If the system is far away, your galaxy map will take some time to populate the route. Waiting is the only way I’ve found to solve this.
Park yourself at an RES and join in the pile on when the authorities shoot up a pirate. Easiest money you’ll ever make until you make it into a Type 6.
Kelan
3803
I pretty much went combat all the way using my Sidewinder for a while, then the Eagle, and now a Viper. Early on I heard the best advice was to sell the early Eagle and upgrade my Sidewinder, which I did and that worked wonderfully. However, I sort of wrote off the Eagle and was going to skip it, but was really glad I tried it once I had enough cash and while saving up for my Viper. It was a fun little ship and worth a try if you enjoy combat.
I need to get back into this! I have been tied up in other things the past week, but miss my Viper. Where have people been hanging out lately? I need to get back on mumble and go shoot some stuff with someone.
Joe_M
3804
I don’t suppose there is a recommended newbie guide I can peruse while I wait for my controller setup to arrive? I’m so tempted to jump in but I think I’d prefer to learn the controls just once.
conVurt
3805
While I came to it pretty late myself, I thought Eurogamer’s Elite Dangerous guide would have made a good starting point for the game.
I just took out two more targets with my sindwinder and scored 30k more CR - can anyone suggest good beam weapon upgrades for the Sidewinder? Something I should keep my eyes peeled for? I am getting decent with the stock, fixed pulse lasers, but some targets take awhile to bring down. I only have the two hard points (and the default power plant at the moment, though I could fix that fairly easily) and 130K CR. I see the same basic weapon options when I dock, but I could maybe find a high tech facility and jump my way there to see what other options I have. I’d be happy I think with just higher quality, harder hitting fixed point pulse lasers, but I never see them. The pulse lasers I do see are the ones that sort of auto-target - I love those, but they look like they do less damage? Are they still worth getting? Two of those, maybe? The rating on them is worse, too (G I believe, when the default lasers are class F). Any advice on weapons for the side winder would be appreciated!
Joe_M
3807
Thanks, this looks like just the thing I had in mind!
The last game I played with a joystick must’ve been Red Baron 2. Good lord it’s been a while.
Thrag
3808
I vote for Eagle! Fixed beam lasers and a gimbaled multicannon in an eagle is a great setup for bounty hunting.
When it comes to upgrading your ship, go with power distribution first. It determines how fast your shields, weapons and engine boost recharge.
Only upgrade your power plant when you really need the extra power for the equipment you want to add. Your power use with weapons deployed can be over your total power by 5% or more, just go into the modules screen and set the cargo hatch to priority 4, FSD to priority 2, and if you have optional stuff you don’t need in combat like a super-cruise interdiction device set that to 3. That way if systems need to power down to support your weapons it won’t be anything you need in combat. Remember after making upgrades to test to see what really gets powered down before entering combat.
The eagle is fragile, but I’d spend my money on thrusters before shields. Defense in an eagle is more about never letting the enemy bring their guns to bear rather than your ability to take hits.
Resource extraction sites in systems that are under some authority seem to be the best for hunting profitably and safely. While the SA can be a nusiance, they are a great help as well. They’ll help keep ships from ganging up on you and distract the enemy to give you an opportunity to flee when necessary. While they can steal your kills, that’s nothing compared to how you can steal theirs. One of the best ways to find wanted ships is to look for who the SA is beating on. You can see laser flashes, and discern mining lasers from combat lasers, and a much farther distance than any scanner. If you see combat it’s a guarantee one side in it is wanted. Boost in and finish off whoever angered the SA.
There are also things you can do to mitigate the disadvantages of having the SA around. For making sure you get the kill the beam and multi-cannon loadout works very well given the high rate of fire of those weapons. To avoid accidentally becoming wanted due to an SA ship crossing your path pay attention to their fire. If you and the SA are chasing an enemy look at their shots and use your lateral/vertical thrust to move in the opposite.
Thrag,
Thanks for the thoughtful and very helpful reply!
So here is what happened when I next played (just now) - I saw a mission to deliver gold for 70K. Well, ooookay then! I checked and gold was being exported just a few systems away! I plotted a course, and off I went. Once I arrived I filled my hold with Gold! GLORIOUS GOLD!
I couldn’t plot a jump out of this system. Hmn.
Oh man, seriously, the GOLD is weighing me down!? How awesome is this game!
So I spend 25K on a better Jump Drive (at this point I’ve replaced nearly every component of my Sidewinder with non-loaned parts) and was able to get back, redeem the gold and get up to 150k even after having spent cash on the new jump drive.
For fun, I went to purchase an Eagle and I found out I can sell my current ship for nearly 50K. This actually means I could pick up a Viper and, if I sell my tricked-out Sidewinder, could have 90K LEFT OVER. Is the Viper a better value combat ship than the Eagle? Thoughts? Should I get the Eagle and have that much more extra cash to pick up extra weapons and improve power balancer, shields, and jump drive/thrusters?
JMR
3810
Thrag
3811
I’d take the eagle for two reasons. First I think it’s better to have a well equipped ship rather than move up to the next class of ship sooner. Second because the eagle is really fun to fly.
The main trade offs are that the viper carries a larger loadout and is faster, but the eagle is more maneuverable. The eagle also has better visibility. I often wish there were a sun roof option for the viper.
If I can honestly play this with a 360 controller, considering my lack of dual-stick combat skills in shooters (I’m not sure that applies to Elite)…this looks like one of the greatest games I’ve seen in years. I should see if I can get it.
It kind of does apply … except in Elite you have an extra movement axis and an extra rotation axis to control as well. ;)
Dual-stick shooters are an entirely different animal. In a dual stick shooter you have to steer with one stick and provide momentum with the other.
In Elite the left stick rotates your ship or pulls your nose up or down, your forward momentum is actually the RB and LB to increase or decrees throttle… your RIGHT stick is thrusters. You push up to boost straight up, down to boost straight down, and left and right to “strafe” left or right. It’s really not that big of a challenge, I got used to it in the first training mission.
The game has been Boughtenated. Woooo here we go…eventually.
Okay, I finally gave combat another try with some bounty hunting and wow, okay, I see what everyone was saying now. In about two hours, I made nearly ten times more money in the 12 or so I’d spent in the game previously.
The big help for me was swapping out my two starting fixed lasers for a pair of gimbaled weapons, and that right there was an enormous help as it greatly mitigated the difficulties I was having with aiming.
Anonymgeist what ship are you flying?
Still just the Sidewinder I started with. I’ve been wondering if I should upgrade, but I’ve still only got about 90k credits.
RayRayK
3819
So I think I’ve come to the realization that this game isn’t for me. I’ve spent about twelve hours on it off and on for about two weeks and I can’t say that I’m doing any better now than I was in hour 1. What trade routes will get me the most money? I have no idea. What parts of the galaxy have interesting stuff going on? I have no idea. Are some places supposed to be more advanced than others and what’s the deal with these random factions I see? I have no idea. How do I start interdicting other ships or tracking down bounties or generally get into dog fights? I have no idea. I can’t find a lot of answers in any of the in-game documentation that I’ve looked through and the answers I have found are pretty vague. This is all a shame because I really enjoy just flying around and zipping through space.
Now I understand from the forum that if you have the time to consistently put into this game it can be very rewarding. I just wish the developers made it easier for someone like me to get a sense of, if not direction, at least what the possibilities are, ways to evaluate those possibilities, and a sense of how to approach those possibilities. As of now I’m stuck shipping 4 units of cargo from point A to point B to point C to point A again.
It’s definitely one of those games that benefit from mining wikis and forums a little bit to find a good strategy. Or like in my case, a lucky break on an Anaconda kill that started me out with 70K credits. Then I used the scharmers Sidewinder build and had fun in combat for hours. Later I stumbled upon a lucrative rare goods trade route that was super tense.
If I hadn’t caught either of those breaks, I wouldn’t have had as much fun.
