Description of what's going on in the pilots screen

GiantLeap

GiantLeap
Is there a resource available or University course I can take to learn ALL the functions of all those displays? The radars and distances I don't really get. Objects and color meanings..
When your in hyper drive, the Ls number begins to fall rapidly into other indicators Mm mn ks kl, all these I don't get. Makes it very difficult to judge distances.
 

Ozric

Volunteer Moderator
Ozric
I'm just going to move you over to the Newcomers/Questions forum so people can hook you up with the guides :)
 

GiantLeap

GiantLeap
Codger said:
Well, there's the official manual that has most of that stuff. Note that the manual has not been updated in a very long time, so some stuff is way out of date. The cockpits haven't changed much, though, so that stuff is still good. (See page 6)

Click to expand...
Is my question really that hard to simply explain to me here? Learning from an possibly correct manual seems a little sketchy, but I do appreciate your time so far.
 

Tetra Trash

Tetra Trash
Until someone posts something better, for distances:

The distance scale changes to smaller units the closer you get to something so
LS: light seconds, roughly 300 million meters (Mm) per light second
Mm: megameters (1,000,000 m)
km: kilometers
m: meters
I don't recall a ks and kl for distances... I thought it went from Mm to km and then maybe to m. But I haven't consciously paid much attention to them in awhile.

That linked guide should be correct with respect to the cockpit should be good, but here's a brief summary of highlights

To successfully drop to something in supercruise, remember the "rule of six" - as you get close adjust your throttle so that it's showing a steady 6 seconds to arrival (it should stop counting down, which I know doesn't make sense but people complained when they tried to make it work correctly so it stayed the way it is). Setting supercruise throttle to 75% will usually keep you from going too fast to be able to drop at your target. As you approach our destination in SC you will see two bars, one for speed and one for distance, appear to the left (I think?) that have an orange zone and blue zone. Once both speed and distance are in blue, you can drop at your target. Typically you want them to be dropping together, or have speed dropping a little faster than distance, as you approach where you are going.

On the radar - Solid square or triangle: NPC. Hollow square or triangle: CMDR (i.e. human player). Square - weapons stowed. Hollow: weapons out (or in supercruise, interdictor out). So hollow triangle = human player with weapons (or interdictor) out - beware!. Your ship is the middle of the radar and the objects on it are positioned above/below/ahead/behind based on their position in 3D space. White squares are stuff floating around. Things that look like donuts are the large thargoid vessels. Green - allied; orange - neutral - red - hostile, applies to NPCs and humans.

Your ship icon on the right shows shields (rings/ some nonzero % = on), where you are taking fire from, etc.
 

GiantLeap

GiantLeap
That'll work, thank you. I wasn't paying attention to the speed, left it floored and just blew past stuff. Looks like their are stages in speed you need to be aware of. Thank you. I'll go study that manual now. Thank you to you!
So the superdrive assist does that for you? I think it does, but not all location offer superdrive assist, I think... It seems like the regular hyperdrive is not a set it and forget it action. Keeping track of traveling beyond the speed light is not something this mere human has ever encountered before. Seeing 563 Ls drop like a rock is exciting and scary at the same time...lol
 

Fnord Velkor

Fnord Velkor
GiantLeap said:
Is my question really that hard to simply explain to me here? Learning from an possibly correct manual seems a little sketchy, but I do appreciate your time so far.
Click to expand...

The HUD (Head Up Display) - ie what is displayed in front of you in the cockpit is complicated, so no, a "simple" explanation will come across as a load of verbiage.

Download the manual (players guide) - go to page 12 and take it from there...

what.jpg



The out of date stuff is later on, don't worry about that, it is engineering etc. Just get a handle on the game to start with.
 

GiantLeap

GiantLeap
Ok, so the nav compass. Can you explain to me the difference between a circled dot and a full dot? Because I thought a full dot means you've got a clear path to your destination. But A planet can still be directly in its path not allowing a direct root. Or maybe on the other side of the planet. Or does the circled only mean that your destination is behind you as the crow flies and visa versa, when a full dot means your destination is directly in front of you but stuff might be in its path?
 

Fnord Velkor

Fnord Velkor
Also by the way ...

A "beginners guide" was put together by @zombieapocalypse which might be still worth perusing - note that the "starter zone" is no longer accessible by players in Live game.

Newcomer / Intro - Elite: Dangerous – a comprehensive beginner’s guide [Beyond 3.3 edition]

Howdy virtual space folk! In addition to the web version of my super-duper in-depth Elite: Dangerous beginners guide, there's now a PDF version also available for download from Onedrive & Google Drive Many thanks to CMDR Aurelius Borealis for creating the PDF version and Hondahoorz for...
forums.frontier.co.uk forums.frontier.co.uk


There are also other guides and tutorials in the sub-forum of this one...

Guides & Tutorials

A forum for commanders to post their guides, tips n' tricks, and tutorials for others to learn upon.
forums.frontier.co.uk forums.frontier.co.uk


(Check dates etc, especially for youtube guides.)
 

Fnord Velkor

Fnord Velkor
GiantLeap said:
Ok, so the nav compass. Can you explain to me the difference between a circled dot and a full dot? Because I thought a full dot means you've got a clear path to your destination. But A planet can still be directly in its path not allowing a direct root. Or maybe on the other side of the planet. Or does the circled only mean that your destination is behind you as the crow flies and visa versa, when a full dot means your destination is directly in front of you but stuff might be in its path?
Click to expand...

If it is open / hollow that means what you have targetted is behind you, solid circle means it is in front of you.
 

TFB Daerist

TFB Daerist
GiantLeap said:
That'll work, thank you. I wasn't paying attention to the speed, left it floored and just blew past stuff. Looks like their are stages in speed you need to be aware of. Thank you. I'll go study that manual now. Thank you to you!
So the superdrive assist does that for you? I think it does, but not all location offer superdrive assist, I think... It seems like the regular hyperdrive is not a set it and forget it action. Keeping track of traveling beyond the speed light is not something this mere human has ever encountered before. Seeing 563 Ls drop like a rock is exciting and scary at the same time...lol
Click to expand...
Supercruise assist - where you have it fitted (I do, I like it):

when in supercruise you select a target (station, or USS) in the lefthandside nav panel, it will give you the option of lock or (next alng I think, square box) supercruise asisst. Click on that. It locks you onto your target AND engages supercruise asisst. Then you need to have your throttle in the blue zone (50-75% ish) and be pointing roughly towards it, and it will zero you in on it and handle your speed automatically and drop you into normal space at your destination.

Only things to be aware of,
(i) when get close to your destination, if its behind a planet or sun it will then show as "target obscured" so you will manually need to adjust course around the thing in the way before pointing back at the target and supercruise assist engages again,
(ii) if the target set is a planet or planetary base it won't drop you into normal space it will put you in orbit around that planet,
(iii) of have a SCO frame shift drive fitted for the wwwweeeeeeee! then when boosting it disengages supercruise assist - but once switch the booze off supercruise assist can kick back in - mind you if you have bown past the <5 seconds to detsination in boost you'll have to do a loop back having overshot it,
(iv) as a bit of fun, as you near your target you can manually increase the throttle above the blue (disengages) as countdown then drops to 5 seconds, quickly reduce volume back to re-engage, and supercruise assist will high speed bomb you to your destination, which is fun and efficient (until it drops you into or through a space station, but that is extremely rare, only happened a couple of times to me, but the time savings in using that technique are worth it)

PS welcome to the galaxy of Elite, its a fun place, play open or group or solo as you prefer, Open is always worth a go as (some interactions can be negative, but positive outweighs), solo or group if doing something you don't want risks of players interfering with (or if trying to dock and all pads are blocked by players and want tos witch to laand). Oh and do check out local squadrons (especially those based in Teaka), to find like minded folks to fly with when the mood takes.
 

Hugh Jardon

H
I've been playing for 10 years and around 15,000 hrs, and I've still never figured out nor used those weird scales that you get on the left side of the HUD in supercruise. All I've ever done is put the throttle in the blue zone (75%) when the countdown timer under the target reaches 7 seconds. Does anybody actually use those scales/indicators? Can you understand how to drive your ship with them?

One thing to add to the beautiful diagram above is the working fuel tank. The thin line under where it says "fuel" is the working tank that's used for general flying around and operating the ship. that's everything except jumping. The line becomes shorter and shorter. When it reaches zero length, it steals a segment from the main tank that's indicated underneath with segments and replenishes itself. That's only important when you're really tight on fuel for your journey and your last jump needs the last segment, but the working tank steals it before you make the jump. In other words, you can't always trust the galaxy map route planning when fuel is tight for the journey because it doesn't take into account the working fuel tank. Another scenario is that you use the last segment to make your last jump of a route, and the working tank runs empty on the way between the star and the station. In that case, you have to call for help, probably from the fuel rats.
 
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Lhorndra

Lhorndra
Also, please make sure to take at least some of the in-game tutorial missions: the "Pilot's Licence" one with Theo Arcosta is a must, and I'd take the first three or so missions with Tanya Blaine as well. You can find them in the main menu.
 

Lhorndra

Lhorndra
Hugh Jardon said:
I've been playing for 10 years and around 15,000 hrs, and I've still never figured out nor used those weird scales that you get on the left side of the HUD in supercruise. All I've ever done is put the throttle in the blue zone (75%) when the countdown timer under the target reaches 7 seconds. Does anybody actually use those scales/indicators? can you understand how to drive your ship with them?
Click to expand...
Do you mean the speed and distance information in the "Target information panel" (#16 in the manual, see above)?
It shows you when both your speed and distance relative to your target are low enough that you can drop out of Supercruise to arrive exactly at your target. Granted, a message pops up in your HUD when you can do so, but I still find the scales useful to judge how long it'll take, particularly when I'm at 2% hull with caustic damage.
 
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GiantLeap

GiantLeap
Dropping out of hyperspace drive should damage your ship if your going too fast. Makes you not want to do it again and find a solution....
 

aRJay

aRJay
When things on the radar show as triangles it might just mean they are scanning your ship, but assuming they might have bad intentions towards you is not a bad idea.

The various tutorials are also a god way of learning and refining your control bindings as they are consistent so you can repeat them as often as you like to see if things worked better.

In the advanced section there is a very useful tutorial that starts just outside a station where you can learn to dock manually.
 
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