Greetings Commanders
This is all my opinion, based on experience of having played the original elite and all its incarnations including fan made versions such as oolite. I believe I've played most space game, including Freespace, I-War, Freelancer, X series and all the other titles that tried to quench my thirst for Elite and the world it opened up back in the 80s.
I came to this game as an avid space sim fan and an elite fanboy, having played this continuing to play this game in the hope that it remains fun and addictive for a long time.
David Braben was always a visionary in my eyes, what he and Ian bell created in Elite was nothing short of a timeless masterpiece of simplicity and innovative game play far beyond what was and thought of back then.
David Braben and Frontier and achieved with Elite dangerous something special and with horizons continue to develop and add the an already amazing space game that rightfully bears the name ELITE, However i believe there is one thing that could be improved that would alter game play in the most profound way reminiscent of the original Elite and turn this behemoth of a game into an unstoppable gaming experience some someone such as myself and friends with whom i've had the pleasure playing with.
SUPERCRUISE
Sadly this is imo one the biggest Achilles heel this game has, It is the one this that totally detaches the players from the superb gameplay that the rest of the game offers. The flight engine in normal space is as close to perfection as one can get imo, the action levels and combat in normal space are really well implemented, the immersive level of the cockpits, the sounds, the stunning vistas of nearby celestial bodies leave one breathless with beauty.
Did i mention the Sounds, can't praise it enough. The docking, the stations, the ships themselves, all so well done its everything i imagined as a child playing the original.
Supercruise destroys all of this for potential gameplay enhancement, interaction is limited in supercruise, one has little to no sense of being in a living breathing universe, this is dramatically even more evident in busy systems. NpCs and Commanders are simple blips on a radar, wizzing past at such speeds that one forgets they even exist, these is little sense of danger, little sense of accomplishment when you make to a station, little to no fear when you travel in Anarchy systems, little to no fear in any system to be honest, even highly populated systems and yes i play in Open.
I humbly ask Frontier Developments and David Braben to bring us closer together, bring back the gameplay that made the original elite such a chest pounding adventure, allow us to fear seeing a group of ships on our radar, wondering if they are pirates, traders, assassins, other commanders and either make a course adjustment to go way around them to avoid them or go close as hell to buzz them.
Npc and player interdictions and a very poor substitute compared to how we all would feel if in system travel was to be done all in regular space. New technology would allow us to have drives that we could push to the limits of their capacity in normal space as long as they do not have mass lock interference just like in the original elite. flying in formation with your friends would be possible, blockades would be possible, there are countless positives of removing supercruise and implement the new drives that allow us to transverse large areas in little to no time as long as they the drives were not masslocked or disabled. The elite fans over at oolite implemented such a system years ago and the game play it allows is astounding, flying past formations of ships on your way to a docking station or planet, placing interactive dynamic player events on route would then be easy, ie police blockade where they are scanning for ships, ambushes, etc etc etc. Escorting Npc Ships from sun to station, or wherever in system.
To close off, i think this is the biggest thing that causes new players and eventually leave the game instead of building their virtual space lives on here. My friends have all but left. There is such potential of your to have a sandbox game that folks with live in for years or even generations, but Supercruise is the hurdle, its the great detractor to the possibilities, no more immersion breaking signal areas to one to drop out of instances, no more vanishing targets from supercruise to normal space and back again in those assassination missions.
I want to wave at my fellow commanders as i pass them on a busy trade lane, offer an escort and stop and chat as we admire each others ships etc etc etc. the only places we have this now is the station instance or the resource sites or the static combat areas.
By all means, you can still have your network limitations of max 32 players per instance, but make normal space and areas of interest all part of normal space, allow us the sandbox to develop the game play that will benefit the entire player base.
I don't believe there are any technical difficulties that Frontier Developments cannot overcome, With David and his team i trust that the words CAN NOT or NOT Possible are never uttered in their Studio with only a question of time and resources.
Please make it happen
For folks such as myself the above changes are worth waiting for no matter the time it takes to implement.
Thank you for reading this.
This is all my opinion, based on experience of having played the original elite and all its incarnations including fan made versions such as oolite. I believe I've played most space game, including Freespace, I-War, Freelancer, X series and all the other titles that tried to quench my thirst for Elite and the world it opened up back in the 80s.
I came to this game as an avid space sim fan and an elite fanboy, having played this continuing to play this game in the hope that it remains fun and addictive for a long time.
David Braben was always a visionary in my eyes, what he and Ian bell created in Elite was nothing short of a timeless masterpiece of simplicity and innovative game play far beyond what was and thought of back then.
David Braben and Frontier and achieved with Elite dangerous something special and with horizons continue to develop and add the an already amazing space game that rightfully bears the name ELITE, However i believe there is one thing that could be improved that would alter game play in the most profound way reminiscent of the original Elite and turn this behemoth of a game into an unstoppable gaming experience some someone such as myself and friends with whom i've had the pleasure playing with.
SUPERCRUISE
Sadly this is imo one the biggest Achilles heel this game has, It is the one this that totally detaches the players from the superb gameplay that the rest of the game offers. The flight engine in normal space is as close to perfection as one can get imo, the action levels and combat in normal space are really well implemented, the immersive level of the cockpits, the sounds, the stunning vistas of nearby celestial bodies leave one breathless with beauty.
Did i mention the Sounds, can't praise it enough. The docking, the stations, the ships themselves, all so well done its everything i imagined as a child playing the original.
Supercruise destroys all of this for potential gameplay enhancement, interaction is limited in supercruise, one has little to no sense of being in a living breathing universe, this is dramatically even more evident in busy systems. NpCs and Commanders are simple blips on a radar, wizzing past at such speeds that one forgets they even exist, these is little sense of danger, little sense of accomplishment when you make to a station, little to no fear when you travel in Anarchy systems, little to no fear in any system to be honest, even highly populated systems and yes i play in Open.
I humbly ask Frontier Developments and David Braben to bring us closer together, bring back the gameplay that made the original elite such a chest pounding adventure, allow us to fear seeing a group of ships on our radar, wondering if they are pirates, traders, assassins, other commanders and either make a course adjustment to go way around them to avoid them or go close as hell to buzz them.
Npc and player interdictions and a very poor substitute compared to how we all would feel if in system travel was to be done all in regular space. New technology would allow us to have drives that we could push to the limits of their capacity in normal space as long as they do not have mass lock interference just like in the original elite. flying in formation with your friends would be possible, blockades would be possible, there are countless positives of removing supercruise and implement the new drives that allow us to transverse large areas in little to no time as long as they the drives were not masslocked or disabled. The elite fans over at oolite implemented such a system years ago and the game play it allows is astounding, flying past formations of ships on your way to a docking station or planet, placing interactive dynamic player events on route would then be easy, ie police blockade where they are scanning for ships, ambushes, etc etc etc. Escorting Npc Ships from sun to station, or wherever in system.
To close off, i think this is the biggest thing that causes new players and eventually leave the game instead of building their virtual space lives on here. My friends have all but left. There is such potential of your to have a sandbox game that folks with live in for years or even generations, but Supercruise is the hurdle, its the great detractor to the possibilities, no more immersion breaking signal areas to one to drop out of instances, no more vanishing targets from supercruise to normal space and back again in those assassination missions.
I want to wave at my fellow commanders as i pass them on a busy trade lane, offer an escort and stop and chat as we admire each others ships etc etc etc. the only places we have this now is the station instance or the resource sites or the static combat areas.
By all means, you can still have your network limitations of max 32 players per instance, but make normal space and areas of interest all part of normal space, allow us the sandbox to develop the game play that will benefit the entire player base.
I don't believe there are any technical difficulties that Frontier Developments cannot overcome, With David and his team i trust that the words CAN NOT or NOT Possible are never uttered in their Studio with only a question of time and resources.
Please make it happen
For folks such as myself the above changes are worth waiting for no matter the time it takes to implement.
Thank you for reading this.