what's the best way in your opinion to mix Casual and Hardcore gamers , and to make it taste good for both side ?
It’s all about immersion.
From what has been hinted at so far Elite Dangerous should easily cater for varying types of game play. The sandbox approach and attention to realism should guarantee that care-bears, casuals, sci-fi story-liners and point-counting hard core fighters should all find their niche in Elite.
Some games feel small, cramped, limited. They are throttled by a rigid storyline or restricted by a finite game space or even worse, restricted by an infinite game space with little variation.
In my case, I’m not really a gamer, I’m a sci-fi nut. I actually want to be in space, so I want the game to feel like I am in space. I like weapons and flying spaceships and blowing up enemies, but I would also like to skim the event horizon of a black hole and be amazed, ride the rapids as I try to outrun the shockwave of a supernova.
For me the game has to make sense. For instance, if I fly into an asteroid I expect to suffer some damage – if I shoot at something and there is an asteroid in the way I expect to miss the target, but in the 32nd century I also accept that my ship computer is clever enough to override a suicide attempt and I accept that weapons designers might make smart munitions which might take some autonomous decisions – i.e. avoid the asteroid. I also expect that the more I pay for a weapon the smarter it should be.
Small details make ALL the difference. You know, like a systems check before launch – approach vectors to space stations. One thing which always annoys me about space games – mining. Shoot a beam at an asteroid and suck in the ore? Seems a little simplistic to me, seems a little boring as well. Mining is reduced to drudgery, simply a credit making exercise. Why not use a fast scout to find the ore you are after, drop off a nano mining platform (builds itself along with an ore silo) – return later to your mining sites in a freighter and pick up your silos – much more plausible and no staring at a mining beam for hours on end.
Keep some mystery. The unknown generates excitement and anticipation that this time when you head out into the void something unexpected may happen. You may stumble upon a mysterious debris field and find a component for your ship not usually manufactured or available on the market – alien artefacts etc.
Humour and Dark Humour – there’s plenty of room for this. One masterful use of humour in a game has to be Portal – it transformed a clever puzzle game into a classic. Of course humour should be used sparingly and unexpectedly in Elite for maximum effect.
One thing I really, really like about Elite is the no levelling or ‘skills training’ concept. Sure, the longer you play the more credits you make and better equipment you can use, but to know that the ‘great skills divide’ prevalent in most games is absent from Elite is a huge plus – not that I won’t kick your ass anyway :smilie:
what's the best way in your opinion to mix Casual and Hardcore gamers , and to make it taste good for both side ?
...After while you realize that you regularly are encountering players that have played the game for two years, 25 hours per week, know exactly were to hit what spot on what tank, know which location on the map you are invisible, which add works best etc etc...
It’s all about immersion.
From what has been hinted at so far Elite Dangerous should easily cater for varying types of game play. The sandbox approach and attention to realism should guarantee that care-bears, casuals, sci-fi story-liners and point-counting hard core fighters should all find their niche in Elite.
Some games feel small, cramped, limited. They are throttled by a rigid storyline or restricted by a finite game space or even worse, restricted by an infinite game space with little variation.
In my case, I’m not really a gamer, I’m a sci-fi nut. I actually want to be in space, so I want the game to feel like I am in space. I like weapons and flying spaceships and blowing up enemies, but I would also like to skim the event horizon of a black hole and be amazed, ride the rapids as I try to outrun the shockwave of a supernova.
For me the game has to make sense. For instance, if I fly into an asteroid I expect to suffer some damage – if I shoot at something and there is an asteroid in the way I expect to miss the target, but in the 32nd century I also accept that my ship computer is clever enough to override a suicide attempt and I accept that weapons designers might make smart munitions which might take some autonomous decisions – i.e. avoid the asteroid. I also expect that the more I pay for a weapon the smarter it should be.
Small details make ALL the difference. You know, like a systems check before launch – approach vectors to space stations. One thing which always annoys me about space games – mining. Shoot a beam at an asteroid and suck in the ore? Seems a little simplistic to me, seems a little boring as well. Mining is reduced to drudgery, simply a credit making exercise. Why not use a fast scout to find the ore you are after, drop off a nano mining platform (builds itself along with an ore silo) – return later to your mining sites in a freighter and pick up your silos – much more plausible and no staring at a mining beam for hours on end.
Keep some mystery. The unknown generates excitement and anticipation that this time when you head out into the void something unexpected may happen. You may stumble upon a mysterious debris field and find a component for your ship not usually manufactured or available on the market – alien artefacts etc.
Humour and Dark Humour – there’s plenty of room for this. One masterful use of humour in a game has to be Portal – it transformed a clever puzzle game into a classic. Of course humour should be used sparingly and unexpectedly in Elite for maximum effect.
One thing I really, really like about Elite is the no levelling or ‘skills training’ concept. Sure, the longer you play the more credits you make and better equipment you can use, but to know that the ‘great skills divide’ prevalent in most games is absent from Elite is a huge plus – not that I won’t kick your ass anyway :smilie: