I've been having a lot of fun playing the open beta, I really like the ships so far. The game itself feels pretty well put together at this point. Even the big ole dreadnoughts (which are my favorite so far) don't feel like whales when you fly them. My only real issue with the game would have to be the real currency system.

Now I don't really mind its existence, I've played and had fun with lots of games that use a similar system. My actual problem with it is everything seems incredibly expensive for the content you get for it, to the point where it actively discourages me to spend money. $5 for one paint job (and from what I've been reading that's just for the one ship you bought it for) $40 for a ship (I will come back to that), and more than $50 for a year of elite all seems like a lot of money for very little content.

This all wouldn't be a problem except for the fact that this monetary system is built around pressuring you to buy that stuff. Any game I get into with one of the purchasable ships just sucks. If I'm lucky both team has at least one and it's a fair fight. Everything I've read about the progression system says that once you get to tier 3/4 the game is basically a chore without elite. Which all would be fine if everything didn't cost a whole video game. I can say (obviously anecdotally) that I would have paid for elite already if it's cost was more in line with a season pass ($20-$30) for a year. And he'll maybe once I get the hang of the game I'd buy one of the elite ships for something closer to $20 than $40.

Tldr: I like the game a lot, sometimes it actually makes me want to spend money, but as the market stands it's really discouraging and I can see where it has bred resentment amongst the community