The game isn't the same anymore.

[Dormant account - pls delete]

Based on all the X-ray screaming coming from the great annihilator, one must assume there is, in fact, an accretation disc located there.

In an excellent case of "you're both right," there is an accretion disk, it screams in X-ray, and does NOT scream in visible, so eyeball Mk1 finds it quite a difficult object (assuming you are viewing it through something that filters X and gamma but passes visible in the first place... otherwise you simply won't have a head any more, never mind retinae)

 

[voodochile37]

What draws me back each time I've quit ED, is the Galaxy. The 1:1 Milky Way Galaxy is amazing. I like being able to point to a place in the sky and go there. The only other game that does that is SpaceEngine. Imho, SE is not a game but a space exploration or astronomy tool. It was originally based off a Russian Astronomer's work who accumulated a huge database of astronomical findings (but correct me if I'm wrong).
I've pulled up star systems in both ED and SE and found them to be very similar. SE also nailed procedural generation to where you can go to other galaxies and wander aimlessly. ... like I do most the time - just star gazing - looking for a good picture
The way you move through the galaxy with ED is more believable than other games imho. Most of the new features I have not tried. I don't have a FC either but I still enjoy ED.

Have a nice day

This is the pull for me also, i have long breaks but always come back. Elite feels how I would expect space to be,unlike an other games its massive and immersive. The replica of the Milky Way does it and when I travelled to Sag A in 2018 in my head I felt like I was actually going there.

Right now I am enjoying my system building.

 

[sorabain]

This game has changed a bunch of times. It will change more times in the future too. I remember when exploration was actual exploration...having to use parallax movement to detect stars/planets outside of the range of the discovery scanner. or before engineering when skill was king. or before 1.0 when we just had the "pill"

Glad you said this; the other day I was sat wondering if we really had to do the parallax scrolling thing looking for distant planets/stars or if I had just failed to notice a better scanner available at the time.

 

[Monk]

Glad you said this; the other day I was sat wondering if we really had to do the parallax scrolling thing looking for distant planets/stars or if I had just failed to notice a better scanner available at the time.

When I was doing this I couldn't afford the better scanner! I spent many hours on the edge of Elite existence when first starting out. Took a while to figure things out and I just stumbled on the parallax thing while out exploring in my C-rated Hauler.