notes-games-eliteDangerous

Review-type opinions

todo

Tools

• https://eddb.io/
• stuff for crafting: http://inara.cz/galaxy-components
• http://ed-td.space/

UI Tips

alt-enter to switch between windowed and fullscreen graphics

right panel->functions->orbit lines ON (press A when highlighting that option) this shows lines around stellar bodies that tell you how close you can get before dropping out of supercruise

it's quicker to alt-tab in and out of Elite (eg to use websites that suggest trade routes) if you are in Borderless mode. Unfortunately, if your graphics card, like mine, is weak, then fullscreen gives much better performance.

the 'navigation' tab on the left DOES NOT always show all possible jumps -- if there are a ton of possible jumps, some will be missing (this is particularly annoying if you are in a wing and someone is telling to jump to some particular place). Instead, use the routing functionality of the Galaxy Map.

This is annoying because at least on my computer, the Galaxy Map is really slow to load.

With the Steam Controller

notes on steam controller:

• the analog stick is better than the trackpads for precision control. I don't know why -- i think it's either or both of:
  • latency between when you touch the trackpad and when it registers
  • your thumb can't as easily tell where it is on the trackpad, compared to the analog stick
• the gyroscope is not good for precision control, or for any situation where you need to mostly leave the control at neutral and then sometimes pulse it in tiny controlled increments. Again, it seems to be either or both of:
  • latency
  • it's hard to exactly tell where the boundary between the dead zone and the non-deadzone is, so if you just want to briefly tap on the control, using the gyro to do so means it might take you some time to activate it (as you inch towards the nondeadzone), and then you may activate it for longer than you like.

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that means that for elite, i've found that:

• you want roll and pitch on the analog stick -- you need very good precision and low latency for these
• yaw and strafing are fine for the trackpad.
• it's really fun, and intuitive, to set the gyro to roll and pitch. But it hinders you competitively, because of the trouble with (i think) latency. For the same reason, I don't use it for yaw, although yaw isn't as important as roll and pitch in Elite because yaw is slower. The gyro isn't good for strafe either, because it's too hard to use it the way you would just briefly tap on the keyboard key control; for the same reason, it isn't great for other keys, at least if it would be really bad to accidentally press a key, which is usually is.

This is too bad, because it's much more fun to use the gyro for roll and pitch. The gyro is precise.

Control bindings

apparently the "classic context" and "default context" have a hardcoded radial context menu that you can't access in the other modes (how do you get the menu? hold down A? hold down X?)

https://steamcommunity.com/app/359320/discussions/0/485624040226472890/ https://m.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/3ntu7i/has_the_xbox_one_controller_config_been_added_to/

ok i confirmed that personally. when using 'classic context' or 'default context' you can hold down any of X, Y, A, B to get a description overlay of what these things do. In fact, you CAN even start with eg 'default context', edit it to get a 'custom' control scheme, and the description overlay still works! The catch is that if your custom control scheme started out as a 'default context', you cannot modify any of the items that show up in the context menu (the game prevents you if you try).

The differences between 'default context' and 'classic context' are:

in default context:

• right stick horiz, and A and D, are flight rotation yaw
• Q and E are flight thrust lateral
• R and F are flight thrust vertical in classic context:
• right stick horiz is flight thrust lateral
• default context alternate flight controls: no yaw, right stick horiz is lateral thrust; classic context alternate flight controls: right stick horiz is yaw, no lateral thrust
• default context has some keyboard keys assigned to some thrusts (in addition to the bumpers, which both default and classic use for thrust)
• default context uses A for most of flight misc, and Y for targeting; classic context uses A for most of targeting and Y for flight misc
• default context has keys assigned for select wingman 1,2,3
• default context has an X combo for cycle next fire group and prev fire group, classic has A and nothing.
• i didn't look further down

(from [1])

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if you try to start with Default Context and then bind the throttle to RS vertical (right stick), it won't work. But if you start with Advanced Control Pad or Advanced Control Pad 2, it will.

If you start with Advanced Control Pad or Advanced Control Pad 2 and try to bind something to an ABXY key, or an ABXY key combo, it prints the ABXY key two or three times, eg "B" becomes "B+B+B". This doesn't work well; eg if you activate the thing bound to a B combo, you also often activate the thing bound to B alone.

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diff -u /media/winshare/AdvancedControlPad?.binds /media/winshare/AdvancedControlPad?2.binds >ADC_ADC2_diffs.txt

1. note: lots of false positives this way but with -u1 is misses too many, eg when secondary is on a line below primary, which is a line below the opening thingee. Also there may be false negatives here for similar reasons. Really i guess we'd prefer an xml diff but i couldn't find an open source, ubuntu one in 2 minutes and i don't have time to look further.

grep -i -v primary ADC_ADC2_diffs.txt

grep -i -v primary ADC_ADC2_diffs.txt

BackwardKey? BackwardThrustButton?_Landing CycleFireGroupNext? CycleFireGroupPrevious? CycleNextHostileTarget? CycleNextPanel? CycleNextSubsystem? CycleNextTarget? DeployHardpointToggle? DeployHeatSink? DisableRotationCorrectToggle? EjectAllCargo? FireChaffLauncher? FocusCommsPanel? FocusLeftPanel? FocusRadarPanel? FocusRightPanel? ForwardKey? GalaxyMapOpen? GunsightSystem? HMDReset HyperSuperCombination? IncreaseEnginesPower? KeyboardLayoutenGBKeyboardLayout? LandingGearToggle? LateralThrustRaw? MicrophoneMute? MouseReset? Pause PitchDownButton? QuickCommsPanel? RadarDecreaseRange? RadarIncreaseRange? RadarRangeAxis? SelectHighestThreat? SelectTarget? SelectTargetsTarget? SetSpeed? SetSpeedMinus? SetSpeedZero? ShowPGScoreSummaryInput? Supercruise SystemMapOpen? TargetNextRouteSystem? TargetWingman? ThrottleAxis? ToggleButtonUpInput? ToggleCargoScoop? ToggleFlightAssist? ToggleReverseThrottleInput? UI_Back UIFocus UI_Select UI_Up UseAlternateFlightValuesToggle? UseBoostJuice? UseShieldCell? WingNavLock? YawAxisRaw?

false positives in the above include (but i think are not limited to):

CycleFireGroupNext? CyclePreviousHostileTarget? CyclePreviousPanel? CyclePreviousSubsystem? CyclePreviousTarget? DisableRotationCorrectToggle? EjectAllCargo? ForwardKey? GunsightSystem? HMDReset IncreaseEnginesPower? LateralThrustRaw? MouseReset? PitchDownButton? RadarRangeAxis? SetSpeedMinus? ShowPGScoreSummaryInput? SystemMapOpen? TargetNextRouteSystem? ThrottleAxis? ToggleReverseThrottleInput? UIFocus UI_Select UI_Up UseAlternateFlightValuesToggle? YawAxisRaw?

ABXY diffs (omitting camera controls and other non-flying mode stuff)

diff -u AdvancedControlPad?.binds AdvancedControlPad?