Just don't feel like logging in...

[Commander Azriel]

Same here. I player for a few hours today after taking 3-4 days off. Did some missions, some generic faction says we are now allies! Yawn, they don't see to treat me any different.

Your second point is the part that kills me. I don't care about money/big ship chase, other boring professions are OK to noddle around with once in awhile, but the total lack of influence it the game is a deal breaker.

If it take hundreds of players weeks to barely shift a minor, no body faction, what is the point? Yay, there is a lockdown! Maybe 25 days from now it might be a civil war! and weeks later the war might have been a failure and no difference was made. Maybe in 6 months we might have something other than a pretty star simulator.

 

[Cosmos]

I've sort of run out of steam for playing myself atm but I have played it quite a lot. Beyond grinding credits there doesn't seem to be much else to do. Taking a bit of a break from it and hopefully by the time Wings comes in there will be more meaningful stuff to do.

 

[halo jones 101]

Like many others, I'd love ED to be successful. But, to be successful, it has to be a whole lot more than it currently is.

More content.
More soul.
More polish.
More interaction.

Right now, it falls a very, very long way short of that.

Right now, it simply isn't fun to play.

A.


P.s. Awesome sounds though. Best sounds in-game evaaa.

You make many valid points in the TL;DR and i can understand fully both your concerns and thoughts, but if i may just cut to your summary: While i have played only a short time being a Mercenary Edition buyer and have not had the time opportunity to advance much let alone decide on a path or faction to support, I do agree that it does fall short of content, polish and more interaction, I would disagree it lacks soul though, I can understand as a Beta Backer you have invested not only the funds to make this game possible but also a emotional investment in it becoming a success.

There is a argument to be made though that this game will take some time to begin to realise much of what you and many other backers envisaged, on release. It is easy for me to say be patient, you have already proved your patiences, by beta testing something I would like to thank you for, as some have said take a break and come back when you want play again, Despite some of the mistakes that FD have made in the process of bring this game to life, I do have faith that they are trying there best to make the game as much as is possible what it can be, and what the backers will be proud of supporting.

As I said it is easy for me to say this, but i do hope that the things you have pointed out can come to fruition...

 

[Cmdr Thrudd]

All but one of my RL friends have put the game down though say they're coming back later. They all said they loved it, flying the ships was awesome, sound and graphics fantastic they earned themselves ships they were happy with then looked around and wondered where to focus their efforts. The one common complaint was a lack of connection with the game world not some much a case of WHAT to do but WHY.
The game world is so light on lore, they never got any connection to the factions and no feedback for their efforts. 'Ok so I'm allied with the Empire and a Earl what does that do for me, what changes..nothing? Meh..'

 

[Kyudos]

There seem to be a lot of 'lack of content' threads, but not many 'suggested content' replys. To those bemoaning a lack of content, what extra content do you want? How should it work? How SHOULD it effect the galaxy? How should trading and war effect markets, and politics? How do you scale that to a whole galaxy of stars? Or even just the inhabited 'core'?

To some of that, you are probably thinking - "How should I know? Its not my job to figure that out" and you'd be right. But let me ask, does it sound easy? It doesn't to me.

What is it you want from ED? If you wanted a pure PvP MMO then you definitely bought the wrong game. Do you want a sandbox where you decide what you do? What your goal is? I get the feeling some want 'sandbox-ish' - like the later GTA games - an nice open world environment but with 'story' missions leading to a denouement 'end'. That can't happen in ED - you can't finish the game - and I don't see an easy way to auto-generate automatic 'story' missions that don't ultimately degenerate into 'doing the same things over and over' (another common complaint). As far as I can see FD's injected-event, human driven narratives are the only way to provide 'storys' without 'ending' the game.

My expectations of what ED would be like have been fulfilled quite satisfactorily. Anything new from here is a bonus to me.

EDIT: Perhaps FD could have better communicated the inherent 'aimlessness' of the game that will be completely lost on people who haven't played the previous incarnations...

 

[Commander Azriel]

While i have played only a short time being a Mercenary Edition buyer and have not had the time opportunity to advance much let alone decide on a path or faction to support,
...

Part of his point, and mine as well, is that this part, one might say the most important part, is shallow and generic.

The 3 major factions all act/behave the same. There doesn't seem to be much difference between them. You can have great relations will all of them. There is no real conflict, there is no taking sides, because there is nothing to take sides over.


Add in countless generic minor factions, and the near inability for even large, organized groups to make much impact in even the most insignificant of systems. And as a lone player with your own agenda the game might as well be static.


Right now the game reminds me of a 'sampler platter', taste a bit of this, try a bit of that, etc. But there is no meal here. More like a proof of concept, and a good one of that, but for a AAA priced full game release that just isn't cutting it for a lot of people. And I'm sure there are a lot of people like me that have no intention of laying down more money for planetary landings and other little 'treats to taste' until the core game shows it's worth it.

We don't need more ships, we need more things to DO with the ships. Walking around INSIDE my ship is not going to improve the CORE game, nor will walking around stations and planets.


There are enough things to point and click Scan...wait 30 seconds, and repeat around here. It's time to turn this sim into a game.

 

[Varrag]

I feel for OP, really I do. It's only exploration which I find fun and immersive, even if it also leaves a lot to be desired. Last time when I docked from my previous two weeks long expedition I was thinking about changing pace a little bit, going back to bounty hunting, missions, heck even playing a living trade bot (I pretend that mining doesn't even exist, that's how bad it is). And I couldn't, I was bored even before undocking.

So here I am, lurking again in the far reaches of galaxy in hope that the game will eventually get improved, enriched and that it will actually start making some sense.

 

[Flyinpiranha]

Its neither here nor there, the fact the community is more worried about a single ship than the many other aspects of the game which could use attention is a tragedy.

Well. That ship was "the goal" a lot of us set in this "no goal" game so it hit me hard that I can spend weeks to attain something (and still need weeks to upgrade) and it's changed on a whim.

Today was the first day I didn't log in and actually took down my setup. Not sure when I'll come back. Not really the game I thought it was. Just another arena combat game with a fancy skin and some side stuff, only your "respawn" costs you hours of playtime.

 

[pippo]

I'm hooked and need help.

 

[Bad_Wolf]

I haven't logged into the game in about 5 days... Not that I gave it any thought either.
I already paid, there's no monthly cost and they're working on some updates/patches/etc... Always a good time to take a break.

I have other stuff to do right now. There's other games I'm playing and when the mood strikes me I'll log in and do X, Y, and Z.
So, OP, don't stress it at all. Go let the sunshine hit your face and enjoy what ever it is you enjoy. Come back when you're in the mood.. or don't...
Either way, ./salute

 

[hanks01]

OP and others, no shame in stepping back and giving it a few months before coming back. I've always seen this phase as the starter phase for me, get some ships, combat experience, explore some nebulas etc. Essentially set myself a grounding of assets and knowledge that will prepare me for coming content and I'm still very much neck deep in enjoying it.

Like many people here though, I do have other games to play and will no doubt step back at some point and get back to them (can't neglect the backlog for too long, there be SNES games to play.)

I would suggest, if you've not done it already, check out places like Lave. Anywhere with high player activity and set yourself a challenge of killing off the pirates, looking for big bounties (that get posted on the stations) and helping traders slip past blockades etc.. Currently a player blockade running in Lave, could be good fun to go rough them up a bit. Or maybe defend the new players from griefers in Eravate or see what chaos is happening in Sol. There are opportunities for interaction and fun still to be had but it depends what floats your boat really.

 

[Cmdr Thrudd]

Well. That ship was "the goal" a lot of us set in this "no goal" game so it hit me hard that I can spend weeks to attain something (and still need weeks to upgrade) and it's changed on a whim.

This is a problem we discussed frequently in alpha and beta, without other content the goal was essentially a ship progression game. My friends and I had all hoped that the factional war, background sim, dynamic missions and persistent npc's would provide the content but these aren't up to scratch yet. In the case of the persistent NPC's I'm not sure if we'll ever see them I really think they would have been great for breathing life into the world and helping the player to weave a narrative.
I'm certain that things will improve over time, the problem is keeping people entertained while the devs write and improve the game. The 1.1 patch isn't going to solve the content issue, though community goals isn't exactly a bad idea, I don't think it'll foster a connection with the game world. Hopefully 1.2 with wings and more missions will help a bit too but the game world needs depth so we can make our own stories.

 

[Kancro Vantas]

I never heard or knew about Elite Dangerous until the day it was released in Dec.16th. I may add I like SciFi and games, but I am not the pew pew gamer. The game has to be intellectually challenging for me, and more often than not, it needs to allow me to be creative. With that being said, I have played some games that others in here would consider boring, boring, boring -just yesterday I was mentioning in another threat about FSX and how I love spending 10 hrs of clouds, clouds, clouds!~

Anyways guys, when I came here I found out all this community, and that wonderful game. I found out that its been going for months, at least the beta, gamma and etc.

As a total newbie, I want to tell you: THIS GAME IS @%&!@ INCREDIBLE. It has done great things and its been crafted magnificently. But at the same time, I'm gonna tell you this: MANY OF YOU KILLED THIS GAME WHEN REQUESTING OR OPTING FOR SOLO MODE.

That is, in my eyes, the single worst decision of it all. I call to your common sense here: There is no way, in heaven, space or black holes, that FD could have fleshed out a +400 billion star galaxy without HUMANS!! The game needs HUMANS to bring it to life!! And at this point in history, I don't wanna hear it from anybody, I don't care if you are coming from the 1984's or if you have been following Elite before the Beatles, I don't care if you are in an igloo in the Artic, or that your FPS drops because you are still in dial up...this game should have never allow people to play by themselves! It is the Internet era!! No one play by themselves any more!!! Why so??? when I can connect with millions of people everywhere that share my same likes!!! It is 2015! Get with the program!

It should be only internet because people are going to be the variable themselves, the surprise, the creativity...allow economy so they can interchange credits, hire others, create services, own stations, show off things to others, or create groups and gangs...let it be police of space, and scoundrels, and celebrities, and gangsters....let it be a world of possibilities...only humans can provide that...not NPC's...I know, I know the sandbox is not completed...but will be, I hope...

The idea is beautiful, honestly...the world needs more games this challenging...but sometimes seems like we are in a society drunk with expectations of instant gratification for almost not effort, no patience, no involvement...the disease of the millenials...we all grew up knowing that we are "special"....now we better win the game in hours...cause there is a game to win, right??

We all know the game needs baking...FD I think has said there are things to come, so I think they know it too...no reminders needed....then why so many threads against it?? All of these threads point to obvious things we know are failing but also makes me question: are you guys not expecting something that is not supposed to be expected??? Alas is just a game...not a life changer....

Go watch a video from Isinona, the FAO Master, or from explorer Erimus....my God, what an inspiration! Showing how the galaxy looks from the other side!!....That's the beauty of the human mind! The creativity of using what's available to create something of value or at least, entertaining... This is given to you....what do you do with it!? Credits??

I for one, get a lot of relax, and learn a lot while playing...and in my dictionary, that's called a game. And regardless of all the flaws, real or invented, this is a very good one. I'll stick to it and help while I can.

 

[Aussiedroid]

I'm not to that point myself but can appreciate the points raised. I think it is the same many players have expressed in other posts since launch so I would say FD are well aware of the concerns. Many things need fleshing out, personality added and more things to do. I'm sure it will come, but we all want it now, not 1 month or a year later. We have had a taste of what potential this game has and do not want to wait

I am pacing myself, don't play as much as I would like. I haven't used the trading tools much other than checking them out and testing a few runs, as it seemed like a shortcut that would take a lot of the challenge & longevity out of playing. Took me close to 100hrs of play to hit a million, but that's not to say I could have done it a lot quicker. Any rate, hope you take a break and come back refreshed to play some more and try what new is in store in the next patches/updates.

Would be good to get some more detailed info from FD on what they are planning over this year, what they see as areas of improvement and focus. Let us know what DDF features might be on the way some point, or what other content they will add. I fear that the little given publicly might have some players go and never come back rather than waiting in anticipation on what cool stuff is ahead.

 

[Daffan]

When will people understand that's it's not an MMO, not a solo game, not a mission-based game, not a sandbox as you know them, not a story-driven title either, not a... err sorry, I lost myself there, what was I saying?

Oh yeah, well I don't feel like logging in either. Sadly.


edit: actually i played some dota2 instead tonight, lost every games. But it was great fun nonetheless ^^

I tried out the new BF: Hardline beta. It was ok.

Logged into ED and was like, hmm what to do.

I'm only down to ranking up in fed and alliance now, than i'l have done everything

 

[DextersIndignation]

Well. That ship was "the goal" a lot of us set in this "no goal" game so it hit me hard that I can spend weeks to attain something (and still need weeks to upgrade) and it's changed on a whim.

Today was the first day I didn't log in and actually took down my setup. Not sure when I'll come back. Not really the game I thought it was. Just another arena combat game with a fancy skin and some side stuff, only your "respawn" costs you hours of playtime.

One of the guys I started out with barley made the cobra.
Two of the others have taken breaks as the python nerf was their "last straw". I did explain about new ships, I did explain the nerf might not be that bad. Alias it was too late, I don't think it was the nerf, just the fact that FD chose to focus on a goal ship at the request of those players unwilling to put in the time to grind it out! They played BSGO and were worried of the "Viper Elite" as that suffered in the same vain (even the same ship name).

I never heard or knew about Elite Dangerous until the day it was released in Dec.16th. I may add I like SciFi and games, but I am not the pew pew gamer. The game has to be intellectually challenging for me, and more often than not, it needs to allow me to be creative. With that being said, I have played some games that others in here would consider boring, boring, boring -just yesterday I was mentioning in another threat about FSX and how I love spending 10 hrs of clouds, clouds, clouds!~

Anyways guys, when I came here I found out all this community, and that wonderful game. I found out that its been going for months, at least the beta, gamma and etc.

As a total newbie, I want to tell you: THIS GAME IS @%&!@ INCREDIBLE. It has done great things and its been crafted magnificently. But at the same time, I'm gonna tell you this: MANY OF YOU KILLED THIS GAME WHEN REQUESTING OR OPTING FOR SOLO MODE.

That is, in my eyes, the single worst decision of it all. I call to your common sense here: There is no way, in heaven, space or black holes, that FD could have fleshed out a +400 billion star galaxy without HUMANS!! The game needs HUMANS to bring it to life!! And at this point in history, I don't wanna hear it from anybody, I don't care if you are coming from the 1984's or if you have been following Elite before the Beatles, I don't care if you are in an igloo in the Artic, or that your FPS drops because you are still in dial up...this game should have never allow people to play by themselves! It is the Internet era!! No one play by themselves any more!!! Why so??? when I can connect with millions of people everywhere that share my same likes!!! It is 2015! Get with the program!

It should be only internet because people are going to be the variable themselves, the surprise, the creativity...allow economy so they can interchange credits, hire others, create services, own stations, show off things to others, or create groups and gangs...let it be police of space, and scoundrels, and celebrities, and gangsters....let it be a world of possibilities...only humans can provide that...not NPC's...I know, I know the sandbox is not completed...but will be, I hope...

The idea is beautiful, honestly...the world needs more games this challenging...but sometimes seems like we are in a society drunk with expectations of instant gratification for almost not effort, no patience, no involvement...the disease of the millenials...we all grew up knowing that we are "special"....now we better win the game in hours...cause there is a game to win, right??

We all know the game needs baking...FD I think has said there are things to come, so I think they know it too...no reminders needed....then why so many threads against it?? All of these threads point to obvious things we know are failing but also makes me question: are you guys not expecting something that is not supposed to be expected??? Alas is just a game...not a life changer....

Go watch a video from Isinona, the FAO Master, or from explorer Erimus....my God, what an inspiration! Showing how the galaxy looks from the other side!!....That's the beauty of the human mind! The creativity of using what's available to create something of value or at least, entertaining... This is given to you....what do you do with it!? Credits??

I for one, get a lot of relax, and learn a lot while playing...and in my dictionary, that's called a game. And regardless of all the flaws, real or invented, this is a very good one. I'll stick to it and help while I can.

I guess you have not actually tried playing with others yet, Four of us at the same house on the same connection all grouped and friended! We could not even get in to the same instance! Even in a group! Open was a total joke, just not funny! We tried the rare route, only to have pirates attack, then log off! We even had instance kickers!
It was not the "Lan party" we had hoped for...

 

[Lindonius]

I agree with the OP. I just haven't felt the urge to play since I spent the whole of last Saturday grinding credits to get a type 7. I adopted some tunnel vision and stubbornly achieved my "goal" but after I'd done it I looked back over how I'd decided to spend my Saturday and decided "that was a bit of a waste of time really wasn't it?"

Haven't played since. 1.1 doesn't seem to be offering up much. I remember Braben in some of the promo videos bigging up CORE aspects of gameplay that weren't in release (wings). I have friends that ask me "how's ED?" basically because I was so enthusiastic about in during early beta, and my response now is "the ED universe is great but there's not much to do in it yet."

Which pretty much sums it up as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Slopey]

That is, in my eyes, the single worst decision of it all. I call to your common sense here: There is no way, in heaven, space or black holes, that FD could have fleshed out a +400 billion star galaxy without HUMANS!! The game needs HUMANS to bring it to life!! And at this point in history, I don't wanna hear it from anybody, I don't care if you are coming from the 1984's or if you have been following Elite before the Beatles, I don't care if you are in an igloo in the Artic, or that your FPS drops because you are still in dial up...this game should have never allow people to play by themselves! It is the Internet era!! No one play by themselves any more!!! Why so??? when I can connect with millions of people everywhere that share my same likes!!! It is 2015! Get with the program!

I guess you're not aware but FD were planning on not differentiating pilots from NPCs on the scanner until you actively scanned a ship, so really they weren't interested in the muliplayer element you're talking about (as they wanted to hide other players from view in the first instance).

Thankfully they didn't actually go through with it - go check the DDF Archives if you don't believe me.

So the above is really nonsense. ED goes further than any other multi-player online game which I've ever been aware of to make the experience as single player as possible. The comms system is atrocious (which should be addressed in the future hopefully granted), grouping just DOES NOT WORK. Wings should have been in at launch. Until 1.05, it was quite frankly an amazing event if I saw more than one player in a (supposedly) crowded system, so it is getting better, but it's nowhere near what most people would expect from some sort of multi-player online experience.

 

[Varrag]

I'm gonna tell you this: MANY OF YOU KILLED THIS GAME WHEN REQUESTING OR OPTING FOR SOLO MODE.

I don't want to open this can of worms, even less to argue about what killed what: was it a clumsy multiplayer which harmed Elite's traditional spirit or was it the other way around, but I have this pretty firm belief that the game would turn out to be much better/richer/engaging/younameit if FD put their focus on developing either a full-blown MMO, or a single player game. Not to be jack of all trades - master of none.

As I said in some other thread few days ago, to me it looks like that them devs were trying to do little bit of this and little bit of that, but have never (or optimistically - so far) managed to build anything properly, nor to satisfy anyone: people who play for human-to-human interaction and socialization are disappointed because ED has very few usual MMO tools, and the old Elite crowd suffers lack of content and general connection with the game world which feels static and faked. Some will even dare to tell that ED right now is basically just a re-skinned original '84 title, inferior to FE2 and FFE in almost every aspect other than gfx and audio.

I don't know. Guess by the end of the year we will know for sure what is going to happen with this (still promising) project.

 

[Oheck]

Chris Thursten of PC Gamer rated the game 86/100, considering it to be "potentially a classic", depending on Frontier's ability to build on the "broad but somewhat shallow foundations" of the released version. Thursten described the gameplay experience as "exhilarating excitement, matched by nothing else this year, contrasted with moments of emptiness, frustration, and boredom".

Dan Whitehead of Eurogamer gave the game 8/10 and considered it to be "probably the most immersive and compelling recreation of deep space ever seen in gaming", while finding some of the gameplay repetitious.

Andy Kelly of GamesRadar gave the game 4/5, calling it a "compelling space sandbox" and a "welcome return" of the Elite franchise, but felt that the game at launch was "missing a lot of important features, especially when it comes to multiplayer".

Roger Hargreaves of the Metro gave it 7/10, describing the game as a "solid start" that had yet to fulfil its potential.

Reviewing the game for IGN, Rob Zacny called it "one of the most enthralling and evocative space combat and trade sim games I've ever played" and "also one of the most boring", seeing the balance of "brief, intense emotional peaks and long, shallow valleys of boredom" as "fundamental to Elite's identity".

----------------------------

Op, you are not alone in this. You can see even though in many reviews it got favorable scores, the initial wow factors begins to wear thin against the lack of substance and variety. Everyone sees the potential. It was not the best idea to make it a official release IMO. Not lacking features that would support the marketing of it. Not sure what the rush was. What other game on the market is competing with Elite at this time? Nothing really.

We're all in the same boat, waiting to see how things pan out.