Elite Dangerous Catch-All

Orphu wrote:
Carlbear95 wrote:
Orphu wrote:

Actually the majority of tools reporting to EDDN now are mobile API tools (including mine). OCR seems to be dying.

What tool is yours? Or did you just write one for yourself?

I wrote the EDAPI a plugin for Trade Dangerous that pulls prices from the API and imports it into your local TD database. It also publishes prices, shipyards, and ship modules to the EDDN.

https://bitbucket.org/orphu/edapi

https://bitbucket.org/kfsone/tradeda...

Cool stuff.

Do you just use the command line trade dangerous? I'm not smart enough to know what to do with that, so I like (need) some sort of easier front end.

While we wait for our faction to get added to the game, there's a civil war in Orcus, with a couple of high-intensity zones right near Tombaugh Station.

I'm impressed with the improvements to the combat AI in 1.4 -- my profit per sortie is down significantly from 1.3, but I'm having more fun earning the money. An NPC Anaconda is a worthy opponent again.

Yeah, I haven't played for a while and started up Elite for the first time since the 1.4 patch. Died to an NPC Anaconda (actually I accidentally boosted right into it with no shields but the fight wasn't going great anyway!). Only weirdness I've seen so far is that my ship perpetually now needs 10 Cr repair - repairing does nothing to change this. Also my chaff launcher randomly disappeared and I only noticed in fight with said Anaconda

A boost to NPC difficulty is welcome, I was starting to feel like I wasn't being stretched by the fights in PvE.

Carlbear95 wrote:

Cool stuff.

Do you just use the command line trade dangerous? I'm not smart enough to know what to do with that, so I like (need) some sort of easier front end.

I do use the command line client. I prefer the flexibility, but understand it's not for everyone.

There is a GUI front end for TD called Trade Dangerous Helper. I've not tried it out, but it seems popular.

Also, for those looking for particular modules, several of the databases are starting to pick up the outfitting messages in EDDN:

http://ed-td.space/en/29/Outfitting

eddb.io is also gathering them, but I don't think he has a way to search quite yet.

Hope to get my old HOTAS back in gear and play a little more. Been stuck somewhere for a month or so with a laptop. :p

I'm not usually one for paint jobs, but FD announced the five winners of their paint job competition in the latest newsletter.

This one is fantastic, and really works with the snake theme prevalent in Elite ship names:

IMAGE(https://gallery.mailchimp.com/dcbf6b86b4b0c7d1c21b73b1e/images/1d473322-416f-44fb-a470-f53ca37df4e1.jpg)

This is 'Medusa' by Paul Rayment.

Dropped into a Hazardous RES the other day. Man that was fun. Couple big ticket bounty scores. Going to try to find a compromised beacon next.

babakotia wrote:

A boost to NPC difficulty is welcome, I was starting to feel like I wasn't being stretched by the fights in PvE.

whew thanks for confirming that something changed in 1.4. I've died twice recently in the same getup where I used to survive many weeks without dying.
There is a new skill needed with 1.4: identifying within the first ten seconds whether this is one of those new "put here to kill you for sure" encounters... because before you drop from frame shift speed these encounters look just like all the others. That first 10 seconds is critical.

Dipped my toe into CQC this weekend. Pretty good fun. Even surprised myself by winning a round.

Anyone else having problems getting into the game right now? I can't even get to the main menu.

I got kicked offline with a server error, something like half an hour ago

Servers seem down. Sucks because I have over 700K of smuggling missions that expire in less than 3 hours.. hopefully the timers aren't ticking while there is downtime.

I found a few compromised Nav beacons.. wow, those are fun too. I love these new PVE spots they put into the game. Seems like all NPC's in those zones are Deadly or Elite, and worth a lot of credits. Eagles without a scan are getting 10K bounties, with a scan almost 15k. Asps are over 100k.

I think the trick is to go into them with an empty hold so they don't go all attacking you for your cargo. I popped into one with an empty hold and they all ignored me.

Hey there Carlbear95, I accepted your friend req yesterday, don't know if you sent it then or a long time ago (I logged in yesterday after at least 2 or 3 months hiatus). Looks like you mostly play in Open. I play in Mobius for now, since I'm not a real fan of being ganked while just minding my own business.

Sucks that the servers are down, grr. Oh well, I should probably get out in the nice day and go for a walk.

I was going to post that the servers were back up but:
1) I saw that both Carl and Bravado were already on
2) I got dropped from the server just as I was about to drop from SC to a station, and can't get back in

Yeah, the servers aren't quite back yet.

Well I can confirm the timer doesn't stop for server downtime. 400k credit mission, failed.

Looks like Steam fixed the problem with mouse cursor stuck on galaxy map/trading screen (and necessitating Shift-Tabbing to get out of it). Might be only Steam beta though, so sign in to that if you still have issues.

Still getting "Can't connect to Frontier Servers" this morning. This is my "Give me an Offline Mode to play in" face.
Maybe I'll work on that last Hexcells achievement instead.

Edit: 2/60 Random puzzles complete. Not scratching the itch.

Strange, I was on last night for a good 3 hours. I usually either play Solo or on Veloxi's group (thanks for the add, Veloxi! ), but I didn't have any connection issues.

I do, however, have issues with the Low Intensity Conflict Zones. I jumped into one the other night and got my ass handed to me. I saw this huge group of ships all firing on each other, so I shot at one little Imperial Scout. Suddenly I have maybe 12 different ships light me up and kill me in less than 30 seconds.

Decided I'll stick with regular old Nav Beacons for a while still.

WipEout wrote:

Strange, I was on last night for a good 3 hours. I usually either play Solo or on Veloxi's group (thanks for the add, Veloxi! ), but I didn't have any connection issues.

Yeah, I got in an hour or two last night as well. Odd.

I do, however, have issues with the Low Intensity Conflict Zones. I jumped into one the other night and got my ass handed to me. I saw this huge group of ships all firing on each other, so I shot at one little Imperial Scout. Suddenly I have maybe 12 different ships light me up and kill me in less than 30 seconds.

Decided I'll stick with regular old Nav Beacons for a while still. :P

Conflict zones can be rough, even in a well equipped larger ship. You have to be very careful to avoid getting targeted by a swarm of ships, and bail out earlier than you normally would at the first hint of trouble. Also, worth noting: I believe you won't get credit for kills in a conflict zone unless you declare a side in the fight first. When you zone in, look a the "functions" tab in your right UI panel, and you'll find the option to choose a side.

Hell, with the newly improved AI, conflict zones are going to be even more of a challenge. I went into a hazardous RES the other day in my Python hunter, and while smaller ships were still easy to overwhelm, wings were dangerous, as was the Elite ranked Anaconda I encountered. Not insurmountable, to be sure, but even in a very well equipped larger ship you're going to have to fight smart or be ready to run with your tail between your legs.

----

Incidentally, for newer folks: feel free to send friend invites and messages to the folks who have been around quite a bit and ask about winging up. While it might be a diversion from whatever get rich quick scheme we're working, I'm sure most of us won't mind flying over and helping you out with some bounty hunting, or letting you tag along and collect wing bonuses while we trade. Taking on big targets in a wing is always a lot of fun, and either way it's always great to give a nice cash infusion to newer players. (If you're not aware: wing members not only split the bounty from targets they kill together, but they also get vouchers for 5% of the profits every time a trade sale is made while in the same system, which can be quite a lot of credits for a new player paired up with someone in a Python or Anaconda.)

Oooooh, thanks! I figured I was missing something when I first jumped in there. I assumed just firing on one person would automatically pit me against their side.

On a somewhat-related note: I think I need to figure out a better loadout or my Viper. Right now I've got two gimballed Beam Lasers on the top hardpoints, and a gimballed Flak Cannon on the bottom. I feel like this is a little weak, though. The lasers kill most ships' shields pretty fast (even some higher-ranking dropships), but then I've got very little firepower against their hulls. I was running a missile launcher and burst lasers before, I might try out that launcher again. I just worry about the inherently low ammo counts. I should go back through the thread, I thought I saw you guys posting more ship loadout info

On a somewhat-related note: I think I need to figure out a better loadout or my Viper. Right now I've got two gimballed Beam Lasers on the top hardpoints, and a gimballed Flak Cannon on the bottom. I feel like this is a little weak, though. The lasers kill most ships' shields pretty fast (even some higher-ranking dropships), but then I've got very little firepower against their hulls. I was running a missile launcher and burst lasers before, I might try out that launcher again. I just worry about the inherently low ammo counts. I should go back through the thread, I thought I saw you guys posting more ship loadout info

Perhaps things have changed, but flak cannons are a bit, hm, situational in their utility. I think if you asked many people, they'd agree that multi-cannons are the best all around choice for size 1 and 2 (small and medium, that is) kinetic weapons. Regular cannons definitely have their proponents too, but multi-cannons have a lot going for them, particularly for a generalist PvE ship outfitting:

- They're easy to use, particularly if you go with gimbaled units.
- They have a lot of ammo, meaning you can go a lot longer between returning to dock to rearm.
- They are low burst damage but high DPS against hull and subsystems, and stronger than most kinetic weapons agains shields (although you should still mostly stick to thermal weapons vs shields). PvP certainly calls for more burst damage, but for PvE, just keeping the pressure on is usually the best way to take out an enemy.

As for your thermal weapon choices, I like small beam lasers a lot, especially on your Viper/Cobra/DBS class ships, where you can pair them with two medium multi-cannons. In medium and large hard points, I often find that beams burn through my weapons capacitor faster than I like, so I go with pulse or burst lasers instead, but it's a very situational and/or personal kind of preference. For me, the best rule of thumb is that if I find myself annoyed with how frequently I'm waiting for capacitor recharge, I'm just not going to bother with beams (or bursts) and step down to pulses. (Pulses also have better hull penetration, which gives them a boost in utility when shields are down too.)

Since I don't really know how much cash you are working with, I'll give you an ideal final outfitting -- the ship I'd choose if I was going to outfit one without concern for cost -- but I'll also include a budget version as well.

Beams and multi-cannons, with chaff and KWS

This is probably my top choice for a bounty hunter Viper build. I might consider switching the chaff launcher for a shield booster, but the power budget is so tight that you'd probably have to drop the quality of another part or two to do that, and for a smaller ship the value of chaff is going to be much higher anyway.

Also, I didn't include an interdictor unit, which you would need if you wanted to run assassination missions -- that, you'd place in the spot occupied by the cargo rack, but then you'd lose the option of running the now very profitable smuggling missions from time to time.

If you are looking to save some cash here and you are confident in your piloting skill, you could switch some (or all) of your weapons to direct fire rather than gimbals. That would also free up some power to maybe fit in a higher quality shield cell, maybe? But, I like gimbals too much.

Here's what I'd suggest as a budget version of the above. Reduced performance all around, and bursts instead of beams, but it should still do the trick to start as you work your way up. You will notice, however, that I've left the power distributor at A grade. That, in my opinion, is the single most important piece of equipment on a combat ship, and it should be A grade as soon as possible -- and thankfully, it's always one of the cheapest parts to make A grade as well.

Incidentally, if you do want to give them another go, here's a variant for combat zones. The big difference is that I've switched out the KWS for a shield booster, since you don't need to scan to earn cash in combat zones. I did have to drop the quality of the scanners to free up enough power to run the booster, but that's okay, because it's not usually hard to find targets in combat zones (whereas when hunting you want to be able to scan as far away as you can to find targets in a RES or nav beacon environment). Also, I added in a backup shield cell bank, which should let you stay out a bit longer before returning to dock rearm. You will need to manually power on and off the shield cell banks when one runs out of ammo, though -- you don't have enough power to run both at once, and if they are both on, you'll use a cell from each when you hit the shield cell button.

Finally, when you get in the realm of about 2.5 or 3 million in assets, you might consider switching to a DBS if you want to continue to fly a ship that is mostly combat oriented. It's basically like a Viper, but better in nearly every way. It does loose a tiny bit of straight line speed, but it's more agile, better shielded and armored, has more outfitting flexibility, two more utility mounts, and better hard point arrangement. (You know how the two medium hard points on the Viper can't shoot at the upper portion of your view even when gimbaled? The DBS has no such problems.) Oh, and jump range. SO much better jump range.

Anyway, for a bit less that the premium Viper build I posted above, you can start here. Then you can work your way up to here, which is a very nice ship to fly indeed, and will do nicely until you save up a few more million and can upgrade to a Vulture (again, assuming you want to stick with combat focused ships, of course).

Also, here' is a link to a comparison of the five builds I've posted above. Each of the column headers can be clicked to sort the comparison on various different stats.

http://goo.gl/osIGZN

Oh wow, that's a lot of great, detailed info! Thanks, zeroKFE! I was hesitant to even get the Viper, as I only have so much cash (I think I'm up to 400K right now). I haven't really settled on a way to make much more than 100K at a time, as I'm kind of torn between bounty hunting and smuggling/trading. But then lately I've been jumping to distant systems to sell cartography data, then I end up scanning new systems, then jumping further, then bounty hunting some more...

Now I wish there was a way to sell off ships docked in other systems-- I'm a good 50LY from where I left my little smuggling Sidewinder, and have yet to find a way to get it transported to my current location (doesn't look like there is a way). I've decided I'm going to slowly make my way to Lave, and get into little adventures along the way, so I should probably just head back and sell the damned thing before I really commit to the long-distance travel

Thanks for the info Zero! Bookmarked!

I'm just switched from a Viper - significantly less optimized than your build - to a Cobra and geared up for trading (40 tons of cargo). Currently sat in Zaonce doing the Rare's loop. I can do a full circuit in an hour (or so) and net around 1.5M. I think I'll do one more loop and then maybe move to the DBS and go back to bounty hunting and try my hand at a few assassination missions. Maybe even some smuggling as well.

What use is the chaff launcher? I've only had missiles shot at me once and they were easy to avoid. Does it help with avoiding scans?

I'm not sure about scans, but I've definitely had bounties drop chaff that's killed all my weapons locks. At that point I can't hit them with lasers or anything until they've cleared the chaff. Target lock still works, though.

I'm thinking I'm going to gear up a good trader vessel once I get to the next major system, and basically do what you're doing, Moggy. As it stands, the bounties I'm collecting rarely amount to more than 100K after 1-2 hours a night. I'm liking zero's DBS build the more I think about it, but I'll need to save up a lot of cheddar before I can set that one up.

Moggy wrote:

What use is the chaff launcher? I've only had missiles shot at me once and they were easy to avoid. Does it help with avoiding scans?

Chaff breaks the ability for Gimbal and Turrets to lock your ship. Has nothing to do with missiles (from what I can tell)

WipEout wrote:

Oh wow, that's a lot of great, detailed info! Thanks, zeroKFE! I was hesitant to even get the Viper, as I only have so much cash (I think I'm up to 400K right now). I haven't really settled on a way to make much more than 100K at a time, as I'm kind of torn between bounty hunting and smuggling/trading. But then lately I've been jumping to distant systems to sell cartography data, then I end up scanning new systems, then jumping further, then bounty hunting some more...

Now I wish there was a way to sell off ships docked in other systems-- I'm a good 50LY from where I left my little smuggling Sidewinder, and have yet to find a way to get it transported to my current location (doesn't look like there is a way). I've decided I'm going to slowly make my way to Lave, and get into little adventures along the way, so I should probably just head back and sell the damned thing before I really commit to the long-distance travel :P

While one would almost certainly be able to work their way up to the bigger ships fastest by just picking one thing and sticking with it, I think it's a lot more fun to keep your options open by having ships that allow you to switch between activities depending on how you feel any given day. So, I strongly support your choices so far.

As for going back to sell your Sidewinder: you've got maybe 60 to 100k invested in it, right? That feels like a lot where you are right now, but I'd say leave it where it is unless your travels bring you back there naturally. It really won't take too long before you've figured out the game enough that that amount of money feels like a rounding error, and time begins to be the much more limited resource.

I personally think the life of the wandering bounty hunter is a great way to start out the game. I made my first million (or two) bounty hunting in a Viper, and had a ton of fun doing it. I then bought a Type 6 to start playing around with trade in a more serious way while keeping the Viper for combat. (These days I probably would have switched up to a DBS as I mentioned above, but that wasn't an option back then.)

If you haven't done so yet, though, try out hunting in resource extraction sites (that's what people mean when they say RES or REZ). They sound like a place to go mining (and miners can get better yields in them now), but their big function is for bounty hunting since they are swarming with pirates looking to abuse miners. Definitely do NOT go to the "hazardous" variety alone in a Viper, and maybe avoid the "high intensity" ones until you feel confident, but even solo hunting in a low intensity RES should let you make a good deal more money that you've seen so far.

(And again, don't hesitate to try winging up with other players, particularly with those running bigger ships. Whether you go hunting together or just hang out while someone runs a trade route, you'll make at least 400k in less than an hour paired up with someone in a Python or an Anaconda.)

athros wrote:
Moggy wrote:

What use is the chaff launcher? I've only had missiles shot at me once and they were easy to avoid. Does it help with avoiding scans?

Chaff breaks the ability for Gimbal and Turrets to lock your ship. Has nothing to do with missiles (from what I can tell)

Yeah. For a while there was a bug where chaff would also disrupt scans (and it might still disrupt kill warrant scans from other players) but I'm almost certain that's been fixed.

As Athros says, the main purpose is to confuse gimballed and turreted weapons. When facing bigger ships, active and intelligent use of chaff will mitigate a LOT of the damage they throw at you.

EDIT:

Point defenses, on the other had, are for shooting down missiles and other slow moving ordinance that can be fired at you, like cargo hatch breakers. As I mentioned a few pages ago, I don't usually equip them, because overall the defenses provided by shield boosters and chaff feel more valuable to me.

zeroKFE wrote:

Point defenses, on the other had, are for shooting down missiles and other slow moving ordinance that can be fired at you, like cargo hatch breakers. As I mentioned a few pages ago, I don't usually equip them, because overall the defenses provided by shield boosters and chaff feel more valuable to me.

I don't think I've ever had an NPC fire a missile at me except for dumbfire rockets. And most NPCs who spawn with rockets (in say, a conflict zone) tend to fire them all off in the first minute of combat and never have any by the time they meet me. Probably 99% of my point defence ammo usage to date has been targeted at mines.

So really, outside of PVP you don't really need them. And even then you only need one forward facing and one rear facing, and or one positioned by the cargo hatch. A single PD turret will kill 100% of limpets that get anywhere near it.