Elite: Dangerous

Everything I've seen about this game just amazes me. I'm actually a bit terrified to buy it, simply because my wife will divorce me when I become a shut-in to play this non-stop. Plus, I don't have the spare cash to upgrade hardware.

I'll just have to get my ED fix from YT videos.
 
You really don't need to upgrade, besides maybe an x52 which is currently about $100 on Amazon. I tested the game out on my notebook yesterday with a GT555m and it ran fine and the developers wanted this game to be inclusive with a Mac client and possible cross platform with console (and not saying this as a bad thing since it was developed for PC).
 
I went ahead and preordered (something I rarely ever do). I figure that I've already got an Oculus Rift, X52 Pro, and Pedals -- I need something to play on it, especially with DCS not really working correctly on AMD cards. I'm out of town now, but if the combat demo runs like crap I'll probably be heading over to Best Buy to search for one of the reference GTX 970s.
 
I can't get to the website for the game right now, but what does it cost to buy? Is it open to play currently or have they closed the servers in preparation for launch?
 
Ihaveworms said:
I can't get to the website for the game right now, but what does it cost to buy? Is it open to play currently or have they closed the servers in preparation for launch?
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It's $50 to preorder and if you pay 75 you can play now in the gamma or you have to wait till December 16 to playing
 
$50 for the pre-order which I think disappears in a day or so.
 
In the meantime you can play the combat demo, it's about 8 missions to teach you the controls and whatnot.
 
You get the Eagle ship as well, thats the pre-order bonus
 
I'm laughing at the flak Elite is getting over the trailer, its called marketing. Though I will say, any fight that close to a station will only end in tears for both sides. The beta trailer was way more honest and in my personal opinion, better, but to each their own.
 
That launch trailer is certainly aimed at the AAA game-playing audience. Hey! We have hangar walkthoughs too! :p

Twitch streams and YouTube playthroughs are what sold me on this game. And they did it a far sight better than any of ED Trailers have. I wish Frontier Dev understood that. That the community does the a better job of selling the game than they do.
 
So I'm thinking about getting this, how does it work with keyboard/mouse? Or controller? A joystick really needed or what?
 
Saturn_V said:
That launch trailer is certainly aimed at the AAA game-playing audience. Hey! We have hangar walkthoughs too! :p

Twitch streams and YouTube playthroughs are what sold me on this game. And they did it a far sight better than any of ED Trailers have. I wish Frontier Dev understood that. That the community does the a better job of selling the game than they do.
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Any recommendations for something to watch for someone who knows ZERO about the game?
 
One of about a thousand actual gameplay videos on Youtube.

If you wanna get a real sense of the game, go to twitch and just spend some time there and watch some people who know what they are doing play. I highly, highly recommend Rezri (http://www.twitch.tv/rezri) from the #LegitBiz crew and his misadventure with his buggy AI Zin, very entertaining and a good pilot.
 
Rezri,(because children!) LondonGaming4fun, and Dingo77 are very good ED streamers on Twitch.

As for YouTube: I'm always amazed by Isinona's videos, and Scott Manley's got a few good ED walkthroughs too.

A Quick Look at Beta

Be aware that some of these vids are dated since they're captured in Beta- and the game's changed a bit since then.
 
That is a good thing to be aware of, like you'll find a lot of videos about "gold farming" in anarchy space, that is over for a long time, but still nostalgic for LP 98-132 and Freeport.
 
I'll preface my questions by just saying that I don't see any reason why a person interested in this genre wouldn't buy both Elite Dangerous and Star Citizen. Their really the only horses in the race at this point if you want high end graphics and massive universes. So I'm buying both, and will be happy if one ends up being great. Bonus if they both kick ass. On to my questions.

How does this game control with Mouse+Keyboard? Xbox 360 controller? I've never had a really compelling reason to buy a HOTAS type controller, but with ED and SC coming out, it may be time.

I read that the Thrustmaster T-Flight Hotas X Flight Stick is cheap and very capable. Would that be a good "entry" level HOTAS controller for a complete flight sim noob?
 
officer921 said:
I read that the Thrustmaster T-Flight Hotas X Flight Stick is cheap and very capable. Would that be a good "entry" level HOTAS controller for a complete flight sim noob?
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I would also like to know as i have pre ordered and having a hard time using kb+mouse. my fist 10 minutes of flying consisted of endlessly doing barrel rolls.
 
officer921 said:
I'll preface my questions by just saying that I don't see any reason why a person interested in this genre wouldn't buy both Elite Dangerous and Star Citizen.
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There are specific and very serious reasons why I didn't back Star Citizen, and I've been playing space-sims since Star Raiders on the Atari 8-bit.
 
officer921 said:
I'll preface my questions by just saying that I don't see any reason why a person interested in this genre wouldn't buy both Elite Dangerous and Star Citizen. Their really the only horses in the race at this point if you want high end graphics and massive universes. So I'm buying both, and will be happy if one ends up being great. Bonus if they both kick ass. On to my questions.

How does this game control with Mouse+Keyboard? Xbox 360 controller? I've never had a really compelling reason to buy a HOTAS type controller, but with ED and SC coming out, it may be time.
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If you are going in for both SC and ED, you should just get a HOTAS. It depends how immersive you want to get and how much you want to spend. The stick is the most important part, so you could start with something like the 16000M (highly recommended) and use the keyboard with your other hand.

The Xflight is ok, and you get the throttle too. But it doesn't have a ton of buttons, so you'll be going back to the keyboard for a lot of functions. Voice Attack is one solution to that. As you get into more expensive control setups you get a lot more buttons to assign to things. Personally I waited for the CH fighterstick+throttle to show up on the used market and bought them individually.
 
Ritorix said:
If you are going in for both SC and ED, you should just get a HOTAS. It depends how immersive you want to get and how much you want to spend. The stick is the most important part, so you could start with something like the 16000M (highly recommended) and use the keyboard with your other hand.

The Xflight is ok, and you get the throttle too. But it doesn't have a ton of buttons, so you'll be going back to the keyboard for a lot of functions. Voice Attack is one solution to that. As you get into more expensive control setups you get a lot more buttons to assign to things. Personally I waited for the CH fighterstick+throttle to show up on the used market and bought them individually.
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thanks for this helpful response. Yes I do plan to play both as lately i find myself bored with every other game/console out there. My wife has been asking me what i want for Christmas this year and i been following ED and SC for the past couple of months so my present can't be over $200. I don't know what the difference in the saitek's are and have been having trouble finding reviews that explain experiences with them while playing ED or SC. What do you guys recommend?
 
X36, X36pro are under 200
and the X55 is right at 200 may be less if you shop around
X36pro runs around 160 btw so id just spend extra for the X55
 
Please oh please come to Linux. I'm a huge fan of the series and played the shit out of First Encounters for years.
 
I'm gonna have to get a joystick of some kind. M+K suck for this game. I spend most of the time spinning in the air. Xbox controller is a little better, but still not great.

So what is the absolute BEST HOTAS setup for $300ish?
 
They had a Warthog + Pedal Pro comb for $400, that was the absolute best deal per price. For around $300 your going to get into a lot of personel choice, since your between the $200 Rhino and the $500 Warthog and in the range of a bunch of custome Euro sticks that some people swear by and others tell you follow outdated design philosophy.
 
RangerXML said:
They had a Warthog + Pedal Pro comb for $400, that was the absolute best deal per price. For around $300 your going to get into a lot of personel choice, since your between the $200 Rhino and the $500 Warthog and in the range of a bunch of custome Euro sticks that some people swear by and others tell you follow outdated design philosophy.
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Is the Warthog fucking awesome for that price? Is there anything better? I know the CH Fighterstick and Throttle are $235.65 on Amazon and are supposed to be pretty great.... $351 with pedals....
 
Damn, and I felt good about spending $400 on my Warthog on Amazon. Wish I would've seen the pedal combo deal...who is "They?"
 
officer921 said:
Is the Warthog fucking awesome for that price? Is there anything better? I know the CH Fighterstick and Throttle are $235.65 on Amazon and are supposed to be pretty great.... $351 with pedals....
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Some people swear by the combo of the Thrustmaster T16000M stick and CH Pro Throttle; should just be a little over $150 if you buy at retail prices.

I was originally going to go with this combination and already bought the T16000M on sale, but I picked up a used X52 Pro from craigslist and despite all of the negative talk about the setup, I actually like the X52 stick waay more than the T16000M.

The X52 stick has more buttons and hat switches on the stick itself so there's less of a need to take your hands off the stick or throttle. The T16000M has a lot of buttons on the base, but only half of them are really usable due to the ambidextrous design. In addition, I like the tactile feel of the X52 buttons, since they're all different shapes and sizes, it's easier to tell them apart.

Everyone says the T16000M is more "accurate" due to better sensors, but since I'm not a flight sim fanatic, I'm not even sure what being "accurate" really amounts to.
 
officer921 said:
I'm gonna have to get a joystick of some kind. M+K suck for this game. I spend most of the time spinning in the air. Xbox controller is a little better, but still not great.

So what is the absolute BEST HOTAS setup for $300ish?
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For around 300'ish I would suggest the CH Fighterstick/pedals/throttle:

Joystick:
http://www.amazon.com/CH-Products-2...id=1418400541&sr=8-1&keywords=ch+fighterstick

Pedals:
http://www.amazon.com/CH-Products-P...id=1418400541&sr=8-4&keywords=ch+fighterstick

Throttle:
http://www.amazon.com/CH-Products-P...id=1418400541&sr=8-2&keywords=ch+fighterstick

CH is known for being one of the most well built joystick setups out there, usually one of the most precise and well built. It's not uncommon for people to have them for 10+ years and they still work just as well.
 
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Make sure you check the amazon warehouse deals too. I got my CH fighterstick for $65 that way, basically they reduce the price if the box is damaged. That stuff is built like a tank so the odds the gear will be damaged are low.

What I really like about the CH stuff is their software. It lets you rebind or macro any of the buttons, bind buttons as keyboard keys, control all the axis and makes all the devices show up as one single device (so it all works in older games). If you somehow don't have enough buttons, you could bind a throttle key to Shift and use that to access shift+key combos on all your other buttons, basically doubling your bind options.
 
I've some old Saitek joystick... that will be enough. I'm going only for solo play, so I don't have to bother with multiplayer... not spending any extra cash for a device usable only in one game, as I don't play any other simulators.
 
Ditto CH Products. I still have a gameport HOTAS (Combatstick, ProThrottle, Pro Pedals) from the 90s that still works via USB-Gameport converter. My USB rig is ten years old and still going strong. The same cannot be said about other controller manufacturers. Yet many shun CH Products because it's the least sexy joystick on the market. :rolleyes:

But the #1 reason to get a CH because you have an analog ministick on the Pro Throttle. Most of us in ED map that to lateral/vertical thrusters. You have fine control of thrusting instead of just on/off.
 
Saturn_V said:
Ditto CH Products. I still have a gameport HOTAS (Combatstick, ProThrottle, Pro Pedals) from the 90s that still works via USB-Gameport converter. My USB rig is ten years old and still going strong. The same cannot be said about other controller manufacturers. Yet many shun CH Products because it's the least sexy joystick on the market. :rolleyes:

But the #1 reason to get a CH because you have an analog ministick on the Pro Throttle. Most of us in ED map that to lateral/vertical thrusters. You have fine control of thrusting instead of just on/off.
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contact CH they will upgrade your old CH gear to USB
 
CH stopped offering USB conversions of their legacy gameport products. (December 2001 was the last of it IIRC)

you can find instructions on DIY USB conversions using the BU0836 controller That's a little too [H]ard for my meager soldering/wiring skills. Besides, it works fine through the USB/Gameport adapter- just no extra buttons beyond "FS Pro compatibility" (six axes, hat, four buttons)
 
Ritorix said:
Make sure you check the amazon warehouse deals too. I got my CH fighterstick for $65 that way, basically they reduce the price if the box is damaged. That stuff is built like a tank so the odds the gear will be damaged are low.

What I really like about the CH stuff is their software. It lets you rebind or macro any of the buttons, bind buttons as keyboard keys, control all the axis and makes all the devices show up as one single device (so it all works in older games). If you somehow don't have enough buttons, you could bind a throttle key to Shift and use that to access shift+key combos on all your other buttons, basically doubling your bind options.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the Warthog constantly had open box / damaged box deals. It wasn't a huge discount for the most part though. When they dropped the price to $420, there were deals as low as $399 so I was tempted even then. And then the price finally dropped to $399 for a new one so I pulled the trigger, so to speak. I need to keep an eye out for the Saitek pedals though. I know CH pedals are highly rated but I don't want what they refer to as the "Nut Crunchers" because they're so close together.
 
My x45 seems to be dying. It cuts out mid game... Guess it is time to snag a new setup?
 
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