2017 Battle of Space Games: Star Citizen and Elite Dangerous

Started by Legend, Feb 17, 2017, 09:43 PM

previous topic - next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Legend

Exactly one year ago I made 2016 Battle of Space Games: No Man's Sky, Star Citizen, and Elite Dangerous. NMS is more or less finished with development so now we're just down to these two.


Elite Dangerous has traditionally been a very cold and lonely game. This feels great with the vast emptiness of space but not so fun elsewhere. Interaction with NPCs was basically just editing excel spreadsheets. There was no life.

Update 2.2 started changing this. It added new station interiors, personalized comms chatter, and portraits of every NPC you talked to.

Quote
But as you can see from that screenshot, it's still not that lively.

2.3 is taking this to the next level by adding a character creator! Instead of being a cookie cutter pilot behind a mask, you are now you.

Your face is plastered around the galaxy and it's now used as your avatar.

2.3 also adds multicrew.


You're not playing the game as a ship anymore; you're playing as a person on the ship. That's a huge step towards making Elite feel like a non empty world.


2.3 also adds some 3rd person camera gameplay.
Spoiler for Large GIF:
<img src="https://giant.gfycat.com/LividElementaryIbadanmalimbe.gif" alt="" class="bbc_img">
Spoiler for Large GIF:
<img src="https://giant.gfycat.com/AlarmedExcitableGlassfrog.gif" alt="" class="bbc_img">

It allows you to see your full ship for the first time and appreciate all its details. Usually the players forget just how large their ships are. When you only see the cockpit, it feels like you're just a cockpit.



Update 2.3 in general seems to be Elite Dangerous catching up to what Star Citizen has had since the first PU release: a feeling of being alive.





Meanwhile Star Citizen's upcoming patches are:
Quote
3.0 Update Overview3.1 Update Overview3.2 Update Overview3.3 Update Overview4.0 Update Overview
The current PU is really fun to be in, but it's missing game elements. The coming patches will mostly focus on making it into a game instead of just a sandbox. In this regard, it's catching up to what Elite had since day 1.


So which game am I more excited for?
With the last thread, it was pretty much a tie between the two games. I had just purchased both Star Citizen and Elite's Horizon expansion. However, Horizon's love was short lived. I had only played it for ~10 hours yet already was getting uninterested. Star Citizen I played even less, but I had a grin on my face the entire time. Plus it had so many cool features coming.

So back then, Star Citizen had the lead by a bit. As the months went on, that lead grew. Elite disappointed two expansions in a row, and each expansion took twice the expected time to release. Meanwhile Star Citizen had an incredible Gamescom and Citizencon. It was my most hyped game at the time.

But then Star Citizen just kept delaying content over and over. The reason I wrote about it so little in this post is because not much has changed since the other thread. The basic info of all their planned patches has been known for a long time yet the playable game has mostly only received small improvements and a separate FPS module. 3.0 could realistically not be out till 2018 with the way some things are sounding.

Meanwhile Elite Dangerous in only the past few days has reignited my hype. 2.3 reminds me that those devs are serious about making Elite just as good as Star Citizen's long term plans. The "lack of life" was the big thing that personally made the two games feel different and Elite is fixing that.


So right now Elite is the better game to play, but I'm also more hopeful for its state at the end of 2017. Even if SC 3.0, 3.1, and 3.2 all release before the end of the year, it'll still be missing the large game loops that make it more than a sandbox. Update 4.0 is the planned update to bring multiple star systems and that's still far away.

We know much less about the roadmap for Elite, but there are some good things that will probably hit this year. 2.3 enters public beta at the end of the month. It adds character creation, multi crew, a new 3rd person camera, and megaships.



Not much has been revealed about megaships but realistically there will only be 1 in this update, and they'll function exactly like space stations. There's also a secret element of the update that is being hyped as the best thing about 2.3 but I have no idea what that is. Elite update 2.4 will release this summer alongside the PS4 release. It's been teased as a big secret for the past year so we have no idea what it'll add. Probably aliens.

Post 2.4, Elite has no announced updates. However it's all but confirmed there will be some big expansion before the end of the year. Most likely it'll either add landing on atmospheric planets or the ability to walk around ships and EVA. Both have been in development for a long time and both have been teased as of late.



Here are my predictions for the state of each game at the end of 2017.

Star Citizen: 3.0 has released. The planet surfaces look great but there's not much to do on them. The submission system and all that NPC related stuff are not at the state they were planned to be. 3.1 has just released near the end of the year. Squadron 42 still has no release date.

Elite Dangerous: 2.3 released end of March. 2.4 releases in July to coincide with the PS4 release. It adds thargoid homeworlds and thargoid combat. Season 3 is space legs and 3.0 Releases in October. It has walking around your ship, EVA, and walking around on planets.


Looking beyond 2017, Star Citizen has a chance to catch up but unlike before I'm not sure it'll ever pass Elite. Both games have incredibly ambitious development plans yet the Elite devs are just much better at making progress. This roadmap was released for Elite back on Feb 20th, 2016.
Quote
Things have most definitely been delayed but 2.4 is only about half a year behind schedule. Star Citizen's content is great when it releases but the roadmaps feel made up.




So what are your thoughts on 2017 and these two games?

Legend

New interview that includes talk about Star Citizen's update plans for the year.

"we're looking at putting out perhaps 2 or 3 big releases this year which significantly push the amount of locations, gameplay mechanics and content that the players will be able to experience and give feedback on." source

That seems to confirm 3.0, 3.1, and hopefully 3.2 are scheduled for 2017.



Also Elite Dangerous's support team mentioned atmospheric planets. "you'll be happy to know that the atmospheric planets are much more likely to have very dramatic landscapes even as we try to stick within our boundaries of the scientifically accurate." Similarly caves are all but confirmed for 2.3 or 2.4. Overhang geometry is necessary for realistic words so maybe atmospheric planets might be coming towards the end of the year instead of space legs. source

Legend

@Raven

Since you're more on the Star Citizen side of things, what are your thoughts on this?

Raven

@Raven

Since you're more on the Star Citizen side of things, what are your thoughts on this?
I honestly can't say anything because I really don't know much about Elite. Wouldn't feel right comparing them.

Legend

I honestly can't say anything because I really don't know much about Elite. Wouldn't feel right comparing them.
Well then just Star Citizen.

What state do you expect the public version to be in at the end of the year?



And imo you should look into Elite. Either you'll like what it's doing and find a new game you're interested in, or you'll find newfound appreciation for what Star Citizen does different.

Legend

Since 2017 is almost over, it's time for the annual update!!!

I'll start with the current state of each game. Star Citizen has not received a patch since making this thread.

Elite has had both 2.3 and 2.4 updates released. Both are pretty much what I expected. One unique thing about 2.4 though is that they're following a narrative and not unlocking everything from the start. So far, it's mostly just added Thargoid combat.

The mega ships in Elite are actually pretty cool. I've been riding around on one as it jumps from system to system in search of Thargoid stuff. Would be cool if you could actually see them move.


What's been partially disappointing with Elite Dangerous is their roadmap. 3.0 did not release like I expected and in reality it's still at least 1 year out. Instead they are doing 4 more updates that are free for Horizon owners. These expand and improve existing things in the game but aren't adding new big features. I like a lot of the stuff they've talked about at least, such as adding a voice to galnet articles.

Star Citizen has thrown their roadmap out the window. The scope of update 3.0 has changed drastically and it's taking far longer than expected to release. We'll get it hopefully before the end of the year; February more likely. Post 3.0 they are switching to quarterly patches regardless of what content is ready. It feels like it'll be going back to the 2.0 days where patches are way less significant. Cool stuff has been shown off for 3.0 and the future but it feels like it'll be years before Star Citizen is more than a proof of concept demo.