Newcomer / Intro Casual Gamer Question

[Naturalist]

So I don't have the luxury to play several hours at a time anymore. I won't bore you with the why. My question is for someone who might only play 2 hours a night and skip a day here and there. Will this game be worth it for me? I very interested in what I've seen so far but I fear since I don't have the time to play "hardcore" I might find I'm constantly lost or behind in the game. Add on top of that, this would be my first space sim I'm not sure if I should drop the $60. Just looking for feed back.

Thanks

 

[Druid]

Sure , its like golf it your game and your own goals . Do a few missions , shoot up some pirates , explore a bit ,do what you fancy and then log off . There is no need to feel left behind the game isnt like that .

 

[ParaB]

Many of us aren't teenagers any more with many hours to 'waste' on gaming every night. Many of us have jobs, families and *gasp* other hobbies.

I rarely play more than 2 hours and certainly not every day. Elite is IMO a perfect game for such a playstyle. Dock off and do a trade run or three. Cruise the local system for some bounties. Try to find a rich mining belt. Or just point your ship into space and go where no one has gone before. It's YOUR adventure. Who cares if DEeadL4A$$as1n1995 has just got himself an Anaconda and is now GrandAdmiralwithstrawberries of the Empire?

What is needed though is a willingness to learn since the initial learning curve can be somewhat steep for a casual gamer used to 'simpler' games. If you you can provide that Elite will take care of the rest.

 

[Hethwill_Khan]

The game is as much to someone who play little or too much given that there are no bounds.

Scale of "events" are from single system cartels attrition stories to the big political Imperial successor situation and so on.

You can do a lot in 2 hours and feel quite entertained after the sessions by what you achieved, be it smuggling, trading, whatever rocks your boat.

 

[Tronicus]

I play for 2-2.5 hours 4 to 5 times a week. I have been playing for about 2 months ( since the last wipe). I have a fully kitted out Cobra for missions/bounty hunting, a well fitted type 6 for trading, and about a million in the bank. I have never done any of the rares, or other ways to make fast easy money back in Beta. The nice thing about Elite is that you can be a casual gamer without difficulty.

Be warned: Elite has a very ugly learning curve. It will take several days to get the basics down pat! The game is still being fleshed out. Here is a great resource, that was put together by a player during gamma. Some of the information is outadated, but it is a great place to start:

http://www.mediafire.com/download/5jxh750heuhzedw/Elite+Dangerous.Pilots+Guide.Manual.Tutorial.pdf#!

 

[Whiterose]

Its your game, you play it how you want and how often.

 

[kilvenny]

Old timer here - I play when I can but its limited by health and real life commitments. Its a cracking game for people like me because I can go at my pace in my own little world and solo if i want. The only thing to be aware of is taking missions that you cannot complete in the play time available to you.

 

[Naturalist]

Thanks guys this very encouraging. I honestly have no idea what I want to do yet. Smuggling and mining sound like a lot of fun. I'm somewhat of a lone wolf but can see this being very enjoyable with a small group of friends. I'll have to become active here in the community and get to know you guys better.

 

[F3ckB9LL]

Im new to this but i played elite frontier on amiga ...

Only thing i remember is that the entire game is ok for casu and hardcore gamers ^^

 

[Juby]

So I don't have the luxury to play several hours at a time anymore. I won't bore you with the why. My question is for someone who might only play 2 hours a night and skip a day here and there. Will this game be worth it for me? I very interested in what I've seen so far but I fear since I don't have the time to play "hardcore" I might find I'm constantly lost or behind in the game. Add on top of that, this would be my first space sim I'm not sure if I should drop the $60. Just looking for feed back.

Thanks

In short - YES!

This is exactly how I play. 1.5 to 2 hours a day if I'm lucky with, most likely, zero hours done at the weekend whilst I work thru the whole host of chores the Mrs has dreamt up for me this week.

Maybe because it is early days but I am not finding this a disadvantage. I am not being interdicted and killed constantly by players who have had the advantage of more game time than myself, in fact in my 8 or so hours of play I have only been interdicted twice - by NPCs (both were easy to dispose of). In fact my experience of open play is pretty much the same as solo just with more ships buzzing around.

My only word of caution is that this game will consume time faster than my Mrs can consume my wages... You sit down thinking "I'll just fly one mission for 30 minutes or so" and then finish in the early hours of the morning with just 2 hours left to get any sleep before work wondering "What the hell happened to the evening??".

 

[rootsrat]

I think there are couple of important things for you to know:

1) There is no main quest or main story. There are small stories injected in the game and they will be coming and going in real time - so you may miss on some opportunities to make money by not logging in for a few days, BUT something's will be always happening in the Galaxy so there's always opportunities to get involved and also you don't HAVE to participate in the story events, you can be a freelance pilot and do whatever you like.

2) The missions you take in game have limited time to complete. The timer runs in real time and never pause even if you log off. So you'd need to be careful when taking them and consider if you have enough time on your hands to finish what you've started, as there's no pause.

Other than that I don't see any issues you can have just because you have a limited time to play.

Hope to see you in space, Commander!

 

[Naturalist]

I think there are couple of important things for you to know:

1) There is no main quest or main story. There are small stories injected in the game and they will be coming and going in real time - so you may miss on some opportunities to make money by not logging in for a few days, BUT something's will be always happening in the Galaxy so there's always opportunities to get involved and also you don't HAVE to participate in the story events, you can be a freelance pilot and do whatever you like.

2) The missions you take in game have limited time to complete. The timer runs in real time and never pause even if you log off. So you'd need to be careful when taking them and consider if you have enough time on your hands to finish what you've started, as there's no pause.

Other than that I don't see any issues you can have just because you have a limited time to play.

Hope to see you in space, Commander!

Thanks for the info what happens if you fail a mission? Any huge penalty?

I'm going to spend the day watching game play videos to get a better feel for the game but I think I'll be picking this up this evening.

 

[Juby]

See if there are any Twitch streams or other live streams going on. I found these better than YouTube vids as YT vids tend to be edited to remove the boring bits and mistakes, etc.

Failing missions does have it's penalties - you lose reputation for the faction you are running the mission for. Last night I abandoned a mission as it meant me going to a Feudal system which I wasn't ready for; unfortunately as they had already loaded my cargo with scrap for the mission in then shows as "stolen" cargo so I had to dump it and had already been hit with a 400c fine for "nicking" it in the first place. I just looked at is as a broken contract fee...

There may be other repercussions but I haven't come across them yet.

 

[InfiniteGremlins]

Thanks for the info what happens if you fail a mission? Any huge penalty?

I'm going to spend the day watching game play videos to get a better feel for the game but I think I'll be picking this up this evening.

Small credit penalty, and a small reputation hit. And you may have to dump the cargo. What I do when I have limited time is to do trading, hauling goods between stations. Or hunting pirates near the star or at a USS. When I know how much time I have to play, I take the time-limited missions.

One nice thing is that, even though the game is multiplayer, as long as you're not in combat you can just save and exit and then log back on later and be right where you left. So it's easy to stop playing if you need to and come back later.

I encourage you to watch some streams to get a feel for the game and see if it's the kind of thing that excites you.

 

[zenoic]

Thanks for the info what happens if you fail a mission? Any huge penalty?

I'm going to spend the day watching game play videos to get a better feel for the game but I think I'll be picking this up this evening.

The penalty depends on the mission, for some there is just a small loss of reputation, others a fine. I suppose some missions could result in a large drop in reputation which could result in you becoming unwelcome in a system, but so far for me its just been a few thousand credit fine.

 

[rootsrat]

Thanks for the info what happens if you fail a mission? Any huge penalty?

I'm going to spend the day watching game play videos to get a better feel for the game but I think I'll be picking this up this evening.

No problem. As others have already answered the penalty question, I can only recommend Kerrash Landing stream to watch