This thread is very interesting; 38% of Elite-fans are 30-39 years old, 37% are 40 - 49. So, these are "my kind of people", roughly overall 2600 similar-aged other nerds, world wide, who play Elite: Dangerous and participate in the forum. I cannot help but feel nerdier than before. At least concerning World of Warcraft, I could hide behind 13 million likeminded people playing it...
In the ED forum, Frontier announced a new patch 2.06 yesterday evening, which I missed while wandering The Secret World. Well, it was more a séjour in the character creator than anything else. However, there still is feedback which indicates that it did not solve issues for some players. I guess it would have been a mircale if that patch would have solved all crash and connection problems for all players. But maybe, this time, I am one of the lucky ones who got their issues solved? Let´s see!
Firing up the game. Wow. Really fast loading now, well under 10 seconds. My Lakon Type 6 is floating in space, close to Fisher Platform in LHS64. I have 545k Credits cash. And a lot of stolen goods in my 100 tonne cargo hold. This is from the expired transport missions from last time. So I jettison my illegal cargo. The 21 Betrantide amongst all the cheap rabble could be worth something but dont want to distract myself right now by looking for a black market. Jettisoning was not a good idea, as I discover. Apparently, the space outpost is still too close range, so the authority fines me for throwing garbage on the traffic lanes. Makes me 6000 Credits poorer. Oh my. The little perfectionist inside me flinches, of course.
While I check for the amount of fine in the right menu, I already approach the station and activate my docking request macro. Too much at once. The docking macro only works when starting out of every menu, so naturally, it screws up now and I have to request docking manually. After that, my ship seems to be disabled. I cannot steer or accelerate anymore. A relog does not help. A restart client does not help. Another bug? No, a brain fart. My docking request macro was activated while I was in he rightmenu, so it had caused a very particular click in the modules section, namely "thrusters offline". It took me about 15 minutes to figure this out. Nothing beats being constantly reminded of your own foolishness.
Having finally docked at the outpost, I take a fetch mission for 12 mineral extractors, betrantite, coltan. The latter I only took because, once more, I confuse metals with minerals and thought that this outpost seels coltan. But no, they sell "cobalt". Looks like this will be a long evening full of stupid mistakes!
And indeed, next thing is to ty to sell exploration data at universal cartographics. This was bugged, but fortunately, patch 2.06 has it sorted out and it works. I only receive about 2000 Credits, for data about five or six systems. And I accidentally buy a lot of data, because the "sell all data" button still does not work and after each sale of a single system data, the menu starts on the top again, where the buy data options are.
Meanwhile, on the bulletin board, a hauling mission for 58k Credits popped up, to Locke´s Claim, in the very same system. Some more small hauling tasks added, and I am on my way. Supercruise is laggy, but it works and I drop safely out of it. I do not wish for more, glad I am finally back in the game! At Fisher Platform, I am extremely lucky. Three cargo missions for >50k Cr, back to Fisher Platform, are overall available. Only 12 minutes time to resolve them, though, and this conflicts my current fetch mission´s timers. But this is so totally worth ditching my current fetch missions. After the run back to Locke´s Claim, I have 767k Credits.
Time to try out if hyperspace finally works again, plotting a course to NLTT49528. I take a packet of small hauling missions, about 23 if I counted correctly and launch. Engage! Hyperspace is laggy, also heartstoppingly blurry for a moment, then endless. Aww. After 2 minutes, the client spits me out to a black screen. The mouse pointer works, but no menu appears. I kill process via the task manager. Relog, enter "open play" yields me a "Could not connect to server" message. But the second time works, as it did the last times. And it works fast! I repeat the attempt two times, but experience the same pattern again.
Trying to hyperjump to a different system, Wolf1080, results in an even more blurry hyperspace (no cloud background), and then the same pattern again. As a next try, I relog into solo. Still the first "could not connect to server", then I am in within two seconds. Hyperjump works here. At least something. Although it somehow feels weirdly wrong for me to play solo. By the time I finally arrive at Fuller Station in NLTT49528, some missions already have exired. I remember to jettison the goods while in supercruise so that I won´t be fined again when too close to the station.
Roughly two hours later, I have about 1,5 million Credits, just by farming the hauling missions in-system of LHS64, and some few hops to the neighbouring NLTT49528. It was a bit grindy and of course became boring in the end, but for this session, I am just content to be back in the game.
What annoyes me is that I still am not able to get a handle on those "fetch stolen goods" missions. There was one instant when one of them requested 12 coltan, and I just had accepted a 50k-Credit mission to transport 23 coltan. I could have abandoned this one in order to finally have matching stolen goods in my hold. Alas, this idea came to me two seconds after I had pressed the launch button, and the occasion was gone. The completionist within me feels immensively provoked by obscure or infeasable missions.
Repeating such a session as this one would probably be a bit too boring, e.g. until I am at 6 million Credits, in order to afford an Asp. With probably already enough cash, it would also be attractive for me to switch over again to a well fitted combat ship, the Viper or the Eagle. But this is for next session to decide; where the cosmic winds will blow me, I guess.
Thursday, 16 October 2014
Tuesday, 14 October 2014
Adrift in The Secret World
Periodically, I revisit "old" computer games, the ones which I have played through and got satiated with. One of those more notable ones was The Secret World. The mood it oozes out of every trailer, announcement and every single one of the dialogue-monologue quests in game is absolutely the best I have ever encountered.
Plus, I loved the setting, it reminded me so much of my all-time favourite quasi-philosophical pen&paper RPG "Mage: The Ascension". Except, Secret World does not go as deep. Of course, it lives by assuming mages and mackical power in a setting close to our real world, throw in a bit of Cthulhu horror aspects. It mixes shotguns with fireballs, katanas with chaos magic, rifles with warhammers (just for illustration, the FOTM builds go a bit different).
However, this is where the comparision ends. Missing is the very most interesting philosophical assumtion of the mentioned early "Mage" RPG, where the core concept behind magic was that belief was reality. Everyday reality is governed by commonsense rules derived from the collective beliefs of sleepers. Because they're awakened, Magi can consciously effect changes to reality, either in an unassuming, coincidal form, or blatantly defying collective belief of reality, thereby vulgar magic. I loved the potential for mindgames and inventiveness of that setting and I swear I will gladly be part again of any a good old pen&paper session of "Mage: The Ascension".
The Secret World is what comes closest to this fond memory of mine, so I gave it a shake somewhen last year. As said, it has a superb mood and I was sure this game would capture me for a long time. The skill system was deep and sported at least some variance to your playstyle (although in the end it came down to only few FOTM builds). Alone the starting scenes for aspirants of the Dragon was worth it; it included a certain chick in red dress and some kind of ... surreal experiences. And I do not mean the infamous suggested blowjob (well, not only...); I mean the reality-defying concepts which are so well introduced and came so close to my "Mage" pen&paper experience.
However, after I was through two of the four chapters, something was naggingly wrong, and once I finished the story line, I could put a pointer on it.
- First, this game is riddled with cliffhangers. Nothing is ever really resolved. Maybe this is true horror-movie-style, where you would always get a hint in the closing scene that it is not over yet and all happiness and relief just delusional. But I do not like, as it is contrary to why I play computer games; I am here to shape and control my environment, something we are often barred from in real life, so I draw respite out of the moreless total ability to do so in a virtual reality.
- Second, this game sports an itemization and inventory system which is so much yesterday. Constantly, you have to manage and switch around updates to your equipment to stay hot. I am so tired of this. IMO, Mass Effect 2 did the right thing to get away from this, although they went too far. Mass Effect 3 then stroke the right balance, with a few central pieces of equipment, modable to your liking, but nothing is really ever outdated anymore. EVE Online also has no ship which would not have its use in the "end game".
- Third, the game degrades into a horror-flick-show and greatly neglects character development. A rise to power, a personal conflict, even a personality, are not really included. Even the excuse of a levelling-concept does not help here, because more so than e.g. in World of Warcraft, you basically are forced to level up just in order to keep on level with the enemy strength; meaning that you never really feel more powerful, more in control. But in a good levelling game, you should.
Those factors finally drove me away from The Secret World, more quickly than I expected, as I saw them as obstacles and not means of enjoyment. My realisation dawned after the first set of 20 or so end-level dungeons, thereby slowly grinding my way up from green to blue to purple items. Still, there were again superb cut scenes at the end of each dungeon, but it simply was not enough of a red line in the mood, the plot and the story in order to keep the game together for me.
The lesson here is, and most modern games seem to learn it slowly, to not put barriers in front of enjoyment. Whereby "enjoyment" is the games primal mood and setting, which, after all, was advertised to the player. Cliffhangers and item grind are artificial game elements, and World of Warcraft was just lucky to still maintain close links to Diablo-style of play that it was an acceptable part of the game. But nowadays, I ask myself, why are game designers not able to emancipate their games from this itemization mechanism. It is so old and stale, in fact it stinks like a rotting fish corpse.
Updating myself now on the current status of The Secret World, the great finale in Tokio seems to get closer, which is good. Finally maybe some closure? However, looking into details, as of yet it seems to be just another cliff hanger. And a new combat mechanic, the AEGIS shields. Basically, some additional colored lifebars, and you need to activate now different abilities in order to cancel them out. However, the last thing I wanted is an additonal level of complexity in combat, which force the use of more items, more stats, arrrrgh.
Around three corners, my musings here can also be seen as a good reason why the good old fashioned Elite is new land, or at least very much refreshing, in these days. No cliffhangers, no artificial barriers, no item hunt, on your path of which way you want to play the game.
That being said, I still think it is a pity that The Secret World failed for me because of those fallacy gameplay elements. It has such a superb mood, otherwise.
Plus, I loved the setting, it reminded me so much of my all-time favourite quasi-philosophical pen&paper RPG "Mage: The Ascension". Except, Secret World does not go as deep. Of course, it lives by assuming mages and mackical power in a setting close to our real world, throw in a bit of Cthulhu horror aspects. It mixes shotguns with fireballs, katanas with chaos magic, rifles with warhammers (just for illustration, the FOTM builds go a bit different).
However, this is where the comparision ends. Missing is the very most interesting philosophical assumtion of the mentioned early "Mage" RPG, where the core concept behind magic was that belief was reality. Everyday reality is governed by commonsense rules derived from the collective beliefs of sleepers. Because they're awakened, Magi can consciously effect changes to reality, either in an unassuming, coincidal form, or blatantly defying collective belief of reality, thereby vulgar magic. I loved the potential for mindgames and inventiveness of that setting and I swear I will gladly be part again of any a good old pen&paper session of "Mage: The Ascension".
The Secret World is what comes closest to this fond memory of mine, so I gave it a shake somewhen last year. As said, it has a superb mood and I was sure this game would capture me for a long time. The skill system was deep and sported at least some variance to your playstyle (although in the end it came down to only few FOTM builds). Alone the starting scenes for aspirants of the Dragon was worth it; it included a certain chick in red dress and some kind of ... surreal experiences. And I do not mean the infamous suggested blowjob (well, not only...); I mean the reality-defying concepts which are so well introduced and came so close to my "Mage" pen&paper experience.
However, after I was through two of the four chapters, something was naggingly wrong, and once I finished the story line, I could put a pointer on it.
- First, this game is riddled with cliffhangers. Nothing is ever really resolved. Maybe this is true horror-movie-style, where you would always get a hint in the closing scene that it is not over yet and all happiness and relief just delusional. But I do not like, as it is contrary to why I play computer games; I am here to shape and control my environment, something we are often barred from in real life, so I draw respite out of the moreless total ability to do so in a virtual reality.
- Second, this game sports an itemization and inventory system which is so much yesterday. Constantly, you have to manage and switch around updates to your equipment to stay hot. I am so tired of this. IMO, Mass Effect 2 did the right thing to get away from this, although they went too far. Mass Effect 3 then stroke the right balance, with a few central pieces of equipment, modable to your liking, but nothing is really ever outdated anymore. EVE Online also has no ship which would not have its use in the "end game".
- Third, the game degrades into a horror-flick-show and greatly neglects character development. A rise to power, a personal conflict, even a personality, are not really included. Even the excuse of a levelling-concept does not help here, because more so than e.g. in World of Warcraft, you basically are forced to level up just in order to keep on level with the enemy strength; meaning that you never really feel more powerful, more in control. But in a good levelling game, you should.
Those factors finally drove me away from The Secret World, more quickly than I expected, as I saw them as obstacles and not means of enjoyment. My realisation dawned after the first set of 20 or so end-level dungeons, thereby slowly grinding my way up from green to blue to purple items. Still, there were again superb cut scenes at the end of each dungeon, but it simply was not enough of a red line in the mood, the plot and the story in order to keep the game together for me.
The lesson here is, and most modern games seem to learn it slowly, to not put barriers in front of enjoyment. Whereby "enjoyment" is the games primal mood and setting, which, after all, was advertised to the player. Cliffhangers and item grind are artificial game elements, and World of Warcraft was just lucky to still maintain close links to Diablo-style of play that it was an acceptable part of the game. But nowadays, I ask myself, why are game designers not able to emancipate their games from this itemization mechanism. It is so old and stale, in fact it stinks like a rotting fish corpse.
Updating myself now on the current status of The Secret World, the great finale in Tokio seems to get closer, which is good. Finally maybe some closure? However, looking into details, as of yet it seems to be just another cliff hanger. And a new combat mechanic, the AEGIS shields. Basically, some additional colored lifebars, and you need to activate now different abilities in order to cancel them out. However, the last thing I wanted is an additonal level of complexity in combat, which force the use of more items, more stats, arrrrgh.
Around three corners, my musings here can also be seen as a good reason why the good old fashioned Elite is new land, or at least very much refreshing, in these days. No cliffhangers, no artificial barriers, no item hunt, on your path of which way you want to play the game.
That being said, I still think it is a pity that The Secret World failed for me because of those fallacy gameplay elements. It has such a superb mood, otherwise.
Saturday, 11 October 2014
I have weekend
"Could not connect to server". Well, that is a welcome! But the ED Forum knows also people who have it worse than me. So I am content that I can play at least a bit in between crashes. Third try, and I am in.
First thing to do is a test jump. I do not dare to stay in the programm and go on the desktop, had the impression that helps the game to stay connected. Nope. Not this time; endless hyperjump it is again, with that weird, blurry screen. I have already a hard time motivating me, especially when tired from a long working day. But beyond that wall of bugs is a beautiful game waiting for me. So go at it, Spikey!
I make it through to LHS64 this time. My cargo hold is packed, the bulletin board opens with 20 seconds lag, so I miss my first 60k transport mission as the board refreshes the moment I am back. Should I wait for the kind of fetch missions which made me fill my cargo hold last session? Or should I go after the credits/minute scheme and just get going? Checking Unviversal Cartographics, it is still offline. Market transactions are laggy. Apparently, no additional work on the game can be expected over the weekend. Yep, Frontier employees do deserve weekends! Even though games like this, like most MMOGs, give the impression that you must be served 24/7.
I have 450k Credits, and if the game would work properly, I figure that I could make here at least half a million per night, meaning an Asp would be in range within 12 nights of mission transports like this, probably even faster. Before wipe at the end of this month, two weeks in an Asp would have been worth it.
I sell the mineral extractors for 300 Credits profit per unit, the Indite goes with 800 Credits per unit. Oh, and somehow my ship is stuck in/under the outpost. That´s worth a new ticket I guess. This time, the game corrects itself, but there are glitches anyways. I get side-turned through the closed landing pad, the wall is double, one sticks up the other drops. Locking Locke´s Claim does not show and target in space. Entering supercruise is accompanied by a blurry hyperspace animation, but thankfully I am let to continue supercruise, which is stuttering, and exiting hangs it all up. Yep, the game is a mess. I am too tired tonight and decide to fire up another game, as this one here is decidedly too much work and annoyance for a relaxing weekend.
Also thinking about postponing further posts on Elite until the next client arrives. While this blog serves as my personal game diary, it is nevertheless public and I do not want to leave negative impressions from a beta version to shy away people from the final game, which will for sure be free of all those child sicknesses. That´s why it is still beta (*cough* alpha).
First thing to do is a test jump. I do not dare to stay in the programm and go on the desktop, had the impression that helps the game to stay connected. Nope. Not this time; endless hyperjump it is again, with that weird, blurry screen. I have already a hard time motivating me, especially when tired from a long working day. But beyond that wall of bugs is a beautiful game waiting for me. So go at it, Spikey!
I make it through to LHS64 this time. My cargo hold is packed, the bulletin board opens with 20 seconds lag, so I miss my first 60k transport mission as the board refreshes the moment I am back. Should I wait for the kind of fetch missions which made me fill my cargo hold last session? Or should I go after the credits/minute scheme and just get going? Checking Unviversal Cartographics, it is still offline. Market transactions are laggy. Apparently, no additional work on the game can be expected over the weekend. Yep, Frontier employees do deserve weekends! Even though games like this, like most MMOGs, give the impression that you must be served 24/7.
I have 450k Credits, and if the game would work properly, I figure that I could make here at least half a million per night, meaning an Asp would be in range within 12 nights of mission transports like this, probably even faster. Before wipe at the end of this month, two weeks in an Asp would have been worth it.
I sell the mineral extractors for 300 Credits profit per unit, the Indite goes with 800 Credits per unit. Oh, and somehow my ship is stuck in/under the outpost. That´s worth a new ticket I guess. This time, the game corrects itself, but there are glitches anyways. I get side-turned through the closed landing pad, the wall is double, one sticks up the other drops. Locking Locke´s Claim does not show and target in space. Entering supercruise is accompanied by a blurry hyperspace animation, but thankfully I am let to continue supercruise, which is stuttering, and exiting hangs it all up. Yep, the game is a mess. I am too tired tonight and decide to fire up another game, as this one here is decidedly too much work and annoyance for a relaxing weekend.
Also thinking about postponing further posts on Elite until the next client arrives. While this blog serves as my personal game diary, it is nevertheless public and I do not want to leave negative impressions from a beta version to shy away people from the final game, which will for sure be free of all those child sicknesses. That´s why it is still beta (*cough* alpha).
Bugs buzzing
Third night, and it stats badly. I hope the crash reports the little programm sends to them will be useful. There is a time, however, when I can get really back into play. Jay!
Starting at Aulin, the black market accepts transactions again, so I can finally sell all that cargo from the missions which expired during last session´s crashes. Then I accept a transport mission to Opala for 9k Credits. The hyperjump is successful, and hope rises. However, exiting supercruise at the station is not smooth at all, contrary of what should have been fixed with patch 2.05.
In Opala there are two fetch missions where I know that I can get the coffee and tea from Eta Cephei, so I accept them, total value 45k Credits. Leaving the docking area, I note a hollow blip. I turn around in order to scan and get to know the CMDR. However, this guy seemed to have followed me, and as I complete my 180 degree turn, I am crashing right into him and get destroyed. Don´t know about him, as the killscreen does not give any name.
Restart from Opala, after 70k Credits for insurance got deducted. More than my current run will profit me. First, I have to find a jump route to Eta Cephei, which is not easy, because not in a plane with Opala. I have to shift the view downwards and thus loose direction to Opala. With a little bit of spatial imagination, I finally manage to plot a course, via LHS3006, Lalande, LP103-294. Enter hyperspace. It is stuttering and I worry, but (c)hyperspace spits me out in LHS3006. Next jump. Enter hyperspace, I note that my EDtracker suddenly veers my head view to the right, and instead of an exit, the client crashes again, I am back on my windows7 desktop. Sigh. Restart, relog, "could not connect to server", second try works. Next try for hyperjump, same thing, crash.
Maybe it is a buggy system, so I switch to Naraka. It works! I exit hyperjump in Naraka! Yay! Although, my head view again veers off in hyperspace. Next jump, must be LHS1446. Crash, "server not connected", red start-button, playing a tutorial mission, start button white again, this time trying "solo" play mode. "Sever not connected", then again red start button, playing a tutorial mission, still red button.
After some 20 minuntes, writing these lines, white start button again, next try to LHS1446 in "open play". Wish me luck. Jump! The hyperspace animation starts again a bit blurry, something I connect to something going wrong; but it gets clear again, and I exit to LHS1446.Yay!
But something is off. I get a message that "1 astronomical object detected", repeatedly. Also, I want to but cannot drop from supercruise. Only after the "frameshift cooled down". Something is still very wrong, I guess. How many tickets should I open?
Hyperjump to Eta Cephei works on first try. The giant blazing sun greets me, but it is difficult to get in the mood with all these bugs buzzing. As I exit, a message pops up "1 astronomical object detected", and I follow up with a D-scan and get "5 astronomical objects detected". Exit from SC at the Isherwood Station causes a freeze. I have to kill the client via Task Manager.
Restart. It has become a nail-biting issue in the meanwhile. Back in without problems, although it takes a while before the button turns white. I supercruise again to Isherwood Ring. Approaching, I get repeatedly "1 astronomical object detected". Exit from supercruise works after about 10 seconds of freeze.
I have finally arrived. Of course, my fetch missions have expired in the meanwhile. As compensation, I accept and immediately serve all coffee- and tea fetch quests I can get hold off. Not many, this time, but enough to buy 50 tea and 50 coffee units for trade. The bulletin board loads very slow, about 5 seconds. I wanted to travel a bit today but I hardly dare anymore.
There are a lot of Coltan and Uraninite fetch quests here, also some Lepidolite. I have the impression that extraction systems are very rare, anyways. None in jump range with the 12ly of my Lakon Type 6. So far, I could not make use of the extra cargo space. Maybe I should have stayed with the Cobra? Thing is, I love the Lakon-style cockpit view.
I plot a course to Vetr, an extraction site, via Ross1069. Let´s see if I can make some sense out of these fetch quests. And maybe they buy coffee and tea over there. Wish me luck with the hyperjumps...
Ops, ship is overheating, how come? 150%. As I enter hyperspace is blurry, bad sign. But it works, I am in Ross1069. I get the "1 astronomical object detected" thing, follow up with a D-scan and detect 3 more. Repeat scan, again 3 objects, repeat, again. Bug, must be the same 3 objects all the time.
The last two jumps, I was always on my desktop when in hyperspace. Maybe this is a work around to prevent crashing???
No overheating on the next jump. Again the obviously buggy "astronomical object", set course to Solovyov Colony. Ops, interdiction, actually my first one in the whole beta2! I boost away before I can identify my hosts. Exit supercruise again causes a freeze, jeeez, I am quite sore of these bugs. They for sure kill the whole mood of the game!
It tuns out that Vetr is a tiny extraction and refinery colony, and guess what, no freaking minerals for sale except for Bauxite. Great. Bulletin board takes 20 seconds to pop up. One coffee fetch mission for 11k, at least. I spot another, but the board hangs again for 10 seconds and it is gone before I can act again because of the 5 minute timer.
At least I can sell my stuff on the market, for a little profit. I remember my D-scans and try to sell them, but the universal cartographics menu hangs and does not open. In fact, the whole client hangs with it; after a minute, "unable to retrieve cartographic data from server".
I want to go to the neighbour LT16016, maybe they finally have some minerals. I sell the rest of my tea and coffee for about 60k profit. At least, and finally, I seem to have found a trade route!
I arrive at LT16016, whew. They system is totally unexplored. Three suns orbiting each other, looks very cool! But scanning is buggy. I am very close to objects and the scanner still does not list them. And where is that mining station, which I came for? The rings of one planet which refuses to reveal are very bright, meaning tight asteroids. I am curious and want to drop in there, just to see how it is. Yes, indeed. Full of asteroids and whitish fog. Great to see that there is some variety with those rings.
After a meditative break, back in supercruise those planets finally show on the scanner, also an extraction site. A pity that I do not have my Cobra anymore, lest I could go in there for a bit of bounty hunting, for a change. Now, where is that station! Hm, using the D-scan again makes the contacts disappear. Bug. But it is weird also without bugs; this planet does not seem to have an orbit. Lots of objects revolving around it, moons. But no orbit line for the planet itself? There is a second ring planet, which seems to be exactly in the same orbit. At least the same orbit line connects them. This line is far away from the three suns which I discovered. But they must revolve around something! No matter how long I search, no sun to be seen. Maybe this planet is indeed orbitless, a pseudo-sun for the four (?) moons? It is difficult to see without proper identification, they all still show unknown despite all my scanning efforts via targeting, even flying very close to them. Buggy.
So I set course for NLTT49528, supposedly an industrial system. Maybe I even find the station there? My original plan is abondoned, I am in the middle of an exploration trip. With a Lakon Type 6. Well, there are worse ships, at least the cockpit view is nice. At the last moment before jumping, I spot something move before the vast starlight darkness of space. I move closer. At last, the D-scanner reveals 14 astronomical objects! Two more ring planets with moons. For those, I do indeed spot an orbit line around the three suns, which are about 1600 ls away. It is a very interesting system, but maybe I am just not good in astronomy.
Since I know now to look out for pins of light, I discover another ringworld with moons, 7 objects. I spot another planet, without rings this time. Exploration really gets to me. I have a goal; where is that mining station?
Another speck in space! This system has a lot of planets! A planet, three object. I read about that unproven space/planet formula, which nevertheless relatively accurately predicts distances of planets from the sun. So I follow a line farther out of the farthest planet, roughly at double distance. No luck, I do not find anything anymore. And the station eludes me. It may also be a bug; I have read in the ED forums that there are sytems which do not have stations despite having allegiance or even a population numbers, after all. What a pity; finding the station would have been a reward in itself!
Jump to NLTT49528. Fullerton City is 6.000 ls away. What a flight time. D-scan shows 16 objects, but they do not appear anywhere. Actually, after a minute, they appear at least in the left menu. But I want to dock and have a drink now.
So, finally I get to see one of the newly introdocued Ocellus Stations. I did not realize this from outside; they looked more impressive in the screenshots... I just realized it when the station logo was different, that of an ocellus station. The commodity market has high supply of crop harvesters, cobalt, basic medicines, domestic appliances, wait... they also have all minerals here! So, my odysee finally brought me back to my initial goal. Well, well. The station is also well stocked... all ships are purchasable here. And the outfitting menu is also well stocked. In particular, a thruster, scanner and power system could be of interest. Or should I save for better frameshift drive? On this occasion I realize, the screen shows my current range as suddenly 15ly, not as before 12ly. Weird.
Checking the bulletin board, there are plenty of missions to LHS64. I grab two transport missions for ~100k Credits and some more until my hold is full. Nice, never had so much profit in one run in this beta! Cartographics are still bugged and hang the client for a minute. Now quick, take off before the mission time runs out. The new thruster I installed is disappointing; I do not realize any difference to before.
Arriving in LHS64, and I am so goddamn glad that the crashes seem to be a thing from the past now, I make 200k Credits within 15 minutes. Locke´s Claim, my first stop, has again 100k worth of transport missions, to the in-system station Fisher Platform. Nice! Cash and equipment to buy, a good reason to stay here a bit! There is a self-loop of uranite-fetch missions, as they are also sold at this very same commodity market. A 60k transport mission takes me back to Locke´s Claim.
When I want to launch, my ship seems to be stuck in the access lift. Have to relog. Locke´s has again a lot of valuable missions for me. I can finally make use of my big cargo hold and fill it to the brim, back to Fisher, then jump to Fullerton in NLTT49528.
I spend there the 430k Credits which I just earned for a better 4F frameshift drive (176k Credits), which raises my optimal tonnage from 315 to 350 tons. Two point defense turret for 18k Credits. A G3 powerplant, yielding 1000 more power capacity. While flying, I notice that my rightmenu suddenly gives my a jumprange of 19ly/15ly. Weird. Maybe the powerplant upgraded the jump range, too? Or the whole game still is too buggy to be reliable.
For a while I make good profit, until on the next trip to LHS64, the client finally crashes again. Timer is running out on several missions because I took time to collect quite a bunch. After the crash, again a blue circle in space, hyperjump blurry and endless. I restart three times, same thing again as described at the start.
Sigh. I guess the missions have timed out in the meanwhile. Time to go offline, I guess. I should prbably send this whole blog entry as one huge ticket...
Starting at Aulin, the black market accepts transactions again, so I can finally sell all that cargo from the missions which expired during last session´s crashes. Then I accept a transport mission to Opala for 9k Credits. The hyperjump is successful, and hope rises. However, exiting supercruise at the station is not smooth at all, contrary of what should have been fixed with patch 2.05.
In Opala there are two fetch missions where I know that I can get the coffee and tea from Eta Cephei, so I accept them, total value 45k Credits. Leaving the docking area, I note a hollow blip. I turn around in order to scan and get to know the CMDR. However, this guy seemed to have followed me, and as I complete my 180 degree turn, I am crashing right into him and get destroyed. Don´t know about him, as the killscreen does not give any name.
Restart from Opala, after 70k Credits for insurance got deducted. More than my current run will profit me. First, I have to find a jump route to Eta Cephei, which is not easy, because not in a plane with Opala. I have to shift the view downwards and thus loose direction to Opala. With a little bit of spatial imagination, I finally manage to plot a course, via LHS3006, Lalande, LP103-294. Enter hyperspace. It is stuttering and I worry, but (c)hyperspace spits me out in LHS3006. Next jump. Enter hyperspace, I note that my EDtracker suddenly veers my head view to the right, and instead of an exit, the client crashes again, I am back on my windows7 desktop. Sigh. Restart, relog, "could not connect to server", second try works. Next try for hyperjump, same thing, crash.
Maybe it is a buggy system, so I switch to Naraka. It works! I exit hyperjump in Naraka! Yay! Although, my head view again veers off in hyperspace. Next jump, must be LHS1446. Crash, "server not connected", red start-button, playing a tutorial mission, start button white again, this time trying "solo" play mode. "Sever not connected", then again red start button, playing a tutorial mission, still red button.
After some 20 minuntes, writing these lines, white start button again, next try to LHS1446 in "open play". Wish me luck. Jump! The hyperspace animation starts again a bit blurry, something I connect to something going wrong; but it gets clear again, and I exit to LHS1446.Yay!
But something is off. I get a message that "1 astronomical object detected", repeatedly. Also, I want to but cannot drop from supercruise. Only after the "frameshift cooled down". Something is still very wrong, I guess. How many tickets should I open?
Hyperjump to Eta Cephei works on first try. The giant blazing sun greets me, but it is difficult to get in the mood with all these bugs buzzing. As I exit, a message pops up "1 astronomical object detected", and I follow up with a D-scan and get "5 astronomical objects detected". Exit from SC at the Isherwood Station causes a freeze. I have to kill the client via Task Manager.
Restart. It has become a nail-biting issue in the meanwhile. Back in without problems, although it takes a while before the button turns white. I supercruise again to Isherwood Ring. Approaching, I get repeatedly "1 astronomical object detected". Exit from supercruise works after about 10 seconds of freeze.
I have finally arrived. Of course, my fetch missions have expired in the meanwhile. As compensation, I accept and immediately serve all coffee- and tea fetch quests I can get hold off. Not many, this time, but enough to buy 50 tea and 50 coffee units for trade. The bulletin board loads very slow, about 5 seconds. I wanted to travel a bit today but I hardly dare anymore.
There are a lot of Coltan and Uraninite fetch quests here, also some Lepidolite. I have the impression that extraction systems are very rare, anyways. None in jump range with the 12ly of my Lakon Type 6. So far, I could not make use of the extra cargo space. Maybe I should have stayed with the Cobra? Thing is, I love the Lakon-style cockpit view.
I plot a course to Vetr, an extraction site, via Ross1069. Let´s see if I can make some sense out of these fetch quests. And maybe they buy coffee and tea over there. Wish me luck with the hyperjumps...
Ops, ship is overheating, how come? 150%. As I enter hyperspace is blurry, bad sign. But it works, I am in Ross1069. I get the "1 astronomical object detected" thing, follow up with a D-scan and detect 3 more. Repeat scan, again 3 objects, repeat, again. Bug, must be the same 3 objects all the time.
The last two jumps, I was always on my desktop when in hyperspace. Maybe this is a work around to prevent crashing???
No overheating on the next jump. Again the obviously buggy "astronomical object", set course to Solovyov Colony. Ops, interdiction, actually my first one in the whole beta2! I boost away before I can identify my hosts. Exit supercruise again causes a freeze, jeeez, I am quite sore of these bugs. They for sure kill the whole mood of the game!
It tuns out that Vetr is a tiny extraction and refinery colony, and guess what, no freaking minerals for sale except for Bauxite. Great. Bulletin board takes 20 seconds to pop up. One coffee fetch mission for 11k, at least. I spot another, but the board hangs again for 10 seconds and it is gone before I can act again because of the 5 minute timer.
At least I can sell my stuff on the market, for a little profit. I remember my D-scans and try to sell them, but the universal cartographics menu hangs and does not open. In fact, the whole client hangs with it; after a minute, "unable to retrieve cartographic data from server".
I want to go to the neighbour LT16016, maybe they finally have some minerals. I sell the rest of my tea and coffee for about 60k profit. At least, and finally, I seem to have found a trade route!
I arrive at LT16016, whew. They system is totally unexplored. Three suns orbiting each other, looks very cool! But scanning is buggy. I am very close to objects and the scanner still does not list them. And where is that mining station, which I came for? The rings of one planet which refuses to reveal are very bright, meaning tight asteroids. I am curious and want to drop in there, just to see how it is. Yes, indeed. Full of asteroids and whitish fog. Great to see that there is some variety with those rings.
After a meditative break, back in supercruise those planets finally show on the scanner, also an extraction site. A pity that I do not have my Cobra anymore, lest I could go in there for a bit of bounty hunting, for a change. Now, where is that station! Hm, using the D-scan again makes the contacts disappear. Bug. But it is weird also without bugs; this planet does not seem to have an orbit. Lots of objects revolving around it, moons. But no orbit line for the planet itself? There is a second ring planet, which seems to be exactly in the same orbit. At least the same orbit line connects them. This line is far away from the three suns which I discovered. But they must revolve around something! No matter how long I search, no sun to be seen. Maybe this planet is indeed orbitless, a pseudo-sun for the four (?) moons? It is difficult to see without proper identification, they all still show unknown despite all my scanning efforts via targeting, even flying very close to them. Buggy.
So I set course for NLTT49528, supposedly an industrial system. Maybe I even find the station there? My original plan is abondoned, I am in the middle of an exploration trip. With a Lakon Type 6. Well, there are worse ships, at least the cockpit view is nice. At the last moment before jumping, I spot something move before the vast starlight darkness of space. I move closer. At last, the D-scanner reveals 14 astronomical objects! Two more ring planets with moons. For those, I do indeed spot an orbit line around the three suns, which are about 1600 ls away. It is a very interesting system, but maybe I am just not good in astronomy.
Since I know now to look out for pins of light, I discover another ringworld with moons, 7 objects. I spot another planet, without rings this time. Exploration really gets to me. I have a goal; where is that mining station?
Another speck in space! This system has a lot of planets! A planet, three object. I read about that unproven space/planet formula, which nevertheless relatively accurately predicts distances of planets from the sun. So I follow a line farther out of the farthest planet, roughly at double distance. No luck, I do not find anything anymore. And the station eludes me. It may also be a bug; I have read in the ED forums that there are sytems which do not have stations despite having allegiance or even a population numbers, after all. What a pity; finding the station would have been a reward in itself!
Jump to NLTT49528. Fullerton City is 6.000 ls away. What a flight time. D-scan shows 16 objects, but they do not appear anywhere. Actually, after a minute, they appear at least in the left menu. But I want to dock and have a drink now.
So, finally I get to see one of the newly introdocued Ocellus Stations. I did not realize this from outside; they looked more impressive in the screenshots... I just realized it when the station logo was different, that of an ocellus station. The commodity market has high supply of crop harvesters, cobalt, basic medicines, domestic appliances, wait... they also have all minerals here! So, my odysee finally brought me back to my initial goal. Well, well. The station is also well stocked... all ships are purchasable here. And the outfitting menu is also well stocked. In particular, a thruster, scanner and power system could be of interest. Or should I save for better frameshift drive? On this occasion I realize, the screen shows my current range as suddenly 15ly, not as before 12ly. Weird.
Checking the bulletin board, there are plenty of missions to LHS64. I grab two transport missions for ~100k Credits and some more until my hold is full. Nice, never had so much profit in one run in this beta! Cartographics are still bugged and hang the client for a minute. Now quick, take off before the mission time runs out. The new thruster I installed is disappointing; I do not realize any difference to before.
Arriving in LHS64, and I am so goddamn glad that the crashes seem to be a thing from the past now, I make 200k Credits within 15 minutes. Locke´s Claim, my first stop, has again 100k worth of transport missions, to the in-system station Fisher Platform. Nice! Cash and equipment to buy, a good reason to stay here a bit! There is a self-loop of uranite-fetch missions, as they are also sold at this very same commodity market. A 60k transport mission takes me back to Locke´s Claim.
When I want to launch, my ship seems to be stuck in the access lift. Have to relog. Locke´s has again a lot of valuable missions for me. I can finally make use of my big cargo hold and fill it to the brim, back to Fisher, then jump to Fullerton in NLTT49528.
I spend there the 430k Credits which I just earned for a better 4F frameshift drive (176k Credits), which raises my optimal tonnage from 315 to 350 tons. Two point defense turret for 18k Credits. A G3 powerplant, yielding 1000 more power capacity. While flying, I notice that my rightmenu suddenly gives my a jumprange of 19ly/15ly. Weird. Maybe the powerplant upgraded the jump range, too? Or the whole game still is too buggy to be reliable.
For a while I make good profit, until on the next trip to LHS64, the client finally crashes again. Timer is running out on several missions because I took time to collect quite a bunch. After the crash, again a blue circle in space, hyperjump blurry and endless. I restart three times, same thing again as described at the start.
Sigh. I guess the missions have timed out in the meanwhile. Time to go offline, I guess. I should prbably send this whole blog entry as one huge ticket...
Friday, 10 October 2014
Move on, citizen
... nothing to see here!
This game session is like the last. Initially, with the new 2.05 patch, the hyperjump seemed to work again. Ok one crash, but then it worked. So I went to Aulin and bought the Lakon Type 6. Only 50 tons cargo capacity and 12 ly range. A bit disappointing, a lot of upgrades are still needed. Then there was a 50k transport mission to Band Orbital in the same system. Arriving there, I found 32-ton-racks, boosting my cargo capacity to 100 tons. And a sligthly better frameshift drive. I was able to stack about 10 missions going to Keries and a few more to Opala. Then the mission board was exhausted; only six missions to scattered places or of the "fetch"-type were left. This is new, probably included to prevent the roulette style type of play, where as you accept missions and abort until you are stacked and stuffed with the "right" missions.
But then, alas, it starts again. I want to relog because of the "mass lock" bug, which appears when you install a new frameshift drive. I get stuck in the loading screen. This time, not the beta2 server´s fault, as I realize at some point: my internet broke down. After 15 minutes, it is back working. From then on, I have constant crashes. As a variation, the game also gets stuck in an endless hyperjump. Restarting, and relogging is impeded by a message "cannot connect to server", the second try then works. Sometimes there are graphical glitches. I noted a blue ring floating somewhere ahead of me; a residue from the galaxy map? Restarting the PC does not help either.
After an hour of trying to make something with the game, I give up. Maybe I should have a little break until the next beta version is out. Right now I cannot help feel but a bit muted about my hopes to have a fully implemented and fully working game in late December. But ok, we still have a full November, and things are indeed developing very fast, even with the huge setbacks in this beta2, where a lot of stuff is new, but nothing seems to work as intended. (I was also beta participant of The Elder Scrolls Online, which btw was for free, and if their beta would have been similar faulty than this one here, players and press would have for sure crucified the developer!)
I wonder if I need to reset my save file, starting over again? I would only do this if I was sure it would set things right. And I am not. But maybe I better do it, as a last try, before I set this game aside until the next beta client arrives?
This game session is like the last. Initially, with the new 2.05 patch, the hyperjump seemed to work again. Ok one crash, but then it worked. So I went to Aulin and bought the Lakon Type 6. Only 50 tons cargo capacity and 12 ly range. A bit disappointing, a lot of upgrades are still needed. Then there was a 50k transport mission to Band Orbital in the same system. Arriving there, I found 32-ton-racks, boosting my cargo capacity to 100 tons. And a sligthly better frameshift drive. I was able to stack about 10 missions going to Keries and a few more to Opala. Then the mission board was exhausted; only six missions to scattered places or of the "fetch"-type were left. This is new, probably included to prevent the roulette style type of play, where as you accept missions and abort until you are stacked and stuffed with the "right" missions.
But then, alas, it starts again. I want to relog because of the "mass lock" bug, which appears when you install a new frameshift drive. I get stuck in the loading screen. This time, not the beta2 server´s fault, as I realize at some point: my internet broke down. After 15 minutes, it is back working. From then on, I have constant crashes. As a variation, the game also gets stuck in an endless hyperjump. Restarting, and relogging is impeded by a message "cannot connect to server", the second try then works. Sometimes there are graphical glitches. I noted a blue ring floating somewhere ahead of me; a residue from the galaxy map? Restarting the PC does not help either.
After an hour of trying to make something with the game, I give up. Maybe I should have a little break until the next beta version is out. Right now I cannot help feel but a bit muted about my hopes to have a fully implemented and fully working game in late December. But ok, we still have a full November, and things are indeed developing very fast, even with the huge setbacks in this beta2, where a lot of stuff is new, but nothing seems to work as intended. (I was also beta participant of The Elder Scrolls Online, which btw was for free, and if their beta would have been similar faulty than this one here, players and press would have for sure crucified the developer!)
I wonder if I need to reset my save file, starting over again? I would only do this if I was sure it would set things right. And I am not. But maybe I better do it, as a last try, before I set this game aside until the next beta client arrives?
Thursday, 9 October 2014
Crash-boom-bang
This is a short game session. I start in Rakapila, Stone Enterprises. Still not sure how to continue, I first check if I can finally get hold of an affordable shield system for my Cobra. Nope. Today there is a cheaper one, but it still costs 550k Credits, which is too much for my wallet right now. I wonder how much money I got reimbursed when I sold my shield for that cargo rack? It probably went straight into the improved frameshift drive.
The bulletin board has no interesting missions for me. After one refresh, I take three transport missions to Aulin. Maybe Aulin has an affordable shield system. Once I have one, I could do a few last combat missions before I pass over to a true transporter ship, the Lakon Type 6. Reading from the forum, that ship must have phenomenal jump range from the beginning, and of course I expect a large cargo hold of over 100 units when upgraded. Enough to have a stash of commodities for every possible type of fetch-mission.
All this thinking around made me get sloppy again, and once I arrive in Aulin I have to realize that I twook two missions to Maher Station. This is in I Bootis, not in Aulin. Sigh. I drop off the third one in the second station in this system and then dock at Aulin Enterprises. Nope, no shield. Ok, I accepted those missions, so I might bring them as well to I Bootis, Maher Station. If I find also no shield in Chango Dock in I Bootis, I will go directly for a Lakon 6 and skip the planned part of combat.
Engage hyperjump. Whoosh. Crash on exit. Not a problem, happens, sometimes. I restart the game, but I am not connected. This is new. It must be a server problem appearing, so there should be several players affected. No post yet, so I start one in the ED forum for bugs. I see there no shitstorm starting, so this does not affect every player, in fact, I seem to be a very tiny minority, with four or five other players who started to have the same problem around the same time.
After a while, I can connect again to the server and the "open play" button turns from red to white. Back in Aulin. Engage hyperjump. Whoosh. Crash on exit. Restart game, not connected. After a while, connected again.
My missions are gone from the leftmenu. Sigh. So lets go for the Lakon Type 6. I dock and want to buy it, but it is not possible: "Have to remove cargo first." Aha, there is still the cargo from the missions, marked as "hauling" not as "stolen". This means the missions must still be active, even though I do not see them. It is worth a try, so I undock and head for I Bootis.
Engage hyperjump. Whoosh. Crash on exit. Restart game, not connected. After a while, connected again.
In between, I just play the tutorial missions again. Specifically the last one, "Incursion". I never made it, and I still do not make it. Wave 7 onwards just tear me apart. But what I had to note is that fighting the lone Cobra actually has become easier, not more difficult. I regret this, because I still consider myself a noob pilot, and I want the game to be challenging also for well skilled pilots. So, I vote for having the former Cobra AI back.
Then back into the "open play" world. Engage hyperjump. Whoosh. Crash on exit. Restart game, not connected. After a while, connected again.
My missions are back in the right menu. Maybe the D-Scan is buggy, which shows as deployed? There once was a bug like this, with the point defense systems. I manage to retract it by switching firegroups. Engage hyperjump. Whoosh. Crash. Restart game, not connected. After a while, connected again.
Engage hyperjump. Whoosh. Crash on exit. Restart game, not connected. After a while, connected again.
Hm, maybe I Bootis is bugged? Change course for a different system
Engage hyperjump. Whoosh. Crash on exit. Restart game, not connected. After a while, connected again.
Engage hyperjump. Whoosh. Crash on exit. Restart game, not connected. After a while, connected again.
Engage hyperjump. Whoosh. Crash on exit. Restart game, not connected. After a while, connected again.
Engage hyperjump. Whoosh. Crash on exit. Restart game, not connected. After a while, connected again.
Ok that´s it. No feedback from Frontier about some server problem, only few players affected, what can I do.
I call it a night. May this beta version be a dim memory from the past, soon!
The bulletin board has no interesting missions for me. After one refresh, I take three transport missions to Aulin. Maybe Aulin has an affordable shield system. Once I have one, I could do a few last combat missions before I pass over to a true transporter ship, the Lakon Type 6. Reading from the forum, that ship must have phenomenal jump range from the beginning, and of course I expect a large cargo hold of over 100 units when upgraded. Enough to have a stash of commodities for every possible type of fetch-mission.
All this thinking around made me get sloppy again, and once I arrive in Aulin I have to realize that I twook two missions to Maher Station. This is in I Bootis, not in Aulin. Sigh. I drop off the third one in the second station in this system and then dock at Aulin Enterprises. Nope, no shield. Ok, I accepted those missions, so I might bring them as well to I Bootis, Maher Station. If I find also no shield in Chango Dock in I Bootis, I will go directly for a Lakon 6 and skip the planned part of combat.
Engage hyperjump. Whoosh. Crash on exit. Not a problem, happens, sometimes. I restart the game, but I am not connected. This is new. It must be a server problem appearing, so there should be several players affected. No post yet, so I start one in the ED forum for bugs. I see there no shitstorm starting, so this does not affect every player, in fact, I seem to be a very tiny minority, with four or five other players who started to have the same problem around the same time.
After a while, I can connect again to the server and the "open play" button turns from red to white. Back in Aulin. Engage hyperjump. Whoosh. Crash on exit. Restart game, not connected. After a while, connected again.
My missions are gone from the leftmenu. Sigh. So lets go for the Lakon Type 6. I dock and want to buy it, but it is not possible: "Have to remove cargo first." Aha, there is still the cargo from the missions, marked as "hauling" not as "stolen". This means the missions must still be active, even though I do not see them. It is worth a try, so I undock and head for I Bootis.
Engage hyperjump. Whoosh. Crash on exit. Restart game, not connected. After a while, connected again.
In between, I just play the tutorial missions again. Specifically the last one, "Incursion". I never made it, and I still do not make it. Wave 7 onwards just tear me apart. But what I had to note is that fighting the lone Cobra actually has become easier, not more difficult. I regret this, because I still consider myself a noob pilot, and I want the game to be challenging also for well skilled pilots. So, I vote for having the former Cobra AI back.
Then back into the "open play" world. Engage hyperjump. Whoosh. Crash on exit. Restart game, not connected. After a while, connected again.
My missions are back in the right menu. Maybe the D-Scan is buggy, which shows as deployed? There once was a bug like this, with the point defense systems. I manage to retract it by switching firegroups. Engage hyperjump. Whoosh. Crash. Restart game, not connected. After a while, connected again.
Engage hyperjump. Whoosh. Crash on exit. Restart game, not connected. After a while, connected again.
Hm, maybe I Bootis is bugged? Change course for a different system
Engage hyperjump. Whoosh. Crash on exit. Restart game, not connected. After a while, connected again.
Engage hyperjump. Whoosh. Crash on exit. Restart game, not connected. After a while, connected again.
Engage hyperjump. Whoosh. Crash on exit. Restart game, not connected. After a while, connected again.
Engage hyperjump. Whoosh. Crash on exit. Restart game, not connected. After a while, connected again.
Ok that´s it. No feedback from Frontier about some server problem, only few players affected, what can I do.
I call it a night. May this beta version be a dim memory from the past, soon!
Wednesday, 8 October 2014
Transport missions, only
Starting at Isherwood Ring in Eta Cephei, I immedeately check for the outfitting market. No luck, no 16-ton racks, which I know were offered here previously. Since I sport now a much more powerful frameshift drive, I do not need to save every tidbit of mass from my ship anymore. So I re-equip weapons. After a long pondering, I decide to go for four 1G gimballed multicannons with overcharge. They will provide for only a modest increas of ship mass of 8 tons.
The are rated G1, meaning they are of smallest size class 1 and have an overal rating of "G". Contrary to my earlier assessment, "A" is indeed the best class, but the usual selections do not get that high and range between D and H. Meaning, a 1H gun is the lowest level weapon you can get. A Cobra has two class-1 and two class-2 weapon mounts, but the class-2 weapons are so expensive that I stick to the much cheaper class-1 models. It is for self defense or an occasional easy side job, and if not, I count on my combat skills to compensate for lesser-than-possible installed damage output of my armaments.
My Cobra also gets a cargo scanner and a kill warrant scanner. I have read in the forum that those "get stolen items" missions are in some cases also an entry-test in order to access more lucrative missions from that particular faction. I spot one of them in the bulletin board, with 80k Credits very profitable at that, however, I have no freaking idea how I would be able to collect 43 autofabricators in within the missions timer of 50 minutes! The same goes for all "steal"-missions. Either I would have to take a fitting transport mission and "repurpose" those goods by simply abandoning the transport mission, or I would have to patrol unidentified signals and the nav beacons close to the sun and use that new cargo hatch-opener-module on ships after scanning them with the cargo scanner. This is way too tedious and risky, compared that I can find some similar lucrative income by simply stackpiling transport and courier missions. But, you never know, so I rather be equiped to switch my assessment and playstyle on the go. It is difficult enough to find equipment when you really need it, so better be prepared for everything.
One such lucrative transport mission pops up right now in the newest 5-minute refresh of the bulleting board´s offer of missions. 50k Credits transporting stuff to Irens City, right in the same system. This mission is of course only doable if you have enough cargo hold, here 32 units, but I do have, so I grab this one immediately and launch, because the timer is just 10 minutes. Arriving there in time, my cash is, after my previous shopping tour for my ship, back up to 71k Credits.
I find there some smaller transport missions back to Isherwood Ring. Unfortunately, all my pondering about what to do and how to do leave me rather unfocused on the actual piloting. Boom-crash-bang, I manage to screw myself in the docking entrance, because I do not realize that my fingers still rest on the "landing" controls (forward/backward, strafe right/left) instead of my flight controls (up/down, roll). Quite a disorienting feeling when your ship does not steer to what you expected. Since I replaced my shield with an additional cargo rack, this fancy maneuver results in an explosion and a hefty insurance fee of 52k Credits, effectively neutralizing my profit from the last trip, i.e. roughly 15 minutes of game time; back to 19k cash. No big deal, thankfully. (I would really be found swearing now if I would be in EVE Online...)
Some smallish transport missions again, take two, back to Isherwood Station, bring my cash up to 28k Credits. No lucrative missions to be found there. I do not want to stack missions again to Aldermin. That long flight time in supercruise needed to get to the stations over there is putting me off. Instead, with my remaining cash, I load up some coffee and tea and leave for LFT1446. This system is shown in the galaxy trading map as a receiver of coffee and tea. The system station Ray Colony is also a bit off the chart, with 3.600 ls. Sigh. Frontier should really install those planned in-sytem hyperjumps! The galaxy map was right again, I can sell my cargo off for a little profit, getting up to 37k Credits. Maybe I can really start to use and trust in the galaxy trading map? Not sure, the ED forum indicate it was still inaccurate.
No matter, the bulleting board handles me another transport mission for 67k Credits, very nice, to Edison Station, again in the very same system! Wonderful quick cash. Arriving there, I am not so lucky again, but at least I find 9 missions to stack, headed for Naraka, to both its stations of Hawking Depot as well as Novitzki Oasis. After that, I have 140k Credits. It seems that money is coming in at resonable rates.
However, after this, I am stranded with only small budget 2k-Credits missions to diverse corners of the cluster, which I do not want to involve myself with, anymore. Instead, I move on "empty", to LHS3006, and after a similar bad luck, onwards to Lalande 29917, and again to G203-67.
I chose the first system because I hoped to take some minerals with me; I encountered so far plenty of fetch-missions involving the odd mineral, and "extraction" systems are the place to look for them. Unfortunately, either LHS3006 is very poor, or I do not have a good reputation with them; market is near closed. After this, I spent quite some time to figure out what to do or where to go, and after much pondering and browsing of the galaxy map, went for a hopefully rich high tech system ("hopefully rich", because I guess from size of the blob which represents the system in the galaxy map). My way there leads me through Lalande29917.
I have to say it is very difficult to navigate through the stars. The galaxy map is of course 3D, but my jump range of >20ly opens so many paths that I do not even see the endpoint of all 1-jump connections (those which go further than roughly 15 ly). A lot of scrolling up and down and guessing where I endet up relatively to my current location is involved. I hope that Frontier can find a way to make this navigation issue a bit more accessible.
Arriving in G203-67, Horrowitz Station, I am finally lucky enough to see those 16-ton-cargo racks offered. My thusly upgraded Cobra now has a cargo capacity of 52 tons, and thanks to my powerful frameshift drive only very little loss of range (to ~17 ly) when fully laden. My plan was to chart the sourrounding systems according to their type and try to esablished a kind of close-cluster trade route, thereby finally getting a grip on those fetch-missions, or even back to free commodity market trading. However, it seems I chose my new hub here badly, there is almost nothing on supply here. Also, I just do not feel like filling in a google-spreadsheet today, so I drop this idea again pretty quickly. How I do miss Slopey´s Trading Tool!
A new lucrative transport mission amounting 60k Credits pops up and leads me to Wise1647-5632, Hirase Platform. Damn, another far-out station that is, with 16.300 ls of emptyness to cross. No further mission luck over there, so I go back empty to G203-67. A new 60k-Credit mission, plus one for 20k Credits, awaits me, this time to a well-known beta1-system, Acihaut, Cuffey Plant. When I try to wait for a refresh of the bulletin board´s missions, I realize that the timer of any mission already starts while the mission is still uncollected on the mission board. Makes sense, I guess. And I am not that lucky so far as to collect two of those more lucrative missions.
In Acihaut, I am lucky again, and a 66k-Credit mission sends me over to Nag Ta-Khian, Hadwell Orbital. I go where the mission winds blow me, I guess. This goes on for a bit more; 60k Credits to Lalande29917 again; 65k Credits back to Acihaut. All this routine leads me again to being a little careless, incurring a dent on my shield-less ship now and then, but for only minor repairs.
Then there is again a bit of a low, only smallish missions pop up even after awaiting a few refreshments. Change of plan, then. With about 420k Credits, I might be able to afford a new shiny high graded piece of equipment. Or a new ship, next in the row would be the Lakon Type 6. I go to check in Aulin. And, yes, with all the upgrade already installed on my Cobra, I would need to pay onl 43k Credits more in order to get a barebone Lakon Type 6. The outfitting screen offers just one notable piece, a D4 shield generator, for freaking 1.6 million Credits! For several stations, I checked already for getting a shield back again for my Cobra, but so far I only found either too small shields, which would not install, or too expensive ones. Very annoying, if you are really looking for something important. So, again, dear developers at Frontier, please think about giving us a better overview on availability!
Another interesting note on Aulin, the commodity market has shifted by quite a lot. Last Monday, I still was able to buy medium-supply performance enhancers. Today, they are in medium demand! This complicates things a lot, I wonder if too much, down to the level of a roulette, no planning possible anymore.
I head over to Rakapila, Stone Enterprise, another moreless rich industrial world. They sport an Anaconda for 45 million Credits. Way to go still, I doubt this beta period will see me in one, since it will already end on 28 October, probably again with a wipe of all accounts. (Side remark: My kills from beta1 did not get wiped, but they also do not seem to count yet towards my reputation; I am still ranked "harmless", with 632 kills on my board...)
It is here that I decide to quit this game session. Overall, it was a lot of cash grinding with hardly anything exciting to see or do. I have again the feeling, for some reason I still cannot completely name, that something is missing for me in this beta2-iteration. Maybe a kind of clarity about the game mechanics, proper tools for analysis? E.g. trading without Slopeys Best Price calculator becomes a tedious excel-sheet exercise?
E.g. navigating the expanded bubble with a 20ly frameshift drive is difficult, as I do not even see some of the end points of my one-jump lines? E.g. trying to find proper equipment makes you dock at every station, preferable industry or tech ones (although I also found good stuff in a rich agricultural system), clicking repetitively onto every module slot? It is like poking around with a blindfold on.
All these things were non-issues in beta1, it was much more limited in scope, thus the problems did not appear firsthand and thus I had the feeling of being more in control of my environment.
Well, let´s see, there are still some options to explore. Should I continue to pimp up my Cobra, to be flexible also for the odd combat mission, or should I go for the Lakon Type 6, and be some kind of travelling trader, thereby holding a stock of items of which I know that they usually pop up in fetch-type missions? Also, I still did not test my reputation-theory. Somehow I am not in the mood for testing something which will probably change again in about three weeks.
Those transport missions are nice to have, but I felt more invested when I still had Slopey´s Trading Tool, as a sort of mini-game to find and pick the best trading routes by myself (a kind of "create your own mission"), instead of getting them handed on an orange bulletin board. However, I also have to admit that I became a kind of mission-junkie in this session, and a tunnel-view might have obstructed different paths (e.g. galaxy map trading now viable?).
This is an interesting thought to leave off for tonight; is the current mission system killing the spirit of the Elite gameplay? Shouldn´t we rather have a more individual experience with missions, e.g. actually encountering and talking to certain NPCs, getting some feedback about the results and implications of a successful/unsucessful mission, and I mean, beyond the cash grind? Some food for thought, definitely!
The are rated G1, meaning they are of smallest size class 1 and have an overal rating of "G". Contrary to my earlier assessment, "A" is indeed the best class, but the usual selections do not get that high and range between D and H. Meaning, a 1H gun is the lowest level weapon you can get. A Cobra has two class-1 and two class-2 weapon mounts, but the class-2 weapons are so expensive that I stick to the much cheaper class-1 models. It is for self defense or an occasional easy side job, and if not, I count on my combat skills to compensate for lesser-than-possible installed damage output of my armaments.
My Cobra also gets a cargo scanner and a kill warrant scanner. I have read in the forum that those "get stolen items" missions are in some cases also an entry-test in order to access more lucrative missions from that particular faction. I spot one of them in the bulletin board, with 80k Credits very profitable at that, however, I have no freaking idea how I would be able to collect 43 autofabricators in within the missions timer of 50 minutes! The same goes for all "steal"-missions. Either I would have to take a fitting transport mission and "repurpose" those goods by simply abandoning the transport mission, or I would have to patrol unidentified signals and the nav beacons close to the sun and use that new cargo hatch-opener-module on ships after scanning them with the cargo scanner. This is way too tedious and risky, compared that I can find some similar lucrative income by simply stackpiling transport and courier missions. But, you never know, so I rather be equiped to switch my assessment and playstyle on the go. It is difficult enough to find equipment when you really need it, so better be prepared for everything.
One such lucrative transport mission pops up right now in the newest 5-minute refresh of the bulleting board´s offer of missions. 50k Credits transporting stuff to Irens City, right in the same system. This mission is of course only doable if you have enough cargo hold, here 32 units, but I do have, so I grab this one immediately and launch, because the timer is just 10 minutes. Arriving there in time, my cash is, after my previous shopping tour for my ship, back up to 71k Credits.
I find there some smaller transport missions back to Isherwood Ring. Unfortunately, all my pondering about what to do and how to do leave me rather unfocused on the actual piloting. Boom-crash-bang, I manage to screw myself in the docking entrance, because I do not realize that my fingers still rest on the "landing" controls (forward/backward, strafe right/left) instead of my flight controls (up/down, roll). Quite a disorienting feeling when your ship does not steer to what you expected. Since I replaced my shield with an additional cargo rack, this fancy maneuver results in an explosion and a hefty insurance fee of 52k Credits, effectively neutralizing my profit from the last trip, i.e. roughly 15 minutes of game time; back to 19k cash. No big deal, thankfully. (I would really be found swearing now if I would be in EVE Online...)
Some smallish transport missions again, take two, back to Isherwood Station, bring my cash up to 28k Credits. No lucrative missions to be found there. I do not want to stack missions again to Aldermin. That long flight time in supercruise needed to get to the stations over there is putting me off. Instead, with my remaining cash, I load up some coffee and tea and leave for LFT1446. This system is shown in the galaxy trading map as a receiver of coffee and tea. The system station Ray Colony is also a bit off the chart, with 3.600 ls. Sigh. Frontier should really install those planned in-sytem hyperjumps! The galaxy map was right again, I can sell my cargo off for a little profit, getting up to 37k Credits. Maybe I can really start to use and trust in the galaxy trading map? Not sure, the ED forum indicate it was still inaccurate.
No matter, the bulleting board handles me another transport mission for 67k Credits, very nice, to Edison Station, again in the very same system! Wonderful quick cash. Arriving there, I am not so lucky again, but at least I find 9 missions to stack, headed for Naraka, to both its stations of Hawking Depot as well as Novitzki Oasis. After that, I have 140k Credits. It seems that money is coming in at resonable rates.
However, after this, I am stranded with only small budget 2k-Credits missions to diverse corners of the cluster, which I do not want to involve myself with, anymore. Instead, I move on "empty", to LHS3006, and after a similar bad luck, onwards to Lalande 29917, and again to G203-67.
I chose the first system because I hoped to take some minerals with me; I encountered so far plenty of fetch-missions involving the odd mineral, and "extraction" systems are the place to look for them. Unfortunately, either LHS3006 is very poor, or I do not have a good reputation with them; market is near closed. After this, I spent quite some time to figure out what to do or where to go, and after much pondering and browsing of the galaxy map, went for a hopefully rich high tech system ("hopefully rich", because I guess from size of the blob which represents the system in the galaxy map). My way there leads me through Lalande29917.
I have to say it is very difficult to navigate through the stars. The galaxy map is of course 3D, but my jump range of >20ly opens so many paths that I do not even see the endpoint of all 1-jump connections (those which go further than roughly 15 ly). A lot of scrolling up and down and guessing where I endet up relatively to my current location is involved. I hope that Frontier can find a way to make this navigation issue a bit more accessible.
Arriving in G203-67, Horrowitz Station, I am finally lucky enough to see those 16-ton-cargo racks offered. My thusly upgraded Cobra now has a cargo capacity of 52 tons, and thanks to my powerful frameshift drive only very little loss of range (to ~17 ly) when fully laden. My plan was to chart the sourrounding systems according to their type and try to esablished a kind of close-cluster trade route, thereby finally getting a grip on those fetch-missions, or even back to free commodity market trading. However, it seems I chose my new hub here badly, there is almost nothing on supply here. Also, I just do not feel like filling in a google-spreadsheet today, so I drop this idea again pretty quickly. How I do miss Slopey´s Trading Tool!
A new lucrative transport mission amounting 60k Credits pops up and leads me to Wise1647-5632, Hirase Platform. Damn, another far-out station that is, with 16.300 ls of emptyness to cross. No further mission luck over there, so I go back empty to G203-67. A new 60k-Credit mission, plus one for 20k Credits, awaits me, this time to a well-known beta1-system, Acihaut, Cuffey Plant. When I try to wait for a refresh of the bulletin board´s missions, I realize that the timer of any mission already starts while the mission is still uncollected on the mission board. Makes sense, I guess. And I am not that lucky so far as to collect two of those more lucrative missions.
In Acihaut, I am lucky again, and a 66k-Credit mission sends me over to Nag Ta-Khian, Hadwell Orbital. I go where the mission winds blow me, I guess. This goes on for a bit more; 60k Credits to Lalande29917 again; 65k Credits back to Acihaut. All this routine leads me again to being a little careless, incurring a dent on my shield-less ship now and then, but for only minor repairs.
Then there is again a bit of a low, only smallish missions pop up even after awaiting a few refreshments. Change of plan, then. With about 420k Credits, I might be able to afford a new shiny high graded piece of equipment. Or a new ship, next in the row would be the Lakon Type 6. I go to check in Aulin. And, yes, with all the upgrade already installed on my Cobra, I would need to pay onl 43k Credits more in order to get a barebone Lakon Type 6. The outfitting screen offers just one notable piece, a D4 shield generator, for freaking 1.6 million Credits! For several stations, I checked already for getting a shield back again for my Cobra, but so far I only found either too small shields, which would not install, or too expensive ones. Very annoying, if you are really looking for something important. So, again, dear developers at Frontier, please think about giving us a better overview on availability!
Another interesting note on Aulin, the commodity market has shifted by quite a lot. Last Monday, I still was able to buy medium-supply performance enhancers. Today, they are in medium demand! This complicates things a lot, I wonder if too much, down to the level of a roulette, no planning possible anymore.
I head over to Rakapila, Stone Enterprise, another moreless rich industrial world. They sport an Anaconda for 45 million Credits. Way to go still, I doubt this beta period will see me in one, since it will already end on 28 October, probably again with a wipe of all accounts. (Side remark: My kills from beta1 did not get wiped, but they also do not seem to count yet towards my reputation; I am still ranked "harmless", with 632 kills on my board...)
It is here that I decide to quit this game session. Overall, it was a lot of cash grinding with hardly anything exciting to see or do. I have again the feeling, for some reason I still cannot completely name, that something is missing for me in this beta2-iteration. Maybe a kind of clarity about the game mechanics, proper tools for analysis? E.g. trading without Slopeys Best Price calculator becomes a tedious excel-sheet exercise?
E.g. navigating the expanded bubble with a 20ly frameshift drive is difficult, as I do not even see some of the end points of my one-jump lines? E.g. trying to find proper equipment makes you dock at every station, preferable industry or tech ones (although I also found good stuff in a rich agricultural system), clicking repetitively onto every module slot? It is like poking around with a blindfold on.
All these things were non-issues in beta1, it was much more limited in scope, thus the problems did not appear firsthand and thus I had the feeling of being more in control of my environment.
Well, let´s see, there are still some options to explore. Should I continue to pimp up my Cobra, to be flexible also for the odd combat mission, or should I go for the Lakon Type 6, and be some kind of travelling trader, thereby holding a stock of items of which I know that they usually pop up in fetch-type missions? Also, I still did not test my reputation-theory. Somehow I am not in the mood for testing something which will probably change again in about three weeks.
Those transport missions are nice to have, but I felt more invested when I still had Slopey´s Trading Tool, as a sort of mini-game to find and pick the best trading routes by myself (a kind of "create your own mission"), instead of getting them handed on an orange bulletin board. However, I also have to admit that I became a kind of mission-junkie in this session, and a tunnel-view might have obstructed different paths (e.g. galaxy map trading now viable?).
This is an interesting thought to leave off for tonight; is the current mission system killing the spirit of the Elite gameplay? Shouldn´t we rather have a more individual experience with missions, e.g. actually encountering and talking to certain NPCs, getting some feedback about the results and implications of a successful/unsucessful mission, and I mean, beyond the cash grind? Some food for thought, definitely!
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