@kalarro: Dead wrong. Random means planet might even be totally different for every planet but no they will always appear the same to every player and on each visit. Just because human brain can't comprehend it, doesn't mean it is random - it is strictly defined by those rules. If it is random then they would say so - it is random, but it is not. And your comment about numbers below doesn't make any sense at all and doesn't contribute to your reply.
@kalarro: False! Random != proceduraly generated. Random is something that we have no idea how it will be, while procedural follows complex procedural formulas to generate things that they might seem random but in fact they are not. Example: Random planet would be there for some player while it would not be there for other players. Procedural says according to this formula there is a planet and everyone who come there, a planet will be generated.
As for infinite - we really need to pause and go philosophical on that one. Technically speaking - it is not infinite. Formulas tells them exactly how many stars will be there. However, it is such immense number that from human perspective - it does seems infinite. For example: start counting to 1 million with increment of 1 and realize how much time you will need to get to 1 million. We toss these numbers casually but in fact, it is really hard to comprehend such huge number as Quintilian - that is why we say "it is infinite".
@7tizz: No, this game is not about typical multiplayer thing at all. Galaxy is truly wast and game promotes that by randomly spawning new players in random areas. That is true for a starting game but they will be able to be spawned in another galaxy so technically we can assume this is a single player experience. There won't be any matchmaking at all, no party, even if you find some player flying in front of you - game will NOT signalize that that ship is a player and not AI.
My ingame Elite Dangerous counter says I have actively played 5 weeks and 4 days which makes it around 936 hours of gameplay. However, I am old Elite fan but also I critique game a lot for many flaws that it has. If player plays in solo or with just a few friends, everything will seem smooth but when guild comes into play problems will start to stack. Most notorious is the bugged instancing where certain players can't get into same instance with other players. Sometimes certain players can't see other players at all. Player's action mostly feel disconnected from the game world and nothing matters. Powerplay feature introduced in original season 1 is supposed to be some strategic aspect that actually have and not have impact on worlds. Player can be member of both enemy factions and that is "OK" but in greater scale has no sense. Landing on planets is cool and they did fantastic job where planets are scientifically generated and look very realistic - however there is not much to do on them yet and that part of engine is not optimized. While space encounter can hold 60+ FPS, there are severe frame drops when approaching ports on planets, everything else on planet holds on ~30 FPS. Ranking up and earning money is preferable by using exploit. Player count is limited to 32 per instance if instance works (so no huge battles as seen in Eve). At least game is buy-to-play and buying upcoming seasons is not mandatory (so those who own only season 1 can still play but can't land on planets which is season 2 content). If you can bypass these issues then I say go and buy it.
@sladakrobot: Even though they are 2 different games and I played them both many things need to be taken in consideration. Rebel is a single player game and has different features. Even though Elite has immense entire galaxy with 400 billion stars, Rebel has better populated it's tiny space with content. Elite has multiplayer aspect and MMO-wannabe and there is where majority of bugs and issues come into place. Not to mention that when you start to play Elite and if you like to learn challenging things, it will be so enjoyable, but after a while it will be samey and bland. I still play Elite but only because there is a guild and even guild mates are failing to keep me playing. Speaking of a guild - there is no proper guild system in Elite.
Well I mostly play male characters but I do have female characters where choice is available for curiosity reasons. However, if the main protagonist is only male or only female then it doesn't matter to me - it matter they bring good personality and story. However, in some games, it is utterly irrelevant to me - for example in MOBA games where I care only if their skill set is good for me or not.
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