It was with some bemusement that I watched the forums as I flew around in the center of the galaxy in my Asp, seemingly the game had changed beyond all recognition. "Yeah, it's for the better!" screamed the hardcore combat types, as the remainder of the forum grumbled and moaned.
"It can't be that bad, there must be some middle ground" I thought as I flew back. Then partway through my journey home, my Rift turned up, and the game was transformed into a beautiful looking immersive gem of a space flight sim. A couple of days of flying in the Asp with the rift persuaded me to buy a new GTX1070, so that I could turn the graphics up and enjoy this exquisite work of art.
Eventually, at long last, I got back from my exploring trip, handed in my data and got a cool 90mil or so. I was entertaining vague fantasies about getting a Python and learning to fly it so that I'd have a ship powerful enough and well defended enough to get some missions under my belt so I'd have some combat experience with the new difficulty for when the thargoids turn up.
I thought I'd earn a little more cash first though, and since I'd been neglecting my freighter, I jumped into my Type 7 for a bit. Bearing all the recent wailing and gnashing of teeth in mind, I upgraded the shields, added two mine launchers, and added some military grade composite hull armor. Went on a couple of trade runs, nothing special, earned about a million credits or so.
Figuring I'd give my Vulture a bit of a fly around, I set a course for my home station, and got interdicted on the way there. I managed to shrug the interdiction off, four pips to shields, chaff, and high-wake out. But since I needed to get to the station in that system, I had to return. Jumped back in, set a course for my home station again, and got interdicted again (different NPC this time), twice in the space of two minutes.
This time round, I didn't have the option of submitting to interdiction and high waking out, as when I powered down the engine, I went cartwheeling across space like a discus. Eventually I managed stop spinning, drop chaff, to look at my navigation computer and plotted a high-wake route again. Hoping to buy myself some time, I dropped a couple of mines in the Cobra's path and I think I heard them go off, andI started charging the frame shift drive.
At which point three things happened: 1, my shields dropped from two rings to offline. 2, a shot took my hull from high nineties% to 43%, 3. A third shot sent my ass into space and turned my ship into wreckage. I mention again that this was a cobra. Before the update, an anaconda couldn't do that to my Type 7 freighter.
I was more surprised than angry to be honest. I wasn't carrying anything particularly valuable (tea). I repurchased my freighter and eventually made it back to my home station.
I jumped into my vulture and flew that about for a bit, and then I went to play Doom for a bit.
Having slept on it, I don't think that my play stile in Elite is sustainable. I don't see how I can trade, when I'm in a game that now allows me to be interdicted twice in two minutes, and killed in three shots. If running from interdictors is not a valid response and carries little chance of success, and fighting them carries no likelihood of survival, then I must conclude that trading simply isn't viable.
I've just got back from 7 weeks of exploring and it was okay, quite nice actually, but I wouldn't want to go and do it for another seven weeks, so exploring is out too.
And as for combat, well, I'm in my vulture now, half hoping someone would interdict me to see whether someone could confirm my fears/put my mind at ease. But I'm not going to zig zag across space for an hour to try and get it to happen.
Elite is a beautiful beautiful game. It's so beautiful in the rift that I bought a 1070 for it, so I could enjoy everything it had to offer the way it was intended to be enjoyed. It's beautiful, detailed, immersive and polished, and until recently, it was my go-to game whatever mood I was in. I've got over 500 hours in it.
But it seems to have turned into a game where whatever I'm doing can be interrupted by a random who I can't fight and can't run from. And with that in mind I look at the mission bored offering new tasks, or the shipyard offering sparkly new ships, and think What's the point? I'll only lose it.
My friend was getting all excited as I sang Elite's praises on my journey back from the core. How beautiful it looked, how great it felt to fly through space, to land on planets. I'd talked to him about the difficulty spike and told him not to worry, "It simply can't be as bad as people say it is", I said. And now, he's getting excited about jumping into his own ship, I've had to advise him to look at the recent steam reviews, and to advise him that I can't recommend this game anymore.
I'm glad that people are enjoying Elite's new difficulty. I'm sad that I'm not one of them. Especially since I spent nearly a grand in the last two weeks to enjoy the game as it was intended. Now my rift sits unused, my graphics card is idle, my X56 preorder cancelled. And the hardcore combat types can smile, laugh and jeer, as they seem to at anyone who is not a hardcore combat type. I just never got seriously into combat I guess. If I want a sense of achievement from accomplishing something hard, I'll look for it the other side of my bedroom window and not on my computer.
I'll keep an eye on how ED progresses, might even play it from time to time, but any emotional investment I had in it, any hopes and expectations of future enjoyment? I don't have those anymore.
Sad, really.
"It can't be that bad, there must be some middle ground" I thought as I flew back. Then partway through my journey home, my Rift turned up, and the game was transformed into a beautiful looking immersive gem of a space flight sim. A couple of days of flying in the Asp with the rift persuaded me to buy a new GTX1070, so that I could turn the graphics up and enjoy this exquisite work of art.
Eventually, at long last, I got back from my exploring trip, handed in my data and got a cool 90mil or so. I was entertaining vague fantasies about getting a Python and learning to fly it so that I'd have a ship powerful enough and well defended enough to get some missions under my belt so I'd have some combat experience with the new difficulty for when the thargoids turn up.
I thought I'd earn a little more cash first though, and since I'd been neglecting my freighter, I jumped into my Type 7 for a bit. Bearing all the recent wailing and gnashing of teeth in mind, I upgraded the shields, added two mine launchers, and added some military grade composite hull armor. Went on a couple of trade runs, nothing special, earned about a million credits or so.
Figuring I'd give my Vulture a bit of a fly around, I set a course for my home station, and got interdicted on the way there. I managed to shrug the interdiction off, four pips to shields, chaff, and high-wake out. But since I needed to get to the station in that system, I had to return. Jumped back in, set a course for my home station again, and got interdicted again (different NPC this time), twice in the space of two minutes.
This time round, I didn't have the option of submitting to interdiction and high waking out, as when I powered down the engine, I went cartwheeling across space like a discus. Eventually I managed stop spinning, drop chaff, to look at my navigation computer and plotted a high-wake route again. Hoping to buy myself some time, I dropped a couple of mines in the Cobra's path and I think I heard them go off, andI started charging the frame shift drive.
At which point three things happened: 1, my shields dropped from two rings to offline. 2, a shot took my hull from high nineties% to 43%, 3. A third shot sent my ass into space and turned my ship into wreckage. I mention again that this was a cobra. Before the update, an anaconda couldn't do that to my Type 7 freighter.
I was more surprised than angry to be honest. I wasn't carrying anything particularly valuable (tea). I repurchased my freighter and eventually made it back to my home station.
I jumped into my vulture and flew that about for a bit, and then I went to play Doom for a bit.
Having slept on it, I don't think that my play stile in Elite is sustainable. I don't see how I can trade, when I'm in a game that now allows me to be interdicted twice in two minutes, and killed in three shots. If running from interdictors is not a valid response and carries little chance of success, and fighting them carries no likelihood of survival, then I must conclude that trading simply isn't viable.
I've just got back from 7 weeks of exploring and it was okay, quite nice actually, but I wouldn't want to go and do it for another seven weeks, so exploring is out too.
And as for combat, well, I'm in my vulture now, half hoping someone would interdict me to see whether someone could confirm my fears/put my mind at ease. But I'm not going to zig zag across space for an hour to try and get it to happen.
Elite is a beautiful beautiful game. It's so beautiful in the rift that I bought a 1070 for it, so I could enjoy everything it had to offer the way it was intended to be enjoyed. It's beautiful, detailed, immersive and polished, and until recently, it was my go-to game whatever mood I was in. I've got over 500 hours in it.
But it seems to have turned into a game where whatever I'm doing can be interrupted by a random who I can't fight and can't run from. And with that in mind I look at the mission bored offering new tasks, or the shipyard offering sparkly new ships, and think What's the point? I'll only lose it.
My friend was getting all excited as I sang Elite's praises on my journey back from the core. How beautiful it looked, how great it felt to fly through space, to land on planets. I'd talked to him about the difficulty spike and told him not to worry, "It simply can't be as bad as people say it is", I said. And now, he's getting excited about jumping into his own ship, I've had to advise him to look at the recent steam reviews, and to advise him that I can't recommend this game anymore.
I'm glad that people are enjoying Elite's new difficulty. I'm sad that I'm not one of them. Especially since I spent nearly a grand in the last two weeks to enjoy the game as it was intended. Now my rift sits unused, my graphics card is idle, my X56 preorder cancelled. And the hardcore combat types can smile, laugh and jeer, as they seem to at anyone who is not a hardcore combat type. I just never got seriously into combat I guess. If I want a sense of achievement from accomplishing something hard, I'll look for it the other side of my bedroom window and not on my computer.
I'll keep an eye on how ED progresses, might even play it from time to time, but any emotional investment I had in it, any hopes and expectations of future enjoyment? I don't have those anymore.
Sad, really.
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ok sorry I promised to shut up :]
