The thing I think nobody wants for Elite is Fortnite in space.
Ver true!
Need is relative. The game doesn't need a fraction of what it already has to be a solid fantasy space flight sim.
However, Elite: Dangerous was always intended to have a first person CMDR experience and would need to in order to be a full CMDR life-simulator.
Tactical shooters are also enormously popular and, if done half-way right, will no doubt be very profitable from an expense/return standpoint.
To be a CMDR experience it needs at least to balance FPS if not vastly surpass the FPS content with other immersive first person activities, and as I stated in a thread I started on this vein, I suspect we are looking at a bullet spongey FPS, without the appropriate amount of other gameplay. Really I want space legs to be more like GTA rather than COD.
I still think there are tons of real first person / 3rd person shooters out there. Mass Effect Andromeda might be what you might think will be brought to us in Elite Dangerous next but that one is a whole game alone only for walking/driving.
That would have been supersweet and I for one would have paid full AAA title money rather than DLC money for it.
You got your VR bud, now it’s my turn for the blinking avatar
I’ve also stated multiple times I’m against dragging out releases because of whinging... even if I don’t like the result. Get stuff out the door and roll forward. No matter what, people are going to complain. Might as well keep moving the game forward.
We never wanted it delayed, if it couldn't be put in by launch, we wanted a solid commitment from them that it would be coming in a subsequent update not ASAP afterwards. I was actually surprised we got it in at launch, and slightly bewildered why they went down the road of virtual flat screen for the on foot elements?
It's too bad we can't have "carry permits" in Odyssey FPS, where you need to go through some training tutorals, just like those for the newbie pilots in Elite and complete them before you can buy a personal weapon. Then Frontier could design them to educate everyone on the "crime & punishment" aspect of weapon ownership.
Not unlike all the complaints about seal clubbing, ramming, station blocking, pad blocking, all those things Frontier had to address because some folks though it would be fun to ruin someone else's game experience. Don't for one second believe that giving everyone a weapon from day one will not lead to Frontier having to address these same issues with "crime & punishment" later on because the same things will happen.
For once, I would like to see Frontier get ahead of the ball here and address these issues now, before they become issues which need to be addressed later. Frontier could do this from day one by having "tutorals" which must be completed first, educating users on what is expected in FPS game-play, before any of you fanatics get a weapon.
I fully expect everyone to get shoot at least ten times on day one, with many forum complaints about how unfair it was.
We need Frontier to issue "carry permits" which rely on "crime & punishment" tutorals to be completed before you get your hands on a weapon.
That needs brought up as a suggestion and or referenced in an AMA with the CM team on Wednesday.
At the very least, it will be a huge surge of income for FDev while all the Hardcore FPS Fortnite players realize what they're getting into and crash their ships 20 times trying to dock/undock before getting frustrated and quit.
More money = more dev resources so they can fund the ship interior art team!
No denying the FPS market base is potentially lucrative, I was wondering will it be a viable playstyle to be a space marine, travel on others ships between starports and make your living as a soldier of fortune? This would be good as it would allow players of elite who just want the flying to do just that, players old and new to do both FPS and Fly, and those who only want to FPS could do so in our galaxy in a social setting? Player Groups of specialist infantry....
I would say so. If its any longer than a cutscene you're just shooting yourself though.
Infinite warfare wasn't that bad.
Problem is probably the lead in... are you going to do a full tutorialish experience for glorified cutscene? What's it going to be, space game or fps? Apparently you can play elite without ever spaceships in odysee so maybe its an fps. Wonder what the point of building that mechanic will be.
The new player experience already has the flight side covered for folk new to the franchise and or flight, quite a few games offer shooting ranges, combat sims or training modules for players to git gud, so there'd be no reason for not having a tutorial available in game.
I already know I can’t walk around my own ship. 1st major let down.
What I want to know now is if I can EVA? Can I scavenge derelicit ships? Can I cut my way into a Generation ship and explore it possibly finding horrors I wasn’t prepared for.
If I can’t do things like that then space legs after waiting six years will be a bust for me. I don’t care either way if there is FPS activity or not but if the above type of mechanics are missing, I believe most space leg promoters from the past 6 years will be deeply disappointed.
EVA? THIS I want to know... Y'all remember the digital artbook with the dude EVA welding up the ships hull? All I want for Christmas is...
But it might pull over NMS players, or other people interested in space, to something a little more ‘grounded’.
I love space games, NMS still has a special place in my heart, Rebel Galaxy is loadsa fun for that ‘age of sail in space’ atmosphere, Freelancer sucked up so much of my spare time... but for me you just can’t beat a sandbox based on a pretty damn good sim of the Milkiest of Ways.
I also like the genre, but cannot see past NMS' cartoonish aesthetic, but I'll be interested to see how much first person activity there is outside of combat, and how much that will expand our playerbase.
People for a long, long, long time wanted the ability to fly Pelicans in space on Halo games.
So much so, they spent countless hours, across multiple games, finding ways to create a method of flying the pelican.
Various mods on the PC version of Halo: CE allowed flyable pelicans but it was never a part of the actual game, and it was something people desperately wanted.
Bungie responded by creating Hornets (smaller Pelicans) which then allowed for in-atmopshere flying... and then ultimately 343 Indutries (the company spawned from Bungie) made a game which included a mission that involved space-flight in a similar style ship.
So... In short and in response to your question; in a Sci-Fi FPS game, players absolutely would LOVE to be able to fly spaceships in addition to the base game.
Similarly I loved infinitewarfare, which had a bit of (very arcadey) flight as well the FPS stuff, and a small amount of immersion walking around on
Retribution.
As long as they have an explanation for it, and randomness is tied to populated system proximity. Running into an NPC pirate in an undiscovered system 120,000 lightyears away from the bubble should not happen.
120,000 lightyears? You've been through Raxxla haven't you?
Beagle Point is the furthest you can get from the bubble at ~65,000LY from Sol.
If I wasn't already playing, I might. The number of MMO tactical FPSes that are both on platforms I'll support and that do not really annoy me, are few and far between.
The last one I really enjoyed was Planetside 2...until a combination of neglecting actual issues, in favor of balancing it into the dirt, destroyed it's appeal (sound familiar?). Almost immediately after, I started playing Elite: Dangerous (as it was familiar with it's name sake and the games inspired by them, as well as the closest thing to Jumpgate I'd come across in a decade).
Anyway, from what little I've seen in the FPS combat in Odyssey, it seems at least vaguely similar to Planetside, and I had a lot of fun in Planetside.
I also know several people that have little inclination to pilot fantasy spacecraft themselves, but like the idea of the Elite setting, and would happily play a shooter in that setting. Indeed, if things pan out, my CMDR may become a full time bus driver (dropship) and close air-support pilot, who moonlights as a commando on foot.
I like your way of thinking about picking your specialism in Odyssey infantry engagements, I think my speciality is going to be close air support.
I agree there's an overlap of Commanders who enjoy surface
pew-pew and flying spaceships - I just want more than surface
pew-pew and I'm hoping the last 2 years of development work haven't focused on surface combat gameplay, while leaving scraps of content for other professions and the players who enjoy them.
I mean, if I can get a pirate mission to intercept a surface ground convoy of some sort* and steal the loot while fighting off protectors of that cargo, then yeah, sign me up. Especially if the rewards match the risk and me grabbing the cargo has a BGS impact on the faction expecting that delivery.
Or a smuggling mission to deliver goods to a black market trader inside a outpost. Stealth mode activated. Can I sneak in without being detected? Is my suit emitting too much energy making it light up like a Xmas tree on the outpost's sensors? None of this popping heat-sinks nonsense. Avoid security sensors sweeps, the patrolling Viper overhead and searching eyes to infiltrate the base. Oh crap, a cop has caught me! Wait, I can bride him....perhaps?
That's the sort of thing I'm after - content for other professions other than pure combat. Something from Odyssey to give those professions plus trading and mining a boost. Of course combat should be the marketing focus, no argument there, easier to show weapons discharging and grab attention after a few seconds within a trailer.
If Odyssey is a meal then....Steak is nice. But I don't just want steak. I want the fried liver, onions, mushrooms and fries too. Plus a diet coke. And some sweetcorn with mustard sauce.
* Don't ask me why a convoy is travelling on the surface instead of onboard a ship. It just is ok? Yes, I've been watching The Mandalorian. This is the way.
IMHO for Odyssey to "work" for me it's got to be more than just run and gun, so things like the stealth approach you mention would bring back memories of playing the splinter cell games, and once you have the character on foot, you can add a ton of activities for them, GTA / Tomb Raider / Assassins Creed / Theif. Fingers crossed for the dev diaries, that they bring more immurshon not just pewpew*...
...I am aware that the next dev diary is combat so I'm hoping it allays my fears about bullet sponges.
