Elite Dangerous Catch-All

The unresponsive stations is a long standing bug from the alpha days. re-logging, or entering/exiting super cruise works around it. It's far less common these days, but I still see it occasionally.

Filtering the top 5 trades is now done dynamically rather than being baked into the data

What does this mean?! Is there some trade screen I'm missing?

Taharka wrote:

Edit: So I see that some ships have space for multiple pilots (well, crew). Does that mean we'll be able to jump into the same ship together? Or will crew be AI?

From what I've read it will be AI crew. Mostly for large ships. Gunners will improve your turret accuracy, engineers can speed up repair in the field, etc. Crew can also be droids!

Details for crew in the design archive

I only had about hour or so to play last night, so I decided to try to find one of those big conflict zones and see if I could manage to blow something up. Sadly, the only fight I managed to find was a pirate in an Eagle who attacked me straight away, but then bugged out into hyperspace the second I took down his shields. Jerk!

Also, I tried looking for combat missions, but aside from ones that were definitely above my pay grade I mostly just found shady characters asking me to go hunt and destroy civilian ships. Virtual morality aside, those ones are probably not a great choice if one wants to mostly stay on the right side of the law, right? That is to say, this early in the game I'd like to remain welcome to visit as many starports as possible.

Taharka wrote:

Edit 2: I'm leaning towards the Saitek X52 Flight Control System, or the Thrustmaster T-Flight Hotas X Flight Stick for a cheaper option. Anyone have any experience with either? Or any other setups they'd recommend (not including LiquidMantis' setup, that's a bit out of my reach for now.)

If your budget can stretch for it, I'd definitely recommend the X52 or X52 Pro over the Hotas X. The Hotas X is great for the price but I felt limited by the lack of controls.

Edit 2: I'm leaning towards the Saitek X52 Flight Control System, or the Thrustmaster T-Flight Hotas X Flight Stick for a cheaper option. Anyone have any experience with either? Or any other setups they'd recommend (not including LiquidMantis' setup, that's a bit out of my reach for now.)

Not sure if you caught my previous reply when you asked about sticks, but from the research I did recently:

If you are looking to keep your cost under $100, or even under $50, the T.Flight seems to be a good choice. So are the Logitech 3D extreme and the T16000m; they aren't HOTAS systems, but they do have throttle controls on their base.

If you are okay with spending X52 money, at least get the X52 Pro -- there are improvements to the stick accuracy and build quality that are worth the increase in cost. But, for the kinds of control you want for Elite (specifically, having constant, comfortable, accurate lateral and vertical thruster controls) the X52 throttle didn't seem like a good choice to me. If I had gone with a Saitek, I would have upped my budget to $200 and bought the X55, which is a massive upgrade over the X52 both in terms of stick quality and having control options on the throttle that are suitable for Elite (and space sims in general).

However, in the $150 to $200 price range you have a few other options. If you are interested, read my previous post -- I go into quite a bit of detail there, including describing the setup I eventually settled on for about $150. I cannot overstate just how great the CH Pro Throttle is for Elite. You have access to 19 buttons, an analog stick (perfect for lateral and vertical thrust!), and a smooth throttle without having to reposition your hand at all.

Also, look into voice commands. You can set them up either at small cost and easily, or at no cost with a tiny bit of fiddling, and they will change everything about how you play. Again, see my previous post for details.

Also, head tracking. So worth it.

Thanks, ZeroKFE.
For something I'm not sure how often I'll be using, I'm hoping to keep under $100. If the reviews for the Saitek were stellar, I'd be tempted, but since people seem to like the T.Flight, I think I'll stick with that.

The only downside seems to be finding it in a store. You'd think there'd be one in Boston... but can't find anything.

Sadly, physical stores don't really sell this kind of stuff anymore. Amazon is your friend.

So what's the best way to make money starting out? Trading? And if so, how do I do that? I saw some bulletin board missions, but when I checked the commodity prices at the station it looked like I would lose money on the delivery.

Most of the little trade missions are junk but occasionally there are some with big payouts. I think I've only done one but turning the mission in didn't take the cargo and I was still able to sell it. I don't know if that was a bug or if that's the way it's intended to work, where they basically request a critical supply run and provide a bonus over the base selling price. Of course if that's the case they still should only pay the bonus when you sell it to the station and not just for showing up with it.

Faceless Clock wrote:

So what's the best way to make money starting out? Trading? And if so, how do I do that? I saw some bulletin board missions, but when I checked the commodity prices at the station it looked like I would lose money on the delivery.

The best money I've found early on is to look for the courier missions -- ones that offer you the chance to carry one or two units of cargo over a few jumps. One jump missions seemed to be paying in the 2k range, two or three jump missions could be up to 5k. They don't always show up, and they'll disappear pretty fast, but definitely look for those.

The missions offering to just buy some commodity almost certainly won't be profitable if you try to buy from the station offering them. But, if you've already got the cargo on board, or if you know a neighboring system has that product available for cheap they can be a nice boost over a normal sale of that product. But yeah, those seem more like chances at a bonus on a trade you were already running anyway.

Other than that, you can use your galaxy map to view common trade routes and get an idea of what kind of products to buy and and sell in a given system. Or, if you don't mind a bit of meta data gathering, there is the tool that LiquidMantis linked to a few pages back: http://www.oisltest.com/DM/BPC/. It gathers data from players running the native Windows app and gives you a way to quickly see what trades might be profitable.

Outside of trading, I've heard that in earlier beta and alpha phases a skilled pilot could make good money finding a conflict zone, picking a side, and racking up some easy kills. I hope to try this out this weekend, but I had trouble finding a conflict zone when I looked yesterday.

I'm a tad frustrated at that. Trading in a sidewinder barely makes jack, and missions seem few and far between. I wonder if because I accidentally failed one I'm not getting any more good ones. Sigh.

zeroKFE wrote:

Outside of trading, I've heard that in earlier beta and alpha phases a skilled pilot could make good money finding a conflict zone, picking a side, and racking up some easy kills. I hope to try this out this weekend, but I had trouble finding a conflict zone when I looked yesterday.

Yeah, there used to be one listed on the navigation screen at Eranin. I think there's still one there but you have to find it; probably by checking out those "unidentified signal" things that pop up.

Veloxi wrote:

I'm a tad frustrated at that. Trading in a sidewinder barely makes jack, and missions seem few and far between. I wonder if because I accidentally failed one I'm not getting any more good ones. Sigh.

The missions seem to cycle pretty fast. I pulled into a port last night, looked at the list, then left the computer for 10 or 15 minutes. When I came back, three of the four missions had changed to something else.

But you really only need to raise like 20k to upgrade to a Hauler if you want to start accelerating your trading game, which shouldn't take all that long if you do find the good missions (I would have had enough last night if I hadn't bought a heatsink launcher the night before, and I'm maybe at 3 or 4 total hours of playtime). Also, it's well worth noting that this is really and truly beta software, and nowhere near content complete, let alone close to fully balanced. Just ask the guys who had access to the earlier testing phases and they'll tell you just how much things have changed in that regard.

Orphu wrote:

You'll probably need a driver and there is a setup GUI you can use to test it out and play with some settings like linear vs. expo tracking, and orientation. But, yeah, if you bought the assembled one, it should be calibrated already. The button is for re-centering.

One little detail I've encountered is that it seem E:D can only see the first 3-4 joysticks. You may need to rearrange some things to get the EDTracker high enough in priority if you have a lot of devices.

I posted my experience with it earlier.

Well, I passed up on lunch so I could try it out and, after having to mess around with arduino drivers for Windows, I eventually got it recognised, and it seems pretty responsive in the provided GUI application. Here's hoping that continues. I also protected it a bit by placing it in a TicTac box with a little packing foam to stop it moving, notched out a little bit for the button, and another little bit for the USB port and it looks like this now:

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/8RiSPZN.jpg?1)

It's really quite crude, and done in around 20 minutes of my lunch break, but just having the PCB on show didn't quite sit right with me Another couple of pics of the crudeness.

zeroKFE wrote:

Sadly, physical stores don't really sell this kind of stuff anymore. Amazon is your friend.

Surprisingly, I was able to find one (literally last in stock) in a local mom-and-pop type store. Better yet, it was within walking distance of my work, so that was my lunch break.
One Thrustmaster T-Flight Hotas X Flight Stick, ready for installation! Tomorrow, sadly.

Ah, that's some good luck indeed!

Oh, and once you've got it setup, be sure to head look down while using your controls -- it's kind of awesome to see the your in game body making the same movements with the same kind of controls as you have in the real world.

Taharka wrote:
zeroKFE wrote:

Sadly, physical stores don't really sell this kind of stuff anymore. Amazon is your friend.

Surprisingly, I was able to find one (literally last in stock) in a local mom-and-pop type store. Better yet, it was within walking distance of my work, so that was my lunch break.
One Thrustmaster T-Flight Hotas X Flight Stick, ready for installation! Tomorrow, sadly.

Awesome! This may be of use.

zeroKFE wrote:
Veloxi wrote:

I'm a tad frustrated at that. Trading in a sidewinder barely makes jack, and missions seem few and far between. I wonder if because I accidentally failed one I'm not getting any more good ones. Sigh.

The missions seem to cycle pretty fast. I pulled into a port last night, looked at the list, then left the computer for 10 or 15 minutes. When I came back, three of the four missions had changed to something else.

To Veloxi, 10 or 15 minutes is a lifetime.

Certis wrote:

Any thoughts on what a decent Sidewinder weapon upgrade is? I've got about 14K credits and I'd like something with a little more zap.

Got you covered buddy, fancy upgrade right here

LiquidMantis wrote:
Taharka wrote:
zeroKFE wrote:

Sadly, physical stores don't really sell this kind of stuff anymore. Amazon is your friend.

Surprisingly, I was able to find one (literally last in stock) in a local mom-and-pop type store. Better yet, it was within walking distance of my work, so that was my lunch break.
One Thrustmaster T-Flight Hotas X Flight Stick, ready for installation! Tomorrow, sadly.

Awesome! This may be of use.

And again, Voice Attack or GlovePIE will let you map every other control that matters to voice commands -- cannot recommend that strongly enough.

LiquidMantis wrote:
Taharka wrote:
zeroKFE wrote:

Sadly, physical stores don't really sell this kind of stuff anymore. Amazon is your friend.

Surprisingly, I was able to find one (literally last in stock) in a local mom-and-pop type store. Better yet, it was within walking distance of my work, so that was my lunch break.
One Thrustmaster T-Flight Hotas X Flight Stick, ready for installation! Tomorrow, sadly.

Awesome! This may be of use.

Super sweet, thank you! +1 cookie for you.

zeroKFE wrote:
LiquidMantis wrote:

Awesome! This may be of use.

And again, Voice Attack or GlovePIE will let you map every other control that matters to voice commands -- cannot recommend that strongly enough.

I'll look into it, but I feel a bit awkward talking to myself in my room...

I'll look into it, but I feel a bit awkward talking to myself in my room...

If you really want to feel silly, try wearing something like this (not my picture, but very close to what I have) while doing it. You get over it pretty fast though when you feel like you have instant control of everything in the game.

Also, setting up voice macros to switch to common power configurations is SUPER helpful. Sure, you are only saving couple clicks on your hat stick or whatever, but it makes all the difference in encouraging you to shift your power around as often as you should. Check that demo video I linked to for more, but the following eight voice macros are indispensable:

Weapons (4 pips weapons, 1 pip to shields and engines)
Shields (4 pips shields, 1 pip to weapons and engines)
Engines (4 pips engines, 1 pip to shields and weapons)
Balance (2 pips to each)

Full Shields (4 pips shields, 2 pips engines)
Combat Shields (4 pips engines, 2 pips shields)
Combat Weapons (4 pips engines, 2 pips weapons)
Combat Slow (3 pips shields, 3 pips weapons) (Also very useful as you are approaching a dock)

LiquidMantis wrote:

Are you using lateral thrusters at all? They're key.

I need a second joystick for those. I am out of buttons and need more axes.

...does the game support that?

That does look interesting. Might have to buy one, thanks.

Ed Ropple wrote:
LiquidMantis wrote:

Are you using lateral thrusters at all? They're key.

I need a second joystick for those. I am out of buttons and need more axes.

...does the game support that?

Yes.

If you already have a stick you like and don't mind dropping $100, I'd recommend adding the CH Pro Throttle to your setup. See my last two posts about controllers for more details why I chose it:

http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/1...
http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/1...

and also watch this video for a much more informed discussion of why it's perfect for Elite:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceOd...

and see my Google doc for how I've mapped it along with the modest T16000M stick I bought:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...

It's ugly as sin, but perfectly designed for use as a throttle controller in Elite (19 buttons, an analog stick, and a throttle axis without having to change your hand position at all).

Peek of the week... looks like mining on the horizon!

IMAGE(http://elitedangerous.com/images/newsletter_2014_08_01/metal_asteroids.jpg)

YES! MINING! I LOVE MINING! Seriously, it's what I spent most of my thousands of hours in Jumpgate doing.

And zeroKFE, thanks for that video. Is it wrong I'm kinda hoping my X-45 dies soon so I can get a CH setup?

I think I'm in lust.

Cool read, thank you, Orphu.
I'm kinda disappointed that I can't get back in till tomorrow, especially since I have a new peripheral to play with.