Elite: Dangerous
 

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

If this doesn't whet your appetite then you're just not wired for space sims:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbaLJTGHkj8

T here's a nice example of the subsystem targeting (10mins 40 secs in) - getting a motherlode out of an Anaconda's cargo hatch in this case :)

The full vid is a pretty dry but has some nice use of cold running too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C61rd2PaoMM

And this is a great combat guide. Lots of handy tips in there :). Stuff like:

-Prioritising engines improves manoeuvrability, not just speed.
-Vertical thrusters can change your angle of attack when trail-chasing in a loop, 'cut the corner' of the loop etc.
-All the subsystem targeting stuff. Can't wait to make a power plant go boom :)

Missile dodging sounds intriguing but I don't think I'm ready for that yet :D

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

I'm going to remap my flight stick to make better use of vertical thrust (ooh err, mrs :p). I've got it on the scroll wheel at present - the only spare keys I had - and it's useless there because each click of the wheel is 'on/off' so you only move a few feet.

I've only had one crash so far - my ship had a physics fit when leaving a station - but I was able to back out into the main menu and load again. I restarted outside the station with my current mission intact, which was lucky.

I'm loving this. :D

:D

Yeah it definitely takes a while to find a set up that flows. Lots of stuff to get comfy with.

Stumbled on this wee happening tonight. I was kinda wanted by the fuzz at the time so couldn't stick around to investigate further tho :D

http://i58.tinypic.com/qrwx2x.jpg

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Because my Sidewinder's a crock of arse, when I installed the docking computer something else had to go (unknown to me at the time). I started seeing 'no shields' popups, had a check in my Systems menu and couldn't find shields anywhere.

I'm going to have to be very careful not to annoy the locals from now on. I'm a simple salesman, let me be!

My ship's getting really cruddy looking now, as well. It needs painting.

http://i.imgur.com/UUugo4w.jpg

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

I wondered what you'd swapped out :D

If you engage in any crashing, while ferrying bibles, you might wanna go back to your old build? Plus you'd get a fresh paint job ;)

I do love the wear-and-tear stuff. Not sure how detailed it is, but I've got a feeling it reflects some of what you've been up too. My Viper only seemed to have front damage at one point...then it spread...

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Are alternate liveries included in the Beta build? I know we've got some as part of the Merc pack but that won't go live until the game's 1.0 release.

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Bought one of these:

http://i.imgur.com/xG0dsUe.jpg

£29.99 in the BT Shop of all places (35 on Amazon) and it seems pretty good.

Seems not. I can't get the paintjob screen to do anything other than show up the scratches.

Oo natty! Taking it separates. Lemme know how it goes! (You're so gonna be jerry-rigging an Oculus Rip-Off out of mobiles and elastic next ;))

---

Good news on Beta 3 it seems. We get to keep our cash :)

Had a blast with the combat today! The Viper's speed means you can really zip in and out of the big engagements and pick and chose your fights. Using the nifty gimballed multi-cannons in the 2 extra weapon slots. They combine really well with the subsystem targeting. (Only real prob is figuring out which side the target is on - would be nice if they altered the icon a bit).

The vertical loop-thrust trick helps reel in the more manoeuvrable guys (so long as you keep your speed in the blue zone - I've got my thrust axis set up to be 'forward only', so it defaults there, which helps a lot). And using the horiz thrust to get out of the line of fire when head on is dead useful too. Can see why they went for this slow-yaw 'non twitch shooter' thing now - it does make the way it all plays out more tactical - gotta plan your path a bit etc.

Even got carried away enough to help The Feds take on an Anaconda. Was able to vertical thrust underneath it while turning to face its belly and cause all sorts of damage. (They nicked my kill tho the swine ;))

http://i57.tinypic.com/wase3k.jpg

Still trying to figure out if the jump-speed sections are meant to be like a mini-game. It seems like stations near a lot of gravity wells kinda invite you to barrel in right til the last second (because the mass prompts your ship to auto-speed-limit you it seems). Have been sorta playing with this guy's formula but don't think there's really a hard n fast rule...

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Yep, the HOTAS separates into two. I've been playing about with the PS4 pad and it's pretty good but imagine it won't be great for dogfighting - Yaw and roll on different sticks sounds a bit clumsy by default.

I'm considering buying my first new ship, an Eagle II. It's a pure fighter, by the sound of it.

A new career awaits. ;)

http://i.imgur.com/w3hXsfH.jpg

Get thee at least one gimbled multi-cannon on there :D Think they're only about 21,000. Lasers for the shields, multi-cannon for the win ;)

Think they might be a little bit OP at the moment. Well, the 'overcharged' variants anyway ;)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW0cNNffuzE

I've been making decent cash with just 2 of em and 2 starter lasers - nipping out to far flung Maher Research in I Bootis and picking up multiple warzone jobs for Eranin. If you're lucky you can pick up some I Bootis warzone jobs when you cash in the bounties too on the way back. (Although I tend to crash from excitement when things are going that well ;)). Made 35000 clear profit on the last run :)

Now off with you, and get that dramatic dogfighting music going :D (It reminds me of the string stabs just before Luke lets fly at the Death Star sometimes. Probably not accidental ;))

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

I decided against it - According to the Elite wiki BETA backers will get an Eagle II as an alternate starting ship when the game goes live. I'm making my way across to Aulin (big & rich, basically - other C&W duos are available) to see what the trading's like over there. Slim pickings on the outer worlds.

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Damn, dogfighting's a blast! Is tricky with only 2 weapon hardpoints on the Sidewinder - although I had some joy when I bought a cannon for one of them :)

Yeah we get an Eagle in game. I have heard it's a bit on the fragile side, and the lack of range is an issue, but I guess they've all got downsides. The Viper has real overheating problems, and I can't get the damn thing to stay frosty so stealth is trickier.

Oo - apparently Aulin is the place to get cargo bay expansions. Been there but didn't spot that. (The outfitting shopping is a bit annoying on telling you what's in stock). You might have to sacrifice you're autodocker tho ;)

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

I just need something with a longer range. Modern games must have made me impatient...

Hmm, I do like the NASA be-boops of the comms system. Pity I couldn't really hear you tho ;) Will try it again with the sfx/music right down. Would be the ideal way to get it working rather than an exterior system.


I imagine you wanna keep building some cash up with trade for now so I guess there's not much co-op we can do in the meantime. Might be fun to get the group thing working and share an instance tho, if only to get some screenies of each other's ships ;)

My main minigame at the mo is def bounty hunting at the mining sites near Freeport. Loads of low level guys you can pursue at your leisure. Easier than the warzones in that sense, as you don't aggro a whole faction (although some fellow bandits do then get marked as red it seems). That plus the ring rockfields are really nicely spaced - it's proper Star Wars fun to maneuver between them innit :)


Oh and hunting for innocent Lakon Type 9's to try and crack em open. Promise I won't do that to you if you get your mining on in Beta 3 ;)

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Yeah, online seems pretty janky right now. If I dropped out for half an hour it was because I had a knock at the door then a phone call - You were drifting in and out of audibility but I know I'll definitely need to get a headset sorted. The desk mic I have is fine but I'd far rather have an all-in-one plug and play set-up.

That'll stop the mad feedback when I turn the mic on having forgotten to plug in the headphones...

Doubt I'll be doing too much dogfighting with my present ship anyway:

http://i.imgur.com/1BnycaL.jpg

The Volvo 240 Estate diesel of the Elite showroom. ;)

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Aha, you made the jump! God it's a brick :D

I just can't dump my lovely Viper at the moment. Probably should go trade crazy for a bit though. Think I could afford a Cobra now though so tempted to move over to a trade-n-blade set up. How much are you making on your average jaunt? And how much capacity?

*EDIT* Yeah cans are pretty good for this kinda thing. And that explains it ;) Thought you'd found a particularly absorbing solar system ;)

The drop out was annoying - but I guess worst case it is kinda pseudo-realistic :D

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

I'm not making much, seeing as they've deliberately nerfed trading in the Beta. To stop people building up huge economy-changing bank balances before 1.0? What I'm now able to do is take the missions requiring bigger payloads which generate a few more creds.

The audio was kinda like CB radio. There was a really analogue hiss to yours which I'd love to be deliberate. ;)

BETA 3 is live on the 28th!

Blimey!

EDIT - And they're still saying it'll be a 2014 release. From the stability problems we've both had, they've got some work to do...

Yeah, I'm still surprised they're sticking to that, but all the noises are that it's still on track. In theory we're all testing exactly this - and Beta 3 is promising to fix a lot of the 'known' crashes - will be interesting to see.

Yeah looking forward to trying some long range foraging. Think if I can kit out a Cobra with fuel scoop and such and lasers could be fun. Wonder if this bit means you can literally scoop metals out of the atmosphere...?

Have you seen this early mock up of what their procedural atmospheres might look like? (About 4.16 on)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTBvpd3_Vqk

He chats about gas scooping, and also fun cloud dodging stuff too. That'll be for later updates, but still, promising :)

And yeah, yours had a certain analogue hiss to it too. Would be great if that was an added 'space chat' touch - not just more dodgy servers :D

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

If you could collect fuel by sun-scooping in the original game I don't see why you couldn't do it with metals. Some kind of unrefined stuff probably, otherwise it'd be pretty easy to get rich kwik.

I bet Mr Braben shops at M&S. Blue Harbour is a bit too Street for him though. ;)

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Very fine wrapping Mr T :)

http://oi60.tinypic.com/abt2tj.jpg

Haven't got to trial it yet but can see it being intriguing :D

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Excellent! I thought I might have jinxed myself when I told you I've never had anything get lost in the post.

The customisation is pretty self explanatory apart from where you can adjust the distance from buttons to thumb - there's a little hole in the front above the trigger for the Allen key. I only found out about it myself when I was packing it. ;D

Mine's a bit of an unwieldy bugger but fortunately I don't use the workstation tray.

http://i.imgur.com/6yYzVWB.jpg

Been having fun out at the Beagle 2 extraction sites :)

http://i60.tinypic.com/j6hdzo.jpg

Ice rings seem to be a bit more crowded! Very purty in the right light though :)

---

Enjoyed this tour of Azeban City's inner alleys. Good stuff starts around 1.50...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_1UBermOgg

Gets a wee bit Metropolis-like once you go in a layer. Quite tempted to try this when Beta 3 knocks us back to basic Sideys :)

Also makes me hopeful that planet-side cities will be fun to jaunt through, and that they might even require it... (Seds, if you pass through here, don't look at the fan art :D....)

http://i.imgur.com/psxaq9Il.jpg

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Tried Beta 3 yet? Lots of nice extra touches (and the menu is now super snappy) but online's still not good. Major stutters too.

Yeah looking sleeker in lots of ways. Liking simple things like the smoother hyper jump transition, and the added layers to the audio.

Had loads of issues of course ;) Blowing up on returning to surface at station was a notable one! Also masssssive lag at warzones, although seemed better after the patch - think it might have been because I was right near 2 planets with the new textures etc.

Feeling tempted to leave it until full launch now though. There's less motivation to build stuff up knowing it's going to be wiped - and some of the planned stuff is so tantalising I'd almost rather wait and discover it as a whole. A mining laser would be a lot more fun if knew you could use it on wrecks you find in passing too - or chasing comets etc. And just little things like knowing the distance travel is probably going to change again (they're going to add slingshotting in theory I believe).

Plus I feel like I need a bit of loose story backdrop in there, to start getting my RPG on. In the meantime I'm mainly just kitting a ship out and dogfighting for practice ;)

(Having said all that, I'll doubtless faff with it till launch ;))

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Yep, I'll probably dip in and out of the game before launch but don't really want to put serious time into something only to have my save wiped. I've started a new save 3 or 4 times voluntarily already. The game's had a few updates since BETA 3.0 though - Might give it a play later.

How's the stick going?

I see that people are already making their own button boxes:

http://i.imgur.com/nmm2ha3.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/nAv2abU.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/7QhNH16.jpg

They're pretty common for flight and racing sims but I reckon the Razer Orbweaver I have gathering dust on a shelf will do the same job. ;)

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Christ, that's all getting a bit Steel Battalion! What's wrong with the keyboard? :D (Alright, I see how you could get more cosy with a setup like that. The homebrew ones look like they're set to be nailed to an armrest plank at any moment ;))

Joystick looks like a viper ready to strike, but the right-handy thing is bothering me, so back on the controller at mo. Not sure about deadzone too, and kinda prefer the 'default to optimal turn speed' aspect you can get with no input, which can't replicate with the non-springy accelerator stick. Def gonna keep playing with it tho - much better for immersion :)

*EDIT* I see we get a 'ticket to Sol' as early adopters - IE access to the protected zone regardless of whether we're in good with the Feds or not. Looking forward to having all that lore playing out a bit more. That and just more options for working your way up, and more semi-emergent '**** I'm banned in zone X now' interplay. Hoping they manage to launch by Xmas so I can spend some cosy winter days star gazing :)

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Yep, the two things I didn't like about that stick were the stiffness (which exaggerated the deadzone) and the throttle. Apparently the FLY5 stick gets a lot more playable with use and I suppose you could adjust the throttle deadzone in the game options to give you more leeway.

The Thrustmaster HOTAS has no discernible deadzone and a nice notch to differentiate between positive and negative thrust on the throttle.

If you're interested it's this model but I got it for £29.99 on the BT Shop site.

EDIT - Actually, you'd probably hate the Thrustmaster stick, Even though you could in theory swap the orientation of the stick and throttle it's built for right handers, even more so than the FLY5.

I'm a co-dominant leftie, by the way. I write left-handed but naturally prefer the right for holding a joystick, tennis bat, golf racquet etc. My brain's probably screwed up. :p

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

It's extra tempting, especially given that the guy who did that insane station fly by vid uses two sticks for ultimate control. (Left stick is mainly just for lateral thrusters etc I think).

I had a go at some of that flight-assist-off jinkery, and I'm buggered if I know how he adapted to the station's rotation. (If you wanna have go it's quite fun in the docking tutorial - your Sidey is indestructible. I did spend a lot of time pin-balling around the city-scapes tho ;))

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Yep, I find flying and especially dogfighting much easier with the stick compared to the controller. This stick might be more useful because it looks to have the throttle placed (buttons on the wrong side though) in a neutral position.

I actually owned one of them in the past but sold it because I didn't have anything much to use it with.

This one's fully ambidextrous - Link

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Loving this recent 'selfie with comet' by the Rosetta mission. Lander's gonna go take a closer peak in about a week I think :)

http://www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/i...ll_image_2.png

Just some space porn to fill the void ;) Plus I do wonder whether comets are gonna play an active role in the game, rather than just be a bit of vajazzle. Would def be cool if we could mine em while chasing them at top speed...

*EDIT And WTF... the Rosetta mission has a glossy trailer, starring Aidan Gillen... how odd!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H08tGjXNHO4

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

I finally got a headset. Currys in Enniskillen had a sale on and I picked up a Turtle Beach Z22 for £29.99 .... drove home and found that it doesn't work on Windows 8.1. With blood suitable risen I got straight back in the car (I put 100 miles on the Tattymobile today for the sake of a headset I could have bought online :p) and ended up swapping it for a Corsair HS30.

The Corsair is a pretty basic unit (and the headphone quality is lifeless compared to my music cans) but at least it works. ;)

Cool, comms ahoy :)

I read some semi-credible musings that suggest comms might even take damage, becoming even more fuzzy & liable to cut out. Which although it might be a fairly annoying, does sound like a cool immersion gimmick too.

Kinda like another suggestion that they should have a ham-radio style band as well, where everyone can just get their trucker on. I can totally imagine the UK-Irish massive loving it ;) *Adopts voice of Brummie engineer* 'That's a 10-4 good buddy, Commander Fuzzychops here, just humping Iridium over the horizon. Lots of smokies out by the twin-stars, you watch out now. Over.' :D. Could genuinely be good for emergent co-op though, and when out in the wilds :)

For what it's worth my Turtle Beaches started falling apart in stages from about day 3, so possibly you've dodged a bullet there. Or at least driven a long way round it ;)

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

I'd heard in the past that Turtle Beach were kinda the Beats By Dre of headsets, with all that entails. ;)

Still, Corsair are legendarily unreliable but they make some lovely stuff. My history with them:

8GB RAM - Going strong for 5 years
8GB RAM - Failed out of the Box
M90 Mouse - Failed after a week
K70 Keyboard - Going strong for a couple of years

That's a 50% failure rate, much like Elite right now. Multiple crashes in online mode and usually right in the middle of courier missions which leads to a restart with the mission wiped from the logs and my hold full of the old cargo, now marked 'stolen' and a bounty from the station where I procured them.

Went into solo mode and the crashes stopped. Still getting performance issues when planets come into view in Super-cruise which I hope they'll iron out.

Yeah I'm permanently playing in solo - the lag on arrival is just too tedious otherwise. Interesting that the private group didn't seem to suffer from the same issues - I guess it's easier to match 2 players up vs juggling instances of 32+ (or whatever the limit is).

Found this old dev diary interesting, mainly just for the way it fleshed out some of the future plans a bit...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM0G...BD-lfZUWaWf7EA

The on-foot stuff could be fun if they get it right - seems everything is set up to accommodate it already, IE the ship & base interiors etc, and I presume the pilot body we can see in the seat. Didn't realise you'd be doing things like firefighting on your ship and watching cargo whip out through breaches. That could add another fun layer to combat - IE alarms & sound queues telling you that those things are already happening behind you, and you better flee and deal with them.

Also the idea that you can wander around perusing other people's ships, and even peruse the odd's of stealing them - or just sneak into their cargo bay and squirrel yourself away ;). If it's not too stilted could all be fun :)

I imagine these are the things that'll make it in first - way before the randomised cities, generated cloudscapes and animal-realmed worlds he wants to add too.

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

I can see ship theft being a thing - BETA 3 introduced ship storage and I took advantage of it yesterday. Turns out that your stored ship is left at the station where you bought your new one and the only way of flying it again is going back there. Not as handy is having everything stored in some kind of nebulous 'cloud' but it's realistic, if nothing else.

I left my old Sidewinder in my new favourite system - Wyrd. Everyone there talks like they're in a 90s Hip Hop crew. Probably.

Wyrd up! ;D

The stations do seem to have different accents, so you never know ;)

Freetown seem to talk like an unconvincing Caribbean pirate. I am unconvinced ;)

Just stumbled on this pic called 'Flighsuit combatsketch01', which suggests there will be even more nefarious activities to do on foot. Shoot first Han!

http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...atsketch01.jpg

Hard to imagine Elite as an FPS, but this whole station cruising and general skulduggery seems to fit. Can imagine you could defend your craft from cat burglers etc. Maybe lawless regions will be full of bar-room brawl style shoot outs?

---

*EDIT* Possible suggestion of zero-G shenanigans in there too. That could be an interesting wrinkle on the shooty-shooty genre. There have also been wishlist thoughts on the the Reddits etc concerning exploring wrecks for data etc. Could imagine some tense moments doing that, especially alien ships. Any scares in that low-lit zero-G environment would certainly make you jump ;)

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Ever played Freelancer? Hard game to get hold of seeing as it has never appeared anywhere digitally but I was clearing out some old boxes a while back and found my copy. With a bit of prompting it runs fine on modern systems - The reason I mention it is because it't the best space exploration/combat game I've played that ties you to a story. If Elite's planned faction stuff is half as good then they'll have answered a lot of concerns.

I've got a couple of friends who didn't partake in the Beta because of its open ended story-less nature. Eejits. :p

In the process of installing the Beta to my SSD, just to see if it makes a difference to the stuttering.

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

I've heard tell of Freelancer (the precursor to Star Citizen no?). Sounds like one of the few fun space releases in the last few decades. Heard the space combat was one of the let downs tho ;). Looks like Elite's working from the other direction. Let's hope they can tie it together.

As for actually playing ED I'm hoping to get back on tonight and just nail that cool running tutorial finally!

*EDIT*

Oo, what the crap. I didn't know about 'Google Cardboard'!

https://cardboard.withgoogle.com/img/seq/66.jpg

It seems I really could cellotape my Android to my face :D

And by all accounts it works with Elite. This could keep me busy in the interim ;)

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

I don't think The Tablet of Doom (TM) could handle it. That thing stutters with Angry Birds. :(

I've got an HTC One S that might just about be able to pull it off. Looks like it'll take a lot of faffing and quality reduction. Could be fun as a novelty project tho :)

(*EDIT* Got mine on a sweet £10-a-month deal from the ludicrously named site that sponsor Derby btw. I still don't truly believe they exist, as the site looks so dodgy. Phone's good tho :). *EDITEDIT* Hmm, they've cleaned up their act. And aren't called EreMateWannaBuyAPhoneOnline anymore)

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Damn, don't link to that! I've been resisting getting a contract phone my whole life and now see I can get one with a free PS4/TV/Thai Bride.

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Haha, yeah know how you feel. It's only because I was paying as much for my pay-as-you go per month that I suddenly saw the light ;). (I must have been on a truly atrocious call rate).

The more I look at this set-up the more it seems unlikely to be truly able to cope with high end gaming - especially lag due to compression - and potentially motion lag if the phone's internal kit isn't up to snuff. Tempting to cobble it together from parts just to do it on the cheap though. Lenses look like the priciest bit. Think I'll just see if I can get the software working on me phone first.

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

The game's streamed to your tablet, right? I've played around a bit with Steam's in-home streaming and it worked really well, but that was over a wired home network on a Windows PC.

I'll wait for the real Rift - Using mouse look in the game shows how the cockpit was built for VR. ;)

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Yep, the problem seems to be both shifting that much data via wifi (although if you have USB 3.0 that's a better solution apparently), and the live reformatting they have to do to fit the target screen.

Also issues regarding motion tracking that the Rift nails but the various home-brew solutions struggle with a bit more - so motion blur & stuttering etc. Some people reporting it playable tho, so who knows :)

So, 16th Dec for release then :)

And they seem to be quite big on the walky-round-station thing...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yd-m9AR7mY

All still seems a bit 'would like to see', but liking this talk of zero-G combat, and fixing bits of your ship via spacewalks etc.

In other news...

http://i57.tinypic.com/2e5tsw3.jpg

Currently stops working when I place the phone in (I think the divider is touching the screen and pressing 're-center'), and the visual quality is, um, basic. But hopefully should be a bit of fun if I can get it working :D

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

You should really check out the Ghost Adventures Kinect spirit recording device. It's be right up your ally, Mr Heath Robinson. ;)

As to the game itself, it seems to be panning out in totally the way I'd want - The best bits of EVE Online with some actual gameplay plus the walking around stations picking up contracts manually of Freelancer.

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Hah, my one's just sitting around annoyingly pausing movies whenever we have the temerity to speak. It's definitely getting close to some home-brew repurposing ;)

I am a bit worried about how good the human modelling is going to be, given we've seen nothing but artist's impressions. The ships & stations are so sweetly realised on a macro level (and the footage there for the interiors looks strong too), I just hope the voice acting and movement AI/animations etc can match it. Will def be more fun to interact with factions and indivs rather than menus tho for sure :)

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Now that I have a functioning headset, I'm going to see if I can get Voice Attack set up later. There's a 30 day free trial if you're interested and I don't think the purchase price is too extortionate.

Yeah, human(oid) modelling is going to be tricky. If it's not totally spot-on then it'll jar badly with the rest of the aesthetic. In my head I'm picturing Mass Effect's Presidium.

Hopefully Braben is too. ;)

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Ah ok cool, I can get some chat on tonight if you fancy trying some co-op, or just, like, getting it to work ;)

Will look into Voice Attack *EDIT* Ahh, that's the voice control. Ach, I'll pass on that. Had enough of shouting FUS at Skyrim ;)

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Voice Attack works really well, especially in this context. I ended up buying the full program - It's only a fiver.

Must say that the instability in the game's starting to annoy me at this point. I'm close to crossing my fingers and waiting until Dec 16th.

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

I'm a bit worried by the bit buried in this dev talk (think it was around 17mins), where he says they've tried to keep the server-side actions light to stop them having to charge monthly for access...

http://youtu.be/rOYhoFYIWmw

Almost worried we might have to see MMO style subscriptions at this rate :S

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

You're a better man than I for sitting through that. ;)

I just hope that they'll perfect the core game (the 'Elite experience' if you will :p) before pandering to what Kickstarter backers are telling them to include. The basics are all in the Beta but it's still very rough around the edges.

Some people I've spoken with seem to think that FPS aspects, planetary landings etc will take the form of paid-for DLC. Hmm.

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

If they go the paid DLC route, and don't give the pre-backers free entry, that will be a monumental pisstake. Would be strange for functionality such as that to be DLC though, given in-game advantages it would give. Doesn't feel like something they'd do on that front.

The vid actually suggests they're dealing with the obsessive types fairly well - IE he holds up the PIPs system as an example of an aspect which has depth which keeps the hardcore happy but is also accessible (even ignorable) from the off for casual gamers.

The key thing in that talk though is his thoughts on 'vertical slice' builds, in that he thinks they're daft until you've got the 'riskiest' game propositions fulfilled, hence Beta still seems to be an isolated test build in some respects. If Gamma turns out to be slice of the full game (and you'd think it would be) I think we'll know how far up the creek we are. If they still haven't got aspects like instancing & multigun/planetary lag sweet soon after that goes live, and co-op reliability soon after that, current worries will look pretty valid :|

That said I'm off to go shoot some lasers near the big burning Federation ship now :D

---EDIT---

And rather promisingly, I just spent an hour there, multiguns ablazing, without a hitch :)

http://oi59.tinypic.com/ot2s11.jpg
Apologies for sh*tty 640 screenies - click for full rez

They have moved it to Eranin 4, so possibly they've hefted it away from a heavy planet texture, but it was definitely lag-central for me before. Hopefully they're fixing some of these game-killers at least :)

http://i60.tinypic.com/20apij4.jpg

I opted to go anti-Fed, as I'd heard their fighters are like paper, and tis true. Scant earnings ultimately, but very atmospheric :D And could def imagine a mission to take out the main ship being fun. Just strafing it and jinking through the interior to lose heat was good in itself, but taking out working gun stations and power plants etc would be grand :)

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

The stuttering when planets come into view during Super Cruise worries me. I've got a decent PC which can brute-force even the most demanding games into something like submission and Elite's nowhere near the most demanding. I've tried it on the lowest settings and it's still there. Fortunately I've never had any trouble when things get up close and personal but it sure breaks the immersion.

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Yeah I don't actually get that, so I'm assuming it's a compatibility issue with different builds. It seems Frontier have been taken aback by the spread of PC idiosyncrasies in terms of networking, so possibly true of rendering too. I've certainly seen lots of arcane fixes mooted, but we shouldn't be having to jump through hoops (IE making sure your Bios & Windows are using the same graphics card option if you've got more than one etc).

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

My 780 seems a bit of a weird card and I'm not totally happy with it. It runs most things perfectly but has problems with stuttering on others, which sometimes seem to only occur with other 780 users.

I thought I was being smart buying at a discount just before the new Nvidia cards came out, turns out that the new 970 is almost as powerful as the 780 was and it's £250! I might be starting to save for a 980 (which apparently pees all over a Titan for £400-ish) sooner rather than later, before the market totally bottoms out for selling a 2nd hand 780.

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Ay, sounds like a plan. Best hope no more plumbing springs a leak ;)

I am semi-nonchalantly reading a ton of speculation about what extra stuff might be in Gamma etc.

Reading this 'my mate says' thread, (backed up only by the Dev's desired-addition lists), did make me realise that surely.... surely... they've gotta have the Thargoids all lined up for Gamma and full release? So that'll be something ;)

And by extension, maybe they've got this modelled too then... ;)

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

I had a bad case of the thargoids last year. Not enough roughage in my diet. :(

High end graphics cards, I've found, can be a bit of a pain in the rear. There seems to be a sweet spot around the £200 mark and you're paying more and more for smaller and smaller performance gains. My plan with the 780 was to go big and it would do me for this console generation but PC ports so far have been a bit ropy - The consoles share 8GB RAM and VRAM and a lot of ports aren't translating that properly/easily to the way PCs are set up.

Nvidia are apparently launching a range of 8GB cards next year to try and compensate. My 3GB is looking a bit puny.

I'm just enjoying being able to play AAA releases at all on my machine :D

Here's me drunkenly deciding to take on the Capital ship ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hquoz6aKl6k

Braben was waxing lyrical about Star Wars in that long talk I posted before, and I reckon his love the originals definitely shows :)

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Yeah, I guess I get too greedy. Even my old 560ti will play anything from the 360/PS3 generation at higher resolutions, framerates and detail levels with faster loading, modding free online etc etc.

I'll crank up Elite again at the weekend hopefully. Last I played I'd been exploring the edges of the map - lots of it is just placeholder (and even then it's a 50th of 1% of the full game or something) systems with no stations to land at, which was a bit of a bummer.

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Yeah I guess exploration mapping, mining, inflatable stations, & general human expansion are meant to fill the void. That and future aliens ;)

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

I got so far away from meaningful civilization that it was easier to start a new save. It's one big ass game but I'm thinking that our expectations have evolved dramatically since they first tried selling us on Elite. The only really interesting thing going on in the Beta seems to be combat, and that's the part I've deliberately shielding myself from.

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Oo why are you avoiding it? Yeah it seems like the only thing worth messing with to me right now. I've stacked trade missions and such just to get my Viper feeling fun, but mainly I only drop in to get my Star Wars on ;). It's grand that you can be a pretty mediocre pilot but still have enjoy strafing around the space furniture and taking out the mid-range AI. Also good to learn certain things (big blue plasma bolts will one-shot your Sidey if you've no pips in systems etc ;)). I also really need to get better at stealth, if only for later cold running into stations - still can't ace that tutorial for the life of me.

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

I never really played Elite for the combat. Sure, you needed it to actually rise in rank but it always evolved organically for me. I've been playing the Beta in such short bursts that I've not had the chance or inclination to do much.

That'll change in December. ;)

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

How's that T-flight stick working out? Thinking maybe that could be my treat this Xmas, and that I could probably live with the right-handedness. (I'm using the right stick on the controller as it is, but with the left stick doing yaw it all feels more ambidextrous). And hey, I manage not to stab myself in the eye when eating, should be fine ;)

Trying to source an ambidextrous stick & a throttle control all looks like a bit too much faff & cash-splashing :S

Main thing I'm wanting, beyond yaw being on the same command input as pitch/roll etc, is to have a smooth way to operate the horiz/vertical thrusters at the same time. Is the wee thumbstick thingy on the actual joystick good for that?

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

I'm loving the stick and you can bind the keys whenever you want, even swapping on the fly without going into game menus. It doesn't have the deadzones that the FLY5 has and the throttle has a nice tactile 'stop' between forward and reverse thrust.

I use buttons on the face of the throttle for vert thrust and the analogue rocker beside it for left and right. Not tried the joystick for anything other than navigating game menus. The stick gets recognised by the game and most stuff gets mapped to where you'd expect - I've only swapped a few keys and added the vert thrust mappings.

You can also lock the stick twist if you find yourself yawing unintentionally. The rocker on the throttle is supposed to be the alt placement for yaw.

Yep, I'd wholeheartedly recommend the stick. ;)

Sweet, I'm sold :)

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

It's the T Flight HOTAS X if you need the exact model. The mind boggles...

T Flight HOTAS X sounds like a guy who makes the popular 'wrapping' music. :p Terminator X's brother.

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

I think you'll find that's Thrustmaster T Flight HOTAS X, Esq ;)

But cheers yeah, there are a ridiculous number of variants out there. And prices are already more than a bit Christmasy. Imagine the ED launch date will prob have played a role with that too. I'll be lucky to get it for £32 at this rate :S (Ah well, at least I'm not paying this time ;))

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Try the BT shop, that's where I got mine. £29.99. ;)

Oo cool, so it is. I thought you'd snagged it for 25 for some reason so thought the price loom was upon us. On it :)

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

I nearly bought it on Amazon for £36-ish but was reading a spammy BT email advertising their store and went for a browse. It's the cheapest I've seen it.

Feel free to offload the FLY5 by the way. It's done its job, ie: made you spend more money. :D

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

I am actually thinking of gifting it to my old man, just to get him back into Elite ;)

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Then he can move it on to someone else when he buys a better stick. We've started an Elite charity! :D

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

I know he's dabbled in flight sims too, and hell, he's retired, and loves sci geekery. If I can't get him to spend some time flying in his study it will be a terrible shame ;)

I see Frontier are dangling carrots for use embattled Beta types.... 'one careful owner' insurance status and everything, the sexy swine ;)

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Yep, I saw the last newsletter where Davey B (he's partnering with Thrustmaster Flight Hotas X on a new Grime project) showed Beta backers his carrot. The ship insurance thing was something I didn't use too much in the original game but was damned glad of the Beta's 'press X to re-buy your old ship and fittings' button after it bugged out majorly causing my fully loaded Hauler to crash into a sun.

I was never a big flight sim guy but when I got the new stick I downloaded everything in my Steam library which came close to the genre. IL-2 Sturmovik, Evochron Mercenary (which I really should try to get into - It's Elite developed by one guy over a number of years) and X3 Albion Prelude, which is the least dense of the X games.

I've not touched any of them. ;)

Bought X-Wing and TIE Fighter from GOG though. :D

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Oo, Evochron looks interesting. Suprised that didn't scratch your Elite itch for a bit ;) Touch late now tho :D

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

I see that the internet is getting its knickers in a twist over the decision to drop offline single player mode. I can understand the ire to a certain extent but online solo won't require much of a connection - it'll just be touching base with the server every so often.

I'm more concerned about the actual game. Played a few hours this morning and multiplayer was still extremely glitchy, but at least stable. Seem to have nixed my stuttering problems too - The game doesn't seem optimised for 120 and 144HZ so dropping my settings to 1080P/60 smooths things an awful lot.

Yeah, it'll be a pain for those with really restrictive connections, or who wanna laptop play while on the go or something. Can see the thinking though, that offline players could exploit static markets etc.

I'm still hiding in Solo right now, just enjoying the stability and smooth drop out of hyperspace. Looking forward to setting my expectations with Gamma (although I don't imagine I'll step into multiplay until a few patches have dropped ;))

Been chatting on the Reddits about future expansions, especially the out-of-seat stuff. Some people making the point that Frontier should do a good job of beasties, be they planet-based or alien, going by their various zoo franchises. On people tho, their canned 'Outsider' has me a touch worried... Same engine base etc, all be it a pretty dated build now. They do look a bit... Gary's Mod. (I kinda like some of the eccentricity in the character faces, and hell HL2 ended up being very personable, but I'm expecting a bit of uncanny valley to be coming our way. Filling a universe with tech and wonder is one thing, and they've aced a lot of that, but a peopled living universe is gonna be tough).

Action also looks a bit floaty, for what was apparently finished gameplay. Maybe that'll help with the zero-G stuff ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Glr71X-cr84

But ach, that's all light years away anyway ;)

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

I've just found a new favourite place! Wyrd, be damned.

http://i.imgur.com/DEXuxs1.png

Oh yes! :D

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Haha :D Damn don't stay there man, you'll be constantly replacing your engine ;)

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Now, I know Wankel is a famous rotary engine brand but I also remember Braben saying that he and Ian Bell hunted through the original game in order to remove dodgy planet and station names.

Maybe Mr Wankel (please let his first name be Richard :p) was a Kickstarter backer?

Woo, Christmas came early :)

http://i62.tinypic.com/29qo5r5.jpg

Luvvvving this. Will need to play with the set up a lot but already found quite a nice layout which allows me to use all 6 axis with ease (great fun for stunting around asteroids :)). I'm finding the hat stick is really cool for the horiz/vert thrusters as I hoped - really good for last minute adjustments in close proximity.

Using the two 'shift' keys on the thrust stick to get more use out of all the buttons. Bit tricksy but think it'll become second nature. (Now I've just gotta stop pressing 'flight-asst-off' by mistake :S)

Gonna have to get used to setting the speed to the turn zone manually, but being able to flip into reverse in a trice is neat. My main issue is an old one I have with joysticks generally - getting a bit of roll when I'm trying to pitch alone. Think I've fixed it by edging the X axis deadzone along a bit.

Anyways, cheers for the reco :) It's proper solid. BT came up trumps too, just managed to catch their re-stock in time. They're going like hotcakes.

---

Kinda good to see Braben braving the seething masses for a Q&A. Found this bit intriguingly vainglorious tho...

So, he thinks the galaxy generation is so good it includes undiscovered planets? IE that they've nailed all the vagaries of planet creation?

He needs to make a God-game next ;)

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Nice!

I think I picked up the last of the batch when I got mine - checked back to the store page a few minutes later and it was showing out of stock prompting a nervous wait until I got sent my confirmation email. The way I've configured mine is that the directional thrust only works when the landing gear is down but it's mainly the stock button placements after that.

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Yeah, either they're only getting tiny restocks or there's a lot of people hammering at the door!

Oo, do you not use the directional thrusters in free flight? They're dead useful for altering your loop and that, and for doing the strafe-one-way-yaw-the-other trick when head to head :)

Incidentally I saw that they nerfed the crash damage a fair bit, which is cool. I kept getting wiped out in intense war zones through collisions. Did seem a bit harsh as you normally never see them coming.

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

I see that Davey B has addressed some of the online-only issues idiots on the internet are having. Basically, if the servers ever get taken offline they'll release an archived version of the game with the most up-to-date stats. Seems fair.

Yeah they've done a pretty good job of talking it over now.

I get the guys who are annoyed because they travel a lot and often get zero signal, but want to be sure they can play. The very low requirement for solo should mollify them some tho (so Braben's phone-tethering trick should work for many if they can't source some wifi etc).

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The mighty Thrustmaster has currently made me a worse pilot :D. I'm just zipping through the neat new combat tutorials, and it seems that the yaw is less subtle than using an analogue stick, which makes fine-tuning your approach run trickier. The in-stick yaw is cool, but has a fairly hefty dead zone, while the yaw buttons on the throttle seems to be just big lumpy inputs. I've ended up staying with the twisty stick, as it's got more graduations once you hit the starting point, but it's a proper physical activity during a marathon chase!

It still feels much more badass and intuitive on the whole, but I'm totally getting some gimballed weapons the minute I can ;)

Either way, think I'm gonna end up with a wrist like a female Romanian wrestler :D

You wish. :p

I actually ended up raising the deadzones for twisty-yaw. Never bothered mapping it to the throttle rocker because I was using it for my directional thrust. Might try your d-pad nipple trick though, to free up some buttons.

The internet rage is tiresomely predictable but Braben should be clearer about refunds to people who've used the Beta. You're right, the internet requirements in Solo mode should be pretty tiny - all you're doing is touching base with the central server occasionally to get some stat updates.

Apparently Saturday's Gamma build will be the end of the save wipes. Unfortunately it'll also be 24 hours after DA Inquisition unlocks. ;)

Blimey, I guess that could work too, at least you'd know you've really gotta twist to hit the biting point.

Nipple is definitely great for stunt flying :) I was able to buzz the Capital ship very satisfyingly, making little corrections when I was about to slam into an outcropping. Not sure how useful it actually is, but it's fun ;)

I've got it working for menus too, just by adding 'left shift'. Seems to work ok.

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I think he's come and flat out said that if you've played it you're pretty screwed. But at least it's upfront.

And on the Gamma, ach, you were saving yourself for the full launch anyway right ;) (Plus you'll probably start about 3 times anyway ;))

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

If the game allows me I want a trader save, a merc save and a miner/freelancer save. ;)

I think the most recent Braben utterances have been that they're looking at Beta-player refunds on a case by case basis. If you've put the number of hours in that you or I have then I'm guessing there's no chance but what about someone who dropped £50, lives where my mate does in a broadband blackspot area (where he gets either nothing or 3 meg on a good day) and started the game for a few minutes after every patch just to see how things were progressing? My mate very nearly bought the Beta, in fact it was me who persuaded him to wait until launch.

I'd say that the number of buyers with a genuine grievance is tiny but if Web 2.0 has taught us anything it's that face spiting by nose removal is a valid form of criticism. As long as it's in 140 characters or less...

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Hey if they're tweeting about they're kinda undermining their case :D

*EDIT* Oh dear lord...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUFIFL7zwXQ

*OTHER EDIT*

My latest run in with the Capital ship :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TQ795A1kZs

Worst...changelog...ever...

Goodbye Wankel Colony :bawling:

Other than that, fairly epic ;) Will hopefully get to playing around with the new USS random events and maybe some faction missions before the next wipe. Def looks like they've fleshed out the universe a bit more generally. Trading tweaks look interesting too.

Me posting the pic on Giant Bomb to try and lighten the No Offline Mode thread drew attention to it. It's my fault. :(

I'll have a go with 3.9 later.

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

3.9 impressions generally extremely positive. Station landings are still glitchy as all hell in online but the stuttering around planets in Super Cruise (something which I've seen others complain about) has all but gone for me. The occasional hitch when the LOD changes but nothing major.

Loads of interdictions though, more than I remember. That might be because of the numbers playing and it felt good to smoke the world's most useless pirate (not an AI either) with my stock Sidewinder on my very first run.

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Yeah just had a quick dip on my break. Does seem smoother all round. Played online without issues too which is promising (especially given I've remembered I'm on a wifi dongle, which isn't ideal). Managed to dodge quite a determined interdiction, which I suspect was a player - made me feel better about my HOTAS handling. In theory we should see less of them though, going by the log notes - less NPC cop stops etc anyway, especially if you're rated in the region.

Liked this little USS exchange someone stuck in redditland - The surprise appearance of MaggieMilksnatcher ;). Hopefully there'll be lots of these mini-story iterations - makings USS's the tempting caves of Skyrim etc :)

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

I'm getting interdicted once a trip, sometimes more, and got totally owned by a fully kitted out Eagle last time I logged in. I think it might be because I've got 3 fines outstanding, all of them due to game crashes and glitches making me bork quests. If that continues into the full release (heck, even now seeing as this save isn't gonna be wiped) a lot of people are going to moan.

And the Elite userbase seems moanier than most. ;)

This is how confident I am there will be a pre-launch wipe :D

http://i60.tinypic.com/14ddkdd.jpg

(He enjoyed flying at the sun - luckily he'd put it in reverse ;))

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Feeling quite confident about having a fun game on the 16th now. Will buzz about and check out some stuff, like the expanded fleet battles (it seems), and the USS content etc in the meantime. Maybe follow Braben's tip to head 'up' and see the Galaxy's form revealed beneath you in the map :). Just gonna try and stay away from main story surprises for now.

Good to see proof of derelict ships too :)

Re: Elite: Dangerous
 

Ha! That's cute and a half. :D

If I asked the eldest Tattette to do that I'd get a dig on the beak. She's 18 now. *shivers*