You who create such threads have become jaded. Don't get me wrong, I recently started getting very vocal about the things I think are wrong, after initially sitting quietly for a long time. BUT, hile I do like a good rant about the latest debacle FD has created for themselves, the actual core of this game, the ships, the flight mechanics, the weapons, the way they interact (thermal/kinetic/absolute), the way the pips affect systems, the balance in the module sizing for different ships, balanced against hardpoint layout and size. The sheer complexity of the 'base' of the game, the ships, is mind blowing. It;s as involved as any character build in any other MMO, and engineering put the cherry on the cake, allowing players to minmax as they please.
What I'm trying to say is while the galaxy is a little dull, the content a little dry, Thargoids a little underwhelming, diminishign returns confusing and open CGs a grief-fest, if the next space game you buy doesn't 'fly' as well or better than Elite, you'll be back.
FD is a company of brains. Brains are very clever, but rarely very smart, take the vid about the swarm recently, my god that's awesome. But I can't help thinking, did it really need to be that special? It doesn't matter what I think, the point is that AS MUCH effort goes into this game as ANY OTHER on the market, it's just that FD put that effort into areas which are less obvious, less visible, and frankly, less normal. These things still add to the game though, and in profound ways that might not immediately be obvious, but would be if they were missing.
The result is a game where the devil is in the details and to see the forest, you really need to use your imagination.
Imagination+elite=fun.
noimagination+elite=just a really great spaceship combat sim and little else.