Can't say I look forward to it being that I don't know who that person is or care about them.

The current Galactic Starfighter is the evolution of Chris Roberts' games. It's the reason so many other people hated the "on the rails" space combat.

As for the rest, if it weren't Chris, I would probably be in the same boat as the rest of the doubters.

Maybe I was a bit harsh with the word 'gouge', at the end of the day a microtransaction is there to allow those with money but limited gameplay time to access the content in a more favourable way. And I know I didn't call it 'pay to win

 

I was looking forward to 'Star Citizen' until I found out about 'Elite: Dangerous', there will be those players that enjoy both and those that sit very definitely in one camp over the other.

Let's look at comparative histories of each game:

Star Citizen: entered production in 2011 with the CryEngine 3 (of Crysis fame) Met it's kickstarter goal in 10 days. Has raised $39 million ( £23.4 million GBP) as of today. You can leave your ship and interact with others in space stations or planet side. Full landing capabilities on planets and planet side FPS combat and vehicles. 63 ship designs from interceptors to bulk freighters. The ability to board and capture opponents ships with melee combat, heavy weapons, zero gravity simulation, suit HUD options and EVA combat. Professional mod tools will be provided to all players. Extended hardcore flight sim controller support: Flight Chairs, multiple monitors, Track-IR, MFD (Multi Function Displays) and more on launch. In-game training sim. Player managed space stations. Localized into English, French, German and Spanish with plans to handle other languages afterwards.

Elite: Dangerous: entered production in 1998 as a single player game, converted to an MMO in early 2000 then BACK to a single player game the same year, then BACK to an MMO again in 2012 with the in-house designed Cobra engine. Met's it's kickstarter goal in 13 months. Has raised £2.3 million (which is $3.8 million USD). Cannot leave your ship. Cannot land on a planet. 25 ships from previous Elite games also ranging from interceptors to bulk freighters. English only for launch with other languages localized afterwards. No mod support. No expansions planned.

Elite: Dangerous is the natural choice

Maybe I was a bit harsh with the word 'gouge', at the end of the day a microtransaction is there to allow those with money but limited gameplay time to access the content in a more favourable way. And I know I didn't call it 'pay to win

 

I was looking forward to 'Star Citizen' until I found out about 'Elite: Dangerous', there will be those players that enjoy both and those that sit very definitely in one camp over the other.

Another correction: those starships are not exclusive. You'll be able to get them in-game by playing.

Another correction: those starships are not exclusive. You'll be able to get them in-game by playing.

Actually I just saw a video roundup with Chris Roberts who answered some questions from the community and he stated that market gear is exclusive, much like our own is. The only way to get them is to buy them from the store or from someone else who is selling theirs in the game. You will not be able to conventionally earn them (i.e. not mission rewards or loot drops), just like most of the Cartel Market gear.

Elite: Dangerous: entered production in 1998 as a single player game, converted to an MMO in early 2000 then BACK to a single player game the same year, then BACK to an MMO again in 2012 with the in-house designed Cobra engine. Met's it's kickstarter goal in 13 months. Has raised £2.3 million (which is $3.8 million USD). Cannot leave your ship. Cannot land on a planet. 25 ships from previous Elite games also ranging from interceptors to bulk freighters. English only for launch with other languages localized afterwards. No mod support. No expansions planned.

Apparently the 1st or 2nd expansion will include planetary landings. Of course, how long will it take to get to a 2nd expansion?

Apparently the 1st or 2nd expansion will include planetary landings. Of course, how long will it take to get to a 2nd expansion?

How long will it take this vaporware to actually be released?

Apparently the 1st or 2nd expansion will include planetary landings. Of course, how long will it take to get to a 2nd expansion?

I understand that many deficiencies will be remedied post launch. My point is that for all the hate Star Citizen is getting, it' s largely unfounded. Especially by those who hold up Elite: Dangerous as a viable competitor.

I understand that many deficiencies will be remedied post launch. My point is that for all the hate Star Citizen is getting, it' s largely unfounded. Especially by those who hold up Elite: Dangerous as a viable competitor.

It doesn't take much to be a viable competitor against something that doesn't even exist.

How long will it take this vaporware to actually be released?

Hmmm, well ELITE: Dangerous is in it's 2nd Alpha and according to Frontier's site closed Beta will be underway by March.

So when it goes live... not sure. How long does it take for a game to go from closed Beta to live usually?

Hmmm, well ELITE: Dangerous is in it's 2nd Alpha and according to Frontier's site closed Beta will be underway by March.

 

So when it goes live... not sure. How long does it take for a game to go from closed Beta to live usually?

Less than a year.

Elite looks very promising but it has to prove if procedural generated content can make interesting places.

I am looking foreward to Star Citizen and backed it in the first week and until now they are not disappointing me. Progress looks good and the team has grown so much that i think even CR is surprised where is is today.

If they manage to make a feature out of the research for procedural generated content then the game can make another step foreward at release.

And on a sidenote. Even if only half of the features they promise are implemented from the start the game will have tons more features then SWTOR has today.

Elite: Dangerous: entered production in 1998 as a single player game, converted to an MMO in early 2000 then BACK to a single player game the same year, then BACK to an MMO again in 2012 with the in-house designed Cobra engine. Met's it's kickstarter goal in 13 months. Has raised £2.3 million (which is $3.8 million USD). Cannot leave your ship. Cannot land on a planet. 25 ships from previous Elite games also ranging from interceptors to bulk freighters. English only for launch with other languages localized afterwards. No mod support. No expansions planned.

 

Elite: Dangerous is the natural choice

The kickstarter was not the sole source of development revenue.

Cannot leave your ship at game launch, but will be provided in expansion.

Cannot land on a planet but will be provided in expansion.

Mod support considered and likely but a lot further down the line.

There are plenty of expansions planned (the first two to include planetary landings and player walk about)

Not sure where you got your facts from but I'd go past the main site ( http://elite.frontier.co.uk/ ) and forums ( http://forums.frontier.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=29 ) or even their You Tube channel ( http://www.youtube.com/user/FrontierDevelopments )

The kickstarter was not the sole source of development revenue.

Cannot leave your ship at game launch, but will be provided in expansion.

Cannot land on a planet but will be provided in expansion.

Mod support considered and likely but a lot further down the line.

There are plenty of expansions planned (the first two to include planetary landings and player walk about)

 

Not sure where you got your facts from but I'd go past the main site ( http://elite.frontier.co.uk/ ) and forums ( http://forums.frontier.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=29 ) or even their You Tube channel ( http://www.youtube.com/user/FrontierDevelopments )

For Elite: Dangerous all I hear is, "Later, later, later."

All I SEE from Star Citizen is, "Now, now, now"

The 100 systems that Star Citizen launches with are set, the rest of the universe will also be procedurally generated. You find it, you get to name it (they have to approve it, though. They don't want anything offensive). Elite just talks about what will happen. All I'm going on was what I could find in a quick search. So I got their expansion plans wrong, it still pales in comparison. Everything that they PLAN on doing sometime later, is going to happen day one in Star Citizen.

Cannot leave you're ship on launch, but it will be provided in an expansion - Elite

Can leave your ship, interact with other players and NPCs, will have functional cities with banks, nightclubs, starship dealers, weapon dealers, spacer info centers, etc. DAY ONE - Star Citizen

Cannot land on a planet, but will be provided in an expansion - Elite

Can land on planets, space stations, and carriers. All of which can be owned by players (or parts there of). - Star Citizen

The "plenty of expansions" will be needed just to catch up to Star Citizen's launch. Hell, Chris Roberts is so cool he actually contributed to Elite's Kickstarter! I'm looking back at some of my posts and I can see I've been defensive about Star Citizen, but all anyone needed to say is, "Hey! Yea, Star Citizen is cool. Check out Elite: Dangerous, if you like Star Citizen, you might enjoy this, too." Elite is a peer of SC, but it is by no means a competitor.

PS. You might have noticed that the total that Elite has on their website, has the total so far, is exactly what I posted previously of £2.3 million. Total. From their site and Kickstarter. I noticed that they're ahead of SC and have their PvP alpha out. Kudos to them! Looking pretty sweet. I can only walk around my ship and kick the tires and fiddle with gadgets. They pushed the PvP alpha back for SC. Glad I'm a fan of the "It'll come out when it's ready!" attitude. (Thanks

I fear i have to correct you a little. Yes we can land on planets but as long as procedural generation is not confirmed as more then R&D Project we only get something like in Freelancer but this time you can actually walk into bars, banks etc.

They stated long ago that at first there will only be small areas with all the important buildings.

Procedural Generation might open up all that but i don't expect this for cities. More for new planets system etc.

If they really understand how they can benefit the best way from PG they might add full explorable cities and planets based on PG but i won't get my hopes up very high on that one. My best guess is that they generate a lot of planets based on procedural generation and enable you to fly in a certain minimum hight above ground to explore them by flight. If you want to land you have bigger areas where you can land free and explore. Those are then more detailed than the PG areas by handcrafted pieces of environment.

That is what i guess PG will add to SC in the best case. If the are able to do more it will be awesome but i don't get to hyped for the announcement.

For Elite: Dangerous all I hear is, "Later, later, later."

All I SEE from Star Citizen is, "Now, now, now"

There is a danger that trying to fit everything in for a 'Day One' release increases the chance of pushback. The more complex and diverse set of systems you try to integrate the more chance there is of finding such bugs.

I really hope both games enjoy every success, it has been a long, long time since there has been any decent space-sim for exploration, trading and combat (In fact I think the last one I spent any serious time on was Freelancer, the X games just did nothing for me and apparently X Rebirth is a poor addition).

Now, I don't really understand this need for planetary landings and being able to walk around. I play these games to fly around in a vessel not plod around on my own feet. I'd rather have development pushed into more ships, more customisation, more weapon systems, etc... rather than being able to take a walk. If I wanted a First Person Shooter I'd go play Call of Duty or Battlefield 4 or Crysis and such.

I'm worried that the constructed planets will offer too limited a scope for interaction and the procedurally generated content will feel too generic.

But more than that I'm looking forward to getting into a proper space-sim again.

There is a danger that trying to fit everything in for a 'Day One' release increases the chance of pushback. The more complex and diverse set of systems you try to integrate the more chance there is of finding such bugs.

 

I really hope both games enjoy every success, it has been a long, long time since there has been any decent space-sim for exploration, trading and combat (In fact I think the last one I spent any serious time on was Freelancer, the X games just did nothing for me and apparently X Rebirth is a poor addition).

 

Now, I don't really understand this need for planetary landings and being able to walk around. I play these games to fly around in a vessel not plod around on my own feet. I'd rather have development pushed into more ships, more customisation, more weapon systems, etc... rather than being able to take a walk. If I wanted a First Person Shooter I'd go play Call of Duty or Battlefield 4 or Crysis and such.

 

I'm worried that the constructed planets will offer too limited a scope for interaction and the procedurally generated content will feel too generic.

But more than that I'm looking forward to getting into a proper space-sim again.

That's why a Chris Roberts game might not be for you. I DO want to run around and have blaster fights in bars and clandestine meetings to smuggle contraband (Like a Smuggler SHOULD). I was excited for the Smuggler class here, I thought MAYBE it would be better than SWG did. Alas, I'm no more a Smuggler here than SWG. Instead, I'm Indiana Jones. Not that Indy isn't the man, but I wanted Harry's OTHER incarnation as the swaggering gunslinger and smuggler.