Forum noob: ED is perfect, yet I don't play
- Thread starter Cmdr_Prussian
- Start date
It's a tricky one...
I can't think of another game that works quite like ED, in terms of what it offers to it's player base.
In my experience, modern games deal in 2 criteria. They either provide a set of clear goals or difficulties for the player to surmount, or they're designed to be diversionary - to provide a few minutes entertainment at a time as a filler (typically phone app games).
ED doesn't cater to it's player base at all, and for someone who has become used to games providing the incentive to play, this has got to be a really strange feeling. Even other open world games (Elder Scrolls, The Witcher, Fall Out, GTA) have a plot narrative that draws the player in and offers them goals without the player having to contrive anything. I'd say that it is that element that ED doesn't have.
Personally I don't think that's a bad thing in itself, ED is probably the first pure open world game ever produced, it offers you options, but it's up to the individual to find things that are entertaining for them, the game really doesn't do anything for you. It's a fascinating approach and not one that is going to appeal to everyone. It's not a game element that puts some players off or even a lack of options, but a lack of structure.
Imagine a world where you didn't have to earn money to enjoy your lifestyle, that's pretty much what ED gives you. For those that are happy with their lot after earning relatively small amounts of money, the only incentives left to play are aesthetic, and aestheticism isn't appealing to everyone.
This is a very insightful post, repped.
There are currently hundreds of wars that take place within just one system.
Welcome to the club! Same issues here
I tell you what is missing: the game has no SOUL.
No purpose. You do things for the sake of doing things. No one needs anything in the galaxy. Nothing has any effect on anything. No persistence. No economy. No life. No immersion. It is a 2D cardboard cutout.
This was fun in 1984. But time went on. FD failed to learn anything from the Privateer (immersion) and the X (economy) series. Nowadays, ED is too little too late. Heck, even Frontier and FE had more soul then this chrome zombie.
I stopped playing it a long time ago. If I don't use my imagination, the game is dull and boring. If I use my imagination, the game is crazy restrictive.
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Hey guys,
I am new on these forums but very active on many others including Star Citizen forum.
Now, I have played ED for maybe 10-20 hours, and I often bring it up as an example for an excellent game. However, I have no incentive to play.
I don't know why that is, but the open world feels so disconnected. Doing PVP or generally combat is fun, but fighting just for the sake of fighting gets dull soon.
I have a Viper and I wanna keep it. The only incentive people are playing this is to get the next "better" ship, but I have no interest in an Anaconda etc. I'd be itnerested in cap ships if we wouldnt control them from a forward facing cockpit, but had bridge mechanics instead.
So without the urge to grind for a better ship, I don't know what to do. Tried mining, horribly boring. I like trading, but making a significant profit is very hard with minimal and varying margins, so profiting is hard if you dont have a freighter.
Fighting is great fun, I am hugely successful in it as well but all the combat seems so unbelievable. the "law" killing people over wrong parking and similar stuff.
You just kill people for no reason, this is so counterimmersive.
Missions are made extremely boring, repeating passionless pattern all the time, and the functionality of stations is really limited to landing and takeoff and the station menu.
Powerplay is so abstract it doesnt change anything.
Exploration is generally not so much my thing, and I am actively demotivated to make a trip to Sol for example by the thought of having to fly back should I want to play with friends at some point.
Teamplay has been improved, but there still not much of value you can do.
I guess cooler missions, better teamplay and a faction systems where you can actually take an influence might catch my interest more.
The buggies in horizon look great, but I dont wanna pay again because i dont feel i got my money out of the original game, even though its awesome.
CQC is great fun, but also gets boring quite fast.
This is paradox.
Im constantly quoting ED as a game that is great in almost everythign it does, but I still can't find a reason to play it longer than 20 minutes.
I am an intensive player actually, I have over a 1000 hours of game time in many different games like War Thunder,
so my question is: What do you do to have proper fun with E?
How do you keep your motivation up?
I honestly feel like there is something I am missing because it seems so much like the game of my dreams (I LOVE space sims exactly the style of ED, 4x + multiplayer), yet I just don't find the incentive to play.
Maybe you can help me out?
-Prussian
Looks for me like you are the kind of player that needs to be guided by game what is your next step/mission/objective. In ED, you set them yourself, so do it. Role Play, set some short term goals like go visit certain system, be a space police and hunt pirates and criminals etc, get involved in Community Goals and make a change in Galaxy. Or (what I often do just for the sake of it) find some small, poor, forgotten system in the middle of nowhere where there was no player in last 24h and deliver them food, clothes etc, they need to eat too, right
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Role Play, set some short term goals like go visit certain system:
Sol looks the same as any other system. Betelgeuse looks no different than any other star.
be a space police and hunt pirates and criminals etc.
What is the point? NPCs are not persistent. You kill 1.000.000 and the 1.000.001th will spawn up like nothing happened. The system will not turn from lawless to federation. If you are consistent, you may create a CZ. But RES and CZ points are just another form of endless gauntlets. Enemy will spawn for you to kill until the timer runs out.
find some small, poor, forgotten system in the middle of nowhere where there was no player in last 24h and deliver them food, clothes etc, they need to eat too
No they don't. Any station can go on without food indefinitely.
Sol looks the same as any other system. Betelgeuse looks no different than any other star.
be a space police and hunt pirates and criminals etc.
What is the point? NPCs are not persistent. You kill 1.000.000 and the 1.000.001th will spawn up like nothing happened. The system will not turn from lawless to federation. If you are consistent, you may create a CZ. But RES and CZ points are just another form of endless gauntlets. Enemy will spawn for you to kill until the timer runs out.
find some small, poor, forgotten system in the middle of nowhere where there was no player in last 24h and deliver them food, clothes etc, they need to eat too
No they don't. Any station can go on without food indefinitely.
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Unfortunately I'm having the same problem as you OP. The core gameplay is absolutely fantastic but I'm running out of reasons to log in. I finally got fed up and decided to travel to Sag A but about 10k ly in and I'm getting a little bored. My current solution is just to take a break and play something else (armored warfare ATM). Hopefully you'll find something that keeps you engaged. Seems to be FDs biggest challenge ATM.
This!!
The game is seemingly disconnected from itself. It's lifeless, there is no suspension of disbelief and nothing matters.
Very disappointing indeed.
Well if that's your answer than why you play this game??
I don't. Went back to X3 while I wait for NMS.
Purpose. Where to find it.
I found purpose in devoting my piloting skills to TOoM (The Order of Mobius). It's not just a fictional minor faction, but an actual commander who backed the game accordingly, giving him a spaceport and a minor faction in Azrael system in-game.
Then he created the PvE mode FD couldn't/wouldn't supply. Thus over 13.000 commanders are now playing the game with others instead of against others in Mobius private group.
Mobius PvE gives E: D a sense of purpose for me.
http://elitepve.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4
Fly safe Commander
OMG this explains the orange HUD. Elite Dangerous is a GINGER!!!
It's all down to the lack of persistence and the insignificant effect a player's actions have on the game world. Unless you're trying to flip a system, nothing you do has a long lasting effect (and even flipping a system changes virtually nothing), so the only reason to do something is for the sake of doing that thing. Unfortunately, the gameplay is just not deep enough to make these occupations (trade, combat, mining..) interesting in and of themselves, they keep you occupied for 20 minutes or so and then you have to pause because it's neither very interesting nor challenging (god forbid if we challenge our dear carebears).
Getting involved in a player group will probably help relieve the boredom. Personally I just took to piracy as players tend to make up for the game's lack of complexity and challenge.
Getting involved in a player group will probably help relieve the boredom. Personally I just took to piracy as players tend to make up for the game's lack of complexity and challenge.
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Agree completely. Frontier: Elite with planet landings still has more gameplay than ED does with the whole galaxy. The persistence is missing due to the instancing of everything. Nothing seems real, all for show. But they promise to make it better. The immersion when you first jump in the game is superb. It all looks, acts, feels splendid. Then you decided to scan an NPC who is carrying some wares you'd like to have. You follow him to his destination only to discover he only existed in the SC instance....... Or like traveling several 100ly out to mine alone, never seeing a ship for 10 jumps, find a good resource spot. Still no contacts after traveling in SC for 10 min, and within 5 min several NPC and military ships come from out of no where just to give the player a hard time...................NOT GOOD, immersion breaking mechanics lead to a non-existence instance of immersion due to some very poor choices in design. It's what made the originals great, but is completely lacking in ED.
Perfectly stated CMDR