The FFED3D Thread

[DraQ]

Having recently completed the final missions and getting a pretty much indesctructable ship, I've taken to piracy and murder in an attempt to simply increase my kill-ratings. But after a few hours of attacking space stations, polishing off the 40 or 50 Police Vipers that come to get me, paying my fines and moving on, it's actually quite boring.

So far we have learned that:

-doing boring stuff (like grinding for cash doing milkruns) in game is boring
-playing using what effectively amounts to god-mode (thargoid with several hundreds of shield-gens) is boring

Forgive my sarcasm, but who could have guessed?

 

[Sir.Tj]

Personally, I set myself Goals Like how quick can I get a Panther Clipper from the start.

Admittedly after completing the missions and doing the bombing runs etc. theres not much els to do apart from become incredibly rich and go exploring.

 

[DraQ]

not much els to do apart from become incredibly rich and go exploring.

Sadly, most people go only for the first part.

Then complain about the game being boring despite:
-never having entered gas giant's atmosphere and never having seen the hug arch of rings spanning day lit, clouded sky (FE2 only)
-never having put their ship in stable orbit around a planet
-never having flown at 100m altitude doing some 10000km/h (FFE)
-never having intercepted an incoming merchant ship in deep space while starting from it's port of destination
-never having landed on an asteroidal body (FFE)
-never having experienced the horror of trying to pull up before colliding at 20000km/h with several km high canyon wall while fleeing after successful recon mission and the relief when altimeter starts going up again, just after it had flashed some single digit number (FFE)
-never having tried a close approach to a white dwarf or Canopus 1.
-never having seen Saturn's rings from the surface of Mimas
-never having flown all the way through a system on full manual, then landed on an Earth-like world, except 2.5 times more massive using Jordanian controls, because some punk in an IC shaved half of the hull, including half of the thrusters, scanner and autopilot off their ship using 20MW beam.

And, personally, I dislike Panther. It's horribly sluggish ship compared to the rest.

 

[Sir.Tj]

Sadly, most people go only for the first part.

It is a shame, I've been all over the FFE Universe and found some facinating systems.

 

[Adrena1in]

I guess I just assumed there was nothing out there worth seeing, but if there is then I'll go exploring.

And yes, I know that flying around in a Thargoid is basically cheating really, and shows a complete lack of wanting a challenge, but I simply found the game too difficult, even with a heavily armed vessel, so for me it's the only way to stay alive!

Plus a small part of me hoped that if I went on a run of devastation around the local systems, that some contracts would be put out on me and some tougher challenges would head my way. Perhaps that sort of thing will happen in Elite 4. Be a naughty pirate and contracts will be put on your head, making it tough to stay alive.

 

[DraQ]

And yes, I know that flying around in a Thargoid is basically cheating really, and shows a complete lack of wanting a challenge, but I simply found the game too difficult, even with a heavily armed vessel, so for me it's the only way to stay alive!

Well, it takes a lot of training to get any good at combat in FFE, that's true, however, you won't get this practice through safely sticking to milkruns, then hopping into a ship you could head butt white dwarves with. You just need to keep trying, using some normal fighter, 'till something clicks in you.

I'm not, by any means, an ace-of-space (the guy who put the instructional video of him dodging five missiles simultaneously, while under fire, 'till they ran out of juice on youtube is), but most pirate encounters in FFE are trivial for me, now that I've learned how to fight. I'd probably make it to orbit from starport, while under fire from the police with my Asp without that much of a problem.

 

[Steve]

I've found FFE D3D has given me renewed enthusiasm for the game and I'm quite happy wandering around, doing missions and blowing up baddies.

My current commander is just about to embark on the highly dangerous Thargoid Missions, the first time I've tried them on D3D

 

[Vasco Da Gamer]

FFED3D and Targeting Tunnels

Hello All

Yes, yet another forty something ex-Frontier Addict coming back into the fold (I even bought my first 386 PC purely so that I could play the original Frontier).

I have been playing the excellent Russian FFED3D and am posting my first question - after having searched the forum first I assure you.

After applying the last patch that I could find (obtained from links found in the main FFED3D thread), targeting tunnels have now ceased to work for me. I wondered if this is a) a known issue, b) deliberate, c) something related to my installation specifically - certainly I have seen no one else comment on this. It's no big deal, the game works fine without them, but they are handy if you get rid of your autopilot (for the weight saving) and I just like the way they look anyway.

Thanks in advance. Still love the game, even after all this time no other comes close for physics realism, and it seems I can still shoot down the bad guys like I used to!

Vasco Da Gamer

 

[Steve]

Hello All

After applying the last patch that I could find (obtained from links found in the main FFED3D thread), targeting tunnels have now ceased to work for me. I wondered if this is a) a known issue, b) deliberate, c) something related to my installation specifically - certainly I have seen no one else comment on this. It's no big deal, the game works fine without them, but they are handy if you get rid of your autopilot (for the weight saving) and I just like the way they look anyway.

Vasco Da Gamer

Gah, targeting tunnels Always hated 'em, always switched them off in FFE.

Anyway...

It's a known issue. Whether it was deliberate or not I don't know, but I think I remember reading somewhere on the Elite Russia FFED3D forums that they'll be back in the next build, along with the videos

 

[Vasco Da Gamer]

Ah Ha. Thank you, much appreciated

I'm all for switchable options like the tunnels - keeps everyone happy.

For example, I'll be reaching for the videos' off switch when they're back....

Actually, no I won't, I quite liked the cheesy atmosphere they created really.

 

[Adrena1in]

I've not applied any of the patches to my initial install, so I'm wondering if they'll fix some of my issues, (such as the scanner not working properly).

 

[Steve]

I've not applied any of the patches to my initial install, so I'm wondering if they'll fix some of my issues, (such as the scanner not working properly).

DreamZzz posted on alt.fan.elite that the "scanner bug" was fixed in patch v1.12b - this may be what you're referring to.

 

[Adrena1in]

Thanks Steve, I'll check it out, because at the moment it's one of the most irritating bugs for me.

 

[Adrena1in]

How's it going Steve?

Only *after* doing the Thargoid Missions do I now feel confident (and capable) enough of flying around, doing missions and blowing up baddies without having to keep reloading after getting wasted.

I did my first covert photography mission the other day, and couldn't believe the number of baddies that came after me! (Rather naively I also decided to transport some people to the same system as the photo mission, so rather than Hyperspace out of there and back again I did a runner to a safe base. 2 AU with a constant line of nasties on my six! Was fun though!)

 

[Steve]

How's it going Steve?

Only *after* doing the Thargoid Missions do I now feel confident (and capable) enough of flying around, doing missions and blowing up baddies without having to keep reloading after getting wasted.

Yeah, finished the missions about midnight last night

To be honest, they aren't that dangerous really; the trickiest part is fighting your way to Hotice 1 to pick up the mycoid vaccine for the Thargoids. Other than that, it's a lot of hyperspace jumps and general flying around.

My biggest problem towards the end was my own fault; wondering why I couldn't land at New Rossyth in my brand new Thargoid warship without getting the dreaded "You're going to die soon!" message and then my ship exploding. Eventually I remembered the ship doesn't come with atmospheric shielding and I might be better off docking at Gotham Park orbital station instead

 

[Sir.Tj]

Yeah, finished the missions about midnight last night

To be honest, they aren't that dangerous really; the trickiest part is fighting your way to Hotice 1 to pick up the mycoid vaccine for the Thargoids. Other than that, it's a lot of hyperspace jumps and general flying around.

My biggest problem towards the end was my own fault; wondering why I couldn't land at New Rossyth in my brand new Thargoid warship without getting the dreaded "You're going to die soon!" message and then my ship exploding. Eventually I remembered the ship doesn't come with atmospheric shielding and I might be better off docking at Gotham Park orbital station instead

How many times have I forgotten that!! And forget to install a automatic pilot jump to a new system and click...click...errr

 

[Adrena1in]

...couldn't land at New Rossyth in my brand new Thargoid warship without getting the dreaded "You're going to die soon!" message and then my ship exploding. Eventually I remembered the ship doesn't come with atmospheric shielding and I might be better off docking at Gotham Park orbital station instead

I've found that with 999 shields you can hit the ground at a pretty high speed and just bounce off!

 

[DraQ]

Guys, how about you try learning to actually fly around and fight?
Get an Asp, 10 shields, 5MW pulse, Class 3MD and practice, with the help of the AJN tutorial on www.alioth.net .

 

[Sir.Tj]

Guys, how about you try learning to actually fly around and fight?
Get an Asp, 10 shields, 5MW pulse, Class 3MD and practice, with the help of the AJN tutorial on www.alioth.net .

TBH, I'm reasonably adept at flight and fighting even in my big ole clunky Panther .

It was more in the early days when I'd forget things when upgrading my ship, still it taught me how to dock manually with a station, and the first time I managed to make planetfall in one piece

 

[Steve]

Get an Asp, 10 shields, 5MW pulse, Class 3MD and practice

Shields? You use shields?? Pah. 'Nuff said...