I love and enjoy elite:dangerous myself and have been trying to get one of my friends to be excited about Elite: Dangerous.. but as someone who has been playing for as long as I have It's difficult to see things from a new player's perspective ..
Here are some concerns I have for Elite's future based on what I believe to be some fundamental flaws that, could, and probably should, be fixed.
(based on my friends first time experiences)
1) Menus.. He said he get's the feeling that he's just flying from port to port checking out variations of the same menus..
I agree.. this is a problem I believe there needs to be a better way of receiving missions .. sitting in your ship while scrolling through a menu is not a very immersive way to do this and it falls short of the production value we see in other aspects of Elite dangerous..
2) Ship customization.. He points out that players should be able to obtain paint jobs another way than real life cash .. he said that he would like to feel more attached to his ship and even name it ..
I could not agree more with this point.. I myself bought paint jobs from the store but NOT because I thought this was a suitable method of obtaining one... I did it because I want to support Elite.. and yeah I wanted to have an attachment to my ship .. but I strongly believe that you should NOT have to pay for such a feeling and it should be part of the game... I would Have much preferred to buy a mug for my tea and obtain the paint job in game somehow .. I believe there should be rare obtainable paintjobs and decals, and so-on. this would also add a valuable gameplay layer.. doing specific missions or accomplishing difficult tasks for the ability to customize your ship more and make it your own..
3) Lore... as a new player he mentioned that there doesn't seem to be any sort of story going on and that he mentioned had not witnessed any sort of lore..
I told him that Elite had a great story and was rich with lore but Had to agree that the world of elite dangerous lacks presentation of this lore..or story.
4) STARTING ZONES..
there appears to be only one system to start in, in elite dangerous.. this is a huge problem.. the systems around there are bogged down with players... I went to meet him in POTRITI and he had to turn in a quest... the small port with 2 or three landing pads was SWARMED with player sidewinders waiting to take a turn to land.
the port was killing them left and right... I witnessed 5-6 sidewinders get shot down by the port before I persuaded him to abandon his quest. and move on to another system. but of course when you're just starting out your jump range is short and fuel store is minimal making travel perilous and for a new player, somewhat absurd..
having additional starting zones would also make players more attached to their own story by getting to choose where they start "for the Empire" or Alliance Or what have you.. it will make for a stronger bond with the chosen power factions and the like... As it is now It feels like you have to "defect" from the Federation if you want to make happy time with the alliance or empire because you are forced to do all your learning and early questing and faction repping in the federal space..
These are things that New players are confronted with when they just start playing Elite.. they often Can't even get into the finer aspects of ED because they give up before they get there.. many of the people who still play Elite are the more stubborn players with more time on our hands to really figure out and understand elite, while the less tenacious players get weeded out in the early stages of learning.
If these fundamental Issues are addressed I believe that Elite: Dangerous would get happier new players, better reviews, and probably profit more so in the long run, while suffering little, if any loss.
please heed my post, I REALLY want ED to succeed I love the work that's been done so far and have High hopes for future development.
Here are some concerns I have for Elite's future based on what I believe to be some fundamental flaws that, could, and probably should, be fixed.
(based on my friends first time experiences)
1) Menus.. He said he get's the feeling that he's just flying from port to port checking out variations of the same menus..
I agree.. this is a problem I believe there needs to be a better way of receiving missions .. sitting in your ship while scrolling through a menu is not a very immersive way to do this and it falls short of the production value we see in other aspects of Elite dangerous..
2) Ship customization.. He points out that players should be able to obtain paint jobs another way than real life cash .. he said that he would like to feel more attached to his ship and even name it ..
I could not agree more with this point.. I myself bought paint jobs from the store but NOT because I thought this was a suitable method of obtaining one... I did it because I want to support Elite.. and yeah I wanted to have an attachment to my ship .. but I strongly believe that you should NOT have to pay for such a feeling and it should be part of the game... I would Have much preferred to buy a mug for my tea and obtain the paint job in game somehow .. I believe there should be rare obtainable paintjobs and decals, and so-on. this would also add a valuable gameplay layer.. doing specific missions or accomplishing difficult tasks for the ability to customize your ship more and make it your own..
3) Lore... as a new player he mentioned that there doesn't seem to be any sort of story going on and that he mentioned had not witnessed any sort of lore..
I told him that Elite had a great story and was rich with lore but Had to agree that the world of elite dangerous lacks presentation of this lore..or story.
4) STARTING ZONES..
there appears to be only one system to start in, in elite dangerous.. this is a huge problem.. the systems around there are bogged down with players... I went to meet him in POTRITI and he had to turn in a quest... the small port with 2 or three landing pads was SWARMED with player sidewinders waiting to take a turn to land.
the port was killing them left and right... I witnessed 5-6 sidewinders get shot down by the port before I persuaded him to abandon his quest. and move on to another system. but of course when you're just starting out your jump range is short and fuel store is minimal making travel perilous and for a new player, somewhat absurd..
having additional starting zones would also make players more attached to their own story by getting to choose where they start "for the Empire" or Alliance Or what have you.. it will make for a stronger bond with the chosen power factions and the like... As it is now It feels like you have to "defect" from the Federation if you want to make happy time with the alliance or empire because you are forced to do all your learning and early questing and faction repping in the federal space..
These are things that New players are confronted with when they just start playing Elite.. they often Can't even get into the finer aspects of ED because they give up before they get there.. many of the people who still play Elite are the more stubborn players with more time on our hands to really figure out and understand elite, while the less tenacious players get weeded out in the early stages of learning.
If these fundamental Issues are addressed I believe that Elite: Dangerous would get happier new players, better reviews, and probably profit more so in the long run, while suffering little, if any loss.
please heed my post, I REALLY want ED to succeed I love the work that's been done so far and have High hopes for future development.
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