Elite on Kickstarter...

[Cloudane]

I came this close to plonking down an order for the Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog yesterday, but came to my senses at the last minute.
When the time does come to buy a joystick, I think that's the one I'll get, but seeing as how I'm not even in the beta, it would be a bit silly to buy one now.

You guys playing it, would pedals come in handy, or are they not really needed?
I know the Saitek sticks support twist rudder control, but the Warthog doesn't. Do you find yourselves using rudder-style controls a lot?

They're useful to have, but not to the extent that pedals are worth worrying about, IMO. As Misfit says it doesn't use yaw massively. (They're trying to keep controls like that fairly subtle so that there's more of a flight-sim-like skill involved). The cheapo Black Widow has a bit of a sideways analogue lever (with not a lot of range!) on the back of the throttle which is perfectly adequate, and I reckon you could get away with digital buttons for it if need be.

[Muttley]

Loving the new galactic map trade route overview stuff they've shown in the new newsletter

[Tanatoes]

Finally got my budget joystick (Thrustmaster T-Flight Hotas X) and spent some time flying around in Elite this afternoon. It is significantly easier to contol than mouse/keyboard and I'm having a wonderful time - but it hasn't made me magically any better in combat. I think I have to face the fact that when the full game comes out I'm going to be avoiding combat whenever possible. I'll get a nice fat trade ship, maybe do some mining, and pay somebody else to guard my back.

Does anybody know how quickly the real-time economic model changes the needs of various worlds? I've started a spreadsheet to tell myself what's in high demand and what's in high supply on each station I visit, but I don't know how quickly those values fluctuate.

Also: Twice now the game has crashed as I come out of Superdrive while approaching a station. It does the juddering thing while it loads the station, but never emerges from Superdrive no matter how long I wait. Hoping this is a know issue that will be fixed and not an issue with my machine.

[Darkflame]

Isn't the Beta supposed to be out nowish?

[Muttley]

Isn't the Beta supposed to be out nowish?

Today. Probably late this afternoon.

You can save your F5 keys, it's likely to be quite late in the day and we'll let you know once things start rolling.

Michael

[Governmentyard]

Is this a public beta?

I'm keen to know if it will run on my machine. If not, I might try to ebay my Saitek X45.

[Governmentyard]

FIFTY FUCKING POUNDS???????????????????????


/edit Right, my PC is a Core 2 Duo @ 3.16Ghz with 4gb ram and a Radeon HD4800 series card. Is it likely to run? £15 to test their beta is quite frankly offensive.

[Misfit]

Is this a public beta?

I'm keen to know if it will run on my machine. If not, I might try to ebay my Saitek X45.

Why would they have a public Beta? They already have over 25k users who've paid for the game.

[Muttley]

FIFTY FUCKING POUNDS???????????????????????

It's a pre-order of the game with beta access as a bonus.

I've got far more value for money from this game than most games I've bought over the last few years...

[Governmentyard]

FIFTY FUCKING POUNDS???????????????????????

It's a pre-order of the game with beta access as a bonus.

I've got far more value for money from this game than most games I've bought over the last few years...

The game is £35 so you are paying £15 to play a beta. Glad you are enjoying it.

[Governmentyard]

Is this a public beta?

I'm keen to know if it will run on my machine. If not, I might try to ebay my Saitek X45.

Why would they have a public Beta? They already have over 25k users who've paid for the game.

...because for just one example Microsoft/Bungie can have enormous closed betas and still the commercial release could have done with further testing, so it's equally likely that a smaller operation with a larger online problem to solve would benefit equally. They are playing with just under Eve Online's membership presently, and that's a much simpler, slower paced online world.

[Misfit]

...because for just one example Microsoft/Bungie can have enormous closed betas and still the commercial release could have done with further testing, so it's equally likely that a smaller operation with a larger online problem to solve would benefit equally. They are playing with just under Eve Online's membership presently, and that's a much simpler, slower paced online world.

It's a fair comment, however they've offered the various Alphas and Betas as a bonus to people who pledged to make the game exist at all, so it would be difficult to go to the public free with anything at the moment.

[Yak]

so are we going to have a llamasoftie "play with friends" flist for this going when the beta drops? It'd be quite nice for us n00bs to the MP universe to be able to occasionally see another player online without worrying that they are inevitably going to be out to kill you .

[defsdoor]

I'm up for that - when I get a joystick. I can run a murmur server up for voice chat also if anyone is interested.

[Muttley]

so are we going to have a llamasoftie "play with friends" flist for this going when the beta drops? It'd be quite nice for us n00bs to the MP universe to be able to occasionally see another player online without worrying that they are inevitably going to be out to kill you .

Definitely. Much as I hate the whole corporation/clan nonsense in some games, A Llamasoftie mutual respect and help group would be awesome.