Elite: Dangerous

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Raptor1

From what I can remember, Janeway cheated numerous times, then got help from the future and made it back after travelling much less than a tenth that distance. Janeway's FTL method was somewhat slower than mine, though...

Then she got promoted to Admiral...

I love my Viper ,turns on a five cent piece and got the legs to run if I have too (out ran a missile fired at close range at me from an Anaconda last night )

Playing tag with an asp




starting to think I was a little close at this point..

[Drewcifer]

Once 1.2 drops I'd love to meet up with you guys and fly in wings! Maybe hit some combat zones or bounty hunt in a pack. Seems like fun. Right now I'm flying an A spec viper but I plan on making the jump to a Vulture if it really is the next step up fighter it has so far been promised to be.

[Dowly]

HCS Voice Pack Roleplay showcase:


HCS Voice Pack VENUS showcase


I really can't recommend VoiceAttack + HCS enough. I only bought VA + ASTRA because I had the money to spend, but I did soon realise how much it can save time.
For someone like me, who now does bounty hunting, VA+ASTRA is almost as important as TrackIR.

Like the videos keep reminding, it's all customizable. But do note that none of the HCS packs are required, but they do give you profiles with pretty much all the commands you need to use for VoiceAttack to work.

Example of customization and a time saver:
I am fighting an Anaconda let's say. I want to keep behind it. I use both my TrackIR and joystick+throttle to do that.
With VA+ASTRA, I can say 'Engines' to get max power to the engines if I need extra speed+agility, or if I am in good position to fire, I can say 'Weapons' and ASTRA maximizes power to weapons.
All while concentrating on keeping behind the Anaconda.
Something like that is especially important if you are flying a small ship like I am (Eagle) and you have to keep out of the range of the Anaconda's guns.

Naturally, you can say 'Launch Chaff' (or customize it to just 'Chaff') to launch countermeasures etc. etc.

So, I can't say I have ever thought I'd need voice commands, but in ED they do help, especially if you do fighting. Almost like having a third hand.


EDIT: Eddie, feel free to add me to your friends: CMDR Dowly (or is it just Dowly?)

[Arclight]

Mostly flying the Asp, though I've got a Viper fitted for combat and a Clipper fitted for trading sitting around.

Kinda swinging back and forth between all-round and exploring on the Asp. Even traded in it for a bit, at least as much space as a T6. Hell, took down a few elite Anacondas in it as well, though the thrust leaves something to be desired. Turns well, just doesn't accelerate. Ends up flying backwards.

[Dowly]

Thinking of going to Empire space to try to get the Clipper.. it does look nice.
Why does all the Elite ships look like crap?

Originally Posted by Dowly

Thinking of going to Empire space to try to get the Clipper.. it does look nice.
Why does all the Elite ships look like crap?

I like most of them and hate, for example, the ship design of EVE with one exception, the small mining ship (vulture!? its been a while...)

Tl;dr: Matter of taste I guess.

[seaniam81]

I'm flying a Cobra, out exploring around Apacnalis

After like 1-2 months of a break, I climbed back into the cockpit to test 'wings' with a buddy.
I used to love Elite. During alpha and beta, I was convinced that "this is it!". This will be the next great space game everybody will love and oh my look at the design forum archive, this is going to be fantastic!
Yeah... no. Sorry. Reading that archive now, makes me wanna cry and now I hope Star Citizen will turn out better.

Elite had so much potential, maybe it still has. But something is just...missing. A soul. The feeling that all of what is happening in this game is 'real'.
After you're not blinded anymore by the really nice visuals, audio and the many "aww!!" moments while discovering the galaxy, you realize the following that, to me, is a game breaker:



Everything.
You'll find the same ships, stations, 'random events', NPCs/their robotic, illogical and flat out stupid behavior as well as missions everywhere, no matter where you are going to be or who you are.
On top, the game has become overly gamey to please the upcoming target audience: Xbox players. Great.

Looks like Braben's "big vision" was money after all.
What a terribly bad call.

I apologize for the surely not so nice to read rant. It had to happen.

[Egan]

Originally Posted by Nippelspanner

After like 1-2 months of a break, I climbed back into the cockpit to test 'wings' with a buddy.
I used to love Elite. During alpha and beta, I was convinced that "this is it!". This will be the next great space game everybody will love and oh my look at the design forum archive, this is going to be fantastic!
Yeah... no. Sorry. Reading that archive now, makes me wanna cry and now I hope Star Citizen will turn out better.

Elite had so much potential, maybe it still has. But something is just...missing. A soul. The feeling that all of what is happening in this game is 'real'.
After you're not blinded anymore by the really nice visuals, audio and the many "aww!!" moments while discovering the galaxy, you realize the following that, to me, is a game breaker:



Everything.
You'll find the same ships, stations, 'random events', NPCs/their robotic, illogical and flat out stupid behavior as well as missions everywhere, no matter where you are going to be or who you are.
On top, the game has become overly gamey to please the upcoming target audience: Xbox players. Great.

Looks like Braben's "big vision" was money after all.
What a terribly bad call.

I apologize for the surely not so nice to read rant. It had to happen.

It's funny. I agree with you in a lot of ways.

I'll be honest, when they announced the offline mode wasn't going to happen alarm bells started ringing in my head. Such a major mode - the promise of which got a lot of people buying into the KS - suddenly being dropped a week before gamma arrived (and, coincidently, the time when you could no longer buy into beta) with the vaguest excuses just smacked of bollocks to me. We're supposed to believe that a major game mode that should have been in development right from the start was not possible and it took them right up until gamma to decide to tell us is just.....well, just not right.

The whole thing just smelled of keeping quiet until they had got all the money they could from the KS, the alpha and the beta. Maybe I'm wrong - I hope I am - but something tells me I'm not.

I like the game. I love exploring. I especially love the new Black Hole effects (now you can get really close) and I love the scale but you are bang on - there is something major missing. Something important. The fact that they seem not far off adding combat arenas to the game suggests to me that either they decided to take the game in another direction to the one they originally stated, or they're making it up as they go along. Neither fills me with confidence.

FD and Braben have said many times now that they are making the game THEY want to play. I'm beginning to realise that is increasingly not the game I want to play. Which is annoying. Maybe I should pin my hopes on Space Engine. But as SE is essentially a very interesting tech demo, or a galactic version of Google Street View, I'm not holding out much hope.

Hell, I hope I'm wrong. In so many ways Elite: Dangerous is the space game I've been waiting for since, well, Elite.

Well said.
The example of the dropped offline mode didn't even cross my mind, it is indeed a major one.
Personally, I don't care much - I play online anyways.
But as you said, it was THE reason to buy it for quite many players and they feel crossed.

Also, I can't say I believe a single word ED or Braben says (anymore).
As mentioned, I literally studied the design archive and while I'm fully aware that all of it never was set in stone, it now feels like they made lots of stuff up to get buyers and then, well... surprise, 75% of it won't be ingame...

Also, the recent Xbox announcement killed me.
Granted, I AM a darn pcmasterraceelitist, I admit that, I HATE consoles (and their stereotypical players) with a passion... but even if I ignore that, I can only think that move was a bad one, since consoles are still far behind PC capabilities.
I start to understand now, why we won't get more fire buttons... cause a friggin Xbox controller couldn't handle it
#thxbraben

As you said - I hope I'm wrong, I do as well.

Something positive though:
Played wings with 2 buddies and besides a short instancing hickup, we had some good fun.
I also got myself the Vulture and I won't ever give that Terminator back, ever. It is a killer.
Always loved the Viper, still do, but the Vulture?
Feels like cheating!





And the current loadout:
[Vulture]
L: 3D/F Burst Laser
L: 3D/F Burst Laser
U: 0I Chaff Launcher
U: 0A Shield Booster
U: 0A Shield Booster
U: 0E Kill Warrant Scanner

BH: 1I Lightweight Alloy
RB: 4A Power Plant
TM: 5C Thrusters
FH: 4B Frame Shift Drive
EC: 3D Life Support
PC: 5A Power Distributor
SS: 4A Sensors
FS: 3C Fuel Tank (Capacity: 8)

5: 5E Shield Generator
4: 4E Cargo Rack (Capacity: 16)
---
Shield: 414,34 MJ
Power : 12,48 MW retracted (80 %)
16,00 MW deployed (103 %)
15,60 MW available
Cargo : 16 T
Fuel : 8 T
Mass : 348,6 T empty
372,6 T full
Range : 13,55 LY unladen
12,97 LY laden
Price : 10.067.533 CR
Re-Buy: 503.377 CR @ 95% insurance

[Egan]

I'm ambivalent about the X box conversion so far. I've heard complaints about what the 'new neighbours' might be like but, to be honest, given the general tone over at the official forums a lot of the time I'm not sure it can really get any worse.

In terms of an effect on the game rather than the community, though, I'm a little suspicious over the prioritising of new versions of the game over improving the current experience. The Mac release is one thing - as far as I know that was one of the promises during the kick starter, but pushing on with an X box version when there is so much still to be done to bring it up to the level it should have been released in worries me a little.

I know they have a fairly large team of about 80 people so they certainly have the capability to do both. Whether they have the desire is another thing entirely. This much vaunted (and mostly only hinted at) 1.3 'Powerplay' upgrade should hopefully answer a few more questions whenever it actually appears.

Hell, what do I care? I'm 7000 LY from earth, I'm 1500 LY below the galactic plane and it's spooky down there. I haven't been home since they day after 1.1 arrived and I don't plan to head in any time soon. I like it out there, and, increasingly, there seems to be very little reason for me to ever go back aside from upgrading to an asp.

Originally Posted by Egan

Hell, what do I care? I'm 7000 LY from earth, I'm 1500 LY below the galactic plane and it's spooky down there. I haven't been home since they day after 1.1 arrived and I don't plan to head in any time soon. I like it out there, and, increasingly, there seems to be very little reason for me to ever go back aside from upgrading to an asp.

Nice, does it look different out there?
Did you meet any ships, NPC or player?
Don't tell me the kinda scripted sidey/eagle/viper still spawns ~5 seconds near a nav beacon after you jump into a system even if 1500ly away.

I'm thinking about getting an Asp sson, I could afford it already, and go exploring.
Thing is... I guess it will bore me.
Spending 99% of the time in SC to face a planet until the scan is through sounds rather dull but then again, I didn't do it yet...

Any advice?

[Egan]

Originally Posted by Nippelspanner

Nice, does it look different out there?
Did you meet any ships, NPC or player?
Don't tell me the kinda scripted sidey/eagle/viper still spawns ~5 seconds near a nav beacon after you jump into a system even if 1500ly away.

I'm thinking about getting an Asp sson, I could afford it already, and go exploring.
Thing is... I guess it will bore me.
Spending 99% of the time in SC to face a planet until the scan is through sounds rather dull but then again, I didn't do it yet...

Any advice?

It looks weird. That far down the Milky Way turns into great scar of white. Below that there is nothing. Nothing. A few scattered stars.

I bought the game for exploration. Swings and Roundabouts I guess. The combat bores me. I just don't like it very much. And trading is much the same. Yeah, the thousandsth red dwarf with a bunch of icy rocks doesn't do much, but then you find something - a black hole or a neutron star or a carbon star or even better, an earthlike world. I love that. I love the sense of scale and distance. I hear people moaning about feeling lonely out there - I don't. I love the solitude.

You don't get any NPCs once you get about 500 LY past the human bubble. personally, I think it would be fitting to get a very occasional contact but at the moment, the way the game seems to be programmed I think it's all or nothing. I'd love some USS signals out there - the remains of ships that screwed up or even other, alien things. We'll see.

I'll say this though: Since they increased the prices for scanning items I've seen a bunch of people attempting to put exploring into the same framework as trading. EG: How many millions of credits per hour you can earn. To me, that's just a strange way of looking at it. It also doesn't really work like that. The high paying items are still rare, and a lot of them are a LONG way from home. Best to do it because you want to, not because you will earn anything.

That said, by the time I get home I plan to have made a fair bit - enough to upgrade to an asp or even bigger.

I'll try and remember to take a screen shot of what it looks like down there. I'm currently in an area with about two dozen neutron stars and white dwarfs that I plan to scan before moving on to a MSC11AB class about 200 LY away.

As much as I disagree with FD on so many things, and am deeply uncertain about the direction the game may be taking, I can't fault them on the creation of the galaxy. It's immense and a real and special achievement. Hopefully, one of these days, they'll add to it. Accretion disks, and all manner of weirdness. Also, hopefully, they'll make the environment more dangerous too. The one thing wrong with it is as long as your are careful it's far too safe feeling.

Ok, that sounds really good, guess I'm going on EXP01
I know it isn't there... but I still hope to find the Alien Derelict, land and investigate it.

At least I have the remastered soundtrack, I figure it must be great for exploring.

I'm really excited now, thanks!