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Elite Dangerous: Horizons |OT| Just scratching the surface

M

meep!

Neo Member
So after being pretty dissapointed with NMS (the whole time playing it I kept thinking how much I missed Elite) I decided to return to this game after not playing it since around the game Powerplay came out. So I bought Horizons and returned here.

However I'm a little curious about some changes. Missions for example used to be pretty pointless to do, is that still the case and trucking commodities between systems and hunting bounties is all you do?

I also noticied they reworked the mission interface a bit and a bit different missions, for example the assassin missions now has a timeframe you can find your target. Do you actually have to wait half an hour to do your mission or anyway to trigger it faster?

Are there missions connecting the planetary Horizon content with the flight mission?
 
Reckheim

Reckheim

Member
Mengy said:
Yep, on PC the game will gradually scale upwards with respect to hardware, FDev has already admitted as much. Atmospheric landings and colonized planets will most likely take quite a bit more power than the game currently needs. They also seem to be doing a great job so far of slowly improving graphic details while simultaneously optimizing performance for better framerates. But the Xbox is going to languish over time, no doubt. FDev will have to lower graphic settings or quality in time to keep it running nicely.

My biggest fear is that the Xbox version holds back the PC version for parity's sake, I really hope that never happens.
Click to expand...

That's my biggest worry as well.
 
TDLink

TDLink

Member
TDLink said:
That sounds cool as a premise, but how is the gameplay?

Also, on steam both the base game and Horizons seem to be $29.99 each. On Horizons' page it also says it requires the base game. But I read in the OP here that is not required. So what exactly is the deal there?
Click to expand...

Reposting for a new page so it doesn't get lost.
 
D

Dubbedinenglish

Banned
TDLink said:
That sounds cool as a premise, but how is the gameplay?

Also, on steam both the base game and Horizons seem to be $29.99 each. On Horizons' page it also says it requires the base game. But I read in the OP here that is not required. So what exactly is the deal there?
Click to expand...

Gameplay is great. Mind you they do more to encourage the chase aspect of ship combat so yaw gets limited to help curb turreting. Also there is full 6-dof so in addition to the standard pitch, roll, yaw, there is strafe as well.

Combat wise there are plenty weapons each with drawbacks and good points. There are gimballs but can be defeated by chaff.
 
L

la_briola

Member
TDLink said:
Reposting for a new page so it doesn't get lost.
Click to expand...

BI0Wzno.jpg
Click to expand...

Not "up2date", but should still hold true?!

If I remember correctly: if you buy Horizons, you will get the base game as well.

edit: Ok, they changed that.

You will need to buy both, or get the Elite Dangerous: CMDR Deluxe Edition.
If you want to play Horizons, this seems to be the best buy, same price as buying both separately and you get some nice ship skins on the house.

last edit: if you buy on the frontier store, you can get steam keys as well.

Maybe I got it all wrong, who knows. ;-)
 
TDLink

TDLink

Member
Alright thanks for the replies everyone. Game sounds good but looks like I'm waiting on a steam sale since I need to buy both.
 
J

JoeMartin

Member
I don't think it's possible to top a dirty drive five vulture. Flies damn near like an eagle and has the armament to kill elite condas.
 
N

Not Spaceghost

Spaceghost
The community goal at arque is amazing thanks to whoever suggested that! Also it's pretty crazy how easy it is to get into top 75%, I got there with only 120k in bounty credits.

Lots of fun, lot's of money and really active. But one question, some times even though I'm there for the final few blows on a wanted ship I just won't get any credit at all, i'll get the credit towards my combat rank but I won't get any bounty. Is that because I didn't do enough damage to it? Or because I didn't tag the ship first?

I've been flying around my viper mk3 but it's a bit more clumsy than the old eagle i was flying in, is the cobra mk3 more zippy and maneuverable? I miss how fast the eagle used to roll but I don't miss how weak it was and how easily it exploded.
 
S

Serrato

Member
So the Beluga is confirmed and mayyyyyyybe the Dolphin somewhere down the line for 2.2? I guess the Panther Clipper is for 2.3.
 
StonedRider

StonedRider

Member
Not Spaceghost said:
The community goal at arque is amazing thanks to whoever suggested that! Also it's pretty crazy how easy it is to get into top 75%, I got there with only 120k in bounty credits.

Lots of fun, lot's of money and really active. But one question, some times even though I'm there for the final few blows on a wanted ship I just won't get any credit at all, i'll get the credit towards my combat rank but I won't get any bounty. Is that because I didn't do enough damage to it? Or because I didn't tag the ship first?
Click to expand...

That's strange, you say combat rank increases, it means your kill is registered. You should receive bounty. Do you play solo or open? Maybe someone steal your kills (but in this case your combat rank should not increase)?

wesleyshark said:
Finally got into the top 10% for the community goal pirate killing. This is going to be a huge payout.
Click to expand...

Let's hope this CG reach tier 10! It is almost 8 now. Last two bounty hunting CG reached tier 8, but this one is raising faster with more days to go.
 
W

wesleyshark

Banned
Not Spaceghost said:
The community goal at arque is amazing thanks to whoever suggested that! Also it's pretty crazy how easy it is to get into top 75%, I got there with only 120k in bounty credits.

Lots of fun, lot's of money and really active. But one question, some times even though I'm there for the final few blows on a wanted ship I just won't get any credit at all, i'll get the credit towards my combat rank but I won't get any bounty. Is that because I didn't do enough damage to it? Or because I didn't tag the ship first?

I've been flying around my viper mk3 but it's a bit more clumsy than the old eagle i was flying in, is the cobra mk3 more zippy and maneuverable? I miss how fast the eagle used to roll but I don't miss how weak it was and how easily it exploded.
Click to expand...
It seems to me that when you target someone, your shots don't register unless the targeting reticle is solidly red. If the ship blows up and the targeting reticle is still an orange shade, then you won't get the bounty credit. Happened a couple times to me. And sometimes it looks like you're hitting them but if it doesn't register, then you'll miss the cash when they blowup. This usually happens when you're just starting to shoot at a target that is about to die from NPC or other player fire. At least, that's the best I can guess after it's happened to me a few times.
 
W

wesleyshark

Banned
Ships I've tried so far (in order; bold are still owned):

Sidewinder
Cobra MKIII
Diamondback Explorer
Asp Explorer
Imperial Courier
Fer-de-Lance
Python

My AspE is my all around favorite, for hauling and exploring. Love that ship. I really enjoyed the Fer-de-Lance but it's lack of internals led me to take a look at a Python. Currently zipping around with that... It's really cool how they manage to make you feel like you're actually piloting a larger vessel and it just looks amazing. The design of the ship inside and out is remarkable.

Not sure what to try next but the AspE, Courier and Python are going to stay for sure. One of my friends got a Vulture and has been singing its praises so I might get one of those.

Any recommendations? What are your favorite ships/mainstays?
 
D

DrBo42

Member
wesleyshark said:
Ships I've tried so far (in order; bold are still owned):

Sidewinder
Cobra MKIII
Diamondback Explorer
Asp Explorer
Imperial Courier
Fer-de-Lance
Python

My AspE is my all around favorite, for hauling and exploring. Love that ship. I really enjoyed the Fer-de-Lance but it's lack of internals led me to take a look at a Python. Currently zipping around with that... It's really cool how they manage to make you feel like you're actually piloting a larger vessel and it just looks amazing. The design of the ship inside and out is remarkable.

Not sure what to try next but the AspE, Courier and Python are going to stay for sure. One of my friends got a Vulture and has been singing its praises so I might get one of those.

Any recommendations? What are your favorite ships/mainstays?
Click to expand...

Tried practically everything. Viper III was my absolute favorite combat ship for hours upon hours. Boost speed, hardpoint placement, design...it's a fantastic early ship. Hated the Cobra. Python was another favorite/main ship for probably more than 100 hours. Asp is obviously nice for exploring but it's quite the good little smuggler. Got into an Anaconda and did everything from mining to trading to combat with it for another 100 hours. Messed around with the FDL for a while but really didn't like the offset pilot position. Now I sold everything for a fully fitted Corvette and Cutter. Corvette is probably my favorite ship in the game. Cutter is great for trading with something up to 700t of cargo space but it kinda blows at combat and controls just a little better than a Type 7. The momentum on that fat ass is insane.

At some point I really hope they create a new large exploration vessel I can fall in love with. Yes, you can get an Anaconda up to 65ly with Engineers now but I want a ship designed specifically for it.
 
StonedRider

StonedRider

Member
wesleyshark said:
Ships I've tried so far (in order; bold are still owned):

Sidewinder
Cobra MKIII
Diamondback Explorer
Asp Explorer
Imperial Courier
Fer-de-Lance
Python

My AspE is my all around favorite, for hauling and exploring. Love that ship. I really enjoyed the Fer-de-Lance but it's lack of internals led me to take a look at a Python. Currently zipping around with that... It's really cool how they manage to make you feel like you're actually piloting a larger vessel and it just looks amazing. The design of the ship inside and out is remarkable.

Not sure what to try next but the AspE, Courier and Python are going to stay for sure. One of my friends got a Vulture and has been singing its praises so I might get one of those.

Any recommendations? What are your favorite ships/mainstays?
Click to expand...

I made my first real money through trading and owned all haulers - Type-6, Type-7 and, finally, Type-9. Nothing to recommend here, they are not very fun to fly :)

My most used ship is, obviously, Asp Explorer as well. I use it as exploration or smuggling ship.
As for combat and bounty hunting - Vulture is a beast, your friend is absolutely right about it. After FdL Vulture becomes obsolete, but I left it just for fun
and because I've bought a bunch of skins for it
.

Never tried Imperial ships. Python is on my wish list. Anaconda is on my wish list too, but it is unrealistic now, I need much more credits.

Some time ago I've bought Cobra MKIV and kited it for mining praseodymium. Good all-purpose ship, it has many small internal slots.

In total, I have Asp Explorer, Vulture, Fer-de-Lance, Type-9 and Cobra MKIV in different systems across the bubble.

DrBo42 said:
At some point I really hope they create a new large exploration vessel I can fall in love with. Yes, you can get an Anaconda up to 65ly with Engineers now but I want a ship designed specifically for it.
Click to expand...

Wow, now we are talking!
 
J

JambiBum

Member
So that recent Star Citizen/NMS thread is a real shit show but there was one post in there that I wanted to bring up here. How do you guys feel about the way ED is being developed compared to SC?

What I mean by that is ED has the base game pretty much laid out and are adding features through seasons where as SC is doing more of a piece meal thing (Arena Commander/Sq42) before they even get to the main part of their game.

Some people aren't happy with the pace that FDev releases things but they at least seem to have a pretty good roadmap set up for the future. SC feels like one long giant hype train that just gives out crumbs to keep their backers happy. I don't want this post to be a comparison between the two games, but instead I want it to be about how each of them have been developed so far.

Obviously people would rather have both games released as complete games but due to the nature of how they were created through crowd funding that wasn't really possible. Basing things off of that fact, would you guys rather have the seasonal structure of ED or the way SC is going about things.
 
E

E-flux

Member
TDLink said:
That sounds cool as a premise, but how is the gameplay?

Also, on steam both the base game and Horizons seem to be $29.99 each. On Horizons' page it also says it requires the base game. But I read in the OP here that is not required. So what exactly is the deal there?
Click to expand...

Horizon adds planetary landings among other upcoming things like character customization and multi crew ships, so it's just a season pass. You can divide the gameplay into Combat, exploration, and trading which all have their own little sub categories from bounty hunting to participating in wars to smuggling of illegal goods. Exploration isn't that fleshed out but i personally enjoy it the most and i enjoy flying and driving around the planets in search of points of interests and collecting materials. I really like the feel of flying, especially with flight assist off it's just a joy to fly around places and driving with a little dune buggy is also fun.
If you can find yourself an goal to work towards Elite can be extremely fun, or if you have no idea of what you want to do it's just going to bore you to death since there's no overarching story and cutscenes to hold your interest, though like i said there is a story which moves forward in the news and community goals.

EDIT:

I was going to ask that is there some sort of a chart of benefits of dropping the heat signature down? My heat signature hovers around 16% without boosting and having my weapons offline but most of the time i still need to enable silent running if i want to dodge the shot without relying on the luck too much.
 
E

Effect

Member
I'm really close to just picking up another Cobra Mk III. I really do not like how the Asp Explorer feels. I keep trying to like it though. The cargo space and more weapons are great but I'm wondering if it might be better if I just stick with the the Cobra and upgrade parts via the Engineers to increase performance. Then build up money to see how a Python or the Fer-de-Lance feels. For all the disadvantages the Cobra has over the Asp I simply enjoyed the game more while piloting it. It and the Adder were my favorite ships once I got out of the Sidewinder. It also could be just the Lakon ships in general. I've never liked how any of them looked outside or inside. The Zorgon, Core Dynamics, and Faulcon DeLacy ships are the ones I've always liked.

JambiBum said:
So that recent Star Citizen/NMS thread is a real shit show but there was one post in there that I wanted to bring up here. How do you guys feel about the way ED is being developed compared to SC?
Click to expand...

I've felt for a long time that Frontier has developed things with an understanding of what they can do realistically given their size and with a desire to actually sell an actual product within a realistic time table. They went with a solid foundation first and then built upon it instead of trying to do everything all at once. I appreciate that above all things with them in regard to Elite Dangerous. It might mean they take longer to get to what some others are promising but I know when they get there it will work well. They've established a track record as far as I'm concern of delivering solid products even if they might be a few weeks to a few months late. They also ground expectations and are smart not to overhype something else they trigger disappointment. If anything I can say they're being realistic, mature and adult about how they handle things. I'm not always happy or thrilled about ED but I have respect for it and it's developers though. Those are words I can not and likely will not say in regard to the others at this point.

I like the tiered approach if that is the best way for them to handle things. We've seen what happens when you try to do everything and be all things at once. I'd rather see a game grow and expand over time then and work well. Then see the attempt at everything and have things struggle, etc. That doesn't mean there aren't bugs, things don't work out, etc but more often then not I'm satisfied.
 
D

DrBo42

Member
JambiBum said:
So that recent Star Citizen/NMS thread is a real shit show but there was one post in there that I wanted to bring up here. How do you guys feel about the way ED is being developed compared to SC?

What I mean by that is ED has the base game pretty much laid out and are adding features through seasons where as SC is doing more of a piece meal thing (Arena Commander/Sq42) before they even get to the main part of their game.

Some people aren't happy with the pace that FDev releases things but they at least seem to have a pretty good roadmap set up for the future. SC feels like one long giant hype train that just gives out crumbs to keep their backers happy. I don't want this post to be a comparison between the two games, but instead I want it to be about how each of them have been developed so far.

Obviously people would rather have both games released as complete games but due to the nature of how they were created through crowd funding that wasn't really possible. Basing things off of that fact, would you guys rather have the seasonal structure of ED or the way SC is going about things.
Click to expand...

The biggest problem with the way FD does things or their current situation is that since they don't have the money to just develop sections entirely like RIS does, they end up half baking a lot of the features they put in due to their strict timetable. Which could be rectified by a team rolling out cosmetics at more than a snail's pace possibly and using those funds to spend more time on their rollouts. Then the feature included suffers until they have time to circle back on it. That and a completely absurd fear of multiplayer-centric design like fleets/guilds, player ownership of systems and/or stations and a player economy.
 
S

soundscream

Member
zorbsie said:
I'm on Xbox too. GT is zorbs. Pretty much on every day. Unless a new game comes out. :) If we get enough folks we should check out arena mode. Always seems so empty when I try to play a match.
Click to expand...

I dont doubt it, I was looking at the hours played for people on my friends list and Zorbs......Zorbs.......what are you doing man.
 
Mengy

Mengy

wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
Effect said:
I really do not like how the Asp Explorer feels. I keep trying to like it though.
Click to expand...

The Asp is by far my favorite ship in the game, and I’ve spent over 90% of my well over 100+ hours of game time flying it. As an explorer I value jump range plus internal space, not to mention visibility out the cockpit, and the Asp has all of that in spades. The Anaconda is an excellent explorer too, but I hate how it flies like a slug, and that view out the window is just horrible IMHO. Lots of other ships can be capable explorers too, but in my experienced opinion the Asp is the best ship in the game for the job, and one of the most charismatic ships in Elite.

JambiBum said:
So that recent Star Citizen/NMS thread is a real shit show but there was one post in there that I wanted to bring up here. How do you guys feel about the way ED is being developed compared to SC.
Click to expand...

I’m a very vocal critic of FDev’s development decisions and roadmap, but honestly compared to SC I very much prefer FDev’s way of doing things. Elite is at least a playable and enjoyable game. Sure it may be rough around some edges and lacking content in others, but I CAN PLAY IT NOW, and while Elite is gradually but consistently getting better, Star Citizen is still mostly vaporware and unreleased.

FDev is doing a very good job. My biggest beef is their extreme focus on combat content so far over everything else, but at least it’s been great combat content, lol. And dear lord the sound and graphics design of Elite has been some of the best in the industry, and I really mean the BEST.
 
Reckheim

Reckheim

Member
Mengy said:
The Asp is by far my favorite ship in the game, and I’ve spent over 90% of my well over 100+ hours of game time flying it. As an explorer I value jump range plus internal space, not to mention visibility out the cockpit, and the Asp has all of that in spades. The Anaconda is an excellent explorer too, but I hate how it flies like a slug, and that view out the window is just horrible IMHO. Lots of other ships can be capable explorers too, but in my experienced opinion the Asp is the best ship in the game for the job, and one of the most charismatic ships in Elite.



I’m a very vocal critic of FDev’s development decisions and roadmap, but honestly compared to SC I very much prefer FDev’s way of doing things. Elite is at least a playable and enjoyable game. Sure it may be rough around some edges and lacking content in others, but I CAN PLAY IT NOW, and while Elite is gradually but consistently getting better, Star Citizen is still mostly vaporware and unreleased.

FDev is doing a very good job. My biggest beef is their extreme focus on combat content so far over everything else, but at least it’s been great combat content, lol. And dear lord the sound and graphics design of Elite has been some of the best in the industry, and I really mean the BEST.
Click to expand...

I agree, the biggest issue for me with the Conda is the view, I could deal with the sluggishness.

I hope in the future they release a dedicated huge size explorer with the view of an ASP and the jump range of a Conda. But based on their recent output (concentrating on anything other than exploration) I don't see this happening any time soon.
 
N

Not Spaceghost

Spaceghost
I really wish the viper mk3 had a better cockpit canopy, the ship is pretty damn fun to fly but you can't see above you like you could with the eagle.

Also what is the best way to fit this thing for bounty hunting? I am pretty poor so I only have low grade weapons but im running twin beam lasers and twin multi cannons.

I don't quite get the purpose of the kill warrant scanner since it only scans your current target I thought it would be like a discovery scanner for wanted targets.
 
Reckheim

Reckheim

Member
Not Spaceghost said:
I really wish the viper mk3 had a better cockpit canopy, the ship is pretty damn fun to fly but you can't see above you like you could with the eagle.

Also what is the best way to fit this thing for bounty hunting? I am pretty poor so I only have low grade weapons but im running twin beam lasers and twin multi cannons.

I don't quite get the purpose of the kill warrant scanner since it only scans your current target I thought it would be like a discovery scanner for wanted targets.
Click to expand...

It gives you better payouts. when you get a kill in a system you only get the bounty that the ship has in that particular system.

When you scan the ship with a scanner it also finds all the bounties the ship has in other systems.
 
D

Dubbedinenglish

Banned
Was out at the community bounty hunting event and finally saw an Imperial Cutter, what a gorgeous ship. The dude was using pack missiles took so it was regularly putting out awesome looking plumes while it fought.
 
S

Staab

Member
So.. uh.. Ima sound really noobish but...
How do I get to Arque ?
I can't plot a route to it with my drive it seems..
 
C

~Cross~

Member
DrBo42 said:
The biggest problem with the way FD does things or their current situation is that since they don't have the money to just develop sections entirely like RIS does, they end up half baking a lot of the features they put in due to their strict timetable. Which could be rectified by a team rolling out cosmetics at more than a snail's pace possibly and using those funds to spend more time on their rollouts. Then the feature included suffers until they have time to circle back on it. That and a completely absurd fear of multiplayer-centric design like fleets/guilds, player ownership of systems and/or stations and a player economy.
Click to expand...

They do have the money though? They are a proper company that releases their quarterly/yearly statements and they seem to be in pretty good shape. The problem is that they have more things in their pipeline than just Elite.
 
TDLink

TDLink

Member
E-flux said:
Horizon adds planetary landings among other upcoming things like character customization and multi crew ships, so it's just a season pass. You can divide the gameplay into Combat, exploration, and trading which all have their own little sub categories from bounty hunting to participating in wars to smuggling of illegal goods. Exploration isn't that fleshed out but i personally enjoy it the most and i enjoy flying and driving around the planets in search of points of interests and collecting materials. I really like the feel of flying, especially with flight assist off it's just a joy to fly around places and driving with a little dune buggy is also fun.
If you can find yourself an goal to work towards Elite can be extremely fun, or if you have no idea of what you want to do it's just going to bore you to death since there's no overarching story and cutscenes to hold your interest, though like i said there is a story which moves forward in the news and community goals.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info.

If I could ask, since you talk about the feel of flying being really great, how do you play? Joystick? Controller? KB/M?

I don't have any flight sticks so I'm also wondering how this game feels with either a standard controller for KB/M.
 
Reckheim

Reckheim

Member
TDLink said:
Thanks for the info.

If I could ask, since you talk about the feel of flying being really great, how do you play? Joystick? Controller? KB/M?

I don't have any flight sticks so I'm also wondering how this game feels with either a standard controller for KB/M.
Click to expand...

I play with KB/M and imo its great. Most people that play it with a controller also say it feels great (personally I couldnt do it, just not enough buttons)

So.. uh.. Ima sound really noobish but...
How do I get to Arque ?
I can't plot a route to it with my drive it seems..
Click to expand...

You need to go to outfitting in a station and buy a better FSD. At the bottom of your outfitting screen it'll show you if your jump range is increasing.
 
E

E-flux

Member
TDLink said:
Thanks for the info.

If I could ask, since you talk about the feel of flying being really great, how do you play? Joystick? Controller? KB/M?

I don't have any flight sticks so I'm also wondering how this game feels with either a standard controller for KB/M.
Click to expand...

I have a joystick and a throttle, rather expensive one at that and i haven't played with a keyboard and a mouse at all sadly, though since the game is also on xbox1 that the standard controller shouldn't be that bad of a way to control the game. If you want to look into some entry level joysticks i'm sure other people here can recommend some stuff, my knowledge on them is only skin deep.

I have been thinking of getting this one since i haven't been able to find any other leftie/ambidexterous joysticks and i have heard good things about it.
 
Reckheim

Reckheim

Member
E-flux said:
I have a joystick and a throttle, rather expensive one at that and i haven't played with a keyboard and a mouse at all sadly, though since the game is also on xbox1 that the standard controller shouldn't be that bad of a way to control the game. If you want to look into some entry level joysticks i'm sure other people here can recommend some stuff, my knowledge on them is only skin deep.

I have been thinking of getting this one since i haven't been able to find any other leftie/ambidexterous joysticks and i have heard good things about it.
Click to expand...

There is an official ED hotas coming out in September that i am waiting for.

Mapping-stationT16000MHotas.jpg


http://www.thrustmaster.com/en_US/%D0%9F%D1%80%D0%B5%D1%81%D1%81%D0%B0/thrustmaster-teams-frontier-s-elite-dangerous-new-gameplay-experiences-announced-new-t16000m-
 
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