Just because there's nothing to do doesn't mean it's a sandbox. You must have some kind of system in place to support sandbox gameplay. Unless you sit in your wookie suit with a helmet and listening to the Star Wars theme pumping in the background doing some heavy role-playing.
Its an awesome game and reminds me so much of playing the old games.. hopefully will get the wings/group system out soon and it will make it even better for people who want to play togeather.
From the photos it looks a lot like SWG - Jump to Lightspeed in terms of layout and open-ended sandbox'y space stuff. I'm hoping it's not really just a rehash of an expansion from 12 years ago to an MMO that's closed and offline now, but I'm not caring enough to try it so I guess I won't know for sure.
Personally,i would give the game a 7.5 score.But the important thing is that with proper development and expansion,this game could easily reach a 10 score,as a single player game or/and as an MMO.The solid foundation to do so is there and i wouldn't be surprised if in 1 year from now,we will be arguing if it is a 9.4 game,or a masterpiece 10.
Why do we, as players, continue to trash the long hard hours of work that people put into these games just to give us some enjoyment?
This is a gorgeous looking game. And from what I hear it does the space simulation part very well. If you are complaining that it is not that great from an MMO perspective, you are probably right. But it is what it is, and it has great potential in all of these areas. We have to give these games the chance to reach that potential and not just spread negative opinions, based on what it is, at this point.
Would love to play it, as my Logitech flight stick is just gathering dust at the moment. For me the lack of MMO features might just be a positive I think. If this isn't your game thats fine, but don't try to kill it because it is not your cup of tea, please.
What a waste that would be.
FFA Nonconsentual Full Loot PvP ...You know you want it!!
I don't know if I gave this game the chance it should have had, partly because I got distracted by DA:I. I've never really been into the Sci-Fi genre, but I wanted to give it a try. The concepts on paper were interesting, but I don't think the game really suited my tastes. Having gotten this game, I can tell that other similar games such as No Man's Sky and Star Citizen won't appeal to me either.
I've now read two reviews from two different sites and still know very little about this game..
What is the economy like?
--> Logical. Huge. Players in numbers can change governments via economical means.
What are the missions like?
--> At the moment .. simplistic text messages of the standard kind. You have to THINK before you accept ... or you will make horrible mistakes with serious consequences. Did I mention that players in numbers can change governments via missions ? **cough** Lugh system **cough**
Can you talk to NPC's?
--> Not really at this point. However, players in numbers can leave a message for a systems government .....;-)
Are there quests?
--> No storyline quests at the moment, but the daily news hint at hot spots and ongoing events like in Lugh could be considered a kind of simplistic quest.
What are the controls like?
--> In my case HOTAS joystick .. so .. very good ... you feel like piloting a space ship (as hardcore style as you choose).
I've now read two reviews from two different sites and still know very little about this game..
What is the economy like?
--> Logical. Huge. Players in numbers can change governments via economical means.
What are the missions like?
--> At the moment .. simplistic text messages of the standard kind. You have to THINK before you accept ... or you will make horrible mistakes with serious consequences. Did I mention that players in numbers can change governments via missions ? **cough** Lugh system **cough**
Can you talk to NPC's?
--> Not really at this point. However, players in numbers can leave a message for a systems government .....;-)
Are there quests?
--> No storyline quests at the moment, but the daily news hint at hot spots and ongoing events like in Lugh could be considered a kind of simplistic quest.
What are the controls like?
--> In my case HOTAS joystick .. so .. very good ... you feel like piloting a space ship (as hardcore style as you choose).
--> Have fun
etc.
Thanks. If I play singleplayer what influence do other players have on my game? Economy or otherwise? (I have no desire to play with other assholes)
Market prices and influence of certain political parties in systems change because of player trade and missioning. But you won't meet other players and certainly won't be killed by them in PvP.
Wow, MMORPG.com, shame on you. I would have expected an honest review from this site out of all sights, but nope, another site that utterly ignores the major flaws of this game. Shameful journalism.
For those who want to know the cons, here you go:
-A lack of a actual sandbox elements besides what players and reviewers claim. People and reviewers alike seem to think that the definition of a sandbox game is now any game that gives the gamer the option to do different activities without restricting them down a linear path. Being able to choose if you want to do trade-runs, explore, or do bounties doesn't make a "sandbox" game. Those are just exactly what they sound like: Choices.
That would be like saying that the Mass Effect series were sandbox games because they gave you dialogue choices that shaped the way events played out in the game. Elite doesn't give you the ability to build stations, it doesn't have territory wars shaping ingame politics and PvP, it doesn't have open world housing, it doesn't have crafting, and etc. Unless you are able to impact the game's world in a permanent way than I wouldn't consider Elite to be a sandbox.
-Online play tacked on solely for DRM purposes 4 weeks before the game was about to go live. There is no way that it was for any other reason besides DRM, even with the last second "it wasn't possible" excuse that the developer gave. I say this because despite it being an online game, there are no group functioning options, no structured multiplayer game types, no guilds/corps, hell there wasn't even a chatbar to talk to others when the game was first released (that is, if you even happened to have that rare occurrence that you actually came across another living soul).
You will most likely be playing alone for 95% of the game, besides the occasional bump-in of another player. And yet that 95% of that time will all be online, despite the developers past promises and discussion about DRM policies that led many to believe that the developers held anti-DRM values/beliefs.
-The game suffers from a lack of real progression. Sorry, but I don't view grinding for hours on end for new ships as actual progression, nor do I count the three awful faction rep grinds, that are literally a copy/paste of one another as actual progression. Also, a lot of what people confuse as progression, are actually goals they've set-up for themselves, such as grinding for a new ship.
-The "dynamic economy" is a joke, dictated by NPCs in an ONLINE game. If you're going to make a game online only, you'd think you would revolve the functions of the game around the players ability to interact and change how things work within the game, such as the economy. Really though, there is no interaction with other players when it comes to things like the economy, and it is all decided by the NPCs, making how trade-runs work pretty predictable, and honestly one of the most repetitive, mind-numbing, and boring features of Elite. To be brutally honest, I've never seen a space-sim with such a poorly implemented economy design.
-I realize I've stated this before, but I think it bears a repeat just because so many continue to falsely claim that Elite is a sandbox: There is zero crafting.
C'mon guys... you can do better than that! If you complain just a bit harder, I'm sure you can have the game shut down in no time!
Just the usual from the "this game has to be everything I want it to be...at launch...from a kickstarter...or else.... RAAAGGGGEEE!" crowd.
Personally, I have bit more vision than that. I think E:D has the potential to be one of the greats... if it survives this period. And I think it will.
The game is unfinished, boring in it's current state and certainly no full price title. Games of this depth and quality range around $12-$15.
But i don't know what I dislike more, the attitude of Frontier Design towards the paying customers or design and implementation catastrophe that the "game" is. There are many questionable and not really well working mechanics even in the basics, broken trade info, friendly fire problems, annoying KWS scanning, ...
For a game that requires me to be 24/7 online it also has the right amount of support (sarcasm off), quote: "Our offices will be closed from the 25th of december till 5th of January. ..." Actually none of my tickets were ever answered or worked upon and the time it took them to fix a server problem over the holidays shows that they don't care about their customers. Doesn't matter, i don't care about them too anymore.
Or take the "insurance fraud". Beta buyers who payed BPS 60 to get beta access were baited with 25% discount on ship insurance. Later they decided that was too much and tried to make that more like 1% applying the discount only on the hull, no other parts of the ship. Bait and Switch and not the only example. Not to mention other items that should have been delivered with the release version but still aren't. This company is not to be trusted and treats you like an idiot.
The game contains itself some questionable to borderline smart mechanics that can brighten up your day, among them one that makes you loose everything you have been working for. Thats same as telling a level 50 in an MMO that you are delevelled to 1 and have to grind back again. Another problem is the open PvP concept which leads to a lot of people not playing in open mode. If they had an appropriate open PvE mode it would be a lot better since most players prefer to play without psychopaths and rotten kids.
Not to mention the game was marketed as MMO (meanwhile they removed the hints about that from their store site) and contains practically no MMO features at all. No grouping, no guilds, no cooperative gameplay and sharing, no trading, no nothing. The only feature is a chat that is probably the worst chat i have ever seen in a multiplayer game since you often can't even answer someone who hails you friendly. So the only player to player interaction easy to achieve is killing each other. Congrats.
Now "wings" (groups) are on their priority list. Wouldn't that require a working chat first to make friends with whom you can group with? Or some gameplay that probably requires groups at all? I mean except ganker groups? The borderline smart design process and implementation continues in full swing as it appears to me and that won't change.
The only good thing are the fairly nice graphics of ships and planets which is quite a bit broken by the missing 3rd person view and the ugly "speed ladders" in supercruise mode which don't get switched off when switching of the formerly ugly orbit and gravitation lines.
3rd person view is not implemented because it is "immersion breaking" and might give you an advantage in combat, which i doubt since the radar is a lot more precise giving information about the opponent than a 3rd person view could ever be. So people keep buying highly overpriced paint jobs and can't even admire their ships. I seriously don't like how sub average devs try to limit players possibilities this way. Games like Euro Truck Simulator 2 or Microsoft Flight Simulator X are usually played 99% in cockpit view but offer a wide variation of 3rd person views for various reasons and never ever 1 person complained about that being "immersion breaking" or anything. It's a typical example where peanut paid devs + fanboys ruin a game cooperatively.
Could go on for hours about bugs not getting fixed, all trade information missleading and bugged and so on and so forth but thats enough for now.
you review on mmorpg.com and even put in a con as being most multiplayer aspects missing yet score it a 8.3? makes no sense what so ever - the game is a 6 -7 at best.
You also cant list a pro as content that may come in the future - the review should be on the game as it is not what it may or may not be
One of the worst reviews I have ever seen on this site to be honest.
a review on an MMO sites that rates a game with miserable to non-existant multiplayer features a 8.3 can´t be taken seriously.
2)
"Update schedule to expand ships & enhancements" is a pro? Seriously? So that score includes the promises for 2020 already? Cool, I´ll travel to the future and check out if they delivered, be right back.
3)
Visual 10 ? Which visuals? The space station they have pasted all over the universe and keep showing for half a year now? Wow. Amazing variety.
4)
Gameplay: Kill ten rats, buy, sell. Grind grind grind, rinse repeat. That get´s you an 8 in gameplay nowadays? Incredible.
Sorry, can´t agree with this review. My final score is 4/10 and that´s very generous
You actually played yet?
Basic Multiplayer features are you can see other players ships, you can kill other player's ships, you can steal from other players ships, you can chat with other players (Inc demanding your cargo or your life), you can pull other players out of supercruise, sure its not the most vast list of MP features ever but it hardly counts as no interaction, also given the nature of the economy players can and do effect the economy and outcome of event's.
As for update schedule 1st notable update coming in 1.1 (adding 900 light years to jump planner and some more social features to support next wings upgrade) which will be in by Feb, the wings update is coming in march, hardly a non-existent or ponderous update schedule.
3. - Visuals
You really only seen stations, you clearly need to get out of one, how about all the beautiful star's planet's, moons and planetoid's, ring's belt's and other out there, the ships aren't bad either, but the game world is lovely specially given the engine, the stations are wonderfully detailed even if you cant do much in them yet, and sure only half a dozen types or so, but irrelevant really the game's focus isn't in station sitting, and even this lends realism, mass produced station types seem much more likely to occur then every system getting its own unique one's.
The game allows 6(7 but one's not worth it) different path's atm, kill npc's is indeed one of them but your forgetting combat itself is fun especially if you have a hotas and can vary depending on what your facing given all the possible scenarios, you can do combat missions as well from stations as well as join in perm conflict sites or random scenarios for killing pirates in the combat category.
The second in this category is become a pirate pulling player's and npc's out of supercruise, scanning players near stations for juicy cargo then following them using a jump wake scanner to their next system, then pulling them out before they reach their destination is all possible, and ransoming them, enter random loc's and kill players, loot mining ships etc.
3rd also in combat is bounty hunter, chase down bounties on criminal pirate's doing the same to them only for stolen goods and bounties.
4th is trading, its a vast universe to trade in, with a wide array of goods and ships, you can be anything like from a tiny business operating out of a mini-van to a bulk trader in their own Antonov An-225 (space equivalents)
5th is Mining's, stick in mining laser's, refinery and other appropriate equipment and keep your wits about you and mine for raw resources out of asteroid belt's (whilst keeping one eye peeled for incoming pirates).
6th is Exploration
Mount anything up to an advanced discovery scanner (reveal loc of everything in whole system in one go) and detailed surface scanner and go out there explore brand new world's, raid them for their secret's and flog them to stations, profit based on detail of scan's + quality of location's.
7th is local exploration missions
by this I mean doing things like taking missions to look for missing items, kill npc pirates you have to find first and so on of the mission board, unfortunately this is one category that is best left alone, whilst many stations pack apparently lucrative contracts for finding various legal and illegal goods or hunting down individual players, in reality there is no radar for this you have to go to a some systems and randomly fly about for hours (literally) trying to find random locations that pop up in scanner which you then have to drop out of warp in and hope it will be the type your looking for.
Theres only so many categories so if your sent for some government blueprint you'll probably find half a dozen of things you spent hours looking for before (if you were daft enough to keep doing this kind of mission) but none of what you want, it's a thankless experience of hours of random searching, attacks by random pirates is the best you can hope for, but its all time wasted in the search, pretty much all said missions are unless you get incredibly lucky (dont bet on it) a miserable waste of ones time.
Still 6 good categories out of 7 thusfar is not bad, sure everything could be counted as a variation on grind but by mixing it up using multi-purpose ships you can ensure some fun with every session, no need to do the same thing forever.
Scoring it 4/10 as a result is ridiculously biased, a vast universe with many things to do, beautiful vista's to explore and all you'll give is 4...., tis a reason you dont get paid to do this me thinks.
I liked the old Elite. Problem with this game it is not very different. I really LOLed at the 10 for graphics. They reuse all the graphics over and over again, ad infinitum. If that is your definition of a 10 you should not be reviewing games!
I just found it to be extremely grindy which is a big problem for most of us.
If you are bored playing this very unfinished game, go try Starpoint Gemini 2, a much more polished game that is MUCH better at this point. It is single player, but Elite is basically that now. Oh and you don't have to fool with Elite's stupid docking procedures either. Like any space station would EVER let a pilot manually dock a ship!
I still have a blast trading, bounty hunting or exploring, and I'm well aware of Elite Dangerous' current shortcomings, and am looking forward to improvements.
I'm just happy that there's no "hours played" counter.
Originally posted by klash2def why there is no auto dock is beyond me. trying to land in the exact spot is a pain in the ass every time.
*** cough ** cough *** Docking Computer *** cough *** cough *** Enjoy "The Blue Danube" and watch the show ....
And landing in the exact spot by hand takes .... hmmm ... approx. 10 seconds ... pilot "naked and drunk", with 6 other ships piling in alongside you ....
Comments
Just because there's nothing to do doesn't mean it's a sandbox. You must have some kind of system in place to support sandbox gameplay. Unless you sit in your wookie suit with a helmet and listening to the Star Wars theme pumping in the background doing some heavy role-playing.
Spot on review..
Its an awesome game and reminds me so much of playing the old games.. hopefully will get the wings/group system out soon and it will make it even better for people who want to play togeather.
From the photos it looks a lot like SWG - Jump to Lightspeed in terms of layout and open-ended sandbox'y space stuff. I'm hoping it's not really just a rehash of an expansion from 12 years ago to an MMO that's closed and offline now, but I'm not caring enough to try it so I guess I won't know for sure.
Why do we, as players, continue to trash the long hard hours of work that people put into these games just to give us some enjoyment?
This is a gorgeous looking game. And from what I hear it does the space simulation part very well. If you are complaining that it is not that great from an MMO perspective, you are probably right. But it is what it is, and it has great potential in all of these areas. We have to give these games the chance to reach that potential and not just spread negative opinions, based on what it is, at this point.
Would love to play it, as my Logitech flight stick is just gathering dust at the moment. For me the lack of MMO features might just be a positive I think. If this isn't your game thats fine, but don't try to kill it because it is not your cup of tea, please.
What a waste that would be.
FFA Nonconsentual Full Loot PvP ...You know you want it!!
I don't know if I gave this game the chance it should have had, partly because I got distracted by DA:I. I've never really been into the Sci-Fi genre, but I wanted to give it a try. The concepts on paper were interesting, but I don't think the game really suited my tastes. Having gotten this game, I can tell that other similar games such as No Man's Sky and Star Citizen won't appeal to me either.
I've now read two reviews from two different sites and still know very little about this game..
What is the economy like?
What are the missions like?
Can you talk to NPC's?
Are there quests?
What are the controls like?
etc.
Thanks. If I play singleplayer what influence do other players have on my game? Economy or otherwise? (I have no desire to play with other assholes)
Market prices and influence of certain political parties in systems change because of player trade and missioning. But you won't meet other players and certainly won't be killed by them in PvP.
Have fun
Wow, MMORPG.com, shame on you. I would have expected an honest review from this site out of all sights, but nope, another site that utterly ignores the major flaws of this game. Shameful journalism.
For those who want to know the cons, here you go:
-A lack of a actual sandbox elements besides what players and reviewers claim. People and reviewers alike seem to think that the definition of a sandbox game is now any game that gives the gamer the option to do different activities without restricting them down a linear path. Being able to choose if you want to do trade-runs, explore, or do bounties doesn't make a "sandbox" game. Those are just exactly what they sound like: Choices.
That would be like saying that the Mass Effect series were sandbox games because they gave you dialogue choices that shaped the way events played out in the game. Elite doesn't give you the ability to build stations, it doesn't have territory wars shaping ingame politics and PvP, it doesn't have open world housing, it doesn't have crafting, and etc. Unless you are able to impact the game's world in a permanent way than I wouldn't consider Elite to be a sandbox.
-Online play tacked on solely for DRM purposes 4 weeks before the game was about to go live. There is no way that it was for any other reason besides DRM, even with the last second "it wasn't possible" excuse that the developer gave. I say this because despite it being an online game, there are no group functioning options, no structured multiplayer game types, no guilds/corps, hell there wasn't even a chatbar to talk to others when the game was first released (that is, if you even happened to have that rare occurrence that you actually came across another living soul).
You will most likely be playing alone for 95% of the game, besides the occasional bump-in of another player. And yet that 95% of that time will all be online, despite the developers past promises and discussion about DRM policies that led many to believe that the developers held anti-DRM values/beliefs.
-The game suffers from a lack of real progression. Sorry, but I don't view grinding for hours on end for new ships as actual progression, nor do I count the three awful faction rep grinds, that are literally a copy/paste of one another as actual progression. Also, a lot of what people confuse as progression, are actually goals they've set-up for themselves, such as grinding for a new ship.
-The "dynamic economy" is a joke, dictated by NPCs in an ONLINE game. If you're going to make a game online only, you'd think you would revolve the functions of the game around the players ability to interact and change how things work within the game, such as the economy. Really though, there is no interaction with other players when it comes to things like the economy, and it is all decided by the NPCs, making how trade-runs work pretty predictable, and honestly one of the most repetitive, mind-numbing, and boring features of Elite. To be brutally honest, I've never seen a space-sim with such a poorly implemented economy design.
-I realize I've stated this before, but I think it bears a repeat just because so many continue to falsely claim that Elite is a sandbox: There is zero crafting.
Smile
C'mon guys... you can do better than that! If you complain just a bit harder, I'm sure you can have the game shut down in no time!
Just the usual from the "this game has to be everything I want it to be...at launch...from a kickstarter...or else.... RAAAGGGGEEE!" crowd.
Personally, I have bit more vision than that. I think E:D has the potential to be one of the greats... if it survives this period. And I think it will.
But i don't know what I dislike more, the attitude of Frontier Design towards the paying customers or design and implementation catastrophe that the "game" is. There are many questionable and not really well working mechanics even in the basics, broken trade info, friendly fire problems, annoying KWS scanning, ...
For a game that requires me to be 24/7 online it also has the right amount of support (sarcasm off), quote: "Our offices will be closed from the 25th of december till 5th of January. ..." Actually none of my tickets were ever answered or worked upon and the time it took them to fix a server problem over the holidays shows that they don't care about their customers. Doesn't matter, i don't care about them too anymore.
Or take the "insurance fraud". Beta buyers who payed BPS 60 to get beta access were baited with 25% discount on ship insurance. Later they decided that was too much and tried to make that more like 1% applying the discount only on the hull, no other parts of the ship. Bait and Switch and not the only example. Not to mention other items that should have been delivered with the release version but still aren't. This company is not to be trusted and treats you like an idiot.
The game contains itself some questionable to borderline smart mechanics that can brighten up your day, among them one that makes you loose everything you have been working for. Thats same as telling a level 50 in an MMO that you are delevelled to 1 and have to grind back again. Another problem is the open PvP concept which leads to a lot of people not playing in open mode. If they had an appropriate open PvE mode it would be a lot better since most players prefer to play without psychopaths and rotten kids.
Not to mention the game was marketed as MMO (meanwhile they removed the hints about that from their store site) and contains practically no MMO features at all. No grouping, no guilds, no cooperative gameplay and sharing, no trading, no nothing. The only feature is a chat that is probably the worst chat i have ever seen in a multiplayer game since you often can't even answer someone who hails you friendly. So the only player to player interaction easy to achieve is killing each other. Congrats.
Now "wings" (groups) are on their priority list. Wouldn't that require a working chat first to make friends with whom you can group with? Or some gameplay that probably requires groups at all? I mean except ganker groups? The borderline smart design process and implementation continues in full swing as it appears to me and that won't change.
The only good thing are the fairly nice graphics of ships and planets which is quite a bit broken by the missing 3rd person view and the ugly "speed ladders" in supercruise mode which don't get switched off when switching of the formerly ugly orbit and gravitation lines.
3rd person view is not implemented because it is "immersion breaking" and might give you an advantage in combat, which i doubt since the radar is a lot more precise giving information about the opponent than a 3rd person view could ever be. So people keep buying highly overpriced paint jobs and can't even admire their ships. I seriously don't like how sub average devs try to limit players possibilities this way. Games like Euro Truck Simulator 2 or Microsoft Flight Simulator X are usually played 99% in cockpit view but offer a wide variation of 3rd person views for various reasons and never ever 1 person complained about that being "immersion breaking" or anything. It's a typical example where peanut paid devs + fanboys ruin a game cooperatively.
Could go on for hours about bugs not getting fixed, all trade information missleading and bugged and so on and so forth but thats enough for now.
you review on mmorpg.com and even put in a con as being most multiplayer aspects missing yet score it a 8.3? makes no sense what so ever - the game is a 6 -7 at best.
You also cant list a pro as content that may come in the future - the review should be on the game as it is not what it may or may not be
One of the worst reviews I have ever seen on this site to be honest.
You actually played yet?
Basic Multiplayer features are you can see other players ships, you can kill other player's ships, you can steal from other players ships, you can chat with other players (Inc demanding your cargo or your life), you can pull other players out of supercruise, sure its not the most vast list of MP features ever but it hardly counts as no interaction, also given the nature of the economy players can and do effect the economy and outcome of event's.
As for update schedule 1st notable update coming in 1.1 (adding 900 light years to jump planner and some more social features to support next wings upgrade) which will be in by Feb, the wings update is coming in march, hardly a non-existent or ponderous update schedule.
3. - Visuals
You really only seen stations, you clearly need to get out of one, how about all the beautiful star's planet's, moons and planetoid's, ring's belt's and other out there, the ships aren't bad either, but the game world is lovely specially given the engine, the stations are wonderfully detailed even if you cant do much in them yet, and sure only half a dozen types or so, but irrelevant really the game's focus isn't in station sitting, and even this lends realism, mass produced station types seem much more likely to occur then every system getting its own unique one's.
The game allows 6(7 but one's not worth it) different path's atm, kill npc's is indeed one of them but your forgetting combat itself is fun especially if you have a hotas and can vary depending on what your facing given all the possible scenarios, you can do combat missions as well from stations as well as join in perm conflict sites or random scenarios for killing pirates in the combat category.
The second in this category is become a pirate pulling player's and npc's out of supercruise, scanning players near stations for juicy cargo then following them using a jump wake scanner to their next system, then pulling them out before they reach their destination is all possible, and ransoming them, enter random loc's and kill players, loot mining ships etc.
3rd also in combat is bounty hunter, chase down bounties on criminal pirate's doing the same to them only for stolen goods and bounties.
4th is trading, its a vast universe to trade in, with a wide array of goods and ships, you can be anything like from a tiny business operating out of a mini-van to a bulk trader in their own Antonov An-225 (space equivalents)
5th is Mining's, stick in mining laser's, refinery and other appropriate equipment and keep your wits about you and mine for raw resources out of asteroid belt's (whilst keeping one eye peeled for incoming pirates).
6th is Exploration
Mount anything up to an advanced discovery scanner (reveal loc of everything in whole system in one go) and detailed surface scanner and go out there explore brand new world's, raid them for their secret's and flog them to stations, profit based on detail of scan's + quality of location's.
7th is local exploration missions
by this I mean doing things like taking missions to look for missing items, kill npc pirates you have to find first and so on of the mission board, unfortunately this is one category that is best left alone, whilst many stations pack apparently lucrative contracts for finding various legal and illegal goods or hunting down individual players, in reality there is no radar for this you have to go to a some systems and randomly fly about for hours (literally) trying to find random locations that pop up in scanner which you then have to drop out of warp in and hope it will be the type your looking for.
Theres only so many categories so if your sent for some government blueprint you'll probably find half a dozen of things you spent hours looking for before (if you were daft enough to keep doing this kind of mission) but none of what you want, it's a thankless experience of hours of random searching, attacks by random pirates is the best you can hope for, but its all time wasted in the search, pretty much all said missions are unless you get incredibly lucky (dont bet on it) a miserable waste of ones time.
Still 6 good categories out of 7 thusfar is not bad, sure everything could be counted as a variation on grind but by mixing it up using multi-purpose ships you can ensure some fun with every session, no need to do the same thing forever.
Scoring it 4/10 as a result is ridiculously biased, a vast universe with many things to do, beautiful vista's to explore and all you'll give is 4...., tis a reason you dont get paid to do this me thinks.
I liked the old Elite. Problem with this game it is not very different. I really LOLed at the 10 for graphics. They reuse all the graphics over and over again, ad infinitum. If that is your definition of a 10 you should not be reviewing games!
I just found it to be extremely grindy which is a big problem for most of us.
If you are bored playing this very unfinished game, go try Starpoint Gemini 2, a much more polished game that is MUCH better at this point. It is single player, but Elite is basically that now. Oh and you don't have to fool with Elite's stupid docking procedures either. Like any space station would EVER let a pilot manually dock a ship!
I've played since beta.
I still have a blast trading, bounty hunting or exploring, and I'm well aware of Elite Dangerous' current shortcomings, and am looking forward to improvements.
I'm just happy that there's no "hours played" counter.
"The Society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools."
Currently: Games Audio Engineer, you didn't hear what I heard, you heard what I wanted you to hear.
*** cough ** cough *** Docking Computer *** cough *** cough *** Enjoy "The Blue Danube" and watch the show ....
And landing in the exact spot by hand takes .... hmmm ... approx. 10 seconds ... pilot "naked and drunk", with 6 other ships piling in alongside you ....
Have fun