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Concerns about Elite Go-Live after playing beta
chryses
Member UncommonPosts: 1,453
I realsie this game is in beta but I look at the expected go live date and my concerns in the game are still around:
- mouse and keyboard versus joystick/controller. I have a feeling that people may suffer or be at a disadvantage if they don't buy a joystick. Keyboard controls are slightly awkward especially in combat
- back ground and story/immersion. A space game without plenty of this ends up being pretty generic. Look at EVE and the resource that goes into making the story. I'm not sure they have the resource to make it a living universe
- I can't see it being launched this year unless they have a huge amount of code to release. It feels like a polished beta but certainly not near launch quality.
- Performance with my middle of the road gaming rig is pretty horrible. I have everything on low or turned off and I play the game in slow motion most of the time. For a game that requires precision landing and twitch combat this basically kills off the game for a player. Last night I raged quit after flying for 15 min to then lag and crash my landing.
I think the game has massive potential and they may pull the cat out of the bag and implement a whole heap of stuff but right now for me if they went live this year it would be detrimental to the game as it would sideline the vast majority of players unless they were hardcore space sim or elite fans.
(just an after thought, in today's world they already have automated flight patterns for aircraft and self parking cars etc. in a thousand years you would think they would be able to have space ships that dock themselves ??)
Comments
One of my big issues is how the supercruise exit is still very jarring and glitchy. I think the game's got a lot of things going for it otherwise, but I'll be quite impressed if they manage to make it feel like a finished product when they release later this year. Frontier seems a very efficient developer, but I have a hard time believing the game won't still feel at least a little Beta when it releases.
Agreed. Even if they have a ton of stuff to release in beta 3, it seems very unlikely they're going to have a game anywhere near release condition in the next few months.
I would much rather wait another 6/12 months than have a buggy, incomplete game launch which gets poorly received; there really isn't any way back from that.
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About the docking - I'd be slightly surprised if at some point they don't add autodocking of some sort. I don't know many people that have played that don't find it fairly tedious by the nth time.
DockIng computers have actually been in the game for a while now.
Ah, fair enough. Can't say I've played much recently
I don't see them pulling off a release this year. Beta 2 add ons introduced a laundry list of bugs. Beta 3 will introduce even more. With a target of b3 for later this month I have an expectation that many b2 bug fixes will be seen in the beta 3 code release.
On KB+M vs. hotas.....
I run KB+M. Always have. Never been able to adjust to the feel of joysticks. Done a fair share of pvp in beta 1 and held my own with keyboard. There were only a couple of times where I had my ass handed to me 1vs1 and I do not think it was due to the player on the other end running a hotas or being an ace joystick pilot.
Voice attack is almost a total must for combat and power distribution. I am still debating on the ir tracker or the DIY built ed tracker to add the extra visual advantage.
Also,
An aging rig can run elite fairly well. I have a 4 year old quad core hp that I shoved a gtx560ti and ssd into. It just barely runs smooth on highest settings in ED with a few slowdowns in heavy areas.
The game does have potential. major potential. And I agree. It may end up being too hazardous and hardcore as it sits to appeal to a anyone outside the space combat circles.
If the progression is done properly the masses will come. Getting better by improving your _playing skills_ is something that people don't get accustomed that easy especially if you are forced to buy HOTAS that range from 50€-600€. It took a long time before MOBAs for example started appealing to the masses but even in these games it's about character progression which resets in every match.
In my opinion the progression will hook players and it's up to frontier to create longetivity through new goals and careers. While keeping the game afloat for hardcore spacesimmers.
Clearly some people on here dont realise why people like Elite so much .. the old games never had a story it was about starting out with nothing and making your way in a massive universe..
The current version of Eltie: Dangerous has captured this perfectly. but they are adding more to this and yes it not ready for release at the moment but its one of the better alpha/beta games I have tested and I look forward to it being finished.
Because they are also crowd funded the release date is not set in stone they can decide to hold back if they need to and they will if the game is not ready.
I am not the type to slam a game but I did agree with this post. I am an old school gamer and I totally get the idea of making your own story and all that. Years ago I was praying for elite to be an mmo and I still have hope for it. With all good space games there is a strong back story, Pirates attacking you on courier missions, space ruins to explore and secret bases to attack but most importantly all great space games have sector control and/or space station building. All of that is what makes a player feel like they are building their own story.
Right now Elite Dangerous looks like it has the engine built but it's extremely generic. They may have a magic bullet but I would recommend they delay 6 months and build that content and mechanisms to allow players to build their universe. My biggest concern is that I am an Elite old school fanboy. I should be losing my nut over this game but the most I can do before logging off is one mission. Unfortunately I can't see the point...
The biggest threat I can see is Star Citizen. I watched a YouTube of their gameplay the other day and my mind was blown...and my mind hasn't been blown for a while.
You don't get it.. At some point in the future, you will get auto-docking for only 25.000 Ultra-Mega-Galaxy Points- which is 25 dollars and comes with a 500 points bonus.
Stages of a new mmo: 1) It's just beta. It still has plenty of time before release. 2) It just launched. Give it time. WoW wasn't built in a day. 3) We don't need you anyway. 4) F2P announced. 5)Huge influx of players. 6) Look how much has changed. 7) Cash shop is the only thing developed lately. 8) It has been a long journey and we thank everyone who was part of it. Shutting down in 3 months. (Courtesy of Robokapp.)
Unless you know what they have working in different development branches it's a bit premature to say they need to delay.
Story - https://www.gamereactor.eu/news/264244/Elite%3A+Dangerous+has+a+story+that+%22embraces+all+the+players%22/?cat=news
Background Simulation - https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6305
Nothing wrong with getting wooed by SC, I'm a backer myself. The point though, is that it's way off in the future. There are no clear details at this point (for the PU) and until the game actually arrives the only limitation is your imagination coupled with the high polygon demos that lets you fantasize about what might be rather than what is.
I would expect that having a joystick would be an advantage in a space flight sim, wouldn't it? If not, then you're probably doing it wrong. Sorry, I've played my fair share of space flight sims and if you don't have a joystick, you need to get one, especially if it's action combat.
Crazkanuk
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You can play E:D with M+KB but HOTAS is a lot better option.
Recommendation not a requirement. :j
I am playing the Elite Dangerous beta and really like it. It's beautiful and engaging. Lot's of potential and am anxious where this game goes. But I am having a serious problem with getting connected to the game. Not sure what it is but have ticketed it to their support and am still having problems. Log in to the game and launch it and get a loading screen that persists and the game does not launch. I gather that a significant number of peeps playing the ED beta are having connectivity issues like me or are having problems with the game just disconnecting. But the game is really good and in beta. Hope the connectivity issues are fixed.
I am playing the game with mouse/keyboard/joystick. I have an old Logitech Extreme joystick that I have had for years. Game works just fine for me using mouse/keyboard/ and this old joystick.
Just to answer some of your points (also to note that while I play in the beta I'm no where near as invested in the game as some people).
Mouse + Keyboard is fine if you rebind the keys, especially the A + D keys. I did that initially and it worked fine, although I do have a joystick now I probably wouldn't have bought one had I realised what the issue with the keyboard bindings was.
Story isn't really what Elite is about. Although I did find the test they did of the simulated conflict in the Eranin system to be interesting. E:D is primarily an open ended free roaming game without a by-the-rails story to guide you. It's not going to appeal to everyone because of that.
Release Date is an interesting topic and I'm not sure they can make it this year either as they still have 15+ ships to add plus all the other stuff promised. They seem to think they can, and I don't know at what stage their main build of the game is at so can't really naysay them without more information. Wait and see what happens.
Performance seems to be reasonable to me. I have a middle-of-the road PC which is over 2 years old now and it does 120 fps in space and drops to 60-75 fps in a station. What is your middle-of-the-road gaming rig?
Finally, this game is being made to appeal to elite / space sim players. It won't be the be all and end all of gaming, it's a niche market. They apparently have 100K players or more in the beta though, so there is a market out there for this type of game. I bought it because I enjoyed frontier and really I've got my monies worth out of it already in terms of entertainment and the game hasn't even released yet.
The Enlightened take things Lightly
You dont have to buy a 200 dollars joystick to play it efficent, I use a 20 dollar joystick and It works very good.
If it's not broken, you are not innovating.
I'm using thrustmaster X myself which costs 50$ or 50€. In my opinion it's a great set for E:D unless you are a hardcore space/flying simmer.
It will probably go live in 2014 but but but.... dont ask for immersive story. It wont be in game and its like that by a design. This game is trying to catter to a lot of tastes and if something is for everything it dont excell at anything. Imho this game will be mediocre in all aspects and being played by nostalgic 1984's that remember the original game. It will not be a revolution nor evolution. It will not change the genre. It will simply be original Elite in new graphics.
There is a link to Design Discussion Archive: https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CC4QFjAA&url=https://forums.frontier.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=36&ei=AnxBVNTjLYSQ7Abd54HABg&usg=AFQjCNGsg0Xv-my_6P9xQ8G01escnT9ERQ&sig2=fhyzSU2C29WcxaAl9Cs75A
FD listens to players. Thing is those current players are 40 year olds that seem to miss ol' Elite.
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They are doing a great job with this game, the flight controls are second to none. I've never had such experience playing a game. It really feels like i have total control over my ship, specially with flight assist off.
Problems and bugs are exptected since its a true beta and even still the game is amazing. They can deliver what they promissed, i believe so. They give so much attention to details, them devs and artists are talented for sure.
At last we are getting something different and good.
My biggest concern are two things
The game world is based on the estimated size of the Milky Way. So you will need to arrange with your friends in which neighbourhood of the 400 billion systems you're playing to avoid being spread too far.
To quote Douglas Adams:
If you find the Thargoid home systems you can probably find plenty of danger.
Just jumped into the latest beta and the good stuff is:
- Performance (for me anyway) has gone from unplayable to ok/playable. So it was nice to get around space faster than snail pace. I was/am hoping for Elite to be super fast since there is a lot of darkness in the world. station menu was a lot faster to.
- I can see improvements to graphics here and there and I 'think' warping was much easier
On the negative side I am an old Elite player and every other space sim for that matter and I really feel that if anyone should be buzzed it should be me. Some things that I still get turned off with:
- dog fights. I get into some good dog fights but it seems way too hard to kill anything. There seemed to be about 9 players hitting about 8 NPCs and even with multiple pilots hitting one ship I only saw one get blown up in 30 min. By the time it did my hands were tensed up and my vision blur/sickness started to seep in.
The issue is that you can take some time to get through shields but with a little running away the NPC can recharge shields and you start all over again. I would prefer if the shields went down they took some time to recover. I basically logged out after one fight as it was just too tedious.
- some posts have mentioned this but the world has been created but I find some core parts of the game UI like the universe map a complete pain in the arse and I get annoyed at how you need to navigate through it. EvE Online had a universe map that seemed so much easier to read and understand.
- Even a sandbox type game needs some content and even if its major war zones or areas that are player owned and are insta death if you try and go solo, the universe needs something. Jumpgate used to have an alien race that would invade a certain area on the map and would attack players mining etc. EvE has multiple factions and pirates attacking. The lore may be the one thing letting Elite down.
Overall I am still excited and really hopeful they get to make the game into something quite big. Right now though some of the frustrations I am facing are really forcing me away and that is a shame.
It really really is missing route plotting and auto jumps as was planned in the DDF.
They wanted you to pick a destination star and when you arrived at a new star the next jump point would be selected and your engines would spool up again to jump to the next destination. So jumping from star to star would be fast.
I hope they get that into this game !