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Elite Dangerous: Horizons |OT| Just scratching the surface
- Thread starter Anton Sugar
- Start date
I got one free on the XB1 version for seemingly no reason.
They were a gift to new players for a Christmas event but there seems to be a bug where others have got them. Great bug
Felix Lighter
Member
Ha ha, they are going to have a hell of a time rolling that back. "Shit, I forgot the WHERE clause!"
Winterblink
Member
I heard it was due to the completion of a community goal; everyone got them regardless of whether they were involved.They were a gift to new players for a Christmas event but there seems to be a bug where others have got them. Great bug
frontieruk
Member
Anyone else checked out the recently discovered alien "Barnacles" in the Pleiades Nebula?
No but its a definite sign the Thargoids are coming
Having a problem:
I have this mission, I found the guy, more than once, used hatchbreaker limpets to get him to drop his cargo, each time he's reported as clean, but each time he drops some hostages, and none of the times that I pick them up do they give me completion. Even when shuttling them back to base.
I guess I gotta wait until he spawns as a "mission target"?
I have this mission, I found the guy, more than once, used hatchbreaker limpets to get him to drop his cargo, each time he's reported as clean, but each time he drops some hostages, and none of the times that I pick them up do they give me completion. Even when shuttling them back to base.
I guess I gotta wait until he spawns as a "mission target"?
Anyone else checked out the recently discovered alien "Barnacles" in the Pleiades Nebula?
Took a trip out there tonight. Perhaps the furthest trip I've made. I'm glad I did it. For several reasons. One to see the barnacles and to make some extra money. It was largely boring though because I was in solo mode. I figured it was safer this way. Unfortunately by the time I got there it was dark on that side of the planet so I didn't really get a good look in person. Might swing by there tomorrow before I head back to Rhea to see what they look like during the day.
What the trip also did was put me off of just exploring in general. The traveling, having to fuel scoop, etc is very annoying and not even remotely fun for me. I was hoping it would be but it isn't. Landing on planets didn't fair much better. As much as I like the idea of landing on planets it has largely been a disappointment to me. I like having additional areas to get missions from mind you. I like the process of actually landing on a planet. That part of Horizons so far has been good. Exploring random planets though is boring and frustrating beyond belief for me a lot of the time. Every time I attempt it I just get so fed up that I go back to running missions or find a conflict zone to mess around in. Forget about trying to find resources on the planets as well. The majority I have came from the barnacles tonight.
The game has a grind and I've largely accepted it when it comes to doing missions, trading, etc. Finding resources on planets or any point of interest at all on planets is a far bigger time sync and grind to the point it has made me appreciate the generic nature of the mission system and trading.
This actual trip took a toll on me. So I figure once I get back to colonized space I might be taking a long break from the game. I did that before and I was better for it. As much as I try this just isn't a game I can play daily and I likely should stop trying to force that.
Winterblink
Member
I made a run out to the Pleiades a long time ago, and I have to agree that the constant jumping really did make the whole thing a chore. Fuel scooping is an awesome concept though (to me anyway, I loved seeing it on SGU), and more expensive scoops make the process a LOT shorter than then cheapest basic scoop. If you really want to make exploration like a second job, make sure to scan everything along the way. That got massively tedious (though I can't argue with the payday when I got home).
I think being able to land on planets would make a long term expedition a bit more interesting, since you can kind of get out of your ship and "stretch your legs" a bit. The scenery out there is pretty epic, and at the time I did my Pleiades run there was no ability to land. I would have turned my effort into a kind of travelogue adventure if I could have zipped around with an SRV for screenshots.
I dunno, normally I'd not be one to call for an autopilot for jumping but for long distance exploration and travel it sometimes feels like I'd want one.
Reckheim
Member
The nice thing about this game is there is so much varied stuff to do in the game that most players find what they enjoy and stick to it. For me personally exploration is my favorite part of the game. I can make considerably more money trading but I always have this urge to go out and explore, only down side is that it usually takes me a month (or more) to get back to civilized space.
Winterblink
Member
I've been a space nut all all my life, and this game has been a dream come true to see and travel to thingies that I've always wanted to.
Mengy
wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
Different strokes for different folks, I personally love exploring more than anything else in the game. The Pleaides are only a couple hundred light years out from the bubble, I can get there in like half an hour so that's not even far for me. Currently I'm over 9000ly out from Sol in the NGC 6357 Nebula, but I'm on my way out to the Far Rim which is over 65,000ly from Sol. So yeah, fuel scooping doesn't bother me, LOL.
Reckheim
Member
What ship are you using? I've used an ASP before but recently bought a conda. The view sucks but that 7A fuel scoop is real nice.
Mengy
wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
I explore in an Asp with a 6A scoop. The Anaconda is technically better with a slighter longer jump range, but it turns slower in cruise and is more finicky with planetary landings due to it's mass. Plus I hate the view from the Anaconda, you have to stare at that long nose all the time.
Reckheim
Member
Man, even like planetary sample collecting would be awesome. Bring back the samples and gain more money/exploration exp. There is so much potential for exploration.
Add possibility for spreading contamination and we would have some seriously interesting possibilities.
Reckheim
Member
Interesting article on the politics of elite dangerous if anyone is interested.
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=225156
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=225156
Reckheim
Member
Ded game?
Got this when I tried to launch the game.
weird, seems to run for me.
I verified Steam files and it works now. I dunno what happened. It was working just fine yesterday.
Felix Lighter
Member
I checked out the barnacles and communicated with the CMDRs out there with front flips and barrel rolls in the SRV. Always cool to see a bunch of players in the same spot, even more interesting when it's a mix of SRVs and ships. I snag a meta-alloy and brought it to Obsidian Station. I feel like I've done my part to insure the destruction of the human race. Always wanted to be part of history.
Glass Shark
Banned
As hard as I try, I cannot get into Elite: Dangerous. Every time I launch it I just get stuck in the fact that the tutorials are awful and there is no real direction for what to do or how to get started. It is absolutely nonsensical for a game of this magnitude that you are expected to go watch YouTube videos on how to fly. Why couldn't they teach you inside the game? It's such a crazy oversight to me.
Felix Lighter
Member
It's certainly not for everyone, especially if you want direct guidance. There are lots of resources to learn if you change your mind. The tutorials will help with basic combat and how to dock, launch, supercruise, use the galaxy map at a basic level and jump to another system. After that it's basically make some money and get out of the sidewinder. To do that quickly without fumbling around to learn the game will require some outside sources, which are definitely out there and in here.
BudokaiMR2
Member
Honestly, not really sure why people need the tutorials to figure that stuff out. I mean flying in these sorts of games are almost always the same deal.
I didn't watch anything and was able to dock at my first station (after almost getting blown up for not requesting permission!) without crashing.
The only thing related to basic gameplay that I needed to look up was the little destination marker next to the radar.
I guess I have just played too many of these games.
I didn't watch anything and was able to dock at my first station (after almost getting blown up for not requesting permission!) without crashing.
The only thing related to basic gameplay that I needed to look up was the little destination marker next to the radar.
I guess I have just played too many of these games.
They were a gift to new players for a Christmas event but there seems to be a bug where others have got them. Great bug
Now if only there was a way of remotely managing my ships instead of having to travel across the bubble to get rid of it.
Frontier have been teasing "first contact" for so long I don't know if they can deliver a compelling enemy/antagonist. At least they won't look like all of the cookie cutter pirates.
so thats where that ship came from. Was a huge upgrade from my Eagle
Whitebison
Member
I've seen steam keys of the base game for 15$....is still worth it without Horizons? I'm tempted!
So I decided to give the game another crack over the weekend. As a totally new player, I hit some annoying walls (nothing that I couldn't Google my way around, mostly, but still annoying).
Surface missions are decidedly unfun when you're "new". The SRV handles like garbage, and mission objectives are incredibly vague/unintuitive. It got to the point that I deleted and re-created my 'new' character three times over the weekend when I would get trespassing violations and/or shot at repeatedly by turrets trying to figure out where the hell the thing I was supposed to interact with was located. Perhaps there was some UI element or keybind I missed to help locate them (I did scan my bindings repeatedly), or I need to go watch even more tutorial videos, but I felt completely lost. It's honestly one of the least intuitive-out-of-the-box quest/UI features I've seen in a game in a long time. I thought Planetside was unfriendly with its lack of explanation of anything, but these might take the cake.
The nail in the coffin (before my last reroll) was when I was trying to put a bug on a comms relay or w/e and basically driving outside the periphery of the trespass area trying to see something, bounced off a rock, and ended up landing on a 20 degree incline that my SRV couldn't scale. I just slid down and down and down, and had no way of getting back to whatever base I was at without calling my ship back in and trying to land somewhere else (outside the trespass area) and going for another long drive.
After this I rerolled (still taking the Horizons loadout because I saw no reason not to) and decided to go run some missions. Well, actually, I thought I might try to make some money with cargo, but then I bought some cargo that wasn't illegal at the port I was in (because it fell under different jurisdiction) but was illegal a system over, and I had nothing telling/warning me this might be the case (granted, the fact that it was weapons was a tell in and of itself, I know), so I ended up jettisoning it because I was approaching a port and had not yet read up on how scanning (and, for that matter, smuggling) works. I would have bought cheaper (probably safer) cargo but I only had two slots.
I was able to complete most of the missions I grabbed without difficulty, but there were a couple that relied on you using information that the game doesn't immediately give you. For example, I got a mission as a cleaner, but had no idea I needed an Interdictor to take them out of SC, so I failed that mission. I got a mission to stay alive with cargo for a while, killed all the derpy NPC pirates trying to gank me, and then met up with the NPC, but when he told me to 'follow' him I had no idea where to go. I had previously tried jumping to follow a high energy wake and been told I needed a wake scanner, so when he disappeared and left a wake I assumed I had no outs. I only found out later (after I had left and the wake had despawned) that for low energy wakes you just treat them like any other waypoint. There was also a smuggling mission that I took that told me to take a certain type of cargo to a destination, but that destination was the same base/port, and I couldn't figure out how to complete it, but it may have been bugged.
All in all I had fun with it, but the game certainly needs a little more framing and missions need a little bit more detail to avoid new players screwing themselves. I'm OK with doing a ton of reading to learn things that the game doesn't cover (I've been playing MMOs for a decade and change now so it came with that territory), so it's not going to turn me off long-term (and I imagine I'll eventually figure out and go back to surface missions), but man, what a curve out of the gate haha.
Surface missions are decidedly unfun when you're "new". The SRV handles like garbage, and mission objectives are incredibly vague/unintuitive. It got to the point that I deleted and re-created my 'new' character three times over the weekend when I would get trespassing violations and/or shot at repeatedly by turrets trying to figure out where the hell the thing I was supposed to interact with was located. Perhaps there was some UI element or keybind I missed to help locate them (I did scan my bindings repeatedly), or I need to go watch even more tutorial videos, but I felt completely lost. It's honestly one of the least intuitive-out-of-the-box quest/UI features I've seen in a game in a long time. I thought Planetside was unfriendly with its lack of explanation of anything, but these might take the cake.
The nail in the coffin (before my last reroll) was when I was trying to put a bug on a comms relay or w/e and basically driving outside the periphery of the trespass area trying to see something, bounced off a rock, and ended up landing on a 20 degree incline that my SRV couldn't scale. I just slid down and down and down, and had no way of getting back to whatever base I was at without calling my ship back in and trying to land somewhere else (outside the trespass area) and going for another long drive.
After this I rerolled (still taking the Horizons loadout because I saw no reason not to) and decided to go run some missions. Well, actually, I thought I might try to make some money with cargo, but then I bought some cargo that wasn't illegal at the port I was in (because it fell under different jurisdiction) but was illegal a system over, and I had nothing telling/warning me this might be the case (granted, the fact that it was weapons was a tell in and of itself, I know), so I ended up jettisoning it because I was approaching a port and had not yet read up on how scanning (and, for that matter, smuggling) works. I would have bought cheaper (probably safer) cargo but I only had two slots.
I was able to complete most of the missions I grabbed without difficulty, but there were a couple that relied on you using information that the game doesn't immediately give you. For example, I got a mission as a cleaner, but had no idea I needed an Interdictor to take them out of SC, so I failed that mission. I got a mission to stay alive with cargo for a while, killed all the derpy NPC pirates trying to gank me, and then met up with the NPC, but when he told me to 'follow' him I had no idea where to go. I had previously tried jumping to follow a high energy wake and been told I needed a wake scanner, so when he disappeared and left a wake I assumed I had no outs. I only found out later (after I had left and the wake had despawned) that for low energy wakes you just treat them like any other waypoint. There was also a smuggling mission that I took that told me to take a certain type of cargo to a destination, but that destination was the same base/port, and I couldn't figure out how to complete it, but it may have been bugged.
All in all I had fun with it, but the game certainly needs a little more framing and missions need a little bit more detail to avoid new players screwing themselves. I'm OK with doing a ton of reading to learn things that the game doesn't cover (I've been playing MMOs for a decade and change now so it came with that territory), so it's not going to turn me off long-term (and I imagine I'll eventually figure out and go back to surface missions), but man, what a curve out of the gate haha.
I'd rather say Horizons in its current state is not worth the 45€-50€. If you're interested now, get the game cheap and then, when Horizons is further into the season and you want to use the (hopefully more complete) new features, get that on a sale as well.
The game relatively hard to get into, because it has absolutely no mechanic designed to ease you into it. The tutorials barely cover the very basics, but don't explain the logic behind many things.
The answer for every beginner is: Don't waste your time on missions!
Whitebison
Member
Thanks! will buy it tonight.
Duly noted. I cherry-picked missions that seemed reasonable to do but the offerings were paltry (maybe one viable mission per port, if that). Good to know I can go 'farm' a bit to get better situated before tackling the interesting stuff.
Reckheim
Member
I got the game for one of my friends for Christmas and I honestly believe if I wasn't there to help him through the huge learning curve he would have quit 2 hours into the game. He is having tons of fun now but that again is one of the thinks that Frontier should focus on (among other things).
you know what thanks to this I may give this game another shot. Like I was playing for a little while doing trade stuff and was doing ok but super slow. But got really bored of just doing that and put the game down.
Also is Horizons a must if I want to like give the game another shot? or does the old install still hold up?
Reckheim
Member
Old install is still good if you still just want to shoot other ships. Actually horizons didn't really add much other than landing on some planets (to some this is not a big enough update, to some it is).
If you've already got season 1, ignore Horizons for now. You're not missing out on much. When the intersting stuff comes along - looting/crafting, multi crew, deployable fighters, whatever they haven't announced and you've sunk your teeth a bit deeper into the game, you can still decide on whether to get Horizons or not. It's not going away and what it delivers (currently not much) for the price is only going to get better.
Aside from that, you'll be playing with Horizons players anyway, you just can't go to planets. And fundamental changes, most likely including the coming persistent NPCs, are going to be integrated into the season one client anyway.
Reckheim
Member
Looks like I may need to make a trip to see them barnacles for my self, apparently there is something happening to them.
http://imgur.com/IjsxE49
http://imgur.com/IjsxE49
I didn't think it was that bad, but I played the tutorials twice to get the hang of things before going booting off into space.
It makes plenty of sense. The tutorials can't possibly teach you anything and everything as there is so much to something as basic as piloting your ship. What the tutorials tell you will get you off the ground. Throttle moves you forward, set a reverse button to go backward, stick to pitch, yaw, and roll, deploy/retract hardpoints, fire weapons, lock onto targets, use your panels, etc.
They're not going to go into flying with Flight Assist off as that's something more advanced, and you technically do not NEED that to play the game. Hell you can easily get away without ever turning off Flight Assist if you were playing Solo Play.
Dreams-Visions
Member
one of us.
This is what is stopping me taking the plunge, I remember trying the tutorials when it was in the preview program and feeling exactly the same.
I am in no way adverse to a non-linear, non-hand holding game that you make your own fun, heck I put thousands and thousands of hours into MS Flight sim over the years, but I just found it really hard to get into.
Caesar III
Member
Donated myself up in the Federal rankings yesterday to get a Federal Assault Ship. Bougth this yesterday. Wow, what a monster. The shield is damn weak, even with Shield Boosters but damn, that packs a punch. I do need need some better bulkheads though - they are too expensive right now. I guess I keep this ship now for a while. The jump range is quite good @ 18 LY.
BudokaiMR2
Member
One thing that I have been doing is killing ships in the Conflict Zones that pop up in systems that have multiple government factions.
I found it a lot easier to do than RES zones. In RES zones I always seemed to have bad luck with some pirate or security NPC coming after me in the middle of a fight (maybe just bad luck) even when I had nothing worthwhile cargo wise.
In the Conflict Zones you basically warp in, use the function tab to set your IFF or whatever it is called to the faction you want to help and join in on a battle with usually a dozen ships or so. The bonds are worth just about as much as bounties, you don't have to scan to get them, and depending on the zone you will often times outnumber your opponents thanks to NPC allies.
I really need to just dump some cash on an exploration ship and make it back out to the Pleiades area. I wanna see those barnacles up close.
I originally went out there in my Viper mk IV which was obviously not ideal and took way too long.
Was hoping to get an ASP Explorer for the beautiful cockpit view, but I only just have enough to buy the ship itself.
I found it a lot easier to do than RES zones. In RES zones I always seemed to have bad luck with some pirate or security NPC coming after me in the middle of a fight (maybe just bad luck) even when I had nothing worthwhile cargo wise.
In the Conflict Zones you basically warp in, use the function tab to set your IFF or whatever it is called to the faction you want to help and join in on a battle with usually a dozen ships or so. The bonds are worth just about as much as bounties, you don't have to scan to get them, and depending on the zone you will often times outnumber your opponents thanks to NPC allies.
I really need to just dump some cash on an exploration ship and make it back out to the Pleiades area. I wanna see those barnacles up close.
I originally went out there in my Viper mk IV which was obviously not ideal and took way too long.
Was hoping to get an ASP Explorer for the beautiful cockpit view, but I only just have enough to buy the ship itself.
Caesar III
Member
nope. Conflict Zones are not as lucrative! A single ship in a res can account for up to 200k alone. The highest I got in a CZ so far was 50k