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[Dreams-Visions]

Been in a few pvp scraps lately. Decided that my pve centric loadouts blow for pvp (SCB meta > pulse lasers) so I think I'll strip my conda and turn it into a trader then sell my FDL and buy a python.

3 x railgun, 2 x burst lasers and a shitfuckton of boosters, SCBs and heatsinks methinks.

Would do that on the FDL but power constraints and the fact that it melts if it even gets near an open flame suggests to me that the python would be the better choice. Plus then I get to use that sweet pirate paint job I put on it

Nah bruh, the FdL is still the best PvP ship in the game. Just gotta change your build up if you want to scrap.

4x fixed multicannons +C4 PA
4x fixed pulses + C4 Cannon
3x rail guns + 2x pulses

Any of them works really well, and the one you should pick of them just depends on if you're comfortable leading targets (multicannons) or just want to shoot right at the targets (pulses/rails).

I prefer the former because it allows me to have more pips in shields while fighting (where laser loadouts tend to need at least 3 pips in weapons). I just like being tankier and appreaciate the satisfaction of hearing the tink-tink-tink of the multicannons and bwop! of the PA. But it also drop shields slower than 4x pulses or a mix of rails and pulses would unless I'm money on every PA shot...so again, any of the 3 works well.

But yea as you said, the key is to realize that PvE builds do not work for PvP because the goal is different. In PvE the object is to kill the ship. In PvP, the object is to kill the shields before they can be boosted by banks and before your own shields go down. This is why having rails, huge PA's and being able to tank matter. It's also why you want as much fixed weaponry as is reasonable for you. When people are flying around with 20 chaff, it may be 5-7 minutes before you can lay a good hand on them if you're running lots of gimbaled or turreted weapons.

The drawback of these builds is that you have to work considerably harder when you want to go farm NPCs because of the increased effort needed to kill with fixed weapons compared to gimbaled and turrets. Especially ships smaller in stature than the Courier. But gimbaled/turret shit just doesn't work, so whatever you put on your FdL, just make sure it's fixed and make sure you can be effective with it. But don't sell the FdL unless you've committed to not doing any PvP, because you'd be selling the premiere PvP ship.

 

[Shifty76]

Nah bruh, the FdL is still the best PvP ship in the game. Just gotta change your build up if you want to scrap.

4x fixed multicannons +C4 PA
4x fixed pulses + C4 Cannon
3x rail guns + 2x pulses

Any of them works really well, and the one you should pick of them just depends on if you're comfortable leading targets (multicannons) or just want to shoot right at the targets (pulses/rails).

I prefer the former because it allows me to have more pips in shields while fighting (where laser loadouts tend to need at least 3 pips in weapons). I just like being tankier and appreaciate the satisfaction of hearing the tink-tink-tink of the multicannons and bwop! of the PA. But it also drop shields slower than 4x pulses or a mix of rails and pulses would unless I'm money on every PA shot...so again, any of the 3 works well.

But yea as you said, the key is to realize that PvE builds do not work for PvP because the goal is different. In PvE the object is to kill the ship. In PvP, the object is to kill the shields before they can be boosted by banks and before your own shields go down. This is why having rails, huge PA's and being able to tank matter. It's also why you want as much fixed weaponry as is reasonable for you. When people are flying around with 20 chaff, it may be 5-7 minutes before you can lay a good hand on them if you're running lots of gimbaled or turreted weapons.

The drawback of these builds is that you have to work considerably harder when you want to go farm NPCs because of the increased effort needed to kill with fixed weapons compared to gimbaled and turrets. Especially ships smaller in stature than the Courier. But gimbaled/turret shit just doesn't work, so whatever you put on your FdL, just make sure it's fixed and make sure you can be effective with it. But don't sell the FdL unless you've committed to not doing any PvP, because you'd be selling the premiere PvP ship.

Yeah, 4 x mc vs a python with stacked boosters and SCBs would be an exercise in futility I think.

Will give railguns a shot though. Always liked them but they've been pointless for pve.

 

[Forerunner]

A brown dwarf with a ridiculous ring system haha. It also had 6 planets that orbit it, and that whole system in turn orbits a larger star with its own planetary system. Exploring is great.



Had to take a photo of my tv and crop it. Can't share screenshots.

Stuff like this makes me want to explore, but I'm too busy getting da cash!

 

[wesleyshark]

Stuff like this makes me want to explore, but I'm too busy getting da cash!

I'll be bringing in some of da cash when I return home... If I survive lol. It's not lucrative, but it sure is relaxing. It's nice to be taking a destiny hiatus and just wandering around the Galaxy instead.

What are you focusing on? Trade? Combat? Smugglin?

 

[Shifty76]

I'll be bringing in some of da cash when I return home... If I survive lol. It's not lucrative

Exploration is how I was able to afford an anaconda. Don't be so quick to judge it

 

[Shifty76]

Grr double post

 

[DrBo42]

Does it earn good money (or RES are more efficient?)

Only real money you'll get from that are the weekly payouts from your power based on rating (how many merits you gained). Eventually you can get 50 mil a week but that's an absurd amount of grind. It's more for players that can afford to wait.

 

[Forerunner]

I'll be bringing in some of da cash when I return home... If I survive lol. It's not lucrative, but it sure is relaxing. It's nice to be taking a destiny hiatus and just wandering around the Galaxy instead.

What are you focusing on? Trade? Combat? Smugglin?

I tend just to do smuggling because the money is really good. I'll also focus on combat to break up the tedium of smuggling/trade.

 

[Burny]

This week's newsletter spawned (how could it be different? ) a discussion about what kind of missions are not implemented on the official forums and what missions could be implemented (there were good suggestions I might add). Michael Brookes responded to one of the post:



Wonder what that will be and when that will be.

 

[wesleyshark]

Exploration is how I was able to afford an anaconda. Don't be so quick to judge it

I'll refrain from judging! I'm stoked to see how much I make once I finish this trip.

 

[DrBo42]

This week's newsletter spawned (how could it be different? ) a discussion about what kind of missions are not implemented on the official forums and what missions could be implemented (there were good suggestions I might add). Michael Brookes responded to one of the post:



Wonder what that will be and when that will be.

Don't get your hopes up. They hyped the fuck out of powerplay and the new mission system and did nothing with them.

 

[Burny]

Don't get your hopes up. They hyped the fuck out of powerplay and the new mission system and did nothing with them.

I personally didn't follow Powerplay much, but I also didn't expect that anything they were to release as part of a free update, 4-5 month after the vanilla release, would replace the current placeholder mission system with something meaningful providing substantial designed content.

Persistent NPCs, mission chains, PV(P|E) (instanced) missions all would require substantial dev effort. Assuming they're planning to go in that direction, I don't expect to see anything substantial before the first paid addon.

 

[Zalusithix]

Also: 6th highest average play time per player on Steam. 64h average play time across all players (PC/Steam, XBone), close to 100h for VR headset players, Not bad!

Steam counts the launcher as being in game. I have hundreds of hours logged "in game" that was just the launcher sitting open between sessions. Kind of skews the metrics a bit.

 

[Sikamikanico]

Hoping someone here can offer some advice on this - now playing with 3 screens in 5760x1080 - but the fisheye on the two outer screens is horrific - any way I can mitigate this?

 

[Mengy]

This week's newsletter spawned (how could it be different? ) a discussion about what kind of missions are not implemented on the official forums and what missions could be implemented (there were good suggestions I might add). Michael Brookes responded to one of the post:



Wonder what that will be and when that will be.

I just want exploration missions in the worst way. Or anything that fleshes out exploration more, like distant abandoned stations, shipwrecks, more rare and valuable things to discovery out in space.


Anything.

 

[Anton Sugar]

Devs have been answering some questions apparently.

Can you go into more detail about how ranking progression works?

Combat ranking. As mentioned last week: 'Combat is based on the number of kills, but the points you get for each kill are based on the combat rank of the target relative to your combat rank so if you are harmless and kill an Elite ship you will get a large number of points were as if you are Deadly and kill a ship below Expert you will not get any.'

See the chart for a visual explanation of how rank progression works:

The number relates to the amount of points you get towards your combat ranking based on the ranking of the opponent you're up against.

Powerplay Merit decay: At the start of the new Powerplay cycle the merits you accrued in the previous week are halved. The merits are stored in a ‘bucket’ and after the fourth week they are removed entirely. See the chart below for a visual explanation:

Will CQC outposts and general areas be added into the general game world?
We intend to use the technology developed for CQC arenas to add interesting locations around the galaxy.

When will more ships be added?
We have three new ships coming in the CQC update (not including the CQC variants for CQC itself). More ships will be coming after then as well.

Since it looks like CQC will use P2P also, how are you going to detect cheaters that just give themselves a slight edge, say 33% more energy for shields?
As with the main game, tackling cheats is an ongoing process. We can use the mechanisms we already have for detecting client side hacks and will continue to develop more checks.

Are there items in game that the community hasn't found yet?
I don’t think so, however they have not unravelled the mysteries surrounding them all yet, and there will be evolutions coming in the CQC update and beyond.

Is increasing the risk reward balance of black market goods something you would like to see happen?
We're always looking at developing player roles in the game and this is something we have looked into for smuggling. There are no immediate plans to change this, but it will be re-evaluated as we get more levers in the game with which to balance player activities.

Are there any plans to revamp exploration in general?
Not a revamp as the core system is solid, however we do intend to provide more things for explorers to encounter.

Why do some NPCs spam the same message over and over, or loop through the same strings of text, time and time again?
There’s a known issue that will be fixed in the CQC update for certain situations spamming repeated messages. We'll also be expanding the variety of messages available to reduce repetition.

Do you have any changes you would like to see the economy take in the future? For example making it more supply and demand based rather a delayed update?
Yes there are some long term changes we'd like to make for the economy. One of my favourites is to be able to affect the production of specific goods in a targeted market. It's not planned anytime soon, but it’s on my wish list.

Is the networking being improved for the release of CQC?
Networking is a core aspect to the game’s technology so it is constantly being worked on. We have some fixes currently in the pipeline, too.

If you could take one screen capture of the Elite: Dangerous world and show it to someone that never has played the game before, where would it be, why the significance, and how would you explain it?
Answer from Michael Brookes - The galaxy map at full display or the view from one of the extragalactic clusters – the recreation of the galaxy is something very special.

Aside from the charts, looks like:

CQC will be integrated into the galaxy
THREE ships coming in CQC update, and that doesn't include CQC variants. Imperial Eagle, Condor (does this count as new?), and...Corvette?? Feds need some love.
No major revamp to exploration coming They say they are adding more stuff for explorers to encounter. This is a pretty big bummer, IMO.
NPC message spamming will be addressed

 

[Burny]

Steam counts the launcher as being in game. I have hundreds of hours logged "in game" that was just the launcher sitting open between sessions. Kind of skews the metrics a bit.

Never trust a statistic that you didn't make up yourself. Still, they're probably able to track the playtime within the game more accurately than Steam and still seem to be happy with the averaged hours.

Aside from the charts, looks like:

CQC will be integrated into the galaxy
THREE ships coming in CQC update, and that doesn't include CQC variants. Imperial Eagle, Condor (does this count as new?), and...Corvette?? Feds need some love.
No major revamp to exploration coming They say they are adding more stuff for explorers to encounter. This is a pretty big bummer, IMO.
NPC message spamming will be addressed

The ships have been confirmed to be the Imperial Eagle, the Dropship Mk2 and the Federal Gunship (which isn't necessarily the same as the corvette) in the last LaveRadio podcast. Even the available hardpoints have been talked about. The condor counts as a CQC ship and is otherwise only an NPC ship so far.

I don't know what they would change about the basics of exploration. You equip a ship and travel as far into one direction as possible, scanning newly discovered planets. Everything else would be additional mechanics on top of that. Alien encounters, human outpost, stranded ships, missions build around those things...

 

[Pomerlaw]

We'll talk about details as we approach their release, but things like chained missions are very much on the list.

- Michael

 

[Anton Sugar]

I don't know what they would change about the basics of exploration. You equip a ship and travel as far into one direction as possible, scanning newly discovered planets. Everything else would be additional mechanics on top of that. Alien encounters, human outpost, stranded ships, missions build around those things...

You're not wrong, but a stopgap between "point your ship at a planet and wait" and "walking on planets" would be nice, like this concept art:

http://41.media.tumblr.com/f5cacbd5ad8136b8d9d16046a4f23d4b/tumblr_nkwn32Szk21roeo08o5_r1_1280.jpg

I'd much rather spent more time in individual (viable) systems than endlessly jumping system to system, or at least it would be nice to have the option. I think it would be fun to make discoveries beyond "You are the first to discover BD1123-523".

Deep investigation of potential planets, scanning to find water under an icy surface, etc. would be great.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Chrome Vulture won the skin vote.

If I see you in a Chrome Vulture, I'm murdering you on sight in my decidedly NOT GOLD FdL. I'm fuckin salty.

 

[Anton Sugar]

Chrome Vulture won the skin vote.

If I see you in a Chrome Vulture, I'm murdering you on sight in my decidedly NOT GOLD FdL. I'm fuckin salty.

EDIT: Newsletter is out.

A sneak peak of the Federal Assault Ship...'s underbelly :-|

EDIT 2: Oh, so this is just the Dropship Mk 2?

 

[Dreams-Visions]

2 smalls and a medium underneath, eh?

I wonder what else it'll have.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Oh I just noticed: CQC coming on the same day as the XOne version drops!

 

[Anton Sugar]

So I think that, until the big X1 patch hits, I'm just gonna explore.

Problem is, I don't have much money. Which of you have explored in some of the base/cheaper ships? Should I just completely kit out a Sidewinder and go for it? I previously explored in my Asp.

EDIT: Oh, didn't realize the Diamondback Scout was so cheap. Would that do in a pinch?

 

[Shifty76]

So I think that, until the big X1 patch hits, I'm just gonna explore.

Problem is, I don't have much money. Which of you have explored in some of the base/cheaper ships? Should I just completely kit out a Sidewinder and go for it? I previously explored in my Asp.

Hauler works great.
DBS scout is ok too. I think I posted a build for it a page or 2 back

 

[Shifty76]

After a couple of hours faffing about with various railgun / fixed laser setups on my FDL last night I've concluded that I'm not good enough at power management on the fly so will sell my FDL and get a python instead. Python gives no fucks how many power hungry components you stuff in it.

That way I can have SCBs powered on at all times then switch to a second set once the first run out rather than using different priorities and stuffing it up then losing shields all together due to a miscalculation.

Railguns are fun though. Alpha dmg is pretty insane when you make a volley land.

 

[Pomerlaw]

Hauler works great.

+1
Don't underestimate that little fella. Did all my exploration with it.

 

[Bydobob]

Well that worked a treat, not. Sold my Eagle for a spangly new Viper, spent my last penny making her a fearsome fighting machine (but not forgetting fuel scoop) and then set off for a couple of missions about 15 light years away. Except I never got there.

I kid you not, max jump of 6.37 light years meant I had about 13 jumps to get to my destination, but what I didn't account for was that every sodding star was an unexplored brown or red dwarf, so no fuel scoopage and no civilisation for anywhere to refuel. It was horrible out there, and having to cut my life support and hear me gasping for breath with only a radioactive star for company was the stuff of horror films.

To be honest I should have paid more attention to the icon continually loading when I tried to plot my route. I thought it was bugged, but in hindsight it was probably still trying to work out whether I could get to my destination. Ah, you live and learn...

 

[Anton Sugar]

Thanks, guys. Never owned a Hauler OR a Scout...may just go with the Hauler to save time.

Well that worked a treat, not. Sold my Eagle for a spangly new Viper, spent my last penny making her a fearsome fighting machine (but not forgetting fuel scoop) and then set off for a couple of missions about 15 light years away. Except I never got there.

I kid you not, max jump of 6.37 light years meant I had about 13 jumps to get to my destination, but what I didn't account for was that every sodding star was an unexplored brown or red dwarf, so no fuel scoopage and no civilisation for anywhere to refuel. It was horrible out there, and having to cut my life support and hear me gasping for breath with only a radioactive star for company was the stuff of horror films.

To be honest I should have paid more attention to the icon continually loading when I tried to plot my route. I thought it was bugged, but in hindsight it was probably still trying to work out whether I could get to my destination. Ah, you live and learn...

Yeah, when I got my Viper, I found the difference between a 13 jump route and a 2 jump route may just be an FSD that can go 1ly farther.

 

[MasterOfPastures]

I was about to upgrade from a Clipper to a T9 with 450 tons of cargo (and a 13 ly laden jump range) when I re-built my Asp with a class 6 scoop and extra fuel tanks. Now I can jump 320 ly before refuiling, and I fill up my entire tank in less than a minute.

So why am I not out there exploring yet? I'm waiting for their Gamescom announcement. If it's 1st person gameplay with multi-crew ship possibility and the like, I'll hang around and play with my friends. If it's planetary landings... I'll be gone for a long while.

 

[DrBo42]

I was about to upgrade from a Clipper to a T9 with 450 tons of cargo (and a 13 ly laden jump range) when I re-built my Asp with a class 6 scoop and extra fuel tanks. Now I can jump 320 ly before refuiling, and I fill up my entire tank in less than a minute.

So why am I not out there exploring yet? I'm waiting for their Gamescom announcement. If it's 1st person gameplay with multi-crew ship possibility and the like, I'll hang around and play with my friends. If it's planetary landings... I'll be gone for a long while.

I love the idea of a multi crew with friends but they don't have any content to support it. They really need to get more activities and missions in the world, especially dynamic ones that don't require the bulletin board. It's kinda insane that we still don't have an equivalent of that distress call wing mock-up from development.

 

[Mengy]

So why am I not out there exploring yet? I'm waiting for their Gamescom announcement. If it's 1st person gameplay with multi-crew ship possibility and the like, I'll hang around and play with my friends. If it's planetary landings... I'll be gone for a long while.

Don't feel the need to wait, whatever they announce is going to be a LOONNNGGGGG way off, and won't be implemented anytime soon. Most likely it will be end of the year stuff, possibly even next year if it's a paid expansion.

 

[Jedi2016]

Don't feel the need to wait, whatever they announce is going to be a LOONNNGGGGG way off, and won't be implemented anytime soon. Most likely it will be end of the year stuff, possibly even next year if it's a paid expansion.

Yep. It makes me wonder why so many people seem to think that all of this stuff is coming in the next few weeks.. people have been thinking this kind of stuff since launch, that planetary landings would be in the 1.01 patch or something.

I got the impression from the way they talk about it that it's possibly years away still.. I don't think they've actually started work on any of it. So there's zero sense trying to "wait" for something. And these are major changes.. you'll know it's coming months in advance, this won't just be a footnote in next week's changelog. You could be on the other side of the galaxy and still make it back in plenty of time.

So stop waiting and stop hoping and just go.

 

[Mengy]

Yep. It makes me wonder why so many people seem to think that all of this stuff is coming in the next few weeks.. people have been thinking this kind of stuff since launch, that planetary landings would be in the 1.01 patch or something.
.

To be totally honest, I'm not really expecting much from the Gamescon announcement. So far the updates, while making some great minor changes over the months, have generally been focused on combat oriented stuff and tailored towards the "pew pew" crowd, which seems to be their overall focus. The kind of improvements I'd like to see them dedicating resources to just don't seem to be in their secret roadmap. While I do think the combat in Elite is fantastic and great fun, I also feel that it's the most fleshed out and complete aspect of the game and that it needs no more love from the devs, I'd rather see them elevate the other parts of the game similarly.

If we do see planetary landings and first person mode I'm half expecting them to turn the game into some Quake combat knockoff in the process...

 

[Shifty76]

Decided to run some trades again to get the A8 power plant for my conda. Left my pp power as the interdictions were driving me crazy. I'll rejoin once I get the A8

Turns out my old trade route is more profitable then ever.
Return trip nets me 680k profit too, so around 1.8m per 10 min loop (assuming no interdictions)

 

[arhra]

Love that cartoon. I've not jumped into danger, but I've seen a few binary systems that have a gap smaller than the diameter of the stars. I'm not even sure if physics would allow such a small gap without a crazy-fast orbital period.

There are stars out there that orbit close enough that their atmospheres merge together.

Sadly, the game doesn't properly simulate that kind of thing yet (or things like accretion disks around black holes/degenerate stars in binary systems, which would be truly awe-inspiring to find when exploring, so let's hope they can figure some way to handling them eventually).

Also: 6th highest average play time per player on Steam. 64h average play time across all players (PC/Steam, XBone), close to 100h for VR headset players, Not bad!

I was comparing my achievements against some people on my friends list the other day and saw that I've apparently put 72h into the Xbox version already. And I feel like I'm barely getting started (have a Hauler kitted out for light exploration, a cobra for trading, and a DB Scout for combat currently, looking to work on making enough to upgrade to a DB Explorer for a long-haul exploration trip once I have some free time that isn't consumed by watching SGDQ).

 

[webkatt]

I saw a stream of this and it looks amazing!

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Decided to run some trades again to get the A8 power plant for my conda. Left my pp power as the interdictions were driving me crazy. I'll rejoin once I get the A8

Turns out my old trade route is more profitable then ever.
Return trip nets me 680k profit too, so around 1.8m per 10 min loop (assuming no interdictions)

Just as good loop in case that one dies on you: LFT 37 --> Teaka. Can't remember the names of the hubs. But it's an Imperial Slaves --> Palladium run. ~8.4 mill/hour or so.

 

[wesleyshark]

Traded my Cobra in for a Scout. Omg I'm in love. This is a nimble ship.

 

[Shifty76]

Sigh...interdicted and killed by a player controlled anaconda. One of those ROA guys I think.

No comms or anything, just straight up murder just for the heck of it.

Back to mobius for me.

 

[Qasiel]

Sigh...interdicted and killed by a player controlled anaconda. One of those ROA guys I think.

No comms or anything, just straight up murder just for the heck of it.

Back to mobius for me.

I've been staying in Mobius more and more recently, only really going Open when my friend (who's not on Mobius yet) is online and I'm still showing him the ropes. I need to make more friends there as I'm sure I'm missing out on a lot of the community side of things, but I don't trust people on Open enough to do much there.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Sigh...interdicted and killed by a player controlled anaconda. One of those ROA guys I think.

No comms or anything, just straight up murder just for the heck of it.

Back to mobius for me.

fucking sucks.

 

[wesleyshark]

Hailing from Shapley 1, in the Fine Ring Nebula. It's beautiful here. Might not ever leave...

 

[wesleyshark]

Meanwhile, at HD 328584....


High Velocity Rotation

 

[HelloMeow]

Meanwhile, at HD 328584....


High Velocity Rotation

The surface of that star has to be moving at hundreds of C.

 

[wesleyshark]

The surface of that star has to be moving at hundreds of C.

This is the first star I've seen spinning this fast- for a few seconds I thought the game glitched or was catching up to lag or something haha. Really damn cool.

 

[Zalusithix]

It's also really damn impossible. At that rotational speed, the centrifugal forces would far exceed the gravitational force holding it together. That star wouldn't just be oblong instead of a sphere, but it'd be ripped apart and cease to exist. Or rather, it'd have ceased to exist long before it could rotate that fast to begin with. For all the commitment to accuracy in the galaxy size etc, there is a lack of sanity checks on many aspects of the generated content.

 

[owlbeak]

So what are the odds on planetary landings (or some form of planetary landings, even if just atmospheric flight) being announced this week?

 

[Shifty76]

So what are the odds on planetary landings (or some form of planetary landings, even if just atmospheric flight) being announced this week?

I would say zero. DB mentioned no new exploration stuff for a while

 

[wesleyshark]

So what are the odds on planetary landings (or some form of planetary landings, even if just atmospheric flight) being announced this week?

I would say zero. DB mentioned no new exploration stuff for a while

50/50 odds. Last year at Gamescom, they said that planetary landings were already in development, but they were at such an early stage that all you'd be able to see was a barren landscape and maybe one structure here and there, etc.

Whatever this announcement is, they said it's something they've been working on for a long time (duh) so I doubt that it'll be some small thing. If it's not PLs, it'll be something equally as revelatory.