yeah... mining is going to be introduced in one of the later patches.. before the gamma phase as mining is going to be a core mechanic . I figure sometime in August early September.
Are we going to have a significant presence in Elite? Do we already? I keep thinking about picking it up. Maybe later this month...
I really want to give this a try too - I am sadly of the young gamer generation that never played Elite. Wing Commanders, yes - which is why I'm an SC guy, but I have no past experience with Braben's work. Also, it's between this and Eternal Crusade to determine where my next gaming dollars are going - and well, if I buy E, I may as well buy retail when it arrives, no?
I've got about 12 hours under my belt in the ED Beta so far, and it's pretty solid! There's a lot of care in little details that make the game interesting and require your attention constantly, from the technical docking procedures to the gravity pull on your ship in super cruise, simply travelling from system to system requires constant input and actual piloting skill to do things quickly which I also really like. Being a SC backer too I've played Arena Commander as well and to me, the combat "feels" a bit better in ED. I guess I grew up on games like TIE Fighter and such so the familiarity is definitely there when compared to those old Star Wars space sims, so if you liked those you'll definitely like ED. Right now I'm a bit disappointed in the available weapons and modules, and I hope they flesh out weapon stats a bit more. Maybe I'm spoiled by the spreadsheets of weapon, module, and ship properties in EVE, but here in ED all you have is about 5 different weapon types and they are all graded from 1 to 8, which operate the same just require more power/weigh more, and you can get a gimballed (auto-tracking) variant that is 1 power level lower than its non tracking equivalent. Trading is what is it is, which is the only other way to really make money right now aside from combat bounties. Trading simply involves picking up cargo and taking it to another sector for (Presumably) a profit. The Galaxy Max has some excellent tools to view current trade routes, which dynamically update. Otherwise, if you want to trade, prepare to bust out the ol' excel spreadsheets and plot your profitable routes, then fly them over and over and over and over. Trading is saved from monotony by the complex docking and supercruise mechanics that I talked about before, which keep it mildly entertaining. Unfortunately (to me) trading is far and away the fastest way to make money, and once you get the 100-slot hauler--even the 16 slot hauler--the job board missions and even pirate bounties become trivial profit compared to the 50k+ per run trade hauls. The biggest issue I take with ED right now is the fact that it's very difficult nigh impossible to group up with friends and perform tasks. I have 3 friends who have been playing with me the past few days, and I've seen their ships for split seconds every now and again even when we're doing the exact same trade runs at the exact same time. Trying to group up to take on the Unidentified Signal or Distress Beacon combat zones is also tough without good nav displays in supercruse. I spent over an hour trying to get my friends to the same unid signal as I so we could all fight together, then one of them got warp interdicted and killed by pirates, when we decided to forget about it. When we did get grouped up together in a zone, we had some major desyncing issues from the server. Communication tools are also virtually non existant. There are no zone channels at all currently, and you need to have someones ship actively targeted to send them a message in comms (at least I haven't figured any other way to send a PM yet.) While I was cruising around, someone sent me a message and I couldn't find the command to respond to him at all. EDs tech integration is simply stunning. I picked up a TrackIR unit and the head tracking works flawlessly and really gives you an edge while flying around. I've seen a few youtube videos of people using the Occulus DK2 and being blown away by its capabilities with ED, the game also works with 3D Vision/eyefinity, and an unassociated program is being used by a lot of people called VoiceAttack to bind voice acitvated macros to perform ship functions like realigning shields, weapons, engines, warping, etc. This all combines to create a really tech savvy and immersive game, the likes of which I haven't played (ever). I'm really excited to see where this game takes all the new VR tech. Now, take what i've said here as the opinions and experiences from someone who has only played Beta build 1.03, and has not done any reasearch on the road to launch at all. A lot of these issues I note may have more functionality planned in the future, I'm just listing some unfiltered observations from the past couple days that you may encounter too if you're thinking about dropping $75 on the Beta. My final word so far? To me, it was worth $75 to get into the game right now. I'll gladly toss an extra $25 to the dev who brought us the Elite series and an indie who is passionate about his work. Plus, the beta is certainly playable and enjoyable too! EDIT: Add me in game if you want to try to do something! I am Derak Darksun.
I bought it last night.. cause.. It looks very cool. I am a bit confused by things right now though. Trying to hunt down a pirate and I have NO idea where to look. They give you no indication of where he was last seen or anything. Looking at the Galaxy map there are 100s of star systems. Am I just dense or what?
Pirates generally interdict you when jumping, the other way to get a fight is to go to a hot zone and set a faction. (Right side menu). You can also find pirates and prey at the unidentified signal sources.
So far I am pretty impressed with the little bit of the game I have seen. The core of it is there. I was mistaken in thinking this was going to be mainly a dog fighting/trading sim. That is what it will be at launch, but they have a ton of plans for planet landing and cities, boarding, and many other things. It has a ton of possibilities and I think has been a bit overshadowed by SC, but I think Elite will have a ton of stuff to do, and they will be adding more as time goes on.
I believe the biggest thing ED has going for it is being at the cutting edge of Procedural Generation - and being created by the grandfather of PG no less. With new and interesting things being done with PG to literally flesh out planets (see No Man's Sky) and Voxel technologies (Star Forge, Blockscape, Everquest Next, etc) ED has loads of potential beyond release. SC's a narrative space sim - it's story, and the PU is 'your' story as opposed to what seems like the sanitized world of ED where you're just another fella flying a polyhedron. And no I'm not taking a jab at ED players - I actually like ED's capital ship and large transport designs very much. It's the fighters that strike me a bit... dull. But yeah - ED and SC - same goal, different paths I guess. They could actually teach each other so much. One thing's for sure - Space Games are back.
I love that we have 2 good space games. I will agree with many of the smaller ships. I think when you get to the heavy fighters they get better. But still nothing as sexy as SC ships. I will say this, I think SC and ED can be compared, they should be. That does not mean both cannot exist and be profitable. I am looking forward to getting myself established in ED... which I am having some difficulty with. I could do the trade thing, and I may do a little, but with the starter ship it is very slow to get money. I am looking at more combat oriented stuff, and I seem to get my ass handed to me a lot. I dabbled in some pirating, and I believe I was in the wrong system cause within 10 minutes of attacking a transport ship (and it getting away dammit) I was interdicted by no less then 4 Eagles with the security forces. I got away once, but they got me again and proceeded to rip me a new one.
I will agree that we should look at both game side-by-side. Remember, Roberts and Braben are competitors and rivals, not enemies, and we, the gamers, can only gain from this rivalry (and perhaps even cooperation in future). When release comes, I'm buying into ED. It's a small investment for the resurrection of the Space Sim genre.
One scary thing about Super-cruise and Hyperspace? The bobblehead. Doesn't. Move. It just stares. Driving home the concept that your silly Newtonian physics no longer apply.
Got bit by the 'no ship to repurchase' bug after getting rammed by a piece-of-shit Sidewinder and destroyed. http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=32832 Ticketed and am unable to play until they fix it. !@#% Sidewinders and @!$# combat until they fix things.
Well, that sucks. Right now my biggest frustration is the only way to make money is trading. The combat areas, while interesting are not worth the time. You will loose far more money then you make. I do not like having to do one thing just to be able to make money and get the next ship.
Yeah... combat is a joke. I traded up to 15M Chris Robertses, sold my Lakon-9 and bought a Viper fitted with 2 C4 Cannons and 2 C2 Cannons--never look back. Fly the fastest, most maneuverable ship and 2-3 shot anything except an Anaconda or Lakon-9. Anaconda dies when you get behind it in about 10-20 volleys, even if it has turrets and mil-grade armor you can out-DPS it. Lakon-9 just dies in about 10 volleys. AI vipers run from you forever as soon as you hit them once. Contrary to popular belief, combat actually can be profitable if you kill trade class ships and cherry pick lucrative cargo from their hold. Filling up on Palladium on top of the bounties usually nets about 500k/hr.
and I am the opposite. I like the type-9 with military bulkheads and a all missile loadout. I like the armed merchant game play.
It looks like they have fixed the problem I know at least Varg was having: http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=38940 There is a new build available for download. Beta 1.04 is a minor interim release on the same development branch as 1.03, fixing a small number of niggling bugs, listed below. We're still working very hard on the trunk for Beta 2 and will have news on this soon. - Insurance screen occasionally not being displayed after ship was destroyed. - Very occasional crash when outfitting weapons. - Game occasionally getting stuck in the shipyard when buying a new ship. - Improvements to joining populated multiplayer islands.
Beta 2 is out... actually Beta 2.04 is being introduced as i type this. 4 patches in 3 days after release of 2.00 all in response to backer reports of problems (yes there were some, some actually big and game breaking) hopefully this patch doesnt take too long to put up and download as i'm getting a serious space flight itch i cant scratch . the visuals in this game have gone from a 8 to a freaking 11 with the new build that has you MUCH MUCH closer to the planets (they can damn near fill the entire screen if your facing them.. the stunning first visual when on a orbital station ( very small stations that are in geo-orbit around planets) is breath taking upon emerging from the hangar area to the launch pad. Beta 2 has fixed the running in reverse as fast as forward bit.. all maneuvering thrusters now perform at about 40% of the main thrusters. controls are crisp and responsive in Flight assist-on mode, and the drift in Flight assist-off is perfect for slalom style flight. several new weapons have been introduced ( i figure some will be OP, some UP until we can test them) the universe has been expanded to 500ish systems each with multiple orbital bodies, some with multiple stars, large stations and smaller orbital stations are dotted through out the know universe (be aware some systems have no stations and can be a death trap if you run out of fuel and dont have enough cash to pay AAA to bring you some) Mining still hasnt been implemented yet, (i was wrong on my earlier estimate) the Jobs board has many missions on them now, ranging from simple courier runs to hunt/kill to cargo transport . the economy has been toned down from the "Make enough cash in a day to afford a Lakon type-9" , you really need to pay attention to what is sold and where you can sell it. ( i suggest making a personal trip, sans cargo, to the surrounding systems to gather info) Except for Mining not being in the game yet, i am quite pleased with the progress Frontier Development has made on the game so far.
