Oh my...Elite Dangerous:Horizons

[sandman2575]

I'd be curious to know how much you guys pay attention to E:D's politics? I only just became aware that "BGS" is a 'thing' in E:D:  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=674706524

Politics seems like a perfect example of E:D's depth that the game does very little to advertise. It's easy to see where the attitude of "E:D looks great but there's nothing to do" comes from -- actually, there's tons to do, but you need to discover a lot of it on your own, if you don't play MP/Open! E:D definitely does *not* hold the player's hand!

It sounds like the Power Play side of E:D's galactic politics has not been a success. I honestly have no real idea how the Power Play system works. But trying to manipulate politics / balances of power on the BGS side of things sounds pretty cool, actually. I've been running missions for different factions purely with an eye toward profit, and not at all considering how my own actions might be affecting a system's balance of power!

[SirAndrewD]

I'd be curious to know how much you guys pay attention to E:D's politics? I only just became aware that "BGS" is a 'thing' in E:D:  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=674706524

Politics seems like a perfect example of E:D's depth that the game does very little to advertise. It's easy to see where the attitude of "E:D looks great but there's nothing to do" comes from -- actually, there's tons to do, but you need to discover a lot of it on your own, if you don't play MP/Open! E:D definitely does *not* hold the player's hand!

It sounds like the Power Play side of E:D's galactic politics has not been a success. I honestly have no real idea how the Power Play system works. But trying to manipulate politics / balances of power on the BGS side of things sounds pretty cool, actually. I've been running missions for different factions purely with an eye toward profit, and not at all considering how my own actions might be affecting a system's balance of power!

I've paid moderate attention to it, at least when it's relevant to something I'm doing in game.   For example, griefers threw the Maia system into turmoil to prevent commanders in both open and solo from being able to buy Meta Alloys (needed for Engineers and for restarting Unknown probe bombed stations) from the base there.  Therefore, it became important for players on the other side of it to run missions for the controlling system faction and get the markets back open. 

Fighting against the player run Crimson State group in the Great war for Lugh was also a blast. 

As to powerplay, yeah, it's rubbish.  The central problem with it, is that it limits your ability to travel freely and make your own way.  It locks you to a very small sub-faction that is very difficult to leave, and your loyalty to that sub-faction makes you hostile with their opponents wherever you go.  All of that gets you, not much, unless you're willing to grind a lot and get a decent set income from your patron.  Some people get involved in it, but for myself, as someone who plays as a pure mercenary, the mechanic is a bit too limiting for my taste.

[undercovergeek]

I see the factions and the power play families but take little notice - in one hand I don't have the time to do that much reading and immersion, if it was my only game then maybe I'd get caught up in it but this is mitigated by my other reason - I like to rpg myself as some kind of Han Solo character, I don't give a damn which way my trading effects the markets and factions, I'm in it for the profit

[JudgeDredd]

I see the factions and the power play families but take little notice - in one hand I don't have the time to do that much reading and immersion, if it was my only game then maybe I'd get caught up in it but this is mitigated by my other reason - I like to rpg myself as some kind of Han Solo character, I don't give a damn which way my trading effects the markets and factions, I'm in it for the profit

Exactly - that's entirely the way I pick missions  :)

[Kushan]

Finally one jump away from entering the Witch Head Nebula. Took some back tracking to find a route around the permit restricted space in the area. Rather then beginning to explore it last night I decided to take a break and do some exploring in my SRV. First time I've managed to land on a planet without doing damage to my ship. I did however do 20% damage to my SRV when I tried to jump out of an impact crater using my thrusters. Hit the lip of it and tumbled down the side of the larger impact crater I was going down into.

What the hell is up with the SRV? The thing is damn near impossible to control. The planetside missions can be very time consuming and dangerous due to control issues. What is the optimal control config?

Realized last night I never got around to mapping my SRV controls. Took some work but I think I found a set up I can live with.

Joystick Yaw Axis: SRV Yaw/Turn
Throttle: SRV forward throttle
POV Hat switch: Turret movement
Throttle side Hat Button: Vertical thruster

[bob48]

I lost all my Saitek X45 settings when my PC threw a wobbler. I've been trying to get them mapped again, but can I heck as like replicate how they were set. Its not the most friendly game for mapping controls.

[Kushan]

After seeing it on a couple of YouTube videos I decided to buy VoiceAttack and the HCS Astra voice pack yesterday. I have it installed and it does recognize my voice commands. Unfortunately, its doesn't recognize actions that are bound in game directly to my X-55. Looks like I'm going to have to assign a keystroke to all the commands I use before I can use it, which is basically redoing my entire control scheme.

[JudgeDredd]

I lost all my Saitek X45 settings when my PC threw a wobbler. I've been trying to get them mapped again, but can I heck as like replicate how they were set. Its not the most friendly game for mapping controls.

It does do 3 things right...

• Tells you when a control you are mapping is mapped to another control
• At some point, they grouped functions under a grouping - which is much better than it used to be where they were all just individual controls
• And it's best feature - allows the same control to be mapped to a different function if the functions are different

But yeah - I don't like going in there

[SirAndrewD]

If it hasn't been noticed, the 2.2 Beta started last week, and so far it's been pretty fun.  Really love the ship launched fighters, and a new, albeit VERY expensive remote ship transport option.

Played around with it a bit before going back to the main server and my 2.1 account.  I finally decided to upgrade the flagship of my fleet tonight. 

Here finally I'm in an Anaconda.   She'll be getting her 2.2 fighters right after launch.

[jomni]

Looking at all your money makes me cry.  :'(

[JudgeDredd]

lol  :'( I think I've got 145k in credits and I thought I was doing well grabbing that  O0

[undercovergeek]

Do you deploy the fighters like fire and forget missiles and leave them to do their work or do you fly them?

[sandman2575]

Looking at all your money makes me cry.  :'(

!!
Sir Andrew is a member of the galactic 1%, it appears.  :)

Was finally able to trade in my Cobra/Viper combo for an AspX/Vulture recently.  Finding it much easier to make $$ now, between the Asp's cargo + long range capacity (great for hauling missions) and Vulture's bounty hunting prowess.  Vulture's power plant limitations are a serious PITA, though.

I did fit out the Asp with some mining gear - have been curious to give mining a try - some of the mining missions pay pretty well - but not sure if mining is going to prove more work than it's worth...

[Kushan]

If it hasn't been noticed, the 2.2 Beta started last week, and so far it's been pretty fun.  Really love the ship launched fighters, and a new, albeit VERY expensive remote ship transport option.

Played around with it a bit before going back to the main server and my 2.1 account.  I finally decided to upgrade the flagship of my fleet tonight. 

Here finally I'm in an Anaconda.   She'll be getting her 2.2 fighters right after launch.

Congrats. I can only dream about being able to fly an Anaconda. Whats your secret to making credits? Community events, trading combat or just grinding all of them?

[SirAndrewD]

Do you deploy the fighters like fire and forget missiles and leave them to do their work or do you fly them?

Both.  You hire a crew member to pilot your fighter via telepresence from your mothership.  The crew member has a combat rating, and the better the pilot the more expensive it is to hire, and a greater percentage of your profits are shared with your crew. 

When launching a fighter, you have the choice of letting your pilot take the fighter out, or taking the fighter out yourself and giving control of your ship to your pilot.  Either way, you can give orders to your crew member.

Looking at all your money makes me cry.  :'(

!!
Sir Andrew is a member of the galactic 1%, it appears.  :)

Ha!  No, no.  That is absolutely a bare bones Anaconda.  I can't anywhere nearly afford to fully kit her.  All I've done with the ship is add an A rate FSD with an engineer upgrade, and D rate everything else.

The true 1% are the guys you see flying around in A Rated engineered Corvettes and Cutters.

Congrats. I can only dream about being able to fly an Anaconda. Whats your secret to making credits? Community events, trading combat or just grinding all of them?

Generally it's a mix, mostly involving smuggling and trading.  The vast majority of my credits were earned doing long range trade runs.  At first I was running the Robigo smuggling runs in my Asp, but they were very risky and could sometimes result in hours of work for almost no profit.

As soon as Robigo was Anomaly bombed by players, I switched to the Sothis/Ceos run.  That is MUCH more lucrative than Robigo, with none of the associated risks. 

My first Sothis/Ceos run in the Anaconda netted me 40 million credits in about two hours.

If you're not familiar with it head out to Ceos, 400LY out of the Bubble.  Best ship to take on this is probably an Asp kitted for about 60-70 tons of cargo and a good jump range.

Once at Ceos look at the mission boards.  You can start running data delivery missions, usually paying 50-100k a run to Sothis which is 8LY away.   Sothis offers the same data delivery missions back to Ceos. Run these until you're cordial or better with all the factions.  Takes about an hour or two. 

As soon as you're cordial or better, both Sothis and Ceos stations will start offering legal trade runs to the bubble, usually hauling Biowaste or Hydrogen fuel.  Most of these missions will pay around 3-5 million credits for 20 tons or less of haulage.  Pick up as many of these as you can, run to the bubble, deliver your wares and profit.  Pirates may interdict you on the way, don't even bother fighting them, just high wake jump away whenever you see the "Tasty Cargo" message in your local chat.   If you're actually at your destination and a pirate hits you, just jump to a nearby star and jump back.  Pirates won't follow a high wake escape.

Once you're friendly or better with the factions, they'll start offering smuggling runs too, and many of these will be back and forth from Sothis and Ceos.  If you're a risk taker and good at sneaking into a station and avoiding a scan, you can stack these with the data delivery missions and pop back and forth from Ceos to Sothis, making 3-5 million credits in about 5 minutes.  I do this while I'm waiting for the mission boards to refresh with the long range legal missions to the bubble. 

As soon as you can upgrade to a Python or Anaconda, the profits greatly increase.  The short jump range of the Python can make this trip a long bore, so I don't really reccomend it as the ideal ship to do it.  However, if you've got some engineer upgrades to the FSD it isn't so bad.  The Asp is the one I'd suggest, unarmed with an A-Rate FSD and power plant, B rate fuel scoop with a D rate everywhere else.   

It's a long haul back and forth, and you'll need a decent jump range and a good fuel scoop, but it's worth the effort if you want to bring in the big bucks.