Elite Dangerous Catch-All

Orphu wrote:

I get why they create these extra currencies. If Odyssey opened up ways to get more of the existing currencies it becomes pay to win as players that have it have more opportunity than players that do not.

As long as the rate of currency accumulation along the power curve remains the same between the different play modes, I don't really see a problem. Having mode specific currencies does provide a power curve that can't be skipped by playing other modes. So that's good.

Either way, not a particularly easy thing to balance. Glad I don't have to do it.

One question about Odyssey and Horizons. Is the VR as immersive as with the original mode?

VR is only in spaceships at this time. On foot VR is currently looking at virtual flat screen. Worth noting that head tracking does still work on foot and the UI is not stuck to the camera, so I could be wrong again, but I take that to mean there will be VR implementation in the future. I think they're primarily concerned with getting Odyssey out the door first.

Orphu wrote:

Yes, that's true. Much like Horizons, the materials/items/loot you get are pretty much only applicable to the gameplay elements added in Odyssey. In Horizons the stuff you found on planets was only good for engineering. Here, the stuff you find in on-foot missions are only really good for suits and hand weapons.

I get why they create these extra currencies. If Odyssey opened up ways to get more of the existing currencies it becomes pay to win as players that have it have more opportunity than players that do not.

Oh. For me, additional 'currencies' is a bit of a turn off. (Destiny kind of broke me, in that regard.)

It just means that I have to go 'all in' on the new activity in order to make the most of it.

I had hoped that Odyssey was something that I could dabble in as part of the story I was creating for myself. So I could spend most of time playing the base game, but could jump into some 1st person action when I felt it was the right thing for my player-character to do.

However, from what you're describing, I'd end up picking up rewards that are only of minor use to me, given how I'd want to spend most of my playtime.

It feels more disjointed as an overall experience than I'd expected. Indeed, it feels like the best way to play Elite now is to progress through the expansions. Play the base game until you finally buy and equip the ships you want. Then play Horizons in order to engineer them. Then play Odyssey because that's probably the only thing left to do.

I guess I thought Elite was becoming the game that Star Citizen was promising to be.

I will keep an eye on how it develops though.

For the non-Odyssey crowd, they found the Hesperus. Perseus Dark Region KC-V c2-2

There's a Dredger in the system too.

IMAGE(https://i.redd.it/5bkwiulhmfs61.png)

Ha!

IMAGE(https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1812111461559019402/E86799DC507F8FECFEFD5659B838E23FD14B17C8/)

detroit20 wrote:

It just means that I have to go 'all in' on the new activity in order to make the most of it.

I had hoped that Odyssey was something that I could dabble in as part of the story I was creating for myself. So I could spend most of time playing the base game, but could jump into some 1st person action when I felt it was the right thing for my player-character to do.

However, from what you're describing, I'd end up picking up rewards that are only of minor use to me, given how I'd want to spend most of my playtime.

It feels more disjointed as an overall experience than I'd expected. Indeed, it feels like the best way to play Elite now is to progress through the expansions. Play the base game until you finally buy and equip the ships you want. Then play Horizons in order to engineer them. Then play Odyssey because that's probably the only thing left to do.

I'm sorry but I just really don't understand. You can absolutely just do a few first person missions, you just need to leave more difficult ones until you have some stuff. I just hit a thousand hours in Elite and I basically spend most of the time meandering from activity to activity. Combat, mining, missions and poking your head around in places provide so many engineering mats that I've never had to grind them.

Elite is a sandbox, nothing pushes you to the next goal or area, and nothing gates you from progressing anywhere. It isn't a game where you have to grind out the best, heavily engineered ship to start having fun. I totally get why you'd want the best stuff, but if you tell yourself you can only start having fun once you've ground that stuff out you're going to have a terrible time.

I mean, you know you, I'm not saying you'd love it, but what you described as the "best" way to play sounds like an awful time, and I'm here to say from experience that it is possible to play the game differently and have a lot of fun.

You know, full disclosure, I just had an IRL discussion with a friend who is absolutely hooked on accumulating stuff in Destiny 2 and he seems to loathe actually playing it. Like, playing a game for the sake of playing it just seems like an alien concept to him. It's immensely frustrating to watch a friend make themselves miserable, seemingly on purpose. So I might be projecting a little.

I tend to agree with you BuzzW.

I mean, you CAN chase rep, or upgrades, or ships in Elite. It's easy to get caught up in that. A lot of folks do.

But I, too, seem to enjoy it most when I'm just meandering. Enjoying the sim. Or, picking one of the sights to see and just go there. I had a great time a few months back traveling to the generation ships and listening to the recordings.

Odyssey seems fun even in this early alpha. Being able to disembark anywhere you can land is really neat and the glimpse at on-foot exploration seems like it's something I'll probably enjoy. I do wish on-foot supported VR, and walking around stations and settlements just makes me want to see and customize my ship interior even worse.

I play strictly as a tourist. It's great fun, I highly recommend it. You won't become 1B rich, but you can safely becoming 300M rich.

I agee on the wandering between being fun, but from everything I'm hearing, they're just shoving another game into the game without fleshing out what came before. IMO so much that's already in needs a complete rebalance (rewards, weapon/damage types, the overall uselessness of small craft, etc). I get that to charge for an expansion you need to expand, but why should we trust that they are going to balance the new stuff any better then they do the old?
Caveat, i enjoyed my 1000 hours with the game, but it was a weird experience of knowing more about the game making like it less.

Tycho the Mad wrote:

I agree on the wandering between being fun, but from everything I'm hearing, they're just shoving another game into the game without fleshing out what came before. IMO so much that's already in needs a complete rebalance (rewards, weapon/damage types, the overall uselessness of small craft, etc). I get that to charge for an expansion you need to expand, but why should we trust that they are going to balance the new stuff any better then they do the old?
Caveat, i enjoyed my 1000 hours with the game, but it was a weird experience of knowing more about the game making like it less.

My experience is that the meandering from activity to activity only becomes fun at the point at which you've got a decent ship, decently equipped, and a healthy stack of credits in the bank. 'Meandering' is well-nigh impossible in the early to middle stages of the game when you've got small 'boats' with poor ranges, or if you haven't got enough cash to re-spec your ship when the mood takes you. I think its easy to forget this when your 1000 hours in.

For me, Elite: Dangerous got off to a fantastic start. I thought the tutorial was great. I loved (and still love) the flying. And it was exciting enjoying the freedom to go hither and yon, and begin building a space career. But I felt that the mid-game (50 - 100 or so hours mark, which is around where I stopped) was flat and inflexible.

Somewhere out there I have a Python docked, so I suspect that I stopped just when the game was going to open up for me.

EDIT: I'm kind of talking myself into playing again.

Heh; although at this point I've got the set as it were of stuff, I still find myself doing a lot of small ship stuff. Not for the money, just for the variety that doing megaship merc stuff in something like a cobra can be. If you've not gone back to it in a while, grab a lil ship, engineer whatever you want on it and go tour those outposts with crazy little smuggling, base assault, megaship heist runs. There's a huge amount of variety that got dropped in towards Horizon's end that I think a lot of players have still never really tried, as it wasn't part of the credit grind.

Should also add the small ship stuff (yes, atm its only small ship stuff they're letting us access in Alpha Phase 2) is a lot of fun. Especially when you get to the riskier stuff, there's a ton of choices to be made in terms of arrival and departure, do you come in via the place's pad or park your own ship nearby and sneak in etc.

Although we haven't seen it yet; I am hoping that a mixing of the two environments is used by the follow on system to implement some much needed story arc chains, and that some of the stuff plays into law and order. i.e. Hot get away using Apex risks getting stopped/destroyed by ATF in supercruise rather than those choices and interactions switching the moment you leave the base no fire zone.

Orphu wrote:

And, if you listen close, you can just barely hear the wind whistle by on planets that have atmosphere.

Yeah, really worth highlighting this. Once again the FDev audio team have done some really great work, the atmospheric audio is very well done; some of the voice work, less so, but a lot of that right now is likely a placeholder mix.

detroit20 wrote:

For me, Elite: Dangerous got off to a fantastic start. I thought the tutorial was great. I loved (and still love) the flying. And it was exciting enjoying the freedom to go hither and yon, and begin building a space career. But I felt that the mid-game (50 - 100 or so hours mark, which is around where I stopped) was flat and inflexible.

I had a great start too, I remember. Playing Odyssey on a fresh alpha account kind of reminded me of that. I don't remember how many hours it was, but I quit playing around the time I had a Python. The Anaconda was the only next step and the grind was going to take forever. I kept logging in to fly now and then but I wasn't really playing.

Then one day there was a community goal that paid out something like 300 million credits with minimal effort. I remember it being like, ten times a normal community goal, and for no apparent reason. I took the money and ran and bought an Anaconda. I spent some time exploring, fighting, mining, everything really. I went to Colonia and back. Eventually I ran out of stuff to do and quit. Sure, I had a free Anaconda but the grind was still too big to get a Corvette or a Cutter.

Then the mining rush last year happened. I barely even participated and got like a billion credits. That was... a little bit much, and it got nerfed for sure, but it did get me playing again. I bought a Corvette and a bunch of other ships. Spent some time getting into engineering and building a Mamba.

I guess the lesson here is the credit inflation was what kept me playing. The old grind just didn't reward my time enough and I didn't burn out so much as I just moved on to other games. Once the big ticket items became reachable in a reasonable amount of time, the game opened up for me.

To bring this back to your post, you might be right about that mid-game Python lull, but it's easier then ever to earn your way past it now. I realize that's not an ideal fix to a boring mid-game, but it's better than what it was.

Ody Alpha and the enjoyment of seeing the universe through fresh character eyes resulted in an alt account purchase and creation.

I didn’t grab the free Epic version because “ahhh why would I get another account and sink another 1000 hours away....”

Welp. Now I’ve got my ColoniAlt.

Good day Commanders o7 Should have checked the forums of one of my favorite podcasts way sooner, of course there is a E:D community here.

Regarding Odyssey, I will hold off on buying it until I have a new rig, my 660ti will probably be very angry at me if I try to run this expansion on it.

I read the patch notes last night and i gotta say I'm underwhelmed. None of the primary game balancing that i feel the game desperately needs. Sure it's cool that you can get on your feet i guess, but with so much needing serious rebalance (weapons, defenses, damage types, engineering, general low utility of small ships, etc) i can't say that being able to walk around and lay an fps is what will give the game new life.
Hopefully I'm wrong and the game will blossom.

People are reporting performance issues. I was hopeful because it seems to run pretty well on my hardware (noticeably better than alpha) but my buddy gets terrible frames so my results might not be typical.

Got it free, wasn't expecting much and didn't get much.

And yes, it has knocked about ten frames per second off my normal ED performance

I pre-purchased to get the suit, but have no plans to play it at the moment. Basically I figured I'd just grab it now as an investment for when I get interested again. I'm honestly expecting this to be yet another gameplay element that seems big but ultimately becomes fairly shallow, and I'm optimistically hoping to be proven wrong.

I started to get into this years ago, before the first landing on moons expansion or whatever. Started to make some decent money and upgrades i thought, can't really recall.

Wondering if it's been that long and i dont even remember how far i got, should i just start over? Easier to make those entry level credits and ship upgrades now?

edit: Apparently i own horizons cause i pre ordered it when i was playing last but i never played it i don't think.

Fuzzballx wrote:

edit: Apparently i own horizons cause i pre ordered it when i was playing last but i never played it i don't think.

They rolled Horizons into the base game several months ago. Everyone has it now.

Fuzzballx wrote:

I started to get into this years ago, before the first landing on moons expansion or whatever. Started to make some decent money and upgrades i thought, can't really recall.

Wondering if it's been that long and i dont even remember how far i got, should i just start over? Easier to make those entry level credits and ship upgrades now?

edit: Apparently i own horizons cause i pre ordered it when i was playing last but i never played it i don't think.

It's been along time since I've been looking at ED, but I'd say, there's no point at all in starting over. If you really really want to, just go fly back to one of the starter systems, buy a sidewinder and sell literally everything else you own.. Starting over will just lose you the money, and any XP you've built up... pretty much nothing else.

Okay, some Odyssey thoughts:

Performance is not good. I can't comment too much because I only have my system to try it on, but I get about 40 fps on ultra in 4k inside a station, which is playable but a pretty big dip. My buddy with a slightly older system gets 20 fps. Looks really nice though.

I've encountered a lot of bugs that seem like they're server issues. Multiplayer disconnects mostly. I think the servers are getting hit hard

The actual gameplay loops, when working, are very similar to regular Elite, only on foot. Go somewhere, do a mission, get stuff, improve gear. Maybe you affect the bgs, maybe you look at some scenery.

I completed a few missions last night with a friend, and only one went flawlessly, although we completed them all successfully. We had a couple issues with doors desyncing and only opening for one person, that kind of thing. The new multi crew is great and everything multi crew should be, as long as your friend doesn't disconnect randomly. I liked the dynamic nature of the missions: sometimes abandoned bases had scavengers, sometimes not, and once they showed up halfway through the mission on a Diamondback Scout.

So to sum it up, it's the same old Elite with legs, lots of networking issues, fun when it works. I'm going to keep playing today and see how I enjoy it or not.

All I've done so far is the FPS tutorial, but the performance in it was terrible. Often I see 15 FPS, whereas on same machine previously the game was silky smooth (in a ship, of course). It's sluggish even in the menus. WHAT IS IT THINKING ABOUT?

Servers are better but I did a ground battle or whatever they are called and I was getting 20 fps in an indoor shootout, yikes

lorenzolio wrote:

All I've done so far is the FPS tutorial, but the performance in it was terrible. Often I see 15 FPS, whereas on same machine previously the game was silky smooth (in a ship, of course). It's sluggish even in the menus. WHAT IS IT THINKING ABOUT?

I have seen some people with minor and major FPS gains using this method: reddit post

After playing a bit for a few days, I like the gameplay, but I can't recommend Odyssey right now unless you have a very new computer and/or you don't mind very low frame rates.

The bugs are minor but frequent; like, one thing annoying me is sometimes the contrast is way off sometimes when you're in space: bright objects are washed out and dark objects are barely visible. Pretty sure this a bug and not a design decision

I'm still playing because I have an abnormal tolerance for jank and there's some good stuff in there, but I'm not recommending it to my friends until there's a lot of optimization

Goes to show how Star Citizen won't come close to its promise for another decade because it's simply too many systems, etc, to run well and bug free.

But that may simply be a part of Chris Roberts' longterm plan.