It is boring either way as most planets don't have anything worth looking at other than those materials that you are looking for. You need to accept that the design isn't for you to randomly trip on these things, even the wave scanner is designed to help you specifically find rare materials. It's not a side bonus. You need specific materials and are given ways to specifically find them. None of that makes it any more fun either and that's part of the problem.
Where Elite Went Wrong, or: How NOT to craft a Sandbox Experience
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It is boring either way as most planets don't have anything worth looking at other than those materials that you are looking for. You need to accept that the design isn't for you to randomly trip on these things, even the wave scanner is designed to help you specifically find rare materials. It's not a side bonus. You need specific materials and are given ways to specifically find them. None of that makes it any more fun either and that's part of the problem.
7/10 for effort, passion and persistence, but I'm afraid you may be wasting your time. Need/Want blindness has always been, and always will be, endemic among a particular demographic within pretty much every MMO community.
Hence mat traders. Problem solved. Try the other activities or pay for it.
Not randomly trip no, you're getting silly again. Some effort will be required - however during planetary exploration (which might not be for you but is an entirely valid gameplay activity) you will almost inevitably find chances to get materials.
If you refuse in a big sulk don't expect to be treated as if you're making a mature decision.
We're all just sitting in our upgraded ships because we refuse to do those things. Never did any of the 'work' or 'effort', just here in a big sulk whining from my G5 Cutter. Good thing Frontier caved to us impatient kids with the Material Trader so we never ever had to do those other activities.
I wonder what's more mature, discussing things we don't like and how they could be improved or denigrating people because we don't agree with them.
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Very well observed.
If I was to critique Elite Dangerous, it would go something like this:
Graphics: Pretty amazing.
Sound effects: Awesome.
Music: OK, but a bit too slow & understated for my tastes.
Representation of the galaxy: Stupefyingly good really.
Spaceship flight 'simulation': Great fun, and takes a long time to master. Spot on really. Fun, and about as "deep" as it could get (without turning into a tedious flightsim).
Spaceship configuration: Very detailed, lots to experiment with, without being overwhelming. Maybe not perfect (need a few more malfunctions for spice), but still great fun.
Spaceship battles against NPCs: Fairly decent (about as good as NPCs could be really).
Individual activities (trading, mining, bounty hunting, etc) : Quite detailed, and certainly fun to do for a while...
... but your actions feel like they have almost no effect on anything (whether that's the galaxy as a whole, the star system you are in, or to a certain extent even your own reputation).
And this is probably fairly unavoidable in a massively multiplayer game, because if individual players COULD have a significant effect, the multiplayer world of Elite Dangerous would fall into chaos, and break pretty quickly. So it's the decision to have a single universe state (shared by all players, both on & off line) is the curse of Elite. We cannot be like the main character in Skyrim, and so it's not possible for us to feel like we matter like we did in Skyrim. We may have a significant effect on the network instance we inhabit, but as soon as we leave the game has to forget what happened, or else the cumulative effect of all players would leave the area in an unplayable state (all resources collected, all station defences destroyed, etc). The only semi-persistent effect you CAN really have is on other players. And so some players are drawn to killing others.
The other curse of Elite is it's decision to have a game world so massive, the only way to fill it in is procedurally. That unavoidably results in lots of similar-looking places (see No Man's Sky). It also means it's very difficult to have complex (i.e. interesting) area on planets, so the base locations end-up being very similar (and often with not much to do).
So is Elite Dangerous destined to lack fun? No, but it does mean it will only be fun to certain types of players. If a player wants to be part of a meaningful story, they're going to have difficulty finding in Elite Dangerous (even with multiplayer). The sort of player who has a chance at enjoying Elite Dangerous is someone who loves space so much that just flying through it (or driving on a distant planet) is a constant thrill. Then the game activities give them something to do, an excuse to enjoy the atmosphere. (I'm probably one of those players.) But what about everyone else? They can enjoy Elite until they've mastered control the ship & mastered whatever activities take their fancy - and then the repetitive sameness of those activities will be a big disappointment, as will the lack of a story.
Elite Dangerous is fundamentally a niche game, best enjoyed by hard science fiction fans & space enthusiasts. FDev's difficulty is finding other niches that some players will enjoy. One of those is PvP, but as the game isn't focused on that, the experience is not always what people want.
Graphics: Pretty amazing.
Sound effects: Awesome.
Music: OK, but a bit too slow & understated for my tastes.
Representation of the galaxy: Stupefyingly good really.
Spaceship flight 'simulation': Great fun, and takes a long time to master. Spot on really. Fun, and about as "deep" as it could get (without turning into a tedious flightsim).
Spaceship configuration: Very detailed, lots to experiment with, without being overwhelming. Maybe not perfect (need a few more malfunctions for spice), but still great fun.
Spaceship battles against NPCs: Fairly decent (about as good as NPCs could be really).
Individual activities (trading, mining, bounty hunting, etc) : Quite detailed, and certainly fun to do for a while...
... but your actions feel like they have almost no effect on anything (whether that's the galaxy as a whole, the star system you are in, or to a certain extent even your own reputation).
And this is probably fairly unavoidable in a massively multiplayer game, because if individual players COULD have a significant effect, the multiplayer world of Elite Dangerous would fall into chaos, and break pretty quickly. So it's the decision to have a single universe state (shared by all players, both on & off line) is the curse of Elite. We cannot be like the main character in Skyrim, and so it's not possible for us to feel like we matter like we did in Skyrim. We may have a significant effect on the network instance we inhabit, but as soon as we leave the game has to forget what happened, or else the cumulative effect of all players would leave the area in an unplayable state (all resources collected, all station defences destroyed, etc). The only semi-persistent effect you CAN really have is on other players. And so some players are drawn to killing others.
The other curse of Elite is it's decision to have a game world so massive, the only way to fill it in is procedurally. That unavoidably results in lots of similar-looking places (see No Man's Sky). It also means it's very difficult to have complex (i.e. interesting) area on planets, so the base locations end-up being very similar (and often with not much to do).
So is Elite Dangerous destined to lack fun? No, but it does mean it will only be fun to certain types of players. If a player wants to be part of a meaningful story, they're going to have difficulty finding in Elite Dangerous (even with multiplayer). The sort of player who has a chance at enjoying Elite Dangerous is someone who loves space so much that just flying through it (or driving on a distant planet) is a constant thrill. Then the game activities give them something to do, an excuse to enjoy the atmosphere. (I'm probably one of those players.) But what about everyone else? They can enjoy Elite until they've mastered control the ship & mastered whatever activities take their fancy - and then the repetitive sameness of those activities will be a big disappointment, as will the lack of a story.
Elite Dangerous is fundamentally a niche game, best enjoyed by hard science fiction fans & space enthusiasts. FDev's difficulty is finding other niches that some players will enjoy. One of those is PvP, but as the game isn't focused on that, the experience is not always what people want.
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If the "how they could be improved" wasn't just "magic/not having to do them" then you'd have a point, however.....
There are very few actual ideas or proposals ever given - mostly it's just whinging and demanding to get them by doing what you were doing already - hence the dismissal.
Eg. look at the topic of this thread, look at what it's turned into "waaah i want mats more easily so i can haz all the upgrades"
I haven't demanded anything and frankly don't expect it to ever change, it also won't stop me from engineering more ships. Doesn't change the fact that it's one hell of a boring gameplay loop. By the way, remember where I actually started, about here . If you look at the evolution from where we are now, it degenerated with you and a few others, including me when you started with the nonsense insults. You keep on putting those words and thoughts from others that aren't there out into the universe though, keep on whining about people whining I guess.
It's not meant to be a loop in itself. There's rarely anything exciting about smashing jugs and crates or looking in drawers to find loot.
I was clearly replying to an already existing thread of conversation demanding easier access to rare materials, nice try though.
Except their trade rates are so out of whack that even the crazy 8 to 1 ratio I stated isn't what you get time wise for materials of the SAME category. If they fixed the material trader to have the rates I suggested then I would be content, and I think a majority of other players would be as well. But we have been asking them to do so ever since the first beta and they haven't so I'm worried they aren't.
This last bit of text is ME. When I first came across this game (dec 2014) It Ticked a box for me. Over the last few years it is still ticking boxes. I at times have Flamed Fdev but this game is maturing I think. Is Flame the right term these days?
I tried Mining yesterday oh Dear how boring, sorry I will go back to trading and bounty hunting, and going to CZ's, I do that to break up the game play and give it purpose.
I also do exploring have put together an unarmed ship for that purpose. Credits who cares about that I have 2.5 Billion in the acc, so they are not the issue for me I like doing things in the Universe.
I would love to land on the MOON and go to Tranquillity Base. But that at this stage cannot be done. Oh well TOUGH.
Sorry Taking Rose Tinted Spectacles off.
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I just realized that whatever it is I'm trying to say, it's all pointless as each time your logic will be the same: I'm not playing the game the way I should.
You know the way it is intended to be played, yet fail at proving so, despite me already asking twice for the source of your claim - which you conveniently omit each time. Because I guess it's nothing but your own preference, and nothing more.
I don't have any hope, but let's try for the third time: can you quote me who said that's the intended way of playing the game?
As opposed to your posts, that brought so much contribution and propositions to solving those issues?
You're an intelligent and eloquent person, which is a real shame when considered your valid points are well outweighed - and frankly outshone - by your demeaning, insulting tone.
What an irony that it is you who keeps calling disputers "kids".
I apologize for leaving this discussion, but whatever the value of what you have to say, it's not worth putting up with your unappealing tone.
Good bye.
That's a gross mischaracterization of the complaints. You want ideas to make things better? here's some:
1- Be able to scan for specific materials via the scanner when surface prospecting. Let players seek out what they are looking for.
1b - Be able to launch probe limpets from orbit which give you good places to land on the surface and prospect.
2- Mining: Same as above.
3- Rover scan missions - Scan the datapoint, see if it has the data you want, THEN hack it. Hacking gives much more time between nodes; but triggers mild security response. This way you actually have a fight on your hands and need to shoot your way out and dodge fire. More like a heist, less like a chore. But you only commit to it when you know what you're getting in return.
3b- Create new rover type that's armored for doing the above.
4- Have an auction house so materials/rare commodities can be traded for in game money. Make it work like a stock exchange where prices fluctuate with the BGS and players can speculate.
4b - Make the auction house player driven.
5- Have more missions that pay in materials, and more material types provided. Let players pick which materials they want (Beta makes good progress on this front).
There is a theme with these suggestions: Players have more agency in determining their material rewards.
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Go watch the dev videos it's all been clearly explained. It's a loot mechanic. You get loot for playing the game. It's really mindnumbingly simple!
Sandro, dev videos, engineers launch and everything else since.
There's no solution! This is all self-invented misery self-imposed through determination to get all the things THEN play the game - the solution is as ever play the game.
As to tone if you react like that to me laughing a bit at you then imagine how all this is for the developers and you'll start to realise why they don't bow to these demands - but instead everyone keeps throwing the toys around and expecting that to work...........
The first two are shortcutting, markets are never ever going to happen with how people are with cash exploits and avoiding real-world value being applied to in game things, more mat rewards for missions are coming.
3 is only a chore because you're specifically trying to farm one mat.
You seem to have a reading comprehension failure; or unwillingness to understand the point. Letting players actively seek the materials they want is not short cutting; it is player agency.
How dare you try to specifically acquire an object. You shouldn't expect to go chop down a tree and get wood.
Right, I expect to chop down a tree and get an armload of random woodland creatures, small rocks, and occasionally a small amount of wood. Thankfully FDev has given us a lumberjack trader who will happily give me 1 cord of wood in exchange for 1265 badgers.
As long as you put in the effort, fair trade. [haha]
We will repeat the list which will make E.D a mile wide and 10000 feet deep
1. Atmospheric landings.
2. Be able to build bases around. Invest credits in bases. Or mine stuff to build bases.
3. Able to take over a system and kind of put your "clan" tag on it. While supporting your power. So in the name of a power you can be a "underling" of that system.
4. More interactive NPCs and wingmen. These can become persistent. Persistent NPC wingmen
5. Spacelegs
6. Buildable miningrigs
7. Deep sea exploring and undersea bases.
8. Tin foil hats
1. Atmospheric landings.
2. Be able to build bases around. Invest credits in bases. Or mine stuff to build bases.
3. Able to take over a system and kind of put your "clan" tag on it. While supporting your power. So in the name of a power you can be a "underling" of that system.
4. More interactive NPCs and wingmen. These can become persistent. Persistent NPC wingmen
5. Spacelegs
6. Buildable miningrigs
7. Deep sea exploring and undersea bases.
8. Tin foil hats
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