Hello,
I am a 57 year old Computerfreak, played ELITE in the 80's on C64 and Amiga.
I played the adaption of ELITE, the X-Series from Egosoft GmbH in Würselen, Germany then up from late 90's.
Since 2010 I am playing EvE Online.
Just by accident I found ELITE Dangerous 2 weeks ago and needed to try it out, so I bought it.
Ingame statistics show me now a gametime of 4 days, 9 hours.
Meanwhile I tried out exploring, planet actions, mining, bounty hunting, missioning and trading.
First need to say I am impressed by the graphics, the Galaxy design and the physics near reality
(things, which the named games above are missing because they are very restricted in this case).
Second need to say there is no sense to compare EvE Online with ELITE because there is too much difference.
So you should not adapt things from EvE Online like the skill system or other things which only cost lots of time until achieved.
But the X-Series of Egosoft (only Single Player standalone game) you can compare because its an Adaption of ELITE.
And as adaption it seems better as the original (ELITE) in many cases (really excellent Trading/Economy simulation,
very good controls and usability, just to name two of).
So I come to some of the things I miss and which are not really difficult to code.
And some things which are annoying for me as your customer because they could work easier and give more fun if designed a bit different.
A) I beg for a better usability. Easier handling of the functions. This will give all players an advantage and
if this reduce the learning courve for Newcomers, may bring you more customers.
Following examples for this and suggestions to change better.
1)
Initiate the docking sequence. This is very important, because this is a thing you do the most in the game.
It is too much micro management, too much key strokes to initiate the docking sequence like it is:
Open the Navigation window - maneuver to the tab 'contacts' - choose the station - choose the Docking option - close menue.
This will be much much easier if you can:
Mark the station as target. Press key 'L'. Docking sequence initiated, anything done.
In combine with the landing computer this can work superior and with the same key stroke if coded proper:
Mark station as target. Press key 'L'. Program checks if Landing Computer is installed in ship. If yes, then give control to the LC.
This is one key with two functions behind (manual Docking and automatic Docking, depending on the ship fitting).
The program just need to check at key stroke, which object is locked as target, check the ships equipment and act the right way.
2)
Targeting special Equipment of the enemy in fight. Again too much key strokes, to much work atm.
If I want to target a particular equipment of the enemy ship it should be needed during fight the less work as can.
So for example I press the 'E' key. The software should check the target. If not an enemy ship other things can happen.
If an enemy ship, just open equipment window, Player choose Equipment and close window with a common closing key like ESC.
3)
If target is a human player ship and I press 'C' key, the Chat window may open direct and I can talk to this player.
So These 3 examples for easier access to the game functions. No time consuming and defective (how often one take the
wrong key and so wrong option) maneuvering thru 3,4,5 key strokes and menues until reached (or missed :-( ) the things I want.
B) I beg for more game fun, less annoying things blocking my Sandbox experience.
I want to refer to David Brabens interview here
Click here for the Interview
and following words of him: "There’s so much in there, and what we see from play patterns is that many do the same thing over and over.
In that cycle, they just don’t get to see some of the variation. I’m not blaming players. We got it wrong.”
I told above, I tried out many things so far. And a lot of functionality in game just block me as player to do many things.
Following examples for this:
1) Works on planet with the SRV.
It took me ages flying and driving around to find objects on planet surface. These should be easier to find.
With a better ship scanner for example. This thing with the blue circles, which disappear when moving down to surface is crap.
Many players grump about the motion/agitation of the SRV. But this is just learning to handle it, just exercise.
Me annoyed, that the cargo space of the SRV is to small with only 2 tons. Finding a place on planet surface after a long time searching
then I have to spend again a long time and many trips in SRV to bring the Minerals into the ship.
This time consuming function stopped me to do this again. The outcome is too low for the time effort.
Suggestion: Make it easier to find stations on planet surface. Give the SRV more cargo (6 tons may be good).
2) Switching Content (Exploring, Bounty hunting, missioning)
Like David Braben said in Interview: “Elite players get very attached to their ships,..."
So I put a lot of money and effort in my actual ship and its equipment which I use for Missioning and Bounty hunting.
For the missions I hold some goods in cargo like Platinum and Osmium. Now I like to switch to exploring today in another ship,
specialized for this. But the game blocks me doing it. I need to empty the cargo before I can switch into the other ship. Thats bad.
So first I try to find missions again to empty my Platinum and Osmium in cargo. I dont want to sell this for cheap.
After needed some hours to find appropriate missions, its too late for exploring or I just forgot that I wanted to do this.
OK, on the other hand I can change the ship fitting for Exploration and keep the cargo. But will the good equipment I need to
sell for exchange to Explorer Equipment still be there or easy to find if I want to fit back?
Suggestion: Remove this filled cargo hold blocking ship switching.
3) Mining
I tried out mining. First bad: The Mining Lasers range is too short. It is annoying to need to sit 2 meters in front of a rotating astro
which will hit you the next minute in its rotation. 2nd bad: There come 8 or 10 blocks out of the astro, then I can laser as much as
I want, but nothing more breaks out. And I need to find another astro to mine the same Minerals I am searching for.
Suggestion: Extend the range of the mining lasers to double or triple. Let asteroids give out more segments or give us an easy to Access
(see usability) Asteroid Scanner as Equipment. I consider these scanner drones not as 'easy handling' and better usability.
In case of mining again the question is: Fit the outcome to the effort in time needed? And additional: Is it easy enough to
attract players and not too much boring.
And again, if I put credits, time and effort to equip a good mining ship and now want to switch into a ship for missioning, a filled cargo hold
blocks me doing this. But I dont want to throw away or sell for cheap my metal and minerals in which I put effort.
That should be enough for now. At last one other idea I had. In the forums of Egosoft for the X-Series game
many players asked for a Internet capable MMO functionality of this game since years. But the coders are not able to realize this I guess.
I just had the idea for a cooperation, may be joint venture, to merge the best functions of the two games ELITE/X-Series (NOT the latest X-Rebirth).
Can be a superior game then which may attract many players. And localization in German language is included by design...
I am a 57 year old Computerfreak, played ELITE in the 80's on C64 and Amiga.
I played the adaption of ELITE, the X-Series from Egosoft GmbH in Würselen, Germany then up from late 90's.
Since 2010 I am playing EvE Online.
Just by accident I found ELITE Dangerous 2 weeks ago and needed to try it out, so I bought it.
Ingame statistics show me now a gametime of 4 days, 9 hours.
Meanwhile I tried out exploring, planet actions, mining, bounty hunting, missioning and trading.
First need to say I am impressed by the graphics, the Galaxy design and the physics near reality
(things, which the named games above are missing because they are very restricted in this case).
Second need to say there is no sense to compare EvE Online with ELITE because there is too much difference.
So you should not adapt things from EvE Online like the skill system or other things which only cost lots of time until achieved.
But the X-Series of Egosoft (only Single Player standalone game) you can compare because its an Adaption of ELITE.
And as adaption it seems better as the original (ELITE) in many cases (really excellent Trading/Economy simulation,
very good controls and usability, just to name two of).
So I come to some of the things I miss and which are not really difficult to code.
And some things which are annoying for me as your customer because they could work easier and give more fun if designed a bit different.
A) I beg for a better usability. Easier handling of the functions. This will give all players an advantage and
if this reduce the learning courve for Newcomers, may bring you more customers.
Following examples for this and suggestions to change better.
1)
Initiate the docking sequence. This is very important, because this is a thing you do the most in the game.
It is too much micro management, too much key strokes to initiate the docking sequence like it is:
Open the Navigation window - maneuver to the tab 'contacts' - choose the station - choose the Docking option - close menue.
This will be much much easier if you can:
Mark the station as target. Press key 'L'. Docking sequence initiated, anything done.
In combine with the landing computer this can work superior and with the same key stroke if coded proper:
Mark station as target. Press key 'L'. Program checks if Landing Computer is installed in ship. If yes, then give control to the LC.
This is one key with two functions behind (manual Docking and automatic Docking, depending on the ship fitting).
The program just need to check at key stroke, which object is locked as target, check the ships equipment and act the right way.
2)
Targeting special Equipment of the enemy in fight. Again too much key strokes, to much work atm.
If I want to target a particular equipment of the enemy ship it should be needed during fight the less work as can.
So for example I press the 'E' key. The software should check the target. If not an enemy ship other things can happen.
If an enemy ship, just open equipment window, Player choose Equipment and close window with a common closing key like ESC.
3)
If target is a human player ship and I press 'C' key, the Chat window may open direct and I can talk to this player.
So These 3 examples for easier access to the game functions. No time consuming and defective (how often one take the
wrong key and so wrong option) maneuvering thru 3,4,5 key strokes and menues until reached (or missed :-( ) the things I want.
B) I beg for more game fun, less annoying things blocking my Sandbox experience.
I want to refer to David Brabens interview here
Click here for the Interview
and following words of him: "There’s so much in there, and what we see from play patterns is that many do the same thing over and over.
In that cycle, they just don’t get to see some of the variation. I’m not blaming players. We got it wrong.”
I told above, I tried out many things so far. And a lot of functionality in game just block me as player to do many things.
Following examples for this:
1) Works on planet with the SRV.
It took me ages flying and driving around to find objects on planet surface. These should be easier to find.
With a better ship scanner for example. This thing with the blue circles, which disappear when moving down to surface is crap.
Many players grump about the motion/agitation of the SRV. But this is just learning to handle it, just exercise.
Me annoyed, that the cargo space of the SRV is to small with only 2 tons. Finding a place on planet surface after a long time searching
then I have to spend again a long time and many trips in SRV to bring the Minerals into the ship.
This time consuming function stopped me to do this again. The outcome is too low for the time effort.
Suggestion: Make it easier to find stations on planet surface. Give the SRV more cargo (6 tons may be good).
2) Switching Content (Exploring, Bounty hunting, missioning)
Like David Braben said in Interview: “Elite players get very attached to their ships,..."
So I put a lot of money and effort in my actual ship and its equipment which I use for Missioning and Bounty hunting.
For the missions I hold some goods in cargo like Platinum and Osmium. Now I like to switch to exploring today in another ship,
specialized for this. But the game blocks me doing it. I need to empty the cargo before I can switch into the other ship. Thats bad.
So first I try to find missions again to empty my Platinum and Osmium in cargo. I dont want to sell this for cheap.
After needed some hours to find appropriate missions, its too late for exploring or I just forgot that I wanted to do this.
OK, on the other hand I can change the ship fitting for Exploration and keep the cargo. But will the good equipment I need to
sell for exchange to Explorer Equipment still be there or easy to find if I want to fit back?
Suggestion: Remove this filled cargo hold blocking ship switching.
3) Mining
I tried out mining. First bad: The Mining Lasers range is too short. It is annoying to need to sit 2 meters in front of a rotating astro
which will hit you the next minute in its rotation. 2nd bad: There come 8 or 10 blocks out of the astro, then I can laser as much as
I want, but nothing more breaks out. And I need to find another astro to mine the same Minerals I am searching for.
Suggestion: Extend the range of the mining lasers to double or triple. Let asteroids give out more segments or give us an easy to Access
(see usability) Asteroid Scanner as Equipment. I consider these scanner drones not as 'easy handling' and better usability.
In case of mining again the question is: Fit the outcome to the effort in time needed? And additional: Is it easy enough to
attract players and not too much boring.
And again, if I put credits, time and effort to equip a good mining ship and now want to switch into a ship for missioning, a filled cargo hold
blocks me doing this. But I dont want to throw away or sell for cheap my metal and minerals in which I put effort.
That should be enough for now. At last one other idea I had. In the forums of Egosoft for the X-Series game
many players asked for a Internet capable MMO functionality of this game since years. But the coders are not able to realize this I guess.
I just had the idea for a cooperation, may be joint venture, to merge the best functions of the two games ELITE/X-Series (NOT the latest X-Rebirth).
Can be a superior game then which may attract many players. And localization in German language is included by design...
Last edited:
You need to use prospector drones. Also mining lasers have about a 500M range (at least), it's not as bad as you're stating. Smart positioning of your ship avoids a lot of problems.
