Should I be able to play Elite Dangerous without nine spreadsheets?

yodajedifishmaster

yodajedifishmaster
you dont NEED 9 spreadsheets. if thats what you like to do thats what you LIKE to do. he doesnt need to follow. i dont use spreadsheets. i have a couple of tools so i can track where i have been and plot it on EDSM site. and one that can generate a table for easier posting in the ELW thread. and thats it. i only have two ships my asp ex which im out in deep space in atm and the half built FAS which got put on hold because combat in the game became a deterrent to playing it rather than a fun part of it.

if he still thinks its too complicated ask him what he thinks of the real world. surely thats even worse. but then systems that behave on the whole independent of what a single player does alone are often like that. the background politics in elite will just happen no matter what. thargoids happen is the short version. (thats what i used to say long ago in elite instead of sh*t happens)
 

Winterwalker

Winterwalker
Rob At Work said:
OP: HAHAHAHAHAHAHahahahaha.....

So SAD!
Click to expand...

hehe, yeah but .. maybe any game you don't use a spreadsheet for is too simple for dimple!? :rolleyes:

I don't think you really need to spreadsheet to get by, though did make some notes myself on other things like basic import/exports by economy type, political states, ship controls, shield ratings, stars, planet and mining resources. Most of it has more or less sunk in by now I think.
 

smiths121

S
Very pretty first post OP.

I bet your CD collection is in alphabetical order (I am showing my age!), that takes some structured thinking to put together 9 spreadsheets.

Simon
 

Dbrn47

Dbrn47
Spoiler alert:
You don't need spreadsheets to play the game.

Much of what you are using spreadsheets for is taken care of by some pretty neat community members that created edshipyard, coriolis, inara, eddb, etc.
 
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CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
I don't write down a single thing, anywhere.

I don't have much difficulty keeping track of things. I do occasionally lose my stored ships, due to the map bug. Lol
But other than that, no spreadsheets needed.

And this is coming from someone with ADHD.
 

thirstyfish

thirstyfish
Cmdr Travers said:
I had a friend and fellow Elite Dangerous player visiting me this week, and showed him the nine spreadsheets I use to keep track of the game. These cover everything from my fleet, and how they're equipped and engineered, to what upgrades I can get, and what materials I'll need for them, what I've got in storage, what engineers I've still to unlock and what I'll need to get them all to grade 5, what permits I can get and how I can do it, and more besides.

He pointed out, quite correctly, that if I need nine spreadsheets to just keep track of the game, and so I can remember what's going on at any one time, that the game is too complicated. Some of this at least, could be brought into the game after all with things like an in-game Wiki or better ship and storage information at any time.

I'm just wondering what you all think?

P.S. To anybody who's going to ask for a copy, this is an extremely complex spreadsheet with a lot of cross-linking and hard coding. You'd really need to know what you're doing in Excel to get to grips with it.

Mike

<snip>
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I use a combination of Inara, EDDB, and coriolis.io for most of this stuff. I have browser bookmarks to a few open spreadsheets from the Cannon and some others. Everything else I just write down as I need to. Between alt-tabbing every now and then or using the steam in-game browser, it isn't that hard to keep track of things.
 

VR StarLightPL

VR StarLightPL
Nerwan said:
Oh yes, I'd forgotten about them. I used to hate the things you fell through which landed you a couple of floors below among the really hard monsters :)
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And poisonous ants with anti-poison being scarce. Good times. And people can moan today's games are hard ;-)
 

SMcA

SMcA
Ouberos said:
I use a mark 1 Cortex and find it often returns a negative search for things I require.

With all that data providing answers do you ever find you have forgotten what the question was?
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Rule #1 for older people:

Write the question down. ;)
 

robbyp

robbyp
You can use an companion app to help track a lot of stuff now, since 2.2 a lot of data is being written out which programs can use..

Such as the one mentioned in my signature ;-)
 

verminstar

Banned
verminstar
Thetele said:
People want to be efficient, have easy access to information and stuff that they have collected, or what they need to craft something. If the game doesn't provide tools to track your progress, assets you have, or what you can do with those assets people will use excel. Hell i use excel in elite to know what blueprints I can craft, how many synthesis rolls i have which ship have witch modules etc. The game doesn't provide these in formations because bad ui design. The information is clearly there, but it isn't provided to player in one place that is easy to access. I could spent long time looking through my ships to find the mod i want to move to ship i plan to use as the game doesn't tell were my mods are.
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Badly designed game then...I'm not bothered and just muddle through regardless. I got two pc running alongside an xbone and even have an old iPad lurking about somewhere, so access isn't the issue, it's just me and I can't be bothered playing 20 year old mechanics.

If others wanna play the game outside the game then more power to them, but it wouldn't be my first choice in gaming. Play and let play, I was merely answering the op, not arguing any point ^
 

BACKER #-4112

BACKER #-4112
I am one of those crazy kooks who uses a spreadsheet on a second computer while playing E: D.
Any helpful information: landing pads, button configurations on different peripherals used to play the geme - HOTAS, G13 etc, fleet with outfitting, price of ships, trade data with formulas calculating costs and profits based on ship size and fuel use, engineers, synthesis, places of interest, helpful tips found on the forums, hostile CMDRs encountered in game and anything else worth noting.

One spreadsheet with quite a few tabs that are forever growing. It all started with the "Sidewinder Owner Manual" in Beta phase and have been expanding it ever since.

Nowadays I have E: D themed background on each page taken from a screenshot within the game and using the Eurostyle font for the lettering.

If I am not adding new information, then I am playing with the formatting/layout during witchspace and long trips in supercruise.

Once I get back home and in front of a PC, perhaps I'll come back to this thread and post some screenshots.

I am just glad that I am not the only nut in the E: D universe to use a spreadsheet.
 

ThomasWJames

ThomasWJames
Hey OP, any chance you'd be willing to share some of those spreadsheets? Some of the last ones like the permit and tool ones I like. If shared I'd probably end up using a few of them but not all. Thanks and let me know.
 

DanGriswold

DanGriswold
Cmdr Travers said:
I had a friend and fellow Elite Dangerous player visiting me this week, and showed him the nine spreadsheets I use to keep track of the game. These cover everything from my fleet, and how they're equipped and engineered, to what upgrades I can get, and what materials I'll need for them, what I've got in storage, what engineers I've still to unlock and what I'll need to get them all to grade 5, what permits I can get and how I can do it, and more besides.

He pointed out, quite correctly, that if I need nine spreadsheets to just keep track of the game, and so I can remember what's going on at any one time, that the game is too complicated. Some of this at least, could be brought into the game after all with things like an in-game Wiki or better ship and storage information at any time.

I'm just wondering what you all think?

P.S. To anybody who's going to ask for a copy, this is an extremely complex spreadsheet with a lot of cross-linking and hard coding. You'd really need to know what you're doing in Excel to get to grips with it.

Mike
Click to expand...

Oh man. Seeing all the Excel magic is making me flush and weak in the knees. I need a VLOOKUP formula, stat! Or maybe just a Pivot Table. Just a taste!
 

CptXabaras

CptXabaras
Been using the game without spreadsheets for nearly 2 years and I suspect not being alone.. Why do you feel the need for keeping all your game info on spreadsheets anyway?
 
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