Before reading: please note to all, I do NOT claim myself to be an MLGer, nor the best. Just a basic, decent player of any game. So if you’re looking to this article on how to “make money quick” or anything like that, you’re looking in the wrong place and should just move on.

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Like all good commanders, Commander Adama, Commander Shepard, and Commander Riker all look to keep their head straight and level, deal with problems as they come along, and generally kick ass, save the day, and maybe get the girl. Or at the very least sleep with the local alien women when they come along….I’M LOOKING AT YOU RIKER!


Unlike Commander Riker who had to answer to Captain Picard, Commander Adama had no one but the president to answer to, along with Shepard who had only Admiral’s Anderson and Hackett. I foresee that both Adama and Shepard would be having a very easy time with Elite: Dangerous. Now…if only I had them to tag along with in my, I won’t say wonderful adventures, of Elite: Dangerous, but more like “really?” missions and happening in my adventures to set my place in the E:D universe.

Anyway, here is my story so far.

Gamma Path 1.0 is here. Such eagerness, such ready, such need for wanting to fly again. It should be noted by this time I missed the actual launch of Gamma by a couple days as I was in the hospital getting my chemotherapy on and recovering afterward. So by this time it was Gamma 1.02 or so. And with that explained, let us continue.


Like all new patches, I start a Solo match…playing the game with no one else or getting to meet anyone else, easier on the network and nearly no lag when the server is stressing the new patch. I find myself in a station I’ve never been before during beta. A station…which name now escapes me…which I think is outside the “bubble” of the beta. To my happiness, the restricted bubble that was established during beta is gone, I figure I’m either in a station that’s added outside the bubble or since I never explored the bubble much, somewhere in that bubble area I’ve never been.


With that, I give myself a sit rep. To outfitting…yep not surprised, everything’s been reset and I am in the not very liked Sidewinder. It’s an okay ship, free to replace but on the grand scheme of things, that’s all it’s got: free. Even the really agile Eagle is better than it with its three weapon points.

So I’m not disappointed, not surprised, just slightly annoyed my account got reset for gamma, which again was not a surprise. But the one thing that surprised me was the money I’m now starting out with. When I first started playing the Beta patch…Beta 1.03…I was giving 1K of credits to start off with. Now with Gamma, I’ve been given 100 credits. 100!!!!??? That’s it? Come on man…..awww….


Oh well, that’s not so bad, as long as I get some monies…not that I can buy anything with that. But my plan is…just like everyone else playing E:D…is to get to the Sol system, Earth. I wanna be Sol Man damnit. But this non-upgraded sidewinder is useless and could never make it there. I search the Galaxy Map….just saying that makes me giggle thinking of Commander Shepard…and look up Sol. Lo and behold it’s about 85 Light Years away. And the very first jump I need to do is 10 Ly’s, my sidewinder can do 7 at most. So again this sidewinder is going to be thrown away after I use it to get what I need, a Hauler. The Zorgon Peterson Hauler, known as just The Hauler, completely empty has a standard jump range of 10, what I need to get to earth. But it’s just about 42K credits, so I need to start doing missions and killing pirates to get it. You and me Sidewinder, we’re going to be short term friends.


OH, but wait. I remembered now, people who pre-ordered the game were given a free Eagle to pick up somewhere else. Looking into the Shipyard, it does indeed tell my I have an Eagle. It tells me it’s a couple systems over, looking at the Galaxy map it says it’s 30 Ly’s away from me…but guess what, the first jump is still that 10 Ly jump I can’t make, so my little Eagle will have to wait for now.

Time for missions. Okay the basic reputation system has added. My reputation with all major factions is…who knew…neutral and the local system factions don’t know nor care who I am. The current rep system is not around yet, there’s no status on what the local system factions are or who they’re allied with. Not all of them will be allied with the Federation…the major faction I wish to work on…some will be independent and some of those independents I just will not care about doing business with, i.e. the local mob.


I’m a good guy…in real life and in game…so I don’t want to go around pirating, stealing cargo, or just generally pissing off people and factions. So I want to do things that make me feel good, i.e. no slave trading, no blowing up police/military ships, or killing innocent people. I just need enough money to get a hauler then I’m out of here. So first things first, the local Bulletin Board……ah crap….to say the least. My ship is crap, my cargo hold is crap, and the local board almost has nothing I can use. So desperate am I that I look into assassination attempts…even though the last one I did in the Beta I took a Viper against a lone Anaconda, got my ass kicked. However none of the factions trust me for anything big, the most amount of money I can make is about 500 credits for hauling cargo. The other 1K and above need more cargo space. And I can’t do multiple missions because I have no room in my cargo hold. 4 tons sucks.


I’ll just have to live with it.


I load up my ship, undock and off I go.


To some up the next bunch of missions, yes they are all moving items from A to B, I want my Hauler and soon as possible. And after a short amount of time…as the local system start to trust me…they give me more to do and offer more money. Finally get about 45K and that’s all I need. First station I dock at I look for a Hauler in the ship. YES! They have one…SELL SELL SELL my sidewinder. But sadly, everything on board it is loaned to me so I make no money selling her. Thank you for the quick cash grab there sidewinder, sorry to say I won’t miss ya. Buying a Hauler is not exactly an upgrade either but what are you going to do. They give me a loaned weapon for its single weapon hard point. Who the hell is going to fight with this thing? One gun is never enough, two is bare minimum. Sell that loaned weapon, jump range increased from 9.87 Ly’s to 10…just what I need.


I must prepare first, I don’t want to spend what little money I have on refueling so I outfit my ship with a fuel scoop, it will be greatly needed on the road ahead. Now to set out.


At this point in the game, the route planner has yet to be added so I must plan my route manually. Open the galaxy map, find in what general direction Sol is and jump in that general direction.

I don’t know about you people who’ve played E:D but I honestly love to jump to Hyperspace and Super cruise. I know it’s not correct but I do call Hyperspace-ing “Jumping,” thinking of BSG when I do, and I do call Super Cruise warping and jumping/dropping into and out of warp. I honestly do have the voice of different Star Trek captains in my head when I go into Warp. It really does help when the game counts down and says “Engage” when you jump. Oh the giggles, goosebumps, and general smiling every time she says that.


Anyway, onward to Sol…”Zoey….Engage Jump drive and take us out.”
(Beautiful Orchestra swells as I bank towards my first jump shot, the dreaded 10Ly jump.)

Yes I call my ships computer Zoey, don’t judge me, I have nerd-needs and nerdgasms. Sadly I don’t have the Voice Attack program to actually get a response from Zoey but in my head she’s happy to follow my commands.


“Drive Charging.” The computer…hereby known as Zoey…answers.


The Frameshift Drive charge bar appears and slowly begins to fill up. I can hear the Drive growling loader and loader as it begins to charge. In my head I imagine that my ships seat rumbling my body as the massive amount of energy needed to propel this craft to another star builds up behind my cockpit. My ships heat signature spikes quickly, going from 50% heat to 90%.


“Ready to Engage” Zoey says reminding me I need to align to the jump target.


I bank my ship to within millimeters of the jump target and Zoey takes control of the ship away from me.


“4…3…2…1…Engage.”


WHOOSH THUMP


Oh the greatest sound in this game, makes me happy every time.

Hyperspace is very cool to watch. All the clouds, space debris, flying by like little stars, oh brings back fond memories of watching Star Trek and watching ships flying through space at warp speed.


THUMP WHOOSH.


Well that was fast, we’re at the next star….WOOO!!


“Warning: Temperature Critical!”


Zoey points out one of this ships other weaknesses, can’t dissipate its heat fast enough and it absorbs heat from the nearby star like a sponge. My temperature has just passed the 100% mark. My ship won’t explode anytime soon but modules on my ship…life support, thrusters, etc….will slowly start taking damage if I stay at 100% or more for too long.


“Fuel Scooping.”


Oh hey, Zoey tells me we’re close enough to start scooping fuel from the sun. I’ll need to this from time to time in order to keep me away from stations and spending what little money I have. But do I want to wait until my tank is near empty and spend a good 5mins or more refilling at some other star or keep the tank topped off? Eh I’ll just keep topping it off at all stars, keep me from staying still for too long.


I keep my speed as slow as warp will let me, the faster I go the more fuel I scoop up but the downside is my ship will heat up even faster. I set my intake to just above 10 Liters of fuel a second and no more, I try to stay at the same distance around the star as I can but it’s hard to judge. My temperature percentage keeps going up slowly. 120%. 130%.


If I get to one 150% the hull of my ship will start taking damage and the risk of exploding is even higher. I pull my ship up a bit, my fuel intake still above 10 L/s, my main tank is almost full, just a little longer is all I need, come on little hauler you can do it.


“Warning: Taking Damage!”


Zoey startles me with this alert. 152% and still rising. My hull is now at 98% and dropping, modules are at 95% and dropping. If I lose warp and thruster drives I’ll be stuck next to this star unable to get away. I have no repair module on board, too expensive for me. So if I’m screwed, I’m screwed.


THUMP!!!!!


Zoey has yet to have her “Fuel Scooping Complete” voice so that deep and loud thump is the fuel scooper unable to take on any more fuel, my main tank is full. Time the get the hell out of here. I pull straight back on the stick and bank away from the star at full speed. My temperature maxing out at 161% before dropping like a rock back into normal range as I line back up on the my next star run.


“Fuel Scooping Disengaged.”


Yes she tells me that when we are too far away to scoop any fuel. No biggie.


“Drive Charging.”


Lined up, sped up, ready for another jump. My sit rumbles, the bar fills, let us explore some more.


If I’m to get to Sol, the priority now is to keep my ship from exploding, so keep skimming stars for fuel but don’t do that again.


“4…3…2…1…Engage.”


WHOOSH THUMP.

About half way through my jumps to Sol, I realize about my poor Eagle left in that random station 30 Ly’s from my starting point, I might be close enough to get her. But I can’t take her anywhere. Like the Sidewinder and the Viper, her default jump range is crap. No more than 7 or 8 Ly’s. She’s meant for local patrols. So even if I could get her she couldn’t come with me to Sol unless I upgrade her which is a whole other bag of nuts. But just for curiosity I look on the Galaxy Map…giggles…for the icon of my stored ship. Takes a bit of time but I finally find the icon………it’s 30 Ly’s behind me. So at one point I was right next to her but now she’s behind me…..nope. At the very least I could sell her and get 32K of credits for her but nope…my focus is the Sol system. I’ll deal with my Eagle some other time.


ONWARD ZOEY!!!!


“4….3….2….1….Engage.”


WOOSH THUMP.

Upon discovering that you can’t scoop fuel from a white dwarf star…which involved traveling forward about what felt like a foot then Zoey immediately engaging the emergency stop ability on me. Dropping out of warp uncontrollably is not comfortable. All the spinning…I’m sure Oculus Rift people hate it.


“Warning: Temperature Critical”


Granted I knew you couldn’t get fuel from a dwarf star since they’re imploded stars that used up all there fuel a long time ago so have no fuel to give me, I just wanted to see if they modeled that in game. Not surprising, they did…obviously.

Now as I’m waiting for my jump drive to cool down, which takes about 2mins, I don’t know what to expect when I get to Sol. I’m definitely not expecting something along the lines of like the star ship Enterprise or an Imperial Battleship or the Deathstar or any other “Breaking the Fourth wall/Breaking the Immersion wall” type thing to happen. I’m honestly thinking since this is the founding system of the Federation…one of the major factions of the E:D universe, not Star Treks Federation…I’m expecting a military fleet, or military ship yards, high tech crap, and I guess extraction places since the asteroid belt and the gas giants all have stuff to mine from.

“Frameshift Online.”


Sadly Zoey doesn’t say this but texts me this in the top right status box. My current temperature percentage is above 90%…if I try and jump the ship now I most likely will get above 150% as the jump drive charges, if not just simply destroy the ship, I need to get away from this white dwarf before jumping to the next system.


“Drive Charging”


I charge up the warp drive, which charges very, very quickly but still manages to get my ship above 100%.


“Warning: Temperature Critical. Ready to Engage.”


YES YES, that will be all Zoey…wait…I’m lined up…why aren’t we jumping?


“Align with escape Vector” the blue text tells me in the middle of screen. UGH!!!


“4…3…2…1…Engage.”

My ships temp drops quickly, dwarfs are small and hot but there heat range is very limited. I easily get below 70% within seconds of pulling away from the star. I align with my next jump and charge the jump drive.

My rule of thumb, when jumping away from a nearby star to another system, no matter the ship, wait until your temperature drops below 80% before charging your jump drive. By that point your ship is falling away from the heat source so quickly that you won’t get into triple digit heat signature unless you just sit there with it at full power like a dip.

WHOOSH THUMP!


A couple of systems later my main tank is down by half, time to scoop some more fuel.


I’m no longer in a type of “stress, eager” state I was when I started this journey. I’m now taking my time scooping. I’ve yet to cook my ship into near toast black state as I did before, I’m just happy to get fuel at all. This current Red Giant will do nicely…which I do not take lightly, this thing will cook me if I’m not careful.


“Fuel Scooping” Zoey informs me again.


5 L/s…I can live with that no worries. 98% temp, oh yeah baby…nice little butter zone here, not to warm to melt, not too cold to freeze.


I point my little hauler straight ahead, keeping the very edge of the star just below the “hood” of my ship, just barely seeing some gases and some spikes popping in over the hood.


I lay back, I’ve now turned off the in-game music and am now listening to music by Bear McCreary, Jack Wall, (Re imagined Battlestar Galactica/Caprica and Mass Effect 1 & 2 respectively) and some classic rock such as Jimi Hendrix. Not that the in-game music is bad, it’s very good actually, I was just in the whole “looking for earth” type mood of BSG that I needed some Bear to make me feel even more happily emotional than I already was.


I love you Bear. 🙂

I keep checking to see if all is with my “autopilot” which is just me setting the ship in one direction and hoping it stay that way and I don’t hit the joystick by accident. Fuel intake still at 6 L/s and temp is just entering 100% range, I’m good. It’s going to be awhile until the tank is full, might as well see the next jump target.

I look to my left to select the Galaxy Map…giggles…but before I click it, I notice something. I gasp as I see a target within range of my ship.

Wolf 359, Alpha Centauri….SOL!!!!

All within my jump range…my happiness is through the roof. I’m one jump away from home….HOME! And almost as an icing on the cake, Bear McCrearys song “Pegasus” starts to play within a minute of me discovering this. And as I write this, it’s playing to bring back those old feelings.

I pull away from the star, screw fuel. When I get home I have to top off my reserve tank whether or not my main tank is full, 4 tons of fuel is cheap.


“Drive Charging.”


The amount of happiness and giggles I’m feeling is through the roof…cockpit. Can’t wait to see how home looks. Can’t wait to see what tech and ships Sol will offer, including the money I’m going to make helping out the Federation.


“4…3…2…1…Engage.”


WHOOSH THUMP!

On my way home, oh yay…oh yay…on my way home…oh yay, oh yay.


Yes I sound like Wiggin on a normal day when it comes to this game.

THUMP WHOOSH!

My destination tab lights up, Mercury, Daedalus Station, Venus, Abraham Lincoln Station, Li Qing Jao Station, M. Gorbachev Station, Earth.
Finally….FINALLY…I made it. I lost count of the jumps I’ve made after 10, the amount of happiness I have is equal to that of “overjoyed.” My local contacts lights up with everything. Transports, Police, just so much traffic, it makes me so happy.


I’m looking around for my “local home,” the station I shall call home, I choose Daedalus for two reasons, it’s the closest station to The Sun and I love the name. As I dock, I found out this station has a decent amount of weapons to choose from, but the modules they have is…well pitiful. The only thing I can upgrade is my sensors and my life support, it doesn’t have anything else besides add-on modules like cargo racks. And it turns out that Sol system is mainly a Refinery and Services system, not an industrial or high tech system or even a military system like I was hoping for. But since it’s the heart of the federation, that means I can earn my reputation with them as a ship I want, the Federal Dropship, can only be bought if you have a high rank within the Federation. It’ll be awhile before I make enough credits to be able to buy it..37mil credits…but hopefully by then my rank should be high enough to be able to get it and the added plus that the higher my rank, the cheaper items including ships cost.


Daedalus refuels me for a mere 900 credits, not at all bad. But now to put this hauler to work. I sell my fuel scoop. If I’m going to be hauling back and forth, the fuel cost will be cheap enough to not have to worry about breaking even. No need to upgrade life support or sensors as I won’t be fighting but giving my ship more cargo space will help and luckily Daedalus has this upgrade as well. As much as I could max out my cargo space to 22 tons by replacing my shield generator with a cargo module but I do not ever wish to not have shields….is that how I write that?…so too bad, I’ll live with 16 tons max.


Find a couple of missions to haul stuff around and make my monies. My current goal, get a Viper, a cheap heavy fighter that will help me with kill missions and kill pirates if I feel like it. And that will in turn help me get one of my favorite ships: The Cobra. Best, early, all round ship that can fight like a Viper and haul like a Hauler.

A heavy sigh comes over me upon discovering something at Daedalus, indeed the Sol system. Now at Patch 3.9 includes the more advanced, indeed current reputation system. After many missions to make money for my Viper, then using said Viper to get money for my Cobra, I discover that it seems that not only is the Sol system lousy for Cobras’, seems the stations only sell Eagles, Vipers, and transports with there most expensive ship being the Lakon Type 9 Heavy which is the biggest transport ship in the game and WAY beyond what’s in my current wallet at 75mil credits. Someday I plan on getting that ship but right now that’s nothing more than a pipe dream. I want my cobra damnit.


Annoyed at the current situation, I decide bounty hunting at the local Sol Nav Beacon will bring me some happiness. I store my hauler, switch to my Viper that’s been upgraded with some decent weapons, medium hard points are my main weapons of gimbaled pulse lasers with my small hard points being my urge to try weapons I haven’t tried such as rail guns and cannons. Added modules include chaff for evading gimballed and turreted weapons for a short time, and a warrant scanner to get the most amount of money in my kills.

At the nav point with my Viper, the fun begins. Note to any new commander….NEVER take on an Anaconda by yourself. Have friends strafe or wait until the Anaconda is focused on other ships before you do anything to it. You need a tough ship to take it on by yourself, at minimum a Cobra…which I do not have of course. More on that in a bit.

Game play wise, the Nav Beacon is where the AI jumps into the system and gets ready to either jump to another system or jump to warp to travel within the system. Players drop out of FTL into warp to travel around the system immediately, unlike the AI.


Circling around the beacon as ships drop out of FTL and scanning each one with the basic sensors of the ship. Basic information it’ll give is what type of ship it is, who is the pilot, what’s his rank (between Harmless and Elite) and whether or he/she is Clean with the authorities or Wanted. Lots of clean ships pass through Sol and I instantly ignore them. I could justify scanning them with a warrant scanner (which scans ship to see if they have a bounty ANYWHERE in any system instead of just a major faction) because even clean ships can have bounties somewhere and I can make money off it if I scan them but that’s just more effort I have to make and it most likely will be a very low, nearly worthless bounty to get and the ship right next to him could be wanted and have a big bounty on him/her.


Ships only drop out of FTL here for so long, they do not loiter forever. They spend no more than 5mins more or less at sub-light. Unless of course they’re under attack and which point they attempt to run sooner. With that in mind if you act cool, don’t run around with your weapons deployed or anything, ships just continue on the way. They see you as the local police which also patrol here scanning for pirates. So they “la-dee-da” along like nothing happened, even the wanted ones continue on like nothing’s going to happen.


Upon discovering a wanted ship, a viper and I must deploy weapons as my warrant scanner is also an item that needs to be deployed to work. The scanner I have taken 10 seconds to scan and you must be within 2 kms of the ship. Upon activating the scanner, the target instantly starts to squirm. He’s knows I’ve deployed my ships weapon and he knows he’s being scanned, they panic. He starts attempting to get behind me so my weapons can’t target him and my scanner stops working. I have to keep the target in front of me for my scanner to finish.


“Beep…beep…beepbeep…beepbeepbeepbeep, Bleebeep”


Scanner finished, switch to main guns, open fire.


“I will send you screaming into the empty pit of space.”


The text from the AI is funny. That only scares me when I’m going against a much tougher ship. A Cobra or Viper….meh. He gets a few shots off at me, I switch a bit more power to shields to keep them fully charged, sacrificing my speed to do so but he’s dead, he just doesn’t know it yet.


“Target Shields Offline.”


Thank you for telling me Zoey.


“IMMPOSSIBLE!”


Every time the AI sends me that text I think of that meme “IMMPOSIBRUH!”


“Must……escape…..”


Yeah good luck with that buddy.


“Frameshift Charge Detected.”


Zoey informs me he’s trying to jump away, whether he’s going to warp or jumping out I can’t tell. If he jumps to warp I can follow him, if he jumps to FTL I don’t have the wake scanner to find out where he jumped to and there are plenty of places to jump. But luckily I’m staying within 1km of him so his jump drive charging rate is horribly slowed. I have a good minute before he can jump away, which is 30 seconds too long. And if I need to I can target his Framshift Drive and disable it really quickly so he can’t jump at all.


“Beep….beep…..beep….”


My target hologram shows me his shields are recharging, not very fast but fast enough. If he gets his shields back in time I’ll have to knock them out again. They won’t be back at full power but it does present a problem. His hull takes no damage while his shields are up and if I have to take it down he might have just enough time to escape.


“Beep, beep, beep, beep.”


Oh crap, he diverted power to shields, now they’re recharging at full speed.


Must…fire…everything….faster.


All power is to my weapons, his hull is dropping fast, down to single digits now but his shields are about to come up and it’s been nearly a minute since this vipers been charging.


As my weapon hit thermal overload, a wondrous thing happens.


My guns “jam,” his shields come online, but his hull has reached 0%.


He begins to tumble through space, soft explosions and ruptures being to appear around his ship. I slam my engines into reverse, afraid I’ll run into debris from his ship as it explodes and with the sweet voice of hers, Zoey informs me:


“Target Destroyed.”


Texts pops up in the top right corner:


“Bounty Claimed for the destruction of ‘???’: 3K credits.”

It’s a nice haul for a viper. At this point in the game they had yet to “balance” out bounties in the game. It used to be much higher but upon launching the Gamma patches it was shrunk horribly. For a while bounty hunting I honestly didn’t see as a viable way to make money. I can happily report now that at the launch of the game that have fixed this. But I’m getting ahead of myself, back to my current situation.

I’ve claimed a fair amount of bounties. Sadly the majority of the ships I’ve destroyed are all low level. Sidewinders, Vipers, a Cobra here and there. So the bounties have not been huge. But today’s bounty hunting has presented me a slight present. Today’s drop at the Nav Beacon has presented me with a scary yet very attractive bounty.


An Anaconda.


This fat bastard has been following me ever since I dropped out of warp at the beacon. He’s wanted from the get-go but he has a restriction that won’t let him fight me. He wants my non-existent cargo. Without that he’s disappointed, asks me how I make a living with no cargo, and moves on to the next target.

(At the time of this Gamma patch, AI cargo hunting pirates were given a “do NOT fight a ship with no cargo” command. So even if they ripped you out of warp and found no cargo, they wouldn’t fight you. That of course has changed in the later versions of Gamma patch so now they’ll be disappointed that you have nothing but will still try to kill you.)

This Anaconda makes me angry so much. They can’t maneuver to save their life but they’re tough as hell with they’re armor and shields, not to mention the amount of weapons they have, especially since most of their weapons are turreted and can hit me no matter where I am to it. There is almost no blind spot on these things and some navies in the game use them as cruiser to patrol systems. But this Anaconda has a 30K bounty on its head…the old days it’d have as much as 80K or more…and that could really help close the gap between me and my Cobra.


At 300K, I’m very close to my 400K goal to get a cobra. Technically a Cobra is only 379K but I like to have a little extra to outfit it with stuff. Selling my Viper when I get her will help a lot. And that 30K bounty could shorten the amount of time I’m grinding for that ship. With that being said, there’s no way I’m taking on that Anaconda by myself. And I have no one to call on for help so right now I just have to focus on killing easier targets.

A half hour of sitting here killing easy bounties is entertaining. Especially when a ship I kill has a buddy that escapes and gets help to come “kick my ass” half time involves just two souped up Sidewinders that have beam weapons or rail guns coming to avenge there fallen comrade. But once I focus on killing one, the other runs like a bitch. But then after that he comes back with three souped up Sidewinders and a Cobra. Focusing on the heaviest ship first always sends the other two fleeing…most the time.


But now my secondary light hard point weapons…which are now just gimbaled multicannons…are half out of ammunition and I don’t like sitting out here with all these bounties and a slightly hurt ship. The last squad that came in to “Avenge” their comrades death, the Cobra did hurt me a bit, dropping my shields and bring my hull down to 80%. But I can still fly, it’s just always that “eh…one more kill then I’ll dock” feeling that keeps you going.


I start to fly back towards the beacon as the previous battle drew me 30km away from the beacon. As I fly as fast as this Viper can go…which is the faster in the game by the way…I can just barely see far past the beacon some weapons fire. And it’s not just one ship shooting another, it’s at least 3 fighting 1 ship but they’re too far away from my sensors to pick up. I fly past the beacon as 3 freighters drop in right behind me but I ignore them and keep flying towards the firefight.


As I get closer the sensors finally pick up the targets but they’re still too far away to identify who they are. As I get closer the first ship identified is a local police ship. This is a very good sign, which means they’ve found a pirate and our now engaging it. If I can get in and take the fight shot I can get the bounty. Now within range of all the ships, they’re all identified, 3 Police Vipers, 1 Police Cobra, engaging a….oh look it’s that Anaconda from earlier. He’s desperately trying to maneuver his to bring all his guns to bare on target but anything can out fly an Anaconda and he can never get a lucky shot on any of the police. Luckily the police are working together, circling around and keeping him distracted, never allowing him a clean shot on any one of them. His shields are still up but they’re dropping slowly.


Oh….OH….OH!!! Do I help? Do I wait until they get him down to no health…which could take forever…or do I just jump away from the fight and turn into my bounties. Ugh….UGH…decisions. Sitrep: My multicannons are down to 1K of rounds left, my ship’s hull as 80%, my modules I never pay attention to until Zoey tells me one of them are disabled so they could be at any amount of health and I wouldn’t know. My shields are full, I’m in a Viper, I can out run and out maneuver this hulking death machine……


That’s it….CLEAR TO ENGAGE!

The Anaconda’s shields are almost down but I want to get into a good spot before that happens. I get right on his tail and stay there with weapons retracted, I don’t need him worrying about me until he needs too. I also have to be careful because a lot of times it seems the cops like to fire no matter what even if there are innocents or allies in the way. A lot of times cops get wanted status because they accidentally shot there fellow officers which in turn causes officers to kill officers.

“Target Shields Offline.”


Now is the time to strike, whilst the iron is hot.


“Hardpoints Deploying” the top right text informs me.

I divert all power to weapons and give this Anaconda no quarter. I hold down both triggers and give it everything I have.

“You’ve messed with the wrong ship” the Anaconda commander tells me.


“Warning: Under Attack!” Zoey announces.

Yep….I can now officially say this was stupid. I’ve done so much damage that the Anaconda is now targeting me. Anaconda’s do have a blind spot but it’s so small and so hard to stay in. It’s within 25-50 meters behind it. But at any time the ship pitches up or down any of the forward most turrets can hit me easily so most the time I’m just fighting to stay slow and in that sweet spot. It’s a real hassle but now that I’m committed, I don’t want him to run. In a quick moment I target his Frameshift drive so that he can’t jump away.


That small amount of time to target his FSD put me out of position, I’m now in full sights of his dorsal turrets and they’re hitting me hard. They seem to be heavy hitting beam turrets. Out of a panic I bank and boost away to give my shields a chance to get back to full and his beam weapons maybe be powerful but they are limited in range. I pull away to 3km, enough range to get the Anaconda to target another police officer. This is how you basically take a ship this size on, hit it, let it target you, get hurt, pull away out of range, let some else take the damage while you recharge, then switch roles and repeat. Short of a full scale fleet of 5 or more ships to take it on this is the only way to do it by yourself, use the police as pawns if you must.


My shields back and full and my guns cooled and turn and make another run at him, making sure not to open up until I can get behind him again but this Anaconda is not having any of this, he immediately turns broadside to me and unloads his weapons on me. Far too much damage to handle at once.


“Shields Offline. Warning: Taking Damage!”


Zoey puts me into a panic. Without even firing weapons I boost past him again, desperately banking and thrusting in different directions to keep his turrets from hitting me. Turret also may be very powerful but if the target is fast enough the turrets have trouble tracking you. Now back to 3km away I come to a nice stop and put all power to shields to recharge them faster. Now a local bounty hunter has dropped in to help. He must have seen the fireworks as well, or the cops called for help because more police ships are arriving. My shields are recharging but not fast enough, I’m anncey to get back into the fight. Even though I have plenty of time because the Anacondas hull is still at 90%, I’m still worried an AI will get the kill and I won’t get my 30K of credits.

BLEEP WHOOSH.


“Shields online.”

YES! I’m so impatient I don’t wait until my shields are at 100% before I charge back towards the fight. I put all power to weapons and divert whatever is left from engines to shields. This time I don’t wait for him to shoot me, I once again target his FSD and unload everything I have. The top right box flashes constantly saying “FSD Online,” “FSD Offline” as I disable and he repairs it. As I his module drops below 15%, finally the lovely visual and auditory reaction happens that brings a big smile to my face. His hull starts to explode as his FSD fails completely, collapses and destroys the ship. A bounty of 60K bounty is given to me…oh joy of joys….but here’s the problem now. And it’s a critical one.


The new way ranking within systems and major factions…which was just added in the most recent patch, has made it where any kind of action you do against a faction, major or minor, i.e. blowing up an allied ship because he’s wanted…pisses off allied factions to no end. And on that not, I’ve killed more than 50 ships at the Sol Nav Beacon and did not pay attention to a ships side. So upon that note, the factions I’ve been working for…well to say the least there not happy with me.


My home base, Daedalus, now went from “Allied” to “Neutral” and the Federation and the Federal Congress, the controller of the majority of starbases around Earth, has gone from “Neutral” to “Hostile.” Yes, Hostile. They now actively hunt me and now essentially the Sol system can no longer be my home at all and indeed all Federation systems can no longer be my home. I now have two choices, live in an Independent system, or travel to the either one of the other major factions, the Empire or the Alliance.


I prefer to not work for the Empire and a local Independent system I would choose would be surrounded my Federation systems and missions would require me to travel to Federation system which is not possible as any Federation station or there patrols would track me down and kill me. So with that, all I can do is travel to the Alliance and star anew there. Or I could go full pickle and delete this pilot and start from scratch but screw that, I’ve put too much time and effort into this and I want to continue and/or want to continue to torture myself.


Upon selling my Viper and getting a Hauler again, I set course for the Alliance and begin my life anew.

Turns out I was not the only one that had this problem of suddenly pissing off the faction there working for. Within two days of working for the Alliance, a new patch appears on the server that I did not notice until many days after because of busy life and medical problem. When I got back from the hospital, I updated and notice that the Federation is only Unfriendly to me now. I figured Hostile was a temporary thing until I checked the patch notes. All players who had extremely negative rankings in factions were upped by one. So now they’re just Unfriendly to me and no longer hunted me, although stations still were mean to me. Every time I requested to dock at a Federation or faction allied to them they say simply, to paraphrase South Park, “Get your shit and get out.”


So with that since I do have a starting point in Federation, granted a bit negative, I decided to head back down to Sol however not to start working for them again. I figured I wanted a ship and modules that were higher than just simple basic items. I found a system near the Sol system, the Kruger 60 system, which is a High Tech/Extraction system which means plenty of high-end modules to be outfitted on my ship. Upon once again selling my Hauler and having just enough to buy a Cobra, I begin my quick roll up the corporate ramp of Kruger 60’s Kepler star base, going quickly from Neutral to Friendly to Allied at this station. Breaking my first million credits, I outfight my cobra with a very good Frame shift drive, minimum of a 15 light year range at which time a “story” mission pops up. Known as “Onion Gate” in-game, the Federation declares a product sold within Federation Space, OnionHead, as a narcotic. Only one system grows it and a Federation Admiral took unilateral action and launched a raid on the planet that grew it, bombing the fields. They official statement was “no one was killed, we used smart weapons to just destroy the fields” however the fires and flames from said bombings killed some farmers indirectly. This, of course, caused protests including the President coming out and condemning the Admirals actions. This caused more problems as the Shadow President came out and said the Admirals actions were fine, causing internal friction of the Federation. Shortly thereafter, that same Admiral took his Capital Ship into the system and begin engaging the locals to stop growing OnionHead.


I took advantage of this, siding once again with the Federation, traveling the 65+ light years to the system and fighting off the locals, making a nice 1mil in combat bonds fighting off the locals. The Admiral wiped out OnionHead, and I moved on.

Sorry locals.


But after that, making money bouncing from system to system, hauling, bounty hunting, exploring. Finally getting just enough money to get the ship I currently want. The powerful and medium fat ass Asp. It has 6 weapon ports, sounds like a B-17 bomber, can be outfitted to haul freight equal to a Type-6 Freighter, and has very good shields and armor to handle a fight. It can easily take on an Anaconda by itself although it’s still a tough job without help.

Now I bum around the Shinrarta Dezhra system.

The home system to the Pilots Federation, essentially the union for all pilots in the game. It’s independent, recently added a 10% discount on all items and ships, and only one station in the entire system. I expect it to get more attractive as a system as more stuff is added to the game and expansions are added later down the line. The main reason I went here was simply no matter how many missions I’ve done for the Federation…the main Federation, not the Pilots Federation…I have yet to increase my standing with them. They still considering me unfriendly however my rank has increased with them to Petty Officer. So someday I will still be able to get the Federal Dropship as that thing scares the hell out of me.

This is my type of game. I’ve been waiting for it since Star Trek: Bridge Commander. When it turned out they were never going to make a sequel to that, I’ve had to wait about more than 12 years to get something even close to this and I still can’t wait for more ships, features, and other things to be added to Elite: Dangerous.

So upon that note, all results may vary.


Your experience with this game may not be the same.


You may or may not find this game worth your time, effort or money.


So do some research, find out if a game like this is right for you.


Do not rage at me or the developers if you buy it and feel it’s a waste of money.


Ask your local gamer nerd, specifically space gamer nerd if Elite: Dangerous is right for you.

If you must rage at me you can contact me at:

oz********@th**************.com.

Rage/Hate mail may not get a response