>Imagine having some of the best sound design in video game history, great atmosphere, decent graphics but great visuals, a whole fucking galaxy and a huge fanbase that was willing to finacially support you in the interim.
And you do nothing with it...
Honestly at least Star Citizen was being overly ambitious. Elite has no excuses. No idea what happend with it, could have been one of the greatest space sim/quasi mmo's in history but instead we got a stagnant screenshot simulator instead...
Braben is almost autistic about execution. He is in many ways very similar to Roberts: they are both obsessed with their "vision" and reluctant to listen to their audiences, they both have extremely lofty ambitions, but Braben is also a software designer and a former script monkey, overtly focused on technical foundations to a point where it starts to get riddiculous.
That said, they hardly did nothing. Elite is moving forward at a glacial pace, but it is firmly moving forward. The real question is not whenever it delivers, the question is whenever we will even be around to care.
The jump from what the game was like back when Horizon was first released, to where it's now, is a lot bigger than most people realize. And a ton of design decision they made and that we hated intially started to make sense in retrospect.
But the wait time inbetween is just so fucking long, and the improvements so incrimental that it's just nearly impossible to maintain any kind of interest. E:D has moved in what - FIVE YEARS - as much as most other games move in one.
And you can see why. Everything is designed for future, everything is build layer-for-layer, the team is constantly fragmented working on so many elements at the same time that progress on each one is nearly imperceptible. You can see what they are doing, and unlike SC it's not idiotic.
It's just that by the time it does start to pay off: I just might not even be here anymore.
Plus, Braben really does not respect his player's time. Or his own, frankly.
braben and his forum dad legions ruined it
the time investment required is just too ridiculous
You hit it on the head when you said "I might not even be here anymore". The game is arguably in the 'dying' phase already. But half that issue could be adressed if we just had a clear idea of the timeframe. I wouldn't even say it's the pace that's killing it, but the lack of communication other than a few features here and there.
Autists ruin it. Watch as the official forum basement dwellers shoot down any remotely fun idea. To them grind means difficulty and more grind means more difficult and if you don't like doing the same mundane task 20 million times you're a casul.
This is "No Fun Allowed: The Game". It's a master class in bad game design. The whole engineer thing for ship upgrade alone is absolutely insane. I don't understand how anybody can come up with that and think "yup, that's going to be a great mechanic". They've revised it a bunch of time too, and it's still shit (or at least it was when I stopped playing).
So much wasted potential in this game. Imagine something like Freelancer with this engine. It could be an amazing game.
I honestly think it is impossible to make a decent space sim.
In fact, that's why this genre makes people so excited. Since it is impossible to do something really decent, nobody has ever done it until today, and what remains is people's imagination: "And if someone makes a cool space combat game, wouldn't it be fantastic?"
No. There is fucking nothing in space, combat with Newtonian physics sucks and even if you decide to make spaceships behave like air fighters, you will still lose all the interaction with gravity and atmosphere that makes flight simulators decent.
Yeah Engineering is a master class in how to fucking kill your core gameplay.
>makes all non engineered ships redundant in pvp
>also ruins the endgame by, rather than adding anything new simply adds hundreds of hours grinding boring materials all for wacky RNG upgrades...
ED honestly could gave came close though. It needed just something to mix up the lack of purpose in anything you do. Then they killed it all by making it even more grindy.
What's wrong with it? It's a comfy space trucker simulator and that's how I like it even though I sparsely play it. Not everything has to be action-packed and made for people with ADHD.
It also effectively puts a massive grind cliff on top of any PvP content since, as you mention, you need engineering to stand a chance.
And it's not like engineering lets you customize ships in an interesting way, it's effectively just stat boosts. There's no interesting meta to play with.
But frankly the thing that made me rage quit is not even the grind for engineering, it's the RNG aspect (do they still have that?). Not only are you supposed to spend a ridiculous amount of time doing the boringest shit ever like scanning a billion wakes, but once you got all the required materials you can gen a shit RNG and the game just basically says "well fuck you, grind for 5 hours again and try one more time RETARD".
It's like those shitty pay2win mobile games, except it's not even pay2win, it's grind2win.
At least in Euro Truck Simulator you have varying landscapes. With ED once you've seen the handful of station, planet and star types it's literally the same thing over and over again. It's Euro Truck Simulator if you removed everything that's not the road.
it's overcomplicated garbage where you need to spend way too much time learning to do the most basic shit.
i just want to fly around in space and relax, i don't want to micro manage shit and take a fucking 2 year course to learn how to play it.
That's the problem though, you say you sparsely play it. If you want to treat it as your main, you'll end up bored to death.
It's not the fact it isn't super action packed but rather everything you do is largely the same. There is no feedback or purpose outside of text and numbers changing in the backround simulator. I could happily truck all day if there was something more tangible about it.
Yeah, but it feels the niche nicely. As I said - not everything has to be a "main" game. I think it's fine as it is.
It would be nice if either mining was less profitable or other activities more.
>feels
fills*
It's late, give me a pass.
This.
Also just fo fix it:
>except it's not even pay2win, it's grind2*posibblyWinIfYou'reLuckyWithYourRoll*
It's a great game but I think it has to be played with VR and nifty controllers
>Braben is also a software designer and a former script monkey, overtly focused on technical foundations to a point where it starts to get ridiculous.
Very interesting. E:D is going to have smooth FPS, SC will always be clunky
They gonna nerf mining when carries drop I believe.
The core of ED isn't a bad game, but it was ruined by absolutely, utterly horrible game design. That engineer shit, grind on top of grind, fuck they managed to make trading absolutely useless in this game, they sapped fun from even shit like asteroid mining.
But if you like spesships, go for it, the first 200 hours were a blast for me, great sound design, great visuals, you'll feel like you have freedom, what could have been
>the time investment required is just too ridiculous
yeah not really, just google the latest "exploit" which isn't even that. One time Braben fucked up event rewards and I got the games third most powerful ship for 2 hours of playing.
This game just doesnt want you to have fun, the engine is great but whats beneath it sucks
I like it.
It IS super slow, and it's not for everyone, is the thing.
Hell, it's not even for *me* some of the time.
But I'll have a month or so where it's the only thing I want to do, and it's glorious and comfy, and then a few months off to do other stuff. That's just the kind of game it is.
Just get X4 instead, way better game than the pile of shit Elite....
For me it'd need to provide more visual variety and a better core loop to fill the niche. After I got bored to tears by the base gameplay I decided to just get an explorer ship and attempt something like going to the center of the galaxy. After a ~15h grind to get the ship I wanted with an upgraded drive (which made the journey even remotely viable and still take hundreds of jumps). I set out on my way. I gave up halfway through. The gameplay loop is not long enough to work for me, it's jump->scoop->scan->jump->scoop->scan->... And you always see the same shit over and over again.
Euro Truck Simulator is insanely complex in comparison, you have to look for traffic lights, tolls, speed limits, negotiate tight turns, pass cars, keep track of gas and where to refill for cheap, where to stop for a nap... And your surroundings change all the time.
Don't get me wrong, nothing will compare to the first time you drop from SuperCruz into a massive fucking space station while it blasts out, "LAKON, FOWER. CHARLIE. HOTEL. You are now in Federation space, comply with federal flight control before attempting to acess this station Commander.".
But as you noted the first 200hours is fun. But the game asks you to put in 2000. And you've seen everything after about 50...
>the time investment required is just too ridiculous
>yeah not really, just google the latest "exploit" which isn't even that. One time Braben fucked up event rewards and I got the games third most powerful ship for 2 hours of playing.
Yeah but you should have to exploit an exploit just to stay competative let alone just to have fun.
x3 is still the best space sim ever made and it's not going to get dethroned anytime soon since there's nothing new being made. dead genre.
Shouldn't*
I hate this fucking game so much for gods sake I need out of this nightmare the devs don't give a shit the systems its just power creep after power creep of grind, major nerfs to things that don't are seen in the devs eyes as exploits all while adding a bug ridden system that is even more exploitable even the AI got dummed down over the years resulting in it being hotfixed with the most sloppy of patches its on a matter of time till they take away my flight assist off the only fun I've managed to have in this wasteland in 5 years
Bro just give X4 one more year and we will get the ultimate space game
X3 is nowhere near close to the best space sim ever made.
>tfw stranded in beagle point
I have to jump 60 THOUSAND fucking lightyears to get back to the bubble, that's what, 2000 jumps?
Fucking hell... Never going to play this garbage as long as I'm stranded here
I like space sims and I remember reading the Steam review when I was considering buying the game and thinking that people were retarded because you had a huge amount of people who had hundreds if not thousand of hours of play time and still posting negative reviews. Surely if you sink that much time into a game it can't be that bad?
Now I've got about 200h of gameplay and I completely get it. This is a cool engine but a bad game.
I love how these cockpit pics really capture the soul of this game.
It's just you sat there in some random station which you cannot really remember why or how you got there, going "Is it really worth it.."
how or why the fuck did you go that far out in the first place anyway without a fully engy'd and optimized conda?
Jesus christ
May as well just self-destruct at that point
You don't get it man, doing the same menial task again and again is fun. You're having fun while you're doing it. You don't know it but you're having fun. Don't be a casual.
Engineering was changed to incremental upgrades on every roll, eventually reaching a "maxed" module. It's still a faggot ass grind, but at least it's not a grind for literal gambling chips.
The fact that they thought it was a good idea in its original form should serve to remind everyone that Ftroop made their living as a mobile games dev before they struck gold with Kickstarter.
Blame the incompetent garbage developers, "yeah bro what if we made you pay 5 billion for the carrier, then another 500 million for the option to store your ships, and let's give you weekly fee for the fucking carrier you BOUGHT, and that's not all, it takes 2 hours to jump between systems, and you have to farm the fuel!!" hehe
I'm sorryl, are you hurt?
>just respawn in sidewinder bro. yeah you'll lose that ship you spent 500hours and 2billion credits on but thats your fault for not wanting to spend 2weeks real time travelling bro
-Dangerous Forum
And they did the exact same thing with the fleet carriers... Thank you Fdev...
Y̶̢̡̰̟͚͙͚̩̺̘͉͖̪̱͔͙̮̹͕̊̈́̈̂͐̆̀̀͊͆̓́̌̕͝E̷̮̰̥͈̙͖͇̖̫̭͈̮͙̫͇͚͕̠̜͚̪͙̦̹̬̼̣̗̬̪̖̙͈̱̩͚͕͛̏̊̔̄̑̇̈́̋͌̈́̃́̓̎͆̌̊̕͜͜͠͝ͅS̶̨̢̝̜̘̩̻͕̪̯̦̭͚̘͔̻̰̹̘̫̪̩͚̫̩̼̥͓̟̻͇̯̤̫̬͔͍̖͙̗͔̹̦͕̪̱̯̦̙̀͗̽͒̓̿̏̀́̊̑̂̉͗̾̉͑͆̉͛̓͗͘͘͝͝͠
Honestly? It can be. This game is fun for the same reason Animal Crossing is fun. It's just a small Stone Garden you tend to by yourself.
The problem is, Animal Crossing encourages pick-up-put-down gameplay, while Elite demands all of your time.
Yeah, let's not even go there with carriers...
do we have an eta on space legs yet?
I'm on my way to beagle point, just need another 25k ly and I will be there.
It will be the last thing I do in this game
Right, I remember that update. It was marginally less worse but still completely idiotic and proves they really don't know how to design a game.
Having an RNG aspect makes sense if the outcome had more than a single dimension and you could get unexpected but interesting outcomes that would vary the gameplay. Like how for instance in an RPG if you randomly encounter an interesting but unexpected weapon or piece of gear you might alter your playstyle to make use of it.
But here there's no such thing. It just pumps your stats by a certain amount. Having an RNG instead of a fixed outcome changes nothing at all. Like the rest of the game it's a completely shallow mechanic.
If at least all the ships did not handle almost exactly the same and you could have interesting space battles... But we don't even get that and an Anaconda can out maneuver an Eagle because it's more expensive so it has to be better at everything.
How many weeks have you been out the bubble user? I've never been able to leave it as my frends keep dragging me back in.
What about the guardian sites?
Would have been great if they weren't another grind...
OK, so what is better, and why?
which ones do you prefer?
literally never
>a """screenshot""" taken on a shitty phone
Disgusting.
Around 1 month, just passed Sagittarius A and Explorer's Anchorage
When I get back to the bubble I should have enough to reach elite in exploration, and fully A grade the imperial cutter, which is the ship I've always wanted to have since I first started playing this game