Why the fuck didn't anyone tell me how fantastic Elite Dangerous was?

BarryMcCociner

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It's fucking Euro Truck Simulator 2: Space Edition with other people.

I love all the stupid bullshit they make you do, things like sitting your ass in space and waiting for the port to get an empty slot so you can fly right in. Makes the game super suspenseful when you're trying to smuggle slaves into a non-anarchy space port. It has this side benefit of making the game feel more "real", as real as you can get with faster than light travel, anyway.

That feeling of ecstasy when I finally bought a new ship and looked around and saw how fucking cool my new cockpit was cannot be matched by most games out today.

And that feeling of jerking the flight stick, frantically looking around trying to get a bearing on where this guy who's shooting you is is just fucking chaotic and insane.

I've already found ways to break the game though. I managed to sell a ship for easily three times what I paid for it because I'd put new equipment in it.

Seriously, if you like games that at surface seem boring but once you pierce the surface have a massive treasure trove of depth, I'd recommend this until I'm blue in the face.

I've pretty much mad the decision to get an occulus rift just because of this game.

And the weird thing about all this is that I fucking hate multiplayer. Dota? Can't fucking enjoy it, too many people. Call of Duty? Too many people. Team Fortress 2? Too many people? Elite Dangerous? It's a fucking MMO and I love it shitless.

Why didn't anyone tell me how fucking amazing this game is?
 

Lightspeaker

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BarryMcCociner said:
It's fucking Euro Truck Simulator 2: Space Edition with other people.
See, I've considered buying it several times over...but that last bit is what puts me off.

Its also what's annoying me a bit about Star Citizen. I don't WANT other random assholes in my space sims, I just want a nice, peaceful time to explore and stuff.
 

Ryotknife

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Lightspeaker said:
BarryMcCociner said:
It's fucking Euro Truck Simulator 2: Space Edition with other people.
See, I've considered buying it several times over...but that last bit is what puts me off.

Its also what's annoying me a bit about Star Citizen. I don't WANT other random assholes in my space sims, I just want a nice, peaceful time to explore and stuff.
from what i hear on the forums, the universe is so vast that you might encounter 1-2 players max per system, if you encounter any at all. They make it sound like a single player MMO
 

WouldYouKindly

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Lightspeaker said:
BarryMcCociner said:
It's fucking Euro Truck Simulator 2: Space Edition with other people.
See, I've considered buying it several times over...but that last bit is what puts me off.

Its also what's annoying me a bit about Star Citizen. I don't WANT other random assholes in my space sims, I just want a nice, peaceful time to explore and stuff.
Most people aren't dicks, and in the right ship you can run away from everything. You can also play solo and only have to deal with NPCs.

OT: You didn't make a profit when you sold your ship. The parts sell for less than you bought them so you do lose some money when upgrading like that.

I haven't been playing in a while, thought I'd wait for planetary landings to be a thing. Might buy a Cobra or an Adder and go exploring again.
 

Xeros

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I absolutely loved it when I played it, but trying to keep up with the lore and events when I only had a couple hours a week was daunting to say the least. I've been meaning to give it another go, but I'd like to tackle more of my backlog first.

Have you tried listening to Radio Sidewinder while playing? I'm not sure if it's still active, but it was a neat, little internet radio station that played properly-themed music while updating you on in-game current events. It really brought the space trucking feeling full-circle and was funded by "strange advertisements from the 21st century" that would filter in when "their antennae moved out of alignment".
 

BeerTent

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Ryotknife said:
Lightspeaker said:
BarryMcCociner said:
It's fucking Euro Truck Simulator 2: Space Edition with other people.
See, I've considered buying it several times over...but that last bit is what puts me off.

Its also what's annoying me a bit about Star Citizen. I don't WANT other random assholes in my space sims, I just want a nice, peaceful time to explore and stuff.
from what i hear on the forums, the universe is so vast that you might encounter 1-2 players max per system, if you encounter any at all. They make it sound like a single player MMO
I can assure you, in open play, you'll run into WAY LESS people than that once you leave the starting area.

You also have 3 game modes, Open, which is MP, Private play, which you can join a group like Mobious, which sucks out the fun by banning PVP, and there's solo, in which you'll never run into a player ever.

Honestly, I don't know why Solo even exists. The fact that you have to deal with other players is a big part of a game like this, and feels like a massive chunk is taken out. The spice of the game, as it were, as it's just a grind otherwise.

E:D is a great game, but it does have a few big overbearing problems. I'm not a fan of the fact that if I want more content in my beta equivalent I'd have to shell out the price of the game again for Horizons.
 

infohippie

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I've been considering buying it to tide me over until Star Citizen's release, but with the sad state of the Australian dollar, even the recent 40% off sale still makes it too expensive. They seriously need to drop the price on that thing, especially given the relative strength of the GBP.
 

RedRockRun

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For someone who has never played a spaceflight sim, do you think it would be too difficult for me to learn?
 

Zacharious-khan

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BarryMcCociner said:
Why didn't anyone tell me how fucking amazing this game is?
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/9991-Elite-Dangerous-Review#&gid=gallery_3713&pid=1
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/columns/gamedesign/12976-David-Braben-Discusses-Elite-Dangerous-and-Space-Sims.2
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/conferences/e32014/11754-Greg-s-Five-Favorites-of-E3-2014
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/conferences/e32014/11688-Elite-Dangerous-Oculus-Support-Puts-You-in-Infinity#&gid=gallery_2694&pid=1

We tried Barry. We tried so hard
 

Lightspeaker

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BeerTent said:
The fact that you have to deal with other players is a big part of a game like this, and feels like a massive chunk is taken out.
I take it you've never heard of or played the X series of games based on that statement. Or played Freelancer or Wing Commander.

Personally the idea of dealing with every moron who wants to take a shot at me whilst I'm trying to relax and explore and take in the universe doesn't appeal overly much. To quote myself: "I don't WANT other random assholes in my space sims".
 

Scars Unseen

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I do plan to buy this game, but only after I get my HOTAS setup and maybe after I get either an Oculus Rift or Vive(whichever seems more appealing at the time).
 

Joccaren

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'cause TBH I wasn't really impressed.
Its just not my sort of game. As you said, its Euro Truck Simulator, in space. Not my dig.
Some love it, a lot of people also found it rather disappointing. Ironically, whilst you praise its depth, the most common complaint about it is that its as wide as an ocean, and deep as a puddle. It really depends on what you want to do.

If you like it though, more power to you. It is the great thing about recent times; lots of space sims, in lots of different styles, coming out to satisfy everyone. Hooray for crowdfunding.
 

BarryMcCociner

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RedRockRun said:
For someone who has never played a spaceflight sim, do you think it would be too difficult for me to learn?
I was in the same boat as you, never touched a space flight game before, always thought the X series looked cool. Soon as I bought a HOTAS it reminded me A LOT of Ace Combat so I don't think it's a "special" category of games that requires very specific learning. If you have the effort to learn any game, you'll be able to pick this up.

Little tip: Play the tutorials. ESPECIALLY the Docking Tutorial, do that one multiple times. You will still crash.

Other than that, fairly simple game. It's honestly not as complex as it looks.
 

Joccaren

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RedRockRun said:
For someone who has never played a spaceflight sim, do you think it would be too difficult for me to learn?
Depends what you want to do.
Some parts of it are exceedingly shallow and easy to learn, some are a bit deeper.
In terms of controls, it depends on how able you are to cope with unintuitive ideas, and what control schemes you use, and whether you're willing to spend 2 hours going through 500 individual control options to fix things you have issues with. Some things really annoy me, like how oversensitive roll is by default, and the fact that the best turning speed is at half speed - moving slower further reduces your ability to turn, as does moving faster.
Honestly, if you don't really have trouble picking up other games, you shouldn't have too much trouble learning ED. There're a few weird things, but if you dedicate a little time to learning it you'll probably be fine.
 

BarryMcCociner

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Joccaren said:
Ironically, whilst you praise its depth, the most common complaint about it is that its as wide as an ocean, and deep as a puddle.
Maybe we've got different definitions of the word 'depth'.

I like to delineate between complexity and depth.

See, complexity is what makes a game multi-faceted and more hands on. Some people like that, some don't. For instance, Fighting games typically have high complexity, often to the point of actively encouraging mind games while you play against another player. Whereas an FPS would be much less complex. Complexity is a game design thing, sometimes you'll want high complexity sometime's you'll want low complexity. It's more of a "What type of game am I trying to make here?" type of thing.

But 'depth' is more the quality of the experience. A game can be complex as a hundred billion rubix cubes, but it's not going to be deep unless it hits the right tonal elements and takes advantage on its own mechanics to give the player the best experience it aims to give. For instance, Undertale. Low complexity, high depth.
 

Joccaren

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BarryMcCociner said:
Joccaren said:
Ironically, whilst you praise its depth, the most common complaint about it is that its as wide as an ocean, and deep as a puddle.
Maybe we've got different definitions of the word 'depth'.

I like to delineate between complexity and depth.

See, complexity is what makes a game multi-faceted and more hands on. Some people like that, some don't. For instance, Fighting games typically have high complexity, often to the point of actively encouraging mind games while you play against another player. Whereas an FPS would be much less complex. Complexity is a game design thing, sometimes you'll want high complexity sometime's you'll want low complexity. It's more of a "What type of game am I trying to make here?" type of thing.

But 'depth' is more the quality of the experience. A game can be complex as a hundred billion rubix cubes, but it's not going to be deep unless it hits the right tonal elements and takes advantage on its own mechanics to give the player the best experience it aims to give. For instance, Undertale. Low complexity, high depth.
I'll agree that depth is not surface complexity, but I don't think depth really has to do with the aesthetic feel of the game, or its overall quality. That tends to fall more under polish for me, and is just a score overall for its quality: A 7/10 game is not 7/10 in depth, its 7/10 in what it tries to achieve, which a lot of the time doesn't involve depth.
Of course, there is also takes story depth, and mechanical depth, which are slightly different. Generally its mechanical depth that is criticised for ED, largely because near as I can tell there is very little focus on story in it.

Mechanical depth is, similar to what you've stated, IMO, the game giving you the ability and opportunity to leverage its mechanics in interesting ways. It is related to real complexity; if the simple mechanics don't intertwine in complex ways, there isn't going to be a lot you can do with them, and it will be a relatively mechanically shallow game.
Take a hypothetical game as an example: There is 1 enemy in it. That enemy just walks forward. You automatically shoot, aimed only forward, and can only move up and down. Bullets disappear when they hit the edge of the screen. Its not a mechanically deep game. No matter what tonal elements it provides, or how polished it is, its shallow. You need to add more real complexity, via intertwining mechanics, in order to make it a deeper game. Say you now shoot in the direction you're facing, and the bullets bounce off the edge of the screen when they hit it, but only once. Its now a deeper game. Not much, but it is. Those two mechanics intertwining allow you to do things like walk into a wall, and shoot the wall, and the bullets will fly behind you and hit the enemy. Still stupidly simple, but now add an AI to the enemy that makes it walk away from your bullet's trajectory automatically. The mechanical depth has now exploded [Still low overall, but much larger from a simple addition]. How these systems intertwine allows you to do some cool and interesting things. You can now trick the enemy into walking into a trap. You can do the wall bounce thing. You can cage the enemy by shooting patterns of directional shots that it will run away from and end up basically walking in a small circle. You can create a wall that will make the AI run away from you rather than chasing you. You can do a lot with the new system, even though the mechanics are simple.
It isn't related to surface complexity though; If you make it really hard to do something, but what you're doing is a simple thing, its not mechanically deep, its mechanically obtuse. What matters is what you're able to do as a result of the mechanics, not how complex those mechanics are themselves.
A good measure of the depth of the game is often the difference between the skill floor and skill ceiling, better when comparing two people of similar physical ability. It is a largely mental thing, and does require thinking. Easy to play, hard to master, is the sign of a game with lots of depth. It has simple, non-complex mechanics. Its easy to play. You pick it up, and learn it relatively quickly. Its hard to master. How all the simple mechanics intertwine and work together is something you've got to think about if you want to do really well.
Again, see Civilization. Anyone can pick it up, play Chiefton and have the best race in the game, with no clue how food works, or production, or science, or great people. To them, its a simple game [Even though overall it is actually complex]. To someone who studies these systems and comes to understand them, its incredibly complex. The former might have cities in the renaissance with 10 population and 40 defence, going by Civ 5s metrics. The latter would have 28-30ish population and defence scores over 100. Now, Civ is still a complex game at the surface too though. There are a lot of systems, and even without trying to take into account how they intertwine there's a lot to learn. However, even beyond this, it has a lot of depth, as shown by the difference between casual and competitive players.

It is kind of a hard thing to quantify, but by and large it is a measure of the true complexity of the game, minus the entry and surface complexity.
Having a lot of systems doesn't make a game deep.
Making those systems hard to use doesn't make it deep.
Having those systems intertwine in a way the player can exploit does make a game deeper, at least mechanically.

As I said, with Elite, it depends on what you want to do as to how deep it is. Some things are somewhat deep, others are ridiculously shallow.
 

pookie101

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i found it interesting but not enough to keep my attention for more than a few hours

i liked pottering around delivering cargo, exploring a bit, mining was horrible and i wasnt that much into the shooty bang bang bounty hunting side.

at the moment giving it a break until they fill it out a bit with the next expansion and ground exploration
 
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Lightspeaker said:
BarryMcCociner said:
It's fucking Euro Truck Simulator 2: Space Edition with other people.
See, I've considered buying it several times over...but that last bit is what puts me off.

Its also what's annoying me a bit about Star Citizen. I don't WANT other random assholes in my space sims, I just want a nice, peaceful time to explore and stuff.
There is a solo mode if (like me) you want the vast emptiness of space to be, well, empty.

The only drawback to the game I've had so far is the control scheme. Every control scheme I've ever played has the left stick controlling movement and the right stick controlling the look functions, and Elite's way of having the left stick controlling pitch and yaw and the right stick controlling lateral and vertical thrust is more than a little confusing and leaves me hopelessly out of my depth in anything beyond a basic firefight. That having been said though the game is so satisfying it's easy to overlook the clumsiness and disorientation.
 

breadsammich

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It was the first and so far only game I got refunded with Steam's new refund policy. I don't think it was made clear enough that it's a SIMULATOR game. I was nowhere near prepared for the flight mechanics. The controls infuriated me, the tutorial was probably the most unhelpful I've ever seen and I ragequit after about 20 minutes of fighting the game. The frustrating part is that I know for a fact that I would absolutely LOVE the game if it weren't for my inability to grasp the controls.
 
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RedRockRun said:
For someone who has never played a spaceflight sim, do you think it would be too difficult for me to learn?
I wouldn't think so. One of the cool little touches I like about this game is that in order to undock from a spaceport you must perform a series of pre-flight checks - essentially the game gets you to go through each control function before letting you out into the Black. This has the dual effect of immersing you in the role of a pilot systematically checking your ship over before launch and reminding you the player of the control system each time you load up your game.