AMA about Elite Dangerous

[StaticRadion]

Many of you know me or know of me and for those that don't all you really need to know is that I have been active on these forums since about 1.1, I believe, and I think I have been a member of Mobius since 1.0.

I was very active on TS for a while and those that still remember me over there often joked that I, the links guy, had links to most information about the various mechanics behind E:D. While I don't claim to be an expert on the subject I am well read; have a background in research and detailed financial work; and most importantly try to keep records of what I have learned and what has changed in E:D.

That being said I am not very good about bringing forward presentations of my work or research and often am at a loss for what people are actually interested in. So, this is where you come in, I have decided that instead of just blindly posting or re-posting information that is generally know that I would instead like to simply have you ask anything you want, here.

So, AMA, and if it is simple I or someone else will answer as soon as possible or refer you to a link. If the question is really pertinent then I will probably ask you to start a new discussion so we can look at it in detail.Remember the only stupid question is the question left unasked, so ask away.

[Icpmcp]

One question: Frameshift Drives.

How do they work and why do we use them instead of some shiny chrome Warp engine from Star Trek ?

[StaticRadion]

One question: Frameshift Drives.

How do they work and why do we use them instead of some shiny chrome Warp engine from Star Trek ?

From Star Trek they are not and I cant tell you if they are shiny or not because we can't walk around ships yet, but the FSD is what you would call a warp drive. To be more precise the FSD in E:D is an example of a Alcubierre warp drive. Oh and in a way it is shiny because it causes other ships in SC to look like pixies shooting rainbow contrails out of their butts like comets.

If you want more information on the lore behind the FSD in E:D then this page here has some good info and if you are looking for more detailed information on calculating jump range or mechanics you can look here about halfway down the page.

Hope that helps, but if I missed something then feel free to ask.

[TorTorden]

One question: Frameshift Drives.

How do they work and why do we use them instead of some shiny chrome Warp engine from Star Trek ?

First reason inhazard is.
Because game and they wanted something that sounds different than yet another space game using "warp engines" or better yet an alcubierre drive that has also been retconned into trek as I suspect is one explanation for why there are so many similarities.

But looking aside from the name hypercruise is almost practically the regular star trek warp drive to a tee, outside of how warp factor/efficiency is dependent on proximity to a gravity object.

I don't really like comparing to trek since honestly it's I'll defined and littered with retconning like most long running Hollywood pieces of fiction. Still better than Lucas that confuses speed and distance measurements.

But in generally the max cruise speed of 2001 (pun intended I'm sure) fits somewhere in the upper warp factor of 9 something.

The jump drive is simply a point to point wormhole.

[Falcon_D]

Hello,
Why is Shinrata Dezhra the Elite Pilots Federation home world?

Have fun, fly safe. o7

[StaticRadion]

Hello,
Why is Shinrata Dezhra the Elite Pilots Federation home world?

Have fun, fly safe. o7

This was something I had never though to ask so I spent a good amount of time spinning my wheels looking for an answer, but to the best of my ability I only ended up with more questions.

I can tell you when the Pilots Federation was founded, why, and there principles behind it, but not the where of it, not really. I can tell you that the Pilots Federation owns Shinrata Dezhra and that the Founders World is governed by the Elite Pilots Federation "run exclusively for the benefit of their members", but that is the basics.

I ended up reading what was probably a mix of fan fiction and canon so I can't really say for certain that I am even making correct asuptions, but what a lot of fiction comes down to is that the Founders World is linked to the Raxxla myths in conjunction with The Dark Wheel. If this was any other game I would blow stuff like that off as nonsense, but Frontier seems to like adopting fan fiction as fact. Who knows maybe the Founders world is the only portal to Raxxla within the bubble and that is why it is guarded by the most elite group of pilots alive.

If anyone else has any info please chime in.

[Falcon_D]

Hello,
I also read in the Dark Wheel that there were many alien races in the first Elite. What happened to them?
Seems like we only encounter humans in ED.

Have fun, fly safe. o7

[StaticRadion]

Hello,
I also read in the Dark Wheel that there were many alien races in the first Elite. What happened to them?
Seems like we only encounter humans in ED.

Have fun, fly safe. o7

Ah, one of my favorite subjects, but the answer is a bit of a letdown. It seems that Frontier is in some ways pulling a bit of a retcon. This post by Michael Brookes, though old, is relevant because he states that, "Humans and Thargoids are the only known sentient species in the galaxy, although artefacts of other races have been found. Of course a lot of the galaxy remains unexplored so there may be races not yet discovered, but I would expect them to be quite rare." seems to be the basis for E:D at launch.

One would expect that any other developmental or humanoid species that existed at the time of the first elite would have developed enough to be designate as "sentient" although that does not seem to be the case. It can also be assumed that the "races not yet discovered" could in fact be some that we have already seen and went missing or have been forgotten. It is also possible that in the long history of Elite universe that some of the more fledgling races were wiped out by famine, plague, or by means not yet know like a technological plague.

At this point with all eyes facing toward the discovery of barnacles and UA's it will be interesting to see if they are remnants of a past civilization, part of a new threat or "friendly" race, or an attempt by Thargoids to transition themselves in a more stable way into our universe. Personally I am hoping, like I said in the last post, that it involves The Dark Wheel and the or the Raxxla myth.

All in all the lack of alien races is probably simply a case of lack of developmental resources on Frontier's part. To be honest the coming update in 2.1 adding faces to npc's is probably something they wanted in play before adding alien races in the first place. After all what is the fun in seeing a ship but not being able to see the type of alien inside of it.

[Icpmcp]

First reason inhazard is.
Because game and they wanted something that sounds different than yet another space game using "warp engines" or better yet an alcubierre drive that has also been retconned into trek as I suspect is one explanation for why there are so many similarities.

But looking aside from the name hypercruise is almost practically the regular star trek warp drive to a tee, outside of how warp factor/efficiency is dependent on proximity to a gravity object.

I don't really like comparing to trek since honestly it's I'll defined and littered with retconning like most long running Hollywood pieces of fiction. Still better than Lucas that confuses speed and distance measurements.

But in generally the max cruise speed of 2001 (pun intended I'm sure) fits somewhere in the upper warp factor of 9 something.

The jump drive is simply a point to point wormhole.

The Alcubierre Drive theory was the one that placed Starting point A on Destination B by folding Space was it ?

[TorTorden]

All in all the lack of alien races is probably simply a case of lack of developmental resources on Frontier's part. To be honest the coming update in 2.1 adding faces to npc's is probably something they wanted in play before adding alien races in the first place. After all what is the fun in seeing a ship but not being able to see the type of alien inside of it.

You might be right. But I hope it's wrong.

Thargoids and or other aliens make for an amazingly powerful boogie man.
At this point it's most player created but I really hope FD doesn't play the Thargoids invasion card for at least another three to four years from now.

FD and us players he has the most to gain by playing the slow card on this.

The very minute they actually introduce thargoids the mystery will be over and one less mystery to discover.