Elite Dangerous: Horizons!

[Daunt]

It was worth it to me to get involved so I can be one of the first to get videos on YouTube for it as well as Stream on Twitch

True! When can you play the beta? There aren't any non-disclosure agreements, right?

 

[Daunt]

I already obtained footage of duke's first landing:

 

[Kenadian]

True! When can you play the beta? There aren't any non-disclosure agreements, right?

That I don't know but it doesn't matter really. If I can't publish it as BETA then I'll simply record it locally, make the videos and upload them as soon as I'm allowed to.

 

[Kenadian]

I already obtained footage of duke's first landing:

View attachment 2031

Don't laugh, I'm worried about this exact thing.

I was detail scanning a White Dwarf a week or so ago and didn't want to slow down waiting for it to complete. I flew right into the bl00dy thing and barely made my escape vector.

...took a lot of damage on that one.

With landings I wonder if it's now possible to fly into a Star? If so, everything can become that much more dangerous, even fuel scooping.

As it is I've gotten into the habit of throttling back to neutral when in Hyperspace. That way when I come out at the sun I'm not travelling fast enough to be sucked in by it's gravity regardless of what kind of sun it is.

 

[Daunt]

Have to find out at least when Beta drops.

But don't worry Duke...
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your crash won't look like that. There would be no fire

 

[Skid_Marc_]

So sorry Ken. Was totally planning on being home ~7pm pacific, but family happened (not in a bad way). Hoped that you'd still be on til @ 9 but I see that didn't happen. Next week.... >.<

 

[Kenadian]

No worries buds, I kinda figured something came up.

We've got all the time in the world. Now I picked up this expansion I clearly intend on putting in a few more hundred hours to get my moneys worth.

Got a couple of cool images added to the Twitch Image Slideshow for the next stream. Also updated the look a bit so it looks cleaner and much better laid out than before IMHO.

 

[Kitlope]

Yeah, I'm not big on shelling out that much more at this point. And I really wanted to fly through atmospheres of water worlds and gas giants. Rocky, atmosphere-less worlds don't do too much for me.

This fascinates me. Why?

 

[tmtm]

Why I won't pay more or why I was expecting more? I guess I was expecting some level of procedurally generated terrain, atmospheres, basic plant life, etc. Especially for another $50.

I'll probably pick it up in a week moment.

 

[Daunt]

Yeah my thing is that they sound like there is another paid for expansion that will include further planetary exploration. So only this lifeless airless planets are for 50 bucks but down the road, you'll need another 50 bucks for the nice planets

 

[tmtm]

That's one of my big fears, yes.

 

[ElektroVodka]

I think that is confirmed in one of the reddit posts.
That's why i didn't get the DLC yet...

 

[Laursen]

First of all please forgive me if I offend anyone...this was never my intention.

(Disclaimer: I have waited for Elite 4 for 20 years...Elite 2: Frontier has been a huge part of my childhood and has started my interest in astronomy, physics and classical music. When kickstarter came out my first thought was if it has no planetary landings this is not Elite! that's what makes elite special. So I'm a complete fanboy and I would probably be willing to invest a lot more time and money into Elite 4 if they keep adding stuff that will allow my vision of the game to slowly come though. Elite 4 is potentially not a game for me its a whole new world/universe where I plan to spend a considerate part of my time )

First of all everyone keeps talking about the price of the price of horizons like its ONLY about landing on airless rocky worlds (which to me in itself would be totally worth it )
I dont see it like that, I see it like a kind of subscription where I get a whole year of new updates for an amazing game (which I have already put at least 500 hours into!)

Now I get people dislike the fact that we dont actually know whats In the following year of updates and you are buying stuff you basically dont know what is. This is valid point. But personally I have faith in frontier, after all I got 500 hours of gameplay out of the last 30 or 40£ I paied for the game, the last/current season was after all including the main game and not just the updates (which to me put a lot more spice and options into the universe....even though I did not like all of them...and we got 2 left)

They always said even though kickstarter that they would do landings in steps to make it right, I'm just happy that we actually do get landings I'm sure they will give us if not all then most of the planets in the future (after all the masters of procedural gaming cant stand behind No Mans sky)

If you are worried about the content then wait till its out see what happens doing next season, after all its only 1. a cobra IV and 10£ you are missing out of....game might even go on sale at some point


umm right lots of text trying to empty my head :O

basically what I wanted to say is to me its paying for a whole year of updates not just 1. and for a game that so far has done right to me


as an answer to a way earlier post about beta:


I mean every progress I make in a beta like money or ranking etc does not carry over to the live game

plus I just did not have the money

 

[Laursen]

So I swaped my non beta horizon for beta version and I have been playing it for a week or so now. I'm loving it. Had to borrow my wife's gtx 750ti because my old 5870 dislikes the textures a lot.

anyone else tried it out?

 

[Kenadian]

I'm an Elite fanboi for a whole different set of reasons from you Laursen but because I'm new to the game I'm not blindly faithful to it or any promises it may make.

I require value whenever I pick up a title and for me Horizons had just enough, not a lot (on the surface anyway) value for me to buy in. Had I not been so in love with base ED I would have easily passed but given I'm 200+ hours in since linking with Steam and likely another 80 prior, it made sense to see what Horizons will bring.

I'm involved in the BETA as well much like you are and I absolutely love it however there were a few things for me that took a little gloss out of the experience.

For starters, I do not think enough of a discount was given to those whom already own Elite: Dangerous.

When you consider the price of ED and Horizons separately it's a fair chunk of change and new players who purchase Horizons after Dec 15, 2015 get both as core ED will no longer be on sale; both games (seasons) will now be one.

Now I'm not complaining especially since I'm loving what I've seen so far in Horizons but I can fully understand how some would take pause and really consider whether or not they see value in Horizons.

I dont see it like that, I see it like a kind of subscription where I get a whole year of new updates for an amazing game (which I have already put at least 500 hours into!)

This point I'm not sure on because when you buy you're only buying a new "Season" of expansion.

I've not done a lot of investigation into what a Season is but apparently from what I've read a Season is what Frontier says it is and that's not necessarily a year.

...please correct me if I'm wrong.

Back to BETA, the first 48 hours were horrible for me. I could not stay connected to a Server for more than 30 minutes on planet as I was plagued by numerous disconnects. Even downloading the BETA was a chore simply because Frontier experienced overwhelming traffic and had issues updating accounts with Download access to the game.

Ultimately I had to go to some other link Frontier posted on Twitter and download/install from there.

Not a deal breaker by any means but had I not searched Twitter I would not have known and missed out on 3 or 4 days of BETA before my account was finally updated at Frontier.

Once the first patch rolled out the disconnecting seemed to be taken care of and I was able to play for extended periods of time.

The first thing I'd relearned was how steep a learning curve Elite: Dangerous actually has. It's like I hit a reset button and went from Competent ED World traveler to complete and utter n00bie.

This is not a bad thing of course but it bears mentioning because Horizons brings with it a whole new set of things you can't possibly know lol.

Getting a handle on the SRV and Turret System (which I love) was exceptionally difficult for me. Unlike your ship you don't want to full throttle the SRV ever if you even have to make a minor course adjustment. The thing will just take off from under you which is oddly accurate given that often times you'll be in low gravity worlds.

I also LOVE the new ship flight model when trying to maneuver on some planets. You don't see it too often but when you do it's amazing!!!

The ship just felt heavy under the controls and I could swear on 2 planets I visited I was fighting either turbulence or winds, not sure which if either? Having to continually course adjust was astounding which makes me salivate at the thought of flying under atmospheric conditions.

Having said that I'm on the fence about the transition of flight modes from Supercruise to Orbital Cruise to normal flight at the planet level. I don't think it's bad and I understand it but it feels a bit easy mode to me. I was expecting this all to be a bit harder to manage. I can see it maybe not being hard to manage with no atmosphere and low gravity but when both are present it could be a complete nightmare which would be awesome.

I guess we'll have to wait and see.

The one thing I really hate (and I mean vehemently) is the fucking escape vector when leaving a planet. I absolutely hate the entire escape vector system so seeing it in Horizons sucks ass.

Now you don't have to do it, you can reverse the transition by gaining altitude slowly until reaching Orbital Cruise but that's a lot slower and painful.

What I would have liked to see is no escape vector and an instrument indication of a narrow variable escape envelope. They could easily do this given it's simply the reverse of how you land on a planet but instead opted for this escape vector bs.

...but when taken against the entirety of Horizons the escape vector thing is really a minor complaint and shouldn't be a deal breaker.

Combat in the SRV is absolutely a blast and rolling along a planet surface really puts into perspective how massive the ED Universe truly is.

One thing that will NEVER get old is dismissing and recalling your ship!!!

There is nothing cooler than getting into your SRV and watching as your ship blasts away against that beautiful backdrop.

So far I'm very impressed and think that if you love ED then you'd be nuts to pass on the Horizons expansion.

The only thing you need to understand is you will likely not see the value I do right away. You will likely need a good few days to a week in Horizons to see the value but it is there, I assure you.

 

[little P]

Good write up guys thankyou. I don't have enough room in my gaming time for Elite Horizons at the moment, but I'll definitely be picking Horizons up when the Oculus Rift is released. By then all the little quirks and bugs will be ironed out too.

 

[ElektroVodka]

Good write up guys thankyou. I don't have enough room in my gaming time for Elite Horizons at the moment, but I'll definitely be picking Horizons up when the Oculus Rift is released. By then all the little quirks and bugs will be ironed out too.

Except the little quirk that goes by the name of littleP!

 

[Laursen]

I'm an Elite fanboi for a whole different set of reasons from you Laursen but because I'm new to the game I'm not blindly faithful to it or any promises it may make.

I require value whenever I pick up a title and for me Horizons had just enough, not a lot (on the surface anyway) value for me to buy in. Had I not been so in love with base ED I would have easily passed but given I'm 200+ hours in since linking with Steam and likely another 80 prior, it made sense to see what Horizons will bring.

I'm involved in the BETA as well much like you are and I absolutely love it however there were a few things for me that took a little gloss out of the experience.

For starters, I do not think enough of a discount was given to those whom already own Elite: Dangerous.

When you consider the price of ED and Horizons separately it's a fair chunk of change and new players who purchase Horizons after Dec 15, 2015 get both as core ED will no longer be on sale; both games (seasons) will now be one.

Now I'm not complaining especially since I'm loving what I've seen so far in Horizons but I can fully understand how some would take pause and really consider whether or not they see value in Horizons.


This point I'm not sure on because when you buy you're only buying a new "Season" of expansion.

I've not done a lot of investigation into what a Season is but apparently from what I've read a Season is what Frontier says it is and that's not necessarily a year.

...please correct me if I'm wrong.

Back to BETA, the first 48 hours were horrible for me. I could not stay connected to a Server for more than 30 minutes on planet as I was plagued by numerous disconnects. Even downloading the BETA was a chore simply because Frontier experienced overwhelming traffic and had issues updating accounts with Download access to the game.

Ultimately I had to go to some other link Frontier posted on Twitter and download/install from there.

Not a deal breaker by any means but had I not searched Twitter I would not have known and missed out on 3 or 4 days of BETA before my account was finally updated at Frontier.

Once the first patch rolled out the disconnecting seemed to be taken care of and I was able to play for extended periods of time.

The first thing I'd relearned was how steep a learning curve Elite: Dangerous actually has. It's like I hit a reset button and went from Competent ED World traveler to complete and utter n00bie.

This is not a bad thing of course but it bears mentioning because Horizons brings with it a whole new set of things you can't possibly know lol.

Getting a handle on the SRV and Turret System (which I love) was exceptionally difficult for me. Unlike your ship you don't want to full throttle the SRV ever if you even have to make a minor course adjustment. The thing will just take off from under you which is oddly accurate given that often times you'll be in low gravity worlds.

I also LOVE the new ship flight model when trying to maneuver on some planets. You don't see it too often but when you do it's amazing!!!

The ship just felt heavy under the controls and I could swear on 2 planets I visited I was fighting either turbulence or winds, not sure which if either? Having to continually course adjust was astounding which makes me salivate at the thought of flying under atmospheric conditions.

Having said that I'm on the fence about the transition of flight modes from Supercruise to Orbital Cruise to normal flight at the planet level. I don't think it's bad and I understand it but it feels a bit easy mode to me. I was expecting this all to be a bit harder to manage. I can see it maybe not being hard to manage with no atmosphere and low gravity but when both are present it could be a complete nightmare which would be awesome.

I guess we'll have to wait and see.

The one thing I really hate (and I mean vehemently) is the fucking escape vector when leaving a planet. I absolutely hate the entire escape vector system so seeing it in Horizons sucks ass.

Now you don't have to do it, you can reverse the transition by gaining altitude slowly until reaching Orbital Cruise but that's a lot slower and painful.

What I would have liked to see is no escape vector and an instrument indication of a narrow variable escape envelope. They could easily do this given it's simply the reverse of how you land on a planet but instead opted for this escape vector bs.

...but when taken against the entirety of Horizons the escape vector thing is really a minor complaint and shouldn't be a deal breaker.

Combat in the SRV is absolutely a blast and rolling along a planet surface really puts into perspective how massive the ED Universe truly is.

One thing that will NEVER get old is dismissing and recalling your ship!!!

There is nothing cooler than getting into your SRV and watching as your ship blasts away against that beautiful backdrop.

So far I'm very impressed and think that if you love ED then you'd be nuts to pass on the Horizons expansion.

The only thing you need to understand is you will likely not see the value I do right away. You will likely need a good few days to a week in Horizons to see the value but it is there, I assure you.

Brilliant short review sir

If you want a real challenge try landing a very heavy ship (Conda, Cutter T9, Corvette) on Archenar 3.....6.76g ..I have crushed more cutters on that planets surface then I like to admit..its possible but dang it takes time and very very very careful flying...and skill

I have finally managed to land a cutter there with only 8D thrusters! try that before beta ends. also try driving there..the smallest bump for the SRV can give you hull damage because of the gravity..very different beast then say...Europa.

Also Im not (100%) blindly trustful of Frontier and their promises (which is why i did not buy the beta to start with in either case) They are the Company I trust can deliver what I want from a spacegame the most (except maybe Hello Games).Elite Dangerous was the best Space game out there...but it was still "just" a Space game ...it was not ...a Galaxy game (with Horizon we are getting there) Lots of "just" Space games out there Like the mostly Brilliant X series

You are right they never said a Season is 1 year thats all from guesswork on how they have worked so far which granted is ONLY one year so not much to base it on

And I still think the Price is fair but thats an argument that people have had since August and both camp has some nice points

It took me 2 days before i got my non beta swaped for beta so when I got in my only problem was my grafics Card had issues with textures

anyway lots of writting very early in the morning probably a bad idea..if my text makes no sense just ignore it


Final Word...Elite is in my oppinion more of a Tool to fire off your imagination and Roleplaying ability...more then its a game.....I have gotten this weird thought in my head that ..when I game i Play
fallout 4 ...when I play elite it something else..something...different



Picture from my old videocard ...just before I fell many many km to my death on Ariel

 

[Laursen]

Ok so I wanted to show you my Cutter Autolanding on Achenar 3 with 6.76g

I never tried recording video before and I never tried using youtube for upload before so bear in mind the result is weird and ugly but at least you can see what the video is about ...I hope [video=youtube;XIxUXSUUwbQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIxUXSUUwbQ&amp;feature=youtu.be[/video]

 

[Kenadian]

lol great video sir and good writeup as well

I just want to clarify my usage of the term "blindly faithful" because it wasn't meant as a stab. I use it whenever someone has a preconceived notion of a product prior to trying it.

I'm the same way in any discussion of products created by Bohemia Interactive and CDProjekt because I know them to have a history of Customer First Software creation. I will defend them in every conversation because over their history they have bought and paid for my trust so I can be considered an instant backer in just about anything.

The opposite holds true for a company such as EA who has a history (in my case) of over-hyping and under-delivering on numerous, consecutive products. I simply do not trust them at all and will not pre-purchase or even purchase a product ever again from them prior to seeing what fellow gamers say.

When it comes to Frontier, I do not have a history with them so it's value that continues to drive my purchasing decisions hence my cautious nature in purchasing.

It was not a stab at you so I really hope you didn't take it as such.

...

I've not yet tried a heavy G planet yet simply because of time. I have no doubt I'll run into one (literally) sooner or later but initially it's been about experiencing primarily SRV gameplay and the missions associated with it.

So far what I love the most is how useless the SRV is in the grand scheme of things. It's very cleverly designed to be an extension of your ship that traverses short distances quickly but is painful to navigate for long periods of time.

I just LOVE this mechanic because it oftentimes means getting back in your ship and relocating closer to your objectives. It ties the equipment together much closer and makes them dependent on one another meaning there will be times you have to use both to succeed.

I can only hope they continue on this trend of the right tool for the right job because it's just so much more immersive.