I decided to try it out despite the reviews, and it is quite enjoyable so far. The fidelity of the flight model and landing takes me back to my flight simming days, and just flying around doing courier runs near the starting system has netted me a decent amount of money. The travel times can get a bit annoying (my "home base" is in a binary system, and I exit jump around the wrong star...) and I'm getting lots of disconnects, but other than that I have few complaints so far. Here's hoping my first impressions stand up (especially since I don't think I can get a refund anymore )

cuisinart8 wrote:I decided to try it out despite the reviews, and it is quite enjoyable so far. The fidelity of the flight model and landing takes me back to my flight simming days, and just flying around doing courier runs near the starting system has netted me a decent amount of money. The travel times can get a bit annoying (my "home base" is in a binary system, and I exit jump around the wrong star...) and I'm getting lots of disconnects, but other than that I have few complaints so far. Here's hoping my first impressions stand up (especially since I don't think I can get a refund anymore )

Its actually fun when playing with others, or when you enjoy the monotony of a grind.
Seeing as Multi-crew'd ships are coming up, I'm sure you will be able to find someone to fly with, if you can stabilize your internet.

Unfortunately due to how they deal with network stuff, if you fly with people with significant Ping differences, say NZ/US, then one or both have to deal with incorrect positioning and all the shit that comes from amateur attempts at network code.

Multicrew needs the current addon, though

So apparently bounties in HazRES just fart out cash and I managed to bypass a ten million credit grind with the help of some friends within a couple of hours. Geez, I've been in the wrong business all along, of course shooting people is going to be where it's at! It got me a shiny new Diamondback Explorer, so I guess I can go back to jumping around now. I dunno, I wish there was a bit more risk in trading? AI interdictions are laughably easy to break, and there is no risk whatsoever otherwise. It would be cool to get a use out of that big ol' hardpoint.

I realized that one of the big issues of the game is context. I don't get fed who the superpowers or the factions are around, it all feels very gamey when I'm just a pilot in a ship with credits to be earned. X3 has cheesy cartoon races with personalities, some voice lines, systems that are vastly different from each other with impossible vistas and a snippet of lore for each, plus you inevitably pass through them as you go about your business. You immediately know where you are. The scale in Elite is much larger, and you lose a lot of intimacy as a result: who's gonna remember those randomly named systems and whatever tiny faction I got allied with? Maybe gating myself into a smaller area of 'stomping grounds' would feel better? I do appreciate flight control's different accents and the new station decorations though. I'm starting to wish not every single piece of livery cost a significant portion of the price of the game, holy hell those prices. They would give me at least a tiny sense of familiarity, something that is 'mine'.

Mistycica wrote:They would give me at least a tiny sense of familiarity, something that is 'mine'.

Your ship. Name her, love her. She's your home. *insert inspiring Malcolm Reynolds speech here*

...I've been watching Serenity too much lately.

--IronDuke

One can actually name one's ship now? Wonders never cease!

You can give it an ID too, six character max. Funny how many people are choosing R2-D2.

--IronDuke

IronDuke wrote:You can give it a six-character ID too. Funny how many people are choosing R2-D2.

--IronDuke

But that's five characters.

Ship names are definitely a nice touch. I've mostly been shamelessly stealing names from The Expanse, because who doesn't love a ship named the Weeping Somnambulist?

It is pretty difficult to get into the lore, especially with no real history with it. But I've been reading up, so hopefully I'll get it eventually. I at least have the general gist of the overarching superpowers.

The little factions are sort of a plus- it's nice to see 5 factions don't own literally everything- but they're often obviously procedurally-generated, with some real awkward-looking names for some of them that look like someone Mad Libbed a bunch of adjectives and nouns together and called it a day.

The number of ways to earn money is cool, however. I finished a long run all the way to Altair and back (about 30-40 LY I think) last night to get passenger compartments for my Hauler so I can start a sort of taxi service. Maybe I'll get a fuel transfer unit too, just in case I want to moonlight as a Fuel Rat at some point.

We were asking for ship names from very early on - so about four years.
I'm only surprised that they haven't monetised them.

They monetized the ability to stick them on the ship's hull. People can still see the ship names on the HUD of course.

--IronDuke

IronDuke wrote:

Mistycica wrote:They would give me at least a tiny sense of familiarity, something that is 'mine'.

Your ship. Name her, love her. She's your home. *insert inspiring Malcolm Reynolds speech here*

...I've been watching Serenity too much lately.

--IronDuke

The Graceful Brick is one cherished ship, yes :3 There are many like her, but she does the Kessel run in a reasonable distance packed choke full of biowaste. (and yes, the Weeping Somnambulist is definitely one of, if not the best name for a ship ever!) Interestingly smuggling doesn't seem to be that easy anymore, need to be friends with anarchists, and they aren't offering enough to beat the 200k normal runs. Hmm.

I made a couple of trips to Sothis, it's a long haul, especially in a wing, but we keep each other company. It's incredible how some people just -need- to have fourteen units of poop shipped back to the bubble... I also started passenger hauling, I like the little snippets of lore presented via the visitor beacons, it's a good addition.

I'm sitting on an awkward amount of money, but I'm not that anxious to progress up now that I have two really cool boats c:

Mistycica wrote: fourteen units of poop shipped back to the bubble... I also started passenger hauling

sounds like a pleasant trip for your passengers.

Cornflakes_91 wrote:

Mistycica wrote: fourteen units of poop shipped back to the bubble... I also started passenger hauling

sounds like a pleasant trip for your passengers.

Mistycica wrote:

IronDuke wrote:

Mistycica wrote:They would give me at least a tiny sense of familiarity, something that is 'mine'.

Your ship. Name her, love her. She's your home. *insert inspiring Malcolm Reynolds speech here*

...I've been watching Serenity too much lately.

--IronDuke

The Graceful Brick is one cherished ship, yes :3 There are many like her, but she does the Kessel run in a reasonable distance packed choke full of biowaste. (and yes, the Weeping Somnambulist is definitely one of, if not the best name for a ship ever!) Interestingly smuggling doesn't seem to be that easy anymore, need to be friends with anarchists, and they aren't offering enough to beat the 200k normal runs. Hmm.

I made a couple of trips to Sothis, it's a long haul, especially in a wing, but we keep each other company. It's incredible how some people just -need- to have fourteen units of poop shipped back to the bubble... I also started passenger hauling, I like the little snippets of lore presented via the visitor beacons, it's a good addition.

I'm sitting on an awkward amount of money, but I'm not that anxious to progress up now that I have two really cool boats c:

Upgrade them to A-class across the board - that's a useful way to remove all your money

I have to say, passenger hauling was giving pretty good payouts even before the patch, I'm looking forward to playing it again now