the problem (which would prevent from playing e4) is not the time that can be ffwd with a stardreamer.
Yes. that would be just a convinient feature for Singleplayer or optional Coop side of a game.
it will be by; repetive cargo travels, repetive military missions in the same manner. something that annoyes players since fe exists,
It wouldn't prevent me from playing. Wenn it feels fresh and there are cool things to do. I play till repetiveness strikes and this means you quit the game at some point, altho much to soon. And that means less bang for the buck. Less game value. So I will deside if there would be some value left for me to play it.
Dev's have a easy solution to this. Adictive gameplay. RPG leveling archievments ranking. Such games tend to be very repetive but gamers like leveling and unlock things. I hope they don't solve repetiveness this way. But some RPG features are nice to have. but if you strip it off you still need something decent, to stand out.
if your'e not a complete sci-fi addicted (like us). this cant be fast forwardet, there has to be a good balance between ships and their equipment (which leaks in fe partially) as well as a fluid ascent in ranks and related missions, not to let the player get bored of repetition.
I'am also a Scifi fan watch lot of TV shows and movies. Mostly they are soft scifi. Where it's more aktion entertainment then focus on realism. And cool alien stuff like advanced spaceships, far beyound earth tech. In some there is very rarely fighter combat. They are more character based. And battles are often done with bigger ships. So it more in a bigger vessel. So to me RPG the character and RPG his vessel in a not to repetive way leveling both up.
X3 for example have main story mission they are like quest. but you have also lot of side missions. This is where repetiveness can strike. Story's arent good. And side mission follow a simple script. The main story's aren't to the level Like Mass effect something. But the free roam missions found, they are repetive. This a dev problem, to spend game budged to prof bigshot game writers. No problem for a triple A game but budged restricted one it is.
Solution would be a complex mission system with lot of option to be able to make wide variety of mission type. Wide plot variation. So no tight rules lot of freedom in mission mechanics.
i know us addicted ones, we go for bounty hunting, mining, exploration (the game) or whatever pleases us to do in frontiers universe. but average gamers, i repeat, like to be forced to do something (stupid i know), so they don't have to think to much, imho
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also (this was mentioned for a ffe hack too), there should be a new balance between earned money by trade and the pay for military missions, so military missions will become more lucrative.
Yes this is what I like about X3. There is a alternative play to get lot of cash without trading. How ever if you like to play with missile frigate you need your own missile fabs. Because you need a lot of them. For the rest trading can be automated. Universal or sector traders. So you don't depend to much on trading gameplay.
And I like the free roam game play. And dislike that main story missions yield some unike stuff like excotic must have ships. Like they force you to play those missions as must to do things. Because of uniek things to get from them. I have no problem with this but these main story line is doing lot of a little bit more complex little missions tied together in a long lineair scheme. Wich feels sometime like. Grinding. You know you getting some good stuf. So you just push trough. While the hub mainmission shows some uniek sector and it feels fresh. It's something uniek that you get wich doesn't fit within the game objects of things. A special base. The rest is just to keep you bussy and you et something or not in the end. Or exces to restricted sectors.
in case for a single player game, this would mean a much faster ascent and the game (storyline) will be prob. played in a few weekends, average gamers will appreciate that, even if we fe freaks wouldn't like it.
Some gamers seek more story and other like to be free doing there own thing in such game. If story is important you need something like a Mass effect story system. This large effort would take all dev resources to do right. A dev would choose to focus on a story driven game. And drop the free roam. So you get a ME clone. If game is free roam I would concentrate on side mission systen, make it more advance so that side mission have a uniek feel. Way better attach uniek objects and characters to it. Find a way to generate even plots with a wide variety of posibilities. It would give free roaming lot more depth. While a large story dev effort will also take resources of roaming part of the game. Both features compete for dev focus. Often there is not enough to do both well.
Do both on a low budged you get a medicure result on both and a bugfest feature creep like X3.
in case for a mmog this means, possibility of a players ascent in a "safe" space and of course never let the player get bored of repetive missions/cargo runs, if it's not his choice to do so.
MMO use repetive addictive play to keep the gamer playing for long time. The grinding solution. The urge to have a edge over other players.
Save space is just as common like time compression is for singleplayer space games. It is just a way to avoid early gameplay killer, to start neer a Alien base of a very advance species who want terminate everything lesser. EndGame will be soon and agian after each restart. So save space is a solution for low level start. Unless you start with Elite battle armada. And the game focus on bigship tactical combat.
What I like about X3 is the option to do different thing any time to get money. Trade hunt pirate and cap there fighters. Later boarding big ships to get lot's of profits. If you totaly depend on trading and it slow and boring those gamers would quit fast. So gameplay options would be off lot value. For all games, SP Mplay and MMO games.
