Uncle J's Illustrated yet Incomplete Encycopedia of Useless Stuff (picture/video-heavy)

Jmanis

Jmanis
Updated 23rd October 2020: Megaship Features

Or as I like to call it, "Things you probably didn't realise because you were too busy doing nothing but grinding some FOTM Meta"

As the name suggests, this'll be a semi-regularly updated (and by Semi, I mean mostly if I'm bored, or someone really wants me to do something) with random posts, mostly pictures, about all sorts of things you probably haven't seen or realised existed, which if you had, may lead you to call Elite: Dangerous "Mile-wide, foot-deep", rather than just inch-deep.

And just to be clear, this isn't a guide, this is just a growing post about useless stuff. You won't find:
  • FOTM moneymaking/material grinding metas
  • Exhaustive analysis or guides on obtaining/using some things (People have already done this enough, I don't have much more to add these days)
  • Ship builds, locations of interest.

If there's anything like that in here, it'll be anecdotal at best. This really is just a useless post, and it's incomplete.

It's somewhat inspired by recent forum discussions where I was somewhat incredulous at the idea some people had years in the game and access to "Big Three" ships or even FCs, but had never even seen the war-progress meter, through to not realising you can actually interact with/take samples from the various space life. Usually these things are hidden behind a layer of complexity which gets ignored, because it won't earn you 200m per hour.

Which is kinda sad, because there is a lot of cool and interesting stuff out there, and FD do absolutely nothing to incentivise interactions with it, and the players often do their level best to do nothing but the FOTM meta grind and expect the whole game to unfold from that. But I digress, I'm not here to ramble.

#1: Cargo Canisters
#2: Materials
#3: Megaship Features

Future Possible Posts
Envrionmental Effects
Thargoid Interactions (revisiting an old post of mine)
Surface Installation interactables and effects
Effects of BGS on Cargo, and vice-versa
Megaship/Orbital Installation Interactions and Effects
Anomalies (another revisit)
 
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Jmanis

Jmanis
Cargo Canisters!

There's a bunch of them in the game, and they vary based on species and, at least for human stuff, function. There's a lot of cool detail on them too. So, here's all the different ones I'm aware of in the game.

Human Canisters
Available everywhere, because humans, but there's actually quite a few different ones out there besides ol' bluey. So let's have a look.

Standard Canister
You should all be familiar with this one, so I won't labour on. It's the standard can for most cargo out there

Standard Canister.png

Fluid Canister
Did you know there were different canisters for carrying fluids? Took me a few months to realise this too, but there is!
Fluid Canister.png

Black Box
Everyone's favourite salvage item, the black box. Actually has quite a lot of detail on it (I believe it also emits a morse SOS? I forgot to listen closely).
Black Box.png

Hazardous Can
As it says on the label, this bad boy transports hazardous cargo, so things like Biowaste, Toxic Waste, Chemical Waste. If it's Toxic Waste, it also comes with a nifty brown-green gas cloud around it.
Hazardous Canister 2.png

Hazardous Canister 3.png

Escape Pod
Whether it's damaged or not, it's the Thargoid's favourite thing to gobble up for reasons unknown.
Damaged Escape Pod 3.png

Damaged Escape Pod 2.png

Surface Mineral Deposit
If you pop a surface miner, these pop out in lieu of a pre-canned piece of mineral. Once you scoop it though, if you jet it it's just a regular can.
epbBr1G.png

Ice Mining Fragment
Spawns when mining Icy Asteroids.
kwA4ASN.png

Guardian Canisters
Less canisters, more just "Objects", these are all the Guardian things. I put a distant shot of a Guardian Key, because it's just a Relic, but with a giant glowing blue cloud around it.

I won't add descriptions, since they'll all be "Guardian Orb: An orb!"... though I'll note they glow when you get close to them.


Ancient Relic.png
Guardian Relic 2.png
dmVD4dY.png
9XKViiN.png
POb2mgv.png
TBNqYYF.png
Wuc3GtS.png
mJJ7F5B.png
P5Y0Ipt.png
wJ31lvT.png
Rdy7kYB.png

Thargoid Cans
Again, not really "cans", though one is... this is more just Thargoid "stuff". These will have descriptions though.

Thargoid Can
Generic Thargoid Can, usually either a tissue sample from an interceptor/scout, or from Resin/Tech Samples/Biological Components
0WPbVkN.png
iVxuUzU.png
IeFkexh.png

Thargoid Heart
Wibbly wobbly Thargoid Heart, fresh from the interceptor. This also glows in the dark.
sVqg6l4.png
mA6cE5k.png
78ovnmC.png
jou9ypp.png

Meta Alloy
Thargoid candy. They can't get enough of these things! Note, if you scoop it and eject it, it turns into a regular human can, coz apparently we like these things too.
SrbyTpb.png

Thargoid Sensor
Ol matey from years ago, the original UA bomber. Lights up yellow when transmitting it's morse signal.
xzwvcs9.png

Thargoid Probe
It's much rarer, but far less attractive sibling, does that cool emp blast if you disco-scan it. Also lights up when it's doing it's octal signal.
FXtjFja.png

Thargoid Link
Common as muck in the Thargoid Structures, these are the ones you can use to pinpoint locations of other structures (though really only useful pre-FSS)
mlVSNX1.png
czoYO60.png
 

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Jmanis

Jmanis
Materials!

So, Materials, that thing people seem to like to grind for, also have their own, sometimes unique graphics too.

Note: This post is still under construction. I'll try to get shots of the various "bits" you get from the different geo/bio sites, though these are the ones I have to hand.

Human Materials!
I haven't got them all yet... there's a few, but they're common across a lot of different types of materials. This is an incomplete section.
Heat Conduction Wiring.png
Crystal Shard.png
Kinda looks like three crystal shards stuck together.
Ed1bWON.png
Manticore getting their name in the spotlight again.
sasoucU.png
Yes, even "encoded data" can drop.
jFnhZR3.png

Guardian Materials
Various baubles and trinkets salvaged from merciless slaying of Guardian Structures... and Sentinels.
7ms7HBg.png
qCuuAgr.png
mX6xxWF.png
xaUd0hP.png
o6hRMoo.png

Thargoid Materials
You guessed it, Thargoid goop. Various bits and bobs from interceptors/scouts. I plan to get better shots of these, they're just hard to do in the middle of a bunfight with an Interceptor.
2KgVU5g.png
Sv31pJs.png
Tharg Weapon Parts.png
td0tqBY.png
90ADWmp.png
 
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Northpin

Northpin
I sometime scoop all those and i'm quite familiar with them.
The only part i have never tackled yet is viziting a thargoid structure. Someday...

Try to take a really close screenshot with a destroyed Scout fragment... now those are really interesting...
 

Lightspeed

Lightspeed
Jmanis said:
Or as I like to call it, "Things you probably didn't realise because you were too busy doing nothing but grinding some FOTM Meta"

As the name suggests, this'll be a semi-regularly updated (and by Semi, I mean mostly if I'm bored, or someone really wants me to do something) with random posts, mostly pictures, about all sorts of things you probably haven't seen or realised existed, which if you had, may lead you to call Elite: Dangerous "Mile-wide, foot-deep", rather than just inch-deep.

And just to be clear, this isn't a guide, this is just a growing post about useless stuff. You won't find:
  • FOTM moneymaking/material grinding metas
  • Exhaustive analysis or guides on obtaining/using some things (People have already done this enough, I don't have much more to add these days)
  • Ship builds, locations of interest.

If there's anything like that in here, it'll be anecdotal at best. This really is just a useless post, and it's incomplete.

It's somewhat inspired by recent forum discussions where I was somewhat incredulous at the idea some people had years in the game and access to "Big Three" ships or even FCs, but had never even seen the war-progress meter, through to not realising you can actually interact with/take samples from the various space life. Usually these things are hidden behind a layer of complexity which gets ignored, because it won't earn you 200m per hour.

Which is kinda sad, because there is a lot of cool and interesting stuff out there, and FD do absolutely nothing to incentivise interactions with it, and the players often do their level best to do nothing but the FOTM meta grind and expect the whole game to unfold from that. But I digress, I'm not here to ramble.

#1: Cargo Canisters
#2: Materials

Future Possible Posts
Envrionmental Effects
Thargoid Interactions (revisiting an old post of mine)
Surface Installation interactables and effects
Effects of BGS on Cargo, and vice-versa
Megaship/Orbital Installation Interactions and Effects
Anomalies (another revisit)
Click to expand...
Beacons? Data beacons, tourist beacons .... any other beacons .... does anyone smell bacon? :D
 

Drelthar

Drelthar
Jmanis said:
Or as I like to call it, "Things you probably didn't realise because you were too busy doing nothing but grinding some FOTM Meta"

As the name suggests, this'll be a semi-regularly updated (and by Semi, I mean mostly if I'm bored, or someone really wants me to do something) with random posts, mostly pictures, about all sorts of things you probably haven't seen or realised existed, which if you had, may lead you to call Elite: Dangerous "Mile-wide, foot-deep", rather than just inch-deep.

And just to be clear, this isn't a guide, this is just a growing post about useless stuff. You won't find:
  • FOTM moneymaking/material grinding metas
  • Exhaustive analysis or guides on obtaining/using some things (People have already done this enough, I don't have much more to add these days)
  • Ship builds, locations of interest.

If there's anything like that in here, it'll be anecdotal at best. This really is just a useless post, and it's incomplete.

It's somewhat inspired by recent forum discussions where I was somewhat incredulous at the idea some people had years in the game and access to "Big Three" ships or even FCs, but had never even seen the war-progress meter, through to not realising you can actually interact with/take samples from the various space life. Usually these things are hidden behind a layer of complexity which gets ignored, because it won't earn you 200m per hour.

Which is kinda sad, because there is a lot of cool and interesting stuff out there, and FD do absolutely nothing to incentivise interactions with it, and the players often do their level best to do nothing but the FOTM meta grind and expect the whole game to unfold from that. But I digress, I'm not here to ramble.

#1: Cargo Canisters
#2: Materials

Future Possible Posts
Envrionmental Effects
Thargoid Interactions (revisiting an old post of mine)
Surface Installation interactables and effects
Effects of BGS on Cargo, and vice-versa
Megaship/Orbital Installation Interactions and Effects
Anomalies (another revisit)
Click to expand...

Now this is a cool thread

Watched.

(I was one of those people who had never really seen - or taken notice of - the war progress meter. I just never cared about a faction enough I guess)
 
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Jmanis

Jmanis
Megaship Features!

Ok, so we all look over Megaships because looting their cargo holds is still broken, except maybe for the scenarios they spawn because they're cool, and when a CG needs us to enslave "rescue" the escape pods. There's a whole bunch of different types of Megaships, but this post isn't covering that.

Instead, it's taking a closer look at megaship features, the various "bits" they have and interactions with those bits (and maybe a mini-rant about how they're totally under-utilised, depending on my mood at the end). I might do another post detailing the different megaship types later, but I'm certain someone's already done this before.

Limpet Docking Port
Most things that can be hacked/hatch broken will have one of these bad boys on them. The limpet docks at the little red circle and does it's thing. It's kinda cool that it does this, and doesn't just blat onto a random point on the target.
sdizAtb.png

Power Capacitors
The spammiest thing you'll see in your contacts panel once you scan an active megaship. Blowing these up by colliding with them will do some serious heat damage (see video), but taking them down doesn't really do much unless you have an active scenario to assault the megaship and take out the power capacitors. In this case, taking them out is one of the potential objectives.

There's two flavours, a small one and a big one, though they both blow up the same.
sKBLuxU.png

TpBl6yz.png

dmCtPwz.png

Automated Defence Turrets
Invulnerable turrets which attack you if you attack the megaship. There's missions to disable these, and you can disable them yourself if you feel the need to, but the only way to do it without drawing hostility is to collide with the generator (which is kinda cheesy anyway)
OS5bbgS.png


Two Defence Generator Variants
asAQqQE.png

rnITvn5.png


And disabled versions of the defence denerators... note they go from nice blue to red.
DXJFUUb.png

GQqB7MR.png

Cargo Hatches
As it says on the can. Cargo Holds for Megaships. You can loot these without getting crimes reported if you have silent running engaged, but the cargo will still be marked as stolen.

Oh yeah, and they're broken. The video will show how broken they are... the cans are meant to jet out... instead they just stick inside the cargo hold and are unreachable. GG.

You can see in the video, my actions summon the authorities, but they don't actually harm/scan me coz I have silent running on, and I don't get a bounty.
pWUrLNt.png

Fighter Bays
Again, as it is on the can. I've never actually seen fighters launch from these (let me know if you have!)... but you can disable them and prevent more ships from launching (I guess?)
K3PA2qP.png

Hackable Data Transmitters
Engineering Data collection-lite. These points can be hacked with recon limpets to get engineering data. This is usually a crime, but if you put on silent running, you wont get fine/bounties. Note, occasionally the data will also jettison as a material can to be scooped up (see the materials post for what this looks like).
AWATt8x.png

Hackable Comms Arrays
Bigger version of the hackable data transmitter, these have two points you need to access with recon limpets before you get data rewards. Note, as you hack each one, some data will also "jettison" as canisters, and you can scoop it up.

Same rules apply, unless you're silent running, expect to get a fine/bounty and trouble from the cops.
Remxoou.png

rmmNFsI.png

4imy8hF.png

XzfgfmY.png

Ship Log Uplink
These beacons can be scanned with the data link scanner without causing any offence. For the procedural megaships, they usually give back a list of destinations the megaship intends to fly to week to week.

For other Megaships, the uplinks can give nothing, narrative, or other interesting bits of information. Particularly the deep space megaships & sleeper ships give interesting voice-acted logs.

yE6OJQS.png

Hull Breaches
If you ever come across a damaged megaship, you'll oftentimes find them with hull breaches. These can be repaired with repair limpets, though there's actually no reason to unless you have an active scenario to do so (kinda like destroying power capacitors, no reason to unless you have an active scenario).

Note, doing this to ones damaged by Thargoids can (and usually does) trigger an Interceptor to jump in, which will be decidedly unhappy with you. Stay frosty.

Active Hull Breach
sQbQNUb.png


Repaired Hull Breach
wRVnVrT.png

Escape Hatches
Most megaships have escape hatches (some cargo variants don't!), but only escape hatches on damaged ships can be interacted with. Basically these are here to allow you to free escape pods from stricken megaships. I've never really understood what rubbish escape hatch system doesn't actually eject the escape pods from the stricken ship, requiring someone to essentially "hijack" them out... but whatever. Let's pretend there's a systemic design fault...or at least being stuck in the megaship is better than being sucked up by a Thargoid.

Like the Hull Breach, cracking these if the ship is attacked by Thargoids is likely to trigger an inty to jump in, so be warned!

The rescue bay on an undamaged megaship
O8FZfSM.png

And that's it!
In my opinion, there's some primo mechanics just waiting to have game activities wrapped around them here, especially when you consider the labyrinthian design of some of the orbital installations, which will be the focus of my next post.

The fact that so much effort goes into the detailing and functionality of these things, only for it to be really relegated to a "flavour" or "roleplay" function is pretty tragic. But it even falls short of that function... since, say, rescuing escape pods, really just boils down to credits in the pocket.

I mean, imagine something like this. You find a damaged megaship at a Distress Call (Threat 5) USS, engaged with a stolen Pirate Farragut. You get a scenario to rescue people from the escape pods. As you scoop the last pod up, one of the occupants tells you "Hey, if you can, hack into our comms array, it'll have picked up data on the location these pirate scumbags came from". As you finish hacking the comms array, the Pirate Farragut flees, and a mission to hunt down and rout the pirates pops up in your inbox.

You drop off the escape pods, refit to your best warship and fly out to a USS in a different system... there you find the farragut and a handful of pirate vessels. In jump some local security forces, and you get a scenario to help assault the Farragut, or turncoat and defend the pirates. Either option gives a neat 30-50m credit reward for your efforts on success.

Eh... hopes and dreams.

PS. If I've missed some interactive bit of megaships, feel free to let me know. Note I haven't gone into detail with scenarios, that's probably a dedicated post in it's own right.
 
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BL1P

BL1P
Brilliant stuff m8 but...
You missed out the Hackable Security Doors.
You can open them and they have secrete stuff inside the locked tunnels :)

EDIT : Oh wait thats installations and you did mega-ships my mistake !
 

Jmanis

Jmanis
BL1P said:
Brilliant stuff m8 but...
You missed out the Hackable Security Doors.
You can open them and they have secrete stuff inside the locked tunnels :)

EDIT : Oh wait thats installations and you did mega-ships my mistake !
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's coming up next :)

EDIT: Of course, there may be some recycled content... unsure if I'll just copy-pasta the relevant sections or just say "Read megaships", but there's quite a few things that are unique, especially those tunnels. Again, absolutely mint mechanics sitting on the sidelines, but I'll do that later :)
 
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