Elite: Dangerous

Hah, you know I love half of it to bits. Doesn't mean I can't be constructively critical of the other half

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Thinking I should drop some classic noob tips here. Seds, if the combat's calling you, the best places to start are:

General Bounty Hunting Tips:

• Nav Beacons, found next to every sun
• Wait until the cops engage someone
• Make sure you scan the target to confirm that they're Wanted
• Zap em and steal that kill

You'll get some rep with the local head faction every time you hand in the bounties, which will open up more mission options over time. Assassination missions and piracy hunts are probably a bit beyond your Sidey at the moment though, even if they're ranked really low. (You can upgrade its gear a bit, but then maybe think about an upgrade. Both the agile Eagle or the boom-n-zoom Viper are good early pew specialists).

General Flight Tips:

• When your speed is in the blue zone you can turn faster
• If you've got the maximum 4 pips in Engines you'll also turn faster
• Boosting also increases your turning speed as well as your forward momentum
• (When pitching up you can use your 'up' thruster to tighten the circle even more)

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Virtual Reality chatter on a movie site? Got endless amounts of it here. Reviews over here

Elite 101 - Do 3 or 4 haulage missions until you can afford a Hauler and an upgraded Frame Shift Drive plus as big a hold as you can manage. Get rid of the discovery sensors to make room.

After an hour or two you'll have enough cash for a Cobra and the game really begins. Simple.

I just think we've got different expectations, bud. It's a game I can drop into every few months and when I get tired I'm perfectly happy with never picking it up again if the mood deserts me forever. I've had my fun with it, and then some. Everything else is (space) icing.

My experiment with the Steam Link/Controller was mixed but mostly positive. My setup has a network input lag of 10ms, thanks to a 30m network cable under the floor, which is basically nothing and I'm sitting far enough away from the screen to not notice the tiny image imperfections - You're basically watching a video of your gameplay.

The Steam controller was almost pretty good - Nicely configurable but still too imprecise to be at all confident in a dogfight. I'll try it next with an Xbox One pad, which Steam has given proper configuration support to in the last few days.

I still prefer my x52 greatly but for space trukkin', the pad seems fine.

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

Yeah I'm def as much interested in what it could be as what it is. I've got fond memories of playing the original, and it's given those itches a right good scratching. But it's tickled a load of novel modern fancies too, and FDev are pitching to take them to some really ambitious places. Just want to see them get there really

Having fun so far! Did some trade missions and some chatting with random people here and there. Since the map is so small, I am sure I will randomly run into you gents in 2-3 centuries.

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Hey I'm only 200 light years away in Deciat

Happy to bomb over if you want some heavy support, or just to lark about. It's pretty cool just throwing yourself into the black on your own merits though

Def ask for info whenever you want, and snag me if we overlap online. (Did you get the full Horizons package, with planetary landings and all that? The multicrew update is coming in the next few months, could be fun to try that out )

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Tip of the day: If engaging in pew pew, checking the rank of your enemy can save your metal hide. High ranked guys (Dangerous, Deadly, Elite etc) will have the best kit and tricks, and can melt you even in a Sidewinder. Picking a target with a ship and rank closer to your own can help make the fight winnable

I think I just have the base game at this point - whichever one was only 29 bucks on steam. If I like the game and get into it, I will grab the rest. I have yet to do any combat beyond the training missions, during which I pretty much got toasted by the AI. I will need some practice in that regard!

Thanks for all the tips, fellas! Hopefully I can get some more time in the cockpit soon.

I want to get into the space bus drivin' business properly. Am 10 mil away from affording a Beluga but, maddeningly, I could sell my Asp (which is tricked out to the tune of 20 mil) and get it now. Hmmm.

Some say I've been selling my Asp for years...

I still have the lil starting ship! I think my lasers only affect shields at the moment

I wish you could have multiple save files. I've been close recently to wiping my save and starting again - Equipping your ship when you don't have a lot of cash is a lot more fun than buying one and immediately throwing the best gear on it, as I'm able to do now.

@Tatty, problem solved, wipe out your cash buying the Beluga (or a fully kitted Orca?), then head out in a Sidey . (I covet my Asp too much, would never sell it. 40ly jump range is just too precious in this game )

@Seds, yeah wise play on the core game. Def rock that tutorial until you can take out that Sidey, but dont worry too much about beating the next tiers up just yet. (The waves are proper sink or swim territory). The tutorial is good all told though now, worth dipping into lots of it.

(I'll say no more. Except kinetics good for hull damage. And also: Gimbals! Gimbals are good )

I made a bit more cash last night and then decided to drop into a low intensity battle area. Shortly afterward, I was shelling out a couple grand to rebuild my ship! :P

Should I buy a viper or save a bit more for a cobra?

The Cobra is the best all round ship under a million credits, and better than some costing a lot more. Buying a viper confines you to combat stuff, and that's not a way to make early cash.

Get a Cobra and, basically, you can kit it out to do whatever you want. If you stick around a system doing missions, you build up rep with factions, and they'll give you more lucrative jobs the more they trust you.

Yeah the Cobra's definitely the first all-rounder you can get your hands on, opens up a lot of options, and has some combat chops. Mainly depends what you fancy doing to get there I guess. Combat is a harder way to make early cash, mainly because there aren't many accessible missions to complement your bounty earnings, but it is fun

(Ships end up being the biggest credit sink in the game, and moving between them does mean losing a chunk of cash each time, as they lose value. The actual modules you put in them retain their price though, so experiment away on that front )

Ultimately, the choice is yours

Cobra it is! I will continue doing trade and delivery stuff in my lil Sidewinder for now. Is there a resource somewhere I can use to examine ships and load-outs etc? Oh, and where do I buy ships?

Most (all?) of the starports and a good deal of the smaller outposts have shipyards - Look on the right hand panel after you click Starport Services when you land.

There's an external website that's very natty for experimenting with loadouts:
https://coriolis.io/

In game you can see the basic stats of the available ships in the station Shipyard, and mess with your own ship in Outfitting.

I think I have enough for the cobra at this point, but the port I randomly landed at last night after a mining mission didn't sell that particular ship.

I have had a couple of cool moments emerge so far:

I had a mission to go mine a precious metal, and I ended up heading over to the Frey system to hit the rings around one of the planets. I super-cruised in towards the ring and it was spectacular as I approached the rings with a massive planet looming in the background.

On the way back to drop the above mission off, something yanked me out of Supercruise and started blasting away at me from behind. Since I had just spent an hour collecting 100k worth of metal, I turned tail and fired the FSD back up and got right out of dodge. Not sure what the deal was there.

I will probably get that cobra tonight!

Haha cool . Rings are pretty spectacular aren't they

Yep, legging it from an interdiction is definitely the best call at this point. (Your Cobra will be a beast on that front incidentally, crazy boost speed. Great for smuggling, and choosing your engagements in combat)

Best way to up your chances of finding a good shipyard is:
* Play with the Galaxy Map until you find the filters
* Set it to Economy and find a system designated as High Tech
* Ideally head to the one with the biggest population
* Drop into the System Map if you have access to the data and check the biggest station definitely has a shipyard

Or there are some external sites that can sort you out . I always think it's more fun to do things in-game if at all possible tho.

I've got my Cobra...now to start upgrading it. Seems like there are a lot of options in that regard. Not sure how to best start the upgrade path...

I think it's probably best for us to just let you play with it, and then help out if you hit a wall. You'll understand all the systems better if you experiment with them, and occasionally take steps backwards by mistake and have to figure out why it happened and how to rectify it.

The Outfitting menu now shows you live how a new module would change your ship's stats, which is pretty cool, so def play around with that. You can even see how stuff you can't afford would work with your current build. (And don't be afraid to just buy and sell stuff as needed, there's no depreciation. Just try and make sure you've got enough for one rebuy or you're back in the Sidey if you die...)

An example of the type of oddity you'll encounter is: You might up your FSD for better jump range, then realise you need a better power plant to actually run it. You can't afford the A-class one, but you can fit a B-class. It works! You can now power the FSD. But your jump range has actually gone down a bit. (B-classes, although very good, are always the heaviest class, and your tonnage affects your jump range...)

Stuff like that. But have a play