Or maybe not, as also buried in the patch notes is the section about upgrading most ship cockpits for multi-crew. Both the Asp Explorer and Scout are listed in that with the line "Added second seat for multi-crew", which makes no sense if they were just going to use the seat underneath the main cockpit. This implies they've added another seat in the main cockpit. Can anyone in the beta confirm this either way?
Anyone posted the changes for Exploration in 2.3?
- Thread starter Traveller_GG
- Start date
Or maybe not, as also buried in the patch notes is the section about upgrading most ship cockpits for multi-crew. Both the Asp Explorer and Scout are listed in that with the line "Added second seat for multi-crew", which makes no sense if they were just going to use the seat underneath the main cockpit. This implies they've added another seat in the main cockpit. Can anyone in the beta confirm this either way?
It's underneath.
New camera suite makes for some pretty photos... but I'm finding it extremely difficult to use
New camera suite makes for some pretty photos... but I'm finding it extremely difficult to use
I can give you a rough estimate about how much time it would take me to go from Dangerous to Deadly (0%->100%) currently, in a Courier: 20-25 hours. However, this is subjective because it depends on my performance, in my chosen ship, so yours might be slower or faster. Plus I don't know if going from Harmless to Dangerous takes less or more time than Dangerous to Deadly. However, it seems very likely that you're doing it wrong: like Jackie said, you pretty much have to take out ships that are at least your rank. Ships below it will give you very little rank progression.
For more exact details, check the ED wiki article on combat. That should give you a better idea, although the rank requirements aren't exact.
Most importantly, if you find combat in your Python boring, I would ditch it. (Personally, I find combat in a Python boring too.) You have a choice to make: do you want to go full speed at rank progression, or do you want to go 75% but have fun? If it's the former, use an FdL, your Python or one of the Big Three. If you'd rather have more fun, then I would very much recommend a smaller ship: a Courier would be in my opinion the best if you have access to it, or a Vulture if not. The Courier has excellent flight characteristics and is a joy to fly. The Vulture has very good characteristics too, and situationally more firepower (but less choice). Both ships are also more fun to engineer, because they give pretty good rewards for your effort. There's also the added bonus that should you make mistakes and end up staring at the rebuy screen, you'll have to spend far less credits.
Also, I'll assume that you'll want to do combat solo, but I would recommend winging up with at least one friend. Not only is it more fun that way, but also quicker and safer. Grab a friend or two, grab some Vipers for yourselves and go hunting. The AI (too) has considerably more trouble dealing with multiple targets than with one, so you can expect to get away with more - and you have each other to help too. In fact, if you'd like to wing up with me sometime, I'd be available for it too; I'll be in the bubble until 2.3 hits anyway.
From here on, I'll assume you're going solo - the same things will apply to wings anyway.
So first off, you want to carefully pick your fights. By that, I don't just mean going after Deadly or Elite NPCs, but also being the one to start the attack, not the other way around. So, don't give NPCs a reason to start firing on you: carry no cargo, have no live bounties. This is very important, as multiple hostiles joining in on a fight you're already in is a quick way to defeat.
Second, certain locations have much higher chances of high-ranked NPC spawns. High intensity combat zones would be the best, but I'd advise against going solo to those, as you will end up with multiple enemies targeting you. (You can avoid that for a time, but sooner or later it will happen.) So, I would recommend unauthorised installations (for example, Rahu 1), compromised nav beacons or perhaps High / Hazardous RES-es. (In this order.) The good thing with all these is that you get good NPC spawns, but aren't guaranteed to be fired at. As such, you can pick your fights. It's also important to note that NPC-s will fight among each other too (pirates pirating pirates, bounty hunters hunting criminals) which will also make your job easier.
Once you're in a good place, take out the small high-ranked ships first. Sure, they give less credits for bounties, but rather counter-intuitively, only combat rank matters, not what ship they are flying. As such, killing an Elite Eagle will give you as much rank progression as killing an Elite Anaconda. While being much easier to do. This is rather stupid, in my opinion, but it appears this is how things are. (You will receive roughly ten times as many credits for the Anaconda, of course.)
And that's pretty much it in a nutshell. Stick with high value targets as outlined above, and you should progress much faster than you currently do - and hopefully have fun too. I'd also recommend finding a ship that's more fun for you, and learning to use directional thrusters, FA-Off and fixed weapons, but you don't really need to do those last ones for NPCs.
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Has this been made easier since pre-engineer days? Perhaps when they tweaked the AI? How many kills was it for you?
It has, since we have better spawns and also better ships through engineering. Although I suppose the better AI made NPC combat slightly more difficult, but not much. As for spawns: before, your only viable option at high ranks was to go to combat zones. To be honest, I have no idea how many kills it took to get to Dangerous, and I'm not Deadly yet.
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The Asp Explorer uses the seat below, but I think (not sure though) a ladder has been added between the decks. (VR users might know if it was there before ... ) 'Added second seat' refers to the fact that it's usable and has camera positions, as far as I know.
Edit re: Combat ranking: If you're not that experienced in combat, taking a Vulture to a low-intensity conflict zone is probably the best way to do it fast - you'll still get higher ranked targets, but smaller ones for faster and easier kills.
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Thanks for the advice, much appreciated. But this point is a sticking one for me and why I have tended to avoid going after higher ranked ships. Losing a ship is not an option. If and when I do finally see that rebuy screen I'll likely call it a day with ED. It's not happened yet and I may change my mind if it does happen, but that's my current expectation.
It's underneath.
New camera suite makes for some pretty photos... but I'm finding it extremely difficult to use
HA! So I'm not alone. Is it normal that when I enter 'Freecam' mode, I can't move the camera at all? Even after checking key bindings, I can only shift through camera views, but nothing else works (blur, FOV, no free cam movement, etc.).
I think some of it is disabled while docked, are you trying docked or in flight?
I'm anything but a proficient combat pilot, but I've never lost my (unmodded) Vulture in a conflict zone. As long as you take a moment to observe the flow of the battle and find a group of allies to follow (and know when to quit), you're quite safe.
(Alternatively, you could park a Keelback outside the CZ and take a fighter in. I've heard of people doing that; personally, I'd be too nervous about the battle shifting toward the mothership.)
I had to go and reset all my key bindings - because I've dared to set 1 key to 'target next system', I now have a "custom" setup which means none of the normal controls were bound. Reset, re-do target next system and I can control camera. (Except I can't because I'm totally a n00b). And who on earth thought it'd be a good idea to let you control ship from camera view? I'm calling my next death - I'll try and get a shot of me landing on a planet, I'll accidently take control of ship and boost it into the floor... and I won't even get a good shot of it because I suck at camera!
Thank you so much! It was doing my head in, I thought they just hadn't bothered to bind the camera controls and were leaving it up to us to struggle. X(
In flight...
Yeah, I'll try that, thanks. Well, I'll try that in the final release, if I'm back in the game.
![[VR] optimal_909](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/109/109067.jpg?1553781733){kind=avatar}
May I ask, why? I guess the rebuy cost is an unlikely as reason...
By the way, I am usually spending a couple of weeks off before each major update, to avoid 'overplaying' ED.
I guess it is largely because I've yet to lose a ship and as such it has grown in importance to me. But it is also because I consider the rebuy to be an utterly pointless (to any sensible CMDR) 'cost' of death. As such it has positively fuelled most of the issues we see with ED when it comes to the whole open vs solo nonsense and related issues. I would love to play in open but there is no point as long as someone can kill at will with effectively zero consequence. Losing a ship probably shouldn't be the equivalent of virtual death, but the consequences should be significant to the point that it is a real deterrent. Without that it's just another video game with no more meaning than Space Invaders. I couldn't possibly commit the time I've committed to ED to that sort of game so have chosen to make death have sufficient significance for me.
I see and understand. For similar reasons, I'd never open a second account and this is what kept me away buying beta access too.
To get to outsider and friendly with the Empire, wouldn't it work to just dump a bunch of exploration data on an Empire station?
I got my Empire rep (such as it is) by doing slave trading. It was for a good cause though - to fund a 7A scoop for my Anaconda.
I haven't lost a ship myself either, but wouldn't give up on the game if I did. Personally I refuse to do anything combat related unless it's in self defence.
@ Allitnil: I get where you're coming from, and I didn't assume you were doing a voluntary ironman mode. So yeah, in that case, you'll have to stick with low risk, and accept that low risk comes with low reward and low fun.
However, I say that rebuy costs are fine, and the problem is not that "death" is inconsequential, but hostile actions are inconsequential. I mean this both against players and NPC-s. Small ships can be easy to kill, but the rebuy cost is not punishing: large ships can be very tough to kill, but the rebuy cost is punishing. (Of course, you might argue that paying 25 million credits on a single death is Space Invaders level, but I'd disagree.) So, pretty much as it should be. If you die while trading, you also lose your cargo's value, and if you somehow die while exploring, you can lose lots of data. So I'd say that's fine.
What is not fine is how you can basically get along with anything. ing off even local factions, let alone superpowers, enough that they would refuse docking to you (let alone shoot on sight) requires you to kill hundreds of ships. And even if you do, your negative rep will eventually decay on its own back to unfriendly level. Not to mention that fighting against a faction in a combat zone doesn't lower your rep, but turning in the vouchers for the faction you fought for does increase your rep. So basically, kill a hundred ships in Federal space, and instead of getting a blanket wanted level all across the Federation, the local faction whose ships you killed will start to think that maybe they shouldn't let you dock.
Oh, you will get a substantial bounty while doing so, but said bounty will go dormant when you next die, and eventually expire too.
Now, since the exact same rules apply to killing players that it does to NPC-s, griefing (killing players for no in-game reason) is essentially unpunished too. Personally, I think that there ought to be different rules, and you should be able to "earn" negative reputation with the Pilot's Federation, leading to eventually being hostile to everyone except anarchic factions. That could actually lead to interesting outlaw gameplay.
Or another example. In-universe, purchasing Imperial slaves and selling them outside the Empire is highly illegal. After all, Imperial "slavery" is a voluntary contract for a set amount of time, during which the "slave" has legal rights, and after which time they are freed. So slavery here is a misnomer, it's indentured servitude instead. However, outside the Empire, slaves lose their rights and enter indefinite slavery not of their own will. Sure, slavery might be illegal in most places, but in-game, the Federation are the biggest slave traders, as high prices drive high demand. During the heyday of slave trading, many Commanders bought Imperial slaves in Torval territory (where they are sold at a discount), then sold them in either Archon or Federal space. So, what did happen if they were caught smuggling the Imperial slaves outside of Imperial territory? They got a rather substantial fine, and some rep loss with the local faction, but not the Empire.
Personally, I'd say that getting caught doing such a thing should basically destroy your Imperial reputation.
I could go on and raise other examples, but my point is that for some reason, players are very much cushioned from the consequences of their choices, but not their mistakes. You might accidentally lose your ship, but you won't accidentally kill dozens of players or NPC-s. Now, in my opinion, having your actions carry more consequence would help a lot more with making the game feel less arcade-like than punishing mistakes more severely would.
Oh, and a fun idea came to me regarding exploration: compared to the original plans (see the DDF), it's really quite easy, but one could remedy that by not going farther than, say, 500 ly without having a player resupply them, and if they spend more than five hours (in-game time) without being resupplied, they'd self-destruct. Possibly do it without fuel scooping too - it's not like you, Allitnil, haven't gone to Jaques station on one tank.
@ Darth Krayt: sure, you can get to friendly rep with the Empire just by selling exploration data. Getting to Outsider requires doing one naval ascension mission.
However, I say that rebuy costs are fine, and the problem is not that "death" is inconsequential, but hostile actions are inconsequential. I mean this both against players and NPC-s. Small ships can be easy to kill, but the rebuy cost is not punishing: large ships can be very tough to kill, but the rebuy cost is punishing. (Of course, you might argue that paying 25 million credits on a single death is Space Invaders level, but I'd disagree.) So, pretty much as it should be. If you die while trading, you also lose your cargo's value, and if you somehow die while exploring, you can lose lots of data. So I'd say that's fine.
What is not fine is how you can basically get along with anything. ing off even local factions, let alone superpowers, enough that they would refuse docking to you (let alone shoot on sight) requires you to kill hundreds of ships. And even if you do, your negative rep will eventually decay on its own back to unfriendly level. Not to mention that fighting against a faction in a combat zone doesn't lower your rep, but turning in the vouchers for the faction you fought for does increase your rep. So basically, kill a hundred ships in Federal space, and instead of getting a blanket wanted level all across the Federation, the local faction whose ships you killed will start to think that maybe they shouldn't let you dock.
Oh, you will get a substantial bounty while doing so, but said bounty will go dormant when you next die, and eventually expire too.
Now, since the exact same rules apply to killing players that it does to NPC-s, griefing (killing players for no in-game reason) is essentially unpunished too. Personally, I think that there ought to be different rules, and you should be able to "earn" negative reputation with the Pilot's Federation, leading to eventually being hostile to everyone except anarchic factions. That could actually lead to interesting outlaw gameplay.
Or another example. In-universe, purchasing Imperial slaves and selling them outside the Empire is highly illegal. After all, Imperial "slavery" is a voluntary contract for a set amount of time, during which the "slave" has legal rights, and after which time they are freed. So slavery here is a misnomer, it's indentured servitude instead. However, outside the Empire, slaves lose their rights and enter indefinite slavery not of their own will. Sure, slavery might be illegal in most places, but in-game, the Federation are the biggest slave traders, as high prices drive high demand. During the heyday of slave trading, many Commanders bought Imperial slaves in Torval territory (where they are sold at a discount), then sold them in either Archon or Federal space. So, what did happen if they were caught smuggling the Imperial slaves outside of Imperial territory? They got a rather substantial fine, and some rep loss with the local faction, but not the Empire.
Personally, I'd say that getting caught doing such a thing should basically destroy your Imperial reputation.
I could go on and raise other examples, but my point is that for some reason, players are very much cushioned from the consequences of their choices, but not their mistakes. You might accidentally lose your ship, but you won't accidentally kill dozens of players or NPC-s. Now, in my opinion, having your actions carry more consequence would help a lot more with making the game feel less arcade-like than punishing mistakes more severely would.
Oh, and a fun idea came to me regarding exploration: compared to the original plans (see the DDF), it's really quite easy, but one could remedy that by not going farther than, say, 500 ly without having a player resupply them, and if they spend more than five hours (in-game time) without being resupplied, they'd self-destruct. Possibly do it without fuel scooping too - it's not like you, Allitnil, haven't gone to Jaques station on one tank.
@ Darth Krayt: sure, you can get to friendly rep with the Empire just by selling exploration data. Getting to Outsider requires doing one naval ascension mission.
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Ah yes, forgot about the need for missions. A few deliver trade data missions in a small fast ship should do the job though.