[Corporate Dog]

Just installed the game, haven't really played it yet at all (just kinda moved my ship around the starting sector) and I too am a little disappointed in the 2D-only plane of movement.

For those of you saying "it would be so hard to implement 3D movement", and "the 2D-only movement makes it easier to mod"... you're coming across as big-time apologists for Malfador.

Technically, the game IS a 3D game already. Unless the ships in the game are prerendered (and I'm 99.9% sure they aren't) then Malfador's already using the Direct3D API to display, scale, and move everything around in the form of 3D models. A third axis of movement is already accounted for in all the API function calls... it's just not being used.

And since, in order to mod the ships, we're going to have to edit 3D models anyway, it doesn't make modding easier AT ALL.

So, in the end, I'm guessing the 2D movement was a DESIGN consideration. Malfador wanted the game to play as less of a flight simulator and more of a tactical game.

That's fine, and I certainly intend to play more of the game before I dismiss it as casually as the first poster did (it's still got a lot of the features that make Elite one of my favorite games)... but just from my brief foray into the game, I have to say it doesn't feel like I'm controlling a starship at all.

Regards,
Corporate Dog

[ October 12, 2003, 04:23: Message edited by: Corporate Dog ]