Elite: Dangerous

[Ulminati]

Nice. The guy really had a nerve of steel when playing hide and seek with silent running on 36% hull.

Low-heat flying is great fun. although I must shamefully admit I've taken to using a gamepad for FA-off flying. The left analogue stick is horizontal thrust, left bumper/trigger is vertical, right stick is pitch/roll. It makes it a lot easier to maneuver (almost like a floaty fps) with 2 sticks. I guess you could do the same with 2 joysticks. But the gamepad was just lying around. And in CQC I don't need to keep track of all my auxillary functions, so gamepad is good there.

Flight Assist off is pretty much mandatory if you want to try low-emission stealth gameplay. You generate so much more heat with flight assist constantly vectoring to "correct" your heading it's not even funny.

One thing I really wish ED would add for stealth ships is a number of preset system profiles. So I can have a "everything on", "everything off", "everything but engines off" etc preset bound to a hotkey. It gets fiddly to open your right hand terminal and check/uncheck subsystems on the fly while tracking a target.

 

[J_C]

One thing I really wish ED would add for stealth ships is a number of preset system profiles. So I can have a "everything on", "everything off", "everything but engines off" etc preset bound to a hotkey. .

This was exactly the thing I was thinking about when I watched the video. Turning everything on and off one by one is quite a hassle, being able to save presets would be great.

As for FA off, I use the hat switch on my joystick for the thrusters, so I don't have to take my hands off the joystick. If I would have a hotas, I would set one of the mini switches for the thrusters, but I don't have money for it.

 

[Ulminati]

On my stick I use hat for horizontal/vertical thrusters, but that makes forward/backward a hassle since the throttle is no good for fine control there. It's fine for FA-on and short periods of FA-off, such as sharp rotation flips or maintaining boost speed. But once you want to maneuver around asteroids or try to dock with FA-off (heck, even a lengthy dogfight), the regular throttle becomes unwieldy.

If I had a HOTAS setup, I could probably do a double-hat setup for FA-off. But alas, there are no left-handed HOTAS setups (like, not a single one), and I've not been able to get comfortable with a stick in my right hand.

 

[J_C]

On my stick I use hat for horizontal/vertical thrusters, but that makes forward/backward a hassle since the throttle is no good for fine control there. It's fine for FA-on and short periods of FA-off, such as sharp rotation flips or maintaining boost speed. But once you want to maneuver around asteroids or try to dock with FA-off (heck, even a lengthy dogfight), the regular throttle becomes unwieldy.

Yeah the forward backward thrusters ar not configured on the joystick for me, I never used them. I rarely fly FA-off though, and when I do, I try to be really precise with the regular throttle. It's not optimal, but I have to make do with it. Maybe will I try to make up some macros on the joystick for the forward/back thrusters.

 

[Ulminati]

Haha. I know, right?
It started out as an experiment when CQC was released, since it is also out for consoles. It is a bit weird at first. But lacking a regular HOTAS or twinstick setup, it works surprisingly well. It felt like playing Descent

 

[Night Goat]

Can you play the whole game effectively without a joystick? I don't have one and amn't gonna buy one just for one game.

 

[praetor]

yes

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

Can you play the whole game effectively without a joystick? I don't have one and amn't gonna buy one just for one game.

only if you're playing with a pad. mouse+keyboard is impossibru.

 

[Ulminati]

I played m+kb in beta and it's possibru, but hardish. Gamepad is surprisingly 'k

 

[Severian Silk]

Gamepad is okay for space sims. Obviously not all commands will map to 14 buttons, so you will need a keyboard too.

 

[J_C]

Can you play the whole game effectively without a joystick? I don't have one and amn't gonna buy one just for one game.

Sure, you can play it. Just don't expect to defeat a good joystick user when it comes to combat.

 

[Ulminati]

By the way J_C and anyone else who hasn't played Elite Dangerous since shortly after launch.

It's gotten some nice QoL upgrades. Combat bonds are no longer a flat rate but scale with the kind of ship you blow up. Bounties also pay out more. There's also a couple new mission types. So spacetrucking is no longer the only way to make cash. I haven't tried out the mining limpets yet, but I heard good things from a mate. Missions also scale better, with 150k+ credit missions being fairly common once you get friendly rep with a faction. All in all the cash grind is a lot less tedious now.

I hopped into the powerplay overlay (left console) and checked out GalNet. There was a news article about fighting in nearby systems. So I opened the link to the system, which sent me to map view. Told it to plot me a route (remember when we had to write our jump sequences on a piece of paper?) and off I went. 10 minutes later I was in-system and made ~1 million creds in combat bonds in ~45 minutes shooting assorted ships in a conflict zone.

Another very important thing is that they appear to have tweaked supercruise. Once you're away from gravity wells you accelerate/decelerate way faster. So it no longer takes 15 minutes to get someplate 1k light seconds away.
I really like the new diamondback scout. Similar handling to a viper, but more utility slots and way, way better jump range.

If anyone is still playing, lemme know. We can form a wing and go hunt CMDRs in populated systems or AIs in conflict zones sometime.

 

[J_C]

By the way J_C and anyone else who hasn't played Elite Dangerous since shortly after launch.

It's gotten some nice QoL upgrades. Combat bonds are no longer a flat rate but scale with the kind of ship you blow up. Bounties also pay out more. There's also a couple new mission types. So spacetrucking is no longer the only way to make cash. I haven't tried out the mining limpets yet, but I heard good things from a mate. Missions also scale better, with 150k+ credit missions being fairly common once you get friendly rep with a faction. All in all the cash grind is a lot less tedious now.

I hopped into the powerplay overlay (left console) and checked out GalNet. There was a news article about fighting in nearby systems. So I opened the link to the system, which sent me to map view. Told it to plot me a route (remember when we had to write our jump sequences on a piece of paper?) and off I went. 10 minutes later I was in-system and made ~1 million creds in combat bonds in ~45 minutes shooting assorted ships in a conflict zone.

Another very important thing is that they appear to have tweaked supercruise. Once you're away from gravity wells you accelerate/decelerate way faster. So it no longer takes 15 minutes to get someplate 1k light seconds away.
I really like the new diamondback scout. Similar handling to a viper, but more utility slots and way, way better jump range.

If anyone is still playing, lemme know. We can form a wing and go hunt CMDRs in populated systems or AIs in conflict zones sometime.

Thanks, this sounds cool. Since I sold my account a while ago, I can't play now, but will buy Horizons and then we can hunt pirates together.

 

[Ulminati]

If you're playing with me, you'll be on the other side of the fence >:3



I *might* lower myself to smuggling (but wings arne't good for that) or "mining" (going to a mining zone and blowing up players with lots of cargo. It seems like AI mining ships don't carry a lot of cargo before they leave). Bounty hunting.....eh. It'll have to be a bloody good contract.

Mostly we'd be interdicting ships and blowing up their cargo hatches.

 

[praetor]

i'm still playing but i'm currently doing the "Sothis gold rush" while it's still "a thing" since it's relatively fun and very profitable

but before you go about interdicting stuff, wait for a patch as it's currently borked (at least for NPCs, both interdicting them and being interdicted)

 

[Ulminati]

Interdicting worked fine for me yesterday.

I derped around on twitch yesterday. I haven't been playing for a while so I needed to get rid of some rust. Most of it is long sequences of boring space trucking and me being semi-afk.

But here's a couple of the parts where things happened that aren't mind-numbingly dull to watch:

Reading my space newspaper:
http://www.twitch.tv/ulminati/v/20848380?t=0h9m16s

Entering a combat zone to score some combat bonds by killing rebel scum:
http://www.twitch.tv/ulminati/v/20848380?t=0h20m56s

Out of ammo, heading to a space station to dock. Wasting tons of time browing ship upgrades and decide to try out a shitload of fragment cannons for shits & gigglez
http://www.twitch.tv/ulminati/v/20848380?t=0h52m18s

Back in the combat zone. Didn't check how much ammo fragment cannons hav.e Things very nearly go bad:
http://www.twitch.tv/ulminati/v/20848380?t=1h12m0s

Third time into combat zone. Had another repair and refit. Swapped my weapon setup to fixed lasers (instead of the gimballed systems I used so far). They do more damage, but because they don't track I hit the enemy in shorter bursts.
http://www.twitch.tv/ulminati/v/20848380?t=1h36m46s


Also, the people in shoutbox who called my asp a "space turd" need to raise reputation with the empire:




Sexy! I might pick one up.
It's like a more expensive and prettier eagle. Only it trades some turning speed for way faster cruise/boost speed, better shields/armor and instead of 3 small weapon hardpoints it has 2 small+1medium.

 

[Berekän]

I'm still a newb at the game and don't have much time lately, but I would love to play on a wing and gank carebears anytime.

 

[SmartCheetah]

I'm playing from time to time, so might catch up with you guys. As far as I remember I was flying heavily upgraded Fer-De-Lance, so... Yeah. It might ruin some fun.
Imperial eagle looks damn sexy.

 

[Ulminati]

3-man iEagle wing when!?

They're cheapish to outfit to A-grade and look like they could be a right pain if we slot them with 2 gimballed beams and a medium imperial railgun.

http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=70P,9qW4wt4wt0Wg,2-4s4s4s2C3I3m3c,7Pc03w4wE

[Imperial Eagle]
M: 2B/F Imperial Hammer Rail Gun
S: 1E/G Beam Laser
S: 1E/G Beam Laser
U: 0I Heat Sink Launcher

BH: 1I Lightweight Alloy
RB: 3A Power Plant
TM: 3A Thrusters
FH: 3A Frame Shift Drive
EC: 1D Life Support
PC: 2A Power Distributor
SS: 2D Sensors
FS: 2C Fuel Tank (Capacity: 4)

3: 3A Shield Generator
2: 2E Cargo Rack (Capacity: 4)
1: 1A Fuel Scoop
---
Shield: 136,00 MJ
Power : 8,92 MW retracted (74 %)
        11,89 MW deployed (99 %)
        12,00 MW available
Cargo : 4 T
Fuel  : 4 T
Mass  : 80,8 T empty
        88,8 T full
Range : 18,19 LY unladen
        17,37 LY laden
Price : 3.026.550 CR
Re-Buy: 151.328 CR @ 95% insurance

Power requirements run a bit tight. We'd have to shuffle modules off in combat (or downgrade some subsystems) if we'd want to run shield banks.
Although if you aren't aligned with Arissa Lavigny-Duval, you won't be able to acquire the EMPRAH'S HAMMR!


O yeah. In case you didn't know, you can earn access to special gear in powerplay.


http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Imperial_Hammer

 

[praetor]

iEagle is fun to fly, but that power distributor ruins the shooting potential (drains superfast even when you have a multi on the C2)

how about some iCouriers (wish i could gift ships in-game so you guys don't have to grind for rank if you don't have it)?

 

[Ulminati]

I'd mostly have to grind for creds tbh. I had some careless misadventures with a fully kitted out asp and had a haemorrhage of funds. At the moment I'm in a Diamondback scout messing around. I wanted to go Vulture (those hardpoints, hnnnngh), but couldn't find a grade-A power plant anywhere.


I got baron rank in the Empire.

 

[SmartCheetah]

As far as my current build goes:

Spoiler

But with 15mil surplus I can actually afford something smaller to fly with ya guys. If I'll find the time, ofc.

 

[praetor]

i could drop some cash once i get back to civilization (i have roughly 400mil in the bank plus something like 10-15 ships parked around empire space). a fully kitted courier should be roughly 9mil, palladium average price is 13k so.... almost 700tons to scoop :D is there a more valuable (non-rare) purchasable commodity with a higher price?

 

[Ulminati]

Eh, I can grind roughly 1½-2 mill/hr in a high intensity conflict zone depending on how many repair trips I need to make. With trade-in I can probably set up a courier pretty quick.
Any tips on loadouts? I'm guessing I want gimbals in the nacelle hardpoints?

Switched to vulture. Got 1 mill in 30 mins of combat

 

[AN4RCHID]

More Horizons footage