The core gameplay is boring

[Ignition]

The core of Diablo is just to kill monsters over and over again, collect items and level up so you can simply repeat it all over again.
The core of angry birds is to fling your birds at stuff over and over again in slightly different ways.
The core of Counterstrike is just to pew-pew at other players over and over again.

And yet, each is (or was) a seriously addictive game that is/was very popular.

Most games at their core are fairly basic and repetitive.

At least with ED you are not fixed into doing a single type of task repetitively. You are free to chop and change as much as you like, and when that gets a little tiring, you can always go and do some pew-pew in CQC if that is your thing.

Yes yes, most games are repetitive. But they have something that makes it fun. I said it, I don't mind to do repetitive tasks while those tasks are engaging and complex enough, but I dont enjoy the simplicity of the gameplay of ED.

As I said earlier in another post:

"Imagine if you could only play as 1 profession. Could you play this game only as miner/explorer/trader/combat for a reasonable period of time? lets say a few weeks for example. Just one of those. It would be engaging enough to play it or you will be tempted to do another one? I gues the mojority of players wont enjoy it. Thats why people change their activities all the time.

But what would happen if that activity could be more challenging, complex and deep. With dynamic scenarios where you need to adapt, with more equipemnt and tools which require you to operate them with their own mechanics. Something where you don't know what the outcome would be when you enter the instance because of the dynamic aspect of it.
Then Im sure you will be playing that profession a lot longer.
Maybe combat is the most "dynamic" where you are actually doing something.

Its a challenge I know, but doing the game bigger wont change the real nature of the game."

 

[rootsrat]

Oh man I love KSP. It's still the game I have the most hours in.



I know what you are trying to do, but saying there's no depth in KSP is ridiculous. I've probably spent more time in the construction screen alone than in all of ED.

CMDR CTCParadox

Good for you, glad you enjoy it.

I didn't find it engaging at all, tried 3 times...

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

"Imagine if you could only play as 1 profession."

A wise man once said

You did that when you were a kid and imagined a wooden stick would be the controls of a star ship.

 

[Jex =TE=]

Everything changed soon after Braben collected the KS backers money ... when he sold a load of the company to stock exchange investors.



So how come the game and the company are in such a mess?

Can you cite your sources?

 

[rootsrat]

What and where are these wars you speak of?

I don't see instances of players battling it out in space for control of a station. Nor do I see stations and their security forces being attacked and taken over by players for their factions.


Damned.... FD should include stuff like this in a game.

Player controlled factions were only introduced recently. Give it some time. The factions will expand to nearby systems and sooner or later they will meet and start batting for control.

It's only a matter of time.

Even now I know of a at least 2 factions that ALREADY had to fight with other factions for system control.

Our initial home-system turned out to be an expansion target for another faction. The matter was solved via diplomatic channels and no conflict emerged luckily. It could have been an all out war otherwise (they have over a 100 players and so do we). Granted, in instances, as that's how Elite works, but still an all out war.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

"Imagine if you could only play as 1 profession. Could you play this game only as miner/explorer/trader/combat for a reasonable period of time? lets say a few weeks for example. Just one of those. It would be engaging enough to play it or you will be tempted to do another one?

Two words: Distant Worlds

Journey time to the far side, at least 3 months from start date. The space madness is setting in, but its ok, i've got my giant invisible space hamster to keep me company, and we get to have meet ups at each waypoint and do crazy stuff like build giant towers of spaceships or play bumper cars with SRVs.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Two words: Distant Worlds

Journey time to the far side, at least 3 months from start date. The space madness is setting in, but its ok, i've got my giant invisible space hamster to keep me company, and we get to have meet ups at each waypoint and do crazy stuff like build giant towers of spaceships or play bumper cars with SRVs.

And it shows that player driven events are not only possible in Elite, but also can be epic fun.

Erimus and Dr Kaii didn't depend on Frontier to organise it but took matters into their own hands.

Point is, the core game is the building blocks. What you do with them is up to you.

 

[dxm55]

No, they really shouldn't

Erm... you do know what I'm talking about exactly don't you?

It's not about players taking over the station for themselves. It's about players attacking the station and taking over it for their faction .... ie. Flipping a Fed station to Empire by destroying its defences and then landing inside.

 

[Jex =TE=]

I thought the same about a lot of other games. Some of them I've put in hundreds or thousands of hours. WoW, Rift, SWTOR, World of tanks, Insurgency. They all have the same thing in common. Kill mobs, get new gear, kill mobs. WoW is really 'collect X tulip petals' or kill re-skinned BOSS 23 - all of them with variably stupid NPCs or artificial mechanics to make them seem harder. In most of them you can't affect the game in any way at all. In most games you only have 1 thing to do - kill enemy tanks, kill enemy shooters. The DayZ Arma mod was probably the closest to being originally interesting but even there your ability to affect the environment only lasted until the next server reset (although personal bases were interesting even if they did attract people who wanted to get shot).

If you look at the core activities of so many games they are limited to only a few things. ED is no different so I don't understand what you are saying except pointing out the obvious. It's a game.

Because all the games you listed (except Wow just kidding....maybe) have depth of gameplay. Insurgency against the AI is a huge challenge and a lot of fun. There's hundreds of maps for it and you can play tvt as well with great gameplay mechanics. WOT is TVT and whilst not my cup of tea, I did play a little, as well as world of warships and armoured warfare. They're fun games with good mechanics as well but are all TVT games whereas ED is PVE. DayZ was actually epic in it's day.

The difference here is that not one of these games puts you into a bubble of never ending, pointless AI to shoot at. None of them have you running back and forth between 2 points pressing "+" or "-" at either end and then repeating that drivel another 100 times, then 1000, then 10,000.

 

[rootsrat]

To be entirely fair though, I think it greatly depends on your play-style. At this moment Elite is more suited for multiplayer fun with self-engineered events and goals, while the single player aspect MAY get boring after a while. I think we've all had our moments of burn out. For me the game changed completely when I founded a minor faction and started pursuing our own agenda and story in game.

I can definitely see, how the game can get a bit dull if someone plays it alone all the time, unless they're willing to engage imagination and create their own story for themselves.

Saying all that, I repeat: for me, self-created story was always the essence of Elite games.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Erm... you do know what I'm talking about exactly don't you?

It's not about players taking over the station for themselves. It's about players attacking the station and taking over it for their faction .... ie. Flipping a Fed station to Empire by destroying its defences and then landing inside.

I'm fine with that. Only if I'm able to 'attack' the station with my exploration data causing the same result.

I know exactly what you're talking about, and my objection remains the same.

 

[dxm55]

Player controlled factions were only introduced recently. Give it some time. The factions will expand to nearby systems and sooner or later they will meet and start batting for control.

It's only a matter of time.

Even now I know of a at least 2 factions that ALREADY had to fight with other factions for system control.

Our initial home-system turned out to be an expansion target for another faction. The matter was solved via diplomatic channels and no conflict emerged luckily. It could have been an all out war otherwise (they have over a 100 players and so do we). Granted, in instances, as that's how Elite works, but still an all out war.

No. I'm not talking about Player minor faction. I was more along the lines of all out war between the major factions.

Empire/Fed border worlds breaking out in wars, where every ship in the system gets a LAWLESS status, allowing for a free for all in the system. Stations go into lockdown, or whatever state that renders trade useless.

And instead of flipping the system by boring trade wars, missions can be based around attacking a station and its defences directly with the aim of forcibly landing inside to flip it.

Or perhaps scripted missions like escorting a squadron of NPC FDS'es and protecting them until they storm a station or settlement. Something along those lines.

 

[NeilF]

When I say this game has very basic gameplay people say to me that what I really want is a story driven game, I don't know why they say this because what I say is really clear...

That's why I open this thread because I don't want to talk about a story:

The core of the game: Combat, Trade, Exploration and Mining are very basic, very easy, simplistic and short.

Everything in this game revolves in those 4 activities, Community Goals, Wings and Powerplay included but there wasn't new content in the core gameplay.

And thats why people say there are very little things to do because its true, its always the same recycled basic tasks.
The basic activities are really short and simple, you can learn all from the begining and the only thing that will change is the ship you use, then is a matter of repeat those simple tasks until bored.

I don't mind to do repetitive things when the gameplay is fun!

I know there will be people who will say "this game is not for you move along" "don't come to the forums to say bad things about the game", but I have hope in this game.

In this game you choose an instance and the difficulty, it never ends, it has no goals and you know the outcome of it. The gameplay doesn't have variety and surprises and has no challenge specially in exploration and mining.

The mechanics are so simple that anyone can play it, from a kid to an older guy. Thats not bad but the game has no depth so when you learn how to play thats it, you're done. The gameplay doesn't go further.

It does feel somewhat like a bunch of mini-games bolted togethor with little/no depth and cause and effect...

 

[Kenaz]

It's not my fault people like you spew literally the same dumb statements all the time.

Like others have pointed out, you're not really interested in discussion or communication so much as a desperate attempt at one way verbal beating of other people into submission of your minority opinion.

like the public school teacher that told my friend, "Your opinion is wrong!" followed by 5 seconds of silence and then everyone in the class laughing simultaneous to her complete loss of any form of authority for the rest of the year. You're confusing truth with opinion and pretty much the result is no one is no longer taking you seriously.

Hopefully though, you're only consciously doing that because of the anonymity the boards provide you. because you cannot keep friends that way IRL.

Truth btw, requires mathematical derivations or data, and you've only provided other opinions and anecdotes at best, and the plural of anecdote is not data.

I'm not so worried about your opinion on me. Esp after you spewed things like a combat AspX has 30ly jump range and hull tank FDL has a 5ly jump range without any data. I'm actually more worried of your ability to keep lifelong friends and your ability to live a happy life without constantly needing validation from others

 

[Jex =TE=]

Some players want to follow scripted stories. Some players are just happy to play a farming game. Not everyone wants to make an impact, or have another player or group's impact affect their game.

Elite Dangerous Farming Simulator: Skyrim Edition?

 

[tough boy]

I get up, go to work, come back, eat and sleep. Everything in my life revolves around these four things. Is my life boring? No, it most certainly isn't. I might have to try extreme sleeping.....

Well, guess what? It's because in real life those four activities can actually be very different every time you do it. It isn't so in Elite: Dangerous so far.

 

[rootsrat]

No. I'm not talking about Player minor faction. I was more along the lines of all out war between the major factions.

Empire/Fed border worlds breaking out in wars, where every ship in the system gets a LAWLESS status, allowing for a free for all in the system. Stations go into lockdown, or whatever state that renders trade useless.

And instead of flipping the system by boring trade wars, missions can be based around attacking a station and its defences directly with the aim of forcibly landing inside to flip it.

Or perhaps scripted missions like escorting a squadron of NPC FDS'es and protecting them until they storm a station or settlement. Something along those lines.

So let me get this right. You want more things to do and more (hostile or not, not the point) interaction between players to make the game more interesting, but when Frontier offers exactly that, it's still bad, because it's not the way YOU want it?

Perhaps apply for a designer role at Frontier and fix this for yourself? But then bear in mind, there are 1 399 999 other players that have their own vision of the game and you'll need to cater to their needs, dreams and desires too...

 

[Cynaqq]

Erm... you do know what I'm talking about exactly don't you?

It's not about players taking over the station for themselves. It's about players attacking the station and taking over it for their faction .... ie. Flipping a Fed station to Empire by destroying its defences and then landing inside.

But it doesn't make any sense that way. Do you have any idea how many people actually live inside the stations? even if you went there with enough players to occupy all docking pads, it would be a bit funny that the station should change hands.

What now happens is much more logical lore wise. Factions push each other primarily by economic influence and wars is a way to apply economic pressure instead of actual occupation. What you describe would be viable on a totally different game design which need to support such mechanics from ground up. Also, the end result would be too chaotic because every two days stations would be changing hands. Even depending on the time zones players are living in. Another problem is the people who use the station at that time who has no intention of any fight but only is there to trade. How will it affect their game? How about people in other instances or even playing in Solo? Will they suddenly see the station defenses go offline and voice packs change without any fighting whatsoever? Or should the game spawn an NPC fight outside the station for everyone who isn't in a fighting instance for that same station at that moment so they'll know there is an assault going on?

 

[Ignition]

A wise man once said

don't quote a tiny part of the phrase please.

And answer the whole paragraph. thaks.

 

[cyberus]

When I say this game has very basic gameplay people say to me that what I really want is a story driven game, I don't know why they say this because what I say is really clear...

That's why I open this thread because I don't want to talk about a story:

The core of the game: Combat, Trade, Exploration and Mining are very basic, very easy, simplistic and short.

Everything in this game revolves in those 4 activities, Community Goals, Wings and Powerplay included but there wasn't new content in the core gameplay.

And thats why people say there are very little things to do because its true, its always the same recycled basic tasks.
The basic activities are really short and simple, you can learn all from the begining and the only thing that will change is the ship you use, then is a matter of repeat those simple tasks until bored.

I don't mind to do repetitive things when the gameplay is fun!

I know there will be people who will say "this game is not for you move along" "don't come to the forums to say bad things about the game", but I have hope in this game.

In this game you choose an instance and the difficulty, it never ends, it has no goals and you know the outcome of it. The gameplay doesn't have variety and surprises and has no challenge specially in exploration and mining.

The mechanics are so simple that anyone can play it, from a kid to an older guy. Thats not bad but the game has no depth so when you learn how to play thats it, you're done. The gameplay doesn't go further.

I have disagree and agree with you OP.
The game is and was advertised as a sandbox. So by difinition the sandbox means that the design provide you enough "sand" to create your own " sandcastle ".
So adding " lead by hand features " is no go for me and a lot of ppl here.

But!!!!!..... The FD lacked the feature of add enough "wet sand" to build the "castle" so we basically ended up so far with " dry sand " which limit us to create enough own content to play with.

So basically you have the point.... But differently how it supposed to be.