I think Elite really missed the mark on combat, and it mostly has to do with sensor & weapon ranges.
A 1960's MiG-21 can pick up radar contacts at 40+ miles, scanning through dense atmosphere, but my futuristic spaceship from the year 3300 with A-rated sensors can only detect contacts inside 8 km in the void of space? That's just bizarre to me. I can visually detect contacts before my sensors can! And my weapons are only good for half that distance, while the 1960's MiG can launch missiles at 3 times that distance. My starship is outclassed by old soviet tech! All of these weapons should be able to travel infinite distances through the void, but they vanish at ~3 km.
Imagine if you will, a scenario set in the image below where you start picking up faint contacts at 100 km and you have to sneak up on them, using asteroids for cover and minimizing your own detection signature. Imagine launching surprise missile attack at faint dots 25 km out, while closing fast behind your missiles for the close-quarters kill. I just think Elite left so much on the table by making all fights happen within 3 km for weapon deployment. All fights feel the same, and I quickly got bored of combat in the game. Too arcade-like in my opinion. Not that there's anything wrong with a good close-quarters dogfight, it's just that all fights are this way. How cool would it be to drop your targets shields and start pounding away at their hull outside 8 km? Or to be able to stalk a target 20 km ahead stealthy in order to setup a proper ambush. Instead we have corvette-sized Condas turn-fighting like spitfires.
A 1960's MiG-21 can pick up radar contacts at 40+ miles, scanning through dense atmosphere, but my futuristic spaceship from the year 3300 with A-rated sensors can only detect contacts inside 8 km in the void of space? That's just bizarre to me. I can visually detect contacts before my sensors can! And my weapons are only good for half that distance, while the 1960's MiG can launch missiles at 3 times that distance. My starship is outclassed by old soviet tech! All of these weapons should be able to travel infinite distances through the void, but they vanish at ~3 km.
Imagine if you will, a scenario set in the image below where you start picking up faint contacts at 100 km and you have to sneak up on them, using asteroids for cover and minimizing your own detection signature. Imagine launching surprise missile attack at faint dots 25 km out, while closing fast behind your missiles for the close-quarters kill. I just think Elite left so much on the table by making all fights happen within 3 km for weapon deployment. All fights feel the same, and I quickly got bored of combat in the game. Too arcade-like in my opinion. Not that there's anything wrong with a good close-quarters dogfight, it's just that all fights are this way. How cool would it be to drop your targets shields and start pounding away at their hull outside 8 km? Or to be able to stalk a target 20 km ahead stealthy in order to setup a proper ambush. Instead we have corvette-sized Condas turn-fighting like spitfires.