Octopus Overlords

I was Wanted and landed in a base. it was nerve racking.
I was lined up about 7 k out for a straight in approach. Asked for docking. Then went silent. Did not zoom in to fast, just landed on the pad. Heat was just starting to damage so I switched off silent then went straight to the station services. I heard if you don't go to the services you might be scanned.

I did race in before ,but some times I hit the back wall. If you hit to hard, BOOM!

for landings that require you to enter the inside of the station, make sure you're at least somewhat lined up before asking to dock. I've been scanned several times while searching for the dang entrance and lollygagging outside of the base before finding it.

Well at least if I don't have to worry about losing the cargo, that's not so bad. Thanks for the tips.

It's been my experience in the past that if you can make it into the docking bay opening even active scans will just stop, but I've never tested that with a cargo hold full of contraband and it could have changed since I tried it last.

do you guys remain independent, or do you pick a faction to support? How does the game change when you side with one particular faction?

I've remained independent, but then again, I've always been an outsider. I don't think I liked picking a faction since other factions become quite hostile toward you.

One thing I forgot was I also ejected chaff when approaching. This was reported to help as well.

UsulofDoom wrote:I was Wanted and landed in a base. it was nerve racking. ......

I saw this video a year ago .. it made me want to be a smuggler when I get the game


'Elite: Dangerous' Beta v1.03 - Smuggler (Flight Assist Off)


this guy has a number of "flight-assist off" vids on the right side of the page that I haven't watched

that's funny. the few times i've been caught trying to dock with illegal cargo, I was only given a minor fine, which was well worth paying after selling my illicit goods.

I haven't been able to play the last week or two, but I was ultimately able to make 6 million off of one smuggling mission from Sothis. It's a long haul over a lot of uninhabited systems, but I didn't have any problems getting docked. To be safe I ran on silent after setting up my approach a little farther out than usual, but no scans as I entered the station.

I also ended up making about $15 million off of that community mission to deliver slaves to Achenar... I delivered about 120 tones of slaves and, despite needing a lot of money up front for a full load of slaves, I made a good profit during the sale, and then got $15 million for being in the top 50% when I cashed in the mission. Just have to decide what to use my new spoils on... trade in my cobra for something bigger, or use the money to outfit a separate ship.

There was an interview with David Braben just a bit ago and he announced a few interesting things:
- 1.5 beta update with new ships and various changes will be out on the 9th
- 2.0 beta with planetary landings and basic crafting will be out on the 24th

Lots of little details in the chat, but one of the more interesting things he mentioned was that the Thargoids would be making an appearance before too long, and that there are other alien races out there besides the Thargoids.

I've been procrastinating for a bit now about how to spend some of my money. If I sell my beloved Cobra I have just enough to buy an Imperial Clipper thanks to the discount I got for delivering slaves to the new emperor. I do really love my Cobra... especially now that I have almost all class A equipment in it, but I've been wanting to switch over to a faction specific ship, and the Clipper is a really nice one.

i'd like to get back into this but can't seem to get motivated

The Cobra is (or used to be at least) one of the best all-round ships in the game. It'll never beat a specialized ship in whatever its field is, but it can do everything well.

If it goes on sale, I'm buying it.

TiLT wrote:The Cobra is (or used to be at least) one of the best all-round ships in the game. It'll never beat a specialized ship in whatever its field is, but it can do everything well.

Plus you get a free new cobra with the expansion.

Cortilian wrote:

TiLT wrote:The Cobra is (or used to be at least) one of the best all-round ships in the game. It'll never beat a specialized ship in whatever its field is, but it can do everything well.

Plus you get a free new cobra with the expansion.

Yeah, I'm curious what its stats will be. I can always start my new characters with a Cobra because of my Kickstarter backer level, and I can never truly lose the ship in the game itself, so I want to know if my backup plan is getting obsoleted.

Less than $15 on Steam Fall sale. Playable with 360 controller and mouse/KB? Very tempted at that price but not interested in investing in a joystick setup.

SOLD!

Got me too!

morlac wrote:Less than $15 on Steam Fall sale. Playable with 360 controller and mouse/KB? Very tempted at that price but not interested in investing in a joystick setup.

Ok a friend suggested to couple the 360 controller with this app on my ipad:

http://www.roccat.org/en-US/Products/Ga ... Grid/Home/

That looks way cool!

Wow, I suck at this. I've been flying in the tutorials and using a control pad. I'm able to blow up the stationary targets, but heaven help me once they start moving. Bleh.

Should I keep fightingi these tutorials until I'm adequate or can I actually play the game a bit without just getting my ship handed to me?

morlac wrote:Less than $15 on Steam Fall sale. Playable with 360 controller and mouse/KB? Very tempted at that price but not interested in investing in a joystick setup.

Nice price but I think it's probably still best to wait until the expansion to buy since getting the game then includes both the base game and expansion. I agree about the joystick setup cost.

Alright. I've gotten the hang of it. Off to start the actual game. I was remarking to my wife how amazing video games have become. I remember playing Night Driver on the 2600 in my basement as a kid. Can't imagine something like this with VR. Fun.

ColdSteel wrote:

morlac wrote:Less than $15 on Steam Fall sale. Playable with 360 controller and mouse/KB? Very tempted at that price but not interested in investing in a joystick setup.

Nice price but I think it's probably still best to wait until the expansion to buy since getting the game then includes both the base game and expansion. I agree about the joystick setup cost.

This thrustmaster is only $30 at Microcenter. If I really like the game I could stomach that.
http://www.microcenter.com/product/3532 ... X_Joystick
Provided it's not junk. Anyone tried the T.Flight Hotas X?

morlac wrote:

ColdSteel wrote:

morlac wrote:Less than $15 on Steam Fall sale. Playable with 360 controller and mouse/KB? Very tempted at that price but not interested in investing in a joystick setup.

Nice price but I think it's probably still best to wait until the expansion to buy since getting the game then includes both the base game and expansion. I agree about the joystick setup cost.

This thrustmaster is only $30 at Microcenter. If I really like the game I could stomach that.
http://www.microcenter.com/product/3532 ... X_Joystick
Provided it's not junk. Anyone tried the T.Flight Hotas X?

I used one before I traded up to an X-55 Rhino. It was a solid stick/throttle, but I wanted more switches and buttons (and it didn't hurt that I got a good deal on the Rhino).

ColdSteel wrote:

morlac wrote:Less than $15 on Steam Fall sale. Playable with 360 controller and mouse/KB? Very tempted at that price but not interested in investing in a joystick setup.

Nice price but I think it's probably still best to wait until the expansion to buy since getting the game then includes both the base game and expansion. I agree about the joystick setup cost.

Isn't the price going to be like $60 for it, if I recall correctly?

I thought I remember them saying owners of the original will get a $10 credit, so if you pay $14 for it now, it's like paying $4 to play this now instead of waiting for what could be a few months for the expansion to release. It just doesn't seem worth it to wait IMO

In as well.

I guess I should grab another Joystick when I order a new 360 controller. My controller has been getting sloppy and moves at time when I don't want it to. Man I go through a lot of controllers.

Anyway about to check out the thread and check out the basics once it downloads.

I'll offer up my Logitech Extreme 3D Pro joystick free to a good OO home. My Saitek x52 (which I highly recommend) HOTAS setup kinda made it obsolete. Just cover a few $$ for shipping...shoot me a PM if you want it.

If it helps get someone into this awesome game, it's all worth it.

if nobody else takes you up on that offer, I'd love to try it out, but I just can't seem to get time to play this as much as I'd like, so I'll defer to someone else who may get more use out of it than I currently can. Really cool offer.

I'm starting to get the hang of it. I haven't left Solo so far because I want to have the basics down first.

Actually got lucky when I got attacked for the second time. First time I barely survived till help arrived and spent all my commodity profit repairing the ship. Second time I noticed the authorities radioed a thank you. Once I made it to the base I realized I had netted a local and a federal bounty for the kill. 22K which I really needed.

Upgraded my shields and engines to a D. I've also dropped the discovery scanner for 2 more tons of cargo. Probably upgrade most stuff to a D then save for a new ship.

Using the mouse/keyboard was confusing at first but I am getting the hang of it. My X-52 is broken so toughing it out until I become so hooked I will fold and buy another.

Rip wrote:Using the mouse/keyboard was confusing at first but I am getting the hang of it. My X-52 is broken so toughing it out until I become so hooked I will fold and buy another.

I tried keyboard/mouse when the game was still in alpha, and hated it. If you have an xbox-style gamepad, I've been told that works quite well (although a good joystick/throttle is best).

Max Peck wrote:

Rip wrote:Using the mouse/keyboard was confusing at first but I am getting the hang of it. My X-52 is broken so toughing it out until I become so hooked I will fold and buy another.

I tried keyboard/mouse when the game was still in alpha, and hated it. If you have an xbox-style gamepad, I've been told that works quite well (although a good joystick/throttle is best).

I'm finding xbox controller + my ipad using Roccat power Grid is working pretty well. Still recovering from a broken hand so I can't play for long stretches but it is fun so far.

I'm up to almost 100K in assets. Hoping to move up to an Adder soon.

Man those rotating stations are a PIA!

Rip wrote:I'm up to almost 100K in assets. Hoping to move up to an Adder soon.

Man those rotating stations are a PIA!

Yeah, I can see how that would be a pain without a stick. If you don't enjoy the "challenge" you can pick up a docking computer to automate the process. It will fit in a size 1 compartment and only costs 4500cr, iirc.

Played with the new Horizon's beta for a bit this week and it's pretty amazing. Just being able to go down to rocky planets alone makes the game feel a lot more diverse.

I assumed you'd be able to just jump into the game and land on a planet, but you have to buy a 50 credit avionics package to enter atmospheres, and you have to buy a landing bay and load it with a vehicle before you can drive around on one. All told it was only a few thousand credits though. Atmospheric flight is interesting. If you are flying straight and level you can pretty much max your engines out, but turning too quickly at high speed will start building up heat quickly.. on the whole you can pretty freely maneuver, but if you go a little overboard with the turns you'll run into problems.

I'm still getting the hang of landing on planets. The main thing is ships seem to be a little more sluggish to respond to thrust changes in the atmosphere so as you get close to the landing pad you have to go a little easy and not overthrust in any direction. Not too hard on the whole, but different from docking for sure.

Liftoff is pretty easy.. point your ship straight up and gun it, when you're not mass locked engage frame shift, then keep going straight up until you're out of the planets gravity well and atmosphere. When you get the new avionics there's also a new HUD interface that engages when you're close to a planet and tells you when you're clear.

Driving around in the SRVs is a blast. If you really gun them, hit a good hill, and add in some thrusters you can get some air and that makes getting over rough terrain much faster. The main thing seems to be using throttle and thrusters to keep from bouncing too hard or hitting hills at the wrong angle as you come down. Oh and one thing that's not obvious is to switch to your SRV once landed or board your ship you need to look down in the cockpit and a new vehicle screen will show up.

Docking is nerve-wracking.

Agree. Once I got a bigger ship I went with the docking computer.

Of course you still have to take off, navigate, and fight when required.

Having fun so far. Finally in a Cobra and think I will stay with that until I can afford to fit out an ASP. Just now getting to 2M Cr net worth so it will be a while.

Took a 200K plus hit when hauling a gold job and loaded with valuable metal myself. It was multiple ships right after interdicted. Turns out I may have shot early and it was an inspection team because I landed a 19K fine as well.

Wasn't even left with enough for another insurance bill so had to risk it for a few runs, well that and sell my kill warrant scanner.

Now I always keep 2X insurance in reserve just in case.

I'm up to about 8M net worth and have my Cobra pretty much tricked out.

Just started doing the rares circuit so should be getting that Asp this week. I'm thinking 10M should do it. Would be nice if I happen to get a permit so I can get that 20% discount. Already have the Sol permit but it doesn't seem very useful.

Rip wrote:I'm up to about 8M net worth and have my Cobra pretty much tricked out.

Just started doing the rares circuit so should be getting that Asp this week. I'm thinking 10M should do it. Would be nice if I happen to get a permit so I can get that 20% discount. Already have the Sol permit but it doesn't seem very useful.

Cobra was a great ship, really fun to fly. I also moved to the Asp after my Cobra, and had a lot of fun with it. I don't remember exactly how much cash I had when I bought it, but it was worth about 44M by the time I sold it to buy a Python.

The Asp was great, especially for exploring. Just remember that it won't fly like the Cobra, and in particular makes a huge target if you try to dogfight in it against smaller ships. I flew it for a long time, and will probably get another one when I have some more cash.

I think you can get a 15% discount at any shipyard in Li Yong-Rui controlled space, even if you are not pledged to him. No permit required there. Not all of his shipyards carry every type of ship, though.

Here's my current ship:

So why is there such a massive difference in price between Elite Dangerous (currently 15 bucks in the steam sale) and the Elite Dangerous Horizons (60 bucks in the steam sale)?

Horizons is a season of content, essentially an expansion. It adds, I believe, the ability to freewheel around planets. You're supposed to get a "loyalty bonus" discount if you own the original. It's also still in beta.

Just follow this handy flowchart: /s