Why I prefer ED over NMS

[Backer42]

That all makes sense. NMS is like Mario Kart and Elite is like Gran Turismo. One is more realistic (but not fully), one is more pick up and play. Both similar in scope but different, both complement each other and not really rivals.

Both games go for the same audience and feature similar gameplay options. Some details are different and the art style is too. The latter is to be expected, you don't want to get sued for cloning a competitor's product.

But if a game is really fun, "immersible" and fully of fidelity, one usually doesn't create threads ensuring oneself, why one prefers it over "this other game".

We will see the same entertaining theorycrafting, when Rebel Galaxy Outlaw is out and Star Citizens are going to explain all day long, how it is totally not inspired by Freelancer / Privateer and the original Kickstarter concept of SC. Will be fun to watch.

 

[cpbtrading]

ED is not on consoles?

Its on xbox, well I think it is. :S

 

[Backer42]

Its on xbox, well I think it is. :S

It's also on PS4.

 

[Buio]

I bought NMS after the recent resurgence, but I regret the buy. I found it very boring after a few hours play and also have extremely poor m/kb controls. Wonder how bad it must have been at launch. It is just my opinion though.

 

[Henkka77]

ED is not on consoles?

Of course it is, but Osiris and Empyrion isnt.

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

Diamond in the ruff you say:


Now get back to NMS!

I am considering to buy an Adder, paint it black and name it Edmund.

 

[Zak Gordon]

ED is not on consoles?

Yeah Old Duck was saying for console gamers they only have ED to compare to NMS, as there are no other sandbox space games on consoles. So that is why they are being compared by some ED/NMS players, it's the only reference for comparison they have.

For me BOTH games suffer negatively due to their games design and the way they have been developed.

Elite Dangerous:

On the one hand you have ED that has this incredible realism in the flight model (comparatively speaking) and galaxy generation and LOTS of POTENTIAL to hang on those two pillars of success, but update after update basic issues that have been around since day one are still not addressed while all manner of other stuff (often not well rounded or fully developed as a design) is piled on top.

The result of that is an incredibly opaque gaming experience IF you have not been along for the ride, constantly, since the start. It gives ED an unnecessarily steep learning curve, that is mostly not related to the game simply being too hard or too complex, but just confusing. For myself the biggest 'crime' ED commits is not actually being a follow on from where the Elite series had got to, and compounding that with too many 'modern game' design flaws and a seeming inability of the devs to get the basics right when 'fixing' things and putting out updates. Once the dust of development has settled (as i value my gaming time) I hope we have a proper smash hit game that ED deserves to be

NMS:

For NMS there is some cross-over in the issues it has in relation to 'modern game' design issues. Here you have to understand that Hello Games had previously only produced Joe Danger and handheld versions of that, so in some respects 'modern game design' is exactly where they come from. They are also console game developers first, PC game developers second, and that shows in many parts of NMS. It IS a streamlined, more simple game than ED by orders of magnitude, but boy did they hit the procedural generation jackpot with their universe creation (for all it not being 'perfect').

Their vision and dream for NMS is their most amazing achievement (so far), to go from simple fun pure console game titles to deciding to create a virtual universe and allow players to seamlessly visit all planets in it, just crazy really.

The BIG ISSUE with NMS development is you can really tell they are often winging it along, adding features here as they think of them, adjusting others previous stuff, often seemingly without reason. They also add lots of bugs and break stuff as they go. NMS is a never static project and as a player you just can never really be sure where you are going to be next update, everything broken you spent so long building, or maybe just floating in space where your ship used to be on last save? Maybe that fantastic planet you set as your home is now terrible?

Do you know they still seem to use an alpha/beta file for their 'milestone' settings? I modded it because after playing 1.0 for only a dozen hours i could 'feel' the parameters for the milestones were way off, and they are STILL after years of development. The fact it took years for them to give us the ability to switch our torches on before 'night' so we could better explore dark caves, or what about not being able to fly low to the ground for years, or the flight model in general etc.

There are SO MANY modern game design issues all over the game it is not funny, but as a game no other gives that good a feeling to exploring alien worlds.

The ONLY saving grace NMS has for me (vs ED) is it can be modded, so i can fix the issues the devs have not got around to (or simply created themselves!). It is why i prefer to play NMS over ED, as i can create a game that makes more sense to me and with less annoyances getting in the way of my game fun.

---------------------

In short both games are very different even if they occupy our thoughts, and even if they both suffer from a similar kind of game design problems (more related to the 'age' of the developers/design team perhaps than technical issues). Both games are also, potentially, the best games out there in their genres. Potentially.

 

[cpbtrading]

The games aren't really comparable. However we can look at content..

Stations/bases: how many in ED ?, in NMS there are simply hundreds and probably soon, that number will shift into thousands of bases/stations (if it hasn't already), most all community made.

Planets: well we need not talk about the vast amount NMS have and the little ED has.. in comparison.

Ships/flight: Ed is better for ships and flight, but NMS have a nice choice of ships, that I feel, may become customisable in-game sooner rather than later and they won't be paid skins etc. But for space flight, I would go to other games anyway. I do however enjoy the point and push of most space game flight. But it doesn't fulfill much. ED & NMS are both point and push, just ED does it better. When it comes to feeling your ship, then really you have to move to other games for that.

Space: space is just not comparable, NMS is fantasy sci-fi, whereas ED tries to be realistic, well, near anyway. So it's a case of what type of space rocks your boat at the time. Both use skyboxes, so you can't win..

Space legs: enough said..[yesnod]

Character: NMS has a customisable character you can play with. ED... well..doesn't.

Scale: something I'm very curious about. In NMS we get a very good idea of scale. The player understands the planets are not full size in any way. But at least we get the scale feel on the planets we have in NMS, plus the bases, stations, caves, freighters, etc..
On the other hand in ED, I don't see that scale, it just looks odd in ED. Stations look false to me, the vehicles look like toys, so if you compare a ship docked, to one of those vehicles, well, it looks out and odd.
Planets are not full size in either game.. controversial:.. But 'I believe that'.. After using full size mod planets in Space Engineers. The planets in ED don't do it for me..

Water/underwater: enough said.

Landable planets: again, enough said.

Underground/caves/caverns etc: well, we see where this is going.

Atmophere & weather: ...........NMS...

Walking: ............NMS......

Building: ..........NMS.....

They are very different games and as said above, can't really be compared theme wise.. However content wise.. NMS wins hands down, for me, from the above quick assessment.


Now just to add...
Game-play.. How players feel for a game..
That is completely personal and will vary from player to player. It depends on what your looking for in a game.

Of course, if like me, you like space games.. Then play both and any other that rocks your boat. I do..


Edit: Hang on.. I forgot aliens, pirates plus terrible ai..

Well ED has aliens, we're yet to see, if they give them legs that is. Or maybe pic on card type of thing
Pirates, scourge of the universe.. Both games have pirates, either are fairly basic.
and that leads onto ai/npc's, both games have these, well ai at least. Both are basic ai really.

Creatures, which could be classed as alien of course.. Well.. NMS again, but they have basic routines. Plus the sentinels in NMS are fairly basic, just game fodder. But they are present.

 

[Siobhan]

but for all of ED's lack of depth it's still a deeper game than NMS, and far, far broader.

Funny you say that, because for all the comments we see about ED being "a mile wide and an inch deep", it's still the only thing in its class where depth is not measured in nanometres.

 

[cpbtrading]

Funny you say that, because for all the comments we see about ED being "a mile wide and an inch deep", it's still the only thing in its class where depth is not measured in nanometres.

In a sandbox type game.. The depth is usually left to the player to sort out. Its deep if your into it, its not if your not into it. Story wise, both games lack somewhat, but community makes up for that, for now at least.

But I play sandbox games because I can build my own story, which gives me the greatest depth I can get from a game. There are many games that give me that depth, not saying either of these can't, they can and do, in different ways.

 

[Dziondziak]

I was an original conductor on the NMS hype train. I got it on release date and played for hundreds of hours before I ever played ED. It was and is a great game. I really wish ED had landing on beautiful planets with life. This is what NMS has for me that ED doesnt.
I dont play NMS anymore, but I still play ED.
After all the planets I found, and all the things I saw in NMS, I really felt like id seen it all. There wasnt anything left to see that was worth going on anymore. There was no feeling that some big new cool thing could be discovered beyond the horizon. I didnt feel like an explorer. I just aimlessly traveled in the general direction of the light.
I think what really draws me in to ED is that the galaxy is technically finite, while at the same time being effectively infinite. When im 40Kly from the bubble, I feel like im on a journey far from home. I feel like im exploring and maybe that planet over there is the one that has something that nobody has seen before. Maybe ill be the guy that finds the generation ship out here. Maybe ill find the planet with crystal trees. You can believe in Raxxla or not (lets not make this thread about Raxxla) but the story itself is something that NMS doesnt have. I have a white whale to search for. I know that one day I will eventually go back home to the bubble.
In NMS I just feel like a nomad. I have no place to go back to. Nothing matters. Nothing to look for. No way to feel like I did something nobody else did that actually matters. I will see a somewhat different rock formation and some odd body parts put together.
It just feels like a fisher Price toy after ED

 

[cpbtrading]

I was an original conductor on the NMS hype train. I got it on release date and played for hundreds of hours before I ever played ED. It was and is a great game. I really wish ED had landing on beautiful planets with life. This is what NMS has for me that ED doesnt.
I dont play NMS anymore, but I still play ED.
After all the planets I found, and all the things I saw in NMS, I really felt like id seen it all. There wasnt anything left to see that was worth going on anymore. There was no feeling that some big new cool thing could be discovered beyond the horizon. I didnt feel like an explorer. I just aimlessly traveled in the general direction of the light.
I think what really draws me in to ED is that the galaxy is technically finite, while at the same time being effectively infinite. When im 40Kly from the bubble, I feel like im on a journey far from home. I feel like im exploring and maybe that planet over there is the one that has something that nobody has seen before. Maybe ill be the guy that finds the generation ship out here. Maybe ill find the planet with crystal trees. You can believe in Raxxla or not (lets not make this thread about Raxxla) but the story itself is something that NMS doesnt have. I have a white whale to search for. I know that one day I will eventually go back home to the bubble.
In NMS I just feel like a nomad. I have no place to go back to. Nothing matters. Nothing to look for. No way to feel like I did something nobody else did that actually matters. I will see a somewhat different rock formation and some odd body parts put together.
It just feels like a fisher Price toy after ED

I was watching NMS for, more or less the whole build-up to the game and had it preordered. However I don't get too involved with hype for any games really. That hype went far to far with NMS and many could see people were just putting their own game, the one that every player has residing in his/her head, onto NMS. That isn't the devs fault, yes HG did things wrong and didn't put a stop to the hype, no dev does really.
But no one should project their game (that head game) onto something that clearly won't deliver.

I expected pretty much what I got. A game set in the style I love for sci-fi, really great artwork plus exploration. I wasn't expecting anything else, well, I wasn't bothered about anything else.

I disagree on the planets, I have made, I don't know, haven't counted them, but many videos of NMS planets. I visited well over a thousand planets before the 'Next' reset and have started again after. The planets are very different now, possibly not noticed by anyone else other than the players that have played from the start and kept playing.
That has been a little disappointing for me, the style has shifted, but as I said in an earlier post. It's a sandbox game and I had got my own story running in the game. So the change didn't effect that story, even though I would still prefer the older style of NMS.

As for how they look and this, they all look alike thing.. Well that is usually said by people that didn't play for long. I have found a large diversity in planets. But lets be honest and clear.. Your going to get planets that look similar to others, what else could you expect. It happens in real life, a hill is a hill until you explore it, that is if you want to explore it..

 

[Dziondziak]

I disagree on the planets, I have made, I don't know, haven't counted them, but many videos of NMS planets. I visited well over a thousand planets before the 'Next' reset and have started again after. The planets are very diff
As for how they look and this, they all look alike thing.. Well that is usually said by people that didn't play for long. I have found a large diversity in planets. But lets be honest and clear.. Your going to get planets that look similar to others, what else could you expect. It happens in real life, a hill is a hill until you explore it, that is if you want to explore it..

I think your missing what I meant.
The terrain building is great in NMS. there are places I was at ages ago that I still remember. What im saying is, is that beyond that hill will be...another hill. There will never be a guardian ruin or brain tree. There will never be something that if I told you about it, you would travel for days to come see it.

 

[cpbtrading]

I think your missing what I meant.
The terrain building is great in NMS. there are places I was at ages ago that I still remember. What im saying is, is that beyond that hill will be...another hill. There will never be a guardian ruin or brain tree. There will never be something that if I told you about it, you would travel for days to come see it.

There are ruins, there is a story to those, but perhaps not the type you want to see/read. That is my point on the games being very personal to what each player expects. The story line in NMS is being progressed, even today I was on another planet doing 4 of 8 tasks. With what looks to be another alien race perhaps joining the game later, not sure.

That said, I'm not really into story lines, every story line will end at some point. My game ends when I no longer feel I can get the immersion I want from it. Could take a long time that, I've been playing the Arma series for nearly 20yrs. Evochron series is another I can get really immersed in, plus Space Engineers, ETS & 2, Rogue System, Frozen Synapse plus 2, now, ED and a few others. These are games that pull me in because of my imagination, not necessarily a story line.

I got what you meant, but it will inevitably be different from each players view. That is why these thread/topics are pointless really. direct comparisons are player decided.

 

[milligna]

They aren't pointless. It can be relatively harmless fun and hearing other people talk about stuff puts what YOU like in sharp relief and gives you new ways of thinking about said stuff.

I'm constantly wrong about things and make snap judgments, but I also have no problem revising my opinion about movies/tv/books/games/etc. It's great to read passionate appreciation of other stuff from folks, sometimes they do a terrific job and you find yourself wanting to take another look. When you find out you dismissed it hastily, it's far more entertaining to find something new to enjoy than to be right all the time.

 

[wrmiller]

I tried to play NMS yet again, a couple of weeks ago. After forgetting WHY I stopped playing this game all the other times...

Didn't last an hour. Lousy cartoon-like graphics, having to walk all over the darn place (stupid 'space legs'), lousy flight model for the ships, and no hotas support. Just to mention my main griefs, as their are many others.

I'm done.

I'll stick to ED, with all it's warts, when I want to play Space Pilot. When I want a better flight model, I'll fire up DCS.

 

[Old Duck]

There will never be something that if I told you about it, you would travel for days to come see it.

While I agree with most of what you've posted on this topic, I do think you are wrong about this specific claim. There is stuff in NMS that I am willing to travel to see - player bases. I follow a number of NMS-related Twitter accounts, and I've seen screenshots of some amazing and downright clever (and huge) bases in some exotic and beautiful locations, and someday I want to go visit these places and walk around and experience these bases first hand, and perhaps meet the "CMDRs" who built them!

 

[Dziondziak]

While I agree with most of what you've posted on this topic, I do think you are wrong about this specific claim. There is stuff in NMS that I am willing to travel to see - player bases. I follow a number of NMS-related Twitter accounts, and I've seen screenshots of some amazing and downright clever (and huge) bases in some exotic and beautiful locations, and someday I want to go visit these places and walk around and experience these bases first hand, and perhaps meet the "CMDRs" who built them!

I can appreciate that. I am a member of the NMS facebook group, and I never get tired of seeing the amazing screenshots. Its been great to watch the game evolve. The creations are amazing, but I find them amazing in the same way that I find Minecraft builds amazing. I personally wouldnt travel for days to see that, but Id travel for weeks to see salomes reach. To me, its all about exploring. There are some truly mind blowing vistas in this game. So much so that I think about jumping back in often. What it would really take to bring me back to the game is the hunt for something truly unique. Tell me there is one space whale that roams the galaxy. Tell me the Atlas home planet is out there somewhere. Stick earth in some random corner. With ED I can fool myself into thinking there is something im looking for. With NMS, I cant.