A Game At Odds with Itself and Why

You have brought up very valid points that im sure many players that appreciate enjoyable aspects that are in the game
have and continue to feel.

What would be the top 5 things you would change/ impliment?
 
Then E: D isn't the game for you. Time to go find something that you can "do stuff" in. That will leave folks like me who have played this game, two hours minimum every night for a year, and still have no issues staying busy.
Don't worry, people are already leaving in droves, if the general reception is anything to go by. By the looks of it, people with vivid imagination won't be able to keep the game afloat for the simple reason that there aren't that many of them.
 
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Playing it. Without the skill to pilot a ship you cant pilot a ship. Without the skill to press the start button you cannot start the Game even :D
OK that gave me a giggle ;) But I hope my point came across correctly - I cannot think of a single activity in Elite that I could not teach my 8 year old nephew within ten minutes. In fact I have tried and failed as he grasps it all without fail.

For me the issue is that the game promised to be a complex space/galaxy simulation of sorts, aimed at an adult audience. So some of us expected this, in space:
chess.jpg

What we ended up with was this, in space... which seems to be enough for some, but it is growing thin for me and many others.
hammer.jpg

There is no denying that Elite is a technical masterpiece, the graphics are great, the universe is great, the sound, lighting, atmosphere, everything is excellent. But if all we can do is fly around and hammer the same five shapes through the same five holes with various different justifications and rewards, well then I for one will get bored quickly...
 
But there is loads to do.

However, not everything will interest everyone and someone who has played the game for months and months will have potentially depleted the value of the activities they enjoy, to the point where they feel there's nothing left to do.

Furthermore, what there is to do can be significantly improved and expanded upon, in addition to having new things to do in top of what we have.

So if your thread is intending to assert this "paradigm" where FD will never add more content or improve existing content purely on the basis that you think David is wrong, deluded in thinking nothing more need be added to the game, then the thread is baseless.

We get it. The game needs more content and the existing content needs to be improved. I am not playing right now because I'm waiting for the major updates, for example. But trying to impose a critical, near-doomsday scenario where the entire game's self-indulgent constitution threatens to rot itself from the inside out, just to generate discussion on that topic itself, isn't constructive.

How about some suggestions on what would make things better? And no, I don't see "remove your rose tinted glasses" as a very helpful suggestion.
 
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To the OP: This game hasn't been boring one minute to me. You're in the wrong game.

(Nope, I'm not one of those fanboys, look at all my complaints about bugs, crashed and support. It's just: You're so plain wrong in this game. Get something that you really want, not one that doesn't fit your needs at all.)
 
I only read half of your post because life is too short, as it is to travel with tiny jump ranges in powerful ships and waste hours travelling to locations, only to find I can't see other commanders because of instancing. Here's my wishlist:
Double the jump ranges.
Make SC travel just that bit quicker.
Create a cruise control so that deactivates when interdicted with a warning, so I don't waste so much of my valuable free time :D
 
The game is disconnected between what you can do (which is significant IMO) and why you are doing it (which is not significant). There is no why or reason to do things. They have enough to do in the game they just need to add more reasons to do it. The "packaging" of why you are doing things is also lacking. 2.1 may help in this regard.

The missions are generic and lifeless and I think most only do them for rank or credits. Again 2.1 may help. But I doubt the actual missions mechanics will change.
 
But there is loads to do.
I think I get what causes the disconnect on this issue. As an explorer I feel my first trip to Pleiades was completely different to my second trip to Lagoon, Trifid and Omega and different to my trip to Saggy A, and different to my Orca Sightseeing Trip. Someone who isn't into exploring sees all those as a succession of: jump, scoop, honk ad nauseum.

Maybe someone likes to take long walks and enjoy the scenery. Someone who doesn't will see it as, put on foot down, shift weight, move other foot, put it down, ad nauseum.
Doesn't mean that some, especially those who commited a lot of time to the game, don't want to participate in general discussion about it.
Then they're not in one of the droves that left the game.
 
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Barnacles are once done.

Pirating - which is barely worthwhile if at all - and even more so, Bounty Hunting, are both Combat. As is CQC. I did list Combat.

Power Play - aside from being boring and woefully underdeveloped - is either Delivering Goods, or Combat. Both listed.

Do you get it yet? The problem, I mean? Attaching a different progress to the same activity does not make it something different to do. A difference exists between doing something different, and doing the same thing for different reasons. This is something gaming as an industry struggles to understand but badly needs to realize.

Edit: I also listed scavenging, as both pointless and boring, in my opinion. And frequently immersion wrecking to boot.

Scavenging isn't just shooting rocks and I don't just do it on the planet surface either - you are still making the same mistake I pointed out before just because you don't like an activity doesn't mean it isn't one

One thing I really like about this game - it doesn't matter if I have 10 mins or 10 hrs available to me - I can do something worthwhile and When I switch on the computer I don't actually know what I am going to do, which one of my ships I will choose to fly

it doesn't seem to be a game short on content to me and there is a lot of content I haven't even touched yet - Exploring I cant think of anything worse as an activity but that doesn't mean it isn't one, I know a lot of people enjoy it im not one but I cant then ignore its existence it is still content in the game
 
Most of us who play ED are in it for the long run. We appreciate it isn't perfect, that it has been a whacky ride so far, but most of us firmly believe in FD and that this WIP will eventually pan out to be pretty awesome. :)
 
This is what worried me the most about his interview too. The firm belief that there, as the game stands, is a lot to do, means that the current repetitive mechanics are in fact not place holders, but the final product. This concerns me greatly... however, I have purchased Horizons and will give Frontier the benefit of the doubt for the time being :)

I must also say that the belief that there is anything driving us to move around within the bubble is also puzzling. If you put me in a space station anywhere in the bubble I would have no way AT ALL to know where I was. Not a clue, until I checked the Galaxy Map. There are no regional differences, no cultural differences, nothing, just randomly varying space station designs. Absolutely bare bones...

+1 I was going to say pretty much the same thing.

So, yes, apart from backing the game originally, I've also still given it the benefit of the doubt by buying Horizons as well. I really enjoy the basic premise and the spaceship simulation, but everything else still feels like a placeholder until the actual content and LIFE* is added to the universe. So I can certainly relate to the OP's concerns that Frontier and/or DB may actually think that the game is "done" in areas where many players feel like it's not even close.

* By "life" I don't mean literally spreading life across the in-game universe, but some variety, things to find and see, that are not just obviously same ones picked by the random number generator out of a short list of choices.
 
OK that gave me a giggle ;) But I hope my point came across correctly - I cannot think of a single activity in Elite that I could not teach my 8 year old nephew within ten minutes. In fact I have tried and failed as he grasps it all without fail.

For me the issue is that the game promised to be a complex space/galaxy simulation of sorts, aimed at an adult audience. So some of us expected this, in space:
View attachment 104485

What we ended up with was this, in space... which seems to be enough for some, but it is growing thin for me and many others.
View attachment 104484

There is no denying that Elite is a technical masterpiece, the graphics are great, the universe is great, the sound, lighting, atmosphere, everything is excellent. But if all we can do is fly around and hammer the same five shapes through the same five holes with various different justifications and rewards, well then I for one will get bored quickly...
Some Years ago I tried to make my Father play a game,you should have seen that. That was a really simple game, but he already struggled to much with the controls to actualy do anything. That things are easy for some does not mean they do not require any Skill ;)

And to be honest I strugle to understand the analogy with the shapes, it doesn't macht my expierence et all. That doesn't means what you say isn't valid since its a subjectiv matter but I cant understand.
 
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And to be honest I strugle to understand the analogy with the shapes, it doesn't macht my expierence et all. That doesn't means what you say isn't valid since its a subjectiv matter but I cant understand.

My point was that Elite, in its "de-constructed" form, is a very simple game. The basic mechanics are incredibly easy to learn and perform. This is the same for chess, and for the "hammer shapes through holes" game. The difference is the context these mechanics are put in, as well as the potential complexity within the game. On this front I believe Elite is closer to the childs toy than the ancient game favoured by nerds around the world.

I would love for someone to point me in the direction of something in Elite that either requires skill for the mechanic itself, or some form of tactics/skill/intelligence for the surrounding scenario. I cannot think of a single thing. Not one. (Bar PvP of course, but I would not say that Elites main focus is PvP).
 
In my opinion you either like the Elite atmosphere, lore and "feeling" enough to keep yourself entertained with the game play mechanics, or you get bored. The mechanics are simple, in fact I would like someone to suggest a single activity in Elite that is difficult to do, not just time consuming.

Me personally? I've got a foot in both camps. I enjoy just flying around. It is simple and meaningless but with the Warthog HOTAS and a nice big screen I get to play space ship commander and it gives me joy :)

But I am still honest enough to say that it really is absolutely the bare minimum of what would be required for a game... while at the same time being an incredible universe-simulator!

I feel the same, to be honest. I love flying the ships. Landing and docking. The combat. They nailed the sim. Absolutely nailed it.

Stations controlled by Minor Factions with whom a player has gained sufficient reputation will display in green on the HUD target element - that's one visual indication.

With 2.1, we will see the differing NPC interaction dependent on our reputation with the relevant Minor Faction.

I see green stations all over. Made quite a few friends out there.

It's altered my gaming experience not one iota.

You have brought up very valid points that im sure many players that appreciate enjoyable aspects that are in the game
have and continue to feel.

What would be the top 5 things you would change/ impliment?

1. Longer jump ranges for all ships.Max an Asp Explorer at 50LY and let it set the bar. My shortest jump range: 20LY. Because fewer loading screens is better than more if them. People have lives; 20 jumps just to get to the CG, and 200 more to participate, simply isn't fun.

2. Dynamic economy with ship and outfitting finders. Was s would increase the cost of ships and arms in systems. Booms would drive costs down. Stuff would cost less nearer the source of supply. Give us reasons to travel.

3. More tools for the Sandbox: Repair Limpets (and by extension, Repair Rats). Economic exploration (gather and sell info about deals, discounts etc in the dynamic economy).

4. Scannable planets. Use DSS to reveal POI from space and lock in bases and wrecks as Persistent. Decide whether we want to land. Procedurally generated lost Alien ruins, wrecked explorers, major meteoric impact sites with unique samples, strange elements for recovery and resale, forgotten expedition bases, smuggler caches, pirate and scientific bases - all Persistent as they are discovered and reported.

5. Meaningful impact: I should not be able to rank with both navies. Smugglers whose stuff I Lise should remember that, and refuse me jobs or even look for revenge. I want to make friends, enemies and deals. I want to see the change as opposed to imagining it.
 
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