Elite: Dangerous (Kickstarter)

[DocRandal]

[Sorbicol]

With all the updates I'm looking to get back into this game, mostly to break my addition of playing XCOM 2 to oblivion. However my very ancient Microsoft Sindwinder 2 joystick appears to have finally departed this mortal coil (although that might just be Windows 10) so my questions is: Does the game handle ok with a 360 gamepad? Internet searching seems to indicate that it's a viable option, I just wonders if anyone here does so and what it's like. Also, are their any decent setup configurations to download for the game pad? I can get the horizons season pass but I can't really stretch to a new joystick. If the gamepad is an option I'll take it.

[DocRandal]

Sorbicol, I think the creator plays on a 360 controller, and since it's out for xbox one, compatibility shouldn't be an issue.

 

Links from a quick search of the forums:

 

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/283674-Coming-back-after-a-year-how-do-I-use-the-xbox-one-controller-couple-questions?highlight=360+controller ("just select default context")

 

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/254642-Xbox-360-controller-bindings-on-PC (resetting controller bindings)

 

Dr. Wookie may have better info.

[Dr Wookie]

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)

 

[Sorbicol]

Cheers chaps. Much appreciated! Alas I forgot I had signed up for the Battlefield 1 beta so I'm playing that now. The discovery of the alien craft though - I think I need to learn to drive with a game pad.

Have the idiots left Möbius yet or are they still spoiling it for the people who don't want to play the game their way?

[Dr Wookie]

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 ! 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 

[Cordeos]

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!

[DocRandal]

1) I haven't played in VR, but Wookie has? I've heard generally good things.

 

2) It's as grindy as you want it to be. I log in from time to time, do a little exploring, trading, combat, missions, mining. The only progressions are 1) Getting bigger ships and 2) Getting custom modified components for said ships. But you can do everything in the starter ship if you want (you just won't be as efficient). I haven't played for a couple of months (work, life, and other games got priority) and I have no worries that I'll be able to jump right back in when I load it up again. I am not "rich" by Elite standards...I only have a couple of medium sized ships (Asp Explorer, Python) and none of the larger ships.

 

3) There is a space asshole problem on the open server, but you can play on the Solo server or on a private server (The Mobius group is a large PvE-focused group that plays on a shared server instance) https://elitepve.com/ .

 

I always play Solo so there's no space assholes bothering me other than NPCs. I can understand wanting that 'suspense' but I just don't have time to deal with space assholes bothering me when I'm mining my own ore.

 

I like Elite, I was playing the original on my AtariST back in the late 80s, and it's a good space trading/exploration/combat game. With the patch coming next month it'll pretty much be a feature-complete updated version of Elite 2 and 3 that got released in the 90s, which is what I wanted. And there's more coming.

 

FYI, the game greatly benefits from using a joystick (with or without throttle) or console controllers.

[Cordeos]

1) I haven't played in VR, but Wookie has? I've heard generally good things.

 

2) It's as grindy as you want it to be. I log in from time to time, do a little exploring, trading, combat, missions, mining. The only progressions are 1) Getting bigger ships and 2) Getting custom modified components for said ships. But you can do everything in the starter ship if you want (you just won't be as efficient). I haven't played for a couple of months (work, life, and other games got priority) and I have no worries that I'll be able to jump right back in when I load it up again. I am not "rich" by Elite standards...I only have a couple of medium sized ships (Asp Explorer, Python) and none of the larger ships.

 

3) There is a space asshole problem on the open server, but you can play on the Solo server or on a private server (The Mobius group is a large PvE-focused group that plays on a shared server instance) https://elitepve.com/ .

 

I always play Solo so there's no space assholes bothering me other than NPCs. I can understand wanting that 'suspense' but I just don't have time to deal with space assholes bothering me when I'm mining my own ore.

 

I like Elite, I was playing the original on my AtariST back in the late 80s, and it's a good space trading/exploration/combat game. With the patch coming next month it'll pretty much be a feature-complete updated version of Elite 2 and 3 that got released in the 90s, which is what I wanted. And there's more coming.

 

FYI, the game greatly benefits from using a joystick (with or without throttle) or console controllers.

For some reason I thought online was on one big server like Eve, nice to hear there are PvE ones.

I have a joystick with throttle and Xbox One controller

Thanks!

[Dewar]

It is one big server, but it basically has different phases that decide what other ships you see. Economic, political, and event changes and stats are still collected among everyone playing.

[Dr Wookie]

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

[Vorlonesque]

With all the updates I'm looking to get back into this game, mostly to break my addition of playing XCOM 2 to oblivion. However my very ancient Microsoft Sindwinder 2 joystick appears to have finally departed this mortal coil (although that might just be Windows 10) so my questions is: Does the game handle ok with a 360 gamepad? Internet searching seems to indicate that it's a viable option, I just wonders if anyone here does so and what it's like. Also, are their any decent setup configurations to download for the game pad? I can get the horizons season pass but I can't really stretch to a new joystick. If the gamepad is an option I'll take it.

I'm pretty sure the MS Sidewinder 2 works in Windows 10 as its what I'm using (well, I'm actually using a Sidewinder FFB 2...but its close enough that I would imagine if Win10 detects one it should work with the other).  I'd guess that your stick probably is dead.  I regretted replacing my old SWFFB2 with a Logitech G940...I managed to find a new in box MS SWFFB2 a year or two ago on ebay that was perfect...I wasn't fond of the rubberized plastic handle of the red button model, so I replaced it with the handle off a regular Sidewinder 2.  I'm using a Warthog throttle and a set of Saitek rudder pedals with it, so its a completely mismatched setup but it works well enough!

 

[brkl]

I still have no idea where my Sidewinder disappeared to. I've been missing that thing for ten years.

[Dr Wookie]

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 .

[harv]

I've finally done it. I reached the best rank in the universe:

 

[DocRandal]

Congraulations on Tycoon commander! By the way, what color settings did you use to get that "cool blue" UI?

[harv]

 Tycoon is fine but 100% Lord seems way more important!

 

 

I think this is the color setting:

 

<GraphicsConfig>
    <GUIColour>
        <Default>
            <LocalisationName>Standard</LocalisationName>
			<MatrixRed> 0.11, 0.26, 1 </MatrixRed>
			<MatrixGreen> 1, 1, -0.45 </MatrixGreen>
			<MatrixBlue> 0.18, -0.26, -0.21 </MatrixBlue>
        </Default>
    </GUIColour>
</GraphicsConfig>

 

[DocRandal]

On 10/17/2016 at 8:07 PM, harv said:

 Tycoon is fine but 100% Lord seems way more important!

 

I fail at Idle Thumbing. *sent back to remedial Lords Management school*
 

[Dr Wookie]

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,)

[DocRandal]

2.2 patch notes: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/300177-Elite-Dangerous-The-Guardians-2-2-update

 

 

[Dr Wookie]

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

[Dr Wookie]

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

[Dr Wookie]

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.

[Vorlonesque]

Someone complemented me on my bright yellow Eagle with stuff on it.  Said it looked very nice and sporty.  Its always cool when you run into someone in this game and they strike up a conversation, makes it feel more alive!

 

[Dr Wookie]

Very nice! I just splashed out myself, on a new paint job and ship kit for my Asp