Elite: Dangerous

If you were thinking of nipping into that CG for the free in-game skin (for a ship you'll probably never use again ), it's probably gonna be done by the morrow. Some loons are hitting it hard, along with everyone else just shifting a ton or too to claim the free prize. (2 runs in a modded Asp got me to the top 50% band. That's a 5mil+ payout with 2 tiers to go. The destination is one of those bastard 7min drives tho :/).

EDIT:

10mil in the end. That's the downpayment on the Gunship sorted at least

(And on the tediousness of the trip, more armoury for a 'Let us jump between system suns' campaign, which me and some Redditors hope to launch in Jan. This game's meta )

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EDIT:

Oh goodness, I amused someone on Reddit and now I own this too:



That's three ships I don't own that I can have in chrome . Something to aim for I guess...

(With multicrew hoving into view I've got slightly more interest in getting a big 'exec class' ship now. By the time Legs come around I might actually have the rank for one too )

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Hooray for Christmas birthdays



Already spent 2 hours personalising it, and plunging key-mappings into the crucible of challenge mode. The LEDs no-longer have that blinding JJ Abrams effect, various buttons now actually work as buttons (rather than unwanted 'shift' keys)... and I've come up with my own deranged shift key system using the 8-way hat on the throttle ...

Part of me's tempted to go mod-happy too on it. Could see more spring stiffness being good - kinda liked that you had to fight the T-Flight a bit. Might even dump those 'detent' bumps, but I'm hoping I won't get that stupid

Don't do anything about the bumps - I presume you're talking about the ones one the throttle?

For the first couple of days my thoughts ranged from annoying to 'this is surely faulty', but after that I wouldn't be without them.

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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'd only do that if I was to go back to full reverse/accelerate range on the throttle, which I kinda prefer. Reckon I can get used to it though. Especially if I can map that wee slider to toggle reverse thrust...

(I think I'm gonna be days mapping this thing... Not playing the game itself though, so it's just another meta pastime )

Are you using the official Saitek mappings? I think they're nearly perfect and only swapped a couple of the piano key mappings around.

Load them into the profiler, then select the stick inside Elite.

Haven't downloaded the profile, but selected the stick inside ED, and messed with a custom profile til it aligned. Learned something about profile possibilities in the process. (Macros for piracy? Maybbeeee )

Using it as a base, but think it could be so much more . (Mainly for combat, reckon I can fit a lot more stuff on there like chaff / heat sinks etc, with shift set-ups that allow for future additions like ECBs etc if they become useful. Also not completely happy with stuff like the FA-off & boost placement for simultaneous use... and like a ton of other little things )

It's what I did with the T-Flight, just really worked at it until I felt I had everything right at my finger tips and easily used in conjunction. Really loved my set-up on that stick. Plus I need to make up for the fact that I'm actually a **** pilot

Give the Saitek mappings a try. Everything's exactly where you'd expect - Thrusters on the left hat, targeting on the middle and menu navigation on the right. Boost is button D.

Yep tried em

Just didn't quite work for me. I really like having all the motion stuff together on the flight stick for a start, so slapped the thrusters on the top hat there. Just feels cool to execute all those manoeuvres with one hand.

I felt like I was reaching for stuff too often too. I like having all core combat stuff being available without having to shift my hand position. Still playing with this aspect. (It's mainly about finding a neat place for FA-off now, and making sure defensive measures can be fired in a blink).

And then there's just silly things. Like the secondary fire button being unsatisfyingly squishy. It doesn't feel like something that's unleashing a cannon . Think I might use the cold certain precision of B. It's going spare...

Think the ultimate test will be whether my final set up can survive a round of Arena

I guess I've never been one for messing too much with default configs - They're generally like that for a reason. Engine stuff on the left, combat stuff on the right and things which you'd expect to be switches on the switches.

I'm so tempted to turn some of the switches into 'YAHARRR, DROP YER BOOTY' macro switches . (Typing while firing warning shots is hard )

(I think all this faffing stems from tinkering with the Xbox Controller making it a ton better than the defaults back at launch. That and me being left handed maybe )

I think we can agree on one thing - The pinkie trigger OWNS!

Pinkie for life

Oh, and flappy-safe-panel-over-hardpoints for death of others

I'm getting close to something I like, but still really struggling with not being able to slam into reverse at the last second. Just been practising FA-off stuff around asteroids and I don't always know 'zero thrust' isn't enough until quite late - by which time it's too late to slam it forward in reverse mode. Guess I'll get there. I do like how the detent bump thing tells you you're out of the blue zone in combat. Getting used to the freeflow of the stick too, will probably end up being better. (It just feels less like I'm wrestling a recalcitrant lump of metal, which is a shame )

The quick-reverse thing was the only reason, initially, that I pined for my T-Flight.

Once I got used to how the big boy sticks handle it, I think it made me a better pilot.

That's fighting talk! To the Arena!

Yeah I can see how it requires better forward planning. Might still rip out the detents and stick a lollypop stick on the midway point as others have done tho

EDIT: The extra fine control in forward motion is all fine, but you spend so much more time dumping off speed and deploying reverse flight in a spaceship than you do in standard plane that I'm still not convinced full range isn't more suitable.

My 'throw her into reverse' dogfighting technique only took me so far, and against better pilots (and even AI after a few patches) it took me to a fiery death.

Reverse slams for braking have served me well in Arena, but might be of more use there where massaging collision distances when entering buildings at speed is kinda needed. Mainly just use for emergency asteroid avoidance in the main game. I don't use full reverse flight as a rule, kinda seems to be a tank-favouring trick (AI tanks do it now though, the bastards. They're getting smarter...)

EDIT: Just tried out a forum solution. Set to full range, but with the deadzone at about 10% - gives you a parking zone in the middle that's pretty easy to hit for 0% thrust. Much more fun . Was already able to focus on boost / FA-off combos with my thumb, and follow Eagles at close range more easily when they shifted gears. Think it's just my thing. (The detent bump seems to still sit close enough to the blue range to be useful, which is intriguing. Need to play with that more tho).

Oo, they told no lie. Floral Greeting Ship!

First contact was this guy...


^^Clicky for vid^^. (Mad sound in that one). He got pulled out of Witchspace initially.

Here's an Asp getting a close encounter...



Nice 'n creepy . If probably just another big floral mystery for now

So, Davey B, in a moment of generosity, gave me a 20% discount voucher for the Elite store for my birthday.

Is there anything at all worth buying?

You could get some pink lasers for 80p then

Most of it's still tat, or bundled into £5 for 6 skins, with most of them being meh. The Cobra Medusa is probably the best single skin out there, but it's for the Cobra...

The Christmas chromes were neat, but they're done now. I snagged the FGS one to give me something to aim at.

(And in-game, I've realised just how much grind that entails, and sacked it off again )