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Elite Dangerous: Horizons |OT| Just scratching the surface

Septimius

Junior Member
So I found this game trying to find a substitute for what No Man's Sky should've been. I actually got to borrow a Oculus DK2 and despite a crappy computer, I can run the game, and I'm really excited about the game. I've trained, I get the basics, I can travel, I've started doing some simple missions, but.. What else should I do? I don't know what I'm aiming for, I don't know where I should be, or what I'll do there. I only understood missions by looking at a let's play on YouTube. Anyone want to clue me in in whatever way?
 
So I found this game trying to find a substitute for what No Man's Sky should've been. I actually got to borrow a Oculus DK2 and despite a crappy computer, I can run the game, and I'm really excited about the game. I've trained, I get the basics, I can travel, I've started doing some simple missions, but.. What else should I do? I don't know what I'm aiming for, I don't know where I should be, or what I'll do there. I only understood missions by looking at a let's play on YouTube. Anyone want to clue me in in whatever way?

In my experience, the most fun in the beginning is from participating in Community Goals. And when those aren't happening (like right now) I found Resource Extraction Site bounty hunting to be the most fun and rewarding.

Basically just pop into those areas and shoot at whatever wanted ships there are, especially ones that the security patrols are attacking. Using a Kill Warrant Scanner before each kill is a must as well!

I made my first 10 million doing that for the most part with missions sprinkled about, then spent some time exploring a few of the closest Nebulae.
 

DrBo42

Member
So I found this game trying to find a substitute for what No Man's Sky should've been. I actually got to borrow a Oculus DK2 and despite a crappy computer, I can run the game, and I'm really excited about the game. I've trained, I get the basics, I can travel, I've started doing some simple missions, but.. What else should I do? I don't know what I'm aiming for, I don't know where I should be, or what I'll do there. I only understood missions by looking at a let's play on YouTube. Anyone want to clue me in in whatever way?

The game as it's currently designed, makes your experience intentional. They want you to do what you want and to "Blaze your own trail." Unfortunately there isn't a whole lot of variety in mechanics or activities for said trail. Combat, mining, trading and exploration are your options. Only combat has reasonably deep mechanics at the moment.

Some people get into the player fantasy of being a bounty hunter of seeing worlds and sights in the galaxy no one has seen before. But for people looking for deep gameplay and mechanics, it's just not there yet. Give yourself some goals around the ship you want and make that choice based on what type of gameplay you're into.
 

Widge

Member
I'm just getting stuck in on missions. Courier ones for the time being. Two runs and no combat as of yet. Have only noted that you can buy commodities in certain stations and the map gives you a rundown of what each station offers. A new one for me.

Community goal was way way away on my map from what I saw, so just doing this early stuff. Not wanting to do any combat missions yet as I'm a bit tentative. Just drifting wherever the missions take me for now.
 

StonedRider

Member
Finally A-rated everything on the AspX and its much better for combat. Question, is it worth it to go for the 14mil+ hull packages? I have the military grade and its ok but was wondering if I should go ahead and put the mirrored on.

If you have money, you should buy dedicated combat ship, like Vulture. Asp is not very good in combat, but it shines in exploration or smuggling. And you do not need any hull package for this, keep it lightweight.
 
So I found this game trying to find a substitute for what No Man's Sky should've been. I actually got to borrow a Oculus DK2 and despite a crappy computer, I can run the game, and I'm really excited about the game. I've trained, I get the basics, I can travel, I've started doing some simple missions, but.. What else should I do? I don't know what I'm aiming for, I don't know where I should be, or what I'll do there. I only understood missions by looking at a let's play on YouTube. Anyone want to clue me in in whatever way?

As the others said, it's very much a make-your-own-goals type of sandbox. But I've had a lot of fun so far (50h played) despite some areas of the game being quite simple; the flight mechanics and the solid feeling of a space sim are already rewarding, and I like how the developers seem to have a nice far-reaching vision for the game. Start by scraping enough cash for a Cobra (or Viper if you'd like to get into some quick bounty hunting), google for ship progression charts and see what each ship is good at for some ideas.

Out of interest, how crappy is your computer and how is Elite running on DK2?
 

Septimius

Junior Member
As the others said, it's very much a make-your-own-goals type of sandbox. But I've had a lot of fun so far (50h played) despite some areas of the game being quite simple; the flight mechanics and the solid feeling of a space sim are already rewarding, and I like how the developers seem to have a nice far-reaching vision for the game. Start by scraping enough cash for a Cobra (or Viper if you'd like to get into some quick bounty hunting), google for ship progression charts and see what each ship is good at for some ideas.

Out of interest, how crappy is your computer and how is Elite running on DK2?

i5 2400, 8GB RAM, Radeon R9 200.
 
I tried to use silent running to sneak my gold into the CG station last night. It went great, aside from overheating, hatch malfunction, and me spilling my cargo of gold all over the inside of the station like a pizza delivery boy tripping over his shoelaces lol. I've delivered enough to make the 600k tier, think I'll leave it at that!
 
I tried to use silent running to sneak my gold into the CG station last night. It went great, aside from overheating, hatch malfunction, and me spilling my cargo of gold all over the inside of the station like a pizza delivery boy tripping over his shoelaces lol. I've delivered enough to make the 600k tier, think I'll leave it at that!

Wait...

Gold isn't even counted as illegal goods so even if you were scanned you shoulda been alright, right?

csj9mIhnAngWZO-JCoKqhIz_K5KPdlxIjfB3DBO-rxkCQv7VX94pIs9j2R6fMJUzKspPH-0YepfLOyJCRvTHW_HPIIrzjwq6cjrPOMCT2n7wq7Gh7dQPHlAbKOZVX9RDYd53_dG7HX-wxI8XS9A=w120-h120-nc
 
Because i pledged allegiance to some blue haireded woman the federales in LFT 133 are hostile to me :/

They won't usually attack in station areas though will they? I had the same problem until I unpledged
Anime hair 4 life
but they never bothered me when scanning at the station. Just in the res sites and such.

Always kinda hard to tell how the AI will act in this game though. Haha
 

SCHUEY F1

Unconfirmed Member
Went to my first nebula last night (Pleiades) and it is was pretty cool. Needed to go their to get an allow for my engineer quest.

While I'm there I should check out the alien barnacles that were found.
 

Alien Bob

taken advantage of my ass
Halfway to Sag A* in my AspX I decide to land on a nice ringed planet for some screenshots, only 2.25g, can't be bad, right?

I got my screenshots, and it only cost me 89% of my hull integrity!

I didn't want to risk not having my name on all the Earthlikes I found, Jacques was 15k lightyears out, but the edge of the bubble was only 9k away, so alas, I had to return.

Three hours later I made it back safe and sound and am now getting ready to beef up my Clipper for whatever bounty hunting CG comes next.
 

Saganator

Member
Looks like I missed out on the Community Goal money train. Will there be new goals relatively soon?

I haven't really played since before the Engineers update. Was thinking about exploring to level up my Felicity Farseer rep, bout how far should I go to not max it but at least get a few levels?

In the past, I made most of my money trading rares, is that still viable? I kind of enjoyed mining for upgrade materials last night and was thinking about doing that if I can make more. Can I outfit an Asp or or Type7 for mining and make more mining than trading rares?
 
I find it tricky trying to get to an exact location on a planets surface.

It takes some practice but you'll get the hang of it. Dropping in near the cords you want if half the battle.

Would be nice to be able to set a waypoint.

Yes this! I hate that you can zoom in on the planets in the system map, but can't place a waypoint. And that in supercruise you lose the headings. Makes going to a specific spot a real pain in the ass.
It's definitely tricky.

I hope that custom surface waypoints are something they are already planning on adding eventually.
 

Lime

Member
Anyone know where my alt+F10 screenshots are supposed to go? There's nothing in my Username\Pictures folder.

I'm using the Steam version as well if that makes any difference
 
Anyone know where my alt+F10 screenshots are supposed to go? There's nothing in my UsernamePictures folder.

I'm using the Steam version as well if that makes any difference

Steam saves to some numeric file name. Just select screenshots from your profile and view on disk.
 

DrBo42

Member
Anyone know where my alt+F10 screenshots are supposed to go? There's nothing in my Username\Pictures folder.

I'm using the Steam version as well if that makes any difference

F10 and Alt+F10 if that's still working go into your pictures folder.

C:\Users\[USER NAME]\Pictures\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous

If you're in Open Play, Alt+F10 does not work.
 

Jedi2016

Member
Also remember that Alt-F10 doesn't work in Open or Group play. Since it has to pause the game to take the shot, it can only be used in Solo.
 
So the Gold/Bounty CGs got me enough cash to get a cargo Python going (semi following the Sidewinder to Anaconda guide)

I hope another CG comes up, I'm better prepared for a cargo CG than I was in my T7
 

Volimar

Member
I actually managed to get my name on some planets! Woohoo!


Also, people keep saying "o7" in local chat. What is that? A salute emoji?

Also, is it worth it to bookmark stations that have ships that you eventually want to get or does the stock change?
 

DrBo42

Member
I actually managed to get my name on some planets! Woohoo!


Also, people keep saying "o7" in local chat. What is that? A salute emoji?

Also, is it worth it to bookmark stations that have ships that you eventually want to get or does the stock change?

Yeah, it's a salute. I've never noticed ship stock change, pretty safe to bookmark them.
 
What's a good ship for doing trading and maybe picking up the occasional easy bounty?
In a hauler at the moment and I don't think I even have any hardpoints installed on it...
 
What's a good ship for doing trading and maybe picking up the occasional easy bounty?
In a hauler at the moment and I don't think I even have any hardpoints installed on it...

Asp exp, seems to be the best all rounder. Good firepower and maneuverability, plenty of slots for cargo, great jump range and large fuel tank.
 
If you have money, you should buy dedicated combat ship, like Vulture. Asp is not very good in combat, but it shines in exploration or smuggling. And you do not need any hull package for this, keep it lightweight.
yep, that's what I think as well. The ASP is a great ship but for combat it's way too slow. Vulture is great for combat though.



Went back to LHS 20 today and wanted to do some RES Hunting. I attacked an Anaconda with my FAS, everything nice and dandy. I rammed her, her hull went down to 68%, shields down obviously, my shield went down as well. I turn to get her in my focus again and she has shields again. And she's pumping SCB for three minutes straight. WTF! How is this possible? I had to run with 4% hull after this fight though.
 

Mr. Bad Example

Neo Member
Finally got myself into an Asp Explorer and got the FSD decently upgraded. I'd heard good things about doing Sothis runs, so I headed out that way.

That was...an adventure.

I didn't really do enough research before I set out, and discovered about ten to fifteen jumps in that Sothis is surrounded by quite a bit of...nothing. I was beginning to worry that I'd run out of fuel in the middle of nowhere until I found an inhabited system I could just reach and get my fuel tanks topped up. (Foothold Orbital in Takurua, you are getting a Christmas card this year.)

I finally made it to Sothis, and spent a little while shuttling data back and forth between there and Ceos to get in good with the locals, and just today took on a few missions to ship hydrogen fuel and biowaste four-hundred-odd light years back towards the bubble. The payouts were too good, so I bought myself a fuel scoop and off I went.

Adventure time again.

Turns out I didn't pay close enough attention while shopping, and the fuel scoop I bought (the only one the station had available) was the smallest, cheapest one that didn't actually consist of me rolling down a window and holding a small pitcher in the stream of hydrogen going past. I discovered this when I started running low and trying to scoop fuel, only to find it was like trying to drink a super-thick milkshake through a coffee stirrer. I could technically have filled my tank back up, but I think the star would have actually burned out first.

Back to the galaxy map again, where I managed to find a route with enough fuel stops along the way to keep me from getting stranded. (Seriously, if they sold "I *HEART* TAKURUA" bumper stickers for your ship, I'd buy one.)

I made it to my three destination systems, immediately buying a much better fuel scoop, and turned in my deliveries. I made over eight million credits. Eight. Million. FOR HYDROGEN AND SPACE POOP, YOU GUYS.

Now I'm going to turn back around and do it all over again, because I am building the legend of Mr. Bad Example, Masochist Space Trucker Who Is Not Very Good at Planning.
 

Jedi2016

Member
Ugh... man, the trip home feels looooong. I'm within just a few thousand light years now, but it's still slow going. I had a bit of a revelation when I realized I could see Barnard's Loop this morning, for the first time in months. Planning to stop by the Pleiades on the way back, check out some barnacles (if I can), the crash site, get a little work done on the ship in Maia, and grab some meta-alloys for Farseer. Probably be home by the end of the week.

Still trying to plan out what I'll be doing when I get back. I need to unlock a bunch of engineers, but I also want to use my exploration data to level up everyone I can, including Professor Palin. Which means I'll be carrying around umpteen millions in exploration data while doing missions and shit for the in-between engineers before I unlock Palin. That's not going to be stressful at all... /s. On the flip side, I'll be using my FDL for most of that. But, I haven't flown it since before Engineers dropped, and I don't know how well its previously-invulnerable shields will still work. NPCs are pretty light on Engineer upgrades, aren't they?
 

Volimar

Member
I thought I read that The Feddies wiped out the barnacles. Though that might have just been certain system(s).


Exploring discovered 68 astronomical objects at once. Oh HIP 28231, you so crazy.
 

Jedi2016

Member
Off the shoulder of Orion...

You should do Rigel next, that's where I went after Betelgeuse. ;)

That reminds me, I still need to make the trip to VY Canis Majoris sometime, too. I'll have to look at it on the map, it might be on my way from where I am now, I can't remember exactly where it is.

It's funny, now that I think about it.. it seems the only hypergiants in the game are the ones we know about IRL, which are all fairly close. In my travels all over this half of the galaxy, I haven't just stumbled across any.
 

SCHUEY F1

Unconfirmed Member
I thought I read that The Feddies wiped out the barnacles. Though that might have just been certain system(s).


Exploring discovered 68 astronomical objects at once. Oh HIP 28231, you so crazy.

If that's the case ill just go to the wreckage.
 

Lime

Member
Steam saves to some numeric file name. Just select screenshots from your profile and view on disk.

I don't think Alt+F10 has anything to do with Steam. There's no Screenshots through Steam.

F10 and Alt+F10 if that's still working go into your pictures folder.

C:\Users\[USER NAME]\Pictures\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous

If you're in Open Play, Alt+F10 does not work.

Also remember that Alt-F10 doesn't work in Open or Group play. Since it has to pause the game to take the shot, it can only be used in Solo.

I know, I'm in Solo play and the game is rendering the shots, I just don't know where the game is saving my screenshots. There's nothing under Pictures\ in my User folder.
 
Ok, I really don't understand these missions where you're supposed to look for signals. Am I supposed to go to where these stretched out diamond shapes are in my navigation menu? I went to the system it said to and I run all over looking for signals, but I have no idea which one is the right one
 

DrBo42

Member
Ok, I really don't understand these missions where you're supposed to look for signals. Am I supposed to go to where these stretched out diamond shapes are in my navigation menu? I went to the system it said to and I run all over looking for signals, but I have no idea which one is the right one

Go to the target system in the description. Should be an orange icon in the galaxy map. Use your discovery scanner when in system to find what body it's near by (usually only if it's planet based IIRC) or enter the nav beacon instance, select the physical beacon in the contact menu and scan it. Then go to the target body and scan USS's and one with blue mission objective text should pop up I think. Been a while.
 

Jedi2016

Member
I know, I'm in Solo play and the game is rendering the shots, I just don't know where the game is saving my screenshots. There's nothing under Pictures\ in my User folder.
Have you moved or reassigned your "My Documents" folder somewhere else? For me, it's not under "Users" anymore, but the game is definitely saving them under "My Pictures\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\".

Try searching your hard drive for the files. It saves in BMP format, and the high res ones are called "HighResScreenShot" with a time stamp of when it was taken. The last one I took today is "HighResScreenShot_2016-09-05_15-28-47.bmp". Regular F10 screenshots are just called "ScreenShot" and are numbered sequentially, like "Screenshot_0041.bmp".
 
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