Elite: Dangerous

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 10:37 am

TiLT wrote:I'd say Elite Dangerous is pretty easy to pick up and play, particularly if you're willing to watch the brief, official tutorial videos. The game's mechanics are simple, but there is tons of depth to it that you don't have to touch until you feel ready.

Elite Dangerous is much easier to understand and play than most other games in this genre that I've tried.

Thanks for the link, those will be a big help

wonderpug · Post by **wonderpug** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 10:48 am

RMC wrote:
TiLT wrote:I'd say Elite Dangerous is pretty easy to pick up and play, particularly if you're willing to watch the brief, official tutorial videos. The game's mechanics are simple, but there is tons of depth to it that you don't have to touch until you feel ready.

Elite Dangerous is much easier to understand and play than most other games in this genre that I've tried.
Thanks for the link. I am having issues setting up the joystick.. I am not very good at even understanding what a Yaw and Pitch are, let alone know what to program my joystick to do.

Hmm, maybe try resetting your key bindings? Since the X52 has direct love from the developers, the default in-game profile for it should be 95% good to go for you right away in the game.

Take a look at the images in this forum post to see what the joystick's button names are and what the default assignments should be in Elite.

Freezer-TPF- · Post by **Freezer-TPF-** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 11:11 am

I'd be very tempted if I had more gaming time and more desk space for a good HOTAS set up.

Redfive · Post by **Redfive** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 12:00 pm

So I braved Best Buy yesterday to go pick up another Logitech Extreme 3D Pro. I already have one but it is in my ministorage unit behind, well, too much stuff for me to move for $30.

Spent some time getting that set up and tooled around running a few FedEx missions in open play. Still haven't fired a shot yet outside of training.

For those that may be unaware I highly recommend VoiceAttack. I spent a little time getting it to work (which means any of the rest of you can if I can do it) and man, talk about immersion! I haven't spent the money but take a few minutes to watch and listen to this guy. He has an optional voice pack that lets you customize (and even name) the AI.

Getting the hang of docking and using the interface still but I'm having a great time.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 2:13 pm

While I always wanted to buy a Saitek X52 (like for more than a decade now and I may yet still do it), I think I am going to give this a go with the Xbox 360 controller. Even without my Logitech 3d Pro issues, the lack of a way to do lateral movements makes docking and launching harder than it should be.

I am wondering something though, the XBox controller setup seems to have a "roll into a Yaw" effect (meaning you roll by pressing left-right, but pressing it all the way eventually leads to a turn with a roll). Is that by design or do I need to have a setting changed?

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 2:20 pm

The x52 is the old version. The new hotness is the x55 rhino, which I picked up this year.

Cortilian · Post by **Cortilian** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 3:27 pm

Question about the discovery scanner.

The basic one only goes out 500ls. This will discover and mark items as unidentified In order to identify them I have to get within 200ls.

All that I know.

What I don't know if say, for example. I go into an unknown system and hit the discovery scanner and find nothing withing 500ls. Does this mean that there could b planets, asteroid bets and bases in the system that I just can't see? Could these systems I've been going into and only finding the main star but no planets actually have bases or other planets just because they are farther out than 500ls?

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 4:32 pm

Cortilian wrote:What I don't know if say, for example. I go into an unknown system and hit the discovery scanner and find nothing withing 500ls. Does this mean that there could b planets, asteroid bets and bases in the system that I just can't see? Could these systems I've been going into and only finding the main star but no planets actually have bases or other planets just because they are farther out than 500ls?

Yup. In fact I've found a few systems where the primary star was empty, but they had a secondary star thousands of light seconds away with swarms of planets and asteroids. I've read you can see the secondary star visually as an obviously much bigger and closer star, and can fly towards that until it's in scan range, but never tried that myself though.

TiLT · Post by **TiLT** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 6:34 pm

Until you get the advanced discovery scanner, exploration can be just as much about using visual cues as using the scanner itself. Look for specks of light that seem to behave different from the others around you. They could be planets, or even local stars. Think logically. If you find a moon, there's got to be a planet for it to orbit around. Maybe there are other moons too? All the star systems in this game are built on actual physical models, and you can take advantage of this to make educated guesses about what you can find and where you can find it.

wonderpug · Post by **wonderpug** » Tue Dec 23, 2014 11:17 am

I love some of the emergent gameplay you can get with this game. I was exploring systems in my new Adder and fishing for pirates at signal sources to see how the ship handled in combat, and I got into a hairy but manageable 2 on 1 fight. My shields are down but I'm about to take one pirate out and turn the tide, when my windshield shatters. I hear the sounds of a breather mask come on, all the ship/space audio changes to account for the environment change, and I see a "5 minutes of oxygen remaining" warning.

I flee the fight and head for the only station in the system, dock as fast as I possibly can, land with 20 seconds of oxygen remaining.... and discover that the little outpost has no repair facilities. Can I make it to another star and dock again within 5 minutes? I pay for exploration data to find which systems even have repair facilities, realize I made my funds dip below the insurance level, sell off some nonessential ship parts, curse how the oxygen timer starts even while my ship is just being moved to the launch pad...

The whole sequence was really tense and exciting fun. It wouldn't have been nearly as thrilling if it had been a scripted scenario doing the exact same events, because I'd know if it was scripted then it was designed to be beatable. When this happened, it was entirely possible that I wouldn't even have been able to make it to the local outpost to replenish my oxygen.

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Tue Dec 23, 2014 4:57 pm

Apparently the Imperial civil war in Sorbago is starting to heat up. Here's some footage of the Imperial capital ship Elizabeth during some of the fighting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qmjHurRC7E

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Tue Dec 23, 2014 5:42 pm

wonderpug wrote:I love some of the emergent gameplay you can get with this game. I was exploring systems in my new Adder and fishing for pirates at signal sources to see how the ship handled in combat, and I got into a hairy but manageable 2 on 1 fight. My shields are down but I'm about to take one pirate out and turn the tide, when my windshield shatters. I hear the sounds of a breather mask come on, all the ship/space audio changes to account for the environment change, and I see a "5 minutes of oxygen remaining" warning.

I flee the fight and head for the only station in the system, dock as fast as I possibly can, land with 20 seconds of oxygen remaining.... and discover that the little outpost has no repair facilities. Can I make it to another star and dock again within 5 minutes? I pay for exploration data to find which systems even have repair facilities, realize I made my funds dip below the insurance level, sell off some nonessential ship parts, curse how the oxygen timer starts even while my ship is just being moved to the launch pad...

The whole sequence was really tense and exciting fun. It wouldn't have been nearly as thrilling if it had been a scripted scenario doing the exact same events, because I'd know if it was scripted then it was designed to be beatable. When this happened, it was entirely possible that I wouldn't even have been able to make it to the local outpost to replenish my oxygen.

Damn that's awesome. I'm really feeling the OO effect now, which is a shame since I'm about to spend the next week away visiting relatives (yes, it's going to be as dreadful as it sounds).

TiLT · Post by **TiLT** » Tue Dec 23, 2014 5:52 pm

Money is starting to roll in for me in this game now, after struggling to get good trade routes going. My current asset value is nearly 700k credits, pretty much all of it gained through trade, and I've been able to significantly upgrade my weapons, cargo space and frame shift drive. Upgrading cargo space is particularly important, but you'll cripple yourself if you don't follow it up with a new frame shift drive to support your ship's increased mass while fully loaded.

I replaced my loaned pulse lasers with a pair of rail guns that drain power like hell, leaving very little for any future upgrades. They've got a mere 31 shots each, and the ammo is hideously expensive. Not only that, but each shot has to be charged, and the things overheat if you so much as look at them. On the other hand, they dish out an enormous amount of damage. I attacked a wanted Anaconda, and took down its shields in just a few shots. That Anaconda became my first and only kill so far, netting me over 20k in bounty credit. It was a bit rough though, and I limped my way to the nearest station with cracks across my cockpit windows, little remaining ammo, and considerable hull damage.

I've also started to get some recognition from at least one of the game's factions, namely the Pilot Federation. They're friendly to me right now, and I believe they're close to upgrading once more very soon. This helped me increase my earnings, since they're now willing to give me more valuable missions. Heck, when I logged out just now, they were offering me a mission that had a payout of over 90k credits! All it would have taken to complete it was to fly to the nearest neighboring system and purchase a few easily available commodities for around 30k credits or so. Easy money.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Tue Dec 23, 2014 6:55 pm

HERE is someone using the X55 Rhino to play Elite

Stuie · Post by **Stuie** » Tue Dec 23, 2014 11:12 pm

jztemple2 wrote:I'm really feeling the OO effect now.

Yeah thanks once again, OO people. Made the wife include this as a late addition to my xmas list. :p

Alefroth · Post by **Alefroth** » Wed Dec 24, 2014 8:34 pm

Hey Stuie, I got a Steam pop-up that you were playing Elite. Are you just launching it through Steam, or did you activate it?

Also, does anyone know how to clear a destination?

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Wed Dec 24, 2014 10:46 pm

Ended up spending most of today taking care of a sick wife, but I was just rewarded with finding a great trade route.

The planets are only 1 jump and a short supercruise away and I'm making about 40,000 credits per round trip.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Thu Dec 25, 2014 3:31 am

You guys are making me wish I had a system that could handle this game. Elite was the second game that I bought for my C64, after Ultima III. Man, did we get hours of play out of that game.

TiLT · Post by **TiLT** » Thu Dec 25, 2014 5:05 am

I don't think Elite Dangerous is all that demanding of your system. I mean, a lot of people, me included, are running the game on Ultra with the Rift, which means it's rendering the picture twice, ideally at 75 fps. It's slower inside the stations than in space, but you'll be spending the majority of your time in the latter.

Stuie · Post by **Stuie** » Thu Dec 25, 2014 7:12 am

Alefroth wrote:Hey Stuie, I got a Steam pop-up that you were playing Elite. Are you just launching it through Steam, or did you activate it?

Also, does anyone know how to clear a destination?

I'm just launching it through Steam as a non-Steam product.

And you should be able to clear a destination from the Target Panel; select the target and "Unlock Destination" should be one of the options.

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Thu Dec 25, 2014 1:16 pm

I'm alternately intrigued and intimidated by this game. How do you think it fare for someone for someone with ZERO experience in this genre?

I don't have a joystick, not sure I can justify that for a game I'm not entirely sure I'll like. However, I might not like it unless I have a joystick. Conundrum...

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Thu Dec 25, 2014 3:05 pm

Well, my laptop meets the minimal requirements to run this game.

Dammit.

Harkonis · Post by **Harkonis** » Thu Dec 25, 2014 4:35 pm

I'm using my mumble for this fwiw, anyone is welcome just pm for info.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Thu Dec 25, 2014 4:40 pm

Telling me I can MP with Hark is not the way to Jerome from spending $60 on it. I suppose it would make up for the last couple years of CoD that I've missed.

raydude · Post by **raydude** » Thu Dec 25, 2014 7:45 pm

Is Jerome a new slang?

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Thu Dec 25, 2014 7:50 pm

It's what happens when you type "keep me" as "jeepme" and autocorrect gets to it.

Cortilian · Post by **Cortilian** » Fri Dec 26, 2014 12:12 am

I've continued to upgrade my viper some and took down my 1st Anaconda tonight for a 107k bounty

. Move myself to the Gilgamesh system as I hear some people are operating out of there.

Still having a blast.

noxiousdog · Post by **noxiousdog** » Fri Dec 26, 2014 11:45 am

OOFE got me too. I've gone through all the training missions, but haven't actually started the game.

I'm using keyboard and mouse and it works just fine.... so far.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Fri Dec 26, 2014 12:49 pm

Willpower failing.................must...............resist...................

Birdman042 · Post by **Birdman042** » Fri Dec 26, 2014 1:14 pm

It's been an enjoyable game so far. It brought back so many memories playing the original Elite on my C64. I haven't spent that much time with it (not more than an hour or so). Although I was able to successfully dock at a station on my first attempt, the next couple of attempts weren't pretty at all

. I am playing with a 360 controller, which is fine for trading and the tutorial combat missions. On my first playthru, I was in the middle of docking and had to go and help my son. I not thinking, just 'paused' it and when i came back, my ship was destroyed (of course) by the station for loitering around.

Learned my lesson that time.

Alefroth · Post by **Alefroth** » Fri Dec 26, 2014 1:30 pm

Stuie wrote:
Alefroth wrote:Hey Stuie, I got a Steam pop-up that you were playing Elite. Are you just launching it through Steam, or did you activate it?

Also, does anyone know how to clear a destination?
I'm just launching it through Steam as a non-Steam product.

And you should be able to clear a destination from the Target Panel; select the target and "Unlock Destination" should be one of the options.

Thanks Stuie, that seemed like the obvious place and thought I'd already checked, but I see it now.

Alefroth · Post by **Alefroth** » Fri Dec 26, 2014 1:34 pm

noxiousdog wrote:OOFE got me too. I've gone through all the training missions, but haven't actually started the game.

I'm using keyboard and mouse and it works just fine.... so far.

I think I'm about to plunk down the money for this and VoiceAttack. Seems like it might be really helpful for k&m users.

Here's a handy mod that lets you configure the HUD colors.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Fri Dec 26, 2014 2:57 pm

If the hat is used to go up down lefr right with thrusters how do you look around in the cockpit?

Alefroth · Post by **Alefroth** » Fri Dec 26, 2014 3:30 pm

Daehawk wrote:If the hat is used to go up down lefr right with thrusters how do you look around in the cockpit?

My hat is used for power management (I didn't set it). I think there might be a head look toggle that will enable the hat switch to look around.

TiLT · Post by **TiLT** » Fri Dec 26, 2014 5:21 pm

Up to 1,3 million credits in assets now, and the Federation has started to notice me. I was jumping around in the vicinity of Sol (including Sol itself. Don't go there. They don't export shit. Actually, shit is literally the only thing they export) and was ready to log off for the night when a personal mission from the Federation popped up on the Bulletin Board. They were asking me to get them 2 Combat Stabilizers within 1 hour and 40 minutes as a way to test my ability to work under pressure. That may sound like an easy task, but Combat Stabilizers are prohibited in most civilized systems, and they are incredibly hard to find as a result. So not only would I have to track down a system that sold them (which ended up requiring me to jump over 70 light years and back again), but I would actually have to smuggle them into the station where they gave me the mission in the first place.

50 minutes later, I finally found myself with 2 tons of Combat Stabilizers and approaching the target station, when someone tried to interdict me. It looked almost impossible to avoid at first, but I managed to squeeze my way out through sheer grit. I'm confident that this wasn't a pirate, but a system authority vessel. No way to know for sure though. When I reached the station, I stayed over 10 km away from it while angling myself for the gate, then put the pedal to the metal and flew directly inside at high speed. Nobody managed to scan me in time, so I made it.

As a result, I'm now a Recruit in the Federation Navy. I'm looking forward to seeing what missions this will open up for me.

Alefroth · Post by **Alefroth** » Fri Dec 26, 2014 5:36 pm

Odd, I started getting that mission after just a few days of play (still in my Sidewinder). I took it, but of course never found any. It still pops up from time to time but I just ignore it now.

Stuie · Post by **Stuie** » Fri Dec 26, 2014 5:44 pm

Daehawk wrote:If the hat is used to go up down lefr right with thrusters how do you look around in the cockpit?

Click middle mouse button to enter look mode or whatever they call it. Click again to toggle it back off.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Sat Dec 27, 2014 11:27 am

Is there a pause mode?

TiLT · Post by **TiLT** » Sat Dec 27, 2014 12:21 pm

Zarathud wrote:Is there a pause mode?

Nope, but there are plenty of ways to keep yourself safe in case you need to step away from the keyboard/controller. Try parking in a station or simply exiting supercruise in some random location. I don't think anyone can find you if you're not in supercruise yourself, and not in a location where other ships have reason to go.

Make no mistake, this is an online game. The background simulation running on their servers wouldn't have become paused if you paused your local client.

noxiousdog · Post by **noxiousdog** » Sat Dec 27, 2014 12:49 pm

Can someone (preferably near the top of the first page) start a friends list?

I'm using noxiousdog.