GRcade

jawafour wrote:

Cal wrote:(Not that keen on the game)

Yeah, I remember reading before about your struggles and frustrations, and your feedback played a factor in me holding off from getting the PS4 version.

Cal wrote:.. Having said all that, I purchased the PS4 version...

Cal! You're worse than me, dude .

I'm incorrigible. Weak.

On the plus side, I made the effort to go over to Frontier's Elite Dangerous forum and grump about the PS4 version's performance there. To my amazement (remember, we are talking about a space sim here) I wasn't instantly shot down in flames. Apparently the devs are aware of the problem with screen-tearing on the PS4. Let's hope they get the damn thing patched pronto.

Finally actualy got somewhere (anywhere) in this. Read the news about establishing a safe haven in a certain star system, and went there. Before that I picked up a load of escape pods from some wreckage after investigating an unknown signal, but didn't know what to do with them. I was trying to help someone dock at an anarchist space station when suddenly they were attacked by some large ship. I shot at them before realising it was probably anti-loitering and was blown to smithereens. Goodbye cargo.

This time I happened upon some federal security ships shooting at some Viper Mark III. Noticed they were marked as wanted, so joined in. I got the bounty for 35,000 credits. Spent it on a basic scanner to discover planets with, a travel map, and a missile turret (although maybe I should have gone for the continuous beam).

Picked up a mission after having any rank at all (combat: harmless) to deliver beer "to celebrate democracy". If you say so.. Sady I got fined for loitering and then failed to land fast enough in the space station so was executed.

Only took 3 strawberry floating hours.

Oh and my game has a bug where every character portrait is missing their face and the ship models are missing in the shipyard too. Hence my avatar.

Green Gecko wrote:Picked up a mission"to celebrate democracy".

Sounds cool.

Green Gecko wrote:Sadly I got fined for loitering and then failed to land fast enough in the space station so was executed.

Oh...

Ad7 wrote:Last time I played this game I saw a community goal that I could actually do, spent a few real time hours flying there and then when I hit my destination I found I'd somehow gone 2 hours in the wrong direction.

strawberry float that game, not gone back since

Yeah, strawberry float that: I don't need games that are a real-time metaphor for my own life.

I'm tempted to pick up Horizons for £13 in the steam sale (minus trading cards pennies). How does it improve the game from a day to day perspective i.e. is it more interesting in general.. and one obvious caveat to me, if I'm still in a Cobra Mk III how can I get on planets? Surely that's not possible?

The thing is I'm poor so I can easily go halves on some other game e.g. my gf wants octodad and a steam link to play it on or Yoshi for Wii U costs the same money. Is it good value to pick it up in a sale or should I just wait until the autumn/xmas? Will know what 2.4 actually is then as well.

If I spent a bit more time with the game would my experience be largely the same? I obviously pay no attention to Frontier's ridiculous trailers on Steam.

Got the Commander Deluxe pack on PS4 on Sunday evening (which includes the planetary exploration DLC etc) and I'm loving it so far.

I've managed to make about 50,000 credits doing oddjob transport missions and even a couple of opportunistic bounty hunter kills (which I was lucky to survive, to be fair!) but I haven't yet decided what to invest my money in besides a better frame shift drive so I can make longer jumps. I think the smart thing is to build up a float of money that I can use to absorb any insurance costs if I get killed.

Oh and I've totally mastered the hardest thing in the game - taking off and landing

The PS4 controls are really intuitive and everything is mapped very smartly, it's all quite lovely

I'm too afraid to Bounty Hunt, don't wanna lose my ship.

Photek wrote:I'm too afraid to Bounty Hunt, don't wanna lose my ship.

I only risked it because I'm still in the base Sidewinder that is loaned to me, so there wasn't any buyback cost.

Obviously the more upgrades I put on it (and eventually purchase the ship proper - is that how it works?), the more risk-averse I'll become and will end up as a boring space-trucker/explorer travelling on exclusively high-security trade routes

I enjoy being an intergalactic bus/fed ex driver. I'll branch off into mining now I have a land buggy.

I got an SRV with my ship because of the season pass, but I haven't tried any planetside exploration yet.

How does the initial sidewinder being a loaned ship work? If I want to actually buy the ship outright, can I do that?

Wish I wasn't stuck at work like a chump, really want to get back on this

edit: never mind, bit of googling answered my loan question:

It's insured. It costs nothing to insure the starter ship. If you upgrade modules you will see the rebuy cost increase in your right panel.
They all say loaned to prevent you from getting money back for parts that you were given for nothing.

You can also trade it in against a new ship.

Well your initial loaned ship has 0 value, only the upgrades you make to it can be exchanged for space snoops.

I'm planning on upgrading all the important modules in my basic ship, making a wedge and then buying a Cobra MKIII as from what I've read that's the best all-rounder for the sort of early-game space career I'm hoping to settle on (Han Solo-esque-trader-but-also-a-bit-killy-with-the-lasers-when-I-need-cash).

The Buggies are great, here's me and my mate meeting up on a planet.

Nice pic

How do you actually go out exploring in them? I assume you have to land on a planetary base and go from there? Or can you actually land your ship on the ground?

You can land anywhere, we are near a base though as made easier to find each other.

Why does everyone else seem to have a great time with this game yet I never got anywhere?

Ad7 wrote:Why does everyone else seem to have a great time with this game yet I never got anywhere?

I guess it just takes a settling in period where you learn your ship's capabilities and how the systems work, like jumping/landing/supercruising etc. You have to give the game a chance to get its hooks into you, it's certainly not as immediately gratifying as something like No Man's Sky, which I think compares really poorly to Elite. The game demands your attention and you really get out of it what you put in (cliched though that sounds).

Once it clicked for me (pretty early on to be honest) it's been really enjoyable ever since. I've only played maybe 6 hours total but I've already accumulated 250k in credits and I'll be eyeing up a new ship once I hit 500k. It seems pretty easy to make money with basic missions, 15-50k per mission depending on the distance required to travel, and that's just ferrying data packs between systems. I haven't even tried the more complex mission types, or the proper combat missions, or the exploration missions, or the mining missions, or the unidentified signals, or hunting for aliens, or engaging in the power struggle between the 3 factions... there's just so much here

Dammit Preezy you are making me want this so much. I've held off until now because of the criticism it gets for having a high entry barrier in terms of learning it's systems. Is the PS4 version a mess of controls or does it feel intuitive?

FatDaz wrote:Dammit Preezy you are making me want this so much. I've held off until now because of the criticism it gets for having a high entry barrier in terms of learning it's systems. Is the PS4 version a mess of controls or does it feel intuitive?

Hey I'm just glad others are reading this thread

I feel like the controls are very intuitive. R1 and L1 are your throttle, L3 is your pitch and rolls, R3 is your yaw and vertical thrusters (only used in landing), and the touchpad is implemented really well, each corner sends you to a different screen within your ship. Obviously being more or less a flight sim you do have to get used to the controls, but I've not had any problems and there are plenty of tutorials both in the game and on youtube if you ever get truly stuck.

I managed to land on a planet last night as part of a courier mission and had to scoot about in my little SRV rover to find some artifacts, was awesome and gave me the chance to have a proper look at my ship from the outside, painted it bright yellow because why not . There's a photo mode but I haven't fiddled with that, too much going on carving my reputation out among the stars

One thing I would say you need to consider if/when (hopefully when) you get this - when you first start out the game literally dumps you on a landing pad and you're left to your own devices. It can be a little daunting knowing what to do next, but I'd recommend picking up the very basic data pack delivery jobs as they're a) good earners and b) very straightforward. These really helped me get in the groove of travelling between systems, doing lots of landings and supercruising (which is FTL travel within a system) and keeping an eye on my ship's systems and fuel loads and what the ship is capable of in terms of long distance runs. Once you've earned some cash you can then make a more concrete choice about what you want to do in the game (I'm going for a hybrid trader and sometime bounty hunter), and the beauty of it is - if you get bored of trading, you can just stop doing that and switch to something else. It's your story, make of it what you will.

edit: oh and also there are some useful shortcuts to avoid having to go into menus all the time to lower your landing pad and stuff like that, couple of simple to remember button combinations and you're doing it all like a pro

I loved Frontier on the Amiga and ever
Since I've been looking for a game to scratch that space exploration / trading itch. I've never quite found one that works for me. Either too complex or too boring. I worry that my tastes have changed since back in the day but I'm still very tempted.

Ah what the hell, downloading now! Even if it doesn't click £14 isn't the end of the world.