Just saw Elite Dangerous was on special on steam. First checked out this game like a year ago, saw it had no content, decided to wait a while. It seems better now.
If I download this, what can I expect?
>>318258208
The game as it is now is not worth getting. Wait for the expansion that releases next month to see if that improves the game enough to warrant a purchase.
>>318258259
what's wrong with it?
i don't mind a slow pace, kind of want that, just so long as there is some sense of working towards something.
>>318258259
>The game as it is now is not worth getting.
Actually, for 12 bucks as it's now? I'd say it's worth getting, especially since they are so fucking careful to put it on sales.
>>318258208
>If I download this, what can I expect?
Most gorgeous space sim ever made, but there STILL isn't that much to do. Fun for 20-50 hours if you like space sims, though it can get frustrating. The had added some new ships, and the whole political play element, though mechanically it adds very little.
>>318258417
>what's wrong with it?
Lack of meaningful things to do, really. You can fly around, you can fight, you can haul cargo. That is about it.
The flight model is easily the best I've EVER seen in a space sim, the graphics are absolutely fantastic, the sense of scale is insane. All of that is amazing. But the problem really is that after a while, you realize there is barely anything else to it: yeah, flying around feels amazing, but the actual progression is fucking grind-tastic and the grind isn't really fun after a few hours. Plus the multiplayer is... basically botched entirely.
>>318258585
i watched a few recent reviews just then, i think i see what you're talking about. i'm going to pick it up anyway though, even if i just fly around for 15 hours and then wait for the next update, that is alright.
i just fucking love space sims and the atmosphere in this game looks great. if i get bored maybe i'll just become a pirate and see how big i can get my bounty.
what is botched about the multiplayer though?
>>318258208
Dude just wait for star citizen
>>318258814
I doubt if OP has that long to live.
>>318258208
>saw it had no content
That hasn't changed
And they've made clear all their new content is going to be in the form of overpriced expansions
>>318258814
that game looks great, once i finish uni, start my career, finish my career and retire in the country side i might pick up a copy. might get overgrowth at the same time.
>>318258814
>Just wait for star citizen
>>318258814
>just wait for star citizen
can't wait for the fans to start paying for cyro freezing like walt disney just so they'll be alive when it comes out.
>>318258809
I can assure you that once you get into the swing of things, the game can be INCREDIBLY rewarding for some 10-25 hours. I do have to warn you that the game has REALLY wonky player introduction though, it really takes a while before you even get the idea of what you are supposed to do, the tutorials and basic orientation the game gives is AWFUL, and basically requires you to go just google a fuckload of things.
As for the multiplayer: the problem is A) there is no real reason to play open play, which results in people JUST NOT REALLY DOING IT, and B) when they do play open, combat logging is RAMPANT.
Combat logging means that in a PVP, the losing side just logs out of open play and joins solo play, avoiding the fucking loss of their ship.
Add to that CONSTANT problem with finding yourself on the same server as your friends, and an UTTER LACK of any actual cooperative systems, lack of guilds, inability to share funds, and a terrible, unreliable squad system really makes the whole mulitplayer aspect of the game almost entirely vestigial.
We tried to play the game as coop with a friend, and quickly discovered it's just a lot of frustration.
>>318258849
>>318258972
>>318259110
The PU is already available to backers
Sorry guys it was a fun meme while it lasted
>>318259230
The what ?
>>318259318
Its one of their cult terms
If they keep paying god will deliver them more stuff and so on
>>318259139
Not to mention the fact that outside of certain systems you likely will never see another player in open play due to the immense size of inhabited space, the back end server throws fits constantly if you're trying to play with friends that require client restarts to fix and that the systems designed for player to player interaction like finding and hunting most wanted players is fundamentally broken and a waste of time if you try it.
>>318259318
>The what ?
Persistent Universe. As far as I'm aware, it's not actually out yet. There is only the social module, which is a fucking lobby.
More importantly though: the last time I played Space Citizen, the flight model was shit. I've heard they are completely overhauling it, so maybe it will get improved, but as it is now, the biggest and most important difference between Elite and SC is that Elite is simply a HELL of a lot more fun to fly around. And as pretty as SC looks, in a space sim, the actual flying around is a big deal.
>>318259139
This is pretty accurate. I bought it a couple of days ago and I've got around 30 hours so far, and I've seen about 3 other people, two of whom were flying around the same starport asking where the entrace was.
You also won't really have any idea what you're doing for a couple of hours as well. For KB+M I found that a ton of quite important controls weren't bound to anything by default, and the in-game tutorials don't give you anything beyond a rudimentary understanding of flying and combat. Prepare to use youtube and google a ton.
>>318260438
>it's not actually out yet
It is and it isn't, 2.0 is on the PTU and looks set to go public before the year's out
>>318259139
>Add to that CONSTANT problem with finding yourself on the same server as your friends,
They fixed this slightly by allowing you to invite players to wings so it more often drops you all into the same instance, but everything else you said is 100% correct.
>>318260591
>For KB+M I found that a ton of quite important controls weren't bound to anything by default
Do you remember what they are?
>>318259230
Shill harder
>>318260591
>>318260878
Actually, right now, considering the game is consistently on the top-10 sellers since it got discounted, you'll probably find plenty of players. And while I personally wasn't that lucky, my friend managed to find player smugglers to ambush consistently for a few weeks. Like one player per half an hour or so. That said, half of them combat-logged out the second they saw him.
My personal experience has been somewhat different, but equally if not more frustrating. I ran into retard new players in bounty farming zones very frequently, which lead to two problems: insanely long waiting times for docking in bounty-farming-friendly system stations, constantly being hit by farming newbies who don't watch their fire, and before the update that actually set some kind of tollerance to friendly fire before putting a fine on your ass, I also found myself hunted down and shot down by players when the "bounty" on my head was around 200 credits and I was on my way to clear it in a nearest system.
The experiences really can vary. I had a few really great experiences too. The community is dedicated, and dealing with folks from groups like fuel rats can be absolutely amazing: but I still think the whole system is flawed from core.
>>318260878
Yeah, we had a serious problem of finding ourselves on the same instance even when we were in a wing.
>>318261186
He is not entirely wrong about the fact that SC is currently being more active and seems to be closing on releasing something substantial than it was ever before.
Whenever that something is going to be any GOOD, that is a bigger question.
>>318261125
Not off the top of my head, but I'd advise the first things you do when loading up the game are go through the control options and try and pick out what's important amongst the vast list of inputs, then go watch the dev's official flight tutorial on youtube, it helped me a lot, and the game becomes immensely more enjoyable and comfy once you can fly competently.
>>318261125
>>318261319
Not him, but I'd advise getting a joystick for that game. Playing it with MK+B is possible, but takes away a big portion of what makes the game most fun.
Do you want a sim?
Like a really fucking slow sim?
Then yes, its perfect
If your like me, the kind of guy that can play euro truck for hours then you will enjoy elite
Everything about it is a sim, in some of the best and worst ways depending on how you look at it
Trading: you look at what places sell thing and what they are buying and at what prices and make trade routes depending on that and slowly gain money
Bounty hunting: go around killing pirates in astroid belts for some cash, most exciting way to get money because combat is fun
Exploration: travel for hours outside of habitable space and see cool shit then fly back for hours and sell your findings
Super slow, doesn't really make you much but you see cool shit
Pirating: interdict other ships and steal shit. Like you ty hunting but more boring and pays less
Smuggling: this is where the money is, 10-20 mil an hour if you know what you are doing but each run take 1-3 hours of flying and docking and nothing else
Don't even bother mining holy shit it's so boring not even I can stand it
Pirating: find players
>>318258809
I got it too. $15 seemed like a fair enough price for half a game.
I played all the tutorials, especially the early ones a bunch until it sinked in because I was nervous about using m+kb.
When I got into the actual game I shit myself numerous times.
There's simply a lot of really cool stuff: combat is hairy as fuck, hyperspace is spoopy, supercruising beside a planetary ring gives you vertigo, getting interdicted is like a panic attack.
So the basic gameplay itself has pretty much justified the price.
HOWEVER I'm only like 12 hours in and
>>318259139
especially the lack of multiplayer support features is blindingly obvious to me.
Also, there's all this major and minor faction info floating around but I can't seem to do much with them.
>>318261561
The game is fucking amazing in the first 10-20 hours but by that time if you aren't willing to do the same things over and over you won't get much else out of it
>>318261409
I don't have a joystick, but is it playable with a PS4 controller?
>>318261536
Honestly that sounds like a lot of fun. I can see myself really enjoying exploring ten hours out of known space, trying to find a planet that nobody else has seen.
>>318260591
So far I've found that the non-combat controls don't really have to be bound. The UI is hard to navigate at first but after practice it is very quick.
>>318261125
Can't quite remember but I think one of the few things I changed was Up and Down Thrusters from "R" and "F" to "Space" and "Ctrl" due to FPS brain.
Space can still be used in the context menu UI's.
If I had a mouse with those webpage buttons I'd consider making them Up & Down Thrust, but the default R & F keys were useless.
Make sure Yaw and Pitch is controlled by mouse, with strafing Left, Right, Up & Down through keys.
>>318261536
>the kind of guy that can play euro truck for hours then you will enjoy elite
Idk man, I found the hauling to be fun for a little but it's in that awkward stage where you have to do things just frequent enough that you can't afk, but too little that you don't pay complete attention (ETS2 you focus on the road and listen to podcasts and shit). Coupled on with the fact finishing a haul doesn't always guarantee another, mining being abysmally slow (though great $$$) and the game promoting illegal work a fuckload, just a few issues that made me prefer ETS2 a bit more.
Also to other people, I always found maneuvering in combat to be quite hard, I'd use thrusters and my engines to go up/down asap, even cut the engines and turn around before reigniting, but nothing seemed very efficient, and thats even with just using both hands on the keyboard as I have a head tracker so I could look around during.
>>318261781
Exploring is basically just hopping between gates though and hoping there are stations nearby to refuel at, it's really not as fun as you'd think, which is disappointing to me. I'd rather accelerate slowly to jump-gate speed, then be able to just chill and watch for 30 minutes desu. Though the gravity of planets affecting you while jumping is really cool once you get a grasp on it.
>>318261781
>I don't have a joystick, but is it playable with a PS4 controller?
I honestly don't know. Check the forums and do some googling. I know they were adding controler support, but I'm not sure if that is already in, or if it's a planned Horizon feature.
>>318262335
>Exploring is basically just hopping between gates though and hoping there are stations nearby to refuel at
Wow, you are exploring really, REALLY wrong then. I do agree that exploration is kinda dull in Elite, but man you DO NOT "explore" without a REALLY DAMN GOOD fuel scoop and at least 1000 light years between you and the nearest inhabited planet.
I tried the "proper" exploring deal for a while, though I could not afford an Asp and had to settle for a Diamondback Explorer. It was rather dull and more importantly, it does not really pay all that well, but there are people who are really into that shit, and the chance to discover something nobody has ever seen is kinda cool.
>>318262737
Oh sorry, I forgot about the fuel scoop and shit, it's been a bit since I've played. It did sound interesting but very monotonous.
>>318262945
It gets extremely mechanical. Jump, scan the system, quickly check the system map to see if there are any planets worth scanning, jump again, rinse, repeat. Since in order to make any decent money from it, you really need to move at around 1 min per system, you'll quickly develop routines that make you not really pay attention to what you are doing. And to do it well, it requires a CONSIDERABLE investment (advanced discovery scanner alone costs around 1.5 million, a good scoop can be another 700k, detailed surface scanner is I think 500k - added to the price of a diamondback explorer (around 1.9 mil, additional outfitting another 2-3 mil) it makes all for a minimum investment around 5 million credits, if not more if you want to do it seriously. Ideally, you are looking for a kitted-out Asp which is around 30 mil investment. And you'll still get around one million per 5-6 hours of rather routine and repetetive work.
It would be much better if there was a greater variety to stellar objects. Things like comets would benefit the exploration, as well as the option to actually survey the surfaces of more interesting planets.
They are going to introduce some rather big changes to the exploring with the Horizons though, apparently. Including option to boost your jump range to more than double of the current max ranges, some better model on data pricing, and of course, the option to explore surface. Thought honestly, exploring atmosphere-less planets is not going to be all that interesting in my book.
>>318263540
I feel like in general, the game needs something else to keep you going. The game's a giant grind, it's basically singleplayer with a friends list which invalidates part of the point of grinding (show off the fruits of your labor). Hauling was boring and not as fun as something like Euro Truck Sim for reasons said earlier, Mining is abysmal, Trading is terribly slow, etc.
I really wanna like the game, I love the ui and flying around giant space stations, waiting to dock, hauling was 'ok', but really nothing else appeals to me right now. Exploring planets would be cool but again.. it's very, 'whats the point?'.
I don't know too much else about the expansions, but I feel like it's just the general issue with space sims.. there's a lot of empty space.. and uh.. yeah.. I love the concept but there's nothing there to keep me invested or interested, and combats cool and all but I'd rather get a stick, and then probably play a flight sim instead anyway..
>>318264143
One of the things people don't really realize with Elite is the real size of the scope. If it was any other game, any other classic space sim like Freelancer, or Starlancer, or Freespace or X-wing, people would never even see these kinds of issues, because those games could be carried on the sheer flight and dogfight mechanics alone, mostly because they simply had a definitive ending. When people complain about Elite and how boring it is, and you ask how much they have played, the answer is usually around 20-50 hours or more. And that is actually already an insane gameplay lenght, two times the fucking Starlancer campaign. No wonder they are bored with the game.
I'm not sure if it's even possible to figure out anything "else" to keep you going, sans one exception: player driven guilds, politics, even wars, AKA the Eve way.
But the problem is: Elite made a commitment, right from the start, to not do that. The sentiment behind that commitment is simple: they want to make a game about flying space ships. Anything that does not involve flying space ships: management, for an example, is out of the question.
And that... I think was the only really, really bad decision they made with the game. It's understandable, in many ways. It's pretty obvious just how much of the game's design philosophy is driven by fear of things like economical exploitation. I understand the sentiment...
But the game is made with a TEN. YEAR. Development plan in mind. And they can't actually keep people invested for TEN FUCKING YEARS, and possible financial commitment of around 150 dollars if not more on the flight model alone. It just won't work.
I don't even mind the "overpriced" expansions, to be honest. I actually understand the economy and logic behind them.
But I think they are making a massive, massive mistake by purpusefully avoiding the player-driven political and corporate scape. I think that is what is currently holding the game down most.
>>318264616
Yeah I can agree with a lot of that. I easily sunk 20-30 hours before I really wondered what I was doing with my time, and that's with very little combat and general illegal works.
The 'half-mmo' function they have going is definitely strange. It's really interesting originally to see the world, until you realise most of what your seeing is npc's and actual players aren't really interested in you. Having a player driven economy as well would add so much more to hauling and what not as well (well, probably.. maybe..).
I think I'll buy the next expansion, just based of what I saw in the vanilla game, but if I'm not feeling that, then I'll just stick it out with euro truck sim as my go to 'I wanna do something but not really, and listen to podcasts' game instead.
The game's cockpit, internal ui (using a head tracker and perfecting your setup and just doing your runs and what not <3), giant wondrous space stations, gravitational influence of planets/stars, and the 'world' aspect (similar to WoW's waiting for zeppelins or boats) where you're waiting to dock at a station, is all so great, but after that it's all just.. whats the point of doing these monotonous jobs..
