toblix

Elite: Dangerous (Kickstarter)

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Hurrah for poor financial decisions! My last one let me find out that Amazon has a concierge service for sufficiently silly purchases :P

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This week's newsletter had a couple of interesting dates:

 

--- Mac release on May 12 (next week). Anyone who bought ED on pc will be able to play the same commander on Mac, and Mac and PC players can play together

 

--- Powerplay beta May 20. Here is an example of the map showing the influence of various powers

 

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Hey wookie, do you have any recommended tutorial videos? I really am quite clueless on what I should doing, I tend to just kill wanted npcs and turn it in. After getting a viper, I'm finding myself a little bored.

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Resource Extraction Site bounty hunting is definitely the most profitable short-term game loop. If you want to do some exploring, buy a Cobra and outfit it with a detailed surface scanner, better FSD and a huge fuel scoop. Scanning planets and then selling the info to Universal Cartographics can add a lot of credits to your bank.

 

I find most of the "missions" available at stations too similar and unprofitable so I ignore them, personally. Currently in the process of saving money to buy an Asp because ship lust is as good a motivator as any. If we can get a private group together for Thumbs, I think you'd enjoy playing with other people--even the asinine stuff becomes fun when you're not alone.

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Hmm, I think my "home" dock no longer exists. I have notes about Siluror - Carroll Dcok, but that dock doesn't exist as far as I can tell. If a station changes ownership, does it change name as well?

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Resource Extraction Site bounty hunting is definitely the most profitable short-term game loop. If you want to do some exploring, buy a Cobra and outfit it with a detailed surface scanner, better FSD and a huge fuel scoop. Scanning planets and then selling the info to Universal Cartographics can add a lot of credits to your bank.

 

I find most of the "missions" available at stations too similar and unprofitable so I ignore them, personally. Currently in the process of saving money to buy an Asp because ship lust is as good a motivator as any. If we can get a private group together for Thumbs, I think you'd enjoy playing with other people--even the asinine stuff becomes fun when you're not alone.

Yeah I think playing with some people would make it feel a lot less lonely!

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I thought if you died the 'go back to having a sidewinder' option told you what your home dock is?

Somewhat drastic way of finding out mind....

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Well, my Sidewinder is still sitting out there, but I guess I had a mental home base that I kept my mining operations around, not literally the first base I spawned at.

*shrug* All I know is that there isn't a Carroll Dock in Siluror anymore.

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Are the directional thrusters mapped to the buttons on the X52 throttle? I tend to use those all the time.

 

Do you go to the keyboard for anything after you have the X52?

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As far as I remember, the thrusters are on the little joystick thingy on the throttle by your left index finger.

 

I think you still need the keyboard to type and search the map

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Directional thrusters are mapped to the hat switch on the throttle.

Still learning and getting used to it, but so far no. I had to remap the heatsink button, but there's a few spare unmapped buttons. Also, I'm having a problem getting one of my buttons to register, I'm not sure if it's a problem with the stick, or software, or what. That made me switch headlook toggle and boost around since I don't use headlook anyway and there's a dedicated mode button for looking specifically at a side display.

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Thanks to a timely community goal reward and a sale on Faulcon de Lacy ships in Zaonce, I traded in all of my ships to get a Python :D!

 

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This is another build as I go job, so I will probably be in this ship for quite a while :P!

 

In more general, other-people-care news, the Powerplay beta has been pushed back by up to a week according to the latest newsletter; heh, releasing the day after the Witcher 3 means I would probably not have played much of it anyway :P

 

Also, Elite Dangerous is released for Mac

 

The peek of the week was of the Imperial Courier in space, quite slinky

 

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Wookie, that gold and black paint job is pretty swank. Congrats on the Python!

 

Also nice community medal. I confess I stalked you just enough to look up your astronomy publications. With the end of spring term and publication deadlines burning a hole in my free time I haven't had much chance to catch space lately.

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Help I'm back in Elite. Used the equity from the backer Eagle to get a hauler, and I've put about 200k into it to upgrade various parts and pieces. Via one website that gins up trade routes, I can make about 20k profit per cargo load on sites 20-30 LY apart. Which means I can buy the million credit ship in... maybe about 10 hours of doing nothing but running beryllium back and forth. What else can I do as a poor space trader to make some cash and get a ship that isn't straight peanuts? I know I've asked this question before, but the game has no internal resources and I don't know which external ones are the best. I don't really understand how exploration works. Is mining a reasonable alternative to hauling for making some bucks? What can I do to learn about trading myself besides punching in a system name on a data aggregation site?

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Ooh congrats! The asp is fantastic for pretty much everything except maybe for big fights; it's probably my favourite ship to date. Have fun fitting it out!

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Wookie, that gold and black paint job is pretty swank. Congrats on the Python!

 

Also nice community medal. I confess I stalked you just enough to look up your astronomy publications. With the end of spring term and publication deadlines burning a hole in my free time I haven't had much chance to catch space lately.

Heh, good luck with that   :P! All of my papers are written with an audience of experts in mind, and conciseness is more important than entertainment (hence loads of jargon).

 

 

Help I'm back in Elite. Used the equity from the backer Eagle to get a hauler, and I've put about 200k into it to upgrade various parts and pieces. Via one website that gins up trade routes, I can make about 20k profit per cargo load on sites 20-30 LY apart. Which means I can buy the million credit ship in... maybe about 10 hours of doing nothing but running beryllium back and forth. What else can I do as a poor space trader to make some cash and get a ship that isn't straight peanuts? I know I've asked this question before, but the game has no internal resources and I don't know which external ones are the best.

Right now,  Shifnalport in Diso has been flooded with Diso Ma Corn. a rare commodity that costs <400 credits but gives ~15,000 (yes thousand) credits profit per ton about 150 lightyears away. Normally only a few tons are available at a time, but thanks to a community goal, you can buy up to 50 tons at once. Rare goods trading may be your best bet in general, especially if you pick up a Cobra on the way to a Type 6. Thrudd's seems to be a good place to look, especially for rares, though I don't use it

 

Also, it is a terrible idea to buy a ship when you can only just afford it; it is a good idea to have at least enough to get a few upgrades, a hold full of cargo, and still have money left over for the insurance.

 

I don't use external sight, because I prefer to find routes by myself, but I recommend finding a generally wider route just for variety if nothing else, e.g. agricultural to extraction to refinery to high tech to agricultural. Also, systems away from the core and off the beaten path are more likely to yield better profits. 

 

You also might want to try a trading community goal (such as the one in Wolf 406 right now). If you can get to Wolf 406 and bring metals to Hamilton Gateway (any kind, tonnage is more important than worth), then the rewards once the goal is completed are often in the millions, depending on your reward tier, and the tier of completion

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Badfinger

Thrudds trading website is really good for planning trading routes - I have used it a lot and, especially for the more highly populated core systems it's kept very much up to date.

As for tips - if you want to get rich quick then trading in rares is pretty much the only way to do that at the start (unless you buy a Viper or Eagle and go bounty hunting in Resource Extraction Sites).

My advice is to head to Diso, fill up on the corn and find another cluster of rare selling systems about 130Ly away. It's a bit boring but it'll get you money. I'd suggest upgrading to a cobra as quick as you can too. It holds its own in a fight and can carry more that it's fair share of cargo.

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I was mostly using 1 million credits to be illustrative of my current situation. Additional illustration: I didn't know there was such a thing as ship insurance. 50 tons isn't much of a burden, considering I have 16 tons of cargo space.

 

I don't need to trade necessarily. It's just the safest and most intuitive way I can think of to make money. Wookie, most of what you're saying is complete Greek to me. How would I know to make those connections for trade routes? Where can I learn that?

 

I mean, I'd like to make some money because it seems like it would expand my opportunities, but I also want to have fun. If I took 150k and threw it into an Eagle+upgrades, I could make money through bounties as well correct?

 

e: so if I went to diso and filled up a load with corn, if I took it to Zeessze 135 LY away I would be making close to max profit, and could turn around and grab the rare there and send it back?

 

If I wanted to buy a fuel scoop, what component should I replace? I'm not fighting in this thing. Should I scrap shields?

 

2e: attempted to move rare goods around the galaxy for profit this evening. That was miserable.

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Wookie, most of what you're saying is complete Greek to me. How would I know to make those connections for trade routes? Where can I learn that?

Every commodity tells you in its description what kind of economy produces it, and what types consume it.; it even gives nearby example systems for you to import from or export to. But there are also general relationships between different types of economy. For example agricultural economies make food and alcohol for everyone, including extraction systems; extraction economies extract and sell minerals to refineries, which sell metals to industrial and high tech economies, which produce crop harvesters or agri-medicines etc for agricultural worlds. 

 

Bounties are pretty high now, and lots of people farm pirates in resource extraction sites to great effect. Try it and see... there's no rush to make tons of cash, honestly!

 

What was so bad about the rare run? Is it the number of jumps? Did you sell your shields and die horribly? Taking rares to systems that produce other rares will likely reduce profits, because everyone and their grandma has being doing that for months, and demand is lower; you could try a few systems over.

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I always avoid replacing my shields 'cause even if you aren't planning on doing any combat if you don't have shields it's super easy to bump a space station and explode.

 

Anyway I started doing one of the community goals yesterday (weapons to Persephone) and found it kinda frustrating...it was a good reminder of why I don't do any trading, which is that the in-game UI is clunky and borderline useless. I used Thrudds which made it almost bearable but it's still just a pain in the ass compared to combat or exploration.

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Interdiction is super predictable. If you are in a system that sells rare goods, you will get interdicted. It's kind of disappointing to be honest.

 

Yes, I got pulled out of supercruise and exploded the minute I ended up in Diso, at the end of a 25 minute journey. That was extremely frustrating. Then an hour later after making the return trip and a trip out I finally cashed back in only to find that there were barely any goods where I landed. Two small hops later and I had nearly a full cargo, and after that hour I ended the night in Diso. Don't get me wrong, since Sunday when I bought the hauler I have exponentially increased my funds but last night was extremely unsatisfying.

 

I think I might give bounties a shot? Take one more load of corn because it's already in the hold, and do something else. What's a good primer for picking fights? I'll have like 750k or so to work with. What ships are good options, what is a reasonable starting loadout, what should I avoid? I'm normally willing to give trial and error a shot, but in such a huge sim with so much room for messing up your play, I'm willing to take the shortcut of some institutionalized knowledge for some more immediate enjoyment of actually flying.

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