Elite: Dangerous

[PhilboSE]

Something for the traders on this bank holiday weekend:

Buy Imperial Slaves at LFT 37. Smuggle in to Huichi (33 Ly away). Sell on black market for +4052 Cr/ton. Bring back crop harvesters on the return trip.
I've got the round trip down to 10 minutes, so in my trading 'conda with 464 tonnes of cargo I'm making 12M credits/hour.

[MissChief]

br d said:

Don't know how to do that MC but I have:

4 x Gimballed Beams D's (most expensive ones I could find, got all this stuff from High Techs)
2 x B Shield Boosters.
A4 Power Plant, Shield Gen, FSD
A3 Power Dist, Sensors
B4 Thrusters
Mirrored Composite Hull
Advanced Scanner
D's or C's for all the non combat stuff.

Rebuy is 240 grand and I have the early backer discount.

It's a weapon basically (or is it?) but I can't fight for toffee!

I was considering Beams on Turrets and Gimballed Multi Cannons on main mounts, not sure if that would help.

Beam lasers are great for shields but do poor damage after that. Go for the Multi-cannons. I have mine on the bottom mounts and it does mean I need to get the right angle for a shot though.

[PhilboSE]

MissChief said:

Beam lasers are great for shields but do poor damage after that. Go for the Multi-cannons. I have mine on the bottom mounts and it does mean I need to get the right angle for a shot though.

I used to have that loadout on my Python for those reasons, but I've recently been experimenting with 5x Pulse lasers instead. They have more penetration than a beam but with their significantly reduced heat, I find I can use all 5 for much longer than 3xbeams, doing collectively more damage, without the need to buy ammo.

[Chuck328]

I agree with Philbo.

Also consider getting rid of gimballed weapons if you are thinking about taking on other players. A decent amount of Chaff from them and you are stuffed. Also try to use flight assist off and on as you will be able to pitch much faster.

Sad I know, but I call my Python 'Nitro'. Because it strips shields as fast as Nitro Mors strips paint

1 x Class 3 beam, 2x C3 pulse and 2 x C2 pulse lasers do the job. Back that up with 4x shield cell banks, 2 x A rated shield boosters and a Chaff launcher and I'm in a tank of a machine.

I think there is a psychological element in combat against other players, it's all ok up to the point you loose your shields and start to see your hull disappearing. When that happens, most players I've fought bail out (they can usually outrun me as the Python IS a tank, SLOW) when they loose shields. Which is why I went for a set up that kills shields faster than anything else I've tried. I wasted money of plasmas, fine against big stuff but small agile ships are almost impossible for me to hit in a dog fight. Fixed lasers all the way!

[br d]

The only Gimballed Multi cannons I can find are cheapo 57k jobs, I've swapped them out for 500k beams all round.

Anyway, I finally won an interdiction! Got pulled out by an NPC, did a lot of running and turning and managed to kill him, result!

Then later I got interdicted by 2 human players who smashed me and left me spinning in space with my air depleting. They didn't even say anything, just bashed me and buggered off.
I was broadcasting my displeasure in no uncertain terms but they weren't interested.
Cold bds!

[DanoS4]

Haven't played it in a while. There I was just minding my own business trying to build up some credits, and as above, got interdicted and destroyed. Took me HOURS to get to that point. Kinda p1ssed me off and started playing other stuff instead.
Might go back to it now the Summer's over

[MissChief]

Multicannons have the advantage that they use no energy or certainly very little so it's a fair trade off IMO.

[Crush]

br d said:

The only Gimballed Multi cannons I can find are cheapo 57k jobs, I've swapped them out for 500k beams all round.

Anyway, I finally won an interdiction! Got pulled out by an NPC, did a lot of running and turning and managed to kill him, result!

Then later I got interdicted by 2 human players who smashed me and left me spinning in space with my air depleting. They didn't even say anything, just bashed me and buggered off.
I was broadcasting my displeasure in no uncertain terms but they weren't interested.
Cold bds!

I'm currently somewhere between the Horsehead and Soul nebulae. I was shocked to see another player all the way out there in a Hauler, they messaged "Please don't kill me!took me ages to get here"

I didn't kill him

a) I'm not a complete
b) I don't have weapons fitted to my explorer Asp

[colintate]

DanoS4 said:

Haven't played it in a while. There I was just minding my own business trying to build up some credits, and as above, got interdicted and destroyed. Took me HOURS to get to that point. Kinda p1ssed me off and started playing other stuff instead.
Might go back to it now the Summer's over

I had a friend who went to Sag A and back - on a grand excursion. We are talking weeks of gaming (he streamed it on Twitch), and as he was arriving at a system with a station so he could dock and reclaim all his exploration data, he was interdicted and killed.

His face - it was akin to being told that Santa killed his parents. He hasn't been back to the game since.

[Jinx]

colintate said:

I had a friend who went to Sag A and back - on a grand excursion. We are talking weeks of gaming (he streamed it on Twitch), and as he was arriving at a system with a station so he could dock and reclaim all his exploration data, he was interdicted and killed.

His face - it was akin to being told that Santa killed his parents. He hasn't been back to the game since.

That would annoy me as well, though I think on the way back I would slip into solo gaming - just in case (though my diamond back expolorer is fitted with half decent shields and a couple of big beam lasers - I might be 3500 LY from civilisation but I'm still paranoid).

[Crush]

Jinx said:

That would annoy me as well, though I think on the way back I would slip into solo gaming - just in case (though my diamond back expolorer is fitted with half decent shields and a couple of big beam lasers - I might be 3500 LY from civilisation but I'm still paranoid).

Even in solo you have to be careful. I was near the Orion Nebula and spotted a signal source, thought "interesting!"

Was a group,of three pythons with diamond backs luckily got away before they engaged

[wolves_wanderer]

Jinx said:

That would annoy me as well, though I think on the way back I would slip into solo gaming - just in case (though my diamond back expolorer is fitted with half decent shields and a couple of big beam lasers - I might be 3500 LY from civilisation but I'm still paranoid).

Same. I'm off exploring at the moment, I do my share of shooting in open and enjoy the whole bit of flying with other players but there's no way that I'm flying back to civilised space in anything but solo mode and risking a few weeks worth of data. Maybe with planetary landing I'll be able to leave my Vulture on a planet somewhere so I can swap back from the Asp in safety

[br d]

CQC is good fun, although I'm completely useless at it.

[PhilboSE]

br d said:

CQC is good fun, although I'm completely useless at it.

Does it feel integrated into the rest of the game, or like a separate add-on module?

[FLK]

There has been talk of setting it in a certain system but whether that'll happen, no idea as of yet? At the moment you access it from the menu and it's listed with the normal modes plus your CQC rank will show up with the other ranks.

I've spent a few hours with it and it was good fun although I found the gimballed weapon mode off putting at first as I've used fixed weapons most of the time in the main game. Until you get out of the early ranks and start unlocking modules you'll get outclassed but the Condor is a nice fighter to fly if very fragile. Interested to see how they implement the team modes though and see how easy it is to organise matches against others.

[jains15]

PhilboSE said:

MissChief said:

Beam lasers are great for shields but do poor damage after that. Go for the Multi-cannons. I have mine on the bottom mounts and it does mean I need to get the right angle for a shot though.

I used to have that loadout on my Python for those reasons, but I've recently been experimenting with 5x Pulse lasers instead. They have more penetration than a beam but with their significantly reduced heat, I find I can use all 5 for much longer than 3xbeams, doing collectively more damage, without the need to buy ammo.

On ships like the Cobra and Asp I always see the dilemma as what should be medium weapons and what should be small - whether you bias toward stripping shield or chewing hull. On the Cobra the most useable weapons are the mediums in front of the cockpit of course, meaning your small weapon choice is compromised.

This is what I did on both ships when I had them, split vertically not horizontally. One Medium and one small energy weapon and one medium and one small kinetic weapon. That way you don't have to choose whether you strip shields or hull more effectively.

On my python, it depends what I am doing. The mainstay is 3 Large Gimballed Pulse which is ridiculous anyway. If I am being an 'interdick' in order or earn Powerplay merits, it's Energy weapons in the medium slots for longevity and speed taking down easy targets. If big game hunting, then cannons or multis. If mining, mining laser although I want to try rails and PAs for some missions too and see how that goes.

Might try burst laser if I can find some large gimballed ones.

First cr50m payday tomorrow!

[8bit]

So I basically stopped playing this, out of boredom, a couple of months ago. I'd like to get back into it now that PowerPlay is out. How do I get started with Powerplay though?

[Chuck328]

8bit said:

So I basically stopped playing this, out of boredom, a couple of months ago. I'd like to get back into it now that PowerPlay is out. How do I get started with Powerplay though?

Go to the head quarters of your allegiance and collect 'corruption reports' or such like (you need cargo capacity - something I never had in my FDL) These are then delivered to outlying systems. It's a bit of a grind as there are a lot to do for the big bucks. There are four ranks to this, the first rank pays a measly 1000c/week. In the nav menu on the left where galaxy/system maps are located, below you will see power map. Lots of info in there.

I'm sure others here can provide more detailed info as I've stopped playing now (a while back), PP aint really my thing, I've not seen a wanted Anaconda since PP came out! My RES hunting days are well and truly over since all that ever seems to spawn is eagles/cobras/adders etc. Bored of the game now unfortunately.

[jains15]

You can do what chuck says, or go to a rival power's fortifying control systems and bag 30 merits for each time you murder a rival's minion. Much more time efficient of you want to get the big payout. I can post more detail if you wish.

So I got my cr50m, woohoo. jumped 150ly across space to start the PP grind again. Bit off more than I could chew and made about 3 tactical errors in the same interdiction and got myself killed, cr4.9m insurance payout within 20 minutes of payday! D'oh!

[8bit]

Thanks guys. When I said "get started" I really meant how do I even pick a power to pledge allegiance to, but I managed to work that out last night so I'm good to get started. I'm heading to the HQ now.

I guess if I'm allied with a relatively peaceful power then will that mean I don't really get merits for killing people associated with other powers? If I've picked someone in the Empire then will it matter if I kill folk associated with another Empire-related power?

ETA - I guess if I get seen killing someone in a rival system then I'll still potentially get in trouble with the law etc. too?