Elite Dangerous' Game Design is stuck behind a rock and a hard place

[Agony_Aunt]

I like the travel times. Gives me a sense of you know... travelling.

I especially like that there are some places that take a long time to get there.

To my mind, this "reduce travel times" is bordering on (although not quite in the same league as) the same lines as autopilot, removing minigames because they are boring/tiresome, and similar ideas, until we are reduced to a game with just an i win button.

I'd prefer it if FD focused on adding things, not removing.

 

[Muthax]

Good point, Not overshooting, its easy 6 is the magic number - never let your time drop below 0:06 - keep it at 0:07 for ease! simple as... if it drops below 0:06 you will overshoot... the lower the number the faster you're going, this will go up and down depending on gravity etc...

Yep, use the grav push and pull to always keep it in the 6-7s bracket and you'll hardly ever overshoot (and if you do, slow down, nose down and spiral back)

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I agree with everything you both said. Interesting point about using planets etc. They can still add even better drives though as another tweak. Imagine how cool it would be if some of the top end drives used skillfully could make you arrive in 10% of the time of other pilots. Maybe make blue glow other people see in supercruise a slightly different colour so people can see there's someone special in the area.

I don't know how the bigger and more expensive drives work, have you tried them? I am still in the sidey

 

[Jay8ch]

I upgrade my FDS (in the sidey) to the 15K creds one and I can see it goes faster. Acceleration and decelleration rate are heavily influenced by grav wells, I suggest you read a bit about how to REALLY use SC because most people (me included before looking it up) have no clue how it really works

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Very well said

Yep, use the grav push and pull to always keep it in the 6-7s bracket and you'll hardly ever overshoot (and if you do, slow down, nose down and spiral back)

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I don't know how the bigger and more expensive drives work, have you tried them? I am still in the sidey

I upgraded mine and although I think I could notice a slight difference in supercruise I wouldn't swear to it, so the difference is not huge.

 

[Veridis]

I enjoy it as it is.

Been playing since Alpha and I still love the sense of scale Elite provides me with. Then again, maybe it's because I'm not in a rush to do anything in particular. I just fly around. Bit of bounty hunting here, trading there. I just enjoy the time I have with it.

 

[Muzz UK]

Buy a second monitor go on Facebook, eBay or whatever when in supercruise... go on Skype with friends.

Get a wireless headset go make a drink or food.....

If you were in a real space ship you'd be doing things to pass the time.

 

[Muthax]

I upgraded mine and although I think I could notice a slight difference in supercruise I wouldn't swear to it, so the difference is not huge.

Which model and in which ship? The 15K one in the sidey gave me a bit more speed (tested) but don't expect the 2nd upgrade of the starter ship to cut your travel time in half

 

[SgtLennin]

I don't know exactly what 'c' means, other than you can find in in E=MC²? So...pfft. I should really look it up, but what am I, a doctor or a moonshuttle conductor?

C is the speed of light, about 300,000km per second. A bigger unit would be the Parsec. 1 Parsec/sec would be 3.08567758 × 10^16 m / s.

Elite Dangerous handles spacetime curvature pretty well, although I think that super fast travel will only be possible in bubbles where mass outside has no influence.

PS @ Frontier Dev , Some red- and blue shift effects on the background depending on your speed would be pretty cool I think. It would add to the sense of speed. Don't know whether this is easy to implement.

 

[Muthax]

C is the speed of light, about 300,000km per second. A bigger unit would be the Parsec. 1 Parsec/sec would be 3.08567758 × 10^16 m / s.

Elite Dangerous handles spacetime curvature pretty well, although I think that super fast travel will only be possible in bubbles where mass outside has no influence.

PS @ Frontier Dev , Some red- and blue shift effects on the background depending on your speed would be pretty cool I think. It would add to the sense of speed. Don't know whether this is easy to implement.

OT but yesterday I found on the forum someone posting shots of a black hole and flying in SC through the distortion and it looked super cool

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=63159

 

[SMcA]

I've always wanted a screen saver that I could fly.
I like it.

 

[Iori]

I agree with the OP. Nothing to add.

 

[Vagabond]

Yeah I agree that the SC could do with being a little more fluid. No big dramatic change necessary but making planetary masses affect the ship less and not requiring the frustrating slow down to a crawl every time you want to check out a USS.

And a slingshot effect would be cool. Or maybe it's in and I'm just not observant enough?

I do enjoy keeping an eye on my speed so I don't overshoot and avoiding big masses to maintain momentum. It's far from all bad.

The closest SC feels to dynamic swimming (be it a la dolphin in the case of a courier and a whale for the mega freighter), dodging currents and swells, clutching nearby props and using them to propel yourself off, the better IMHO.

 

[Rainchild]

I both love and hate the travel. I have a HOTAS setup, so I'm treating it like a combat and flight sim with trading/etc as side-goals... I LIKE that hands on feel, I LIKE that I have to pilot my ship instead of whack on autopilot (which is a new thing for me - all the "X" games I've spent hundreds of hours in, I always used autopilot, this is new and fresh).

What would make Supercruise MUCH more fun, IMO, is if it was a bit more lax with the acceleration/deceleration (and I know that's going to ruffle a few feathers, but hear me out)... I want to be heading for my target, and be distracted by something, "ooh, shiny!" and decide to loop past the three other planets on the way in - especially in something like a binary system. The problem there is the distances are so vast, you spend several minutes getting up to speed, then you're rocketing too fast to change course or go anywhere without overshooting massively, or if you do manage to swing by one of the planets, then you've got to go through the whole slow acceleration thing again.

I guess that's "Need For Speed" in space, arcadey type racing where you get the fun of piloting a car, yet can use the handbrake or bounce off the walls if you come into a corner too quick, or rubberband to catch up to the other racers if you are doing badly. More casual, and more accessible, and frankly I take NFS arcade driving over GT5 super realism any day of the week.

But then if they did 'dumb down' supercruise to be my idea of fun, I'm sure there will be some hardcore sim players who will then start rabbling on the forum about that... so there's no real win/win here, just have to pick which crowd to appease and which crowd to say 'suck it up' to.

 

[Muthax]

I think these threads that blatantly try to go against the game nature and philosophy should be closed and a Mod should explain why and point the users toward the Design Discussion Archives

We spent what 2 years to make the game we (FD and the backers) wanted and now anyone can come in and troll us?? What part of "against the core design principles" isn't clear? And being called "delusional fanboi" because we want to play the game we helped building THE WAY we wanted it??

The galls of some people

 

[Memnoch]

Buy a second monitor go on Facebook, eBay or whatever when in supercruise... go on Skype with friends.

Get a wireless headset go make a drink or food.....

If you were in a real space ship you'd be doing things to pass the time.

I tend to listen or watch livestreams on my iPad while in flight. A certain co-optional podcast is good for this.

 

[Connor Caple]

Buy a second monitor go on Facebook, eBay or whatever when in supercruise... go on Skype with friends.

Get a wireless headset go make a drink or food.....

If you were in a real space ship you'd be doing things to pass the time.

So your solution is "Yes, the game is boring as hell - go use the internet to pass the time"?

Oh dear... hahahaha.

Nope - it's supposed to be a game. We don't even have the instant 'J' drive we had back in 1984. This game is a travesty. It's supposed to be the future of ELITE and yet it is backwards compared to the game from 30 years ago because of a stupid decision that was made to turn it into an MMO and thus have to suffer all the stupidities that come from being in a 'shared' universe even when you just want to solo it.

We have to STILL use a pen and paper for trading info unless we want to run external, unsupported apps.

The latest "core design principles" were scribbled on the back of a beermat after one too many sniffs of the barmaid's apron, in my honest opinion.

 

[Muthax]

So your solution is "Yes, the game is boring as hell - go use the internet to pass the time"?

Oh dear... hahahaha.

Nope - it's supposed to be a game. We don't even have the instant 'J' drive we had back in 1984. This game is a travesty. It's supposed to be the future of ELITE and yet it is backwards compared to the game from 30 years ago because of a stupid decision that was made to turn it into an MMO and thus have to suffer all the stupidities that come from being in a 'shared' universe even when you just want to solo it.

We have to STILL use a pen and paper for trading info unless we want to run external, unsupported apps.

The latest "core design principles" were scribbled on the back of a beermat after one too many sniffs of the barmaid's apron, in my honest opinion.

I get you didn't know ANYTHING about the KS pledge and this game when you bought it, shame

 

[Dodger Long]

Absolutely nothing wrong with Elites travel mechanics, we who played the original love the way D.Brabans kept the style with great graphics, despite the little niggles, I don't agree with any of your complaining, perhaps its not for you, best stick with CALL of Duty.

 

[starjump]

Not sure on the "annoying" mass lock. I boost once or twice and im out of it. How is that a bore? Im loosing my mind everyday here when i see these posts. A couple of seconds to fly to get out of mass lock is "boring"? How fast and easy should it be? Sit in station, push one button = zoomed to other side of the galaxy? *massive rolleyes*

 

[Vagabond]

I think these threads that blatantly try to go against the game nature and philosophy should be closed and a Mod should explain why and point the users toward the Design Discussion Archives

We spent what 2 years to make the game we (FD and the backers) wanted and now anyone can come in and troll us?? What part of "against the core design principles" isn't clear? And being called "delusional fanboi" because we want to play the game we helped building THE WAY we wanted it??

The galls of some people

How is a thread asking for SC to be a bit more dynamic going against the philosophy of the game? People aren't arguing that travel should be instantaneous but it doesn't mean it can't be made a little more engaging.

For the record, I'm an alpha backer.

 

[Connor Caple]

Absolutely nothing wrong with Elites travel mechanics, we who played the original love the way D.Brabans kept the style with great graphics, despite the little niggles, I don't agree with any of your complaining, perhaps its not for you, best stick with CALL of Duty.

Ah, the typical troll and fanboi response that everyone ignores. Thanks for wasting your time there.

"Go play CoD" is so last century, a bit like this game.

Criticise the X series all you like, but they moved forward. They don't have the sheer scope of ELITE, but they know how a computer should work...

As I've said before, If I wanted a game that was this backwards I would have to load up Elite 1984 and hack it to remove J-Drive! Sheesh.