Elite: Dangerous

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

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

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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

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:



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

I'm going to remap my flight stick to make better use of vertical thrust (ooh err, mrs ). 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.

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

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.

I wondered what you'd swapped out

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...

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.

Bought one of these:



£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 )

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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 )



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...

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.

Get thee at least one gimbled multi-cannon on there 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


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 (It reminds me of the string stabs just before Luke lets fly at the Death Star sometimes. Probably not accidental )

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.

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

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

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:



The Volvo 240 Estate diesel of the Elite showroom.

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

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

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)


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