Well, I've tried to explore a bit of ED space and it has been a rough ride. The way things are for me, I can't jump more than 100LY before I have to make a pit stop. I get interdicted left and right and it seems to me they have ramped up the difficulty. I earned the Surveyor explorer rank the other day, which was nice but I'm still only dicking around in my feisty little cobra. I feel like I've reached a wall and it's difficult to strike out further without running the risk of dying an inglorious death. Even the auto repair unit does not help much as it uses ammo which still forces you to stay within the shores of civilized space.
There is still a lot of work, I haven't seen any multiplayer yet so I can't really comment on that. I'm trying to reach that mobile space station in HIP 110079 but I'm not sure I can make it there on time. I tried to get to New Yembo to participate with the community goal of building a new station there, but I had to turn back because I doubt I would have made it there with my cobra. I know now a little more how those mountaineers feel like when they have to return to base camp on mount Everest without having been to the summit because the weather changed for no reason. So close yet so far.
The game is still fun, but most of it is because your imagination is filling in the gaps which is as it should be. Just the fact that you make it back to an outpost on the skin of your teeth while bleeding atmosphere through the cracked windshield is quite thrilling. You don't have to make this stuff up.
Edit: I made it to Jaques Station in the HIP 110079 system. Apparently the station can jump great distances... the question is, where will it jump to next and should I stay docked inside?
I'm always amazed by the detail in your stories, Stingray. It's not "I played Elite: Dangerous and blew up a few spaceships," its "I was in the cockpit of a spaceship for two hours yesterday." It's incredible that the devs have managed to make that kind of a game, even if it sometimes feels like you are bashing your fingers with a hammer.
It's the same kind of atmosphere the previous games had. They give you just enough detail to get your imagination started but leave the rest to you. As it should be.
I'm itching to play ED with an Oculus Rift head set, but that isn't quite ready for prime time yet. This would add another layer of immersion but since I'm still playing with mouse and keyboard for the time being, it wouldn't work out anyway.
The funny thing is, I started playing the game thinking I would choose a certain career path but this didn't quite pan out that way, I'm surviving in reaction to the options the game is giving me. Right now I'm neither a pirate, bounty hunter, trader nor warrior. I'm just a guy with a ship who is trying to make a living in space, taking on the odd salvage or cargo mission, exploring the local systems while fending off thugs along the way.
I am surprised at the early reviews of ED, it's not like the game is close to being done development wise. I feel like I am still in the middle of beta testing and they are tweaking the gameplay and adding content with every major update. At least the reviews are positive but they are quite premature IMHO. Not everyone likes the product as it is right now, especially those raving gamers who are used to paying for a finished and polished game. Since I am a backer, I am in it for the long haul and so far it's been a fun ride despite all the shortcomings.
I've decided not to stay inside the mobile station, the jumps it is said to do are in the order of just a dozen lightyears every time it changes location according to people in the FD forum, so not really that significant all things considered. Besides the station doesn't offer much as far as services are concerned. It's just an oddity, maybe it will play a bigger role later on but right now it's just a novelty really.
I guess I'll trade my cargo bay back in for the auto repair unit and/or interdiction device. It's difficult to make credits if you can't haul anything. Next stop is a station with an outfitter.
I just upgraded my life support unit. I never really saw a need to do so until now. It all has to do with the ramping up of the overall hostility and a noticeable increase in interdictions. The complimentary LS unit that comes with your ship gives you 7m30s of oxygen once your windshield is breached. At the end of that countdown your ship will self-destruct.
"I'm always amazed by the detail in your stories, Stingray." - Wash
Well, there's more. You can't make this up. I just got interdicted moments before posting on this forum by a puny sidewinder with a dangerous rating and after burning off my shields, the attacker managed to break my windshield and I had 7m30s to do something about it. I fired a few shots in anger and decided that this was a futile course of action ending in certain death. So I retracted my guns and powered up my FSD while still taking fire, but I managed to escape. I navigated my stricken vessel to the only (pirate) outpost in the region. Even though I made it there safely I discovered to my dismay that there was no repair shop inside the station. So whatever I did after leaving the outpost would have to be done in 7m30s.
The plan was to jump to a neighboring system with a fully equipped space port. I decided to return to the orbital station I came from and with any luck I would be able to make it in time. Well, as it turns out I got interdicted again shortly after entering the system, but I managed to fend off the attempt by the attacker and was able to rush towards the station. The broken windshield however made it difficult to keep track of the distance and since the HUD is my main source of telemetry information, I had trouble to read the distance between my ship and my target. Long story short, I exited super cruise mode too soon and ended 50km short of the station with only 30 seconds of oxygen.
So now I installed a better life support unit that will give me 25 minutes of oxygen in case of a cockpit breach. I'd say that is a good investment, wouldn't you agree? ;-)
Edit: Waiting for ED update 1.2 that should be released soon, external ship view prototype included.
Edit 2: 1.2 Beta released, no word yet on how to get access to external view. Again the hardware for testing is located at Dalton Gateway. I'm 160LY away, I'm on my way there now in version 1.1 of ED, otherwise I won't get credited for getting there. Almost forgot about that, that would have been something to get upset about. lol It's comforting to know that my mind is wired to double check whatever I do makes somewhat sense or is coherent.
I asked around and got no bites, but "Orion Trail" gave me an extra Steam early access code, so I'm just going to leave it up here in the hopes someone gets some use out of it.
Comments
There is still a lot of work, I haven't seen any multiplayer yet so I can't really comment on that. I'm trying to reach that mobile space station in HIP 110079 but I'm not sure I can make it there on time. I tried to get to New Yembo to participate with the community goal of building a new station there, but I had to turn back because I doubt I would have made it there with my cobra. I know now a little more how those mountaineers feel like when they have to return to base camp on mount Everest without having been to the summit because the weather changed for no reason. So close yet so far.
The game is still fun, but most of it is because your imagination is filling in the gaps which is as it should be. Just the fact that you make it back to an outpost on the skin of your teeth while bleeding atmosphere through the cracked windshield is quite thrilling. You don't have to make this stuff up.
Edit: I made it to Jaques Station in the HIP 110079 system. Apparently the station can jump great distances... the question is, where will it jump to next and should I stay docked inside?
The funny thing is, I started playing the game thinking I would choose a certain career path but this didn't quite pan out that way, I'm surviving in reaction to the options the game is giving me. Right now I'm neither a pirate, bounty hunter, trader nor warrior. I'm just a guy with a ship who is trying to make a living in space, taking on the odd salvage or cargo mission, exploring the local systems while fending off thugs along the way.
I am surprised at the early reviews of ED, it's not like the game is close to being done development wise. I feel like I am still in the middle of beta testing and they are tweaking the gameplay and adding content with every major update. At least the reviews are positive but they are quite premature IMHO. Not everyone likes the product as it is right now, especially those raving gamers who are used to paying for a finished and polished game. Since I am a backer, I am in it for the long haul and so far it's been a fun ride despite all the shortcomings.
I've decided not to stay inside the mobile station, the jumps it is said to do are in the order of just a dozen lightyears every time it changes location according to people in the FD forum, so not really that significant all things considered. Besides the station doesn't offer much as far as services are concerned. It's just an oddity, maybe it will play a bigger role later on but right now it's just a novelty really.
I guess I'll trade my cargo bay back in for the auto repair unit and/or interdiction device. It's difficult to make credits if you can't haul anything. Next stop is a station with an outfitter.
The plan was to jump to a neighboring system with a fully equipped space port. I decided to return to the orbital station I came from and with any luck I would be able to make it in time. Well, as it turns out I got interdicted again shortly after entering the system, but I managed to fend off the attempt by the attacker and was able to rush towards the station. The broken windshield however made it difficult to keep track of the distance and since the HUD is my main source of telemetry information, I had trouble to read the distance between my ship and my target. Long story short, I exited super cruise mode too soon and ended 50km short of the station with only 30 seconds of oxygen.
So now I installed a better life support unit that will give me 25 minutes of oxygen in case of a cockpit breach. I'd say that is a good investment, wouldn't you agree? ;-)
Edit: Waiting for ED update 1.2 that should be released soon, external ship view prototype included.
Edit 2: 1.2 Beta released, no word yet on how to get access to external view. Again the hardware for testing is located at Dalton Gateway. I'm 160LY away, I'm on my way there now in version 1.1 of ED, otherwise I won't get credited for getting there. Almost forgot about that, that would have been something to get upset about. lol It's comforting to know that my mind is wired to double check whatever I do makes somewhat sense or is coherent.
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