Elite Dangerous Catch-All

Goo wrote:

Next stop I have an NPC in an Eagle shouting threats at me. He's going to 'dust my bones off'. So I shoot him up first. I manage to get a 1200 credit bounty on my head for this. Seriously, someone shouts something like that at me, I think I'm entitled to shoot first!

Yeah, that's a little broken. You need to scan him and see his Wanted tag first. Or if he's not wanted yet, let him shoot you first, and he'll become wanted.

I was getting attacked the other day, and my turrets decided to fire on a target I hadn't scanned yet. Even though he was Wanted, since I hadn't scanned him yet, I ended up with a bounty.

I have the CH stick and throttle; other than adding USB, they haven't changed fundamental design in probably close to 20 years. There's not a lot to improve, honestly.

The stick has no force feedback. It has a light throw, and it's very precise. I found it to be a superb stick for X-Wing, way back when, because of its precision. The throttle is fairly unremarkable; it does exactly what it's supposed to do. I don't much care for the pedals in that set, though, as I find them much too light; they slide all over the darn place. I ended up teaming them with a set of Saitek pedals that work much better, but one warning: the (optional) CH software will not gang the pedals into a virtual joystick for old games. You'd have to come up with some other way to do that. (with CH products, that software will let you choose arbitrary axes and buttons to present as a single virtual stick, for old games that didn't know about lots of controls, but it refuses to talk to any other brand, because they're jerks.)

tl;dr: I really like the stick; I'm okay with the throttle, I don't like the pedals.

Veloxi wrote:

That map seriously turns me on. Rowr.

Oh man. You should see it zoomed all the way out

Also for all the talk of HOTAS setups I'll say it again:

Elite plays just fine with a mouse and keyboard. Seriously.

Maq wrote:
Veloxi wrote:

That map seriously turns me on. Rowr.

Oh man. You should see it zoomed all the way out

Also for all the talk of HOTAS setups I'll say it again:

Elite plays just fine with a mouse and keyboard. Seriously.

It does. It's a matter of preference really. I had a Logitech joystick and tried it with that, and with mouse/keyboard. Neither did it for me. I tried pairing the CH throttle with the Logitech, and didn't really like that either. I ended up with the X55, which I'm pretty happy with. I also ended up with a TrackIR and Voiceattack.

For me it's immersion. I've got a Oculus DK2 coming. I want to be touching some proper flight controls If I could get a pilot's seat, surround sound speakers etc I totally would! My wife would not enjoy losing her half of the office to a mockup cockpit though.

Orphu wrote:

If it's really like the original Elite (which it is), then everyone should be flying with keyboard only.

I had the PC version, which supported a joystick.

Robear wrote:
Orphu wrote:

If it's really like the original Elite (which it is), then everyone should be flying with keyboard only.

I had the PC version, which supported a joystick. :-)

I played the original in 84 with a joystick, it had one button and was the cheapest thing I ever used.
Still was great.
Use a HOTAS now, but did play with m/k when I first got ED. It was okay, just prefer the stick so ponied up for an X52 pro.
Very glad I got it, makes it much more fun.

polypusher wrote:

For me it's immersion. I've got a Oculus DK2 coming. I want to be touching some proper flight controls If I could get a pilot's seat, surround sound speakers etc I totally would! My wife would not enjoy losing her half of the office to a mockup cockpit though.

You're not a serious gamer unless you create a vacuum in the room and breath oxygen only through a flight mask. I'd say you should also go for a null gravity setting but that would just be crazy.

Orphu wrote:

If it's really like the original Elite (which it is), then everyone should be flying with keyboard only. ;)

Rubber keys or GTFO.

IMAGE(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/ZXSpectrum48k.jpg)

Jonman wrote:
Orphu wrote:

If it's really like the original Elite (which it is), then everyone should be flying with keyboard only. ;)

Rubber keys or GTFO.

IMAGE(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/ZXSpectrum48k.jpg)

No. Pressure sensitive membrane.

IMAGE(http://oldcomputers.net/pics/ZX81.jpg)

Yeah, I built one from the kit they sold.

Homepage has been updated...looks great!

I'm gonna crack on this.... In a couple weeks, it'll be £50 to dive right on in...

EDIT: And indeed I cracked. I pre-ordered the Standard Beta, which lets me jump in to the single player scenarios just now, and then the real beat on the 29th. It's been a good long while since I've done any dogfighting in a space sim like this, so it's going to take a while to get my eye back into it.

I'm playing with a 360 pad, as my current gaming set up forbids any options other than gamepad/keyboard. Anyone else playing with a pad?

There's also a good number of power-distribution options I'm really going to have to get used to changing between, which will take work in my brain to remember about, and not just stay default. The first few scenarios were fine, but I'm getting my nuts and bolts handed to me currently with multiple enemies. Perhaps I need to switch the controls slightly, and have Roll on the right stick. I'm hoping to use the single-player time to get the controls honed to my needs. I also played a little with FaceTrackNoIR and Opentrack, which is proving a little more finicky than I'd hoped, not that I was expecting it to be instantly perfect, or anything. Anyone got this up and going?

Feels good to be back in a cockpit, either way Looking forward to doing some quiet trading for the first part of my career, avoiding as much conflict as I can. One thing I've not been able to find out yet, through my not-so-thourough investigation - In the 'main' game world, are there AI enemies as well as other players? Would be neat if there was the possibility of some co-op v AI shenanigans available

I read a David Braben Q&A from their forums and a couple of tidbits stood out. Beta 1 will add a friends list as well as the voice comms. He also mentioned that ship customization will be deepened. Such as using cargo space to add shield generators

Lister wrote:
EidLeWeise wrote:

Is there any chance of larger ships swapping out cargo space for some 'fighter bays' which small ships could dock at and be launched from? This would be especially interesting when we get multi crew ships as well as having NPC pilots...

good question

Not only this but will there be add ons to the ships like in frontier which take up cargo space such as better shield generators, engines ect ect so making your load out a decision and leading to 100's of individual styled ships?

David Braben wrote:

Yes. The very large ships will be able to carry the smaller ships in the game, by sacrificing cargo space. Similarly we will have the ability to fit shield generators, larger engines etc out of cargo space. This should indeed lead to a good deal of variation.

Braben really turns out to have had a plan for his development. I have utter faith in Christ Roberts, but I don't see the same kind of methodical advance in what Star Citizen is doing. (Looking from the outside on both, of course, so what do I know...)

But right now I'm on the cusp of picking up Elite. Just looks more and more like what was in my head when I played it way back when.

omni wrote:

I'm playing with a 360 pad, as my current gaming set up forbids any options other than gamepad/keyboard. Anyone else playing with a pad?

I've been playing with one though the Alpha up to now. It's actually very good, and Frontier has said it's one of the primary control schemes they use. The default layouts are well thought out. If you are at all acclimated to playing games with a control pad, you'll do just fine.

You can pull off some things that are difficult to do with a stick without turning of flight assist. The biggest limitations are the number of button functions, though you can to combos like dpad+some button for rarely used functions. And slow throttle control. This is really too bad though since the ships only respond so fast to throttle changes. But being able to toggle into reverse instantly is nice on a throttle controller.

I'll probably pick up a HOTAS at some point. It's mainly that I just don't have a comfortable setup to use one right now. My good machine is a dedicated steam box, so the controller lends itself well to playing on the big screen.

I gave up on mouse and keyboard. That is definitely the least maneuverable option.

Feels good to be back in a cockpit, either way Looking forward to doing some quiet trading for the first part of my career, avoiding as much conflict as I can. One thing I've not been able to find out yet, through my not-so-thourough investigation - In the 'main' game world, are there AI enemies as well as other players? Would be neat if there was the possibility of some co-op v AI shenanigans available :D

Oh yes there are AIs. You'll get pulled out of super cruise by AI pirates, and engage in battles with both players an AIs on each side. In dev diaries they've talked about players grouping up and running AI blockades.

Neat Fan-made video. Very impressive once you consider there are no 3rd person camera views right now so making this involved a cameraman in a sidewinder or eagle looking directly up through his cockpit to get an unobstructed view of the action.

Neat. I've been experimenting with FaceTracNoIR, and also Voice Attack, that I've seen a few streamers use. Could get around the lack of buttons/minimise the reaching for keyboard once I get it configured correctly. I nabbed a VA profile from one ED streamer I frequent, so I'll give that a try. 21 day free limited free trial of VA, but it's only $8 for the full thing.

Finally started putzing about in multiplayer, figured out docking and jumping around. Made a couple of trade runs and made 364 cr! RICHES! I'm just practicing up right now, preparing for the 29th, before I start worrying about progress.

Once the friends list stuff is in we'll have to exchange names. It's supposed to affect instance assignment, I think, so that we'll be more likely to encounter each other.

Someone found a bug in the single player missions that allow you to fly to the Zelada system from the Alpha.

Interdictions seem MUCH more frequent here. And they have behaviors not in the alpha or beta. Tune in around 7:20 and see him escape some sidewinders, only to find they follow him through super cruise to the station. Carnage as they dog pile him and the station opens fire.

I really do need to get some practice in at this.

I finally got my joystick back and so I'm finally dipping my toe in the multiplayer. I'm finding docking very difficult. I've actually remapped the rotation axes so that I can get through the slot (roll to RZ, yaw to X) and still found I needed to set up some RCS-like cartesian thrust buttons on my keyboard to be able to land properly. The 4 and 6 buttons are next to each other on my stick, and pressing 4 inside a space station is exciting (it's some kind of speed boost).

The inevitable questions:
1) I have 4-5 unmapped buttons at the moment. What are you all mapping these to? Docking gear seems a given. What else is useful?
2) Are there only two populated systems at the moment? I went to a supposed corporate system (the system closest to the starting one) and all I could find was a mining operation. How many trading systems are there right now?
3) When I hyperspace into a system, it tends to dump me next to the star which strips my shields and burns off my hull until I can supercruise away. What am I doing wrong here?
4) How do I choose my name? Other players seem to have proper names, though I can't tell whether they're random or chosen by the players. They've been quite normal (nobody called Xxl33tD00dXxX123123 yet)

DudleySmith wrote:

The inevitable questions:
1) I have 4-5 unmapped buttons at the moment. What are you all mapping these to? Docking gear seems a given. What else is useful?
2) Are there only two populated systems at the moment? I went to a supposed corporate system (the system closest to the starting one) and all I could find was a mining operation. How many trading systems are there right now?
3) When I hyperspace into a system, it tends to dump me next to the star which strips my shields and burns off my hull until I can supercruise away. What am I doing wrong here?
4) How do I choose my name? Other players seem to have proper names, though I can't tell whether they're random or chosen by the players. They've been quite normal (nobody called Xxl33tD00dXxX123123 yet)

1) Guess thats just comes down to personal preference but I'd say either targeting, or vertical/horizontal thrusters. Or power distribution.
2) Pretty sure every system has a space station, except Styx, which is pretty much empty
3) What I do is point way from the star as soon as I 'arrive' - you need to move so that your not going 'through' the red circle that will surround the star, that seems to be an indication of 'too close buddy' (only visible in Supercruise) - once have shifted the star off to the side a bit, go into your nav console, pick out where you are heading. Point towards it and go. Don't go through the red circle thingy, drive 'around' it if your target location is 'behind' the red. Bit hard to explain sorry.
4) http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthr... <-- takes a day or 2 to process

Hope that helps a little bit.

Be advised that when I asked for a name for my commander it completely reset my progress. I hadn't exactly gone far with it but bear it in mind. YMMV of course, this was a while back.

I set mine yesterday with no issues.

Thanks everyone. I'm sure that'll help.

I requested mine over the weekend and got a response today.. but then, I have no progress to lose I was also very surprised that my Commander name wasn't already taken.. are duplicates allowed?

DudleySmith wrote:

I finally got my joystick back and so I'm finally dipping my toe in the multiplayer. I'm finding docking very difficult. I've actually remapped the rotation axes so that I can get through the slot (roll to RZ, yaw to X) and still found I needed to set up some RCS-like cartesian thrust buttons on my keyboard to be able to land properly. The 4 and 6 buttons are next to each other on my stick, and pressing 4 inside a space station is exciting (it's some kind of speed boost).

You definitely have to use the lateral thrusters for docking. You can also setup a set of controls under something like Landing Override. Those controls get engaged when your landing gear are down. You can map the same controls if you want and just leave the boost unbound so that you can't accidently boost if your gear are deployed.

Another nice fan-made beta footage video. A bit of post processing going on here, but still nice.

Alright, put in a couple of good sessions in the Eranin -> Federation Distress Signal area over the last two days. Had a real good run today until it decided to stop paying me. I'm anxiously looking forward to tomorrow's newsletter but I think I'm about done until the 29th.

Yeah I'm pretty much done I think. Lot of station griefing and other BS going on at the moment. Might dick around with some weapons on the weekend but won't be doing a lot more.