Elite: Dangerous

[Pedrito]

For a beta, it's a lot of fun. I've given it two evenings' play and, because a lot of the gameplay dynamics aren't yet implemented, I've mostly been hauling commodities around.

It's very, very pretty, and the sound is remarkably good, which really helps with the immersion - one thing I always disliked the X series for not doing very well. The virtual cockpit is a real highlight, and apparently it's fantastic with Oculus Rift. Looking around the Galactic Map gives a sense of immense scale. Once the full game is out, I'm in half a mind to collect a few mates and head out in the middle of uncharted space and set up an ultra-libertarian nutcase colony living off fuel scoops and canned food.

There should be a major update tomorrow that adds the exploration dynamics, in which you can make an in-game career surveying uncharted systems for money, as well as adding 400 more worlds.

The model of the game seems to be a good balance of solo and persistent online world. You can play the game completely offline, though you lose the updates from the persistent online universe; you can play the game in private online groups; or you can play completely online in the main game mode, which in practice means you can have either a solo game experience by not interacting with players, or you can muck in with the other players in various ways.

While there's no story line planned for the game, the idea seems to be that players will make their own narratives - as for example the brewing civil war in the Federation indicates. I do hope however a modding facility is introduced to allow story-lines to be created and played in the solo mode.

Most importantly, the game - unlike anything I've played since the original Elite series - feels like Elite.

I never bought an early access game, but I'm seriously pondering about this one.

L.

[Josquius]

I just hope it's not too "deep".
One thing that was great about frontier And less great about clones is that frontier has the balance of complexity with trade just right. It could stand to be a little more complicated but too much more and it is broken. Becomes too much of a pain to choose between hundred of trade goods and finding the right planets to buy and sell.
Nice to see the game coming along.
Also... Hope it is more frontier than elite. I could never get into the original tbh,, finding and docking at space stations was too much of a pain

[Pedrito]

Anyone here tried Star Citizen, and likes to do a comparison between SC and E:D?

L.

[Pedrito]

Anyone here tried Star Citizen, and likes to do a comparison between SC and E:D?

L.

Oh, nevermind, I've just bought E:D 

L.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Anyone here tried Star Citizen, and likes to do a comparison between SC and E:D?

L.

I've got both, currently not much to compare (going on the few times I actually can play SC. PC-wise it's a headache for me).
Anyways: Very different products, but E:D is far closer to completion.

[Josquius]

So, what do the odds look like for a release date?
I'm reading fourth quarter of 14 but I'm doubtful, we're already getting into that and there isn't a solid date yet.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

So, what do the odds look like for a release date?
I'm reading fourth quarter of 14 but I'm doubtful, we're already getting into that and there isn't a solid date yet.

I'm guessing 15Q1, but that's just me

[Pedrito]

So, I've downloaded and installed the beta, even if there's the new version out in a few days.

First impressions:

- visually beautiful, on my i5-2500K with 8GB RAM and one puny GeForce 460GTX.
- configuring controls can be a pain in the ass, I've dusted an old Logitech 3D Extreme Pro and proceeding to configure it, don't want to go the way of a full HOTAS (my wife would file for divorce)
- the damn docking game is driving me mad: I'm doing tutorial #1, and, although a bit shaky, I can take off and fly out of and around the station: but damn, problems arise when I have to dock again: first, finding the entrance to the docking bay; then, getting in without being vapourised by the station's defenses because I inadvertently touched the structure; then, finding my assigned bay; and last of all, performing an accurate manoeuver, all in the given time. 

Yesterday evening I was so mad at docking that I rather went to a show of Supreme Douchebag Morrissey, complete of vegan burger because in the area of the concert meat and fish were forbidden, upon request of the artist. 

L.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

yeah, the docking annoys me too. I've got limited time and have no desire to play docking-simulator

[Warspite]

I've managed to get docking down to an art, although the problem with flying in at high speed is that if it goes wrong there are pieces of Sidewinder everywhere. 

[Pedrito]

I've managed to get docking down to an art, although the problem with flying in at high speed is that if it goes wrong there are pieces of Sidewinder everywhere. 

Are you trying the silent running technique? 

L.

[Josquius]

Docking is why I could never get into the original Elite. And autodocking a massive improvement in frontier

[Syt]

I played Elite on the C64. Unfortunately, my pirated copy had no manual. It took me a while to figure out how docking works. And what all the keyboard shortcuts were.

[Arvoreen]

I remember wasting many an hour with the C64 version of Elite......

And more with the C64 version of Mule (with my brothers joining in)

[crazy canuck]

I played Elite back in the day but gave up when I kept crashing while attempting to dock.  Knowing the game has the same issues I am hesitant to try it.