I finally up'ed my pledge from £1 (so I could comment and get emails about updates) to £20 based off the last couple of videos but I am still not convinced (and at this stage will likely pull my backing, we'll see).

It was been a very poorly run KS, the fact that they kept doing interviews everywhere but not updating their KS page to link to them, or updating more frequently (seriously its in what 25 days so far with only 7 updates. Josh is on 5 already after only 10 days). Its like drawing blood from a stone, there is too little information and for something thats been skunkworks for a bit they have little they are willing to show. They are basically just trying to wing it on name along and that is not how to get more people on board.

well this is interesting, one of the guys from FD is now answering some questions, and about time too, while he can't answer everything, I picked this up, and does seem that the game will be more and more based online

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/146 ... 2#comments

@ Drew Wagar

- "Are some or all of the systems in the original Elite going to be present in E:D (e.g. Lave, Diso etc) ?"

Maybe

- "Will you be able to buy different ships, as in Frontier?"

Yes.

- "Will you be able to buy other assets as such stations, multiple ships, asteroids, planets?"

Probably not, but not finalised yet.

- "What ships are planned to be in the game from the start?"

Not decided yet.

- "What weapons are planned to be in the game from the start?"

Not decided yet.

- "How sophisticated will the trading mechanism be?"

Player actions will affect the stock market - see tthe shared universe comment in my single player post.

- "Will there be a Cobra Mk4?"

Yes, but only I can fly it

- "Who is writing the music for E:D?2

Not decided yet.

- "Is there a minimum/recommended spec for a PC required to run E:D?"

Not yet.

- "Will you be able to play E:D without an internet connection?"

We're currently looking at a shared universe, that makes no connection at all difficult (but not impossible).

- "Will E:D be fan mod-able (e.g. Homeworld, Quake etc) ?"

That's something we'd like to support, but will probably be a stretch goal.

Michael

this pretty much counters what has been said so far, when they said that it would be possible to play it offline, now they are certainly looking to make this online, but offline very difficult, this is what I suspected from the start, and explains why they been so cagey, as you still still need an active internet connection, to play it SP, while it might not be impossible, I think a truly offline game of Elite will not happen

PS
while I can't find the quote from the FD, it seems there won't be any planet landings either (they will be like LT and non seamless) now I'm really not impressed at this game at all

Yeah, the focus on multiplayer with both of the big commercial projects really isn't my cup of tea. While MP can be fun, most of the time it tends to be grief central, with a side dish of "GAME, Y U NO BALANCED!!!" whining. And unfortunately, ELITE's ships desings were anything but balanced when it came to killing things. If they plan to focus on that, we're in for quite a bit of wailing and gnashing of teeth on their forums.

Yup I don't get the cry for multiplayer for almost every game made nowadays.

Well, actually I kind of do: usually multiplayer is what keeps people invested in the community the longest.

But not always: just look at X universe games, and there are others. Single player only games have indeed enormous advantages and it will be sad to never see those kind of games again (except casual etc).
Of course, that's probably overreacting ... and HEY!! We're on the Limit Theory forum now!

(I also see people here wanting multiplayer, but I am pretty glad it's just singleplayer)

Godwin wrote:Yup I don't get the cry for multiplayer for almost every game made nowadays.

Well, actually I kind of do: usually multiplayer is what keeps people invested in the community the longest.

But not always: just look at X universe games, and there are others. Single player only games have indeed enormous advantages and it will be sad to never see those kind of games again (except casual etc).
Of course, that's probably overreacting ... and HEY!! We're on the Limit Theory forum now!

(I also see people here wanting multiplayer, but I am pretty glad it's just singleplayer)

For me, multiplayer in sandbox games is one of the few ways me and my wife can actually game together. There's a pretty big difference between our skill when it comes to the majority of games, and being able to sit down and game locally, that's something that's a huge plus.

However, while I do like local LAN-type multiplayer (LAN parties anyone?), I'm more than happy with what's being created as is.

well there is an update on this, finallly after so long, we now get a clear message from FD, after beating around the bush for so long, there will be an offline version of the game that you can play without ever login into their servers, but why they couldn't have said that from the start is beyond me

at least its now sends a clear message, there ill be offline play, but I won't re pledge, as the KS is still very much a joke, and there are still way too many unsawered questions about the game for my liking

They announced Mac support as the first stretch goal, nothing about a Linux version yet though.

matthewfarmery wrote:well there is an update on this, finallly after so long, we now get a clear message from FD, after beating around the bush for so long, there will be an offline version of the game that you can play without ever login into their servers,

And the same message (FAQ entry, I think) mentions that it is unsure if the "dynamic universe" part will be available offline, so you might end up in a completely static system where nothing ever changes. Just like in Elite 1 or Frontier.

I wish them luck.

Oy. They keep making some frankly stupid mistakes with this project. You would THINK a guy like Braben, who has been in the business for nearly 30 years now, would know better. They were late in getting out any substantive indication of what the game would be like, even later putting up interesting and attractive add-ons which are the life blood of any project at the $1 million+ mark, and it's only now, with a week left, that they give any indication of how much of the game will be single-player and that is, as you point out Gazz, haphazard at best. They've had quite a boost in funding over the last few days and I still expect them to juuuuuuust get past the goal post, but it's a far more near-run thing than it should have been.

I refuse to believe that this is all just misrepresentation or bad choice of words.
DB is an old hand in this business and game development is all about putting up a good show. You have this concept in your mind and you translate it into code, graphics.... gameplay.

If I don't like what I see I can only assume that it isn't there. That someone like DB would be unable to do the translating part is ridiculous. I do not doubt that he has a vision for a great game he wants to play. It's just not the great game I want to play. =)

That's all any of us can do, really, as Kickstarter backers. If it ain't in the project, for all we know and can trust, it ain't in the game. And so far this hasn't promised anything other than 'Elite-style' gameplay with updated graphics. I can get that with Pioneer Space Sim for free.

If I compare LT, I already got more entertainment value out of the forum game than I got from a whole list of real games I picked up recently.
Don't take me wrong, a game to go with it would be nice bonus but LT is way ahead in the bang for the buck category. =P

Matthew Cason wrote:'Elite-style' gameplay with updated graphics.

I like my old school games but it's 2012.
When there is no competition, I still play things like MOM or MOO, or put up with what passes for a UI in JA2.
But Firaxis XCOM? I'll take that over classic X-Com any day. These guys spent a lot of brain juice on cutting a metric ton of micromanagement from this dinosaur.

Whenever possible, my enthusiastic suggestions consider how it would affect the amount of micro in the game.
You can't afford to let it get out of hand when the player can acquire fleets.

Matthew Cason wrote:They've had quite a boost in funding over the last few days and I still expect them to juuuuuuust get past the goal post, but it's a far more near-run thing than it should have been.

I expect they'll make it quite comfortably, and probably make the Mac stretch goal at $1.4 million as well. There's usually a major boost in the last couple of days, particularly with all the "remind me" emails going out and in this case probably additional coverage from gaming news sites. As a somewhat similar point of comparison, Molyneux's Project Godus got almost 1/3 of its total funds collected in the last four days and that was just before Christmas. Elite is ending in the beginning of January when people just got their paychecks, so it has the opportunity to make a pretty decent end run.

it will be close if it makes the funding goal,, I don't see it hitting any stretch goals at this point
I think the game is or will be too ambitious, I still don;t see it really working in the long term, but I still think this project could and should have been far better managed, but I have no desire to support it now or ever, the game doesn't interest me anymore, if FD had been more open on what type of game they were planning at the start, more questions answered, including about SP which were ignored for a long time. maybe just maybe I would have kept backing it, but not anymore, but it looking it will hit the goal, but consdering how badly done the KS has been handled, I still think it should have flopped or been cancled to have another go next year

but anyway, got better games to play anyway, so ED doesn't interest me

Face facts guys.

You will all buy it when it comes out & Braben delivers something groundbreaking and amazing like he did 3 times previously with far less information leaked to the public (you will, you know you will) so quite why all the mis-information about the game, and negativity, I really don't know.

And because you will buy it when it comes out, you may as well back the Kickstarter too, because you'll get the game cheaper & can be in at the ground level. £300 lets you onto the design forum, where you can influence the direction of the game design.

Yes, it's ambitious, but no more ambitious for Braben than one guy writing a scaled-down version in his bedroom on his own. David Braben invented this genre that Josh is now hoping to play in. Show a little respect.

I've backed both LT and E:D (and Star Citizen as well) because the PC needs all three games to be made. You need to look at the bigger picture, and that it's about more than just money & bottom line to these guys. It's about re-igniting and re-inventing a genre, and giving two fingers to the publishers who don't care about games and just want another CoD or FIFA cash cow. It's about art.