Why us old timers may never be happy...

Rardain

Rardain
Old timer here (and grumpy too) I'm mostly happy, my only real frustrations are the server outages...not being able to play when you want to is irritating to say the least. There is plenty to do in the game, the trick (as jprelph has pointed out) is not to do the same thing all the time. I didn't particularly enjoy the first few days of PP because I was leaflet dropping but then I tried murdering an opposing powers ships and got much more fun out of it. :) I even discovered something I had previously overlooked.

After a ferocious battle with a bunch of ships that ran off after they disabled my thrusters I was spinning wildly out of control and caught in the gravity well of a planet. I was gutted because I had over 500 merits pending and thought I was going to have to self destruct and lose the merits and the time it took to gain them. Then I noticed the reboot option...I had never used it up to that point so I tried it. Everything went off...system rebooted then joy of joy's my thrusters sputtered back into life - it was one of those pure gratifying gaming moments. :D
 

Drink!

Drink!
SlackR said:
Back in the day, Frontier were limited by the technology at their disposal and so we as gamers quite naturally filled in the blanks with our own imaginations.

Fast forward to the present day and the opposite is true ...
Frontier are Limited only by their imaginations and no longer by the hardware / software.

The problem is of course that everybody filled in the blanks with different content! There's no way Frontier can match all of our expectations, let alone produce a game that is also relevant for a new generation of instant gratification gamers (obviously I am stereotyping). I get that they are trying but I think you run the risk of spreading yourself too thin and end up making a game that actually please nobody in the long term.

When you move onto something completely new with so many feature that still feel incomplete you have to start to wonder if that is the right move?
Click to expand...

This is true for almost any remake of a old game. The way game were made back in the day is different today, same goes for the fans.
its like taking a old car and remodeling it for today. Old people wont like it because it not like the original, new people won't like to because it looks old.
 

buellpilot

buellpilot
Oddball said:
My pennies worth....

The majority of the original kickstarter backers were old timers like myself and what we backed was the promise of a modern day version of Elite with super gameplay, sound and graphics.
We do have that but I feel that the game is evolving into something else and I can't help feeling that us old timers have been forgotten about as the game shifts towards younger players.
But as I've said many times, FD are in business to make money and have to cater for as many gamers as possible to get as many sales as possible.

However, I do play the game like the original. I don't play in a wing and I don't have anything to do with powerplay backing certain factions etc. as I think this is not what the original Elite was about. It was about being on your own with 100 credits and trying to get to Elite.

There is one thing that nobody can deny and that is that the game is absolutely beautiful. The stars, planets, stations and ships are all very well done. Yes, there are a few things I don't like but the game is getting better with each update and its going to be worth the wait when we get planetary landings.
Click to expand...




This ^^^

Spoken like a true Oddball...
 
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Vasious

Vasious
I am going to go out on a limb here and say
I actually think Elite Dangerous feels more alive than Frontier:Elite 2

Yeah, in FE2 you had the bulletin board with all sorts of oddballs, Faces on the video phone, passenger and such.
But the Galaxy was static
Systems never started or ended their civil wars
Systems never changes hands
No colonisation efforts made.

In Elite Dangerous, One can see a minor faction grow to control the system they start in by election or civil war.
Even expand into new systems.
Heck we have seen Minor factions collapse into unrest and bust due to groups conducting negative missions against them
And the player can pick sides to help or hinder.
Or profit from whomever offers the best payout
See a system in the state of War, well you know there will be arms merchants there buying Battle weapons, best make use of the demand whilst it lasts. (handled much better than the seeking Luxuries)
We have seen colonisation and terriforming
Community goals to change Faction Allegiances
The Lugh war for independence.
With Power Play, the various groups are providing a lot of additional background and personality to the Powers beyond what Frontier have provided and EVEN IF you are NOT taking part, it is something for a previous quite system you used to potter around in slowing have incursion from Power systems even skirmished between the Various Powers' Agents.
Throw in the GalNet news articles, especially the player submitted ones on Powers making or denying treaties or accusations and it is a living world.
Heck I loved that we see people smuggling Drugs and Slaves en-mass then a followup article from both the Federation and the Empire on the evils of it.
All of this can even be enjoyed from Solo if that is your preference.

That isn't to say I wouldn't love to have tier 2 & 3 NPCs and have passenger missions and land on Planets, and have the Black Markets renamed a randomly Generated "Shell company or second hand shop" to add to it all.

But ED does provide a lot more fodder for the imagination in terms of a moving universe than Frontier:Elite 2 did.
 
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Sonoskay

S
SlackR said:
Fast forward to the present day and the opposite is true ...
Frontier are Limited only by their imaginations and no longer by the hardware / software.
Click to expand...
this is not true at all.. there are still tight limitations. and catering to everyone who has thier own ideal of what direction teh game should take. its not only impossible, but what some people seem to want is very impractical

Jesus i swear to god some people think its easy to make a good 3d game now on a scale as grand as this. Money time and people are all factors. and you cant just "whip up a game mechanic" and make it work.
 
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Araviel

Araviel
Game development is still very limited by the hardware, and when it comes to the software side the standard has gone up requiring allot more man hours, especially when it comes to the art.

however Quantum computers are on their way - then we can start talking! :D
 

Hellhawk666

Hellhawk666
Card-carrying, fully paid up grumpy old-timer here. Although at almost 60 I'm one of the older backers, oddly I tend to identify more with the views of the younger/post-beta players.

I was an '84 but right from the Kickstarter I imagined and hoped that ED would far excel the prior games in the franchise. Because Elite was limited by technology back in the day is no reason for ED to be limited in any way now other than by the technology. I think that's what some of the "old guard" don't get - ED can be (is becoming) more than just the original game(s) brought up to date with bling - thank goodness.

Just as Braben & Bell pushed the bounderies of gameplay expectations and design in the 80s, it's entirely appropriate for ED to do the same now. Powerplay, CQC, first person content/combat, multiple platform support, VR, - all these things, and much more, have a place and are welcome IMHO.

I hope the devs push the game as hard and as far as it can go, and I do hope they incorporate as much of the missing DDA proposal ideas as possible. If that means they need us to keep testing while they refine the code for the next few years and we live with a game that's half-finished ina lot of ways - great.
 
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Luniticisi

Luniticisi
Oddball said:
There is one thing that nobody can deny and that is that the game is absolutely beautiful. The stars, planets, stations and ships are all very well done. Yes, there are a few things I don't like but the game is getting better with each update and its going to be worth the wait when we get planetary landings.
Click to expand...

It's Been a while since I've seen you here Oddball, good to see you back .. But do you really think that we are going to actually get Planetary landings or even walking around ships/stations ? .. with the way things are going us old timers are going to be stuck with a bigger better version of Elite '84/Oolite .. (not a bad thing, but not was was promoted) .. too much time spent on Pew Pew .. my imagination to build stories whist playing games left me a long time ago, I'm not 12 anymore.
 

SlackR

Banned
SlackR
Sonoskay said:
this is not true at all.. there are still tight limitations. and catering to everyone who has thier own ideal of what direction teh game should take. its not only impossible, but what some people seem to want is very impractical

Jesus i swear to god some people think its easy to make a good 3d game now on a scale as grand as this. Money time and people
are all factors. and you cant just "whip up a game mechanic" and make it work.
Click to expand...

I couldn't disagree more... I don't think anyone assumes it is easy... Just possible. And as for catering to everyone being impossible... Wasn't that my entire point?
 
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Comrade Napoleon

Comrade Napoleon
Grumpy ol' man here too..
By nature I am grumpy ;) so no problem there...
I have had well more than 1500 hours of play, so I suppose I got what I paid for...
But I still feel let down, that the so many things have not eyt been sorted out, meaningful missions, proper interaction in Wings, some sort of consisten NPC's, a more living galaxy, background simulation that works, piracy, exploration and mining made meaningful ect..
Then we get PP, which is awful, and now Arena is coming sigh...
Could FD just have fixed stuff first, I wouldnot care about it and be blissfully ignorant, but as it is I am let down.
And now everybody talks Planetary Landings.. OMG why ? there is and will not be anything meaningful to do, there is not now, why then ?
The thing i console myself in is that I can just fly around and enjoy that, but even that is slowly wearing thin :(

Cheers Cmdr's
 

DidierDrbois

DidierDrbois
Not about old or new-timers. Not about expectations either. It's about what was promised. And I'm pretty confident it'll never be delivered.
_
Some months ago I was banging my head against the wall I didn't back this game. Now I see I dodged a bullet.
 
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