Elite: Dangerous

[Morkar Left]

Yeah, official forum is full of such messages but people are still mostly civil. Shows that the player base is much older than in your average shooter.

 

[Morkar Left]

Does anybody know if you can establish an orbit around a planet?

 

[J_C]

Does anybody know if you can establish an orbit around a planet?

I never tried it, but i can establish orbit around a sun if I'm in supercruise, travelling with 30km/s. I can basicly leave the game for itself and I can fuelscoop for eternity because the ship will orbit at the exact distance. The distance is the green circle, which is shown around suns and planets.

I'm pretty sure you can do this with a planet, but I'm also sure that you can't orbit if you are not supercruising, just flying in normal space.

 

[Morkar Left]

Only in supercruise? That's odd. But cool that it's possible at all. Will check this out.

 

[praetor]

Sure, Missions with multiple choice sections would be cool but I wouldn't really expect them in a space sim.

why? if STALKER can do cool missions so can Elite... that no spasim had them in the 90ies is no excuse. particularly when there's no voice acting so the resources required would be minimal

I think that is actually a really cool system because it allows infinite possible and makes the universe really changing. Of course the outcome is in the end still numbers and nameshifting but I'm sure there can be more difference put into it like getting special missions from a faction when you associate with them to fight against another faction they are in conflict with. Maybe getting outlawed by a rivaling faction and ambushed by assasins etc. But factions need to get a bit more fleshed out (personal).

correction: it could be really cool if there's some meaning behind it (what you go on describing is exactly what i hinted at the current faction mechanics missing: anything of consequence). right now it's only meaningless percentages

But for the persistent online universe it creates great possibilities for rp and allows larping to actually have a noticable effect. It gets even better when/if more and more people start to create fancontent outside of the game which affects ingame with it. E.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goF-9ZmeOkk isa fan made news channel which not only picks up the official news but news of fan events, too.

wake me up when there'll be player owned/controlled factions and missions created/issued by other players. this is nothing more than fluff.

I was never expecting anything other from such a game. In the end trading is always buy low sell high.

buy low sell high is what you do in really basic spasims like freelancer with no supposed "dynamic" economy (where the only "dynamic" part is "oh, now this route dried up, let's go find another same one nearby until the former one replenishes". plus, it discourages player cooperation). unlike X3, a 7 year old game, where trading was a bit more than "buy low sell high", and it doesn't require bullshit always online connections 'cause otherwise "the game would be too empty" (like it isn't already) or servers to handle the "dynamic" economy where 99% of the goods are shit nobody will ever touch because of the idiotic "everything is one ton" goods system

I agree wit the ships progression somewhat. There should be more specialised ships (with a clear focus on cargo hauling, trading, combat, exploration) with the cobra as the median as a multi-purpose vessel.

What you call grinding is the basic game concept of all such games. But missions and the like could use some tweaking in money.

no, the basic game concept of all such games is having fun exploring the galaxy, interacting with factions, doing combat, trading, mining, "creating your own narrative" (or whatever the buzzword is) and whatever else is there to do while earning money so that you can buy more/different/bigger ships. when you have such shit ship balance with the insane prices where the most variety exist in the "post-ASP" category (where, other than the python and t7, all are actually inferior to the asp), you pretty much demand of the players to trade for days to earn enough money for the non-shit ship(s). it's one thing when in most other games you'll be grinding for a couple of days to afford a capital ship, it's another thing entirely when mid-range ships+upgrades require days upon days of the most efficient (and by far most boring) grinding method

speaking of ships, they really blew it when they released the game with half the planned roster. the game needs much much more variety in the price range between the Viper and the Asp, but by the time they implement more ships in this range (if they do), the vast majority will have moved on to the more expensive ships (and since the balance is crap, there's literally no reason to downgrade other than sheer curiosity) where it's pointless to go past the Asp cause even for it the insurance alone requires an hour of pure grind (and the upgrades require hours upon hours of endless grind)

I have more concerns about them having not enough time and money to make it happen. I don't agree with a bunch of design decisions but overall the game is very well and competently done (minus server problems).

first they blew it with offline, now they're blowing it with content, by the time this will be an actual game it will be played by 100 people and Star Citizen will be out (just kidding )

I think they would actually sell a lot more when the pricetag would be 3 € and a released paintjob would be available for all existing ships. A lot more people would buy them which would even encourage players to buy newly released ones as "their" paintjob becomes too common (similar to fashion). And being able to actually freely look a your ship would be a huge encouragement to buy actually buy such paintjobs.

they blew this too by not offering anything past the cobra (and the lack of 3rd person views, as you mentioned), not by releasing one super exclusive skin that is more expensive than the others (the other skins are in that 3€ price range, only those exclusive, limited paintjobs are expensive)

 

[Bradylama]

buy low sell high is what you do in really basic spasims like freelancer with no supposed "dynamic" economy (where the only "dynamic" part is "oh, now this route dried up, let's go find another same one nearby until the former one replenishes". plus, it discourages player cooperation). unlike X3, a 7 year old game, where trading was a bit more than "buy low sell high", and it doesn't require bullshit always online connections 'cause otherwise "the game would be too empty" (like it isn't already) or servers to handle the "dynamic" economy where 99% of the goods are shit nobody will ever touch because of the idiotic "everything is one ton" goods system

X3 relies on a manufacturing economy dum dum, not a trade economy. Know what does base its economy on manufactured commodities? Eve. And Eve players who can control and exploit access to high value resources and production chains can create inequities that make the gap between an Adder and a Cobra seem trivial.

If you tried playing X3 doing nothing but trade runs, you would be playing the game for a long ass time, unless you actually traded for the maximum profit margins of a particular good between stations, just like in Elite: Dangerous. The difference here is that trading commodities in Elite can affect political outcomes, since manufacturing is controlled by political factions and not by players. In X3 hauling goods for trade was a step on the path towards developing your own private manufacturing base to profit even more from production of high value commodities.

 

[Mortmal]

They seems completely out of touch with their own game sometimes, they sell skins for lower tier ships, but theres no reason to use those ships as there's no specialization at all. In eve if you were planning to travel through 0.0 with a battle ship you would be easily owned by a small team just using frigates tackling you, in elite once you have access to more expensive ships you will never have any reason to use them anymore.
Also the contest to reach elite rank as far as possible and earn 10K is one of the most moronic thing i've ever seen in my gaming life. I hope they provision enough cash for the lawsuit that will inevitably occur when some asian kid make an heart attack cause of "playing" too much.

 

[J_C]

I hope they provision enough cash for the lawsuit that will inevitably occur when some asian kid make an heart attack cause of "playing" too much.

What? This happenning has a veeeeery low chance. Not "inevitably", that's for sure. Do you remember a lawsuit agains a developer, because someone played their game too much.

 

[Morkar Left]

X3 relies on a manufacturing economy dum dum, not a trade economy. Know what does base its economy on manufactured commodities? Eve. And Eve players who can control and exploit access to high value resources and production chains can create inequities that make the gap between an Adder and a Cobra seem trivial.

If you tried playing X3 doing nothing but trade runs, you would be playing the game for a long ass time, unless you actually traded for the maximum profit margins of a particular good between stations, just like in Elite: Dangerous. The difference here is that trading commodities in Elite can affect political outcomes, since manufacturing is controlled by political factions and not by players. In X3 hauling goods for trade was a step on the path towards developing your own private manufacturing base to profit even more from production of high value commodities.

Guys, the X3 economy is non existant without mods if the player doesn't produce goods by himself. And then he is the only "job creator" in the whole universe. Nice idea, shitty concept. But not fitting for Elite anyway.

 

[Blaine]

In X³, solo trading is a path to creating your own army of Universal Traders to do the trading for you, but only if you choose a more difficult start. If you choose an easier start, you can sell off your starting ships and invest the proceeds directly into Universal Traders, while exploring the universe in a fast, over-tuned M5 equipped with a triplex scanner and loads of basic satellites to deploy.

Your UTs gain you faction rep, slowly at first, then rather quickly. Riches acquired, you build your own factories—not to turn a profit, but because the default economy is such absolute trash that you can never find decent weapons or ships' systems for sale anywhere, or if so, not in any significant quantity.

Universe explored, UTs trained and deployed with an appropriate blacklist, factories built so that you can actually buy shit you need, you then proceed to take over the universe.

I sometimes wonder how many Codexers who talk about X³ actually played it for extended periods of time, and how many read a blurb about the game and just name-drop it occasionally.

 

[Morkar Left]

Great, can't play, server connection errors. Always online is absolutely great!

 

[Duellist_D]

I really would like to have more Space Sims to play with, especially with the X52 pro lying around.

But everytime i feel somewhat tempted to finally shell out the Euroshekels for Elite, i take a look at this thread and just go back to playing Albion Prelude.

 

[Blaine]

Heh, in terms of actual spaceflight mechanics and the layout of the universe, ED is so far beyond Space Factory Simulator that it's not even funny.

 

[Bradylama]

I sometimes wonder how many Codexers who talk about X³ actually played it for extended periods of time, and how many read a blurb about the game and just name-drop it occasionally.

I was playing a modded version of X3 where UTs were nerfed, so the best way to make startup capital was to immediately go to a stock market and play galactic speculator until you could exploit the terrible economy with nanochip factories.

 

[Mortmal]

I really would like to have more Space Sims to play with, especially with the X52 pro lying around.

But everytime i feel somewhat tempted to finally shell out the Euroshekels for Elite, i take a look at this thread and just go back to playing Albion Prelude.

Right now i am honestly disapointed and its certainly not worth the full price . I got it because i have no patience and wanted to try it after reading people crying of joy , playing it with oculus rift and such. I was misleaded ,its just another title in the sea of early access steam games, great potential but will it go on, or be abandonned... Except its not on steam.

 

[Morkar Left]

The game is a full modern remake of the original Elite with lots of improvements and it fully succeeds at it. But the core gameplay is still the same; improving your Elite score while trading from A to B and upgrading your equipment.
But so far enemies seem to rare / easy for me.

If you don't want to spent any money I recommend the original Elite-clone Oolite with a lot of oxps (expansions/mods) installed (easy to do from an ingame menu). It's a free alternative with the same core gameplay (and I'm sure Frontier copied a good bunch of gameplay and equipment elements from it).
But the more sim-like aspects (flying, silent running, realstic universe and planets, dynamic economy) and graphical fidelity from E: D (or X3) is missing.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thrustmaste...1419691607&sr=8-1&keywords=thrustmaster+hotas
would you endorse this?
it looks like the cheapest, most comfortable stick with splittable throttle.
what's the catch?

 

[Morkar Left]

Never used it but people on the internet who have say it's good for its price. If you want a separate throttle there is no alternative anyway.

I use an Cyborg Evo Force and a Belkin Nostromo n52 pad for thrusters. Worked pretty cool all the time but yesterday the z-axis broke somehow. I can still use it but it has heavy drift to the left. I can balance this with the software but it lowers the quality of my flight abilities slightly. Depending on how hyped I'm for Elite in the long time I will probably get an Saitek X52. Unfortunately it's not really cheap in Germany compared to the US.

 

[J_C]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thrustmaster-T-Flight-Hotas-Joystick-PS3/dp/B001CXYMFS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419691607&sr=8-1&keywords=thrustmaster hotas
would you endorse this?
it looks like the cheapest, most comfortable stick with splittable throttle.
what's the catch?

The catch is that it is too cheap for a decent HOTAS. The problem with these is that while they work perfectly in the beginning, if you fly a lot with it, they start having precision problems pretty soon. This modell has very few buttons on the stick as well, and not too much on the throttle either, so you have to let go them to reach for the keyboard, or other buttons on the base of the HOTAS. This is in contrast with the purpose of a HOTAS.

 

[J_C]

Never used it but people on the internet who have say it's good for its price. If you want a separate throttle there is no alternative anyway.

I use an Cyborg Evo Force and a Belkin Nostromo n52 pad for thrusters. Worked pretty cool all the time but yesterday the z-axis broke somehow. I can still use it but it has heavy drift to the left. I can balance this with the software but it lowers the quality of my flight abilities slightly. Depending on how hyped I'm for Elite in the long time I will probably get an Saitek X52. Unfortunately it's not really cheap in Germany compared to the US.

That Belkin stuff looks pretty good. Do you use it for the throttle as well, or just the vertical, latheral thrusters? And you don't use the throttle on the Cyborg Evo at all?

 

[Morkar Left]

The pad for thrusters and the scroll wheel as a throttle (forward and backward speed, 10% increments and clicking on it drops the speed to zero). Throttle on the cyborg is superfluos because it stands on my right side. To use it I would have to take away my hand from the stick.

The pad is a pretty good substitute for a Hotas throttle. I was lucky to get it for around 20 bucks when it was new. It was just later that the price raised significally when no longer distributed by Belkin.

 

[DraQ]

Only in supercruise? That's odd. But cool that it's possible at all. Will check this out.

Well realspace speed limit is set so low that it would be hard to establish orbit even around mid-sized moon.

 

[J_C]

The pad for thrusters and the scroll wheel as a throttle (forward and backward speed, 10% increments and clicking on it drops the speed to zero). Throttle on the cyborg is superfluos because it stands on my right side. To use it I would have to take away my hand from the stick.

The pad is a pretty good substitute for a Hotas throttle. I was lucky to get it for around 20 bucks when it was new. It was just later that the price raised significally when no longer distributed by Belkin.

Yeah this looks a good substitute. I also use a Cyborg Evo, right hand on the stick, left on the throttle. I use the hat switch for the thrusters. But all would be more comfortable with a stuff like the Nostromo. Maybe I get one used, they sell them on Amazon for 50 bucks.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

The catch is that it is too cheap for a decent HOTAS. The problem with these is that while they work perfectly in the beginning, if you fly a lot with it, they start having precision problems pretty soon. This modell has very few buttons on the stick as well, and not too much on the throttle either, so you have to let go them to reach for the keyboard, or other buttons on the base of the HOTAS. This is in contrast with the purpose of a HOTAS.

i don't mind having to reach for the keyboard, i practiced with real flight simulators where everything is not on the cloche.
the loss of precision worries me. what entity are we talking about? "can't turn 1''anymore but only 2'' per second", "the stick feels a bit loose", "it'd steer better if i smashed my head on the monitor"?

 

[praetor]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thrustmaster-T-Flight-Hotas-Joystick-PS3/dp/B001CXYMFS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419691607&sr=8-1&keywords=thrustmaster hotas
would you endorse this?
it looks like the cheapest, most comfortable stick with splittable throttle.
what's the catch?

i switched to it after having the Logitech 3D extreme yaddayadda for ~2weeks and for the price you cannot get a better stick to control your ship in ED (that ambidextrous Thrustmaster that Ulminati has is supposedly the most accurate thing you can get for decent money and it's usually the same $$$ as the HOTAS X, but i found locally the hotasX for ~15-20 jewros cheaper so i went for it). yeah, it's cheap, but you'll very likely get from it roughly the same mileage as from other sticks from other manufacturers in the same price range, but flying with a HOTAS setup is just so much better, more intuitive and natural that it blows them out of the water