Thoughts on Carriers and Legs: Stepping Out of Character
09 Jun 2020Scubadog
I normally do NOT like to break the RP aspect, but...I just wanted to share my thoughts on Fleet Carriers and Odyssey. Rather than make you wait through a lot of content, here's the short of it: I won't be partaking in either.
There, I said it. I became a commander a bit over four years ago because I LOVED being able to get back INTO a cockpit, after YEARS of missing Wing Commander, Privateer and Freespace. What did I occupy my time with after those games? FPS games. Halo, Call of Duty, Counterstrike, Titanfall. And they're fine. But my first love has always been piloting a ship. When I finally got a hold of Elite Dangerous I felt like I was home again. It reminded me most of Privateer, which was a spinoff from Wing Commander. But MUCH bigger. There really hasn't been much about ED that I've not liked.
Until now. So, Fleet Carriers are releasing on the 9th and I don't care. I followed the exploits of my fellow Silverbacks and others who participated in the beta. You can say what you want, but the fact is that they are little more than smaller versions of Jaques Station. And just as much a pain in the butt to own. They're too big, too complicated, too expensive and just generally useless for most players. At best they can't hold a candle to an actual station. I absolutely refuse to be a slave to a mobile station---which is precisely what you and your friends will have to submit to being if you're going to have one of these things. Already, one of our squadron is asking for us to mine, etc., to support his carrier. I simply am not interested. It's a never-ending sinkhole with no actual value to my game play. None whatsoever.
I'm primarily an explorer, but I augment my bank account by doing mining (which has been severely negatively impacted with the previous update). I read all the ridiculous "reasons" why a carrier would be helpful to explorers. Bullshit. I have worked to configure my Anaconda to be 100% self-sufficient for ANY length of time in the black. I plan for the worst possible case, stock my ship appropriately, and I head out. I've never found myself out in the deepest black and wished I had a station nearby. Never. And I would be full-on ashamed of myself as a commander and as an explorer if I did. So, I'm not about to bust my ass to try to earn the insane amount of credits necessary to purchase and even partially outfit a Fleet Carrier. And I see no reason to visit one. I can wait until I get to a REAL station.
As for Odyssey. The very first part of it that pisses me off entirely is space legs. It's a stupid thing to add to a game that is for pilots. One of the things I hated about Titanfall was the PILOT. I wanted to run a MECH, not bounce around as a pilot. Needless to say, I didn't stick with that game long, and TF 2 was even WORSE. The un-meched pilot was a huge downside.
I have zero desire to go walking around my ships. What is the actual POINT of that? I'm a flipping SHIP COMMANDER, damnit! If I'm in my ship, I AM FLYING. And I most CERTAINLY don't want to walk around some stupid station for no reason. And you can't concoct an acceptable reason for me to NEED to walk around, either. All that would be is a contrivance. I can do all the interaction with a station I need to from the comfort of my command seat. And I can't fly my ship from the ship's galley or stateroom or whatever. This is stupid.
Then there's the whole walking around on the planets, getting into mano-a-mano pew-pew. Guess what, folks, that's not what I became a commander to do. If I wanted an FPS I'd go back to play Call of Duty. So, that's a big "NO" to space legs. It's a stupid addition to an otherwise great game.
To add insult to injury, Odyssey does not support VR. When I started ED I had a single monitor and a Logitech joystick. I don't know how any flies without a joystick, and I'll never do it. I graduated to a HOTAS and, while I will never, ever use keyboard/mouse or a <ugh> gaming controller, I could go back to a joystick if I had to as a backup. But when I got VR, it so radically transformed the experience for me that I'll never go back to "pancake mode" again. I simply won't. When my first VR rig broke I completely stopped playing until I was able to get it replaced. There is nothing that Odyssey is bring to the game that being without VR is worth. Nothing. Some have mentioned switching to such things as head tracking, etc. Nope. Nopity Nopesville Nope. VR or nothing, period.
My hope is that some of the impressive visuals that Odyssey is alleged to be bringing will also be part of updating the Horizons game, but I'm not really expecting that, and the lack of it won't change my mind about not going with Odyssey. The idea of space legs and no VR are just THAT repugnant to me.
So, I'm sure most of you can take VR or leave it, and many of you are so inexplicably excited about the stupidity of space legs that you pee yourselves. More power to you.
I suppose the only regret I have about insisting in NOT getting Odyssey is that I won't have the chance to go looking for anyone walking around and just mowing you down with my ship...watching your bloody ragdoll images go flying across the landscape would be sweet.