Are you guys happy with the current game and how the game has developed?

[encrypted]

Just wondering what people think about the game at the moment.
I paid 150$ (The the two 75$ betas)plus a few skins to support the devs and I honestly feel that they haven't lived up to anything close that could of been. So no, Im not. Not trying to start a flame war, just wondering what you guys think.

As a fellow Russian, I will reply.

In general - I have two phrases about Elite flying in my head all the time, that will apply to me personally, and to the part of community as well. Those tho phrases are:

Elite Dangerous: The game you read about x10 more than you actually play it.
&
Elite Dangerous: The first few thousand hours are most fun.

________________________________________________________


Something about this game that makes it truly special. Yes, I've spent those few thousand hours, weeks real time in game. I've been with ED since DEC 17, 2014. My personal journey was different - I traded few first few months, because money were really worth something that time and few noob deaths told me I'd better be modest about combat for a while. This was amazing journey in 2015, we've had times filled with excitement, half-baked updates but amazing high hopes for a future. Then Planetary landings came over, but in general 2015 was a very positive year. I bought a LEP in August of that year and never regretted it and never will.

However, right after release of 2.0 the things went to slower pace. I wasn't expecting that things will go on for 2+ years, now seems like 3.

I personally feel like almost every update since 1.0 was half-baked on the main feature. Despite the fact FD introduced a lot of minor QoL features with each of those updates, the main feature of each one was implemented (again this is my personal opinion) either in 'too easy' or 'basic, uninteresting way'.

- 1.1 Community goals - Interesting to do 1 or 2 times. Can't believe someone still does those pointless meter filling activities till this day. They are weekly, not improved in any way since 2015.

- 1.2 Wings - no comment here, since personally I am lone wolf. I tried that a few times, but don't care generally. For folks that love to play together it's vital. Still hearing ppl having connection issues till that day.

- 1.3 PP - was initially intrigued until I spent few weeks with Hudson feeling absolutely pointless about it all. Who could play PP for weeks and ENJOY it - I don't even know.

- 1.4 CQC - my eyebrows fell high here, since everyone was expecting some improvements to some primary things in game, and that is something completely different, barely connected to the game itself. in 2017 I was able to play one match only. FD tried to hype it, but hey, where is that promised tournament? ...

- 1.5 - few ships that went ok, that was the time when they hyped planetary landings to the limit and we swallowed 1.5 with 2.0. Few more ships is nice anyway.

- 2.0 landed. Things started to go slower since that point. FD confirmed 2.0 is kinda barren and promised to add bigger cities, activities, moon (our moon), within nearest year. Almost nothing was actually done.

- 2.1 Eng + Crafting. Despite some strange RNG implementation and some real time-consuming activities to unlock some of the Engineers it added something nice to the game and kept me occupied for some time. Some things could be improved here, including the materials display on the left (showing how much material of that type you having). Community still buzzes about engineers till that day, but in general it's ok update I guess. Rng is questionable, of course.

- 2.2 Fighters - why would someone want them is a mystery to me, same as with CQC. Well anyway, some pilots really enjoy those SLF pilots. My biggest 'wait' in this update were Passengers - and to my opinion they were done in really basic form. Starting from a fact those are simply talking cargo that need to be taken to samey-looking beacons that will display a chunk of text to you.

- 2.3 Multiscrew. Again - for some people it's important. Not for me. I've played it once during beta. Played 2 times creating my commander.

- 2.4 - No interest really, until those flowers would impact ME directly. I have no point of flying somewhere to Maia just to take a look at the same stuff being shown everywhere on reddit/youtube/obsidian videos.

......

So here we go 3 years in. I do appreciate what FD does in general - this game has enormous potential even now. I read reddit, forums every day. However, I don't know at this point. In 3 years, most of the stuff they did was either half-implemented or questionable. A lot of tools being added to the game that almost no one plays with. Those tools are never connected to each other and barely connected to the game. Improvements to Exploration, Mining, Trading, Crime System are almost non-existent, and those that are being announced for Beyond I feel really skeptical about.

There's too much RNG and meaningless, artificial spawn in this game. When you fly around planet and just wait the game to generate rng spawn of your 'mission signal source' for 100s time you do it, you loose it.

Missions are, actually, did see some improvements few times but I personally feel they are mostly still boring, basic and could use a lot of more work. Some missions suck very badly (either bugged or boring as I don't know what) 3 years in. Pirate faction kill missions, for example.

Exploration badly needs some mechanics/scanners/skill gameplay attached to it, not some extra things to find on a planets and in deep space. Those are indeed needed, but imho quite secondary. Gameplay first.

Trading needs to be more interesting with real, fluctuating supply-demand markets, locations that are truly different, meaningful, filled with rarer greater opportunities, not so generalized.

Crime career should work as in real life - high risk, high penalties if caught, maybe some kind of prison system would be nice: but would allow to enjoy super-high profits if successful. Smuggle a full ship of narcotics and get 10x more that you would did in the most profitable trading run. That doesn't exist in a game.

In general, more persistence + variety. I don't have too much hopes here. We've got 5 more station variants 2 years in + few more ads with no hope of getting any more soon. I am not talking even about community being allowed to draw their own jpegs for station ads. Oh man...

I'll just stop there. I will follow this game till it gets disconnected, of course. Too bad I am not playing it though.

First few thousand hours are the most fun.

 

[Tadeus72]

I actually quite agree with you. I feel like they add clan-managing and group communication and a base megaship for the Squadrons to meet up. Ok, so now what? What are they gonna have to do that they couldn't do before? So I worry that unless there is some sort of "end-game" content giving Squadrons more of a reason to exist, it's just gonna fall as flat as multicrew did. And I worry that when FDEV is partway complete with coding Squadron features, they are gonna realize this. And then it's gonna be another half-baked feature that they don't put alot of work into because "they couldn't find a way to make it compelling." And then the blame will be dumped off on the players again. "If people use it, we'll maybe add more to it." But people won't use it much because there isn't really a reason to.

I hope it doesn't turn out like that, but it doesn't take much imagination to see it going that way. If they don't do it right, it could end up another feature that they wasted too much time on that could have been spent more wisely in other areas.

FDEV need to go all in on new features and really flesh them out, or just not bother at all IMO. That's what I wish Season 2 had been - non-atmospheric planetary landings, and then the rest of the season really fleshing that out and giving us more compelling things to do down there.

Maybe I was drunk, but I'm almost sure they have promised wing/group missions. There are also some nice ideas on the forums regarding possible Squadron Wars. And Ed Lewis said they will monitor player media for community ideas on Squadrons.

 

[Ian Skippy]

Maybe I was drunk, but I'm almost sure they have promised wing/group missions. There are also some nice ideas on the forums regarding possible Squadron Wars. And Ed Lewis said they will monitor player media for community ideas on Squadrons.

Yes, Wing Missions are part of Beyond.

 

[MottiKhan]

As a fellow Russian, I will reply.

In general - I have two phrases about Elite flying in my head all the time, that will apply to me personally, and to the part of community as well. Those tho phrases are:

Elite Dangerous: The game you read about x10 more than you actually play it.
&
Elite Dangerous: The first few thousand hours are most fun.

________________________________________________________


Something about this game that makes it truly special. Yes, I've spent those few thousand hours, weeks real time in game. I've been with ED since DEC 17, 2014. My personal journey was different - I traded few first few months, because money were really worth something that time and few noob deaths told me I'd better be modest about combat for a while. This was amazing journey in 2015, we've had times filled with excitement, half-baked updates but amazing high hopes for a future. Then Planetary landings came over, but in general 2015 was a very positive year. I bought a LEP in August of that year and never regretted it and never will.

However, right after release of 2.0 the things went to slower pace. I wasn't expecting that things will go on for 2+ years, now seems like 3.

I personally feel like almost every update since 1.0 was half-baked on the main feature. Despite the fact FD introduced a lot of minor QoL features with each of those updates, the main feature of each one was implemented (again this is my personal opinion) either in 'too easy' or 'basic, uninteresting way'.

- 1.1 Community goals - Interesting to do 1 or 2 times. Can't believe someone still does those pointless meter filling activities till this day. They are weekly, not improved in any way since 2015.

- 1.2 Wings - no comment here, since personally I am lone wolf. I tried that a few times, but don't care generally. For folks that love to play together it's vital. Still hearing ppl having connection issues till that day.

- 1.3 PP - was initially intrigued until I spent few weeks with Hudson feeling absolutely pointless about it all. Who could play PP for weeks and ENJOY it - I don't even know.

- 1.4 CQC - my eyebrows fell high here, since everyone was expecting some improvements to some primary things in game, and that is something completely different, barely connected to the game itself. in 2017 I was able to play one match only. FD tried to hype it, but hey, where is that promised tournament? ...

- 1.5 - few ships that went ok, that was the time when they hyped planetary landings to the limit and we swallowed 1.5 with 2.0. Few more ships is nice anyway.

- 2.0 landed. Things started to go slower since that point. FD confirmed 2.0 is kinda barren and promised to add bigger cities, activities, moon (our moon), within nearest year. Almost nothing was actually done.

- 2.1 Eng + Crafting. Despite some strange RNG implementation and some real time-consuming activities to unlock some of the Engineers it added something nice to the game and kept me occupied for some time. Some things could be improved here, including the materials display on the left (showing how much material of that type you having). Community still buzzes about engineers till that day, but in general it's ok update I guess. Rng is questionable, of course.

- 2.2 Fighters - why would someone want them is a mystery to me, same as with CQC. Well anyway, some pilots really enjoy those SLF pilots. My biggest 'wait' in this update were Passengers - and to my opinion they were done in really basic form. Starting from a fact those are simply talking cargo that need to be taken to samey-looking beacons that will display a chunk of text to you.

- 2.3 Multiscrew. Again - for some people it's important. Not for me. I've played it once during beta. Played 2 times creating my commander.

- 2.4 - No interest really, until those flowers would impact ME directly. I have no point of flying somewhere to Maia just to take a look at the same stuff being shown everywhere on reddit/youtube/obsidian videos.

......

So here we go 3 years in. I do appreciate what FD does in general - this game has enormous potential even now. I read reddit, forums every day. However, I don't know at this point. In 3 years, most of the stuff they did was either half-implemented or questionable. A lot of tools being added to the game that almost no one plays with. Improvements to Exploration, Mining, Trading, Crime System are almost non-existent, and those that are being announced for Beyond I feel really skeptical about.

There's too much rng and meaningless spawn in this game. When you fly around planet and just wait the game to generate rng spawn of your 'mission signal source' for 100s time you do it, you loose it.

Missions are, actually, did see some improvements few times but I personally feel they are mostly still boring, basic and could use a lot of more work. Some missions suck so badly (either bugged or boring as I don't know what) 3 years in.

Exploration badly needs some mechanics/scanners/skill gameplay attached to it, not some extra things to find on a planets and in deep space.

Trading needs to be more interesting with real, fluctuating supply-demand, with opportunities, not so generalized.

Crime career should work as a real life - high risk, high penalties but high profits if successful. Hey smuggle a full ship of narcotics and get 10x more that you would did in the most profitable trading run. That doesn't exist in a game.

In general, more persistence + variety. I don't have too much hopes here. We've got 5 more station variants 2 years in + few more ads with no hope of getting any more soon. I am not talking even about community being allowed to draw their own jpegs for station ads. Oh man...

I'll just stop there. I will follow this game till it gets disconnected, of course. Too bad I am not playing it though.

First few thousand hours are the most fun.

+1 rep.

I have to agree with most of what you said. Two of my CMDRs are "lone wolfs" like you, but are now seeing more play time than my other two.

Can I suggest playing the BGS with some RP? There are player groups out there that can use a hand. Some are battling NPC groups and the "hand of god" issues. Some are going head to head against other player groups. Stopping in to intervene on whichever side you like can be rewarding. Especially if nobody knows what you're doing. Just do the deed and watch the influence changes that you've wrought. Don't speak to anyone unless you're wanting that sort of thing.

There's a huge megathread on the BGS, but some of us can give you a brief overview to help you be very effective with the least effort. There are little tricks that even the largest groups don't seem to understand yet.

 

[encrypted]

Can I suggest playing the BGS with some RP? There are player groups out there that can use a hand. Some are battling NPC groups and the "hand of god" issues. Some are going head to head against other player groups. Stopping in to intervene on whichever side you like can be rewarding. Especially if nobody knows what you're doing. Just do the deed and watch the influence changes that you've wrought. Don't speak to anyone unless you're wanting that sort of thing.

I don't really feel this is my thing. It's like Powerplay. At those influences go up and down and never really matter (IMHO). It's like power-play circle. You work for a week, then wait, then some number change and you work for another week. It's like battle of 10 boats when no boats are killed or eliminated, it's just a different place on a podium for every week draw, that's it.

If those powers/factions could go down permanently or temporarily that would be another story. In elite, unfortunately, nothing can be killed. Even you. You can always be sure, you'll get that sidewinder in the end.

 

[Tuzmaal]

I had high hopes in ED and it really shines on the visual/artwork part... everything else not so much. When the visual amazement settled after a couple hundred hours and I started to look left and right I found nothing but grind, a shallow ocean and broken game mechanics. For me personally the biggest let down is the not player driven economy or the influence I have on it if FD doesnt push a button. But maybe its just me and my lack of imagination....

 

[Kaybe]

Overall, it's a fun game, but I was VERY disappointed by a couple of major updates. 2.0 was cool for introducing planetary landings. 2.1 (after a few tweaks) is GREAT. 2.2 passenger missions are amazing.

BUT ...

Ship launched fighters is a horrid horrid mess due to how costly NPC pilots are to field, as well as their permadeath. So what was supposed to be a highly popular update is kinda meh. No one EVER PVPs with highly ranked NPC crew as they will invariably die.

Multicrew is bad. Very very bad. Extraordinarily bad. So so ...well, you get the idea. There's only two roles, one of which involves ship launched fighters (so only a few ships support it), and turret gunnery which even fewer ships really take advantage of since everyone will equip fixed or gimballed weapons on small and medium ships (and the Corvette). So in the end, no one at all multicrews anymore since it's pretty damn useless and offers NOTHING for smaller ships or ANY career other than bounty hunting.

Frontier stated they are reworking some core concepts in 2018. I REALLY hope SLF and Multicrew falls under that umbrella.

 

[Ajantis Ilvastarr]

This game has great potential. It has strong bones, but it has no meat. It has to be a believable simulation, to captivate mass audiences. If the devs would leave the easy way of respawn points and create a simulation where we can lose ourselves, the money would be no problem. The game would grow. Like this, it is just meaningless grind with a stupid respawn mechanic. Don't stop devs! Game is just beta now!

 

[tomalus]

I think the problem is, the company got alot of money upfront,they cashed in before delivering content.So they have almost zero interest in actually making it. Instead they do other games like Planet Coaster and Jurassic world.I dont blame the devs but the greedy company.I see it again now, vague promises and smoke while all focus goes into new game (new sales).They did some work on ED to port it to consoles,now the production cycle is over.I accept this I still enjoy playing the game but honestly I dont expect anything content wise before xmas 2018.

 

[BurnyBurns]

Highly ambivalent towards the game and how it has developed. For me, what the visual and sound department have achieved is terrific. The immediate ship/craft controls are also awesome.

The game design however is where it all falls apart from me. RNG, grind, balance by liberal waste of player time on absolutely menial tasks, no Rock Paper Scissors mechanics in terms of combat (everything is a pair scissors in various sizes), interaction with the game world is highly limited (scan, shoot, scoop), social features for an online game are outright poor for this day and age.

I see it like a house held by a couple of pillars, with one major pillar being a crumbling ruin, while the others more or less compensate.

 

[Lateralus]

They've built a great foundation, but have struggled to build anything satisfying on top of it.

They need to move away from progress bars and grind, and look at player driven mechanics to make use of the open-world/sandbox setting.

Glad they've decided to bring in squadrons next year though, a step in the right direction hopefully...

 

[sollisb]

Highly ambivalent towards the game and how it has developed. For me, what the visual and sound department have achieved is terrific. The immediate ship/craft controls are also awesome.

The game design however is where it all falls apart from me. RNG, grind, balance by liberal waste of player time on absolutely menial tasks, no Rock Paper Scissors mechanics in terms of combat (everything is a pair scissors in various sizes), interaction with the game world is highly limited (scan, shoot, scoop), social features for an online game are outright poor for this day and age.

I see it like a house held by a couple of pillars, with one major pillar being a crumbling ruin, while the others more or less compensate.

The graphics hold it up, the rest is a crumbling mess. Toss an Eliteice to determine when it'll fall apart

 

[verminstar]

Without trawling through reams of replies, one looks at the title of the thread and thinks thats as good a place as any to start.

Am I happy with the game in its current form? Im playing something else tonight...same as yesterday and the day before that and the week before that. Thats probably better than some the replies that spring to mind because thats minus the emotion...actually feeling bad about it was a feeling this game quashed well over a year ago and this is break number 5.

This time, Im fairly sure I wont be playing again this side of xmas...I know this because I know what was said at the expo and know that nothing will change until at least spring next year. So what was boring and repetative before the expo is still boring and repetative after the expo. All that happened was a conscious decision not to simply delete the game from my hard drive after hearing what they had to say...actually playing the game would require that to be a reality in the here and now...and its not nor will it be fer some time yet.

Im a social butterfly...I need social interaction with other humans and end up playing different games fer that hit because this game fails utterly on that level fer me. To me, its just a huge single player game set in a sandpit full of other single players...fun in short bursts but single player games tend to have a short shelf life unless it has something very unique, which in its favour, elite has in the sublime experience of giving the experience of actually flying a spaceship. That gives it something special but after that, the rest of the game is just meh whatever...the bgs is a confusing mess, the balance between pvp and pve is a joke, no crime and punishment of any real substance, a buggy stellar forge that doesnt look as good now as when it was first seen years ago and the much hyped thargoid return has become just another inane combat zone.

My cup floweth over. Hope that answers yer question on how I personally feel about the game in its current state along with the watching paint dry development rate...anyone fer gears of war tonight?

 

[RidingTheFlow]

They've built a great foundation, but have struggled to build anything satisfying on top of it.

I think the problem is, they've built such massive foundation that now they are at loss how to build a building on top of it with realistic resource they have

 

[Origin]

I came to the Elite: Dangerous party late with the PS4 launch, but (with the exception of a couple weeks of Absolver) I haven't been able to pull myself away from it. I played the various Evochron games for years and always wanted to try this, so I had an idea what to expect and wasn't disappointed when I finally got my hands on it. As a PS4 player, I feel the performance hiccups of 2.4 has slightly diminished the experience, but then again, perhaps it's not the ideal hardware for the game.

It has flaws, as all games do, but overall it's currently my favorite game.

 

[VeefourLFC]

They look to have turned from a developer to a publisher and Elite is starting to reflect this.

I never see FDev interact with the player base yet they bleat on about how important the community is then blatantly ignore them.

I've been playing Elite since the 1980's , especially the Amiga version, and this is the worst I have felt about Elite which was always single player based and engrossing, now its a mess of solo/co-op/mmo with no identity anymore.

Another exodus for me but I fear I wont return to Elite as its direction is going more multiplayer combat grind simulator, hopefully From Other Suns by Oculus give FDev some motivation to give solo players some content and not constantly pander to multiplayer favorites.

 

[shadragon]

Are you guys happy with the current game and how the game has developed?

Well, I saw the 42% sale price for the Elite Dangerous Commanders Edition, broke down and bought a fourth account.

So question answered, I would think.

PS. The gap between your expectations and reality, isn't realities problem.

 

[verminstar]

^

Well, I saw the 42% sale price for the Elite Dangerous Commanders Edition, broke down and bought a fourth account.

So question answered, I would think.

PS. The gap between your expectations and reality, isn't realities problem.

Way to go on losing yer own argument...have a go at the OP fer asking the question...well done ^

 

[MottiKhan]

Well, I saw the 42% sale price for the Elite Dangerous Commanders Edition, broke down and bought a fourth account.

So question answered, I would think.

PS. The gap between your expectations and reality, isn't realities problem.

+1 rep. Because reality.

 

[Marcinguy]

Still really enjoying the game. I haven't played since before Horizons dropped so many things are completely new to me( on PS4 since September). The simple fact that I can move my ships and modules is huge!

Happy to hear that Frontier will take a look at the core game play loop this year and hoping that they make some nice improvements. I know they are capable of doing a good job but they do deserve criticism for introducing what I feel are lackluster additions. Mainly PP, Engineers, and mulitcrew/wings stuff. What they are planning for Beyond now is what they perhaps should have done year 1. Iron out the kinks of the base game play first then go with some new features like PP later on. Seems more logical to me but with all the marketing stuff needed these days who knows? Bottom line though I'll keep playing for a while so this game is really a steal for the money in my eyes (even though I bought the game twice)