Lavecon 2020

Lavecon is 3rd – 5th July 2019 at the Sedgebrook Hall Hotel, Northamptonshire. The first batch of Gold/Platinum tickets for Lavecon 2020 are going live on Thursday 19th December at 7pm. Silver/Bronze tickets will go live on Friday 20th December (to reduce the traffic on the website the night before).…

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EPISODE 273 “Circumventing the Benedetti” – 17/12/2019

By Cmdr Beetlejude
PositionCrew MemberCMDR Name
Head of Health and SafetyBen Moss-WoodwardEid LeWeise
Chief ArchivistColin FordPhoenix_Dfire
Chief Bar StewardGrant WoolcottPsykokow
(in)Human Resources DirectorShanShan
Lavian Space Program DirectorAndy BarnesKurgol
Deputy Trade AttachéSouvSouvarine
Inflatable Tech MonkeyNorman MacArthur Ventura
Queen of the ConKaren FishwickPolo


Download the episode directly from here.

Development News – what have the devs said this week?

  1. Monday 16 December 5th anniversary livestream, jam-packed with developer guests, giveaways and the best Elite Dangerous content from the last five years!
  2. Festive Countdown 2019
    1. To show our appreciation, commanders who log in between 13 – 25 December will receive a number of free ARX each day, and the amount will increase the closer it gets to 25 December.
    2. These ARX will be in addition to your weekly cap
    3. Keep an eye on the store for time limited skins
  3. Year’s End Festivities in Reorte
    1. Bulk Trade : fish, fruit and vegetables, animal meat and beer
    2. Rare Trade : Lavian Brandy, Anduliga Fire Works and Eranin Pearl Whiskey – Was finished on Sunday.
    3. Bounty Hunting
    4. Ends on the 18th 
    5. Cobra Mk III Iridescent Gleam Paint Job!
  4. Celebrating 5 years of ED

Main Discussion

Review of the year.

  1. Lavecon
  2. Review of the Year
    1. 3.4 – People start using  the new exploration mechanics in anger with loads of stuff being discovered. Void Opals were discovered to be THE way to make money. Big Boom in the ‘Roids!
    2. 3.5 – Newbie Area, Advanced Docking Computer, Supercruise Assistant
    3. 3.6 – Tutorial, Arx. – Oops!!
    4. 3.7 – Beta 
    5. Interstellar Initiatives. 
    6. Everyone’s thoughts on 2019.

Community Corner

  1. Babylon 5 legend, Mira Furlan, has completed the script, and we’re set for a Christmas release!
  2. EDSM Have a Santa Tracker on your Dashboard
  3. ALP Video As recommended by the Pilot.
  4. 5th Anniversary Ship Chart
    1. Cmdr Arithon has done it again with a lovely (and very orange) ship chart

Shoutouts

  1. Just a reminder that Loose Screws are having an end of the year Discord party/show. On December 27th at 7:30CST (this is 01:30 on the 28th GMT) They’re  doing a live stream and show and inviting all listeners and friends of the show. Feel free to drop in and say howdy to everyone.  
    1. Discord Server https://discord.io/loosescrewsed
  2. Our sister station, Hutton Orbital Radio, Broadcasts on Thursdays from 20:30. You can tune in at tv.forthemug.com/ or, for just the audio, at radio.forthemug.com/.
  3. For the discerning Commander who likes a bit of CQC action, check out the CQC Discord at “discord.me/elitedangerouscqc”.
  4. Stephen Benedetti

EPISODE 272 “Thank fuck – Ben’s not here” – 10/12/2019

PositionCrew MemberCMDR Name
Chief ArchivistColin FordPhoenix_Dfire
(in)Human Resources DirectorShanShan
Deputy Trade AttachéSouvSouvarine
Tech MonkeyNorman MacArthurVentura
Inflatable Victim Mack Winston


Download the episode directly from here.

Development News – what have the devs said this week?

  1. 5th Anniversary Announcement

Main discussion

  1. If you were to Re-write Elite, what would you change? Part 2
    1. Michael Hughes – Facebook – Would have kept on top of and taken advantage of the early bugs that allowed people to rank up quickly.
    2. Matt ‘wally’ Walford – Facebook – Do away with engineers, game killer for me as I don’t have the time to grind the upgrades as my work schedule doesn’t allow much game time. its become a game now where despite reaching elite ranking in combat, my ships near useless. – Game is far to unbalanced for casual players
    3. Nopil3os – Twitter – direct economy like in X-BtF and its successors.
    4. Karl – Twitter – I would not rely on the huge amount of 2D interfaces that removes you from first-person view. Since they’re more easy to create, their numbers only grow with each update. Elite is getting very point-and-click heavy.
    5. CMDR Tictak – Twitter – Reduce the repetition and add content instead
    6. Stephen Usher – Facebook – As I talked about during the early Alpha, making the scanner properly linear. Even in the current “linear” mode it’s still actually logarithmic scaling.

      This makes true spacial awareness using the scanner impossible and I only use it as a direction finder, unlike in the previous games.
    7. Drew Wagar – Facebook – I would not have allowed the entire galaxy to have been visited, rather I’d have required players to unlock it bit by bit by working out navigable hyperspace routes to new star systems via some kind of gameplay. Biggest mistake they made IMHO.
    8. Swidhelm – Twitter – The ability to set way points on planets, and hud elements for optimal approach and landing. Kind of like the Nostromo landing scene in alien.
    9. EvilSnowball82 – Twitter – Give the DBX a class 5 slot for a fuel scoop. I love my DBX.
    10. David Gillum – Facebook – I would have made the Thargoids more active than passive. As it stands you can choose if you want to encounter a Thargoid, even in infested systems
    11. Michael Hughes – Facebook – Make it possible to map asteroids so you are not always trying to mine the same ones.
    12. Liam Greene – Facebook – The core gameplay “loop”
    13. Make Crime and Punishment much more harsh.
      1. Notoriety is only gained by Killing other players.
      2. High Security Systems should be safe, any player with Notoriety should be harassed by npcs as soon as they enter the system.
      3. Any Player in a civilised system with Notoriety should be visible on the Galaxy Map.
      4. More NPC pirate interdictions in Low Security / Populated Anarchy systems

Community Corner

  1. Loose Screws :- , I wanted to invite you and anyone else over at Lave Radio to the Loose Screws end of the year Discord party/show. On December 27th at 730CST we are doing a live stream and show. I’m inviting all of the listeners and friends of my show. Feel free to drop in and say howdy to everyone. I know it will be late in the UK. Thanks for supporting us and getting us started. We will keep moving the Biowaste for you guys. 😀
  2. HCS Voice packs just teased a Babylon 5 picture for future voice packs. No Boom today, Boom tomorrow!

Shoutouts

  1. Our sister station, Hutton Orbital Radio, Broadcasts on Thursdays from 20:30. You can tune in at tv.forthemug.com/ or, for just the audio, at radio.forthemug.com/.
  2. For the discerning Commander who likes a bit of CQC action, check out the CQC Discord at “discord.me/elitedangerouscqc”.
  3. Thanks to those who have chipped in on Twitch chat and in-game commanders

EPISODE 271 “High Sec Escorts!” – 3/12/2019

https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/e49maj/merry_christmas_elite_community/
Christmas Snowflake from Reddit user DMC_RULEZ
PositionCrew MemberCMDR Name
Head of Health and SafetyBen Moss-WoodwardEid LeWeise
Chief ArchivistColin FordPhoenix_Dfire
Chief Bar StewardGrant WoolcottPsykokow
(in)Human Resources DirectorShanShan
Inflatable VictimMack WinstonMack Winston
Inflatable AssailantArse Kikka Aesica


Download the episode directly from here.

In-Game Events – what’s happened this week?

  1. Alec Turner has a great summary of Decembery Stuff happening
    1. Buckyball Race – Total Recall 3
    2. Another Buckyball Race – Scully Powers 500 – 2
    3. Convoy to Colonia – Christmas Carriers Convoy
    4. Fix a Station – 2nd Annual Hauliday Haul

Main discussion

  1. If you were to Re-write Elite, what would you change?
    1. Cmdr Arithon – Twitter – Signposting. We have “space missions” we have “pinned blueprints”. So why are they not joined? Pinning a blueprint should start to trigger space (and board) missions that go “we hear you are looking for [blueprint ingredient material], so want this mission for it?” etc.
    2. Richard Lampitt – Twitter – The inadequate Crime and Punishment system

Community Corner

  1. Awesome Christmas Snowflake from Reddit user DMC_RULEZ (look closely) https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/e49maj/merry_christmas_elite_community/
  2. Operation Ida is holding it’s 2nd Annual HAULiday Haul which commemorates the 2 year of the initial attacks by Thargoids in 3303 & the 2nd Thargoid/Human War as well as our origin as a group. We’ll be fundraising for the cancer Research Institute and holding events during the 4 weeks of the Hauliday Haul including a one day station repair, convoys, races etc. last years Haul was a lot of fun and we were able to get the word out regarding what we do to the community, engage people in various activities and even raised over $1100 as well.
  3. The Christmas Carriers Convoy is having it’s 4th Christmas Convoy with the goal to create comfort for the colonists of Colonia by bringing gifts from the bubble, and some drugs. Actually, mainly drugs. Well, my ship anyway. Actually, my ship is full of nothing other than drugs, the finest onionhead (of both varieties) that money can buy.

    We launch on the 1st of December, which has become the tradition, and arrive on the 24th in Centralis. Right now we’ve got about 100 signups on EDSM. Waypoints have been chosen to kind of describe a 4 on the galaxy map, and take in some attractive sights along the way. There’s racing events and SRV-ball (I’m not entirely sure what SRV-ball is, but no doubt some SRVs will be harmed in the process) planned on the way.

    It’s organised by the SOTP  (Shadow of the Phoenix) in association with the CCN (Colonia Citizens Network). Launch system is Karbon (with a K)

    Direct link: https://ccced.ga
    Register on EDSM

Shoutouts

  1. Our sister station, Hutton Orbital Radio, Broadcasts on Thursdays from 20:30. You can tune in at tv.forthemug.com/ or, for just the audio, at radio.forthemug.com/.
  2. For the discerning Commander who likes a bit of CQC action, check out the CQC Discord at “discord.me/elitedangerouscqc”.
  3. Thanks to those who have chipped in on Twitch chat and in-game commanders