Elite / Frontier Frontier: Elite 2 - but flying more like Elite / Elite: Dangerous

[Arioch]

Will I be able to chip away at a Panther Clipper?

Today I have answered my question courtesy of a "some wellwishers of Mr Strauss of Foam Metals Corp" who wished a fitting end to his career.

The experience of taking out a Panther Clipper with a 1MW Pulse Laser turned out to be akin to kicking someone to death while wearing particularly soft and fluffy slippers.

I watched my target depart Shifnalport, Diso, at the alotted hour. A quick scan of their departure cloud showed me they were heading for Riedquat. I had approximately 1.5 days to wait for my mark thanks to my superior Military Drive.

...this being Riedquat, I had some curious pirates turn up 5 hours before my hit - a single Krait followed by a wing of 2 armed with missiles and 1MW Beam Lasers. Things got a bit tasty with the duo's crossfire, my shields dropping on one occasion and my Cobra taking 12.5t of hull damage.

My target eventually arrived and I watched their Shield Strength go up, and up, and up. By the time I was able to match speed and close on them, they'd achieved full Shields:

Let the gentle 1MW tickle-to-death begin!

My shots were shredding a massive 2% off the Shields per shot, but this required continuous fire - a missed shot allowed the PC to recharge just over the amount one of my shots would take off. Although it was a big target, there were a few occasions when I had to manoeuvre quick-sharp as the Clipper brought its 100MW Beam to bear or tried ramming me. After 6min I'd managed to not quite reach half way

A few more minutes saw me hitting my stride and getting some good fire onto the target:

...before finally drawing the curtains after a 12 minute-long engagement.

Cor blimey! I thought I was playing ED for a bit then

 

[Zieman]

Today I have answered my question courtesy of a "some wellwishers of Mr Strauss of Foam Metals Corp" who wished a fitting end to his career.

The experience of taking out a Panther Clipper with a 1MW Pulse Laser turned out to be akin to kicking someone to death while wearing particularly soft and fluffy slippers.

I watched my target depart Shifnalport, Diso, at the alotted hour. A quick scan of their departure cloud showed me they were heading for Riedquat. I had approximately 1.5 days to wait for my mark thanks to my superior Military Drive.
View attachment 198473
...this being Riedquat, I had some curious pirates turn up 5 hours before my hit - a single Krait followed by a wing of 2 armed with missiles and 1MW Beam Lasers. Things got a bit tasty with the duo's crossfire, my shields dropping on one occasion and my Cobra taking 12.5t of hull damage.
View attachment 198474
My target eventually arrived and I watched their Shield Strength go up, and up, and up. By the time I was able to match speed and close on them, they'd achieved full Shields:
View attachment 198475
Let the gentle 1MW tickle-to-death begin!

My shots were shredding a massive 2% off the Shields per shot, but this required continuous fire - a missed shot allowed the PC to recharge just over the amount one of my shots would take off. Although it was a big target, there were a few occasions when I had to manoeuvre quick-sharp as the Clipper brought its 100MW Beam to bear or tried ramming me. After 6min I'd managed to not quite reach half way
View attachment 198476
A few more minutes saw me hitting my stride and getting some good fire onto the target:
View attachment 198477
...before finally drawing the curtains after a 12 minute-long engagement.
View attachment 198478
Cor blimey! I thought I was playing ED for a bit then

Did the Clipper use that Energy Bomb, or did you manage to destroy it?

 

[Arioch]

Did the Clipper use that Energy Bomb, or did you manage to destroy it?

It used the EB within the first minute or so, but my 4x Shield Generators absorbed the vast majority of the energy burst - I ended up taking about 2% Hull damage as I had full Shields.

I didn’t manage to screenshot it going off (things were getting a bit hairy at the time) but I’ve previously taken video of one being used back in post #13.

 

[Arioch]

I cleared 3mil in my credit balance yesterday, so I decided to take up some cargo space with newly fitted equipment seeing as maximised profit trading runs aren’t so important any more - a number of my pirate kills have been dropping tasty loot but I’ve had to watch it drift off into the void; slightly annoying as I’ve always spare cargo capacity after responsibly disposing of my Military Drive jump leftovers.

Solution: Fuel Scoop with Cargo conversion.

It’s another thing I never tried back in ‘93 that’s turned out to be something I quite enjoy with my new play style:

Source: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1A2euHN34Zc


I’ve also fitted an Escape Pod - I’d always thought they were a manually activated capsule, and seeing as time from first hit to ship destruction is about the same time it takes to notice you’re being hit when it comes to large megawatt beams, I thought there wasn’t much point fitting one. After re-reading the manual, turns out they should jettison automatically though with the possibility of getting hit by the destruction blast.

Looks like something I’ll have to test out in the future.

 

[Arioch]

Another little detail I've never noticed before (because I've never done scooping before) - all the scoopable items have unique models, even if it's just text/colour differences. I've tried using the external camera to view them and you can just about make out what the text says (Animal Skins & Rubbish):

...and some Responsibly Desposed Military Drive Emissions™

I'll be keeping an eye out for more unique cargo.

In other news, my Escape Capsule got an automatic launch testing today courtesy of a 4MW Beam Laser but was either caught in the blast of my Cobra or the Beam itself. Current score: Autolaunch 0 - Death 1

 

[Arioch]

Another “Right On Commander!” this morning, so I think that means another 9 to go.

I’ve got a nice little bounty hunting & trade run going between Orerve & Riedquat - roughly 5 days per leg and usually plenty of pirates to have a go at. Orerve has got some planetary bases for when I fancy doing a down-the-well landing instead of standard space station approaches, just for a change of scenery.

I had an interesting incident when attempting a passenger mission today: Lucy Perry said she was fleeing Federal agents because they thought she was a spy - I asked for (and got) a 10% fee increase and half upfront of the offered 9k credits. Scrolling down the BBS there was an “missing persons” notice asking for information about Ms Perry - this doesn’t occur very often so I happily informed the seekers that she was indeed in a cabin aboard my ship.

“Cheers very much,” says they, “here’s 300 credits. You, Perry, are coming with us!”

And with that, she was black-bagged off to destination unknown. Um...ah...I supposed the other half of my transport fee is out of the question...?

As an added bonus, other characters are now telling me they don’t want to deal with someone of my reputation

 

[gunbladelad]

At least you managed to get 5k out of it and didn't need to carry her around. The reputation can be fixed with a few "charitable donations" to the right places, lol.

 

[AndyJ]

Another little detail I've never noticed before (because I've never done scooping before) - all the scoopable items have unique models <SNIP!>

Ah, thanks for posting that one - First Encounters doesn't draw the Radioactives cargo cannister correctly and I hadn't realised that there's a bar connecting the two spheres.
It was also interesting for me to see the radioactive symbol detail, I suspect that they wouldn't be present in the First Encounters version if it drew the spheres correctly when that close. They're not the typical text or bitmaps of the other little detail on ships/cargo, it looks like they're actually specific triangles of the sphere meshes being set to be painted black - if you look closely, they're curved and catching the light at the left tips. I've always loved these tiny details in the Frontier games!

[edit] not sure why, but the forum won't include image attachments from quoted messages. I had to save the image and re-attach it to get it to display.

 

[Arioch]

Oh what a day.

Flying in towards Lave Station, had a half-dozen tussles with medium/light pirate ships, scooped up Metal Alloys & a rather tasty canister of Battle Weapons, 43000km to the Coriolis and I get intercepted by an Imp Courier.

A fun dogfight ensued and I was getting some good hits in, nice smoke trails behind the Courier when it spun round to face me and did a quick thruster burn.

BOOP!

I survived the impact, but it looked like it’d knocked out my scanner. I tried to fire my pulse laser: nothing. A quick check of my ship’s status screen:

...ah. Shazbot! Looks like the damage was a bit more than I thought

Current scores: Capsule Automatique 1 - La Mort 1

The Courier wandered off in the direction of Lave Station and I followed in its wake. Upon reaching the port:

Marvellous. What luck. Is that the Courier taking up the last bay, enjoying a Lavian Brandy and chortling at the Escape Pod drifting beyond the bar viewport?

32 hours later I finally get in to dock, receive a grat-issue Eagle and see there’s no CobraMk3’s available in the shipyard. There’s not even a Scanner available for my Eagle! Looks like I’ll have to spend the next session on a Cobra hunt & outfitting...

 

[gunbladelad]

It always bugged me that the "insurance" you get when buying the escape pod only covers the cost of an Eagle - rather than the ship you were actually using when the escape pod deployed.

 

[Arioch]

The hunt for the Cobra begins - one with the shark’s teeth paint job, naturally.

I thought I’d try Tionisla first, they’ve got the Graveyard (in Lore) so I thought they might have a decent selection. I’ve only got the basic hyperdrive on the Eagle, so I leapfrogged Zaonce to get there. Upon entering the Tionisla system I realised that I’d forgotten to fit an autopilot back in Lave

Still, good opportunity to practise a manual approach. Had a couple of spicy encounters on the way in - no scanner meant I was retro-thrusting blindly, hoping not to get hit while trying to spot my attackers. At one point I had two Ospreys flitting around me firing pulse lasers - so not much help for direction finding (craft with beams are easier to locate) - and it was also a hard time getting used to the Eagle once more; a much more nimble beast than the Cobra. I managed to reach my destination with only 1.2million km’s worth of overshoot, whoops, and was disappointed to find only a selection of Vipers, a Cobra Mk1 and a Moray in the Shipyard. My next idea of checking the planetary port was scuppered when I realised I also hadn’t fit Atmospheric Shielding back in Lave. “Never mind,” thought I, “I’ll slap some gear into the Eagle and get mooching around the Old Worlds...”

What the bleedin’ell guys? Get robbing that Graveyard!

Back to Zoance, much better manual system transit with no loop of shame, finally got fitted out with the essentials: Autopilot, Radar Mapper (to earn some cash from my kills), and Atmospheric Shielding so I can peruse more Shipyards.

No Cobras in stock at Lave again, GALCOP must’ve given them all away back in 1984

No luck in Leesti, so next time I’m off to Orerve - it’ll be a gauntlet of pirates but I think I’ve got the measure of the Eagle now.

 

[Arioch]

Orerve had the goods:

Even had the paint job I wanted
The problems started with Outfitting - no Autopilot, no Scanner, but oddly enough I was able to fit a Fuel Scoop & Cargo Conversion - there must not be the same sort of Tech Level equipment availability like in the original Elite.

Stocking up on fuel, I jumped into Leesti and battled my way into George Lucas station - one missile hit saw me lose 50% hull in one fell swoop, and my manual approach only saw me overshooting on a 1.3million km loop-of-shame

The only extra I could fit there was an Autopilot - so it was onwards to Diso for the next kit trawl. Diso used to be a safe system in the original Elite, so surely I’d be okay despite my lack of a scanner...

Uh oh! All those coloured dots are incoming pirates.

Scannerless combat is tough. If the enemy is firing a beam (and you manage to quickly see it) then you’ve a 50/50 chance of following it to the enemy vessel. Pulse lasers are terrible, far too brief to assist in target location. I managed to survive 6 encounters, taking one missile hit for 50% damage, before meeting my end: an exciting dogfight with an Osprey - they launched one missile which I managed to evade - 60 seconds of full burn and twisting movement (during which they managed to land a pulse laser hit which took me down to 38% hull) before I heard the missile expire - managed to spot them rapidly approaching, and as I was bringing my gun to bear they launched their second missile at close range...

This is probably the hardest combat I’ve experienced so far Second attempt tomorrow!

 

[gunbladelad]

Remember that you can use text labels to give yourself a bit more of a heads up on where they are - and if you feel like cheating a little, you can pause the time then look around for them with your external view.

 

[Arioch]

Remember that you can use text labels to give yourself a bit more of a heads up on where they are - and if you feel like cheating a little, you can pause the time then look around for them with your external view.

f10 is the first thing I hit when jumping into the system (well, the key on my controller I have mapped to it).

As for being a bit cheaty - I’m resisting doing so and I’m not even using the thruster mod in combat these days, combined with my only-save-at-stations practice it’s giving me a real sense of danger while flying. Losing the last half-hour of play can be very annoying but overall I’m enjoying the game much more than I did back in the day.

 

[Arioch]

After 20 minutes fighting my way through Diso, I again succumbed to the cursed second missile - this time fired from a Krait at close range. It’s the sort of nasty trick that Asps used to pull in original Elite on the Speccy.

Having decided on a change of course, I headed towards Zaonce - I’d got some good kit for my Eagle there, so I hoped I’d be able to at least fit a Scanner. Limping into Ridley Scott station with 50% hull after a dozen interceptions and one missile hit (and managing to take out one of my attackers with a missile, which is a fairly rare thing) I opened up the Shipyard to see what I could see.

Oh yuss! I swear Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” started playing in my head, like Hans Gruber watching the Nakatomi vault opening

Everything! All the kit the game has to offer was on the shelves, so it was Chrimbo shopping time to get the Cobra back the way I wanted it:

...at a total cost of 7.5% of my credits! Time to get back into the swing of things around Riedquat & Orerve and get that bank balance back up - course plotted, launch requested, ship transported to the main airlock and...

...nothing. No movement, no control. Had my Bluetooth controller disconnected from my tablet? Had the game bugged out? I frantically started restarting connections and trying to get my mouse switched back on as the Cobra slowly drifted to port in the docking slot, and just as I was starting to jab at the tablet screen to get the pause menu up - fireworks time - the spinning gravestone of Cmdr Arioch zoomed into view.

I then realised my schoolboyish error (visible in the screenshot above).

I’d fitted a new Military Drive, so of course the internal fuel tank was empty. No fuel, no thrusters

 

[gunbladelad]

The fuel removal when changing engines has caught out many players over the years - you're not the first to die to it - and you'll not be the last. In fact, I'm sure a certain well known author will fall victim to it at some point, lol.

 

[Arioch]

Today was another day to try something new; I’ve got a fuel scoop fitted but have never tried scooping actual Hydrogen Fuel. I could make tens of credits from getting freebie fuel , so off I set for the local star, Orerve.

The Frontier manual describes the fuel scoop thus: “scoops fuels from the upper layers of gas giants or the photosphere of cool stars when you fly at below 30km altitude while travelling forwards at speed.” It also adds that you need Atmospheric Shielding for gas giants and, additionally, Shields for stars.

The problem with the 30km altitude is that the target lock gives you the distance to the core, not the surface, so we’ve got a bit of a guessing game to do Aiming for the edge, I saw the photosphere for the first time:

“Travelling forwards at speed” is just a bit vague, so approached the star horizon at 400km/s and decelerated until my trajectory “X” marker started dipping towards the horizon. Dropping below 200km/s took me out of orbit and into an unrecoverable descent as Orerve’s gravity grabbed me forever. Brushing off the ashes of that death, my next try stayed around 300km/s - unfortunately at that speed by the time the altimeter kicks in to warn you the surface is approaching, it’s already too late.

Plan B: gas giant Orerve 4

Close enough to see the atmosphere:

This turned out to be much easier, courtesy of an Engines Off bug - when approaching an atmospheric world at a shallow angle, you suddenly hit 0m altitude and your speed slowly drops to the atmo terminal velocity of 1030m/s, even though you are still many tens of kilometres above the surface:

After filling my hold with Hydrogen the “X” indicator continued to drop - I decided to let my Cobra take the reins and see where we would go...

Well that’s something new! The upper atmosphere of gas giants actually have clouds I wonder what happens when I reach 0m height?

Well I like to think that’s just the gas layer that’s thick enough to stop me from sinking any lower, what with me having a hold full of hydrogen and all My Cobra is a blimp!

 

[AndyJ]

Wuuuut?!?!
I remember doing sling-shots in FE2, but don't remember seeing protospheres on stars, or atmospheres/clouds or a surface of a gas giant!
WOW!

 

[gunbladelad]

It's surprising that a guy who helped re-code a modern rendering of First Encounters doesn't recall seeing details in FE2, lol.

 

[AndyJ]

It's surprising that a guy who helped re-code a modern rendering of First Encounters doesn't recall seeing details in FE2, lol.

I was a lot younger, at Uni and there was much alcohol back when I played FE2. So probably not that surprising LOL.
(Details that didn't progress to FFE also)