Elite: Dangerous

Does anyone else remember playing the original Elite? I remember totally sucking at docking in those dodecahedral space stations and my first purchase was the docking computer.
 
Yeah docking was completely nuts, my 9 year old brain couldn't handle velocity + rotation. It was like a psychedelic trip for 9 year olds. Knowing that I would die on docking didn't deter me. Without knowing it at the time, I took on a Buddhist, impermanence perspective on dying. I think that I managed to buy a docking computer maybe once or twice. My highest elite rank was Deadly ( which was just shy of Elite ). I had to ask my uncle what "narcotics", "slaves" and "firearms" were. Neeeee norrrrr neee norrrrr woo woo woo here comes the space police.

Docking was like trying to have sex with a girl on a roundabout. It's this narrow slit, that is just revolving too fast.
 
I seem to (vaguely) recall there being some sort of automated docking computer you could obtain and that it was the FIRST thing I bought with my ill-gotten narcotics gains.

Anyone run into a generation ship? I don’t think I ever did once on my C-64 version and thought it was something the devs just made-up to fatten the manual.

(I loved Elite, BTW. And no, I’m not being facetious.)
 
I don't recall doing so. I do recall getting the title of Archangel.
 
They want £200 / $300 for alpha+beta+GA access, £100/$150 for beta access. No thanks.
 
^^^ LOL

"I was a bit rusty, but I can still dock in Elite without a docking computer."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0czVxiEqNM


The joysticks on the BBC micro were analogue:

http://wouter.bbcmicro.net/pictures/hardware/bbc_joysticks/joysticks_british.jpg

It's hard to explain the difficulties with them, since they simply don't make those kinds of joysticks any more but I'll give it a shot.

- In the picture, the first thing that I notice is that the stick doesn't reset itself to 0,0 on the x/y axis. That's because the joystick lacked the ability to do so ( LOL ). You only know where your 0,0 is, when you stop drifting in space ( which isn't particularly helpful ).

- The stick was very sensitive, probably too sensitive. Joystick sensitivity configuration, at the OS level, was a foreign concept, from what I remember. Joysticks for micro computers were a foreign concept ( LOL ).

- In 2014, if you are a hardcore, oldschool, shoot-em-up ( shmups ) player and you research custom joystick design, you will know that the degree of sweep from 0,0 to the max on the x or y axis is important. For shoot-em-ups you want that arc sweep to be minimal, for fighting games like Mortal Kombat, people tend to prefer a long sweep. Those BBC micro joysticks have ridiculously long sweeps ( the longest on a joystick that I've ever seen ). Using them on something like Elite, was like learning to play a violin. What was it like using them for Elite? Imagine if I asked you to cook a three course meal but I sanded off all of the numbers, on the dials of your stove? If the knobs are perfectly circular, would you be able to find the halfway point on the dial? Very roughly - it would be halfway between 0 - maximum on the dial. If you start moving the dial around though, you would end up losing your point of reference, which was the problem with those analogue sticks. Violins are fretless instruments:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fret

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071218051856AAQxkBW

- Those sticks were cuboids and not particularly ergonomic. In order to dock, I had to hold the joystick between my knees, use my right hand to get the x/y on the dead centre of the slit and then use the roll keys ( I think they were < > for roll left and roll right ) to match the rotation of the station. Also, I had to use the velocity keys on the keyboard to go faster or slower. The game seemed to like docking in slo-mo ( think 2001 A Space Odyssey ). What would happen is that I would tend to drift off course on the X / Y / Z axis, which would require real time adjustments of the joystick, while also dealing with the change in the speed of the roll.
 
The X / Y / Z alignment is perfect because he uses the background planet, as a point of reference. You can see the guy fighting the rotation in the last few seconds. Sinclair Spectrum, Amstrad and C64 had good joysticks though:

Elite -- manual docking at Lave station (ZX Spectrum)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKscPOH-XcA
 
Did anyone pick up the premium beta this weekend? I decided to give it a try and it feels really solid, even with the older 1.1 build.

1024x576.resizedimage
 
Been watching gameplay video and gotta say I think I like the cockpit, physics and movement better than what Star Citizen has shown for its DFM. Just seems more fluid.

That said, $150 to play a Beta - no thanks.
 
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DPI said:
Been watching gameplay video and gotta say I think I like the cockpit, physics and movement better than what Star Citizen has shown for its DFM. Just seems more fluid.

That said, $150 to play a Beta - no thanks.
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We support the game and get access to an old alpha build to look at. I honestly will probably not touch it again until trading is implemented, and that may be just as a test also.

I'm not sure how the access details work out but it seems the original alpha backers get the most current game, and both tiers of beta just get an outdated version to play with. It doesn't even seem like they want beta input from the lesser subscriptions levels. I'm happy to support them, but there tiered access system was not really thought out well.
 
MorgothPl said:
Cameron should not be named in same league as Scorsese or Tesla or any other visionaries. I don't want Star Citizen to be shit like Avatar, Titanic or Prometheus :) Dtill, I agree with people who doubt in SC. May I remember you another gaming legends - Lord British, who messed up his last MMO, Peter Molyneux with his pisspoor Fable and Black and White. Being genius 20 years ago, does not mean critical success on any project now.

Returning to the Elite. I hope they won't make the bad decision of turning it into another Eve and making it multiplayer game, without any SP. I want SP game, without any mp elements. Just like the old Elite was.
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Don't mean to derail the thread even further, but the Peter Molyneux bit kind of jumped out at me. Daring to do tons of different things, and not really fulfilling the promises set out originally to the T doesn't mean one failed. He had tons of ideas, and not all of them were up to snuff in the end. That doesn't mean that the games though, were piss poor.

Opinions, I know, i know...
 
Blow me but I've had an email at 23:00 from David Walsh of the Elite team. Multiplayer is really the big difference, and then there's the improved graphics.
 
They really nailed the HUD in this game compared to what's offered in SC. Hope the prices get cheaper later on so I can jump in this
 
Oh... you missed out. Playing that was like watching Terminator 2 for the first time, in terms of graphics. I still get goosebumps seeing that rotating ship ( they had a special name for the graphics: vector / wireframe graphics - based on the concept of drawing just the vertices of an object ). It was like... The Empire Strikes back. It was like going from Pacman to 3d for the first time, except that they came out with Crysis 1.

Starglider:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFMUHYUm_lI

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starglider
 
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One of the weird things about the original Elite is that the ships would move like snakes. One of the ships would move like a Sidewinder snake. I remember when I first tried to fight the enemy pirate ships, I was like wtf? I was 9 years old and didn't know anything about snakes ( or narcotics, slaves or firearms ):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyXNBAHu32o
 
If you're feeling nostalgic for the original, or are way too young to have played a 1980s game, know that Oolite is a faithful port of Elite to modern operating systems.

Be warned that your first flight to another system will teach you what kids did for fun on computers in 1984. Not quite what you are used to these days.
 
Yeah pretty happy how Elite Dangerous has come along. My only issue is the design of the ships, some seem too similar.
 
Video look good on youtube. The price of the beta is insane. And if this kind of game was fun when I was young now I believe it won't be because it's just spinning around all the time to find a target. Maybe if it was a simulation of rocket in space it would be better who know.
 
Quick question for those in the know - will there be mining? Or will this be mostly a trade and combat simulation? Also, will the economy be dynamic?
 
Pezzy said:
Quick question for those in the know - will there be mining? Or will this be mostly a trade and combat simulation? Also, will the economy be dynamic?
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You can outfit a mining laser, so yes.

I'm not sure how the economy works but everything is tied together. Over the past week of the beta all the prices have slowly equalized now that people can afford large cargo ships. But we're stuck with a ton of players in a pretty small chunk of space at the moment, so the markets are reflecting that.

(Sweetfx beta pics)


 
I watched a 40min playthrough of the beta on youtube and liked what I saw. It reminded me a lot of Independence War 2. And I liked it better than what I've seen of SC on Twitch.

Yes, $75 is steep for a beta.

A lot of recent press on ED recently too.

http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2014/08/11/elite-dangerous-beta-my-god-its-full-of-stars/
http://www.polygon.com/2014/8/6/5972985/adventure-and-a-silent-death-await-in-elite-dangerous
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/07/31/elite-dangerous-standard-beta-price/#more-223775
 
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Saturn_V said:
I watched a 40min playthrough of the beta on youtube and liked what I saw. It reminded me a lot of Independence War 2. And I liked it better than what I've seen of SC on Twitch.
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Yeah, I played a ton of IW2 back in the day and this is the one space sim that comes close. I started losing interest in Star Citizen after the lack of progress and the selling of ships for real money was the last straw.
 
Just wish I could easily swing the $75 atm. Seems worth it but I would love a bit of demo time first aka Eve.
 
AceCR42 said:
Yeah, I played a ton of IW2 back in the day and this is the one space sim that comes close.
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My HOTAS rig has literally been sitting in a closet for the better part of a decade. (and I last used it with IW2) Elite Dangerous is the first game in a long time that's tempting me to dig it out.

AceCR42 said:
I started losing interest in Star Citizen after the lack of progress and the selling of ships for real money was the last straw.
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SC never held my interest. But I was never a big Wing Commander/Starlancer fan. Did like Privateer and Armada.
 
ED is awesome with a Hotas and TrackIR. I'm still struggling with the aesthetic design of the ships, but that is a personal preference. The game is gorgeous otherwise, I'd say it is worth the $75 to get the beta (and the live game) access.
 
Been playing this with a DS3... not optimal but it sort of works to get into the game at first. Waiting for my DK2 anxiously.

Planning on getting a X52 Pro when i can
 
I still want a Warthog HOTAS, but that's a bit steep for right now.

$75 just to get beta access seems a bit much too. That's just IMHO though. I'm itching to use my TrackIR again though.
 
I bit over the Labor Day weekend- now on the Beta.

Spent two days setting up my HOTAS in CH Products Control Manager. I've been out of flight simming for a while, forgot entirely how critical button/control setup is. Landed my first station docking Monday night- pretty damn cool. Now doing the space trucker thing to bulk my wallet so I can upgrade weps. Staying out of PVP for now. Experimenting with the Voice Attack add on.

I was struggling with the $75 too. In the end it the understanding that Frontier still has 75% to add, but the 25% they've done so far works and plays so well.
 
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