Surprised at so many people dissing ED

[Dr Roly]

I've spent a few hours in Gamma and am LOVING it. Apart from maybe adding a story arc, and large scale dynamic events (gold rush, warfare etc) I don't know what more FD could do.

They pretty well summed up the experience with the "blaze your own trail" tagline. All the marketing has very well indicated what type of game to expect. What do people want? "NB: This game is not COD" written on everything?

I love a good AAA shooter btw, but this is something very different. This is a game to take you on an amazing journey which, for me, it does 100%

If you just want a space shooter (nothing wrong with that), there's plenty of great games out there to suit your tastes. They're not hard to find.

Rant over. I honestly don't get the criticism and negativity here.

Finally: WELL DONE FD!

 

[TartanDragon]

+1 Have my first gamma rep.

 

[Zvanya]

For quite some time the community has been treating the Design Discussion Archives as a feature list and FD did nothing to dissuade us from that idea. If you haven't done so give them a read and compare them with what is in the game. I didn't expect to see everything in the DDA on release but there is a ton of stuff missing.

 

[Toumal]

Sure. And yet, it's still amazing. I'm enjoying the heck out of Gamma. Can't wait for release day, and the updates after that.

 

[adoredtv]

Big improvement over beta for sure. There is a lot more to do at the start and it's a lot more balanced.

 

[Alric]

Thing is.. it's a good space shooter. Different ships.. tons of weapons and load out choices, and great combat.
It's a good shooter.
What it's not is a compelling, living sci-fi universe with meaningful cause and consequence.
You don't really blaze your own trail.. you just blaze.

I want to pick up a passenger and fly them on a seemingly easy transport run.. get tracked and end up in combat. Find that they're involved in some local dispute that means nothing in the grand scale of epic plots but pulls me in to some interesting local chain of events... giving me meaningful choices. Do I help the paying passenger who didn't tell me the full story or turn them in? In the process, persistent NPC characters come in to being who I might run across in the future..when they could have become who knows what.. and my actions now will affect how that goes. That's blazing your own trail. That's the amazing game suggested in the DDF. That's not where we are right now.

 

[RaynMaykr]

It's not that people want COD in space. People largely feel the world is EXTREMELY shallow at the moment. You have standard fetch, go from A-B, kill NPCs. There's currently no visibility on the inner workings of the background sim. IF something impressive is going on there.... there needs to be feedback through the UI so players can understand whats happening around them and make gameplay decisions related to it.

We've been told we can impact the world around us through our actions..... Frontier needs to show us this somehow and right now they are not.

 

[AnD4D]

I've been playing for a few hours. Here's what happened in my first hour:

• Started new character.
• Picked mission from the 'doable' list.
• Realised that it was not doable, as it was too far for me to jump to.
• Cancelled mission.
• Got a fine worth 5k.
• Did another mission to pay off fine.
• Got Interdicted.
• Held up, told to drop cargo.
• Switched to the cargo bay to drop cargo.
• Couldn't drop cargo because it was mission cargo.
• Tried to escape.
• Killed.
• Respawned to see that I was given a 3k fine.
• Accepted another mission worth a whopping 12k.
• Interdicted again.
• Again tried to drop cargo, but wasn't allowed.
• Escaped with 60% hull.
• Completed mission.
• Paid fines and repaired ship.

Second hour was as follows:

• Travelled to second ship (Eagle).
• Sold Eagle.
• Bought Hauler.
• Did trading missions, back and forth.
• Watched time slowly count down while I flew toward a counter.
• Evaded Interdiction 9 times.
• Got bored of being a trader, and sold cargo bay, replacing it with a scanner and a fuel scoop.

Hour 3:

• Tried to set destination to Sol.
• Sol too far away... manually looked for nearby star that my nav system could see, and set that as destination.
• Closed galaxy map and tried to jump. LHS 3549 too far away.
• Realised that I needed to manually pick each system.
• Picked system manually.
• Jumped to system.
• Checked Galaxy Map.
• Realised that destination was replaced.
• Searched for LHS 3549.
• Made note of next 2 systems.
• Picked system manually.
• Jumped to system.
• Checked Galaxy Map.
• Realised that destination was replaced.
• Searched for LHS 3549.
• Made note of next 2 systems.

(Repeat for a very long time)

• Flew directly through a star, exiting hyperjump.
• Major Hull damage caused by being caught between 2 stars.
• Made it to Sol.
• Interdicted twice within 10 minutes.
• Docked at station designed to confuse colour-blind people.
• Checked ships and outfitting.
• Scratched head at lack of choice.
• Looked at Earth from a distance.
• Quit game.
• Decided to wait until the game had something interesting to do.
• Checked forum and saw your post

 

[Zvanya]

I had planned to wait until dec 16 to play again but that sounds so fun I just can't wait.

 

[Valkyrie]

It really is everything I could have hoped for thus far. I understand there are more features to come such as more extensive grouping mechanics and others, and then we'll move on to EVA and planetary landing stuff. I cannot wait!

 

[Renideo]

For quite some time the community has been treating the Design Discussion Archives as a feature list and FD did nothing to dissuade us from that idea. If you haven't done so give them a read and compare them with what is in the game. I didn't expect to see everything in the DDA on release but there is a ton of stuff missing.

They'll get to it in time, we've seen a huge amount of incremental progress on existing mechanics with each iteration of the betas. I think for me the most interesting thing (and it is a little opaque just now) is precisely how much they've added to the background simulation. There clearly are quite a few things going on, but it's too early to tell just now.

Anyway, I was astonished by just how polished it felt for gamma. In terms of networking, SC stutter, transition times, general performance it's simply . . well, stellar right now. Some minor bugs here and there, not much though, not so far. Lots of small improvements and additions, some I'm fairly sure weren't in the patch notes.

 

[Jack Shaftoe]

• Flew directly through a star, exiting hyperjump.
• Major Hull damage caused by being caught between 2 stars.

Have to admit, you've got me curious...what was that like exactly?

 

[1500]

It's not that people want COD in space. People largely feel the world is EXTREMELY shallow at the moment. You have standard fetch, go from A-B, kill NPCs. There's currently no visibility on the inner workings of the background sim. IF something impressive is going on there.... there needs to be feedback through the UI so players can understand whats happening around them and make gameplay decisions related to it.

We've been told we can impact the world around us through our actions..... Frontier needs to show us this somehow and right now they are not.

And that is the problem with some people, they expect COD in space, just like you do. You expect instant change, that is just not going to happen. Events are going to take way longer than a single day to transpire, the players effect on the game will take way longer than a single day. Expect weeks of players feeding weapons or doing other activities to finally make a change. Its the instant gratification crowd that do not understand how this game is set up, or how the pacing of this game will be.

 

[MikeB]

The overall graphics and feel of the game is absolutely sublime. There are however, some pretty dreadful flaws. First off, I'm a seasoned Frontier, Frontier First Encounters and Elite Dangerous Beta player (since BeTa 2) so I'm by no means an amateur at this... But it's really, really difficult to get started.

You start with a sidewinder with 100 credits with no information of any of the systems that surround you, so if you want to make money by trading from go you literally have a random guess chance of buying something you can make profit on. What's worse is that for the first of the four new starts I tried there were no missions available for me to do either.

So I just ventured out into space in search of whatever--pirates, unidentified signals etc. eventually I found a signal. Found and filled my hull up with several barrels of 'trade data' (why would data be in barrels?) anyway, scooped them up and headed back to the station in order to sell them at a profit. Sadly for me however, I was scanned, the data was marked as stolen and I was handed a 6000 credit fine!

Eventually, on my fourth new start, I started somewhere which actually had missions available, however when I chose to accept them I was in able to connect to the server (this was in solo mode).

So I shut the game down and restarted it in open play, eventually was I actually able to get and do a mission. Once you actually get the first couple of thousand credits you develop a reputation that is sufficient to get missions without too much trouble, but there are less actually available than there seemed to be in BETA, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it would make the game hard for beginners. Now, I'm reasonably good in combat situations and can escape interdictions most of the time, but the difficulty here may very well be above and beyond what casual players expect.

Also, there seems to be a navigation device that plots your route, but I can't get it to work. I too am trying to get to Imperial space but honestly it's really hard, jump range is limited and it's very difficult to find a star that is connected to a star that will lead there.

The potential is certainly here for the game to be an absolute masterpiece, but until they fix the start difficulty for the first 30 mins and the navigation, it's a very frustrating experience. In it's current state the game would probably get lowish review scores.

 

[philux]

Thing is.. it's a good space shooter. Different ships.. tons of weapons and load out choices, and great combat.
It's a good shooter.
What it's not is a compelling, living sci-fi universe with meaningful cause and consequence.
You don't really blaze your own trail.. you just blaze.

I want to pick up a passenger and fly them on a seemingly easy transport run.. get tracked and end up in combat. Find that they're involved in some local dispute that means nothing in the grand scale of epic plots but pulls me in to some interesting local chain of events... giving me meaningful choices. Do I help the paying passenger who didn't tell me the full story or turn them in? In the process, persistent NPC characters come in to being who I might run across in the future..when they could have become who knows what.. and my actions now will affect how that goes. That's blazing your own trail. That's the amazing game suggested in the DDF. That's not where we are right now.

It's not that people want COD in space. People largely feel the world is EXTREMELY shallow at the moment. You have standard fetch, go from A-B, kill NPCs. There's currently no visibility on the inner workings of the background sim. IF something impressive is going on there.... there needs to be feedback through the UI so players can understand whats happening around them and make gameplay decisions related to it.

We've been told we can impact the world around us through our actions..... Frontier needs to show us this somehow and right now they are not.

I agree with you gents. I was hoping for interesting NPCs interaction, complex missions and long-term campaigns in my factions, etc. . So far, nada.

 

[kosnett]

@AnD4D: This ISN'T the released version. Also if you get interdicted and are outgunned...then RUN. BOOST. EVASIVE ACTION. SUPERCRUISE the frack out of there the moment the cooldown expires. Seconds count. You may get scratched up, but nothing that can't be repaired. If a pirate wants me to drop my 5 thousand credits worth of cargo, they can kiss my thrusters...they may scratch me up on the escape, but it shouldn't come anywhere near that price.

Also even if you drop haulage cargo or are destroyed without delivering it, it makes perfect sense to me that this will get you fined. You were given that cargo to get it to a destination, not to hand over to a pirate or have it blown into a thousand pieces.

I've trying to reach the capital of the Empire, Achernar, but it's a long journey...about 60 light years from where I am...but I stop every now and then and do some trading, look at some of the planets. Saw a really beautiful desert planet, this big orange ball marked with mountains, canyons, salt flats from what I could tell, covered in sporadic white clouds.

The changes from beta to gamm are substantial and I'm quite happy with how things are progressing. This tells me that this team continues to be very serious about making this the end-all be-all scifi classic that the original Elite was in its time.

EDIT: Also when interdicted and you want to run, reallocate as much energy into your engine (the 'up' arrow).

 

[Bog]

My first few hours:

Picked the New Sidey thing, as it's all I see (I'm only beta, not a Backer).

● Spawned somewhere the heck I knew not where.
● Spent ten minutes re-establishing my joystick and control-pad bindings (grrr!)
● Checked the BBS for missions I can do - oh, few grand to haul some recyc!
● Tap 1 and glance at the (now much, much faster) Galaxy Map to see that I can, in fact, make the jumps needed to do the run.
● Bound my D-Scanner to joystick thumb button (between "Target Ahead" and "Target Highest Threat"
● Rinse and Repeat a few times
● Mucked it up once and scored a fine because I couldn't make the jump to Hoojamaphlippe Zeta Armpitus
● Swore.
● Did a few more runs, thinking "Why's there a blue Cobra Mk III icon on that system?"
● Flogged my scan data for ~12000Cr
● Fluffed evading an Interdiction, got the bejayzus kicked out of me (humbling....!)
● Limped into the nearest Outpost with 17% hull, no windshield, 90 seconds of O2 and three linear feet of seat fabric pulled up my pucker from sheer terror
● Said "WAHEY!" and marvelled that my swiss-cheesed ship could actually be repaired
● Got the the system with the Cobbie icon, mucked around in the Station Services UI, swore at myself
● Checked out my FrEagle
● Thought about it
● Flogged my FrEagle and bought a Hauler
● Started taking better contracts
● Started finding out What Fun! evading Interdiction is in a Hauler
● Started sliding along the Eranin/Sol Axis
● Kept taking gigs that took me that way
● Saw my Explorer status
● Laughed beer out of my nose
● Signed off, shook the cramps out of my hands, and came here to tell you about it.

 

[AnD4D]

Have to admit, you've got me curious...what was that like exactly?

Really nerve-wracking and heart thumping. I hadn't docked in a while, so wasn't sure where I'd respawn.

Basically, the jump happened as normal, but you know when the sun first appears and rushes towards you, filling up the screen? Well this one started already filling up the screen, and then rushed toward me. Took a split second, but it was enough time to cause me to gasp.

There was nothing but sun, light, fire, then as soon as it was there, it was gone, and another sun was in front of me. I turned 90 degrees and with throttle set to full, I sped away as fast as possible, keeping one eye on my heat as it rocketed toward 170 degrees. You start taking damage once you hit 150 degrees, so starting with the heat level from the jump, and then really quickly to over 150 was not fun.

Had I been killed in that section, I'd have certainly quit there and then. I quickly docked at the closest station (2 more jumps away) and started recording from that point on, just in case it happened again, so pretty much everything after that is on video.

Shame it's not as exciting though. I kind of wanted a Star Trek Voyager welcome when I finally reached Earth. Instead, I was simply Interdicted and offered a Sidewinder to buy...

 

[Bog]

Also, incidentally? You can use System View in the Galaxy Map to see what other systems are importing. So there's really no excuse for saying "I was trading blindly and lost money" - even without Cr prices of what's going on, you have access to who's selling what, and who's buying what. You can almost always turn a profit if you read the information provided to you.

Remember, Commanders - an empty hold is an empty head.

 

[AnD4D]

@AnD4D: This ISN'T the released version. Also if you get interdicted and are outgunned...then RUN. BOOST. EVASIVE ACTION. SUPERCRUISE the frack out of there the moment the cooldown expires. Seconds count. You may get scratched up, but nothing that can't be repaired. If a pirate wants me to drop my 5 thousand credits worth of cargo, they can kiss my thrusters...they may scratch me up on the escape, but it shouldn't come anywhere near that price.

Yup, did all this. Was nearly able to jump to SC, when it suddenly cut to zero without any explanation. I assumed they knocked it out, along with my screen. So I charged it again, and just as I got to 100% is when thrusters malfunctioned and my hull finally dropped to 0%. Not much I could do about that.

Also even if you drop haulage cargo or are destroyed without delivering it, it makes perfect sense to me that this will get you fined. You were given that cargo to get it to a destination, not to hand over to a pirate or have it blown into a thousand pieces.

My intention was to simply save myself having to pay the fine AND the insurance on a new ship. Also, why would that make it OK that the cargo is locked down? Surely if I bought some games console stock in real life, and they were stolen from me, I could replace them and still present them to the customer. I should be able to surrender cargo and take a fine over death any time I want, not be forced to try to flee.