Elite Dangerous info requested

[notanmmmonewbie]

Hey everybody,

Thinking about picking this game up. Watched a few YT videos but i was wondering about a few other things. The videos i watched were mostly "fetch" type missions so i was wondering about combat. How much of the combat is you vs NPCs and you vs other players? Is it kinda like EVE online where you could be out doing a mission and a player could jump in on you and both of you could fight it out? or is PVE and PVP seperated or only allowed if you flag yourself for it or whatevers?

Also i was wondering what kind of controller i should get. I've played a TON of simulator type games back in the day. X-Wing, TIE Fighter, Hind, USNF '97, Janes Longbow 2, Janes F15, Janes F18, Janes WW2, Independance War 2, Mig-29, Falcon 2.0, Falcon 3.0, and probably a handful of others i'm forgetting. So i'm not really a stranger to sims, space sim and fighter sims. I've used two types of controllers and i want to see with "Elite" what kind of controller i can get away with. With X-Wing and TIE Fighter i actually used a Microsoft Sidewinder Gamepad plus a mouse and did really well with it. I only used the thumbpad on the controller and that combined with the mouse is how i flew around and targeted. Since it was 3d movement and no horizon like in the airplane sims i didnt have to worry about rolling to the proper orientation first then pulling up towards the target. I just used the thumbpad and mouse together to put my nose on the target the quickest way possible. But for all the other flight sims i used a Logitech Wingman. It didnt have rudder pedals but for those that dont know the stick could be twisted slightly left or right for rudder-like controls.

So anyways i was thinking that for "Elite" a controller similar to the joystick might be needed. Do the ships in "Elite" have forward, reverse, pitch, roll, yaw AND horizontal+vertical thrusters? or do they fly just like regular airplanes (but in space) with forward, reverse, pitch roll and yaw? from the videos i saw it looks like ships have hor+vert thrusters but i just wanted to make sure. It seems like a joystick with a hat button would be perfect for that.

Here are the controllers i used to use:

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Side...oft+sidewinder

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Wingm..._89%3ALogitech

[Heathy]

So elite is hit and miss on me, i got it last December and when it released it was pretty barren that has improved but it is an on going process, they apparently have a 10 year plan for the game so, it won't really reach its ultimate form until at least a few more major expansions.

personally i haven't played for a month or so, i managed to get to sag A* and now i just have to find the urge to travel all the way back.

the galaxy is massive, habitable space is something like a 500ly blob of stars that have stations and such, this can expand over time, the game world will sorta play out most of the back and forth faction war fare in the background taken from how much players are influencing the different factions, most systems have their own minor factions and major factions that will be part of the main alliance that has control over that system. personally, i found it felt a little detached from the player, let it be clear that this isn't a better x3, where as x3 is a really good sim, elite is a really good space dog fighting simulation. the other tasks in the game aren't really that compelling enough, trading for example falls short because, it doesn't try to contend with eves player driven market. last i knew the market in elite updates once a day, so you can trade trade trade, and the demand will drop, but the stats only change once a day, so you know for a game that is meant to revolve around trading, its bland.. at launch it would have also been nice to have a crafting system to sort of bring inherent value to the commodities but that is still in the works.

as for controllers personally i play KB/M i don't find the controls that dissimilar to x3's default flight control scheme. but there are some recommended hotas on their forum would probably be the best place to ask.

for controls yaw is nerfed its quicker to 90 degree roll and pitch.

its not really fair to compare elite with eve, they are similar games, or at least, they both kinda want breathing universes, but eve has boat loads more depth, although its what 12 years old at this point. its quite possible to play elite on open and not see another player for weeks, where as eves galaxy is hilariously tiny by comparison. there are anarchy systems in elite that are as it describes lawless, in those systems its pretty much a free for all, if you attack a player in another type of controlled system you will get a bounty placed on you, but if you already have a bounty for the faction of space your fighting in, your also free game.

you can pay off bounties at the corresponding station. elite works on p2p networking so, you'll only see players that you can get a decent connection to, each person projects a sphere like area and when the server sees them intersect you see another person, these instances cap out at 31+you. this is very different to eves server / client networking which allows for those huge battles. best you'll get in elite is 30 players and a whole bunch of npcs. but fights in elite are over quite fast, 2 ppl focusing on 1 ship it doesn't really matter what size that 1 person is probably screwed. with sub system targeting and gimballed lasers you can just keep pounding power plants all day taking ppl out before their hull even reaches 50%.

that would probably be my noticable differences when looking at eve vs elite, eve has lots of depth, but a small gamey universe, elite has a massive universe but not a whole lot of depth.

most of what i've done is exploring, once i was able to get the scanner combo, about 1.5m creds doesn't really take long, you can just go off and slowly rake in money, again even exploration kinda gets dull, don't get me wrong there is plenty of great celestial combinations to find, but from my experience you never find anything dynamic it all comes across as samey after a while. still easy way of making creds in the early game instead of trading or gun farming.

[Masark]

Hey everybody,

Thinking about picking this game up. Watched a few YT videos but i was wondering about a few other things. The videos i watched were mostly "fetch" type missions so i was wondering about combat. How much of the combat is you vs NPCs and you vs other players? Is it kinda like EVE online where you could be out doing a mission and a player could jump in on you and both of you could fight it out? or is PVE and PVP seperated or only allowed if you flag yourself for it or whatevers?

1. That's one mission type. There are also combat, piracy, rescue, assassination, etc. missions available. What missions are on offer depends on where you are and how friendly you are with the local minor factions and the major factions. In addition to missions, you can bounty hunt (look for NPCs or players who are wanted by the local authorities(or by anyone if you have the right equipment) and kill them) or go into combat zones (areas where two factions are at war and fighting. Pick a side and start killing).

2. There are 4 paths of progression. Combat, trade, exploration (you can sell cartographic data to stations and there's lots to explore), and a seperate game mode called Close Quarters Combat (Think Unreal Tournement or Quake III in space fighters). You can pursue any (or all) of those.

3. Yes and no. In open mode, anyone can attack anyone at any given time (though attacking someone right next to or inside a station will draw the ire of that station), though given the size of the game world (the entire freaking Milky Way galaxy with 400 billion systems. Even just the bubble (human-inhabited space) has over a hundred thousand systems), finding another actual human is actually a fairly rare thing outside of certain heavily trafficed systems. The game also has solo mode, which is exactly what it sounds like. Just you and the NPCs (though you're still online and tied into the background simulation, which does all the trade stuff (trade in the game isn't static. Supplies can be exhausted, demand can be satisfied. If a bunch of players are running a given route, it will eventually be exhausted and they'll have to find another route, at least temporarily), as well as faction influance and control of stations and systems). Though piratical NPCs (and bountry hunter NPCs if you've managed to get yourself wanted) will happly jump you (you're much more likely to be jumped by an NPC than another human) and some of them can be nasty customers, especially if you're in a ship outfitted for trading.

If you only want PVE but still want to see other players in the world, there's a third option called private groups. As the name suggests, you'll only see other members of those groups when you're in them. Some private groups, like Mobius (Which I play in), have a strict PVE-only policy. In the case of Mobius, getting in is simply a matter of sending an in-game request to the group and waiting for one of the mods to approve you.

Also, you can freely switch between open, solo, and private at any time. You keep your ship, location, credits, and everything when switching. It's just a matter of selecting which you want when you're signing in.

As for controls, it's full six degrees of freedom. You have lateral and vertical thrusters. Default is R and F for vertical and Q and E for horizontal. Forward and back throttle is w and s and A and D are yaw. Mouse is pitch and roll. Yaw is your slowest axis by far and is generally only used for precision mauvering, like when docking and not in general flight. Pitch and roll are your main flight controls.

I personally just use keyboard and mouse and find it's fine, though I don't take the flight assist off (which does things like automatic counterthrusting and such).

[xact4]

It's a blast of a game, very beautiful, keybinds are many and bewildering at first but once you get used to them they just become second nature. They've done a good job of explaining the game up above really. You'll find yourself running out of things to do in time if you're not into just picking a direction and going kind of stuff though.

The only complaint, and it's a huge one for me, is the unethical way they've released the "expansion" this month. You pay for it, which is reasonable. However, you're buying the entire package(base game plus new content)... for the same price as the original game... and owners of the original game have to buy this same package(for $45 instead of $60 -_-). The new stuff looks pretty awesome, but I don't think I can get back into the game because of it.

TL;DR: If you're gonna get on board the Elite: Dangerous bus now it's a fun game and you should do it.... and also you're lucky you weren't on it earlier.

[-aiko-]

Yeah I don't care for the way they handled Horizons. A 20% discount on a $60 game is a slap in the face for those who already own Elite: Dangerous. For that reason alone I won't be playing Horizons any time soon, but the base game is quite good. I use a Thrustmaster HOTAS and flying is smooth as butter.

[poser765]

People do tend to love the HOTAS, but I love my money. If you have the money to spend, then go for it. M/kb works just fine. Well, I say that, but I can see a flight stick working a little bit better for Flight Assist off flying.

Anyway...Yeah got about 200 hours in. It was worth my money, but I'm pretty much over it now. The game has some very glaring flaws that frontier don't seem to recognize as flaws. That's part of why I'm not interested in going back. now Horizons is out. Yay, looks like you can do the same boring, broken stuff you did in space, but not on airless bodies! Yeah, I don't feel the game needs more content...it needs to fix the content it has.

[oplawlz]

It's a blast of a game, very beautiful, keybinds are many and bewildering at first but once you get used to them they just become second nature. They've done a good job of explaining the game up above really. You'll find yourself running out of things to do in time if you're not into just picking a direction and going kind of stuff though.

The only complaint, and it's a huge one for me, is the unethical way they've released the "expansion" this month. You pay for it, which is reasonable. However, you're buying the entire package(base game plus new content)... for the same price as the original game... and owners of the original game have to buy this same package(for $45 instead of $60 -_-). The new stuff looks pretty awesome, but I don't think I can get back into the game because of it.

TL;DR: If you're gonna get on board the Elite: Dangerous bus now it's a fun game and you should do it.... and also you're lucky you weren't on it earlier.

This is honestly a silly complaint. It's an expansion system, much like WoW uses - when the expac comes out the original game gets discounted, in this case to 15 dollars. You can buy the core game for 15 bucks right now, if you want to try it out without taking the $60 plunge.

What really makes it silly is that this was their declared pricing model since the original kickstarter was launched.

OT - the game has a ton to do, and lots more solid content to come. If you're not sure you'll like it grab the base game for 15 - you literally lose nothing doing this, as the upgrade is 45 bucks, the same price combined as buying the full package.

I forgot to mention: you can certainly play with kb+mouse, but you're putting yourself at a small disadvantage. The thrustmaster HOTAS is cheap and makes the game significantly more enjoyable, barring any disabilities which might make using one difficult.

[Lagwin]

Something with a good amount of buttons...i got the thrust master t.flight hotas for it and tbh i would prefer more buttons on it, you can combine the use of the mouse/joy stick and keyboard and there was a program kicking about ages back that allowed voice command for some of the stuff.

This is honestly a silly complaint. It's an expansion system, much like WoW uses - when the expac comes out the original game gets discounted, in this case to 15 dollars. You can buy the core game for 15 bucks right now, if you want to try it out without taking the $60 plunge.

Thats not a silly complaint at all, it would have been like paying for WoW back in the day then having to pay for TBC which is how normal expansions work, but from what they've been saying you would only have been paying for TBC and no need for the base game if you are new to the series, and forcing the people that already payed to fork out again for something others are getting free, old players paying double what new players are paying and getting nothing to show for it.

[Samoflange]

I'd recommend a HOTAS setup as well, anything else really just isn't enough IMO. The ships have forward, reverse, pitch, roll, yaw, vertical and lateral thrust. It's much more intuitive with a HOTAS like a thrustmaster X-55. There is flight assist mode which is turned on by default, which makes your ship act more like an airplane. You can turn it off at will (toggle or hold) to make your ship act as if it were in zero gravity where you have to counter thrust to slow down.

[-aiko-]

The big difference between Horizons and, say, a WoW expansion is Horizons is standalone. You don't need the base game to play Horizons. So it feels unfair to those people who bought the original ED, as new players who buy Horizons don't have to buy ED base game period.

- - - Updated - - -

There is flight assist mode which is turned on by default, which makes your ship act more like an airplane. You can turn it off at will (toggle or hold) to make your ship act as if it were in zero gravity where you have to counter thrust to slow down.

Managing flight assist with a HOTAS setup really makes the game more enjoyable, too. Toggling flight assist on/off can be used strategically during combat to always have an angle on your target. It just isn't the same with M+KB imo.

Edit: Some people might consider this taking it too far and making the game too "nerdy", but there are also amazing voice packs for Voice Attack that let you use voice commands for your ship. For example, I have it set up for things like engaging/disengaging weapons, engaging/disengaging docking gear, diverting power to weapons/shields, etc. Voice commands + HOTAS + Oculus Rift = total immersion.

[Heathy]

yeah voice attack is great, they updated astra not that long ago and the rar is perhaps 1gb bigger than the last one i had.

nice piece of software though, not just for elite but any game if you ever fancy using voice to control keybinds. its not a default control but for example i had, 'scan system' to just holding lmb for 7secs. simple stuff but effective, if you use a voice pack though you gotta go through and turn off most if not all of the default voice.

[Cattleya]

Thats not a silly complaint at all, it would have been like paying for WoW back in the day then having to pay for TBC which is how normal expansions work, but from what they've been saying you would only have been paying for TBC and no need for the base game if you are new to the series, and forcing the people that already payed to fork out again for something others are getting free, old players paying double what new players are paying and getting nothing to show for it.

Sounds logical to me, you paid more but got to play it earlier. Elite's also not the first to use this system, just this year there have been Destiny: The Taken King and The Crew: Wild Run, where you get the base game along with the expansion.

[oplawlz]

Thats not a silly complaint at all, it would have been like paying for WoW back in the day then having to pay for TBC which is how normal expansions work, but from what they've been saying you would only have been paying for TBC and no need for the base game if you are new to the series, and forcing the people that already payed to fork out again for something others are getting free, old players paying double what new players are paying and getting nothing to show for it.

That's exactly what happend with tbc though. Vanilla was discounted to 20 bucks and tbc cost 30 - bliz just named the combo pack a warchest or something while elite rolled it all into the expac for new players.