I saw the pre alpha mission play through, I am cautiously optimistic. Because it’s easier to outline the issues than the things that work I am going to do just that. Here is a list of features that in my opinion need improvement in order of importance.
1- the AI. Currently it looks very basic. Enemies are oblivious to the party literally running through the settlement. I understand they are not wanted but they could at least turn around to look at them or something. During combat they don’t seek cover, the most they do is a little shimmy to the side when they get shot. They also don’t work as a group but step all over each other in one confused clump. This needs fixing because bad AI is a FPS killer.
2- physicality and immersion. Immersion is very important to ED players and to the spirit of the game. You can see instances of characters running above the terrain or levitating, character shadows disappear during the mission. Also weapons don’t feel that they impact other characters or the terrain very well. I want to see characters being knocked back by weapons, dust being kicked up, smoke from molten metal when a round hits a metal wall… combat needs more meatiness and oompf.
3- this is less of an issue because easy to fix, time to kill and time to death needs to be reduced otherwise FPS combat feels low stakes and no fun. I am not saying Arma levels of TTK but faster than than PvP ship combat in elite.
There. Fix those things and, IMO you’re golden.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/lxs6so/pre_alpha_mission_play_through_thoughts/
