I’ve been playing Elite: Dangerous lately. It’s a cool, albeit very unfinished game, which at times is notable for how dry and lifeless it is. At other times, though, it might be the most beautiful video game I’ve ever played.
Everything to do with human contact in this game bums me out. There’s just no character to it, no variety, no sense that this is a universe populated by human beings. But once you fire up the thrusters and leave the space stations behind, well.
You’re left with nothing but space. Deep, daunting, endless space, and Elite captures it as beautifully as any deep space telescope has ever managed. Maybe better, since you can’t fly a space telescope all the way around a fiery alien sun then dart through an asteroid field in the same afternoon.
If you don’t believe me, take a look at these screenshots, snapped by the fans at this Flickr group.
I know that this game is about trading, and mining, and shooting, but so far I’ve just been spending hours flying around and…soaking it all up.
Comments
12 responses to “The Art Of Elite: Dangerous’ Space Photographers”
…and this is why I’m doing so much exploring. 🙂
Harmless, Peddler, Scout.
Same here 🙂 I’m currently on a trip that’s gone to the North America/Pelican Nebula, Sadr Region across the gap between the spiral arms to the Lagoon Nebula (which I just left last night) then over to Omega Nebula then Eagle Nebula and then, ship integrity permitting, following the arm all the way in to the centre of the galaxy somewhere visiting nebulas.
I reckon I’ve done about 6000ly already, got another 30,000 or so to go before turning back 😛
Mostly Harmless, Dealer, Trailblazer
Mmmmm nebulae.
I’m heading out to the Horsehead next trip. Galactic south tonight, back into Lambda Andromedae to cash in and contribute, then the Horsehead. And then maybe beyond. 🙂
I hope in a future update there are alien civilisations and/or lost colonies. Be awesome to go several thousand light years and find a base, or a planet to land on once that’s working. 🙂
I’ve had to work my way to getting a decent configuration on my ASP Explorer. It’s been a long haul, but now I can go OUT THERE! Rather than head “Coreward”, like most people seem to be doing, I decided to head in a completely different direction: Galactic North (or simply “UP”). You need to go at least 1000ly before you get near the upper edge of the galaxy and that’s well beyond human civilisation. There’s plenty of space to explore.
“Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.”
Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Competent, Merchant, Scout.
I want an Asp, but my Cobra is doing the job nicely. One more 800LY trip out (heading South myself), and back into civilisation, and then my Grand Tour begins.
I wouldn’t mind an Asp but I’d really like an Anaconda 😛
Like @trikeabout I’m doing fine in my Cobra, I get about 18.5ly maximum jump range which is pretty sweet. The thing that’s helped my exploration the most though has been the 1000ly route planner, I just set down a route in any direction and explore until I reach the end and then set down another route. Up, down, coreward, away from the core, I’ve just sort of wandered fairly aimlessly.
@trikeabout I agree re finding more interesting stuff, I found my first earth-like world last night and in the description it says it has indigenous life, you can also see city lights on the dark side thanks to the 1.1 update but it’s really unfortunate that beyond doing a fly-by you can’t interact with them.
FYI: Away from core = Spinward. So you have Coreward and Spinward, then Galactic North, South East and West. There are no old Traveller players here? I guess we’re a dying breed.
Turnwise, Widdershins.
Cool. Feel free to add me – same name as here. BIG galaxy…
This really makes me want this game. I’m pretty sure that if I could play it all I’d do is explore forever.
I really need to get out of the tutorial of this game. It looks amazing.
Some find it boring and dull as there is limited things to do. But really that’s no different from what EVE was like when it was released. If you want to lose yourself in exploring and charting the vastness of space (and don’t find that boring), it’s GREAT.