Elite Dangerous Beta 2 gameplay

Damn this game is shaping up nicely. Can't wait till end of this year. Though I am a little bit disappointed that the game is not coming to steam.

Absalutely incredables.

This is really awesome and incredible but yeah, it's a damn shame it ain't coming to Steam.

I think they are hurting their sales by not releasing it on Steam . Still , Day 1 for me :-)

Notice (because it's eurogamer) no other news site reports on it.

While they will all quite happily report on spike, that basically is a big advertizement.

The bastards.

The justification is that it stops the gameplay from being terrible.

They don't fly like aircraft.

When you change pitch or yaw, the ship continues to travel in the direction you were moving until the "flight assist" system fires the thrusters to get you moving in the direction you are facing. You can move the ship in pretty much any direction you want and I frequently even fly backwards and sideways during dogfights. If you turn flight assist off your ship will never stop unless you manually stop it.

Facts are fun.

-Byshop

It's a video game and not real would be my guess.

@Motokid6: One of the dumbest questions on here ever.

How do they justify interstellar spacecraft full stop? Oh it's a game.

@Motokid6: Between this and Star Citizen, SC has a much more "airplaney" feel to it although both games use a realistic physics model. The ships in SC turn very fast but your actual direction of travel is affected by inertia and it has a similar idea of a "flight assist" mode that you can turn on and off. The biggest difference in how it controls is turning off flight assist in ED turns off -all- thruster assistance whereas in SC your attitude thrusters still work even though your ship isn't slowing down or turning anymore. In ED, if you apply right roll while assist is off, you actually have to apply left roll to stop rolling. It's very much like flying a space shuttle.

-Byshop

For real.

Looks great, will tie me over until Star Citizen... the combat just feels boring in comparison (despite being complete).

OFcourse, such a fantastic game will barely be discussed here as usually.... but im sure there will be more troll comments like "PC gamres only care about graphics in other threads."

or "that looks boring" because its not a fast paced third person shooter with cutscenes... and depth of a goldfish.

SC plays much slower for sure and everything takes time. Just going back and forth between two star systems for trading might take five minutes because you have to request docking permission, fly into the station, fly inside and dock (which takes a bit of practice) buy your goods, undock, leave the station, move far enough away from the station so you can jump, jump to the next system, set the in system destination and super cruise to it, drop out of super cruise, fly close enough to the station to request docking, make the request, fly inside, dock, etc. No one thing takes a lot of time but added together. I made a Let's Play video of docking early and granted the station was bugging when I was playing but my first attempt was like 13 minutes long.

The space flight in SC is thrilling and fast. I also like the art style better. However, I have put a -lot- more time in ED because it's good but also because there are only so many times you can do the same skirmish dogfights over and over. ED is only a shell of what the full game will be like, but you can trade, fight, buy new ships, equipment, etc. Even in its current state it feels a lot more complete than a lot of released games out there.

-Byshop

Internet. By default, you must be a **** to other people.

Da law.

Wow Grats uninspiredcup! first time ever! :P

P.s. I'm just following da law ;)

As for Elite, Can't wait for beta 2,finally get crossfire support which will make the Eyefinity setup so much smoother add to that Voice Attack so i can command my ships systems with my voice and a PS Eye camera that i bought for 10 pounds for head tracking which actually works much better than expected,and my body is ready,it's such a shame i have to eat...... or pee....or sleep :(

I completely agree, I just have a preference for the whole "Space Opera" style theme of SC as opposed to realism. Both will be fantastic games ofcourse, and both will evolve over the years... everybody wins! I just want a release date now so I can actually put down the money and get a flight stick.

Might drop £50. Even the beta stage it looks very appealing.

@Motokid6: 1. I didn't insult you, I said you asked a dumb question. And you did. 2. Get over it.

The fact is, we don't have interstellar space travel, space combat, asteroid fields are not nearly that dense, and you are worried that the ships are flying about like that. Maybe the technology has been developed to fly like that. It may in fact be impossible to go to other systems, but we still make games like this, so don't worry about it.

Hmm I still say it's a boring game but mehbeh I expected too much stuff and faster progression. Mehbeh I'm not playing it right.

Turrets in space. Chasing people and dogfighting is fun. Sitting in one spot and yawing is not. You can switch to newtonian flight model in the game by disabling flight assists through a button press (although in practical terms it requires an insane level of skill), however yaw speed is still nerfed to prevent abuse.

In realistic terms, combat between small fighters in space would never happen in the way we'd like to imagine it, since they'd just rotate on the spot and shoot each other immediately. So in order to have a game about it, you have to sacrifice realism somewhat.

You should all know that there is a good chance this is going to come to the PS4 or Xbox One, or probably both, in the future.

I've been playing the Beta 1 for awhile and it's excellent, even if it's very thin on content currently. The menus are all built for a HOTAS (joystick + throttle) setup and I rarely have to use my mouse to do anything. It's got a lot of depth without being very complex on the user interface side of things.

I can totally see a console port of this game in the future. The game uses procedural generation to dynamically create the universe so the size of the game isn't all that large and it's not overly graphically demanding. The devs are going to focus on the PC version and get that out this year with a mac client coming 3 months after launch of the PC version. After that they want to put out an expansion pack basically yearly adding in new gameplay and content. I can see them also getting console versions done within that time too.

The game is great and has a lot of areas of expansion for the future. The dynamic world is going to keep the game fresh for a long time.

ED is also much different than Star Citizen in a lot of ways. Star Citizen is much smaller scale and the focus is much more on a very vibrant, detailed, and living world while ED is more about lone wolf, exploration, and large scale universal events as the underlying metagame. Both do the same thing in very different ways and both are going to be excellent. ED is a much more broad game with more simple core mechanics spread over a much larger world (400 billion star systems each with 1-10 planets/asteroid fields/stars within).

ED is fantastic and the world is massive and extremely beautiful. The combat is slower pace and smaller scale than what Star Citizen is going to be, but it's very tactical and focuses on how well a pilot can fly their ship and utilize their weapon loadouts. The balance is a bit off right now but it's still beta and a lot of changes are scheduled before release in December.

Beta 2 hits tomorrow and should more than double the amount of playable content and really start to flesh out the entire galaxy.

might come to consoles? well that would be good. the buzz about no man's sky suggests there are console gamers who might be into this sort of thing.

I guess that's really what it comes down too, if it's even worth porting. The space sim audience is almost exclusively on the PC. The question is if the game can actually be ported to the consoles and make money. Otherwise there is no point in doing the port.

Will there be a wipe at the end of the beta? not sure wether to hold off and save that £15 until release... not a big difference, but still.

Where does it go if it doesn't go to Steam?

@freedomfreak: I think you have to buy it from their store. http://www.elitedangerous.com/

they will probably just have their own client, like star citizen does atm, or EVE online.

some dev comments: http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showpost.php?p=785103&postcount=695

Ah, they need their own little environment. I also didn't know SC wasn't coming to Steam.

Thanks much.

I don't like when developers make me download their own individual clients.

@freedomfreak: that's ok man. also regarding star citizen - at the moment there are no plans, however who knows what will happen http://steamcommunity.com/groups/Star_Citizen/discussions/0/864975632879675676/

Haha, Karl Pilkington :p

Yeah, some dude in the comments said Roberto is good friends with Gaben. Hmm.. Yeah, who knows.

This game is way more appealing to me than Star Citizen.

In its current version, the game has a -very- functional control map for an Xbox 360 controller. Most of the ship functions can be toggled/flipped by pressing "modifier" buttons of X, Y and B and then hitting a d-pad direction.

I hope they don't reset the economy with the new beta. I have a fully loaded Cobra Mk III and 200k in the bank.

-Byshop

Here's the feature list for tomorrow's release:

• Combat ratings from ‘Harmless’ all the way up to ‘Elite’.
• Reputations per system and galaxy-wide that influence attitudes and prices offered to you.
• Ability to discover and explore and scan new systems and sell the data on them.
• Detailed system maps.
• Around 500 additional star systems to explore. (Byshop Note: Up from like 55)
• Lakon Asp Explorer ships added.
• Much greater variety of upgradable Life Support modules, Engines, Hyperdrives, Power Distributors, Sensors, Shield Generators and Cargo Racks for all ships.
• Ships are subject to gradual ‘wear and tear’.
• New weapons including mines and a new non-lethal missile-deployed cargo hatch disruptor for piracy.
• Outposts (small, exposed ‘roadside café’ stations in remote locations)
• Occelus starports, a version of which can move around for early civilization of new systems and space tourism.
• Visibility of other ships in supercruise, and track others through supercruise and hyperspace.
• Newsfeeds about events from the rest of the galaxy and player activity in your local system.
• All backers names (from the appropriate crowd-funding reward tiers) have been added to the NPC naming database.

I also got word that my Oculus Rift is shipping this week. This is going to be a fun weekend.

-Byshop

pc wins.

I tempted to pick it up today, but the mouse/kb controls sort of worry me....

I've been looking at the only 2 options I am willing to buy atm.

Thrustmaster T-Flight Hotas X Joystick

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thrustmaster-T-Flight-Hotas-Joystick-PS3/dp/B001CXYMFS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412096016&sr=8-1&keywords=thrustmaster

Cyborg F.L.Y 5

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Saitek-MCB4330200B2-04-1-Cyborg/dp/B001EYU1VO/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1412096665&sr=8-5&keywords=joystick

Yes, most people would say the thrustmaster, but its friggin bulky, ugly ... and bulky! I don't see the point in a friggin full size throttle honestly... is it purely an immersion thing? It's just taking too much room. Especially factoring in ground combat where you need mouse/keyboard at the ready.

The FLY 5 on the other hand... apperently breaks easy .... ect.

I dunno, I hate reviews....

@MBirdy88: I haven't used either, but from what I have used that's similar I'd go with the Thrustmaster because it's got a larger and heavier base. Not having to hold the joystick down with your other hand is helpful. Also, a good throttle is a must.

-Byshop

Just sat here ready to go, Beta 2 should be online in within the hour,goodbye life :P

Without a doubt the Thrustmaster, having the large throttle makes all the difference plus it also includes many buttons and another axis that you can use with your left hand without having to move it from the throttle,it makes it much easier in dogfights and docking, plus its a great stick for the price,it is what i owned before i bought an X52 Pro,originally when i bought it these 2 Sticks were also my final options

Loooking good. Stuff like this helps me regain faith in the genre after X-Rebirth.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDGE!

They reset the economy. Now I have to start all over. Damnit.

-Byshop

shut up and take my money