Current game progress and expectations

[Freespirit]

Hi all
I'm really excited about Elite Dangerous, especially because in last few years we didn't have much choice of the space sim games. Now the computers are more powerful and are able to deliver much better games. Like everyone I have a long list of the things which I would like to see in Elite Dangerous. Because the early stage of the game I would like to share only a few thoughts about the current progress and some future improvements.
PROS
- The whole idea of the game is brilliant. I mean: fight, trade, explore – open world game
- I like the graphics in the game
- Docking station looks very good and is very well organized
- Support for Oculus Rift
- Future choice of different ships

CONS
- Still not many updates about current progress from David B. and developers. One Dev Diary every month is not enough
- Exploring and trade are the most important things in space sim for me. There is a lot of talking about how big the space will be in the game: vast space, with planets, moons etc. But so far we have only three Alpha tests and the game is expecting in this year. Hmm
- In Alpha 1.0 & 2.0 tests I didn't like the fact, that enemy ship even when was nearly destroyed, didn't show any signs of damages, like constant smoke or bits coming out from the ship. So we can clearly see that the ship is heavily damaged. Even when is not attacked any more.

That all for now. I'm looking forward for more updates and progress. All the best for David B. and his team. You doing a great job.
Cheers

 

[nats]

- Exploring and trade are the most important things in space sim for me. There is a lot of talking about how big the space will be in the game: vast space, with planets, moons etc. But so far we have only three Alpha tests and the game is expecting in this year. Hmm

The game is being designed to be modular/procedural, once they have one complete solar system/station they have effectively a million! After that its just a matter of adding some interesting special variations and human touches.

- In Alpha 1.0 & 2.0 tests I didn't like the fact, that enemy ship even when was nearly destroyed, didn't show any signs of damages, like constant smoke or bits coming out from the ship. So we can clearly see that the ship is heavily damaged. Even when is not attacked any more.

Ships do shows signs of damage externally now, in fact they look really good when visibly damaged. I would like to see both player and AI pilots being able to repair damage and also see perhaps some cascading damage effects where damage if left can start affecting other subsystems, if not dealt with, possibly causing a ship explosion quite a while after initially damaged in a fight.

 

[ZeeWolf]

With each new release I'm increasingly optimistic about the amount of work that Frontier have been doing behind the scenes. I didn't expect the first alpha to be so solid, I didn't expect the multi-player to be so well realised in the alpha in terms of gameplay mechanics and I didn't expect the docking to be this amazing and the outfitting is light years away from those 2.0 menus that seem so long ago now.

The travel & trade Alpha 4 is something I think Frontier have been working on for a very long time, its certainly been talked about lots over the past year or more. I can't wait to see what they have for us.

 

[Bobbydylan]

As a fellow new joiner, welcome to the forums!

- Still not many updates about current progress from David B. and developers. One Dev Diary every month is not enough
Could be more, I admit, but given how good the game is so far, I'm kinda glad they're working to make the game great instead of telling us about it. Remember, there are no subscribers here, paying for community content.
- Exploring and trade are the most important things in space sim for me. There is a lot of talking about how big the space will be in the game: vast space, with planets, moons etc. But so far we have only three Alpha tests and the game is expecting in this year. Hmm
Indeed, I'd love it if the dev pace picked up. However, I'd rather they not rush it if it means that trading an exploring will be as good as the last 2 alphas.
- In Alpha 1.0 & 2.0 tests I didn't like the fact, that enemy ship even when was nearly destroyed, didn't show any signs of damages, like constant smoke or bits coming out from the ship. So we can clearly see that the ship is heavily damaged. Even when is not attacked any more.
I guess damage states could be a little more obvious, true. but most of the footage is of sidewinders blowing up. They're quite small ship. .

 

[Winterwalker]

I didn't expect the docking to be this amazing

Welcome to the ...

Alpha 3.1; Servers currently being checked for connectivity/ constistency, the core of the game in terms of multiplayer.
Frontier Developments were at a BAFTA event last week and it was notable that the same scenes, that people are finding may crash in the test were operating well. This was without the addition of various players, each with widely varying connection speeds, all depending on their broadband service, and which is currently being tested for consistency. It also promises a LOT more from the game than we have seen yet. (It's an Alpha test, not an unveiling of the game)

Zeewolf is right. Elite Dangerous uses a procedural generation programming method at its heart. This generates a vast universe (without the cost of masses of data, so extra capacity can be used to make the whole game rich instead) .. The things you mention, far from being major, can be considered as "tweaks", once it can be established where you are (and where every one and everything else, is relative to you) inside that universe. (purpose of the Alpha test)

Further "tweaks" (actually a lot more than that) have been discussed with members of the community. In the design decision archive you'll notice that the first post gives a summary, made by members of the design and development team.

 

[Patrick_68000]

Still not many updates about current progress from David B. and developers. One Dev Diary every month is not enough

Welcome among the great family of the Elite. And do not forget, too much information, kill information

 

[Freespirit]

Thanks All of you for reply. Like everyone I would like to see game finished and ready to play I'm sure that every new update will bring something interesting. So far everything looks very nice and also I think that one of the best thing is Alpha. So players can play a little bit and by this devs can have a feedback about the game. Instead of keeping everything for them self before release. Like was in the other of the recent space sim (which everyone know). Thanks.

 

[Patrick_68000]

Thanks All of you for reply. Like everyone I would like to see game finished and ready to play I'm sure that every new update will bring something interesting. So far everything looks very nice and also I think that one of the best thing is Alpha. So players can play a little bit and by this devs can have a feedback about the game. Instead of keeping everything for them self before release. Like was in the other of the recent space sim (which everyone know). Thanks.

Perhaps you will be interested by all newsletters published at this date? (if you did not see) --- http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5112

 

[SAB380]

I wouldn't say there has only been 3 alpha tests.

Each alpha phase tests multiple aspects and each phase has multiple alpha releases.
Currently we are already on 3.1 with 3.2 coming by weeks end apparently.

And almost everything has been tested at this stage. Really the last thing left we haven't seen is trading. And that should be the very easiest thing of all.

 

[Dejay]

I too would wish for a MUCH higher frequency of dev updates, even if it is just silly stuff and behind the scenes peeks. They should just hire someone fun to do the job, it would easily pay for itself through increased preorders!
They could also do a "ship of the week" with in depth info, specs and renderings on each ship. There are 25 playable ships, and not that much time till release.

It would be visually cool to have some kind of "smoke" or "dust" trailing the ships when they are damaged.

 

[Zieman]

It would be visually cool to have some kind of "smoke" or "dust" trailing the ships when they are damaged.

I'm positive I've seen stuff like this when playing. Main thruster 'flame' turning from short blue-white plume to long smoking yellow flame, accidental hit on the dreadnought causing a spark-spewing wound on it* etc. Sometimes these are hard to spot in the middle of the mayhem.

*Like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=YsMYIoP4cdw#t=33 already in 2.02

 

[munkor]

I may be the only one here, but the amount of info we get from FD, through the forums and through the occasional newsletters/videos, are fine for me.

Of course, we could do it the 'other' way like another prject we all know about, and have a constant steam of vapid updates, while the backers show for it.

I know which one I'd prefer

 

[Dejay]

I'm positive I've seen stuff like this when playing. Main thruster 'flame' turning from short blue-white plume to long smoking yellow flame, accidental hit on the dreadnought causing a spark-spewing wound on it* etc. Sometimes these are hard to spot in the middle of the mayhem.

*Like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=YsMYIoP4cdw#t=33 already in 2.02

Nice video True but I want MOAR turn up the particle effects

 

[Major Squeeze]

I wouldn't say there has only been 3 alpha tests.

Each alpha phase tests multiple aspects and each phase has multiple alpha releases.
Currently we are already on 3.1 with 3.2 coming by weeks end apparently.

And almost everything has been tested at this stage. Really the last thing left we haven't seen is trading. And that should be the very easiest thing of all.

Don't forget travelling which should hopefully include Galactic Maps and supercruise!

 

[Dr Wookie]

Welcome, commander !
It's easy for me to say as an alpha backer, but I would much rather they concentrated on making the game than constantly updating the community. To do otherwise would need extra community funding (like star citizen), or just a very small team (like limit theory) so you can easily keep track.

Have you found out about Lave Radio yet? It's a fan-made podcast that is very good for keeping up to date, and since it's audio only you can listen while doing other things (or pretending to do them).

There is a huge wealth of information in the Design Discussion archive, and indeed a new topic in the DDF- the first scheduled topic since before alpha started! I take this as a very good sign that FD are really getting into their stride

 

[Ipecac]

Take the guy who is tasked with providing information updates or blogs or whatever, and put him to work on making the game! GooooO!

I am so in love with this game, and so glad to see that gaming is coming back to its senses with Elite and Star Citizen, that I dropped 200 queen-bucks on a combat only alpha! Then, it was so awesome, that I dropped even more than that on an O.R. dev kit 1, and then got so excited about the dev kit, that I dropped yet more on the dev kit 2. what IS WRONG WITH MEEE???

Does anyone else have this level of Elite-itis??

I noticed in this post that alpha 4 is trade travel (paroxysm of joy), thank you for the info. Do we know when this is slated to come about?