Dr Wookie

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Posts posted by Dr Wookie


  1. I think that walking on stations is still a long way off. This creation seems more targeted towards mulitcrew and the vanity camera. The devs said that the new camera was like what they use when making their trailers, and I've seen a fair bit of interest in people filming stories using such a system. Also, it looks like some of the flashier suit designs will be cash purchases rather than in-game.

     

    There's another live stream tomorrow, then beta starts some time next week :)


  2. 52 minutes ago, Cordeos said:

    How long till a monster factory in Elite?

    I was thinking the same thing... that could be pretty incredible!

     

    One possible downer is that I didn't notice any body shape customisation. It might be coming later, though. I'm going to try and make myself in game, and that means giant and gangly!


  3. I just watched tonight's pre 2.3 beta livestream, and was very impressed. I'm sure there will be a glut of information to follow, but here are the briefest of highlights

     

    -- An incredibly detailed avatar creator, which starts from a single head shape, and uses a mountain of sliders (or presets) to make changes. There are undo and redo functions, and you can randomise little bits (e.g. just the eyes or just the nose) if you want to make tweaks without  dropping the general appearance

     

    -- A vastly improved camera system, with free camera movement inside the cockpit and outside the ship, controlling zoom, blur, focus etc.

     

    -- Can control ship, fire guns etc. in camera mode

     

    -- Dolphin is revealed (and really pretty)

     

    -- Megaships are revealed, not playable, but huge, possibly dockable, multifunctional.


  4. Heh,

    I just got an email saying that my signed ship chart was ready for delivery, a mere 4 years (and a month or so) after the Kickstarter campaign ended! I suppose that the ships came out pretty gradually, but even so! I'm going to try to copy the image they sent in my email, it looks pretty cool from what I can see

    w331_849017_shipchart.jpg

     

    Game wise, I am less than 2000 lightyears away from my starting system, with just over a week left to go on my 3 stop tour. I think I might give ED a rest when I get back, at least until the 2.3 beta starts.

     

    Dewar, have you tried wearing glasses or contacts with the rift? Those lenses are making your eyes focus on something really close as if it's far away, and if you have significantly different focal distances for your eyes, then you might have difficulties. I feel lucky because even though I have an astigmatism (eyes different shapes), and most 3d glasses, magic eye puzzles etc don't work, the rift works well for me unless I'm really tired. 


  5. I'm still loving Thumper, and seem to have got over the eel-in-face nope-factor. I've not played for a huge amount of time in total, because it gets a bit much after half an hour or so. I'm up to level 6  now, having beaten the level 5 guy perfectly; this a surprise because I found the Level 4 boss really challenging. I'm not sure what the new mechanic for level 6 is yet, but the checkpoints are getting really far apart now!  I can see that simply finishing the game is only the begining, since there's so much more finesse involved in fitting every blue beat :). I am also very tempted to try Play+, where you get one chance and a snazzy gold beetle.


  6. What are you using now? I upgraded from a 970, and am glad I did... for one thing, I've finally been able to play Arkham knight :p! One thing I can say is that I can read all text without any issue, so long as I have the Rift on properly; apparently this is quite a new thing, so I'm glad I got onboard VR now.


  7. Waay back in the alpha days I borrowed a DK1 from work just to see what it was like. I had a GTX 660 at the time, which REALLY could not handle a space station in VR! The frame rate plummeted, and I suddenly felt absolutely wretched. I definitely understand your caution! 

     

    I also have no intention of going back to flat ED; the sense of scale and immersion in VR is well worth the loss of detail to me. I think my black levels and jaggies are fine, but that might be because my eyes are old and rubbish, though I'm sure playing in VR Ultra on my new 1080 helps; I still don't get 90 FPS on planets or in stations though :eek:!

     

    Right now I'm about 10 days into a possibly 4 week mission, carrying 3 lots of explorer types to 3 different destinations; I've completed two of them, but the last one is around 7500 light years from Sol, on a different spiral arm. I'm about half way there in my Orca, and keep turning up completely undiscovered systems... it's a full blown exploration mission now :)! I've been playing for about an hour or so each night after coming back from work, and it's been incredibly relaxing. Having said that, I don't think I'll do such a long trip for a while!

     

     


  8. On 1/24/2017 at 8:41 PM, Dewar said:

    Well, all the talk of VR and friends playing again pulled me back in and, for the first time since right after launch, I've been having a ton of fun. I've been dabbling around in a bunch of different professions in my Imperial Courier and Keelback, saving up to eventually get a Clipper. I finally understand most of the new systems added to the game since 1.0, but there's still one thing I'm confused about, player run factions. My friend and I discovered the group we've been running missions for is actually a player run faction, but we don't understand what that actually means in game terms. Are we just wasting our time, or is there some advantage there? 

    If I recall correctly, player groups can petition Frontier for an in-game equivalent, but this is still NPC driven. For example, the newest power is based on a player group that won a series of contests, but the figure head (Yuri Grom), home world etc are controlled by Frontier. I think the  general idea is that player groups can take over out of the way systems they feel like home, and maybe expand. However. I think I remember people talking about commnunity goals made by frontier for specific player factions. 

     

    By the way, have you messed around much with the VR settings? There's an interesting effect due to HMD scaling being substantially better than raw supersampling, where both control the number of pixels used to create the image. Setting supersampling to 0.65 and HMD scaling to 2 can give a slightly sharper image AND higher framerate than leaving both at 1.0.

     

     If you're going to be messing around with settings, then I recommend the ED profiler, by Dr Kaii, one of the more prominent members of the community.  The link is here: http://www.drkaii.com/tools/edprofiler/

    In addition to being able to set up several profiles for messing around with, switching between VR and 2D etc, it also provides an easy way to change your HUD colours; there are many presets that were submitted by the community, and those labelled NO2O play nicely with the avatars in the station menus.


  9. Woohoo! The beta for 2.3 (The Commanders) has been confirmed for the week ending 26th Feb, i.e. in 4 weeks' time!  I had a feeling that it was going to happen around now. There will be streams showing how it works before then; the headline features are Multicrew and the Commander Creator. 

     

    multicrew-original.jpg


  10. On 1/20/2017 at 2:12 PM, YoThatLimp said:

    Does anyone know when Season 3 is coming out? 

     

    I've been hankering for some Elite but don't want to pick up Horizons yet if Season 3 is around the corner - cursory googling has led me down several paths hah. 

    The PS4 version is due for Q2 2017, after 2.3 is released, but before 2.4. I speculate that we might see what's coming in Season 3 around Gamescom, with the release of 3.0 near the end of the year; however, as with 2.0, Season 3 will likely be better value towards the end than at the beginning. 


  11. 12 hours ago, DocRandal said:

    A lot of the high paying missions are locked behind Horizons at this point as they require planetary landing capabilities (base assault missions, ancient ruin investigations).

     

    Wookie, do you know of any currently high-paying missions that don't require Horizons?

     

    As for A-rated Python, I took a break after getting my Python about C-rated. "Good enough" for trading but I wouldn't take it into ship to ship combat except to drop mines behind me as I run away.

     

    Easiest Engineer summary I can manage: When you get Horizons, you get contacted by the starter engineers which are auto-flagged in your galaxy map. Perform a task for them to gain access to their shop, then bring them materials to make modifications to your ship that give you a certain (randomized) improvement range with a rare chance of getting extra improvements. As you make more modifications, your reputation with the engineer goes up and eventually unlocks better modifications and access to other engineers that offer other ship modification types.

    I was going to suggest doing missions anyway,  choosing an area  to settle down in, building up rep to get the top tier stuff. Missions had a big overhaul in 1.6 / 2.1 (one of many, I hope). Salvage missions now have set locations; you can find the nearest celestial body by discovery scan or by scanning the local nav beacon (if any). There are some pretty high paying salvage missions with loads of nasty ships coming to get you, but "blockade runner" style ships can leave them all behind. A courier with enhanced 3A thrusters (immediately available from outfitting at the Farseer engineer base, if you get Horizons) can get hit over 600 m/s without further improvement.

     

    If you have the patience for long journeys, then tourist style passanger missions can pay big bucks with little risk. If the journey is more than 1000 light years, then the time limit is 3 weeks (maybe 4 weeks after the latest update); however, they don't need anything like that amount of in game time. In a recent run, I had an Orca with two separate passenger missions going a total of maybe 3000 ly in total. I was in no particular rush, and was scanning interesting systems along the way; I made about 10 million from the missions, and 2 million from my scans, great for working towards my pioneer elite. Earlier, I did at maybe 2500 ly round trip in my Asp, banking several million in a couple of hours.

     

    Since the NPC overhaul, the big ships seem more of a liability in combat unless you wing up with other players, or spend an absolute fortune on them. If you have Horizons then ship launched fighters will help divide the attention. I sold my Anaconda several months ago, since I was hardly using it, and that was before the update. The Python used to be my go to all-rounder ship, but that's now gone to my Asp because it has fairly decent defensive capabilities and can out run ships it can't out fight. I have a number of specialised ships in stead of a jack of all trades now,  a play style that greatly benefits from the new facilty for ship transfers. I have my luxury tour limo Orca, a blockade running courier, and a fighty vulture that I've been trying out (mostly to fullfil an engineer's requirements). I also have a bunch of ships just for messing around in.


  12. The combat rating of enemies is now more important than the ship they are in; dangerous + eagles are often more of a threat than a competent vulture. Nowadays I like to make my ships *fast*, so I can get the hell out of most situations. Engineers helps a lot.

     

    4 million credits does not sound like the insurance co-pay for a combat python, to be honest (unless you have alpha discount); it costs >200 million to combat spec a python, judging by Coriolis.io. In that case, going back to smaller ships sounds like a good idea if you really want to focus on combat; less co-pay for when you die, and they tend to be fast as well.

     


  13. On 1/12/2017 at 5:14 PM, Dewar said:

    I have a friend who's been playing a bunch of Elite Dangerous in VR, so I'm looking at the Oculus Rift again. I don't have much room in my computer room. so I wouldn't be able to play room-space type stuff, but it seems there's a ton of cockpit type experiences out there that would be pretty cool.

    There's plenty of good stuff that isn't room-scale, even with the Touch controllers (that I don't have yet).

     

    As might be expected, cockpit games translate really well, but I think third person games where you are the camera work surprisingly well too. 

     

    I am still absolutely loving Thumper, although there's a certain type of obstacle I really can't handle well in VR... horrible little eels coming straight at my face! I had to beat the boss of that level in 2D, where the eels were far less gross.


  14. 20 hours ago, Badfinger said:

    Help I reinstalled Elite yesterday.

     

    I'm asking for the sun and the moon and the stars here - Is there any place that has a list of all the things that were added for Horizons? I don't need in depth descriptions or annotated change logs or patch notes, I'm just looking for "Here is what you can do and exists in Horizons that you can't do in base" and then I can dig into that stuff on my own.

     

    A secondary question is, I got a python and reasonably outfitted it and at the time they made that AI change I could not even be in low danger RES sites without getting my ass absolutely HANDED to me. From cursory looks, it seems like people are saying "Get a combat ship to do combat". I am not sure I want to deal with the power juggling of a Vulture, but I have and can get the resources to field a smaller scale fighter for bounty hunting. I'm looking for a recommendation. Should I fit up a Viper again? Should I refit my Asp for combat instead of the now-dead long range smuggling? Should I get *something else*?

    Everything that is Horizons only huh?

    - Planetary landings / SRVs (i.e. buggies)/ Surface missions / Alien ruins and artefacts, some of which have become active in the last week or so, leading to a mission of discovery gained by going to any space station in the Meene system.

    - Engineers (for now)... there's nothing to stop Engineers being opened up for the base game later on by having space bases

    - Ship-launched fighters and npc combat pilots for hire

    - The Beluga Liner

    - The Cobra Mk IV (Horizons pre-order only)

    - Multi-crew to come in 2.3

    - Avatars to come in 2.3 (at least I think that's Horizons only)

    - Whatever comes in 2.4

    - Special equipment that is only available from certain engineers. E.g. he Class 2 and Class 3 enhanced thrusters are a fabulous addition that make small ships desirable again.

     

    I am by no means a combast expert, butI think a Python would be fine for combat, so long as you fitted it out correctly, rather than as a multi-purpose ship. Remember that we have module storage now, as well as module transfer from station to station (for a price). So it is entirely possible to have multiple load outs for one ship (rather than several ships). Module transfers (and ship transfers) take time and money, scaled on distance and value.

     

    By the way, anyone can sell off ships from a distance now, and if you go to a low security system, then you can find some sort of insterstellar contact that allows you to pay off fines in other systems, or collect bounties, for a consideration.

     


  15. On 1/5/2017 at 7:34 PM, prettyunsmart said:

    Does anyone have experience using a Vive in a really small space? My apartment is pretty tiny and the space in front of my PC is about 5' x 8' which I think is about as small as you can go. I have a slightly larger space in my living room, but I could probably only set it up there part of the time.

     

    My space issues have me wondering if a Rift might be better for me since room scale stuff might only be a novelty I can play with sometimes. Does anyone have advice for people with tiny living spaces?

    From what I've heard, having the special controllers  adds far more to the experience than roomscale.

     

    I have no first hand experience with a Vive, but apparently two front facing lighthouses work well. I have to say that the Rift is super easy to set up and use. I don't have the Touch though.

     

    Also, 5' x 8' very different from my idea of tiny :)! 


  16. I picked this up in the latest Steam sale, after getting a new pc to replace my dying one. I have a 1080 for VR Elite, so was pretty confident of brute forcing my way through the infamous performance issues. I have to say, it looks great, with benchmarks averaging 59 fps with everything on max :).

     

    I'm a couple of hours in, and it definitely feels like another Rocksteady Batman game, which is a good thing, if familiar. The batmobile has added the hands-down worst elements of play, but also some interesting new solutions to various problems.

     

    I didn't enjoy the very first bit at all, especially since I wasn't entirely clear on what the button prompt was asking... tapping? Pressing Once? Holding? As a result it was dragged out and probably even more grisly than intended. 


  17. 8 hours ago, xchen said:

    So I decided to revisit this for the audio commentary and I love the way it was incorporated. I've never played a game with audio commentary on but I'm not sure another developer could top how clever Campo Santo was putting this together. 

    Great to hear, I've been meaning to download this again for the commentary (new computer, new Steam install :p)


  18. WOW! First contact has been made!

    CMDR DP Sayre on XBox was the first report it, with XboX DVR recordings .

    Apparently Scott Manley has the best footage so far, in his youtube video. which I won't post in case people don't want to be spoiled. But people in a certain region of space (probably easy to guess if you've been following along) should keep alert!

     

    Also wow, I had to replace my PC, and got an Oculus Rift at the same time... absolutely stunning!


  19. On 12/28/2016 at 0:03 PM, clyde said:

     

    Don't forget to try out Lucky's Tale and Farlands at some point. I enjoyed them more than I thought I would. I assume they still come free with the Rift.

    Yep those are still freeand seem pretty cool from what I've seen of them... I'll explore them more later.

     

    I'm pretty bummed that my new pc is having issues playing external VR games. I'm fairly sure I know why though- both my monitor and CV1 need to be plugged into my GPU, otherwise my computer uses the integrated graphics  for some strange reason. My old pc doesn't have this problem. I have ordered a Displayport to HDMI covnerter which should do the trick, but until then I have to play Elite Dangerous and Thumper on my old pc. I am absolutely loving Thumper, but ED is a bit too much for my old 970, and makes me feel a bit queasy. For some reason Subnautica works fine on my new pc, and is cool, but triggers the fish in ocean phobia I forgot I had... I might have to refund it, or use it as aversion therapy :p.

     

    I really enjoyed the FOO show with Sean and Jake, particularly looking around the Firewatch tower, examining the objects, and having a near heart attack when Sean started waving an ax around right by my face :D. Is it really the only episode?

     

     


  20. I picked up my CV1 yesterday, and am very impressed so far, even on my old system (my newer one should arrive today). Darknet and Thumper are very cool , and Elite is mind-blowing! I also had some fun with various VR shorts, and am looking forward to watching the FOO show. 

     


  21. Having just ordered a beefy replacement pc, I now have a CV1 on the way :)! Not touch yet, that comes later, but I think I'll be happy with it as my Elite Dangerous hat for now :p. I've had my eye on Thumper too.

     

    ETA: I just bought Thumper and Subnautica in the Steam sale, and Darknet in the Oculus store sale... I remember really liking what I saw of Darknet on the Giant Bomb launch stream.

     

    I've had a bit of a go on Thumper in 2D, but stopped to save the rest. I'm already hyped by what I played though


  22. I'm not sure which is least likely, ED squeezing onto PSVR, or PC gamers getting full DualShock4 support :p! Both would be super cool though.

     

     Using the DS4 touchpad as extra buttons, as well as pinch and zoom in the Galactic map sounds cool, as does using the six-axis for headlook. 

     

    When Horizons first came out, the minimum spec for VR was a GTX 980 or equivalent. It's true that the planet genaration algorithm is improved and more efficient (allowing Horizons on Xbox One); also, PSVR targets 60 FPS rather than 90 FPS (I think). I think that the probability for PSVR is non-zero, but fairly small.

     

    From what I've read, it looks like the PS4 release will come after 2.3 (multicrew and player avatars), but before 2.4 (theme not yet revealed). David Braben said at the launch of 2.2  that many people are now working on Season 3 content, but that might not release for another year going on this year's pacing. It's not something I'm worried about, since speculation says that Season 3 includes walking around ships and stations, and that has to be interesting to be worthwhile (I'm looking at Star Citizen, No Man's Sky, X, Mass Effect here)

     


  23. Planet Coaster is out now, and has generally got a very positive reception. It's currently at the top of the Steam charts, with reviews ranked Very Positive for 2567 reviews; it was Overwhelmingly Positive at one point. 

     

    The main criticisms that I've seen levelled against the game are that its management aspects don't go far enough, and that it's not challenging enough. I am a complete noob to coaster games, and am having fun. Are there any old hands out there who have an idea what kind of depths these people talk about? I'm sure it's not in the nitty gritty details, as we can already manage stores etc. to a seemingly ludicrous degree. Maybe it's missing more strategic elements?


  24. I'm slowly getting braver in my experimenting... when I first started the career mode, I felt a bit like this:

    o-RESTORATION-570.jpg?4

     

    But I've even made it to the first star without wanting to burn everything to the ground and start again :D. I've also spent a good chunk of time watching yuotubers such as nerd3 for inspiration an tutorial stuff

     

    By the way, there have been several updates to the beta, including one that makes the play area 2.5 times larger.


  25. Good / bad news Doc, there are 7(?) laser colours available to buy right now!

     

    @brkl... way back in the day I was completely against microtransactions of all kinds for Elite. However, one pledge made during the kickstarter was that the game would never have a subscription.

     

    I now quite like cosmetic microtransactions because i) they do not upset the game balance at all, meaning that no player will be disadvantaged by passing on them, and the developers will not be tempted to mess with progress in order to boost sales; ii) they are persistent rather than consumable. I've spent maybe another $50 on paint jobs (and the asp body kit), but only if I think they look cool. I mostly play solo, so it's only to make me feel pretty :P.