Elite Dangerous: Horizons |OT| Just scratching the surface

[HylianSeven]

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/april-update-coming-23-april-2019.508239/

I think the stuff focusing on new players is important, like the free advanced docking computer I think is good because I know a lot of people were turned off by docking and undocking at first. However I do hope it's something they learn to get rid of as they learn how to dock.

The supercruise assist module sounds good, but I feel like doesn't go far enough? There's a system near my home system that has some planets about ~600,000 Ls from the star you enter the system at...we need subsystem jumps for shit like that. I had a mission in that system and it was a pain in the ass. On top of that, while the stuff the supercruise assist module does sound good, even with the extra optional internal slot, it seems like something you would rather just buy something better unless your power plant literally can't support it. If that optional internal slot is anything higher than a class 1, guarantee you no one will want that supercruise assist module. If it's a class 1, I can see a case for it though. In my FDL or Anaconda I could see myself getting one of those and setting it to disable when hardpoints are deployed.

 

[Pegasus Actual]

Docking in a freaking starter Sidewinder isn't that hard to figure out, seems like a weird thing to coddle people on. Docking computers should be a quality of life purchase for players with a lot of in game money. It shouldn't require any power or any fucking slots, it's complete insanity. Supercruise assist sounds fine. Coming out of supercruise was never fun or satisfying. I never thought "Oh fuck yeah I pressed my throttle hotkey at the perfect time, I'm an Elite god". Honestly the game could use a full autopilot system.

 

[HylianSeven]

Docking in a freaking starter Sidewinder isn't that hard to figure out, seems like a weird thing to coddle people on. Docking computers should be a quality of life purchase for players with a lot of in game money. It shouldn't require any power or any fucking slots, it's complete insanity. Supercruise assist sounds fine. Coming out of supercruise was never fun or satisfying. I never thought "Oh fuck yeah I pressed my throttle hotkey at the perfect time, I'm an Elite god". Honestly the game could use a full autopilot system.

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Lots of people that are new at the game had trouble with it at some point. To us it's super easy, and I still think everyone should learn to do it manually, but I know plenty of people have been put off by docking and undocking. I think the main issue with Docking Computers and Supercruise Assists is that you often don't have the module space or power for them and would rather have something else. Most of the time, especially for combat, power isn't as much of an issue for those things just because you can change their priority as the first thing to turn off when hardpoints are deployed, but it's the slot that's the real issue. If your ship is outfitted for combat, why would you take a Docking Computer or Supercruise Assist when you could throw in another Shield Cell Bank, Weapon, Heat Sink, or something else entirely.

 

[RedSwirl]

I always found docking in ED a lot easier than docking in Elite 1 and Frontier Elite II. I don't think I ever pulled off a manual dock in either of those two games, but I've never had to use a docking computer in ED. Maybe the final landing part is a bit tricky, but not really.

Avoiding that loop of shame though is gonna be a godsend.

 

[Menelaus]

As a crowdfunder with a lifetime pass, I haven't touched the game in over 2 years and since then no update has compelled me to come back. You guys that are still playing, is it not just a colossal grind with little variety compared to the baseline content year ago?

 

[HylianSeven]

As a crowdfunder with a lifetime pass, I haven't touched the game in over 2 years and since then no update has compelled me to come back. You guys that are still playing, is it not just a colossal grind with little variety compared to the baseline content year ago?

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They have added some stuff, but it is a lot of one step forward, two steps backwards. Unless you have a compelling reason of your own to come back (for instance, I got a Vive and playing this game in VR is incredible), not much has changed in that regard. They have added things like wing missions, which are neat, but they also add more annoyances too.

Probably the one that pissed me off most, as my next objective is get my combat to Elite. I'm currently at Deadly 69%. I was generally killing high rank ships in my Anaconda, and I had a fighter launched from it with an AI pilot in it. I knew they took up some of the cash from hunting, but here's the kicker: THEY ALSO ABSORB SOME OF THE EXP FOR YOUR RANK! And they do this EVEN WHILE WAITING IN THE STATION!! So basically it's Frontier punishing you for using the game's features. I immediately terminated the contract as soon as I heard about this. I really liked ship launched fighters too. I had the Gelid with dual beam lasers, and it was great for taking down shields.

 

[HylianSeven]

Engineering doesn't seem to bad these days? It's definitely vastly improved from how it used to work. I'm guessing the grind comes in when you have to find the rarer materials at higher levels of modules. The entry costs of what Engineers want you to bring them at first don't seem too bad.

I think one thing that helps, despite it's issues, is the Ship Delivery. I can take my Diamondback Explorer out to an Engineer, and order my Fer-De-Lance (the ship I actually want to Engineer modules on) delivered and it'll be there in a bit. I do like the min-maxing of Engineering.

 

[Granadier]

It's nice that you don't have to roll on engineers anymore to get the good stats. It's just a matter of how many materials it'll cost you now.

And yeah, the ship..shipping is super convenient and has spawned a whole set of ship builds to just act as "bubble taxis" for getting your main ships around.

 

[Jedi2016]

I think one thing that helps, despite it's issues, is the Ship Delivery. I can take my Diamondback Explorer out to an Engineer, and order my Fer-De-Lance (the ship I actually want to Engineer modules on) delivered and it'll be there in a bit. I do like the min-maxing of Engineering.

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Depends on the Engineer, I guess. Most of the ones I visit don't have Shipyards to store and move ships around with. The ones where it's most useful (Palin) can't do it.

 

[HylianSeven]

Depends on the Engineer, I guess. Most of the ones I visit don't have Shipyards to store and move ships around with. The ones where it's most useful (Palin) can't do it.

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The ones I have been to have a shipyard within one jump typically, even for my FDL.

Engineering my FDL's shield was a godsend.

 

[RedSwirl]

Is everyone's starting system still the same? I feel like a good way to improve the early game fore newcomers would be to move the start point to another system, preferably a single-star system where the space station isn't 400,000ls away from the entry beacon.

 

[HylianSeven]

I think Engineering is actually good now. Materials Traders are godsends. I've Engineered a few modules on my FDL, including maxing out one for my shields.

Is everyone's starting system still the same? I feel like a good way to improve the early game fore newcomers would be to move the start point to another system, preferably a single-star system where the space station isn't 400,000ls away from the entry beacon.

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Assuming it's still the same as it was five years ago, there was a small selection of systems you would randomly start from. With the April Update that will likely change since there will be the "beginner bubble" of systems that only new players can be in.

 

[Deleted member 2507]

Not sure how vanilla newcomers start but all Horizons owners start in the same system, if they start with the Horizons stuff fitted.

 

[Deleted member 12317]

Not sure how vanilla newcomers start but all Horizons owners start in the same system, if they start with the Horizons stuff fitted.

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When my friend and I started playing on December 24th 2016, we started in different systems (him in Dahan and me in Morgor), we both had Horizons.
What is the starting system of Horizons owners ?

 

[Deleted member 2507]

When my friend and I started playing on December 24th 2016, we started in different systems (him in Dahan and me in Morgor), we both had Horizons.
What is the starting system of Horizons owners ?

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Uh, can't recall the name, haven't touched the game in a while. I thought Horizons has one starting system only anyway. Did you start with Horizons equipped Sidewinders or standard Sidewinders? Think there's an option?
Not certain by any means, i got Horizons somewhat later so maybe they changed things?

 

[HylianSeven]

I still wish they would have a medium and large class ship tier for Arena. I would love to be able to fight humans in my FDL without consequence.

 

[Deleted member 12317]

Uh, can't recall the name, haven't touched the game in a while. I thought Horizons has one starting system only anyway. Did you start with Horizons equipped Sidewinders or standard Sidewinders? Think there's an option?
Not certain by any means, i got Horizons somewhat later so maybe they changed things?

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From what I remember we both had SRVs in our ships and did some planetary missions the first night.

 

[Deleted member 2507]

From what I remember we both had SRVs in our ships and did some planetary missions the first night.

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In that case, either they changed things afterwards, or i'm mistaken. Inclined to bet on the latter...

 

[Granadier]

Asellus Primus is the starting system for new Horizon pilots if they pick the Sidey that's offered

 

[Kormora]

Friend mentioned we're going to see Thargoids and FPS gameplay eventually down the line. Is this true?

 

[Deleted member 2507]

Friend mentioned we're going to see Thargoids and FPS gameplay eventually down the line. Is this true?

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Frontier kind of intents to make ED like a scifi universe rather than just a flight game, as i understood it. But really, i wouldn't expect elements you mention anytime soon. I'd be surprised if we see atmospheric landings within 5 years (i'm pessimistic), gonna be way after those we'll see, shall we say "human gameplay".

 

[Jraphics Horse]

Friend mentioned we're going to see Thargoids and FPS gameplay eventually down the line. Is this true?

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If this is true:
https://www.resetera.com/threads/ru...on-2-and-jurassic-world-survival-leak.112452/

"Elite Dangerous (Project Watson) - Space legs. Haven't seen any mention of atmospheric landings. FPS style gameplay, Thargoids in the flesh. Base building. Coming end of 2020. Thargoids look very Starship Trooper. Don't expect to see much between now and then. The focus is on keeping Elite making money on the mean time. "

 

[Caesar III]

When my friend and I started playing on December 24th 2016, we started in different systems (him in Dahan and me in Morgor), we both had Horizons.
What is the starting system of Horizons owners ?

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Friend of mine started playing last week and he was in lhs 3447 iirc

 

[Deleted member 12317]

If this is true:
https://www.resetera.com/threads/ru...on-2-and-jurassic-world-survival-leak.112452/

"Elite Dangerous (Project Watson) - Space legs. Haven't seen any mention of atmospheric landings. FPS style gameplay, Thargoids in the flesh. Base building. Coming end of 2020. Thargoids look very Starship Trooper. Don't expect to see much between now and then. The focus is on keeping Elite making money on the mean time. "

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Planet Zoo have been announced, so it may be true.

I still hope atmospheric landings come before or with this update, not after.

 

[Anton Sugar]

It would be pretty wild if the reason the last year (and then next) has been quiet is that they were secretly working on space legs, alien FPS combat, etc.

Maybe it seems unrealistic to us...but it's probably been at least a year since we've even had a real convo on Space Legs in this thread XD

 

[Jedi2016]

I'd rather see atmospheric landings myself.

Space Legs don't really interest me for the reason that my setup isn't configured for FPS while I'm playing Elite. Having to move all my HOTAS setup out of the way and disable head tracking to suddenly switch to KB/M would just be a huge pain in the ass. And then have to put it all back again once I got back into my ship. Even if we're not talking combat, I'd have to reach over and pick up an Xbox controller to suddenly go to a completely different control style, but only until I got back into my ship. Thanks but no thanks.

 

[Jraphics Horse]

I don't envy who's job it is to make every kind of atmospheric world visitable. 'Dead' atmospheric worlds should be easy enough, as adding the atmosphere is the easy part.

 

[RedSwirl]

I don't envy who's job it is to make every kind of atmospheric world visitable. 'Dead' atmospheric worlds should be easy enough, as adding the atmosphere is the easy part.

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Thinking about it, I wouldn't be surprised if they did that in stages -- just let you land on dead atmospheric worlds first. Earth-like words are pretty rare in this game, especially outside the bubble. Just doing dead atmospheric planets would cover the overwhelming majority of planets.

Water worlds though?

 

[Deleted member 12317]

Water worlds though?

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With a submarine SRV dropped from the air :D

 

[Caesar III]

Space Legs don't really interest me for the reason that my setup isn't configured for FPS while I'm playing Elite. Having to move all my HOTAS setup out of the way and disable head tracking to suddenly switch to KB/M would just be a huge pain in the ass. And then have to put it all back again once I got back into my ship. Even if we're not talking combat, I'd have to reach over and pick up an Xbox controller to suddenly go to a completely different control style, but only until I got back into my ship. Thanks but no thanks.

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Add VR to this here, so yeah, no thanks

 

[AMD]

With a submarine SRV dropped from the air :D

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I wouldn't be surprised to see the Moray Starboats from 1980's Elite make an appearance at some point.

 

[Anton Sugar]

I just don't get excited for atmospherics, mostly because I don't quite see their vision for it. However, the same could be said for space legs.

With both of these, I'm thinking of pre-Chapter 4 updates, that just added new "features" without any good gameplay elements added. Maybe it's wrong of me to think that way, since Chapter 4 was such a big improvement in that area.

I'm more excited for space legs, mostly because I feel it gives a lot more gameplay possibilities (exploring Thargoid ruins on foot...!) but my hangups about atmospherics could apply to this, too. I don't want space legs to be added just so I'll be able to mine rocks on foot, rather than in a ship. There needs to be a good loop.

EDIT: Quoting DemonCarnotaur from the Frontier leak thread:

Looks to be true - the original post said this:

Announced today:

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itshappening.gif

Where's our boy Burny at? Does DrBo42 even have this game installed anymore? :P

 

[SmartBase]

Space legs over atmospherics? Kinda boring if you could only do FPS in space or on the dull planets we have now.

But it could still be worth a look, maybe.

 

[Granadier]

I just wanna walk around my Conda

 

[MatOfTheDead]

decided to choose this as my summer game while my backlog is small any tips for starting out on xbox one

 

[Granadier]

decided to choose this as my summer game while my backlog is small any tips for starting out on xbox one

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I'd actually be super interested to hear your impressions of the new player experience since it was very recently revamped.

Just start up fresh, go in blind, and do the training missions. Then report back here.

 

[RedSwirl]

I hadn't heard anything about Space Legs but if it's closer to being within reach than atmospheric landings, I say it could add a lot to the game.

Being able to just explore artificial things like stations could add a ton of possibilities. At that point it's kinda getting into Star Citizen territory (but with planets at 1:1 scale), but I imagine ED would have more loading and stuff. One of the things RSI has shown that was the coolest to me was that demo where they exited one ship in the middle of space and then seamlessly entered and explored the interior of another ship while there was still stuff going on in all three locations.

 

[Ravelle]

I decided to boot the game up again but I'm running in to some issues.

I never had this problem before but the moment I launch the game, even when I'm still in the main menu my video card gets super warm and the fans are having a hard time. Next to that the resolution won't change correctly, I set it to 1440, it switches but all the textures remain stuck in very low resolution. I tried switching back and forth and enabling and disabling a couple of things but everything remains in low resolution textures.

edit: Seems like I found it. It seemed to jump to the correct texture resolution when I selected "low" on the graphics settings and then manually change things to ultra.

Game's still pretty hard on my 1080 video card for some reason.

 

[MatOfTheDead]

I'd actually be super interested to hear your impressions of the new player experience since it was very recently revamped.

Just start up fresh, go in blind, and do the training missions. Then report back here.

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i started a new save did the training missions and i had to come off for the night (girlfriend wanted to watch a movie) i invested in a thrustmaster hotas and i made the experience a lot more enjoyable than with a pad im gonna get some more time in on it today i wanna start doing some mining and exploration

 

[Jedi2016]

I'm out until they can fix the FSS and shield bugs. Too much of a pain in the ass to have to keep correcting the game while I'm exploring.

 

[MatOfTheDead]

been spending today doing a few courier jobs to get some credits and also to get more comfortable with the hotas while looking at the contract lists there was one for a pirate ship his name was duane dibbley as a red dwarf fan this pleases me greatly

 

[Mengy]

I'm out until they can fix the FSS and shield bugs. Too much of a pain in the ass to have to keep correcting the game while I'm exploring.

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I've not played in quite some time, what is the FSS bug? Did the last patch break something?

 

[Deleted member 12317]

I've not played in quite some time, what is the FSS bug? Did the last patch break something?

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I'm not affected by the FSS bug but from what I saw the whole UI turns to a vertical plane, making it invisible and unusable.

The shield bug is annoying, my ship do not overheat when scooping, but it delays my FSD activation if I don't disable it and have to go further away from the star before charging.

They really need to do betas like before, they broke too much things and did not even test their update properly.

EDIT: video of the FSS bug :

 

[HylianSeven]

I may actually have to go out and do the Thargoid content...I haven't encountered any Thargoids myself other than going to look at the barnacles back when they appeared on that one planet as a teaser a very long time ago.

Engineering is a hell of a lot more viable today than it used to be. It no longer feels like an incredibly frustrating grind, at least so far for me. Material Traders and ship delivery make it much more manageable.

 

[Caesar III]

The new system for engineers seems great for me so far. So much less drag. Did not touch it for a few months.

 

[Deleted member 12317]

FSS is still bugged, I've waited for the patch to continue catching up on DW2, bug I can't use FSS most of the time.

Video of the bug :



Also when FSS seems to work, zooming out from a group of bodies or a body recenters on the parent body, making it very annoying when scanning bodies spread around a gas giant. It always recenters and you have to move the mouse even further away, very frustrating and counter-intuitive.

I'm done until next patch, again.

 

[Jedi2016]

Yeah, looks like they fixed the shield bug I was getting, and somehow managed to break FSS even more. And it's not like there's much else for me to do, I'm thousands of light years out in the black.

 

[Love Machine]

With a submarine SRV dropped from the air :D

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Even just letting our ships land on the surface would be pretty cool. Bobbing about or skimming over the waves.

Speaking of waves, I wonder how feasible something like this would be...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Hf_XkgE1d0

 

[MonthOLDpickle]

So I haven't played in a LONG time. I think planet landing just came out. I need some TDLR for new stuff. I also need links to useful apps/sites. Also buddy may get it but as far as I know when I played you could only just team up and if yea together you may get some stuff. What can we do? Going to need some guidance here.

I am currently downloading the game, but my memory was I have a hauler that has no shield and only speed lol.....

 

[Forerunner]

I haven't played in a few months. The new home screen looks great, it's streamline and easy to navigate. I sit in CQC que for a while and can't find a game. So, I go into the main game. I just sit there for a while in the station. Then I'm just like I don't really want to play this and quit. I always get these urges to come back and then I don't even play it. I guess I'll just wait for the next update.