Zeno~SPARTA~

Everything I have read about the warthog has been good and I like the idea of providing addon grips for different aircraft. The only problem with it is that you need separate rudder pedals, Unless (or until) I have a proper flight seat I do not want to get the pedals, so I need a HOTAS with a twist grip for the rudder.

I am interested in buying the Logitech (formerly Saitek) X56 for space and flight sims. But in reviews it has been marked down for poor quality and ergonomics. I just wondered if anyone has experience with the X56 or indeed any other HOTAS system.

I actually sold my Federal Corvette (stripped of modules) and bought a new one. Even though I lost 10% of the original price in the sale, I still made about 40million in the trade. I have a Federal Assault ship so I will do the same with that. Then I will decide if I want any of the other Federal ships.

I am pinning the missions in the objectives menu, I can see the option to unpin the mission implying that it is pinned. Unless there is button push that can turn guided mode on or off, I haven't turned it off, that's not to say I haven't turned it off accidentally. I will try to find it today.

If you want to buy a federal ship now might be the time to buy one. The standard price for a Federal Corvette is about 188million At Jameson it is normally around 168million, but at the moment it is 107.2million. This is a result of the federation winning the Galconda bid.

I am struggling with breakpoint because the mission waypoints are not showing up. Nonetheless I have had a bit of fun driving around shooting stuff up!

Oh well, I wasnt going to buy it but I have. Of course my internet will take ages to download it!

Happy Birthday Custard!!!

I have been looking at buying some planes and combat zones for DCS world, but whilst it looks beautiful, it may be too difficult for me. Because Microsoft Flight Simulator is coming out next year I wont be getting any addon aircraft for FSX or X plane 11. Not really interested in Breakpoint, but always happy to play Division 2. I am thinking of setting up a simulator rig in the TV Room that can be quickly switched from racing to flying. I will need to upgrade the Video card there from a 1060 to a 2080, but all of that can be done next year. If I find the right setup it will work for Elite Dangerous, Star Citizen, Flight Sims and Racing Sims. I have looked at the X56 as well as the 2080 but there is no immediate need and I havent seen any deals on the them locally.

Have a great day!!!

That was a great show, interesting format.

It has been a few weeks since I posted and I am finally getting to grips with this game again. Another aspect of the game which I had previously ignored/missed is mining. When I stopped playing a couple of years ago I had almost every ship in the game and nearly a billion credits in the bank. We have found some great trade routes that can make 5-8000 cr a ton which means players in the same wing can get 300,000 to 500,000 from my trade alone. But since then I have 3 billion cr, a Type 10, a second Cutter and a Krait Mk II. I got the bulk of this money from Mining. Floyd has made a fortune from mining as well. Floyd tends to focus on deep core mining which involves searching for specific asteroid types, prospecting them, placing carefully measured charges on them to crack them open and gathering the resources they release. He uses a medium sized ship for its agility (Python). I favour the easier mineral mining which involves prospecting, laser mining and collecting, I use an Imperial Cutter. When I bring 250 limpets and mine until they are all used I can make >200,000,000 cr. I often stop mining when I have about 100,000,000 cr worth. As well as this I have participated in community goals which allow you to make decent money depending on what tiers are achieved, Often the real money is from the bonus. Usually there is a trading goal (bring x product to the station) and a combat goal (collect bounties from the system). I wanted to increase my Imperial Rank to King so I went off to an Empire sector and ran a bunch of missions (which are varied and rewarding) until I got the promotion mission. Since I stopped playing Engineers have been added to the game, They allow you to enhance features of modules on the ship, there is always a corresponding negative. For example thrusters can be made faster but run hotter, or less power hungry but slower or lighter but more fragile. There are engineers who specialise in every module. Unlocking and upgrading at one engineer will garner invites from other engineers. Upgrades need materials so I have to hunt around for these to keep my stocks up or find material traders. My depth of understanding is still quite shallow, especially with regards to engineers, but I am far more comfortable than I thought I would be when I got back into the game.

2001 is a 1968 film by Stanley Kubrik based on Arthur C. Clarke's short story the Sentinel. It is a milestone film both in terms of hardcore science fiction and stunning visual effects (for its time). I would recommend this film to any movie enthusiast. However it is a slow film with little character development (the best character is a computer, HAL) and some of the models are a bit plain. Also, this is a 1968 interpretation of a future , so some things a bit off, with that said it doesn't look bad. My favourite scene shows a Pan Am (now bankrupt) space liner docking with a rotating space station in orbit of the earth to the music of the Strauss's The Blue Danube. When I saw this film it took my breath away, but looking at this film through a modern lens, where we are spoilt for choice in terms of stunningly beautiful science fiction/fantasy (Gravity comes to mind), this old film may be a hard watch. The 1984 sequel 2010, directed by Peter Hyams also based on the novel by Arthur C. Clarke, is an easier watch. The characters are people you will care about and played by well known actors/actresses (at least to me), obviously we are now in the post Star Wars era so there are more CGI models than physical models made out of toilet paper tubes with bits stuck on. 2010 will catch you up on the 2001 plot but with a backdrop of deteriorating relations between the Soviets and the USA (cold war turning hot). On IMDB it has a worse rating than 2001, but it is not a bad film, If you haven't seen it, give 2010 a try, you never know it may motivate you to check out 2001.

I'll have a look at the DLCs to see what I have.

Happy Birthday!!!

Thoughts on Elite Dangerous. We have been lucky to find a highly profitable trading route which has allowed early players to get into better ships. The temptation is to focus entirely on this to accumulate game wealth and ships. In all games in this genre I love to accumulate money and goods, it doesnt matter if its GTA or Naval Action. In Elite Dangerous I have to be careful about burning out. To avoid this, I tend to set an objective, either financial or a specific ship. Once I achieve the objective I switch to another aspect of the game. What are the activities in Elite Dangerous. Trading, Combat and Exploration are the principal activities and each has a rank (right window, first tab) expressed with a title and percentage. For example my ranks are: Combat - Dangerous 32% Trade - Elite 100% Explorer - Ranger 29% Achieving Elite in any of these specialisations will give you access to the founders world, where everything is available at a 10% discount. There are permits to enter various systems such as Sol and Sirius, to gain such permits you have to go to nearby systems, increase your reputation to friendly, then look for specific missions where the reward is the permit and complete them. Getting these permits will become important later in the game. There are 3 principal powers in the game, Federation, Empire and Alliance. With Federation and Empire a player has reputation and rank, with Alliance you only have reputation. For example mine are: Federation Allied (100%) Admiral Empire Friendly (79%) Prince Alliance Allied (96%) Reputation is influenced by by your interactions with them. Interactions include trading, missions, handing in bounties and stellar cartography. These will increase your reputation. Completing missions from the mission board for a Power will increase your rank and reputation with them. Higher reputation opens more missions with better compensation. Some ships can only be purchased if you have a specific rank or better. That'll do for now.

I will do my best to assist.

Floyd has been re educating me on this game. I am hoping by the end of the week to be capable of helping someone through the early game. The last two days have been tough but I am trying to catch up from a higher level where the learning curve is dissimilar to my previous experience, plus I am older, so memory not so good. .

There is a channel on youtube that reviews films for historical accuracy as well as adding background to historical events. There is a review of A Bridge too far, the film about operation Market Garden. What I especially like is that even though the reviewer is British, he doesn't pull any punches with regard to our mistakes.A Bridge Too Far is a great film,

Its a pretty game. Just remember the station slot is far bigger than your starter ship!!!

Nice Forrester, I'm jealous.

That should be very interesting.

Have a great day!!!

Yay!!!

Last week I chatted about the challenges facing north sea oil platform decommissioning. I never imagined how they would actually go about it. In fact the method is amazing. Here is a video on how it is done.