Anyone still believing in that would be pretty blind at this point.
How can you compare ED as ahead of other futuristic space sim?
Is it because of the great flight model?
Nope, it isn't better than most, yet is good enough.
Is it because of the awesome graphics?
Nope, galaxy background is nice but ship/station/rocks looks good only from far away (and not too far, nor close).
This can be fixed easily as they make improvement to follow other game and have no fear about that point. But it isn't ahead once again.
Is it because of the persistent damage graphics?
Nope, there's no persistent damage graphics and even the poor anaconda hull change aren't related to what happened to the ship. They are as evolved as other games were 10 years ago.
There's a big amount of work to be done to catch up with current possibilities.
Is it because of how ship behave regarding to physics and hit?
Nope, neither the ship direction/speed react as physic would dictate if a collision occurs. Neither does it make sense to have shieldless ship crashing into each other yet retaining perfect hull anatomy, only to kick away like 2 ball of pool would. No deformation and some useless/meaningless spin. Ain't any better if you crash into the station where ABSOLUTELY nothing happens : Both ship and station remains intact. Yet, you will lost control of the ship which will enter the once again meaningless state of "spark on the dash only to explode a few seconds after".
Seeing how primitive this is, it's hard to believe they will catch up.
Is it because of the great ship customizations?
Nope, modules doesn't make any sense nor do they provide possibility of roles. There's not way one can consider a 4 basic role something deep or useful. It's all about 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8, E-D-C-B-A, no mather the ship, brand, role it shoudl have. You don't need to make any modification to that 3A power plant so you can fit it instantly from the same shop in either your cobra or corvette. Shields all are set at the same maximum recharge rate. That cobra recharge the same amount of shield the conda/corvette does as long as you feed it enough juice.
Wish that Engineering make a huge move toward this, else I bet they will not make it on time before people get bored with Elite.
Is it because of the deep economy where your action actually influence the game?
Nope, anything done doesn't change anything but slightly change the amount available. It will simply move back to the "ideal" set number for the station at a pre-determined speedwithout taking into account if the station has what it takes to do so, nor use any resource to do it.
Once again, it is a needed change but will likely not happen soon considering the amount of work that would be needed.
Is it because you can group up effectively and play as a huge group?
Nope, P2P has so many trouble that only in rare instance will you be able to have a functional group.
This isn't something Frontier can solve as the P2P mecanism make it impossible to really fix. It would need a full game redo.
Is it because you can walk around and do what you want?
Nope, because you can't yet. Once again, it's lacking and stand behind other games.
It might be added soon, so we'll see in next year if they manage to catch up while it's still time.
Is it because of how you can influence the galaxy?
Well on that one, it is still basic but with some tweak, the Power Play part could be great. Sure the factions have no meaning at this time, but I don't feel that Elite is behind other games.
Is it because of the great involving mission?
Nope, they are pretty pointless. Can't wait for the promised upgraded mission to see if they are going to make them useful and fun. Anyhow, at this moment they are far from being ahead of any other game. Hell, even old non space sim game like Arena back in 94 had better missions.
So, in the end, Elite isn't ahead of other game. The only place it really shines at this moment is at the beauty of the galaxy which is great as long as you are able to avoid looking at the stars eruption which ruins everything otherwise.
Many people have been asking for all those changes for a long time. I also consider that those should be taken as a high priority target over some other objectives that should be labelled as secondary/terciary priority. If Frontier pull the loot and crafting right, it could really deepen the experience. Ship launched fighter should also add variation to gameplay style and should be prioritized over superficial upgrade. See multicrew, which will only provide more mess around because of P2P and lack of dept of ship customization. It would be a great addition, but once other thing were taken care of. Just as commander creation should not have been made a priority over deepening the same ship customization and game economics. Once again, it will be a great superficial upgrade, no doubt about it. Yet, there's no utility to it and they should have spent time on this later.
Frontier needs to see that a huge part of their player base will not keep waiting, wishing that the game will grow as it was supposed to. Good willingness can only make it to a point and many player decided it was enough for them.
People keep saying over many thread every day how they like Elite but won't keep playing unless some depth is added. People resort to griefing because there's nothing significative to do in-game. People mess up PowerPlay to try and force Frontier to make some move. People sell their account on 3rd party website after growing bored. Group pushing the development of the storyline are no longer interested in trying as they see almost no result from their work.
If Frontier could come up with more information toward future update and how they will focus on deepening the experience, I guess most of this bleeding would stop. It might even surelybe reversed if they implemented new mecanism. Instead of losing player, more would join up and help brings funds so they can push even more content in the game.
My whole post might seems like I hate the game. I don't. But I also have no desire to play until those many changes happens. If they don't happen, Elite will surely be soon forgotten as a "play your way" game that failed to deliver what was promised. It would really be sad as the fixes needed to avoid this seems within arm's reach for Frontier (except for P2P which might be a long shot with all the changes it would need).
