Elite : Dangerous

[cbdeakin]

I found that playing Elite: Dangerous takes some patience to play, due to the time consuming super cruising travel system. Generally, I've noticed this isn't something most Elite: Dangerous players would like to see changed.

I wanted to make some 'easy' money as a trader, in a large cargo ship. But, what I found is, you need to invest hundreds of hours into the game to get anywhere. Many players pass the time by watching Netflix / a favourite TV show on another screen.

Logically, I suppose as the developers add more detail to the procedurally generated Universe, there would be less need to extend the travel times with Super cruise, or add other faster travel mechanics / shortcuts e.g. wormholes, should be reduced.

I will give the game another go, as the idea of piloting a 2-3 man ship with my brother and a friend is quite appealing. You can also land on planets now I think, and didn't they add aliens recently?

[Ttaskmaster]

I found that playing Elite: Dangerous takes some patience to play, due to the time consuming super cruising travel system. Generally, I've noticed this isn't something most Elite: Dangerous players would like to see changed.

Supercruise isn't so bad for the most part.
It'd be nice to have some Fast Travel options, but I think too many new players would just use that unless you had to go to each one the hard way and unlock them (or establish some of your own in the case of uncharted systems).

From its beginnings in an era of Hi-Score and three lives only, this game was always something in which the pinnacle that was supposed to take time to reach. ED is no different in that regard. It's also why I liked the steep learning curve, as it was like learning to drive... I just got annoyed when they completely changed all the rules of the road.

The hard part, for which even I do not have the patience, is the grind and faffing around with stuff like Engineers. I was perfectly happy with the base level mods. It's nice to have Engineers as a option, perhaps available for sale only to those of very high status or something... but to make it pretty much mandatory in order to just survive is where they start taking away the fun element of the game... and it is supposed to be a game, rather than Job Simulator In Space

[[GSV]Trig]

I haven't played in a long time, it's still installed, but purely because I have the space on the drive..

[badass]

I wanted to make some 'easy' money as a trader, in a large cargo ship. But, what I found is, you need to invest hundreds of hours into the game to get anywhere. Many players pass the time by watching Netflix / a favourite TV show on another screen.

Logically, I suppose as the developers add more detail to the procedurally generated Universe, there would be less need to extend the travel times with Super cruise, or add other faster travel mechanics / shortcuts e.g. wormholes, should be reduced.

I will give the game another go, as the idea of piloting a 2-3 man ship with my brother and a friend is quite appealing. You can also land on planets now I think, and didn't they add aliens recently?

You've been able to land on planets for years if you have the horizons expansion - they made it free for everyone a few months ago. However once landed, you can only get into a vehicle to drive around and do stuff/shoot things/collect samples etc. You can also only land on zero atmosphere planets.

There's another expansion due soon where there is an FPS element that will allow landing on thin atmosphere planets. I'm guessing it will be frustratingly buggy on release so I'm going to wait.

[DanceswithUnix]

I wanted to make some 'easy' money as a trader, in a large cargo ship. But, what I found is, you need to invest hundreds of hours into the game to get anywhere. Many players pass the time by watching Netflix / a favourite TV show on another screen.

The problem is you need to really know what you are doing, and that changes over time. My son got an account a while back, and I played on that as he rapidly lost interest. I knew I needed to push for a better jump range, knew how to get it, could recognise the missions that were worth taking. It is always going to take a while to get into your first Anaconda, but you can be blasting around in a class A Hauler having some fun pretty quickly.

I had an old friend team up with me when I started playing and basically talked me through playing for a couple of hours.

If you team up with an established player as support when bounty hunting, you can probably rack up money pretty fast.

It was a fun ride, but I haven't played for ages. Keep meaning to pop back in, so again I haven't uninstalled.

[rich835]

I pop back on the game regularly, but gone are the days where I used to clock up hours on end.
I feel I've just about exhausted everything to do in the game now. I've unlocked everything there is to unlock, made a ton of credits etc.

I bought the lifetime expansion some years ago when it was available, so I've just gained access to Odyssey Alpha. Not really playable for me yet, as the graphics need serious optimisation, but I'm keeping an eye on it :-)

[Ttaskmaster]

I've not really lost any enthusiasm for the game, and indeed getting a VR headset of my own has me ever more keen to hop in and do a load of stuff.
It's just that life itself is now the restrictive factor, really... that and people buying me other games, then insisting I actually play them!

[badass]

I'm surprised there's been no discussion around Odyssey. Has anyone bought it yet?

[DanceswithUnix]

Had considered it, but really don't think I have the time to get dragged back into it atm.

Go on then. what am I missing

[cptwhite_uk]

There's a lot of potential, but the bugs and crashing need to be addressed.

[Ttaskmaster]

I'm surprised there's been no discussion around Odyssey. Has anyone bought it yet?

I have a Lifetime Pass, so I got it automatically.
I had a quick go on the training mission, before Life™ interrupted and prevented further play. It was interesting enough, probably on par with Star Citizen when the latter is at its best... But equally, it's quite laggy and juddery, at least on my 980Ti.
It was better when simply walking around inside the station though and there have been some update patches since then. I'm actually installing the latest one right now, in fact.

I fully expect they'll get it up to standard soon enough, but whether it makes for many more hours of compelling gameplay has yet to be determined.
I'll certainly give it some more goes when I finally have the time....

For the moment, any available time will be taken up by the new Cloudpunk DLC, which is essentially a complete sequel and even bigger than the original game!

[badass]

I keep getting seriously tempted but it sounds like its buggy enough i'll get more frustration then enjoyment. I'll wait till they have released a few patches I think. Life for me is also too busy ATM to bother.

[rich835]

I've also got the Lifetime Expansion Pass, so I got Odyssey automatically.
I've put a fair few hours into it. Default graphics settings cause pretty low FPS. I've solved the problem with a few tweaks via EDProfiler. My biggest issue is with the gameplay itself, it's pretty bad compared to Frontier's usual standard.
The galaxy map, system map and outfitting have been completely re-worked and are totally non-intuitive with missing features. This should've been left alone, the previous system was superb.

In true Elite style it's very 'grindy', I don't have a massive problem with that so much, as the game has always been about exploiting the OCD in oneself. The problem is that it's pretty hit and miss, and combat of any kind will almost certainly result in death, until you get weapon and suit upgrades. I have not managed a single upgrade yet, as it's so diffcult to get the materials required without getting killed. So basically you go round in circles.

My assessment is that it's the most untested and frustrating game that FD have released to date. It's going to be a long while before they iron out all the problems, not just with bugs but with the actual game design itself, as there is so much that needs addressing.

That being said, I'm a huge fan of Elite, it's the game which I've put the most hours into. I do believe that it will get sorted, and I will stick with it!

[freebooter]

I'm surprised there's been no discussion around Odyssey. Has anyone bought it yet?

I haven't played much ED for probably well over a year as I have pretty much done everything. I sometimes start it up get half way through a task and turn it off again as I don't really have the motivation to finish. It is not a fault of the game it is just the number of hours I have played previously. I don't see anything in Odyssey that makes me want to start playing again.

I also have 3 accounts plus an Epic freebie that I have never installed. I am not going to buy 3 or 4 versions of Odyssey and wouldn't know which single account to upgrade. Perhaps I will buy it in the future when I have had more of a break and it is on sale.

[badass]

I gave into temptation a week or so ago. First impressions from less than 1 hour's gameplay are that it's are that its performance has massively tanked (20 ish FPS in space stations, 48 FPS flying towards one where previously I'd be hitting my max on radeon chill of around 120 FPS) and it's pretty buggy. It's also very dark compared to horizons. I've only done the tutorial on foot for combat as at 20 ish FPS it's too frustrating.

I'll spend a while when I get the chance tweaking graphics settings. I've already done the "delete the GFX profile" fix

[badass]

So a year later - Odyssey is much better. Still needs work. Optimisations have tripled the average frame rate for me. I looked into engineering for my on foot stuff and then decided that engineering is not for me there. On ships, the grinding is bad enough but on foot takes the absolute mickey.

NSFW! (Language)
TheYamiks gets the point across here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIR5Jga1caE