What, exactly, IS your point? You have only told me that I'm missing something, that I'm not enjoying this "immersive reality."
All of my points directly contradict what you're saying about it being immersive. I can't leave my ship, at all. Ever. My pilot is soldered to his chair and is eternally damned to shoot, trade, or look at the stars.
I have to land on a station to pay my fine or collect a bounty because apparently technology in 3300 is so far behind that they can instantly put a bounty on me the microsecond I do something wrong, but I can neither appeal it or pay it on the spot. Jump through hundreds of light years? No problem. Pay a fine remotely? WHAT SORCERY IS THIS?
The immersion of not being able to land on a planet! Man, I'm so immersed.
The game right now is basically an astronomical tool, a way to very slowly see a ton of different stars in the galaxy. It has a thin veneer of a game layered over it. I agree, the scale of the game is impressive, loading up that star map and watching my screen fill with tens of thousands of on-screen stars, all of which I can travel to at will, is very neat.
It's just that there's not much to DO. Part of immersion for me is variety. Elite lacks variety. My imagination cannot add game mechanics. My imagination can't fix the broken online play. My imagination only goes so far.
I get what the game is, and I get that some people are happy with it as is. I'm not. I want more. As I said, if everything FD has talked about was actually in-game right now, it would probably be my favorite game of all time. The features they've talked about sound incredible, but all they've finished is the flight model and some basic mission archetypes.
I still have fun with the game, I don't need you or anyone else to recommend I leave or that it's not for me. If I hated the game, I wouldn't bother posting here. I cut my losses and leave if I have a bad game. This is not a bad game, it's an unfinished one. But sadly the label reads "1.0," which in game development terms means "content complete." Any truly major changes, like those planetary landings I'm positively DROOLING for, will sadly be in paid expansions. I'm hoping they don't do this with every major feature they've talked about. Eventually it will be very expensive to get the entire experience if so.
I agree 100% with the OP, I also agree to a certain extent with Xbob. However, with most games nice to haves never occur. ED is dynamic and evolving. At the moment it is as you have said an astrnomical tool, with a bit of fun attached, but, additional content will occur to make it even better. Yes, I agree the content may be paid for, but I dont think it will be the same as the merc price, probably £10-20 is my guess.
I am having great fun at the moment, but this will get better, probably in a couple of months.