Elite: Dangerous

[Josquius]

Wow the controls are complicated.
I failed the second tutorial mission.
Couldn't figure out how to request docking clearance and my ship started to blow up for some reason- it seems pressing tab does something weird.
Pressing escape minimises the window...which is bizzare.

[Tamas]

Wow the controls are complicated.
I failed the second tutorial mission.
Couldn't figure out how to request docking clearance and my ship started to blow up for some reason- it seems pressing tab does something weird.
Pressing escape minimises the window...which is bizzare.

At the very least get an xbox controller for this game.

[Josquius]

I do have one.
It works better?
It's sort of FPSy so seems not too suited.  Will give it a go

[Tamas]

I do have one.
It works better?
It's sort of FPSy so seems not too suited.  Will give it a go

Its sort of flight sim-y, actually You want a joystick ideally, joystick with a throttle if you want to do combat. But especially for non-combat and non-PVP, a gamepad should suffice.

The main keys you need for flying, beside directions, throttle, and the jump drive thingie (button J by default) is the left-hand side communication panel because there is where you select destinations and ask for landing clearance.

[MadBurgerMaker]

Elite Dangerous works pretty well with mouse and keyboard too.  See this guy's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dD7LbDOaDU

[Barrister]

I dunno - not sure I'd want to play it without a joystick and throttle.

[Tamas]

I have been back to the game, big time.

Got a Cobra MkIII kitted for exploration, but I have been using it for expensive tourist runs, mostly criminals who dont' want to get scanned.

With my A grade frame shift drive it is not too bad to do a few hundred lightyears worth of round trip, and my medium-quality fuel scoop does its job while I scan the systems with my advanced scanner.
Usually for around 300-400 light years worth of round trip I get between 700k-1mil depending on whether planetary landings are on the menu, plus a 100k or so for exploration data.

And smuggling the passengers out and in of a station ain't too hard: I switch to silent running, and dump two heat sinks, those give me time to get out (or in), with 0-10% heat signature.

I also have a Type 6 Transporter, fitted with enough cargo rack to carry 100 tons. I was switching between these two ships depending on what I felt like doing. The 4A frame shift drive for the Cobra also fits the Type 6, so even when ferrying a full 100 tons I could make decent jumps.

Right now, I am almost ready to buy an Asp Explorer and fit it for exploration, although I am planning to set it up like a Cobra: mid-range tourist taxi. I'll probably sell both of the current ships, and have some cargo racks in storage to put on the Asp when I feel like trading. Then when I have around 23 mill I'll grab myself a Type 7 to have a cargo barge again.

What I am also considering is slowly going toward the middle of the galaxy, doing mercenary work in my Asp while doing so. I am really tempted to go proper exploring but I think I'd need to go thousands of lightyears to put my name on some systems, and hundreds of jumps each way gives me a pause. I can see plenty of sights doing these missions:

[MadBurgerMaker]

Storage?   Can you store modules you aren't using now?

[Tamas]

Storage?   Can you store modules you aren't using now?

yes AND you can have them transported from other bases to the one you are at, for a nominal fee of a few hundred credits, and a timeframe of 6-18 minutes depending on distance (I am assuming there are longer waiting times but I haven't been that far from my modules yet).

You can do the same with stored ships as well. Not very realistic I guess, but sure convenient!

[MadBurgerMaker]

yes AND you can have them transported from other bases to the one you are at, for a nominal fee of a few hundred credits, and a timeframe of 6-18 minutes depending on distance (I am assuming there are longer waiting times but I haven't been that far from my modules yet).

You can do the same with stored ships as well. Not very realistic I guess, but sure convenient!

Finally.  Are you able to toss the modules into your cargohold and move them around yourself if you are so inclined?  The ships obviously not, since that would require a gigantic transport of some sort.

[Tamas]

no, but I don't miss it. If I want to switch from taxing to cargo hauling I can wait 6 minutes.

[MadBurgerMaker]

no, but I don't miss it. If I want to switch from taxing to cargo hauling I can wait 6 minutes.

Yeah nbd.  I'm gonna have to fire this game back up and see what else has changed.  I had been planning on setting up the AspX for exploration and just taking off into space before I got distracted by other games.

[Tamas]

I tried smuggling, jumped about 70 lightyears to the closest decent-sized Imperial system (just 3 jumps, yay!), packed 104 tons of Imperial Slaves, and went back the same distance to sell them.

Well, it was fairly fun, mainly because I didn't bother to check if the stations I tried to sell at
a) had a black market
b) was it closed or not

But before the 3rd try I bothered to check and found a station with an operating black market

Looks like silent running plus 2 heatsink launches can keep your heat signature low enough to avoid scanning while docking, although in one instance it was pretty close - a scan started on me as I was going through the station gate, just managed to bolt through in time so the scan did not finish.

And when on my way to the 3rd station, a pirate (NPC for sure, I play in solo mode) tried to interdict me despite it being a high security system.
Made it a bit of a nail-biter to make sure I avoided interdiction, as I did not want security forces charging in and scanning everybody.

BUT at the end it really didn't worth it: I made like 230 credits profit on one ton of slaves which is absolutely pathetic and can be achieved with hauling some basic good to a neighbouring system.

And it made feel dirty to sell poor slaves, all 104 tons of them.

[MadBurgerMaker]

230 a ton?  Man, that's disappointing. 

If you're doing long range hauling, you can go out to Sothis and Ceos and grab some transport missions.  They pay pretty well (several million per mission usually), and don't take too long if you've got a ship that can jump pretty far. 

Although they may have nerfed these places.  I know there was some talk of that, but I never checked.

[Tamas]

Thanks!