Elite: Dangerous

[Furiously]

Walking in stations.

[Pennilenko]

Elite is turning into a giant grindy shit show for no other reason than grognard developers trying to recapture the nut punching insanity of the original elite in shiny new graphics.

[HaemishM]

To be fair, that was their pitch for the game. 

[Malakili]

It really was.  I haven't loaded this up in about a month now, but I like that it's there for when I'm in the mood for this style game.  It's not he be all and end all space sim, but it's pretty good at what it is trying to do.  But hey, compared to the Star Citizen saga, at least this game basically delivered the game they promised, even if it is a bit boring sometimes.

[Pennilenko]

I played a shit-ton of all of the previous Elites, and yes there was grind. However, something about this version has no soul. It is literally pointless grind with no real feeling of reward. For instance, when I went from a Vulture into my new Clipper, I literally felt nothing. I just realized that I was going to need to grind about a thousand more high end bounties in a HiRes before I could move into a python.

The previous Elite games really rewarded you well for the grind. This Elite is basically missing a juicy carrot at the end of the stick.

I am not even going to get started on Power Play.

[Falconeer]

The previous Elites did NOT reward you well for the grind. It's US. We were different back then.

[Samprimary]

I'm still convinced that 90 percent of the problem is that missions are garbage.

[Lucas]

"The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death"

[Falconeer]

From today's newsletter.

we're almost in place to make a colossal announcement at Gamescom in two weeks' time.

Colossal? My attention, you have it.


EDIT:

From the same newsletter.

So far an incredible 11.3 million systems have been explored by players. At the current rate of play the Elite: Dangerous community will have charted the galaxy's 400 billion star systems in 23,417 years. We'll be finished by the year 25,432, so here's hoping 255th century computers are PC compatible.

 

[CaptainNapkin]

Picked this up on Xbox One since it's only $30.09 during preview, and I had $15 of cashed in Bing rewards so why not. Probably not the game for me but I needed something to leisurely tool around in when I'm not in the mood for FPS or actiony games... like on a Friday night. It looks decent enough on the One and the controls work pretty good. I didn't play this on PC. I'm so clueless, it does not hold your hand, couldn't even figure out how to find my mission target or find a station last night. Could have been the bourbon though. Watched all the noob videos while having my coffee this morning so I'll give it another run. Reddit has a fairly friendly Xbox community going so far and since they haven't been playing long they aren't jaded yet, I'm sure it will get there. When I look over at the main Elite subreddit, I'm amused by the rage... from folks with hundreds of hours of play time... didn't they get their money's worth already? 

[Ironwood]

I played a shit-ton of all of the previous Elites, and yes there was grind. However, something about this version has no soul. It is literally pointless grind with no real feeling of reward. For instance, when I went from a Vulture into my new Clipper, I literally felt nothing. I just realized that I was going to need to grind about a thousand more high end bounties in a HiRes before I could move into a python.

The previous Elite games really rewarded you well for the grind. This Elite is basically missing a juicy carrot at the end of the stick.

I am not even going to get started on Power Play.

Yeah, I'm going to side with Falconeer here :  This is bullshit.  I played the original Elite and you weren't rewarded Jack Shit.  Once you'd got your Iron Ass and some money in the bank, it was solid fucking grind to Elite.  No new ship, no new upgrades, no new nothing.  There were about 4 missions.  When you talk about 'previous Elites' I don't know what the fuck you're talking about.  Frontier was too bugged to even fucking play and the grind was even worse, despite the ability to change ships...

[DraconianOne]

Yeah, I'm going to side with Falconeer here :  This is bullshit.  I played the original Elite and you weren't rewarded Jack Shit.  Once you'd got your Iron Ass and some money in the bank, it was solid fucking grind to Elite.  No new ship, no new upgrades, no new nothing.  There were about 4 missions.  When you talk about 'previous Elites' I don't know what the fuck you're talking about.  Frontier was too bugged to even fucking play and the grind was even worse, despite the ability to change ships...

Come on, that's not true and you know it isn't. You could definitely upgrade your lasers.



And buy a fuel scoop.

 

[Ironwood]

That was implicit in 'Iron Ass'.

Military lasers, energy bomb, extra energy units.  Basically, once you had your item list full, the game was over apart from the grind.

And this comes from someone who made ELITE after what seemed like years of grinding on the Amstrad version.

[DraconianOne]

I got to Deadly. Then the tape on my save game cassette snapped.

I still have my Amstrad version of Elite though.

[Sparky]

Frontier had better missions.  Bombing secret bases and shit made you feel bad ass.  Even the delivery missions felt cooler when you'd be chugging away and some guy intercepts you because that stuff was military secrets or whatever.

ED doesn't develop farther than "deliver/fetch a thing" or my favorite "some dude might be somewhere please kill him.  Or maybe you'll never encounter him ever it's a wonderful mystery".

They seriously need to work on the missions before I'll have another look.

[Draegan]

The few hours I played the game was a mystery to me. Even the UI/Nav stuff was dumb. You would say go kill a guy and I wouldn't even know where to start looking. So I never logged in again after I ran out of fuel and the money I had barely made up for the trip to the station and I couldn't repair shit.

Then I said this game was dumb.

I never played the original, so I have no nostalgia bias.

[DraconianOne]

Frontier had better missions.  Bombing secret bases and shit made you feel bad ass.  Even the delivery missions felt cooler when you'd be chugging away and some guy intercepts you because that stuff was military secrets or whatever.

ED doesn't develop farther than "deliver/fetch a thing" or my favorite "some dude might be somewhere please kill him.  Or maybe you'll never encounter him ever it's a wonderful mystery".

They seriously need to work on the missions before I'll have another look.

They did a small overhaul of missions in 1.3 but some of the things you're referring to have been around for longer than that (like branching missions after being intercepted by an NPC). Assassination targets will now apparently spawn in Supercruise and can be interdicted. In fact, watching a guy take on a mission and chase his target over several systems with the use of the Wake Scanner and Interdictor was far better than I remember Frontier ever being.

Slowly but surely they're making some good improvements to the game. Unfortunately, these are generally offset by things like the Powerplay shit. Not that interested in the PvP thing either unless they add some of the environments to the main game as well.

[Falconeer]

Powerplay could have been an improvement in that direction if they put a bit more soul in it instead of an automated grind. Wasted chance.

[DraconianOne]

Yup, totally agree. Also, it goes back to rewarding people who have time to play for hours and hours and hours and so on and penalizes people who have, you know, a job or family (or both) and like to cook real meals, and shit in a toilet rather than a sock.

It says a lot when some of the main E:D proponents, streamers and bloggers (and novel authors) get together and agree that Powerplay has turned them off playing.

[Falconeer]

Which is odd in a way as it can be 100% ignored. I guess that it felt like such a slap in the face once we all realized what the hell it was and how many resources went (wasted) into it that it felt like the right time to take a break.

Super cuirious about the "colossal announcement" coming next week, by the way.

[DraconianOne]

Which is odd in a way as it can be 100% ignored. I guess that it felt like such a slap in the face once we all realized what the hell it was and how many resources went (wasted) into it that it felt like the right time to take a break.

Super cuirious about the "colossal announcement" coming next week, by the way.

Yeah, me too - but tempering expectations in case it's something mundane like "1.4 released next week!" rather than "Thargoid Invasion!"

[Samprimary]

Powerplay didn't turn them off playing in the traditional sense. It didn't take anything away from the game experience, per se.

It's just that it ended up being nothing but more grind, and people's patience for that was already worn thin.

[Falconeer]

More hype:

We’ve been working very hard for a long time on some truly mouthwatering new features which fundamentally transform the game, and are about to come to fruition - we’ll be making a big announcement at Gamescom next week!

"Fundamentally transform the game".

[DraconianOne]

They're adding a drinks serving mini-game for passengers on the Orca?

 

[Sir T]

Breathing in space will now be a feature.

[Trippy]

They are copying ARK and you'll need to poop in space?

[Samprimary]

bitcoin micropayments

[Falconeer]

Planetary Landing confirmed!

Expansion called Horizons coming this Christmas.

Here's the website: https://www.elitedangerous.com/en/horizons

Here's the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4sAe16UTDg

Here's the blurb:

ELITE DANGEROUS: HORIZONS IS A NEW SEASON OF MAJOR GAMEPLAY EXPANSIONS FOR ELITE DANGEROUS, BEGINNING WITH PLANETARY LANDINGS ACROSS THE ELITE DANGEROUS GALAXY.

Elite Dangerous: Horizons launches this Holiday. The first expansion, Planetary Landings introduces players to planet surfaces and the first all-new Surface Recon Vehicle (SRV) the ‘Scarab’. Scanning airless planets and moons brings new gameplay as players detect signals, crashed ships, mineral deposits, outposts and fortresses. Alone or with friends players will explore, mine and engage hostile forces as they attempt to infiltrate strongholds guarding valuable rewards. Players will explore new worlds, coasting over mountaintops, diving into canyons, landing on the surface and rolling out onto the surface in your SRV, all without loading times or breaks in gameplay.

Elite Dangerous: Horizons will continue to introduce new features and gameplay as the season continues into 2016, enriching the Elite Dangerous experience with new activities and new ways to play.

Elite Dangerous: Horizons includes all Elite Dangerous content to date, and all players will continue to fly together in the same galaxy. Existing Elite Dangerous players receive a £10 loyalty discount off the price of Elite Dangerous: Horizons, retaining their progress and unlocking the exclusive ‘Cobra Mk IV’ in-game spacecraft.

Order now and be among the first to land, Holiday 2015.

It's almost too good to be true. And so soon. Since I don't believe they can patch in fun so quickly, I'd wager that only a few planets will be accessible at first, or that they will actually be absolutely empty and useless for a long time. The way they make it sound:

"players detect signals, crashed ships, mineral deposits, outposts and fortresses. Alone or with friends players will explore, mine and engage hostile forces as they attempt to infiltrate strongholds guarding valuable rewards. Players will explore new worlds, coasting over mountaintops, diving into canyons, landing on the surface and rolling out onto the surface in your SRV, all without loading times or breaks in gameplay."

seems just what the players want to hear and what can compete with No Man's Sky, but that sounds like a completely new game more than an expansion so I just can't believe it'll work. Or at least not without an additional year of content patches after the Christmas release.


EDIT: Better trailer, and some useless commentary.

[Falconeer]

More directly from Braben.

We're beginning with airless, rocky worlds – places where a great deal of new gameplay can take place. These are planet-sized sandbox environments, with all sorts of things to discover hidden on them. You'll find surface starports, crashed ships, mineral deposits, hidden bases and more.

 

These worlds are gigantic, and - like the open galaxy - you'll be able to go anywhere. You'll be able to fly over the surface in low orbit and choose your spot to land, you'll be able to venture out in your Surface Recon Vehicle and hurtle across the surface at high speed. You'll be able to sneak around or go in all guns blazing. The nimble SRV is tiny compared to your ship, and is virtually invisible on a long range scanner – ship-based weapons will find it very hard to hold a lock on them, but airborne and ground-based players can explore the same worlds together, so watch the skies!

And all of this in 5 months?

 

[satael]

More directly from Braben.

We're beginning with airless, rocky worlds – places where a great deal of new gameplay can take place. These are planet-sized sandbox environments, with all sorts of things to discover hidden on them. You'll find surface starports, crashed ships, mineral deposits, hidden bases and more.

 

These worlds are gigantic, and - like the open galaxy - you'll be able to go anywhere. You'll be able to fly over the surface in low orbit and choose your spot to land, you'll be able to venture out in your Surface Recon Vehicle and hurtle across the surface at high speed. You'll be able to sneak around or go in all guns blazing. The nimble SRV is tiny compared to your ship, and is virtually invisible on a long range scanner – ship-based weapons will find it very hard to hold a lock on them, but airborne and ground-based players can explore the same worlds together, so watch the skies!

And all of this in 5 months?

 

[Falconeer]

I'll take it.

(Especially because it's multiplayer, and land and sky can interact, apparently with no loading screens).

[Pennilenko]

I will believe it when I can play it.

[Falconeer]

Today live stream revealed that the transition from space to a planet is not really seamless and without a loading screen. It's like what you get when you go into supercruise or hyperspace, meaning some visual distortion while you are being switched to a different cluster.

They also revealed that "loot" will be introduced at some point soon.

[Malakili]

I like the base game enough that I will probably get this expansion, but I am honestly not 100% sure it's a direction I actually want/care about from my space sim.  I'll give this first expansion a shot and if it doesn't impress I'm probably not going to get any of the future ones.

[Falconeer]

They seem to be expensive, although there's no way to evaluate the actual content at the moment. About 30 - 50 (depending on your currency) for the first one, and they announced a whole SEASON of (paid) expansions. Their Lifetime Pass is now being sold for 130 GBP, and it was about 35 a year ago.