An Explorer's Take on why Elite Smashes all the Competition [Warning: Deep Thoughts]

CMDR Fenrar Griffon

CMDR Fenrar Griffon
Took my new Asp for its first exploration trip, and had some profound thoughts when I decided to poke my head into a large ring system I found.

I keep calling it a ring system, but it's around a star, so technically a belt? But it's classified like a planet so a ring? It's borderline star-planet... I'll keep calling it a ring.

Anyways, here it is.

They say art is something that will provoke deep thought. If a game does this, it's not even just a thing of entertainment anymore, it's a real work of art, accomplishing the greatest goal art has, to stir this kind of deep reflection/musing.
 
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GraXXoR

GraXXoR
Thank you for that. For a moment, I forgot how much we take for granted the size of the universe in this game with future, somewhat unimaginable technology.
+REP
 

askavir

askavir
The 1:1 real galaxy (real as in nearlly all known celestial bodies in it) is what makes this game stand apart from every other previous space sims and near future ones. And it's what makes exploration, even barebones exploration, so atmospheric and immersive, if you have even a hint of fondness for astronomy.

This game reminds me every day of this most esteemed gentleman, which sadly for our civilization, has already departed into the cosmos...

[video=youtube;p86BPM1GV8M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p86BPM1GV8M[/video]
 
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CMDR Fenrar Griffon

CMDR Fenrar Griffon
The real point is the "Nothing but everything" deal, though. Physically insignificant, but in terms of meaning, life is everything.

Also, other coming games may boast a big universe/galaxy, but I really can't take them seriously when the planets are so ridiculously far off from 1:1 scale, the atmospheres are so short, and space is so... clausterphobic in them. It's "Science Fiction Authors have No Sense of Scale" times a million. Heh, that's actually why I was super doubtful about Elite when my brother first tried to get me into it, but I'm glad I bit and was so pleasantly surprised. Even if the first day or so was wandering around trying to figure out how to do anything or go anywhere, haha... Back when I was excited to buy the Hauler and then the Cobra. Now I've got a Type-7 and an Asp and I'm still looking forward to that Anaconda one day, heheh...
 

Jack Schitt

Jack Schitt
Beautiful. I've pinched a couple of the photos for inspiration. I like white Asps and I cannot lie. :)

The imagery in this game can be absolutely stunning. Space images are one of those odd categories of art in which the still image can be more evocative than any amount of video. A few decades ago my friends and I used to marvel at the painted covers of SF novels, hand-painted in painstaking detail over many weeks by incredibly talented artists. Many of those covers evoked the same feelings of awe and insignificance as expressed in your album. Occasionally an art book or magazine would be published with the full versions of the artwork, unadorned with text, and we'd marvel some more at the sheer level of detail.

Now we have a computer game in which we can pick any location in the galaxy, fly to it, whip out a virtual selfie stick and take screenshots that are easily as good, in some cases significantly better, at evoking those same feelings thanks to the amazing quality and believability of the image. Any one of the images in your album would have been book cover material just a few years ago. What FD have achieved here is really quite incredible. It's nice to be reminded of that from time to time, among all the pew-pew.
 

glynie

glynie
All games are art. I'm not sure there's an argument here for why Elite would beat every other game.

Personally I like the audio in Elite and I like the *kinda* scientific accuracy, but I'm not sure if Elite will stay ahead of the competition.
 

CMDR Fenrar Griffon

CMDR Fenrar Griffon
@Jack:
Got the same "Ice" camo for my Cobra when I went exploring with it.

I like the white paint schemes because it's a Rockwell Space Shuttle-like aesthetic, so it strikes me as far more believable looking than pretty much any other paint scheme. Now if only we could make the underside a black tile... Hehe.

@Flash:
That's kind of awesome juxtaposed with that profile picture.

Heh, I thought the forums might not be too accepting of that kind of thing. I might do something pony-related...

EDIT: Oh, videos finally appeared.

I prefer the British miniseries to the movie by a tremendous amount. I really felt like the movie didn't do it justice. Other people tell me it was good - I believe them, it's just I'm terribly biased because the mini-series put my expectations way too high :p

STILL have yet to read the book, though. It's probably best.

@glynie
Well, I guess this kind of conversation is still on-topic, so I guess I'll bite...

I don't see anything even on the horizon that could give you the kind of experience I posted above, though. The two big ones are either like I mentioned in my previous post - however big their universe is, they lack big enough expanses for it to feel realistic and the planets may look fine to others, but to someone who has a better feel for the sheer scale of space, it feels horrendously clausterphobic and unbelievable. And the other big one can't hold a candle to the scale of Elite.

This makes me wonder about some of the features that were planned for Elite, if they're still in the works or if they've been abandoned. I guess I should just poke around the forums for an answer to those, though - the ability to walk around the ship, and landing on atmosphered planets.
 
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glynie

glynie
CMDR Fenrar Griffon said:
@glynie
Well, I guess this kind of conversation is still on-topic, so I guess I'll bite...

I don't see anything even on the horizon that could give you the kind of experience I posted above, though. The two big ones are either like I mentioned in my previous post - however big their universe is, they lack big enough expanses for it to feel realistic and the planets may look fine to others, but to someone who has a better feel for the sheer scale of space, it feels horrendously clausterphobic and unbelievable. And the other big one can't hold a candle to the scale of Elite.

This makes me wonder about some of the features that were planned for Elite, if they're still in the works or if they've been abandoned. I guess I should just poke around the forums for an answer to those, though - the ability to walk around the ship, and landing on atmosphered planets.
Click to expand...
Well...I know someone who's started a game company and is making their own version of Elite because they're not happy with how this one turned out.

It's a good idea; fans of the genre and Elite in particular have been waiting for this game for over 20 years...it'll get done right eventually, but it might not be by FD.
 
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Miko_Stargazer

Miko_Stargazer
Absolutely beautiful system <3 Thank you for sharing that and share with that sense of wonder.

I saved the last image you put down that shows the system's coordinates. Hopefully I'll be able to see the Griffon Ring for myself some day.
 

Garbarrage

Garbarrage
CMDR Fenrar Griffon said:
Took my new Asp for its first exploration trip, and had some profound thoughts when I decided to poke my head into a large ring system I found.

I keep calling it a ring system, but it's around a star, so technically a belt? But it's classified like a planet so a ring? It's borderline star-planet... I'll keep calling it a ring.

Anyways, here it is.

They say art is something that will provoke deep thought. If a game does this, it's not even just a thing of entertainment anymore, it's a real work of art, accomplishing the greatest goal art has, to stir this kind of deep reflection/musing.
Click to expand...

TL;DR - If a tree falls in a forest, and there is nobody there to hear it, does it make a sound? :)

Repped. Good stuff CMDR.
 

pprovart

P
Someone must have accidntally pressed the 'Total Perspective Vortex' button whilst sitting back with a cup of tea ( synthetically reproduced )....
 

Ian Skippy

Ian Skippy
CMDR Fenrar Griffon said:
@Jack:
Got the same "Ice" camo for my Cobra when I went exploring with it.

I like the white paint schemes because it's a Rockwell Space Shuttle-like aesthetic, so it strikes me as far more believable looking than pretty much any other paint scheme. Now if only we could make the underside a black tile... Hehe.

@Flash:
That's kind of awesome juxtaposed with that profile picture.

Heh, I thought the forums might not be too accepting of that kind of thing. I might do something pony-related...

EDIT: Oh, videos finally appeared.

I prefer the British miniseries to the movie by a tremendous amount. I really felt like the movie didn't do it justice. Other people tell me it was good - I believe them, it's just I'm terribly biased because the mini-series put my expectations way too high :p

STILL have yet to read the book, though. It's probably best.

@glynie
Well, I guess this kind of conversation is still on-topic, so I guess I'll bite...

I don't see anything even on the horizon that could give you the kind of experience I posted above, though. The two big ones are either like I mentioned in my previous post - however big their universe is, they lack big enough expanses for it to feel realistic and the planets may look fine to others, but to someone who has a better feel for the sheer scale of space, it feels horrendously clausterphobic and unbelievable. And the other big one can't hold a candle to the scale of Elite.

This makes me wonder about some of the features that were planned for Elite, if they're still in the works or if they've been abandoned. I guess I should just poke around the forums for an answer to those, though - the ability to walk around the ship, and landing on atmosphered planets.
Click to expand...

Still planned, later seasons though. :)
 

kofeyh

kofeyh
During horizon's beta, I snuck out to Betelgeuse in an Asp, and landed on the innermost planet.

I imagine a lot of people have visited, but for those who haven't, it (the small planet) orbits within scooping range; so the entire time you are flying over the surface, the scoop is constantly free to keep topping up. 24/7 scoop.

So anyway, it's a landable planet. When you land, you come face to face with the scale of Betelgeuse as it fills more than two-thirds of the sky. It's surprisingly profound; you are decamped on an otherwise lifeless rock, and there's this massive, swirling giant in front of you, just filling the sky.

And you truly come realise you are just a tiny little sack of water, in a tiny ship, on a tiny planet, in front of just a single star, in a massive swirling galaxy, within an unfathomably large universe.

I have to profess; that sold Horizons to me (as in, that was worth the price of admission) better than all of the guff from Frontier.

Have some rep, OP, I can relate. :)
 
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Red Anders

Red Anders
CMDR Fenrar Griffon said:
I like the white paint schemes because it's a Rockwell Space Shuttle-like aesthetic, so it strikes me as far more believable looking than pretty much any other paint scheme. Now if only we could make the underside a black tile... Hehe.
Click to expand...

Just on that, I originally screengrabbed this because of the extraordinarily cool lighting; look at the way the ice in the 'lower' rim of the crater is illuminated showing the blue tones compared to the fully lit surface - that's vanilla graphics too, I don't run any mods at all.

It was only when I looked at it later that I realised in this lighting in particular I also appeared to be flying NASA's research Vulture. :D Although the angle isn't especially good and I was sufficiently close to the surface that I didn't dare fire the engines up (which would have made it look much cooler) whilst messing around with the debug camera it's one of my favourite screenies from the game yet. It's exactly what you said; our eyes are so keyed to seeing white space vehicles that almost on a subconscious level the ship looks 'real' in a way that something like a bright red Anaconda is never going to.

1c76d64.jpg
 
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