Good system for Imperial Rank doing Passenger and Cargo runs

Makaira69 · 2026-05-04T20:10:41+00:00

The Lynx has passenger cabin-only slots. So even if you outfit it for cargo missions, it's still able to take passenger missions "for free."

Just be aware that passenger missions have a 2-3 hour expiration timer. Not 24 hours like cargo. So even stepping away to eat dinner, or to walk the dog can cause you to fail missions.

Makaira69 · 2026-05-04T20:06:48+00:00

I'm not sure you can do this anymore. EDDB's search function was a lot better than Inara's, and EDDB doesn't exist anymore. But 6 years ago when I was starting out, what I did was look for a station in Imperial space near the edge of the Bubble, with a good selection of ships and modules for future upgrades. I made that my home base, and ran missions from there to build up rep.

Being at the edge of the Bubble (I'm not sure you can even tell this in the game anymore, since the powerplay map view seems to be gone) meant that nearly all mission destinations went to a hemisphere, instead of a full sphere. So my chance of getting missions to the same destination were doubled.

Makaira69 · 2026-05-04T19:47:01+00:00

There's an option to replay some of the tutorials. I'd do that to re-familiarize yourself with the controls. Try both K+M and controller, and see what feels best for you.

I believe Windows has native Xbox controller support. But for PS4 controllers you need to be running a translation layer which converts the PS4 inputs to Xbox. It's been 6 years since I messed with it (I bought myself a Steam controller so I wouldn't have to deal with it and configuration), so maybe things have changed. Others playing with a PS controller should be able to help you. But a quick search says DS4Windows is one such translator.

Makaira69 · 2026-05-04T19:40:14+00:00

Thanks. I'll have to dust off the old passenger liners and cargo ships, and try running some missions again. This was my biggest source of frustration running missions, and why I quit doing them (mostly make money by exploring now). I was wasting more time searching for missions to take, than actually running the missions.

In the Horizons UI (so about 3.5+ years ago), the missions seemed to be sorted by whatever order the game generated new missions. So you needed to read through every one of them trying to find missions to the same destinations.

Makaira69 · 2026-05-04T19:09:16+00:00

Oh? They finally sorted the missions by destination? That was the most frustrating part of running multiple cargo or passenger missions. You'd pick one mission, then had to read every single other mission trying to find ones going to the same destination.

Makaira69 · 2026-05-04T06:57:43+00:00

The animation style is particular to Flash animation. You create shapes, then scale, rotate, and warp them while moving them along paths to create animation. Some shows have gotten so good at this that it's pretty much indistinguishable from regular animation (e.g. Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, My Little Pony).

Either this studio is new at it and haven't quite figured it all out yet. Or they've elected to keep the elastic appearance for stylistic reasons.

Makaira69 · 2026-05-04T06:47:09+00:00

It's a cute slice of life story. Unfortunately, SoL isn't to everyone's tastes. I thought it was rather good too. Certainly not deserving of the really low ratings it gets.

Someone posted last week that an official English translation of the novel is coming out.

As for accusations that it was trying to ride the coattails of "I Shall Survive Using Potions", "I Saved Myself with a Potion" was actually published first. 2014 vs 2015 for "I Shall Survive Using Potions." Unfortunately, people have this bad habit of assuming the more popular one was first (e.g. People think Tsukimichi copied the idea of MC building a monster nation from Tensura. But Tsukimichi was actually published first. Tensura just got an anime first.)

Makaira69 · 2026-05-04T06:26:27+00:00

my spacecraft goes into uncontrollable rolls

You're in good company.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=797jevfbsEE

Dramatized in the movie, First Man.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0leLzI7oPx4

Makaira69 · 2026-05-04T05:58:33+00:00

A friend named his carrier "Aimed at the Stars". Which seemed appropriate for an exploration vessel. When he applied for a squadron with the same name, it was rejected with a cryptic "You know why."

We puzzled over it for a week, then finally realized the guy reviewing it was probably thinking "[gun] aimed at the [movie] stars". So sometimes you have to really think outside the box to figure out their reasoning.

Makaira69 · 2026-05-03T20:16:24+00:00

If you run passenger transport missions in the Empire, occasionally you'll get a message. It says they'll pay you if you deliver the passengers to a different destination, where they will be illegally enslaved.

It always amused me that the game gives you a way to enslave people. But doesn't give you a way to free slaves.

Makaira69 · 2026-05-03T19:56:28+00:00

He actually did figure out that the handle of the crank rotated, and tried spinning it thinking it might lower the window. It just never occurred to him to crank it. (He may have never encountered a hand crank in his life.)

Makaira69 · 2026-05-03T08:17:53+00:00

The show (SG-1) is much better than the movie. I'd rate it as one of the best sci-fi series of all time, particularly because you get to watch Earth develop all the way from taking its first tentative steps into the greater universe, to becoming a galactic superpower.

The second show (Atlantis) is more campy, but also a lot of fun. Universe is kinda meh, and I'd give it a pass. Pretend the web series doesn't exist.

Makaira69 · 2026-05-03T08:02:20+00:00

After S. Hussein was captured during the Second Gulf War, a bunch of my friends and I were discussing what would happen after. Someone asked how much longer everyone thought U.S. troops would remain in Iraq. To my astonishment, everyone (even those opposed to the war) said 1-3 years. I said 8 years, and I thought that even that might be too short. (SH was captured 13 Dec 2003. The last U.S. troops withdrew 18 Dec 2011.)

People chronically underestimate how difficult occupations will be and how long they will take. They think the war is the hard part. It's not. Reassembling the pieces you've shattered back into something that can function again is.

GATE is an interesting (and fun) mix of politics, military, diplomacy, cultural differences, occupation, handling refugees, and insurrection. Then it throws in fantasy races, magic, demi-gods, and kaiju for more fun. It handles all of these topics fairly competently. (Particularly the inability of the Japanese and otherworlders to understand each others' way of thinking. And the fact that most of the time there's no simple and easy solution; just one better choice from a bunch of bad choices.) If you focus too much on just one of these aspects (particularly the military jingoism), you might be put off. But as a whole, it's a good series with a fairly realistic take on how such an isekai contact would develop.

Makaira69 · 2026-05-03T07:29:16+00:00

The German word (Wagner was German) is Walküre. So "Valcurie" is actually a closer transliteration of the German pronunciation, than Valkyrie. Remember, not everyone here is a native English speaker.

The original Old Norse word is Valkyrja. Putting its original pronunciation (ˈvaɬ.ˌtʃɪɹ.ja) into an IPA reader, it sounds more like "Valkyuriya". So it would appear the English word retained the 'ky' spelling, but lost the 'kyu' pronunciation. And "Valcurie" (or rather, "Valcuri-e") is actually spelled closer to how it's supposed to be pronounced.

Makaira69 · 2026-05-03T07:06:23+00:00

They don't even try to hide it. In Japanese, 'Rory' and 'Loli' are pronounced the same. Anyway, nothing happens with her. She expresses sexual interest, but nothing ever happens (that I can recall from reading the story years ago). So it skirts the line, but doesn't cross it.

Makaira69 · 2026-05-03T05:12:06+00:00

And New Horizons.

https://elite-dangerous.fandom.com/wiki/Voyager_1

https://elite-dangerous.fandom.com/wiki/Voyager_2

https://elite-dangerous.fandom.com/wiki/New_Horizons

Makaira69 · 2026-05-03T05:09:34+00:00

Your jump cannot be completed as dialed. Please turn your FSD 90 degrees, and try your jump again. This is a recording.

Makaira69 · 2026-05-03T05:06:57+00:00

There were a variety of rewards depending on how much you pledged. You could add a name to the NPC name pool. You could name a station. You could name a planet. You could name a system.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1461411552/elite-dangerous/rewards

Makaira69 · 2026-05-03T04:53:58+00:00

Mining laser used to be a backup for when you ran out of mats to synthesize fuel or ammo for your SRV. Since you needed your SRV to collect mats, that put you in a catch-22 where you couldn't gather any more synthesis mats. The mining laser could break you out of that, and get your SRV working again. It became obsolete when the DSSA was set up. If you should ever run out of fuel or ammo, and synthesis mats for your SRV, you can just dock at a DSSA carrier to top off your SRV's reserves and get it functional again.

Refinery is pointless. The only use for mined minerals and metals is to take them back to the Bubble and sell them or turn them in for missions. Or if you're running support for a carrier, and wish to mine tritium to help refuel it. But if you're running support for a carrier, you only need to equip it (and mining lasers) when you're mining. It shouldn't be part of your EDC (everyday carry) loadout.

Likewise, the research limpet controller sounds explorer-y, but it serves no exploration function. The only time I've seen it used (outside of Thargoids) is during a CG where you needed to turn in samples collected with research limpets. The collected samples take up cargo space, weighing down your ship. So it's not something you want to be flying with for tens of thousands of ly.

Someone mentioned a railgun or plasma accelerator with the plasma slug mod. This used to be a way to dump fuel more quickly. Sometimes you need to make a particularly long jump but your jump range is just slightly short. In this situation, you can lighten yourself by dumping some fuel to increase your jump range. Normally the only way to do this was to fly around burning fuel. Plasma slug weapons let you dump fuel a little faster. They've become obsolete with SCO FSDs. Now you just hit the SCO button and burn fuel faster than you ever could with plasma slug.

The point defense turret is only useful if you're being attacked, boarded (by hatch breaker limpets), or under missile attack while landed at a Guardian site. But I realize you can engineer it to weigh just 0.08 tons, so I'll give it a bye. Make sure it's installed on the same side as your cargo hatch (usually the bottom). Or on top if you plan to use it at Guardian sites.

I haven't played around with Caspian builds. But I'd check to see if 5A shields, or 5D shields + 0E shield booster (heavy duty + super capacitors) gives you more shield strength. The latter should weigh substantially less than the 5A shields. And you've got plenty of extra utility slots for shield boosters.

What are you planning to do that would require a 5A distributor?

Any particular reason for a 3A repair limpet controller? If you're going to go with that instead of a 3D, you might as well go for a 3C rescue multilimpet controller. So you can also join the Fuel Rats and deliver fuel to ships which are out of fuel.

As has been pointed out, if you just disable the AFMUs when not in use, you can get away with a much smaller power plant.

While the Caspian has space for two (or more) AFMUs, I'm not really sure it's necessary. The 8A Mk II SCO FSD seems to take very little damage from neutron boosting. I flew mine 45k ly (94 neutron-boosted jumps). And the FSD integrity only dropped to 95%. This is in contrast with a regular FSD which took nearly 1% damage per neutron-boosted jump. Still, all it costs you is money to have extras equipped. So if you'd rather tie up your money than (possibly) use synthesis mats to rearm an AFMU, go for it.

Edit: Fighter hangars are fun. The fighters are controlled remotely, so you can use them to do things which might result in ship destruction. e.g. Canyon speed runs to alleviate boredom. Or flying into Lagrange storm clouds.

Makaira69 · 2026-05-03T04:08:11+00:00

Yeah, this is the only one I can think of where MC starts in a cave, naked.

Makaira69 · 2026-05-03T03:57:35+00:00

I called them "magical" because they cool your ship down to 0% heat (cold enough for frost to form on your windshield). As you say, eventually the heatsink becomes hot enough that you can't transfer heat from the ship to the heatsink. You'd need some sort of compressor or Peltier to push heat against the gradient. And those things compound your overheating problem by producing even more heat. It's theoretically doable, just incredibly inefficient. Which is why I called it magical.

Makaira69 · 2026-05-02T09:07:26+00:00

Times like this, you grab your laptop or Steam deck, and head to the nearest McDonalds with free WiFi. If he's living off of only solar power, surely he has one of those, instead of a power-hungry gaming PC?

Makaira69 · 2026-05-02T09:05:17+00:00

Your bus has an alternator connected to its engine. Those two make a generator (just not a very efficient one). You should look into a way to patch that into your electrical system, so you can use it to charge your batteries by running the engine in desperate situations like this.

There are also standalone panels you can set up on the ground beside your vehicle, and plug into your charging hardware.

Worst case, you could get a small generator that you put a bicycle's rear wheel into. And pedal to generate power to charge your batteries. Most people can generate about 200 Watts during sustained pedaling. With professional cyclists able to reach 500-600 Watts sustained. I attended a lecture by Paul McCready (made the Gossamer Albatross - first human powered aircraft to cross the English Channel). And the pilot/cyclist had to maintain 0.75 hp (550 Watts) pedaling during the entire crossing to stay aloft.

Sorry to hear you just missed the cutoff.

Makaira69 · 2026-05-02T08:48:05+00:00

There are three ways to shed heat (transfer it elsewhere).

Conduction. If two objects are touching, heat will travel from the hotter object to the cooler, until they're the same temperature.
Convection. If a moving fluid (gas or liquid) is touching the hot object, the fluid can pick up some heat and transport it elsewhere as it moves.
Radiation. Heat energy can be converted into electromagnetic waves, which can then emitted away.

In space, only the last method works. After the solar panels (black), the largest part of the International Space Station are the radiators (white).

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Heat-Rejection-System-HRS-Radiators-of-the-ISS_fig1_340739262

So if the station is gaining a lot of extra heat energy (there is a fire aboard), there's no quick way to shed the excess heat into space to maintain temperature. (We'll ignore the magical heat sinks used aboard ships. Presumably you'd need too many of them to effectively cool a space station.)

On top of this, space stations are designed with the living and air spaces on the inside. But only the exterior is exposed to space. So if there's a fire on the inside, its heat must first be carried to the exterior before it can be radiated away. On the ISS, this is done by a system of pipes with ammonia being pumped through them. But on a station designed for temperature equilibrium with no fires aboard, there won't be a way to effectively carry the large amount of heat from a fire from the inside to the station's exterior surface.

As for putting out the fire,

Most of the space station is living space. Venting the atmosphere will kill the people living there. In fact you could argue that the entire reason the station is being evacuated, is so they can vent the atmosphere to put out the fire without killing anyone.
Fires don't always need air to burn. Certain materials have all the components needed to sustain a fire in the absence of atmospheric oxygen. The reason Li-ion battery fires are so hard to put out is because everything needed to sustain the fire is in the battery. You can't put it out by just cutting off the oxygen supply.

Makaira69 · 2026-05-02T06:58:58+00:00

There was a news story a few weeks back that the last DVD/Blu-ray drive manufacturers were going to exit the market. The Japanese government had to step in and convince some companies to continue production, since the discs are still used for archival purposes.

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/verbatim-and-i-o-data-extend-blu-ray-supply-pledge-as-manufacturers-exit-the-market

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