Re: Elite: Dangerous - and the return

[Cody]

... even in the more dangerous systems NPC attacks in supercruise are rare...

I have a sneaking suspicion that one suffers more NPC attacks in Solo mode - I'm in a Cobra, unladen, yet I get interdicted regularly in low-sec space.
As an aside, the Cobra seems to be the fastest ship (under boost) in the game - which is very handy for evasion!

It feels like there's a lot of good games (plural) in Elite: Dangerous - but the joins between them are too obvious, so it never really feels integrated. And it almost works but then doesn't quite, over and over again.

<nods> A pretty good description, is that. It is fun, and the potential is there - but only time will tell if they can sew it all together.

[cim]

I have a sneaking suspicion that one suffers more NPC attacks in Solo mode - I'm in a Cobra, unladen, yet I get interdicted regularly in low-sec space.

I've been hanging around the edge of colonised space for a while and rarely get interdicted by anything worse than a low-end Eagle. (I used to get Asps and Cobras in the serial-numbered stars around the core, but that seemed to stop when they released 1.2)

As an aside, the Cobra seems to be the fastest ship (under boost) in the game - which is very handy for evasion!

Yes. Nice and fast without boost, as well. When I traded up from the Adder I overshot about six landing pads before getting used to the extra speed.

[Disembodied]

it almost works but then doesn't quite, over and over again.

Sounds pretty much like a description of Frontier, right there ... although obviously they've got a much better flight model, and combat is at least harder than turning on and off the autopilot and pressing fire as required.

[Cody]

The flight model is really good, and that's with FA on - with FA off, it is no doubt even better (when mastered, that is - I'll probably get around to that soon). Having to be at the right speed (in the blue - not too fast, not too slow) for the best maneuvering capability fits nicely. As for docking/landing - I simply love all that!

[kanthoney]

I really wanted to learn FA off, but found it totally unmanageable. Annoyingly, I don't think it's because FA off is inherently difficult, it's more because the controls just aren't set up right for it. In FA on, you use the controls to set your turn speed, whereas in FA off you set the turn acceleration, so it stands to reason you might want the controls to have different sensitivities in the two situations. I don't think Frontier have bothered with that, and just decided that FA off is meant to be hard and that's that. So I feel I'm fighting the ship the whole time as I put in micro adjustments on the joystick to try and line up on the target only to watch it lurch right past. I want to adjust my controls!

There's actually quite a lot of things I find annoying about ED, like the fact that they create a game with Oculus Rift and other head tracking in mind, then make most of the ships into boxes with a window at the front. So you look up to the stars and see... a roof. Great.

[Cody]

... they create a game with Oculus Rift and other head tracking in mind, then make most of the ships into boxes with a window at the front.

I don't think they had OR in mind at the start - it took some pleading from backers early on for them to add OR support. I personally think they put too much effort into accommodating OR users (who are currently a tiny, but noisy, section of the player base), to the detriment of other features, perhaps.

[Diziet Sma]

I personally think they put too much effort into accommodating OR users (who are currently a tiny, but noisy, section of the player base), to the detriment of other features, perhaps.

Perhaps.. but future-proofing the game has to be a consideration too.. and had they not done so, ED would have suffered in comparison to other games that did.

[Disembodied]

There's actually quite a lot of things I find annoying about ED, like the fact that they create a game with Oculus Rift and other head tracking in mind, then make most of the ships into boxes with a window at the front. So you look up to the stars and see... a roof. Great.

Good news for Oculus Rift users! E:D have just announced that you can upgrade your ship to the Cobra III convertible, and feel the solar wind rushing through your hair ...

[Cody]

<sniggers>

[Disembodied]

Actually, Kanthoney's point is a good one. Even without the Oculus Rift] - given that E:D assumes ships have cockpits with windows (ignoring the old motto, "Never bring a window to a laser fight") - why didn't they stick a window in the top of the cockpit too? The exterior images I've seen of the Viper (and possibly the Eagle, as well) suggest that you should be able to look up and see above you. Maybe it depends on what ship you're flying?

[Cody]

Maybe it depends on what ship you're flying?

I believe it does - but I can't recall which ship has the best all-around view.

[kanthoney]

You can see out of the top of Eagles and Sidewinders. Vipers and Cobras are rubbish, view-wise. I haven't tried anything else (I don't think I've played since about January!)

It's particularly annoying if you like to explore using the parallax method of finding planets. You get used to supercruising round a system in an Eagle looking out of the side window for dots moving against the background stars, then you decide to upgrade so you can fit a surface scanner without sacrificing your shields [*]. Then you find you can't see anything any more unless you're flying right at it. Of course, you could get round that problem by buying an Advanced Discovery Scanner, which simply finds everything in the system at one touch of the button so you don't need to look for it, thus making the whole thing pointless in the extreme.

[*] You need shields when exploring to protect yourself from the NPC Eagles and Sidewinders that have somehow made it 1,000's of light years from the nearest inhabited system without the use of a fuel scoop. They've got interdictors though. And they demand cargo, even though you sold your cargo bay to make room for a fuel scoop.

[Cody]

Of course, you could get round that problem by buying an Advanced Discovery Scanner, which simply finds everything in the system at one touch of the button so you don't need to look for it, thus making the whole thing pointless in the extreme.

<chortles, nodding> The ADS has me scratching my head, I must admit - 1.5 million too.

[Sendraks]

[*] You need shields when exploring to protect yourself from the NPC Eagles and Sidewinders that have somehow made it 1,000's of light years from the nearest inhabited system without the use of a fuel scoop. They've got interdictors though. And they demand cargo, even though you sold your cargo bay to make room for a fuel scoop.

I think it is about 600ly from SOL tops that you encounter these weird little pirates. I agree that they are annoying and make no sense in terms of immersion.

Once past the 600ly barrier, they cease to be a worry.

Even with the ADS a good view from the cockpit is helpful for when scanning a lot of bodies in the system, as you can track their positions more readily without having to constantly look at the navigation pain for which object is nearest next. In addition, a good view helps you plan a more optimal course through a system where multiple scans are involved.

Got an ASP for exploring. Incredible view.

[cim]

The ADS has me scratching my head, I must admit - 1.5 million too.

Certainly an oddly set-up item that - the 1000 LS range on the Intermediate is too low for general exploration where often it won't even find the first planet in a system (and for the extra cost it's barely an improvement on the Basic) - but the ability to locate everything in the system instantly makes things a bit too easy.

What might be more interesting is if the ADS would detect everything which from your current position would be visible on the scanner. So approximately:
- all suns
- planets and asteroid belts around your current sun
- if applicable, moons around your current planet.
Want to find out if that planet has interesting moons, or if there's anything around that distant binary partner? Got to get up close. Just want some coordinates to start a proper survey of the system with - you've got them.

As it is, since even a detailed surface scan only ~doubles the survey value of most objects and often not even that, it's ridiculously more efficient to jump in, ADS while scooping, and jump out again. That takes less than a minute, while a full survey can take half an hour even in a reasonably compact system, most of which is flight time. But you get to see the more interesting stuff with the full survey, of course. I'm currently parked up around a "water giant" of around 60 earth masses, which none of the previous visitors of the system have bothered to come out and look at.

(I can't think of an easy way around it without giving everyone their own set of permanently provisional planet id numbers, but the ability pre-ADS to infer the existence of inner planets from the outer planet you've scanned not being numbered '1' feels rather silly, too)