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Honestly, I only understand mining and how to steal wanted kills from NPC's.

Man...the more and more I read about this game the more I want to get involved in it.

How's combat? Clunky? Played better with actual flight controls? Lawl?

So, I've gotten so into this game I actually want to get a joystick.

So, since I've not owned a joystick since playing Commanche Gold 15-20 years ago, I will be needing some advice.

Any tips/first hand experience with a good midrange joystick? Let's say, 30-100 dollar range.

Edit: So, just did my first mining run in the Cobra MK3. A full cargo hold netted me about 275k. Mining platinum paladium and gold. Oh, and an additional 80k from blowing up pirates who thought they could steal my gak.

How big is your hold, and how long did it take? I might need to think about trying some other income method. I've been bounty hunting since release and I don't see too much money from it.

To add insult to injury, I haven't hit expert yet despite 600+ bounties claimed.

Playing M+KB at the moment.

I'm using Railguns (class 2 on the Cobra, might as well use the extra power the Cobra gets over the Viper), but the expense makes me want to swap them out... I don't know what to put as a secondary weapon yet.

I recently got a "Cyborg F.L.Y 5" joystick for £50, new.
It has 12 buttons and a throttle.
Docking is so much easier now, as the hat handles up/down and side-slide thrusters.
Flying is odd, as the default stick functions are dive and roll, being more like actual aircraft, I assume. Twisting the stick handles horizontal turns.

 Skinnereal wrote:
I recently got a "Cyborg F.L.Y 5" joystick for £50, new.
It has 12 buttons and a throttle.
Docking is so much easier now, as the hat handles up/down and side-slide thrusters.
Flying is odd, as the default stick functions are dive and roll, being more like actual aircraft, I assume. Twisting the stick handles horizontal turns.

Well, that should all be rebind-able though.

And Daba, my hold is 18 tons (though I recently downgraded it to 16 to get an interdictor)

Just do the math, though, Platinum sells for 19,5k in Cleve hub (erivate system) Paladium for 14,5 en gold for 9,5. Also so far Cleve Hub has been my main home base where I always park. I mostly mine the astaroid belts in the LHS 3447 system since they constantly get checked by the feds which keeps pirates away.

Hmm, I never did any mining but I might give it a go, on a second ship maybe. My spare Adder is up in Alliance space though, away from my normal area (around the Fed/Empire border side of Achenar).

I might try my hand in trading. I have enough money to get a Type-6, some upgrades and capital to start trading. The question is finding good routes. I've mainly done rare trading when heading to Alliance space to redeem vouchers there so might as well make some cash with the rares.

WELP, lost 700k by blowing up while carrying over 40 tons of gold.

FML

Did you at least have enough money to cover the insurance expenditure on your ship + enough to do start trading again?

Parked my beloved Cobra to pick up a Type 6 to see the world of commerce. Might go back to do some big game hunting with it, if this gets a bit too humdrum in the transporter.

Agreed, its also hard to feel like you're really accomplishing anything until you can start moving more than 20T of cargo per load, even then it doesn't really feel worthwhile. Making the jump from hauler (22T) to Cobra (40T or more without shields) was huge. Personally I think there needs to be a freighter type that is in between the hauler and Cobra (and by extension the Type 6 which is a massive increase in capability over the Cobra itself, and an even more massive increase over the Hauler). There should also be more options in between the Cobra/Type 6 and the Asp. Thats a pretty big jump in costs

I really love this game so far, but I just can't see how mining is profitable. I tried it, but it just takes so much time to collect all those little pieces and refine them. The prices for the refined minerals are just not high enough considering the time you put into them.
Guess I am back to stealing other people's stuff.
Yar har fiddle-dee-dee... being a pirate is all right to be!


Can't wait for when they will add explorable planets, stations and ships etc.

chaos0xomega wrote:
Did you at least have enough money to cover the insurance expenditure on your ship + enough to do start trading again?

Oh yeah, I was on my way to 2mil. Insurance was only 70k for my 1,2mil Cobra. Got most of the money back in about an hours worth of space trucking and then went on to buy myself a Lakon Type-6 without selling my Cobra. Though, will probably kick the cobra to the curb and get a viper for my combat needs.

My type 6 doesn't even have weapons. Just 88 cargo bays, fattest FSD and power coupling. SPACE TRUCK.

Is it possible to convoy in this game? Or is it more each merchant for themselves?

 AdeptSister wrote:
Is it possible to convoy in this game? Or is it more each merchant for themselves?

Not yet. AFAIK they will be implementing a squad system that will allow synced jumps and such. They are still implementing most of the social features of this game.

 Soladrin wrote:

chaos0xomega wrote:
Did you at least have enough money to cover the insurance expenditure on your ship + enough to do start trading again?

Oh yeah, I was on my way to 2mil. Insurance was only 70k for my 1,2mil Cobra. Got most of the money back in about an hours worth of space trucking and then went on to buy myself a Lakon Type-6 without selling my Cobra. Though, will probably kick the cobra to the curb and get a viper for my combat needs.

My type 6 doesn't even have weapons. Just 88 cargo bays, fattest FSD and power coupling. SPACE TRUCK.

You're living my dream....

I would keep the Cobra though, but then again Im not quite sold on the Viper. It looks cool but it seems its too constrained by fuel/energy capacity to really do anything other than fly around locally.

Reading this thread and the official website has piqued my curiosity.

I was once an Eve Online junky, and I'm curious how much this game has in similarity, or if anyone else who plays E: D once played Eve.

Are there character skills that need to be trained, or is it all player skill and acquiring money to progress?

chaos0xomega wrote:

 Soladrin wrote:

chaos0xomega wrote:
Did you at least have enough money to cover the insurance expenditure on your ship + enough to do start trading again?

Oh yeah, I was on my way to 2mil. Insurance was only 70k for my 1,2mil Cobra. Got most of the money back in about an hours worth of space trucking and then went on to buy myself a Lakon Type-6 without selling my Cobra. Though, will probably kick the cobra to the curb and get a viper for my combat needs.

My type 6 doesn't even have weapons. Just 88 cargo bays, fattest FSD and power coupling. SPACE TRUCK.

You're living my dream....

I would keep the Cobra though, but then again Im not quite sold on the Viper. It looks cool but it seems its too constrained by fuel/energy capacity to really do anything other than fly around locally.

The reason I probably won't keep the cobra is because it's as agile as my toilet. The viper is going to be my dedicated combat ship until I can afford a Python.

To Blacksails: It's all player skill and credits.

 Blacksails wrote:
Reading this thread and the official website has piqued my curiosity.

I was once an Eve Online junky, and I'm curious how much this game has in similarity, or if anyone else who plays E: D once played Eve.

Are there character skills that need to be trained, or is it all player skill and acquiring money to progress?

Eve player here. The two games are not the same. Elite is 100% 'twitch' based, the only skills that matter are your own personal skills with a keyboard/mouse or a flight stick.

chaos0xomega wrote:

 Blacksails wrote:
Reading this thread and the official website has piqued my curiosity.

I was once an Eve Online junky, and I'm curious how much this game has in similarity, or if anyone else who plays E: D once played Eve.

Are there character skills that need to be trained, or is it all player skill and acquiring money to progress?

Eve player here. The two games are not the same. Elite is 100% 'twitch' based, the only skills that matter are your own personal skills with a keyboard/mouse or a flight stick.

which is how it should be. Though, there's also quite a bit of micromanagement during combat. Redirecting power to systems, using your side screen to target sub-targets etc.

Also, tip for anyone who finds themselves in a fight with an Anaconda, target the powerplant and the things go down reasonably well. I've killed like 5 in my cobra now. They fetch upwards of 100k for bounties and contracts.

I found the Cobra pretty agile (agile enough anyway), except for the Yaw boosters which seem pretty poor.

The Viper is nippy, but don't expect to get very far in it as it's FSD-challenged.

I'll probably buy back a Viper sometime though, maybe after I've paid off the type-6 I have (about 600-700k left to go). Maybe take it into some warzones.

 Daba wrote:
I found the Cobra pretty agile (agile enough anyway), except for the Yaw boosters which seem pretty poor.

The Viper is nippy, but don't expect to get very far in it as it's FSD-challenged.

I'll probably buy back a Viper sometime though, maybe after I've paid off the type-6 I have (about 600-700k left to go). Maybe take it into some warzones.

Like I said, it's for combat purposes only, hell, if possible I'll probably even downgrade the FSD if it gives me less mass and energy use. My space truck can jump 22 LY (unladen) anyway.

chaos0xomega wrote:


Eve player here. The two games are not the same. Elite is 100% 'twitch' based, the only skills that matter are your own personal skills with a keyboard/mouse or a flight stick.

Cool, that's the comparison I want to hear.

Is a flight stick recommended, or does M/K work fine?

Looks beautiful from the screenshots. Ships look cool too. Hopefully my laptop can run it.

I do it with M/K and it's certainly doable, that said, I am looking into getting a flight stick because I think it it will be better for combat especially.

The mouse is very precise, but I'm used to it as pitch/roll on mouse was what I played in an old Elite game, and used in Planetside 2 for the fighters.

Problem with flight stick is I'll probably only be happy with a pricy one :s

The best setup I've found in terms of immersion/feel is the Saitek X52, with full throttle control. Think you can get those for £60-70 if you are prepared to buy second hand, around £100 for new but well worth it if you're going to play this game a lot or flight sims.

But, I share a computer with other people - if I want to jump on and off for 30 mins or so, I've started using just a PC controller with the keyboard. Like most analogue controls these days it's remarkably precise. Means I can just throw it to one side if I need to alt-tab because someone else wants to check what their ebay stuff is finishing on..

So, Fer de Lance concept art was revealed in the newsletter.

I want 3.



So, I've decided that the Federation is not my thing and have GTFO'd to Imperial space. I am now getting rich off trading Imperial Slaves. 15m and counting. Also started doing the occasional reputation and rank mission so I'm now at the first rung of the Imperial Ladder. I want to get my hands on a Clipper.

I'll take that. Will it be the smallest ship with a large hardpoint? One can certainly hope...

 Soladrin wrote:
So, Fer de Lance concept art was revealed in the newsletter.

I want 3.



So, I've decided that the Federation is not my thing and have GTFO'd to Imperial space. I am now getting rich off trading Imperial Slaves. 15m and counting. Also started doing the occasional reputation and rank mission so I'm now at the first rung of the Imperial Ladder. I want to get my hands on a Clipper.

Please give me some of your secrets!

I'm busting my ass for even 250k or so at the moment, and that's with a fair amount of time spent studying trade routes.

Also completely given up on reputation, I've done tons of missions for the Imperials and can't seem to get above 'unfriendly' (which I'm assuming is actually lower than the 'neutral' you start on!) Rapidly running out of tenacity, and my finger was hovering over Wasteland 2 today..

Well, all you need to do is find two ports within about 3 jumps of each other where you buy low and sell high to each other. I don't do any trade runs with a profit lower then 1k per ton.

Also, this may help you guys.
http://elitetradingtool.co.uk/
https://cmdr.club/routes/

Oh and this one also helps.

http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Goods

And for those of you who get reputation missions where you need to fetch Combat Enhancers or Personal Weapons. Go to any system that's in Anarchy. They always sell the good stuff.