If this game doesnt have the Elite/Frontier magic why not - what does it need?

[Rockett]

It's not 1984 anymore. Well, the guys who wanted a copy of the old games are the die hard fans who resist any change now and cheer because it seems they're OK with a boring space truck "simulator" and love to write routes down on paper or into Excel sheets.

Probably they are the loudest die hard fanboy crowd, but I doubt they're the majority today. The game just lacks a living and believable universe. If you're happy with just trucking virtual goods from A to B and spending hours in "super boring cruise" you've already got your simple time sink. Be happy.

I'm to lazy to repeat myself and lots of other people here, so to make it short: The game lacks any depth. Anything that would create a binding with the player. There are NO reason to do anything, it lacks the purpose to do something. Why would I do something for any of the factions? No "face", not even a simple logo, no background story nothing that makes me think "Hey I want to do something for them because...!". The only goal right now is to get more money and the next ship or better equipment. But wait... What can I do better with the next better ship? Right: Making more money by trade or kills. Why would I help any of the three major factions? Besides the fact they don't even feature visual differences you'll have to read plenty of text and you have to follow Galnet to get the story. I personally don't mind doing it but that's like reading a book. I can read it but it won't impact my game. I don't care if I kill Feds or Empire - it's the same and my benefit (Credits) is the same.

Now some fanboy will jump in screaming "BUT ITS ALL ABOUT YOUR IMAGINATION!" Seriously? If I would just like to use my imagination I would read a book and not play a game that lacks any purpose and depth.

I think you've pretty much nailed it there mate

I'm looking for a reason to play the game other than to make a few spacebux driving an internet spaceship.

At the moment I feel like I'm in the preparation stage. Making a bit of cash and testing out different ships/loadouts to support my eventual endeavours - which will more than likely be some form of warfare. The game currently supports this just fine - like others have said - a solid foundation. I'm hoping the new year will bring us more in the way of space adventures though

 

[Ruskodisco]

as long as i have been around these forums i have met people that are "fine" with the way the game is.
i have even met people who dont want planetary expansions, ship interiors, and all those things that would make the game fit into 2015. and whats their answer on not wanting those things..."in the 80's i was fine with...." whatever their reason
like its one of those people that lived in the "horse and carriage" times then dont want to ride a car because its "too fast" and "why do people need to go that fast?"

and theyre all from the 80's, complain about extra "mumbo and jumbo" that THEY dont want because THEY are fine with a game that is 30+years old now. and they call dinner "supper"
those old fools.

 

[MACMAN86]

NEEDS MISSIONS LIKE:-
1. Join Navy and get a loaned ship (all various roles to play) in Fleet Mission of a) Protect Capital Ship on convoy to another system b) Attack another Capital ship attacking your base c) A fleet of ships vs Pirates d) Escort a VIP cargo ship... etc.
2. Add to this Wingmen as many as join up (without having to use own ship nor fly to warzone)
3. Setup own Missions with own ships for any to join in on and meet up.
4. Have regular warzones we can evade or join in on, both Factions vs Factions AND Police vs Pirates
5 Add a Lounge at all bases and planets so we can hang out /meet up in our walking character
6. Voice comms and interactive audio is a must by now

 

[Vaporsnake]

Although I really like the game, it does feel somewhat empty right now. And what I think is missing is the 'human' element.

Maybe my first Elite game being Frontier plays a part, but I really miss seeing a face when I'm in the station/trade menus. It just lets me feel like I'm actually interacting with another entity instead of just ing around with menus and spreadsheets. That being said, I'm super looking forward to the day when I can get up from that damn chair and walk about.

 

[SurrenderOrHAHA]

I see a lot of posts complaining about this game saying is dull, basic etc. So what happened? Why isnt this game as good as the old Frontier game of old that we all loved? What is the magic ingredient that is missing here that was present elsewhere? Was the original Frontier all that deep really? Was it all that immersive? Did you really play Elite for months or just for a few hours?

Because if I am honest with myself I cant remember playing Frontier a great deal - I think I played FFE more actually. And even then I didnt play it as much as I played EF2000 or Falcon 4. I remember some wonderful moments jousting with other ships and sitting on spaceports watching the sky change in speeded up time. But did I actually play it THAT much? Maybe this whole thing is just a load of nostagia tinting our expectations for something that really had no chance of ever being made a reality?

What do you think? Too pessimistic? Are are we kidding ourselves here? Are we ever going to get the game we really want to see?

Well, I never played the original Elite (didnt have a computer the year it was released, so I kind of missed the whole hype.. )
I played Frontier however, til I got the rank "Deadly" anyway, so it must have been more than just a few hours ;-)
What I miss most is the planetary landings or just flying over planets in low orbit.. ED feels "artificially limited" and therefore much "smaller". without the extra variation you get from the planets and ground based starports, the game gets veeery "samey"..
Also, the missions in ED are "faceless", there are no real characters behind them, so they feel auto-generated and after a while I really dont care anymore why I do them, just looking at the creds-number change when I complete it. (ok, there are reputation, military aspects to it.. but still)
Also, being a Frontier fan, I kind off miss the Newtonian flight model, but I understand why they changed it back(?) to the unrealistic model from Elite. (Lets just say dog fighting wasnt Frontier's strongest side and leave it at that ;-)

As has been pointed out.. No game from 1984 has aged so well that you could simply repackage it with prettier graphics and resell as a AAA title today. Back in the 80s, most teams were just a couple of guys.. Today, the teams are huge, development expensive and dev time spans over several years... It takes a lot of effort to build genuine depth....

That being said, I feel that ED is a good modern version of what I imagine Elite wa sback in the day and a good starting point for a deeper and much larger game that we will hopefully see grow before our eyes the next few years.

 

[thewzdoc]

To be honest I loved the original Elite (it was basic but kept my interest for many years) but have hated every itteration after.

I've backed ED and I am very excited to see it blossom into something great.

 

[Commander Silex]

I'm to lazy to repeat myself and lots of other people here, so to make it short: The game lacks any depth. Anything that would create a binding with the player. There are NO reason to do anything, it lacks the purpose to do something. Why would I do something for any of the factions? No "face", not even a simple logo, no background story nothing that makes me think "Hey I want to do something for them because...!". The only goal right now is to get more money and the next ship or better equipment. But wait... What can I do better with the next better ship? Right: Making more money by trade or kills. Why would I help any of the three major factions? Besides the fact they don't even feature visual differences you'll have to read plenty of text and you have to follow Galnet to get the story. I personally don't mind doing it but that's like reading a book. I can read it but it won't impact my game. I don't care if I kill Feds or Empire - it's the same and my benefit (Credits) is the same.

Yet this is the same criticism distributors gave of the original Elite 'What's the point, why would people play a game with no plot, no story, no win?' They were wrong in 1984 and Elite revolutionised the world of video games. They might not revolutionise gaming this time round, but I'm willing to bet that the game will still demonstrate that there are a lot of gamers who still enjoy a sandbox model as much as a cinematic story led game.

 

[DoxHoliday]

I wonder if it is an "uncanny valley" problem. The Uncanny Valley occurs when a simulation of humans is too realistic to be a cartoon, but just not realistic enough to be believably human. At that point, the character feels uncanny, creepy; as if you're looking at a animated corpse.
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The evolutionary explanation is that we are really good at spotting when something looks off about someone --whether they are ill, or dead (in which case you wish to avoid contact with them as their condition may be catching). So we recognise cartoons as cartoons, and can relate to them as living characters because we anthropomorphise (another evolutionary trait). We recognise real people as real people. But almost real people look... off, somehow. Creepy.
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I wonder whether in the same way we can relate to blocky, primitive 8-bit graphics because they are non-specific and 'blank' enough for us to project our own imagination on them. With real-life imagery we don't have to do that --it looks real and we accept it as real. But very realistic graphics are in the uncanny valley: too detailed for us to impose our own fantasy, but nor realistic enough to fill the gaps otherwise filled by our own imagination. The gaps therefore become jarringly apparent.
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The challenge of current computer games is that they are now just on the other side of the uncanny valley and are now forced to leap the gap. But they can't do that yet. So they are paradoxically experienced as more wanting and less immersive than the primitive graphics of yore.

++1. I think you absolutely nailed it. During Christmas I was talking to a couple of family members about the games we grew up with, and how the simple text-only adventure games (Colossal Cave, Zork series) and other games utilizing only ascii characters (Larn, Nethack, etc) seemed so immersive. Best description yet of this phenomenon.

 

[nexxo]

It's a nice theory - but I think you are slightly wide of the mark.

I think what you're aiming at here is the concept of "suspension of disbelief". Its a state where the inherent unrealisticness (is that a word?) of the game is in effect ignored in favour of the fantasy.

I think its best explained by example. I've was a long time player of planetside 1 and planetside 2 . In both games my immersion was total - despite the fact that graphically they are miles apart. Thats because the graphics were entirely secondary to the fantasy - which was "the enemy are trying to take my base - me an my comrades have to stop them!" .

To answer the OP. I think the same thing can be achieved in Elite by refining the multiplayer side of the game and expanding on the system control dynamics. Once teams of players start going against each other, vying for system control, and wars between the Federation/Empire/Alliance breaks out I think things will get very interesting indeed.

Suspension of disbelief is certainly a factor, and a good story (in the loosest sense) is part of that. I think some people are better at projecting or backfilling their own story than others. Perhaps those of us who started in 8-bit block world find it easier to do that, because that's what we always did. I certainly am projecting a whole world behind the stage of Elite: Dangerous.
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There has to be a canvas to project that story on. People found the multiple choice conversations with composite blocky portraits engaging enough in Elite II: Frontier. But in X: Rebirth, talking to AI characters in space ports didn't work so well: they were too wooden and mechanic and repetitive. They were failing at appearing realistic. Of course this is partly because it is easier to hide technical limitations behind static post stamps than behind fully animated 3D characters, and it is easier to program a believable text parser than to voice-record all anticipated dialogue possible. Basically either the world building is handed over to the player's brain, or it needs to be taken over by the game wholesale, in every detail.

 

[Terrahawk]

Repeating several on this thread already: if you like the way ED currently is: good news! I am certain that Frontier will not break the game you love. If you like the emptiness of space or the simplicity of long distance trading or the impressive sense of scale - you're in luck: they are definitely not going to mess with that. It was their stated aim to achieve.

Please, please, please, stop using that as an "argument" against those who are arging it's not enough for them to engage with a game and that they find it boring. It's supposed to be a sandbox where you find your own way and find your own place in space. They can't find theirs because it doesn't exist. You can, because yours does. You are in a position of privilege. By all means resist changes which will break what you like, but if you can still play the way you like and other people can play differently, stay out of it.

 

[nexxo]

I don't think that anybody is against adding stuff. Certainly a lot of work needs to be done on the multiplayer components. However I think that many people do not appreciate how difficult it is to create even this foundation of a game, and how difficult it is to add the features that they want. They may refer back to Elite: Frontier for having e.g. planetary landings, but graphics were a lot simpler then, so it was easy to knock out a rough featureless landscape and scatter some blocky buildings about. It was a lot easier, in fact, to create anything. Now it has to involve a lot more detail and finish.
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It took Eve Online four years to achieve its refinement and lively universe; another six to get all the features it has now. It is still constantly being rebalanced. This is against a backdrop of a massive team designing new content all the time, and huge blade servers pushing the game, all financed by a subscription which generates the company an income of £5 million per month. It's a huge undertaking. If you want Elite Dangerous to have anything like that complexity and immersion, you'll have to be patient...

 

[Terrahawk]

This is a much stronger argument, but it's become a much quieter one recently.

Unfortunately, as I've said elsewhere, constant improvement is not just possible, but necessary for CCP to continue to keep EVE Online alive. It's how they keep people interested and paying. ED is not a subscription model. Frontier are nowhere near as financially incentivised nor, in the long term, reliably monetised to continue to expand their universe.

So, to my mind, patience is dangerous. Lots of screaming paid-up customers wanting stuff NOW while the product is in the active sale stage produces a strong incentive. Lots of people moaning in a year's time when most people that are going to buy the game have bought it already? Risky.

Of course, this could be an uncharitable view. This is FD's baby and they will be wanting to polish it and refine it for entirely non financial reasons. I'm a dev too, and I would. Furthermore, they will be will be focused on the next major paid expansion, and getting people to buy that means keeping the existing customer base happy. Every ragequit or bored uninstall is a lost expansion buyer.

I don't think it's surprising that people come out on a pessimistic or optimistic side of the fence here. To my mind, we should all be begging for improvements... and expressing some confidence that our pleas will be heard. Lots of them have been heard already.

 

[Marsman]

Stop the pointless arbitrary NPC number-juggling and give power to the players. Add player-driven manufacturing and trading. Allow players to build stations and claim systems, form corporations and alliances, issue missions and bounties.

No, no, no, don´t turn it into a sandbox MMO please, it would mean it would become EVE2 instantly as we know from the very beginning the 84ers hate sandbox MMOs.

 

[kilvenny]

Okay - I played the original and yes I am very happy with what I am playing in ED currently. I am an old guy with limited time so playing on my own makes absolute sense. However I don't believe I conform to the classic eighties ostrich mentality that keeps being advanced.

The concept currently in development of "wings" makes absolute sense for people to be able to co-op if they want to. Share bounties etc. Effectively "wings" is small guilds.

The game needs planetary landings and walking around (FPS) to give reasons to go to places and to add variety.

The missions system needs to be developed further. "Wings" missions for one. I would like to see the political leaning of the current system exposed. ie its 100 per cent federation or maybe it 80 percent federation and 20 per cent empire. When you visit a station in the system Galnet news tells you the percentage or some similar measure and you can check the history of Galnet news to see how its changed.

Galnet news should be expanded to show Galaxy News, Adjacent system news and current system news. So you have the feeling you are in a living galaxy and give reasons to travel.

Exploration and mining need enhancing

We need to see people in space stations so that places stop looking derelict.

The good news is FD are aware of most of these issues and are intending to work on them. What we finally see is unknown, but the consistent dissatisfaction is only likely to put off more players and make it more likely development will cease before all the elements are complete. I think we need to take a more positive approach and say the game is incomplete but this is what is planned. What has been planned will fill many of the gaps people see so that ED becomes the game the majority of us want to play.

 

[smiths121]

Hi All,

Well I think ED is a nice blend of Elite and FFE. Good starting point, and the direction seems to suit what I need for the "magic".


The comms are improving (actually my use of the X52 controller, as I can now scroll through contacts to make replying easier). Its easy to chat and call friends, not so easy other commanders in the same system. I have found the comms useful, for example Cmdrs warning about a player killing other players at a nav point, asking where the black market is, explaining to a potential pirate I had no bounty or cargo to avoid interdiction. Very difficult to use and without group missions, no real need to use. I hope the Wings expansion gives us the reason to be in open play and the a good set of reasons to play on line.

I love the core mechanic of reputation at a system level, but it is a bit number crunchy at the moment (green icons are nice though). I hope one day we will get our persistent NPCs offering us the missions - giving a more human face to the mission/rep system. We can clearly see from threads on the forum, players can influence at the system or even local level, it jsut seems crunchy, and a littel indirect to me at the moment. I suspect this is because this stuff takes time to change and a large co-ordinated effort, but as gamer I want instant gratification, so it is really hard for me to consider how to improve the feedback loop, I just feel it is missing something at the moment.

Getting the ship onto planets will be great, the same as it was in FFE. Getting out the ship will be entriely new, looking forward to that if or when it comes.

Simon

 

[trumpet]

Comms are in bad need of an identi kit face generator - like how you can custom your character in Skyrim. If they had that char gen with 'bad video feed' for the BBS and elsewhere it would be closer. Also - you got to ask questions about the mission in FE2 and FFE to much more of a great deal. Will there be trouble? Why so much money?

Added a layer

 

[Starfish]

Here is my stance of ED as it compares to FE2 right now (I played ALOT of FE2 in the past, and still fire it up from time to time).

What Elite: Dangerous does well (compared to FE2)

Combat
I don't really need to say anything extra here. It's been said a million times in other places that the combat model generally works really well in ED (especially compared to the one in FE2).

Exploration
Exploration is an interesting new development with some unique gameplay. Generally it's a good thing, although it could use some enhancements to make it more interactive and interesting than just pointing your ship at something and popping off the discovery scanner ping. It is a kinda cool feeling when you discover a new sun orbiting in the distance though!

Cargo scooping
Feels better than it did in FE2 (it's easier, which is a good thing imo, and also more interactive). I'm not convinced I would want to do as much of it as is required for the mining profession though. I really like the cargo-scoop UI minigame... just not too often!

Station landings
The extra landing pad bit after you get through the station door is very cool and I never get bored of it. The landing pad UI mini-game bit is pretty cool.

Graphics & Sound
The game looks and sounds gorgeous in my opinion. Makes for a really atmospheric experience. I'd like to hear some more radio chatter between NPC ships, especially around stations though (and I don't just mean a single short mp3 clip on repeat).


What Elite: Dangerous doesn't do well (compared to FE2)

Travel & Travel times
Travel is a bit boring in Elite Dangerous in my opinion, one reason for this is the lack of frequent interdictions (in FE2, I could get interdicted up to 20 times on a single journey in some of the dangerous systems, I'm lucky if I get interdicted once per hour in ED currently). This makes trading too risk free, which I feel is a bad thing (encourages min/maxing trading ships for cargo with no thoughts for self-defense, and a rush to make as much credits as possible in a mad rush for an Anaconda for "end-game"). While 20 is way too much, I do think there should be a reasonable chance for you to get interdicted on every journey you make, especially outside "safe" space near the faction capitals, and especially if you are carrying valuable cargo.

Some of the supercruise journey times are just ridiculously long in my opinion also, making a large part of the travel gameplay very boring (once you get over the initial awe of all the eye candy). The "long" 3-4min Alpha Centauri run in FE2 now takes ~1hour in ED - this is a ridiculous amount of time to be expected to sit at your computer doing effectively nothing but staring at the screen!

Missions / NPC Interaction
Compared to FE2, the missions in ED are really basic, almost feeling like placeholders (which may be the case if the 'walking in stations' expansion has us meet NPC's for missions that way, but for now, it sucks). In FE2 you could barter with everyone who offered you missions on various aspects of the mission. It really felt like you were dealing with real people (they all had names, their own motives and so on). The missions in ED feel like really basic WoW quests, the RNG generator that creates the missions is alot more obvious in ED than it was in FE2. Missions really lack flavour.

In FE2 we had the usual deliver cargo/message missions, but also lost&found missions, assassination contracts, photography of military installations, bombing missions. The black market system was also alot better fleshed out than it is in ED.

Also, let us radio message other ships in space and ask them questions (another feature we had in FE2, which made the galaxy feel alot more ALIVE!)

Planetary Landings
A huge omission in ED. Presumably coming in an expansion down the line, but again, it is sorely missing . The extra immersion that this will bring will hopefully be incredible. I don't mind that this feature isn't in at the start, as it is something FD will really have to absolutely nail and do it correctly. The extra gameplay mechanics landing on a planet bring was really interesting. Such as various types of planet, different gravity (taking off in a big ship with weak thrusters on a high-G world could be a bit nerve-racking!) with or without atmosphere, breathable or non-breathable atmosphere with the stations on the planets varying depending on this.

Right now the planets in ED are effectively just textured spheres and of no importance. A real shame.

 

[Sztripi]

The game is boring. That's is that. I have desperately tried to like it, and still trying to...

The problem is that the universe is empty. Nothing changes at all... All the elements are here but they are flawed. You have no effect on anything. Let me give you a couple of examples.

1. X rebirth. An atrocity of game at release. A bad console port. The developers are patching away at it however. The game is getting better and better, by every patch. It is still better than ELITE. Why do you ask? That feeling when you dock in a MASSIVE transport vessel and give an order to the captain for a jump then watch through the front windows as your massive ship jumps. It is incredible. Than while scanning the station (a ultra stupid and boring thing to do), suddenly a huge transport ship slowly and majestically fly's by you, then releases a swarm of drones and start to unload/load itself. These are incredible jaw dropping sights. In this game you really matter. You change the universe to your will. You can literally destroy massive stations, build whole space cities. The construction of new massive ships are also simulated. Raw materials need's to be manufactured and delivered, for the ship to be built. And so on. The funny thing is: it may all be an illusion (meaning the need for material and such are not simulated), but you are fooled, so it doesn't matter.

2. Ancient game Space Rogue. It happened to me while trading. So scanners detect 3 contact's. Let's check it out. A large transport ship is being attacked by pirates. At my arrival the pirates acknowledged my existence by sending me a message to keep away or be destroyed. Then they keep hammering the transport vessel. The transport is sending SOS messages, more and more desperate. The messages are not random. They correspond to the ship status like "Mayday, mayday our shields are failing." or " God the shields have failed somebody help us we will all die." - when their shields failed. Then I decide to interfere. I open fire on one of the pirates. I receive a message stating that he will eat my heart. Then we start dancing around each other. The other pirate keep attacking the transport. Suddenly an imperial cruiser jumps into the area. Both pirates immediately try to disengage. No attempt to fight the warship. They try to flee immediately. One of them is unlucky he is in the range of the warship and is destroyed the other one flees. The cruiser shields the transport whit is own body and then contact me to move on. So I comply and jump out. Here are a thing to fuel your imagination. This all happened in a game almost 20 years ago.

Now somebody said to me that this can happen in Elite too. No it can't... You are missing the details, the important details. Like: pirates never flee unharmed, and such - see the colored sections. In ED everybody is mad. Like dying have no consequences (we know it does not, but at least have some consequence for the NPC's), no suspension of disbelief is possible.

Many of the game mechanic are stupid. Like sneak into a space station for smuggling. What? WHAT? No station would allow any ship to dock while the said ship is not on the scanners. If anything I would open fire immediately on any ship trying to approach my station while ACTIVELY trying to evade MY OWN SECURITY forces. Again shattering my disbelief. What about destroying ships INSIDE the station? Come on...

Well the problem is that the game is sooo close. So damn close. The graphical design is excellent (I even like the antiquated menus on the station), not to mention the sound. But that is all. Nothing to do. Nothing to do at all.

And for the last part, to "preanswer" some of the criticisms:

I write this because I care. I know the game is most likely not for me, and perhaps I would be more happier playing some other game, so I agree whit you. Yes I am entitled. I PAID MONEY so that is entitling me. No I hate handholdning in games. I do not want achievements. Ah yes I know how to play the game.

The most ironic thing is that I reinstalled the original elite. It is more fun still... I encourage everybody to try it again.

 

[CMDR_Lake]

Okayyy here goes.

Unfortunately I find myself feeling that E had to release in an incomplete form. I have not played ELITE, just Frontier and FE - so those were the games I liked.

I'm feeling the lack of features at least in parity with Frontier/First Encounters.
Planetary landings or just landing on anything if you fly it right.
Live Cargo and Passengers
Why no external cam? Or at least cameras on other spots on your ship for parking or something.
Autopilot. Yes I'm one of those. I came from Frontier/FE dammit.
Talking to NPC clients on the BBs. Sure it was just a few buttons of flavour text - but that's good!
Communications - we could send out general distress signals, call space stations for price lists and other stuff.


Sort of off topic, but being a massively multiplayer environment - yes it is, it's just on a galactic scale rather than most every other tightly confined MMO - complicates matters.
You can't give money to other people
Can't give stuff to other people without throwing it overboard and the authoritah trying to murderise them.
You can't help them with fuel or fixing their ship or towing/hauling them if they're in trouble.

And working off the game structure of the previous games - there's not much for multiple players to do? pretty much just go to same nav points and stuff?
Perhaps the usual missions - but BIGGER.

Please deliver 1000 tons of grain.
Please deliver these valuable supplies to space Afghanistan.
Please lobotomise this faction by shooting down its leader. P.S. he has fleet with him at all times.

 

[regularguy]

When I first saw the original Elite being played in a local computer store back in 1984 (I'd gone in to buy some platform game for my C64) I was utterly blown away by it because I'd never seen anything like it before, indeed many thought it couldn't even be done on those old 8 bit micros. Computer games back then were three lives, run, jump, shoot, wham-bam-thankyou-man game over affairs, Elite was a whole world to explore, go where you want when you want. Annoyingly I could't have it because I didn't own the hideously expensive BBC Micro so had to wait for the C64 version to some out and even though it ran like a slideshow in Thargoid space it was still Elite so who cared? Even though I've yearned for a new Elite over the years - I never got into Frontier - ED does not have that 'never been seen before' experience and I guess it never really could.
In fact, so far the game has irritated more than enthralled me. Why such long rides in Supercruise? Yeah, yeah immersion blah, but I personally don't need to see numbers slowly count down from hundreds of thousands any more than I need to have the window smash and the air sucked out the room I'm sitting in when my canopy cracks, but that's just me. One of the first accomplishments in the original Elite was the purchase of the precious docking computer to remove the hassle of having to carefully match the rotation of the slot in the space station; there really should be an equivalent supercruise autopliot for those who want to use it, that you can purchase to do the equivalent to the supercruise process, IMHO anyway. And the docking animations (that I wished the original would do when I was playing it ironically) get a bit old after a while, an option to skip them for those who want that too would be nice.
Anyway, I'm off to continue striving towards a better reputation and better ship and see where that takes me.-