2.4 has gone a bit quiet...

I don't want to moan, I really don't.
2.4 was announced as something a bit different, a narrative driven release, no highlight features, but a lot of mystery and unfolding story.

It started just fine, that first week was cool.
Since then, well, there's not really been anything.

I'm not counting the CG's as, well they were just cg's. We got new weapons, but really that's just "we can't flight thargoids, now we can, now we can't, now we can", it was interesting at first but, meh.

The last two weeks, I've just not bothered. I had a brief moment of excitement when the INRA bases were discovered, I was interested in the scout ship, but like the other crash sites or installations, nice to look at once, and that's it really.

Wasn't there meant to be loads of livestreams and trailer videos? We got one. You know we're desperate when the only thing currently to research is still frames from the expo clip and frustrated attempts to try and tie the story from older elite games to the current one, which to be honest, is probably just wishful thinking.

There was/is a lot of potential. We know from the Guardian ruins, thargoid bases, the probes, etc, that ED can have mystery, puzzles, "mini games". I expected 2.4 to be loaded with that stuff, things to research, explore, discover. I wanted to see the "narrative" everywhere, to feel the fear, but also to log on and think "ok there's new things to get my teeth into, puzzles we need to figure out." In reality, there's a new USS, it contains a thargoid, apart from that, I don't see any new narrative or gameplay, nothing else has changed.

One of the big things that always gets ED attention is when it does things other games can't. The science and discovery part is almost unique, 2.4 was a chance to drown us in all that, there's a whole new alien race to research, with language, culture, history, secrets, we know it's all there, but it's not coming across, and currently our only method of advancing any potential "mystery" is to go to system after system, search each planet for a few days at a time, on the off chance there might be something hidden.

So my take on 2.4 so far is, the bits they have done they did well, the thargoids look and sound great, as a new, boss level, npc, they worked out really well. But, it is much as I feared, a res site/combat zone idea, with a different npc type that's locked away in a specific area and has no impact anywhere else in the game. The narrative is still not there, if I don't want to just, fight thargoids, then I've nothing else to do. And, I appreciate it's only half way through the roll out, but I fear I see the next stage - new aegis stations, which will then be the attack zone for bigger, badder thargoids. Not quite what I'd hoped for.
Anyway, my fingers are still crossed, there's still time to turn it around. Do it FD, do it, please :)
 
I'm under the impression, that this slow trickle of weapons / devices gives us time to train ourselves up, ready for the really big invasion (tm).

Of course "the really big invasion" (tm) would disrupt other players who don't want to get involved with pew pewing at aliens...So maybe the idea is to populate the area around merope with oodles of stations, then have "the really big invasion" (tm) kick off there.

It won't upset people who just want to trade etc.
 
When a key part of a narrative involves changing a stat on a weapon and a paragraph of post hoc Galnet hand waving then you know to dial your expectations down close to zero.

Until Thargoids are openly roaming around doing stuff and not in USS and until what they do is derived from the game state and not patched in then there is no story. Just minimalist smoke and mirrors.
 

stormyuk

Volunteer Moderator
Can't really argue with much of the sentiment here, I think I messed around with Thargoids for a couple of days. Visited the sights, fed them cans and stuff, learnt the "Green" status was a bug and have not really been back. :)

I did check out the INRA bases too, well 2 of them, the rest of the logs I just listened to on Youtube and while interesting yes, not a great deal to it all.

I am just back in the bubble playing the game.
 
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I'm fine with "the big invasion" taking place at the new Aegis stations, since that's my guess as to what happens next, I just want stuff to do beyond shooting at thargoids, there's so much potential for "research and discovery" look at all those permit locked sectors lol, or the story lines on galnet over the last two years that put up little teasers without going anywhere, now's the time to kick all that into gear. David braben mentioned that the thargoids would appear alien, in how they think, their culture etc, so show us, let me go find that stuff out, and sooner rather than later please, it's been 6 weeks already, I've done the shooting them bit, what next? 3 years of puzzling over probes, artefacts, merope 5c, the bases, mysterious messages, the formidine rift, barnacles and crashed ships surely isn't going to end with "great, well that was the lead up, and now it's time to fight them, well done guys", there's obviously loads more, so time to start revealing ;)
 
I'm surprised OP actually believed in getting "exciting narrative" from the very same people that were calling the Guardians a "very, very exciting story". :)

On that part i would even agree, the lore texts are very good and i love the mission.
 
I'm under the impression, that this slow trickle of weapons / devices gives us time to train ourselves up, ready for the really big invasion (tm).

I thought this same thing when there were Uber-NPCs with engineered ships trashing everyone - the AI was being tested in "Thargoid Mode."

*firmly ensconses tinfoil hat*
 
Like I said, I'm fine with the shooty bit, they did that really well (despite the *cough* early attempts at adapting to our weapons), thumbs up from me on that bit.
It's the other stuff I want to see get into gear, it'll be horribly disappointing if the only thing we can do with thargoids and the whole story behind them, is shoot them, and I'm confident there's more, I just want to see that start to really progress, now, if you don't mind please :) I'm not impatient, it's been 3 years coming, now is definitely the time.
 
It seems people expected Thargoids to destroy half of human bubble at entrance.

Same time people throw tantrums about CG countering 'work' player group done on their minor faction.
 
Yes, currently there isn't much happening at all.

I think there are three basic problems:

1. The story itself seems to be at a halt. It's not that bad because overall the story in Elite is interesting, it's weird though since 2.4 is all about the story.

2. The way the story is brought to every player. This is pretty bad and I don't understand how Frontier fails so much at story telling. The game is played via Forums and Youtube rather than ingame notifications and Galnet. Did they even add NPC chatter and rumors to make us aware of the Thargoid threat? Which leads us to...

3. The way the story is brought to us as individual players. First, please don't get me wrong, I am not expecting a personal story line where we and every one if us can be the saviour of the galaxy. But there could be a linear ingame narrative that guides us through the story, history and recent events like a scavenger hunt. This could start with a simple mission to go somewhere to investigate, the beacons and elements are already there, we just need a way to make players aware of it and guide through the different parts of the story. And even if something is over for a long time, we could still have a beacon that tells us about the discovery of the first barnacle etc. As it stands you need to read some 2 year old galnet articles, and even then you don't have an idea what's going on without the Forums, Cannon and YouTube. Frontier, you absolutely failed in that regard.

The good thing is, apparently this will be tackled in 2018, I just hope they are doing it right. The bad news is, it's not 2018 already.

PS
Just realised I basically want to die sooner when I want 2018 to be today, well at least that shows us how much the game needs improvements ;)
 
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Good post OP, sadly I called it like this before 2.4 hit - FD's pace with the lore has always been at a snail's pace, & probably always will be for the time being.

I think that they're still trying to find the right level of 'cryptic balance'.

Too easy with the trailers & the stuff shown is found & solved within a hour of posting, too hard & some cmdr will eventually stumble over it 'accidentally' with all the clues missed.

I can see from FD's point of view why they are drip feeding us the Thargoid lore. The 2.4 content has to last until when? Q1 next year - that could be March!
If it was all ingame now then the community would have got to the end & defeated the 'Goids again weeks ago. So FD's action is to put it in the game bit by bit over this period.

I'm only glad that I can say 'Stuff this caper!' & go off Exploring for a while.

Maybe if FD had more lore themes running at the same time then cmdr's would be kept more busy - the Guardians lore was buried months ago now, when are FD going to move that along further!
 
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Less exciting than a wet fart.

Excitement has never been part of ED and FD are masters at maintaining that.

Feels like FD aren’t bothering much anymore with developing this game.

I think I might go exploring again.
 
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Bearing in mind the next release is not scheduled until Q1 2018, otherwise known as March 2018 ;) I expect they'll be trickling it out to a climax early next year.
 
I'm under the impression, that this slow trickle of weapons / devices gives us time to train ourselves up, ready for the really big invasion (tm).

Of course "the really big invasion" (tm) would disrupt other players who don't want to get involved with pew pewing at aliens...So maybe the idea is to populate the area around merope with oodles of stations, then have "the really big invasion" (tm) kick off there.

It won't upset people who just want to trade etc.


Then they're not playing the story correctly, as one who is not a big pew pew fan, I am a story fan, and an all out invasion would be an epic story, players then have the choice to stand and fight or high tail it, we've all lost ships, it's part of the game.
 
Is there much story?

In-game, as far as my CMDR is concerned, he's in the Pleiades.

There have been some Galnet entries which comprise of some INRA stuff was found, reports of Thargoid activity, and some off-hand comments by various major power leaders.

He's been to a couple of Non-Human Signal Sources and seen the Goids for himself. He's been hyperdicted 3 times.

Some AX weaponry is now available and those Firework Launchers.

And that was like over the last 2-4 weeks.

And that's it. Nothing more appears to have happened in the last week there.
 
I have to agree im even running missions for fed rank in the pleadies theres that little threat from thargoids. Must say it seems dissapointing

I have no isssue with the thargoids not really being a threat IF you dont want it right now... Why should they be an instantly hostile species. I have never opened fire on one so its ok that they do not fire on me..... i have agroed a few by rescuing a few escape pods tho not enough to make them fully engage on me, just a few shots accross the bow as it were (i was in my exploration asp, they could have blew me up in seconds if they really wanted)

BUT...

it would make sense that after a scan, so they presumably have your ship details, any player who has opened fire on them when unprovoked i think it would be cool if they were put at enemy status with the thargoids (nothing which we can see our side) but just so that those players become shoot on sight after a scan. that way all players get... maybe not what they want, but certainly what they deserve ;)
 
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