Elite: Dangerous

[Chuck328]

PhilboSE said:

Let's meet in LTT 9445 (where the bounty is). I'll be in a SuiSidey and I'll drop into space and send out a wing beacon for you. If I'm friended you'll see me in the map. Anyone is welcome to join in with the spoils! Just send me a friend request on game to "Excalibrates".

Sure it's LTT 9445? I can't find that on the map There's 9455?

[PhilboSE]

Chuck328 said:

Sure it's LTT 9445? I can't find that on the map There's 9455?

Yup LTT 9455

[PhilboSE]

Thanks both, was lots of fun even though I think I ended up about 40M down! Turns out that the fine still needs paying off when you die.

[castex]

Well that was ace.
I couldn't interdict anyone, had trouble with the wing thing, failed to KWS then landed a fabulous strike with the Massive plasma cannon - that bit was good.
£500 measley K!
Philbo had an expensive evening of it, but we've all been there...
Heaps of fun flying with you guys, let's do it again.

[Chuck328]

PhilboSE said:

Thanks both, was lots of fun even though I think I ended up about 40M down! Turns out that the fine still needs paying off when you die.

Nice one...good laugh indeed. Cheers.

(Oh we'll try make it up to you lol)

[8bit]

Any suggestions as to a weapons loadout for a Cobra Mk.III? I've got two pulse lasers (class 2 rating E I think) on the medium hardpoints which seem to work fairly well and I tried a pair of beam lasers on the small ones but they didn't seem great. They didn't do much damage, either to shields or hull, and took forever to become active again once they'd overheated or whatever.

Also, would upgrading either or both of the power plant or power distributor help beam lasers recover between uses? Does it matter if I put more pips to the weapons or not?

[Lurking Lawyer]

8bit said:

Also, would upgrading either or both of the power plant or power distributor help beam lasers recover between uses? Does it matter if I put more pips to the weapons or not?

Ideally upgrade both - depends on how much spare power you have, and what you're mounting, as to whether to do power plant or distributor first.

You definitely need to manage your power settings when fighting - 4 pips to weapons and two to systems for me usually, or sometimes 3 to each if shields need to be topped up quicker. Or at least I've had to do so thus far, in both the Cobra and more recently the Asp. It may be less of an issue with bigger ships with a bigger power plant - but probably not, since they're probably also mounting bigger weapons too.....

[8bit]

OK, thanks. Any tips as to where to find higher rated power plants and distributors? I struggled to find anything much better than I have. Currently in the area around Cubeo if that helps.

[Lurking Lawyer]

8bit said:

OK, thanks. Any tips as to where to find higher rated power plants and distributors? I struggled to find anything much better than I have. Currently in the area around Cubeo if that helps.

I don't know where Cubeo is, I'm afraid. My advice would be to head to Li Yong Rui affiliated space - there's an automatic 15% discount on ships and modules there. Kamito and Diagaundri have been good for me in terms of finding higher rated parts.

Be aware that each internal slot has its own size rating and you will only be able to see modules up to the size of the slot you're looking to fill. So, if you're looking in a size 3 slot, it won't show you size 4 and upwards modules, even if the station does actually supply them.

[PhilboSE]

8bit said:

Any suggestions as to a weapons loadout for a Cobra Mk.III? I've got two pulse lasers (class 2 rating E I think) on the medium hardpoints which seem to work fairly well and I tried a pair of beam lasers on the small ones but they didn't seem great. They didn't do much damage, either to shields or hull, and took forever to become active again once they'd overheated or whatever.

Also, would upgrading either or both of the power plant or power distributor help beam lasers recover between uses? Does it matter if I put more pips to the weapons or not?

The thing to realise in Elite is that it's all about heat management. Your weapons overheat rather than lose charge.

Pulse lasers do very nearly the same damage/s as beams, at much lower heat output. But beams can lay down a more concentrated burst i.e. can do more damage if your target is only in your sights for 0.5s. So it depends partially on the opponent (PvP or NPC) which works best.

In theory you only need "enough" power to provide juice to all your systems, but higher rated generators run cooler, so your weapons will not overheat so much. The biggest single factor is the distributor, go for the biggest & highest rated you can afford/fit. That will run your lasers for longer before they need to cool down.

Diverting pips to weapons help them cool faster. Diverting pips to SYS will make your shields more resilient, but doesn't actually make them recharge faster (so once you lose shields, you probably want to divert 4 pips to the engines to get away...).

In essence, the biggest & highest rated power generator & distributor will let you run your lasers the longest. Divert pips to weapons during dogfights, but be prepared to switch pips back to SYS & ENG if you're not in a position to fire.

[8bit]

Lurking Lawyer said:

I don't know where Cubeo is, I'm afraid. My advice would be to head to Li Yong Rui affiliated space - there's an automatic 15% discount on ships and modules there. Kamito and Diagaundri have been good for me in terms of finding higher rated parts.

Be aware that each internal slot has its own size rating and you will only be able to see modules up to the size of the slot you're looking to fill. So, if you're looking in a size 3 slot, it won't show you size 4 and upwards modules, even if the station does actually supply them.

Cubeo is the HQ for Aisling Duval, which is why I've headed there. I'll try some other stations in the system but thanks, I'll look up the systems you've mentioned if I can't get stuff locally.

Yeah I know about the size thing, the difficulty seems to be finding the parts I need in higher ratings at the maximum size. I guess I'm best sticking the largest part the slot will take, rather than replacing with a smaller part with a higher rating?

[motorizer]

New newsletter is cool, multiplayer crewed ships, ship launched fighters, character creator, bobble heads!

All coming soon.

[voyds9]

On sale on steam with 40% off, now £17.99

[castex]

Well I 'discovered' this amazing trade route last night, what with being super resourceful and that.
I sold my precious Fer de Lance and jumped into a spanking new Type 9 merchant vessel. My word it's slow. Can't jump for toffee.
Anyhow, I'm currently plying this trade route - what I done found all on my own - and it's proving a bit tricky flying into a coriolis at top speed in this lumbering behemoth, in order that my illegal cargo gets in undiscovered.
Particularly fun was the part where I got caught in the space station entrance grille of doom. Hanging there, getting scanned. Trying to wiggle out backwards. No shields, hull on 44% and falling.

With - get this - no insurance. Ha-ha!

Made it out, just. Love this game.

[br d]

8bit said:

Any suggestions as to a weapons loadout for a Cobra Mk.III? I've got two pulse lasers (class 2 rating E I think) on the medium hardpoints which seem to work fairly well and I tried a pair of beam lasers on the small ones but they didn't seem great. They didn't do much damage, either to shields or hull, and took forever to become active again once they'd overheated or whatever.

Also, would upgrading either or both of the power plant or power distributor help beam lasers recover between uses? Does it matter if I put more pips to the weapons or not?

My Cobra is maxed out on everything but thrusters, that way I can keep inside the power limits. When I was shopping I filtered the map to show only High Tech worlds and searched around the Lave area, picked up everything without too much trouble.

[motorizer]

PhilboSE said:

Diverting pips to SYS will make your shields more resilient, but doesn't actually make them recharge faster (so once you lose shields, you probably want to divert 4 pips to the engines to get away...).

While more pips to SYS doesn't actually make shields recharge any faster, they don't recharge at all if your SYS power is low, and putting pips in recharges the bar faster.

When I lose shields I put power into both engines and systems and turn off the guns altogether till they're back up.

[PhilboSE]

motorizer said:

While more pips to SYS doesn't actually make shields recharge any faster

This.

motorizer] said:

they don't recharge at all if your SYS power is low

This.

motorizer said:

, and putting pips in recharges the bar faster.

Not this, in my experience (if the shields are completely gone).

motorizer said:

When I lose shields I put power into both engines and systems and turn off the guns altogether till they're back up.

This. Also, turn off any shield boosters because their effect on shield power sucks the energy from the regen rate and makes it slower to get the shields back up. Once they reach 50% and reform, then you can turn them back on.

[PhilboSE]

castex said:

Well I 'discovered' this amazing trade route last night, what with being super resourceful and that.
I sold my precious Fer de Lance and jumped into a spanking new Type 9 merchant vessel. My word it's slow. Can't jump for toffee.
Anyhow, I'm currently plying this trade route - what I done found all on my own - and it's proving a bit tricky flying into a coriolis at top speed in this lumbering behemoth, in order that my illegal cargo gets in undiscovered.
Particularly fun was the part where I got caught in the space station entrance grille of doom. Hanging there, getting scanned. Trying to wiggle out backwards. No shields, hull on 44% and falling.

With - get this - no insurance. Ha-ha!

Made it out, just. Love this game.

On most routes an Anaconda tends to grind the Cr/hr faster than a T9 because it has a longer jump distance and much better maneouvrability into the dock. Smuggling (especially Imp Slaves into LFT 9455!) is mostly about speed rather than stealth; make sure you exit supercruise with the slot in view (by approaching the planet and then swooping "up" to face the station), make sure you get pretty much lined up before you get within 4km, at about 4km I tend to drop a heat sink, and then coast in at around 2/3 power. But the T9 is a slug and much more likely get scanned than a 'conda, just because of the time on the approach.

These days I mostly get scanned when I forget to ask for docking permission, and by the time I realise it's too late...

[grenpayne]

I need to go back to trading for a while to make some cash, any recommendations for a decent trade route?

[motorizer]

PhilboSE said:

motorizer said:

, and putting pips in recharges the bar faster.

Not this, in my experience (if the shields are completely gone).

I meant the SYS bar, not the shield one, might depend on ship loadout but mine tends to empty the SYS bar and stop recharging if I don't have some power diverted to SYS. Therefore it is slower.