I played Elite on my Commodore 64 back in the 1980s when I was a teenager. Elite was one of my 4 most favourite computer games on the Commodore 64 (the other games being Trailblazer, Archon, and The Bard's Tale trilogy). The graphics and sound of the military laser firing on the Commodore 64 were awe-inspiring! I never had the patience back then to progress very far in Elite at all, but I had a LOT of fun playing the game!
I played Frontier: Elite II on my PC when it was released. I did the trade run between the safe systems of Sol and Barnard's Star, replacing my ship with the next bigger trade ship as soon as I could afford to. The most difficulty that I had in the game was finding enough crew to recruit for my ship. I ended up with a Panther Clipper, fitted it with the best and most powerful combat loadout, and then went out to dangerous space and fought wave after wave of pirates until I got bored and stopped playing the game. I never progressed my combat rank or my ranks in either the Empire's or Federation's auxiliary navy at all.
I played Frontier: First Encounters on my PC as soon as it was released. I remember being utterly engrossed with the news articles in all of the digital newspapers that I had perennial subscriptions to. I sold my Saker Mk. III for an Eagle Mk. 3 which had the most powerful thrusters in the game, and then eventually sold that ship for a Viper Mk. 2. I loved that Viper Mk. 2! It looked so beautiful, had powerful thrusters, had a small profile (which made it difficult to be hit), and had a great jump range with a military drive. I chose to do a reconnaissance mission of a naval base. Just as I was about to take a photograph of the naval base, the game teleported my ship a long way away from the planet and changed my ship's speed to an extremely high speed away from the planet. I stopped playing the game because I got fed up with this bug. I never progressed very far in the game's main plot or in my rank in the Federation's auxiliary navy. I remember having a lot of fun doing assassination missions where I reached the rendezvous point before my target ship did. I used to spend hours browsing over all of the pictures and statistics of the ships in the game manual.
As soon as I heard that David Braben was launching a Kickstarter campaign for Elite: Dangerous, I invested a considerable amount of money (for me) to help make the game a reality. I only acquired a PC that was capable of playing Elite: Dangerous on December 18 (2014), which is when I started playing the game. I started the game in a Cobra Mk III. I soon sold that ship for a Viper. I love the sound of the Viper's engine! It's the best sounding engine in the game by far! I stopped playing the game on January 16 due to boredom. There were only so many times that I could do assassination missions to destroy NPC Elite Anacondas in my Viper. Once I had mastered the ability to do that, I couldn't see any point in continuing to play the game.
I came back to the game (and the forum) at the start of July. I went out in my Viper, got into a combat, and then as soon as I deployed hardpoints, my ship shut down due to being underpowered. I immediately sold the Viper (due to it being nerfed while I was absent) and bought a Vulture. At first, I thought that the Vulture was incredibly ugly! But now, I love the Vulture's awesome manoeuvrability! The vast majority of the NPC ships that have I destroyed were while I was in a Vulture.
The vast majority of the NPC ships that I have destroyed were in conflict zones. I was promoted to Elite combat rank today. I finally reached Elite combat rank in an Elite computer game after decades of trying! For the most part, I found the grind to reach Elite combat rank tedious (especially when going from Deadly to Elite). It took me approximately 11 weeks of playing the game to reach Elite combat rank. I am very much looking forward to finally being able to accept bulletin board missions that require an Elite combat rank, and to buying ships at a further discount due to having an Elite rank. Does the Elite rank discount apply to modules as well? Is there a further ship discount for each additional Elite rank achieved after achieving the first Elite rank?
I'd be interested to know if any other players were also promoted to Elite combat rank while in a Vulture.
I'd be interested to know how many other players also reached Elite combat rank without doing any trading to make credits beforehand.
I don't know if I will ever have any interest in wanting to increase my exploration and/or trade ranks. Will I need to increase my exploration and trade ranks in order to be able to accept important bulletin board missions later on in this game's development?
I am very much looking forward to flying the Eagle, Imperial Courier, Imperial Clipper, Fer-de-Lance, Python, and the mighty Anaconda for the first time.
I am very disappointed that I missed out on buying ships and modules at 20% discount when they were available during the period that I was absent from the game and the forum. It actually makes me quite angry that as a Founder and Kickstarter backer, I am unable to buy ships and modules as cheap as players who weren't Founders and Kickstarter backers. Where's the logic in that? How is that remotely fair?
I have lost 2 ships so far. The first time that I lost a ship, I forgot to request docking clearance before I flew my Viper in through the letterbox of Jameson Memorial space station (in Shinrarta Dezhra system), whereupon the space station promptly blew my ship up before I could fly out of the space station.
The second time that I lost a ship, I had just destroyed a NPC Anaconda which had reduced my Vulture's shields to just 1 ring of strength. I saw an allied NPC ship duelling with an enemy NPC Anaconda, and I thought that it was a good idea to engage the NPC Anaconda while my Vulture still only had 1 ring of shield strength. The enemy NPC Anaconda immediately turned its attention to my ship. When my Vulture's shields went down, I turned to flee, but the Anaconda landed a lucky shot disabling my Vulture's thrusters while my Vulture was still at 80% hull integrity. After the thrusters came back online, I again tried to boost away to safety but again the Anaconda landed another lucky shot which again disabled my Vulture's thrusters, and then promptly blew up my beloved Vulture. That unpleasant experience taught me to never again get cocky, and to never again play the game at 2 a.m. or 4 a.m. at night when I am very tired!
I'd be very interested to know if any other players have reached Elite combat rank with only 2 or fewer ships lost.
I have only destroyed 3 players' ships so far. The first player ship that I destroyed, a Cobra Mk III player deliberately rammed my Viper. As a result of the collision, his Cobra blew up, whereas my Viper didn't even lose its shields. The last player's ship that I have destroyed so far, while my Vulture was stationary while in SuperCruise in the Kamadhenu system, I was surprised that an Imperial Clipper player interdicted me. I submitted. I was again surprised when the Imperial Clipper player chose not to flee when his ship's shield went down.
The most fun that I have had playing the game so far has been PvP combat, being in wings with other players, and communicating with other players within the game.
I most look forward to flying the new ships as they get released into the game, to fighting the Thargoids when they are introduced into the game, and experiencing as much PvP as I can in the game in the future (once I have outfitted my other ships with A-rated module combat loudouts). Some time in the future, I hope to join a player community and do interesting things like fly fighter escort for trader players, act as a deterrent to pirate players in Community Goal systems and/or newbie player systems, and be in a combat wing against other player factions.
Sorry for the wall of text. Thanks for reading. I hope to see you out there. Fly safe, commanders. Stay frosty.
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