I have been working on getting a Beginners Guide to the Galaxy Map written, but as CMDR Datum10 pointed out to me last night "It’s getting changed in a few weeks". So I have to consider if I want to finish anyway and then come back later to revise it. I think I will.
Anyway, my week has been fully occupied with moving my fleet of twenty six ships to another star system. Why? There is a hard-limit of 24 ships permitted in storage at one system, which means unless there are two stations with shipyards in the system, you cannot have more than 25 ships in total. This limitation is not going to be raised to 29 (the maximum number of ships you can buy) before version 2.1 - @FrontierHelp asked for me – bless ‘em!
I like to move it
So I am relocating from Jameson Memorial station in Shinrarta Dezhra to Mars High at Sol and also Daedelus Station at Sol. The reason I’m doing this is my plan to operate a VR shipyard at LaveCon again this year, where commanders can try the cockpit of any ship on my new Oculus Rift (which should ship next week). It just means a short jaunt in super cruise to see the remaining four ships.
The thing is, to relocate a ship from one star system to another, you need a second "disposable" ship to use as a one-way taxi cab. So I need buy an Eagle at Mars High, fly it to Jameson, switch to my stored ship, sell the superfluous Eagle and then fly my ship back from Jameson to Mars High. Then rinse and repeat. Twenty. Five. Times. Sounds boring (in theory) but flying around in an unarmed and unshielded Eagle is exciting enough on its own and every trip has been slightly different. Also, I get distracted by other stuff...
To CG or not to GG?
This migration of hardware has been periodically interrupted by doing some CG’s. Last week it was blood crystals for Lave Radio and this week it has been taking shipments of Land Enrichment Systems from Alioth to Vennik for terraforming. Tier 4, will you EVER come? It's good fun to Wing up or just tag along with some of the Mobius guys although I've done nowhere near as much hauling as CMDRs Huntmedown, Ranualf, Datum10 and Sir Clip - they've got to be in the top five by now!
Moving is a killer
I also did some bounty hunting in a Vulture (I was moving it anyway, so what the hell? Right?) and found it is such an awesome ship. I’ve got a 7.1 headset and the ship sounds so amazing, I could listen to the engine all day long! I had to hunt down a Python wanted guy with an escort of a Cobra and Sidewinder. The Vulture chewed the escort ships up in a single pass each, while I evaded the Python then went in for the big kill. The Vulture lost two rings of shields.
Vulture 3 - Bad guys 0.
So you can expect my Beginners Galaxy Map article before the weekend and If you see a lowly Adder or Viper making its way to Sol this week, be careful because if attacked the pilot may come back in a Federal Corvette armed to the teeth and have words. Just sayin’
Anyone who says they're bored with Elite and there's nothing to do, is clearly a very dull monotonous person and anyone who calls Elite shallow has NEVER tried to document the game!
It is possible in Elite: Dangerous change your Heads Up Display colours.
With 1.1 these are dynamically lit, which makes them look even better. However, prior to 1.1, if the game was updated your custom colours were wiped when the GraphicsConfiguration.xml file was replaced. In 1.1 there is now an XML file where you can "bake in" your custom settings.
\Users\<yourname>\Local\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\Options\Graphics\GraphicsConfigurationOverride.xml
Taking whatever HUD colours you make for yourself using the HUD colour editor, pop the settings into the file like so:-
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<GraphicsConfig>
<GUIColour>
<Default>
<LocalisationName>Standard</LocalisationName>
<MatrixRed> 0.25, 0.15, 0.6 </MatrixRed>
<MatrixGreen> 0, 1, 0 </MatrixGreen>
<MatrixBlue> 0.4, 0.6, 0 </MatrixBlue>
</Default>
</GUIColour>
</GraphicsConfig>
Whenever you get updates now, your preferred HUD colour scheme will remain intact.
This is especially useful for me, because unless my HUD is green, the text is much harder to read.