Elite: Dangerous

digitalscream · January 2016

OK, time for a video or two...apparently, that's a thing these days. First up, me against an Elite Fer-De-Lance:

Sad to say, he wasn't very Elite. No idea what guns he was using, but he definitely had a Prismatic Shield Generator. Given the ease with which I got his shields down, I don't think he was managing his pips properly; my shields should have been much weaker than his, but I didn't even have to bother.

In case anyone's interested, I'm flying a Vulture with A5 shields and two shield boosters (A0 and C0), lots of hull reinforcement (no shield cells), dual chaff launchers and a pair of fixed D3 pulse lasers.

When I was getting into PvP, I found watching videos (particularly Cillit Bang's) very useful. That's where I got the idea to use my vertical thrusters a lot more when fighting - doesn't work so well against NPCs, but it's bloody useful against human players.

digitalscream · January 2016

...and another one, against another Elite CMDR - this time in a Federal Corvette:

Much more of a challenge - in fact, there was absolutely no way I was going to survive it. I usually just aim to get their shields down, but this guy a) was too good, and b) had far too many shield cells. Brave Sir Robin time.

racefaceec90 · March 2016

have just downloaded it for my xbox one. it's not easy is it. am bloody hopeless at controlling my ship. and as for trying to fight an enemy (no chance in hell). this is the tutorials btw too.

how the hell do you get to grips with this game

hubobulous · March 2016

It took a long time for me to get to grips with flying and fighting. I've got to admit that I boght a HOTAS system and now its miles easer. The main thing with the fighting is to target....without that, its next to impossible.

digitalscream · March 2016

racefaceec90 said:

have just downloaded it for my xbox one. it's not easy is it. am bloody hopeless at controlling my ship. and as for trying to fight an enemy (no chance in hell). this is the tutorials btw too.

how the hell do you get to grips with this game

Patience, and a HOTAS controller.

Axe_meister · March 2016

Do you have flight assist on or off?

racefaceec90 · March 2016

i have flight assist on i think. am currently speeding off to gods knows where atm in online mode from the spaceport i started from using the supercruise speed mode. no idea how to do hyperspace jumps. this game is going to take a while to get to grips with.

digitalscream · March 2016

racefaceec90 said:

i have flight assist on i think. am currently speeding off to gods knows where atm in online mode from the spaceport i started from using the supercruise speed mode. no idea how to do hyperspace jumps. this game is going to take a while to get to grips with.

Go to your left-hand panel, first tab - it'll show all the points of interest in your current system first (the ones you can supercruise to), and then other systems after that (when you click them, you'll get a menu which allows you to engage hyperdrive). Not sure how to do it on a console...this is a game much better suited to playing on a PC.

racefaceec90 · March 2016

am just locking on to fairbairn station in the lhs 3447 system. have no idea if i'll make it or not (or if i'll blow up trying to dock with the station lol. great game though :-)

digitalscream · March 2016

racefaceec90 said:

am just locking on to fairbairn station in the lhs 3447 system. have no idea if i'll make it or not (or if i'll blow up trying to dock with the station lol. great game though :-)

Good luck

Don't forget, you can't supercruise to other systems, no matter how much you try.

racefaceec90 · March 2016

well i have just stopped playing elite finally (have been playing it since 5am today

) :-O $:\$ ">

i still suck at the game (and still mess up landing in space docks/those round ones that spin are sods

:x

i have nearly 200,000 credits now and earlier bought the transport ship that is around 50,000 credits.i like it a lot

am going to stick to trading,as i suck at any fighting (although i did kill someone who did that thing when you are in the space shift mode,they make you exit it if you cannot follow the escape vector). the s.o.b started shooting and i was in my sidewinder with the standard guns (have since upgraded them to gimbled lasers). by some miracle i managed to shoot them down.

bloody great game (even though it's the xbox one and not the pc version,i wish my laptop could run it.no chance

digitalscream · March 2016

@racefaceec90 - you might want to try the long-distance smuggling missions. You can make over a million credits per tonne - you just have to get to one of the starting points (Robigo is the most popular), take a bunch of smuggling missions, plot a route and just not get scanned anywhere along your journey (can be harder than it sounds, but there are tutorials everywhere).

You'll need a fast ship, though; something like a Cobra or Diamondback Explorer. Outfitted right, you'll easily make 40 million in a single trip over a couple of hours; you'll also learn about using silent running effectively.

racefaceec90 · March 2016

digitalscream that sounds like a good mission. am planning on getting the transport ship that's around 350,000 credits next (i think it's the cobra?)

digitalscream · March 2016

racefaceec90 said:

digitalscream that sounds like a good mission. am planning on getting the transport ship that's around 350,000 credits next (i think it's the cobra?)

I'm honestly not sure - it's been a long time since I worried about the cost of ships

However, being a Kickstarter backer, I started off in the Cobra. It's not a bad ship, but I've been flying a Vulture since it came out. Not even the FDL v2 can match it for pure fun in combat (I'm not much of a trucker...).

The key to making the Robigo missions work for you is to sit in the station, checking the bulletin board every 15 minutes or so until you've picked up enough smuggling missions to fill your hold. Don't forget to pack a fuel scoop as well

This is a good build for smuggling in a Cobra.

This is a better build in a Diamondback Explorer - same cargo space, but 30Ly in a single jump and 200Ly range on a full tank.

Nomad · March 2016

A Cobra MkIII, that is. The MkIV is a lot slower (and you might not have access to it - it was a special for those that pre-ordered Horizons before it was released).

The MkIII makes a good smuggling ship if dodging troublemakers is what you're into. When you smuggle, you'll get interdicted (by NPCs as well as CMDRs), and if you're crap at combat, the strategy is to do a runner until your FSD comes back online and then supercruise or hyperjump away. The Cobra MkIII is the fastest ship in the game, and nearly the fastest ship when boosting - I think there's one that can go a little faster on boost (boost is like giving it a squirt of nitrous oxide).

Both Cobras are out of your price range at the moment, though. Probably better to concentrate on upgrading your current ship for a while - add better bits where you think they will help. Watch out for power usage - upgrading the power plant and power distributor early on is a good idea. Then you can think about things like better shields.

If it hasn't been said already, always keep cash in reserve to pay the ship rebuy cost if you get destroyed - it's like an insurance excess, and is 5% of the total value of your ship including upgrades, but not including cargo. The latter means you should also always keep some cash back to cover loss of cargo, whether through destruction, piracy, or ship damage. (Heat damage from flying to close to a star can result in your cargo hatch getting damaged, at which point, you start leaking cargo canisters.) Enough cash for several rebuys and at least one fill of expensive cargo is a good idea.

Other possible things to try are mining and exploration. Mining really requires decent cargo space to be worthwhile, and sufficient internal module space for the equipment, but it's quite relaxing if you don't get hassled, and you can make steady money if you go after the more precious metals. Good opportunity to practice fine control of the ship, thanks to having to dodge asteroids. Exploration can make steady cash as well, and you're unlikely to get hassled if you're out of the bubble (human occupied space). With exploring, you fly about, scanning systems and planets, all the while gathering exploration data. When you return to civilisation and dock at a station, you flog all the data to Universal Cartographics.

I'm into exploration at the moment - I gave up my life of petty crime and bottom-feeder thieving and left the bubble last December. I headed to the Pleiades nebula to check out the Unknown Artefact mystery, and only skimmed by the bubble once on my way to Barnard's loop and the other nebulae near it. (I'm actually looking for barnacles, and hoping to get attacked by the Thargoids, but that's a whole different story arc.) I haven't seen another ship in weeks.

racefaceec90 · March 2016

i thought i might do an update as to how i'm getting on (sounds like e d anonymous lol)

i did have 3 ships (my cobra mk 3/the sidewinder and the cheapest transport ship). well i sold both the sidewinder and transport ship so that i could outfit my cobra for deep space exploration/scanning.

so far the furthest i have been is about 7-800 ly from civilized space scanning systems. i must say that i have enjoyed it a lot (even though it can get quite tedious at times) also the risk of damaging your ship if you loose concentration whilst jumping out of hyperdrive and into a star

$:\$ ">

to begin with i fitted a decent surface scanner,but had the basic discovery scanner. i replaced all the cargo bays with 16t fuel bays. i also only had the basic fuel scoop too.

have only done it twice so far (heading out into deep space to scan stuff) but have so far earned over 2.5-3 million credits for my effort which i am very happy about. almost all thee money has gone straight back into upgrades for my ship (better discovery scanner/fuel scoop. also fitted a better frame drive and power plant as well as better weapons).

my next excursion i plan on heading out a bit further than 800ly as my ship is a lot better equipped now than before maybe 1-2000 ly and scan as much as i can.

as regards to enemy contact,i have been getting a bit better when dealing with enemy a.i pirates (as it's only a.i pirates that have been attacking me i think) am still not very good with dog fighting,but have managed to blow up a few of them and one of them fled when they found out that i wasn't going to be an easy target ;-)

have still got a lot to learn about this game,but feel that i am at least starting to get to grips with the game.

apart from those rotating space ports though,i still make a pig's ear out of trying to enter them

$:\$ ">

digitalscream · March 2016

Nicely done - keep it up

I'd hold off on visiting Sag A for a while, though...there's a battle-fitted Anaconda waiting there at the moment who's killing everybody who arrives.

I'm taking a bit of a break from it for a while. I've basically beaten everyone I want to beat, apart from the ones that are impossible (ie taking on a Federal Corvette in a Vulture...it's just not going to happen, no matter how good you are).

I've actually broken down my desktop, so there's no chance of me playing now. I'm going to try to spend that time making music (or being otherwise productive) instead.

We'll see how that goes

Nomad · March 2016

racefaceec90 said:

also the risk of damaging your ship if you loose concentration whilst jumping out of hyperdrive and into a star

Always zero the throttle right after the hyperspace jump has started (X on the keyboard, or set to zero on HOTAS). That way, it will rapidly drop to the minimum supercruise speed of 30km/s at the end of the jump, which is easily slow enough to get things under control when you're suddenly pointing at a rather close star.

You can come out of the hyperjump, select the star and point straight at it to do the detailed scan, without having to get further away first, which tells you how much time you have to manoeuvre if you arrive already set for the slow speed.

The advanced discovery scanner is the best - it will ID everything in the local system with one scan (no distance limits like with the other discovery scanners). I arrive, do the discovery scan, then scan the star, pull up to scoop fuel, get clear, and then slow down and have a look at the system map to see what else might be worth a detailed scan.

If you don't have one, consider an auto field maintenance unit - very handy for carrying out running repairs, although it can't fix a damaged hull, and it can't fix itself (a module needs to be powered down to be repaired). If you have two AFMUs, each can fix the other. If you have Horizons, you can land on planets and collect materials to make refills for the AFMU. If you don't, see it as a get-out-of-jail card and a warning to be more careful - if you toast the ship, the AFMU ammo can get used up quite quickly on repairs. The lesser ones might not have enough capacity to get all modules/weapons back up to 100% depending on how much damage you've taken.

crunchman · March 2016

racefaceec90 said:

apart from those rotating space ports though,i still make a pig's ear out of trying to enter them

The original Elite had a docking computer you could buy which did it all for you while playing the Blue Danube. My machine isn't up to playing this version so I don't know if there is something similar.

Sporky · March 2016

crunchman said:

The original Elite had a docking computer you could buy which did it all for you while playing the Blue Danube. My machine isn't up to playing this version so I don't know if there is something similar.

And just as you got to the entrance some git would come out and smash into you!

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