I think I was really just a bit surprised that they were talking about a "throttle-and-stick" setup a lot - I guess I somehow expected it to use a gamepad of some kind still... Nice to know that Captain Cackhands might still have a fighting chance... Just to give some perspective, I loved X-Wing but beyond a certain point it was just too difficult for me. I guess I'm really an "Ace Combat" loop-into-the-middle-of-the-dogfight-and-fire-all-the-missiles kind of guy...
Muttley wrote:You can also tweak your system power settings and divert energy to recharge weapons or shields quicker, or you can just leave them alone and have it balanced at the default settings.
This was one of the things I loved most about X-Wing - the ability to tune the ship on-demand for fight or flight. TIE-protected corvette convoy? Shields, double-front for the first pass, balanced as we burn through the pack, double-rear on exit and then full power to engines for a long sweep around before the next run in.
Pretty sure that despite the passing of years that I would move shields and charge around with my old flightstick pro without really even thinking about it.
F-ZeroOne wrote:I think I was really just a bit surprised that they were talking about a "throttle-and-stick" setup a lot - I guess I somehow expected it to use a gamepad of some kind still... Nice to know that Captain Cackhands might still have a fighting chance...
You'll be pleased to learn that it's perfectly playable on an Xbox 360 pad (and keyboard/mouse for that matter). There's a variety of different control presets for different devices built-in, but the controls are totally configurable.
Not to mention it has support for 3 different forms of 3D display (Oculus Rift, Side-by-Side for 3D TVs/Monitors and even Anaglyph), plus support for TrackIR.
I've seen some videos of a guy using VoiceAttack to bind voice commands to keyboard shortcuts as well: http://www.voiceattack.com/
Okay, thanks for addressing my concerns everyone! I'm not sure I articulated myself very well, I think overall I was just surprised at the sheer level of detail they were aiming for...!
This Elite: Dangerous alpha is fucking superb. I literally pulled off this manoeuvre (5:25 in the video below) saving a fellow human pilot from the AI in one of the multiplayer scenarios just now:
[youtube]6v5VahaEL7s#t=325[/youtube]
It was an awesome feeling blasting through the explosion with enemy craft fragments bouncing off me.
I hope they increase the texture quality on the outside of the station. What I saw looked a little low-res for 2014. The docking guides were good though, nice level of immersion there.
Edit: May partly be the youtube compression making things look pixelated too though.
Was I the only one watching that and thinking of how wrong the physics is? I mean if you get yourself lined up and rotating to enter the station. fine. But you can only rotate and line up with the station if you're lined up with it. Try rotating at any other point it won't work. Off-axis and you're stuffed. This would still apply inside so as soon as you moved away from the axis you'd be moving towards a rapidly rotating outer surface. There's no way you could land safely on it as shown.
How would you do it really? Probably something like the spaceship in 2001 A Space Odyssey, which had a rotating bit and a non-rotating bit. The rotating bit for human habitation. The non-rotating bit for engines, solar panels, antennae and docks. Especially the docks as it makes it so much easier and cheaper (fuel-wise), reduces wear and tear and minimises risks. Also space-going vehicles that aren't meant for atmospheric entry probably won't have landing gear.
If the whole thing is rotating ships can't go off axis under their own power. Either they all dock along the axis, which limits space, or there's some automated system which clamps them then moves them to a bay, like some high tech carparks today.
Yes, it's only a game, but the docking is meant to work that way, i.e. be that hard, as it's a simulation. Breaks down badly for me though. It was like watching Gravity again.
Nice to know that Captain Cackhands might still have a fighting chance... 
