Just 1 out of 5 Newbies get out of the Sidewinder

[Fyrd Judge]

Very missleading-

As a P.beta backer i never bothered with Combat Tutorials i jumped in feet first into the game and learnt the hard way with the Elite npc that were every where in the first year and as for sidewinders, never spent a week in them as i headed for a trader to start gathering credit through trading to progress through the game, the majority at the time were doing the exact same thing. I presume the majority start the same way today.

 

[StiTch]

To be honest though dude, you brought up keyboards. Seeing as Xbox pilots won't be playing directly with keyboard users, it is a bit of a moot argument.

I said absolutely nothing of the sort about console users competing directly with kbam users.

I was simply making an offhand comment that myself and others I have spoken to have commented that the flight characteristics of ED don't necessarily lend amazingly to a controller, which gives me zero joy in saying.

Why would I be interested in an impertinent anti-console crusade when I own one?

 

[seko]

ED is in essence a game for a PC, maybe console players have different expectations, and need to get end game ships as quickly as possible, to get their fix. When ED was first released, mission payouts were 200 cr, and a 15k cr was seen as all our Christmases come at once. It took a good couple of months to get out of a sidewinder. Also there was a prize of £10k to the first player to make triple elite, and that took 3 months. This game is a marathon not a sprint, and is constantly evolving

 

[Jex =TE=]

I’ve managed to coax 3 friends into buying ED, all on pc, and only one of the them made it past the Sidey unaided (another made it as far as the Cobra Mk. III with my assistance). None of the three played for more than a few months before giving up on it. It’s a very niche title, for sure.

It’s frustrating when you see brilliance in a game but nobody you actually know and hang out with does.

It's not a niche title - it's a boring game. Don't blame the genre on something that isn't very interesting. Boring games do not hold an audience.

 

[h347h]

It's a niche game in a niche genre with a learning curve. Not much they can do other than make a cell phone game.

 

[oscarolim]

Does Frontier intend to improve the experience for newbies? Because losing 4 out of 5 new customers is not good.

More Xbox achievement stats:

• 44% have destroyed at least one ship
• 0.8% have completed the first 5 training missions (includes the Advanced Combat Tutorial, which is very difficult for a newcomer)

On PS4 49.3% get out of the Sidewinder.

https://i.imgur.com/V1sc9z9.jpg

Link

If only those stats were meaningful...

I, and am sure many others, have multiple accounts on a console. If they are logged in when playing a game, it counts as one more playing the game, even if I've never actively played the game on that console.

Example:

I have my main GT (oscarolim), and 3 other accounts. Sometimes for reasons that don't matter here, all 4 are logged in.
When I start Elite (or any other game), the info on those accounts say "Playing x game". However, only the main account is actually playing.

While unreliable as well, TA does give a better picture, as only tracks those that have at least one achievement unlocked. In that case, from the 25k tracked players, almost half bought a new ship.
But again, is still unreliable.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

I refer you to the concurrent player numbers of PUBG. Or are you saying that every PUBG player on Earth is posting in that one thread?

The opposite conclusion is just as absurd. Did I miss your point? Maybe a joke going above my head?

 

[h347h]

It's not a niche title - it's a boring game. Don't blame the genre on something that isn't very interesting. Boring games do not hold an audience.

MOBAs hold a huge audience and they are incredibly boring. You just do the same thing over and over and over...

 

[Whitehair]

It's not a niche title - it's a boring game. Don't blame the genre on something that isn't very interesting. Boring games do not hold an audience.

It keeps you coming back day after day.

 

[Jex =TE=]

It keeps you coming back day after day.

Do you have anything constructive to say or am I going to add you to my ignore list?

 

[StiTch]

Do you have anything constructive to say or am I going to add you to my ignore list?

When Jex reprimands others for being unconstructive, you know Satan is going to work in a snow plough.

 

[Fyrd Judge]

Also there was a prize of £10k to the first player to make triple elite, and that took 3 months.

That took 3 months lol !!!! You make it sound that was a long time. You do understand that that achievement was mindblowing at the time and i think i am right to say no other commander has ever beat that time or come any where near that time to get 3 Elites? Though understandably FD over the last few years has made it tougher to do so.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

Do you have anything constructive to say or am I going to add you to my ignore list?

And your comment was constructive?

 

[zarrazee]

OP.
I'm not surprised at the low % of people getting out of a Sidey. Tbh, I thought it would be lower.

Unlike a lot of games out there now-a-days, Elite isn't for players who just want to follow a series of breadcrumbs to the end. One has to invest time and effort into learning how to play it. Heck, even learning the controls can take a little while.

 

[Mu77ley]

Seriously what point you trying to make

Pretty sure this is just another one of those tedious "The Sky is Falling", Chicken Licken posts

BTW, you can chalk me up as one of those PS4 players who hasn't got out of the Sidewinder, as I bought a PS4 copy to maybe just chill on the couch and play occasionally, but then found that I really don't like playing on a gamepad.

 

[askavir]

It's a niche game in a niche genre with a learning curve. Not much they can do other than make a cell phone game.

This pretty much sums it up.

I think FD already did the extra mile to make this kind of game more accessible to more casual players, without completely ruining what makes this game different in the first place.

Counter Strike or whatever the current flavour of the month MOBA will always have more players than ED, but thank the gods ED is not one of those games.

 

[Jex =TE=]

And your comment was constructive?

Yes, how wasn't it? It was to the point and correcting the incorrect assumption that the game's "niche" which is why it's failing to hold an audience. Most people commenting on my comment have been here long enough to have read the countless posts about the game and how boring it is. Also forgetting that Braben himself is quoted saying the game has a 60 hour average appeal. Now the console stats are in (also remember that people who played the demo also count - the demo wasn't interesting enough for them to get the game) and we see only 20% play enough to get passed a Sidey making an 80% loss rate.

To say it's because it's a "niche" game doesn't address the point and just makes excuses for it.

 

[Whitehair]

Do you have anything constructive to say or am I going to add you to my ignore list?

I'll post something constructive just as soon as you do. I'll just wait until this happens....

.... Satan is going to work in a snow plough.

 

[Crank Larson]

That took 3 months lol !!!! You make it sound that was a long time. You do understand that that achievement was mindblowing at the time and i think i am right to say no other commander has ever beat that time or come any where near that time to get 3 Elites? Though understandably FD over the last few years has made it tougher to do so.

Why would anyone bother to try and beat that time now that there is no incentive? I suspect that it is actually quicker to get triple Elite now, as it is much easier to get Explorer Elite (you don't even need to explore).

If I remember correctly, a handful of people made triple Elite around the same time (i.e. the difference in time was a matter of days).

 

[smiths121]

To me, it looks like you're the one who's trying to turn it into a "console war" to divert attention away from the issue that the OP has highlighted.

Personally, I wonder if the platform might have something to do with it.
My games console is really just for playing daft multiplayer games when we have people around, or perhaps a bit of FIFA with a mate.
I do all my "serious" gaming on my PC, locking myself in my man-cave with beer and pretzels and not coming out for hours.

ED is unarguably the sort of game which appeals to the latter type of gaming rather than the former.
Maybe that's why so few console users persevere with the game?

I hate to say it (because it's kind of selfish) but my biggest concern would be that FDev might look at those stat's and decide that the money is in consoles and then change the game to encourage console users to play it more.
I'd guess that changing the game to achieve that would mean turning it into something very different from what I currently enjoy. [where is it]

Well to be fair I hope it came across as tongue firmly in cheek, I did use a smiley!

To be honest, I am not sure if 50% leaving sidewinder is a good or bad stat to use. I got some accomplishments on Rome Total War 2, which I played for @ 10 hours - hated it, not sure if that would come across in the achievement stats. Certainly the Xbox state of 4/5 not leaving the Sidewinder is low. However all the stats hi-light to me is a new PS-4 gamers is more likely to stick with the game longer than a new x-box player. Even that proposition is suspect. X-box had the game very early and far less complete than PS-4 with far less emphasis on the first 5 hours of play, so the "new" player part of the proposition is pushing it a bit.

Simon