Elite: Dangerous Kickstarter Launched

SpaceMt · 2015-01-19T22:08:50.000Z

Having fun the last two weeks playing “Cat and Mouse Games” in my Lowly Hauler.

I ALWAYS play Open and whenever I pop out of SC into a system, I immediately feel like “Fresh Meat”…Hollow symbols fly to my six right away!

A favorite tactic of the Pirates/Griefers is to successfully Interdict you then target your thrusters and life supports and fly circles in front of you while you die a slow lonely death, helpless in the middle of space… Any suggestions on how to deal with this tactic?

Pay Big Bucks to buy the most expensive Frame Shift Drive Interdictor?
Put that money into better Thrusters, Bulkheads, Shield Generators ect. and hope to survive your attempt to “Run Away! Run Away!”?
Simply “give up the goods” right away and live to fight another day…close to your original bankroll!?
Face up to the facts and Play Solo? (“Listen Sonny…OPEN is NO WAY to play Elite Dangerous as a Trader!”)

SpaceMt · 2015-01-19T22:19:05.000Z

tolwyn:

SO, I got my first mission with the federal navy, go get some combat stabilisers. I went to a nearby system, found a clean ship with the cargo and shot it up, grabbed the cargo and went back to the original system. When I got there, I paid the fine, but when I go to give in the cargo in the bulletin board, the option to give cargo is in red and I can’t select it, even though the cargo is in my hold and my standing with the federation is friendly. Any ideas?

Check you cargo sections on the Right Panel. The Combat Stabilisers may be/should be listed as STOLEN. If in the original mission this was listed as a REQUIREMENT (ie. Items must be STOLEN) then it’s a bug.

If not, then you are going to have to find a station that sells Combat Stabilisers…they are very hard to find, I haven’t run into a station yet that sells them…

Destarius · 2015-01-19T23:12:39.000Z

Rod Humble:

I gave up :) Too tedious for me.

Actually if you cut your speed to zero (I believe that is 30 km/s), a USS would usually show up in less than a minute that you can immediately drop into - no flying required. You can do this repeatedly to drop into a series of USS easily. This can also be done for bounty hunting etc though I find RES far more profitable.

Do make sure you’re in the right system - sometimes you’ll find an NPC who will tell you which system your target is, so if you somehow missed that in your comms then you may be in the wrong system altogether.

Edit: for clarity

Rod_Humble · 2015-01-19T23:49:01.000Z

Destarius:

Actually if you cut your speed to zero (I believe that is 30 km/s), a USS would usually show up in less than a minute that you can immediately drop into - no flying required. You can do this repeatedly to drop into a series of USS easily. This can also be done for bounty hunting etc though I find RES far more profitable.

Do make sure you’re in the right system - sometimes you’ll find an NPC who will tell you which system your target is, so if you somehow missed that in your comms then you may be in the wrong system altogether.

Edit: for clarity

That is super useful. Thank you!

KevinC · 2015-01-20T06:53:30.000Z

tolwyn:

SO, I got my first mission with the federal navy, go get some combat stabilisers. I went to a nearby system, found a clean ship with the cargo and shot it up, grabbed the cargo and went back to the original system. When I got there, I paid the fine, but when I go to give in the cargo in the bulletin board, the option to give cargo is in red and I can’t select it, even though the cargo is in my hold and my standing with the federation is friendly. Any ideas?

They’re stolen goods at this point, and that’s not what the mission was asking for, you dirty pirate. You need to find a station that sells them. Check Anarchy systems (not just Anarchy stations, an Anarchy system that has stations in it), that’s how I eventually found mine.

tolwyn · 2015-01-20T07:37:28.000Z

Ugh, you’re right, thanks. Guess I need to upgrade my FTL to get to a system that has them. All this after camping out at the nav point for over an hour to find them! I guess I profited anyways ($300k in bounties), but I thought I had it made when I made my run and collected the stabilisers while under fire. Oh well, lesson learned, no more pirating for me.

schurem · 2015-01-20T07:43:50.000Z

God-fucking-dammit.

I flew to Alioth (the alliance capital), but I need a permit to enter. So I docked in a nearby system and went to the boards to get going on letting these people know that schurem really is avery nice friendly guy who will do the job and is very much the kind of nice guy you want to give a permit to. Well, a 160k asassination mission would be a great way to kick it off. I hadn’t tested my beam-rail-gun asp against such a target yet, but seeing as i managed to kill em in my viper, should be no problemo in my asp, right? Right?

Wrong. Fucker had me warp out with the tail tucked and hull down to 50% two times. And when I finally did kill him, my hull was again back to about 50%. Them shield booster charges just couldnt keep up. On the other hand, those rails are plenty killacious for such a target. Perhaps even a tad too much so because I had to divert power from shields and engines to keep the whole kit going.

Anybody got some tips on how to make these fights go down better?

Destarius · 2015-01-20T08:22:48.000Z

Wow, you run with rail guns? The operating costs for those are huge.

schurem · 2015-01-20T09:11:47.000Z

Naw maybe 6k reload for a stint in the belts that nets 350k. The trick is to let go of the trigger if the shot appears to be fleeting. Only when the lasers are doing constant damage (say a cobra showing full planform) do I keep squeezing the trigger until the rails go THWAP!

Nothing wrong with shooting expensive bullets provided you do not miss and only fire them at targets that warrant their expense. In the aforementioned belts (resource extraction sites) when I get to fight sidewinders, I usually fry em using just the beams. No use activating anything stronger for their paltry little bounties. Eagles sometimes get a short burst from the cannons. A cobra or asp will get the rails if a sweet shot presents itself.

Anaconda’s still present quite a problem for me. Perhaps I should upgrade the shields from C to A. Or even go up a class in shields, from 5 to 6. 6A is gonna be hella expensive tho.

Thrag · 2015-01-20T09:14:11.000Z

tolwyn:

SO, I got my first mission with the federal navy, go get some combat stabilisers. I went to a nearby system, found a clean ship with the cargo and shot it up, grabbed the cargo and went back to the original system. When I got there, I paid the fine, but when I go to give in the cargo in the bulletin board, the option to give cargo is in red and I can’t select it, even though the cargo is in my hold and my standing with the federation is friendly. Any ideas?

You need to purchase legit goods for that mission.

TimJames · 2015-01-20T09:30:52.000Z

It’s too bad they can’t set up rail guns to take advantage of two stage triggers on some joysticks. It would be mechanically satisfying to squeeze on the lasers and then pull the trigger the rest of the way to fire the rail guns.

schurem · 2015-01-20T10:26:14.000Z

Thing is, rail guns have a bit of a spool up before they fire (as do plasma accelerators). niiiIIIIIII-PEW! So you need to hold your aim on the target for a bit. For that, nothing beats a small beam laser.

SpaceMt · 2015-01-20T13:35:40.000Z

tolwyn:

… but I thought I had it made when I made my run and collected the stabilisers while under fire. Oh well, lesson learned, no more pirating for me.

Hey! You’ve learned a valuable skill…some of the more profitable missions you’ll find can ONLY be completed in the manner you did (“Items must be STOLEN”). Sometime Elite Dangerous CAN be Dangerous.

BTW… Has anyone ever “Blindly” accepted ALL available missions at once?!? Lots of mental juggling under time constraints, wacky fun but can wreck havoc with your Rep!

conVurt · 2015-01-21T12:14:55.000Z

Some more limited information on conflict zone locations:

2015/01/21
NETO (Fed): There are still two low intensity conflict zones active. High tech system.
LHS 2936 (Indep): I noted three high and two low intensity conflict zones while passing through this system.

2015/01/22
HE BO (Alliance): Two low intensity conflict zones.
STF 1774 (Indep): One high and five low intensity conflict zones. Thanks Black Isis!

2015/01/23
KUK (Alliance): Five high and four low intensity conflict zones around KUK B (you can’t spot them from KUK A when you jump in).
LHS 2637 (Alliance): Three high and one low intensity conflict zones. High tech system.

2015/01/24:
AZ CANCRI (Fed): Two low and four high intensity conflict zones. Rare commodities and Black Market at Fisher Station. High tech system.
COQUIM (Empire): Two high and one low intensity conflict zone. Cleared up. Rare commodities at Hirayama Installation.
QUECHUA (Empire): One high and one low intensity conflict zone. Rare commodities at Crown Ring.
YASO KONDI (Empire): Five high and three low intensity conflict zones. Rare (but illegal) commodities at Wheeler Market.
SUMMERLAND (Empire, permit req’d): Four low intensity conflict zones.
APAM NAPAT (Empire): One high and four low intensity conflict zones.
LUSHERTHA (Indep): Three high and two low intensity conflict zones.

Destarius · 2015-01-22T11:39:42.000Z

So… I’m about to Class A my Viper and I need to be working on credits to get to an ASP/Anaconda.

Is the next step a Type-6 and back to trading?

conVurt · 2015-01-22T12:04:34.000Z

Destarius:

So… I’m about to Class A my Viper and I need to be working on credits to get to an ASP/Anaconda.

Is the next step a Type-6 and back to trading?

An Asp with require about 40M CR to fully upgrade to Class A. For me, I came at it from a Cobra, which I think took about 10M CR, but is a versatile enough ship that you’re not just stuck doing one thing with it. It made for a reasonable trader; you can easily get it to carry 32-40 tonnes.

MrCoffee · 2015-01-22T12:16:25.000Z

An asp can carry more cargo than a Type-6 by some small amount, but it also costs way more, so if you want to trade you should just get the lakon.

Black_Isis · 2015-01-22T16:34:02.000Z

conVurt:

Some more limited information on conflict zone locations:

2015/01/21
NETO (Fed): There are still two low intensity conflict zones active. High tech system.
LHS 2936 (Indep): I noted three high and two low intensity conflict zones while passing through this system.

2015/01/22
HE BO (Alliance): Two low intensity conflict zones.
AZ CANCRI (Fed): Two low and four high intensity conflict zones. Rare commodities and Black Market at Fisher Station. High tech system.
COQUIM (Empire): One high intensity conflict zone. Rare commodities at Hirayama Installation.
QUECHUA (Empire): One high and one low intensity conflict zone. Rare commodities at Crown Ring.
YASO KONDI (Empire): Five high and three low intensity conflict zones. Rare (but illegal) commodities at Wheeler Market.
SUMMERLAND (Empire, permit req’d?): Four low intensity conflict zones.

There’s a bunch of conflict zones in STF 1774 (near He Bo) as well – the Pro-Alliance League and someone else are fighting there.

conVurt · 2015-01-22T17:33:55.000Z

Black Isis:

There’s a bunch of conflict zones in STF 1774 (near He Bo) as well – the Pro-Alliance League and someone else are fighting there.

Added, thanks! Tell me you were in the region to see if neighbouring PIE was any good… ;)

JMR · 2015-01-22T21:18:51.000Z

Any of you guys struggle with carpal tunnel symptoms? Mine hand has been acting up ever since I dug out my stick to play Elite and it’s gotten so bad that the pain has been waking me up in the middle of the night. I took a break from the game for the past 4 days and bought a fabric brace from CVS so I can sleep uninterrupted. I’m open to suggestions on how to alleviate this annoyance otherwise I might have to give up the life of a bounty hunter and take up trading as it doesn’t require a death grip on the stick for most of the play duration.