Multi Elite - Dangerous by David Braben

It is annoying when you loose a ship, I was doing the Rank Grind the last couple of weeks and I took a Assassination mission and I found the person dropped them out of supercruise, the next thing I know is 2 Pythons dropped out and 4 Vultures to defend the Orca Target.

I managed to destroy the 2 pythons and the orca and 1 of the vultures but the others were just battering my anaconda and I basically tried to run after destroying the orca and just couldn't get away, and bang say goodbye to the anaconda.

10 million credit insurance payment later and I was down quite abit of money and that was time to say goodbye to the old girl and kit out a combat python, went res hunting and built up a couple of million credits and then went over to the meta alloy cg recently in a anaconda but couldn't sit there grinding for it.

So now trying to decide what to do next.

 

So clearly I need to be saving for a Cobra Mk3 as my proper next ship, but is it worth grabbing an Adder on the way up so I can open my mission choices? I'd add a cheap third gun to up my dps a little as well.

At the moment some of the slightly more lucrative trade missions require a longer jump distance than I've got in the startwinder and I don't want to upgrade it any.

I can just about afford one now but if it's easier to troll some nav beacons and RES in Solo Play for bounties until I can just go straight to the Cobra I might as well wait.

 

How much do u earn for a more lucrative mission?

 

Buy an Eagle, go to the RES points, and do some bounty hunting. Won't take you long at all to get enough for a cobra.

 

Found a 150k multi-part trade mission but it was either a ridiculous amount of shorter hops or just two longer hops for the second stage. Two - three of those and I have a nicely kitted out Cobra but I need the extra jump distance.

Annoyingly in Open Play last night I killed two wanted NPCs but I got no bounty. Even though I initially engaged both, I guess someone else joined in and got the killing hit. I dunno how that works outside of a Wing. My reasoning for spending a touch more on an Adder is that it's got the extra weapon hardpoint but also can carry more than an Eagle can. Granted I could upgrade the cargo bay.

Edit: another question. Is anyone using an Xbox 360 controller for flight control? I figure the analogue sticks might make a nice compact alternative to using a joystick, and has the advantage that I already own an Xbox 360 controller and the USB wire.

 

The problem with the missions is that I can earn more than that for one pirate ship kill outside of any mission. I do agree when people say the missions are kind of half-baked. I think it's a consequence of Braben being very good on technical engineering details and less focused on stuff like mission structure and faction/economy operation. The missions remind me of an infocom text adventure. Fly here... hand over some documents by pressing a button... agree to second part of mission involving flight to another station where you press button to be given a third assignment. It feels very infocom adventurish. So I tend to make my own fun with exploring and random combat engagements. I love the engineering detail Braben puts into ship operation, flight mechanics, driving mechanics. I love all that.

I have nothing to say about eggbox controllers because I'm not a fan of them. I love using Hotas.

 

I am, because HOTAS is damn expensive. *Most* controls are accessible from a 360 controller, but you can forget about any kind of precise movements.

 

The Thrustmaster T-Flight HOTAS is regularly as cheap as £20 on Amazon.

 

Yes and that is highly regarded by Elite users from what I've read (over at frontier forum where I am king).

 

...But I already have a 360 controller....

EDIT: And I've kinda given up on Elite at the moment; there are other things jostling for my time that I've been putting off for far too long. Haven't felt compelled to pick it back up in a few weeks.

 

Which kind of makes your controller question irrelevant

 

I only wonder if the 360 controller is better than a mouse as I already have it, basically. I also do not want to spend money in a joystick when I might decide I don't like the game!

 

You should really know if you like Elite before you buy. Extensive research. I didn't purchase for a year because I was unsure and did quite a bit of research. It was the arse technica review the pushed me in the end. It's my number one sim for 2015.

 

Let's not have the research conversation again, we had it three pages ago! I bought it because I have never owned an Elite game but any serious PC gamer should have played at least one. It is part and parcel of gaming heritage. And because the non Horizons version was less than a tenner.

If I had £30 to spare right now (curse you, January, every damn year you get me) I can assure you that there is a myriad of other things I need to spend it on first!!

 

I mostly use stick & throttle, but sometimes switch to the 360 controller if I can't be bothered to move the sim rig.

I'd say yes to the 360 controller being a little bit better (or rather more comfortable) than the mouse with Elite, with the way the guns work I find that the mouse can be a little bit too twitchy. I especially find the controller more suitable when using gimbaled turrets as you only have to aim vaguely in the right direction with their auto-tracking.
You'll still want the keyboard in front of you as it helps to have all of the hotkeys available, but most of the controls work just fine on a controller.

 

Lara Croft.

 

The 360 controller is fine for Elite - you need the keyboard too though. I've got the T-Flight since it was £20 but I really don't think a reasonably casual player needs a joystick for Elite if they already have a 360 controller.

 

Like the new imperial fighter in cqc multiplayer, will have to level it up to see what it can do.

Would be nice if could mod the sound putting in the sound of a tie fighter.

 

I crashed my Diamondback Scout into an icy surface just after dropping out of planetary glide.

First time I've crashed in that way. I tried to use full boost and lift in the opposite direction but velocity was so high my ship was completely destroyed.

 

I used one of these up until recently when I got a Rhino, the Thrustmaster is a cracking HOTAS and well worth checking out.

The cable between the 2 sections of the Thrustmaster can be annoying though as it's quite short.