Gaming Elite: Dangerous

[Mister Kite]

Indeed, it's not Ingame as such.

When we say in-game we don't mean it's game play driven. A better way to put it is that the video is rendered in-engine. There is no game play at all in the making of the video. It's all pre scripted by animators to make a cool video that a composer can use to compose some awesome music. That was the videos purpose. Basically no part of the video reflects the games flight model. I just want to clear that up before people assume the video is an accurate reflection of what flying the ships about will be like.

 

[SHADO]

awaiting beta access

Elite Dangerous has now entered its premium beta stage. If you have any interest in what this looks like I would suggest you check out the numerous YouTube videos. I backed both this and Star Citizen. I have played the Star Citizen combat beta called “Arena Commander” which was released recently and unfortunately I found it a frustrating mess. Funny how Star Citizen was backed with 10 times the amount that Elite was but is way behind in living up to its goals.
They are both aimed at the older nostalgia player market but with Elite coming out as a finished product a year before Star Citizen, I would think it will capture a good portion of that market.
Star Citizen looks to be the more arcade like of the two but should release with FPS combat as well as ship fights.

 

[Mister Kite]

New trailer:

 

[Izack]

That looks glorious.

 

[jedidia]

Of course, the first nitpicking comment of any orbiter player must be:

You can't fly and land like that in a rotating station!

 

[Mister Kite]

It's pretty hard to do with "FlightAssist" Off.
( So they say. )

 

[jedidia]

Ah, so it's a flight assist, not physics cheat.

 

[statickid]

oh of course, flight assist. they should install that in the Dragon capsule

 

[Mister Kite]

Ah, so it's a flight assist, not physics cheat.

Sort of yeah.
There's also a varying maximum speed for varying ships.
Now what would be the purpose of that, if not for gameplay.
Still, I think it's going to be a fun game.

 

[SHADO]

A few tips on play

For anyone considering playing Elite.

Be warned there is a lot of grinding in getting enough money to stop running and hiding at every encounter.

Combat is pretty leathel until you can afford a decent ship and weapons which costs a couple of hundred thousend. You'll be lucky to earn two thousand per run so expect a lot of runs.

The system for death at the moment is also pretty harsh. If you are killed you lose your ship and cargo. You can buy some of it back when you spawn if you have any cash in the bank. If you just spent your cash on cargo you've lost the lot.

The docking computer is good fun giving you a chance to relax and look around at the great interiors of space stations but it does occasionally make mistakes and can plough you into a wall or another player.

I find the supercruise system for travelling around systems a bit lame. I would have preferred a simplified version of TransX but its still beta so you never know.

 

[jedidia]

Be warned there is a lot of grinding in getting enough money to stop running and hiding at every encounter.

That's Elite alright. Always has been :lol:

 

[JSwift]

Just stumbled across this the other day, and hey there's a thread here too.

Decided to buy into Beta 1 and check it out. I was aware of but never played Elite before (X-Wing was my main addiction in the early 90s) so this is new to me. Pretty cool so far and will be interesting to see how this develops as an MMO and how/if/when new functionality expands gameplay options. Looks like I'm going to be in grind mode for a while - let's see if the interest can be sustained. Haven't had much player interaction yet.

 

[SHADO]

other options

If you want to avoid the safer market trading option go to the nearest anarchy system and track down unidentified signal sources. They can be cargo which you can grab and sell for a reduced amount but any gold you find is worth it at 20000 credits per 4 tons. You will get killed a lot as you get jumped by much tougher ships but it will hone your combat skills and is not so tedious.

This is the 4th time I've lost my fortune and had to start again. The only other game were I've died so many times and restarted is Orbiter. :rofl:

 

[Mister Kite]

Beta 3 trailer:
(Sorry guys, can't help myself.)

 

[SHADO]

Not a space sim

I really need to get this off my chest but in several articles I have read in the game press on Elite Dangerous they have referred to the game as a “space simulator”. It is definitely not..!
When you watch a film and something happens which is impossible or very improbable then it takes you out of the moment, well this happens to me while playing Elite.
It’s basically an atmospheric flight sim set in space as when your engines are on you only reach a set speed. If you turn hard you lose momentum. Boosting speeds you up then you lose that momentum for no reason. All things you can do in an atmosphere but would have no effect in a vacuum.
I know I am nit picking what is overall a very good and overdue game but after years of using Orbiter it really seems to be going back to the days of 1980`s Buck Rodgers throwing his fighter around in space like a P51 Mustang.
Or is it just as an adult I have lost my willing suspension of disbelief?
I’m sure others can point out better examples of impossible physics in the game and don’t get me started on “super cruise”.

 

[K_Jameson]

Looking forward to it.

Frontier: Elite II was the best space simulation of all times.
The entire galaxy, 100 billions of space systems, in a floppy disk... And yes, had Newtonian physics.

 

[jedidia]

It’s basically an atmospheric flight sim set in space as when your engines are on you only reach a set speed.

I'm not following the development, so I have no Idea what flight model dangerous is going to use.
Frontier: Elite 2 was the first ever (and commercially, so far the only, appart from its successor) game to have a full gravity simulation and fully newtonian flight without a static basic frame of reference.
Alas, the controls also sucked, so that newtonian flight model didn't provide quite all the degrees of freedom it could have (there was also a bug that halved gravity when the distance switched from km to AU... oh well, no program's ever perfect).

Anyways, if any game ever deserved to be called a space sim, it certainly was Elite 2 and 3. Dangerous will probably take a more fun and less realistic approach, but the two have been combined in many games since.
Also, "spacesim" is really just the genre of games where you sit in the cockpit of some kind of spaceship and shoot stuff up, no matter the physics.

 

[jangofett287]

AFAIK, Dangerous uses full Newtonian, abstracted away behind computer controlled thrusters and probably a little bit of number fudging to reduce the barrier to entry. You can turn the computer (called flight assist) off, which gives you Newtonian flight.

 

[JSwift]

I've seen many discussions about the physics and flight model in the forums and on Reddit. There have been a lot of sacrifices to realism for the sake of gameplay as the developers try to strike a balance.

Even "flight assist off" does not revert to pure Newtonian - there are automatic speed limits to cap maximum speeds and even the direction your ship is pointing relative to your velocity vector plays a role in limiting your speed (even with zero thrust from the pilot). These types of things have been WIP since I've been part of Beta 1. Beta 2 was even less Newtonian whereas the current Beta 3 has changed it to be a bit more Newtonian - all with an eye on gameplay balance.

It's definitely not Orbiter but I'm having a lot of fun with it.

 

[SHADO]

Apparently with a real Newtonian physics flight model both combat and whizzing through asteroid fields would be nearly impossible which would kill the game for many players.

The visuals are stunning and the extra content being introduced in each update is making the game play depth and variety very entertaining. :thumbup: