Lave Radio Episode 108

Engineers Base

Beta 2.1 is Live and Cmdr Fozza Bangs his wrench against the new features. Thankfully our Special Guest Obsidian Ant is able to help him hit the appropriate things!

Aired 10th May 2016
Audio versions


Download the episode directly from here.


Crew Members

2nd Technician : Chris Forrester : Cmdr Fozza
Head of Health and safety : Ben Moss Woodwood : Cmdr Eid LeWeise
Chief Archivist : Colin Ford : Cmdr PheonixDFire
Special Guest: Obsidian Ant


Show Notes:

  • Squadron Paint Packs added then pulled and then re-added 🙂

  • 2.1 Patch Notes

    • Loot
    • Engineers
    • Overhaul Feedback Cascade: Now rather than breaking the shields, will inhibit the shield cell to only heal 10% of what it otherwise would do, and will deal direct damage to the shield cell bank equal to half the weapon damage
    • Hyperspace is now much bigger to accommodate large ships —- WTF?!
    • What about moving to an already owned ship in the shipyard?
    • Need to look for this….
    • Makes scooping the stuff that drops ‘interesting’ since of course it’s falling to the ground!
    • New features in 2.1
      • Is loot the ‘materials’ that drop when you kill someone?
      • Data Materials and ‘Physical’ Materials
    • New Mission Board
      • “If there are no missions, give text which tells players what other things they could do to help”
    • New Outfitting Screen
    • Stuff to do in Ice Rings
      • Various Resource Zones
      • Bounty Hunting
    • Updates to the Galaxy Map
      • Bookmarks
      • (Known?) Engineer bases
      • Community Goals
      • Faction States
    • New Weapons
      • Huge Beam Laser
      • Huge Pulse Laser
      • Huge Multi Cannon
      • Large Mult Cannon
      • New art for our guns
    • Improved AI
      • So far Elite ships seem to want to run away when their shields go down, then come back in when they are back up. — Ben
      • Lots of complaints on the Forums that the AI has become too hard. I got a shock when my A rated FDL got owned by a Expert Python. Going to make the grind getting to Combat Elite a lot more difficult because only pilots above your rank and one below count towards your Pilot rating. – C.
    • XBox 1
      • Can now get skins from the store
      • Private Groups
    • Misc
      • “NPC encounters can occur near planet surfaces”
      • “Shipping lanes are created between the primary star, stations, and planets with settlements.”
      • Can scan nav beacons now – (Already done this – Very useful – C)
      • “Allow cargo to be transferred to a newly bought ship, if it has adequate cargo space”
    • Bug Fixes
      • What is “Fix Goliath crime component crash”?
      • “Change the default number of items per page in Exploration selling from 20 to 50 following from server-side optimisations that make this plausible”
      • “Added suspension travel prediction to SRV physics” — No idea what this means but it sounds awesome!
    • New (very valuable) stuff can be mined
  • 2.1.3 Patch Notes

  • 2.1 ‘Known Issues’

  • Beta Phases

  • Newsletter 123

    • “If you don’t already have beta access, Horizons owners can upgrade by visiting the Frontier store for only $9.99, €9.49, £6.99 or 562 Rubles.”
  • Beta Feedback Livestream

    • Mike Brookes has (MORE) info in newsletter
    • What is mayhem?
      • Unlock ‘all upgrades for modules’
      • All we need is fish to get them
      • Needed because lots of experimental effects that do crazy stuff… FD just can’t test EVERY combination. Need us to game the system and try to break things 🙂
    • Questions
      • How Does this benefit exploration
        • Better armor, hull so less damage etc
      • Can we see the Stats of a crafted upgrade
        • It’s in the list
      • Should Pirates be so interested in Limpets
        • NO
      • Pin > 1 recipe / engineer
        • Not for now
      • Reputer (spelling!) Laser (Heat through shields laser)
        • It should be working now!
        • Seem some ships going to 8000% heat which is a ‘bit op’ 🙂 Adding in Diminishing Returns from heat by multiple weapons but they don’t want to instantly boil you up if you avoid heat / use heat syncs etc.
      • AI Running away
        • Been fixed but not in yet
      • Why no enhanced thrusters in space
        • Engineers for Horizons only – 😛
      • Bookmarks
        • Sorting? Better sorting and filtering in the future…
      • Are all mods 1-5
        • Not ALL modules have ALL grades
        • Will be added to
        • Get off the fence and make a decision to buy or not buy!
      • In general higher ranks better modules
      • What works to improve your rep with engineers?
        • FD are looking into it, maybe using combat / bounty vouchers etc….
      • What does major fac rep have?
        • It acts as a modifier to all associated factions
      • Why no class 4 lasers
        • Coming ‘soon’ – hopefully!!!
      • Can we get large / huge missile racks?
        • Not at the moment – FD don’t want to give missiles LOADS more ammo
        • Please test missiles
      • Point Defence vs ECM
        • Point defence is where they want it
        • ECM needs work but they’re working on it no eta etc…
      • Will we give cannons a look?
        • YES Cannons will be getting a buff
          • Increased speed
          • Increased damage at distance
          • Increase ‘hardness’ i.e better vs large ships
          • Increase penetration – i.e. more dps to modules
      • More info on planet scans and stuff
        • Really cool ideas will be revisited later but Sandy can’t say 🙂
      • Why does the System map take so long to open?
        • Because it’s having to work out all the stars and planets
        • It’s a bug bear of Sandy’s too
      • Increase the speeds of mission boards? (I.E. pre load when you land)
        • Sandy will try to find out
      • Please give Single Skin for all types rather than multiple skins / ship
        • Not Sandy’s remit but valid question
      • Bookmarks infinite plotting bug
        • Sandy isn’t sure but will look into
      • Why can we enter any hanger in our SRV and then teleport to OUR hanger?
        • Because finding the right hanger is hard and NOT fun.
      • Sandy is a cat person 🙂
      • Will materials be added to commodity markets?
        • Some are
        • You can also get them from missions
      • Why is it called Recipes?
        • They will be renamed with something more appropriate!
      • Has the heat gen from firing weapons made it into CQC too?
        • Yes – but FD are watching it
      • Less Heat Sync makes it harder to use SCBs
        • Yes that’s deliberate
      • There is some method as to where you can find materials.
        • FD will add the ability to ‘interrogate’ materials to HELP find out where you can find them.
      • FD will ‘munge’ some of the lower resources to there’s not so many of them makes lower recipes easier
      • SRV Mods?
        • Not at the moment
      • NPCs using SRVs
        • Big work but not at the moment
      • AI Changes
        • Hope ppl think it’s better
        • Lower should be about same as b4
        • Higher should be harder
        • Should stop running away so much
        • FD are adding alternative behaviour to make it more fun
      • Drop out distance is based on how far from a grav well you are
      • Can we get smart collector limpets to discard some stuff
        • NO but it’s a good idea
      • Engineers further out
        • No comment
      • More syntheses recipes
        • Yes – chaff, heat sync etc
      • Collapse Mechanic in PP?
        • Sandy doesn’t know but it’s being looked at.
      • Engineer Qualifications are retroactive so we’ll have a bunch to look at when 2.1 hits. But rem some engineers invite you to others.
      • Engineer mod to increase limpets?
        • Not yet
      • Storage for modules?
        • Hopefully in season 2
      • Plasma Accelerator mods?
        • More coming

Community Corner

Lave Radio Episode 107

Engineers Base

Our Head of Station Entertainment takes us through technical difficulties, trumble attacks and all the recent Elite News as we prepare for Engineers!

Aired 3rd May 2016
Audio versions


Download the episode directly from here.


Crew Members

Station Commander : Chris Jarvis : Cmdr Thane
Head of Health and safety : Ben Moss Woodwood : Cmdr Eid LeWeise
Chief Archivist : Colin Ford : Cmdr PheonixDFire
Chief Barsteward: Grant Woolcott : Cmdr Psykokow


Show Notes:

Development News

  • On the Horizon – Countdown to The Engineers Beta Livestream: Part 3 with Mark Allen (Sr Programmer) and Sandy Samarco

  •  How an Engineer works

    • Gather stuff
    • Resources
      • Salvage
      • Data from scanning  (planets and beacons in space)
      • Mining
      • Materials have ‘context’, which should be obvious. I.E. Scan wakes may give you FSD ‘stuff’
      • Also from missions
      • We can swap commodities or sell them
    • Take it to engineer
    • Get Cool stuff
  • Looking to reduce the effectiveness of silent running

    • Less effective in prolonged combat
    • When you fire a weapon you will build a lot of heat if you are in silent running
    • Something with heat syncs ammo but missed what?!
  • 1 engineer is interested in long range travel. I.E. once you’ve gone a certain distance out they will contact you (or something!)
    • Then we need to ‘prove our worth’
  • Videos

    • Road to Beta – The Dweller Base Approach and WIP Crafting
      • Meeting an engineer
      • New docking voice
      • New docking bay
      • Engineers Workshop
      • Gambling
      • Design Decision – chance isn’t bad so long as it’s controlled. Not as random as ppl may think, quite constrained and still being tweaked.
      • Long Range Damage! (plus beam that helps you regen shields AFTER combat)
    • Road to Beta – Mass Lock Torpedo
      • A Modified Torpedo that stopped the ship from Escaping (Basically mass lock)
      • Currently only on torpedos
      • Torpedos are getting slower BUT much more dangerous
      • So better against bigger ships
    • Road to Beta – Shift Lock Canister
      • Mines
        • Clipper flies over and escaping T9 drops mine and forces the FSD to reboot
        • Kills flight assist so you’re tumbling in space
        • Ed emphasises that EVERYTHING NEEDS BALANCE
    • Road to Beta – Phasing Sequence Beam Laser
      • Phasing Sequence
        • Shoots through shields and causes hull damage!
        • Doesn’t cause module damage
  • Questions

    • Engineers bases are ‘all’ unique
    • Sandy doesn’t see why ‘Theorycrafting’ is dead since random is in ranges
    • Will Engineers Hate Other Engineers? Not Directly
    • Will some engineers be more difficult to rep with – yes. Harder engineers get more exciting ‘stuff’
    • Will we get specially modified shields?
      • Yes upgrade
      • No ‘special’ effects – at the moment being looked at
    • Will we get Ice Resource Extraction Sites?
      • Absolutely – lovely place to BH
    • Will ship manoeuvrability be enhanced?
      • Absolutely
    • Will Engineer Bases have Outfitting?
      • Yes – but limited stock
    • Ram Scans have been fixed by SJA 🙂
    • Explorer Mods
      • Increase Jump Range
      • Reduce Power
      • Loads more spoke too fast!
    • Will they be available to Power Play Modules?
      • Yes lots and lots of heat
    • Mine Love
      • Relatively small but VERY SCARY Special Effects
    • Is Engineered equipment as reliable as normal equipment?
      • They are JUST as reliable as normal stuff
    • Engineers will temporarily deny you if you piss them off
    • The base is a new icon in the galaxy map that we will see once it’s known
    • Upgrading an upgraded module – removes the existing upgrade
    • Will we see modified stuff on target ships?
      • Currently we can see modified but not what it is
    • Insurance replaces the modified component. So buy back gives you YOUR mod back
    • Engineers will use mods
    • High level AI will hurt and Sandy thinks they’ve succeeded….
      • Low level AI are less so kinda
      • Lots of bugs fixed
    • No module storage in 2.1 but something FD want to do and there are ways we can transfer modules between ships
    • Ship Transportation is coming too (with usual caveats)
    • SCB upgrades?
      • Most modules have recipes
      • More material storage
      • FD will see currently 300 stuff 100 data
    • Illegal Mods?
      • Currently no but good idea
    • Colourblind settings
      • Sandy doesn’t know
    • Ship Storage Hard limit > 29 ships in 1 station
      • It’s server side Mark doesn’t know
    • If we just bump into an engineer’s base (without an invite)  will they let us dock?
      • NO THEY WILL SHOOT YOU
    • We can now touch down gracefully without damaging our hull!
    • Can we influence the random chance? – i.e use ‘better than required stuff’
      • Not at the moment but maybe
    • Can we create blue prints
      • No – currently 54 recipes with 5 tiers
    • Changes to missiles
      • Inc damage to shields
      • Inc guidance
      • 95% hit rate against eagle
      • Hits hull deals damage + external module in blast radius
      • Doesn’t ‘hit’ cargo hatches
      • 1 Torp to an anaconda nuked the engines and the point defence
    • How will beta work?
      • Will be in phases
      • Phase 1 – Have access to ‘some things’ Start getting in touch with engineers, collecting resources etc.
      • Phase 2 – called ‘Mayhem’ – Try to make every have access to everything very cheap and GO WILD
        • FD Want us to do insane stuff and ‘break’ stuff 😀
        • Change log is fucking massive
    • Beta will be starting Thursday 5th May
      • MB says please be patient, Ed suggests taking Friday off 😉

 

  • Newsletter 122

  • XB1

    • Elite Dangerous: Horizons for Xbox One will launch in quarter two of 2016, featuring both 2.0: Planetary Landings and the forthcoming 2.1: The Engineers expansions.
  • Engineers

    • Descriptions of Engineers
    • Where to find Engineers
    • Engineers each have their own surface bases. These are quite different from surface starports. Many began as secret bases, embedded deep in the rock, but as their bases grew they became bigger and bolder, in some cases smelting their own ore – something very hard to hide from space!
    • How to ‘use’ an engineer
      • Make them like you.
      • The ore the like you the more stuff they offer to make. (Called Blueprints)
      • Get the Reagents
      • Make it – Actual attributes are random within a range.
      • Accept or Reject it and try again (assuming you have the resources)
    • What else?
      • As well as crafting upgrades, some have their own stock of specialist equipment, such as Professor Palin and his recent development of the corrosion resistant cargo racks that can safely carry the elusive alien artefact
  • More Engineer Mods

    • Phasing Sequence
      • Modulating Burst Fire System designed to defeat shielding. A small amount of thermal damage is able to bleed through shields and attack the target’s hull directly.
    • Emissive Munitions
    • Modified Warheads capable of enveloping a target with energetic particles. Successful strikes to shield or hull dramatically increase the target vessels signature.
      Example Video