Powerplay Beta is coming - May 20th

At last!! Powerplay, Elite:Dangerous is coming. The Beta drops on the 20th of May, and Betas tend to last a week before they go live.

I have some wishes for this update: Faction rewards in internal components - Better quality internals or weapons - I totally want C3 Multicannons, or some sort of multi point mount, eg 2 x C2 in a C4 slot, could totally 'multimulticannon' my little old Asp. Anothger perk I hope Powerplay folds in to the game - Faction discount on insurance. If it costs less to replace you might take more risks, my last replacement wascostly, but it did prey on my mind for a while after that I didn't want to lose that much money, meaning I bailed on combat earlier than I could have.

I'm hoping to take the new Diamondback for a spin, hoping it's an Asp on steroids. With a bit of luck the Diamondback is a heavier multipurpose with at least C3 harpoint, and that the hardpoints are all on corners for extra gimballed shootiness. The concept drawing looks the nuts, but not seeing any other images. I would love Frontier to rectify that soon, or I can just joy-puke/cry into my keyboard when the Beta lands. I'm mildly nervous about the whole experience.

In other Elite:Dangerous news I finally made 'competant' in combat - Which is great as it's the first combat rank that doesn't sound like you're completely crap, which was nice.

Considering a cheeky Nandos for lunch, it's FRIDAY!!

Anyway, fly safe, or make sure you have your insurance money saved.

OK, so where's 1.3 Powerplay?

Hello good peeps of the interwebz,

Patience has never been my strong suit, but I thought we'd have 1.3 Powerplay by now? I'm keen to see the Diamondback in the hope it's the ship to suit me perfectly. I want something tough, but with a bit of cargo spacce. The impression I get from reviews is that the Fed Dropship is not good value for money. I love my Asp, but it's getting OLD, and it's that awkward size/price point that you have no choice until you get to the Python.

Talking of which, one interdicted me yesterday, scared me silly. I've killed one before, but this guy was guns blazing from the off, ended with 53% hull and thought myself both wise and fortunate for getting the duck out of fodge with some hull to spare.

Anyhoo, waiting with baited breath for 1.3, rep for that Dropship won't farm itself.....

Never Give Up! Never Surrender!

Powerplay and Fer De Lance and Vultures, oh my!!

Apologies for my tardiness in posting, there's been a combination of stress, malaise, work and Elite why I'm not posting so often. My 'Little Asp that could' is nearing the end of it's upgrade journey. It's a toss up between a Vulture with lots of  cargo space, a Fer de Lance armed to the teeth, or grind Fed rep and get the Dropship. I can afford the Drop ship right now, and I think I could afford the Vulture, but feel either would be a compromise. Decisions, decisions....

Powerplay...ahem plays a part in this... If I grind Fed rep to Petty Officer I can get the ship, and Powerplay  will tesselate nicely in that it should allow for more and easier rep grinding missions, and maybe some discounts. Yay!! Because who doesn't love a discount on something you've been saving for? Amiriiight?

Especially interested to see what the Alliance will pull out the hat as a loyalty reward. I'm hoping some unique or A+ modules or twin Smalls for Medium moints etc. Their own ship would probably be tidy, too. We'll see, soon enough.

Starting to love a bit of combat. Made 'Novice' rank in combat and getting some nice bounties, killed a Python and an Anaconda in one week, I was like a dog with two willies. I bet my ship looked like it was dragged through a combine harvester backwards, mind, but what the hey.

Also got my Asp handed to me (see what I did there?) ...in small pieces after getting cocky and trying to take on two Annies and a Cobra. The Cobra was 'Dangerous' and the Annies were Master, so bit off more than I could chew would be a gentler version of my prognosis.

However, doing the (as described by one Elite forum member) Baby's first rare run at this time until I can afford something meatier. the run consists of buying rates in the  Lave, Diso etc cluster, then haul it to Witchhaul, flog the cargo, buy stuff over that side of the map, then haul ass to Zaonce and flog everything. Makes a Million easy if you wait for stock refreshes. If not, half a Million. Not shabby, even so.

Anyhoo, IRL beckons. Fly safe and Bon weekend!!

The wait for us is over

The race to Elite is over, at least for these guys. My hearty congratulations - Hard work, and hard won. Well done:
CMDR Tequila (Exploration)
CMDR Lordkee (Trading)
CMDR Fromtonrouge (Combat)
And ultimate bragging rights go to CMDR Onepercent (Triple Elite)

However, this is the opening stanza of my personal journey to Elite, in at least one category. So far I'm Scout (Exploration), Merchant (Trading) and the rather deflating Mostly Harmless (Combat) although it's a Douglas Adams Hitchhikers book title, so there's some comfort in that, at least.

Lugh, here I come. On the one hand it's the story of The Republic of Ireland, and I'm a republican by inclination, but in the other I'm totally a Fed too. Probably grind Fed rep. UPDATE: Got there, nothing doing. Back to Lave for rares - Those A class upgrades to the Asp won't buy themselves.

In non-Elite news, there's a new Borderlands Pre-Sequel DLC pack - The Claptastic Voyage! Tried it, loved it, but got totally owned.

Painite? Sounds, er, painful

Greetings, fellow commanders

So, there's a new mineral, Painite. We know it exists by it's crazy 30+k prices in the commodities markets, but we have no clue where to get it, the ultimate phantom resource.

I do hope this is FD's way to make mining a worthwhile venture. In the meantime I hope you're all updating Thrudd's Trading Tools or Slopey's BPC (I don't have a good link, sorry)

I've used both, and was very impressed by what I found. Turns out Painite is a real thing: See HERE

I thought it was cobblers, turned out I was wrong. I may try my hand at mining if these are not a wild goose chase.

Rare Runs - Currently tooling around Lave/Leesti/Diso picking up 60 tons of rares so I can make my limited 60 tons of space pay for themselves. We'll see how that pans out

Spray painting my backpack. Always fun doing sprayjobs on my gear. I recently sprayed a stencil based on the Elite logo that came on my Elite logo T shirt onto my jacket. Now I plan to give my Boblbee backpack the same treatment, so I'm spraying a combination of black, red and white digital camo, over a black and red honeycomb background, with a yellow Elite Logo on one side. Should be interesting.....pictures to follow.

As ever, your humble overlord

Jimbob(CMDR Jim Backer #5224)

Widdershins/Terry Pratchett station, anyone?

Hey, back in the chair! Loving Elite:Dangerous, and finally flying my Lakon Spaceways Asp Explorer. Although it does sound a littler close to Ass Explorer, which I'm sure is probably an adult movie franchise. If not, I came up with the name and want a slice of the profits.

The Asp is a lovely ship and the first thing you notice after selling your type 6 (The White Van of Space) is that it handles so much better. Even with all the weapon slots filled and as much cargo as you can carry (80 if my memory serves) it still handles like a viper compared to the Type 6. I did like my type 6 but (a) it had a 'Shoot Me!' bumper sticker on the back and (b) you could only get it in dull white. Compare and contrast the old Ford Transit, famously the mount of British 'White Van Man' see HERE for details. The Lakon Type 6 doesn't even have a 'Trotter Independant Trading' paint job

If you get a chance, donate to wikipedia. They give you free information, and -most- of it is good. Almost all of it.
Leonard Nimoy died recently, that was sad, he seemed like a really nice chap, and seeing Bill Shatner talk so warmly about him in Frankfurt last year, I reckon he must have been a solid guy. Frontier Developments have honoured him with a station orbiting Vulcan, and rightly so. Me, I reckon Sir Terry Pratchett is also deserving of a station/world/something. I've posted on the Elite Facebook page to get a world within a 12LY radius of Wolf 359 called Widdershins in honour of Terry's book dark side of the sun, one of his few Sci-Fi books.

Talking fo the commander's chair, considering building a chair in the likeness of the Flight Chairs in the film Alien, aboard the Nostromo. Like this:

The main reason is it's cool as all hell, but it also look confortable, and I can mount the Saitek X52 Joystick control system on the ends of the armrests. I will need to go speak to the lovely people of the RPF (Replica Prop Forum) who are a practically bottomless pit of information

Anyhow, I'm being called to iron stuff for the kids (It's Mothers' day here, so I go to help the smashing mother of my smashing kids)

Be nice to your Mum, you only get one.

Fly safe, fly true!

Back in the chair, the CMDR's chair

Hey Everybody, I'll not mention how long it's been. You can check. I've kinda missed you. Let's see. Eldest is 7, youngest will be 4 in May. I still don't play WoW. However, I am playing Elite:Dangerous. Currently rocking that most awful of ships, the Type 6 by Lakon, a huge, lumpen brick of a ship. You know when a ship is transitory when it doesn't come with paint jobs. Surprised really as I reckon Frontier Development could have made a fortune with Trotter Import Traders decals for the side. "Lave, Witchhaul, Sol, Putney."

Currently only half a million from an Asp. This does come with paint jobs. It's also a lot more shooty.
Anyhoo, new ships beckon, the Beta for Wings (Update 1.2) is out today, and images are appearing of the two new showstoppers, the Vulture (Core Systems new heavy fighter, and the Fer De Lance, Falcon DeLacy's new multipurpose beasty.

Photos courtesy of Roy van Rumpt and Mike Pearson
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