Tis the little things ....

[M00ka]

I know the current mantra here is to only pick out problems with the game but I would like to go against the stream so to speak. I would like to acknowledge the little things in the game that still make me smile:

Dropping into my home station, the star was directly behind me and I could see the shadow of my ship on the side of the station. It wasn't a static image, it rotated when I did, and it got me thinking - FD didn't have to go to that details, 99% of us would probably never have noticed if the shadow of our ships were missing or not quite right but they still did it.​

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The way the NPCs float and bounce around the interior of a station whilst waiting to exit, exactly the same way my ship is behaving. Again, whilst the Mistress of the Minons (SJA) did a (I think) wonderful job with the ADC mechanics, I like the fact that the NPC's are seemingly affected the same way - a very nice little touch that again probably would have been missed by most.​

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I know it is scripted and all, but I still get a chuckle with some of the NPC comments around a station - they and whine just as much as us Commanders do, hell probably more. Yes their scripts could do with an improvement but again, would we have complained if there wasn't any NPC chatter?​

So do you have any more of this little treasures in the game that still impress you?

P.S. If you want to complain about the game, please do it in another thread, or be brave and create your own - Thank You

 

[schmicknick]

Fluff the pillows, gather a hot cup of coffee, queue up a film and crack open a favorite book to the most recent chapter...

...then fumble everything about while grabbing for headphones when the launcher drops me immediately into an ongoing CQC round.

 

[Nasc]

So do you have any more of this little treasures in the game that still impress you?

Things like picking out a random spot on the map and meandering my way there. Made it to a place last night some 50k LY from Sol.
Also, landing and hearing that ambient noise for the first time in 30k LY.

 

[schlowi123]

Certainly not a little thing but it may fall into this category: the background sound or the sound in general.

I catch myself more and more often just sitting there on my sofa and browsing the web, with ED in the background. If it is the background chatter when docked on a station (somewhat muffled when "below the surface") or the eerie sound when landed on a planet out in the black.

And regarding the sound in general. Rather obvious are the different noises of each ship. But another example would be the witchspace tunnel. I've never used my ears so much to get information about the state of my persona (or ship) in a game as I do in ED. That needed of course several 100 hours (probably 1000) to develop.

 

[Taimaru]

I had a similar moment yesterday whilst I was mining Painite. The sun was behind me and there was a shadow of my ship on the asteroid I was mining. I watched the shadow of the collector limpets flying up to my ship and thought that's really cool.

Also, the small amount of rock debris flying off the asteroid when the Prospector limpet hits and attaches is a nice touch as well.

I also like flying around Orbital Outposts and hearing all of the different sounds which make it feel like the station is alive with people busy working away.

I do enjoy all the detail that is put into ED.

 

[Raino]

Every time I boost,
the humongous amount of fuel been squeezed into the thrusters, explode and, and after a lil while, a second or so, that loosen part of the FSD housing, the engineer must have forgotten a screw,
goes clanking again - rat - rat - rat - rat .............

 

[Jethro49]

Something I discovered only a few days ago (after thousands of hours !) : the ground turrets around planetary ports are pointing and following my ship while I maneuver to land on my bay. Creepy... If I'm going to be a KOS target for this port, no time wasted to turn the turrets to the right position !

 

[Eliza]

For me it's still the sound design of this game. The subliminal V8-roaring of the Vulture in normal-space or the WW2-style roaring of the AspX. The cracking and aching of the ships structure when you fall out of supercruise, descending onto a moon-surface...the ATC-chatter around stations...etc, etc.

Visually this game is almost perfect, especially in VR. After 2k hours I'm still impressed every time I hop into the cockpit.

To make it simple...Yes, I AM a Fangirl!

 

[FrogsFriend]

Watching Search & Rescue drop into a ring where I was mining to repair the NPC miner who'd been roughed up by a pirate Eagle, while the police Vipers chased the bad guy away across the rings.

 

[Winterwalker]

Carrying illicit goods in high security system (it's only bootleg liquor, Cmdrs) an interdiction might bring in the Feds, who'll scan every ship in the area? No problem ..
Turning off my crime reporter transponder for now.

There are a ton of little features and switches like this.

 

[shek]

Hello muuukkkkaa. I`ve 4 Scania tyres for sale. 3 left & 1 right. Cheap.

 

[Rubbernuke]

Wondering what the Beluga gameshow in certain POIs is all about....

 

[CMDR X]

I love the serene music that starts playing when you stop your SRV or miner for a few minutes.
It then gently fades away as you proceed forward.
X.

 

[Kelster87]

I love that just when I think I've seen everything, I find something new.. Be it shadows like you noticed, OP, or the audio. I've poked around stations and megaships and flown inside some and seen odd things.. Witch Space is a wonder and I suspect there's more to see than I've realised.

I came from the world of ArmA, which is also an openworldy/sandboxy type game.. Huge scale and many options for gameplay.. But it doesn't have have half the surprises of ED.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

I love the serene music that starts playing when you stop your SRV or miner for a few minutes.
It then gently fades away as you proceed forward.
X.

Totally this for me also. I'm a huge fan of the planetary music tracks. And in general, I'm really surprised that I'm not sick of the music in the game - playing for over 2,000 hours listening to the same old ambient tracks doesn't get old (even the SC music I still find very agreeable) confirming just how well composed and arranged it all is.

And the other day, I almost jumped out of my chair as I entered the destination system from witchspace, as I almost went through the secondary star which was just a few Ls away from the primary one. And I don't even play in VR.

Speaking of which, over the past few weeks I played only on my laptop as I was away from home over the holidays, having returned now and back playing on a larger screen (22" instead of 14") and with TrackIR has given me back a certain wow factor - I know it's not a patch on VR but it still adds so much in terms of immersion, I just don't get tired of flying space ships doing random stuff.

 

[Eliza]

Totally this for me also. I'm a huge fan of the planetary music tracks. And in general, I'm really surprised that I'm not sick of the music in the game - playing for over 2,000 hours listening to the same old ambient tracks doesn't get old (even the SC music I still find very agreeable) confirming just how well composed and arranged it all is.

And the other day, I almost jumped out of my chair as I entered the destination system from witchspace, as I almost went through the secondary star which was just a few Ls away from the primary one. And I don't even play in VR.

Speaking of which, over the past few weeks I played only on my laptop as I was away from home over the holidays, having returned now and back playing on a larger screen (22" instead of 14") and with TrackIR has given me back a certain wow factor - I know it's not a patch on VR but it still adds so much in terms of immersion, I just don't get tired of flying space ships doing random stuff.

So much this!!!

As my HMD went south, I tried "Pancake" Elite. It only lasts for about 30 min. until I quit in sorrow and waited until my new HMD arrived. This game is sooo addicting in VR, one can hardly imagine if not tried it in VR. It's like a whole different game in 3D. Everything fits well regarding size and all. I couldn't get used to that "odd" 2D scale. Even struggled to get the ship on the pad. Not to mention the missing "headlook" when your in a fight. You loose 2 sec. of reaction-time, literally.

 

[Old Duck]

I was treated to this view in my home system, so I drove my SRV to this spot, climbed out of the cockpit (thanks to VR), and just took in the sights for about 30 minutes. I could see the shadows from the towers slowly extend across the land as the sun set, changing the appearance of the mountains to the left (out of frame) just like mountains IRL would be affected by shadow, stars slowly disappearing behind the earth-like planet that filled the sky above. In VR, that planet is HUGE.

While standing there, the skimmers flew around doing their thing. I paid close attention to their flight dynamics, watching them angle their thrusters and apply a little "boost" to move from one location to another. I was very impressed by the work someone must have done to implement these small, usually unnoticed details. At one point a skimmer flew overhead, to where I could almost jump up and catch it. It was quite the sight to behold!

I have many complaints about this game, but now that I'm playing it in VR, I have to confess it's one of the best games out there even with all its faults. I hope Frontier stays true to their support of this platform (VR) going forward into New Era, as it really sets the game apart from all others.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

So much this!!!

As my HMD went south, I tried "Pancake" Elite. It only lasts for about 30 min. until I quit in sorrow and waited until my new HMD arrived. This game is sooo addicting in VR, one can hardly imagine if not tried it in VR. It's like a whole different game in 3D. Everything fits well regarding size and all. I couldn't get used to that "odd" 2D scale. Even struggled to get the ship on the pad. Not to mention the missing "headlook" when your in a fight. You loose 2 sec. of reaction-time, literally.

I'd have to seriously upgrade my hardware to be able to try VR (and get a headset!) so in a way I'm glad I never tried and likely never will try VR - the game's addictive as it is, jumping in VR would just be akin to an even deeper rabbit hole. I do love head tracking though, use it for all sim style games and it works really well.

As for the added utility of head tracking when it comes to Elite's UI, it's quite funny when I don't play with it I still catch myself moving my head in order to highlight any of the ship panels, only to realise the camera doesn't move. Muscle memory is a funny thing.

 

[Hellfire85]

The subliminal V8-roaring of the Vulture in normal-space

So much this! Even after 3k - 4k hours I still get a wide grin from undocking my Vulture and boosting out thru the mailslot into the black

 

[Eliza]

I'd have to seriously upgrade my hardware to be able to try VR (and get a headset!) so in a way I'm glad I never tried and likely never will try VR - the game's addictive as it is, jumping in VR would just be akin to an even deeper rabbit hole. I do love head tracking though, use it for all sim style games and it works really well.

As for the added utility of head tracking when it comes to Elite's UI, it's quite funny when I don't play with it I still catch myself moving my head in order to highlight any of the ship panels, only to realise the camera doesn't move. Muscle memory is a funny thing.

I upped my hardware solely to experience Elite in VR. Never thought that it would make SUCH a difference. As an old sim-racer, now I can hardly come over with the fact, that I drove in 2D for decades.

I don't just mean the "headlook" to open panels or to enjoy the view, but to "track" the path of my opponent. It's much more "elegant" to follow the trace of the target when it gets "out of 2D view". In 3D you get a certain "feeling" what your opponent, whether npc or commander, will do next, when he's "out of the front screen". It's a huge advange, as far as it conerns me. I experienced the same within DCS. I got "better" just because of the "natural" view.