OK I said earlier that I had some thoughts going on videos but openly admitted those thoughts were fairly meaningless without playing.... well now I have and here goes.
1) jesus, those ship models are somthing else in terms of detail. I think they are some of the best I have seen on a pc game. My 300i in the hanger, all in white is sweeeet!.
I thought it looked ok pre PBR but now...... on top of that, performance on my 670 is better too. playable on full buble 1080P.
2) The damage model is cool. I clipped an asteroid and realised I damaged my gun.... a quick outside view look, I hadnt damaged it, it was gone, alone with the left side of my rear tail.
I also lost an engine with 1 life... that was good too.
3) I tried with the X52, it was floaty, unresponsive and didnt feel right. I am thinking this could be improved over time. the throttle was ok though.
4) there is not enough mass to the ships imo. I just dont really feel I am flying a big vehicle. That being said, there is no reason why this cant be tweaked.
5) The big negative for me and what I am worried about. Mouse aim and flight at the same time.... This is the worst thing I have seen so far, for my perspective. If HOTAS is going to be a viable option in this game, the complete dumbing down of the mouse controls has to be scrapped. people saying "its not fair, why should my mouse aim be nerfed.... Fine, I can kind of accept that to a point, but take your bitter medicine with your sweet treats, if you are goiing to get pinpoint target snap to mouse aim, you should still have to be flying the vehicle as well, not this arcade war thunder nonsense.
I havent tried with flight assist off yet, I will do of course but the thing is, so long as the option is there for it to be on, along with the mouse control, to disable it in multiplayer and go up against full assist mouse control will be suicide.
I havent experimented with 3rd person yet to see if that is balance ruining either.....
things like the sound effects, poor lasers etc I am not concerned about, neither am I the AI, all of those things will be improved.
So conclusion (sorry if I am rambling I am just trying to be balanced and honest)......................
I dont think it is as bad as some have said on here.
It looks amazing.
The flight mechanics with a stick needs work but is not a lost cause.
It feels a bit floaty and disconnected but again, i think this can be fixed with a little tinkering.
imo the mouse controls seriously need a rethink. For me this will make or break the game.
For me personally though, as of right now, it does not come close to the feeling of flying a big complicated ship, which elite gives me. I think it is completely unfair however to pooh pooh any gamers however who prefer SC. They are both very different games, and it would be dull if we were all the same.