Frontier - First Encounters(Elite3)

[Snotty]

I just got the lucky break I was waiting for, selling 75 tons of slaves for 2250 a ton, and they only cost me 750

I like the idea of playing no save 'Iron man' as it were, although I imagine it would be next to impossible to get anywhere. Im still going to try though The spare fuel idea is a good one, and probably the way Im going to have to save my neck It will also mean mis-jumps wont spell disaster (unless there are some thargoids hiding in the middle for me). Much less room for cargo though if I am hauling all this fuel around. Realistically Im still going to have to save often, for example my autopilot just drove me face first into the spaceport it was supposed to be landing me on!

With a decent laser and a big stack of shields, most of the pirate fights are beatable. Getting enough money to get to the point is going to be the tricky part if I play a no save game.

I think I know which contract you are talking about, I chose not to take that one as I was too busy hauling slaves back and forth. However, I have just been employed by the Emperor to find the low-life who did take the contract Good luck pal...

[child of Thor]

..........i might not be using the name your expecting though

Slave tradeing eh?.........and what is you ship registration may i ask?

I got into the habit in Frontier of taking over the last bit of the landing from the AutoPilot. If at a space station i wait until the autopilot has my speed at around 120 kph(not kps!) and take manual control. All you have to do is gently make any needed corrections and you should just coast in.

On planet is a bit more tricky, depending on the gravity and how much your autopilot has miscalculated if it has!

One thing i've found in FFE, is that if things look bad you can change the default landing speed of real-time to 2x speed, and this can sometimes rush you through the landing procedure safetly.
Except where the autopilot choses to roll you through 180 degrees about 500 meters from touchdown, this tactic wont work - you just have to take manual control and use the '[ or ] ' keys to avoid landing on your head.

As a side note(maybe for Barinthus?) I'm using a combination of all my old Frontier(Elite2) game manuals(game manual/Gazeteer/Stories from the Frontier), the FFE pdf document+ some of those FFE fansites to get me into the game world.

[J Bytheway]

If the autopilot is giving you trouble then go to maximum time acceleration (even for the last little bit after you get landing clearance) - it behaves much better then.

[child of Thor]

Hi J Bytheway, and welcome

I'm finding those new missiles(MB something or others) quite interesting. I'm not usualy a missile guy(who can be in an Asp?) - but i did use one to take out my first contract.

[I should just let Snotty know that i didnt commit the act he thinks i did, but ended up doing the same job he is doing for 50,000 - that of getting the scoundrel that did]

wow - i'm actualy planning my weekend around playing FFE

And after eating and spitting out Halo2 over a day or two, and Just starting to get into Fable - this is quite something. Especially when i'm not even playing my long time(6months so far?) staple of LMA manager.

(looks towards FFE)
Impresive......most impresive.

And now for something completely(well not quite) different.

Hard War.

Been playing it a fair bit over the last month. I like it its a cool game, and doesnt look bad even by todays standards. Again its another game i'm new to, coming out in that period where i wasn't gameing much.

Anyway, in FFE whenever i fly to the space station orbiting Titan(or Io?) in the Sol system(sometimes its the closet dock) - i give a nod to the guys down on Titan, scurrying around in their Moths, fighting for scavenger rights

And it got me thinking - wouldn't it be kinda dreamy if you could also own fixed property in FFE, like in Hard War? You could then not only have your 'batmobile' but also your 'batcave'

Its also that feature i liked in daggerfall(i can do it in Fable too) - the ability to own property.

Anyway i'm going to scour a few websites and see if i can find the 'Stories/Gazeteer' that came with FFE - as i've just got the game manual(complete with typos in the ship descriptions, commonly mixing the numbers for 'crew' and 'missiles' up). The one that came with Frontier is a bit out of date and many planets names have changed(especially in the 'new' Alliance part of sapce).

[Snotty]

Well my first iron man game came to a grisly end, but not as soon as I was expecting. I decided not to do the medicine runs as the place would probably be crawling with pirates, and instead took a mafia package to Alioth The constrictor that came after me took a pasting with my 1mw pulse laser as he waved his 4mw beam wildly around the place.

After that I legged it for Sol with about 4.5k in my pocket, only to be blown up by a missile in wolf 359, even though I had sold my chaff dispenser and bought a shiny new (non-naval) ecm I had considered buying a fuel scoop with the cash and just harvesting gas giants. Maybe I will try that next time although it will probably be intolerably dull.

I think missiles are going to be key in keeping me alive early on

I will check out hard war, because it is Multiplayer The one board I went to had plenty of recent posts, so that bodes well.

[Snotty]

Well, Ive managed to get myself a Viper mk2 without dieing Ive saved it now, and then if I die I will use this save as my restart point. I dont think Im going to bother going pure iron man, but I will try to apply the non-save and reload principle in the same way I do with civ. It certainly has made the game a lot more tense, and I might even buy myself an escape capule for the first time ever.

[Barinthus]

I'm still struggling with refuelling. I brought some extra hydrogen fuel then flew to some next planet. There, I refuelled but I was unable to return to the world where I came from.

Anyway as I said before, this game reminds me a lot of a game I used to play on my parents' Mac - this morning I recalled the title and it's Escape Velocity. I just found out that they have a Windows version at http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn/ as well as MacIntosh.

EV was a lot of fun and I can see that FFE can be a lot of fun once I've picked up on how to do stuff.

[Snotty]

EV looks interesting, first time I have heard of the series too Downloading whatever it is off of the site now.

Im worried I might have confused you a bit. the f2-f10 trick is only for your internal fuel tank. Your internal fuel tank only holds one unit of fuel (per level of engine), and is shown by the green line on the right of the HUD. You only use your internal fuel for traveling by autopilot. To make hyperspace jumps you need to have the fuel in your hold. Just make sure you have a unit of fuel left after refueling and you should be able to hyper jump.

Hope this helps

[Barinthus]

Thank, Snotty

[J Bytheway]

Originally posted by Snotty
You only use your internal fuel for traveling by autopilot.

I think you mean: you only use your internal fuel tank for travelling on thrusters, whether that be manually or my autopilot.

[Snotty]

Yep, Thats it

In my non-iron man game Ive bought myself a big python freighter, Im just waiting for crew to fill it up. I tried doing one run through where I slapped a fuel scoop on, 20 shield gens and a 20mw beam and started going north. I filled up my hold whenever I ran out of fuel, and just start jumping north again. I find it quite bizarre how the uninhabited depths of space are so full of pirates that every time I click the top time acceleration, I get attacked. Most of them I can swat out of the sky, but every now and then a pack gets lucky, or one of them turns up with a 100mw beam I guess if I want to explore the outer reachs of space I need one of those huge star trek style ships. Time to trade more slaves

[child of Thor]

Yes it is tricky trying to find the right balance of space-craft. Too big and your an easy target for someone with a big enough weapon(even if you pack in the shields).
Too small and its just a matter of luck if you survive a multiple craft attack.
And yes i've noticed that the fastest 'time' setting is more prone to getting you attacked.

I've started to slow things down much more now - the upside is that i get less attacks/crashes. And i only use the top speed untill i'm about 7.AU out(taking a few attacks), then i go down a speed setting untill i'm about 2.AU out(still maybe getting a few attacks).

After that its a progressive slowdown on the 'time-speed' settings untill the autopilot starts its final run.

The nice thing about this is that i get to actualy watch the planet approach, which adds(for me) quite alot to the impression of being in space. In max speed auto-pilot mode it all goes by in a blur

And Qudos to Snotty trying to play it 'iron-man' style

I cant even imagine anyone succeding at that!
I am trying to cut down on the reloads, and like you considering an escape capsule when i get a big enough space ship.
At the momment i just carry that extra fuel into any new system, and set my escape hyperjump system as soon as i arrive.

I've currently picked up an interesting mission from the bulitin boards - to 're-decorate' a firm of lawyers in the Ackweyda(sp?) system. I took it because its mentioned in the Journals and sounded fun, and i've never tried a ground attack mission before.

On the otherhand i'm also taking a high paying passenger to the same system. She needs to be there a day before i'm due to 're-decorate' - i hope she isnt a lawer?


Escape Velocity looks very nice indeed - i'll have to read more about it, is it as free-form as Elite?


@Barinthus, when decideing which planet(system) to fly to next, in the bottom left of the navigation map screen(the one with all the planets on and your purple/pink range circle) you will see as you highlight from one planet to another, that you get a range readout - this will tell you how many tonnes of fuel you need(in your cargo hold) to get to that system.

With the internal fuel readout(the one on the flight console), i make it a habit of nver letting it get less than half full, and for this you use the 'refuel' button that Snotty mentioned - each press on this will take one tonne of fuel from your cargo hold and refill the internal fuel tank.
Nothing worse than flying helplessly off into space cause you run out of fuel, eventualy you'll get swallowed by a star!

[duke o' york]

Originally posted by CoT
well we could make it a 'Name that Elite planet of super gem trading' Game

Van Maanen's Star!
Pick up slaves in the Imperium and head back to VMS which was just by Alpha Centauri.
Only worked at the start of Frontier, after which the cash wasn't that worthwhile - but it was enough to give you an incredible start.

[child of Thor]

Thank you duke o' york - the bottle of (virtual) Altairian brandy is on its way to you

Useful info if slaves are your thing.........where's that evil fellow Snotty?

Edit: ahem....sorry but i'm afraid i'll have to recall that brandy Mr. duke - we were after the gem trading planet, not a slave one. sorry for getting your hopes up an all over the free(virtual) brandy

[Snotty]

More slave routes? Good stuff. That'll teach the buggers to be all poor and powerless

Ive got into the habit of always setting up my map for a jump back, and have my finger firmly glued to the H button. If I get jumped by more than one ship, or i see one of the big white ships on my scanner, I just get the hell out of there.

The escape capsule is pretty cool, but its a pain when it gets damaged in a firefight! Even if you do make it back you get stuck on some poxy replacement ship, but thats all part of the challenge right I would laugh my arse off if I got scooped by pirates in my escape capsule so they could sell me as slaves