Elite : Dangerous

[Lowe]

So, lets discuss Elite : Dangerous.

Are you in the beta? How are you finding it? Found any good trade routes or other tips?

[Splash]

Yep, been in since premium beta (Kickstarter backer, rather than a purchase at beta launch) but have been trying to avoid getting too embroiled (read: have only played for a few hours and generally avoided the videos) as I want to save the experience until it's fully baked. I spend a fair amount of time lurking on their forums, and have been listening to the Lave Radio podcast since launch though - it's great that so many people feel so passionate about the game so long after the originals.

Plus the fact that I'm likely to be one of the younger people still with it since 20 years ago means that my dulled reflexes hopefully won't count against me too much

[Ttaskmaster]

Are you in the beta? How are you finding it? Found any good trade routes or other tips?

Not in beta, but occasionally borrow someone else's.
I prefer to start with the fully finished game, but what little I've seen has fully sold me on it anyway!

Tip: When flying head-on, roll around the target and yaw into it. That's about the best I can think of, although I know some who weren't already aware...

[wasabi]

The bit I havn't really got my head around is how the multiplayer is going to work. Are there going to be ultra-fast kill-em-all types in the game or is there going to be some sort of restriction stopping quick reflex megaplayers slaughtering new starters? Or will noobs have to flee to the backwaters ASAP to avoid them.

I'm quite keen on some sort of possibility of co-operative multiplayer - helping on dangerous trade routes or whatever. Not so sure my skills are up to dealing with player vs player as a big feature of the game...

[kalniel]

The bit I havn't really got my head around is how the multiplayer is going to work. Are there going to be ultra-fast kill-em-all types in the game or is there going to be some sort of restriction stopping quick reflex megaplayers slaughtering new starters? Or will noobs have to flee to the backwaters ASAP to avoid them.

I'm quite keen on some sort of possibility of co-operative multiplayer - helping on dangerous trade routes or whatever. Not so sure my skills are up to dealing with player vs player as a big feature of the game...

So far it'll be that you either play solo, or you play with friends only, or you play open world with the gankers you can expect. There will be in-game bounties that player killers will accrue, to encourage others to kill them in turn, but I doubt that will act as any kind of deterrent, and I presume there'll be some kind of in-game police presence in starter and other capital areas to try and help.

What seems to be missing is any kind of co-operative PvE mode or opt-in PvP. It's probably easier for the devs this way, but it's certainly something that's making me pause on buying in.

[Lowe]

Being done over by pirates has always been part of the Elite world: the fact it's a human makes no difference really. If you're playing as a trader, going unarmed is asking for trouble. There's Police in game and so long as you stick to the safer systems your chances of being attacked drop. Not to mention you can easily make a break for it at the moment, it's difficult to be caught up and killed. That said there's plenty of space out there - if you start to explore the galaxy properly I doubt you'd see another human!

[kalniel]

Being done over by pirates has always been part of the Elite world: the fact it's a human makes no difference really.

Yeah it does - AI pirates are designed to make the game more fun and in a well made game you will only have yourself to blame for getting shot. Griefers play in a way to try and make the game less fun for you at a player and won't hesitate to exploit game mechanics (as opposed to in-game mechanics) to give you the least chance possible.

No doubt there will be plenty of people engaging in fun piracy too, that's fine, it's the people who are only out for their own fun at the expense of others I'm not going to pay money to play 'with'.

[Lowe]

God help you if you ever played the original and fell into Witch Space then! Oh noes the well balanced npc Thargoid griefers!

[Splash]

There are a few game mechanics which are intended to help deal with griefers: firstly the starting areas are high security, and policed by NPCs. Secondly the bounty system (whereby attacking a ship without a bounty on it will earn you a price on your head and the more you do it, the higher the price. Finally (and I believe somehow linked to the bounty system) is the grouping system whereby people found to be griefing will find themselves playing with the other griefers and not anybody else.

This is distinct from piracy: if you're a trader hauling large and valuable cargoes in low security (read: high profit) systems without suitable defence (maybe have a friend in a combat ship escort you) then you should expect to be scanned and attacked - this might be by another player(s) or NPCs.

Also: if you're worried about griefers then there's absolutely nothing to stop you playing either solo, or in a group with friends simply by removing yourself from the relevant groups. This is pretty much what I'm expecting to do as my gametime is likely to be limited and I don't want to be getting envious of people in the high end ships as I'm struggling to get out of my starter Cobra mk III (KS bonus means I can have that as a starter ship, rather than the Sidewinder)

Finally a little tip: if you decide to get involved with the police in a helpful manner be *very* careful not to land a stray shot on their ship, as you'll quickly find them turning on you.

[kalniel]

God help you if you ever played the original and fell into Witch Space then! Oh noes the well balanced npc Thargoid griefers!

That was fun! Then you just reloaded with no harm done

Finally (and I believe somehow linked to the bounty system) is the grouping system whereby people found to be griefing will find themselves playing with the other griefers and not anybody else.

OK that's new to me. How does that work and how does it distinguish from people who legitimately have a high bounty for fun actions?

Also: if you're worried about griefers then there's absolutely nothing to stop you playing either solo, or in a group with friends simply by removing yourself from the relevant groups.

But it's rather coarse grained isn't it? Either you play with everyone, or you can only play with friends who agree to just be in your instance and nothing else. It's not a bad approximation of LAN type play, but as I mentioned, I'd ideally like a PvE/co-op option like we got for games like NWN.

[Lowe]

There's an interesting link over at the Frontier forums discussing this (in a broad sense)

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=34723

[Splash]

OK that's new to me. How does that work and how does it distinguish from people who legitimately have a high bounty for fun actions?

If I'm honest I don't know: it's something that was first mentioned when alpha launched at the end of last year and hasn't been mentioned too much since. DB has stated in a Q&A that there may be a requirement for ingame admins to police griefers, so it may require that they be reported and then the admins can check their record and handle appropriately. There was a video posted a few months ago (recorded 22nd May) which goes into quite a lot of detail if I recall, but I forget what was covered and can't watch it from here so I can't recap.

With regards the grouping though: I'm conscious that we're still in a beta phase (and one that only recently introduced multi-system multiplayer) so there's still potential for tweaking.

[KeyboardDemon]

I've already posted this on the Flight stick thread but thought it would make more sense to have it on here.

[Ttaskmaster]

Also: if you're worried about griefers then there's absolutely nothing to stop you playing either solo, or in a group with friends simply by removing yourself from the relevant groups.

Is the whole thing online, then?
Is playing Solo an offline campaign, as with Freelancer, or are you still online in a persistent universe just without the player component?

Finally a little tip: if you decide to get involved with the police in a helpful manner be *very* careful not to land a stray shot on their ship, as you'll quickly find them turning on you.

Ah, Freelancer syndrome!!

OK that's new to me. How does that work and how does it distinguish from people who legitimately have a high bounty for fun actions?

I imagine it will be something simple - Such as the bounty being posted on a galaxy-wide Job Board and you tick it to apply/accept. You're then tagged as legitimately permitted to go blow the living **** out of Griefer #11030 (as opposed to in-game Pirate #43091) without incurring any penaties yourself.
Griefer status would be ascertained by looking at the server logs, pretty much how admins on similar games (I won't mention Freelancer again) currently do it.


I wonder if there will be F1 penalties, as in fines or something for logging out just before someone kills you. I did that the other week in multiplayer - Went along, found some people and opened fire. Long, drawn-out battle (because I suck) and just when my target had a few percent hull left, they bloody-well logged off!!!!!

I'm no ace pilot (more like Elite: Mildly Annoying), but that was such a NOOB thing to do. I was pretty narked, to be honest!!

[Noxia]

I almost managed to dock last night, got a few penalties for "pad loitering" when trying to figure out what the hell I Was doing though.

[kalniel]

I imagine it will be something simple - Such as the bounty being posted on a galaxy-wide Job Board and you tick it to apply/accept. You're then tagged as legitimately permitted to go blow the living **** out of Griefer #11030 (as opposed to in-game Pirate #43091) without incurring any penaties yourself.

How does that have anything to do with them being put in their own instance where they can't bother other people?