What do you guys think about the real-time aspect of Elite Dangerous?

The occasional failed mission is no big deal. I generally try to avoid missions that I'm not going to have time to finish. I have zero worries about logging off knowing that I'm going to fail a mission on time though. The rep is pretty easy to make back again if I'm interested in doing it.
 
I rarely ever feel like a game is punishing me. Stuff happens and I take it as it comes and adapt to it. I'm 100% fine with the real time component of the game, in fact I wish there was more of it.
 
It was disconcerting at first playing ED for the first time after FFE with the option to dreamscale time. But then I liked it and the new ability to warp through a system made up for it. Limited time for the missions for me makes the NPC world feel more alive and the BGS is mmo. I like how the ED world in 3303 moves on when you log off back to the real world. Sometimes when I played FFE, I would leave it on in real time to let it do its simulation of the daynight cycles and planetary bodies moving around in the sol system or on a distant world imagining I was off the ship and coming back to it later.
 
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I like it. Helps to make the galaxy feel like a real place which would go on without you rather than a personal playground.
 
I hate it with a passion.
For someone like me who plays about once a week it's impossible to get allied with any superpower due to reputation decay.
No matter how high I get my reputation, the next time I play it's back down to 75%.
 
I hate it with a passion.
For someone like me who plays about once a week it's impossible to get allied with any superpower due to reputation decay.
No matter how high I get my reputation, the next time I play it's back down to 75%.

Yeah, I'll go with that one. I don't mind the 24 hour limit on missions so much, but the superpower rep decay is annoying.
 

Deleted member 38366

D
Whenever I look at a task, I ask myself a few very basic Questions :

- do I have the right tool for the job?
- is my estimated effort to execute it in line with my personal limits and capabilities?
- is my estimated time to execute it in line with the associated deadlines?
- is the location for the proposed Task or Mission suitable for expeditious execution?
- is this task the optimal task I can perform to achieve my desired Results?

After dealing with those questions, I'll never pick up any Mission that
- asks to kill 108 Warzone Targets when I planned to end my Session in 3hrs or less
- asks to kill 96 Pirates when the Target System doesn't offer suitable hunting Grounds
- asks to deliver a high amount of i.e. Lithium Hydroxide or Bromellite when I planned to end my Session in 2hrs or less

etc.etc.

Morale of it all?
Just an old wisdom : The good ol' 6P's of Aviation

Proper Preflight Planning Prevents Poor Performance :D
 
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tbh if you want a real chore in elite, go exploring 14000 ly away from the bubble then return along a route where almost everything of interest such as class O or class N or class H stars is already first discovered. 14000 ly of jumps to systems with very little interest and stopping only to refuel and scan. and as you get closer to the bubble its harder to find even normal stars that havent had most of the system first discovered. sure you can still scan it and get money, but its not exciting.
 
I hate it with a passion.
For someone like me who plays about once a week it's impossible to get allied with any superpower due to reputation decay.
No matter how high I get my reputation, the next time I play it's back down to 75%.

Thing is it kinda has to be this way with ED with the way your actions influence everyones game (albeit in small ways at times). The decay might be a little fast, on that I would agree but it has to be there
 
That logic actually doesn`t make sense. It`s a game, a pastime. If every game forced you to complete a job in real time, especially in Solo, hardly anyone would buy a game.

And yet here we are all together playing Elite. On a further note same thing happens all the time in World of Warcraft with raids and such and that game has way more players than ED has.

Honestly for immersion's sake I think the same thing should apply to other games too, like Skyrim for instance. It doesn't really make sense if I accept a mission, then leave it hanging for several months while no one gives the time of day.

In Elite's sake it has a considerable impact on challenge too. Being able to accept missions here and there just in case would hurt the overall experience. The dry periods where there's seemingly no missions anywhere is part of that experience and that's what makes it all the more satisfying when you finally DO find a well paying mission.


On another note if you meant it would be better if there would still be a time-limit, but it would only run when you're in-game then I guess it would be reasonable.
 
I rather like it.

I tend not to take time-critical missions like assassinations because of it, but at the moment most of the times are generous enough and I'm experienced enough to know that taking conflict zone missions, for example, when I don't know how long the conflict will last is a risk.
 
Thanks a lot for reminding me I left uni 12 years ago! Grrrrr

<Wibbly-wobbly screen flashback> - Ahhh 6 core subjects...6 lectures & 6 tutorials....12 hrs per wk in my final year (plus 8 hrs self-imposed study periods per day, ofc *cough*) <&...back in the room>

Great!...time to leave for work! Enjoy your day playing Elite, OP! 'Not jealous at all...
 
So many games are designed to make us comfortable and cater to our every need. I like a game that has rules, limits and time constraints that force the occasional fail due to RL. It forces me to think and plan more in advance than most games do. Failing missions are minor setbacks.
Certainly not for everyone, but I like it just as it is.
 
This whole things makes me rather sad and angry to be honest, I've spent far too long arguing about it in the past.

What it comes down to is people have lives outside of the game and it can be difficult to predict when and for how long you will be able to play. If real life intervenes it is a tad unfair that you are then punished in game.
I don't object to missions being timed, not at all, but I think that should in game time not real-time. There would be a few interesting mission terminating edge cases but nothing that wouldn't be rather rare and nothing that couldn't be resolved sensibly.
Frontier's response to this has been to extend mission timers out but that just reduces the validity of those timers for everyone who can spend time in game while not helping everyone else that much.
So, bit of a mess and generally annoying.
There was some _very_ long ago talk about timers being in game but that never amounted to anything - I suspect it is sufficiently built in to the fabric of the game that changing it would be a right pain now.

In relation to CGs I think the real-time is probably okay, these tend to be long running events and I've always maintained that for player interactive events (which CGs sort of ought to be) or missions then real-time makes sense. Just not for everything else.

Still, I don't expect change at this point. I just have to be super careful about what missions I take when - that this care is based on factors external to the game rather than internal is immersion break and irritating but oh well.
 
I don't have a problem with the game continuing to run while I'm not there.

However it makes no sense whatsoever that shields don't recharge while you are away!

Then again, where exactly does your ship go when you log out of the Elite universe..?
 
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I love when people can't finish something they started and say the game 'punishes' them.


You guys baffle me with your outlook and sense of entitlement.
 
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