Support NeoGAF

[Anton Sugar]

Interesting bit of info from an FD dev on their forums:

Just to let you folk know: the plan for loot is for it to be a core system update (all seasons), so everyone will be able to use loot.

However, there will be a bunch of loot content that is season 2 (Horizons) only.

Hope this info helps.

So loot will be available to all players, regardless of whether or not they own Horizons.

 

[Mengy]

I just realized that I forgot to buy some paint jobs during the sale, which is over now. It just totally slipped my mind until now.

Eh, I can't see my own ship anyway from the cockpit, guess I'll just wait until they go on sale again someday.

 

[Reckheim]

I just realized that I forgot to buy some paint jobs during the sale, which is over now. It just totally slipped my mind until now.

Eh, I can't see my own ship anyway from the cockpit, guess I'll just wait until they go on sale again someday.

I always do this, get a new paint job and feel super disappointing when I am in the cockpit and cant see anything anyways.

I know i'll feel this way but I still buy them.

 

[Hylian7]

You're gonna love the new hazardous resource extraction sites.

I went to one briefly in the beta but it didn't seem like there was anything exciting there for non-miners. Did I not stick around long enough?

 

[Anton Sugar]

I went to one briefly in the beta but it didn't seem like there was anything exciting there for non-miners. Did I not stick around long enough?

Everyone I've talked to/videos I've watched indicate they get pretty insane. Zero security presence, lots of Pythons, Clippers, etc., almost all of them Wanted. Anacondas spawn there, too, unlike the other RES.

Came with Compromised Nav Beacons. No way to call System Security and tons of pirates. The pirates will fight each other, too, if they're from opposing factions.

EDIT: Not a whole lot in this week's newsletter, but we did get our first look at "skimmer" planetary defenses:

 

[Anton Sugar]

Bumping, new dev Q&A: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=180372

Questions from Xbox Players

Q: Paint jobs! Will we get them? When will we get them?
Paint job support is planned for Xbox One, but it won’t be in the initial release. They will hopefully be coming this calendar year.

==

Q: Will Elite Dangerous: Horizons release on the XBOX? Is there a general idea of when?
Yes we do plan on releasing Elite Dangerous: Horizons on the Xbox One. A release date isn’t available for it yet.

==

Q: if you buy the Lifetime Expansion pass on the PC will it cover you for console as well?
No, the lifetime Expansion pass is not currently available for Xbox One.

==

Q: Can I use my PC commander on the XBOX if I get the XBOX version?
No, PC /Mac and Xbox One commanders are separate.

==

Questions from PS4 owners:

Q: Is a Playstation version of Elite in development? Will it happen?
We are looking at additional release platforms, but there isn’t a timeframe for this yet.

==

Questions from PC players:

Q: Will we see co-operative missions and objectives in-game aimed at Wings?
Wing missions are being considered, although they’re not in the immediate roadmap. We have a number of more general improvements which apply to all players with regards to missions that we want to look at first, such as chained missions.

==

Q: Will Anaconda paint jobs be available from 1.4?
Anaconda paint jobs are coming soon. The first Anaconda paint job will be released after 1.4 with more following in later releases.

==

Q: There are few decals right now. Will we be seeing more any time soon? Will they be DLC, or in-game awards, or both?
We do want to do more with decals and will reveal more once things are finalised.

==

Q: Currently there are two station interiors. White/pink stations are rare. Will we see more variants in the game?
It’s something we’re looking at, but is low priority for now.

==

Q: NPC chatter. Could it be more varied? Could it be audio instead?
We added a load more chatter variants as part of the CQC Update and as new NPC circumstances are added (such as new scenarios, or triggers) then we add more chatter. We also want to look at chatter providing hints and clues to hidden or secretive events like treasure hunts. There are no immediate plans for text to speech.

==

Q: Early on we could make our ships go "cold" to the point of cockpit freezing. Will this ever come back? Will we see stealth along the lines of dry ice jets on the FDL?
You can still get the ice effect if you go cold, however we’ll look at tweaking this for a future release to make it more likely to occur.

==

Q: Can we have "last five jumps" shortlist in navigation please?
A history of jumps is something we want to add.

==

Q: Will we see "repair limpets" (the fuel rats would very much like these) - any chances?
There are no plans for repair drones at the moment, but they could be a fun addition.

==

Q: Any chance of getting player-generated missions? For example (from a player) - Automated "out of fuel" distress signal generates BB mission for refuelling. OOF player would get "your refuelling ship is 1,200 ly away" messages at each jump from player that accepts mission, as well as being able to communicate with them.
These aren’t currently planned. The distress beacon is something we have considered and might well be something we look at further down the line.

==

Q: Bounty hunting. The "Top 5 most wanted" player locations. Are these updated in solo/private & open or just open? Could they state station last seen?
Yes, these apply to players in all game modes. We’ll look to add the last station seen in a future release – assuming that the player was last seen at a station.

==

Q: Can we have the ability to store components in station storage? This would enable ship role changes without long parts hunting and would make a "sales tax" on internals viable. A nice to have would be a named loadout. i.e. "Trade" or "Combat".
This isn’t in the plan at the moment, we do want to make it easier to retrieve distant ships though, so multiple ship ownership is more practical.

==

Q: Will players alone or in groups ever be able to establish outposts?
Maybe, although it’s a long way out if it happens. Before this we need to change the background sim so that it is capable of creating new outposts or settlements.

==

Q: With the end of the "season 1" with 1.5, will that be "it" for content, ships, missions and so on for the core game?
No, while there will be a lot of content that is exclusive to the new season, some changes and additions (in particular those that are game wide) will be available for those who only play the base game.

==

Q: The DDF; There is actually only a few things from the DDF that completely MIA. Skirting any debate of the implementation of existing features as compared to the DDF, can you comment on what of the following MIA features are off the table, in a wish-list or coming SoonTM for the core game? Any news is good news!
The DDF topics provided a wealth of information and opinion for features we want to include in the game at some stage. Design always changes when you come to implementation for various reasons. NPC comms is still on the cards. Misjumps and mini-jumps are unlikely and not part of the current plan. Player alliances is something that is likely to evolve from the player minor factions. Player trading is an unknown at the moment. Ship transfers and passenger missions are in the current dev plan. The tier 2 NPCs is likely to change, but we need to see how other factors like NPC comms fit in and what we can take from there.

==

Q: Will the centre cockpit screen between the pilots knees ever do anything? Apart from streaming Netflix...
Yes it will...

tl;dr

• Paint jobs coming to X1 hopefully in this calendar year
• Horizons is comign to X1, no release date yet
• Lifetime Pass not available for X1 at the moment
• X1 and PC accounts are treated separately
• PS4 version (they actually said "additional release platforms"--I wonder if the WiiU has ever been considered, Gamepad would be great for this) is being considered but no timeframe
• Wing missions aren't on the immediate roadmap but they want to do it; "chained" missions will come first
• First Anaconda paint job will be released in 1.4, with more to follow
• More decals are coming
• Different station interiors are coming but are low priority
• Lots more NPC chatter added in 1.4; want to diversify chatter, use it to offer hints/clues about secret or hidden events
• They want to add a "Jump History" for easier back-tracking
• No plans for repair drones/limpets but they like the idea
• Player-created missions are not planned but they are still looking at adding a distress beacon
• Looking to add "Last Known Station Location" to top five bounties
• They don't have plans to store components/modules at stations but want to make it easier to retrieve ships across the galaxy
• Players may eventually be able to create outposts but it would be a "long way out" if it happens
• Lots of new content will come to owners of base game even after Horizons is out
• Things from the DDF (their big potential design doc, I think):
  • NPC comms still in the cards
  • Misjump and system minijumps are not planned currently
  • Player alliances will likely evolve from player groups
  • Player trading is an unknown at this point
  • Ship transfers and passenger missions are still planned

 

[Dreams-Visions]

I may never understand their aversion or slew-footedness as it pertains to paint jobs. Like, what the fuck? Have their developers never played Team Fortress 2? Dota2? League of Legends? Give people skins to buy and people will fucking buy them. With glee! If they had done skins and in-cockpit cosmetics right, the lifetime pass probably could have been half the price it is now.

It's like they are allergic to money. God bless them, but the lack of paint jobs to buy is them literally fucking themselves out of money. The easiest money they could make.

 

[Anton Sugar]

Pretty sure it's technical limitations. Everything they've said seems to indicate creating paintjobs is pretty difficult--probably more difficult than it should be.

I agree, though--it's an easy way to get revenue, especially if they open it up to the community.

 

[Hylian7]

I seriously doubt it's technical, given the other technical feats this game has achieved, and the fact that paint jobs are just a texture. At most else they have to store reflection/lighting data and that's about it.

That said, looking at all the other ships that have paint jobs, I'm amazed that the Anaconda, one of the most iconic ships of the Elite franchies, doesn't have any paint jobs yet.

 

[Anton Sugar]

I mean, it's what they said. Either they're lying or it's difficult!

 

[Wreav]

FD has a history of fucking themselves into technical corners with ED. Every time something that should be fairly simple is suggested, they come out with convoluted excuses about how it's actually way harder to do than should be expected.

 

[Anton Sugar]

FD has a history of fucking themselves into technical corners with ED. Every time something that should be fairly simple is suggested, they come out with convoluted excuses about how it's actually way harder to do than should be expected.

Yeah, this is what I'm thinking.

 

[TheTrain]

I'm still uncertain about Horizon and his tier. Beta or non beta?
Do you know if there will be something similar to the Gamma build as it was for E: D?

 

[Anton Sugar]

I'm still uncertain about Horizon and his tier. Beta or non beta?
Do you know if there will be something similar to the Gamma build as it was for E: D?

Not sure exactly what you're asking, sorry. There is a Horizons Beta you can purchase instead of just Horizons.

 

[Hylian7]

Getting close to being able to buy my FDL. Granted I can't get much use out of it until I outfit it, but being able to drop the big chunk for the ship itself will be great.

 

[Pomerlaw]

I always do this, get a new paint job and feel super disappointing when I am in the cockpit and cant see anything anyways.

I know i'll feel this way but I still buy them.

ALT-F4?

 

[Reckheim]

ALT-F4?

But that white python that no one will ever see

 

[Hylian7]

I have a feeling this is connected to my X52 and the lack of proper Windows 10 drivers, but I thought I would ask this here to see if anyone else has had it specifically.

I've mentioned before I've had the problem of where I unplug my X52, my mouse freaks out and if I left click it doesn't register and instead just beeps and the whole system stutters.

Well, this new thing has happened three times within the last week, all three while I was playing Elite.

Everything on my computer suddenly froze, got a blue screen with the error being "BAD_POOL_CALLER" I play tons of Dota, tons of Arma, never had this issue happen with those games, however I'm also not using my X52 during those games. I looked this up and it says it's most likely either a bad RAM issue or driver issue. Memtest was clean, so I'm guessing it's related to the lack of X52 driver. Any ideas?

 

[Danj]

I have a feeling this is connected to my X52 and the lack of proper Windows 10 drivers, but I thought I would ask this here to see if anyone else has had it specifically.

I've mentioned before I've had the problem of where I unplug my X52, my mouse freaks out and if I left click it doesn't register and instead just beeps and the whole system stutters.

Well, this new thing has happened three times within the last week, all three while I was playing Elite.

Everything on my computer suddenly froze, got a blue screen with the error being "BAD_POOL_CALLER" I play tons of Dota, tons of Arma, never had this issue happen with those games, however I'm also not using my X52 during those games. I looked this up and it says it's most likely either a bad RAM issue or driver issue. Memtest was clean, so I'm guessing it's related to the lack of X52 driver. Any ideas?

There's a thread about this on the Frontier forums which seems like it might be useful. Have you tried installing the Windows 8.1 driver? That might still work on Windows 10 and might solve your driver issue, possibly.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Getting close to being able to buy my FDL. Granted I can't get much use out of it until I outfit it, but being able to drop the big chunk for the ship itself will be great.

Excellent. Don't bother until you can afford at least the A-grade FSD, C power distributor and A shield, though. You can D everything else and be fine (with whatever power plant size you need to make that work). Spec it out in one of those online build tools so you know exactly how much you need to save + buyback and don't bother until you hit that financial goal. No exceptions or you'll have less fun than you are now, guaranteed.

 

[Shifty76]

Excellent. Don't bother until you can afford at least the A-grade FSD, C power distributor and A shield, though. You can D everything else and be fine (with whatever power plant size you need to make that work). Spec it out in one of those online build tools so you know exactly how much you need to save + buyback and don't bother until you hit that financial goal. No exceptions or you'll have less fun than you are now, guaranteed.

Also, be sure to buy it in Sirius space for 15% discount on the ship and fittings

 

[Dreams-Visions]

http://madcatz.kayako.com/Knowledge...aitek-hotas-beta-drivers-and-software-release

Windows 10 Beta drivers for you Saitek owners. gl!

Also, $60,000,000.00 in 2.5 hours.

based.

 

[Sothis Krieg]

Also, $60,000,000.00 in 2.5 hours.

based.

How ?!

 

[Hylian7]

There's a thread about this on the Frontier forums which seems like it might be useful. Have you tried installing the Windows 8.1 driver? That might still work on Windows 10 and might solve your driver issue, possibly.

http://madcatz.kayako.com/Knowledge...aitek-hotas-beta-drivers-and-software-release

Windows 10 Beta drivers for you Saitek owners. gl!

Also, $60,000,000.00 in 2.5 hours.

based.

kvk1 linked me these Win10 beta drivers last night. Tried installing them, no dice at first. Then I tried again, but did it with Driver Signature Enforcement Disabled and it worked. So if you're using the Win10 drivers with a Saitek stick, disable Driver Signature Enforcement when you install them.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

How ?!

a man must choose the right woman to support, then bounty hunt. I was at a RES site so good it was like they were taking numbers to wait in line to get the dick.

unfortunately i mistakenly killed a clean target, so on to the next site.

 

[Hylian7]

a man must choose the right woman to support, then bounty hunt. I was at a RES site so good it was like they were taking numbers to wait in line to get the dick.

unfortunately i mistakenly killed a clean target, so on to the next site.

When was the last time she fell out of #1 in the Powerplay rankings?

 

[Dreams-Visions]

When was the last time she fell out of #1 in the Powerplay rankings?

a couple of weeks ago. the better question is when did they last fall out of the top 3. probably not in the last 2 months.

also, i almost got bodied by a wing of 3 NPCs. it was just a Vulture and 2 adders, no prob rite? So I decided to go for the weak adders and come back for the Vulture. to my great surprise, all 3 had rail guns and PA's. like wtf. Conda shields were down in seconds. handled them, but like 40% hull left. stayed for another hour because I'm a man.

 

[Funky Functionality]

I've spent almost 4 months away from the game and am about to jump back in tonight. After reading all the newsletters that'd piled up in my inbox, it seems I'm in for quite a few new bells and whistles. But... but... nerfed RESs? No wanted Anacondas in RESs anymore? :'(

Time for another sight-seeing expedition, then.

In general, what are the biggest pro/con takeaways from the PP update, now that you guys have had quite a lot of time with it?

 

[Dreams-Visions]

nerfed RESs?

No, not nerfed.

No wanted Anacondas in RESs anymore? :'(

Yes, no Anacondas.

 

[Hylian7]

No, not nerfed.



Yes, no Anacondas.

It's a nerf depending on how you look at it, but all the Pythons, Clippers, and Dropships are about the same value so it doesn't matter too much. The only reason it might matter is because Anacondas are easiest to get in their blind spots with a faster ship like a Vulture, but you can still do this on those other ships fairly easily too.

 

[Hylian7]

I hadn't dealt with this much until recently, but I think the new bounty system could still use more work.

They made it where you can't pay off every bounty and instantly be innocent, and I think for crimes such as murder, that's fine, but for something like an assault seems kind of silly. An assault gets you wanted for 10 minutes and a small fine. I've been RES hunting sometimes and without thinking scanned and shot a clean Python, because seeing clean Pythons there is rare. I jumped out to another system, sat for 10 minutes with the camera on the transaction screen and browsed the web or something, then went back to RES hunting.

It does seem like they have increased awareness for what I call the "dumbass pilot" issue. I know there were times I was up close firing on a wanted Clipper in my Vulture, less than 5 meters from it, and then a ship I knew was clean flew right between us and took fire for a second. No assault charge, nothing

 

[Pomerlaw]

Procedural generation does create wonders.

 

[Hylian7]

PSA: If you have an X52 or X52 Pro, I highly recommend removing the detents in the throttle. What that means is basically when you push the throttle above something around 80 or below something around 20, there's a bit more resistance at that point and then it clicks past it. It kind of annoys me for Elite and any other games I used it for, but there's a very painless and simple procedure to remove that: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=115981

I did this and put it back together in about 5 minutes, no damage, you would have to deliberately try to damage anything. If you decide you want it back later, you can easily put the little piece back too.

 

[Rhomega Beta]

Finally fixed my crashing issues, and was able to save up for a Detailed Surface Scanner. After scanning a bunch of COL 285 Sector systems, including one with an Ocean World and Earth-Like World, my total sales were some 413,000 credits.

 

[Burny]

PSA: If you have an X52 or X52 Pro, I highly recommend removing the detents in the throttle. What that means is basically when you push the throttle above something around 80 or below something around 20, there's a bit more resistance at that point and then it clicks past it. It kind of annoys me for Elite and any other games I used it for, but there's a very painless and simple procedure to remove that: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=115981

I did this and put it back together in about 5 minutes, no damage, you would have to deliberately try to damage anything. If you decide you want it back later, you can easily put the little piece back too.

+1 for that. It's one of two fixes that people are suggesting for the X52 (Pro). The other has something to do with the stick, although I can't remember what it's supposed to do.

While I'm still using my X52 Pro, I might remove the detents, which have been bothering me as well. My replacement CH Products Pro Throttle has arrived though and I should probably start to adapt to that. I don't know how much point there is to it now, seing as I'll at least have to wait until October for the pedals, but the button layout is quiet a bit different from the X52, so it'll take a while to find the optimal configuration.

Only got to quickly test the CH Products Github configuration on of you suggested over the weekend. I didn't find the time to learn it appropriately, but I already know that I'll have to use the little stick on the throttle for lateral thrust rather than yawing, so some adaption will be necessary.

Edit: Also, while having tons of hat buttons is great - srsly the CH Fighterstick and Pro Throttle are full of them - I really don't like them much as means to trigger critical ship functions. I simply have issues hitting the correct direction 100% reliably. It's ok on the 4 way hats, but no chance on the 8 way ones to always hit the diagonales correctly. I can get used to the 4 way hats to activate the landing gear etc, but silent running and the likes have to be away from the hats for me. Possibly even on a keyboard key or combined with a switch button. That's one of my gripes with the X52 base switches as well. They're on the wrong part of the unit (imo) for a start (the stick), they go two ways meaning they potentially control two different functions (e.g. drop cargo and open cargo hatch) and are placed very close together forming a kind of bar on top of all that, so there's a chance to hit the wrong one when using them blindly.

Long story short, I'm going to spend more time on the configuration screen with the CH Products Stick and Pro Throttle. But all the hats will finally be great for targeting, where they're best used imo! Cycling through subsystems, wing members etc. is something I couldn't all fit conveniently on the X52 without the shift button.

 

[Hylian7]

+1 for that. It's one of two fixes that people are suggesting for the X52 (Pro). The other has something to do with the stick, although I can't remember what it's supposed to do.

While I'm still using my X52 Pro, I might remove the detents, which have been bothering me as well. My replacement CH Products Pro Throttle has arrived though and I should probably start to adapt to that. I don't know how much point there is to it now, seing as I'll at least have to wait until October for the pedals, but the button layout is quiet a bit different from the X52, so it'll take a while to find the optimal configuration.

Only got to quickly test the CH Products Github configuration on of you suggested over the weekend. I didn't find the time to learn it appropriately, but I already know that I'll have to use the little stick on the throttle for lateral thrust rather than yawing, so some adaption will be necessary.

Edit: Also, while having tons of hat buttons is great - srsly the CH Fighterstick and Pro Throttle are full of them - I really don't like them much as means to trigger critical ship functions. I simply have issues hitting the correct direction 100% reliably. It's ok on the 4 way hats, but no chance on the 8 way ones to always hit the diagonales correctly. I can get used to the 4 way hats to activate the landing gear etc, but silent running and the likes have to be away from the hats for me. Possibly even on a keyboard key or combined with a switch button. That's one of my gripes with the X52 base switches as well. They're on the wrong part of the unit (imo) for a start (the stick), they go two ways meaning they potentially control two different functions (e.g. drop cargo and open cargo hatch) and are placed very close together forming a kind of bar on top of all that, so there's a chance to hit the wrong one when using them blindly.

Long story short, I'm going to spend more time on the configuration screen with the CH Products Stick and Pro Throttle. But all the hats will finally be great for targeting, where they're best used imo! Cycling through subsystems, wing members etc. is something I couldn't all fit conveniently on the X52 without the shift button.

The main reason I removed the detents was because today they just straight up started acting weird. The throttle wouldn't say at 0 or 100 unless I was holding it, it would always bounce back to ~80/~20. If somehow ever wanted to put the detents back in, I'm sure just placing it right would fix that problem, but I don't see myself every putting it back. It's a 100% improvement and I don't see a reason people would actually want that.

I would go ahead and say remove the detents from the X52 Pro, absolutely worth it and takes 2-5 minutes. It's nice to have the throttle feel smooth like that all the way through, and of course if you don't want it to be loose, the resistance knob works perfectly. I'm impressed I've gotten a lot out the X52 so far, only real complaints are stuff like the detents and Windows 10 driver, both of which I've sort of fixed: removed the detents and installed the Win10 Beta driver.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

4 million bottles of beer on the wall, 4 million bottles of beerrrrrr

take one down and pass it around, 3,999,999 bottle of beer on the walll

 

[Wreav]

http://madcatz.kayako.com/Knowledge...aitek-hotas-beta-drivers-and-software-release

Windows 10 Beta drivers for you Saitek owners. gl!

Also, $60,000,000.00 in 2.5 hours.

based.

TY for posting this!

 

[Dreams-Visions]

4 hours in a RES with Arissa bounty bonus + Conda.

I think I used a total of just 4 SCB's. Got fined once for accidentally hitting a cop or something. Otherwise, no issues. In fact, I left only because I ran out of gas and wanted to go to the Hutton Orbital CG.

But yea...winning.

 

[Reckheim]

4 hours in a RES with Arissa bounty bonus + Conda.

I think I used a total of just 4 SCB's. Got fined once for accidentally hitting a cop or something. Otherwise, no issues. In fact, I left only because I ran out of gas and wanted to go to the Hutton Orbital CG.

But yea...winning.

oo man, if it wasn't for mgs 5, cant wait to get back and level up my rep for this.

 

[Jedi2016]

4 hours in a RES with Arissa bounty bonus + Conda.

I think I used a total of just 4 SCB's. Got fined once for accidentally hitting a cop or something. Otherwise, no issues. In fact, I left only because I ran out of gas and wanted to go to the Hutton Orbital CG.

But yea...winning.

Sweet Jesus... Yeah, I need to get some more bounty hunting going on.

 

[Anton Sugar]

Yeah, given that the X1 universe (as well as Powerplay) is desynced from PC, I'm just gonna go full Arissa and make money while I can.

 

[Hylian7]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60i16-6Jyg0

Compromised Nav Beacons, I didn't know those were a thing in 1.4. Like he said, not as great as Hazardous RES, but still a nice middle ground if your ship isn't up to a Hazardous RES.

 

[frontieruk]

Yeah, given that the X1 universe (as well as Powerplay) is desynced from PC, I'm just gonna go full Arissa and make money while I can.

Hmmmm I was thinking that

 

[Wreav]

Good news: the Saitek drivers fix the whole EVERY USB DEVICE IS FUCKED bug when unplugging the X52

Bad news: trying to remap any HOTAS binding still crashes the client.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Good news: the Saitek drivers fix the whole EVERY USB DEVICE IS FUCKED bug when unplugging the X52

Bad news: trying to remap any HOTAS binding still crashes the client.

 

[Hylian7]

Bought my FDL, I've done a bit of outfitting, but I still have some more to do. Here's what I have so far:

I'm undecided on what I want in the Huge Hardpoint. I tried this thing out vs a lower-tier RES spawn table (Eagles, Cobras, Sidewinders, etc) and it was a ton of fun, nice change of pace from the Vulture as it's less about manuvering and more about slight movements, basically saying "set phasers to annihilate".

The Power Plant was one of the first things I got, and it's nice to see that I still have tons of room to grow with it. The Vulture it was a different story since the Power Plant was it's biggest weakness. I know here though that Shield Boosters and Shield Cell Banks are on the shopping list for sure though.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Yep, keep on farming.

A FSD is the next priority and probably the highest of all. In fact, given your Credits, I'd suggest:

1.) Downgrade the powerplant. You have no need for an A-grade PowerPlant when most of your parts are still below optimal. Try a C or B class PowerPlant and upgrade the powerplant as needed to accommodate growing power needs.

2.) Upgrade FSD to A as soon as possible.

3.) Upgrade Scoop to A4. Makes traveling long distance much more reasonable.

4.) Sensors - Always D. Never more than D.

5.) Life support - D. always D.

6.) Replace Discovery Scanner with an Interdictor.

7.) Dump beam turrets. They're awful. Very little damage for the power draw and you have very limited power due to the low grade distributor.

8.) Upgrade distributor as high as you can afford ASAP.

9.) Get yourself 4x fixed/gimbaled pulse lasers. You really won't need anything else for a long time, offensively.

10.) For utility mounts, something like 2x A0 boosters, 2x chaff and 1x heat sink will do.

11.) Thrusters - Get D thrusters until you can afford A thrusters. Always do this. D thrusters are the lightest, offsetting the strength and weight of C's. Always go D --> A for thrusters.

 

[Anton Sugar]

ObsidianAnt released a video speculating on 1.5 ships and upcoming gameplay mechanics. He mentions this post from reddit:

FD teased that the bottom of the Assault Ship will be able to "do something interesting". Deployable Condor sounds possible, especially given that they are too small to be equipped with a jump drive.

A part of this is his speculation (he goes into this further with his recent salvaging video) that passengers (at least, AI/NPC passengers) are coming to the game soon. Hire an AI crew, deploy him in the Condor as an escort or to harass an enemy.

Same for Salvaging, where you can find occupied cryopods. In Elite lore, cryopods are used by folk too poor to afford their own ships for travel, so they hire people to carry them.

Some points from another reddit user:

-About the Cobra Mk.IV, it's being made available only to ED+Horizons owners of the game who bought ED before Horizons' release (or something along those lines), as a result I wouldn't deem it to be part of the base game and just an ''exclusive'' ship, so I wouldn't think it will be part of the 30 ship count and it will in fact be the 31st ship.
-The chances that the ships he listed are coming is pretty high, and if you notice, a lot of these ships are ships that you'd expect to have escort craft accompany, especially the passenger ships, so this would be an opportune moment to introduce NPC wingmen.
-And in addition, it's unlikely that the condor ejected from the cargo hold will be player controlled. I mean, you'd pretty much be hiding in someone's cargo hold for 90% of the time only to be popped out using the game's weakest and most fragile craft, which doesn't sound fun to me, or alternatively be swapping your anaconda and making it idle whilst you hop into a significantly weaker ship, so I think it's easy to assume that the condor (or sidewinder) from those bays will be NPC controlled, especially seeing how the IMP fighter might be introduced for the Cutter to deploy.
-Frontier said that 1.5 will also be ''preparing'' Elite: Dangerous for ''Horizons''. One of Horizons' features is of course the ability to store an SRV in your ship. What mechanic is also similar to this ? Yep, the ability to store a smaller ship in your ship, which supports the suggestions that 1.5 would introduce deployable small fighters.

 

[Hylian7]

Yep, keep on farming.

A FSD is the next priority and probably the highest of all. In fact, given your Credits, I'd suggest:

1.) Downgrade the powerplant. You have no need for an A-grade PowerPlant when most of your parts are still below optimal. Try a C or B class PowerPlant and upgrade the powerplant as needed to accommodate growing power needs.

2.) Upgrade FSD to A as soon as possible.

3.) Upgrade Scoop to A4. Makes traveling long distance much more reasonable.

4.) Sensors - Always D. Never more than D.

5.) Life support - D. always D.

6.) Replace Discovery Scanner with an Interdictor.

7.) Dump beam turrets. They're awful. Very little damage for the power draw and you have very limited power due to the low grade distributor.

8.) Upgrade distributor as high as you can afford ASAP.

9.) Get yourself 4x fixed/gimbaled pulse lasers. You really won't need anything else for a long time, offensively.

10.) For utility mounts, something like 2x A0 boosters, 2x chaff and 1x heat sink will do.

11.) Thrusters - Get D thrusters until you can afford A thrusters. Always do this. D thrusters are the lightest, offsetting the strength and weight of C's. Always go D --> A for thrusters.

Noted. I feel like fixed isn't an option on this thing though since it can't really turn on a dime, other than for stuff only available fixed like plasma accelerators. Speaking of which, any ideas for the large?