Elite Dangerous [DAILY Q&A] Ask and answer any questions you have about the game here. (January 30, 2020)

[DAILY Q&A] Ask and answer any questions you have about the game here. (January 30, 2020)
When you go into the Pleiades for the first time
Elite Dangerous is so far above and beyond anything I could have ever even known I wanted.
« Fuel scooping completed »
Book your tickets on this magnificent new generation ship guarantees unsinkable https://t.co/cqkPAoll4F
Thoughtful bugs
A slideshow of the Elite Dangerous drawings and paintings I did in 2019
Mining Feedback
HD 1740 (Double Blue Mountain) is worth the trip!
My first medium combat vessel!
Randomly found my very first Neutron Star... what a sight
Map for the Guardians site @ HD63154 B3A
Doesn't matter how many times I'll visit this place, I'll always get goosebumps.
Made it to Sag A*
Composition
Just got my first Anaconda 8-)
Miami Nights
Had a photo shoot with my ship. She’s not much but she gets the job done like a champ
Mr Bowtie Sun gladly tells you which way to the bubble
Finally getting around to farming out mats for my FSD upgrades for the rest of the ships with my mat hunter conda now that its maxed. Makes its a lot more bearable with my mate around when we co-stream the game as well.
Feature Suggestion: Ship launched fighters with station landing capabilities!
Recently started playing ED and this game still looks great in 2020
Ice ring with embedded codex site
First Earth-like planet I've encountered in my travels.
Glimmerings of Mars - CMDR Vex

[DAILY Q&A] Ask and answer any questions you have about the game here. (January 30, 2020)

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 08:49 AM PST

Greetings, Commanders! This is the Daily Q&A post for /r/EliteDangerous

If you have any questions about any topic, whether it be for the moderators, tips and tricks for piloting or general gameplay/development questions please post here!

Please check new comments and help answer to the best of your ability so we can see this community flourish!

Remember to check previous daily threads and the New Q&A FAQ.

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When you go into the Pleiades for the first time

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 07:08 AM PST

submitted by /u/CoDBorn
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Elite Dangerous is so far above and beyond anything I could have ever even known I wanted.

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 01:17 PM PST

Disclaimer: this is gonna be some rambling nonsense by a new player who's dumbfounded by how goddamn good this game is. It's essentially a recounting of the events leading up to me realizing just what this game is, in an effort to provide context on what was going through my head at the moment of that realization, and why it was so impactful. It's gonna be kinda long, as in really long, so if starstruck newbie is your sort of entertainment, read on. This should be good fun for you. If not, have a great day out in the black! In any event, there will be a Tl;dr at the bottom if you just want to skip the nonsense and cut to the main point. o7

so, the first thing I have to say is 'What the actual fuck, guys? Why did none of you come to my house and slap me around the head with this game before now? How the hell does something like this even happen? Come on, this game has been out for more than half a decade and I'm only just finding it now? Y'all were holding out on me and I didn't even know you existed!'

In all seriousness though, this game is amazing. Let me tell you a story.

I picked this game up for 8 bucks during the Chinese New Years Event, (so, you know, last week), on the recommendation of one of my favorite reviewers, Mandalore Gaming. He didn't seem to love the game, but thought it was totally worth it if it was on sale. I thought I'd give it a try, so I played an hour, and then immediately went and got the Horizons DLC for another 8 bucks once I realized what was going on. Then I bought it for two of my friends. I had the steam balance for it from an old gift card, and I figured "Why not? Lets go fly around and shoot some pirates! That's worth 8 bucks each." I played for a few more hours and then rewatched Mandalore Gaming's review of the game. He suggests using a joystick to play, so the next day I went and bought a secondhand Thrustmaster Hotas X from my buddy who's into flight sims but doesn't use it since he got both a $1000+ setup, and his pilot's licence. Then I hooked up my old second hand htc vive (which I don't own any controllers for, had to buy cheap replacement charger cables for, and has a single, semi-functional lighthouse), I set it up, booted the game on the under powered, cobbled together mess of a PC that's all I can afford, and prepared myself to spend hours on crashes, troubleshooting, and fully expecting to have nothing work even after hours or trying. The title screen comes up, I press the primary fire button on the hotas, thumb over to solo play (because I was testing and am a total newb, forgive my fear of gankers), and press Continue Game.

The game loads, and I, in a state of 'not yet realizing what sort of ascendant bullshit I've stumbled into', hit the auto launch button. I spend the two or three minutes in the queue to leave looking around at the interior of the station, wondering at how awesome it looks in vr, even with my crappy lo-rez set up, listening to the Blue Danube play over my headset, bringing back memories of practicing my heart out on that song for a piano recital when I was younger. It's remarkably peaceful. My turn is up, and my faithful little Hauler accelerates out the port entrance of Bluford Orbital, past a massive Anaconda on it's way in to dock. I turn my head in awe.

For the first time I get a real sense of just how huge the pride of the Faulcon DeLacy line is. It's a football field sized masterpiece of a machine, all sleek lines and beautiful minimalist design. I understand now why all the beginner tutorials and ship reviews on youtube refer to it as the first real goal that many beginners have. Why they say it can do anything in the game, and do it well. Despite the price tag it's less a sports car than it is a mobile battle station, mining dreadnought, and deep space research facility all in one. It's built to explore entirely new territory, chart the stars, destroy any threat to the one lucky enough to be its pilot, and all the while make that pilot rich beyond imagination. It's not a space ship, it's the throne of emperors. This thought, this first sense of scale stays with me as I accelerate past, and make my way out into the black. The ship I'm flying is the fastest one I've owned yet. It's a slow little trucker in comparison to others, but for me it feels zippy and responsive. I've spent most of my money made from exploring and figuring out the mechanics of the game outfitting it. It has the best Frameshift Drive I can buy, a C2, and it's set up to be light. I take a few minutes to get used to the joystick, sitting just out side the station and looking like a fool as I mess around in the menus, setting keybindings and and experimenting, all the while expecting the game to crash at any moment. I'm still not fully immersed. Impressed by the game, excited by the vr experience, but not yet aware of what I'm about to do.

I finish up, aim myself toward a nearby system that I have yet to visit, and jump. When I arrive, I'm immediately struck by how much more massive the stars look in vr. I veer away, and scan around. I see a planet on my local map, a huge cobalt blue gas giant with sapphire rings. 'That'll work.' I think, and start super cruising towards it. I had learned by this point that the easiest way to practice flying around was actually near a planets rings. They provide a flat plane of reference that helps my beginner monkey brain understand the way the ships move and control, and as I'm switching from mouse and keyboard to a joystick, I want to practice moving around. The planet starts getting closer and I, inevitably, over shoot it. After noob-looping back around not once, but twice, I actually manage to get close enough at a low enough speed to start playing around. I start near the planet and get low enough that the rings seem to extend forever. I throttle up and start skimming over the bands of blue and white ice crystals, flying away from the planet, on a tangent line to the system's main star. I'm on the edge of the shadow the gas giant is casting on the rings, so I'm weaving back and forth between edges of two colliding seas of color; one an illuminated turquoise and the other a deep sapphire blue. It's gorgeous. Incredibly so. I reach the end of the rings and pull up, still accelerating, into a massive loop before diving straight down between the planet and the interior of the rings, before pulling up again, and after taking a moment to admire the rings above my head through my cockpit, roll so I'm once again skimming above the rings from my perspective; retracing the same route I had just flown but this time on the underside of the gem colored remains of the protoplanetary disk.

I loop away from the rings and further into the planet's shadow, and turn around to look at it. For the first time, the scale of the game really hits me. For the first time I understand WHY a ship like the anaconda matters. Why in this game, more than any other I've played, having better equipment is important, or meaningful. In other games advancement and progression marks an increase in character power. Your character is better at the game. You deal more damage, can take more hits, and have access to more in game mechanics and systems. The same is true here, but there's so much more. Advancement here means not only greater freedom for the character, but greater freedom for the player. It legitimately means that you can make your way out into the stars and see something no one has ever seen before. The reason the Anaconda exists in game is the same reason it would exist in real life. Not for the high stats or character advancement, but for a real, definitive purpose that both the character, AND the player can use it to fulfill. In this moment, I'm fully immersed. I watch the stars around me for a minute, and as I do so I drift back towards the light side of the gas giant. I watch as the light from the yellow white star becomes a blinding point on the horizon of the planet through my cockpit that lights up a brilliant semicircle on the edge of the planet I'm drifting towards. It's my first exposure to a star rise, even though I'm not watching it from the surface of a planet. I turn, up my throttle, and jump back to LHS 3447. I dock back at my little home base in Bluford Orbital, and after a brief moment to wind down and make myself a sandwich in real life, hop in my sidewinder to go fight some pirates.

Over the next three days I made enough money fighting pirates to upgrade my combat ship to an eagle, (which is honestly such a sexy ship design), and finish kitting out my Hauler to do some real exploring (despite occasionally getting reduced to space dust by being overzealous). I learned what the Road to Riches was, and started jumping. I flew past neutron stars, gigantic deep ruby colored red giants, and electric blue quasars. I scanned planet after planet, marveling at triple star systems and systems orbiting between between two stars where the sun never sets. Some of these systems even had simple forms of life, or so my scanners told me. Ocean worlds where day was eternal and the atmosphere, while suitable for life, would have been so charged with solar energy that it would be one, massive perpetual storm. I wondered at what mysterious forms of life would be found beneath the sea green waves of such a system. By the time I returned from my expedition, I had enough money to buy my first big ship. An asp explorer. On the recommendation of the player base, I set it up to do some core mining, and set off to figure out how to do that; eventually discovering that even mining in this game is immersive and engaging. Instead of just going to predetermined mining points and pressing a button, like mining works in most games, I had to find the right type of planet, send a probe into the rings, and then after finding the right resource deposit, fly around scanning for a promising asteroid. After finding one and hitting it with a prospecting drone to confirm it had the core I was after, I set about setting charges on strategically placed fissures, trying to crack the rock open without vaporizing the valuables inside. Once done, I had to blast the exposed chunks of Opal off the frozen fragments of the rock while my collection drones scuttled about picking up the fruits of my labor. I filled up my cargo hold, and set off to find a system to sell the rocks in. On my way I was interdicted by pirates after my hard earned cargo, escaped by skirting just close enough to a sun to scoop up enough fuel to jump away, and eventually found a station that was buying them for more than the shown average. I sold the opals, and used the money to finish fitting my ship with a new cargo hold and internals. I could hold twice as much cargo now, so I set off back to make another run.

This brings me to where I am currently. I now have four ships. My sidewinder, my eagle, my trusty little hauler, and my pride and joy of an Asp Explorer. I've also got about 60 million in cash, which for me is huge. One of the friends I got the game for has just managed to make it to the station I'm set up in, but all he has is his sidewinder and essentially no money, as he spent it all on fuel and repairs getting here, so this afternoon I'm going to stick him in the gunner seat of my Asp and take him core mining to make him a bit of money. I was planning on spending my 60 mil on buying and outfitting a new Asp Explorer for a trip to Beagle Point, but now that he's here I think we'll probably end up mining and flying around until we can afford what has now become one of my main goals, the Anaconda. By that time I hope that my other friend will have made his way to us, and we can then set off together on the trip to beagle point.

'So, Cass,' I hear you saying 'what's the point here?' 'This is a great story and all but what are you getting at?'

The point is this happened in a video game. Not only a video game, but a 1 to 1, realistically spaced and scaled version of the Milky Way galaxy. A game that ran perfectly on my shitty, cobbled together pc. A game that cost me eight bucks. If you hadn't figured it out by now, I'm not exactly rich. I had to work all through high school, and I'm currently working my way through college. I got into good schools for test scores and grades, but didn't have the money to pay for them, even with scholarships, so I go to a community college, and hope to get bigger scholarships when I graduate with my four year degree. My computer is a mess of second hand and outdated parts, and while I bought the game with the remainder of an old gift card I got for my last birthday, the moment I spent money on a joystick, even as cheap as it was, it became, for me, a significant financial investment.

And yet everything works. It didn't crash or destroy my computer. It didn't take hours of troubleshooting that a full time student who also works 40 hours a week doesn't have. It loads up, and it plays. And it's beautiful, and immersive, and so huge it's beyond the scope of at least my comprehension. This game is a technological marvel. That investment was well worth it. This game is so much further above and beyond anything I could have imagined it being. Is it perfect? No. Am I going to find aspects of it that I find frustrating and disappointing? Definitely. But any game that can put me in front of a beautiful little blue planet orbiting twin suns, that can make me stare at a couple of pixels in a headset and wonder what mysterious forms of life live beneath those digital waves is worth it. If I had know what this game was going to be, I would have happily paid 80 bucks for it instead of the $8 that I did. It might have meant some extra penny pinching till my next pay-check comes in, but it would have been worth it. 100%. I can critique a few things about the game as a program, but as a product it's completely fairly priced, and as an experience it's so far beyond anything I've ever experienced in a game before. The last time I started a game I heard 'wasn't for everybody' and found myself liking it this much, this fast, was back when I picked up Dark Souls 3 for the first time. I now have over 2000 hours in DS3, and I anticipate spending a good few more than that exploring this galaxy with you all over the next six years of my college education.

Tl;dr This game is incredible. Thank you all for playing this game and helping to keep it going long enough for me to stumble into it.

Fly safe Commanders, CMDR Castille Vremya, over and out.

***Links to the videos and channels I mentioned:***

Mandalore Gaming: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClOGLGPOqlAiLmOvXW5lKbwPlease check him out. He and Joseph Anderson are some of the best game reviewers on the internet, and in my opinion some of the best content on YouTube.

Mandalore Gaming's Review of Elite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkrQvV0Yrb4He might not love the game with the passion that you all clearly do, and I undoubtedly soon will, but this video is a great dissection of the core of the game.

How to get the best start in Elite Dangerous: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E70KlYbY2UThis is the video the community here on reddit sent me towards that put me on the right path to get started and competent. As a noob, I highly recommend you send this to your other noob friends. I found it incredibly helpful, if only because it taught me the names of all the in game systems that I could then go investigate how to use. Things like the Detailed System Scanner, firing groups, and the Surface Scanner Probes. Not explained well by the tutorials, but very necessary for success. And it's a great general guideline of the path to getting started.

submitted by /u/Sol_Castilleja
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« Fuel scooping completed »

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 03:35 AM PST

submitted by /u/MaskimeECC
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Book your tickets on this magnificent new generation ship guarantees unsinkable https://t.co/cqkPAoll4F

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 12:06 AM PST

submitted by /u/crazygamers77
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Thoughtful bugs

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 04:36 AM PST

submitted by /u/V-Ator
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A slideshow of the Elite Dangerous drawings and paintings I did in 2019

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 09:04 AM PST

submitted by /u/BEETLE_JUDE
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Mining Feedback

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 12:26 PM PST

submitted by /u/nashidau
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HD 1740 (Double Blue Mountain) is worth the trip!

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 07:41 AM PST

submitted by /u/mcarp22
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My first medium combat vessel!

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 11:54 AM PST

submitted by /u/xxvizemxx
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Randomly found my very first Neutron Star... what a sight

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 09:56 AM PST

submitted by /u/Anvanaar
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Map for the Guardians site @ HD63154 B3A

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 03:34 PM PST

submitted by /u/YYZ342
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Doesn't matter how many times I'll visit this place, I'll always get goosebumps.

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 11:24 AM PST

submitted by /u/rw107
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Made it to Sag A*

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 01:26 PM PST

submitted by /u/bearturd56
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Composition

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 11:35 AM PST

submitted by /u/cmdr_null_angel
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Just got my first Anaconda 8-)

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 01:30 PM PST

I just wanted to share my joy at reaching that glorious milestone. So pleased!!

Been playing Elite since my friend got it on the BBC Micro, then on my C64, I was a proud Kickstarter backer when I heard about the project and then I got too busy with work to play.

Recently made time for gaming again and Elite is firmly back in my life and I'm loving it.

Thanks David Braben, thanks Frontier and thanks Commanders.

Now back to the universe! o7

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Miami Nights

Posted: 29 Jan 2020 10:59 PM PST

submitted by /u/CMDRGURU
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Had a photo shoot with my ship. She’s not much but she gets the job done like a champ

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 12:09 AM PST

submitted by /u/jankow_arpexia
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Mr Bowtie Sun gladly tells you which way to the bubble

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 01:27 PM PST

submitted by /u/faboulususername
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Finally getting around to farming out mats for my FSD upgrades for the rest of the ships with my mat hunter conda now that its maxed. Makes its a lot more bearable with my mate around when we co-stream the game as well.

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 02:50 PM PST

submitted by /u/TH3xR34P3R
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Feature Suggestion: Ship launched fighters with station landing capabilities!

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 06:52 AM PST

Stop me if someone has suggested this before, but here's my thought:

Have you ever tried to deliver a data mission to an Outpost in a medium ship only to find that the only medium pad is being hogged by some NPC? Or perhaps it's more your fault and you took the mission and switched to a large ship without realizing that you need to go to an outpost.

Enter ship launched fighter landing gear. I'd love to be able to launch a fighter once I get to the outpost and land the fighter at one of the station's small landing pads so I can turn in certain non-cargo based missions. Maybe to offset the added convenience we'd have to buy a special type of fighter with the appropriate landing gear or computer, or maybe we'd have to install a 1 slot fighter docking assist module in the main ship that could control or enable the fighter's docking.

Anybody have any thoughts or improvements on this idea?

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Recently started playing ED and this game still looks great in 2020

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 09:13 AM PST