What can I do in the game at the time?

[TrinityDejavu]

A think most players would get bored with solo play very quickly and will play online open multi player

Play solo vs getting ganked and loosing everything. That's a fun choice.

Space is big, and a lonely feeling is appropriately part of that.

This is a game purchased for it's entertainment value. I don't want pocket lint simulator 2014, no matter how awesome the graphics have been improved over it's 8bit 1984 original.

Caveat Emptor. You should have read what you were getting into. In fact, if you think that what has been said means there are only 32 players 'on the map' then you should go and read the DDFs. Elite is a co-op game with a PVP element. It was never designed to be and never advertised as a PVP battle game.

Elite as it stands is a trading / shooting NPC's game with opt in PVP greifing and hard penalties for death. Put multiple players in one space and all they want to do is shoot each other.

Maybe the DDF's failed to take human nature into account and figured the players would all be reasonable upstanding people.

 

[flexy123]

I guess that's a "deal breaker" though

For anyone used to normal MMORPGs where a guild alone can have hundreds of people ONLINE and you can meet hundreds of people in a virtual world, YES IT IS.

Denial, anyone?

I personally do not think "max 32 players online" appealing, it's borderline deal-breaker for me. I will have to see how this works out in the game later on, if it really effects my experience of feeling to play "in an open world" with others. THEN AGAIN <--- and here is where the difference is. It is a space game which cannot be compared to a normal MMORPG. Traveling to other systems, trading etc. by default in such a game is a rather lonely matter so this limitation MIGHT still be tolerable for such a game.

 

[dumbo]

For anyone used to normal MMORPGs where a guild alone can have hundreds of people ONLINE and you can meet hundreds of people in a virtual world, YES IT IS.

A flight combat game is more comparable to 'world of tanks/warplanes/war thunder' than it is to 'world of warcraft'. There's very different limits on what is practical with current technology.

The rumoured 'walk around' expansion might have very different player limits, if you want to meet a lot of people (at the same time) that would be the place to do it.

 

[TrinityDejavu]

A flight combat game is more comparable to 'world of tanks/warplanes/war thunder' than it is to 'world of warcraft'. There's very different limits on what is practical with current technology.

See Planetside2.

 

[ZenSpider]

For anyone used to normal MMORPGs where a guild alone can have hundreds of people ONLINE and you can meet hundreds of people in a virtual world, YES IT IS.

Denial, anyone?

You can do that in ED. You just can't have them all in the same patch of space at the same time. Which tended not to happen in MMORPGs anyway.

I personally do not think "max 32 players online" appealing, it's borderline deal-breaker for me. I will have to see how this works out in the game later on, if it really effects my experience of feeling to play "in an open world" with others.

I haven't played much MMO in the last couple of years but I remember PVP raiding and once you got 30+ people all trying to fight at the same time the lag was immense. I remember waiting for a new piece of map to open up in LotRO and there were like 50+ players all on the same piece of riverbank. Servers crashed ofc.

THEN AGAIN <--- and here is where the difference is. It is a space game which cannot be compared to a normal MMORPG. Traveling to other systems, trading etc. by default in such a game is a rather lonely matter so this limitation MIGHT still be tolerable for such a game.

Indeed. Although I think people often overlook the fact that other MMOs effectively have similar limits because they aren't hard-coded or advertised.

 

[dumbo]

See Planetside2.

Kindof. PS2 doesn't have "any" real environment physics. It has collisions, but if you run into a wall, the wall just sits there and you take damage.

In world-of-tanks, you drive into a wall and the wall crushes under your tracks (and everyone else sees it happen). In BF4 you shoot a wall, and the wall falls down etc.

In ED, asteroids/moons/planets/space stations are all in motion. NPCs are flying around, firing, shooting missiles etc.

PS2 is still an absolutely brilliant game, but the model is very cleverly designed around the player count.

(it seems SC is rumoured to be looking at around 64-players per instance?)

 

[Mieli]

The 32 player limit is definitely a deal braker for me too. Unfortunately i already bought the standard beta, and i've begun to regret that.

I could live with it if I think of this game as a single player game. Then the game would need a whole lot more npc:s and even more different features, more to do around the galaxy, well it needs them anyway. Space stations inhabited by tens of thousands of people should be really a busy centers with lot of traffic of all kind. Passenger shuttles should be flying back and forth between the stations and huge passenger ships docked near the stations.

But i'm optimistic, maybe we get that ultimate space-sim some day, maybe its just not this one. I'll have to see how this beta will develop, though i'll keep my expectations lower..

 

[flexy123]

Space stations inhabited by tens of thousands of people should be really a busy centers with lot of traffic of all kind. Passenger shuttles should be flying back and forth between the stations and huge passenger ships docked near the stations.

But i'm optimistic, maybe we get that ultimate space-sim some day, maybe its just not this one. I'll have to see how this beta will develop, though i'll keep my expectations lower..

As far as I understand those are technical limitations. Chances are that we will get such things in the future. I mean the game is updated all the time, we're playing a Beta right now....

 

[Andromalius]

For anyone used to normal MMORPGs where a guild alone can have hundreds of people ONLINE and you can meet hundreds of people in a virtual world, YES IT IS.

Denial, anyone?
.

Why in the nine hells would you think people "used to playing MMOs" would only want to play MMOs ? I have played MMOs. (Too much of them, in fact). I also enjoy single player games and I enjoyed elite. And I'm so far enjoying ED.

 

[dumbo]

I could live with it if I think of this game as a single player game. Then the game would need a whole lot more npc:s and even more different features, more to do around the galaxy, well it needs them anyway. Space stations inhabited by tens of thousands of people should be really a busy centers with lot of traffic of all kind. Passenger shuttles should be flying back and forth between the stations and huge passenger ships docked near the stations.

In terms of NPCs:
- I assume the number (and types?) of NPC vessels would differ from system to system.
- there's no obvious reason that 'liners' couldn't/won't be added. The game already has 'battleship' things, and some stations seem to have arms for larger ships to dock.

The obvious limit to NPC numbers is the docking bay of the station, and the quirks/ineptitude of the beta docking AI/computer.

(I've seen far more ships in combat than I've seen around stations, so I don't think the limit is performance).

But i'm optimistic, maybe we get that ultimate space-sim some day, maybe its just not this one. I'll have to see how this beta will develop, though i'll keep my expectations lower..

Yep, don't set them too low though . I'd love to see passenger ships docked at a station with the cargo being unloaded by lots of little transports... (or a battleship with the munitions being loaded etc). Although, I'd rather not queue for half an hour whilst it all docks with the station...