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Elite Dangerous » A new beginning..
Posted by DHLF on Thursday 29th January, 2015     5 comments

Reasons to delete your commander and start fresh over..

First try
The first start of E:D made me think I bought the wrong game!
There were too many commands for Elite:Dangerous.
So I tried this and that, got confused with the keyboard and finally connected an old TM Hotas-X.
Tried the training mission and were unhappy with the game.
Controls were so confusing!
Spend more hours to find other peoples joystick configuration.
Tested them and well played finally E:D.
Got again unhappy with multi-used buttons and bought a TM Hotas Warthog.

Got even MORE unhappy with those beatiful hardware because of configuration and strange device problems.
TLTR..
Finally I was happy with the configuration and played some days.

Learned one thing or two..
-collecting cargo is illegal
-being fugitive make most people hunt you
-wrecking your ship means loosing much money(depending on equipment)
-insurance.. are somehow importent, but expensive
-dont hit the wrong button if your ship was destroyed (NO free Sidewinder!!)
-keep some spare money in case of ship destruction
-obey the system forces
-never forget to ask for landing clearance..
-never get away from the computer even if you have to pee..
-never leave your ship flying long distances without being in front of your controls
-never collect drifting cargo if it is not worth enough
-drifting cargo is marked *stolen* and can only be sold at blackmarkets at HALF the price
-a printed list of cargo prices let you quick take the best and left the worst behind
-never spend your time writing blogs. Get off and play E:D!

Second try
One day I could not play E:D anymore because.. there were an update -.-
So I decided to delete my Commander and start again with CLEAN police report.
Found Rogueys fantastic E:D-Universe and got even less time to play.
Because now I was going to explore and add unknown systems to this site Big grin
Those blog made me forget how dangerous E:D can be and so I crashed inside a station(during START!!)
I decided my police report was to bad too, so I deleted Commander once again

Third try (JAN,29th 2015)
Eek.. Every *new* start means stupid start sequence..
Little money and LHS 3447 crowded with other pilots, laaag time -.-
Fixed lasers..I must keep the targets where those lasers can hit them,..

Explored unknown signal sources:
-2 "trade plans"
-fight against an ASP: hello? I got only a sidewinder!
-6 house thing devices, err.. only 2 spare cargo??
-1 *bad* cobra.. yields 7894CR +2428CR "cargo" ^^
-4 rebel transmissions. 12265CR for deliver 2 of them for a contract +2708CR for 2 more
-a funeral transport, worthless..
-a technology trader..
-7 really old artifacts.. and i got only space for 4 of them Cry
-5 chemical waste -.-
-wedding barqe
-a bad ASP Smile For me and my sidewinder it was an EPIC battle.
.Okay, I cheated because I pulled her in front of a federal dropship Hammer

Do the possibility to find precious cargo decrease with increasing cargo bay space / largers hull size?
Ever found 12t of Geawen Dance Dust(12t) drifting lonely in space and your sidewinder got only space for four of them?!


Forth try (Feb,2nd 2015)
Got completely dependent from this E:D/universe section of Rogueys site..
And when this site were not accessible I had to go and find alternatives.
Because I need a place to put all the data in Eek
Searching the net yields some alternatives, but no one of them pleased me.

The sad downtime of Rogues E:D-Universe led me to a very crappy piece of software:
EDDiscovery2 (is thought to be used for calculating distances between stars):
-grabs your wherabouts from the E:D Logfiles(if verbose logging is enabled) and put it into a database
- contacts an EDDS server to download known star systems and their positions.
- calculate the positions of any system using known distances.. (no more GUESSING a position?)




- contains an *ugly* map where visited stars are shown in red
- add short data to a system. Really SHORT data.
I dont need those much stuff, my intention is using this program as.. travel diary LOL

Shot down by a federal drop ship while I was hunting another *bad* ASP -.-
First those stupid officers ran between my target and my weapons and were angry.
Must be some friend of those who take me "accidently" down in one blow..

Fifth try (Feb,3rd 2015)
Plenty of explored system data LOST. Being unhappy I got angry right from the next start:




Believe me it WAS an ASP Big grin and YES I did it using the "loaned" default lasers.
I took 3 screenshots, one prior to "proof" its an ASP(or did i hit F12 the first time? -.-) but there were only two SS showing the explosion. Maybe if someone hit F10 to fast it overwrites the first?
Hint: Set one button to 50% speed.. helps turning around those ASPs ^^

I am finished -.- (February, 5th 2015)
The game hates me! Sad
Finished a mission(hunted 5 pirates in FED space).
Those system was FULL of pirates Wink so I decided to cross the system over and over again for additional pirates. Got over 100.000CR for them.
Got back to a station to get paid.
Though it would be great to keep this system-crossing for more pirates..
And a damn system force viper vessel got between my weapons and my target (again -.-)
Retreated to station, requested clearance to land, got it.. was in the doorway heading into that station. Was scanned.. was hit, was dead!
For what? A penalty of 400CR for hitting a stupid officer??
Paid 17.000CR for keeping the outfittings.
Thank god the next update should fix this..

Okay, no more restarts. I have to hurry as the latest patch includes the information that some guys out there already reached ELITE in combat.. Eek

Decided those rare "warez" may be fun but I dont like them.
Stranded suddenly in space with little fuel supply and.. any stars around me were nondescripted.
Few stars in reach - I MUST find some which can be fuel-scooped.

Asked wikipedia about the nearest star "Pollux". Hurray, it is a g-class star Nod

Got a Cobra, cargo hold full of rares.. crashed during start into the station -.-
No cargo insurance???
Update 1.1?

Okay, then..

Sixth try (Feb,10th 2015) (really!)
Seventh try (Feb,11th 2015)

Did i accidently put game-difficulty to insane?
Why do Imperial Clippers haunt me(and Anaconda with ELITE ranking)?
Is it malfunction of a copy protection?
Or did this happened because it was FRIDAY, 13th..? Bash the wall

Eighth try (Feb,13th 2015) ..
Still alive,I cant believe it! (Feb,26th 2015)

Apr, 6th 2015
Have not had enough time I stopped playing E:D for two months.. the hunt for triple ELITE status ended as well and now I am back for business..

Two month may be a short time for the most of you but for me.. I hardly remembered how to get to the nav panel LOL

Again there were lots of updates so the display looked slightly strange to me.
Bounty hunting yields lots of credits.. before I was happy to get ~25.000 CR and now it is around 125.000CR. Sweet Smile

New equipment has been added(hull reinforcement packs), sad to see how the jump-range decrease..

[colour=#ff0000]Dont try to ram vessels or even.. nav points[/color]
Really today my ship was destroyed.. by a damn nav satellite thing Go nuts

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Elite Dangerous » I have never written a blog before..
Posted by DHLF on Wednesday 28th January, 2015     5 comments

Normally I do not like the idea of posting my personal view in the public.
But elite:dangerous is eating my spare time like no other game before.
Therefore I will give it a try for this..

So what am I expected to do with a blog?

Maybe I should "talk" about my first contact with ELITE in the last CENTURY ^^
Games for home-computers were sold on tapes. Yuck!
The game box contempts:
-a PRINTED manual
-a pretty A3 sized poster with the ship types(filled, not wireframed Smile )
-the tape itself
and a strange plastic lense.

Because of the possibility to copy tapes easily from one to the other they decided to sell the tape with a special "lense" which you had to put on your TV-screen.
There was a strange marking shown which was only readable through those lense.
Different sized tv sets needed an "alignment" so you finally could type in the code.
Without the proper code the game did not run(surprise:lol)

The copy-protection was called "lens-lock" or so.

Bad people build strange devices to interrupt the running game and.. to save the memory to tape. You get it? Yes..

If someone is out there and load a so "cracked" Elite game on a Sinclair ZX Spectrum..
you could get plenty missiles(255!), money and DANGEROUS state if you save the new game at once instead of starting a new one LOL

Elite was BETTER than Elite:Dangerous because:
-no internet connection needed
-no lags in systems crowded with other players
-collecting .. "free" cargo was not forbidden
-the mining laser was amazing against other ships(slow.. but powerful)
-there was a military laser Smile
-you were able to get an ecm system and an ecm JAMMER..
-you could save an entire coriolis station from a supernova
-there were 7 (or 8?) galaxies (instead of only ONE in E:D)
-lower hardware requirement (48k RAM was enough!)
-you got a Cobra MK-III at the beginning of the game
-it was sold for only 15BP
-it was ready to play from the time it was sold(no gamma needed)
-loading time(from tape) seems to be equal like in E:D
-you started at LAVE not LHS 3447
-the jump drive was.. easier to use
-you could visit THARGOID invasion ships whenever you liked Wink
-all missiles were NOT dumb(except if enemy got ECM)
-bounties were paid at once
-landing computer.. were MUCH faster (while a station in range=instant docking)
-needed NO F*** upgrade, you could have played whenever you wanted
-we got a BACK "window" in our Cobra!!

But back to my first contact with Elite:Dangerous
At first I nearly got crazy about the plenty configuration and keyboard commands.
Spend some hours to "learn" the most important keys while I was lurking for finally PLAYING the game.
Spend more time to get my joystick working (TM HOTAS-X).
A very helpful configuration is explained here https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=16140.
The Thrustmaster Hotas-X is cheap (around 30 EUR) and will do.
But.. even if someone assign up to 4 "commands" to a button (4 shift-buttons) I needed MORE buttons..
Switching accidently to silent mode in combat is a very BAD idea..

So I gave those "TM Hotas Warthog" a try.. a very expensive device.
Really it took me some DAYS to get a clue how to "program" those thing and set it to work as I want with E:D.

The postives about this Hotas Warthog:
+ powerful.
+ looks nice.
+ it is amazing.
+ it is very solid.(iron?!) total weight above 6kg!!
+ add keyboard commands to any trigger! (put "fire4" to chaff key command Big grin )
+ you can add macros(sequence keyboard commands) like equal system power and max the weapons..
+ FIRE1 button got two states: simple press=Fire1, max press= full power to weapons ^^
+ add other commands which are send if you RELEASE the buttons.. (like power equal or to thrusters..)

but: try it if you can.. before you spend soo much money.
- you are left alone.. YOU have to figure out for yourself how things work -.-
- You have to run a TARGET progam any time you want to play
- The device "forget" its programs every shutdown -.-
- lacks one axis so you are left with:
..rolling your ship with one thruster Bash the wall
..Believe me THAT is confusing. Or you get additional pedals.. but.. well.
- Windows cant see all 52 Buttons -.- You must link some buttons to keayboard controls
- configurate this devices takes HOURS

I spend one week to get things running until I decided to reset my account due the high illegal err.. activity I had done (accidently, believe me!).

Now I am exploring the galaxy with my Cobra until I get more money for those ASP.

Big mistakes I made so far:
Cargo scans may not hurt you, if you collected NON-illegal material.
Well.. that is not true. A dozen security ships scanned my cargo and I felt safe.
But.. then someone took a closer view and.. I was suddenly "guilty" -.-

Exploring unexplored star systems.. with cargo in your hold.
BAD idea.. as NPCs will gather to take it from you..

Having not needed those insurance for a week I thought I was able to fly,
put proudly a screenshot(see comments) up here and crashed 5 minutes later into
HAIPENG PORT@ETA Serpentis Bash the wall

While exploring an unidentified signal source I found an Anaconda..
Just seconds later..:
Hell, one hit and my shilds were gone.. AND 75% of the hull.
Again I could barely escape..
Ever got a thruster malfunction AFTER a fight due to damage to the power plant? Eek

When I got enough credits to buy a Cobra I handed my brilliant Adder in..
and got NO money left for upgrading the FSD or weapons or power plant or..
This is because larger ships needs.. higher classes and more expensive devices.
The best FSD (type A class 2) costs 160.224CR
The best FSD (type A class 3) costs 507.901CR
You will get bad mood if you see the costs for the best FSD of an ASP..

With this Cobra I got a better view outside but.. not enough power for my weapons Cry

Playing alone might be dangerous..
Until yesterday(January,27th) I have been attacked only once by a human player.
So I never expected the following situation:
-> thanks to those 6 guys @Eta Serpentis who decided to ram my ship and suddenly attacked me.
Hence.. I switched reverse thruster to avoid collision and forgot to release that switch Undecided
I managed it to get away with my pants dropped(less than 25% left) for repairs.
After that I decided to wipe them out of existence but alas! They left those place.
Because: I have finally enough power for all weapons Evil

[edit(again)]
In comparison to other online games the players in E:D seems much more friendly.
But to avoid such situations in the future I will move to the unexplored areas.