Narrator: it never was...
This is a review I recently wrote and its a shame, it had so much potential and still does.
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ooh, one other thing I love about Elite and hate about NMS: The story, lore, however you want to label it. I like Elite (again) being rooted in realism even in its story telling (even if there is some handwavium like for FTL travel). I found the... fantasy-esque, slightly esoteric setting of NMS rather... annoying and, to be frank, offputting. Again, horses for courses...
OP, I suppose that's your opinion.
Personally, Iv mustered nearly 11k game hours & have been playing since day 1, so the game must have something going for it for me.....how many hours does the OP have?
Though recently Iv not been playing as much, mainly due to trying out various town builders, early access stuff like Captain of Industry, Planet Crafter, Farthest Frontier, Medieval Dynasty & may purchase Victoria 3 soon.
I need goals to keep me going in ED/EDO & atm I'm waiting to see what happens with the incoming thingies, before deciding my next move.
Only issues I see with the game is lack of personal base building & long periods were the playerbase has to keep itself 'entertained' while the game goes maintainance mode.
Personally, Iv mustered nearly 11k game hours & have been playing since day 1, so the game must have something going for it for me.....how many hours does the OP have?
Though recently Iv not been playing as much, mainly due to trying out various town builders, early access stuff like Captain of Industry, Planet Crafter, Farthest Frontier, Medieval Dynasty & may purchase Victoria 3 soon.
I need goals to keep me going in ED/EDO & atm I'm waiting to see what happens with the incoming thingies, before deciding my next move.
Only issues I see with the game is lack of personal base building & long periods were the playerbase has to keep itself 'entertained' while the game goes maintainance mode.
Removing it without replacing it with something else would flatten trade and mining, remove a lot of transient POIs and scenarios, and make the bubble much more homogenous in general. I very much mean the "background" bit of it that "normal" players are intentionally not supposed to really care about or know exists - trade routes dry up if overused, repeatedly attacking bases shuts them down, a system is suddenly full of pirates when it was safe last week - rather than the emergent territory warfare game that a minority of end-game players have built on top of it.
Elite Dangerous. You?
Oooo pretty pictures, very exciting.
For you maybe, but then depth of game play isn't about things looking pretty. Depth of gameplay is the way in which the mechanics of the game allow you to achieve stuff. And for me, exploring is pretty undeveloped, bland and disappointing.
Mining is great in ED, never said it wasn't. In fact its the most fleshed out job in ED and the only thing they have actually improved. Unfortunately, mining is basic. always will be, regardless of the the game. just the nature of the business. More importantly though, my biggest gripe about mining, is the way in which random pirates, manage to find you when you are a 1000ly from the bubble or more in billions of square miles rocks in a gas giants ring. This alone, spoils everything good that mining gets right.
Not mention, the complete lack of any meaningful planetary mining.
That's problem. The game gives the freedom to do whatever you want. That fundamental flaw of ED. Why the game has zero consequence, choices are meaningless, game play is shallow and why people rightfully claimed the game is a million miles wide and only 1 inch deep.
Seeing as I have been told many times, that Elite Dangerous is a "simulator", then it stands to reason that things within the game should make sense within the game. Like Using basic common sense, deep space exploration is going to be hard and stressful upon the ship and it's subsystems. Repeated jumping, scoping close to suns in order to scope fuel and many other things, all take a toll on the ship "integrity".
Explorer class vessels have always been specially designed to help cope with rigors of exploration. They have also been designed to fit specialist equipment etc etc.
On the other hand, combat, general purpose, liner and cargo class ships are specifically designed for their specific roll. And equipment would be specifically manufactured by the manufactures to fit structure of specific class of ships. It totally makes sense, why would a manufacture design cargo bays for a combat orientated clas of ship, when they need to be nimble and fast possible.
Anything else, makes no sense. It's just insult to the everything else Fdev tried to do. Why try to make the galaxy as accurate as it is and proclaim how proud you are of it, then make everything around it, with as little accuracy and or common sense as possible.
It's just insult.
I don't know. Long term wear and tear that explorer class ships have been design cope with far better, than say, a trading ship. That's not to say you can't go out in a combat class ship, it just means they can't go out for as long or as far in the black and not with and specialist equipment exploration.
But what do I know, I have only done actual scientific research in the middle of nowhere and completely understand hard it can be on the equipment and vehicles and how much I would have loved to have had a nice and comfortable luxury car to travel in.
Oh, isn't the Anaconda the ship with the longest jump range once engineered, a general all rounder class of ship, a jack of all trades a master of none? So, a general all round class ship, is better at exploring, than a supposed explorer class ships? Hmmm
First off, CQC is not a joke, it is actually really good fun and I had some of the best times I had was in CQC. As I have said before, the problem with CQC is that players were not allowed to make lobbies, because FDev decided that meeting random people all the time, was a far better experience.
Not only did this make CQC a frustrating and annoying experience, but it also prevented the creation of leagues, cups and competitions. Which people would have loved to have been a part of. But no, not allowed to make lobbies to organise stuff.
It's like almost everything Fdev did in ED, they just had some really great idea, that were poorly thoughout, implemented and ultimately ended up shooting themselves in the foot. Madness.
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Been there mate, try keeping an old 110 fender going in -40 temperatures for a few years, it did so well we shipped it home!
Point is with general maintenance anything can survive, hell the camp had an old BSA bantam which ran better there than in blighty.
Nowt against any of your points, lots are valid, its just folks want different things out of a game.
O7
You're still just saying that there are things in Elite you don't like. You don't like exploration - OK. You don't like freedom to blaze your own trail - that's a bit weird to me; maybe there's an element of not liking other people having that freedom? But on the whole, there are things you don't like and other games may have things you do like. Fine, but all this is no more (or less) than personal preference.
Do the things you like and avoid the ones you don't like (that's part of the freedom Elite offers). Or even play a different game. All of this is perfectly valid gaming behaviour. Writing it up as an allegedly objective review with the built-in assumption that other players share your preferences, though, is a bit over-dramatic.
I'll take the X4 challenge
I enjoy both X4 and EDH, so one does not kill the other because each provides gameplay that the other lacks. When I'm playing Elite, I often wish it had X, Y, and Z features of X4. But when I play X4, I wish it had A, B, and C features of Elite. They are like two halves of the perfect space game, longing to come together. Now if somebody were to make that perfect ABCXYZ space game, then I think it would "kill" both Elite and X4, at least for me personally. Until then, I'll just keep rotating through my flavor of the month (EDH, X4, SE, etc).
BTW - I find EDH and X4 so similar that I've set up my controls to be almost identical, so when I'm flying in X4 it feels almost like flying in ED and vice-versa. I also play X4 as if it were ED, which IIRC is the exception rather than the rule. You could say that my love for one game complements my love for the other, and vice-versa. Now if I had to pick one... I'd probably pick X4, but I think that's likely due to it being newer to me (less hours played, less gameplay experienced) rather than Elite than it being an objectively better game..
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"won't be"
Too late. Just say the "e" word and you'll trigger me.Don't mention the 'M' word you will have all the Doomers flocking here!
O7
I love the idea of blazing your own trail. Where have I said I didn't? I just want that blazing to be meaningful. The choices I make and the actions I take to have real consequences. Like if joined the Federation, there will be real in game consequences from the Alliance, the Imperial's and Independent systems. This may be in the form of buying products at high price in opposing faction systems, more expensive repair costs, outright refusing to allow you to dock on stations. Alliance engineers for example, would tell a Federation aligned to player to sod off. Each faction would specialise in certain area's regarding engineering.
Then if you get fed up playing for the Federation, you can go to a fixer so can work your way into the Alliance or someone else. This is without consequence, once the Federation figures out you have been working against them. Thus the consequences of the choices and actions kick in, start to kick in. They see you as traitor, stations shun you... In some systems they may actively be hostile against you, especially in military systems.
That is more akin to blazing your own trail, not jumping from job to job at willy-nilly, with zero consequences or thought.
I love mining, can't do it though, why? Because of the frustrating game mechanics that spawns random pirates into your instance for no reason no logical reason other than sloppy and poorly thought-out development.
You know my views on X4, game was riddled with bugs AND unplayable at launch (& I don't use the unplayable word often), made EDO look like a 100% bug free launchI'll take the X4 challenge
I enjoy both X4 and EDH, so one does not kill the other because each provides gameplay that the other lacks. When I'm playing Elite, I often wish it had X, Y, and Z features of X4. But when I play X4, I wish it had A, B, and C features of Elite. They are like two halves of the perfect space game, longing to come together. Now if somebody were to make that perfect ABCXYZ space game, then I think it would "kill" both Elite and X4, at least for me personally. Until then, I'll just keep rotating through my flavor of the month (EDH, X4, SE, etc).
BTW - I find EDH and X4 so similar that I've set up my controls to be almost identical, so when I'm flying in X4 it feels almost like flying in ED and vice-versa. I also play X4 as if it were ED, which IIRC is the exception rather than the rule. You could say that my love for one game complements my love for the other, and vice-versa. Now if I had to pick one... I'd probably pick X4, but I think that's likely due to it being newer to me (less hours played, less gameplay experienced) than Elite than it being an objectively better game..
Not touched X4 since
.You're coasting the abyss so many fell into when dreaming about the everything game and giving their money to Scam Citizen. There is no everything game and the good game designers know this and design their games accordingly with a focus. Focus on a strength yields a better game than a number of tier 0 features that won't ever work out together.I'll take the X4 challenge
I enjoy both X4 and EDH, so one does not kill the other because each provides gameplay that the other lacks. When I'm playing Elite, I often wish it had X, Y, and Z features of X4. But when I play X4, I wish it had A, B, and C features of Elite. They are like two halves of the perfect space game, longing to come together. Now if somebody were to make that perfect ABCXYZ space game, then I think it would "kill" both Elite and X4, at least for me personally. Until then, I'll just keep rotating through my flavor of the month (EDH, X4, SE, etc).
BTW - I find EDH and X4 so similar that I've set up my controls to be almost identical, so when I'm flying in X4 it feels almost like flying in ED and vice-versa. I also play X4 as if it were ED, which IIRC is the exception rather than the rule. You could say that my love for one game complements my love for the other, and vice-versa. Now if I had to pick one... I'd probably pick X4, but I think that's likely due to it being newer to me (less hours played, less gameplay experienced) than Elite than it being an objectively better game..
Experience sours games. ED did that for me. And they keep telling me it's better today. But I've still had it with the crap. So I don't assume I can sway you to look at X4 again. I came late to it and it's been ironed out quite a lot, but I know how it is.You know my views on X4, game was riddled with bugs AND unplayable at launch (& I don't use the unplayable word often), made EDO look like a 100% bug free launch
Not touched X4 since
I am all up for having my opinion changed. The problem is, it's very hard to come up with logical arguments when you have very little to work with.
And the thing is, I want the game to be better, I want the player experience to deeper and more meaningful. I want to feel the lore in game. I want to be verbally abused by Imperial stations as I rock up in ma Fed Corvette shaking its fat backside as it struts it's stuff through the letter box, showing of it's metaphorical finger.
I just don't understand, why people don't want this kind of depth.
I just want to actually blaze my trail in the Elite Universe and not some shallow look alike, that is ill thought out, where the only lore you feel is in staged events and galnet.
I actually do not want an everything game (stop putting words in my mouth), otherwise I would have bought Odyssey by now. I'd be totally happy with a game that takes Elite's Stellar Forge and aspects of its flight model and merged it with X4's persistent NPC-driven economy and aspects of its flight model, "space legs", and interiors. In fact, most of my dissatisfaction with EDH is not what it doesn't have, but rather the half-baked implementations of what it already has. If anything, I'm dismayed that Frontier is copying Star Citizen's feature bloat (Odyssey) rather than focusing on improving game mechanics already in Elite.
Or conversely, X4 could implement ED's dynamic solar systems (I don't need 400 billion solar systems, just a few accurate ones in motion) and better pilot AI and graphics, and that too would scratch my itch. Not that I'm expecting this, due to the processing requirements, but a man can dream.
If I wanted an "everything game", I would be talking about No Man's Sky, Space Engineers, Kerbal Space Program, etc.
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