Elite Dangerous in the Media thread

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Jezzah

Jezzah
Sanderson said:
I don't disagree with anything you said. Again, it's my own fault and to be honest I could have (and should have) wrote down 7 months ago almost exactly what has transpired.

I guess, from my personal point of view, I'd simply love to hear David himself say that FD will continue on ED until his "vision" (you know, what we all signed up for) is realized, or as close as reasonably possible. Right now, while I do love the game, it's nowhere close to that "vision" IMHO. I haven't seen David on the forum in many months (he's always avoided it as much as possible as far as I can see) and to be honest after the offline thing and other mishandled (IMO) things from FD I doubt a lot of people would believe it anyway. Although it may at least help if the salesman popped in after the sale and assured his customers that although the "vision" isn't working or complete, it will be in a reasonable amount of time. I'd even accept two years as a reasonable amount of time to fully realize (not including expansions such as planetary landings) the "vision" of what David pitched the game as being. Right now, again IMO, ED, while I do love the game, isn't close to that "vision". There's many many things not working as intended, missing or just simply incomplete.

I sense (not from you necessarily) that criticism of the people that manage ED's developement is often understood as criticism of the game, which it isn't, necessarily.

ED is a great game, it has so much potential and could be a history making title but, IMO, not if it continues as it has recently. That's just my opinion. If I wanted to make money and grow a business I'd hire David (theoretically if he was available) as he definately is doing all the right things for that to be realized. However, as I'm not trying to do that, I just want the game he pitched over the last couple years, I just want the game as it could and IMO should be. Ya, I'm selfish, childish and probably have a slew of mental issues that even I'm not aware of but, I buy games for selfish reasons and post from my own personal point of view.

Right now, it's very hard to explain to friends I talked into buying into ED why it's not, IMO, in a worthy release state at this point (after release) and I have zero places to point them to from the guy that pitched it (David) to reassure them that indeed, despite the early (IMO) release state ED is in, that indeed he is till going to develope it until that "vision" is working and realized. I get that ED will never be what we all imagined but, a bit closer would go a long long way.

In short, I'm just butt sore that my first "fanboi" experience was such a hard one to learn. I can only blame myself and as an old man I should have known better. Having said that, a little reassurance from David, from my point of view, would go a long way and might even help me slip the blinders on again for some more "fanboi" ecstatic euphoria for a bit longer. Selfish I know.
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Can't disagree with any of that myself. Been saying it myself since late beta after being here since day one of alpha. I still have faith but it's quite telling how the mainstream media have after being initially very positive started to pick up on the inch deep depth of the features in follow up articles. They simply must address this and attempt to get to the vision in the DDF. Braben clearly has very little to do with the game beyond rubber stamping on financial issues in my opinion so the proposals in the DDF are my benchmark for the "vision" ... We are clearly a long way from that on every front.

I still have faith but I'm not logging in anymore and haven't for quite some time now. Neither am I recommending the game to friends or on gaming forums as I feel dishonest to do so.
 

AgentGB

AgentGB
hmmm didn't want to open a thread for this, but i think it will fit in here, not sure if anyone has noticed, or if i'm a few months late with this, but was reading the trivia on Interstellar, there seems to be a mention to Elite Dangerous there, if any movie fans are into movie trivia.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816692/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv

The attempt by Matt Damon's and later Matthew McConaughey's characters to manually dock with the ship as the docking computer is not available to them will be quite familiar to those of a certain age who recall playing an early computer game back in the 80's called Elite. Elite was a space trading game where you had to dock your ship with a space station in order to but or sell goods. At the start of the game you had no docking computer. You had to rotate your ship in sync with the space station and then edge forward to manually dock. It was a nightmare and extremely frustrating, just as it is shown in Interstellar which which does seem to have used Elite for at least some inspiration. First thing any player did in Elite when they got any credits was buy a docking computer.
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Marc Alexander

Marc Alexander
CaptainHyperbole!%5B1%5D.jpg
 

Jigsaw

Jigsaw
I translated the German "Gamestar" review for you:


Elite: Dangerous - The Unepic Epic

One month after its release we provide our final verdict of Elite: Dangerous. How well did the space sim do regarding mission design, story or factions?


If you want to have fun with Elite: Dangerous you need to have a lot of imagination: well, imagine that a game developer recreated all of Middle-Earth. All the Hobbit villages, Elven settlements, Orc camps, castles, bridges, towers etc. can be found in their exact locations. We can travel across the entire realm, slay ogres, raid trade caravans, do our own trading, mine Mithril... or just explore the world and sell our maps. We can ride on different breeds of horses, improve our equipment and the horseback- and combat system ist excellent. Great!

But after a while we realize that this version of Middle-Earth is cheating. There are only a handful of building types, one looking like the other with only slight differences in paintjobs. Sometimes we are being sent on a quest, for artifacts, secret messages or raiders, for example, however, when we've finally located a promising cave we only find a harmless trader, a mute undertaker or... simply nothing. What's worse, there is no sign of the legendary heroes Frodo, Legolas, Gandalf and their friends. Only once in a while we read on bulletin boards about slave rebellions or assassinations, which happened far far away. However, we don't really know who's fighting whom, because nothing really sets the individual factions apart, and there are no massive orc hordes that we can join or fight.


The Indestructible Battle Cruiser

That's what Elite: Dangerous is like. Shortly after the official release on December 16th, after countless hours in the Alpha, Beta and Gamma, we published a preliminary review which only left three questions: How good is the story? Are there going to be any handcrafted missions apart from the extremely generic ones? How realistically do factions, splinter groups and companies perform? The three answers are sobering: What story? - No. - Doesn't matter.

The reason for that is how unfocused the game is regarding these aspects. It's almost as if the creator of Elite, David Braben, was awestruck by the sheer size of his universe instead of filling it with life. There is only a very thin story thread to be found, because the small background story elements about revolting system or accidents, that perhaps weren't accidents after all, are only being told as dry text messages that appear on bulletin boards every couple of days.

How "important" that excuse of a story is to Braben is evident by the fact that these messages are still in English in the German version of the game (which isn't exactly brilliant anyway). Then, on January 8, such a text message tells us that a federal battleship has arrived in the Luluwala system. Indeed: the giant cruiser can be found there but doesn't do anything. You can even fly inside it, shoot at it from the inside, bring down the "hitpoints" a bit, but ultimately it's indestructible. That's how it always is in Elite: Dangerous. Whenever we think "Yay, something new happens" nothing happens...


Lost in Space

And what happens when we complete random jobs for a client (hunt X pirates, provide Y tons of silver, deliver Z weapons to XY)? His influence in the current star sytem increases a bit, just like our own reputation with his faction, but does it result in special equipment, missions or more options? Nope. There are only two exceptions: only when we've reached certain ranks in the Empire or Federation can we purchase two of the currently 15 ships - only then we gain access to the fast and elegant Clipper or the heavily armored Dropship.

We never get the feeling of being someone special or to significantly influence what happens in the universe. Sure, sometimes we lower the prices for certain goods when we repeatedly deliver them to a station by the dozens, but even the chat messages from attacking NPC pirates are the result of text generation along the lines of "Prepare your last will, aaaarrrr!" - but that text generator is way too limited, resulting in lots of phrase repetition.


Well, Let's Make Our Own Story!

Now you have an idea about the game elements "story", "missions" and "factions" that we didn't want give our final verdict on in the preliminary review, because we kept our hopes up that something would be done about them after the official release. But we've ranted enough - let's talk about the game's tremendously positive aspects! The flight dynamics of Elite: Dangerous are excellent! We wrangle the flightstick, accelerate, hit the booster, slow down, outmaneuver the enemy.

All of that also works very well with a mouse but lacks the certain aura of being a pilot. The ships feel very different, too: the fast and light Eagle is agile, the fat Python is more slugglish but can carry a lot of equipment, and the medium and heavy transports fly like a crate of lead but can carry loads of cargo across the galactic praerie.

The upgrading, reconfiguration and customization of our ships is also great. Every ship is being delivered with only basic equipment and a fixed amount and classification of weapon mounts and internal compartments. How we equip those with dozens of different lasers, cannons, turrets, sensors, shield generators, power plants etc. is completely left to our own discretion.

If you do a lot of trading you need lots of cargo space, and perhaps good hyperspace range to reach distant lucrative system. Exploration vessels also profit from good hyperspace range, but on top of that a good fuel supply, because there aren't any stations in many systems (i.e.: gas station). If you want to exploit asteroids you need a mining laser and a refinery that processes pieces of ore and metal that you've blown out of an asteroid. You'll need decent weapons as well, because pirates also have a thing for metalrich asteroid belts and planetary rings - because of the well filled mining vessels.


For Immersion

To really enjoy Elite: Dangerous you have to make an effort and you need an affinity for astronomy, in order to look in awe at the umpteenth star, to still marvel at its wonderfully animated heat shimmer, the erruptions and flares. While exploring one sometimes has to fly straight for a quarter of an hour, just because the last planet in the system is far out.

If you love to collect and complete data you'll be happy. If you expect special events, you probably won't. Even in our own star system, Sol, you'll only find completely generic station types orbiting the inner planets, as well as Jupiter and Saturn. There is no "birthplace of humanity" ambience nor a "Welcome Home!" gretting. Sol is just another system like the 399,999,999,999 other ones.


Conclusion

Sometimes I hate to be right. About a year ago I wrote in the Alpha version preview "If Braben manages to perform the feat of filling the procedurally generated universe with life I'll be a happy camper without a doubt". Well, I'm happy now but not without doubts. While the head of Frontier managed to provide a technically impressive universe with plenty of Elite atmosphere, he faltered with the mission design, story-telling and the hyped dynamic power struggles.

Despite these flaw the new Elite is just as immersive as its grandpa back in 1984. Because the missions, while generic, are plentiful and easily combined. Because the search for the best trade run or the hunt for the largest bounty is able to motivate in the long run. And because I always save for the next weapon system or the next ship - just to try it in combat right away.

75/100
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http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/elite-dangerous/test/elite_dangerous,45128,3081985.html
 
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Hydrino

Hydrino
Not sure if this one was posted earlier- didn't see it. Custom PC Mag article, partly readable in the picture from Kerrash: https://twitter.com/Kerrrash/status/556770648823844866/photo/1

From what I see looks balanced calling out some warts but also positives. Anyone have a link to the full story?

And on 22 January: Rick Lane ‏@Rick_LaneJust drafted a 2,500 word virtual tour guide for Elite Dangerous. See the best stars in the galaxy only in next month's @CustomPCMag.
 

Agony_Aunt

Agony_Aunt
From the translation of the german article linked above...

We never get the feeling of being someone special or to significantly influence what happens in the universe.
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Yes, they got it! But then, they don't like it. I've seen this in a couple of reviews.

This is why the game is absolutely not for some players, and yet for others it is an awesome thing. Its the main reason i didn't sign up for ESO. I love the whole Elder Scrolls series, but having everyone running around being treated like they are the chosen one just didn't float my boat. Works ok in a single player game, but i don't like it for a MP game.
 

CaptainKremmen

CaptainKremmen
Loki_666 said:
From the translation of the german article linked above...



Yes, they got it! But then, they don't like it. I've seen this in a couple of reviews.

This is why the game is absolutely not for some players, and yet for others it is an awesome thing. Its the main reason i didn't sign up for ESO. I love the whole Elder Scrolls series, but having everyone running around being treated like they are the chosen one just didn't float my boat. Works ok in a single player game, but i don't like it for a MP game.
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Skyrim:

"Oh! You're the Dragon-born?!?!? Can I touch your shoe? J-j-j-just for a second? OH WOW! I TOUCHED THE DRAGON-BORN'S SHOE! WITH THIS FINGER! It smells all leathery and sweaty. So... awesome. I'm never washing this finger again. HEY EVERYONE, OVER HERE! THE DRAGON-BORN!"


Elite:

"Docking granted, CMDR DRAGON-BORN, but that's not your spot. 100CR Fine. Pay inside 24 hours or you're toast. While we're at it, here's a 16000CR fine for that mead."
 

Marc Alexander

Marc Alexander
CaptainKremmen said:
Skyrim:

"Oh! You're the Dragon-born?!?!? Can I touch your shoe? J-j-j-just for a second? OH WOW! I TOUCHED THE DRAGON-BORN'S SHOE! WITH THIS FINGER! It smells all leathery and sweaty. So... awesome. I'm never washing this finger again. HEY EVERYONE, OVER HERE! THE DRAGON-BORN!"


Elite:

"Docking granted, CMDR DRAGON-BORN, but that's not your spot. 100CR Fine. Pay inside 24 hours or you're toast. While we're at it, here's a 16000CR fine for that mead."
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Bah ha!

Have some rep

+1
 

wstephenson

wstephenson

Skyflyer

S
Elite: Dangerous got 90/100 in the Swedish version of PC Gamer magazine that I got today (nr 223, february 2015). The game was also awarded "Game of the month". The magazine also contains an interview with David Braben. I can't post a link since it is a paper magazine.
 
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Patrick_68000

Patrick_68000
Skyflyer said:
Elite: Dangerous got 90/100 in the Swedish version of PC Gamer magazine that I got today (nr 223, february 2015). The game was also awarded "Game of the month". The magazine also contains an interview with David Braben. I can't post a link since it is a paper magazine.
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Game of the Month ? It is an offense ! This is the game of the decade, of course

:p ;)
 
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