Elite / Frontier Which Elite do you prefer and why?

Since the 25th annivesary of Elite is upon us, I was wondering which versions of Elite (Elite, Elite+, Frontier, First Encounters) you all prefer and why.

For me it has to be the original. Maybe it's because I prefer the combat in that one (I always found FE2 and FFE too fiddly, I was never able to get used to it :(), but it's also likely that I have a soft spot for it because it was the first game that ever made me feel like I was part of a huge universe.

I think FE2 and FFE are fine games also, but I was never able to get into them the way I did with Elite, because I always seemed to spend more time dying than flying :rolleyes:
 
FE2 - 100% - Design wise, graphics wise and how much of my teenage life it swallowed wise it was superior in every way in my humble opinion. It was such a massive leap from Elite and it almost fulfilled every single expectation from my boyhood imaginings except for getting out of your ship.

It was brilliance.
 

Sir.Tj

The Moderator who shall not be Blamed....
Volunteer Moderator
FE2 - 100% - Design wise, graphics wise and how much of my teenage life it swallowed wise it was superior in every way in my humble opinion. It was such a massive leap from Elite and it almost fulfilled every single expectation from my boyhood imaginings except for getting out of your ship.

It was brilliance.


I get the feeling you may have voted for that one in the poll then Steve:D

FFE for me, FFE3D now :cool:
 
Since the 25th annivesary of Elite is upon us, I was wondering which versions of Elite (Elite, Elite+, Frontier, First Encounters) you all prefer and why.
More or less the tie between FE2 and FFE here. They are almost the same game when you think about it, except FE2 has clouds, better astronomy and better design, and FFE has journals, hand-coded missions, better AI, terrain and more stuff.

Both are unparalleled in terms of scope, scale and adherence to Newtonian mechanics plus realistic astronomy. Both can be really fun once you get used to the physics and start using it for your advantage in combat.

I think FE2 and FFE are fine games also, but I was never able to get into them the way I did with Elite, because I always seemed to spend more time dying than flying :rolleyes:
Will this help?
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Hi Peteuplink,

There was a poll a while back on here which asked exactly that.

http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=884

I wont tell you who won. :D

Oops! Guess I should have done a search before I asked... My bad :D

It does appear FFE is the most popular then. I'll have to dig it out and give it another try.

Now if only I can crack that combat :eek:

... adherence to Newtonian mechanics plus realistic astronomy. Both can be really fun once you get used to the physics and start using it for your advantage in combat.

I think the physics are part of the problem for me. Yes I like my games to be realistic and so on, and it probably is fun once you're used to it, but I'm not a huge fan of a steep learning curve, and so I never really got to appreciate FE2 and FFE because of it.

It's kinda like driving simulations. Some people like to drive with all the assists off, full damage, high AI opponents, a steering wheel, clutch, gear lever and so on. Others prefer the simpler approach. The beauty of this is if you aren't the living embodyment of the computer worlds equivalent of Ayrton Fangio Schumacher The Third, you can turn off some of the more difficult aspects of the driving to make it more fun and turn them on again once you get more used to it all. It's a bit of a shame that FE2 and FFE didn't have settings for how realistic you'd like the combat to be, so that people like me (who are completely hopeless at it) have at least a fighting chance.

DraQ, the link doesn't seem to be working.
 
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Sir.Tj

The Moderator who shall not be Blamed....
Volunteer Moderator
Have a play with the original FFE first, then have a go with FF3D which is on Steve's Russian Remake thread.
 
Oops! Guess I should have done a search before I asked... My bad :D

It does appear FFE is the most popular then. I'll have to dig it out and give it another try.

Now if only I can crack that combat :eek:
I would go with FE2 first, TBH. FFE will be extremely frustrating before you get the hang of it (and by "extremely frustrating" I mean "you will die before even noticing you were attacked"). On the other hand, physics is the same, so what you learn in FE2 you can use in FFE - you will still die a lot at the beginning, but you will at least have the feel of your craft. Also, regarding FFE - don't run the vanilla, at the very least use JJFFE.

I think the physics are part of the problem for me. Yes I like my games to be realistic and so on, and it probably is fun once you're used to it, but I'm not a huge fan of a steep learning curve, and so I never really got to appreciate FE2 and FFE because of it.
Except FE2 doesn't have anything resembling steep learning curve. With autopilot, flying to your destination is a matter of few mouse clicks, so you can proceed with the learning process at your own pace. Just fly near an asteroid, space station, Lynx, or an LRC, switch guidance to "engines off" (unfortunate misnomer as it merely abolishes all computer control of the ship's thrusters) as you would in deep space combat and try to manoeuvre around the object - chose some point, fly there, try to stop without resorting to computer guidance, experiment, etc. You should get the hang of it rather quickly - just remember that there is no friction or maximum speed in space. You'll have to brake as long as you have accelerated and your ship won't stop on it's own - the best way to stop is to turn in the opposite direction and give full burn on the main engine. Also, fire engines in short bursts only before you get the hang of it - in the immortal words of Florence Ambrose "If you know you've pushed off, you've pushed too hard" - it's very easy to panic when you're hurtling at several thousands km/h in a craft you don't know how to control.

You can use the FFE for basic flight training too, but I wouldn't go anything near it when it comes to actual space combat unless you can do Phekda run in starting Eagle LRF with closed eyes in FE2.

DraQ, the link doesn't seem to be working.
Argh, forgot to paste the damn thing! Should work now. :eek:
 
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Thanks DraQ. I'm actually messing about on FE2 as I type this. I'm just doing the Barnard Star - Sol run to make some cash. I'll experiment with manuevering while I'm playing and have a look at the site as well.

What I meant by "Steep learning curve" is not the navigation, that's easy, but the actual combat manuevering. I guess I'm just a fan of the original Elite/X-Wing/Freespace 2 style combat... it might not be realistic, but for me it's more fun. I realise it might not to be to everyones taste though. That's why I think games should always have a switch so they can be customised to what ever suits the individual.

It's again like the driving games analogy, it may not be realistic to hit a wall at 200mph and then drive away because you don't have damage turned on, but it keeps you in the game and stops you getting frustrated when things go wrong.

*Edit*
Pretty cool and intseresting website you linked me to, DraQ
 
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Thanks DraQ. I'm actually messing about on FE2 as I type this. I'm just doing the Barnard Star - Sol run to make some cash. I'll experiment with manuevering while I'm playing and have a look at the site as well.
You can also try buying some rubbish/radioactives, flying to an uninhabited system or the outskirts of an inhabited one and use the containers as learning aid.

What I meant by "Steep learning curve" is not the navigation, that's easy, but the actual combat manuevering. I guess I'm just a fan of the original Elite/X-Wing/Freespace 2 style combat... it might not be realistic, but for me it's more fun. I realise it might not to be to everyones taste though.
On the other hand, once you master the system, there is simply less fun to be had in "conventional" space-sims: the gameplay there simply consists of flying around small area of space and going "pew! pew!", while in Frontier or FFE there is simply much more than can happen - manual planetfalls in crippled ship, putting your ship in orbit, stripping everything, but drive, and laser to be able mount the cabins when you see particularly lucrative offer on the BBS, then navigating a pirate infested system with no automatics whatsoever, extreme velocity (>20000km/h) low altitude flight with military cameras strapped to your ship, fending off enemy fighters, then barely managing to make it over a cliff that suddenly springs up on the horizon, even combat is much more satisfying when you can turn around and nicely tan your pursuers while flying backwards. Hell, there was even the time when I flew around with beam laser and blew drives off enemy ships with short bursts. I also know a guy that once sent me a save where he managed to immobilize enemy fighter completely - you could fly around the helpless thing.
As a matter of fact I also know guys who were making competitions in FFE - one particularly memorable consisted of the challenge to make as close fly-by as possible near Sirius B - the winner literally skimmed the star's outer layers, the sky outside the ship turned brilliant white for a moment - mind you, he had to do it at tremendous velocity to simply avoid getting pulled into the star - white dwarves have really harsh gravity near surface. The sandbox potential is simply limitless.


It's again like the driving games analogy, it may not be realistic to hit a wall at 200mph and then drive away because you don't have damage turned on, but it keeps you in the game and stops you getting frustrated when things go wrong.
The analogy is spot on, especially in that simple and easy games simply easily bore you after relatively short while.
There is simple too little to do.

It's always the same story as when playing with godmode - there is not much fun to be had and not much motivation to play well.

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*Edit*
Pretty cool and intseresting website you linked me to, DraQ
Well, it helped me become a good pilot, so I guess it will help you as well. Good luck!
 
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for me it would have to be fe2 mainly because it was the one i grew up with. cant get in to ffe, although i'd love to because the extra features really appeal to me but i just cant. damn childhood!
 
Eh, one more thing regarding the website - it's good and very useful as learning aid, but don't treat it as some sort of revealed truth - for example, I often use pulse lasers (5MW or 30MW) for great effect, they make excellent "sniper" weapons and allow you to manoeuvre freely between the shots, the downside being the fact they require very precise aiming.
 
well for me it was Frontier, had that on the Amiga back in the day. I also had Elite on the Electron and although fantasic for its time (and certainly the best Electron game there was IMO) it was probably the weakest version of the game given the limitations of the 32k ram !!!

i missed FFE 1st time around and am now enjoying it on FFED3D

so definately Frontier - hours and hours spent on it, put it this way for a few months in 1994 i saved a few quid by not going to the pub so much:eek:
 

Sir.Tj

The Moderator who shall not be Blamed....
Volunteer Moderator
I preferred the original, it was the game that got me into gaming. And had a simplicity that the later versions detracted from.

Michael

Should you be saying that Michael???
 
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