OS Neutral Elite Dangerous Tips

[Huntn]

After reading this thread I'm very tempted to try this. I'm a little scared, as I'm the "close the curtains, turn up the sounds, put on the flying goggles" kinda player and I think this game could really suck me in.

I'm especially tempted to try it with the Saitek X52 Pro - does that work in OS X? I'd prefer not to dual-boot, so as long as the Mac version is playable I'll try to 'stick' with that (on a 2013 iMac, 8GB RAM, 1GB 750M, if that's relevant).

Did, do you play Eve? I've been talking a lot about this game, but I can't say how long I'll be playing.

No subscription in ED is great! Visuals are not as impressive as Eve. PVP is dogfighting in ED, but I believe combat in Eve is managing ships and weapon systems in fights. My understanding is that the game is relatively low demand, but you'll have to wait for reports on the Mac version. The X52 pro seems to be the preferred stick. Mining? Boring. Trading? Boring. Dog fighting? Thumbs up. Exploration? Unknown, but I imagine if its all the blackness of space, boring...


Eve


ED

Mostly ED is black/gray space. The above ED shot is from an asteroid field. Actually side by side, they look pretty similiar, other than the huge assembled Eve fleet.

 

[Huntn]

Theory: ED alters the bounty payoffs based on your ship load out. In other words, if you use the default ship, you will consistently bag large bounties based on a higher difficulty level, that the game generates for you. And you may see different adversaries based on these upgrades.

Evidence: Three days in a row I visted the Extraction point next to Boswell Platform in a vanilla Sidewinder hunting felons. Each day, most of the bounties I collected where in the 15k range. Several were below that, but one was $23k.

Last night, I significantly upgraded my Sidewinder with power plant, power distribution, thrusters, a burst laser, and a Gatling gun. Proceeding back to the same point, I engaged in 7 battles and all of the bounty rewards were in the $2500-3500 range. This has a significant negative impact on earnings, where last night I accrued $23k, as compared to the 3 previous visits, I was earning in the range of $100k in the same period of about 45 minutes working the extraction zone.

Of note, with the upgrades, I've noticed no real difference in most fights other than my shields bounce back faster. I do not like the Gatling gun. It burns through 2100 rounds quickly and it is harder to hold it on target. Instantaneous line of sight, no lead, lasers are superior for consistently hitting the target.

One significant change, I saw my first adder which I made the mistake of attacking. This could be coincidence or as a direct result of my upgrades- undetermined. This death, lol was the first one that cost me insurance, about $7800 to cover upgrades replacement. Btw, if it was an Adder, which I am basing on profile, it shredded me in relatively short order. Sidewinder pilots beware!

Continuing Experimentation: Thankfully, the game buys back equipment at 100%. Tonight I am going to remove all of the upgrades and return to the extraction point with my vanilla Sidewinder to see what happens. It is possible that this shift in bounty payoff is due to the accrual of in-game experience. Will be collecting more evidence and report back.

Well I may not be able to test my theory. You know the bit about being able to sell your gear for 100% refund. This does not appear to be true. I see no option to revert back to the "loaned" guns, powerplant, or any of the equipment the default ship comes with. I'm seriously considering a reset. I wonder if the big payoff for bounties is based on equipment, time in game, or both?

 

[antonis]

After reading this thread I'm very tempted to try this. I'm a little scared, as I'm the "close the curtains, turn up the sounds, put on the flying goggles" kinda player and I think this game could really suck me in.

I'm especially tempted to try it with the Saitek X52 Pro - does that work in OS X? I'd prefer not to dual-boot, so as long as the Mac version is playable I'll try to 'stick' with that (on a 2013 iMac, 8GB RAM, 1GB 750M, if that's relevant).

Game seems to be very light in terms of GPU demand, at least on the Windows side. However, OS X version is not up yet and it is not expected for at least 2-3 months from now.

 

[garnerx]

Well I may not be able to test my theory. You know the bit about being able to sell your gear for 100% refund. This does not appear to be true. I see no option to revert back to the "loaned" guns, powerplant, or any of the equipment the default ship comes with. I'm seriously considering a reset. I wonder if the big payoff for bounties is based on equipment, time in game, or both?

Why don't you just buy the basic stuff from a station? Lowest grade weapons, equipment etc. It's usually available.

I'm not sure why you'd want to do that, though. Surely the point of the game is to upgrade your stuff.

 

[Huntn]

Ditch the crappy pulse lasers will help as well. Either equip it with multi-cannons or the big cannons that are gimbaled. That is what I did. Now I'm in a Viper with 4x multi cannons and a millionaire.

How would you compare the Viper to the Cobra? I'm looking at the next ship after the Sidewinder for bounty hunting...

 

[Huntn]

So, I went to the nearest asteroid belt and patrolled the area (there were also 2 security ships patrolling). After around 10-15 minutes there was a wanted ship (it was kind of a big one, not sure which type) that I took down with the help of the other ships for about 19k credits. But after that, nothing else came out in the area.

Then started traveling to various stations in order to check their bulletin boards. However, most of them (within the same system) were keep denying docking request to me. No idea why. Also, even the few stations that allow be to dock have only 1 contract in their bulletin board, or - most usually - none.

All in all, it seems that finding some action can be a pain. Most of the time I just have to travel from point A to point B without having a real reason, while also having no idea if the station in point B will allow me to dock.

A good case seems to be the unidentified signals that almost every time turn out to be wanted persons during super cruising, but they are too random.

I know I asked you this before, but can you tell me if you were at an extraction site flyin in a vanilla Sidewinder when getting low bounties? I'm trying to determine if my bounties amount suddenly fell off because I upgraded my ship or may this is just a dynamic change in the game that has noting to do with my upgrades. Thanks!

Update: I've figured out that bounties vary over time in game, so you can hit a period where you'll get smaller bounties and it does not matter if you've added some gear to the same ship. It might make a difference if you have gotten a new upgraded ship. Today I was scooping $10-20K bounties.

 

[Janichsan]

Mostly ED is black/gray space.

That's what space actually looks like. It's black and mostly dark. That vivid version of space as shown in EVE, the X series games and many other recent space games with bright and colourful nebula all over the place and covering the whole sky is basically the Disney version.

How would you compare the Viper to the Cobra? I'm looking at the next ship after the Sidewinder for bounty hunting...

The Viper is normally somewhat faster and a bit more maneuverable than the Cobra and has stronger shields, but the Cobra has the better armour. Boost speed and weapons loadout are basically the same. I, personally, prefer the Cobra, since it's a very versatile ship. And I'm killing Vipers left and right with it. It has the higher rebuy cost (at least twice as much), though, so if you want to specialise on fighting and take the risk of being destroyed more often, the Viper can be quite a money saver.

 

[fat jez]

Mac version is not due out for a few months yet, so bootcamp or be patient

 

[antonis]

I know I asked you this before, but can you tell me if you were at an extraction site flyin in a vanilla Sidewinder when getting low bounties? I'm trying to determine if my bounties amount suddenly fell off because I upgraded my ship or may this is just a dynamic change in the game that has noting to do with my upgrades. Thanks!

I guess my answer will be obsolete by now but, regardless, bounties were varying from 2k to 20k while flying on a vanilla Sidewinder, during patrol to asteroid belts, near an extraction point of the starting system.

On another system, I've found a "top 5 bounties" link on a station's home page. Is it worth the trouble of spotting a criminal from that list, from a reward point of view ? It seems to require lots of wandering around systems.

 

[Huntn]

Why don't you just buy the basic stuff from a station? Lowest grade weapons, equipment etc. It's usually available.

I'm not sure why you'd want to do that, though. Surely the point of the game is to upgrade your stuff.

I was going to test my theory that by upgrading my ship, bounty payoffs went to hell, but since then, the theory was disproven when good bounties came back. I was a little dismayed that initially the only power plant upgrade I saw was 144000c, but after going to another station, I found less expensive models. There is too much guessing in this game.

If I imagine the future, I imagine both a connected commodities market and equipment upgrade market where stations compete for your business, where you don't have to guess what each station sells before driving there.

That's what space actually looks like. It's black and mostly dark. That vivid version of space as shown in EVE, the X series games and many other recent space games with bright and colourful nebula all over the place and covering the whole sky is basically the Disney version.


The Viper is normally somewhat faster and a bit more maneuverable than the Cobra and has stronger shields, but the Cobra has the better armour. Boost speed and weapons loadout are basically the same. I, personally, prefer the Cobra, since it's a very versatile ship. And I'm killing Vipers left and right with it. It has the higher rebuy cost (at least twice as much), though, so if you want to specialise on fighting and take the risk of being destroyed more often, the Viper can be quite a money saver.

That's true, but this is a game, designed to entertain.

Thanks for the Cobra vs Viper info. I wonder if Viper pilots can make that claim about Cobras? I have to consider how much of an advantage slightly faster speed and turning rate as compared to more armor really equates to.

 

[fat jez]

What controllers are people using?

 

[Huntn]

I've updated post 87 on bounty hunting with this:

Update: Extraction sites don't always show up right away unless you get close to them so knowing where they are is helpful. For the extraction sites close to Boswell Platform (LTT 18486), they did not show up in my navigation points until I was close to Boswell. I discovered them by accident. See this link: http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Resource_Extraction_Site

Ditch the crappy pulse lasers will help as well. Either equip it with multi-cannons or the big cannons that are gimbaled. That is what I did. Now I'm in a Viper with 4x multi cannons and a millionaire.

What do you think of the Viper as compared to the Cobra?

----------

What controllers are people using?

Logitech Extreme 3D Pro is the economy route. It's a twist stick with yaw built into the twist. I'm using CH Combat Stick and Throttle ($200), but the Saitek X52 (stick and throttle) can be purchased at Amazon for $129. I might just get one for when my Combat Stick croakes.

 

[garnerx]

I was a little dismayed that initially the only power plant upgrade I saw was 144000c, but after going to another station, I found less expensive models. There is too much guessing in this game.

If I imagine the future, I imagine both a connected commodities market and equipment upgrade market where stations compete for your business, where you don't have to guess what each station sells before driving there.

It's a massively unfriendly game, isn't it? I admire its refusal to follow modern game design conventions, but it's certainly frustrating.

It was even worse in the 80s though. I had the original when I was a kid, and I think I managed to dock maybe a handful of times ever. My entire experience of that game was flying to a station, not being able to dock, then flying somewhere else until I got intercepted by Thargoids and killed. Seemed pretty amazing at the time.

If you're looking for a better selection of ship parts, you'll find more on sale at high tech stations than elsewhere. I don't know if the prices vary between systems - I paid 1.6 million for a frameshift drive, would be annoyed if it was available somewhere for less.

 

[Huntn]

I guess my answer will be obsolete by now but, regardless, bounties were varying from 2k to 20k while flying on a vanilla Sidewinder, during patrol to asteroid belts, near an extraction point of the starting system.

On another system, I've found a "top 5 bounties" link on a station's home page. Is it worth the trouble of spotting a criminal from that list, from a reward point of view ? It seems to require lots of wandering around systems.

How much of a bounty? Honestly, from a time perspective, I think extraction points are more consistently productive overall, and besides at extraction points, at least the ones by Boswell platform I usually see 2 or 3 Federal Authority ships tooling around. They make bounty hunting much easier as they jump right in to help. In fact, the most ideal fight is one where Authority ships are all ready engaged with a felon. You just jump in, get some licks in and... your bounty reward.

 

[quagmire]

What controllers are people using?

I am using a Saitek x52.

What do you think of the Viper as compared to the Cobra?

I like the Viper. No thoughts on the Cobra as I don't own one yet( waiting until about my bank reaches 2-3 million before I splurge on that).


On an off hand note, I had the worst luck yesterday. Went to the extraction site near Wohler in Kremain. There were two dirty Anaconda's. The first one suicided into an asteroid before I had a chance to engage and blew up. Second one had a weird glitch where it got down to 50% health and didn't drop from there so I abandoned that kill.

Then I went on a contracted kill. I got him down to 0%, but right before he blew up he took out my canopy and engines leaving me there stranded with 25 minutes of air. I decided to just self-destruct. While I lost the $20,000 bounty and $95,000 to rebuy the Viper, luckily I managed to claim the $198,000 contract.

 

[Janichsan]

That's true, but this is a game, designed to entertain.

So are for instance World of Tanks and War Thunder, yet both have a realistic scenery and don't look like TF2.

 

[Huntn]

I am using a Saitek x52.



I like the Viper. No thoughts on the Cobra as I don't own one yet( waiting until about my bank reaches 2-3 million before I splurge on that).


On an off hand note, I had the worst luck yesterday. Went to the extraction site near Wohler in Kremain. There were two dirty Anaconda's. The first one suicided into an asteroid before I had a chance to engage and blew up. Second one had a weird glitch where it got down to 50% health and didn't drop from there so I abandoned that kill.

Then I went on a contracted kill. I got him down to 0%, but right before he blew up he took out my canopy and engines leaving me there stranded with 25 minutes of air. I decided to just self-destruct. While I lost the $20,000 bounty and $95,000 to rebuy the Viper, luckily I managed to claim the $198,000 contract.

Wait, so you have to bring bounty vouchers back, but you don't have to bring back a ships log to show you killed someone?

How much does a Viper cost to buy? That $95000, was the insurance or purchase price? I thought the Cobra cost $375000. Why would you need a couple of million? I realize the upgrades can be expensive, but that expensive? As I was postulating earlier in the thread, if you have a million dollar ship including upgrades if you alloted enough to replace with some left over, you could plan on 20% which would be $200,000. Thanks!

I'm wondering if the vanilla Cobra (no upgrades) is viable as it stands-anyone?

 

[Janichsan]

On another system, I've found a "top 5 bounties" link on a station's home page. Is it worth the trouble of spotting a criminal from that list, from a reward point of view ? It seems to require lots of wandering around systems.

How much of a bounty?

That's a quite typical Top 5 Bounties list below.

They sometimes go beyond 100k cr, but I've never seen one much higher. Plus, it's all players, so probably no push-overs and they will tend to be mobile and hard to find. So probably not worth the time.

Wait, so you have to bring bounty vouchers back, but you don't have to bring back a ships log to show you killed someone?

Yup. Don't ask.

How much does a Viper cost to buy? That $95000, was the insurance or purchase price? I thought the Cobra cost $375000. Why would you need a couple of million? I realize the upgrades can be expensive, but that expensive?

For a decent power plant or shield generator, you can easily plop down a couple of hundred thousand credits. Top of the line equipment can cost more than 1 million credits.

 

[Huntn]

Did, do you play Eve? I've been talking a lot about this game, but I can't say how long I'll be playing.

No subscription in ED is great! Visuals are not as impressive as Eve. PVP is dogfighting in ED, but I believe combat in Eve is managing ships and weapon systems in fights. My understanding is that the game is relatively low demand, but you'll have to wait for reports on the Mac version. The X52 pro seems to be the preferred stick. Mining? Boring. Trading? Boring. Dog fighting? Thumbs up. Exploration? Unknown, but I imagine if its all the blackness of space, boring...

View attachment 526074
Eve

View attachment 526075
ED

Mostly ED is black/gray space. The above ED shot is from an asteroid field. Actually side by side, they look pretty similiar, other than the huge assembled Eve fleet.

Looking at that picture from Eve, that is so cool, a task force. I wonder how often that happens and how much of a time sink it is?

 

[quagmire]

Wait, so you have to bring bounty vouchers back, but you don't have to bring back a ships log to show you killed someone?

How much does a Viper cost to buy? That $95000, was the insurance or purchase price? I thought the Cobra cost $375000. Why would you need a couple of million? I realize the upgrades can be expensive, but that expensive? As I was postulating earlier in the thread, if you have a million dollar ship including upgrades if you alloted enough to replace with some left over, you could plan on 20% which would be $200,000. Thanks!

I'm wondering if the vanilla Cobra (no upgrades) is viable as it stands-anyone?

I guess the kill is wirelessly transmitted to the station. So no need for your clone to have the ships log.

I believe the Viper is around $150-$175K to buy. And yes that $95,000 was the insurance premium I had to pay to get the ship back with all my upgrades. My viper is probably worth close to a million in all the upgrades I've done to it. I will have to check. Though I need a more powerful power plant if there is one available somewhere. The 12 whatever one is not enough. I have to shut down some modules to not overload the sucker.

Imagine the stock Cobra sucks because it will have the crappy pulse lasers.

 

[Huntn]

I have a death penalty/ship replacement question.

Your ship is KA-PLEWEY. You jump to a screen which asks you how you want to proceed, restore all equipment or other, don't remember exactly, but I think it offers to restore ship without upgrades, that is if you have the money in your bank account.

Can anyone confirm that:
1. The insurance rate of 10% (ship) and 5% (equipment) is good one time only and you can't proceed without making this decision?

2. You can have more than one ship I'm assuming. So lets say this is a Cobra up for replacement. If you still have your Sidewinder, can you opt to make the insurance/restore decision later or must you do it at that time? And as with question no.1, if you decline, you have just lost insurance rates for replacement and these upgrades in the future would be full cost?

3. Does the game offer a loan?

Thanks!

I guess the kill is wirelessly transmitted to the station. So no need for your clone to have the ships log.

I believe the Viper is around $150-$175K to buy. And yes that $95,000 was the insurance premium I had to pay to get the ship back with all my upgrades. My viper is probably worth close to a million in all the upgrades I've done to it. I will have to check. Though I need a more powerful power plant if there is one available somewhere. The 12 whatever one is not enough. I have to shut down some modules to not overload the sucker.

Imagine the stock Cobra sucks because it will have the crappy pulse lasers.

Thanks! So, do you ever fly a lesser ship to build up the bank account? Worldlidge Terminal in LHS 3447 offers an A2 power plant for $144k, if these things can go in any ship... I put one in my Sidewinder, but then downgraded. Edshipyard might tell you how powerful that model is. I did not need the power at this time.

 

[quagmire]

\




Thanks! So, do you ever fly a lesser ship to build up the bank account? Worldlidge Terminal in LHS 3447 offers an A2 for $144k, if these things can go in any ship... I put one in my Sidewinder, but then downgraded. Edshipyard might tell you how powerful that model is. I did not need the power at this time.

That is what I am considering. Buy the Cobra, but continue to use the Viper to build up funds to upgrade the Cobra.

 

[Huntn]

Remember to keep an adequate cash reserve for Elite Dangerous insurance or:

 

[garnerx]

That is what I am considering. Buy the Cobra, but continue to use the Viper to build up funds to upgrade the Cobra.

Or just sell the Viper and use the funds to upgrade the Cobra.

If it's money you're after, you can make it a lot faster by trading in a Cobra.

 

[Huntn]

I'm going to put this into the ED Guide thread in this forum. Please give it the once over for error corrections and critiques:

Death Penalty and Insurance Management
*Insurance Costs, insurance is 5%, maximum loan available is $200k.

The best way to manage the E Death Penalty is not to die! (nyuk, nyuk). However, depending on your gaming background, you may regard the Death Penalty in ED as significant, maybe excessive. To coin it properly, the ship replacement penalty is steep. You always survive.

Although the starter ship (Sidewinder) is free to replace, the optional upgrades could be worth $400k. This means that replacement value would be $20k (5%) to restore your Sidewinder with upgrades. As of Jan 2015, my Sidewinder with upgrades costs $8000 to replace.

For the Cobra which sells for $375k and with equipment could top out at a million. That would be $50k to cover insurance.

To continue the example, the Asp sells for $6.7M. I’ve not looked into upgrade equipment for it, but let’s say it’s upgraded to $9M. That would be $450k for insurance. The Cadillac would be the Anaconda which is priced at $147M before upgrades! Rounded up to $150M, that would be $7.5M as in $7,500,000 for insurance. Honestly I wonder if I’d ever want to own an Anaconda...

Worse Case Scenario
Forget the Anaconda. Worst Case is you lose your Asp without adequate funds to replace it and either end up flying a Sidewinder or quit the game in disgust.

Managing Insurance and your bank account
For insurance management, let’s stick with my example of owning the Asp, Cobra and Sidewinder. To fly the Asp you really want to have $520k ($450k + $50K + $20K) in the bank. This represents the replacement cost for each ship. But you could get by with $500k if you don’t mind having to break out the Sidewinder for multiple losses. Keep reading.

Let’s say you have $500k and your Asp goes poof. $450k replaces the Asp, leaving $50k in the bank. Do you keep flying the Asp? Only if you like living dangerously. Insurance won’t cover it. So instead you break out the Cobra with the intent of building funds back up to $500k, but let’s imagine that the bad luck continues and the Cobra goes poof. Fortunately $50k covers the Cobra, but now your bank account is zero. What now? If you continue to fly the Cobra you are in a precarious situation, but not as precarious if you were still flying the Asp. With the second loss of the Cobra, you could up take out a loan ($50k, max limit $200k) to replace the ship and it’s upgrades, but now the bank owns you.

With zero in my account, I would not be flying the Cobra at all. Instead, I’d revel in the nostalgia of flying my upgraded Sidewinder until I had restored it’s $8k replacement value. In this way if a loan is to be taken, it will only be for $8K, not $50k. And I’d continue flying the Sidewinder until I had restored my account back to$58K, enough to replace both the Cobra and the Sidewinder. At this point it would be safe to break out the Cobra to restore $500K to my account. If you are decent at dogfighting, you can make this back, free lance bounty hunting in about 2-4 evenings of good hunting.