Elite Dangerous

[NoSleep]

Some of you might be interested in playing an updated version of classic Elite on your phone (Android): https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,82428.0.html

[ASFTSN]

I docked at a player owned fleet carrier at one point to repair/refuel but those facilities were temporarily suspended. Anyone know why? Heard some pew pew as I was struggling to land so wondered if it was a combat sitch.

Looks like players can pick and choose which facilities they want to offer at their fleet carriers, I was just unlucky to find one where they'd decided not to help out with fuel.

[Pavlov`s Dog`s Dad`s Dead]

This is on offer in the beat-the-average tier of a current Humble Bundle. So $9.01 when I looked earlier. Now, given my current set-up - a Chromebook (Asus C302c) - the only possible way I could play this would be via GeforceNow and a proxy to defeat the geoblock in my current country of residence. Am I going to have a terrible experience?

[ASFTSN]

Fully into this now. I think it's at its best for me when I treat it as a sightseeing tour. There's some flippin' lovely/eerie stuff out there. I've completely fucked out of human space and the feeling of loneliness is palpable, helped in large part by the planet "songs" you hear when identifying them on the Full Spectrum Scanner.

Hopefully I'll be able to sell some juicy cartographic data when I eventually head back in to the more populated areas.

[Puce Moment]

Fucking hell guys - I'm really struggling with this which is annoying me because I know it has the potential to be great. Part of the problem is that I have switched from playing on my PC to playing on my PS4. It's frustrating because I know I would probably be fine on the PC, based on my handling of the ship so far on this game. I'm going through the training but I am finding it quite hard to be honest. Even the safe training area where you have to follow three ships to shoot them down has taken me about 12 goes and I still haven't even managed to destroy one of them. I gave up after about an hour.

I find the interface overly complex, although I know I will get used to it if I persevere.

Any helpful tips to help me settle into this? I really want to nail it and not just play Gran Turismo because I understand the controls.

[ASFTSN]

Even the safe training area where you have to follow three ships to shoot them down has taken me about 12 goes and I still haven't even managed to destroy one of them. I gave up after about an hour.

I find the interface overly complex, although I know I will get used to it if I persevere.

Any helpful tips to help me settle into this? I really want to nail it and not just play Gran Turismo because I understand the controls.

Not sure if I did that particular combat mission or not. Sorry if the following's too obvious or doesn't apply to that training mission:

- Are you using the lasers to take out the shields on the enemies first, then using the secondary weapon to damage to the ship itself?

- Are you aware that your ship is most maneuverable when your thrust is in the 'blue' section of your speedometer thing? Pitching and yawing will be proper shit on your craft if you're faster or slower than that.

- Are you targeting the enemy ship so your weapons auto-track (or whatever it is) when you're shooting it?

- You can allocate the power in your ship between weapons, systems and engines if you want to give one of them more oomph (you do this on an Xbox controller on PC by pressing directions on the d-pad).

Might be worth pointing out that I've played for around 35 hours now and not tried to shoot down anything outside of the training missions, since I'm concentrating on exploring. Fighting can be part of it if you want, but you don't have to fight at all if you don't want to. Hope some of that helps a little bit...

[Puce Moment]

That is incredibly helpful and thank you for taking the time to write it.

- Are you using the lasers to take out the shields on the enemies first, then using the secondary weapon to damage to the ship itself?

No! But clearly I should be. I remember doing that on one training exercise now. I have just been smashing them with the lazer (R2 on the PS4 pad). I'll do that later!

- Are you aware that your ship is most maneuverable when your thrust is in the 'blue' section of your speedometer thing? Pitching and yawing will be proper shit on your craft if you're faster or slower than that.

My understanding during training was that the thrust does need to be in that blue section, but I didn't know it had a major effect on the craft movement itself.

- Are you targeting the enemy ship so your weapons auto-track (or whatever it is) when you're shooting it?

The whole situation is not helped by me trying to get used to the PS4 controller after only owning a PS4 for little over a week! So I keep hitting the wrong buttons. But yes, I have tried using that although it only grabs them into that box - I still have to aim and shoot which I am finding mercilessly hard.

- You can allocate the power in your ship between weapons, systems and engines if you want to give one of them more oomph (you do this on an Xbox controller on PC by pressing directions on the d-pad).

Did not know that!

Might be worth pointing out that I've played for around 35 hours now and not tried to shoot down anything outside of the training missions, since I'm concentrating on exploring. Fighting can be part of it if you want, but you don't have to fight at all if you don't want to. Hope some of that helps a little bit...

Yeah, I am not an experienced gamer so I am the type to go through all training missions and general help sessions prior to gameplay (I learned my lesson on Gran Turismo Sport not to rush in too quickly). But perhaps for this game I might be better off exploring and doing small missions so I get used to the controls and interfaces (there seem to be a few!).

On a side note - I am getting frustrated with this game because I know I will love it eventually. There are some lovely touches and I feel it has been made with care and attention. It might sound stupid but even the guy's voice during training is low-key and natural.

[ASFTSN]

That is incredibly helpful and thank you for taking the time to write it.

No worries mate, I personally installed, played for an hour and thought "nah", then re-installed a few days later and got utterly hooked, so I think it's worth persevering with. You're right about the care taken in crafting the details, it's pretty classy.

I only keep thrust in the blue if I need to maneuver otherwise I rag it to fuck.

But if it's still too much of a pain I'd recommend just skipping the training and jumping straight in. Any of the training missions can be played at any point during the real game too so you can always come back.

I made my first 100k credits doing low stress courier missions anyway!

[ASFTSN]

One other thing - on PC anyway, if you calmly press and hold one of the ABXY buttons on control pad , a window pops up showing what all the combination button presses for that button do, I'd assume that's the same on PS4 if you press and hold Square/Triangle/Circle/X. It's been a lifesaver when I've felt overwhelmed with the controls.

[Puce Moment]

So, I went back to the original training (which I bumbled through) to do it properly and learn and it has helped greatly. I'm learning more and the interfaces are starting to make much more sense.

I'm really struggling with handling in a way that I know I would be fine with on a PC so some of this HAS to be blamed on it being my first foray into a sandbox/complex game using a PS4 controller. I think I'm quite bad at the game, I assume - for instance last night after about 8 tries - I still couldn't land successfully inside a station. The AI trainer became increasingly frustrated with me which didn't help.

I don't have a huge amount of time, so I need to pick my big open games to try and learn very carefully. To be honest, I've been watching Limmy play Death Stranding and I feel drawn to it instead of this game partly because I understand its gameplay now. And it's a nice big sexy hard SF game with missions rather than just constant fighting.

But I will persevere because the screenshots people have posted and some of the gameplay looks fantastic.

[ASFTSN]

I saw loads of people agreeing on the Elite Dangerous reddit recently that the combat training mission you were struggling with is ridiculously hard, so I don't think it's you!

Landing - make sure landing gear is down, make sure the blip under your craft in the little display is blue and make sure the little holo-ship is facing "away" from you.Then gently descend. I park the ship like a slow motion octogenarian a lot of the time and revel in it.

[Puce Moment]

Had a better night last night for sure - although there were points of extreme frustration and annoyance (a variety of cockpit voices yelling at me for instance). I decided to go into live gameplay and just dick around, following people. I thrusted my ass randomly and came across a huge fucking fight between about 30 players - I just sat at the edge watching and they left me alone and then stupidly I thought I might join in. Anyway, 5 seconds later I had a bounty on me, 10 seconds later I was toast and in some far flung prison with a fine.

My own fault!

I managed to get landing nailed cheers - I think it's because the little landing indicator is set at an angle so I can't be 100% sure I am over the centre. I am probably just missing something obvious.

Anyway, any tips for the mode I should be playing in now? I would like to explore and land for some mining and thieving possibly.

[ASFTSN]

Anyway, 5 seconds later I had a bounty on me, 10 seconds later I was toast and in some far flung prison with a fine.

My own fault!

Anyway, any tips for the mode I should be playing in now? I would like to explore and land for some mining and thieving possibly.

Lovely story haha!

As far as modes, I just play in Open all the time. I've just headed back into populated space after a trip out and I don't know what I'll do next. There's apparently been an update recently with terrorist attacks on space stations or something.

If you're exploring with a view to seeing some sights, you'll want to save up to get a fuel scoop for refueling at appropriate stars (only works at stars with the classes KGBFOAM). I guess you must have the Horizons add-on if you're talking about landing on planets?

Use the D-Scanner to establish the orbital plane of any given star, then use the Full Spectrum Scanner (FSS) mini-game to go in-depth and scan unexplored bodies from a distance. The more detail you scan of a system, the more money you'll get when you dock and sell the cartographics. Different types of astronomical bodies also have higher valued data. And if you want to milk the system for the most data you'll need a Detailed Surface Scanner to fire probes from orbit for mapping.   

Thieving I haven't even scratched the surface of. I think you can gun people down and take their stuff once the blow up, get tech that forces their cargo bay to eject what they're carrying or just search for salvage of wrecked ships around those 'Degraded Emissions' readings you find sometimes.

Mining is a whole separate thing I can't help with either, sorry! All I have done is pick up a few little bits of material using the SRV which I know isn't the main way to do it (I think asteroid mining is where the real £££ is).

[Bence Fekete]

Just getting back into this after reading about the new planetary atmos on the way.

Steam says I've clocked 200 hours in over the years but 90% of that is just pissing about and swanning around stoned gawping at space porn and going on silly adventures only amusing to myself. I can't fight, I can't mine, I can't even fly very well. Still learning controls.

For a laugh try turning flight assist off.

One of my favourite moments in gaming last year was watching an Anaconda NPC trying to squeeze into the Orion Nebula Tourist Asteroid Station gateway. It was way too tall for the hatch but kept rearing back and trying over and over, back and forth, back and forth, this giant spaceship fucking an asteroid in the middle of nowhere for three minutes and then suddenly, pffft, it overheated and exploded all around me in a foggy sea of space flame.

Loving the new star coronas. And the fleet carriers look shiny and fun if it's even possible to grind it that far and retain some concept of a life. I haven't been in since the Ark update but after all the fuss I quite fancy some of those paint-jobs for a psychedelic fleet. One thing that opened up the experience for me was learning the free camera controls which allow you to frame shot or ship in every conceivable angle. It brought me closer to my ship and I finally realised why someone would actually pay for extra graphics and hoard digital screenshots like precious souvenirs. 

[Bence Fekete]

I managed to get landing nailed cheers - I think it's because the little landing indicator is set at an angle so I can't be 100% sure I am over the centre. I am probably just missing something obvious.

You can get an auto-landing module which is useful and I always put one in all my ships now. Also recommend the 'rags to riches' method as a reasonable way for novices to make money fast while learning to explore.

I can't honetly imagine trying to play this on a gamepad anymore, there are so many button combos to master. Well worth a small HOTAS investment if you think you'll play it enough imo.

[ASFTSN]

Steam says I've clocked 200 hours in over the years but 90% of that is just pissing about and swanning around stoned gawping at space porn and going on silly adventures only amusing to myself.

....One thing that opened up the experience for me was learning the free camera controls which allow you to frame shot or ship in every conceivable angle.

This is definitely where I've been getting the most out of it. Making up my own silly "in-character" reasons for doing things and taking pretty space pictures.

[Puce Moment]

Stupid question that I cannot find the answer to: sometimes the controller has me fixed in the seat - if I move the controller nothing happens. And then sometimes it is dynamic and I can look around the cockpit, at my feet etc.

Two-part stupid questions: Am I accidentally turning this on and off? It seems to come and go randomly.

Also, sometimes the angle of the controller when it is dynamic seems off - like I need to angle my controller away from me and down at an unusual angle to see straight ahead - it's not suitable for normal play at all. Again, what am I doing wrong as I assume this can't be normal.

New to PS4 remember guys! Elite Dangerous is probably not the best game to learn these things on for the first time and I probably should just play Fall Guys all day to get it down.

[ASFTSN]

Stupid question that I cannot find the answer to: sometimes the controller has me fixed in the seat - if I move the controller nothing happens. And then sometimes it is dynamic and I can look around the cockpit, at my feet etc.

Two-part stupid questions: Am I accidentally turning this on and off? It seems to come and go randomly.

Yes you are I imagine, this sounds like "head look" or whatever it's called where you can just look around at stuff - try clicking in the right thumb stick! (at least this is my guess - again I'm playing on PC with a controller).

Afraid I can't help with any motion-sensor-y stuff with the PS4 controller though.

[I.D. Smith]

Yes you are I imagine, this sounds like "head look" or whatever it's called where you can just look around at stuff - try clicking in the right thumb stick! (at least this is my guess - again I'm playing on PC with a controller).

Afraid I can't help with any motion-sensor-y stuff with the PS4 controller though.

I'm guessing here (got it on the PS4 myself but not had the time or energy to get into yet, despite it being in my collection for 2 years) but it might be the touch pad button that's been clicked accidentally. Might be wrong though - and might be getting my controls mixed up with No Man's Sky - but worth a shot

[Puce Moment]

Going to try that now - it probably is this as it comes and goes and clearly I am fat fingering something or other.

Edit: there we go, and yes it's called Headlock. Thanks once again. It doesn't help that I don't even have basic gaming vocabulary!

[ASFTSN]

If you're worried about playing it wrong, last time I booted it up I mapped a distant moon, then landed and spent 20 minutes using the lip of a crater with my recon vehicle to do jumps over my parked ship.

[Puce Moment]

HAHA! My main worry is that I end up flying off and getting stranded and I have to restart. Which is pretty much what happened last night and I had to go through the initial training again. However, it was quite handy, and I ended up flying through it which shows I have progressed. I had a good session last night pretty much trying to follow exactly what the game wants me to do as I trust it to find the best way to teach me all aspects of the game.

As an inexperienced gamer I am finding its breadth quite intimidating, and as someone with chronic OCD I also find sandbox games a little frustrating (I'm the sort of person who will smash every barrel in a game so that nothing is left untouched). I have dipped into some people playing the game on Twitch and firstly - holy fuck! They are all basically playing different games, with some doing dogfights, others being professional pirates on the lam, and one in particular which is a Catholic Vicar in the USA who plays it with VR and seemed to spend most of his time racing around planets on the land craft shooting at other vehicles like that shit scene in Ad Astra. Looked amazing.

However, the last thing I did yesterday was try to dock and I couldn't find my number dock so I kept flying around, smashing into the sides, and then getting fined and booted out until I could get permission to land again. Tried it six times - definitely a major weak point.

[ASFTSN]

HAHA! My main worry is that I end up flying off and getting stranded and I have to restart.

If you're still in the starting ship, all you have to lose on a restart or death is your cargo/mapping data. All of your in-bank credits aren't "in" your ship so they're safe, then I think you restart at the last station you docked in. You have to worry about re-buying your craft for a % of what it cost originally, but I don't think that applies if you're still in the starting Sidewinder.

However, the last thing I did yesterday was try to dock and I couldn't find my number dock

Once you have received permission to dock and are inside (oo-er) the targeting indicator blip shows you where your numbered dock is in station/base/structure, if you can't spot it. Took me ages to realise this.

[Puce Moment]

If you're still in the starting ship, all you have to lose on a restart or death is your cargo/mapping data. All of your in-bank credits aren't "in" your ship so they're safe, then I think you restart at the last station you docked in. You have to worry about re-buying your craft for a % of what it cost originally, but I don't think that applies if you're still in the starting Sidewinder.

Ahhh, I think I got massively annoyed and was in the middle of nowhere with no fuel so I thought 'fuck it'. It's because I didn't follow the set route it asks you to do to teach you proper docking so my own fault.

Once you have received permission to dock and are inside (oo-er) the targeting indicator blip shows you where your numbered dock is in station/base/structure, if you can't spot it. Took me ages to realise this.

Well, I'm at the point where I am worried there is a glitch. As I entered there were only a couple highlighted and those were for other ships. I got to the other end of the bay, turned around and there it was. Hang on though, you are talking about that indicator in the cockpit that you use to line up? That is what I eventually used to orientate myself and it really helped.

Off to watch a couple of tutorial videos now. I'm going to persevere with this game like a jaded, recovering alcoholic teacher trying to help an inner-city kid from the wrong side of the tracks. Every time it treats me bad I will hug it harder.

[ASFTSN]

Well, I'm at the point where I am worried there is a glitch. As I entered there were only a couple highlighted and those were for other ships. I got to the other end of the bay, turned around and there it was.

I suppose it could be a glitch but seems unlikely. They are easy to miss if they are very close to the entrance letterbox and are above you or to the side, especially if you're in bum-clenching mode trying not to clip the walls.

Srsly though just turn on auto-docking computer if it's giving you that much grief. You get it by default in your starting ship and can turn it off any time you want to practice. I sold it to make room for more cargo but the options always there.

[Puce Moment]

Yeah, I just went in on my lunch break (bad sign, I rarely game during the work day) and I can see now that my bay was right inside the entrance so I missed it completely. Actually, my craft needs to be pointed back towards the entrance so in a way I think they do it deliberately so you get used to moving around in those tight spaces.

I also had the volume up louder than usual and the sound design is fantastic. Has a belter/The Expanse vibe.

I am absolutely committed to learning docking - it has now become a point of principle.

[ASFTSN]

Actually, my craft needs to be pointed back towards the entrance

You'll love this - I think this depends on which type of station you're docking at!

[Puce Moment]

Smashing sesh last night - I went back to do docking training and managed to get it nailed. Much of this game isn't just about finding everything that is buried in multiple interfaces, but also paying attention to the cockpit readouts which are all designed to help.

I was supposed to go to some station to pick up coffee to sell at a profit but got distracted by a lovely ringed planet that I landed on and cruised around for about half an hour. Insanely entertaining given that fuck-all was happening. But driving back to the sidewinder and then taking off from the planet is preposterously satisfying.

I'm really starting to love the lack of hand holding and lack of directed gameplay that would usually force you through very planned and discrete scenarios and places. It's awfully grown up, broad and amazingly detailed. I just wish the PC and PS4 gameworlds were unified as many of the players on Twitch have insane mods that are not available on consoles.

[ASFTSN]

I was supposed to go to some station to pick up coffee to sell at a profit but got distracted by a lovely ringed planet that I landed on and cruised around for about half an hour. Insanely entertaining given that fuck-all was happening. But driving back to the sidewinder and then taking off from the planet is preposterously satisfying.

Yessss mate sounds like you're getting into it the same way I did. Lovely emergent aimlessness.

Got back from an exploration trip that earned me 5.5mil yesterday, won't be much to some but the biggest haul I've got from anything so far. Decided to spend a small amount of it on a little Type 6 trader ship as I've been feeling a bit lonely off in the depths and want to try out some trading. Puce how are you figuring out where to buy and sell stuff from?

[Puce Moment]

I literally have not managed to trade anything mate. I went off to find somewhere to buy the coffee and then got distracted. I went back to Coehlo station to find another job to do which meant transporting some data on a computer to take to a planet for about 24k and I ended up having no clue how to do it once I got there. It was just a deserted planet, and then I found out that you need to have something else in your craft to trade on those planets. Not fucking sure at all - but I do find that when I get confused or frustrated I just blast off in a 'fuck you' way to explore.

But then I sort of get an empty feeling like I should really be trading.

In terms of buying and selling I am docking, then I am going into the Market list of jobs, finding something that someone with 1k of credit can viably do, accepting, and then blasting off to where it's supposed to go.

In all honesty, my wife and I spent about an hour yesterday just trying to make the most realistic and life-like versions of ourselves in the Holo-Me section. I was able to be pervy sat right next to her and under her direction! Wonderful!