Dr Wookie

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Posts posted by Dr Wookie

  1. Posted

    Holy crap, I have had a super scary experience! I'm almost a week into a cruise, taking two sets of famous explorers to different natural wonders in my Orca. Just before I got to the second destination I had a horrible realisation as to what the name of the tourist spot meant... I didn't pay much attention before. It's called Strong G, and the beacon is on the surface of a 9.77 g planet! It's a good thing the Orca has good straight line speed, because at one point I was going over 1800 miles per hour ass backwards towards the ground! EEp!

    It took a good while, and I fair chunk of hull, but I scanned my prize and set off for the final leg home.

     

    On the plus side, it may havebeen in the first O star system I've been in 

  2. Posted

    Hey, I just listened to the episode, and thought you'd like to know that Planet Coaster is out a week today, November 17 :D. The beta came out yesterday, and I'm kinda going through decision paralysis with all of the extra stuff they added. Luckily the career mode seems to be a gentle introduction.

     

    Kotaku repulished an article from UK print magazine Edge where the author says 

    " Books have been written on how best to structure a theme park. They’ll tell you to put the most exciting ride as far away from the entrance as possible, both to let guests get acclimatised with some lower-stress rides and to eke more money out of them along the way. They advise on the correct placement of food stands and toilets in order to maximise the visitor experience – and their expenditure. They’ll share best-practice advice on crowd management, on structuring paths and placing scenery to optimise the flow of an excited, teeming crowd. Before our visit to Frontier, we had no idea these books even existed. After a day spent in the company of a team making what is, by a distance, the most ambitious theme-park simulator ever created, we have a strange urge to read one."

     

    I also really want to dig out a book or two, but even that tip is  a real help!

  3. Posted

    That would be great! I love the fact that Steam Workshop is integated into the game, so it is very easy to download other peoples creations, as I am rather overwhelmed at the moment! I downloaded beta, and there's so much more stuff in Sandbox, which is where I spent most of my alpha time... for example you can now just plonk down speakers for ambient sounds or music; the music can be from the game's sound track, or any mp3 or ogg file put in the right folder! 

     

    I think that the career mode might be a safer place to start, with far more guidance and fewer options :)

  4. Posted

    It's Beta time tomorrow, with full release next week on November 17th. There were some lovely livestreams in preparation this week and last week, including reveals of wooden coasters and certain types of water rides!

    The individual videos were supposedto be going up, but I guess they are busy :P

     

    In the mean time, here last night's livestream

     

    Wooden coasters are at around 16 minutes, and water rides start at 40:20. There's also a wonderful demonstration of (newly added) triggered events at around 57:15. 

     

    Also Kotaku published an interesting article on the game by UK Magazine Edge

     

    http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2016/11/05/elite-dangerous-developer-is-building-the-ultimate-theme-park-sim

  6. Posted

    Here is a video of the alien site. Apparently, the guy said he found the place by recognising the positions of various celestial objects in the video. However, I find that extremely unlikely. Instead, i think that they saw the original version of the video that includes frames that were later pulled by Frontier, and I think that these frames had the planet name and surface coordinates in view (as is typical when in orbital cruise and (I think) in SRV.

     

     

    I've taken my first long haul passanger mission in the live game, to the Maiden Veil, one of  the tourist spots recommended by players. I am in my slinky black Orca, so it took about 90 jumps to make it (and 2 whole episodes of The Adventure Zone podcast). It looked stupendous when I got there, but unfortunately I got attacked by some low lives attracted by th etourist beacon before I could get any screen shots. I have almost 3 weeks to make the return journey, so am scanning likely-looking planets in order to win favour with the Sirius Corporation; they can grant me access to the next engineer that I am keen to gain access to.

  7. Posted

    Wow,  the first (probable) alien site has been located! Possibly thanks to info found in the first trailer before Frontier removed them. I'll post a video in spoilers when I am at home, but it looks really cool. EP Michael Brookes said on the livestream that the biggest addition to 2.2 / 1.7 (in his opinion) had not been shown

  9. Posted

    That trailer is amazing, and my favourite so far :)! I kinda wish I saw the original version, because in the Reddit AMA and livestream David Braben said they had to remove some rogue frames that eagle-eyed people in the community has spotted new info in. After all, one of the items in the changelog is "mysterious things added"

     

    I've pimped out my Orca with some luxury, business class, and economy class cabins, and had a go at space bussing people around. It seems that once you get more than say 1000 ly distance to travel the allowed time jumps up to 3 weeks, whether you're taking a famous explorer to see the biggest star in the game (a ~3500 ly round trip), or taking someone to Jaques Station (and possibly back) for a 28,000 or 56,000 ly journey.

     

    I like the missions where you go to specific tourist spots, because they either look amazing or have some nice lore attached. I am also loving some of the revamped station interiors, and expanded range of advertising for in-game companies or power propaganda

  10. Posted

    It took me a while, but I got it  :p! Good Lord :)

     

    The speculated release date for 2.2 / 1.7 of  Tuesday 25th October has been confirmed. I've bought an Orca and have been kittting it out in preparation. I spent a fair while in the beta, but thought time would be better spent in the actual game (as well as playing through The Last of Us Remastered :p,)

  11. Posted

    Hmm... while there is no official release date, for 2.2, a date HAS been set for the now traditional Beta Bash, a team battle usually held on the last weekend before release. The idea is that you'll lose everything anyway, so why not go out in style? Team Truckers will be in Type 9s with Taipan Fighters, Team Shiny Pirates will be in Belugas with Imperial Fighters; anyone can turn up, but if they are in any other ship then they will be swiftly dispatched (apart from yellow haulers who act as camera ships).

     

    The event is scheduled for Sat 22nd October, leading me to  speculate release  of 2.2 on Tuesday 24th :).

  13. Posted

    Planet Coaster is a game by Frontier Developments, who handled Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 DLC, Roller Coaster Tycoon 3, Thrillville, Coaster Crazy, Screamride... I think they really like coaster games! They also made Elite Dangerous, which is what I have mostly been blathering on about here for the last ~4 years :). 

     

    I wasn't too bothered about it for a while, until I saw the first dev diary, which I found to be  both really impressive and also totally charming (a bit of a first for Frontier :P)

     

     

     

    You can use very basic modules in order to get things up and running, such as shops, bathrooms etc., but you can also build them up piece by piece, clone those builds, and share them via Steam Workshop

     

    You can also deform the terrain with powerful tools.

     

    I bought into the alpha with a 10% discount, available to every Elite Dangerous kisckstarter backer. I've had a lot of fun with the alpha, but it is pretty resource intensive. I very much doubt that VR will be available soon, although it would be amazing.

     

    Alpha access is no longer available now, but beta access is, for a bit more than the release preorder. I think beta testing is due to start in November, with full release on November 17. However, the reason I am making this post now is that anyone with beta access before October 6 will be able to access the alpha from October 6 -- October 10 for an event called Party in the Park :)!

     

    Oh yeah, they announced coaster crashes in test mode at EGX... no peeps will be harmed 

     

     

    OBLIGATORY DISCLOSURE: I have been a volunteer Ambassador for Elite Dangerous, at E3 2014, and PAX East 2015; I worked like an absolute madman, but all expenses were paid. Since being an ambassador required game experience, and the game was in alpha at the time of E3 2014, only Alpha level kickstarter backers ($300 +) were considered; it also helped that I was hunting black holes for NASA at the time

  14. Posted

    I am considering getting this game and have a few questions:

    1) have any of you played it in VR and is it good?

    2) How gridy is the game, can you just log in from time to time, blow up some NPCs and do a little exploring or do you have to grind your way to level whatever before you get to the real game?

     

    3) Is there a space asshole problem and if so how bad is it? Are there tons of PC pirates and murderers who just enjoy ruining other people's days?

    Thanks!

    Hey Cordeos,

     

    1) Elite Dangerous has supported VR since December 2013, after the first update of the very first alpha :). It is widely regarded as one of the very best uses of VR, but you have to have a monster computer, and have to enjoy the game itself. I've tried wit DK1 and DK2 of the Oculus Rift, but not any of the retail VR headsets. Even the DK1 felt surprisingly immersive, albeit totally impractical due to the low resolution; also, I was rocking a GTX 660 at the time that I borrowed it from work, and flying in a space station yanked the frame rate down to about 15 frames per second, and I immediately felt terrible.

     

    Apparently the commercial OR CV1 gives a somewhat better experience than the HTC Vive thanks to Asynchronus Time Warp (to smooth lower framerate experiences) and there is still an issue with the Vive, as far as I am aware.

     

    2 Similar to Doc Randall's reply, I would say that ED has zero grind or 100% grind: you can have a go at just about anything with the starter ships, but the entire game is driven by increasing power, wealth, and influence, even if it doesn't feel like it when you are 10,000 light years from anyone else; selling the valuable data on new planets etc could make your chosen recipient like you A LOT! 

     

    Since 2.1 / 1.6 every faction in each star system has its own opinion of you, and you get access to cool stuff by becoming friendly with them. Before this update, missions were also gated by ranks in combat, trading or epxloration; now the missions give a rank as an indicator of the  rewards and challenges. You can absolutely bite off more than you can chew, so never assume you can win a fight early on.

     

    ED is very accessible to the occasional player, so long as they get over the initial steep learning curve; one thing you have to remember though  is that missions have real world time limits, so if you log off for a week, and you had a 5 day time limit for a mission, then you will fail

     

    3) You can play one of three ways: Solo, Private Group, or Open. Solo means no other players at all. Private Group means that only people in a set list can join you; an example is the ~20,000 strong Mobius PVE group...  while there is no PveE server, it is agreed that no one will attack you unless they are supporting an opposing faction in a conflict zone. Open means that anyone can join you.

     

    Mostly though, you are unlikely to meet anyone without planning in advance, or going to one of the Community Goals. There are a number of player groups such as the Elite Racers, or Distant Worlds Expeditions to join if you want

  15. Posted

    I've spent a while playing with the 2.2 Beta. It's got lots of fun stuff, and some nice quality of life improvements, but is not the game changer for everyone that the last one was. I think I'll leave the beta alone now, since I have loads of other stuff to do, including working through the games I splurged on for my new PS4 :P! I haven't played much Elite since the end of July, when I moved house, was without internet for a while, then had problems with my pc (motivating the PS4 purchase). It was great to get back in the saddle, but I want it to count. 

     

    -- The passenger ships are an interesting indication of where FD might go with specialist ships. Not only are the Orca and Beluga the only ships capable of carrying Luxury Cabins, some of their internal slots are restricted to cabins, cargo space or one other thing I can't remember. The Beluga appears to cost about 75 million, which is a bit less than I was expecting; it looks like the beluga is only for Horizons players. Cabins can be Economy Class, Business, Class, First Class or Luxury, and each passenger mission has a minimum class; I've yet to see one that requires Luxury. It looks like the smallest cabin is Class 4, so you have to have a pretty big ship, belying the description of the Courier (I think).

     

    -- There is a wide variety of passenger missions, and my favourite ones have you taking famous explorers out to cool, distant(ish) sights. There is a thread on the forums for suggested tourist spots, and those people who got theirs chosen were allowed to give some flavour text, and have their commander names attached. I went to a site for binary ringed planets close enough to a hot blue star to fuel scoop on the way to the surface. It was magnificent!

     

    -- The fighters are fun, but I've not really used them in anger. I like the NPC pilots for hire; they each have their own little biography, and they talk back when you give them orders. 

     

    -- The new hyperspace effects are very cool, and I like that landable planets are fully visualised in the system map view; you can also tell what kind of materials they have if you do a surface scan

     

    -- The little teases at FD added biological things and mysterious things to the patch notes!

     

    -- I was able to sell ships remotely, and call a courier from Cubeo to Shinrarta Dhezra (about 130 ly ish); it took 37 minutes and cost about 700k; I got a message to say that it arrived

     

    -- I was also able to pay off interstellar fines and clear all my bounties in a low security station 

  16. Posted

    Hi Sorbicol,

    I have been playing with a 360 gamepad for nearly 3 years now! It's highly customizable, and you can map a LOT of different commands using various button modifiers; the d-pad, triggers and bumpers can have different actions when paired with A, B, X, or Y for example. You can switch between different lay outs, and can have completely different mapping for when the landing gear is down. 

     

    There's no way that you'll get the sensitivity of a joystick with a gamepad, but hey, that's what gimbals are for, right? 

     

    Also, gamepad is apparently feel rather better than a joystick for controlling the buggy, and if we eventually get space legs (it is planned), then of course it would be good for that too.

     

    By the way, it looks like people have found the first alien space ship! It doesn't look very Thargoid, and may be another race entirely! It matches up with the Gamescom tease (seen during David Braben's video at the end of the second Day 4 stream)

     

    90d30e3736c03230679235a7ad164be5.png

  17. Posted

    A few more things from this morning's stream (which i viewed at 144 p to conserve phone data:p!)

     

    -- new environments based on variants of CQC arenas, and capital ship shipyards

     

    -- instantaneous ship transfer, with cost according to distance and ship value

     

    -- module storage and transfe, similar to ships above

     

    -- neutron stars and white dwarves have energetic jets, that you can fly through to supercharge your FSD for a single super jump, but very hazardous... also, they look really pretty!

     

    -- before hyperspace, you see the security and status of the target system as you charge up, and can see the destination star getting closer and closer as you travel through hyperspace

     

    -- if you zoom into planets in the system map, you can see the real surface rather than a grid! 

     

    the youtube playlist is here

     

    ETA: 

     

    -- shady contact in low security systems that will let you pay off fines or cash in bounty vouchers for anywhere in the galaxy for maybe 20% cut

     

    -- ship kits for asp, viper mk iii, vulture and python, paint jobs for SRVs, wire frame paint jobs for asp, python, anaconda, viper

  18. Posted

    There have been some pretty exciting announcements made in the livestreams from Gamescom about 2.2 so far; more livestreams tomorrow and Sunday

     

    -- Release date expected to be mid october

     

    -- "The Guardians" introduces two new hradline mechamics, ship-launched fighters and passenger missions, as well as 2 new ships (the Beluga and the Taipan)

     

    -- Ship-launched fighters are available those ships with launcher bays 

     

    -- Choice of F63 Codor (Fastest), Imperial Fighter (most maneuverable), and Taipan (most robust)

     

    -- These are piloted remotely by '"telepresence", by you or a NPC fighter that you hire

     

    -- You can hot swap between controlling your main ship or the fighter, and the npc fighter pilot (if any) will control the other

     

    -- fighters are "glass cannons'", so punch well above their weight, but can't take many hits

     

    -- when buying a fighter, you buy a bay, and select a partiular loadout; you can then use some sort of resources (ammo) to manufacture new copies of the ship if it's destroyed

     

     

     

    -- The Beluga is a very large passenger ship (similar size to Anaconda)

     

    -- Any ship can carry economy class or first class passenger cabins, but only Beluga and Orca can have luxury suites

     

    -- Can have bulk passenger misssions or VIPs, who can make several demands en route

     

    -- Appearance of aliens in 2.2 has been teased for Saturday or Suday livesteram

     

     

    Sorry for lack of pictres/videos- I am in a new apartment with only phone internet until Wednesday!

  19. Posted

    I spent a lot of time messing with a couple of enhanced couriers first. One is barebones and purely speed based, for blockade running and surface exploration, getting around 600 m/s, while the other is combat focused... The enhanced drives are insanely fun right off the bat, and even more so when modded!

    I've basically done the FSD and thrusters for the Asp, both grade 3 modifications, but the FSD one was so lucky that it matched a grade 4 mod for one of my couriers, getting a 25% range increase. I'm trying to get in with as many engineers as possible right now(well not right now, as I just moved to a new place and don't get broadband until the 8th)

  20. Posted

    @Sorbicol, the last update improved pretty much every aspect of the base game, making it more approachable and user friendly. The Air Traffic Controllers at stations and persistent mission givers provide a much needed extra shot of humanity :).

    As some of the previous posts mentioned, there's also been a substantial improvement in AI, so that their combat ranks are far more indicative of their threat than before. In my engineer modified A Spec Asp, I can take down an expert Vulture, but memorably escaped with 2% hull and basically no modules from a deadly Eagle.

    One big change is that all missions are available to someone sufficiently friendly with a faction, and in this case the ranking represents the difficulty. High ranked missions can result in very formidable ships sent after you, to be outrun or destroyed. I have a super fast ship dedicated to running away from these brutes :P!

    My Asp is my new pride and joy, and the current focus of my engineering efforts. It is fully and has a max jump range of 36 ly, and a hair under 30 ly carrying 64 tons of cargo (29.7 or something like that); it also gets up to 430 m/s and has a surprisingly fast turn rate.

  22. Posted

    Hey,

    Inara.cz has fairly substantial info about everything engineers, but it might be considered spoilerific.

    However, the new mechanics basically boil down to 1) loot, and 2) crafting.

    1) loot comes in three forms : materials, data, and commodities. Pretty much every activity can now yield loot of some kind, and the type of stuff you gain is at least somewhat logical. It appears that pretty much any type of loot can be given as a mission reward, and some types of loot are only given as mission rewards.

    2) crafting is done by weird, hermit specialists, who require loot to improve various aspects of your ship. You will need to find out about them from public info or through other engineers, pass criteria for initial contact, give some sort of good faith gift, and unlock up to 5 tiers of upgrades in various categories. You unlock these levels by gaining reputation, either by crafting, or something else they like.

    low level mods are more like optimising for yourr own preferences rather than upgrading, while the higher level mods can be very significant boosts to your ship's performance.

    My favourite thing in the whole update is the new enhanced thruster category for small ships, and these are available for cash (class 3a enhanced thrusters are about 5 million credits). In one fell swoop, small ships are interesting for the late game. You can just buy these from the outfitting menu of one of the engineers.

    The update makes certain a certain type of people upset because mods have randomly generated stats (albeit guidedly random). Also, they can't get the "best" ship simply by playing or paying enough; suddenly they think that their awesome ship is suddenly rubbish, because it's not the absolute best.

    It is easy to ignore engineers until you collect the materials as you go about your adventures. You can pin one recipe from each unlocked engineer to help this.

  23. Posted

    I bought the expansion pass recently, to find that I had lost my saves (I had to do a totally clean windows install, and was hoping for cloud saves). I am glad that premade characters are available, but am a bit daunted about spending all those skill points, as I last played 10 months ago and can't remember my build.

    I don't fancy putting another 80 hours in, but I think I will start again to get the feel of things, then start with the first expansion :).

  24. Posted

    I picked up Hong Kong in the latest GOG sale, and am digging it so far; I got Dragonfall also. I have done a couple of missions in Hong Kong, and am enjoying the rich text descriptions and story. I already have seen motivation for at least one replay :).

    I am playing a dwarf monk type character, who is a big fan of bringing punches to a gun fight, and is winning so far (?).

  25. Posted

    You mean New Order? I thought that was a sequel, not a reboot..?

    Yeah that's the one, you're probably right, I lost track after several games that may or may not have been sequels... I think there was some magic involved somewhere?

    I watched a fair amount of doom on giant bomb, and it's clearly very well done, and I might try it in a sale, but I'm not in any hurry. Who knows, I mig dredge this thread up and rave about it years later :)