What's your favourite part of ED?

I honestly don't think I have one, or at least not one that springs immediately to mind when this question is asked. It's more that I have things that I like about the game (and that I will agree with when they're mentioned on the forum) and things that annoy me (ditto), but it's the experience as a whole that keeps me coming back. Perhaps that's the secret of its longevity for me; nothing excites me or drives me in the way some players are excited or driven by profit or Engineering or PowerPlay or PVP, but the game offers enough to draw me back in and maintain my attention when it does. I wonder whether having {that one thing} that defines the game might be a weakness, in that if {that one thing} is nerfed, or {the polar opposite of that one thing} is given too much developer attention, it becomes that much easier to declare the game "no longer for me."

I play ED a lot less than I used to, but when I do it still has the power to draw me in. And that's as much to do with the experience as a whole than any one aspect of it. It's one of the reasons I'm quite bullish on Odyssey. I don't expect it to deposit me in the middle of Starship Troopers nor to offer a comparative experience to dedicated FPS games, and so I don't expect it to be the one reason I carry on playing. But if it puts a few more arrows in the quiver full of things that can hold my attention, that's a win.

Maybe if you put a phaser to my head and forced me to name one "favourite" thing about ED I'd have to say the Stellar Forge, because it's probably the thing that impresses me the most. But it would be a cop-out answer, because it's really just background without all the other stuff happening on top of it. If you take away everything else you're left with Space Engine. To me, that just underscores how the enjoyment I get from ED is holistic. Maybe some players can name their favourite thing, but I don't think I'd have the same long-term relationship with the game if I could. I'd always be worried that someone might be about to take it away or break it in some way.
 
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Spacemanship, which is like airmanship, or seamanship. The skill in operating the ships (and the rover). I come from a long background of flight, racing and naval sims, as I'm sure many here do.

The thing that first drew me to Elite was the notion of stitching my commander name across the galaxy. Once I got in to it though I fell in love with ship operation. Traditional constraints like gravity or the inability to move freely in 6DoF were lifted, and it was an entire new paradigm for me, and I really enjoy it. Even things like exiting the station, landing and the other operational facets have huge appeal that has not waned. I've never used a DC or a SCA, and after thousands of landings I still enjoy it every time.

As an example I am currently out in HIP 36601 to farm raws from bio sites. The planets are very low gravity, like .03G to .06G. When you shoot the crystals off they fly up in the air like 35m sometimes and with the low grav fall very gently back to terra firma. At first I made a game out of catching them before they hit. After a while I began not only catching them, but seeing how high I could do it. In this sort of gravity, the rover can make impressive leaps and it's engaging and fun.

I like a lot of the stuff you can do in Elite. But if I had to pick one it is simply skillfully operating the ships and vehicles. It never gets old.
 
I honestly don't think I have one, or at least not one that springs immediately to mind when this question is asked. It's more that I have things that I like about the game (and that I will agree with when they're mentioned on the forum) and things that annoy me (ditto), but it's the experience as a whole that keeps me coming back. Perhaps that's the secret of its longevity for me; nothing excites me or drives me in the way some players are excited or driven by profit or Engineering or PowerPlay or PVP, but the game offers enough to draw me back in and maintain my attention when it does. I wonder whether having {that one thing} that defines the game might be a weakness, in that if {that one thing} is nerfed, or {the polar opposite of that one thing} is given too much developer attention, it becomes that much easier to declare the game "no longer for me."

I play ED a lot less than I used to, but when I do it still has the power to draw me in. And that's as much to do with the experience as a whole than any one aspect of it. It's one of the reasons I'm quite bullish on Odyssey. I don't expect it to deposit me in the middle of Starship Troopers nor to offer a comparative experience to dedicated FPS games, and so I don't expect it to be the one reason I carry on playing. But if it puts a few more arrows in the quiver full of things that can hold my attention, that's a win.

Maybe if you put a phaser to my head and forced me to name one "favourite" thing about ED I'd have to say the Stellar Forge, because it's probably the thing that impresses me the most. But it would be a cop-out answer, because it's really just background without all the other stuff happing on top of it. If you take away everything else you're left with Space Engine. To me, that just underscores how the enjoyment I get from ED is holistic. Maybe some players can name their favourite thing, but I don't think I'd have the same long-term relationship with the game if I could. I'd always be worried that someone might be about to take it away or break it in some way.
I'd have to go with something similar to this too. It is the entire experience. Nothing about the game is perfectly how I'd like it to be. However, everything combined, and it's still the closest thing to the "the game of my dreams" as exists, and possibly ever will. I'm not a fan of combat in the game, but my ideal for that would likely be unpopular, same with many other things. I think many of the things that people complain about the most are compromises that keep it popular in general, and ensure the longevity of it.
 
I think it's best as a cosmic loneliness simulator. The feeling you get as an explorer out in the middle of nowhere staring out across a crater hundreds of miles across is unlike anything else in a game. Cosmic loneliness is a really strange thing for a game to do, but I don't think there's any other game that comes remotely close.
 
The planets and everything in them, investigating abandoned settlements, crashed vessels, guardian ruins, thargoid sites, barnacles, bio/geo sites etc, the planetary ports, flying over planet surfaces, the mountains, valleys, crevices...
 
My favourite part is that, from mid-2017, I’ve put on a headset and I’m sat inside my spaceship, and I go out and do spaceship stuff (and driving stuff as well).

Elite stopped just being a game I play and became something I experienced 😁
 
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Bobble Braben approves.
 
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