As a Star Citizen player, my mind is blown.

[Doozer]

This is probably not a very common view point, given the trends of the past couple years, but I just wanted to check in as someone who is coming from the SC community, and feeling extremely impressed by what I see going on in this game right now. I am used to events being very short flashes in the pan, with no real consequence on the game world and poorly optimized overall. From what I have seen of this so far, it seems like none of these are the case.

This is a long term war that has uncertain consequences on the long term state of the politics of the game overall. I am incredibly impressed by how significant the impact is on the game world, and how the galaxy truly feels dangerous now as a result of this outbreak of war. It's not just one area affected, but multiple systems, both on planets and in space. There is also comprehensive activities for all player groups, from fighting thargoids to exploring the maelstrom to evacuating civilians. This is mind blowing stuff, and something I have never seen in any other game at this scale.

I have played elite in the past, and lost interest over time, but now I'm kicking myself for not sticking with it. Jumping back in for the first time in years, I remember now what made me fall in love with it all those years ago. I am slowly getting my bearings back as far as flight controls and overall game mechanics, and I am looking forward to sinking a ton more time into this galaxy as I watch these incredible events unfold.

Overall, amazing job on this to all the devs, and 07 to all the commanders who have stuck with it over the years. See you in the black.

 

[Jack Winter]

Welcome back commander, may we live in interesting times!

 

[Rock Hunter]

There are those that don’t feel they’ve been catered for with this update, calling it an AX fighters dream with little more than meat transport for non combat pilots. I’m hopeful that the things you’ve seen in this update are little more than the beginning of an unfolding series of player and AI lead events with FDev sprinkling in new aspects of gameplay and mechanics as it goes along from update to update.

I understand some may feel the initial release may not have targeted them directly, how could it for everyone, but I’m taken aback quite so many don’t see a positive step in a very interesting direction.

Welcome back, hope you continue to enjoy it and that you aren’t alone in that feeling.

o7

 

[SlickPBW]

Right on, Commander!

 

[Klearoflauge]

Thanks for the perspective commander, it's refreshingl. Welcome back.

 

[Agema]

I think that what Frontier have done here is excellent: a simulated hostile empire that can - and if the playerbase are insufficiently attentive will - annihilate pretty much all human life, with no system safe.

Consequences are what give narratives power. Take a piece of media where reincarnation exists, or a hoary time travel plot means that anything can be reversed: it can make it feel like nothing really matters, where who cares if your much beloved character dies, because they'll be back in four episodes by deus ex machina. I suppose we can take a concept of Elite where players are just citizens doing their daily lives. In this idea, maybe narrative doesn't matter, just like most of us get on with our daily lives without obviously being touched by politics, war, and "serious" stuff. But there's clearly an appetite for more from gamers, that's it's not just a sandbox with sterile news reports as background hum to the gameplay.

Obviously it's not going to satisfy everyone, because E: D has enough different things to do that some are going to grump that their favoured pastime didn't get exactly what they wanted. Personally, I've never attacked a Thargoid interceptor (although I have run away from a few, sometimes unsuccessfully) and might never do so even in the new war state, but I think it's really livened things up.

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

Nice one. Just enjoy it for what it is and dont get caught up with the community management side of things. It only creates expectations that have never ever been met throughout elites entire history of the game and takes away from what the game itself can provide. Probably the exact opposite of star citizen..

 

[molgrips]

Imagine how it'll feel when the Thargoids start to gain more ground.. when they take that system where you adopted that faction and spent ages building rep and pushing them into boom. The one where you remembered the names of the station reps. It was never more than business between us, but I hope Jaqelyn got out ok.

 

[DrinkyBird]

but I’m taken aback quite so many don’t see a positive step in a very interesting direction.

It can be both.

Narratively this is indeed, very interesting. It's nice that Frontier have put actual consequences into the game for once, and I'm intrigued to see where it goes.
Gameplay wise, there's basically nothing here for me. Ship-based combat is one of the few things I don't care about at all in ED, and it's clearly where most of the attention has been with this update. The only change the rescue and repair gameplay has seen is that your destination is now 150 ly away instead of five megametres. I've spent a few hours gawking at the angry cloud and the pretty burning stations with Thargoids and NPCs battling, now all I can do is play as usual wait three more months in the low hopes that update 15 gives me something new and interesting to do. Maybe they're worried that I'd end the Thargoids as a species over the weekend if they gave us on-foot AX, as I actually like on-foot combat...

 

[Asmodeus]

Welcome back and enjoy the Game.

 

[Rhaazerus Orzhov]

Glad to hear you getting to enjoy your time with the time.
Like @CMDR Karrde Sun said, just enjoy it for what it is and make your own fun out of the chaos.
I definitely encourage you to get connected with some other CMDRs and squadrons, we've got a threat to our species and may as well unite to face it.
This is quite literally a game-changer, and a full scale invasion that, whether CMDRs wanted it or not here it is.

Glory to Humanity,
See you in the black Commander.

 

[Laszlo Plasma]

The only change the rescue and repair gameplay has seen is that your destination is now 150 ly away instead of five megametres.

Not quite true. The efforts of the rescue ships and traders supporting the war effort now have an effect on the outcome of the narrative. If only the AX combat players participate then things will go badly for humanity.

 

[Jmanis]

It can be both.
Ship-based combat is one of the few things I don't care about at all in ED, and it's clearly where most of the attention has been with this update. The only change the rescue and repair gameplay has seen is that your destination is now 150 ly away instead of five megametres.

I argue it's much more than that.

Missions have always been an end unto themselves, with most broader-scale activities such as CGs, wars (generally) and Powerplay ignoring their existence. What that's resulted in is, say you wanted to run a rescue CG, that was always:

• Spawn a stranded megaship or wreckage POI with escape pods
• Have players relog at that megaship til you fill your boots with pods
• Go hand in at CG station
• Separately, maybe run a bounty CG which is, apart from narrative, completely unrelated.

Alternately, while PP offers a multitude of activities under the umbrella of Powerplay... if you wanted to say, be a Patreus supporter who wanted to fight against, say, Hudson, there was literally one activity to do, repeatedly, to achieve that.

Now, we have the Thargoid war. There is now

• multiple fronts
• many and diverse activities to support a common goal
• tie-in with missions, USS exploration, trade, delivery and combat; and
• Parallel tasks that don't necessarily help the war
• no relogging; you select some activities, go out and do them, then do some more

This is great, and how all the content like CGs and Powerplay should have been.

It's very easy to look at this and go "it's the same activities, reskinned" because fundamentally it is. But the activities were never the problem; it was their fit into broader game objectives. As mentioned, missions were always an end unto themselves. These ones, despite being a reskin, aren't. I can go "I want to help this system out" which is a huge task in and of itself. If I feel like running cargo, there's options. If I feel like combat, there's options, if I feel like passenger runs, there's options. But it's all to an actual overall objective now, which means things like "Running wounded is pretty unbalanced in terms of reward" don't matter as much, because there's a bigger reason to do these beyond just doing the activity itself.

tl;dr people have always complained about ED being mile-wide, inch-deep.
Is it now "mile wide, mile deep?"... no.
Is it just implementing stuff that should've been here years ago? Maybe.

But is it all a step in the right direction? Absolutely. The potential applications and impact these mechanics have for the BGS, CGs, PP, are pretty awesome.

 

[RyuStaar]

I've never seen so many CMDR's in one instance before, its amazing honestly.

 

[Cohen the Worrior]

This is probably not a very common view point, given the trends of the past couple years, but I just wanted to check in as someone who is coming from the SC community, and feeling extremely impressed by what I see going on in this game right now. I am used to events being very short flashes in the pan, with no real consequence on the game world and poorly optimized overall. From what I have seen of this so far, it seems like none of these are the case.

This is a long term war that has uncertain consequences on the long term state of the politics of the game overall. I am incredibly impressed by how significant the impact is on the game world, and how the galaxy truly feels dangerous now as a result of this outbreak of war. It's not just one area affected, but multiple systems, both on planets and in space. There is also comprehensive activities for all player groups, from fighting thargoids to exploring the maelstrom to evacuating civilians. This is mind blowing stuff, and something I have never seen in any other game at this scale.

I have played elite in the past, and lost interest over time, but now I'm kicking myself for not sticking with it. Jumping back in for the first time in years, I remember now what made me fall in love with it all those years ago. I am slowly getting my bearings back as far as flight controls and overall game mechanics, and I am looking forward to sinking a ton more time into this galaxy as I watch these incredible events unfold.

Overall, amazing job on this to all the devs, and 07 to all the commanders who have stuck with it over the years. See you in the black.

wb cmdr
o7

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

The only change the rescue and repair gameplay has seen is that your destination is now 150 ly away instead of five megametres.

I beg to differ. I have done rescue missions from burning stations before, but those are childsplay compared to the new war effort rescue missions. The biggest danger in the classic missions was scratching your paint of your shieldless passenger cabin on steroids on the toast rack. Once you are out, it's a few seconds of supercruise and you're done. These new missions keep you on your toes much more.

For one you can forget shieldless paper builds. If you optimize for capacity, you're toast. You get hyperdicted (almost) every time you enter an invaded system. And not those hyperdictions that were so charmingly compared to butt sniffing dogs . They start shooting at you as soon as you drop. It is easy to evade, but your ship needs to be built accordingly, and you need a cool head.

In an invaded system you get pulled from SC by the Thargoids constantly. On one run I had five interdictions in a row. Interdictions you cannot win. The interceptors take a moment before they open fire, but if you are unlucky to get pulled by a Basilisk and your ship isn't fast enough, you have to high wake and do the gauntlet again. You also get pulled by scouts, and they fire immediately, and worst case, you then have caustic snot on your hull. Again, evading is easy, but you need to pay attention. Also, approaching a starport, outpost or settlement through a war zone is quite a view, and again, you have to be careful not to be blown to pieces. Docking at a burning starport is a piece of cake compared to that.

Yes, you are somewhat safe outside the invasion systems. Yes, the trip to the rescue ships is a bit longer. Thruth? Each time I jumped out of the war zone (and I ran quite a few missions today) I was glad I could have a breather while jumping to the rescue ship. Apart from the pirates that were sent after the poor refugees, who also kept interdicting me.

It is fun. And it is a definite change and step up. Also, Frontier added some nice subtle touches. For instance, when you arrive at the rescue ship, the patrolling NPCs fire limpets at you to decontaminate, repair or refuel you. It's quite pointless because I am about to dock, but it adds a nice bit of immersion.

 

[DrinkyBird]

I beg to differ. I have done rescue missions from burning stations before, but those are childsplay compared to the new war effort rescue missions. The biggest danger in the classic missions was scratching your paint of your shieldless passenger cabin on steroids on the toast rack. Once you are out, it's a few seconds of supercruise and you're done. These new missions keep you on your toes much more.

For one you can forget shieldless paper builds. If you optimize for capacity, you're toast. You get hyperdicted (almost) every time you enter an invaded system. And not those hyperdictions that were so charmingly compared to butt sniffing dogs . They start shooting at you as soon as you drop. It is easy to evade, but your ship needs to be built accordingly, and you need a cool head.

In an invaded system you get pulled from SC by the Thargoids constantly. On one run I had five interdictions in a row. Interdictions you cannot win. The interceptors take a moment before they open fire, but if you are unlucky to get pulled by a Basilisk and your ship isn't fast enough, you have to high wake and do the gauntlet again. You also get pulled by scouts, and they fire immediately, and worst case, you then have caustic snot on your hull. Again, evading is easy, but you need to pay attention. Also, approaching a starport, outpost or settlement through a war zone is quite a view, and again, you have to be careful not to be blown to pieces. Docking at a burning starport is a piece of cake compared to that.

About that...

For my rescue missions I use a Type-7 brick. No shield, very little in the way of hull. It's basically all passenger cabin.

I did a few rescues at the new port scenarios. It easily ran away from hyperdictions and interdictions without much in the way of damage. The combat zones at stations were basically just a pretty background - Thargoids just ignored me and I could slip through and dock with ease. At one point I was sat hovering above the docking bays at a surface conflict zone for several minutes while waiting for a friend and the closest I got to being attacked was NPCs fruitlessly throwing decontamination limpets at me (which immediately hit something and died.) It was easier than a traditional burning starport, really, as there was no overheating to worry about.

I have actually yet to encounter much of the danger that has been touted - but maybe I'm just lucky for it to always be a breeze, like driving and always seeing green traffic lights...
Even when I was actively shooting at and killing them in a CZ yesterday, Thargoid scouts basically just flew about and weren't attacking me most of the time.

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

About that...

For my rescue missions I use a Type-7 brick. No shield, very little in the way of hull. It's basically all passenger cabin.

I did a few rescues at the new port scenarios. It easily ran away from hyperdictions and interdictions without much in the way of damage. The combat zones at stations were basically just a pretty background - Thargoids just ignored me and I could slip through and dock with ease. At one point I was sat hovering above the docking bays at a surface conflict zone for several minutes while waiting for a friend and the closest I got to being attacked was NPCs fruitlessly throwing decontamination limpets at me (which immediately hit something and died.) It was easier than a traditional burning starport, really, as there was no overheating to worry about.

I have actually yet to encounter much of the danger that has been touted - but maybe I'm just lucky for it to always be a breeze, like driving and always seeing green traffic lights...

I would guess it depends on the type of location and maybe intensity of the surronding CZ? I didn't really pay attention to that. I ran missions from Taylor Beacon in HIP 7277, which is a ground port, and things were very intense there. I had to dock through barrages of fire from both sides and got quite a few scratches. Nothing to write home about, of course a somewhat experienced pilot can deal with all of that. But it is still a few levels up from burning station rescues. And the constant as of yet not winable interdictions make you think twice what outfitting you choose. At least I wasn't comfortable flying a paper ship, and rightly so, because one or two times it would have been a close call in a paper plane.

I did a few missions to an outpost on wednesday, those were really easy. Either it was in full go but the goids were busy with other players, or I arrived in an empty instance and the CZ only started when I had already docked.

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

ran away from hyperdictions and interdictions

I have no idea how fast a T7 can be, but yes, speed is a hard counter to all things Thargoid. The only really dangerous one is the Basilisk, as it can do 530 m/s, all others only do 450 m/s. My Python does 480, so I was able to run every time. But especially the Scouts start snotting you immediately while your ship is still spinning after being pulled.

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

About that...

For my rescue missions I use a Type-7 brick. No shield, very little in the way of hull. It's basically all passenger cabin.

I did a few rescues at the new port scenarios. It easily ran away from hyperdictions and interdictions without much in the way of damage. The combat zones at stations were basically just a pretty background - Thargoids just ignored me and I could slip through and dock with ease. At one point I was sat hovering above the docking bays at a surface conflict zone for several minutes while waiting for a friend and the closest I got to being attacked was NPCs fruitlessly throwing decontamination limpets at me (which immediately hit something and died.) It was easier than a traditional burning starport, really, as there was no overheating to worry about.

I have actually yet to encounter much of the danger that has been touted - but maybe I'm just lucky for it to always be a breeze, like driving and always seeing green traffic lights...
Even when I was actively shooting at and killing them in a CZ yesterday, Thargoid scouts basically just flew about and weren't attacking me most of the time.

Also, there is always the very real possibility that you and everyone else is just a better, more routined pilot than I am. In fact I'm pretty sure that is the case. All I can say: For my skill set, the new scenarios are a nice step up.