Multi Elite - Dangerous by David Braben

I'm just flying around and getting a feel for the controls, no real issues so far other than I suck at combat. The controls take some getting used to but I'm finding it very atmospheric and I'm enjoying myself so far.

 

Try landing...

In regards to controls, how are you finding yaw and pitch?

I'd also comment that the netcode seems a bit dodgy. Seen some serious rubber-banding going on at times, or 'hopping' in space from one point to another.

 

I've docked a few times now without any issues although my first attempt didn't end well as I couldn't finding the landing gear key.

Yaw and pitch are indeed slow but I'm hoping some ship upgrades will improve that. I've also had lag on a couple of occasions when coming out of a jump, saying that the jump sound effects are amazing!

 

Haven't had problems docking. Seems a bit easy, if anything. I want to take it all the way down to contact with the pad. Remove the automation on the last six feet!

I don't object to the idea of an aircraft-style flight mode - they've even put in all the little OMS thrusters that would be required to do it. I just don't understand why the maximum pitch, yaw and roll rates are, first, so slow, and second, fixed at a maximum at all. In a spacecraft, if I start pitching, yawing and rolling, if I keep applying that control input, the pitch, yaw or roll rate should continue increasing. OK, that might be different or even difficult, but is it really a problem?

And with the actual forward speed, they're not even trying to pretend that it's a spacecraft emulating an aircraft. Throttle up, the speed climbs to some maximum and stops, with the engines still firing (according to the soundtrack). Throttle down, the sound dies, and you stop.

What? That's not consistent with anything. And what are the velocities relative to?

And why am I going so bloody slowly? And relative to what?

There are always compromises to realism for gameplay reasons but right now this feels completely wrong.
There are a million arguments as to why it's necessary to give the thing a playable flight model that's less intimidatingly difficult than Frontier's, but right now it feels like they've got something that isn't actually much fun, nor is it in any way physically realistic, and nor does it even feel right.

If I want to fly a plane, I'll play War Thunder. If I want to fly a plane that handles like an Elite: Dangerous space fighter, I'll play War Thunder, and fly a Catalina. They've done all this beautiful work on the procedural world, the ringed planets, the starport, and the detail work on graphics and sound couldn't be better, but the flying right now is just a huge switchoff. It's like flying in treacle, when it should be anything but.

P

 

I had issues docking this afternoon. No matter how much I tried it wouldn't let me dock; I was at the correct docking bay, landing gear down and I tired multiple angles - it must be a bug I guess.

 

Any chance you have been watching too much channel 156 on Sky with those damn adverts for "the client list" whilst waiting for hardcore pawn to return from its advert break? /random

 

just buying this now... interested to see what its like on triple screen and then of course Dk2 rift is in 30 days.

edit:

lol when you download the file.. it has no extension and wont run.

If any one buys it all you have to do is open command prompt at the location the file was saved and do following.

C:\Users\user>rename E:\Client-Installer client-installer.exe

I just sent a help note to the vendor page @ https://store.zaonce.net/contacts/index/

 

Nope, don't even have Sky!

 

Weird, runs fine for me.

 

Yeah, worked fine for me as well.

Well, I finally found a workaround for my graphics bugs that means I can play somewhat - and I've managed to dock a few times after completely re-jigging my controls to make them work better in the docking system.

Tried a bit of combat, got annihilated by missiles. Obviously my stock Sidewinder comes with its pop gun and nothing else! Not totally sure how to make money to be honest...

 

Some good tips over on the Elite Dangerous subreddit:

http://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/26x4n2/tips_and_tricks/

 

how did you guys get elite to recognize your pedels?, Im trying to set yaw and when I click in the box and push the left or right pedel it does not see it, works fine in Arma3, appears fine in controllers of windows, I picked the warthog profile, will have to learn all the controls.

 

Did it exactly like that. Select the box, which is empty by default, and push the pedal I want. Only thing is I don't have the "Warthog" profile, I've just gone to a custom and set everything myself.

Had a better play session just now. Jumped around 5 systems and made 1.2k in profit...only to get interdicted on my last run and blown out the sky with a single shot. Loaded back in with a new ship and I've got 152 credits to my name

 

Going to a BAFTA sponsored talk with Braben next Monday:

"BAFTA will be hosting a Games Showcase on Monday 7 July on Elite: Dangerous at 195 Piccadilly. The evening will provide a look into how games development studio Frontier combine physics, sci-fi and real people in the technology, science and fantasy elements in Elite: Dangerous, launching later this year. The presentation will be followed by an audience Q&A with Frontier founder, David Braben."

Will report back with any interesting tidbits

 

Please do Parge.

I've put a fair few hours in to the beta over the last couple of weeks and I'm really enjoying. I've been mainly doing some trading whilst getting a feel for the controls. I would say the controls could be more intuitive but once you get the hang of it it all makes much more sense.

I can see this being my go to space sim over Star Citizen at the moment although that may change.

 

Not totally sure how you can establish that at this point, as the two are at very different stages in development.

I'm still concerned about E's true flight mechanics - the ships have a total inability to yaw (or rather, they do it at a glacial pace), and the netcode is still dodgy in places. I'm downloading the latest premium beta patch at the moment.

 

I'm basing it on the feel of the game; playing Elite brings back so many memories from playing as a kid; if you'd have shown 10 year old me Elite Dangerous it would have blown my mind. It's incredibly atmospheric and as much as Star Citizen has (will have) all the bells and whistles I'm not sure that's what I'm after.

The Star Citizen dog fighting module does nothing for me though so maybe that's jading my opinion; I want to explore and trade not dog fight. Maybe when more of the SC universe is opened up I'll have a change of heart.

 

I know what you mean in terms of the nostalgia trip with Elite - I remember playing it back on my BBCB, and the fact that it's still Coriolis starports with their tiny tiny tiny slots in which to fly in to is amazing. They've got a good level of polish going on as well, with the animations and sounds all tying together really well. Don't get me wrong, I think E:D is doing a lot of things right, and if the beta is anything to go from, it should be an excellent update to the Elite series.

I haven't played SC's Arena Commander for a while either. I'm waiting for the ability to remap controllers without XML files (apparently in the 12.4 patch coming this month) and other improvements - and even then, I'm more interested in multi-crew ships than the restricted set of fighters we have access to now.

The problem I have with E:D as it stands is a) the flight model just doesn't sit right and b) lack of incentive to work as groups. Elite seems to be very much about the sole trader, whereas SC is definitely going for both the sole trader experience and cooperative play, I would have added c) stuck in your cockpit, but the last update from Frontier indicated they're looking at adding FPS elements post launch. Guess SC has had some influence?

Obviously I'm holding final judgement on both games until launch. E:D is fun, and I'll no doubt play the hell out of it, but SC seems to have more promise - I just hope it delivers.

 

If you'd have shown me Elite: Dangerous at the time that I was playing ELITE (age 18, in 1984: I was there, man!), I would have been like:



And then:



...as my brain cells spontaneously and rapidly redistributed themselves as a pink mist to evenly coat the ceiling of my bedroom.

 

Ahh, how times have changed.



PS: TrackIR functionality in this is amazing. Looking left/right to bring up the UI is brilliant.