Elite: Dangerous looks better already!

[RegisterMe]

Yeah, I think my earlier comments about keyboard and mouse may have been too negative. I have a guildy who is perfectly happy playing it with keyboard and mouse, and he's gone a combat oriented route.

[Grim Lock]

I was very happy that i'd finally get to make proper use of my hotas and pedals outside a flightsim without it giving me a disadvantage though

[Nyax]

Well with a few days to go until the official launch, I've made my first million.

Of course most of it is going to get blown on upgrades as soon as I find a suitable hi-tech system, and I need at least 5 million to get everything I want, but it still feels like a significant milestone.

[Oldman]

Well with a few days to go until the official launch, I've made my first million.

Of course most of it is going to get blown on upgrades as soon as I find a suitable hi-tech system, and I need at least 5 million to get everything I want, but it still feels like a significant milestone.

Coincidently I also reached that milestone last night
I have at the moment just over one million and also a Viper partially kitted out in a hangar too. I'm still piloting a Cobra Mk.3 for main use of trading with the cargo bay upgraded to 30 units, plus I've upgraded the weapons (substantially) to some higher end gimballed lasers but with one hardpoint still using the smaller gimballed cannon.

This 'milestone' also poses a question/thought here for me personally. I 'was' thinking of buying a transporter and putting the Cobra into a hanger, but I'm actually thinking is it worth it?

I was reading on the Frontier forum last night about one player piloting an Asp who had lost everything (ship/cargo/credits) and had to start from scratch again!
This just proves to me that upgrading/swapping your ship whilst not having enough cash in the 'bank' for repair or replacement is a really bad move.
I was interdicted by a Federal Drop ship (pirate npc) on one occasion and just for fun I exchanged fire/fight just to see how I would do. The long & short outcome was that I limped back to the nearest port with my hull at 25% while the Dropship chickened out at 50% hull and frame shifted away, when the police turned up.
The thing is...if I'd been in an Asp, I might have won the battle, but there again I might not have. The cost of repair to my ship was about 7000 credits I think, so I was easily able to afford that without having a big dent in my 'bank' account. I was carrying about 23 tons/units of gold at the time, so it could have been a total cost of 237,000c. if I'd been killed.
I still could have been able to keep my Cobra, and would still have had roughly 700,000c to re-equip etc. plus the Viper...so I'm now thinking that perhaps It's better to have cash in the bank rather than a top class ship and very little cash to play around with!

One question here if anybody can answer?...does anybody know the standard drive ranges you get (for each of the available ships) when buying a new one?
The Cobra is about 10Ly's, and the standard Viper is about 6Ly's, so what's the ranges in this respect for the other ships?...I can't see where it tells you in the shipyard at the moment, unless I'm missing it in the ship's specs. somewhere.

Anyway, really enjoying the game at the moment, apart from a few minor bugs the game itself seems to run really well, playing this game is fun for me personally. Though I think there needs to be a few larger combat come trading/passenger type classes in between the Cobra & Asp, and around the 1 to 3 million price range I would think?. Maybe some more types of ship will be available in the final release?...*shrugs*...

Oldman

[pjknibbs]

Anyone found an Adder for sale? A low-end ship dedicated for exploration sounds like it might be interesting...

[RegisterMe]

Anyone found an Adder for sale? A low-end ship dedicated for exploration sounds like it might be interesting...

I haven't, but one of my guildies is flying one at the moment. I'll ask him when the servers come back up.

[RegisterMe]

Apparently Steiner City in Huokang sells them.

[Antilogic]

And it's totally not a trap.

[RegisterMe]

Me? Shoot down a mod? Nonononononononono .

[Avis]

I've been pimping the hell out of my 'Blinganator' (Viper with Gold skin) and I made the mistake of overspending and not having enough in reserve for insurance, so popped out done a spot of bounty hunting had the pleasure of another commander decide to pounce while I was tangling with a wanted anaconda, barely escaped to SC with 3% hull remaining!!!

I won't be making that mistake again!, If I cannot afford to buy it back I ain't taking it out!

[thrangar]

I've been pimping the hell out of my 'Blinganator' (Viper with Gold skin) and I made the mistake of overspending and not having enough in reserve for insurance, so popped out done a spot of bounty hunting had the pleasure of another commander decide to pounce while I was tangling with a wanted anaconda, barely escaped to SC with 3% hull remaining!!!

I won't be making that mistake again!, If I cannot afford to buy it back I ain't taking it out!

That's pretty good flying to get out of that situation.

question...Do you think he went after you because of your purchased bling?
This is why I have held back from those skins...unwanted attention.

[Nyax]

One question here if anybody can answer?...does anybody know the standard drive ranges you get (for each of the available ships) when buying a new one?

No idea unfortunately as it depends entirely on what equipment/ cargo you have on board. In other words how heavy your ship is. The lighter you are the further you can go.

Currently my Cobra MK3 has a class 4 type B hyperdrive which on my current load out * has a range of almost 19 light years per jump (unloaded))



* (4 gimbled beam lasers, intermediate discovery scanner, detailed surface scanner, frame wake scanner, point defence,32 tonnes of cargo, cat D thrusters, cat C power plant, cagt A power distributor, Basic armour)

[RegisterMe]

My mate has a C3 FSD on his Adder and jumps just under 18lys

[kurush]

My mate has a C3 FSD on his Adder and jumps just under 18lys

So, basically, Cobra with its 19ly still beats it? How about ASP btw? I remember it being a good upgrade in older games with most other small ships being, basically, junk. (except Viper, but it also had a more limited range).

[brucewarren]

That's only with a C class drive though and that cobra had a B.

I stripped an Adder to the bone to lighten it, gave it a class A drive and D gear all round. It could almost, but not quite do 25ly.

My current cobra also has an A drive, but it's armed and shielded which adds a bit of weight, but even so can do just over 22 ly.

I know that's not quite a fair comparison since the adder was being flown naked. IIRC I tried that in a cobra once and almost got 24 ly, but I long since decided that no sane person flies a gunship naked.

I'd say range wise the adder probably has a slight edge, provided you fit it out accordingly.

[kurush]

I know that's not quite a fair comparison since the adder was being flown naked. IIRC I tried that in a cobra once and almost got 24 ly, but I long since decided that no sane person flies a gunship naked.

Considering that I suck at ED dogfighting, I am not even sure why do I have all those expensive beam lasers installed On Cobra at least evasion maneuver is fairly easy and if it doesn't seem to work you can always just kill the game from the task manager to minimize the damage I feel that that 2+mil I spent on lasers also cost me quite a bit in repairs because sometimes I decide to try fighting and it only works for me if the opposition is harmless or mostly harmless Wthout those lasers this decision making won't be there and I'd be better financially in the long run. Any drops from them you can't sell easily anyway and bounty amounts are fairly trivial.

[Avis]

That's pretty good flying to get out of that situation.

question...Do you think he went after you because of your purchased bling?
This is why I have held back from those skins...unwanted attention.

Can't say I know what his motivation was for sure, but I doubt the Bling was the incentive probably just seeing the CMDR tag.

I think if he'd had gimballed weapons or turrets I wouldn't have escaped as my ducking and diving was helping.

[Oldman]

...
Currently my Cobra MK3 has a class 4 type B hyperdrive which on my current load out * has a range of almost 19 light years per jump (unloaded))



* (4 gimbled beam lasers, intermediate discovery scanner, detailed surface scanner, frame wake scanner, point defence,32 tonnes of cargo, cat D thrusters, cat C power plant, cagt A power distributor, Basic armour)

Ah!...thanks for the info Nyax, I can't see any drives of that designation where I am in the systems yet, I'll have to travel further afield and snoop about.
I'm a bit confused at the moment as to what the 'A' 'B' 'C' 'D' & 'E' represent in terms of class/configuration in equipment.
I'll see if there's any info. about this on the Frontier forum.

Oldman

[brucewarren]

The number is the class or size of the equipment. It's the most important consideration.

Within a class letters A to E represent how good it is. A is best but most expensive. E is cheapest but lowest grade.

Two basic rules about fitting gear

a) Always fit gear with the highest number that will go on the slot. If the drive can take a class 4 fit a class 4. If it can only take a class 3 fit a class 3. Don't fit a class 1 even if it's a grade A.

Putting a motorbike engine on a 4x4 isn't going to cut it. If it's a 50cc engine it doesn't matter how good the letter grade is, that thing ain't going anywhere.

b) Within the class A is best. E is worst. D is probably the lightest. If the equipment is something you don't really bother about, such as life support fit a D to save weight. If it matters to you fit an A when you can afford it.

My cobra has class 4 slots for most stuff, so I fitted it with 4A power plant, fsd, distributer, etc. You get the idea.

Oh, and don't bother looking for stuff in Sol. You want systems that are High Tech or Industrial. Sol is a rich man's retirement village.

[Oldman]

Hi

Thanks for all the information
Managed to find a station with a better FS Drive etc. I'm now able to jump 18Ly
Just scraped into another station, just as the recent announcement flashed up on the Hud that the game was being updated in the next 15 minutes....yikes!...talk about fast docking....

Oldman