I just posted this in another thread but got the impression it might warrant its own thread and discussion, so here I go.
I do like the game a lot and enjoy playing it, but my main concern about Elite: Dangerous is that the increased focus on multiplayer content seems to reduce the resources spend on developing content that would benefit everyone, from "solo" over "private group" to "open" mode players.
Two very good examples for this are some major updates from season 1 and season 2:
FD stating that the ED community is great and that player groups are providing needed variety and content is a cheap excuse for not being able to provide this content themselves, IMHO. Adding NPCs to those mechanics mentioned above - crews and wings - would already alleviate this perceived problem of missing content. It would become much easier for everyone - including players in multiplayer modes - to take advantage of and enjoy the multicrew and wings gameplay mechancis.
Don't get me wrong, I think ED is a terrific game and Horizons is one hell of an achievement for the devs - kudos again to them! - but I fear the development focus goes in a direction where the possibility to enjoy everything the game has to offer without the need of teaming up with other players is lost.
I do like the game a lot and enjoy playing it, but my main concern about Elite: Dangerous is that the increased focus on multiplayer content seems to reduce the resources spend on developing content that would benefit everyone, from "solo" over "private group" to "open" mode players.
Two very good examples for this are some major updates from season 1 and season 2:
- In Season 1 we got Wings with the 1.2 release of ED, but contrary to many players expectations and to what other games provide, the option to enlist NPC wingmen instead of players wasn't included. Even worse, neither David Braben himself nor the developers wanted to confirm that NPC wingmen for hire would indeed come during season 2. So we might reach the year 2017 without the option to hire NPC wingmen - a basic mechanic that you have in nearly every other space flight game, and not only the new ones, but even those released decades ago like X-Wing Alliance or Starlancer. In ED, update 1.2 and Wings are basically meaningless for players in solo mode, and even in open or private group modes it requires coordination, aligning schedules with other players etc. to take advantage of this mechanic.
- In Season 2 we are going to get Multicrews, a concept I like in principle, but that again will be restricted to players (granted - Michael Brookes said NPC groups might come in a later season, but this is hardly an announcement and not even a confirmation). This case baffles me especially, since I believe that NPCs are much, much better suited for the role of crewmembers than other players. Players need to be entertained, e.g. they need something to do that let's them stick to the game. Right now, it's already easy to manage your ship alone and people complain about SC being void of anything to do. If ship management for individual players is watered down further by distributing these not to complex states among multiple players, I don't see how this might address the concerns about not having enough to do in the game.
FD stating that the ED community is great and that player groups are providing needed variety and content is a cheap excuse for not being able to provide this content themselves, IMHO. Adding NPCs to those mechanics mentioned above - crews and wings - would already alleviate this perceived problem of missing content. It would become much easier for everyone - including players in multiplayer modes - to take advantage of and enjoy the multicrew and wings gameplay mechancis.
Don't get me wrong, I think ED is a terrific game and Horizons is one hell of an achievement for the devs - kudos again to them! - but I fear the development focus goes in a direction where the possibility to enjoy everything the game has to offer without the need of teaming up with other players is lost.
