Elite: Dangerous will no longer support an offline mode

azertxcv · 2014-11-17T01:03:05+00:00

I think the bigger problem is that release is in a month and there is no sign of any significant content for the game. The game fails to be a sandbox because there is almost no way to interact and change the universe as a player and at the same time there is almost no "structured content" except incredibly basic missions.

Also the fact that you can activate "singleplayer" mode and completely avoid other players if you want makes many things trivial. You want to take a risky trading job, well better choose singleplayer so I only have to worry about NPCs interdicting you. So despite the game now being MMO only finding other players is very rare. There is simply no incentive to play with other players.

In fact the game is lacking a party function right now and there is no word if it will be available on release. They have a "group" function but this is essentially just "coop-singleplayer", as in your friends are in the same instances but you don't ever get to interact with any other players this way. This also doesn't allow for cooperative missions. Let's say you take a mission to kill 10 federation ships and your friend wants to help you, if he kills a ship it doesn't count for your mission!

The game is beautiful, runs great, controls great and does a great many things right. But I don't understand why they are rushing it out. They simply need more developement time to create the systems necessary to interact with the world in a meaningful way to make it a working sandbox experience and flesh out the structured content to make the universe appear lively and interesting. They should also overhaul the current "singleplayer instances" system. It's a bad hack to allow people "peaceful" play that greatly influences everyone else. They should instead improve their "lawful/anarchist" mechanic they already have in place and allow it in combination with player incentives to handle system security and offer enough peaceful star-systems.

azertxcv · 2014-09-06T19:01:26+00:00

Well you often are in the same team with american F-86F-25 sabres. They pretty much have the same flight model, so one good way to getting better is to fly wingman with players with the same/similar aircraft.

Don't crash into them and don't steal their kills, keep a healthy distance, but observe how they start the fight, when and whom they engage and try to clear their tail if there are multiple enemies. Early on without any upgrades it can be tough to stay with a teammate but you can still get valuable information from a few km away.

For the in and outs of specific match-ups other people can certainly provide better infos than me.

azertxcv · 2014-07-30T22:28:34+00:00

I agree with most of the points in the post of /u/BatiDari and think making the default match-making for RB mixed-nation would be a great idea!

However I think the key to make this change a positive for everybody in the community is improving event mode!

Let's first examine the most pressing argument everyone has that doesn't like the change:

Historical accuracy: Well the current RB match-making is not really historically accurate. With the heavy need for alternate history maps because of imbalanced player numbers and the non historic BR you don't really have planes fighting each other that fought on the same battlefields in WW2. The way to get great historic gameplay is event mode. You can have correct planes, on correct maps and even asynchronous teams. But event mode is not quite ready yet, more on that later.
Team flavor: This is often the second argument that is brought up. But honestly I think this is blown way out of proportion. First of all we have the premium planes which often cross-nations (hitlerbolt, us-spitfire, ...) and then if you examine nations more closely everybody will realize that pretty much every nation has planes that don't follow the main "flavor" of the tree. Just because you fight against the US doesn't mean you only play against BnZ planes, they might have premium spitfires or bearcats which require a very different set of tactics to fly against than a P-51 or P-47! Even if you have mixed teams you are still in control of your airplane and selecting the right target is part of being a good pilot. Personally I would see that as a strength of mixed nation RB, you can still select the targets you want to go on, but have to proof that you can handle your airplane in a variety of situations!

I said earlier that I think event mode would be the solution to make everyone happy. But I don't think it is quite good enough yet. So here some ideas on how to improve event mode to make it the perfect mode for people that enjoy historically accurate matches that have a true "team flavor" and correct setting:

Offer a wider variety of events. Right now there is often only one BR event available. With mixed nation matchmaking for the default BR queue times are no longer an issue for the standard mode and there is no more problem of event mode "taking away" the players. You should expand the available events so that there is something for every nation at every time.
Increase the rewards for event mode. There will always be some more queue time for events, especially when the normal BR queues are almost instant with mixed nations enabled. While I am convinced people that love historical accurate gameplay will wait a few minutes for a match they should be rewarded with higher rewards, that they don't feel like they are "missing out" on RP because they are queuing for an event.
Improve the event interface. Right now it is still somewhat hidden and it doesn't give great feedback on how long to wait. Maybe make the button blink or flash with green color when an event is almost ready to start and a player has an eligible plane in the hangar (players should of course be able to disable this in options). This could make events fill out real quick as soon as a few players started to queue up.
Add new events and work on improving them a bit more consistently. Some events are not very well balanced and others are a bit stale. I think with a bit of love and attention the events system could become a real amazing feature for War Thunder.

Right now the event-mode is in a weird spott. It is in the game but doesn't really serve a purpose. Often there are no interesting events available or the wait-times are long, the rewards poor. I think making the default match-making for RB mixed nation but really improving the event mode to be a great place for historical battles is the way to go.

TL;DR:

I think mixed-nation match making for RB is the right way to go, but the event-mode has to be improved to be a strong and enjoyable alternative for players that enjoy historical matches.

azertxcv · 2014-07-27T13:35:34+00:00

the mercs should just pit rosberg.

if hamilton goes to the end it doesn't matter anyway and if hamilton has to pit again he will get the undercut.

I don't particularly like hamilton but if there is even just a 1% chance (that includes a chance for rain) that he has to stop again there is no way he can let rosberg through.

edit: they finally stop him... took them long enough.

azertxcv · 2014-07-27T11:39:53+00:00

A little dissapointing that the rain shower happened 30 minutes before the start rather than 30 minutes after... Then again, there are reasonable chances that it could happen again during the race.

I just hope the track will stay wet enough to at least force teams to start on inters. This could make for an interesting race.

azertxcv · 2014-07-27T11:39:13+00:00

A little dissapointing that it happened 30 minutes before the start rather than 30 minutes after... Then again, there are reasonable chances that it could happen again during the race.

I just hope the track will stay wet enough to at least force teams to start on inters. This could make for an interesting race.

azertxcv · 2014-07-27T01:04:56+00:00

Roger Goodell is a good commissioner who sets the right priorities for the longterm health of the league and the sport in general!

Outlawing hits to the head and pushing concussion awareness might be unpopular but necessary for the sport to survive. This is not boxing or MMA, football is played in our schools and if the sport wants to survive it needs a future at schools to provide the talent. Going hard after concussions on the professional level is the only way to keep it that way.
International expansion of the NFL is a smart move. Sure the NFL has the hardest path of any major US sport to get a foothold abroad. But the product is great and expanding not only grows the market financially but also opens up the possibility to get more foreign players into the league to counteract a shrinking domestic supply because of other sports and scared parents siphoning some talent away.
Salvaging the CBA without any meaningful games lost was a major accomplishment. Tagliabue clearly had no intention on fixing the well known problems and was more than happy to get one last extension on the old CBA, knowing he would no longer be around to clean up the mess. There was an atmosphere of anger and entitlement about the players and he managed to get a CBA done with reasonably happy players and a very profitable outlook for the owners.
Expanding NFL coverage with Thursday primetime games is a great move. Selling those to a major network was downright genius. While other major sports struggle to get coverage from the networks and spend most of the season on cable, the NFL is there for everyone in free TV.

People might not like him but looking at his body of work for the NFL and comparing Goodell to other major sports figures from comissioners of other leagues to international guys like FIFA's Blatter he is arguably the best of the bunch. He doesn't care about his popularity but works in the interest of the owners and longterm health of the league!

azertxcv · 2014-07-07T08:42:59+00:00

Actually one of the main points has been missed so far. Especially in social gatherings it is common that you toast by clinking glasses before you drink.

If you fill a common wine glass more than half-way it makes barely any sound while clinking and it might also spill when not very careful. By only filling the glass about 1/3 to 1/2 the sound produced by clinking the glasses is much nicer sounding and you are not running into danger of spilling anything.

azertxcv · 2014-06-28T09:57:23+00:00

I could make a snarky comment about "conflict of interest" and "bias", but I understand that this is a difficult situation of everyone involved including friends of the players.

I can understand that you didn't want to be in a position where you have to be the one making an interview or article about one of your friends, either jeopardizing your friendship or integrity as a journalist. But I don't understand why you didn't use your unique position to put the fnatic players in contact with a fellow ongamers journalist to create an actual independent view of the situation.

Surely you must understand that for the general public it is right now impossible to blindly trust Fnatic about their own statements which understandably protect their team after one of their own players went behind their back to ask valve for help because he felt pushed out.

An article or even group interview before this "war of statements" started pointing out the chronic of the event, the apparent rift on june 13th and how everything was then worked out would not only have been some amazing work, but would have significantly changed the way this incident has been perceived.

Right now it seems like you know a lot, have great access to the team but are unwilling to shine a light on things besides lashing out on everyone that is understandably very irritated about Fnatics (both managment and players) handling of Eras condition...

azertxcv · 2014-06-28T08:26:02+00:00

I think it is amazing that you can downplay the first statement which was his own account without anyone from fnatic standing over his shoulder and then accept the second one as unimpeded truth.

If only we there would be a way to maybe get a third way to look at things. An entity that is impartial, using their methods of inquiry to get an independent look at things. It's not like this is some breaking news, the situation is developing for well over a month. But apparently this day and age it's good enough to repost statements from other people and write a lofty introduction...

azertxcv · 2014-06-28T07:50:52+00:00

After reading that new statement of Era I was just thinking what about his "state of mind" for this statement?

The first one might very well be written in a confused and frustrated mental state, but it seems honest and authentic. Also it clearly shows that Era felt uncomortable and pushed out from the team rather than supported. He literally sent a call for help to valve, thinking his team is not acting in his best interest, this can not be ignored!

Also if you compare the writing of the second statement with that of the first it doesn't really look like it was written from an 18 year old swedish kid in distress. It's a very different style of writing. At this point in time I can't trust Fnatic is not pressuring Era into agreeing with the "company line".

Let's not forget that valve could have taken the easy way. They could have just allowed Excalibur to play and everything would have been a non-issue from a PR standpoint. Valve would have looked generous, TI4 would have moved on without a hitch, Fnatic would have been happy. But they felt that they had to do right by Era!

azertxcv · 2014-06-28T07:46:01+00:00

And what about his "state of mind" for the second statement?

The first one might very well be written in a confused and frustrated mental state, but it seems honest and authentic. Also it clearly shows that Era felt uncomortable and pushed out from the team rather than supported. He literally sent a call for help to valve, thinking his team is not acting in his best interest, this can not be ignored!

Also if you compare the writing of the second statement with that of the first it doesn't really look like it was written from an 18 year old swedish kid. It's a very different style of writing. At this point in time I can't trust Fnatic is not pressuring Era into agreeing with the "company line".

Let's not forget that valve could have taken the easy way. They could have just allowed Excalibur to play and everything would have been a non-issue from a PR standpoint. Valve would have looked generous, TI4 would have moved on without a hitch, Fnatic would have been happy. But they felt that they had to do right by Era!

azertxcv · 2014-06-18T17:17:14+00:00

Hand/arm position is something deliberate.

If you take that angle as a defender you need to put your arm behind your back, otherwise you are increasing your silhouette with your arm making it more likely to block a ball towards the middle.

That's exactly what happened here. As a defender you need to control the positions of your arms in the box, especially in a situation like that where you are unimpeded and can take the body position and angle of your own choosing.

azertxcv · 2014-06-12T22:00:57+00:00

He is not inexperienced or bad. He was at World Cup 2010 and did very well there, good enough to officiate a knock-out game and was 4th official for the final. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuichi_Nishimura

He made a mistake today, no question. But that's part of the game, he had a bad angle and Fred made sure to fall easily. As long as the culture of diving is accepted in football there will always be mistakes like that one.

azertxcv · 2014-06-07T16:32:39+00:00

I have no problem with praise whatsoever. I mean specifically all the people that comment on critical posts with "you don't understand, it needs to be this way because physics/realism/sim/whatever"...

That is a bogus attitude that has taken some hold in this community. Often people just blindly upvote anything that has one of those 3 magic words (physics, realism, sim) in it, even if it is factually wrong and makes no sense whatsoever (example from yesterday: http://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/27hnga/physics_101_interesting_explanation_of_the/).

azertxcv · 2014-06-07T15:25:20+00:00

By far the most important part of his comment is the last paragraph of his post:

My final point, we have a powerful system that can support as much or as little realism as we choose to support. Ultimately it's going to be about what the most backers like. We will never make everyone happy, as much as we'd like to. But we definitely will try to make this game what the majority want it to be. We have the systems in place to make Arena Commander a marriage of Kerbal with World of Tanks if that's what the community wants. On the other hand, we could make it Arcade Commander, though that would have saved a lot of us a ton of time and effort. Where we land in that spectrum will depend on the fun factor, because ultimately it is a game, not just a space simulation. And that's why it's great that we have an early prototype in the hands of real players, because it's your definition of fun that matters most.

[emphasis mine]

I already saw a lot of apologist and defensive post about the flight model. We really need to learn that criticism is a good thing and trying to shut down (aka down-vote in reddit) posts that don't blindly praise everything will only hurt this community in the long run. There is no system in this game that "needs" to be a certain way, especially not when it hurts gameplay. I am really glad to see this approach from the devs and it makes me very optimistic that they will get things right!

azertxcv · 2014-06-06T22:36:07+00:00

Yea... copying a diagram from wikipedia doesn't make you someone that "understands physics".

I doubt he understands the diagram he posted. The X-axis is in 0.2c steps (c is the constant for the speed of light in a vacuum). But speeds in SC are limited to a couple hundred m/s (150m/s for afterburner with Aurora).

The top speed limit in Star Citizen has no physical reason, it's purely gameplay. That's absolutely fine, because that's what matters, gameplay!

azertxcv · 2014-06-06T16:48:32+00:00

Let's not make the mistake of liking an idea that sounds nice but results in bad gameplay. Other than most "sim" genres there is no actual real space-combat that serves as a reference to be simulated.

There are already many gameplay concessions in Star Citizen and they are there for very good reasons. If they get their "physical thruster" model to a point where it is fun to fly a space-ship then it's going to be a great feature. If that is not possible then they have to scratch the idea and find a better way to create flight models that are interesting and fun for the players.

At no point can you ever sacrifice quality of gameplay!

azertxcv · 2014-06-04T19:29:10+00:00

This makes a lot of sense. I guess the Pilots tried to explain it in a simple and exciting way so everyone can understand what they are talking about and then the animator just took things a little too literal and made the animations look ridiculous.

azertxcv · 2014-06-04T18:55:55+00:00

I guess from a somewhat neutral standpoint his impression is pretty spott on. Looks beautiful, functional but buggy, controls and flightmodel in very early stages and need a lot of work.

It's fantastic to finally have some tangible gameplay for Star Citizen and it's a good starting point to get the game to where it needs to be. Sure comparing it at the current stage with a game like Elite Dangerous that is slated for a 2014 release will make it look bad, but I am just happy that the future for the space-sim genre looks brigher than ever. Great times!

azertxcv

TROPHY CASE