Newcomer / Intro Newcomer???

PowerDrinker

P
Hi... Ensign PowerDrinker here... Here's the general drift of things.. As soon as I heard about ED being written properly for the PC by Mr Braben.. I immediately donated a wee bit of my hard earned via Kickstarter amidst great trepidation and anticipation.. Yessss.. Beta here I come :)
Having been a massive fan of Frontier and Elite on C64 and Amiga I could barely contain my delight..

Fast forward to around 2 or 3 months before beta release date and I find myself moving home and relocating to somewhere with internet connection that was pretty much like dial-up in the early days.. (that'll be 1200 baud rate on a good day). Cue frustration... On a galactic scale!!.. Whilst watching everyone else hone their skills and relish every moment playing I game I had dreamt about since the demise of my trusty A1200... Gutted aint the word..

Anyway, to cut a long story short I have at last been blessed with fibre optic internet and have been out to buy myself a cheapish flight stick (Madcatz fly5 or summat) I am now in a state of quandary... Do I skittle thru the tutorials? Do I dive straight in?? Hmmmm...

On that note.. Hullo fellow commanders - Any help would be appreciated and where do I get a downloadable key/button binding thing for my new stick??
 

Philip Coutts

Volunteer Moderator
Philip Coutts
Do the tutorials! You need to learn how to dock properly before doing anything else. ED is a pretty complex game that requires a bit of practice. Get used to docking, travel and dog fighting before entering the fray for real.
 
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Ian Skippy

Ian Skippy
Welcome cmdr PowerDrinker!

Definitely do the tutorials. You don't have to ace them, some of them are pretty much impossible at first. But make sure you know:

1) How to dock and depart from a station.
2) How to travel to different systems, and different regions in a system.
3) How to select and engage a target, how to deploy weapons
4) Basic flight principles (making a rolling turn, power management

Just take your time, and once the basics are clear start a new game.
 

Juby

J
Philip Coutts said:
Do the tutorials! You need to learn how to dock properly before doing anything else. ED is a pretty complex game that requires a bit of practice. Get used to docking, travel and dog fighting before entering the fray for real.
Click to expand...

What this guy says.

Do the single player combat tutorials to get a basic feel for how to fly and fight. Check out YT for all the tutorial vids - this WILL make your initial game experience easier. Being a '84 veteran will certainly help as a lot of thinks will automatically feel familiar to you, but there is still a lot to learn about the game.

As for your stick settings - there was a default layout available for TM HOTAS X - you may find that there is also one for your stick. Select that and then just tweak it to your preference. If there is no default for your stick you could try one for another stick to see if it works and then again tweak it - failing that you would need to go through and manually map functions to your stick.
 
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PowerDrinker

P
Cheers folks... Nightshift tonight so I have a few hours for the tutorials...
Just tried the default settings for my flight stick and i'm flying backwards upon acceleration... That's gonna be fun.. I'll go thru the set up menu.

Not sure if anyone can imagine just how far behind I feel. Joined this forum in feb 2014... tis only a year or so innit.. :)


Actually... Call me a bit daft but... Pull to accelerate and push to decelerate?
 

Kalius

K
PowerDrinker said:
Cheers folks... Nightshift tonight so I have a few hours for the tutorials...
Just tried the default settings for my flight stick and i'm flying backwards upon acceleration... That's gonna be fun.. I'll go thru the set up menu.

Not sure if anyone can imagine just how far behind I feel. Joined this forum in feb 2014... tis only a year or so innit.. :)


Actually... Call me a bit daft but... Pull to accelerate and push to decelerate?
Click to expand...

I don't know about the defaults but you really want to set these up yourself. I spent about 2-3 hours setting up my stick before actually starting up a tutorial (ok that's a fib, I had one go and realised I needed to spend some time on this).

My setup:

On my throttle control I use full forward, so no reverse function on the throttle itself. On my buttons I use Forward and Backward Thrusters, Super Cruise, Hyperjump, Engine Kill, Flight Assist Toggle, Boost and Shield Cell.

On my stick I use normal movements as pitch and roll, and twist as yaw. For the buttons, I have Primary/Secondary Fire, Select Target, Switch Fire Group. On the mini-stick I use my vertical and lateral thrusters.

Hope this helps; fly safe commander!
 

CMDR Memphis

C
Other than Pitch, nothing should be inverted for most joysticks. When you select an axis in ED, if you pull left or towards, it automatically selects inverse. Took a while to figure that out.
 

ThatGuy

T
i use wasd for thrusters, and rf for throttle.
Found it easier than actually have it on the flightstick ( got Logitech Freedom Wireless 2.4GHz )
 

Kalius

K
ThatGuy said:
i use wasd for thrusters, and rf for throttle.
Found it easier than actually have it on the flightstick ( got Logitech Freedom Wireless 2.4GHz )
Click to expand...

Is your left hand on the keyboard? As in, do you use the keyboard and joystick instead of throttle and joystick? I use the latter, and I find I need my thrusters handy; I only use the keyboard for landing gear, stealth mode etc. But yeah, when I used mouse and keyboard, WASD were my thrusters and my scroll wheel was my throttle.
 

Ancipital

Ancipital
PowerDrinker said:
Anyway, to cut a long story short I have at last been blessed with fibre optic internet and have been out to buy myself a cheapish flight stick (Madcatz fly5 or summat) I am now in a state of quandary... Do I skittle thru the tutorials? Do I dive straight in?? Hmmmm...
Click to expand...

No, you do not skip the tutorials. You use them to configure/learn your controls, to prevent you making endless stupid threads about how to achieve basic stuff. In return, everyone else doesn't point and laugh and we don't release the killer owls. Scary, bitey owls.

It'll be awesome, do the tutorials, they're great. It's a mildly complex games, so doing a bit of research is always going to be more efficient than "how do I X?", "how do I Y?" constantly- and the answers will be more accurate, too. If you're an old Elite player, you'll love the feeling the first time you land in a station correctly- it's much easier now, but at least 1.72 times cooler.

Anything you can't find there may well be in the official manual. Also, this guide is useful:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=80291

If you get really stuck, and you can't find the answer, then obviously post, explaining the problem clearly, and I'm sure you'll get some sort of response.

Good luck, and see you in the black :)
 
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Hell Razor5543

H
PowerDrinker said:
Cheers folks... Nightshift tonight so I have a few hours for the tutorials...
Just tried the default settings for my flight stick and i'm flying backwards upon acceleration... That's gonna be fun.. I'll go thru the set up menu.

Not sure if anyone can imagine just how far behind I feel. Joined this forum in feb 2014... tis only a year or so innit.. :)


Actually... Call me a bit daft but... Pull to accelerate and push to decelerate?
Click to expand...

Welcome aboard (bit weird saying this, as you have been a part of ED for so long). Yes, the tutorials are a major part of the initial learning curve. If you cannot land you cannot go anywhere. My eldest godson has just joined in (on a Mac), and he wasn't initially convinced when I told him to practise landing. 2 hours (and several write offs) later he went into the tutorials, and now he can get to where he is going in one piece.

Once you are happy that you can fly safely, look up a friendly commander who will wing up with you. A bit of mentoring (as well as the trade/bounty vouchers) can help a lot. The learning curve is a bit steep (even mountain goats find it a bit daunting), so a helping hand can be a bit of a comfort.

Have fun, fly safe, and see you out amongst the stars.
 

ThatGuy

T
Kalius said:
Is your left hand on the keyboard? As in, do you use the keyboard and joystick instead of throttle and joystick? I use the latter, and I find I need my thrusters handy; I only use the keyboard for landing gear, stealth mode etc. But yeah, when I used mouse and keyboard, WASD were my thrusters and my scroll wheel was my throttle.
Click to expand...
Yeah, but i got cargoscoop, landinggear, target, weapons on joystick.. i got a wierd playingposition since i lay down on my couch with the laptop on my livingroomtable, so it become naturaly for me to do it this way instead of having to use 2 hands on the flightstick. All buttons reachable with thumb on right hand is in use :) rest is on keyboard
 

PowerDrinker

P
Cheers for the input folks... I'm getting there.. Bit awkward at first of course.. I did consider jumping straight in and buying a Hotas or an x55 but might be due to a PC upgrade too... I'll need to start learning fast and start making excuses to be in the computer room a little more often .:) Quite chuffed on the speed of things and the lack of lag.. Also managed to dock which is a boon..

Trying to sort out a keyboard and flightstick setting that I'm comfy with.. One of the traumas with getting old is lack of co-ordination and a pretty pap memory.. Hehehehe.
 

Ancipital

Ancipital
PowerDrinker said:
Cheers for the input folks... I'm getting there.. Bit awkward at first of course.. I did consider jumping straight in and buying a Hotas or an x55 but might be due to a PC upgrade too... I'll need to start learning fast and start making excuses to be in the computer room a little more often .:) Quite chuffed on the speed of things and the lack of lag.. Also managed to dock which is a boon..
Click to expand...

Hah, at least you're not one of those awful "OMG DOCKING IS TOO HARD NERF EVERYTHING" types, good for you :)

Beware, ED is a bit habit forming, you'll have a HOTAS, pedals and head tracking/VR before you know it (and if VR, probably an improbably shiny new computer too). It's evil.
 
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