Elite Dangerous 2.4 The Return Release Date Announced

Frontier Developments released a cinematic short for the upcoming update of Elite Dangerous. Entitled Elite Dangerous 2.4 The Return, the Thargoids will return in the 2014 sequel of the old open-ended game series after first contact with player DP Sayre. It is scheduled for release on September 26th this year for all supported platforms.

Reintroduce yourselves.

The Thargoids have attacked. Aegis, humanity's first line of defence, researches new technologies to oppose the Thargoid threat. The Initiative have selected Commander Mason and his valiant crew to test these weapons. It's time to start fighting back.

2.4 is how many times they have lapped that other crowd funded space game right ?

Gonna dig up an old one here:

Is this the patch that makes the game fun?

Elite is always a game I keep returning to.

Elite does have it's issues. The gameplay isn't very inspiring and there's only a limited number of things you can do and each one is very simple. But I still prefer Frontier's structure of adding to the game over Star Citizen.

Gweenz said:

Gonna dig up an old one here:

Is this the patch that makes the game fun?

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No idea, but you know it probably just adds some really bad ideas with a bunch of grinding,
You probably have to collect even more stupid parts, grind up rep with even more engineers, and juggle a limited inventory system that's filled with junk.

akaliel said:

Elite does have it's issues. The gameplay isn't very inspiring and there's only a limited number of things you can do and each one is very simple. But I still prefer Frontier's structure of adding to the game over Star Citizen.

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Agreed. I like the game and really want to like it more. To me the biggest mistake they made was making it a "multiplayer" game, which it really isn't, and not focusing on a solid single player story or career mode.

after seeing some of the responses in the livestream where this was announced it sounds like theyre listening to the fan base, there is the potential of removing the RNG from engineers or making them work better. the grind isnt all that bad as ive learned a lot more about where to find the specific materials. If you go to the reddit for elite they are very helpful. I was able to find a lot of rare items i needed and plenty of them very quickly with their guidance. I love this game and cant wait for the new update.

What I like about Elite is that it actually runs and offers a fantastic space sim in VR. Yes, while it lets you do a variety of things - bounty hunting, ship combat, hauling missions, etc., it does lack a real story and a focused purpose ala single player, but it more than makes up for that by offering a top notch fully realized VR space sim with great immersion/sense of scale and fantastic visuals.

Supercharged_Z06 said:

What I like about Elite is that it actually runs and offers a fantastic space sim in VR. Yes, while it lets you do a variety of things - bounty hunting, ship combat, hauling missions, etc., it does lack a real story and a focused purpose ala single player, but it more than makes up for that by offering a top notch fully realized VR space sim with great immersion/sense of scale and fantastic visuals.

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The problem is no real end game. There are tons of grinds. Want to unlock faction ships? Do stupid missions over and over. Want to get the best modified weapons and armor/modules? Gotta play the slot machine. Gotta run around to planets and bases and farm them. You get too many minerals? You're out of luck, gotta toss a few only to farm them again later when you need them.
Community goals are fun, but again super grindy to get good rewards. You can't really compete unless you have a big hauler for the cargo missions and at least a python for the combat ones to rank in the top 10%.
What else is there? The joke of exploring? Take a trip to colonia and you'll find out what the definition of boring is.

Yeah, the game has a ripe environment & I'd love to see them develop a system for stories created by the users.

Gigus Fire said:

The problem is no real end game. There are tons of grinds. Want to unlock faction ships? Do stupid missions over and over. Want to get the best modified weapons and armor/modules? Gotta play the slot machine. Gotta run around to planets and bases and farm them. You get too many minerals? You're out of luck, gotta toss a few only to farm them again later when you need them.
Community goals are fun, but again super grindy to get good rewards. You can't really compete unless you have a big hauler for the cargo missions and at least a python for the combat ones to rank in the top 10%.
What else is there? The joke of exploring? Take a trip to colonia and you'll find out what the definition of boring is.

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The point of a simulation is the experience. I enjoy it in VR - point me to another VR space simulator that's as well done as Elite... I'm not really after an "end game". If you don't get that or its not for you, that's fine.

Have you ever tried it in VR?

Supercharged_Z06 said:

The point of a simulation is the experience. I enjoy it in VR - point me to another VR space simulator that's as well done as Elite... I'm not really after an "end game". If you don't get that or its not for you, that's fine.

Have you ever tried it in VR?

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Yes. But it doesn't matter how cool it is in VR, the game itself is lacking and needs a lot more built on it and it needs to be redesigned.
No player market is dumb. No credit transaction is dumb. No crafting unless you play a slot machine with npcs is dumb. No real footprint in the world (they were going to add player owned bases via inflatable asteroid areas according to their own design notes and scrapped that idea). Always online in single player mode (lol whut?)

Ahhh, but it does! Like I said, and I'm agreeing with you: As a game, yes it is lacking, but at least it's still evolving, available, and actively being further developed/worked on. As a sim in VR though, it is pretty frickin' incredible. I enjoy it as a sim.

Some people enjoy the ride, others don't notice the ride and just look for the destination.

There is no need for the destination, however there is a need to do something at all. That's what this game is lacking.

It has a poor mission system, misdirected combat system (it's not poor itself, but the way engagements are generated), gimped multiplayer, and most importantly the devs have no vision.

Devs made a great sim, then added senseless grinding elements to it. Almost all expansions missed the mark, were misdirected and were not followed upon, but they were not cncentrating on fixing the core game either... they continued jumping from one missed add on to the next.

Powerplay, CQC complete misses. Horizons - adding content without actual purpose. Engineers - introducing the slot machine into all this. Basically WTF?!?

ED seems like that sure fire hit which is almost across the line, and than the devs fumbled spectacularly upon release. A bit like somoene missing the empty goal in football (soccer) from two meters out. Unbelievable, yet true.

The only aspect that's currently left is the VR Sim, and very vague hope that they may start making something out of it after few years of pure misses.

It is a great sim. But simulating a launch into space w/ no destination makes for a pretty boring, aimless ride.

I have enjoyed the ride, but I'd like a destination too.

When I get on my streetbike, I have a destination 99/100 times & I always enjoy the ride.

When I go out 1/100 times just looking for something to do or someplace to go, I get bored fast & just go home after about 20 minutes.

DISCLAIMER: I live in Chicago, not California...