My thoughts on the combat build

[GeordieMarv]

Hi,

Ok so last night I upgraded from my £90 collectors edition box set with second phase BETA access, to the Premium BETA access...first phase. This enabled me to download the single player combat build! And now gives me BETA access from 30th May. Yippee!!

Running the combat build I was full of nostalgia and anticipation and the hairs on the back of my neck INSTANTLY stood up the moment the Elite Dangerous logo appeared! I was instantly transported back to 1984, where I was a spritely 13 yr old.

Initial thoughts are "WOW, just WOW!" - I mean it's Elite, I knew it was going to be EPIC. That goes without saying. But I'm only just discovering myself how epic this will be. I mean I've obviously watched a hell of a lot of footage from alpha to alpha 3.4 or whatever on youtube...and it looked great.

But nothing prepares you for playing it for yourself. NOTHING.

The most important thing for me is not the look of it ( I was a game dev myself for approx. 18 years, 3d artist working on all playstation and all Xboxes...several AAA titles to my name) so I know full well how far graphics etc have come on over the last few years alone. I knew it would look awesome. (great work art department, truly great work)

Because of watching vids on youtube I also knew the sounds were awesome (great work sound department, truly great work).

To me the gfx are important, the sounds are important...but nothing is as important as capturing "the feel" of Elite. Does it "feel" like Elite did to me as a kid back in 1984? You're damn right it does! Does it make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. Damn right it does! (great work code department, truly great work)


The way the ship handles is excellent (although I must confess to being a total n00b and bumping into lots of things "WARNING...PROXIMITY" I also think it's pretty hard to control with mouse and keyboard. Although I'm sure with time you would get used to it.

All this has done is make me realise that I now need to also fork out for a nice Saitek X52 joystick or something.

SO THANKS F.D. FOR MAKING ME SPEND YET MORE MONEY! I just need to come up with some viable excuse to give the missus as to where this nigh on £100 flight stick has come from!

So to David B, Michael, and all the other members of the dev team that I do not know. Feel proud that you have created something that is so so close to the original Elite...well for me anyways. I'm sure a lot of other people coming late to the party like myself also feel the same way.

A heartfelt thankyou, for not disappointing myself and no doubt thousands of other backers just getting to play it/see it now. @ David B ... some of us had faith in you right from the off. The question of whether or not the KS campaign would succeed or whether or not this game would be EPIC was never in doubt.

I. CAN. NOT. WAIT. FOR. MAY. 30th.

Will Elite dangerous be the best selling game of all time, just like Elite? RIGHT ON COMMANDER!

 

[Riedquat]

++

I agree wholeheartedly, the most important thing for me also was the feel and I felt right like I was back in Elite (except it looked a whole lot nicer).

 

[Stormprooter]

It's really nice to see some more veterans of the original Elite having the same OMG moments when they first play the single player missions.

I had mine back in December

 

[Exmortis]

Wait...how did you upgrade? I haven't seen any option to upgrade from standard to premium.

 

[GeordieMarv]

++

I agree wholeheartedly, the most important thing for me also was the feel and I felt right like I was back in Elite (except it looked a whole lot nicer).

To me capturing the feel of combat from Elite was paramount! I mean, I also loved Frontier on my trusty Amiga...but it did just feel a little like space jousting. Combat in E-D is so close to the original. Being able to get behind ships and batter them!

I hope we get a match current target speed setting...if there isn't one already!

 

[Hamerstein]

It's really nice to see some more veterans of the original Elite having the same OMG moments when they first play the single player missions.

I had mine back in December

My thoughts exactly, Youtube is great for the advertising, but playing it...that's something else

 

[GeordieMarv]

Wait...how did you upgrade? I haven't seen any option to upgrade from standard to premium.

Go to the store, login...add the premium beta to your cart (£100) it will take into account the level at which you already pledged and deduct whatever it needs to automatically. I was at the £90 tier. (£85 for game etc and £5 postage). SO if you're also at this pledge...you will have to pay £15...that's it.

Do it man, it's more money for F.D. which can only mean a better final game! Plus you get to play the single player missions NOW, and get BETA access in the first phase which is May 30th and not later (second BETA phase).

 

[insanephoton]

Wait...how did you upgrade? I haven't seen any option to upgrade from standard to premium.

Check in the store https://store.zaonce.net/

Speaking from the perspective as an alphan, yeah I remember my first go. There you are out amongst the asteroids a little bit overwhelmed and awestruck. Tentatively you try out the controls, gradually you become a bit more confidant. In some ways I envy you for that first time feeling, but what I can say is that it only gets better. You have a absolute treat coming along, just wait until you dock for the first time

 

[Exmortis]

Go to the store, login...add the premium beta to your cart (£100) it will take into account the level at which you already pledged and deduct whatever it needs to automatically. I was at the £90 tier. (£85 for game etc and £5 postage). SO if you're also at this pledge...you will have to pay £15...that's it.

Do it man, it's more money for F.D. which can only mean a better final game!

Wow, thanks! I had been there but didn't see any indication it was going to deduct my prior credit. I will be doing this today.

 

[GeordieMarv]

Wow, thanks! I had been there but didn't see any indication it was going to deduct my prior credit. I will be doing this today.

No problem dude, ENJOY!

 

[Tacheel]

To me capturing the feel of combat from Elite was paramount! I mean, I also loved Frontier on my trusty Amiga...but it did just feel a little like space jousting. Combat in E-D is so close to the original. Being able to get behind ships and batter them!

I hope we get a match current target speed setting...if there isn't one already!

You mentioned wanting a Hotas. Once you have one you won't feel a need for speed matching, you will find yourself automatically adjusting to the right speed without thinking about it.

 

[GeordieMarv]

You mentioned wanting a Hotas. Once you have one you won't feel a need for speed matching, you will find yourself automatically adjusting to the right speed without thinking about it.

Ah right, cool. Well I would like the HOTAS Warthog. But £300 is a bit steep for my skint ass nowadays!

Can any of you ALPHA veterans explain the purpose of the UI focus key?
It doesn't appear to do anything? I assumed at first I would look at the panel with headlook...then the UI focus would allow me to access the UI panels.

It took me about 1 hr to realise that the keys 1-3 took you there.

So again, to a n00b like me...what is the UI focus key for?

 

[robo]

So again, to a n00b like me...what is the UI focus key for?

You can use it in combination with say, a HAT, (setting up left, right, up & down in the User Interface section of your settings), which allows you to keep UI focus key pressed, to switch between your Targets, Radar & Systems screens. Or you can assign a single key for each of those screens.

 

[GeordieMarv]

You can use it in combination with say, a HAT, (setting up left, right, up & down in the User Interface section of your settings), which allows you to keep UI focus key pressed, to switch between your Targets, Radar & Systems screens. Or you can assign a single key for each of those screens.

Ah right, by HAT I assume you mean a HAT Switch on a joystick? So normally HAT could be say headlook...but pressing focus UI key allows HAT to go through UI screens?

 

[robo]

Ah right, by HAT I assume you mean a HAT Switch on a joystick?

I do at that. Headlook + HAT AND UI Focus + HAT, but also Vertical/Lateral Thrust used with your HAT, all in all, multifunctional HAT. But you can just as easily assign your cursor keys instead.

I used to use UI Focus, but now I prefer single buttons for both Targets & Systems (assign to my Logitech G13), I don't bother with the radar, as it is just a zoom in look of what you can see from the main cockpit view anyway.

 

[GeordieMarv]

I do at that. But you can just as easily assign your cursor keys instead. I used to use UI Focus, but now I prefer single buttons for both Targets & Systems (assign to my Logitech G13), I don't bother with the radar, as it is just a zoom in look of what you can see from the main cockpit view anyway.

Cool, thanks for the clarification, and helpful reply.

 

[robo]

Cool, thanks for the clarification, and helpful reply.

You're welcome bud. Check my edit above your last post.

 

[GeordieMarv]

You're welcome bud. Check my edit above your last post.

Duly noted. Thanks again!

 

[Crayfish]

Have played the v1 alpha prototype for about four hours now and pretty happy with it. The first 15 minutes was spent reconfiguring controls so that they worked well with a keyboard and mouse setup. I found a configuration that works really well and so my first fear that using k+b would not be competitive seems to be unfounded. I can strafe in lateral directions with WASD whilst using the "absolute" yaw into roll setup for the mouse.

The game obviously encourages flying your space ship as if it was a plane through the mechanic of making turn rates optimal at 50% of full speed. However I still found that the most effective tactic was to treat the space ship as a turret and sit at 3km and snipe at the enemy so I could easily retreat safely out of range if necessary. I got the Cobra on Incursion down to 7% hull using this method and I think with a bit more practise shipping my energy where its needed more effectively I should be able to beat him.

It's fun to play with silent running mode though I still need to get used to controlling my heat build up which seems to constantly rise even when I'm just coasting. I also didn't notice where the number of heat sinks you have remaining is listed so I'll need to find that. Flight assist off is a nice feature but will take a lot of practise and care to manually dampen your own movements. I'd have loved a similar mode which turned of all assists apart from dampening.

Only had one run through of all the scenarios so I'm still getting used to the weapons but I suspect that I'm going to favour projectile guns. All the weapons appear to auto-aim to some degree which is a bit of a shame as it removes some skill, but I can see why it's needed. The most recent space combat sim I've played didn't have instant hit weapons and so there was a certain amount of ability to strafe to dodge incoming fire. It's a shame there doesn't seem to be any way to make yourself hard to hit in ED, at least against AI opponents. When you're head to head with another ship and both have auto-aiming guns it comes down to who can do the most damage before their weapon overheats.

I'm aware that the goal is that combat be more about dogfighting and getting on the tail of your opponent in ED. Doing that against multiple opponents seems to be almost suicidal however and standing off and sniping seems to be far more effective.

Graphics and sound are as amazing as I expected.

This is going to be a very enjoyable game.

 

[Sterlino]

Yeeeahhhh... right on commander !!

Elite is finally back !!!

I love this kind of threads...

more please !!

I feel like to re-born reading these things, i can't wait to put my hands on my first sidewinder...
Yesterday after reading for the 1000th time the thread about the hyperspace and supercruise speculations i watched with nostalgia a video about Elite II frontier.
And immediately i felt like if... Elite is not only a simple game where you hit something to get a reward, Elite is also the searching of an adventure that into a terrestrial life you will never able to try.. Elite is a sensational movie of landscapes in space.
I can't wait to find myself inside a cockpit mumbling about the right decision to take ..what system to explore, what goods to load in the ship, what mission to try, etc..