Elite / Frontier Elite Legend - ZX Spectrum 2021 - best 8-bit Elite?

[amigacooke]

It’s a Mk 2 beam laser so better than the old version, but I found the military lasers to be too fast at melting enemy ships - with the increased frame rate of this version I also found myself zapping dropped cargo pods before I could let go of the trigger. I still do with the Mk2 Beam, but only now and again - and every time I seem to do a Clarence Boddiker quote from Robocop (“You…you burned the %#&*ing money!”)
Edit: Actually, you’ve given me a ship outfitting thought - the Cobra can fit 4 different weapons (one for each “view”) and Elite Legend allows you to “rotate” the weapons. In practice it’s a bit like having fire groups; currently I’ve got a mining laser in the rear view and rotate it to the front when I see an asteroid. Now that I’m getting Thargoid invasion missions I might install a Military Laser to one of my spare slots and just use it when doing AX station attacks.

Thankfully I didn’t enjoy its tender mercies as I got Elite in the Supreme Challenge double tape box set

It’s funny how what seemed normal then, in retrospect I’d not consider now. I’m not talking about Remlok, but loading the game from, loading saves from, loading saves to, cassette tapes. I guess the rich folks had micro drives , but the uncertainty of loading and the agony of loading the correct save was the best incentive I can remember not to die in game

 

[Arioch]

It’s funny how what seemed normal then, in retrospect I’d not consider now. I’m not talking about Remlok, but loading the game from, loading saves from, loading saves to, cassette tapes. I guess the rich folks had micro drives , but the uncertainty of loading and the agony of loading the correct save was the best incentive I can remember not to die in game

Only being able to save to tape while docked and docking at crashing into a station were the best incentives for buying a docking computer

With this current playthrough and the ability to flash save at any point, I attempt manual docking every time - my daily run consists of jumping to a new system, fighting/mining/scooping my way to the safe zone, kicking in the emulator fast-forward function to get the station in visual range, then finally manually docking (flash save first!) and trading/planning for the next destination. Ideal for a short play of an evening - unless I go to an Anarchy, then it’s half an hour of grimacing and muttered swears

 

[Arioch]

Thargoids have been attacking again; the last mission in the original Speccy game is now a recurring event. It's not too difficult unless you have a long system transit or meet stealthed Thargoid ships - I was lucky in this event to only have a few interceptions and only meet standard ships.

Source: https://youtu.be/utMRQQv06hc

Next time the bugs attack I'm going to attempt to stay and notch up a few AX kills - I reckon if I detonated the Q-Bomb a few seconds later I could've taken out the remaining three ships after destroying the station. The cloaking device could probably give me a little breathing room too, though I'm wary of using it too much - if the Thargoids manage to drop my shields then they can chew through the Cobra's power banks in seconds and attempting a hyperspace jump might take too long.

 

[Arioch]

I saw another new thing last session (unfortunately I didn’t capture any video as things were a bit hectic): while being attacked by a pirate wing, a neutral NPC ship (a Python) happened to be flying past and was engaged by the pirates - at which point the Python launched 3x Vipers which then proceeded to absolutely obliterate the baddies in seconds

I’ve seen big pirate vessels launching Kraits/Adders/Sidewinders but never anything from a “goodie” ship. Seems like the sort of thing that will catch out players indulging in a bit of one-sided ship-to-ship trading

 

[Arioch]

My journey through the Elite Legend galaxy threw up a surprising thing the other night - I had been in Galaxy Map 8 for quite a while when the supernova mission triggered once again; this has the side effect of hurling you into the next galactic zone when you trigger the hyperdrive, presumably like surfing some kind of WitchSpace wave. After deciding to immediately jump out of the Anarchy system I found myself in (I didn't think the hold full of refugees would enjoy extended dogfighting and possible destruction ) I plotted a course to the nearest safe-ish system and checked out my new surroundings on the big map - at which point I had a little hmmm moment:

That's not something mentioned in any of the translated documentation that came with the game! I've read that in the original game Braben & Bell wanted to have something like 281 trillion galaxy maps in the game (procedural generation ftw) but Acornsoft told them to limit it to 8 so it'd hide the mathematical nature of the galaxy.

I wonder how many have been included in Elite Legend? Raxxla better not be in the last map before the game loops back to map#1

 

[Arioch]

I’ve recorded a typical daily play session - this is a Feudal system so it’s difficult but not complete anarchy (I can usually fly through a Feudal system without having to resort to an Energy Bomb):

Source: https://youtu.be/qnpIzHlfj8E?si=XC23YfbIE-Kh8f5R

 

[Arioch]

Carrying on from my surprise at jumping into Galactic Chart 9 the other day, I've been given a new mission!

Typo/translation aside* this appears to be the hunt for the Constrictor mission - which I think was a c64/BBC exclusive back in the olden times. A quick search on the maps showed that the initial hijacking took place within a single jump:

...so I could start my tracking quickly. Upon arrival I was given the following info:

...which turned out to be a bit further away:

At the rate I play that's probably going to take a few days, and I'm going to have to find a Level 14 system on the way to get some damaged military equipment repaired - but the hunt is on!

*instead of "a ship with secret developents" (sic) I think "an advanced starship" or "a secret prototype ship" would be a better fit.

 

[Arioch]

Cor, that took a little bit longer than I was expecting

After a journey of 378.8 light years across two Galactic Maps (as the space-crow flies - in actuality a lot farther due to a diagonal rift across one of the maps where the nearest stars were 7.2 LY apart except at the top and bottom of the map) I finally caught up with the purloined vessel and (spoiler alert) destroyed it without any trouble. Possibly the dogfighting code isn’t working correctly for the Constrictor, or perhaps it’s just meant to fly away from you as fast as it can - but as long as you’ve got a Naval ECM and some afterburners fitted, it’s not difficult. Just very time consuming to get there in the first place

Source: https://youtu.be/qIwfAknblFA

 

[Arioch]

The chase for the Constrictor was a long one but it threw up a few interesting things along the way - firstly, in one of the shipyards I spotted a Cobra MkIV which was a bit of a surprise:

The stats are the same as the MkIII but with a much larger cargo capacity. It must have a bulging belly like the Type-8 to fit that much cargo in

Next, I found myself in a Tech Level 17 system which had a type of station I'd never seen before - an Octo. This is a truncated octahedron (so an eight-sided shape with the pointy bits cut off) and seems like it has a larger docking slot - which feels appropriate as it's supposed to be a much higher capacity station than the Coriolis & Dodo:

Lastly, I've splurged on some new equipment - you may have spotted the cargo retrieval drones in the last video (very useful; instead of having to cargo scoop in the normal manner you now just have to target objects and launch a drone. I've had 3 drones out at the same time so I don't think there's a limit. Unlike ED they are not something you consume by using) but my most expensive purchase by far is the Military Galactic Hyperdrive:

Although it is 28 times the cost of a normal Galaxy Hyperdrive it has some advantages - it is reusable, and allows for greater flexibility in flying between Galaxy Maps. Pressing the Map key again after bringing up the normal chart shows this:

...which allows you to select any of the listed areas to jump to, the centre one being your current position.

 

[drew]

Adder and the Krait, if memory serves.

Cheers,

Drew.

Also not all the ships on the identification chart could be in the same game - two of the ships (I think it was Mamba/Krait) were on opposite sides of the tape so you could only encounter one of them in a particular game session.

 

[Arioch]

Another mission has made the jump from BBC/c64 into Elite Legend:

It's the T(h)argoid Plans mission - and wouldn't you know it, the headquarters I need to reach are on the opposite side of the Galactic map.

I didn't expect too much trouble with this mission as I've now got a pretty top-spec Cobra Mk3 and Thargoid ship encounters have been survivable so far.

I was soooo wrong.

The first system jump I made saw me ripped from WitchSpace into a Thargoid ambush of four ships. My energy bomb did nothing but tickle their hulls and after managing to take out a single attacker I was very quickly obliterated under a withering hail of fire.

My next attempt saw me swapping out my E-Bomb for a Q-Bomb which proved much more effective - three of the ambush ships exploded and I was able to deal with the damaged remaining ship. After topping up my main fuel tanks from the reserve I completed the jump to my first target system. At this point I made a horrible discovery; in the BBC/c64 version of the mission, I believe the Thargoid encounter rate is increased to about 1 in 5 of all events - in the Elite Legend version it looks like it is increased to every single encounter Those pirate ships you normally meet? All replaced with Thargoids. As in, every single pirate ship is replaced with a Thargoid craft.

I can stand up to a single alien attacker and the Q-Bomb lets me survive a multi-ship ambush once, but having up to 5 Thargoids attacking at the same time was too much.

After spending a short time sulking, thinking my 2.5 year old game had hit a brick wall, I had a thought - I only have to carry data so it doesn't really matter if my ship was destroyed. Ah ha! Off to the shipyard to get an escape capsule fitted. They are 1000 credits a pop so not a cheap solution to the problem, but at least it would carry me to the current-system station without getting zapped.

I then had another Ah ha! moment with another new feature of Elite Legend: Jump Gates. These are positioned close to a jump entry point in specific tech level / economy systems, and for 250 credits will warp you to just outside the local station. I found that jumping into one of these systems, doing a quick 180 and boosting for the jump gate meant that I could just reach the gate as I started to take incoming fire. I could survive and reach the station!

I spent plenty of time in the Galactic Chart trying to work out a good route - I needed systems with jump gates and high enough tech levels to replace Q-Bombs and escape capsules. I wasn't able to plan a straightforward route and there were a few occasions that required a hurried refueling and jump to a better system if there wasn't a Jump Gate, but in the end I only required 3 escape capsules and 4 Q-Bombs along with all the Jump Gate fees.

An expensive solution to the problem, but at least my game will now continue!

Yeah, that Naval Energy Unit might have been useful before I set out on the mission? Guys?

 

[Arioch]

I've not really been keeping count of my "Right On Commander" messages but I had a vague hope that I'd reach the big E before the game's 40th anniversary - and after my latest notification I was a bit surpised to see:

Woo hoo!

This does however raise a question - the rank increase occured on the RoC notification, so in Elite Legend do those now happen every 250 kills and Elite rank is still at 6000 as per the original game, or do the RoC's still happen every 256 kills and Elite rank is now at 6144 kills?

Unlike the last time I reached 8-bit Elite rank I'm not heading off to Tionisla to retire the Cobra - the patch notes for Elite Legend mention a new mission ("Retribution") that I've not encountered yet, and I think there are a couple of game "rumours" that might appear now I've reached Elite.

 

[Arioch]

I've made another minor discovery about Elite Legend - I had taken a potentially lucrative smuggling contract (a full hold of Narcotics, deposit of 5961 creds with a reward of 5243 creds + deposit return) which required me to traverse the whole y-axis of the Galactic Chart within 305 hours or so. The NavComp reckoned it would take me about 270 hours so I thought cheers easy. About halfway down the map I decided to have a quick check of my remaining time and was surprised to see that my estimated travel time was now 7 hours more than the required delivery. Bum.

I then remembered something from the game's readme file: "Be careful, long distance jumps take significantly longer. To keep within the framework of the contract, make small jumps, 5-7 light years each." A few measurements on the local star chart gave me hope - as can be seen here, making one 5.6 LY jump would take 31.3 hours, but making two smaller jumps (even though the overall distance is greater) would save 2.4 hours:

With this in mind I made as many small jumps as I could - carrying out fuel transfers from the reserve tank so I didn't waste time in intermediary systems - and I managed to squeak into the mission destination with hours to spare:

...all three of them!

 

[Arioch]

I've discovered another cool little feature in Elite Legend - interstellar travel without using jump drives!

I've been using the Advanced Space Compass to find the various station types within a system but I'd never really twigged what the N/S/E/W setting was for...until the other day when I realised it might be for use outside of a system - in the Local System Map. I duly found two systems close together and headed towards the Galactic "North".

The local star and planet became smaller than I'd ever seen them, even when I'd visited remote asteroid bases:

Eventually the planet wasn't visible at all and only the star remained as a dot. I then started to encounter asteroids, lots of asteroids. They appeared in clusters of up to four at a time, with clusters appearing fairly soon after each other - the most I had on scanner was about a dozen, which certainly made the (virtual) Speccy chug a bit

After a long journey through the Oort Cloud, the local star colour disappeared and I was in interstellar space - space dust changed to thin streaks and my Torus drive scooted me along while topping up my fuel tanks from the interstellar medium. I was soon able to see my progress on the local star chart:

...and after a few encounters with everyone's favourite aliens (it's their hangout after all) I made it to the outskirts of the next system:

I think this feature might be useful in some of the stuff I've not seen yet (but which I should be getting to soon seeing as I'm now Elite) and it might help me on Galaxy maps where my 7 LY jump range isn't quite enough. Here's a short video of the transit which also features a Mysterious Thing I Met On The Way To Fuel Scoop towards the end:

Source: https://youtu.be/4rYis3z5JyY

 

[briefer]

help! I am at Eninte, my docking computer says that "the station is not responding" and I cannot dock manually either. The station is not rotating also.

Is there anything I can do? (before I go to the star to get some fuel with my scoop)

 

[briefer]

Finally I colledted some fuel from the star. I am seeing more and more small details in this game that are impressive.

I was about to collect some container from a destroyed pirate, when another pirate passed flying by and collected it in from of my eyes!

 

[Arioch]

help! I am at Eninte, my docking computer says that "the station is not responding" and I cannot dock manually either. The station is not rotating also.

Is there anything I can do? (before I go to the star to get some fuel with my scoop)

That’s an indication that pirates have taken over the station - if you shoot the station with your lasers enough you’ll annoy the pirates and they’ll swarm out to get you, but be warned, there are several waves to get through and you might have to encourage them in between by shooting the station again!

Once you’ve emptied the station of pirates it will begin rotating again and you can dock.

Try to get a good position to blast the baddies as they emerge, is my advice

If you dock manually at a non-rotating station then you’ll get the dreaded “captured by pirates” game over screen!

 

[Arioch]

I was about to collect some container from a destroyed pirate, when another pirate passed flying by and collected it in from of my eyes!

This can be handy behaviour if you’ve got the Discard Cargo system fitted to your ship - going to the cargo screen and pressing Space on a low-cost cargo pod will eject it into the void and become the immediate focus of all the surrounding pirates, who will only take the occasional pot-shot at you if they happen to face your ship while trying to scoop the cargo.

It can give you some important breathing space when the shields and power banks are getting hammered

Plus, you can scoop the cargo pod back up if you manage to take them out before they get it

 

[briefer]

I had my first nova mission, quite exciting! I had no fuel and neither did the station so I had to scoop some fuel first.

One question, my ship name is colored red in the status window, I suppose it is damaged. How do I repair it? I already have the hull autorepair system, but it did not help.

Thanks!

 

[Arioch]

I had my first nova mission, quite exciting! I had no fuel and neither did the station so I had to scoop some fuel first.

One question, my ship name is colored red in the status window, I suppose it is damaged. How do I repair it? I already have the hull autorepair system, but it did not help.

Thanks!

The ship name in red means that your vessel is in serious need of maintenance Your turn/rotation rates will be reduced and combat and manual docking will be more difficult. Your ship health goes white/green/red.

Have you got the Advanced Space Compass fitted? If not, then that is what you need to get. With one you can press V to change through the various modes of your HUD compass - the first two are the planet & star, then it goes into the other station types that may be in the system depending on Tech level & economy, before getting to N/S/E/W for system map navigation, then looping back to the planet heading.

What you’re looking for is a Fuel station, which is a “F” on the compass. Once you dock there you can carry out ship maintenance, repair any damaged equipment, and refuel at a reduced cost. If the “F” (or other station type designator) is pointing at the planet, there isn’t one of those stations in the system.