toblix

Elite: Dangerous (Kickstarter)

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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. 

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On 1/23/2017 at 10:50 AM, DocRandal said:

Vorlonesque, that looks gorgeous. What GPU are you using and what resolution are those screenshots in?

A 980Ti and I'm running in 1920x1440@75Hz on an old sgi branded Trinitron CRT.  I think I may have cropped some bits of those pictures out but I can't remember for certain.

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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

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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.

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I tried to mess around with settings, and I ended up making myself sick :) I have it simply set to VR High right now, which I noticed ups the SS and not the HMD scaling, so I might fiddle with those settings again, but I'm a bit nervous to as every change seemed to make the frame rate worse. What I'm really looking for is better black levels in space and less jaggies, and I have a feeling that the Oculus is the limiter on both of those things.

 

I've been looking at the ED profiler, but I don't really intend to play the game without VR at this point, so I'm trying to avoid adding another layer of complexity.

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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!

 

 

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I played with it a little more this weekend and settled on VR High with SS turned to 75% and HMD scaling to 1.25. I was able to stay in the headset for several hours, while dog fighting in an asteroid field, and not feel sick at all. It's  a little shimmery and some of the text can be hard to see, so I'll probably play around with the HMD scaling some. It's good to have a nice reliable baseline to experiment from though. It does make a GTX1080 very tempting though.

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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.

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I have a 970. Sometimes I have a real problem getting the headset positioned right. It'll be correct for one eye, but strained for the other. I probably should go to an eye doctor at some point. I definitely didn't have problems reading the text before though, so it's directly related to the video settings I've chosen.

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2 hours ago, Dewar said:

I have a 970. Sometimes I have a real problem getting the headset positioned right. It'll be correct for one eye, but strained for the other. I probably should go to an eye doctor at some point. I definitely didn't have problems reading the text before though, so it's directly related to the video settings I've chosen.

even with the adjustment knob on the front?

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Yup, I fiddled with that thing a bunch. I read a couple articles that talk about some people having eyes at different heights, so maybe that's what's up with me?

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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. 

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I've never worn glasses or contacts. I used to have 20/10 vision, but it's been quite a few years since I've been tested.

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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.

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21 minutes ago, Dr Wookie said:

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.

How long till a monster factory in Elite?

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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!

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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 :)

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Hmm, OK, it seems like a lot of space sims seem to take turns for the worse once they start to try and include actual human avatars. Hopefully this will be a slow and considered roll out.

 

Is there any real reason to play in open mode? I thought that it was required to do the community goals, but after getting blown up (1.5 million rebuy cost) for the 88 tons of robotics I was carrying to the most recent goal, I found out that wasn't the case and I played solo the rest of the night.

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26 minutes ago, Dewar said:

Hmm, OK, it seems like a lot of space sims seem to take turns for the worse once they start to try and include actual human avatars. Hopefully this will be a slow and considered roll out.

 

Is there any real reason to play in open mode? I thought that it was required to do the community goals, but after getting blown up (1.5 million rebuy cost) for the 88 tons of robotics I was carrying to the most recent goal, I found out that wasn't the case and I played solo the rest of the night.

If you dont want PVP then no. There is a small group of us that have played together a little, i cant remember who manages our instance

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On 2/16/2017 at 11:10 AM, Dewar said:

Hmm, OK, it seems like a lot of space sims seem to take turns for the worse once they start to try and include actual human avatars. Hopefully this will be a slow and considered roll out.

 

Is there any real reason to play in open mode? I thought that it was required to do the community goals, but after getting blown up (1.5 million rebuy cost) for the 88 tons of robotics I was carrying to the most recent goal, I found out that wasn't the case and I played solo the rest of the night.

 

Open is "pvp on" mode. Solo mode can affect the Elite universe just like Open mode, or you can look up the Mobius server if you want a 99.9% PvE player experience on "Private server" mode. (It's labeled PvE only but occassionally PvPers sneak in there and cause some havoc before they get banned by the server host.)

 

Myself, when I play, which hasn't been for months (work), I only play Solo.

 

Edit: Corrected Group server to Private server; thanks for the correction and further clarification below Dr. Wookie.

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18 hours ago, DocRandal said:

 

Open is "pvp on" mode. Solo mode can affect the Elite universe just like Open mode, or you can look up the Mobius server if you want a 99.9% PvE player experience on "Group server" mode. (It's labeled PvE only but occassionally PvPers sneak in there and cause some havoc before they get banned by the server host.)

 

Myself, when I play, which hasn't been for months (work), I only play Solo.

Mobius is not a PvE server, it is a private group. The important difference is that PVP is possible, rather than having friendly fire turned off. Even then, PvP between players in conflict zones is OK if they are fighting for different factions. 

Mostly, I play in solo myself, though I might be tempted into Open for the 2.3 beta at least.

 

There was a livestream showing how Multicrew works, and it looks like FD addressed my issues with the idea, namely:

-- what do extra players do when nothing is going on?

-- how is a multi-crewed ship more capable than a solo ship?

 

The stream alos highlighted changes in the message UI (which groups messages by sender, and supplies a face if available), and the fact that ship names will be coming (the guys were on a Fed Corvette called the "Rancourous Bison")

 

-- In Multicrew, the empty seats are filled by telepresence,by commanders who can be located anywhere in the galaxy; it is drop in / drop out, and a person beams in as a so-called Holo-Me. Seeing them beam in is pretty cool :)

-- You can either host a session an look for crew, or look for a ship to join

-- The host selects an activity that they want to do, e.g. bounty hunting, piracy, exploration, or mentoring a new player

-- The joining players also select activities they are looking for, and so players are matched by activity preferences.

-- You can invite friends, but you still have to say what activity you want to do, so they can accepty if they want the same thing too.

-- If you have selected a law-abiding activity, but start doing crimes, then you will be booted, so the host is not too badly affected

 

 

-- Each additional person has an extra pip to put into the power distribution; while you can never have more than 4 in engines, systems or weapons, you can give more juice to the stuff you are not prioritising

-- At the moment, extra players can choose to be gunners or fighter pilots; if there are 2 player figher pilots, or 1 human and 1 ai, then you can have 2 fighters out at once

-- The host player controls almost all functions of the sihip, and all interactions with stations, as well as fixed and gimballed weapons

-- A gunner can control turrets, as well as missiles, chaff, shield boosters etc.

-- Gunners can designate 2 extra buttons per firegroup, affecting one item each (e.g. chaff and  shield boosters)

-- Gunners see an external view of the ship, and are able to view the entire sky

-- Gunners can scan ships or fire missiles in any direction; wanted statuses etc are shared with all crew

-- Rather than controlling individual turrets,  the various weapons go online or offline depending on whether they can see the target.. I think this is a very clever approach

-- The pilot. gunner, and two fighters can each target different ships if they want

-- Rather than splitting bounties, each player in multicrew will get the full bounty; this will also apply to wings from 2.3.

 

Here's my attempt to attach a GIF of the gunner's view from Reddit

https://fat.gfycat.com/FantasticHugeBrontosaurus.webm

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Well, they finally give you the ability to name your ship in the next content release. Best Idle Thumb themed ship name?

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On 2/28/2017 at 8:16 PM, DocRandal said:

Well, they finally give you the ability to name your ship in the next content release. Best Idle Thumb themed ship name?

Space Asshole?

 

I've not done much in the new beta apart from messing with the character creator.

 

For some reason, I like this guy, even though it's nothing like me:

 

Screenshot_0008.thumb.jpg.20a3f0600c58c243e12345f4dfc2f464.jpg

 

Also, I quite like the aging: here's a preset in young and older forms:

 

Screenshot_0011.thumb.jpg.12e82718a6a00be8a5e3968f7896e3cc.jpg

 

Screenshot_0017.thumb.jpg.93c0836b438999f85e91f990db0798b8.jpg

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Thumbs CMDRs! Add me CMDR adamthomas1994!

 

I take it some people still play? Looking forward to the release of 2.3? What ships are you currently running around in these days?

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