Newcomer / Intro What are you up to?

[Spaceman Si]

Microphone - just try using whatever you have around. I have a range of mics due to doing Amateur Radio, PA for local events, etc. The current model of the mic I have settled on for my VA use in E D is https://www.amazon.co.uk/Behringer-XM8500-Ultravoice-Cardioid-Microphone/dp/B0002KZAKS/ but I have mixer desks and USB interfaces for other stuff I do so that mic might not suit your setup.

If you decide to use headphones then just about anything would work - I have Bose noise-cancelling ones I use late at night with the DTS-X enabled in Elite (turning off the speaker system to prevent disturbing neighbours) and keep using the same mic. I also have HyperX Cloud II which I use for flight sims (voice chat there comes via comms channel so can be separate from main audio) - it is very comfortable and has a really good boom mic. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00SAYCXWG/

EDIT - Note that you don't need to spend the sort of money the above stuff costs - I just have them anyway for other reasons. You can happily run VA with HCS using much lower cost stuff.

Thanks very much for the suggestions!

With the Cardioid mic, do you have it mounted somehow?

The HyperX headphones with mic are very appealing to me as well, as I could use those for other purposes. (I could even use them for work conference calls and suchlike).

So I’m not sure which way I’ll be going at the moment... decisions! I do have an HCS voice pack in mind for a first purchase though.. Vasco. Having Brian Blessed bellowing at me whilst flying about sounds like fun

 

[Speedcuffs]

Thanks very much for the suggestions!

With the Cardioid mic, do you have it mounted somehow?

The HyperX headphones with mic are very appealing to me as well, as I could use those for other purposes. (I could even use them for work conference calls and suchlike).

So I’m not sure which way I’ll be going at the moment... decisions! I do have an HCS voice pack in mind for a first purchase though.. Vasco. Having Brian Blessed bellowing at me whilst flying about sounds like fun

Brian Blessed?

Did you mean BRIAN BLESSEDAAAAAAH!

I'm tempted.

 

[Spaceman Si]

Brian Blessed?

Did you mean BRIAN BLESSEDAAAAAAH!

I'm tempted.

FLY! FLY, MY HAWKMEN! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! GORDON’S ALIVE!

Yes, that’s the chap

 

[Tyres O'Flaherty]

Microphone - just try using whatever you have around. I have a range of mics due to doing Amateur Radio, PA for local events, etc. The current model of the mic I have settled on for my VA use in E D is https://www.amazon.co.uk/Behringer-XM8500-Ultravoice-Cardioid-Microphone/dp/B0002KZAKS/ but I have mixer desks and USB interfaces for other stuff I do so that mic might not suit your setup.

If you decide to use headphones then just about anything would work - I have Bose noise-cancelling ones I use late at night with the DTS-X enabled in Elite (turning off the speaker system to prevent disturbing neighbours) and keep using the same mic. I also have HyperX Cloud II which I use for flight sims (voice chat there comes via comms channel so can be separate from main audio) - it is very comfortable and has a really good boom mic. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00SAYCXWG/

EDIT - Note that you don't need to spend the sort of money the above stuff costs - I just have them anyway for other reasons. You can happily run VA with HCS using much lower cost stuff.

Bose ANC's don't come cheap Are they Quiet Comforts?

I had some Bose in-ear noise cancelling buds once. They met with a clumsy footfall. I was gutted as they had truly excellent sound although there was a bit of background hiss when the ANC was engaged.

 

[Chris Simon]

Bose ANC's don't come cheap Are they Quiet Comforts?

I had some Bose in-ear noise cancelling buds once. They met with a clumsy footfall. I was gutted as they had truly excellent sound although there was a bit of background hiss when the ANC was engaged.

Just two things from my experience
1) I'd never run VA on speakers+mic setup. The command loops it can get itself into are quite hilarious but definitely annoying. IIRC Para Handy spent a considerable amount of time making it work.
2) Expensive microphone ≠ best microphone, especially for this job. A simple, but strictly directional mic for Ł50 will do the trick.

On the other hand, if it's just for gaming, the fact that you can easily fetch 7.1 surround headset for under 100 quid makes the whole above struggle kind of pointless, imho.
I got used to headphones and I wouldn't go back.
(then again, I often have other people in my appartment so speaker setup isn't really an option for me, anyway)

 

[WeComeInPeace]

Yesterday I decided that it was time to jump into combat. Since I like the Mamba and hate the off center pilot seat of the FDL, I decided to go against any advice and build a "burning glass" Mamba, using only beam lasers. I engineered as much as I could and ended up with a pretty maneuverable ship. The beam lasers get very hot so I changed the two large ones to frags. Next I went to a Low RES but no party, so I went for a Haz RES instead. There I spent the evening getting revenge over all those annoying pirates commenting my lack of cargo. I only had to run a few times (wings), and that was the original plan of using the Mamba anyhow. Ended up with a lot better Combat rank, but also noticed how easy it is to get carried away, once you get caught by the bloodlust.

The "Beam Mamba" is not the best way to go, but with G5 dirty drag drives it handles better than i do, and the beams stay alive long enough to rip most shields in the first zap. The hull takes a little longer, but when I ran out of ammo for the frags, I switched to "lasers only" and it worked just fine. Verity was screaming about heat damage all the time, but none of my modules got below 97% health. I might engineer further to see if I can make them run cooler, and thereby replace the frags. My spaceship needs lasers, not cut down shotguns, even though those are highly efficient.

All that being said, I'm too much of a pacifist to really enjoy killing people, even NPCs. My new "combat skills" will go in the box with defensive tools for later use.

@Chris Simon

That banner in your signature makes me smile every time i see it I have three Anacondas now, and I will buy more whenever I need one extra for some new task. It's not that I haven't tried most of the other ships, or that I can't see the Conda's limitations, but it's just versatile (Who needs medium sized landing pads anyways?).

 

[aRJay]

Yesterday I decided that it was time to jump into combat. Since I like the Mamba and hate the off center pilot seat of the FDL, I decided to go against any advice and build a "burning glass" Mamba, using only beam lasers. I engineered as much as I could and ended up with a pretty maneuverable ship. The beam lasers get very hot so I changed the two large ones to frags. Next I went to a Low RES but no party, so I went for a Haz RES instead. There I spent the evening getting revenge over all those annoying pirates commenting my lack of cargo. I only had to run a few times (wings), and that was the original plan of using the Mamba anyhow. Ended up with a lot better Combat rank, but also noticed how easy it is to get carried away, once you get caught by the bloodlust.

The "Beam Mamba" is not the best way to go, but with G5 dirty drag drives it handles better than i do, and the beams stay alive long enough to rip most shields in the first zap. The hull takes a little longer, but when I ran out of ammo for the frags, I switched to "lasers only" and it worked just fine. Verity was screaming about heat damage all the time, but none of my modules got below 97% health. I might engineer further to see if I can make them run cooler, and thereby replace the frags. My spaceship needs lasers, not cut down shotguns, even though those are highly efficient.

All that being said, I'm too much of a pacifist to really enjoy killing people, even NPCs. My new "combat skills" will go in the box with defensive tools for later use.

@Chris Simon

That banner in your signature makes me smile every time i see it I have three Anacondas now, and I will buy more whenever I need one extra for some new task. It's not that I haven't tried most of the other ships, or that I can't see the Conda's limitations, but it's just versatile (Who needs medium sized landing pads anyways?).

Engineering your beam weapons using the Efficient blueprint will help a lot with more damage and less load on the Power Distributor then add the Thermal Vent special effect which pumps heat from your ship as long as you are hitting the target, if you don’t hit you will heat up slightly quicker. I am also fond of using the Long Range blueprint on pulse lasers it gets rid of the drop off lasers suffer from at range so increasing the overall damage the target gets from them and pulse lasers run nice and cool.

 

[WeComeInPeace]

Thanks for the advice. I'll look into that. [up]

The range drop wasn't as much of an issue as I thought, once I got the hang of it. When mining I like using the hull/shield to move into the exploded asteroid core and move things around to get more working space, and I quickly found myself ramming the pirates yesterday (bi weave and heavy duty shield boosters only, no shield banks). One/two zap(s) with the beam to remove opponents shield and then "ram jam" could take many ships out very quickly, even in the fancy pants Mamba. That meant that my original idea with the Mamba, fire lasers at a distance and run, became 0-500 meter combat range. Shields and lasers will be my way, together with ramming, just because ramming is such an "Oh yeahr?" It will probably work even better in a Conda, but the Mamba is fun.

 

[Para Handy]

So I’m not sure which way I’ll be going at the moment... decisions! I do have an HCS voice pack in mind for a first purchase though.. Vasco. Having Brian Blessed bellowing at me whilst flying about sounds like fun

Brian Blessed?

Did you mean BRIAN BLESSEDAAAAAAH!

I'm tempted.

There is a 50% off deal with HCS voicepacks in an email I got from them yesterday:

"Great time to order a voice pack! 50% OFF until Tuesday! Use the following code at checkout 'HALFPRICE'"

 

[Para Handy]

With the Cardioid mic, do you have it mounted somehow?

Re mic - yes I have a lot of comms gear at home and I use a RØDE boom arm mounted on the desk.

As Chris mentioned, I spent a lot of time experimenting with various setups to get VA + HCS to work without the game audio causing VA to "hear" that as commands - many amusing events were produced in-game by this. I tried various mics but even my most directional shotgun mics still triggered VA from game audio. It was only when I used a voice mic (used for vocalists on stage and recording) that I managed to get to the situation that the sensitivity of the dynamic mic meant that the game audio didn't trigger VA when I set it up correctly. So it is a balance of directionality, sensitivity and USB interface level setting that finally allowed me to use VA successfully.

Chris also mentioned price not being the decider for getting a mic for VA. This is absolutely the case, I just have a lot of gear available at home due to other stuff I do. A cheap Lavalier lapel condenser mic is perfectly able to do the audio job for you - but not with speakers as all condenser mics are just too sensitive. Of course if you set up VA to only listen when a hot-key is pressed or to require a "trigger word" then you can use any old mic - I just found these two approaches annoying.

 

[Para Handy]

The HyperX headphones with mic are very appealing to me as well, as I could use those for other purposes. (I could even use them for work conference calls and suchlike).

Bose ANC's don't come cheap Are they Quiet Comforts?

Just two things from my experience
1) I'd never run VA on speakers+mic setup. The command loops it can get itself into are quite hilarious but definitely annoying. IIRC Para Handy spent a considerable amount of time making it work.
2) Expensive microphone ≠ best microphone, especially for this job. A simple, but strictly directional mic for Ł50 will do the trick.

On the other hand, if it's just for gaming, the fact that you can easily fetch 7.1 surround headset for under 100 quid makes the whole above struggle kind of pointless, imho.
I got used to headphones and I wouldn't go back.
(then again, I often have other people in my appartment so speaker setup isn't really an option for me, anyway)

I bought the HyperX in a sale years ago after my Sennheiser cans were nicked at an event. I was short of cash at the time and thought they would do until I could afford proper replacements. Found them so good that I never considered replacing them - very comfortable, good audio, decent mic and can be used USB or direct (the USB dongle has switchable "surround" DSP) - I use them mainly for FlightSim online comms.

The Bose Quiet Comfort were bought (again in a sale) to use when travelling - the noise cancellation is great. They are actually really comfortable to wear for extended periods and I use them rather than the HyperX if I am playing Elite really late.

I think I covered the remarks from Chris in other posts - I just want to reaffirm that there is no need to spend silly money. If using headphones then the HyperX for example is under £70 if going dynamic mic then the one I listed is under £20 and add a fiver for an XLR cable. If using a hotkey then a cheap condenser is fine.

 

[sinisalo]

This sub-forum isn't nearly so active as a year ago, now is it?

As to what I'm up to....

Having secured the Guardian FSD Boosters for my fleet I decided to put one through it's paces and get my exploration rank over the Elite line. Have turned in 86 million in data over the past couple of days and only need 24 million more. One more trip!

I really like the new exploration mechanics. Mapping is the road to riches. I mean science. We aren't in it for the money right?

Once I hit Elite that will be true

 

[Spaceman Si]

I think I am settled on getting the HyperX headphones after digesting all of the above. I don’t have the mounts or any other need for a single mic, the HyperX has extra value for using in Skype / Web conferences and as a pair of nice headphones for other purposes, and has the required mic to boot.

I am very grateful to Para Handy for the expert advice and recommendations in detail, which saved me a good deal of research over and above what I did already, and Chris’ comment about the 7.1 headphones sealed my deliberations, so thank you both

 

[Spaceman Si]

This sub-forum isn't nearly so active as a year ago, now is it?

As to what I'm up to....

Having secured the Guardian FSD Boosters for my fleet I decided to put one through it's paces and get my exploration rank over the Elite line. Have turned in 86 million in data over the past couple of days and only need 24 million more. One more trip!

I really like the new exploration mechanics. Mapping is the road to riches. I mean science. We aren't in it for the money right?

Once I hit Elite that will be true

Was it busier last year? I don’t remember now

The mapping and bonuses make credits so abundant that I fear the bubble is going to experience Weimar Republic / Zimbabwe levels of hyper-inflation I earned more in 2 months than I did in the previous 10! I don’t usually bother carrying cargo around now either, unless it is rares or something specific for a mission, it just isn’t comparable to going out to throw a few 8-bit probes at a planet In my next few sessions, I am going off to try mining, before going off to so the Guardian FSD booster: Both activities promise to see even more credits flowing from the veritable cornucopia of Universal Cartographics, not to mention the profit from blasting rocks...

 

[Chris Simon]

This sub-forum isn't nearly so active as a year ago, now is it?

Was it busier last year? I don’t remember now

Any "Newcomers veteran" can tell you that we always have a busy month after every update and then it trails off.
Nothing's happening, don't worry.

 

[Spaceman Si]

Any "Newcomers veteran" can tell you that we always have a busy month after every update and then it trails off.
Nothing's happening, don't worry.

I do read from time-to-time in other places that the game is “dead”.

Rumours of its demise seem highly exaggerated

 

[WeComeInPeace]

In my next few sessions, I am going off to try mining, before going off to so the Guardian FSD booster: Both activities promise to see even more credits flowing from the veritable cornucopia of Universal Cartographics, not to mention the profit from blasting rocks...

Core mining is quite fun once you get going. Don't know why exactly, but it's always funny to destroy stuff with seismic charges, and once the asteroid is split open, it reminds me of the treasure shrine from some of the comics I read as a child many centuries ago. Seeing all those opals and knowing each one represents 1.6 mil CR is a strangely nice feeling. It's far far better than R2R. Remember the shield. I started mining without one, since that gave me more cargo space, but the shield is handy when pushing the rocks around, and you get a lot of debris. And don't be stupid like me: Bring limpets, not just the controller. Doh! Finally, the rings furthest away from the star is often dark, making it easier to distinguish the juicy rocks. With Night Vision on, you can see if a rock has fissures without firing a prospector limpet at it. Happy mining!

 

[LeoBartlet]

Playing the Division 2

 

[Speedcuffs]

Picked up a few Thargoid battering missions from the rescue ship.

I've brought over the AX-FAS, I'm seriously considering having a go at some scouts in my Rescue T9. What could possibly go wrong?

 

[wAsh67]

Tonight I modded my Viper for element prospecting to enable progress with engineers. Shot 8 probes at a planet to get 100% (target was 7 - probe 4 is somewhere close to Sag A by now.....) discovered 5 zones of geological interest, flew down to one, landed, drove the SRV around, shot some stuff, picked up some materials (Yaaaay!) and then headed back to the barn for drinks.

Never done any of that before so I feel pretty damn good. Though that might be the Southern Comfort kicking in.....