BRAVO FD!
The game looks and feels totally AWESOME!
I especially love the look of the starfield and the route planner.
I know there's still work to do, but you have my thanks and admiration.
Right on, Commanders!
Agreed. Gamma 2.xx feels more than ever like a real game. There have been a couple of major steps up during testing, but this is the most solid yet. My only complaints would be about things that we are pretty certain will be attended to - deeper content, additional features, etc. but the basic structure of the game is great.
When I think back to the introduction of multiplayer in alpha and what a train wreck it was at the time I'm very impressed with what the dev team has achieved. Even the bugs feel different now - not the chaos of multiple-cause problems, more specific and quickly addressed issues. The coding guys have the package pretty tight now.
For all that people complain that FD are not communicative (yeah, OK, not their greatest talent) I believe they do pay very close attention to the comments and general mood of the backing community. I have a feeling that over the next 2 years the game will evolve in a way that will be both largely true to the original Kickstarter pitch, but also responsive to new players who do not have the historic connection with the Elite franchise.