Elite: Dangerous looks better already!

nonnex · Post by **nonnex** » Thu, 12. Dec 13, 21:44

@p0rn: Word! I'll get it too, just because of having it.

Harag · Post by **Harag** » Thu, 12. Dec 13, 22:13

pr0nflakes wrote:Can't wait to add it to my collection.

WOW, I have collection as well. I used to have it on the C=64 and electron as well. The good ole days.

ghostpilot · Post by **ghostpilot** » Thu, 12. Dec 13, 23:38

I dont trust David Braben for making a good enough sequel of Elite, for some varied reasons. The game looks promising but I have to see it released and reviewd first.

But as for the alpha, its just me or does it look like what X4 could have been? (laser beams gallore aside). It has weapon energy lvl in the HUD like Xgames (not visually the same I know), it has visible radar, ship info screen poping on the side like X:R etc.

Imagine the small bobble-head figure there being replaced by a cartoonish Boron, it would be funny.

gbjbaanb · Post by **gbjbaanb** » Thu, 12. Dec 13, 23:47

it depends - if Elite:Dangerous is entirely based around the player, trading and fighting with the ship he's in, then it's not going to be anything like X4.

If the ED player can command an empire of trade ships, and capital combat ships and stations and factories and have a wing of fighters, and change ship to fly a carrier and send a fleet of fighters to battle.... then its not going to be anything like X3, let alone X4.

Its all about scope - X3 had it, a X4 should have it in spades. A decent X4 should be almost a strategy game than a fly-a-fighter game (though with good aspects of both).

kurush · Post by **kurush** » Fri, 13. Dec 13, 01:12

ghostpilot wrote:I dont trust David Braben for making a good enough sequel of Elite, for some varied reasons. The game looks promising but I have to see it released and reviewd first.

You probably didn't like the other two sequels and I enjoyed them much more than the original version. They had huge potential, I wish he had resources to develop on that. I can still play those "face lifted" first encounters versions that you can get nowdays. If he eventually gets to the planet landing thing with modern graphics, I will probably even forget about missing economy there

But I think it will be pretty safe to expect some mining, collecting fuel from stars, etc.

TRiPWiRE · Post by **TRiPWiRE** » Fri, 13. Dec 13, 04:56

I remember playing this as a black and white wireframe vector type game on a Commodore 64 when I was a kid. Then I played it to death on an Amiga 500 when that version came out.

If they can capture some of the greatness of those early titles, I'll be buying this and shelving Rebirth for good.

Oh... It won't be a pre-purchase though. Egosoft taught me that's not a great idea.

SteveMill · Post by **SteveMill** » Fri, 13. Dec 13, 07:52

The difference between ED and XR is that ED development is being done in the open. Anyone can join the forums and discuss features. ED is being alpha and beta and then gamma tested extensively without the cover of an NDA.

By the time this goes on sale there will be non-company videos and reviews a plenty. There will be beta testers like me screaming from the rooftops if they are releasing shit and calling it sugar.

It's only Evil-doers who fear the light, as we have found.

ED will not creep out without reviewers getting pre-release copies. It will not come out trailing claims that are not even remotely true and it won't take seven years and be designed for a console either.

I've been happy to contribute to the kickstarter fund as the Elite series has always been my fav in the genre.

vahadar · Post by **vahadar** » Fri, 13. Dec 13, 10:37

installing the alpha rightnow, cant wait ^^
Those past days were great with betas and alphas coming out, this, wastelands 2 and Shroud of the Avatar, its xmas already ^^

Nomenluni · Post by **Nomenluni** » Fri, 13. Dec 13, 12:33

ED will be huge, mark my words.

X:Rebirth even in a years time will not come close.

These are good times for the Space simmer.

SteveMill · Post by **SteveMill** » Fri, 13. Dec 13, 12:53

Nomenluni wrote:ED will be huge, mark my words.

X:Rebirth even in a years time will not come close.

These are good times for the Space simmer.

I would love XR to be made good but I fear that Elite will kill it stone dead long before then.

With XD and Star Citizen inbound XR really needed to be something awesome right out of the box. Shoving an alpha build out the door in time for Xmas was I fear, a company destroying mistake. One of the reasons I pre-ordered was the belief that they must know they couldn't afford to pull their usual stunt this time.

Well, little did I know.

Elite, Star Citizen, Starpoint Gemini 2 .... it's looking great. But I still will miss the old X series game-play and it's a bit sad it has come to such a sorry end.

ScorpiusX · Post by **ScorpiusX** » Fri, 13. Dec 13, 14:21

Given how many times David Braben has started his next Elite instalment, and then had it fizzle away to nothing, I won't hold my breath. Yes ED looks nice, but until its in my hands and running on my PC, afaic its a non-existant game. Whats more given how many times the next Elite has been started and abandoned, I'm wondering how long any bug fixes etc will take, a week, a month or something more inline with how long I've been waiting for the next Elite, like MORE THAN A DECADE?

Now don't get me wrong here, Elite and Frontier are my two favourite games of all time. I still own an Amiga1200 and Frontier is intalled on its hard drive (a whopping 128mb monster HDD

) and I still play it occasionally. I will be getting ED when its released, but like I said I won't hold my breath.

Alee Enn · Post by **Alee Enn** » Fri, 13. Dec 13, 14:53

"given how many times the next Elite has been started and abandoned"

Once. In all the years I watched for news on Elite IV, I only heard on one occasion that development had started and been abandoned. Then they launched their kickstarter on the 5th November 2012 and revealed they had been working on it for a while, that has not been abandoned. Of course, only David Braben and one or two others at Frontier really know for certain.

Sorry to be picky and correct you, but you did make a statement.

brucewarren · Post by **brucewarren** » Fri, 13. Dec 13, 14:56

I'm hoping that with no publisher trying to shove it out the door before it's ready, that this time all the bugs will be thoroughly squashed by the time of release.

Personally, I don't mind a delayed release as long as it works when it hits the shelves.

I'm also hoping Mr Braben brings his knowledge of astronomy to bear. Sun skimming etc. in Frontier was cool

SteveMill · Post by **SteveMill** » Fri, 13. Dec 13, 15:14

Alien Tech Inc. wrote:"given how many times the next Elite has been started and abandoned"

Once. In all the years I watched for news on Elite IV, I only heard on one occasion that development had started and been abandoned. Then they launched their kickstarter on the 5th November 2012 and revealed they had been working on it for a while, that has not been abandoned. Of course, only David Braben and one or two others at Frontier really know for certain.

Sorry to be picky and correct you, but you did make a statement.

Quite. And we get to see what's been done at each stage and help test it.

It certainly won't still be an alpha build when released.

kurush · Post by **kurush** » Fri, 13. Dec 13, 19:49

TRiPWiRE wrote: Oh... It won't be a pre-purchase though. Egosoft taught me that's not a great idea.

Preorder is not. Kickstarter is/was a different animal. They have to prove you they are making something you will be interested in and basically that's what got both ED and LT projects going. The publisher/developer model seems to produce too much garbage because they have to prove their concepts to some rich ***hole sponsors instead the ppl who will actually play it. Let's see if we get anything decent from crowd-sourcing.

ScorpiusX · Post by **ScorpiusX** » Fri, 13. Dec 13, 23:27

Ok, my statement may have made it sound like Elite had been abandoned more than it actually had. To my recollection its been abandonded twice, 1st in 2000 when the MMORPG version of Elite IV was abandoned and again around 2011/12 when Frontier Developments removed Elite IV from their in development section. Its also possible the game was abandoned between 2000 and the announcement of The Outsider (another Braben game thats been in development since around 2005), I say this because Braben said in interviews in the early part of the 2000's that they were developing Elite IV, yet then said in 2006 that they would commence development of Elite IV after they had finished The Outsider (development of The Outsider has ceased as of 2011 but has not been abandoned, or so Braben says).

I would also point out that the last Elite game Frontier: First Encounters was released in a state described as incomplete and full of bugs (wow does that sound familiar or what) and this lead to a Lawsuit between GameTek (the publisher) and Braben which was settled out of court, and finding details on who sued who and for what is next to impossible. All I'm saying is don't hold your breath and don't place ED on a pedestal cos I fear you'll be just as disappointed with ED as with XR.

To me, the fact that the developer of 2 of the greatest games ever made (granted thats my opinion, but its not one I'm alone in holding), has to resort to crowdfunding for the next episode of Elite, speaks volumes. But is it that Braben lost faith in publishers or did publishers lose faith in Braben? Also look at the disparity between how much money ED has raised and how much Star Citizen has raised, have players lost faith in Braben to that extent too?

When ED is released I'll buy it, when SC is released I'll buy that too, just like I did with XR it'll probably be on release day too. Then and only then will either of them get my money, Guild Wars 2 taught me that pre-ordering a game just cos the previous one was awesome is a mistake.

Alee Enn · Post by **Alee Enn** » Sat, 14. Dec 13, 00:08

From what I have heard, David Braben has not lost faith in publishers or them in him. You are right not to put ED on a pedestal, but my faith in it from over a year ago is proving to be justified. I am confident I won't be disappointed in the final game, but we shall see.

Lyth · Post by **Lyth** » Sat, 14. Dec 13, 10:05

I'll be honest, of the big games I am looking forward to playing at the moment, Elite hasn't been one of them.

Limit Theory isn't likely to be budged from the top of my list as it has all the empire management & construction stuff I want to play and Star Citizen will be going on the LAN asap regardless.

That said, the clip and insight into how combat works was wonderful, thank you for sharing. Looking nice doesn't really do anything for me but to know their is some thought behind it means alot and great to see that it was flight stick designed too.

Def' going on my shopping list now.

Rudinho · Post by **Rudinho** » Sat, 14. Dec 13, 21:20

All i can say is that the screen that appears on the right for changing weapons is how should it work in rebirth..

edqe · Post by **edqe** » Sat, 14. Dec 13, 21:59

Looks pretty good. I'm not a huge fan of space shooters so I hope the game has much more than that.

I think there's easily enough room for many space games at the moment.

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

Elite: Dangerous looks better already!