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HiroProtagonist posted:All you explorers: are you checking the habitable ranges for the solar masses of whatever star you're at and moving on if no earthlikes/terraformable/waterworlds are there, or are most of you spot checking random planets, or is it actually way more common than I think for people to actually go and [horrified noises] scan everything in a system? I'm not doing any of this, I just decide on a case-by-case basis if a planet is interesting enough for a visit. Sometimes I scan targets of opportunity, like ice planets without discoverer close to the sun, just so I can spit my name on another stellar object. Only if there is an obvious thing like a black hole or an Earth-like planet do I skip this "process" and travel there, no matter how far it is. In all other cases, instinct it is.
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Mar 11, 2016 21:44
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| # ? May 25, 2024 02:36 |
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Yea when there is a bunch of icy rocks its hard to want to waste the time on them. But outside of the earth likes and water ones, I do like to tackle large gas giants and other more unique worlds depending on their distance and number. I have a few systems I want to revisit as they were untouched and had over 100 plants/moons in them with a few really neat looking ones.
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Mar 11, 2016 21:51
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HiroProtagonist posted:All you explorers: are you checking the habitable ranges for the solar masses of whatever star you're at and moving on if no earthlikes/terraformable/waterworlds are there, or are most of you spot checking random planets, or is it actually way more common than I think for people to actually go and [horrified noises] scan everything in a system? There certainly seem to be enough people that want to put their name on every worthless little rock moon out there, but that just means you're stuck travelling endlessly in one system when you cold be moving on to the next five. I suppose it depends how much you're in it for the money, for the fame, or for the  Personally, I just go for the high-value stuff based on what looks good. Sometimes, a few rocks and snowballs get caught, but that's more due to accident than anything.
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Mar 11, 2016 21:53
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People explore for different reasons, I guess. When I first got the bug, I wanted to make a bunch of first discoveries, but that's trivial once you're a couple thousand Ly out of the bubble. Subsequent voyages have been to visit specific things, like Sag A and the black hole at Maia, or just a change of pace from mining / trading / bounty hunting.
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Mar 11, 2016 22:05
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My process is this: Can I scan it while fuel scooping? - Scan the star you jump in on, because it only takes like 10 seconds. - Thanks to the quirks of hydrogen and density, even gas giants dozens of times the mass of Jupiter stay around the same size. As such, you'll find tons of gas giants between 67000 and 77000 km in radius. These are usually scannable within 900-1000ls, so if they're that or closer to the star I scan those too while scooping. -Anything within 100ls I'll try to scan while scooping. -Try to scan other stars if they're close enough to get while scooping. If there is a particularly promising planet for terraformability (mass > 0.1 Earths, atmosphere, not made of ice) within a very rough habitable zone (based on radius and temp of the star), maaaaybe hit that. There are exceptions to the terraforming rules (atmosphere isn't really required) but those are my guidelines. Half the time I just ignore them and don't scan anything. Always scan water worlds, ammonia worlds, white dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes, and earthlikes unless they're too far away for me to give a gently caress. (depending on the object, limiting range can be from 15000ls to 200000ls) Ice worlds, rocky ice worlds, moons- ignore completely except in special circumstances or if you can hit it while scanning a valuable parent. These rules basically minimize flying around in supercruise because my time is more valuable than the extra 600cr I get from some lovely rock at the rear end-end of the system. They've served me well.
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Mar 11, 2016 22:08
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Some nice pics from EliteGalaxy. I think some of them use EDFX.       
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Mar 11, 2016 22:32
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Is there a way to check on what you've scanned without docking?
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Mar 11, 2016 22:35
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MoraleHazard posted:Is there a way to check on what you've scanned without docking? As far as I'm aware, no.
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Mar 12, 2016 00:26
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MoraleHazard posted:Is there a way to check on what you've scanned without docking? Sure, go into the system map and look. If you meant how much money you made, nope.
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Mar 12, 2016 01:26
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HiroProtagonist posted:All you explorers: are you checking the habitable ranges for the solar masses of whatever star you're at and moving on if no earthlikes/terraformable/waterworlds are there, or are most of you spot checking random planets, or is it actually way more common than I think for people to actually go and [horrified noises] scan everything in a system? For the first 5000ly or so of my journey, I scanned everything. loving everything. Metal planets? Scanned. HMCs? Hell yes. Rocky planets? Done. Gas giants? Easy. Ice worlds? There should be a few thousand with my name on them when I get back. After that I kind of had a feel for what is what in the system map. I mostly honk, check the system map (screenshot it for later), then scan anything that looks interesting. Water worlds and ELs can be spotted quite easily. I will usually still scan any metal-looking worlds and most gas giants (because you can get them from so far). Unless I'm in a hurry, I'll usually scan everything like that within at least 50,000ly of the primary. Sometimes I'll go wash dishes if it looks like there is something good a few hundred thousand light seconds away and just leave the ship cruising. I think it's funny when people complain about distances <1000ls, because any distance less than that takes about the same amount of time to travel. Honestly though, since I've been in the neutron fields I've been kind of lazy: I'm only scanning the low hanging fruit since I've found dozens and dozens of unscanned neutron stars and water worlds. TLDR: I just look at the system map and decide what is interesting. 
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Mar 12, 2016 01:47
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If you're washing dishes, do you worry about getting interdicted and killed? How dangerous is it to go AFK while exploring and risk losing all your data?
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Mar 12, 2016 01:49
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Asimov posted:If you're washing dishes, do you worry about getting interdicted and killed? How dangerous is it to go AFK while exploring and risk losing all your data? Unless you're at a popular target (and even then) the chance of getting interdicted randomly by a player when you're far away from the bubble is zero. I've heard of people getting interdicted by NPCs out in the middle of nowhere, but I've never had it happen.
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Mar 12, 2016 02:00
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Asimov posted:If you're washing dishes, do you worry about getting interdicted and killed? How dangerous is it to go AFK while exploring and risk losing all your data? There are 400 loving billion star systems and, if I'm really generous, about 1 million players. And about a third of those are probably only playing in private groups or solo. Let's be generous again and round up those two thirds of a million and say that's 750k players in open. Even with all those numbers pulled out of my rear end and far too high, there are about 533 thousand systems per player. Since most players are in or close the bubble, you can probably at a couple zeroes to that, though. At the most generous, there's a 1:500000 chance of even meeting another player out there. If you take actual numbers and not just my mad hallucinations, this means there's a higher chance of real life burglars breaking in and killing you while you're doing the dishes. The true dangers of exploration are: 1. Returning to the bubble. 2. Getting too close to a star/planet. 3. Crashing while trying to land on a planet. 1. is the only part where other players matter. Luneshot posted:Unless you're at a popular target (and even then) the chance of getting interdicted randomly by a player when you're far away from the bubble is zero. After a certain distance, you're too far out for NPCs to spawn. What happens in those rumoured cases is probably people jumping like 10 light years from Eravate into an empty system and then thinking that's "outside the bubble".
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Mar 12, 2016 02:11
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Oh I thought that NPCs could spawn literally anywhere. I can certainly accept the odds of players vs. stars in the galaxy, but the thought of a multi-week long journey ending due to NPC spawning shenanigans made me hesitant to go out exploring. Good to know.
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Mar 12, 2016 02:19
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Libluini posted:There are 400 loving billion star systems and, if I'm really generous, about 1 million players. And about a third of those are probably only playing in private groups or solo. Yeah, I worry more about falling asleep at the stick than other players. Also, is it even possible to interdict someone going 2000c? I imagine most people get zapped at Alpha Centauri or Hutton, but not in between the two. I literally have not seen another person since October and I play in open exclusively. I was worried when I got to Sag A* in prime EST, but no one there. 
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Mar 12, 2016 02:28
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HiroProtagonist posted:All you explorers: are you checking the habitable ranges for the solar masses of whatever star you're at and moving on if no earthlikes/terraformable/waterworlds are there, or are most of you spot checking random planets, or is it actually way more common than I think for people to actually go and [horrified noises] scan everything in a system? I could have saved you a lot of work had I been paying attention today: http://m.imgur.com/RqWAnez?r I always scan the star to put my name on it, but while I'm doing so I'm also fuel scooping, honking my discovery scanner, and checking the system map for things that could be an earth-like world. Many people stop for water worlds and metallics, and if you're just exploring it's good money in the long run to do so. I'm trying to keep up with Distant Worlds, so I don't stop for anything unless I think it could be an ELW. But regardless of what works for you, that jpg is a lovely tool. I find it's more useful to operate based on that than try to napkin math whether something is habitable, it's too hard to account for multiple suns. And on top of that, a terraformable water world is worth almost as much as an ELW. So it's often a pretty decent consolation prize, and then you're on to the next system with minimal fuss
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Mar 12, 2016 02:38
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Asimov posted:Oh I thought that NPCs could spawn literally anywhere. I can certainly accept the odds of players vs. stars in the galaxy, but the thought of a multi-week long journey ending due to NPC spawning shenanigans made me hesitant to go out exploring. Good to know. The kind of NPCs that roam around the system and are randomly generated to spot you and hunt you down don't exist out there. Since you're exploring, you're probably not carrying hundreds of units of rare goods that the game decides it should test you on with pirates or system security vessels (especially the latter since there is no system security). You're also not on a mission, so none of those encounters happen. You may occasionally spot signals you can land on — distress calls, salvaging sites, unknowns etc — which may have ships in them, but that's your choice if you want to risk it. Similarly, if you're planetside, you may come across the regular skimmer-guarded probes and crash sites, but as usual, they're pretty much no threat anyway (and if you do blow up, somehow, you're just back in your ship anyway).
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Mar 12, 2016 06:34
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I now feel hunting bounties in a hazrez in a vulture is the one true way to play this game.
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Mar 12, 2016 09:05
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So I was trying mining, but I guess I just don't get it? Or maybe I don't have a big enough refinery? Mine can hold 6 ore. I shoot a prospector drone at the rock. I lock onto the prospector drone to see what the content of the rock is. I unlock from the drone and shoot mining lasers. I activate a collector drone with my cargo hatch open. I wait. After like 20 minutes of this, and getting tons of errors that drones are dying, and burning through like 10 droves, I have 2T of like loving Bertrandite in my hold and assorted "percentages" of various metals in the refinery, but the numbers aren't going up? Whats am I not getting? I'm trying to collect palladium for the CG.
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Mar 12, 2016 11:29
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By reading all these post about exploration i feel like i'm gonna give it a go sooner or later. Any beginner tips for a first time traveler or any helpful link to guides?
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Mar 12, 2016 11:53
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:I'd like to borrow $200M
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Annath posted:So I was trying mining, but I guess I just don't get it? A rotating potato shaped asteroid (potaroid) can easily smash your poor drones to bits so mine those on their axis of rotation. Get a collector controller that can control at least 2 drones, preferably 3-4. Get a refinery that can hold 9+ ores When the asteroid is depleted you can speed up the collection greatly by postitioning your ship just above where the fragments ends up. e: Skip asteroids that doesn't have Pain/Plat/Pal/Gold/Osmium, and only mine Osmium if you plan on camping bulletin boards for mining missions. Lima fucked around with this message at 12:19 on Mar 12, 2016 |
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Mar 12, 2016 12:00
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Annath posted:So I was trying mining, but I guess I just don't get it? Mining definitely is a slow game... I love mining but only when the activity is propped up by binge watching shows on Netflix or something. What type of ring are you mining in? You need to find a Pristine Metallic ring (http://edtools.ddns.net/) and mine there. Your collector limpet drones only last for a certain amount of time. The "best" ones last for 12 minutes. Once they fail, launch more. I'd say a sweet spot is having four active at any given time but you can easily get away with just two. Your refinery is probably best at 8-10 bins but you can manage I believe with 5 or 6 if you're picky. Go for PPPGO - Painite, Platinum, Palladium, Gold, Osmium in order of most valuable I think. If you shoot a prospector at an asteroid and it says like 4.89% Palladium just leave it and go find a better rock... I usually only mine a rock if it has 25% or more of one of the valuable metals. If it has 45% Bertrandite and 5% Palladium I find a new rock, it's not worth the time. Also, try position your boat such that you are perpendicular to the rotation of the rock. It should be spinning clockwise or counterclockwise. This ensures it won't smash your limpets. My general Clipper loadout and process: 4 x Collector Limpets @ 720S (12 mins) each 1 x Prospector (the lowest level one you can find is all you need) 1 x 8, 9 or 10 slot Refinery Fill cargo hold with 100-150 limpets (out of my total 200) or generally 50-75% of your total cargo hold. 1. Fire prospector into asteroid - if it yields a high % of PPPGO (or if it's a slow night, "BIGS" - Beryllium, Indium, Gallium, Silver) start mining it. 2. Once depleted, fire off four collectors and open my cargo hatch. 3. Sit back and watch Parks & Recs or whatever. 4. Find a new rock and repeat. edit: As Lima said, Osmium and Platinum generally show up in bulletin board missions and can net you far more than selling them on the commodities market so when you return to a station to sell your haul first bounce the job board and see if any missions will pay you for a couple tons of ore... you can turn a 2 million Cr haul into a 5 million Cr haul this way. Sundowner fucked around with this message at 12:15 on Mar 12, 2016 |
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Mar 12, 2016 12:06
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vorebane posted:I now feel hunting bounties in a hazrez in a vulture is the one true way to play this game. Wait until you get a Federal Assault Ship  . Warzones in a wing are also a good time, especially when attacking a capital ship. You can do them solo but you gotta keep an eye on the radar and be ready to run if your side loses the numbers advantage, as you'll get attacked by a bunch of perfect aim railgun boats simultaneously.
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Mar 12, 2016 12:12
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Shine posted:Wait until you get a Federal Assault Ship I thought it would be a good idea to solo some CZs in a 3-large-PA Python to see how it was at shootmans. Seemed pretty good, despite my terrible flying skills, and even Corvettes didn't take long to smash  Until one decided that ramming my canopy with their giant Corvettey nose until it smashed would be fun.(Made it to safety though, thankfully) Good times! o7 PS: 3 PAs is too hot.
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Mar 12, 2016 12:26
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Assuming you haven't been shooting anything yet, can you fire 3 PAs and get away with it? (even if it's just one volley?) By get away with it I mean not take heat damage.
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Mar 12, 2016 13:01
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Also, very important note about collector drones: if you target something specific like a fragment when launching, they will only collect that item and then self destruct. If you have nothing targeted, they go into their "collect everything nearby" mode, which is what you want when mining.
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Mar 12, 2016 16:59
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 This morning, somewhere near the Heart & Soul Nebulae. I treat exploration more as a screenshot generator than a profitable enterprise, which means I'm Elite ranked and have earned 200 million out of my 350 million credit current assets by doing it. Always pull the system map while fuel scooping. Terraformable worlds have to be larger than ~2200km but any non-iceball is money, water is pretty obvious on the system map, ammonia worlds are less distinct but generally very brown. High-metal worlds are worth very good cash and can be any size, they appear unusually dark in the hologram and spawn close to hot stars or in multiple-star systems, like orbiting brown dwarves orbiting black holes. Live stars aren't worth the time it takes to scan them, dead stars are credits: black holes, neutron stars, white dwarves, Wolf-Rayet, carbon. Gas giants are only worth money if they have mineable rings, are rare white Class II giants, or have some form of life, usually these are the color of coffee or blood. And take a map.
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Mar 12, 2016 17:27
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DancingShade posted:Assuming you haven't been shooting anything yet, can you fire 3 PAs and get away with it? (even if it's just one volley?) Yeah it seems OK, but I wouldn't recommend it at Xihe as it's pretty close to the limit. Oh and this is with a 7C rather than 7A (or 6A maybe) powerplant, so it might be easier then? Pretty impressive alpha-strike if you can land all three 
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Mar 12, 2016 20:05
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Annath posted:After like 20 minutes of this, and getting tons of errors that drones are dying, and burning through like 10 droves, I have 2T of like loving Bertrandite in my hold and assorted "percentages" of various metals in the refinery, but the numbers aren't going up? If the numbers aren't going up, that means all your refinery bins are full and you need to free up some bins to continue processing ore. How To Refinery, a Rough Guide: As you collect ore, it gets deposited into refinery bins. Every time you collect ore, it will either be processed into a bin already containing more of that ore, or into an empty bin if some are available. If there are no empty bins available and no bins already containing that type of ore, the ore will not be processed until you vent or otherwise free up an existing bin. You can do this via the refinery menu in the cargo tab.
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Mar 12, 2016 20:14
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Ahshit. I incurred a goddamn 6 DAY bounty on myself from the loving Scorpius Order by accidentally firing at a clean target while prowling a RES in HIP 35246 and I can't pay it off. Is there a way to ditch my wanted level without buying a sidewinder and committing seppuku?
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Mar 13, 2016 00:50
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AndyElusive posted:Ahshit. I incurred a goddamn 6 DAY bounty on myself from the loving Scorpius Order by accidentally firing at a clean target while prowling a RES in HIP 35246 and I can't pay it off. No, and don't worry about it. No one cares about that poo poo because it's only with one faction in one system out of billions. Just ignore it.
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Mar 13, 2016 01:02
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nippythefish posted:No, and don't worry about it. No one cares about that poo poo because it's only with one faction in one system out of billions. Just ignore it. While that doesn't sound too bad, doesn't it mean I'll get interdicted while in supercruise and/or get fired at by any NPCs (security or otherwise) that scan me while I'm RES hunting?
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Mar 13, 2016 01:06
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AndyElusive posted:While that doesn't sound too bad, doesn't it mean I'll get interdicted while in supercruise and/or get fired at by any NPCs (security or otherwise) that scan me while I'm RES hunting? I don't know for sure about security but I'm pretty sure all NPC RES scans are cargo scans, not kill warrant scans. Weirdly. The NPC combatants assume you're a miner even if you've been flitting about in a Vulture for the last hour.
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Mar 13, 2016 01:13
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Sundowner posted:I don't know for sure about security but I'm pretty sure all NPC RES scans are cargo scans, not kill warrant scans. Weirdly. The NPC combatants assume you're a miner even if you've been
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Mar 13, 2016 01:17
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I got killed by a NPC-bounty hunter once, so it definitely happens. Pirates don't care as long as you don't have cargo, but bounty hunters sometimes scan you and if you have a bounty, welp.
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Mar 13, 2016 01:22
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Libluini posted:I got killed by a NPC-bounty hunter once, so it definitely happens. Bounty hunters are in nav beacons and only rarely in supercruise. If you're not new to the game, you probably won't see them too much.
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Mar 13, 2016 01:29
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Decided I can't keep flying the anaconda. It's an effective long range* death brick but I just can't do slow ships. Back to something that costs a third as much! *I can't spell range apparently DancingShade fucked around with this message at 07:11 on Mar 13, 2016 |
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Mar 13, 2016 03:09
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DancingShade posted:Decided I can't keep flying the anaconda. It's an effective long range* death brick but I just can't do slow ships. The worst part about the anaconda is it's lack of agility in supercruise.
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Mar 13, 2016 07:55
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Ok trip report: Federal assault ship with a large beam laser up top and 3 plasma accelerators down below is hilarious. You can 3 shot a gunship
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Mar 13, 2016 09:04
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| # ? May 25, 2024 02:36 |
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I'm finally soon going to be able to get back on Elite after being forced into a 2 week gaming hiatus due to a 'sploded GPU. Ever since I've had Pavlovian fever dreams about using burst lasers but I know they're obviously power and heat hungry. Knowing that fact I basically never messed with them too much and stuck to pulse and beam... so, what ships work best to manage the power and the heat build up of burst lasers so you can achieve decent sustained fire? The diamondbacks?
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Mar 13, 2016 11:03
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