Why i picked ED not SC

[MajorEpeen]

I backed SC at the minimum level with the most basic ship knowing full well that the more expensive ships will be attainable with in game cash with only a few days of gameplay. I did not feel the need to buy any of the more elaborate ships as in my own mind that would be bypassing gameplay. I am sure anyone who missed LTI will have the sense to insure their ship just like in EVE.

 

[HeavyGroovez]

Ive played a lot of both and they are both awesome.

If i feel like some deep space immersion and bounty hunting i boot up Elite.

If i want a more intense arcade style blast then i jump into Star Citizens Arena Commander and let rip.


Chris Roberts and David Braben are both visionaries and i am 100% confident that both games will revolutionise the space sim genre in their own way.

 

[Boff'in]

Personally I was Gleefully happy when Star Citizen was announced.

Chris Roberts, creator of my beloved Wing Commander series.
I'm let's face it, those things were epic, audacious and ambitious for their days and Roberts really knows how to create these convincing WW2 and modern jet fighter like worlds.

The problem is, that the cut-scene, fighter jock, and briefing room talk, wether it was hand-painted, or Full Motion Video (which really going of modern techniques is really precious and a delight to have real actors and real faces), is a world apart from what happens in the cockpit.

There is a disjoin between the tactics talked about in WC series from the cut-scene world and the combat in game.

It's like the world in Wing Commander is TOO luscious and rich for the game to deliver on in the cockpit.

And this is my analogy of Star Citizen, we got gorgeous space ship interiors, hangars, hot-tubs, and glorious promise, and all they have is an arena, and some by-the-by standard space shooter (from what I've seen).



I feel like Roberts has always been so focused on creating the cinematic, thrilling worlds and that is of such great importance to him, that he forgets to nail down the basics of a good game in a believable world.
(and I say this out of love the wing commander series )

And that's why I was even happier when Elite Dangerous was announced,

When Roberts says he's going to make and Epic universe I instinctively know there will be compromises in scale and detail and it will be in the flight-mechanics and combat that will suffer.

When Braben says he's going to make an universe, I know he'll deliver.

It feels like the two teams are attacking the same problems from different directions. (and good luck to both teams)

But Braben is dedicated to getting the gameplay down, before expanding the universe.
Getting the basics up and running

How the ships fly and handle, (nailed down)
How to trade (nailed down)
How to jump between systems (nailed down).
How to handle networked play, (nailed down).
just the fact we have a functioning stealth mechanic that works out of the box.

Granted it's still a beta and things need to be sorted.
but we' aren't getting short changed by investing in ED as the SC people have.


At least we have a game to play (but I think ED has a much larger team of developers behind it, than SC, which probably is the underdog here)

 

[zimboy69]

I got ED just because I had played the first and wanted that old feeling back

 

[Boff'in]

and that's sort of my thing.

In Elite, even back in the first game, it's all about the everyday person, creating and cutting out this life for yourself in this exciting universe.

But WingCommander has always been, you're hero in this action movie all about exciting space combat.

And there lies the philosophy in the Wing Commander / Freespace and all the other robert brother games, waves after waves after waves of "space combat".

With Star-Citizen we see this focus again, you can check out your sexy ship, now go and shoot in an arena for pointless points in a leaderboard.

Where is this exciting game they promised?

Elite Dangerous has effectively ALREADY delivered a modern day re-creation of the original Elite, and is equally (if not more so) more playable.

So when the other stuff comes online, fuel scooping from stars, gas-giants and planetary landings, and crews for the ship, that it's all there for a reason and purpose,
and not there because some space-action-movie-lore states it needs to be.

 

[Tar Stone]

The simple reason I chose Elite over Star Citizen is that I was hugely impressed when the ED gameplay videos finally started appearing on YouTube. The combat looked like the old Elite.

I have lost all interest in Star Citizen for the same reason - the gameplay videos started appearing on YouTube. It looks like a mess to me if I'm honest.

I think it's now clear that Star Citizen is showing pretty much all the signs of a troubled development, and I don't throw that out as a derogatory statement toward the CIG guys - it's certainly not suffering from a lack of talent or money.

I say all this as a sci-fi geek who played Spectrum 48k Elite for years and played Wing Commander to death on a 286 PC. There's no question I'd have bought both games but I think CIG have so far let down their fans, followers and funders.

 

[Boff'in]

I would have to agree.

I think they have not prioritised correctly.

Maybe it's to do with borrowing another engine, and trying to shoe-horn the open nature of a networked space game into that, and not creating an engine with those goals in mind from the beginning?


They'll get there, and one of the youtube clips I've seen since GDC is that they released yet another ship, patched an older one, but there is s feeling that they are on the move and that they'll see some major strides soon.

As I said earlier it feels lie the two teams are attacking the same problem from different directions.

Frontier are attacking from moving in space and working their way towards the people running round on space stations.

CIG went straight for the running round in hangars and capital ships, (First Person Shooter engine), and tag on a space shooter game ONTO that.

They'll probably meet up in the middle (hopefully).

Gut feeling says I'll think Star-citizen will win out in the first person nature and shine there
but Elite will shine with the MMO-Galaxy concept.
(as that's been their initial focus, and heart)

 

[Zetta]

I've recently backed SC at pretty much the lowest level. From what I understand insurance is basic and affordable. At this point I'm looking forward to Squadron 42 more than the persistent universe stuff, although 6DoF will be a nice addition in the next patch and could change things up quite nicely.
Elite is so different though, it perfectly replicates my mind's picture of space and I love it for that.

 

[Hamerstein]

The reason I chose ED over Star Citizen is that I found out about ED first.

I've wanted a proper personal spaceflight experience game for years. The last one that got close (if I discount Elite-clones like Oolite) was Freelancer. But even that wasn't big enough, particularly once you'd completed the single player campaign. I mucked about on a custom server (with great admin and players) for a few months, but my interest waned. Games like the X-series tried to fill the niche, and did after a fashion, but their depth lay in empire building not "one man and his spaceship". Eve I never touched, it was far too detached from the concept I wanted to appeal.

All that said, I'm not sure if I'd have immediately slapped cash on the table for the original Star Citizen KS. Squadron 42 while impressively marketed, probably wasn't a big enough hook for me to pay money for a concept. It appeared to me to be another Freelancer, impressive for what it was but not ambitious enough (ironic in hindsight ).

Preamble over. I found out about ED in November 2012, when a friend posted a link to the KS on Facebook.

I nearly lost it, Braben was doing Elite IV!

I knew instantly that what he proposed was what I'd been waiting for and by the end of the KS (which from a community stand-point was amazing) I'd slapped down far more cash than I ever have on a computer game, that hadn't even been made yet!

I've no regrets, I'm sure at some point Star Citizen will appear but their approach to game development would have left me with serious concerns. For me to be happy they'd need to be delivering more product and less media hype. FD have approached ED in a manner that I'm comfortable with, I'm seeing (playing) product, they're remaining focused on what they promised initially, they're happy to entertain new ideas but have stayed firm that such would be expansion material and they want to deliver their core product first.

I'm a happy camper.

 

[Pro Gamer]

It's good for immersion.
SC is all about immersion...and money.

What people don't realize is there are $3000 ships SC players have bought... Just let that sink in.

 

[nats]

SC is certainly not going to be an open game like ED or Kerbal or GTA. I remember those awkward bars in Privateer and how I never felt I was playing the game I wanted to, but was being directed to play the game the developer wanted me to play. I enjoyed Wing Commander but not any of the other games really. Wing Commander fitted well with the single mission type format with a little bit of freedom in how you did the missions. But Privateer was just ... very small really. It felt like I was penned into a very limited capsule with a backdrop of a world/galaxy behind me.

I looked at Star Citizen with some interest for a few days and then Elite Dangerous was announced and I havent really looked at SC since. I hear the stories, see the massive amount of money they have, and even larger hill they have to climb, I remember Privateer and how I played it for like a few weeks then got bored

... and I go meh and come back to Elite Dangerous.

I will look at SC again when it is properly released and make a judgement.

 

[EAGLE 5]

I think in time Start Citizen will have some neat features stemming from its concepts but to jump into the endeavor at anything before final release is beyond foolish.

Yes I understand that they use those funds to push the game development but seriously though? How many games did Chris Roberts publish in his wing commander and privateer franchise? about a dozen or so and that was before and after Electronic Arts backing mind you... now how many has David "The Man" Braben? 3 Elite titles that's it.

I think it's about time their team starts producinig quantifiable results ore else they are very likely going to lose a few backers and quite more potential supporters all on the merit of their business model.

Personally I will eventially support Star Citizen but only after a final release. Their latest trailer showing what clearly was the Kilrathi logo on the radar screen of the capital ship screen makes me hope for more wing commander tie ins which is a franchise I love dearly and would like to see continue beyond the abrupt ending that was Prophecy.

That said, nothing though comes close to the enthusiasm that I have for Elite. This is a game that for years I cherished as being my favorite and that I avidly supported with each release no matter how flawed just because of the memory, the legacy, and its incredible vision.

In short.. Chris Roberts wrote some really great stories, David Braben threw the notepad and the pen at you and MADE YOU the storywriter and that is one thing that will always put Elite on top.


/End of line.

 

[Incandescence]

What really captured my heart

E has literally Infinite potential...its all up to the devs, the universe is already there (you can literally search for famous or not so famous star names and they are there, in the game e.g VY Canis Majoris) and thats frigging amazing, even though its all heavily instanced and once you do it all theres not much left to do...well there is..you just find activities...and when they disable the beta bubble..oh god..

This game has the potential to ...idk..divide by zero if it wants to..seriously

star citizen feels like a mega Hype train thats about to go off rails.
(but with 51m budget from fundraising... and its growing is just..wow time will tell...)

 

[Reject]

I don't really understand the "this vs that"-sentiment, unless of course you're low on money.

I have both ED and SC, and prefer them both. Like someone said; superficially they're similar, but in detail they seem to strive to be completely different games and occupy each their own space.

You choose to choose, when you dont have to choose...

 

[Patrick_68000]

May I politely request that you stop using the darker colours on the dark background?


You may

It is a furtive writing, with the control of the heat

 

[Fromhell]

funny to read the OP thread, full of misconception and overblown expectations about some future expansion for which not one line of code or a single pixel has been seen. Assumptions, assumptions everywhere.

I'm too lazy to explain LTI and how ridiculously meaningless the SC ship insurance topic really is, or when EDs 10000 gazillion lifelike procedural city planets will be magically generated out of thin air at no additional development cost, also don't really care as SC already has enough backers and doesn't need more.
In fact I'd prefer if a few thousands of them would just go away forever, especially the drama making ones who still don't grasp the basics of the project.

 

[MrShadowfax]

I don't really understand the "this vs that"-sentiment, unless of course you're low on money.

I've kept quiet on this thread so far, but wanted to comment on this.

Star Citizen is like a black hole at the moment (heck, always), absorbing all before it, in terms of both pledges AND hype. And, after spending $Ks on ships for SC, many SC backers are low on money right now. Not that that is the most important factor - in my opinion, as these are both MMOs, time is the key.

Like it or loathe it, Star Citizen and Elite: Dangerous are actually in direct competition for people's time and money (a point too few concede, because it's easier and more politic to take the "there's no competition stance).

 

[Tar Stone]

I don't really understand the "this vs that"-sentiment, unless of course you're low on money.

I understand it - a lot of people have put an awful lot of money into SC, that's the source of the 'this vs that' sentiment.

 

[Zenicetus]

I want both games to succeed, but I only have limited gaming time right now. Elite is much closer to my idea of a good cockpit-level space game, with greater potential for emergent gameplay.

My initial plan was to back both games when the entry price for Elite dropped to a similar level with the Standard Beta, but I realized that I have too many games as it is. I fly civilian X-Plane, my Rise of Flight biplanes are languishing in the hanger and looking sad, and I haven't even had time to check out the new IL-2 Battle of Stalingrad. I can only try to immerse myself in one space game right now, and EliteD touches all the bases for me. Braben & Co. have done a brilliant job in getting the cockpit feel right (in spite of the wonky flight model), and that's the core experience that everything else depends on.

On the SC side, I think I'll probably wait to see what Squadron 42 looks like when it's ready, because frankly the multiplayer angle they're going for just doesn't look that appealing to me. They just did a big presentation at a recent games con, and what they showed was 1) a hoop-racing mini game, 2) a canned 3rd person view of people running around a capital ship, and 3) a brief FPS shooter thing that looked like Mass Effect. It looked like three totally different games.

Being part of a capital ship crew was the only one that remotely appealed to me, and even then I'm not sure how well that will work if you're not in a guild with friends, just working with random players. I did my time in full MMO's like WoW and I think I've had enough of that, personally. I like the looser associations we can (apparently) form in Elite... the option to be a lone wolf smuggler, or explorer, and not be forced into typical MMO play styles.

Anyway, I still hope SC succeeds, but Elite is scratching the itch right now.

 

[Patrick_68000]

I did not choose ED ... ED imposed itself on me