Elite: Dangerous. I broke down.

[mikeck]

I like the whole blade runner look of rebirth. That's it

[Yskonyn]

Yeah me too. I like the visuals of Rebirth too.
The fleet command functionality is not up to snuff yet, or so I read on the egosoft forums. It's still quite a hassle to manage a larger fleet, but its improving.

What I absolutely love about Elite, though, is the full manual docking procedure. You see others floating around inside the station looking for their landing pad as well. Truely awesome!

But Geek, you seem to be quite knowledgable (is this a word?) about the game; how do you keep yourself busy? How do you decide on which traderun to do? Have you done any exploration yet? How is that?

[JudgeDredd]

I keep trying exploration, but I lose my way...mainly because you can only make a single jump at a time and everytime I go back to the map, it's reset from the way I was looking...and therefore I can't often remember which way I was heading. The galaxy map isn't my friend.  :(

[mikeck]

I thought the latest variation included a "route planner" does that not working properly?

[JudgeDredd]

I honestly don't know...I never saw anything but I haven't been on it in more than a week...so one of the post gamma releases may have had a change to the universe map in there.

I'll fire it up in a minute when I'm finished with Assetto Corsa and let you know

[JudgeDredd]

mmmm...won't upgrade  :(

It is released tomorrow - so maybe just a blockage just now

[MikeGER]

There is a route planer now, but i used it just once and only a short trip... to a fish selling starsystem ::)

At least i start on release day now with my little above vanilla equipted Cobra workhorse (sold the Adder and the Freeagle today) ...now its getting money for the modules i want to install , while keeping enuf for trading and several times insurance pay  ...and then i plan to go for a second one with a different optimisation loadout.for deep space exploring.... and maybe even a third one as a pure military bounty hunting tasks vessel (when i have found out  by studying ED Forum posts how that is done without accidental pissing off those you dont want to )

[Yskonyn]

Any idea what time 1.0 should go live today?


-oOo-

[MikeGER]

working towards  available for download at midday GMT   their community manager posted yesterday

[undercovergeek]

But Geek, you seem to be quite knowledgable (is this a word?) about the game; how do you keep yourself busy? How do you decide on which traderun to do? Have you done any exploration yet? How is that?

havent done any exploration, ive stayed true to mining and trading - i find there are 3 types of gamer within Elite at the mo -

the new guys, never touched 1984 who think its COD in space, want to know where the medals and upgrades are and insist on calling the games basic mechanics 'grinding' - the problem for these guys is theyre not on the journey, theyre only concerned with the quickest, fastest route to a fully pimped out Python. They will seek every exploit, cry like babies when high earning goods are nerfed and rebalanced because they thought 10 million credits an hour was how youre supposed to play the game. In 2 weeks time theyll have all the bells and whistles and then say 'what now, game is useless, boooooooooooooo' and their favourite - 'this game sucks, cant wait for star citizen, its sooooooooooo much better'

the old guys, played 1984, understand that this is a remake, not a remodelling, understand that the whole point of the game is to be sat in space in a beat up Sidewinder with 100 credits. Developers open door on game world and say 'go, out you get, go play' like kicking a fledgling out of its nest. At the moment there is no plot, no reason for being, no prize, no end, no FMV movie led story to get you from chapter 1 - 30. There is you, your space ship and a universe to do what ever you want to in it - and this is the essence of the old/new clash - new guys are always 'why am i here, why am i doing this, what is the point', old guys are 'USE YOUR IMAGINATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'

then theres sensible new guys, the 'ive bought it, im curious, let me know what to do and i could probably have a fair crack at the game' - the issue being that the manual is the last thing the devs will write. One thing thats disappointed from through the whole BETA process has been the lack of communication from the devs - theres been plenty of 'next week is beta XXX', 'tomorrow is gamme XXX' but never any 'weve switched off the profits to be earnt in trading because we want you all to go out and test mining', or combat, or exploration - theyve never said what they want doing, just seemed content to have 200,000 people in the game, trying to break stuff. So new people do have my sympathy because theyve seen the trailer, read the advert and thought, wow that looks great and then just get abandoned in the gamma process

To answer your question about where to trade, and what keeps me busy, I and a lot of others it seems (old guys) roleplay the game - youre an independent space trader. Will you specialise in smuggling tobacco? bring tea to the uncivilised ends of the galaxy? only deal in minerals of metals? or be a wheeler-dealer trader in the highest profit product on the market at the moment? and then using the trading tools, seek out say, the lowest price for tea, jump whilst trading on the way to that destination and become the foremost tea dealer in the Arcturan system, supplying tasty beverages to the population of the surrounding systems - and thats where those who cant make the leap from 'errrr why didnt i get a medal for hyperspace jumping' and 'please devs make a instantly jump into the system/trade my goods without docking/and kill all the pirates who try to kill me button, game is broken without it' fall down - its a very barebones, make of it what you will game, noone will lead you, guide you, there will be no Total War style, go to this system, trade in 40 tonnes of platinum and receive 50000 credits from the council help - just you, your ship and the story you want to build in your mind

[Yskonyn]

I know, but past that. Concrete examples of how you go about deciding your mission. How do you sniff out profit?

[JudgeDredd]

But Geek, you seem to be quite knowledgable (is this a word?) about the game; how do you keep yourself busy? How do you decide on which traderun to do? Have you done any exploration yet? How is that?

havent done any exploration, ive stayed true to mining and trading - i find there are 3 types of gamer within Elite at the mo -

the new guys, never touched 1984 who think its COD in space, want to know where the medals and upgrades are and insist on calling the games basic mechanics 'grinding' - the problem for these guys is theyre not on the journey, theyre only concerned with the quickest, fastest route to a fully pimped out Python. They will seek every exploit, cry like babies when high earning goods are nerfed and rebalanced because they thought 10 million credits an hour was how youre supposed to play the game. In 2 weeks time theyll have all the bells and whistles and then say 'what now, game is useless, boooooooooooooo' and their favourite - 'this game sucks, cant wait for star citizen, its sooooooooooo much better'

the old guys, played 1984, understand that this is a remake, not a remodelling, understand that the whole point of the game is to be sat in space in a beat up Sidewinder with 100 credits. Developers open door on game world and say 'go, out you get, go play' like kicking a fledgling out of its nest. At the moment there is no plot, no reason for being, no prize, no end, no FMV movie led story to get you from chapter 1 - 30. There is you, your space ship and a universe to do what ever you want to in it - and this is the essence of the old/new clash - new guys are always 'why am i here, why am i doing this, what is the point', old guys are 'USE YOUR IMAGINATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'

then theres sensible new guys, the 'ive bought it, im curious, let me know what to do and i could probably have a fair crack at the game' - the issue being that the manual is the last thing the devs will write. One thing thats disappointed from through the whole BETA process has been the lack of communication from the devs - theres been plenty of 'next week is beta XXX', 'tomorrow is gamme XXX' but never any 'weve switched off the profits to be earnt in trading because we want you all to go out and test mining', or combat, or exploration - theyve never said what they want doing, just seemed content to have 200,000 people in the game, trying to break stuff. So new people do have my sympathy because theyve seen the trailer, read the advert and thought, wow that looks great and then just get abandoned in the gamma process

To answer your question about where to trade, and what keeps me busy, I and a lot of others it seems (old guys) roleplay the game - youre an independent space trader. Will you specialise in smuggling tobacco? bring tea to the uncivilised ends of the galaxy? only deal in minerals of metals? or be a wheeler-dealer trader in the highest profit product on the market at the moment? and then using the trading tools, seek out say, the lowest price for tea, jump whilst trading on the way to that destination and become the foremost tea dealer in the Arcturan system, supplying tasty beverages to the population of the surrounding systems - and thats where those who cant make the leap from 'errrr why didnt i get a medal for hyperspace jumping' and 'please devs make a instantly jump into the system/trade my goods without docking/and kill all the pirates who try to kill me button, game is broken without it' fall down - its a very barebones, make of it what you will game, noone will lead you, guide you, there will be no Total War style, go to this system, trade in 40 tonnes of platinum and receive 50000 credits from the council help - just you, your ship and the story you want to build in your mind

That sir is probably the best examples of the kinds of players who will be playing and a great explanation of what the game is/should be.

You are to be applauded.

As someone mentioned - the X universe does seem (no...IS) busier...but it's far too busy for me in Rebirth. For me Rebirth is not a patch on X-Reunion...I can't really put into words what they've done to it - but it's all wrong in my book. There's absolutely nothing in Rebirth that I prefer over Reunion...and it looks hellish to boot imo. Maybe my system isn't set right or the settings aren't right...but it looks gawdy as hell to me.

Could Elite be busier? Yes. Would that make me think it's a better game? No...not yet at least. I'm quite happy flying through a vastness and picking things up and selling them and avoiding pirates and thieves. Will I feel like that after a few months? I have no idea...I hope so.

[undercovergeek]

I know, but past that. Concrete examples of how you go about deciding your mission. How do you sniff out profit?

until the galaxy map is totally reliable - i understand some of it was fixed last night by the devs as the AI was getting a voracious in its own trading - and planet A says i import XXX and export XXX and this is set in stone (at the minute its not) i use www.elitetradingtool.co.uk - its a crowd sourced data bank of prices. When you get to a system you can open up the tool and update the prices of all the commodities there - my set up is my main screen for playing, and a small 15 inch monitor to the side unlocked to the trading tool, and daft as it may sound, when im docked, and the main screen is full of ships buzzing round the station and i can hear the station announcer, typing data into the second screen feels naturally to me like something a trader would be doing, updating his log book, making notes on where to go - its very immerssive

currently the tool is open on my current location Kremainn and im docked at the Wohler Terminal (theres 3 or 4 stations in this system), ive typed in my cargo capacity - 24, my cash 185000 credits, the minimum profit i want from any trade run (set to 500 for me), and then i click calculate.

It brings up over 100 deals, the most lucrative one at the top is taking a mineral called Berylium 12.85 light years to Kini and the station name - this will net me 902 credits profit per ton and i can take 23 tons due to the cost of the mineral, all in all 20,746 smackeroos, but this data is 3 days and 23 minutes old, no one has updated the price, so the market may have fluctuated up OR down - do i fly there first to check, make a note of all the prices there too, bring something lucrative back to Kremainn and then take the Berylium? Maybe i get to Kini and find they sell coffee for 30,000 to another system - so base at Kini instead and go from there?

Endless choices

a good rule of thumb is you want to find a 4 planet system with an agricultural world, extraction/mining world, forge world and a hi tech world. In short take food to the extraction planet, collect minerals from the extraction planet, take them to the forge planet to make metals, take the metals to the hi tech planet to make crop dusters, terrain enhancers and the like and take those to the agricultural world - and round you go, or mineral extractors back to the mining planet, or marine supplies back to the fish industries on the agricultural world. Or come across a rare item like Lave Brandy and take it as far as you can (the distance increases the price)

[Yskonyn]

Solid advice, thank you sir.  O0

[SirAndrewD]

Took off today, time to take my Viper and go interdict the newbies!

Kidding of course, but I am going to leave the Founders world to go watch a few of them slam their Sidey's into the sides of a station.

Going to be keeping four pips to shields while docking for a bit.