Lately, well, actually the last two years, when I think about it, most new toys that have been added to the game have been combat focused. There have been a lot of quality of life upgrades as well and general game polishing, but the toys have been guns and things that are for using guns. Yes, there have been limpets, but that's about it.
There is multicrew, which also can be used for scanning and sightseeing, but since there are no other functions in place, the main function seems to be the gunner job, which also comes with a pretty arcade-style view around the ship (arcade and Elite in one sentence makes me cringe, actually).
The game has ship launched fighters, even three different kinds with different loadouts. The same mechanic could be used to add scientific drones to do other things than fighting, remote mining drones, collector drones for grabbing stuff without limpets or cargo scooping. I would have loved to have ship launched vessels, including a fighter, not restricted to.
Engineers gave us the ability to mod our ships, but as far as I know experimental effects have only been for weapons (which changes with 3.0, I think, which is lovely).
The return of the Thargoid gave us a scanner, research limpets (which give us samples which don't really have a use right now) and a shutdown field neutralizer, and apart from that lots of anti thargoid weaponry. Since the Thargoid stuff is still going on, that hopefully changes. At the moment though it doesn't look like that.
When thinking back to the Frontier Expo, the new Guardian tech shown also was guns. I am pretty sure we only saw a sneak peek to make us drool, but I didn't. Alien tech guns look cool, but in Elite I really have no use for them. I love the idea of getting my hands on Guardian hybrid tech for my endeavors at the ruins, but if that will be guns only, I really don't have an incentive (I'd play the content for sure, but the guns would go on the pile I guess).
The tech brokers in the beta also only had experimental weapons. What about some specials for scanners, fuel scoops, thrusters that are especially useful in high G environments, heat sink launchers that also include a system helping with managing heat in general, or something that makes us stay longer in Silent Running mode without overheating... Actually, everything else than guns would be welcome and I really hope that's coming.
I love the T10 (yes, I know, that's discussable), but it's a combat ship again. For 3.0 the featured ship, the Chieftain, is also a combat ship. It's an awesome design, and pretty useful for players who love to fight, but again, combat.
Of course, there will be the new looks for planets, which is actually what I look forward to most in 3.0, and more stuff for exploration and mining has been announced, but I really hope that won't just be a few focused updates and then back to guns. I hope it will also mark a point where the game gets more and more toys dedicated to other roles than combat ones.
What makes Elite unique is the galaxy simulation based on astronomical data, on science (hearing that so often, it starts to sound silly), It's the game's most advertised feature and an accomplishment itself in my oppinion. I am a bit sad that so far not much is done with it, and I don't mean work on celestial bodies and planet surfaces and all, but actual gameplay. ED has the most scientifically correct suns, and planets, and whatsnot in the most correct simulation of our galaxy for a game to date, but instead of more interaction with it, there's more and more ways of interacting with other ships. Via guns.
TL;DR: Many, many, many (and more) games do the gun-thing. Elite gives us a brilliant galaxy simulation based on science and then also does the gun-thing a lot. I'd love to see this changing. The Elite gun lobby has enough toys by now. Time for more science.
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