Gaming Elite Dangerous Review

It doesn't. The less charitable interpretation is that Frontier never really thought the MMO thing through, besides the notion that it was always something ELITE players dreamt about since the early 90's. The more charitable interpretation is that it will start to make sense as Frontier continues to add on stuff. There are details in the game that show stuff having been put in place now to enable other features later --for instance fully modelled ship interiors for when we're able to walk around the ships, that we occasionally get a glimpse of in bugs now.

Time will tell. I suspect that Frontier is trying to do something that has not been done before --and in fact was deliberately avoided by Eve Online: twitch-game dogfighting dynamics in a shared universe. It may still be working out the kinks.

 

People (even on this forum) saying they have run out of stuff to do, in less than a week after release, is bad for a start. But I'm talking mostly about the gameplay in general, world building, character progression, the depth of combat, the quality of missions, the variety of encounters and places to visit, all things that seem to be bad in this game or none existent.

Seems to me that even something like Space Rangers 2 does a better job of all this and that was made with a tiny budget and only a few people. Looks to me like the only thing this did better was the graphics/presentation. Sad that after all that time (20+ years) and all that hype about procedural generation and whatever else, all it really amounted to is a billion cut and paste stations with cut and paste missions. :/

The make your own path thing is fine, but there has to be something worthwhile to actually do while you make your own path. The truth is you can't make your own path, you can only do something out of the few mechanics the game has, mining, trading, missions, etc. and if they aren't well developed then you are screwed. Can I become a well known racer? No. Can I start a manufacturing company and protect the transports like in X games? No. Can I command a bit capitol ship and crew like star trek... No. Can I fight in a war and change the world by losing a battle and therefore losing a sector or winning and capturing it like in Space Rangers? No.

It has nothing to do with spoon fed content, it has to do with having content.

 

Then again, there are plenty of people on this and Frontier's forum who say that they are having an absolute blast, and have been doing so since alpha.

It's all about expectations I guess. Do you want a game in which you are at the centre of its universe? This is not that kind of game. Do you want a game in which you can romp through space unfettered by artificial geographical boundaries or a fixed storyline? This is your kind of game.

 

Here you go - took ages to upload and is processing now, might be a while before it's viewable. I overshot the drop zone, skip to about 01:45 in to see the approach and ongoing battle. At the time there were no other players around, I wasn't recording when I got attacked earlier today.

 

I think that's the video, but it says it's been removed as it's too long.

When using the youtube tag you just paste the bit after the =.

 

Yeah, they just removed it a few minutes ago....dammit! If I get time tomorrow I'll chop it up and resubmit. tx George.

 

While I agree with the general direction of your argument here, you can apparently do this, to some extent. It's possible to take missions for certain factions which will affect that faction's influence. I'm not sure if this goes.who far as to actually change the governing faction of a system or station, but people seem to be assuming it can. The problem is that even if you can do that, the actual alteration of the gameplay experience is minimal. It might change where you can buy certain things legally or where you can cash in your bounties, but it's pretty thin really.

Adding lots and lots more things like this might help, but I think to really make it as fascinating as it clearly promises it could be, richer, less text-based content will be required. And a way to interact with other players in the.four seconds it takes to whiz past each other and out of radio range.

P

 

I can't agree more.

I never got bored with the original on the BBC, nor did I get bored with Frontier on the Amiga. I'm sure has hell not going to get bored with this. Sometimes... and I mean sometimes... the grind for cash gets a little wearisome, but if there was an easy method of obtaining it, ultimately that would dilute the experience. There's still strategy involved in this though. Finding safe trade routes that are highly profitable, but SAFE was the main one... then I can strip out extraneous crap I don't need.. like shields .. interdictions take on a new meaning when you've no shields... LOL Is it a patrol Viper... or am I going to get my ass handed to me?

I didn't start playing the gamma releases as initially everyone thought they'd be a wipe for V1.0, and I was busy anyway. Effectively, I started again yesterday. A sidewinder with 4 tons of space to trade and do missions saw enough cash to buy a hauler in an hour... then the same strategy with the Hauler saw 22 tons of space and my first million an hour later; all the time with that bum twitching fear every time you get interdicted.

It was great!


I just think too many people need endless, non-stop high octane thrill a second nonsense to be entertained these days, and anything that is slower paced, that takes in the long view is ultimately disliked by the ADHD generation.

It's everything the original and Frontier was... but better... and MUCH bigger.

 

Please, can we accept that there is a middle ground between "endless, non-stop high octane thrill a second nonsense" and "meaningless grinding"? This conversation is entirely about that distinction, and it doesn't help anyone to reach for the extremes.

 

Started playing for the first time this morning. First impression: very immersive cockpit!

 

How is it better? And I hope you aren't referring to me being adhd generation. I played the original Elite and Frontier Elite 2. That's why I didn't just want the same thing all over again with modern graphics.

 

It's the same thing, but so much more involved. The navigation, flight, and ship systems are far more involved. The scale of it is obviously a massive improvement. I don't think anyone could say it's the same but with shiny graphics. Even the very fact that it's now a massively multi-player game gives it a whole new dynamic. Trading is influenced by in game behaviour now. News feeds influence game play, for instance Onionhead trading etc. The fact that discovery and exploration are now a real role in the game too due to the scale of everything. No... it's not just giving shiny graphics to Frontier at all.

I think it's one of the best games I've ever played. Part of that may be fondness for the old games, but I really don't think that plays a big role in my liking it so much. I've been playing since Beta 1.03 I think, so that's quite a few months now. I'd have got bored of it if it was just the same as the old games. The fact is, I've barely scratched the surface.

 

I'm a bit surprised that people are defending this game as some sort of antidote to the console generation when in my view it's been severely nerfed, in terms of the flight model, compared to Frontier.

I think I understand why they've done that - the hardcore approach seemed difficult, although actually it wasn't. There was a technique to learn, that's all. In Frontier the bad guys never actually fired their engines, but even if you consider circumstances where opponents behave more reasonably, they could have achieved more or less the same gameplay, much more realistically, by allowing the pilot to select the object relative to which the automatic flight director would work. Then you wouldn't end up with ridiculous situations such as a target being a few dozen kilometers away but it being impossible ever to accelerate fast enough to reach it without using physics-bending hyperdrive.

Please let's not characterise criticisms of ED as being from the console crowd. Quite the opposite. I'd have been happier to see an even more hardcore approach, with proper orbital dynamics, HUD modes for the orbital insertion, etc. The problem with not having done that is that it flies (to all practical purposes) just like every other flight sim and space game since Wing Commander, which means it has to have really entertaining combat. And it isn't clear it does.

P

 

3 of us tried to log in together in a party not in the online mode. We couldnt all 3 see each others ships. Just 2 could see each other. It was most dissappointing. I was hoping to fly round with some pals and work together.

 

Here's a shortened vid of the capital ship in a Durius system battle. Note I was in fully online mode, there must have been some other people in the area (space station stats suggested it was pretty busy).

I overshot while dropping out of supercruise, skip the first 2 minutes or so. I didn't engage in combat, I was just flying around and not getting shot myself.

 

Thanks that sounds better. Still going to wait until they add planets and whatever else though. Hope it doesn't take too long.

 

Looks fantastic...on the list

 

Are you attempting to set a record for the first user to 75 posts in the fewest number of characters? I reckon your average post character count must be about 20 characters

At the risk of offending, obviously spamming posts in order to get a high enough post count to access the Marketplace is considered to be a bit naughty... at least try to be subtle about it, rather than sticking a two or three word post on the end of every topic in the forum

 

jimbok11 - I remind you that we have eyes and ears everywhere, and strings of banal posts with less than a minute in between is verging on spamming to get access to the marketplace.

As bawjaws has said - it's not the way to get to the marketplace... You are, unfortunately, now 'on the radar', and we can (and will) reduce your post count artificially to prevent you reaching 75 posts unless you are making a 'useful' contribution to the forum.

You have been warned!

 

I've just PM'd him regarding this