Do we still see ED as being THE space game in 12 months?

[Ian Skippy]

I was referring to 90 % of the audience. People owning the hardware and being interested in video games.

Did you also know that 100% of the audience of VR is into VR? Amazing!

Kinda worked in the 90's.. Just too early I guess.
That said, when they look back in another 25yrs or so, they will probably write exactly what you wrote there, regards what we have now.

Sure. Then again, I am also quite sure people will look back on people playing 'space sims' using a mouse and a flat screen as something rather... not state-of-the-art.

 

[Surefoot]

VR is *not* "placeholder gameplay" !? That you didnt ever try it properly is one thing, but do not project your expectations on reality. VR is there to stay, and has actually transformed the whole simulation world, now one could not imagine playing a sim without it. ED is completely transformed by this experience too, and is the only reason i played this game, and from all the geeks i know they all enjoy it enough to have bought their own headset.. I could cite Star Trek Bridge Crew for another fantastic experience, and one that can be shared with friends.

Also please provide a serious source for your "90%". My small sample of gamers in the area where i live are *all* very enthusiastic about VR... So yeah some couldnt afford it until prices dropped, but now a PC that can run VR games has become affordable.
Oh also it's not related in any way to 90's technology, and not to 3DTV either (it's kinda opposite on the basic principle).

 

[fu9ar]

I was referring to 90 % of the audience. People owning the hardware and being interested in video games.


There was a small VR hype during the 90s, too. The FMV hype followed after that actually. A bunch of developers wasted a large part of the budgets on FMV filming back then while offering only placeholder gameplay. I see the same effect with VR games, which appeared since the hype year 2013, so the comparison is justified.

Nah. You are incredibly wrong. Modern VR is on the cusp of being the new paradigm. 90s VR was crude and more expensive than the consumer options we have now. Your comparison to the live-acted FMV cutscenes is specious... at best.

 

[Old Duck]

So yeah some couldnt afford it until prices dropped, but now a PC that can run VR games has become affordable.

Speak for yourself - some of us have more important bills to pay with our limited savings. As part of the 90% who doesn't play ED in VR, I ask that we get back on topic please

 

[fu9ar]

Speak for yourself - some of us have more important bills to pay with our limited savings. As part of the 90% who doesn't play ED in VR, I ask that we get back on topic please

Dude, I love hookers and blow too, but my rig is almost there and my PC budget is $300 a year.

 

[Ian Skippy]

Speak for yourself - some of us have more important bills to pay with our limited savings. As part of the 90% who doesn't play ED in VR, I ask that we get back on topic please

Will receive mine monday, new for $99. That makes VR cost as much as a low-end monitor, and I am sure it'll drop even further in the coming decade. Resolution needs to go up, it needs to become wireless, more light-weight and less bulky for true mass-appeal. But the future is absolutely clear.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

What is that mystical THE space game?

ED is one of best games out there for me regarding space. And it is highly possible that for others there's different one.

 

[Old Duck]

Will receive mine monday, new for $99. That makes VR cost as much as a low-end monitor, and I am sure it'll drop even further in the coming decade. Resolution needs to go up, it needs to become wireless, more light-weight and less bulky for true mass-appeal. But the future is absolutely clear.

Well I'm not sure what parallel universe you live in where you can do VR for $99, but for me we're talking about $1000 plus investment to do it right - high-end gaming PC, VR headset, tracking cameras, hotas, yada yada. Heck, even to do PSVR I'd have to spend way more than $99! But again, I don't see why I need to spend any money at all on VR when this conversation is supposed to be about ED being "THE" space (not VR) game in the future, even on my humble PS4 Slim

But since the VR 1%ers have taken over, I guess I'll bow out of this thread now...

 

[Ian Skippy]

Well I'm not sure what parallel universe you live in where you can do VR for $99, but for me we're talking about $1000 plus investment to do it right - high-end gaming PC, VR headset, tracking cameras, hotas, yada yada. Heck, even to do PSVR I'd have to spend way more than $99! But again, I don't see why I need to spend any money at all on VR when this conversation is supposed to be about ED being "THE" space (not VR) game in the future, even on my humble PS4 Slim

But since the VR 1%ers have taken over, I guess I'll bow out of this thread now...

The one that has been doing the rounds on the VR forum here is this one: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...0a20001ww_explorer_mixed_reality_headset.html
It doesnt need tracking cameras either. Its E500 over here, but apparantly $99 in the states, shipping worldwide. All I am saying is that a few years ago you needed a $800 headset, a $1000 GPU etc. Now you can play VR for a fraction of the costs, a development that happened very rapidly. This clearly undercuts the 'VR will always be this niche thing for the lucky 1%' and so on, because its now arguably already cheaper in total than what many people spend on a console + large TV.

Considering how space sims lend themselves well for VR, I feel you cannot ignore it when thinking about what 'THE space game' in the near-future will be, just like I cannot ignore HOTAS support for example. If you disagree that is fine, but it is relevant in how I (and others in this topic) look at space games, gaming and the future. No VR and HOTAS support? No contender.

 

[Backer42]

The one that has been doing the rounds on the VR forum here is this one: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...0a20001ww_explorer_mixed_reality_headset.html
It doesnt need tracking cameras either. Its E500 over here, but apparantly $99 in the states, shipping worldwide. All I am saying is that a few years ago you needed a $800 headset, a $1000 GPU etc. Now you can play VR for a fraction of the costs, a development that happened very rapidly. This clearly undercuts the 'VR will always be this niche thing for the lucky 1%' and so on, because its now arguably already cheaper in total than what many people spend on a console + large TV.

And there is still no mass market, and the reason for this is pretty simple:

Compatible with a variety of laptops and desktop computers that meet the requirements of Windows Mixed Reality, the Lenovo Explorer headset allows you to watch shows in a virtual environment, play virtual reality games, travel the world through holo-tours, watch immersive 3D, 360°, and 4K videos, browse websites, or simply get some work done in the Microsoft Office suite.

Solution searching for a problem to solve. To most people VR is just a novelty item and too cumbersome to use.

 

[Surefoot]

No VR and HOTAS support? No contender.

Agreed. The best games that stand to the test of time always push the envelope, and never cater to the mediocrity.

And no VR is not a novelty. It's the de facto standard for all simulations by now. Commercial sim rooms are all equipped. Space sims are part of the genre and have to be onboard the train, or be left behind...

 

[Stigbob]

Nah. It's a strong niche and is never going to stop being relevant to people who love sims. Totally different audience to anyone who wants to play "Night Trap." Just because you're not part of that niche doesn't mean lame internet gibberish like "it's a gimmick like 3D tv!" is applicable.

Just a TINY difference between 90s consumer VR and the stuff we have now: it works.

The current stuff is the VR equivalent of early giant mobile phones clumsy and expensive. In a few more years it'll be smaller cheaper comfortable and far better.

Its not a passing fad or gimmick it's just not been refined enough yet to have mass appeal and its priced way beyond a lot of people.

 

[Joe Akeem]

I will probably cheat on my wife (ED) and go on a trip with X4, but will stay married. After all, EDwina's my highschool sweetheart. (Gonna stop now)

 

[Memnoch]

Really looking forward to X4 but won't be pre-ordering. It's not worth the gamble to me. If it ends up being another warmed over X:R I Egosoft may be done for. But I really hope that's not the case.

Looking at it's Steam page it's £39.99 but there is a pre-order "bonus". The bonus is a tiny discount but only if you buy their collectors edition.

It gives you:

Digital artbook...don't care.
A novel....you can get this from Amazon for £0.12 so sod that!
Digital soundtrack....which comes with the game and there's usually a way of extracting that anyway so another firm no!
Access to the first two expansions...hmmm, first expansion in 2019, the other "released later". So 2020, 2021.

No, I'll just wait on this one and save my money I think.

I watched the VOD of the Chapter 4 stream and am quite impressed by the exploration mechanic they now have, although I can see from the YT comments some are really upset by this. There are those where exploration consists of honk, jump, honk etc. and this will slow them down somewhat, and you only seem to make gains if you are looking to fill in each body, or even those you are interested in. I think that mechanic will get quite boring after a while, if I'm honest.

Is it better than anything else out there right now? Yes, I think so, pretty hard to argue against that. NMS is largely soulless and SC doesn't even exist. Looking forward to what the mining changes will be, and to be fair both of these activities were not things I was largely into but I will certainly give them a go.

So will ED be THE game in a years time? SC is still sitting in a pool of its own excrement so no threat there. X4 is coming along nicely and has more to offer than the single pilot, single ship experience ED offers, with its empire building slant. But we will see whether they have shaken off the horror of what was X:R and then things that made that game awful.

 

[Ian Skippy]

Solution searching for a problem to solve.

That is just ridiculous. But I get it, as always you will keep on arguing that something you dont like should be liked by noone and is stupid. People should like your games, your controllers, your peripherals etc etc. Well, too bad. You dont like it? Your loss, your problem. People may voice their opinion, and as you can clearly hear plenty of people consider VR relevant or even crucial. Deal with it.

 

[Vasco Sapien]

Yes.
I played NMS for 90 hours, finished it and never played it again. I like the look of the new X4 game, but its a game like its predecessors and NMS that i will binge play for 100 hours, finish and then put back on the shelf.
Im not interested in Star Citizen because that game im betting (if released) will be a Pay2Win....PAY PAY PAY nightmare.

ED is my horse. I like the Devs, i like the universe and i like (most) of the community. Im eager to see how Fdev move the game foward with the next premium season once BEYOND is completed. Spacelegs....atmospheres....Cthulhu at Sag A star... who knows.
But Fdev need to pony up the goods. If they do a good job, my staying with ED is guaranteed.

Ive invested alot of time and enthusiasm into ED and i'd like to keep going.

 

[Backer42]

That is just ridiculous.

No, the advertising text is ridiculous. "Travel the world through holo-tours" and "get work done in Microsoft Office". [haha]

If you read such things, you instantly know they have a hard time finding a useful purpose for their "Lenovo Explorer". And this is what it has in common with other novelty items.

 

[Ian Skippy]

No, the advertising text is ridiculous. "Travel the world through holo-tours" and "get work done in Microsoft Office". [haha]

If you read such things, you instantly know they have a hard time finding a useful purpose for their "Lenovo Explorer". And this is what it has in common with other novelty items.

Ah, when an advertisement text is ridiculous the product is silly. Okay. That is such world class logic I will concede your point, VR is terrible, and you are right as always. Congratulations, you've won!

 

[askavir]

Sadly, I don't think any game is going to be a proper alternative to ED in the next 12 months, or even 24 at least.

- X Foundations might make a dent, but it seems too focused on economic empire building, has no planets and no exploration. It does seem to have a more responsive world, where player actions matter more.
- Infinity Battlescape has the looks, but it's only cokbat and only multiplayer. Might make a dent, when released, in the PvP community.
- Star Citizen will never release as a complete, playable game. While it's thoretical premise is, indeed, the ultimate game, every new demo they show makes the game feel even further away from an actual release than the year before.
- Evochon is IMO the only other currently released space sim game even worth mentioning, many rough edges, and production value ir far below ED for obvious reasons (and it show), but It did manage many extremely impressive things for many years now. If it's team had even a fraction of ED's resources, we'd probably be asking if Evochron would still be THE space game in 12 months.
- There are many nice looking space games in development, several on early access, but most are more focused on survival/building than actually being a space sim.
- Starfield will be an RPG. Which is great anyway, I love open world RPG's, so while it won't be an "ED alternative" as in "a space sim", if it's anything like Skyrim or even Oblivion or Fallout but in a scifi setting, I'll have a game to play for the next few years without looking anywhere else (except CDPR's Cyberpunk, I will definitively look at it too).

For better or for worse, ED will still be all there is for the foreseable future in the space sim department. But being fair, it's not simply for the lack of competition, while ED definitively has it's flaws (some quite terrible), is also has plenty of things that are downright incredible, and whenever competition comes, or ED is surpassed by some other game, ED will have had it's name carved out, with due merit, in the history of gaming.

 

[Ian Skippy]

- Evochon is IMO the only other currently released space sim game even worth mentioning, many rough edges, and production value ir far below ED for obvious reasons (and it show), but It did manage many extremely impressive things for many years now. If it's team had even a fraction of ED's resources, we'd probably be asking if Evochron would still be THE space game in 12 months.

While Evochron series is cool, and the team is mostly just one dude, I feel people misunderstand the non-linear relation between resources and development. The first million does a lot more good than the second, and getting the foundations right is a lot easier than the stuff on top. For example, you could give the man a million bucks, but he would come nowhere near Stellar Forge.