Why Elite's riddles and story do not work for me

[KiDra]

I started playing with the release of the Guardians Update again after a pause of maybe one or two months. I headed to the alien ruins, the atmosphere was great, creepy, immersive and there were some shiny, unknown objects to be found. So I drove around looking for clues, collected all types of ancient artifacts and pondered about the place. Then I headed online to look for what users on the forums found out so far. That was when I got frustrated with Elite again.

In order to solve the riddles we had to record audio, look at sonographs, find the codes hidden and decipher them. Or we have to take high resolution screenshots and use CAD/Vector-graphics-software to solve the map riddle, but then again there is no way to just type in coordinates of even see system coordinates, except for the grid in ED (?). It neither helps that beacon messages are encoded in caesar ciphters, cause nobody would use such a weak cipher, but that at least that can be solved more or less ingame.

In other words, too many riddles cannot be solved ingame. I have to get out of the game and use third party tools to make progress if I want to solve them on my own.

Then I soon realised that all these shiny ancient relics I gathered have no real monetary value, compared to other endeavours and when I keep them in the hope that an engineer will one day build me something awesome with them, then I cannot use any of my other ships anymore, because cargo has to stay with me and cannot be stored in a station inventory. Do I better keep them now, crippling me, because the Feds will be like "this is mine!" and station battle cruisers there?

Bottom line is: Following the story line and trying to solve the riddles breaks immersion and thus the game for me and the cargo mechanics punish me for collecting rare items for later.

I emphasize that I really appreciate that Frontier puts effort into their riddles and that they are engaged in the story telling, but to me FDev made the wrong design choices with the riddles.


EDIT:

I found the following contribution adds much to the understanding of the problem, so Kudos to FalconFly:

Agreed, I never liked having to solely rely on External Sources and having to use technical Analysis Software to solve something that should be 100.0% solvable using in-Game Tools provided.

But the very moment I learned it all came from the Teaser Videos, Video & Audio Analysis Software - and (most imporantly) visiting the Site clearly demonstrated that the Ship Scanners were never supposed to find them (Visual pickup only), I knew all I had to know.

Another "Central Planning" pseudo-Discovery, one which was scheduled to occur in a few months.

So for as long as we aren't allowed to make such Discoveries the real way and utilizing only Ship Equipment and Scanners, that entire "Story" is utterly irrelevant to me.

Wake me up when
- our Discovery Scanners actually display "Unknown Anomaly detected" so at least we know we got a Planet worth investigating further
- our Ship Equipment learns to Analyze Data that we find on such a Planet
- the Result permits us to solve any puzzles/riddles using onboard or in-game Equipment

I have no use for "Central Planning" pseudo-Stories and "Discoveries". I want a realistic chance to do actual Exploration with actual Discoveries, not one pinned on a scheduled timeline.
I'll hence leave those fake and artificially planted Events for others to have fun with, I simply don't "roll over" when I'm told or some Central Planner decided the time is right. I don't work that way.

PS.
On the positive side - if anything - I was proven right once again.
When something is supposed to be discovered, someone will throw a "Spawn = Enabled" switch on a Server, plant Teasers in Vidoes, place GALnet articles or downright pinpoint Fingers right here in the Forum.
For me that means : No Action Required, saved me tons of wasted hours chasing non-existent ghosts.
After all, it'll appear and come all by itself when FDev decides so. The sole benefit of Central-Planning. However, obviously this doesn't have anything to do with actual Exploration or actual Discovery.

So whenever I venture into the black, I do so fully knowing there's nothing out there to be found. Brings peace of mind and surely makes carrying Cargo Racks and even the SRV somewhat optional.

 

[CAPT. Ho Chi Minge]

I started playing with the release of the Guardians Update again after a pause of maybe one or two months. I headed to the alien ruins, the atmosphere was great, creepy, immersive and there were some shiny, unknown objects to be found. So I drove around looking for clues, collected all types of ancient artifacts and pondered about the place. Then I headed online to look for what users on the forums found out so far. That was when I got frustrated with Elite again.

In order to solve the riddles we had to record audio, look at sonographs, find the codes hidden and decipher them. Or we have to take high resolution screenshots and use CAD/Vector-graphics-software to solve the map riddle, but then again there is no way to just type in coordinates of even see system coordinates, except for the grid in ED (?). It neither helps that beacon messages are encoded in caesar ciphters, cause nobody would use such a weak cipher, but that at least that can be solved more or less ingame.

In other words, too many riddles cannot be solved ingame. I have to get out of the game and use third party tools to make progress if I want to solve them on my own.

Then I soon realised that all these shiny ancient relics I gathered have no real monetary value, compared to other endeavours and when I keep them in the hope that an engineer will one day build me something awesome with them, then I cannot use any of my other ships anymore, because cargo has to stay with me and cannot be stored in a station inventory. Do I better keep them now, crippling me, because the Feds will be like "this is mine!" and station battle cruisers there?

Bottom line is: Following the story line and trying to solve the riddles breaks immersion and thus the game for me and the cargo mechanics punish me for collecting rare items for later.

I emphasize that I really appreciate that Frontier puts effort into their riddles and that they are engaged in the story telling, but to me FDev made the wrong design choices with the riddles.

My issue with the storyline is that its very fractured, little tidbits here and there and unless you actually know the lore of old then its pretty meaningless and hard to make sense of unless you have been around here for awhile. The only real information out there is contained in a forum post which rivals the bible in its sheer scale, much of it to be overlooked and missed if you are new to the scene or don't visit the forums.

 

[KiDra]

The only real information out there is contained in a forum post which rivals the bible in its sheer scale, much of it to be overlooked and missed if you are new to the scene or don't visit the forums.

That is another valid point that some pointed out from the beginning: Elite needs a lore book or some sort of well compiled reference ingame. The game does not present it's own lore well.

 

[burzum]

That is another valid point that some pointed out from the beginning: Elite needs a lore book or some sort of well compiled reference ingame. The game does not present it's own lore well.

I totally agree. All that "online" was sold to us to make the galaxy feel more alive and blah blah blah. But it doesn't. Power Play? Dead. Probably because of the boring mechanics that basically don't differ from missions which give a greater reward.

There is nothing that connects me with a faction. How is a new player, who never played Elite before, thought to know about which faction uses slavery and which not and why? Where are true story missions? Just play the Wing Commander series to see what a nice story is and how it can be done in game. ED is just random random random random random. The community events are no addition. God damn, I don't want to be forced to grind for a week to get some reward. I want to play when I want as much or less as I want to get my mission done. I don't want to get dictated by the game that I have to finish something in time X.

 

[Ben_BigBen]

I do understand your point and don't get me wrong - I've been following the Canonn but would never have been able to work out the nongoram ( as I'd never heard of them before)

Something a bit more "tomb raider" where an individual can figure out a puzzle rather than have to create a raster image from Morse code tattoed on the back of an artefact in Aramaic written backwards. There have been smaller puzzle clues from beacons that have a cipher key posted on the local bulletin board - those could be solved with a pencil and paper, so they are there, we just need more of them !

Additionally, a narrative of some kind that you as a lone CMDR could follow would be great, it could be based on the existing missions/tourism mechanism and has been in previous Elite games with a reward of special equipment, a ship or how about 10 free rolls of the die for a G5 upgrade at an engineer?

 

[KiDra]

Something a bit more "tomb raider" where an individual can figure out a puzzle rather than have to create a raster image from Morse code [...]

It would be so much more rewarding. I drove around the ruins in the faint hope that something other than relics emerging from the ground would happen. Some real clues or some scripted events, but no, nothing. Frontier does not provide the tools ingame to solve the game.

 

[Thetele]

It would also help if the next part of the story could be found now instead players needing to wait maybe months. Not because they can't figure out but because next step isn't in game yet.

 

[RhymeRhyme]

I emphasize that I really appreciate that Frontier puts effort into their riddles and that they are engaged in the story telling, but to me FDev made the wrong design choices with the riddles.

I dont think there is any riddle behind the ruins. The hunt for the GeForce Titan GPU was very lame. 0 riddles behind that. I think that the ruins are graphics only with nothing behind, nuthing underneath, not functionality at all.

 

[verminstar]

Having been here fer several months now, I have to say the background story and content is weak as water here. Fer one thing, one seemingly needs genius level IQ and good reading ability to scan through reams of threads which are about 95% stuff and nonsense filler. It feels as though the lore caters fer only a very select group of players and thats being nice. I tried to get into it a while back until I saw what the content actually was in the formidine rift...a scripted event in open only with a couple devs doing a flyby...embarassingly fer them,they were ganked by SDC before they got to finish their flyby.

Put simply, its lame when compared to a great maqny other games...appeals to only a very select few and because the undiscovered secrets are nothing more than scripted events, they are nothing more than an elaborate con. The game is nothing more than a sandpit...there is no real backstory outside a select group of einstein intellect backers and the claim of undiscovered secrets they claim has been in the game fer ages is a lie...the secret being the time of evening that a pair of devs do a flyby in a freighter.

After that incident, I lost all interest in the background story...its as iinconsequential as the background lore of pacman and has becoke nothing more than fan fiction.

 

[smiths121]

That is another valid point that some pointed out from the beginning: Elite needs a lore book or some sort of well compiled reference ingame. The game does not present it's own lore well.

Totally agree here. I went to a system last week, clearly it had been populated after the game stsrted - or at least that is my guess. All foreign powers, rouled by feudal, who were in famine, a couple of USS scenarios I had never seen before - 1200Cr profit on things like animal meat etc. I would love to have known the history to the system - how it got that way - but local news only goes back so far. It is a shame when you come across a system like this you cannot see "what makes it tick this way". Let alone the galactic level of lore through Galnet and CGs.

There is so much hidden depth in the local systems - I hardly have time for the big mega-plots, although I do like them and reading about them on these here forums and in Galnet.

Simon

 

[Cosmo]

Only a small percentage of the player base is actually solving the riddles. Most casual players stand by waiting for something to emerge which is fun for everyone.

Winter is coming (aliens).... but does Frontier mean December this year?

 

[Ydiss]

There are two sides that I see to this. One, the puzzles FD have designed are extremely convoluted and require either a single person with external tools and the skills to use those tools or a group effort in the forums in order that they be deciphered. This alienates the vast majority of average players who neither have those tools and skills nor the huge amount of time required to commit to the community effort. Two, these puzzles are intricate and very, very intriguing and bring the community together to truly be part of the story of this game.

It's both a positive and negative thing at the same time. The main issue is, all the puzzles in the game are exclusively designed this way. There are no "ordinary" puzzles (like most games have) that the average player can work out by using only in game tools.

I think FD need to consider that as well as these massive conspiracy style storylines. Yup, they'll all get spoilers the moment one player works them out but we can avoid those. The game could use more stories that the individual can be involved in, that also contribute to the story but that don't need advanced cryptography or mathematics to solve. Just good old traditional puzzles that can be worked through with various skills but where all of the clues are fully accessible from within the game.

 

[Badben]

I gave up on the storyline and riddles a long time ago when I realized I really couldn't contribute to it in any way. When you need to be a semi audio engineer to try and figure out a clue, or run images through spectrographic analyzer (just made that up cause I couldn't even tell you what kind of software is actually needed) there is literally nothing for me to do. I'm a guitar teacher, I don't understand most of the things needed to solve this, and it's very very VERY frustrating, because I really want to help out in some way. This mystery was designed by programmers for programmers, not for the general population.

The thing that really gets me is that other people are able to get more out of this game than I am, I am not experiencing the game as others do. For example, when aliens ruins are discovered, they're discovered by 1 person, and that 1 person gets a thrill I will never ever experience. I will never get to discover anything unique in this game, someone will always find it first and I'll just go visit the site.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

They don't work for me because i'm as thick as two short planks.

 

[Theodrid]

I've raised my gripes before in relation to the riddles and ciphers that make up the bulk of what should be a huge and engaging storyline in the Elite galaxy. Now, to be clear, I have read many books, enjoyed movies and more in relation to codes and code breakers, it's an enjoyable and interesting subject. However, there has to be a recognition by Frontier that a large proportion of the player base have little or no interest in standing on the shoulders of Alan Turing or Dr Robert Langdon to enjoy what should be this games most engaging and accessible story.

I have nothing but respect for the guys and gals at Canonn Research, there are some truly genius minds and ideas over there. Sadly though they are a tiny percentage of the game population, and for me personally they are getting a hell of a lot more attention than 'Joe Bloggs' pilot and arguably more than is healthy. Obviously some of the developers at Frontier, including David I would assume, love this stuff, I have no problem with that, but this story needs more branches and many more avenues of gameplay to appeal to a wider base. There needs to be different missions, random player encounters and discoveries and much more accessibility.

The whole alien storyline in Elite is the big story, we are all wondering and anticipating what may or may not be discovered, what may or may not happen. Many of us feel disconnected from the story though, we feel as though we are waiting on the outside looking in. Frontier and Canonn need to realise that 'just join in, it's open to everyone' doesn't really cut it, many of us not interested in codes and ciphers to the degree they are done in Elite would like in on the big one, the alien story Throw the rest of your player base more non cipher/codebreaker bones Frontier, please.

 

[mmm]

Agreed, the lack of storage options is _THE_ major issue with elite!

 

[Leo Sagan]

In other words, too many riddles cannot be solved ingame. I have to get out of the game and use third party tools to make progress if I want to solve them on my own.

These riddles are designed for CANONN, they work as intended (and are actually quite good at that).

"What's in it for me ?" dare you ask. Well, fear not my friend, for FD has a new treat for you, me, and the rest of the player base ! FD designed a brand new gameplay mechanic called "passengers", so we can ferry 'people' instead of poop from A to B and even C.

Now, please enjoy your new content and stop complaining.

 

[TuesdayFrog]

Hi All,

IMO I have to agree that using outside tools and morse etc is not quite right. The work done by the Cannon team is exceptional and bravo to some extremely smart and resourceful people out there, however not everyone is as gifted or has the time to expend on these 'riddles'.

I think that the 'Tip Offs' were the right direction to go for FD. Be in the right place at the right time and get a tip off, follow it up for another lead then another and finally get the answers. It something everyone could do once they have the starting point (time and place or action etc). This would allow more players to feel they are part of the action and not read about ONE persons triumph in the threads or newsletter. Make it a long trail with many steps, some rewards along the way with maybe even choices to make to lead you down different paths.

THIS is what I want, and would love to follow...

 

[Cosmos]

They've gone way too far with these puzzles. We shouldn't need a degree in cryptology to be able to take part and enjoy the game.

It needs to be varied up a little. At the moment it feels like all this stuff pertaining to exciting content is just for David Brabens little nerd group. I'd wager the majority of players are simply not involved with this.

 

[Siranui]

It would also help if the next part of the story could be found now instead players needing to wait maybe months. Not because they can't figure out but because next step isn't in game yet.

Citation required?