OS Neutral Elite Dangerous Tips

Janichsan · Mar 13, 2015

Yesterday, I was fighting together with two other commanders at Mizar against David Attenborough and his wing of Vultures. It was glorious.

Huntn said:
Bottom line, I'm wondering if by partnering if I cut my take in half?

No, the bounty isn't actually split. As long as you actively take part in the fight, everyone gets the same amount of money. So the total payout multiplies in accordance to the wing size. Doesn't make the slightest bit of sense (just like the trade dividend wing members get), but I'm not complaining.

But I'm wondering if ED has built in voice comms?

Indeed it has. I haven't tried it myself yet, though. (I have to dust off my headset first and see if it works under Win 8.1.)

Huntn · Mar 14, 2015

Janichsan said:
Yesterday, I was fighting together with two other commanders at Mizar against David Attenborough and his wing of Vultures. It was glorious.

No, the bounty isn't actually split. As long as you actively take part in the fight, everyone gets the same amount of money. So the total payout multiplies in accordance to the wing size. Doesn't make the slightest bit of sense (just like the trade dividend wing members get), but I'm not complaining.

Indeed it has. I haven't tried it myself yet, though. (I have to dust off my headset first and see if it works under Win 8.1.)

It will intersted to discover if this is a common channel or can private channels be set up?

Huntn · Mar 19, 2015

I played ED for the first time in about 2 weeks. I don't think trading will hold me in this game even if you can get rich. I fetched my Cobra, upgraded it's power supply and distribution and headed for my current favorite RES location in LTT18486 near Boswell Station. Made 300k Cr in a little under 2 hours. Much more fun, and with the current (new) patch, the pirates seemed to continue to spawn the entire time I was there, and it was a variety of targets from Sidewinders to Asps. They ranged from 3K to a top bounty of 30K+ something or other. I also noticed more packs of pirates, 2 or 3 which made it much more interesting.

I've got to seriously get off my butt and go explore for another good ringed planet with 3 RESs in close proximity to each other. I know Quagmire mentioned one. Need to go back in the thread and see where that is. Anyway BHing was most fun.

I'm also wondering if I'll ever do Bulletin Board stuff. I assume those get much better as you gain rep, but right now 5-12k is a piddling reward compared to BH.

Of interest I also recently got Kerbal Space Program which is a completely different game, but somehow it's compelling as a newb. You actually have to study the game and watch tutorials!

whooleytoo · Mar 20, 2015

One of the recent updates really beefed up the bounties. There are still some tiny ones, but you can get 160K+ for an Anaconda, and 50/60/70K for Dropships or Imperial Clippers. It's much more worthwhile now.

I tried a conflict zone last night for the first time, and it was fun, but more intense (lots of craft attacking me at once) for less reward than bounty hunting. It's probably better if you're in a wing.

The Bulletin Board missions are all fairly dull, but I do them just to have a sense of purpose!

I think you have to do them in order to be offered the career progression missions - which later on will enable you to buy the Dropship or Clipper. I'm more interested in working towards a Vulture instead, just about have the purchase price but nowhere near the insurance & upgrade cost.

Huntn · Mar 20, 2015

whooleytoo said:
One of the recent updates really beefed up the bounties. There are still some tiny ones, but you can get 160K+ for an Anaconda, and 50/60/70K for Dropships or Imperial Clippers. It's much more worthwhile now.

I tried a conflict zone last night for the first time, and it was fun, but more intense (lots of craft attacking me at once) for less reward than bounty hunting. It's probably better if you're in a wing.

The Bulletin Board missions are all fairly dull, but I do them just to have a sense of purpose! I think you have to do them in order to be offered the career progression missions - which later on will enable you to buy the Dropship or Clipper. I'm more interested in working towards a Vulture instead, just about have the purchase price but nowhere near the insurance & upgrade cost.

I assume that since I want to be in good with the Sol system, if I do missions,working my way to progression missions, it should be for Federal aligned planets.

whooleytoo · Mar 20, 2015

Huntn said:
I assume that since I want to be in good with the Sol system, if I do missions,working my way to progression missions, it should be for Federal aligned planets.

I'd guess so. I tend to forget, and just grab whatever missions are quick and easy / earn a lot of money / aren't too evil; but I assume only the Federation-allied missions go towards the next career progression mission. I don't think missions for non-Federation allies count against your progression. (That said.. maybe that's why I've been stuck on Chief Petty Officer for ages and can't find the next mission to progress my career!)

Sometimes you find a mission where they're desperately looking to buy some resource, which can actually be found in the station's own Commodity Market. I think I made nearly 100K in one such mission. Laziness FTW!

Huntn · Mar 20, 2015

whooleytoo said:
I'd guess so. I tend to forget, and just grab whatever missions are quick and easy / earn a lot of money / aren't too evil; but I assume only the Federation-allied missions go towards the next career progression mission. I don't think missions for non-Federation allies count against your progression. (That said.. maybe that's why I've been stuck on Chief Petty Officer for ages and can't find the next mission to progress my career!)

Sometimes you find a mission where they're desperately looking to buy some resource, which can actually be found in the station's own Commodity Market. I think I made nearly 100K in one such mission. Laziness FTW!

As a BB newb, it seems that all the starter mission pay peanuts. I've not been enticed.

garnerx · May 15, 2015

Anyone playing this now it's on Mac?

I fired it up again the other week and took part in a community combat mission, which was pretty good and rewarding.

When one of those is on, you just have to get to the relevant system, sign up at the station and then start blasting. It's like shooting fish in a barrel. You get a reward for each ship plus a bonus at the end of the mission (it lasted a few days) according to how many you got.

I made about eight sorties to the conflict zone, shot down around 3 million credits worth of ships, and got a bonus of 6 million at the end for being in the top 40%.

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread on the official forum to see when the next combat mission pops up (current one is trading, which I don't have the ship for now). It's definitely less of a grind than it was a couple of months ago.

whooleytoo · May 15, 2015

Yeah, they definitely upped the bounties anyway, so it's much more rewarding.

In the recent Zaonce community goal, I was lucky to arrive just as it started, and got some good bounties early. By the time it reached its goal, I had 20m in bounties for the goal, 8m in other bounties (thanks to using the Kill Warrant Scanner), and received a community reward of 15m for being in the top 5%. Plus there's was a global discount of 16% on Faulcon Delacy ships, so a Python for the low price of 47m.

The upcoming update is huge too. 2 new ships, complete mission overhaul, "Powers" factions, drones, extra fuel tanks and in-flight refuelling etc..etc..

----------

Huntn said:
As a BB newb, it seems that all the starter mission pay peanuts. I've not been enticed.

This is one of the changes in the upcoming update - they're adding missions more suited to advanced players; presumably with far higher rewards too.

quagmire · May 15, 2015

I bought the Vulture, but it is extremely crippled with the highest power plant class being 4. I won't be able to come close to tricking it out with good weapons, a good FSD, etc. I am already close to the 15 limit of the A4 power plant. Might just sell it. I won't get it close to being a good fighter.

garnerx · May 15, 2015

quagmire said:
I bought the Vulture, but it is extremely crippled with the highest power plant class being 4. I won't be able to come close to tricking it out with good weapons, a good FSD, etc. I am already close to the 15 limit of the A4 power plant. Might just sell it. I won't get it close to being a good fighter.

Seriously? I've got one of those and it seems massively overpowered. Absolutely nothing stands up to it - it chews through Anacondas and Pythons, it can get close enough to a fleeing Viper or Eagle to melt them before they can escape...

I've listed my loadout below. Mega shields and firepower, no cargo space. It just breaks the power limit, so I had to go into the right-hand panel and disable the cargo door. With that switched off, it's fine. You just need to have some juice in the SYS battery if you want to fire the chaff launcher.

Super combat Vulture:
Pulse laser E3 (x2) (the gimballed versions)
Chaff launcher
Shield booster C (x2)
(+1 empty hardpoint slot)

Mirrored bulkheads
Power plant A4
Thrusters A5
Frameshift drive A4
Life support D3
Power distributor A5
Sensors D4
Fuel tank C3
Shield A5
(+4 empty internal slots)

That runs a little over a million for insurance, as I've found to my cost - I smashed one into the station wall, lost another when logging on in an asteroid field (Frontier actually refunded me for that) and had to abandon a third when I jumped into a dead system with no fuel.

quagmire · May 15, 2015

garnerx said:
Seriously? I've got one of those and it seems massively overpowered. Absolutely nothing stands up to it - it chews through Anacondas and Pythons, it can get close enough to a fleeing Viper or Eagle to melt them before they can escape...

I've listed my loadout below. Mega shields and firepower, no cargo space. It just breaks the power limit, so I had to go into the right-hand panel and disable the cargo door. With that switched off, it's fine. You just need to have some juice in the SYS battery if you want to fire the chaff launcher.

Super combat Vulture:
Pulse laser E3 (x2) (the gimballed versions)
Chaff launcher
Shield booster C (x2)
(+1 empty hardpoint slot)

Mirrored bulkheads
Power plant A4
Thrusters A5
Frameshift drive A4
Life support D3
Power distributor A5
Sensors D4
Fuel tank C3
Shield A5
(+4 empty internal slots)

That runs a little over a million for insurance, as I've found to my cost - I smashed one into the station wall, lost another when logging on in an asteroid field (Frontier actually refunded me for that) and had to abandon a third when I jumped into a dead system with no fuel.

Thanks for your load out. I was looking at the C3 lasers which I was basing my comment over. But if E3 lasers will destroy Anaconda's like they were nothing, I will be able to live with that.

garnerx · May 15, 2015

quagmire said:
Thanks for your load out. I was looking at the C3 lasers which I was basing my comment over. But if E3 lasers will destroy Anaconda's like they were nothing, I will be able to live with that.

I think the C3 lasers are the fixed ones. I haven't seen anything better than E3 in gimballed lasers, but those can still burn the shields of an Anaconda in a few seconds.

Hope they don't nerf it in a future patch. At the moment the Vulture seems to be the most common ship, probably because it gets the better of everything else in combat.

quagmire · May 15, 2015

garnerx said:
I think the C3 lasers are the fixed ones. I haven't seen anything better than E3 in gimballed lasers, but those can still burn the shields of an Anaconda in a few seconds.

Hope they don't nerf it in a future patch. At the moment the Vulture seems to be the most common ship, probably because it gets the better of everything else in combat.

I spotted gimbaled C3's I believe. I wouldn't have considered them if they were fixed.

I just wish they would give us an A5 power plant for the Vulture.

garnerx · May 15, 2015

quagmire said:
I spotted gimbaled C3's I believe. I wouldn't have considered them if they were fixed.

That would be the gimbal C3 beam laser, which is twice as power hungry as the pulse laser. The three types of pulse laser in size 3 are only D (fixed), E (gimbal) or F (turret).

I just tried out a variation, and it's possible to run those C3 beam lasers on a Vulture. The station where I'm at doesn't stock the gimballed versions but I tried it with the fixed ones (which actually use a bit more power) and it's fine.

From my previous loadout, swap the two E3 pulse lasers for two C3 beams (gimbal or fixed, either will fit within the power budget).

Change:
Chaff launcher (delete)
Shield booster C (x2) (delete)
Life support D3 (reduce to E3)

Just tested it, and I could fly around at full speed while firing both lasers without the ship shutting down. It's at 97% of the power budget, so room to add something very basic.

The only big loss in the new loadout is the shield boosters, but those make the shields recharge very slowly so it might not be such a bad thing.

The key is switching off the cargo door - saves a lot of power.

garnerx · May 6, 2016

I guess this is sort of the official Elite thread. Anyone here still playing?

I had an extended break from it since last summer, got back into it about a month ago and there have been some really big improvements. Driving around on planets, for one thing.

Above, I'm on a moon that orbits an inhabited world about every 20 seconds. So you continually get this planet zooming overhead, plunging the moon into darkness, forming an eclipse, then hurtling off to expose its daylight side. It's something to see.

Above, two small planets that orbit each other so closely they're almost touching. You can land on either, I chose the one with the biggest mountains and lowest gravity, then drove off the highest peak in my little vehicle. Survived, too!

I thought I'd try to make it to the supermassive black hole in the middle of the galaxy. Parenting duties meant it took me a couple of weeks to get about two thirds of the way, until an accident with a white dwarf left me contemplating permanent retirement, at least from the exploration side of things.

Wrote to Frontier, more in hope than expectation, and they actually reincarnated my ship back where I made such a mess of things and gave me some credits to compensate for the lost exploration data. Great customer support, and I'm now another 1,000 or so light years closer to my goal.

Huntn · May 11, 2016

garnerx said:
I guess this is sort of the official Elite thread. Anyone here still playing?

I had an extended break from it since last summer, got back into it about a month ago and there have been some really big improvements. Driving around on planets, for one thing.

Above, I'm on a moon that orbits an inhabited world about every 20 seconds. So you continually get this planet zooming overhead, plunging the moon into darkness, forming an eclipse, then hurtling off to expose its daylight side. It's something to see.

Above, two small planets that orbit each other so closely they're almost touching. You can land on either, I chose the one with the biggest mountains and lowest gravity, then drove off the highest peak in my little vehicle. Survived, too!

I thought I'd try to make it to the supermassive black hole in the middle of the galaxy. Parenting duties meant it took me a couple of weeks to get about two thirds of the way, until an accident with a white dwarf left me contemplating permanent retirement, at least from the exploration side of things.

Wrote to Frontier, more in hope than expectation, and they actually reincarnated my ship back where I made such a mess of things and gave me some credits to compensate for the lost exploration data. Great customer support, and I'm now another 1,000 or so light years closer to my goal.

Beautiful pics. What do you do on those planets? I assume you need a cargo hauler to carry a land rover? Don't get sucked in when you get to the black hole!

I got bored with the game. Grinding asteroids for pirates got old, and trading got boring very fast. One thing that kinda bothered me was all the instanced space. You could be in the same space station with someone else, but not see them.

whooleytoo · May 12, 2016

Huntn said:
Beautiful pics. What do you do on those planets? I assume you need a cargo hauler to carry a land rover? Don't get sucked in when you get to the black hole! I got bored with the game. Grinding asteroids for pirates got old, and trading got boring very fast. One thing that kinda bothered me was all the instanced space. You could be in the same space station with someone else, but not see them.

(Caveat - the Mac version doesn't have surface landings because OpenGL on OSX doesn't support compute shaders. I think).

On the surface, you can mine rocks/meteorites for materials, which you can use to refuel/repair/rearm. You can also synthesise frame-shift boosts that increase your jump range, etc. There are surface ports and outposts where you can trade, take on missions as in space. You can scavenge wreckage for cargo or data, and there are small installations you can raid for cargo, data etc. You can fight against skimmers (automated flying drones) and turrets that protect the surface stations.

Oh, and all ships from the Sidewinder up can carry at least one rover (Surface Recon Vehicle in Elite-speak). They fold up nicely when boarding the ship so they're quite small. There's only one SRV at the moment, the Scarab; more will be added eventually.

In 2.1 (currently in Beta) they've added Engineers who'll craft upgrades for your modules; they work from larger, nicer surface bases with big mining platforms, shipyards, forges etc. The upgrades are substantial - ship speeds can be more than doubled, weapons can have effects added (heat generation, healing beams for Wingmen, force-weapons which push and spin the target etc.).

In 2.2 (next version) there will be passenger missions, and the ability to launch (AI) fighters (or hop into a fighter yourself) from your own ship.

The instancing is still there and is unlikely to change though. There's a limit of about 32 in any instance - though it's possible to get up over 100 in certain circumstances (see the video of the mass jump from Sag A*).

As for it being boring... I suppose it still is a bit. 2.1 is a solid improvement with lots of little details, they've improved the outfitting and mission screens, given the NPC mission-givers names and profile images (all 500,000+ of them) etc.

Huntn · May 12, 2016

whooleytoo said:
(Caveat - the Mac version doesn't have surface landings because OpenGL on OSX doesn't support compute shaders. I think).

On the surface, you can mine rocks/meteorites for materials, which you can use to refuel/repair/rearm. You can also synthesise frame-shift boosts that increase your jump range, etc. There are surface ports and outposts where you can trade, take on missions as in space. You can scavenge wreckage for cargo or data, and there are small installations you can raid for cargo, data etc. You can fight against skimmers (automated flying drones) and turrets that protect the surface stations.

Oh, and all ships from the Sidewinder up can carry at least one rover (Surface Recon Vehicle in Elite-speak). They fold up nicely when boarding the ship so they're quite small. There's only one SRV at the moment, the Scarab; more will be added eventually.

In 2.1 (currently in Beta) they've added Engineers who'll craft upgrades for your modules; they work from larger, nicer surface bases with big mining platforms, shipyards, forges etc. The upgrades are substantial - ship speeds can be more than doubled, weapons can have effects added (heat generation, healing beams for Wingmen, force-weapons which push and spin the target etc.).

In 2.2 (next version) there will be passenger missions, and the ability to launch (AI) fighters (or hop into a fighter yourself) from your own ship.

The instancing is still there and is unlikely to change though. There's a limit of about 32 in any instance - though it's possible to get up over 100 in certain circumstances (see the video of the mass jump from Sag A*).

As for it being boring... I suppose it still is a bit. 2.1 is a solid improvement with lots of little details, they've improved the outfitting and mission screens, given the NPC mission-givers names and profile images (all 500,000+ of them) etc.

Thanks for the info! Ultimately most games are a grind of somekind, the trick is to keep us interested. I think space exploration and combat could be very interesting. It just has to be immersive enough to distract us from the grind. Unfortunate when I left ED, I was very bored.

I've been playing ARK:Survival Evolved since last Fall and still going. Besides cool dinos, and the most immersive sandbox in my gaming experience, my primary interest is building. On a server, I can bring myself to collect mats, but in my solo game, I give myself everything, but dinos. For those, I tame them the honest way.

One of the reasons why I don't have a Q Bird.

garnerx · May 16, 2016

I finally made it to the black hole! It was an arduous journey, especially towards the last couple of thousand light years. The stars at the galactic core are so densely packed, the navigation computer can't process the routes between them, and by the end I was having to limit my preset courses to just one or two jumps rather than the usual 30+.

Anyway, I'd say it was worth the effort. Still pictures don't really do it justice - as you fly around the black hole, the background stars seem to dance around the edges like fireflies.

I've no idea what to do next. Might just leave it parked here for a while and log on occasionally to see if anyone else passes by, then contemplate the 26,000 light year slog back home. Alternatively, maybe there's something worth seeing on the other side of the galaxy...

Huntn · May 18, 2016

garnerx said:
I finally made it to the black hole! It was an arduous journey, especially towards the last couple of thousand light years. The stars at the galactic core are so densely packed, the navigation computer can't process the routes between them, and by the end I was having to limit my preset courses to just one or two jumps rather than the usual 30+.

Anyway, I'd say it was worth the effort. Still pictures don't really do it justice - as you fly around the black hole, the background stars seem to dance around the edges like fireflies.

I've no idea what to do next. Might just leave it parked here for a while and log on occasionally to see if anyone else passes by, then contemplate the 26,000 light year slog back home. Alternatively, maybe there's something worth seeing on the other side of the galaxy...

Cool! How many jumps and hours did that take? Fly into it and see what happens. Maybe there's a huge Easter Egg in there!

garnerx · May 19, 2016

Huntn said:
Cool! How many jumps and hours did that take? Fly into it and see what happens. Maybe there's a huge Easter Egg in there!

I wonder if anyone has actually dared to do that...

I should have taken a screenshot when I started out to see how many jumps I've put on the clock. At an average of around 30 light years per jump it's probably something like 860-ish. Allowing about two minutes per jump, which is probably an underestimate, that's more or less 29 hours of curiously compelling tedium. How am I ever going to find the time to get back home?

Huntn · May 19, 2016

garnerx said:
I wonder if anyone has actually dared to do that...

I should have taken a screenshot when I started out to see how many jumps I've put on the clock. At an average of around 30 light years per jump it's probably something like 860-ish. Allowing about two minutes per jump, which is probably an underestimate, that's more or less 29 hours of curiously compelling tedium. How am I ever going to find the time to get back home?

To bad you can't take over that part of the galaxy and create your own empire.

It's just as far as I know you are tied to existing infrastructure for just about all supplies.

garnerx · May 19, 2016

Huntn said:
To bad you can't take over that part of the galaxy and create your own empire. It's just as far as I know you are tied to existing infrastructure for just about all supplies.

Hey, that would be a really cool game. Settling new planets, trading with the old world, even just building a remote outpost like an oasis for explorers. There's plenty of space for everyone, last time I saw any stats players had visited only a tiny fraction of 1% of the galaxy.

Janichsan · May 19, 2016

garnerx said:
I wonder if anyone has actually dared to do that...

A couple of players have. Unfortunately, literally nothing happens.

OS Neutral Elite Dangerous Tips

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