1.2 beta came out today. Here's a thread on the two new ships, the Fer de Lance and the Vulture. They look...interesting. The Fer de Lance looks like a cross between a python and viper. Crazy guns (Huge hardpoint!), but shit jump range. The Vulture has only two hardpoints, but they are both large. The ship itself looks about the size of a Cobra.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=120645

Edit:
There's screenshots of the load out abilities, etc. I forgot to mention that...

SpectralMeat wrote on Feb 27, 2015, 11:19:
The new HUD looks pretty sweet!
Also finally we'll have external camera. It's about time.

That's exciting! I always found it weird you can buy paint jobs, but you can only see part of your ship in the outfitting bay.

I wonder how they "disabled" use of the camera in combat. Maybe they lock out your flight controls while you're using it? Or maybe simpler, just disable it if you have hardpoints deployed.

The added wing stuff looks cool, too! It's finally got the basic chat commands of a 1995 MMO.

The new HUD looks pretty sweet!
Also finally we'll have external camera. It's about time.

Vall Forran wrote on Feb 26, 2015, 19:13:

Mr. Tact wrote on Feb 26, 2015, 18:41:
Which reminds me, back to the looking for pirates thing. It is quite annoying my sensors can't tell the difference between a single cargo canister and a convoy of six "clean" ships...

I guess you can upgrade your sensors. In fact, I'm gonna do that. The resource extraction zones are annoying. I see the blinking triangles, then get there and they are ejected low value cargo.

I think this only increases the range, not the accuracy or effectiveness.

Ahh, I am an idiot. Had totally ignored/missed the fact that there were different icons for the stations. Still, when you select the station, part of the information on the location should be the available pad sizes. Thanks.

Mr. Tact wrote on Feb 26, 2015, 19:06:
How do I check the target station? I mean, I know how to find it in the System/Galaxy map, how do I tell what type of station it is?

One thing the galaxy map does well is that you can type in a station name. It will move your focus to whatever system it's in.

In the system view, if the station has a circle or hexagon icon (ie a coriolis or orbit shape) it's a large station. If it has the shape of the kludged three piece station, it's medium.

Does that make sense? It's really easy to tell, but hard to explain. :\

Edit:
I'm at work now, but when I get home I can take a screen shot and show you what I'm talking about. Essentially...you know the icon that comes up when you land? That's the station identifier. That icon is the same on the system map.

Edit2:
Easier way...if there is a mailslot in the icon, it's a large station.

This comment was edited on Feb 26, 2015, 19:34.

Mr. Tact wrote on Feb 26, 2015, 18:41:
Which reminds me, back to the looking for pirates thing. It is quite annoying my sensors can't tell the difference between a single cargo canister and a convoy of six "clean" ships...

I guess you can upgrade your sensors. In fact, I'm gonna do that. The resource extraction zones are annoying. I see the blinking triangles, then get there and they are ejected low value cargo.

How do I check the target station? I mean, I know how to find it in the System/Galaxy map, how do I tell what type of station it is?

OH man. About 200 posts ago (maybe more) I raged about this. I clicked accept for a mission to deliver some good for $160k. Turned out it was to a small dock station, so I had to abandon the mission, dump the goods, then pay a huge fine.

I check the target station now to make sure. Though, at this point, I don't really do missions anymore. But, jesus, that was so annoying.

You know, I had heard about this but it just happened to me for the first time. Took a mission to deliver some goods (42 tons), only to discover I've been sent to a location that can't dock large ships. Come on FD, figure this out. What a screw.

Which reminds me, back to the looking for pirates thing. It is quite annoying my sensors can't tell the difference between a single cargo canister and a convoy of six "clean" ships...

Mr. Tact wrote on Feb 26, 2015, 15:37:
Okay, two things:

1) Really wanted your guys spin on this:

Mr. Tact wrote on Feb 25, 2015, 20:54:
Okay, this is one of the things I really dislike about this game. Picked up a "Kill 4 pirates" mission. Went to the system, spent over 2 hours cruising around with 1,000 ls of the primary star -- no pirates.

2) Vall, how do you find your large quantity trade deals? Do you do screen captures at two hubs and compare the various prices or what?

As to #1...I don't do the pirate missions anymore. I usually have no problem finding them at USS points, but I always hit one where a guy gives me an "alternate" objective, and (it's a bug) that wipes out my kills from the list.

#2...I kind of cheat. I use Thrudd's trading tool to kind of search my area for good trades. It's hit or miss, but the economy has more or less stabalized. The issue is that the highly touted trade routes dry up through player farming. You need to find one that's not as populated.

Then I explore a bit around (it's why I bought an Asp again) to see if I can find something better. Large craft trades are really fucking hard to find. Here's what I've learned...(this may get long)

Galaxy map. Boom. Set it to filter out population under 1 billion people. This removes all the small stations that you can't land in. Any system with that pop count should have at least one large station.

Now, change your filters to show by economy types. Search out Agriculture-Refinery/Extraction first. Most ref/ext only systems are tiny and will get culled by the earlier pop cap. There are hybrid systems...and they are all usually Agriculture/Refinery or such. Even Hi-Tech can hybrid with extraction or refinery. If you are having trouble finding them, turn on Ag and Hi-Tech on you economy filter list.

After that, search for a nearby hi-tech station. Once you find the two that are close together, test out that route. It's highly annoying, but that's the best way to find new trade routes. The main commodities you want to trade are gold/palladium from a refinery to a hi-tech station where you return res. separators, performance enhancers, the life pills, or superconductors. It's a lot of work, but the "fun" thing is that you can fly around in a fighter ship and do some exploration/combat. Once you find a trade route, then move your heavy loader out there.

I wish the system map had more accurate distances of stations relative to the main star. So many times I go in and find the station (which seemed perfect from my earlier measurements) is freaking 3,000ls away.

Edit:
If you are in a medium ship, trading is way easier. Most of the small docking stations will sell gold/palladium for super cheap. The large ships have been balanced against this. They make less per ton, but the quantity makes up for it.

I timed my route the other day. I took 16 minutes for a round trip. $1.1k per ton one way, $1.2 the other. After fuel costs, I made about $1 million. The t9 is such a fucking boring thing to fly, so after one or two trade runs, I have to go do something else. I'm slowly working my way to the Anaconda though. I think I need about $15 million more.

This comment was edited on Feb 26, 2015, 17:33.

Mr. Tact wrote on Feb 26, 2015, 15:47:
Thanks Spectral, I knew about the trading site, but Vall seemed to indicate he found his own and I was just wondering how he goes about doing that...

Yeah but Vall is a hacker so

Thanks Spectral, I knew about the trading site, but Vall seemed to indicate he found his own and I was just wondering how he goes about doing that...

I usually go to the system that the mission asks me to go to and sit at the nav point or if there is a resource collection site/ asteroid field I camp out there and shoot everyone that is wanted.
Note not every wanted ship is an "acceptable" pirate for your mission.
I ones had to kill like 10 wanted ships to trigger the 3 pirate kills for the mission.
If there are not pirates or the nav point dries up I enter into super cruise immediately turn around and everything resets and the nav point is full of enemies again.

As for trade runs I use this website to find good trade runs: http://www.elitetradingtool.co.uk/

Hope this helps

Okay, two things:

1) Really wanted your guys spin on this:

Mr. Tact wrote on Feb 25, 2015, 20:54:
Okay, this is one of the things I really dislike about this game. Picked up a "Kill 4 pirates" mission. Went to the system, spent over 2 hours cruising around with 1,000 ls of the primary star -- no pirates.

2) Vall, how do you find your large quantity trade deals? Do you do screen captures at two hubs and compare the various prices or what?

Mr. Tact wrote on Feb 26, 2015, 07:59:
Vall, link your current T-9 and Clipper setups please. (mainly interested in the Clipper, but while you are at it... :D)

Clipper This is a trading clipper... if I get bored and want to fight, I put in a higher class shield generator and load in a shield cell battery.

Type 9 This is super trade mode. My shields are super weak, but I'm in an out of the way area of empire space, so I haven't had too many issues (unless you count dumb npc eagles).

This comment was edited on Feb 26, 2015, 14:08.

Vall Forran wrote on Feb 26, 2015, 01:31:
Lol, I got interdicted by an eagle. My turret lasers shot his shields off. Then, for fun, I launched a torpedo at him. He died instantly. 100% to zero. Cost me $15k to reload. Kind of worth it, though.

Sorry, for context, I'm in a t9.

It wasn't a human player I assume

Vall, link your current T-9 and Clipper setups please. (mainly interested in the Clipper, but while you are at it... :D)

Lol, I got interdicted by an eagle. My turret lasers shot his shields off. Then, for fun, I launched a torpedo at him. He died instantly. 100% to zero. Cost me $15k to reload. Kind of worth it, though.

Sorry, for context, I'm in a t9.

Mr. Tact wrote on Feb 25, 2015, 21:23:

Vall Forran wrote on Feb 25, 2015, 18:12:
And doesn't the t6 count as a 'small' ship? Makes sense it would be more maneuverable.

Type-6 is a medium ship, Clipper is large.

Ah, my bad. I don't remember the t6 much. I do know the Clipper can carry twice the amount of cargo though. I actually find the turreted weapons fun. Set the turrets to 'target only' in your right screen panel so they don't shoot undesired targets. With the new friendly fire updates, you won't instantly anger the entire field if you catch some idiot npc with a laser as they fly right in front of you.

And those class 3 lasers just completely OWN everyone's shields. Followed with cannons or multicannons... good times.