Recommendations for a born-again E:D noob dipping their toes back in to the black...

[Reggit]

There is some very good advice in this thread - but I have to mention that hurling yourself in at the deep end with only minimal understanding, is often the best way to learn (and can often be a good thrill too!)
...Just bring plenty of rebuy money of course
I've got an entertaining little loop going on right now - I'm colonising, powerplaying, CGing and BGSing - using my carrier to bounce between these things is keeping me very busy!

 

[aRJay]

For some, the ability to bypass getting engineering unlocks etc to improve your gear over the counter is wonderful.

The P2W argument is eternal particularly live service.

This is off-topic but here's my 2 cents...

Even if absolutely nobody played Elite, this game would cost Frontier to run and keep it going - servers, hardware, disks, electricity, Air-con, rackspace, security, admin, support, etc. It has to be a struggle to maintain it and make it profit. I mean you don't often recognise it but you get that for FREE. The money you paid (at most £50) for the game is a drop in the ocean compared to those costs. So on that basis; so that we all can enjoy it, Elite at the least needs to make a passive income. And I don't think cosmetics, which is what we all as gamers would prefer to be sold, cuts it. I bet it doesn't make a scratch in the game costs really.

Some people, myself included, feel that if I'm going to spend money, I want it to be an investment and actually get something new for my cash. I don't buy cosmetics. There needs to be incentive to buy and I want to feel like I got something new. For Elite that either comes in two forms.

Expansions which introduce new gameplay features like Horizons, and Odyssey, which Frontier have done every so often and is great but it's a gamble because if it's not popular and not many people buy it then you don't get a good return on investment and the company suffers overall.

So then you need to offer an alternative source of income and that would be selling your pre-upgraded ships, weapons, suits etc. obviously this isn't popular among those who've played the game, grinded the levels, etc because their sense of achievement has been diminished. The effort people put in is a badge of honour and they feel if anything that their achievement should be rewarded. And perhaps it should. Pride and accomplishment clearly isn't enough. But just because there are those of us who have grinded and mined the content of this game, that does not make money for Frontier. Grinders are NOT profitable.

I feel, that when it comes to live service games, if you want a healthy game, you need a healthy company, so you have to let the company be flexible in its revenue generation. That doesn't mean let the company rinse you, but allow them to cater to all needs and circumstances.

That also means accepting that the grind is a barrier to accessibility. You might consider the grind as "the game" but if the decision to develop a grindy game prevents revenue because people "feel" like they don't have the time then to increase revenue the company needs to remove the barrier and let people play they way they want too.

We all profit from this by virtue that the game remains alive. And a few years back, it absolutely felt like this game was on life-support just ticking over. More players. More money. More game. Focus on your own game. Not others. Don't gate-keep it.

Besides as Maverick said "It's not the Plane, it's the Pilot".

To be clear I was talking about our ability to get up to G3 suits and weapons over the counter in game at Pioneer Supplies without having to unlock engineers and find materials.

The only Arx involved with this are the purely cosmetic suit and weapons skins. Some of which are very nice if a touch expensive after they reworked the store the other year.

 

[McJones]

To be clear I was talking about our ability to get up to G3 suits and weapons over the counter in game at Pioneer Supplies without having to unlock engineers and find materials.

The only Arx involved with this are the purely cosmetic suit and weapons skins. Some of which are very nice if a touch expensive after they reworked the store the other year.

I see. Thanks for clarification.

 

[McJones]

There is some very good advice in this thread - but I have to mention that hurling yourself in at the deep end with only minimal understanding, is often the best way to learn (and can often be a good thrill too!)
...Just bring plenty of rebuy money of course
I've got an entertaining little loop going on right now - I'm colonising, powerplaying, CGing and BGSing - using my carrier to bounce between these things is keeping me very busy!

How is the BGS these days. I often criticised it in the past because it all too often felt like the player had little agency in the game, even in the remotes smallest systems. It would often need an entire squadron of pilots all working around the clock to push the needle in any direction. The idea of the BGS was a really cool concept but felt contrived and didn't really feel capitalised on.

I hear it's improved a bit since then...

 

[tonyg99]

It's 2025. Star Citizen hasn't delivered and No Man's Sky as good as it is, hasn't the flight simulation I crave, and neither of them have as enjoyable space combat as Elite. so so I'm back for another round. It's been at least three years since I took a visit to Colonia, flew around the Witch-Head nebula and made a ton of cash exploring, but now I'm back, and I've forgotten both how to play the game and where to start. And I'm OK with that, because despite my past criticisms of this game - unlike SC at least it mostly works.

So, before I started again, I went and bought the Odyssey expansion which, to be fair, even though I play the game in VR all the time, I'm really quite enjoying despite the grey box, if not anything else then for the additional immersion of visiting station concourses and watching the stars/planets/ships go by - it's almost like being at an airport. And actually seeing faces and outfits - and occasionally the odd commander, actually, it's fun. I just wish I could buy a drink at the bar!

But I'm relearning the game, so I put down my Asp Explorer (before I break it) and bought myself a little Viper Mark III and kitted it out a little, just something nice and cheap and fun, and thought I'd do the basics. So I visited the nav beacons and resource sites and did a little bounty hunting. Did some package delivery here and there, on and off planet. I'm absolutely loving the variety of on and off-planet locations now - it's much more interesting a galaxy to fly around and visit now. I visited some Titan wreckages, which man, I missed all of that, but it looks epic.

Tonight I fancied a bit of bounty hunting and I learned that in a lot of system, particularly the Military systems, there's usually a few little fun locations, Relays, Satellites, little outpost, even a grillhouse, which, you can't stop and land at, but you can pick up a lot of good Merc and Bounty work and you can fly around the stations trying to evade lasers and ships and they make for a really interesting backdrop for space combat. Best yet, I've found that the output is more lucrative then working a Nav Beacon or an asteroid field. I made about 10 million killing around 15 ships (with aid from the allied AI) in a Viper Mark III completely un-engineered. Good pickings if you're just starting out and need some cash quick, or like me, you've only got an hour or so to spare in the night to have a fly. Feels like a good second or third step on the ladder to working towards that next craft. Anyway, that was in LHS 451 if you're interested.

I was kind of wondering what other tips people might have for me to try out at low level / early game to re/learn the ropes? I'm not so much looking to make lots of money, just looking to have some fun - but if it makes money then great! What else might a born-again noob have a go at?

I also came back to Eliteangerous a while ago after several years’ absence, and here are the things that made it fun again:

1. Supercruise Overcharge (SCO) frame shift drives. By far the main reason I came back was the elimination of the tedium of traveling long distances within systems in a way that seemed plausible and didn’t break the suspension of disbelief (also resulted in my first mayday call to The Fuel Rats in MANY years!).

2. On Foot Missions. These tend to be very frustrating for a n00b as you need all your gear to be heavily engineered to have any fun at all (although shooting & running over bad guys in a Scarab never gets old). Plenty of guides on YouTube if you need guidance, as it’s often not obvious how to complete a mission without getting insta-killed by NPCs.

3. Colonization: while definitely a rich man’s game that would be intolerable without a fleet carrier, there’s something bizarrely satisfying about putting an indelible mark on the Elite galaxy in for form of a colonized system. I was able to colonize a system with an earth-like world (after “sniping” the claim from someone that was trying to snipe it from me!), which was especially gratifying.

4. Wing/Multi-Seat Play

I’ve mostly played Elite in solo mode because gankers kill the fun for me, but recently my 15 yo daughter has started to play, so we’ve been using the private instance feature to play together — that’s been a lot of fun.

5. New Ships

There have been a lot of great new ships released recently; the Mandalay in particular has incredible jump range, so I use it a lot. The Corsair is fun to fly, and may have taken the crown of the best medium-sized all-rounder from my beloved Python Mk 1. And of course the Panther Clipper — which I haven’t acquired yet because I’m on holiday right now — promises to make the space-trucker grind for colonization somewhat less tedious.

6. Powerplay 2

This has not been like I expected, and I’ve actually quite enjoyed it. It’s like moonlighting as a spy or a secret agent — each week, my pledged power gives me some assignments to complete in return for a variety of different rewards: Rank, credits, materials, and special module unlocks. It makes a nice break from space trucking for colonization!

Anyway, hope that helps — welcome back Commander! o7