No Man's Sky.. forget Elite-Interdictions.!!!

[Susanna]

The Conda has a top practical cargo of 400T. More than that and you will have to sacrifice a decent shield and this ship lives or dies on the basis of those Shields. It's a defensive ship after all. It's never going to be used offensively because of its slow turning speed. Even with a loadout of turrets it's 'derriere' is vulnerable to fast nibble ships who can sit back there out of the firing line of the turrets and pick away at you. With the new smarter AI of the npc's coming in less than a week with 2.1 patch (26th May I believe), they will be even harder to shake lose. On a plus note though, those awesome Shields mean you can be surprisingly brutal with her! Bang her down on a planet or deck and while you may lose a ring on the shields, it's not going to buckle unless you really mistreat it.
Oh and lastly, expect to get scanned every 5 minutes in the Conda, her sig is so high everybody wants to scan you. Definitely not a smuggling ship!
The only ship I have any real experience in around planets is the Asp Explorer. A really great ship �� My next ship buy will be another Asp, but to keep this time (I was selling my ships so that I could upgrade up to the Conda, now I can afford to keep each ship type I buy). That might be a nice ship to try the rare run circuit with. You mentioned 1.5 mil for half a loop, what is that in playing time? What's the mil per hour salary like? Probably pretty low as it's something most pilots do when they first get themselves a half decent ship.

One of my sisters lives in Kelowna on the west side of Canada, apart from some pretty extreme weather it looks a lovely place to live! Sorry I don't have your knack for dropping in Web links to easily show you. I'd like to know how to do that though. We keep in touch by Skype which is nice.
I just had a quick scan through the previous posts and have one further comment that got missed earlier. The Beta has given me the chance to fly an Imperial Cutter, and wow what a Great ship she is to fly! Will hold 528T of cargo so makes for awesome trading or doing a community goal. Combat wise, again it's a defensive ship much like the Conda, but a lot nicer looking imho. So I definitely want to get my Imperial rank up so that I can buy one of those in the 'real' game. Now that we know when beta will end I'm trying to think if there is anything I want to try out before it does end... Better to make costly mistakes there where it doesn't affect your balance sheet! Like flying into a black hole for example �� I did do the Thread the Needle challenge and clocked 41.2c between the planet and it's ring. I should definitely try out planetary searching in a Conda by flying upside down too. I'll probably do a settlement mission or two as although I'll no doubt get a bounty on my head, it will get wiped along with beta!
Time for a cup of Earl Grey tea me thinks.... Later!��
PS I need to update my sig too!

 

[Mundo54]

The Conda has a top practical cargo of 400T. More than that and you will have to sacrifice a decent shield and this ship lives or dies on the basis of those Shields. It's a defensive ship after all. It's never going to be used offensively because of its slow turning speed. Even with a loadout of turrets it's 'derriere' is vulnerable to fast nibble ships who can sit back there out of the firing line of the turrets and pick away at you. With the new smarter AI of the npc's coming in less than a week with 2.1 patch (26th May I believe), they will be even harder to shake lose. On a plus note though, those awesome Shields mean you can be surprisingly brutal with her! Bang her down on a planet or deck and while you may lose a ring on the shields, it's not going to buckle unless you really mistreat it.
Oh and lastly, expect to get scanned every 5 minutes in the Conda, her sig is so high everybody wants to scan you. Definitely not a smuggling ship!
The only ship I have any real experience in around planets is the Asp Explorer. A really great ship �� My next ship buy will be another Asp, but to keep this time (I was selling my ships so that I could upgrade up to the Conda, now I can afford to keep each ship type I buy). That might be a nice ship to try the rare run circuit with. You mentioned 1.5 mil for half a loop, what is that in playing time? What's the mil per hour salary like? Probably pretty low as it's something most pilots do when they first get themselves a half decent ship.

One of my sisters lives in Kelowna on the west side of Canada, apart from some pretty extreme weather it looks a lovely place to live! Sorry I don't have your knack for dropping in Web links to easily show you. I'd like to know how to do that though. We keep in touch by Skype which is nice.
I just had a quick scan through the previous posts and have one further comment that got missed earlier. The Beta has given me the chance to fly an Imperial Cutter, and wow what a Great ship she is to fly! Will hold 528T of cargo so makes for awesome trading or doing a community goal. Combat wise, again it's a defensive ship much like the Conda, but a lot nicer looking imho. So I definitely want to get my Imperial rank up so that I can buy one of those in the 'real' game. Now that we know when beta will end I'm trying to think if there is anything I want to try out before it does end... Better to make costly mistakes there where it doesn't affect your balance sheet! Like flying into a black hole for example �� I did do the Thread the Needle challenge and clocked 41.2c between the planet and it's ring. I should definitely try out planetary searching in a Conda by flying upside down too. I'll probably do a settlement mission or two as although I'll no doubt get a bounty on my head, it will get wiped along with beta!
Time for a cup of Earl Grey tea me thinks.... Later!��
PS I need to update my sig too!

All this talk of flying the larger ships makes me think of my old Silent Hunter III game, which I dearly miss, along with its massively long, Type XXI U-Boat, at a length of 76.70m (251ft). Here is a YouTube video of some actual in-game footage of that sub, along with a Wikipedia page, extolling its virtues, if you will.

And now it's time for me to moan and complain a bit, how the era for games like sub sims has come and gone. Now the only games we get are the big blockbusters. Games that are pushed more for marketing reasons, primarily aimed at the Consoles, with the PC players tossed in at the last minute. At this point I need to remind myself that The Complaints Department is down the hall, and I need to adapt to change and go with the flow. Kind of like my new Vegan diet so I can avoid having to go on a statin to fight the bad cholesterol. Bye bye mon BBQ chips.

And getting back to the Rares Circuit. Once again it's been a while since I made the loop. But I'm sure that it probably takes about 40-minutes or so, to do one half of the circuit. So the pay-out is probably not worth it for players like yourself, people who have the massive ships with the high cargo capacity. With these ships, you can make a killing with short-haul regular-commodity runs.

The Rares circuit is more for the start-up players once they have amassed enough credits for some basic upgrades. And then they can hop up to either a Cobra MkIII maxed out for cargo, or a Type-6 Transporter with better cargo and some upgrades to address its slower speed. I'm just embedding some links here, for any uninitiated civilians who may happen upon this thread.

I saw an Imperial Cutter docking at a planet-based station one of the first times that I landed on a planet, after the Horizons update. I was very impressed, to say the least. But then I was more than a little flabbergasted, when I saw that it costs an estimated 209-Mil, and that's before any upgrades.

Embedding links is not hard to do. I tried to upload a small png screenshot to show what part of the interface you use, but it may be that I don't have sufficiently elevated enough priviledges in the forum to do that. You first highlight the text where you want to embed the link, and then with the url copied and pasted into your clipboard, you click on the little blue planet-like icon with what looks like an infinity symbol, in the lower-right quadrant of that button's icon.

I have probably driven through Kelowna but we never stayed there. I travelled extensively with the Gov in western Canada, first as a student in the summers of 1977 to 1979, and then later as a full-time employee with the same people, the summers of 1987 to 1990. I have a lot of fond memories of those summers on the road, especially some of the chopper work up in the mountains. Like this shot near Port Alberni, assuming the massively long link, survives being embedded. I put in about 120-hours of chopper time on that job, in those same mountains.

That was the summer of 1990, my last summer doing field work. Because the Director of our Division, at the time, decided that I was needed back at HQ to take care of their desktop computers. PC's that had them all in a dither; totally confused and mesmerized. My fault for taking an interest in computers, and then teaching myself how to use them. But in retrospect, it made for an effortless 30-years with the Gov. And like I used to joke, working with the Gov is not like having a real job anyway. :x

 

[Susanna]

New NPCs and Crab Nebula Expendition coming up

All this talk of flying the larger ships makes me think of my old Silent Hunter III game, which I dearly miss, along with its massively long, Type XXI U-Boat, at a length of 76.70m (251ft). Here is a YouTube video of some actual in-game footage of that sub, along with a Wikipedia page, extolling its virtues, if you will.And now it's time for me to moan and complain a bit, how the era for games like sub sims has come and gone. Now the only games we get are the big blockbusters. Games that are pushed more for marketing reasons, primarily aimed at the Consoles, with the PC players tossed in at the last minute. At this point I need to remind myself that The Complaints Department is down the hall, and I need to adapt to change and go with the flow. Kind of like my new Vegan diet so I can avoid having to go on a statin to fight the bad cholesterol. Bye bye mon BBQ chips. And getting back to the Rares Circuit. Once again it's been a while since I made the loop. But I'm sure that it probably takes about 40-minutes or so, to do one half of the circuit. So the pay-out is probably not worth it for players like yourself, people who have the massive ships with the high cargo capacity. With these ships, you can make a killing with short-haul regular-commodity runs. The Rares circuit is more for the start-up players once they have amassed enough credits for some basic upgrades. And then they can hop up to either a Cobra MkIII maxed out for cargo, or a Type-6 Transporter with better cargo and some upgrades to address its slower speed. I'm just embedding some links here, for any uninitiated civilians who may happen upon this thread.I saw an Imperial Cutter docking at a planet-based station one of the first times that I landed on a planet, after the Horizons update. I was very impressed, to say the least. But then I was more than a little flabbergasted, when I saw that it costs an estimated 209-Mil, and that's before any upgrades. Embedding links is not hard to do. I tried to upload a small png screenshot to show what part of the interface you use, but it may be that I don't have sufficiently elevated enough priviledges in the forum to do that. You first highlight the text where you want to embed the link, and then with the url copied and pasted into your clipboard, you click on the little blue planet-like icon with what looks like an infinity symbol, in the lower-right quadrant of that button's icon.I have probably driven through Kelowna but we never stayed there. I travelled extensively with the Gov in western Canada, first as a student in the summers of 1977 to 1979, and then later as a full-time employee with the same people, the summers of 1987 to 1990. I have a lot of fond memories of those summers on the road, especially some of the chopper work up in the mountains. Like this shot near Port Alberni, assuming the massively long link, survives being embedded. I put in about 120-hours of chopper time on that job, in those same mountains.That was the summer of 1990, my last summer doing field work. Because the Director of our Division, at the time, decided that I was needed back at HQ to take care of their desktop computers. PC's that had them all in a dither; totally confused and mesmerized. My fault for taking an interest in computers, and then teaching myself how to use them. But in retrospect, it made for an effortless 30-years with the Gov. And like I used to joke, working with the Gov is not like having a real job anyway. :x

Another day closer to NMS being released ... but in the mean time we have ED 2.1 to deal with...TBH, I've gone off the big ships... (i've no idea how to fight in one for example - just lumbering whales that get the stuffing knocked out of them followed by a very expensive rebuy insurance cost...). The last couple of days Beta, I've been trialing a Conda for exploration which while speced for a 30ly range, was lousy at planetary landing (rather prone to bellyflopping - not pretty with papper thin shields). I did hte same trial with an Asp (31.8ly range) and it was a lot less hassle... So its going to be the Asp Explorer for the Crab Nebula expedition on the 11th June...Thanks for the tips on embedding links - I will try this out over the weekend...Your adventures in Western Canada (sans Kelowna) sound "adventurous" I'm unable to access the links at the moment but I get the idea "Lumber Jack" ;o)Also, after doing the Neigts CG I have now increased my combat rank a little to Competent. Just in time as the 2.1 update seems to sport much harder NPCs than the previous 2.0 verison! I was interdicted by an Eagle which had very supercharged thrusters and I was unable to shake him off my tail (I was flying a Vulture - hardly a slow ship!). In the ned I managed to jump away but it really worried me - all al lthe NPCs now this dificult!

 

[Mundo54]

Another day closer to NMS being released ... but in the mean time we have ED 2.1 to deal with...TBH, I've gone off the big ships... (i've no idea how to fight in one for example - just lumbering whales that get the stuffing knocked out of them followed by a very expensive rebuy insurance cost...). The last couple of days Beta, I've been trialing a Conda for exploration which while speced for a 30ly range, was lousy at planetary landing (rather prone to bellyflopping - not pretty with papper thin shields). I did hte same trial with an Asp (31.8ly range) and it was a lot less hassle... So its going to be the Asp Explorer for the Crab Nebula expedition on the 11th June...Thanks for the tips on embedding links - I will try this out over the weekend...Your adventures in Western Canada (sans Kelowna) sound "adventurous" I'm unable to access the links at the moment but I get the idea "Lumber Jack" ;o)Also, after doing the Neigts CG I have now increased my combat rank a little to Competent. Just in time as the 2.1 update seems to sport much harder NPCs than the previous 2.0 verison! I was interdicted by an Eagle which had very supercharged thrusters and I was unable to shake him off my tail (I was flying a Vulture - hardly a slow ship!). In the ned I managed to jump away but it really worried me - all al lthe NPCs now this dificult!

I haven't had my oatmeal porridge for brekkie-fast yet, so I hope I can stay focused. Now, about NMS, we may be another day closer but I assume you saw the radio chatter on that, and how its release has been delayed, Kotaku.com. (and please don't shoot the messenger!!)

I hear ya about the big ships. I finally decided to bite the bullet and trade in my Asp Explorer for a Python - Coriolis Shipyard. But I started getting a mild case of the heebie jeebies, when I looked at some of the new planet missions, and the fact that they make a point of warning you, and in no uncertain terms if you read between the lines, that you might be attacked by NPC ships.. shiver me timbers.

And then if you look at this "2.1/1.6 Launch Megathread.." on Reddit, lots and lots of radio chatter on the new NPC AI. One might almost say the proverbial honeymoon is over. There is even some talk that Robigo Mines may have been shut down, a significant loss of revenue for some, the people still ballsie enough to take on those semi-suicidal missions.

So in light of this, I parked the Python for now. And being the cosmic wimp that I am when it comes to combat, I spent my time last night, commissioning a 7.4-Mil Cobra Mk III - Coriolis. The idea being that I can test-bed the new planet-based missions, in particular, with this fast little sucker; Speed 299 m/s - Boost 427 m/s.

The new Cobra has an estimated insurance cost of just 369k which is pocket change for my bank account. Not so for the Python, where I only have enough in the bank now, to cover its 4.4-Mil insurance cost three times, and then I'm tapped out and it's Hasta la vista, Cmdr Mundo. [cool]

And yes, my work flying in the mountains, back in the day, was pretty heady stuff. I recall once asking my boss when I was a student back in 1975, how come we didn't link up with the Canadian Military when it came to our Field Ops. My thinking was that they were better equipped to fly us around.

But my boss basically said, without being too critical of them, that the military was quite a bit more fussy about the flying, depending on the weather conditions. But as civilians, on the other hand, we sometimes did some pretty hairy stuff, like toe-ins with a chopper on narrow, volcanic mountain ridges.

A toe-in is where the chopper sets down as best possible on an uneven mountain top ridge. He carefully maintains a powered hover because he's just resting on part of one skid. And you very carefully step off the chopper skid that you're standing on, one foot at a time, while maintaining constant eye contact with the pilot for good/bad hand signals. This is so he can compensate for the weight change in the chopper, as you step off, and then as you remove any equipment that you may need. I wasn't a big fan of toe-ins.

And in this shot from 1977, my boss is manually hooking up a cargo sling, under a chopper in a low hover. I was awful glad that my boss did this, and he didn't make me or the other student do it instead. I think this was in the Salmon Arm region of British Columbia, but it's so long ago now.