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Elite Dangerous

Total Paid $70

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Tell us what non-Elite players don't understand about Elite!

Posted by Alex Sinclair in Elite Dangerous

'They just don't get it.'

Elite Dangerous is a game filled with nuance - nuance that's often lost on those who don't play. For this easy-to-enter quickfire bounty, tell us in one sentence or more what non-Elite players don't understand about the game. It could be a misconception about the players, a misunderstanding about the game features, or anything else that family, friends, Redditors, or game journalists frequently fail to comprehend.

Feel free to explain these misconceptions via text, gif, image, meme, or (original) short video. For inspiration, check out this article on the 'things non-EVE players don't get about EVE Online'.

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This reward closed to entries at 8:51am on September 19, 2024 but you can still reply, react, and join the conversation below! If you’d like to enter other rewards which are still open, click here.

Created at 9:07am, 10th September, 2024. Page last updated at 6:44am, 21st September, 2024.
Deadline at 11:00pm, 18th September, 2024.

BinaryDuck 9/18/2024, 9:51:24 PM

The blue bar on the throtle/speed meter, is much more useful than it looks.

Doc 9/18/2024, 9:56:45 PM

In my opinion Elite is a game for true space fans, I mean, if you don't know so much about space before playing the game, maybe after you visit SOL and nearby visible stars and then actually see then in real life sky, you won't get the full experience of the game.

It's a game that will make you think about how space is and wonder if one day you or someone would be there for real.

Tryohazard 9/18/2024, 3:35:45 PM

I think a theres a big reluctancy from non-players to start playing because games with no "plot" or "campaign" make most them throw up their arms and say, "well, what's the point?" Also, most gamers nowadays are not willing to learn complicated controls of such a unique genre. These are the two biggest reasons I have personally come across when pushing the game on my friends.

What I think everyone forgets is that this is both a simulator AND a game. It just simply cannot be for everyone. Some people don't want to learn to fly a plane. Some people wont even learn to drive a car. Some peope have hangups about investing time learning a new skill. So it kind of makes sense you can't peddle the game easily when the game starts you off in the equivalent of a VTOL F-35. That's why the DLC starts you off on foot in a more gamer friendly/familiar scenario.

But its normal to drive a car. It's fun and freeing too. And it's very practical and rewarding; you would almost always tell someone it's worth learning to drive a car even if it's difficult, because the person who knows how to drive wants you to feel what they have felt. They know something you don't. Their skill has enabled them to experience life in a very different way: locales, ventures, whatever they want is theirs to find and there doesn't have to be an end goal to that. It's just a nice thing to have--it's a nice feeling to be free.

So if you're considering Elite, let this be your challenge to find out why we love it so much.

Luriant 9/18/2024, 8:52:33 AM

Distances in a 1:1 Milky way.

The game introduced 3 types of movement only to handle the scale of the universe, with each one 100000x faster than the previous one.

In the lower scale, Engine thrusts its more limited than space craft. Our ship can accelerate enough G's to kill the pilot, but for balance, there is a speed limit. Flying to the moon (1 Lightsecond) took 69hours to Apollo astronauts, for us, will be +250hours, our ship don't carry enough fuel for running the powerplant all this time (except some special builds with low power usage and full fuel tanks). Normal thrusters are limited to distances 100km or smaller (normal Maelstrom distance). Only closer binary planets/moons are reachable in a decent timeframe.
Supercruise enable Fasther Than Light, but again, limited up to 2000c, and only if far away enough form any star, with a higher limit if activate the new Supercruise Overcharged FSD (that use lot of fuel per second, and overheat). And now you can fly across the system, Lightseconds are closer. Some secondary stars like Proxima Centauri (Hutton Orbital outpost) exist at 0.22Ly from the main star, for a 90minutes trip, but reachable, 90minutes to move 80 Lightdays. And its the worst, 36 Opiuchi system have a 0.14Ly, and the rest never reach the 0.1Ly scale, 300K Lightsecond are more common. The current record for this 0.22Ly its 24m21s using the new Supercurise overcharged.
And finally, jump, that move players across the galaxy, doing around 5-10s animation to move up to 80-90Ly for the best explorer ship, 320-360Ly if supercharged in a neutron star. 500Ly for a Fleet Carrier with a 15minute charge and 5minutes cooldown per jump. And even with this, crossing the galaxy take DAYS. Our current record its 3h50m with carefuly picked stars. But players tried to fly long distances in supercruise, with the record 279Ly after weeks in supercruise, and support ships providing refuelling.

Each one of this 3 modes provide great movement in his own scale, and even with this, the game its big, and players will need 44000 years to discover the whole galaxy.

CmdrTravisRobicheaux 9/17/2024, 6:40:54 PM

Space - Non Elite players dont understand that space is vast and traveling takes time and the fact that there is no direction in space. So when you attempt to explain to someone where another enemy is during CZ's they get very confused and flustered.

chief711 9/17/2024, 5:46:57 PM

This game can either the most relaxing stroll, and then 5 seconds later turn into a nightmare.

The most fun aspect of this game is how many variables are in everything, mess up something, either it be going too fast or not looking at the exclusion zone and your lovely cargo trip is going to turn into a fight for survival in a matter of seconds.

JHenckes 9/17/2024, 12:38:32 AM

No elite player don't get the complexity of the galactic simulation, you have a complex political system that is updated regularly, alive system where population change over time, there is news about everything that happen (GalNet News), alien enemies that you can defeat to protect the humanity, secrets to be discovered about the past and everything can be influenced about you and other players

yan57436 9/17/2024, 12:33:43 AM

People don't understand how many play styles Elite Dangerous can have. Normally Elite is seen as just another spaceship game, you shoot other ships, receive money and go kill more. And you can do that, won't be easy at the beginner but you can do. Elite Dangerous focus in simulate a entire and alive galaxy, you are able to contribute to the evolution on this galaxy, help in economy, politics, security and at the same time you can go in the opposite way and disturb this evolution, been an pirate, do sabotages and make the chaos. Elite Dangerous is a fantastic game and simulator that you only understand its dept after playing it at least a little.

PedroPato 9/16/2024, 8:07:32 PM

Text in my native language Brazilian Portuguese:

Olá, eu sei que o post é sobre contar coisas que não jogadores não sabem sobre o jogo, mas eu gostaria de contar a minha experiência como um não jogador.

Então, eu tenho um amigo que gosta bastante desse jogo, principalmente a parte de exploração e tudo mais, ele ficava transmitindo a tela do jogo e me explicando como cada coisa funcionava, eu não sou muito apegado a jogos complexos de se aprender desse jeito, mas cada coisa que este amigo meu falava, eu fica impressionado e confuso de certa forma, já que ele falava que neste jogo os planetas são literalmente infinitos e que ele poderia visitar qualquer que eu apontasse com o mouse, e só para me provar isso ele foi até onde eu apontei, eu fiquei de fato surpreso que ele pode nomear o planeta e isso ficar salvo para os outros players quem colonizou e criou o nome, infelizmente isso faz tempo, então não lembro o nome que foi dado, enfim. Esse meu amigo continuou jogando por alguns dias e tudo mais, e enquanto eu jogava os meus jogos, a gente ficava conversando, e ele me contando mais sobre o jogo, falando que nós poderíamos ser mineradores e ficar vendendo os minérios que achamos dentro de asteroides, ou então virar caçadores de recompensas e ir atrás de piratas espaciais, ou simplesmente servir de transporte de algumas pessoas para uma estação a outra. Esse jogo me fascinou muito mesmo sem eu saber nada de mecânica ou como decola uma nave, eu achei a ideia muito boa que acabei comprando o jogo, eu não tenho jogado muito e queria mudar isso, ainda tem muita coisa que eu não entendo e não sei sobre, então acho que me encaixo como um não jogador.

Text in english:

Hello, I know the post is about telling things that non-Elite don't know about the game, but I would like to tell you my experience as a non-player.

So, I have a friend who really likes this game, especially the exploration part and everything, he kept broadcasting the game screen and explaining to me how everything worked, I'm not very fond of games that are complex to learn like that, but every thing this friend of mine said, I was impressed and confused in a way, since he said that in this game the planets are literally infinite and that he could visit any one I pointed to with the mouse, and just to prove this to me he That's what I pointed out, I was actually surprised that he could name the planet and it would be saved for the other players who colonized and created the name, unfortunately that was a while ago, so I don't remember the name that was given, anyway. This friend of mine continued playing for a few days and everything, and while I played my games, we kept talking, and he told me more about the game, saying that we could be miners and sell the minerals we found inside asteroids. , or become bounty hunters and go after space pirates, or simply serve as a transport for some people from one station to another. This game fascinated me so much even though I didn't know anything about mechanics or how a ship takes off, I thought the idea was so good that I ended up buying the game, I haven't played it much and I wanted to change that, there are still a lot of things I don't understand and I don't I know about it, so I think I fit in as a non-Elite player.

This text was translated by Google translate, i apologize if anything was strange.

Solaris104 9/16/2024, 8:09:05 AM

players who do not play Elite Dangerous or non-Elite players do not understand the potential of the title, the game provides an entire universe in 1:1 scale where you can do what you want, when you want and how you want, you are not forced to play it every day, furthermore the game is a very immersive simulator and many people do not understand the philosophy of the game, the game does not have a story but offers a lot of freedom to the player to decide what to do, how to do it and when to do it.

the difficulty of the game can be given that if the ship is destroyed obviously you have to pay an insurance fee, the price is variable from ship to ship otherwise you lose it, furthermore you also have to manage the ship and its modules well, since some modules can be damaged and need to be repaired, obviously the game meets the players in a minimal way also offering a tutorial and some modules to land in space stations without having to do the docking procedure manually. many players prefer more user friendly games like No Man Sky but that doesn't mean that Elite Dangerous isn't a title to avoid, in fact for some things it's much better than No Man Sky. the game has enormous potential and with the Odyssey expansion that also adds a bit of cod style shooting it makes it even more special.

XCezor 9/13/2024, 5:27:18 PM

I heard some people saying "It's just a space ship game, why you get so fascinated about it?" or something like that. I think the non-Elite people don't understand how beautiful exploration can be, the moons and planets may feel a bit repetitive but what makes them amazing is that single moment when you're just chilling in the Scarab and observe nebula in a 100Ly distance or a sunset on the planet 5Mm away from you. The exploration can be amazing but you have to experience it by yourself to get what am I talking about.

Slamscape 9/12/2024, 11:56:39 PM

One thing I think many non-Elite players don't understand is that biggest most expensive ships aren't necessarily the best.

Another thing is that buying an Anaconda doesn't mean you "beat the game"

Kitilto 9/12/2024, 5:46:20 PM

Most people just don't understand how much I love doing the Robigo Mines passenger route. It's so peaceful, with no hassle, just you and a bunch of rich people heading to see a beacon and then returning to Robigo. The fact that it remains one of the best money-making missions in the game only adds to its enjoyment. I have just over 400 hours in the game, but let me tell you, at least 200 of those hours have been spent running that route. It’s simply a relaxing experience.

sesheta 9/12/2024, 9:30:45 AM

Elite Dangerous is best played with friends. Trucking about the galaxy can be quite relaxing, but when you're with friends it's exponentially more enjoyable. VR users can really sink into the universe presented to players. It's quite fun to roam around the cockpit, and to imagine spaceship interiors and associated mechanics that scale with the size of the craft.

It is fun, in my opinion, to set a dauntingly distant target such as Sag A*, and see the density of stars increase gradually. Make a trip to a nebula or land on a planet just because. It is a delight to dock to a friend's carrier and chat while hanging out in the bar before the jump. The galaxy is large, barely explored. It's so low pressure, it's vacuum.

In game chat has nice decorations, but there is no reason not to use other voice chat tools to communicate with your friends in Elite Dangerous.

USCSS 9/12/2024, 1:32:42 AM

Non Elite players don't understand that the vastness of space in Elite Dangerous isn't just a backdrop: it's a place where every jump, every trade, and every mission feels earned, making the grind and exploration a deeply rewarding journey rather than just another task.

Apostryphy 9/11/2024, 11:08:23 PM

Elite Dangerous is a beautiful game, but it will not appeal to everyone.

You can legitimately earn a living by doing something other than combat or trading. Mining and exploration alone can sustain you if you can be satisfied with the lower-adrenaline game-play loops.

What I think potential players need to be made aware of is....I would not consider Elite Dangerous to be a social game. Yes, you can play with your friends, but don't expect to experience a universe that feels alive and thriving with lots of activity, whether that activity is real players or NPCs. Be prepared to experience the more lonely aspect of living among the stars. Space is huge, we are not. You will spend more time repeatedly looking at the same HUD or menu screens than almost anything else. If this bothers you, carefully consider what it is you're looking for in a realism-focused space-sim.

Do plenty of research first to understand exactly what kind of actual game play you'll be experiencing (watch some YT videos, ask players very specific questions, etc.). Elite Dangerous is a game I'll come back to year-after-year whenever I feel the urge to just see what's out there. I put on some chill music, drown out the noise of life, and just FLY!

CMDR Henckes 9/11/2024, 9:12:12 PM

It is a lot of things that people don't understand about Elite. Even elite players has a lot of things yet to be understood. It's a really complex and deep game with all its glory. But for me the main thing that it's hard to understand is that it isn't a boring game or monotonous. It's common some people think that a slow gama or even a movie or show is boring, and that is a enormous mistake, you don't enjoy something because of this misconception and prejudice that you already have.

Explaining why this happen in elite is easy and I think every player already know this. And you could ask "the game couldn't be a little more fast or fluid?" and the answer is yes, if the devs wanted that way the game would be completely different, buy why do a Milky Way with a 400 billions stars where you can cross it in hours or minutes. while you play Elite you feel how vast is our galaxy, you feel how distant is one planet to another or how big is a planet, everything feels enormous and vast even while you are travelling in 100 times or even more the speed of light. And all this is important, making the game feel like a simulation and put you inside there to live and play, feel immersed.

See how big and dedicated is, help you to understand this. The community create a lot of content, discussions, researches and etc. Some times is like we, the Elite players , are in another life, living an amazing adventures build by our own in a vast universe.

Image from Elite Dangerous Fandom: https://elite-dangerous.fandom.com/wiki/Galaxy

Hunter 9/11/2024, 7:23:22 PM

What non - Elite Dangerous players don't Understand :One of the major things that new players or non Elite dangerous players don't quiet understand is the story of the universe of Elite and the pace of the ongoing story and events , where you an independent commander in a huge galaxy can experience it as a participant or as a random person watching the news of humanity in its bubble while exploring thousands of light years into the darkness of space .

ScreamingRaven 9/11/2024, 6:08:07 PM

The Joy of Exploration, of the Greatness the Universe is Holding for you. And the carrot on top is the Great Soundtrack.

Jimmy0916 / Cmdr Donald Duck 9/11/2024, 3:38:39 PM

What non-Elite players do not understand...

...and basically the whole rest of humanity, including players and excluding probably some UFO-abducted...

...is that this is as closest as anyone living on this planet today will get to interstellar travel. 😉

SergeantRogers 9/11/2024, 1:54:36 PM

Apart from like, the entire game, something non Elite players often dont know before purchasing, is that this game is GRINDY. Sure, you dont HAVE TO grind, you can play space trucker for years without any engineering, but for certain things, it is mandatory.

Stormseeker 9/11/2024, 9:38:59 AM

It's a game of total freedom. No end game, no path, no trail to follow, just start your ship and enjoy the flight.

Some people just ask new players to grind like crazy to get bigger ships and a big fleet carrier and big wallet full of big credits, just for what? Continue flying around doing what you like since the first minute on your sidewinder.

If you don't love to fly doing whatever in any ship, bigger is not better, and you'll just waste your time getting there.

You are just a leaf in the wind, so just keep flying.

AndyRice 9/11/2024, 9:34:26 AM

The universe in Elite Dangerous is a free universe, you're allowed to do a lot of things in the universe. This means that if you encounter hostile players, they're allowed to do whatever they want to you and your ship. Their hostilities have no reason, they are just attacking and destroying your ship for fun. I know there are players like this in other open world games, but that's not the problem with these gankers. The problem is that when you're under attack, you don't have the freedom to "escape".

We all know that if your ship gets destroyed in Elite Dangerous, you have to pay a huge insurance fee to get your ship back, and if you can't afford it, you lose your ship. And we also know that if you're in dangerous circumstances, like being attacked or in a dangerous environment, you have to wait a few seconds to exit the game. That means that if you and your ship are in danger, you can't just close the game and disappear from the universe and escape the danger. In most cases, those few seconds are enough for others to destroy your ship. This is a game mechanism specifically designed to increase the difficulty and realism of the game.

Some of you may think that you can use the Windows Task Manager or Alt+F4 to force the game to close. Well, this behaviour is called combat logging, and it is also forbidden in the Elite world. If someone reports your c-logging behaviour to Frontier, your account could be penalised or even banned. Sounds a bit unfair, right? These gankers are attacking you for no reason, and they have the right to report you and ban you if you c-log.

This is a feature of the game that surprises me at first, because I haven't encountered similar rules in other open-world games.

So what can we do under these circumstances? My answer is to learn how to dodge and survive an attack, you can find many video tutorials on youtube.

mastercesspit 9/11/2024, 9:12:08 AM

the joy of a fully engineered ship, whether its a jumpship, trade or combat, they're the cutting edge, a joy to fly, faster, more maneuverable, and jump further.

neutron boost g5 diamond back explorer — jump further

qwertyForever 9/10/2024, 7:04:10 PM

The one thing they'll never understand is.....THE GRIND. It's what masochists like us keep coming back for.

Block9 9/10/2024, 5:27:23 PM

Many people don't understand that to have a Fleet Carrier you need to have a good cash income to maintain the rent that can vary according to how many jumps you give per week and outside the hull maintenance and etc. these small details I at least didn't find directly in the game, only the value to buy the Fleet Carrier, the value of the tritium can also vary depending on your location. I'm wanting to create a video talking everything about Fleet Carrier on my youtube channel, maybe I'll do it one day.

https://twitter.com/r66680314/status/1833557739206815780

Sin-Isha 9/10/2024, 5:25:03 PM

mostly they don't understand why the universe is so empty and in fact it is. We are here to explore it and along the way enjoy the beautiful views, of course, and catch a pirate. timeless game for forever and never get bored

Imperial Senator Bluecrash 9/10/2024, 4:06:19 PM

Most players would say Elite : Dangerous is about combat, and learning to fly (toggling FA off and on, as well as yaw into roll). FA tutorial: one, two, three. A real Elite pilot can overcome anything, when the odds are stacked against them - if the other pilot has no skill (can take years).

But, beyond combat it's an armchair-archelogy adventure that can be terrifying at times - as you learn about the origin of the humans on earth and the likely evolution of the Guardians that may of transcended into a form of energy. We hope the closed doors at the structures is some sort of 'Chamber of Guf', and the energy will possess flesh or some hidden metal-kind of terminators.

RicZA 9/10/2024, 3:39:58 PM

My views:

Its more simulator than it is game.
It will take you years to fully comprehend every aspect of Elite Dangerous.
Your skill as a pilot will take you further than any number of credits - A Skilled pilot in an Eagle will obliterate a newbie in a Corvette.
The emersion in Elite dangerous is unmatched - maybe even to its own detriment.
I feel FDev has made huge strides of late, granted there's a ways to go, but the age old "It's in Maintenace mode" and "The game is dead" is getting tiresome.
You can go full nerd! The level of accuracy in almost every aspect of the game is amazing, should you understand it. If not, it holds little weight.
The Mysteries. Discovery lies around every corner, whether its a new planet or moon; a crashed star ship or even the fabled Raxxla, there are some tremendously deep rabbit holes to jump into.
The Lore in Elite dangerous is as vast and complex as its universe. To uncover and understand it all would take a lifetime, it is after all almost 40 years old.

The long and short of it. I don't think Elite dangerous is for everyone, no game is, but it fits in a niche. You will often hear comparisons made between Eve, Star Citizen, No Mans Sky and a few other titles - while they may share the same "theme", they have completely different play styles and mechanics, each just as marvelous as the other. For me, Elite dangerous allows me to lose myself in the vastness of the galaxy, find myself amongst friends in my squadron and launch myself into the narrative with the rest of the community!

P.S. FDev, Id like to walk around in my ship please :D

Gadnok 9/10/2024, 3:37:31 PM

The absolute freedom. Until you play Elite, you won't understand that you can free roam the biggest open-world game map, a literal galaxy, with no loading screens and no boundaries.

Travel to any real star you see in the night sky

CMDR James Lauer 9/10/2024, 2:53:43 PM

To put in a simple way, and that's what I love in simulations as the kind of Elite, is the cheer amount of knowledge and the possibility to imagine traveling to distant parts of the galaxy which we will not be able to in this lifetime. Maybe for centuries to come. I know that a lot of things in it is based in real life data and others just procedurally generated. But hey, I can have fun and know about stars, and planets and elements and physcis. The list goes on and on... and I can create my own goal, depending of the role chosen.

While a lot of people just ask me: "But how can I earn more money in game?" or "how can I grind this and that...?"

"Sigh"

Well, maybe some people will never get the point, while looking to their level and wallets in other games, and not looking up, to the stars, and all the oportunities and marks they can leave in the galaxy. When they understand that, they may one day understand the game just a little better.

Fly Safe Commanders!

EidLeWeise 9/10/2024, 2:18:14 PM

So many people (Frontier included) forget that Elite Dangerous is a universe with coming up 40 years of lore behind it. It doesn't have magic space wizards, or technology that breaks physics as we currently understand it, even the Frameshift Drive is based off of scientific theory. It's a dirty, lived in universe where humans are the scummy murder moneys that we all know and love.

From the Digital Art Book — This image shows a queue of civilians waiting to board a passenger ship in a low gravity part of the station.

MQC 9/10/2024, 2:00:54 PM

Non-Elite players probably don't understand the basic concept of “Blaze your own trail”; in ED you don't have a marked path, you don't have a specific role, you don't have a defined end, nor a global objective. In ED you set the gameplay every day, every week, every month..., what you want to do and how you want to do it. In ED you set your style of play, your way of understanding the universe and the way you interact (or not) with other players and/or NPCs.

And that same concept is applicable to the configuration of ships, weapons, suits, etc. playably through modules and engineering, and visually through cosmetics and kits: everyone customizes their equipment based on their needs, their goals, their own way of understanding the game, and their personal tastes.

And ED is not a game to “finish” in 1 month playing every day for 8 hours and getting all the Elite ranks, all the ships, a Carrier, or all the Engineer upgrades. ED is a game to enjoy at the pace that everyone prefer; there will be some Commanders who enjoy doing conflict zones to change the BGS, and others who simply have fun doing trade routes, mining in asteroids, or exploring the milky way with a Fleet Carrier.

Or doing a little bit of everything... “Blaze your own trail"... and do it without rushing.

Alec_Turner 9/10/2024, 12:13:16 PM

They think it's "just" a game.

Paul 9/10/2024, 11:24:28 AM

As a non-elite player I can confirm we understand nothing, not a thing 😂

AlexandreAlves 9/10/2024, 11:00:37 AM

até o momento diria, que uma das dificuldades é o pouso tanto nas estações quando no planeta.

Alex SinclairMod9/10/2024, 11:03:24 AM

AlexandreAlves

Hi AlexandreAlves - for now, Just About is an English-language only platform so we won't be able to accept your entry in its current form. However, if you edit your submission and translate it to English, that will make it eligible. We do hope to add more languages in the future.

Toretto 70 9/11/2024, 5:24:52 AM

As non-Elite Player I don't understand about Guide and term

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