Purchased Elite Dangerous on PC after reading Ars Technica review

[grammatonfeather]

I first played Elite on my brother's BBC Micro back in the mid 80's. I was very envious of his state of the art computer with 5/14 floppy drives (I only had a cassette deck for storage on my Spectrum 16kb).

I haven't played too many space sims since then and had come to the conclusion that perhaps space sims were really rather dull. A part of me was debating whether or not to purchase E.D. since it was launched. I finally purchased a few days ago after reading the excellent review on Ars Technica. Plugged in my Saitek X52 Pro and was pleased to see the default X52 profile sensible. No default dead-zone on the joystick axis so it seems E.D. have put a lot of thought into this sim. I love the graphics, the space combat, the sounds and the effort that's been put into creating a believable space sim. Looking forward to the future expansions.

I've noticed a trend on Steam where a percentage of casual/arcade gamers buy the sim and then trash review it. It generally goes along the lines of: "controls are horrible", "no story", "docking impossible", "nothing to do...", "training videos awful".

In pretty much all cases these complaints come from people trying to play the sim with mouse and keys. They have very little patience, no understanding of what the sim is about and expect a story with cut-scenes. I disagree on all counts.. Firstly I wouldn't attempt to play E.D. with mouse and keys, Docking with HOTAS is far from difficult, I love the training videos and one of the plus points is the lack of silly story. A big draw for me was HMD VR support. Looking forward to purchasing a HMD next year.

Anyway... Love the sim so far and think it's kind of annoying seeing a percentage who really shouldn't be buying it - buy it and immediately trash it.

Raphael

 

[Futuristic Kung Fu]

Welcome!!!! Hope you have fun!!! PM me or one of my friends (Mossfoot or Banana's are probably best) if you need help with anything in game or in forum!! (To Personal Message me click my name and you should have a bunch of options, PM should be one of them. )

 

[ComradeFresco]

Playing with mouse and keys is pretty darn fine, actually, as long as your not PvPing. People who criticize that aspect just are unwilling to spend an hour getting familiar with how to control their ship.

Anyhow, though, the harsh criticism from people who arguably don't "get" the game is just a fact of life. Frontier wants to sell lots of copies, therefor its not going to only try and seduce hard-core simulation players. If that was the case there wouldn't be an xbox release, since the sim market is pretty strict PC. So I'm not saying those peoples criticism isn't misplaced, but when you try and court a large variety of players to make a "big game" its going to inevitably reach out to multiple types of players.

I mean the thing is, you might prefer those people not buy the game but I'm quite sure frontier wants their $$$. If they made a game only for their "true audience" they'd be sitting on a much smaller pile of money.

 

[Sapient6]

Welcome, CMDR!

In pretty much all cases these complaints come from people trying to play the sim with mouse and keys. They have very little patience, no understanding of what the sim is about and expect a story with cut-scenes. I disagree on all counts.. Firstly I wouldn't attempt to play E.D. with mouse and keys, Docking with HOTAS is far from difficult,

Just a little nit to pick: keyboard/mouse control for this game is more than serviceable. There are a few cases where mouse control even has a slight edge on controlling with a flight stick. I would say that people who find the controls for this game to be unusable are just lacking the requisite patience for this game.

Which is fine. Not every game is for every player.

Anyway. Welcome aboard. Hope you continue to enjoy the game.

 

[RexKraemer]

I buyed a Hotas for E : D and FlightSilmulator, but for E : D I went back to mouse and keyboard. I was used to it so I found it more difficult to adapt to the hotas than going back to M+K.

Anyways, welcome on board!

RexKraemer

 

[Rauminen]

Welcome commander!

I see that you like to browse around and read what others are coming up with... word of caution, there's a lot of trash talk on these forums as well. However if you have a genuine question or are in need of help regards to any aspect of the game itself we are generally a very patient and helpful bunch.
Most of the common issues have 20+ threads already, but even if you start the 25th you'll have 9/10 proper answers in there and only one rtfm

As for mouse & keys - after about 1200+ hrs in the X series, this was a breeze. I even have some of the keys unmapped... I did have to do an almost complete re-map though, but that's my own issue.

 

[MyThos]

I first played Elite on my brother's BBC Micro back in the mid 80's. I was very envious of his state of the art computer with 5/14 floppy drives (I only had a cassette deck for storage on my Spectrum 16kb).

I haven't played too many space sims since then and had come to the conclusion that perhaps space sims were really rather dull. A part of me was debating whether or not to purchase E.D. since it was launched. I finally purchased a few days ago after reading the excellent review on Ars Technica. Plugged in my Saitek X52 Pro and was pleased to see the default X52 profile sensible. No default dead-zone on the joystick axis so it seems E.D. have put a lot of thought into this sim. I love the graphics, the space combat, the sounds and the effort that's been put into creating a believable space sim. Looking forward to the future expansions. ...

Wowgh, just read this review as well. It exactly reflects my sentiments towards the game: a great game in the making and we've just seen the foundations of it. I have only limited time to progress but I think this keeps the game fresh for me for quite a time to come. I do not regret the money spent so far!

Cheers,
Michael

 

[grammatonfeather]

Welcome!!!! Hope you have fun!!! PM me or one of my friends (Mossfoot or Banana's are probably best) if you need help with anything in game or in forum!! (To Personal Message me click my name and you should have a bunch of options, PM should be one of them. )

Thanks! I'm sure I will have some questions at some point. Kung Fu (David Carradine) reminds me of my childhood.

Playing with mouse and keys is pretty darn fine, actually, as long as your not PvPing. People who criticize that aspect just are unwilling to spend an hour getting familiar with how to control their ship.

Anyhow, though, the harsh criticism from people who arguably don't "get" the game is just a fact of life. Frontier wants to sell lots of copies, therefor its not going to only try and seduce hard-core simulation players. If that was the case there wouldn't be an xbox release, since the sim market is pretty strict PC. So I'm not saying those peoples criticism isn't misplaced, but when you try and court a large variety of players to make a "big game" its going to inevitably reach out to multiple types of players.

I mean the thing is, you might prefer those people not buy the game but I'm quite sure frontier wants their $$$. If they made a game only for their "true audience" they'd be sitting on a much smaller pile of money.

Yup that's true. I think some people make an impulse purchase without reading up and perhaps have no knowledge of the original game.

Welcome, CMDR!


Just a little nit to pick: keyboard/mouse control for this game is more than serviceable. There are a few cases where mouse control even has a slight edge on controlling with a flight stick. I would say that people who find the controls for this game to be unusable are just lacking the requisite patience for this game.

Which is fine. Not every game is for every player.

Anyway. Welcome aboard. Hope you continue to enjoy the game.

I never imagined after reading the negative complaints so it just goes to show it's a can't be bothered attitude some people have. I used mouse/keys for BF3 a few years ago and found it more precise for ground targets when flying fast jets.

I buyed a Hotas for E : D and FlightSilmulator, but for E : D I went back to mouse and keyboard. I was used to it so I found it more difficult to adapt to the hotas than going back to M+K.

Anyways, welcome on board!

RexKraemer

Lol, that's funny. Which HOTAS did you buy? I'm used to HOTAS control, going back to the very first Saitek version when Jane's F15 was a new sim.

Welcome commander!

I see that you like to browse around and read what others are coming up with... word of caution, there's a lot of trash talk on these forums as well. However if you have a genuine question or are in need of help regards to any aspect of the game itself we are generally a very patient and helpful bunch.
Most of the common issues have 20+ threads already, but even if you start the 25th you'll have 9/10 proper answers in there and only one rtfm

As for mouse & keys - after about 1200+ hrs in the X series, this was a breeze. I even have some of the keys unmapped... I did have to do an almost complete re-map though, but that's my own issue.

Thanks! I will spend some time looking through. 1200+ hours! wow!

Wowgh, just read this review as well. It exactly reflects my sentiments towards the game: a great game in the making and we've just seen the foundations of it. I have only limited time to progress but I think this keeps the game fresh for me for quite a time to come. I do not regret the money spent so far!

Cheers,
Michael

Agree. I think it's going to be amazing being able to enter a planet's atmosphere and fly low over the surface before landing. I had such a hard time deciding if I should buy Elite for a long time but I'm pleased I did now.

 

[MyThos]

Agree. I think it's going to be amazing being able to enter a planet's atmosphere and fly low over the surface before landing. I had such a hard time deciding if I should buy Elite for a long time but I'm pleased I did now.

Getting the Lifetime Expansion together with the Beta last year was a real bargain and I am smiling to myself each time I put on track-ir and get my Hotas ready ...

 

[Brimstone]

Welcome to the game, I hope you enjoy your stay

I'm part of the keyboard and joystick master race though, I like having all thrusters at my finger tips

 

[Oheck]

I first played Elite on my brother's BBC Micro back in the mid 80's. I was very envious of his state of the art computer with 5/14 floppy drives (I only had a cassette deck for storage on my Spectrum 16kb).

I haven't played too many space sims since then and had come to the conclusion that perhaps space sims were really rather dull. A part of me was debating whether or not to purchase E.D. since it was launched. I finally purchased a few days ago after reading the excellent review on Ars Technica. Plugged in my Saitek X52 Pro and was pleased to see the default X52 profile sensible. No default dead-zone on the joystick axis so it seems E.D. have put a lot of thought into this sim. I love the graphics, the space combat, the sounds and the effort that's been put into creating a believable space sim. Looking forward to the future expansions.

I've noticed a trend on Steam where a percentage of casual/arcade gamers buy the sim and then trash review it. It generally goes along the lines of: "controls are horrible", "no story", "docking impossible", "nothing to do...", "training videos awful".

In pretty much all cases these complaints come from people trying to play the sim with mouse and keys. They have very little patience, no understanding of what the sim is about and expect a story with cut-scenes. I disagree on all counts.. Firstly I wouldn't attempt to play E.D. with mouse and keys, Docking with HOTAS is far from difficult, I love the training videos and one of the plus points is the lack of silly story. A big draw for me was HMD VR support. Looking forward to purchasing a HMD next year.

Anyway... Love the sim so far and think it's kind of annoying seeing a percentage who really shouldn't be buying it - buy it and immediately trash it.

Raphael

Well since you got this decision out of the way..on to the next one...which VR headset to purchase.

 

[kilvenny]

Welcome aboard. I used mouse and keyboard for months and it was fine. HOTAS is just perfect for an old man like me. No searching for reading glasses for the keyboard.

 

[Webferret]

Welcome to Elite Cmdr,

Be safe out in the void!

 

[Iskariot]

I first played Elite on my brother's BBC Micro back in the mid 80's. I was very envious of his state of the art computer with 5/14 floppy drives (I only had a cassette deck for storage on my Spectrum 16kb).

I haven't played too many space sims since then and had come to the conclusion that perhaps space sims were really rather dull. A part of me was debating whether or not to purchase E.D. since it was launched. I finally purchased a few days ago after reading the excellent review on Ars Technica. Plugged in my Saitek X52 Pro and was pleased to see the default X52 profile sensible. No default dead-zone on the joystick axis so it seems E.D. have put a lot of thought into this sim. I love the graphics, the space combat, the sounds and the effort that's been put into creating a believable space sim. Looking forward to the future expansions.

I've noticed a trend on Steam where a percentage of casual/arcade gamers buy the sim and then trash review it. It generally goes along the lines of: "controls are horrible", "no story", "docking impossible", "nothing to do...", "training videos awful".

In pretty much all cases these complaints come from people trying to play the sim with mouse and keys. They have very little patience, no understanding of what the sim is about and expect a story with cut-scenes. I disagree on all counts.. Firstly I wouldn't attempt to play E.D. with mouse and keys, Docking with HOTAS is far from difficult, I love the training videos and one of the plus points is the lack of silly story. A big draw for me was HMD VR support. Looking forward to purchasing a HMD next year.

Anyway... Love the sim so far and think it's kind of annoying seeing a percentage who really shouldn't be buying it - buy it and immediately trash it.

Raphael

Reading all that it seems to me ED was made for a guy like you.
There is a whole generation of young gamers who will forever be unable to learn to appreciate a game like ED.
It is a pity, but there's nothing we can do about it.

Welcome to the Elite universe.
Much more great stuff is on the way.
Horizons will arrive in December.

 

[Roybe]

Reading all that it seems to me ED was made for a guy like you.
There is a whole generation of young gamers who will forever be unable to learn to appreciate a game like ED.
It is a pity, but there's nothing we can do about it.

Welcome to the Elite universe.
Much more great stuff is on the way.
Horizons will arrive in December.

There's a bunch of old gamers that can't either..age isn't the problem...a closed mind is.

 

[grammatonfeather]

Getting the Lifetime Expansion together with the Beta last year was a real bargain and I am smiling to myself each time I put on track-ir and get my Hotas ready ...

Track IR is great. I don't own one now. I've had 2 in the past. How much did the lifetime expansion cost?

Welcome to the game, I hope you enjoy your stay

I'm part of the keyboard and joystick master race though, I like having all thrusters at my finger tips

Thanks! I'm going to be remapping some of the controls for my Saitek. It's still early days for me though. Lot to learn.

Well since you got this decision out of the way..on to the next one...which VR headset to purchase.

Good question! Palmer is the one who got the ball rolling again for consumer VR. Without him Sony would still be pushing their antiquated HMZ at $1500. However, the spec of Vive is impressive... Laser full body tracking, slightly higher res. I guess it also depends on cost as well. I don't normally go for brand loyalty but in the case of Oculus I think Palmer has worked so hard to make his vision a reality. I've tried DK2 twice because a friend owns it but he doesn't have Elite and I haven't asked to borrow his Oculus yet. Maybe I'll just wait until the consumer hits. Which HMD will u go for?

Welcome aboard. I used mouse and keyboard for months and it was fine. HOTAS is just perfect for an old man like me. No searching for reading glasses for the keyboard.

Thanks! I love my HOTAS... Had thought about buying a Thrustmaster over the years but the Saitek has always been affordable and I've never had issues with it (except it used to stop working on Battlefield 3 if I had the Saitek profile editor installed).

Welcome to Elite Cmdr,

Be safe out in the void!

Thanks!

Reading all that it seems to me ED was made for a guy like you.
There is a whole generation of young gamers who will forever be unable to learn to appreciate a game like ED.
It is a pity, but there's nothing we can do about it.

Welcome to the Elite universe.
Much more great stuff is on the way.
Horizons will arrive in December.

I agree! Thanks! Looking forward to Horizons. Not too long to go for release then. I might upgrade my GPU to a 970 before then. I have a 680 2gb now and that's still plenty fast but I'm also thinking ahead to HMD VR.

There's a bunch of old gamers that can't either..age isn't the problem...a closed mind is.

I have a gamer friend who can't really play anything but CSS or CSGO. Many games make him feel sick. He bought GTA V and got a refund because it made him want to spew. I have suggested to him it's down to refresh. He has a 120hz monitor but GTA V was locked to 60hz. He had no trouble playing Metro Last Light and I'm sure that would have been 120hz. Anyway.. he'd be too lazy to learn the controls for Elite.

 

[Lowievisser]

Welcome to ed , best review is your own. Now create some storys

 

[grammatonfeather]

Welcome to ed , best review is your own. Now create some storys

Hi, Thanks!

I'm still an Elite noob but I was Interdicted last night for the first time. I ended up destroying the enemy ship and I got a 7000 cr reward for it. I failed to deliver the documents for the mission I was running but the kill was better anyway.

 

[shadragon]

Anyway... Love the sim so far and think it's kind of annoying seeing a percentage who really shouldn't be buying it - buy it and immediately trash it.

Welcome to the 21st century attitude of I want it all and I want it to fulfill all of my hopes, dreams and fantasies otherwise I'll bad mouth it to no end.

 

[grammatonfeather]

Welcome to the 21st century attitude of I want it all and I want it to fulfill all of my hopes, dreams and fantasies otherwise I'll bad mouth it to no end.

Yup, that's exactly what I've observed. Some of the complaints are outright banal. People throwing tantrums because the combat is too difficult ("impossible to aim" was one complaint), "docking on manual impossible". One guy wanted an immediate refund because the game minimised instead of running full screen. Rather than contact Steam Support to try and fix the issue he demanded immediate refund and wrote a review warning other people not to buy on the basis of his issue.

I get the impression some were expecting an arcade experience with MGS V style narrative.