Elite: Dangerous - OUT NOW!

[Andon]

On my throttle I have landing gear, FSD, FSD (supercruise only), and boost that I use. Stick has target center, fire 1, fire 2, sidethrust hat, and shield cell. Mosy everything else is on the keyboard. I have a few more buttons on the throttle but theu're a little akward to use so I don't.

[Adept]

OK, with new PC up and running I have been playing the training missions again. They are enormously easier with a joystick when compared to a pad. I pretty much walked through the training and I'll not be scared of combat in the game.

Sadly I can't get my strategic commander to work yet but I'm liking the throttle on my stick matched with side thrust on the base buttons.

What controls should I have at my fingertips and what can live on the keyboard?

You need pitch and roll on the stick, and yaw presumably on the stick twist.

Next in importance are speed control, translational thrusters and power management. Some targeting keys as well, and of course boost.

I have target highest threat and target under reticle.

[Raveen]

That's more than I have buttons

I have almost all of those, just not target most dangerous, which sounds useful.

I'm going to try the SC again tonight, see if I can't get it to work.

[Andon]

I find power management to be perfectly fine on the keyboard, along with 90% of the targeting stuff - although to be fair, I generally only use "Next Target", "Next Hostile" and "Target Ahead."

Also, mind you, my style of combat has had me simply flying backwards away from someone as they fly to me, and I simply out-shoot and out-shield them

[Raveen]

Do we maybe want an Elite Forum? Or are there just the three of us?

[Andon]

There's a number of others (mostly old Alleg people) who we could bring into the game. Might take this opportunity to expand RT a bit, perhaps.

[Raveen]

I like your thinking. I've wanted to drag Dorjan this way for a while

[Adept]

I like your thinking. I've wanted to drag Dorjan this way for a while

He took a week long passionate dip to Elite, but now has set it aside as it needs more content to hold his attention (I don't blame him, it _is_ very mich a WiP, with essential core features missing still).

Besides us three, from the RT bunch I know that both Solamnus and Solarflux have the game. And Spyball of course, but I don't think she has made an account for this "new" forum.

[Raveen]

Well you must badger her dear boy.

[Adept]

Well you must badger her dear boy.

I shall pass the invitation along

[Raveen]

Actually, don't bother. After all, you're both figments of my imagination and the country you live in doesn't exist.

[Adept]

Actually, don't bother. After all, you're both figments of my imagination and the country you live in doesn't exist.

That's right, it's all in your head. Sorry about that.

[Raveen]

I updated the topic title.

As I now have a dedicated gaming PC I've been playing a bit more (hence I went to bed at 11:30 last night and found 6:00 this morning a bit tricky ).

I started in LHS 3447 and didn't really know what to do. I'd played the early missions and learnt how to dock and travel but didn't really have a clue about how to play. I ended up detonating my first Sidewinder and restarting.

A little trading and I turned a meagre profit but nothing really exciting. I've started dropping into Unidentified Signals after getting a kill on a wanted Cobra and appreciating the bounty. I am tempted to upgrade to my FreEagle and go pure combat for a bit. Is there anything I should know/do before going for this career path?

[Adept]

I updated the topic title.

As I now have a dedicated gaming PC I've been playing a bit more (hence I went to bed at 11:30 last night and found 6:00 this morning a bit tricky ).

I started in LHS 3447 and didn't really know what to do. I'd played the early missions and learnt how to dock and travel but didn't really have a clue about how to play. I ended up detonating my first Sidewinder and restarting.

A little trading and I turned a meagre profit but nothing really exciting. I've started dropping into Unidentified Signals after getting a kill on a wanted Cobra and appreciating the bounty. I am tempted to upgrade to my FreEagle and go pure combat for a bit. Is there anything I should know/do before going for this career path?

There are about 20 starting locations, AFAIK, but that particular one is a bit unfortunate. As Dalton Gateway orbits a non-primary star, it's quie a long journey under supercruise. I recommend leaving that place, and heading to Eravate next door. Eravate Network is the faction we have chosen to support, against Independent Eravate Free, who control the outdoors agricultural world in the sector. As the name suggests, the Frees would rebel against the Federation, and we've decided not to have that happen.

As for what to do early on, I recommend doing some delivery missions (avoid anything in LHS 3447), or just go directly to bounty hunting. Flying and fighting is fun, and both the sidewinder and the eagle are good for that. On the Eagle move the freebie lasers on the lower hard points, and save up for a 3rd weapon. My favorite, especially early on is a gimbaled multicannon. Lasers to drop shields, kinetics to shred the hull. If you happen to pick up some *caugh* salvage in the process, I recommend selling it someplace lawless until you get really good at dodging station patrols and their cargo scans.

~13,000 cr gets you a Kill warran scanner for the utility slot, and that adds nicely to the income from bounty hunting. Missions to kill pirates are good fun, but due to a current glitch, you need to go to a signal source and listen to a counter offer (from the pirates representative) before the kill counter starts to work properly.

Upgrading your Power Distributor does wonders for the effectiveness of the ship, and doesn't even cost much. For the sidey and the Eagle, D grade gear is the lightest stuff. Upgrading everything to D will get more performance out of the ship quickly. Beyond that, you'll get a feeling for what you need and want.

[id3nt1ty]

My advice for bounty hunting is to try and find a system that has resource extraction sites close to a station you can cash in your bounty claims. That way you don't have to wander about looking for USS's and there's no long journey back to a station to claim your earnings. I find the best resource extraction sites for bounty hunting are the rings around gas giants. The ones just orbiting a star don't seem to get much traffic (which might be ideal for piracy at some point in the future).

When I get back to my PC I'll let you know what system I found that was good, and find out if it is anywhere near you.