Elite: Dangerous Kickstarter Launched

[HRose]

Pretty tame compared to general marketing nowadays. Just look at car commercials.

Problem is, from my point of view, that in this case the game was founded on kickstarter. And then THAT is what you spend money on?

The game is already so completely feature complete and bug free that you can really afford to spend lots of money on pointless CG? If it was any other game you could mock the trailer just for being false advertisement. But in this case the situation is made worse by the fact that it was crowdfounded.

[zx81-Amd64]

The dude is right tho, that trailer was utter bullshit. cool looking bullshit but really nothing like the game itself at all. I think a better trailer would emphasize the huge impersonal beauty and majesty of space.

For me much of elite is silent, almost contemplative gameplay as I warp across an unknown star system trying to spot a dot parallaxing amongst its peers. When one is found, flying to it and scanning it down to discover what sort of planet it is.

Someone did a version of that pretty silly Dude-bro official release:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZeO-4F45WM

[KevinC]

Problem is, from my point of view, that in this case the game was founded on kickstarter. And then THAT is what you spend money on?

The game is already so completely feature complete and bug free that you can really afford to spend lots of money on pointless CG? If it was any other game you could mock the trailer just for being false advertisement. But in this case the situation is made worse by the fact that it was crowdfounded.

First off, let me just say I’m really not a fan of trailer. People in this thread have pretty much summed up why.

That being said, marketing has to be part of the budget. You need a way to get the word out about the game and a trailer is a great way to grab attention and hopefully dollars. The trailer didn’t strike me as something that would be overly expensive to produce. My only issue with it is that I didn’t think it was very good nor very indicative of what type of game Elite is.

Divinity: Original Sin was a kickstarter game that had a trailer or two that I recall. Wasteland 2 was a kickstarter game that had a launch trailer. It seems to be the norm, so I have to roll my eyes a bit about acting shocked and appalled that Frontier made one as well.

[schurem]

You should read the rockpapershotgun people about this trailer and the no-offline debacle. Them guys are about ready to march on Cambridge wielding torches and pitchforks!

I think the fact that this game is so devisive (spelling?) is one heckuva good sign. Good art is devisive. People hate it or love it or want it to be somethign it isnt really badly and that means it means something to them, or connects to something that has meaning for them. IMO the fact that people get so riled up about their project is a great compliment to FDEV.

[scharmers]

Back to the game itself: ugh, Gamma 2 is pretty broken.

• Have vsync turned on? You’ll crash launching the game. You have to change settings in an .xml file.
• Be prepared to redo most of your keyboard settings. They get wiped.
• Mouse head movement/TrackIR is now very sluggish.
• NPC interdictions went from “star systems full of crazed, homicidal pilots on angel dust” to “I can run 16 tons of stolen gold 110,000 Ls, in a shieldless Hauler across this anarchy system and not get sniffed once”
• Being caught with stolen cargo is still considered far, far more serious than going out and murdering somebody.
• System Cartography weirdnesses that can wipe out your balance (don’t sell 0cr data)
• BBS missions that fail to register, or have other weirdnesses.

But hey: the path plotting seems to work OK.

[Razgon]

Has anyone had any luck using their PS4 controller for the game? I can’t get it to see it at all. I can use my Xbox 360 type controller though.

[KevinC]

Back to the game itself: ugh, Gamma 2 is pretty broken.

• Have vsync turned on? You’ll crash launching the game. You have to change settings in an .xml file.
• Be prepared to redo most of your keyboard settings. They get wiped.
• Mouse head movement/TrackIR is now very sluggish.
• NPC interdictions went from “star systems full of crazed, homicidal pilots on angel dust” to “I can run 16 tons of stolen gold 110,000 Ls, in a shieldless Hauler across this anarchy system and not get sniffed once”
• Being caught with stolen cargo is still considered far, far more serious than going out and murdering somebody.
• System Cartography weirdnesses that can wipe out your balance (don’t sell 0cr data)
• BBS missions that fail to register, or have other weirdnesses.

But hey: the path plotting seems to work OK.

I have only played a couple hours of Gamma 2.0 but I haven’t run into any issues. Sounds like I dodged a bullet or two. :) They released Gamma 2.01 today as well, hopefully that fixed some stuff up.

EDIT: Looks like Gamma 2.02 is coming that fixes the startup crash, yay.

[Papageno]

Now that I bought in to this, I’m looking at HOTAS. There’s Thrustmaster T-Flight Hotas X Flight Stick which was on sale recently but isn’t now. Should I wait on another sale for this or is there a decent cheaper alternative?

I got one of those a couple of months back and it’s a great value for the money. I really like that the throttle has the detent in the middle of its range, so I can do forward and backward thrust without hitting a toggle.

[Gordon_Cameron]

Is there a difference between Open Play and Solo as far as server dependency is concerned? I’ve gotten booted out of the game several times for server connection errors and it’s really annoying. My home connection seems stable.

[KevinC]

Is there a difference between Open Play and Solo as far as server dependency is concerned? I’ve gotten booted out of the game several times for server connection errors and it’s really annoying. My home connection seems stable.

Open can have a heavier network load if there are other players about, but that’s about it as far as I know.

[Gordon_Cameron]

Also, how do I complete a delivery mission? I was trying to deliver coffee to some place but when I got there I had no idea how to complete the mission. One guide I read said to go to the bulletin board to complete the mission, but I couldn’t find any option to complete. The mission was overdue but the message said ‘don’t disappoint me, one more chance’ so as far as I can tell it’s still completable. What gives?

edit: Also, when I abandon a quest (why is it even allowed when it’s outside my jump range and there is no route to that system?) the stuff I was going to deliver is still in my cargo. Do I have to give it back somehow?

I’m a fan of Elite from way back when, but IMO this game could do a much better job of actually presenting information to the player.

grr, argh

[KevinC]

Also, how do I complete a delivery mission? I was trying to deliver coffee to some place but when I got there I had no idea how to complete the mission. One guide I read said to go to the bulletin board to complete the mission, but I couldn’t find any option to complete. The mission was overdue but the message said ‘don’t disappoint me, one more chance’ so as far as I can tell it’s still completable. What gives?

edit: Also, when I abandon a quest (why is it even allowed when it’s outside my jump range and there is no route to that system?) the stuff I was going to deliver is still in my cargo. Do I have to give it back somehow?

I’m a fan of Elite from way back when, but IMO this game could do a much better job of actually presenting information to the player.

grr, argh

You deliver a mission in a manner similar to picking one up. When you dock at the destination station, go to the bulletin board. It will be the top option and when you select it you’ll have an option for “Give Cargo” or “Deliver Cargo”, something like that.

The game will not let you accept a mission that you can’t jump to, at least from my experience. If I can’t jump from A to B there’s always a C to get me there.

[Gordon_Cameron]

There was no such option in my case. I don’t know if being overdue screwed it up somehow. I also was given a mission for a location where the ‘plot route’ button was redded out on the map. Would such a system be reachable any way in that case?

Is there a way to completely wipe your character and start over again with no history/fines/etc?

[KevinC]

There was no such option in my case. I don’t know if being overdue screwed it up somehow. I also was given a mission for a location where the ‘plot route’ button was redded out on the map. Would such a system be reachable any way in that case?

The route planner was just added so I’m not sure, to be honest. I haven’t used it yet, I’m used to doing everything manually.

Is there a way to completely wipe your character and start over again with no history/fines/etc?

Yessir, I believe it’s under Options somewhere. Sorry for not being more specific, I don’t have access to my computer at the moment.

[Papageno]

There was no such option in my case. I don’t know if being overdue screwed it up somehow. I also was given a mission for a location where the ‘plot route’ button was redded out on the map. Would such a system be reachable any way in that case?

Is there a way to completely wipe your character and start over again with no history/fines/etc?

Yes, you can clear your save (under the Options menu), and that resets your game entirely, from what I understand.

And I will say that with me, the game (in previous builds) HAS let me on occasion accept a quest that is beyond my jump range. I think the problem is that it may calculate your jump range based on your current mass, but not on your mass once you take on the cargo that they’re hiring you to deliver. So it’s good to check the galaxy map, and under the navigation tab, check the jumps you can make with full cargo given your current equipment configuration.

[BiggerBoat]

It’s also viable to lighten your ship and extend your jump range by removing weapons and other bits … even the shields if you are feeling brave. I typically do this with my starting sidewinder to extend my jump range and give me more access to missions.

[Gordon_Cameron]

I’m starting to get into the groove a bit more. Had a couple dogfights and made some bounty credits, don’t feel quite as aimless. I have a lot of concerns still about the learning curve but the feel of flying the spaceship is really quite solid.

[tylertoo]

I’m gonna ask a dumb question, but I haven’t followed this too closely nor played earlier Elites: are dogfights just against other players or are their AI opponents?

[jpinard]

I’m gonna ask a dumb question, but I haven’t followed this too closely nor played earlier Elites: are dogfights just against other players or are their AI opponents?

Most of your dogfights will be vs. AI.

Gamma bugs posted above? I’ve hit them all except the vsync one.

As Pag said, you can get a mission th at is beyond your 1 jump range if it’s too close to your unladen max jump.

HRose - your video would have been less eye rolly if they’d compared apples to apples. Trailer was showing combat, so if you want to complain about the trailer being unrealistic (which it is) they should have shown combat comparisons.

Tom, there is a ton of documentation on the forum in pdf format and Frontier is creating tutorial videos:
Official sidewinder guide manual: http://www.elitedangerous.com/downloads/Sidewinder_Owners_Manual_WIP.pdf
Comprehensive guide: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=34437
1001 tips for newbie Commanders: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QuLiFweXGf52EJasBFJvVjeFeU9FW01ONCwiZE7TyGw/mobilebasic?pli=1
Tutorial series: http://youtu.be/GlwXQzQ0EE8

I think my biggest issue with the game right now (which will apparently be addressed later in an expansion) is visiting worlds/exploring is not as fun as it could be. Supercruising between planets takes too long (though does get better with ship upgrades), and unless you can appreciate the beauty and grandeur (which I do) of the stars/planets this aspect can be difficult.

For fun I’ve started exploring unknown contacts and have the system mapped beforehand so I know which station has a black market. Running stolen goods is stressful but fun.

[Bateau]

Are there any plans to release this on steam?