Hey Commanders,
I spotted Horizons discounted two days ago and however I remembered why I left ED behind and haven't played it in the last 2.5 years, I thought it might be a good time to get an impression where it's heading. Bought it, downloaded it, set up controls again and headed out to space for a ride with a cleared save and new commander.
What I found so far is surprising and heart warming.
There's life in ELITE!!
I remember how much requests and verbal karate was thrown to the devs after launch in 2014, I was one of those who found it controversial having a beautiful but extremely shallow universe in which the beauty and the novelty eroded so quickly in lack of substance no matter how serious ELITE-fan I was.
Now I see some delicate but so meaningful touches which converted my ED experience big deal.
The looks of ED was always captivating, graphics and sounds created such an immersive atmosphere and I didn't really expect anything else here than what I already have seen and heard. Oh, how jaw dropping it was for me to see those tiny alterations and additions here and there which made the whole universe so much more alive! It's great to see the new planet surfaces, new bases, docks - not just the types but the interiors too with a hint of asymmetry in design and colours - they leave much stronger impression in me by their distinction and variety. I love how much richer the sounds became: the station comms for example can really boost the immersion.
So there was a lot of surprise on this side of ED which I considered already the strongest side of the game.
For the missions alone I feel this season pass purchase well justified. This was a soooo needed layer of the game a lot of us requested back in the days and now here we are, I can drop the idea of pushing and pulling a T9 along with a warehouse load of whatever cargo and just do my space wayfaring along some nice variety of missions. And not just that, I can combine them on the way to make the most out of them considering the destinations and loads to drop some on the way if there's any and so on. It gives a whole new meaning to do navigation and I quite enjoy this! And not just that: I was descending to the landing pad on a dock when got a message to take the cargo to another place instead for some extra credits, wow! Then to speed it up because a tight deadline could earn me another extra on another cargo. Or if I would eliminate some attackers on the go that could also be beneficial for me. Well done, FDev, you made my day! I'm sure there are others of these little nuggets of love in the game I'll encounter, with that 3 days I have behind since I joined again I'm sure I haven't seen all! But just these "could you please hurry a bit more"-sort of things keep me hooked on like never before!
Also can't wait to get passengers aboard, just have to figure out a ship config for that. And that's where I warmly welcome the module storage option, what an elegant solution to allow flexibility in ship building!
I like how the different factions, especially the local parties and authorities got some depth too. My smile was twelve parsecs wide when I recognized that all local authorities give missions and all somewhat related to their characteristics and to he local environment. As it affects influence and opens up other possibilities gives me a lot of space to play in and also sprays a lot of extra immersion on the skeleton. I didn't touch community goals or the powerplay-part yet but I'm now more eager to do those too - with the context added to the whole by these local environments they also look more organic to me.
I landed on a planet, it was beautiful and fun, will pay more attention to these features including that wheeler but even without these I'm already find the game jolly good.
I downloaded the up to date manuals, can't wait to read it through and actually I'll need to do that to get some systematic insight of other new-for-me features like crew members (that sounds exciting but haven't tried yet) and uncover some of the mystery of those radar elements and signal sources I haven't seen before.
I see how money flow has changed too, I can't say anything on that yet, I played only a few days but so far I'm enjoying getting some good payments for some missions and having a Cobra on day 3 somewhat quarter-kitted. I'm sure there'll be plenty of things to pour money into.
I hope I arrived in time to jump on those Thargoids, at least I'll have one acceptable ship to confront them (and run away).
Many more things I had in mind but nevermind, you all know those and I just wanted to pop in for a few words of how much I enjoy this season's features. I think I'll follow this "buy the season late when the features are already there"-kind of method in the future. The experience is so different
Thank you FDev, I like what I see and happy that I bought myself into the second page of this book!
Will hang around the forums and see what's what.
Yours,
Commander Medwyn (oh, and the avatar! That's fab too! We spent a good hour with my wife to recreate my virtual face as accurate to my real one as possible, it was great fun!)
I spotted Horizons discounted two days ago and however I remembered why I left ED behind and haven't played it in the last 2.5 years, I thought it might be a good time to get an impression where it's heading. Bought it, downloaded it, set up controls again and headed out to space for a ride with a cleared save and new commander.
What I found so far is surprising and heart warming.
There's life in ELITE!!
I remember how much requests and verbal karate was thrown to the devs after launch in 2014, I was one of those who found it controversial having a beautiful but extremely shallow universe in which the beauty and the novelty eroded so quickly in lack of substance no matter how serious ELITE-fan I was.
Now I see some delicate but so meaningful touches which converted my ED experience big deal.
The looks of ED was always captivating, graphics and sounds created such an immersive atmosphere and I didn't really expect anything else here than what I already have seen and heard. Oh, how jaw dropping it was for me to see those tiny alterations and additions here and there which made the whole universe so much more alive! It's great to see the new planet surfaces, new bases, docks - not just the types but the interiors too with a hint of asymmetry in design and colours - they leave much stronger impression in me by their distinction and variety. I love how much richer the sounds became: the station comms for example can really boost the immersion.
So there was a lot of surprise on this side of ED which I considered already the strongest side of the game.
For the missions alone I feel this season pass purchase well justified. This was a soooo needed layer of the game a lot of us requested back in the days and now here we are, I can drop the idea of pushing and pulling a T9 along with a warehouse load of whatever cargo and just do my space wayfaring along some nice variety of missions. And not just that, I can combine them on the way to make the most out of them considering the destinations and loads to drop some on the way if there's any and so on. It gives a whole new meaning to do navigation and I quite enjoy this! And not just that: I was descending to the landing pad on a dock when got a message to take the cargo to another place instead for some extra credits, wow! Then to speed it up because a tight deadline could earn me another extra on another cargo. Or if I would eliminate some attackers on the go that could also be beneficial for me. Well done, FDev, you made my day! I'm sure there are others of these little nuggets of love in the game I'll encounter, with that 3 days I have behind since I joined again I'm sure I haven't seen all! But just these "could you please hurry a bit more"-sort of things keep me hooked on like never before!
Also can't wait to get passengers aboard, just have to figure out a ship config for that. And that's where I warmly welcome the module storage option, what an elegant solution to allow flexibility in ship building!I like how the different factions, especially the local parties and authorities got some depth too. My smile was twelve parsecs wide when I recognized that all local authorities give missions and all somewhat related to their characteristics and to he local environment. As it affects influence and opens up other possibilities gives me a lot of space to play in and also sprays a lot of extra immersion on the skeleton. I didn't touch community goals or the powerplay-part yet but I'm now more eager to do those too - with the context added to the whole by these local environments they also look more organic to me.
I landed on a planet, it was beautiful and fun, will pay more attention to these features including that wheeler but even without these I'm already find the game jolly good.
I downloaded the up to date manuals, can't wait to read it through and actually I'll need to do that to get some systematic insight of other new-for-me features like crew members (that sounds exciting but haven't tried yet) and uncover some of the mystery of those radar elements and signal sources I haven't seen before.
I see how money flow has changed too, I can't say anything on that yet, I played only a few days but so far I'm enjoying getting some good payments for some missions and having a Cobra on day 3 somewhat quarter-kitted. I'm sure there'll be plenty of things to pour money into.
I hope I arrived in time to jump on those Thargoids, at least I'll have one acceptable ship to confront them (and run away).
Many more things I had in mind but nevermind, you all know those and I just wanted to pop in for a few words of how much I enjoy this season's features. I think I'll follow this "buy the season late when the features are already there"-kind of method in the future. The experience is so different
Thank you FDev, I like what I see and happy that I bought myself into the second page of this book!
Will hang around the forums and see what's what.
Yours,
Commander Medwyn (oh, and the avatar! That's fab too! We spent a good hour with my wife to recreate my virtual face as accurate to my real one as possible, it was great fun!
)