[comp.sys.atari.st] Elite!

clong@topaz.rutgers.edu (Chris Long) (04/12/89)

After killing literally 50+ ships, I'm still classified as "harmless".
What gives?  The manual says that I'd be reclassified as "mostly
harmless" if I survived my first skirmish.
-- 
Chris Long

Score: 30, Diff: 30, clong killed by a Harvard Math Team on  1

dav@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (William David Haas) (01/10/90)

I finally got around to playing Elite!  Great game.  I have been playing 
for a week and I have finally gotten all the fun toys for my ship.  I have
a few question Elite status pilots might be able to answer.

Can you play the game without becoming an 'Offender'.  I blew up a pirate
and picked up his cargo and it was guns.  I couldn't get rid of the stuff
so I had to sell it.  I don't see how you would get anywhere if you didnt 
hunt pirates on the side so are you reqired to be semi-illegal?

If your status is not clean you occasionally get cops chasing you.  You can't
outrun them (unless you hyperspace out) but if you kill one you become a 
fugitive and then they chase you around forever.  Wouldn't be so bad if
they didn't try to kill you; you are forced to kill them.
Am I missing something?

The docs say there is room for two people in the ship.  Does this come to
play in the game?

What do the colors in the 3d section mean?  Are they explained anywhere?
I have figured them out (for the most part) but I can't find them explained 
in the docs.

gleason@task.enet.dec.com (Daryl Gleason) (01/10/90)

> I finally got around to playing Elite!  Great game.  I have been playing 
> for a week and I have finally gotten all the fun toys for my ship.  I have
> a few question Elite status pilots might be able to answer.

I'm only "Dangerous", but I've accumulated some 24+ hours of playing
time and would be glad to share my experiences.

> Can you play the game without becoming an 'Offender'.  I blew up a pirate
> and picked up his cargo and it was guns.  I couldn't get rid of the stuff
> so I had to sell it.  I don't see how you would get anywhere if you didnt 
> hunt pirates on the side so are you reqired to be semi-illegal?
> 
> If your status is not clean you occasionally get cops chasing you.  You can't
> outrun them (unless you hyperspace out) but if you kill one you become a 
> fugitive and then they chase you around forever.  Wouldn't be so bad if
> they didn't try to kill you; you are forced to kill them.
> Am I missing something?

There are a couple of ways to avoid this.  The obvious one is to never
pick up cargo from a pirate -- you have no way of knowing what he was
carrying; it may well be contraband goods.  You can still use them for
target practice without affecting your status.  By the same token, you
should never try to pick up escaped life pods from pirate ships; they
come in as slaves.  Thargoids are OK, though; they're alien items.

If somehow you lose your clean status, you can escape from your ship if
you have purchased a life pod.  The status stays with your ship, and you
end up docked with a ship furnished exactly the same as the one you
ditched (thanks to the "insurance policy" provided by the life pod
purchase), minus the life pod.

Or, you could just restore the game from a point at which you were clean.
 
> The docs say there is room for two people in the ship.  Does this come to
> play in the game?

At various points in the game, after several hours of play, you'll be
offered the opportunity to go on missions.  The extra passenger room
comes into play on one of these.
 
> What do the colors in the 3d section mean?  Are they explained anywhere?
> I have figured them out (for the most part) but I can't find them explained 
> in the docs.

Let's see...  A flashing object of any color is an enemy and will fire
on you.  Purple objects are cargo cannisters and asteriods.  Yellow
objects are non-hostile ships of various kinds.  Gray objects are
pirates, thargoids, and thargons.  There seem to be two shades of gray,
but I haven't yet related them to any differences in the ships.  Those
are all I've seen.

I'm currently stuck on mission 5 (which I won't detail to avoid
spoilers).  If anyone knows how to complete it, I'd like to hear from you!

				*** Daryl ***

johns@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Conan the Barbarian) (01/13/90)

>> If your status is not clean you occasionally get cops chasing you.  You can't
>> outrun them (unless you hyperspace out) but if you kill one you become a 
>> fugitive and then they chase you around forever.  Wouldn't be so bad if
>> they didn't try to kill you; you are forced to kill them.
>> Am I missing something?

	I avoid this by getting a docking computer.  It docks so fast that
	the cops don't get a chance at me.  And this is the part I like best:
	(Taken straight out of the manual) "It comes with MemnSomn pilot
	interaction to induce hi-cram sleep during the manoevre."

>If somehow you lose your clean status, you can escape from your ship if
>you have purchased a life pod.  The status stays with your ship, and you
>end up docked with a ship furnished exactly the same as the one you
>ditched (thanks to the "insurance policy" provided by the life pod
>purchase), minus the life pod.

	This hasn't worked for me.  Am I doing something wrong?  I make sure
	I don't carry any cargo, get into a fight, and then eject.  
	I get my ship back just as before, but my status is still bad.
	What's going on?

>At various points in the game, after several hours of play, you'll be
>offered the opportunity to go on missions.  The extra passenger room
>comes into play on one of these.

	I thought I'd played a while, but I haven't seen this yet.  Better
	get cracking.


>				*** Daryl ***


-- 
"After all is said and done,                       John Schmitt
 a lot more is said than done."                    johns@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca
Don't blame anybody for what I say.                SCHMITTJ@SCIvax.mcmaster.ca

gleason@clt.dec.com (Daryl Gleason) (01/18/90)

In article <25AE1823.8928@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca>, johns@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Conan the Barbarian) writes...
> 
>>If somehow you lose your clean status, you can escape from your ship if
>>you have purchased a life pod.  The status stays with your ship, and you
>>end up docked with a ship furnished exactly the same as the one you
>>ditched (thanks to the "insurance policy" provided by the life pod
>>purchase), minus the life pod.
> 
>	This hasn't worked for me.  Am I doing something wrong?  I make sure
>	I don't carry any cargo, get into a fight, and then eject.  
>	I get my ship back just as before, but my status is still bad.
>	What's going on?

    I haven't actually tried it.  However, the following is from my Elite
manual, page 35, under "Escape Capsule" (grammatical errors are theirs, too):

	"An escape capsule can be fitted in place of your cabin at any world of
Tech level 6 or higher.  If "Q" is then hit during combat the capsule will be
jettisoned from the ship be automatically tracked by the nearest world and will
travel safely to a Coriolis space station  Your cash will be preserved but all
your cargo will be lost.

	"However, this item comes with a widely recognised insurance cover
which will guarantee you a new Cobra Class ship, equipped in like manner.  The
contents of the cargo hold is exempt from this protection.

	"Since the unique IR signature of a ship's hull is used to file police
records, abandoning your ship in this way will have the effect (unfortunately
exploited as much by galactic brigands as trader victims) of clearing your
police record..."

---
Daryl Gleason	gleason@clt.dec.com
		--or-- ...!decwrl!clt.dec.com!gleason
		--or-- gleason%clt.dec@decwrl.dec.com
---