Elite: A single player game?

[Tai]

After seeing some impressive videos and reading about the game i dipped in a fair few months back. The game really grabbed me but all you could do was haul cargo from system A to system B. Wich was fine for a little while. But one of the most important reasons why i got this game was that it is an online game that you could play with your friends. Or can you?

Maybe im missing something important but me and my two friends cant find a way to play together as a team. We cant do missions together, we cant fight others together and we cant trade together. The best we can do is find eachother in space but since he cant see the same unidentified signal sources i can we are unable to co-op.

I know the game is still in beta but im worried since such an important part of the game has yet to be adressed this far out in the development. Basically what Elite: Dangerous is doing is the same that X3 did ages ago.


Does anyone have some inside tips or know if Frontier has plans to sort this issue out soon? Cause i'`de be more than happy to pay a monthly fee for playing this game if i can play with friends. Without that option i probably wont play the game atall. Wich would be a proper shame.

Tai

 

[Half Giant]

Below quote from from the grouping design discussion, just to get you started.

You can read more here.

BTW have you tried playing with the Friends and Grouping options? No idea if it's working but you should be more likely to more likely to get in teh same instance if you are friends. If that doesn't work try private group mode, at least in the short term.

In addition to the groups presented above a player can be a part of an Alliance with other players. This is a separate entity that operates within the boundaries of whatever group the players are in:
A player can only ever be in a single alliance at a time
Alliances allow players to indicate trust between themselves so they:
Can freely jettison and pick up cargo between themselves
Can fire upon each other without criminal implications
Gain the same criminal fine/bounty if one or more other members commits a crime
This only occurs if the player is in the same vicinity as the player committing the crime
Have the ability to slave hyperdrive systems together to make travel easier
Get matched as a whole during slaved hyperspace travel and if not possible spawn in their own instance at a location rather than splitting the alliance up
Alliances in the all players group allow those in the alliance to come across other human players as normal except the game is explicitly trying to keep the alliance together when they arrive at the same location through match-making
This is in addition to the normal preference system and operates by giving a much higher weighting to alliance members when determining preferences over friends for example
Alliances in a private group would only meet other players in that private group
Depending on the size of the group, players may typically be in an alliance with everyone else in the private group but multiple alliances can exist in a larger private group if desired
Creating an alliance is handled exactly the same way as creating a private group with the caveat that anyone in the group can invite other players (including non-friend players) into the alliance and no one is the leader
In the all players group any player can be invited into the alliance by any alliance member
In a private group only the players in the private group can be invited into an alliance by alliance members
Players can vote to kick an alliance member out of the alliance
After a set time limit the vote is closed and the majority is taken to decide the outcome unless all members have already voted or the required number of votes is reached
Players can leave freely of their own accord
Any criminal status or reputation earned as a consequence of other alliance members behaviour is kept after leaving an alliance

 

[Khaldur]

I am a bit worried by the fact that above list doesn't mention communication at all.

Will there be an alliance chat?
Playing the beta so far the most irritating thing to me is the total absence of chats in this game. The only communication possible is one on one communication.
In any persistent world mulitplayer game communication via chat is one of the most central features. You want to communicate not only with your friends, you also want to communicate with others, e.g. in order to MAKE friends, or just looking for support for your mission. This is the core feature that allows the development of an in-game community. Without that we'll just play like in a single Player game all autistically isolated from each other.
In session based mulitplayer games like online shooters you can get away with basic communications, but in a persisent world that's not sufficient.

I have played quite a number of MMOGs so far, space sims like Jumpgate or EVE and also classic fantasy MMORPGs. One core feature all had in common was a more or less sophisticated chat system.

This game is supposed to get released in a few weeks but still there is not even a rudimentary way of communicating to other people (except for personal 1 on 1 chats in close vincinty). I am worried this will ruin an otherwise very promising game.

 

[Asp Explorer]

Nub 1 - "LFG Tank Anaconda - Must Have C8 Plasma or will kick"

Nub 2 - "I have l33t rade leedur skklz."

Nub 3 - "SUK MA REELGNZ N00bZusuk"

Nub 1 - "LFG Tank Anaconda - Must Have C8 Plasma or will kick"

Just please NO!

 

[PhanttoM]

After seeing some impressive videos and reading about the game i dipped in a fair few months back. The game really grabbed me but all you could do was haul cargo from system A to system B. Wich was fine for a little while. But one of the most important reasons why i got this game was that it is an online game that you could play with your friends. Or can you?

Maybe im missing something important but me and my two friends cant find a way to play together as a team. We cant do missions together, we cant fight others together and we cant trade together. The best we can do is find eachother in space but since he cant see the same unidentified signal sources i can we are unable to co-op.
<snip>

You need to go to pre-determined locations — With a little coordination on where to go, I've had a lot of success playing with friends when we go to resource extraction sites around ring planets or nav beacons near stars.

Although every now and again, the private group thinggie does not work properly. I've found that simply deleting it and re-creating it fixes it temporarily.