Elite: Universe - We need a new Elite

Elite: Dangerous (ED) is fine and all, but it does have its shortcomings. Specifically, the scientific aspect of it is lacking. ED if focused more on gameplay rather than scientific accuracy and discovery.

True, the gameplay aspect of it fits some of the playerbase better than it does others. But for commanders like me, I want to see the actual physics of the galaxy come into play. I want to see CME's scour nearby planets, while their darkside remains shrouded in ice. I want to see accretion disks around protostars and black holes. And yes, black holes need to be deadly. And time dilation effects need to have a profound impact on your ships, as well as your body.

The commander should not be impervious and needs to be fragile as every other human. Yes, this includes commander maintenance. You need food. You need to poop. And you need to water the flowers. The effects of zero-g should have an impact on the commander's ability to operate. Even space madness should be a factor if you're out in the black alone.

Large ships with complex parts need to have more than a one man crew. And each crewmember needs to be responsible for various tasks. There needs to be NPC crew members with various levels of training and sometimes they need to f'up which would create an emergency situation that you have to respond to. There can be human crew-members as well, but they need to be backed up by an NPC crew member if the human crewmember is away. Your ship needs to continue flying, even though you're not online. This is a simulation, and not a shoot-em-up game.

Technology is not perfect. There needs to be wear and tear on the ships and it needs constant maintenance. If you run out of materials to maintain the ship, then you need to land on planets to find said material, refine them, and shape them for use.

Speaking of material, exploration should not be a magical honk machine that discovers all planets all at once. Sure, you can have several telescopes mounted on your ship to discover bodies in that system, but to get a more detailed scan of the system you need to fly around bodies, or send probes to them to gather information.

Time needs to be a factor. Light can only travel so far, after all. As you warp space around you to travel to the system, the object you're steering towards needs to appear to speed up its orbit, and you need to adjust accordingly.

Ships should not simply be made up of modules. There should be specific ship designs, wiring, circuitry, infrastructure, etc, and each should serve a purpose and be connected. A whole module or structure can fail and you have to replace it, or part of a module or structure can fail and you can repair it.

We could start another kickstarter for this game, FD. Both Elite: Dangerous and Elite: Universe can feed into each other. ED can serve to improve the playability of EU and EU can serve to increase the scientific accuracy of ED without sacrificing playability.

What do you think? Would you like a more simulation based game that complements ED, or do you think ED is enough?

And oh yeah, it will be a new development team that is strictly focused on simulation and scientific accuracy so that pew-pew game play doesn't sneak its way in.

I'm amending this post to address some of the naysayers. The format I will use is a summary of they naysayer's response, followed by my response, a summary of my response, or a summary of another's response:

* Go work for NASA. This is a game and needs to be playable. It would be boring if too accurate

Some of us actually like things that are scientifically accurate. To us, this is game play.

* Go play another game that matches what you want

Don't try to turn me or anyone away from Frontier games. I like Elite: Dangerous and I do not want to switch. So suggesting that I or anyone go play another game is counter-intuitive to actually supporting Elite: Dangerous and Frontier Development.

* Frontier Development won't read your post, don't care about your ideas, so don't even bother.

They read more than you think! And an idea not expressed doesn't exist. At least I made my thoughts known.

* Why would FD put developers onto making a new Elite: Dangerous when this game has so many bugs/problems with it?

Again, I'm not talking about Elite: Dangerous. I'm talking about Elite: Universe with a separate set of developers dedicated to development. And I'm recommending another kickstarter to pay for it. And kickstarters aren't just for new companies. FD has been around for a long time and they started a kickstarter for ED. And Elite: Universe would be a completely new game, borrowing from ED environments and code, but focused more on the scientifically accurate side of simulation.

* It would be a waste of DEV time. Time would be better spent on bug fixes.

The same argument was given when Christopher Columbus wanted to discover the new world. And also when people talk about contemporary space exploration. "We have too many problems here on earth."
 
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You might apply for a job at NASA. Train to be an astronaut. There you will find everything to be realistic wrt "the scientific aspect"...

ED is a video game. It need to be "playable". You wouldn't want it to be too scientifically accurate. You would be bored to death by the expanses... (You know FTL travel is NOT scientifically accurate, right?)
 
Elite: Dangerous (ED) is fine and all, but it does have its shortcomings. Specifically, the scientific aspect of it is lacking. ED if focused more on gameplay rather than scientific accuracy and discovery.

True, the gameplay aspect of it fits some of the playerbase better than it does others. But for commanders like me, I want to see the actual physics of the galaxy come into play. I want to see CME's scour nearby planets, while their darkside remains shrouded in ice. I want to see accretion disks around protostars and black holes. And yes, black holes need to be deadly. And time dilation effects need to have a profound impact on your ships, as well as your body.

The commander should not be impervious and needs to be fragile as every other human. Yes, this includes commander maintenance. You need food. You need to poop. And you need to water the flowers. The effects of zero-g should have an impact on the commander's ability to operate. Even space madness should be a factor if you're out in the black alone.

Large ships with complex parts need to have more than a one man crew. And each crewmember needs to be responsible for various tasks. There needs to be NPC crew members with various levels of training and sometimes they need to f'up which would create an emergency situation that you have to respond to. There can be human crew-members as well, but they need to be backed up by an NPC crew member if the human crewmember is away. Your ship needs to continue flying, even though you're not online. This is a simulation, and not a shoot-em-up game.

Technology is not perfect. There needs to be wear and tear on the ships and it needs constant maintenance. If you run out of materials to maintain the ship, then you need to land on planets to find said material, refine them, and shape them for use.

Speaking of material, exploration should not be a magical honk machine that discovers all planets all at once. Sure, you can have several telescopes mounted on your ship to discover bodies in that system, but to get a more detailed scan of the system you need to fly around bodies, or send probes to them to gather information.

Time needs to be a factor. Light can only travel so far, after all. As you warp space around you to travel to the system, the object you're steering towards needs to appear to speed up its orbit, and you need to adjust accordingly.

Ships should not simply be made up of modules. There should be specific ship designs, wiring, circuitry, infrastructure, etc, and each should serve a purpose and be connected. A whole module or structure can fail and you have to replace it, or part of a module or structure can fail and you can repair it.

We could start another kickstarter for this game, FD. Both Elite: Dangerous and Elite: Universe can feed into each other. ED can serve to improve the playability of EU and EU can serve to increase the scientific accuracy of ED without sacrificing playability.

What do you think? Would you like a more simulation based game that complements ED, or do you think ED is enough?

And oh yeah, it will be a new development team that is strictly focused on simulation and scientific accuracy so that pew-pew gameplay doesn't sneak its way in.

Rogue System. What you're thinking about is Rogue System.
Nice knowing you, bye.
 
Why are those averse to any change to ED the first to respond? I'm not even asking for a change to ED, but a new game called Elite: Universe! lol
 
And they always try to get go to another game, away from Frontier... No thank you. FD, you need to get a handle on these people. They're trying to lure your customer base away.
 
You pretty much described what certain other game is aiming for and failing with the basics so far. But I agree, more in depth stuff like ship maintenance and EVA are needed in Elite. Just maybe not make it another survival (eat drink every 5 minutes to survive) type of game play. More sim like game play - absolutely.
 
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You pretty much described what certain other game is aiming for and failing with the basics so far. But I agree, more in depth stuff like ship maintenance and EVA are needed in Elite. Just maybe not make it another survival (eat drink every 5 minutes to survive) type of gasmplay.

I'm not talking about Elite: Dangerous. I'm taking about Elite: Universe. Leave ED for the pew-pew people and have EU for the Elite cmdrs that prefer simulation over game play.
 
Why are those averse to any change to ED the first to respond? I'm not even asking for a change to ED, but a new game called Elite: Universe! lol


I can understand your desire for a different game base on Elite but are you expecting Frontier to read this and say "Great idea. We'll get on it right away!"

Some of these suggestions would take away so much playability and you have to balance that. Elite is more scientifically accurate than any other space sim out there.
Having the ship fly when you're not there is silly. In real life you could just power down and go to sleep.

And sorry to be the spelling bee but it's 'discs' not 'disks'.
 
I can understand your desire for a different game base on Elite but are you expecting Frontier to read this and say "Great idea. We'll get on it right away!"

Some of these suggestions would take away so much playability and you have to balance that. Elite is more scientifically accurate than any other space sim out there.
Having the ship fly when you're not there is silly. In real life you could just power down and go to sleep.

And sorry to be the spelling bee but it's 'discs' not 'disks'.

A thought not expressed doesn't exist. I'm hoping at least they read it, and maybe they might think, "great idea!" If not, at least I suggested it.
 
Maybe they can try a new track; make the development opensource with the core engine called as a service and the code on FD servers. That would mean they would have to develop an API and expose it to the OS community.
 
Maybe they can try a new track; make the development opensource with the core engine called as a service and the code on FD servers. That would mean they would have to develop an API and expose it to the OS community.

Slight off topic but this is why I was very upset that Elite cancelled offline galaxy. Opening game to modders - I can only imagine what our community would do with this game.
 
What do you think? Would you like a more simulation based game that complements ED, or do you think ED is enough?

And oh yeah, it will be a new development team that is strictly focused on simulation and scientific accuracy so that pew-pew gameplay doesn't sneak its way in.

Well, I am all for it.
Just the good all Newtonian flight model .... and pew pew would be actual skill based, dropping to a minimum, cos you would have time to vector out if you like to... I for my part had fun jousting back in the 'ol days.

Don't get me wrong, that "to make it drama Doppeldecker flight model" has its own charm, but if one follows the DD forum, maybe a little too much?

Cheers
 
Well, I am all for it.
Just the good all Newtonian flight model .... and pew pew would be actual skill based, dropping to a minimum, cos you would have time to vector out if you like to... I for my part had fun jousting back in the 'ol days.

Don't get me wrong, that "to make it drama Doppeldecker flight model" has its own charm, but if one follows the DD forum, maybe a little too much?

Cheers

DD forum?
 
* Go play another game that matches what you want

Don't try to turn me or anyone away from Frontier games. I like Elite: Dangerous and I do not want to switch. So suggesting that I or anyone go play another game is counter-intuitive to actually supporting Elite: Dangerous and Frontier Development.

Arent you asking for a new game though?
 
Everyone has their own wants and desires for a game.
Personally, I don't want what your asking for, and respectfully request that FD don't implement those things.
 
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