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Elite: Dangerous (Kickstarter)

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So I bought this earlier tonight. It's the perfect Oculus game, the holographic UI feels great. And I love how there's an element of skill to tasks that would be automated in most games, finally managing to dock after twenty minutes of failed attempts was incredibly satisfying.

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BETA 2 IS OUT!

 

After a herculean effort by the devs (finally setting the code running at about 10 pm UK and releasing around 1 am), the latest beta is out in the wild. I had a good hour or so to play with it before they did some server change and it all went bonkers :P! Still, the first patch will be up today, hopefully everything will be smooth after that. There's been another pass on graphics, UI, and sound, making a huge improvement. There was a full reset, and everybody starts at one of the new outposts,  close to one of the planets

 

TUTORIALS ARE IN

 

Beta 2 is far more accessible to newcomers than previous releases, because it now comes with tutorials that go through docking and travelng from one station to another, as well as general flight and combat. Also, The first time you launch, there is a pre-flight check that runs down all of the basic controls. This can be turned off.

 

RATINGS AND REPUTATION ARE IN

 

Now everything we do has a consquence! Every pilot has a ranking from Harmless to Elite, similar to the original games, but somewhat reorganised, and possibly with an extra level or two. Furthermore, we also have reputations with different factions, for piracy etc., and a combination of rating and ranking affects prices of goods, availability of missions etc. depending on where you are.

 

EQUIPMENT VARIATION IS IN

 

Previously, we could change the weapons mounted on our hardpoints, and equipment in utility slots, but that was about it. Now, pretty much everything is interchangable: thrusters, hyperspace drives, power plant, etc. Some things seem to be outright improvements, while others are variants on a theme so you can have pulse lasers that are low- heat, or overcharged, and you can get multicannons with wide spread, for example. 

 

Now, things like shields are kept in the cargo area, so if you really wanted to you could swap out shields for extra cargo space.

 

Apparently the devs have made hundreds of module variations!

 

EXPLORATION IS IN, AS ARE SYSTEM MAPS 

 

New to Beta 2, we now have system maps, showing planets, spacestations, moons etc.; also we can have more than one space station in a system. We are only given detailed info about a small number of systems, and the other 500 or so systems are unknown. Oh yeah, we have about 500 new systems :P!

 

To get the information, we can buy it from spacestations, or go and explore, scanning planets and moons with a "discovery scanner". I've not had a chance to do this yet, but I get the impression that doing this in a system you don't have a map for gives you intel that you can sell. Someone on the forums said you can upgrade to a surface mapping scanner that nets bigger rewards

 

FLIGHT MODEL TWEAKS

 

They've made a few changes to the flight model, which have been pretty contraversial! The flight-assist off mode previously gave a huge advantage if you could master it, since you had improved acceleration as well as freedom to move in one direction while looking in another. This has been severely nerfed, so the same restraints apply to both flight modes. Also, there has been a change so that reverse or lateral thrusts max out at lower speeds than forward thrust, to keep everyone moving forward most of the time rather than kiting. 

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EQUIPMENT VARIATION IS IN

 

Previously, we could change the weapons mounted on our hardpoints, and equipment in utility slots, but that was about it. Now, pretty much everything is interchangable: thrusters, hyperspace drives, power plant, etc. Some things seem to be outright improvements, while others are variants on a theme so you can have pulse lasers that are low- heat, or overcharged, and you can get multicannons with wide spread, for example. 

 

Now, things like shields are kept in the cargo area, so if you really wanted to you could swap out shields for extra cargo space.

Nice, this is sounding more like an Elite game every day.

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So far I love the potential for exploration and messing around with sheip modules, but neither is as polished as I would like. At the moment, it seems like a total crapshoot as to which parts will be on offer, making looking for a particular part to upgrade pretty frustrating. The exploration mechanic works pretty well so far, using long range active scanners to detect bodies, then scan them individually for extra info; there is a detailed surface scanner available for extra info, but it is only available for the most basic ship at the moment. Exploration will be much more rewarding when we can find resources to mine, relics etc.

 

SHIP PORN

 

A fellow backer called Forger made an excellent video showing off the Asp Explorer, which is new to Beta 2. It looks staggeringly good, though expensive, combining a large cargo capacity with high mobility and some ferocious armaments

 

 

BETA 3 DATED

 

Beta 3 is scheduled for the end of this month, with details of what is in coming over the next few weeks. However, we were givien a sneak peek at fuel scooping, a key feature of the series that allows us to get fuel from cool stars and planets, rather than having to dock

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Are any of you all playing/still playing this? The X-Wing/TIE Fighter surprise caused me to unexpectedly buy a flight stick, since the last time I used one was for... xwing and tie fighter, and it still requires a game port. I was holding out on getting one for Elite: Dangerous, and holding out on getting Elite because I didn't have a flight stick.

 

The cycle is now broken and threatens to break the other half.

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Are any of you all playing/still playing this? The X-Wing/TIE Fighter surprise caused me to unexpectedly buy a flight stick, since the last time I used one was for... xwing and tie fighter, and it still requires a game port. I was holding out on getting one for Elite: Dangerous, and holding out on getting Elite because I didn't have a flight stick.

 

The cycle is now broken and threatens to break the other half.

 

Still playing is an odd term, given that the game isn't out yet :P! However, I am still playing the beta, and the latest update (Beta 3.0) has just dropped today. New features include:

 

-- 2 New ships, the Imperial Clipper and Federal Dropship

b25519ce-1612-498a-a010-84147320c1df.jpg

 

84183dff-cc33-44db-9cbf-bfad86c68da1.jpg

 

-- Fuel scooping from stars and gas giants

c9852725-eb1f-4d96-b339-015eb8f710a5.jpg

 

-- Mining; scan for metals and minerals, blast with mining laser, scoop up chunks and sort with on-board refinery

bd0a3bb1-719f-4b6d-948a-a6bd5e57a028.jpg

 

-- Player interdictions: anyone can pull anyone else out of supercruise so they can attack, so long as they have the right kit

33fae71d-f646-4d2c-a51e-96752b32d98c.jpg

-- Even more space to play in, over 2400 star systems now, including a couple of new star types

-- Visible reputation tracking for every faction out there... not just the big three (Federation, Empire, Alliance), but each system has a number of groups both legit and criminal

-- New philanthropic missions (not seen these yet)

 

 

There's a changelog about a mile long!: http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=52288

 

It's really coming together, which is a very good thing since the release date is still set for 2014!

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It's a weird thing to ask for a game in beta, but a game like this is a big commitment so my feeling is either people were early adopters, got in immediately, and thus "still playing" is a valid question, or are waiting for a full release and would not be playing at all.

 

So... I bought it. And I bought it about 2 hours after Beta 3 dropped too. Time to fumble my way through learning how to use a flight stick and play a real space sim again. Current issue: Docking?

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It's a weird thing to ask for a game in beta, but a game like this is a big commitment so my feeling is either people were early adopters, got in immediately, and thus "still playing" is a valid question, or are waiting for a full release and would not be playing at all.

 

So... I bought it. And I bought it about 2 hours after Beta 3 dropped too. Time to fumble my way through learning how to use a flight stick and play a real space sim again. Current issue: Docking?

I've tested/played for about 100 hours all told since December. You're right, I have been very careful to avoid burn out, and I have only really played until I satisfied my curiosity about the new features, rather than playing for the sake of progress. Having said that, we were told that we would keep our cash from Beta 2 when going to Beta 3, so played quite a lot over the weekend in order to get some capital for the new stuff. I started with about 1.6 million credits, which got me my old ship back (minus some of the upgrades), and let me test out mining (which I think is cleverly done). I've never owned any of the really big ships, and these get more expensive with every update; however, the module upgrades give you plenty to spend your money on while working towards the next ship. For example the base Cobra Mk III costs about 250 k, but highly pimped out versions can be worth about 10 million; in Beta 2, 10 million would give you a good start on the Asp (which is the next size up for jack-of-all-trades ships). The Anaconda (biggest ship so far) is now up to 149 million!

 

I'm still excited enough to skip work to try beta 3 some more today :P!

 

 

If you go to the tutorials section, the first one has you leave a station, turn round, ask for clearance, and land. Another tutorial goes through a whole journey from one station to another. These were new in beta 2, and  made it substantially more friendly to newcomers.  Even though the entrance is clear for a lot of stations, it might not be clear for the more traditional cubey ones; for these guys the entrance is on the side that is rotating anti-clockwise.

 

I've not tried interdicting other ships yet, but being interdicted has had a new twist. There is now a sort of tug-of-war test of flying skills, as the person being interdicted has to maneuver towards an ever-changing escape vector (aggressors have to line up the targe). As escape progress goes up, interdiction progress goes down, until the target either escapes or gets pulled into normal space, where it can be attacked; here is a PvP video to show it from an aggressor's point of view.

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Two questions- I'm not able to Alt-Tab without having to, uh... restart my computer. Is that a known issue? Is there a way I can fix it? It doesn't look like there's a windowed/borderless option.

 

I was having connection issues. Does that happen often, or is that likely a beta release thing?

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Hmm, the not being able to ALT+TAB is a new one, and quite a few people on the forums have said the same. Given that this version is only a few hours old,  there usually are some teething troubles like this; they brought out several patches within the first few days of the previous betas, and it is likely that we will see at least one patch this week. IN any case, there should be an option in the graphics menu for windowed mode... there is a fullscreen on/off toggle

 

The netcode has always been one of the biggest challenges for the game, because they are running everything off of one server for background simulation, but connection between players is peer to peer. It's come on in leaps and bounds since last January/February when multiplayer was first added, but there's still room for improvement. However, connection issues are worst in the hours following release since everybody is trying to download and update at once. Furthermore, since there was a wipe, everybody starts in the same station, which is extra stressful.

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Try docking(or doing anything) without flight assist, there's a challenge.

 

I find the latest beta to be incredibly unstable. The last time I started the game I spawned inside(as in inside the mesh, not the docking bay) of a station, crashed my ship into an inner wall trying to get out.

 

Also, I really wish they implemented a function key so that each button could have two uses. I'm using my Rift and a 360 controller, so supplementing with keyboard shortcuts is not very practical.

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I spawned inside a station at least 2 times, maybe 3!

 

I decided to not wrestle with it anymore yestereday. Lo and behold, there's a patch when I wake up this morning. In addition, my HOTAS is arriving today! Time to completely relearn all the buttons, and hopefully use fewer keyboard keys.

 

Does anyone have a good resource for how (what) to map the buttons to? Even if you're not using it yourself. Official forums, or unofficial forums or what have you.

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I spawned inside a station at least 2 times, maybe 3!

 

I decided to not wrestle with it anymore yestereday. Lo and behold, there's a patch when I wake up this morning. In addition, my HOTAS is arriving today! Time to completely relearn all the buttons, and hopefully use fewer keyboard keys.

 

Does anyone have a good resource for how (what) to map the buttons to? Even if you're not using it yourself. Official forums, or unofficial forums or what have you.

Wow, that's unlucky... I've not spawned inside a station since around May! Hopefully this patch will fix things for you, I've not looked at the notes yet.

 

As for the HOTAS, it depends on the model but there are default profiles for  quite a large number of sticks. The thing is that if you go to the (impressively lengthy) controls menu, it's not too helpful if you find that boost is bound to Button 38 for example.

 

The most popular HOTAS seems to be the Saitek X52 or X52 pro... if you have one of these, then here is a layout:

SaitekEDAlpha_zps0129d320.jpg

 

SaitekEDAlphaID_zpscec5d711.jpg

Moving the joystick forward, backward, left and right gives you pitch and roll, twist for yaw. Yaw has lowest priority. It looks like landing gear and supercruise might be bound to the keyboard still, but you should be able to assign them to unused buttons.

 

Also, it might be a good idea to do the preflight check again after setting up, either in one of the tutorials, or by enabling the option in the functions menu on the right hand side

Hope that helps!

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Getting a Thrustmaster HOTAS. Doing the preflight and remapping is a good idea! Was just curious if there was anything that was considered a good resource for hive minding best practice stuff.

 

The thing that's going to be hardest for me, most likely, is that my keyboard is on a tray under the desk. I can't put it in between throttle and stick like I think most people are set up.

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Also, I really wish they implemented a function key so that each button could have two uses. I'm using my Rift and a 360 controller, so supplementing with keyboard shortcuts is not very practical.

 

Sorry I missed this. I've been using the 360 controller since December, trying a number of layouts, and basically never need to touch the keyboard :); having said that I do sometimes change layouts when I change ships, as I want to prioritise different stuff. I would recommend that you try experimenting with bindings, and remember that when you're using the Rift you don't need to toggle headlook, or UI focus, since looking at a menu will focus on that menu; that frees up R3 and the B button.

 

On the left stick I have the X-axis bound so that it yaws for small movements, and rolls for bigger movements. Also, you can rebind keys for when the landing gear is down... I have the left stick X-axis as roll only and use the left and right triggers to yaw in this case.

 

Additionally, I use L3 to go into supercruise, the back button to retract weapons, and the d-pad down button to raise/lower gear (though this can be done through the right hand menu).

 

Badfinger- I'll have a search for Thrustmaster HOTAS stuff for you :). You might not need to use the keyboard at all, when properly set up.

 

You might also want to try VoiceAttack, which is 3rd party software that costs about $8 I think... quite a few people have had some success with it, but it does take a while to set up... if you want to an example of it working (and at one point dangerously screwing up!), try this video (voice attack starts about 4 minutes in):

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I appreciate you doing research, but that's not necessary! Was just curious if you knew of a place where I could look at them myself. I've seen VoiceAttack. It's pretty amazing. I've also seen the X-52/55, which I wish I could have, but that's $100+ more than I have to spend on a flight stick.

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VoiceAttack sounds like what I need, I just hope it can deal with my moderate Swedish accent. How do you handle throttle left/right? I tried binding it to the stick buttons, but for some reason pressing the right one disables the stick.

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As far as I know, Voice Attack will cope with any accent, with a bit of repetitious training. I use the right stick to thrust up, down, left and right, however pressing the right stick enables head look for me... if you are wearing the Rift, this will probably have no effect as your headlook is dominated by the rift.

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I appreciate you doing research, but that's not necessary! Was just curious if you knew of a place where I could look at them myself. I've seen VoiceAttack. It's pretty amazing. I've also seen the X-52/55, which I wish I could have, but that's $100+ more than I have to spend on a flight stick.

No worries, I just thought that I might find things more quickly because I am more familiar with the forums over there.  Here is a link to the dedicated hardwarde subforum:

http://forums.frontier.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=41

 

If you can't find what you want there, it might be worth registering in order to ask directly what you want to know

 

EDIT: Public Service Announcement- beta 3.02 (the current version) may have fixed somethings, but the missions are now broken so I would advise waiting a day or so for the next patch (or do something else, but missions are probably your best bet early on in game unless you're a combat ace)

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Some big news in this week's newsletter: the release date will be announced next week! Beta access will be available to buy until November 22 (the premiere event).

 

We also found out that alpha and beta backers get access to the Sol system straight away, whereas normally this system will be restricted to people with sufficiently high reputation with the Federation

 

There are some new skins available at the store, which look pretty tasty

 

FD have released a "Making of Elite Dangerous" video on Youtube, so the end is definitely in sight...

 

Oh and a new patch is available for beta, supposedly fixing missions and other things :)!

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Try docking(or doing anything) without flight assist, there's a challenge.

 

I find the latest beta to be incredibly unstable. The last time I started the game I spawned inside(as in inside the mesh, not the docking bay) of a station, crashed my ship into an inner wall trying to get out.

 

Also, I really wish they implemented a function key so that each button could have two uses. I'm using my Rift and a 360 controller, so supplementing with keyboard shortcuts is not very practical.

 

 

I just remembered something. A lot of people who spawned inside the station mesh were trying to drop out of supercruise as close to the station as possible. This isn't necessary, as you'll lock on once you get within 1 Mm (i.e. 1000 km). If you are having the same problem, you should probably ticket it.

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