Elite: Dangerous

digitalscream

OK - if you get tired of the grind, let me know

Anyway, here's your rares route:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/attachment.php?attachmentid=9308&d=1421594842

(you might need a forum account for it to work)

You'll probably find that you don't have enough cargo space in a Sidey to be able to fully complete the route, so you'd probably want to find clusters of systems with rares (eg the Old Worlds as a starting point) about 120Ly apart and shuttle back and forth. You can easily make a few hundred thousand per run if you pick your routes carefully.

Just take my advice, and get yourself a fuel scoop and refuel after every jump if you can - it'll speed up the process no end. If you have to keep stopping, you'll get pretty hacked off with it very quickly.

thumpingrug

Fuel scoop will be my next purchase.  

And I do have a forum account so the link is great.   Cheers

digitalscream

thumpingrug said:

Fuel scoop will be my next purchase.  

And I do have a forum account so the link is great.   Cheers

No worries. Good luck, CMDR

CabbageCat

Don't know what the problem people have with the flight physics - I consider the ED flight controls to be pretty good (quick to pick up but slow to master) - but I guess that's personal taste.

The problem I have with ED is background simulator, which was the main reason I was playing it. It's very "black box" and has been so beset with bugs that I've lost all confidence in it. There is so little feedback that my actions are doing what I want my actions to do that I might as well not be doing them. And the new Power Play mechanic has stomped all over any sandbox work that has been done up to now.

There is a lot of good in ED - the galaxy is huge and beautiful, albeit slightly shallow - but I couldn't bring myself to recommend it.

digitalscream

CabbageCat said:

Don't know what the problem people have with the flight physics - I consider the ED flight controls to be pretty good (quick to pick up but slow to master) - but I guess that's personal taste.

The problem I have with ED is background simulator, which was the main reason I was playing it. It's very "black box" and has been so beset with bugs that I've lost all confidence in it. There is so little feedback that my actions are doing what I want my actions to do that I might as well not be doing them. And the new Power Play mechanic has stomped all over any sandbox work that has been done up to now.

There is a lot of good in ED - the galaxy is huge and beautiful, albeit slightly shallow - but I couldn't bring myself to recommend it.

Yeah, the background sim could do with a fair amount of work. I've found that the trick is to set yourself goals, and work towards them - at that point, the background sim is simplified quite a bit, because you're focusing on particular parts of it.

To give them their due, the Power Play mechanic allows you to focus on achievable goals as an alternative to relying on the background sim.

As they noted at Lavecon, though, there's a 10 year development plan in place. It will improve over time, and they've already shown that they do listen to feedback.

CabbageCat

digitalscream said:

Yeah, the background sim could do with a fair amount of work. I've found that the trick is to set yourself goals, and work towards them - at that point, the background sim is simplified quite a bit, because you're focusing on particular parts of it.

That's exactly what I (we) have been doing. Increasing the influence of minor factions as part of a player-led story. We've put quite a lot of work into a pretty high-profile system and there have been many huge influence swings that we couldn't account for so report them as a bug, Frontier then look into it, fix the bug (or not, if it turns out that it's player activity...the symptoms look the same but it's impossible to determine which it is as a player) and we see another one. The goals are meaningless when you don't know if you'd be better off just sitting back and waiting until the next invisible, seemingly random swing just achieves your goals for you - or a new system comes along that renders your goals redundant.

I understand that it's still "in development" but I don't think we know whether it will improve over time - all we know is that it will continue to change. I suspect Power Play will see an overhaul, it has caused a pretty major PR/customer support meltdown, so I would worry that anything I do on that will get similarly trampled. I guess my own personal plan is to step away for a bit so I can take a bit more of a "new player" perspective when/if I return - so I'll be able to see new content as a toy to play with and not a pile of junk that has buried my existing, favourite toys.

Bidley

A game demanding £40 (triple-A game money) should not 'still be in development'.

So much of this game appeals to me, but there just doesn't seem to be much to do. It just seems to be Euro Truck Simulator in space, from the hour or so I've played.

I'll probably pick it up when it's either finished, or a lot cheaper.

digitalscream

Bidley said:

A game demanding £40 (triple-A game money) should not 'still be in development'.

So much of this game appeals to me, but there just doesn't seem to be much to do. It just seems to be Euro Truck Simulator in space, from the hour or so I've played.

I'll probably pick it up when it's either finished, or a lot cheaper.

That's the problem - how do you define "finished"? There's a constant dev roadmap for the next 10 years; when development ends, the game will probably be switched off.

Bidley

Finished is when all the intended major content is in place - if the current content is all that's been planned for the foreseeable future then there's no way I'm paying full whack for it. As it stands it should still be in Early Access, IMO.

Bidley

Besides, in gam dev terms, a ten year road map is nothing more than a verbal promise; tons of games are released with talk of extensive support, only to have the plug pulled. Although I have to say I doubt ED will go that way.

digitalscream

Bidley said:

Besides, in gam dev terms, a ten year road map is nothing more than a verbal promise; tons of games are released with talk of extensive support, only to have the plug pulled. Although I have to say I doubt ED will go that way.

Given that this is Braben's pet project, and one that he's wanted to build for decades, I can't see it being abandoned. We're still getting major updates every few months (and there's another big one coming in 1.4). The problem they have is simply funding, I think. The infrastructure definitely can't be cheap, so they needed to prioritise things like the XB launch etc because the Kickstarter funding only got them so far.

holnrew

I want this game so much.

LoFi

Having spent serious time playing Elite on a BBC B in the 80's, this thread has seriously got me thinking about buying a gaming PC...

So... purely out of interest, what sort of money would I need to spend on a system that can run this well, and where should I be looking?

(Oh, and anyone complaining about the flight dynamics should have tried Frontier in the 90's - most disappointing sequel ever!)

Bidley

LoFi said:

Having spent serious time playing Elite on a BBC B in the 80's, this thread has seriously got me thinking about buying a gaming PC...

So... purely out of interest, what sort of money would I need to spend on a system that can run this well, and where should I be looking?

Off the top of my head, about £400 would be plenty. Most of that spend would be on the graphics card though. I built mine at the cost of £650ish 2 years ago, and can play GTA V at 60fps on high settings.

Depends, really, on what you want. Have a look on Overclockers, they have prebuilt systems and their customer service is great.

digitalscream

LoFi said:

Having spent serious time playing Elite on a BBC B in the 80's, this thread has seriously got me thinking about buying a gaming PC...

So... purely out of interest, what sort of money would I need to spend on a system that can run this well, and where should I be looking?

(Oh, and anyone complaining about the flight dynamics should have tried Frontier in the 90's - most disappointing sequel ever!)

For what it's worth, my gaming machine is probably worth about £300 in second hand parts. Core i7 920, GT650, 16GB RAM and a 128GB SSD. Runs Elite perfectly at 1920x1200

Bidley

Yeah, going 2nd hand you can get some right bargains. Of course the risk is much higher, certainly if you're not 100% sure what you're looking for.

digitalscream

For what it's worth, I (somewhat depressingly) just found i7 920s on eBay for £25-£35. LGA1366 motherboards aren't particularly expensive, either.

wave100

I just got a reconditioned HP Z400 workstation (quad core Xeon 3.2 GHz, 12 Gig ram, 1 Tb hard disk) off the bay, slapped in my GTX750 graphics card and it's running ED on highest settings at 60 fps at 1920x1080. Total cost about 400 quid. It's also making a pretty good DAW with Reaper and Komplete 10. 

Bidley (and Myranda) I would say ED isn't for everyone but I really love it and spend probably too much time playing!

Bidley

It's definitely on my radar, and I'll be keeping a close eye on it. I love the idea of it; the hardcore simulation aspect, the fact that it's not all about "pew-pew-pew". But at the moment there's not quite enough content to warrant spending £40 on it. I almost pulled the trigger when it was on sale at £27, but I think I'll wait.

thumpingrug

It will be out on the xbox one later in the year.  A xbox one can be had for £269 from amazon