Elite Dangerous: First Impressions

[CMDR Nick]

I was a backer, but have only recently got around to playing. I played the original Elite for many hours back in the day. I find the game very addictive, and extremely enjoyable.

BUT - something needs to be done about the Super Cruise deceleration. It completely ruins the tempo of the game - it is bad enough searching USSs blind and randomly - but then to go through all that palava every single time you want to stop. As an astrophysicist, even the mass limiting justifications are completely askew.

Simply double - or triple the blue speed and distance regions. Or give us the option to automate - docking can be automated - and at least that is enjoyable to do.

Secondly, why are USS signals totally blind - why can't there be some basic scan information? e.g. some idea about whether the signal is small, or maybe one ship, or perhaps a group of ships - something to base a decision to intercept upon

These two things would make a good game into a great one - with some TEMPO!

 

[RallyPoint]

Totally with you man. I either have to creep up on a destination in super cruise or blow by it, turn around once or twice, and then creep up on it. I keep trying to figure out what causes these massive acceleration spikes but I can't put my finger on it. Sometimes I'll be coming right at a planet which I would assume is pulling on me and thus accelerating... but I'm not... I'm actually fighting it to maintain speed toward my target. Then other times I'm moving away from a planet and ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOM the freak'n thing shoots off like a lazer into deep space. I mean most times I can creep up in the blue range for throttle and it works fine. However these weird spikes in speed or whatever are frequent enough to be very frustrating.

Yeah I wish we could at least scan the USS to get some info like number of ships, no ships, floating debris, etc. Doesn't have to be detailed just gimme something to go off of. Sometimes I drop in and I'm like... neat... that was a total waste of time... engage FSD. I don't mind having to equip a scanner to do it.

 

[lefty1117]

Yep I have been making this suggestion as well. The last 60 seconds or so of Supercruise are a grind. It doesn't make sense that slowing down is so painful when going INTO supercruise is so effortless. But realism aside it's just not a fun game mechanic. Supercruise overall is cool but the exit process needs to be improved by increasing the speed and distance from dropout target, I'd recommend at or below 1c speed and 1LS distance. Also I like the OP's suggestion about being able to scan USS before entering them. Maybe another use for the Discovery Scanner.

 

[robbyp]

So, they are going to make USS scanable in a way, and the SC speed debate have been talked about endlessly.

Just aim for 6s and hold it there - you'll go in at maximum rate.

rob

 

[zazzn]

2 Weeks of trying ED.

Here's my impressions really quickly.

Love the game, but it needs a lot more work to make it a "polished" game. I could see my self paying a yearly subscription to keep funding ED to ensure that it continues development.

I'm an avid gamer in my 30's been gaming since a kid and I only recently got re-introduced to space/flight sims because someone is making them again!!

Here's my take on ED

-ED has way too many hot keys to set initially, the tutorials DO NOT give you a good understanding of what keys to use and how to use them IMO.
-Spent many days configuring the CHflightstick/Pro Throttle because the CHmanager changes the way they are detected when active.
-Head tracking systems and addons ect are like any game, you have to hack it on or work hard to add the support buy buying other products. It's not very clear which products ED is supported by
-ED really needs to look to polish and offer a "recommended" hardware config to get the most out of the game, meaning what joystick, tracking, Voice commands, ect that work best with ED if not make some of the tools them self and standardize them and sell them to other game makers.


Other than that, I'm waiting to get back in to the action.

 

[starjump]

Agreed, OP.

 

[NullAndVoid]

So, they are going to make USS scanable in a way, and the SC speed debate have been talked about endlessly.

Just aim for 6s and hold it there - you'll go in at maximum rate.

rob

And map a button to 75% throttle, hit that at 6s or 7s and it couldn't be easier.

 

[Pendra]

Full speed until the time to destination gets to 0:06. Throttle to the middle blue zone. If it gets to 0:05 slow down more. If it gets to 0:07 speed up gently.
Point nose, arrive to your destination.

 

[ToniB]

Elite is a game where you have to figure things out. Agreed.

Is this a good thing? I think yes. But i guess each to his own.

As to hotkeys: I found the whole Joystick implementation tremendously good. My X52 worked out of the box only had to configure two keys to my liking. As with other hardware: any hardware i used in Elite which is in release state, worked out of the box. Rift needs some fiddling, but that one is a DEVELOPER Kit. Asking it works out of the box... well... im sure in 2016 with the release version Elite will work right out of the box, too.

its a complex game, will be interesting how they port it to xbone.

 

[SteveLaw]

I was a backer

I first read that as "I was a badger". Then I realised my mistake. Everything is disappointing after that.

 

[zazzn]

Elite is a game where you have to figure things out. Agreed.

Is this a good thing? I think yes. But i guess each to his own.

As to hotkeys: I found the whole Joystick implementation tremendously good. My X52 worked out of the box only had to configure two keys to my liking. As with other hardware: any hardware i used in Elite which is in release state, worked out of the box. Rift needs some fiddling, but that one is a DEVELOPER Kit. Asking it works out of the box... well... im sure in 2016 with the release version Elite will work right out of the box, too.

its a complex game, will be interesting how they port it to xbone.

Complexity, is good yes... The ability to to be flexible to set the keys by modifying the devicebindings.xml and editing the config file manually...

How about a nice little tool that allows that since the in game interface is so tedious... I tired several times, and when I hit the wrong key "back menu" would lose all my settings because they weren't applied yet. Not only that, if the X52 is the joystick of choice, a recommended list would be nice and I'd have saved my self the trouble!

As for the rift, I'm not talking about that specifically, i'm talking about the other hacks that IMO are MUST have's for the game like GlovePIE (voice attack) and FaceTrackNOIR (which is amazing if you simply have a webcam)....

After watching some you tube video's of guys wrecking others, I now know why I was getting in battles. Simply being able to head track enemies is such an advantage it's incredible.

I wish there was a way to toggle "battle mode", "cruise mode" where half of the function/button keys could be double mapped (you can only do that with primary fire with hard points not deployed. This would cut down the need for me to "hack" extra buttons by using the CM manager ect

 

[ralf_maeder]

I agree that you can fly with full speed and when the counter of the selected object (planet, star, station, USS etc.) shows a few seconds left (in my case I choose 8 seconds), slow down to get the marker more or less in the middle of the blue range. You can keep this setting until you approach your destination and are informed to exit safely Supercruise. No more overshooting ever.