Elite: Dangerous (continued)

SteveMill · Post by **SteveMill** » Wed, 23. Mar 16, 20:39

Hi there old X comrades.,

I've been off work for about a year now and I'm taking early retirement. Haven't been playing games much as my PC died. But got a nice eBay deal so can get back into things,

Gave XR another go. Good to see its come together. Just not my thing. I'm really enjoying ED. I took the 'all expansions' free option on Kickstarter. Maybe if I'd had to pay for Horizons I'd be less thrilled given the price.

But being able to land on and drive over planets doing missions and gathering craft materials is great.

Not done any of the Power Play yet but there's a lot of players organising activities to support it. Could be interesting.

All in all its coming along nicely.

Earth Ultimatum IV. · Post by **Earth Ultimatum IV.** » Tue, 29. Mar 16, 20:42

The Kumo Crew has a new member. Me! A-ced Clipper equipped for combat. A few Imperial trader players were crushed but left alive for mercy with just enough hull percentage to not explode. Beware

If anybody from the X community wants to wing up, feel free to message me on steam. Even if you aren't a member of my faction, I'll happily help out with RES site hunting or mining, piracy or undermining.

felter · Post by **felter** » Sat, 30. Apr 16, 15:56

Just wondering if anyone here uses any of the HCS voicepacks and if so what voicepack are you using and would you recommend it or any of the other available voicepacks. I'm thinking on getting Vega, Orion or maybe midnight but I'm keeping away from Vasco as blessed can hurt my hearing.

Oldman · Post by **Oldman** » Sun, 10. Jul 16, 10:49

Hi Folks

How are you players experiencing the game at the moment?
What with real life 'tasks' getting in the way (Yep, decorating the house etc. etc.

) I only play maybe two or three hours a week nowadays.
Did some out of the bubble exploring a few weeks back but it was mainly extending the area I'd explored months ago...just far enough out to put my name on a few systems. I haven't got the stamina to explore more than 2000 Ly's or so.

...

I've been (when I play currently) doing trade/salvage missions in an A rated Cobra mostly, some good pay outs due to my rank/standing with local factions. It's also cheaper insurance in the Cobra, and I can usually get out of most critical situations with the cobras speed!

I Stack the missions up occasionally when I fancy more of a challenge.
Still haven't bought 'Horizons', I'm waiting to see what the 2.2? patch will bring. hopefully some passenger missions/mechanics etc.
If that turns out to be well developed I might take the plunge and buy Horizons...but I'm hoping that the base game will have some passenger missions as well....so...

Oldman

BigBANGtheory · Post by **BigBANGtheory** » Mon, 11. Jul 16, 00:06

I like ED but there are some nasty horrible grindy mechanics in there that need to go they are needlessly drawn out and designed to sink time.

Avis · Post by **Avis** » Mon, 11. Jul 16, 10:20

I must admit I picked it up a few months back to try horizons (seeing as I paid for the damned thing).. and I promptly put it back down after a few days.

I just cannot shake the feeling of being detached from the universe.
I went and had a look at the barnacles and once I found them and looked around a little realised there is nothing to see really, which unfortunately is what has disconnected me from the game, everything looks great from a distance but once up close the grey blandness takes over, I so wish this wasn't the case.

Every update release I keep hoping for something new that will stitch all the great elements the games got together, every release since and including powerplay has disappointed Frontier need to add some events that aren't just grinding not just write fan fiction (sorry 'story') on the galnet and fob it off as being anything more than fluff.. maybe I expect too much.

muppetts · Post by **muppetts** » Mon, 11. Jul 16, 11:03

Avis wrote:I must admit I picked it up a few months back to try horizons (seeing as I paid for the damned thing).. and I promptly put it back down after a few days.

I just cannot shake the feeling of being detached from the universe.
I went and had a look at the barnacles and once I found them and looked around a little realised there is nothing to see really, which unfortunately is what has disconnected me from the game, everything looks great from a distance but once up close the grey blandness takes over, I so wish this wasn't the case.

Every update release I keep hoping for something new that will stitch all the great elements the games got together, every release since and including powerplay has disappointed Frontier need to add some events that aren't just grinding not just write fan fiction (sorry 'story') on the galnet and fob it off as being anything more than fluff.. maybe I expect too much.

No I would go with that, I am still a big supporter of the idea of the game and as you say there are good bits but I always just feel like I am part of an empty galaxy, none of the events really mean much to me and I find a hard time becoming invested in any area as there are so many.

I know many don't like it but I found Freelancer had a great atmosphere, I always felt there was allot of life about and I was part of the ecosystem. Ultimately ED is much more complex but I just don't get the feeling, I just get bored.

RichardDaborn · Post by **RichardDaborn** » Wed, 10. Aug 16, 09:44

I'm now royally fed up with Elite.

Jumping from one glowing ball to one ball of rock. Meh.

Missions are boring as hell, take/ shoot/ mine x then go to y for payment.

The UI is a utter mess, stations are the same 2-3 varieties with little variation.

The galaxy itself as amazing as it is on a technical level is lifeless. where are the comets, rogue planets, oblate starts, spinning pulsars with gravity jets coming out of them. Nebulas are poorly detailed fuzzy blobs. Doing anything is a mind-numbing-chore. takes hours to jump anywhere of interest even with boosted FSD drives.

Starships are just varieties of each other, Cobra mk 3-4, Viper mk 3-4, keelback / type 7, 3 varieties of drop ship... meeeh.

The whole game has gone from a game full of wonder and promise to an utter utter dull experience. Yet frontier have admitted then need to improve a great deal but they seem to be locked in on this path of dullness.

I cant see the imminent arrival of the Thargoids to do much except to give the shooty brigade something else to blast.

i feel i'm in the universe but i don't feel part of the universe. I don't feel emotionally engaged by the game.

I could type pages and pages on what i think is wrong with the game now. Suffice to say I've gone from one of the games biggest fans to someone that feels I've wasted a bucket of cash on a dullfest. i suppose in the early days the promise of something greater kept me going. We now know what that promise is and frankly they can keep it. A galaxy of 400 billion stars and they have wasted this technical achievement in favour of complete monotony.

I won't repeat that mistake.

Avis · Post by **Avis** » Wed, 10. Aug 16, 09:51

Harsh but fair

brucewarren · Post by **brucewarren** » Wed, 10. Aug 16, 12:09

I count myself as one of the fans of the Engineers.

It's grindy for sure and many don't like the rng aspect but the very grind makes my ship feel special to me.

In the old days you could chop and change ship equipment until the cows came home if you had the credits. I felt that there was nothing special about my ship - no reason to consider it mine.

I no longer feel that way. Having spent a long time tuning it up I'm not about to let some poxy pirate take it away from me. They can pry it from my cold dead fingers.

In the process of getting those upgrades I had to experience sides of the game I would otherwise have ignored. To unlock one of them I had to go mining, for another I had to go exploring and fly outside my comfort zone - literally. I'd forgotten to take a repair kit and with no stations to stop and repair at barely made it back in one piece.

I now see my python the way Han sees the Falcon. Sure she's a lot of work, but she's worth it. She might not be the best ship in the fleet but I'd take her over one of those run of the mill factory jobs any day.

There's also a corvette with my name on that I'm hoping to bring up to spec but that's several hundred million away.l

muppetts · Post by **muppetts** » Fri, 12. Aug 16, 12:06

brucewarren wrote:I count myself as one of the fans of the Engineers.

It's grindy for sure and many don't like the rng aspect but the very grind makes my ship feel special to me.

In the old days you could chop and change ship equipment until the cows came home if you had the credits. I felt that there was nothing special about my ship - no reason to consider it mine.

I no longer feel that way. Having spent a long time tuning it up I'm not about to let some poxy pirate take it away from me. They can pry it from my cold dead fingers.

In the process of getting those upgrades I had to experience sides of the game I would otherwise have ignored. To unlock one of them I had to go mining, for another I had to go exploring and fly outside my comfort zone - literally. I'd forgotten to take a repair kit and with no stations to stop and repair at barely made it back in one piece.

I now see my python the way Han sees the Falcon. Sure she's a lot of work, but she's worth it. She might not be the best ship in the fleet but I'd take her over one of those run of the mill factory jobs any day.

There's also a corvette with my name on that I'm hoping to bring up to spec but that's several hundred million away.l

and more of that would be great, you have a reason to mine and to find specific resources (put some in a dangerous zone, maybe enviromental, or asteroid field with faster moving rocks or something!).

I like the idea of having some reason above Mine a=money, repeat. I think RNG is fine, gives you more of a YES! when you get it right and I agree with the love of YOUR ship. Much Much more of that would be great!

Redvers Ganderpoke · Post by **Redvers Ganderpoke** » Sun, 14. Aug 16, 17:05

I was away at Beagle Point when engineers was introduced and only returned at the end of July. There seem to be quite a few changes as it took me a couple of hours messing about to get to lvl 5 with Farseer - it seems FD have reacted quickly to some of the criticism (but may have made it too easy). I' m still enjoying it - ignored the bits i don't like (powerplay) .

It's what the player makes of the game. I refuse to grind for anything so 4weeks or so of game time and not Elite at anything yet, biggiest ship is Asp Explorer and 100m in the bank. But I've been to the over side of the galaxy, (got the decal to prove it) and met up with a good bunch of people and had a fun time. Interesting to see how it fairs in the next 6 to 12 months but there seems to be a solid core of players at the moment.

Best place to ask questions is the Explorer sub forum (reminds me of here.)

But then I may be a weird as I thought X Tension was the best Egosoft game.

Oldman · Post by **Oldman** » Thu, 18. Aug 16, 17:43

Gamescon News, Reveals so far.

In Brief...

Video samples of new Station interiors/exteriors, Agricultural and Industrial variations mostly in/for high population systems.
Video footage of the new Beluga Liner.
Star map Route Plotter shown in action.
Possibly (I think) more star variations.
Passenger Cabin 'Grades', Economy, First class & VIP modules, with mission payments corresponding to mission difficulty and status of passenger/s.

Passenger missions accessed through 'Passenger lounge' menu, static picture of passenger profile (no animation as far as I can tell), so in a sense it's similar to the original FE 2/FFE format.
The Beluga Liner design looks pretty good, and it's shown at one point docking at a standard? Orbis station. Some examples of passenger mission pick ups shown with a random 'detour'.
No Idea though if any of these features will be available in the base game (Elite Dangerous) at the moment.
David Braben gave an interview mainly to state his desire for more scientific accuracy as regards the background Galaxy play area, space dust/stellar variations etc.

October seems to be the month when these features/upgrades are going to be ready for download...which makes me wonder if this 'seasons' planned content is going to overrun into 2017.

Oldman

theeclownbroze · Post by **theeclownbroze** » Thu, 18. Aug 16, 20:36

Looks like frontier developments simply rescheduled their roadmap and season updates, so now horizons seasons is scheduled at 1.5 years as opposed to the 1 year cycle they were aiming for.

Is it a wise choice? Sure, more developer time for fleshing out and finalizing top quality content that runs at a stable 60fps

But is it a bold one? Definetly, how far can you stretch a players patience to release meaningful non boring content?

Oldman · Post by **Oldman** » Sun, 21. Aug 16, 20:32

theeclownbroze wrote:Looks like frontier developments simply rescheduled their roadmap and season updates, so now horizons seasons is scheduled at 1.5 years as opposed to the 1 year cycle they were aiming for.

Is it a wise choice? Sure, more developer time for fleshing out and finalizing top quality content that runs at a stable 60fps

But is it a bold one? Definetly, how far can you stretch a players patience to release meaningful non boring content?

Well...I don't know if anybody here's been following Frontiers Elite Dangerous presentation at Gamescom?... but I found it

...intriguing.

The base game (Elite Dangerous) won't be able to access some of the new Horizons content, for example...the Beluga Passenger Liner, or the ship launched 'fighters'. Looks like passenger transport will be though at the moment, so I'm reasonably happy there, as it will give a bit more variety to the base game.

I followed David Brabens ideas and thoughts about the future of the game in the four video interviews with some interest, he seemed very enthusiastic, and his ideas about the 'culture' in the game even more so, I personally think this is one feature the game could benefit from to give it more 'life'.
Still...I also got the impression there was still a bit of 'hand wavium' on some aspects of the game

...but to be fair, the game has a long way to go before his (and players) hopes are realised, I think.

Oldman

brucewarren · Post by **brucewarren** » Sun, 21. Aug 16, 20:58

I liked the way he explained how the folks we meet start out distrusting cmdrs.

Apparently they think we are all itinerant wanderers who will do just about anything for a quick buck and not to be trusted.

I wonder where they get that idea.

<breaks out the whip and forces slaves back into in the cargo hold>

At first I was a little sad about the 2 month wait for 2.2 to land, but then I thought, well it gives me time to save up for the Corvette's power plant and get her flight ready.

Oldman · Post by **Oldman** » Sun, 21. Aug 16, 22:24

brucewarren wrote:I liked the way he explained how the folks we meet start out distrusting cmdrs.

Apparently they think we are all itinerant wanderers who will do just about anything for a quick buck and not to be trusted.

I wonder where they get that idea.

...

...I think he's....well, I 'know' he's basing that on human history, but when he/the game introduces aliens I'm not too sure that type of attitude should be set in stone, so to speak.
We (humans) haven't as yet met (as far as I know) any aliens in this context so in a way he's limiting himself/the game to some narrow trains of thought. I'm not being too serious here btw.

His thoughts/method will probably work okay in a game sense, and I'm not saying it's wrong, but I can imagine where some different attitudes (by aliens) could also help to make the game a bit more varied and unpredictable. I presume though he means resident populations on planets or space stations of human decent, so in that sense he's probably on the right track.

It'll be interesting to see how Frontier introduce the 'dreaded' Thargoids, I'm hoping it's not just a 'pew pew' fest, I'm hoping there's more intrigue and grey areas to this confrontation, *shrugs*...we'll see.

brucewarren wrote:...At first I was a little sad about the 2 month wait for 2.2 to land, but then I thought, well it gives me time to save up for the Corvette's power plant and get her flight ready.

It also gives me some time to finally decide on what ruddy replacement graphics card I'm going to get....I've still not made up me mind!

...

(probably an EVGA GTX 1060).
Then I'll get Horizons

Oldman

clakclak · Post by **clakclak** » Sun, 21. Aug 16, 22:39

Currently thinking about buying Elite, do you guys think process on the first DLC is going well? What I already heard about Elite is that it apprently is extremely stable even after patches. But how mutch new content does for example horizens add to the game, judging by the fact that I read something about a 10 year plan this game seems like a longtime investment, I would just like to make sure that new DLC is not stupid cosmetic features but in fact adds to the game. (I did read about the content from Horizens, but having never played the game I can not tell if it is really as good as it promises to be.)

Oldman · Post by **Oldman** » Mon, 22. Aug 16, 11:22

clakclak wrote:Currently thinking about buying Elite, do you guys think process on the first DLC is going well? ...

...I think it's a matter of personal opinion.

It's going well in the sense that 'slowly' some of the main planned core gameplay is being introduced. Non atmospheric planet landing being one of the main ones, which is available now to owners of Horizons, With the added bonus of the SRV. Players are having some fun with the SRV, from what I can gather from the forums and example videos, as well as the 'Engineers' feature.

The Horizons 'Seasons' planned content is a little behind schedule at the moment, so it's looking like some of this content won't be released until early next year in it's entirety. Ship launched fighters, the Beluga Liner (dedicated to passenger missions etc.) , the new route map plotter amongst other stuff will probably be available in September this year I think.

If you buy Horizons 'now' and haven't previously played Elite Dangerous then I reckon there's enough content currently to keep you entertained until next year...depending of course on what features you may find in the current game (as it stands) fun to play.

There are two more 'parts' of this seasons planned content still to be announced in detail, as there are four parts to this seasons development, but what those other two actually contain in features is a bit of a grey area at the moment. With the game being continually 'tweaked' in it's development be prepared for surprises!...some good, some not so.

Oldman

BigBANGtheory · Post by **BigBANGtheory** » Mon, 22. Aug 16, 12:12

If you were buying into ED now your best bet imho is to do so around half way through the year/season during a sale, I think the last one was 50% off. What remains to be seen is how they handle next seasons content obviously they will charge for that but will they give Horizons away with the base game?

It would seem strange in a few years for new players to buy the base game, season1, season2, season3 etc they would never get any new players. I suspect they will rollup the old content into the base package.

You could quite easily play the base game without Horizons for a few months imho, if you were big into the PvP thing then Horizons is a must. I've been playing for about 3 months now and really its only surface landing that I use in Horizons whilst I build up my rank & bank balance (about 1.5B cr atm)

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

Elite: Dangerous (continued)

ayers are having quite a bit of fun with the SRV