SYN_Bandy wrote:A couple outsider questions for the experts:
With all the mention of 'nerfing' this or that, was there reason to do so, such as tweaking the combat balancing and thus changing the rate of progression? Or was it pretty good before? Don't need to say that anything will get boring if too easy...
How does Elite handle the death or your character?
Are they going to wipe your progression, or is this a complete release?
Screenshot of your clipper Blackie! Are you fellows naming your ships???

Yes, balancing and in most cases it was needed, we had cheap Vipers (cutter size) taking out the largest ship known in 2 minutes, also PvP was affected, also they want to introduce heat management so you cannot just keep firing energy weapons without heat build up. Some NPC stuff was too easy for sure.
There is no death, you are re-lifed back at the last station you docked at,
BUT, you have lost your ship and cargo plus any bounties you collected, along with failing any missions outstanding which has implications on your standing with faction for whom you are running missions.
HOWEVER,

, the pilots federation insures your ship for you which is included in the purchase price but currently not your cargo,
BUT,

there is an excess on the insurance to pay of 5% (value of ship and all fittings) for standard owners (slightly less for Kickstarters and beta backers) so you need to have the credits available to pay this excess, there is a loan facility but only a max of 200k credits. you can tweak the excess by not buying back all your fitting to keep the cost down, but generally your fittings are what pushes the price up anyway.
So many tales of woe on the forums about people blowing up and losing millions because they got greedy and didn't hold back enough credits for the Excess, the amount of which, is clearly shown on one of your displays.
The game was released on 16th Dec last year so no more wipes, the beta was just for the 1.1 release. Loving the complications and calculating needed to progress to either a better ship, or fittings or even to rank up through factions, gameplay I hope will start picking up soon, I haven't even thought about open play, too many tales of griefing and hacking to entice me there just yet, although where I am I doubt I would see anyone.
Would love to give a screenie, but there is no 3rd person view in the game, you are stuck in the cockpit, so the only way is to get someone else to fly with you, no naming, its just a work horse, although it is very sweet to fly definitely the first ship I have enjoyed flying.
"They say that just before you die, your whole life flashes in front of you. Make sure it is worth watching."