Elite Dangerous - Yay or Nay?

[ADL]

I was expecting major changes to their procgen but this significant? Damn.

 

[Fedora Master]

And? It's still an empty rock.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

And? It's still an empty rock.

This is one of the major reasons I don't find these types of games fun. There's just a bunch of empty rocks or gas planets everywhere, I can't find the fun in these games.

 

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

And? It's still an empty rock.

Well, you can land on it and go on repetitive quests and stuff, but yeah.

This is one of the major reasons I don't find these types of games fun. There's just a bunch of empty rocks or gas planets everywhere, I can't find the fun in these games.

Exactly. The ideal space game would have some story or characters, even randomly generated ones, to spice things up.

That's most of what people enjoy about scifi in general. A scifi show is never just the setting.

 

[Higher Game]

Star Citizen FPS is like pineapple on pizza, insane but brave. Elite Dangerous FPS is like a side of pineapple to go with the pizza.

 

[Fedora Master]

And? It's still an empty rock.

This is one of the major reasons I don't find these types of games fun. There's just a bunch of empty rocks or gas planets everywhere, I can't find the fun in these games.

I don't mind the fact that most of the universe consists of lifeless rock. But there is no reason to land there ever. You won't find especially mineral rich planets. You won't find interesting sites outside the bubble. You won't find anything relevant to the wider gameplay.

In a proper simulation the location of earthlike planets or mineral rich asteroid belts would be highly sought after. It would lead to expeditions and emergent gameplay.

 

[Perkel]

Well they set out to simulate real galaxy. The problem is that space is actually pretty boring there are only few things that are pretty wild like black holes and neutron stars or maybe some hypergiants but planets all consist of pretty much the same thing. Rock maybe with some thin atmosphere.

I know people shit on SC but they got one thing right. Their space is personalized. So for example Hurston planet has several different biomes and planet itself saw heavy mining operation. So you have your toxic wasteland/scrapyard, your savanna like plains, mountain regions etc. They heavily went into planet tech so that their planet can be really unique so everytime you visit new outpost you see something new. That "NEW" is what makes you think this isn't just point A or B on map but real space you will remember for some time. And there is actual city on it. Not just any city that looks 99% the same as any other city or space station but with its own design, artstyle, history, governence, you can clearly see how it is mining city as you can see miners walking around, dust being everywhere etc.

The amount of complexity on that one planet fills out more headspace for people who want to explore than whole ED galaxy. I spend way more time in that broken alpha in that one little system never feeling like i am just flying through cardboard cutouts which is feeling i got from ED.

And it is not like ED problem is personalized to genre. X series doesn't even allow you to go to planets and they all used standardized stuff and yet you can still feel that space is unique in it, every time you visit new sector there is sstory attached to that sector, be it just simple transfer sector or heart of civilization.

Imho ED would benefit greatly from just few hub places in some region which would be unique. Sol is such a hub but even it is mostly the same as rest.

 

[Trans-Financial-Man]

I really miss playing Hellion. That game had the mechanics I want.

The Hellion Rescue Project was trucking along fine last I saw. But it's proceeding slowly because even though they were given the source code it's still a volunteer project.

 

[Burning Bridges]

They were given the source code? Last I heard was that Unity forbids that.

Hopefully they can achieve something although I think the bugs are not in the sourcecode but in the Unity engine, that's why they gave up.

Still this game was fucking amazing, even if it was a piece of shit. If someone made this in a proper engine I would play it all day.

 

[Trans-Financial-Man]

They were given the source code? Last I heard was that Unity forbids that.

Hopefully they can achieve something although I think the bugs are not in the sourcecode but in the Unity engine, that's why they gave up.

Still this game was fucking amazing, even if it was a piece of shit. If someone made this in a proper engine I would play it all day.

From what I understand, the management at the Helion devs abandoned the game and were going to jump ship. And the rest of the employees rebelled and gave the source code to some randos out of protest. I don't think what happened is strictly speaking legal but no one seems to care at this time.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Would still be a problem if they release something without official backing. Illegal so to say.

 

[Ulysa]

I have 100 hs played and I still don't understand what I'm doing in this game or what for. Like someone said the fun part is docking and landing but... The flying itself gets so boring imo and I even like Eurotruck simulator.

I get theres nothing in space but maybe lie a little or introduce something to do other that the continuous jumps? Too late I guess.

I'm slightly interested in new atmospheric planets but deep down I know I will end up bored in no time. It needs more gameplay and less screenshot simulator.

 

[Norfleet]

They were given the source code? Last I heard was that Unity forbids that.

That sounds like crazy talk, mostly because Unity doesn't own the source code of any project, only the Unity engine, so I can't see how that would work, seeing as Unity is a free engine.

 

[Burning Bridges]

But it came from the developers of Hellion.

I don't know what is true, but using Unity was a an exceedingly dumb idea not matter what. They failed to realize the requirements of their sim (servers needed to restart and garbage collect ca every 30 minutes and other spacecraft positions jumped all over the place, which meant you couldn't dock at times) and now they can't even give it to a highly interested community (at least that's what they said)

 

[rusty_shackleford]

They were given the source code? Last I heard was that Unity forbids that.

That sounds like crazy talk, mostly because Unity doesn't own the source code of any project, only the Unity engine, so I can't see how that would work, seeing as Unity is a free engine.

You can pay for access to the source, but the source code itself is still owned by Unity(the company.) If the game relies on modifications they've made to the engine itself, then there's no way they could release it to the public.

 

[Burning Bridges]

It's possible that they tried to fix Unity themselves in order to make Hellion work, in that case they cannot release those parts of course.

 

[DraQ]

I don't know what is true, but using Unity was a an exceedingly dumb idea not matter what. They failed to realize the requirements of their sim (servers needed to restart and garbage collect ca every 30 minutes and other spacecraft positions jumped all over the place, which meant you couldn't dock at times)

I could have told them that.

And pretty much any general purpose game engine is going to be immensely shit for properly scaled space game.

 

[Mortmal]

I have 100 hs played and I still don't understand what I'm doing in this game or what for. Like someone said the fun part is docking and landing but... The flying itself gets so boring imo and I even like Eurotruck simulator.

I get theres nothing in space but maybe lie a little or introduce something to do other that the continuous jumps? Too late I guess.

I'm slightly interested in new atmospheric planets but deep down I know I will end up bored in no time. It needs more gameplay and less screenshot simulator.

That's all you are going to get, a screen saver coupled with an excel spreadsheet to keep track on the loot you need combine for crafting. Thats all they are able to provide, nothing innovative, fun or new .By all means no emerging gameplay ever, player interaction is forbidden.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

 

[urmom]

What SC wants (or claims to want) to achieve is a lot better than ED but to get a product out the door that actually works they're going to have to scrap 75% of that which they're never going to do. Plus they're going to need to steal the "negative latency" tech from Stadia. LOL

 

[Twiglard]

ETS is actually more fun, even if not my kind of thing. ED is just going between stations in a black void with a starry wallpaper, then slowing down at the last time to save some seconds, or put the station on a beam (equivalent of high yo-yo) to slow down later. The multiplayer combat arena thing had good gameplay, and the rover shooty action was decent as well. They should've replicated that kind of feeling, unlike the sleepiness of popping rats and grinding useless delivery missions.

I'd play Evochron if it had more content. But space combat games are definitely worse in visual-range engagements without a source of gravity. Even ED flight physics handle better when flying over a planet.

 

[Hellraiser]

I wouldn't mind the rather lackluster fedex gameplay, uninteresting exploration and other disappointments ED brings to the table, if the fucking travel within a system didn't take so fucking long while consisting of merely "point at destination, hold FSD acceleration button". Every fucking time I try to get into this game and I honestly try to enjoy it, that just turns me off.

If they wanted to go with immersion and delude themselves that they are making a simulator so much they should have made navigation more involved, even go full autistic forcing players to do some math or whatever to plot a course according to made up space magic physics. Anything just not this shitty 5 minutes of doing nothing while the ship goes in a straight line across a binary system. There's no reason to stray from the path or adjust course or do anything (unless you get interdicted). It's just fucking brainless busywork, even burger flipping is an intellectually stimulating and challenging endeavor by comparison. And at least doing burger flipping pays you minimum wage or allows you to eat a burger. Says a lot about ED's value as a game if a fucking fast food wageslave job experience sounds more appealing, rewarding and enjoyable than fucking ED.

 

[Kalin]

Bro just play Frontier: First Encounters, it's as good as ever and never gets old.

 

[Burning Bridges]

I wouldn't mind the rather lackluster fedex gameplay, uninteresting exploration and other disappointments ED brings to the table, if the fucking travel within a system didn't take so fucking long while consisting of merely "point at destination, hold FSD acceleration button". Every fucking time I try to get into this game and I honestly try to enjoy it, that just turns me off.

My patience with ED ended when I looked for undiscovered planets with pristine rings, started to mine and got attacked right away by the same old pirates. This is shit.

And that's the problem with the whole game. They don't know what they're doing. Simulate a universe or generate superficial action that works like a gumball machine.

 

[Retardo]

ETS and ATS are miles above in terms of gameplay variety and feel of purpose/fulfillment.
I've started playing racing games recently, like dirt rally and assetto corsa/competizione, and process of driving along the same route for literally hours in hope to improve your time for 0.01 second is feeling a lot more nuanced and engaging.