550 replies to this topic

[o0cipher0o]

Ah, no wife here, i've just got to fight with my parents (still 20 years old).

Well, considered that on MWO i can easily keep the 40s, i should be able to get a decent framerate on ED too. By the way, just preordered, and i'm going to try the combat demo, then i'l know how my PC handles the game.

Oh, and thanks for the answers!

Edited by o0cipher0o, 09 December 2014 - 02:01 PM.

[RalphVargr]

Slowly learning to fly, again. My first time at the Real Life controls was in 1963...

My Thrustmaster T-OMFG stick packed up, so I'm using an old Saitek Cyborg Graphite stick, plus keyboard. Works out fine. No need for rudder pedals or a full HOTAS setup. Although, that has not stopped the power user guys.

Like I said earlier: Run Away.

Also, watch the You Tube Tutorials. This game has come a long, long, way prior to release, and it keeps getting better. You will also enjoy all the rookie mistakes made by the folks playing in Beta.

Not lowering/retracting landing gear/scoops/weapons. Asking for permission to dock after you have passed through the station airlock. Not repairing a ship with 14% hull integrity left. Not refueling. Not scanning new contacts with a KWS. Forgetting to assign scanners to a weapons group. Not dumping cargo, to get attackers to break off (if you are, in fact, clean).

The really funny vids are those with the impenetrable UK accents. Who have backseat drivers.

[o0cipher0o]

Update about the system specs and game performances. After playing a bit the combat demo, i can say the game is really light to run, a lot lighter than mwo, for a comparison. At 1080p, with medium settings(with disabled Vsync, aa and bloom), i was getting a solid 45fps on average. Lowering the settings to low, the game didn't ever go below 58 fps. Now, this is a singleplayer offline environment, and sometimes, some games get worse performancss once played online. To know if the results will stay the same i'll have to wait untill the 16th.

By the way, dogfighting with those NPCs was really fun, and, even thought i've played with mouse and keyboard, the controls are really good, and it's pretty easy to get used tho the flight mechanics, at least with flight assist on (well, maybe because i'm already used to standard flight sims, and with flight assist on it's not that different). To master the assistless flight will take a bit longher, but it doesn't seem that hard to do, with a bit of practice.
Definitely satisfied with the purchase, looking forward for the 16th!

P.S.: still no news about the other goodies that had to be announced for who preordered, or did i miss something?

Edited by o0cipher0o, 09 December 2014 - 03:58 PM.

[Kyone Akashi]

RalphVargr, on 09 December 2014 - 03:09 PM, said:

Slowly learning to fly, again.

I know what you mean. Last time I touched a joystick was for TIE Fighter... (!)

RalphVargr, on 09 December 2014 - 03:09 PM, said:

Also, watch the You Tube Tutorials. This game has come a long, long, way prior to release, and it keeps getting better. You will also enjoy all the rookie mistakes made by the folks playing in Beta.

o0cipher0o, on 09 December 2014 - 03:54 PM, said:

After playing a bit the combat demo, i can say the game is really light to run, a lot lighter than mwo, for a comparison.

Yeah, the proprietary Cobra engine is incredibly efficient when it comes to utilising system resources. Very adaptable to whatever it's being run on.

Did you know that, at least in theory, it already supports systems that won't be common for another couple years or so? That is what the Alt+F10 screenshot function is - the engine briefly goes "all out" on the system, producing a 4k HD screenshot several hundred megabytes in size, with the game freezing for a second or two as the engine attempts to render at maximum detail, basically providing you with a glimpse of the future when computers will be able to run that kind of graphics fluidly.

If you're curious, here's an interview on that topic: http://www.eurogamer...pc-future-proof

o0cipher0o, on 09 December 2014 - 03:54 PM, said:

P.S.: still no news about the other goodies that had to be announced for who preordered, or did i miss something?

Do you mean the decals and paintjobs and stuff, or the unannounced stuff they hinted at for some time in the future?

[o0cipher0o]

Oh, i was unaware of the screenshot mechanic, i definitely have to try it, thx for the heads up!

For the goodies, i meant the unannounced stuff to be specified in the future. But i've been looking around quite a bit without finding any info, so i guess the still have to announce anything.

[Hammerhai]

Lolz on the docking. I had the pleasure in the original Elite on the Spectrum/TS 1000.
This is EASY. Sort of. Very funny video.
Anyways, great to have another guy seeing the light, and impressive that the Cobra Engine is that good. So you guys with sort of systems, now you know: If you do MWO with 40 Frames, you will probably be good.

One word of warning though. Instancing does lead to freezes and stutters, or did in the Beta at least. Not too terribad though

Edited by Hammerhai, 10 December 2014 - 07:26 AM.

[o0cipher0o]

Yeah, i read about those stutters, but i think i also read that in the gamma releases they're gone (i read that the stutters had something to do with supercruise and planets with rings, but, if i remember correctly, in the 1.04 or 1.05 the issue was fixed)


Oh, and without an hotas setup, assistless flight seems a big nope. With keyboard it lacks the possibility of fine tuning the trust, making it really easy to screw up the meneuver. Or maybe it's just my noobness.

Edited by o0cipher0o, 10 December 2014 - 08:56 AM.

[RalphVargr]

o0cipher0o, on 10 December 2014 - 08:53 AM, said:

Yeah, i read about those stutters, but i think i also read that in the gamma releases they're gone (i read that the stutters had something to do with supercruise and planets with rings, but, if i remember correctly, in the 1.04 or 1.05 the issue was fixed)


Oh, and without an hotas setup, assistless flight seems a big nope. With keyboard it lacks the possibility of fine tuning the trust, making it really easy to screw up the meneuver. Or maybe it's just my noobness.

You are not mistaken about the difficulty of true 6 degrees of freedom movement.

[Hex Pallett]

For those who played, I've got one critical question:

If you use mouse to turn, does the view turn according to how far your mouse moved, as in Freelancer, or does it turn by the degree of your mouse moved from its "zero" position, as in Star Citizen Arena Commander?

[Roburn Bliss]

Helmstif, on 10 December 2014 - 03:32 PM, said:

For those who played, I've got one critical question:

If you use mouse to turn, does the view turn according to how far your mouse moved, as in Freelancer, or does it turn by the degree of your mouse moved from its "zero" position, as in Star Citizen Arena Commander?

There are two mouse modes. Absolute and relative. When using absolute your ship will keep moving in the direction you moved your mouse, you will have to centre yourself. Relative mode only moves your ship the amount you moved the mouse and then comes to a stop.

Absolute works best with flight assist on and relative works best with assist off.

Launch trailer:

[Hex Pallett]

Roburn Bliss, on 10 December 2014 - 04:17 PM, said:

There are two mouse modes. Absolute and relative. When using absolute your ship will keep moving in the direction you moved your mouse, you will have to centre yourself. Relative mode only moves your ship the amount you moved the mouse and then comes to a stop.

Absolute works best with flight assist on and relative works best with assist off.

This might be the best news I've heard all day, other than the possibility that I could make an excuse to take my STAT3011 final almost a full week later.

[Kyone Akashi]

Not a fan of the launch trailer (cool idea, but a bit too twitch-actiony in execution, possibly even somewhat misleading), but Gamma 2.00 just hit and it's once again chock full of cool stuff, from new ships and waypoint plotting to expanded missions and deep space encounters all the way to little easter eggs.

As for the stutters/freezes when translating from frameshift into realspace or vice versa, you will be happy to know that in the new patch it looks like this. I've also not had any more stutters in proximity to planetary bodies (so far at least).

tl;dr: awesome patch is awesome

[RalphVargr]

Thanks for the Gamma 2 update. Had to upgrade my launcher.

These guys are hitting their targets.

[Hex Pallett]

I have no idea they have a training module available for people who pre-ordered!

Just downloaded it, worked on it for a bit...and I'm sad to say that mouse-control is gimped by design. Why can't you make your ship yaw as fast as you pitch!

[Roburn Bliss]

It's a design decision Frontier made to force manouvering over turreting. It can take a little getting used to.

A few keyboard/mouse tips:

Bind the "yaw/roll button" (I use right mouse button) that way you control pitch/yaw/roll all on the mouse. Use absolute mode and make sure you turn on the arrow widget. WASD for directional thrusting/mouse scroll for forward/backward thrust.

You really don't need a joystick for ED. A mouse works great. It's a little esoteric, but once you are used to switching between roll/yaw on the mouse aiming is a piece of cake

I think I must use pitch/roll about 30% of the time and pitch/yaw about 70%.

[RalphVargr]

Helmstif, on 11 December 2014 - 12:12 PM, said:

I have no idea they have a training module available for people who pre-ordered!

Just downloaded it, worked on it for a bit...and I'm sad to say that mouse-control is gimped by design. Why can't you make your ship yaw as fast as you pitch!

Pre-emptive strike by the devs against the "turret in space" problem. No need to maneuver if all you need to do is face your opponents, and fire, on a constant Newtonian vector.

Long answer: To have dogfights.

[RalphVargr]

Next PSA:

The Total Newtonians would like an utterly realistic flight model. When not in super-cruise, the max x-axis velocity is auto limited to under 500 meters/sec. The Total Hardcore Newtonian's Are Not Happy. Game's flight model is Not Total Newtonian, but needed for two reasons:

a) The servers can't handle it. Read reasons over on the Frontier board.
A closure rate (head on) of 1,000 m/sec (2237 knots, 2,573 mph) is close to the limit of what (super-twitch) humans can react to.

If the game followed a strictly Newtonian model, it would be a computer vs computer dogfight, because the differential velocities and vectors would be too much to handle, for most humans that pay to play games. That would force a pay-for-bigger-computer grind issue, plus less fun for the mass customers who want dogfights in SPAAAACE.

If the Total Newtonian's had it their way, it would be a pretty deterministic game. Big engines, big guns, big computers win. See High Guard from Traveller.

[o0cipher0o]

RalphVargr, on 11 December 2014 - 12:37 PM, said:

Long answer: To have dogfights.

And this, as i read about it some time ago, is one reason that made me want to buy the game.

@Roburn: that forward/backward binding seems a bit odd, bu i'll have to give it a try, it may be particularly usefull especially in FAoff. By the way, i'm finding myself pretty comfortable with the default binding for movement with mouse/keyboard. Still i'd like to buy a good joystick. I really liked to use one when piloting planes in various flight simulators, and it adds a lot in terms of immersion. And i'm sure that a good HOTAS setup could add a lot of immersion in ED too.

[Hex Pallett]

RalphVargr, on 11 December 2014 - 12:37 PM, said:

Pre-emptive strike by the devs against the "turret in space" problem. No need to maneuver if all you need to do is face your opponents, and fire, on a constant Newtonian vector.

Long answer: To have dogfights.

But...but I want to be a space turret!

[RalphVargr]

Real life example of reaction times (or why the Total Newtonians would have their slide rules inserted uncomfortably if they had their way):

It's 1984. Last part of an LABS delivery (W-61, 470 ktn). I'm on the deck, at about 200'/60 meters. Airspeed is about 900 KIAS/1,035 mph/1,667 km/h, 462 meters/sec. Have to stay low because of the SAM's. Speed has to stay up, because of the ballistic delivery. Radar/emitters are off. The ALQ-131 jammer is off. So, no TFR. No FLIR available. Navigating by INS and Loran. Visibility is about 1/4 mile, or 400 meters, in rain. Terrain is hills (+/- 75-100 meters), with 75 foot trees. Below 50 feet/ 15 meters, there are structures and power lines.

So, the classic "scrape the trees" does not work.

I have about one second to see, and evade, any obstacles in my path. Smokestacks appear, dead ahead.

Piece of cake, Mechwarriors? How about you, Total Newtonians?

There are limits to what humans can do. A yaw moment of 3 G's will snap my neck (and the airframe). I will have to roll 45 degrees, and pitch up, if any further obstacles appear (likely), then adjust my approach vector. It will be a 6 G pull, at least. I will also be breaking cover, and risking missing the target.

If it were a game, most players would ragequit. Splat!

This is why arcade mode flight sims exist. They increase the reaction time available, and give the pilot more control authority than he really has. Only a few include the effects of GLOC (gravity-induced loss of consciousness). The realistic mode in War Thunder comes close.

In space, it would be worse. There's no cushy atmosphere to bleed off energy, or use to aid in ACM maneuvering stresses (agility).

So, if total realism were applied to Elite, there would be about as many active players as there are now in World Of Warplanes on the NA server (under 1,000). and for many of the same reasons.

Frontier knows what it is doing.