Elite Dangerous Catch-All

tanstaafl wrote:
davet010 wrote:
tanstaafl wrote:
kergguz wrote:

If I start playing this in solo mode, does stuff I earn come with me if I start playing in the big boys world instead?

Or join us in Veloxi. That's our private group.

It's been absolutely ages since I played - how do I join the private group, rather than go out on my own ?

Search for the group from the main menu and send a request. Someone should get it fairly quickly

And join the Hammerheads Squadron while you're at it (Squadron menu on your right console in-game) That's us too.

I thought we were Wildcards?

We are the Wildcards. Yes.

Yes, Wildcards. Weird brain-fart on my end.

tanstaafl wrote:

Yes, Wildcards. Weird brain-fart on my end.

Not at all, the Hammerheads were the name of the ships the Wildcards flew in Space: Above and Beyond.

Ah! Ok. I feel better now. I was going "Hammerheads? Where did that come from?"

I had the right show at least!

tanstaafl wrote:

Ah! Ok. I feel better now. I was going "Hammerheads? Where did that come from?"

I had the right show at least!

Yep! Trust your space gut!

Also, after removing a fuel scoop and setting up a proper balance of cabins, I'm pulling in about 90M/hr doing Robigo-Sothis VIP passenger runs. It's about 15M/run, where each run takes about 10 minutes. I know I'm just being a bus, but I'm happy to just fly a bit for 10 minutes to get the space itch scratched.

Another small tip when mining in an anaconda. If you hit your sideways thrusters and strafe a bit you can launch prospector limpets without running them over or slowing down first. This even works when boosting.

Orphu wrote:

SO, one huge tip on core mining... this may be a bug.

If you hit a surface deposit with multiple abrasion shots from multiple blasters, you can get multiple resources to pop off. I've tried this with up to five blasters, and can get five materials per surface deposit most times if I line up all shots to hit nearly simultaneously.

Yep... that's some quality coding. Most ships can't do this because the blasters have to hit simultaneously and their weapon hardpoints are too spaced out. They have to be at the same distance relative to the bow of the ship or they won't impact at the same time. But I've seen a picture where someone gets three fragments with an eagle, and apparently you can get 4+ on an AspX or Krait.

Apparently the abrasion blaster thing is working as intended, there was a dev note about it and they seemed happy with it.

What really? That's an... interesting design choice. It changes the dynamic between small and big ships for mining because your hardpoint configuration could increase your mining yield, but a small ship has a much smaller cargo capacity to work with.

Although it occurs to me that a lot of "gold rush" stations are outposts and only medium ships can land there. So that's a factor as well.

Yeah, I'm surprised to hear that. It makes the AspX the best mining ship hands down because you can increase your yield by 5x for no other reason than the hard point placement is lucky. You could fill up the hold with a single 'roid, an A class prospector, and five abrasion blasters. Forget the larger ships.

obviously this is speculation, but I'm betting they had in mind multiplayer mining. gives a good reason for a mining wing to have large, medium and small ships. 1 aspx for abrasion blasters and roid scouting, 1 big ship for collection, 1 python or krait for big booms and ferrying stuff into med pad stations and a combat ship for protection.
wham, a reason for a mixed wing.

Diving back in after a long break. Tamren, thanks for the excellent write ups for deep core mining. For the hard point items. If you choose an item that allows for multi-player use, does it still work fine without another player to run it?

Had to watch a number of YouTube videos to figure out the new cockpit modes and how to scan. Man they changed a lot of boring activities into more interesting ones.

Yeah they work fine, only turret weapons are multicrew afaik and you have multiple ways to control them yourself, which more or less boil down to letting the turret do what it wants, or limiting it's arc to make it more like gimbal or fixed weapons.

Is it unusual to be in a void opal hotspot and not find a single opal?

Also, finding asteroids that you can crack is more of a challenge than I thought. Looking for bright yellow popcorn, but still finding it rather rare.

I do love the mechanics and explosions of deep core mining though!

This is just speculation but think different hotspots have different seeds. I've had more luck with the big ones in the middle of the ring, instead of the small hotspots near the edges. Though it could just be pure RNG and you just got unlucky. I've definitely had good luck and bad luck where I get two opals right beside each other and then fail to find a good asteroid for 20 minutes.

The best way I've found to scan is a slow zigzag. Pick a visible landmark or simply fly directly away from the middle of the hotspot. If you don't see anything ahead of you turn to the right and fly that way for a while, then turn back to the left etc. Turning every now and then seems to be more effective than boosting in a straight line. I'm not sure if the game transforms existing asteroids into special ones with more minerals, or it just spawns in new asteroids within the field, but either way it seems less likely to do that directly in front of you, so turning and doubling back seems to get more hits in my experience.

I'd agree with Tamren about doubling back, also if you're in a thick ring, deliberately deviating down through the ring seems to help too.

Seems totally random to me. I'll find 2-3 right next to each other then nothing for a while. Then some that aren't void opals, then a bunch more void opals.

Seems the best strategy is to just cover as much ground as fast as you can so that you're sampling as quickly as possible. I'll typically target the hot spot POI and then drop in somewhere between the edge and the hot spot center. Then use the POI as a compass heading to make sure I'm not doubling back.

Also, I'll post this here in case someone else has had a similar issue. Frontier support and forums have not been helpful.

Ever since about 2.4, I get a 2 minute timeout when launching the game. I'm using the Frontier launcher (not steam or anything), I press the PLAY button, it goes away, and I wait exactly two minutes before the game window opens and the game launches. This seems like some sort of DNS or network timeout, but I've been unable to determine the cause. It happens on every Win 10 machine on my network (I've tried three).

Otherwise the game works flawlessly.

This guide to identifying deep core 'roids was super helpful for me. Wasting a LOT less prospector limpets now

https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteMiners...

I see the "black" effect on the scanner but it doesn't seem to correlate to mineral density. Shape and colour are what I use primarily.

This gold rush isn't going away any time soon, Inara is showing 29 stations paying more than a million for void opals, and these are just the ones that we know about.

I've hopped over to Kupol Vuh and have been fighting in AX Conflict Zones. I've had some learnings.

I've never done well in human CZs. AX CZs are not much different for me.

Set yourself a hard stop point; when your hull gets below a certain percentage, leave without thinking. I decided to stay "for just one more" and lost my Krait, several hundred KCR in bonds, and my Elite SLF pilot for my troubles. My rebuy Krait will be named "Katya" in her honor. I hope I at least kept all my combat rank for those kills.

After you rebuy, your limpets are "cargo" and not "ammo". If you don't pay attention and jump back into a CZ, you may find yourself without the ability to use limpets to get rid of caustic damage.

I think I've enjoyed the AX CZs more than I enjoyed hopping around between Thread 4 NHSSs. I've never (successfully) fought any Thargoids bigger than a Scout, but maybe that will change with some NPC help.

Then again, maybe I'll try mining like I've been meaning to.

Edit to add: Interceptors can drop you from 50% to 0% hull quicker than you can GTFO if you're not paying attention.

Very much enjoying the new mining! Have not gotten super profitable yet, but mostly been learning the ropes. Just found a ringed planet with pristine ice rings and 3 void opal hotspots, so I have the feeling I found my new home. I want to get 1 billion in the bank and another Anacona so I dont have to keep stripping down my pimped out death-mobile for other roles. Half-way to the 1 billion mark.

I hope FDev doesnt nerf this anytime soon!

I've also gotten pretty good at spotting the fissure decals on the surface. Night vision helps here. In general I look for the black lines (wait for the second ping-- binding the scanner to a toggle switch helps, just leave it on), verify the shape is correct, then look for the fissure decals. If you see all that then it's for sure a crack-able rock.

Finally had a really good mining session. About an hour and a half brought in about 125 million.

I think I finally have the visual recognition down at this point. Yes the black grid lines clue you in for potentials, and the continuous scan pings are required, but the crackable roids should get reeeeally dirty as you get close, to where you can clearly see the dark regions. If it just stays a somewhat clean grid it's a stinker.

With that said, I have seen a few references that you can make the scanner a toggle so it just keeps pinging? I can't find how to do this if it is possible. My thumb would be extremely happy if this can be done.

Fdev statement on the newest gold rush. Gives me hope this won't be nerfed.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showth...

Yeah, maybe. But it doesn't seem to be dissipating at all, which makes me wonder if it's not working as they intended back when that was posted.

Come the new year, when everyone is back from vacation, I suspect we'll see "adjustments to the background simulation."

Wayfarer wrote:

With that said, I have seen a few references that you can make the scanner a toggle so it just keeps pinging? I can't find how to do this if it is possible. My thumb would be extremely happy if this can be done.

I don't think it's an option in the controls, but for example in my case, I bound secondary fire to a toggle switch on my HOTAS so it just fires continuously until I shut it off.

Wayfarer wrote:

I think I finally have the visual recognition down at this point. Yes the black grid lines clue you in for potentials, and the continuous scan pings are required, but the crackable roids should get reeeeally dirty as you get close, to where you can clearly see the dark regions. If it just stays a somewhat clean grid it's a stinker.

I'm in the midst of my first mining expedition, and I'm still working on that visual recognition thing. I've sent Prospector Limpets off to rocks that turned out to have Low concentrations of minerals. Despite that, I've found two with Void Opals inside and have 21 opals in my hold now. I have my Python set up with a pair of Abrasion Lasers, so as long as I can shoot straight I get two fragments at a time.

On my way to a mining site I passed through Aldebaran, so had to stop and pay my respects.
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/7XDLMgz.png)

Getting a lot of bugs and disconnects within the game. I've sent messages to people I see online but nothing happens and I get a lot of "Comm Server Disconnected" errors. Plus the usual matchmaking errors where I get booted out of the session, they seem to happen less in solo mode so that's what I've been using.

Also every now and then the game will freeze and then recover 10-30 seconds later. According to reddit this happens to everyone and is a server-wide problem, something to do with connection problems. Either way it's very annoying.

Tamren wrote:

Getting a lot of bugs and disconnects within the game. I've sent messages to people I see online but nothing happens and I get a lot of "Comm Server Disconnected" errors. Plus the usual matchmaking errors where I get booted out of the session, they seem to happen less in solo mode so that's what I've been using.

Also every now and then the game will freeze and then recover 10-30 seconds later. According to reddit this happens to everyone and is a server-wide problem, something to do with connection problems. Either way it's very annoying.

FWIW, I did get a message from you today (to ask whether I had tried mining), and I responded.

I have seen the temporary freezing a couple of times. Once happened when I was heading directly at an asteroid.

I have not (yet) been seeing disconnection issues. I've been playing in PG.