Anbody alive here in this group?

[Peter T.]

Hey!

My first visit here was in '97 or '98 as I played Elite:Frontier at that
time and all that stuff. I know Usenet is nearly dead, but it could be
fun to see who is here anyway!

So raise your hands!

[Rhino]

Yep, still here, lurking away :)

Haven't had time to play Elite: Dangerous yet, despite owning it!
Not sure if I have the patience to learn it or if I should just fire up JJFFE again.

Post by Peter T.
Hey!
My first visit here was in '97 or '98 as I played Elite:Frontier at that
time and all that stuff. I know Usenet is nearly dead, but it could be
fun to see who is here anyway!
So raise your hands!
--
Peter T.
---
Denne e-mail blev kontrolleret for virusser af Avast antivirussoftware.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

[Andy H]

Still here sort of, but the discussions are active on frontier forums and the Elite Dangerous Community group on Facebook. All are welcome, if you're not they why not come along and say hello.

[Andy H]

Still here sort of, but the discussions are active on frontier forums and the Elite Dangerous Community group on Facebook. All are welcome, if you're not they why not come along and say hello.

[JazHaz]

Post by Rhino
Yep, still here, lurking away :)
Haven't had time to play Elite: Dangerous yet, despite owning it!
Not sure if I have the patience to learn it or if I should just fire up JJFFE again.

Yes Usenet is nearly dead, just full of spambots these days, but there are still a few human lurkers like myself, ready to reply to real people!

I'm in a similar situation to Rhino regarding ED. I was desperate to see Elite 4 that I promised £300 to the Kickstarter. That got me Alpha test access, the Design Decision Forum, and lifetime updates including Horizons etc.

However my computer at the time was a laptop with a poor GPU that could only do around 10 FPS in space and a lot less when docking. So I couldn;t really play it. When my son got a gaming PC last year and his first job I had a chance to play ED fairly regularly. Bought myself a Thrustmaster HOTAS stick for about £30, which transforms ED into something fun, recommended a lot over keyboard/mouse. ED really has kept the feel of the original game from 1984, which is a great achievement by Frontier in my opinion.

Unfortunately recently my son lost his job and with it my access to ED is also gone unless he goes away for a couple of days. So we are saving up for a decent computer for me to play ED again. We are saving enough to get a computer which hits the recommended specs for Horizons, which I have had a couple of goes on my son's computer the other day when he was out.

Horizons is great. I saw someone else in the thread putting down Frontier's pricing policy for Horizons. But when you do the maths, what they are asking for isn't so bad. It's less than the monthly subs for games like Eve Online or War of Warcraft. And the price for Horizons includes the whole of Season 2 including multicrewed ships, commander creation (which will tie in with first person walking around ships, stations, and planets in a future season), and ship-launched fighters. If I hadn't already got free updates from the Kickstarter, I'd still want to shell out for Season 2.

[Craig Coope]

Post by Peter T.
Hey!
My first visit here was in '97 or '98 as I played Elite:Frontier at that
time and all that stuff. I know Usenet is nearly dead, but it could be
fun to see who is here anyway!
So raise your hands!

Still here but won't play E:D because of their pricing policy. I ain't
paying £120 for atmospheric planetary landings!

[JazHaz]

Post by Craig Coope
Still here but won't play E:D because of their pricing policy. I ain't
paying Ł120 for atmospheric planetary landings!

Not sure where you are Craig, but its only 39.99 UK Pounds in the Frontier store, plus people already with ED Season 1 gets 10 UK Pounds discount (limited time offer), making it 29.99 UKP. Not sure what this symbol "Ł" means.

That's good value for a whole season of updates. Currently Horizons is limited to NON-atmospheric landings, but that is 80% of the billions upon billions of planets out there. Volcanic planets will be included soon, and atmospheric planets including Earth and Mars will come in a future Season (not in Season 2). Can't wait for the ability to land on Earth or hunt dinosaurs or whatever on another world.

[Andy H]

Yea, it's a fantastic game and only getting better. It's Elite through and through.

The new season is £40 for the base game and a full year of updates as mentioned above, it's great value. Cheaper if you're upgrading and you are not tied in to upgrading each season if you don't want to, you just don't get the big updates but you still get the free ones.

Elite played best with keys, frontier / first encounters with keys and mouse but definitely agree Elite Dangerous is most fun with a HOTAS and the Thrustmaster at around £30 is perfect.

There's loads of other things you can get to enhance the experience - EdTracker and Voice Attack for example. It's wonderful on the Oculus Dk2 too.

If you really liked the original Elite or the Frontier sequels you will love Elite Dangerous, even if you're not interested in the multiplayer and stick to solo.

[Craig Coope]

On Sun, 17 Jan 2016 03:13:24 -0800 (PST), JazHaz

Post by Craig Coope
Still here but won't play E:D because of their pricing policy. I ain't
paying ?120 for atmospheric planetary landings!

Not sure where you are Craig, but its only 39.99 UK Pounds in the Frontier store, plus people already with ED Season 1 gets 10 UK Pounds discount (limited time offer), making it 29.99 UKP. Not sure what this symbol "?" means.
That's good value for a whole season of updates. Currently Horizons is limited to NON-atmospheric landings, but that is 80% of the billions upon billions of planets out there. Volcanic planets will be included soon, and atmospheric planets including Earth and Mars will come in a future Season (not in Season 2). Can't wait for the ability to land on Earth or hunt dinosaurs or whatever on another world.

It was a £ (GBP) symbol. Unsure why it didn't post.

That's just it. I wanted atmospheric landings because the planets
would be more interesting. I didn't expect to have to fork out for all
of the seasons before it came out. I'm not paying 30 quid now and then
another 40 quid when it comes out.

If needed I'll wait until it's all done and then buy it from scratch
again. When they are finished they will have no choice to offer
everything for no more than 40 quid. They can't expect someone who has
never invested to pay more than that when they have done developing
it.

As it stands if I buy horizons it'll be me spending £70 on a game when
it is not even to the standard I want it at (and the reason I backed
it).

[Andy H]

It's possible Elite Dangerous isn't the game for you if that's the main reason you want to play it. There are a couple of other space games with the ability to land on atmospheric planets and more coming in the future so you're not stuck for choice. Of course you could always come back in a couple of years yo see where it is by then. In the mean time there's so much to do and see, all in the Elite mold, I'm enjoying the game just as much ad I did the previous versions.

[Ian McCall]

Post by Andy H
It's possible Elite Dangerous isn't the game for you if that's the main rea
son you want to play it. There are a couple of other space games with the a
bility to land on atmospheric planets and more coming in the future so you'
re not stuck for choice.

Does anyone else here remember the Elite 'rival' of its day, Mercenary?
Every time I read about Star Citizen, I think Mercenary rather than
Elite. Seems to be a different kind of game.


Cheers,
Ian

[JazHaz]

Post by Ian McCall
Does anyone else here remember the Elite 'rival' of its day, Mercenary?

Only vaguely.

[Rhino]

Post by Ian McCall
Does anyone else here remember the Elite 'rival' of its day, Mercenary?

Yes, very well Ian! I played a good deal of Mercenary on the Speccy. And then there was the sequel, Damocles, on the Atari ST / Amiga. Mercenary III, another great game, came after that - It had a 'Total Recall' style taxi right at the beginning, where the driver was a friendly-faced robot.

My three best-loved 3D games from the 8/16 bit era were Elite, Damocles and Midwinter. All utter classics. The Mercenary series was decades ahead in the 'open world' genre, in my eyes. There wasn't too much detail, but every single building you encountered, you could walk in a mooch around.

If anyone is interested in played Mercenary or its sequels, you can play them without emulation using MDDClone: (http://mercenarysite.free.fr/mercframes_graphic.htm)

David

[Andy H]

Loved Damocles, still got the box. Might have to fire it up later.

[JazHaz]

Post by Andy H
Loved Damocles, still got the box. Might have to fire it up later.

Just been watching this Youtube video recorded on the ST:

Set the video to bypass the cracked loader screens and to get to the title screen/loading screen of the game itself.

I remember playing this game but I think I got stuck in the puzzles quite early on. Very similar to Frontier Elite II it seems though.

I also watched a video of the Spectrum version of Mercenary but it didn't ring too many bells. Maybe I didn't have that game, I'm not sure.

[JazHaz]

Post by JazHaz

Post by Andy H
Loved Damocles, still got the box. Might have to fire it up later.

http://youtu.be/nrYekf4T7kE

Reading the comments on the video, someone has remade the whole Mercenary series for the PC, here's the website:

http://mercenarysite.free.fr/mddclone.htm#mddclone

[JazHaz]

Post by Craig Coope
On Sun, 17 Jan 2016 03:13:24 -0800 (PST), JazHaz

Not sure where you are Craig, but its only 39.99 UK Pounds in the Frontier store, plus people already with ED Season 1 gets 10 UK Pounds discount (limited time offer), making it 29.99 UKP. Not sure what this symbol "?" means.

That's just it. I wanted atmospheric landings because the planets
would be more interesting. I didn't expect to have to fork out for all
of the seasons before it came out. I'm not paying 30 quid now and then
another 40 quid when it comes out.

Again you are wrong. Horizons is out already. If you haven't got ED already then just pay £39.99 for Horizons. You will get ED Season 1 included, as you can't play Horizons without being able to fly to those planets.

I would expect that future Seasons will always include Season 1 as that ties everything together, but that you could pick and choose which Seasons to get, eg you could have Seasons 1 and 3 without Horizons seasons 2.

You can't expect Frontier to put in years of work on Season 1 and then Season 2 without helping them to pay their staff. One payment of £39.99 for a season is more than reasonable.

[Andy H]

You might be right, but it was my impression that when a new season comes out, say season 5, and you buy that season, you will get everything - season 1 to 5.

That seems a good deal right? What about those that play each season each year? Maybe they'll get bigger discounts, I don't know, but in the mean time they have been getting a year's worth of content out of the game and £30 per year keeps frontier in business and is not a lot of money for a pc hammer to spend...it's certainly cheaper than a subscription model of say £5 or £10 a month like many MMO's.

That's how I understood it was going to work however I could be wrong.

[Craig Coope]

On Mon, 18 Jan 2016 04:07:49 -0800 (PST), JazHaz

Post by JazHaz

Post by Craig Coope
On Sun, 17 Jan 2016 03:13:24 -0800 (PST), JazHaz

Not sure where you are Craig, but its only 39.99 UK Pounds in the Frontier store, plus people already with ED Season 1 gets 10 UK Pounds discount (limited time offer), making it 29.99 UKP. Not sure what this symbol "?" means.

That's just it. I wanted atmospheric landings because the planets
would be more interesting. I didn't expect to have to fork out for all
of the seasons before it came out. I'm not paying 30 quid now and then
another 40 quid when it comes out.

Again you are wrong. Horizons is out already. If you haven't got ED already then just pay £39.99 for Horizons. You will get ED Season 1 included, as you can't play Horizons without being able to fly to those planets.

I am not wrong. I know Horisons is already out. I backed ED on the
kickstarter at the £40 option. If I pay another 30 quid not that is 70
quid and I still don't have what I want out of the game.

Post by JazHaz
I would expect that future Seasons will always include Season 1 as that ties everything together, but that you could pick and choose which Seasons to get, eg you could have Seasons 1 and 3 without Horizons seasons 2.

I'm not sure that'd work out though...In the end you'd have too much
of a miss-mash of people with different versions...

Post by JazHaz
You can't expect Frontier to put in years of work on Season 1 and then Season 2 without helping them to pay their staff. One payment of £39.99 for a season is more than reasonable.

In your opinion.

You can't argue that the pricing on horizons is totally bull-sh*t
though can you? I mean the backers are being ripped off unless you
went for the season pass. If I paid 40 quid during backing I expect to
get horizons for no more than £10. If I knew this was going to happen
I would have not backed and just bought horizons now and saved 40
quid. Understand? You may have a difference of opinion but you cannot
argue that the situation I am in is not right.

[JazHaz]

Post by Craig Coope
On Mon, 18 Jan 2016 04:07:49 -0800 (PST), JazHaz
I am not wrong. I know Horisons is already out. I backed ED on the
kickstarter at the £40 option. If I pay another 30 quid not that is 70
quid and I still don't have what I want out of the game.

So you have had over a year's worth of ED Season 1 for your 40 quid on Kickstarter. Not to mention the bonuses of having a Cobra MkIII or an Imperial Eagle to start with instead of a Sidewinder, and the bonus of being able to add a name into the NPC naming database. And a digital copy of Michael Brookes' official sequel to The Dark Wheel. I have a paperback version with my boxed edition and have read it a couple of times, and although his writing is not quite to the standard of the late great Robert Holdstock, its still a read. Ref: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1461411552/elite-dangerous/description

Season 2 is another 29.99 including the discount. However its not compulsory. Why do you think it is? You are quite welcome not to pay it and still play the main game. You'll still get improvements and have done over the last year including major free updates like Wings, Community Goals, and Powerplay amongst others. One recent improvement that came with v1.5 the so-called Ships update, was the improved planetary textures. Although you won't be able to approach as close as the Horizons owners do, you'll still benefit by the improved planetary graphics. And you also will have the crafting system. No, you can't go and get the materials from the source ie planet surfaces, but you can still trade for them.

Although Frontier's main focus is Season 2 development, the main game ie Season 1 will still get improvements and free updates. Pretty good for a game that you paid for in December 2013. So its not 70 quid now. Either nothing to continue to play ED Season 1 or 29.99 for both Seasons 1 and 2.

Originally you said it was 120 quid. Sorry your guess was well out there.

Post by Craig Coope

Post by JazHaz
You can't expect Frontier to put in years of work on Season 1 and then Season 2 without helping them to pay their staff. One payment of £39.99 for a season is more than reasonable.

In your opinion.

Its completely free if you don't want to shell out for Horizons, and Frontier are still developing the main game. Even better value.

Post by Craig Coope
You can't argue that the pricing on horizons is totally bull-sh*t
though can you?

Yes I can. You have had over a whole year of work, updates and bug fixes in their hundreds for your 40 quid Kickstarter pledge.

And now Frontier are saying you can either pay 29.99 with a 10 pound discount for another whole year of work, updates etc. Or pay nothing and still receive support for the game you already own.

If you was playing Eve Online a 12 month plan (the rough equivalent to ED's Season 2) costs 89.99. More than double what Frontier is asking. Ref: https://support.eveonline.com/hc/en-us/articles/203599091-Subscription-Costs

Post by Craig Coope
I mean the backers are being ripped off unless you went for the season pass.

Which you don't have to buy. Not a rip-off.

Maybe you should have got it at the Kickstarter stage like me, I had the money in my savings account so it was a no-brainer for me. Maybe you are just pissed at yourself for not jumping on that offer at the time?

[JazHaz]

Post by JazHaz
Maybe you should have got it at the Kickstarter stage like me, I had the money in my savings account so it was a no-brainer for me. Maybe you are just pissed at yourself for not jumping on that offer at the time?

Or maybe paid 80 quid at the Kickstarter and got the lifetime pass. Then you could have had everything available now and in the future. Didn't have a credit card? Maybe you could have got a loan from a family member or friend? Whatever. You missed out and now you are pissed at yourself for that. No good whining about it now. All you can do is save up your money and hope that Frontier offers the lifetime pass again.

[Craig Coope]

On Mon, 18 Jan 2016 16:30:26 -0800 (PST), JazHaz

Post by JazHaz

Post by JazHaz
Maybe you should have got it at the Kickstarter stage like me, I had the money in my savings account so it was a no-brainer for me. Maybe you are just pissed at yourself for not jumping on that offer at the time?

Or maybe paid 80 quid at the Kickstarter and got the lifetime pass. Then you could have had everything available now and in the future. Didn't have a credit card? Maybe you could have got a loan from a family member or friend? Whatever. You missed out and now you are pissed at yourself for that. No good whining about it now. All you can do is save up your money and hope that Frontier offers the lifetime pass again.

Huh?...I have a decent job, a mortgage and a lot of savings. At the
time of the kickstarter my wife was pregnant with our first child so
we were saving as much as we could. I went for the £40 option as I
didn't want to take the piss when we were both saving. I am not pissed
at myself at all. I assumed the additonal content would be around the
15 quid mark. If Frontier had laid their cards on the table during the
kickstarter with their plans (even if they were not spot on) then I
would have been more informed about what I may have to fork out for in
the future.

[Craig Coope]

On Mon, 18 Jan 2016 16:02:49 -0800 (PST), JazHaz

Post by JazHaz

Post by Craig Coope
On Mon, 18 Jan 2016 04:07:49 -0800 (PST), JazHaz
I am not wrong. I know Horisons is already out. I backed ED on the
kickstarter at the £40 option. If I pay another 30 quid not that is 70
quid and I still don't have what I want out of the game.

So you have had over a year's worth of ED Season 1 for your 40 quid on Kickstarter. Not to mention the bonuses of having a Cobra MkIII or an Imperial Eagle to start with instead of a Sidewinder, and the bonus of being able to add a name into the NPC naming database. And a digital copy of Michael Brookes' official sequel to The Dark Wheel. I have a paperback version with my boxed edition and have read it a couple of times, and although his writing is not quite to the standard of the late great Robert Holdstock, its still a read. Ref: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1461411552/elite-dangerous/description

I know what I backed and I know what I got. Why are you telling me
this?

Post by JazHaz
Season 2 is another 29.99 including the discount. However its not compulsory. Why do you think it is? You are quite welcome not to pay it and still play the main game. You'll still get improvements and have done over the last year including major free updates like Wings, Community Goals, and Powerplay amongst others. One recent improvement that came with v1.5 the so-called Ships update, was the improved planetary textures. Although you won't be able to approach as close as the Horizons owners do, you'll still benefit by the improved planetary graphics. And you also will have the crafting system. No, you can't go and get the materials from the source ie planet surfaces, but you can still trade for them.

If I want to invest in atmospheric planetary landings when that comes
out then I can only assume I would need season 2 first. Unless they
budle it all together (whch is what I'm hoping for).

Post by JazHaz
Although Frontier's main focus is Season 2 development, the main game ie Season 1 will still get improvements and free updates. Pretty good for a game that you paid for in December 2013. So its not 70 quid now. Either nothing to continue to play ED Season 1 or 29.99 for both Seasons 1 and 2.
Originally you said it was 120 quid. Sorry your guess was well out there.

No I am not. It was £130 for the lifetime expansion pass. I want ED
for atmospheric planetary landings. Say that comes out in season 4 it
would be 40 + 30 +30 +30 or so...That's 130 quid.

Post by JazHaz

Post by Craig Coope

Post by JazHaz
You can't expect Frontier to put in years of work on Season 1 and then Season 2 without helping them to pay their staff. One payment of £39.99 for a season is more than reasonable.

In your opinion.

Its completely free if you don't want to shell out for Horizons, and Frontier are still developing the main game. Even better value.

Post by Craig Coope
You can't argue that the pricing on horizons is totally bull-sh*t
though can you?

Yes I can. You have had over a whole year of work, updates and bug fixes in their hundreds for your 40 quid Kickstarter pledge.

I stopped playig ED at the very start as I didn't want to get bored or
burn the game out before I got to do what I really wanted to do with
it....I'm still waiting.

Anyway. You can argue all you like on usenet. I'm never going to agree
with you. I've stated my point, as have you. That's it as far as I'm
concerned. Now I'm going to go back to playing Elite II for the time
being!

[JazHaz]

I want ED for atmospheric planetary landings. Say that comes out in season
4 it would be 40 + 30 +30 +30 or so...That's 130 quid.

But, as I have said time and again, and you are ignoring, YOU DON'T HAVE TO PAY FOR EVERY SEASON.

Just pay for the season that contains atmospheric landings and then you will be all set with the game you want.

[Impy]

Post by Peter T.
Hey!
My first visit here was in '97 or '98 as I played Elite:Frontier at that
time and all that stuff. I know Usenet is nearly dead, but it could be
fun to see who is here anyway!
So raise your hands!
--
Peter T.
---
Denne e-mail blev kontrolleret for virusser af Avast antivirussoftware.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

AFE moved to irc mostly some time ago.
With mirc or whatever client connect to irc.synirc.net and join channel #alt.fan.elite

[Impy]

To be honest we did steal the usenet channel from that model agency and we should give it back ;)
Alt.fan.elite Home of the stars hehe

[Oregonian Haruspex]

Post by Peter T.
Usenet is nearly dead

It's still operational and as they censor other social media it will
regain popularity.