Hi All,
I have been playing ED since late Beta. This is the game I had been waiting for, for an awfully long time! If you are only interested in my views of the game they are in the last paragraphs - so scroll down!
I'm about to show my age, but I first played Elite on the Acorn Electron which literally took over my life at the time!
Then progressed to other platforms and bought both the other sequels - Frontier and First Encounters. (The latter I still have somewhere!)
For me the first game was the pinnacle of game play.
Frontier blew my mind with missions, planetary landings, the ability to buy ships and the setting of the Solar System. For me though, the big let down was combat - it was too 'real'. I ended up using a lot of tricks of newtonian mechanics which tended to keep the enemy behind me in the central spot of the screen which made them very easy to blast away, but it made combat completely soulless.
As for First Encounters - the version I had was extremely buggy - so it never got played. In fact I think it eventually got recalled?
Onto the present day...
Firstly, overall, I think the team have done an excellent job. I also think they did the right thing by taking the combat from Elite but the universe from the sequels - a prefect combo.
I still find the graphics and sound design top notch and they do blow me away on occasion. One of my hobbies is astronomy, so being able to virtually tour the night sky really fires my imagination. In fact I'm considering doing the Messier List, by flying to each of the objects!
In terms of improvements I think the following needs looking at:
1. The economy. It's improving, but I don't think it is there yet. I think this is something that will evolve slowly over time as the developers deal with the emergent behaviour.
2. Danger. For me this is a big one. In the original Elite, one had to be very careful what kind of system one entered. Choosing to enter an anarchy system, especially with cargo was a very serious decision indeed and one that would likely result in combat. With ED all systems seem very similar with regard to combat. So similar that I generally don't take any notice whether they are anarchy or not. I think Anarchic systems need to be made a lot more dangerous to force players to think both tactically and strategically. In ED's current form one can play for a long time and never get involved in combat on a normal trading runs, which is a shame as the combat in this game is so well crafted. I know this issue might simply be down to the fact that space is big, really big - so it's hard to get pirates vectored in on the player.
3. This is a bonus aesthetic enhancement. How about seeing the odd moving person in towers as one is docking. The don't have to do anything other that maybe move around a little. Adding these would make the world seem a lot more alive for a very small cost. The code can be crafted to activate once a player has activated a pad and when they are within a specific range. It could even be coded so that only that player's client sees it.
In many respects both Braben and Chris Roberts have bucked the commercial publishing industry which I think is a good thing and might promote a sea of change with PC games, because to be honest I bored of all these sequels. I want to see innovation, the kind of innovation we used to see at the start of gaming in the '80s...
Thank you Braben and the Team for delivering this game - it's time to say good bye to my life
FlashPan
I have been playing ED since late Beta. This is the game I had been waiting for, for an awfully long time! If you are only interested in my views of the game they are in the last paragraphs - so scroll down!
I'm about to show my age, but I first played Elite on the Acorn Electron which literally took over my life at the time!
Then progressed to other platforms and bought both the other sequels - Frontier and First Encounters. (The latter I still have somewhere!)
For me the first game was the pinnacle of game play.
Frontier blew my mind with missions, planetary landings, the ability to buy ships and the setting of the Solar System. For me though, the big let down was combat - it was too 'real'. I ended up using a lot of tricks of newtonian mechanics which tended to keep the enemy behind me in the central spot of the screen which made them very easy to blast away, but it made combat completely soulless.
As for First Encounters - the version I had was extremely buggy - so it never got played. In fact I think it eventually got recalled?
Onto the present day...
Firstly, overall, I think the team have done an excellent job. I also think they did the right thing by taking the combat from Elite but the universe from the sequels - a prefect combo.
I still find the graphics and sound design top notch and they do blow me away on occasion. One of my hobbies is astronomy, so being able to virtually tour the night sky really fires my imagination. In fact I'm considering doing the Messier List, by flying to each of the objects!
In terms of improvements I think the following needs looking at:
1. The economy. It's improving, but I don't think it is there yet. I think this is something that will evolve slowly over time as the developers deal with the emergent behaviour.
2. Danger. For me this is a big one. In the original Elite, one had to be very careful what kind of system one entered. Choosing to enter an anarchy system, especially with cargo was a very serious decision indeed and one that would likely result in combat. With ED all systems seem very similar with regard to combat. So similar that I generally don't take any notice whether they are anarchy or not. I think Anarchic systems need to be made a lot more dangerous to force players to think both tactically and strategically. In ED's current form one can play for a long time and never get involved in combat on a normal trading runs, which is a shame as the combat in this game is so well crafted. I know this issue might simply be down to the fact that space is big, really big - so it's hard to get pirates vectored in on the player.
3. This is a bonus aesthetic enhancement. How about seeing the odd moving person in towers as one is docking. The don't have to do anything other that maybe move around a little. Adding these would make the world seem a lot more alive for a very small cost. The code can be crafted to activate once a player has activated a pad and when they are within a specific range. It could even be coded so that only that player's client sees it.
In many respects both Braben and Chris Roberts have bucked the commercial publishing industry which I think is a good thing and might promote a sea of change with PC games, because to be honest I bored of all these sequels. I want to see innovation, the kind of innovation we used to see at the start of gaming in the '80s...
Thank you Braben and the Team for delivering this game - it's time to say good bye to my life
FlashPan
