[Elite: Dangerous] Get a ship, get a crew and keep flying. Now with ALIENS.

Drake

Elite: Dangerous is an online spaceships game in a completely simulated Milky Way galaxy in the year 3300. Mankind has settled a volume of space hundreds of light years in diameter. Three superpowers exist here, the Federation, the Empire and the Alliance. Each of these three major powers are teeming with factions. Then there are independent factions of all types, from egalitarian democrats to dictatorial slavers. Commanders (the in-game reference to all players) can gain and lose reputation with any of these powers, including the three superpowers. And there are three ways to build your reputation. Three paths to become Elite.

COMBAT
Become a fearless combat pilot. Engage in military conflict, assassination, mercenary wetwork, bounty hunting, piracy or just go plain psycho fucking nuts and see how long you can keep going.

TRADE
Become a shrewd merchant. Ply the trade lanes, scraping every last credit you can from your cargo hold and Frameshift Drive. Collect necessary resources for a particular faction, reinforcing their strength and position. Gather food and guns for the starving and oppressed, and if are particularly charitable you just may gain allies that much faster.

EXPLORE
Roam the uncharted systems, looking for the next big strike. Planets rich with resources, the orbits of stars, planets, moons, asteroid and more are out there for you to discover and chart. The right data can make a man rich. And there is the frontier, a place stalked by alien menaces and escaped rogue AI. Wonders surely await amongst the danger.

All of this takes place in an online sandbox simulation of the Milky Way galaxy. The players are members of an elite organization, the Pilot's Federation, a kind of self policing loosely organized spacer's guild. Humanities interstellar civilization depends upon this nominally neutral organization for survival. Without them the life blood of trade and exploration would cease. The Commanders of this group have a ranking system rooted in combat kills, the starting rank is Harmless and the highest ranking is Elite. Over the years the ranking has been expanded to Trade and Exploration as well bringing us to the ultimate ranking of Triple Elite. And rank hath its priveleges. As a pilot in this federation you will engage in all manners of activity, all of your choosing. You can be a defender of the downtrodden, a murderous psychopath, a calculating and amoral criminal or whatever you set out to achieve. It may not happen overnight, but if you stick with it and pay attention to the details you just may end up living the galactic space opera of your dreams.

Here is the controversial launch trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6peGu2yG6o

Yes, it's rather combat heavy and hyperbolic. I can say that while it may not be entirely accurate I have had many moments that felt like the moments shown in the trailer. As far as hyperbolic CGI trailers for video games go it's pretty much standard fare. And there is an absolute wealth of real gameplay footage and information. Like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8umAuCmqdo4

And this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeIeZdvMS9Y

Ok yeah that ended up being a lot of combat too. I guess you do fight a lot in Elite so maybe that launch trailer isn't so out there?

Even so there are other activities you can pursue, like the Buckyball Racing League.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg8pO25DtUM

Or the Fuel Rats.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZj3mbZVnNI


Horizons and Beyond
Now, almost a year after launch we have a new expansion pack coming, called Horizons. The big feature here is going to be planetary landings, including zipping around in rad buggies with guns. Screenshots have already shown wrecks to explore and drones to fight. Who knows what other new surprises will be waiting for us down there? But wait I hear you say, 2015 isn't over yet! That's right. The base game is getting a few more updates before the new season launches. CQC Championship will launch practically any day now, bringing quick, round based arena combat to Elite with balanced teams. Test your skill in a level playing field where you don't have to put your savings on the line. Afterwards will come update 1.5 aka The Ships update. We'll be getting quite a few new vessels to fly around in. And the base game will continue to receive updates as well, but for the really big features like planetary landings you'll need to buy the seasonal expansions.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4sAe16UTDg

NEW SHIT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rSC0lNuNyw

That's all the new shit I've got for now. I may update this OP. Nah, who am I kidding. No one reads these fucking things anyway.

Edit: Ok, here's an update. Here's a private group started by @Axen along with some other useful stuff.

Axen wrote: »

So I went ahead a started a Private Group. I know a lot of people here generally play Solo, but the Private Group comes with all the benefits of Solo with the added bonus of having other PAers flying around. Little reason not to always load up in the Private Group instead of Solo. Also nobody actually "hosts" the Private Group so even if I'm not online everyone else can still tool around the galaxy.

Just send a friend invite to Axen Moon and I'll be sure to add you as soon as I can.

edit- Actually I think you have to go to Friends and Private Groups, select the Groups tab and search for Axen Moon. Been awhile so not 100% on it.


I've had a few people ask me how I changed my HUD colors. So I figure I'll just post what you need here.
For reference mine looks like this;

First you'll need Dr. Kaii's ED Profiler and here is the thread on it. Technically you can do all this by hand, but the profiler makes it super easy.

Next I recommend checking out NO2O! The Definitive List of color presets complete with screenshots. You can certainly expirement with your own values, but that thread has numerous tried and true setups and chances are one of em will catch your fancy.

edit- Oh yeah, the ED Profiler actually comes with all the NO2O! presets.

Some other random things.

Sidewinder Radio is a good "in-universe" radio station. They mostly play electronica, dubstep, British pop, etc. My favorite part is the awesomely done commercials and the Galnet News updates. Kinda handy to keep you in the loop.

Lave Radio is a great podcast in which they discuss all sorts of ED related topics. From general mechanics, upcoming patches, lore and other fun nonsense. They also have their own streaming radio station with commercials and updates.

I usually listen to Sidewinder Radio and will switch to Lave Radio podcast as they come out.

Elite: Dangerous Database is an insanely useful website. With it you can find the most likely locations for anything nearest to you. I say "most likely" because things do update and change from time to time so the info may not be up-to-date. Still, it has proved to be incredibly useful to me for locating ships, commodities, anything really.

Sokpuppet

What I've been reading:

http://www.simhq.com/_air/PDF/NGNG.pdf

http://www.jg-51.com/topsecret/Fighter_Combat-Tactics_and_Maneuvering.pdf

Not necessarily related to Elite, except insofar as basic fighter maneuvers and geometry considerations might apply.
But surprisingly often applicable.

Tube

I feel like y'all let everyone down by not posting about the insanely lucrative CG. Is that a regular thing now?

Drake

seriously I could use some hundreds of millions.

Thirith

CG - that's "community goal", right? So far I've been faintly aware of them but I've yet to participate in any of them. Is it worth it? Is it simply a goal to work towards, or does it offer some kind of immediate reward beyond whatever reward you'd get from the activity anyway?

Tube

Apparently it's super fucking worth it!

Thirith

So what exactly is it and how does one take part in it?

Tube

There's different ones, you can check the news part of the UI for information. Normally it's trucking stuff somewhere or handing in bonds.

Thirith

Thanks. So they actually pay well? Guess I should check 'em out and see if they fit in my usual activities.

daveNYC

Thirith wrote: »

So what exactly is it and how does one take part in it?

They also display at the top of the mission board, and they have icons on the galaxy map (if you have that turned on).

And it turns out that my 'report crimes against me' button was on, so looks like a bit of a bug. So just in case folks, double check to see if the NPC that interdicted you is wanted or lawless before you kill them. Don't want to wipe them out, then continue on to an in-system station to face an overly shooty welcome.

Drake

Some pay well and some don't. Sometimes you get benefits at related stations and such. Often you are working to directly impact the game. You'll be hauling materials to build a station for colonizing a new system, or hauling medicine into a plague zone, perhaps you'll be engaged in a conflict as a mercenary or you'll be rounding up the local criminals. Practically any activity in the game will show up as a CG at some point or another.

One of my first big paydirts in the game was fighting for the Federation in Lugh.

MadPen

On the whole, CGs are quite lucrative. I can't say I've ever regretted participating in one.

mastman

Sorry! I only found out about it late Sunday evening, and they're usually not that lucrative, but it is usually an easy to make 2-10M. It takes very little work to be in top 50% reward tier.

Decent site to monitor them. http://inara.cz/galaxy-communitygoals

Zerocz

Postcard from Robert Aiken Orbital, in Firdaus.

Bigity

The CG for drugs that just ended was a huge money maker. We had a guy in our PP faction that cleared 140 mil - and didn't poop sock it. Of course, a good chunk of that was the 8k per ton profit from just selling the stuff - before the CG payout.

The current one for tobacco looks to be in the same ballpark.


EDIT: 7.3k per ton profit from selling the tobacco, and 624t got me into the top 30% at 2:10 CST.

DarkMecha

Apparently a crashed alien vessel of some sort has been found!!!

http://imgur.com/a/Ior7C

Drake

Research the Elite way.

Boop.

Thirith

Is there a generally accepted opinion on the Engineers? Is it worth seeking out at least some of them? I was just on my way to Tod McQuinn when my internet connection briefly went on the fritz, but I have no idea whether I'm heading there for a small reward or a fair chance of no real reward at all.

Zerocz

Yes, if you have Horizons, they are absolutely worth seeking out. Just don't expect instant gratification. Bookmark this site. There's no point heading to one unless you have that mats to unlock them or perform the mod a few times.

Derrick

Thirith wrote: »

Is there a generally accepted opinion on the Engineers? Is it worth seeking out at least some of them? I was just on my way to Tod McQuinn when my internet connection briefly went on the fritz, but I have no idea whether I'm heading there for a small reward or a fair chance of no real reward at all.

They changed the recipes a while back. Even the level 1 modifications (which are very easy to obtain) are significant boosts.

Thirith

Cool, thanks. I've just found Tod McQuinn, but I have zero experience in the game when it comes to the SRV and to mining. Am I likely to find nickel on most rocky planets?

UncleSporky

The fastest way to find trade materials for the engineers is to be a miner. You get lots of that stuff just popping off of asteroids along with the ore you're actually trying to collect.

Zerocz

Personally, I enjoy driving the SRV way more than asteroid mining. Nickel is pretty common. You can see what minerals are to be found on a world in the system map, after scanning them or a nav beacon.

Tube

I might un mothball the Type 9 and go do some mining.

Skeith

Probably going to sit out by Jacques' until the exploration data goal ends so I don't have to drag my butt all the way back out there. Haven't been playing since Legion hit anyway, so...

Axen

Got back in to this after a long hiatus. Took me a day or so to get a handle on things again.

When I did get back I had about 170k in the bank. Very first mission I see is a "land on planet, blow something up" mission that payed out 570k. Sooo, that helped kickstart things for me.

I think I'll keep doing Merc stuff for awhile yet.

Excited for the new patch!

Syngyne

I'm just about done mapping all the S171 systems in the NGC-7822 nebula. 50 systems with blue-white primaries, one of which had a whopping 56 objects to scan.

Ready to head home. I swear I think I've been sitting in this nebula since April.

DrDinosaur

Following the vocal outcry regarding instant ship transfers, Frontier have reversed their position and are now planning to implement a wait time for ship and module transfer services. Currently, there will be a minimum of a five minute delay for any transfer, scaling with distance; they estimate transferring a ship across the bubble will take 100 minutes under their proposed system.

However, they are willing to go back to their original position of instant transfer if a significant majority of a large turnout vote in favor of said position on a poll that they are running through Monday of next week.

If you have strong feelings on the matter, let them know!

MechMantis

Man I don't mind a time delay on ship transfers at all, Space Fed-Ex can only be so good.

Tube

That time delay seems pretty reasonable. No delay is objectively better for players who don't have much time but I'll take the compromise.

Bigity

100 minutes is too long IMO. You can do that in less than 100 minutes.

If the system is about QoL - it should be less. IMO anyway. Any time limit will be better than what we have now.

Assuming that the clock runs even while you aren't playing the game.

Tube

Oh yeah if the clock doesn't run offline it's fucking ridiculous, but I don't think they even have the ability to do that. All clocks are persistent in Elite.

I guess it's going to be annoying if you ave two hours to play and it takes 100 minutes to get your ship, but then they're saying that's the max cap.

Bigity

Tube wrote: »

Oh yeah if the clock doesn't run offline it's fucking ridiculous, but I don't think they even have the ability to do that. All clocks are persistent in Elite.

I guess it's going to be annoying if you ave two hours to play and it takes 100 minutes to get your ship, but then they're saying that's the max cap.

Yea, it's not ideal for me - when I hop on, it is usually short notice and I'd personally get more use out of instant transfers, but I also see that some delay is reasonable and better than nothing.

Zerocz

As convenient as instant ship transfer would be, I honestly believe it would hurt the experience.
Muh immershun! would be ruined by changing ships like hats.

General_Armchair

DrDinosaur wrote: »

Following the vocal outcry regarding instant ship transfers, Frontier have reversed their position and are now planning to implement a wait time for ship and module transfer services. Currently, there will be a minimum of a five minute delay for any transfer, scaling with distance; they estimate transferring a ship across the bubble will take 100 minutes under their proposed system.

However, they are willing to go back to their original position of instant transfer if a significant majority of a large turnout vote in favor of said position on a poll that they are running through Monday of next week.

If you have strong feelings on the matter, let them know!

I know some people with strong feelings that I'm passing this along to.

edit:
They already know.

Syngyne

Just had something interesting happen. I had driven my SRV to the top of a rock formation in the middle of a crater (which I am calling Mt. Bastard for what a pain in the ass it was to get to, that crater was deceptively smooth looking and smaller from above), and not wanting to drive back down again, I recalled my ship. The top of the formation was pretty lumpy, so I didn't know if the ship was going to be able to find a spot to land there or if it would just land way down on the crater floor and I'd have to drive to it anyway.

It ended up doing neither. It came down almost on top of me (which was worrying), opened the cargo hatch, and just stopped. I waited a few seconds because the landing gear hadn't deployed, but it didn't move, and I realized it wasn't actually landing, it was just hovering there waiting to scoop me up. Neat. I didn't know ships could do that.

Bigity

I don't think they are supposed to

Tube

I think that behaviour would have to have been programmed in. Maybe they found it as an edge case during testing.

daveNYC

I'm hoping that they've put in some mega ship carrier that pop in when your ship delivery arrives. No impact on the mechanics or anything, just some cool eye candy.

Tube

I'm just thinking of how tedious it's going to be when it's like, a ten minute wait. You just want to switch to your courier to do a canyon run and you have to switch out and browse the forums for a while until the game is ready to let you play it.

Tube

Not to be too negative! Anything is an improvement, and module storage is going to be a real game changer. It should have been in the game from the off, honestly.