I can attest that the TM 1600 is a decent bit of kit.
It’s great, isn’t it? There’s a lot of game in there. Also a lot of jank, but you’ll run into that eventually. You VR? If so, that TM 1600 can be put to much fun use in flight sims. Even if those don’t do it for you normally, in VR it might be worth chewing through the initial learning curve (like you did with Elite).
One thing about games with learning curves is that that very bit of initial hardness makes them more immersive. I sometimes secretly wish I could start up my E:D spaceship like I do my DCS planes. Bringing a MiG-15 or Spitfire MkIX to life in that sim is something else.
It’s on sale for Canadian: $50 off:
I’m really disappointed in myself. I can’t even get past the first combat training mission. That 2nd target keeps kicking my butt :(
I used to play flight / space seems years ago and I don’t remember having it so hard. I’m sure enemies were bad because I suck as a pilot. Are ED enemies better than is normal in these sort of games?
If it’s the training mission I’m thinking of, it’s absurdly overtuned and waaay more difficult than a training mission should be. I’d ignore it and just start playing.
The nice thing about ED combat is that you can get some experience without too much frustration or risk. Head out to a nav beacon (near a star) or to a resource extraction site (found in planetary rings – start with “low”). There, you can look for wanted ships by scanning then. Just select a ship, then point your own ship at them for a few seconds. If they are a bad guy with a bounty, you will see “Wanted” on the scanner readout.
If wanted ships aren’t in the area, they will be along presently. In resource extraction sites, they are pretty easy to spot. You’ll have some people mining, and a few cops, and then an occasional pirate wandering in looking for trouble.
Once you spot a wanted ship, trail them. Make sure it says “Wanted” on the scanner before you do anything. If there are some cops nearby, you can start shooting (the cops will back you up if they’re not busy). Otherwise, wait for the fireworks to start and then join in.
You’ll get a cash reward for taking them out, even if you didn’t do most of the work.
But don’t accidentally shoot at the cops, ships you haven’t scanned, or non-wanted ships! The hammer will come down big time.
Spend the money you earn on upgrading your ride, and then on bigger and better ships. Eventually, you can start visiting High and Hazardous resource extraction sites, which will offer bigger payouts for bounty hunting.
Also, Sidewinder insurance is free, so you can die as much as you like for no real penalty.
I don’t think I ever beat that tutorial mission either. It is pretty demoralizing.
Luckily the combat in the actual game isn’t as hard. Plus you can always equip your ship better to compensate if it is indeed hard.
I took advantage of this when I was learning how to play Elite since, as you say, there’s no penalty. Deploy and fire weapons inside a space station. Loiter around landing pads too long. Get too close to a star. Run out of fuel. I got all the normally costly mistakes out of my system before playing the game in earnest.
Thanks guys, I’ll just skip the tutorials. The navigation tutorial wasn’t any less frustrating. Is the manual a good place to get a grip on the systems?
I’d just do a quick search on YouTube, honesty. The navigation stuff isn’t hard but it’s something that you could show in just a couple minutes but might sound pretty confusing on paper, in my opinion.
No but we are :)
You lose bounties you haven’t turned in though, so I would fly back to a station every once in a while to turn things in.
Finally got this fired back up, and joystick calibrated after I realized I was probably leaning on it when I plugged it in, causing the twist axis to be shifted. I thought my joystick was ruined!
I saved in an asteroid field with enemy around so hopefully I can remember how to fight quickly. I don’t remember how to align and warp anymore either! Ugh! I also can’t remember my weapon load out on my Vulture so have to learn quickly. I have all my buttons and pertinent keys ready.
Interestingly enough this is the exact same phrase my ex-wife would use before we engaged in carnal union.
Hah!
Having lots of connection issues this morning. Bummer…
There should be a skeleton customer services team in today but I doubt they’ll be able to do much about it unless there’s someone from the server team in too.
They might enjoy festive greetings though.
“Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals”
It seems to be working now! I went to a normal resource extraction site and was able to take some ships out so getting used to it again. I need to figure out a ship to upgrade to next, for combat, from this Vulture to work toward. For some reason I have a Plasma Acc and Frag Cannon on it right now, heh. Sort of fun.
I also applied to the squadron!
Nice! those are not noobs’ weapons! A plasma Accellerator needs a good aim and a steady hand. Fun to get right tho.