When CQC was first announced, I was very skeptical: I didn't want some arena shooter, catering more to the PvP players than to to PvE players, to which I count myself generally.
When 1.4 arrived, I was on my way to Sagittarius A*, so between jumping and honking I thought "Well, I could at least give CQC a try, it's nice to be able to participate even if I am thousands of light years away."
The first thing that really impressed me were the maps themselves. I think they are all very well designed, and I like "Elevate" especially. The thought of having these stations added to the main game eventually - which FD repeatedly stated would happen in the future - for some purpose or another makes me happy! Perhaps we can some day in the main game fly down from an "Elevate" station, along the space elevator tube, all the way down to the surface of a planet, were it is connected to some kind of surface base (like those which will be introduced in the next season). Could be a supremely cool feature. And after walking around is implemented, we could perhaps even take such an space elevator from surface to orbit or the other way round...ah, one can dream
But back to CQC: at first I wasn't attracted to the idea of pewpewing in an enclosed setting without any real consequence for ship destruction. I guess I got so used to being careful about my ship in the main game, always having enough money to cover the insurance if the worst case should take place, that I just felt strange to hop into a small fighter and not worry to much about being blown up.
After a few deathmatch rounds, though, I completely changed my mind about CQC. Flying those small crafts is supremely enjoyable, the implementation of dogfights works great and the sparse amount of "power-ups" is very sensible. The stations themselves work great as arena maps, and following other ships around asteroids, through tunnels or around station corners in tight turns feels great.
Having learned flying with FA off and pip management in the main game pays off, too, so it feels nice that pilots skills acquired pilots acquired in the main game are kind of useful in CQC by incorporating the same flight model, just adapted to smaller ships, too.
I still prefer the main game, of course, with the future looking very bright indeed - the features announced for Horizons sound great, IMHO! - but I think it's time to give the developers of CQC some well-earned credit, too! I think they did a great job!
So thanks a lot for the hard work and the very well designed CQC mode to Jim Stimpson and his team!
When 1.4 arrived, I was on my way to Sagittarius A*, so between jumping and honking I thought "Well, I could at least give CQC a try, it's nice to be able to participate even if I am thousands of light years away."
The first thing that really impressed me were the maps themselves. I think they are all very well designed, and I like "Elevate" especially. The thought of having these stations added to the main game eventually - which FD repeatedly stated would happen in the future - for some purpose or another makes me happy! Perhaps we can some day in the main game fly down from an "Elevate" station, along the space elevator tube, all the way down to the surface of a planet, were it is connected to some kind of surface base (like those which will be introduced in the next season). Could be a supremely cool feature. And after walking around is implemented, we could perhaps even take such an space elevator from surface to orbit or the other way round...ah, one can dream
But back to CQC: at first I wasn't attracted to the idea of pewpewing in an enclosed setting without any real consequence for ship destruction. I guess I got so used to being careful about my ship in the main game, always having enough money to cover the insurance if the worst case should take place, that I just felt strange to hop into a small fighter and not worry to much about being blown up.
After a few deathmatch rounds, though, I completely changed my mind about CQC. Flying those small crafts is supremely enjoyable, the implementation of dogfights works great and the sparse amount of "power-ups" is very sensible. The stations themselves work great as arena maps, and following other ships around asteroids, through tunnels or around station corners in tight turns feels great.
Having learned flying with FA off and pip management in the main game pays off, too, so it feels nice that pilots skills acquired pilots acquired in the main game are kind of useful in CQC by incorporating the same flight model, just adapted to smaller ships, too.
I still prefer the main game, of course, with the future looking very bright indeed - the features announced for Horizons sound great, IMHO! - but I think it's time to give the developers of CQC some well-earned credit, too! I think they did a great job!
So thanks a lot for the hard work and the very well designed CQC mode to Jim Stimpson and his team!
