Oolite Bulletins

I thought £15 was a bit steep for an eBook (author unknown) [difference between £20 for game and £35 for game and eBook TDW sequel] but I think £30 is bonkers for a paper copy of novella (£60 for physical game, £90 for physical game + physical novella).

I'd rather back Drew more!

DaddyHoggy wrote:

I thought £15 was a bit steep for an eBook (author unknown) [difference between £20 for game and £35 for game and eBook TDW sequel] but I think £30 is bonkers for a paper copy of novella (£60 for physical game, £90 for physical game + physical novella).
I'd rather back Drew more!

I promised myself that I would back Drew without reducing my original pledge. So I have probably gone a bit further with all this than I would care to admit to my wife. I agree that it's expensive. But I also acknowledge that I'm not just buying a game, I'm also assisting in financing the development of the game. I was above the £90 level before the box set was announced anyway.
As for the £90 box. Not sure what's actually in there, but from what I understand, Its Physical box, CD/DVD, Book, and the T-shirt. Steep price if you look at it as just buying a product.

Agreed Gimi, I'm just not as caught up by Elite:Dangerous as I expected (I don't even like the name!), hoping this will change!

Of the current batch of space-sim Kickstarters, it is Limit Theory that calls to me the most!

DaddyHoggy wrote:

Agreed Gimi, I'm just not as caught up by Elite:Dangerous as I expected (I don't even like the name!), hoping this will change!

That's fair, and after all,you are backing Drew which means you are indirectly backing E:D
As for the name, it's growing on me, but very slowly. I still think they could have done better.
I suspect the first expansion is going to be Elite: Deadly

El Viejo wrote:

Of the current batch of space-sim Kickstarters, it is Limit Theory that calls to me the most!

Yes, interesting one that is.

Gimi wrote:

I do get the feeling the FD is testing the market more than they actually are trying to raise funding.

Yes, that's precisely what they've been saying all along (in the "Why Kickstarter" section):

David Braben wrote:

We’re using Kickstarter both as a means of test-marketing the concept to verify there is still interest in such a game that extends beyond the individuals who regularly contact me about the game, and raising the funds to do so.

The apparent lack of effort, as far as the fundraising part is concerned, and Braben's expressed happiness about the PR-effects have convinced me that their focus is indeed marketing, not fundraising. (The—probably Drew-induced—statement about giving rights to novels for half the pledge in case the E:D Kickstarter is not successfull indicates the same thing: the funding through Kickstarter is not a stipulation for the game being made; it's the marketing they're after.) Hence I haven't pledged.

El Viejo wrote:

Of the current batch of space-sim Kickstarters, it is Limit Theory that calls to me the most!

That's the one I've pledged for.

Tempted to pledge a £1 (initially) to E: D just so I can complain on the comments section about all the things I think are wrong with this whole Kickstarter - like - for example - why won't you take the KS and therefore your backers seriously (other than the fact that you (DB) have consistently been shown to plough your own furrow (sometimes right of the metaphorical cliff)...

I suspect they started the Kickstarter to test the waters and only started to work on it after they saw that people were still interested (no wasted work hours that way). If that's true, their Kickstarter page should start improving rather soon. That is, if they decide that the fans have shown enough interest (which I personally think they have, given the scarcity of information thus far).

For me personally, no Elite clone can ever take the place of Elite 4. It is Cobra Mk III (and the other ships) and the universe with procedurally generated, often funny planet descriptions etc. that instilled the original(s) into my soul. Thus, I'm backing both E:D and Drew's book.

Wolfwood wrote:

I suspect they started the Kickstarter to test the waters and only started to work on it after they saw that people were still interested (no wasted work hours that way). If that's true, their Kickstarter page should start improving rather soon. That is, if they decide that the fans have shown enough interest (which I personally think they have, given the scarcity of information thus far).

For me personally, no Elite clone can ever take the place of Elite 4. It is Cobra Mk III (and the other ships) and the universe with procedurally generated, often funny planet descriptions etc. that instilled the original(s) into my soul. Thus, I'm backing both E:D and Drew's book.

DB has been hinting at Elite IV off-and-on for 20 years, so if they've only started assembling the game now then everything (not much) said before has been BS.

For me Oolite is rightful air of the original Elite, because it instils that same feeling that I had playing the original back in '84. Elite IV/Dangerous will be something else entirely.

DaddyHoggy wrote:

<SNIP>For me Oolite is rightful air of the original Elite, because it instils that same feeling that I had playing the original back in '84. Elite IV/Dangerous will be something else entirely.

I don't have too much right to say much on this since I never played Elite, but from what I understand the game was like, I think Oolite is the rightful heir, and I imagine a remake like E/D 'will be something else entirely' . I for one will be sticking with Oolite for long haul .

I agree with you both.. besides which, where else can you find a game like this, where, if one day you say "Hey, I wish it could do this..." or "Wouldn't it be cool if...", it's often less than a week before it actually gets incorporated into the game?

DaddyHoggy wrote:

DB has been hinting at Elite IV off-and-on for 20 years, so if they've only started assembling the game now then everything (not much) said before has been BS.

For me Oolite is rightful air of the original Elite, because it instils that same feeling that I had playing the original back in '84. Elite IV/Dangerous will be something else entirely.

Yes, Braben states that they've had a couple of false starts in the past - the products of those starts are probably not usable anymore and they are now starting again - or that's what I assume.

Oolite is definitely the Elite of today - but I'm looking forward to a game that might take the best parts of Elite _and_ the Frontier games into some new and improved package. Frontier First Encounters had many things that Elite (and Oolite) lack, such as planetary landings, comprehensive galaxy to explore (pick any direction that there were an endless number of systems and planets to visit) etc. etc. If they can throw in (decent) career-based plots (stories), I'd be well satisfied.

Having got to Elite on my Amiga's copy of Frontier, I went exploring - I paid for maintenance and then set-off, eventually you run out of systems with dockable stations so you needed to sun skim a lot, and you needed to save after every jump because eventually, your engine fails, so you'd go back to previous save and jump again and you'd get a bit further...

What you notice, if you do this for "real" days at a time was that the procedural Universe was very repeating.

Yes, you could land on planets but (for mining for example) it was a pain in the backside and I crashed as often as I didn't - I spent the whole time thinking - "the flight computer in this ship can get me across the stars, can calculate the acceleration/deceleration vectors for jump-to-station aegis but it can't help me manually land this spaceship unless I auto-dock at a starport?"

Almost everything about Frontier and FFE was immersion breaking rather than immersive (and yet I stuck with it, mainly because I was young, had the time, still remembered original Elite extremely fondly) and I'm not going to give DB a chance to disappoint me again - either FD start with some proper updates and definite game(play) elements/components or I'm not going to back them...

Oo, guys quick quick, i think there's a new video http://www.youtube.com/user/FrontierDevelopments *hyperventilates*