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Elite Dangerous: Horizons |OT| Just scratching the surface

Mengy

wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
I didn't run into any of that in the beta. I played several hours in RESes and did assassination missions. They must have fucked shit up for the full release.

Yes, it is definitely broken, but it's sporadic. Sometimes the new AI is fantastic and fight like you would expect a competent player to actually fight like, but every now and then you get one that is Superman and kills you in seconds, shields and hull and all, no matter what you have equipped. I mean let's be honest, no Eagle should EVER be able to take down a Python in mere seconds, that's obviously not right no matter WHAT that Eagle has equipped. There's a huge 130+ page post on the forums about it, many of the combat proponents say it's fine as is and that it "adds challenge", but it is demonstrably broken and a bug. Most likely it's just one or two engineer weapons on the npc's that have not been beta tested or player tested yet. FDev has yet to say anything official on any of this, but in time the players will beta test the game for them, provide evidence showing what is broken, and the devs will have to fix it.

For now though combat is a game of Russian Roulette, and every now and then you get the bullet that instantly kills you.
 
Looking closely at the beta forums it seems that in beta 4 they added REALLY GOOD AI, but it was then taken out of beta 5 and 6.

The problem, from what I understand, is that the good AI in beta 4 was good because of how it flew. It was dynamic and was doing good maneuvers. But maybe because it had still problems they probably stripped this from the actual patch, and then in order to "compensate" because of all the forum complaints about the AI being "nerfed" again, it seems they simply ramped up the damage numbers.

So now you have the worst scenario: the actual good AI isn't there, but they compensate by doing AI ships insane damage numbers. It's the worst from both perspectives.
 

DrBo42

Member
So... is ROBIGO dead? Where else can i bank huge smuggling missions outside the bubble? Fehu as good as robigo? HALP MEEEE

Robigo was UA bombed by players. Unknown Artifacts create a type of virus in stations that shut down services. Can only be repaired if people bring meta alloys there in large numbers.
 

LooseLips

Member
Looking closely at the beta forums it seems that in beta 4 they added REALLY GOOD AI, but it was then taken out of beta 5 and 6.

The problem, from what I understand, is that the good AI in beta 4 was good because of how it flew. It was dynamic and was doing good maneuvers. But maybe because it had still problems they probably stripped this from the actual patch, and then in order to "compensate" because of all the forum complaints about the AI being "nerfed" again, it seems they simply ramped up the damage numbers.

So now you have the worst scenario: the actual good AI isn't there, but they compensate by doing AI ships insane damage numbers. It's the worst from both perspectives.

All of that is not my experience.

beta 4 AI was lethal. I didn't just read about it, I played it. The release version isn't a 'gimped, make crazy damage version' by any means. Have you played it yet? I have just had the most amazing dogfight through a ravine on a planet. Slippery little sod was ranked Dangerous - and he was! Lots of different tactics by him.

I agree that the difficulty has come down from beta 4. But the dynamic tactics are definitely there in the higher ranked NPCs. The easier ones are, well, easier - but that means I'm seeing my re-buy screen less - which is good!
 

Unicorn

Member
Is there a way to get the controller setup that XB1 has? There's like overlays for different button presses that aren't in the PC version, or I can't find them. I have a HOTAS but on my Surface Pro 2 I use a controller.
 

SmartBase

Member
Haha this is totally what I expected a GAF rep to look like, I wonder what the lower ranked ones are like.

screenshot_0039p9ldm.jpg

The update's been okay so far, spent maybe half a day getting to Maia and back and with those basic scans turned in am now at level 3 access with Farseer.
 

Easy_D

never left the stone age
So the game has actual NPC quest-givers now? How many of the updates carry over to vanilla? Also did anyone else have issues installing the patch? I had to re-download the entire game.
 

DrBo42

Member
All of that is not my experience.

beta 4 AI was lethal. I didn't just read about it, I played it. The release version isn't a 'gimped, make crazy damage version' by any means. Have you played it yet? I have just had the most amazing dogfight through a ravine on a planet. Slippery little sod was ranked Dangerous - and he was! Lots of different tactics by him.

I agree that the difficulty has come down from beta 4. But the dynamic tactics are definitely there in the higher ranked NPCs. The easier ones are, well, easier - but that means I'm seeing my re-buy screen less - which is good!

I tend to disagree in the latter. Look at this NPC's beam damage.

So the game has actual NPC quest-givers now? How many of the updates carry over to vanilla? Also did anyone else have issues installing the patch? I had to re-download the entire game.

Everything but engineers is carrying over.
 
So the game has actual NPC quest-givers now? How many of the updates carry over to vanilla? Also did anyone else have issues installing the patch? I had to re-download the entire game.

Everything carries over to vanilla except anything involving planetary landings. Need Horizons for that.

So I'm out exploring, and some planets/moons have a planetary map but some don't. Are these bodies that can be landed on? X1 version btw.

Only non atmospheric planets can be landed on. Note that you can't land anywhere until 6/2 on x1.
 

bloodydrake

Cool Smoke Luke
so i think i registered Horizons LOL kinda hard to tell.
Bit disappointing that the new quest giver graphics color changes with the ui color tweaks but what can ya do.

I tried a low and High resource extraction site and no one tore me up but man all the Federal lawmen ships were out in force. one area had 2 fed Vipers and 2 Fed Anacondas just destroying any wanted NPC's
 

Burny

Member
Is there a way to get the controller setup that XB1 has? There's like overlays for different button presses that aren't in the PC version, or I can't find them. I have a HOTAS but on my Surface Pro 2 I use a controller.

There should be a preset that gives you the exact Xbone setup, including the appropriate prompts. Have you tried that?
 

Easy_D

never left the stone age
Everything carries over to vanilla except anything involving planetary landings. Need Horizons for that.



Only non atmospheric planets can be landed on. Note that you can't land anywhere until 6/2 on x1.

Oh, that's great, good on ya, FDev. I'm glad I waited to sink any meaningful time into the game now.
 

DodgerSan

Member
Hi guys, don't know if this has been posted, and hope someone can help.

I'm pretty new to the game on Xbox One, and have a problem since the patch.

Whenever I use a face button hold command, the button command triggers also. e.g. lowering landing gear (B+dpad down) triggers boost, and navigation (X+dpad left) deploys hard points. This has only started happening since the big patch.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.
 

akira28

Member
I had a dream that I discovered a moon. My name was on it. it was a retarded as hell dream and I hated it. Get out of my dreams Elite Dangerous.
 

akira28

Member
So... is ROBIGO dead? Where else can i bank huge smuggling missions outside the bubble? Fehu as good as robigo? HALP MEEEE

Fehu is definitely not at good as Robigo. I came here to level for Empire and all I get are donation missions for 250K a pop, for just a tiny 2 point bump in reputation.

mission shit is broken at the moment. still havent been able to advance to a promotion past Master rank and I'm at 100%. No rank advancement missions at any of the Empire stations I've gone to, and I've been flying around for a bit, looking for a new smuggling spot.

apparently Fdev nerfed Robigo via the Unknown Artifact mechanic. People have been hinting at effects for weeks now since other players had been selling alien artifacts there and at other specific bases to change the meta game.

So now players have to route meta-alloys to remove whatever mystery effects are there.
Meta alloys you can only find on a planets surface by landing there, which you can only do if you buy the new expansion.

apparently there is a new robigo, which is also only accessible by landing on a planet surface, which you can only do if you buy the expansion....
 
Hi guys, don't know if this has been posted, and hope someone can help.

I'm pretty new to the game on Xbox One, and have a problem since the patch.

Whenever I use a face button hold command, the button command triggers also. e.g. lowering landing gear (B+dpad down) triggers boost, and navigation (X+dpad left) deploys hard points. This has only started happening since the big patch.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

This was happening to me. Go into your controls and reselect an option.
 

zorbsie

Member
Getting some graphical glitches after the patch on X1. Anyone get this while in super cruise?
screenshot-original56sue.png


Also had my instruments go black. Like the transparency of the consoles stopped working. This happens a lot when in the rings of a planet.
 
Getting some graphical glitches after the patch on X1. Anyone get this while in super cruise?
screenshot-original56sue.png


Also had my instruments go black. Like the transparency of the consoles stopped working. This happens a lot when in the rings of a planet.

The black bug happened to me on Xbox yesterday.
 

JambiBum

Member
Fehu is definitely not at good as Robigo. I came here to level for Empire and all I get are donation missions for 250K a pop, for just a tiny 2 point bump in reputation.

mission shit is broken at the moment. still havent been able to advance to a promotion past Master rank and I'm at 100%. No rank advancement missions at any of the Empire stations I've gone to, and I've been flying around for a bit, looking for a new smuggling spot.

apparently Fdev nerfed Robigo via the Unknown Artifact mechanic. People have been hinting at effects for weeks now since other players had been selling alien artifacts there and at other specific bases to change the meta game.

So now players have to route meta-alloys to remove whatever mystery effects are there.
Meta alloys you can only find on a planets surface by landing there, which you can only do if you buy the new expansion.

apparently there is a new robigo, which is also only accessible by landing on a planet surface, which you can only do if you buy the expansion....

What's the new robigo?
 

akira28

Member
What's the new robigo?

Darnielle's Progress in Maia, reportedly. still gives out 4+ mill delivery and smuggling missions, and is still out in the middle of bumfuck. I was about to load up the Aspie and head out that way, but noticeds its a planetary landing spot.


I was this close to spending 30 bucks on horizons this weekend, but every time I want to spend money something happens to piss me off, and I decide to wait a little more. Its obvious they plan on putting a lot more into the game, but holy shit is the grind a pain, and the roll outs are a mess.
Hard work and dedication!

bull. and shit.
 
They have kinda balanced the absence of Robito with a lot more missions that pay better, as well as higher paying community goals. One of the community goals is at tier 1 and already pays out 500k just for participating.
 

akira28

Member
I will say this though. Was playing with VR (sbs over Moonlight to my android) and the times when the VR really fucking SHINES...SHINES is when you're docking, holy shit I had lip sweat as I was flying towards that giant station wall with the tiny mail slot at 300 kph...watching it get bigger and bigger, and the very real instinctive feeling that I am about to crash into a wall and die...tingles in my spine, rumbles in my gut, all of that...then I'm inside the cavernous space station...

of course the asp explorer's huge bomber style cockpit canopy makes it even better, I feel like I'm in the chair. It doesn't always feel like this in the game, but there are moments.

that should be a demo for anyone wanting to know what its about.
 
Grabbed a Mk IV Viper, outfitted it, and headed to a LOW RES today.

Almost immediately, a wing of three Vultures spotted me and started to attack. Diverted power to shields and engines and boosted towards the ring cluster to try and get some cover. That seemed to be enough to throw them off, but my shields when down, even with a SCB being deployed (which, between their attacks and my boosts, had me overheating). Had to play cat and mouse with them in the field until security arrived to mop them up while I assisted as best I could.

It was pretty scary for a minute there but exciting, too. It was nice to actually have a challenge and to use critical thought beyond "what's the largest ship I can target?"

The addition of crafting has also made post-battle cargo scooping into something that actually has significance. Even though it's minor, the feedback loop of "combat>collecting new materials>possibly discovering new materials>evaluating whether or not you have enough to go craft or synthesize" is kinda cool.

I will say this though. Was playing with VR (sbs over Moonlight to my android) and the times when the VR really fucking SHINES...SHINES is when you're docking, holy shit I had lip sweat as I was flying towards that giant station wall with the tiny mail slot at 300 kph...watching it get bigger and bigger, and the very real instinctive feeling that I am about to crash into a wall and die...tingles in my spine, rumbles in my gut, all of that...then I'm inside the cavernous space station...

of course the asp explorer's huge bomber style cockpit canopy makes it even better, I feel like I'm in the chair. It doesn't always feel like this in the game, but there are moments.

that should be a demo for anyone wanting to know what its about.

This gif made me realize I need a VR headset:

8HqVAZt.gif
 

DjRalford

Member
SJA posted a comment on the poll about the new AI on the ED Forums


Wow... what a lot to read!
The answer to the poll (in my eyes) is yes to all. Can it be changed to please everyone? Perhaps...

"It's too easy!"

Moving forward, it won't be. High ranks will use adaptive logic. Means the harder you fight, the harder the AI fights. Should hopefully mean a good challenge for skilled players.

"It's just right."

Perhaps, but I want to take it down a notch and throw in more tactics to create a more enjoyable and less predictable experience.

"It's too hard!"

I hear ya... Adaptive logic could dynamically downgrade AI performance to give players a chance. E.g. player is fleeing... Pirate AI could downgrade its weapon accuracy and boosting ability, giving the player a good chance to escape.

Well, just some of my thoughts.
 

cilonen

Member
So, prior to 2.1 if I was hauling something and I saw the telltale direct comms come in from a NPC pirate along the lines of "That's the ship I'm looking for, the one with the big haul" or similar line, I'd immediately throttle back and drop out of supercruise and deploy my hard points and wait a few seconds for them to show up in the instance so I'd get the drop on them - a lot of the time you have the time to do this before an interdiction starts.

Funny thing is, in all my experiences with 2.1 today it seems to take the NPC a heck of a lot longer to drop into the instance than it used to, so now what I do is simply drop out of SC, turn to face my destination and high wake out before the pirate has even joined the instance.

This, so far has worked every time, heck the only time I even saw the NPC in the instance was the first time I tried this after getting bored sitting there with my weapons deployed waiting for them for a good twenty seconds and even then they only showed up just as my FSD charge hit the countdown.
 

DrBo42

Member
Darnielle's Progress in Maia, reportedly. still gives out 4+ mill delivery and smuggling missions, and is still out in the middle of bumfuck. I was about to load up the Aspie and head out that way, but noticeds its a planetary landing spot.


I was this close to spending 30 bucks on horizons this weekend, but every time I want to spend money something happens to piss me off, and I decide to wait a little more. Its obvious they plan on putting a lot more into the game, but holy shit is the grind a pain, and the roll outs are a mess.


bull. and shit.

That base had 0 missions from all contacts when I picked up a meta-alloy a couple of hours ago.
 

E-flux

Member
The new AI can be really scary, i'm flying usually in a shieldless Diamondback X and today i fought against AI that just spammed missiles at me, it seemed to have an infinite supply of them since the battle went pretty long, did they always have infinite ammo or was do some of the missile racks have obscene amount of ammo? Luckily only one of the missiles hit but even that took over 40% of my hull away.
 

Unicorn

Member
Grabbed a Mk IV Viper, outfitted it, and headed to a LOW RES today.

Almost immediately, a wing of three Vultures spotted me and started to attack. Diverted power to shields and engines and boosted towards the ring cluster to try and get some cover. That seemed to be enough to throw them off, but my shields when down, even with a SCB being deployed (which, between their attacks and my boosts, had me overheating). Had to play cat and mouse with them in the field until security arrived to mop them up while I assisted as best I could.

It was pretty scary for a minute there but exciting, too. It was nice to actually have a challenge and to use critical thought beyond "what's the largest ship I can target?"

The addition of crafting has also made post-battle cargo scooping into something that actually has significance. Even though it's minor, the feedback loop of "combat>collecting new materials>possibly discovering new materials>evaluating whether or not you have enough to go craft or synthesize" is kinda cool.



This gif made me realize I need a VR headset:

8HqVAZt.gif
The hell is going on in that gif. Also, how is that set up? Is he in a dbox getting rocked around?
 

Hylian7

Member
Darnielle's Progress in Maia, reportedly. still gives out 4+ mill delivery and smuggling missions, and is still out in the middle of bumfuck. I was about to load up the Aspie and head out that way, but noticeds its a planetary landing spot.


I was this close to spending 30 bucks on horizons this weekend, but every time I want to spend money something happens to piss me off, and I decide to wait a little more. Its obvious they plan on putting a lot more into the game, but holy shit is the grind a pain, and the roll outs are a mess.


bull. and shit.

I'd expect anything close to Robigo-levels would be in bumfuck nowhere and require something like an Asp to be able to load up on enough missions.
 

DrBo42

Member
The new AI can be really scary, i'm flying usually in a shieldless Diamondback X and today i fought against AI that just spammed missiles at me, it seemed to have an infinite supply of them since the battle went pretty long, did they always have infinite ammo or was do some of the missile racks have obscene amount of ammo? Luckily only one of the missiles hit but even that took over 40% of my hull away.

I believe they have infinite ammo. I know they've said they have infinite multi-cannon ammo, assuming that applies to everything.
 

SmartBase

Member
I'm going to give this game a break, being instagibbed by two little DBSs with rapid fire plasma accelerators isn't my idea of improved AI, as much as I love their new piloting techniques. Of course I also died with all of my crafting commodities in my cargo hold since there's nowhere else to put them.
 

DrBo42

Member
I'm going to give this game a break, being instagibbed by two little DBSs with rapid fire plasma accelerators isn't my idea of improved AI, as much as I love their new piloting techniques. Of course I also died with all of my crafting commodities in my cargo hold since there's nowhere else to put them.

That's a big problem for me as well.

Edit: Frontier support did me a solid and reimbursed my rebuy for the AI weapon absurdity that killed me yesterday morning. That was nice of them.
 

Mengy

wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
Yeah it's a huge problem with 2.1 right now, a lot of the new AI ships completely ignore rate of fire on weapons like plasmas and railguns. See the official bug report post here, lots of videos of the bug in action:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=255442

Still absolutely no official word or acknowledgement from the devs on this. I think I'm going to only fly small cheap ships in 2.1 until this gets resolved.

Also, bi-weave shields have been completely removed from every outfitter in the game, they are no longer available to buy anywhere, and it is intentional on the part of FDev, so if your ship still has bi-weaves on it and you want to keep them do not sell your shields ever! Once you sell them you can never get them back.

https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDange...ier_youre_going_to_have_to_give_your_players/

This was not in the patch notes, nor a part of the 2.1 beta, but it is an official change.
 

DrBo42

Member
Yeah it's a huge problem with 2.1 right now, a lot of the new AI ships completely ignore rate of fire on weapons like plasmas and railguns. See the official bug report post here, lots of videos of the bug in action:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=255442

Still absolutely no official word or acknowledgement from the devs on this. I think I'm going to only fly small cheap ships in 2.1 until this gets resolved.

Also, bi-weave shields have been completely removed from every outfitter in the game, they are no longer available to buy anywhere, and it is intentional on the part of FDev, so if your ship still has bi-weaves on it and you want to keep them do not sell your shields ever! Once you sell them you can never get them back.

https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDange...ier_youre_going_to_have_to_give_your_players/

This was not in the patch notes, nor a part of the 2.1 beta, but it is an official change.

Sure seems like they removed it in order to make it an engineer option in the future. My money is on it being a special effect.

Think they're doing the same thing to collector limpet speed. They're slow as hell now and I fully expect to see speed upgrades via an Engineer. Pure pessimistic speculation, but it's me.

IMO absolutely the worst direction you can go with this. Never take away or nerf in order to lock it behind a grind wall.
 

Jedi2016

Member
That's awfully weird about the bi-weave shields. They had a trade-off, it wasn't just about how fast they recharged, they were also pretty weak. I have them on my Asp because all I need them for is landing on planets.. the quick startup is a bonus since I normally run with shields down to save heat.. I don't turn them on until I'm on approach to a planet I'm going to land on.

I did notice a change to how they charged, though. On 2.0, if you put 4 pips in Systems, it would be just enough to get the shields up.. it would drain the entire Systems bar in the process. On 2.1, I can leave 2 pips in Systems, and it only drains about half of the bar to get the shields up. And since the bar no longer completely drains, they actually come up a second or two faster. And also saves me the trouble of having to turn my Power Distributor back on since I no longer have to manage pips on approach (2/4/0).

But again, they're weak as fuck. That's fine for what I'm doing with them, but they're utterly useless in combat, especially now with the NPCs having über-weapons.
 

DrBo42

Member
For those that are coming back from Distant Worlds with data, maybe wait until the AI loadout bugs are resolved or let us know when you're about to be back in inhabited space. Myself and I'm sure others are willing to wing up and escort you back.
 

Jedi2016

Member
I might take you up on that. There's also a group I heard about on Reddit that does that, provides escort for returning explorers.

I won't be back for a couple months at least, though, I'm only managing a few thousand light years a week since I don't get to play that much. Hopefully they'll have this mess sorted out by then.

Speaking of which.. exploration data is tied to the pilot, isn't it? So once I get back to Earth, I can just hop into my FDL (which is fully decked out and more than capable of holding its own against practically anything, under normal circumstances) and go see Felicity or whoever to turn in the data, right? If they have the weapons thing sorted out by then, that will be my plan. My Asp is armed, but not very strongly, especially considering how weak my shields are... the last time I got into a fight with it, the shields melted way too fast and I ended up taking more damage than I'd like.
 
Ha, the only thing an escort can do against that particular insta-kill AI is give the AI more targets so hopefully the explorer sneaks by. Watching these videos of the biggest ships melting in about 1 second is pretty crazy.
 

Mengy

wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
Yeah, an escort won't help at all with the broken AI in 2.1. Best to not return at all and wait for a patch to fix the issue.
 
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