Why are player complaining about grinding?

[lemny]

In some new 2.4 threads player are fearing they have to grind for the new modules which are coming to fight the Thargoids.

I can't understand, why grinding is branded as such a bad thing by so many players out there.

In an huge sandbox like ED, you can't generate one unique experience after another and fill hundreds if not thousands of hours with it.
If you want to be able to get the an A-rated, fully engineered Anaconda without grinding, then you would be there in 10 to 20 hours... and then what?
Grinding is the only thing to keep player occupied for long periods of time.

The same goes for the RNG at the engineers. At the first glance, I also thought that could be annoying... but since FD removed the commodities and tripled the loot, I am totally fine with it.
And if they didn't used RNG and let you simply buy the best outcomes for enough mats/money, we all had much less to do and would be bored even faster.

Many times I was going after some mats simply to try few rolls on my already top notch engineered modules because of the chance for a bonus. And it was fun, most of the times... and it was "something to do".

Sure, there are many things in ED that could be improved within these grind mechanics to make them even more fun, but the base of the game play should be always a grind with a kind of asymptotic progression where you can achieve reasonable results in not too much time but the top notch things should take a long time to keep things interesting.

just sayin... ...it's all IMO... but if you hate grinding, think about the alternatives.

EDIT: How about some optional "special" rolls for 3,5 or even 10 times the amount of materials or some additional very rare mats, which results are between the actual stats and the best possible outcome on an already modded Module. This should guarantee a progression and a reward feeling and would be a bit more fun and less frustrating near the top results.

 

[iFred]

*in b4 instant pewpewcrew jumps on you*

 

[Kingston@#]

most Cmdrs. come to slate the grind because that's all they do, to get what they want.
I don't mind the grind myself, if I get bored. I go do something else in the universe. it took me 12 mths to get the rep for the cutter. if I ground it out. it would have probably took a cpl of weeks.

variety is the spice

 

[GODofDUTY83]

Removing commodities got me into using the engineers and I love it.
I have zero mats and zero data at all times. When I want something, I go get it.
Nearly all games are just nothing more than a grind fest, but, if you enjoy what your doing and have enough options to mix up the gameplay then whats the problem ?

Edit.
Please dont reapply commodities to the engineers, FD. Bin that idea.

 

[Miklos Atreides]

There is mostly a definition problem about when grinding start to be grindy.

Its a perception thing. and many will define it a grind, if they start doing things you don't want to do, but feel urged to do so, because of any personal intentions.
If you stop doing this, there will be no grind at all.

For me this is more a sequence of desire, action, consequence.


Regards,
Miklos

 

[lemny]

Yep, the fuel of ED is the very good feeling of the game play itself.
It's fun to fly these ships and drive around in a SRV and so...

If that fundamentally mechanic is working out for the players, the "grind" is not a grind, it's only a nice reason to fly and drive around.

 

[Spacemarkl]

I agree with the OP and the others I've repped so far.

The grind is only in your mind.

 

[Whiterose]

I am already King with the Empire and have a Cutter, so I decided I wanted a Corvette as well. Started at the very bottom rank wise with the federation. I am in no rush, will get there when I get there, and if I feel it is getting grindy will go and do something else.

 

[MarkAusten]

In some new 2.4 threads player are fearing they have to grind for the new modules which are coming to fight the Thargoids.

I can't understand, why grinding is branded as such a bad thing by so many players out there.

In an huge sandbox like ED, you can't generate one unique experience after another and fill hundreds if not thousands of hours with it.
If you want to be able to get the an A-rated, fully engineered Anaconda without grinding, then you would be there in 10 to 20 hours... and then what?
Grinding is the only thing to keep player occupied for long periods of time.

The same goes for the RNG at the engineers. At the first glance, I also thought that could be annoying... but since FD removed the commodities and tripled the loot, I am totally fine with it.
And if they didn't used RNG and let you simply buy the best outcomes for enough mats/money, we all had much less to do and would be bored even faster.

Many times I was going after some mats simply to try few rolls on my already top notch engineered modules because of the chance for a bonus. And it was fun, most of the times... and it was "something to do".

Sure, there are many things in ED that could be improved within these grind mechanics to make them even more fun, but the base of the game play should be always a grind with a kind of asymptotic progression where you can achieve reasonable results in not too much time but the top notch things should take a long time to keep things interesting.

just sayin... ...it's all IMO... but if you hate grinding, think about the alternatives.

I blame the instant gratification thing that most young people seem to exhibit, myself. By young I mean the generation after mine.

 

[Thetele]

Adding new engineer blueprints and modules can be good grind or bad. If we get interesting new gameplay, mechanics, new ways to get the stuff or way to do it in mp, then its good. But if they just make us do same stuff again its bad. Also rolling modules with the multiple layers of rng (material rng, primary roll rng, secondary roll rng and on weapons special effect rng). If frontier make those relevant just so we have to do same thing again it doesn't add anything more than pointless grind.

In other looting/crafting games and MMOs when they add new better stuff they add a lot of new content like new missions, raids etc. that you can play to unlock the new stuff, but in elite Frontier hasn't done that they just add new stuff and we need to do the same stuff we already did for previous stuff again to get the new stuff.

There are many games that focus on grinding items doing same stuff over and over again, Warframe, Destiny, The Division, Diablo III, World of warcraft, black desert online, Skyrim online etc. The list is long. Frontier has copied the grinding and rng to get stuff from those games but they don't add new missions and content to do top get new stuff.

With 2.1 we didn't get new content, they just slapped material rewards to stuff we had done since launch of either Horizon or elite dangerous.

 

[Insomnia]

I feel as if the grinding in ED is an actual thought-up gameplay mechanic to serve as a real time sink because there isn't much else to do anyway. Engineers is a perfect example for this where the grinding *is* the gameplay.

 

[Enderby]

ED is not a sandbox game.

 

[Tom2]

Short:
(Some) People want the best stuff because they think they need it ,
getting the best stuff takes time and effort (because it is the best stuff for a reason),
to much required effort frustrates most people (especially if they know somebody got the stuff they want faster then them),
this in addition to a stressfull realife is frustrating and stressfull and often the reason for many negative emotions/feelings,
therefore many people associate these negative emotions/feelings often with the word "Grind",
it is also a frustration for most of them to know that they may have to grind again for the new "best stuff".

Possible solution:
Don't look too far into the future in regards of what you still have to do and try to reach your goal step by step, which is normally less frustrating.

Also play Elite Dangerous like what it is, a game. Don't treat it like work you have to do. (Unless you are a ED DEV )

 

[Knightshark]

I don't think the grind is the problem, at least not anymore. Sure, 1.0 and 2.1 had enormous grind. Missions payed nothing, much less materials dropped and much more was required to unlock/rank up engineers. Today it is fine, i think. What really bothers me though is that so much of the game is tedious without external online resources. I don't want to imagine playing the game without eddb.io and inara.cz, but using these sites feels a bit like cheating. Trading, buying a new ship or upgrading the old one, doing engineering, all of that is just really annoying with in-game tools alone. And the reason is not a lack of patience on my side, or the desire for 'i win buttons' i just find the gameplay really annoying to do these things basically blind, ging back and forth, back and forth, taking notes all the time. All this just results in a massively reduced income, that is not satisfying. I don't want to to spend 4 hours flying from station to station, noting down all the prices, just to be able to earn rather lousy 1-2 million per hour in a python afterwards. Same for sourcing missions. The tool in the galmap is cumbersome and useless 50% of all times. Just tell me which stations sell the commodity for sake!

I think if these things would be in the game, a lot of players would realize that it is not all all necessary to 'grind' i.e. do the same thing over and over, but that there are many fun things to do in the game where you feel progression.

 

[Vorxian]

In some new 2.4 threads player are fearing they have to grind for the new modules which are coming to fight the Thargoids.

Because... during the second world war, the RAF didn't make pilots grind for their aircraft. The RAF needed pilots there and then to fight for the greater cause.

The Thargoids are a threat to all humanity... so why would humanity impose a grind on it's pilots obtaining the modules needed to save humanity? Illogical! One would worry about saving humanity first then worry about credits or reputation afterwards.

 

[crushdepth]

Grinding and engaging game play are not the same thing.

 

[Cdr Voorheez]

It's a game. A GAME.

 

[Enderby]

I think the problem is that it is all a little bit dull & tedious. Not just the 'grinding' part.

 

[Friedenreich Xante]

Back in my days, we grinded coins in Super Mario Bros, and we liked it.

However, the Name formerly used wasn't "grinding".

 

[Knightshark]

Because... during the second world war, the RAF didn't make pilots grind for their aircraft. The RAF needed pilots there and then to fight for the greater cause.

The Thargoids are a threat to all humanity... so why would humanity impose a grind on it's pilots obtaining the modules needed to save humanity? Illogical! One would worry about saving humanity first then worry about credits or reputation afterwards.

The equipment issued by some armies of rather poor countries is so bad (e.g. clothing, shoes, even weapons) that the soldiers bring their own equipment. That was the case in the Ukraine a few years ago when the conflict started. (Maybe the situation improved, but it was bad in 2014)