If it really takes a few years to make exploration into something more than pointing and scanning then I have to question how Frontier is allocating their development resources.
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Elite Dangerous: Horizons |OT| Just scratching the surface
- Thread starter Anton Sugar
- Start date
If it really takes a few years to make exploration into something more than pointing and scanning then I have to question how Frontier is allocating their development resources.
Yeah, for real. Absurd that they still haven't made any changes to it.
This is probably the only meaningful idea I've heard about improving planet scanning and I'm pretty sure people would go ballistic if you removed advanced scanners. Most of the changes people want are only to make things more convenient or easy, not to make things even more difficult, even if you increase the payouts.
Having the scanner work like the SRVs would make it more engaging, being able to focus the angle of scans to improve the signal till you figure out where the planet is would also make a good addition to the SRV idea. Then when you are in the general vicinity you do a short range all direction scan to pinpoint where it is. Then having to physically go into the planet to detect more of its composition instead of just using a scanner.
All of this would make exploring more engaging. It'll also make it more time consuming and therefore "tedious". Would people actually like these changes?
Mengy
wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
Uh,no, I don't think I've ever read anyone suggesting to make exploration easier. In fact most explorers would love for their to be more risk out there from stellar objects. There are actually a ton of good suggestions on the official forums on how to improve the state of exploration gameplay, things like:
- add objects to scan on planet surfaces which can be turned into Cartography for credits and exploration rank just like we do now from the ship in space
- add special commodities (that can be sold) which can only be found on planet surfaces, give explorers a reason to put cargo space in their ships
- give players a credit bonus for completely exploring a system, this encourages scanning even the asteroids and balls too
- add exploration missions to the game, and even "treasure hunt" missions asking you to find things in regions or areas
- finally add the orrrery system map that FDev has been wanting to put in the game since before release
- add more stellar effects to be scanned, stuff like comets, rogue planets, ancient alien stuff, and other special things to discover and scan
- add HUD modes to the game, where explorers can have relevant information to them displayed instead of stuff they never use in supercruise, things like current system star type, more planetary info in the HUD, anything that negates us having to go into the system map so often
- commanders log, allow us to make notes on each system and save them in game
- add a feature to the station cartography screen (or even the in ship gal map) that allows us to view a galaxy map where all of our tagged systems with our name in them can be viewed and displayed. Also allow us to see what has and has not been "discovered" by humans in the galaxy, helps to plan exploration trips
- system bookmarks
- Dark Systems, or systems with no star that is only visible on the galaxy map when you are within a certain ly distance from it
- fuel dumping. Allow us to discard fuel to gain jump range when we need to.
- add solar flares to the game, putting some random danger into fuel scooping
Caesar III
Member
Is this only wear and tear on the yellow ASP or is this a special paint shop?
Mengy
wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
That's not an Asp, the yellow ship is a Type-6. And yeah it looks beat up, but that's just normal wear and tear on the paintjob. It normally gets fixed when you hit "repair all" in any station but when out exploring for long periods of time the paint can get shoddy looking. I suspect by the time I get my Asp back into civilized space it's gonna look just as bad...
Actually I was just about to ask this (I may have already asked before). Right now is there any reason for someone with a pure exploration built to get Horizons?
These are all excellent suggestions. Really, I just want more stuff to scan.
Spotting planets before I got the advanced scanner was unnecessarily time-consuming. The issue there is Frontier couldn't really design a challenge or "system" to finding planets without scanning them. You had the moving dots trick but that was it. It should have been something more similar to how real astronomers spot planets and objects within our own solar system, but I don't know how you'd design a game mechanic around that. Maybe have the HUD spot possible gravitational shadows to give you a rough estimate of a planet's location.
But really I just want more things to scan, like features on planet surfaces. No Man's Sky might actually be the game to improve upon this with cataloging alien life and points of interest.
These are all excellent suggestions. Really, I just want more stuff to scan.
Spotting planets before I got the advanced scanner was unnecessarily time-consuming. The issue there is Frontier couldn't really design a challenge or "system" to finding planets without scanning them. You had the moving dots trick but that was it. It should have been something more similar to how real astronomers spot planets and objects within our own solar system, but I don't know how you'd design a game mechanic around that. Maybe have the HUD spot possible gravitational shadows to give you a rough estimate of a planet's location.
But really I just want more things to scan, like features on planet surfaces. No Man's Sky might actually be the game to improve upon this with cataloging alien life and points of interest.
It looks pretty awesome in my book. Wasn't it fixed that "repair all" would also repair the paintjob? Doesn't it exclude the paintjob now? I thought people were pretty eager to get that weathered look.
You can land and drive around on planets. Which includes collecting materials that may in theory give you a jump boost via the synthesis feature. IIRC, collecting materials on far out worlds also adds to your exploration rank, the further you're out. But the collection of materials is a bit of a hassle.
In the end, the planets are awesome for explorer meetups, driving around for fun and doing surface screenshots, but for little else.
Since Elite is 50% off on Steam I was wondering about grabbing it. That said, I probably won't spend that much time playing it for a while, which is why I wanted to ask if it's a good idea to grab Horizons or should I wait until it's cheaper/more elements of the season pass are added?
Felix Lighter
Member
I think now that it's a separate add on, I'd say there is no rush. It'll be on sale several times at its current discount. Lots to learn and catch up to in just the vanilla game for a new player and Horizons will only get better with time.
RadioactiveLobster
Member
Made it to waypoint 7 of the Distant Worlds Expedition...
The route planning is starting to become tricky, no more finding a system 990ish LY away and having it plot in a few seconds.
The route planning is starting to become tricky, no more finding a system 990ish LY away and having it plot in a few seconds.
Felix Lighter
Member
I'm very slowly getting a feel for my new hotas setup but man it's been a long time since flying wasn't completely second nature to me. I have to keep telling myself that I'll get there, I've played hundreds of hours with the X55 and adding my feet to the mix forces a completely different type of coordination. On top of that, I changed up a lot of button placements that made sense so I'm forced to do a lot of flying with my conscious mind instead of letting muscle memory do all the work while I just choose which target to shoot down.
The way I practiced was doing the training mission with the cobra vs cobra fight where you get a cobra outfitted with gimballed pulse lasers and railguns and force myself to take it down with just the railguns, something that would be effortless with the X55. I can do that quickly with no problem no. My aim is pretty good at this point but in a Hazardous RES, I'm having trouble staying out of the line of fire of big ships like Anaconda's and Clippers. I could sit in a Hazardous RES, with my FDL, until my canon ran out of ammo, with typically no issues keeping my shields up, with the twist rudder. Now I'm chewing through shield cells and having to leave quite early, lucky to make a million in a single trip. I'm sure I'll get there, but it's frustrating. It'll be worth it though.
On a positive note, I absolutely love the analog stick on the throttle.
The way I practiced was doing the training mission with the cobra vs cobra fight where you get a cobra outfitted with gimballed pulse lasers and railguns and force myself to take it down with just the railguns, something that would be effortless with the X55. I can do that quickly with no problem no. My aim is pretty good at this point but in a Hazardous RES, I'm having trouble staying out of the line of fire of big ships like Anaconda's and Clippers. I could sit in a Hazardous RES, with my FDL, until my canon ran out of ammo, with typically no issues keeping my shields up, with the twist rudder. Now I'm chewing through shield cells and having to leave quite early, lucky to make a million in a single trip. I'm sure I'll get there, but it's frustrating. It'll be worth it though.
On a positive note, I absolutely love the analog stick on the throttle.
Oh my god people.... I was 13000 light years away from earth, decided to give it a rest when i saw this glorious looking planet, decided to give it a closer look since it had these pure green veins that almost looked like rivers, started the orbital flight and i dropped like a rock... Got destroyed in an instant all that travelling wasted..
I think i need to take a break for a few weeks..
I think i need to take a break for a few weeks..
RadioactiveLobster
Member
What the was the gravity on that planet?
Mengy
wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
Sorry to hear it, sounds like you tried to land on a high gravity planet without being super careful about it. High G planets are no joke, they can wreck your ship so fast it's scary.
I'm currently the farthest I've ever been from Sol, just shy of 18,000ly, and moving farther away every day. I won't be even trying to land on any planet with more than 3G's.
Yeah, i can see that.... All of the planet up until now have been breeze to land on so i started punching the throttle at the same time as i always do, didn't help a bit. Honestly, i thought that all of the planets you could land on had the same gravity, up until this one so i didn't even check it on the system map. Worst thing is that had already traveled the amount i needed for today but i decided to jump in quick and scan some planets for extra cash.
I'm so frustrated that i got blown up thanks to my own carelessness, ahahaha, my frustration levels are at par with having to sit through the third or fourth Twilight movie.
I attempted Achenar 3 back during the beta in my Anaconda. Didn't die instantly, but got down to something like 20% hull remaining. I immediately went back up and left.
Jezbollah
Member
My first time posting in this thread for a long time - and I havent played E
for ages, but had to respond to:
Good luck sir. My mate is a fuel rat for the Expedition - it's a legit effort so I wish you the best. Please be careful though as there have been some CMDRs ganking the Expedition - I assume you are on the Team Speak servers that have been created for the trip?
for ages, but had to respond to:Good luck sir. My mate is a fuel rat for the Expedition - it's a legit effort so I wish you the best. Please be careful though as there have been some CMDRs ganking the Expedition - I assume you are on the Team Speak servers that have been created for the trip?
I actually bought the game and ran it on my Surface Pro 4 and...it works! Very playable, at least the tutorials. Which by the lead me to ask for any sort of resources to get into the game? Tutorials and such? What's the best way to approach it?
I have a 360 controller, an Ace Edge HOTAS which I'm to understand is PC compatible, and a DS4, which one is my best bet?
I have a 360 controller, an Ace Edge HOTAS which I'm to understand is PC compatible, and a DS4, which one is my best bet?
frontieruk
Member
Sooooo my tobii eyex arrived today...
Does it work with my 46' TV?
Yup it does very weird being able to track something while moving away from it...
There are some bugs infinitescreen which is their game interface seems to to have hiccups thus not being able to toggle taking on and off though the option is there.
The limiting factor is actually the distance to the camera rather than size of the screen.
Does it work with my 46' TV?
Yup it does very weird being able to track something while moving away from it...
There are some bugs infinitescreen which is their game interface seems to to have hiccups thus not being able to toggle taking on and off though the option is there.
The limiting factor is actually the distance to the camera rather than size of the screen.
RadioactiveLobster
Member
frontieruk
Member
Sorry I haven't used trackIR,so I can't really comment.
but for the 15 minutes I got to muck around with it this evening tracking was very good, no really nasty jumps smooth movement unless you really were trying to swing the view the it ws more like a 90 degree turn in an fps with a keyboard shortcut but otherwise it was strange in that you your view would change without moving your head, just subtle changes in your moving your eyes like checking car mirrors.
If the InfiniteScreen app worked it'd be perfect as getting the comms menu working seemed broken when eye tracking was working where as the lower panels worked flawlessly, the app should allow to toggle the tracking on and off but I couldn't get it working, though the re-center toggle did work :-s
It seems a nice halfway house to VR, my biggest gripe is how close to the bar you have to be, but again that actually helps as it also allows you to adjust the tracking to screens larger than the manufacturers recommended screen size of 27"
I'll give it a full playthrough tomorrow maybe record some video with the xbox app (when did they integrate that???)
fly safe commanders
How close were you to the screen? I've been thinking of getting one of these but my monitor's 32".
Started playing yesterday.
Really like it so far, but I'll definitely have to read some guides because I have no idea what I'm doing.
I'm using the "advanced gamepad" settings for controls btw.
My biggest problem so far is being unable to leave the starting planet if I choose the Horizons ship (no problem with the base game one starting from the space station).
Is using supercruise or whatever that's called required to leave the surface?
Really like it so far, but I'll definitely have to read some guides because I have no idea what I'm doing.
I'm using the "advanced gamepad" settings for controls btw.
My biggest problem so far is being unable to leave the starting planet if I choose the Horizons ship (no problem with the base game one starting from the space station).
Is using supercruise or whatever that's called required to leave the surface?
Dreamwriter
Member
Yeah - what you do is head straight up away from the landing pad. Point your ship upwards until the moment you see the height indicators flip upside-down and throttle all the way forward. Wait until the "Mass Locked" light goes out, and then enter SuperCruise, that'll take you into the planet's atmosphere and let you leave.
frontieruk
Member
It's the beauty of the device I tried it at about 1 metre from the TV, I then moved the camera 3 metres away (i had to move my PC to achieve this as i didn't have a usb 3 extender as the lead with the tobii is about 1metre long), it actually relies on your distance and positioning to the camera and TV, I had to raise the tobii to account for the distance to the TV and my higher seating position but it worked flawlessly, but it's the guesstimating the alignment as the software expects the tobii to be central under the display.
I was using my 46" TV as I can't get to my monitor due to a barricade of crap belonging to the SO in the gaming room...
Thanks. I spent good 15 minutes trying to fly away using regular flight, because I was too proud to check a guide ("I played Freespace, I've got it!").
Then I tried supercruise, got a warning about engines being too hot and that was that.
Felix Lighter
Member
You may also need to point your ship directly at an escape vector to enter supercruise from a planet surface. If you were getting a heat warning I think it's because you engaged supercruise but never actually entered supercruise since you didn't point at the escape vector. Your engines were probably heating up the whole time but once you enter supercruise the engines cool. Once you're about to enter supercruise you will get a count down from your ships computer.
Thanks for the info, I sit around a metre or so from my monitor so using that tracker sounds feasible.
Felix Lighter
Member
I am currently 3:30 seconds from running out of air because of a broke canopy, I was interdicted within 10Mm of the station I am flying to. I submitted because I couldn't even see the escape vector and now I'm stuck between supercruise and regular flight trying to load an instance. At least the timer stopped. It's been a solid 5 min.
Edit:
Just killed the process, now I get to see where I end up with this shatter canopy.
Edit 2:
Disaster averted. It respawned me way back where the canopy broke with 7 mins. I was interdicted again near my destination but this time I wasn't trapped in the ether this time. Safely repaired.
Edit:
Just killed the process, now I get to see where I end up with this shatter canopy.
Edit 2:
Disaster averted. It respawned me way back where the canopy broke with 7 mins. I was interdicted again near my destination but this time I wasn't trapped in the ether this time. Safely repaired.
If you add me in game, Jackie McMackie, I'll be happy to help
Remind me it's you though
HOTAS definitely, best experience and a bit more accuracy than a gamepad, but you can definitely work with a gamepad, just you might have to keep a keyboard nearby for extra binds if you don't want to use modifiers
Pegasus Actual
Member
Uhhh:
WTF? Where the fuck is my 50 million credits that I grinded probably 25 hours for? Claim salary 50,000CR? Fuck you. What's funny is I bought Horizons a few hours before the PowerPlay cycle ended. Time to look into Steam returns, fuck this shit.
You get it on a week delay.
Just contact support. They're really helpful.
Pegasus Actual
Member
So there's a one week delay? That's pretty annoying. And I had people telling me that if you wanted to you could get it once, then just spend the 50m on 5000 merits of space trucking to maintain your bounty bonus. Which isn't really true since by the time I get that 50m paycheck I'm down to needing 75m of space trucking.
Felix Lighter
Member
Huge multi-cannon. Hmmmmmm... Very interesting for my FDL.
Oooo or maybe, huge beam and 4 medium multi-cannons. Hmmmmmm....
Oooo or maybe, huge beam and 4 medium multi-cannons. Hmmmmmm....
I'd just have a PA since beams are much better if you have gimballed, and it's not in a very good spot for gimballed convergeance
a huge MC would be fun though, definitely fixed if they have it
Felix Lighter
Member
PA is fun but a huge pain in the ass when it comes to your weapon's capacitor. That's why I currently use a huge fixed cannon and 4 fixed medium pulse lasers. I'd love to see a huge multi-cannon but the more I think about it, a huge fixed beam and 4 gimballed medium multi-cannons maybe the way to go.
Dreams-Visions
Member
Huge pulses will make the 2 new large ships much more viable in both PvP and PvE combat than before. Only question is whether they will have gimbaled and turreted C4 variants or not.
Surely they will, I mean they have that for the Huge Cannons, so I see no real reason not to have it for the others.
I'd honestly go fixed for the MCs, but that's more fun than it is effective probably (feels like a fighter jet cannon that way
), but for a weapon that's continuous like the beam, I'd think it would be very annoying not having it gimballed, the unbroken stream of fire is nice for keeping pressure on the shieldsplus, a huge beam would probably eat up the capacitor too, I did actually go 4 med beams and one large beam on an FDL once, not sure if I can remember this correctly, but it could probably shoot for all of 3 seconds on full pips
But yeah, I guess you're right about the PAs, they're quite expensive to fire, but dang are they satisfying
This too, the Corvette's maneuvrability is comfortable enough to land some PA shots reliably, but for weapons that aren't made for potshots, I think the beams will have to have at least a gimballed variant. C4 turreted weapons would look pretty ridiculous, and I'd imagine they'd clip a lot with some ships. Heck, the FDL landed, the C4 bay clips through the floor when it opens in outfitting
Caesar III
Member
Doing the new Community Goal in Okinura I flew to Pollix nearby and shot some bad guys at the compromised Nav Beacon. Damn that is fun. A lot more fun than RES imho. The ships vary a lot though. What's kinda annoying though is the big star in this system. The Beacon is so close my ship is at > 50% when doing nothing. Flying and shooting ends up overheating the ship regulary. This does not happen in other places and I was suprised this happens. The AI of the ships is much better here as well. Had some Gunships which were really dangerous. I had to leave with 16% hull and a broken canopy after about an hour haha
Funny thing is, they all targeted canopy and power distributor on my ship. Too bad I was too slow in repairing the canopy.
Funny thing is, they all targeted canopy and power distributor on my ship. Too bad I was too slow in repairing the canopy.
I've just bought the game, and I've never played a game like that so I hope I'll "get" it. So, does the Horizon extension scratch the Mass Effect 1 itch of wanting to explore completely empty and barren planets ? I'll have to wait another sale for this but it's what excites me the most actually.