Elite Dangerous

Discussion in 'Fire Lotus Tavern' started by Lord Tachys al`Fahn, Jun 23, 2020.

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  1. Lord Tachys al`Fahn

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    A couple of years ago, we had a thread running here:

    https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/elite-dangerous.68882/page-17#post-1124536

    Where a group of us were going to form a minor Britannian faction within the game, but that was two years ago, when the application process was the only real route to accomplish this. Now, with the advent of Fleet Carriers, a group can easily create their own minor faction, without needing a minor faction standing.

    Anyone here still interested, and of those interested, is there anyone from the previous thread still here that knows what happened with the application for minor faction status?
     
  2. Lord Tachys al`Fahn

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    Well... that staggering response tells me pretty much what I need to know... lol
     
  3. Lord Tachys al`Fahn

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    Well, For anyone that might be interested, I have started hopping back in the Pilot's seat of the NBS Blackrock. See you in the Black!
     
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  4. Bowen Bloodgood

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    I actually only got Elite Dangerous a short while ago but to be honest, I'm having a hard time imagining what I would try to accomplish.
     
  5. Lord Tachys al`Fahn

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    Well, there's actually a lot to do:

    • the goal of the original game: Achieving the Pilots Federation ranking of Elite. However, they've broken it down into 4 categories: Combat, Trading, Exploration and I forget the fourth, because it basically revolved around Elite's arena combat game that (at the time I started) hardly anyone ever played. Achieving the rank of Elite in any category also gives you access to the Pilot's Federation "Home" world, where you can buy every ship and module available at a small discount.
      • Combat: Go shoot things and collect bounties
      • Explore: go explore systems and turn in survey data. If you find a planet that hasn't been surveyed by anyone, you not only get bonus credits for the "discovery", but your name will be displayed on that planet (in the form of "First scanned by") for the life of the game
      • Trade: Running merchant missions and, of course, making money from trading
      • The fourth: As I said, try and play the fighter combat arena game, and live ;)
    • Mission running: This basically provides you an incentive to engage in all the other aspects of Elite. You can receive missions for
      • Combat Kill missions (individual skilled NPC pilots and/or x number of specific targets)
      • Supply missions where you secure a source for the item, purchase it, and bring the requested amount back to the station that gave you the mission
      • Mining missions (essentially) that operate in a similar fashion to the supply missions, except you have to go find an asteroid or ice belt to mine the minerals (if you actually want to make money. If you just want the credit for the mission, you can run it like the supply mission and buy the materials requested)
      • Passenger missions: These take a couple of different routes (Note: these are names I am giving them, not what they are actually called):
        • Taxi missions: Involve taking people from one location to another. Usually a pretty low reward mission
        • Sightseeing missions: Involve taking a specific individual a VERY long way (think hundreds, or even thousands, of light years of jumps away) to either see a specific point of interest, and/or be delivered to a very distant destination. Pays much better than taxi missions. This also has the benefit of giving you a reason to go to MANY different systems that, if you scan them along the way, will give you dozens, if not hundreds, of systems worth of data to turn in to Cartography, in turn greatly increasing your PF Exploration ranking.
      • Scanning missions: Can either be scanning an object from space, or scouting an object on the surface of a planet.
      • I'm sure there are more, but I haven't played in a while, and some things have changed drastically in my absence...
    • Human-Thargoid conflict: There are apparently things going on with respect to this that you can participate in to further certain goals from either side of this conflict.
    • Kitting out your ship: As you gain money, larger ships with more diverse capabilities are available. Some can even allow other players to assist you by having a "tele-presence" on board your ship to perform other functions while you pilot your ship, such as controlling a fighter or being a gunner.
    • Playing the Power Game: You can also sign on to support one major power faction or another to both increase rank in that faction (which can get you access to ships you normally wouldn't be able to buy, such as the Federation Corvette, one of the largest ships in the game), and tip the balance of power by either delivering supplies to or fighting other players in contested systems.
    • Piracy: You can either be a brigand and simply hunt down people to blow up (NPC or player), or you can attack others and use hatchbreaker limpets to force open their cargo hold so you can scoop up their dropped cargo.
    • Bounty Hunting: Similar to the above, but you scan a ship to see if they have any bounties, THEN you can blow them up with impunity, as well as getting a bounty voucher ;)
    • Planetary landing: As long as you are appropriately equipped, you can land on planets and tool around in an ATV type craft, which allows you to find certain minerals, visit POI's, and investigate mysterious locations (Ancient sites, thargoid wrecks, etc)
    Just a few things that the game has available to you. Performing missions for different minor factions increases your standing with them, which, in combination with your PF standing, determines the payout from future missions you perform for them. If you can find a loop between planets or systems where you can perform multiple missions for the same MF in short order, you can increase standing with them in fairly short order, and be running missions that net thousands to millions of credits.

    The major drawback (for me), is there is very little by way of actual story built in to the game. In this way, and a lot of other ways, it is very similar to EvE Online, since Eve borrowed very heavily from ED's 1984 progenitor, Elite.

    Otherwise, it is open-ended to a fault, allowing you to do some, any or all of the above to secure enough wealth to fly whatever you want, however you want, wherever you want without worry that it will be blown out from underneath you!
     
    Last edited: Jul 11, 2020
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  6. Bowen Bloodgood

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    I never meant to imply there weren't things to do.. but what would my personal goal be? To get my own carrier? What do I WANT to do with it? I do really like the game so far.. I'm just not really feeling inspired to accomplish anything. I need personal goals!
     
  7. Lord Tachys al`Fahn

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    Oh, I get it... it is simultaneously Elite's greatest strength, and it's most crippling weakness, that it is so open ended that only the truly self-motivated (or those who have an absolute love for the space "sim" genre) will find motivation to play!
     
  8. Bowen Bloodgood

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    I had been playing Avorion before. Although I always knew it would be pretty much a one time play through, I felt like I had a couple goals to sink my fangs into. If I could do that in Elite Dangerous I'd be trouble. :) It really seems solid and well made in general. I'm just such an introvert though I stay away from online and it's like.. ok.. um... so I can fly around now.. um.. :)

    Though I also must admit that the combat part of the tutorial really put me off and looking for some lost data after I said "I'll come back for it after I do X" was pretty frustrating.. almost in a good way if I was more into space sims.. Though it is the type of game I may still come back to, especially after the next XP. Will keep an eye for it.. maybe I'll be inspired. But uh.. I think I failed one my missions while I was away. :)
     
  9. Lord Tachys al`Fahn

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    I hear ya... the combat tutorial is almost ridiculously difficult, as it doesn't really go into specifics on maneuvers and some other things. It is far better to just jump in and roll with it.
     
  10. Bowen Bloodgood

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    I think in my case I didn't pay close enough attention to how the radar worked and fell into Wing Commander mode and interpreted where the enemy was.. at that point it was nearly impossible for me to shake the drone and even get it into view. I must've accidentally left the combat zone 3 or 4 times. :)
     
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