I am the only one old school Elite fan a little disappointed by ED?

Forgive my bad english ;)


I played Elite for a long time, on C64 before and then the "2.0 version" on Amiga.
And I started to play Frontier on Amiga, then purchased my first PC just to play it smoother.
Obviously I was the happiest man in world when I knew that ED would come out!


And I also bought the beta, despite never having played it for a long time to not ruin my game experience with an uncomplete release, just to actively support developers. (I knew about the kickstarter campaign only when it was already over, otherwise I would have participated).


But unfortunately I can not digest well the choices made necessary by the online implementation, as the waiver to the time acceleration in favor of an unrealistic "supercruise" FTL speed, and a spaceship really too slow outside supercruise/hyperdrive.
Even the maximum speed has not sense in space, up to near the speed of light.
How it worked in Elite and Frontier, a spacecraft is expected to continue to accelerate until there was pushing, proceed at a constant speed with the engines off, and slow down only with retro thrusters, (or turning the ship 180'' for maximum deceleration using the main engines.)


ED is still a beautiful game, but I just can not experience the feeling of "pure space simulator" I felt with its fabulous predecessors.


I also understand that such a thing would not be usable in an online game, due to the need of time acceleration, but I continue to dream about a new single player Elite with the same realism of the prequels, or better yet that implements realistic orbital navigation inside the solar systems.


But I know, I dream too much, and to see a new elite is already a realized dream.. :)
 
I do note you should wait till the final release is out before saying it isn't holding up to your dreams :)
 
Not disappointed at all - from the first moment I launch it felt like I was back. The only thing I missed was the devilishly hard docking.
 
... you can go at over 100x the speed of light in supercruise, not just the speed of light

the highest speed i've gotten in-system so far is 1600c
 
you find time acceleration more realistic then ftl-travel???

Regarding, this I actually do find the time-acceleration approach less intrusive and immersion breaking (sorry! :) ) than FTL travel, even though ultimately they accomplish the same thing in game.

I do shudder to think at the amount of energy released if a ship in either Frontier, FFE or E: D actually hit a planet at speed either way! :)

Regarding the 'pure-space simulator' element, it is somewhat disappointing that space isn't seamless, with completely streamed loading of assets integrated with the multiplayer experience (e.g. no stations popping up out of the black), but it doesn't beak the game for me.
 
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I prefer FTL to time travel and I'm not disappointed at all as I've seen the game evolve. I do miss the original implementation of FA off, which allowed us to do what you said, but I also accept that when it was in that way it was impossible to be caught by any NPC, (and pretty much anyone else unless they were very good) so accept why it had to change.

After 30 years I'm playing a modern, on line, Elite with far more to do than in the original, and yet it still captures the flight mode of the original. My memory of Frontier is that I ended up shooting at a pixel instead of a ship, and there was never any sense of dogfighting. I think ED gets the balance right, and I'm really happy with it.
 
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I do shudder to think at the amount of energy released if a ship in either Frontier, FFE or E: D actually hit a planet at speed either way! :)

Zero, I think. Or very small. The ship is moving very slowly inside the Alcubierre bubble of the frameshift drive. If we assume a 1000 ton ship moving at 200 metres per second I think it's about 0.01 kT TNT.
 

Tiggo

Banned
The in-universe explanation for time-accleration was not bending of physics; Star-Dreamer hypnotized the pilot into an trance-like state. That's indeed more realistic than FTL.

im not familier with the game. so did the ingame character then get old very fast? or was there a cryo thing too?
 
im not familier with the game. so did the ingame character then get old very fast? or was there a cryo thing too?

Your character couldn't die of old-age, so no one cared about this aspect. And your "character" was basically the starship, because you never leaved it. If you bought a new ship, you transfered into it immediately without seeing any characters or transition-animations.
 
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No. I am old school and have played all Elite games and am disappointed as it stands right now, in beta.

I can't imagine we'll get a lot more than we have now upon release, judging from the tone of the newsletter anyway, but I feel I have to at least wait for release until I decide truly on this game.

But no, you are not alone at this point.
 
im not familier with the game. so did the ingame character then get old very fast? or was there a cryo thing too?

If you're really interested: Here's the full-description from the manual how the time-accleration works in-universe:

http://www.lemonamiga.com/games/docs.php?id=679

USING THE STARDREAMER TIME CONTROL
This can be used with the Robocruise or in Manual flight. Use the Time
Control icons (after targeting your destination if using the Robocruise) to
select the rate of time acceleration. Time appears to increase in steps of
ten from ten times to ten thousand times, depending on the icon selected.
Return to real time by selecting the single arrow.

Sit back and a combination of a Zilman field and ultrasonic waves induce a
semi- hypnotic state which renders you unaware of the passage of time other
than seeing the range indicator change rapidly in front of you. This
effect was discovered by Dr Rabbne by accident when he revised why his
projects were running over time for no apparent reason. Reassuringly, if
your ship is attacked or hailed or you have arrived at your destination,
the Stardreamer will restore you to full consciousness and real time.
Don't forget that your enemies may be operating in real time and hence will
seem to be sped up enormously.


So basically it's assumed that when the pilots hits it, some box inside the ship hypnotizes the pilot instantly into trance. That means he sits there for weeks like a statue inside the cockpit drooling at the screen. I guess some robots feed him in the meantime and take care of his other "needs".
 
Not played ED yet being an original BBC player. Watched enough twitch to think it’s everything I could have asked for. Online play in Elite being the main event after waiting thirty years. A few games have brought me back. ED obviously, Dayz when it actually becomes a genuine polished game to that of the poor condition it’s in just now. ~I had followed the new Simcity but they more or less killed everything I loved about massive City building limiting the area etc.

Its hard to not be impressed when you see someone use voice attack to command their ship while using A-Rift to play the game. All I need to do is find a good Modern RTS game like C&C and I’m sorted. ;)

Maybe I’ve been lucky only being able to watch and not play yet.

This is how a feel about the newer Sim city to that of the original I loved, please for the love of god dont let my Elite go the same way but so far so good.

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I do shudder to think at the amount of energy released if a ship in either Frontier, FFE or E: D actually hit a planet at speed either way! :)
None.

The physics of Witchspace will kick you out of it long before you can strike a planet or other object. Plus you're not actually going the speed of light, you're merely taking a short cut through Witchspace to get to your destination faster than slogging through normal space.
 
you find time acceleration more realistic then ftl-travel???

Sure, for me is easiest to believe that something could change our perception of time, instead to travel fastest than light.
But you could also believe that you are on Cryo State, or simply don't care about it cause it's necessary to not spend months of life for a virtual space travel. (every realistic space simulator, like Orbiter or KSP has time warp.)
Of course, as I have already written I am aware that Time Warp would not be possible in an online game.
 
But the thing that bothers me most is the limited maximum speed outside of hyperdrive/supercruise, and the resulting lack of inertial flight, it's very hard to accept this for me.
 
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