Just came here to say that I absolutely love this game. I've had no issues, and I realize that others have. I'm not going to try and take away from their problems. In my case, though, I'm having a lot of fun.

I remember the original Elite. It was released sometime around '86 or '87, I think. That game was a game changer for me. You started out with a starship. A barebones one, at that. You had 100 credits, one pulse laser, and four missiles. You started in a space station where you could buy goods and armaments for your ship. You kept the same ship throughout the game, but you could upgrade it.

The object of the game was whatever you wanted it to be. You could be a trader, a pirate, a bounty hunter, galactic explorer, etc. The graphics were vector-line. The planets were like giant round circles in space. There was no terrain features, no different colored stars, etc. All black and white lines. Your interface/HUD was minimal. It was a very, very minimalist game, graphic-wise.

And, yet, people played the heck out of it. They would open up the star chart and see the thousands of procedurely generated planets and plot their routes. They'd see what type of civilization was there, whether tech, agricultural, business, etc. They'd buy goods at one station and then warp to the other planet and sell those goods for a higher price. You could even by illegal goods and sell them. A smuggler! Just watch out for the police in their Vipers!

Along the way, you, the pilot, could be pulled out of warp by Thargoids, an alien race that was hell-bent on killing all humans. These guys meant business.

This game sounds pretty exciting, right? Even though you couldn't craft, the graphics were vector-line bitmaps, you couldn't land on planets, there were only two types of space stations to dock with, there was no story, no quests, no missions, people still loved the game. Why? Because they had no problems using their imagination.

Fast foward to today. Here we have a game that delivers everything that the original Elite delivered, and more! So many planets, that it's almost infinite! You can never explore them all! And, they're in full color, with varied life forms and plants! You can interact with aliens. You can trade, craft, explore, decode alien languages, follow the overarching story to reach the galaxy's center, fight pirates, be a pirate, destroy the Sentinel guardians, whatever you want to do!

I posted this on Steam recently. It is an example of the many things I enjoy about the game: Sitting in my ship on a toxic planet, waiting on a storm to pass...
The storm is dropping toxic rain all over. I'm sitting here in the cockpit watching it hit the ground and green, gaseous vapor rising from where it hits. To my left is a crystal blue lake with an abandoned building right there under the water. I had swam out in the water earlier to investigate the building, but it was so toxic it was draining my hazard protection quite rapidly. I could've made it to the building, but then I got the warning about the storm. So, I swam back to shore, jetted up to my ship that was waiting on a cliff and jumped into the cockpit.

So, I'm sitting here now listening to the rain plink on the ship. It's kind of relaxing. Overhead, there are about three 3.6 meter "sky eels" flitting about, seemingly enjoying the poisonous rainfall. All around my ship are metallic-looking plants, shimmering slightly and vibrating in the wind. There some rock formations that look like stacks of rings, or some land-based coral belchers. Even though this planet can kill me from exposure, I still kinda like it. I figured while the toxic storm was raging, I'd post this on the forums and share this semi-peaceful moment.



See? You can make this game as awesome as you want simply by using your imagination. Stop rushing from point A to point B and start stopping and smelling the roses. Look closely at things. Look at those animals, those planets! An algorithm made them! A series of numbers, 1's and 0's generated these awesome looking creatures, plants, planets, galaxies!

If you don't want to buy it now, at least buy it later when a lot of the bugs that people are experiencing are fixed. If this type of game seems interesting to you, you will enjoy it. If you want to be led around by the nose, though, with quest markers, quest givers, a story that you play no part in, then avoid this game. It's not for you. No reflection on you at all, it's just not going to be your cup of tea.

For me, though, it's a game of a lifetime.