Elite: Dangerous

Bork

My preference has been for the bigger boats as they are a little more relaxing to fly.  Having said that, I jump into the SLF sometimes but I can't aim fixed weapons in that thing to save myself (literally).

Bork

I've just found a system today that is more active than Niu Hsing for Fed rank.  It's still a grind but at least there are missions popping up.  I might have the Corvette in another week.

Axe_meister

My son has discovered some quirk in Civil war systems (Quince being one) where you get a scan mission then switch to solo play and the mission appears again, then switch back to open and it appears again. You can stack up to 5 times for each mission he was making about 1m every 10mins

digitalscream

Axe_meister said:

My son has discovered some quirk in Civil war systems (Quince being one) where you get a scan mission then switch to solo play and the mission appears again, then switch back to open and it appears again. You can stack up to 5 times for each mission he was making about 1m every 10mins

I think they're nerfing that in the next release - probably worth trying it in the beta to see if it still works. They're definitely nerfing the stacked massacre missions.

Axe_meister

Well got in early before they nerfed the bug (I know not quite the spirit of the game) but now have an A/B rated Python son and FDL.
Haz Res sites are now chicken feed (ok no wanted CMDs yet)

TimmyO

ooh - check EDC on FB - might have a couple of CMDRs setting out to Hutton for their Anaconda... 

Bork

Lots of peeps on EDC seem to have been grinding for their cutters ahead of 2.4 dropping. I have 800 million in the bank after my fed grind so far, no massacre missions involved.

PolarityMan

I now have a machine that can run this, is it still worth starting as a newb or am I likely to be continually ganked?

digitalscream

PolarityMan said:

I now have a machine that can run this, is it still worth starting as a newb or am I likely to be continually ganked?

Start off in Solo or in the Mobius private group - you'll be fine. Just take your time, and realise that the learning curve is only as steep as your impatience.

PolarityMan

Is it possible to paly sensibly with mouse / keys or a gamepad to see if i like it before going for a fancy joystick?

digitalscream

PolarityMan said:

Is it possible to paly sensibly with mouse / keys or a gamepad to see if i like it before going for a fancy joystick?

A lot of the top PvPers play with mouse and keyboard, but it's a *lot* harder. Gamepad is limiting, and it's pretty hard to be accurate with one (as shown by the devs when they do their live streams).

The Thrustmaster HOTAS-X is pretty cheap, though, and excellent - it's about £35 on Amazon. I use one, and the only issue I've had is that it's a bit too sensitive for PvP stuff. For a beginner, it's absolutely fine. As you get more used to the game, you'll probably want to install Joystick Curves and customise the response curves.

PolarityMan

Do I need the extras (horizons and commander pack) or should i dip my toe in with jsut the original?

digitalscream

PolarityMan said:

Do I need the extras (horizons and commander pack) or should i dip my toe in with jsut the original?

You don't need the commander pack, but you'll miss out on tons of content if you don't have Horizons. More to the point, you won't be able to harden your ship with Engineers, which is a key part of survivability now that the NPCs are harder. As I'm discovering...I've been playing from the beginning, but I've just started a new Vulture build and I'm getting creamed when I go up against multiple NPCs, even middle-tier ones.

PolarityMan

Strapping engineers to the hull is unethical

digitalscream

PolarityMan said:

Strapping engineers to the hull is unethical

You've clearly never tried to satisfy the Engineers' requests. Strapping them to the hull is awfully tempting.

Bork

Especially for those rares runs, Kamitra cigars for example.  

Gankers are a bit like flies around shit.  Stay away from the shit and you'll be fine.  Besides which, 2.4 is going to ramp up the financial consequences for gankers.  It could make bounty hunting interesting.

Got the Corvette but I'm thoroughly fed up with missions.  Love my python though, it's been a real workhorse and even taken out a deadly Anaconda despite thermal resistance being a little low. I have renamed it 'Little Bastard' in recognition because it's relatively small but punches way above it's weight.

FWIW, I run dual Thrustmaster 16000T joysticks because I'm left handed and a left handed throttle isn't convenient.  It's a great system but unfortunately I'll never be running VR unless they change the view to match bindings and set up.

digitalscream

Tried a little experiment with Mavis (new Vulture build, see above). Bi-weave shields with AAB resistance-augmented boosters. Modded the bi-weaves to G5 thermal resistant - total shield strength 499MJ, but with around 60% resistance on everything and a bonus of a significantly-increased regen rate.

Then I went and picked a fight with a pair of deadly NPC Anacondas, and waited until the po-po showed up.

Wow, these shields are strong.

Throughout the entire fight - me versus both Anacondas, with five System Authority Vipers hammering at my ship - I only lost about 50% of my shields. Contrast that with a couple of days ago (only two boosters, and Enhanced Low-Power Shields) when I took on a Medical Transport Python with two Vultures for escort, and didn't even take the Python's shields down before mine went and I had to bug out (using loads of chaff in the process, whereas I didn't use any this time).

Bork

Gosh, that's impressive and a good illustration of why resistance is so important.  

I have yet to balance the resistances on my python and will probably do it at the same time as the corvette and cutter.  Prismatics are the next goal after the corvette is engineered.

Bork

Now I've set down the path of shield tweaking.  Currently I have G5 Resistance Augmented modded shields on the PvE Cutter and Python but thermal resistance is 60% behind kinetic and explosive.  I can make up the difference with shield boosters modded for thermal resistance but it means I can't use those slots for resistance augmented boosters (to reach 60%) or heavy duty (to boost overall shield strength).

So it's back to Lei Chueng I go, to remodify the shields on both to G5 thermal.  Ruthenium is proving a PITA to find.

digitalscream

Bork said:

Now I've set down the path of shield tweaking.  Currently I have G5 Resistance Augmented modded shields on the PvE Cutter and Python but thermal resistance is 60% behind kinetic and explosive.  I can make up the difference with shield boosters modded for thermal resistance but it means I can't use those slots for resistance augmented boosters (to reach 60%) or heavy duty (to boost overall shield strength).

So it's back to Lei Chueng I go, to remodify the shields on both to G5 thermal.  Ruthenium is proving a PITA to find.

Damn...I can't remember where I was before I headed off to Cheung's place - one of the Engineers' planets has 1.4% ruthenium. I'm pretty sure it was either Selene Jean's planet or Didi Vatermann's, with an outside chance it was Marco Qwent's. Check their planets in the gal map, if you're anywhere nearby.

EDIT: Wait, if you use ED Materializer, you'll see that there's ruthenium on Laksak A 1.