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Elite Dangerous: Horizons |OT| Just scratching the surface

DrBo42

Member
I need to check where this is, this sounds good :)

Yeah if you jump into the High RES Feds are in a massive swarm to help you. It's easy mode if you can avoid shots or shield tank.

You'll get some real nice assassination and wetwork missions after gaining some rep here too. 1.4 mil and 800k politician hits I just saw.
 
Too bad the servers are fucked now :/


First I'll fly to Ngurii to get some Soontill and to deliver it to the engineer. Then I'll fly back to my fas and perhaps am coming :D
 

zorbsie

Member
Been plugging away at the community goal in Ngolibardu. Great place for a beginner like myself to get some money. I'm in the 17 million bracket now and have cashed in around 9 million in bounties. Not bad for a lowly cobra mkIII. Not to decide what to pick up with all that loot. Thinking federal dropship.
 

Burny

Member
Ammo is not the only thing though. Anyone thats played the game knows that you are constraint by more than just it. Your weapons capacitor, the heat generated by your weapons, all of theses things affect the player but doesn't seem to affect the AI.

Any proof of that? It could be actual cheating, although her responses kind of imply that they don't cheat with the capacitor/power distributor. It could be bugs. Or it could be just the AI flying more reckless and/or managing their capacitors better than players.
 

Reckheim

Member
Been plugging away at the community goal in Ngolibardu. Great place for a beginner like myself to get some money. I'm in the 17 million bracket now and have cashed in around 9 million in bounties. Not bad for a lowly cobra mkIII. Not to decide what to pick up with all that loot. Thinking federal dropship.

have you tried the vulture yet? great combat ship and you can upgrade it fairly well with the money you made.
 

Reckheim

Member
I was actually looking at that and the asp explorer I think. The only thing holding me back on the vulture is only 2 hard points.

*2 large hardpoints. They are also positioned right beside where you sit in the ship so it gives you a feeling of umph.

Personally I wouldn't recommend the ASP (even tho its my favorite ship) for combat.
 

Pomerlaw

Member
It might be what's effecting a rival faction in the delivery system, hopefully.

RE: Cg. I just redeemed 1.6 mil in bounties and hit the 12.8 million reward tier... Crazy.

New guys should really get in on this. We can help you.

Thanks I may try to find the time to go there tonight!
 
I was actually looking at that and the asp explorer I think. The only thing holding me back on the vulture is only 2 hard points.

It's important to note that they're 2 *large* hardpoints. It is a ship designed specifically to act as a legitimate threat to larger ships. You have just enough power for combat (at a loss of jump range, fuel reserves, and cargo space) and are EXTREMELY maneuverable. Probably the most agile ship outside of the smaller ones like the Eagle.

EDIT: As Reckheim said, the hardpoints are both located on the top of the ship, meaning you can use your agility to fly circles around other ships and destroy them.

I'm using a large Beam Laser and large Multicannon right now. May just go double beam but don't want to deal with power issues, though. Double pulse is always a solid option, though.
 
Yeah, it's slightly under 5 million. It's cheaper than the Asp Explorer.

You'll have plenty to build a solid combat ship. Focus on large lasers and power.
 

~Cross~

Member
Any proof of that? It could be actual cheating, although her responses kind of imply that they don't cheat with the capacitor/power distributor. It could be bugs. Or it could be just the AI flying more reckless and/or managing their capacitors better than players.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_6HjebZFYs

Now whats happening here, either somehow this particular weapon is bugged and generating no heat, has infinite ammo, and consumes no energy on top of the RoF problem or ships simply dont take any of that into consideration and it only has a bugged RoF.

A players weapons capacitor on that ship at full pips wouldnt be able to sustain a second at that rate of fire, and they would be toasting if not dead from the heat.
 

Burny

Member
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_6HjebZFYs

Now whats happening here, either somehow this particular weapon is bugged and generating no heat, has infinite ammo, and consumes no energy on top of the RoF problem or ships simply dont take any of that into consideration and it only has a bugged RoF.

A players weapons capacitor on that ship at full pips wouldnt be able to sustain a second at that rate of fire, and they would be toasting if not dead from the heat.

On mobile, so I can't wath atm. If that's the auto plasma cannon of doom: how would anybody believe that's anything but a bug? A weapon that has about a 10 second cooldown between shots, tends to overheat you within one or two shots and has about 30 (?) shots, suddenly firing at the rate of a machine gun for minutes?
 

Burny

Member
Which its why Im seeing its more likely that its a bugged issue with just the RoF than it also being a bug with infinite ammo, no heat and no energy use.

Seems more like a Multi Cannon accidentally being given plasma projectiles without their side effects to me.

That would also explain infinite ammo, if that's the one consumable area where NPCs cheat. In any case though, it's not cheating AI, but with overwhelming likelyhood a bug.
 

~Cross~

Member
Seems more like a Multi Cannon accidentally being given plasma projectiles without their side effects to me.

If only there was a way to check an npcs subsystems...oh we do!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xM1ZXMaTPoA

Its a plasma accelerator. Not a multicanon with bugged plasma shots. So do you believe that the weapon is jus that bugged that it has all 4 constraints removed, or does it have one and NPCs simply dont follow the rules for the other 3?

We already know the NPCs cheat, anyone thats taken a trip to robigo knows they cheat with their interdictions and jump distance. Not much of a stretch to think they cheat with ammo/heat/energy
 

Burny

Member
We already know the NPCs cheat, anyone thats taken a trip to robigo knows they cheat with their interdictions and jump distance. Not much of a stretch to think they cheat with ammo/heat/energy

Ahem. That's a whole different can of worms and at the heart of the issue is RNG. NPCs don't follow you across system jumps, they spawn around you. That's not as much cheating as poor game design. There is a difference.

Whatever that plasma bug is, it's still a bug. It's so ridiculously far outside of the ballpark of any other weapon strength and balancing out there, that anything else would be a balancing issue so disproportional that it's exceedingly unlikely even coming from Frontier. And it goes directly against what the main AI programmer has stated. I don't really think she's lying through her teeth. Why would she?
 
So NeoGAF seems to be in a pseudo boom state? Doesn't show as officially Boom but just got the missions from Majida to deliver NeoGAF "boom data" to other systems.

All we need is a little TLC, y'all.
 

~Cross~

Member
I don't really think she's lying through her teeth. Why would she?

I dont think she's thinks shes lying, and thats the problem.

She could very well have programmed her side to do things in a certain way, making calls to someone elses work/objects. And those objects just happen to either not exist or are set to infinite.
 

DrBo42

Member
So NeoGAF seems to be in a pseudo boom state? Doesn't show as officially Boom but just got the missions from Majida to deliver NeoGAF "boom data" to other systems.

All we need is a little TLC, y'all.

I'll come back after sinking in a bit more into the CG bucket. I just need our faction to give me some assassination missions.
 
Been plugging away at the community goal in Ngolibardu. Great place for a beginner like myself to get some money. I'm in the 17 million bracket now and have cashed in around 9 million in bounties. Not bad for a lowly cobra mkIII. Not to decide what to pick up with all that loot. Thinking federal dropship.
Just to further help here...
have you tried the vulture yet? great combat ship and you can upgrade it fairly well with the money you made.
Yeah, the Vulture is especially good to use now against AI, considering its shields are so much better than the other lower-tier combat ships.
The Vulture really is an awesome ship. Those two large hardpoints are great and the agility is mindblowing :D It's so good, after flying it you cannot go back to an ASP or Python :D
Thanks for the tips gang. Going vulture shopping a little later tonight.
Don't forget the insurance! If you are using point defense and chaff you cannot fit as many shield boosters. That way you do not run into power issues that fast.

The next step after the Vulture is the Federal Assault Ship. At least it was for me. It's a Vultures bigger brother who ate too much fast food. More hardpoints, more internals, heavy as fuck and the most agile ship of this size. It's huge compared to the Vulture




Was able to get to the CG system with the high tier. WOW! I handed in just 1.3 million and even with this small amount I'm at 50% and 8 million reward lol. Flying in HighRes is indeed a strange experience. I had 5 Anacondas (it was the highest amount I encountered) assisting in killing enemies. I need to swap one of my hull reinforcements into cargo to carry more limpets. Sitting in one place and shooting enemies is enough haha
 
Yeah its strange. When DrBo recommended the Hi RES, thought he was crazy... but either system security has beefed up or they just aren't balanced right, but I was far safer compared to a Low RES just now.
 
The next step after the Vulture is the Federal Assault Ship. At least it was for me. It's a Vultures bigger brother who ate too much fast food. More hardpoints, more internals, heavy as fuck and the most agile ship of this size. It's huge compared to the Vulture

I just blew up my FAS boosting into an Anaconda that zigged when I thought it was going to zag.

4M rebuy. :( That's a big chunk of my CG money right there.

Edit: And with the FAS, the firepower and maneuverability is great, but the shields are worthless so you're going to be hull tanking a lot, and holy shit the hardpoint placement is awful. Having the two large hardpoints in the middle of the ship but split top and bottom means it's very difficult to line both up at the same time. What I've found works best is having lasers in the belly and projectiles on top, so you can keep your nose mostly on target (or a little above) and the top mount can still lead the target. I'd much rather have two lasers in the large slots, but that just doesn't work all that well. Why couldn't the large mounts have been on the sides or nearer the nose? :(
 

~Cross~

Member
I just blew up my FAS boosting into an Anaconda that zigged when I thought it was going to zag.

4M rebuy. :( That's a big chunk of my CG money right there.

Edit: And with the FAS, the firepower and maneuverability is great, but the shields are worthless so you're going to be hull tanking a lot, and holy shit the hardpoint placement is awful. Having the two large hardpoints in the middle of the ship but split top and bottom means it's very difficult to line both up at the same time. What I've found works best is having lasers in the belly and projectiles on top, so you can keep your nose mostly on target (or a little above) and the top mount can still lead the target. I'd much rather have two lasers in the large slots, but that just doesn't work all that well. Why couldn't the large mounts have been on the sides or nearer the nose? :(

I have lasers in the top and shotguns in the bottom. Once the shields are down I would do strafing runs on the ships swooping down up close and blasting them. I haven't tried since the newest udpate so that might not be feasible with the added maneuverability of npcs.
 

zorbsie

Member
Got 30 million with CG event. Waiting for expansion to hit on X1 to spend it. How much are SRVs? And what type of ship can land on planets? Is it any as long as they have the right module? Sorry for the silly questions. :)
 

Burny

Member
Got 30 million with CG event. Waiting for expansion to hit on X1 to spend it. How much are SRVs? And what type of ship can land on planets? Is it any as long as they have the right module? Sorry for the silly questions. :)

No silly questions there if you've never tried it or didn't follow Horizons' development. ;)

Any ship can land on planets. They require a "planetary landing suite", which receives a dedicated slot in the equipment screen. If you're Horizons owner, iirc your ships are automatically equipped with it?

In order to carry an SRV, you need an SRV hangar. The SRV itself is dirt cheap (less than 5k credits iirc) and can be outfitted to the hangar in the restock screen, like you would buy munitions/chaff/heatsinks.
 

Reckheim

Member
Switching from M+KB to controller is like learning a whole new game, holy moly even the basic things are difficult.

Tried doing that as well but couldn't do it, I've stuck to mouse and keyboard. Is there a reason you're going to a controller?
 

zorbsie

Member
Thanks for the info Burny!

Weapon question, what is the preferred laser? Pulse/beam/burst? I've been using beam but it's a real strain on power.
 

derFeef

Member
Tried doing that as well but couldn't do it, I've stuck to mouse and keyboard. Is there a reason you're going to a controller?

Future Vive usage :)
My setup is not covering my PC desk and I would need wireless KB+M but I don't have that. So I thought switching to controller might work out better.
 

DrBo42

Member
Was anyone able to redeem their CG payment today? Mission board is gone at the destination station. Either UA bombed or FD bug.

Edit: Looks like the controlling faction went into Lockdown? I guess that shuts down services? Ugh.
 

Reckheim

Member
Future Vive usage :)
My setup is not covering my PC desk and I would need wireless KB+M but I don't have that. So I thought switching to controller might work out better.

Agh yeh, had a few friends that learned how to play it with a controller first and they actually prefer it that way. I'm sure it will just take some serious getting used to.
 

zorbsie

Member
Was anyone able to redeem their CG payment today? Mission board is gone at the destination station. Either UA bombed or FD bug.

Edit: Looks like the controlling faction went into Lockdown? I guess that shuts down services? Ugh.

I was able to cash in this morning. But it was kind of buggy when I did it. The mission board didn't load at first. Had to come back to it and I loaded fine.
 
M+KB is great for dogfighting (very precise) but veeeery difficult when maneuvering with FA off. If you use relative mouse position, though, FA off flight becomes very easy and a lot of fun, but relative mouse position sucks for FA on and supercruise. I wish there were a way to make it switch relative on/off when going FA on/off.
 

JambiBum

Member
Didn't see anyone post this, but FDev have made changes to the AI and have said that the whole Bi Weave shields thing was a result of a bug. The AI change is that they will no longer have Engineer upgrades and that change has already taken place. Here's the full quote.

We just wanted to get a post up to talk about some key issues that have come up in the community over the last few days and talk a little about some of the changes that are coming into effect from today and in future updates.

AI and NPCs
One of the most hotly debated topics in the community since The Engineers (2.1) is the AI and NPC changes. There’s no denying that higher ranked NPCs are now tougher to beat than ever before.

The aim of the AI and NPC changes is to ensure that there is a balance between having combat that challenges you and is exciting while not being so challenging that it spoils your ability to enjoy the galaxy and game on a day to day basis.

We’re aware from your feedback that this hasn’t hit that balance, either because of bugs or a number of other reasons, and so we’re going to be making some changes to help address those concerns.

The first change is that we will be removing almost all Engineers upgrades from the NPCs in game. There are a very few select upgrades that will remain for coding reasons but they will be low level and not combat specific upgrades. On the whole you should notice that the vast majority of upgrades are gone from NPCs which will mean that players will be greater equipped to deal with NPC threats and should be able to last longer in a combat situation, should they need to make a hasty exit. It will also mean that players who gather their own upgrades will have a technical advantage on the NPC combatants too. The good part about this is that these are all server side, which means we are able to make those changes today! Commanders will be able to see the changes taking effect shortly.

Staying on the topic of AI, we have also had a number of people discussing bugged or cheating weapons and abnormal, overly aggressive, NPC behaviour where NPCs are attacking Commanders without being wanted, being full of Cargo or for other known obvious reasons. In order to investigate these concerns more closely there are two new bug forum threads dedicated to these issues specifically. If you have any evidence or detail about these issues, we would appreciate you heading over to the Bugged weapons or the NPC aggro threads and giving us your feedback there.

With the removal of Engineers upgrades, even if the NPCs do become more manageable, we would still greatly appreciate any reports of AI attacking unexpectedly in the thread mentioned above as it will help us investigate the issues.

With the changes going out today the development team will be able to review the effectiveness of the AI on its own and see what additional balancing will need to take place. There are a number of additional changes that the dev team are looking at right now which could include balancing the frequency of higher end NPCs as well as other changes and we’ll keep you informed with more news on those as we have them.

The Engineers – RNG & more
We’ve also seen a lot of discussion on the Engineers generally we are listening to feedback. We’ve mentioned previously but in 2.1.1 we will be giving players the ability to exchange their experimental modifications for another modification but at a cost to your reputation with that Engineer. This will allow players a better opportunity to select what upgrades they receive. We are also very much listening to feedback on the Engineers and other updates too. If you have any specific feedback regarding the Engineers, the material gathering or any other changes, be sure to add them to the Engineers forum where the team will be reviewing and reading.

Bi-Weave shields
Many of you have noticed that Bi-Weave shields seem to have been taken off the shelves across the galaxy. This was the result of a bug fix which ended up removing them from circulation. These will be going back into game via today's server side update. They won’t be available at every station but they will result in becoming available at stations across the galaxy, in the same way other items do currently.

Thank you again for your feedback, it truly is vitally important to us. Please do continue to give us your suggestions! Fly Safe Commanders!
 

SmartBase

Member
Is there any option or config line I can change to get rid of the blurriness? It looks really good at close range (especially on the ground) but further out it blurs like crazy.
screenshot_0047o3yo8.jpg


It looked more like this before engineers
 

Unicorn

Member
M+KB is great for dogfighting (very precise) but veeeery difficult when maneuvering with FA off. If you use relative mouse position, though, FA off flight becomes very easy and a lot of fun, but relative mouse position sucks for FA on and supercruise. I wish there were a way to make it switch relative on/off when going FA on/off.

I never understood FA. Is there something that explains it? I guess I don't know why or when to turn FA off.

I play controller sometimes and HOTAS most other times.
 

TheTrain

Member
Is there any option or config line I can change to get rid of the blurriness? It looks really good at close range (especially on the ground) but further out it blurs like crazy.
screenshot_0047o3yo8.jpg


It looked more like this before engineers

Force the Anisotropic Filtering through the driver
 

HelloMeow

Member
I never understood FA. Is there something that explains it? I guess I don't know why or when to turn FA off.

I play controller sometimes and HOTAS most other times.

Flight assist basically simulates atmospheric flight. It tries to make the ship fly in the direction it's pointing and it makes sure the ship stops pitching/rolling/yawing when you let go of the stick.

If you turn it off, the ship will keep moving and rotating unless you thrust in the opposite direction. This way you can fly towards one direction, while the ship is pointing in another direction. It's really satisfying once you get the hang of it.
 
So I used my baller CG money (almost 20M!) to finally upgrade to a Python from my FAS. It's sure as shit not A rated, but even with lower end equipment the extra large hardpoint is a real pleasure to have, especially with the much improved hardpoint placement. Sure it's nowhere near as maneuverable as the FAS, but already I've had more success with the Python due to the stronger shields and hardpoint placement allowing good use of medium turrets for ships I can't keep my nose on.

Plus two multicannons on the roof is plain fun. Smaller ships melt while I make machine-gun noises, it's great.

Finally there's a lot more general usability with the Python. The FAS is too combat focused and suffers for it in interior space, the Python's much more capable as an all-rounder.

I never understood FA. Is there something that explains it? I guess I don't know why or when to turn FA off.

I play controller sometimes and HOTAS most other times.

Turning FA off allows for some more complicated maneuvers which are hugely helpful for dogfighting in larger ships. For instance, you can boost, turn FA off and flip over without changing your ship's direction to get your nose on a smaller ship while opening the range, leaving them exposed to your gunfire for longer. It also allows for more erratic movements in combat, but it takes a lot of practice (a lot) to get good enough with it to stay on target.

Beyond that it's fun to float around and control your ship's momentum manually.

Edit: FA off combat in CQC, don't watch if you get seasick easily: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdOnDq2OHAk
 

derFeef

Member
I wanna get back into the HOTAS bussines as I can't get used to the controller and it's limits.
Is the T.Flight Hotas Stick X still recommended for a budget stick? I had a X52 but I was not happy with it (and it broke...).
 
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