Please Don't remake FFE

[Luniticisi]

@laforge - now you raise an interesting point ... I am a massive fan of the recent F1 games by Codemasters ... I love a driving game .. but the simple fact is, as good as the F1 games are .. They are incredibly hard to learn .. I spend about 45 mins to 3 hours learning a track before I am confident of putting in a good lap time ... That's F1, it's supposed to be hard, it isn't Need for Speed .. or Grid ... It's F1 ....

I really don't want ED to be the space sim version of F1 ... yes, add the realism to the systems, orbits and whatever else makes the universe real ...but make space flight fun ... that, to me is Number 1.

 

[Slawkenbergius]

@laforge - now you raise an interesting point ... I am a massive fan of the recent F1 games by Codemasters ... I love a driving game .. but the simple fact is, as good as the F1 games are .. They are incredibly hard to learn .. I spend about 45 mins to 3 hours learning a track before I am confident of putting in a good lap time ... That's F1, it's supposed to be hard, it isn't Need for Speed .. or Grid ... It's F1 ....

Hehe. I know the feeling. I do enjoy playing the F1 games, but they're very difficult and the fact is, I've spent a lot more time playing DiRT 3...

 

[Cosmos]

I'm not saying that the Frontier games, were bad games, They were incredibly impressive, to me though, they were not fun .. the game HAS to be fun from the get go ... flying your Sidewinder should be intuitive .. not a complex lesson in physics .. leave that until the bigger ships (which is what I believe they are doing)

Its a perfectly legit point you make.

Lets make it clear that you are talking about the sequels to Elite called Frontier and Frontier First Encounters rather than all of the games Frontier Developments creates.

I quite liked playing FFE but not as much as Elite. What put me off was the combat system that resulted from the Newtonian flight model. Exploring the galaxy was great and even back then I enjoyed the vistas.

I enjoyed using the hyperspace cloud analyser and tracking people down.

As for the game mechanics I think much has been learnt from previous mistakes and that combined with the DDF and now all the feedback from backers really should mean the game is intuitive and fun to play. I hope so.

 

[Luniticisi]

Me too

 

[MacArthur]

What happens in Elite if you don't have any encounters? Don't you just "J" all the way to the station, and if you have the docking computer your docked instantly and then it's speadsheet time. I don't see how that's much different from what you're complaining about in FFE.

If you ask me there is a lot more interesting flying to be done in FE2/FFE than Elite. For example if you want you can just autopilot and max stardreamer your way around every base on a planet looking to offload robots at double the market price or you can fly it manually at 2 or 3 times star dreamer, setting your speed and height for a permanent sunrise.

I think you will have a similar choice in the way you play ED. Steam around as fast as you can all the time to maximise your trade profits or have some fun with the various flight modes available and take in the sights. I don't think you have anything to worry about, everything the devs have said has been focused on making flying ships fun. I'm assured it won't be as simplistic as Elite and those who dislike Frontier should be assured it won't be as unintuitive as that may seem at first.

You say you were dissapointed with Frontier when you first loaded it up. I'm thinking of many people's fond recollections of playing Elite and crashing dozens of times before completing the first trade run. Either that must be what you mean by intuitive and fun or you have glossed over the initial frustration because the payoff was so awesome. The payoff for learning to fly properly in Frontier is different but at least equally awesome.

Comparing the games on sales isn't really fair. Elite must have been commercially available for much longer than FE2 and FFE release was botched. Even so, I'm pretty sure FE2 was a huge hit. Also, I bet many who owned FE2 on amiga/ST/PC probably owned 2 copies of Elite, one on an 8-bit system and one on the newer machine.

 

[Komemiute]

...

Take a look at this community.

Now, really do. Take a look at this thread.

I know, I know... this sounds self-flattering but it's not meant to be.
I'm in quite some forums but such a great display of understanding, lateral thinking and support is really impressive.

I'm proud of being a part (albeit small) of this.
Aaaand, yes, this is self flattering now.

 

[Jenner]

...

Take a look at this community.

Now, really do. Take a look at this thread.

I know, I know... this sounds self-flattering but it's not meant to be.
I'm in quite some forums but such a great display of understanding, lateral thinking and support is really impressive.

I'm proud of being a part (albeit small) of this.
Aaaand, yes, this is self flattering now.

It's one of the better I've been privy to as well.

 

[RobFisher]

Certainly the fast travel we have is an improvement over hyperspacing to points of interest. The thing I wanted to avoid was space feeling like a series of rooms. It does seem you will be in control of your ship during fast travel and there will be things to do. I'm fairly in love with that particular proposal!

 

[DraQ]

"Successful" depends on the yardstick. By market sales and review, Elite was incredibly successful and Frontier was also successful.

Also, there is the issue of available versions and platforms.

Elite was ported to several generations of platforms. It's just an educated guess on my part, but I wouldn't be surprised if the typical fan bought it three or four times over to be able to keep playing it. Frontier, OTOH was released later, in time of greater consolidation of the market, so it came out for only three different platforms so it was bought only once or twice even by the most avid fans.

Finally, remaking FFE is a ridiculous notion - it was never properly made in the first place!

 

[SAB380]

As long as they don't include all the game breaking bugs of FFE then I'm okay with it.

 

[Cosmos]

It's one of the better I've been privy to as well.

What do you think are the positive elements compared to other forum communities?

 

[Jenner]

What do you think are the positive elements compared to other forum communities?

The level of maturity is higher. Folks here are in general far more inclusive and friendly than in some other communities. There is some really interesting discussion of the game and the game mechanics, without tracking too far into fanboyism or hostility. Differing opinions are discussed on their merits and not dismissed in a juvenile fashion. At the same time there is plenty of levity and some really sharp wits!

Also the community is very creative, as evidenced by the fan creation forum.

 

[drew]

I wish they'd just called the the FSD the Torus drive. Seems to work in pretty much the same way and would have been a great nod to the original game.

Cheers,

Drew.

 

[Susimetsa]

I wish they'd just called the the FSD the Torus drive. Seems to work in pretty much the same way and would have been a great nod to the original game.

I agree. Would be interesting to find out the reason why it isn't called a Torus drive...

 

[Jenner]

I agree. Would be interesting to find out the reason why it isn't called a Torus drive...

Never played the first, but that does seem a valid question from what I understand of it. So there were two drives, torus and hyperdrive then?

 

[Susimetsa]

Never played the first, but that does seem a valid question from what I understand of it. So there were two drives, torus and hyperdrive then?

Indeed, one for jumping from one system to the next one, and Torus drive to "fast drive" from the edge of the star system to the planet (or to the star or wherever you wished to go). Torus drive could be mass locked by other ships within 25 or 50 km (forget which one it was, but it was basically the scanner's range).

 

[Maxeren]

As long as they don't include all the game breaking bugs of FFE then I'm okay with it.

So you don't want to relive the nostalgic retro moments where your game crashes in the middle of a fight?

Surely they must include this in ED

 

[Susimetsa]

So you don't want to relive the nostalgic retro moments where your game crashes in the middle of a fight?

Surely they must include this in ED

Ah, those wonderful memories of frozen laser beams cutting through space... Surely Elite4 will have to let us relive those moments?

 

[Maxeren]

I agree. Would be interesting to find out the reason why it isn't called a Torus drive...

Because frame shift drive sounds more scientifically "correct"

Frame shift.. you... know.. shift frame of reference.. you get the idea

Bah.. i don't care what its named as long as its there, but i agree in respect to the older games it should have been called Torus drive

 

[Komemiute]

I'll call mine Susan.