History YMMV / EliteDangerous

* SacredCow: Don't attack the Fuel Rats. '''''EVER'''''. Attacking a Fuel Rat on duty is a pretty quick way to earn the ire of anyone who finds out you did it. Even pirates and some griefers will shun you, and it's also the quickest way to get blacklisted from their services and those of their partner organizations.

** The Asp Scout is eschewed by many players for its rather lackluster qualities. While it has a fairly long jump range, it is thoroughly lacking in all other respects. It is poorly armed and rather slow, with a large glass canopy that offers a great view but is easily shattered by damage. This stands in contrast its larger sibling, the Asp Explorer, which is regarded as a true JackOfAllTrades: similar in appearance (with the same glass canopy) but much faster, more heavily armed and armored, and one of the longest jump ranges of any ship in the game, all the while being able to land on the same landing pads as its little brother. It is also thoroughly outclassed in most respects by the Keelback, which is ''cheaper'' but has generally similar performance specs with much greater durability and cargo capacity; additionally, it can also carry a fighter to make up for its relatively modest firepower. Even the Asp Scout's one possible counterpart, the Diamondback Scout, has immense utility as a stealth fighter due to its great heat management.

* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: Due to low risk and high reward, many players opt for mining as their main source of income. Borann is a system preferred by many players for mining thanks to the high rate of finding valuable minerals such as void opals and low temperature diamonds in that system.

** The Asp Scout is eschewed by many players for its rather lackluster qualities. While it has a fairly long jump range, it is thoroughly lacking in all other respects. It is poorly armed and rather slow, with a large glass canopy that offers a great view but is easily shattered by damage. This stands in contrast its larger sibling, the Asp Explorer, which is regarded as a true JackOfAllTrades: similar in appearance (with the same glass canopy) but much faster, more heavily armed and armored, and one of the longest jump ranges of any ship in the game, all the while being able to land on the same landing pads as its little brother. It is also thoroughly outclassed in most respects by the Keelback, which is ''cheaper'' but has generally similar performance specs with much greater durability and cargo capacity; additionally, it can also carry a fighter to make up for its relatively modest firepower.

* TheScrappy: The Cobra Mk IV -- the reward for players who preordered Horizons before 2016 -- is highly unpopular among most members of the community, in large part because it does not excel at any particular niche and is arguably worse than its highly popular predecessor in most functions. Most complaints centre on the fact that it is a much slower, more cumbersome evolution of the classic Cobra Mk III for nearly twice the price, which puts it in an awkward price bracket. In exchange for these sacrifices, it features slightly better shields than its predecessor and an extra Small Hardpoint, which are just not worth it. It does have the highest cargo capacity of any small ship currently in-game which on paper, could make it a good cargo runner and miner, capable of landing on small landing pads; in practice, most ships will do either function just as well or better at a slightly higher price point. The Type-6 Transporter for instance, will transport half again as much cargo and features generally better performance, with its only downsides being its somewhat higher cost, weaker armament, and its medium size.[[note]]That said, the cost difference is less than the gap between the Cobra Mk III and Cobra Mk IV, and the larger dimensions do not prevent it from landing at outposts.[[/note]]
** The Asp Scout is eschewed by many players for its rather lackluster qualities. While it has a fairly long jump range, it is thoroughly lacking in all other respects. It is poorly armed and rather slow, with a large glass canopy that offers a great view but is easily shattered by damage. This stands in contrast its larger sibling, the Asp Explorer, which is regarded as a true JackOfAllTrades: similar in appearance (with the same glass canopy) but much faster, more heavily armed and armored, and one of the longest jump ranges of any ship in the game, all the while being able to land on the same landing pads as its little brother. It is also thoroughly outclassed in most respects by the Keelback, which is ''cheaper'' but has generally similar performance specs with much greater durability and cargo capacity; additionally, it can also carry a fighter to make up for its relatively modest firepower.

** "[[{{Mondegreen}} Friendship Drive charging.]]"[[note]]{{Mondegreen}}s of the ship's onboard AI are fairly popular among fans, this one (of "Frame-Shift Drive charging") being the most popular. Others include "Landing gear attractive" ("Landing gear retracted") and "Target shields are fine" ("Target shields offline").[[/note]]

* ThisIsUnforgivable: Attacking a Fuel Rat on duty is a pretty quick way to earn the ire of anyone who finds out you did it. Even pirates and some griefers will shun you, and it's also the quickest way to get blacklisted from their services and those of their partner organizations.

* TheScrappy: The Cobra Mk IV -- the reward for players who preordered Horizons before 2016 -- is highly unpopular among most members of the community, in large part because it does not excel at any particular niche and is arguably worse than its highly popular predecessor in most functions. Most complaints centre on the fact that it is a much slower, more cumbersome evolution of the classic Cobra Mk III for nearly twice the price, which puts it in an awkward price bracket. In exchange for these sacrifices, it features slightly better shields than its predecessor, an extra Small Hardpoint, and the highest cargo capacity of any small ship currently in-game, which arguably make it a ''worse'' combatant than the Cobra Mk III or the similarly-priced Diamondback Scout. On paper, these qualities could make it a good cargo runner and miner, capable of landing on small landing pads; in practice, most ships will do either function just as well or better at a slightly higher price point. The Type-6 Transporter for instance, will transport half again as much cargo and features generally better performance, with its only downsides being its somewhat higher cost, weaker armament, and its medium size.[[note]]That said, the cost difference is less than the gap between the Cobra Mk III and Cobra Mk IV, and the larger dimensions do not prevent it from landing at outposts.[[/note]]

* TheScrappy: The Cobra Mk IV - the reward for players who preordered Horizons; is highly unpopular amongst the community, reasons ranging from it being a slower, more cumbersome evolution of the classic Cobra Mk III, to only getting an additional small hardpoint for it's price. In addition the price puts it in the same bracket as the Diamondback ships and the Type-6 Transporter, which perform better anyway.

* ThisIsUnforgivable: Attacking a Fuel Rat on duty is a pretty quick way to earn the ire of anyone who finds out you did it. Even pirates and some gankers will shun you, especially if the Rat was on call, or worse, on duty heading to a ship in need. It's also the quickest way to get blacklisted from their services and those of their partner organizations.

* ThatOneLevel: A lot of wide-orbiting binary, trinary, or multiple-star systems get this treatment, as there are often starports in orbit of planets that orbit such systems' 'B', 'C', 'D', etc. stars and thus can be anywhere from 15,000 to 500,000 Light-Seconds away from the jump-in point - a distance travelled in ''supercruise'', not ''hyperspace'', meaning you could sometimes be sitting there for ten to fifteen minutes just closing the distance; however, it's '''Hutton Orbital''' in Alpha Centauri that gets this treatment the most, thanks to being the most remote starport in all of human space - not by distance from Earth, mind you, since it orbits Proxima Centauri which is a little over 4 Light-Years from Sol, but rather by distance from the jump-in point, being .22 Light-Years from Alpha Centauri A, or about six ''million'' Light-Seconds; again, a distance that has to be traversed in ''supercruise'', rather than ''hyperspace''.

* ThisIsUnforgivable: Attacking a Fuel Rat on duty is a pretty quick way to earn the ire of anyone who finds out you did it.

* TearJerker: [[spoiler:Participating in rescue operations is partly difficult because of the fact that [[EverythingIsTryingToKillYou everything inside is]] [[StuffBlowingUp exploding]] and that your ship will constantly overheat, but also difficult in the fact that it's hard seeing the inside of a space station ''completely ravaged'' by the Thargoids. Keep in mind that before this, watching someone attack a station was a source of [[BlackComedy black comedy]], as defenses would completely obliterate ''even an Anaconda in seconds''. [[CerebusSyndrome Now, the sanctity of the station is gone completely, instead transforming into a literal hellscape.]] If Galnet is to be believed, [[OhCrap it's only getting worse from here.]]]]
** [[spoiler:What turned it around into awesome territory however, were the players. As the stations normally lack any form of Traffic Control, several players took it upon themselves to act as a controller to ensure prompt and easy docking and departure for the rescue ships. These players did so, not to get paid or recognized, but because it was needed. That's not to forget the countless player ships that patrolled the space with Anti-Thargoid weapons ready to repel another attack, and those looking to stop [[RootingForTheEmpire pro-Thargoid players]] from attacking the rescue vessels. It may just be a computer game, but this shows just what humanity is capable of.]]

* InternetBackdraft:
** Fans were '''not''' happy when Frontier Developments pulled the game's offline singleplayer mode and made it online-only. There are still a few that are upset over that.
** The announcement of the first ExpansionPack caused a massive one courtesy of its outrageous pricing model at a whopping sixty dollars; good for people who don't own Elite (as the expansion pack includes the base game), but horrible for anyone who already owns the game, as that only grants them $15 off and an in-game ship for their "loyalty".
** The Alien Ruins questline from Ram Tah fell victim to this. It followed on from the well recieved Thargoids encounter, but it quickly became clear the quest was bugged, with the oblesks you need to scan not always lighting up in either solo or open. Furthermore it was shown that more ruins needed discovery to complete the quest, and no one had any clue where they were, leading to widespread complaints. Frontier tried an AuthorsSavingThrow and did a Community Goal to locate the ruins and revealed a list of systems. Unfortunately the next set of ruins located were [[CutandPasteEnvironments an exact copy of the first ruins]], down to the data entires, which only served to anger people further. Fortunately a third set of ruins was discovered the next day and were a different layout, finally allowing people to continue the quest. Frontier's limited commuication didn't help either.
** Lots of people were pissed after the Salome Event of 2017, due to a combination of instancing issues, the leadership of the "defend Salome" side saying that anyone caught with weapons who wasn't approved to carry weapons by them would be shot down quickly and mercilessly, and the fact that someone who was signed up as a defender, but everyone knew was a troll who would likely shoot her down, did just that. There were also a number of conspiracy theories that said the event was pre-scripted by Drew Wagar, who was doing the event as a publicity stunt for his new Elite book, that merely added to tensions over what happened.

* FriendlyFandoms: With ''VideoGame/StarCitizen''. There ''was'' also one with ''VideoGame/NoMansSky'', with David Braben and ''Star Citizen'''s creator, Chris Roberts, encouraged this initial attitude with Sean Murray's basing ''No Man's Sky'' on ''Elite'' helped in that alley; however, given that game's [[HypeBacklash infamous reputation at launch...]]

* HellIsThatNoise:
** The creepy noises the Unknown Artefact makes. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKT6CVKclZg An example.]]
** Get hit in the canopy while your shields are down and you will start to hear some ominous cracking sounds. The sparking and popping of your ship's consoles when your hull takes a lot of damage is rather alarming as well.

** The Alien Ruins questline from Ram Tah fell victim to this. Following on from the well recieved Thargoids encounter. It quickly became clear the quest was bugged, with the oblesk's you need to scan not lighting up in either solo or open. Furthermore was shown that more ruins needed discovery to complete the quest, and no one had any clue where they were, leading to widespread complaints. Frontier tried an AuthorsSavingThrow and did a Community Goal to locate the ruins and revealed a list of systems. Unfortunately the next set of ruins located were [[CutandPasteEnvironments an exact copy of the first ruins]], down to the data entires, which only served to anger people further. Fortunately a third set of ruins was discovered the next day and were a different layout, finally allowing people to continue the quest. Frontier's limited commuication didn't help either.

* TheScrappy: The Cobra MkIV - the reward for players who preordered Horizons; is highly unpopular amongst the community, reasons ranging from it being a slower, more cumbersome evolution of the beloved MkIII, to only getting an additional small hardpoint for it's price. In addition the price puts it in the same bracket as the Diamondbacks and the Type-6 Transporter, which perform better anyway.

** The Alien Ruins questline from Ram Tah fell victim to this. Following on from the well recieved Thargoids encounter. It quickly became clear the quest was bugged, with the oblesk's you need to scan not lighting up in either solo or open. Furthermore was shown that more ruins needed discovery to complete the quest, and no one had any clue where they were, leading to widespread complaints. Frontier tried an AuthorsSavingThrow and did a Community Goal to locate the ruins and revealed a list of systems. Unfortunately the next set of ruins located were [[Cut-and-PasteEnvironments an exact copy of the first ruins]], down to the data entires, which only served to anger people further. Fortunately a third set of ruins was discovered the next day and were a different layout, finally allowing people to continue the quest. Frontier's limited commuication didn't help either.

** The Alien Ruins questline from Ram Tah fell victim to this. Following on from the well recieved Thargoids encounter. It quickly became clear the quest was bugged, with the oblesk's you need to scan not lighting up in either solo or open. Furthermore was shown that more ruins needed discovery to complete the quest, and no one had any clue where they were, leading to widespread complaints. Frontier tried an AuthorsSavingThrow and did a Community Goal to locate the ruins and revealed a list of systems. Unfortunately the next set of ruins located were [[CutAndPasteEnviroment an exact copy of the first ruins]], down to the data entires, which only served to anger people further. Fortunately a third set of ruins was discovered the next day and were a different layout, finally allowing people to continue the quest. Frontier's limited commuication didn't help either.

** The Alien Ruins questline from Ram Tah fell victim to this. Following on from the well recieved Thargoids encounter. It quickly became clear the quest was bugged, with the oblesk's you need to scan not lighting up in either solo or open. Furthermore was shown that more ruins needed discovery to complete the quest, and no one had any clue where they were, leading to widespread complaints. Frontier tried an AuthorsSavingThrow and did a Community Goal to locate the ruins and revealed a list of systems. Unfortunately the next set of ruins located were [[CutAndPasteEnviroments an exact copy of the first ruins]], down to the data entires, which only served to anger people further. Fortunately a third set of ruins was discovered the next day and were a different layout, finally allowing people to continue the quest. Frontier's limited commuication didn't help either.