Elite boring?

[Xodz]

I spent over £2200 on Kickstarter on Elite. Would I do that again? Not likely. Would I buy this game again, if I hadn't already. Yes.

Where does Ayrues mention it's a failure? I don't feel Elite is a failure. I don't think Ayrues does either.

We just think it could be so much more than what it is. The content will come, no doubt about that, but what good does that do me now?

Are we not entitled to be critical about this game? We were promised a dynamic, evolving universe, where player interaction mattered. As a player, I don't see that anything I do matters. To anyone. Not even myself. I get ranks, I make money. That's it.

To me (and you will find a lot of others that feel the same way) this game is too big for its own good. Foundation is there, but the building is mostly empty.

Elite is good fun. For a while. Then it just gets very very repetitive to me. And that's what I am sad about.

There is too little in this game to keep people playing.

I agree that there is too little to keep a lot of the players playing. I am aware that some people are content with it as it is, but I think there are a whole heck of a lot more who think it could be a lot better.

If I didn't at least partially like the game and think that it could be a whole lot better than it is, I wouldn't even bother taking the time to post on the forums. I think active forums, even if not everyone is agreeing, are a whole lot better than dead forums.

Elite Dangerous is the best space Sim game to be created. Maybe Star Citizen will someday take that title for me but until it is released, it doesn't get my vote. Some people don't like sims. For instance, I can't stand Sim City. I think it is boring but I have nothing against the game. I just don't like third person simulation. But first person sim in space (AKA Elite Dangerous) is a blast for me just the way it is. If they improve it, I'll be elated. If they don't improve it, I'll still play it till my arms wear out.

I can't sit here and say a lot of wonderful things about Star Citizen because it's not released and I don't like that it will allow you to pay real money for advantages (even if it they turn out to be marginal). However, I would not be surprised one bit if many of ED's current unhappy/bored players move there once it is released (or even during the beta stages) because it is actually being built as an MMO with a focus on immersion (content/detail).

 

[KellyR]

I spent over £2200 on Kickstarter on Elite. Would I do that again? Not likely. Would I buy this game again, if I hadn't already. Yes.

Where does Ayrues mention it's a failure? I don't feel Elite is a failure. I don't think Ayrues does either.

We just think it could be so much more than what it is. The content will come, no doubt about that, but what good does that do me now?

Are we not entitled to be critical about this game? We were promised a dynamic, evolving universe, where player interaction mattered. As a player, I don't see that anything I do matters. To anyone. Not even myself. I get ranks, I make money. That's it.

To me (and you will find a lot of others that feel the same way) this game is too big for its own good. Foundation is there, but the building is mostly empty.

Elite is good fun. For a while. Then it just gets very very repetitive to me. And that's what I am sad about.

There is too little in this game to keep people playing.

I didn't realize you had spent so much. For that amount of money, I would agree you have a right to expect more. Maybe the day will come when I will get bored, but I just don't see it happening. Maybe I was born before my time, but something about flying around in a spacecraft just feels right. But I do agree the making a difference isn't there yet. But I suspect that no one will make a huge difference (to anyone but themselves) even when they get the content added. But they will make a difference.

 

[PotatoOverdose]

Star Citizen ... because it is actually being built as an MMO ...

You do know that the plan for star citizen multiplayer is to run on independant dedicated servers with a tiny player cap, right? Star citizen will be as much an mmo as counterstrike or team fortress 2. Even elite will be more "mmo" than Star Citizen. Hell, even battlefield 4 will support more people per dedicated server too.


Don't get me wrong, star citizen will be great (when it releases the open world module in 2020), but if you're looking for an mmo, an mmo star citizen is not.

 

[Xodz]

You do know that the plan for star citizen multiplayer is to run on independant dedicated servers with a tiny player cap, right? Star citizen will be as much an mmo as counterstrike or team fortress 2. Even elite will be more "mmo" than Star Citizen. Hell, even battlefield 4 will support more people per dedicated server too.


Don't get me wrong, star citizen will be great (when it releases the open world module in 2020), but if you're looking for an mmo, an mmo star citizen is not.

That is not entirely correct, as far as I know.

There will be instancing, just like there is in ED, I think the talk is there is a cap of 50-100 or so players per instance. However, just like ED the universe will be persistent and everyone will be in the same universe. That is unless you decide you want a private server, which you will be able to do. Private servers won't be like ED's "group" feature, private servers will be completely separate universes.

When I said it was being built as an MMO, I meant that it was being built with enough content and features to entertain a massive amount of players at the same time (the focus on immersion and content I mentioned), something ED is lacking (just look at the forums).

 

[Ian Phillips]

This is not the thread for discussing Star Citizen.
That discussion can be found here: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=57576

 

[Fangrim]

I didn't realize you had spent so much. For that amount of money, I would agree you have a right to expect more. Maybe the day will come when I will get bored, but I just don't see it happening. Maybe I was born before my time, but something about flying around in a spacecraft just feels right. But I do agree the making a difference isn't there yet. But I suspect that no one will make a huge difference (to anyone but themselves) even when they get the content added. But they will make a difference.

How could you have known? ;o)

I dunno... *sigh* I don't regret donating all that money, on the other hand, I wouldn't do it again. Hard to explain.

I love flying my ship, I love to explore/fight/trade, but I just need something to keep me interested. The community goal events have been kinda "meh!" to me - just another trade grind, wrapped in a "Build a new station and see it happening!"-wrapper.

I want special stuff, rewards, unique items. I don't care that everyone can do the same missions as me and get them, but I need something to make it all worth it.

Seeing yet another star system (ie a gathering of huge fireballs with some large spheres orbiting them) is just... old. It's the same as all the thousands of others I've already seen.
Fighting yet another enemy, for no reason whatsoever. Ooo he's a pirate?! Just like every other red blip on my radar. Oh wait! Didn't I kill this NPC 3 minutes ago? Back then he was Harmless, now he's Dangerous. And in a smaller ship!
Oooo! A good trade route! Now I can make 5 million/hour, compared to 4 million/hour on my old one. This means that I only have to grind 80% of the time I had to before! I still do the same though.
Ooooo! An undiscovered system! Let me scan it, and hope I return home to a station in time for me to be registrered as First Discoverer. Same as every other John Doe.

Galnet News offers some variety, but in the end, nothing you do matters. To you, to the system you're in, to anyone else, to the evolving galaxy.

The only evolving that happens in this galaxy is when some event is manually inserted by Frontier, and proclaimed in the newsletters. Then everyone swarms around this event like flies on dung, but after it's gone... Forgotten as soon as we turn off the PC.

Meh!

 

[NeilF]

How could you have known? ;o)

I dunno... *sigh* I don't regret donating all that money, on the other hand, I wouldn't do it again. Hard to explain.

I love flying my ship, I love to explore/fight/trade, but I just need something to keep me interested. The community goal events have been kinda "meh!" to me - just another trade grind, wrapped in a "Build a new station and see it happening!"-wrapper.

I want special stuff, rewards, unique items. I don't care that everyone can do the same missions as me and get them, but I need something to make it all worth it.

Seeing yet another star system (ie a gathering of huge fireballs with some large spheres orbiting them) is just... old. It's the same as all the thousands of others I've already seen.
Fighting yet another enemy, for no reason whatsoever. Ooo he's a pirate?! Just like every other red blip on my radar. Oh wait! Didn't I kill this NPC 3 minutes ago? Back then he was Harmless, now he's Dangerous. And in a smaller ship!
Oooo! A good trade route! Now I can make 5 million/hour, compared to 4 million/hour on my old one. This means that I only have to grind 80% of the time I had to before! I still do the same though.
Ooooo! An undiscovered system! Let me scan it, and hope I return home to a station in time for me to be registrered as First Discoverer. Same as every other John Doe.

Galnet News offers some variety, but in the end, nothing you do matters. To you, to the system you're in, to anyone else, to the evolving galaxy.

The only evolving that happens in this galaxy is when some event is manually inserted by Frontier, and proclaimed in the newsletters. Then everyone swarms around this event like flies on dung, but after it's gone... Forgotten as soon as we turn off the PC.

Meh!

Your comments are very blunt and harsh... But there's a solid core of truth to them IMHO.

I created this thread within about a month of the game being released because of the very sort of points you raise - https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=95448

 

[kreuzbichler]

The only evolving that happens in this galaxy is when some event is manually inserted by Frontier, and proclaimed in the newsletters. Then everyone swarms around this event like flies on dung, but after it's gone... Forgotten as soon as we turn off the PC.

Meh!

I don´t get these events either, really don´t. So instead of shipping random things to random planets we ship specific stuff to a specific location, then someone pushes a button and a space station appears, or a famine is over. Guess I´m lacking "imagination" to find this immersive, or fun.

 

[cpbtrading]

How could you have known? ;o)

I dunno... *sigh* I don't regret donating all that money, on the other hand, I wouldn't do it again. Hard to explain.

I love flying my ship, I love to explore/fight/trade, but I just need something to keep me interested. The community goal events have been kinda "meh!" to me - just another trade grind, wrapped in a "Build a new station and see it happening!"-wrapper.

I want special stuff, rewards, unique items. I don't care that everyone can do the same missions as me and get them, but I need something to make it all worth it.

Seeing yet another star system (ie a gathering of huge fireballs with some large spheres orbiting them) is just... old. It's the same as all the thousands of others I've already seen.
Fighting yet another enemy, for no reason whatsoever. Ooo he's a pirate?! Just like every other red blip on my radar. Oh wait! Didn't I kill this NPC 3 minutes ago? Back then he was Harmless, now he's Dangerous. And in a smaller ship!
Oooo! A good trade route! Now I can make 5 million/hour, compared to 4 million/hour on my old one. This means that I only have to grind 80% of the time I had to before! I still do the same though.
Ooooo! An undiscovered system! Let me scan it, and hope I return home to a station in time for me to be registrered as First Discoverer. Same as every other John Doe.

Galnet News offers some variety, but in the end, nothing you do matters. To you, to the system you're in, to anyone else, to the evolving galaxy.

The only evolving that happens in this galaxy is when some event is manually inserted by Frontier, and proclaimed in the newsletters. Then everyone swarms around this event like flies on dung, but after it's gone... Forgotten as soon as we turn off the PC.

Meh!

Penny dropped.. or in this case lots of pennies.

I haven't touched the game since last November. As it is, its not worth much time, because you sum it up very well, once you've played for a certain amount of time, you simply start repeating the same things over and over. Lets be honest, its pretty shallow.
.
However.
.
My take on it is, they're working on the dlc's, well one at least. But I think that is going to be 'quite' a release, when they decide to go public with it. Why do I think this.. Well after the 'SP' mode issue, I think they thought to themselves, they'd say nothing, until whatever it is they're working on, is well and truly ready for release.
Its been four months since the release and nothing major has occurred. But I do think they're doing something that may change your, my, and many other players mind/views. I only think this, I don't know for certain, but something is niggling away in my mind about ED. I keep coming back to this thought. Maybe its my last grasp of hope, but I do think something is coming within the next couple of months. Hopefully its not a stamp saying, 'Game Complete'.

 

[GiT]

I find the game both addictive and frustrating at times.. especially with Assassin missions which appear to be bugged when you get an alternate target (fed only)

 

[nosscar]

I find the same problem, although during beta, and launch, i was totally addicted, and loved this game, i have found that now when i log on, i get bored quickly, i have tried and done most things in the game, and i find it lacking that "thing" that keeps me hooked, like i have found in other game's. Great game, just lacking that "thing", hard to explain it.

 

[KellyR]

I find the same problem, although during beta, and launch, i was totally addicted, and loved this game, i have found that now when i log on, i get bored quickly, i have tried and done most things in the game, and i find it lacking that "thing" that keeps me hooked, like i have found in other game's. Great game, just lacking that "thing", hard to explain it.

Well, that "thing", to me, is flying around in space. I don't get bored. But I do know that I have to know when to say when; otherwise, I will get burnt out. Did that once. Played for 9 hours straight. And didn't play again for about 4 days; just had no desire. On the 4th day though, I started jonesing for my "space fix". So I don't play for long periods of time in a session. 2 to 4 hours max.

But like I said, I'm not that worried about getting the biggest, baddest ship. My goal is a Python, but it will be a while before I get it. And that's fine. I'll appreciate it a lot more than if it was just handed to me.

 

[kreuzbichler]

Lets be honest, its pretty shallow.
.
However.
.
My take on it is, they're working on the dlc's

there is not the slightest hint on any DLC, this is rather mythology at this point and I wonder why DLC gets thrown in as excuse for the shallow release version.
EA wouldn´t get that kind of excuse for selling a full price game with missing content then make paid DLCs which should be part of the base game in the first place

 

[SteveLaw]

there is not the slightest hint on any DLC, this is rather mythology at this point and I wonder why DLC gets thrown in as excuse for the shallow release version.
EA wouldn´t get that kind of excuse for selling a full price game with missing content then make paid DLCs which should be part of the base game in the first place

EA wouldn't share their plans for the game before release so that players have a yardstick with which to measure what's missing or not. Different context.

 

[Moriarte]

I find the same problem, although during beta, and launch, i was totally addicted, and loved this game, i have found that now when i log on, i get bored quickly, i have tried and done most things in the game, and i find it lacking that "thing" that keeps me hooked, like i have found in other game's. Great game, just lacking that "thing", hard to explain it.

It lacks economy, and, hence, re-playability. When you fix prices, supply and demand, the whole thing turns into a theme park. If, on the other hand, you quantify everything and tie in politics with production capacity, prices, supply, demand, ships' production, and, thus, hand the galaxy to the players, infinite possibilities for emergent gameplay will arise, in a natural way. But it's next to impossible to quantify everything because of the instancing and different layers (open/solo/groups) and other networking architecture (cheap one) considerations. So, here we are - linear missions, community goals, bring X cargo and we'll name the station after your cat. Great game for kids. Older ones will find it boring, eventually.

Just my view. I understand that some people are after sights, Saggitarius A and all, but for me this is, was since E2F, and will always remain - economical/space flight simulator.. without the economy.

Personally, I've let it go and will give it a serious spin once planetary landings arrive - I feel that might turn out awesome.

 

[Garik]

The game is hamstrung. Since the original "Elite" there are other games that have taken the genre forward. Added ideas, some good, some bad......the genre has evolved.

By sticking to the original ethos of the game the developers have created an evolutionary throwback. And by refusing to adopt the good ideas developed by others games that have been released since 1984 they have shut down nearly every avenue that would lead to further NEW creative ideas. A game concept that was new and exciting in 1984 is not going to cut the mustard in 2015....There is not one gameplay element in ED that other games haven't done better.

It looks good and it's big but that's all.

As for planetary landing as a purchased addon....wishful thinking. The program writing required would be massive time and money wise and not worth doing unless it offered a significant amount of NEW gameplay. Those that cannot afford to buy or are unwilling to buy would be disadvantaged....so it would have to be a completely new game.

I've played other games to death and walked away from them feeling "Yes, that was a good game but it's time to move on". With ED I'm walking away disappointed and not optimistic.

 

[NeilF]

Those that cannot afford to buy or are unwilling to buy would be disadvantaged....so it would have to be a completely new game.

How so? Let's speculate. If you have the planetary landing DLC you can go down to planets and you are offered and can undertake associated missions/tasks.

If you do not have the planetary landing DLC you cannot go down to planets (behaves as currently), and you are not offered nor can undertake associated missions/tasks.

How is it a disadvantage (for non purchasers) only being able to do what you can before the DLC is released?



I concur the only purpose for such a DLC would be is if it adds/introduces huge new interesting game mechanics and gameplay elements. If it's just a glorified place to dock, then oh dear!

 

[Varrag]

Problem with planetary landing DLC (and all other major DLCs) is time. I think it's not realistic to expect that we will see that this year, or if we do, it's going be be the most basic stuff like landing on pre-defined spots (pads) on barren, airless planets. Basically we'll get a station on the ground and nothing else.

Time is problem because ED has small replay value atm. Give it a few weeks, a month maybe, and you've seen and done pretty much everything there is - it only gets repetitive from that point and majority of players are tempted to leave, or at least to put it on hold. However, once people walk away from your game, it gets harder and harder to pull them back as the time passes.

 

[stevie the music man]

I couldn't care less about planetary landings until what's already there in the game is fixed properly by making EVERYTHING truely dynamic with how you interact with it. With what's there already working properly, adding station walk abouts and plantery landings will then add massively. But with the current game mechanics, it's just another pretty picture with no interaction as per previous posts.

 

[NeilF]

Time is problem because ED has very small replayability value atm. Give it a few weeks, or a month, and you've seen and done pretty much everything there is - it only gets repetitive from that point. Once people walk away from your game, it gets harder and harder to pull them back as the time passes.

I believe I'm at that point...

I was discussing the graphics stuttering problem on the forum and wanted to test something, but realised I couldn't even be bothered to run the game and do the 2 min flight to the nearby RES area... I literally see no facet of the game that interests me (much) at the moment:-
- Trading: I found trading a necessary evil a lot of the time. While I periodically enjoyed it, it was always a means to earn the CR to pay for other things. I have more than enough CR now.
- Combat: To this day I'll swear the combat was more interesting in the early alpha/beta stages. It was deep and engaging. Add to this the problem that NPCs just don't offer a challenge. We see people proclaim in glee on this forum how their new Vulture took out an Anaconda easily... Is that really a good thing? Simply sitting in a RES or NAV beacon blowing up ship after ship after ship? Is that as deep as it gets? Add to this wings literally making a CMDRs life even easier. Why go up against an Anaconda alone when four of you can gang up and make it even easier!
- Mining: Not tried it. Doesn't appeal to be at all.
- Piracy: Not tried it. Doesn't appeal to be at all.
- Exploration: Spent a few weeks exploring, but I know if I went from one side of the ED galaxy to the other, I would not witness anything I haven't already. So why go? And before people talk about "the challenge", I see little challenge in getting somewhere that we know anyone can get to with nothing more than the dedication to press "H" enough times.

It will be interesting to see what tomorrow's announcement is... but I suspect my copy of the game is headed for mothballs in the the hope later this year/next year, the depth it needs will finally be there... Fingers crossed!