see here for details
[QUOTE=Michael Brookes;794711]
Hi,
changes in some of the data mean that there will be a partial reset for Beta 2. At the moment ship loadout and save location are the items needing to be reset.

However there's an opinion here that we'd like to do a full reset as a lot of earning mechanisms have been changed or added and it would be useful to us to track progression from the start point.

As I have mentioned previously that we're not planning a full wipe for beta 2 I thought I would post here to gauge reaction.

We're still planning a full reset for Gamma.

thread is here
http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?p=794711#post794711

Its a beta and its for testing not only how the game works, but also the game mechanics that provide life to the game after its launched.

I have no problem with a full wipe.

We're overdue anyway, it has been a loooooooong time since the last one.

I'm ok with it. But ill miss my big ships. I didnt get to play with them as much as I would like to have.

Yup, bring it on

I am ambivalent - after initial problems I finally got the game running end of last week. Spent considerable time at the weekend and got up to >14 million credits, hoping to be there in time to go exploring with the Asp.

But then, getting everybody back to start, the exploration will take a considerably slower pace in the first days.
An then there is this extra-long weekend ahead of me (incl. Thursday - Monday) - will we actually be able to name the systems that we discover/explore?!

I'm a recent enough convert to have not suffered a wipe yet. It'll be kinda nice to start from scratch and actually know what I'm doing.

I would consider it slightly unfortunate because I'm not going to be doing any more pure trade grinding, so future earnings will take much longer than past earnings. That's easier to do the bigger and more interesting the universe is, but I was hoping it wouldn't happen until it was near feature complete.

Well hopefully the coop missions in B2 will make it more fun to gain money and work together.

Ok with it too...

It does look like combat and other higher risk ventures will be much more profitable in beta2. Also, the general enlargement of the universe and the addition of depots should make pure trading much more interesting.

Actually, if anything I'd like to see the more boring type of trading (back and forth on a fixed route) less profitable and therefore a less enticing option, at least until we can own multiple ships and you don't have to commit yourself so much one way or the other. In B1, you could easily make a million credits in six or so hours of back and forth, upgrading to a ship with a larger hold as soon as you could afford it. That was okay once, but I don't think I'd do it again, at least not until any credits I earn are permanent.

Well that seems to be desperately needed, factor 10 for me please. Earned my cash by trading, I tried the combat aspect in the last days - at the current rate I would not be able to earn 100k, ever... And that is purely in solo online mode; yepp I am that bad

Michael has confirmed a full wipe.

I'm sure with some practice you'll be fine. Also, gimballed weapons are a good way to start. I was awful at first, though it is self-consistent, the combat flight mechanics are a little unnatural. Before long, though, I could earn about 18,000 credits an hour (still a pittance compared to trading, but more fun), and a 200:1 kill ratio against NPCs.

Well, I just had a WW1 (RoF) experience - went with my (Se5a?) Viper (little need for gimbals on that one) to the High Intensity battleground at I-Boötis. A Federal Dreadnaught (yet another WW1 reference) in the center, I decided to follow the old air combat tactic (from WW1, for sure) of picking off targets at the edge of the battlefield and got 20+ kills that way. And the final WW1 (RoF) experience was when I died in a collision with a Cobra

And now let them wipe it - improved combat earnings might offer a viable alternative to trading with the meager Sidewinder cargo hold. The battlegrounds also make combat a less random event.

If you can go into a high intensity battle and get 20+ kills, I don't think you have a thing to worry about. Depending on how cocky I'm feeling, 20 is usually when I disengage to go collect the bounties (not to say I'm all that good in the grand scheme of things, but I've learned to hold my own).

I generally use the same tactics you mentioned of picking a target, and then trying to draw him away from his friends. The AI aren't very good at providing mutual support (if it's even implemented at all), so it usually works. I find in the middle of an ED battle, situational awareness is absolutely paramount and that, for me at least, is almost impossible to maintain in in a furball. Honestly, I'd prefer the more traditional Poincare mapping of the scanner because the traditional Elite scanner is too hard to read at a glance (yeah, more practice, I suppose).

Although you don't have anything like a scanner, at least in an earthbound flight sim you can divide the AO into sections by altitude. ED is almost like combining the hard parts of modern combat (supersonic closing speeds), with the hard parts of WWI combat (close range furballs), but with no way to quickly judge an enemies energy advantage or disadvantage. At least in ED it's pretty rare for an enemy to be able to kill you with one pass, so you have lots of time to switch to a defensive posture and you know exactly where the attack came from.

In the end I don't plan on doing much if any PvP combat, but I suspect someone with the typical SimHQ'er mentality of studying and developing a thorough set of tactics and strategies will do quite well. One of the things I like about ED is that, even though the flight model isn't "realistic" in a physics sense, it is still self-consistent and close enough that it provides an almost clean slate for such things.

Well, that was in a well-equipped Viper.
Tried the Cobra yesterday, and things looked much different. Not to mention some runs I just did with a Sidewinder - one time i got lucky when a Cobra dropped a load of battle weapons before he jumped, and I also could fend of an Eagle; but usually I must feel lucky when I do not go boom, and that on the low intensity playground...

Vipers are by a pretty significant margin the best combat craft. I've taken out NPC Vipers in a Sidewinder without too much trouble, but they always have the option of boosting to disengage at will, whereas you're pretty much committed if you're in a Sidewinder.

I never lost a Viper in combat despite the vast majority of my kills being in one and that was entirely down to the fact that, if I got a shield warning, I'd just hit FA-off and boost and that'd be it. I don't believe I even lost more than a couple percent hull.

I think the Viper's speed should actually be nerfed a little, or maybe your loadout should affect your max boost speed. I believe it causes boost to create more heat and use more energy, but if you're just boosting in any old direction and disabling flight assist, that hardly matters--you only need one boost.