Профиль пилота Vandenberg > Дневник

Профиль
Имя пилота:
Текущий корабль:
New Horizon [VA-13A]
(Asp Explorer)
 
Дата регистрации:
27 февр. 2019 г.
 
Внесено расстояний:
0
 
Посещено систем:
503
Открыто систем:
53
Weekend update

I had a bit more time to fly this weekend, so I did accomplish a few things. I did unlock yet another engineer, leveling him a bit quite away, and now I am able to mod my shields. Going mostly for protection against thermal damage, as I am mostly doing PVE right now.

Also did some resource gathering, landing on a few planets to gather raw materials plus picking up some from the wrecks I left behind in those RES. =)

Currently enjoying flying and fighting with the Alliance challenger, which can put out quite some damage and is sturdy. I guess slower, more tankier fighting suits me better than faster, more agile fighting with a Vulture, as an example.

Also picked up a new ship: while visiting a material trader, I saw that they were selling a Krait Mk.II at the station he was at. Since I hadn't tried it, I picked it up. It may be an unusual choice, but I equipped it for mining. I haven't done much mining yet, and wanted to get another Python as I wanted something bigger than the ASP X I was using for mining.

So I figured "Why not use that Krait for mining right now?". After all, I can reequip it for something else if I wanna use it for combat or something else.

Feeling tired, but I had a ton of fun fighting, travelling, gathering materials etc. See you out there in the dark, Commander! o7

Fascinated with space

One of the things I love about the game is the possibility to just fly around space, seeing unusual stars, land on planets or head out to explore systems so incredibly far away. I like seeing screenshots by other players... pictures of them finding strange phenomena or simply heading into far-away systems.

This fascinates me and makes E:D so much fun. I remember quite well how my fascination with Sci-Fi and space-travels started. I must have been 6 or so when my dad went to a video rental store... he sometimes did that on the weekends, and I loved seeing him return with those cases, wondering what movies he had gotten.

Well, on that day, he had brought a movie called "Star Wars". Yup, good ol Episode IV.

I was only a small child, but I remember how incredibly fascinating that movie was. I was just... amazed, mind blown. I then simply had to see the other movies, asked for the toys, read the novelizations and was totally lost in that world for a while. I remember that for that whole summer, I was a Jedi... in my mind of course. And of course, being a kid, I imagined those stories to be real, and I remember one evening in the winter, when the stars were out, looking up at them, imagining that there really was Hoth and Dagobah and Yavin out there (yeah, I know, it said "a long time ago" and "in a galaxy far away", but I kinda blended out the first part and had no idea how far away other galaxies really are).

And that started the whole thing. I started to read more and more SciFi, watched the series, and always was fascinated by the subject. So of course, when I got the C64 and Elite, that hit a very special spot and I was playing that like crazy.

I read everything from Asimov to Frank Herbert, Hyperion/Endymion to The Lost Fleet, Lem to Heinlein and everything in between (I read a lot, and surely not only SciFi, but always had a soft spot for that genre).

So whenever I load up E:D and head out into space, I believe that little kid is sitting inside of me, looking forward to a new adventure. I love E:D for that feeling, and for the sights I get to see!

Some more fun with the Fer-De-Lance

Again, not much time to accomplish stuff, but I went out on another patrol with the FDL. It's definitely fun, and I did decide to log out in the cabin of that ship instead of the bus =) It's on display in my profile here, even though not all of the current data has been uploaded yet (slow upload speed with the PC I am currently playing, at my gfs place).

Using a setup of four lasers to bring down shields VERY quickly, and then I take care of the hull with either the big multicannon or a combination of said MC and the lasers. Heat isn't a problem anymore after the changes I made a while ago.

I want to take the FDL and the Challenger back to the bubble soon in order to engineer them further. WIll take a while (jumping there with the limited jump-range an FDL has to offer, then ordering delivery of my Challenger there, jumping to all the engineers for tuning, then heading back), but it will be worth it for sure.

See you guys out there... fly safe! o7

A quick update

Not much flight-time available last weekend, as I was busy with some other things. However, did get to fly some wealthy tourists to Sirius Atmospherics for a nice little roundtrip.

Also... I went out for some fighting again. As I mentioned, I am currently trying to get more into the combat side again, and am trying 3-4 different combat ships to get better at fighting, learn the ropes and find which ship/loadout fits best to my playing-style.

Right now, I really really like the Alliance Challenger but... also, everytime I take my FDL for a little patrol (as I did last night), I am smiling. It maneuvers so well, and I like how flying this one feels.

Right now, I have engineered burst lasers and MCs equipped on it, should change that to pulse lasers soon, as I like those a bit more, but even with the current loadout, I am having quite a lot of fun.

Looking forward to trying more of this soon!

Adventures galore!

Yeah, I know, for some of you, tonights adventure is nothing new and has happened long ago. However, it was entertaining and a tiny bit frustrating as well.

I continued my journey to unlock more engineers. As mentioned in my previous post, a very nice Commander offered to give me the terminals I needed as I was unable to find missions offering them as a reward.

Imagine my surprise when I logged in and checked the passenger board in Rubego to find a mission offering 24 modular terminals. I had turned in 3 of them already yesterday, needed 25 altogether, so all I needed to do was complete this mission to get everything I needed.

I did, switched to my trusty old Asp X and went to Sirius to unlock Marco. Fortunately, I had enough materials to have him apply a few tune-ups on my ship modules. Soon, I was invited to visit Prof. Palin.

Since I had done my big 5K LY-journey earlier this week (see previous log entries), I was able to head over there right away. Well, not quite. You probably know (or remember) that you have to bring him 25 sensor fragments.

I did some research, found out which system/planet to go to and off I was. And found two things that I think need improvement:

a) Server stability. I was disconnected while approaching the planet. Apparently, the server went down for a few minutes, as a fellow Commander reported the same problem. Took a while to get back into my ship.

b) The fact that there is no feature to type coords for a spot on a planetary surface into your mapping in order to get a target to fly to. I was trying to find the crashed Thargoid ship, had the coords, but couldn't set up a waypoint or target leading me there. Which meant: Old school navigation using longitude and latitude while keeping the ship in supercruise and then drift.

Believe me, it took a while, especially since I hadn't done this in quite some time. At one point, I landed and wanted to drive the rest of the way with my Scarab. Until I realized just how much distance I still had left to cross. So I recalled my ship, jumped in and eventually found the crater with the Thargoid ship. I managed to land rather closeby, went back into the Scarab and went to the ship.

I have to say.. it's an unsettling sight seeing those downed ships. Especially when you get scanned while flying over it. Cue the scary music.

Unfortunately, one of the containers was placed on a little ridge I simply couldnt get to. I tried relogging, and found that the containers for the sensors did respawn.

Unfortunately, at that point, the integrity of my little rover was down to 30 percent... yes, I did struggle. Haven't done much driving with those rovers, and the crater and the attempts to get to that pesky container almost killed it.

After relogging, I had enough containers to shoot, and eventually had 27 sensor fragments. I tried to get out of the crater, back to my ship, in the process bringing my Scarabs integrity to first 13, then 3%.

I ordered my ship to land close by, and drove VERY slowly and carefully. Alas, about 700 metres away from the ship, I rolled into a ditch and my little Scarab blew up.

It was incredibly frustrating, as it had taken me quite a while to even find the crater with my ship, maneuvring to it, then landing close to it, and driving there. I thought I had to do all of it again.

Until I remembered that those sensor fragments are materials and go into your materials inventory, not your cargo space. Therefore, after the explosion, I was back in my ASP with the required sensor fragments waiting to be delivered to Palin.

So... a little frustration and growling first, then a relieved sigh and off I went to Maia. I turned in 25 of the 27 fragments, unlocked Palin, asked him for some tune-ups for my thrusters, and went back to my current home-base, Ceos, figuring my adventure for the day was over.

Until I was interdicted out of a system-jump. Yes, I had eventually gotten the attention of a Thargoid, probably because of the sensor fragments in my inventory. It was quite exciting, as I had only heard stories and watched footage of this happening to other players.

I was away from E:D for quite some time, and had mostly spent my time trading, doing Ceos/Sothis, playing around with combat... so I didn't meet a Thargoid ship yet.

I was torn out of the jump, and ended up being close to a Thargoid ship. Since my ASP isn't equipped for combat at ALL, I immediately started boosting away, getting my FSD warmed up. When it was charged, the Thargoid jumped as well. Lucky. Me, I mean.

So... my Asp is back at the home-base, and I got out my trusty "bus", my good ol' Python, currently equipped for passenger missions. I moved it to a base where I usually pick up passengers and logged off for the night.

The plan? For the next few nights, I'll stick mostly to doing passenger runs forth and back for a small mountain of credits. The last few nights were quite adventurous and involved a lot of travelling, exploring, jumping forth and back to unlock engineers.

I have more to unlock, but for now, I'll chill down for a while and do some relaxed "interplanetary bus routes" for profit and to do some rather mundane, yet relaxing stuff.

See you out in the black, fellow Commander. o7!

First big journey

It's funny... I did put quite some time in E:D when I played prior to the big break I took. However, I spent most of my time doing trading, flying rare trade routes and doing the Ceos/Sothis-grind (flying stuff to the bubble... not sure whether that even is a thing anymore, did this in early 17).

I do like exploring, and the first thing I checked out when I returned 3 weeks ago was the new scanning system. I do like it, and started to do a bit of the "road to riches" exploration route.

However, since I want to unlock Prof. Palin, I knew I had to travel at least 5000 LY from my starting system. So I changed some modules on my current exploration ship, my trusty ASP X, and started off from Ceos.

I first travelled to NGC 7822, which someone recommended to me, calling it "black hole paradise". Arriving there, I took a quick break at the asteroid station there, noticing that at that point, I had about 3000 LY or so behind me.

Off I went towards the Heart and Soul nebula, eventually hitting the 5000 LY. Prof. Palin did NOT contact me, and I figured out that I had forgotten something essential: I hadn't unlocked Marco Qwent first, which I am currently working on. Once he is fully unlocked, Professor Palin should contact me, so that I can unlock him fully too.

I kinda rushed back home, still honking each system, but wanting to head back in order to sell the exploration data. I had downsized my power distributor prior to the journey, which wasn't the best idea, as I didn't have enough power to boost in normal flight. If I would have been interdicted, there would have been no way to boost away from whoever had attacked me.

I made it back to the bubble safely though, where I put my bigger distributor back in and headed to Sirius to sell my data. Still not at Elite Explorer, but slowly getting there... it's the first one I wanna reach.

The trip was interesting. I watched some documentaries while travelling, and I didn't run into big problems... only saw one neutron star, wasn't interdicted, no white dwarf either.

I know that for many more experienced explorers, my trip was just a cute little stroll, but it was the furthest I travelled so far, and I plan on doing more. Maybe I could mod my Anaconda a bit more for more jump range, but that would mean no landing on medium stations I might find.

Will have to consider this and then decide once I have those engineers unlocked.

Things I am currently working on

I am trying to get more into combat, so recently, I got three more combat ships on top of the Vulture, FAS and Cobra Mk.III that I already owned.

What did I get? A Fer-De-Lance, an Alliance Challenger and a Viper =) I equipped them all based on some builds I found, and they are waiting to be tested. I have done a bit of fighting in the past (Combat Rank is "Competent"), but I need more practice. I will try all of them, starting with the Vulture and Viper to try fast and agile fighting in a small ship, and the FDL and Challenger for medium sized ships and more weapons... the "tankier" approach, which I believe will suit me better.

However, before I get to all that, I am currently working on unlocking more engineers. Have four or so unlocked from way back when, currently working on unlocking Marco Qwent and Prof. Palin. Marco is halfway done, Palin should unlock right after because I have finished the preference for unlocking him (5K LY).

Current problem: Getting 22 more modular terminals. I was told I could get them from passenger missions in Rubego. Incidentially, I have my "bus" parked there, a Python with passenger cabins. However, none of the missions do have terminals as rewards, I have checked several times.

I asked other Commanders on FB, and one of them suggested a system I should visit... and then said he had a few terminals on board and would give them to me. Since I couldn't log in again last night, we are planning on doing that tonight, when I get home from work.

I hope it will work... I sometimes struggle with picking up stuff with the cargo scoop, missing a bit or taking too many attempts, so the item decays. I am incredibly grateful that that pilot is willing to meet me and drop those terminals for me to pick up, but I hope I won't waste too much of his time by failing to pick up that stuff with the scoop fast enough. Wish me luck =)

Hello world

My first logbook entry. Time to introduce myself.

My name is Eric, I go by the IGN Cmdr. Vandenberg. My story with Elite started in the late 80s, when, after an extended stay at a hospital, I was given the C64 my brother had bought but wasn't all that interested in.

Soon, I was playing games with my best friend at the time. He eventually gave me a game called Elite. And man, I was blown away by the concept. It took a while to get used to it, but eventually, I was trading, travelling, fighting.

Fast forward to 2015. My life had taken some exciting turns, yet I have always been playing games. Then I saw E:D on Steam, and just HAD to get it... along with a HOTAS. As you all know, there is a steep learning-curve, but soon, I was out there, trading rare goods, learning the ropes.

Ever since I have been playing E:D on and off, taking some extended breaks in between, when life or certain games get in the way. It's always been that way... I do like "long term games", but have to take breaks in between to play something else... or nothing at all.

Just came back about 3 weeks ago, working on the Elite ranks, currently unlocking some more engineers (have unlocked a few already in the past), doing exploration and passenger missions and getting more into fighting.

I will share some posts here about my journeys and in-game-projects. Not sure whether this will be of interest to anyone, but hey, I like writing, so there ya go. If you do happen to read this... thank you, I hope you will enjoy your stay. See you out there, Commander, and o7!