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Elite Dangerous: Horizons |OT| Just scratching the surface

Dizzy-4U

Member
I'm using Sothis for leveling up rank at the moment. 3/4 smuggling missions + 15 boom data delivery (from Federation only) between Sothis and Ceos.

I think I'm dropping the long distance missions all together. I made around 70 mil today just by going back and forth between Sothis and Ceos. I'm getting lazy and the payment is almost the same.

shu babassi is good for empire ranks
I'll keep this in mind. My rank is "none" with them lol
 

Jedi2016

Member
Doing the bounty hunting CG in Slink's Eye. Man, this is what the FDL is all about. I went out there on Thursday and fiddled around for an hour or so, got in the top 25%. Went back out today, was down to the top 50%. Made one trip through a High RES, came back with about 3M in bounties, now in the top 10%... without once dropping my shields. My only expense when I turned it in was fuel and ammo.
 
Doing the bounty hunting CG in Slink's Eye. Man, this is what the FDL is all about. I went out there on Thursday and fiddled around for an hour or so, got in the top 25%. Went back out today, was down to the top 50%. Made one trip through a High RES, came back with about 3M in bounties, now in the top 10%... without once dropping my shields. My only expense when I turned it in was fuel and ammo.

Have been thinking of replacing my Vulture with an FDL.

Recommend me a good loadout.
 
So I had a spur of the moment. I was out at Sothis doing Sothis stuff. Then I just said fuck this. I sold everything on my Asp and bought:

An A6 fuel scoop, it was 30 mil, but this thing is badass. I go from empty to full in less than 30 seconds.
D Scanner
S Scanner
I wanted to get an AMS just in case, but I’d have to get rid of my badass scoop, so I passed.
Also was thinking about an SRV, but I didn’t really want to risk landings.

I’m over 2k ly from Sothis now and I have no idea where I’m going. I guess I could still turn back, but I’m just going to keep going.
 
So I had a spur of the moment. I was out at Sothis doing Sothis stuff. Then I just said fuck this. I sold everything on my Asp and bought:

An A6 fuel scoop, it was 30 mil, but this thing is badass. I go from empty to full in less than 30 seconds.
D Scanner
S Scanner
I wanted to get an AMS just in case, but I’d have to get rid of my badass scoop, so I passed.
Also was thinking about an SRV, but I didn’t really want to risk landings.

I’m over 2k ly from Sothis now and I have no idea where I’m going. I guess I could still turn back, but I’m just going to keep going.
???

You can fit a fuel scoop, shields, 2 AFMUs, a SRV and both scanners on an ASP without an issue.
 

Jedi2016

Member
Yeah, my Asp has shields, two AFMs (one small one that's only there to repair the larger one), SRV, scanners. No room for cargo, but you don't need it when you're out in the black. No weapons and nothing on utility mount, either.. maximize that jump range. It's also Engineered up to level 5 FSD, so it goes over 50ly.

As for my FDL, it's all A-rated for shields, power plant, thrusters, the usual. Four gimballed pulse lasers on the Medium hardpoints, and a gimballed multicannon on the Huge hardpoint. I always run gimballed because the loss of damage versus fixed weapons is more than offset by the fact that it hits so much more often. Six A-rated shield boosters means my shields never go down, especially one-on-one (against anything). I have no hull reinforcement under those shields, though, so if they drop, my hull gets shredded like it's made of paper. I've got some cargo racks in there mainly to haul around Engineering materials.

Looks a little like THIS, with some differences that I can't quite figure out without booting back into the game. Mine's slightly more expensive (it sells for about 82M), and it's got some engineering on the thrusters and power plant, so pay no mind to what it says about power draw, I never go over any more. It's also got weapon-focused Engineering on the distributor, so I usually run 4/0/2 when I'm fighting and don't often have to worry about my weapons running dry. The four pips in Systems makes the shields even more ridiculous.
 

Volimar

Member
I'll never get tired of saying it, but I love the AspX. The quintessential exploration ship.




17 Draconis is pretty underwhelming. 2-3 Donation missions, too often 1,000,000CR. I was hoping to finish grinding to get the corvette but screw that. Looks like they just recovered from civil unrest so I guess I just have really bad timing. Sitting at about 60% post commander.
 

Volimar

Member
As for my FDL, it's all A-rated for shields, power plant, thrusters, the usual. Four gimballed pulse lasers on the Medium hardpoints, and a gimballed multicannon on the Huge hardpoint. I always run gimballed because the loss of damage versus fixed weapons is more than offset by the fact that it hits so much more often. Six A-rated shield boosters means my shields never go down, especially one-on-one (against anything). I have no hull reinforcement under those shields, though, so if they drop, my hull gets shredded like it's made of paper. I've got some cargo racks in there mainly to haul around Engineering materials.

Is this better than say, one huge beam laser and the rest multicannons?
 

HelloMeow

Member
Fixed multicannons.

https://coriolis.io/outfit/anaconda...n5n--------.Iw18eAMnEA==.MwBhCYQRjK-hjYzKsQ==

https://coriolis.io/outfit/fer_de_l...00002020404B25d5d--.Iw1-gDKQ.MwBhCYQRjK-hM5iA

giphy.gif
 

Not Spaceghost

Spaceghost

Fun fact for the fer de lance if you do the math then you notice that you actually get more effective shield power if you fit a regular 4A shield generator and a 5A shield cell bank.

Assuming you have 4 class A shield boosters then:

4A Shield Generator = 707MJ of shields
5A Shield Cell Bank = 980MJ additional shields
4A Shield Cell Bank = 620MJ additional shield

Total 2307MJ of shields

That's absolutely ridiculous. Running Bi-Weaves on the FdL never made much sense to me because you're a pretty big target and the recharge time is still pretty damn long and the trade off in effective shield strength is ridiculous. Bi-weaves work better on small fighters like the courier or viper 3 imo.

https://coriolis.io/outfit/fer_de_l...402005i455d2o69.Iw18aQ==.CwBhrECYd7YMwEYEOEA=

This is basically what I run.
 
I’m assuming I’m going to have to spend a lot of time out here. That fuel scoop was 28 mil, so I want to at least make a profit back. I was looking over a list and it looks like I mainly need to scan earthlike worlds/water, gas giants, and Neutron Stars/Black Holes. Everything else I can just pass over for the most part. At least that’s what most of the guides are suggesting.

Oh, I'm stupid. I forgot I can just sell the scoop when I get back at the price I bought it at. I love this feature.
 

joecanada

Member
I'll never get tired of saying it, but I love the AspX. The quintessential exploration ship.




17 Draconis is pretty underwhelming. 2-3 Donation missions, too often 1,000,000CR. I was hoping to finish grinding to get the corvette but screw that. Looks like they just recovered from civil unrest so I guess I just have really bad timing. Sitting at about 60% post commander.

Better timing than me , I went last week and it was in lockdown aka zero missions
 
I’m assuming I’m going to have to spend a lot of time out here. That fuel scoop was 28 mil, so I want to at least make a profit back. I was looking over a list and it looks like I mainly need to scan earthlike worlds/water, gas giants, and Neutron Stars/Black Holes. Everything else I can just pass over for the most part. At least that’s what most of the guides are suggesting.

Oh, I'm stupid. I forgot I can just sell the scoop when I get back at the price I bought it at. I love this feature.

I made 56 Million just honking a system and scanning a few things during my trip to Beagle Point.
 

Jedi2016

Member
Is this better than say, one huge beam laser and the rest multicannons?
I've personally always been partial to lasers over projectile weapons, and I've found beams to drain the capacitors too fast. I was looking at the numbers on Coriolis, though, I might give that build a whirl and see what happens.
 

Volimar

Member
I've personally always been partial to lasers over projectile weapons, and I've found beams to drain the capacitors too fast. I was looking at the numbers on Coriolis, though, I might give that build a whirl and see what happens.

That's what I have on my Conda, and it seems to work pretty well. I'm not very deep into the engineers yet though.
 

Jedi2016

Member
Well, I tried out that build. It's not too bad.

Upside: Damage is up. WAY up, especially against unshielded targets. Even big ships melt in no time.

Downside: I actually ran out of ammo well short of the 3M I made this morning (only made about 1.6M on this run). :( The beam laser doesn't have the field of fire that the 4A multicannon does (the multicannon can, for whatever reason, reach much higher above the plane of my ship). And the multicannons are causing my audio to cut out during firefights. It's a known issue apparently, but they haven't gotten around to fixing it.
 

Kyoufu

Member
I can't decide if I want to go for a Corvette or a Cutter as my combat ship.

The Corvette is apparently better (?) but the Cutter's engine boost sound is incredible.
 

HelloMeow

Member
Fun fact for the fer de lance if you do the math then you notice that you actually get more effective shield power if you fit a regular 4A shield generator and a 5A shield cell bank.

Assuming you have 4 class A shield boosters then:

4A Shield Generator = 707MJ of shields
5A Shield Cell Bank = 980MJ additional shields
4A Shield Cell Bank = 620MJ additional shield

Total 2307MJ of shields

That's absolutely ridiculous. Running Bi-Weaves on the FdL never made much sense to me because you're a pretty big target and the recharge time is still pretty damn long and the trade off in effective shield strength is ridiculous. Bi-weaves work better on small fighters like the courier or viper 3 imo.

https://coriolis.io/outfit/fer_de_l...402005i455d2o69.Iw18aQ==.CwBhrECYd7YMwEYEOEA=

This is basically what I run.

I prefer the faster recharge. That becomes more and more effective as you up the resistances.
 
I can't decide if I want to go for a Corvette or a Cutter as my combat ship.

The Corvette is apparently better (?) but the Cutter's engine boost sound is incredible.
Corvette. Pretty easy call there. I'd never want my Cutter to be my daily combat driver. I break it out when I want to work harder for my kills because it handles like a oil tanker.

Ultimately you don't want either as your primary combat ship. An FdL is the best combat ship money can buy.
 

Volimar

Member
Eh, I was a little disappointed with the FDL. Maybe it's because I went from a Conda to an FDL to see what everyone was raving about but it seems kind of overrated to me. It seems like all it has going for it is its maneuverability and ability to take a decent beating. Even with the huge hardpoint it doesn't put out the kind of damage I'm used to. Looks like I'm sticking with the Conda for combat until I get the corvette.
 
Why am I getting scanned if I'm in silent running? It happened twice today while leaving a station. Is it a bug or am I missing something? (Never had this issue before).



I got fined of course.

If they are under 300 meters from you silent running does nothing.

Even if they aren't, it just makes it harder and take a bit longer. Doesn't stop it as far as I know.
 

HelloMeow

Member
Eh, I was a little disappointed with the FDL. Maybe it's because I went from a Conda to an FDL to see what everyone was raving about but it seems kind of overrated to me. It seems like all it has going for it is its maneuverability and ability to take a decent beating. Even with the huge hardpoint it doesn't put out the kind of damage I'm used to. Looks like I'm sticking with the Conda for combat until I get the corvette.

I feel like the Anaconda is better for combat than the Corvette. It has better hardpoints and better hardpoint placement. 3 large and 1 huge does more DPS than 1 large and 2 huge.

Turn rates are similar. Speed is similar. The Corvette has 2 advantages over the Anaconda, which are shields and acceleration.

I keep buying Corvettes and it keeps disappointing me. I keep going back to the Anaconda as my large combat ship. I think the Corvette is not worth the effort.

I've got no clue what's better for PVP though. I haven't used either in months for that.
 

Kyoufu

Member
Materials are one hell of a grind. Or maybe I'm doing it wrong, but getting a full set of grade 5 modded shield boosters with good rolls (yay RNG) is going to take forever...
 

Jedi2016

Member
The last couple times I've used it, I probably wouldn't have been scanned anyway, but it seemed to work okay. The station even says "We've lost you on our scanners!"

I don't generally do a lot of smuggling, though, this was stuff for missions while I was grinding for Engineer mats.
 
I’m 7k ly from Sol and about 18k ly from Sag A now, so I’m almost there.
1.0


For my first time really exploring it hasn’t been that bad. There are a lot of great sites to see and its pretty chill. Most of the time I just alt tab and browse gaf. I should get back in time for 2.2 and I wouldn’t mind getting the passenger mission to Sag A and doing it again.
 
Yeah when leaving stations while smuggling illegal goods you should definitely boost full speed straight forward out of the mailbox and activate your FSD as soon as you can. Even if they start scanning as soon as you start to jump the scan gets cut off.
 

DrBo42

Member
I feel like the Anaconda is better for combat than the Corvette. It has better hardpoints and better hardpoint placement. 3 large and 1 huge does more DPS than 1 large and 2 huge.

Turn rates are similar. Speed is similar. The Corvette has 2 advantages over the Anaconda, which are shields and acceleration.

I keep buying Corvettes and it keeps disappointing me. I keep going back to the Anaconda as my large combat ship. I think the Corvette is not worth the effort.

I've got no clue what's better for PVP though. I haven't used either in months for that.

Eh... Get 2 huge MCs with incendiary rounds, 1 large weapon with corrosive and you will most likely change your opinion. It shreds.
 

HelloMeow

Member
Well in a prolonged fight you're going to feel the difference. Both in shield tank and maneuverability. It's just a better combat ship.

I've used both and know their differences. I prefer the higher DPS and better hardpoint placement and I think that those make it a better combat ship for PVE.
 
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