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Elite Dangerous - Yay or Nay?

Jools

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It's on offer on Steam, and it's been out for a long time now.

Is it any good? I've read mixed reviews.

Is the gameplay any similar to the one from the original Elite/EliteII, or from X2/X3?
 

Fedora Master

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Is the gameplay any similar to the one from the original Elite/EliteII, or from X2/X3?

:lol:

The game is basically Elite 1 with updated graphics and always online DRM. The community consists of forumdads who violently oppose any sort of QoL features. The game offers you the exciting choice between shooting rocks for money, shooting stars for money, shooting ships for money or space trucking. None of your efforts matter though, don't think you might influence the economy of a system by yourself. Development is glacial.

Still, it's fun for a few dozen hours until you get to the Engineer grind.
 

Jools

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Is the gameplay any similar to the one from the original Elite/EliteII, or from X2/X3?

:lol:

The game is basically Elite 1 with updated graphics and always online DRM. The community consists of forumdads who violently oppose any sort of QoL features. The game offers you the exciting choice between shooting rocks for money, shooting stars for money, shooting ships for money or space trucking. None of your efforts matter though, don't think you might influence the economy of a system by yourself. Development is glacial.

Still, it's fun for a few dozen hours until you get to the Engineer grind.

That makes it sound, at the same time, as Yay AND Nay... :D
 

Stokowski

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Nay. Frontier mostly shat the bed with this one.

- Primary gamemode is unrestrictred PvP, the mode the fewest number of Elite fans cares about, and also the mode that attracts the largest percentage of cockmongers.
- Co-op PvP is possible, which is nice, but not as well supported by in-game tools as you'd like.
- PvE still requires constant online connection.
- Autopilot features of F:E2 and F:FE are stripped and replaced by annoying engine-braking mingame. Every fucking journey. How did navcomputers suddenly forget how to do the job they'd been doing for ages?
- NPC combatants sometimes wildly overpowered for supposed mission difficulty.
- Gear upgrade system is fucking annoying too.

+ Awesome sound design.
+ Control system is wonderfully complex, enhancing simulationist boners considerably. (And fully justifying all that money you spent on HOTAS gear.)
+ Explorer types might get a Zen buzz from leaving all the shit behind and striking out for unchartered regions.
 

Morkar Left

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What Fedora said. Plus you can land on some rocks. I uninstalled two months ago and didn't miss anything. Don't even know what else they have planned.
X4 might turn out to be the better space sim for me (when I take the time to get into it and install the right mods).

At the moment you have two AAA choices for "open World" space sims:
1. If you want some multiplayer into it take Elite Dangerous
2. If singleplayer only is your thing take X4

And keep an eye out for Spacebourne (and maybe Empyrion when the space part takes properly off).
 

J_C

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It's on offer on Steam, and it's been out for a long time now.

Is it any good? I've read mixed reviews.

Is the gameplay any similar to the one from the original Elite/EliteII, or from X2/X3?
With the expensions and updates, it is great.
 
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Its boring as fuck, better install Euro Truck Simulator and American Truck Simulator with great map mods and deliver fuckin cargo while listenin good radios like every healthy fuckin men do. For space sims, there is only few that are worth your Time, for classic vibe there is WC saga plus great Privateer, and for new ones there is great upcomin Outlaw Rebel Galaxy prequel or No Man Sky pretty good now. Other space games are shit ED, Eve, SPG3, or Star Citizen included. Space sim should be condensed, nice lookin, action packed and leavin You with a heartbeat attack. Other like ED or X4 are good for people that masturbate too often or with some social disorder. Or buy yourself Xplane11 and start flyin in VA or AirHauler/etc.
 
Last edited:

Urthor

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Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Elite has an absolutely brilliant flying engine and an absolutely brilliant example of how to ruin a flying engine with legitimately awful gameplay design catering to grognards who I swear honestly resent the invention of the trackball and mouse for making computer games too accessible and fun.

Legitimately autistic grind, legitimately hilarious how little fun there is in the universe despite the sound and flight engine being insanely good.

If you play the free to play flight sim version, called CQC, you will have a fair bit of fun just with the flight mechanics it's actually quite nice.
 

Jools

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Damn, X4 too has very meh/mixed reviews. I guess if ED doesn't work out for me, illI just go back to playing X3.
 

Burning Bridges

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Jools Play it (yay)

It isn't very good, you are basically a small grain of sand in a huge desert of database generated NPCs and planets, and navigating the starmap is a huge pain in the ass.

The economy makes no sense.

Trading is garbage.

Combat is ok.

Spaceship customization is ok.

Landing and Docking is fun.

Mining is a lot of fun.

Graphics and sound are good.

Game is shit but fun.

Any questions?
 

Burning Bridges

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What Fedora said. Plus you can land on some rocks. I uninstalled two months ago and didn't miss anything. Don't even know what else they have planned.
X4 might turn out to be the better space sim for me (when I take the time to get into it and install the right mods).

At the moment you have two AAA choices for "open World" space sims:
1. If you want some multiplayer into it take Elite Dangerous
2. If singleplayer only is your thing take X4

Hellion is actually better than both, but it doesn't and never will work (Unity)
 

Bumvelcrow

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The Alpha/Beta was absolutely brilliant. Amazing combat engine with great graphics that really did feel like what a modern Elite would be like. Then they made the mistake of turning that engine loose on an empty galaxy and the result feels a bit like Frontier First Encounters without the sense of wonder. I pretty much stopped playing it after release as the finished game was never as good as the limited scope previews. It's a combination of Elite and Frontier but somehow manages to avoid picking the best bits of both. On a discount, go for it, definitely.
 

Jools

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Been playing some 5/6h so far. It's alright. Runs well on my shit laptop, which is a plus. Combat is ok, exploration is ok, trading is ok. Everything is kinda average, nothing really stands out. The "always online" thing is bullshit, of course, and there are more microtransactions (which I abhorr and avoid) than in a Candy Crush mobile game.

I have been mostly sticking with solo play, since when I tried 5 minutes of "community" or whatitscalled, some fucker ganked me right away, and I didn't even have a chance to send them offensive PMs or anything. Sucks.

Back to solo, making money is VERY easy, but dull. The travelling system is dumb too, all those friggin "charged" jumps, and that sub-light jump thing too. Confusing and inefficient. The lack of a true "autopilot" mode is probably the one MAJOR downside to a game that's basically a sandbox, but with very little sand in it.

X3 FELT so much better.

Since we're on the topic, X3 VS X4. Discuss!
 
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It looks and sounds gorgeous but the overall gameplay/progression loop is some retarded "grind for more efficient grinding tools" shit. Additionally, the idiots on the official forums complain whenever sources of tedium might be removed (such as sitting through a couple dozen loading screens to move around the bubble).

PvP is ruined by the reliance on grind for gear.

Lots of nickle and diming for things like even basic ship paint.

I'd give it a miss. It had potential but they really dropped the ball in the actual execution.
 

praetor

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Back to solo, making money is VERY easy, but dull. The travelling system is dumb too, all those friggin "charged" jumps, and that sub-light jump thing too. Confusing and inefficient. The lack of a true "autopilot" mode is probably the one MAJOR downside to a game that's basically a sandbox, but with very little sand in it.

while i agree that the supercruise travel system is made 100% of utter shit and boredom, didn't they include a supercruise autopilot module with yesterday's update? i only dl'd it, but i probably won't be in the mood for ED until Expanse's next season drops

there's plenty of sand in that sandbox, it's just that you're not allowed to do anything with it and you don't have any tools to mold it

and your initial assessment was spot on: it's both yay and nay, though the most frustrating part is that it would've been "overwhelmingly yay" if they hired a couple of good game designers and toned down the grind by a lot, so that unrealised potential greatness is staring it at you all the time. that said, the gameplay has improved by a considerable margin since release (there's some actual scenarios/missions now, exploring has some actual gameplay behind it, mining is finally fun etc). seriously, the game for the first 2-3 years was utter shit
 

J_C

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Back to solo, making money is VERY easy, but dull. The travelling system is dumb too, all those friggin "charged" jumps, and that sub-light jump thing too. Confusing and inefficient. The lack of a true "autopilot" mode is probably the one MAJOR downside to a game that's basically a sandbox, but with very little sand in it.

while i agree that the supercruise travel system is made 100% of utter shit and boredom, didn't they include a supercruise autopilot module with yesterday's update?
It did, but it is not a full autopilot unfortunately. It just controls the throttle, so you don't overshoot, but you still have to steer the ship as far as I know.
 

Fedora Master

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Knowing FDev the new autocruise pilot will be 200% less efficient than doing it manually because God forbid people get to automate things efficiently.
 

Jools

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Back to solo, making money is VERY easy, but dull. The travelling system is dumb too, all those friggin "charged" jumps, and that sub-light jump thing too. Confusing and inefficient. The lack of a true "autopilot" mode is probably the one MAJOR downside to a game that's basically a sandbox, but with very little sand in it.

while i agree that the supercruise travel system is made 100% of utter shit and boredom, didn't they include a supercruise autopilot module with yesterday's update?
It did, but it is not a full autopilot unfortunately. It just controls the throttle, so you don't overshoot, but you still have to steer the ship as far as I know.

Dunno, I still overshoot a lot, and yeah, basically travelling is solely consisting of

jump>align to new WP>rinse&repeat

with the occasional "navigate 3 seconds around a star" interlude in said routine.
 

Jools

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Also, so far, the whole universe is dead. In X3 (my reference of choice), I remember shit going on between systems, shipping freights going to and from station, pirates, police, whatever. Stuff happened, the universe was alive, and not all equally so, some sectors were dead, creepy, others were more alive, or dangerous, or felt like "home", etc. So far, in this game, sectors are just dead, even those featuring some seemingly major space station or dock.
 

Burning Bridges

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Also, so far, the whole universe is dead.

Welcome to Elite IV tedium generator.

It's all purely procedurally generated universe and nothing has any redeeming characteristics. It does not matter if you encounter a hundred, a million or a trillion different characters if all are just as dull.

Same with the planets. You could spend several hundred lifetimes exploring the galaxy and always see more or less the same. It's like going into Sahara, looking at all individual grains of sand under the microsope to find the one that suits you most. Completely retarded and pointless.

What remains is a management game in which you drive a spaceship and try to break records for making as many credits as quickly as possible. I stopped once I was able to make 100 million a day. and btw I cannot even buy anything for it because the only remaining good ships (faction specific) are hidden behind an ocean of grind.

In that respect the genre is for me Sports Management, otherwise I'd have stopped immediately. I basically played to prepare my character to make 100s million CR a day, and then retire from the sport.
 

Urthor

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Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Do yourself a favour and fire up Warthunder, Ace Combat 7, or dare I say it No Man's Sky, instead.
 

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