Elite: Dangerous

[sturmkraehe]

I've never been in Elite series so yesterday I tried "Elite II" with DosBox: damn, the gameplay is really depth. 

The design of those games is amazing compared to most of the current games. Just look at the difference between the original X-COM and the new one.

 

 

 

Hehe, I've played the original on C64!

 

 

 

Edited April 24, 2014 by sturmkraehe

[6S.Manu]

Hehe, I've played the original on C64!

 

 http://bbc.godbolt.org/?disc=elite.ssd&autoboot

[Hoots]

Yep, spent far too much time in front of my bbc micro when it first came out

[TheBlackPenguin]

New newsletter released:

 

http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=dcbf6b86b4b0c7d1c21b73b1e&id=ee05d74c71

 

And an in-game shot of planetary rings like Saturn's:

 

Edited April 26, 2014 by TheBlackPenguin

[6S.Manu]

I would never thought of a complex fuel management in a combat space sim...

 

 

 

MODULE
Every ship has a module within it for handling fuel storage and use across the ships systems colloquially called the Fuel Tank. The module itself has the following properties:

• A Main Tank that can store a specific amount of fuel in an appropriate unit (e.g. tons)
  • This defines the operating time and/or range for a space ship before refueling is necessary
• An Active Fuel Reservoir from which current ship operation draws from
  • Always a standard size in the same unit as the main storage tank (e.g. 1 ton)

NORMAL SHIP OPERATION

• During normal ship operation a small amount of fuel is used continuously based on the demands of the power plant
  • This amount of fuel is always taken from the Active Fuel Reservoir (AFR)
  • The higher the power draw the faster the fuel is used up
  • A single unit of fuel (e.g. 1 ton) will last a significant amount of time (e.g. an hour) under normal operating parameters (e.g. 75% of full power)
• Once the AFR is drained, fuel is diverted from the Main Tank to refill it completely (so long as there is fuel remaining within it)
  • So a AFR with capacity of 1 ton will drain 1 ton of fuel from the Main Tank exactly (ensuring the Main Tank is in whole units at all times)
• If the penultimate ton of fuel is accessed from the main tank to put into the AFR a warning is given to the player making them aware that they only have a single ton left in their main tank for hyperspace jumping with (in addition to the penultimate ton that has just been put into the AFR)
• If the last ton of fuel is accessed from the main tank to put into the AFR a final warning is given to the player indicated they will no longer be able to perform a hyperspace jump
• If the AFR is drained along with the Main Tank the ship turns all modules except Life Support off
  • The player can’t manually turn anything else back on anymore
  • Life support is operating on emergency battery power and can only maintain operation for a limited time (e.g. 15 minutes)
  • After the battery power has gone the ship fully shuts down and the player will asphyxiate and die if they remain on board (in non-ironman mode they would automatically launch the escape pod at this point)

SUPERCRUISE

• Supercruise drains fuel from the AFR at an accelerated rate (e.g. changing the operating time from hours to minutes)
  • Otherwise it’s much like normal ship operation
• So long as fuel can be drained from the Main Tank to refill the AFR supercruise can be maintained
• If no fuel remains in the AFR or Main Tank then supercruise will abort and the player will be unable to use it anymore

HYPERSPACE

• To hyperspace travel the player uses fuel from the Main Tank directly in whole units
• Each whole unit of fuel equates to a jump up to one light year in distance
  • A jump of less than whole number of light years will still consume whole units of fuel (e.g. a jump of 1.5 light years will consume 2 whole units of fuel)
• If the Main Tank is empty the player will be unable to hyperspace jump (even if they have fuel in the AFR)

REFUELING

• Players can refuel their ship at stations and refueling outposts
  • Fuel is always bought in whole units
  • The Main Tank can be refilled separately to the AFR
  • Despite the AFR being able to have less than a whole unit of fuel within it, it is always completely refilled when refueled and the cost is always in whole units of fuel
• Players can refuel their ship by scooping fuel directly from stellar bodies (stars, gas giants, nebulae)
  • The ship must be fitted with a fuel scoop
  • The player uses the fuel scoop to refill their AFR based on how successful they’re doing
    • Rates of refilling is based on player skill and the stellar body in question
  • Once the AFR is 100% filled whilst scooping the entire amount of fuel within it is put into the Main Tank so long as there is room
  • Further scooping will again start to refill the now empty AFR
  • If no room is available in the Main Tank scooping must stop
• Players can acquire fuel via a fuel transfer with another docked ship
  • Players can utilize a distress beacon to signal for any nearby ships to help with refueling
    • The beacon isn’t a guarantee and could in theory bring the player more trouble than they’re currently in with their fuel concerns (but could be the only hope left of rescue)
    • Activating the beacon is a onetime only device that will be renewed upon the next station visit (conveniently prevents misuse and ensures the player is incentivized to dock after such an attempt if the beacon was successful)
  • Regardless of the method used to contact or approach another ship they must first be docked with the other ship successfully
  • The ship can initiate a fuel transfer with the other docked ship through mutual agreement
    • This can be gifted or can be made a part of a trade depending on the interface/comms channels used to initiate the transfer
  • Fuel is transferred in whole units from one ships Main Tank directly into the other ships Main Tank
  • There is no way to transfer fuel from the AFR of one ship to another
  • Once the fuel transfer is complete an empty AFR will automatically refill as per usual with the newly acquired fuel from the Main Tank

TYPES OF FUEL
To add variety and player choice to the fuel mechanic different types of fuel are available to be purchased/scooped/acquired. The following rules apply to different fuel types:

• The default fuel sets the benchmark on which other types of fuel operate; it is considered standard
• Other fuels are either of a lower or higher quality than the standard fuel
  • Lower quality fuel has a penalizing modifier to consumption rates, i.e. if standard fuel will keep a particular power plant running at 75% power for 1 hour, a lower quality fuel with a modifier of +20% consumption would only last 50 minutes
  • Lower quality fuel also has a penalizing distance modifier for hyperspace jumps, i.e. if standard fuel gives a 1 light year jump per unit fuel, a lower quality fuel with a modifier of -50% distance would only jump ½ light year per unit fuel instead
  • Higher quality fuel has a beneficial consumption modifier, i.e. a ship will run for longer on it compared to standard fuel
  • Higher quality fuels also have a beneficial distance modifier, i.e. each unit fuel used in a jump will go further than 1 light year
  • Regardless of quality certain types of fuel may have additional effects or byproducts that need to be dealt with (e.g. irradiated waste that must be stored in empty cargo canisters or risk contaminating the ship and its crew)
• The entire Fuel Tank module can only operate on a single quality level type of fuel
  • The player can acquire fuel of a different quality level to that already in their system but conveniently all fuel is compatible with one another albeit only as efficiently as the lowest quality in the system (i.e. the entire Fuel Tank takes on the quality of the lowest quality fuel within the system)
  • E.g. scooping any fuel higher in quality to that which you have will maintain your fuels current efficiency. Scooping fuel of lower quality than that in the system will lower the quality of everything to the same level as that scooped

MODIFIERS
As described above fuel quality can determine a number of modifiers that affect the performance and/or efficiency of the ship. However these modifiers can be provided by other systems such as the ship hull, drives and hyperspace module. The modifiers are formally described below:

• Consumption Rate - a percentage modifier for altering the base rate of consumption of a fuel during normal use
• Jump distance - a percentage modifier for altering the base jump distance of 1 ly per ton during hyperspace travel
• The modifiers are applied individually to the base values as determined by the fuel quality before being applied (e.g. two sources of -50% jump distance will actually only result in a 75% reduction overall in distance rather than 100%)
• E.g. explorer class ships hulls typically have beneficial modifiers to jump distance and consumption rates opposed to military grade hulls that require more fuel consumption in general to civilian ships

FUEL TANK MALFUNCTIONS
The Fuel Tank is like any other module in the ship (although it’s usually built into the superstructure and is thus typically not upgradable) in that it can suffer damage and malfunctions. These malfunctions are listed below:

• Minor malfunctions:
  • Faulty fuel line - temporarily starves the power plant of fuel thus reducing available power gradually until no power is available (modules turn off in priority order) until the fault fixes itself (variable time limit for the malfunction)
  • AFR fuel leak - temporarily drains more fuel from the AFR than normal as fuel is effectively leaking from the reservoir until resealed automatically (variable time limit for the malfunction)
  • AFR refill fault - temporarily stops the refill process when the AFR is empty resulting in starving the system as in a faulty fuel line malfunction above but can only happen when refilling the AFR (variable time limit to the malfunction)
• Major malfunctions:
  • Main Tank leak - temporarily drains fuel from the main tank over a long period of time before automatically resealing. Whilst draining the Main Tank is considered to have one less whole unit of fuel as what it once had as that unit of fuel is slowly drains away. If that unit of fuel completely drains another whole unit is sacrificed to the malfunction. Once the malfunction is over any partial units of fuel left in the Main Tank will automatically top up the AFR if possible and any further leftovers are lost
  • Main Tank fire - the Main Tank ruptures and ignites in a dangerous inferno completely destroying all units of fuel in the Main Tank (AFR and Reserve Tanks are unaffected). The fire is a separate ship wide malfunction described in another document and this malfunction is really just augmenting it by also having all the fuel in the Main Tank lost to the fire

That's it.

[Skoshi_Tiger]

Things have sure come a long way since my Apple][+

 

My most intense gaming/simulation experience used to look like this. (except it was a green screen only in those days for me )

 

 

Pity the vid didn't have the music!

Edited April 30, 2014 by Skoshi_Tiger

[6S.Manu]

My most intense gaming/simulation experience used to look like this. (except it was a green screen only in those days for me )

 

 

I still can't believe I was flying in a SpitfireMkII in Aviator (1983).

 

Anyway I found out an amazing video of a fight without flight assistance. I've tried to replicate this in my alpha 1.1, but I really suck!

 

 

 

Edited April 30, 2014 by 6S.Manu

[TheBlackPenguin]

Newsletter #21 here:

 

http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=dcbf6b86b4b0c7d1c21b73b1e&id=cfcdbae60e

[DD_bongodriver]

I might be tempted to upgrade to premium beta, finger is hovering over the buy button.

[DD_fruitbat]

I have it, hoping to get some time tomorrow to give it a proper go, just installed it the other day and had a quick flight.

Edited May 3, 2014 by fruitbat

[DD_Crash]

I might be tempted to upgrade to premium beta, finger is hovering over the buy button.

Go on, you know you want to......Just think in 28 days you could be several light years from Earth

[DD_bongodriver]

Go on, you know you want to......Just think in 28 days you could be several light years from Earth

 

I do......I really really do.........

I have it, hoping to get some time tomorrow to give it a proper go, just installed it the other day and had a quick flight.

 

wait...what?........you have premium beta installed already? or are you an alpha?

[DD_Crash]

If you buy the Premium you can install Alpha 1.1 but it will only see one controller.

[DD_bongodriver]

Purchased.......downloaded.......installing

[steppenwolf]

Newsletter #21 here:

 

http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=dcbf6b86b4b0c7d1c21b73b1e&id=cfcdbae60e

 

Walking around ships and stations, skins and decals...cool!

 

Are Newtonian physics the same as flight assist off?

[6S.Manu]

Purchased.......downloaded.......installing

 

Great. Be aware that TIR is not working correctly in Alpha 1.1. 

 

For everyone with X52Pro: after you have selected the preset on "controls" just use the pinkie button + POV to access the MFDs.

Edited May 3, 2014 by 6S.Manu

[DD_bongodriver]

Great. Be aware that TIR is not working correctly in Alpha 1.1. 

 

For everyone with X52Pro: after you have selected the preset on "controls" just use the pinkie button + POV to access the MFDs.

 

My TIR is consigned to the trashcan since I got an oculus rift, I also use a g940 so there is no preset for me, I hope we get more customisation ability with the beta.

[FlatSpinMan]

How does it run? Is BoS more demanding?

[johncage]

whole thing is moot. their ship design is uninspired basic geometries. one of their ships is literally a trapezoid *shakes head*

[Blooddawn1942]

Very interesting. I totally missed this due to the omnipresence of Star Citizen in the media.

I'm definetly in vor premium Beta next month.

[DD_fruitbat]

How does it run? Is BoS more demanding?

 

Runs better than BoS on my machine.

[6S.Manu]

whole thing is moot. their ship design is uninspired basic geometries. one of their ships is literally a trapezoid *shakes head*

 

You know... it's space. Spaceships don't have to be similar to planes.

 

There's still the Eagle:

 

Anyway my favourite one is the Viper:

Edited May 6, 2014 by 6S.Manu

[=LD=dhyran]

the real premium beta phase will come soon

 

yaah

[Blooddawn1942]

Remembering this precious ancient jewel back from my Amigas days, I´m just one little step away from signing up into premium Beta. I shall purchase it tomorow,,  when I´m sober and ready for the depths of the endless and cold space.

[DD_bongodriver]

I'm gutted, the limitation on controller assignments means I can't set up my g940 with the current single player dogfight, I hope the premium beta fixes that.

[6S.Manu]

Newsletter #22

 

http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=dcbf6b86b4b0c7d1c21b73b1e&id=f72c0f91b2&e=2ad01e917c

Edited May 9, 2014 by 6S.Manu

[Blooddawn1942]

I'm gutted, the limitation on controller assignments means I can't set up my g940 with the current single player dogfight, I hope the premium beta fixes that.

Does this mean I´m not able to set up a whole controller setup consisting of an X52 and throttle quadrant?

By the way, how is the Track IR implemantation??

[DD_bongodriver]

You might be ok with X52 as I think they have a preset for it, I don't have TIR anymore only oculus rift.

[Blooddawn1942]

You might be ok with X52 as I think they have a preset for it, I don't have TIR anymore only oculus rift.

OR?...You lucky bastard!

I will hang on until it´s released to the public in all its glory!

 

Speaking of presets.... not really interested in it. But am I able to set all buttons and sliders to my wishes?

Edited May 9, 2014 by Blooddawn1942

[6S.Manu]

Does this mean I´m not able to set up a whole controller setup consisting of an X52 and throttle quadrant?

By the way, how is the Track IR implemantation??

 

TiR is working since Alpha 2. In A1.1 it's bugged.

 

I don't remember if it's possible to connect two controllers yet. Sure not in A1.1 as Bongo says.

Speaking of presets.... not really interested in it. But am I able to set all buttons and sliders to my wishes?

 

Yes.

[DD_bongodriver]

OR?...You lucky bastard!

 

DK1 with a DK2 on order baby!  ........and an empty bank account

[Blooddawn1942]

@6S.manu: Thanks for clearing things up! Much appreciated!!

 

@Bongodriver: Muuuahahaha!!!   So is mine due to a new Videocard this month!

 

But thanks to Visa, which is going to charge my bank account in june, I will definetly join the Elite tomorrow!

 

See You towarischtsch out in the endless space!!!

[johncage]

You know... it's space. Spaceships don't have to be similar to planes.

 

There's still the Eagle:

 

Anyway my favourite one is the Viper:

 

my problem isn't any resemblance to planes, but rather the various cliche tropes they've adopted. pointless fins for one. lifting body might be acceptable if these are capable of reentry and atmospheric flight.

 

the eagle actually looks worse, it's just like a fighter jet in space. that design makes no sense for a ship operating mostly in space.

 

this is one of their concept designs i thought was original and imaginative, but it seems they changed it into what you saw above:

 

[6S.Manu]

The Eagle it's that way since the former games. Actually it can serve both in space and within atmosphere (the capability to land on planets will be released in an expansion after the release) and it's probably the only ship resembling a jet fighter.

 

Most of the ships are made to land on planets but are still modelled as their counterpart in the former games, when 3D models were really basic. So that's the reason for their shape. Just think about a the space station. 

Edited May 10, 2014 by 6S.Manu

[Blooddawn1942]

Downloading now.... very excited!!!

[Blooddawn1942]

I can´t get track IR get to work properly.

Left and right is inverted and the view always wanders out of the center!

Any ideas somebody?

[6S.Manu]

I can´t get track IR get to work properly.

Left and right is inverted and the view always wanders out of the center!

Any ideas somebody?

 

In Alpha 1.1 (your version) TiR is not working correctly 

 

We have to wait for the Beta (May 30th)... 

Edited May 10, 2014 by 6S.Manu

[DD_fruitbat]

May 30th is when we get the beta proper, at the moment its the old 1.1alpha just as a little bonus while we wait.

[Blooddawn1942]

Ah. Thanks for the info! I thought I´ve been too stupid while struggling with this issue.

Until we receive the beta, I can perfectly live with just snapviews to the monitors.

Another thing is, that I have to plug out my pedals, otherwise my ships rolls and yaws uncontrollable .

Anyone else noticed the same??

[6S.Manu]

Ah. Thanks for the info! I thought I´ve been too stupid while struggling with this issue.

Until we receive the beta, I can perfectly live with just snapviews to the monitors.

Another thing is, that I have to plug out my pedals, otherwise my ships rolls and yaws uncontrollable .

Anyone else noticed the same??

 

Yep. By now only on Device can be used.