6 Month Review

Gee

G
The below is my own personal views - I'm sure you've all got different takes - but I thought I'd offer up my thoughts on progress as we cruise towards the 6 month development mark.

I'm not a DDF member - so perhaps I'm not as informed as some, but - as I said, this is just my take.

So - after 6 months, how would I review development?

Lore and back-story

This is a real high point for me in the development. I think that FD have brought in the fiction and connected the current setting to FFE excellently - kudos to you!

It's probably all I could reasonably ask for at this stage - next steps would be bringing it all to life and making it seem a bit more dynamic. I especially want to hear more about sources of tension and "mystery" in the Elite universe!

Graphics and Design

Hmm.... so far this is, for me, a bit of a mixed bag. First the design element: Some is outstanding - I love the Eagle design and the Viper Mk II is a work of beauty. Others clearly have quite a long way to go (Anaconda, I'm looking at you) and the Sidewinder is just downright ugly - boxy and reminiscent of mid-range hatchback.

The UI is also mixed - the map/orrery is just lovely, and a real flash of original creative excellence - it feels like the sort of thing people might genuinely be using 1300 years from now. On the other hand the trading screen is dull; dank and functional and a bit of a missed opportunity to really immerse people in the Elite Universe - especially given how central this activity will be.

Onto the in-game graphics. These are "okay" if workman-like from what I've seen. FX don't look that good, neither do the textures. It's not up to SC or XRB or... to be honest, even Limit Theory and that's just 2 guys. I appreciate that there's a very long way to go in this area but I'd love to see ED begin to close the gap. Mr DB promises "stunning visuals" and some are good - but I've not really been stunned by anything other than the orrery yet.

Concept art looks lovely though.

Gameplay

Who knows! But the DDF archives are very interesting and I'd love to see more of the gameplay mechanics being demonstrated in the near future to get an idea of how it all hangs together.

Communication with backers

I'd say this was good. Staff in the forums seem responsive, and three updates per month are very much appreciated! Plus the fiction updates are (unintentionally?) hilarious.

So - overall I'm fairly pleased, given that there's still 6 months or so to go. But competition is seriously heating up!
 

Patrick_68000

Patrick_68000
A good track record that you do. For my part I can not find the Sidewinder so ugly. For different screens of the game, these are just of the blanks. And there will be many improvements to come. I very much hope that the graphics of the game will be to the height of art concepts. In particular, as the interior of the space station, that we have seen recently.
 

insanephoton

insanephoton
It's a little unfair to complain about the graphics yet. I'm not sure that we've actually seen a full end product screenshot yet. As far as I know everything that we've seen is a work in progress so let's not be too hasty with comparisons.

As for the Sidewinder being ugly? I guess that's a matter of personal taste, but anyway it's supposed to be a starter ship and who said that all the ships have to look pretty?
 

Calebe

C
Some ships will look better then others, that is a given and personal taste will determine what is a good looking ship and which isn't. They did say in the few pictures released there was no AA at all and that would come later, so that will help.

There have been threads with people shooting to make the game play on the lowest common denominator with scaling back, while others including myself are hoping for the best possible graphics and if it limits scaling so be it. Make it as good as possible in graphics and game play. Never neglect one for the other. I am sure they will have a product we will all enjoy playing for years to come.

Calebe
 

Gee

G
Yep - all still v much a work in progress, I agree.

Also, as I'm not privy to DDF or the super-high pledge levels I'm sure there are people much more "in the know" than me - so I can only call it as I see it.

In-game graphics are still very much WIP - but then too so are SC and LT. And - purely at this moment in time - ED looks a wee bit 'last-gen' rather than 'next-gen'. But I've every confidence this will change.

Design - well... this is (even more?) about personal preference. I'd like the Sidewinder to be a bit more "iconic" - after all it's the one ship that virtually every player will own. At the moment it's sort of a Fiat Punto crossed with a 'flying lump'. Again - personal preference.

Overall - I'm impressed by the progress in 6 months, but I'm also aware there's a long way to cruise past the half-way mark.
 

Nagual

Nagual
Wouldn't worry about the graphics, they really are a WIP as you've said. One of the devs said that the stuff we've seen, screen shots and the likes haven't had any fine tuning like AA etc.

I fully agree, that by the time the game launches it will be great.
 

Tinman

Tinman
Nagual said:
Wouldn't worry about the graphics, they really are a WIP as you've said. One of the devs said that the stuff we've seen, screen shots and the likes haven't had any fine tuning like AA etc.
Click to expand...

Actually, Michael said this:

Michael Brookes said:
There's no AA yet. One of many improvements to come.

Michael
Click to expand...
Emphasis mine ;)

Comparing this to SC isn't really helpful since they are using a off the shelf engine which means that they can basically drop a model into the engine, slap a shader on it and it will look awesome. (Ok, maybe a little bit more complicated than that, but you get what I mean.)

I also suspect that FD is further along in development than they are letting on. If you read what some of the developers write in these forums that becomes rather clear. If you look at most of the other games they recently released you can see a pattern. Coaster Crazy appeared pretty much from thin air and Zoo Tycoon is another game that is pretty much finished (since it's going to be released as a launch title with Xbox One.) That also suddenly appeared from nothing during GamesCon.

Oh, and by the way. 6 months? Since they went into full production in January and August is soon past us I would say 8 months are more accurate. ;)
 

Nagual

Nagual
Wouldn't worry about the graphics, they really are a WIP as you've said. One of the devs said that the stuff we've seen, screen shots and the likes haven't had any fine tuning like AA etc.
Click to expand...


Added Emphasis.. :p
 

Philip Coutts

Volunteer Moderator
Philip Coutts
I'm not overly concerned about Graphics as there is a long way to go. I agree that Limit Theory and Star Citizen have perhaps been more open in showing what they have so far but if you look at the polish Frontier have provided on their other games (Zoo Tycoon in particular) I don't think there is much to worry about.

As for ship design well that's quite a personnal thing some designs you will like, others you won't. Again these are very much a work in progress and I think at times Frontier are quite canny about how much they are showing! Overall I like more designs than I don't and at present my favourite is probably the viper.

At times the delays to updates can be frustrating but overall there's a lot of information floating about between the dev and fiction diary's and the newsletters and also the DDF archives. The Dev's are also not afraid of making guest appearances on the forums from time to time.

Overall I'm quite happy with the general direction and can't wait for Beta.
 

izzy

izzy
I really like the discussion about the gameplay, to see how the gameplay will probably be :)
I'm not worry about graphics, FD will show more in few weeks (month).
We have frequent update, perhaps not enough for some people but enough for me :)
 

Perseus

Perseus
I think the Sidewinder is a beautifully ugly ship. Mass produced and boxy looking, it'll probably be discarded at the first opportunity only for players to later remember how memorable flying one was (their first experience).
I wonder how many players will opt for enhancing a SW. It could be the perfect scout, or a wicked fighter, if money was spent on it. It could also be a good ship to blend into the background with.

I'd love there to be more information. In my perfect world there would be a constant flow of dev-diaries, updates and teasers. However, this would ruin the anticipation and generate too much conversation about liking or disliking a released aspect of the game.
I'm confident FD are keeping lots of elements under wraps so they can totally blow away us away in the future.
The craving is intense but the forums help ease it - a little. :)
 

Cmdr Eagleboy

Cmdr Eagleboy
I also wait for some taste for new graphics. However I really don't know what to expect (I don't how what qualifies "next gen" graphics, and which is just "last gen"), so I don't worry that much about it. All I know that it should work and look *together* perfectly. If it does, I don't really care about anything else.

In overall, I have been surprised about level of information FD share, I thought they will much more protective. Kudos for them about that, as it shouldn't be easy for game company to work with community this way.
 

Gee

G
Yep, plenty more good stuff to come and I'm totally sure FD are further along than they're letting on - in fact getting any info out of FD before they're good and ready is a notoriously difficult; as I'm sure we can all agree!

But tried to "review" purely on what's been put put there- some good, some not so good, with the caveat that all of it is a work in progress.
 

Hermit

Hermit
FD are pretty much on track with this game. They don't have the resources that Star Citizen has, but that in itself is a good thing, because it forces them to fully focus on getting the main part of the game out and worry about adding frills later. Which is how it should be :)
 

Gee

G
Not seen models of the Asp or the Adder yet - just concept art - have they been in any recent updates?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom