Elite: Dangerous Blog

I've not posted much lately. Why? I've been busy working on materials for the Vehicle Codex and the Codex itself.

Currently I'm drawing vectors of outfitting icons to use on my new Codex data sheets. You can see the difference between the ones I've drawn as vectors (top) and the bitmaps taken from screenshots - which I do not want to use in the final document.

Below is a work in progress of the Lakon Type-10 Defender - obviously there are still icons to finish AND the internals are changing with version 3. I thought I'd give my readers a peek into what's coming next.

Many thanks to the talented Ian Baristan (@IanBaristan) for this

Update January 2019 - all these blueprints have been superseded by the new "3305 Editions" here which include hard-point and utility slot locations.  

With the addition of the Dolphin, I have republished the full set with a few additions. There are size corrections on the Viper Mk III and I've added ZIP copies of all the JPEG version of each language. Additionally, the remaining translations have been applied, so this is the most complete set to date.

• English versions gb.zip (39.2 mb)
• French versions fr.zip (31.3 mb)
• German versions de.zip (27.9 mb)
• Spanish versions es.zip (35.9 mb)

Thanks to CMDR Noxa on reddit for finding out who manufactures the Corilios station.

Thanks also to all the others on Twitter, Reddit and the Frontier forums who have been spotting errors and mistakes and letting me know. It's been very helpful to have so many people proofreading this lot! As you can imagine, while most of this work has been done in my lunch hour, there have been a few nights where I burnt the midnight oil and almost certainly copied numbers from the wrong spreadsheet column!

Thanks to CMDR Aidan Abacus & the CMDRs of www.elitedangerous.de for German translations. Thanks to CMDR Nicou, CMDR Aymerix & CMDR Duita Rider of www.elite-dangerous.fr for French translations. Thanks to CMDR Nyra, with the help of CMDR Kimanuel and CMDR XPi2, from Corsarios de Heimdal for Spanish translations.

	Craft	Manufacturer	1920x1080	4096x2305
	Stinger-2 Attack Skimmer	Achilles Corporation
	S4 Sentry Skimmer	Core Dynamics
	S9 Goliath Skimmer	Core Dynamics
	Scarab SRV	Vodel
	F63 Condor Federal Fighter	Core Dynamics
	GU-97 Imperial fighter	Gutamaya
	Taipan Independent Fighter	Lakon Spaceways
	Sidewinder	Faulcon DeLacy
	Eagle Mk II	Core Dynamics
	Hauler	Zorgon Peterson
	Adder	Zorgon Peterson
	Dolphin	Saud Kruger
	Imperial Eagle	Gutamaya
	Viper MK III	Faulcon DeLacy
	Cobra Mk III	Faulcon DeLacy
	Viper Mk IV	Faulcon DeLacy
	Diamondback Scout	Lakon Spaceways
	Cobra Mk IV	Faulcon DeLacy
	Type 6 Transporter	Lakon Spaceways
	Diamondback Explorer	Lakon Spaceways
	Imperial Courier	Gutamaya
	Keelback	Lakon Spaceways
	Asp Scout	Lakon Spaceways
	Vulture	Core Dynamics
	Asp Explorer	Lakon Spaceways
	Federal Dropship	Core Dynamics
	Type 7 Transporter	Lakon Spaceways
	Alliance Chieftain	Lakon Spaceways
	Federal Assault Ship	Core Dynamics
	Imperial Clipper	Gutamaya
	Federal Gunship	Core Dynamics
	Orca	Saud Kruger
	Fer De Lance	Zorgon Peterson
	Python	Faulcon DeLacy
	Type 9 Heavy	Lakon Spaceways
	Beluga Liner	Saud Kruger
	Type-10 Defender	Lakon Spaceways
	Anaconda	Faulcon DeLacy
	Federal Corvette	Core Dynamics
	Imperial Cutter	Gutamaya
	Majestic Class Interdictor	Gutamaya
	Farragut Battle Cruiser	Core Dynamics
	Coriolis Station	Brewer Corp
	Thargoid Sensor	Thargoids
	Thargoid Marauder	Thargoids
	Thargoid Cyclops	Thargoids

Doing the strangest thing, loving the alien

Want to scan a Thargoid, but don't want to end up dead? Here's how...

This only applies to players with Horizons.

Lock and load...

First you need to purchase a Xeno scanner from station outfitting and ESSENTIALLY purchase a heat-sink launcher and fit them to your ship. If you cannot find these in the station you are at, use the EDDB.io website to locate a station near you that has them in stock (put "xeno scanner" in the "Station sells" box and then put your current location in the "Reference system" box). You are then set for a close encounter of the non-fatal kind. You'll be making a long trip, so consider fitting a fuel scoop if you don't already have one.

Remember to assign the Heat Sink launcher and Xeno Scanner to a fire group.

Finding Thargoids

Currently in the game the best place to find Thargoids is in the Pleiades sector, which means a trip of 150-200ly from the main bubble (depending where you start). Look on the Galaxy Map for the damaged stations and stations under repair. These systems have the Thargoids in their vicinity. Plot a route to one of these systems and get jumping.

I've arrived! What now?

Fly around the system in super-cruise and look for Unknown Signal Sources. You want to find a Non-Human Signal Source - Threat level 5 is a Cyclops, 6 is a Basilisk and 7 is the Medusa. If a Thargoid is there when you drop into the USS, it will approach to scan you.
At that point as soon as the Thargoid is within 500m, fire the heat-sink to make your ship go cold - this will stop the Thargoid from detecting your heat signature and it will not then consider you a threat.

Waste no time using the Xeno Scanner to get that scan! The scan only works within 500m.

If you don't go cold, the Thargoid will attack you and almost certainly kill you.

Once the scan is complete, back off and retreat to at least 1km away. As long as you don't get close or fire weapons, you can remain and observe the Thargoid. Usually they will wander around scanning wreckage and picking up components before warping away.

Live to scan another day

Once you've scanned or once the ship has left, jump out and head to the nearest station. You did it!

I wrote a lovely article at lunch today and the browser crashed when I saved, discarding the entire post.

Words were said.

Anyway, the BETA!

Played a few hours last night and I can confirm the Chieftain costs 18,897,696 CR (subject to change) and is a really good ship. That puts it in the price pool between the Federal Assault Ship and the Imperial Clipper – both of which require Navy Rank to obtain!

I like it more than the slightly-cheaper Federal Assault Ship and it is a crazy-fun combat ship. With a Grade 5 engineered FSD (I stripped my old FAS) and A rated modules across the board, I was getting just over 20Ly jump range. The cockpit is really well styled, but lacks clear canopy underside that Lakon ships usually have.

Between real life, the BETA, the ongoing Vehicle Codex project and another side project I’m working on for someone else, I’ve not had a lot of time to post more on the blog.

I may take a day’s holiday and work on the Chieftain blueprint.

Time will tell!

Tonight's Elite:Dangerous livestream gave us the most complete information about the chieftain so far.

"It's Between the Python and the Federal ships"

Firepower

The hard-point placement is all along the centre-line and combined with its agility, this makes it a perfect ship for fixed weapons.

The medium hardpoint is on the underside of the cockpit. This means most of your firepower is on the top of the ship.

Outfitting

	Core internals	Class	Base fitting
	Power Plant	6	6E
	Thrusters	6	6E
	Frame Shift Drive	5	5E
	Life Support	5	5E
	Power Distributor	6	6E
	Sensors	4	4E
	Fuel Tank	4	4C

Here it is! The Lakon Type-10 Defender blueprint.

Hats off to Frontier and whoever modeled this ship. It is one of the most detailed ships in the game. No copy-n-paste left side to right here!

1920x1080 PNG

4096x2305 JPG

There was a lot of speculation and a couple of leaks prior to the ship being activated in the game, but now it's here and I have all the details on the newest ship in the Elite: Dangerous shipyard.

What has become clear is that the data-mined information leak was more accurate, or at least less misleading that the XBOX video leak. For example, the stock ship does cost 124,755,342 CR, but the power plant is NOT Class 6 it is Class 8 but comes with the 1750CR Class 6E Power plant fitted instead of a 1,750,00CR Class 8E Power plant (those cheapskates at Lakon!). The FSD supplied is a 6E, but the slot is a Class 7. These made the specifications that appeared in the video a red herring.

So here are the speculation-free 100% accurate, taken-from-the-ship, specifications of the Type-10 Defender.

Looks

The ship is a shaved-down Type-9, but the spolier and folding wing-tips, along with the abundant engine ports, make this ship look very "race tuned".  It is not going to win any beauty contests, but it reminds me very much of the old Thunderbird 2 International Rescue craft, with it's massive size and stubby bulk and huge engines.

Weapons

With nine hardpoints, this ship has a lot of sustainable firepower. Lacking any huge hard-points it is designed to be able to "tough it out" for a long battle, making this an ideal PvE combat ship and most especially one that can take the pounding dished out by Thargoids.

The two Class 1 (small) hard-points are located on the front of the ship either side of the cockpit.

There are then two Class 2 (medium) and two Class 3 (large) hard-points located on the top edge of the ship with the medium hard-point leading.

Then there are two Class 3 (large) hard-points on the underside off the outer engine bulkheads and a single Class 2 (medium) hard-point on the underside off the ship's belly, dead-centre.

In the screen shot above, you can see the Ship Launched Fighter bay lit at the dead-centre of the ship' rear underside.

Handling and speed

With Class 7 Thrusters, same as the Type-9 and more weight, you'd expect this thing to handle like a brick in a pool of treacle, but you'd be wrong! While it isn't going to fly like an Eagle, it turns about the same as an Anaconda with D rated Thrusters. Given a Grade 5 Dirty Drive tuning, it handles even better.

The stock speed is 179m/s, but even with over 3,000 armour on mine, with the dirty drives it cruises at 230m/s and boosts to 280m/s.

The all-important jump range

With a Class 7A FrameShift Drive fitted the ship has a fairly respectable 18.6Ly range fully loaded with armour and module reinforcement. However, a grade 5 engineer upgrade took my jump range to 24ly, which meant when jumping down from Shinrata Dezra to Maia, my ship made 22 jumps, while my wingmate in a maxed-out and engineered Fer-De-Lance took more than 30 jumps with his max range of 16ly.

For such a massive ship, this beast is more comparible with the Cutter in firepower and jump range - certainly my Corvette would not keep up with it.

Does it do what it was built for?

In the name of science, not fun (honest!), we took some Type-10's out to HIP 17694 and attacked a Cyclops Thargoid and despite our ineptitude, we were victorious!

It took two tries and on the first, I got destroyed! But when you enjoy losing 17M CR in rebuy, then you know Frontier have got it right.

In case you hadn’t noticed, we’ve been attacked by Thargoids – the alien insect race with bio-mechanical spacecraft – who’ve been probing us, building planet bases and destroying ships around the Pleiades sector for months.

Now, they’ve gone a step further and attacked three stations

• Oracle station in Pleiades Sector IR-W D1-55
• Titan’s Daughter in Taygeta
• Liman Legacy in HIP 16753

The stations are in a bit of a state.

Frontier released a video (sadly on YouTube and not in the game) which shows news reports and panic as people on the stations are needing to be evacuated. It’s a cool video and sets up the atmosphere of a system under attack.

So what can you do?

Not many commanders have the money or resources to pimp out a full anti-xeno ship (although CMDR Gluttony Fang has written an excellent post on the forums on how to do exactly this) which means your war-effort must be offered in other ways.

Rescuing the poor people on these stations and ferrying them to the rescue ships is something non-combat commanders can do. You will need to equip your ship first.

• Heat-sinks - the damaged stations are very hot because of fires and the failure of the heat dispersal systems.
• Passenger cabins - economy class cabins of any size! Store those cargo racks and armour, then fit some rescue seats!
• A fuel scoop - it's a long trip from the bubble and you're not going to help anyone if you run out of fuel and need rescuing yourself.

With your ship fitted out, you'll need to jump down to the Pleiades Sector IR-W D1-55 system (which is the nearest to the bubble). You can see all the stations damaged or under repair in the galaxy map. Go to the last TAB and look at the bottom of the list. Frontier have sneakily added two new options, "Show Damaged Starports" and "Show Repairing Starports".

I suspect we're going to see a lot of these on our galaxy map Soon^TM. Why?

Big bad just got bigger

CMDR CookieJarviz posted this image of the newly encountered "Medusa" class Thargoid ship (Threat level 7). Walk away. Slowly...

CMDR Alan Marchman posted an amazing photo of one on Reddit. Needless to say, you don't want to get THAT close!

Fly safe out there commanders, because we're not alone!

I've made adjustments to scale since initial measurements were not accurate enough and I have also added the inner cylinder.

The two versions are now linked on the original BluePrint post here: http://www.elite-dangerous-blog.co.uk/post/Elite-Dangerous-Ship-Blueprints-23-Update

Following a request from CMDR Andrew Indelicate from Facebook's Mobius PvE page, I've stuck a Beluga Liner in the access corridor - CMDR Vincent Chu demonstrated that the Beluga's folding tail makes little or no difference to the overall height when the landing gear comes down.

My original assertion that the station was over 3km across was incorrect and the figure is a little over 2km, which makes it more or less as wide as the Farragut (which I have also recently redrawn). The pads in the cylinder are red for large, orange for medium and cyan for small. The diameter of the cylinder should be very accurate, but the length is an approximation based on the depth of the access corridor.