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It so happens that Frontier's Elite: Dangerous - the long-awaited sequel to David Braben's 1984 cult classic Elite, which served as inspiration to a lot of other popular space games such as Wing Commander or Eve Online - is currently undergoing Alpha testing. The project was largely crowd-funded via kickstarter, though similar to Shadowrun Online it may have suffered somewhat from bad timing, as the nigh-simultaneous kickstarter of Star Citizen managed to raise a lot more cash. Still, Elite managed to surpass its goal of £1.5 mio and, over the past 16 months, has been shaping up rather nicely. I've recently upgraded my initial kickstarter pledge to Alpha level (though I'm not entirely sure that this lulzy discount was working as intended), and so had the opportunity to once again sit down in the cramped cockpit of a Faulcon DeLacy Mark I Sidewinder Scout, about 15 years after having last piloted one. Nostalgia ahoy!
The first thing that will please many oldtimers familiar with the original is that Elite: Dangerous remains very faithful to its roots and oozes tradition, right down to the hint of the Blue Danube at the end of its very first trailer. All the ships from the previous games retain their characteristic geometric shapes, though additional detail has been added in order to update their looks for the graphics-spoiled gamer of the 2010s. Space stations still rotate, so manual docking remains a mildly challenging task - with added difficulty in that you are now actually able to fly into a port's innards and have to land on a pad that Station Control is assigning you. Ship functions such as toggles for lights and landing gear, and the amount of detail that went into designing the heart of the starbase (complete with moving cars and loudspeaker announcements warning visitors to heed station law) add a lot to the resulting immersion.
Aside from Docking and Outfitting, the only other feature currently available in the Alpha is Combat, which the game offers in the form of 8 segregated singleplayer scenarios as well as 3 multiplayer space zones (4 if you count the space station system - you never know if someone isn't crazy enough to start a fight right under the noses of a Federation Fighter Wing), the latter of which are all connected by a very rough first look at hyperspace travel (missing the translation FX, which have been announced for Alpha 4.0 and its Exploration module). Manoeuvering feels somewhat sluggish, though this may be the result of neither the Sidewinder nor the heavier Cobra (the only 2 ships that can currently be piloted by player characters) being true dogfighters.
Speaking of manoeuvers: Just like in Elite II, players have the option to use Newtonian physics in order to create a true space flight experience, allowing you to turn 180° with engines off to fly backwards in order to blast pursueing opponents with your forward lasers. By default, however, the onboard computer uses a Flight Assist mode and a series of small thrusters to simulate atmospheric flight - for example, if you cut your main engines, retro-rockets will automatically engage to slow your ship down. However, you can switch Flight Assist on and off at any time at the simple push of a button. The developers also married realism to convenience when they gave players the option to deactivate external sounds, which have been fluffed to be an artificial recreation of your ship for increased pilot awareness. As the following video will show, the ships will also have subsystems that can be targeted individually; blowing up a transport's cargo hatch will cause it to "leak" canisters full of precious loot, which can subsequently be picked up - provided your ship is equipped with a cargo scoop - and sold on the black market.
The final game will offer over 100 billion star systems, procedurally generated, using real life science data such as that gained by the Kepler mission to make sure celestial bodies and distances between them are accurately scaled. True to its sandbox roots, players will be able to slip into a variety of different roles, from traders to explorers, from pirates to bounty hunters, and mix or swap between them as they see fit (and their standing with local system law allows). The game will have both an offline as well as an online mode.
Elite: Dangerous also plans to feature an intricate background simulation to reflect player influence on economical, political and military issues, creating appropriate events in return. The level of detail will be such that, for example, there will be three different ways to manage heat dissipation (which directly affects how fast your ship will show up on active scans; this is already live in the Alpha), and as a slave trader you may sometimes even find systems willing to buy slaves killed by transport safety negligience as if you were selling "food" or "medical supplies".
As for me? I'm planning to become a bounty hunter in the Independent Systems, flying a decommissioned police Viper and bullying random transport captains into cutting their engines so I can scan them for outstanding bounties.
Elite: Dangerous will go into Premium Beta at the 30th this month. Anyone willing to pony up the cash to become an Alpha backer can still do so until the 25th and receive a lifetime 50% discount on ship insurances.
This actually sounds pretty freaking awesome. One part of it sounds like cowboy bebop and another sounds like 'eve online' (sort of).
Is there a lore to this game? If people get to fight in interstellar wars that sounds good to me as well.
So I'm not sure what I'd like to do. I don't know if I'd be a trader. I might pick something like pirate or bounty hunter just to give them a shot. Being a pirate sounds like being a d*ck though. What about scavengers? For instance you navigate debris and wreckage from destroyed space craft and pick up anything that might be valuable (spare parts from ships to re-use them). Not totally legal but similar to taking stuff off of a person's corpse and selling it. Still technically not a good thing to do because it probably belongs to whoever is in the person's will but hey it was going to waste in the vacuum of space.
The game has a lot of potential for story and a fantastic award winning story at that.
That bit makes me laugh somehow. It's probably a marketing strategy and you got totally owned by it ;P. I mean to be fair they give you discounts but getting a discount is something people tend to rush for if it's something they really want. Decisions made in haste tend to be bad ones when you think about them (for instance pre-purchases for games which turn out to suck *erm* aliens: colonial marines *erm*) and if they add an allotted time to it that just forces you to speed buy since you don't know when you'll get it so cheap again. I'm not sure if i heard about this correctly but somebody could also scam people into backing these games, not finish and then totally run off with cash you gave virtually (i think i heard about this happening second-hand).
I feel like this is part of where GW fails now. I mean they probably would've succeeded if they made a box set that was cheaper and added something nobody uses to insure people bought it with the box set and allowing the box set to be cheaper than the standard bunch but they totally seem to fail at marketing I'd think.
Then again keep in mind I'm no expert. It is worth noting these things are all possibilities though. I guess you just have to realize similar steps taken by good games and bad ones or scams to take your money.
Edit: Whoops i just checked the actual link rather than heard it. You got a huge discount?! Well they probably did that to force more people into buying it in a different way or backing things in alpha. It's a way of saying 'thank you' to people that helped in the beginning and possibly to force more people to be early backers.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2014/04/19 06:25:50
Wow, That sounds absolutely amazing. Just from having a read it reminds me alot of playing Freelancer as a kid. Man I loved that game. Going to keep an eye on this!
Emperors Faithful wrote:
metallifan wrote:Maybe it's not the ROFLSTOMP that Americans are used to...
This looks extremely cool.
I was a huge fan of Elite back in the day, I played it for countless hours on my old Sinclair Spectrum 48k
If the thought of something makes me giggle for longer than 15 seconds, I am to assume that I am not allowed to do it. item 87, skippys list
DC:70S+++G+++M+++B+++I++Pw40k86/f#-D+++++A++++/cWD86R+++++T(D)DM++
Only dabbled in the original Elites as even back then my PC couldnt handle them too well.
This looks great so far. Hopefully they take it to completion, try and stay true to the genre and feel and work out any bugs/improvements needed.
I wonder will it be a huge timesink though? :(
Dman137 wrote:
goobs is all you guys will ever be
By 1-irt: Still as long as Hissy keeps showing up this is one of the most entertaining threads ever.
flamingkillamajig wrote:Is there a lore to this game?
There is, though it's by far not as extensive and detailed as, say, Star Wars or Battletech, etc.
The two major galactic powers are the Federation and the Empire of Achenar, the latter having broken away from the former, first as an independent colony of people fed up with Federation bureaucracy and corruption, then (over time) turning into hypocrites and waging wars of conquest on their neighbours. A third larger faction is the Alliance of Independent Systems which attempts to eke out an existence between the two superpowers; a loose coalition of colonies who have banded together in an effort to not get annexed by either the Federation or the Empire, treading careful to maintain their neutrality and - hopefully - their independence. There will also be lots of truly independent colonies, some of whom will be under corporate control.
There is also an insectoid alien race called Thargoids that will return in Elite: Dangerous, though David Braben has not yet revealed in what capacity. By and large, the Elite universe has always been fairly human-centric in that most alien life is simply native animals. Also, there is an unofficial ban on true AIs, with the Federation and the Empire sabotaging and suppressing research into this area:
flamingkillamajig wrote:What about scavengers? For instance you navigate debris and wreckage from destroyed space craft and pick up anything that might be valuable (spare parts from ships to re-use them). Not totally legal but similar to taking stuff off of a person's corpse and selling it. Still technically not a good thing to do because it probably belongs to whoever is in the person's will but hey it was going to waste in the vacuum of space.
I suppose scavenging is possible, but dangerous. Most military and paramiltiary forces won't bother to pick up cargo and debris of destroyed ships (or rather, they won't be able to, as their specialised ships have sacrificed cargo space for additional armaments), and even pirates may not be able to pick up everything some huge transport "drops".
flamingkillamajig wrote:You got a huge discount?! Well they probably did that to force more people into buying it in a different way or backing things in alpha. It's a way of saying 'thank you' to people that helped in the beginning and possibly to force more people to be early backers.
Yeah, the thing is, I don't think the discounts were supposed to stack. My backer status was for the Standard Beta, and when I purchased Premium Beta access I got the (significant) backer's discount for already having invested into the game. However, there is also a discount for upgrading from Premium Beta to Alpha, which is what I did. And it looks like I got the Standard Beta discount again, and added to the Premium Beta discount.
All in all, I've spent £36 to upgrade from my £80 kickstarter pledge to the £200 Alpha access.
I actually think this is no longer possible, as right now you have to contact their customer support if you want to upgrade. Perhaps they've noticed the shop discount is buggy? Guess I got lucky.
Ratius wrote:I wonder will it be a huge timesink though? :(
I guess it has the potential for it, but ultimately it depends on you and what you want out of the game. You see, Elite: Dangerous is intentionally avoiding player-run corporations a la Eve in an effort to focus gameplay on individual pilots rather than huge guilds. You can still form ad-hoc teams with others, but you won't see the game directly support permanent "guilds" with hundreds of players and their own starbases or stuff like that. For some, this will be a disadvantage compared to Eve Online, but I believe this will provide a better basis for players who just don't have the time to commit to some huge guild in order to get the most out of the game. Instead, you simply log in whenever you feel like it, and then do your thing. How long? That depends on your own discipline. The important thing is that, unlike in Eve, you won't feel like you're "missing out" on something.
Elite: Dangerous also plans to offer user-defined instancing in that you will be able to play within the following parameters:
- All Players: the standard; you can end up with any other player in the same system
- Personal Group: the only other players you'll meet are the ones you add to a list of allies/friends. by removing every other player you can also set this list so that you will only encounter NPCs - Dangerous Group: like the All Players group, but reserved for "Ironmode" players (permadeath)
Personally, I'm already having a blast in the Alpha just by undocking, then warping to the Federated Bond Zone and shooting a couple pirates before I return to Port Zelada and park my ship in the station's bowels. I'm currently saving for a Cobra Mk III - only ~30.000 credits to go!
Spoiler:
The bow of Dreadnought Impeccable, the Federation Battle Cruiser from the Capital Ship Battle trailer. And yes, I could not resist the opportunity to fly through its tunnels either!
Spoiler:
Cool detail: This happens when you shut off everything that produces heat.
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2014/04/19 18:06:06
Lynata wrote: As for me? I'm planning to become a bounty hunter in the Independent Systems, flying a decommissioned police Viper and bullying random transport captains into cutting their engines so I can scan them for outstanding bounties.
I think I'd like to play with you. I'd pretend to be on your side as a buddy. Then i'd be the d*ck that when you scan for an outlaw I'd go right behind you and shoot your ship to death and then kill the outlaw or trader.
I can imagine it right now.
Lynata: "WTF?! Why'd you do that? Oh you son of a b*tch!"
other person: "Wtf is going on? I'm still confused what just happened but I know that it sucks."
I'll look at more of this when my final exam in my physics 2 class is done tomorrow. I'll be busy a while till then. This game looks like a lot of fun. Not sure what the docking station would be like. Is there stuff to do on foot?
Also just wondering but can you wait for a while after somebody leaves their space craft and then totally just jump into it and hijack it and fly it out of the docking station? Would that work or would it get shot down? I think I may be starting something really bad lol. Not sure if I would do that for later on vessels. I'd be a huge *sshole to do that.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/04/21 22:55:38
At first I thought it was just a cheap version of star citizen and EVE. I watched someone play and all I really see (and saw from many other sources) was people going to the combat zones, getting money and upgrading their ship, rinse and repeat. Upon researching it lacked mamy things I liked from the space sim's and 2 specific from star citizen and we alike.
Generic space sim's
1. Lack of depth
2. Lack of roles (merchant, scammer etc)
3. Ship variety
4. Large amounts of people in an instance
EVE
1. Trading and economy, this speaks for itself
2. Factions and politics
Star citizen
1. Multiple players in a single ship, controlling different parts
2. Out of ship roles and play, star citizen promises ship boarding and FPS gameplay in many aspects
So overall I still feel it's simply a cheap version of the game, gonna wait still SC, but please do prove me wrong I'd like this game to be a cheaper earlier SC. Are these views just simply my perspective and what I'm seeing, is their info I'm missing?
It will have all the planets in 1:1 scale. That is, compared with your ship, the sun will be the size of the sun, and it's not even the largest star you can get to. You could even land on planets and go around cities and mountains, though that was more of a bonus and just something that could be done.
In terms of roles, you can be whatever you want. There's three 'main' factions that you travel around between their systems, and independent worlds. Each (at least should) have their own feel and background, with different things being legal or illegal in each, and different missions.
In terms of space sims, Elite is the great grandfather of them all too, but it remains to be seen if this lives up to the legacy.
This is on my list of things to throw money at, has been for a long time now lol.
Anyone else feel that kickstarter has resuscitated the space game genre? Between Star Citizen, Novus Aeterno, The Mandate, and Elite: Dangerous, chaos0xomega is going to have more star systems to explore than he has time left in his life.
CoALabaer wrote: Wargamers hate two things: the state of the game and change.
The Dark Apostle wrote:At first I thought it was just a cheap version of star citizen and EVE. I watched someone play and all I really see (and saw from many other sources) was people going to the combat zones, getting money and upgrading their ship, rinse and repeat.
That's because they've just begun rolling out the game. At this moment, Star Citizen only has a hangar you can walk around in, yet you wouldn't assume this is all the game is going to be (I hope)
The Dark Apostle wrote:Upon researching it lacked mamy things I liked from the space sim's and 2 specific from star citizen and we alike. [...]
Wut? Okay, I'm not sure where you did that research, but I'll address your list point by point, posting a link to where you can get information about what you believe the game won't have.
Let's start with roles. The Design Discussion Archives on the Elite forums are full of information for various mechanics and gameplay elements, including those relevant to the roles you may slip into, amongst them:
Bounty Hunter, Explorer, Miner, Passenger Transport, Pirate, Smuggler and Trader.
That's all I was able to find right now, but since previous Elite games also included mercenary contracts for corporations and militaries as well as small courier jobs, I almost expect those to be present in ED as well.
I would say that these roles also tie in directly with depth, but would agree that they're not the only thing determining it. So here are DDA documents about the background simulation, injected events and meta-game as well as NPC interaction. For good measure, here is also a newsletter interview about how they're going to recreate the entire galaxy as a playing field using procedurally generated content.
For ships, there is this page that shows you the craft from previous titles, which all have a very good chance at making a reappearance. The Alpha in its current state only has three of the oldtimers (Anaconda, Cobra, Sidewinder) as well as an entirely new design (Federation Starfighter), but here is a newsletter extract where they're detailing how to expand the military of the Empire of Achenar, which is just one of the major factions.
As for players per instance, I believe right now it's capped at 32 plus AI ships, though they are experimenting with ways on upping the limit. That being said, for the type of game that Elite is, I'd say 32 is a good number already. Of course, the more the merrier, but it's sufficient. Keep in mind that Elite is intentionally avoiding huge player-run conglomerates, instead focusing on canon corporations and factions and keeping players' roles limited to that of agents. The advantage of this approach is that people who don't have a lot of time won't feel left out just because they cannot commit to the second life that is guild membership.
As far as out-of-ship gameplay is concerned, though, they have not promised anything. It's something they'd like to do later on, but it's not on their radar right now as they are focusing on the space part as a core element of the game. You could say this makes Elite the smaller project, but on the other hand it also means its release is already in foreseeable future, whereas with Star Citizen it looks like they'll still take years to finish, at which point they may have to re-work what they already have because the assets will no longer hold up to current (future) standards. I have no idea what the average SC backer is like, but based on what I read about their expectations I keep thinking "has everyone forgotten Daikatana already?" - maybe this is just me being cautious or not having enough vision, but by setting lower (if still high, compared to the rest of the industry sans Chris Roberts) goals, ED actually comes across as being much more level-headed and realistic. I hope I'm wrong about SC, though, as I don't actually see both games being real competitors, in spite of the shared genre. They take two different roads and can easily co-exist as they cater to different types of players, with ED being more sandbox but SC being more detailed. The same goes for EVE and its focus on huge player guilds, which neither ED nor SC will be able to recreate. Either way, after such a long dry spell, it's safe to say that space sim fans are looking at a bright future.
Oh, and I hope I'm not coming across as antagonistic or something - I'm just slowly becoming hyped about Elite now that I've had a chance to try it. If it manages to pull off only half of what the developers are working on (as per the Design Discussion documents), I'll be in spacer heaven. Already, the simple act of docking makes me feel like Mal Reynolds just because of how detailed everything looks and sounds.
chaos0xomega wrote:Anyone else feel that kickstarter has resuscitated the space game genre? Between Star Citizen, Novus Aeterno, The Mandate, and Elite: Dangerous, chaos0xomega is going to have more star systems to explore than he has time left in his life.
I guess so. Kickstarter enables developers to circumvent the "established industry wisdom" that dominates the publishing sector, stifling creativity by attempting to predict a game's success (and thus the amount of available funding) based almost entirely on recent sales and trends - thus leading to sequel after lame sequel rather than brave experiments that would actually move gaming forward. Space sims in particular have suffered from this "corporate approach", and I'm glad we have KS to save the day.
I've backed the Mandate, too. And Galactic Princess. Check out dat groovy music~
Oh, and I hope I'm not coming across as antagonistic or something - I'm just slowly becoming hyped about Elite now that I've had a chance to try it. If it manages to pull off only half of what the developers are working on (as per the Design Discussion documents), I'll be in spacer heaven. Already, the simple act of docking makes me feel like Mal Reynolds just because of how detailed everything looks and sounds.
Perhaps you should've started off with that. When I first read what you said in my head it sounded like you were getting really defensive. Calm down lynata we know you have the info to back up just about everything you say.
You mean Malcolm Reynolds from 'firefly'? I'd actually imagine his second in command is more like you. Tough woman and marries a funny pilot which I actually didn't enjoy too much but other people liked him. My favorite character was either the priest or Jayne.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/04/23 02:08:58
In terms of multiplayer, is it kind of like a game where you can group up and hang around in the same 'world' while antagonists will be more like "Dark Spirit xXheRONbroDeAtHsMiLeSbObXx has invaded"?
Daba wrote:In terms of multiplayer, is it kind of like a game where you can group up and hang around in the same 'world' while antagonists will be more like "Dark Spirit xXheRONbroDeAtHsMiLeSbObXx has invaded"?
Hmm, not sure I understand the question correctly. Do you mean like laying claim to a system and killing any trespassers?
Elite Dangerous is kind of like an open world sandbox game - well, not truly sandbox, but in that it's entirely up to you how you pass your time and what role you want to play in space. Unlike with Eve Online, players won't have the ability to become political powers in their own right - but in theory you can group up with likeminded pilots and focus on a specific star system to do whatever you feel like, up to and including turning to piracy and hunting down anyone who drops out of hyperspace. Some systems - especially the ones on the frontier and in unexplored space - will lack an organised government, corporate entity or any other type of system authority that "cares" for what happens in the area, so you may not even get a bounty posted on your head. You can also hire AI wingmen to help you out - though criminally minded wingmen (the ones most likely to offer their services to a criminal player) may betray and turn on you! Of course, you can also choose to raid systems aligned with a faction, given that they are more likely to be well-travelled and better equipped with facilities to support your group - however, the game will react to your interference, sooner or later.
"For entities that belong to a faction (the Alliance, Federation and Empire) there is a safety net provided by those factions. When an entity attempts to generate an event and lacks the wealth to do so, it uses its faction’s lookup table to generate a faction event for the event type.
For example an Imperial system has been plagued with pirates; it has issued missions which no player has completed. This cycle continues, with more player pirates pushing the entity into a downward spiral. Eventually it is no longer able to generate missions and so receives a faction support event. This is an Imperial task force of a cruiser with several squadrons of fighters. These suppress the pirates and order is restored." - Design Discussion Archive: the Background Sim
These events can even attract and involve other players, as once a faction gets involved it may also generate missions:
"As the background simulation now has influence from the warring faction, it will generate events and missions linked to that war. If players complete missions relating to negotiating peace and ending the war, and react in the right way to events, they could stop the war and mitigate the effects of the Injected Event." - Design Discussion Archive: Injected Events
On a sidenote, just yesterday I experienced first-hand how system authorities can interfere with your plans! There's a minefield in the Zelada system that is used by NPCs to mine resources, which makes it a popular zone for player pirates to steal cargo. I noticed a Sidewinder Scout with a 100cr bounty on its head and proceeded to engage him - however, after the successful kill, I got both the 100cr added to my account ... and a 300cr bounty on my head because I apparently shot down someone who was under protection of Magnopolis jurisdiction (Magnopolis is an Imperial corporation that's active in the area). I was able to clear out before anyone noticed the price tag and got the bounty cleared at Port Zelada, but I had to pay 600cr, which means I made a loss of 500. Grr! Guess I should invest in a proper bounty scanner to prevent such mistakes in the future.
On the plus side, today I scooped up a canister of cargo that some pirate must've let behind (probably because their hold was full - even a Cobra cannot carry as much as an Anaconda, which is what most miners are using there), and managed to sell it as "Iron Ore (stolen)" for 1,000cr on the black market. Speaking of the cargo scoop ... it's surprisingly tricky! I'm not sure if this is because my small ship has such a tiny cargo bay door and the canisters are so large, or if I'm just lacking practice, but getting the canister aboard took me four attempts even with computer assistance (you get a small "widget" of sorts, an extra screen with crosshairs and a wireframe model of the cargo you want to bring aboard).
Uh, and a couple days ago I had a near-death experience in the Federal Combat Bond Zone! Some genius apparently just got their hands on a pair of gimballed beam lasers and wanted to try how fast they can burn through another player's hull - or more exactly, the canopy, for he was aiming directly at my cockpit! I had a decompression and had to switch into emergency gear, and opted to "play dead" by cutting my engines. Dunno if I fooled him or if he was just a sadist who wanted to see me suffocate, but he ceased fire and approached to scan me, and didn't notice the energy build-up of my hyperdrive. Fortunately, Port Zelada was only a single lightyear away ...
Spoiler:
See those cracks? But ... damn, what a landing! I don't think I've ever rushed into port at that speed. Made it with 45 seconds to spare!
@Lynata: So is this why you've been too busy to talk lately? Well at least you're having fun. This game sounds like fun.
Sounds like quick thinking on your part and a bit of luck he didn't just blow you to hell. Perhaps the person was going to inspect cargo or something? I wouldn't know since I don't know enough on the game.
For some reason your images are no longer popping up for me. I don't know why that is.
I don't spend more time on Elite than I did on previous games I played, I just spend less time on dakka by not posting on the background section anymore.
But yes, I suspect the other pilot was scanning for cargo. Not that I had any at that time - I've only begun doing salvage ops this weekend by picking up leftovers at the asteroid field. My biggest catch so far: a ton of Alcohol worth 5k credits.
The downside: Just as I got enough cash to buy a Cobra, I took the ship out for a maiden voyage and immediately had it destroyed by a known bug. So much for my past 2 weeks of grind, I guess. Just my luck. Fortunately, the final game will offer a "safety net" in the form of insurances and debtors, though, so stuff like this wouldn't happen once it's actually live.
chaos0xomega wrote:LOL cute bobblehead on your dashboard there. I so need to get this game.
Thanks! It's one of two options currently available. I imagine the game will have more as cosmetic micro-transactions later on.
It's certainly a cute addition to the otherwise gritty, industrial look of the cockpit, especially due to how it accompanies ship movements and impacts.
On a sidenote, props to the Elite team for including all those movie quotes in their design discussion thread titles.
Lynata wrote: I don't spend more time on Elite than I did on previous games I played, I just spend less time on dakka by not posting on the background section anymore.
But yes, I suspect the other pilot was scanning for cargo. Not that I had any at that time - I've only begun doing salvage ops this weekend by picking up leftovers at the asteroid field. My biggest catch so far: a ton of Alcohol worth 5k credits.
The downside: Just as I got enough cash to buy a Cobra, I took the ship out for a maiden voyage and immediately had it destroyed by a known bug. So much for my past 2 weeks of grind, I guess. Just my luck. Fortunately, the final game will offer a "safety net" in the form of insurances and debtors, though, so stuff like this wouldn't happen once it's actually live.
chaos0xomega wrote:LOL cute bobblehead on your dashboard there. I so need to get this game.
Thanks! It's one of two options currently available. I imagine the game will have more as cosmetic micro-transactions later on.
It's certainly a cute addition to the otherwise gritty, industrial look of the cockpit, especially due to how it accompanies ship movements and impacts.
On a sidenote, props to the Elite team for including all those movie quotes in their design discussion thread titles.
I laugh at the idea you got a ton of alcohol. It's like if there could be any bigger stereotypes than you being in Ireland as a german selling alcohol to them.
I can't remember what game that bobblehead is from. I think it was called parrappa the rappa or something? I never played it.
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Yeah dakka is kind of boring to me which is part of the reason I'm only adding posts in your threads. I just don't know what to really be interested in since I'm mostly into warhammer fantasy and somehow I just am not as into it as I used to be. The only other threads I care to update in is the "what are you playing now" thread and not much else. I stay away from the off-topic as much as possible since people would just interpret whatever you say into something else or make something out of it that you didn't mean. I miss the off-topic in some smaller forums though where you could just talk to people and get to know them. Sure it was sometimes more hostile with the other posters but at least you'd talk about interesting things. Dakka doesn't have random topics for whatever you feel like talking about and with the size of the forum it'd just end up going in horrible places.
Sometimes I just wish dakka was a smaller forum.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/04/28 05:37:12
So yesterday, Frontier released Alpha 4 with quite a number of new features:
Frontier Development wrote:Alpha 4 vastly expands scale, scope and depth over the previous Alpha versions. Set within a 200 cubic light-year volume containing five star systems in contested space with spectacular sights such as an unusual quaternary star system and ringed gas giants.
With five ships to pilot and a huge choice of weaponry, Elite: Dangerous Alpha 4 offers total freedom as you trade your way through the star systems, pirate, hunt for bounties, and become immersed in exploration and combat.
They've refined a number of mechanics, and the new locations certainly feel nice and offer a plethora of new opportunities. The level of detail in particular continues to amaze me - they actually have different voice sets for automated station announcements, so depending on which port you're docking at you may hear different voices. Undoubtedly the best thing in the Alpha, however, is the sense of freedom and immersion you gain from the galaxy map and the hyperdrive. Zooming out of the map suddenly makes you feel incredibly insignificant when you notice that even those huge interstellar power blocs of the Terran Federation, the Empire of Achenar, and the Independent Alliance of Systems who control numerous worlds and are an almost omnipresent influence in your neighbourhood ... are really just a tiny little speck in some ass-end corner of the galaxy.
You can also do a bit of exploration, although caution is recommended - it seems there is a new pirate tactic that consists of small groups of raiders dropping beacons, only to engage the first ship that comes looking to run a scan.
I have to say the hyperdrive sequence almost feels a bit creepy, though, as if you're flying through the Warp.
Using the new hyper- and frame shift drives does seem to take a bit of practice, though. Translating back into realspace too soon causes you to drop out in a huge distance from your destination, whilst waiting too long runs a risk of your vessel becoming trapped in the mass shadow of a planar body and forcefully being pulled out of supercruise, potentially risking drive and systems damage. The same thing goes for attempting to drop out of supercruise without decelerating first. There's a safety mechanism that prevents you from accidentally disengaging the frame shift drive beyond a certain velocity, but by pressing the corresponding button twice you can force an "emergency stop", if you don't mind your ship spinning out of control as the bubble responsible for warping space and gravity collapses whilst the ship is still in transit. Since there is a certain risk of ship destruction, this is probably a button you do not want to press accidentally, but the ship's computer does warn you about this.
Also: dem rings!
Spoiler:
New ships are also available, such as the Eagle, shown here in the employ of corporate security:
Spoiler:
The craft which more or less defined 'light fighter' is still a viable choice for the courier or less-well-off bounty hunter. It is not a craft meant for prolonged combat, but is the very devil to try and nail with even a beam laser, so a skilled pilot will be able to survive much longer than you would otherwise think. The Eagle Mk II, produced by the Federal Military Research Directorate, was an upgrade to the ubiquitous Mk I Long Range Fighter. Although there was much hype at its launch, this was quickly overshadowed by controversy when the extent of the poor design became public.
The Mark II involved seven years of design work, and the released product was slightly larger and faster with debatably improved looks. However, the retro thrusters were poor by even shuttle standards at four gees.
Other deficiencies and inadequacies were found quickly. After a Mk II imploded on lift-off, killing the pilot, an inquisition was launched into the design. Although no 'smoking guns' were found, the Federal Military Research Directorate never fully recovered from the incident.
Notable Features The Mk II remains one of the faster small ships on the market, and has decent capacity for outfitting as a fighter. It is also highly manoeuvrable, making it hard to target in combat. Due to this small size however, it also cannot take much punishment.
Disadvantages The retro rockets are inexcusably weak at just about four gees. Most pilots will forgo the autopilot and do a manual flip at the centrepoint of their journey, using the craft's main engines to decelerate.
Another disadvantage of this craft is its size. You will not be able to fit a lot in there, and to try is merely to ask more of the craft than it is able to give.
In Elite II, it has a a hyperspace range of just 8ly with a class 1 hyperdrive, which isn't really enough. This makes it a horrible starting ship, since the standard class 2 drive won't fit and the military version will be beyond your budget for some time.
Verdict A perfect craft to learn any of the more aggressive trades on, the Eagle will give you long and distinguished service in any role you ask of it... provided you only ask it to be a nippy little pest of a combat ship.
So did you have any more updates on this game? I might be interested but there are just way too many games I would like to play and I dunno if I could very easily.
I am somewhat interested though but not as much as I was with shadowrun returns which was admittedly a lot.
Game looks neat and thanks for the write up OP Sadly (not really) I have thrown a lot of money into the development of Star Citizen so I am firmly in that camp, but I wish great success to all of the PC Centric reboots of our cherished Space Sims.
Yeah, I threw money at Star Citizen too, doesn't mean I cant spare $50-$100 on elite dangerous either.... although I would almost rather spend $100+ to get an Anvil Hornet (or variant) for Starcitizen, that thing just looks like sex with wings.
CoALabaer wrote: Wargamers hate two things: the state of the game and change.
The important thing is that, unlike in Eve, you won't feel like you're "missing out" on something.
