Elite Dangerous Catch-All

Horse from the novel and ship from the novels. Haven't watched brought myself to watch the show yet -- I'm a bit afraid SyFy is going to get their SyFy all over it and ruin some part of what I like about it.

They're baaack.....

Edit: And check your emails for the new Community Goal...

This is an urgent message from Commander Edward Lewis.

There are forces out there that don’t want you to know the truth, but I have to make this public.

I found a ship in HIP 17044. A Federal cap ship, shot to pieces. They were carrying the data the Feds stole from Professor Palin. The crew is dead, but they discovered something important about the Unknown Ships.

There’s beacon in the wreckage broadcasting a message, over and over.

It proves what we suspected. They’re back. And the whole galaxy needs to know. The Thargoids have returned.

I spent about 10 minutes jumping around trying to get a hyperdiction, then gave up. I can make more than the top pay spending that same time continuing on the Road to Riches exploration circuit.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/zmp0gR4.png)

The ambushed capital ships that Ed Lewis and Co found on the stream can be visited in any mode as far as I know (I visited in solo). Jump to HIP 17044, head for the second planet, once you reach it target the Asterope system. Head straight for Asterope and you should eventually see an Unregistered Comms Beacon pop up. Drop out at its location.

There's a data beacon here you can scan for Unknown Ship Signatures (in case you gave them all in at the CG).

Edited: a correction.

PurEvil wrote:

I spent about 10 minutes jumping around trying to get a hyperdiction, then gave up. I can make more than the top pay spending that same time continuing on the Road to Riches exploration circuit.

I'm in that weird position where I realize I can make as many credits as I want as long as I'm willing to put up with a bit of grind, but don't really have anything to aim for. I own six ships. Hell, I own an Orca for some reason. I guess the end-game is to grind for an Anaconda, but then...?

I'm just sightseeing now. That's what the Orca is for. Even my Asp has passenger cabins instead of cargo holds. If I want to trade, that's what the Python is for. So hanging around a barnacle site for a couple of hours really didn't bother me. I finally got around to setting up my camera suite, so I was fine.

That said, I'll probably run out to HIP 17044 later tonight, if anyone else is on. I'll be in Veloxi. I may swap out my cabins for a cargo bay, on the off-chance I decide to pick up an unknown artifact along the way to improve my encounter chances.

I guess that means I need to add an auto-repair too. Sigh.

Anyway, I'll be out there tonight to see what I can find...

I'm in that weird position where I realize I can make as many credits as I want as long as I'm willing to put up with a bit of grind, but don't really have anything to aim for. I own six ships. Hell, I own an Orca for some reason. I guess the end-game is to grind for an Anaconda, but then...?

Two Anacondas! And a Corvette! And a Cutter! And one of every other ship you've ever flown, mostly for sentimental reasons! And quite a few others just for sh*ts and giggles! And engineer most of the to the gills! And get a billion credits in the bank on top of all of that!
...
...
...
Okay, maybe I went a little overboard the last time I was playing heavily.

In all seriousness, though, you really should play around with an Anaconda -- it's a really fun ship that can do nearly everything really well, and after all this time I suspect you'd be happy to finally own one.

That said, I'll probably run out to HIP 17044 later tonight, if anyone else is on. I'll be in Veloxi. I may swap out my cabins for a cargo bay, on the off-chance I decide to pick up an unknown artifact along the way to improve my encounter chances.

Yeah, I'll probably try to jump on at least briefly tonight to fly over and see the crash site for myself. Feel free to wing me up if you see me online. I'll probably go in the Fleetcomm group, though -- I've been flying in open a bit more often, but I don't think I'll be doing that tonight.

zeroKFE wrote:

In all seriousness, though, you really should play around with an Anaconda -- it's a really fun ship that can do nearly everything really well, and after all this time I suspect you'd be happy to finally own one.

That's been my experience, I put off buying the Anaconda a long time after I could afford it because I didn't think I'd like such a big ship. To be fair it's still sluggish in supercruise, but 7A thrusters and dirty drive tuning helped a lot with regular flight.

One ship is pretty liberating. She's not optimal for any one activity but can handle most things I want to do with minimal or no refitting, and no back-tracking to get 'the other ship' or waiting on a delivery timer. It's reduced a lot of grind/time sinks and finding G5 mats for just one ship didn't test my patience too badly either. As for credits ... they tend to just accumulate when you have no reason to spend them, and there's no necessity for me to seek out the most lucrative activities if they don't line up with what's actually fun.

Spoiler:

So long as they don't nerf it!

I think I'll head out there as well tonight. I have an Orca, it has guns, so I should be fine...

See, I've got a Cutter, Corvette, Anaconda, Beluga, etc. as well. Hell, once I saw that they had Corvette paint jobs a few days ago, I bought those and I haven't played in months.

I do want to get back in, it's just that Stellaris is calling me more. I plan on building a new rig soon and going from the DK2 to the CV1, so I'm sure I'll start playing again then. It's usually money-making schemes that catch my eye, and the Road to Riches that PurEvil mentioned looks fun.

Sadly, Quince is now dead.

I would say even the Road to Riches circuit is a bit of a grind, but it's easy money, and the best part about it is that I'm pulling in decent exploration credits while still being inside the bubble. So if I want to hop over and do something else... I just do it. What burnt me out so badly last year was being way out on one of the spiral arms, 17k LY from the bubble, and deciding I was done exploring... took me a week to get back, and by that time I just didn't want to load E:D up anymore.

I bought an anaconda but I mainly just use it for trade CG's. It's a good ship, just not my cup of tea for long periods. I still spend most of my time in my Asp, unless I need to pew pew, then I hop into either my iCourier or Cobra depending on my mood.

Well, I'm the one who did Distant Worlds in a Type-6, so what do I know?

Meanwhile, this looks bad. Really bad. Remember that good thing we saw that time? It didn't look anything like this...

IMAGE(https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/866228940399809527/0950D3EE0BEF6C0237282588E83DE163EFAE5E05/)

babakotia wrote:

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/zmp0gR4.png)

Jump to HIP 17044, head for the second planet, once you reach it plot a course for the Asterope system.

I found plotting a course to Asterope did not lead me to the target. In my case it was a two jump hop to Asterope, and the first hop was not quite in the right heading off of planet 2.
Instead, just select Asterope in the galaxy map (using the diamond) instead of actually plotting a course. After exiting the galaxy map you can now supercruise directly towards it.
Target is at approx 11,000 ls from planet 2.

tanstaafl wrote:
zeroKFE wrote:

Hate to say it, but I think the CG is probably done now. It was millimeters away from done when I was logged on several hours ago, so it's hard to imagine it would still be open now.

EDIT: Nice ship name by they way. :D

Yeah, I figured I would miss it, but it gave me an excuse to go hunt aliens anyway.

And I named it after the ship in Rush's Cygnus X-1, though I suspect most people either know it from the ship in the TV show or the horse in the novel.

I had actually wanted to name my ship Rocinante for the same reason, but after the Expanse came out I decided to go a different route.

I wonder how Cervantes would feel about being (at best) third-choice as the source of inspiration for that name now!

lorenzolio wrote:

I found plotting a course to Asterope did not lead me to the target. In my case it was a two jump hop to Asterope, and the first hop was not quite in the right heading off of planet 2.
Instead, just select Asterope in the galaxy map (using the diamond) instead of actually plotting a course. After exiting the galaxy map you can now supercruise directly towards it.
Target is at approx 11,000 ls from planet 2.

Sorry that's what I should have said (bad choice of words on my part!). I've corrected my post. Glad you found it in the end.

It looks like you should be able to leave planet 2 and head straight for the Pleiades Nebula. Asterope is at the edge of the nebula from the planet.

From a Lore point of view the second planet has ammonia-based life (and the Thargoids are apparently ammonia-based) and the Pleiades Nebula seems to be the center of whatever is happening. In case you were wondering how you could have found the ships on your own.

And it took me a bit to realize that the data beacon was on one of the ships, not the comm beacon you drop in on.

But it is an impressive mess out there...

IMAGE(https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/866228940399905872/65D1B49CD513D367446819BA9A4667A65D160C22/)

Hrdina wrote:

I wonder how Cervantes would feel about being (at best) third-choice as the source of inspiration for that name now!

That his work had such impact on pop culture in another language and centuries later that even though two other choices come to mind, both of them were inspired by his? But we still know it was his? I think he'd be fine with that.

Dipping a toe back in...still overwhelmed. Last night I loaded up and my Diamondback Explorer was sitting in Paradiso Outpost in 17 Draconis, because last I recall it was THE PLACE TO BE for warrants/bounties/dogs and cats living together/mass hysteria/money everywhere. Now it's dead, clearly patched. I had 200,000 credits back in LHS 2370 so I made the 22 jumps back.

My question for you all is this: if you had a fully-loaded DBX (exploring/guns/planetary suite, worth about 4mm), 1.5 million in the bank, and wanted to get to an Anaconda as quickly as possible, what steps would you take at this stage of the game?

Fighter for warrants/bounties?
Something all-around-ish for passengers/trading?
Straight up hauler for bigger trading?
Mining?

I have no idea what the best path to riches and therefore an Anaconda is nowadays, but I want one.

Also acceptable as part of your answer: "dude, you're misguided...if you want to do X, Y, and Z in the game and want an all-around ship for it, you should do (this) instead of an Anaconda."

Improved Road to Riches Circuit. Buy an advanced scanner and detailed surface scanner. Visit the water worlds and earth likes on the list. Scan and sell. I printed out the original list, and 20 scans on that list was around 15 million. Really zero risk, very little investment, and only a bit grindy... make sure you have something to listen to that's entertaining.

PurEvil wrote:

Improved Road to Riches Circuit. Buy an advanced scanner and detailed surface scanner. Visit the water worlds and earth likes on the list. Scan and sell. I printed out the original list, and 20 scans on that list was around 15 million. Really zero risk, very little investment, and only a bit grindy... make sure you have something to listen to that's entertaining.

I'm down. Can you be more specific about what I do with this list? Do I start by going to the first location, the work through the list (and back again) or no?

I'm not up on what the latest new hotness is on money making schemes, I'm afraid, but I'd set a short term goal of upgrading to an Asp Explorer. It's similar to your DBX in many ways, but a bit better. From there, it depends on what kind of stuff you enjoy doing, but in the absence of any specific preferences a Python might make a good goal after that.

----

Meanwhile, I took a trip out to the Thargoid/Federation debris field and finally decided to get controls set up for the new camera suite. And since I was there already, I made a video, in case anyone wants a better look without making the trip themselves.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/5IRGTbG.jpg)
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/EGfmU1f.jpg)
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/DRXn85p.jpg)
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/QcyWQZS.jpg)

You're just scanning the planets on the list. As an example, the first system is HIP 14976. You fly there, honk with the advanced system scanner, so you can at least see all the planets on the list in the system map. From the notes, this system will have multiple suns, but you're only dealing with the first one. The scannable planets are on the first star (A), and will be planets 5, 6, and 7. HMC stands for Heavy Metal Content, and TWW stands for Terraformable Water World. ELW is Earth-Like World, but you won't get one of those until the 10th scan.

When they redid the scanning payouts, these got bumped quite a bit. HMC's are 35k each, unless they're terraformable in which that jumps to 412k. Water worlds are either 304k or 694k, and ELW's are 627k. So if you can get into a good rhythm of scanning, it can add up really quickly. Also, if you have Horizons, there's a fast scan mod for detailed surface scanners that can cut some of the scanning time down.

Edit: Forgot to mention, the number in parentheses is the distance from the main star in Ls, and the first number is the LY distance from the previous system. For instance, the third system is Arietis Sector CQ-Y d63, the planet is C 3, so you're flying 14,154 Ls to the third planet from the third star, scan, and jump.

The nice thing about this is, while it can be tedious, it's playing explorer while still inside the bubble.

Super helpful, thanks a bunch (thanks Zero as well).

Dumb question: do you sell as you go where you can or save the sale until the end?

Up to you. I'm saving until the end, but that's mostly because I don't have anything in particular I want to buy at the moment.

PurEvil wrote:

Up to you. I'm saving until the end, but that's mostly because I don't have anything in particular I want to buy at the moment.

So I've learned selling exploration data to Felicity and Elvira help rank up with them, maybe this is the ticket. I made it through the first 10 entries last night, to the first Earth-like planet. Getting a touch nervous about zoning out and hugging a star to lose everything, but I guess it is what it is.

If you haven't gotten your Sirius or Alioth permits, those are good to dump data into as well.

vaphiz wrote:
PurEvil wrote:

Up to you. I'm saving until the end, but that's mostly because I don't have anything in particular I want to buy at the moment.

So I've learned selling exploration data to Felicity and Elvira help rank up with them, maybe this is the ticket. I made it through the first 10 entries last night, to the first Earth-like planet. Getting a touch nervous about zoning out and hugging a star to lose everything, but I guess it is what it is.

Yeah, that's probably your best bet -- sell anytime you are in the neighborhood of an engineer who gives rank for data (or any other faction you want rank with) , and kill two birds with one stone.

Once you are confident and in a ship you feel you can survive anything in, going long bursts between selling is fine, but if I was in a DBX and cruising the bubble, I'd still be selling a bit more frequently so as to not lose progress due to carelessness or an unlucky interdiction.

The nice thing about the Road to Riches circuit is that it's halfway between Maia and the bubble. It was a 12 jump trip to Farseer Inc. in my 27LY Orca.

zeroKFE wrote:
vaphiz wrote:
PurEvil wrote:

Up to you. I'm saving until the end, but that's mostly because I don't have anything in particular I want to buy at the moment.

So I've learned selling exploration data to Felicity and Elvira help rank up with them, maybe this is the ticket. I made it through the first 10 entries last night, to the first Earth-like planet. Getting a touch nervous about zoning out and hugging a star to lose everything, but I guess it is what it is.

Yeah, that's probably your best bet -- sell anytime you are in the neighborhood of an engineer who gives rank for data (or any other faction you want rank with) , and kill two birds with one stone.

Once you are confident and in a ship you feel you can survive anything in, going long bursts between selling is fine, but if I was in a DBX and cruising the bubble, I'd still be selling a bit more frequently so as to not lose progress due to carelessness or an unlucky interdiction.

Thanks. Before I logged last night, I was interdicted while putting a kid (back) in bed. Got to it in time to win the mini-game, but I think I'm going to prioritize strategically selling soon next go round and after every 10-15 entries or so. I'll worry about the engineering ranks later.

I'm going to take the advice to work up to an ASPX with possibly a Python being endgame for me unless I hit a groove I'm not expecting to hit right now. Just need to determine if exploring will remain the straightforward way to get there or perhaps buy an entry-level passenger ship for those lucrative missions. I think the near-term goal of a nicely-fitted ASPX capable of an assortment of missions to provide rep/variety sounds good.