An Honest Review From a well-rounded gamer(non-spacenerd)

[TannakaObi]

I think what I look for is a constant challenge and learning something new every time I play. I don't need levels or grinds to keep myself interested, just scaling difficulties with higher rewards would be a nice challenge. Exploring as many of the similarly looking 400 billion systems does not really appeal to me and it seems to be what's left to do other then maybe mining rocks.

I'm not really an explorer although I do tend to scan unknown places as I pass through.

Personally I'm happy building rep around Lave and the Alliance right now. Then I will move on and try and join The Empire, I'm also building a collection of Ships. So far I have a decent Cobra and a nice and fast Viper stripped of anything heavy basically. I hope I can transport them by the time I move...

I'm no role player, but in the case of Elite I have found that reading the lore and books has made the game far more enjoyable. I'm completely new to the Elite world and there is plenty of reading. My point is that it's not everyones cup of Tea. More features will be nice and are sure to come but it is what it is and I love it.

 

[Hemlock]

I dont have write a freaking wall of text, to tell people that i like ED. I like Elite.. YES i played teh freaking game in the 80's, i like the universe.. im a sci-fi geek. And the game is new of course it lacks content, but its added over time..I like Trading, Bounty Hunting.. Explorting, hell i like wathicng witchspace while warping. Its the Whole SPACE THINGY i like, i like docking.. supercruise. Its the first game for years, that i really liked and im happy. They will adjust and mold it over time, but people nowahdays esp the Young ones.. want content NAUW i Want more, give me give me..ok 1 week im out crap game.. sheeesh. I find Eu trucker dumb and easy, i dont like trucks i like spaceship and the universe.

^^ This guy gets it. +rep and I completely agree.

 

[Azriphail]

E : D is a great game. I enjoy it right now, its still throwing up alot of new things for me. I love that i know some of the black magic ruines required to enjoy it.

It could be better though, if it remains the way it is now it will never improve.

I think these forums offen do themselves a disservice by berating gamers that suggest changes that might improve the game out of hand. A few examples:

Route plotting - shouted down as hand holding in any number of threads, yet now its in the game its pretty clear it makes navigation easier and more enjoyable.
Trade data from visited systems - Shouted down as hand holding and against 'Elite Lore' , yet now its part of the filtering in the comodities area, when its acurate it makes trading easier and more enjoyable.
Availability of modules - Shouted down as hand holding and against the ethos of forcing players to explore, yet now we can all find and buy the modules we want, it makes upgrading our ships easier and more enjoyable.

Change is not always about taking things away. Often its about adding details that make the game we love more accessible, easier to pick up for new players and diety forbid easier and more enjoyable for the playing community at large.

- How might a warning seiren that a player has not requested landing permission improve the game? For seasoned players it might have little or no effect, our muscle memmory on approach to land means it would have no negetive impact. But to new players it would be, quite literally, a life saver. It might make the game easier, and more enjoyable.
- How might a smoother gradient of ship and module pricing improve the game? For those of us that have played through Gamma, kickstarted to Cobras, or ground our way to pythons and anacondas in order to move to the outer reaches of the galaxy it would have little impact. To new players it might make the game easier and more enjoyable.
- How might greater ingame information and tools improve the game? For those of us familiar with the existing systems it might have little effect, to new players, the life blood of a growing community it eases their adoption and immersion to allow the game and allow Frontier to make it better for all of us.

Comments like these do not foster a welcome community for new players to enjoy our game:

OP - This game isnt in your taste, unistall and move on...

Thats one less person to fund the planetry landings expansion we all want to see...

Go then? Why does everyone feel the need to write out a huge novel when they're leaving.

The OP was not talking about leaving, they were making suggestions that would make it more enjoyable to stay, above time to time visits.

Id rather see the Elite franchise die and mourn its loss than just be another typical game.

Really? REALLY? you would rather see E : D die than see it change in a way that might allow it to thrive for the whole community. That just sounds selfish in the extreme. I would rather play in the game with the OP who offered some constructive criticism on how E : D might improve any day.

+∞ to the OP for his honest opinion. I welcome your review and hope it is recieved in its well meaning by the developers of E : D as some nice ideas and changes that might improve the game and extend its audience and life.

 

[baael]

And the game is new of course it lacks content, but its added over time..

Past, present, future? wat?

*english is not my native language I just dont get it

 

[Rorgan]

I dont have write a freaking wall of text, to tell people that i like ED. I like Elite.. YES i played teh freaking game in the 80's, i like the universe.. im a sci-fi geek. And the game is new of course it lacks content, but its added over time..I like Trading, Bounty Hunting.. Explorting, hell i like wathicng witchspace while warping. Its the Whole SPACE THINGY i like, i like docking.. supercruise. Its the first game for years, that i really liked and im happy.

Yes and i like it too, its great at first, but the game design flaws, broken mechanics makes it boring very fast, there are no motivation for a bigger objective, whats yours.. to get a bigger ship?
So you will going to trade between A and B for 300 hours to get the best ship fully fitted and then?
A sandbox only works if there are a million things you can do, what is the sandbox in elite?
The definition of sandbox is not equal with "boring" or "grinding" FD made a huge mistake with this!

But i would say ok, lets face it, another disappointment for me, its nothing new in these days, crap games one after another coming out, failed kickstarters, early alpha-beta access, you can pay for a game concept, basically they want you to pay for a few jpg and some writings and you have zero idea what will be the actual product.
Now pretty much this happened with ED too, brilliant concept very close to my heart and they did the exact same junk like all the other today's game companies.
No matter how hard they trying to sell it, even if they can bring in many souls with their marketing lies, they going to lose these souls in a very short time.
But hey they only have to sell the game once, there's no subscription or anything.. you pay for it once and you have it, ok its sounds good first but think about it.
They don't have to provide you anything at all after you paid for the game, they can just do whatever they want because you know, who cares they got your money already!
Its not MMO, not even close to it, they don't need active players to keep it alive, they don't need you more than once, when you using your credit card...

Aaaand after i experienced (and actually got bored of) all the contents the game can provide in like 20 hours of playing, i really feel myself cheated.
Do you really think they will develop new contents and features just for free, i would be surprised if they even got any developers still working on the game design and not just that 2-3 devs fixing some bugs and oversee the servers...

Finally one real proof... if you spend more time on the forums than playing (like me) then there's a very serious problem with that game!

 

[Dabba]

Really? REALLY? you would rather see E : D die than see it change in a way that might allow it to thrive for the whole community. That just sounds selfish in the extreme. I would rather play in the game with the OP who offered some constructive criticism on how E : D might improve any day.

Yes really. I can see how maybe that sounds selfish, but truly there are hundreds if not thousands of rail ride video games that appeal to the typical gamer, there are very, very few games left like ED, so it shouldnt be much of a surprise that those of us that prefer this would be selfish about trying to hold onto what it is. Id much rather ED stays true to the vision of one man one spaceship against a huge unknown galaxy that I remember from my childhood and be a small pop game than turn into some homogenized eve and warcraft mashup to sell out to the masses. To me that would just be another crap game for the pile anyhow.

 

[Azriphail]

Finally one real proof... if you spend more time on the forums than playing (like me) then there's a very serious problem with that game!

^ This 100% this. I would add:

Finally one real proof... if you spend more time on the forums or external community developed informational tools, wikis and youtube videos than playing (like me) then there's a very serious problem with that game!

Making a game more accessible and enjoyable to new players that will allow it to grow and survive is not a bad thing.

 

[Kallipar]

I am for one happy that this is a game that isn't wam bang the fastest gun wins Unicum, all your base belong to us and gets all the loot PHOAWR, CREDSTHNXPLZBYE but actually rewards patience, thoughtful play as well as tight to the ass space battles. I would love it to take on board Freespace 1 or 2 storylines and that sort of cut scene technologies, the ability to build special weapons etc ala some other recent space MMORGS.
However it is early days. I am looking forward to flying a Fer De Lance ship because it was my first experience of dying horribly from missiles in the original Elite and it has always been a dream of mine to be involved in exactly this game as it stands now. I want more content of course, and the ability to see my damn ship with all its bells and whistles and GUNS GUNS GUNS etc. I want Mass Effect kiss my ass graphics and stories ala Freespace. I want it all and I am prepared to wait ....but not forever.

 

[Phero77]

Still not sure I understand this argument

Games are released as a platform, ready for players. Overtime that platform "the game" will get content or more content.. like new ships even planet walking. No game ive played and ive played almost every single popular mmo you can think of, have been released with ALOT to do. Its my experience that every game has to pass through this phase of angry players.. complaining that they get borring after 5 mins. Eve is a niche game NOT for everyone, we've already seen that the first week when people, forgot Insurance and got killed. I like this type of game, and thats why ive played Eve online for years, i like games that punish you.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

Well English Arent my native language either, but people comment with a wall of text. A problem if they typed "Huh.??"

 

[Jim Chapman]

Frontier as a company
I like the mission statement and their goals, I looked into the company more on glassdoor and such to get a feel for the atmosphere they have going on there. After reading about them, all faith I was holding onto has vanished. Their dev's are vastly underpaid and abused in many different ways.

Pretty strong statements, and not really representative of the balance of opinions posted on Glassdoor. How many Frontier staff do you actually know personally? As for me, I know a couple of people there, and there's a lot of enthusiasm and commitment; they strike me as people who are loving what they do.

 

[Phero77]

Yes and i like it too, its great at first, but the game design flaws, broken mechanics makes it boring very fast, there are no motivation for a bigger objective, whats yours.. to get a bigger ship?
So you will going to trade between A and B for 300 hours to get the best ship fully fitted and then?
A sandbox only works if there are a million things you can do, what is the sandbox in elite?
The definition of sandbox is not equal with "boring" or "grinding" FD made a huge mistake with this!

But i would say ok, lets face it, another disappointment for me, its nothing new in these days, crap games one after another coming out, failed kickstarters, early alpha-beta access, you can pay for a game concept, basically they want you to pay for a few jpg and some writings and you have zero idea what will be the actual product.
Now pretty much this happened with ED too, brilliant concept very close to my heart and they did the exact same junk like all the other today's game companies.
No matter how hard they trying to sell it, even if they can bring in many souls with their marketing lies, they going to lose these souls in a very short time.
But hey they only have to sell the game once, there's no subscription or anything.. you pay for it once and you have it, ok its sounds good first but think about it.
They don't have to provide you anything at all after you paid for the game, they can just do whatever they want because you know, who cares they got your money already!
Its not MMO, not even close to it, they don't need active players to keep it alive, they don't need you more than once, when you using your credit card...

Aaaand after i experienced (and actually got bored of) all the contents the game can provide in like 20 hours of playing, i really feel myself cheated.
Do you really think they will develop new contents and features just for free, i would be surprised if they even got any developers still working on the game design and not just that 2-3 devs fixing some bugs and oversee the servers...

Finally one real proof... if you spend more time on the forums than playing (like me) then there's a very serious problem with that game!

I dont wanna give up on ED after a month, i want to believe it gets better. Like i wrote i like the game as it is, of course i want it to get better. And i refuse to believe they are only interrested in our Money, if that was the truth Braben would be in poo to his neck. Ive seen vids with the plans they got for ED. "They don't have to provide you anything at all after you paid for the game, they can just do whatever they want because you know, who cares they got your money already!"
I can see you've been dissapointed many times, and so have i... I choose to believe in ED.

 

[Azriphail]

Yes really. I can see how maybe that sounds selfish, but truly there are hundreds if not thousands of rail ride video games that appeal to the typical gamer, there are very, very few games left like ED, so it shouldnt be much of a surprise that those of us that prefer this would be selfish about trying to hold onto what it is. Id much rather ED stays true to the vision of one man one spaceship against a huge unknown galaxy that I remember from my childhood and be a small pop game than turn into some homogenized eve and warcraft mashup to sell out to the masses. To me that would just be another crap game for the pile anyhow.

It does sound selfish, because it is selfish. BUT. I agree with you that there are very very few games like ED around.

As a long standing fan of the franchise i truely want ED and its kind not to simply survive, but to evolve to enthrall, grow and be more common place once more. One way we as a comunity can ensure that is by being more welcoming of new ideas that might improve the chances of ED captivating a more modern gaming mind set.

Staying true to the ideals and tenets of the franchise can be done without turning ED into a homogenized eve and warcraft mashup. I have never played WOW or EVE, I have spent many hours playing oolite though. ED will be great, even greater than it is now. As a community we need to accept that it will only grow if we accept critisism in good faith and ask how might those changes improve the game and let it grow.

Telling new comers you would rather the game died than accept their ideas is a self fulfilling prophecy, if ED and its community does not foster new players and their ideas it will die. Then there will be one less title in that genre of games you purport to love.

ED is not one man, one ship against a huge unknown galaxy. It is many players, with many ships with, and against each other and an unknown galaxy. It is already different from what you had in your childhood. It is changed, and better no?

change can be good.

 

[Phero77]

Pretty strong statements, and not really representative of the balance of opinions posted on Glassdoor. How many Frontier staff do you actually know personally? As for me, I know a couple of people there, and there's a lot of enthusiasm and commitment; they strike me as people who are loving what they do.

That commitment shines through when i see their vids, thats why i have great hopes for ED. I can see that in their faces, when they describe what plans they got, and that got me hooked.

 

[Drunk Si]

Games are released as a platform, ready for players. Overtime that platform "the game" will get content or more content.. like new ships even planet walking. No game ive played and ive played almost every single popular mmo you can think of, have been released with ALOT to do. Its my experience that every game has to pass through this phase of angry players.. complaining that they get borring after 5 mins. Eve is a niche game NOT for everyone, we've already seen that the first week when people, forgot Insurance and got killed. I like this type of game, and thats why ive played Eve online for years, i like games that punish you.

If you're talking about MMOs specifically I can't really comment, I only tried one (Guild Wars 2) because my mates convinced me to give it a try and I thought it was a total load of crap. But there does seem to be some debate over whether Elite is truly an MMO or not, especially given the emphasis on the whole one dude in his spaceship against the galaxy side of things. Given that you'd think even if MMO type content was a bit thin on the ground to begin with the single player based stuff might be a bit more fleshed out.

 

[Dabba]

ED is not one man, one ship against a huge unknown galaxy. It is many players, with many ships with, and against each other and an unknown galaxy. It is already different from what you had in your childhood. It is changed, and better no?

No. I still maintain that Frontiers single biggest mistake was making it a multiplayer game.

 

[Schindler]

Guildies it's always the Guildies saying the exact same thing.

And how exactly would you lead your hypothetical guild into battle against other hypothetical guilds in Elite?

Well my "guildies" or Clan as we like to call it would probably camp systems and charge tolls or kill those who refuse, we would take control of territory and expand onto that imposing our will on whomever is unfortunate enough to encounter us. Of coarse this would cause rifts and create opportunities for other groups of players to band up against us.

But of coarse everyone will be spacetrucking in solo mode avoiding our blockades and attempts to change the PU....

I have the right to use any public information available to me to formulate my opinion about the game and the company that made it. In the end, It's MY TIME I plan to invest into something that gives no Real life benefit whatsoever. This is what makes me a typical gamer and not a fanboy like some of the responses I've seen to my criticism. My time is valuable and I'm not wasting it doing long boring trading missions instead of getting involved in something worth investing in...

If it's true about ED being for you Niche fanboys then you guys go ahead and have it. I'll probably see you in SC and be ready to run you down and steal your space goods!, or maybe you'll see me as a medic or any of the other many interesting things there will be to do in the game.

You guys need gamer's like me to keep your game alive. To do that you will need to compromise on many aspects of your beloved game to keep the player base needed to run such a game. The only answer will be time but a lot of you seem to be very defensive at the idea of expanding on top of what the core game offers and that's contributing to my opinion about the future success of this game.

 

[Muthax]

No. I still maintain that Frontiers single biggest mistake was making it a multiplayer game.

I am starting to see your point

 

[Rorgan]

Yes really. I can see how maybe that sounds selfish, but truly there are hundreds if not thousands of rail ride video games that appeal to the typical gamer, there are very, very few games left like ED, so it shouldnt be much of a surprise that those of us that prefer this would be selfish about trying to hold onto what it is. Id much rather ED stays true to the vision of one man one spaceship against a huge unknown galaxy that I remember from my childhood and be a small pop game than turn into some homogenized eve and warcraft mashup to sell out to the masses. To me that would just be another crap game for the pile anyhow.

Its a bit harsh to call EVE-online a "homogenized mashup sold out to the masses" though, EVE is a niche game and its very evil, not much players can stay alive there and even less enjoying it.
BTW probably EVE-online is the main reason why so many players expected more content from ED, there are endless contents in EVE and even if you run out of them one day, the player interactions (player driven economy, player driven corporations/alliances/coalitions) keeps it alive for years!

FD made a huge mistake with the core development, if you want to make a game enjoyable in solo play, then you have to build contents, well designed endless contents.
That's why ED with its current contents would be much better as an MMO, i mean a real MMO where players drive the universe and not those non-existent factions.
They can write 2000 pages of lore about the Empire, if the faction itself have zero impact on the game!

I read someone grinding up (yes its pure grinding) faction standings and want to be allied with all of them... ok but whats the point of it seriously?

 

[Phero77]

If you're talking about MMOs specifically I can't really comment, I only tried one (Guild Wars 2) because my mates convinced me to give it a try and I thought it was a total load of crap. But there does seem to be some debate over whether Elite is truly an MMO or not, especially given the emphasis on the whole one dude in his spaceship against the galaxy side of things. Given that you'd think even if MMO type content was a bit thin on the ground to begin with the single player based stuff might be a bit more fleshed out.

Frontier knew this would happen "Well i like to believe so" Open mode would be harsh and Cold for many, and those that didnt have they nerve to leave the station in their, expensive type 9 filled with gold, got the option to play solo or Group. Or use those options, to build up. Well thats my version...

ED is advertised as a mmo, and i can see why that confuses people with solo and Group mode.. But open is mmo, just not in the sense people are used to.

 

[Dabba]

You guys need gamer's like me to keep your game alive. To do that you will need to compromise on many aspects of your beloved game to keep the player base needed to run such a game.

We do not, and better dead than compromised. The more I read your posts the more you sound like an SC fanboy thats bored and bitter because you don't actually have a game to play.