I'm thinking of getting Elite: Dangerous, a big sprawling space sim.

Thinking about it.

Normally I don't need to think much about getting a new game. I know what I like. When something catches my eye, I buy it.

Haven't had time to do much gaming lately and just haven't "felt" it, so haven't really played anything since last fall, but I'm starting to feel the itch for a game I can sink into.

Exploring the cosmos and doing my own thing sounds like fun.

However, the game apparently has a steep learning curve and lots and lots of grinding, so I'm hedging a bit. Not sure if it's for me or not.

I'd be getting it on Xbox, because I'm in front of a monitor all day, so when I unwind, I just want to be on the couch with a controller.

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"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

Those are good thoughts. Maybe.

It is fun, if you're a nerd and can enjoy the subtleties ("tediousness?" of long-range exploration).

More on this later.

Do you have the Xbox One?

If so, you can drastically cut down on the learning curve by buying a HOTAS.

I use my HOTAS (for the PS4) on a breakfast tray from the couch and it is the most comfortable thing to play with that I have found.

I now have over 100 hours, easily, on the game.

The grind is real, but it's easier if you have a goal. Be sure to get Horizons Expansion since that will make everything that the developers have added available to you and you will be able to land on planets and drive around.

There is a new expansion coming out that is going to drastically reduce a lot of the grind (they just finished the Beta today) and allow you to engineer ships in a far easier and far more productive manner. So, you will be coming in at an optimal time.

I personally, love this game.

I get blown away by the size and scope, but even more so, I am taken by the idea of traveling out into space and seeing things that are part of our home galaxy.

But the negatives can be as follows:

1. Boring - How do you get around thousands of light years (abbreviated as ly)?

Well you do a bunch "minor" jumps from one star system to the next.

Most ships that I've seen used for exploration have jump distances in the ~40ly range with some engineered upwards of a little over 50ly. The furthest distance managed for most from Sol (you start near there and the area around it is called The Bubble) is about 65K light years.

There is a "club" of CMDRs that have done this.

But, at 65K light years and say an average of 45ly jump range, that equates to over 1,400 jumps.

A bare minimum of 1 minute real time per jump equates to over a day of constant jumping with no pause to look around. That is the least "fun" type of jump since you may see stuff that you want to explore (that is the purpose for you buying the game, right?) and that takes even more time.

But at its core, a jump consists of looking at a star map and finding your destination. Having your ship plot the route. Push your throttle to full-speed ahead. Fuel scoop the star where you are located. Align yourself with the next star system. Hit the button for a hyper jump. Look at a screen of stars whizzing by for about 20-30 seconds. Boom! Drop out of hyperspace automatically. Fuel scoop as you navigate around the star you landed at and do a "honk" (scan the system for astronomical bodies), hit your throttle, push the button, star at stars whizzing by, land, start over.

Many people will speak of going space mad.

And getting around can be boring af for a lot of people.

I am not trying to talk you out of the purchase, but I cannot stress the travel aspect of the game can wear thin on many people. Most people, probably.

I want you to love this game, but a lot of the cool aspects are far less subtle than the blaring reality of getting around the galaxy is crazy repetition. Unless you don't allow it to be by looking around - which causes the travel to take up a shit ton of time, then.

2. Lifeless - You don't really see other people. You see other people in ships and in space buggies. But the game has no leg movement. Space stations consist of people being represented by pictures and some text.

There is a shit ton of text to read, if you want.

Think of an old text driven game like Might & Magic where everything is static images and text you read and then your mind fills in all the rest. It is kind of like that in a lot of ways.

Coming from games like Destiny, Call of Duty, Witcher, Skyrim, etc., where you have people with moving mouths and actual animated body parts, a lot of people find the desolation of this game very dragging.

3. Interminable - You're in a ship and unless you purposefully use the game camera (I highly recommend that you do), that is all you ever see: The front view out of your ship with different graphics going by depending on your location.

Or, maybe some screens telling you stuff like commodity market pricing, star system mapping, or other things that are not really dramatic unless you get why they are dramatic.

You're sitting in real life. You're character is sitting in the game.

Everyone is sitting all the fucking time.

4. Synonyms for Boring - Look here for every word that is negative about this game: LINK

So, what are the positives?

1. Scope - It is a galaxy worth of space. Our galaxy. Nearly 1-to-1 representation.

2. History - This game has a huge legacy going back to the Commodore 64, if I remember correctly. A lot of that game content is moved forward with this incarnation (a lot is not) and there are many in the community that have been playing since the 80s.

3. Subtleties - The developers hinted at aliens YEARS before they arrived in the game. Just leaving random shit that people may or may not have ever discovered. Who the fuck does that? Not anyone else that I have ever heard of in the gaming industry.

A good 6-8 months prior to the aliens showing up, a CMDR was out exploring when an alien ship flew by him. He had video of it and it is creepy as fuck.

The entire game community was going batshit crazy.

Years before that, there was ruins that people were finding on random planets.

This type of attitude I've never seen in any other game developer.

4. Science - These guys have consulted with NASA and JPL on many aspects. They've "corrected" star systems that we've found have planets to make sure the planets were correct with what we now know.

I very much doubt you will find Earth-like worlds outside the realm of science-fact possible.

Planets and moons occur as they would (and as they do in our limited current knowledge) in reality.

That shit is amazing.

5. Community - I've never been one for community stuff, but I would highly recommend spending some time on their forums (Frontier Dev, that is).

There are people that have authored books about this game - stuff that the game developers have used in the game story. I hope this piques your interest. There is one well-known game author, last year that used an in-game character in open play as a plot for his upcoming book. A book that dealt with a CMDR, after discovering some alien relics (or something) trying to travel back to a home base.

He announced this online and the community dynamics are worth reading HERE.

If you do get the game, there are also benefits of being in the community as expeditions happen on a regular basis, there are resources for POIs (points of interest) scattered across the galaxy. One such expedition that is being organized has over 3,000 participants signing up and is the second iteration of the journey (called Distant Worlds 2) and it does not even start for months.

6. Cross-Platform - Well, not really, but definitely close. Anything you discover on the Xbox, will show up on my map as your CMDR's name on my PS4. And both our discoveries are seen on the PC and vice-versa.

7. Not Boring - Yes, the criticisms of this game are essentially known by using a Thesaurus to find synonyms of the word boring. But the reality is, for me, this game is anything but boring.

If you want combat, you can go that route and many people are very much into combat.

If you want story, there is a ton of background material including a Galactic Newsletter that can be read on your ship's control panel. Newsletters in every populated system.

If you want commerce and politics, there are machinations occurring wherever humans have established a presence. You can pirate people. You can help refugees from war torn systems. You can run illegal goods like Han Solo.

It really is a fucking awesome game. Unlike anything out there. Others may imitate (Eve Online, No Man's Sky, etc.), but really no one comes close to what is offered here. Not that I have seen, at least.

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Pender will beat off to anything....

Awesome! This is really helpful. I had no idea you played! Actually kind of figured this post would go ignored.

Yeah, the tedium concerns me a bit. The idea of having to do 1,400 jumps to reach the furthest people have explored so far is insane (and presumably you need fuel, resources, money, etc., so it's not like you can just devote yourself to pushing those limits without doing other stuff, too).

Same with not having things to interact with or a set story to follow. I love open world games, they are my go-to style (that and strategy games), but I do prefer there to be goals of some sort rather than a pure sandbox.

I can deal with a sandbox, though, if there are cool things to see.

Just exploring and seeing cool interstellar sights sounds really appealing and is part of what I'm looking for. Freedom to zip around and check shit out.

I imagine just having a quick smoke and looking at cool moons and asteroids and planets, mining some shit, buying something new for my ship, then heading for some system no one has been to before. I can dig it.

I'm not sure if it's for me. The idea is for me. The execution may not be.

I'm really leaning towards it, though. I would have my own personal goal, and that would be to travel to distances no one has traveled before and discover some star systems no one has discovered. I don't care about space combat and wouldn't be playing it for that. For me it would be all about being a pioneer.

Did they release the expansion that lets you land a vehicle on some planets and drive around?

If I have beer tonight, who knows. I just make a drunken Amazon purchase.

Then I'll just need to find some smoke.

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"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

I was a little aimless until I found an expedition for a cancer charity that had nearly 600 people participating across all platforms.

I had been doing some money grinding and I bit the bullet and bought my third ship.

An exploration ship.

I wasn't able to engineer it all the way (my jump is only 38.8ly) and I have other issues because I had very little time to do anything fancy. But, I made the starting line a few hours late and then proceeded to complete the way points as best I could.

The end point was a system called Colonia.

A very distant 22K lys from Sol.

But as I added myself to more of the community channels, I came to realize that it was amazing to be part of something like this. An in-game charity drive from a cancer victim.

I am not much of a talker, so I was lurking most of the time. But no one seemed to hold that against me.

It was cool to travel for hours to the next way point and then drop into a specific map coordinate on a tiny moon and seen a bunch of people. Kind of mind-blowing, really.

Since the expedition ended last weekend, I have taken it upon myself to set a solo course to the center of the galaxy, Sagittarius A*, which is a massive black hole (approximately another 20K+ lys from Colonia and nearly 26K lys from Sol).

To do anything close to similar, your grind will be far less than mine - like I said, I had no real purpose for a long while - and would include money grind for ~27 million credits (an easy grind once you get things down), grind for engineering (just the jump engine), and that would be everything.

I would estimate you could easily do this within about 15-30 hours of playing.

That would give you a ship that allowed you free autonomous exploration pretty much anywhere in the galaxy.

There are tons of stories online about people doing oddball stuff in the game (including a YouTube duo that convinced NASA to allow them inside their facilities to help them track down where one of the Voyagers would be in Elite Dangerous - which, if you want, you can track down yourself thanks to their efforts).

NASA actually allowed them access to one of their newest revolutionary telescopes! READ ABOUT THAT HERE

There are tons of stories, like I said, how this game has drawn some of the most interesting tales from our own space industries and scientific communities.

The woman that was the lead for the PS4 community on the expedition is a professional geologist and there were a few other scientists tooling around on the expedition, as well.

I really hope you get this game and that you enjoy it as much as I do.

I game with all these things floating around in my head, so it really cuts that boredom factor way down.

The camera has been fun, too.

The game is beautiful. Really gorgeous and knowing how to use the camera is a must to take advantage of the real striking awesome of the game.

Let me know and I will share things I have found out there from videos, to online radio stations, to forums, to databases you should have handy when flying, etc.

I am amazed these guys have launched every expansion just for the cost of the one season pass. And they continue to let access to every update with just that one purchase (including all the ones that will be happening very soon this year). So, make sure you get it.

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Pender will beat off to anything....

All this talk of community and togetherness sounds horrible.

Whatever happened to going to space to ESCAPE people?

I am disappointed in your good nature and faith in mankind, Pender.

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"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

Oh believe me, there is plenty of that.

If you read about the whole incident where the author had his character running in the open from one spot to another, the EVIL side of the community came out.

And the cancer charity expedition also was hit by the EVIL side of the community.

I played for a long time without any community involvement and after the cancer charity event, I have gone back to being a lone dude playing a lone dude out there in the loneliness of space.

I am the Omega Man of space right now.

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Pender will beat off to anything....

PURCHASED.

Wasn't in stock on Amazon and Gamestop's price was, amazingly, way cheaper anyway, so I ordered there. Didn't get my 2nd day shipping, so it'll be here in about a week.

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"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

I hope you got a HOTAS and that you chose the Legendary Edition.

Mostly, I hope you enjoy the game.

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Pender will beat off to anything....

No way in fucking hell I'm dropping all that money for some fancy controller I'll only use for one game, especially since it looks uncomfortable to use while laying back on the couch, anyway.

But I did get the Legendary Edition, yes. It's the only thing that made sense.

_________________
"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

[YODA VOICE]You will be. You. Will. Be.[/YODA VOICE]

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Pender will beat off to anything....

Got it. Installed it.

No idea when I'll actually have a chance to dive in, however. May be a while. Next book is looming, need to focus.

Plus, if I'm honest, I really want some smoke to play this. That's half the POINT! Pender, do you see and do awesome stuff during whatever initial tutorial / learning curve there is? Is it "safe" for me to learn a bit so I'm comfortable with stuff, then dive in fully when I actually score some?

I'm guessing getting my feet wet for a few hours before playing zonked is probably a good idea, anyway, right?

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"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

Last night I discovered that it's impossible to play this game drunk.

Impossible.

I managed to get no further than the second tutorial bit when I said fuck this noise, I'm watching Netflix.

Will try again sober some other time.

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"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

I really didn't want to harsh your high, but, yes, learn this game sober.



The only real tutorials that you need are the landing one (which you should repeat until you can do it successfully and smooth as butter every time with no hiccups) and the basic combat ones.

The advanced combat involves launching a fighter and a few other things. Things you won't need to know.

Rules:

1. Never Fly Without Rebuy
If you get killed, you have an insurance policy that allows you to rebuy your ship for a % of the overall purchase price and spawn in the last station that you checked into (making exploration dangerous when you've logged days of travel like I have been doing since you lose any scanning data that rewards your long hours of flying aimlessly and scanning planets and stars).

There are infamous stories of noobs buying some of the most expensive ships for hundreds of millions of credits in the game and then wanting to take them out "just for a spin" and ending up getting stuck in the mailslot of a space station, attacked by pirates, etc., and getting destroyed without having the few million credits to rebuy something they just spent weeks or months working towards.

Now, some of them have legitimate claims of game shenanigans and Frontier support is amazingly supportive and giving people their hard-earned credits back if your story to them has any supportive data that your death was unfair (e.g., you got stuck in a mailslot because an NPC ship wedged you - this happens).

But seriously, Frontier is just incredible in their support of their players.

The PS4 can be set to automatically give an option to hit a button and download the previous 15 minutes of video of your game/actions on the PS4 (or more - mine is set to 15 minutes). Not sure if the Xbox does this. But often I will broadcast on Twitch regardless, so it is a good habit to develop.

I never leave space dock without at least 3x the insurance cost in my pocket.

2. If You're Flying, You Better Be Making Credits
Your first ship will have a very tiny cargo hold: Use it.

Use the following EDDB site [LINK] to check your route and commodities market for best buying and selling prices. You can set filters on the single jump calculator that include your current spendable funds, jump range, etc.

The best missions when you start are the Data Boom missions since they are computer data and don't take up your cargo hold space. They also pay pretty well.

Stay in the same area at first since your reputation and allegiance with the local talking heads will increase and you will get paid more and more the higher your standings with all that. I was not told this and it took me a longer time than a lot of other people to acquire the same amount of wealth as they were getting.

Some missions will pay out in a commodity (i.e., "here take my space goat as payment") so make sure to sell it as soon as reasonable as you won't be able to take another mission that might also pay out in a space goat.

Illegal missions can be filtered out, if you want to avoid that feature.

Until you can zip into a station at higher speeds to avoid scans on your ship, I would avoid anything illegal.

Regardless, if your flying from one place to another, you should be making a profit somehow (delivering space beer, transporting data, etc.). Once you get a few hundred thousand credits, you can stop being so anal on this, but even millionaires still abide by this most of the time.

3. Roll The Boards
The missions can sometimes not deliver anything worth your while, so learn to roll the boards.

You'll probably start playing in Solo. If you're sitting in a station and you have no good missions showing up, you can either wait the approx. 10-15 minutes for the board to roll organically, or you can save and exit to the menu. Restart in a different play mode (e.g., from Solo to Open) and that will force the mission board to roll with a whole new spread of available missions.

Optionally, you can try to stack a ton of data and cargo missions this way.

Frontier is getting rid of this soon so take advantage while you are able.

4. The Law Is Harsh
You can and will be blown out of the sky for loitering.

If you're going to do combat, make sure to have clear shots on the bad guys because even one stray bullet can put a bounty on your head. NPC good guys are notorious for flying into the paths of lasers and multicannon fire.

Some fines won't get you killed, but most will.

A 200 credit fine for bumping into a ship can get you killed as quick as it takes you to grab a sip of beer.

6. Use These Sites

EDDB - Elite Dangerous Database LINK
Inara - Elite Dangerous Companion LINK
Coriolis - Elite Dangerous Ship Builder Companion LINK

I would suggest using the ship builder to find a good exploring ship (this build is the one I used as a base goal since it gave me an idea of how many credits I needed to do some serious exploring).

First ship goals? If you're wanting to do cargo runs and kind of explore, the Hauler is your best bet for a first ship (then maybe the Type 6 or a Dback Scout).

If you're looking for a good initial combat ship the Viper MkIV was my first and she is still a favorite of mine since she is built like a hulk but can swing around quick as a pole dancer smelling big money.

Inara has good tracking for Community Goals which can turn some of the best profits early on - but you have to be able to jump there. Most CGs will have an option of 1 combat goal and 1 non-combat goal (like deliver space heroin, porn, and hand lotion to the Keith Richards Station). The non-combat ones usually involve doing some Space Trucking and the EDDB will let you see where you can buy cheap to sell for maximum profit.

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Pender will beat off to anything....

Dude, that is amazing. THANK YOU. That's exceedingly helpful.

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"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

And just for fun (and actual information) these guys did this fun video about shit you probably wouldn't know - many people don't since there is no real how-to manual for this game.

They're also the ones that weaseled their way into NASA.

Very fun channel.

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Pender will beat off to anything....

I was able to dock fairly well in the training mission, once I figured out (well, Googled) how to find where the damn mail slot is on the station.

Then I found that the landing gear just didn't want to deploy with the controller, so I had to go into the right menu screen and deploy them that way.

Landed, then nothing. Whatever shit I was supposed to drop off or do for the NPC lady, I couldn't figure it out. Checked some videos and it looks like dialogue that is supposed to trigger is not triggering. Oh well. Going to try it a few more times anyway so I get comfortable with it.

Frustrating but I can see the potential behind the frustration.

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"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

Docking and landing are the hardest parts of the game.

Some people, my coworker being one of them, always dedicates a spot in their ship for the autodock module. The HOTAS makes it a billion times easier.

People that use controllers often modify them so they can do things easier.

The Frontier forums can be a good resource of information.

Just remember that you only get a set amount of time to land. If you go past that, which is likely you did, you will need to restart the training mission.

Wait until you have to go through the mailslot and then find your landing pad.

One hint for stations is that the opening is always facing the planet it is orbiting.

And you should Google a pad layout map to have handy until you get it fairly memorized.

I look forward to telling you how I spent the first 2.5+ hours of live game smacking my ship into the landing pad on my starting station because I forgot to fill my cargo hold before taking off on my first mission.

Talk about frustrating.



The game is infamously difficult with one of the steepest learning curves out there.

But, it is a nice feeling when you overcome something this difficult.

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Pender will beat off to anything....

This game is fucking impossible. I'm not sure why I'm determined to stick with it. Usually, if a game isn't clicking with me fast I just move on.

But I'm fascinated by this world and the possibilities.

Controls are not intuitive at all.

Did the docking tutorial a few more times and got it down pretty good. The hardest part is often finding your approach. Otherwise, I got it. Or thought I did.

Moved on to the combat tutorial and just hope I never have to fight much in the game, because the combat reminded me of everything I dislike about 'realistic' flight and space sims. Just feels like I'm endlessly circling around hoping to get the enemy in my sights, around and around and around. Interpreting the radar is like reading the Voynich manuscript. I kill the first guy, the second kills me.

Skipped it.

Mining tutorial. Pretty easy, I can see myself doing that.

Moved onto the rover tutorial. That thing is fucking awesome! I know it will get old once you realize there isn't much to see or do on planets, but for now it was fun cruising around in it.

So I started a game, solo play. Figured I'd follow your advice and stay on one system, earn some credits and rep, get a sense for the game world before starting to explore.

Starting to play for real shows you just how useless those tutorials are! It's a totally different ballgame!

Skimmed the various mission boards and such. Lots of info to take in. That's cool. Seems like a deep universe for anyone who wants to get into that aspect of things.

Took off to get my feet wet and earn some creds.

Got pulled into the gravity well of a sun while passing too close by and started to burn up. Tried to access an asteroid belt but it was so close to the sun it wasn't possible. Could not figure out what I should do. Frustrating! Scanned some ships and got intel I could sell. Okay, cool. Let me go turn this data in. Went to fly back to my station, got docking clearance, landed ... but the landing wouldn't register no matter what I did. The computer is beeping like mad but is still all, "nope, you have not landed."

I'm on the ground, mother fucker! On my assigned landing pad! Landing gear down! WTF?

Turned off the game and watched Kurosawa's "Ran."

Will return tonight.

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"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

Yes, it sounds like you had the same "fun" I had when trying my first live landing.

HINT: You need to be facing the correct way. You can tell if you are facing the correct way by the little pop-up map on your holo-HUD. If you turn go forward and your ships goes backwards on the HUD, you're facing the wrong way. They launch you opposite of what you should be when landing.

Your frustration is mirrored across Earth.

I estimate at least 1/3rd of all people that try this game quit at (or before) your current situation.

COMBAT HINT: Make sure your throttle is in the blue. That gives you maximum maneuverability.

SHIP CONTROL HINT: Learn to change your ship's power distribution on the fly (they're tiny pips to the right) for your SYSTEMS, ENGINE, and WEAPONS. Fired your weapons? Better make sure you have max pips in there to re-power them quick. Same with using an engine boost in combat, max engine pips will re-power your engines quicker. Systems runs your shields and other modules.

My current ship is pure exploration with no weapons. So, my distributor is set to engines maximum (I think it is 5 pips max) and systems second priority of pips (4 pips?). Weapons are set to zero pips.

****

I LOVE your stories of frustration.

They're fucking funny as hell since I have been right where you are at.

You had me laughing so hard here at work.

I did not get a HOTAS until I had had the game for about a week (since the game was launched on 27 June and my bday money was used to buy the HOTAS which would have been 3 July). I definitely did not want to spend the $70 on a game I had no idea if I would like.

The frustration levels nearly had me tossing the shit out.

But, the HOTAS did bring my combat and flying skills way up. One advantage the HOTAS has is that it allows for constant access to lateral and vertical thruster power at all times. Something you can't do with a controller.

So when you boost, I can shift part of the boost power to a vertical thrust engine and that helps the ship loop far more tightly than I could ever do with a controller.

Briefly turning off the Flight Assist also allows wild maneuvers that you get when you remove the "airplane" physics of your ship and apply "NASA/JPL" outer space physics to your ship.

I spent a day trying to build my flying skills one time by going into an asteroid field and switch off my FA and boosting around the spinning rocks. It was crazy and I got banged around a lot, but I learned a decent amount and went from being a shit pilot to actually feeling confident in my abilities against bigger and more skilled NPC ships.

I hope you keep trying and find some sort of enjoyment.

If not, I hope you at least keep posting your stories up to the point of quitting.

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Pender will beat off to anything....

Also, this guy posted a 49 minute long video of him trying to land, just so you understand you are not alone.

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Pender will beat off to anything....

Centre of the Galaxy - a Super Massive Black Hole at Sagittarius A*

Got a call from the Beagle Point Expedition leaders asking me to join them after posting about doing some lone wolf stuff and heading to Beagle Point on my own (the furthest point away from Sol and Earth at over 65K light years.

What follows are me along the way to the last way point they were at and then at the way point in a beautiful nebula (The Rose Nebula).

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Pender will beat off to anything....

And a little RPG to go along with the game. Since the new alien download shit will be landing next week, I was inspired to write a tidbit of my character reflecting on her last lesbian conquest before setting out into The Black:

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Pender will beat off to anything....

I docked at a space station.

_________________
"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

I think I love you that much more now.

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Pender will beat off to anything....

I took off from the space station and thought I'd do a close flyby of the nearby planet to see how it looked, maybe even land.

"body exclusion zone hit"

Okay?

Go to Google. Find out what that is. Lame.

Lock in another system so I can see somewhere else. Charge up, start to go. Zip past some ships, so I scan them quick in case that earns you money or something. But that lost my lock on the other system. Oh well.

So I zipped over to another planet instead, one with a symbol on it that made me think maybe I could fly low over it.

I could. Neat. So I flew over some barren terrain for a while. Cool.

Then I went to the nearby asteroids to do some mining. Nothing happened. My lasers didn't work.

Back to Google.

Looks like I need a Refinery module and Mining Laser. Thanks, tutorial, for making it seem like that shit was default on your ship, you asshole.

So now I have to buy that shit but have no way to make any money. I don't qualify for any of the jobs I've seen on the mission boards.

Flying from station to station to check all the different boards sounds like HELL.

Went back to a station and docked -- I did it! -- while being annoyed that the tutorial controls are not the same as the game controls. So that's bothersome. And also the tutorials suck anyway.

I am going to figure out how to make some money so I can start exploring and shit.

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"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

Yeah, don't do that.

Don't forget you can roll the boards.

1. Try getting some missions delivering data (you turn in missions by going to the mission board where you got the mission at the delivery station)
2. If you've scanned planets or stars, try turning in that scanned data at the Cartographers board in the stations (you have to be like 29 light years away from wherever you did the scan to get the credits, but even well-known systems will still pay out some credits)
3. Planets that have a little blue halo on their left side in the System Map are landable and you can tool around in your SRV on them
4. Remember to use the EDDB to haul cargo for profit:

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Pender will beat off to anything....

I am very likely to shift this game into a part-time distraction and move on to something else. I've loving the potential, I'm liking what I've done so far, but the prospect of still having to play another dozen hours just to start to do interesting stuff is wearying.

Still going to keep pecking at it, though. I want it to click with me.

Good to know you have to travel a ways for your scans to have any worth. This fucking game doesn't tell you a goddamn thing!

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"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

Remember that 1/3rd I told you quit over landing?

Another 1/3rd quits over the prospect of not knowing anything or how to even begin to know more.

Remember I said the game was interminable? Annoyingly protracted. Incessant in its meh.



The game is a real bitch.

I am glad you gave it the old college try, but sorry to see you go - even though I understand your need for going.

You'll be missed, CMDR. 07

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Pender will beat off to anything....

If you do get back in the saddle, this guy just recently (17 Feb) rebooted and restarted his game back from zero and he has some very good videos on how to do things right.

Just know he is on a PC, so you can skip the computer settings part and go right for the meat of how to get enough credits right from the go to get out of the starter ship quick.

The videos are quick and to the point, so no blah blah for hours on end.

Part 1 - Quick Money


Part 1.5 - Know Your Shit [winder]


Part 2 - First Mission

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Pender will beat off to anything....

I'll circle back to it, as I'm impressed by its potential, but I need to unwind and relax after a day of having my head in research and writing and shit.

So I've moved over to Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. Had dropped it previously due to a game-ending bug, but I finally found a workaround. Now I am enjoying sailing the sea and building my pirate empire.

And I don't need a PhD to play it!

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"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

I love AC: Black Flag.

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Pender will beat off to anything....

One of the reasons I love this game. This guy is in his moon buggy (SRV) and he actually breaks a planetary orbit on a planet that has an insanely fast orbital period.

Stuck in space, he calls the Fuel Rats, a player organized group that sends out rescue missions across the galaxy to players in need (they do this on their own and get no real benefit for doing so - other than it is cool).

So he calls the Fuel Rats and waits for 2 days until the planet swings back by so the Rat can push his moon buggy into the path of planet so he can land back on the planet surface and continue his attempt at a circumnavigation.

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Pender will beat off to anything....

Geez, Pender, you really will beat off to anything.

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"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric

I have.

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Pender will beat off to anything....

I read about the Fuel Rats today.

Its the sort of thing that makes me want to plunge into the game again. From the outside, stuff like that sounds so amazing.

I just wish the game itself did more to draw me in.

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"Hitler had a pretty good idea there." - Eric