Hi all,
First post (at least on these forums), so be gentle
. I'm an original "'84er", and have fond memories of BBC , tape drives, and hot swapping seats with my old school friend Simon, who I haven't seen for nigh on thirty years, and... eventually, getting "Elite". In the meantime I've done WoW (vanilla MC, and then a break for a few years, and then coming back as Horde and doing WotLK etc); I've done Eve (recruitment officer for a 0.0 PvP corps - in on the first mothership kill etc); and I've dabbled at, and failed at, many more - principally (though not entirely) through lack of interest. I've played a lot of FPS, and proved how bad I am, but had a few laughs on the way, dabbled with DotA, and realised it's not for me, and, most importantly, built up a wonderful cross-game group of friends. I've also spent an inordinate amount of time on the X forums. Rebirth aside, those games, and that community, have been and are important to me. So a /wave to an X off-topicers who read this .
Anyway, I signed up to one of the early access betas, and have actually submitted a bug report! I have dabbled on every beta release, but deliberately not "over played" the game so as not to burn out. I also hope to get gamma / pre-release access on the 22nd, like so many others. I feel like a young child waiting for Santa. But this is not what this post is about.
I've seen all the "fanboy" videos, I've read all the "fanboy" posts, I've seen all the critical (I wouldn't use the word negative here) videos, and I've read all the negative posts. Elite Dangerous cannot but a) exceed the expectations of some, b) meet the expectations of others, and c) fail to meet the expectations of yet more people. The world has moved on from '84, and whilst I respect FD's desire to be "true to Elite", they need to recognise this. Equally, it's not, and can't be, "yet another MMO".
Take all the current noise about networking and peer to peer etc. Who doesn't want good net code? We all do. And yet..... in a galaxy of billions of stars, how many of us would pay for the best in breed network connectivity (and, importantly, the infrastructure required to support it) when stumbling on somebody else will be a rare occurrence? I really don't think that ED will ever be CoD pvp style. I can see space for expansions, or development, where this is optimised, or where there are modes of play developed by FD that support arena play, or group v group play etc, but in terms of our everyday experience I think the peer to peer option sounds sensible. Most of us are never going to bump into most of us. The universe is an empty place. We'd best get used to it. I'll be playing "open", or whatever the right expression is, and I'll enjoy the interaction with those others who do. Good guys or bad guys.
I'd like more group support - more group coms, more group infrastructure, and I would >>love<< the ability for groups to work together towards something eg territory ownership or the founding of stations etc, which, I admit, contradicts what I said above. But I'm pretty relaxed about this. If the demand is there it can happen. Nothing in the design prevents it.
My biggest concern is the economy. Blame my background, but for an economy to feel real we, in other words you, me, and all the people who never read game forums, need to have at least the ability to have an impact on it. I'd love an Eve-style economy. At the moment the ED economy feels.... skinny. Heh, at least it's not as skinny as the availability of modules. Again though, change and evolution here isn't impossible. Take for example Warframe. I enjoy the game, many don't, but their ability to patch and update the game is without peer.
So if ED can deliver on a) it's "model", b) provide an Eve style economy, c) patch / update like Warframe and d) make the universe, and our part in it living and emerging, well, I bought a Connie. With luck I will never fly it.
Fly true.
RM
First post (at least on these forums), so be gentle
. I'm an original "'84er", and have fond memories of BBC , tape drives, and hot swapping seats with my old school friend Simon, who I haven't seen for nigh on thirty years, and... eventually, getting "Elite". In the meantime I've done WoW (vanilla MC, and then a break for a few years, and then coming back as Horde and doing WotLK etc); I've done Eve (recruitment officer for a 0.0 PvP corps - in on the first mothership kill etc); and I've dabbled at, and failed at, many more - principally (though not entirely) through lack of interest. I've played a lot of FPS, and proved how bad I am, but had a few laughs on the way, dabbled with DotA, and realised it's not for me, and, most importantly, built up a wonderful cross-game group of friends. I've also spent an inordinate amount of time on the X forums. Rebirth aside, those games, and that community, have been and are important to me. So a /wave to an X off-topicers who read this .Anyway, I signed up to one of the early access betas, and have actually submitted a bug report! I have dabbled on every beta release, but deliberately not "over played" the game so as not to burn out. I also hope to get gamma / pre-release access on the 22nd, like so many others. I feel like a young child waiting for Santa
. But this is not what this post is about.I've seen all the "fanboy" videos, I've read all the "fanboy" posts, I've seen all the critical (I wouldn't use the word negative here) videos, and I've read all the negative posts. Elite Dangerous cannot but a) exceed the expectations of some, b) meet the expectations of others, and c) fail to meet the expectations of yet more people. The world has moved on from '84, and whilst I respect FD's desire to be "true to Elite", they need to recognise this. Equally, it's not, and can't be, "yet another MMO".
Take all the current noise about networking and peer to peer etc. Who doesn't want good net code? We all do. And yet..... in a galaxy of billions of stars, how many of us would pay for the best in breed network connectivity (and, importantly, the infrastructure required to support it) when stumbling on somebody else will be a rare occurrence? I really don't think that ED will ever be CoD pvp style. I can see space for expansions, or development, where this is optimised, or where there are modes of play developed by FD that support arena play, or group v group play etc, but in terms of our everyday experience I think the peer to peer option sounds sensible. Most of us are never going to bump into most of us. The universe is an empty place. We'd best get used to it. I'll be playing "open", or whatever the right expression is, and I'll enjoy the interaction with those others who do. Good guys or bad guys
.I'd like more group support - more group coms, more group infrastructure, and I would >>love<< the ability for groups to work together towards something eg territory ownership or the founding of stations etc, which, I admit, contradicts what I said above
. But I'm pretty relaxed about this. If the demand is there it can happen. Nothing in the design prevents it.My biggest concern is the economy. Blame my background, but for an economy to feel real we, in other words you, me, and all the people who never read game forums, need to have at least the ability to have an impact on it. I'd love an Eve-style economy. At the moment the ED economy feels.... skinny. Heh, at least it's not as skinny as the availability of modules. Again though, change and evolution here isn't impossible. Take for example Warframe. I enjoy the game, many don't, but their ability to patch and update the game is without peer.
So if ED can deliver on a) it's "model", b) provide an Eve style economy, c) patch / update like Warframe and d) make the universe, and our part in it living and emerging, well, I bought a Connie. With luck I will never fly it
.Fly true.
RM