Greetings Star Citizens

[Grifter]

Hey all,

It's been a long time since I've been active with RLG but wanted you to know that I'm eagerly waiting for a stable, playable version of SC to be published. I plan on playing it and will gladly fly with you guys. My call sign is Grift-r, I believe. Someone took Grifter already. So I'll be around so long as the game doesn't prove to be a flop.

Later,

Grifter.

[Bronurstomp]

Awesome Vandul bomber just released.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmpFCIGjEGo

I'm hoping this turns out to be a smash hit game aslo. So far I am impressed to the point I now have 3 ships.



Bron

[BlackHawk*K]

@Bron, yea im impressed too.

the thing about the leak was. i was really relieved. because now i know they are actually working on things and NOT sharing with everyone. it looks like anything S42 related they are trying to keep a really tight lid on. i think they want it the big pop and wow release. i really hope it holds up to all the hype. at this point i havnt seen anything that says it wont. but then, i build crap for a living and dont know anything about programing and stuff.

so glad to see another person on board. but i have to say Grifter, this game is NOT stable. its alpha. and probably wont be for quite awhile. while some of us, ( i think its just me at this point....) can get a lot of enjoyment out of it at this stage, it has a LOT of blockers for many people. so in the end, it ends up to you for what is the essential game breaker.

at this point since i havnt had that many wing men to fly with on a constant basis, ive joined up with the Atlas defense industries organization. its a bit more "structured" them im used to, since most of them are former military. but i hope to learn a lot. and perhaps this is something i can bring back if and when we decide what, if anything we are doing here. so in my mind, even with a alpha game that has a ton of defects and flaws, there are still things to learn. as i found out tonight participating in formation flying practice.... UHG! try to stay within 50 meters at 100 kph to a lead pilot in formation... NOT easy....... so with that said, im off killing things now!


oh! i updated my ingame now.. so its BlackHawkK for the CIG contacts. for anyone who already had me added. it should of updated already for you guys....

[Bronurstomp]

Hey guys, check this out. a sub $500 VR headset from Vuzix...

http://www.vuzix.com/consumer/iwear-video-headphones/

This could make for a completely amazing Star Citizen experience! I plan on ordering one once I am working again.



Bron

[BlackHawk*K]

@ Bron, nice we will have to keep an eye on that one... i was watching a video the other night where they actually beam the light into your eyes. its supposed to be more like how our eyes receive light naturally. it will be interesting to see how that one developed as well. im sure it will be more expensive though LOL. meanwhile, that google cardboard is in my price range!

@ Grfiter, hey i finally found you on SC. it looks like your ID is GRIFTE-R you were missing the E above.

right now, the invite functions in AC are borked. it was interesting because it worked at the beginning of last week. but towards the end, nada. BUT! i found that you CAN invite while your in the hanger. ( but only works in the hanger...) you hit your L key and you can type in the name to add it... so thats new and i didnt know about it.

[BlackHawk*K]

Grifter, im not sure if you found this yet. if you have please ignore this message. lol if not. here is a compiled list i have so far for SC handles you can add in your CIG contacts.

http://rlgaming.com/viewtopic.php?f=198 ... 319#p94319

[Grifter]

Hey BlackHawk,

Sorry for not getting back sooner. I decided to wait a bit longer before getting into SC since I had a lot of hiking plans and RL junk. I thought I had left a message to that effect but clearly I didn't. Anyway, I will add my name to CIG. Also, I'm playing a little bit here and there in Arena Commander and absolutely getting destroyed. I'm meh, okay at Vanduul Swarm but going against other players I die fast. I'm only flying a mustang alpha, but the sim seems to move blindingly fast for me and by the time I react I'm dead. Any suggestions on where I might get some tutoring and tips? Articles/forums I should read? Thanks. Will read up on my own of course, but if you happen to know anything that you could pass along that would be great.

Oh, when do you guys get together to play SC? Any particular day of the week/time?

Grif.

[Grifter]

Just an additional note that I should be active on Wednesday, early evenings. Possibly some Fridays evenings depending on plans with the Mrs.

[BlackHawk*K]

hey Grifter!

hmm hints and tips for a mustang alpha? rent another ship? LOL. keep in mind about all the balancing and changes that go on all the time at this phase of the game, it would be really hard at any time going head to head with other players in a mustang alpha. its not built to be a fighter craft. but, not all is lost! i would suggest playing CO-OP Vandull swarm a lot. build up your REC credits and RENT maybe a Gladius (9K REC) or a superhornet (16,500 REC). another good ship thats cheap for REC and really hard to hit would be the Merlin. (2K REC.). when you rent a ship for REC, you can fly it in Arena commander for 7 days. ( you get 7 24 hour swathes of time. once you start a 24hr segment, it will count down to 0. a new 24 hour period will not start a count down until you play arena commander again. so if you play for a day, and wait 6 days to play again. you will still have 6 days left on your rental.) REC is earned by multiplayer arena commander games only. single player does not count.

also another good thing to do is spend some time tweaking your controls. my stock joystick setup is terrible to play with, WAY too sensitive. i have to lower the sensitivity a LOT to be able to control aiming a lot better. another really good way to learn your ship and how it flies is to mess around on the race tracks. i used to race a lot in drone sim for the hell of it. it will really help you learn how your ship drifts and may save your life from drifting into a rather large space rock ( and i still do on occasion!) i dont know of any specific web sites or anything that would really help, i just watch a lot of Youtube Videos and play a lot. and im still not the best PVP combat pilot.


i think im the only one in RLG that plays on a constant basis. i think most everyone else is waiting for the full release of the game before they really get into it. every once in awhile someone will wing me in game. but not often. i have joined TEST squadron organization. its a large group of idiots just like me, so i fit in well. lol. they have a huge number of players in there so there is always someone on and doing things. plus i like the Twitch.tv streams. sometimes they have raffles to win ships or hanger flair. i havnt won anything, YET! so i try to get on every day and do something in SC. right now, im really into racing the Old Vanderval track. i rented a 350r and i have worked my way up to 27th place out of over 3K of people playing. WOOHOO! here is a practice video i did lol. it has some derptitudes in it, but just goes to show you how hard it is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skax2dG5WmU

if you want a wing sometime. PM me the day before and i will see if i can make a point to be on.

[Hammer]

yeah - I am kinda waiting to get my HOTAS straightened out and the game to mature a bit more.

if you look at melting your mustang alpha, or look at upgrade packages you might find something more suitable for PvP. BH can probably recommend better than I.

side note: I am looking to test out Falcon BMS and relive some of the old days. I want to see how it stacks up to DCS graphically, but I can give up some graphics for the campaign. I will post once I have fired it up and flown a bit.

[Grifter]

Hey BlackHawk,

Thanks for the suggestions. I may hit you up to wing sometime; for now, I may check out TEST and build up my REC to rent another craft. I'll be playing a few times a week.
I will also play with my controls and see if that helps.

Hammer,

Can I exchange my alpha for a better craft and pay the difference? If so, I didn't know that was an option. Hudson mentioned BMS. I think I'm sticking with DCS right now but we might download and experiment with it yet. Let me know what you think of BMS. Maybe we could all log on and try it. I have to make oxygen choices these days, ie. So little time to actually game. I backed off lotro altogether once I got to a pale whet I felt I "beat" the game.

[BlackHawk*K]

hey Grifter, i was just looking at the alpha. im not sure if you have played around with the holo table yet, but it looks like the Alpha has 4 size 1 gun slots on it. do you have weapons in every slot? if not, do you have another ship to pull them off of to get them on the alpha? if you can run 4 weapons it will go a long ways in helping your earn REC. Also, keep a close watch on the RSI website, they often have free fly weekends and stuff. meaning, they will let you fly different ships without spending REC or RL monies to do it. its always a great opportunity to look at the cool ships and sometimes makes some extra REC with a ship designed to create a bit more Havoc ;)

[Grifter]

Hey,

Yup, got all four hard points loaded but that does raise some questions for me. I haven't played SC a whole lot and so some of my problems are likely just my ineptitude. I'm a lousy pilot right now. Even so, I wanted to configure the CVI so that my turret guns fire off my primary horas trigger while my wing guns fire off my secondary Hotas button. Couldn't get the CVI to cooperate. Also not sure if I can load missiles on this ship. I know it won't accept certain weapons because they are too big and so I don't know what the best load out is for the craft. All of this may be moot as I plan to upgrade one way or the other. Wondering if I can upgrade my craft without losing my package? Seems to be a way but not sure.

[BlackHawk*K]

there IS a way to setup your weapon groups. but you have to do it while flying, they havnt added a way to save it though. so you can set them up, but when you die, you have to redo it all over again. so for me, i just fly how they have them setup. its a little annoying though.

Mustangs can not equip missiles at this point. they dont have the hard points for them. however the mustang Delta has rocket pods, but they dont have guidance and are dumb fire. eventually they may add more weapons and equipment that will work on the hard points.

yes you can upgrade your craft without losing the package. there are a few ways to go about it.. either a chassis upgrade, or a cross chassis upgrade. the thing to remember about this process is, that you can only UP grade... you can not down grade once its upgraded.

you find the chassis and cross chassis upgrades in the pledge store on the RSI website. after the screen loads you will see a bar at the bottom click EXTRAS with the down error next to it. in the drop down list, check out the ship upgrade section an the cross chassis upgrades. you can almost upgrade to anything you want but the process can be a bit convoluted. (at some point they are planning on making this process a lot easier.)

all these process involve RL cash though. so if your still not sure, stick with the in game REC and play around a little.

some of my favorite ships to play around with when available are.

the Aurora LN. it is fairly small and week, but unlike the other Auroras it can hold 2 size 2 weapons on the upper wings as well as 2 size 1 weapons on the 'whiskers' below the cockpit. it also comes with a rocket launcher that can carry 4 size 2 missiles. in the right hands this ship can do some unexpected damage, especially against less then ace pilots.

the flying penguin! ( the Avenger.) i have been fighting a lot of these guys lately. at one point they were OP, then the ended up being nerfed a little, now they are damn hard to kill. they are fast, maneuverable and come with a Gatling style gun in the nose. paired up with some laser repeaters on the wings it seems to be a serious combo. but thats to be expected from an ex police ship. this ship also has a missile rack under each wing able to hold 2 size 2 missiles per side. for a total of 4 size 2 missiles.

the hornet series. based off the current UEE military craft. these things can pack some heavy duty weapons and a fairly large shield. but are stuck with 8 size 1 missiles. ( currently for some reason the Hornet line has suffered from some sort of bug that when it gets hit by a missile your rear end gets blown off. effectively taking it out of action.)

the Gladius. in my opinion the prettiest ship ive seen in game. the level of details on this thing are out standing... ( i know, space nerd..) its super maneuverable and fairly fast. it comes with its own little Gatling style of gun on the nose and like its older brother the Avenger, paired up with some laser repeaters are again, a deadly combination. this little baby holds 2 size 3 missiles and 4 size 2 missiles. fun fun.

thats it for now lol.

the thing to keep in mind about SC right now is there are only 3 things to really do in game. fight, race, and just fly around. there will be a ton more things to do once the full game comes out. fighter ships are fun right now. but when the persistence universe comes about. they are not really going to be as useful as some of the other ships. i think a lot of the fighting ships will kind of take a back seat and the less useful ships we have now, will come into their own.

[Grifter]

Hey BlackHawk, thanks man. I will definitely check out the Gladius. I also have my eye on the 325A as many have stated that it offers a good balance as well and it's fast, but the Gladius is probably the way I will eventually go. I use to play Battlestar galactic a and it sound like this sim is going in a similar direction in principle. I imagine we will all own a cargo freighter or other duty ship, a fighter or capital ship for raids and then there is the FPS component they are working on! Very exciting if they can pull it off. The first person seems very rigid right now though, rainbow six it is not. We'll see. Thanks again man; it's a big help!

[Hammer]

umm - Avenger! or 315P

Gladius is cool - but it is a short range fighter.

BH - have you tried the Glaive yet?

[BlackHawk*K]

yea i did try the glaive out. the most expensive REC ship EVER! its really a cool ship and all, but the large neutron cannons are not very effective. i think its suffering the effects of having the Vandull ships nerfed a little to balance the vandull swarm play. im not sure they implemented the difference between player owned vandull ships vs AI ships.



for a good all arounder, the Avenger is a very good ship! in fact, i think this upcoming weekend they may be doing a Avenger free fly weekend. so if your interested you might log in and give her a spin. i will try to post here more often about free flies and what not.

[Grifter]

So, would you say the 315p over the 325a because of its extra abilities to explore? Might test drive the avenger but I'm thinking the 325a is probably my fighter in the near future. Gotta get up rec to test it out though. Looks good on paper but I might hate it when I try it.

[BlackHawk*K]

the 325A is a decent fighter ship. but, you CAN fit the same equipment on a 315p. the downside of the 300 series ships is that they have very little cargo capacity. that being said, the 315 is really geared up for exploring. and the 325a for fighting. how so? the 325a has a custom combat computer, at this point it is the only ship in the game able to lock on to 4 separate targets and when they come into range launch all 4 missiles at once. it was pretty cool to use. but, in the end i found it didnt hold up as well compared to the gladius and avenger. now that being said, there has been a few guys kicking butt in built up 315ps so its just one of those things lol.

[Grifter]

Yeah I think the factor we're discussing is piloting style. I haven't figured out exactly what my style is yet and so earning rev to figure out which fighter play to my strengths and minimizes my weaknesses remains. I will definitely experiment before buying, but I've always been comfortable in the f-16s for example. They don't take damage well but they are nimble and fast. We'll see if that translates to this sim.