Elite: Dangerous. I broke down.

[SirAndrewD]

Woah, quite a changelog for Gamma 2.0.  New ships too! Exciting!  Can't wait till I get off work.

[Nefaro]

I expected such money-making exploits to be present.  Like I said, this thing is essentially an MMO and that is very common around launch.

The problem, here, is that the developers must not have immediately fixed the issue, took down the servers, and forced out a quick hot fix for it.  That is standard M.O.  This "we'll investigate and repo" line sounds like nonsense meant to sooth the non-exploiting masses.

[undercovergeek]

apparently there looking at the account logs - shrug

as for updates, it always says 17:30, and it never works reliably until midnight

[MikeGER]

 so now where the 16th is near, and every single decisions in the Gamma already matters when:
taking missions, or trading to whom, and destroying little wanted vessels, etc...

I need a short 101 on Galatic Politics (without all the ED fluff and lore)

my understanding so far, please correct:

There is the Federation (the good?) and the Empire (the bad?) and some small Alliance too (what ever that means)?
or is it the other way around and Federation is the bad?

I guess there is a fractured frontier running somewhere through the whole Galaxy already, and both big factions battle (soon) over influence about more and more star-systems to get under their according influence / controll.
Then there is also 'unexplored/inhibited space' both factions are expanding into, right ?

Helping the Federation get me sooner or later a wanted person in the Empire and their space-bubble turns into a dangerous No-Go area which i enter only with the exception of doing some military sorties (guerrilla warfare / harassment / deep strikes) when daring to fly into their space-bubble.... probably with a according mission from the bulletin board     

and there is the same mechanism on a sub-level underneath inside all star-systems
all star-stystem have 3-5 local factions, some have a alliance to the Federation (in my bubble) some not, and there is a influence meter showing the local faction balance inside the star-system

so i recon:
it would be best 'to help/befriend' those local factions that are Federation partners
because the standing to a big faction gives protection in their part of the Galaxy and better prices in the market and lower cost on upgrade modules and repairs in Federation friendly faction's shipyards in general 
and in addition this is also how local faction standing changes influence your life on the star-system level (protection, price of goods, cost of modules.... well, and available missions of course, and interdiction probalility) 

which leads me to the conclusion:
Get the best standing with the local 'high-tec' spacestation operating faction that preferable also has a Federation alliance , because those usually have more modules in their outfit-menu to pick from (and so with summed up a cheaper price-tag)

Strewn in are also Pirate outposts and Pirate star-stystems.
Pirates i guess are hated by everyone regardless of faction-standing?, and are only save in their own Pirate star-system, protect by their local Pirate faction (or is it free  for all, out of the safe zone of a Pirate spacestation?)  ... with the exception of bounty hunters dropping in to cash in the local or galactic wide bounty put out on pirats head by either local factions or also the big factions?   

over time passing by (month in RL) the Pirate star system get more and more 'civilised',
local factions start to settle and soon the both big faction try to get a foodprint there too       
   

[RooksBailey]

I would like an explanation of this, too.  I am clueless when it comes to Elite politics.  I also would like an explanation of the fluff lore.  Who is this emperor who is sickly?

And good novels out there that explain this stuff?

[undercovergeek]

If you go to the elite forum, there's an elite literature section that has the books listed, a bit like the warhammer books, once I'm home ill post a link to a lore at a glance thing

edit here we go

http://www.jades.org/whoswho.htm - very 1980s but its an a-z of all the people and the companies in the game

and

and the empire wiki

http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Empire

[Yskonyn]

The new X:Rebirth 3.0 patch is out and now you can build stations in empty space .
Pretty much a game changer if you ask me.

As much as this game feel alive, I still have trouble with Elite in this area.

While the simulation parts of Elite are second to none, I feel like I am flying in a huge mostly desolate universe apart from other players and the occasional station.
There isn't much 'civilised' space around if you know what I mean.

It makes doing trade runs a rather lonely and bland affair so far. Not sure how I can engage in the bigger meta game...


-oOo-

[GDS_Starfury]

[mikeck]

I don't think any of the political entities are good or evil. You just role-play figure out which one you want to be a part of and help it out or which when you want to fight and destroy it ...or be a pirate or whatever you want. The federation is this like a republic controlled by corporations the empire is like the Roman empire in the alliance is basically a loose confederacy of independence planets....fighting for control Space

[mikeck]

The new X:Rebirth 3.0 patch is out and now you can build stations in empty space .
Pretty much a game changer if you ask me.

As much as this game feel alive, I still have trouble with Elite in this area.

While the simulation parts of Elite are second to none, I feel like I am flying in a huge mostly desolate universe apart from other players and the occasional station.
There isn't much 'civilised' space around if you know what I mean.

It makes doing trade runs a rather lonely and bland affair so far. Not sure how I can engage in the bigger meta

I agree 100%. Elite is the far better game in terms of quality and size and almost everything else ..but rebirth still just feels like more than alive universe to me

[JudgeDredd]

I just can't look at Rebirth. The graphical choice is, imo, astoundingly bad. It's just so damned garish.

Everytime I fire it up, it's not long before I'm out and thinking "urgh"...and that's from someone who saw an incredible beauty in X3-Reunion.

[undercovergeek]

The new X:Rebirth 3.0 patch is out and now you can build stations in empty space .
Pretty much a game changer if you ask me.

As much as this game feel alive, I still have trouble with Elite in this area.

While the simulation parts of Elite are second to none, I feel like I am flying in a huge mostly desolate universe apart from other players and the occasional station.
There isn't much 'civilised' space around if you know what I mean.

It makes doing trade runs a rather lonely and bland affair so far. Not sure how I can engage in the bigger meta

I agree 100%. Elite is the far better game in terms of quality and size and almost everything else ..but rebirth still just feels like more than alive universe to me

I'm sure it will seem better once the story and characters are injected

[Yskonyn]

Yeah I sure hope so.
Grinding reputation for a faction and dodging an interdiction or two will not make the game last very long for me, I am afraid.


-oOo-

[mikeck]

I just want to see more than a station around a planet. I don't know...maybe huge freighters lumbering about...something. But I suppose that's part of the draw. Space is a big empty place. You can find a lot to do and stay out of the way, or you can go into the battles

[undercovergeek]

once you buy a type 9 - YOU are the lumbering freighter/passenger carrier