Newcomer / Intro Beginner Experience Harmful to Health

Ok, as a beginner, I'm finding this game very frustrating. A few questions:

Why does the landing dock sometimes recognize my approach & other times not? In both cases, I'm hovering directly above the circle & easing down with landing gear deployed.
What is this mode where my flight thrusters aren't responding? How do I get back my flight controls?
Once I engage my FSD, how do I supercruise?
Where can I review information on a mission I've accepted?
Why do I have no choice but to upgrade to the latest build (that breaks my Oculus Rift VR functionality)?

Seriously, I'm on the cusp of asking for a refund. This is supposed to be fun, but all I've done since I got this game was read, study, test, reboot, hack, edit, kludge, struggle, play a little bit, & then resume struggling.
 
Ok, as a beginner, I'm finding this game very frustrating. A few questions:

Why does the landing dock sometimes recognize my approach & other times not? In both cases, I'm hovering directly above the circle & easing down with landing gear deployed.
What is this mode where my flight thrusters aren't responding? How do I get back my flight controls?
Once I engage my FSD, how do I supercruise?
Where can I review information on a mission I've accepted?
Why do I have no choice but to upgrade to the latest build (that breaks my Oculus Rift VR functionality)?

Seriously, I'm on the cusp of asking for a refund. This is supposed to be fun, but all I've done since I got this game was read, study, test, reboot, hack, edit, kludge, struggle, play a little bit, & then resume struggling.

1. A. If repeated request for dock was made, there is a bug occurs where Docking signal is absent.

B. Sometime you are facing the wrong direction at the right center. It is usually a tall wall and not the ramp. The pitch have to be centered while landing gear on landing pad.

2. Slow Down is a pain a butt. This cause the throttle to get stuck up until Slow Down message is gone. I wonder myself why.

3. FSD is a cool down system after each jump or interdicted. You won't jump or cruise until then. There are two dimension, inner and outer. You can only hypercruise in the outer dimension but can hyperjump in both, inner and outer dimension. To enter inner dimension, you have to hyperjump a specific object in your navigation. You can hyperjump to get out in the same system or to another system. But, after entering back in the system, you have to hyperjump again for says entering Orbital Station in the system.

4. Go to free look move, this is where you move your head around as if you were in your car driver seat. Look on your left close to the cockpit panel, a monitor will popup with navigation, misssion, transaction, and need to know basis.

This game is challenging as Microsoft Flight Simulator hang in there.
 
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Hardly likely to get a refund if you just don't like the game, software doesn't work that way! However....

You shouldn't have a problem with the landing dock as long as you are on the correct one and facing the correct way. (I have seen some people complaining that there is an issue that has appeared today on landing though.)

Don't know what the issue you are having with your flight thrusters, are you playing with Mouse and keyboard, a flightstick or what?

There are 2 Frameshift modes Supercruise and Hyperspace. You can "bind" your keys to this in Options. I have C for supercruise and J for hyperspace.

Once you have accepted a mission it will appear in the "Transactions" tab in the lefthand UI (tap the 1 key)

Everyone needs to be on the same build for the game to work properly or you will find lots of oddities occurring. Shouldn't break your OR though as this is built to fully support it.

...

I hope you stick with it, it will be worthwhile. There was a lot of short term pain when I started but I wouldn't be without it now
 
Turn your ship around.

You should see the back of your ship in the decking viewer. I had this issue also.

To see all the jobs you have taken is under "Transactions" tab on your left hand HUD.

The other issues you are having are covered in the tutorial videos they have giving.
 
Ok, as a beginner, I'm finding this game very frustrating. A few questions:

Why does the landing dock sometimes recognize my approach & other times not? In both cases, I'm hovering directly above the circle & easing down with landing gear deployed.
What is this mode where my flight thrusters aren't responding? How do I get back my flight controls?
Once I engage my FSD, how do I supercruise?
Where can I review information on a mission I've accepted?
Why do I have no choice but to upgrade to the latest build (that breaks my Oculus Rift VR functionality)?

Seriously, I'm on the cusp of asking for a refund. This is supposed to be fun, but all I've done since I got this game was read, study, test, reboot, hack, edit, kludge, struggle, play a little bit, & then resume struggling.

Well, with respect, I have never had my landing information not work as it should, nor has my thrusters ever malfunctioned other than people shooting me.

Once you engage your FSD, you simply raise your speed to 100% which initiates either supercruise or system jumping (for the system jumping, you have to be pointed in the right direction at the system you intend to jump to). If you have a system selected, you will not enter supercruise but a system jump. If you have something in the system selected, you will enter supercruise. If you enter a system, you remain in supercruise until you leave it, you are pulled out of it by interdiction, or you are flying too close to a planetary body.

To review information on a mission you have accepted (I assume you are using the standard controls), select 1 to look at your left pop up screen in the cockpit, select E *or* W until you are in the 'TRANSACTIONS' tab, then select the contract you want to view the information on, and press the spacebar, if I recall correctly. (I use my Logitech Extreme 3D Pro joystick for contract selection and activation.)

I am not responsible for such things, but as the game is, in part, online, everyone needs to be on the same version. I am waiting until the game is a bit more stable re: Oculus Rift until I purchase it (also, I was thinking of waiting for the consumer version).

I am sorry that you are having such troubles. To be honest, I'm quite enjoying the game, although I am finding it quite slow accumulating enough money to get my next ship (I'm in an Eagle that I sold the shields to put in a bigger cargo bay, sold all my weapons to decrease the power consumption, lose weight, and afford cargo after I bought a replacement FSD and power plant so that I could get out of a system with the required cargo I had for a contract.) Even then, I love the fact that I had to make those ugly choices, just as I have had to make hard choices in life.

My thoughts on Elite, and I don't assume you must share it, is that my favorite thing about Elite is that I can remain the same boring, dependable person I am in life, and I am not penalized for it. I FLY IN SPACE! I transfer food to places that need it, I deliver medicines, and coffee, and computer components and anything that I can get my hands on, sometimes because people need it, or sometimes, with the thought of making it big, buying a bigger ship to transfer more, or a more agile one to clean up the riff raff (or be one!), and make my ends meet just as I do in life.

I don't intend to stand on a soapbox, but this game comes far closer to an open-ended experience than you're likely to find, and I would hate it, loath it, if it failed to give you the wonderful (virtual) experiences it has provided me in the last 30 years, but the thing is, this game will NOT give you back something you did not put into it, but it will provide for you if you put in the effort.

Even today, I got an amazing surprise when I had a contract that I was heading to find the items to fill it with, when I, on a whim, dropped out of SC to investigate a USS (Unidentified Signal Source), only to have a pirate consortium offer me more money than the initial contract to bring the items to them!) I had no idea the game did that, and it made me very happy that I can still be surprised after all this time (I'm one of the backers). Or when I had my ship's canopy shatter, and I had to try to get to a station within five minutes, all without the heads up display (well most of it - the canopy showed me what it could in the area left intact.) - Trust me, it's harder than you think to try to line up where you're going without the HUD.

Anyway, I hope to see you out there, and I hope your frustration bleeds off for you to enjoy the game I see on my screen.

Commander Leslie
Boring.
Safe.
Usually has weapons to stave off the flying rats who want my cargo, but not today.
 
Why is this so complicated? Why does hyperdrive drop me in front of a star where I'm burning up, & shut down my piloting controls? How do I thrust? How do I escape?

"Taking heat damage..."

Oh, don't I know it, stupid computer. How the heck do I get this jalopy moving?

"Frame Shift Drive charging..."


Great, now can we please get the heck out of here? C'mon, let's go. Move it!

"Taking heat damage..."

Oh, screw it. Let's just die in space. Why fight it...
 
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I don't know how it works without a joystick but while you are making the jump throttle all the way down. When you exit you'll be going very slow and you'll have all the time you need.
 
After doing almost nothing but exploring since launch, I've got sort of a nice system down pat.

Hyperjump into system. Land near star's edge like usual. Immediately turn to edge of star's horizon, and go FULL STOP. Shouldn't be taking any heat damage if you stop right away, although I think theres particular stars that give off heat damage from pretty far away. Target the star. Scan it. (If unexplored). Targeting it will allow you to check your compass so that you can see exactly where it is. Speed up SLIGHTLY and do some fuel scooping. When temperatures get too hot, fly directly away using the compass as a guide. When temperatures get back to normal, skim horizon again until fuel is capped. Go full throttle away from the star again, and go on your merry way. :D
 
I had similar frustrations when I started playing, there's a lot to understand and finding useful information on these forums is like sieving vomit for gold.

In the hopes of sparing others some of that pain I've begun a proper, comprehensive new players guide which will be going up later today, watch this space.
 
I have notice that on the outpost, if you request to dock right as the pad opens up, sometime you can get no help lighting for landing, just have to make a best guess or cancel and re-request to dock. If you lose control, make sure you haven't accidentally hit your comm button. It can be hard to notice if you bumped it but didn't realize it. When coming out of a jump, you will be facing the star since the jump targets it mass. If you need to explore it just hit your 0 thrust button ( my is set to "X") target star and wait. Otherwise, as soon as you regain control, just pull away so you are not facing it. Don't forget, if you are new, there are tutorials that can help with docking and jumping.
 
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All of these responses seem to assume that I have control of my ship. When I can't accelerate or decelerate, these tips aren't helpful. "Furl scooping"? Do I have a fuel scoop? Don't I need to buy one? I have yet to complete a single mission, as I can't seem to drop out of hyperspace & find my destination. This game has me wanting to throw my equipment out the window.
 
you probably need to go under control options and make sure you have under "Flight Miscellaneous", "Enable frame Shift drive" set to a letter. If not, you need to set the two under it "Enable frame Shift drive to Superecruise" and "Enable frame Shift drive to Hyperspace" to their own letters. This caused confusion when they first added the extra choices. I would recommend "Enable frame Shift drive" set to "J". I think default is "Enable frame Shift drive to Hyperspace" set to "J" which allows you to enter hyperspace but your stuck in supercruise.
 
If you lose control, make sure you haven't accidentally hit your comm button. It can be hard to notice if you bumped it but didn't realize it.

That is the one that gets me a lot. Generally by hitting the GUI focus key.
 
So it's kinda like, if you're careening towards a cliff, & your brakes aren't working, make sure your stereo is turned off, eh? Ok, I'll give that a try.
 
After hitting play go to options, and then control. You can choose which keyboard/mouse/joystick buttons control your game from there.
 
After hitting play go to options, and then control. You can choose which keyboard/mouse/joystick buttons control your game from there.

Yes, I've remapped most of the controls to accomodate the left-handed style I used to play Descent with, but I must have missed some of the controls dealing specifically with Supercruise. Also, I'm going to stop trying to figure this all out with my VR headset on. Get the hang of piloting first. Then, switch to VR for the full experience, the reason I'm here.
 
Ok, as a beginner, I'm finding this game very frustrating. A few questions:

Why does the landing dock sometimes recognize my approach & other times not? In both cases, I'm hovering directly above the circle & easing down with landing gear deployed.
What is this mode where my flight thrusters aren't responding? How do I get back my flight controls?
Once I engage my FSD, how do I supercruise?
Where can I review information on a mission I've accepted?
Why do I have no choice but to upgrade to the latest build (that breaks my Oculus Rift VR functionality)?

Seriously, I'm on the cusp of asking for a refund. This is supposed to be fun, but all I've done since I got this game was read, study, test, reboot, hack, edit, kludge, struggle, play a little bit, & then resume struggling.

I went into this game as a non-backer to see what it would be like for New players without any previous experience. I'm a Huge fan of space games, and after the NPE I've had I am sad to say I don't see it surviving :( My hopes now rest with Star Citizen... If that flops then the genre goes into another mulch-decade hibernation.
 
Ok, I've discovered one of my problems:

When I remapped the controls to suit me, I picked a key for "Forward Thrust" & a key for "Reverse Thrust". I did NOT keys to "Throttle Up" or "Throttle Down".

This is *exactly* what I'm talking about when I say this game is made for veterans, not for newcomers. There is so much "that's just how we've always done it"-information in this game that doesn't get mentioned because it's so mundane to the experienced players. So when the narrator in the tutorial video says, "Ok, and we slow down a bit, & we go over here..." there's a lot that's being glazed over.
 
As a tip for the future of rebinding keys you can turn on the pre flight checks just to make sure you have them right before you take of four that 1st time.
Glad you found the problem!
 
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