hi guys
can someone sell me into this game, based on your personal perspective? what is it, what do you do in it, what brings you back?
cheers
At its most basic level, Elite is as close to a realistic space sim on a grand level that we will probably ever get. It is a completely open ended game with no narrative to follow. There are bulletin boards that give you missions to do, but these have no real story attached to them. There is a background narrative that you can participate in if you choose to, but there is no main story to guide you along the way like in most other games. A lot of people go into Elite thinking that there will be a story to guide them along and when they realize that there isn't one they don't know what to do so they stop playing.
There are four main pillars of gameplay in Elite that you can participate in. Combat, trading, mining, and exploring. You can choose to focus on one thing or you can do a little bit of everything if you want to. You are never locked into one thing over another.
I'm going to describe each thing based on how what I personally think of them.
Combat: Combat is probably the most engaging thing you can do in ED because of the attention it takes in order to do it well. There are all sorts of different ships that are plenty viable for combat and there's no real end all be all when it comes to any of them. ED has one of the best combat models out there although some people do think that it could use some changes when you get to the higher level of players. I'm not well versed enough in it to speak on that though. With combat comes the options of bounty hunting, pirating, or participating in conflict zones. Bounty hunting is probably one of the easiest ways for new players to make money and it stays viable throughout the game.
Trading: Trading is pretty straight forward in that you buy low and sell high. People have detailed trade routes planned out to maximize their profits but a lot of players also just do it as they go and don't plan for the most profitable routes. There are rare goods at certain stations that sell for higher amounts the farther away from the place you bought them you go. There are also missions that will give you cargo to carry to a specific place including cargo that is illegal in that area so you have to smuggle it in. Trading and the missions that go along with it can be pretty lucrative once you know what you are doing but it can also be pretty boring at times.
Exploring: Exploring is probably the least lucrative thing you can do in the game but a lot of people choose to do it anyway because of the things you get to see. There are certain ship upgrades you need in order to be able to explore and not die due to running out of fuel or getting too close to a star but other than that you can go wherever you please. Trips can take months to go on (just look at some posters in the thread) but exploring is one of the most relaxing things I've ever done in a game and I love doing it. The only problem with exploring right now is that there isn't much to do while you explore until they start adding more things to planets. Taking your first trip away from civilized space is scary but also very rewarding in a way that I can't really describe.
Mining: To me, mining is probably the most boring thing in the game. All you have to do is shoot rocks and send out drones to collect the bits that come off of them then return to a station and sell them. It is a little more nuanced than that but that's the basics of it. I tried to like mining a lot for a while but I just couldn't get into it the way I wanted to. Like trading, there are resources out there to find the best mining spots available if you want to try to max your time to profit ratio. Maybe they can do something to make mining seem worth it to me in the future but right now it isn't.
All of these things are what make up the core gameplay of Elite. If you are looking for a game that doesn't hold your hand and allows you to do whatever you want to when it comes to a space sim then Elite is that game. If you want something with more of a narrative experience then you probably won't enjoy it. Elite is constantly being worked on and having things added to it to make it even better for those of us who love it. I come back to Elite because there is nothing else like it and it brings me joy in a way most other games just can't anymore.
If you have any other questions feel free to ask and I know someone in the thread will be happy to answer them for you.
im fine with that if the games worth it, would love to hear some opinions from some people who have been playing the xbox version.
