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 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

Lave Radio Episode 266 – Delousing the safety office – 29/10/2019


Download the episode directly from here.

PositionCrew MemberCMDR Name
Chief ArchivistColin FordPhoenix_Dfire
(in)Human Resources DirectorShanShan
Deputy Trade AttachéSouvSouvarine
Tech Monkey Norman MacArthur Ventura

Development News – what have the devs said this week?

  1. PSA from CMDR_Remyzero: You can see when and how many Arx you have earned each session from the frontier user portal
    Open portal from https://user.frontierstore.net/ and click the “Log in” link (it’s different every time so hot linking is broken)
    Log in with your frontier credentials and click the “Your Arx” link https://user.frontierstore.net/arx/list (does not work unless you have logged in first)
  2. Looks like we finally have a new store web front at https://dlc.elitedangerous.com. Nothing official has been announced by Frontier yet, so I’m guessing it’s in a Beta stage. But your ARXs are available there. If you what to know how much things cost, remember £1 gets you between 1672 and 2222 ARX and $1 gets you between 1250 and 1667 dependant on the package you buy. (Thanks to Ben)
  3. The Scourge Stage 4
    1. And an issue with the decal (oops!)
    2. Opinion?
    3. Positives :-
      1. New BGS State – Blight.
      2. New Decal
      3. A coherent Buildup and Plot, including a story from 3 years ago.
    4. Negatives :-
      1. Four CGs over three and a half weeks.
      2. No Unique Event Gameplay.
      3. Linear Storyline,
    5. Overall I would have given this a C+ / B-. The initial slow build up using Galnet News and the BGS was good. However, there were people who would have supported the Onion Headers, due the Federation’s tactics in the previous storyline, so a competitive community goal might have spiced things up a bit and there was a lack of a dynamic event (like the evacuation of Palin’s Base and defence of his mega ship) which would probably deflected a lot of the criticism.

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

  1. Truckers Rescued from the Devilish Don, despite the loss of Will Flanigan. 😉

Community Corner

  1. Alec Turner’s Bug Countdown
  2. Down to Earth Astronomy test 5 million different shield configurations…

Questions

  1. CMDR Ventura_: Hi everyone , had a thought while catching up with the CQC episode of lave Radio…  If Fdev put the high ranked players on a scoreboard, would that not entice more ppl to play CQC to beat the top player? Your thoughts?
  2. CMDR Cortex-Vertex answered the community question on CQC. He suggests that CQC should be like a holographic video game (According to Premonition, it already is), which is available from the Station Dock Menu (or it might be a cabinet in the bar when space legs come in). Thanks Andy Spen
  3. Kirk Marshal wants to know why we don’t have Gankers on as Guests. CMDR Spawnsworth. He wasn’t to know why they do it, How they do it, Do they target certain people, if so , why? 
  4. CMDR Bolloxim on Discord says: Interesting podcast this week.   The announcement that frontier is spending time on bug fixes is likely a smoke filled cloud of misdirection.   Usually when running a policy of bug fixes the cadence should be push them live as soon as possible or, if the beta servers are up, continually pushing weekly bug fixes.   That they announced a 3-4 month release of bug fixes feels really wrong on this score, especially with an active beta community, if it’s in full swing. Something else that @Shan touched on.  There is a new massive release coming in a year. Usual development practices would mean that branch of code should sit off of master. Bug fixes usually on fix branches integrated into master.   Releases would be tagged/branched from master. I wonder though if all this activity on master will impact current 2020 development. Or if as some of you guys mentioned that its a new refactored codebase then this would be more pr stunts, that these fixes are bandaids for a year.     There is one other alternative.   The underlying code has been refactored and updated and it integrated the arx.   That September release was more than just arx but foundational changes preparing the way for 2020.   However I doubt this is the case, but, considering how much was touched some even not involving arx it’s a possibility.
  5. Loose Screws Podcast claimed to have trucked out all of our Biowaste from Lave. Can we just say, never underestimate the amount of poo we can create. We are the third highest producer of quality waste products in the Galaxy behind whatever is in Cubical 3 at Hutton Orbital and Slough! (Taking cover from the Hammers of Slough now!!)

Lave Radio Episode 257 – If It’s not got a cow skin, I don’t give a ^$%^! – 27/08/2019

Download the episode directly from here.

PositionCrew MemberCMDR Name
Chief ArchivistColin FordPhoenix_Dfire
Chief Bar StewardGrant WoolcottPsykokow
(in)Human Resources DirectorShanShan
Lavian Space Program DirectorAndy BarnesKurgol
Deputy Trade AttachéSouvSouvarine

Greetings, Commanders, and welcome to Episode #257 of Lave Radio. The show about the universe of Elite, and the fantastic community that surrounds it.

If you can’t get in-game you can also join the Twitch chat channel, which you can access through “laveradio.com/live” and clicking on ‘live chat’; and on “twitch.tv/laveradio”.

Tonight’s activity in-game

  1. Is Kurgol flying to Maia to see the new Thargoid?

Development News – what have the devs said this week?

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

Newsletter

  1. Viper paint jobs.

Main discussion

  1. Fleet Carrier discussion. 
    • Single-player surprise? Like the player freighter in NMS.
    • 500 ly but Refuelled by what? New kind of fuel? Possible skimming from gas giants? Powered by Arx? (Hope not).
    • You can schedule jumps, how often will you be able to? 
    • Who would you allow to dock? (private, friends, squadron?)
    • One carrier per instance and they cannot be destroyed. Can you drive it off’ like other capital ships?
    • What will you use for your personal fleet carrier for?
    • How much should they cost?
    • Rumour has it, they will need to be maintained, and not just fueled.. Thoughts?
    • Refuel, rearm and repair but to get different functions, you have to add the right support ship?
      1. Trade – does this mean you can store commodities there?
      2. Bounty hunting
      3. Exploration
      4. Search and rescue
      5. Piracy? Base for griefers?
      6. Miner
      7. Mercenary
      8. Smuggler
      9. No anti-Xeno though.
    • 4 large pads, 4 medium pads, 4 small pads. Once all the pads have been used, no-one else can dock
    • How big are those support ships? And are support ship and modules the same thing?

Community Corner

  • Best video of the carrier announcement has to be the ‘ghost giraffe’ s drunk Review. 

Questions

Someone posted on the ED forum that you guys could use some ideas re:The Grind.

My ED copilots and I have one glaring Grind issue, and that is Raw mats.  The issue is, we are purely combat pilots, and there is only one way to gather Raw mats for engineering, SRV surface prospecting.  None of us want to drive SRVs in circles picking stuff up, yet we have to do so for many hours. It’s really irritating. Miners and Explorers can gain Manufactured/Encoded/Raw mats from their normal tasks and missions. Combat pilots must step away from their normal tasks/missions to get Raw mats. 

The fix is simple.  Add Raw mats as mission reward options, and make NPC Mining/Trading ships drop some Raw mats just like ships drop Manufacture mats. 

The credit grind is gone, now it is just the mat grind.

What Do you think of Fleet Carriers? Have you got idea about the Role you want to do?

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

Lave Radio Episode 256 – No Elite’s Sky – 20/08/2019

Download the episode directly from here.

Development News – what have the devs said this week?

  • Stephen Benedetti posted a response from Ian Dingwall about the latest from Galnet. It appears that we are losing a little content but that is because interstellar Initiatives requires a lot of work. 
  • What was interesting was that even though they’ve just hired a new writer, there is an ‘aggressive production schedule’ which means that things are repositioned. What does everyone think of that? 
  • Fdev is at Gamescom in Germany at the moment. It’s planet zoo’s time but there is an elite meet. 

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

  1. Dav did the Background presentation. 
  2. Stephen managed to upgrade his combat rank to Novice on Monday. 
  3. Fdev staff was at Fantasticon last weekend. Nothing was announced but they had many interesting chats with the community. 
  4. There is a photo competition as well. 
  5. People annoyed that they can’t enter the above competition on the forum and so are accusing Fdev of ignoring the forums. 

Main discussion

  1. With NMS being upgraded to beyond this week, how does it compare to ED? Is it ED light? 
  2. Rebel galaxy Outlaw was released as well, this feels also more Elite like but you are following someone else’s narrative I. E. Freelancer, dark star one & X-Rebirth. 
  3. Both of these games have a lot less grind (NMS has reduced theirs). Should Elite do the same? I. E. Reduce travel time somehow? Rebalance credits? 

Community Corner

(thanks to AXI and Gluttony Fang for that) 

  • The folks at Operation Ida are working on Kaiser Terminal – Wayutabal
    • HAUL:
    • Indium 80% 56,383 (-3,360)
    • Gallium 24% 72,294 (-3,658)
    • Copper 29% 23,641 (-0,696)
    • Aluminium 34% 26,180 (-3,920)
    • Synthetic Fabrics 61% 142,568 (-48,423)
    • Overall 321,066 (-60,057)
    • Next Milestone 250,000
    • 24h Total: 99,557
  • Alec Turner’s has the new Hot off the Press Buckyball run in progress at the moment. (in association with SAGi)
  • Sagittarius Eye going quarterly with Issue 25

Questions

  1. Shall we put out a community question? Should ED reduce the grind and how? 

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”.

Lave Radio Episode 255: Breaking wind at 900m/s


Download the episode directly from here.

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

Guests:

  • Alec Turner
  • Sanderling – Elite Races.

Greetings, Commanders, and welcome to Episode 255 of Lave Radio. The show about the universe of Elite, and the fantastic community that surrounds it.

Development News – what have the devs said this week?

  1. GalNet changes
    • This from Ian Doncaster… https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/galnet-changes.519008/post-7935417
    • If this means that the amount of Galnet content won’t change, but the percentage that’s related to in-game content will increase, I think that’s very positive – especially if that means that there’s more non-routine in-game content going on than previously.

      If this means that the amount of Galnet content related to in-game content won’t change, but the total amount of Galnet content will decrease, then that feels like taking several steps back, to how things were two or three years ago when Galnet could go for weeks between non-automated news items.

      I think also, while people weren’t satisfied with the “off-camera” narratives, this was because they took place 100% off-camera, and often, more recently, in undefined locations so that people couldn’t go looking for in-game signs of them. They felt like they weren’t really happening in Elite Dangerous.

      There’s still, I think, room for quite a bit of off-camera narrative, provided that it relates to some in-game content as well. For example, the Enclave Interstellar Initiative could have had some “background” material in Galnet over the previous few months:
      – 6 months before II starts: news article about how meta-alloys are being widely used in research
      – 4 months before II starts: news article where some corporation expresses concerns about the meta-alloy supply security
      – 1 month before II starts: story about scientists noting Pleiades barnacles are showing signs of damage
      …and then go into the II with that as lead-up, rather than it suddenly starting with “meta-alloy prices double! exploration CG! no previous hints that there was any sort of issue!”
      – and then of course potential for a few stories following up after the II months later highlighting the long-term effects it’s had

      If most of the stories eventually connected around to in-game events, they wouldn’t need to all have in-game interactions directly associated with them for players to feel that they were relevant. (e.g. Drew Wagar’s “Premonition” storyline was generally well-received and the finale had lots of players participating on both sides, despite most of the lead up happening “off-camera” and often even “off-Galnet”) An in-game event which connected three stories from months or even years ago that people had assumed were just background flavour could be really exciting. (And it’d look like you’d planned it that way even if you’d just picked up those loose stories months later, too)
    • Also this from Alec Turner
      1. @Stephen Benedetti can I ask then, on average do you expect there to be roughly the same number of Galnet stories per week but instead of Frontier inventing stories (e.g. the winking cat stuff or the dude who stole a DBX) they’ll now be covering things that actually happened (e.g. expeditions, races, AX combat/repair achievements, etc)? (which sounds great) … or, do you mean that you’ll be cutting those side stories and then, once a month or so, adding a story about the outcome of something wide reaching (but still largely Frontier created) such as an Interstellar Initiative or game update? (which sounds disappointing on the surface at least).

        The thing is, what Galnet needs to do is bring a sense of life to the galaxy. If FD have to invent that life (as at present) then so be it, if they can cover the life that players are creating on a daily basis then even better, but if (as it slightly sounds), it’s going to become even more lifeless … that would be a HUGE pity!
  2. Featured Commanders : Cmdr ToCoSo (Tom Cook)
  3. Conclusion of the Enclave Interstellar Initiative
  4. This thursday, FDev will have Dav doing a similar, or even the same, presentation about the Back-ground simulation we had at lavecon this week on the Thursday Presentation.

Newsletter (every second show) [link]

  1. New ASP paint Jobs

Main discussion

  1. Alec Turner – What do people actually want from Frontier re: support for “racetracks”? – and other Sept Update features

Community Corner

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

Lave Radio Episode 253: Stop Hurting Yourself!


Download the episode directly from here.

PositionCrew MemberCMDR Name
Head of Health and SafetyBen Moss-WoodwardCMDR Eid LeWeise
Chief Bar StewardGrant WoolcottCMDR Psykokow
(in)Human Resources DirectorShanCMDR Shan
Deputy Trade AttachéSouvCmdr Souvarine

Special Guests

  • Cmdr RastaFrog:(EGP – Grom)
  • IAmNickman (Flat Galaxy Society) or Vectron (AOS – Mahon)
  • QBit  (Kumo)
  • Valyn Arvis (Arissa Lavigny-Duval)
  • Foursyth: (FLC / Winters)

Development News

Main Discussion

  • State of Power Play

Community Corner

Lave Radio Episode 251: Seven Sisters reveal all to the Thargoids


Download the episode directly from here.

PositionCrew MemberCMDR Name
Head of Health and SafetyBen Moss-WoodwardCMDR Eid LeWeise
Chief ArchivistColin FordCMDR Phoenix_Dfire
Chief Bar StewardGrant WoolcottCMDR Psykokow
(in)Human Resources DirectorShanCMDR Shan
Lavian Space Program DirectorAndy BarnesCMDR Kurgol
Deputy Trade AttachéSouvCmdr Souvarine

Tonight’s Lave Radio Network activity in game

Development News

In Game Events

  • Thargoids Leave the bubble…
    • https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/cbxajo/thargoids_where_to_find_them_and_how_to_help_july/
    • Rumors are that the Thargoids are going to attack the stations which are at the center of the present community goals. Stay Alert Commanders!

Main Discussion

  • ARXs’s in game currency discussion..
  • Anything new for seasoned commanders..

Community Corner

  • Bucky Bally Racing Club presents the Seven Sisters Speedway
    • Ohm Horizons (HIP 29312) 13-JUL-3305 to 21-JUL-3305

      Welcome to the Seven Sisters Speedway: In a reimagining of one of the earliest BRC events, take off from Ohm Horizons in HIP 29312 near the edge of the bubble, and take a whirlwind tour around some of the stations and installations of the Seven Sisters in the Pleiades Nebula, then race back to Ohm Horizons.
    • Begin the race docked at Ohm Horizons in HIP 29312.
    • Visit the following nine locations in the Pleiades Nebula in any order:
    • The Seven Sisters are:
      • Asterope – Dock at Copernicus Observatory (83ls)
      • Atlas – Hip Hop only!
      • Celaeno – Dock at Artemis Lodge (46ls)
      • Maia – Dock at Obsidian Orbital (635ls)
      • Merope – Make a fly-past of the Listening Post orbiting Merope-1b (2100ls) – Note: listening posts, like other space structures, only appear on your Nav Panel when you approach to within 1000ls.
      • Pleione – Dock at Stargazer (1072ls)
        AND
      • Pleione – Make two tunnel fly-throughs at the Squirrel’s Nest space bar (265ls)
      • Sterope II – Hip Hop only!