Yeah, whenever I’ve had a question such as one RayRayK has asked, I just hit Google and learn something new. It’s better than being slammed with tons of info all up front in a tutorial, and it feels like I’m sort of part of the community in some ways.
I went with a Viper MkIII and have upgraded thrusters, power distribution, FJD, shield generator, and scanners a bit here and there. I’m running dual Pulse Lasers for wearing down target shields, and dual cannons for when the shields go down, and just in the last hour I managed to track down and kill 5 bounties netting 72K CR! Very satisfying!
This forum is for people like you and me. If you’re stuck, there are plenty of helpful other players who will give you a tip and share their experience.
As for shipping cargo - pfffft. Gimbaled pulse lasers and go hunting USS (throttle supercruise to almost zero, wait for a USS to appear next to you then disengage, and hope for WANTED ships) or go to an RES and go bounty hunting (again, shoot up WANTED ships).
If you’re not getting anywhere with trading, definitely try sites like www.elitetradingtool.co.uk and www.eliteraretrader.co.uk - I see this as being completely acceptable, as though you’ve walked into the nearest station store and purchased the latest trading guide, or downloaded a neat trading app on your future smartphone. It helps a lot to find good trading routes. Still, I was happy when I was able to discover my own trading route using the Commodities tab, but those website can help you find your trading mojo.
Otherwise, go the Anonymgeist route, buy some better pew pew and go blow shit up. :)
You probably have been here (the Guides and Tutorials section of the games website), but just in case not:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=77
Unfortunately this is a game you need to do plenty of side reading on to get the most out of it, as the game teaches you very little about itself. So you just have to suck it up and do the reading that probably should be easily represented in the games tutorials or as an in game ‘manual’ in your ships computer. Still atleast there is the forums.
Same. Maybe in a future patch it will be more “casual friendly”. :)
I am still digging my exploration adventures. I now spend one evening flying outbound then another evening back towards civilisation . I am netting ~cr600K a trip now which is more than enough for me to feel good about. My “high score” for a system sits at cr110k. Enjoyable stuff if a little scary when you get jumped on the return trip :)
conVurt
3827
Beta 1.1 changelog. It is big. And while I didn’t see it mention a new ship to fly in my quick skim, I’m still looking forward to some of the changes, like chevrons on the landing pad to show you which way you should be pointed.
- Route planning extended to 1,000 ly
Got tired of scrolling through the rest.
I’m still looking forward to some of the changes, like chevrons on the landing pad to show you which way you should be pointed.
No harm in adding more pointers, but you can tell by the metal panels that stick up at the ends of the pad.
Maybe in a future patch it will be more “casual friendly”. :)
Maybe at the margins, but I doubt it will ever be a particularly casual friendly or directed experience. It’s just not what Braben’s (or most old school players’) vision of Elite is. Docking is always going to be challenging for beginners, by design. Trade is always going to be somewhat opaque. I certainly wouldn’t hold my breath for a patch to magically give it a traditional AAA style learning curve. Just have a look at any of the many guides or manuals available, or watch one of the excellent introductory videos on Youtube, and jump in. There’s a lot of content I hope and to a certain degree expect to be added over time, but it’s mostly going to add complexity, not handholding.
- Added in LOD levels for the holographic guide markers on the landing pads. This should fix the issues with the guides vanishing randomly since
there should always now be some mesh to render regardless of what LOD the parent hanger is set at
Yay!
The expected shield cell bank nerf is in there.
- Lowered speed, manoeuvrability and shield strength on Python
Ouch.
Here’s the friendly fire fix:
- When the player accidentally hits an AI ship damage is accumulated. If a threshold is exceeded (by multiple hits or a powerful weapon like a rail-run), the ship turns hostile. The AI ship will “forget” the damage before it turns hostile:
- if the AI ship recharges its shield to 100%.
- if a (currently 30 sec) timer runs out.
- Make the system apply to stations as well.
Also turrets should friendly fire less.
Station trespass timer has been increased, which should save forgetful pilots some money.
RayRayK
3831
Unfortunately I don’t have a lot of time to participate in the forum (as my post count can attest). This is one of the few periods where I’m not running all over the place. As for “hunting USS” I don’t even know how to go about doing that. How do I indirect ships? Or should I just hang out outside of space stations and try not to have the defense ships blast me away? I guess that’s my biggest problem, I get this sense that there is a lot to do in this game but I have no idea how to actually go about doing it and how some activities may compare against others. Without an easy way to evaluate how I should spend my time it just makes all the options mute to me.
RayRayK
3832
Yeah I just wish the game didn’t require me to spend so much time investing in how to access its options. I love the flight model, I actually enjoy the landing mini game, but how do I actually get to the things that everyone else is talking about? Like I said I probably just don’t have the time to really dive into this and I kinda wish I did because I love space flight sims, Tie Fighter was the first game I ever played. I guess I just want something that has the some hardcore mentality as Elite but made it’s possibilities more apparent and accessible in terms of how to go about getting there not so much as making it easy to get there.
Ginger Yellow mentioned that this will never be a AAA game in terms of its learning curve and I’d never want it to be. But other highly complex games can retain a high level of complexity and difficulty without hiding the options available to me.
If anything Elite is the opposite in terms of the Europa Universalis games. Where the EU games throw tons of options in front of you and you learn to sink or swim within the complexity, Elite presents a very simple intro but provides no clear way of actually getting to the bigger scheme of things.
But again I realize I’m just wishing at the wind at this point.
Don’t get overwhelmed! Here’s a good one-stop shop for information: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?p=914021.
For starting out in bounty-hunting, you don’t need to interdict ships at all. When you enter system supercruise, just throttle down to zero and check your contacts screen until you see a nearby “Unidentified Signal Source”. At zero throttle, you should able to just point towards it and then hit “J” to enter it immediately, resulting in some sort of encounter where you might meet innocent traders, or a pirate, or maybe stumble on pirates and other ships mixing it up. These pirates will usually lead to a bounty of a thousand credits or more and generally be a much faster (and more exciting) way of making money until you can afford a Hauler.
Once you can afford a hauler, you should hit up a website like Thrudd’s which I like. That should help you start finding good routes from where you are. Trying to find a good route on your own is tough and best left to the experienced traders who have a better sense of which systems need what kinds of products.
Yeah I just wish the game didn’t require me to spend so much time investing in how to access its options. I love the flight model, I actually enjoy the landing mini game, but how do I actually get to the things that everyone else is talking about? Like I said I probably just don’t have the time to really dive into this and I kinda wish I did because I love space flight sims, Tie Fighter was the first game I ever played. I guess I just want something that has the some hardcore mentality as Elite but made it’s possibilities more apparent and accessible in terms of how to go about getting there not so much as making it easy to get there.
Ginger Yellow mentioned that this will never be a AAA game in terms of its learning curve and I’d never want it to be. But other highly complex games can retain a high level of complexity and difficulty without hiding the options available to me.
I don’t mean to be that guy, and I’ll certainly agree that the in-game documentation isn’t up to snuff, especially compared to recent Paradox titles but there is a manual which answers a lot of your questions. I don’t think it’s too much to ask to read the manual when you play a sim. It used to be half the fun!
From said manual:
Precision Destination Drop: If you have a destination locked into your navigation
computer, and it represents a precise location, such as a navigation beacon, unidentified signal
source or starport/outpost, you can attempt to exit super cruise in a precise manner that
places your ship within a small number of kilometres from the destination.
To successfully perform a precision drop, you need to be:
• Facing the destination
• Within 1000KM (1 mega metre) of the destination
• Travelling at under 1000KM per second
Whilst all of these requirements are being met a “SAFE TO DISENGAGE” will display on the
Pilot’s Interface. Use ENGAGE FRAME SHIFT DRIVE to perform a precision destination drop.
any reports from guys playing on the new patch? I was reading that trading has had a big change, in that it should better reflect supply/demand now?
Oh, interesting patch note I missed on my first skim: combat bonds are based on ship type now. Depending on how much they vary, that may make conflict zones a viable alternative to bounty hunting for money.
schurem
3838
that’s good because they nerfed the extraction zones to kingdom come.
I really dig what they are doing with the graphics and sound. Much improvements imo.
Don’t quite understand why they did this. Was it causing issues? Why make it harder for bounty hunters to make a living? It’s not like the profession scales well in terms of return, and it is very risky.
Also, no new ships in 1.1? Boo. They were teasing the Fer-De-Lance a few weeks ago, and I was expecting it to be in this update. The game so desperately needs fleshing out, and the ships really are the primary content, literally the stars of the show. 15 ships is few enough, but you only encounter a sub-set of them anywhere and that’s well…not many ships.
KevinC
3840
They made a statement a while back that 1.1 would not contain ships. They teased the Fer-De-Lance and they’ve talked about the Vulture (a heavy fighter, 2 large weapon and 4 utility slots), so there’s definitely more on the way, just no ETA yet.
