Elite: Dangerous

little P

Super Mod
Yeah I dabbled in Eve, but it was like playing an excel spreadsheet.

This is indeed a cinematic trailer, but there is a combat training mission in the Beta where you are right in the middle of a capital ship war, and my god is it impressive. It's not far off that video I can assure you! :eek:

As for whether you can own a capital ship, here is some info from a newsletter from the developers;

There is a range of different ship classes that can make up a fleet, all designed to fulfil specific roles. With the Federation, Empire and Alliance being such dominant factions in the Elite universe they have the capabilities to fulfil as many of these roles as possible. Whilst not all of these will be present in the game at release, here is the hierarchy of fleet-class ships that are available to the game’s major factions:
  • Cruisers (Battlecruisers, Battleships, Interdictors): Long range, independent ships that are capable of controlling entire systems. Heavily armed and capable of deploying large fighter squadrons. The capital ships already shown are an example of this class. In the Empire they are usually known as “Interdictors” – named after the first successful class of cruisers. Currently the most common and most successful is the Majestic class – generally referred to as a “Majestic class Interdictor”. As ships that can also carry out ambassadorial missions they can be used for ‘soft’ power projection, as well as hard.
  • Frigates: These are large ships designed for escort duties. The actual vessels vary greatly between navies, but are all designed to engage multiple small, fast enemies (typically fighters and missile swarms) and are loaded with point defence batteries. They will also have some anti-ship capability, but are not designed to go up against other warships.
  • Destroyers: These are anti-warship vessels, but are generally no longer used in the front line, though some are still in service.
  • Carriers: Designed for the deployment of fighter squadrons. Obsolete in the fleets of the major factions due to the popularity of Cruisers, but small navies still make use of them and some have even been converted into transporters.
  • Transporters (Couriers): Armoured warships designed specifically for transporting valuable assets and cargo quickly and safely.
  • Corvettes (Cutters): Light multirole warships, capable of recon, incursions and escort missions. These small warships are also popular with smaller factions, organisations and even wealthy individuals due to their adaptability. The Imperial Cutter is a lighter and faster Corvette-class ship, that players will be able to get their hands on in the final game (assuming they can make the right contacts).
  • Fighters: Small short-range craft that generally cannot operate independently due to having no jump capability. Their main roles include the defense of stations and the large warships that they are deployed from. Commercial fighters are typically jump-capable and are therefore much more flexible than their faction-specific counterparts.
  • Drones: Small automated ships that have largely been phased out due to the existence of effective counter-measures.
 

Shilka

Hardcore
Just wondering, is this a bit playable without a joystick? Or do you really need one for a decent experience?
 

little P

Super Mod
I've always used a joystick but only just because it was sitting there, plenty of people play it with a keyboard/mouse according to the forums.

Just an fyi, even more people play it with an Xbox 360 controller and it fits really well with the dual analogue sticks and bumpers, I tried it and if I didn't use the Saitek I'd be using that for sure.

Beta 2.0 dropped last night, and oh my days it is light years ahead (see what I did there) of 1.6...

Everyone was waiting up for it last night and it finally dropped around 1am (amazing respect to the developers who pulled an all nighter, they were active on the forums all day and night keeping everyone informed and even asking us if we as their player base wanted a clean wipe or partial wipe of all data etc. we were there, making decisions on how this game will shape up WITH the developers, never had that before...), suffice to say I didn't get much sleep... The first moment I launched from one of the new outposts and saw the sun rising over the horizon of the Earth like planet the outpost orbits... well, it was one of those seminal moments in gaming that are so rare to find.

I'll put some screenshots up later, and I might do a twitch broadcast at some point this evening. This Beta has already exceeded my expectations of a modern day elite, and we aren't even scratching the surface of what's going to be in the final release and subsequent updates (planetary landings, walking around your ship, ground combat, mining etc.)

At the moment they have just expanded the "bubble" we have been playing in and it now includes detailed cartographics and stellar charts. One new thing you can now do is just go off exploring new systems and selling the information you have so there's even more options available now if you want to avoid combat completely and command your own science vessel :D If you allow yourself to be immersed you really do believe you are the captain of your own starship doing whatever the hell you want. I love it.

At the moment a civil war has broken out in one of the systems, and you can choose a side and fight or just sit back and watch the carnage unfold, or even subtly effect the tide of battle by trading/pirating etc. below the radar, there is now news updates within the game letting you know what's going on in the Galaxy so you really can get involved with the lore of Elite if you want to.

I cannot stress enough how bl00dy amazing this experience is... if I talked about everything I want to do in this post it would go on forever, so I'm going to stop, and go off and explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.

(literally in this case as you are sure to find an undiscovered system among the 400 billion systems in the final game :eek:)

ENGAGE! /nerdgasm
 
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Shilka

Hardcore
Lol, already thought the spacestation looked familiar. Turns out I played the original cutting edge wireframe 3d version somewhere in the 80's already. Well who knows, need to check finances first, it' was a quite expensive month last month...
 

little P

Super Mod
Lol, already thought the spacestation looked familiar. Turns out I played the original cutting edge wireframe 3d version somewhere in the 80's already.
Yup, 1984, played it on a BBC computer. Elite was the very first 3D game, look how far games have come :eek:

Ok well if you do get it enjoy and I'll see you somewhere in a galaxy far, far away... ;)
 

little P

Super Mod
Well F, I budged, it's downloading now.

I better start reading that PDF you posted...
Nice! Just be aware we are all waiting for version 2.01 which is released at some point today, the main game is down at the moment, but the tutorial missions still work so it will give you time to familiarize yourself and set up all your controls etc. And yes, the .pdf is essential reading really, it helps understand the more advanced stuff like heat management and silent running etc.

Welcome Commander!

The developers have assured everyone the update will kick in today, so don't be too disheartened if you can't boot the main game up straight away...

From the tutorials I played earlier the graphical upgrade is quite something :icon_eek:
 

Shilka

Hardcore
K, at first couldn't start any tutorial (appearantly to server probs), then I did the first 3 tutorials, a couple of times lol. Had to do some tweaking on the mouse controls, I feel like a joystick might be way more intuitive though. But I am managing, somewhat. I already know I'll be a lousy shot, at least with mouse, so I'll go for safe trading at first for sure.

Love the looks of the game, and right away got that original game vibe back. Will be doing more tutorials for the time being XD
 

Shilka

Hardcore
Well, 2.01 is in, but with everyone getting version too old messages and/or being booted from the server it's now 2.02 were waiting for appearantly, lol.
Meanwhile I did the fly to other starsystem tutorial, and managed to pull of an icarus and flew straight into a sun, lmao. I'll keep practicing ;)
 

Kenadian

Staff member
Site Admin
Is this the game that everyone will be flocking to or is Life is Feudal still the long term solution around here?

The thing is, I have very limited time but I'd love to play with you all and I just can't afford to purchase all these games and have them sit unused.
 

Shilka

Hardcore
Well, life is feudal is active now, but it's still early access, so not sure if that will last for a year. It kind of feels we'll end up waiting for updates/the MMO version eventually. Plus it's kind of grindy...but fun.

Thing that got me in this game (Elite), is how it has a large trading element too, instead of being space shooter no. gazillion. And it looks the shiznitz. Though currently with the new beta version chaos it has turned out to be a 60 euro launcher with some non-explanatory tutorial missions, lol. I'll know more once I manage to connect to the main servers for some real action...
 

little P

Super Mod
2.02 is out mate. Amazing reference as well lol

Because I couldn't access the server earlier I ended up watching Sunshine again for the thousandth time, how did you know?! :eek:

I'm booting it up now, hopefully be able to get my Kirk on :)

Are you registered on the forum? What's your commander name and forum name if different?

Mine is Aquila Oculus (Latin for Eagle Eye)

Is it nerdy? Yes.

Do I care? Hell no! :icon_cheesygrin:
 

Shilka

Hardcore
My commandername is Shilka (for now)

Have only been in the main server for like 2 minutes before it disconnected me..
Gonna try to get into the main game now, hope I'll live...
 

little P

Super Mod
Is this the game that everyone will be flocking to or is Life is Feudal still the long term solution around here?

The thing is, I have very limited time but I'd love to play with you all and I just can't afford to purchase all these games and have them sit unused.
Be aware that this is very much a Beta still. The forums are absolutely crazy busy, but in a good way. There's so many people actively testing and helping out that they have managed to release 3 updates in two days, and the best bit? They Listen to what people want.

It's an amazing thing to be part of that developer / user interaction.

But as I say, it is very much a Beta, and unless you are absolutely keen on Elite (which thousands are hence the reason this even exists) it might not be best to jump in right now if you haven't got the time to actively test things.

I cannot for the life of me imagine how they will hit their projected full release they set of end of Q4 2014. But I don't care really, these last two days aside, (boy did you pick a time to jump in Shilka lol) it is the most relaxing, just outright "make you feel like a kid again" title I have played for as long as I can remember. Well, since Frontier II actually...

I for one still played Frontier II on an emulator to this day. So I will be playing Elite Dangerous for as long as it takes them to release another one I should imagine in about another 30 years time ;)
 

little P

Super Mod
My commandername is Shilka (for now)

Have only been in the main server for like 2 minutes before it disconnected me..
Gonna try to get into the main game now, hope I'll live...
Don't get disheartened with it mate, like I said you picked the worst time (unbeknownst to you of course) to join the Beta! Before 2.0 there were zero problems running the game, no disconnects etc.

I'm probably going to wait for a couple of days until things have calmed down before I jump in again. Being disconnected is a bit of an immersion breaker for sure
 

Shilka

Hardcore
Well, can't get in the game in version 2.02 at all. It freezes up in the main menu, and starts writing a crash log at an alarming rate of 9400 kB/s, and keeps doing so untill you shut down the process with task manager, lol. Appearantly latest version is trying to send packets larger then possible at 80% of ISP's ...

However;
Good morning, Cmdrs

Thanks again for playing Elite: Dangerous and helping us test the game. Work on Beta 2.03 continued deep into the night, and the team is working hard to get everyone back into the game.

This has been an essential test before launch, and one we couldn't have pulled it off without so many testers playing the game at once, so thank you all.

Please keep logging any issues by filling out a ticket because every one helps, and expect Beta 2.03 by the late afternoon or early evening today.
So hope to do some playing/beta testing this evening :)
 

little P

Super Mod
Well, can't get in the game in version 2.02 at all. It freezes up in the main menu, and starts writing a crash log at an alarming rate of 9400 kB/s, and keeps doing so untill you shut down the process with task manager, lol. Appearantly latest version is trying to send packets larger then possible at 80% of ISP's ...

However;


So hope to do some playing/beta testing this evening :)
Yeah saw that too, hopefully by this evening. And yes the crash logs were a bit... excessive. I had over 5gb when I checked this morning lol

I did manage to get a couple of shots in my Sidewinder before deciding to wait for the next update, I can't wait to get out there and start exploring. My desktop background folder is going to be full of these soon probably :)

Just beautiful.

1.jpg2.jpg
 

Shilka

Hardcore
Version 2.03 incoming at 19.30 BST. Must admit I'll be pressing the refresh button... Maybe because I barely got a chance to try the game out XD
 

little P

Super Mod
It's out now mate :)

Going to enjoy tonight, chilled tunes on exploring the galaxy... much needed today (please let it work :))
 

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