*** The Official Elite: Dangerous Thread ***

Soldato
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21,453
Biggest problem with ED and it’s accessibility is people dont think things through when they assign controls.

They put all the cool stuff, weapon groups, power management, FIRE! Missile Lock! Select nearest hostile! All on easy to reach keys, and all the boring stuff like landing gear, comms, MFD select, they pay no attention to all, despite them being the controlls they will be using for 99.9% of the time.

“Its so diificult to control the ship! I cant even find the key to do this that or the other!”

Thats your fault you exceptional person, not the games.
 
Associate
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Also the entrance to the station, the letterbox, is facing the body it is orbiting. You can also buy a docking computer that may help you get your barrings then when you've got it you can ditch the computer if you want (it plays Blue Danube when docking so you mightn't have the will power to :) )

I am happy to meet up in game & take people through it docking.
 
Soldato
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the south
These tips are awesome keep them coming chaps. I've spent ages flying around stations trying to find the entrance!

Thinking of getting voice attack to make the vr experience even better but not sure it's worth it for a casual gamer?

Any one near the pleiades system want to meet up?
 
Soldato
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Well at £5 in the current Steam sale, I couldn't resist - installing now.

There's a few tutorials over at Roguey's site which I've mulled over but any succinct tips for a complete newb? In particular what's this "insurance" or similar you need to take out to avoid having to start over if your ship gets scragged?
 
Associate
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Nothing you need to take out, but you want to make sure you always have at least that amount of money available as it lets you rebuy your ship and config if destroyed for a very small fraction of the real cost. If you can't afford it, you'll have to go back to a sidewinder and earn the credits to rebuy at full price.
 
Soldato
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Little lost, have a mission that says to travel to Portriti to receive some message from Lars Hellstrom. When I got here I got a direct message from him saying "Don't panic! I've been sent to find you." I don't know who or where the guy is or how I'm supposed to get this so called message he has for me.

Any help?
 
Soldato
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Posts
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the south
Nothing you need to take out, but you want to make sure you always have at least that amount of money available as it lets you rebuy your ship and config if destroyed for a very small fraction of the real cost. If you can't afford it, you'll have to go back to a sidewinder and earn the credits to rebuy at full price.

I blew up my ship with zero credits left, I could rebuy theship with a loan which I did then when I earned some more money it paid the loan back first.
 
Associate
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Little lost, have a mission that says to travel to Portriti to receive some message from Lars Hellstrom. When I got here I got a direct message from him saying "Don't panic! I've been sent to find you." I don't know who or where the guy is or how I'm supposed to get this so called message he has for me.

Any help?

Is anywhere you need to go highlighted on the system map ?

Do your mission log (transaction menu) say any thing about you mission?
 
Soldato
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Little lost, have a mission that says to travel to Portriti to receive some message from Lars Hellstrom. When I got here I got a direct message from him saying "Don't panic! I've been sent to find you." I don't know who or where the guy is or how I'm supposed to get this so called message he has for me.

Any help?

Did he ask you to drop down or to follow him down? They'll usually drop out of supercruise and give you the message there.
 
Soldato
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Bath
Little lost, have a mission that says to travel to Portriti to receive some message from Lars Hellstrom. When I got here I got a direct message from him saying "Don't panic! I've been sent to find you." I don't know who or where the guy is or how I'm supposed to get this so called message he has for me.

Any help?
Oh yeah, often an alternate mission from a rival faction appears like this (usually for a crap reward). They usually want you to drop out of supercruise on them. So look for the name on the contacts (left screen) and follow them until they drop out. You should then select their "low wake" and drop on it like you would a station
 
Soldato
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The mission ended before I could figure it out. Some missions are really confusing, more so those that require you to scan for signals or enter a planet. I keep trying to find those that just want data transferred from one port to the other.

Add me on Steam; Spacedeck if you'd like to help out a noob and gain a new friend :).
 
Soldato
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Okay, first impressions not bad and a keeper not a refunder.

Not done too much in about 90 minutes so far. Ran the tutorial missions but a bit gutted to find you don't keep the loot you made. The interface makes Egosoft in game menu system look good! Also having both a Xbox 360 pad and Thrustmaster joystick was disappointed to find the game only recognized the former. I hate using the pad for flying/space games and much prefer the joystick.

Started the main (solo) game but at the moment rather confused. Dumped in the back end of beyond and after figuring out how to clear the pre-flight HUD went to the system and galactic maps. Can't get to Sol as it appears I need a permit and even systems closer or planets within the same system the Nav computer comes back unable to plot a path. So here I am, sitting in a tin can, so to speak wondering what to do now. The Bulletin Board consists of missions way above my starting pay grade. I'm sure I'll figure it out on the next load but I would have to knock points off any score for not being very start-up friendly!
 
Soldato
Joined
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10,987
Okay, first impressions not bad and a keeper not a refunder.

Not done too much in about 90 minutes so far. Ran the tutorial missions but a bit gutted to find you don't keep the loot you made. The interface makes Egosoft in game menu system look good! Also having both a Xbox 360 pad and Thrustmaster joystick was disappointed to find the game only recognized the former. I hate using the pad for flying/space games and much prefer the joystick.

Started the main (solo) game but at the moment rather confused. Dumped in the back end of beyond and after figuring out how to clear the pre-flight HUD went to the system and galactic maps. Can't get to Sol as it appears I need a permit and even systems closer or planets within the same system the Nav computer comes back unable to plot a path. So here I am, sitting in a tin can, so to speak wondering what to do now. The Bulletin Board consists of missions way above my starting pay grade. I'm sure I'll figure it out on the next load but I would have to knock points off any score for not being very start-up friendly!
I really want to get into this game but I think my experiance matches yours. I do like not having my hand held in games but I found even this to be a bit much. Everyone says do what you want etc but that never really helps as I don't even know what it is I want to achieve :D
 
Soldato
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Well I managed to lock on and take a flight within the starting system but the rapid travel feature is very twitchy. You think you are at the destination and hit "J" to exit when in fact you are still millions of km away - despite getting a too close notice. Eventually I managed to get the hang of it by watching the blue speed and distance markers on the LH HUD. Now I've just got to try and dock. Still can't figure out how you bring up the contacts list to check the various messages, though.

Mnemonic it's (m)not...
 
Associate
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If you are having trouble deciding what your goals should be perhaps consider picking a superpower to help as a starter or perhaps joining a Player Group? Some are listed here… https://forums.frontier.co.uk/forumdisplay.php/65-Dangerous-Groups

Of course I'll have to plug mine :) , which is an Imperial Powerplay group… Torval Strategic Services (Discord)

Thinking of getting voice attack to make the vr experience even better but not sure it's worth it for a casual gamer?

Any one near the pleiades system want to meet up?

If you've got the money to burn voice attack with a voice pack does add to the experience, but FDev's audio in the game it pretty good so having a custom AI is't a necessity, especially if you are comfortable with your current control setup.

I'm not in the Pleiades but it doesn't take long for me to get places. Send me a friend request in-game if you want, CMDR Justinian Octavius.

Add me on Steam; Spacedeck if you'd like to help out a noob and gain a new friend :).

I often run ED without steam so feel free to send me a friend request in-game, Justinian Octavius and ask me anything you want.

Can't get to Sol as it appears I need a permit and even systems closer or planets within the same system the Nav computer comes back unable to plot a path.

The jump range of your ship isn't enough to make the jump. You'll need to upgrade your FSD.
 
Soldato
Joined
19 Dec 2006
Posts
10,061
Location
UK
Okay, first impressions not bad and a keeper not a refunder.

Not done too much in about 90 minutes so far. Ran the tutorial missions but a bit gutted to find you don't keep the loot you made. The interface makes Egosoft in game menu system look good! Also having both a Xbox 360 pad and Thrustmaster joystick was disappointed to find the game only recognized the former. I hate using the pad for flying/space games and much prefer the joystick.

Started the main (solo) game but at the moment rather confused. Dumped in the back end of beyond and after figuring out how to clear the pre-flight HUD went to the system and galactic maps. Can't get to Sol as it appears I need a permit and even systems closer or planets within the same system the Nav computer comes back unable to plot a path. So here I am, sitting in a tin can, so to speak wondering what to do now. The Bulletin Board consists of missions way above my starting pay grade. I'm sure I'll figure it out on the next load but I would have to knock points off any score for not being very start-up friendly!


You should be able to assign controls to your thrustmaster even if there is no default for it.

A few tips for new players:

When supercruising to your destination don't let your time to arrival (the numbers under the distance) go below 7 seconds and you wont overshoot it. Stay away from planets, moons and suns, they will severely impact your speed, so if you need to get to the other side of a planet stay well away and around it, if you go close it'll take forever.

When docking, once you have found your way inside a station the compass to the immediate left of your scanner will point towards your landing pad, solid dot in the centre means it is directly in front of you, hollow dot means it's behind. This is also true of outpost docks but works as soon as a pad is assigned.

Check the distance to destination when taking missions, they can be very very far away, Hutton Orbital is a classic at .22ly from the jump in point, that's a lot of time spent in supercruise to get there that will be boring.

Don't be afraid to just mess around to start with, you can always reset your save and start from scratch once you have a better handle on how the game works, money is actually very easy to make and even more so if you wing up or crew with established players (always happy to help, just ask).
 
Soldato
Joined
29 Mar 2007
Posts
4,520
Location
Swindon UK
Managed to find my way to Kremains where there seems to be a bit more going on and have done a bit of trading for a small profit and managed to grab a BBS mission that will give me some rep. I also managed to get most of the Xbox pad controls transferred to the Thrustmaster (though I'm still trying to find the KB equivalent for the pad A confirm button. It has made flying and docking much easier though I have yet to engage in combat.
 
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