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Elite Dangerous: Horizons |OT| Just scratching the surface
- Thread starter Anton Sugar
- Start date
These guys need to hurry up and solve this Thargoid mystery. I need to see what it leads to.
Not sure how this wasn't posted but FD commented today about Engineers changes they promised earlier:
Here's the new list of blueprint requirements:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Ea9A3ZaXlTjgw_EgdQB4s2FSZvmOa6he-acdTY_XBQ4/edit#gid=293426439
So again, don't bother with Engineers until this rolls out (a month by the way it sounds)
Not sure how this wasn't posted but FD commented today about Engineers changes they promised earlier:
FD said:Greetings Commanders.
You may remember recently that we shared some plans and changes that will be making their way to our next point release (2.1.05) as a direct response to your feedback, thank you again.
You can read the full post here. But as a reminder, the changes included are...
Adjusting the way the surface scanner works to allow you to see what materials are available from any given planet. This should make locating materials far easier.
Making a number of changes to the lowest level blueprints. This includes improving the positive effects of low level upgrade results as well as reducing the cost and simplifying the materials needed.
Increasing the number of units you get for each instance of a material you find. This means instead of getting one unit of a material, you will get multiple units of that material. This will allow you to increase the number of attempts at each Engineer.
Increasing the number of materials spawned when surface mining. Again, to make the process easier and the materials easier to gather.
The likelihood of finding rare materials in these instances will also be increased, meaning it will be easier to use higher level blueprints.
And we will be reviewing the balance and locations of non-planet salvage and reviewing the possible USS locations for each material
Ahead of this update we wanted to share the rebalancing that has been done to the materials required for blueprints to give you information ahead of time so that those of you searching for materials can factor this into your collecting and gameplay.
You can see a full list of the new blueprints requirements that will be added in the next point update (2.1.05) by downloading it from the link below
http://hosting.zaonce.net/community/newsletter/blueprints_requirements.xls
This point release is still being finalised and we’re hoping to give more details on the exact date in the next couple of weeks.
Thanks again for your continued support and patience.
Fly safe Commanders.
Here's the new list of blueprint requirements:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Ea9A3ZaXlTjgw_EgdQB4s2FSZvmOa6he-acdTY_XBQ4/edit#gid=293426439
So again, don't bother with Engineers until this rolls out (a month by the way it sounds)
Galactic Fork
A little fluff between the ears never did any harm...
Quiet the contrary where I'm concerned - even though I'll hardly participate out of lack of time! They'll have to let go of their baby and let the players do the walking, because all they can do, really, to inhale some life into the galaxy, is spin a limited narration around alien contacts, manually spawn some events, manipulate NPC conversations to give hints about it and some such.
Eve is not just jackasses preventing people from entering their stations. It's also players driving and creating content. E.g. imagine a guild "controlling" their station with a limited shipyard. Give that guild opportunity to upgrade the shipyard in order to build bigger ships or restock sold out ships by having them both, truck resources to the station, as well as buy resources from other players, potentially by having control of the station's prices for wares. And in order to prevent players from being unchecked jackasses, leave ingame jurisdiction to the game. E.g. if a player of the controlling faction of the station gains a bounty, the station will attack that player just as it would any other while still granting access to any player of an opposing faction, as long as they don't have a bounty.
What you would end up with, is a strong incentive for guilds to maintain and upgrade their stations, as well as a mechanic that promotes actually trucking wares around for a higher purpose.
That leaves a whole lot of issues to be decided. How would station control be gained and how would it be changed? But those are the issues Frontier has to tackle in order to turn Elite from a nice space game with a lifeless background sim into something that lives. They ought to give player the tools for emergent content, otherwise the most emergent things that'll happen are fuel rats saving explorers and jackasses seal clubbing n00bs in sidewinders or randomly kill any community goal supporters.
I'm also immensely happy that there is a mention of guilds coming. Thank to however caused that paradigm shift. People who cling to the notion that others shouldn't have the formal opportunity to form groups/guilds/clans in an online game, have imo no business making and selling an online game. Braben sometimes very much sounded like he was afraid to introduce such features out of fear of the implications. But that's like Nintendo clinging to friend codes. People having experienced better online features aren't exactly going to be impressed.
Now, how long until all of that is reality? Two years or three? Maybe four?
I'm all for player\faction owned stations. That's not what my issue is.
The problem I have is that there are very little consequences for being a jerk and harming others for the fun of it in either Eve or Elite. In addition, Eve offers the opportunity for large groups to band together to be jerks using in game functionality. So a lot of player driven stuff is for the purpose of harming others.
If a game had harsh in universe consequences for illegal actions, and in universe incentives for positive actions that'd be one thing, but that's not these games. Bounties that go away once your insured ship is destroyed and then you return as if nothing happened doesn't cut it.
Here's an example of how I'd like to see piracy done in a space game like elite. If you are a pirate, you'd lose all access to credits, and never be allowed in high and medium security systems. Permanent bounty in those systems. Low security stations won't let you dock. With no access to credits, there would need to be a physical analog (let's say gold for the moment though it'd be cooler if it was something else). Anarchy system stations would be set up to take the gold as an alternate currency. But since it's physical and takes up space, and destructible, you'd need to find a planet to hide it when you aren't carrying it and hope nobody follows you when you go to your stash. Once you go illegal, it becomes more player driven. No ingame insurance, you're out your whole cost for the ship unless group of players have banded together to set up a insurance system. There would also need to be players that walk the line between the legal and illegal infrastructures.
FD themselves have admitted their crime and punishment mechanics aren't very good. I believe the player vs player version of that is on the list of things to overhaul/implement.
Caesar III
Member
So wait, this point release in a month? But there are 2.2, 2.3 and 2.4 coming as well. When do they want to do them then? Sounds like this season lasts until March next year
Yeah I don't think there's any way they complete this season this year. Think GamesCom will reveal that much.
The issue I have here is that the logical conclusion to people being jerks apparently has been that nobody can have nice things. As you say yourself: there is very little consequence for beim jerks towards others in Elite (although security response has apparently been ramped up significantly in 2.1). But I don't like the idea of the fear of people abusing a feature paralyzing efforts to turn the game into something with actual multiplayer depth. And the way I see to deal with jerks, is to keep jurisdiction to the game and improve automated response. This will always be imperfect to some extend due to automatization, but it will also be impartial.
Another example of fearmongering paralyzing the discussion for improvements: System wide and galaxy wide inter intance chats. Bring it up and certain kinds of people start whining about MMO chats being spammed by gold sellers. Yes that might be the case, but the total absence of such chats makes it difficult to spontaneuously meet up with others in your system, makes it difficult to spontaneously organize reponse to griefers and makes the game feel empty. But apparently, some people think a block funcion for annoying people, report functions or the possiblity to personally minimize and ignore such a hypthetic chat aren't appropriate tools to counter the issues. No, they don't want any of it in their Elite, others that might very much profit be damned.
Camp Freddie
Member
From what I recall, there isn't really a tutorial.
For controls, all you get is a preflight check that makes you wiggle all the controls to make sure you know where they are (you will probably forget this immediately).
The "tutorial" is basically playing the demo missions to get a feel for flying the ship, combat, docking and starmap navigation.
I'm not sure if Horizons has added some planetary landing tutorials.
Otherwise, you're kinda left to figure it all out by yourself.
And that is essentially the point of the game. You can't really 'gimp' yourself by making a wrong decision, so you'll spend the first few hours working out the basics.
Galactic Fork
A little fluff between the ears never did any harm...
Which is why I said Ew about being like EVE. Because EVE is the epitome of making being a jerk have no consequences. If they were going to make a multiplayer thing player driven with consequences for being jerks, it wouldn't be like EVE.
Edit: ooh I found a cool system. An earthlike that is the moon of another planet. In the same system is an ammonia world that's also the moon of another planet.
Anyway, here are a couple of my favorite screenshots so far (playing on an Xbox One):
See that mountain at the top right? That's where I am in this next picture. Took me 2 hours to drive there. Luckily I had the materials to refuel my cart.
This moon had a bunch of cool ravines. Very red from space.
This is the moon of an earth like world near the core. I wish it was closer to the planet, but you can see it off in the distance there.
As a -10.0 player I'm not sure I agree with this. There's plenty of incentive to not be a "jerk," but I'm in the camp that believes that its equally other player's responsibility to prepare themselves for the jerks as it is the games job to dissuade those who would be jerks.
Certainly not a 1 to 1 comparison as EVE and Elite are mechanically about as far apart as you can get, but still, being a jerk or troll or pirate emphatically should be possible, and the responsibility for not falling victim to this behaviour should equally be the player's.
Galactic Fork
A little fluff between the ears never did any harm...
I never said it shouldn't be possible, just that it should have actual consequences. Being a pirate should be hard, very high risk\high rewards. But in Elite, your consequence for your ship being a destroyed while being a pirate is that you pay your insurance cost and then continue on your way. If your ship is destroyed while being a trader, same thing, but you also lose all the cargo you were carrying, which is sometimes more than the insurance cost. That essentially means there's a bigger punishment for being a trader than being a pirate.
I listed above what I think would be a cool piracy system, it'd create a whole underworld (undergalaxy?) of crime and (I think) be more interesting for people who want to be pirates for role play reasons and discourage people who get fun out of being jerks.
But I also think there should be higher rewards. Decrease the number of sharks that descend on your kills\cargo dumps so you can get more of the cargo. And have the chance for intact systems to be salvageable. How lucky would it be if a class 5 FSD survived for you to sell?
(what's a -10.0 player?)
A jerk, I can handle. Five jerks, I cannot. That's the difference between a jerk and a dick.
Honest PvP doesn't bother me. It's the people that gang up just to kill you and leave you zero chance of fighting back. I can't imagine a universe where this is considered "fun" for the person being repeatedly ganked. All it does is push players to Solo mode.
Honest PvP doesn't bother me. It's the people that gang up just to kill you and leave you zero chance of fighting back. I can't imagine a universe where this is considered "fun" for the person being repeatedly ganked. All it does is push players to Solo mode.
Finally made it to Sagittarius A last night and got the achievement. Noobcraft, pick up those socks dude. I had to plot 90-60Ly routes when I got within 1000Ly of if. Otherwise the plotting would not finish. I tried all the stuff that was posted here, none of it worked. Closing within 4k Ly I was plotting ~500Ly routes, then 200, finally settling on 90. It was a slog. But saw some pretty amazing systems on the way there. Worth it. The black hole was very strange. I had decelerated as soon as I jumped in. Scanned the black hole and then turned around to leave. As I accelerated away it looked as if I was being pulled in. Didn't even have time to take a pic. lol This is the only "proof" I have of going there:
Might take a small break from the game before heading back to the bubble.
I had to plot 90-60Ly routes when I got within 1000Ly of if. Otherwise the plotting would not finish. I tried all the stuff that was posted here, none of it worked. Closing within 4k Ly I was plotting ~500Ly routes, then 200, finally settling on 90. It was a slog. But saw some pretty amazing systems on the way there. Worth it. The black hole was very strange. I had decelerated as soon as I jumped in. Scanned the black hole and then turned around to leave. As I accelerated away it looked as if I was being pulled in. Didn't even have time to take a pic. lol This is the only "proof" I have of going there:
Might take a small break from the game before heading back to the bubble.
Reckheim
Member
That's how i do it as well. Take a break for a month, catch up on the other games that came out and come right back to Elite.
Mengy
wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
Congrats, Ive been there twice myself! Im curious though, what do you mean by got the achievement? Elite doesnt have any in game achievements.
Or does it?
Reckheim
Member
Congrats, I’ve been there twice myself! I’m curious though, what do you mean by “got the achievement”? Elite doesn’t have any in game achievements.
Or does it?
Pretty sure on Xboxone it does.
edit: it does, see below link.
http://www.xboxachievements.com/game/elite-dangerous/achievements/
I keep saying I'll play something else and then end up playing more ED. lol My backlog is huge. I don't know why I even buy new games.
I'm playing on XB1 so there is achievements. I like that they are there. I don't think I would have made the trip to Sag A otherwise. I would have probably picked a random direction and gone outward. Which I may do if I don't bump my explore ranking to elite when I get back to the bubble.Congrats, Ive been there twice myself! Im curious though, what do you mean by got the achievement? Elite doesnt have any in game achievements.
Or does it?
Downloading an update on XB1 now. Patch notes here if anyone is interested.
Hope this means finding materials becomes a lot easier. I gave up on engineers because materials were too hard/random to find.
RadioactiveLobster
Member
You'll now know what materials a given planet has but you're still slave to the RNG on if they appear or not.
I don't think this patch upped the amount you get, think that's coming in 2.2
EDIT: Appears I am wrong (thankfully)
That's right. This is all you get:
You now get percentages. I was hoping for location markers on the planet model when you zoom in on the system map. Still a grind, but maybe a more informed grind.
Dreams-Visions
Member
So was this the materials update people said to wait on before playing more ED?
Am I clear for takeoff?
Am I clear for takeoff?
Anton Sugar
Member
Wondering the same.
This was the update, yes. Unfortunately there is still no storage and commodities are still required but drops should be better (and more of them), lower grade blueprints require far less mats and system map now shows what materials can be found on surfaces. It's the best Engineers is going to get until 2.2 we're assuming.
I'd say give it a shot. If it's still a mess, just gotta wait until next major release.
Dreams-Visions
Member
Sure. You will most likely need a surface scanner for the materials info in system map though.
Dreams-Visions
Member
thank you for the advanced notice. can I buy system cartography data and that be enough or no? not that I don't have ample space for a scanner; just want to be clear.
Probably not.
Patrick Young
Member
Umm, so here's a question that will make purists mad. I bought this for the sole purpose of playing a big Oculus Rift game. I should've known this would have impossible Battlefield-style flight controls. Is there some quick way I can make it control like Grand Theft Auto planes or a third person shooter?
My eyes are about to explode from trying to fix the controls in the Rift, so I'll have to Google this pitch and yaw shit tomorrow.
I tried setting thrust (? I dunno, there were two thrust buttons or something) to left stick forward and reverse on a controller, but I can't go from forward to back without letting go of the stick between actions in Hold mode.
My eyes are about to explode from trying to fix the controls in the Rift, so I'll have to Google this pitch and yaw shit tomorrow.
I tried setting thrust (? I dunno, there were two thrust buttons or something) to left stick forward and reverse on a controller, but I can't go from forward to back without letting go of the stick between actions in Hold mode.
You can set forward/backward thrust as a toggle. Either called toggle or button mode in that portion of the controls menu.
Missiles do a lot of damage to external modules. There are engineer torps that can kill a shield generator etc
As for state of the game I'd say hold off on Horizons. Check in when GamesCom is being held, we'll know more about the next big update (passengers, ship launched fighters.)
Thanks. The problem with missiles was that they were impractical to use if you're grinding for credits since you can't carry much of them and they were expensive to reload. I presume this is still the same?
Anton Sugar
Member
Awesome! Time to binge this weekend.
I just saw that Frontier had released the Season pass for half the price of the original price when I bought the expansion back in December (I already owned the original). Is there a way to be reimbursed for this change? E.g. I would have gladly waited a couple of months if it meant I could have saved 20 pounds. I already felt exploited that I had to pay 40GBP for the expansion when I already owned the original.
RadioactiveLobster
Member
Prices drop. Welcome to the real world.
Can't really speak to their price for someone grinding for credits but I imagine that aspect hasn't really changed. You might be able to synthesize ammo for them using Horizons materials.
Haha I gave up only 1200LY in. I need to upgrade my fuel scoop because it was driving me insane (took a few minutes to top off every few jumps). Picked up 1M worth of navigation data though and I'll probably attempt the trip again once I optimize my ship for it better.Finally made it to Sagittarius A last night and got the achievement. Noobcraft, pick up those socks dude.
Might take a small break from the game before heading back to the bubble.
This wasn't a price drop, but a season pass. If I had known they'd do a season pass instead of an expensive expansion on top of my original purchase, I'd waited a couple of months.
RadioactiveLobster
Member
It hasn't exactly been a secret how they were handling the Expansions
Season pass was.
RadioactiveLobster
Member
Since when?
Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're angry about but as far as I can recall the fact that each Expansion (or Season, if you will) would be purchased separately if you wanted all the content.
Hell, they had a "Lifetime Expansion Pass" during the Kickstarter so you'd get all expansions/seasons for not additional cost if you wanted. It's been known from the start that you'd have to pay for content in the coming years.
Dreams-Visions
Member
Alright, for fucks sake. Does anyone know where I might be able to find Specialized Legacy Firmware.
Mission boards = I've seen it once in about 15 hours of doing missions.
USS = Never.
Surface scan point things = I don't even know how to do those scans.
I'm going to lose my shit soon. Any systems or planets you've been near that you've happened upon it would be greatly appreciated. For something that is supposed to be "very common" and is needed for the most basic of drive tuning, I'm pretty frustrated.
Mission boards = I've seen it once in about 15 hours of doing missions.
USS = Never.
Surface scan point things = I don't even know how to do those scans.
I'm going to lose my shit soon. Any systems or planets you've been near that you've happened upon it would be greatly appreciated. For something that is supposed to be "very common" and is needed for the most basic of drive tuning, I'm pretty frustrated.
That was what I spent the most money on. I got a 6B fuel scoop. I'm usually done scooping after about 20 seconds. Good to know you got that much in nav data. Where you scanning every planet or was this with just a quick scan of the system?
Not done this myself but you get them from scanning Data Points at settlements. This video talks about settlements. The Data Point part of it is toward the end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjbOgK-c2Ss
They show up as uss near earthlike planets. Usually end up scanning a satelite or something like that.
My solution was always data points at low security single + bases. The more + it has, the larger the base size and pain in the ass it is to collect them all. There are some new USS too like High Encoded or something like that and some sort of combat aftermath USS.