other hand - the devs have confirmed that there will be a Solo OFFLINE mode as well.

eddie

08-20-14, 12:16 AM

Sounds good! I don't mind going online to play the game, just want have it like it was originally done, trading and fighting when you had to.

I see in the ED forums there is some solo missions now, where you learn the basics of combat.

Run into those huge alien ships yet?:D I used to hate those things when they showed up, one I could deal with, more then that and I was usually toast,lol Must have spent countless hours on the old C64 playing the first version of Elite. Thought it was awesome then too!

CaptainHaplo

08-21-14, 12:20 AM

Run into those huge alien ships yet?:D

Thargoids - they will be in the game but not in as yet. Much of the game is not in yet really. They are doing things a bit different than most. There was ALPHA - which allowed you to actually fly and fight. It also laid the foundation for multiplayer 1v1. From there, Premium Beta came out and added significant advantages by trading. Beta 1 continues that - but has added "instancing" for multiplayer, groupings (and ignores) so you can hang with friends online and never see people you decide are griefers. Instancing remains a work in progress. Ship insurance, multiple ships, upgrades, etc - are in place at various levels.

Beta will run a while - then we will see GAMMA phase - where a "complete" game is close. Consider Gamma more like release candidates.

After the game goes gold - the devs are going to continue working on additional content - planetary landings, boarding and capturing ships, etc.... Its gonna get HUGE.

eddie

08-21-14, 01:29 AM

Well, how about some screen shots, especially of those novas and such!!:)

Egan

08-21-14, 04:52 PM

Just a couple for now. Image Shack seems to have killed my old account...I've been using the built in 4000k Hi res srceenie function so these have been seriously scaled down.

http://i1371.photobucket.com/albums/ag293/arikcorbin/c76827fd-3236-4640-8172-c1ae320aa820_zps87e01244.png (http://s1371.photobucket.com/user/arikcorbin/media/c76827fd-3236-4640-8172-c1ae320aa820_zps87e01244.png.html)

Space, the Final Frontier. The Milky Way.

http://i1371.photobucket.com/albums/ag293/arikcorbin/littlespace_zps939cdf45.jpg (http://s1371.photobucket.com/user/arikcorbin/media/littlespace_zps939cdf45.jpg.html)

Starlight.

http://i1371.photobucket.com/albums/ag293/arikcorbin/stroids_zpse2829bc2.jpg (http://s1371.photobucket.com/user/arikcorbin/media/stroids_zpse2829bc2.jpg.html)

Asteroid Field

http://i1371.photobucket.com/albums/ag293/arikcorbin/Beagle_zps8952a0cf.jpg (http://s1371.photobucket.com/user/arikcorbin/media/Beagle_zps8952a0cf.jpg.html)

Gas Giant and harbour.

Seems image shack won't let me use anything larger than thumbs unless I give them money. Over to Photobucket we go!

Nippelspanner

08-21-14, 04:55 PM

http://i.gyazo.com/0c4551240fb546811aae4721bb7078ad.png

http://i.gyazo.com/d4bdbe9744cf99ef93008dc8837d4beb.png

eddie

08-21-14, 06:22 PM

They look great and thanks!

Egan

08-24-14, 02:57 PM

Just another quick hit.

http://i1371.photobucket.com/albums/ag293/arikcorbin/stroidfield_zpsd1427e79.png (http://s1371.photobucket.com/user/arikcorbin/media/stroidfield_zpsd1427e79.png.html)

The big rock out in front? I had no idea exactly how big they really were until i flew past it and saw my shadow travelling across it. Just a speck. And there are thousands of these things covering tens of thousands of square kilometres.

biosthetique

09-05-14, 10:20 AM

So, on which platform do you play that game?

Egan

09-05-14, 02:44 PM

So, on which platform do you play that game?

Running it on a 5 year old I7 with 6 gig mem and an ATI 7970 card. Runs pretty much perfectly, which is impressive considering I think it'll be optimized a lot more before release.

CaptainHaplo

09-27-14, 09:39 AM

Beta 2 will be out on the 30th. 500 star systems.

Dowly

10-31-14, 07:02 AM

Bought it! :woot:

Mud

10-31-14, 07:09 AM

I was close a few days ago but 60€ is a bit to much for me.
Dunno for sure if my system can run it altho it passed the test with all green for the mininmum requirements.

seaniam81

11-01-14, 05:43 PM

Bought it! :woot:
I saw you playing it on Steam yesterday. How do you like it? I'm really loving Beta 3.

NeonSamurai

11-03-14, 11:27 AM

So tempted but to expensive for me right now.

Dowly

11-03-14, 12:46 PM

I saw you playing it on Steam yesterday. How do you like it? I'm really loving Beta 3.
Liking it a lot. That moment you first fly inside a space port and you can hear the announcements over the loudspeakers is really something. :yep:

Also, big plus for pre-mapped controls for Saitek X-52. :up:

(Haven't crashed my ship yet, either! :O:)

Arclight

11-07-14, 05:55 PM

So, December 16th... I can feel something burning. It's either the money in my pocket or gonorrhea. :hmmm:

Dowly

11-08-14, 03:57 AM

Arclight

11-08-14, 02:21 PM

From what I gather you're better off with a pair of lasers hunting down outlaws. Going around investigating unknown contacts can see you get lucky if you stumble across some gold just floating around, though aparently stuff like that will be marked as stolen.

That's really my biggest worry looking at it. Combat seems to be front and center, though there's plenty of other stuff to do. And of all the stuff you can do, combat is by far the thing I'm least interested in.

Egan

11-12-14, 03:41 PM

Oh, they pushed it back? I thought the launch was supposed to be November 22.

Anyways, few things about the game after playing it more.

Coming out of a jump right next to the primary star needs to be changed, that is just stupid. If you don't pay attention, you take damage due to the heat of the star.

Your FSD drive locks on to the object in the system with the greatest mass so this is virtually always going to be a star. It's a conceit but one I kind of like. All you need to do is roll away when you get back into real space. Takes a little bit of practice but it quicly becomes muscle memory.

FSD interdiction, while a good idea, needs ironing. System "police" should not interdict you just so they can scan your ship for illegal goods because your ship is damaged slightly if you can't evade the interdict attempt.

I didn't know you can't escape an interdiction if you are carrying damage. I thought I had a couple of times. I did notice yesterday that my escape meter was virtually full, and the bad guy's virtually empty yet, somehow, I apparently 'submitted'. No idea whether this was WIP or a bug. First one in dozens that got me. I know the other ship slamming into you as soon as you hit real space is a bug but I have never taken damage from this. Wish they would fix it though.

Lack of any kind of autopilot is annoying as hell.

Meh. Not bothered. If they did put one in I'd like it to take up a compartment slot.

"Pure" trading seems to be rather useless compared to other methods of making money at the start. Below is few of my trades I did using a stripped Sidewinder, red/green = bought/sold.
http://i.imgur.com/0gQuHCu.jpg

It's the worst way to start out. You make so much more running mission. Before the last wipe, I made enough to move from the Sidey to a Hauler +cash for insurance and cargo in a few hours doing missions.
That amounts to about 7000 credits for total profit. Doing bulleting board hauling missions is much more profitable at this stage.

Just a couple of things I don't like about it, but overall it's rather nice game. Brings back good memories of Freelancer. :yep:

Brings back good memories for me of the original Elite. In fact, it would have melted the mind of the 10 year old me.

adrians69

01-31-15, 01:49 PM

I've got this now also. Back in the day when I played the original Elite and late Frontier, I could only dream of a game world so detailed and realistic. I am looking forward to the future of this game with the many planned updates they have announced!!

Mud

02-01-15, 09:47 AM

My first visit to earth.

http://home.planet.nl/~hart0751/images/earth1.jpg

http://home.planet.nl/~hart0751/images/earth2.jpg

http://home.planet.nl/~hart0751/images/earth3.jpg

seaniam81

02-01-15, 12:11 PM

Nice pictures Mud.
Earth is pretty nice to visit. Have you been to Mars yet? It's blue/red sky is amazing.

Mud

02-01-15, 04:49 PM

No, I didn't go to Mars yet but sure will do :up:

Arclight

02-02-15, 11:44 AM

Oh, screeen duuump.

Sorry for the size, photobucket is on the fritz. Resizing it all and uploading again is... No.

http://i.imgur.com/1mq3UfH.jpg
Jeb gone wrong.

http://i.imgur.com/dWhdhYa.png
Some nebula I imagine.

http://i.imgur.com/sZAsk1w.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/VW1BeHa.jpg
Think that's the station at Mars.

http://i.imgur.com/2ApqhCg.png
http://i.imgur.com/IGd4D7B.jpg
Obligatory explosions.

http://i.imgur.com/WwF9ZKi.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/GIT6IIm.jpg
Think that's Raptor on the wing.

http://i.imgur.com/ncW7AA9.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/lAm2i16.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/pjf09gk.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/cVuexoT.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/4Oe6RNt.png
Final target of a fairly substantial exploration trip. Wolf-Rayet star (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf%E2%80%93Rayet_star).

http://i.imgur.com/I9xsjef.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/EYYMajN.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/5zYagjB.jpg
Inside the nebula of said star.

http://i.imgur.com/Iy7Msnm.jpg
At least Gagrin is keeping it on the straight and narrow.

seaniam81

02-02-15, 01:03 PM

sweet pictures arclight

eddie

02-13-15, 07:06 PM

Well, I took the plunge and bought it! Sure is a big download though,lol Looking forward to giving it a go when I finally have it installed. I guess I'm in with version 1.1

Raptor1

02-14-15, 03:32 PM

I suppose I shall put up some of my pictures as well.

http://i.imgur.com/H9sIcsB.png?1
The Twin Suns of Spica

http://i.imgur.com/erVSrMp.png?1
Nearby Gas giant

http://i.imgur.com/EoaJsWC.png?1
PSR J2144-3933, an 11.7 solar mass neutron star at Lalande 25224, in the vicinity of Delta Virginis

seaniam81

02-14-15, 03:56 PM

Some nice shots Raptor. I really love the blue UI.

Raptor1

02-14-15, 03:58 PM

Took me a while to fiddle with it. I stole Arclight's UI colors for now, that seems to work.

eddie

02-14-15, 06:16 PM

This download to install it, is a PITA! Start,stop,start,stop..... The master server has been reset, please shut down, and start again.:/\\!!

Mud

02-15-15, 05:27 AM

This download to install it, is a PITA! Start,stop,start,stop..... The master server has been reset, please shut down, and start again.:/\\!!

Like this ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTjcCR3JNfM

eddie

02-15-15, 12:19 PM

Raptor1

02-15-15, 12:25 PM

I finally got it installed, YAY!!!! Going to wait until I get a chance to play it a bit, before I even think about dling the part about Sp combat training. The first go round with the dling was enough, so why would I want to jump into that again,lol

I'm pretty sure all the training missions from the SP combat demo are already in the main game, so you don't have to download that at all.

eddie

02-15-15, 03:24 PM

Thanks Raptor, that is REALLY good news!:D

eddie

02-15-15, 04:48 PM

Like this ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTjcCR3JNfM

Got that right Mud, but got lucky last night and had a real good connection to the server, so it finally downloaded ok.

eddie

02-18-15, 06:23 PM

Took me a while to fiddle with it. I stole Arclight's UI colors for now, that seems to work.

Is it difficult to change the UI colors. A Bit confused on how to do it ATM.

Mud

02-19-15, 01:37 AM

Take a look at this ....

http://arkku.com/elite/hud_editor/

eddie

02-19-15, 02:54 AM

Thanks Mud!:up:

Mud

02-19-15, 03:28 AM

np Eddie :up:

btw I'm using voice attack for ED with the Astra voicepack, all I can say is WOW :rock:

good vid about voice attack

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4QkltClArw

eddie

02-19-15, 11:41 AM

I saw a video of that sometime last week, now I am trying to find a decent headset. Still haven't decided which one to get though, I see something I like, but then the reviews of it aren't good. So still trying to find something reasonable in price and good quality.

Dowly

02-20-15, 06:24 PM

HCS Voice Pack has been updated to 1.6.3. and two additional voice packs have been released (VENUS & LEGEND) with two more coming in couple of days (MARS & DARK).
You can listen to samples of VENUS, LEGEND and DARK here:
https://soundcloud.com/paul-watson-87

The new additional voice packs have been released. (LEGEND & VENUS OUT NOW – ASTRA UPDATED TO 1.6.3 ALSO READY FOR DOWNLOAD). MARS is coming in a few days and DARK in 10 days. This means new, dynamic options. You can now switch between “crew” members individually, make “mixed” crew profiles and allocate different roles for your characters. In practice you can use Astra for take off & landings, Legend for flight, Venus for information & Mars for tactical and weapons. It’s very immersive! Astra is of course our flagship Ai – This means she is the chosen one, the most trusted Ai to have rank over the others to some extent – With this in mind we added Hierarchical Orders, an additional bunch of character sound sets so that you can give Astra an order and in turn she will order the crew members to carry out tasks you choose – All with sounds that address the other Ai’s personally.

The options now are an unimaginable amount of combinations – Something that will give you a great sense of both realism and presence of crew. I have to say, it’s an AWESOME FEELING!!! I guess you’ll have to try this and do let us know . We include great profiles but do not include the profile switching or mixed crew profiles because there’s no way to marry them up and ship them with our packs. There’ll be video guides on YouTube to get you started on these though. It’s both fun and simple to do this and it also means you can put your own stamp on it, make your own choices. Which is ultimately why we’ve made it so flexible. Again, these features are AWESOME!

Additional content has been added to Astra to make this more interactive and immersive – I’ve added character references so that Mars, Venus, Legend and Dark are clearly known to Astra and she can name them, refer to them, switch to them using these additional sound files. Rank responses have been added as well, these include Ma’am, Captain, Commander and Sir

‘2 Way S-Ai’ or “Two Way Simulated Ai” is something we are building on, a simple concept, that creates the illusion of 2 way interaction between yourself and Astra – We’ve made the profiles with this included. For instance, after you’ve taken off Astra will occasionally ask you something randomly – It could be that she says “I’ve something I wish to share with you” and you can respond with either “Okay, go ahead” to get a response, ignore it say anything else to not get anything more or simply tell Astra to not disturb you again. For now there is a whole bunch of these statements and pieces of information she’ll give to you or advise you on. I won’t tell you what these are because it might spoil the surprise. This feature can be turned on and off with the command “Interaction mode on” or “Interaction mode off”.

There’s also a random response Stephen Hawking Quotes pack we’ve put together as well – You can ask “Quote Stephen Hawking” and Astra will gracefully recite an incredible quote from the genius at random. There’s a bunch of these, again we’ll build some more of these in the future.

We’ve given a great deal of thought about how we can bring more value to the product and ultimately make it so that you have a far richer experience. And, we’ll continue to do so. Please keep your suggestions coming in, also we’d like to add more to the ‘2 Way S-Ai’ so feel free to email in statements you’d like from Astra and indeed any additional commands for all space sims, we’d welcome them.

eddie

02-20-15, 08:35 PM

Thanks Dowly! New headset is on the way, a new PC to come in a few weeks, so will be good to try all this new stuff out on a PC that can handle all the demands this game has to offer!

Dowly

02-21-15, 10:05 AM

The LEGEND arrives
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=C2UyT9HtysY#t=99

A "mildly" scripted (but entirely doable) showcase of the LEGEND voice pack.

eddie

02-21-15, 09:37 PM

I like that Dowly, really good stuff!

Dowly

02-23-15, 03:15 PM

Decided to do some sightseeing.

First location was Zeta Tucanae, the 3rd planet to be precise.
This planet is the Centauri Prime (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centauri_%28Babylon_5%29#Homeworld) in Babylon 5.
http://i.imgur.com/Y6r5TOM.jpg

From there, I headed over to the Chi Draconis system to look for the Minbari Homeworld (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minbari#Homeworld).
No luck, only asteroid belts there. :-?
http://i.imgur.com/kJ5yWrq.jpg

My last destination was the Epsilon Eridani system. The third planet (Major's Mine in ED) is orbited by the B5 station itself in the show.
http://i.imgur.com/XSlrTA6.jpg
Close enough. :O:

Arclight

02-23-15, 06:19 PM

Just returned from a trip where the point was just to go "up". Turn to a 90 degree angle to the galactic plane and travel well over 1000 light years.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but here they seem to fall short. A proper panoramic view is needed really.

http://i.imgur.com/UgroFN4.png
Close to a star the light polution is high, but you kinda see that you're far off of the galactic plane. Pretty lonely feeling.

http://i.imgur.com/Vq8V2Tx.png
As you go along, the plane starts to fill in beneath you more and more. You can't see it when you're in the middle of it, which conveys the distance you've covered.

http://i.imgur.com/rqxrClz.png
The thing that makes you realise that you're getting to the edge of the galaxy is the relative lack of stars in parts of the sky. There's an abundance of them back in the direction of the galactic plane, but the other way it's almost perfectly black, with only a few visible, distant dots. There's still stars in our galaxy further out, but too far to cover in a jump. Density of stars drops off fast.

Dowly

02-24-15, 06:05 AM

Nice! :)

Raptor1

02-24-15, 06:22 PM

Fleeing from the fascists in the Federation, I have also embarked on an exploration journey, heading mostly rimwards from Sol in the direction of Camelopardalis.

http://i.imgur.com/o4IHDIH.jpg
Twin T Tauri stars orbiting a primary

http://i.imgur.com/BijDnuq.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/VvmGQOn.jpg
A black hole in close orbit around a blue star somewhere near BE Camelopardalis

Can't see it? Neither could I, though I think you can see a bit of the gravitational lensing. So I got too close and nearly killed myself in the gravity well. Luckily, I managed to pull a Beowulf Shaeffer and escape with my life (and my ship).

http://i.imgur.com/7XXg3QX.jpg
The California Nebula, Bernard's Loop and others, as seen from over a thousand light years away

http://i.imgur.com/7XbjXPS.jpg

Those tidal forces must be nasty.

http://i.imgur.com/dSzSKpi.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Qg4rZUX.jpg
Snake-like constellation visible from much of the Outorst sector

http://i.imgur.com/Dxujhi6.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/CfZaDD0.jpg

At this point Faulcon DeLacy's dubious quality control showed through and my cockpit canopy cracked after a high-speed encounter with the local planetary ring.

http://i.imgur.com/KiQxu7h.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/XfB7BLV.jpg

That thing looks even more evil than Jool...

Eventually, I began closing on my ultimate destination: GCRV 2334 and the huge Wolf-Rayet star at the center of the NGC 1501 planetary nebula, on the coreward side of the Perseus Arm.

http://i.imgur.com/GeeBrEe.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/3KpXF8N.jpg
NGC 1501, seen from less than 6 light years away

http://i.imgur.com/loxScTP.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/SKnWcWk.jpg
The Wolf-Rayet star and its close main sequence companion

http://i.imgur.com/xKzVS8q.jpg
The more distant companions; a brown dwarf and a main sequence star. In the background, the dense star cluster of NGC 7822 shines through the nebula

http://i.imgur.com/oJ3GbP8.jpg

And now...

http://i.imgur.com/JUXzmO7.jpg

...how the hell am I going to get back?

Dowly

02-25-15, 08:55 AM

http://i.imgur.com/I6LoM78.png
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=zCTJmXrgsFg#t=15

Schroeder

02-25-15, 10:17 AM

I think I might get that once it drops a bit in price (that could take some time...:( ).

Dowly

02-25-15, 12:09 PM

So, what is everyone flying?

Personally, I'm still flying the pre-order Eagle.
Even once I got the money to buy a Cobra Mk.III, as silly as it sounds, I couldn't retire the Eagle. :)
It definitely lacks the durability of the Cobra, but it can still do some damage; took out a NPC Anaconda earlier. :smug:
And it looks good. :O:

My precious:
http://i.imgur.com/CjPTjmk.jpg

Stealhead

02-25-15, 01:01 PM

This game looks impressive however it appears that it would make my PC supernova.:shucks:

Oberon

02-25-15, 01:12 PM

Bah, Raptor, you've got nothing on Janeway, 3000 Ly? Try 70,000! :O:

Raptor1

02-25-15, 01:35 PM

So, what is everyone flying?

Cobra Mk. III at the moment. I might switch it out for an Asp when I get back to known space, though I'm also waiting to see how suitable the Fer-de-Lance would be when 1.2 comes out.

Bah, Raptor, you've got nothing on Janeway, 3000 Ly? Try 70,000! :O:

From what I can remember, Janeway cheated numerous times, then got help from the future and made it back after travelling much less than a tenth that distance. Janeway's FTL method was somewhat slower than mine, though... :hmmm:

Oberon

02-25-15, 07:10 PM

From what I can remember, Janeway cheated numerous times, then got help from the future and made it back after travelling much less than a tenth that distance. Janeway's FTL method was somewhat slower than mine, though... :hmmm:

Then she got promoted to Admiral... :shifty:

darius359au

02-25-15, 09:49 PM

I love my Viper ,turns on a five cent piece and got the legs to run if I have too (out ran a missile fired at close range at me from an Anaconda last night :D)

Playing tag with an asp
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v314/Darius359au/funinthesun1.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Darius359au/media/funinthesun1.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v314/Darius359au/funinthesun2.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Darius359au/media/funinthesun2.jpg.html)

starting to think I was a little close at this point..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v314/Darius359au/funinthesun3.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Darius359au/media/funinthesun3.jpg.html)

Drewcifer

02-26-15, 10:45 PM

Once 1.2 drops I'd love to meet up with you guys and fly in wings! Maybe hit some combat zones or bounty hunt in a pack. Seems like fun. Right now I'm flying an A spec viper but I plan on making the jump to a Vulture if it really is the next step up fighter it has so far been promised to be.

Dowly

02-28-15, 12:38 PM

HCS Voice Pack Roleplay showcase:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_TwnOgKFbw

HCS Voice Pack VENUS showcase
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJvmz6CaxB4

I really can't recommend VoiceAttack + HCS enough. I only bought VA + ASTRA because I had the money to spend, but I did soon realise how much it can save time.
For someone like me, who now does bounty hunting, VA+ASTRA is almost as important as TrackIR.

Like the videos keep reminding, it's all customizable. But do note that none of the HCS packs are required, but they do give you profiles with pretty much all the commands you need to use for VoiceAttack to work.

Example of customization and a time saver:
I am fighting an Anaconda let's say. I want to keep behind it. I use both my TrackIR and joystick+throttle to do that.
With VA+ASTRA, I can say 'Engines' to get max power to the engines if I need extra speed+agility, or if I am in good position to fire, I can say 'Weapons' and ASTRA maximizes power to weapons.
All while concentrating on keeping behind the Anaconda.
Something like that is especially important if you are flying a small ship like I am (Eagle) and you have to keep out of the range of the Anaconda's guns.

Naturally, you can say 'Launch Chaff' (or customize it to just 'Chaff') to launch countermeasures etc. etc.

So, I can't say I have ever thought I'd need voice commands, but in ED they do help, especially if you do fighting. Almost like having a third hand. :yep:

EDIT: Eddie, feel free to add me to your friends: CMDR Dowly (or is it just Dowly?)

Arclight

02-28-15, 02:38 PM

Mostly flying the Asp, though I've got a Viper fitted for combat and a Clipper fitted for trading sitting around.

Kinda swinging back and forth between all-round and exploring on the Asp. Even traded in it for a bit, at least as much space as a T6. Hell, took down a few elite Anacondas in it as well, though the thrust leaves something to be desired. Turns well, just doesn't accelerate. Ends up flying backwards. :roll:

Dowly

02-28-15, 06:06 PM

Thinking of going to Empire space to try to get the Clipper.. it does look nice. :hmmm:
Why does all the Elite ships look like crap? :shifty:

Nippelspanner

02-28-15, 07:21 PM

Thinking of going to Empire space to try to get the Clipper.. it does look nice. :hmmm:
Why does all the Elite ships look like crap? :shifty:
I like most of them and hate, for example, the ship design of EVE with one exception, the small mining ship (vulture!? its been a while...)

Tl;dr: Matter of taste I guess. :D

seaniam81

03-17-15, 10:41 AM

I'm flying a Cobra, out exploring around Apacnalis

Nippelspanner

03-18-15, 02:58 AM

Egan

03-19-15, 06:31 PM

After like 1-2 months of a break, I climbed back into the cockpit to test 'wings' with a buddy.
I used to love Elite. During alpha and beta, I was convinced that "this is it!". This will be the next great space game everybody will love and oh my look at the design forum archive, this is going to be fantastic!
Yeah... no. Sorry. Reading that archive now, makes me wanna cry and now I hope Star Citizen will turn out better.

Elite had so much potential, maybe it still has. But something is just...missing. A soul. The feeling that all of what is happening in this game is 'real'.
After you're not blinded anymore by the really nice visuals, audio and the many "aww!!" moments while discovering the galaxy, you realize the following that, to me, is a game breaker:

https://m1.behance.net/rendition/modules/35001431/disp/7e394d9c170c1c051ad178803387ae46.jpg

Everything.
You'll find the same ships, stations, 'random events', NPCs/their robotic, illogical and flat out stupid behavior as well as missions everywhere, no matter where you are going to be or who you are.
On top, the game has become overly gamey to please the upcoming target audience: Xbox players. Great.

Looks like Braben's "big vision" was money after all.
What a terribly bad call. :shifty:

I apologize for the surely not so nice to read rant. It had to happen.

It's funny. I agree with you in a lot of ways.

I'll be honest, when they announced the offline mode wasn't going to happen alarm bells started ringing in my head. Such a major mode - the promise of which got a lot of people buying into the KS - suddenly being dropped a week before gamma arrived (and, coincidently, the time when you could no longer buy into beta) with the vaguest excuses just smacked of bollocks to me. We're supposed to believe that a major game mode that should have been in development right from the start was not possible and it took them right up until gamma to decide to tell us is just.....well, just not right.

The whole thing just smelled of keeping quiet until they had got all the money they could from the KS, the alpha and the beta. Maybe I'm wrong - I hope I am - but something tells me I'm not.

I like the game. I love exploring. I especially love the new Black Hole effects (now you can get really close) and I love the scale but you are bang on - there is something major missing. Something important. The fact that they seem not far off adding combat arenas to the game suggests to me that either they decided to take the game in another direction to the one they originally stated, or they're making it up as they go along. Neither fills me with confidence.

FD and Braben have said many times now that they are making the game THEY want to play. I'm beginning to realise that is increasingly not the game I want to play. Which is annoying. Maybe I should pin my hopes on Space Engine. But as SE is essentially a very interesting tech demo, or a galactic version of Google Street View, I'm not holding out much hope.

Hell, I hope I'm wrong. In so many ways Elite: Dangerous is the space game I've been waiting for since, well, Elite.

Nippelspanner

03-19-15, 07:25 PM

Well said.
The example of the dropped offline mode didn't even cross my mind, it is indeed a major one.
Personally, I don't care much - I play online anyways.
But as you said, it was THE reason to buy it for quite many players and they feel crossed.

Also, I can't say I believe a single word ED or Braben says (anymore).
As mentioned, I literally studied the design archive and while I'm fully aware that all of it never was set in stone, it now feels like they made lots of stuff up to get buyers and then, well... surprise, 75% of it won't be ingame...

Also, the recent Xbox announcement killed me.
Granted, I AM a darn pcmasterraceelitist, I admit that, I HATE consoles (and their stereotypical players) with a passion... but even if I ignore that, I can only think that move was a bad one, since consoles are still far behind PC capabilities.
I start to understand now, why we won't get more fire buttons... cause a friggin Xbox controller couldn't handle it :shifty:
#thxbraben

As you said - I hope I'm wrong, I do as well.

Something positive though:
Played wings with 2 buddies and besides a short instancing hickup, we had some good fun.
I also got myself the Vulture and I won't ever give that Terminator back, ever. It is a killer.
Always loved the Viper, still do, but the Vulture?
Feels like cheating!:timeout:

http://i.gyazo.com/6c278a70cc097a4acdda114374b0ef99.png

http://i.gyazo.com/2ad96ff37df489ddc12fcf937e0e6497.png

And the current loadout:
[Vulture]
L: 3D/F Burst Laser
L: 3D/F Burst Laser
U: 0I Chaff Launcher
U: 0A Shield Booster
U: 0A Shield Booster
U: 0E Kill Warrant Scanner

BH: 1I Lightweight Alloy
RB: 4A Power Plant
TM: 5C Thrusters
FH: 4B Frame Shift Drive
EC: 3D Life Support
PC: 5A Power Distributor
SS: 4A Sensors
FS: 3C Fuel Tank (Capacity: 8)

5: 5E Shield Generator
4: 4E Cargo Rack (Capacity: 16)
---
Shield: 414,34 MJ
Power : 12,48 MW retracted (80 %)
16,00 MW deployed (103 %)
15,60 MW available
Cargo : 16 T
Fuel : 8 T
Mass : 348,6 T empty
372,6 T full
Range : 13,55 LY unladen
12,97 LY laden
Price : 10.067.533 CR
Re-Buy: 503.377 CR @ 95% insurance

Egan

03-21-15, 01:16 PM

I'm ambivalent about the X box conversion so far. I've heard complaints about what the 'new neighbours' might be like but, to be honest, given the general tone over at the official forums a lot of the time I'm not sure it can really get any worse.

In terms of an effect on the game rather than the community, though, I'm a little suspicious over the prioritising of new versions of the game over improving the current experience. The Mac release is one thing - as far as I know that was one of the promises during the kick starter, but pushing on with an X box version when there is so much still to be done to bring it up to the level it should have been released in worries me a little.

I know they have a fairly large team of about 80 people so they certainly have the capability to do both. Whether they have the desire is another thing entirely. This much vaunted (and mostly only hinted at) 1.3 'Powerplay' upgrade should hopefully answer a few more questions whenever it actually appears.

Hell, what do I care? I'm 7000 LY from earth, I'm 1500 LY below the galactic plane and it's spooky down there. I haven't been home since they day after 1.1 arrived and I don't plan to head in any time soon. I like it out there, and, increasingly, there seems to be very little reason for me to ever go back aside from upgrading to an asp.

Nippelspanner

03-21-15, 03:45 PM

Hell, what do I care? I'm 7000 LY from earth, I'm 1500 LY below the galactic plane and it's spooky down there. I haven't been home since they day after 1.1 arrived and I don't plan to head in any time soon. I like it out there, and, increasingly, there seems to be very little reason for me to ever go back aside from upgrading to an asp.
Nice, does it look different out there?
Did you meet any ships, NPC or player?
Don't tell me the kinda scripted sidey/eagle/viper still spawns ~5 seconds near a nav beacon after you jump into a system even if 1500ly away. :haha:

I'm thinking about getting an Asp sson, I could afford it already, and go exploring.
Thing is... I guess it will bore me.
Spending 99% of the time in SC to face a planet until the scan is through sounds rather dull but then again, I didn't do it yet...

Any advice?

Egan

03-21-15, 06:12 PM

Nice, does it look different out there?
Did you meet any ships, NPC or player?
Don't tell me the kinda scripted sidey/eagle/viper still spawns ~5 seconds near a nav beacon after you jump into a system even if 1500ly away. :haha:

I'm thinking about getting an Asp sson, I could afford it already, and go exploring.
Thing is... I guess it will bore me.
Spending 99% of the time in SC to face a planet until the scan is through sounds rather dull but then again, I didn't do it yet...

Any advice?

It looks weird. That far down the Milky Way turns into great scar of white. Below that there is nothing. Nothing. A few scattered stars.

I bought the game for exploration. Swings and Roundabouts I guess. The combat bores me. I just don't like it very much. And trading is much the same. Yeah, the thousandsth red dwarf with a bunch of icy rocks doesn't do much, but then you find something - a black hole or a neutron star or a carbon star or even better, an earthlike world. I love that. I love the sense of scale and distance. I hear people moaning about feeling lonely out there - I don't. I love the solitude.

You don't get any NPCs once you get about 500 LY past the human bubble. personally, I think it would be fitting to get a very occasional contact but at the moment, the way the game seems to be programmed I think it's all or nothing. I'd love some USS signals out there - the remains of ships that screwed up or even other, alien things. We'll see.

I'll say this though: Since they increased the prices for scanning items I've seen a bunch of people attempting to put exploring into the same framework as trading. EG: How many millions of credits per hour you can earn. To me, that's just a strange way of looking at it. It also doesn't really work like that. The high paying items are still rare, and a lot of them are a LONG way from home. Best to do it because you want to, not because you will earn anything.

That said, by the time I get home I plan to have made a fair bit - enough to upgrade to an asp or even bigger.

I'll try and remember to take a screen shot of what it looks like down there. I'm currently in an area with about two dozen neutron stars and white dwarfs that I plan to scan before moving on to a MSC11AB class about 200 LY away.

As much as I disagree with FD on so many things, and am deeply uncertain about the direction the game may be taking, I can't fault them on the creation of the galaxy. It's immense and a real and special achievement. Hopefully, one of these days, they'll add to it. Accretion disks, and all manner of weirdness. Also, hopefully, they'll make the environment more dangerous too. The one thing wrong with it is as long as your are careful it's far too safe feeling.

Nippelspanner

03-21-15, 06:18 PM

Ok, that sounds really good, guess I'm going on EXP01 :salute:
I know it isn't there... but I still hope to find the Alien Derelict, land and investigate it. :haha:

At least I have the remastered soundtrack, I figure it must be great for exploring. :)

I'm really excited now, thanks!

Egan

03-21-15, 06:22 PM

Advice. let's see. Get the biggest damn FSD drive you can. You will need it. And the biggest fuel scoop too. Maybe not the top one for the asp as it's about 28,000000 cr but big enough that you don't have to hang around too long.

You WILL need an advanced disco-scanner and the surface scanner. Going exploring without them is pretty pointless. The Advanced Disco will pick up everything in a system straight away no matter how far out it is. You can, of course, find stuff by looking out for parallax scrolling but it is so time consuming and easy to miss things.

Don't bother scanning moons, or asteroid belts. Not worth the effort. Well, maybe moons occasionally, but that's a judgement call. They're sometimes terraformable, or water worlds etc. rarely, though.

People will tell you you don't need a shield when exploring. I would be loathe to go without one, though. The moment you get back you can guarantee some yahoo (NPC or player) will attempt to vent you. wouldn't bother with weapons, though. The information you will be returning with will be far more important and valuable to risk in a fight.

Likewise heatsinks and repair units. Some swear by them but I don't see the point. Given the sort of situations you'd use a heat sink in, by the time you deploy it it's probably going to be too late. And those situation are going to be pretty rare too (flopping out of witch-space into the middle of a contact binary, for example.)

Start off with one of the tourist spots - Mintaka or Betelgeuse - and see how you like it. Betelgeuse is a good one. I think it's the closest hypergiant, about 600 times the size of the sun. It's pretty impressive.

Nippelspanner

03-21-15, 06:30 PM

Ok, most of the stuff was on my list already. I gotta think about the shield though.
At the moment, I prefer Solo/Pirvate group over open for various reasons (also connection/performance, I get a lot less stutters and way shorter jump times in solo) and exploring is solo anyways so I guess I leave the shields behind, NPCs just never managed to scare me during interdictions due to the "everyone wins" FSD-quick recharge you can escape every interdiction without problems - unfortunately.
Sole exception, of course, is being mass locked but...the AI doesn't really try to do that.

As for destination. No clue. Should I pick one?
Right now I am near Lugh, I checked out the community event stuff there and made ~6-8million with combat bounds and other stuff, so I need a break from fighting anyways.

I thought about just pointing in one direction and go for it. The universe should be big enough to find awesome things everywhere anyways :D
Guess I check the galaxy before I set off...

Also, I found this: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=81653
The exploration topic is much more complex than I thought.
Love it.

Egan

03-22-15, 11:24 AM

Coming back from a trip out past the Eskimo nebula I did before Christmas, I hit the 500 LY 'Idiot Belt' that surrounds the Human bubble and got interdicted about 5 times in 5 systems. 4 of them were the usual pointless scrotes - Mostly harmless Sidewinders with no shields, no fuel scoops (I mean, come on, how the hell did they get out there?) - but the 5th one was a Master Dropship that chewed me up pretty badly before I destroyed him. I won't ever go exploring without shields. You never know what you are going to run into. FD have pretty much stated that when they DO get around to adding stuff like the Thargoids, they aren't going to announce it - they'll simply start making their presence felt. Going to be a lot of explorers moaning about getting whacked without shields...:D

Yeah, pick a destination. Like I said, head to a tourist spot first of all. Enjoy the sites. It'll give you a chance to see whether you enjoy it and it'll give you something nice to look at. After that, choose somewhere further away and go for it. Having said that, I tend to run in a direction for a few hundred light years and then change - There is always something out there worth seeing. Nutter's thread is a good one.

And Remember - The most important advice an explorer can get:

Oh, Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me.

This is the mnemonic for the main sequence stars you can refuel from - O,B,A,F,G,K,M. All the others - proto stars, dwarfs, non and late sequence stars are non refuelable.

Finally, Don't screw with Neutron stars. They'll fry you for laughs. Vicious little buggers. I've scanned dozens of them and every time I am VERY careful. You come in so close there is no room for mucking about.

Nippelspanner

03-22-15, 11:45 AM

Funny, I just reinstalled a shield. :D
Changed my mind last night about it and had to check different places for different parts anyways.

In the end, I agree with the 'play it save' attitude.
I rather jump once more in a leg and have a shorter jump range but will survive a possible encounter.
I figured a lucky hit into my drives, without shields, and I'd be toast anyways.

The Thargoids, now... that is quite a good point you're making!
Didn't have them in mind and to think they might be out there already (it is a possiblity, who knows) is making exploration much more interesting.

Imagine to be the first one to actually run into them and survive to tell the story. Apropos story.
I'm curious as to how the internal story develops when the Thargoid threat arrives. Reminds me of Game of Thrones. The 9 families will have to unite, more or less, to fight the bigger threat, the White Walkers, in season 5 :D
(I just assume you know what I'm talking about)

Will post a picture of my ready-to-go Asp in a few minutes and then pick an initial direction.

Edit: I'm thinking about adding a field maintenance unit, but I heard they are somewhat broken or add to the tear and wear cost... what exactly does that mean/how does that work?
I know what tear and wear is - but the mechanics are unknown to me. I suspect that part that are more expensive will add higher T&W costs?

Edit²: It seems they are a 'must have' now for exploring and have been fixed:
"- Add the Repairable component to several modules that otherwise couldn't be repaired by AFM modules. Discovery scanners, Detail scanners and Thrusters are all now repairable in the field."

Egan

03-22-15, 11:46 AM

Some shots of my current trip:

An Ammonia world.

http://i1371.photobucket.com/albums/ag293/arikcorbin/Screenshot_0341_zpsceacpf1i.png (http://s1371.photobucket.com/user/arikcorbin/media/Screenshot_0341_zpsceacpf1i.png.html)

A 7.8 mass black hole taken from 40 KM out - at the limits of the Body Exclusion Zone:

http://i1371.photobucket.com/albums/ag293/arikcorbin/Screenshot_0351_zpskdzfmwjv.png (http://s1371.photobucket.com/user/arikcorbin/media/Screenshot_0351_zpskdzfmwjv.png.html)

The icy rings of a gas giant:

http://i1371.photobucket.com/albums/ag293/arikcorbin/Screenshot_0304_zpsyikzm76l.png (http://s1371.photobucket.com/user/arikcorbin/media/Screenshot_0304_zpsyikzm76l.png.html)

Nippelspanner

03-22-15, 12:31 PM

Elite: Beautiful :up:

Good to G.O.
(Changed sensors to E5 after that pic was taken, they weigh much less and I don't need them anyways...do I?)
http://i.gyazo.com/70ff69d0e5811cee608a6b9dd63bbf37.png

Egan

03-22-15, 02:54 PM

I don't know about 'must have' - I've never needed a field repair unit - but a lot of people like them. They used to be utterly useless so they changed them to fix thrusters etc as you point out. I might have taken one with me but i had just left on the current circuit as they improved them.

Accidents happen I guess, and they have no mass, so if you have the room go for it. Can't hurt.

For an explorer you want everything to either be A class, or D. Why D? Because they are a low mass version so you will be able to jump further.

I'm outfitted with A class FSD, Powerplant and Distributer and fuel scoop. Everything else is D. I think the A class powerplant is important as it helps with heat issues. I'm convinced the distro does as well but that might just be me. I've also got A class thrusters as well as my Cobra is my only ride just now so it needs to be quick when I'm back in the bubble.

I don't know how important sensors are. There was a vague theory back in beta that better sensers helped you scan objects quicker but I have never seen any evidence of it. I think they're mostly a benefit for gimballed weapons. I'd go with D class anyway. Pretty sure they're the lightest.

Anyway, as promised, the Milky Way from 1200 LY below the central plane. I reckon I could get down another 400LY before I have problems route finding.

http://i1371.photobucket.com/albums/ag293/arikcorbin/Screenshot_0356_zpsrard0kdt.png (http://s1371.photobucket.com/user/arikcorbin/media/Screenshot_0356_zpsrard0kdt.png.html)

Egan

03-22-15, 03:36 PM

Huh! My screenies seem to have disappeared! Everyones a critic. :D

Probably Photobucket....

EDIT:

No, it's just opera decided to go proper metal after weeks of being utterly useless. Time for a new browser I think.

Nippelspanner

03-24-15, 01:50 AM

Expedition 01 has ended and I returned save and sound to Shinrarta.
I am glad I didn't explore before - because without the "select next waypoint in route" function, I would have gone bonkers.

Exploring is indeed very exciting - but also very boring or rather 'uneventful'.
It reminds me of subsims.
Long periods of nothingness, bad weather, no sightings, no luck... you suddenly see smoke on the horizon and the hunting fever kicks in, making it all worth it.

My initial goal was to return after discovering a new black hole and although I found plenty (~8 in total), all of them have been named already - no cigar for me today. :shifty:
To not let it become a grind-for-the-hole fest, I decided to rather enjoy the trip and return, bringing my discoveries home with me to share and reflect on my first expedition.

While I made lots of pictures, I made the capital mistake to not note the location and astronomical data from the system map, as this could have been interesting to know and analyze - but I sure won't forget that again.

Some pictures:

http://i.imgur.com/hsqwNa5.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/VIIJOhh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/DGrsOfT.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/VYG1IsN.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/aLJjqVi.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/YwhroKy.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/6aDXFEr.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/zaJIFSc.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ZbStVhq.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/HLQDTbC.jpg
My first and not yet discovered Earth-Like World. Definitely the expedition's highlight.

http://i.imgur.com/ZwJmD41.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/nOXs5Ct.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/DEPAsUf.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/yBZ9icO.jpg
General area of the expedition. After ~1000ly I 'jumped around' looking for interesting and more high value star systems.

There will definitely be an EXP02, but I will wait for FD to hopefully add some more exploration-related features and content before I leave again.
Sold my Asp and got my Vulture back, now even better equipped thanks to the ~3 million I made exploring. :)

Egan

03-24-15, 02:27 PM

Nice shots. Good work!

Yeah, the sub sim analogy is pretty much spot on. Take my last couple of days for instance. I seem to have spent a bunch of time jumping from boring red dwarf to red dwarf with nothing there but tiny, icy rocks.

But then I hit a rich seam. Jumped into a neutron star system. Hit the mighty disco horn and had a look at the system map. The second star, another red dwarf had a bunch of rocks. Two, in particular looked promising. Only 13,000LS away too.

Long story short: two earthlikes, a CFT Water world and 4 more CFT hi-metal worlds. Not bad, not bad at all.

Next system there were 4 gas giants with life, an ammonia world and another two CFT HMC.

Next one, another neutron star system with a more distant red dwarf (about 45,000LS out) another 6(!) CFT HMC and another CFT water world.

Makes up for all the ice balls. I've another three systems to look at tonight which i suspect may be just as good.

The thing with black holes (black hole especially) is that you have to go really far, or luck out, to find an undiscovered one. I've found about two dozen or so since gamma, but only three of them were undiscovered. There are so many guys out there who will sit and pour over the map, filters on, and then expressly jump all the way out just to get that one item. If you have any sort of real life at all you just won't be able to compete..:D

I find I only take a note of system where there are lots of high paying items - all three of last nights systems for instance. Doesn't always help anyway. For a long time the galaxy map search was bugged and I'm not too sure it is entirely fixed.

Dowly

03-24-16, 09:57 AM

Remember when I talked about VoiceAttack and HCS voice packs for it? Well, it looks like the HCS project has been really successful and now they're doing a William Shatner voice pack. :)

Preview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yegEjlAneao

Preview 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6SECeLL3hE

Behind the Scenes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK0sE1-YSkw

Nippelspanner

03-24-16, 12:15 PM

I don't play Elite anymore, it turned into a huge letdown for me.
But that Shatner joins small projects like that is really cool. Many other "stars" would have simply laughed it off I assume, he probably realized how much fans would love it.

NeonSamurai

03-24-16, 03:10 PM

Ya I am rapidly getting to that point as well after 2 months play time. The game is just so shallow and feels like nothing but a grind once you get over the visuals and realize how same-y everything is. It's a skinner box where the reward are the ships, and how the cost for the ships just increase exponentially (seriously 800 million for a corvette that is barely much better than the Anaconda or even the Python?). The game is designed to addict pure and simple.

Nippelspanner

03-24-16, 04:10 PM

Ya I am rapidly getting to that point as well after 2 months play time. The game is just so shallow and feels like nothing but a grind once you get over the visuals...
Spot on. :-?

Convoi_PQ17

11-18-19, 03:39 AM

https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/0e7b/y4z21noltrspgte6g.jpg
I was wondering... are there any ED players here?
On which forums are you hanging out?
What ships is everybody flying?

Threadfin

11-18-19, 01:14 PM

I was wondering... are there any ED players here?
On which forums are you hanging out?
What ships is everybody flying?

I play, and hang mostly on SimHQ and the FDev forums (under different usernames). FDev forums is the place to go really.

I fly lots of ships, but the Krait II is probably my favorite. I have an iCourier that boosts over 800 m/s. I own a bunch of ships, and have sold even more. Krait II is my go-to all-rounder.

I haven't played in a little while, and just checked Inara to see what's currently in my fleet. It's seven ships

Python (once my favorite ship, it's been mothballed by the Krait, and actually most of the modules were stolen and straight to the Krait.)

Krait II (I think this is the best ship in Elite, can do it all, from mining, to exploration to combat)

AspX (once my main ride, now dedicated explorer)

DBX (70+ jump range. My bubble-runner and taxi)

iCourier (highly engineered and as mentioned, boosts over 800. Lots of fun to fight with)

Fer-de-Lance (my PvP boat or just when I want to kill stuff quick)

Orca (engineered to run very fast and very cool. The DBX is also built to run cool, and each cruise under 15% heat)

My fleet was once much larger, but I sold most of it as it was all too much. I like the more manageable fleet and this group can do it all.