Unfortunately for yours truly, the release of Premium Beta has coincided with the busiest time at work for me (damn you, FD, you inconsiderate ******s!) so haven't been getting nearly as much time in as I'd like. Still stuck on the basic kit out, haven't scraped enough yet for the Eagle, let alone the Cobra.
Anyways, yesterday I made sure I worked through lunch, and sliced off a couple of hours later in the day to get in there and faff about for a bit.
First three attempts at logging in were fruitless - spinning sidewinder of fun for 10-20 minutes at a time, which forced me to use the task manager to try again. After about three quarters of an hour, there I was finally at Azeban ready for launch. Got my clearance, couldn't take off, because my controls had somehow reset themselves. Pause, options, controls... and reassigned every key again. NOW I can take off... but as soon as I exit the no fire zone, two AI sidewinders jump me. Oooh, bit of action, nice! Only... why aren't my hardpoints deploying?!? What do you mean I have no fire groups set!?!? What the... BOOM!
Deep breath, start again.
Off I launch, into the void. This time, all's quiet outside, but there's a pile of canisters of gold floating about. Woohoo! Bit of luck tonight at last! Fill up my meagre cargo hold, and am about to head back to the station to sell my ill-gotten gains, when BOOM. A fellow backer's sidewinder slams into me at full pelt, shields gone, and hull down to 30%. And wait, there's those sidewinders again. B*gger b*gger b*gger, shields aren't recharging fast enough, evasive maneuvers... BOOM.
Deep breath, start again.
No messing about this time, head straight for the Fed Distress call, and take out my mounting frustration on some Eranian Defence Craft. Drive charging, and off we go. As usual the trip was uneventful, no interdiction, jump out at the target point and... there my screen sits for 20 more minutes, doing the hippy hippy shake with no sign of me actually coming out of it.
Deep breath, start again.
This time I actually made it to the distress call. Come out of supercruise, all pips to shields until I get my bearings, choose the Fed side, and off we go. Noticed immediately there were three or four fellow commanders, but all on the opposing side. Oops! But I've made my bed, now its time to lie in it. Bagged a pair of NPCs, while keeping one eye on the scanner, making sure none of the other side were getting behind me. Was on the tail of my third bogey, who was making straight for the dreadnaught. Had his shields gone, his hull down to 6% when... crash.
Deep breath, start again.
Get to the distress call, come out of supercruise, and get back to work. Declare for the Feds again, forgetting the cloud of Eranian players, one of whom immediately engages me. Gets a good couple of hits on me before I realize what's what, and deploy my hard points. Nothing. No weapons assigned to fire groups. Again. While I'm getting pounded by another player.
At this point, I did a quite selfish thing and rage quit. What I SHOULD have done is sat there and let my opponent have their kill. I know if someone did that to me (and they have done) I'd be fuming. So if that commander is reading, my apologies.
Three hours in front of my computer, and I'd gotten a total of about 10 minutes of actual game time, most of it spent in supercruise. But at least the weekend is almost here.
Deep breath, start again.
Anyways, yesterday I made sure I worked through lunch, and sliced off a couple of hours later in the day to get in there and faff about for a bit.
First three attempts at logging in were fruitless - spinning sidewinder of fun for 10-20 minutes at a time, which forced me to use the task manager to try again. After about three quarters of an hour, there I was finally at Azeban ready for launch. Got my clearance, couldn't take off, because my controls had somehow reset themselves. Pause, options, controls... and reassigned every key again. NOW I can take off... but as soon as I exit the no fire zone, two AI sidewinders jump me. Oooh, bit of action, nice! Only... why aren't my hardpoints deploying?!? What do you mean I have no fire groups set!?!? What the... BOOM!
Deep breath, start again.
Off I launch, into the void. This time, all's quiet outside, but there's a pile of canisters of gold floating about. Woohoo! Bit of luck tonight at last! Fill up my meagre cargo hold, and am about to head back to the station to sell my ill-gotten gains, when BOOM. A fellow backer's sidewinder slams into me at full pelt, shields gone, and hull down to 30%. And wait, there's those sidewinders again. B*gger b*gger b*gger, shields aren't recharging fast enough, evasive maneuvers... BOOM.
Deep breath, start again.
No messing about this time, head straight for the Fed Distress call, and take out my mounting frustration on some Eranian Defence Craft. Drive charging, and off we go. As usual the trip was uneventful, no interdiction, jump out at the target point and... there my screen sits for 20 more minutes, doing the hippy hippy shake with no sign of me actually coming out of it.
Deep breath, start again.
This time I actually made it to the distress call. Come out of supercruise, all pips to shields until I get my bearings, choose the Fed side, and off we go. Noticed immediately there were three or four fellow commanders, but all on the opposing side. Oops! But I've made my bed, now its time to lie in it. Bagged a pair of NPCs, while keeping one eye on the scanner, making sure none of the other side were getting behind me. Was on the tail of my third bogey, who was making straight for the dreadnaught. Had his shields gone, his hull down to 6% when... crash.
Deep breath, start again.
Get to the distress call, come out of supercruise, and get back to work. Declare for the Feds again, forgetting the cloud of Eranian players, one of whom immediately engages me. Gets a good couple of hits on me before I realize what's what, and deploy my hard points. Nothing. No weapons assigned to fire groups. Again. While I'm getting pounded by another player.
At this point, I did a quite selfish thing and rage quit. What I SHOULD have done is sat there and let my opponent have their kill. I know if someone did that to me (and they have done) I'd be fuming. So if that commander is reading, my apologies.
Three hours in front of my computer, and I'd gotten a total of about 10 minutes of actual game time, most of it spent in supercruise. But at least the weekend is almost here.
Deep breath, start again.
