Sweet!! I can only sample the game on my current ageing rig. I will have to upgrade before I will be able to enjoy ED in all its glory. An X-52 controller setup will also be necessary at some point if I want to stand a chance at dogfighting.
After some tweaking I managed to find video settings that make ED quite playable and I'm having a blast. After bouncing around inside a station a few times I figured out the docking procedure. I also cracked my windshield trying to exit super cruise mode too quickly. Fortunately I was able to cash in a few cartographic data entries to pay for some much needed repairs at a mining outpost after figuring out how to use super cruise effectively. The gameplay is very satisfying and the guys and gals at Frontier did an awesome job! ;-)
Note: I also figured out how to disable the Caps-Scroll-Num Lock notifications that will interfere with ED if you accidentally hit those keys while frantically using your keyboard. That is no longer an issue. All it takes is putting a 0 where there once was a 1 in the Windows registry.
Well, every session on ED is likely to be an adventure from now on. Trying my hand at fuel scooping in somewhat unstable orbit around varying types of stars with mixed success. It's harder than it seems, balancing free fuel and heat damaged to the ship. Need more practice.
After sustaining enough damage I decided it was time to look for a suitable station and after some loitering around a busy system I apparently attracted the attention of some female thug going by the name of Liza (most likely an NPC) who fired a few shots across my b... bow! Totally unprepared for combat I struggled with my mouse, spinning left and right, tabbing my booster a few times to position myself to fire a few shots at the underbelly of her Viper. This was apparently enough to convince her to look for another victim as she left me sitting in my now smoking vessel. After doing a damage analysis, my Cobra was still going strong enough to get me to the orbital station I wanted to go to in the first place. I managed to dock my ship to the only docking port and as I wanted to contact Station Services I got the ominous Server Error message telling me it was unable to connect. Damn you!!! lol
This game is so much fun and I look forward to spending more quality time with it. :-)
Edit: I didn't loose anything due to the server error, I am still docked at the station, so all is good!!
Installed update Gamma 1.0.5 tonight, not sure what exactly they are fixing or tweaking but so far I have no complains. Had another dogfight, this time with a small Sidewinder which had a bounty on its head. I only managed to damage it down to 57% when security ships dropped in and destroyed the small vessel with a few well placed shots. I barely got a scratch this time around. Docking is also getting easy as pie. Once you know what to do its just a matter of practice before you don't have to worry about it anymore. The entire procedure to find a space station in an unfamiliar solar system is a bit more challenging. Without an autopilot you have to slingshoot from star to planet to moon and then to the station. It's not time consuming, but it's like watching a hot pot of milk on the stove that is about to boil over. lol You can't take your eyes off the target without the right gear. I will need to think about making a profit at some point to finance upgrades to the ship and guns. A lot of the game mechanics of the original Elites are still true and I will need to trade hot commodities to make profit. Is anyone else playing? Bueller? lol
Well, I made it to the Barnard's star system, which is just one jump away from home. I managed to get a handle on fuel scooping while orbiting stars, so I don't have to pay for hyperspace fuel for the time being. Next thing to learn is how to pick the best commodities to make a profit on the trade routes. I made a bit of cash on the way but upgrades are mad expensive and sadly the gear I do have is worthless in the gamma testing phase so I can't trade that in. I've been evading confrontations so far and I just noticed that I could also play off-line if I wanted to. It's good to know that you can pick your fights or avoid them if you don't feel like it. I don't mind running into real players but I'll have to get better guns if I want to stand a chance. You get more respect when you carry something on you to kick them in the teeth with. ;-)
ShadowDancerWhen I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie."London, UK
Trading is definitely not the best way to make money right now, its far too hit or miss. I've tried using the trade tools in the galaxy map, and ended up losing loads of money on runs that should have made me a profit.
The best money maker I've found so far is bounty hunting. Get yourself a kill warrant scanner and hang out around a system's nav point. That way you can scan any ship that comes through, and you can pick your fights. Novice Eagle with a 3k bounty? Yep! Elite Cobra with a 1k bounty.....maybe not!
Well where were you a session ago? I just lost 3k on an explosive trading run because I got interdicted and the resulting damage ate up my profit and got me down to my starting capital. lol I'm learning as I go, so even failure is a great teacher. I managed to escape on a wing and a prayer as they say. Carrying 14t of explosives isn't the wisest decision I made so far.
Another thing that is bugging me is that I jumped from Barnard's Star to Alpha Centauri, which is a tri star system. The station I wanted to go to is orbiting a planet which itself is orbiting a red dwarf star called Alpha Centauri C. It took me over an hour of real time in super cruise to get there!! I didn't sit in front of the puter all that time but there must be a better way to do this, as in targeting the red dwarf directly before jumping into the system. Haven't figured that out yet. So I wasted time and got ripped off. Dammit! lol
I'll look into bounty hunting as soon as I get bigger guns. I need more dogfighting practice too.
Love the game, the stories you can tell write themselves. ;-)
Trading is definitely broken at the moment. The galaxy map trading information and the information on the system maps don't match up with what's actually being traded and accepted.
Alpha Centauri is a huge system, it's not worth doing any missions that go to that very distant station as it's 0.22ly away from where you jump in. You can make the same money or more doing other runs in the time it takes to do just that one trip.
Yep, there are still quite a few bugs. I couldn't find Boston Base in the Barnard's star system even though it says it's there on the system map. I got destroyed inside a station today for bumping into too many things. So I'm back at my last docking port with 1k credits to my name. No point in getting too attached to my career as a space pilot for now.
I finally scored my first victory in a dogfight. It was a smaller yet more agile vessel. I reduced speed to line up my pulse lasers and repeatedly blasted the sidewinder until it blew up. Must have been an NPC, anyone else would have broken off the attack.
At this point I'm just learning how to play the game and running into further bugs. When you are low on credits you have to pick and choose the systems and parts of the ship you want to repair, except in the current release you can't, it's all or nothing. The total sum is also a lot higher than the individual costs to repair the individual parts. I guess simple arithmetic is hard to come by in the distant future.
I also figured out how to use the cargo scoop to pick up after I've dispatched another thug. The problem is, if it's stolen goods then you can't sell them on the open market which is quite a pain because that means I have to travel to an anarchist system to get rid of the merchandise.
There is still some work that needs to be done before the official release of the game. I've also experienced some lag even though I'm on a fiber optics connection.
I was just having a look at the ED forums and came across this handy tool. It's a route finder, enter your starting location, destination, your ship's range and it'll come back to you with the quickest or most economic route.
Wow, talk about a bombshell... the wipe thread has already 100 pages. I was wondering the same thing though. Is it worth investing too much time into the game at this point if all accounts get reset at release day. Don't know if I want to read through all the complaints and praises though.
I suppose it's a way to reward those who put the time in to do the testing.
Looks like I lost my cobra for good and I'm now stuck with a sidewinder until I can afford to upgrade. Just great. I noticed that cargo mass affects the distance you can jump. The more you have loaded the less far you can travel. Whoever thought that was riveting gameplay needs to get help. This feature is just going to annoy those who have small ships. I had to dump a ton of goods and basically wasted the profit from my previous run for this gimmick!! I thought 4 tons equal 4 tons... I guess they use volumetric units now which they didn't in the past. Maybe I should give the game a rest before I start to get upset. ;-)
Actually, I like the feature. Makes sense really, the more cargo you have on your ship, the heavier it is and thus the shorter distance it can travel in one jump. If you have a full hold and can't quite make the distance you need in one jump, there's nothing to stop you from making two jumps
How would you go about making two jumps? I'm no Han Solo. lol Still trying to figure things out. I think there is a way to figure out how much cargo you can load up inside a station so you don't end up overloaded on your way out to make a specific destination.
ShadowDancerWhen I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie."London, UK
Use the galaxy map, there's a slider in one of the menu's on the left that lets you define how much cargo you're carrying and then factors that in to the jump distance available. Net result: it only shows systems that you can reach
Thanks!! ;-) Btw, Gamma 2.0 incoming, I already installed the newly designed client, but they are currently working on the servers. Can't wait, the list of bug fixes is huuuuuge! O.o
Edit: They issued a second installer, the first one didn't have the upgrade button. lol Upgrading....
On the galactic map, find somewhere that's within your jump range but in the direction of your final destination. Jump there and repeat until you get where you want to go
Even the Sidewinder comes with enough fuel to make quite a few jumps before you need to land for a refill
I see, well that method isn't always an option. I can live with the restrictions, I just don't want to toss out cargo. lol I didn't get to play the new gamma last night, after the installation it was time for bed... having to go to work the next day and all.
Just as I wanted to start up my first ED session did the message pop up inside a comms window that the galaxy server would go down in 15 mins for the release of Gamma 2.01. Damn these guys are busy... breaking the game. I'm now a member of the spinning cobra loading screen crash club. It worked fine up until the day before yesterday.
I guess I'll have to wait a little longer.
Edit: ED Gamma 2.02 didn't fix the spinning cobra loading screen crash... so I'm SOL. Five days from the official release date that's no small feat. I hope they'll fix this soon or people are gonna play something else over Xmas.
Well, I just finished upgrading to version 2.03 and I'm back in the cockpit of a brand new cobra. ;-) I redownloaded the game after deleting the local FD folders, so I can't say for sure what fixed the game, I'm assuming the patch did. The weekend appears to be saved... for now. lol
Comments
Very interested.
Link
Note: I also figured out how to disable the Caps-Scroll-Num Lock notifications that will interfere with ED if you accidentally hit those keys while frantically using your keyboard. That is no longer an issue. All it takes is putting a 0 where there once was a 1 in the Windows registry.
After sustaining enough damage I decided it was time to look for a suitable station and after some loitering around a busy system I apparently attracted the attention of some female thug going by the name of Liza (most likely an NPC) who fired a few shots across my b... bow! Totally unprepared for combat I struggled with my mouse, spinning left and right, tabbing my booster a few times to position myself to fire a few shots at the underbelly of her Viper. This was apparently enough to convince her to look for another victim as she left me sitting in my now smoking vessel. After doing a damage analysis, my Cobra was still going strong enough to get me to the orbital station I wanted to go to in the first place. I managed to dock my ship to the only docking port and as I wanted to contact Station Services I got the ominous Server Error message telling me it was unable to connect. Damn you!!! lol
This game is so much fun and I look forward to spending more quality time with it. :-)
Edit: I didn't loose anything due to the server error, I am still docked at the station, so all is good!!
The best money maker I've found so far is bounty hunting. Get yourself a kill warrant scanner and hang out around a system's nav point. That way you can scan any ship that comes through, and you can pick your fights. Novice Eagle with a 3k bounty? Yep! Elite Cobra with a 1k bounty.....maybe not!
Another thing that is bugging me is that I jumped from Barnard's Star to Alpha Centauri, which is a tri star system. The station I wanted to go to is orbiting a planet which itself is orbiting a red dwarf star called Alpha Centauri C. It took me over an hour of real time in super cruise to get there!! I didn't sit in front of the puter all that time but there must be a better way to do this, as in targeting the red dwarf directly before jumping into the system. Haven't figured that out yet. So I wasted time and got ripped off. Dammit! lol
I'll look into bounty hunting as soon as I get bigger guns. I need more dogfighting practice too.
Love the game, the stories you can tell write themselves. ;-)
Alpha Centauri is a huge system, it's not worth doing any missions that go to that very distant station as it's 0.22ly away from where you jump in. You can make the same money or more doing other runs in the time it takes to do just that one trip.
I finally scored my first victory in a dogfight. It was a smaller yet more agile vessel. I reduced speed to line up my pulse lasers and repeatedly blasted the sidewinder until it blew up. Must have been an NPC, anyone else would have broken off the attack.
At this point I'm just learning how to play the game and running into further bugs. When you are low on credits you have to pick and choose the systems and parts of the ship you want to repair, except in the current release you can't, it's all or nothing. The total sum is also a lot higher than the individual costs to repair the individual parts. I guess simple arithmetic is hard to come by in the distant future.
I also figured out how to use the cargo scoop to pick up after I've dispatched another thug. The problem is, if it's stolen goods then you can't sell them on the open market which is quite a pain because that means I have to travel to an anarchist system to get rid of the merchandise.
There is still some work that needs to be done before the official release of the game. I've also experienced some lag even though I'm on a fiber optics connection.
Link
I suppose it's a way to reward those who put the time in to do the testing.
Edit: They issued a second installer, the first one didn't have the upgrade button. lol Upgrading....
Even the Sidewinder comes with enough fuel to make quite a few jumps before you need to land for a refill
I guess I'll have to wait a little longer.
Edit: ED Gamma 2.02 didn't fix the spinning cobra loading screen crash... so I'm SOL. Five days from the official release date that's no small feat. I hope they'll fix this soon or people are gonna play something else over Xmas.