toblix

Elite: Dangerous (Kickstarter)

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Did they rejigger the NPC bounty values recently? I used to get around 15k for getting a bounty in resource extraction points, but now i'm getting closer to 100k per. I got a nicer Kill Warrant Scanner and hit a 238k bounty tonight. It's a lot of fun practicing my combat skills and it's super safe as long as you engage with a group of NPC officers. I got half a million credits just clearing out a few ships tonight. SO MUCH MONEY.

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It was changed in the Wings update I believe, bounty hunting now seems to be the most profitable venture in the game. Although possibly trading with a huge cargo capacity might edge it out.

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So Dr. Wookie, what's the upcoming Powerplay update about?

In today's dev update, they said that there will be a big announcement on Powerplay in about 3 weeks' time, which is shaping up to be the biggest update so far. This will include a new way to interact with the galaxy, as well as more balancing of the different types of career. Also, drones are being introduced that will allow collection of minerals or cargo for miners or pirates respectively. It looks like the drones will expire after use; we will be able to select a target for collection, otherwise the drone will get what it can within a set area. Fuel drones will allow players to transfer fuel to each other too. 

 

I've been trying out bounty hunting; I stripped my Clipper of gear, and this was enough to buy a Vulture with some fairly decent equipment without selling the hull. Wow that ship is vicious! I have two gimballed Class 3 burst lasers, and they just maul my targets... I went pirate hunting in a resource extraction site, and had a lot of fun zipping around, dodging rocks, and making tens or hundreds of thousands of credits at a time; unlike previous versions it seems that we get paid even if we don't get the last hit, so if there's a fight going on in the distance, we can pile in and get paid.

 

The Vulture is a fun puzzle in that the power plant is cannot support everything at A or even class, so you have to experiment to find out what works best for you... a vulture with a bigger powerplant would be ridiculously overpowered.

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Huh!

Elite Dangerous is now on Steam (added April 2), for those who want to get it that way

Guess they figured out those server problems. Or maybe the server problems were "we need to make sure the servers are stable/beefy enough before we get too many more players".

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Aw man. There's not gonna be any way to get it on my steam account short of buying it again, huh?

Unlikely, but then what does steam really give you if you already have the game? This is a genuine question, since FD have said that the two versions are functionally identical.

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Automatic patching would be nice, but I figure the Steam version will probably use the same launcher so you won't get that anyway.

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I went on one kinda brief (2 hours, kinda goofing off) exploration trip today out to the nearest unexplored system I could find. That unexplored system ended up being worth 245k on its own, and the full trip worth just over 500k. All of my trips together up to this point only netted a million. I'm not sure if I just got really lucky, or they upped exploration rewards in the last couple of months.

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I went on one kinda brief (2 hours, kinda goofing off) exploration trip today out to the nearest unexplored system I could find. That unexplored system ended up being worth 245k on its own, and the full trip worth just over 500k. All of my trips together up to this point only netted a million. I'm not sure if I just got really lucky, or they upped exploration rewards in the last couple of months.

Yep, exploration rewards have been substantially buffed since 1.2, in order to balance the careers a bit; the cash needed for rank progression has increased too. I had a jaunt yesterday where a single system gave me 200 k :).

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Heh, Yahtzee (Zero Punctuation) has done quite a fun video on ED for his "Let's Drown Out" series where he plays a game, but talks about other stuff entirely with his friend Gabe. He reviewed the game when it came out (one of the very few positive review's he's ever done :P), but has clearly not played much since... still, he has quite a fun adventure

 

Review

 

Let's Drown Out

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I need to be talked down from spending $200 on a HOTAS setup.

 

Please, someone--anyone--talk some sense into me.

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I need to be talked down from spending $200 on a HOTAS setup.

 

Please, someone--anyone--talk some sense into me.

 

I've already jumped into the deep end. Join us. The water is so immersive now.

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The real question is whether I should go Saitek (X52 Pro) or CH Products? Thrustmaster is out of my price range.

The guy who won the  10,000 GBP triple Elite prize used an X52 Pro for well over 1000 hours, but not without damage:

 

47ec8356-a74e-45d3-a943-4d4e38fb6281.jpg

 

There is a youtube comparison of Saitek vs CH with ED here:

 

The video is from early alpha, so some things are out of date (the restriction of only one device is removed, and more buttons can be assigned).

 

Next you'll be getting track IR :P! Although if you do think about head tracking, one of the ED community has designed their own head tracker called EDTracker, which can be bought prebuilt or in kit form at http://www.edtracker.org.uk/index.php/shop/products.

 

I am seriously thinking about getting an EDTracker after I move back to the UK :).

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Ordered the CH Products USB Fighterstick, it should be here Friday. I will probably order the Pro Throttle in the next couple of weeks.

 

And why buy TrackIR when I can just pick up an Oculus DK2?

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Ordered the CH Products USB Fighterstick, it should be here Friday. I will probably order the Pro Throttle in the next couple of weeks.

 

And why buy TrackIR when I can just pick up an Oculus DK2?

To be honest, the lack of detail in the DK2 bothers me, and if I recall correctly, the latest prototype has similar resolution to the DK2 and uses optics to mitigate the screen door effect. I am worried that this update will effectively blur the text further. At the moment, text can be difficult to read unless you lean in for a closer look; while this is a fun novelty, it could be really tiresome after a while. Ships, planets, nebulae etc are all significantly degraded by the DK2. 

 

I am seriously considering getting a rift, because I am starting to see other games I'd like play that way (see my Albino Lullaby thread). However, I imagine that I would only spend  maybe ~30% of ED time in the Rift even if I had one (the immersion IS fantastic). 

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From Michael Brooks on the Elite Forums:

 

Looking further ahead we have the Powerplay update, the big announcement is still a couple of weeks away but I can reveal a bit more of what will form part of the wider update and that is a major overhaul for the missions system. This isn’t directly part of the new Powerplay feature, but does supplement it. We’ve been working on this since the game’s initial release to provide us with a mission system that will support the game as we keep adding new features and content and improve your experience with all missions.

We’ve focused on a few clear goals for this revamp. The first is being able to provide a wider range of missions and in a method we can easily add to and increase variation within the mission type. We’re also adding the ability to select mission locations and targets (where applicable) in the galaxy and system map. Greater use of the player inbox will be used to support mission branches, making them easier to manage.

One of the limitations of the current system is that missions tended to be a good option for starting players, but not so much for later on in the game. The overhaul will address this issue by making missions available for more experienced players as well as specific missions for higher ranks or status – such as being a Founder level member. The system will also expand the influence of reputation on missions to reward players who build a high reputation with minor factions.

As with any major update we will take the opportunity to add some incidental improvements to the game. One such improvement is that the maximum loan value for ship rebuys will scale according to your Pilots Federation ranking, allowing a greater safety net as you progress through the game. For ship customisation you will also be able to fit more than one fuel tank to your ship – although this obviously takes up space you could have used on other modules!

Thanks!

Michael

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Thanks Doc, are you trying to take my job :P!

 

I am very excited about the missions overhaul... I've been waiting for this for a long time! Expecially the rank based ones... the founder exclusive missions were part of the kickstarter rewards, so it's great to see them make it in now.

 

The extra fuel tank option  is also great news, and not just for explorers.

 

There was a very succinct Ars Technica post that sums up the current game nicely [Edit this has now turned into a two-page review]:

 

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/04/review-elite-dangerous-is-the-best-damn-spaceship-game-ive-ever-played/

 

"To find Elite: Dangerous a good game, you have to like what it is: the greatest "I feel like I’m flying a spaceship" game that’s ever been made up to this point in the history of computer gaming. Meticulously planning out your trade routes and then hauling cargo for hours at a stretch has to be its own reward. Flying thousands of light years out into the black to see what no human has ever seen has to be its own reward. Blowing up dozens and dozens of criminals to snag their bounties has to be its own reward.

 

The journey has to be worth it for you, because otherwise, Elite: Dangerous is a monotonous grind-fest with no destination."

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You can have the cool Elite news job Wookie, I just got a pushed update a few minutes ahead of you it seems.

 

Glad to see that they're overhauling the missions. Right now it's just not worth it to take them after you're out of a sidewinder, unless you're specifically building reputation.

 

And that extra fuel tank will come in handy when you're refueling stuck explorers out in the middle of the galaxy with the coming drones. Who I will immediately name "PetMan" and "BigDog"

 

Also, I agree 100% with the Ars Technica review of Elite:Dangerous. Reposted for emphasis:

 

http://arstechnica.c...ve-ever-played/

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So I got my stick and I bought the game and...the stick doesn't do anything. Windows sees it, but the game acts like it doesn't. Googling this is fucking impossible. How do I get Elite to recognize my stick and accept input from it? The manual is fucking useless in this regard.

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Do you have anything else plugged in? I know that if I have a 360 pad and a joystick plugged in at the same time my computer will only choose to recognize one...

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Just KBM & the stick. I tried a different USB port and the game loaded with me doing cartwheels.

 

Windows recognizes the stick, and testing it confirms all the buttons work and the axes register as well.

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