Besides Star Citizens, What is a great alternative for Elite Dangerous?

Children of a Dead Earth if you are interested in exploring what space warfare could be like. As in, actual space warfare, not ww2 dogfights in space-looking goo. With orbits, slingshots, fuel preservation, missiles that get shot from millions of kms away and not 300m, lasers, nukes, drone swarms... If you wait for a sale, you can usually pick it up for less than a fiver.
Interesting. Thanks for the tip.
 
You know what turned me off big time from NMS that nobody ever talks about? The audio. I feel like many of the sound effects have a weird overdrive / fuzz on them, maybe even peaking that just drives me nuts everytime I hear them. It sounds very low fi and crap. Sorry must vent this. I want to like it so bad but I just keep bouncing off it.
Well not every game is made for everyone, I'm sorry to hear that.
 
I second Space Engine for exploration. If you want to spend all your time exploring the universe in similar ED style but with no game layers and insta travel. Remember zooming out in ED galaxy map and being blown away by the scale. Imagine doing that again, except with galaxies instead of stars.
My biggest complaint about Space Engine is it doesn't have a galaxy map like Elite does, AFAIK. ED's galaxy map is pretty darn brilliant and gives me a real sense of the layout of our galaxy.

You know what turned me off big time from NMS that nobody ever talks about? The audio. I feel like many of the sound effects have a weird overdrive / fuzz on them, maybe even peaking that just drives me nuts everytime I hear them. It sounds very low fi and crap. Sorry must vent this. I want to like it so bad but I just keep bouncing off it.
I never noticed this, but terrible sound is one of the things that turned me off of Empyrion Galactic Survival. The sounds and some of the visuals are pretty rubbish. I'm hoping these are just placeholders and someday the company will hire a proper sound studio, because that game as potential.
 
Space Engine is always its map / view. When you double click on a galaxy and zoom in, until you zoom into a star it basically is a galactic map?

Good audio is important. It can make or break a game. Shame about Empyrion but there's always Space Engineers. I just wish it had procedurally generated galaxy to explore.
 
My biggest complaint about Space Engine is it doesn't have a galaxy map like Elite does, AFAIK. ED's galaxy map is pretty darn brilliant and gives me a real sense of the layout of our galaxy.


I never noticed this, but terrible sound is one of the things that turned me off of Empyrion Galactic Survival. The sounds and some of the visuals are pretty rubbish. I'm hoping these are just placeholders and someday the company will hire a proper sound studio, because that game as potential.
I actually like Empyrion, as long as you have your own music running in the background. A bit like a scaled down SE.

What led me to put this away for a while in Early Access was rather the GUI that even was worse than X4s.
 
I actually like Empyrion, as long as you have your own music running in the background. A bit like a scaled down SE.

What led me to put this away for a while in Early Access was rather the GUI that even was worse than X4s.
I like the potential of Empyrion. I wish SE would borrow its better bits.

If someone created some cool rendering mods like they have for Minecraft, I could probably be drawn back into this game. I'm just not a big fan of the current late-1990s graphics and sound (along with some other nitpicks).

iu
 
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I like the potential of Empyrion. I wise SE would borrow its better bits.

If someone created some cool rendering mods like they have for Minecraft, I could probably be drawn back into this game. I'm just not a big fan of the current late-1990s graphics and sound (along with some other nitpicks).

iu
The only cool view in Empyrion is the sunset/sunrise, that's right.

Perhaps I'm just a bit special, I also had a lot of fun with the borked physics engine of Planet Nomads :D
 
Space Engine is always its map / view. When you double click on a galaxy and zoom in, until you zoom into a star it basically is a galactic map?
We must have different definitions of "map". Me pointing at a mountain and saying to my wife, "let's drive to that mountain" is very different that looking at a top-down labeled map. Clicking on random stars in SE and flying there is like driving to the mountain - it's cool, but it doesn't give me any true sense of the layout of the land / our galaxy, something which ED's galaxy map does very well.

Unless I'm totally missing a map feature in SE that I don't know about.
 
In a way Microsoft Flight Sim has replaced what I loved in ED.
That is taking off and landing, plus the journey and exploration. Actually I always wanted a more continuous, supercruise like travelling in Elite which is obviosuly given in Flight Sim.

Space Engine is great, but I wish a more fleshed out VR-compatible flight would be there - merely browsing it like Google Maps is just not entertaining enough. Somebody should merge that and Oolite. :)
 
X4. NMS and maybe Space engies for the building. For Horror play Alien Incursion. For rocketry play KSP. Stellaris maybe for space empires. I can recommend Hardpace Shipbreaker for when you've had it with the ship flying. It's essentialy an EVA simulator with a wrecking bay in Earth orbit.
 
I like the potential of Empyrion. I wise SE would borrow its better bits.

If someone created some cool rendering mods like they have for Minecraft, I could probably be drawn back into this game. I'm just not a big fan of the current late-1990s graphics and sound (along with some other nitpicks).

iu
<<< Paid $600 for a current generation graphics card. Currently playing, among other things, a 2D isometric game. ;)
 
We must have different definitions of "map". Me pointing at a mountain and saying to my wife, "let's drive to that mountain" is very different that looking at a top-down labeled map. Clicking on random stars in SE and flying there is like driving to the mountain - it's cool, but it doesn't give me any true sense of the layout of the land / our galaxy, something which ED's galaxy map does very well.

Unless I'm totally missing a map feature in SE that I don't know about.

You are accurate I guess in that sense.
 
For exploration and doing fun stuff altogether I play NMS, for some space pew pew Rebel Galaxy Outlaw and for space inspired rpg and on foot shooting I play Mass Effect Legendary Edition.

Imho all three are excellent games.
 
Infinity: Battlescape

-Actually fun PVP in a continuous, non-splintered world
-Sane TTK
-Big space battles
-Newtonian flight with no artificial restrictions
-Seamless transition between warp and normal flight without "loading screens"
-Likewise seamless transition between space and planets
-Small ships and large ships feel genuinely different to fly
-Beautiful planet tech, including planets with atmospheres
-Next to no grinding (takes about 1 hour to "unlock" the big ships each match through normal gameplay though you have to repeat this every match. There's also longer term progression in terms of military ranks and ship upgrades unlocked through rank but the "good" stuff doesn't take ages to unlock and most of everything else is sidegrades)
-Elo style skill ratings based on winning / losing individual battles

It's not an Elite style "all-encompassing" do-what-you-want life sim and such it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea but it's a game that does a specific thing with a narrow focus and does it well.
 
Infinity: Battlescape

-Actually fun PVP in a continuous, non-splintered world
-Sane TTK
-Big space battles
-Newtonian flight with no artificial restrictions
-Seamless transition between warp and normal flight without "loading screens"
-Likewise seamless transition between space and planets
-Small ships and large ships feel genuinely different to fly
-Beautiful planet tech, including planets with atmospheres
-Next to no grinding (takes about 1 hour to "unlock" the big ships each match through normal gameplay though you have to repeat this every match. There's also longer term progression in terms of military ranks and ship upgrades unlocked through rank but the "good" stuff doesn't take ages to unlock and most of everything else is sidegrades)
-Elo style skill ratings based on winning / losing individual battles

It's not an Elite style "all-encompassing" do-what-you-want life sim and such it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea but it's a game that does a specific thing with a narrow focus and does it well.

How's the player count? I checked this out on Steam in the past but had fears there wasn't much of a community.
 
There's usually a handful of people on during the EU evening hours... well I'm going to be real and say there's not much of a community, but I'm hoping the full release and the associated marketing push will change that.
There's also bots and the flying & combat mechanics are enjoyable whether there are players online or not. That's what keeps me going with the game - I just enjoy flying the ships. If there's someone to duel with that's a bonus.
You can also grind your skill rating if you're into that sort of thing even by just playing against the bots on an empty server - weird design choice at first glance but I can see how it can incentivize people into playing. I think I'm seeing slightly more life on the servers after the ratings were introduced.
 
There's usually a handful of people on during the EU evening hours... well I'm going to be real and say there's not much of a community, but I'm hoping the full release and the associated marketing push will change that.
There's also bots and the flying & combat mechanics are enjoyable whether there are players online or not. That's what keeps me going with the game - I just enjoy flying the ships. If there's someone to duel with that's a bonus.
You can also grind your skill rating if you're into that sort of thing even by just playing against the bots on an empty server - weird design choice at first glance but I can see how it can incentivize people into playing. I think I'm seeing slightly more life on the servers after the ratings were introduced.

Yeah I followed Johhny Redheads update posts on here for over a year. I was excited for the steam release but had held off when I saw some ea reviews stating low player count. Ill keep an eye on it still but no wish to play with bots. Game looks great though.
 
The only actual alternatives to ED are Star Citizen and Evochron Legacy.

Then there are some others that intersect with some bits of ED, so they will depend on which parts of ED each person enjoys.
 
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