From post: 174605, Topic: tid=11542, author=DaveK wrote:Am I the only one who has found the ready acceptance of 'one way' to be both inspiring and surprising for private space companies (and now NASA since they no longer carry the can for the fall out from one way missions)?
I think along the lines of: once you get there, who would want to leave?
Astronomy would be a good hobby on Mars - no light pollution and no atmospheric distortion!
Rock climbing and mountain climbing would be awesome as well
Callsign: Incoming
Life is like a sewer... what you get out of it depends on what you put into it. - Bob Newhart
Hell is being in a pure platinum asteroid field... with a diamond mining beam
Well, even at 60% earth's gravity, there's all that extra gear you have to lug around. Also, you would probably not be able to climb very far before going back to base to get another oxygen tank.
Callsign: Incoming
Life is like a sewer... what you get out of it depends on what you put into it. - Bob Newhart
Hell is being in a pure platinum asteroid field... with a diamond mining beam
I apologize if this is asked elsewhere. I haven't played EM in quite some time, but am catching that sandbox space itch again and am going to jump back in. I've been eyeing Elite Dangerous though and am curious about how it compares to Evochron.
I'm looking for honest feedback here. As I've read reviews about Elite Dangerous and researched it, it does not seem to add or do anything that EM doesn't already do. I'm really not trying to bash on ED, as it looks gorgeous and I'd love to give it a shot...but I'm hesitant to buy in when I don't know that the core features give me anything new to mess with. I'm not a graphics snob, so it doesn't matter how good it looks.
Has anyone been playing one of both of these games and could speak to some differences?
Again, apologies if this has been asked elsewhere and I missed it. Either way I'm jumping back into EM and look forward to seeing you folks out there!
I haven't played Elite Dangerous but I've been enjoying some of the gameplay videos on Youtube. I would like to give it a go as it does look good. But there are some things missing which EM has... seamless planetary descents of course (although they say that ED will have that in the future). Another one is being able to mod... I have EM modded so that I can't hear sounds external to my ship, like explosions and such, which for me is far more realistic and immersive. In ED you can hear the explosions of other ships which doesn't make sense if space is a vacuum, right? If ED could be more moddable that would be an extra plus in its favor.
In the beta versions of ED, some folks figured out how to change the HUD colors. However, I cannot find the file that must be modified, so I imagine the developers removed the ability to make even the most innocent mods.
I've been playing ED a bit lately, and the one thing that really bothers me about it is that even in 'solo' mode, you must connect to a server. This would not be a problem if the server were up 24/7, but with alarming frequency, I find the server to be down. They also go down at 11:00 pm local time, which means they shut down my game right around the time that I really have time for playing. Every night. EM allows full 'solo' mode, which is not server-dependent.
One thing that really makes a difference is the general feel is how the ships fly. Both games allow you to turn off computer-assisted flight mode. However, with EM, the computer still stops your ship rotation. In ED, that is turned off, which means that if you turn your ship slightly, it will continue to turn until you manually apply a reverse turn. That, coupled with the odd anti-yaw feeling to the ships (they steer like aircraft) makes them strangely difficult to control. The feeling is exhilarating, but also terrifying. I never turn off computer-assisted flight when I am trying to do tight-maneuvers, like docking. It is way too easy to drift into something and damage property.
In EM, though, I mostly fly without computer-assisted flight. I use it occasionally to straighten out before a jump, but otherwise, I fly without it. The ship automatically stops rotating when you stop applying pressure, which makes it a much more viable system of control.
That said, the feeling of flying without rotational correction seems more like what early space pioneers probably felt when trying to guide spacecraft around without computer-assisted flight: Terrifying, but also fun. It's rubbish in combat, though.
Also, the starmap is quite different, by which I mean that the starmap in ED shows your position and neighboring star systems as a full 3d model. You can only jump directly between stars. However, I am at some point going to test the theory that you can use supercruise to move between star systems. The only problem being that it might take a weekend or two to actually get anywhere this way.
The developers of ED state that everything in the ED universe is to scale, which is impressive, and it feels pretty huge. With EM, the scale of things has been modified, mainly to enhance gameplay, but you cannot expect things to be representative of the actual Milky Way.
There is room for both games, as there will be room for Star Citizen, when it comes out. I will play, and love, them all. I hope they keep making more of them, as each one has a distinct flavor that makes it unique.
Thanks for the input. I think I'll watch for a while until it gets a bit cheaper and then end up picking it up. Until then I think I'll dive back into EM. Or maybe Starpoint Gemini 2.
Thanks for the answers though. It does look absolutely gorgeous.
I don't actually agree that its a Freelancer clone. There are definite similarities. But I think Starpoint 2 adds a lot. You can get big ships (all the way up to dreadnought level carriers). You can *somewhat* manage a fleet with mercenary companions, but it's relatively small scale. The universe also seems much more open than Freelancer (IIRC), and there really isn't much story. The cool part with Starpoint is that the devs are actively still adding features and developing the program. It's pretty cool
This is going to sound nitpicky of me, but I really don't like that there isn't a cockpit/bridge type view. You can focus the camera in a first person perspective, but it's basically just "sitting" on top of your ship.
That aside, the game is pretty freaking cool. You can land on planets and space stations..but there's not any animation a la Evochron or anything. YOu basically just click and go to the planet screen.
I should add...the control scheme is very reminiscent of Freelancer. You can activate powers and stuff though for you and your team. You can also hire crew members and marines...I don't remember that in FL. But I haven't played in so long, might need to reinstall that as well!
Hmm, maybe should start a thread just for Starpoint.
I just can't play a space sim without a cockpit view. It's not nitpicky, it's immersion. Imagine if you had to go through life staring at the back of your own head.
I agree Starpoint 2 is like Freelancer on steroids and one day I might jump back into it. Right now though XRebirth 3.10 has me enthralled, held off for a year and not played due to the disaster at launch, but now I feel we have a winner.
I've been playing a lot of Elite in the past 2 months.
What I like about Elite is that it basically solves most problems that evochron has right now.
The trading works great, the exploring is more rewarding (even though there is no planetary landing yet), there's bigger and more expensive ships on the market, which means you always know what to do with your money.
The only thing where I have mixed feelings is that it costs money when you die. This is good because it makes you more caustious about not blowing up, but it also discourages PvP battles.
In EM, the most fun I had was in PvP battles, and especially clan wars. In Elite, there are faction wars, but whenever you see an enemy player, they will always run off to save their ship (or you will run when you're losing). I haven't killed any players yet in a warzone because of that.
All things considered, I think Elite is a great game.
SplosivesCorp: Bringing people closer to destruction.
Game money or real money? How much per death? Do you lose all your ship and equipment or just money?
Callsign: Incoming
Life is like a sewer... what you get out of it depends on what you put into it. - Bob Newhart
Hell is being in a pure platinum asteroid field... with a diamond mining beam
If it's like the old Elite, it's game money ('though you could buy insurance). As for PvP ... now you have some idea of what a pirate's life is really like.
I think along the lines of: once you get there, who would want to leave?
