Newcomer / Intro Seeking advice about investing time and money in ED

Hammurabi_Condor

H
I've been following the progress of ED for the last five years, and with the recent addition of Fleet Carriers it seems like it is really starting to mature.

I'm thinking about investing in a HOTAS and starting to play. Timewise I probably have between 60 and 90 minutes a day to invest but no more, and I'm definitely not in a position to play for three or four hours at a time.

I would like to see where my imagination took me and tell the story of my pilot starting with very little and seeing where she got to.

I do worry that quite a lot of time will be spent either flying through empty space or trying to get to grips with control systems and UI menus that are impenetrable.

I'm interested to hear the starting experiences of others, especially if you've only just started flying recently, and whether you find ED fun or if it's just another grind wrapped in some pretty amazing visuals.
 

hawknerd

hawknerd
I made a lot of money quickly and then discovered that credits were no good for unlocking engineers and materials gathering. The cash is useful for buying ships and modules but a longer route not getting rich quickly would mean more experience and this helps later on as you simply know more and have done more. But you will need billions ultimately to get all the ships and a fleet carrier if thats what you want.
 

[PS4] Lorenzo Waringos

[PS4] Lorenzo Waringos
Hello and welcome. I can't give any advice on HOTAS I'm afraid.

What I can say is when I first got the game on PS4 (pretty soon after launch), I spent a month or so (admittedly more daily time than you have available) of just surviving. I did a few missions, made loads and loads of mistakes that saw me accept missions that I now know I had no hope in completing. It was a steep learning curve. You know what though? A few years later, here I am still on a learning curve.

Take hauling trade for example. I know I'm dim but first I had to learn which missions were going to send the most aggressive NPC's after me. Then I learned about finding a situation where You haul to one station, accept a mission at that station whose destination is your original station to rinse and repeat. Again, being slow on the uptake, I was not paying attention to the rep I was earning and what that could do for my potential financial earnings. There were a few more things to learn about this. This is simply accepting a hauling mission.

I've done nearly all types of missions now, but not all. I've done exploring, bit of NPC combat and mining. Each thing comes with layers and layers off learning. However, before I drive you away forever, I was lucky that I enjoyed that pace. In the early days I got a real buzz earning 10mCr for one hauling job, but to this day I still get an equally big buzz from a 'penny drop' moment, which come frequently. The only way I can describe it is like telling your partner you're going out for a drink, you find a pub and you don't come home for four days. It just sucked me in.

I've never really explored Power Play (only to get modules) and the BGS stuff I wouldn't have a clue about.

Basically, I don't think I will ever stop learning in this game. Someone on this forum always knows something about the game I don't but even better than that, even better than discovering an ELW with rings inside a Neutron Star, sat on a Christmas Tree in some system that no one else has ever seen before is when I discover something about the game for myself. Happily I can tell you, I still make those discoveries.

It takes a long time but I have found that time entertaining.

The only real way you'll know though, is to buy the game.

Edited spelling and grammar (there are bound to be some mistakes left)
 

hawknerd

hawknerd
I think the game is on offer on steam atm so you have nothing to lose really. back on offer:
store.steampowered.com

Elite Dangerous on Steam

Take control of your own starship in a cutthroat galaxy. Elite Dangerous is the definitive massively multiplayer space epic.
store.steampowered.com store.steampowered.com
 
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Simon Templar

Simon Templar
Hammurabi_Condor said:
I've been following the progress of ED for the last five years, and with the recent addition of Fleet Carriers it seems like it is really starting to mature.

I'm thinking about investing in a HOTAS and starting to play. Timewise I probably have between 60 and 90 minutes a day to invest but no more, and I'm definitely not in a position to play for three or four hours at a time.

I would like to see where my imagination took me and tell the story of my pilot starting with very little and seeing where she got to.

I do worry that quite a lot of time will be spent either flying through empty space or trying to get to grips with control systems and UI menus that are impenetrable.

I'm interested to hear the starting experiences of others, especially if you've only just started flying recently, and whether you find ED fun or if it's just another grind wrapped in some pretty amazing visuals.
Click to expand...

It can be a massive time sink, if you want/let it, but it genuinely doesn't have to be. I have been playing a while and am a billionaire (although that doesn't mean what it used to, by any means!) but still my main exploration ship is an Asp Scout - cost 4m cr or so. My favourite ship is a T6, which cost a lot less. I have a real experience and shared story with those two ships, now, and would genuinely be happy enough if they were all I could have. I have a Corvette out of curiosity but rarely fly it, and am not even sure where I left my Anaconda, haven't seen it in months. My Python, the same. My only regular expensive ship is a Cutter, but I use that as it's the best miner, enabling me to make a lot of money in the least time possible. Which frees me up to follow my nose and just make my way through the galaxy as I please. Unless you decide you want to compete with other players in combat (which will require a massive sink of time into engineering, expensive ships etc) you can play the game (including in Open) in a very much pick up and play style. Particularly if you stay within the main bubble, the region where there are the most space stations, then you can experience the majority of the game's gameplay while sticking with quicker journies and more efficient sessions. I would get Horizons, and unlock some engineers, but that needn't be a grind if you do it as and when. My main reason for saying get Horizons is that planetary landings are a fun aspect of gameplay which you don't get if you don't have Horizons. I'd unlock some engineers as, well, you might as well. A very early engineer can increase the jump range of your ship, and that is a very helpful tool. Everything else you can pretty much do without - including in Open. I play in Open, I like the extra layer of interest and not knowing, and have had some lovely encounters, but am generally in my Asp which doesn't even have weapons!! And I'm not dead yet and have never lost the ship.

It's a great game to pick up and play. Come on in, the water's lovely!

o7

Hawknerd said:
You will love it! But it will require significant time investment both ingame and outofgame.
Click to expand...

That last part isn't strictly true. I have been playing for a couple of years, have (at least) one of every ship, have unlocked all of the engineers (including at Colonia), am double Elite, and yet I don't use out of game resources at all. The odd tip on this website (but I come here because I enjoy the community rather than to seek out assists), but other than that nothing. I don't use the various Inara etc websites, I just trade locally within the game, expanding my view as I travel. So there are many ways to play the game, including some which are really time-efficient.
 

Tyres O'Flaherty

Tyres O'Flaherty
ED has a steep learning curve and lots of controls and key binds to not only learn, but to commit to muscle memory.

However - and it's a big however - you are rewarded with satisfaction for your time and effort. Don't be deterred by mistakes and remember that your first Sidewinder is free and there for you to practice with.
 

Alec Turner

Alec Turner
Hiya - 60 to 90 minutes a day is plenty of time to get fully immersed in the world of Elite: Dangerous. What I tend to do is play before work (so I get up at around 5:30am and play until around 7:00am). I've been doing this pretty much every day for over 5 years and I'm about as immersed in the game as you can get.

As for a HOTAS - quite early on what I did (because I wasn't sure if I'd like it and didn't want to spend more then a £100) was get the Thrustmaster T.Flight Hotas X. For the money (especially back then when it was £25) it was brilliant value for money and I've been using the same stick ever since. It's not perfect (it feels nice and the leap from mouse and keyboard to any HOTAS as far as immersion is concerned is huge - but, I guess it's not as accurate or fully featured as more expensive sticks and it does tend to develop a problem on the twist/yaw axis after a while - I'm currently on my 5th now). With hindsight, had I known how much I'd love the flight stick (and that I'd still be playing every day after 5 years) I probably would have gone for a more expensive stick such as the X52 Pro. Nevertheless I'm still happy with my choice (I'm reluctant to get a different stick now because the bindings and feel of this one have become second nature to me). The only other thing I'd say is that the Thrustmaster T.Flight Hotas 4, although identical in every other way, seems to have slightly better quality analog inputs than the X version (it's branded for PS4 but also works with PC).
 

Ashnak

Ashnak
Hammurabi_Condor said:
I've been following the progress of ED for the last five years, and with the recent addition of Fleet Carriers it seems like it is really starting to mature.
Click to expand...

I'm afraid that, if the below is your stated goal, then Fleet Carriers won't do much for you. If you want to own one, that is. Getting the (realistically) 7 Billion credits will either be the result of several years of intensive gameplay, or a few weeks of mindless grind.

Hammurabi_Condor said:
I'm thinking about investing in a HOTAS and starting to play. Timewise I probably have between 60 and 90 minutes a day to invest but no more, and I'm definitely not in a position to play for three or four hours at a time.
Click to expand...

Entirely feasible - although I have to say (from my own experience) if ED catches you, you won't leave it at that. Got any elderly relatives you could sell? ;). Yes, I started with a flatscreen and an old XBox controller. Now I'm on my second VR headset and seriously contemplate replacing my expensive joysticks with more expensive joysticks.

Hammurabi_Condor said:
I would like to see where my imagination took me and tell the story of my pilot starting with very little and seeing where she got to.
Click to expand...

Ah, nowadays that's not that much of a problem any more. With the credits inflation that made the Fleet Carriers possible, you can grind your way out of poverty in a couple of days. 3 hours, if you know what you do (or can be bothered to look it up at Youtube), will be sufficient to get you from the starter ship into any decent ship you like. Another 5 minutes wil be sufficient to lose that ship again and be back in your free Sidewinder. That game requires a certain tolerance to frustration - or the capability to read and understand the friendly manuals.

Hammurabi_Condor said:
I do worry that quite a lot of time will be spent either flying through empty space or trying to get to grips with control systems and UI menus that are impenetrable.
Click to expand...

It's a spaceship flying sandbox game, and the old comparison from DNA between the way to the chemist and the size of the Galaxy still holds true. So yes, you will spend a lot of time flying through empty space. At times, you will also wish that space to be even emptier, as not all other ships you encounter are friendly or at leats indifferent.
As for the control system - yes, it's a slog to set it up the way you like. The UI menus are not the problem, as basically everything is handled by direct input.

Hammurabi_Condor said:
I'm interested to hear the starting experiences of others, especially if you've only just started flying recently, and whether you find ED fun or if it's just another grind wrapped in some pretty amazing visuals.
Click to expand...

There's an interesting thing about a lot of the people who complain about the grind, or the game in general: if you check, a lot of them have 4 and 5 figure (in hours) playtime...
 
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