Beta 2 first impressions

[Cmdr Kharma]

Have you updated your launcher ???

[Artie]

Try to logout in your launcher (click on the red e-mail > Log Out) and then log in again and run the game. It helped me to solve this problem. But it will be better to wait for 2.02 anyway...

[Silverwolf]

I managed to get to online play once but is crashed shortly after take off other than that it hangs.

Played some tutorials which did work.

I think I will leave off it until they make it work for me...

[Cmdr Kharma]

Well I'm just gonna try it in group and see what happens..........

[Cmdr Kharma]

Well could not connect............

Now I have an upgrade coming down the pipe............

2.02 is out..........

[christoff]

running 2.02 but still cant connect,still from what ive seen so far, the game is looking good!

[Turjan]

My first impressions are broken into 2 categories :-

1. I could only get into online mode for about 10 minutes so didn't see much and suffered multiple crashes to desktop along the way.

2. What I did manage to see was so disappointing and frustrating that I've spent the day fuming, posting at the FD forums, and am now about to head to bed feeling sad and let down

Some of the issues that made me disappointed will (probably) be patched over the next couple of days (things like the galaxy map and the constant crashing), but what saddens me is that the real game-breaking issues for me almost certainly will NOT be patched.

Mostly I'm talking about the new holodisplays. Not just the HUD - I mean all of them. Every single interaction with a display is accompanied by a bright and brutally flickering animation. For a migraine sufferer, that's the visual equivalent of the onboard computer's voice repeatedly intoning "WARNING...WARNING...WARNING..."

I know that if I use those displays for more than a few minutes, I'm risking triggering a migraine attack with blindness and vomiting that's likely to incapacitate me for an entire day.

The saddest part of that for me is that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the Beta 1.06 displays! I could (and in fact did) stare at them for hours without any trouble at all. The only flicker of note was on the Commodities screen, and because that consisted of little more than suggestions of prismatic lines, it was no threat to me.

And it seems I'm not the only one - I started a thread about the migrainous displays over at the FD forums, and it's ballooned into about 8 pages already. And it's not the only thread about the HUD, but just one of many. A lot of people are complaining of eyestrain and headaches, and one poor soul even confirmed from personal experience that it had indeed given him a migraine. Thankfully I haven't had an attack yet, largely thanks to avoiding looking at the displays because I know what they might do to me.

But what good will that do me if the displays aren't changed? If they remain as they are, basically it means that I simply will not be able to play Elite at all.

Hence the reason I'm heading to bed now, sad and with a very uncertain Elite future ahead of me

[Flip]

Sorry to read about your problems, Turjan!

I finally could have some time online with the 2.02 and even though I'm not subject to migraines and the HUD isn't going to make me sick, I have to say that I dislike that blue to orange flicker effect they added to it. However I'm not as pessimistic as you are, and I think that if many peoples react to it like you do, they're going to change that effect. After all, such a long beta phase with so many users is intended to test stuff and see what works and what doesn't.

That being said, I rather like the beta 2. The 2.02 doesn't crash on me and only hangs when I quit, so that's a minor annoyance. Also I don't have graphical issues and pretty much everything looks even better in beta 2 than in beta 1, so that's good.

There are still many things I haven't tested yet, though.

[Zarkon]

I sympathize with you as well, Turjan. I think FD has over-done the display color schemes on purpose, as well as some of the other in-game effect, so it will likely change soon. I've seen them do things like this before, when they're about to introduce a new look or style to the game. They make a change that most people don't like, so that when they introduce the actually effect they want to change, everyone is more accepting of it.

But overall, I think the changes to the menus and UI are great. The fonts are easier to read. More information seems to fit on each window better. I like the station service system a lot. I just don't like the current flicking and color values. They clash with everything else in the cockpit. I do like how vibrant the colors outside of the window are though. I really love how detailed the planets seem to be now, and that we can SC right up next to them for a good view.

The radar in SC is much cooler in this new build, showing planets and NPCs everywhere. The asteroid fields are amazing, but sadly I can't visit any of them because my graphics card bogs out every time, and my frame rate drops to unplayable levels. My computer barely runs ED, and that's only when I set it to very low rez and have all of the FXs turned down and/or off.

The other elements of gameplay, such as all the new ship info and equipment data, are a bit much for me to take in at the moment. Right now I'm just cruising around doing basic missions for the outposts. They don't pay as much as cargo missions, but that's fine until I get more comfortable with all the new changes. I've made 38,000 credits so far, just running short trips between Eranin, Dahan and I-Bootis.

I haven't even tried exploring yet, but I'm in no hurry. Even if every body else explores everything, I still get credit for visiting places I haven't been to yet, as long as I don't buy any of the cartography data in the station services. Hopefully FD will finish tuning and adjusting this latest build within the next few days. By then I should be ready to head out and start blazing my own path into the unknown.

btw: wasn't Smithy's Claim in Dahan a big ringed planet? I don't see any planetary rings around it now.
[edit] Yep, I just checked my screenshots and it did have rings before. Maybe FD got rid of them in the hope that Dahan Gateway would stop eating player ships.

[GlobusDiablo]

...The saddest part of that for me is that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the Beta 1.06 displays! I could (and in fact did) stare at them for hours without any trouble at all. The only flicker of note was on the Commodities screen, and because that consisted of little more than suggestions of prismatic lines, it was no threat to me.

And it seems I'm not the only one - I started a thread about the migrainous displays over at the FD forums, and it's ballooned into about 8 pages already. And it's not the only thread about the HUD, but just one of many. A lot of people are complaining of eyestrain and headaches, and one poor soul even confirmed from personal experience that it had indeed given him a migraine. Thankfully I haven't had an attack yet, largely thanks to avoiding looking at the displays because I know what they might do to me.

But what good will that do me if the displays aren't changed? If they remain as they are, basically it means that I simply will not be able to play Elite at all.

Hence the reason I'm heading to bed now, sad and with a very uncertain Elite future ahead of me

Damn Turjan. Sorry to hear that. If I were you, I'd start a poll "over there" . I've seen them tone down new effects, like the flare issue, so don't give up.

You've got my vote! (when I get access... )