Elite / Frontier Elite Plus

[Arioch]

Why I lost another ton is a total mystery to me. Could maybe something to do with some unknown counter that has get to their floating point by sheer longevity of Commander's career, but I've been wondering since could it be possible to "break" the game only by playing it.

Now that would be a very interesting find!

I think it’d be a safe bet that you’re the only person to find that bug - even if the programmers where aware of the issue back in 1990, I’m sure they’d have thought “no one will ever play the game long enough for it to appear”

 

[EliteMegaWeed]

Now that would be a very interesting find!

I think it’d be a safe bet that you’re the only person to find that bug - even if the programmers where aware of the issue back in 1990, I’m sure they’d have thought “no one will ever play the game long enough for it to appear”

Furthermore, I am currently unable to sell ALL of my lasers. When trying to sell the last one doesn't get sold.

Indeed. Elite Plus is NOT the most tested game ever published. At this point it's pretty clear. But these kind of things make it interesting, ultimately. You never know how game behaves in the future when continuing to play it.

There are that 60K-promotion coming (soon enough) and that isn't mystery. However, what the hell were those extra 64K+ and 65K+ promotions that happened to me last time I was reaching the hit counter's floating point? Does those will occur again?

And what about tribbles? Why their population size transform from freely increasing pace to rigid one ton cargo more per one tribble more pace at population size of 39114 tribbles?

We may never know.

 

[EliteMegaWeed]

Elite Plus (PC, 1991) for sale online | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Elite Plus (PC, 1991) at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Currently PC Elite Plus sells...

item 1 Elite Plus IBM PC Games BRAND NEW / FACTORY SEALED "Rainbird" 1 -Elite Plus IBM PC Games BRAND NEW / FACTORY SEALED "Rainbird"​

EUR 248.30
Free shipping

item 2 ELITE PLUS BY EMPIRE (PC) (FULLY COMPLETE FROM NEW) 2 -ELITE PLUS BY EMPIRE (PC) (FULLY COMPLETE FROM NEW)​

EUR 25.63
+EUR 12.78 shipping

item 3 Elite Plus IMB PC Video Game ~ BIG BOX 1991 Microplay Software 5 1/4" Disc RARE 3 -Elite Plus IMB PC Video Game ~ BIG BOX 1991 Microplay Software 5 1/4" Disc RARE​

EUR 67.33
+EUR 30.97 shipping

item 4 Elite Plus IBM PC Video Game BIG BOX 1991 Microplay Software RARE 3 1/2” Disc 4 -Elite Plus IBM PC Video Game BIG BOX 1991 Microplay Software RARE 3 1/2” Disc​

EUR 126.24
+EUR 31.43 shipping

etc.

at https://www.ebay.com/p/56261722

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvLFEh7V18A


Only idiots will pay without any intention to play.

 

[EliteMegaWeed]

Fellow Commanders, how I do not exactly care.

My version was legit Pirate all the time. :7

Just about the fact that good, clear Elite guys should pick those pieces now, before the bubble bursts.

 

[EliteMegaWeed]

The milestone of 4.000.000 played Credits got just broken. Lonesome Archangel is still continuing her tedious grinding at Edzaar, farming for few more kills and for money. The anarchic system's Coriolis station starts to be pretty full.

Today I played for 90674.7 Credits and 2271 Hit points.
Current total of career hits: 118734

12338 Hits left for next hit counter overflow.
6802 Hits left for next '60K promotion'.

13338 Hits left for the third Elite promotion, and to achieve unofficially official 'Triple Elite' in PC Elite Plus at 132072 hits (or more).

Right on Commanders!

 

[EliteMegaWeed]

Flight Log (latest happenings, AA Perkele)

EDZAAR (AN2PA), G8

2021
...
Sep 04 _ 3719734.0 Cr_ 65536+46229 Hits
...
Oct 10 _ 3843309.6 Cr 65536+49356 Hits __ [+123.5KCr / +3127 hits]
Oct 11 _ 3871094.0 Cr 65536+50053 Hits __ [+27.7KCr / +697 Hits]
Oct 13 _ 3900552.8 Cr 65536+50715 Hits __ [+29.5KCr / +662 Hits]
Oct 14 _ 3910411.5 Cr 65536+50927 Hits__ [+9.8KCr / +212 Hits]

2022

Mar 19 _ 4001086.2 Cr _65536+53198 Hits _ [+90.6KCr / +2271 Hits]
Mar 24 _ 4065841.5 Cr _ 65536+54640 Hits _ [+64.8KCr / +1442 Hits] Notes: 35 rounds of 33t grinders at a near space/vicinity of Edzaar station. Total loot of the day: 1155t
Mar 24-25___4072508.1 Cr___65536+55063 Hits_ [+6.666KCr / +423 Hits] "In Drunken, Archangelic Defence of Edzaar (423 Kills)"

...

 

[EliteMegaWeed]

RIGHT ON! COMMANDERS!

In my recent, temporary unemployed living I finally have some time and energy to put to my dear hobby, again. I began serious grinding for few more hit points to finally reach to a kill numbers of real interest. Today I got finally the 60K promotion for second time, meaning that I have now amassed the grand total of 125571 hit points for the Archangel Commander of 20 years of playing. There is some kind sense of accomplishment there, indeed.

Rather intense 2 days at EDZAAR, over 200000 Credits and nearly 5000 kills in two days of full mode grinding.

.........................4072508.1 Credits / 65536+55063 Hits ......
Nov 27th 2022: 4177058.4 Credits / 65536+57799 Hits [+104.5KCr / +2736 Hits], Loot: 1716t (52x33t) Deaths=2
Nov 28th 2022: 4281887.7 Credits / 65536+60035 Hits [+104.8KCr / +2236 Hits], Loot: 1941t (58x33t) Deaths=1

Edzaar's bazaars are pretty full currently. The system has gone over a level of post scarcity society, but I think I'll bail out of the system soon enough.

.
Mysterious 64K and 65K promotions, next Hit counter overflow, and 3rd Elite promotion are coming closer and closer, and that makes it relatively easy to get motivation for further grinding. With casual full time normal grinders, it will take only few days more as even long sought 'Triple Elite' promotion is only some 6500 kills away.

That said, few long days of full time toiling.

 

[EliteMegaWeed]

I decided to leave from EDZAAR right after the last comment. New, cozy anarchic system ATBEA (AN4PA) was found at other part of G8.

EDZAAR ---> ATBEA (AN4PA) 4286109.1 Credits / 65536+60175 Hits [+4.2KCr / 140 Hits]

Nov 28th 2022: 4319196.8 Credits / 65536+60968 Hits [+32.9KCr / +793 Hits], Loot: 594t (18x33t) Deaths=0
Nov 29th 2022: 4405454.9 Credits / 65536+64008 Hits [+86.2KCr / +3040 Hits], Loot: 1122t (34x33t) Deaths=1

Then I got promoted. As expected. What it means, or why it is there I have no idea.

However, I verified that the promotion happens when the hit counter is at 64000 hits. At earliest. This message is 'clean' one.

I also took multiple other rather colorful screenshots related to this mysterious 'promotion'. For example test pilot's promotion:

Test pilot's status at 64001 hits.

Why there is promotion at 64000 hits? Why there will highly probably be yet another similar promotion at 65000 hits?

If someone knows, this is the place to open your heart on the matter.

I made .CDR files for easy access to these things and I take screenshots when ever there are something interesting on screen. Archangel's current status.

Right on Commanders!

 

[EliteMegaWeed]

It became very interesting. There is something in the logic of occurrence of this "65K promotion". I continued grinding for kills and got the promotion, but not as I expected. "65K Promotion" happened to my main line Commander Archangel (Nothoria "Perkele" Infama, you know) at 64995 hits, after minor, 81 hits killing circus in near space of ATBEA, when I was carefully counting hits for making it easy to track down what is exactly the hit count when the promotion occurs.

Such unexpected promotion few kills before 65K mark required further investigation... and that was the task of Archangel Nothoria Infama's dutiful and loyal test pilot Commander Test (who himself is already achieved combined hit count for Elite status multiple times during innumebrable test flights over all these years in various circumstances. His career curriculum is however forever unverifiable and very fragmentary due nature of his thankless job. We all salute him for his hard work... o7).

Commander Test made field tests (mostly within the station shield perimeter of the Coriolis of lovely ATBEA) to pinpoint exact hit count required for this promotion, - starting at 64914 hits - and first shooting 10-15 ships before docking, then 3-5 and docking, then one hit at time, one by one, and docking...

He did not get the promotion message! When writing this he is at 65019 hit points.

Above screenshot is taken exactly at 65000 hit points accumulated, but no promotion message.

What is clear already is that there is more to requirements of this "65K promotion" than just sheer, pure number of total hit points. Further testing needed and required.

[place reselved for the results of further testings]

ADD: Further tests

Using AA Perkele savegame file with 64914 hits and continuing from that point onwards I reproduced "65K" promotion messages at 64982, 64956, and 64955 hits. All these tests were done without interrupting dockings.

When using same savegame file but docking often, after few more kills, no promotion message occurred even when hit count of the latest test was 65032...

Hypothesis: there is some minimum level of accumulated total hits, after which a commander needs at least uninterrupted 30-40 hits (by docking) to get the promotion message triggered.

What ever, we may never know. This is Elite Plus!!! XD

...and I'm more eager to get to that hit counter floating point overflow... and damn I'm tired. It is 7.40 am and I've spent all night long for such obscure matter as 'what triggers 65K promotion in PC Elite Plus?'.

Today's efforts this far after morning session:

Nov 30th 2022: 4429531.6 Credits / 65536+64995 Hits [+21.1KCr / +987 Hits], Loot: 264t (8x33t) Deaths=0 (+Extensive testing by CDR Test)

Collection of some nice combat ratings seen on the commander's status screen between 60K and "65K" promotion messages.

RIGHT ON COMMANDERS!

 

[Arioch]

This rating text for Archangel looks like it has become biblically accurate

“B̶͉̃̃ė̶͚͉̼̮̻̣̽͌͊ ̷̨̧̳̝̤̽ņ̷͍̘͔̗̭̿͊̍̃̌̕o̸̧̲̞̾͑t̵̼̥͕͓͂̿̉͜ͅ ̷̘̩̞̞̳̮̀͌̂a̷̫̎̓̔̾̾̿f̵̲͎̭̭̒́̕r̶̦̰̱̜͑̌́͝ă̵̟͎̈́͗i̸̛̺̳̯̘̩̻͗d̴̰̞̍̂̑͋̑,̶̣̭̞̗͇̤́̈́̂̈͊̚ ̵̧̝͑̈́́̇̒̍ͅR̶̯̾̎̚ḭ̵̩͎̩̂̂̓͒̊͜g̶̨̢͚͍͔̯͊̾̓́h̶͚͔̻͙͈̻̓͌ť̵̡̢͎̜͚̰̔̑͌̊̈́ ̷̡͉̣͙̫̆̂͜͝O̷͚̼͇͚̅n̴̗͈͇̳̞̻͆̅ ̴̞͈̃̀̈́C̸̭̲̋͐̇́́͂o̸̝͙̹̤͌̓̉̕m̵̝͈̹̞͋͐m̸͎̥̗̱̯̼̌̂a̷͉̾͠ń̵̲͓d̴̤̬̹̼̘̟͊̑͐͠ẹ̶͉͌r̵͚̃̐̉͂̽!̴̢͉͖̮̄̑͜“

 

[EliteMegaWeed]

This rating text for Archangel looks like it has become biblically accurate

“B̶͉̃̃ė̶͚͉̼̮̻̣̽͌͊ ̷̨̧̳̝̤̽ņ̷͍̘͔̗̭̿͊̍̃̌̕o̸̧̲̞̾͑t̵̼̥͕͓͂̿̉͜ͅ ̷̘̩̞̞̳̮̀͌̂a̷̫̎̓̔̾̾̿f̵̲͎̭̭̒́̕r̶̦̰̱̜͑̌́͝ă̵̟͎̈́͗i̸̛̺̳̯̘̩̻͗d̴̰̞̍̂̑͋̑,̶̣̭̞̗͇̤́̈́̂̈͊̚ ̵̧̝͑̈́́̇̒̍ͅR̶̯̾̎̚ḭ̵̩͎̩̂̂̓͒̊͜g̶̨̢͚͍͔̯͊̾̓́h̶͚͔̻͙͈̻̓͌ť̵̡̢͎̜͚̰̔̑͌̊̈́ ̷̡͉̣͙̫̆̂͜͝O̷͚̼͇͚̅n̴̗͈͇̳̞̻͆̅ ̴̞͈̃̀̈́C̸̭̲̋͐̇́́͂o̸̝͙̹̤͌̓̉̕m̵̝͈̹̞͋͐m̸͎̥̗̱̯̼̌̂a̷͉̾͠ń̵̲͓d̴̤̬̹̼̘̟͊̑͐͠ẹ̶͉͌r̵͚̃̐̉͂̽!̴̢͉͖̮̄̑͜“

Yeah, rather cryptic ratings but they are now over for next 60000 hits. I just had hit counter overflow.

Short video on that. Nothing dramatic. Mundane, even.

---

Today's evening efforts to reach the milestone:

Nov 30th 2022: 4442513.4 Credits / 65536+65536+5 Hits [+12.98KCr / +545 Hits], Loot: 145t (4x33t+13t) Death=0

This is highly probably the very first time in the world history anyone has made it to hit counter overflow twice during their Elite Plus careers.

995 hits to "Triple Elite". Right on Commanders!

 

[EliteMegaWeed]

STARDATE 7331

"It was thursday. It was snowy morning of 1st of December, 2022, 7331 days after I inherited my beloved Cobra MKIII 'Icaros' and beginning to seek my fortunes. That winter day I reached to my third Elite promotion becoming officially TRIPLE ELITE with accumulated wealth of 4.46MCr and total career hit count of 132073 GalCop confirmed hit points. Neat.

I also changed my Archangelic callsign to Ajattara for marking the beginning of a new era."

- Excerpt from Nothoria Infama's log book.

Photograph from the front cover of the day's issue of ATBEA's leading newspaper publication DAILY RIOT depicting Archangel Nothoria 'Ajattara' Infama during her 3rd Elite promotion ceremony. Ms Infama's loyal aide and sidekick, Elite Commander Test holds the third badge for the photograph. It's important to fit them all to same photograph.

Photo courtesy: some unknown local Atbean furry feline.

---

RIGHT ON COMMANDERS!

 

[EliteMegaWeed]

Practical and philosophical ponderings...

After playing for 392252 Credits and 11474 Hits during 6 days taking about 35-40 in-game real time hours of playing (all tests and deaths and nul-progressions included) and finally achieving long desired, immediate goals of few last years, I feel rather exhausted now. Full week worth of working hours (btw. my back and wrist are hurting badly now). There are feelings of joy and sense of accomplishment mixed with certain sadness. I'm sad because after the 3rd Elite promotion there won't be anything remarkable achievable in the game for next 58999 hits and taking consciously such long distance targets as targets and aims of the future doesn't exactly motivate that much. I've already seen what it is in practice. Endless grinding, hundreds and thousands of kills, days and weeks with very little anything new. Grinding for money doesn't motivate, as it has already became meaningless long time ago, for all practicalities of playing - Yep! I can buy 892 galactic hyperdrives right now without making any money when using them.... Grinding for kills, the point of ELITE, doesn't feel that rewarding either, and not only because I assume nobody else ever has bothered to invest such much time and effort for these activities as I am, that I can't expect any kind healthy, motivating competition in these things emerging any time soon. If ever. Considering the nature of Elite Plus. Being in an extreme niche of an obscure game doesn't help promote lively community around it.

Grinding for 60K hits requires at least some 200-250 real in-game hours to do, and that assuming you don't get killed too often when playing with skill and experience, and with near optimal hits/time unit efficiency, and that time would be and in practice is pretty much one veeeeeeeeery long, voluntarily accepted tedium. There is no 'pay to win' option, no lootboxes, no gold/premium accounts, no modding community, no speedrunning scene, no competing clans, not even active forums beyond this site (in which it has appearance of rather bloggish monoloque )...

However, I'll probably retire from Elite Plus same day I'll die, so there will be some sort of continuation nevertheless. I probably concentrate more to Elite Plus speedrunning in the future as current WR for Elite contains at least 5 extra minutes to cut down relatively easily.

Then, if someone can and want take a look deeper in various things emerging in later parts of never ending circle of hit counter cycle, particularly to "65K Promotion", and emerged issue with mysteriously lost 1 tonne of cargo capacity, I can provide .cdr -files of Nothoria's career curriculum related to these things. I've also plans to produce Youtube compilation demostrating what exactly happens and how these late cycle promotions occur in practice and how their symptoms appear in the game afterwards. I made only screenshots from those things during this latest game playing stint but I have savegame files that make it easy to reproduce them again for video productions. Of course only if someone really wants to see textual bugs on a commander's status screen and promotion messages in a live reel.

It was intense week. Commanders! See you - hopefully - soon enough!

 

[EliteMegaWeed]

RECOVERABLE AND AVAILABLE .CDR -FILES FROM NOTHORIA INFAMA'S CAREER IN THE CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER OF DATE OF SAVING

Old .txt and .doc logbooks cover whole career time frame between 6th of November 2002 and 6th of October 2013 in high level, system-by-system detail all the way to amount of accumulated cash of 1880884.3 Credits and over 60000 hits at DIMADI (AN1PI, G2) ---> NOTHORIA.CDR. These logbooks would however require extensive re-editing due their very impractical and ugly formatting to be published in their full entirety just now.

Following list of files is naturally fragmentary. There is also more .CDR files in hard drives of my old broken down computers, I obviously couldn't include to the list. Further .cdr files could maybe found from email archives, memory sticks, and stray diskettes. Anyhow, earliest parts of the career were not rigorously backup'd to .cdr files anyway as I just used my "main" commander file(s) for consecutive saves from the game playing progression - I know, it is risky thing to do.

* denotes files not directly related to Nothoria's chronological career continuum, and some cases it is not clear at all.

YY-MM-DD___FILE_________CREDITS____HITS_ NOTES____

2002-11-16 | MISSION1.CDR | 155721.4 Cr | 5782 Hits | Supernova task.
2002-11-21 | MISSION2.CDR | 197141.2 Cr | 6833 Hits | Mask Device task.
2002-11-23 | MISSION3.CDR | 240767.6 Cr | 8308 Hits | Thargoid Invasion task.
2002-11-23 | CENTAUR.CDR | 241302.5 Cr | 8332 Hits |
2002-12-04 | MISSION4.CDR | 312581.3 Cr | 11254 Hits | Stolen Police Ship task.
2002-12-07 | MISSION5.CDR | 394494.4 Cr | 13729 Hits | Thargoid Plans task.
2002-12-26 | MISSION6.CDR | 458212.2 Cr | 15513 Hits | Asteroid Bombardment task.
2003-12-26 | LUCIFER.CDR | 928490.1 Cr | 28931 Hits |
2004-08-17 | LUCIFER7.CDR | 1000031.7 Cr | 30708 Hits | The milestone of 1 MegaCr!
2010-02-28 | NIEMI.CDR | 1803043.1 Cr | 59853 Hits | Just before the 60K promotion.
2010-03-04 | ERRIUS.CDR | 1836140.8 Cr | 60865 Hits |
2013-10-06 | NOTHORIA.CDR | 1880884.3 Cr | 62423 Hits |
2013-10-11 | INFAMA.CDR | 1883948.0 Cr | 62570 Hits |
*2014-01-24 | XENO.CDR | Another Elite offshoot cdr-file. 1st Youtube video.
*2014-01-24 | XENO1061.CDR | Backup from Xeno.cdr
*2014-01-31 | AWES1021.CDR | Former Speedrun WR backup
*2014-02-02 | AWESOME.CDR | Former Speedrun WR (continuation)
2014-06-15 | NOTHORIA.CDR | 1961415.2 Cr | 63978 Hits | Just before the 64K promotion.
2014-06-15 | NOT64014.CDR | 1963129.0 Cr | 64014 Hits | Immediately after 64K promotion.
2014-06-17 | INFAMA.CDR | 2023606.9 Cr | 65412 Hits | After 65K promotion.
2014-06-17 | INFAMA2.CDR | 2027710.1 Cr | 74 Hits | After the first Hit counter overflow.
2014-11-26 | HORUZ.CDR | 2060925.1 Cr | 974 Hits | Shortly before 2nd Elite promotion.
*2014-12-06 | LEMAED.CDR | Another Elite offshoot cdr-file (65365.1 Cr / 1020 Hits)
*2014-12-06 | INERRA.CDR | Random offshoot cdr-file (55276.8 Cr / 871 Hits)
*2014-12-08 | BLAMESON.CDR | Random offshoot cdr-file (55276.8 Cr / 871 Hits)
*2014-12-08 | GRAVESON.CDR | Random offshoot cdr-file (51642.3 Cr / 601 Hits) Youtube video.
2016-12-18 | CHARONG3.CDR | 2360166.8 Cr | 8065 Hits | Post-overflow. G3 cartography.
2017-01-10 | 2416NOT.CDR | 24164499.7 Cr | 9299 Hits | Post-overflow.
2017-01-15 | CHARONG4.CDR | 2535091.7 Cr | 12254 Hits | Post-overflow. G4 cartography.
*2019-10-31 | MEGAWEED.CDR | 100 Cr, 0 hits renamed Jameson at Lave.
2020-01-29 | CHARON6.CDR | Look CHARON4.CDR. Same stats and place.
?2020-06-04 | PRKL2700.CDR | 2700267.9 Cr | 18471 Hits | Date of saving doesn't match the chronology!!! Possibly accidentally opened and re-saved later.
2020-01-29 | CHARON.CDR | 2709369.1 Cr | 17992 Hits | Post-overflow.
2020-01-29 | CHARON7.CDR | (Same as CHARON.CDR)
*2020-03-01 | POLYBIUS.CDR | Former Speedrun WR backup
2020-09-22 | PRKL2800.CDR | 2800681.6 Cr | 21157 Hits | Post-overflow.
2020-09-22 | PRKL2900.CDR | 2900965.0 Cr | 23640 Hits | Post-overflow.
2020-09-23 | PRKL3000.CDR | 3001469.0 Cr | 26184 Hits | Post-overflow. Milestone of 3 MCr. Video.
*2020-09-23 | HANNIBAL.CDR | Former Speedrun WR backup
*2020-09-25 | ZAMZARA.CDR | Former Speedrun WR backup
2020-10-02 | PRKL3100.CDR | 3100395.4 Cr | 29754 Hits | Post-overflow.
2020-10-04 | PRKL3220.CDR | 3220989.2 Cr | 32996 Hits | Post-overflow.
2020-03-12 | PRKL3361.CDR | 3361890.6 Cr | 36740 Hits | Post-overflow.
*2021-03-13 | MCZIEMAN.CDR | Former Speedrun WR backup
*2021-03-28 | SUBOTAI.CDR | Former Speedrun WR backup
*2021-03-31 | VAZQUEZ.CDR | Speedrun WR backup
*2021-04-09 | MCZSTUDY.CDR | Continuation of MCZIEMAN.CDR. Tribbles population study.
2021-08-25 | PRKL3543.CDR | 3543007.9 Cr | 41836 Hits | Post-overflow.
2021-08-25 | PRKL3600.CDR | 3600251.8 Cr | 43268 Hits | Post-overflow.
2021-08-27 | BACKUP.CDR | 3622438.7 Cr | 43753 Hits | Post-overflow. File used for backups.
2021-08-28 | EDZAAR.CDR | 3684355.3 Cr | 45479 Hits | Post-overflow.
2021-08-28 | PRKL3700.CDR | 3700802.3 Cr | 45808 Hits | Post-overflow.
2021-10-10 | PRKL3800.CDR | 3800510.7 Cr | 48335 Hits | Post-overflow.
2021-10-13 | PRKL3900.CDR | 3900552.8 Cr | 50715 Hits | Post-overflow.
2022-03-19 | PRKL4001.CDR | 4001086.2 Cr | 53198 Hits | Post-overflow.
2022-11-27 | PRKL4101.CDR | 4101457.3 Cr | 55846 Hits | Post-overflow.
2022-11-28 | PRKL4201.CDR | 4201877.3 Cr | 58352 Hits | Post-overflow.
2022-11-28 | 59982HIT.CDR | 4279980.0 Cr | 59982 Hits | Just before 2nd 60K promotion.
2022-11-28 | PRKL4301.CDR | 4301757.3 Cr | 60538 Hits | Post-overflow.
2022-11-29 | PRKL4401.CDR | 4403559.7 Cr | 63959 Hits | Just before 2nd 64K promotion.
2022-11-29 | 64008.CDR | 4405454.9 Cr | 64008 Hits | Immediately after 2nd 64K promotion.
*2022-11-29 | 63999.CDR | (Test cdr and backup for 64K promotion)
2022-11-30 | 64916.CDR | 4427200.0 Cr | 64914 Hits | Just before "65K" promotion.
2022-11-30 | 64995.CDR | 4429531.6 Cr | 64995 Hits | Immediately after "65K" promotion.
*2022-11-30 | TEST65K.CDR | (Test cdr at exactly with 65000 Hits but no "65K" promotion.)
*2022-11-30 | TEST.CDR | (Test cdr with 65032 Hits but no "65K" promotion.)
2022-11-30 | PERKELE.CDR | 4441804.0 Cr | 65525 Hits | Just before 2nd hit counter overflow.
*2022-11-30 | 65525.CDR | (Backup file. Same as PERKELE.CDR)
2022-11-30 | OVERFLOW.CDR | (Backup file. Same as PERKELE.CDR)
2022-12-01 | AJATTARA.CDR | 4464760.1 Cr | 1001 Hits | Post-2nd overflow TRIPLE ELITE.

As of now.

Posted here to make yet another archive backup, but also for verification purposes. Someday I may compile Nothoria's log book in best possible detail using all available, fragmentary data for the task. Elite Plus data archaeological side project of sort.

Apologies for numerous borderline spammy posts, but the key idea here is that if these things are not documented anywhere else in the future, then they may be found as pages of a future Wayback machine backups.

- EliteMegaWeed

 

[EliteMegaWeed]

Nothoria's STAR DIARY 2002-2013

"The worst thing for an Archangel is that those who can understand what this is all about, cannot believe it."

Translated quote from the Nothoria Infama's Star Diary entry dated March 3rd, 2010.

---

Archived for posterity and future Elite Plus Commanders and Archangels.
Screenshots from original txt and doc files to MS-Paint, and hell lot of copy pasting. Editorial work required to fix broken formatting, but data itself was left as it was written originally.

I find myself some naivety in my decades old rantings (in Finnish) as I had no Internet access to check things out and I didn't know all that stuff about the game as I do now. Hit counts are "manual" by head and they do not include asteroids but instead include Worms and Ferdelances as kills (no hit point for those ships awarded). I was totally baffled like "what?!" when I encountered first time 60K promotion (see Part 5).

Amount of time put only to these diary pages is itself enormous. Without doing all that bureaucratical paper work and putting all that time to actual game playing I would probably be Quadruple Elite now with three hit counter overflows. Lol.

If someone finds this all totally absurd, I won't blame him/her as it truly is. Hobbies can be time consuming, indeed. Compiling these pages for this forum comment took itself several hours of work. LOL!

This is how it once began. This is what Elite Plus career can look like at it's beginning.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

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All that work and I didn't reach even to the first overflow! XD

Another look to what it all can mean and include when someone says proudly "I'm Elite Plus Archangel!"

Right on Commanders!

- EliteMegaWeed

 

[Schwertl]

I'll continue. I had some anxiety troubles with inability to post anything, tho.

I forgot mention in the last post that for some reason I lost yet another tonne from my Cobra MkIII's cargo hold capacity about 150000-200000 played Credits ago. Max capacity is now 33 tonne canisters, when it should be 34t as Anti-ECM Broadcasters (reward from mission) take out one ton. At the beginning of the game your ship's default cargo hold is 20t, and it will be maxed at 35t after buying Cargo Bay Extension.

Why I lost another ton is a total mystery to me. Could maybe something to do with some unknown counter that has get to their floating point by sheer longevity of Commander's career, but I've been wondering since could it be possible to "break" the game only by playing it.

Add: Current situation with Perkele.CDR with screenshot from the file in Hex Editor. For the case if some adept code monkey want to replicate and study the file for finding some answers. The commander file is just as it is played, never edited anyway.

This matter, I am pretty certain, arises from scooping thargons. After an extended session of violence and rapine in witch space, I noticed that my max cargo capacity permanently dropped, and it corresponded with the number of alien item tons I sold at station. Alien items must be coded a little differently from the other commodities.

I'd also like to know how the save can be repaired in hex. Anything I do to a CDR file makes it corrupt!

 

[EliteMegaWeed]

This matter, I am pretty certain, arises from scooping thargons. After an extended session of violence and rapine in witch space, I noticed that my max cargo capacity permanently dropped, and it corresponded with the number of alien item tons I sold at station. Alien items must be coded a little differently from the other commodities.

I'd also like to know how the save can be repaired in hex. Anything I do to a CDR file makes it corrupt!

Interesting. You noticed missing cargo capacity immediately/soon after it happened to be certain these things coincide? I can't be sure how I lost that one tonne of capacity, but it was likely related too to the witch space mis-jump and accidental scooping of thargon. I have CDR -file backups (for every 100KCr) I could in theory track down approximate 'time' frame that happened -> for comparing, testing and seeing better what exact bits are changed in the CDR file after the loss of cargo capacity.

To me, It has been awhile also impossible to sell all lasers, that can be someway related to that too.

On Hex editing. You need calculate new checksum for your edited save game file after changes, before saving it to it to be functional. I suggest to google about the topic.
And, I'm sure, there are a lot of guys on these forums who can give better advice right away.

It's nice there are other commanders out there too trying their Elite Plus fortunes.

 

[EliteMegaWeed]

Dear Commander @Schwertl

You need also recognize the star sector we are operating here currently. Nothing here in these star clusters will happen fast, or automatically, unlike in the game (of the topic).

This is out of place forum-site for the ELITE PLUS game, as Frontier Developments requires practically everything else from its roster of commanders than what is demonstrated at this sub-sub-sub section of the forums. Particularly, when the game itself have practically nothing to do with the company. The Programmer's permission yeah, over 30 years ago. Elite Plus is bästärd child within the chronology from the 'classical Elites' to 'Frontier', and it will remain so. Thus, we rare ones gonna be always the Outcast.

Apologies won't be accepted.

 

[Schwertl]

To me, It has been awhile also impossible to sell all lasers, that can be someway related to that too.

That is not at all good or fun. Personally I use the left, right, and sometimes rear laser mounts to make extra money because there is a 50cr spread on beam lasers between certain economies. I'm swapping lasers around all the time! If I run into the issue, I'll be sure to think carefully about what happened and who I offended.

Also, I read through your posts and I think at one point you mentioned mining lasers are just as strong as military lasers? This makes me hanker to test them all out; they seem to vary a lot in terms of the magnitude of each laser pew and the frames per pew. But maybe since you've shot such an outrageous number of ships, you've already tested things out?

Thirdly, I had another witch space encounter and confirmed that I got the cargo space bug with alien items.

And finally, I'd like to ask about the masking device. I triggered the mission, warped to a system, elegantly set off an energy bomb and picked up the cargo canister, and now it's button 8. But does it have any effect? I have never seen someone stop shooting at me, they just keep blasting away like I didn't just sacrifice energy to activate it.

 

[EliteMegaWeed]

That is not at all good or fun. Personally I use the left, right, and sometimes rear laser mounts to make extra money because there is a 50cr spread on beam lasers between certain economies. I'm swapping lasers around all the time! If I run into the issue, I'll be sure to think carefully about what happened and who I offended.

Also, I read through your posts and I think at one point you mentioned mining lasers are just as strong as military lasers? This makes me hanker to test them all out; they seem to vary a lot in terms of the magnitude of each laser pew and the frames per pew. But maybe since you've shot such an outrageous number of ships, you've already tested things out?

Thirdly, I had another witch space encounter and confirmed that I got the cargo space bug with alien items.

And finally, I'd like to ask about the masking device. I triggered the mission, warped to a system, elegantly set off an energy bomb and picked up the cargo canister, and now it's button 8. But does it have any effect? I have never seen someone stop shooting at me, they just keep blasting away like I didn't just sacrifice energy to activate it.

Trade with equipments is useful way to make some extra bucks if a commander really play 'pacifist', but I think it is too time consuming and inefficient (profit per real game play time unit) to be really profitable way to trade.

As for effectiveness of MILITARY and MINING LASER; I don't know exactly what damage (and pulses per second, and recharging) stats are, but for all practical purposes they're equal in efficiency. For example every past recorded ELITE, Any% speedrun WR is done using MINING LASER, as accumulating enough money for MILITARY LASER would take far too much time in that context, and if it really is a little more powerful damage-wise, that difference is negligible for practical combat purposes anyway. Note that you need FUEL SCOOP to equip MINING LASER, and you cannot sell FUEL SCOOP if you have MINING LASER installed to any of slots.

Ok. Loss of Cargo capacity tonnage in Witch Space by scooping Thargons is now considered the be confirmed fact. Why it happens code-wise is however yet unclear.

On MASK DEVICE. It makes various types of ships "forget" their evasion manoeuvers and missile shooting. In Elite Plus, if an enemy ship shoots a MISSILE, by default it will shoot all of them with varied intervals (probably determined by some unknown RNG factor), and for some reason every single ship class has 4 missiles. MASK DEVICE interrupts that missile shooting phase. You need shot ship again to get it launch it's remaining missiles. You can also test it to some Trader after first shooting the ship to cause it to start evasive actions and then tapping 8, to see how it interrupts it's evasion.

Together with a taps to ECM SYSTEM, MASK DEVICE can solve some intense situations with a lot of incoming missiles and evading enemies, particularly with Hunters: Sidewinder, adder, Cobra MkI, Mamba, Gecko, Worm. So, the gadget have some real use, indeed... unlike ANTI-ECM BROADCASTERS that allegedly really do what the name of the equipment promises, but in practice situations were this would be someway useful doesn't exist in the game.

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ADD: I thought about that missing cargo thing further, could it be possible in theory deplete ship's Cargo Hold to zero tonnes and then overflow it to minus tonnes to get bulk freighter Cobra MkIII with max 255 tonnes Cargo hold by scooping that many Thargons in an eternity it would take to get that many successful mis-jumps to Witch Space...

First 20 thargons to get it to 0 (when not using CARGO BAY EXTENSION), and then 255 thargons to get it -255. Trading in Elite Plus would finally become profitable career option. Lol.