4781

Thanks scharmers. The other ship I was considering was an adder, not an asp. I’ll keep an eye out for a viper.

Do I have to deploy scanners to use them or is scanning automatic? It seems like I auto scan things when I’m close enough but that distance seems totally random or is tied to the size of the object I’m scanning? Right now scanning consists of pointing my shiop at something until the scan decides to kick in.

4782

There’s two different kinds of scans. The first is when you activate your discovery scanner through holding down a key. This picks up undetected planets at up to 500 Ls (better scanners improve this to 1000 Ls and Unlimited). This gives you some money.

The second is an “active” scan, when you point your ship at an unknown planet and actively lock on to it. At a specific distance in, the active scan will pick up on its own and eventually “fully” scan the planet. This gets you more money.

If you have an advanced scanner, you get even more money when you “fully” scan a planet.

So what you want to do, by default, when you enter an “unknown” system is this:

  1. Wait until the star in front of you appears as “unexplored”. Lock on to it and wait for the full scan. Watch the left corner of your HUD.

  2. Meanwhile, you can run a discovery scan to pick up unexplored planets within 500 Ls of you.

  3. Once you’ve done both, you can lock on and “fully” scan any unexplored planets at your leisure.

4783

Scharmers doesn’t like the Eagle, but I loved it. If you find you’re not earning quick enough with the sidewinder, jump over to the eagle - it’s very cheap, and with a couple of upgrades you’ll find yourself making enough cash to fund your next (“first real”) ship - which could be a cobra/viper/adder depending on what you like to do, and how well you’re earning.

On the next season(/me just catching up). I’m fine with the price - and i prefer the option to buy up just a season, versus an expansion pack + monthly subscription to be laughably affordable value (even at $60, for 12 months is but $5/month, for many many hours of entertainment. $60 is a few beer and a movie these days, or a meal or two).

I do have a general concern about them going to landings while other less sexy, but more ultimately more rewarding, gameplay options abound. For me the biggest would be the economy - right now, the economy is a paper thin veneer that has absolutely no structure. It’s certainly personal preference, but for me i’d love for them to first tackle making the habitable galaxy’s economy make (at least some) sense. Where is there manufacturing, where is there resource exploitation(and i know they try to do that, the problem is it doesn’t make sense and/or doesn’t give players anything to play with) Even starting to tackle these two questions realistically opens up a plethora of gaming options:
[ul]
[li]Supply of resources[/li][li]Supply of manufactured goods[/li][li]Demand for both[/li][li]Trading of both[/li][/ul]
From there you can start modelling where the money is flowing, and from there, who will more likely have laws/police and to what extent (hint, it’s related to wealth) and who won’t. That then cycles to where your criminals will be, and what they’ll be doing, and what they may want. Then layer in tourism and transport (moving between civilized worlds), which can be a player benefit when they want to travel without a ship, and a further opportunity for player commerce if they either want to supplement existing routes or create new ones. And all of this adds to player immersion and(imo) retention, while building a stronger environment to support landings at a later point when this all becomes rote.

Anyways, we’ll see - hopefully if they don’t tackle these things in a big release, they start handling within the seasons in bits and pieces.

4784

There is a community goal to deliver industrial materials to Apalar that will finish in the next day or so. If you sign up for the mission and then deliver even just 1 ton of polymers, semiconductors or superconductors, the minimum reward is currently 400k CR, and that will probably go up to 500k or better by the time it finishes. So anyone just starting out and in need of credits, I’d strongly recommend you make the trek!

4785

Are community missions achievable in solo mode or do you have to be in online mode?

4786

You can do them in solo. You just need to sign up on the station bulletin board first so don’t unload those commodities until you do that!

4787

It’s even better; If you are the first player ever to make a detailed scan of an object, your name is forever connected to it. So go out there and put yours on something interesting such as a blue planet!

4788

Thanks again for the help everyone. I was able to get a Viper and now I’m in the process of upgrading it for fighting and exploration. I’tll be a while before I can afford an advanced discover scanner but learning how to use the basic scanner has made a big difference. I’ve been making bounty money by going to high intensity resouce extraction sites and following the system police around. Yeah, it’s not sporting but it makes me money until I can kit out a ship to go full solo on those bounties.

4789

For a combat explorer, you should really consider the Diamondback Scout, which is built for both and is probably the most enjoyable ship in the game to fly. It’s a natural progression from the Viper. Don’t dilute your build on more limited ships like the Viper - it’s designed for one thing only and that’s fighting.

4790

Pro tip: upgrade your power distributor to A first!

also welcome to the game, hope you enjoy it as much as we do :D

4791

Ohhh, that’s a doable price point for me too. I’ll definitely start saving up for a Diamondback!

4792

Pro tip to about the power distributor is spot on. The power plant and distributor are absolutely the first things you should buy at A-spec before doing anything else.

About the Viper: stick with it a while. This is the ship where you should really learn your combat chops, and about what weapons/shield/utility combos work and what which don’t, and about what you can get away with in regards to power. And it has the speed to get away from anything should you bite off more than you can chew. AND you won’t go bankrupt when the inevitable death(s) occur. I specced-out a Viper to the max before moving on. The Diamondback is still a ways down the line for you; enjoy the journey to get there and really have the experience to appreciate the ship!

4793

Ok so I made about 15 million doing the space trucker thing. Its ok but got old. So then I read that you can get these powerplay merit thingers pretty quick if you join a fighting power and fight a bunch for them. So i got me a vulture with my space trucker money, joined the federation fascist asshole and looked for a good place to make with the pewpew.

I did try the powerplay stuff before, working for this purty empire lady that wants to get rid of slavery. It felt pointless as fuck because all i could do was haul thingamibobs that were given out in very small dollops and gained very little too. no way i’d ever get enough points for one of them sweet shields. so fuck that.

Anyway. Fighting for the bastard shadow president gains a LOT. I already have three times as many points as I ever had for the pretty lady. my goal is to get into the brackets where the weekly pay is worth it, like the 4th or 5th. the latter pays 50 million a week! holy moley!

4794

Obviously I’ve been out of the loop for a long long time due to health. Can anyone give me the skinny on how this has shaped up/developed since January when I had to stop playing? :p

I’m still too weak to play… but someday maybe soon!

4795

J!!! Good to see you are fixin’ to get back in action!
Since January eh? So you didnt even see the march update called wings? This made it a little more of a coop game by adding small group capabilities. It also added a couple of ships.
Next came a controversial thing called power play. It added a bunch of large subfactions to the empires that have lots of grindy gameplay associated with them.
It’s obtuse and grindy sop proper elite lol. On the other hand it has added a lot of texture to inhabited space. In this place agricultural stuff is 10% cheaper, in that one bounties are a bit richer. Etc.
Next up is another thing nobody asked for, cqc, short for close quarters combat. It’s a separate instant drop in pvp game that uses elite flight mechanics to make it a moba. This will exist next to the game proper. How or if it will mesh with it is unknown to me. This is bound to hit any day now.
Late in the year 1.5 will bring a bunch of ships and perhaps something else. Not long thereafter horizons should hit, the next ‘season’ of elite expansions which will gradually add planetary landings and gameplay. Yay \0/

4796

Hey Jeff! good to see you are (getting) back in action!

since january eh? So you saw update 1.1 i reckon? the one that added these community goal thingers? After that came 1.2 wings. This added some much needed co-op multiplayer functionality to the game, allowing you to fly together with up to two human wingpeople. It also fixed some bugs and added a couple of ships.

1.3 was called powerplay and added a point based political metagame called powerplay. There’s ten powers across inhabited space and each bring certain effects to their territory such as lowered prices on agricultural products or slightly elevated bounties. This adds texture to human space but the mechanics of it are obtuse and grindy. Properly elite then. Also a couple of new ships.

1.4 will add another feature that nobody asked for. It’s called CQC, close quarters combat and will tack on what amounts to a MOBA using the elite flight mechanics. If and how it will have anything to do with the main game is unclear to me. It will hit any day now, along with the XBONE release of elite.

1.5 is going to be the last of the free expansions and is tentatively named ‘ships’. I reckon it’ll add a bunch of ships. It’s slated for the holiday season.

Not long after 1.5 the next so called season should hit. It’s called Elite:Horizons and is the first of the paid expansions. With it will come another round of incremental expansions. The main thing about it is that it will introduce planetary gameplay. They will start off with airless rocks but the plan is to go all the way to lush jungle planets in due course. Fuck yea baby!

Anyway, good to see you back in the saddle and I hope you get well soon bro! Get yourself a Vulture, the best of the new ships since january and pwn some face with it :D

4797

Thanks for that summary, schurem.

So I moved to Empire space because I want to start grinding rep for an Imperial ship. After doing some research, I thing I want to pledge the Empire person who gives a bonus to bounties.

Where do you typically grind for faction rep? Do you go to RES and nav beacons and do bounties? Do you slip in to opposition space and beat up on ships? Do you actually do some of the missions? How about the system takeover? I’m not sure how that works… do you go to a contested system and kill enemies there? I’ll continue my research but I’m still foggy on how all of this stuff is supposed to work.

4798

As am I lol.

If you want imperial rank the thing to do is to run bulletin board missions or trade in imperial space. Oddly enough you want to do this all over imperial space in order to raise your standing with as many of the minor (local) imperial factions. These powerplay thingers have (afaik) no bearing on major faction standing.

So the thing to do is haul crap, shoot bounties or grind the board in as many stations as you can until the naval ascension mission starts popping up. Do it and you gain rank. That’s the theory. The practice is that ranking up is buggered-up at the moment, or so it seems. When I was trying to get to Master in order to gain access to the Imperial Courier there was no fucking rhyme or reason to it at all. I had just about given up and then they started popping up. le dafuq lol.

Speaking of weird luck, a week thereafter, there was a story thing (the emperor woke up for a bit) and they sold the big imperial ship to anyone with at least a little rank. So now she’s sittin’ pretty in my hangar as well. Haven’t kitted her out yet tho, too expensive.

Anyway, about those power dudes. The reason to join them is spelled out one of the tabs of their page. Each gives a different effect to you as their pledge as well as some goodie at rank three. The effect is something like “increased payout for bounties” and the goodies can be a weapons or a snazzy little ship mods. On another page it spells out how this power expands and defends. IMO only the ones that have combat in there are worth pledging because this “bring propaganda materials to X” bullshit is bullshit.

4799

Got back into the game and just picked up a Vulture. Good grief, this is just built to kill things.

My next dream buy is an FDL (because it is soooo purty).

4800

CQC Update (1.4) Patch notes for the beta. (Long–recommend you acquire beverage before reading…)