Is this really a worthy successor to Escape Velocity?

[Everything Bagel]

I ask this as someone who has played literally hundreds of hours of the original, Override and of course Nova. The thing is, I feel no need to play a game that is only *slightly* better than the original series. From what I've seen of ES, it looks marginally better at best, and seeing how its been an absurdly long time since the last EV game, marginal just doesn't seem worth it when I've already experienced many playthroughs of the 'parent' games. For instance, even though nobody plays these games for the graphics, I find the fact that Nova still looks better than ES by a long shot to be mildly disconcerting.

How strong is the modding scene? Are the markets flexible now to put an end to finding those few 'golden' trade runs (by far the biggest flaw of the EV series)? Is this really any more fleshed out than the previous two EV games?

Please only respond if you've played the EV series. Thank you.

[hntr]

Originally posted by Chocolate Putin:

Please only respond if you've played the EV series.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41uELsMnAML.jpg

[hntr]

"Golden Routes" eventually wear down.

[Everything Bagel]

Originally posted by "That Guy":

Originally posted by Chocolate Putin:

Please only respond if you've played the EV series.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41uELsMnAML.jpg

(:

[Everything Bagel]

Originally posted by "That Guy":

"Golden Routes" eventually wear down.

Well that certainly is interesting. Is the exploration/risk/reward system more finely tuned this time around? I think that EV definitely needed more incentive to trade Atom Bombs, for example; it was always more fun doing 'illegal' or just risky runs but the rewards never payed for the risk.

Not to mention that there were plenty of routes where the risk of pirates was effectively zip.

[Hondolor]

Well keep in mind that this is still in early release. Modding scene is big, and there are tons of features on the way.

[local god]

Originally posted by Chocolate Putin:

I ask this as someone who has played literally hundreds of hours of the original, Override and of course Nova. The thing is, I feel no need to play a game that is only *slightly* better than the original series. From what I've seen of ES, it looks marginally better at best, and seeing how its been an absurdly long time since the last EV game, marginal just doesn't seem worth it when I've already experienced many playthroughs of the 'parent' games. For instance, even though nobody plays these games for the graphics, I find the fact that Nova still looks better than ES by a long shot to be mildly disconcerting.

How strong is the modding scene? Are the markets flexible now to put an end to finding those few 'golden' trade runs (by far the biggest flaw of the EV series)? Is this really any more fleshed out than the previous two EV games?

Please only respond if you've played the EV series. Thank you.

i don't think anyone is going to tell you that this pre-release, free, creative commons beta lives up to any of the EV series - mostly because the story content is very obviously incomplete.

that said, this engine is already significantly cleaner, and more feature rich than i remember EV being.

being open source, it's evolving fairly quickly, and there is already a thriving modding community (see the Mods sub-forum) less than a year into beta-release.

of course, if you find a feature to be unbalanced, M.Z. (author) is always working to make the game better and more balanced.

[Amazinite]

I don't actually think we have many people here who have played EV to tell you that. But as Mdsmestad said, this is still being developed and updated often.

The modding community is pretty strong, but also pretty young. There's only a few "complete" mods, so to say, but there is a lot of promise.

[Mythic]

Originally posted by local god:

i don't think anyone is going to tell you that this pre-release, free, creative commons beta lives up to any of the EV series - mostly because the story content is very obviously incomplete.

Truth ^ the only thing holding this game back is it's lack of story. Seeing this game is free and open source, it well most likely get much bigger the E.V, E.V.O and E.V.N.

Originally posted by Derpy Horse:

I don't actually think we have many people here who have played EV to tell you that.

Not true ^ local god, was a player, Michael Zahniser the open source maker of Endless Sky was clearly a player, and I had all 3 on my old computer up until it died last year... :( so sad and i was still playing out different story lines and just having fun with them to..

[Amazinite]

Originally posted by Mythic:

Originally posted by Derpy Horse:

I don't actually think we have many people here who have played EV to tell you that.

Not true ^ local god, was a player, Michael Zahniser the open source maker of Endless Sky was clearly a player, and I had all 3 on my old computer up until it died last year... :( so sad and i was still playing out different story lines and just having fun with them to..

Key word many.

[local god]

Originally posted by Mythic:

Originally posted by Derpy Horse:

I don't actually think we have many people here who have played EV to tell you that.

Not true ^ local god...

please check your quotes

[Jammen]

i Stil play EVN have it sitting on my desktop as week speak, been monkying around with this game for several days and I can honestly say if things stay the course of what I have seen even in the .9 beta update this game will surpase the EV series (Long time EV series Fan)

[Everything Bagel]

Thanks for your responses, I was convinced to pick it up and the graphics are the only thing I think EV outright did better. Even though that's too bad, it certainly won't stop me from messing around with it.

It's incredibly similar with a few key changes that make a big difference, and I've found Endless Sky to be much, much more difficult than EV when it comes to combat. I have yet to find a sweetspot between an area where there are a hundred ships that instantly destroy pirates as soon as they enter, and an area where there are constant hordes of pirates that hunt me down relentlessly. My only qualm is that the speed at which ships enter and leave feels like it's sped up to 100; it's certainly more believable than EV, but it's made me give up on independent bounty hunting as it always becomes 'endless' and I usualy die. Compare that to the grey areas I'd find in EV where there'd generally be only a couple pirates and reinforcements were forgiving.

Anyways, thanks for letting me know to keep an eye on this gem. Lord knows EV was years ahead of its time and we should take all the successors we can get.

[jmalino2]

Personally, I would like to see ambrosia shareware release a 3-D escape velocity title where you could actually get out of the ship to walk around or engage in first person combat. So I've always played EV from a perpective which said "Man, this would look amazing in 3-D". As for endless sky, I actually find it more realistic, at least as far as these sorts of games can be realistic, than EV in that you must worry about paying crew and/or repaying a loan. I am diappointed by the fact that it is less "political" than EV though and less story driven. A good game overall and I will spend many more hours on it, but the comparision to the escape velocity series will only take one so far, in my opinion.

[jafdy]

1. Necro
2. It can be story driven but there arn't enough people writing said storys.