Thirith on 13/8/2016 at 09:30
Thanks, I've accepted your friend request, Fafhrd.
I've also upgraded to an Adder, and while that Space Winnebago has about 15% visibility out the cockpit compared to the Sidewinder, it's still kinda cool, in a daddish way. All I want now is a pair of fuzzy dice.
Malf on 13/8/2016 at 11:58
I seem to remember the engine sound being quite cool in the Adder too. I always thought it was one of the better looking ships in the game.
Fafhrd, I'll add you as soon as I've finished moving data around. Finally got a new 1TB SSD! Moving my OS to my old 256GB one, and all documents to my two old spinning 1TB disks.
Fafhrd on 13/8/2016 at 20:37
Alas it seems that my R9 380 is unable to cope with Elite in VR. Weirdly it doesn't seem to be able to handle much at all in VR, which seems wrong as I've tested some stuff with a 290 at work and it's handled it fine.
Not sure I'm ready to drop another $200+ this weekend to get my PC more up to snuff.
Matthew on 15/8/2016 at 08:52
I have a question regarding the X52 Pro, to its users: did anyone upgrade to it from the 'classic' X52, and if so do you find a lot of difference when playing something like Elite?
Malf on 15/8/2016 at 09:03
Nah, I went straight for the Pro, and this is my first HOTAS so I don't know any better.
Wouldn't play the game without a HOTAS now mind you. I briefly tried a 360 pad back in beta, but found it too constraining.
I look at the (
http://www.thrustmaster.com/products/hotas-warthog) Warthog and think that would be nice, but I'm too used to twist-stick rudder controls now (my old MS Sidewider had twist-stick too, and I played Freespace 2 on that), and can't really justify the cost of pedals.
Of course, rebuilding my PC this weekend means I inevitably lost some game configs in the process, one of which was my control config for Elite. I've re-mapped flight controls, but have yet to land and re-map SRV driving controls.
Thirith on 15/8/2016 at 09:47
I bought a HOTAS X (pretty much a "My First HOTAS") for Elite Dangerous, more or less, and I haven't regretted it for one second. Some of this is because of playing in VR, so I need a controller that can cover most if not all of what I need to do in the game, but more than that, there's something so tangible about a HOTAS that is simply missing with other controls. Just pushing forward the throttle feels surprisingly different to pressing a key, button or trigger. The term "immersion" is a tricky, woolly one, but I would absolutely say that playing with a HOTAS adds to the immersion.
Malf, since you seem to be the local Elite expert: currently I'm mainly bounty hunting to make money for my first Cobra. Are there other activities you'd suggest I add to make more money? I'm not looking for something to replace the bounty hunting, more for something that could complement it, stuff I can do more or less at the same time. Also, I'm slowly feeling like less of a beginner, so I should be ready for coop before long. :D
Malf on 15/8/2016 at 10:19
Well, unfortunately, this is where you run in to one of Elite's main problems.
Since the AI update, bounty hunting is nowhere near as profitable as it used to be.
It's one of the most fun things to do in the game, but you really have to be good to make sure you're making more money than you're spending on re-buying your ship when it's destroyed for the unpteenth time.
Less of a problem at lower combat ranks, but enemy spawns are now governed by your rank, so every encounter is hard when you're at Dangerous or above.
Don't get me wrong, the increased challenge is nice, and it makes combat interesting and load-out fiddling a lot more fun now, but you simply don't make much money claiming bounties any more.
Nope, if you want to make money, you HAVE to trade over long distances, and this is one of the most boring activities in the game. In fact, I don't think it can even be considered game-play. You're basically staring at the jump screen for hours at a time between source and destination systems.
Before the AI update, while combat was decidedly less interesting, it was far more rewarding. To give you some idea, when I started playing again recently, I had my fully upgraded Federal Assault Ship with a re-buy cost of around 2.5M credits, but close to 80M in the bank thanks to bounties and combat zone rewards.
But now that enemies are significantly harder to kill for me (I'm ranked Deadly), I can't make as much money as I used to, so actually now have
less credits than when I came back thanks to losing ships while adjusting to the new difficulty. I'm sitting at around 55M at the moment (although part of that was thanks to the game bugging out and mysteriously not replacing my Military grade plating during one of my rebuys).
So yeah, if you want to make money, prepare for a whole lot of tedium.
Apparently (
https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/4t67kv/sothisceos_long_range_hauling_explained_and_myth/) this is currently the favoured way to make money in the game. I've been considering it, but then think of how boring it would be just for credits when I don't actually need those credits for much at the moment.
Of course, one way to make sure you survive in combat and therefore make money quicker is to wing up with people :p
Thirith on 15/8/2016 at 12:13
Ah, the Braben giveth (more challenging AI, more interesting combat) and the Braben taketh away (less of a monetary reward). Yeah, trading doesn't particularly appeal; I'm okay with taking on trading missions and doing some bounty hunting on the way there, but the spreadsheetery of making trading pay off isn't something I'm interested in.
Just imagine if they had people working on this that are great at providing a frame and context for the game mechanics there are - you don't need a fully-fledged campaign to give more shape to what the players are doing than what they've done so far. There's a great skeleton of a game there, but it could be so brilliant if they fleshed it out better. If they could add more of the personality that Privateer had, I'd never leave the game.
Anyway, let's definitely wing up before long. At the very least it'll be fun to take on bigger, badder enemies without having no chance to survive whatsoever, let alone win.
faetal on 15/8/2016 at 12:51
Trading can be quite relaxing once you get into the rhythm of it. If you have a second screen or a tablet, you can watch YouTube videos or just out some tunes on.
Also, if you have a multi-role ship, there are piracy encounters to be had on the way to keep things spicy. That said, I've yet to encounter the upgraded AI.
Malf on 15/8/2016 at 12:54
Yay :D
Of course, Wings support up to four people so others are welcome to join for some hi-jinx.
Hmmm, I may look at how persistent groups are tonight and look at setting up a TTLG one.
