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Originally posted by Guest_PrejudiceSucks@Jan 4 2005, 08:08 PM
That said, I am hooked on what is basically a modern remake called Freelancer. I just love the way that you can go go anywhere and do what you like (even destroy whole battleships if you really must )

Yeah, Freelancer is awesome k:

That said, I still wouldn't bomb so much on the game b/c it's old. I mean, if there we're modern day graphics available back in 1990, Elite would've used it. Very difficult too (not necessarily a bad thing though), but the complexity is over the top. i.e. if you warp to the wrong place, you run out of fuel and have to restart. Get shot, have to restart. Hit dock, hit planet, hit sun, restart, restart, restart. Makes me crazy! :crazy:

well, just gotta practice on docking, then practice on navigating a system... great

[Mousazz]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Borodin @ Jan 4 2005, 04:45 PM) [snapback]46069[/snapback]</div>

I played it on the PC, and there wasn't. I also just checked the documentation at HOTU, and there isn't.
[/b]

i had an autonav system. you must have confused it with elite, where there isn't. in elite +, there is. great game! however, i have a question. is it okay to destroy everyone outside the space station guard ratio and only get an offender status?

[Talkie]

Ok, well, I wanted to write down the guideline about how to settle yourself comfortably in this game when you truly suck at it, which was my case, and I am doing this because it took me time to gather the info.




First: why play Elite Plus ??

Because it's an old sandbox classic, Elite Plus being the update of a much older landmark videogame, and for many it is the best version simply because of the early 90's MCGA graphics, which are bearable (so is the Adlib sound), and because it is not a hassle to install on contemporary PC with Dosbox.



What is the goal in Elite Plus?

This is a trap. At first it looks like a trading game where the goal is to access the best success financially, by buying and reselling stuff. But one soon realize that this part becomes very repetitive and boring, and that the real goal is to become an Elite pilot in the Galcop universe, which is done through getting rids of bad people (or good people, if you decide to be a pirate, but this makes it much harder as the police is constantly looking for you), and taking some special missions to help Galcop (which ultimately makes you somewhat good even if you've opted to live a pirate life).

This said you constantly need to keep up with trading in order to advance your pilot ratings, would it be simply for the necessity of fuel.
Here are steps in how to begin and settle a comfortable playing zone
for Elite Plus, a guideline designed for players like me who really suck at it:





1 - First you will need about a week of playing (a couple hours per day) before you feel you've really started playing. I suggest reading a good
manual, like the one available at LTF Abandonware (french site but manual is in english), which is Elite Plus specific (actually, it's portion of a budget version when it was released with Wing Commander, so you will be confused about the paging).

2 - Once you have started Elite Plus, buy a lot of fuel, and get some items at the market. Press Icon 1 to go outside, and then press Esc, where you can reselect player's mode (or choose keyboard settings, etc), but more importantly, look at the flying choices: you can change orientations of flight buttons here. I always go there and press 6 each time I play so the ups and downs of my ship make more sense. The rest stays as it is: keyboard, smooth steering, smooth glide. When you are done you press Spacebar to restart. You should always go the Esc zone when you start playing.

3 - Don't go toward the planet. In Elite Plus, you can't land on planets. The stations serve as customs for them. All happens there. The white stripe in the low left corner decrease when you get too near a planet.

4 - Once you have found how to hyperspace and use the Jump button while in space, you need to go to some place where you can trade between two calm worlds. This is where you will remain for a long time, acquiring the money to get all what you need to actually start playing Elite Plus !! The best option is to trade between Diso and Leesti which offers a nice agricultural VS industrial balance. You will soon realize that you make much more profit trading one way than the other, unless you trade illegal stuff which is not recommended for a starter. Trade loss is not the issue here. You choose these planets because they are CALM.

5 - How to dock: First, each time you finish a trade in the market, save your game. This will mean you can restart the hyperspace and dock where you last failed, and this will happen often at first. Trick is this: follow the grey spot on the bottom right of your command centre to find the darn station (just gowing toward the planet is not enough to find a station), then, as you see it appear on your screen, move towards it, and take off all speed as you are near its edges. Than, turn toward the planet and advance, and than do a 180 degree to front the station. What you will do next is advance fast near the station door, than stop all speed, than turn 180 and go back toward the centre of the planet and back to the station again, until you feel you are approximately at the center of the station entrance. HOW TO ENTER: actually that is very simple. Advance fast and stop all speed as you are near the station entrance. Than, try to concentrate on the fact that the station is orbiting, but that you want to enter when the entrance is the most horizontal possible. What is important to remember here is that, the horizontal doesn't have to be exact, and so isn't the angle of your ship toward the entrance. What you want is to get your yellow cross (in your screen) inside the orange entrance zone while it is in an acceptable horizontal range. So when the station spins right near horizontal, and you feel you get a fair middle range, press acceleration to maximum and zoom into the entry really fast.
You will realize that with practice this becomes easier, though you will still need a docking computer to avoid future stupid crash happening later right after you've ended an important battle. Next step is: getting the docking computer.

6 - Always save at market to prevent a bad dock, did I say that already? Allright. Next is you take notes on paper of all the prices offered at Diso and then Leesti. You will see that way which items gives you the most profit where. Start by selling your missiles and maybe even your laser. You won't need them that much. Then trade, trade, trade, until you get above 600 credits. Than, buy a Cargo Bay Extension (whatever equipment you buy, keep a minimum of 100 credits. Below 50 credits is almost impossible to sustain in trading because of the loss in fuel expenses). When you get the cargo, trade, trade, trade to max profits until you get enough money to finally buy the darn docking computer. The device will seem slow at first, but it will take you a lot of stress off later in the game.

7 - You will notice that when you use Jump in space, some ships shoot you about once or twice: they are simply scared or alerted by your presence, than move on. Occasionally, a pirate might try to kill you. Fighting back at this point is unnecessary if you suck at it like I was.
Your ship is fast, so just go on at max speed and you will finally escape the pirate. Sometimes, jumping from hyperspace, many Thargoids attack you by surprise. You can't survive them at this point, so that is why you must save after every trade so if you are killed by Thargoids, you can go back to a save. Only expert could get out of this situation by themselves, but this guide is for people who suck.

8 - Keep trading, trading, trading until you get above 9000 credits (!).
This process is very slow. Do a 1000 credits at a time and come back another time to do an extra. The more credits you have, the more you can buy and the more profit you make, but along the way when you feel
like it, start buying these very important items: 4 missiles, ECM system, Fuel Scoops, Beam Laser at the Back (fore), and finally, the ultimate gift,
the expensive military lasers at the front (use the Pulse Laser, that you have to sell and rebuy, as a side laser). Try to avoid selling illegal stuff,
or do it only once in a while. You will realize that the profit you make is
mostly one way, using this itineray. On a sidenote, but quite important, please be prepared that the first of about 8 special missions in Elite Plus will appear once you reach near 6000 credits. Refuse To Take It !!! Or, what you could do is say YES than save the result as ANOTHER game, than come back to the previous save, and say NO the second time, to pursue your game. The thing is you might try to want to know where getting a cute Tribble would lead you, but here it would mean a huge waste of time. Maybe the mission comes back each time you get about 6000 credits, so you can also wait for a later occurence in the same game (I am not sure about this). But for the moment, you only want your military laser, ECM, and Fuel coops. That is because you suck at Elite Plus.

9 - Voila ! Once you have all the equipment above, you are ready to start playing Elite Plus !!! You can start trade in more dangerous places, getting pirate and thargoid loot for better income, and augmenting your rating by getting rid of enemies (or becoming a skilled pirate, if you chosse to be an offender). Note that Energy Bombs are useful for those who suck at tracing and shooting a bunch of ships. They can only be used once, but once you are expert in trading, getting a little 900 credits is not too offensive.

10 - After adventuring for a while, you start getting some of the missions. This is what Elite Plus is really about, because you mainly get the high ratings when going through those. They are 7 more missions to the ridiculous first one mentioned above.


After all this you might still wonder: Why play Elite Plus ?


This is where you go back to the beginning of this guideline.


Cheers,

Talkie

[Ironlion]

Originally Posted by The Review

Nothing more has been added except a newer, easier-to-use interface and new graphics. This game would have scored a higher rating if it had had something cool added, like going on fun missions from the planets.

This game does have a few features the previous one didn't.

Actually there are missions in this one. They appear randomly as you explore through the 8 galaxies of the game universe, progressing towards earning the rank of "Elite". There aren't many of them, but you will encounter them upon docking at stations.

My memory from years ago recalls a couple of them: a travelling merchant offers to sell you a unique cargo called "trumbles", who are apparently a new fad pet, which you find only multiply in your cargo space and start crawling across your viewscreen. The only way to get rid of them I'll leave you to discover yourself. ^^

The next one you get seems to have you flying into a solar system of a sun that is going nova, to help in the evacuation of stranded inhabitants.

Another mission has you in search of an experimental ship that has some prototype stealth technology on it. Apparently this ship had been stolen by pirates. You are tasked with finding it, and retrieving this stealth device. This mission gives you the opportunity to encounter two types of ship that only appear on this mission in the game.

The last one that I can remember is a Thargoid invasion into human space. The thargoids have set up a beachhead in a nearby star system, and have taken control of that system's Coriolis station. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is the suicidally heroic one of single-handedly entering this system and neutralising that threat. This mission will require you to have what is known in spacer parlance as an "Iron Ass" (a fully kitted out ride). Do not attempt it before you have anything less. Upon completion of this mission you get a piece of Thargoid technology and a special fancy new title.

There are rumored to be more missions, approximately one for every galaxy (except the ninth), but i don't recall ever encountering these. Upon achieving Elite you start getting "Alexander the Great" syndrome (And he wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer...) and feel much less ambitious.

Ninth Galaxy, you say? Yes. a random encounter will have you sort of 'stopped' in hyperspace (witch space) by the Thargoids, who will attack you with a very very large armada of ships. Survive, and you will have access to explore the ninth galaxy.

EDIT: Also, i have an alternative idea of play-style, compared to the guide above. Instead of wasting time trading like a fool (lol), follow these steps:

1) trade until you can afford the "fuel Scoop" upgrade. At the point when you've earned enough to buy this, you need not buy another tonne of cargo in your career ^^. This upgrade can collect both fuel (by flying close to a star) and cargo cannisters (floating in space, either randomly or from a destroyed ship).

2) Proceed to outside the station's "safe zone" (the "S" disappears from your control panel). a good idea is to start flying toward that system's sun, so that you have a navigation reference. After this, just jump until you encounter a ship, and hopefully it is a nice fat cargo hauler like the Boa or Anaconda. Blow it up, and watch all the blue dots appear on your radar. These are cargo cannisters. to pick them up, you simply fly toward them, keeping them in the lower portion of your viewscreen.

3) Take "recovered" cargo, and sell it. Pure profit. In Elite Plus, you're unlikely to get caught being a pirate, which means that you are unlikely to ever see your legal status turn worse than "offender" unless you are extremely blatant about your actions- killing police, killing in a station's safe zone, etc.

4) Rinse off, grab a few drinks at one of the station's night-spots, and then go out and do it again.

5) As you earn money, upgrade your ship. Its what those credits are for! The order you should get upgrades in is:

_1) Fuel scoop
_2) ECM
_3) Beam laser
_4) Escape Capsule

After this it doesn't matter much. But those first 3 are 100% essential to survival in the Elite universe [and the escape capsule is for more than just immersion- it has the added bonus of clearing out your criminal record.]. Upon getting these upgrades, the rest matter somewhat less, though you'll want to upgrade to the military laser before too long (the faster you can take out an enemy, the less shield drain that is incurred, and the longer you stay alive in a fight). If you're terrible at docking, go for the docking computer if you must-- but be prepared to have the Elite commanders mocking you for this. Its a crutch, and you really need to develop good enough control of your ship to perform a proper and consistent dock with the station to be able to survive in combat.

Once you feel that you're established and competent, then get that intergalactic drive and explore the other galaxies. This is how new missions are eventually given to you

Added Trivia: This version of Elite was actually programmed by Chris Sawyer!

[punch999]

Originally Posted by Ironlion

This game does have a few features the previous one didn't.

Actually there are missions in this one. They appear randomly as you explore through the 8 galaxies of the game universe, progressing towards earning the rank of "Elite". There aren't many of them, but you will encounter them upon docking at stations.

My memory from years ago recalls a couple of them: a travelling merchant offers to sell you a unique cargo called "trumbles", who are apparently a new fad pet, which you find only multiply in your cargo space and start crawling across your viewscreen. The only way to get rid of them I'll leave you to discover yourself. ^^

The next one you get seems to have you flying into a solar system of a sun that is going nova, to help in the evacuation of stranded inhabitants.

Another mission has you in search of an experimental ship that has some prototype stealth technology on it. Apparently this ship had been stolen by pirates. You are tasked with finding it, and retrieving this stealth device. This mission gives you the opportunity to encounter two types of ship that only appear on this mission in the game.

The last one that I can remember is a Thargoid invasion into human space. The thargoids have set up a beachhead in a nearby star system, and have taken control of that system's Coriolis station. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is the suicidally heroic one of single-handedly entering this system and neutralising that threat. This mission will require you to have what is known in spacer parlance as an "Iron Ass" (a fully kitted out ride). Do not attempt it before you have anything less. Upon completion of this mission you get a piece of Thargoid technology and a special fancy new title.

There are rumored to be more missions, approximately one for every galaxy (except the ninth), but i don't recall ever encountering these. Upon achieving Elite you start getting "Alexander the Great" syndrome (And he wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer...) and feel much less ambitious.

Ninth Galaxy, you say? Yes. a random encounter will have you sort of 'stopped' in hyperspace (witch space) by the Thargoids, who will attack you with a very very large armada of ships. Survive, and you will have access to explore the ninth galaxy.

EDIT: Also, i have an alternative idea of play-style, compared to the guide above. Instead of wasting time trading like a fool (lol), follow these steps:

1) trade until you can afford the "fuel Scoop" upgrade. At the point when you've earned enough to buy this, you need not buy another tonne of cargo in your career ^^. This upgrade can collect both fuel (by flying close to a star) and cargo cannisters (floating in space, either randomly or from a destroyed ship).

2) Proceed to outside the station's "safe zone" (the "S" disappears from your control panel). a good idea is to start flying toward that system's sun, so that you have a navigation reference. After this, just jump until you encounter a ship, and hopefully it is a nice fat cargo hauler like the Boa or Anaconda. Blow it up, and watch all the blue dots appear on your radar. These are cargo cannisters. to pick them up, you simply fly toward them, keeping them in the lower portion of your viewscreen.

3) Take "recovered" cargo, and sell it. Pure profit. In Elite Plus, you're unlikely to get caught being a pirate, which means that you are unlikely to ever see your legal status turn worse than "offender" unless you are extremely blatant about your actions- killing police, killing in a station's safe zone, etc.

4) Rinse off, grab a few drinks at one of the station's night-spots, and then go out and do it again.

5) As you earn money, upgrade your ship. Its what those credits are for! The order you should get upgrades in is:

_1) Fuel scoop
_2) ECM
_3) Beam laser
_4) Escape Capsule

After this it doesn't matter much. But those first 3 are 100% essential to survival in the Elite universe [and the escape capsule is for more than just immersion- it has the added bonus of clearing out your criminal record.]. Upon getting these upgrades, the rest matter somewhat less, though you'll want to upgrade to the military laser before too long (the faster you can take out an enemy, the less shield drain that is incurred, and the longer you stay alive in a fight). If you're terrible at docking, go for the docking computer if you must-- but be prepared to have the Elite commanders mocking you for this. Its a crutch, and you really need to develop good enough control of your ship to perform a proper and consistent dock with the station to be able to survive in combat.

Once you feel that you're established and competent, then get that intergalactic drive and explore the other galaxies. This is how new missions are eventually given to you

Added Trivia: This version of Elite was actually programmed by Chris Sawyer!

lol, Yeah this review blows. I wrote it when I was 12 after barely playing it. I never got that good at it and I almost wish they got a replacement review for it. It's almost embarrassing.

(For those keeping count I am 17 now. Do the math.)

Sucks to be Old, I guess.

The space-combat handles like you were in a jet, in an atmosphere, not in space, a vacuum. There is no slide, nor pitch/yaw. Just roll and dive/climb.

The controls are also digital, and it is impossible to make fine tuned adjustments. Good luck hitting anything, as well. It's like drinking heavily and trying to smash a fly with a rowboat ore. You're not going to do much, and the fly gets away.

[Sarin]

Since this has beeen brought to life...
There's a freeware game, originally a remake of Elite...goes by the name of Oolite. Kinda makes this obsolete... http://oolite.org

[Palocles]

Has anyone started playing this again since the novella went up? (or regular Elite but what's the point when you can have the same but with 256 colours?)

I don't remember docking being so hard! I've been asking myself why the hell they included this aspect.

Anyway, i've only crashed into the coriolis once and have made a decent stash (well, ok. I've only got extended cargo bay so far). I've found it pretty easy to turn a profit going between agricultural and industrial worlds taking radioactive, textiles and food one way and booze, gems, platinum and gold (or minerals if i'm skint) the other way. Platinum has a nice margin on it but i have no idea why low tech argi worlds need so much...

Been doing that from Lave and a couple of planets 1 jump to the right.

Then i see Sarins link to Oolite... I think this could be what i've wanted since computers outgrew Elite! Off to try it out now, may not get much further in this current Elite+ game.

(Thank you Sarin!)

[tristanzz]

I suggest mounting a Mining Laser in the front of your ship. The big issue with weapons is aiming, not firing. With the mining laser, you save over 5000cr on the military laser, and it's actually a ridiculously strong gun. Blowing up ships at point blank range, you can salvage multiple units of alloys and precious minerals from the shards. Then pull out and chase down the pods as quickly as you can like a good pirate. To mine an asteroid, note that they are usually occupied by a hermit piloting a Krait. Give the asteroid one teeny shot, at first, to get the hermit out of there. He'll fire missiles at you if you just lay on the trigger and hit him, so let him go before doing a delicate chase on the rock. Blast the rock at absolute point-blank with your mining laser. Lots of money.

Mount the best thing you can afford in the back. Your rear armament is your ticket-to-ride in Anarchy systems. Setting view to rear, you can keep moving towards the Coriolis station while frying everyone who chases you (usually multiple fer-de-lances, cobras, moreys, and crap), as well as their missiles.