Interesting links

E:D Shipyard

Elite: Dangerous Database - eddb

Edit: Not beeing a big fan of database calculations for trades (--> grinding galore), I'd rather stick with this:

Infographic - Trader's Bible - Import / Export At A Glance - Imgur

well, ive spend half a day in the game and ive to say that how everything works together is very realistic

espeically the transitions between the pretty large scales as you have normal flight around stations... then multiple levels of cruise and then system jumps
having fights around stations and then traveling large distances on massive scale (solar systems have a 1:1 scale) is pretty good solved

however, the universe... at least the systems i have visited so far are a pretty lonely place
large scales comes with large emptiness

the game is overly realistic (also with heat signatures, running in silent mode which increases the heat inside your ship, hull breaches where you slowly loose air, etc.)... so realistic that lots of the stuff you do their does not feel like playing a game... it feels like work.

If you pick a trade job from a station you have to do a shitload of stuff to get the cargo delivered.
1. accept the job
2. Tell the station that you want to launch
3. pull your ship up from the docking bay
4. pull in your landing gear
5. accellerate and move out of the docking area (without crashing into something)
6. move at least 5km away from the station so you escape its gravity
7. open your ship menu
8. browse through that menu until you hit navigation
9. target the system where you have to deliver the cargo to
10. move your ship into the direction of that system
11. enable jump drive
12. jump after 4 secs
13. try not to crash into now suddenly infront of your appearing sun
14. open the menu again
15. try to locate the station you want to fly to
16. if you dont remember the name of that station anymore (that could happen at this point) browse to the job board
17. now select the station you want to fly to
18. move your ship in the direction of that station and fly their in super cruise
19. dont fly too fast or you might miss the system (reduce speed soon enough so you reach best combination of speed and drop out distance)
20. leave crusie
21. fly into range of the station 7,5km
22. request permission to dock
23. request permission to dock again... because it was denied the first time coz all docks were full
24. repeat to request permission to dock until you finally get permission
25. fly into the station or directly to the docking platform (depending on the station type)
26. reduce speed so you dont crash into something
27. enable your landing gear again
28. try to bring your ship into the perfect landing position
29. smoothly push your ship down to the docking platform without making a scratch into its paint
30. lower the docking platform and enable the stations services
31. find the job board
32. finally deliver your cargo

(thats the short version)

i think this game needs more player interaction and a long term goal

In Martinds link was someone referring to a video which shows silent running in perfection... The pilot tries to rob NPCs from their cargo without shooting killing them to fulfill some missions for pirate-factions.

Edit: I really don't know why he changed the normal HUD to this blue one....

Double-Post in order to keep thinkgs seperated:

Site for playing with different outfits for the ships:

http://coriolis.io/

Edit: And a post, where PowerPlay is explained simple...

Powerplay Manual For Dummies - 1.3

The test-servers are open for all for a limited time and offer a broad variation of activities to take part:

Mayhem - The Schedule | Elite: Dangerous Community Site

Note that it's *beta* - for me, the key-bindings for targeting in CQC didn't work... however, some of the events are in the normal ED universe, though.

i see no reason to beta test that when there is still so much else to do in regular gameplay.

For me, it was testing PvP in same ships a few times in CQC without having to pay insurance...
Of course there is still plenty to discover in regular game.

could be useful