Other than loosing all of my cash built up in beta 1.6. Beta 2.x is awsome! Have they fixed the server stablility issues? Kept getting bumped offline on Wed, night. Once they have some more solid group play options like being able to jump together or follow in >c speeds this game is going to be epic! Also do we have a borg private group set up?
new ships were very scarce in the starter zones.. just the sidewinder and the eagle.. so i ventured out, doing a few bulletin board missions to earn cash.. built up to 80k pretty fast(3-4 hours) when i finally ran across a station that sold the Hauler.. so i bought that and kept going. i finally found a station, maybe 15-20 jumps from the starter area that had ever ship available in it... imagine my shock when i saw that those larger ships were now ASTRONOMICAL in price.. i stared dumbfounded at the price tag of 47 MILLION credits for the Anaconda.... the Cobra was a whopping 300k credits... and the others were in between those.... there will not be a lot of people in those larger ships too soon. it makes sense to get us used to the higher costs now, because when they do the Gamma wipe, unless there is a game breaking bug, we will be running for the start line on getting established before the game goes full live.
Damn that a nice setup. Also the game is now in Gamma, about to release. Whole galaxy of 400 million systems are playable.
All I've heard lately from Elite is the whole no-offline single player debacle plus other not so great things... anyone who actually plays the game have any input on where its going? Does it look like the final release is going to add a fair amount of gameplay or is it just looking vapor like the internet claims?
Since no one has responded to this yet, I'll offer up my (limited) experience with the beta so far. It has come a long way from where it was even 2 months ago. I really want to love it and all the pieces are there to make it a phenominal space sim, but its lacking a je ne sais quoi that prevents me from really getting into the universe. I've been trying to think what this is but I just can't place it. Maybe it's the lack of an outside-the-ship experience? Maybe it's the lack of cohesive grouping and player organizations? Or maybe its simply the realistic size and scale of the universe? Like I said, I put maybe 2-3 hours a week into this game right now so I'm not the best source for information, but I have been keeping up with it pretty consistently as it gets updated. The updates they've made in the past 2 months have been expansive and overall positive to the game's development. The combat feels good, weapons are pretty balanced, and there is now a wide array of customizable modules, weapons, and components to make your ship unique and appease the tinkerers, though they don't have as much of an impact on playstyle as say Mechwarrior does. The ships feel like they're thrusting/accelerating with the proper heft and the physics allows for some pretty advanced maneuvers without flight assist that can prevent the combat from getting too much like a turning war. Environments are phenominal, graphics are phenominal, sound is... geezus sound is the best I've ever heard in any game, it's a 10/10 in my book. On the downside, trading is still borked, though they plan to get it fixed before release. The bulletin-board mission system is even more impersonal than the one in EVE. Mining has a cool concept but is very involved, unprofitable, and (in my opinion) not fun. (You basically play as a space vacuum cleaner.) Exploration is a really sweet concept but I just don't like the way supercruise and the different "normal space" sectors are set up, they all feel exactly the same. And lastly as I said, there's really no good tools to group up or communicate with other players.
Well, for me your experience is appreciated since I think I get more from it than I would from someone who plays it more per day than I have time to play over a whole week all games combined. If I eventually got this I would be happy for a chance to spend a steady 3 hours per week. How is the time limit getting in the way of being stuck with noob gear and being massacred? Because, I can't realistically think I would ever have time to grind anything on any game for months to come.
This exploded at another site I monitor. Everyone is having a blast. Bounties, trading, upgrading. http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/116481 Really, skip to page 95ish. It is nice to be a "Gamer With a Job" as I can drop some cash on a new HOTAS, as my old Thrustmaster stuff is just... old. Thinking CH, this time. I've never liked Thrustmaster's premium stuff with yank and bank games. Maybe a new computer, too. Looks just... gorgeous. And small is tiny, and big is mammoth.
if your thinking of getting a CH setup... i cant recommend it enough... its without a doubt one of the best HOTAS systems i have ever used... and i do include the Warthog in that statement.. it just works... it may not be all that great to look at , but when i'm using it i never worry about crushing a button or if its going to go out of calibration.... its just that good of a kit. Also i have been having a blast in Elite... am currently flying a combat oriented ASP worth about 12 million credits now. i still need to get my Military grade Bulkheads... but at 15 million credits thats gonna take awhile.
Togg Bott, thank you very much for the personal endorsement. I had one of their very early flightsticks (trigger and top button only) a VERY long time ago. That stick was nearly indestructible, and had perfect action and accuracy. It sounds like that hasn't changed much. I have a Saitek Wingman 3D now, but it was a gift and at least I learned that Saitek isn't for me. It is exciting to hear of everyone I know who has played Elite is posting the with the same attitude. They all love it.
The game is a great starting point. The friends and group interaction could use a lot of improvement. Right now you cannot follow or move as a group with a friend. Communication is not particularly easy. There is no way to transfer cash or assets between players. Whoever kills an NPC gets the credit and rewards which discourages team play. I'd like to see these aspects improved. There really isn't any building type activity in the game so in some ways it's kinda lost as a sandbox. With the current setup of ship insurance death costs you about 5% of the total value or your ship which makes it a relatively minor penalty until you get into the Anaconda and by then you would be trading at really high values. It shows a lot of potential for the future and so far the servers have been rock solid post launch and I've seen very very few bugs. There's a lot of long term potential here if they continue to roll out features and figure out a way to monetize the game to support those features.
just checkin in to see if folks are still playing E: D and if there is any collaboration going on with the crew or if everybody is just lone wolfin' it. was planning on playing some GTA V until the FPS module for Star Citizen drops but with it being delayed i'm considering picking up elite to scratch that space itch. a lot of what i've read seems to be that people get bored after a while saying all you really can do currently is grind up to the next ship. is that the case currently? is there much to do in game besides what seems to be pretty linear ship progression? is the progression/mission structure at least fun so the grind doesnt seem like a grind? the game looks gorgeous, just wondering what kind of personality lies behind that pretty face... thanks!
Replying to the two comments above, I'd have to say that the original Elite had no multiplayer, and may still be the game that I have logged the most hours in. Maybe Rome: Total War or Mount & Blade series. But still. The lack of multiplayer is not a dealkiller for me. The whole point of the original was just upgrading your Cobra, with the exception of the few missions built in. The ability to choose new ships just multiplies on the original draw for me. Even still, I haven't pulled the trigger. Sometimes I see things on "let's play" that bums me out. Most of it has to do with being very alert as to your computer systems states, and I don't like the potential for collision on dock/undock. Sure, it was there in Elite, but it wasn't shipbreaking.
Once they get the game so I can play with other people easily, then I will be more interested. It is just too irritating to run with someone else right now. Play solo is just meh. Speaking of collisions, I had just got my first big trade ship and came out of the dock too quickly and smashed into the port. Lost all my money (it was all in cargo) and my ship. Had to start from scratch. I stopped playing not long after that. Mainly because it was too hard to run with others. Which seems really ironic since they want to stress how much they want you to interact with other players and they say it has to be an online system... but their multiplayer for groups is horrendous.
yeah those were some of the concerns i've had... seems like they've got a solid base of a game but it just seems so bare-bones. that wouldn't normally be a problem (having fun in SC) but it's HUGE where SC's current playground is tiny and you're busy when you're in it for an hour or two. was hoping to hear that elite had some milestones on the horizon because until the rest of the core components getted fleshed out a bit i'm having trouble finding reason to pull that trigger and was secretly hoping someone could convince me, haha
why the gravy fuck have i not bought this yet? /reaches for credit card ok... now that I'm reading other people's comments, I'm hesitating. How does this stand up to something like Freelancer or X - Terran Conflict/Albion Prelude?
pretty great writeup, sums up my expectations of the game fairly well. a solo online adventure game where you need to make your own goals or be bored once the shiny wears off because the gameplay is still pretty shallow. bummer. well, maybe h1z1 won't suck!
yeah, the game does need to finally implement a better co-op feature, it was mentioned as one of the next features that they are implementing. (my opinion, it should have been done a month before release, but i'm not calling those shots) also mentioned in the weekly letter was that they are working on adding in more and different missions ( bulletin board missions) and revamping the USS's (Unidentified signal sources) towards something that makes more sense. Frontier Development is also hiring more people in anticipation of their expansions while not taking time away from the current workload distribution. on a scale of 1-10 i would give this a 7 for now, if they continue to expand and work on it in a timely fashion that could easily become a 8.5 , its not perfect, it has its flaws and idiosyncrasies but it has a good solid foundation that a really good game can be built on. 2 things that shine far and above what you would normally see for a first release of a game is outstanding sound and the total ability to mod your control scheme to fit what YOU want it to be instead of relying on prebuilt control templates with limited customization
