5281

When we found out about being able to make your own faction over on Gamers with Jobs, someone came up with the name and there was a wide agreement on it. I was pretty flattered. :)

5282

Planet landings in Elite :)

And probably why Isinona is still such a good FAO pilot!

5283

So are you gonna jump in now, Zak? Or still going to wait for a bit?

5284

Soon ™, but solo play only (to reduce internet usage) :)

5285

I have this since release and never played it. Today I watched the docking and flight tutorial and was wondering what the best way to approach it from the start.

I have a Joystick + Throttle so am all ready but it seems pretty deep and I’ve become pretty shallow with my gaming in general so advice would be great.

5286

When I first started out I did a few of the tutorial missions a few times until I had a rudimentary grasp of things. When you start out with the main game, you start with a small ship that gets replaced for free if it gets blown up, so trial-and-error is mostly painless. Once you get a feel for what controls you need, hop into the control settings config and remap your joystick/throttle to suit.

5287

Yeah, you gotta do they missions, they walk you through and let you do the important shit hands on.

5288

I had a friend who got hung up on some of the training missions. I think there’s one where you have to fight multiple ships at once or something like that. He was afraid to start the game until he could master those missions, but they sounded a lot harder than anything I was dealing with in-game at the time. So I’d say get the basics down which include your controls, how to land, how to go into supercruise/jump, and then jump into the game. If all you lose is your Sidewinder it’ll be replaced anyway, so no real loss for death early on.

5289

So here’s a little more info on the long-range haulage opportunities out of Fehu. In addition to doing this in a cobra, I also tried out an asp and a python, to see just how the profits scaled with larger ships.

The asp worked out a little better than the cobra. It took me a smidge under 3h to get to Fehu, load up 20 missions between the two stations, and deliver them for a net profit of about 20M CR. Fully loaded, the 25 ly jump range is quite nice, and with decent weapons and some shields, you should be able to handle most interdictions so long as you’re fighting 1 on 1.

Doing this run with a python, on the other hand, should only be attempted by masochists. With a jump range between 20 ly (empty) and 14 ly (full), travel-time there-and-back alone will run you an hour and a half. With over 200 tonnes of cargo capacity, you’ll be looking to fill up with 40-50 missions, and the destination systems and stations you will be delivering to will be spread out across the galaxy map even with reasonable overlap. I ran 41 missions for a net profit of 45M CR, but it took 7.5h! On the plus side, with the firepower and defenses at your disposal, anything stupid enough to interdict you will be vaporized in very short order. And you will get interdicted. A lot.

I think what happens is that for each transport mission you take, you get a percentage chance of a pirate encounter every jump you make. So those 40+ missions are just more opportunities for harassment. Oh, and that horrid jump range? Yeah, you’ll also be making 2-3 times as many jumps as an asp or cobra would. If you enjoy shooting pirates, this might be a net positive, but certainly if you do be sure and pack a KWS. Otherwise, it is just one more thing making your life difficult when you’re down to 20min to deliver 4 tonnes of fish to some outpost 40,000 ls from the jump-in point.

On the plus side, the space between Fehu and the region of space your mission destinations will bring you to is highly scoopable. Whereas the Sothis run would frequently leave you with an empty fuel tank if you weren’t paying attention to your auto-route planner, here it was very rare for me to run into two stars in a row I couldn’t scoop fuel from, and I never did run into three. One quick note about getting interdicted while scooping fuel. If you see a message indicating some NPC may try and interdict you between you scooping and your FDS completing its jump prep, throttle down to 0 and aim your ship perpendicular to the star, ass to the fire. Target the ship in question. Because a ship needs to be behind you to interdict, it should fly into the star and disappear, offering you some brief respite.

Finally, taking on these haulage missions out of Fehu seems to be a great way to rank up with the Empire. After finishing off most of my runs in a cobra I managed to rank up to Earl (rank 10). Doing about 50 more missions (plus assorted charity donations and bounty payouts) got me another promotion, only 2 days later. So I would imagine that lower ranks would get promotion opportunities even more frequently. Anyone looking to work their way towards an imperial clipper, this appears to be a great way to earn both the cash and the clout!

TL;DR:

cobra: 6M/h
asp: 6.5M/h <-- do it like this!
python: 6M/h <-- for masochists only!

5290

I think I’ll do a Fehu run this weekend, thanks for the info Convert! Might I ask what your load outs were for the Asp and Cobra, please?

5291

The cobra I use for smuggling, and it is lean and fast. No shields, weapons or anything on the utility mounts, and a class 4 fuel scoop. Everything A-rated except life support and scanners at D. The power plant, while rated A, is a couple of sizes smaller than max, IIRC, to save on weight, since power is not much of a requirement. Cargo racks everywhere else. It will boost to 450, and 440 or so fully loaded. Total cost was around 7M I think.

The asp I just threw together from what was available at the station where I parked my python. :) Again, A-rated everything except life support and scanners at D, a power plant just large enough to handle the draw, gimballed pulse lasers on the hardpoints, a class 5 fuel scoop and class 3 shields to absorb some hits while you boost away from any trouble you can’t just splatter. I don’t remember the cost, but it was under 20M. Its jump range was 25 ly full and 30+ ly empty.

5292

I did the Fehu thing with an ASP yesterday, with 2 32 ton fuel tanks i didnt have to refuel to get there, took atleast 12 missions that gave me 700k each and made around 7-8m.

Took me about 3 hours tho, i still have to upgrade the ASP to the better engine since i only had like 22 LY range full so that could be it.

5293

I find myself enjoying Elite more after I remap the 360 controller left stick to yaw and pitch instead of the default roll and pitch. It makes landing so much easier now and I’d recommend this set up to any newbie.

5294

I’m trying to resist getting back into Elite again, because I only have a couple of weeks to play it. When I get back, though, hopefully Horizons will be out and I’ll be able to join in the fun.

So what happens at the moment if you’re playing Horizons with a non-Horizons player, and you head down to a planet? Does your colleague have to sit and watch you, helplessly, as you head towards the planet’s surface for fun times? Can you say “Come on down, the weather’s lovely!” in a suitably encouraging / mocking tone?

5295

For anyone interested in some pew-pew, there’s a pair of opposing community goals in Kausalya. You can sign up to shoot down Emperor’s Dawn ships at the bulletin board of Gernhardt Station, to shoot down federal ships at Agnesi City, or you can be utterly mercenary and sign up to do both. Unless one finishes early, each is set to run two weeks, at which point the side with the most combat bonds wins.

Both stations are spitting distance from HICZs, so you won’t have far to go to find nice, juicy pythons and anacondas. I’ll probably be there this week in the Veloxi group, should anyone want to wing up and split some combat bonds.

5296

Man, Fehu or…Kausalya…Fehu or…Kausalya…eeeenie meeenie myynie moe…

5297

reminds me of this :)

5298

Hmm… make a Fehu run then head to Kausalya?

I should be heading over today to at least get on the board for the CG, but probably won’t stay the whole 2 weeks like last time and head back to Orcus later, or perhaps back and forth a bit if it is really close.

I am considering putting some Military Grade armor on my Vulture for the CG. I know it slows it down a bit, but do people put armor on their ships much, especially in a combat zone where you tend to take a lot more damage?

5299

It kinda depends on how you fly your vulture. If you never let the shields drop (by, for example, boosting away to let them slowly recharge once you get down to a sliver of the last ring, or by firing up a shield cell) then the armor doesn’t help you anyway. If your shields do get punctured and your ship gets dinged up, you’re probably looking to return to base and get repaired anyway. If on the other hand you find your shields frequently yo-yo in and out of existence, then yeah, armoring up makes sense.

On the FAS I’m flying, shields are something of a cosmic joke, so yeah, military composites (not to mention hull reinforcement packages) all the way!

5300

I’d say try a Fehu run or two, and if you get bored or it’s not just your thing, swing by through Kausalya to take your frustrations out in a CZ.