Elite Dangerous Catch-All

Been busy at work since patch day, just finally had a chance to log back in. Discovered that the patch apparently wiped out all my custom key bindings and HOTAS setup.

I've found the path where these are apparently stored (AppData/Local/Frontier Developments/Elite Dangerous/Options/Bindings). There is a "BindingsLoadingErrors" text file in there from today, a "Custom.binds" from three years ago with a backup from today, a "Custom.1.8.binds" from a year ago with a backup from today, "Custom.2.0.binds" from a month ago with a backup from today.

Based on dates I'm assuming that last one is the binds I was using two weeks ago. Any idea why it's not loading or how to fix/reimport? I really don't want to have to go through the entire remapping rebinding process again...

EDIT: Never mind, with some tweaking and experimentation I was able to find a fix.

Any suggested guidelines for engineering a Corvette for PVE and/or Thargoids? Would be appreciated!

Somewhat ashamedly, I'll submit my ship names...

Anaconda: Fafnir
AspX: Grani
Vulture: Gramr
Corvette: Siegfried
Random quest-farming Sidewinder/Hauler: Mime

Yes, I'm a music nerd. Yes, you can love Wagner and not get too wrapped up in his politics.

Kronen wrote:

Any suggested guidelines for engineering a Corvette for PVE and/or Thargoids? Would be appreciated!

Sorry I'm not a Corvette owner and don't have a load-out to recommend. What I would say though, is that general PvE against NPCs in RES sites and combat zones is a very different kettle of fish to fighting Thargoids, and the optimal builds for each will probably look quite different. So it's probably a question of what you see yourself doing most. A while back my friend and I built and engineered anti-Tharg gunships, but we've not used them much ...

The other thing about Thargoid combat is that there is now a route to improved Guardian modules and weapons via the newly discovered Guardian ruins and Tech Brokers. Not many people have unlocked these yet, so it isn't clear how good they are, but potentially they could make the typical high hull integrity + AX weapons builds people have been using to fight Thargoids quite different. So it might be worth holding on and seeing how that pans out before putting together a xeno-hunting ship.

According to my current state (24ly jump), it would take me between 37 and 42 jumps to get to any of the three Guardian ruins in Ram Tah's new mission. WHAT THE HELL?!

I can tell I've been exploring too much when I see "between 37 and 42 jumps" and think "eh, that's not too bad"...

Edit: Of course, my AspX has a range of just over 40ly now, and that's only engineered up to level 4.

tanstaafl wrote:

I can tell I've been exploring too much when I see "between 37 and 42 jumps" and think "eh, that's not too bad"...

Edit: Of course, my AspX has a range of just over 40ly now, and that's only engineered up to level 4.

Yeah... That would basically involve me spending an entire night of play jumping. I don't know if I can do that to myself.

Edit: Looks like if I strip down the Python pretty hard I can bring up the jump range to about 43ly. Which would be about 15 to 20 jumps to the three systems. That seems manageable on a long night.

How do I know if this game's for me? I'm getting a new gaming desktop (1070ti, i7 8700) in the next week. I'm generally drawn to the more indie titles, which has been convenient considering I've never had a high-performance rig. However, since I'm going to have a new and shiny gaming pc, I want to get a game or two that will utilize the power and performance.

idaddyMD wrote:

How do I know if this game's for me? I'm getting a new gaming desktop (1070ti, i7 8700) in the next week. I'm generally drawn to the more indie titles, which has been convenient considering I've never had a high-performance rig. However, since I'm going to have a new and shiny gaming pc, I want to get a game or two that will utilize the power and performance.

Well, does the idea of an extremely self-directed space sim appeal to you?
All you're doing is flying around in ships. You'll never leave the cockpit of some ship (or rover). There's lots you can do, such as trading, exploring, bounty hunting, etc, but it's up to you to decide what you actually do. There's no story, unless you want to get involved in the stuff going on outside the game.
Ultimately, if you're someone who gets bored without a story, or frustrated with a lack of direction in a game... this isn't for you.

idaddyMD wrote:

How do I know if this game's for me? I'm getting a new gaming desktop (1070ti, i7 8700) in the next week. I'm generally drawn to the more indie titles, which has been convenient considering I've never had a high-performance rig. However, since I'm going to have a new and shiny gaming pc, I want to get a game or two that will utilize the power and performance.

I found that Witcher 3 is a far better game to really stretch a new high power computer. From a purely horse power perspective.

maverickz wrote:
idaddyMD wrote:

How do I know if this game's for me? I'm getting a new gaming desktop (1070ti, i7 8700) in the next week. I'm generally drawn to the more indie titles, which has been convenient considering I've never had a high-performance rig. However, since I'm going to have a new and shiny gaming pc, I want to get a game or two that will utilize the power and performance.

I found that Witcher 3 is a far better game to really stretch a new high power computer. From a purely horse power perspective.

QFT.

If you are at all interested in sword-and-sorcery style RPGs, make Witcher 3 the first big game with your new rig. We've got a whole thread of people that will tell you the same thing.

One caveat, though: if you're interested in playing Skyrim, play that first. I'm not sure I would be able to go back to Skyrim after playing Witcher 3.

Dud's noob mining update: OK, so I worked out that the light grey rings are the metallic ones, and it only took me 4 trips to refine 500 tons of material. Now I need another 9 painite to deliver to Selene Jean. With 64 tons of cargo space and bringing 48 tons of limpets I generally pick up 1 ton of Painite per trip.

Any tips for maximising my painite? I guess I'll fire off a few fragments and look for painite before I send a prospector drone in. I will probably bring my Asp over to Delkar and transfer to that before going off to wherever Selene lives.

After I've done that I'm planning to get into long range exploration to unlock Palin. That should be a new experience for me. I don't know whether I'll go all the way to Colonia or not - 2 stops in will give me the 5kly distance he wants. I'll see how much I like it - it will be a good way to level up my exploration rank but I tend not to have the dedicated time to play a lot.

DudleySmith wrote:

Dud's noob mining update: OK, so I worked out that the light grey rings are the metallic ones, and it only took me 4 trips to refine 500 tons of material. Now I need another 9 painite to deliver to Selene Jean. With 64 tons of cargo space and bringing 48 tons of limpets I generally pick up 1 ton of Painite per trip.

Any tips for maximising my painite? I guess I'll fire off a few fragments and look for painite before I send a prospector drone in. I will probably bring my Asp over to Delkar and transfer to that before going off to wherever Selene lives.

After I've done that I'm planning to get into long range exploration to unlock Palin. That should be a new experience for me. I don't know whether I'll go all the way to Colonia or not - 2 stops in will give me the 5kly distance he wants. I'll see how much I like it - it will be a good way to level up my exploration rank but I tend not to have the dedicated time to play a lot.

When I was ready to do painite, I loaded up on limpets. Then I used them as prospector limpets and just kept searching for rocks with painite in them. When the limpet attaches, target it and it will tell you what the asteroid contains.

Thanks, that makes sense.

maverickz wrote:
tanstaafl wrote:

I can tell I've been exploring too much when I see "between 37 and 42 jumps" and think "eh, that's not too bad"...

Edit: Of course, my AspX has a range of just over 40ly now, and that's only engineered up to level 4.

Yeah... That would basically involve me spending an entire night of play jumping. I don't know if I can do that to myself.

Edit: Looks like if I strip down the Python pretty hard I can bring up the jump range to about 43ly. Which would be about 15 to 20 jumps to the three systems. That seems manageable on a long night.

My rule of thumb is that a jump takes about 1.0-1.5 minutes on average, if I time it right. That's with a high-rated fuel scoop though, and not much delay.

I took a quick trip out to the Guardian ruins at Synuefe EU-Q c21-10.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/lCKqEzn.png)

I even ran into someone I know while there.

Gremlin wrote:

My rule of thumb is that a jump takes about 1.0-1.5 minutes on average, if I time it right. That's with a high-rated fuel scoop though, and not much delay.

I usually figure a minute per jump if I am in a hurry. I'm usually too OCD to resist scanning things, though.

I wanted too share as well!

I stripped my Python down to the bare bones and was able to squeeze 41ly out of it. Took a trip over to Meene and picked up Ram Tah's mission. After that it really only took 17 jumps to make it out to the orb location. With great terror and anxiety, I cleared the place of initial skimmers, and gathered all the materials and guardian relics I could. Then memorized the location of each pylon. After some deep breaths, I activated them all and managed to scan the orb. Some newly activated skimmers took a shot or two at me, but they didn't do much before I made it to my ship. I'm going to call my first foray into ancient alien research a great success!

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/Z79jBZq.jpg)

DudleySmith wrote:

Any tips for maximising my painite? I guess I'll fire off a few fragments and look for painite before I send a prospector drone in.

I recently had to re-learn how to mine in order to get 50 units of Bromellite to unlock Bill Turner. It took me four play sessions to get 50 units, but I think having learned what I did I could do it in one or two now. As Asterith mentioned, targeting the prospector drones and inspecting each asteroid is super important if you're looking for something in particular. It's hard to not be distracted by all the goodies besides the one you're looking for, but stay focused on the goal!

I re-learned how to look in the system map to know which are "pristine" rings or not. I am also now guilt-free about cheating and finding online lists of nearby system with pristine rings.

One play session I did in an Asp but later on I brought in a much larger ship (Anaconda in my case). This way I could hold a class 4 refinery that has so many bins it never stops, two collector limpet controllers (more active at once), a prospect limpet controller, a fighter bay and you can still have your big shields and real guns in addition to your mining laser. With that tank I wasn't scared to mine in the most hazardous resource extraction sites which, yup you guessed it, have the best asteroids. I also loaded up with about 120 limpets for each session which would last me until my patience ran out. Perhaps an Anaconda is too pricey, but what about trying in a Type 6?

I've got a Cutter if I want to go that way. I'm currently doing it in a Dropship. I have no shields, but 4 collector limpet controllers and a biggish refinery. I tend to start off with 75% limpets, and I still have to usually jettison some limpets to make room for the goodies.

I'm pretty squishy though - I generally avoid the RES sites completely, and boost away from everybody before I start mining.

It's very strange to go back to bounty hunting after discovering all those ancient ruins and the puzzles they contain. The guardian stuff seems like such a bigger story and it's out there. I think maybe I need to get serious about exploration. But I don't think I have the ship for it. Seems like I need something bigger than a python. But then where do I get the money.

You don't necessarily need a lot of cash for a decent long range ship. I know you didn't like the AspX much, but the Diamondback Explorer has a jump range potential second only to the Anaconda, and is cheap to outfit.

I tried some of the latest CG last night; the one where I'm carrying weapons for Colonia to Arek. I was in my T7 and making about 600k each round trip. Made about 5M before stopping for the night and was in the top 25% on the CG. So not bad.

Only thing is it's 7 jumps each way.

babakotia wrote:

You don't necessarily need a lot of cash for a decent long range ship. I know you didn't like the AspX much, but the Diamondback Explorer has a jump range potential second only to the Anaconda, and is cheap to outfit.

I'll look at the DBX, but man I kind of love my Python. I looked at the AspX again from a jump perspective, but it only beat my Python by a couple of light years, so I deemed it not worth the effort. If there was a way to quickload ship load outs it would make my life much easier. Really I need what I've heard called an "exploraconda"

If I was going to really do a big money run, I'd probably get on the Road again. Choices choices.

Asp in explorer loadout will definitely beat a Python. My Asp’s range is 50ly, and there’s more I could do if I really wanted to push another few light years out of it. I love my Asp. Love my Anaconda too, but for combat and multipurpose. I couldn’t imagine exploring in it vs the nimble Asp.

Same here. I can do more with the Anaconda, but when you're out exploring you really don't need much. You really only need the two scanners and a fuel scoop, everything else just makes life easier..

My first exploration ship was a stripped down Type-6, that I took out right after engineers came out. Took her out 10k LY with a 29 LY jump range. I miss that little brick sometimes. I took my AspX out about 17k LY, and got so burned out on the return trip that I stopped playing for a while.

I don't think I've taken my Anaconda farther than Maia. It's a hell of a multi-purpose ship, and outdoes the AspX in terms of flexibility (mainly use it for cargo and passenger missions, some light combat, and I may refit it for mining at some point), but I fitted my AspX with a 6A fuel scoop so that one pass around a star can, most times, fill the tank completely. That cuts my jump times down to about 30-45 seconds per jump, since I never just stop to scoop unless I hit around 5 or so non-scoopable stars in a row.

I love the look of the DBX, and the way it handles, I just... well, it's hard to give up that 6A scoop.

I'm just looking for an all-in-one solution so I can go and just live in outer space. So leaving behind modules that may be useful doesn't sit well with me. I have to make a station my home just to store modules.

Clearly you need to save so you can buy us all a fleet carrier when they come out.

jokes aside i would be 200% willing to save and donate credits for a GWJ fleet carrier.

Asterith wrote:

Clearly you need to save so you can buy us all a fleet carrier when they come out. :D

That would be awesome!

That would definitely get me back into the game.

maverickz wrote:

I'm just looking for an all-in-one solution so I can go and just live in outer space. So leaving behind modules that may be useful doesn't sit well with me. I have to make a station my home just to store modules.

Yeah, that's pretty much what the Anaconda is for.