An unintentionally good overview of what's wrong with ED

Luponator

L
So, I'm a great fan of Obsidianant's videos- great editing, good voiceing and always nice content.
The posting from 9th of Sep (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Nhbp_pXFAs) is actually a great overview of what's wrong with ED. Now, please bear in mind that I'm using his video as an example; by no means do I imply that this is Obsidianant's opinion, nor his intention, etc. Views are all mine.

What do I mean?
0:19 'at the moment, there seems to be no context why why (Empire/Fed) fight each other there (Mu Koji)'
Exactly. There's no in-game link, information, happening that would explain why two superpowers chose that system to beat each other up. All background on this has to be handled outside the game on forums, newsletters, you name it. Nothing new and not specific to this CG, I know, but I thought this is an interesting point made.
Furthermore, supporting one of the factions has absolutely no in-game consequences. I can happily do the Empire CG and, on the same day if I got the time, do Fed missions elsewhere. Nothing new again, aye, but it gets a bit silly doesn't it?

2:50 'there seem to be quite a few bugs on these for some reason' No kidding. CZs with cease fire, client crashes, etc. Esp. the cease fire is interesting. Because this illustrates that the individual instances (CZs) have nothing to do with the wider picture (CG) or galaxy wide events. They're put into the system like any other CZ anywhere else, and follow the generic CZ rules. Now, before anyone jumps on me with the 'what is the problem, just go to another one' argument- I am not arguing the workaround nor the technicality. I'm arguing that the more ED tries to build up some type of story, the more it gets evident that the toolset the game offers is not up for that.

3:22 'there is quite a bit of background story...' Spot a trend? There is some background story available outside the game, with very little linkage to in-game presentation. No, sorry, an article on GalNet doesn't cut it. Or, in other words, it's not 'apparent in the game itself'.

5:00 'a very bad game-breaking bug', ah well, see https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...rash-to-desktop-if-entering-the-convoy-beacon

So let's see. Within 5 minutes of overview, we have
1x game breaking bug for something that should be bog-standard
1x normal game behavior (ceasefire) that breaks part of the CG and certainly the story
2x instances where game and story background have to be found outside the game with poor linkage to the game engine

None of this is new and all of the above issues are known since launch, I get it. But given the rather poor execution the the pre-hunt events (hiding clues in videos? Because the game doesn't have the toolset to do in-game), the apparent desire to develop a story and the sad state of the mission system isn't it about time this changes? Can't have it both ways- a game engine that is providing barebones story less random event and a galactic story line that has to be followed, read, and interacted with on forums just don't combine well. I think Obsidianant's video shows this quite well.
 

Boomer Kay

B
Luponator said:
0:19 'at the moment, there seems to be no context why why (Empire/Fed) fight each other there (Mu Koji)'
Exactly. There's no in-game link, information, happening that would explain why two superpowers chose that system to beat each other up. All background on this has to be handled outside the game on forums, newsletters, you name it. Nothing new and not specific to this CG, I know, but I thought this is an interesting point made.
Furthermore, supporting one of the factions has absolutely no in-game consequences. I can happily do the Empire CG and, on the same day if I got the time, do Fed missions elsewhere. Nothing new again, aye, but it gets a bit silly doesn't it?
Click to expand...

The empire chose to attack Mu Koji because they didn't like it's name, the Federation decided to defend it because the Empire attacked it.

Sounds silly?
That's -in a nutshell- the whole reason why Stalingrad went into the history books as the "pivotal battleground of WWII east front".
(We had a history teacher who was obsessed with that stuff and an english teacher who was a WW2 Vet with PTS and spent 3/4 of class talking about some counteroffensive he got caught in - pays to be awake in class every now and then :D )

+rep for the link to the OA video. :)
 
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Kaybe

Kaybe
So basically what you're saying is that the unknown is bad game design? ED is not your typical game that makes you the big hero of a single player campaign. In ED, the galaxy keeps going behind the scenes, whether you're involved or not. Just because they you don't know why they are fighting there doesn't mean there's no reason. In fact, it means there IS a reason, and it's up to you to discover what it is, no?
 

Luponator

L
Kaybe said:
So basically what you're saying is that the unknown is bad game design? ED is not your typical game that makes you the big hero of a single player campaign. In ED, the galaxy keeps going behind the scenes, whether you're involved or not. Just because they you don't know why they are fighting there doesn't mean there's no reason. In fact, it means there IS a reason, and it's up to you to discover what it is, no?
Click to expand...
Point missed entirely, but thanks for bringing up the standard argument of 'not a big hero game'. Loved that since launch.
Anything constructive to reply to the points raised?
 

GODofDUTY83

GODofDUTY83
Why did Humpty Dumpty sit on that wall knowing only to well that he was a bloody egg ?
I dont know, but he did. Now he is dead.
On that note, lets all take a moment to remember the Dumpty.
 

nats

Banned
nats
The main issue here is that there is no way in game to get galaxy wide news. Its all only local stuff. They really need to start getting all the lore and story developments reported inside the game and not just in the forum.
 

Cynaqq

Cynaqq
nats said:
The main issue here is that there is no way in game to get galaxy wide news. Its all only local stuff. They really need to start getting all the lore and story developments reported inside the game and not just in the forum.
Click to expand...

Most of it is through galnet and you can access galnet in the ship, wherever you are in the galaxy.

Other than that, discussions are done here and it's a lot of 4th wall breaking, still I wouldn't say they don't advance the background story globally in the game.
 

CptXabaras

CptXabaras
Kaybe said:
So basically what you're saying is that the unknown is bad game design? ED is not your typical game that makes you the big hero of a single player campaign. In ED, the galaxy keeps going behind the scenes, whether you're involved or not. Just because they you don't know why they are fighting there doesn't mean there's no reason. In fact, it means there IS a reason, and it's up to you to discover what it is, no?
Click to expand...

Why there has to be always this Kind of post? OP has been quite clear. I would unrep you if i could!
 

ForeverN00b

ForeverN00b
The Empire/Fed skirmishing and pending war seems irrelevant with the coming aliens.

Oh come on, do you really think the 2.2 aliens will be friendly?!?
 

Luponator

L
Cynaqq said:
Most of it is through galnet and you can access galnet in the ship, wherever you are in the galaxy.

Other than that, discussions are done here and it's a lot of 4th wall breaking, still I wouldn't say they don't advance the background story globally in the game.
Click to expand...
That's right, the GalnNet can be accessed in game. But don't you think that the events ongoing should have a little more representation in-game?

And I agree, they do advance the background story. That's part of the isse. See, some people say 'In ED, the galaxy keeps going behind the scenes, whether you're involved or not.' Totally besides the point. There is a galaxy wide story globally in the game. It has some serious events in there, assassinations, blockades, alien sightings, you name it. But there's so little effect on that in-game that it simply makes no difference. The player experience of someone who's not played the game for three months and does not bother to read forums or the rather limited GalNet updates is exactly the same as someone who's totally up to speed with everything that happened. Why? Because it's all outside the game. My allegiance status to any superpower makes nearly no difference what so ever, and two of them are on the brink of war? That's fascinating.

That's what I'm trying to say. There are events unfolding. Just not in-game. Elite:Forumous it is.

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CaptainKremmen said:
I don't understand why any of this is involuntary... confused!
Click to expand...
Because I may put words into Obsidianant's mouth and wanted to caveat that already in the title. I'm very aware of using his video as an example for something he may not be in sync with at all.
 

The Wallet Inspector

The Wallet Inspector
Boomer Kay said:
The empire chose to attack Mu Koji because they didn't like it's name, the Federation decided to defend it because the Empire attacked it.

Sounds silly?
That's -in a nutshell- the whole reason why Stalingrad went into the history books as the "pivotal battleground of WWII east front".
(We had a history teacher who was obsessed with that stuff and an english teacher who was a WW2 Vet with PTS and spent 3/4 of class talking about some counteroffensive he got caught in - pays to be awake in class every now and then :D )

+rep for the link to the OA video. :)
Click to expand...

Germany and Russia were already engaged in a war of Annihilation before Stalingrad was attacked though. Hitler did not declare war and invade because he did not like the name of the city lol
 

ROSS-128

ROSS-128
nats said:
The main issue here is that there is no way in game to get galaxy wide news. Its all only local stuff. They really need to start getting all the lore and story developments reported inside the game and not just in the forum.
Click to expand...


Well, there is 1->Galactic Powers->GalNet.

Still, it would be nice if we could see the consequences of these events rippling through the fabric of the galaxy, showing up in NPC dialogue, showing up in station billboards (for example, propaganda and recruiting ads instead of the usual ship manufacturer ones), and maybe turning up in station announcements, instead of only existing in the pages of the galactic newspaper.
 

evoelise

evoelise
Many players have complaints about E:D being a shallow experience, without a doubt FD could bring more of a story to the game as a whole. I can't think that this would be very difficult to implement either, just some better and more in-depth Galnet or local news stories.

In general Galnet articles seem disjointed and superficial when they could be so much more and could be used to provide a much more sweeping and rich story line.

It would also be nice to have other ways to "tell a story" in ED such as mission arcs and the like, this obviously would be a lot more work but welcome.
 

Cynaqq

Cynaqq
Luponator said:
And I agree, they do advance the background story. That's part of the isse. See, some people say 'In ED, the galaxy keeps going behind the scenes, whether you're involved or not.' Totally besides the point. There is a galaxy wide story globally in the game. It has some serious events in there, assassinations, blockades, alien sightings, you name it. But there's so little effect on that in-game that it simply makes no difference. The player experience of someone who's not played the game for three months and does not bother to read forums or the rather limited GalNet updates is exactly the same as someone who's totally up to speed with everything that happened. Why? Because it's all outside the game. My allegiance status to any superpower makes nearly no difference what so ever, and two of them are on the brink of war? That's fascinating.
Click to expand...

That's a double edged sword.

The game has to involve and progress a story but it should still be viable for all play styles available without much interference with anyone's game particularly.

The devs need to keep an eye on how people's gameplay are affected especially if it's not a global effect, such as the new power which is about to get injected interfering with the gameplay of SEPP members.

You may not like this style of game, and it's totally understandable but everyone has to accept that in ED, story is and has to be background. It should provide interesting distractions and topics of conversation for the people interested but it shouldn't affect the gameplay of those who are not.

Your take on the issue doesn't overlap with mine in that events are happening outside of the game. Some are just flavor but some do happen in game and because of that, for example, there is a line of supply stations from the bubble to the Pleiades nebula which wasn't there before the barnacles were found and the FEDs took an interest in them. Now the Imps are guarding the alien wreckage. There is a war brewing under mysterious circumstances and we can participate if we want but at the same time, we can totally ignore it because no one shoves it down our throats, just like real life where you can very well ignore a conflict far away from your home. Jacque's station got lost and then was found and now there is a station 15k ly from the bubble. These are serious changes to the game for some and they are insignificant crap for other who are interested in other kinds of gameplay which are more player-centric.

It's just a different preference in game design. I prefer it this way. Others don't. This doesn't mean it's wrong. It just means some people don't like the way things are.
 
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