Last signal from before beta3.9

As I listen to these very old, very 80s melodies, I feel compelled to log in and do some swooping as I saw it in my first ever science fiction movie.

The pictures that fits to the songs are akin to that one part of the series where they travel back in time and witness the creation of our solar system. Something like this:

... and, some action with the swooping. So back to the conflict zones around Eranin I go! Maybe I can even find a CMDR as a partner to practice some wingman maneuvers?

On my way there, I stumble upon another rare sight. An absolutely huge gas giant around the secondary star in Cephei Sector KH-V B2-4. I scan it and it says: Gas giant with water based life! A rare discovery indeed I would say!

 - a garantuan gas planet with water-based life in form of amoeba, says the planet´s description after a detailed surface scan




 


Later, when I finally arrive at Chango Dock, I-Bootis, I will find that this data is not so much valuable, after all. Also, the value of the data has not changed despite having it brought halfway across the current galaxy. Ah, well. Everything is going to be deleted and different again on Thursday, a fact that I almost regret, now that I have made myself a little bit acquainted with the environment.

My first plan is to buy a second ship, rigged for combat. The Viper is my natural choice. I have come falling out of love with the Eagle; it now looks more like a goose than an eagle to me. However, my attempts to find proper - at least class D - outfits are unsuccessful. I jump to all the industry and high tech worlds around the cluster where I traded and took notes from. After about an hour of jumping around and searching, I giveup and decide to go for combat in my Asp. After all, it has six weapon mounts and should pack quite a punch!

Finally arriving at I-Bootis, there is a combat mission which requires me to destroy 3 targets in Eranin. Accepted! Dropping into the high conflict zone at Eranin 2, I chose side with the Federation (I am in the meanwhile at "friendly" status with them) and engage a Cobra. A second Cobra joins the dance, and I find myself quickly whittled down to 54% hull; oh my! Have I become that rusty or is the Asp indeed not only slower but does not turn nearly as well as a Cobra?

After that, I seem to get a grip and manage to engage only single opponents. Thus the third to sixth opponent are not problematic anymore. A bounty voucher of 1000 CR each complements the package.

Docking at Chango Dock, I-Bootis, I cash in the mission, but there is no follow-up combat mission. On top, the bounty vouchers are only cashable in Eranin, why is that? So off to Azeban City, Eranin, I fly. The bulletin board there offers two very lucrative missions; both require me to destroy a criminal named "War Essence", totaling 360.000 CR. Accepted! I know this opponent from earlier sessions, he flies an Anaconda and I once tried to smoke it with an Eagle. Unsuccessfully, of course. But now, I am in an Asp and should be able to do better!

- I try to dive under the star´s plasma arc, but I get dropped out of supercruise before I can so so








Supercruising out, I let myself get distracted by the many CMDR ships zipping around. Deploy inderdictor, fire! CMDR Anthon in his Cobra has "wanted" status and thus is my first victim. While I very well manage to win the interdiction struggle, my impresion is he does not seem to even try to escape there. Moments later, I know why; he just hits boost and jumps away before I have even his shields down. I interdict him a second time, with the very same result. Then he is gone from my supercruise radar, probably transferred into a different island/instance of the game.

CMDR Initar in a Sidewinder is not so lucky and I manage to shoot him low into hull, but then I let him go. It is not really a fair fight and I just wanted some PvP practice, which I got. I chat this to him before he vanishes into supercruise, nor sure if he saw it.

After two unidentified signals, my intended victim War Essence makes his appearance. It is not in an Anaconda anymore, but in a Federal Dropship! And, man, that thing circles like the Red Baron himself! He easily outcircles me before we even open fire, then he opens fire first and about a minute of  circling, my ship unceremoniously goes boom. Consider this my personal firework at the end of beta3.05!

I had one or two Dropships in gunsight before, but none had circled so tightly as this one. Or I was just having a bad moment? Lots of trading grind does not make you automatically a good pilot, after all...

- my last view of War Essence before the ca-boom










The insurance wants a whopping 711.000 CR and, unfortunately I have only 670.000 CR to offer. So I am very happy to note that the game implemented a credit line of up to 200.000 CR which finances the difference 45k as a loan! From now on, 10% of my income will go to pay off that loan. A get a specific Han Solo feeling and hope he Hutt Cartel is not involved here (you never know!).

Making this loss quickly up via a bit of trading has suddenly also become impossible: No cash to afford the goods first hand! Now I really feel like Han Solo. I am back launching with haul missions in my log @10k CR. Distracted and musing about how quickly your fortune can turn if you do not play carefully, I somehow hit boost in the station, and while I swear that I was aligned with the exit, still my upward drift from the landing pad was not finished. This accellerates me fast towards the station wall. Nonononono....

But lucky I am this time, as I started from a landing pad in the far end of the station, which allowed my ship to sufficiently slow down. So my hull "just" goes down to 64% hull. Weirdly enough, from then on my ship computer complains my canopy is at critical status. This message now accompanies the rest of my travels, every time when I drop from supercruise, even after I repaired everything which the station menu let me repair.

A trip to Aulin, then a bundle transport missions Keries totalling 15k CR. Man, do I feel poor in a ship which I cannot afford to loose anymore. It feels.... like being a newb back in EVE Online.... ;)

In Kerries, there are only "steal goods" missions. But I was looking for combat!?! Anyways, the evening is short and I have to log out. And thus ends beta 3.05 for me.

It was an intensive time with this beta version, much less annoying than beta2, with an intensive grind, and the reward to fly an Asp, plus some very nice exploration experience. Some not so succesful combat shows that this game has not lost any challenge even after now three monthes of playing. I am content.

Since beta3.9 will last only for two days, I do not plan to use my time on it and rather take a peek at the new Dragon Age: Inquisition. I am particularily interested in the multiplayer part and how it compares to the fantastic experience of Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer.

Addendum, after doing so for one night-and-a-half:
Dragon Age multiplayer turns out to be still a bit unstable, with much more skill variety, but somehow not the same "Wow"-effect I had with Mass Effect. Controls are slightly different, combat animations are more delayed and thus difficult to time when being targeted yourself and in general the classes do not seem to offer much new. To be overly negative: I can have roughly the same experience with the group finder in Neverwinter.

- .. aaaand a first little peek into beta 3.9, shows an entire clean slate; back to the beginnings, a final time!








Tomorrow is the premiere event, and although I am still feeling a little sick, I totally intend to participate at this unique opportunity!

Baubles, shiny baubles

Going the all-shooter way seems such a waste, there is so much out there to discover. At least once, I want to traverse the "galactic pill", so I plot course on the lower part of it. Onwards, sideways!

COL 285 Sector MZ-D B 13-2. A long name for a system with only one star. But this one is strawberry milkshake coloured.


COL 285 sector WF-N C7-30. Another strawberry star, no, two of them. This colour seems to stand for stars which are still very young, "Tauri-class" stars. Both have asteroid rings only, one is metal-rich. A pity I do not have the mining equipment with me anymore.

 - suddenly yearning for strawberry icecream









COL 285 Sector WF-N C7-26: Three yellow stars, so I can finally fill up by dangerously empty fuel tank. My D-scan reveils 20 objects. Some planets have metal rich rings. Lots of moons, a chore to scan each of them, as you have to fly very close to do so.

COL 285 sector JS-T D3-91: A larger white-yellow star. 12 objects are reveiled via D-scan. System map shows the planets as with clouds. Maybe earthlike and worth more money? I need to scan them to find out. BINGO! D3-91 3 is an earth like world! I am curious how much value is going to be behind this discovery! According to all I have read, this system should be a jackpot, because all other planets so far also read as "mineral rich". Earth-like, metal rich, what more do you want from a system?


Although no game mechanic exists to support this behaviour, like starship Enterprise I go into close orbit and imagine I could beam down and set foot upon this far away world. Sigh.

Bingo again: Number 6 is earth like. Wohooo! it was very small, so I had to approach very close and almost skipped it due to this. A small earth like planet. As I get into orbit, the surface glitches a bit, but then I think I can see a lush and green surface, I imagine forests and lakes. Amazing and very, very beatiful. I stop here and fetch a coffee, having to celebrate this lucky find a bit. This system should really be worth a fortune, so far out, almost at the end of the galactic pill.

- definitely Earth-like











I would make my home here, if the game supported things like your own outposts and planetside installations. This is what fascinated me about EVE online. I really hope that one day, Frontier can bring this kind of furniture into the game!

It is almost a pity that this system will be also reshuffled in the next beta client, probably having then a total different setup. But I should check, than back anyways; you never know.

The occasional random Sidewinder ship appears on my supercruise-radar and I am tempted to inderdict and shoot them down ... this system is MINE, my preciousss...

The last one, number 9, has a ring and I even spot a Sidewinder headed there. A secret pirate station? Of course not, the game is not that refined yet. But for sure an extraction side. Maybe a bit of bounty hunting? Well, misestimated. It is an ice ring, and that sidewinder just seemed to have behaved erratic. I spot its hypejump wake very close to the planet. Either I got dropped into normspace or jumped away from here. I do not think that there is any secret behind it, just some irrational NPC scripting. What a pity...

- NPC ships sometimes choose weird places for their travels






 
I am almost at the end of the traversable area, the "galactic pill". COL 285 sector RZ-0 C6-20: A intensive orange star greets me. God, I could make screenshots of every star, they are so gorgeous, each of them! And, my D-scan unveils 41 freaking objects! Mainly some really huge gas giants with a lot of moons. There are chances that moons can be earth like, I think, but the large number of required scans puts me off. I already have had my big stroke of luck, so I leave the system as is.

- this one is not Earth-like but nevertheless looks very nice; I am in a huge game of baubles!







The galaxy map shows a very deep red star close by. COL 285 sectorRZ-0 C6-8. Engage! Nope, not deep read, just two strawberry stars. Just ahead, one of the farthest out systems, shining violet in the galaxy map. However, as I arrive in COL 285 sectorJS-T D3-35, it is just four stars around the big white main star, and one planet. Not much to be gained here, but I am out here, so far away.
 

 - more baubles











One more system, I am hooked. COL 285 sector JS-T D3-92. D-scan, then a look into the system map: One planet has an earth like appearance, so probably worth investigating. But this time, I am not as lucky. Just another metal rich world.


Mission accomplished. Now it just remains to go back into civilised areas and sell the data. I was sure I read somewhere that Frontier did not yet implement the feature where you can sell the data multiple times, to different factions. Let´s see. I check the galaxy map for systems with a colour code for a faction. The first, an independent system, is 80 ly away.

Careful now, need to keep an eye on my fuel tank, to not get stuck in a system with only non- scoopable white, strawberry or whatever star! Plotting the course back seems to be more difficult now. Some far gaps are there which I somehow had not noticed on my way in. But there is no way that I would take the same route back!

I am finally close to Igororay, a small independent extraction system. I wonder now, is my data worth less in a poor system and should I rather look for a rich system first? Better be cautious. Aurandvill is two jumps away, Federal, and I spot a trade stream going from it. No system data, though.

HIP 113517 is on the way. Wow, what a nice big white-yellow star! 9 Objects. Some of them look bluesih i.e. earthlike. I have to check them. Nope, high metal planets only. Oh well.

- it seems every star with a tint of yellow or orange in it is suitable for fuel scooping






 

Aurandvill reveals one outpost after my D-scan, Creighton Station, about 3.000 ls out there. At last, after long travels, back in civilisation! I affect some repairs and call Universal Cartographics. And, yes, some profits at last.

My "jackpot" system yields 323.593 CR. A bunch of other systems at least 17.000 CR. This is still not the amount a good trade route can bring, but at least some recognition of my effort. But I do not cash the stuff in. This beta has near endet. Better see if and how that price still degrades. I wonder how much the data was worth initially, at the start of this beta?

For this game session has ended, and it was a nice little travel. Without that jackpot find, though, I admit it would have been not so thourougly satisfying. A little bit of a reward per game mechanics seems to be necessary for me.

Soldier of un-fortune

So, five days have passed since my last game session. One or two tries, but the server was unfriendly and quickly kicked me out and leaving me a red button to contemplate over. Naw, no patience these days.

Also, as already mentioned, my motivation for the game took a little hit these days, mainly because of two reasons. Firstly, next beta, which, if I understand correctly, is also the gamma, or "preview release edition", is going to impact in about 120 hours, including a wipe, so not really something to achieve until then. Moreso, I feel a slight disappointment about the fast release on 16 December, as it seems that no more features are going to be added until release. While the game already transports a fantastic experience, to travel amongst the stars, to steer your own vessel, your own space truck (tm), there is still so much stuff missing, if you believe the design discussion documents and all that grandeur-ish scope which was alluded to (and I do not mean the stuff which was foreseen from the very beginning for later expansions). Yes, Mr. Braben, Elite: Dangerous still seems to be a pretty empty house. It is painted very nicely, but where is the furniture and the curtains?

Another newsletter and some nerdrage in the ED forums about a cancelled feature aka "offline mode" also somewhat spoils my excitement for next weekend´s premiere event. I would rather prefer a completely happy crowd, as it was mostly the case throughout all beta iterations so far. I can see the point from both sides. Probably the communication could have been better handled than hiding this kind of relevations in a letter from D. Braben to the fans, which seemed to be a weird mix of self shoulder padding and further ambiguity (not even clear if the now promised 30 ships are on release or later at an unspecified point in time, which was probably bound to happen anyways if the game is going to be successful on the market).

No matter, the premiere event next weekend will still be my first and only one of that kind and I try hard to not have too high expectations. It would be a pity to be disappointed with all that time, hazzle and money invested to actually get there. Frontier promises a lot of very cool things, though, so keeping my fingers crossed! I really hope for to finally experience Elite: Dangerous with an Oculus Rift setup; it would be an obvious thing to have some rigs ready for the guests.

Oh, and thirdly, rather unrelated, some more exciting games (see, that was ambigous, too!) are going to make an appearance. Assassins Creed: Unity and Dragon Age: Inquisition, to name the most prominent ones for me (the former is already out, but I do not have the time to play it and rather wait for a video with the complete cutscenes - better than many a cinema).

[Addendum:
Just to quote my statement which I did on Drew Wagners blog, lest I probably wont find it again.

"In my impression, Frontier seems to be a bit torn between the pressure of the close release and having been lauded up into the clouds due to the fabulous impression of the alpha and beta phases so far.
This makes their newsletter phrasing a bit difficult to process for me as an average reader. On one hand, they want to advertise and point out all the greatnesses of their game (which imo is not really necessary, the game really speaks for itself!), on the other hand they have to manage expectations, which indeed soar high, maybe too high (which, due to the former, they are not doing such a great job with).
In this volatile situation, cutting a feature which obviously has been very important for some players (if you take the refund-poll in the ED forums as an indicator, probably about 10%) impacts like a bomb.
Since I am not affected by the no-offline-issue, I prefer to stand politely at the side lines. I am rather worried about a host of other things which concern other “promised” features (look at the design archives in the forum!) and the game´s longeviety in general (refer e.g. to the endless “endgame” discussion). I am trying to not see this incident here as a foreboding of things to not-come."]


Nevermind. Log in.

 - So, where am I, what am I doing here?










As usual after a longer absence, I need so time to re-aquaint myself with location, ship status, activity mapping. For example, without looking up my previous blog notes, I have no idea why I have come to and am starting in BD +75 58. No matter.

A neighbouring system catches my attention, purely because of the cool sounding name "Hsyen Baji" and it being a high population extraction system. Never saw a high pop extraction system so far. Close to it, there is also another cool named system "Ts´Ao Tikalam" with high population and high tech. And there is Kalkyrielobring; you know what, tonight´s motto is to visit cool/weirdly named systems!

 - Kalkyrielobring. Got that?











And, yep. Kalkyrielobring doesn not only sound cool, it also consists of a cool brown dwarf, literally, which does not even flare but looks more like a garantuan gas planet. The whole system seems reddish, even the ring of the only big gas giant a bit farther out. Since I do not have scanners anymore on board there might be more out there. Yep, there is for example a "wanted" Type 6 spaceship about 3.500 ls out in seeming nothingness. Let´s see if I can interdict it!

I arrive still in time, the reason being that the NPC caught itself in the gavitational proximity of the gas giant, which I do not have data for for a lack of any scanning equipment. And again, my interdiction equipment does not work. "Out of range", even though I am within a mere millions of meters. Weird. I am too impatient to wait until my prey has cleared the gravitational well in order for my interdictor to hopefully work again. So I drop into an unidentified signal.

 - As it turns out, interdicting a victim which is close to a planet is a chore; maybe a valuable lesson?





 


A Type 9 freighter waits for me, and it wants to sell or buy red crystals. However, there is no communication or trade option to do trade with it. Instead, I note that one of my few "friends" back from beta1 pop up in the friends-list. CMDR Finn Lazoreyes, and he indeed spots the dim chat lines and replies. We have a brief chat about the current status; turns out he is in the starting systems and bounty hunting and he reports most alliance members to be spread far an thin throughout the galactic pill. From that converstation, I also gain that the interdictors are indeed influenced by gravitational wells, so their range is ultra short when very close to a planet. Go figure.


In the meanwhile, I jumped back to BD+75 58, because I realized I had some bounty vouchers there. Arriving there, however, I do not find any station; nor planets. No scanner yields no stations, go figure. I try to follow some ships but none leads me to a station. A lone hauler drops from supercruise and I follow the wake he left. As I start to scan his cargo, it almost instantly jumps away, seemingly through the closeby planet. I scan the wake and follow; my jump direction is exactly the opposite direction, but the hauler is indeed also there in "Dyaushis". Yes, it is the night of funny system names.

- That hauler jumped right through the planet, I swear!









 Docking at the trading outpost here, there is nothing to note, all is low supply or demand. I think it is time to get back some scanning equipment. Wake scanning and all this pirating does not make seem to make sense, except for the feeling of being a pirate. Combat experience and bounties are higher and faster to get without it, anyways.

Jump to LHS 1101, the system which started my successful road of trading in order to get the Asp which I am still flying now. On my way to Bondar City, I spot an NPC Asp. Those ships usually have a high bounty associated, plus it is a challenge to have an equally strong opponent. I stick to its six and fire my interdictor once in range. However, this is the first NPC to elude me. The red "escape" bar rises really fast, even though I manage to stick my target to my reticule for most of the time. I am baffled.

Reangaging supercruise after the cooldown, but the Asp has vanished. There is an Impereal Clipper, but not wanted. A pity, I did not have this kind of a challanging opponent yet!

Docked at Bondar City, LHS 1101, I spot a haul mission for 128k CR, but I am not sure if the target station, "Buchli Station", is not one of those small outposts where I cannot land. Before I can verify this via the galaxy map, the mission board has refreshed and the potential opportunity is gone. I finally outfit my ship with an advanced D-scanner and a detailed surface scanner, needing to sell all other scanners in order to have the cash to do so. I just keep the interdictor, so I can pull out some wanted ships on my travels.

Next jump, back to BD+75 58, to finally cash in my bounty voucher. Unfortunately, the system continues to elude me, or rather, pull my leg. Even with the advanced scanner, there is no station in this system. Apparently those vouchers are not cashable, then.

 - hunt for a Federal Dropship










Instead, I look around for "wanted" ships and finally spot a Federal Dropship. Good! A challenge, and probably not too difficult, as the pilot is rated as "harmless". Interdiction works out and dropping out, I have the usual unavoidable ramming of the victim. I stick on target and open fire. Damn, the power settings have weapons on zero. Some precious seconds fiddling with the system and the Dropship used this moment to spin me towards its frontal guns. my shields are gone and my hull is at 84% before I can apply vertical trust and get out of this predicament. Moments later, the Dropship explodes under the combined energy of both beam lasers and four multicannons. The bounty is just average; 4000 Credits. And, of course, no cash because I am still in that darn stationless system. Great. Time to move on.


If there was time, but my game session has to end. As a summary, this session had me play the soldier of fortune, just following my ship bow´s directions and not really getting something out of it. But it felt good to be back under the stars!

- Awesome setting; now, scanning for a plot...










Still a bit missing a conclusion, I jump a few systems further down into the void. Cephei Sector KR-" B 1-2: Empty. Balmus: 12 objects. Suraci: Industrial, all scanned. Cephai Sector MX-U B 2-8:8 objects. I am starting to scan then, and stop. What am I doing here and why am I doing what? I am missing sense and purpose. Better wait for a new start, then? Or fly back to the core systems and have some combat practice? To be seen next time!

Some interdiction practice

Back from another long weekend, and the backlash of having gone too quickly back to work after - better: during - sickness. Back to bed, it is.

The internet whispers and shows things to me. Many new and old games pass by and I do not have the time to visit them. There are upgraded versions of both Baldurs Gate epics, playable on today´s rigs. Dragon Age: Inquisition is coming out on 20 November, and it includes, alongside single player campaign which advertises as very Skyrim-eque, also a multiplayer mode which should be able to rival the marvelous multiplayer from Mass Effect 3. The old Dragon Age: Origins is for free. Some games I never have the time or committment to play through have nevertheless an exciting story. For example, Assassins Creed. I played just the first one, but I watched all the cutscenes on youtoube. Sometimes I wonder why normal cinema movies cannot be that exciting! The story arc about Ezio is fantastic, and Edward from Black Flag equally fascinating to follow around through the cutscenes.

Elite: Dangerous has evolved to patch 3.05. Release date is 16 December, an incredible soon date. Sooner even the end of this beta, as on 22 November we will get into the gamma phase, now named preview edition. This will mark the end of my beta travels in this blog and I cannot help and noticve how this realisation is strangly sapping my motivation to still make something out of the beta game...

Log on. Where am I? A huge beautiful blue marble planet hangs in front of me. My nav system denominates Ross 318-7. I have got a small fine and some bounties in Federation space. My balance is 874.853 CR. 608 kills. My firegroups are a mess, brain needs to adapt again.

 - the magic of Ross 318 7










First thing to do: Go to Volkov Station, cash in the bounties, clear the fine. I always only visited Koch Hub, the system´s commodity market. On my way, a "wanted" ship distracts me and I try to interdict. Somehow, that thing does not fire. Then, an unidentified signal (US) distracts me. The first sidewinder in it is wanted. Then there is also a "wanted" Cobra. Jeez I am bad; I shoot it down to 1% and then it manages to evade me for 2 full minutes and bringing me down to 81% before I can finally destroy it! Somehow, I do not get well along with a mix of gimbal and non-gimbal weapon. OTOH, I would not want to relay on one weapon type exclusively.

I switch "report crimes agains me" off in the rightmenu; I would not want any system vessels to arrive and steal my kill while I hunt for bounties.

Next US has an Asp close to me. Scan: Wanted. Fire! Another ship quickly joins my attack. Which makes it easy. A bounty of 16.084 CR is mine. Cool! Bring it on!

There is a wanted hauler; an occasion to try out the hatch limpet controller. Unfortunately; I am interdicted myself before I can get close to it (it was 1200 ls out and approaching).  Then I am at the six of a wanted Cobra. My interdictor fires off only when I get very close, around 0,4 ls. The combat is fierce. This Cobra sports turrets, and for a while, I fly in a bad position and they whittle my shields down. Then I am back on my firing position and another 3000 CR bounty voucher is mine, but not after loosing 5% hull to those damn turrets.

My voice attack gets worse everytime I switch from Elite to my blog notes, which I do take in parallel to playing. So I am basically back to a full keyboard control. Annoying.

It is time to dock, to repair and cash in. Repairs cost 6000 CR, reloading ammo 5000 CR. Couting this against 26.000 CR of bounties, and it is a good deal.

There is that bug again; a wanted Asp comes into target an I can interdict it. After some hassle I got it destroyed, for a bounty of 10.000 CR. But at the same time, I suddenly am marked as wanted, too. I try to make a video with shadowplay, but somehow shadowplay does not work. Maybe because I play in windowed mode? Alt-tab was not working when I played full screen last time (which in fact was beta 3.02, so things could have changed).

 - "wanted", and I do not know why










Having cleared my bounty at Volkov Station, I want to scan an also departing Cobra. Damn, i knew it; these firegroups! Instead of the scanner, I activate the cargo hatch breaker. With a freshly stamped wanted upon me and three angry red blips behind my, I hyperjump to Anlave and dock at Suri Park. The bounty is only 300 CR, thank god. But I should really practice my skills in order to avoid such mishaps in the final game.

Launch. There is a hollow square on my radar. A CMDR in a hauler. He jumps before I can identify him. His wake trace is 14 km out and I want to scan it. Then a second hollow blip launches from the station; a Lakon Type 6, and I turn again around. I manage to identify CMDR Smacker, but the cargo scan fails because he boosts out of range and jumps. I scan the wake, he is on his way to LP 30-55. Jump! Arriving at the sun, I quickly flip through targets. There he is, on his way to Reis Station. I have difficulties approaching him, as he flies maximum speed. Then suddenly I see him veer off. Another blip is close to him, which means he is probably being interdicted. Indeed, that other blip is a security vessel. Great, this gives me enough time to approach CMDR Smacker until he manages to disentangle himself from the security vessel´s interdiction.

Next thing this poor commander knows is another interdiction attempt, this time by me. It works! He hardly veers out of my focus, probably because the Asp is much more maneuverable than his Type 6. Once we drop into normal space, I immediately scan him. Wow, 48 autofabricators! Before this can really sink in, I already have opened comm channels and send him greetings, together with a promise that I did not want to harm him. Moments later, he is again in supercruise. I am a bit annoyred about myself; this would have really been a cool occasion on some real player pirating! Why did I not use it? However, I also wonder how on earth I could have made it through his shields in time; the brief time before he was so quick again away would probably have not sufficed at all. Maybe I was just too far and should have mass-locked him by sticking close to him? Too late now to test! Damn, such a perfect occasion will not come again so easily. The only problem is that I still struggle with activating the right firegroup and click the correct mouse button. I need much more practice!

A devious plan flashes in my mind. Didn´t I write about a high profit gold route coming from Alrai? How about I start to lie in wait there for some unsuspecting CMDRs? Ok, engage hyperjump!

Arriving in Alrai, at first I see no ships. Then, a surprise; the security vessels are green! I must have risen in reputation. Just by buying gold and selling some goods here. Cool. The rightmenu shows four factions, and I am "friendly" with "Alrai General Inc". Hopefully, my pirating attempts here do not screw my reputation! But first, there is a deadly wanted sidewinder beckoning me. It proves to be no problem, but yields only a 214 CR bounty voucher. Aaaand; I am wanted again!! For 200 CR. Sigh.

 - station is green; the surrounding security ships only when actually in range of my scanner






An US is my next stop. Cargo floating in space; domestic appliances. I scoop them, but do not remember if Becquerel Station here in Alrai has a black market. Will check when docking.

Again in supercruise, a Type 6 is wanted. Interdict! I shoot his shields down and fire the cargo hatch breaker. With some patience, I manage to hit him with one out of six tries. Apparently, you have to be very close to the target and at a course, which allows the limpet missile to get close and actually dock with the target. A pity my shadowplay is not working, as I had a wonderful perspective on the process of one of my limpets docking as such. The result, however, is underwhelming. One measly can of cargo gets dumped, bertrantide. As I try to scoop it, the Type 6 is even so stupid to attack me instead of jumping away. Some more tries, inclusive a cargo scan, and I see also 15 battle weapons in its cargo hold! I want them! But nothing makes the Type 6 relinquish them and he finally blows while I still try to shoot down the cargo hatch. Mission failed. 524 CR bounty voucher, and this time no increase on my own wanted status.

I wonder if pirating practice in the current beta still makes sense. This experience showed me that there are still some bugs which impede a proper use of the "tools of trade", or at least still some fine tuning to be done. Hrm, maybe also the quality level of my breaker was not up to the task? Questions, questions.

An US pops up. Enter. A system vessel (green blip) and a Cobra which identifies as "wanted". Fire! Frameshift charge detected. Quick! But, too late, the Cobra jumps away. Before I can scan the frameshift wake, a scan message pops up and I am fined for 5.032 CR. Damn, I had totally forgotten my "stolen" cargo! And to top it all off, the security vessel, an Eagle, is opening fire! I make a hasty retreat and am once more grateful to have invested in vastly improved thrusters and power couplings, for a near permanent boost. I wonder if that interlude also cost me reputation from my precious green-friendly faction.

I check the commodity market at Becquerel. Gold is still in high supply, but not as high as it was last week (now at 9013 CR buy). So, somebody finally found out about this route here? To finish this session, I do one last run, to LFT 1446 again. I also want to see if my reputation has increased over there, too. On my way there, I jettison the 8 stolen domestic appliances; they are not worth the hassle and won´t pay for the fine I already incurred for them, anyways. Cut your losses in time. A lesson I once did not heed in real life and payed for it very very dearly.

A "wanted" Cobra is in my sight, and I finally reach it shortly before Bosch Settlement. I interdict it right at its six. However, I am kicked out of supercruise because our little dance brings us too close to the planet and my target is lost and away.

 - blinding to stare right into the supercruise exhaust of my target during an interdiction attempt





 

Well, guess what. Gold is down to 9596 CR in Bosch Settlement, so my route has almost dried up. Still some money, but just a third of the profit which used to be last week. Ah well, I do not really need to trade anymore, anyways. Also, I am not with "friendly" status here. Load superconductors, still high supply and fly back. They sell at 7028 CR; also not the high profit I used to have. Things change quickly. Or I have more readers of my blog than I thought!

This is it for me tonight. Not sure how to continue. Trading is checked, mining and exploration I did a bit, interdicting and frameshift scanning I did, bounties I hunted a few. Maybe I downgrade or buy a second ship, a Viper, and go back to around Eranin and do some combat missions? We will see, next time.

Asp trade and some experimental action

Heff. A tough day at work, having to catch up on things. Afterwards, I did not feel like writing down stuff, but neither wanted to continue in Elite while not having documented my last session properly, so I instead gave Civilisation: Beyond Earth another chance.
Pan-Asian faction plus starting worker seems to be THE killer builder-build; at least I spot no equivalent-good alternative, which again makes the game pretty one sided in my book. I go for prosperity virtues straight into getting a free colonizer, then the free worker, and presto, I was miles ahead in the land-grabbing phase and super productive due to the many and fast land improvements. In order to be left alone by the opponent AI, just give them open borders for free, and they are mollified for most of the game.
I started my last quick save from around turn 150 and brought it to around turn 300, and finished with the "contact alien civilisation" victory, after a lot of dawdling and raising both supremacy and purity affinities in parallel to 10+. (I set the difficulty to "Vostok", a bit higher than the standard difficulty, but not up to the level where the AI opponents get to cheat). As a nice story-moody twist, the most advanced opponent was focusing on bringing earth settlers to this planet, while I concentrated in parallel to contact that mysterious alien civilisation. Due to my dawdling, both our last phases were pretty close to each other. A kind of interfactional cooperation as I would want it to happen for the sake of all humanity.
In the end, the victory is acknowledged by one measly pop up window, nothing explained, who we contact, how they reply, when why they were on the planet before, etc. Nothing. Well, that´s a bit too little, even for my imaginary mind. This game is such a joke for any decent player of the good old Alpha Centauri!

Move on citizen, nothing to see here, go back to reporting on my last sessions in Elite: Dangerous.

- no need for warm boots
 










The cash from my trading and the outfitting vendor in one of the many industrial systems around here allows me to quickly upgrade my Asp-class spaceship. She is a marvel of utility! A cargo hold of now 152 tons capacity boosted my profit per route to 170k Credits, which makes me feel like trading back in the "old days" during beta1. Next investment is a fuel scoop, because it is super fun to dive down into the furnace of a star and it makes my efficiency-kobolt within me cackle with joy, to even save fuel costs with this spectacle!


As I power onwards on my profitable short-range trade route between Alrai and LHS 140, I encounter several times the Cobra of CMDR Auzawandilaz. More competition? I guess this route can take it!

- close encounter in super cruise










After some more runs, I find and can upgrade to: a C4 scanner (6km range), a C5 powerplant (which drops ship heat now down to 38%), D5 thrusters. The nomenclature is a it confusing but easy once understood. The letter stands for the quality, with "A" being the best, while the number stands for the maximum size which the ship can fit and usually also requires in order to work properly.

Time is scarce and I have to leave the game for a while. Coming back for another session, re-engaging in my trade route, I notice that profits have dropped to 140k/150k. Hm, maybe the route cannot take so much competition after all? It is probably time to look for a new route. But not before I invest into new and better frameshift drives, reinvesting my profits as available: class D4 gives me a range of 16 ly empty / 12 ly fully laden.

Since profits dropped, I fire up again my spreadsheet-notes. Hmm... there is an option to sell Alrai´s gold also to LS 1446, Bosch Settlement. However, it is a bit of a tedious route, as Bosch Settlement is some 13.000 ls out from the main star, a white dwarf, around a seperate twin star system consisting of a a yellow star coupled with a brown dwarf. Exotic? Or not so, I think I remember having seen this kind of multi-star systems already several times on my travels.

 - Exotic, for a primitve earthling










On top, fuel scooping is not possible at the white star, so I will have to settle a longer period in Alrai´s yellow star´s atmosphere.

Doing the numbers, I conclude that the profit should be worth the extended travel time: Gold is in supply for 9002 Credits and sells for 10338 Credits/unit, to bring back superconductors for 6184 Credits/unit and sell it for 7496 Credits. A whopping profit of roughly 360.000 Credits for a round trip (@ 152 tons)!

I ask myself, should I talk about this route in my blog after all? And risk that too much competion will arive from avid blog readers? Yes! I hate this business secret things. In real life and thus especially also in a game. Yes, keeping things for yourself will give you an edge. But it will also harm progress as a whole. In my experience, the society/the community does evolve better and faster when you share things. Even your short term edge over others fades in comparision when everybody shares his knowledge, therefore leading for greater progress of everybody involved. A little analogy is car traffic: In the 70s, here in Germany car traffic was about beeing a faster and stronger driver, not taking much care about other participants. Nowadays, professional or daily drivers realize that they fare better when contributing to a good flow of the traffic, even when it means to let others pass and not get ahead no matter the cost (you do realize this, do you!?!). Real life businesses like Elon Musk´s Tesla and Google have understood this. This is the 21st century, the age of open source. And guess what, it is not communism and competition still is possible and necessary.

 - station eclipse











Uhm, ok, where was I? Right. New trade route, 14,9 ly distance. A tiny obstacle is my D4 frameshift drive, which allows only 12 ly fully laden. If I can only go via a two-jump route I would rather stay with my current trade route. After some search and trading, I find and can affort a C5 drive. This gives me 20 ly / 14 ly. A fracture too less for a one-jump route. Less weight, and I get less weight by downgrading the fuel tank from 32 to 16 tons. Hrm, still 0,2 ly missing. Ok, kick out those so far unnecessary loaned pulse lasors. Yep, now my Asp´s range is 14,92 ly fully laden, great!

The long supercruise in LS 1446 gives me time to contemplate, cross-check my spreadsheet, or write down some notes for this blog. And the view. Did I mention already that the current colour scheme for the milky way suits perfectly? Dear Frontier, just a little bit more flaryness and a finer resolution, please!

After some time on my new trade route (I have to admit, it feels like hours, a bit grindy), I am able to afford a C5 drive (25 / 18,4 ly). And a new better fuel scope; fuel draw is considerable at this jump distance and the time spent to refuel rather long. A new D2 fuelscoop enables me to sit in the star´s atmosphere at constant 94% heat while at the same time scooping 50 units of fuel per second. Much, much better!

 - sun bathing











On my travels also happens the odd interdiction, but always only security vessels and I almost always manage to escape the interdiction attempt. Time spent in supercruise or at the star makes me check my spreadsheet for another alternative: LHS 215, but in the end I realize that my current route between Alrai and LFT 1446 still is the best so far.

After some more time, I finally get bored and consider to have a sufficient financial cushion of 2 million Credits. I wouldn´t want to spend the next four game sessions grinding this route just to be able to upgrade to the next big thing in town; the Impereal Clipper (22 mio Credits). Maybe another time, as I yearn now for some change, a little bit more action!

So I start dabbling in armaments: The Asp has four class 1 and two class 2 weapon mounts. At first I try a "railgun-only" outfit, but my ship´s powergrid is not able to support this, even when putting all non-combat-essential modules on second priority. A total of 129% load on my powergrid. So I switch them out for 2 x C2beams and 4 x E1gimbal multicannons. I also buy all available "action-tools" - which are almost too many already: cargo, kill warrant, frameshift wake scanners plus hatch breaker (not to forget buying "limpets"/ammo for the the latter), frameshiftdrive interdictor. This accounts all in all for 106% load on the power grid. I can deal with this load by setting priorities for the modules in the ship´s rightmenu.

So I think, until I have to realise in my first engagements that the module prioritisation resets every drop from supercruise. How annoying is this! My first test against a "wanted" hauler goes nevertheless well after this initial confusion; imagine you deploy weapons and just to find yourself emergency locked in your airsuit and your ship drifting about without control. Also, having to fit three scanners plus hatchbreaker plus two weapon types into firegroups presents some challenge; it gets easy to confuse the current firegroup and difficult to memorize which mouse button activates which toy in each firegroup (the HUD display and left/righ mouse button do sometimes not converge, but you cannot control where is displayed what in the HUD). I would be happy if Frontier would reduce/merge the scanner types and streamline the HUD a bit. Thus, my first own interdiction fires off by accident. I was just lucky that the poor hauler which I had testwise in target was actually wanted!

After initial tests, for maximum efficiency, I want to combine scanning, interdicting and combat with some more missions in order to raise my reputation with the faction "Blue Creative One" (situated in Suri Park, Anlave system). So far, my standing did not move an inch.

In the end, this proves to be a bit too much to handle, too many new things at once. They say, "bring me 12 stolen computer components". So I look on the galaxy map´s trade view to see where the according trade streams come from or go to. I identify first and select LP 50 (?). (My notes are getting scetchy at this point - a sure sign of me getting tired and would have fared better to get some sleep. See in the following what happens instead...mostly a recollection from my memory.)

- landing; already looking forward towards "walking in station" feature

Leaving the station, I spot a "wanted" sidewinder. I scan it with my kill warrant scanner and attack it, as soon as we both have left the "no-fire"-zone. The sidewinder has no chance. That is, until it loops around and some stray fire from my gimballed multicannons apparently hit the station. Suddenly, I am surrounded by 5 additional red blips. And they flash very angryly. Uh-oh.

What was meant as a mere warm-up combat exercise hath wrought big trouble. I hit boost and engage frameshift. Shield flickers and dies under concentrated enemy fire. And the saving light of hyperspace - does not appear. Instead, something flashes red on my vision´s periphery; "Error. Frameshift drive could not engage." What is this? Checking modules, it indeed is slightly damaged, at 97%, but a total malfunction already??? Panicked, I hit the button repeatedly, but this is not the Millenium Falcon and I have no R2D2 aboard which is flicking some switch on in the bowels of my ship. (But my wife could for sure hear me shouting like Han Solo "NO, Noo, nonononono....not my fault!")

Very much fortunately, I had also invested in the meanwhile into a stronger power reactor and coupling, so I can boost almost permanently. This carries and keeps me out of firing range of that swarm of red flashy blips. I am caught in an endless race, and only a logout makes the red blips finally let me go. Whew.

It takes a while - and a short visit to the ED forums after logging out - to figure out the culprit. It is the galaxy map. That target system, LP 50 (?), is actually out of the allowed traversable bubble for this beta3 client. Switching my nav target lets me engage hyperjump without a problem. Facepalm!

After this episode, my search of a ship with a load of computer components does not get better. Instead I get repeatedly distracted by passing ships which have a wanted-status. Like that Cobra. It jumps away, so I can first time try out the frameshift wake scanner. Bling. Scan. Then, engage hyperjump while the wake is target. Does not work, have to aligned. I turn around again and align to the wake. Nothing. Ooh; I have to align to the target system which the scan reveiled! Which, oddly enough, is the completely opposite direction of which the Cobra actually jumped itself.... hm. Ok, this was not very obvious, and scratch one off on the dashboard of suspension of disbelief.

As I finally catch up, I arrive in Wolf 46, and the Cobra thankfully still cruises around in front of my nose. Interdiction hunt is exciting, then I got him to normspace and fire away. Agh, those firegroups, and did I already kill-warrant him? Quick, shoot him before he jumps away! Hectic, but he goes down. 5040 Credits bounty. At least, this will compensate me for the rep costs from the earlier episode.

Some more prowling at the station, then in supercruise around the station, but no ship with computer components. One interdiction attempt does not work, I am right at this hauler´s six, but the device does not fire. Does this thing need ammo? Forgot to check; so far it has fired without problems.

An unidentified signal distracts me. Maybe I can find a freighter with computer components in there? Drop in. No; just two security vessels, and two "clean" civil vessels. I start scanning one of them with the kill-warrant scanner; maybe he is not so clean after all? Whoops. Both civil ships suddenly turn red and shoot me at point blank! Shields die until I have again accumulated sufficient speed to evade fire.

My combat skills are a bit rusty, indeed, so I am very grateful for the two security vessels intervening on my behalf. For one of those two culprits, I manage to secure the kill and thus the bounty. Whew.

A lot of unexpected things, things not working as thought or just not working out as planned. I am tired now, and indeed, as I look on the watch, my engagement in this game session was overlong. Time to log off. Scratch that stolen-goods-mission! Next time I will want to not put too much on my plate.

My long way up to an "Asp" spaceship

After a long weekend away, I had a series of game sessions in-between naps, but never the energy to properly document them beyond some scetchy key words. Now, at the end of my little sickness period, here my attempt at consolidating my notes, divided into one "session" per day, up to the moment I could finally afford an Asp. (And I did wonder if I would actually make it to one in this beta...)

(These notes may be over-long, but I intentionally write it down so, because I assume that later in my computer gamer´s life I would wonder how the early days with Elite: Dangerous acutally took place.)

I was sitting in an upgraded Lakon Type 6 freighter, with all the toys for mining and exploring on board, the plan was: Explore and scan more systems, preferably in an undiscovered-yet pocket of the galaxy, and establish trade routes!

The mining game mechanisms were nice to see during my last sessions, but felt a bit too monotone and tedious to continue. So, check it off. Bounty hunting and dogfighting was already in beta2 constrained to the starting cluster around Eranin. However, I wanted to go out and see what is out there, so this part was  to be postponed until I had done so. Exploration, missions and commodity trading was left. The plan at this early stage of the game had to be to establish knowledge about my environment. Which means, I had to explore systems and find about money making opportunities therein. After all, I wouldn´t want to be limited to a Lakon Type 6 for the rest of the beta3 until end of December!

My exploration tour took me as follows (in brackets the payments I got for delivering the data to Universal Cartographics, clearly showing that exploring at this stage is certainly not for making money):

- LP 103-254, just one white dwarf (yielded later 1400 Cr for the data)

- Core Sys Sector HHV B2-8: 1 yellow star, 2 brown dwarfs 85.000 ls out (yielded later 2600 Cr for the data)

- Core Sys Sector HHV B2-8: 9 objects, a scan of three of 7 planets reveil them as ice planets. I scanned those because planets in the habitable zone could be valuable. But nothing found, so moved on. (yielded later 3000 Cr for the data).
 

 - scanning... scanning... scanning...






 


- Hambula: All objects are already identified in my map (probably because I buy all data in every station I can get), it is a high population industry system. There is only one Station: Qureshi Hub. It has all ships except the new Impereal Clipper. And it looks like all equipment I could ever wish for a fighter ship like the Viper or Eagle! And a high supply of virtually every industrial commodity. Maybe useful for later trade routes?

- Eta Cephai, a "must" to stop. This system had fascinated me in the beta2 client, mainly because of the impressive star, and I was curious what had changed now in beta3. Aha, for starter, it is now an industry system instead of agriculture. Moreso, there is no station anymore, even though the system info in the galaxy map registers a population of 54 mio people!? There is an asteroid ring, high metal, which tempted me to check if mining would be more profitable. I dropped from supercruise 54 km out from the nav point, at 30 km the first chunks of rock appeared. Some mining lead me to the same lowly amounts of ore per asteroid; no higher value ores, only low percentages per chunk. Which made me regrett the loss of time and resume exploration.

 - Eta Cephai still has that fascinating mix of orange and blue and green; here as seen from afar fromout the asteroid belt






- Alderamin: An now empty system.(later nevertheless yielded 2644 Cr for the data)

- Hyperion: A high population agricultural system, maybe good for a trade route? But I wanted to continue my exploration before adapting my ship outfit for a full scale trading.

- G232-70: 7 objects/planets (yielded later 2026 Cr)

- LFT 1748: Wow, 47 objects (yielded later 6800 Cr)! My advanced D-scanner really was a good investment; imagine I had to "hand explore" them with a measly basic D-scanner! There were also 2 outposts revealed. I wanted to start to take notes on supply and demand of commodities and need to check for traderoute. However, at Longyear Port, my docking requests were constantly denied. Do pirate-look-type outposts have problems with me? I ticket. Only later I am made aware of the fact that the "unsanctioned outpost" in fact does not have landing pads for Lakon type 6 spacecraft and other larger ones. Oh my.

- LHS 535: 12 objects (yielded later 1900 Cr)

- Sopdu: 10 objects (yielded later 3700 Cr). 1 outpost, according to the system map it exports gold, cobalt, indium. Going all my way to the 2000 ls far away outpost in order to verify, all metals except palladium were in low supply only. Noteworthy was gold, with a 9900 Credits demand price.

While already being here, I took a bunch of lucrative hauling mission missions to Wolf 54. Arriving there, I started to use my new fuel scooping equipment by skimming the stars on my course. Fuel scooping is a lot of fun, and it never gets old yet for me! Making my way to the station, I managed to disengange from supercruise with 648 km/s! Some more tests later showed that I can indeed now disengage from up to 999 km/s. Very handy.

Unfortunately, the game glitched a bit and all missions were gone on arrival; inclusive the cargo!? Damn. I only realized later that it was a glitch because my cargo space still behaved like it had the cargo, and a bit later again, the hauling cargo also reappeared in my hold; of course, much too late, as stolen goods. I could not repeat the glitch, so I refrained from filing a ticket.

- Batara Kala: Two yellow stars, nothing more.

- LHS 1101: a high population industry system, all objects already explored. Maybe a good trade root with/from Hyperion, the agricultural system I explored earlier? The ship yard at Bondar City has an Asp, a Dropship, all ships, except for the Impereal Clipper. I noted a high supply amongst others of crop harvesters, marine equipment, basic medecines, computer components.

These findings were enough for me to quit the exploration part and start the commodity trading. I re-outfitted my Type 6 to a pure freighter by getting rid of the mining equipment and all scanners. Only then I discovered that, dammit, there were only up to small cargo racks offered here... So I was only able to load 41 units of crop harvesters and move on.

- At Ivens Ring, Hyperion (three stations in that system, but I am generally only interested in the one trading station), the crop harvesters bring me 533 Cr profit/unit, all in all 20k Credits. I could finally upgrade my ship´s cargo capacity to 73 tons.

From here on, I slowly started to establish a methodology on taking notes. No way around it if I wanted to get to the better or best-profit routes. The first format of my notes looked like this:

"supply: tea1449 coffee1289 fish(high)443 tobacco 4953
demand animalmeat1601 clothing 459 consumer tech 7493 domapp 646"

Still lacking proper notes back from LHS1101, I chose to bring back tea, only to discover at Bondar City that they brought only a measly 248 Credits/unit profit!? Just about 10k Credits. Ridiculous! I realized that I have to seriously invest in taking notes. For efficiency´s sake I decided to limit my notes to "high" demand or supply commodities. If there was a need for a round trip, I could inquire medium quantities at a later stage. So, for LHS 1101 it went like:

"Supply: MarineEq3763 CropH1846 PowGen367 WatPur229 BasMed187
Demand: SuperCond6683 ConsTech7055 PerfEnh+PrgCell7055

And before I grinded down on a single route at this point, I decided that the time would be worth it to explore the prices in a handful of systems, in order to have a proper overview. Onwards to Sopdu again, taking notes, then to Moffit Settlement in Andoe, a high tech system with a huge and beautiful blue white star. The station is 1300 ls away and thus takes a bit of flight time.

This was where my first game "session" ended. Back from a long weekend, a little bit recovered from my sickness, I continued and reinforced the trade-scouting.

On my way to Moffit Settlement, I was interdicted for the second time in this beta3, but this time I had enough time to note and take part in the new "escaping minigame". I successfully manged to evade the interdiction tether by sticking very close to the escape vector reticule.

Finally at Moffit Settlement, I noted that the station has long piers, careful! I once had a collision with those, back in beta1 and will not forget the lesson. The shipyard offers all ships. A good base of operations, if it weren´t for the long flight time towards here.

"supply: Perfendh6196 ReactArm1730 robotics1831 landenr4990 autofab3503 gallium4702 basmed187 progcells 6196
demand: agrimed1010 ressep5835 gallium4702 palladium13191 ConsTech7257"

I loaded performance enhancers and plotted course back to LHS1101. On my way, to my dismay, I discovered that somehow I had incurred "Wanted" status for Federation space. And, as it had to happen, right in front of the docking station, a scan from the security vessels popped up. Boost! In a very tight maneuver, I managed to survive this panic reaction and slow down in time before colliding with the far end of the docking area. Whew.

The performance enhancers yielded me 741 Credits profit/unit, overall 50k Credits. Minus 12k bounty and fines, but from where? Three of those are labelled "none". This was the point where I discovered that this had to be from those missions which glitched and had disappeared from my logs; the stolen goods in my cargo hold, suddenly visible again, testified this. Luckily, there is a black market in LHS1101 and I was able to sell the stuff.

I bought "Clothing187" and continued to IvensRing, Hyperion, which has "Clothing324", so overall about 10k Credits of profit. My notes were still a bit inconsequential at this time. For Hyperion, I noted;

"supply: fish443 coffee1289 tea1449 
Demand ReactAr2229, agrimed1148, basmed324, progcell7024"

Jetting back to Andoe, my fuel scooping took me a bit too close to the star and I got emergency dropped from supercruise. Re-engaged, the ship heated up even more and I took some serious damage down to 79% hull.
 

- white stars burn hot...







 


Arriving at Moffitt Settlement, my notes are:

"20k Cr. profit.
supply: progcells6822 (Damn!), supercond6265
demand coffee1316 tea1492 fish667"

Also, I was lucky to actually take the time to look for and find a class A4 frameshift drive. This gave a considerable boost to my Type 6´s range, 27,38 ly empty and 18,80 ly fully laden. The price of 1,6 mio Credits is a lot but totally worth it. I also repaired my fried ship, which was cheap, for 2000 Credits.

In order to expand my data about commodities, I loaded superconductors and made way to Ross318, an industrial system. Koch Hub again is far out, 1400ls. And my supconductors sold for only 6650 Credits, netting me only 20k Credits profit. But the main goal was to take notes, anyways;

"Supply gallium4693 indium5416 lilthium1333  cropharv2214 marineeq4343
Demand fish899 constech6650"

Loaded with crop harvesters, I plotted onwards to Wolf 46, only to find there was no demand! Which also made me discover that I can sell anyways, if at a los of 69 Credits/unit. My notes go as;

"demand: marineq4826
supply fish596 wine204 beer116 animalmeat 1294"

Looked not so great, on first view. But, with this and a comparision with my previous notes, actually it made my first high-proftit trade route to be born. Load marine equipment in LHS 1101 for 3763 Credits and bring them to Wolf 46 to sell for 4826 Credits. But what to bring for the round trip? This is where I expanded my notes to "medium" supply commodities for LHS 1101;

"demand: beer234 wine319 tea1717 coffee1461 fish787 leather234
supply: marineeq3763 cropharv1846 powgen367"

So: Overall About 100k Credits  profit for marine equipment and 15k Fish on the round trip.

After four runs, my concentration faltered and I missed the docking entrance and splashed right into Bondar City (LHS 1101). This translated into minus 123.000 Credits for the lost goods, minus 130.000 Credits for the ship insurance, effectively neutralizing my two latest two round trips. Sigh, shit happens. Here, take a nap.

After that, I needed a little change of routine. The bulletin board offered a bunch of hauling missions to Bhotega, really worth it with overall 190k Credits. As I arrived there, the "request denied" problem made me loose all that potential cash. Bhotega´s trading station is an "unsanctioned outpost", which cannot let a Type 6 ship dock. No way to know this before you arrive there, but I am sure this will be fixed in the final game. This episode relieves me of 86k Credits via fines for the abandoned missions. Fortunately, I manage to sell all the now "stolen" cargo for 83k Credits back in on the black market in Bondar City.

- Du kummst hier ned rein!







 

Trying to go for a different trade routes, I wanted to bring consumer tech to Koch Hub, in Ross318, only to discover that I did my notes wrongly; consumer tech was in supply there, not in demand. I then expanded my trade scouting to Stein 2051, bringing some indium with me from Ross 318. A peek into Slopey´s new best price calculator gave me the tip; however, subsequently, the data seemed not very accurate and typing the input into the tool was very tedious, at least in my sickened state, so I abandoned the tool again.

In Stein 2051, I noted

"supply: gallium4702 copper441 titanium824 perfenh6196 supercond6196 robotics1504"
And, man, I was tired of all that scouting and writing and experimenting. At the end of this second session, I had 1,758 mio Credits, and it feld as hard earned cash indeed.

- grind, but always with some beautiful sights







 


 My third and last of the "sessions" this week became easier and better to manage, as as well healthiness and aquaintance and routine settled more and more in.

First, I had to deal with a fine of 19k Credits. This happened due to a 170k-Credit hauling mission to Reis Dock, in LP 30-55; I brought some beer (supply 116 Credits) along, which sold allright, but only on the black market (182 Credits). Beer was illegal here. So, the fine came from a last-second scan from a security vessel while I speedily entered the docking area. My notes for Reis Dock in LP 30-55;

"Supply: Supercond6198 progcells6182 indium5426 tantalum3534
Demand: powgen700"

With all my notes so far, this made me discover my second bigger-better profit trade route. Superconductors (6196 Cr.) to Anlave (7328 Cr.). After some research, a retour of autofabricators (3242 -> 3798 Cr.), yielded alltogether. 90k+40k Credits profit, and at a distance of 5ly only. Wonderful! Grind here I come!

 - those Imperial snobs think they can skip the line?





 



Quite some runs later: Almost there, 1 mio Credits left in order to purchase the Asp. Some frequent sightings of CMDR Genophix in an unshielded Cobra made me suspect he was on the same trade route. And indeed, a bit later, the profits seemed to dwindle a bit.

A short detour and break for some missions, also to test if the new reputation system actually works. The faction "Blue Creative" in Suri Park, Anlave system, sounded cool, and offered some earnings. "Bring some semiconductors for 80k Credits", they said. Problem was, none of the industry systems I knew so far had semiconductors. None in Alrai, none in LHS 140, none in LFT 1446 (which has Bosch Settlement a whopping 13.000 ls out from the main star!). Finally, at  Lubin Port, LHS 215, there was a low supply semiconductors! Funny, since I was primarily looking for industry systems, and I find them at last in a high tech system. I took this tour also as an occasion to combine the search with research for new trade sources.

 - if Frontier would just correct the "oval-effect" (right hand); according to ticketed feedback, a problem of the "field of view" setting



 

 Aside to this mission business, all the data to be gathered on that crusade made me rethink the way I took notes about the commodity markets. After some long pondering, I had to concede that, once again, reminder of old days in EVE Online, a spreadsheet was required, to keep a semblance of an overview. Shudder.

I took a while to set up a format and get used to it. Trying to keep it as simple and short as possible, I simply noted down per row the system, station, commodity, and the price in either the column for supply or dor demand. From time to time, I would analyse the spreadsheet by filtering each commodity and thus looking "manually" for the biggest span between supply and demand.

The result of all this work was, after a long session of flying around (but, conveniently, with some missions to pay for it):

LHS140 -> Alrai (Indium) = 140k Cr.
Alrai -> LHS140 (Gold) = 140k Cr! Yippijay!


Before I started to grind that shiny bigger-better new route, I wanted to finish my ongoing test about whether and how quickly missions do raise my reputation. So I took another bundle of missions from "Blue Creative". I extended my portfolio from the hauling missions also to the fetch-type missions, as I felt I had sufficient notes now on the supply structure around here.

A little sloppiness in my notes made me mis-write one fetch mission; they wanted 7 instead of 6 beer. So off I go again. However and conveniently, this concidenced with a new batch of missions from the same faction. So I went again and got beer and wine from Wolf 46, superconductors from Stein 2051. Moreso, I had the foresight to fill up the rest of my cargo hold with superconductors, which turned out to be a good idea because I was able to fulfill four more fetch missions for superconductors in Suria, Anlave system, on the spot.

After this mission business out of the way, I started grinding my newfound trade route.

- skimming the planet´s ring helps slowing down your approach in supercruise







Result of all the work in this session: No notable raise in reputation yet. Cash after working the new trade route: 3,1 mio Credits. ASP, HERE I COME!!!! And, bye, bye, Lakon Type 6 you served me so well!

As that particular game session already ran late, so I just took a quick peek on my shiny new ship:
 
A range of 13,12 ly emtpy / 11,31y full laden, lots of empty internal compartments, and again no cargo racks to buy here. So a quick trip to Alrai, I could afford an upgrade to 8ton and already one 64ton cargo rack, overall a 125t-cargohold. The cockpit view is fantastic! Makes the free head turning with my EDheadtracker really and once more the fantastic experience which it is. The Asp´s handling, too, is only positive, even without thruster upgrades, it feels as if piloting a fully upgraded Type 6.

- this screenshot was taken when I had already given the Asp´s drive an upgrade




 



More and improved business awaits, in the next session.