It just about runs on my 2.9 GHz i7 laptop (GeForce 640M) on low settings. Frame rate around 20 in stations, but it’s around 30-40 in space and during combat so it’s certainly very playable. A bit slower in asteroid fields. Playing it on my GeForce 970 on the desktop is quite a thrilling experience though with everything on max settings. :)
I was getting tempted to join you guys at launch, but my wife needs last-minute Christmas ideas for me. I might have to wait for the HOTAS an extra 9 days!
Don’t scan all the systems before I get a chance to play.
Razgon
1863
I just think people should go into things with the right expectations. It reminds me of the time I went to see Deep Impact, which had a trailer that made it look like an action movie. When the movie ended, I could hear several people talk about how disappointed they were, and now they couldn’t wait to go see Armageddon.
Translated to Elite, it means that people expect one kind of game, and gets another, and thats rarely a good thing. I want the game to succeed, and I love how its turning out, but I’d have loved a trailer that played up the game’s high points - Impressive space stations, giant suns, massive astroid fields, massive galaxy to play in, and of course the combat. Its more or less nothing like depicted in the trailer.
I guess I just wish marketing had faith in their product, instead of fearing they need to be more like Star Citizen, which seemingly (I don’t own that) is a very different beast.
To respond to what you actually wrote - What is this for then?
schurem
1864
So, gamma 2.0 then; anybody got into any of the new ships yet? I fought an adder in my eagle but he shifted out at 30% hull or so. Bastard had beam turrets but he was maneuvering so wildly they missed all their shots. I haven’t seen the Lakon 7 yet but from what I gathered it is absolutely huge.
I really dig the new and improved look of space. Very much a night sky.
Some of the new missions seem bugged. I would think if they want you to scoop something from a USS, those things would actually spawn… spent three hours fruitlessly seeking out USS after USS. Meh.
On the other hand, do you guys also think their ships have become a tad more agile?
schurem
1865
So, gamma 2.0 then; anybody got into any of the new ships yet? I fought an adder in my eagle but he shifted out at 30% hull or so. Bastard had beam turrets but he was maneuvering so wildly they missed all their shots. I haven’t seen the Lakon 7 yet but from what I gathered it is absolutely huge.
I really dig the new and improved look of space. Very much a night sky.
Some of the new missions seem bugged. I would think if they want you to scoop something from a USS, those things would actually spawn… spent three hours fruitlessly seeking out USS after USS. Meh.
On the other hand, do you guys also think their ships have become a tad more agile?
The enthusiasm in here is pretty infectious, to the point that I’m actually considering getting this. Couple of questions though:
-
I am not typically a space sim type of guy (played Eve for a while, Space and Beyond a little but on a scale of 0 to 100 in terms of space sim skill I’d put myself at about a 5). So I would be the noobiest of the noob out here. Am I just asking for frustration/multiple deaths in thinking about getting this?
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Is the only place to buy from the E:D website? All I see there is something called the “Mercenary Edition” which seems to include an Eagle. Pre-game-start combat training seems like a good idea. But everyone also gets a Sidewinder too, right?
I think the enthusiasm in this thread is mostly from longtime space sim fans, and particularly people who fondly recalled their time with the original Elite, which was equal parts gameplay and imagination. I certainly remember my time with the original Elite and it was pretty remarkable. But that was a long time ago. I was a different person and videogames were an entirely different form of entertainment. Elite had no real competition because there was nothing quite like it.
But I’ll be a dissenting voice and say that right now, Elite: Dangerous is absolutely terrible at certain things, especially the “new user experience”. I don’t know how much this will change when it’s released on the 16th, but a new user jumping into what’s called the “gamma 2.0” build gets no guidance about what to do, how to play, or even what kind of game it is. Which, frankly, isn’t much of a game. It’s an open sandbox with minimal guidance and with what looks like absolute obliviousness to how modern videogames do player progression. In other words, it’s very much in line with the original Elite and not at all in touch with the tenets of modern game design. Which is fine for some people, and I look forward to exploring it further. But I wouldn’t recommend it to many people at this point. We’ll see how things shake out when it’s released.
-Tom
schurem
1868
Two, no five words: fuck modern game design tenets. I like me my hardcore oldschool elite without compromise thank you very much.
Tom how would you compare it to Minecraft in terms of design?
See, for me that’s absolutely perfect. I don’t want one of the numerous space sims out there that do everything you’ve just described is lacking in Elite. I wanted a game with the freedom and openness (and yes, imagination) of the original Elite, that’s why so many people have been clamoring for a new Elite for decades. I think the hope is that others will be drawn into the appeal of a game like this, rather than the game shifting to accommodate what people expect these days, and perhaps that’s why there’s a lot of criticism along the lines of “there’s not much to do”. Whether that’s in Elite’s best interest these days or not is an entirely valid point, but this is what the backers paid for, and from what I’ve played so far this is what they’ve got, and then some.
I’m right at the beginning of the game now, I played Elite back in the day with everyone else who played it, but it’s been a long time. Right now I do feel somewhat lost, but you know what? I love it. I love looking at the various systems and wondering what they all do, what this bit does, what happens if I press this button (“Don’t touch that, kid!”), I thrive on this kind of “figure it out for yourself” gameplay. It does take more work, and I’ve just had to go back through half the tutorials to remind myself how to even fly the ship, but I see that as a plus, not a minus. I just opened the galaxy map, felt utterly dwarfed by the scale of the universe, and it’s wonderful. I’ve already set my sights on visiting Lave, for old times’ sake. But first I need to earn some money. How the hell do I do that? Well, trading I guess. Where do I buy commodities? Right, this station over there. A quick visit to the tutorials to remind myself how supercruise works, and I just made my first successful in-system trip and docked at a new station. All these other ships flying around, I feel like an outsider amongst them, but I will work my way up and be respected.
Yes, Elite is one of those games, but it’s everything I’ve been missing from space sims. But sure, it’s not for everyone. More’s the pity.
I can’t tell if you’re pulling my leg – I got a lot of grief for not liking Minecraft – but I think that’s an interesting comparison.
Minecraft at least has the allure of interesting exploration. I’m not sure that’s the case with Elite: Dangerous, at least from the perspective of the kind of person who would be entertained just taking off in one direction in Minecraft, or digging down in the earth to find a cavern, or wanting to find different kinds of animals. I loved schurem’s post (I’m pretty sure it was him) about finding the trinary sun, but that’s never going to happen to most people who don’t get invested in the game for some other reason. There are just way too many obstacles to finding interesting things, much less even knowing what you’ve found when you gp somewhere. For better or worse, Elite: Dangerous is buttoned up pretty tight in the cockpit. I mean, as near as I can tell, there isn’t even an external view, is there? But Minecraft makes it super easy to look around, see a expansive varied world, and think, “I’m gonna go see what’s over there”.
-Tom
External views were not developed because this is hardcore, man! God forbid you use an external view and happen to see someone creeping up behind you.
I think they considered various ways to go about it, like ‘drones’ and removing piloting ability and such malarkey, but nothing has been implemented.
Such a stupid shame as all those screenshots and external modelling artwork go to waste.
I mean why even buy a fucking skin/paintjob when you are guaranteed to basically never, ever see it.
Yeah, it’s a very exciting time to be both an Elite fan and a space sim fan. :)
A few things. First, the game comes with a variety of single-player training missions that help you get a feel for combat, docking and the like that carry no risk to the larger online game, and you could jump into those now and start practicing. Secondly, you could stick in the default Sidewinder setup until you feel comfortable enough to get a better ship, because when you get shot down you get one of those for free.
Yeah, the Elite: Dangerous site is the only place to get the special pre-ordery Merc edition, which comes with a free Eagle along with your starting Sidewinder, and allows you to download and play the single player training scenarios now until the 15th. It’s totally worth it even if you have the slightest of passing interest in this sort of game.
KevinC
1874
If you’re being honest with yourself I think you have to agree that Elite: Dangerous would be a much better game were it designed and developed by Ubisoft or some other AAA developer. The game would be far easier to get into if you could just pull up a system or galactic map and have icons everywhere indicating side missions and secret places to explore. You could also scatter Imperial propaganda posters around the galaxy for you to collect.
Speaking of collecting things, what Elite really needs is achievements. For everything. I really want to be rewarded for disengaging my landing gear for the first time, when I enter supercruise, or when I visit 5 star systems. Preferably, these should be linked to unlocks of some sort. Maybe you need to visit 100 planets and then you unlock the Asp? You should also get it for free as a quest reward. And speaking of quests, wouldn’t it be nice if space stations had exclamation points above them if they had quests to offer?
I also think you should be able to bypass all the boring space stuff in the game and purchase credits for money. The cost of some of those ships is ludicrous. I just want to get into a kitted out Python ASAP because it’s the only way to be competitive in the 5v5 PVP battlegrounds, which are mandatory to run since it’s the only source of Federation Vouchers you use to get Purple-quality lasers and shields. I mean, I’ve tried flying other ships like the Cobra but it sux… obviously the PVP dev has a pet python at home and that’s why they’re so OP.
I think they considered various ways to go about it, like ‘drones’ and removing piloting ability and such malarkey, but nothing has been implemented.
Such a stupid shame as all those screenshots and external modelling artwork go to waste.
I mean why even buy a fucking skin/paintjob when you are guaranteed to basically never, ever see it.
Yeah, that’s one of the multiplayer-driven design decisions I really don’t like. If I’m in single-player mode and want to get an awesome shot of my Cobra sucking hydrogen from a star, I can’t because it makes multiplayer less pure? What the hell, Frontier?
Kelan
1876
You guys are making my brain hurt :).
KevinC
1877
Does it really have anything to do with multiplayer, or is it just how they want combat to control period? I.e. you are a pilot in your cockpit, you see what the pilot can see. Everything I read from the devs made it sound like that, but it’s not like I’ve been haunting the Elite forums so maybe I’m completely mistaken.
I’d absolutely love external views and cameras though. It’s fine if I can’t control my ship while doing so, or give me a 3+ second transition as I switch from external to internal views. I just wanna grab awesome screenshots of my ship. :)
So I’m off to a flying start! Well, ahem, actually not. I wanted to do some trading, so the only thing I could afford was… cough… some hydrogen. Yes, yes, I know, 4 units of hydrogen fuel, what a waste of time right? It was a test flight, ok?
So I set course for the nearest star system that looks as though it might need hydrogen, set the hyperspace and we’re off! As I near my destination and cut power to the frame shift drive, the system’s red giant explodes into view. So pretty… except I’m getting closer and closer. Crap! I try and steer away and the FSD cuts out due to temperature, the whole ship’s insides start smoking, alarms are going off, aargh! I point myself away from the sun and try and get the hell out of there. Eventually the FSD cools off, the console stops smoking, and I engage the FSD to leave… except I need to point to the escape vector which entails some tense moments where my ship starts heating up once more, sparks start flying, and I watch with dismay as my hull integrity slowly ticks down. Fortunately I escape with only an 18% loss. Surely that can’t be too expensive to fix, right?
I finally arrive at my destination, proceed to dock, actually manage to land on the pad within one minute of approaching it instead of my previous 5 minutes of thrusting around trying to find the right spot while bouncing off nearby pylons (my paintwork!), and enter the station. Time to sell my hot cargo of hydrogen! Well, despite being on the official import list for the system, my hydrogen is worth 2% less than it was when I bought it, so I made a grand loss of 14 credits! On top of that, my hull repair and fuel costs run to another 120 credits, over a tenth of my cash reserves, so really I didn’t actually achieve anything much at all. Well I did, I had a memorable close call with a star, and I landed properly. Now I have to really start figuring out how to make some cash, at the very least to pay for my fuel and inevitable repair bills.
I wasn’t. There seems to be a shift in game design, especially when it comes to a younger generation, where things are shifting in a different direction. This article and interview with Sean Murray in regards to No Man’s Sky kind of covers it a bit http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/dec/10/no-mans-sky-why-minecraft-generation-will-reject-call-of-duty
I’d settle for decent documentation, better tutorials, a way to enjoy the space porn more readily, some assurance that the progression in front of me isn’t fully of gaps, and a working social system so I can play with my friends.
Look, I’m as hardcore as you guys and for the most part, I’m enjoying Elite: Dangerous in its current state. But I also know enough to know that Frontier can avoid alienating new players without compromising the game they wanted to make. I hope the release version next week moves a bit in that direction.
-Tom
