Thank you all for this thread. This is something I've been rankled by for a while now and it's nice to not feel like I'm alone.
Why Elite's riddles and story do not work for me
- Thread starter KiDra
- Start date
Actually, I suspect that you are in the vast majority. FD's so mesmerized with the CANONN threadnaught (which is awesome, don't get me wrong) that they probably didn't notice the bazillion customers politely staring at it, wondering when or even *IF* they'll get a chance to feel involved into the whole Alien story arc.
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U think it would have been nice if maybe there was an ingame adventure to follow with regard to things like audio sources. Imagine taking the scans to one of the engineers who decodes it for you, and you see these thing INGAME. That's just one example, but there are many ways they really could incorporate more interesting storytelling into the game. A really good set of devs should be able to craft this experience within the existing galaxy.
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I've never looked at it, I cannot go through a megathread like that and come out of it feeling anything but a bit sick and cross eyed.
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I've never looked at it, I cannot go through a megathread like that and come out of it feeling anything but a bit sick and cross eyed.
I do drop into the CANONN and also the Rift post and kudos to those participates who are blazing that trail but for me I want to play a good old video game and not a pseudo ARG.
It is kinda interesting from a distance but them I realise it's a bit isolating.
I suppose some may say this content or even game is not for me. Well maybe not but I think it would be a better game if anybody could jump in and follow a couple of clues to a discovery. Maybe the big stuff could stay as is but throw us something else to find.
This may be going off topic and I have to admit I may have missed the in game pointers for these as I still (after 2 years!) have not conditioned myself to always read Galnet when I connect (which might be days or weeks apart). But is there a way to even know where the new shipyard/abandoned settlements/ space structures might be? If not specifically than generally eg by taking passenger missions to tourist beacons. Or technically could I play the game and never see any of these?
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ARG. I forgot about that term. This is exactly right, I remember these in between seasons of Lost back in the 2000's
But wasn't that the exact CG weve just had and are now waiting for the results???
For me, to be honest I prefer trying to decode it myself, it's infinitely more fun and engaging.
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I don't know about the CG's being connected, it wasn't clear as I as not following the arc. I think it should be a bit moire personal, like coming across strange missions that lead to stranger missions, that may lead to a larger community event, but involves players stumbling across elements of the arc ingame in a meaningful way perhaps? They could be informed of the larger game by their ingame contacts, if they are not following on threads or whatever. This way, they would all feel connected in some way, from a purely game driven perspective. It would not impact on the "ARG", and would get more players involved. There is currently no local gossip places on stations from which clever storytelling could yet emerge. Imagine individual black market contacts who specialize in sale and buying, who you can actually PROFIT from, who can give you special missions now and then if they like you. These missions could be connected to certain story elements, so they could provide a more pirate driven plot narrative of the main story arc. Or you could have groups of traders at the pilots lounge, or scientists from the labs whom you could make contact with. This is just me on the spot brainstorming though.. feel free to just put it down to an overactive imagination
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But you can, right now.
Literally an exploration listening base was found using the in-game tip offs system.
Yet there's a large number of people that find the whole thing really engaging and compelling.
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Ok, so maybe I need to be paying more attention. Not sure how the tip off's system works so will check that out. Thanks!
I suppose you're referring to the same CG as before, so I'll ask again : are you talking about the Ram Tah CG ?
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If FD avoided stuff because someone might not like it nothing would ever happen.
+rep for the OP.
Been feeling more the same after the 3rd alien crash site was found. Cause I realised that unless I spend lots of time out of game analysing clues from different sources, sometimes out of game sources, for in game mysteries, I'm not personally going to be involved in any of the story arcs. Even the CGs for these story arcs feel impersonal and I feel as if I'm doing it just for the credits.
When it comes to the story arc, nowadays I feel like just a tourist. Wait for the Cannon to figure out the puzzle or someone to stumble across the new content, and then just go visit the site. As other than looking around and taking pretty pictures there really is nothing much you can do. Unless of course you want to spend time out of game, playing the game.
I was happy that CMDR Xdeath managed to find the alien structure. But after awhile I started to realise that my only connection to that story was to just be a tourist.
This Galaxy wide story solvable by anyone willing to spend the time to solve it, seems cool on the surface. But after awhile you start to realise that after one person or group solves it the story is pretty much done for everyone else. Unless of course you will fully ignore the forums or external content and try to solve them yourself. Although in this case you better know that you need out of game tools to solve them.
Personally, I've never really expected FDev to be good at story telling. And the way they are trying to tell this story seems more suited to a single player game (while still using external tools.) One CMDR finds the Galaxy spanning mystery either through luck or smarts.
Well. To be honest, I'm not too worried, I still enjoy flying my Python and treating ED more like a space flight "Sim". And I will get my story adventure fix soon.
Have fun, fly safe. n7
Been feeling more the same after the 3rd alien crash site was found. Cause I realised that unless I spend lots of time out of game analysing clues from different sources, sometimes out of game sources, for in game mysteries, I'm not personally going to be involved in any of the story arcs. Even the CGs for these story arcs feel impersonal and I feel as if I'm doing it just for the credits.
When it comes to the story arc, nowadays I feel like just a tourist. Wait for the Cannon to figure out the puzzle or someone to stumble across the new content, and then just go visit the site. As other than looking around and taking pretty pictures there really is nothing much you can do. Unless of course you want to spend time out of game, playing the game.
I was happy that CMDR Xdeath managed to find the alien structure. But after awhile I started to realise that my only connection to that story was to just be a tourist.
This Galaxy wide story solvable by anyone willing to spend the time to solve it, seems cool on the surface. But after awhile you start to realise that after one person or group solves it the story is pretty much done for everyone else. Unless of course you will fully ignore the forums or external content and try to solve them yourself. Although in this case you better know that you need out of game tools to solve them.
Personally, I've never really expected FDev to be good at story telling. And the way they are trying to tell this story seems more suited to a single player game (while still using external tools.) One CMDR finds the Galaxy spanning mystery either through luck or smarts.
Well. To be honest, I'm not too worried, I still enjoy flying my Python and treating ED more like a space flight "Sim". And I will get my story adventure fix soon.
Have fun, fly safe. n7
Yes, this is true. Unfortunately, I have never got a single tip-off yet. The inlet to those has eluded me, in spite of my trying to rank up and do data courier missions, data salvage missions, etc. So in my case, to get started I decided to "peek" in the sticky thread for where to find a "Listening Post".
Now, after having gained just the knowledge of what system in which to begin my hunt, it worked well. I'd say I had a good three hours play with those elements, and much to my pleasure every aspect was completed with 100% "in-game" play. No need for external anything. Easily the best experience I've had in Elite, so far as "mysterious things" gameplay.
If I might put a suggestion here for Frontier on this... Solidify the in-game methods/routes for CMDR uptake into this content. All the parts are already in game, they need only linkage:
1. Long-range Haulage/Courier missions: The widest point of reach for CMDRs who are maybe far from, or not looking for, clues. This web of specific missions designed to funnel CMDRs into the systems key to engaging further "mysteries" can be dropped all over the bubble, and these missions will focus their destinations in the system(s) where CMDRs can bump against further clues. Perhaps chained with a 2nd layer of the same:
2. Minor Faction greeting/flavor texts: After following the above lead, the 2nd phase missions will maybe unlock at Friendly or Allied status with a minor faction. Give some clues in the minor faction's dialogs/texts on the mission board to give clues as to where a player should build some reputation to learn more. These can be things like salvage missions, where CMDRs encounter some little messages or clues that something is different here. Data courier missions where an NPC will interdict them... and only SCAN their ship... and leave? Strange?
3. Tip-off style missions: Once CMDRs have stayed with the trail thus far, ensure that the "Tip-off" type of missions generate from continued engaging with the minor factions in step 2. These are optional, so CMDR who don't care can skip them. Those wanting to dig deeper are now positioned at the beginning of the real in-game mystery trail which uses a few existing elements:
4. Mysteries: Now the chain of messages used quite effectively in the "Listening Post" content can come into play. Salvage missions, wreck sites, abandoned surface outposts, where Data Beacons and messages get pieced together as clues. This aspect was well done in the "Listening Post", and could easily chain into more content with later patches.
The real key is (IMO) steps 1 through 3. An in-game route that funnels CMDRs from anywhere in the bubble, toward where the real meat of the "Mystery" can be bumped into.
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I'm not really wondering or anticipating anything... from an in-character perspective, my Commander views aliens like this:
"Either they are a threat to me, and will be dealt with like any other threat, or they're going to hire me and pay me, either in Credits or in commodities I can sell for credits. And if they're not a threat to me, and they don't want to hire me, then I have no use for them and they for me."
From my own perspective - unless they're hostile, or I have something to actually gain, they're a waste of my time. I'm not going to get my name on a First Discovered By, or Made First Contact with achievement, so I just don't really care. I've been out to Maia, I've been out to Merope. I've never found an Unknown Artifact, never seen a Barnacle, never ventured out to see the alien shipwreck or ruins, and if I never do I won't feel like I've missed out on anything either. I've seen the screenshots here, and that's good enough for me. Since I can't salvage any of it, or use any of the technology in any of it, or move in to it and charge admission, it's just useless decorations to me.
UA-bombing a station seems pretty stupid to me - nothing is actually gained from it, and I could care less about powerplay and politics. I pledge myself to no one, and take everyone's money equally.
I don't spend much time reading GalNet, because if I want to read, I'll pick up a book. And even if it were voice-acted, I would still pay little attention to it, because it really has nothing to do with me.
As for codes and cyphers - if I wanted to be a code-breaker, I'd have stayed in the military or gone to work for the CIA. But it's not my idea of a good time, so I don't bother with it.
"Either they are a threat to me, and will be dealt with like any other threat, or they're going to hire me and pay me, either in Credits or in commodities I can sell for credits. And if they're not a threat to me, and they don't want to hire me, then I have no use for them and they for me."
From my own perspective - unless they're hostile, or I have something to actually gain, they're a waste of my time. I'm not going to get my name on a First Discovered By, or Made First Contact with achievement, so I just don't really care. I've been out to Maia, I've been out to Merope. I've never found an Unknown Artifact, never seen a Barnacle, never ventured out to see the alien shipwreck or ruins, and if I never do I won't feel like I've missed out on anything either. I've seen the screenshots here, and that's good enough for me. Since I can't salvage any of it, or use any of the technology in any of it, or move in to it and charge admission, it's just useless decorations to me.
UA-bombing a station seems pretty stupid to me - nothing is actually gained from it, and I could care less about powerplay and politics. I pledge myself to no one, and take everyone's money equally.
I don't spend much time reading GalNet, because if I want to read, I'll pick up a book. And even if it were voice-acted, I would still pay little attention to it, because it really has nothing to do with me.
As for codes and cyphers - if I wanted to be a code-breaker, I'd have stayed in the military or gone to work for the CIA. But it's not my idea of a good time, so I don't bother with it.
This is an interesting point because, as frustrated as I can be with the whole Aliens story arc, I have to admit that there are quite a few things that can be said in defence of FD.
1) The existing "riddles / puzzles / whatever" *do* work : a respectable amount of players are having fun with them as the threadnaught clearly demonstrates. Removing it would be a huge mistake.
2) It is very specific to E : D (not many games do that) and I think FD should be proud of it
3) FD is well aware of the problem and tried to tackle it several times already, with poor results, due to bad luck and another major game design flaw (lack of Crime & Punishment system).
First example :
The 1st Alien crashed site was supposed to be found thanks to a major live event involving a large number of of CMDRs. Unfortunately, the whole thing collapsed because of one (very well known) griefer and was turned into a bland CG, which was a major disappointment to a lot of players
Second example : the Ram Tah CG.
The good : can involve everyone // The meh : rely on the usual haul / shoot / scan trinity which is getting old // The ugly : due to (probably) an oversight on FD's part, the CG expired in a few hours, leaving the VAST MAJORITY of the players who wanted to participate frustrated. Unfortunately yet another missed opportunity :-(
My point : FD is actually trying to find a way to involve more players in the Alien story line. The devs are still struggling to achieve that though and they should look at some of the suggestions offered by the community (some of them in this very thread).
Because, so far, I think the whole thing is a mess and judging by this thread I'm not the only one.
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Don't despair : I never had a single one either until, suddenly, I got 5 of them in a week. Maybe it was because of my in game activities (I was experimenting with Sothis, which I never did before) , pure RNG or a bug, but there you have it : 5 "tip off" clues out off the blue. Which is another terrible gameplay mechanic, but let's not even go there.
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I must have missed those ones, I get plenty of tip offs (got four in a one hour session the other night whilst running Empire missions out of HIP 10716) but they all relate to some bum who crashed his Diamondback full of drugs or similar.
I must have missed those ones, I get plenty of tip offs (got four in a one hour session the other night whilst running Empire missions out of HIP 10716) but they all relate to some bum who crashed his Diamondback full of drugs or similar.
Have yet to get a single tip-off. No idea what RNG triggers it. Given up bothering to try things to trigger it.