Elite: Dangerous

[MasterSmithFandango]

OMG I'm going to hump you guys in the face. I kept the thrusters on the throttle hat, actually used them correctly, and crushed the dude in no time flat. Turns out when you're not going head to head, but are instead on the guys tail, it's a lot easier to hit him. Who'd have thunk it?

 

[tindrli]

is it free to play already??

 

[Ulminati]

I hope they add additional hangar slots soon. I crave combat, but I'm reluctant to let my Lakon go just yet. I have a cargo run set up between 3 star systems that nets me ~400k per circuit. It seems like the only way to drum up the 7 million required for the Anaconda capital ship in a reasonable amount of time. I'm so tempted to downgrade to a viper though. :<

 

[J_C]

I hope they add additional hangar slots soon. I crave combat, but I'm reluctant to let my Lakon go just yet. I have a cargo run set up between 3 star systems that nets me ~400k per circuit. It seems like the only way to drum up the 7 million required for the Anaconda capital ship in a reasonable amount of time. I'm so tempted to downgrade to a viper though. :<

Damn you Ulminate, every time you post, this game sounds more awesome. It seems to me that it is in pretty good shape, despite it being a beta (alpha?).

 

[Ulminati]

It still needs some polish, but it's pretty gud. Mission payout is way too small at the moment though. Especially combat missions. If you're in a cobra, you're looking at 5-10x the credits/minute doing trade runs compared to combat. And most of the cargo missions net you less money than doing a regular trade run because they're headed to a system that has poor payouts for commodities available at your current station. While you're still in a sidewinder or hauler you'll occasionally come across a mission that pays decently. But it's usually more profitable to hunt for gold near Freeport. It'd also be nice to see more vareity in missions. So far it's [find good x and bring it here], [take this cargo to station y] or [kill ships belonging to faction z in these star systems].

Fortunately the devs already said they were working on that.

Baker platform is aptly named. It's orbiting right outside of the gravity well of the sun. You have to curve around to get to it in supercruise to avoid getting dumped back into realspace. You need the Lakon-6, Lakon-9 or anaconda to get to it at the moment. (A stripped-down Cobra can get there as well, but once you fill the cargo hold, it won't have the capacity to jump back to the core systems). The mines nearby makes this the best place to get uranium and gold for trade in the current beta.

Also, I just saw a guy in a Lakon-9 (the hugeass freighter that can haul up to 460 tons) miss the entry port out of the starport, blow up and scatter uranium everywhere. That's a loooooooot of credits up in smoke for someone. :3

It's a pity that the big crashes tend to happen inside the starport gate, where you're not allowed to loiter and scoop it all up.


The profit arteries, colour coded for your convenience. Time to appease your inner spacejew. Each of the categories has 2-10 trade goods in it that you can filter through.

 

[Bradylama]

It still needs some polish, but it's pretty gud. Mission payout is way too small at the moment though. Especially combat missions.

Combat may never be more lucrative than trading or piracy. I think the primary appeal of combat will be the ability to affect political outcomes in the gameworld.

 

[Ulminati]

I'm fine with that. But at the moment, the payout is too slim nonetheless. If I sit down to play for two hours, trading is better for credits by a factor 20 at least. If I could have multiple ships, it would be less of a problem. As it is, combat missions should pay out better, since you're actually risking your ship and upgrades. It's also a bit silly that the bounty payout on a federal starfighter with peashooters and a cobra with missiles and railguns is the same.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

I'm fine with that. But at the moment, the payout is too slim nonetheless. If I sit down to play for two hours, trading is better for credits by a factor 20 at least. If I could have multiple ships, it would be less of a problem. As it is, combat missions should pay out better, since you're actually risking your ship and upgrades. It's also a bit silly that the bounty payout on a federal starfighter with peashooters and a cobra with missiles and railguns is the same.

I don't disagree with that, but those things seem like fairly minor fixes in the grand scheme of things. Also, it may be a balancing thing - if your actions actually will have significant effects on the galactic politics, they may want to make it less financially lucrative to insure that all types of gameplay are being engaged in.

 

[Bradylama]

Big bounties are in the Anarchic systems anyways. Get a K-Warrant scanner and try it out in an anarchic extraction point. Not only do you get to blast any player without incurring a penalty, but the world-wide bounties on some wanted pilots can be a pretty sum.

Finding those bounties can be pretty rare though. I think the highest total bounty I saw in the Premium Beta was 1500 credits. With bounty hunting, though, you also get a piece of whatever loot they had in their hold.

 

[Blaine]

Yes, the directional thrusters assigned to the hat make the most sense. The CH Pro Throttle is ideal for this, because the throttle has a tiny joystick you can use your thumb on. So it has full range of motion instead of being limited to four directions. It makes takeoff and landing easy as pie. It also makes the approach to the docking port far more fun and intuitive.

I keep trying to tell people this (elsewhere than the Codex), but they just can't understand unless they've actually used a HOTAS and have the proper context.

 

[shihonage]

How far away from our solar system does the game start? Is it easy to fly around Earth, Mars, etc?

 

[bonescraper]

So far the beta is limited to 55 systems quite far from Sol.

 

[Raapys]

How bad is the grind at the moment? That's one of my bigger fears given the multiplayer nature of the game. Am I expected to play 12 hours a day for months to get the best shit?

 

[potatojohn]

Nah. You can just pay real dollars and get the best shit.

 

[Ulminati]

Disregard potatojohn. He's confusing ED with star shittyzen. The only thing you can buy with jewgolds in ED is custom paint jobs. Unless you're after the capital ships like the Anaconda, you can probably raise all the credits you need in an evening or two.

 

[Azazel]

How bad is the grind at the moment? That's one of my bigger fears given the multiplayer nature of the game. Am I expected to play 12 hours a day for months to get the best shit?

Now that ship prices fluctuate a bit in different systems, and there are enough systems that random events aren't being heavily farmed, you can raise enough cash to get out of the starter ship within an hour or two.

Disregard Potatohead, his hatred has evolved to straight up lying about the game.

 

[Ulminati]

How bad is the grind at the moment? That's one of my bigger fears given the multiplayer nature of the game. Am I expected to play 12 hours a day for months to get the best shit?

Now that ship prices fluctuate a bit in different systems, and there are enough systems that random events aren't being heavily farmed, you can raise enough cash to get out of the starter ship within an hour or two.

Disregard Potatohead, his hatred has evolved to straight up lying about the game.

Doing a couple of sorties in the Federation distress signal in Eranin, getting a few unidentified signal sources that yield gold near freeport or completing 5-6 delivery contracts (and carrying sensible cargo for the station you're going to) will net you enough credits for a hauler and enough money left over to do one of the simple trade runs like i bootis-aulin. If you pick good trade runs (or use the BPC tool to do it for you), you can farm up enough credits for the Cobra and money in the bank in 3-5 hours. The cobra is probably the best all-round ship. If you're looking to get one of the big ships in the beta (Anaconda or Lakon-9), your next stop is the Lakon-6, since trade routes are the real money-makers at the moment. I have a trade route for my lakon-6 that takes about 20 minutes to do a full circuit and nets me ~300k credits. An evening or two more and I'll have the anaconda.

If you don't care for being a space trader, it's even easier. The best fighter ship in the game at the moment is probably the viper. It costs about the same as a Cobra. Just don't expect the jump drive to go far if you fill the cargo hold.



The people who are billing ED as a MMO obviously don't know what the fuck they're talking about. It's entirely possible to ignore all the other people and play this as a single player game.

 

[Blaine]

It's entirely possible to ignore all the other people and play this as a single player game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFdgjYoBMIg#t=150

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

What is the plan for the final number/variety of ships?

 

[bonescraper]

There will be 25 different playable ships[1] at launch, with each manufacturer having its own unique style.[2] Some will have variant versions, and each will have a huge range of different equipment levels,[3] so they could be equipped as freighters, attack ships, explorers, etc.

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

 

[Ulminati]

It's entirely possible to ignore all the other people and play this as a single player game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFdgjYoBMIg#t=150

If I'm just doing trade runs, playing solo instead of open world halves the load time between hyperspace, supercruise and realspace transitions. And I still get the market prices that are influenced by other players, such as when a bunch of Lakon-9 fucks spot the superconductor/resonating seperator trade route I was on and oversaturate it. :<

 

[Blaine]

It's not an insult, man. Fucking off someplace else is a 100% viable PvP strategy that some people only learn the hard way, even (or especially) when not flying sitting-duck cargo haulers.

Edit: Take EVE Online, for example. Perfect knowledge of when to engage and when to run is the hallmark of an incredibly skilled PvPer, because they need to know the capabilities of every combat-worthy ship in the entire game in a variety of fits, and to assess diverse groups of enemy ships as well as know the capabilities not only of their own ships, but of their gang mates' ships as well, not to mention how they all function together. With large fleets this can be fairly easy, if you're clearly outnumbered and/or outgunned for example, but flying solo/in smaller gangs and against comparably-sized groups, expertise is required.

A foolish engagement is worse than fleeing, though fleeing an engagement you could have won is the worst, because you when you lose, you learn a little something every time. Fleeing an engagement you could have won out of ignorance doesn't teach you shit.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

Even docking is a satisfying experience... Firing up the game a bit more. Took about 20 minutes to figure out how to dock - and then I couldn't take any of the contracts. I think I might just go into the great unknown and start killing shit.

 

[Ulminati]

Even docking is a satisfying experience... Firing up the game a bit more. Took about 20 minutes to figure out how to dock - and then I couldn't take any of the contracts. I think I might just go into the great unknown and start killing shit.

Don't need no contract. Just check on this and let the neo-shekels roll in: http://www.oisltest.com/DM/BPC/

Or go murder stuff at the conflict zones. Eranin-2, ~400Ls out of Azeban City, has a federal distress signal where you can pick up a bunch of combat bonds.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

Even docking is a satisfying experience... Firing up the game a bit more. Took about 20 minutes to figure out how to dock - and then I couldn't take any of the contracts. I think I might just go into the great unknown and start killing shit.

Don't need no contract. Just check on this and let the neo-shekels roll in: http://www.oisltest.com/DM/BPC/

Or go murder stuff at the conflict zones. Eranin-2, ~400Ls out of Azeban City, has a federal distress signal where you can pick up a bunch of combat bonds.

Thanks a ton. Will try this out tomorrow. I just wish I had more than ~20 minutes to play at a time right now.