TL-DR - net positive, two steps forward, one step back = 1 good step forward net gain. So good. But.....why, why, why FD - can you never seemingly deliver two strong steps forward with no regression?
Huge caveat #1 - returning player who played most of season 1 since bit after official launch (but not beta or kickstarter or anyting that early); took break and just returned with zero expectations, so on one hand no anticipated hype to be disappointed by; on other hand, fairly clueless other than extremely brief googling before returning to game what all is in, out, changed, etc since 1.5 - so in some ways, unbiased, in other ways, clueless - since no doubt I will be missing some valuable context if I knew the entire situation.
1- Briefly read historical outcries, then joy, of FD posting few days ago re: all NPCs re-tuned by server side patch to no longer have engineer modifications (which most player base does not have or only beginning stages vs NPC high end). Engineer 2.1 wasn't reason I came back, just got urge like we all do to put game down for awhile, now back into it - but this tidbit was one of the highlight enticements that made me pull trigger on coming back now vs later.
My xp so far is no whining, complaints, etc - I got beat fair and square, but oh man - if this is the de-tuned without engineer mods NPCs, I can see why some people were complaining. I got interdicted couple times, like to think used to be decent interdiction beater but just couldn't beat interdiction in my A rated Asp or Python, and soon as I got dropped out of SC, ~2 sec to have shields fully stripped and half hull damage to start the actual fight, as that ~2 sec was just the usual spinning out of SC from interdiction time. Then boom, dead, staring intensely at insurance rebuy screen.
On one hand, first instant impression is bizarre joy that NPC contests now actually matter. On other hand, not sure what feats of flying or Red Baron skill would or could have avoided the insta-deaths I've suffered.
2- Horizons landings pretty cool, Horizons mechanics fairly non-intuitive in some things
Deliberately avoided most Horizons planet landing info other than briefest of guides so I'd know what orbital cruise vs glide vs SC was, so that I could enjoy the new exploration and learn as I go.
My xp so far - really digging it; some really non-intuitive stuff which only after I learned how I looked up, and found the looking up was 100x faster (e.g. incredibly non intuitive how you find, scan, need to target, then scoop materials blasted off of rocks). Because I wanted to learn as I went, I nearly ran out of fuel before finding stumbling over how to refuel SRV which I naturally thought was as easy as just dock with ship again.
So kudos on overall planetary landings, really big question mark why the heck SRVs can't be refueled on ships (without the mining of SRV refuel materials). In hindsight googling, apparently there was a vocal player base who wanted refueling to be very manual. Won't name them but will just say if true, big boo and thumbs down to this org that I formerly admired for hampering players just to get their role play kicks off.
3- Elite Engineers vs Elite Grind -
really can't comment on grind as obviously just started on engineers specific stuff. But one and only comment I can and will say at this point is, even just 2 hours in, I can tell storage is going to be an issue later on. Nowhere close to it now for me yet - but in say a few weeks or month when I've got ~80 hours of play into 2.1? Yea, I get why some players are citing the blocked from switching from bigger to smaller cargo ship (or specialty combat ships with no cargo at all).
As a clueless re-joiner to v2.1 who didn't know better, when I saw the 0 weight planetary materials (which came before Engineers with Horizons), I just assumed the Engineers stuff would also be 0 weight. Sure, maybe 600 might be a low storage limit, but at least it is 0 weight and xfers with ship to ship swaps - but then I started noticing my on-board cargo tonnage being used up - and thought uh oh...
4-Better graphics? What better graphics?
Read brief comments re: much better graphics - maybe it is for lower resolutions but so far, on my usual pre-2.1 ultra setting, and now back playing in post 2.1, I really can't see any improvement to graphics at all. Meaning I thought it looked nice before, looks like now, don't see what googled comments about much better graphics may refer to as it seems the same.
So not saying graphics are bad in any way at all; just don't understand why as many historical reviews I lookup comment on the better graphics. Although to be fair most these reviews are from 'professional' reviewers and I've long since learned to take their reviews with huge grain of salt.
5-The Cobra Mk IV reversal
New ships - none tried so can't compare, but will say one big red thumb down to FD for doing what is their complete LEGAL right, but imo not the right customer centric thing to do - e.g. change their terms and conditions after publicly stating and having players like me make decisions to take break from game based on their assurance.
e.g. when I left, it was very explicitly stated that anyone who had been season 1 owner and then later bought Horizons would qualify for the Cobra Mk IV. Good ship, bad ship, doesn't matter - it is a unique ship, I would like it for my collection, and based my decision to take break from ED for awhile without pre-buying Horizons because the advertisement specifically gave example at the time that you could own Season 1, come back later and buy Horizons and NOT get the pre-order discount because that was only for a limited time, but that Cobra Mk IV was not for limited time at all - they even gave a use case in the post from customer service I saw that said explicitly if you started as season 1 owner, whenever you bought Horizons later on, you would not get the monetary pre-order discount obviously but you would get the Cobra Mk IV access rights.
I have now researched historical posts and found they changed that term after I left. Which I completely concede is their legal right to do - companies do that all the time, and have baked in clauses which not only allows changes anytime but pre-states all prior terms are made null and void by whatever new terms they want to impose. Any small print on standard software license purchase has this, so not calling FD out on what is their clear right to do.
What I am calling out as a big red thumbs down is the customer service and relations aspect of it. They guided players to make purchase decisions based on one term, then changed it. That is their legal right, but it doesn't make it the morally right thing to do.
6- New game play effects - the UA bombings or whatever they are officially called - gotta say, so far I am not digging it. I appreciate it - because it opens new scenarios to the game, sure. And while I don't believe mostly in the negative aspersion some say of mile wide, inch deep - more content in any fashion is always going to be good for ED. So making galnet updates matter more, paying attention to changing states of some ports, ok- those are good things.
But personally I dislike the current effects of these UA bombings due to the arbitrary nature - e.g. players can bomb a port, like 109 Piscium, but FD decides based on internal arbitration whether it will be disabled or not.
I'd rather no port be disabled, but if they are going to do so - then it should be highly predictable, not based on arbitrary whim of FD which ports are 'too big to fail' and which are ok to off whatever minor faction of players will be put out by losing access to that port's services. I am not desiring for critically important ports like Lembava and Diaguandri to both be taken offline, I am just saying it is too arbitrary if the state of the universe being bombed or not is based on an FD decision each time - either let players actually take control of the changing state of the game universe, or don't.
Overall - despite a ton of negative reviews I googled in the almost exactly 20 minutes I spent browsing while my steam installation was being reinstalled, I think state of ED is much more positive and richer in content / beneficial changes than when I left. So two thumbs up. But very much in line with my prior experience of ED before I left - it is always, always it seems - FD can never just make 2 steps forward. Period.
It is always seemingly - 2 steps forward, 1 step back. So I am still waiting for the day we have a reasonably significant update where it is even just 1 step forward - no negative at all, how refreshing. Or even better, two steps forward - awesome, no catches or undesired side effects.
Huge caveat #1 - returning player who played most of season 1 since bit after official launch (but not beta or kickstarter or anyting that early); took break and just returned with zero expectations, so on one hand no anticipated hype to be disappointed by; on other hand, fairly clueless other than extremely brief googling before returning to game what all is in, out, changed, etc since 1.5 - so in some ways, unbiased, in other ways, clueless - since no doubt I will be missing some valuable context if I knew the entire situation.
1- Briefly read historical outcries, then joy, of FD posting few days ago re: all NPCs re-tuned by server side patch to no longer have engineer modifications (which most player base does not have or only beginning stages vs NPC high end). Engineer 2.1 wasn't reason I came back, just got urge like we all do to put game down for awhile, now back into it - but this tidbit was one of the highlight enticements that made me pull trigger on coming back now vs later.
My xp so far is no whining, complaints, etc - I got beat fair and square, but oh man - if this is the de-tuned without engineer mods NPCs, I can see why some people were complaining. I got interdicted couple times, like to think used to be decent interdiction beater but just couldn't beat interdiction in my A rated Asp or Python, and soon as I got dropped out of SC, ~2 sec to have shields fully stripped and half hull damage to start the actual fight, as that ~2 sec was just the usual spinning out of SC from interdiction time. Then boom, dead, staring intensely at insurance rebuy screen.
On one hand, first instant impression is bizarre joy that NPC contests now actually matter. On other hand, not sure what feats of flying or Red Baron skill would or could have avoided the insta-deaths I've suffered.
2- Horizons landings pretty cool, Horizons mechanics fairly non-intuitive in some things
Deliberately avoided most Horizons planet landing info other than briefest of guides so I'd know what orbital cruise vs glide vs SC was, so that I could enjoy the new exploration and learn as I go.
My xp so far - really digging it; some really non-intuitive stuff which only after I learned how I looked up, and found the looking up was 100x faster (e.g. incredibly non intuitive how you find, scan, need to target, then scoop materials blasted off of rocks). Because I wanted to learn as I went, I nearly ran out of fuel before finding stumbling over how to refuel SRV which I naturally thought was as easy as just dock with ship again.
So kudos on overall planetary landings, really big question mark why the heck SRVs can't be refueled on ships (without the mining of SRV refuel materials). In hindsight googling, apparently there was a vocal player base who wanted refueling to be very manual. Won't name them but will just say if true, big boo and thumbs down to this org that I formerly admired for hampering players just to get their role play kicks off.
3- Elite Engineers vs Elite Grind -
really can't comment on grind as obviously just started on engineers specific stuff. But one and only comment I can and will say at this point is, even just 2 hours in, I can tell storage is going to be an issue later on. Nowhere close to it now for me yet - but in say a few weeks or month when I've got ~80 hours of play into 2.1? Yea, I get why some players are citing the blocked from switching from bigger to smaller cargo ship (or specialty combat ships with no cargo at all).
As a clueless re-joiner to v2.1 who didn't know better, when I saw the 0 weight planetary materials (which came before Engineers with Horizons), I just assumed the Engineers stuff would also be 0 weight. Sure, maybe 600 might be a low storage limit, but at least it is 0 weight and xfers with ship to ship swaps - but then I started noticing my on-board cargo tonnage being used up - and thought uh oh...
4-Better graphics? What better graphics?
Read brief comments re: much better graphics - maybe it is for lower resolutions but so far, on my usual pre-2.1 ultra setting, and now back playing in post 2.1, I really can't see any improvement to graphics at all. Meaning I thought it looked nice before, looks like now, don't see what googled comments about much better graphics may refer to as it seems the same.
So not saying graphics are bad in any way at all; just don't understand why as many historical reviews I lookup comment on the better graphics. Although to be fair most these reviews are from 'professional' reviewers and I've long since learned to take their reviews with huge grain of salt.
5-The Cobra Mk IV reversal
New ships - none tried so can't compare, but will say one big red thumb down to FD for doing what is their complete LEGAL right, but imo not the right customer centric thing to do - e.g. change their terms and conditions after publicly stating and having players like me make decisions to take break from game based on their assurance.
e.g. when I left, it was very explicitly stated that anyone who had been season 1 owner and then later bought Horizons would qualify for the Cobra Mk IV. Good ship, bad ship, doesn't matter - it is a unique ship, I would like it for my collection, and based my decision to take break from ED for awhile without pre-buying Horizons because the advertisement specifically gave example at the time that you could own Season 1, come back later and buy Horizons and NOT get the pre-order discount because that was only for a limited time, but that Cobra Mk IV was not for limited time at all - they even gave a use case in the post from customer service I saw that said explicitly if you started as season 1 owner, whenever you bought Horizons later on, you would not get the monetary pre-order discount obviously but you would get the Cobra Mk IV access rights.
I have now researched historical posts and found they changed that term after I left. Which I completely concede is their legal right to do - companies do that all the time, and have baked in clauses which not only allows changes anytime but pre-states all prior terms are made null and void by whatever new terms they want to impose. Any small print on standard software license purchase has this, so not calling FD out on what is their clear right to do.
What I am calling out as a big red thumbs down is the customer service and relations aspect of it. They guided players to make purchase decisions based on one term, then changed it. That is their legal right, but it doesn't make it the morally right thing to do.
6- New game play effects - the UA bombings or whatever they are officially called - gotta say, so far I am not digging it. I appreciate it - because it opens new scenarios to the game, sure. And while I don't believe mostly in the negative aspersion some say of mile wide, inch deep - more content in any fashion is always going to be good for ED. So making galnet updates matter more, paying attention to changing states of some ports, ok- those are good things.
But personally I dislike the current effects of these UA bombings due to the arbitrary nature - e.g. players can bomb a port, like 109 Piscium, but FD decides based on internal arbitration whether it will be disabled or not.
I'd rather no port be disabled, but if they are going to do so - then it should be highly predictable, not based on arbitrary whim of FD which ports are 'too big to fail' and which are ok to off whatever minor faction of players will be put out by losing access to that port's services. I am not desiring for critically important ports like Lembava and Diaguandri to both be taken offline, I am just saying it is too arbitrary if the state of the universe being bombed or not is based on an FD decision each time - either let players actually take control of the changing state of the game universe, or don't.
Overall - despite a ton of negative reviews I googled in the almost exactly 20 minutes I spent browsing while my steam installation was being reinstalled, I think state of ED is much more positive and richer in content / beneficial changes than when I left. So two thumbs up. But very much in line with my prior experience of ED before I left - it is always, always it seems - FD can never just make 2 steps forward. Period.
It is always seemingly - 2 steps forward, 1 step back. So I am still waiting for the day we have a reasonably significant update where it is even just 1 step forward - no negative at all, how refreshing. Or even better, two steps forward - awesome, no catches or undesired side effects.
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