Hi
Been browsing the forums, and stumbled upon this game. I've always been a space geek and from what I read it appears to be an interesting, if "unfinished", game going by some reviews I've read.
Unfortunately real life is such that I don't have much time on any one occasion to play. My computer time is taken in snatches of up to an hour or so at a time. I did read that getting from point A to point B can be a long process. So I'm asking how much does a typical session last? And how does the save game system work? Only in space stations?
I've also read that the game requires an always-on internet connection (not an issue for me) and it's possible to play "single player" which I interpret as everyone else in the universe would be AI. Whereas multi-player makes in a way like a MMO game such as Eve. Is my understanding correct?
The game offers DLC but I understand it's only cosmetic paint jobs?
Where can I find more info on what the devs have in mind for this game, long-term?

For info, some of the games in this genre that I've played previously:
Privateer
Privateer 2
Freelancer
Some games in the Wing Commander series (WC3 onwards, iirc)
X-Wing/TIE Fighter
X3 - but I never got into it and never progressed beyond the initial tutorials

Not including space-themed RPGs and sci-fi games like Mass Effect series, KOTOR, Deus Ex etc.

Thanks.

Let's see if I can help a bit.

1. Typical session is a bit nebulous (no pun intended). You can do a stint of bounty hunting where the "instance" is two minutes from a station. You can do quick inner system trading and even jumping from one system to the next isn't more than a fifteen minute process, depending on if you get interdicted or not. On the other hand, within systems, things can (but aren't always) spaced a few minutes apart. In a few rare systems, two suns might be an hour apart even with the ship travelling 1800 times the speed of light. Mostly though, things are 3,5,10 minutes apart.

2. In any case, you can save anywhere you like. There is a short combat timer to prevent you from using quitting as a cheat. But even in combat areas, you can boost to a safe distance and quit without being killed or losing your progress.

3. Yes, the game requires and internet connection, but that's to tie the changing galaxy to you. There are other players, though with the size of the galaxy you will often not see any or very few. You can still kill, and be killed by them however. So, this is not quite like Eve in that respect. You can also play "Solo" which means truly just you and NPCs. The galaxy still changes with other player's actions though due to the internet connection.

4. It is a controversial game design choice to disallow external views. So, you can buy paint jobs...but only other people will see them. There is promised a wealth of DLC eventually from walking on planets to tromping around stations. I think the game is off to a good start, but only time will tell how they will be able to expand the engine to allow these things.

5. Look on the ED forums for the game design documents. They are dated, but these are the developer's and the community's vision for the game.


On a side note, I'd argue the point that the game is unfinished. Everything that's in the game works pretty much. What is lacking are reasons to do things. I believe from the beginning, the devs had intended to get a working game that models the whole galaxy, then steadily add content to fill out the universe. Some see this as broken. But, by this logic any number of sandbox games (like Flight Simulator) were broken because they didn't tell you to do things, they gave you a world (or galaxy) and said...do what you want.

Personally, this is the game of a lifetime for me. And while I can see a time that I might get bored of the five or six things that there are to do, I still suspect that it's a game that I can continually return to, dust off and find something to capture my imagination for awhile.

Traveling between two stations normally takes between a few up to 10 minutes, you jump to the chosen system (takes a few seconds) and then super-cruise to your destination. As the jump into a system always ends at star with the biggest mass, the super-cruise to a destination can last several minutes, if f.e. a station orbits another star in a multi-star system. Can be a travel of over 100,000 light-seconds at times.

However you can anytime save the game, f.e. when in super-cruise, throttle down, disengage the FSD and hit ESC, there you have the option to save and quit. But time goes still on, so if you have accepted a mission with a timer, it still counts down even when not being in the game. So with your playing time you should be careful accepting missions, as sometimes missions gets you fines, if they aren`t finished. These fines will get into bounties if not paid within 24 hours, so you can get "wanted" status, if you are not careful.

You start i a Sidewinder, a small ship and 1,000 Cr, other ships and equipment can be bought with in-game money only. Progress is relatively slow, especially in the beginning, as the Sidewinder has only a small cargo-bay and a short jump-range.

It is a very good game though, very addictive and it still gets better.

I do a lot of shift work so don't always have significant amounts of time to play either and Kilo is quite right-- you can run a mission in under 10 minutes and earn some credits and then just string 'em together for as long as you have to play that session. My biggest problem is the "Just One More.." Syndrome so it is addictive lol

Thanks for your replies. Deacon, when I said "unfinished" I guess I should have said "not many features" as some of the reviews I've read mention that it's like a sandbox at the moment, but not much more. I do understand though that content is being added over time, although the game is fully functional as is.

Buy it! I haven't stopped playing it since release. Unless you are a progression gamer that only cares about money, there's so much to do by just "being" in the game. Choose your own adventure and have a blast.

In regards to what has been said so far, it's all right.
I was probably the first in Elite Dangerous here at SimHQ.

I am a long time fan of the Elite series and it does have indeed a distinct FSX feel.
As you would do with FSX you have to plan a trip (You can also just go with the solar "wind", of course...) and it takes time to take off, fly and land. There's clearance to be asked and landing pad assigned.

There are a couple of substrata that increase the depth of the game though. You have commerce, missions, factions with reputation to be gained or lost.
There's the space vastness dotted with interest points to drop to- to find "happenings".
It could be the relict of a transport with its cargo spilled and floating around, there's funerals (or weddings) convoys pacing along, there's pirates pulling you out of Superluminal speed just to harass or try and steal your cargo (nothing terrible- don't worry :P), there's asteroids clusters or rings or belts to be mined and the fruits to be sold...

Plus there's the outright aggression. In a good way, that is.
Your ship can, and should, carry weapons.

You can just carry them not-unlike CCW, or just gun blaze from solar system to solar system sowing the seeds of war.

It's really open play and, as many other said,open development. Developers are putting what they have into this- pay for expansions are planned and juicy.

I know that having to buy expansions is a sour topic- but being the small team they are they HAD to split development in tranches.

The planetary landing is going to be more than just that. It's the whole study of atmospheric flight and gravitational dependency, gas giants higher strata exploration...

First Person Activity is not unlike EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity), in that not only you'd be able to walk around your ship, space stations and celestial bodies surfaces-
There's deep space walks, Big Alien Game hunting, driving, exploration of surfaces, undergrounds and stations(all of this has been inferred in the development diaries-).

IF, and it's a big one, they start behaving a bit more seriously this game can really become something monumental.

Unfortunately this particular fanboi (me), has been burned a bit by some of the poorly conceived decisions the devs acted upon. Mainly PR things, game wise is non-perfect but pretty damn amazing. Nothing short of extraordinary.
I put over 100€ in this game, I love it and I already feel like I've had my money worth of fun. No regrets.
I just really hope and pray they keep on going. And get better at it.

If you have more questions, just fire away.

How the heck did you spend more than 100 Euro??

I think now is as good a time as any to get into elite because as Komemiute says the game is only going to get bigger and better. I'm really impressed with what they have delivered so far. I have to admit to becoming a little weary of flying back and fore between systems and stations when I first started out, with the starter ship the Sidewinder you can't carry much so sometimes picking up special missions on the stations bulletin board pays better but it felt like a lot of those missions were out of my league so I carried on space trucking. I did get beaten about by a pirate when I was new and didn't have my HOTAS set up right but now I have I decided to take on a pirate hunting mission just for a laugh and my first kill I earnt 21,000 credits - I felt like I had hit the jackpot after maybe making a 1000 credits here and a 100 credits there since then my interest was invigorated and I hunted down more pirates and started looking at other avenues like mining etc. I have been shot to pieces a few times when I bit off more than I could chew and got greedy but With my HOTAS programmed and my enthusiasm recharged I can't help diving in for 15 mins here or 15 minutes there but if time allows those 15 minutes can easily become a few hours.

On the kickstarter and the after-kickstarter crowdfunding Frontier page.
I added 10€ per month after the 10 I put initially.

It allows me to have all the pay for DLCs, lotsa goodies in the boxed version I'll receive in the next future, and additional starting positions and ships...

Nothing overpowered, mind you.
I just shave off the very initial grind.

(Plus some 25% off the insurance if I die, immediate access to founder system and fuzzy dice [not true])...

Trust me...it'll be faster than an MRT ride from Bishan to Ang Mo Kio with plenty of time to spare to go over the Causeway, shop a bit at JB, overspeed on the North-South and run back across the Causeway before getting ticketed

Komemiute is a WHALE......... lets get him guys !!!!!!!!

LOL!

With or without the traffic jam at the Causeway?

Obviously with the jam. Didn't anyone tell you Malaysia is a 3rd world country trying to behave like a developed nation ?

Video of Beta 1.1

looking good.