Newcomer / Intro My ED experience so far

[darcek]

So,I read so many good reviews about this game.


People saying its far better the no man sky,people saying its the best game ever.
First of all I loved No man Sky,for all its faults it gave me back my money worth with countless hours of enjoyable moments..


As for ED,I've only did some tutorial missions and I really want to uninstall this.
A game that beats you in tutorial mission mode? kudos for the game,can I have my money back now?


If your a real life pilot, I guess this game is for you ,and you'll really enjoy it,as it takes the realism to hardcore levels ,and let you experience what would feel to pilot a real ship in the real space.
Problem is im not a pilot. Im just a casual gamer whos looking to have fun,and some space games did deliver on that(like no man sky,masters of orion,EVE Online,Mass Effect,starwars and many others)


I definitely didn't pay to get humiliated,dont think anyone would(well except your regular masochists)
This game takes me back to my first simulator experience as a boy.
Those Microsoft simulator where you could actually fly a "real" plane.
controls were so complicated you just gave up on it after few agonizing hours.


Finding a target made me want to vomit...
I kept going 180 degrees and cant find nothing ,so I went 360 degrees that helped but by the time I found my target ,I felt so sick I just closed the whole thing up lol.
I tried to watch some tutorial videos but to no avail..theres just no axis..cant know if your up or down..some areas you have a planet that kinda give you a sense of horizon but other then that its a complete vortex of helplessness..



My poor 60$ went out the window straight into the trash bin,this is like my wow experience,where I bought a game,according to hearsay then uninstalled after one week.
I am really disappointed.

At the moment im sick of this game im gone take a break,but I dont like quitting on anything ,so I guss ill try it again later and report if anything actually got any better,or worst.

 

[Alex D]

Did you read manual?
Do you know one exist?
To make yourself familiar with controls, scanner and other core elements, the tutorials are designed to put manual knowledge into practice.
I find it hard to believe you enjoyed Eve and hate ED, as the former has much steeper learning curve than the latter (imho).
However it seems your main issue is moving in 3-dimensional space.
Unfortunately, it's space sim and not flight simulator
Maybe try to ask questions on the details you felt lost at and we can try to answer them?

 

[Ashnak]

Are you playing VR or on a monitor? With or without head/eye tracking?

I admit (and many others woud, too) that ED in any VR/tracking mode can be quite confusing. But in space, no-one can hear you puke...

As for the tutorials - did you do them in order? The combat tutorials, IIRC, come some time after the basic flight tutorials. If you want to give it another try, complete (and repeat) the basic flight tutorials first, until you can handle them easily, then start on the combat tutorials.

As for "up" or "down" - in space, ther is no "up" or "down", but the background (stars, nebulae) should give you a good idea of your rotation. And your radar will give you an idea regarding other objects close by.

As for comparing it to Mass Effect - ME is just another, in this case space-themed, shooter. ED is a space flight simulator. If you expect being guided through missions (like in ME), you'll have the next disappointment waiting for you once you mastered the flight model. ED is much more like MS Flight Simulator, just take a look at all the possible control bindings. If you didn't like the Microsoft Flight Simulator (or other flight simulators), you also won't like ED.

 

[Gavin Burke]

A game that beats you in tutorial mission mode?

Are you just talking about the incursion mission here? I've been playing ED a while now, got a +1 K/D ratio in CQC and I still cannot do the incursion.

The real game is much easier as you can repair between battles, you can mission run and trade for more credits for better weapons/armour/shields, you can scan a guy see what combat rank they are before deciding to fight.

Just jump right in (Solo Play if you don't feel ready for Open Play) and it's easy to pick up, much better than the tutorial suggest - the tutorial missions that I feel are essential is the basic controls, basic combat (keep the power in the blue area, but it should also teach Flight Assist Off!), travelling and docking. Then you're set... come on board CMDR!!

 

[Naughtius Maximus]

Its very easy for a new player to feel totally overwhelmed with ED as there is so much to it. The bottom is, keep trying - there have been times when I've lost big and wondered just how the hell it happened, but each such event is a learning process so... learn...

 

[Deleted member 38366]

Yeah, forget that Incursion Mission.

IMHO the whole Tutorial is only useful for three things :
- setting up the Controls to personal liking and best usability
- learning the very basics about some Game mechanics and how to effectively operate them with the chosen Control setup (and keep optimizing it when needed)
- at anytime, have a risk-free environment to test a few things out (i.e. FA off during Combat or find out how dangerous Collisions with various things are etc.)

 

[Gavin Burke]

- at anytime, have a risk-free environment to test a few things out (i.e. FA off during Combat or find out how dangerous Collisions with various things are etc.)

I got back to the tutorial every now and then to brush up my skills in a risk free manner.

 

[aRJay]

I have a high rank and some very good ships, I have never completed all the tutorials. Here are some thoughts about them.

Many games have tutorial modes that are very much like learning to ride a bicycle with not only stabilisers on the bike but you in a safety harness. When you start the game after such tutorials it is a step up.
No version of Elite has done this in the last 32 years not even Elite 2:Frontiers which had a much harder flight model.

The tutorials are very like driving lessons in a car (in the real world), where the only difference between you and the qualified drivers is an L plate on the car and an instructor beside you, you are on quieter streets probably but that is it.

The thing to do with the tutorials is to do the "Basic" ones until you can do them 9 times out of 10 using the controller of your choice, doing those tutorials is how you decide which controller you can use the best.

There are a couple of the tutorials that I suspect are designed to be almost unbeatable, think Kobyashi Maru.

When you actually start playing the game you will probably make the mistake many players do and assume that taking missions is how you progress towards winning/completing the game. This isn't true, there is no goal that you have to reach that you haven't set yourself. The other mistake people make about missions is that they are the easier option again this isn't true, they might be simpler because you get some instructions however many come with opposition capable of defeating players of the rank the mission is designed for and not having the rank required for the mission will not prevent you from taking it.

 

[Chris Simon]

Pretty much all above.

It's dangerous to think about this game a "better than No Man's sky" If you think you'll be flying around by four keys, looking at pretty planets, "only better", then you really should ask for a refund.
Elite is closer to FSX and Dark Souls than NMS.

If you like space, ships and challenge, you'll eventually love it. Otherwise...

 

[Naughtius Maximus]

^ yep - this is not a glorious version of asteriods that you play with an xbox controller. It's fully fledged space simulator (which extras chucked in) so expect it to be a challenge.

 

[SirDavros]

I hope you don't give up so easily.

I was lucky enough to be able to experience ED in a demo mode back in January and I could NOT get on board at all. Six months later, and I read up on the new Horizons season pass and just took the plunge, plowed on through the tutorials and haven't looked back since. Admittedly, the learning curve is ridiculously big but it is well worth it if you give it time. If you're not into learning and gaining experience through practice though, then it may be worth revisiting No Man's Sky.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

Horses for courses.

If you want a game where it holds your hand and won't let you crash into planets and is more player friendly then that's No Mans sky.
If you want a more involved experience with a much more challenging and integrated realistic setting and mechanics that's Elite.

Elite is built on the old school where it kicks you out into the world and says "have fun". The days where the game came with a 50 page instruction manual and you bought the gamebible to go with it! It's not quite that intense anymore but it will not hold your hand and will not tell you what to do. You are a small cog in the galaxy, you are not Cmdr "insert name here" the hero of space. In the game you are "That guy over there doing something". You make your own path and decide what you want to do.

Both games are valid for different people. You seem to not get the Elite radar which is probably your biggest issue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnyYs40dYfM
That's reference for everything and without it yes you will get lost.

I 100% agree with you on the tutorials, they really do need a note to say that they are really difficult and not intended to be beaten. Do jump in the game and give it a go. Hit up Hellrazor here (well known player that helps new starters). https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/146938-Hell-Razors-Mentoring-Agency
Or hit up the galactic academy at the top of this page, or ask questions here. Lots of people willing to help and fill in the gaps if you ask the right questions.

Yes Elite has a learning curve but it's rewarding if you get into it. You may dislike the entire principal of game and that's fine, as I said in the first sentence not everyone is built the same. Its amazing with a joystick and virtual reality, in fact I'd say without a doubt its the best virtual reality AAA game out there.

If you are UK timezone and want to give it another go but want a guide ping me a PM or add alexbrentnall in game. I'm around most evenings after work and most weekends. If you send me a message on the forums a day or two before you intend to meetup I'll make sure I can get myself closeby to meet-up.

 

[pipo zelvelder]

My poor 60$ went out the window straight into the trash bin,this is like my wow experience,where I bought a game,according to hearsay then uninstalled after one week.
I am really disappointed.

And you're right; this game is very hard to learn, I tried for 5 months, but it does not get better than this. Pictures are awesome and gameplay could be very funny and entertaining if there would not be this random death (sword of Damocles) in the form of pirate interdiction and humilation in the game. Apparently, the developers decided that this game has to be beyond difficult. So yes, it is intentionally made up to a level of sadistic/masochistic enjoyment; if you just want a fun game with interstellar travel, trading and mining, this is not it.

 

[darcek]

Thank you for all the replies.
It has been a pleasure reading through them all,as iv'e expected to get flamed for posting a complaint,but instead received a mature and enlightening conversation.(which goes to show the maturity of the players here making me stronger in my need to try to understand this game)

As some of you suggested I have given up on the training missions,and found to my delight the game itself up till now is much more digestible..
Im still getting annoying stuff like bugs..pressing wrong keys (like tab and raming into a station ouch!) ... and been blown out of the sky against minor threats..
But I am feeling this is a learning process and I am getting a bit better at it one step at a time...

One other unrelated question is: Why does threads take like a day to be posted in this forum?
I first thought it was a bug ,then after couple of days I discovered via my profile that it was actually posted...

Anyway cheers,im keeping at it at the moment quite enjoying myself

 

[aRJay]

Thank you for all the replies.
It has been a pleasure reading through them all,as iv'e expected to get flamed for posting a complaint,but instead received a mature and enlightening conversation.(which goes to show the maturity of the players here making me stronger in my need to try to understand this game)

As some of you suggested I have given up on the training missions,and found to my delight the game itself up till now is much more digestible..
Im still getting annoying stuff like bugs..pressing wrong keys (like tab and raming into a station ouch!) ... and been blown out of the sky against minor threats..
But I am feeling this is a learning process and I am getting a bit better at it one step at a time...

One other unrelated question is: Why does threads take like a day to be posted in this forum?
I first thought it was a bug ,then after couple of days I discovered via my profile that it was actually posted...

Anyway cheers,im keeping at it at the moment quite enjoying myself

The more incendiary posters hang around in some of the other forums.

The forums have an evaluation period where they try to determine that you are not some sort of bot or sock puppet, once through that period your posts will be pretty much real time and you will be able to change/add to your profile.

 

[Chris Simon]

Thank you for all the replies.
It has been a pleasure reading through them all,as iv'e expected to get flamed for posting a complaint,but instead received a mature and enlightening conversation.(which goes to show the maturity of the players here making me stronger in my need to try to understand this game)

As some of you suggested I have given up on the training missions,and found to my delight the game itself up till now is much more digestible..
Im still getting annoying stuff like bugs..pressing wrong keys (like tab and raming into a station ouch!) ... and been blown out of the sky against minor threats..
But I am feeling this is a learning process and I am getting a bit better at it one step at a time...

One other unrelated question is: Why does threads take like a day to be posted in this forum?
I first thought it was a bug ,then after couple of days I discovered via my profile that it was actually posted...

Anyway cheers,im keeping at it at the moment quite enjoying myself

Don't be discouraged. It'll take weeks to really get the hang of it and then you can set your goals and go wild.
For now, I'm glad you're finding the challenge and the act of learning and discovery fun. That's the way to go.

As for our "inflamatory" replies, we apologize, but we kind of responded in kind.
If you go back and read through your original post, there really isn't much material to respond to and help with. Otherwise we would.

For real questions we have answers, though. So keep asking. We all were stumbling over the same obstacles you do, now.

 

[darcek]

I do have a question about crafting and space loot.
I get to loot this various gadgets..someone told me its used in crafting ,but its not..crafting asking for basic ingridients like zinc,chromium etc..
Ive looked via one database and it gave me such info:
TYPE:
Manufactured
GRADE:

Rare
BLUEPRINTS:
4
USED:
4x
LOCATION:
Ship Salvage (Transport ships), Surface POI

I have no idea what all this means..I have ship debris and items in my material cargo bay,what do I do with them?
Do I sell them? Do I use them for crafting? if so how? the crafting cant use the stuff i got..do I go to some forge..melt the items get the basic then craft with the materials I got?

Another question is..why does it takes like 5 minutes for the game to react when I pick up a mission? is there a way to remove this or make it short?

 

[bitstorm]

I do have a question about crafting and space loot.
I get to loot this various gadgets..someone told me its used in crafting ,but its not..crafting asking for basic ingridients like zinc,chromium etc..
Ive looked via one database and it gave me such info:
TYPE:
Manufactured
GRADE:
http://inara.cz/images/commods/grade1.pngRare
BLUEPRINTS:
4
USED:
4x
LOCATION:
Ship Salvage (Transport ships), Surface POI

I have no idea what all this means..I have ship debris and items in my material cargo bay,what do I do with them?
Do I sell them? Do I use them for crafting? if so how? the crafting cant use the stuff i got..do I go to some forge..melt the items get the basic then craft with the materials I got?

Another question is..why does it takes like 5 minutes for the game to react when I pick up a mission? is there a way to remove this or make it short?

Heh well that's a question...

Materials and data are currently used for the following :

- Synthesis
- Building some extended ship upgrades

If you check the right panel on the cargo/material page you should see a synthesis tab, this video briefly talks about it at the 22minutes mark.

With synthesis, you can do stuff like synthesize ammo on the fly for a weapon, so you don't have to return to a station to restock, there are grades, so you can restock with superior ammo. Or maybe you want to synthesize fuel to temporarily increase your jump range, that sort of thing.

[video=youtube;3ZH7qAzUb3k]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZH7qAzUb3k[/video]

With the 2.1 dlc came the ability to use Engineers. Engineers can mod your ship for extra effects. Engineers are generally by invite only, for example there's an explorer engineer out there but she's only intesterested in dealing with other explorers, once you've travelled ~25,000 light years from the core you'll get a message in your inbox inviting you to visit.

As such the Engineers, though not strictly, are kind of longer term goals you might look at once you've made a bit of progress in the game.

The last question "Another question is..why does it takes like 5 minutes for the game to react when I pick up a mission? is there a way to remove this or make it short?"

I assume you mean the delay with the spinner? If that it's the servers struggling, game has had a bunch of new players post NMS. Frontier reckon they are sorting new servers.

 

[darcek]

Heh well that's a question...

Materials and data are currently used for the following :

- Synthesis
- Building some extended ship upgrades

Ty for that,however that doesn't answer my question.
Let me simplify the question for you by taking an example for different games:
In other games I will build using basic elements items and craft: lets say to build a new ship canon I will need Zinc,Calcium and Boridum.
I can either mine those of planets,buy at marketplace or get from parts I got..
I went on a mission,managed to blow up some ships and got some debris from them..I browse through them and found that some photon canon is made out of Zinc...
Im still missing the Calcium and Boridun..thankfully I found those in a plasma converter one of the ships droped.
Now the materials need to be refined..I head to the nearest station..go to the refinery smelting facility(phew its hot in here!),I give the items I got from the debris to the head workman.he takes a work fee, and start working on my items..delivery will be ready in 2 days..I head back to space win some more missions..come back to the station...a package from the refinery is waiting for me!
Inside I find the base materials extracted from those items I gave the headworksman,now with the zinc,calcium and boridum I head to my workshop..I install the various components and voila! I have a new canon sweet! my dps rating just raised from 1 beginner to 2 elevated noob! I head off to find new challenges suited my new level...

Ok back to reality.. This is the way its suppose to be..however its not in ED... So I ask again..what do I do with the ship parts i got from the ships i blow up? is it just shining stuff I can show my friends or do they hold any usage for me? If they do how do I use them? feel free to elaborate on the process as I told you from my experiance in other games.

P.S. I read throught again and on each item material it says "This material is used by engineers"
Question is who are this mysterious "Engieneers" and how do I find them?
You said its invite only? So I guss ill just keep gatering stuff hopeing one day ill get one.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

Ty for that,however that doesn't answer my question.
Let me simplify the question for you by taking an example for different games:
In other games I will build using basic elements items and craft: lets say to build a new ship canon I will need Zinc,Calcium and Boridum.
I can either mine those of planets,buy at marketplace or get from parts I got..
I went on a mission,managed to blow up some ships and got some debris from them..I browse through them and found that some photon canon is made out of Zinc...
Im still missing the Calcium and Boridun..thankfully I found those in a plasma converter one of the ships droped.
Now the materials need to be refined..I head to the nearest station..go to the refinery smelting facility(phew its hot in here!),I give the items I got from the debris to the head workman.he takes a work fee, and start working on my items..delivery will be ready in 2 days..I head back to space win some more missions..come back to the station...a package from the refinery is waiting for me!
Inside I find the base materials extracted from those items I gave the headworksman,now with the zinc,calcium and boridum I head to my workshop..I install the various components and voila! I have a new canon sweet! my dps rating just raised from 1 beginner to 2 elevated noob! I head off to find new challenges suited my new level...

Ok back to reality.. This is the way its suppose to be..however its not in ED... So I ask again..what do I do with the ship parts i got from the ships i blow up? is it just shining stuff I can show my friends or do they hold any usage for me? If they do how do I use them? feel free to elaborate on the process as I told you from my experiance in other games.

The bits can be used to enhance a weapon or a module. see here: http://inara.cz/galaxy-blueprints So, taking the top one you can get blast resistant armour. http://inara.cz/galaxy-blueprint/37
That one comes in 3 grades each requiring different stuff. As for how powerful it is there is an element of randomness, watch a minute or so of this vid from here https://youtu.be/mXGJwpUix7s?t=470

Shows him selecting FSD as his intended upgrade, then increased range as his desired attribute and level 1 modification. The sliders change to give him a unique mod which he can accept/discard/re-roll with more materials.
Note: The Fish requirement was only for testing purposes in beta, use the Inara links to find out the costs of the upgrades now.


Alternatively as Bitstorm said they can be used for a one time synthesis to restock your ammo on a certain weapon or refuel/repair your SRV of a 1 shot increase to your FSD range to make a single large jump. Check the synthesis tab there for the cost of each of those.

To do this yourself:
On that very first link there's a column for Engineers, you need the Horizons DLC to find them as they are on surface bases.
Go to the right hand panel in your ship and the first tab, there's a bit at the bottom called engineers. Clicking that will show you which ones are willing to work with you at current, selecting them will show their requirement to unlock them as they won't just work for anyone
Once you've unlocked them they'll offer level 1 modifications, often possible to do with just 1 material say Sulphur etc.
To get the higher level modifications you need to use their services and create some lower level ones. Or appease them in some other way. Farseer is an explorer so handing in exploration data increases your reputation and ability to get the higher mods.

Not every engineer does every modification as you can see from that first link most are specific to a few niches. Unlock more engineers by using the current ones, they give you the inside info on who to talk to to unlock more.