Newcomer / Intro Is it true?

[MARVOA]

I have to ask, is it true what it says on Steam?
that this game does NOT make you play the MMO

that it is also single player for solo play
AND co op for friends and not the rest of the world?
does it have a story line?

on steam it says
Single player - Multyplayer - Co-Op - MMO
so you can play solo, and host your own server and play multy with friends? AND co-op if you want?
and not just play on the MMo server with everyone else?
is this true?

 

[sasani]

In short yes...

In medium - there is only one game universe, all of the actions of players and NPCs effect this universe - e.g. commodity prices, galactic politics etc.

Solo mode - you play in the same universe (still online) however you don't see or interact with any other humans. However another player in any game mode may be at the same station as you buying up some commodities that you have your eye on therefore raising the price.

Open mode - again the same universe, when you enter star systems, or space stations etc... an instance of that system / station is created with a maximum of 32 human players. These could be pirates, traders, bounty hunters whatever!

Private mode - like a mini open mode - NOT SURE about this as I have never played it but some of these groups can become rather large - e.g. thousands of people (again in instances of 32)

- Solo mode can be a good way to start out, but it is a shame to miss out on the human interaction
- Open mode you have to be on your guard, it is much more challenging, much more exciting and you can always get a solo experience by operating in more remote areas. You only tend to get pirates (and a very small number of griefers in the very popular areas of the galaxy.

 

[the100thmonkey]

Yes, it's true.

There are three game modes - solo, private group and open.

• In solo, you won't see any other human players, only NPCs.
• In private group, you will only see NPCs and other members of the group. The group can have rules which would be enforced by the person running it. Such rules might include no PvP combat, or only PvP combat in warzones and the like.
• The open mode has no set rules.

With regard to why someone might not want to play in open, well they might prefer single-player games. Alternatively, they might like co-op play where the only enemy is the environment. Not everyone likes free-for-all online play.

There is no central story that drives the game forward by forcing players to complete cornerstone missions. A lot of players like this, many others don't. There is no single-player "campaign" if that's what you're asking.

There are no private/public servers in this game; each instance is P2P, with the game mode you selected determining whether and which players you see in your session.

 

[MARVOA]

Cons:
no story line
no reason for the person to continue onward only Personal Motivation
no private servers until someone cracks the game then released separately on dodgy websites

Pros:
you can make it that you can play with your friends vs A.I
you can travel the universe solo
you can join many others online whenever you want

can you go solo, get started, then go online with those items?
OR
solo separate save
co op separate save
and same with online?

example
play offline or with friends, then get good, go online ? or separate "save" ("saved profile of you)

also any try outs? like free versions for try out? betas, old server, or like 1hour free play?
or buy only?

please and thank you

 

[Dommarraa]

No separate saves, only single commander per account. No offline, you are always playing online, the only difference is what other players are visible. No demo or trial of any type, an obvious mistake.

You can however flip between the different modes at will. Many people switch to solo after being ganked until they feel they are ready to rejoin open. I don't normally bother with open, too many idiots, not enough benefit from the non idiots, normally in private PvE or solo

 

[the100thmonkey]

Cons:
no story line
no reason for the person to continue onward only Personal Motivation
no private servers until someone cracks the game then released separately on dodgy websites

Are these really cons?

The absence of a story line is a pro, in my opinion - game story lines are almost exclusively utter rubbish, with the exception of Portal.

Pros:
you can make it that you can play with your friends vs A.I
you can travel the universe solo
you can join many others online whenever you want

can you go solo, get started, then go online with those items?

Yes. Yes, you can. In fact, I recommend it.

solo separate save
co op separate save
and same with online?

example
play offline or with friends, then get good, go online ? or separate "save" ("saved profile of you)

You have only one account with one commander at the moment. I understand that in the future, you will have up to three save slots available.

also any try outs? like free versions for try out? betas, old server, or like 1hour free play?
or buy only?

You can play the Combat Training without having to log in to the game, but I don't know if this means you can use it to try the game out.

 

[Sapient6]

Cons:
no story line
no reason for the person to continue onward only Personal Motivation
no private servers until someone cracks the game then released separately on dodgy websites

I don't agree that these are Cons. They were a major factor in my decision to buy the game.

That they are cons to you might be an bad indicator. I'm not trying to chase you off here, but I don't want you to spend your money and be unhappy...

So let me be clear: ED is a game that dumps you into the deep end with the weakest ship, the weakest equipment, a nearly empty wallet, and then doesn't tell you what to do.

There are some training simulations so you can get a handle on combat, take off, navigation and landing. That is the extent of the hand holding here.

You will have to make your own way, make your own decisions, make your own story and make your own fun. It is glorious.

Just typing that out makes me want to leave the office for the day so I can go home and fire up the game.

 

[Javert]

Others have explained the solo and open and group modes.

I would add that you cannot host your own server. Everyone is in the same galaxy. You can just choose whether to see any other players when flying around.

No storyline - this is not strictly true. If you are looking to be led through a personalised story with cut scenes like Half Life or whatever then there is no storyline in that way. However, there is a news feed and there is a loose galaxy storyline which progresses over time, and contains various community goals and missions, and also some player generated content.

 

[MARVOA]

Well to be fair for those that disagree with my cons

and that one guy who said only portal was good, i though Alan wake had a beautiful story line - tad creepy though

when looking at lets say Guild wars 2 - having the personal story line mixed with online play, just saying in general, it worked out alright and was fun for me, thought it might hold the same type, i guess i was wrong.

as from these responses - that i, and my friends thank you all for

when we look at a space game, we imagine Homeworld 2 oh it was wonderful, and we hope something like that - or better comes our way, in the meantime we want a filler, and this might be it
Looking at the start off from nothing but yourself and all your crap equip and building your way up in the universe, does seem awesome, but also allot of time

and that does have its side effects of "farming" things and stuff

also someone has had not the best experience in online saying there's idiots (you mean bronze OCE players on League right?)
and they outway the non-idiots
allot people looking for online would hope that sure, people can be new, but there is a point were it becomes a little.... eh, not this guy again - situation

but getting back to topic, what ive gathered is:
start from nothing, build your way up
better with friends, or solo - online is still waiting for more people to join - or cross over from EVE online
only 1 save, saves only would bother people if they screw up so badly and it would be less effort to start from the start again - but yay 3? sure why not

it's looking like a huge MMO with (Hopefully) epic new look and feel aka next gen graphics?

considering i cant have a try out, for those already with this game
can you tell me how
the chat filter is?
how easy is it to get yourself started and going?
how far away is "the final level" or "the best of everything" is it like guild wars were its lvl80 and there is a class "best weapon" then its gg have fun - or more like EVE were its like "best close range is "this" best long range is "this" best ship is more what you "want" in it (hull, speed, ammo/guns, capital ship)

how's the hotkeys? tell me it has awesome hotkeys like EVE online?
does it have capital ships? like you grow a armada? or control more than 1 ship? - cos damn i own small flash games that use flash player 8 that allows you to use more than 1 ship, or set commands to more than 1 ship

-i have high standards for a $60 game... sorry-

 

[cmdr lowest]

Well to be fair for those that disagree with my cons

and that one guy who said only portal was good, i though Alan wake had a beautiful story line - tad creepy though

when looking at lets say Guild wars 2 - having the personal story line mixed with online play, just saying in general, it worked out alright and was fun for me, thought it might hold the same type, i guess i was wrong.

as from these responses - that i, and my friends thank you all for

when we look at a space game, we imagine Homeworld 2 oh it was wonderful, and we hope something like that - or better comes our way, in the meantime we want a filler, and this might be it
Looking at the start off from nothing but yourself and all your crap equip and building your way up in the universe, does seem awesome, but also allot of time

and that does have its side effects of "farming" things and stuff

also someone has had not the best experience in online saying there's idiots (you mean bronze OCE players on League right?)
and they outway the non-idiots
allot people looking for online would hope that sure, people can be new, but there is a point were it becomes a little.... eh, not this guy again - situation

but getting back to topic, what ive gathered is:
start from nothing, build your way up
better with friends, or solo - online is still waiting for more people to join - or cross over from EVE online
only 1 save, saves only would bother people if they screw up so badly and it would be less effort to start from the start again - but yay 3? sure why not

it's looking like a huge MMO with (Hopefully) epic new look and feel aka next gen graphics?

considering i cant have a try out, for those already with this game
can you tell me how
the chat filter is?
how easy is it to get yourself started and going?
how far away is "the final level" or "the best of everything" is it like guild wars were its lvl80 and there is a class "best weapon" then its gg have fun - or more like EVE were its like "best close range is "this" best long range is "this" best ship is more what you "want" in it (hull, speed, ammo/guns, capital ship)

how's the hotkeys? tell me it has awesome hotkeys like EVE online?
does it have capital ships? like you grow a armada? or control more than 1 ship? - cos damn i own small flash games that use flash player 8 that allows you to use more than 1 ship, or set commands to more than 1 ship

-i have high standards for a $60 game... sorry-

I think the thing to point out to you is that the game is in its infancy and doesn't have all the fancy mechanics that Eve has built over the years. But the game is being continually developed and new stuff comes out at a regular interval. Some upgrades to the game will cost extra in the future but should add more mechanics such as planetary landings (possible planetary exploration), being able to walk around your ship, multiplayer on the same ship etc.

Also, the game really isn't an MMO in the traditional sense of the word. It's an open world but heavily instanced. You aren't going to see hundreds of players flying around - more like a max of 16.

There is no real end game content to speak of.

 

[the100thmonkey]

With regard to Portal and storylines, that's a matter of personal preference (and yes, I was exaggerating, but not much). I'd much rather be related a story through a medium that demands everything from the storyteller's skills: books. With games, especially primarily online ones, it's very hard to get a story told right and very easy to just toss off some 10 hour campaign mode with Michael Bay explosions to cover the holes in the yawn-inducing narrative. FPS are especially egregious offenders at this! Games like GTA do story very well, but Rockstar have 20+ years experience at it now, and their gamemode is very suited to storytelling - solo play - whereas a primarily instanced online game isn't.

The difference between Elite and Homeworld or EVE is that they are first and foremost executive control games (at least until Valkyrie comes out) while Elite is much more in the FPS mould - there's no 3rd person view except with the debug camera, and that confers no advantage at all in combat; there is also no multi-shipping unless you buy two copies of the game and run them simultaneously on separate machines.

I think the most consistently overlooked part of this game is the background simulation and how it influences - and is influenced by - players' actions. The alliance I play in is pretty consistently focused on the background sim and working together to influence it. This has provided us with hundreds of hours of highly-focused gameplay; many developers use storylines to corral players through the key events in the story and thus provide the structure. These events often place the player front-and-centre as the protagonist in the story. Elite spawns you in as just another dude in a cheap spaceship with no money. Joining the human factions allows you to take control of that aspect of the game. For instance, I was participating in a civil war in a system (for control of an outpost my group is aligned with) against a dictatorship. While I was docked to repair and rearm, the station came under direct attack by the enemy faction, and I was the only ship there to defend it (don't know what happened to the Cobra on patrol; it probably got killed). Had the attackers won, the station would probably have flipped to the opposing faction. It was a blast. Literally.

I also got a 50cr fine for violating the no-fire zone.

No scriptwriters, no dubious voice-acting or cheesy FMV-style cutscenes. Action and comedy for free. That's why I love this game.