Elite Dangerous Catch-All

Laarrs wrote:
Gremlin wrote:
plavonica wrote:
ButtonMasher wrote:

If anyone has additional info or thoughts, let me know. I imagine Universal Cartographics will pay handsomely for the location.

I found Niven station on my way to Lave. I forget where exactly but it should be on my galaxy map now right? If so, I'll post what system it resides in once I finish downloading the game to my main machine.

The galaxy map search will also locate stations and planets by name.

Meanwhile, I made the interesting discovery that some stations that are 1,000,000 lightseconds from the nav beacon have large quantities of rare goods that have a very nice payoff. I'm still not sure that the trip was worth it, from an efficiency standpoint, but half a million credits from just those 37 tons was nice.

I'm going to have to fly with you one night, I'd like to see these routes you're taking. ;)

Geras. And it's not worth it.

Maq wrote:
Laarrs wrote:

I'm going to have to fly with you one night, I'd like to see these routes you're taking. ;)

Geras. And it's not worth it.

Funny, I'm on my way back to Lave from 39 Tauri now. I had considered running off to Geras but didn't need to because I filled my hold at Tauri.

It was kind of neat zooming out in the Galaxy Map at this point. I can see the sprinkle of red/blue/green/orange stars, and an occasional burst of color from those few places I stopped and learned the trade routes. It looks like fireworks.

I ran across a station called Nevermore on my travels. Sadly there was no Poe station there.

ButtonMasher wrote:

I did find Niven station while doing my searching in the galaxy map, along with Sagan station in the same system. Some sort of sci-fi writers retirement community, perhaps. I think it's pretty far from my current search area, but might be worth investigating at some point. Thanks, plavonica!

After your mention of Ringworld earlier, I spent about an hour in my basement digging through books.

I finally did find my copy of Ringworld's Children, but honestly remember very little of it so may read it again.

I also went and searched out a list of Known Space books, to see which I was missing. I need to track down a copy of Three Books of Known Space, as well as Man-Kzin Wars II, III, IV, and VII. None available on Kindle, unfortunately.

I finally got enough credits for a Cobra Mk III tonight, now I just have to find one for sale. I'd like to keep my Eagle and maybe trick it out later for straight exploration. Is there is no way to move it from the station where I buy the Cobra at this time?

Also, everyone add CMDR Casisto to your friends list please!

plavonica wrote:

Thinking of upgrades for my hauler (when I can afford them). Would a space trucker need a discovery scanner and/or a fuel scoop? And how do I acquire trade data?

In my experience from travelling about 150 LY to the Alioth neighborhood where I wanted to gain faction, a fuel scoop was WELL worth it. Coming out of jump you're just seconds away from being close enough to scoop fuel (watch out for those little white angry stars). Discovery scanner has just been free money for me too. As far as I know trade data can be bought at many (all?) stations and is good for 24 hours. This is just from some tutorial videos I've watched though, I've never bought it because I have not started trading yet.

If you're doing Silk Road runs (150ly+) then you should buy a fuel scoop. If you don't believe me check your fuel costs in your stats on the right panel.

I deliberately didn't stick a fuel scoop on the Type 6 because the thing is already prone to overheating. For the Cobra it was definitely worth it.

The discovery scanner can add 200+ credits per scanned system even if you just ping it while your FSD is cooling down. Adds up on long trips, especially if you're taking the scenic route through the tiny undercharted systems.

Dr_Awkward wrote:

I finally got enough credits for a Cobra Mk III tonight, now I just have to find one for sale. I'd like to keep my Eagle and maybe trick it out later for straight exploration. Is there is no way to move it from the station where I buy the Cobra at this time?

Also, everyone add CMDR Casisto to your friends list please!

Not at this time. If you store you're Eagle it's going to remain at whatever station you buy your Cobra.

Has anyone messed with configurations that prevent overheating, allowing you to scoop fuel for longer? I'm thinking of things like temporarily suspending life support while the fuel scoop is active, for example. It would take some scientific study I haven't been arsed to do. Do pips in System help with overheating? (Doubtful, because you can't adjust your pips in Supercruise.

I've tried it, poly. It just fortified that I suck at fuel scooping. Also seeing my life support timer click down was scary.

There's 2 methods for fuel scooping I use.

First method is to orbit the star at about 50% throttle, just inside the corona, until I hit 120% heat at which point I peel off until my temp drops then repeat. I use this method when there's in-system traffic and I want to be able to rapidly avoid interdiction, or if I just want to scoop up a little extra fuel and not completely top off the tank.

Second method is to creep directly towards the star at 5-10% throttle until my heat tops out at about 98% and park there until my tank is full.

Huh, never tried the second method but I will next time I have a scoop.

Veloxi wrote:

Huh, never tried the second method but I will next time I have a scoop.

I wouldn't think to do it that way either, if only because the word "scoop" implies to me I should be moving. Good to know that's not the case.

billybob476 wrote:
Veloxi wrote:

Huh, never tried the second method but I will next time I have a scoop.

I wouldn't think to do it that way either, if only because the word "scoop" implies to me I should be moving. Good to know that's not the case.

Well, you're still moving at 30km/sec. It just feels slow when you're used to travelling at significant fractions of c.

Yeah, if doing serious fuel scooping rather than just a top up, i aim dead centre of the star and throttle back. The closer you get, the faster you scoop but the quicker you heat up. I'm fairly patient if I'm going long runs that take time anyway, it's only a minute or so longer.

Because I was curious: 30 km per second, the slowest possible speed in supercruise, is equivalent to 67,108 miles per hour.

Gremlin wrote:

Because I was curious: 30 km per second, the slowest possible speed in supercruise, is equivalent to 67,108 miles per hour.

So for me to get from Boston, MA to my friends in Austin, TX, it'd take me less than 2 minutes...
To get to my sister in Portland, OR, it'd be about 3...
Why can't we have this now? In real life, I mean.

And yes, I know you can't supercruise inside a gravity well, but still.

Just found this on reddit, and I expect it will be of great interest here:

Web based ship outfitting calculator.

It currently only supports ships up to the Type 7, but even still it's very handy for planning out your purchases.

It's best to buy the biggest scoop you can, a scoop of equal size to your fuel tank works the best. (eg, 16 fuel = size 4). When I explore in my Cobra I mount a VERY expensive size 4 class A fuel scoop and it can grab 343 units of fuel per second. Each size level of fuel scoop roughly doubles the amount you take in since fuel tanks also double in size per step. A class 3 gives about 175 fuel per second, a class 1 about 45.

If I'm headed somewhere I circle around a star at 75% throttle. It's okay to heat up a little, you don't start taking damage until about 150% heat. This method works best when travelling because you can dive past a star and top up your tank in the time in takes for your FSD to cool down for the next jump. The other method involves just getting close to a star and coming to a stop. You don't have to be moving to scoop fuel, so sometimes what I do is come in for a shallow "landing" on a star and slow down to 0% throttle while edging closer to the star. This lets me scoop at about 50% efficiency while I do other things like pull up the galaxy map and plot my next jump.

I've been doing a lot of targeted bounties, the ones that offer 150k+ on the bulletin board. All of the ones with high rewards are for Elite Anacondas and I've refined my strategy for dealing with them. I use a beam laser, a railgun and two small gimballed multi cannons. The beam laser and multicannons are hooked to the same trigger and I use them to knock down shields. The multicannons don't do much to shields but they also don't use much power, which leaves more to operate the beam laser. Once the shield is down the three weapons combined do decent constant hull damage. For knocking out specific components I used aimed strikes with the railgun. Taking out an anaconda's engines works best because they can no longer keep you in their frontal arc and can't jump away. I've destroyed anacondas with 50% health remaining by knocking out the engines and gutting their power core with the railgun. The money you can make is considerable, 150-200k per mission plus another 20-50k from the bounty, if any. While I'm looking for these targets I also pick up a lot of random bounties from ships passing by in supercruise and all the "dud" USS sites.

I'd have to time it and see if it's any more profitable than hunting in RES's, but it's definitely slower than rare trading in terms of profit per hour.

Got advice for keeping your guns pointed at those sub-systems? Flight Assist Off + maneuvering thrusters? I haven't tried getting used to that yet.

zeroKFE wrote:

Just found this on reddit, and I expect it will be of great interest here:

Web based ship outfitting calculator.

It currently only supports ships up to the Type 7, but even still it's very handy for planning out your purchases.

VERY nice, thank you.

Man this game has its hooks in me, and I don't even really know what I'm doing.

Trying to think of what I want to do next.. I want to head over to lave with the rest of the crew, but I think I've got myself "stuck" in a spot that won't let me move closer. Plotting outwards 3-5 systems I always seem to run into a spot I where I can't get closer to Lave. I could do a lot of backtracking, but not sure how keen I am for that especially since I found a general area where I can haul metals from mining systems to high demand systems pretty easy. Just not sure if I want to upgrade to a hauler to do more volume or just strip the sidewinder down and haul 10-tons back and forth for a few days to rack up some credits.

Asking the GWJ hive mind: For the refinery what is the difference between the size of the component? In my (new) Cobra I can fit a size 4 refinery but it costs more than the smaller refineries and has less hoppers - so what does it do better. Couldn't find the answer.

Not sure if I'm going into mining but I need a few million to finish my new exploration ship and was thinking of giving it a try.

Carlbear95 wrote:

Man this game has its hooks in me, and I don't even really know what I'm doing.

Trying to think of what I want to do next.. I want to head over to lave with the rest of the crew, but I think I've got myself "stuck" in a spot that won't let me move closer. Plotting outwards 3-5 systems I always seem to run into a spot I where I can't get closer to Lave. I could do a lot of backtracking, but not sure how keen I am for that especially since I found a general area where I can haul metals from mining systems to high demand systems pretty easy. Just not sure if I want to upgrade to a hauler to do more volume or just strip the sidewinder down and haul 10-tons back and forth for a few days to rack up some credits.

Upgrade your FSD and you should be able to jump those larger gaps?

omni wrote:
Carlbear95 wrote:

Man this game has its hooks in me, and I don't even really know what I'm doing.

Trying to think of what I want to do next.. I want to head over to lave with the rest of the crew, but I think I've got myself "stuck" in a spot that won't let me move closer. Plotting outwards 3-5 systems I always seem to run into a spot I where I can't get closer to Lave. I could do a lot of backtracking, but not sure how keen I am for that especially since I found a general area where I can haul metals from mining systems to high demand systems pretty easy. Just not sure if I want to upgrade to a hauler to do more volume or just strip the sidewinder down and haul 10-tons back and forth for a few days to rack up some credits.

Upgrade your FSD and you should be able to jump those larger gaps?

I've Upgraded 2 levels on the FSD.. the next level just doesn't have the cost/benefit IMO for the starter sidewinder.. I know i can just sell it back when the time is right, but I'd rather focus on making money for now and saving up for something bigger.

Carlbear95 wrote:
omni wrote:
Carlbear95 wrote:

Man this game has its hooks in me, and I don't even really know what I'm doing.

Trying to think of what I want to do next.. I want to head over to lave with the rest of the crew, but I think I've got myself "stuck" in a spot that won't let me move closer. Plotting outwards 3-5 systems I always seem to run into a spot I where I can't get closer to Lave. I could do a lot of backtracking, but not sure how keen I am for that especially since I found a general area where I can haul metals from mining systems to high demand systems pretty easy. Just not sure if I want to upgrade to a hauler to do more volume or just strip the sidewinder down and haul 10-tons back and forth for a few days to rack up some credits.

Upgrade your FSD and you should be able to jump those larger gaps?

I've Upgraded 2 levels on the FSD.. the next level just doesn't have the cost/benefit IMO for the starter sidewinder.. I know i can just sell it back when the time is right, but I'd rather focus on making money for now and saving up for something bigger.

Check the map and change from economical routes to fastest routes, or just try to jump to the system. Even with the basic FSD you should be able to get to Lave from any of the starting areas.

Flintheart Glomgold wrote:

Asking the GWJ hive mind: For the refinery what is the difference between the size of the component? In my (new) Cobra I can fit a size 4 refinery but it costs more than the smaller refineries and has less hoppers - so what does it do better. Couldn't find the answer.

No difference in functionality, higher quality refineries let you put more bins into smaller slots. This leaves you with more bigger slots with which to hold cargo.

Only certain minerals can show up in specific kinds of asteroids, so it's highly unlikely that you will ever need more than 6 bins.

polypusher wrote:

Got advice for keeping your guns pointed at those sub-systems? Flight Assist Off + maneuvering thrusters? I haven't tried getting used to that yet.

No real trick to it, you just need a steady hand and some practice. Lasers and railguns are the easiest to use for this because they hit instantly with no lag time. Gimbaled multicannons and lasers are also decent but they scatter shots a bit even at close range, so DPS to systems is reduced over fixed weapons.

It's best to aim in a pitch-up situation because pitch controls are much stronger than rudder controls. If you can match their speed with your turning speed just right your crosshair and the target subsystem will be almost stationary.

Also something I've discovered from extensive testing is that each weapon has a certain "armour penetration". The more AP power a weapon has the more "ship" it can punch through to reach subsystems inside the hull. Some weapons have very poor AP power like missiles and rockets. They will simply explode against the hull and deal no internal damage so the only subsystems you can attack with them are the exposed ones like engines and weapons. Torpedoes are the exception and pack a big punch against systems and hull. Lasers have okay AP power but low DPS so it takes a while to chip away at systems. Kinetic weapons are much better for this and knock out big chunks if you can hit. Railguns and plasma are the best for this, you can destroy subsystems with only 3-4 hits from these weapons.

Hits to subsystems also seem to deal extra damage to hull. I've had my railgun deal anywhere from 1-50% hull damage in a single hit. In one case I shot a sidewinder right on the nose and only did 3%. In most circumstances you can simply aim for the power core which is always located at centre mass. When fighting anything larger than an Asp you may want to disable engines first as this renders most ships helpless and stops them from escaping because they can't accelerate to use an FSD.

Apologies, I didn't think you had upgraded the FSD if you were struggling to find routes. I think I just upgraded one level, bought a fuel scoop, and off I went.

If you're still stuck after that, which star system are you in? I could try figuring out a route from there that will work.

Gremlin wrote:

If you're still stuck after that, which star system are you in? I could try figuring out a route from there that will work.

Khronos... may have taken a wrong turn at Albuquerque. Its about 100ly from Lave per the galaxy map. I think my unladen max jump is 11.xx ly.