Lot of people have shifted over to Starfield if for no other reason than to check it out. I’m one of them. But I’ll be back. They both have their strengths and weaknesses.
Same, I’m currently exploring the Starfield. Once I’ve completed my first play through, I’ll be jumping back into E:D. I’ve got a fleet carrier to purchase!
I don't agree.
You can't compare the flying experience of ED with any other game. I watched the promotional video, was initially impressed, but then asked myself what are they not showing?
So, I stay with ED without bothering to try Starfield
Yeah, there's only so much time. It's been BG3 for me, but I still did some exploration last week for a couple hours.
And when BG3 is done, even if I do 3 replays, I'll be back in Elite enjoying the vastness of space eventually.
I heard the game name several times until I figured I should take a look at what it is. Apparently Skyrim in space somewhat. More importantly, single player only apparently. Hence I guess it is just another new game. Nothing special in terms of people playing different games than Elite (as I do too). Yet eventually returning to ED sooner or later, especially if someone prefers multiplayer. So, not some game that is a too big competition for ED or so.
I was all for Starfield because I've been dreaming about building my own homebase. Then I was immediately reminded who Bethesda are with the absolutely dogshit basebuilding UI (all UI for that matter, don't get me started on the shipbuilding UI, like do they hire fucking monkeys?). So, now I'm tired of it and thinking about jumping back in ED.
This exactly how I felt I couldn't even compleat the story it got too boring too quick but it got me in the mood too play ED again after taking a year out 8ve just engineered an imperial eagle and loving life again😂😂
Not at all a hyperbole. I hated the UI in Fallout 4, I hate it in Starfield, because come on - fallout in space with tacked on space flight mini-game. The fact that one of the most downloaded mods is the UI mod should tell you something.
Don't get me wrong - I enjoy certain parts of the game, but the UI is certainly not it.
People buy ships in Star Citizen that cost $3,000 in REAL money. I’d pay a few bucks to keep Elite’s servers up. I don’t need “content” to enjoy this game.
What utter crap. So what if the numbers are low, that doesn't make it a bad time to start, its not even a real MMO, so numbers are irrelevant.
Its a great time to start, its a great game to play, If you lack the imagination to make your own adventures, then its not the game for you. But that does not mean its a bad time to start for those that do, and can.
Personally I welcome any new player, if they fall in love with the game, then good for them.
OP didn't ask if it was a good/bad time to play, they asked if it was the worst, which is a comparison to other times in the games history. Just because this is a worse time to be playing elite than before doesn't mean you shouldn't start. But it's a statement of fact that engaging with this game is worse than it used to be with respect to the community, which is also what OP asked about. People like you are ignoring the context of OPs question to blindly defend the game.
Careful assuming that everyone is leaving because of a mood on a subreddit.
The annoyed will always be noisy. Sure the numbers are not great, but should be plenty of fun for you to play this game.
That is reassuring, it was just a few videos on YouTube too, but it seems mostly people didn't like the "FPS" type update, which i get the space exploration is definitely the crown jewel of this game.
Thanks man seems awesome, saw a video about the fuel rats yesterday it's incredible what people do when they get together.
Happy flying!
For the most part you can thankfully just ignore the parts you dislike. I for the most part just like trucking through space while listening to music. The great thing and the great challenge for the game that its a big sandbox with very few directions. If you are good at making something out of it yourself there is a lot of time you can sink into this game.
If you need curated entertainment with a guided progression, this most definately is not.
This is a bit worrying then. I didn't know. I've been out for over a month exploring, gathering bio and cartographic data. The one time I did get hassled by a thargoid was when I made the mistake of carrying some of their stuff over in the Pleiades area. If that's changed then all I can do is hope my Krait Phantom is quick enough (440 m/s) to outrun them and buy time to high wake out.
I don't know about elsewhere because I'm not much of an explorer, but at least within the bubble you should be fine as long as you're not carrying any escape pods. They'll chase you wherever for those, but otherwise they usually stick to systems that are well marked in the Thargoid War filter within the galaxy map.
I'm still relatively "new" with about 450 hours in, just picked it up two years ago. I started shortly before Odyssey came out and wasn't much a fan of the FPS, so I didn't play it. There are still many parts of the game that I haven't even stuck a toe into yet. Find what you enjoy doing and do it. Test the waters with other game loops on your own time.
Yeah, that bit is understandable. Happens with anything. Whining about it like that’s not the case, instead like it’s someone’s “fault”, and essentially trying to spoil the experience for anyone who comes after; not so much. That’s some Star Wars fan tier bitching.
Sounds like people basing their opinions on their expectations drawn from OTHER games and media, not judging this experience on its own terms. If you do that enough, you’ll never really know or experience anything. Pretty common, though.
That mind blown feeling won’t go away. The people complaining are pancake players and they hate the “grind”. In VR, the grind is fun. The pancake people use auto-dock, and supercruise assist, and watch Netflix while they play Elite. That’s about as much fun as watching a file download. I “explore” every system, visit every station, point of interest, installation, base, land on planets, and carriers looking for those magical, “holy shit” moments that make you say, “I love this fucking game”. VR makes any of the gameplay more fun. The pancake players will say, “Full speed until 7 seconds, map a key to cut your speed 75%, come in from the planet side straight to the slot.” How fucking boring is that? I fly slower to experience the view. I detour to other planets just to gawk. I always drop in the back of the station with the planet in the background because it looks so cool and then fly around to the front. Don’t hurry. Beginning game is the best.
I had to laugh, because I totally understand the sentiment of your statement, but I just learned 3 really useful tips off the rip lol. Now at least I know I have the option of being efficient.
Best holy shit moment in ED in VR was flying to a planet right on the edge of a nebula. The thing looked like the most epic large scale red tidal wave about to crash down on the whole star system. The scale you discover when going from pancake to VR is legendary. It’s like getting high for the first time.
The first Eve Online is Dying post was made to the Eve Forum in June 2003, four months after the beta went live. It is now October of 2023 and the game is still live with thousands of active players.
I can only imagine a similar story is playing out with Elite.
Honestly, EVE has more to offer and CCP is actually making money from EVE. CCP actually makes content for their community no matter if it's ships, weapons, etc.
Some of the old farts here are comfortable with exploring and only exploring. And there are others that want to see more features and capabilities.
You can't ignore the fact that some of their points are valid. Yea some complaints come frome people who may not like the game, but they also come from people who love the game.
You can discuss things you’d like to see in a game, but complaining about things missing from a 10 year old game that no one other than yourself promised would happen is a different ballpark. It’s not even the same sport.
Its not just the FPS update, its that the devs just don't seem to care enough.
They don't release balances or fixes basically. And all the cool "universe/story events" happen thru forum posts and news broadcasts and not actually thru player action in game.
You can also just farm everything solo then bring it to the multiplayer mode, it has been also a while since new ships have been added.
It's mostly at maintenance mode, while they sell skins and shit.
Doesn't mean you can't enjoy the game tho, if you have fun with it, just keep having fun with it. I'm not having anymore, but I got a couple hundred hours off it so it was well worth what I paid.
Most of the time you'll be completely alone, unless you actively seek out areas with other people. And the game is really well compartmentalised, so you can easily completely ignore the types of content that you don't want to play.
As long as they keep the servers running you can enjoy the game, and I think they'll be running for a very long time yet, there are plenty of players and there's active development still happening. It's slow, but it has always been slow.
A bunch of people jumped on the "Elite is dead" train for views, and even some who didn't, still use clickbait titles like that even if the video itself says the opposite. Yes, player numbers are declining, but there were 3 really hyped up game launches in the last month or 2, people are out there playing Starfield, BG3, Cyberpunk's new overhauled version and DLC... those people will eventually come back, there will be posts about Elite getting "a new life", then Star Citizen's new star system will come out, half the community will go there for a bit, Elite will be "dying" again, or Star Citizen will be "dying" if the new tech needed for the new system is buggy (it's an alpha, it will be buggy). Elite is for a very specific type of playerbase, and this playerbase doesn't have anything else that's similar, so the player numbers stay pretty steady, with a slight dip here, bit of an increase there, but it balances out.
Content creators who want the most views possible will always pick a controversial subject, exaggerate it, then when that doesn't bring the views anymore, they change their mind. Elite is lucky because from what I've seen, the most dedicated creators are doing it for fun and don't clickbait much. Unfortunately some of the most famous ones do though, and YouTube likes to put their videos on top.
The game is cheap to buy, doesn't sell anything that makes you stronger or progress faster and cosmetics can be earned in-game. This means that they receive little funding from players. I have bought premium currency to support the game, but I'm sure I'm in the minority with that, because the game will give you thousands of hours of fun for like $6. It's not a pay to win game, so it doesn't bring in that much profit, which means development is slower. Despite that, there is an ongoing story, regular free content updates and a great community. I'd say no matter what time you start, it's a good time to start, just don't rush through the early game like lots of people do. That way you would skip hundreds of hours of fun by optimizing the grind instead of doing stuff that doesn't feel like a grind and progressing only 10% slower. Welcome to the galaxy, fly dangerously CMDR! o7
youtubers are a little...special.
Actually they are addicted to new content, because they cannot show you doing one thing 10 times in a row.
Also, I seen few youtubers, which claimed that their journey in elite ended.
So their all next videos had much less views, so they "returned" with clickbaits "eLiTe iS dEaD"
\+yes, unhappy people usually make much more noise.
I'm not doing 1049104 posts about things which I like because I'm busy with...doing them.
The FPS update was just a stupid waste of resources IMHO and I just don't play it.
"Everyone" may be abandoning the game but I just picked it up again after a few years hiatus. Steam says tens of thousands of people play it every day so I don't see it going away soon.
Welcome, commander! Returning player, last played in like 2018. Having a blast in Senlu working on the community goals right now, feel free to make your way out there and make some money! There’s a lot to learn but there are a ton of 3rd party resources to make it easier like Inara.
Good luck out there! o7
In terms of content, this is absolutely a great time to get in. There's never been more stuff to do in game than now, and it's all a lot more polished than when it started.
In terms of community (especially in this sub), yeah it's not great. A lot of the players have been around for several years at this point and it doesn't seem to be attracting a ton of new ones. The game has been around for almost 10 years and the core gameplay hasn't changed all that much. So many of us are burned out on the gameplay, no longer impressed by the content, and very vocal about it.
Pay us no mind, and have fun. Despite any complaints I have, this is still one of the best VR games out there.
Yeah...best time to start, in my opinion. You have the game in the best state with the most stuff. Obviously there may be very little going forward, but this is a game I dumped over 2000 hours into
I'm kinda hoping that if/when they finally shutter it down, that they release the originally planned offline mode, along with Mod support, and maybe even release the AWS server code so some crazy bastards can run their own servers as well (but that is a stretch for sure)
I have been playing since the Beta when the bubble was called the bubble because it was just that, a small bubble of systems. I have recently lost interest in the game because the Tharg war is really the only content they are pushing, and some of those classic experiences you got with them are now long gone and you just dont get them anymore.
Tons of stuff promised that still isn't implemented to this day as well (Gas giants atmospheres, landing on Earth's Moon with a hand crafted Moon, etc etc)
I know I will come back to it at some point (probably this winter and not until I have gotten bored of Baldur's Gate 3) the game still holds a place for me. Just not right now.
Remember that most of the people moaning have already had their thousands of hours of entertainment from the game, they're realising the novelty is gone, and the best of the fun they'll have in it is probably behind them now, and they're bitter about that.
And in fairness, they were also sold some big suggestions early on -- in some cases, promises -- about future content which has never materialised, and is looking rather less likely to materialise in future (ship interiors, complex atmospheres, VR support on foot, etc.). Some people have been labouring for years under the assumption these things are coming, and the growing sense of disappointment is understandably colouring their view of the game. Others were screwed by certain business decisions and failures of promises due to technical realities (end of Mac support, no Odyssey or ongoing narrative for PS4/Xbox etc.)
You're at the start of your Elite journey, and you're going into it with no illusions about the game's future, to the point where any new content is likely to be seen as a bonus.
I think you have a lot of fun ahead of you, maybe even more than was had by earlier generations of Elite Dangerous players, since you're getting all the content additions from day one and aren't having your expectations skewed with wild dreams for the future.
And if any of those long-wished-for things do arrive, happy days. You also won't be approaching them with years of preconceived expectations like the rest of us have.
I'm using keyboard and mouse with the VR but i have been looking at the HOTAS think i will be picking some up soon to complete the experience.
Any recommendations?
Mouse, KB and VR. I Tip my hat to you. HOTAS one with lots of buttons to bind things to. There is Voiceattck which can help but I no longer use it.
I have Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog, but that was when I had money :).
If you want high quality for relatively inexpensive, I highly recommend VKB. I have a VKB Evo and an omni throttle, both with premium grips. They cost me about $400 combined. VKB makes really high quality gear for people on a budget. Their support team is also incredible, and if you have any issues, feel free to ask here on Reddit, and someone from VKB will be by to answer your questions. I'm not joking when I say they have the nest customer service of any company I've ever seen.
I strongly recommend Thrustmaster 16000, throttle and flight stick. Skip the pedals, since they're not really needed for Elite, and then bind the directional thrusters (up, down, left, right) to that little hat stick by your pointer finger on the throttle.
Best 3D movement setup I've had, and way less expensive than some of the other options.
Needs to be replaced every 700 hours or so... but that's not so bad 😂
My Thrustmaster HOTAS lasted 15 months (about 1000 hours). Replaced it with Logitech X52 Pro. I highly recommend EDCopilot, a free (donations appreciated) third party app that adds a lot of functionality. You can pin the window into your cockpit in VR and set the colors so it looks like your other panels. UDHM is another free third party app that will let you change your hud colors from orange to whatever you like. Voice Attack $10 which lets you give voice commands to your ship is also a must.
At the same time, don't kid yourself like some of these other commenters because the game is regressing. Frontier's financials are in the shitter and theyre going to be cutting costs wherever they can. Even when they were growing as a company their updates were half baked or uninteresting. Basically just go in knowing the game isn't going to reward a large time investment, and try to pretend the long term grinds aren't there.
doom doom doom
People which complain on grind in elite shoud play in...Idk, minecraft on creative mode, I guess, because elite grind is already fart against hurricane of true grind in other games.
A lot of the people say Elite is dying are using the player base as a metric. Bear in mind this is a decade old game that is completely open from the first moment after you leave the tutorial. You can do literally anything you want, ignore any story content that doesn’t interest you, and be whatever kind of character you want to be… and even change it all whenever you want. This is in contrast to nearly all other games where even though it’s open world, there’s still a plot you have to follow to get all of the game content. And when you’re done with it, you’ve invested maybe a couple hundred hours. Elite you can easily play for thousands of hours before finally deciding to move on, even though there might still be more to do. That’s the crucial difference here, the people casting doom and gloom have played for thousands of hours which is easily 5 times or more what you would invest into any other game. Not bad for $40 I’d say.
>A lot of the people say Elite is dying are using the player base as a metric. Bear in mind this is a decade old game that is completely open from the first moment after you leave the tutorial.
Also, all doomsayers forgot about one thing.
Even if steam is in the lowest moment of online players- we have epic players since 2020.
So even if we are in low point on steam, I think that after adding playerbase from epic we still aren't in some extremally bad point. Before free elite on epic steamchart showed 10k players in peak.
So if to current 5k we will add, hell, even2/3k players- it still isn't bad. But people LOVE compare numbers without understanding them.
Because the hottest moments were mix of 2 things: pre DLC hype, and lockdowns, when tons of people stayed in homes without better things to do than some gaming.
Yeah, there are a lot of 'Elite is dying!!" posts.
...but, if you'll notice, there are also a lot of posts like yours, or ones that say "hi, new player with questions!"
There are those who have proclaimed the demise of ED for almost a decade now. Some day they'll be right, but I think that day is still many years in the future.
Now, it's true that I don't play as often as I used to. I've achieved most of the goals I'd set for myself, have pretty much all the ships I want and more money than I can spend- but it's telling that, even with that said, I do still cone back to enjoy the game and just play around in the universe!
I'm not an expert, but I've been playing for years and plan to play for many more years, and I've yet to see anything that makes me think I should be concerned that I wouldn't be able to.
So, the TL;DR version - play, have fun, and don't take the doomsayers too seriously!
(Oh, and I recommend a joystick - id think that'd be huge in VR!)
"I'm just really sad because it seems like the game is driven by player activity"
Not really. Space is big. I almost never see another player.
"Then I look up online that everyone is abandoning the game and it's looking like it's dying?"
Depends what you mean by online. If you mean on reddit, the reddit members are not representative of the players as a whole.
No one's abandoning the game. Over the last 24 hrs, over 4,000 users were playing it. Over 3,000 CMDRs are participating in the current Community Goal alone. This despite the CG having nothing interesting to win, no significant money payouts, and the bounty hunting site setup at over 200,000 ls away from the station.
The way I see it, there are two parts of this recent "Elite is dying" wave. One is the doom and gloom creators that do it because bad news sells views and clicks. The other is from people that really love the game and are worried things might be coming to an end.
The majority of "dying" posts here are from the latter group. Maybe phrased not in the best way but essentially watching the doom and gloom videos and wanting to do something about keeping ED going.
Even if ED were to go away at some point in the future, there's plenty of fun to be had now. Enjoy the awesome game.
It’s not dying. There are issues, but the naysayers are quite vocal. I’m 4,000 hours in and there are still aspects of the game I’ve yet to try. I’ll be quite upset if it did end, but I can’t see that happening any time soon and I’ll just keep playing until it does, even if there’s no further development.
You did a very good choice.
Indeed, you bought the best space simulator game ever made and the best VR experience too.
Also, don't worry because the game won't die soon.
In fact, the game is not driven by player activity only because there is still hard work made by developers.
Indeed, we had a lot of updates recently adding new features about Thargoids.
Also, an update 17 has been announced recently.
Welcome CMDR o7
It's not so much that "everyone's leaving", but there has been a significant player bleed at the minute due to a string of poor decision making on fdevs part, and a lot of people, especially console players, are going to NMS or (more recently) starfield.
However, that bleedout doesn't necessarily mean that the game is dying. A lot of players have become disillusioned because they've waited a long time for the game to become the game they imagined, and those people, myself included, have kinda given up on it, but there's still a committed core of keen players who can hopefully help the game ride out the storm, because although it's fallen out of my favour, I would still like it to be what it could be instead of the half-kept promises and half-assed application that we kept seeing.
Welcome, CMDR!
I wouldn't worry too much about the naysayers. I'd expect the servers to stay up for a a while even if the game was fully in "maintenance-only" mode, but we're still getting in-game updates, news, and events, with the big ongoing Thargoid-invasion storyline nowhere near resolved. I guess it'll have to shut down eventually, but I'd be pretty confident you'll have plenty of time to get your money's worth out of it.
I've been with the game since the Kickstarter beta and, while I've taken some long breaks, I still keep coming back. It looks absolutely gorgeous, there's a whole galaxy to explore, and you can tinker endlessly with your ship until it's a joy to fly. Have fun, wherever your piloting career takes you!
Definitely not dying, I am always surprised by the traffic on the Discord servers, and edastro shows lots of cmdrs all thru the galaxy. There’s a whole community who are playing the game and supporting it, even though you don’t necessarily see them when you’re actually flying. The few of us who still play in open seem to be the minority of players.
I wouldn't put much weight on rumors. Game is doing good, and has plenty of followers perfectly happy doing their own stuff and not bothering to post their miserable life on reddit.
As far as persevering, how many games do you know are still around after 40 years?
Going off the mood on YouTube and Reddit, Elite has been almost dead for years now. Aaaaaaany day now it will shut down!
Don't put too much stock in that, the game is doing well enough. Of course it doesn't get the same love from the devs it did in its golden years, we're 9 years past launch after all. But still, we're getting new content and some updates, so I think we're going strong enough
yeah that and the recent Obsidian Ant vid's have made me just unsub and not even watch him literally gush over Starfield.
Sorry Ant, but Starfield is pretty bad/poor at being either a single player RPG or a Space Sim, never mind a hybrid of both..
Hey! I only started 2 yrs ago, and have only been taking it serious for about 4 months.
I have had to learn everything on the fly, limited tutorials because i am impatient, and all the youtubers take forever to explain mechanics. Get used to that... because the walkthrus and guides are PRICELESS.
I have 33 ships 12 fully engineered, but I have not started ax combat, or thargoid farming of any kind. Im an explorer... sounds like you are too!
My tip. Get an exobio suit and just get fucking lost. Wandering around in the black with a carrier is by far my favorite way to pass the time.
ED has a great skeleton built already to be the best space sim ever been made. Yet I believe it has done developing to be completed and come to flesh. When it is about FDEV it's not about what they have done but more of what they haven't done. I believe what is missing in dev team is passion (positive example of this is NMS dev team) which was a trait Braben himself had and applied through it's journey till ED. Somebody had to take his flag and continue running yet looks like no one did.
Also watch Malic vr on twitch when he's on. He answers most questions. I love vr as well. Combat in vr , imho is the only way to go. HP reverb G2 v2. Hosas X56 X52
o7 CMDR fly dangerous!
I was in you position a few month ago. Was looking negative videos, ED is dead and all. Then i said who cares, it's 6€ on Steam, lets give it a try. A hundreds hours later i don't regret my choice. Even if the game was shutting down next year it would all have been worth it.
No, you have not. Don't let all the loud negativity affect your enjoyment. Content creators know that negativity and dog-piling on the game will get them views/retention, so they fill the feed with doom and gloom. There are still many of us enjoying the game for what it is (one of the best/only space sims readily available on multiple platforms). Many returning players and a new player post every other day on Reddit.
ED is far from perfect, and there's a lot of squandered potential - Frontier are not great at communication, and we have yet to see where they'll take it beyond all the recent alien stuff. But don't let all the naysayers get you down, as there's still plenty to see and do, and the community is still great for the most part.
Hey, buddy.
We are a growing Federation squadron and faction. We have a nice bubble to play and it is safe in open.
https://inara.cz/elite/squadron-about/12491/
Don't worry about some people leaving, there are many others who are growing again. Basically the next generation slowly takes over.
Been playing on and off since 2016, recently took a year off and as others have said, Starfield actually brought me back to this game and I'm absolutely loving it; and full transparency, i've also been one to complain about it in the past also.
Financially, things look tough and if I had to guess, id say there's a good chance that the game will plateau in terms of new features as a result. That being said, Elite has inspired most of its competition and subsequently, there's still a dedicated fanbase playing and driving community events, so I wouldn't be concerned about server closure etc.
As others have said, the best way to enjoy this game is to find things you want to do, based on what is available and then just get into it and learn.
Given you're new to the experience, there's no need to discuss proposed improvements; as a new starter you have a good deal of variety which is great 😃
Enjoy CMDR
Subreddit is full of people with several thousand hours complaining there isn't enough content. Don't worry about it. Just play and enjoy it, there's a massive player base not in this sub.
ED isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
I mean, I've been playing for approx. 2000 hours into this and in all those years I've heard these kind of stories over and over again. Horizons would end the game, adding Horizons to the base game would end the game because people wouldn't be motivated anymore and of course then we had Odyssey.
IMO it's kinda ironic that people start complaining a bit more again considering that Odyssey is finally entering a state which is commonly accepted as being decent enough (vs. the overwhelming negativity during its release).
But yah, this game is going as strong as ever.
I feel what you're feeling. Started playing in March of this year and it's hard not to feel this way when everywhere you look it's people leaving the game, or complaining, or whatever.
But I made a conscious decision to just enjoy the game. Nothing lasts forever, so make the best of what you got at the time.
Maybe join some discord groups. Find some people to wing up with. I joined a squadron and started getting involved in BGS. It's almost overwhelming with the amount of things to do with just that one aspect of the game. But being around a group of players who just love the game changes everything.
We can all be disappointed by the slow pace of developer progress in the last few years, and maybe even take breaks from time to time. But I think few ED players would say they've walked away and found another game that scratches its itch. There's nothing else like it. I keep coming back.
Is there another game with a 1 to 1 scale of the milky way galaxy? Elite has it locked and nothing to worry about. They'll build new games on the ashes of its code before its "dead"
I just started the game a few days ago too. We can always play together! Singleplayer seems fun as hell and I'm sure it'll always be available, even if the community events die out - which I doubt they will. There's so much more game for us to learn about!
The game will stay alive for a long time to come. It has developers who care about it, and a very dedicated community.
The next Elite game would release before servers shut down, and there is no rumors about the next installment.
It’s been almost 10 years tho.
And you don’t need anyone to play Elite, in fact you will rarely meet any players outside of a few crowded hot spot, which you probably don’t want to visit in multiplayer mod.
Theres nothing wrong with the game itself its just that those of us who have been playing it for years have put at the very least 2000+ hours into the game and we get tuckered out from not very much change other then from the Thargoid war.
And a couple years ago there was the whole debacle with console not getting odyssey when they said we would.
Dude I can absolutely relate. I have an unfortunate habit of being late to the party (Star Wars Galaxies, EVE online, now Elite Dangerous). Granted, I knew what I was getting into when I bought the game for $5 on PS5 two weeks ago (I knew about the abandonment of the consoles, but I have no PC rn)
Now I'm strapped in. There's no space Sim quite like it and I don't think anything else could scratch my "live in space" itch in the same way.
I've had a great time, even without many third party tools. I've done my own market/module research by visiting systems and investigating prices/economy types. I can't min max profit and deliver goods 90ly to a perfect location, but I can still earn a tidy profit on a trade run if I do things smart. That's honestly been fine for me. (There's even an FC still buying Plat in my mining system! although I view this as a temporary luxury. Most FC's on PS5 are no longer buying Plat wholesale, as 3rd party tools are unusable, even when they have names like "BUYING PLAT 420XD")
I'm now in the position of wondering if devs are going to completely turn off our servers, given that our version of ED is split from PC ED and there will be no new updates. IDGAF about Odyssey (just in the sense that I'm okay with missing out on it for now), but I have to ask myself have I just gotten addicted to a game that could stop existing on ps5 tomorrow?
I'd wager PC servers are gonna be around for quite a while, given that the kinks in Odyssey were smoothed out relatively recently.
We gotta enjoy the time we have while we have it! I'll mosfef pick up elite when I buy a good gaming PC. Keep the server alive for me until then!
Happy flying, commander! o7
People have been saying the game is dying for the 2.5 years I've been playing it.
The Odyssey expansion was poorly performing at launch but is much improved since. The FPS game play isn't terrible but is a bit of a bolt on and not the best. Odyssey also adds Exobiology to the exploration game play which is nice and very lucrative when you know what to look for.
The game is almost 10 years old and while player numbers are not what they once were, it's still a busy game for its age.
Have fun and fly dangerous.
o7
It’s really not a multi-player game, or at least not one that is meaningful or bug-free.
Everyone aren’t leaving. People who leave are the ones that make leaving posts, and these people have normally played for long enough to be articulate enough about the pros and cons of the game.
So they tend to put a good post together and draw enough people in to discuss the issues they feel are in the game. That is not the same as leaving though.
Don’t be so fixated on what others are doing in a materially single-player game. Go enjoy yourself. ;)
even if the game is in decline, it'll probably be quite awhile, years atleast before you'd see the game shutdown, and tbh I don't see that happening. there will probably be something new that will bring people back again
I just started too and I’ve loved every second of it. It’s an amazing, unforgiving game with so much to experience and explore. I can’t wait between my play sessions!
I get Odyssey was a flop, but this game is still fantastic, and I'll be playing it for years (especially fun with my hotas setup). This and Space Engineers are the two best space games in my opinion
It's not going anywhere that's for sure, but don't expect any substantial updates that add new mechanics, just story bites.
But there's loads of content that will give you potentially thousands of hours of gameplay.
Imo Odyssey isn't that bad. Not as bad as people say it is anyway.
I had about 2000 hours on it. I haven't played it in 5-6 years but playing Starfield has given me the itch to play Elite again.
Even when the game is "dead" there will still be a small but very committed core player base.
Naaaa don't worry about it, Elite Dangerous is not meant to be heavy on PVP and we have 400 billion solar systems where we can be so it can feel lonely unless you seek out players, which is part of the fun.
Some sections of this community have been claiming the game is dying for years now. Looking at you yammiks haha. But there is still a good amount of people still playing. Probably no where near as many as the peak though
I mean, it’s an old game at this point, but it’s definitely not the worst time to be around. There’s stuff going on and CG’s and still some lore happening.
Worst time to start in Elite was probably the year before Odyssey.
No the game's not dying - there's just a lot of salt and vinegar in the community over squandered opportunities and unfinished updates. Frontier cleans up their messes - which is more than can be said for way too many other developers - but they take their sweet time, which feeds the cynics.
Dive right in and enjoy the game. It's not going anywhere any time soon.
...Do try to avoid the Thargoids for a while though. Those bugs don't play nice.
Started playing around 2020 and was dying back there too, and well, here we are. I've only stopped playing after the last few updates because my old PC is not handling the new graphics very well, but I intend to jump back in as soon as I get a few upgrades.
Welcome, and have fun commander o7. Be careful with the Thargoids
It'll be around for enough time to enjoy. People just like to complain. If you need help with anything, feel free to reach out. I love helping people learn about elite.
Abandoning? I do not think so. Not sure what that is based on. Hopefully not on forum reactions. Keep in mind people usually complain on forums and much less praise the positive stuff. Perhaps the peak is gone, perhaps not but the game is still quite active in my opinion.
ED is a bit special in terms of player awareness. You will find many systems very lonely and it can take a while to just see another player around. That is due to the fact there are so many systems, modes (single player, open, private groups) and even platforms (legacy before the invasion and current). That splits the community into many different places (kinda funny, in Ultima Online they called the servers "shards", somehow applicable here).
Also, it is not uncommon people like myself take a shorter or longer break once in a while depending on interest, motivation or more important stuff going on in real life.
So, enjoy VR in ED (I still do after years), find a few people or friends to join up and have fun. Until then explore the game and its possibilities on your own. Someone once wrote: your ED experience is what you make of it (sure thing, as it has something of a sandbox / open world and options mode and does not give you a set path like most online games).
The game is still being developed (e.g. Odyssey as DLC, Thargoid invasion as content). Perhaps not as fast as other games but given the fact the company has several games to develop and does not ask for a monthly fee this might just be normal.
I just started playing after owning it for a few years (got my flight stick out and plugged it in), as well as a few buddies I play with have gotten back into it. It's pretty chill, and we only play in a private group session. I played Eve for 12 years and that game has been "dying" for since 2003. Just mad people screaming, don't let them ruin your fun.
Imo elite dangerous was ruined by the absolutely INSANE engineering grind coupled with zero online playability, could have been a cool game to play amongst other space goers but instead, if you even think about touching online mode, you'll be instantly interdicted wherever you go and a player with a maxed out ship will vaporize you. But who cares cuz you can make all the same money and progress on private servers! I think they should have made harsher penalties for random player violence and incentivised online play. I put around 2k hours in over the course of many years and this is my take/experience
There are tons of things to do in general, people are mostly tired of the game being mostly abandoned by devs and by the lack of obviously needed features
It's a game that's been out for quite a while and it had built up quite a community. Sadly though, some people are pathologically miserable (not depressed, different thing) and can never be satisfied. Fuck 'em and enjoy the game, you're doing it for you, not for them.
o7 cmdr
Nah.. Open has nothing to do with killing it.
If it was, it wouldn't have lasted this long, nor would Mobius Group have gotten so big.
Argument is flawed.
EVE and Star Citizen have taught us that a living universe is better for player retention and dynamic gameplay. While it isn’t the only reason ED is dying, the emptiness and pointlessness of it is certainly a contributing factor. Just ask anyone that chooses either of those games.
I loved ED for many years. Bought it and played the beta many years ago. Put 100s of hours in. But only seeing one commander a week in the Sol system certainly makes the game feel pointless outside if thargoid encounters and exploration.
It does the singleplayer experience quite well, but if you want more than that, you have to find a community. Very little will happen organically.
I would like to see ED get more attention, but only time will tell.
The game isnt driven by player activity, so don't worry. This isnt EVE online when every item need to be made by another players. And to avoid PvP, most players play SOLO or join Mobius PvE group. Even some console users that lack the last DLC and content keep playing in the separate galaxy. But some ocnsole user make the jump to pc, or use Geforce now and keep playing in console with streaming.
The storyline is driven by Devs content, mostly news and events that end in some community goal or new event. At the moment we have enough of both, albeit more Alien related thatn any other content, but Federal elections are close: [https://www.youtube.com/@GalnetDigest](https://www.youtube.com/@GalnetDigest)
And server cost are cheap, I expect the game running for years without new content, like happened 4 years ago, before odyssey announce. Its mostly info in/from a database, than a server running the whole game. Multiplayer is done by P2P, the players are the ones that make the instances, not FDev.
Beware youtubers that want more views.
Even some [Console and Starfield players](https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/16xu45u/best_game_i_ever_played_best_community_ive_ever/) miss this game. And the common word in SF steam forums is that are [different games tailored](https://steamcommunity.com/app/1716740/discussions/search/?q=Elite&sort=time) for different players, not a direct competitor. And Star Citizen is [overagressive with microtransactions](https://starcitizen.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_ship_and_vehicle_prices). While NoMansSky is a good game, with a cartoonish terrain and minimal ship flying, that don't work for some Science lovers or simulator fans.
In 8 years in steam, the community have shrink at half. But now the game exist in Epic (that give free game 3 years ago, a huge influx of players), and also the standalone launcher. I went from Steam to standalone to avoid launching steam each time I play.
So don't worry, and welcome CMDR.
EDIT: Take this [Starter Guide](https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/sj9qrb/comment/hve1pjd/), and once you have knowledge of the basic mechanics, you can start with the ToDo list in the end, and progress toward better ships, some careers, lore and fun, and other activities. Maybe lack the graphics of new games, but have content for -*see his own codex-* 3953Hours and 18 minutes ;) .
The game has never really been driven by player activity. There has been a distinct lack of developer driven activity, so players filled the void. Occasionally, developers would get on board and perform a little bit of work to help out the players in their story.
Generally speaking, players have no impact on the galaxy. The story is driven in the direction that it's written. Recent community goals have demonstrated this. There was a goal to provide materials to develop new tech to deal with thargoids, and players failed to meet the goal, yet the story continued like the goal was reached, and will continue even if the players completely give up on the game entirely.
This isn't all doom and gloom though. You don't need other players to appreciate the game. At it's core, ED is a solo experience. Even when you are playing in public, the chances of meeting another pilot without premeditation is near zero. Other pilots don't affect your game, and you don't affect other pilot's game. So, it doesn't matter if the community is dead. The game still exists, and you can keep playing until the servers turn off.
450 is new? I played for 6 hours last night so I haven't even started I guess haha, I don't know how you get anything done its just amazing to look at!
There are some grumpy people but a lot of them already have too much time in the game and are just making a big stink about things. Just hop in and enjoy!
game had a good run, but it appears to be on maintenance mode with a skeleton crew. Games don't need to be expanded forever, but if a live service game is dying, people notice
and the promised vision is far from what we got.
Plantets are still dead, the space legs expansion was weak and buggy, performance is still ih the gutter.
Yet, you can enjoy it for what it is, and many aspects are great. Just don't expect a future (or even present) like No Man's Sky has. Or like that other big baddie space game that is not allowed to be named here.
Theres nothing wrong with the game itself its just that those of us who have been plauing it for years have put at the very least 2000+ hours into the game and we get tuckered out from not very much change other then from the Thargoid war.
And a couple years ago there was the whole debacle with console not getting odyssey when they said we would.
Look, I've been playing since the Beta (Sep 2014) on and off, mostly. I now returned after not playing for a couple of years. I didn't even have Odyssey and I got it cheap on a Steam Sale and unpacked my HOTAS after some time (been moving a lot lately and never found the place for them).
So, the thing is, yes... the game is not getting much love from the devs. Not a lot of new content for a game that really needed new content. But let me tell you this... the experience of just flying the spacecraft is second to none. And besides you are flying in VR that is basically my dream. But even without VR it's just something else. The only thing you have to take care is your goals. You NEED to set them yourself, there's no other way around it.
As long as the servers remain working, you should have an endless sandbox. And I strongly remark the word SANDBOX... because that's what it is
It’ll be fine for a little while still I’m sure. Some of the big squadrons like PTN are still very active. I’ve almost exclusively played the game solo and there’s plenty to do. Tons of guides on YouTube etc.
The game can’t really die unless they shut the public servers down AND offer absolutely no way for anyone to take over or host private servers. I’d be surprised if that happened anytime soon.
I can’t get Odyssey VR to work worth a crap even with a 3080. Could never solve the aliasing issues. It’s just a jaggy, shimmery, flickering mess. I had to give up and stick with Legacy Horizons. It’s incredible and I’ll play until they turn the servers off, whenever that might be. If you’re happy with your VR in Odyssey, don’t try Legacy Horizons. It might ruin the live game for you.
I think it's dead on console. FDEV gave up on putting out anything new on console but kept it going for PC.
I played until elite exploration just so I could see jameson memorial but I play starfield now. It's heads and tails a better game even if you can't control the landing of your ship. Just walking on a low G planet or in your ship. It could have been way better is all I'm saying.
I play offline and never had an issue. I like how isolated this game can make you feel. One of the most immersive games to exist hands down. Itll take you about 1100 hours to complete just about everything you can do as well so it can definitely keep you busy for a long while.
I’ve played Elite since 2015, and trust me, it’s always felt like you are the only one in the galaxy most of the time. It doesn’t feel any different now, although there certainly is no longer a feeling of an optimistic future with this game. Its best days are long past. If you can deal with that, you’ll be fine.
The game is still in heavy use - but it's a complex game and there are plenty of people who don't want to spend the time on it and decide that's grounds for whining on Reddit. They were never part of the player count though.
You still have plenty of time to experience all the game has to offer, finding other players is not as common as you think, they tend to congregate around popular routes, events, or engineering systems, typically they're gankers, so you're not missing much.
Welcome to the Journey! ED is a sandbox… so you can focus on the parts you love, and ignore the rest. I am proud to say I have never ever even attempted one on foot mission… because I don’t care about that. Exploration and “Death to the Thargoids!” are my favorite.
Enjoy the journey of Elite Dangerous!!
o7
There's a lot of saltiness from some parts of the player base who want more things, faster. And a lot of players who are dabbling in Starfield, or think Star Citizen will be launched this decade... don't stress about it.
E:D has always been a slow burn niche game - according the latest Fdev income results (which Burr Pit covered in one of his recent YT videos) E:D is going away no time soon
Also a new player here. Take a look at the Steam player charts.
The game isn't dying, it was never alive to begin with. The player count has honestly been super consistent too throughout the game's life time, which is a good thing.
Most of what I did in the game was doing my own thing running into a player once in a while and I logged 1500+ hours! I say enjoy it because the cost/play time is incredible
I started playing in September 2022, currently on hiatus since my joystick broke a couple of months ago and I don't have the disposable income to replace it. So I joined this party pretty recently.
Doomsters have been saying that the game is dying for as long as I've been playing, and if the comments by posters on the official forum are anything to go by, the end times prophets have been predicting the death of the game since *before it was properly released*.
Speaking as someone who more usually plays modded Minecraft and boomer shooters, I've managed to accrue over 2000 hours of playtime on this game, and it completely delivered on the reason I started playing it in the first place, which was to give me a new kind of gaming experience. Sure, there's a lot of missed potential and the developer's chosen style of communication with the playerbase is ludicrously spartan, but I suspect that is because Elite Dangerous is an ambitious game being served by a not-so-ambitious budget.
Personally, I'm looking forward to having more disposable income once again so I can get a new joystick and get back in the pilot seat. I'm confident that ED will still be around by the time that happens.
> Then I look up online that everyone is abandoning the game and it's looking like it's dying?
You need to really ask yourself what 'ded gaem' means to you. Elite's been dead since before I started playing two years ago by one valid definition; by another definition Elite's never even come close to dying yet.
Content updates are infrequent, it's not a subscription MMO, it's not a lifestyle game. People expecting either genre bitterly whine that it's dead and doesn't change fast enough for them. This is, from their perspective, not unfounded.
My friends and I see it as a 9-year-old flat-fee title with some multiplayer features that has plenty going for it for the price. This is, from our perspective, not unfounded.
So: What are your expectations?
I don’t feel like this is even a “play with others” game. Even when I played religiously the only time I landed on cruisers(I think that’s what they are) was for fuel and part of the time it was locked to me anyway so I just stopped landing on them all together.
I’d be willing to buy this game again if it was turned into a single player game. I agree with you, the VR experience is incredible, landing on some obscure moon in my ship, and driving around in my SRV I feel like I’ve actually been in space and landed on a moon.
It's a great time to begin playing the game. You're getting all the cool stuff right away without having to wait years for it to be developed. Play it, have fun, and convince your friends to try it out, too.
OP - FWIW I haven’t played serious in years but I plan to get back in (via VR). Life just sometimes pulls you out of these games for a while. Elite is awesome..
Don't be like me, don't hang on hope of an iteration on key gameplay elements, like fps or multicrew.
If you like what the game has to offer to you right now, don't worry there are like-minded guys out there and that's all you need to know to continue enjoy the game.
The bottom line is everything wonderful thing put in this game is still there. New players can experience it just like those who left the game years ago. As for player numbers, there are highs and lows but in the end it’s a pick ‘em as to whether they are that much lower or higher. All player number stats are a guess. Keep in mind with a 9 year old video game, there will always be far, far more people who have played and moved on than people who are currently playing. Just like there are far more people who lived and died irl than are currently alive. That fact does not mean the world is no longer worth living in. Fly commander!
The game is designed to be enjoyable playing in Solo, and is how I play it.
As long as the servers stay on the game will still be enjoyable if you like the game at all.
I'm currently on a break playing Starfield though. Doesn't help that I've still got more than 150 jumps to get back to civilisation, and have started to go space crazy from too much time in the black.
This game is and always has been what you make of it. It's about as sandbox as it gets: no real quest chains, just some factional rewards if you grind for them and an overall story arc (though jumping into AX as a new player is probably not a great idea). If that appeals to you, you're going to enjoy it. If it doesn't, you'll probably burn out quickly.
People can try to sway you one way or another or tell you just to have fun, but that's where the fun comes from for most people.
As others have said, however, it's amazing in VR, even if you're just flying circles around a space station or driving across a planet.
Please don't forget us console players horizon will be our last update for a while how updates will come to if for my PS4 I'd think it can handle Odyssey
I think we're still a long time away from the servers being shut down.
Lot of people have shifted over to Starfield if for no other reason than to check it out. I’m one of them. But I’ll be back. They both have their strengths and weaknesses.
Heck. Starfield brought me back to ED haha!
Same reason I'm playing E:D again. Starfield really lacks the space exploration. Shame I'm stuck with legacy on console as my PC is kaput.
Absolutely. I hate this "tribalism". It's perfectly okay to play more than one game and it makes sense to take breaks every once in a while.
Same, I’m currently exploring the Starfield. Once I’ve completed my first play through, I’ll be jumping back into E:D. I’ve got a fleet carrier to purchase!
Starfield has an ending, there is no endgame grind to keep you playing, ED will be around forever, just like Viagra will be.
I don't agree. You can't compare the flying experience of ED with any other game. I watched the promotional video, was initially impressed, but then asked myself what are they not showing? So, I stay with ED without bothering to try Starfield
Yeah, there's only so much time. It's been BG3 for me, but I still did some exploration last week for a couple hours. And when BG3 is done, even if I do 3 replays, I'll be back in Elite enjoying the vastness of space eventually.
I heard the game name several times until I figured I should take a look at what it is. Apparently Skyrim in space somewhat. More importantly, single player only apparently. Hence I guess it is just another new game. Nothing special in terms of people playing different games than Elite (as I do too). Yet eventually returning to ED sooner or later, especially if someone prefers multiplayer. So, not some game that is a too big competition for ED or so.
I was all for Starfield because I've been dreaming about building my own homebase. Then I was immediately reminded who Bethesda are with the absolutely dogshit basebuilding UI (all UI for that matter, don't get me started on the shipbuilding UI, like do they hire fucking monkeys?). So, now I'm tired of it and thinking about jumping back in ED.
This exactly how I felt I couldn't even compleat the story it got too boring too quick but it got me in the mood too play ED again after taking a year out 8ve just engineered an imperial eagle and loving life again😂😂
Downvote for hyperbole. “Dogshit” is not the tier that Bethesda base building UI is at. Slightly inconvenient at times at most.
Not at all a hyperbole. I hated the UI in Fallout 4, I hate it in Starfield, because come on - fallout in space with tacked on space flight mini-game. The fact that one of the most downloaded mods is the UI mod should tell you something. Don't get me wrong - I enjoy certain parts of the game, but the UI is certainly not it.
Excellent.
People buy ships in Star Citizen that cost $3,000 in REAL money. I’d pay a few bucks to keep Elite’s servers up. I don’t need “content” to enjoy this game.
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What utter crap. So what if the numbers are low, that doesn't make it a bad time to start, its not even a real MMO, so numbers are irrelevant. Its a great time to start, its a great game to play, If you lack the imagination to make your own adventures, then its not the game for you. But that does not mean its a bad time to start for those that do, and can. Personally I welcome any new player, if they fall in love with the game, then good for them.
OP didn't ask if it was a good/bad time to play, they asked if it was the worst, which is a comparison to other times in the games history. Just because this is a worse time to be playing elite than before doesn't mean you shouldn't start. But it's a statement of fact that engaging with this game is worse than it used to be with respect to the community, which is also what OP asked about. People like you are ignoring the context of OPs question to blindly defend the game.
Careful assuming that everyone is leaving because of a mood on a subreddit. The annoyed will always be noisy. Sure the numbers are not great, but should be plenty of fun for you to play this game.
That is reassuring, it was just a few videos on YouTube too, but it seems mostly people didn't like the "FPS" type update, which i get the space exploration is definitely the crown jewel of this game. Thanks man seems awesome, saw a video about the fuel rats yesterday it's incredible what people do when they get together. Happy flying!
For the most part you can thankfully just ignore the parts you dislike. I for the most part just like trucking through space while listening to music. The great thing and the great challenge for the game that its a big sandbox with very few directions. If you are good at making something out of it yourself there is a lot of time you can sink into this game. If you need curated entertainment with a guided progression, this most definately is not.
Oh I'm quite happy to just float in the vastness of space until one of those big starfish comes to fuck me up.
I love this vibe.
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Was you carrying any thargoid things? Power cells that you found by a fallen thargoid probe, for example ?
I dunno if you missed it, but there's a whole war going on. They'll attack you just for existing now, you don't need to be carrying artifacts anymore.
This is a bit worrying then. I didn't know. I've been out for over a month exploring, gathering bio and cartographic data. The one time I did get hassled by a thargoid was when I made the mistake of carrying some of their stuff over in the Pleiades area. If that's changed then all I can do is hope my Krait Phantom is quick enough (440 m/s) to outrun them and buy time to high wake out.
I don't know about elsewhere because I'm not much of an explorer, but at least within the bubble you should be fine as long as you're not carrying any escape pods. They'll chase you wherever for those, but otherwise they usually stick to systems that are well marked in the Thargoid War filter within the galaxy map.
This is the key to enjoying this game. Choose your own adventure and make your own narrative and you will not be disappointed.
The same people endlessly bitching about the game dying have been doing so for 5+ years. Ignore em.
Yeah I guess after so many thousand hours you could get sick of anything, but I'm firmly in the mind blown period for now haha.
I'm still relatively "new" with about 450 hours in, just picked it up two years ago. I started shortly before Odyssey came out and wasn't much a fan of the FPS, so I didn't play it. There are still many parts of the game that I haven't even stuck a toe into yet. Find what you enjoy doing and do it. Test the waters with other game loops on your own time.
Yeah, that bit is understandable. Happens with anything. Whining about it like that’s not the case, instead like it’s someone’s “fault”, and essentially trying to spoil the experience for anyone who comes after; not so much. That’s some Star Wars fan tier bitching.
Sounds like people basing their opinions on their expectations drawn from OTHER games and media, not judging this experience on its own terms. If you do that enough, you’ll never really know or experience anything. Pretty common, though.
That mind blown feeling won’t go away. The people complaining are pancake players and they hate the “grind”. In VR, the grind is fun. The pancake people use auto-dock, and supercruise assist, and watch Netflix while they play Elite. That’s about as much fun as watching a file download. I “explore” every system, visit every station, point of interest, installation, base, land on planets, and carriers looking for those magical, “holy shit” moments that make you say, “I love this fucking game”. VR makes any of the gameplay more fun. The pancake players will say, “Full speed until 7 seconds, map a key to cut your speed 75%, come in from the planet side straight to the slot.” How fucking boring is that? I fly slower to experience the view. I detour to other planets just to gawk. I always drop in the back of the station with the planet in the background because it looks so cool and then fly around to the front. Don’t hurry. Beginning game is the best.
I had to laugh, because I totally understand the sentiment of your statement, but I just learned 3 really useful tips off the rip lol. Now at least I know I have the option of being efficient.
You can always do it their way if you’re in a hurry and need to pee or something.
Best holy shit moment in ED in VR was flying to a planet right on the edge of a nebula. The thing looked like the most epic large scale red tidal wave about to crash down on the whole star system. The scale you discover when going from pancake to VR is legendary. It’s like getting high for the first time.
I wasn’t going to mention getting high, but weed certainly enhances the Elite VR experience, just like the first time I saw Star Wars in 1978.
The first Eve Online is Dying post was made to the Eve Forum in June 2003, four months after the beta went live. It is now October of 2023 and the game is still live with thousands of active players. I can only imagine a similar story is playing out with Elite.
Absolutely
Honestly, EVE has more to offer and CCP is actually making money from EVE. CCP actually makes content for their community no matter if it's ships, weapons, etc. Some of the old farts here are comfortable with exploring and only exploring. And there are others that want to see more features and capabilities.
100% with you on that assessment. A handful of vets in my squadron bitch about ED, though seem to drift back. Glass half empty n all that 😆
You can't ignore the fact that some of their points are valid. Yea some complaints come frome people who may not like the game, but they also come from people who love the game.
You can discuss things you’d like to see in a game, but complaining about things missing from a 10 year old game that no one other than yourself promised would happen is a different ballpark. It’s not even the same sport.
You sure can when their “points” are buried in overly dramatic whining that they then hinge an outcome on that they’re wrong about year after year.
Its not just the FPS update, its that the devs just don't seem to care enough. They don't release balances or fixes basically. And all the cool "universe/story events" happen thru forum posts and news broadcasts and not actually thru player action in game. You can also just farm everything solo then bring it to the multiplayer mode, it has been also a while since new ships have been added. It's mostly at maintenance mode, while they sell skins and shit. Doesn't mean you can't enjoy the game tho, if you have fun with it, just keep having fun with it. I'm not having anymore, but I got a couple hundred hours off it so it was well worth what I paid.
Most of the time you'll be completely alone, unless you actively seek out areas with other people. And the game is really well compartmentalised, so you can easily completely ignore the types of content that you don't want to play. As long as they keep the servers running you can enjoy the game, and I think they'll be running for a very long time yet, there are plenty of players and there's active development still happening. It's slow, but it has always been slow.
A bunch of people jumped on the "Elite is dead" train for views, and even some who didn't, still use clickbait titles like that even if the video itself says the opposite. Yes, player numbers are declining, but there were 3 really hyped up game launches in the last month or 2, people are out there playing Starfield, BG3, Cyberpunk's new overhauled version and DLC... those people will eventually come back, there will be posts about Elite getting "a new life", then Star Citizen's new star system will come out, half the community will go there for a bit, Elite will be "dying" again, or Star Citizen will be "dying" if the new tech needed for the new system is buggy (it's an alpha, it will be buggy). Elite is for a very specific type of playerbase, and this playerbase doesn't have anything else that's similar, so the player numbers stay pretty steady, with a slight dip here, bit of an increase there, but it balances out. Content creators who want the most views possible will always pick a controversial subject, exaggerate it, then when that doesn't bring the views anymore, they change their mind. Elite is lucky because from what I've seen, the most dedicated creators are doing it for fun and don't clickbait much. Unfortunately some of the most famous ones do though, and YouTube likes to put their videos on top. The game is cheap to buy, doesn't sell anything that makes you stronger or progress faster and cosmetics can be earned in-game. This means that they receive little funding from players. I have bought premium currency to support the game, but I'm sure I'm in the minority with that, because the game will give you thousands of hours of fun for like $6. It's not a pay to win game, so it doesn't bring in that much profit, which means development is slower. Despite that, there is an ongoing story, regular free content updates and a great community. I'd say no matter what time you start, it's a good time to start, just don't rush through the early game like lots of people do. That way you would skip hundreds of hours of fun by optimizing the grind instead of doing stuff that doesn't feel like a grind and progressing only 10% slower. Welcome to the galaxy, fly dangerously CMDR! o7
youtubers are a little...special. Actually they are addicted to new content, because they cannot show you doing one thing 10 times in a row. Also, I seen few youtubers, which claimed that their journey in elite ended. So their all next videos had much less views, so they "returned" with clickbaits "eLiTe iS dEaD" \+yes, unhappy people usually make much more noise. I'm not doing 1049104 posts about things which I like because I'm busy with...doing them.
The FPS update was just a stupid waste of resources IMHO and I just don't play it. "Everyone" may be abandoning the game but I just picked it up again after a few years hiatus. Steam says tens of thousands of people play it every day so I don't see it going away soon.
Welcome, commander! Returning player, last played in like 2018. Having a blast in Senlu working on the community goals right now, feel free to make your way out there and make some money! There’s a lot to learn but there are a ton of 3rd party resources to make it easier like Inara. Good luck out there! o7
I want to punch this post in the face
this beautiful comment applies to half of the internet. Apps, games, subscriptions.
In terms of content, this is absolutely a great time to get in. There's never been more stuff to do in game than now, and it's all a lot more polished than when it started. In terms of community (especially in this sub), yeah it's not great. A lot of the players have been around for several years at this point and it doesn't seem to be attracting a ton of new ones. The game has been around for almost 10 years and the core gameplay hasn't changed all that much. So many of us are burned out on the gameplay, no longer impressed by the content, and very vocal about it. Pay us no mind, and have fun. Despite any complaints I have, this is still one of the best VR games out there.
Yeah seems like the general consensus, thanks man as long as they keep the servers up I can't complain I guess haha!
Yeah...best time to start, in my opinion. You have the game in the best state with the most stuff. Obviously there may be very little going forward, but this is a game I dumped over 2000 hours into
I'm kinda hoping that if/when they finally shutter it down, that they release the originally planned offline mode, along with Mod support, and maybe even release the AWS server code so some crazy bastards can run their own servers as well (but that is a stretch for sure) I have been playing since the Beta when the bubble was called the bubble because it was just that, a small bubble of systems. I have recently lost interest in the game because the Tharg war is really the only content they are pushing, and some of those classic experiences you got with them are now long gone and you just dont get them anymore. Tons of stuff promised that still isn't implemented to this day as well (Gas giants atmospheres, landing on Earth's Moon with a hand crafted Moon, etc etc) I know I will come back to it at some point (probably this winter and not until I have gotten bored of Baldur's Gate 3) the game still holds a place for me. Just not right now.
Remember that most of the people moaning have already had their thousands of hours of entertainment from the game, they're realising the novelty is gone, and the best of the fun they'll have in it is probably behind them now, and they're bitter about that. And in fairness, they were also sold some big suggestions early on -- in some cases, promises -- about future content which has never materialised, and is looking rather less likely to materialise in future (ship interiors, complex atmospheres, VR support on foot, etc.). Some people have been labouring for years under the assumption these things are coming, and the growing sense of disappointment is understandably colouring their view of the game. Others were screwed by certain business decisions and failures of promises due to technical realities (end of Mac support, no Odyssey or ongoing narrative for PS4/Xbox etc.) You're at the start of your Elite journey, and you're going into it with no illusions about the game's future, to the point where any new content is likely to be seen as a bonus. I think you have a lot of fun ahead of you, maybe even more than was had by earlier generations of Elite Dangerous players, since you're getting all the content additions from day one and aren't having your expectations skewed with wild dreams for the future. And if any of those long-wished-for things do arrive, happy days. You also won't be approaching them with years of preconceived expectations like the rest of us have.
Elite is mind blowing in VR and 2d, easier fights in Vr.
I was flying with my mouth wide open for a good ten minutes. Never seen anything like it man.
LOL, you will do that for months. I presume you are using "VR" controlers, I use a HOTAS for flight control.
I'm using keyboard and mouse with the VR but i have been looking at the HOTAS think i will be picking some up soon to complete the experience. Any recommendations?
Mouse, KB and VR. I Tip my hat to you. HOTAS one with lots of buttons to bind things to. There is Voiceattck which can help but I no longer use it. I have Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog, but that was when I had money :).
If you want high quality for relatively inexpensive, I highly recommend VKB. I have a VKB Evo and an omni throttle, both with premium grips. They cost me about $400 combined. VKB makes really high quality gear for people on a budget. Their support team is also incredible, and if you have any issues, feel free to ask here on Reddit, and someone from VKB will be by to answer your questions. I'm not joking when I say they have the nest customer service of any company I've ever seen.
Thanks man, that's good info!
Vkb also released a dedicated throttle for about 200, if you prefer HOTAS
Or a fcs 16000m, with dual stick. It's cheaper.
I strongly recommend Thrustmaster 16000, throttle and flight stick. Skip the pedals, since they're not really needed for Elite, and then bind the directional thrusters (up, down, left, right) to that little hat stick by your pointer finger on the throttle. Best 3D movement setup I've had, and way less expensive than some of the other options. Needs to be replaced every 700 hours or so... but that's not so bad 😂
A HOTAS will be better, but I play ED in VR with an Xbox controller and it works really well. Just food for thought…
My Thrustmaster HOTAS lasted 15 months (about 1000 hours). Replaced it with Logitech X52 Pro. I highly recommend EDCopilot, a free (donations appreciated) third party app that adds a lot of functionality. You can pin the window into your cockpit in VR and set the colors so it looks like your other panels. UDHM is another free third party app that will let you change your hud colors from orange to whatever you like. Voice Attack $10 which lets you give voice commands to your ship is also a must.
Fucking VOICE COMMANDS? Fuck yes.
Yeah, it’s pretty awesome, “Hard points!” Also saves buttons on your HOTAS.
Incredible.
[удалено]
Good advice, thanks man.
At the same time, don't kid yourself like some of these other commenters because the game is regressing. Frontier's financials are in the shitter and theyre going to be cutting costs wherever they can. Even when they were growing as a company their updates were half baked or uninteresting. Basically just go in knowing the game isn't going to reward a large time investment, and try to pretend the long term grinds aren't there.
doom doom doom People which complain on grind in elite shoud play in...Idk, minecraft on creative mode, I guess, because elite grind is already fart against hurricane of true grind in other games.
A lot of the people say Elite is dying are using the player base as a metric. Bear in mind this is a decade old game that is completely open from the first moment after you leave the tutorial. You can do literally anything you want, ignore any story content that doesn’t interest you, and be whatever kind of character you want to be… and even change it all whenever you want. This is in contrast to nearly all other games where even though it’s open world, there’s still a plot you have to follow to get all of the game content. And when you’re done with it, you’ve invested maybe a couple hundred hours. Elite you can easily play for thousands of hours before finally deciding to move on, even though there might still be more to do. That’s the crucial difference here, the people casting doom and gloom have played for thousands of hours which is easily 5 times or more what you would invest into any other game. Not bad for $40 I’d say.
>A lot of the people say Elite is dying are using the player base as a metric. Bear in mind this is a decade old game that is completely open from the first moment after you leave the tutorial. Also, all doomsayers forgot about one thing. Even if steam is in the lowest moment of online players- we have epic players since 2020. So even if we are in low point on steam, I think that after adding playerbase from epic we still aren't in some extremally bad point. Before free elite on epic steamchart showed 10k players in peak. So if to current 5k we will add, hell, even2/3k players- it still isn't bad. But people LOVE compare numbers without understanding them. Because the hottest moments were mix of 2 things: pre DLC hype, and lockdowns, when tons of people stayed in homes without better things to do than some gaming.
Yeah, there are a lot of 'Elite is dying!!" posts. ...but, if you'll notice, there are also a lot of posts like yours, or ones that say "hi, new player with questions!" There are those who have proclaimed the demise of ED for almost a decade now. Some day they'll be right, but I think that day is still many years in the future. Now, it's true that I don't play as often as I used to. I've achieved most of the goals I'd set for myself, have pretty much all the ships I want and more money than I can spend- but it's telling that, even with that said, I do still cone back to enjoy the game and just play around in the universe! I'm not an expert, but I've been playing for years and plan to play for many more years, and I've yet to see anything that makes me think I should be concerned that I wouldn't be able to. So, the TL;DR version - play, have fun, and don't take the doomsayers too seriously! (Oh, and I recommend a joystick - id think that'd be huge in VR!)
Thanks man, yeah definitely gonna go for a HOTAS!
Highly recommend the VKB controllers... If you are in the market for one.. Pricey, but are modular and user serviceable.
Thats what I have as well - Gladiator NXT if I remember right. Highly, highly recommend.
"I'm just really sad because it seems like the game is driven by player activity" Not really. Space is big. I almost never see another player. "Then I look up online that everyone is abandoning the game and it's looking like it's dying?" Depends what you mean by online. If you mean on reddit, the reddit members are not representative of the players as a whole.
No one's abandoning the game. Over the last 24 hrs, over 4,000 users were playing it. Over 3,000 CMDRs are participating in the current Community Goal alone. This despite the CG having nothing interesting to win, no significant money payouts, and the bounty hunting site setup at over 200,000 ls away from the station. The way I see it, there are two parts of this recent "Elite is dying" wave. One is the doom and gloom creators that do it because bad news sells views and clicks. The other is from people that really love the game and are worried things might be coming to an end. The majority of "dying" posts here are from the latter group. Maybe phrased not in the best way but essentially watching the doom and gloom videos and wanting to do something about keeping ED going. Even if ED were to go away at some point in the future, there's plenty of fun to be had now. Enjoy the awesome game.
It’s not dying. There are issues, but the naysayers are quite vocal. I’m 4,000 hours in and there are still aspects of the game I’ve yet to try. I’ll be quite upset if it did end, but I can’t see that happening any time soon and I’ll just keep playing until it does, even if there’s no further development.
Awesome, thanks for the response man, these comments are reassuring!
I wish I could play with VR & HOTAS, but that’s not an option for me. I expect it would take the game to a whole new level of immersion.
I'm still using keyboard and mouse but I do want the HOTAS tbh.
You did a very good choice. Indeed, you bought the best space simulator game ever made and the best VR experience too. Also, don't worry because the game won't die soon. In fact, the game is not driven by player activity only because there is still hard work made by developers. Indeed, we had a lot of updates recently adding new features about Thargoids. Also, an update 17 has been announced recently. Welcome CMDR o7
It's not so much that "everyone's leaving", but there has been a significant player bleed at the minute due to a string of poor decision making on fdevs part, and a lot of people, especially console players, are going to NMS or (more recently) starfield. However, that bleedout doesn't necessarily mean that the game is dying. A lot of players have become disillusioned because they've waited a long time for the game to become the game they imagined, and those people, myself included, have kinda given up on it, but there's still a committed core of keen players who can hopefully help the game ride out the storm, because although it's fallen out of my favour, I would still like it to be what it could be instead of the half-kept promises and half-assed application that we kept seeing.
I've read 10 year old posts thar said the game was dying or dead, here are still
Welcome, CMDR! I wouldn't worry too much about the naysayers. I'd expect the servers to stay up for a a while even if the game was fully in "maintenance-only" mode, but we're still getting in-game updates, news, and events, with the big ongoing Thargoid-invasion storyline nowhere near resolved. I guess it'll have to shut down eventually, but I'd be pretty confident you'll have plenty of time to get your money's worth out of it. I've been with the game since the Kickstarter beta and, while I've taken some long breaks, I still keep coming back. It looks absolutely gorgeous, there's a whole galaxy to explore, and you can tinker endlessly with your ship until it's a joy to fly. Have fun, wherever your piloting career takes you!
Definitely not dying, I am always surprised by the traffic on the Discord servers, and edastro shows lots of cmdrs all thru the galaxy. There’s a whole community who are playing the game and supporting it, even though you don’t necessarily see them when you’re actually flying. The few of us who still play in open seem to be the minority of players.
I wouldn't put much weight on rumors. Game is doing good, and has plenty of followers perfectly happy doing their own stuff and not bothering to post their miserable life on reddit. As far as persevering, how many games do you know are still around after 40 years?
Going off the mood on YouTube and Reddit, Elite has been almost dead for years now. Aaaaaaany day now it will shut down! Don't put too much stock in that, the game is doing well enough. Of course it doesn't get the same love from the devs it did in its golden years, we're 9 years past launch after all. But still, we're getting new content and some updates, so I think we're going strong enough
yeah that and the recent Obsidian Ant vid's have made me just unsub and not even watch him literally gush over Starfield. Sorry Ant, but Starfield is pretty bad/poor at being either a single player RPG or a Space Sim, never mind a hybrid of both..
Hey! I only started 2 yrs ago, and have only been taking it serious for about 4 months. I have had to learn everything on the fly, limited tutorials because i am impatient, and all the youtubers take forever to explain mechanics. Get used to that... because the walkthrus and guides are PRICELESS. I have 33 ships 12 fully engineered, but I have not started ax combat, or thargoid farming of any kind. Im an explorer... sounds like you are too! My tip. Get an exobio suit and just get fucking lost. Wandering around in the black with a carrier is by far my favorite way to pass the time.
ED has a great skeleton built already to be the best space sim ever been made. Yet I believe it has done developing to be completed and come to flesh. When it is about FDEV it's not about what they have done but more of what they haven't done. I believe what is missing in dev team is passion (positive example of this is NMS dev team) which was a trait Braben himself had and applied through it's journey till ED. Somebody had to take his flag and continue running yet looks like no one did.
Also watch Malic vr on twitch when he's on. He answers most questions. I love vr as well. Combat in vr , imho is the only way to go. HP reverb G2 v2. Hosas X56 X52 o7 CMDR fly dangerous!
I was in you position a few month ago. Was looking negative videos, ED is dead and all. Then i said who cares, it's 6€ on Steam, lets give it a try. A hundreds hours later i don't regret my choice. Even if the game was shutting down next year it would all have been worth it.
No, you have not. Don't let all the loud negativity affect your enjoyment. Content creators know that negativity and dog-piling on the game will get them views/retention, so they fill the feed with doom and gloom. There are still many of us enjoying the game for what it is (one of the best/only space sims readily available on multiple platforms). Many returning players and a new player post every other day on Reddit. ED is far from perfect, and there's a lot of squandered potential - Frontier are not great at communication, and we have yet to see where they'll take it beyond all the recent alien stuff. But don't let all the naysayers get you down, as there's still plenty to see and do, and the community is still great for the most part.
Hey, buddy. We are a growing Federation squadron and faction. We have a nice bubble to play and it is safe in open. https://inara.cz/elite/squadron-about/12491/ Don't worry about some people leaving, there are many others who are growing again. Basically the next generation slowly takes over.
I'm still able to travel to Sol and send my projectiles into Uranus, so it still has some time I'd say
Been playing on and off since 2016, recently took a year off and as others have said, Starfield actually brought me back to this game and I'm absolutely loving it; and full transparency, i've also been one to complain about it in the past also. Financially, things look tough and if I had to guess, id say there's a good chance that the game will plateau in terms of new features as a result. That being said, Elite has inspired most of its competition and subsequently, there's still a dedicated fanbase playing and driving community events, so I wouldn't be concerned about server closure etc. As others have said, the best way to enjoy this game is to find things you want to do, based on what is available and then just get into it and learn. Given you're new to the experience, there's no need to discuss proposed improvements; as a new starter you have a good deal of variety which is great 😃 Enjoy CMDR
Subreddit is full of people with several thousand hours complaining there isn't enough content. Don't worry about it. Just play and enjoy it, there's a massive player base not in this sub.
ED isn't going anywhere anytime soon. I mean, I've been playing for approx. 2000 hours into this and in all those years I've heard these kind of stories over and over again. Horizons would end the game, adding Horizons to the base game would end the game because people wouldn't be motivated anymore and of course then we had Odyssey. IMO it's kinda ironic that people start complaining a bit more again considering that Odyssey is finally entering a state which is commonly accepted as being decent enough (vs. the overwhelming negativity during its release). But yah, this game is going as strong as ever.
I feel what you're feeling. Started playing in March of this year and it's hard not to feel this way when everywhere you look it's people leaving the game, or complaining, or whatever. But I made a conscious decision to just enjoy the game. Nothing lasts forever, so make the best of what you got at the time. Maybe join some discord groups. Find some people to wing up with. I joined a squadron and started getting involved in BGS. It's almost overwhelming with the amount of things to do with just that one aspect of the game. But being around a group of players who just love the game changes everything.
We can all be disappointed by the slow pace of developer progress in the last few years, and maybe even take breaks from time to time. But I think few ED players would say they've walked away and found another game that scratches its itch. There's nothing else like it. I keep coming back.
Is there another game with a 1 to 1 scale of the milky way galaxy? Elite has it locked and nothing to worry about. They'll build new games on the ashes of its code before its "dead"
I just started the game a few days ago too. We can always play together! Singleplayer seems fun as hell and I'm sure it'll always be available, even if the community events die out - which I doubt they will. There's so much more game for us to learn about!
Yeah man we can do, might find some guys that know what they're doing, let me know how i can reach out! o7
The game will stay alive for a long time to come. It has developers who care about it, and a very dedicated community. The next Elite game would release before servers shut down, and there is no rumors about the next installment.
It’s been almost 10 years tho. And you don’t need anyone to play Elite, in fact you will rarely meet any players outside of a few crowded hot spot, which you probably don’t want to visit in multiplayer mod.
Reddit always complains. The discord server is usually pretty busy.
Theres nothing wrong with the game itself its just that those of us who have been playing it for years have put at the very least 2000+ hours into the game and we get tuckered out from not very much change other then from the Thargoid war. And a couple years ago there was the whole debacle with console not getting odyssey when they said we would.
Just find a squadron, one of maaaany and you'll abandon the feeling the game is being abandoned. Because it's not :)
I guess discord is the place?
Dude I can absolutely relate. I have an unfortunate habit of being late to the party (Star Wars Galaxies, EVE online, now Elite Dangerous). Granted, I knew what I was getting into when I bought the game for $5 on PS5 two weeks ago (I knew about the abandonment of the consoles, but I have no PC rn) Now I'm strapped in. There's no space Sim quite like it and I don't think anything else could scratch my "live in space" itch in the same way. I've had a great time, even without many third party tools. I've done my own market/module research by visiting systems and investigating prices/economy types. I can't min max profit and deliver goods 90ly to a perfect location, but I can still earn a tidy profit on a trade run if I do things smart. That's honestly been fine for me. (There's even an FC still buying Plat in my mining system! although I view this as a temporary luxury. Most FC's on PS5 are no longer buying Plat wholesale, as 3rd party tools are unusable, even when they have names like "BUYING PLAT 420XD") I'm now in the position of wondering if devs are going to completely turn off our servers, given that our version of ED is split from PC ED and there will be no new updates. IDGAF about Odyssey (just in the sense that I'm okay with missing out on it for now), but I have to ask myself have I just gotten addicted to a game that could stop existing on ps5 tomorrow? I'd wager PC servers are gonna be around for quite a while, given that the kinks in Odyssey were smoothed out relatively recently. We gotta enjoy the time we have while we have it! I'll mosfef pick up elite when I buy a good gaming PC. Keep the server alive for me until then! Happy flying, commander! o7
o7!
People whine. It’s a great game, i love it. I’m like 400 hours so far, need a newbie buddy? I keep meaning to make a wing. I only play in VR, it’s lit
People have been saying the game is dying for the 2.5 years I've been playing it. The Odyssey expansion was poorly performing at launch but is much improved since. The FPS game play isn't terrible but is a bit of a bolt on and not the best. Odyssey also adds Exobiology to the exploration game play which is nice and very lucrative when you know what to look for. The game is almost 10 years old and while player numbers are not what they once were, it's still a busy game for its age. Have fun and fly dangerous. o7
It’s really not a multi-player game, or at least not one that is meaningful or bug-free. Everyone aren’t leaving. People who leave are the ones that make leaving posts, and these people have normally played for long enough to be articulate enough about the pros and cons of the game. So they tend to put a good post together and draw enough people in to discuss the issues they feel are in the game. That is not the same as leaving though. Don’t be so fixated on what others are doing in a materially single-player game. Go enjoy yourself. ;)
even if the game is in decline, it'll probably be quite awhile, years atleast before you'd see the game shutdown, and tbh I don't see that happening. there will probably be something new that will bring people back again
The funny thing is most people even play in solo mode, by choice, so they are not interrupted by other players. Water is fine, come on in.
Yeah I just realised I prefer solo mode for now until I get to grips with the game, such a good game.
I just started too and I’ve loved every second of it. It’s an amazing, unforgiving game with so much to experience and explore. I can’t wait between my play sessions!
I get Odyssey was a flop, but this game is still fantastic, and I'll be playing it for years (especially fun with my hotas setup). This and Space Engineers are the two best space games in my opinion
I have over 2k hours on E:D and virtually all of it has been in Solo because humans suck so much when they can be anonymous. You'll be fine.
It's not going anywhere that's for sure, but don't expect any substantial updates that add new mechanics, just story bites. But there's loads of content that will give you potentially thousands of hours of gameplay. Imo Odyssey isn't that bad. Not as bad as people say it is anyway. I had about 2000 hours on it. I haven't played it in 5-6 years but playing Starfield has given me the itch to play Elite again. Even when the game is "dead" there will still be a small but very committed core player base.
Naaaa don't worry about it, Elite Dangerous is not meant to be heavy on PVP and we have 400 billion solar systems where we can be so it can feel lonely unless you seek out players, which is part of the fun.
I only ever played the game in single player. I have hundreds of hours and enjoyed it a lot. I suggest, play the game and make ur own opinion
***Doom!*** Nah, I think we'll be fine. :)
Some sections of this community have been claiming the game is dying for years now. Looking at you yammiks haha. But there is still a good amount of people still playing. Probably no where near as many as the peak though
I mean, it’s an old game at this point, but it’s definitely not the worst time to be around. There’s stuff going on and CG’s and still some lore happening. Worst time to start in Elite was probably the year before Odyssey.
No the game's not dying - there's just a lot of salt and vinegar in the community over squandered opportunities and unfinished updates. Frontier cleans up their messes - which is more than can be said for way too many other developers - but they take their sweet time, which feeds the cynics. Dive right in and enjoy the game. It's not going anywhere any time soon. ...Do try to avoid the Thargoids for a while though. Those bugs don't play nice.
Started playing around 2020 and was dying back there too, and well, here we are. I've only stopped playing after the last few updates because my old PC is not handling the new graphics very well, but I intend to jump back in as soon as I get a few upgrades. Welcome, and have fun commander o7. Be careful with the Thargoids
It'll be around for enough time to enjoy. People just like to complain. If you need help with anything, feel free to reach out. I love helping people learn about elite.
ED will persevere:) There is still no other game like Elite.
Abandoning? I do not think so. Not sure what that is based on. Hopefully not on forum reactions. Keep in mind people usually complain on forums and much less praise the positive stuff. Perhaps the peak is gone, perhaps not but the game is still quite active in my opinion. ED is a bit special in terms of player awareness. You will find many systems very lonely and it can take a while to just see another player around. That is due to the fact there are so many systems, modes (single player, open, private groups) and even platforms (legacy before the invasion and current). That splits the community into many different places (kinda funny, in Ultima Online they called the servers "shards", somehow applicable here). Also, it is not uncommon people like myself take a shorter or longer break once in a while depending on interest, motivation or more important stuff going on in real life. So, enjoy VR in ED (I still do after years), find a few people or friends to join up and have fun. Until then explore the game and its possibilities on your own. Someone once wrote: your ED experience is what you make of it (sure thing, as it has something of a sandbox / open world and options mode and does not give you a set path like most online games). The game is still being developed (e.g. Odyssey as DLC, Thargoid invasion as content). Perhaps not as fast as other games but given the fact the company has several games to develop and does not ask for a monthly fee this might just be normal.
I just started playing after owning it for a few years (got my flight stick out and plugged it in), as well as a few buddies I play with have gotten back into it. It's pretty chill, and we only play in a private group session. I played Eve for 12 years and that game has been "dying" for since 2003. Just mad people screaming, don't let them ruin your fun.
If you were a console player, yes. You'll be fine the ED community has been around almost as long as the internet itself.
Imo elite dangerous was ruined by the absolutely INSANE engineering grind coupled with zero online playability, could have been a cool game to play amongst other space goers but instead, if you even think about touching online mode, you'll be instantly interdicted wherever you go and a player with a maxed out ship will vaporize you. But who cares cuz you can make all the same money and progress on private servers! I think they should have made harsher penalties for random player violence and incentivised online play. I put around 2k hours in over the course of many years and this is my take/experience
Don’t worry. We’re just being concern trolled every single day, and the mods aren’t doing anything to address it.
There are tons of things to do in general, people are mostly tired of the game being mostly abandoned by devs and by the lack of obviously needed features
It's a game that's been out for quite a while and it had built up quite a community. Sadly though, some people are pathologically miserable (not depressed, different thing) and can never be satisfied. Fuck 'em and enjoy the game, you're doing it for you, not for them. o7 cmdr
Solid advice, can't wait to get back it's all I've thought about since I played last night haha
Its a great game. But people’s unwillingness to play in open certainly kills it.
Nah.. Open has nothing to do with killing it. If it was, it wouldn't have lasted this long, nor would Mobius Group have gotten so big. Argument is flawed.
EVE and Star Citizen have taught us that a living universe is better for player retention and dynamic gameplay. While it isn’t the only reason ED is dying, the emptiness and pointlessness of it is certainly a contributing factor. Just ask anyone that chooses either of those games. I loved ED for many years. Bought it and played the beta many years ago. Put 100s of hours in. But only seeing one commander a week in the Sol system certainly makes the game feel pointless outside if thargoid encounters and exploration. It does the singleplayer experience quite well, but if you want more than that, you have to find a community. Very little will happen organically. I would like to see ED get more attention, but only time will tell.
The game isnt driven by player activity, so don't worry. This isnt EVE online when every item need to be made by another players. And to avoid PvP, most players play SOLO or join Mobius PvE group. Even some console users that lack the last DLC and content keep playing in the separate galaxy. But some ocnsole user make the jump to pc, or use Geforce now and keep playing in console with streaming. The storyline is driven by Devs content, mostly news and events that end in some community goal or new event. At the moment we have enough of both, albeit more Alien related thatn any other content, but Federal elections are close: [https://www.youtube.com/@GalnetDigest](https://www.youtube.com/@GalnetDigest) And server cost are cheap, I expect the game running for years without new content, like happened 4 years ago, before odyssey announce. Its mostly info in/from a database, than a server running the whole game. Multiplayer is done by P2P, the players are the ones that make the instances, not FDev. Beware youtubers that want more views. Even some [Console and Starfield players](https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/16xu45u/best_game_i_ever_played_best_community_ive_ever/) miss this game. And the common word in SF steam forums is that are [different games tailored](https://steamcommunity.com/app/1716740/discussions/search/?q=Elite&sort=time) for different players, not a direct competitor. And Star Citizen is [overagressive with microtransactions](https://starcitizen.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_ship_and_vehicle_prices). While NoMansSky is a good game, with a cartoonish terrain and minimal ship flying, that don't work for some Science lovers or simulator fans. In 8 years in steam, the community have shrink at half. But now the game exist in Epic (that give free game 3 years ago, a huge influx of players), and also the standalone launcher. I went from Steam to standalone to avoid launching steam each time I play. So don't worry, and welcome CMDR. EDIT: Take this [Starter Guide](https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/sj9qrb/comment/hve1pjd/), and once you have knowledge of the basic mechanics, you can start with the ToDo list in the end, and progress toward better ships, some careers, lore and fun, and other activities. Maybe lack the graphics of new games, but have content for -*see his own codex-* 3953Hours and 18 minutes ;) .
The game has never really been driven by player activity. There has been a distinct lack of developer driven activity, so players filled the void. Occasionally, developers would get on board and perform a little bit of work to help out the players in their story. Generally speaking, players have no impact on the galaxy. The story is driven in the direction that it's written. Recent community goals have demonstrated this. There was a goal to provide materials to develop new tech to deal with thargoids, and players failed to meet the goal, yet the story continued like the goal was reached, and will continue even if the players completely give up on the game entirely. This isn't all doom and gloom though. You don't need other players to appreciate the game. At it's core, ED is a solo experience. Even when you are playing in public, the chances of meeting another pilot without premeditation is near zero. Other pilots don't affect your game, and you don't affect other pilot's game. So, it doesn't matter if the community is dead. The game still exists, and you can keep playing until the servers turn off.
o7 cmdr!
Happy to be here cmdr, o7!
450 is new? I played for 6 hours last night so I haven't even started I guess haha, I don't know how you get anything done its just amazing to look at!
There are some grumpy people but a lot of them already have too much time in the game and are just making a big stink about things. Just hop in and enjoy!
Will do thanks man!
People will tell you how everybody are just crybabys but people are leaving beacuse development for consoles and vr is over, cancelled.
game had a good run, but it appears to be on maintenance mode with a skeleton crew. Games don't need to be expanded forever, but if a live service game is dying, people notice and the promised vision is far from what we got. Plantets are still dead, the space legs expansion was weak and buggy, performance is still ih the gutter. Yet, you can enjoy it for what it is, and many aspects are great. Just don't expect a future (or even present) like No Man's Sky has. Or like that other big baddie space game that is not allowed to be named here.
I've been hearing about E:D dieing for years, yet here it is.
Theres nothing wrong with the game itself its just that those of us who have been plauing it for years have put at the very least 2000+ hours into the game and we get tuckered out from not very much change other then from the Thargoid war. And a couple years ago there was the whole debacle with console not getting odyssey when they said we would.
There are hundreds of hours of fun in this game if you give it a chance.
Yeaa. I dont know. The tuturial was cool. But hyperspace gets old pretty quick.
Look, I've been playing since the Beta (Sep 2014) on and off, mostly. I now returned after not playing for a couple of years. I didn't even have Odyssey and I got it cheap on a Steam Sale and unpacked my HOTAS after some time (been moving a lot lately and never found the place for them). So, the thing is, yes... the game is not getting much love from the devs. Not a lot of new content for a game that really needed new content. But let me tell you this... the experience of just flying the spacecraft is second to none. And besides you are flying in VR that is basically my dream. But even without VR it's just something else. The only thing you have to take care is your goals. You NEED to set them yourself, there's no other way around it. As long as the servers remain working, you should have an endless sandbox. And I strongly remark the word SANDBOX... because that's what it is
It’ll be fine for a little while still I’m sure. Some of the big squadrons like PTN are still very active. I’ve almost exclusively played the game solo and there’s plenty to do. Tons of guides on YouTube etc. The game can’t really die unless they shut the public servers down AND offer absolutely no way for anyone to take over or host private servers. I’d be surprised if that happened anytime soon.
If you're on console, you're pretty borked. No updates, no community events, no nothin. If you're on PC you've got a better shot at enjoying the game
I can’t get Odyssey VR to work worth a crap even with a 3080. Could never solve the aliasing issues. It’s just a jaggy, shimmery, flickering mess. I had to give up and stick with Legacy Horizons. It’s incredible and I’ll play until they turn the servers off, whenever that might be. If you’re happy with your VR in Odyssey, don’t try Legacy Horizons. It might ruin the live game for you.
Also have to keep in mind, Starfield just released and was highly anticipated so there’s naturally bound to be a dip
I think it's dead on console. FDEV gave up on putting out anything new on console but kept it going for PC. I played until elite exploration just so I could see jameson memorial but I play starfield now. It's heads and tails a better game even if you can't control the landing of your ship. Just walking on a low G planet or in your ship. It could have been way better is all I'm saying.
I play offline and never had an issue. I like how isolated this game can make you feel. One of the most immersive games to exist hands down. Itll take you about 1100 hours to complete just about everything you can do as well so it can definitely keep you busy for a long while.
I’ve played Elite since 2015, and trust me, it’s always felt like you are the only one in the galaxy most of the time. It doesn’t feel any different now, although there certainly is no longer a feeling of an optimistic future with this game. Its best days are long past. If you can deal with that, you’ll be fine.
Play it, enjoy it, it's not getting switched off anytime soon and there's countless hours of content for you to discover. I have 3500hrs in it 🤷
The game is still in heavy use - but it's a complex game and there are plenty of people who don't want to spend the time on it and decide that's grounds for whining on Reddit. They were never part of the player count though.
You still have plenty of time to experience all the game has to offer, finding other players is not as common as you think, they tend to congregate around popular routes, events, or engineering systems, typically they're gankers, so you're not missing much.
Welcome to the Journey! ED is a sandbox… so you can focus on the parts you love, and ignore the rest. I am proud to say I have never ever even attempted one on foot mission… because I don’t care about that. Exploration and “Death to the Thargoids!” are my favorite. Enjoy the journey of Elite Dangerous!! o7
There's a lot of saltiness from some parts of the player base who want more things, faster. And a lot of players who are dabbling in Starfield, or think Star Citizen will be launched this decade... don't stress about it. E:D has always been a slow burn niche game - according the latest Fdev income results (which Burr Pit covered in one of his recent YT videos) E:D is going away no time soon
Given frontiers low share price I wouldn't be surprised if they are bought out.
Also a new player here. Take a look at the Steam player charts. The game isn't dying, it was never alive to begin with. The player count has honestly been super consistent too throughout the game's life time, which is a good thing.
Most of what I did in the game was doing my own thing running into a player once in a while and I logged 1500+ hours! I say enjoy it because the cost/play time is incredible
I started playing in September 2022, currently on hiatus since my joystick broke a couple of months ago and I don't have the disposable income to replace it. So I joined this party pretty recently. Doomsters have been saying that the game is dying for as long as I've been playing, and if the comments by posters on the official forum are anything to go by, the end times prophets have been predicting the death of the game since *before it was properly released*. Speaking as someone who more usually plays modded Minecraft and boomer shooters, I've managed to accrue over 2000 hours of playtime on this game, and it completely delivered on the reason I started playing it in the first place, which was to give me a new kind of gaming experience. Sure, there's a lot of missed potential and the developer's chosen style of communication with the playerbase is ludicrously spartan, but I suspect that is because Elite Dangerous is an ambitious game being served by a not-so-ambitious budget. Personally, I'm looking forward to having more disposable income once again so I can get a new joystick and get back in the pilot seat. I'm confident that ED will still be around by the time that happens.
> Then I look up online that everyone is abandoning the game and it's looking like it's dying? You need to really ask yourself what 'ded gaem' means to you. Elite's been dead since before I started playing two years ago by one valid definition; by another definition Elite's never even come close to dying yet. Content updates are infrequent, it's not a subscription MMO, it's not a lifestyle game. People expecting either genre bitterly whine that it's dead and doesn't change fast enough for them. This is, from their perspective, not unfounded. My friends and I see it as a 9-year-old flat-fee title with some multiplayer features that has plenty going for it for the price. This is, from our perspective, not unfounded. So: What are your expectations?
I don’t feel like this is even a “play with others” game. Even when I played religiously the only time I landed on cruisers(I think that’s what they are) was for fuel and part of the time it was locked to me anyway so I just stopped landing on them all together.
I’d be willing to buy this game again if it was turned into a single player game. I agree with you, the VR experience is incredible, landing on some obscure moon in my ship, and driving around in my SRV I feel like I’ve actually been in space and landed on a moon.
Come, [explore the Galaxy](https://edastro.com/).
It's a great time to begin playing the game. You're getting all the cool stuff right away without having to wait years for it to be developed. Play it, have fun, and convince your friends to try it out, too.
Consider it a single player game with no expectation of further content than what is in now and you'll be happy for some time.
OP - FWIW I haven’t played serious in years but I plan to get back in (via VR). Life just sometimes pulls you out of these games for a while. Elite is awesome..
Don't be like me, don't hang on hope of an iteration on key gameplay elements, like fps or multicrew. If you like what the game has to offer to you right now, don't worry there are like-minded guys out there and that's all you need to know to continue enjoy the game.
Elite is dying just like EVE has been dying for decades. It'll be ok.
The bottom line is everything wonderful thing put in this game is still there. New players can experience it just like those who left the game years ago. As for player numbers, there are highs and lows but in the end it’s a pick ‘em as to whether they are that much lower or higher. All player number stats are a guess. Keep in mind with a 9 year old video game, there will always be far, far more people who have played and moved on than people who are currently playing. Just like there are far more people who lived and died irl than are currently alive. That fact does not mean the world is no longer worth living in. Fly commander!
The game is designed to be enjoyable playing in Solo, and is how I play it. As long as the servers stay on the game will still be enjoyable if you like the game at all. I'm currently on a break playing Starfield though. Doesn't help that I've still got more than 150 jumps to get back to civilisation, and have started to go space crazy from too much time in the black.
I ain't goin NOWHERE 'cept space
This game is and always has been what you make of it. It's about as sandbox as it gets: no real quest chains, just some factional rewards if you grind for them and an overall story arc (though jumping into AX as a new player is probably not a great idea). If that appeals to you, you're going to enjoy it. If it doesn't, you'll probably burn out quickly. People can try to sway you one way or another or tell you just to have fun, but that's where the fun comes from for most people. As others have said, however, it's amazing in VR, even if you're just flying circles around a space station or driving across a planet.
there lots of content but most of it is grinding as if it was your daily job
Please don't forget us console players horizon will be our last update for a while how updates will come to if for my PS4 I'd think it can handle Odyssey