Elite Dangerous

[duncs500]

I realised what my navigation problem was, it was set to "economical routes" rather than "fastest routes", it's much better now. I wondered why despite it saying my range was 20Ly it only ever did 10Ly jumps.

[RobYob]

Doh! I've seen people post similar WTFs on Reddit sorry. E:D really does try the patience of its players sometimes.

[duncs500]

Just took the long trip to VY Canis Majoris for a passenger tour. Not really worth the pay day but thought I'd give a longer trip a try for once.

I didn't actually read the detail of the place so when I got there I couldn't work out why in a fast supercruise I was still fuel scooping and had not already moved well clear of the star.

Thank god there's such a wealth of information on the web about the game though, I would've never found that tourist beacon and would have had to abandon the mission and make the 2k odd Ly trek back home for nothing.

[RobYob]

Haven't been out that way myself I quite enjoy the tourist missions, they do take you to some genuinely picturesque places.

Thinking about my "shopping list" for this week's engineering bonus event I've got a bit of ground to cover.

After visiting Palin I've just about got my Python's thrusters to 100% dirty and draggy.
Probably should work up another brace of medium and large fixed long range beams with thermal for when I get better at flying.

Same again for large multicannons with autoloader.

Overcharged powerplant to go with my efficient one.

Upgrade everything on my neglected Cobra.

Whew


Managed to cop a rebuy fighting Thargoid scouts without remembering their damn caustic missiles. By the time I noticed I was down to <20% hull and wasn't quick thinking enough to overheat myself to burn it off.

[duncs500]

What's the deal with this engineering stuff? And what's Palin? I feel I know nothing really about the game despite having played for a good few hours now.

I've decided to commit to saving up for an Anaconda. 10% there at the moment.

[RobYob]

If you've got Horizons (ie. planetary landings) engineers can massively upgrade your ship Guide

But to access or unlock them you need to do, for want of a better word "quests".

Professor Palin can upgrade your thrusters to the highest level giving more speed and maneuverability (or efficiency if you choose)

Palin's quest is to get 5000LY from your starting base, which is a fair distance although you've already done a 2000LY trip so you've experienced some of the space madness from long distance travel

Having got G5 (Grade 5 the highest level) upgraded thrusters on my Python I'm now trying to unlock Hera Tani who can upgrade my powerplant and involves a very annoying series of fetch quests.

Engineers - need unlocking via quests and paying by materials .

Anaconda - I'll one of those myself one day, just need the another 900million for outfitting!

Oh and one QOL thing I've found which you may know already, a really big fuel scoop. I've a 6A on my Python now (40million so nearly as much as the ship!) and I almost never have to pause at a star to refuel, just the flyby to align the next jump point is plenty. For the Palin trip's 500jumps that's a good time saver.

[duncs500]

I read somewhere that the Python was the most costly ship to upgrade (may have been relative to purchase price).

I figure I'll just grind and go straight from my Cobra to an Anaconda, I've got a pretty good system for making cash out of passenger missions, did about 5mil in about 1hr this evening.

Of course upgrading it will be another kettle of fish, I saw one particular upgrade which was 126mil when reading about them!

As for the fuel scoop, yeah that's a killer for me, I've got a 2A and it's pretty painfully slow. Presume it would be possible for me to get a 4A, but I would have to sacrifice something too important.

[RobYob]

Well my rebuy at the moment is around 7-8MCr, so total ship cost is 140-160MCr and I don't run the mega expensive military armour or prismatic shields yet!

2A scoop requires saint like patience, you're the Zen CMDR.

One trick I read about and used for stupid limited cargo rares running for engineer unlocks was to dump(and be fined) the limited item/tea/cigars fly 5km out, wait 10min dump the cargo, redock, buy more then fly back and quickly use limpits to gather your dumped first lot of rares. Cuts shuttling time in half.

[duncs500]

It does require patience, but I just head for the star and then slow down once so that it is refuelling at the max it can do without overheating and do something else for a couple of mins. I believe you can refuel quicker if you're moving faster but it seems like a minimal gain compared to my method and mine is a lot less effort.

[ilmostro]

It does require patience, but I just head for the star and then slow down once so that it is refuelling at the max it can do without overheating and do something else for a couple of mins. I believe you can refuel quicker if you're moving faster but it seems like a minimal gain compared to my method and mine is a lot less effort.

Actually - you can refuel at the minimum speed. You really just need to keep an eye on your 'altitude' over the star. Some ships can't ever handle the heat, so don't always expect to refuel at 100% of theoretical.

It used to be the FerDeLance could refuel at 100%, whilst charging the FSD, but it got nerfed, sadly.


The reason it got nerfed is that people realised if you bought a black paint pack, fitted heat sinks and a certain config, you basically had an invincible stealth PVP fighter. Emergent gameplay!!

[ilmostro]

Also - buy ships that are going to EARN you money, not because they look cool or any of that crap.

The FDL earned me over a billion.

[RobYob]

Largish update drops tomorrow.

Prettier planets and two new ships.

The new Krait II should be good fun, same weapons as a Python plus a fighter bay.

It'll be my first chance to try out the little fighters.

[tim]

I've started playing this again now I have a X56 HOTAS stick and throttle, it's a lot better to control.

However I am quite hopeless at it. I've been trying to do some data missions, where you bugger off to a distance system and "find" some data. Except the finding bit totally eludes me. Are you supposed to just aimlessly fly around until you find it? Or is there some method to this madness?

Also I've been having problems getting too near planets and overheating and going boom. I couldn't get to a destination because aiming at it and engaging supercruise just dropped me right out again because I was too near "something".

Help me, Elite-o-nerds!

Ta.

[RobYob]

E:Dnerds Engage!
If you're looking for something in a system you either need to scan the Nav Beacon (near the sun) or fit an advanced discovery scanner (honking) that'll find everything in the system straight away.

Too near planets or too near stars? Stars will overheat you quickly. The yellow line around them is there "exclusion zone" hitting which will drop you out of SC.

Send us a friend request if you like CMDR RobYobSon

I'm in Robigo farming sightseeing missions this week.

[tim]

Thanks, seem to have got the hang of it again now. I've done a couple of missions, earned a few bucks. Did some trading - smashed into the wall trying to exit whilst laying down 11s and blew myself up.

Back to 1,000 credits again <sigh>

Still it's fun. So far.

[tim]

So I did a stupid thing and started a 12-jump journey chasing a big trading profit, and ran out of fuel 2 jumps before the end. Well I say ran out, I could make one sideways jump, which I did hoping there was somewhere I could dock. There wasn't.

So in googling how fucked I was I came across this site: https://fuelrats.com/i-need-fuel

Within a few mins someone responded, and 10 mins later I was brought fuel! For free! What an awesome service. The kind soul delivering it did manage to fly into me though, which prompted much "OMG I'M SO SORRY" messages, and much lol-ing from me

[RobYob]

The fuel rats are legendary in all senses of the word. Glad they live up to it!

I'm running the risk of needing them myself having stripped the fuel scoop (abd guns, and shields, driving very carefully) of my Robigo bus.

I've made Elite in exploration too today

[tim]

I've got 15 hours left on a mission. Is that 15 real-time hours of 15 hours of playing time?

[RobYob]

Real time I'm afraid. Check carefully if there's any fines for non-completion too.

[tim]

Balls. I got a load of washing machines and no time to take 'em now. lol