Elite Dangerous

[electricwhiteboy]

[quote="TopCat";p="2544043"][quote="Sendraks";p="2543823"][quote="electricwhiteboy";p="2543817"]Unless you're PvPing in ED I wouldn't have thought you need Engineer mods to be combat ready, especially not in a FDL. All the mods come with disadvantages, it's more jerry rigging than overclocking.[/quote]

I think it is a more a case of optimal performance, rather than being able to do anything at all. To be able to go after the bigger bounties, one needs a better optimised ship. I'm probably overthinking how much I really need to do this to enjoy ED.[/quote]
I'd agree with this, and I don't think you're overthinking it.

After months of grinding away, I now have an Anaconda which despite having top-of-the-range nearly everything (still need the 8A power plant and distributor, but the Bs are just about ok) handled like crap before I got an engineer to mod the thrusters and FSD.

The almost 30% increase to jump range makes getting about a lot less tedious, but even more so the increase in speed and manoeuvrability that came with the thruster mod made a colossal difference to just about everything. Admittedly it still doesn't have the pitch rate of a Vulture but it made all aspects of flying much more enjoyable.[/quote]

Engineers take much of the pain out of upgrading a 'conda. Though putting high level mods on D rated modules can turn it into a death-trap if you're not careful.

[electricwhiteboy]

You can piss off, Control. There is no way I'm getting out to take a sample.

[CdesignProponentsist]

Space pumpkins?

[electricwhiteboy]

[quote="CdesignProponentsist";p="2546112"]Space pumpkins?[/quote]

The Alliance are getting up to some questionable things out in the California Nebula. The pumpkins and these proto barnacle looking things were right by their bases out there. I got very excited when I found them, but of course I wasn't the first.

[electricwhiteboy]

Long distance exploration will get a lot of quality of life upgrades in the 2.4. 20K Ly maximum course plotting, and it will automatically factor neutron stars into the route. Plus, the ability to roll your own heat sinks and repair limpets. Not sure if the repair limpets are worth it in the Asp, you would have to leave behind either the surface scanner or SRV.

[BlackBart]

Just got ED on the Xbox. Currently grinding away doing data runs in the core systems in a bog standard Sidewinder. So far been interdicted once in Dahan, but saw them off with 1% on their hull before they jumped away Accidently lost control in Beagle 2 and got fined for trespasss.

[Sendraks]

I'm really enjoying Elite Dangerous again. The engineers are not as daunting as I thought they would be and making progression with them works quite well for short playing sessions. The rep grind for the Sirius Corporation is going on a bit but, again this is just missioning in manageable chunks. I'm getting there and will eventually have the engineering access to pimp out my FDL.

The biggest change has been my wife getting me a Thrustmaster: Warthog for my birthday. I had some fun building deskmounts for that so its more comfortable to use than having it just sat on my desk.



As good as the X52 was (software annoyances and squeaking side), the Warthog is a whole new level of amazing. Metal construction, this thing weighs a tonne and the quality of the build can be felt. The controls are responsive and deeply satisfying to use. Definitely takes Elite Dangerous to new levels of immersion.

[tuco]

Wash your coffee cup sometimes bro ;)

[Sendraks]

[quote="tuco";p="2578293"]Wash your coffee cup sometimes bro [/quote]

It's being washed! Well, nuked really.

[tuco]

lol nice set up

[electricwhiteboy]

[quote="Sendraks";p="2578292"]I'm really enjoying Elite Dangerous again. The engineers are not as daunting as I thought they would be and making progression with them works quite well for short playing sessions. The rep grind for the Sirius Corporation is going on a bit but, again this is just missioning in manageable chunks. I'm getting there and will eventually have the engineering access to pimp out my FDL.

The biggest change has been my wife getting me a Thrustmaster: Warthog for my birthday. I had some fun building deskmounts for that so its more comfortable to use than having it just sat on my desk.[/quote]

I'm grinding Sirius at the moment too. Hot tip, go out to Sothis in an Asp and haul some rare goods out there. Sell the exploration data and goods at Sothis Mining as a starter for 10. There are only two local inhabited systems in that area of space and Sirius has a presence in both. This means you can run missions between both stations, and stack missions very easily. Doing missions for them isn't the only way to faction grind. If you sell goods, mined materials, data, or claim bounties at a station they own your rep goes up. Don't forget to keep any Modular Terminals you earn as rewards, you'll need 25 as a bung for Marco.

I'm not actually interested in unlocking Marco, I want him to put me in contact with Professor Palin as he will probably be a very, very, handy man to know in the very, very near future.

[Sendraks]

[quote="electricwhiteboy";p="2578304"]Don't forget to keep any Modular Terminals you earn as rewards, you'll need 25 as a bung for Marco.[/quote]

Cheers for the tips!

Is there anyway to store Modular Terminals without them just reducing the amount of cargo bay space I have?

[electricwhiteboy]

[quote="Sendraks";p="2578306"][quote="electricwhiteboy";p="2578304"]Don't forget to keep any Modular Terminals you earn as rewards, you'll need 25 as a bung for Marco.[/quote]

Cheers for the tips!

Is there anyway to store Modular Terminals without them just reducing the amount of cargo bay space I have?[/quote]

That's the same problem I'm facing. Once you've actually got access to the Dog Star you can turn them in to Marco in batches, doesn't have to be 25 in one go. There isn't a way to store goods at present, only modules and ships.

[electricwhiteboy]

The permit for Sirius once you've reached allied status, and the invite from Marco are both RNG events. Really, Frontier, really? The invite from Marco only happens in the Sirius system and may take a while to drop.

[Sendraks]

Yeah, I saw that in the guide I'm following. I've already had the invite from Marco though, I just can't get to him.

[electricwhiteboy]

Not quite, you still need an invite from Marco after gaining access to the system, which comes through the mission board in Sirius.

It's really stupidly implemented. Why you aren't automatically given the permit and the invite from Marco once you hit allied is anyone's guess.

[Sendraks]

No idea. I suspect that the engineers will get overhauled in a future patch to make the system a little more intuitive and flow more smoothly.

[electricwhiteboy]

[quote="Sendraks";p="2578875"]No idea. I suspect that the engineers will get overhauled in a future patch to make the system a little more intuitive and flow more smoothly.[/quote]

Supposedly after 2.4 Frontier are going to go refresh a lot the mechanics which have been introduced, before adding more content.

[electricwhiteboy]

I've been playing in open again since most of my ships are big and nasty enough to at least survive and escape interdiction by other players... then my 'conda got taken down by a player in a silent running build Cobra. Tracked the guy down on YouTube and he actually ironmans the game, not in a no rebuys way, on death he clears his save. I've got some respect for him over the ironman thing, but the mine/torpedo trick cobra he's flying (whilst ingenious) is a bone of contention. Tempted to build my own version of this one trick pony to see how much skill is actually needed to use it against big ships. Yeah, a lucky shot from a large fixed weapon *could* take him down, but the only other option is ramming him when he dives in to drop the mines. Problem with ramming is he is far more manoeuvrable, get it wrong and you're flying straight into the sodding mines. Against a player that has no idea what he's packing, trying to work out what's going on and plan an effective counter strategy to this trick build is practically impossible, even just going "this is clearly a trap" and trying to jump out leaves you open to mines in front followed up with a torpedo to the thrusters.

[electricwhiteboy]

If you're returning to Elite tomorrow for 2.4 check the patch notes, there's a bug where Skimmers spawn too high around surface settlements then zoom down taking out your ship if they hit you. Hopefully this will be fixed for 2.4, but currently Frontier will refund your re-buy costs if this happens so raise a ticket. To avoid getting taken out by a rogue drone, drop out of glide slightly early and wait for the Skimmers to spawn and descend before making your approach. Be cautious as they are difficult to see at range and take a few seconds to spawn.