I asked about E:D almost 2.5 years ago. And I still have a Sci-Fi spaceship itch that hasn’t been scratched, and has only gotten worse.
I now have an Xbox One controller. Is it worth playing with that? Or do I really need a flight stick? I have an old Logitech one, hehe.
I don’t think it’s changed too much since 2017, mining and exploration have had overhauls since then which for mining at least makes it actually fun and profitable (up until the current nerf anyway but I haven’t mined since the last update so I don’t know how bad it is). The new player experience has also improved with better tutorials and stuff.
You can probably get by on a controller but a HOTAS is the best way to play. Either way though you’ll need to be prepared for a few hours of frustration while you get the ropes. Once you get over the initial learning curve I think the early game is the most fun.
I have an old Logitech flight stick but i’m not sure if it’s good enough. It’s the Logitech Extreme 3D Pro. They still make it apparently. I’m pretty sure that I got it almost 20 years ago. Wtf Logitech? Still making an ancient flight stick?
It will be just fine. I used to play ED back in the day with Mad Catz SAITEK V1 flight stick and it was fine.
I found the game waay too boring for my taste…
More buttons is more better, but so long as you have enough for the basic flight controls you can use a keyboard for everything else. You can also use button combinations to increase the number of functions you can map to a controller.
At a bare minimum I’d say you’d want controls for throttle, pitch, roll, yaw, lateral and vertical thrust, primary and secondary fire, select target, next target, next fire group, controls to switch to the four control panels, energy to systems, weapons and engines.
Also I don’t remember if there were aliens in 2017 but there are aliens now.
I expected to feel the same way going in, I don’t really like open world games and really don’t like games without a story. But I’ve played 2000 hours so go figure. I mostly do combat, trading I do find incredibly boring and somewhat obtuse. But the new mining mechanics are also quite engaging now. Exploration can be fun too, especially early game when you’re still scared of everything. But I mainly just like blowing stuff up 
I just really like the flight mechanics, its just so immersive. The rest of the game is quite shallow which is unfortunate. I know a lot of people who have played for a bit and then got bored so it seems like a common experience.
yeah, I couldn’t get into the combat at all, so I was just warping around trading and yeah, it’s mind numbing…
If there is more content to mix things up a bit … no, I still wouldn’t go back to it…
Seems kind of like No Man’s Sky in the sense that the world is so massive that players rarely see each other? I watch gameplay and I almost never see people playing with one another. Seems like it would be more fun, no?
If you’re just traveling around randomly you tend not to run in to other players that often, but there are popular systems where you will usually always find someone. But yeah it is fun to okay with someone else.
I’ve only played a bit of no man’s sky and didn’t really get in to it, the biggest difference is say is the flight mechanics in elite are really good and you’re always engaged because everything is manual. Or at least it used to be. The flight mechanics in no man’s sky were pretty lame when I played.
The tutorial really turned me off combat initially but I killed a couple of random attackers while smuggling and that gave me a taste for it. So I got a viper and just worked my way up. Combat used to be a lot easier though. My advice for beggining in combat is to go to a resource extraction site with a security rating and juts follow the cops around, you can let them do most of the work and then just attack the target at the end. After a while you can start to take more initiative and take on bigger and better ships on your own as you get better and upgrade your equipment.
I’m still using that same old V1 Flight Stick, and having a great time in Elite.
Though, I would recommend a separate thruster to go along with your flight stick. It’s a fun game, but it depends on the kind of gamer you are. I try to stay away from guides and forums discussing it, and just experience the game, keeping the mystery and discovery aspects of it intact. That way, I also don’t just look for the fastest way to “beat it” and get all the things in it, but rather enjoy the ride and take it as it comes. I’ll mine some, then I’ll bounty hunt some, fail at getting my friends into it some, get interrupted by pirates and have some rare, but o-so-epic space fights every now and then. Good times.
(Unless you go out specifically looking for trouble) It is slow 70% of the time. A sort of “podcast game” or something where I would usually listen to some music while exploring the galaxy. However that slowness is what I see making the action parts so much more exiting. Part of that is that there are basically no loading screens, you’re doing and experiencing the adventure in real-time. So that includes stopping of at a station every now and then, to fix scratches in the paint job on your ship.
Currently, I’m just waiting for a good opportunity to get a Valve Index, so I can completely disappear into space if that space-legs update comes along in 2020.
TL;DR: No clue, I didn’t play it back then, but I’m enjoying it right now!