For mine, it's both. It has elements of a simulator in that it attempts to simulate what our galaxy might be like out there (noting that we can't exactly go out there for real yet and confirm exactly what the procedural generation has come up with). But it has many game-related elements as well. So I look on Elite: Dangerous as a bit of both - why do we even need to try to shoehorn into one or the other?
Everyone needs to switch their perspective of ED from game to simulator.
- Thread starter Jake_blakeson
- Start date
Why are you still here again?
Anyway as I said since space sim is the correct genre there is realy no reason to not call it a simulator, if it makes someone happy just imagine I call it (pseudo) space sim.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_flight_simulator_game
Except for when they've made design decisions where gameplay trumps simulation. Then you need to switch to your perspective to game instead of simulator.
Indeed, it is what it is
I read more than a few posts before buying, and watched many hours of live streams too, my conclusion was that ED is ED. There are clearly mechanics and features that can be considered game or sim or even both, so i really do think that ED deserves to stand out on its own in the 'what am i' stakes. I also question what effect trying to force my opinion of ED into a single category would have on my appreciation of ED? would it not just lead me down the road to fault finding and maybe dissapointment?
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Fighting in space isn't unrealistic. The way space combat works in ED (and the vast majority of other space games) is completely unrealistic.
The exact form that 'real' space combat would take would depend on the technology available, but it would likely occur at vast ranges between ships moving at enormous velocities and be largely automated, as it'll be happening at speeds way beyond human reaction times.
What it will almost certainly never involve is small ships under manual control 'dogfighting' at close range.
However, small ships under manual control dogfighting at close range is fun, easy for most people to comprehend, and what several generations of gamers brought up with Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica and other similar TV shows and movies both want and expect from a space combat game.
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There is no harm seeing ED through our 1984 eyes.. many backers got involved in ED purely as a result of playing the original back then. I'll concede that it is still very much a system in developement, but that should allow for a more natural maturation, with a pace and level of developement which should engage with the player base in realtime, and be relative to the storylines they are allowing to develop.
The problem with pilots flying planes in straight lines, at constant speeds and altitudes (within atmospheres) is down the external forces effecting the craft, the pilot has to keep adjusting for these. Space is a different kettle of fish, and in ED we have a constant flight assist (which i basically look at as an autopilot function, only dealing with the tweaking, not dissimilar to the sytems used in stealth aircraft that stop them from falling from the sky) its the year 3K+ why wouldnt we have systems in place to assist. Here on earth today we have cars that can drive themselves (maybe still in developement, but they are on the roads in numbers) and many models of cars that will parallel park for you.. small step lead to big advances!
I can appreciate you dont enjoy ED, it bores you, isnt what you were looking for. Im sorry thats the case, 'the more diverse the player base = the greater the enviroment they play in'. Me, I'm 1 of those that really enjoys ED, and im happy to wait patiently for the things they have in current developement and the ideas they have for the future.
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I (sort of ) get what the OP is saying but unlike FSX which seeks to recreate things which exist ED is a work of pure fantasy that picks and choses through the laws of physics to enhance the users experience (as the developers see it). Some FSX add ons are pretty decent study sims, some of the Captain Sim titles come to mind, in which I recall spending most of a day trying to get my head around the hydraulic systems on a Boeing 707 once. There will never be anything approaching that level of depth in ED and I do not think it would be welcome for a second if they tried. ED is light entertainment in a very big sandbox. the key to future success is filling the box with content now, and they seem to be getting on with that.
It's not a sim. It's a space game. You can't SIMULATE something that does not exist / isn't scientifically possible.
I mean really, it's a very simple concept.
Unless someone has some scientifically accurate data that space travel in this game is based on ?
I mean really, it's a very simple concept.
Unless someone has some scientifically accurate data that space travel in this game is based on ?
It's not a sim. It's a space game. You can't SIMULATE something that does not exist / isn't scientifically possible.
I mean really, it's a very simple concept.
Unless someone has some scientifically accurate data that space travel in this game is based on ?
I call baloney on that!
I think we've all seen the "historical documents", Star Trek, Star Wars etc.
It's not a sim. It's a space game. You can't SIMULATE something that does not exist / isn't scientifically possible.
I mean really, it's a very simple concept.
Unless someone has some scientifically accurate data that space travel in this game is based on ?
The galaxy does exist (look up) Space flight does exist. the simulation in an extrapolation of both.
Care to explain all the sounds I'm hearing in space then ?
You know, those not coming from the inside of my cockpit ?
Don,t be silly guys. It's nowhere near a simulation. This game has relativistic speeds without time dilation. It's a fairy-tale and it's fine, just enjoy the arcade space game.
No simulation is perfect, and in the case of space "sims", there's always some necessary extrapolation and a measure of suspension of disbelief required. But in the case of ED, there's way too much compromise on the gaming side to call it a sim. Things like maximum speed, gimped yaw rotational thrusters, supercruise plane vs instanced space bubbles you get teleported into, magic light-speed communication working for criminal bounties but not for trading commodity prices, pink nebulas... It takes me longer to deliver yoghurts from Paris to Stuttgart in Euro Truck than to ship food cartridges across several light-years. Frontier felt way more of a simulation in that regards, with time really flying by as you trekked across the galaxy, civilisation felt like remote islands in the empty. Of course, multiplayer gets in the way for this to happen in ED.
Then there's the unfinished nature of it, meaning that planetary landings aren't there yet either. So the sim experience is that bit more limited, and also happens to feel a bit lacklustre in terms of 'fluff': docking/takeoff is very barebones in terms of procedure and interaction compared to, say, the modern aircraft/airport equivalent. Heck, even starting the ship is a single click on 'launch', after the first checklist had me hoping that some engine starting sequence would be available. Cargo loading/unloading happens by magic over a split second, when maybe it should take a bit of time and/or require you to head to specific (scoop-based?) loading docks where containers would have been prepared after you passed your orders ahead of time while approaching the station.
It's still enjoyable to drift around stations without FA, and well, the game is what it is, with its own charm, but there's so much more to be made on the space sim front, somewhere between Frontier and Orbiter...
Then there's the unfinished nature of it, meaning that planetary landings aren't there yet either. So the sim experience is that bit more limited, and also happens to feel a bit lacklustre in terms of 'fluff': docking/takeoff is very barebones in terms of procedure and interaction compared to, say, the modern aircraft/airport equivalent. Heck, even starting the ship is a single click on 'launch', after the first checklist had me hoping that some engine starting sequence would be available. Cargo loading/unloading happens by magic over a split second, when maybe it should take a bit of time and/or require you to head to specific (scoop-based?) loading docks where containers would have been prepared after you passed your orders ahead of time while approaching the station.
It's still enjoyable to drift around stations without FA, and well, the game is what it is, with its own charm, but there's so much more to be made on the space sim front, somewhere between Frontier and Orbiter...
lol so I enjoy my real work to an extent but it is still work. When I come home I can sit there in my office chilling out imagining that I'm real space pilot with the most boring job in the universe? There is a reason I wouldn't take a trucking job in real life the same reason applies to a virtual life. Power to truck drivers but it would bore my brains out.
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Care to explain all the sounds I'm hearing in space then ?
http://canyouactually.com/nasa-recorded-sound-in-space-and-its-absolutely-chilling/
This is nonsense. Following your logic there couldn't be any space sim because fighting in space is unrealistic in general.
So I could call it a Sci-Fi sim and you can't prove me wrong because the flight mechanics are part of the fiction
For me ED is a sandbox. I would compare it to games like Mount & Blade, which is kind of a sim aswell and has many of the same problems. But I love both games...
A fiction simulator? Got it.