Newcomer / Intro What are you up to?

As I have understood it until now, combat rank depends on the number of kills you make. As you progress you stop being rewarded for killing ships far below your rank.

In the Wiki there's a nice little table that shows how many "points" you get for each kill, based on your rank and the rank of the enemy:


According to this, since I'm rated Dangerous, I should not get credit for anything below Competent, and only a tiny bit for Competent.

But, from my experience this week with my T-10 experiment, this appears to be wrong!

I've been hanging out in the Low RES, killing lots and lots of ships for massacre missions, but they are low-ranked. I've seen nothing above Competent, and Competent is very, very rare. It's mostly Harmless thru Novice in there.

And yet, my combat rank has been going up steadily (I was about 30% into Dangerous at the beginning of the week, and I'm now 43%). And I even have a fighter pilot with me, who supposedly takes half my experience.

So...I'm mystified by this. It appears that the Wiki, which I have always believed, is wrong? Hmmm.
isn't it something to do with the massacre missions? I'm sure I read somewhere that if you take elite massacre missions any kill is awarded as elite (or something to that effect)? did I dream that??
 
Do the cosmo cams make Elite better? I assume they are “soft return”, so the stick doesn’t spring back to the centre as soon as you let it go?
There's two things you can change in these bases:
  • the force of the springs (low and medium are included, hard has to be bought as extra)
  • the shape of "force curve", that's the cams

The regular (default) flight sim cams will show an increase in force the further you pull the stick from the neutral position. The CosmoSim cams have a flat profile, the resetting force will be the same pretty much all over the range - but the stick will always pull back into the neutral position. The "weak indent" has a weak lock to the center position, the "no indent" is supposed to have no lock to the center position - these may be better for full FAOff, but neither do I have these cams nor am I usually flying FAOff.

So, the stick will always pull to the center position (unless you remove the springs completely, I'd guess), but the choice of spring and cams will influence how it will pull back.
 
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Thanks both :)

So the war-bird base can work with just being placed on the desk / flat surface without having to be screwed in place, or needing to use the Virpil mount? That is very good news, that would work better for me like that. I can see a point at which I get a sim chair set up, but that time is not just yet, so having it be stable enough just on it’s base would be great.

Do the cosmo cams make Elite better? I assume they are “soft return”, so the stick doesn’t spring back to the centre as soon as you let it go? I tend to fly actively, and with FA off, so I’m not sure if a soft return would be good for that or not. I also like dabbling with flight sims (not MSFS 2020 just yet though, I am waiting until 30 series cards become more available for that!), so maybe the standard cams might work better for me?

I very much appreciate any and all comments and advice :)
Yes, it just sits on the desk using the baseplate that comes in the box. You can see the mounting holes on the baseplate if you prefer or you can mount the box as Ashnak has. Excuse the mess!

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Yes, it just sits on the desk using the baseplate that comes in the box. You can see the mounting holes on the baseplate if you prefer or you can mount the box as Ashnak has. Excuse the mess!
Smashing, thank you :)

That gives a sense of scale of the base, which the official website lacks altogether. I can see how it would be stable just sat on a flat surface with it being that size.

The Virpil stick / base seems to be very configurable, and extremely well designed from what I can see. The software looks like it might take some time to configure, but again, the flexibility and precision of it is evident from the manuals.

I take it from reading some other articles that Elite doesn’t recognise more than 32 buttons per device, so the Virpil software has a workaround which presents the Constellation buttons as multiple 32 button devices to Elite?

I have this feeling that this months pay is going to have a chunk of it headed in the direction of Virpil 😅

That’s a lovely looking desk, by the way. I’m envious!
 
Smashing, thank you :)

That gives a sense of scale of the base, which the official website lacks altogether. I can see how it would be stable just sat on a flat surface with it being that size.

The Virpil stick / base seems to be very configurable, and extremely well designed from what I can see. The software looks like it might take some time to configure, but again, the flexibility and precision of it is evident from the manuals.

I take it from reading some other articles that Elite doesn’t recognise more than 32 buttons per device, so the Virpil software has a workaround which presents the Constellation buttons as multiple 32 button devices to Elite?

I have this feeling that this months pay is going to have a chunk of it headed in the direction of Virpil 😅

That’s a lovely looking desk, by the way. I’m envious!
I’m afraid I’m very lazy when it comes to the software and custom curves, possibly a little dim too but if I can manage it then I think quite literally anyone can. I may need to delve into it to look at the multiple button workaround but between the stick, the throttle and the few remaining voice commands I don’t have anything missing.

I‘m glad you mentioned scale because it is big. I use the pull outs from the desk to rest my elbows on and whilst it felt enormous at first you quickly get used to it. You can just make out the adjustable palm rest which is excellent for fine tuning hand position.

The desk is my father in-laws old desk from his days in Banking. It was beautiful but it needs new leather, pointless whlist I’m using it for Elite and my work....but maybe one day.
 
That’s still a fruity little number, especially with the fighter bay! It certainly dishes out a good deal of damage. I’d think twice about tackling a Krait I saw coming for me with that outfit, it’s a bit of a beast for a multi-role :)

The only things I could suggest to tweak it would be:

Swap the multi-canons for frag canons, G5 double shot with screening shell. That will mangle your opponents armour much faster, though you will have to get closer in to take advantage.

If you wanted to leave behind the SRV bay and 6E cargo rack and swap them out for module and hull reinforcement for the duration of your mission, you’ll find it more survivable as well. I have a variety of different modules stored in the station where I keep my Krait to do exactly this sort of thing,

You’ll be vulnerable to missiles too. Normally, they don’t really pose a problem, but several hitting at once is going to spoil your day, Swapping a shield booster for a point defence will avoid this. In the heat of battle, I often don’t even notice missiles are inbound until the PD goes off 😅

Aside from the build, I’d highly recommend getting comfortable with FA off turns; you don‘t have to fly FA off all the time, just use it judiciously to execute much tighter turns at the end of a run. The ship will turn much better and get you back on target more rapidly, which can often result in an un-opposed strafe of their hull in full. It’s also very useful for positioning to rake them with the frag canons after getting them with the beams on the run in. It is also incredibly good satisfying fun :)

Your fighter should be able to give you suitable cover to take some of the heat off from the wingmen whilst you are doing it :)
I have tried G5 Rails, Bursts, Frags, Packhounds on this build but those parts are all sitting in storage now. I just have to admit I suck at combat. Debating if I want to rig up a Conda or a Corvette now to do these Elite Wing threat level 6 missions.
 
And yet, my combat rank has been going up steadily (I was about 30% into Dangerous at the beginning of the week, and I'm now 43%). And I even have a fighter pilot with me, who supposedly takes half my experience.

So...I'm mystified by this. It appears that the Wiki, which I have always believed, is wrong? Hmmm.

Does that overpaid scum crew member take half your experience regardless of whether you deploy the fighter?
 
Does that overpaid scum crew member take half your experience regardless of whether you deploy the fighter?
If you bring him/her along, that's all. If you leave them at the station, then no.
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I was in the Alpha today, learning how to use the new exploration suit and whatnot.

It's looking reasonably good, except for the scanner mini-game which needs to be removed and never spoken of again.

I managed to get a 'first logged' of this weird plant, and that also gave me a "Visited By" tag on the planet, which is what you get for first footfall apparently.

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I think my feelings on arriving at the crystal shard sites have been somewhat impacted by my walk yesterday with a local friend, a computer games designer. We discussed whether or not grinding exists, it does.
PS. I chuckled at the above comments on the sampling mini game.
 
I think my feelings on arriving at the crystal shard sites have been somewhat impacted by my walk yesterday with a local friend, a computer games designer. We discussed whether or not grinding exists, it does.
PS. I chuckled at the above comments on the sampling mini game.
It would almost make some sort of sense if you were cracking a combination lock on a safe and had a time limit.
 
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