Elite : Dangerous

[kalniel]

The flip side of that, I was wondering before the paid expansion came out just how FD were going to fund continued development and running of the game.

I have the mug and a shirt, but there is only so many mugs and shirts I can buy so that isn't a long term solution.

High priced yearly 'expansions' is a pretty neat and sustainable way of doing it. New players can either come in at the all included level, or pick up an old version for bargain budget and hopefully (from the devs perspective) be tempted enough to go for the full price in the future.

Reminds me a bit of Guild Wars.

[DanceswithUnix]

The last community goal with trading rares on nearly a 1 hour round trip, I read someone saying they had a second account which they could use to load up the ship of their main account.

At a tenner a pop, that was actually quite tempting

[kalniel]

The last community goal with trading rares on nearly a 1 hour round trip, I read someone saying they had a second account which they could use to load up the ship of their main account.

At a tenner a pop, that was actually quite tempting

Or you could, you know, work with another player Multiple accounts is too much like buying in game gold for my liking

[DanceswithUnix]

Or you could, you know, work with another player Multiple accounts is too much like buying in game gold for my liking

I did look around. It seems that if you were lucky then at the start of the CG you could pile in with one of the big trucking gangs. Given the low cost of buying the rare goods I would have happily donated a few loads.

In reality, going into open just had me staring at a not very busy spaceport or on one case a port with lots of angry people because some griefer had parked a Python on the only medium sized landing pad of the outpost so there was a queue of people waiting to get their 12T allowance and nowhere to land.

Edit to add: Needless to say I just relogged in Solo.

[Ttaskmaster]

I'm going to have to have a play with this. I think you have to scan a ship before you open fire on it to get a decent payout, but I am not totally sure.

To find out if they're wanted locally, you do, yes.
However, the KWS works while you're shooting them up!

You know, if there was a proper bounty hunting game, where you had to race to get the big bounties before other PCs got there, that might almost persuade me to invest in E: D.

Even a moderate one would be good, if you had to chase them down across the galaxy. Don't care about other players, but actually hunting them, following clues, last knowns, FSD trails and the like...

I've been following the discussions here for a while now, and while it sounds like there's a reasonable breadth of game there, I don't see enough depth in any aspect to persuade me yet.

With 400 billion systems to deepen, it's taking a while. But each player will have their own ideas on what that depth is anyway...

And of course there's always the twin concerns of the always-on connection and the fact that I'd need to build a new gaming PC to run it...

It's more of a sporadic connection to download new data from the server, really, especially in Solo. I've been watching my data transfer in-game and it's not constantly active like in an MMO/Online Shooter.

High priced yearly 'expansions' is a pretty neat and sustainable way of doing it.

Particularly as they don't tack on subscription fees like other games.

[scaryjim]

Sounds like just the excuse you've been waiting for

... I do know someone who built a gaming PC just for this game so you wouldn't be the first. Go on, the void is calling to you...

Heh, it's always going to be tempting, but I don't think I'd sink enough hours into to justify the outlay: I just don't spend that much time gaming anymore (or at least, not on a computer...!). Plus at the moment I have other financial priorities.

But you never know, in a few year's time.... certainly I like the idea of landable planets. Now if I can just get out of my ship when I'm down there and do a bit of in-person exploring too....

[DanceswithUnix]

But you never know, in a few year's time.... certainly I like the idea of landable planets. Now if I can just get out of my ship when I'm down there and do a bit of in-person exploring too....

Well that is one step on from getting out of the ship an into a rover, so I wouldn't be surprised if it happened.

I am intrigued by the idea of multi crew ships too. Wonder how that will work, front and rear gunners would be handy in the Anaconda but compared to having a couple of people out there winging up I expect you would be down on firepower and specially if they are in something like a Vulture or FAS lack of agility compared to escort fighters might be a bit lacking too.

OTOH, with 450T of cargo space, if someone with a 25T Sidewinder wants to sling it in the cargo bay I could happily let them lounge in the co-pilot seat for a long trip

[scaryjim]

Well that is one step on from getting out of the ship an into a rover, so I wouldn't be surprised if it happened.

I'll keep everything crossed

I am intrigued by the idea of multi crew ships too. Wonder how that will work ...

Dedicated gunners for side/rear/top/undercarriage shooting would be pretty cool: I guess if they were bringing it in they could look at introducing some even bigger ships to make it worthwhile: a huge transport with a small fighter wing for escort and several manned turrets would be impressive to watch!

Another option on larger ships might be to have engineering crews? Would depend on the ship set-up though I guess: it looks like that's all handled automatically through profiles at the minute?

... OTOH, with 450T of cargo space, if someone with a 25T Sidewinder wants to sling it in the cargo bay I could happily let them lounge in the co-pilot seat for a long trip

Heh, if they could add in-flight docking you could easily have a flight bay to hold a few escort fighters. Set up a trading guild with players around the globe and you could probably have a large guild ship piloted by human pilots 24/7, with people dropping into and out of the captain's chair as they came online, and with a few spare hands to man the escort wing.... so many options....

[Ttaskmaster]

Heh, it's always going to be tempting, but I don't think I'd sink enough hours into to justify the outlay:

I said that about buying Skyrim.... 300hrs later and I still have loads of quests and things I want to do!

Now if I can just get out of my ship when I'm down there and do a bit of in-person exploring too....

That has been mentioned a few times by the Devs, so I expect this will happen.
We're already getting customisable avatar-thingies for our pilot in-game. That is confirmed as part of the Horizons expansion.

I am intrigued by the idea of multi crew ships too. Wonder how that will work,

Same as Star Citizen, I expect. Go watch some vids of their latest PTU Alpha demo thing... just imagine it with more than 15-20fps, yeh?
TBH, if you're doing shields, engines, science or whatever, SC gives you a couple of screens and that's it. I imagine Elite will give you a LOT more to do than just that.

Dedicated gunners for side/rear/top/undercarriage shooting would be pretty cool:

My concern is how they would allow such gameplay for those who play alone. No point having a multi-crew ship if you don't have any crew to crew it.
Star Cit claims you can hire/own NPCs to do it for you, although they will never be as good as humans.

a huge transport with a small fighter wing for escort and several manned turrets would be impressive to watch!

The Federal Corvette and the Imperial version (Cutter?) can already carry a couple of fighters each. You can fly these now, I believe... if you have the space-wonga, of course .

Another option on larger ships might be to have engineering crews? Would depend on the ship set-up though I guess: it looks like that's all handled automatically through profiles at the minute?

But what would tehy do and how much fun would it be/not be?
This is Elite, not Pulsar. The latter is specifically designed around a multi-crew ship. I just can't think what would keep someone busy enough down in the engine bay in Elite...

[DanceswithUnix]

Heh, if they could add in-flight docking you could easily have a flight bay to hold a few escort fighters. Set up a trading guild with players around the globe and you could probably have a large guild ship piloted by human pilots 24/7, with people dropping into and out of the captain's chair as they came online, and with a few spare hands to man the escort wing.... so many options....

Sounds like the sort of way they are headed. Not seen many details yet, but a few snippets like this: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015...ns-expansions/

[DanceswithUnix]

The Federal Corvette and the Imperial version (Cutter?) can already carry a couple of fighters each. You can fly these now, I believe... if you have the space-wonga, of course .

Am currently back on doing missions to try and get high enough rank to buy a Corvette. Am closer to a Cutter than a Corvette in terms of rank, but that Corvette just looks so nice Would have to sell every ship in my fleet to buy one, but hopefully by the time I rank up I will have the money.

[scaryjim]

Sounds like the sort of way they are headed. Not seen many details yet, but a few snippets like this: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015...ns-expansions/

ooooh, OK, so if I hang on for a bit longer everyone else can beta-test all the new stuff then I can jump in once it's mature and people know how it's going to work? Cool

[Ttaskmaster]

Am closer to a Cutter than a Corvette in terms of rank, but that Corvette just looks so nice

I got on better with the Corvette.
The Cutter is cool for cargo rund, IIRC, but the Corvette was more my thing.

ooooh, OK, so if I hang on for a bit longer everyone else can beta-test all the new stuff then I can jump in once it's mature and people know how it's going to work? Cool

Speaking as a beta tester myself.... yes, kinda, sort-of...
Some things, definitely, but it's all subject to change, right up to teh moment they release it... and maybe afterwards, still.

Beta is about bug-finding and minor things, but they do listen to our feedback and change how things work if we find something really naff.

Generally the basics remain and we'll happily tell you what's in store.

[scaryjim]

I doubt I'll be jumping in this year anyway: too much life stuff to worry massively about spacey computer games! But if they drop in personal avatar exploration and multi-crew ships (really like the idea of being someone's belly gunner: it'd be just like that scene in the original star wars where Luke is blasting Ties in the Falcon's gun turrets ) and get it right that might offset my concerns about the always on connection: I wouldn't want that just for a space trading game, but once you start you start bringing in those collaborative and face-to-face elements you're moving on to a really quite different beast to the original Elite....

[DanceswithUnix]

ooooh, OK, so if I hang on for a bit longer everyone else can beta-test all the new stuff then I can jump in once it's mature and people know how it's going to work? Cool

Nah, there is always something that is new stuff so you would never jump in if you do that. They come out with new ships faster than I can buy them for my collection for starters

[Lowe]

The only limitation with multi crew currently is that it is still limited to four people, i.e if you have 3 in (say) an Anaconda, then you can only have one human escort. So no '16 player' 4up Anaconda wings.