Thursday, November 19, 2015

Elite: Dangerous - Beginner's Guide (Basic Pilot Roles)

And-you-can-too.jpg

If you are like me, then you may have been lost or overwhelmed with what you can do in Elite: Dangerous. You may have a good idea of what you’d like to do, or just interested in seeing what all E:D can offer, but not ready to commit to something just yet. E:D is a very open game that doesn’t want to box you in, so you are free to do what you want. This can lead to decision paralysis, so I hope to help clear this up with my series of Elite: Dangerous Beginner’s Guide.

The Basic Pilot Roles guide will help build structure on what kind of pilot role to take. I’ll go over the most basic roles and add some definition to them to explain what these roles do. The first rule of this guide is that it’s completely subjective. You can change the role as you see fit (I encourage you to do so) and come up with your own ideas for these roles, but this guide is made to get you started. You can check out the rest of the guides at the bottom, new ones will be added when they’re finished.

Basic Pilot Roles

2015-11-12_00001.jpg

FIGHTER
Fighting is in your blood. Your job is to attack or defend a target and love to show your dominance on the battlefield. You're not a long range pilot, in fact you prefer sticking around a small group of systems. Battle calls to you, so listen for it.

Places to go: You find yourself most at home in Conflict Zones. These are pockets of space that are in wartime and need all the help they can get. Find these, and then choose a side. Be careful though, as you can be the target easily once you choose a faction.

Equipment: The equipment you will focus on are Weapons, Armor, and Shields. These are your tools of the trade, so don’t go cheap on them. Find ships that have higher armor, shields, or maneuverability. The Sidewinder is cheap, but the Eagle is a good starting ship.

2015-11-18_00001.jpg

EXPLORER
The unknown stars are your home, not space stations. You want to get out into untraveled space and find sights that few or no one has seen before and record your findings. The more data you can amas, the more you can sell it for.

Places to go: Any system that isn’t explored yet. This can be uninhabited space, or even innerspace, as long as you can scan the stars and planets, you can get data on it. Once you have the system scanned, you’ll need to move beyond 20 light years from it to sell to a station.

Equipment: The equipment you will focus on are discovery scanners, thrusters, and frame shift drives. These tools are crucial to your line of work and helps get you around quicker. Find ships that have higher jump range.  The Sidewinder is decent at this job, but you’ll want to get a Hauler soon because they can travel farther distances faster.

2015-11-18_00003.jpg

MINER
You like to get your hands dirty. Guns aren’t your thing and you don’t want to travel aimlessly among the stars, so you join the family trade and become a miner. It’s hard work, but someone has to do it and the pay and work is stable.

Places to go: Find Extraction systems that have higher concentrations of metal and higher security. These give you your advantages for finding wealth. A good starting place are the asteroid clusters near the parent star, but you’ll also want to look into the rings of a nearby planet or gas giants since they have far more resources to haul.

Equipment: The equipment you will focus on are mining lasers, refineries, and collector limpets. These tools cut down the time dramatically and make your job much easier. You’ll definitely want to have the largest cargo space you can handle, but remember, the more you carry, the slower you are (when trying to get away from pirates). Find ships that have more internal compartments. You start with a Sidewinder, but you’ll want to get to the Hauler as soon as you can to carry more limpets and get a larger refinery.

2015-11-19_00002.jpg

TRADER
You like moving things, for a price. You watch the markets and make your move when you see an opportunity show itself. A system is in need of resources and you know where there’s an abundance. And from making all these deals, you pocket the profit and feel good that you are the lifeblood of the galactic economy.

Places to go: You’ll want to find a nice cluster of diverse systems, the more secure the better. Ones where you can buy lower than the galactic average at one and sell higher at another. A good starting place is looking for a High Tech system close to some Extraction systems. High Tech systems are always in need of raw materials.

Equipment: The equipment you will focus on are cargo and thrusters. Not much else is needed to get the job done. Most of your investment credits are being used on the resources you’ll buy and sell while making profit off the margins.Find ships that have more internal compartments and jump range. The Sidewinder can get you started, but you’ll want to invest into the Hauler as soon as you can. The name of the game is moving cargo, and you’ll want to be able to move as much as possible.

Remember - I am Elite: Dorkus and you can too!

Elite: Dangerous - Beginner’s Guide List

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

The Park: What happened to Callum?

Chad-The-Chipmunk.jpg

The Park made by Funcom was a fun ride, but after the lights fade to black and we find ourselves in a room being questioned about the disappearance of our son, we are left wondering; What happened to Callum?

Here’s my theory of what happened. This contains SPOILERS, so if you haven’t played or watched the game yet, please do so now. Now that you’re up-to-speed, or like reading about spoilers, let’s continue.

Before I release the bombshell of what I believe happened to Callum, I’ll want to build up the evidence first because it’s a doozy theory.

Hansel-Gretel.jpg
Hansel & Gretel
Children’s Tales

The first ride we take sets up the whole mood for the game, and subtly the story of Lorraine and Callum. It’s the German tale Hansel and Gretel. After the ride, Lorraine talks poetic about how Callum and she are the brother and sister, sticking together and hoping to one day find their house of candy so they don’t have to go hungry.

Further in the game the next few pieces are told in internal monologue by Lorraine in how the father died while being a worker for the Atlantic Island Park, how she is going through depression, and how she wants to love Callum but doesn’t seem to.

House of Horrors

After we go through the jump scare portion of the House of Horrors, we find ourselves in our own home. Here is where a good chunk of evidence comes forth. You find books and papers all over the place that changes with each iteration you go through. The first paper you find is a notice for shutting off the power during the winter in Maine. I’m sure there are parallels that this letter is referencing the season of winter, but probably also hinting that it could be Nathaniel Winter as well, the park owner.

This is important because we have the situation we need, Lorraine and Callum stuck at home during a harsh Maine winter.

Why didn’t she seek help so they wouldn’t go without? Because she done that many times before. When she looked for help with her depression after the loss of Don, the father of Callum, all she got was electroshock therapy and medicine. She talked about a cop saying she needs help, but she would rather die than get help again. She also sought help from her own mother and looking for money from Don’s life insurance, but was given the cold shoulder. So she probably feels she isn’t going to get help, which is why I think she tried to bunker down and ride out the winter with Callum.

The Slab

Where we finally find Callum is lying motionless on a slab of concrete, below the park. We as Lorraine go up to him, then find ourselves wielding an ice pick and Nathaniel behind us putting us in position to do the unthinkable, but releases at the end, letting us finishing the act. We stab Callum. Story over, bring out the police tape, we have a murderer on our hands. But we don’t find ourselves in cuffs, but in an office room, probably interrogation, being questioned by the same individual we see at the beginning of the game, letting us through the gates. In order to complete our story, we have to go back to the House of Horrors, and I don’t mean the jump scare part.

Cabin Fever

Winter in Maine is cold and brutal. No money means little or no food, and being locked up for the season with nowhere to go, cabin fever can set in. Lorraine is already having depression issues, and with all the bottles of medicine, she probably has an addiction too. Strolling through the house, over and over, you get a sense of being caged in, probably how Lorraine was feeling during that winter.

There’s also a lot of symbolism going through this house, between the teddy bear with the black eye, the baby dolls everywhere, including in the oven and pot on the stove, the people hung up on the ceiling. To me, this is all symbolism of what was happening in that house.

After reviewing all of this, I think the verdict of what happened to Callum was that Lorraine ate him. The story constantly referring back to hunger and cannibalism with the book about the Donner party, the story of Hansel and Gretel, the baby doll in the oven, it’s all there. The harsh winter got to Lorraine and she did the unthinkable.

However, did she kill Callum?

Guilt Ridden

We see Lorraine clearly hovering over Callum at the end and stabbing him with the ice pick. But there is some subtlety here. Callum in lying motionless on the slab, this could indicate he was sleeping. Did she kill Callum out of hunger, or out of mercy? They were going hungry in this house and was probably not going to make it. She was probably having suicidal thoughts as well, hence the hung people. But viewing the scene again, Callum doesn’t look like he’s breathing and when she stabs, he makes no noise or doesn’t jump or struggle. I think she was too late, and hunger took him already. Doesn’t mean she isn’t feeling the guilt of his death.

But then why…

The Park

Why does Lorraine, in her heart and mind, go back to the Atlantic Island Park? What’s the purpose of this place to her story? I feel it’s what she blames for taking Callum away from her. It’s the source of her problems. The park is where Don worked, who fathered her son. It’s also a convenient story of who to blame for her missing child. The park was notorious for injuries, death, and missing children. So who would be the best scapegoat to blame for her missing child?

Nathanial-Winter.jpg
Nathaniel Winter
Nathaniel Winter spoke to us during the roller coaster ride, saying we were everything the park doesn’t want, claiming we were the antithesis of what the park stood for. I believe that means we are another scrape on an already tarnished reputation, continuing the park’s closure.

I also believe Nathaniel was trying to fuel the park on happy emotions, why he strapped a kid to his slab and tickled him to death, bringing his machines to life. But the park kept corrupting that, turning it into fear and anger. That’s not what Nathaniel wants, but with people like Lorraine and Callum coming around, fueling it with negative emotion, that just kept corrupting the park further against Nathaniel’s wishes.

In the end, The Park provided the atmosphere and interesting story for people like me to try and break it down to make sense of it all.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

#IntPiPoMo - The Park and Secret World

The-Park.jpg

I’ve finished my series of The Park and posted it on YouTube. The ride was wild and I’m glad it’s finally finished and back on the ground. The game had plenty of atmosphere as promised. As a bit of a celebration of being able to say I’ve been to the Atlantic Island Park, rode the rides and left with my life still intact (though my sanity may be another matter), I’ve constructed a gallery of some of the screenshots I’ve taken in The Park for #IntPiPoMo, and to boost the creep-odometer, I’ve included some shots of the Atlantic Island Park from The Secret World. That brings the number of images for this gallery to lucky number 13.

If you’re interested in more International Picture Posting Month, you can find more entries through the twitter hashtag #IntPiPoMo or join by checking out Chestnut’s entry post. You can also checkout my play-through of The Park here.

...

Monday, November 9, 2015

#IntPiPoMo - Elite:Dangerous

intpipomo2015_badge.png

In case you missed it, there’s a new initiative going on for the month of November. IntPoPoSo… no that’s not it. IntPiPiMi? Ent...tertainer? Oh, this is it.

#IntPiPoMo

It’s short for International Picture Posting Month. The fantastic Chestnut is running the show this year. You can learn more or join by checking her IntPiPoMo entry post. For my first set of entries, I decided to show off some of the beautiful imagery you can find in Elite: Dangerous. You can get some excellent viewpoints of space in this game.

Since Blogger is bad when it comes to galleries, I’ve looked around and going to try some alternatives. This one is with Cincopa.
...

Saturday, November 7, 2015

Star Wars 7 Kylo Ren's Lightsaber Theory

SW7-TFU.jpg

The tri-blade saber of Kylo Ren has been a big talking point about the new movie, with people either liking or hating it. I personally think it’s impractical, but all sabers tend to have a uniqueness to them that helps define the Jedi or Sith that wields it.

After watching the trailers and seeing the hilt plenty of times, I suddenly had an idea about it and did a bit of a comparison to see if my thought checks out.

My theory is that Kylo’s saber is Darth Vader’s saber. This theory may have already been made, but I’m trying to stay away from Star Wars stuff in-case of spoilers - as ironic as that statement is with me throwing out theories as well.

Kylo-Ren-Saber-Theory.jpg
(left) Kylo Ren's saber
(right) Darth Vader's saber

According to my comparison image, the bases look very similar with the grip design. The tops aren’t similar, but you can see Kylo’s saber is modified and hacked together. And lastly you can see that the saber kind of looks damaged, like it was burned. Now, that last point could just be the way the prop I found looks, but I’ve seen others that make it looked burned as well.

I think Kylo grabbed the helm and saber after Vader was burned from his burial. We see in the trailer, he has the burned helmet of Vader, so why not his saber?

As for the modifications, if the saber was badly burned, it would need repair to get it working again. That may also be why the saber looks wobbly like it does. It could be that it’s not overpowered, but the crystal and and other parts just isn’t up to par and not producing as strong a saber. This could be the advantage that Finn (John Boyega) will need when facing against Kylo.