Conveying this games "Story" through nothing but text is unacceptable.

[Kyennamo]

You mean so we are back to walls of text again...immersion only for the English speakers??

Right.....cause every sub titled movie ever is nothing more than a wall of text. Havent you have ever watched a sub titled anime or movie?

Seems to me most would rather nothing be done so they can keep complaining.

Honestly though ...i dont care if they do it in Spanish, Japanese or Klingon. If it is sub titled i can follow it because.....well......im not illiterate

 

[Hessfire]

As a matter of fact, no I have not watched a sub-titled movie or anime. I either watch/read items in the original language or not at all - ever.

 

[Spacecat]

Story? There's a story?

 

[Kyennamo]

As a matter of fact, no I have not watched a sub-titled movie or anime. I either watch/read items in the original language or not at all - ever.

Ok cool. Are you multilingual? If so....very cool for you. How many languages do you speak?

If not.... your sentiment closes of the posibility of experiencing an awful lot of content from many other cultures. Especially video games. Im pretty sure everyone has played a video game where at least ONE character spoke with sub titles. So your statement seems prettt close minded (provided you dont speak 30 languages and understand all source material natively). But whatever..... to each his own i guess.

I mean.....dont you think....in space of all places.....that hundreds if not thousands of different languages would be spoken? So it would be perfectly reasonable to assume that the news would be subtitled if it wasnt in your native language. Or would you just refuse to watch the news then?

All of this is pointless though if you consider overdubbing in other languages as a possibility. Sub titles would just be cheaper. Thats why i suggested them

They could record the broadcast in Klingon and sub title it or overdub it with a cheap computer voice for all i care. ANYTHING would be better than what we currently have.

I for one am not seeing a whole lot of suggestions for practical cost effective ways to incorporate the narrative into such an open game. I think a "real" Galnet News would be a practical way to tell the narrative, provide info on important galactic events ans bring some depth the the galaxy. But if you have a better (actually practical) idea....im all ears....er....um.......eyes i guess....

 

[William H. Bonney]

whilst i'd buy ice creams from the original poster (purely to ask about the eye), i do wonder what "folk" expect the developers to do? some "folk" love the lore of the game and i've read more positive posts for Drew's books both past, and upcoming, that i wonder if this is a case of "you can please some commanders, some of the time, but not everyone, all of the time".

i've not read any of Drew's books and whilst my curiosity is in overdrive for "the" event late in April, i don't have a desire to buy his books to learn about the lore. i'm simply happy that something is happening in what ever storyline we are presented within the game that i seldom do enjoy playing.

Bob: you play golf?
Dave: i do, yeh?
Bob: you heard about that Scottish fella?
Dave: there's a few mate!
Bob: Might be Irish...
Dave: what about him?
Bob: not much, just impressed by how he hit's that little ball, into that little hole, real good
Dave: like that speed snooker game with the 15 second timer?
Bob: Errr... No.... absolutely not like that!
Dave: different fella than?!
Bob: your an idiot
Dave: i know you are, coz i said you are
Bob: how you loose the eye?
Dave: i sold ice creams to a weirdo once
Bob: sad times...
Dave: looks cool though right?
Bob: it surely does mate, it surely does.

 

[ScolioTheMost]

I am addressing all the "needs more story" peeps out there, did you grow up playing with Legos, and did your Legos need a story? Now someone hands you a fricking spaceship with fricking lasers and you are complaining about being bored?

Please, Drew's book is awesome, and unless I read the internet incorrectly, he paid for the right to write the first book, and has a full time job in addition to the books. The story is impressively larger than I can keep up on and I love it. Keep it up Drew!

 

[Itaki]

Last time I checked this company was named Frontier. Not Games Workshop. We have some schmuck writing a book and everyone seems to be all for it but I am just sitting here thinking how absurd it is that they can crank out a book but not a single new line of dialogue for over a year now...
In a visual medium such as video games the rule is "Show don't tell" and that is the only thing they are doing. Is telling us everything. At first it was OK since the game was in its infancy just churning out little tidbits. But here we are where Brabenbits himself actually said we have 5 major "plotlines" going on now...Hwat? And these "plots" are supposed to interest the player? These events do not affect anything at all. They are limited to articles and player imagination they just kind of happen...and we are shown absolutely nothing. Just some lines of text.

FD could hire the book writer guy and put him in charge of the story department. He would be responsible for managing voice actors hired from college English and foreign language classes.

 

[Madrax573]

There is an Elite novel?

Guess ED does mirror RL so much that I know about as much about ED current affairs as I pay attention to RL new and stuff!!

 

[Itaki]

https://andiepasdedeux.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/frickin-laser-beams.jpg?w=300&h=200

 

[Agony_Aunt]

I see a complaint from OP. I don't see an actual suggestion in OP as to what FD should do.

Please provide.

 

[RhymeRhyme]

I see a complaint from OP. I don't see an actual suggestion in OP as to what FD should do.

Please provide.

Maybe I can give an answer here. As posted many times, FDev should implement the "story" ingame, visible and we player have to get more involved in it. Our gameplay must be meaningful, driving events (visibly) ingame, some cool cutscenes would be great. The new camera suite comes in very handy here. It's simply important to replace the repetitive gameplay and get us players meaningful gameplay by connecting us with the story, interesting missions that drive it and such.


A great mission would look like
Check out this video here. Now imagine that this is the cutscene (it's not hard to achieve as you can see, a player did that) for the beginning of a mission. A secret agent launches @ a station on it's way to deliver a tool to a power that enables the guys to do some dirty rough stuff. Your mission is to stop him. The mission is designed in a way that his path is known and at which stations he will stop until he reaches his destination (this information could come from a previous mission). You have several chances to catch him on his way. A cool ingame live transmission video popping up (in your cockpit), a guy giving you more information about the recent location of the agent, with updated coordinates or whatever. At the end, the meeting place where he will hand over the tool is in the middle of a battle ground. You get pulled in in a situation where you don't want to be but you have to stop him. Fight him in the middle of an ongoing battle that's going on around you... etc etc etc. Endless cool things we could get. But we bounty hunt, explore, trade ... in an endless loop ... that's more or less it! And nothing has a real effect on the game. Even Elite (1984) had more game elements like this. I remember playing Elite (1984) and suddenly (ingame) a secret mission popped up where you had to find a super dooper secret ship. That was thrilling ... Can't remember the details but it was ingame and it was very cool.

So, imagine what we could get, watch the vid with that story element in the back of your head. Just watch the first 40 seconds, that'll do the trick to get an idea of what I mean ;-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOQZF79dyBk&feature=youtu.be

 

[Madrax573]

Story is all well and good if you are interested in it. Blooming useless if you are not.

From what experience I have I'd say that the majority of players only pay quick reference to 'story' and only if it's part of their own personal sandbox experience.

I love a great story but that doesn't mean I want it shoved down my throat. If I'm in the for 'story' then I open up the galnet and read it and maybe make plans to go look at stuff or run specific missions or do some sandboxy stuff for the local to help out.

Fleshed out story is one thing but spending silly money/time on things like live actors to do green screen new casts....waste IMO.

- - - Updated - - -

Just watch the first 40 seconds, that'll do the trick to get an idea of what I mean ;-)

I did. Where is the story in the that vid?

 

[Gully Foyle]

Story is all well and good if you are interested in it. Blooming useless if you are not.

From what experience I have I'd say that the majority of players only pay quick reference to 'story' and only if it's part of their own personal sandbox experience.

I love a great story but that doesn't mean I want it shoved down my throat. If I'm in the for 'story' then I open up the galnet and read it and maybe make plans to go look at stuff or run specific missions or do some sandboxy stuff for the local to help out.

Fleshed out story is one thing but spending silly money/time on things like live actors to do green screen new casts....waste IMO.

Totally agree. My imagination can run with what's on GalNet better than watching some play with goofy actors. Waste of money IMHO as well.

I cordially invite you to join The Alliance. We are always looking for level headed, rational entities such as yourself.
07 CMDR

 

[Chris Simon]

...FDev should implement the "story" ingame, visible and we player have to get more involved in it. Our gameplay must be meaningful...

Really?

No. Thank you. I don't have to do anything.

That's one of the things that's keeping me in.

 

[RhymeRhyme]

Story is all well and good if you are interested in it. Blooming useless if you are not.

From what experience I have I'd say that the majority of players only pay quick reference to 'story' and only if it's part of their own personal sandbox experience.

I love a great story but that doesn't mean I want it shoved down my throat. If I'm in the for 'story' then I open up the galnet and read it and maybe make plans to go look at stuff or run specific missions or do some sandboxy stuff for the local to help out.

Fleshed out story is one thing but spending silly money/time on things like live actors to do green screen new casts....waste IMO.

- - - Updated - - -



I did. Where is the story in the that vid?

D'oh! It's the cutscene intro to that mission I described. Is today HOMER day? ;-)
GalNet - that's exactly the problem. You're one of the players that actually follow that text desert. I bet my BOTTOM, you're a tiny tiny minority of the player base. The rest just ignores the "story". It's external, it's totally no connected to the game. Gameplay is meaningless as of the current game state.

- - - Updated - - -

Really?

No. Thank you. I don't have to do anything.

That's one of the things that's keeping me in.

Not have to in a way you can't sandbox anymore. But the missions we get are terrible and repetitive. The external story is not visible and as the other player just mentioned, noone is interested (IMHO as it's not visible and a text desert). in it. For people who want to sandbox, nothing changes, for the ones who got bored to death, this would be a great game element.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Maybe I can give an answer here. As posted many times, FDev should implement the "story" ingame, visible and we player have to get more involved in it. Our gameplay must be meaningful, driving events (visibly) ingame, some cool cutscenes would be great. The new camera suite comes in very handy here. It's simply important to replace the repetitive gameplay and get us players meaningful gameplay by connecting us with the story, interesting missions that drive it and such.


A great mission would look like
Check out this video here. Now imagine that this is the cutscene (it's not hard to achieve as you can see, a player did that) for the beginning of a mission. A secret agent launches @ a station on it's way to deliver a tool to a power that enables the guys to do some dirty rough stuff. Your mission is to stop him. The mission is designed in a way that his path is known and at which stations he will stop until he reaches his destination (this information could come from a previous mission). You have several chances to catch him on his way. A cool ingame live transmission video popping up (in your cockpit), a guy giving you more information about the recent location of the agent, with updated coordinates or whatever. At the end, the meeting place where he will hand over the tool is in the middle of a battle ground. You get pulled in in a situation where you don't want to be but you have to stop him. Fight him in the middle of an ongoing battle that's going on around you... etc etc etc. Endless cool things we could get. But we bounty hunt, explore, trade ... in an endless loop ... that's more or less it! And nothing has a real effect on the game. Even Elite (1984) had more game elements like this. I remember playing Elite (1984) and suddenly (ingame) a secret mission popped up where you had to find a super dooper secret ship. That was thrilling ... Can't remember the details but it was ingame and it was very cool.

So, imagine what we could get, watch the vid with that story element in the back of your head. Just watch the first 40 seconds, that'll do the trick to get an idea of what I mean ;-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOQZF79dyBk&feature=youtu.be

Sounds lovely in theory, but how's that going to work in reality?

Look at the one time they did a cutscene - the hyperdiction event - complaints how it was effectively a cutscene. However, it does work because nothing happens that makes any single CMDR the chosen one. It was worth the effort because it could be used multiple times.

What happens though if you want to do that sort of thing for all sorts of elements in relation to the story? We can influence the story, usually through mass actions, but its very rare that any individual CMDRs have an impact.

Either you need cutscenes for everyone... and then what? Everyone is the chosen one? Or they are generic like the hyperdictions. How often can do in reality do things like the hyperdictions for everyone? How often are there going to be events that affect everyone under certain circumstances in a certain region that it makes sense for those people to see it?

A Fed capital ship is destroyed by the Empire... everyone gets to see a cutscene of that.... what? How many times is the same ship destroyed?

Hmm... maybe i'm coming to see where you are coming from. If that is broadcast via galnet, so we can all watch it like a newsfeed.... that might be good and be a good way of relaying the info.

Perhaps what is needed is for FD to create an in game video feed version of Galnet... if they can spare the time and resources for that.

 

[Chris Simon]

Not have to in a way you can't sandbox anymore. But the missions we get are terrible and repetitive. The external story is not visible and as the other player just mentioned, noone is interested (IMHO as it's not visible and a text desert). in it. For people who want to sandbox, nothing changes, for the ones who got bored to death, this would be a great game element.

Still, I think that the fact that all the fun is hidden and you have to look and fight for your bit of it is the best part of Elite. Really if I want story, I play Mass Effect. If I want to be a captain of a spaceship and do whatever I want, I play Elite.
The fact that the story (and other elements) aren't "in your face" is incredibly refreshing.
Though I do understand that not everybody feels the same...

 

[Hessfire]

Galnet - a Division of FTL Newsfeeds

All day every day making tomorrow seem like yesterday...

And for those of you that thought we had no future...welcome to it...

 

[Gully Foyle]

D'oh! It's the cutscene intro to that mission I described. Is today HOMER day? ;-)
GalNet - that's exactly the problem. You're one of the players that actually follow that text desert. I bet my BOTTOM, you're a tiny tiny minority of the player base. The rest just ignores the "story". It's external, it's totally no connected to the game. Gameplay is meaningless as of the current game state.

You're wrong I believe. Lots of CMDRS read GalNet, even if only to find out the various states systems and factions are in.
I don't think the majority of players share your feelings about gameplay and game state either. Most players are too busy playing to bother with the toxic nonsense that fills this forum to the brim of the bowl these days.

Not have to in a way you can't sandbox anymore. But the missions we get are terrible and repetitive. The external story is not visible and as the other player just mentioned, noone is interested (IMHO as it's not visible and a text desert). in it. For people who want to sandbox, nothing changes, for the ones who got bored to death, this would be a great game element.

These are just your opinions and I respect your right to have them. However again I believe you to be way off and you CMDR do not have the right to speak for others. If someone is bored to death by the game, why then still play it? This is not like a modern game and that is probably the reason why older gamers like it. No hand holding, no end game, no mindless pew pew pew.

o7

 

[RhymeRhyme]

Sounds lovely in theory, but how's that going to work in reality?

You're absolutely right. The game engine and the underlying mechanics are not able to provide that. That's why we're caught in the repetition loop. Even chained missions were tricky to implement even that they just add a standard mission to another standard mission and so on.

But it's worth thinking about what it could be like and posting it in the forum. If the game stays like this, adding more "content" without changing the underlying mechanics and makin it intereting, it's not gonna reach tier 5. The more action driven XBox community and now with the upcoming Playstation community won't stick to the game for very long.

- - - Updated - - -

These are just your opinions and I respect your right to have them. However again I believe you to be way off and you CMDR do not have the right to speak for others. If someone is bored to death by the game, why then still play it? This is not like a modern game and that is probably the reason why older gamers like it. No hand holding, no end game, no mindless pew pew pew.

o7

No, I'm pretty sure a small amount of players follow the GalNet "story". I'm pretty sure. Dream on if you think there are more nerds dreaming their imagination ingame than other players. Especially the XBox community gives a damn dime about the text based story and so will the Playstation group do. Totally different player base.