Please FD make the transitions between SC and normal more like Star Citizen.

[saremun]

Elite does slightly disjointed transitions now, live in a game.

SC does smooth transitions in a spooled up demo server with two people in it.

When SC does smooth transitions live in a game then you will have something to compare Elite too.

And that may happen. But I look at it like this. Both Elite and SC are trying to create the same thing. But they are going about it in different ways. FDEV released the core space flight game and universe for people to play in now. They are then expanding on that in stages, introducing more and more aspects of the game. Walking around will come (hopefully), landing on terrestrial planets will come. FPS integration will come. In the mean time you can play the game now.

SC it going to release a much more complete game... at some point. You can do some very limited play in a small test area now, or fly around some asteroids and walk around a hanger or small city area (hows that for disjointed by the way?).

I hope in a few years they are both going strong and are two different takes on living in the future. I will play both. But there is no point in comparing them now. Elite is a published working game. SC is not.

You forget that will have an Open MMO world unlike ED with their holy trinity of Open, Solo and Private so there will be much more than what Elite have right now in the case of the players, the other thing is the fact that in Elite Dangerous the aspect of Open world is fading away with each passing day rendering the current feeble Open play session useless, i know many people from the Open play who no longer play this game and may have left it for good and most of them were active PVPers searching for a real meaning to own a star system or even a ship...

 

[[DOOK] Droogie]

I absolutely agree. I watched their Gamescon video and that was very interesting. I don't know how many different stations they will have and how many different NPC mission givers there will be but the way the mission was given was just amazing. The multi-player aspect was pretty good too, although I don't really care playing with someone else. I already have an Aurora in my hangar and I launched the alpha only once so far. There isn't much you can do at the moment but I think that when Alpha 3.0 comes out, it will be more interesting. I'm still deeply involved in ED and I can't spend my time in another game at the moment, due to limited play time. But maybe when 3.0 arrives, I'll give it a try. Lot of people here keeps saying that SC is not ready yet but it's getting close. Frontier took a different approach where they release small pieces over time while Robert Industries wants to have most functionalities already in when they finally release the first public version. I don't think one way is better than the other. Yes, in ED, you can travel to billions of stars but they all more or less look the same. You have access to a lot of stations but they all look more or less the same. You have access to a ton of minor faction leaders in the mission board but they all look more or less the same. Everything is pretty static, no NPC moving anywhere. Lots of possibilities in ED that are not exploited yet. In SC, you have limited possibilities but they are all very deep. Can you imagine getting missions in ED like they want to do it in SC? That'd be awesome!

It wasn't just that. It was sitting outside of a station in your ship, and seeing your friend inside of it waving to you. Seeing people doing people things with other people around said station. The video comms...it actually felt alive. That one little area gives the impression of a living breathing galaxy dominated by humanity.

Anyway, this has gone off topic. It just gets frustrating when SC is met with such cynicism as they continue to deliver and communicate. The small steps are over. Every patch is a giant leap now.

 

[Asp Explorer]

Every patch is a giant something, certainly.

 

[Devari]

It's several years beyond because the backers decided to go big. It is well beyond what they had originally planned. It was go with what was originally planned, or go for "the dream". The backers chose the dream.

My issue here is that the backers already paid for the dream, and Roberts didn't actually spend that money responsibly. If they had an efficient, focused operation like FD does and used the money wisely, they'd already have a game that completely blows Elite out of the water. And yet ED is far more developed than SC (with the obvious exception of the fps perspective which ED has not implemented yet).

You can't compare this to NMS. We know exactly what we get for our money, and we're on board during the whole development process. Chris Roberts has never disappointed.

As much as I'm a huge fan of the original Wing Commander games (I actually have the CCG cards and small 3D-printed models of the ships) that statement is not entirely true. The Wing Commander movie, which Roberts directed, was absolute garbage. So on that point he has disappointed, although arguably not in the video game market.

Games take a long time to develop. There's nothing else like SC out there. Fallout 4 took 7 years with an established engine designed for doing what it does. CiG has accomplished a whole lot in a short amount of time.

I will admit that the recent Gamescon demo looks impressive, and it was nice to see that they are making at least some basic progress on the ship interiors which was my main issue with the concept ships. I'm actually thinking that SC might actually achieve a "minimum viable product" state, but it will not be anywhere near the scope that Roberts and the backers originally dreamed about. They simply don't have enough time and money left to accomplish anything like that at this point.

3.0 looms absolutely incredible, and there's nl reason to believe it won't be. They've been very transparent with us, and I'm amazed every patch.

You know what, though? I'll bite. I've been heavily criticizing SC from the outside looking at all the problems. Instead I'll put my money where my mouth is. I just bought the Terrapin (the Gamescon concept ship) for $200 USD. I'm a backer now. I've bought the "dream". I have a "stake" in the game, and not a trivial one either. I even went ahead and bought something that doesn't even exist in their demo yet, which is exactly what I have heavily criticized the SC backers for. Not only that, the Terrapin is an exploration ship so I'm even relying on Roberts managing to develop at least a rudimentary "exploration" mechanic to enjoy that ship when the game launches. Despite all of this, it isn't even the highest risk purchase I've put into an online game. MechWarrior online turned out to be an even worse Ponzi scheme where they were literally siphoning off funding to put into other projects (instead of actually developing the promised game features) and I put several hundred dollars into that game before I realized how badly the backers were defrauded.

Now it's Roberts move. He has my money, $200 USD worth. He can spend it on his yacht or he can deliver the game he's promised. We'll see what happens, but now I can "officially" criticize Roberts if he misues my money.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

You forget that will have an Open MMO world unlike ED with their holy trinity of Open, Solo and Private so there will be much more than what Elite have right now in the case of the players, the other thing is the fact that in Elite Dangerous the aspect of Open world is fading away with each passing day rendering the current feeble Open play session useless, i know many people from the Open play who no longer play this game and may have left it for good and most of them were active PVPers searching for a real meaning to own a star system or even a ship...

Both are MMO games. SC has seperate modes for PvP and PvE players, there's matchmaking going on, there's no guarantee you will meet each other on SC servers too.

You understand there are certain limitations and playing styles in SC community too?

 

[Yaffle]

Closing, this is just another SC thread. Head over there to collect your infractions.