Engineers The SRV, And Me, Looking For Materials.

[Ralph Vargr]

Funny. I used to drive SCCA events in the day. And, Showroom Stock.

This thing is a pig. Worst sin is getting it back in the ship, after playing "Hunt For Red October".

Yet another example of where Frontier wants someone to spend money on a commander slot, instead of letting the NPC drive.

We have prospector and collection drones, and ship fighters. Don't tell me they can't do it, for gameplay reasons.

They want the money.

I would rather just shoot rocks in my Python.

 

[Slayer Jesse]

it would be alot less annoying if i didnt spin out on every single bump on low g worlds. and if i could lock on to my ship from anywhere, and not just when im close to it. And if the board ship window wasn't the size of a postage stamp...

 

[Ralph Vargr]

it would be alot less annoying if i didnt spin out on every single bump on low g worlds. and if i could lock on to my ship from anywhere, and not just when im close to it. And if the board ship window wasn't the size of a postage stamp...

That about sums it up. For buggy racing, I can see the fun. But, If I *need* to search surfaces to find things, skimmers, or drones would work well. A limpet drone has more than enough delta-v to do the job on most landable planets. Even if I have to commit slots, and carry drones/skimmers as cargo, it beats the "fumble in the dark" of SRV usage.

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

I would rather just shoot rocks in my Python.

If it's mats you want, you can get all the elements up to grade 4, except Yttrium, via mining. Consistently too, if you know where to look. Check out testing of mining for materials.

 

[Teh Smoo]

That about sums it up. For buggy racing, I can see the fun. But, If I *need* to search surfaces to find things, skimmers, or drones would work well. A limpet drone has more than enough delta-v to do the job on most landable planets. Even if I have to commit slots, and carry drones/skimmers as cargo, it beats the "fumble in the dark" of SRV usage.

I like it mostly. Sure, I spin out. Here's what you do:

• Don't use throttle for full speed maneuvering, bind a key to forward and backward. Use DA-off, so you have full throttle and zero throttle.
• Look at the heading. When you spin out, just turn back around.
• Ignore anything on the top of the scanner. The cargo is never good enough to justify the time wasted picking up cans, and sometimes it's illegal.
• MOVE. Keep going, try and get metallic meteorites, but just get as many as possible as fast as possible.
• Mode switching zeroes the instance, and new stuff spawns, if you are on a nice flat spot, go across it, and would like to turn around and go back with entirely new spawns.
• 4 pips to engines.

Then, you just get to full speed, and get airborne. Fly as long as you can, and hit with your front wheels, the damage/spinout will be minimized. Stop the wheels in midair, and when you hit, you won't even spin out a lot of the time. Fix your heading, throttle up, and get airborne again. Use headphones and look for low stuff, and especially meteorites.

I use DA-throttle on my mouse wheel sometimes, but mostly just boost on an extra mouse button. Oh, and this is KB/mouse control, nothing fancy here. I've never had issues centering under the cargo hatch, but all ships need to push up an extra foot or two. The easiest so far has been my AspX, that thing is great to drive under. (Well, the Eagle is pretty great too, if one needs, say, a cheap ship and wants to scan installations a lot...)

 

[lokvette]

Still waiting on the mobile mining rig like the one we had back in the day, place on planets surface come back and collect the ore. Im running low on a few jumpoinium mats but out of the last 13k Ly Ive done on this trip I have landed on one planet due to the hatred I have for the driving the SRV.

Its not much the utter bordem of it all after the first 5 mins I can handle that as I like to head towards somthing maybe a mountain range but as somone pointed out the constant 180's, and the oh crap im airbone again and there goes me hull. Thankfully I now have a xbox PC controller so its not too bad when it comes to just burning about, but there should be eaiser ways to get mats from planets even it was a bigger SRV, more wieght more space but it could mine for you or at least drop a mining rig that as said you could back to a few days later, be cool to find a few planets that have what you need drop off the rig do some local scouting come back and carry on your way.

Sorry sort of went off track there.

 

[b101uk]

the SRV is much easer to use if you have its functions bound to a joystick with a twist axis.

as your twist/yaw dose SRV steering, the pitch and roll do attitude, and up on the POV-Hat dose the thruster, you can then have the other triggers and buttons on top of the stick configured much like your ship for firing and targeting, in essence its all one hand function bar throttle.

for throttle I just use mouse button 1 and 2 as I do in ships, which allows you to look around too, but then I do come from a time before WASD, when curser keys and LH mouse use (by RH people) was much more common, given joysticks were about long before gamepads and even mice, so LH mouse use was more logical.


as for going after quantities of specific rare materials, it is often quicker to load an SRV hangar into your DBE/AspE etc and hit a couple of barnacle sites, like Pleiades Sector OI-T C3-7, which has 4 sites (A6 @ -42.77|-21.71)(B3 @ -14.70|140.60)(B4 @ -30.66|-36.37 &@ -19.65|-165.46) which have Zn, Cd, Y, W, V, Mo, Sn, Hg, Po, and there are other Pleiades Sector (LN-S B4-3, on C2 @ 36.57|-42.10 & C3 @ -13.16|-54.35) which have V, As, Cd, Nb, Y, Ge, Sn, Te, you can then also on the way back hit Dav's Hope in Hyades Sector DR-V C2-23 on planet A5 @ 44.82|-31.39 for other items of use in engineering (other than data)

 

[Ralph Vargr]

If it's mats you want, you can get all the elements up to grade 4, except Yttrium, via mining. Consistently too, if you know where to look. Check out testing of mining for materials.

Have done so, Lizard, and you have provided good information on where to find them. Thanks!

 

[Ralph Vargr]

I like it mostly. Sure, I spin out. Here's what you do:

• Don't use throttle for full speed maneuvering, bind a key to forward and backward. Use DA-off, so you have full throttle and zero throttle.
• Look at the heading. When you spin out, just turn back around.
• Ignore anything on the top of the scanner. The cargo is never good enough to justify the time wasted picking up cans, and sometimes it's illegal.
• MOVE. Keep going, try and get metallic meteorites, but just get as many as possible as fast as possible.
• Mode switching zeroes the instance, and new stuff spawns, if you are on a nice flat spot, go across it, and would like to turn around and go back with entirely new spawns.
• 4 pips to engines.

Then, you just get to full speed, and get airborne. Fly as long as you can, and hit with your front wheels, the damage/spinout will be minimized. Stop the wheels in midair, and when you hit, you won't even spin out a lot of the time. Fix your heading, throttle up, and get airborne again. Use headphones and look for low stuff, and especially meteorites.

I use DA-throttle on my mouse wheel sometimes, but mostly just boost on an extra mouse button. Oh, and this is KB/mouse control, nothing fancy here. I've never had issues centering under the cargo hatch, but all ships need to push up an extra foot or two. The easiest so far has been my AspX, that thing is great to drive under. (Well, the Eagle is pretty great too, if one needs, say, a cheap ship and wants to scan installations a lot...)

Hmmmm. This sounds an awful lot like flying your ship (with a proper scanner ) to the target, shooting it with a mining laser, and then opening the cargo bay hatch, so the drones can get it.

My ship flies a *lot* better than the SRV does.

 

[Droid8Apple]

If it takes a lot of time, it get's approved for admittance into the game...

Need 50 Kamitra Cigars? You can get 23 per trip... why not 25?... because that 3rd trip will make the player be in game longer. Need 50 Fujin Tea? Have 5. Wait ten minutes and get 5 more. Travel 150+Ly and drop them off, travel 150 back and get 5... wait 10... get 5 more...

The entire game is set up like "SRV spinning out when you fart too hard from that Lavian Brandy you downed on the way to find a suitable landing spot in the dread of driving the SRV"...

Really it's the only choice they had because there's no sustenance to anything else. So if there weren't an ungodly amount of grind for everything you do nobody would play. That's why if they actually add something fun into the mechanics then people may enjoy playing. And by people I mean everyone not just the people who pretend to enjoy it because that's the less-likely thing to say.

 

[Aussiedroid]

Gawd how I would love NPC SRV drivers! Anything to avoid getting out of the ship.

My motion sickness driving the SRV has reduced since launch, perhaps some conditioning, some improvements in frame rates, but regardless, I always dread going into the SRV. I drive slow these days, may be 10m/s max but still feel crook after 30mins or so.

 

[Teh Smoo]

My SRV experience is best when the wheels aren't touching the ground. Low grav, and flinging myself through the air as far as possible. Eventually, call the ship down for free repairs, resume flying.

A skimmer would make a LOT of sense. Give it more limited guns, and more speed, for harvesting rocks, but no shield?

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

Gawd how I would love NPC SRV drivers! Anything to avoid getting out of the ship.

My motion sickness driving the SRV has reduced since launch, perhaps some conditioning, some improvements in frame rates, but regardless, I always dread going into the SRV. I drive slow these days, may be 10m/s max but still feel crook after 30mins or so.

^^ This. I loathe driving the SUV.

 

[silvrav]

it would be alot less annoying if i didnt spin out on every single bump on low g worlds. and if i could lock on to my ship from anywhere, and not just when im close to it. And if the board ship window wasn't the size of a postage stamp...[/QUOTE]

For some who didn't know, you have an indicator to show when you can board - no need to guess - its where your ship landing gear indicator is.

secondly assign your roll and pitch to your mouse as in your ship...makes a big difference as well

thirdly, pray to FD that they improve the SRV

 

[Kilostream]

Wow! I think I'm the odd one out here - the SRV is my favourite ship!

I love base running and I love surface prospecting - although it is true the SRV does have a propensity to spin you 180 very easily.

You can get better grip by targeting rocky worlds rather than icy ones, and if you go for low g, and select a nice bit of terrain from orbit to deploy the SRV onto, you can travel in these huge, low-height, long-distance jumps/flights - as your engine cap starts to run out of puff, let go to let it recharge as you begin the descent. At this point pick your touchdown point - boost if you're short, stay off the gas if boosting will overshoot you. Maybe a final couple of puffs or roll/pitch adjustments, try matching throttle with speed for smoothest touchdown, and then immediately pick your next takeoff ramp and rinse/repeat.

That probably reads like a lot to do, but it quickly becomes intuitive, and, on rocky worlds at least, I am not frustrated by constantly spinning out anymore (although if I take off or land badly, it can still happen.

Icy worlds are just to be avoided unless you need a specific resource down there though - SRV has way too little grip and way too much power - it needs a snow-driving mode like modern cars do, or perhaps spiked tyres that the ship automatically fits to the SRV if it detects you're deploying SRV onto icy surface, until then, I just enjoy the rocky worlds more.

*edits* Oh yeah, pro-tip if you get a bad takeoff or bounce, and you find you're mid-air but travelling in a different direction to that you're facing, you can effect a yaw control by rolling, pitching, and then rolling back. This is only a fairly coarse adjustment though, so if you're only off just a little bit, it may be as well to pick the least-nasty looking touchdown point, then set a mid-throttle, relax the steering and just ride it out - often it'll stabilise itself. It may also dig in and send you tumbling end-over-end, but that's why you need friends with you, because that stuff's funny when it's happening to someone else!

 

[ExoForce]

Need 50 Kamitra Cigars? You can get 23 per trip... why not 25?... because that 3rd trip will make the player be in game longer.

On Your 3rd trip, that surplus of 19 cigars will increase your rep with the Cancer Lady and save Your time for collecting and rolling low grade mats for reputation. Bring more cargo and increase rep more, earn money for the fuel

The secret of SRV: as soon as starting to lose control or just before touching the ground hard - press brake

 

[Ralph Vargr]

it would be alot less annoying if i didnt spin out on every single bump on low g worlds. and if i could lock on to my ship from anywhere, and not just when im close to it. And if the board ship window wasn't the size of a postage stamp...[/QUOTE]

For some who didn't know, you have an indicator to show when you can board - no need to guess - its where your ship landing gear indicator is.

secondly assign your roll and pitch to your mouse as in your ship...makes a big difference as well

thirdly, pray to FD that they improve the SRV

Know that, have done all that. Hitting that light is like keeping the ILS needles centered in a CAT 5 thunderstorm.

Autodock for the SRV would have devs burnt at the stake.

 

[Para Handy]

It took me ages to board the ship originally, then it was pointed out to me that there was a little light below the fuel gauge which told me when I was in the right place - duhhh!

 

[FrankMurphy]

Funny. I used to drive SCCA events in the day. And, Showroom Stock.

This thing is a pig. Worst sin is getting it back in the ship, after playing "Hunt For Red October".

Yet another example of where Frontier wants someone to spend money on a commander slot, instead of letting the NPC drive.

We have prospector and collection drones, and ship fighters. Don't tell me they can't do it, for gameplay reasons.

They want the money.

I would rather just shoot rocks in my Python.[/QUOTE

The Srv is fine to drive, there is a light and sound to say you're in position Ninja'd above. A little thought into your inputs or change the input device goes a long way.

 

[CMDR Brock Samson]

Hate the SRV.Makes the Mako look like one of the best game vehicles ever.When I hit a tiny rock and do a 180° I feel like headbutting the monitor.