Ellen Degeneres: Horizons - AI Now Earns More Than Human Crew

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Ellen Degeneres: Horizons - AI Now Earns More Than Human Crew

«‹›854 »

AndroidHub: Feb 28, 2007; I've seen some stuff that would really make you say "like what?"

Welcome Commander,

Elite: Dangerous is the reboot of the Elite space-sim series which started in 1984, with the previous game in 1996, now it is back after an almost 20 year absence. It features a Scientifically accurate 1:1 scale galaxy, generated mostly procedurally with some artistic direction for locations of note. It has a very good flight model and fun combat, with a decent selection of ships and weaponry. It also has an almost-functional background-sim which involves any number of major and minor power vying for control of the various systems within inhabited space (more on that later.) It is a primarily open world game in that there is no story mode or real direction thrust upon the player when you start the game.

2.0: Horizons

Horizons is the first paid expansion to Elite: Dangerous. In it we will be able to land on planets (only lifeless planets and moons with no atmospheres at first) and drive around them in little carts. There will be outposts/starports on the surfaces of planets, which players will be able to assault and take control of in some capacity. Horizons is is the next "season" of content for Elite: Dangerous and will probably cover the next year of content releases, players who purchase or pre-purchase Horizons without the base game will get access to the base game and all Horizons content upon its release. Horizons will NOT include planets with atmospheres, but will have other planet types such as volcanic and ice planets as the year progresses.

Horizons will also feature the first vestiges of crafting at release in the form of "Synthesis". Synthesis will allow you to fabricate things such as ammunition and autorepair charges, along with temporary ship enhancements such as one-time hyperspace jump range boosters. To perform synthesis you will need materials you collect on the surface of planets, with rarer materials giving more powerful ammunition or enhancements.

If you own the base game before horizons is released you also will have exclusive access to the Cobra MK4, the next in the famous line of Cobra ships.

The Horizons Beta started November 30th, and currently there is no stated date for when the actual release will be aside from "December" (many expect it to be the 16th since that's when the base game was released last year).

If you prepurchase Horizons before December 1st at midnight you will get a pack of black paintjobs for every ship in the game.

Horizons will require x64 Windows installations to run.

Horizons Patchnotes

What's new in 1.5 -

Free to everyone with the base game and being released alongside horizons is update 1.5: Ships

Ships!

� Imperial Cutter: The Empire's Largest ship to date, it's got the most potential cargo capacity of any ship in the game. It turns slow, but is the fastest ship in its size class.

� Federal Corvette: The Federal Counterpart to the cutter, similar in size, but much more maneuverable. It is the first ship to boast two huge (class 4) hardpoints.

� Lakon Keelback: A variant of the Lakon Type-6, more heavily armed for when other parties might be after what you're hauling.

� Asp Scout: More affordable than the Asp Explorer, but with less capabilities and armaments.

� Viper MK4: A bulkier version of the Viper MK3, boasting the same harpoints, It trades some agility for more internal space. Kickstarter backers will get one of these for free when 1.5 is released.

� Imperial Fighter: The Imperial answer to the Condor short range fighter, highly maneuverable but lightly armed. Initially only available in CQC mode.

Other additions include:

� The Fer-de-Lance's reactor has gotten an upgrade to class 6 (use this to try out new builds).

� UI changes/improvments

� New missions and mission types, including multi-stage missions.

� Bobbleheads, purchasable in the game extras shop.

"What can I do in this game about space?"

You choose how you want to move up in the galaxy, through money, merit, rank, or prestige (though really mostly money) with jobs including but not limited to (in rough order of most profitable to least)-

� Bounty Hunter: Hunt down pirate scum and escaped prisoners, and carry out hits on high-profile criminals as they travel through space, then collect the rewards at nearby stations.

� Trader: Get a big ship and fill it with goodies, but watch out for pirates!

� Smuggler: Trader, but (mostly) illegal, just don't get caught.

� Mercenary: Factions within systems will sometimes go to war, and you're there to make some money from the whole affair (very similar to bounty hunter).

� Miner: Shoot rocks in space, meticulously gather up the bits that come off and melt them down into something that might be worth some money!

� Explorer: Launch yourself into the great black, see the sights, scan the planets and suns, then try not to get blown up on your way back.

� Pirate: Hold up traders and try to cram as much stolen goods into your hold before the fuzz shows up.

� Salaryman/Powerplay flunky: Pledge your undying loyalty to one of ten powers and do some mostly boring poo poo for a small salary at the end of the week (note: don't do this).

� Space Athlete: Shoot other ships in a grotesque gladiatorial fight for your life or something.

� Salvager: Clean up trash from wrecked ships and sell it.

Possible Future Jobs

� Tour-guide/Flight Attendant: Taxi the rich and powerful around in your overpriced luxury passenger ship that is bad at literally everything else!

-Future Game Content-
There's a lot planned by :frontear:

, but I will only be covering stuff we know is coming in the next year or so.

There are many features which have been revealed which are difficult to tell if they will be released at the same time as 1.5/horizons or if they will come later in the year, and also if they will require horizons or just the base game to access, but we have been assured these features will be in season 2.

� Ship Launching/Docking: Carry around fightercraft (and maybe utility ships?) in larger ships then lauch them for battle or other purposes. This will be facilitated by both an autopilot feature (which can be used for the main ship or the fighters), as well as-

� Multicrew: Crew up with other players in the same ship, which will mainly be useful with launchable ships and planetary landing, but you will also be able to split control of the ship so that one player might fly while the others control weapons or power managment. Not a whole lot has been revealed about how it will function, but it should add a great amount of depth to the game given just what we know.

� Commander Faces/Avatars: PLayers will be able to give their commander a custom face using a character creation interface to go along with the multicrew functionality. The limits regarding changing your model after the initial setting was left rather nebulous.

� Missions: There will be new missions related to both the naval factions as well as powerplay, along with new types of missions it has been said there will be chain-missions leading you (and perhaps your whole crew) on an ad-hoc adventure of sorts.

� Crafting & Loot: It has been revealed that there will be a crafting system coming which will allow players to make sidegrades/upgrades and cosmetic changes to their weapons and modules, such as changing the color of your lasers or adjusting the stats. Crafting will require new resources which have been dubbed "loot" some of which will be very rare or expensive.

Most of these have been left up in the air in terms of when they will become available or if you will need to buy horizons for them, but they are coming "in season two".

Sources: News post, EGX Livestream, Bobbleheads

And if you're not sure about what to buy, here's a handy infographic about the different options (though the lifetime pass is no longer available.)

-Technical stuff-

The game is available for PC(System Requirments), Mac, and Xbox One.

You can get it through Steam, or directly from Frontier Developments on PC/Mac. Xbox live on Xbone.

The game supports Oculus Rift, Vive, and most headtracking setups

You don't need a controller or joystick, but most players feel that it makes the game much more enjoyable. Here's a few goon favorites for joysticks:

Logitech] Extreme 3d pro (Budget option, $23 on amazon, also what I use.)

Thrustmaster T-Flight X

Thrustmaster Warthog

CH Fighterstick

(Don't buy Saitek products)

See posts 2 and 3 for guides, media, and goon-made content.

PGS thread, which has details on where to hang out with other goons who play this game along with special ops and some guides.

And lastly, try to keep talk about other space-sims in their designated thread, a little bit here and there is fine, but don't start full page discussions.

AndroidHub fucked around with this message at 20:01 on Feb 13, 2017

# ? Sep 14, 2015 02:31

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Apr 18, 2024 16:17

AndroidHub: Feb 28, 2007; I've seen some stuff that would really make you say "like what?"

Guides/Tweaks/etc.
Hopefully we can cover most of the things you will need to know about the game here, if you have a guide you would like here pm me or post it in the thread, will attempt to keep it as updated as possible.

-General Tips-

� Sell your modules BEFORE you sell a ship, if you just sell the ship with the modules still on it you lose some of their value, if you sell the modules on their own you get the full price you paid for them back.

� Buy ships and modules in Li Yong Rui's territory for a 15% discount on everything (which also reduces your insurance cost, neat!)

� Always have enough money for at least one rebuy of your ship when you are doing ANYTHING, you will die at least once in a way you didn't think could happen.

� If you are wanted you can still dock at a station in that territory, just get inside the station as fast as you can so the cops can't scan you (don't forget to request docking clearance though!)

� There are also rarely if ever any system authority ships at outposts/platforms, so those can be quite safe to dock at while wanted.

� If there are any stations in a system that don't belong to the system authority faction (look at your info panel or the system map) those count as different territory and you won't be wanted for crimes you committed in the rest of the system (but if you commit crimes while at the station you will get a seperate bounty there!)

� If you want to get rid of a bounty on your head you must wait out the timer (shown on your claims panel) or get a player to scan and kill you for it, if you die to anything other than a player the bounty will merely go dormant, and reactivate in full with a new timer if a cop scans you or you commit another crime.

� Regular fines will become a bounty at the end of a week if you do not pay them, legacy fines however don't seem to do anything as far as we can tell and are just an idiot tax (don't pay them).

� Rank E/C/A modules are all standard and share the same weight, each is simply a performance upgrade from the previous. D rank Modules weigh the least so are good for getting more jump distance. B rank modules are the heaviest, but have more health that any other class, and can have other differences (such as B rank shield cells having more ammo, and thus more overall shield restored, albeit over the span of more uses than an A rank.)

Official Video Tutorials:

Elite: Dangerous Pilot Training - Basic Flight Controls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crL9H_Vx68Y

Elite Dangerous Pilot Training: Basic Combat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBcSqCOatiY

Elite: Dangerous Pilot Training - Docking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weAoY7kw2NM

Elite: Dangerous Pilot Training - Travel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCIloJa2vS4

Elite: Dangerous Pilot Training - Galaxy And System Map
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H89hHj5LFvI

Elite: Dangerous Pilot Training - Starport Services
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnA7nOvolFY

Ship Building Guide by Paramemetic

Newbie Ship Progression Guide by Paramemetic

Supply/Demand Chart

Rare Trading Routes

Exploration Values

Interdiction

Fast Ranking

Pristine Metallic Ring Systems

AndroidHub posted:

-Powerplay and You-

"What is Powerplay and why should I care?"
Powerplay was added as the main feature of version 1.3 and is basically meant to give the galaxy "super factions" which players could support and receive boons from in return. What it ended up being was a grindfest to keep people busy and give the illusion that there's a lot more going on than there actually is, but it does have its uses. This guide will cover the ways a player can take personal advantage of the bonuses a power grants, and little on how powers operate in terms of gaining and losing territory, command capital, etc (because frankly it doesn't matter and you shouldn't care.)

Basically each power has a different bit of flavor text about why they want to control the galaxy, their methods, etc. None of that really matters, currently all powers operate in the same manner, and the only difference is the way that systems under their control change, and the bonuses they give you for holding a rank with them.

Ranks within powerplay are updated weekly (at 7am GMT on Thursdays) and ranks are granted based on the number of merits a player has when the week is finished. Merits are a metacurrency that only exists within powerplay, when the week is over three things happen, you are granted a rank based on your number of merits, you get the salary for whatever rank you had been for that week, and your merits decay by 50%.

"How do I get these wonderful merits that I can hold and cherish forever?"
There are a number of ways, but they boil down to Kill enemy powerplay npcs, or haul powerplay gubbins from point A to point B.

Hauling gubbins is not really something you should do, but it basically involves going to your faction HQ and collecting garrison supplies to take to nearby control systems, you get one merit per ton and have to pay to get more after a small amount of freebies. You can also collect other gubbins from control systems and take them elsewhere, but it's not worth doing in any case. These actions fortify control systems which makes them less vulnerable to actions taken by enemy factions (really though don't haul things in powerplay).

The real way to get your merits is some good old fashion space murder which comes in two varieties. The best way is to go to an enemy control system, interdict npcs from other factions out of supercruise and kill them, each kill grants 30 merits, and you can interdict wings of up to three enemies at once (under regular circumstances). This is also one of the few activities that is practical to do in a wing of your own, as having more players in a supercruise instance increases the spawn rate of wings, and all players that do damage to an enemy in the minute or so before they die get the full 30 merits from the kill. You can kill enemies belonging to any un-allied faction while doing this (for whatever reason), but the faction the system belongs to will have two type of npcs that spawn, Defense forces, and supply ships. Generally speaking supply ships will be much less powerful, but there are some instances where they can be things like clippers, pythons or fdrops.

You want to look carefully at the system you will use for doing this-

� The system must be controlled by an enemy powerplay faction in order for you to get credit for the kills, Superpower aligned PP factions all have peace treaties between them, which means if you attack and kill npcs from their faction, you lose merits (30 per kill). So if your faction is Imperial, you can't kill other Imperials, if you're Fed you can't kill other Feds

� In any system that isn't anarchy you will get bounties on you for killing enemy PP npcs, which is only a big deal in that it can reduce your standing with the three Superpowers if done in a system with a controlling faction aligned with one of them (all the way to hostile if you aren't careful), so look for anarchy or independent governments when doing this.

� Systems produce worse spawns when heavily undermined (which you can see when looking at the galaxy map in powerplay view), which basically means players were already in that system during this cycle and did what you're looking to do, you can still get your merits there, but the spawns will be much worse.

� Whatever system you are getting your merits in should be relatively close to a control system belonging to your faction, because you have to turn in vouchers at a control system to receive your actual merits. If you die or the cycle happens while holding vouchers they are all lost to the void with no way to get them back or receive credit for them.

The other way to get merits from killing is to go to expansion combat zones belonging to enemy factions, these are like the combat zones you would find anywhere else, but one side is the expansion forces of the power and the other is the system authority trying to repel them from the system. They can only be found in system where expansion is being carried out by a faction during that cycle, each faction has a different name for its brand of combat zone, but the names are always different from those you will find elsewhere. Kills here are worth 10 merits each, while the enemies are much better equipped than those you would find to interdict in supercruise, which is why most people prefer supercruise assassinations to farming in combat zones.

"OK, so what do these merits actually do for me?"
As stated above, you get a rank based on your merit count at the end of a powerplay cycle, there are 5 ranks in all and have a number of shared effects regardless of faction, as well has three pertaining to each faction specifically.

All factions get these bonuses (omitting nominations and commodity allocation, because you shouldn't care about them)-

Rank 1 (0 Merits)
� Salary of 1000 credits

Rank 2 (100 Merits)
� Salary of 50,000 credits
� Power specific bonus with additional effect when the power in in the top three in galactic standing

Rank 3 (750 Merits)
� Salary of 500,000 credits
� Power specific module or weapon after being pledged for 28 consecutive days

Rank 4 (1,500 Merits)
� Salary of 5,000,000 credits
� NOTHING

Rank 5 (10,000 Merits)
� Salary of 50,000,000 credits
� Power specific bonus

Faction Bonuses

The Nitty Gritty

So as the game is right now there are three ways to utilize powerplay best

� Buy in Li Yong Rui's territory for 15% off all ships and modules/weapons, this decreases the insurance cost as well, so it's worth going out and rebuying all of your ships there since you'll even make a bit back after the resale hit (don't forget to sell your modules first!). Also note that you don't need to be pledged to Li Yong for this since the discount is a system bonus.

� Prismatic shields from Aisling Duval are the best faction-specific module in the game, they give you a 20% boost over regular A-rank shields and are very good on a lot of ships. They are the only faction module worth pledging specifically for.

� Arissa Lavigny Duval(or Avril Lavigne for short) offers a significant bounty bonus which is absolutely worth going for to grind out a lot of cash fast. She gets up to a 50% boost on turn-in from maintaining rank 2 while bounty hunting in her territory, and a 100% from rank 5, which is a lot of work, but many feel is worth it for the massive earning potential. While Hudson and Pranav also offer bounty bonuses up to 100% they do not have the same system bonus which gives and additional 20% boost which is compounded by the rank bonus. In 1.3 her system bonus is bugged to give you much higher bounties than it should, so even just hunting in her territory is a good idea for the time being (this may or may not be fixed in 1.4, if anyone has evidence that it's been changed please present it.)

You need to get 334 assassination kills in a given week to attain rank 5 and utilize a given bonus (and recieve the 50m salary), if you do this in a group it can take as little as 8 hours, then on following weeks you will need roughly 170 (which can change as your merits decay) which can take as little as 4 hours. These times are a sort of "best case scenario" so be prepared to take much longer while you learn how to most efficiently murder your way to fame and riches.

If you are going after rank 5 and plan to keep it for a long time, keep in mind that merit decay is not entirely straightforward. Merits decay 50% every week upon the powerplay cycle (7AM GMT), but each week of merits is stored as its own instance and merits simply vanish after decaying for 4 week, so if you earn 10,000 meirts one week then upkeep rank 5 for at least 4 weeks the amounts you need to earn will look something like this (bold is how many you need each week to maintain rank 5)-

10000

5000+5000

2500+2500+5000

1250+1250+2500+5000

625+1250+2500+5625

and so-on.

And it bears reapeating that if powerplay cycles or you die while holding merit vouchers you lose all of them, so be sure to turn them in at a control system regularly.

An important thing to come into powerplay knowing is that inherently it doesn't make you wanted in systems under the control of a different faction, what it does is makes you "hostile" when in those territories (unless they belong to a power from the same major faction, Fed or Imperial), and what that means is that players and npcs pledged to the power in control of that system can attack and kill you without becoming wanted (though currently players get no benefit from doing so). Stations and law enforcement don't care what power you're in, only if you've broken the law.

That should cover about all of the bases, if there's something left that you need to know ask in the thread and I'll try and give you an answer then update the guide.

Guides needed:
Trading
Rare Trading
Exploring
Wings
Basic terminology and functions (Acronyms, interdiction, etc)
Guide to the background sim I guess?
TBD

-Resources-

PGS thread, which has details on where to hang out with other goons who play this game along with special ops and some guides.

Ship Finder

Hud Color Code Generator

Trade Loop Finder

Coriolis Ship Builder

AndroidHub fucked around with this message at 15:55 on Mar 19, 2016

# ? Sep 14, 2015 02:31

AndroidHub: Feb 28, 2007; I've seen some stuff that would really make you say "like what?"

-Media-

Coriolis Station Tour
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d3zfPoB0oM

Elite Dangerous: The Force Awakens
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3zwpmmC1DM

Gold Anaconda
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xnoObGBcsE

"Hotel Dalgarno" Fuel Rats Tribute

-Goon Content- _{(Say so if you want your stuff here)}

KakerMix runs a groovy space tunes radio station Here!

Drake_263' ship reviews:

Falcon DeLacys 'Sidewinder'

Falcon DeLacys 'Cobra Mk III'

Zorgon-Petersons 'Hauler'

Core Dynamics 'Eagle'

Lakons 'Type-6'

The Pale White Dot by Literally Kermit

newafrica dot veeceell by Literally Kermit

Farragut Battle Cruiser in Lugh by Kakermix

"The Frogs of Violence" by 3

orange juche posted:

Love can bloom even when two ships are caught on the edge of the largest gravitational singularity in the galaxy.

Bloody Wanker posted:

Previous Elite Games:

ELITE (1984)

Elite was the first open world space simulator released originally on the BBC Micro in 1984, written by David Braben and Ian Bell. The game's title derives from one of the player's goals of raising their combat rating to the exalted heights of "Elite". The player takes control of "Commander Jameson" and it's up to the player to decide what kind of career to pursue, such as piracy, trade, military missions, bounty hunting and asteroid mining. The money made from these missions can buy weapons and upgrades for your ship.

Elite was a very big game for it's time and a lot of never seen before techical innovations. The Elite universe contains eight galaxies, each galaxy containing 256 planets to explore. Because of the limited memory budget at the time, these worlds had to be precurally generated and the entire game is programmed in assembly. Elite was a huge hit and has been ported to several other platforms such as Apple II, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, NES and the kids favorite - the Tatung Einstein.

A pretty comprehensive list of all the ports can be found here: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/AFE_FAQ3

Frontier: ELITE II (1993)

Frontier:Elite II is the first sequal to Elite. The game plays very much like its prequal but has realistic physics and a accurately modelled galaxy. Just like in Elite, the game doesn't have a plot or a storyline, but the player is free to do what he feels like. The player can also get a better ship by making money in a number of legal or illegal ways. The game replaces the Elite's arcade flying style for a model based on newtonian physics, but a autopilot can be used for docking and navigation. Stars and planets also had realistic gravity, which can be used to do slingshot maneuvers around them. The players could also now land on planets and dock in space stations to the tones of the classical piece 'The Blue Danube'.

The graphics was very advanced for it's time, and the PC version was using curved polygons and texture mapping. The game was huge, containing millions of stars and planets made possible by procedural generation. And the original version for Amiga was entirely written in Assembly and was published on a single floppy disk.

The game was generally well recieved even though it was launched with a few bugs. Since the games development had been running over its deadline Gametek insisted on publishing it before it was finished. It has been released on Amiga, Amiga CD32, Atari ST and PC.

AndroidHub fucked around with this message at 17:32 on Mar 6, 2016

# ? Sep 14, 2015 02:31

KakerMix: Apr 8, 2004; 8.2 M.P.G.

If they don't 'tweak' the Assault Ship it's got ultra-silly maneuverability even when fully laden with weapons, armor and fat shields, even at full speed. True to form though just like the Clipper has it's weapons way out on the pylon things the Assault ship has it's large mounts on the top and bottom of the ship. I guess awful weapon placement is some sort of attempt at balance Frontier does.

# ? Sep 14, 2015 02:40

Dabir: Nov 10, 2012

OP leaves out Elite Plus, which is different enough from the original to deserve mention, and FFE.

# ? Sep 14, 2015 02:59

Bloody Pom: Jun 5, 2011

Not sure if the typo in the thread title is intentional or not.

# ? Sep 14, 2015 03:00

Stanko-Prussian: May 22, 2006; CLEAN YOUR ROOM!, 'they' said.
DO YOUR HOMEWORK!, 'they' said.
WHY ARE YOU IN LOVE WITH A CARTOON PONY, 'they' said.
FOR GODSAKE! STOP SHOWING US YOUR BLACKHOLE'!! 'they' said.

When I lit the match....STOP SCREAMING, 'I' said

Is "baiscs" intentional, because if it is i missed the joke.

# ? Sep 14, 2015 03:00

AndroidHub: Feb 28, 2007; I've seen some stuff that would really make you say "like what?"

Nope, I'm just bad, didn't even mean to use that, put it in the field days ago and forgot it was there

AndroidHub fucked around with this message at 03:11 on Sep 14, 2015

# ? Sep 14, 2015 03:02

Stanko-Prussian: May 22, 2006; CLEAN YOUR ROOM!, 'they' said.
DO YOUR HOMEWORK!, 'they' said.
WHY ARE YOU IN LOVE WITH A CARTOON PONY, 'they' said.
FOR GODSAKE! STOP SHOWING US YOUR BLACKHOLE'!! 'they' said.

When I lit the match....STOP SCREAMING, 'I' said

AndroidHub posted:

Nope, I'm just bad, didn't even mean to use that, put it in the field days ago and forgot it was there

It's a slap in the face tbqh

# ? Sep 14, 2015 03:03

Dabir: Nov 10, 2012

It's perfect, nobody change it.

# ? Sep 14, 2015 03:18

khwarezm: Oct 26, 2010; Deal with it.

So is this game good or what?

# ? Sep 14, 2015 03:22

Literally Kermit: Mar 4, 2012; t

khwarezm posted:

So is this game good or what?

If you are creative with what you consider fun, very. Even so, it's a very fun time just exploring systems and lazily making your way across the galaxy.

There's plenty to gnash your teeth about, too, but as a whole it's an excellent space combat game and it's getting better with time.

Edit: Speaking of which, Operation: Powerbottom is go, I say again, is go. Watch this thread for the official dossier!

# ? Sep 14, 2015 03:30

Chrysophylax: Dec 28, 2006; ._.

khwarezm posted:

So is this game good or what?

The act of flying your ship around and shooting things is perfect. The other stuff, like the political game, bulletin board missions, ships' internals variety and some other game mechanics range from 'eh' to terrible. It's very much a 'make your own fun' game.

It has a ton of potential that the developer has yet to realize. However they are very very slow to do it. I'd say if this interests you at all, the newest patch offers a game mode where you hop on and just deathmatch or capture the flag with other humans, which some of us think is almost worth the price of admission by itself.

# ? Sep 14, 2015 03:31

Typical Pubbie: May 10, 2011

khwarezm posted:

So is this game good or what?

It's barely a game outside of CQC. There are two kinds of ED players:

1. Galactic tourists who play the game like it's a chopped down Space Engine. Press the J key, scan a system, scoop some fuel, listen to your favorite podcast, repeat.

2. People who have access to the CQC beta, an arena combat module separate from the main game.

Beyond that it's really shallow. The mission system, the economy, buying and upgrading ships; all have the depth one would expect from a flash game. After putting 50 hours into it I'm very disappointed.

# ? Sep 14, 2015 03:38

Literally Kermit: Mar 4, 2012; t

Typical Pubbie posted:

It's barely a game outside of CQC. There are two kinds of ED players:

1. Galactic tourists who play the game like it's a chopped down Space Engine. Press the J key, scan a system, scoop some fuel, listen to your favorite podcast, repeat.

2. People who have access to the CQC beta, an arena combat module separate from the main game.

Beyond that it's really shallow. The mission system, the economy, buying and upgrading ships; all have the depth one would expect from a flash game. After putting 50 hours into it I'm very disappointed.

Kind of harsh. There was a massive meta-game at play at one time, where we basically set up a puppet guild that actually became way more successful than our actual faction. If we hadn't been hosed over repeatedly by the background simulator and Power Play, it would have been a very different game indeed.

Playing by the rules pretty much got us nothing, though, so again, it's a case where you bring your own fun to the sandbox.

# ? Sep 14, 2015 03:47

Typical Pubbie: May 10, 2011

One of my biggest complaints about the game is that it doesn't give players enough tools to make their own fun. It's not as open-ended as it first appears. The instanced nature of much of the content makes for a very static galaxy. The absence of any sort of crafting system makes mining pointless and trade simplistic. And Power Play is just an awful grind masquerading as political intrigue, it's so bad they should just dumpster the whole system and start from scratch.

ED feels like it should be a great game because underlying elements like the flight model, the UI, the graphics, the universe itself are just so drat good. But Frontier has failed to take those elements and make them into something worth playing.

# ? Sep 14, 2015 04:03

KakerMix: Apr 8, 2004; 8.2 M.P.G.

khwarezm posted:

So is this game good or what?

Maybe.

# ? Sep 14, 2015 04:14

Paramemetic: Sep 29, 2003; Area 51. You heard of it, right?; Fallen Rib

I play this game sometimes and once I even had fun.

If you're going to play with mouse and keyboard it's imperative that you rebind your keys because the defaults are beyond asinine. My suggestion is:

Throttle on mouse wheel.
Roll and pitch on mouse.

W/S forward and backward thrusters
A/D lateral left/right thrusters
Q/E yaw left/right
R/F upwards/downwards thrusters

Left Shift for yaw/roll toggle to let you track targets with yaw easier when the situation is right.

But I've found that while I'm not as good, flying with the Thrustmaster Flight X is a lot more fun.

# ? Sep 14, 2015 04:37

Eyud: Aug 5, 2006

khwarezm posted:

So is this game good or what?

Yeah, it's pretty great.

# ? Sep 14, 2015 07:22

Dante80: Mar 23, 2015

Some nice screenshots..

Dante80 fucked around with this message at 08:23 on Sep 14, 2015

# ? Sep 14, 2015 08:19

littleorv: Jan 29, 2011

Typical Pubbie posted:

It's barely a game outside of CQC. There are two kinds of ED players:

1. Galactic tourists who play the game like it's a chopped down Space Engine. Press the J key, scan a system, scoop some fuel, listen to your favorite podcast, repeat.

2. People who have access to the CQC beta, an arena combat module separate from the main game.

Beyond that it's really shallow. The mission system, the economy, buying and upgrading ships; all have the depth one would expect from a flash game. After putting 50 hours into it I'm very disappointed.

lol

# ? Sep 14, 2015 08:40

Nelson Mandingo: Mar 27, 2005

littleorv posted:

lol

They're not wrong. It is pretty basic. The design of the game works against itself. By not having player-ownable space there is very little incentive to do anything. As of right now all you can do is get more money. More money = bigger ship. Once you get an Anaconda and completely outfit it...well that's it. You've won the game.

That's enough for some people I guess.

Nelson Mandingo fucked around with this message at 08:45 on Sep 14, 2015

# ? Sep 14, 2015 08:42

littleorv: Jan 29, 2011

Nelson Mandingo posted:

They're not wrong. It is pretty basic. The design of the game works against itself.

I'm not saying they are wrong but it was obviously fun enough that they put 50 hours into it. I often don't even play games I really like for that long.

# ? Sep 14, 2015 08:45

Typical Pubbie: May 10, 2011

Nelson Mandingo posted:

They're not wrong. It is pretty basic. The design of the game works against itself.

He's laughing about how I put 50 hours into a game that I think is bad. The game is fun at first but there's a point where it quickly gets boring. I kept playing because it's easy to log a lot of hours trading and exploring while doing other stuff outside of the game. It's a podcast screen saver.

# ? Sep 14, 2015 08:50

Bloody Wanker: Dec 31, 2008

AndroidHub posted:

Welcome Commander...

Excellent job on the new OP!

Sorry everyone for not keeping the old OP up to date, i 've been busy.
Your boy AndroidHub will probably do a better job than me.

Can't believe this is the third E:D thread.
He grows up so fast.

# ? Sep 14, 2015 10:06

DarthBlingBling: Apr 19, 2004; These were also dark times for gamers as we were shunned by others for being geeky or nerdy and computer games were seen as Childs play things, during these dark ages the whispers began circulating about a 3D space combat game called Elite

- CMDR Bald Man In A Box

Crafting is supposedly coming.

The game is a work in progress. We try to make our own fun however, such as putting players in Eravate through 'incompetency' tests to see if they should be in a pubbie system or not.

Two of us won graphics card: that was an exhilarating night I tell you.

We also like to cause drama

Bloody Wanker posted:

Excellent job on the new OP!

Sorry everyone for not keeping the old OP up to date, i 've been busy.
Your boy AndroidHub will probably do a better job than me.

Can't believe this is the third E:D thread.
He grows up so fast.

Any gossip?

# ? Sep 14, 2015 10:16

Tom Guycot: Oct 15, 2008; Chief of Governors

so has frontier given any hint that they'll ever backtrack yet on ever having player owned, or at least player directed factions/space/stations/anything to give some sense of ownership to bother with the boring stuff?

# ? Sep 14, 2015 10:38

DarthBlingBling: Apr 19, 2004; These were also dark times for gamers as we were shunned by others for being geeky or nerdy and computer games were seen as Childs play things, during these dark ages the whispers began circulating about a 3D space combat game called Elite

- CMDR Bald Man In A Box

We get to name our own faction. That's currently in play and we'll see what's happened with that in the next few days.

# ? Sep 14, 2015 11:08

frank.club: Jan 15, 2011; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

I got some bad news for you if you think they're going to let you name and make a faction.

# ? Sep 14, 2015 13:56

Pimblor: Sep 13, 2003; bob; Grimey Drawer

frank.club posted:

I got some bad news for you if you think they're going to let you name and make a faction.

Bonglord McWeinerHuge will rule the galaxy I say!

# ? Sep 14, 2015 14:06

Paramemetic: Sep 29, 2003; Area 51. You heard of it, right?; Fallen Rib

frank.club posted:

I got some bad news for you if you think they're going to let you name and make a faction.

I mean, they literally already did this. It's going into effect with the first wave of them with 1.4 and should be lookable in open beta.

# ? Sep 14, 2015 14:10

Libluini: May 18, 2012; I gravitated towards the Greens, eventually even joining the party itself.

The Linke is a party I grudgingly accept exists, but I've learned enough about DDR-history I can't bring myself to trust a party that was once the SED, a party leading the corrupt state apparatus ...; Grimey Drawer

Paramemetic posted:

I mean, they literally already did this. It's going into effect with the first wave of them with 1.4 and should be lookable in open beta.

Is our name really Diamond Frogs or was that a joke in the other thread? Last time I checked, that name hadn't appeared yet in the list of approved player faction names on the Frontier-forum.

# ? Sep 14, 2015 14:29

Literally Kermit: Mar 4, 2012; t

Libluini posted:

Is our name really Diamond Frogs or was that a joke in the other thread? Last time I checked, that name hadn't appeared yet in the list of approved player faction names on the Frontier-forum.

It's the name we came up with after Tikal took off for the coast or whatever. My other suggestion was "Goons without Frontiers" only in french but because I don't speak French good, I also suggest "Jeux Sans Fronti�res" after the true hero of this thread, Peter "P-Gabz" Gabriel.

Diamond Frogs is good and I think making up a thousand funny patches for squads would also be fun and good.

In conclusion goddamnit frank.club i lost gryphglyph to this game IM NOT LOSING YOU TOO *picks u up, slowcrawls u the rest of the way to Mt Doom*

# ? Sep 14, 2015 14:38

Dusty Lens: Jul 1, 2015; All Glory unto the Stimpire. Give up your arms and legs and embrace the beautiful agony of electricity that doubles in pain every second.

khwarezm posted:

So is this game good or what?

It'll still be relevant in 800 years when teenagers use it to practice parking.

# ? Sep 14, 2015 14:42

Stanko-Prussian: May 22, 2006; CLEAN YOUR ROOM!, 'they' said.
DO YOUR HOMEWORK!, 'they' said.
WHY ARE YOU IN LOVE WITH A CARTOON PONY, 'they' said.
FOR GODSAKE! STOP SHOWING US YOUR BLACKHOLE'!! 'they' said.

When I lit the match....STOP SCREAMING, 'I' said

Literally Kermit posted:

It's the name we came up with after Tikal took off for the coast or whatever. My other suggestion was "Goons without Frontiers" only in french but because I don't speak French good, I also suggest "Jeux Sans Fronti�res" after the true hero of this thread, Peter "P-Gabz" Gabriel.

Diamond Frogs is good and I think making up a thousand funny patches for squads would also be fun and good.

In conclusion goddamnit frank.club i lost gryphglyph to this game IM NOT LOSING YOU TOO *picks u up, slowcrawls u the rest of the way to Mt Doom*

I like Diamond Frogs but i'm having a hell of a time finding an amphibian-based spin on Outer Heaven/Mother Base

# ? Sep 14, 2015 14:48

Dusty Lens: Jul 1, 2015; All Glory unto the Stimpire. Give up your arms and legs and embrace the beautiful agony of electricity that doubles in pain every second.

Stanko-Prussian posted:

I like Diamond Frogs but i'm having a hell of a time finding an amphibian-based spin on Outer Heaven/Mother Base

Frogstar?

If you want to run with a Hitchhikers reference.

# ? Sep 14, 2015 14:53

Libluini: May 18, 2012; I gravitated towards the Greens, eventually even joining the party itself.

The Linke is a party I grudgingly accept exists, but I've learned enough about DDR-history I can't bring myself to trust a party that was once the SED, a party leading the corrupt state apparatus ...; Grimey Drawer

Dusty Lens posted:

It'll still be relevant in 800 years when teenagers use it to practice parking.

This is true, especially since in 800 years Earth is probably so overpopulated, you'll really do get killed for parking wrong.

# ? Sep 14, 2015 14:54

Eddy-Baby: Mar 8, 2006; ₤₤LOADSA MONAY₤₤

quote:

ELITE DANGEROUS: HORIZONS IS A NEW SEASON OF MAJOR INCOME EXPANSIONS FOR FRONTIER DEVELOPMENTS, BEGINNING WITH PAY AGAIN GIVING ACCESS TO PLANETARY LANDINGS ACROSS THE ELITE DANGEROUS GALAXY

Elite Dangerous: Horizons launches this Holiday. The first expansion, Pay Again, introduces players to the concept that planet surfaces, promised as a feature from the start, and the first all-new Surface Recon Vehicle (SRV) the �Scarab� might be worth paying full price for, again. Scanning airless planets and moons brings much needed new gameplay as players detect signals, crashed ships, mineral deposits, outposts and fortresses. Alone or with friends, paying customers who have already paid once for Elite will again shell out the full retail price of a new game in order to explore new worlds, coasting over mountaintops, diving into canyons, landing on the surface and rolling out onto the surface in your SRV, all without loading times or breaks in gameplay.

Elite Dangerous: Horizons will continue to introduce new features and gameplay as the season continues into 2016, enriching Frontier Developments as existing players are forced to choose between paying for the game again or being locked out of future updates.

Since new players probably wouldn't agree to pay twice for one game, Elite Dangerous: Horizons includes all Elite Dangerous content to date, and all players will continue to fly together in the same galaxy.

Existing Elite Dangerous players receive a �10 loyalty discount off the price of Elite Dangerous: Horizons, retaining their progress and unlocking the exclusive �Cobra Mk IV� in-game spacecraft, along with a note from Frontier Developments reading "gently caress You".

Order now and be among the first to land, Holiday 2015. We promise we won't do this again.

# ? Sep 14, 2015 15:56

Cactus: Jun 24, 2006

DarthBlingBling posted:

The game is a work in progress.

The truth, right here. Basically, when looking at the game on Steam and wondering if you should make the purchase, pretend you can see this:

Except, when you purchase the early access version of the game that is out now (if you purchase the version you can play right now, that is), you won't automatically be given access to the full game that was advertised in the kickstarter with planetary landings and flying through the clouds of gas giants and such, when it releases. They'll charge you a full-game price again for that.

All that said, I've put hours upon hours into it, but that's mostly exploring the galaxy and playing pretend space-photographer, and had a pretty good time.

lol, efb

# ? Sep 14, 2015 16:13

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Apr 18, 2024 16:17

Adult Sword Owner: Jun 19, 2011; u deserve diploma for sublime comedy expertise

I don't regret purchasing it at all even though I'm awful and am stuck at around 700k credits so I can't actually get out of my Viper

# ? Sep 14, 2015 16:14

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Ellen Degeneres: Horizons - AI Now Earns More Than Human Crew

«‹›854 »