Ok, I stuck with it, I can handle landings now, and can navigate around. I got a fuel scoop so I dont run out of fuel now ;p. bout 4 hours into game and I have yet to see any starbases other than the starting one, no combat missions, no mining missions, nothing. I have tons of exploration stuff that I cant sell because I cant find a station anywhere to sell anything. I keep hoping that if I just keep flying around Ill run into something eventually.
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Newcomer / Intro Is this game right for me?
- Thread starter Alteph Four
- Start date
Stations are listed in the Navigation tab of the left panel computer.
Welcome to your first ship, commander!
ED is a game with little handholding. Which is on the one hand a good thing, as you said earlier, but it does allow you to go beyond what you are actually able to do. And by the time you realise that it is often too late. Luckily for you you currently only at risk of being very inefficient, bored and frustrated. You'll find plenty of topics on the forum here by people who thought they knew all there was to know only to have that illusion shattered. You'll understand that most people do not like finding themselves floating in space, losing everything they worked for, with someone painting weenies on their hull with a beam laser. So my #1 tip is this: if you "hope" you are doing the right thing, stop doing it and make sure first. Lets start at the beginning:
1) Tutorial mission #1. Do not skip this. This mission is not just for figgering out where your trigger is. You'll find that all of us have very different control settings, what works for one does not for the other. The chance the standard bindings work perfect for you are very slim. I dont use a mouse myself, but many others swear by it. The one tip they all give is to immediately set 'yaw' to mouse and 'roll' to keybord. I believe it is the other way around by default and nobody seems to handle that particularly well. This tutorial mission is perfect for changing controls and playing around with them. The canisters are static in space, so practice flying around them using just lateral and vertical thrusters. Make sure you have sensible controls for your power distribution, throttle, hardpoint deployment, fire group selection and FSD. Take your time: this is not an FPS where the entire tutorial can be skipped at leisure without some pain at some point. Try some strafing runs, changing power distribution as you go (all to weapons when firing, once your past the target all to engines e.g.).
2) Tutorial mission #2. This one is very important. Start by NOT firing at your target. The other ship is 'neutral', so it'll just fly around harmlessly. That is a great way to practice your flight skills: try and get on its tail and stay there as long as you can, as close as you can. Make sure your targeting reticule is on it as often as possible. You'll find at first you'll be overcorrecting way too much, you do not want to practice this when someone is firing back at you.
Also, practice using your radar. Fly away from the little ship for a bit, make some turns. Now the hostile should be somewhere outside of your direct vision. Practice getting it back in vision fast, fluently and without looking through your canope. Keep your throttle in blue (max turn rate!), roll so the hostile is either above or below you on the radar, but horizontally central. Now use pitch. Only use yaw for minor corrections. Once you are confident you can keep on its tail indefinitely and you know how to find everything on your radar in 1-3 seconds fire at that thing. That thing has very poor AI, practice killing it until you can consistently kill it without it ever dropping your shield.3) Try the 'advanced 2v1' mission now, skip the face-off 1v1. You'll have 'gimballed' weapons, which have a little auto-aim. However, they are with two. This mission is to practice your use of radar and power distribution. When you are under fire: all power to system. When you are targeting them: as much energy to weapons as needed to keep your weapons fireing. If you are neither shooting nor under fire, all energy to engines. Keep doing this until it is easy.
4) Do the 1v1. You'll be facing a npc with fairly hard AI, and you wont have gimballed weapons or any superior gear. This one is very tough at first. You'll need to combine all your skills to win. If you do, and you can do it consistently, you are ready, combat-wise, for the real game. Feel free to try the other combat training missions but it is not that important.
5) You said you couldnt find another station. The last turorial explains how to use system and galaxy maps to find stations fast and get there fast. Remember: by using your FSD and maps you can be at a station many lightyears away in no-time. Without planning you can literally fly your entire life and never see anything at all. Understanding this is not optional.
6) Get the manual: http://hosting.zaonce.net/elite/website/assets/ELITE-DANGEROUS-GAME-MANUAL.pdf Print it or put it on your tablet/phone/whatever and place it in the little room. It will explain many mechanisms very clearly. Every day people post here because they died because they didn't know about these mechanisms. Death is, medically speaking, vastly inferior to being alive. Many doctors even go so far as to strongly recommend not dying, and I second that.
Above and beyond everything: make sure the insurance system is 100% perfectly crystal clear to you. If not, ask here before you leave the station. Seriously, if you think you are frustrated now, not getting the insurance system will make you downright homicidal.If you've done the above you are ready to get started for real. Don't get me wrong, there is a truckload of things to learn, but you are now at a level where you can learn them at your own pace. Remember to take it easy, be patient and relaxed. Finally: I think you joined us at the right time. Within a month or two 'wings' will be added. It is a big extension to the multiplayer part of ED and it has many people hyped. It is as of yet very unclear what this will mean for the game other than that things will be shaken up a lot. So you have two months to become a pilot, get a decent ship and some credits to your name so you can learn to use wings with the rest of us. Good luck, and if you have questions just ask.
Fly safe, commander!
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Are you using the galaxy map? Not sure what the default binding is, but it will help you stop what it sounds like might be doing at the moment, i.e. flying around hoping to run into something useful. Make sure you set up controls to allow you to pan/scroll and zoom the galaxy map. Among other things it will tell you how far a particular system is, which is helpful for selling your exploration data. Also learn to use the system views to assess local star types, station locations, security levels etc. The galaxy map has various filters and views that are useful once you start trading or being interested in economy types and political allegiances.
You might find that your jump range is not high enough to let you reach a system where you want to go, in which case you can either lighten your ship by selling (temporarily) unneeded items -- e.g. no need for weapons if you're going to be avoiding fights for a while. If you sell your shield, be extra careful when docking! Or you can save up enough cash to upgrade your frame shift drive, by doing local delivery missions, trading or whatever.
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Interesting... where did you start, and where are you going? Unless you got so into your exploration that you just shot off into the middle of nowhere, there should be stations all over the place. But it takes a decent length of time even to just get out of inhabited space, especially if you haven't massively upgraded your jump-range, so I'm going to presume that you're still within inhabited space somewhere.
Do most of the systems around you have names, or it is just 'XXX Sector - [bunch of numbers and letters]'?
In the Galactic map, under options you can change the view from realistic to map, and then the star systems will be sized by population and coloured by allegiance, uninhabited systems won't show up at all so you can easily see which systems will have stations in.
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@OP
Glad you stuck at it - most of us went through the same pain.
It sounds like you are just flying out of the station/outpost and not actually jumping anywhere. You will need to get into supercruise or jump to another system to find another station. Space is huge and I mean huge. This is one of things Elite really brings home to you. You need to look at the navigation pane of the left console.
Glad you stuck at it - most of us went through the same pain.
It sounds like you are just flying out of the station/outpost and not actually jumping anywhere. You will need to get into supercruise or jump to another system to find another station. Space is huge and I mean huge. This is one of things Elite really brings home to you. You need to look at the navigation pane of the left console.
Ok, I stuck with it some more and I am now hooked I think I have fought off a few interdiction attempts, got a bounty kill on one guy. I am able to almost actually stay on someones tail while flying now, at least in the starter ships. I have made around 50k now in exploration, upgraded a few modules, I want to get into mining but I am now far enoug away from the starting point that I dont know where to go to start mining, or get a new ship for mining. Come to think of it, where do I get new ships? There is still so much to learn lol. And than kyou SOOO much for the headtracking tip! I can actually look around at the beauty around em now and its great!
I also love how you can misjudge speed and overshoot a system in hypercruise hehe. So I think I can definitively say that as the end result of my thread, and due to the help I got from you guys, I am now a hooked player
I have fought off a few interdiction attempts, got a bounty kill on one guy. I am able to almost actually stay on someones tail while flying now, at least in the starter ships. I have made around 50k now in exploration, upgraded a few modules, I want to get into mining but I am now far enoug away from the starting point that I dont know where to go to start mining, or get a new ship for mining. Come to think of it, where do I get new ships? There is still so much to learn lol. And than kyou SOOO much for the headtracking tip! I can actually look around at the beauty around em now and its great!I also love how you can misjudge speed and overshoot a system in hypercruise hehe. So I think I can definitively say that as the end result of my thread, and due to the help I got from you guys, I am now a hooked player
Ok, I stuck with it some more and I am now hooked I think
The best places to look for new ships are Hi-tech and Industrial systems. In the Galactic map if you look at my earlier screenshot, you can have the systems coloured by economy type. Then when you select a system the little pop-up menu has an option to view the system (if your ship's computer has it) or buy the data on it from Universal Cartographics (if they have it). You're looking for stations represented by the little circles and octagons as these all have shipyards (the outposts that look like TV aerials on the map don't have shipyards). Or else a highly populated industrial or hi-tech system is almost certain to have a shipyard somewhere within it. From here you should be able to get a suitable ship for mining, though I think you can get started on it in a Sidewinder. You're probably better off going to a hi-tech system since you also need to buy a refinery and mining laser, you'll usually have more choice in a hi-tech.
Mining takes place either at resource extraction sites within planetary rings (only rocky rings not icy) or at asteroid clusters. Both are visible with little asteroid icons in your nav menu on your left hand side and can be set as destinations for supercruise, although they do vary in how lucrative the mining is, or whether there is anything left to mine in them at all.
I also love how you can misjudge speed and overshoot a system in hypercruise hehe. So I think I can definitively say that as the end result of my thread, and due to the help I got from you guys, I am now a hooked player
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One of my biggest tips for newbies is actually to avoid getting stuck on the idea of having to do missions - I often advise skipping them entirely at the start and focusing on exploration or bounty hunting to make your first 50 - 100k.
If you are dead set on doing missions from the get-go, I feel the best and most reliable income (not the mention the most straightforward) are the delivery missions. They're the ones with the icon of the cargo container and single arrow pointing to the right. These are straight up transport - accept the mission, the station automatically loads the cargo into your hold, and you take it to the destination station.
If you do these:
1. Make sure you check the destination before accepting - once you know where you're going, back out of the mission and open the galaxy map. Under the Navigation tab, there is slider allowing you to set your jump range based on how much cargo you're carrying - max that and you route calculation will reflect the added mass to your ship and tell you if you can reach your intended destination with a full hold. If you can, go back to the bulletin board and accept the mission.
2. Ditch the basic discovery scanner and put in an additional cargo hold - you won't be able to scan stuff for the extra cash on your way to your destination, but the added space will open up more delivery missions that require more than 2T cargo space. After you've made a couple thousand, you should be able to get the Sidewinder's cargo space up to 6T, with one 4T and one 2T hold. At 6T capacity, even more missions will be available.
Stick with it - the initial frustrations make the eventual mastery that much more satisfying. Good luck!
If you are dead set on doing missions from the get-go, I feel the best and most reliable income (not the mention the most straightforward) are the delivery missions. They're the ones with the icon of the cargo container and single arrow pointing to the right. These are straight up transport - accept the mission, the station automatically loads the cargo into your hold, and you take it to the destination station.
If you do these:
1. Make sure you check the destination before accepting - once you know where you're going, back out of the mission and open the galaxy map. Under the Navigation tab, there is slider allowing you to set your jump range based on how much cargo you're carrying - max that and you route calculation will reflect the added mass to your ship and tell you if you can reach your intended destination with a full hold. If you can, go back to the bulletin board and accept the mission.
2. Ditch the basic discovery scanner and put in an additional cargo hold - you won't be able to scan stuff for the extra cash on your way to your destination, but the added space will open up more delivery missions that require more than 2T cargo space. After you've made a couple thousand, you should be able to get the Sidewinder's cargo space up to 6T, with one 4T and one 2T hold. At 6T capacity, even more missions will be available.
Stick with it - the initial frustrations make the eventual mastery that much more satisfying. Good luck!
My biggest problem righ tnow is figuring out how to find a system on the galaxy map that has a station I can upgrade, buy ships, etc. everywhere I go it seems the only thing available is to sell exploration data. Since im not doing missions and want to experiment with mining, im stuck because I cant find a station where I can pick up a refinery modules. I have tried everything I can see on the galaxy map and I cannot see any way to identfy a star systems contents from the galaxy map. So I cant see how anyone can navigate the map, its a total random jump fest hope what you need is at the next jump, because there is no way to know whats at your next jump. I wont trravel without a fuel scoop as I have already run out of fuel once and had to self destruct.
You click on the system in the galaxy map, then click on the little solar-system symbol that pops up in the menu next to the selected system.
This will show you what's in that system, assuming you have the data on your computer.
Is it possible you could take a screenshot (F10 - and it will save a JPEG to My Pictures/Frontier Developments) of the galactic map so we can see where exactly you are?
This will show you what's in that system, assuming you have the data on your computer.
Is it possible you could take a screenshot (F10 - and it will save a JPEG to My Pictures/Frontier Developments) of the galactic map so we can see where exactly you are?
Be aware that not every star type is scoopable, so it's still not a 100% guarantee you'll be okay.
Also you can inspect each system from the galaxy map, which lets you see what is there. If there's a station, you will be able to buy fuel. For buying ships and upgrades, see Carlisle's post above.
Thats what I dont understand, when I look at the systems in the galaxy map there is no info. Zero. Not anywhere. Not in any tab, menu, control, or window. in nearly 10 hours of gameplay ive managed to make 20k, thats all. I cant find anywhere to buy modules for mining, I cant find anywhere to sell my astro data, I just dont get it. Ive clicked trade routes on or off, tried the filters, but none of that actually tells you BEFORE you go there whether or not there is a station there to use.
I am obviously missing something, but I dont know what.
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Lol I no sooner post that than I figure out how to do it.
I am obviously missing something, but I dont know what.
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Lol I no sooner post that than I figure out how to do it.
I'm guessing you were missing the system map option, on the tooltip that appears when you mouse over a system? Easy to overlook, though I do believe it's covered in the manual. Don't be afraid to click around on everything, at least in the map - experimentation on the map is much less likely to result in an untimely exposure to vaccuum than in other areas of the game
So there is no skill for fitting modules on your ship? That sounds to me like there is no progression in this game aside from getting bigger ships.
Thank you for your input folks! it helped me make up my mind
Thanks to the game developers that they don't take us by their hand in this game (and discovery tool regarding the real cosmos too) to lead us to specific predefined game goals. You are free to set your own goals. And there is in-game currency that you need to earn by successful game play. In-game money is also necessary for upgrading your ship(s). You can earn much more money if you have trained good playing skills. You can lose a lot of your hard earned in-game money due bad player skills. Think about the fines players have to pay after law violation.. not only by making from their in-game character intentional a bad guy.. but by example also due clumsy impractical pilot skills. You have to train these in the game in real. You need to train yourself before you can fly and fight sharp as a razor. So yes.. indirect you need your playing skills to make a lot of in-game money, making new advanced things possible for you. It's not the game, in this game it is the player that needs to make its own progression.
Hover over the stations/outpost using the cursor and you'll find all the detailed info I.e. Their allegiance, what they import/export, whether you can refuel, repair, buy/sell etc.