Ian Phillips
Volunteer Moderator
unintentionally - it reads a little better.
done
done
An unintentionally good overview of what's wrong with ED
- Thread starter Luponator
- Start date
I wouldn't say irelivent , i can't see fed and empire kissing and making up because of a common enemy
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Dunno how much work it would be to have a toggle for an info screen to look at in our ship.reading galnet etc could be handy when in super cruise and still want to see your surroundings.
Bonus point if they had a good txt to speech voice to read it out. Could be cool linking with services and BB as well in advance
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The cease fire thing is from the system's previous state - just before the CG started the system was in another war. It's confusing as hell, but valid for how the BGS works currently.
Oh you're right, and that's part of the complicated issue I try to point out.
The BGS is working as intended. What FD does is slap a story into the game engine, but the existing game engine has no hook into the story. Thus, the CG which includes a CZ, does not affect the CZ. The BGS does. And then your explanation comes into play.
What should happen is that the story they try to unfold links INTO the BGS, and the BGS ensures that there's no cease fire but something that makes more sense. This way, the story would at least partially affect the system, and make at least a little sense.
You just added another issue I didn't even think about when posting the original article
Perhaps FD recognise that people tend to have multiple applications open.
I mean, if everyone has an internet browser open at all times anyway, why would they not accept alt+tab as a valid "game" choice?
So much of the factional politics of the game take place outside the EliteDangerous64 executable - doe it really make sense to think of a game as just what happens inside it?
I mean, if everyone has an internet browser open at all times anyway, why would they not accept alt+tab as a valid "game" choice?
So much of the factional politics of the game take place outside the EliteDangerous64 executable - doe it really make sense to think of a game as just what happens inside it?
In the vast majority of cases yes. In the the vast majority of those cases where the game is well designed - exclusively yes.
That's a terrible piece of logic to attempt to apply, and highlights a fairly fundamental weakness of Elite Dangerous as it stands. You've just effectively described Elite Dangerous as EVE. Grats.
Or every MMOG ever written in the last 20 years.
I think all those "game designers" simply cannot design well designed games, when it's that easy:
Step 1: write stuff on paper
Step 2: hack stuff into computer
Step 3: perfect game
Oh and btw -> CZs spawn endless ships: players complain. CZs stop spawning endless ships: players complain. Time to rewrite one of the fundamental theological paradoxies: If god is omnipotent, can he himself create a game that he himself finds nothing to complain about?
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Curse the forum Gads, why can't I rep you again? WHYyyyyy!?> Elite: Jumanji
Or every MMOG ever written in the last 20 years.
I think all those "game designers" simply cannot design well designed games.
To a greater or lesser extent. There's arguments for and against in all cases where MMOG's go, but none of them -really- "get" design whatsoever. They get bits of it right from time to time, but never the complete package. People who study games design from an academic standpoint often lose touch with what *makes* a game fun to play and just tick off checkboxes, or go chasing after the latest fad, or worse, ape existing mechanics from other games.
But you get design?
I hear FD are hiring.
*shrug* I help developers voluntarily but I help 1-4 person bands, much easier to be around and much more friendly. Frontier is too big a business gig for my taste, plus they've far more invested people who are willing to shout their opinions from the rooftops.
Ok quickly before this gets off topic:
Which other game do you play where you have a browser open, a book to read, a TV show to watch, etc. ready to get over game downtime constantly? I don't mean once or twice for a few minutes, but as part of the normal game experience. I honestly don't know any.
Well, to be fair, this was an obvious trade-off which was there since the 1:1 scale galaxy and the supercruise system were set in stone.
No other game entails the amount of real time travel over a normal play session as ED so it was sort of expected. If I were a real space pilot whose work is represented by what ED shows us (more or less) I would hazard to guess lots of downtime and book reading would be done in my everyday life.
In real life, I have a lot of downtime waiting for measurements and analyses to get done. I read, watch and listen to stuff all the time while working. I do most of my forum browsing at work too.
I'm not saying these things to prove the downtime ED has is good gameplay. I'm saying these because it's kinda what ED is about. Some rare people like it that way. Sadly for me, it isn't an interest shared by too many gamers.
My only thought about this is that I don't believe we need anymore background story yet than what is out there. We have had in game information regarding past tensions and current tensions. Your average citizen and commander may not know the reasons for this particular system but it will begin to trickle down.
As for no in game consequences for taking either side in the CG - I think that's valid. I know the intent of the Commanders is they are not beholden to any particular power so there can feasibly be an argument made based on that reasoning but I certainly prefer consequences.
TLDR; Bugs should fixed, but FDev shouldn't prioritize making story and background available in game, over making more gameplay. Bonus if they add gameplay that brings in story and background.
While the game breaking bug of crashing the game definitely needs to be addressed and fixed. That said I've never seen this type of CG mechanic before, if its brand spanking new then I'm not surprised at all it has a bug in it.
The CZ's in cease fire, is probably a 'bug' but not in the usual sense. More likely its the result of rules/logic not being clear for this particular case of BGS and CG, that is not an error in programming, but an oversight in design/behavior docs. This can probably be fixed/changed server side, or by simply not putting War CGs into places that run into this problem.
But to the point of 'game and story background have to be found outside the game' yes it would be nice to find out about that stuff in game. While I'm not opposed to FD improving in this area, I would rather see effort put into fixing bugs, releasing 2.2, 2.3, 2.4 and adding/refining actual gameplay elements.
I actually enjoy the fact that the story and background almost HAVE to be found by effort from the player. Contrast that to practically every MMO with a story that slaps you in the face with walls of quest text or cut scenes that the vast majority of players (myself included) skip. I do enjoy the story and background of Elite quite a bit and would like it to be more prevalent in the game. However new gameplay that also adds more story or background (maybe like, passengers) is most definitely welcome.
While the game breaking bug of crashing the game definitely needs to be addressed and fixed. That said I've never seen this type of CG mechanic before, if its brand spanking new then I'm not surprised at all it has a bug in it.
The CZ's in cease fire, is probably a 'bug' but not in the usual sense. More likely its the result of rules/logic not being clear for this particular case of BGS and CG, that is not an error in programming, but an oversight in design/behavior docs. This can probably be fixed/changed server side, or by simply not putting War CGs into places that run into this problem.
But to the point of 'game and story background have to be found outside the game' yes it would be nice to find out about that stuff in game. While I'm not opposed to FD improving in this area, I would rather see effort put into fixing bugs, releasing 2.2, 2.3, 2.4 and adding/refining actual gameplay elements.
I actually enjoy the fact that the story and background almost HAVE to be found by effort from the player. Contrast that to practically every MMO with a story that slaps you in the face with walls of quest text or cut scenes that the vast majority of players (myself included) skip. I do enjoy the story and background of Elite quite a bit and would like it to be more prevalent in the game. However new gameplay that also adds more story or background (maybe like, passengers) is most definitely welcome.
You do that? I don't do that. When I'm in the game I'm in the game.
When I'm done or don't enjoy myself any more, I log out for the day.
The game's story is told inside the game. But it's told largely in real time (as this entire game is based on real time). I stopped playing the game for several months and came back just recently. I've lost track some of the story because Galnet only really gives me a small amount of the current story, with quite a lot of context missing. That's because I can't scroll back several months to see how the story has progressed; Galnet goes back only to 11 August (which is reasonable).
So, actually, the story in ED is pretty rich - and its real time nature is one of the game's strengths (everything happens in real time, with an actual calendar). So the current story I see is one I know has been building for weeks, if not since I last logged in.
It's not a flaw of the game, it's one of its strengths. Of course I need to catch up on the story outside of the game. I've literally not existed in the galaxy for ages.
Now, I've kept up with the story, loosely, because I get the newsletter. And I read them most of the time because ED isn't a game I'm likely to ever quit. I love it, wish I could play it more, and will come back repeatedly to enjoy it throughout the years, I'm sure. So yes, it's necessary to use outside sources to get the full picture, if you don't keep up with the story in the game regularly, but it's not necessary to use outside sources at all if you do keep up in game.
And it's a story we can actually be a part of. No, we're not the protagonist. No, our own actions don't really, tangibly, have any significant bearing on the story. But we can be a part of it and a lot of the story is based on our actions as a collective (which is an element of this game that is so often, tragically, overlooked when people claim it has no depth; so many persistent games have absolutely nothing like this). And the fact that its story is told in real time means that me being away from the game and coming back really just feels like ED is a part of the world I was away from, because everything kept on going while I was gone. And that feels pretty cool.
So I wholeheartedly disagree with that part of your post. And bugs... Well... What game doesn't have them?
So, actually, the story in ED is pretty rich - and its real time nature is one of the game's strengths (everything happens in real time, with an actual calendar). So the current story I see is one I know has been building for weeks, if not since I last logged in.
It's not a flaw of the game, it's one of its strengths. Of course I need to catch up on the story outside of the game. I've literally not existed in the galaxy for ages.
Now, I've kept up with the story, loosely, because I get the newsletter. And I read them most of the time because ED isn't a game I'm likely to ever quit. I love it, wish I could play it more, and will come back repeatedly to enjoy it throughout the years, I'm sure. So yes, it's necessary to use outside sources to get the full picture, if you don't keep up with the story in the game regularly, but it's not necessary to use outside sources at all if you do keep up in game.
And it's a story we can actually be a part of. No, we're not the protagonist. No, our own actions don't really, tangibly, have any significant bearing on the story. But we can be a part of it and a lot of the story is based on our actions as a collective (which is an element of this game that is so often, tragically, overlooked when people claim it has no depth; so many persistent games have absolutely nothing like this). And the fact that its story is told in real time means that me being away from the game and coming back really just feels like ED is a part of the world I was away from, because everything kept on going while I was gone. And that feels pretty cool.
So I wholeheartedly disagree with that part of your post. And bugs... Well... What game doesn't have them?
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