Elite: Dangerous

[Bradylama]

Missions still disappear sometimes. I couldn't turn in a courier mission at the destination because it disappeared in the destination system, but could still be seen in the system of origin. It also wouldn't let me turn it in when it would turn up. So pretty much just stick with the trade order missions.


Outfitting is broken at the moment too. I had an urge to buy a Cobra MkIII to run missions since it's faster and more agile than the Lakon 6, but the outfitting interface is broken. The selector just disappears and nothing you do can exit the interface. I've completely exited, restarted, and get the same thing. Willing to bet they'll make this a Galnet article or something, because it's pretty awful.

 

[SuicideBunny]

i'm starting to think that people saying launch will be a clusterfuck might be right.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

i'm starting to think that people saying launch will be a clusterfuck might be right.

I was never crazy about the release date. A game like this, there are going to be thousands of bugs that need to be squashed - give it another month to test it.

 

[Volrath]

So, at any rate, this game is going live in a few days? How is it really? Shit, good for what it is, actually decent? Not sure if i have enough zogbucks to pay for a game at full price though. Will probably wait.

It would have been an instant classic without the always online DRM bullshit. Can't believe how they fucked this up at the last second.

 

[J_C]

So, at any rate, this game is going live in a few days? How is it really? Shit, good for what it is, actually decent? Not sure if i have enough zogbucks to pay for a game at full price though. Will probably wait.

It would have been an instant classic without the always online DRM bullshit. Can't believe how they fucked this up at the last second.

What the fuck? So the a requirement for an instant classic is not having great gameplay and great atmosphere, but if it is always online or not? It is like someone is playing the game and says to himself: oh god, this game is so great, I live flying, I live trading, bounty hunting, this game is perfect. But after always online is announced, his view changes in an instant to "this is is a piece of shit which needs to die". How one dimensional you have to be to think like this?

In the end, it wouldn't be an instant classec whether it is always online or not. And being always online does not decide if it is a good game or not.

On another note, the guy who made the head tracker put up a video, which is a nice rundown about the game for those who are not sure about what to make out of this game:

 

[SuicideBunny]

So the a requirement for an instant classic is not having great gameplay and great atmosphere, but if it is always online or not? It is like someone is playing the game and says to himself: oh god, this game is so great, I live flying, I live trading, bounty hunting, this game is perfect. But after always online is announced, his view changes in an instant to "this is is a piece of shit which needs to die". How one dimensional you have to be to think like this?

because those are the only two options. instant classic and total shit, and the game cannot possibly fail to reach instant classic when you know that you won't be able to play it in many situations where inet access won't be available or will be total shit, and that you will always have to put up with problems outside your control, like disconnects during flight, which will kill your mission timer or fuck up your route planning due to deleting the route, even more so if they happen during jump where you first get to stare at the jump sequence for a minute, only to then read a critical server response error or something like that, unexplored objects not showing up after discovery scan or jumping right in front of them because of server lag, or endless exploration loops of "corrupt data". it's not like any of those things happening once or twice every hour subtract severely from gameplay enjoyment, right?

 

[J_C]

So the a requirement for an instant classic is not having great gameplay and great atmosphere, but if it is always online or not? It is like someone is playing the game and says to himself: oh god, this game is so great, I live flying, I live trading, bounty hunting, this game is perfect. But after always online is announced, his view changes in an instant to "this is is a piece of shit which needs to die". How one dimensional you have to be to think like this?

because those are the only two options. instant classic and total shit, and the game cannot possibly fail to reach instant classic when you know that you won't be able to play it in many situations where inet access won't be available or will be total shit, and that you will always have to put up with problems outside your control, like disconnects during flight, which will kill your mission timer or fuck up your route planning due to deleting the route, even more so if they happen during jump where you first get to stare at the jump sequence for a minute, only to then read a critical server response error or something like that, unexplored objects not showing up after discovery scan or jumping right in front of them because of server lag, or endless exploration loops of "corrupt data". it's not like any of those things happening once or twice every hour subtract severely from gameplay enjoyment, right?

You do know that capital letters exist, don't you?

Seriously, my main problem is that Volrath argued that the game would have been an instant classic, but always online ruined it. Hell no, ED never had been instant classic and being always online or not has nothing to do with that.

 

[Norfleet]

It is like someone is playing the game and says to himself: oh god, this game is so great, I live flying, I live trading, bounty hunting, this game is perfect. But after always online is announced, his view changes in an instant to "this is is a piece of shit which needs to die". How one dimensional you have to be to think like this?

That's perfectly reasonable. In the business, this is known as the "dealbreaker", the thing which takes a shit in your soup. "Infesting your computer with DRM spyware" is a perfectly reasonable place to draw the line. Lots people say HELL NO at this point. See SimCity 5 Debacle.

 

[J_C]

Sigh, tell me something Frontier. Why the fuck do you have to wipe the entire control menu each fuckin time when you do a fucking upgrade? Is it hard to fucking leave alone the options menu, especially when nothing fucking changes in those. FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!!!

 

[DraQ]

What the fuck? So the a requirement for an instant classic is not having great gameplay and great atmosphere, but if it is always online or not? It is like someone is playing the game and says to himself: oh god, this game is so great, I live flying, I live trading, bounty hunting, this game is perfect. But after always online is announced, his view changes in an instant to "this is is a piece of shit which needs to die". How one dimensional you have to be to think like this?

In the end, it wouldn't be an instant classec whether it is always online or not. And being always online does not decide if it is a good game or not.

Well, since being a classic kind of depends on game still being played well after its time...

 

[Norfleet]

It follows logically from that, that an "instant classic" is thus a game which is already past its time on release.

 

[Bradylama]

Turns out that the workaround for the outfitting bug is to disable headlook. I don't have TrackIR and left headlook on by default, so I had no idea disabling it would activate the mouse pointer for the station UI.

Edit: Server update incoming. Enjoy a fully operational Federal Dreadnaught.

Spoiler

 

[DraQ]

It follows logically from that, that an "instant classic" is thus a game which is already past its time on release.

Actually I prefer an interpretation where instant classic is a game you can clearly see will be played long past its time due to being so groundbreaking or otherwise awesome.
With dependence on closed outside infrastructure (that has no long term way of sustaining itself) you can pretty safely tell it won't.

 

[J_C]

Storytime:

So, I attempted to do another assassination mission, where I have to search for someone in 3 given systems. Never managed to complete a mission like this before, I haven't even found the NPC who pinpoints you the correct system. So, I was searching the systems, supercruising back and forth, checking out every USS I encountered. First system, checking, nothing. Jump to 2nd system. Checking everywhere, nothing. Jumping 3rd system. Checking USSs. AND FINALLY FOUND THE NPC!!!! Yeeeahhh. He told me that the guy is in a 4th system. I got him now. OK, setting destination in NAV computer. But wait a minute. Every system is read. What? Unsufficient fuel? WHAT? Checking fuel.
...
...
...
No, this can't be happening. I had 1 tank remaining, which is not enough to start FSD to another system. Ok, find a Goddamned station in this system where I refuel.
.....
....
No, no no no no. This system is empty. Fucking empty. There is only one star and nothing else. A huge void of nothingess. And I don't even have a fuel scoop. That's it, I am stuck in the emptyness of space, alone, with only a chip of fuel. What should I do? Self destruct? Maybe I should give up, the light waits me at the end of the tunnel.

NO!
I go out like a man. I target the nearest system, which is 6.8 Ly away, and start supercuising towards it. Oh man, you can accelerate to almost 2.000c with no planets around you.

Spoiler

I left the game there for an hour, and my ship just bolted towards it. Unfortunately it was a futile attempt. Not that I didn't know that this mission was doomed to fail. After the last drop of fuel was gone, my ship dropped out of supercruise. All system offline, life support off.

Spoiler

Only 5 minutes of oxygen, then I ambrace sweet death. Did you know that you start to suffocate when there is only 1 minute left. At 10 seconds left, it sounds really bad. 3-2-1....blackout. Bye-bye Cmdr, bye-bye ship, bye-bye assassination mission.

Funny thing is that at the moment of death, a server maintainence message popped up from the devs.

Spoiler

 

[SuicideBunny]

i'll never understand people who don't install fuel scoops.

Seriously, my main problem is that Volrath argued that the game would have been an instant classic, but always online ruined it. Hell no, ED never had been instant classic and being always online or not has nothing to do with that.

if it had a pure offline mode, it would have been an instant classic for me and probably at least a large chunk of elite fans. as it is now, i can barely bring myself to play it, because the shit that i don't want to partake in (dynamic core worlds bullshittery) is heavily impacting the shit i do want to do (flying as far away from settled space as possible and exploring stuff).

 

[J_C]

i'll never understand people who don't install fuel scoops.

I always forget about it.

Seriously, my main problem is that Volrath argued that the game would have been an instant classic, but always online ruined it. Hell no, ED never had been instant classic and being always online or not has nothing to do with that.

if it had a pure offline mode, it would have been an instant classic for me and probably at least a large chunk of elite fans. as it is now, i can barely bring myself to play it, because the shit that i don't want to partake in (dynamic core worlds bullshittery) is heavily impacting the shit i do want to do (flying as far away from settled space as possible and exploring stuff).

I get it. It is just strange to me that apart from the always online bullshit, you see the game as an instant classic. Don't misunderstand me, I like the game a lot, but it has quite a lot shortcoming at the moment, I don't see it being a classic. Maybe it will become it in a few months, who knows.

 

[Norfleet]

Because it's always online, the game will be constantly shutting down, lagging, running away without you, or simply NOT THERE ANYMORE when, years later, you want to fire it up for a spin. You fire it up 5 years down the line and the game you were playing before is GONE. Your character has been deleted for inactivity, the galaxy has been overrun by Goonswarm, and the servers are being shut down next week. It can never be a classic for that reason.

 

[J_C]

Because it's always online, the game will be constantly shutting down, lagging, running away without you, or simply NOT THERE ANYMORE when, years later, you want to fire it up for a spin. You fire it up 5 years down the line and the game you were playing before is GONE. Your character has been deleted for inactivity, the galaxy has been overrun by Goonswarm, and the servers are being shut down next week. It can never be a classic for that reason.

We don't know if there won't be an offline mode a few years (months?) after release.

 

[SuicideBunny]

that's what i am hoping for, personally, though the chances look rather bad.

 

[Bradylama]

Played around a bit in Solo mode to see the difference between bandwidth usage (much lower), and I'm still losing connection to matchmaker servers. Tuesday is going to be

 

[SuicideBunny]

yup. they even eliminated non-client access to server data, so now prices can't even be pulled, to reduce bandwidth, and it still didn't help much.

 

[Bradylama]

They've added lower difficulty assassination missions. Just had one with a 23,000 cr reward and only had to pop an Orca.

 

[Ulminati]

Server's getting really unstable these last couple of patches. Tried to do a "kill 2 pirates" mission yesterday and hun around 50ls away from the starport, checking out USS'es. About 1 in 3 of them I got a "you've been disconnected by the server message". Rrrrrrrrr....

On the plus side, I got a 150k bounty from killing an Anaconda in a USS. It had 2 pirate Anacondas and 3 System Authority Anacondas innit. It's a damn shame I was only sporting lasers. If I had brought missiles, I might've been able to claim both anacondas.


-----------

Anyhoo, to those who haven't bought the game yet and are on the fence: Don't!
If the last couple of gammas are any indication, the game will be downright unplayable until mid-January or they release a proper off-line patch.

 

[J_C]

If the last couple of gammas are any indication, the game will be downright unplayable until mid-January or they release a proper off-line patch.

I am not sure about this. In my experience, only the first day after the patches is critical, after that, I never experienced any disconnections.

 

[Whiran]

We don't know if there won't be an offline mode a few years (months?) after release.

I doubt Frontier will ever make an offline variant available.

Their line about "releasing the code" is total bollocks as well. There is no way that they'd release their IP for free as a publicly traded company. Their stockholders would revolt at giving away core assets.

For the offline mode - unless they have a strong financial gain for doing it then it will not happen. If Frontier believes that they have sold all the copies of the game that they can sell and then all the additional extras from whale customers the incentive to make an offline build just does not exist.

IF the game is designed the way that they claim it is designed then they'd have to recode the entire game to make it work entirely on a single PC - or else they'd have to create a stand-alone single client server that is installed on the local computer and route all packets to 127.0.0.1... that's still a fair bit of development work.

I don't see it happening unless they rebrand the game and re-release it as a stand alone 'companion' game or something. That might happen I suppose. But I don't believe for a single moment that existing customers would get it for free.