Elite needs casual players.
This isn't 1984. Games cost a lot of money to make. They need an audience of sufficient size to support that cost. Ergo, Elite probably won't make the long haul as a niche title with 4500 daily concurrent players.
Here is how you draw in theore casual crowd and keep us. Reasoning included:
-Dont waste our time. We want to fly ships in space. We DO NOT want:
-Long load times. You MUST begin loading transition sooner than you are. There's a thread here about that. Look it up. Ten or more seconds per transition, with 50 or more transitions in a weeknight play session...too much down time. We want to play, not watch.
-Spreadsheet Management: I want increased FSD range. What I DONT want: grinding mats. Tracking what I need using Alt+tab 5 times a night. Being forced to mine, or haul freight. Or drive those boring buggies.
All mats should be available on the market, as drops from exploded ships, etc. Get back to letting me play my way, says the casual gamer, and stop forcing me to play yours.
Moreover, show me what I have the Mata to build. Right there, IN your game. Every time I have the mats to complete any recipe from ANY engineer I have unlocked, show me. Right in my ship.
Lastly: give me the ability to craft the items RIGHT IN MY SHIP, WITH NO WAIT. Every time you make me alt tab to check a re open, or fly halfway across the bubble to craft something, you are pushing me toward quitting your game. You're wasting my time again.
I, and others like me, lead a busy life, at the center of which video games do not sit. If you want me, my ample free time and my not inconsiderable disposable income, stop wasting my time.
As with:
-Long Grinds: Boring. Waste of time. I would find your game more enjoyable and less tedious, and would play it more, if there were more multirole ships at affordable prices, that could actually hold their own against enemies. Alas, all of those ships require an enormous grind just to make the game convenient to play. If I wanted that, I'd play a tablet game. Make multirole ships less (and frankly, all ships) less costly. The grind isn't fun; it puts me off playing, as opposed to retaining me.
-Forced Combat: the number one reason I play Euro/American truck sim instead of Elite.
Pirates in your galaxy aren't pirates. They are rampaging psychotics. None of them want to negotiate. They all just want to kill me. Period.
And they want to kill me, over a few mats. Or cargo that isn't worth the effort, if I have any at all.
Knock it off. Pirates should be pirates, not crappy RPG random bandits in space. They should be discerning, intelligent, and fairly rare.
Furthermore, the magically spawning, psychic pirates who auto interdicted me e wry single mission...6 times per run...that HAS to stop, if you want to keep players like me. It's not fun, it's not fair (as in, these enemies don't use the game logic or rules). It's pure frustration.
If I want danger, I will carry high end or rare goods. I will bounty hunt. I will...well, no, I WONT Power Play, because it's crap. One of the worst systems I have ever seen in a game. But I WOULD do it, if it were made at all fun. Or even interesting. Which it isn't.
Point: If it's danger I'm seeking, I will find it. Or so things to attract it. Hang around rate goods runs too long. Get a rep for hauling pricey items. All of which should matter.
But as the guy who rarely even HAS a cargo hold, and most hunts in RES or explores...pirates shouldn't even LOOK ate twice. More less waste their time with me. The things we do should matter.
Another concern:
If I wanted to manage spreadsheets, I would return to EVE (because flight model aside, as a game it's FAR better than Elite under the hood). Stop requiring me track half a dozen faction reps, needed materials and outfitting and ship locations in third party tools.
Right now, in the 21st century, I can go online to shop. For clothes. Cars. Anything. And manufacturers will direct me to places where I can buy the goods I want. They will even offer sales and discounts. Because they WANT my business.
Yet, here is Elite. One thousand years in the future. One THOUSAND. And no internet. No web. I have to fly around, HOPING to find the thing I WANT to buy.
It's frankly stupid. No other word for it. Sorry folks. I should be able to check markets in near real time, right in game. But you won't let me. Because your (badly misguided) lead developer is stuck in a tablet game, free to play mindset, and thinks that inflating the time it takes to do things in game, will keep me, and others like me, playing longer.
Trouble is, us casual gamers...we aren't hand held addicts. We are people with diverse interests who also like to fly space ships on a somewhat regular basis. Artificially inflating the time it takes to do things in games, will inflate nothing except the frequency with which j I choose to do OTHER things, instead of play Elite. Which in turn, correlates with my shrinking desire to continue spending money on the game going forward.
In short: stop wasting our time if you want us to play. Long transition times, market load times, forced trips across the bubble to craft a single item. Collect-a-thon mechanics. No market search. Frequent, forced interdiction over the two random garbage items I was given for a mission.
These are ALL time sinks in disguise. Many of them, deliberately intended to artificially inflate time spent in game.
This is disrespectful of players. Of their time. I used to play Warframe. The game moved more and more from fun to time sink grind. Myself, and others...Simply quit. Quit saying. Quit spending.
Elite is headed down that same road. Either replace the mentality of your decision maker...or the decisioaker themselves. Because right now, the design direction is KILLING this game.
![[VR] Mad Mike](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/27/27910.jpg?1553527108){kind=avatar}
And I do think grinding is the heart and soul of elites.
