Newcomer / Intro Newbie Questions (requirements, pvp etc)

[Quatar]

Hi

I'm considering buying the game, I loved Elite back when I was a kid and played it on my C64. But there are a few questions I have to check first.

a) System requirements: I currently have a Intel Core2 Duo with a Geforce 275 GTX. Is that even anywhere near what the game will run on, even if it's on medium or low details, or won't I even have a chance to start it?

b) PVP: I know PvP exists, but I'm currently unclear on how it works. Will it be a PvP on/off toggle when I don't want to PvP, or can I become prey for better equipped ships all the time?
I played EVE long ago and the reason I left was exactly that. I had worked hard for a new ship, finally got it and then got ganked in a "safe" system by a ship ten times my size, while I was jumping in. Was dead before I could even do anything, not that I would have stood a chance against that ship. He got nothing out of it except ruining the fun of a new player, and I saw the work of the last two weeks go up in smoke. He wasn't even in any danger either because he easily could jump away before any police crafts showed up.
If PvP works the same way in Elite than it does there, I know i'll just get frustrated and would like to know about this before I get into it.

c) Space stations: I know in space you are basically your ship. On spacestations can you walk around and meet and talk to other people, or is it just a menu to trade, refuel etc, and then you leave station again?

 

[Carr0t]

a) The Elite store states than the min specs are a 2Ghz Quad Core CPU, so you're below-spec on that front. Minimum GPU is a GTX 260, so you are just above the minimum there. If they say min specs are quad core I would assume you're not going to get a reasonable framerate on a Core 2 Duo (i.e. dual core, and a slightly older one at that) one.

b) There is no PvP toggle, but there is a 'solo mode'. You still have to be connected to the Internet and the Elite servers to play, and your game economy and such will still be affected by the trading of other players in the overall game, but you will never see any other real life players in your game, only NPCs. There is also 'group play', where you and a group of friends can form a group and enter into a galaxy where the only real life players you will see are each other but once again the economy etc is still affected by what other players do who won't be visible to you. You can move freely between solo, group, and open play with the same character (log out of the game in one mode, log back in in another).

In reality, space is biiiig, and space in Elite is biiiig, so particularly if you're away from the core systems you won't see real life players all that often even in open play unless you choose to seek them out. You're much more likely to get jumped by a group of NPC pirates in a bigger ship than you and ganked that way than taken out by other players.

c) The latter. There is no interface to the game at the moment that doesn't involve you being a pilot sat in the pilot's seat of your ship. Walking about within your own ship, planetary landing and walking about/combat on the surface, walking about within space stations etc are things that are planned for future expansions and will hopefully happen at some point, but aren't in the game yet and we don't have even an estimated date for at this point. They've got a lot of stuff to do with making the core mechanics more engaging and fun to do before they start thinking about that kind of thing.

 

[Quatar]

a) Should have been more clear. I'm aware of the requirements in the store, but I was hoping if someone has any actual experience running it on such a system.

Thanks for the answers on the other points

 

[Epicurean Dream]

Actually, about requirements. I have an old 2.5 GHz Dual core CPU and I'm running the game on medium settings at a very decent constant 30+ fps. My CPU is technically below minimum requirements and I've not had any problems at all.

Take this with a big pinch of salt though. I don't want you to go getting the game based on this and it not work for you. I'm not sure but I think a Core 2 Duo is a little bit older than my (old) CPU and you haven't said what speed it has.

Check your chip via bench marking comparisons against this and also factor in the amount of ram you have (you didn't mention this). As a bench mark, I have 4 gig of DDR3, which the game uses about 70% of.

You also have a slightly better card than me. TBH it's looking pretty good for you. But compare your CPU with mine, ^ linked above and see how it compares. If it's equal to or slightly better you're good to go, if it's slightly worse or more, you might have some issues as my CPU is pretty much maxing both cores at a constant 98-99% when running the game. It's definitely a bottle neck. but it does run, and well at that!

Hope this helped. Good luck mate.