On the elite dangerous front, Awesome Fleet jump video:
ShadowDancerWhen I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie."London, UK
Having played throughout the beta up until now I've been very impressed by how few times the game has actually crashed on me!
They've been playing with the value of various items ingame, including that of ammo and the reward for bounties. It is definitely possible to earn a serious income off the latter now, whereas before any hunting trip ran the real risk of the cost of replenishing your ammo outstripping the value of the bounties. My last hunting trip netted me 170k!
That's a nice jump sequence indeed. I'm sure we'll run into more stuff like that as the game progesses. Apparently the Voyager 2 probe was sighted as well. Who knows what other easter eggs we'll run into.
I agree, the game has been running quite well from the start. So the problems I ran into were more like a fluke, not a sign of things to come. It's a dedicated bunch that's running the show at FD and they can all be proud of their achievement as well. On the other hand I will eventually have to upgrade my puter system, it's barely making the cut right now. Even so, I'm enjoying the game at its lowest settings.
I'm starting a brand new game with 40000 credits in the bank and a cobra in the bay. I need to make some cash so I can get better guns. Pulse lasers just don't cut it. A dogfight shouldn't last more than a few seconds, not minutes. In the original games, you got into fights a lot more often than you do now, and you have the choice to evade a confrontation as well if you don't feel like it. Either way, powerful beam lasers (like those on a battlecrab) are the way to go. Once I got those, I'll look into bounty hunting. ;-)
Edit: Gamma 2.04. They keep tweaking the game, some interface changes in the galaxy map. While the server was down I played a squirmish tutorial, two against one. It was fun, grinding down their shields with burst lasers and then finish them off with missiles. A guilty pleasure indeed. All this with a mouse and keyboard. I'm not sure I'll do better with a Saitek setup.
ShadowDancerWhen I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie."London, UK
Oh I don't know, I've had some pretty epic dogfights with Anaconda's that have lasted for 15-20mins. I tend to stick to the lasers as they are reasonably powered and cheap, and until recently you didnt have to worry about the cost of ammo. Now they've changed it slightly I might give the gatlings a go again in conjunction with lasers
True, I was referring to those matched dogfights, if your target is bigger, then you'll have more to chew on of course. lol Just got disconnected from the server again. This is something I will expect to see more often. Still trying to figure out stuff. I ran into some debris and there were containers containing blueprints littering the battle area. I scooped up a couple and they are marked as stolen. I guess salvaging is considered illegal. I have yet to find a rogue system with a black market so I guess if I get caught with these blueprints I'll get fined. So much for that idea. Not sure how this is supposed to be played out. Could have been a mission of sorts.
Edit: I did find the Jones Freeport outpost in the Bunus system where you get access to the black market. ;-)
Gamma 2.05. I guess they'll work on ED until release day to get most pressing issues resolved.
Can't tell what they fixed between 2.04 and 2.05, but not all has to be visible I suppose.
Anyway, I managed to complete my first mission today, although it was a total loss. I guess you won't know that ahead of time. I accepted the task to fly to a neighboring system to pick up rebel communication containers. Sounds easy enough, except all you'll find there is one star and some unidentified signals. Ok, fair enough, but two instances were toxic waste. Then I got attacked twice. I returned back to base to get fixed with my task still ahead of me. After the Gamma upgrade I returned to the system and kept looking, the first target being a transport ship. Then at last I found 4 containers with rebel communication records. Great, the mission was to retreive at least 1... so being happy to oblige, I picked up all 4 that were floating around and returned back to base immediately. Well, as it turns out, whatever those rebel containers are, you get fined for bringing them aboard the station, and to top it off, you only get paid for 1. So I'm left with 3 in my cargo bay, and the reward barely covered the repair costs of my squirmish during my first run. The mission did affect the local economy though. But that is a small consolation. Not sure how this is supposed to encourage people to take on missions. lol I guess that's why they call it experience. I won't try that again anytime soon.
ShadowDancerWhen I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie."London, UK
Yeah some of the missions aren't really worth the effort. Generally I'll only do the transport ones where they provide the cargo. At first they're not really worth it, you can make better money by bounty hunting, but after a while you start to get better paying ones as your rep increases with the factions in that system. Still, they do need to work on the mission system some more
Agreed, unless you know exactly where you can find the cargo nearby, don't bother with the missions that ask you to find it.
As for the Black Box/Rebel Transmission/Military Plans missions, you're better off finding those things first, smuggling them onto a station and seeing if you can find a mission that asks for those things. Despite the wording of the mission, it doesn't matter where you get them from, so you can just sell them instantly
Also I came across an NPC with a very interesting name
I did a couple logistics missions and they do pay well enough for what little risk you take. I can see myself making a few credits that way. I suppose it is also about building up a reputation to get better contracts. I do get disconnected from the server once in a while, so far I haven't lost anything yet because of it, other than a bit of time that is.
Nice one, Worf. Doesn't happen every day. ;-) Never gets old seeing a star like this. It gets a bit creepy once you run into shipwrecks...
I got offered a hit job... it pays a lot, but I wonder if that's just a way to get into trouble real fast. I guess I might as well try it now, since I haven't much invested in my avatar yet. That said, I keep getting disconnected from the galaxy server which makes the game quite unplayable. I'll switch to solo play if this keeps happening.
That disconnecting bug keeps happening to me in solo. I think it's an issue with 2.05 as lots of other people have been posting about it since that update went live.
So I noticed, I also failed my hitman contract for some reason. I guess we shouldn't expect perfection at this stage, the missions will need debugging too. As I write this another update (2.06) is pending. I will take screen shots from my missions as I take on contracts as the wording gets lost and I forget where I needed to go to look for my target. lol Also have to use the task manager to quit the ED client.
ShadowDancerWhen I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie."London, UK
The assassination missions also can be a pain in the ass. I wasted a couple of hours trying to find the target of one, and never did.
I just hope the failures don't mess up too much our reputations. So much for not wiping our accounts on release day. I will probably wipe my account myself anyway, with all the buggy and failed missions I'd rather start with a clean slate. The 2.06 update did not fix the server problems...
Okay, wow! That was fun. I managed to figure out a hitman mission and I was not disconnected once. I did die in the end but at least I know now how to go about it. The target I was supposed to locate flew an Anaconda so I was outclassed in my Cobra Mk3. You are given 3 systems and in each you need to look for unidentified signals and check them out until you get a mission update telling you that the target is actually in a 4th system. Once there you need to look for yet another unidentified signal which will contain your hidden target. I know now why these missions pay so much... they include a stay in a hospital to lick your wounds. Ouch! Well, I won't have to try one of those until much much later. The pay check was the clue. lol
ShadowDancerWhen I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie."London, UK
I've taken out a few Anaconda's in my Cobra. You really need to get some shield banks cells to keep your shields up and healthy as Anaconda's can pack a hell of a punch, especially if they have a plasma accelerator mounted (think full shields and health down to 15% hull in one shot!). Sub-target the power plant and keep whittling away at it, running away to recharge your shields if need be, and they will go down like any other....eventually!
Well, I haven't, it's on the list of things I need to learn how to do. So far I've taken out only Sidewinders and Eagles using 4 burst lasers. I haven't upgraded anything else yet. It didn't take much for the Anaconda to punch me lights out indeed. lol Gamma 2.07 is out. Made it to Lave Station, the iconic place of the previous games. ;-) Today is supposed to be release day I think, the server is being worked on and now it says my current client is too new and therefor I can't connect. You can't make this up!! lol
I got attacked by a viper tonight and defended myself quite admirably with little damage and pocketed a nice reward. I'm over my first 100k credits. Business is good. ;-)
Nice job Worf, I hope they'll reconsider their stance on external ship views. It would certainly go a long way to encourage people to make more videos.
ED 1.02, bought my first Viper today... never flown it before. I think I screwed up. The Viper is smaller than the Cobra!! lol At least it's my first ship that I paid for ingame.
So I haul some cargo to some platform (Bakalaa Prison Colony) and I get interdicted by another vessel. I'm thinking, cool, a good opportunity to check out the new gear. I pop out of super cruise and power up my 4 burst laser which have served me well in the past only to have the entire ship system freeze on me because my 4 lasers are drawing too much power. Life support got knocked out and I have 4 minutes of oxygen left!!! In the meantime I'm getting pelted by the unidentified agressor. My sensors are down as well. In my state of panic I regain my composure and manage to deselect one of the burst lasers from the firing group and reroute some of the power to life support and regain control of the ship. Shields are down, I execute evasive manoeuvers for power to come back, I'm in no condition to fight and so I throttle up to maximum but I'm too slow to enter super cruise. Fortunately the engine energy buffer is full and I can activate the boosters and off I go and run to save my hide!!! You can't make this stuff up!! lol Wow!!
Anyway, this Viper thing isn't working out for me, can't get my Cobra back so I started a new game. Lesson learned. ;-)
I'm sure vipers are good for someone, just not for me. I find the specs of a viper too limiting, little cargo space, little jump distance due to low fuel capacity, reduced weaponry due to power limitations. After a couple jumps you actually have to worry about fuel. I suppose I got spoiled because I started with a cobra. I know I will have to get busy because the next ship on my list is along the line of an ASP Explorer, which is quite expensive. I also found out that the ship that destroyed me a few posts ago was (the Anaconda) the most expensive and powerful ship in the game. So the result is less surprising to me now. Not sure if I'll ever get one because I doubt I want to invest that much time in the game. lol
I figured out the mining part today and went to an asteroid belt to mine some minerals. Not sure how long I'll be mining, there are probably more exciting ways to earn a living. ;-) I'm still trying to find my calling. Bounty hunting is a bit out of my league but I don't mind fighting pirates and scooping up the spoils of battle. The game will evolve over time so we haven't seen everything yet. I remember how you could carry passengers as well in the old games. They added the slavery aspect, which is a bit odd. It made sense back then when you were able to capture pilots after a dogfight which isn't possible at this point in time.
Another successful stay in space, I finally figured how to interdict other vessels. It took some online digging to figure out how to do it. A YouTube video did an excellent job of explaining the details. A bug in the outfitting department did not help matters, somehow the order in which you install modules changes the mass they take up on your ship which is complete nonsense. Anywho, knowing when to run is half the battle in this game so this is where the dog part of dogfighting comes from. Real players know when to quit, NPCs will die fighting, so you will often go home empty handed with some bills to repair the damage. Got a first glimpse of an imperial courrier today before I booked it knowing I would surely perish. Knowing how to attack subsystems does not make up for superior firepower! Very educational session indeed. Not sure what shield cell banks do, I got some but I didn't notice any measureable positive effect on the recharge time of my shields, I guess they are useless when the shields are already down.
The game is ok but it lacks something to keep you hooked. I hope the online events will help to improve the longevity of the game.
ShadowDancerWhen I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie."London, UK
Yep, shield cells only work when the shields are up. If they've already collapsed then using them just wastes them; however if the shields are still up then they will restore them. Very handy if you're trying to take down an Anaconda for instance, as you then don't have to run away to recharge your shields, you can just keep blasting away at it.
Before I'll take on another Anaconda I'll try to get better at frying the smaller fishes ... or, snakes. ;-) I will save for a jump cloud scanner/analyzer, too many attackers managed to slip away when they realized I'm not that harmless as my rating appears to indicate. I hope this will help me track them to finish them off.
I finally equipped a wake analyzer. Hope it's worth the 40K I paid for it. It might just make dogfighting more satisfying, who knows.
ShadowDancerWhen I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie."London, UK
I've not tried using a wake scanner, so can't really say how they affect gameplay. The best things I've spent money on so far have been a decent fuel scoop and a kill warrant scanner, which tells you if there's a bounty on someone, and it gets you the latest figure on it, potentially increasing the size of the bounty payout.
Looks like there are quite a few things we need to figure out for ourselves. Fire group settings for instance and how to use gear properly in general. I learn new stuff every day. I removed the fuel scoop for now, I don't quite see the point in exploring uninhabited space at this time although I scan religously wherever I go as the rewards do stack up. Still some of the things they make you do seem stale and boring after a while. As I said elsewhere, this is the first stepping stone of a much greater game and it just needs to be fleshed out more and filled with content. The gameplay isn't yet there where the previous games were. Can't wait to see what they'll add next though.
They are currently updating the servers again after implementing some tweaks. I guess Christmas came early this year. ;-)
Great, I finally got my first federal mission and I am tasked to procure some combat stabiliser medicine which is illegal and hard to come by. No idea where to get it. I tried in an anarchy system and the market will only buy, not sell. The black market is totally useless, you can only sell illegal stuff there. I read online that CS drugs are available near combat zones. lol I have yet to see any signs of wars in ED. Sure I saw a derelict vessel once, but that's about it. Some aspects of ED seem like homework, I swear!!
Comments
Awesome Fleet jump video:
They've been playing with the value of various items ingame, including that of ammo and the reward for bounties. It is definitely possible to earn a serious income off the latter now, whereas before any hunting trip ran the real risk of the cost of replenishing your ammo outstripping the value of the bounties. My last hunting trip netted me 170k!
I agree, the game has been running quite well from the start. So the problems I ran into were more like a fluke, not a sign of things to come. It's a dedicated bunch that's running the show at FD and they can all be proud of their achievement as well. On the other hand I will eventually have to upgrade my puter system, it's barely making the cut right now. Even so, I'm enjoying the game at its lowest settings.
I'm starting a brand new game with 40000 credits in the bank and a cobra in the bay. I need to make some cash so I can get better guns. Pulse lasers just don't cut it. A dogfight shouldn't last more than a few seconds, not minutes. In the original games, you got into fights a lot more often than you do now, and you have the choice to evade a confrontation as well if you don't feel like it. Either way, powerful beam lasers (like those on a battlecrab) are the way to go. Once I got those, I'll look into bounty hunting. ;-)
Edit: Gamma 2.04. They keep tweaking the game, some interface changes in the galaxy map. While the server was down I played a squirmish tutorial, two against one. It was fun, grinding down their shields with burst lasers and then finish them off with missiles. A guilty pleasure indeed. All this with a mouse and keyboard. I'm not sure I'll do better with a Saitek setup.
Edit: I did find the Jones Freeport outpost in the Bunus system where you get access to the black market. ;-)
Can't tell what they fixed between 2.04 and 2.05, but not all has to be visible I suppose.
Anyway, I managed to complete my first mission today, although it was a total loss. I guess you won't know that ahead of time. I accepted the task to fly to a neighboring system to pick up rebel communication containers. Sounds easy enough, except all you'll find there is one star and some unidentified signals. Ok, fair enough, but two instances were toxic waste. Then I got attacked twice. I returned back to base to get fixed with my task still ahead of me. After the Gamma upgrade I returned to the system and kept looking, the first target being a transport ship. Then at last I found 4 containers with rebel communication records. Great, the mission was to retreive at least 1... so being happy to oblige, I picked up all 4 that were floating around and returned back to base immediately. Well, as it turns out, whatever those rebel containers are, you get fined for bringing them aboard the station, and to top it off, you only get paid for 1. So I'm left with 3 in my cargo bay, and the reward barely covered the repair costs of my squirmish during my first run. The mission did affect the local economy though. But that is a small consolation. Not sure how this is supposed to encourage people to take on missions. lol I guess that's why they call it experience. I won't try that again anytime soon.
As for the Black Box/Rebel Transmission/Military Plans missions, you're better off finding those things first, smuggling them onto a station and seeing if you can find a mission that asks for those things. Despite the wording of the mission, it doesn't matter where you get them from, so you can just sell them instantly
Also I came across an NPC with a very interesting name
Nice one, Worf. Doesn't happen every day. ;-) Never gets old seeing a star like this. It gets a bit creepy once you run into shipwrecks...
I got offered a hit job... it pays a lot, but I wonder if that's just a way to get into trouble real fast. I guess I might as well try it now, since I haven't much invested in my avatar yet. That said, I keep getting disconnected from the galaxy server which makes the game quite unplayable. I'll switch to solo play if this keeps happening.
So I haul some cargo to some platform (Bakalaa Prison Colony) and I get interdicted by another vessel. I'm thinking, cool, a good opportunity to check out the new gear. I pop out of super cruise and power up my 4 burst laser which have served me well in the past only to have the entire ship system freeze on me because my 4 lasers are drawing too much power. Life support got knocked out and I have 4 minutes of oxygen left!!! In the meantime I'm getting pelted by the unidentified agressor. My sensors are down as well. In my state of panic I regain my composure and manage to deselect one of the burst lasers from the firing group and reroute some of the power to life support and regain control of the ship. Shields are down, I execute evasive manoeuvers for power to come back, I'm in no condition to fight and so I throttle up to maximum but I'm too slow to enter super cruise. Fortunately the engine energy buffer is full and I can activate the boosters and off I go and run to save my hide!!! You can't make this stuff up!! lol Wow!!
Anyway, this Viper thing isn't working out for me, can't get my Cobra back so I started a new game. Lesson learned. ;-)
I figured out the mining part today and went to an asteroid belt to mine some minerals. Not sure how long I'll be mining, there are probably more exciting ways to earn a living. ;-) I'm still trying to find my calling. Bounty hunting is a bit out of my league but I don't mind fighting pirates and scooping up the spoils of battle. The game will evolve over time so we haven't seen everything yet. I remember how you could carry passengers as well in the old games. They added the slavery aspect, which is a bit odd. It made sense back then when you were able to capture pilots after a dogfight which isn't possible at this point in time.
The game is ok but it lacks something to keep you hooked. I hope the online events will help to improve the longevity of the game.
I finally equipped a wake analyzer. Hope it's worth the 40K I paid for it. It might just make dogfighting more satisfying, who knows.
They are currently updating the servers again after implementing some tweaks. I guess Christmas came early this year. ;-)