Elite: Dangerous

There's no force feedback at all, I don't think any HOTAS setups in production actually have FF these days.

The DK2 is 960x1080 for each eye, so it's a big step up from the DK1. Won't be here til next month at the earliest, though.

[iup=3528273]jiggles[/iup] wrote:My X52 Pro is en-route, and my Oculus Rift DK2 is on preorder. Going to pick this up after work and get it set up before the HOTAS arrives. It's going to be the strawberry floating bees knees.

Took it for a spin just now with keyboard and mouse. Feels almost impossible.

Spent most of this evening till now just trying to understand the arcane navigation system. Some luck (with no understanding on my part at all), but now I can't figure it out again . I think it's important to note that this game gives you, the user, only the barest minimum of help - and that really means practically no help at all. You are expected to figure it all for yourself - apparently that's the 'charm' of Elite, according to the snooty forums for the game. I have really stepped into an exclusive clique here - and here certainly be dragons. This is a 'serious' space sim, after all, and these people take these things very seriously.

I only stumbled upon the Galaxy Map (pretty good, as it happens) by sheer luck, whilst fiddling about with some of the in-cockpit menus. I managed to work out that if you click on a destination in the 3D map the coordinates get fed immediately into your on-board nav system and you can then configure the jump drive to take you there (caution: might not be a direct route).

My Thrustmaster T Flight HOTAS-X joystick combo was recognised by the game, but appears to be only very partially mapped to the controls, so it's next to useless until I can set aside an entire day to figure that all out. I went back to using the mouse and keyboard for now (not too bad, all things considered) and actually managed to land my ship inside one of the big space stations (some minor crashing about was involved, but I survived with about 20% hull damage and a warning from the station authorities).

Play is online (apart from the scenario missions) in a real-time universe peopled by everyone else in the game. You can text chat or even mic speak with other pilots if the whim takes you). The whole thing looks promising, but this really is a mountain to climb, for me at least, even in this Beta state. It seems perhaps friendlier than EVE, which is something, but still the learning curve in E:D certainly looks pretty daunting to me right now. Hell, this is what I paid for. I guess.

Can't help feeling a much beefier PC would really improve those frame rates. Maybe the game just isn't optimised properly yet.

[iup=3528725]Cal[/iup] wrote:Spent most of this evening till now just trying to understand the arcane navigation system. Some luck (with no understanding on my part at all), but now I can't figure it out again . I think it's important to note that this game gives you, the user, only the barest minimum of help - and that really means practically no help at all. You are expected to figure it all for yourself - apparently that's the 'charm' of Elite, according to the snooty forums for the game. I have really stepped into an exclusive clique here - and here certainly be dragons. This is a 'serious' space sim, after all, and these people take these things very seriously.

I only stumbled upon the Galaxy Map (pretty good, as it happens) by sheer luck, whilst fiddling about with some of the in-cockpit menus. I managed to work out that if you click on a destination in the 3D map the coordinates get fed immediately into your on-board nav system and you can then configure the jump drive to take you there (caution: might not be a direct route).

My Thrustmaster T Flight HOTAS-X joystick combo was recognised by the game, but appears to be only very partially mapped to the controls, so it's next to useless until I can set aside an entire day to figure that all out. I went back to using the mouse and keyboard for now (not too bad, all things considered) and actually managed to land my ship inside one of the big space stations (some minor crashing about was involved, but I survived with about 20% hull damage and a warning from the station authorities).

Play is online (apart from the scenario missions) in a real-time universe peopled by everyone else in the game. You can text chat or even mic speak with other pilots if the whim takes you). The whole thing looks promising, but this really is a mountain to climb, for me at least, even in this Beta state. It seems perhaps friendlier than EVE, which is something, but still the learning curve in E:D certainly looks pretty daunting to me right now. Hell, this is what I paid for. I guess.

Can't help feeling a much beefier PC would really improve those frame rates. Maybe the game just isn't optimised properly yet.

I'd watch a getting started Youtube vid or two Cal to get a feel for how all the systems work together as it can take some getting used too. That's what I did and it made getting off the ground so much easier as I had some idea of what I had to do when it came to Navigation, Docking etc. Once you get past that it really does let you do pretty much what you want.

Perhaps the most annoying thing I had to figure out is how Supercruise works.

Stick with it though.

[iup=3528755]Cheeky Devlin[/iup] wrote:
I'd watch a getting started Youtube vid or two Cal to get a feel for how all the systems work together as it can take some getting used too. That's what I did and it made getting off the ground so much easier as I had some idea of what I had to do when it came to Navigation, Docking etc. Once you get past that it really does let you do pretty much what you want.

Perhaps the most annoying thing I had to figure out is how Supercruise works.

Stick with it though.

Exactly what I plan to do over this weekend. I watched a reasonably good YT guide last night, but it still didn't answer many questions. Anyway, you're absolutely right - the answers are out there, I just have to go find them. I think that's probably a large part of the 'fun' of a comprehensive sim like this. It's just not something one can jump into and expect to master overnight. I will definitely stick with it, so no worries there. It's a long-term project for me - I am determined to master at least one 'serious' sim and I want to make it this one.

[iup=3528772]Cal[/iup] wrote:

[iup=3528755]Cheeky Devlin[/iup] wrote:
I'd watch a getting started Youtube vid or two Cal to get a feel for how all the systems work together as it can take some getting used too. That's what I did and it made getting off the ground so much easier as I had some idea of what I had to do when it came to Navigation, Docking etc. Once you get past that it really does let you do pretty much what you want.

Perhaps the most annoying thing I had to figure out is how Supercruise works.

Stick with it though. :D

Exactly what I plan to do over this weekend. I watched a reasonably good YT guide last night, but it still didn't answer many questions. Anyway, you're absolutely right - the answers are out there, I just have to go find them. I think that's probably a large part of the 'fun' of a comprehensive sim like this. It's just not something one can jump into and expect to master overnight. I will definitely stick with it, so no worries there. It's a long-term project for me - I am determined to master at least one 'serious' sim and I want to make it this one.

And there's the fact its a Beta, I'd imagine the finished game will have some kind of way to introduce you to at least the basics of the game.

A very productive day with Elite: Dangerous today. Some kind soul had posted a great diagram showing how to properly map my joystick combo (Thrustmaster HOTAS-X) and soon as I'd been through and done all that the game jumped alive. I've been practicing takeoff/landing docking/undocking all afternoon! Done a few missions to completion, too - mainly just delivery runs, but the cash is coming in and things are looking up. Really starting to get the hang of the sim now. Navigation is no longer an issue - watched a good video tutorial and immediately it clicked and it's been no problem since (having the joystick combo mapped out correctly has really helped in that department).

Finally, if you click F10 you can grab screenshots in-game. If you click Alt-F10 you can take 4K sized screenshots. This was originally four times bigger than what you see here, but look at the quality on that: phwoaar!

Thanks for sharing your Elite diary Cal, you paint a good picture of how it plays. I backed this but have to wait for the public Mac release.

At present what makes up the majority of gameplay, trading and combat? Is there more to do and how is the game world and lore portrayed?

In the Elite newsletter it says they will be attending Gamescom and giving media hands on and that an Elite app is due soon.

[iup=3528992]Cal[/iup] wrote:Finally, if you click F10 you can grab screenshots in-game. If you click Alt-F10 you can take 4K sized screenshots. This was originally four times bigger than what you see here, but look at the quality on that: phwoaar!

Apparently Alt-F10 takes whatever screen resolution you are using and renders a frame at 4 times the size. So if you are running the game in 4K then it will spit out a 16K screenshot (15,360 x 8,640 pixels).

[iup=3529021]Venom[/iup] wrote:Thanks for sharing your Elite diary Cal, you paint a good picture of how it plays. I backed this but have to wait for the public Mac release.

At present what makes up the majority of gameplay, trading and combat? Is there more to do and how is the game world and lore portrayed?

In the Elite newsletter it says they will be attending Gamescom and giving media hands on and that an Elite app is due soon.

I have started posting on the Frontier forum for the game http://forums.frontier.co.uk/index.php and I've found the guys there really helpful towards a cluless n00b like me. I was wrong to call them 'snooty' - they love this game, they want to share what they know about it - they know an awful lot about it and how it all works. I asked earlier today if it was possible to play the game as a non-combatant, just as trader/haulier, etc, and they all said that's really how it should be played since the whole thing is really set up for that. They consider the combat part is just an added extra, but 'serious' players get stuck into the business of trading and being a merchant. And yes, playing an entire career as a non-combatant is fine.

I wanted to make a video showing the cockpit, basic take/off landing protocol at a spaceport and even a bit of how to use the navigation (the Galaxy Map is brilliant) but since nVidia's Shadowplay doesn't yet work with the Beta I was forced to use my other capture software, Action!, and the frame rate fell on its knees, rendering the finished video useless. The funny thing is that the game runs fine on my five year-old PC at highest settings (no compromises at all), although I haven't yet stumbled into a full-on space battle with masses of ships flying about, etc, so I'm not sure how well it will perform then.

The most important thing I've learned so far is that getting your joystick properly configured really throws the game wide-open (and I would really recommend playing this with a good joystick/HOTAS set-up): you feel confident and in control and everything is so carefully laid-out in the fully-modelled cockpit and digital HUD (free look on the joystick hat is great) that it quickly becomes second nature flicking between all the buttons. I now barely need touch the keyboard, since all the HUD menus are navigable via the joystick - and it's this that takes away a lot of the fiddling about and helps the sim to become manageable.

I'm very impressed with E:D so far. It's a leisurely game (if you're not being chased by thieving pirates) for most of the time, a bit of a time sink, really. I've barely scratched the surface and the game is still in Beta. Can't wait to see what lies ahead.

More mucking about today with this. Still haven't done an actual contract. I jumped between a couple of systems and tried to dock in one of the space stations, but I couldn't see where the entrance was. 3 times I tried and smashed into the thing while zipping around it looking for the way in. I've got leaving the dock after respawn down to a tee, but going back in is the problem. Took on a job where I had to get a crop harvester, left the station, and realised I had no idea where to start, and just ended up strawberry floating about.

On my way back one time, my engine was disabled by three pirates, and they started scanning me. I had no cargo, so they didn't engage, and after circling a couple of times, FTL jumped away, leaving me to breathe a sigh of relief. strawberry floating awesome.

[iup=3529073]jiggles[/iup] wrote:...tried to dock in one of the space stations, but I couldn't see where the entrance was. 3 times I tried and smashed into the thing while zipping around it looking for the way in. I've got leaving the dock after respawn down to a tee, but going back in is the problem.

The borg-style boxy spaceports (cities) are the tricky ones to find the entrances on. I've visited plenty of other spaceports which are different shapes and much easier. I tend to hang back and strafe up/down/left/right until I see the familiar blue entrance lights - sometimes you can even see traffic coming and going which is a good visual clue. But it is annoying - there should some kind of glide path GUI thingy that guides you to the location of entrance.

Try using OBS for your video capture Cal. That's what I use and while it's primarily streaming software, it does have the option to record to a file instead.

Glad to hear You're getting to grips with it now. I'm really enjoying myself so far. Much more than I thought I would.

It's thinking about how my experience is going to evolve that's got me really excited. Right now I can barely get from A to B, but I know I'll get much better, be able to make proper cargo runs, and hold my own in combat. Add in being able to fly with the inertia switched on after I've gotten to grips with the HOTAS, and I'll be able to pull some slick gooseberry fool. And this is before I start playing online with other players, or even start buying new ships, or using the rift. And it's all in a miniscule fraction of the space the final product will cover.

two things with the boxey stations. One the entrance is always on the axis of rotation so that makes it a lot easier to spot the other is to select the station as your target then you have the small holo picture of it and from that you can move your ship up and down and find the entrance

Actually, I've also just noticed the neat touch that is all the advertising billboards around the entrance.

This sounds pretty amazing...

http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread ... expedition

So I played a bit there, taking some Crop Harvesters from Ovid to Eranin. Got to my final hyperspace jump and got interdicted about 2/3rds of the way to Azeban City. So, standard procedure I activate my hardpoints till I can ascertain what I'm dealing with.
I get a threatening message, so I engage. As soon as I hit the other ship (He's already hit me) I get a notice saying I've assaulted him and accrued a bounty! I whittle him down (It was actually the easiest fight I've had so far) and eventually destroy him, when I get another notice saying I've committed Murder and have a bigger bounty on my head! I think the problem was my Hardpoints being deployed as I was Interdicted. At this point the Space Filth have arrived and begin to attack. Suffice to say I hightailed it out of there to Azeban City, whereupon arriving I get permission to dock, get scanned just as I go into the docking bay then get wiped out by the City defense systems!

Absolutely raging.

I'd managed to get some good credits, was slowly working my way to my next ship and now I'm back to the start. I'd assumed I'd be able to dock, pay off my bounty and carry on. So that's it. My plan for this next life is to trade till I can upgrade to an Eagle, tool it up to hell, and wage war on the Federation, one Authority ship at a time.

Hail the Empire!

[iup=3529326]Cheeky Devlin[/iup] wrote:So I played a bit there, taking some Crop Harvesters from Ovid to Eranin. Got to my final hyperspace jump and got interdicted about 2/3rds of the way to Azeban City. So, standard procedure I activate my hardpoints till I can ascertain what I'm dealing with.

I've done several trading runs now and I've been 'interdicted' (an odd name for what is basically an attempted act of piracy) several times. My policy, given that my Sidewinder ship has two puny hardpoints and I'm no fighter ace, is to send power to shields, throttle up and wait until my light drive charges up again, then jump out of the area, back on course to where I was heading before I wa pulled out of light speed. So far it has worked every time; I've never fired a shot and I don't have any criminal record (nor any bounty against me). I just don't fight - I run. I don't know how long this strategy of non-engagement will last, but so far, so good.