the freefly event in star citizen made me appreciate elite again

[AkenBosch]

Dual Universe? Single-instance multiplayer, "realistic" economy, no NPCs, base building, ship building - on paper, at least, just what a lot of ED players have been asking for.

On paper, I'm a rocket powered rainbow farting guinea pig. Or an ostrich assimilated into the Borg Collective.

Anything about things that people can actually play now though?

I also have to correct myself. Forgot NMS of course, a bit removed in target and scope from the other two, but still multiplayer, still ships, still feet.

 

[Alec Turner]

I'm just finishing downloading SC for the 'free play' few days.
Hope to livestream something tomorrow... hope...

Will be fascinated to hear your opinion - I still haven't taken the plunge to try it yet (despite making room for it on my SSD). One thing I will say - I've heard several people say that the free fly events are the absolute worst time to try Star Citizen because the amount of extra network traffic and server load means you're likely yo get the worst possible experience at these times.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Anything about things that people can actually play now though?

It's in public Beta (which in those self-definitions of progress is further along than SC is). You can play it now if that's your sort of thing.

When I say "on paper" I mean "these are features it currently has right now, but that doesn't mean that the game would necessarily appeal to ED players asking for them" not "this is something they've promised will be in it one day".

 

[Jmanis]

i mean, do you need to play the game to know that the performance is so bad it's barely even playable? i know what framerate i consider playable and odyssey can be below that, even on very powerful hardware. the teleportation from and to the ship? do you need to play the game to know that this is bad?

Well, yes, because you might realise that beyond the hyperbole that comes with most videos on the topic of framerate, that it isn't an issue of general performance.

I've seen the videos you talk about and can assure you things genuinely aren't that bad in, well, at least my own experience... because i can't speak for anyone besides myself, and videos complaining about the FPS certainly aren't representative at all of my experience on my nearly-8 year old system.

Is it 60FPS constantly? Of course not, but is it sub-30FPS (or even sub 15 FPS) like some report? Nope. And i say this with no irony intended... your mileage may vary. No online review will give you this experience.

As for your other gripes about the boarding zone/ teleporting etc... well... i personally think expecting otherwise was naive on anyone's part. In the leadup to Odyssey's launch, i certainly didn't want it. I still maintain that position, but I'm a LEPer so just reaping my own stupidity. But i digress. The overwhelming majority of support for space legs spouted the weirdest ideas of what was coming... most wasn't even based in reality, and most others could be readily dismissed with a casual assessment of the current state of the game. Were we really expecting legs to bring us the experience of smuggling stolen data in our pockets on foot through a customs checkpoint and bluff our way through an interrogation, when FD can't even fix smuggling as simple as "sell goods on black market"? Of course not.

But here's the kicker. I still stick by my guns and say Odyssey is a pretty pointless addition to ED, when the games core mechanics are screaming for attention still. Odyssey is exactly what i expected it to be. And if I'd listened to the countless drama-llama opinions out there i could easily have justified ignoring it if only to satisfy my own echo chamber. Which is ironic because i actually enjoy it. It's the most useless and pointless addition to the game, which i genuinely like.

So, yeah, playing the game yourself and forming your own opinion is important, and relying solely on rando people on the internet to give you your opinion is, well... it's a choice I guess.

 

[Viajero]

Dual Universe? Single-instance multiplayer, "realistic" economy, no NPCs, base building, ship building - on paper, at least, just what a lot of ED players have been asking for.

It just doesn’t work though. Not yet at any rate.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

It just doesn’t work though. Not yet at any rate.

Sure. But from what I hear on the forums, that shouldn't be a barrier to comparing it with Star Citizen or Elite Dangerous

 

[AkenBosch]

It's in public Beta (which in those self-definitions of progress is further along than SC is). You can play it now if that's your sort of thing.

Thought it was still a closed project/private alpha, thank you for updating me on it.

 

[Ian Skippy]

Sure. But from what I hear on the forums, that shouldn't be a barrier to comparing it with Star Citizen or Elite Dangerous

In DU's defense they have always been very clear about the state of the game. Unlike CIGs Schrödinger's Alpha, which is Fully Playable in all communications until you point out it sucks, which magically transforms it into "Early Days, Pre-Alpha!".

Dual Universe is a cool project by, largely speaking, honest and transparant devs.

 

[AkenBosch]

Will be fascinated to hear your opinion - I still haven't taken the plunge to try it yet (despite making room for it on my SSD). One thing I will say - I've heard several people say that the free fly events are the absolute worst time to try Star Citizen because the amount of extra network traffic and server load means you're likely yo get the worst possible experience at these times.

It's well worth a try for free, go for it if you have at least a couple hours to spare. Performance isn't that great for sure, but I remember trying the free fly from last year in the worst of the covid lockdowns and all in all, while as janky as you could expect, it wasn't even that abysmal of an experience, still plenty to fly around and see the sights. And I didn't die in an elevator once!

(almost died of thirst though, whoever thought mandatory hunger/thirst are compelling additions to gameplay should be left eating stale bread and squeezing water out of leaves for three days)

This is really material for that SC threadnaught over there though.

 

[Ian Skippy]

Will be fascinated to hear your opinion - I still haven't taken the plunge to try it yet (despite making room for it on my SSD). One thing I will say - I've heard several people say that the free fly events are the absolute worst time to try Star Citizen because the amount of extra network traffic and server load means you're likely yo get the worst possible experience at these times.

Then again, every time you play SC is always the worst time, and the fans will say it was really super playable only half a patch ago, and it will be even better next patch. Just bad timing, partner!

If CIG says: "try it now for free, this is the version we want everyone who is in doubt to see!" then that is that. No excuses.

 

[Cmdr Aos_Si]

To be fair to the OP he is saying he tried SC, found it to be crap and enjoyed going back to ED. His comments about EDO are based on second hand knowledge and are not consistant with the experience of those of us who actually play EDO. If he chooses not to believe the actual players then what more can you do?

I very much agree with the OP on the SC experience. I too, tried the free fly thing and it is really bad. Talk about a game being unplayable, thats it right there with SC. I actually find it difficult to believe how long SC has been in develoopment and how much money has been sunk into it for it to still be in such a poor state. Switching back to EDO after trying SC was such a pleasure. EDO is running far far better than SC, there is no comparison. People talking up the comparison between the two game seems insane really, certainly based on my experience.

Maybe other people have had a better experience on SC and a worse one on EDO but not me.

 

[Rat Catcher]

Will be fascinated to hear your opinion - I still haven't taken the plunge to try it yet (despite making room for it on my SSD). One thing I will say - I've heard several people say that the free fly events are the absolute worst time to try Star Citizen because the amount of extra network traffic and server load means you're likely yo get the worst possible experience at these times.

As an update:
I spent a little while trying to get the 'ready made' Hotas profile for my Warthog to do something, set up bindings for on foot movement, jumped into the game.

Got out from the bunk, wandered to the lift, went to ground floor, walked for a few minutes, got a tram, walked a bit, got another lift, walked a bit more to the ship.
HOTAS doing nothing, default WASD keys used instead... When W made me go backward....

Got out of the hangar, retracted landing gear, was tired by then so logged out & went to bed.
Fired the game up next morning: Back in my bunk...
Uninstalled.

Performance throughout was pretty poor, but I did assume the servers might be busy...

Overall impression for me is to wait until it is a released product: It is very pretty and has a big shopping mall & stuff, but FPS performance was possibly comparable to Odyssey in a large (not extraction) settlement CZ, distinctly choppy.

Edit: spelling

 

[[VR] Merkir]

Will be fascinated to hear your opinion - I still haven't taken the plunge to try it yet (despite making room for it on my SSD). One thing I will say - I've heard several people say that the free fly events are the absolute worst time to try Star Citizen because the amount of extra network traffic and server load means you're likely yo get the worst possible experience at these times.

In case you're interested, I did a write-up of the SC free fly over here.

 

[Rat Catcher]

In case you're interested, I did a write-up of the SC free fly over here.

Nice write-up...
I was too frustrated to continue attempt to play. Despite reading their 'howto' pages I was on a road to nowhere.
Yours, I feel, is helped by 'having a go' previously and by having some help from an experienced player.

 

[Sighman]

SC reminds me of Second Life and Gmod Tower. Huge pretty areas with little to do except gawk.

I have about 3 hours in the thing, almost all of them in 3.13. First hour was spent wandering around looking at cool shops etc. Sort of like an interactive museum/school tour where you can look at things but you're only allowed to press some of them.

My second hour was spent repeatedly waking up in the bunk, making my way to the spaceport, then having my game crash and restarting in the bunk again. Sometimes platforms failed to appear, sometimes I couldn't recall my ship... whatever.

Hour 3 I got serious. I retrieved my ship and took a delivery mission for 3 parcels scattered around the system. At the second site I landed my ship and went off to make a coffee & sandwich (IRL ... it's not THAT immersive.)

When I got back there was a screen saying I'd been logged out for inactivity. I signed in and when I saw I was lying in my bunk AGAIN with my ship gone and my mission cancelled, that was it for me.

Since then I've loaded it twice to check Orison, looked at the pretty, then closed it again. I don't regret paying for it because it's fun to load it up and look around for ten mins to see what's changed, but in the meantime I'm more than happy with Odyssey.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

As an update:
I spent a little while trying to get the 'ready made' Hotas profile for my Warthog to do something, set up bindings for on foot movement, jumped into the game.

Got out from the bunk, wandered to the lift, went to ground floor, walked for a few minutes, got a tram, walked a bit, got another lift, walked a bit more to the ship.
HOTAS doing nothing, default WASD keys used instead... When W made me go backward....

Got out of the hangar, retracted landing gear, was tired by then so logged out & went to bed.
Fired the game up next morning: Back in my bunk...
Uninstalled.

Performance throughout was pretty poor, but I did assume the servers might be busy...

Overall impression for me is to wait until it is a released product: It is very pretty and has a big shopping mall & stuff, but FPS performance was possibly comparable to Odyssey in a large (not extraction) settlement CZ, distinctly choppy.

Edit: spelling

Shame you gave up so quickly, would've liked to hear your experiences with the main meat of the game... with many YT videos/channels I always feel they're carefully curated, would like to see what it really plays like.

What was the install size btw? Don't have any space left on my SSD anyways but even for free I'm hesitant to give it a try myself. Too deep of a rabbit hole for me personally.

Edit: thanks @[VR]Merkir that was a pretty good write up. Think I'll pass and stick to X4/Elite... SC is probably more suited to being watched on YT, and given my card is below yours there's no chance in hell it'll run even adequately on mine. 26fps on a 2080Ti... sheesh.

 

[[VR] Merkir]

Nice write-up...
I was too frustrated to continue attempt to play. Despite reading their 'howto' pages I was on a road to nowhere.
Yours, I feel, is helped by 'having a go' previously and by having some help from an experienced player.

You're 100% correct. If you read a few pages later on that SC thread, I give further feedback regarding a later session in SC, this time without a player beside me to help.

 

[Rat Catcher]

Shame you gave up so quickly, would've liked to hear your experiences with the main meat of the game... with many YT videos/channels I always feel they're carefully curated, would like to see what it really plays like.

What was the install size btw? Don't have any space left on my SSD anyways but even for free I'm hesitant to give it a try myself. Too deep of a rabbit hole for me personally.

Edit: thanks @[VR]Merkir that was a pretty good write up. Think I'll pass and stick to X4/Elite... SC is probably more suited to being watched on YT, and given my card is below yours there's no chance in hell it'll run even adequately on mine. 26fps on a 2080Ti... sheesh.

I downloaded 2 files which totalled about 70 GB, but didn't notice the install size, sorry! I've just bought another 1TB SSD so had only that on it (plus the mandatory bit snatched by Oculus!) so didn't think to check.

I had noticed that FPS in 4K was very low, in 1440 not quite so low (sound like Odyssey to you?) but not smooth when surrounded by eye-candy.
If they have another freeplay later this year I'll be less of a grump and try a bit harder

 

[Deleted member 182079]

I downloaded 2 files which totalled about 70 GB, but didn't notice the install size, sorry! I've just bought another 1TB SSD so had only that on it (plus the mandatory bit snatched by Oculus!) so didn't think to check.

I had noticed that FPS in 4K was very low, in 1440 not quite so low (sound like Odyssey to you?) but not smooth when surrounded by eye-candy.
If they have another freeplay later this year I'll be less of a grump and try a bit harder

My SSD (M.2 which is also my primary drive where the OS is installed) is only 500GB and it's pretty much full (reserved for a handful of rather large, streaming-heavy games incl. MSFS) so would have to install it on my secondary (7200rpm) HDD... which is also full unless I kick off EDO And I seem to have read that SC doesn't really like physical drives anyways...

But yeah I wouldn't mind giving SC a go, however I doubt I'd enjoy it all that much beyond the initial sightseeing. Maybe next time, not in a rush myself, just like Chris

 

[Terry Daniels]

I tried it, liked it with no crashes or glitches and pretty smooth (1080 monitor with 2080 Super, 16GBs and SSD). They got the space legs down perfect (the joys of building it in from the start I guess), but...
No VR!!! (but yes Tobii head tracking).

Being fair, it took me ages to a) find the space port b) raise the under carriage and c) get some basic setup on my HOTAS so flight time was pretty limited. Loved the orrery map and planet flying with tons of stuff to look at but the space part I'm not so sure about - need to spend more time flying round the system and give it a fair shake.

Am I tempted to buy in now? a bit, yea - there seems to still be passion in what is being added, I just wish someone could reign in CR's a bit (personal opinion only).