Why Elite's riddles and story do not work for me
- Thread starter KiDra
- Start date
Describes me. And I have a small background in cryptology. But I want Game in my Video Games. I don't want to go outside them to get scrapes of content.
Someone suggested a puzzle inserted into some fetch quests. Even something as basic as that would be, to my eyes, a vast, vast improvement.
I get that the storyline has to be stretched out because of not yet-implemented game mechanics. But it can be compressed into like, what, a couple of hours, maybe 5, in a more traditional format? I swear I don't have ADHD, but it simply doesn't hold my attention when stretched over two years.
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I agree with OP. Especially on the part where you NEED to use 3rd party tools.
Not only refarding the riddles, but in many areas the ingame informations are lacking, and for too many things you have to rely on external sources, be them the forums, guides, etc.
Damn, even to simply know all the blueprints an enginner has you have to open a webpage, that's pretty ridicolous.
If in game informations and tools were present, then you could implement anything:
from canonn riddles that require a degree in cryptology to something simpler that can be fun for a single pilot to discover without beeing Einstein.
In general the games requires too many 3rd party tools for everything. As a dedicated explorer I had to make my personal database, starting with pen & paper and ending with automated 3rd party tool that store informations it's ridicolous are not in-game.
For a new player, the lack of a more friendly ingame interface and information awailable could be overwhelming, especially since they (rightly so) go on implementing features.
If I had to start today, looking at PowerPlay, the Engineers, the various meta for combat, all the mats gathering, the lack of information on basic of a succesfull trade route, the lack of ingame information about anything regarding exploration, and so on, probably i would realize the amount of "out of game WORK" to do to have a grip of it, you already know how it will end.
Hell, they have put stations en-route to Jaques, they position is relegated to a player post in the exploration subforum, PERIOD. There's already quite a good bunch of players that is going back and forth from Jaques that haven't the slighest idea the planetary outpost are on the way.
I like challenge, but sometimes i would like to just run the game and have all the info there, instead of passing half of game time gathering information on the web and fiddling with 3rd party tools.
Not only refarding the riddles, but in many areas the ingame informations are lacking, and for too many things you have to rely on external sources, be them the forums, guides, etc.
Damn, even to simply know all the blueprints an enginner has you have to open a webpage, that's pretty ridicolous.
If in game informations and tools were present, then you could implement anything:
from canonn riddles that require a degree in cryptology to something simpler that can be fun for a single pilot to discover without beeing Einstein.
In general the games requires too many 3rd party tools for everything. As a dedicated explorer I had to make my personal database, starting with pen & paper and ending with automated 3rd party tool that store informations it's ridicolous are not in-game.
For a new player, the lack of a more friendly ingame interface and information awailable could be overwhelming, especially since they (rightly so) go on implementing features.
If I had to start today, looking at PowerPlay, the Engineers, the various meta for combat, all the mats gathering, the lack of information on basic of a succesfull trade route, the lack of ingame information about anything regarding exploration, and so on, probably i would realize the amount of "out of game WORK" to do to have a grip of it, you already know how it will end.
Hell, they have put stations en-route to Jaques, they position is relegated to a player post in the exploration subforum, PERIOD. There's already quite a good bunch of players that is going back and forth from Jaques that haven't the slighest idea the planetary outpost are on the way.
I like challenge, but sometimes i would like to just run the game and have all the info there, instead of passing half of game time gathering information on the web and fiddling with 3rd party tools.
It's very exclusive and almost none of it is solvable inside the game, that makes it largely inaccessible to the majority of the player base.
Have been reading this thread, and +rep to the OP, I have been feeling the same way. This post might also hold a clue to what we are seeing...
If you look at the recent additions to mission mechanics and compare the approach FD have taken with other areas of the game then the outlook is good. Over recent releases there have been small additions to the game that have come as unrelated features that at this point offer a minimum level of improvement or content, but if you consider them as a tool box of mechanisms that can be combined they might support hugely complex player specific content, taken singularly they seem under whelming but what if they are each just one part of a much bigger puzzle:
- Multi stage missions (Multi hop delivery)
- Player specific missions (Tip Offs)
- Dynamic location in systems (ship yards, Arena assets, unsanctioned broadcasts, Buying weapons)
- Persistent PIO's on planets and round planets
- Unique/mission specific cargo
- A growing library of graphical game assets
- RNG mods that require their own tier of materials collection (engineers)
- Assets that interact with player assets without shooting (Unidentified Probe/ADS)
- Combining materials to affect mechanics (Synthesis)
- Additional layers of data discovery (planet materials display)
- Dynamic mission changes (Passenger missions, In flight mission changes)
- Encoded information delivery (ciphers)
- Mechanism to decode and identify game assets/data (wave scanner)
- Mechanism to link groups to large events through gate mechanics (recent "hidden" alien location CG)
- Mechanism to support long term mission retention (log timer passenger missions, long timer Jaques CG)
As a software developer I can see elements in this that have de-risked delivery of complex mechanics by breaking them into smaller testable components. As a hypothesis, have we seen a CG that started before a major update but did not complete until after it, that would be a significant thing to test before delivering huge story based CG's and puzzles. Could the re-emergence of the precious gems unique PIO after 2.3 have been a clue to this being looked at, it was linked to a CG and persisted over a major release.
In this context FD have done an amazing job of delivering incremental improvements packaged as specific benefits to the game that each build a much more flexible toolkit when used together.
Maybe Canonn are not breaking FD's puzzles to quickly, maybe FD are simply working out wich puzzles are worth developng in-game mechanics around, maybe Canonn might simply be the test subjects in FD's experiment...
If you look at the recent additions to mission mechanics and compare the approach FD have taken with other areas of the game then the outlook is good. Over recent releases there have been small additions to the game that have come as unrelated features that at this point offer a minimum level of improvement or content, but if you consider them as a tool box of mechanisms that can be combined they might support hugely complex player specific content, taken singularly they seem under whelming but what if they are each just one part of a much bigger puzzle:
- Multi stage missions (Multi hop delivery)
- Player specific missions (Tip Offs)
- Dynamic location in systems (ship yards, Arena assets, unsanctioned broadcasts, Buying weapons)
- Persistent PIO's on planets and round planets
- Unique/mission specific cargo
- A growing library of graphical game assets
- RNG mods that require their own tier of materials collection (engineers)
- Assets that interact with player assets without shooting (Unidentified Probe/ADS)
- Combining materials to affect mechanics (Synthesis)
- Additional layers of data discovery (planet materials display)
- Dynamic mission changes (Passenger missions, In flight mission changes)
- Encoded information delivery (ciphers)
- Mechanism to decode and identify game assets/data (wave scanner)
- Mechanism to link groups to large events through gate mechanics (recent "hidden" alien location CG)
- Mechanism to support long term mission retention (log timer passenger missions, long timer Jaques CG)
As a software developer I can see elements in this that have de-risked delivery of complex mechanics by breaking them into smaller testable components. As a hypothesis, have we seen a CG that started before a major update but did not complete until after it, that would be a significant thing to test before delivering huge story based CG's and puzzles. Could the re-emergence of the precious gems unique PIO after 2.3 have been a clue to this being looked at, it was linked to a CG and persisted over a major release.
In this context FD have done an amazing job of delivering incremental improvements packaged as specific benefits to the game that each build a much more flexible toolkit when used together.
Maybe Canonn are not breaking FD's puzzles to quickly, maybe FD are simply working out wich puzzles are worth developng in-game mechanics around, maybe Canonn might simply be the test subjects in FD's experiment...
Elite Dangerous is not just a game. It is a simulator. For this, we should expect things to become more realistic over the next decades as new worlds are discovered in the real universe, which is then incorporated directly into the sim.
Simulation means we want to get deep into science. We actually love it! Sure, FD could invest coding time to implement advanced scientific software in game that allows us to investigate, research and conclude new information from given sources. But there already are very good scientific software out there in the real world that does these things so much better than FD could ever hope to achieve.
How hard can it be to actually switch from ED to FLstudio or Visual Studio to do sound spectral analysis or code own triangulation programs to find sources given from data in game? Sure, it is hell of a scientific achievement to find these things out. But heck, WHAT A GAME!!!! Omg it's fantastic!!!! More of it, deeper... DEEEEEEPER. Delve into the glorious exciting science of the universe and discover new things for real, even if it is by accident in a game called Elite Dangerous.
"I can actually feel it. I am touching the universe through the game by exploring the science behind it! And I like it... no wait... I love it.. no that is not it... I.... I want it!... I need it! I can not live without it! I can not fathom a life without it! I no longer remember what it was like before...."
Simulation means we want to get deep into science. We actually love it! Sure, FD could invest coding time to implement advanced scientific software in game that allows us to investigate, research and conclude new information from given sources. But there already are very good scientific software out there in the real world that does these things so much better than FD could ever hope to achieve.
How hard can it be to actually switch from ED to FLstudio or Visual Studio to do sound spectral analysis or code own triangulation programs to find sources given from data in game? Sure, it is hell of a scientific achievement to find these things out. But heck, WHAT A GAME!!!! Omg it's fantastic!!!! More of it, deeper... DEEEEEEPER. Delve into the glorious exciting science of the universe and discover new things for real, even if it is by accident in a game called Elite Dangerous.
"I can actually feel it. I am touching the universe through the game by exploring the science behind it! And I like it... no wait... I love it.. no that is not it... I.... I want it!... I need it! I can not live without it! I can not fathom a life without it! I no longer remember what it was like before...."
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When this thread has more pages than even the smallest cannon thread. Then you can claim that the current way of revealing the story is for the "select few".
Just wondering aloud here but sometimes I think ALL the "discoveries" and "riddles" are simply flipped on by FD when they feel it's time. Maybe then some plant made up commander by FD "discovers" them and announce it here for all to see finally.
What leads me to this is that if all these riddles were really out in the galaxy already to be found, even Thargoids, some CMDR who has time to play 23.5hrs a day (everyone has to poop at least, shower optional) would have found the end of the game already.
Maybe I am just a cynical person, likely. That being said I do still enjoy the game but I think the story is meant to be told by FD as they wish not for us to somehow make it unfold. I think we witnessed this at the start when hundreds of CMDRs tried like heck to influence a system and could never tip the scales without FD intervention manually.
My flame suit is on after daring to be a doubter.
What leads me to this is that if all these riddles were really out in the galaxy already to be found, even Thargoids, some CMDR who has time to play 23.5hrs a day (everyone has to poop at least, shower optional) would have found the end of the game already.
Maybe I am just a cynical person, likely. That being said I do still enjoy the game but I think the story is meant to be told by FD as they wish not for us to somehow make it unfold. I think we witnessed this at the start when hundreds of CMDRs tried like heck to influence a system and could never tip the scales without FD intervention manually.
My flame suit is on after daring to be a doubter.
Mate....you really need to switch off the computer and go outside for a while....seriously
Given the number of threads weve had so far, were currently at somewhere around 86,000 - 87,000 posts in total. [woah]
No it definetely does happen like that, assuming I understand what you mean.
Like everything isn't in the game currently, with each patch new stuff gets added which progresses the mystery/story.
So like on patch release of course everyone's logging on to test things out in case known behaviour has changed. Sure it is not ideal and it can be a bit frustrating when stuff you've tried in a previous patch now does something, but the game and story is still in development so I think it just has to be accepted, especially so if you want players to influence the story to any degree.
It does not matter if people satsified with the riddles and their presentation are a majority, minority, belong to Canonn or not. As bitstorm said non-canonn-players can and do participate in the riddle solving.
People in this thread here give feedback and make in my opinion good suggestions. Fact is, not everybody is happy with the mode chosen by Frontier. I also believe people gave good reasons as to why it does not work for them.
Only Frontier can get anything close to reliable numbers to see wether or not it works "well enough", so I hope they take whatever input they find valuable from discussions like this one and keep on improving the game.
I for myself am back to just "blazing my own trail", without chasing riddles or following the story closely.
People in this thread here give feedback and make in my opinion good suggestions. Fact is, not everybody is happy with the mode chosen by Frontier. I also believe people gave good reasons as to why it does not work for them.
Only Frontier can get anything close to reliable numbers to see wether or not it works "well enough", so I hope they take whatever input they find valuable from discussions like this one and keep on improving the game.
I for myself am back to just "blazing my own trail", without chasing riddles or following the story closely.
I had this conversation with a mate the other day about the finding of Jacques.
Stumbled upon it? Really. All those systems and he happened upon the very one where Jacques had finished up.
Taxiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
Stumbled upon it? Really. All those systems and he happened upon the very one where Jacques had finished up.
Taxiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
Jaques was visible on the galaxy map filters.
After FD turned it on. Otherwise those hundreds who were waiting at Beagle would have crashed the forums!!!!!
I find your statement to be illogical. 90% of the posts in those threads are off topic. 90% of the posters are the same people, a pretty small fraction of the player base.
There are just as many plea posts for deeper content from a majority of the player base as there are cannon posts.
If you were to ask any ED players ' would you like to be able to discover and solve mysteries in game instead of outside with extremely complicated tools' do you really think they would say no. I believe 99% would say yes to that question just for concern in regard to immersion let alone other concerns.
Always someone falling for it..... L2troll.