The Elite: Dangerous thread

[hotmailcompany52]

Those looks pretty. How do you use the Debug cam?

[RogueMason]

Those looks pretty. How do you use the Debug cam?

Go into the controls and bind it to whatever key you want that doesn't conflict with any other already-bound keys.

I just played around with it in a station:

It's nice to be able to look around my ship now

Oh, also, big Anaconda explosion

I'm currently working up to getting an Asp. I've got enough in the way of assets to buy one now (~12,000,000cr total, ~4,500,000cr in the bank), but I want to keep my Cobra, so I've still got a good deal of bounty hunting to get on with in order to both buy an Asp and outfit it appropriately for exploration. I'm getting there, though. Most of the time I go out hunting, I can rake in between 200k and 600k, depending on how long I decide to prowl around the RES's.

The new Wings system has made it more interesting, though, as I've found quite a few pirates in groups, and they'll all attack you if you shoot one of them. It certainly spices things up a little

[Kinglet]

Nerfs and more fun money making coming soon, later this week. Yay!

[The Destroyer]

I'm REALLY liking these changes. I LOVE the vulture, bought it, it rips apart everything. Bounty hunting is now much better! Thanks Frontier!

Also, class 1 laser, so cute

]

[RogueMason]

Well, colour me impressed by that boon to bounty hunting that just got implemented (however temporary or permanent that may be). I went to my usual hunting spot and over about half an hour, there must have been about 6 or 7 Anacondas that showed up... all wanted. Along with the other pirates, in that half an hour, I managed to net this:

I also got another ~660,000cr from a second excursion, so around 2,000,000cr in an hour and a bit. Aw yiss

I also played around with the debug camera again.

I'm now sitting on a pile of credits in the bank ~6,400,000 high; that's 20,000cr short of an Asp. I think just a couple more sessions and I'll have my next ship

[impwarhamer]

Just to offer a different viewpoint, Pirating has got much harder. This however, in my experience is mainly due to the AI pirates being buffed. Despite being a pirate myself, they will still attack me for my cargo. What's worse though, is that they will attack other potential targets, but rather than trying to bust their cargo bay open like a real pirate, they'll just go strait for the kill.

Possibly contrary to popular belief, unlike bounty hunting a real pirate rarely has the need to kill anyone, as all your cargo is lost on destruction. Busting a cargo bay isn't exactly a quick and easy operation though, and these AI pirates will try and kill your target before you can get anything out of them, especially since they often work in wings.

I'm also dreading an inevitable vulture attack. That ship is essentially impossible to beat from the looks of it.

Still, i like the new update. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm hoping it will be possible to share profits from the black market in a wing. That could lead to some cool player interaction between pirates and smugglers, enabling pirates to take on bigger targets without sacrificing valuable internal space for cargo bays.

[KSK]

Hey guys, I'm wondering if I should get Elite: Dangerous and whether it would be the right game for me.

Really, I'm not interested in combat. Heck, I hate it! I love games like KSP and Space Engine because of the immense scale, and I want to explore a universe as large as Elite: Dangerous with realism and graphical beauty. I want to have my own spacecraft and explore the galaxy with it.

It's a bit pricy, but if it's the game I've been looking for I'm sure I can spend the money.

Found this very well-written thread on the Beginners forum which sums up the gameplay nicely IMO. It certainly sounds like the game for you from what you've said, but bear in mind that whilst the galaxy is realistic, the flight mechanics aren't. It's fighter planes at FTL speeds rather than orbital mechanics and worrying about delta-v budgets.

Having played Elite 2 (which did use a full Newtonian flight model (not to mention KSP of course) I can honestly say that I like the E: D flight model. It's very well done for a 'fighter planes in space' model and it makes some parts of the game (particularly docking) a lot easier. Swooping in past a ringed gas giant, frameshift drive ticking over at a nice 0.8c, picking up a moon on the scanner, adding a dab of roll, pitching up, getting it in your sights and then backing off on the throttle - it does make for some surprisingly engaging flying. But realistic it aint.

Edited March 15, 2015 by KSK
trying to express this better.

[impwarhamer]

ok guys, so apparently this happened

http://store.steampowered.com/app/359320?snr=1_41_4__42

Completely unannounced.

Didn't even put it in the newsletter they sent out today.

[Kinglet]

ok guys, so apparently this happened

http://store.steampowered.com/app/359320?snr=1_41_4__42

Completely unannounced.

Didn't even put it in the newsletter they sent out today.

Waaat... B-but... What?

Edit: Oh, so it just appears that frontier developments is really awful at making predictions about the future of their games. First they said there won't be console ports, now we are getting Xbox. They also said that Elite: Dangerous won't be on steam, and now...

But still, they are good developers that are only awful at predictions, but not decisions.

Edited April 2, 2015 by Kinglet

[mordin86]

[KSK]

Nice pics! I especially liked the last one - is that really an Earthlike with a ring system or is it just a clever camera angle? Really pretty either way - Purple Power Interstellar should head out there just because.

- - - Updated - - -

Waaat... B-but... What?

Edit: Oh, so it just appears that frontier developments is really awful at making predictions about the future of their games. First they said there won't be console ports, now we are getting Xbox. They also said that Elite: Dangerous won't be on steam, and now...

But still, they are good developers that are only awful at predictions, but not decisions.

The Steam thing came as a surprise to me too but console ports have been a possibility for a while it seems. From a 2013 forum post:

"We see the arrival of new consoles like the new PlayStation as a great opportunity - the console is a key showcase for game technology.

At Frontier we have our own game engine and tools used for all of our games, and we pride ourselves at getting the most out of each machine.

When a film company sets out to make a feature film, they imagine the viewer watching in glorious surround sound in a cinema. Clearly the people creating it want it to be watched in the best possible setting that shows off all their creative work, and the same applies to a game.

Graphics and audio are moving ever closer to Hollywood-quality visual effects, and we will take full advantage of those capabilities, but it also goes beyond that.

As network connectivity gets ever better, control and input capabilities get ever more sophisticated, then so do the opportunities for our games like to shine and transform the players' experience and immersion. For example, our 2014 game Elite: Dangerous is an unashamedly high-end PC and Mac game, but I have every expectation it will come to new consoles, too.

People have regularly talked about consoles being "killed" by mobile devices. In practice, these are all just different venues for our games, and with careful thought can be integrated into the same game.

It is great to see the next generation of consoles being announced, as mobile devices have become ever closer in performance to the six or so year old current console designs and the new wave of machines will once again push consoles out in front."

[RogueMason]

Nice pics! I especially liked the last one - is that really an Earthlike with a ring system or is it just a clever camera angle? Really pretty either way - Purple Power Interstellar should head out there just because.

It's definitely an Earth-like with rings; I've come across plenty of 'em. In fact, I call one of them my home (70 Virginis 4, starport is Fawcett Hub), and there's another literally just one system over (59 Virginis 3, starport is Hilmer's Gateway) that may as well be my second home, even though I didn't start in either of them but in a system around 100LY away

Here's 59 Virginis 3:

I go between the two very regularly because 70 Virginis is Alliance territory, while 59 is Federation, so it makes collecting bounties from a bunch of Kill Warrant Scans very easy.

My latest investment. It's currently awaiting a few more high-end modules (namely thrusters and FSD) which are to be paid for via my bounty hunting, and then I'll be setting off for... somewhere. Second star from the right, probably

I dunno, I'll think of a destination. I'm considering heading through the Coal Sack way out past Lave (well, from where I am, anyway...), and then poking around beyond that region.

70 Virginis 3 is rather beautiful.

It also makes for good hunting with a multitude of RES's

[KSK]

Oh man. Just imagine if Earth had rings. Places to visit, resources to access, all within reasonable distances for developing space programs to reach. It would still take a while before those resources became economical to use, I think, but it would be a much more compelling case than asteroid mining.

[Awaras]

Oh man. Just imagine if Earth had rings. Places to visit, resources to access, all within reasonable distances for developing space programs to reach. It would still take a while before those resources became economical to use, I think, but it would be a much more compelling case than asteroid mining.

And the views. Don't forget the views...

[mordin86]

Yea, that is a terra with ring - system name is HE BO.

and I got the eclipse:

[gmpd2000]

Your turn, mordin86.

[RogueMason]

Tau Bootis 2, with Pascal Orbital. One jump from 70 Virginis lies this rather pretty Federal planet (well, I think it's pretty good looking, anyway).

I'm pretty certain I've finished equipping my Asp now. I'm just about ready to go and explore.

I'm gonna get a few more million credits under my belt before I do go, though. I'm at roughly 6,600,000 in the bank now, and I'd like to get that to ~15 million. I don't need to, but I'd feel better with it

[mordin86]

Your turn, mordin86.

Salute! o7

[Chezburgar7300]

I heard that you all like screenshots?

Here's some from my trip to Sgt A (trip in progress btw).

Javascript is disabled. View full album

No Earth-Like worlds seen yet, but I've seen a few Neutron Stars and Black Holes (they're generally not screenshot-worthy).

[gmpd2000]

Face to face in space...

[mordin86]

[RogueMason]

My first exploratory mission has commenced.

Departure from 70 Virginis. I stopped at Codorain on the way out to claim a hefty pile of Imperial bounties that I'd amassed.

Just a few jumps later, and I came across a white dwarf that I somehow missed the first time I visited Codorain

The mission began in earnest after reaching Codorain, and I had a destination in mind; HIP 63835. From the galaxy map description, it looked intriguing; an O5 V star and 3 black holes were listed. Dangerous? Probably. Worth the trip? Hell yeah.

Finally, I reached the last inhabited system on my path. It was at this point that I realised I'd gone up an Exploration rank from Scout to Surveyor

I'm on my own now...

... hey, wait a minute, that's another ship

Arrival at HIP 63835. I hope I packed sun cream. And sunglasses. And a ten-inch think wall of lead.

So, the galaxy map only listed the O5 V (HIP 63835 A) and the black holes (B, C, and D) but the system view... well... daaaamn.

HIP 63835 B was seemingly the largest of the three black holes, with an exclusion zone of 70km, and it was orbiting very close to A. Oh, if only the effects of such a set-up had been implemented in the game already

Gravitational lensing of HIP 63835 C.

It's very trippy trying to fly around that

And with that comes the end of this first leg of my mission. I'm guessing I've travelled around 250LY from 70 Virginis now, and I'm still going to head towards the Coal Sack. From there, who knows? We shall see

[megatiger78]

So, the galaxy map only listed the O5 V (HIP 63835 A) and the black holes (B, C, and D) but the system view... well... daaaamn.

and the black holes

the black holes

black holes

there are black holes?

[Awaras]

there are black holes?

Yup.

[RogueMason]

there are black holes?

Oh yes. There's even Sagittarius A* at the centre of the galaxy, which I will visit at some point. They've got exclusion zones around them to keep you safe... presumably. The gravitational lensing effect around them is pretty cool, though it seems a tad inaccurate at times.