General / Off-Topic [Veterans] Share your experience!

[LuxAeterna]

Thanks to everyone for your responses! This question came about after a forum user posted about the way exploration used to be "back in the day" (Again, thank you, if you're reading!) before the discovery scanner. It was an interesting enough post that I'm willing to try the old way of exploring and might be back in-game soon for some old skool exploration.
I got to thinking maybe the veterans could reminisce a bit and share the early days of Elite with us noobs. So, please continue sharing! I find the info very interesting and maybe other will as well.

[Edit] Obsidian Ant did a Alpha & Beta "Looking back" video today coincidentally. [haha]
[video=youtube;qmXEyV4Zmq8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmXEyV4Zmq8[/video]

 

[lysan]

I've been playing since the alpha and I think some of the things I was really impressed with that later evolved would be:

1) Heat management used as a stealth mechanic. I remember this was a big deal way back when. It was really cool to go all 'silent running' and see your cockpit ice up. Of course it's still a mechanic, but it really isn't used like I thought it would be. Missions like that one in the tutorial where you had to use it to sneak past some NPCs suggested gameplay that really isn't there. Which brings me to...

2) The tutorials. These are still, to this day, FD's best storytelling in Elite Dangerous. There was a small arc, but it was there. You felt the stakes. Nothing since has matched that....not all the GalNet news or Community Goals. Before the game launched we had these tutorials to play, and I really thought this was just a taste of some really epic storytelling. I was wrong on that one.

3) The economy. As Chris pointed out, the economy was a lot different back in the day. Payouts were small and ships were expensive. I'm not saying it evolved in a negative direction, but things are certainly different now that earning millions right out of the gate is common. It does change the feel of the game.

4) The community. There used to be a lot more optimism and positivism. I think offline-gate was the death knell for that. It really splintered the community. Of course after we all got the game in our hands and we actually had something concrete to debate on the forum a lot of that wide-eyed optimism evaporated. Whereas before the biggest arguments were about how we envisioned the game to be when it came out, now it was whether or not it was actually any good, or whether and how it should change. Those arguments have a tendency to create a lot more drama than just blind theorycrafting.

I agree with a lot of what you're saying here mate, I don't want to sound like an old grumpy man, there are many things in ED that is just awesome, still to this very day, it's just some of the content they actually said they would make still is not in the game, and to me that is sad, because I just didn't want to play the game anymore.

 

[Jaiotu]

I absolutely loved how brutal the game used to be when it was in beta and after the initial launch. Gaining a bounty in any Federation/Alliance/Empire system resulted in you becoming wanted in EVERY system belonging to that superpower. It was very easy to find yourself an exile forced to head out toward the Frontier to eke out a living in the mostly independent worlds along civilization's fringe. Unfortunately ... people complained and galactic law and order was reduced to something much less dynamic and much more boring.

The best thing about the early days of Elite: Dangerous was the possibilities. We didn't know just how empty the galaxy was so when we first went out exploring there was always the possibility of discovering something truly unique like abandoned space stations, derelict spacecraft or maybe even the remnants of some long extinct civilization.

 

[Jaiotu]

I agree with a lot of what you're saying here mate, I don't want to sound like an old grumpy man, there are many things in ED that is just awesome, still to this very day, it's just some of the content they actually said they would make still is not in the game, and to me that is sad, because I just didn't want to play the game anymore.

I haven't actually played the game in months ... but to be fair I played for hours every single day for over two years. I don't think it is the lack of content that keeps me from wanting to play ... I think it is simply burnout. I still love Elite and look forward to coming back ... but maybe not until all of my kids are in college and I don't feel like I'm robbing them of my time. I figure two more years and maybe Elite will have enough new content to make the game feel fresh again.

 

[Eriseley]

As much as we've all faced disappointments with this game...it's still my fave game over NMS for example, and I like you chaps. So I guess it's home.