So, who cares about the 2.4 Narrative surrounding Elite: Dangerous

[Alodia]

The most recent 2.4 thargoid thing happening is some background text to a cg that had me haul apples to a station till my eyes bled, with the faintest of hopes that if I stick around the thargoid forces may show up.

Like, the base game is great but in terms of doing anything interesting outside of that it's non existent. The only divergent showcase this game offers right now is "you know how you haul stuff to stations? Well here's more of it, and another identical bounty hunt in a res zone".

It's so underwhelming. I used to play matrix online and when the game was handed to a new team, they discovered the code was so rigidly locked in that the devs couldn't do anything particularly interesting outside the base grind.

The much hyped selling point, the weekly events, became monthly iirc and managed by one part time community manager guy with access to limited tools. Most events just ended up as afk dance emotes in clubs.

With the amount of alt tabbing I've done in this cg to fend off the utter boredom of flying to / from vision station, I'm reminded of the very worst mxo in game "events". Not good...and I'd be amazed if the thargoids show up, tbh.

 

[biot]

This alien malarkey was teased for an awful long time ... at least as long as I can recall and I have been playing since Jan '15. As Enderby remarked, the reveal and unlock so far doesn't warrant that scale of teasing. Hence there is a belief (hope?) among some here that during all that time FD have been refining some really stonking original content that, when released, will blow our socks off. If that is an accurate depiction, I must humbly question whether the big fanfare followed by 4 weeks of trade CGs was the best way to usher in this new era. Speaking for myself, that approach has totally flatlined my interest. If I go to see a woman/man/small furry creature from Alpha Centauri do a striptease and they spend the first 30 minutes of it unlacing their boots, my interest in sticking to the end will have evaporated long before they get to the grand reveal, irrespective of how necessary the removal of the boots may have been to the process.

 

[TrailBlazer 143]

Was cool the first two weeks or so, been waiting for something to happen since. It has pretty much zero influence on my game, and I'm based in the Pleiades for heaven's sake.

Damn... now that's bad...

 

[Trickylion]

I had a scout around peliedes and enjoyed the old crashed ships, vaguely encountered some thargoids, but couldn't do much on my own, so went off to colonia, sag a and hopping back now, not really into guardians or thargoids or different super factions or varying station types, like to make it up as I go along...
although prefer the empty FR region to the core, seems samey and the skybox is weird out there.
Little disappointed with colonia, though it would be a bit different, but when I got wanted for investigation of a crashed T9, actually i shot at a goliath, , decided it was time to up sticks from colonia and head off.
The neutron jumping is scarily dangerous though, would Rather faceplant into a K star any day.

 

[Zhark]

I had a scout around peliedes and enjoyed the old crashed ships, vaguely encountered some thargoids, but couldn't do much on my own, so went off to colonia, sag a and hopping back now, not really into guardians or thargoids or different super factions or varying station types, like to make it up as I go along...
although prefer the empty FR region to the core, seems samey and the skybox is weird out there.
Little disappointed with colonia, though it would be a bit different, but when I got wanted for investigation of a crashed T9, actually i shot at a goliath, , decided it was time to up sticks from colonia and head off.
The neutron jumping is scarily dangerous though, would Rather faceplant into a K star any day.

Going off on your own and doing exploring at least ensures your self-created narrative stays intact. I would worry coming back to the bubble..

 

[popuptoaster]

The whole point of ED is that you are not the hero of the game so the game narrative will unfold even if you have nothing to do with it.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, we are not playing as Han Solo, we are playing as one of the anonymous pilots sitting at the back in that canteena.

I'm sure someone came wandering out of the bathroom asking what they just missed, well, that's us.

We get to play along, get involved with the narrative or not as we see fit but generally the galaxy is just going to carry on regardless while the important folk do stuff and we try not to get made dead by it.

Personally I'm doing what i'd do in real life and avoiding anything that might make me a target, i like to RP when i play ED so the Thargoids can stay well away from me thanks and the narrative isn't all that interesting (to me) anyway so i don't feel I'm missing out. The only time I ever got near anything of import was when i was using Jaques station as my base for months only to be told that he was going to jump and no one was going to be allowed to go with him despite the lore saying he was always looking for travelling companions and me being willing to take the risk that he was going to vanish for weeks possibly forever.

Decided after that that FD really HAD meant that the players meant little to what was actually happening in game so gave up trying to be involved which has made things much more relaxed if a little boring occasionally.

 

[Trickylion]

right...
my next narrative is to rank up empire with exploration data and visit all the unlocked permit system I made before, see if there is anything interesting there, then perhaps an asteroid base tour and then join an expedition, maybe the distant friends, although going back into the core doesn't appeal much.
would be good to set a record, find the highest furthest or lowest or smallest or closest system, or try my hand at the distant stars, my asp range isnt quite enough and visit the anacondas graveyard.
Also I want to upgrade my vulture to an FDL, but need more cash, then maybe rank up y expert combat to master, dont think Ill ever make dangerous to unlock the last engineer.
so much to do, who needs thargoids...
anyone visited lave2 yet

 

[Alodia]

The whole point of ED is that you are not the hero of the game so the game narrative will unfold even if you have nothing to do with it.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, we are not playing as Han Solo, we are playing as one of the anonymous pilots sitting at the back in that canteena.

I'm sure someone came wandering out of the bathroom asking what they just missed, well, that's us.

We get to play along, get involved with the narrative or not as we see fit but generally the galaxy is just going to carry on regardless while the important folk do stuff and we try not to get made dead by it.

i dunno, "i walked out the bathroom and missed it all" seems to be the entirety of 2.4. nobody is asking to be han solo, i'm certainly not - and you can tell a galaxy spanning story of x versus y without everyone having to be the hero of the story that nails the winning shot. why can't we start evacuating civilians from areas being hammered by thargoids for example? there are endless small ways you can feel like what you're doing ties into a larger narrative, and none of it is currently in the game.

and if the whole finale showstopper of 2.4 is "the thargoids are here!" then turning it into a few weeks of CGs that went nowhere followed by "deliver the apples", people will naturally question what exactly the overall aim is here. is the centerpiece of horizons supposed to be some epic battle between species, or "this thing that happens over there and nobody sees it or takes part in it to any meaningful degree"?

"not han solo" shouldn't mean "the ingame universe continues to chug along as if nothing is happening while gigantic death starfish are blowing things up".

i have a friend who tuned up a ton of ships and flew them out to where the thargoid "action" is. he got bored, and has since stopped playing because he has no idea if he should keep them all there or move them all back at significant cost, only to find he'll have to go back there again. zero ingame clues or dev hints to this end make it impossible to say, so now the rather thin fiction they're trying to tell is actively working against the way the game functions. it's baffling.

 

[LeoBartlet]

Yea I have no interest in the narrative surrounding Elite.

I would possibly buy a book once its ended but being drip fed stories over the course of years doesnt appeal to me in the least.

 

[Jimbodiah]

Are we running 2.4 already? Thargoids?

I'd love to see the clan carrier idea crystalize, and hopefully they will have an interactive implimentation that needs teamwork somehow.

 

[Zhark]

i dunno, "i walked out the bathroom and missed it all" seems to be the entirety of 2.4. nobody is asking to be han solo, i'm certainly not - and you can tell a galaxy spanning story of x versus y without everyone having to be the hero of the story that nails the winning shot. why can't we start evacuating civilians from areas being hammered by thargoids for example? there are endless small ways you can feel like what you're doing ties into a larger narrative, and none of it is currently in the game.

and if the whole finale showstopper of 2.4 is "the thargoids are here!" then turning it into a few weeks of CGs that went nowhere followed by "deliver the apples", people will naturally question what exactly the overall aim is here. is the centerpiece of horizons supposed to be some epic battle between species, or "this thing that happens over there and nobody sees it or takes part in it to any meaningful degree"?

"not han solo" shouldn't mean "the ingame universe continues to chug along as if nothing is happening while gigantic death starfish are blowing things up".

i have a friend who tuned up a ton of ships and flew them out to where the thargoid "action" is. he got bored, and has since stopped playing because he has no idea if he should keep them all there or move them all back at significant cost, only to find he'll have to go back there again. zero ingame clues or dev hints to this end make it impossible to say, so now the rather thin fiction they're trying to tell is actively working against the way the game functions. it's baffling.

Agreed. The difference between "Han Solo" and a ghost who no-one in game acknowledges as taking part in the universe is huge. If I spend a month in one system building rep to the max I should get some other text box besides the same one I get every time from the station contacts. That is basic basic BASIC character building not Han Solo saving the galaxy stuff. Literally 1 line. To use the Star Wars analogy it is droids walking into a bar and the bartender going "We don't serve their kind here!" One line which says so much about the location, the bartender and the environment. Would the bartender say it to everyone who walks in? Of course not. If a bounty hunting mass murdering robot like IG-88 walked in I bet the bar tender would look the other way. So when you arrive at a station or are scanned by a System Authority, you should get dialogue that is relevant to your character IN SOME WAY beyond the content of your hold or the status of your Bounty. Worked your way up to Grand Imperial King Lord? Maybe the Imperial System Security forces won't be complete jerks to you when they approach you to scan you!

Basic narrative that doesn't make you Han Solo just makes you feel part of the universe.

As it stands you can "opt-in" to Thargoid content but the game narrative itself has "opted-out" of including you as a member in the universe beyond interdictions and scans.

 

[Iskariot]

Because of its open game world and open ended character, the narrative is mostly in the background for me.
I have not been hyperdicted, not seen any thargoid ship, or thargoid base, have not visited Guardian ruins, not seen or done anything connected to the thargoid story.

I play this game like I played the other Elite games. I do not approach it as a game that is driven by narration, because it is not. The story is just a device to introduce them into the game and for me that is perfectly fine. It is fitting for the type of game Elite is.
The Thargoids are here and more is coming and that is enough for me. I hope we will see some awesome stuff. I wonder how a populated Thargoid sytem looks like, I wonder about their space stations and capital ships for example.
I will eventually see the Thargoids, but it is not a priority.

Priority for me are solid and satisfying game systems that keep the Elite universe interesting in the long term.

 

[Layne Vakarian]

You know......?
When I finally get that comms message from that Capital ship dude asking me to nip over there and save his rear with my wing of dastardly derring-doers, THEN maybe I might perhaps begin to expect something in the way of a narrative. I'm not complaining, for reasons even I don't understand, I like the game.
But Frontier need to stop fooling themselves. This is a dead galaxy that has zero interaction with us players who in turn have zero agency in just about every scenario apart from tedious and often frustrating attempts to manipulate the bgs. All we can ever do is shoot stuff. Or occasionally scan stuff always assuming it has been planned that we should. Of course, that having scanned something we are no closer to any understandings other than a bunch of meaningless drivel in our comm panel shouldn't be any surprise. The NPCs say the same stuff endlessly. Okay, sure, there will be a limit on how much 'dialogue' we can ever 'hear' (okay, read), but frankly it'd be better if they said nothing at all than continually state and restate the same tired lines over and over. Immersive it ain't. Example: "all this can stop if you give me 2 tonnes of cargo". This from an NPC who has said this maybe five times already during the encounter. And is down to the last ten percent of his hull.
Again.
Narrative? Story? Anything at all?
Sadly no. Not now, not tomorrow, not ever.

 

[Andrew Gaspurr]

Thargoids are the sunflower ships in all those YouTube videos, aren't they?

 

[Quantis Trap]

I mostly agree. +rep for the OP

I'm much more interested in the beyond content and what I'll be able to do with it. To me, it's all about us being able to make our own shared and individual play styles. I'm interested in more playability like squadrons, more ships and more mission types.

My various thoughts:
* On missions, where are escort mission types for instance. I know that's a non-trivial thing to do but they've had a long time.
* The Squadrons feature should be made as simple as possible with not many fiddly features just focusing on the group collaboration mobile base concept and not on initially on the details of what features a carrier has.

 

[space voyager]

Thargoids gave me the first real reason to interact with other players as I'm unable to destroy them solo. And shown how pleasant most players are when these interactions happen. Like today when a CMDR with a Corvette asked if I was beaten by Ts when I returned to Maia with 20% hull. Then he aeked me if I'd be going in again. I got repairs, he rearmed his ship and there we went.

Seriously, best Elite moments I've had happened after 2.4 arrived and I don't mind the current phase lasting a little longer. Not everybody has a lot of time to play.

 

[Surprised Brony]

We will all care soon enough. We'll wish for these days to return.

 

[verminstar]

We will all care soon enough. We'll wish for these days to return.

Ever heard the story about the little boy who cried wolf so many times, that everyone just started ignoring the little boy? It has a very similar plotline as to whats currently going on now...the warnings are meaningless empty hollow nuances that went outta fashion over a year ago, and winter came and went last year...maybe its this winter...at this point who cares?

Action speaks louder than words...as the man said, show me the money ^

 

[sollisb]

narrative
ˈnarətɪv/Submit
noun
1.
a spoken or written account of connected events; a story.
"a gripping narrative"


Mini Game in a USS? I don't think so..

 

[Saool]

Me. I care.

Right now i am working in the Imperial core, making money, working on my king rank, flying my Cutter which I normally hardly touch, all the while looking for more listening posts connected with Equinox and Thunderchild.