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[flyinpiranha]

I get that but it seems like there would be pretty easy ways to balance it.

My biggest worry is with my play schedule I'd never be a part of such an alliance. Maybe, but doubtful with all other stuff. So what that does for me personally (and I totally realize this is selfish) is gate content that I'd probably never see. I wouldn't be able to build a station, I wouldn't be able to see the groundwork and that side of the spectrum. Much like how MMO's turned into X amount of players to do Y. If you didn't have X, you didn't see Y.

It's why I don't play many MMO's anymore and while this game is described as an 'MMO' it wasn't in the sense of a 'raiding' or 'guild' aspect, it was a lone person who could see and communicate with many others, not build a space station and control things.

I'm absolutely not against any of that stuff, BUT, my one caveat is they include a way for Solo players to see it or do it. That's the tricky part.

Still enjoying the game though, my idea is that I enjoy doing some trading right now, I start a new job on the 9th of March, so if I can grind to Tycoon I'll be sitting pretty for a while and just mess around in my spare time.

 

[Shifty76]

Posted these elsewhere, but these are some of my musings as to how to improve the depth of the gameplay without having to resort to going callofdudebro in space:

Player driven bulletin board missions
1. Joe Blow just got ganked by a griefer in Lave. He can post a bounty hunt mission on the bulletin board. First person to kill said griefer gets the credits.
2. Your ship is destroyed and you just lost a ton of unclaimed bounties / exploration data. Post a black box retrieval mission for a cash reward. Same as the current USS missions, but this time the wreckage surrounding the black box is from your old ship. Maybe the person who finds it could turn it in for the reward or keep it from themselves, and if so they could claim your exploration data / bounty tickets. Have it so they have no idea how much data the box contains, so if they choose to keep it maybe they end up with nothing.

Conflict zones
Really just a confusing mess right now. How about when a conflict zone starts off each faction has a set number of "tickets" (to borrow a term from BF)
Depending on the size of the conflict it could be thousands or only a few hundred. Once a ship of a faction is destroyed they lose a ticket. You could have support style missions at the nearby stations such as running medicines which could increase ticket count or sabotage missions that would reduce the enemy tickets. Once one faction loses a certain number of tickets then one of their capital ships warps in, and if that is destroyed control of that system switches to faction that was victorious.

That would open up opportunities both within the combat zone itself (killing ships) and outside the combat zone from running supplies to support your faction (or intercepting said supplies to prevent that support)

Exploration
Financial rewards really do need to be increased, I'm thinking at least 3-4 x what they are now. Getting your cmdr name on a system as first to discover is a nice touch, but how about taking it a step further? Earth type worlds suitable for habitation could work with those new community build a station goals. Maybe the station gets named after the person who discovered the system (limit 1 station per cmdr obviously)

More meaningful ranks
Right now I don't even know if I increased one of my combat/trade/explorer ranks unless I specifically look for it. What if higher combat rank would cause npc pirates to be less likely to interdict you because you were a higher combat rank than them? Higher trade rank could give a bonus to the price you pay or receive when trading. Exploration rank maybe gives you a discount on ships and components. Right now they're bragging rights and decals only. Heck, even new paintjobs and decals would be incentive to look forward to ranking up.

Planetary landings
They've already said that they hope to implement these, so might as well include them here. I hope they don't try to go too overboard though. Even just making it to a safe landing spot so you can send out an automated exploration bot that may or may not come back with <rare metals / alien artifacts / random new rare good> would be sufficient enough for me. If you want to make it more "exciting" you could have things like meteor showers or earthquakes / volcanoes erupting that could destroy or damage your ship if you don't get out in time. Plenty of things you could do there without having to resort to fps.

 

[Faith]

Anyone happen to remember if you can eject a heat sink in supercruise? Wondering for emergencies via refueling.

You can't, you have to drop out of SC. You can only use scanners in SC.

 

[GeoGonzo]

Newsletter and... The second 1.2 ship is the Vulture. Probably the new top dog fighting wise?

 

[Anton Sugar]

Looks like I was wrong about the Corvette being it! Fer-de-Lance and Vulture it is.

Vulture interior:

Info from ED forums:

Reading Mike Evans in one of the Python nerf threads, he mentioned that the Vulture (love the name!>) would be THE heavy fighter ship (very good at flying and fighting, pretty much bad at anything else).

The vulture is going to be the dedicated heavy fighter (literally it's not going to be very good at anything else but shooting and flying) where as the Python is supposed to be more of a gun ship/heavy weapons platform.

Suspected to be bottom left corner:

From the Wiki comments:

Compiled this info by reviewing all Mikes posts:

"Vulture"
As the bird name suggests it's probably a Core Dynamics ship, like the Eagle.
Mike Evans (FD Dev) mentioned that the Vulture would be THE heavy fighter ship (very good at flying and fighting, pretty much bad at anything else).
Specification confirmed by Mike Evans that has dribbled out via forum comments:-

2 x Large Weapon Hardpoints
4 x Util slots
Class 4 Power Plant
Class 5 FSD Drive
Class 3 Life Support
Class 5 Power Distributor
Class 4 Sensors
Class 3 Fuel Tank
2 x Class 1 slot (empty by default)
1 x Class 2 slot (empty by default)
1 x Class 4 (Class 3 Cargo Rack by default)
1 x Class 5 (Shield Generator by default)

In terms of speed, acceleration & manoeuvrability it will be similar to an Eagle, not as fast but more consistent across pip levels.

 

[flyinpiranha]

Two large seems limiting. One energy, one kinetic.

will buy anyway though. Not a fan of the combat ships in game right now.

 

[Felix Lighter]

Apparently the AI pilots will start using the green "lane" for entering and exiting the stations with the 1.2 patch.

 

[Anton Sugar]

Yeah, I wonder if that is a bit of a miscommunication. The dev said it will only have two large hardpoints, but is that "only" in terms of large hardpoints, or hardpoints in general?

 

[Mengy]

So with regard to system HIP 101110 and the New Yembo station construction introduced in 1.1, has anyone been to that system yet? Have any of you done the supply missions? I'd like to see it but I'm over 1000ly away exploring deep space. Maybe it's soon time to fly back and turn this data in...

 

[owlbeak]

Suspected to be bottom left corner:

That bottom center one with the "???" is the Adder. Can't believe forums couldn't figure that one out since it's already in the game XD.

Bottom left is best bet, though, I agree. Cockpit looks rad.

Edit: Oh, appears to be an old photo.

 

[Burny]

I don't understand Elite's ships. Has anybody an in-lore explanation?

I have a bit of a Background question about that Cockpit (and some other ships and cockpits in ED as well): Why are they so roomy?

The vulture is planned as a "heavy fighter", iirc.. The term fighter alone would imply optimization for fighting and little else. Certainly not luxury. I'd imagine such ships would be enginered with a smaller hull that has the least possible weight at which the ship can still provide the targetted capabilities. Is there an explanation why the ships - even the "smaller" "fighters" (including a Vulture in comparison to, say, a T9) are still that big and apparently roomy? You could almost go for a walk in that cockpit.

Then there is something that strikes me as odd when I look at the hinted two large hardpoints (compared to todays atmospheric figher planes): Wouldn't military engineers want to design any fighter vessel with the capability to carry an array of rockets by default? In that sense, Elite dogfights (that also goes for other space "sims") remind me more of WW2 fighter combat than anything else. Has equipping fighters with all kinds of rockets gotten out of fashion after our present?

 

[Ronnie]

Is the community goal for the HIP 101110 Starport still going or is it complete now? Any other goals around ?

 

[AJLma]

2 Large hard points seem fine if the ship is more maneuverable than a Cobra or Viper. Considering it's possible to take out an Anaconda with the 3 small of an Eagle.

 

[frontieruk]

Is the community goal for the HIP 101110 Starport still going or is it complete now? Any other goals around ?

So with regard to system HIP 101110 and the New Yembo station construction introduced in 1.1, has anyone been to that system yet? Have any of you done the supply missions? I'd like to see it but I'm over 1000ly away exploring deep space. Maybe it's soon time to fly back and turn this data in...

It finished a few days ago, I stumbled on it with about 2hrs left to go and I was calling it a night.

 

[Faith]

Class 5 shields, 2 large hardpoints, flying like a bigger Eagle.

Sounds awesome!

 

[Anton Sugar]

Is this a bug or what? I got a Federal Navy mission to go to Beta Hydri, which I just got a permit to, and it says I'll be contacted by a Federal communique.

I am now in Beta Hydri and have no idea what to do. When I go to stations here, I see the same mission as "Available but Unobtainable", because I already have the permit. Did I do something wrong?

"Meet Representative at Beta Hydri
Commander, I have received orders to offer you an invitation to Beta Hydri, where you will receive a communique from the sector ranking Naval officer. I advise that you make this a priority mission, Commander."

And the reward says a Beta Hydri permit, but it is red and says I already have it, so I can't accept it.

 

[Shifty76]

Is this a bug or what? I got a Federal Navy mission to go to Beta Hydri, which I just got a permit to, and it says I'll be contacted by a Federal communique.

I am now in Beta Hydri and have no idea what to do. When I go to stations here, I see the same mission as "Available but Unobtainable", because I already have the permit. Did I do something wrong?

"Meet Representative at Beta Hydri
Commander, I have received orders to offer you an invitation to Beta Hydri, where you will receive a communique from the sector ranking Naval officer. I advise that you make this a priority mission, Commander."

And the reward says a Beta Hydri permit, but it is red and says I already have it, so I can't accept it.

The permit is the reward. The wording on that is terrible. There is no additional mission.

 

[Anton Sugar]

The permit is the reward. The wording on that is terrible. There is no additional mission.

Even though it says "Available but Unobtainable"? It's the only mission that's been showing up for me from the Federation, so I'm worried it's bugged.

 

[Shifty76]

Even though it says "Available but Unobtainable"? It's the only mission that's been showing up for me from the Federation, so I'm worried it's bugged.

correct

 

[ElyrionX]

Ok, playing in Solo mode and my first mission has me retrieving some rebel transmission canisters from the Eravate system and deliver them to the Revolutionary Party in Chaumanda. Midway throug the mission, I bump into someone who asks me to deliver the item to Eravate instead and offers me a higher reward. What should I do?

Oh, and navigating and finding the damn canisters were way harder than I thought. I still don't understand how everything disappears from your HUD/radar the moment you overshoot your target and get out of FSD mode.

 

[GeoGonzo]

Ok, playing in Solo mode and my first mission has me retrieving some rebel transmission canisters from the Eravate system and deliver them to the Revolutionary Party in Chaumanda. Midway throug the mission, I bump into someone who asks me to deliver the item to Eravate instead and offers me a higher reward. What should I do?

Oh, and navigating and finding the damn canisters were way harder than I thought. I still don't understand how everything disappears from your HUD/radar the moment you overshoot your target and get out of FSD mode.

First of all, remember that carrying that cargo is illegal: don't get scanned by security. As for who to deliver the cargo, well, it doesn't matter much, there's no wrong choice here. I'd probably go with the original faction out of stubborness, my loyalty can't be bought with a handful of coins.

Spoiler

It would take like two or three, minimum.

 

[ElyrionX]

First of all, remember that carrying that cargo is illegal: don't get scanned by security. As for who to deliver the cargo, well, it doesn't matter much, there's no wrong choice here. I'd probably go with the original faction out of stubborness, my loyalty can't be bought with a handful of coins.

Spoiler

It would take like two or three, minimum.

How do I avoid being scanned? The only time I got scanned, it did not feel like I had any choice in the matter.

 

[Sarcasm]

What exactly is wings referring to? Squads?

 

[owlbeak]

How do I avoid being scanned? The only time I got scanned, it did not feel like I had any choice in the matter.

If you're near a station, you have to make sure you're inside the mail slot by the time the scan finishes. You line yourself up a few thousand KM out, and gun it for the slot. You can also try running silent, they won't detect you, so they won't scan you.

Out in the open with security ships you have a couple options when a scan gets initiated: gun it or dump your cargo. If you're in a fast ship, you can boost out of range before they can finish scanning you. If you're in a slow ship, you'll want to dump your cargo ASAP so you don't get fined, then just scoop it back up once the scan is over.

 

[Danj]

Is this a bug or what? I got a Federal Navy mission to go to Beta Hydri, which I just got a permit to, and it says I'll be contacted by a Federal communique.

I am now in Beta Hydri and have no idea what to do. When I go to stations here, I see the same mission as "Available but Unobtainable", because I already have the permit. Did I do something wrong?

"Meet Representative at Beta Hydri
Commander, I have received orders to offer you an invitation to Beta Hydri, where you will receive a communique from the sector ranking Naval officer. I advise that you make this a priority mission, Commander."

And the reward says a Beta Hydri permit, but it is red and says I already have it, so I can't accept it.

I disagree with others who say this is not a bug. Open a ticket for it at http://support.elitedangerous.com. The more people who report it the more likely it is to get looked at and fixed. It's annoying, it goes away after a while and you'll be able to get the next mission at that point, but it doesn't mean it isn't a bug.

 

[Jedi2016]

Depends on how you define "bug". That's more just something that was overlooked. The fix should be simple, just have the system check the player's account for the presence of the permit before offering those particular missions. Right now it seems to be running the check after.

 

[Mengy]

What exactly is wings referring to? Squads?

Wings are groups of 2-4 players, like how you can party up in WoW. You will be able to communicate with each other easier, fly together easier, supercruise or jump together, monitor each other's status and location, and complete missions / bounties / stuff together and share the rewards.

 

[Spat_triate]

I don't understand Elite's ships. Has anybody an in-lore explanation?

"Heavy" refers to the size of the weapons it can carry (Class 3). In order to power such large weapons, you'll obviously need: a large power plant, heavy hull to support the large weapon mounts, large thrusters to move the increased mass, etc, etc. It seems to be built around its weapons (like an A10).

It is supposedly also being optimized for very good maneuverability and decent speed. Think of it as a bigger version of the eagle, very capable in combat but lacking versatility.

http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Vulture

 

[ElyrionX]

If you're near a station, you have to make sure you're inside the mail slot by the time the scan finishes. You line yourself up a few thousand KM out, and gun it for the slot. You can also try running silent, they won't detect you, so they won't scan you.

Out in the open with security ships you have a couple options when a scan gets initiated: gun it or dump your cargo. If you're in a fast ship, you can boost out of range before they can finish scanning you. If you're in a slow ship, you'll want to dump your cargo ASAP so you don't get fined, then just scoop it back up once the scan is over.

Thanks for this. Very helpful indeed.

 

[ElyrionX]

So the game can't be paused, even in Solo mode? WTF?

 

[Veritigo_X]

So the game can't be paused, even in Solo mode? WTF?

Think of it like Dark Souls and just quit the game if you want to "pause".

 

[Jedi2016]

What are you doing that you need to pause? Anything outside of active combat, just stop your ship.

 

[Danj]

Lame, I went to Vesper-M4 based on the latest article in the Galnet news but there doesn't seem to be anything special happening at Planet Slough's station, I was expecting to see rare goods commodities or something. Or do you have to be in open mode to participate in those kinds of events?

 

[smashballTaz]

Seems like it was a player run private auction, I'm at the station now and there's nothing there; I guess we missed out. Ah well. Pretty cool though that someone did that and it was featured on Galnet.

 

[Felix Lighter]

It's for a charity event. They are auctioning off honey I believe as a rare commodity. http://www.twitch.tv/kateclick

 

[smashballTaz]

Ah thanks. I guess I should have googled the commander name.

 

[Reese-015]

Goddamn! Hanging out around resource extraction points and helping gun down wanted npc's is pretty fun and gets you credits at a good pace. Until now I've only been screwing around with scooping up stolen goods and doing some pretty basic errand style missions. Nice to see there's an easy way to get into almost constant and fun dogfighting.

 

[Jedi2016]

Swapped out some of my cargo space for a better fuel scoop. I make less per run, but it feels like it's going faster since I'm not stopping so long to refuel. Looks like I'm about ready to buy my Asp!

 

[DrBo42]

Ending my first "major" exploration journey tonight. Headed out from Sol to the Cepheus Dark Region, Blinking Nebula and Veil Nebula West and now on the way back to Sol. Saw some pretty cool stuff out there but man, exploration needs some love mechanics-wise.

 

[bj00rn_]

Goddamn! Hanging out around resource extraction points and helping gun down wanted npc's is pretty fun and gets you credits at a good pace. Until now I've only been screwing around with scooping up stolen goods and doing some pretty basic errand style missions. Nice to see there's an easy way to get into almost constant and fun dogfighting.

That's what I've been saying all the time. I recommend people to check it out. It's intensely fun.

 

[ElyrionX]

What's the best way to earn credits in the startin Sidewinder? I can't find many lucrative trading missions from the bulletin boards and I'm not sure if I should be doing combat or illegal missions right now. I'm not having much success doing trading runs as well with the most I ever made being about 2k from one run but the size of my cargo hold limits my profits severely. I have about 38k credits in the bank now.

 

[Danj]

What's the best way to earn credits in the startin Sidewinder? I can't find many lucrative trading missions from the bulletin boards and I'm not sure if I should be doing combat or illegal missions right now. I'm not having much success doing trading runs as well with the most I ever made being about 2k from one run but the size of my cargo hold limits my profits severely. I have about 38k credits in the bank now.

If you get to, I think it's about 53-56k, you can get a Hauler which will have a bigger cargo size, if trading is the way you want to go. If you're just in the default Sidewinder then combat may not be the way you want to go initially as it's kinda underpowered.

 

[RubberJohnny]

What's the best way to earn credits in the startin Sidewinder? I can't find many lucrative trading missions from the bulletin boards and I'm not sure if I should be doing combat or illegal missions right now. I'm not having much success doing trading runs as well with the most I ever made being about 2k from one run but the size of my cargo hold limits my profits severely. I have about 38k credits in the bank now.

I'd find a Resource Extraction Site or Nav Beacon and do some pirate hunting, you can usually get 10k per kill, and there are police patrols which'll be targeting the pirates too, preventing them from focusing their attention on you.

 

[ElyrionX]

If you get to, I think it's about 53-56k, you can get a Hauler which will have a bigger cargo size, if trading is the way you want to go. If you're just in the default Sidewinder then combat may not be the way you want to go initially as it's kinda underpowered.

I'm not sure if trading is the way I want to go. The profits seem to be fairly minuscule so far if you're not doing bulletin board missions.

I'd find a Resource Extraction Site or Nav Beacon and do some pirate hunting, you can usually get 10k per kill, and there are police patrols which'll be targeting the pirates too, preventing them from focusing their attention on you.

Are Resource Extraction Sites marked as such on the Navigation Panel?

 

[Felix Lighter]

I am absolutely awful at evading interdiction. I know it's supposed to be easy but accept when I was using keyboard and mouse for a short time, I cannot figure out to get the maneuverability I need to get the damn thing on screen.

 

[ElyrionX]

Ok, just did a bit of hanging around the Nav points, taking down Wanted ships. It has been far more lucrative than the Bulletin Board missions or trading. I made about 150k in an hour or so. Going to keep doing this for now and get the Viper and see how it goes from there.

EDIT: Looking at the stats of the ships, maybe I should just go straight for the Cobra and skip the Viper instead.

 

[Shifty76]

Ok, just did a bit of hanging around the Nav points, taking down Wanted ships. It has been far more lucrative than the Bulletin Board missions or trading. I made about 150k in an hour or so. Going to keep doing this for now and get the Viper and see how it goes from there.

EDIT: Looking at the stats of the ships, maybe I should just go straight for the Cobra and skip the Viper instead.

Depends what you're doing other than bounty hunting. Viper is better as a pure combat ship but cobra is more versatile if you want to do things other than combat while still being a capable combat ship.

@Felix: Just submit. Throttle to zero then go full power to thrusters and boost until you can FSD outta there. Submitting reduces the cooldown timer on your FSD.

 

[Mengy]

I am absolutely awful at evading interdiction. I know it's supposed to be easy but accept when I was using keyboard and mouse for a short time, I cannot figure out to get the maneuverability I need to get the damn thing on screen.

Me too, I've actually stopped trying because I end up damaging my own hull more often than not by failing it. Now I always submit to interdictions and just run as fast as I can. It saves me the cost of repairing my hull constantly. When I'm out in deep space though it isn't an issue as there isn't anyone to interdict me anyway.

 

[Jedi2016]

The only ship I actively try to evade interdictions on is my runner. It's an unarmed, unshielded Eagle that would get shot to hell if anyone actually opened fire on it. Luckily, the Eagle seems pretty good at evasion compared to some other ships.

In my Type-6, I go ahead and submit, 4 pips to shields, and boost out. My shields are more than strong enough to soak up whatever they throw at me during that time. Even the one time I screwed up and lost the interdiction (my FSD was spun up at the time, I think that's what caused it), my shield still held out even against the much longer cooldown time.

And on my shiny new Asp... well, this kitty has claws. Two NPCs in anarchy systems figured that out today when I was out exploring. Sure, I'll submit, save me the damage. And then I'll rip your shit apart before you know what's going on.

 

[bj00rn_]

For those of you playing with custom HUD colors, here's a pro tip for keeping your settings persistent even after updating the game. No more need to copy the settings back in after every update..

After 1.1. there is a file called "GraphicsConfigurationOverride.xml" in the C:\Users\yourusernamehere\AppData\Local\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\Options\Graphics folder

Mine looks like this (this is the complete content btw):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>

<GraphicsConfig>
<GUIColour>
<Default>
<LocalisationName>Standard</LocalisationName>
<MatrixRed> 0, 0.38, 0.74 </MatrixRed>
<MatrixGreen> 0.76, 0.16, 0 </MatrixGreen>
<MatrixBlue> 0, 1, 0 </MatrixBlue>
</Default>
</GUIColour>
</GraphicsConfig>


Editing/inserting this section ensures that the settings are persistent.