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Newcomer / Intro Frustrated
- Thread starter DangerMuncher
- Start date
Remember: Starter sidewinders = infinite lives. Don't be afraid of having to start over. In your current circumstances, you'll actually make a profit 
It's not a waste of time, as you will also carry over the skills and knowledge you picked up in your current incarnation.
That said, let's move on to your current issue.
A few provisos:
I assume you already know how to scoop. Post if you don't, and I'll write a post on how to.
The NPCs in anarchy systems might interdict you. Make sure you know how to fight, or at least how to escape from an interdiction scenario. Boost!
It's not a waste of time, as you will also carry over the skills and knowledge you picked up in your current incarnation.
That said, let's move on to your current issue.
- Take a "find and return" mission from the bulletin board (BB).
- Jump to the system it tells you to go to.
- When you arrive, set the throttle to zero so you won't get too close to the star.
- Scan the star (assuming you haven't removed the basic discovery scanner) so that it shows on the scanner display. This will help prevent you getting too close, emergency stopping and taking ship damage. It's also good practice for selecting targets.
- Turn your ship around so that the star is behind you.
- Wait.
- While you're waiting, open the left UI panel and make sure you are scrolled all the way to the top. Unidentified signal sources show at the top of the list of targets when you're cruising at minimum speed because they spawn so close.
- When a USS appears, select it in the target panel with the wasd keys and spacebar. Go back to the main cockpit view.
- On the top-left of the main scanner display is a small blue circle with another blue circle inside it. This is your target orientation display. If the small circle is full, the target is somewhere in the hemisphere in front of your ship. If the circle is hollow, it's in the hemisphere aft.
- Turn your ship. The circle will move. Turn the ship so it's pointing directly at the target. The filled circle should be in the centre of the display, and you should be able to see it on-screen.
- As you're only moving at 30km/s, it should already say "safe disengage ready" in blue just above the dashboard.
- When you drop in to the USS, the encounter will be waiting for you. Scoop the cargo if it's what you're after, re-engage supercruise if it's not and repeat.
A few provisos:
I assume you already know how to scoop. Post if you don't, and I'll write a post on how to.
The NPCs in anarchy systems might interdict you. Make sure you know how to fight, or at least how to escape from an interdiction scenario. Boost!
Hey there new CMDR,
If you want some ingame help then add me as a friend - I'll come and show you about if you like. The game can be inscrutable and dosen't help you much as a new CMDR (nor should it!) But you'll find most ppl on the forums and in game are willing to lend a hand.
CMDR Alderman Fury
If you want some ingame help then add me as a friend - I'll come and show you about if you like. The game can be inscrutable and dosen't help you much as a new CMDR (nor should it!) But you'll find most ppl on the forums and in game are willing to lend a hand.
CMDR Alderman Fury
I don't know how ... but I've seen videos ... don't I just hit the HOME key and fly to it ?
That's it, pretty much. Just watch your speed - if you go too fast, the canister will bounce off and most likely be destroyed. The 1.1 patch chaged the sensitivity to throttle with the scoop deployed, I think, so any pre-1.1 videos will show the ship being less respnsive to the throttle than it is now.
That's my feeling anyway - I don't scoop that much any more, but it definitely feels different from how it used to.
Thanks. I went into game, comms panel, and the only way I could find to add a friend is if the individual is already within scanner range and targeted.
Hit ESC, go to Friends and Group Management and add the player by name.
Feel free to add me too. My CMDR name is in my signature pic.
Oh dear............
launch game
1st screen (after ED splash logo)
Friends + Private Groups
Friends Tab
+ Add Friend
Thanks! Your help was invaluable. I now have 14.5K in credits!
After the mission ... I got INFLUENCE AFFECT as follows:
blue economic boom with up triangle
blue economic bust with up triangle
blue civil unrest with down triangle
red lockdown with up triangle
I searched the web but could not find explanation.
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I wouldn't get too bogged down with the mission screens for now, you are really only looking for missions that pay money at this stage.
The mission completion screen details what effect you have had on the faction that gave you the mission. Systems contain 2-6 factions depending on size and each one can generate missions.
As none of this effects you directly just look for cash rewards and ignore who you help for now.
Congratulations!
You're very welcome.
As the poster above notes, your primary interest at the moment is in gettng a few credits together so that you can begin to upgrade your ship.
However, the influence and reputation models are an important part of the game that I think shouldn't be overlooked - even if you decide that your self-interest is more important at the moment, I think it important that players make informed decisions.
As was said above, the blue and red arrows indicate the economic effects of the mission. On their own, each effect is small but cumulatively they are important.
Economic States
Every faction in a system has an overarching economic state and sub-states:
- None
- Economic boom
- Economic bust
- Expansion
The first three are self-explanatory. "Expansion" isn't. When a faction is in expansion, it is soon going to move in to another system or (I think, I'm still unsure about this) station within a system.
Population States
Factions can also have internal states which refer to their population. These can be:
- None
- Lockdown
- Civil unrest
They are self-explanatory. Factions obviously want no civil unrest or lockdown.
War States
- None
- Civil war
- War
These are related to a faction's influence. Civil wars tend to happen between two smaller factions in a system when one of them expands its influence significantly. In a civil war, the losing side loses influence and a station if it has one. Civil wars spawn warzones closest to the station that will turn should the controlling faction lose.
War states are similar, but occur after a faction has expanded into another system and has gained enough influence there to challenge one of the factions in the new system for a station.
Public Health States
- None
- Famine
- Outbreak
I'm not sure if these don't actually belong in population states. They're pretty self-explanatory and factions want to avoid them or mitigate their effects.
You can check on each system's faction states in the right UI panel. Just hit 'd' in the first tab and use 'w' and 's' to scroll up and down through each faction.
Change States
- None
- Pending
- Critical
Pending States indicate that the named state will happen soon provided nothing else changes. Critical States are going to happen very soon, and, I think, need a few more small pushes to achieve.
Therefore, "expansion pending" factions will expand if conditions do not change. "Boom critical" factions will enter a period of economic boom very soon. Maybe a tiny push will help!
Summary
Obviously, these states are all connected. A faction can't go into expansion without a period of boom. A civil war can't happen without at least one faction going through lockdown. Famine leads to civil unrest. And so on.
The total influence available never exceeds 100%. In short, galactic politics in Elite: Dangerous is a zero-sum game. If there's a winner, there's always a loser. It sometimes feels like the designers of the influence system have been reading Hobbes. The system is complicated, but not complex. To the best of my knowledge, it's mechanistic rather than emergent.
I suspect that small systems are easier to influence than large populations, and trade has an effect, especially high-volume or high-value commerce. Factions controlling a station with rares are therefore very difficult to dislodge (people have tried. And failed.)
Conclusion
I really don't understand why people complain about lack of content in the game. The mechanisms outlined above provide so much material for creating your own. It doesn't even require much of an imagination to decide "I'm going to rid Manalaradawalayan of Empire influence."
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Thanks for that detailed explanation!
What does the color difference mean?
If I am understanding you correctly, the result of me picking up a black box increased both economic boom and bust which are to me opposites and therefore not logical.
I also reduced civic unrest yet increased lockdown, once again, seemingly opposites.
What does the color difference mean?
If I am understanding you correctly, the result of me picking up a black box increased both economic boom and bust which are to me opposites and therefore not logical.
I also reduced civic unrest yet increased lockdown, once again, seemingly opposites.
Was there more than one faction listed?
The mission summary screen lists the impacts on all affected parties. It could have been showing you that one faction benefited, while another lost out. I'd have to see the screen to be able to tell you specifically. Sometimes missions have seemingly contradictory effects too, like you complete it, but your rep has a red downwards arrow.
The mission summary screen lists the impacts on all affected parties. It could have been showing you that one faction benefited, while another lost out. I'd have to see the screen to be able to tell you specifically. Sometimes missions have seemingly contradictory effects too, like you complete it, but your rep has a red downwards arrow.
USS spawn rate is pretty random , and they tend to spawn in a rough cone infront of you. easiest way to find them is to enter hyper cruise slow down to minimum speed and set your pitch down a few degrees so your in a perpetual dive , usually the bottom half of the USS spawn area is obscured by the cockpit so being in a permanent dive will bring them into view. and at that speed they spawn in the safe disengage range/speed. should spawn one a minute or so , thought you might get a bad run in the short term.
starting cash , other seem to have good luck at res spots (resource areas for miners in planetary rings) i found the odd mission to do but they are generally bad untill you get better rep and better craft. i spent a lot of time in a government controlled Nav beacon (its always near the main star if its not appearing on the nav window just fly towards the star it will show up) look for wanted craft then use a kill warrant scanner on them (the wanted just means they have a bounty with the main system faction the KWS will show up any other ones they have with other groups can often boost income by 50%) the safer the area the less the wanted craft you will find , but you will nearly always have a few other npc bounty hunters or system defence craft flying around, and they let you score big bounties on craft you simply couldn't handle solo, like pythons and anacondas.
I don't remember seeing more than one faction. Next time I'll take a screen shot (or is there a way to see the INFLUENCE AFFECT again long after the mission completed).
Why was LOCKDOWN in red and the rest were blue?
Lockdown would have been red because the mission outcome increased the security measures against civil unrest.
I added the_naked_ape but have not heard back.
Sorry - I've been workng away from home for the last three days and have barely played. I logged in last night to test a ps3 style gamepad, decided after g about with it for ages that I didn't want to waste any more time learning a new control scheme (HOTAS at home) for one night of gaming on low settings, and logged out.
I tried a few missions picking up the barrels ... tedious ... often they are too close and when I exit hyper drive they are gone.
I tried a few missions hunting the bad guy lurking in one of three places (tedious) ... I go to all three places ... get fuel over and over (tedious) ... bad guy never there.
And then there's the mission to get slaves ... where are the slaves ? that one didn't have a chance to get tedious.
Can't sell any nav data because I guess I'd have to fly 10 tank-fulls of fuel in some direction before I'm far enough away to sell the data ... tedious.
I don't have enough gaming time available to study and create a database of commodity values in various systems (tedious) so trading is out.
Mining ... ew ... there really ought to be purchasable mining drones ... parking in front of a rock at length holding a button down seems tedious.
I'll have to admit ... Eve (the space spreadsheet) held my attention much longer.
I can't seem to enjoy this game ... I really don't need any more tedium in my life.
Is there any non-tedious way to earn money with the beginner space ship?
I tried a few missions hunting the bad guy lurking in one of three places (tedious) ... I go to all three places ... get fuel over and over (tedious) ... bad guy never there.
And then there's the mission to get slaves ... where are the slaves ? that one didn't have a chance to get tedious.
Can't sell any nav data because I guess I'd have to fly 10 tank-fulls of fuel in some direction before I'm far enough away to sell the data ... tedious.
I don't have enough gaming time available to study and create a database of commodity values in various systems (tedious) so trading is out.
Mining ... ew ... there really ought to be purchasable mining drones ... parking in front of a rock at length holding a button down seems tedious.
I'll have to admit ... Eve (the space spreadsheet) held my attention much longer.
I can't seem to enjoy this game ... I really don't need any more tedium in my life.
Is there any non-tedious way to earn money with the beginner space ship?
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