Folks who are returning from trip that begun pre-2.1 might have some issues, but new trips not so much (if they're at least half smart).
Let's discuss the skill gap in Elite Dangerous between players
- Thread starter Crimson Kaim
- Start date
Folks who are returning from trip that begun pre-2.1 might have some issues, but new trips not so much (if they're at least half smart).
But you can eliminate that risk nearly completely.
Players have that much influence over the galaxy themselves, yet they spend hours upon hours on here begging for NPCs to be removed.
Duh.
The only gap in my opinion is between those who adapted to the new AI and those who didn't, it's not just about skills, many people still use stock Pythons and other ships to fight the new AIs, problem is the new AIs can now eat your ship for breakfast if you don't outfit it right and don't have the skills to fly them
Maybe securing a remote post has not occured to anyone before XD ?
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without difficulty levels (not going to happen) this will always be a problem
because some do a lot of combat, some do all they can to avoid it
some play in wings with friends so someone has their back, so do not.
some have a swanky hotas, some do not
and some are simply better at games than others.
imo the answer - in part - is 2 fold.
1) improve the map info on security levels so we can instantly see what systems are "safe" (2.1 has taken a massive positive step for highsec feeling safer than low sec imo so perhaps FD are actually working on this now) I my mind This would include mission info warning if you need to go to low sec or anarchy (or if an illegal mission warn if will be high sec) and also add more options in the route planner to try to get it to prioritise either low sec or hi sec when plotting.
2) NPC wing mates. Some missions are simply hard on your own. This is to be expected and is fine imo, however we need npc wings. What other flight combat games can you think of that DONT have wings and you are all on your own? I cant think of any - none that i have played any way.
Even if not doing a mission, if a player wants to pay a wingman to watch their back for a percentage, then why the heck not?
because some do a lot of combat, some do all they can to avoid it
some play in wings with friends so someone has their back, so do not.
some have a swanky hotas, some do not
and some are simply better at games than others.
imo the answer - in part - is 2 fold.
1) improve the map info on security levels so we can instantly see what systems are "safe" (2.1 has taken a massive positive step for highsec feeling safer than low sec imo so perhaps FD are actually working on this now) I my mind This would include mission info warning if you need to go to low sec or anarchy (or if an illegal mission warn if will be high sec) and also add more options in the route planner to try to get it to prioritise either low sec or hi sec when plotting.
2) NPC wing mates. Some missions are simply hard on your own. This is to be expected and is fine imo, however we need npc wings. What other flight combat games can you think of that DONT have wings and you are all on your own? I cant think of any - none that i have played any way.
Even if not doing a mission, if a player wants to pay a wingman to watch their back for a percentage, then why the heck not?
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That's rather disingenuous. The vast, vast majority of players don't visit the forum. Only a tiny minority are actually complaining.
Philip Coutts
Volunteer Moderator
For me, one of the issues was there was a pretty big jump in the AI skill level and people got taken completely by surprise. I really like the new AI but it is a lot tougher and if you aren't expecting it you can get into a lot of trouble very quickly. You have to adapt to the new AI and the biggest thing is knowing when to run and when to fight. I also had a thought about creating 3 levels of CZ and Res's a low, medium and high so that all levels of pilot could participate. Rewards would be higher at the high res but the risk would be a lot higher as well.
Thats not true, I have a lot of friends that do all kind of stuff in elite, more then 50. And all of they complain on different stuff, nobody is happy.
This thread seems like a well formulated plea for FD to disregard 2/3rd of the votes on the AI threads on the account of frustration and dividing the community, simplifying everything that was discussed previously from either side of the debate.
Most people who said it is just right or too easy have well formulated why they're enthusiastic about the new challenge, weren't enjoying combat pre-2.1, or dislike the casual difficulty that is still there. The difficulty or "skill gap" isn't dividing the community, players do that very well themselves just to have things their own favourite way.
You should talk "skill gap" here for as long as it is unlocked, because you're still talking about AI, and everyone wants to be heard without having to hear hundreds of other voices that are ultimately just as important as yours:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=259492
Most people who said it is just right or too easy have well formulated why they're enthusiastic about the new challenge, weren't enjoying combat pre-2.1, or dislike the casual difficulty that is still there. The difficulty or "skill gap" isn't dividing the community, players do that very well themselves just to have things their own favourite way.
You should talk "skill gap" here for as long as it is unlocked, because you're still talking about AI, and everyone wants to be heard without having to hear hundreds of other voices that are ultimately just as important as yours:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=259492
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and statistically speaking that tiny minority can (and probably should) be ignored
I've mentioned it elsewhere, but again I suspect a lot of it isn't so much skill gap - as equipment gap.
What control setup you are using will make a huge differance to most folk - and here Frontier have a built in problem because they have to support both gamepads (as its on xbox) and hotas and I strongly believe that in most situations Hotas will smoke joypad as much as kb and mouse do in a first person shooter. Yes there will be exceptions of folk who can excel with anything , but I do believe this is a factor.
Likewise having a constant high frame rate (around 60fps) makes a massive differance - not for pretty visiuals, purely for reaction time - add in any lag in connection and one persons "easy" npc is a nightmare for others (this will always account for some "insta" kills for instance where a slew of incoming hits all get applied at once).
My advice if having problems - change up your controls if you can (voice attack might be worth looking into) and do whatever degrading to visuals you can (no matter how crap it looks) to get 60FPS in combat - now try again and see if it makes any differance for you.
What control setup you are using will make a huge differance to most folk - and here Frontier have a built in problem because they have to support both gamepads (as its on xbox) and hotas and I strongly believe that in most situations Hotas will smoke joypad as much as kb and mouse do in a first person shooter. Yes there will be exceptions of folk who can excel with anything , but I do believe this is a factor.
Likewise having a constant high frame rate (around 60fps) makes a massive differance - not for pretty visiuals, purely for reaction time - add in any lag in connection and one persons "easy" npc is a nightmare for others (this will always account for some "insta" kills for instance where a slew of incoming hits all get applied at once).
My advice if having problems - change up your controls if you can (voice attack might be worth looking into) and do whatever degrading to visuals you can (no matter how crap it looks) to get 60FPS in combat - now try again and see if it makes any differance for you.
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If this game wants to fail yes. You are basically saying that the game is fine and everybody likes it, its not what I am seeing from all my friends, from 50 friends, only me and maybe another friend visit here, so, just ignore the players and this game will fail.
so what you are suggesting is the squeaky wheel gets most oil
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
The tiny minority who observe that the AI is too hard, the tiny minority who observe that the AI is just right or the tiny minority who observe that the AI is too easy?
All of them. As long as we don't get a rush of some 1M people loggin on to file a complaint, then most cases it's all but irrelevant noise.
And this may be a bigger problem than I would have expected.
We just arrived at a AI level where one third is happy with, one third thinks it is too frustrating and difficult and the last third still thinks it is too easy. Or anything similar to that.
Every day a new thread is created claiming AI is too powerful now as a player didn't manage to destroy a Vulture in his Python in less than 5 minutes and was actually in danger.
On the other hand we have posts about AI behaving weird as they can not calculate the risk they are currently in properly and therefore act differently than a human player would do, making them pretty predictable and easy to deal with.
But for the furutre design of the AI and the balance between the players.
Do you think the skill gap between players in Elite: Dangerous is significant and do you think FD should be concerned?
Because this is basically like a match based shooter game with a matchmaker (ED CQC for example). Newbies don't really like it to get matched with veterans (well, I do like it tho hehe) and vice versa: veterans don't like newbies in their match.
I am not saying we should devide this player base based on a skill level but I really do thin kthe skill gap is HUGE.
To be honest I do not feel that the A-rated Python player who struggles against an AI Viper should get rewarded the same way as an experienced player who is able to destroy Elite AI Pythons in a Viper.
But back to the question: Do you think the skill gap between players in Elite: Dangerous is significant and if so do you think FD should be concerned?
I do wonder how much of this is down to:-
- It simply being different/harder to what it was and people need to get used to that,
- People expectations might have to start change. ie: Should traders expect to happily fly their routes with ships that aren't able to take a pounding, or the fact they'll need to jettison cargo?
I was caught out by combat when 2.1 was released, but I've adjust and think I prefer the raised bar.
ps: I'll use this as a reason to mention I think piracy mechanics need some TLC. eg: NPC pirates should communicate better and dictate their terms/conditions more clearly before goign jihad!
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No one feels bugged that this thread is just clearing everything that was said by hundreds of players in the previous AI threads? https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=259492
Implying "We didn't talk about skill gap", yes we did.
Implying "We didn't talk about skill gap", yes we did.
Why don't we just admit that ED is for extremely skilled fighter pilots. Everyone else is looking for a game that is fun to play. The decisions and desire to make things challenging are only creating a repulsive vibe that will drive the majority of less skilled players towards games they will find enjoyable to play, namely "No Man's Sky". Let's wait and see how many people pay up for season three when there is something more FUN to play. You are wasting your time falsely believing that you can teach others how to be better fighter pilots. The part you are missing is that only .01% of the player base have the natural skills to play at your level. Natural born skills are not teachable. You either have them or you don't. The elites playing this game don't seem to get this and are driving this game into obscurity.
There should be another poll in a month or so's time.
Give folks a chance to get better at combat... Or avoiding combat...
There's new tricks for a lot of us to learn.
If the results are still negative with regards to the AI, then create or indicate larger areas of the bubble (Sectors? A set ly radius) in the galaxy map that are largely high sec... So people know that they are safer to trade/mine etc there?
Give folks a chance to get better at combat... Or avoiding combat...
There's new tricks for a lot of us to learn.
If the results are still negative with regards to the AI, then create or indicate larger areas of the bubble (Sectors? A set ly radius) in the galaxy map that are largely high sec... So people know that they are safer to trade/mine etc there?
There's plenty of high-sec around to warrant that no such pandering is required. People just need to go there instead of sticking to their zero/low-sec anarchies.