Elite Dangerous

Thought I created a thread on this recently. Oh well, diving back into it after 5 or 6 years. Getting the HCS Voice Attack add-in will alleviate some of the mundanity.

So, I thought I'd try my hand at killing Thargoids. Just like old times back in the 80's. Watched a video. Was warned not to engage a threat level higher than 4. After the level 4 I was chasing disappeared a nearby threat level 5 became too tempting. I escaped with my life, if not my pride.

They have expanded it a lot since it came out in 2014. There were 3 core areas then, combat, trade, and mining. Each has more depth now than then with some additions creating subsets of those main areas making new areas for advancement. Naturally as something new is added some (most) will find a way to exploit it and so changes are made accordingly. For example, the combat ranking system. It is based on a tier system giving you points for killing another ship based on your relative ranks. You get 1 point for killing another the same rank as you and it is graduated higher and lower for killing those higher and lower ranked than you. When the Thargoids were first introduced all Thargoid ships were counted as Elite. People found it relatively easy to kill the Thargoid Scouts so the hunt was on. I jumped in and killed several only to find that what I had read was outdated and the reward had been adjusted.

You don't have to understand all the intricacies inherent in the game to jump in and enjoy it but the depth does provide more when the basics become too grindy.

You can choose each session whether to play solo, open, or just with those invited. Playing solo means you will never encounter live players in the game but the markets and everything else are affected in real time by everyone playing, whether solo or open. That means if you find a good trade route playing solo, supply and demand are still affected by other solo/open players buying and selling those. There are political structures also affected in the same way.

There are many good sources for almost real time data in the game. Where to find good trade routes, where to find certain ships to buy, where to find gear for them, etc.... However, because there are a lot of people playing the game that data can become outdated very fast. If you're going to spend some time trading, and you should, learn the basics rather than just depending on sites like this: https://inara.cz/market-traderoutes/

Elfie noticed it just went on sale at Steam for $7.49. That includes the Horizons expansion.

It can be a little overwhelming at first. Need any help with anything lemme know.

The FTL drive has two modes, one for jumping between star systems and one for traveling FTL intersystem. It is the same drive and activated the same way but behaves differently depending on what is selected, nothing, an intersystem station, or different star system. It's called a frame shift drive but it sounds like friendship drive to everyone.

If you want to experience unaided flight, Newtonian physics are there, just turn off the flight assist (FA). Be ready to turn it back on.

You can turn FA on and off in the ship and it is handy if you want to flip your ship around quicker to get your non turreted weapons on target.

A couple of basic videos. I made the second because I didn't have the control for Flight Assist set as I intended and so did not demonstrate it in the first video. I think there is a limit to the realism of the Newtonian physics in respect to velocity but it's good enough. Obviously there's no sound or dust of that density in empty space so think of them as aids generated by your ship's computer to help you fly the ship.

They did more realistic Newtonian motion in Elite 2 back in early 90's iirc. ED is very playable though and they have added much in the last 6 or 7 years.

Another ED video. A little on missions for rank. I'm working on Federation Navy rank so I can buy a Federation Corvette. Requires Rear Admiral rank. This video shows an enroute interdiction. That's where an NPC or other live player, with ill intent, tries to pull you out of hyper space. The difficulty in preventing the interdiction is dependent on how well your ship maneuvers and how well the ship of the one interdicting maneuvers. Both the skill of the pilot and the ship's maneuverability are factors. In this case my Python is much more maneuverable than the interdicting Anaconda so it was fairly easy. Transporting a full load of goods in my Type 9 makes it much harder. You can of course be on the other side, interdicting bad guys with big bounties or merchants with big loads should you feel pirateish. Feel the power of the Dark Side.

On the ship naming thing I just discovered, I'm easily amused. It's like a super power.