Semantics, everyone loves semantics.
I'm curious, what do you class as 'playing the game'
- Thread starter Saool
- Start date
Playing the game - picking some goal, researching what is needed using in-game tools (with slight 3rd patry reference for detail explanation, refining method) and slowly but steadily progressing toward it.
Grinding the game - picking some goal and being forced to google, reddit, inara, eddb, YT for info because game lacks even basic knowledge base and even what is in game is misleading. While working toward your goal you are forced to do time consuming loopholes that serve no purpose except making things take longer due to badly implemented RNG resulting in massive time investment for no real gain. When you finally reach some milestone it feels not like an achievement but rather one tedium done so you can start another before taking another before you can actually play as you want.
I'm not against RNG as a whole, I burned through that system in WoW while trying to get some rare mounts, items and what not. One time I been lucky and got desired mount in less than 20 runs, other not so much as it took months and over 100 raid (one attempt a week, luckily had multiple characters for multiple attempts a week) runs to get what I wanted. Simple material gathering was also a grind since you needed hundreds while single node gave you 1-3. But it gave you at least 1 piece a node. So even with bad luck, after an hour you could end with few stacks. Surely not enough toward final goal but some noticeable progress.
With ED material gathering is equal to WoW's raid mount farm - you enter the site and either you get a drop or not. With "not" being the major outcome. It takes multiple attempts to get SINGLE piece. And this is my biggest gripe toward grind in ED. No visible outcome for the effort put.
I don't mind flying vast distances to the place where X occurs.
I don't mind driving SRV on the planet in search for X.
I don't mind gathering multiple pieces of X because Engineer result magnitude is RNG based.
I DO mind when while being at the right place where X occurs, while driving in search for X, while in need of multiple pieces of X I DON"T FIND ANY.
Because someone decided it's a 2% rare drop and while being at the right place, doing that I was supposed to do I don't get what I expect to get.
This game has too many of above. And being in a loophole in the right place, doing what I'm supposed to do and not getting what I'm expected to get because RNG is.a.grind.
Grinding the game - picking some goal and being forced to google, reddit, inara, eddb, YT for info because game lacks even basic knowledge base and even what is in game is misleading. While working toward your goal you are forced to do time consuming loopholes that serve no purpose except making things take longer due to badly implemented RNG resulting in massive time investment for no real gain. When you finally reach some milestone it feels not like an achievement but rather one tedium done so you can start another before taking another before you can actually play as you want.
I'm not against RNG as a whole, I burned through that system in WoW while trying to get some rare mounts, items and what not. One time I been lucky and got desired mount in less than 20 runs, other not so much as it took months and over 100 raid (one attempt a week, luckily had multiple characters for multiple attempts a week) runs to get what I wanted. Simple material gathering was also a grind since you needed hundreds while single node gave you 1-3. But it gave you at least 1 piece a node. So even with bad luck, after an hour you could end with few stacks. Surely not enough toward final goal but some noticeable progress.
With ED material gathering is equal to WoW's raid mount farm - you enter the site and either you get a drop or not. With "not" being the major outcome. It takes multiple attempts to get SINGLE piece. And this is my biggest gripe toward grind in ED. No visible outcome for the effort put.
I don't mind flying vast distances to the place where X occurs.
I don't mind driving SRV on the planet in search for X.
I don't mind gathering multiple pieces of X because Engineer result magnitude is RNG based.
I DO mind when while being at the right place where X occurs, while driving in search for X, while in need of multiple pieces of X I DON"T FIND ANY.
Because someone decided it's a 2% rare drop and while being at the right place, doing that I was supposed to do I don't get what I expect to get.
This game has too many of above. And being in a loophole in the right place, doing what I'm supposed to do and not getting what I'm expected to get because RNG is.a.grind.
I think it wouldn't be such a bother if there was in indicator that tells at some point: This is unlucky site, don't try further try another again. With no feedback you just don't know if it's bad luck or if you're doing it wrong or if you're at the wrong place altogether.
I don't mind RNG, the alternative is heavily scripted corridor games which I really don't like. You just need to accept it's random and occupy yourself preferably in a fun way while you wait.
One of the reasons I drop in and out of all the other USS's when after something specific from USS's is instance changes regularly reset the RNG so you never spend a lot of time in an unlucky one. It also seems to spawn assassination targets far more quickly than just sitting there, you also have something to do and profit to make.
If RNG gives you lemons make lemonade.
I agree and started a thread in the RNGineering sub about this yesterday...
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...t-in-3-0-Core-Dynamics-Composites-and-HGE-USS
...essentially saying that although I'm pleased by what Frontier have achieved with 3.0, the few remaining choke-points occasionally harm the mat-gathering experience and should be solved.
With reference to the OP here, I do not classify HGE USS hunting as playing the game, rather as something that prevents me from playing the game. To describe it as 'gameplay' would be a correct use of language only in the crude sense that it's something that takes place within a computer game.
I would, without hesitation, prefer to play 1984 Elite via a cut sequence and emulator, for the same period of time, than to 'play' Elite Dangerous whilst HGE USS hunting.
Both of those definitions seem a bit wonky.
Ignoring the issue of semantics, I see "playing the game" as doing the stuff you actually want to do... much as many other people have said already.
Last night, for example, I took my Cutter to Cubeo to deliver some leaflets for the Smurf Princess so I can buy another batch of fancy shields.
As gameplay goes, it's not exactly riveting but it's something I chose to do so I'm fine with it.
While doing that, however, I noticed that the SBs on my Cutter are a bit of a mish-mash of rejects from other ships and I'm probably going to go and replace them with a new, more balanced, set.
And, to do that, I'm going to have to collect mat's.
This is the sort of thing that I wouldn't really class as "playing the game".
Instead, it's the stuff I have to do so I can "play the game".
Which is not to say I'm totally opposed to it.
I don't actually mind that the game involves some prep-work before heading off into adventure.
I just wish it could be a bit more interesting.
Last night, for example, I took my Cutter to Cubeo to deliver some leaflets for the Smurf Princess so I can buy another batch of fancy shields.
As gameplay goes, it's not exactly riveting but it's something I chose to do so I'm fine with it.
While doing that, however, I noticed that the SBs on my Cutter are a bit of a mish-mash of rejects from other ships and I'm probably going to go and replace them with a new, more balanced, set.
And, to do that, I'm going to have to collect mat's.
This is the sort of thing that I wouldn't really class as "playing the game".
Instead, it's the stuff I have to do so I can "play the game".
Which is not to say I'm totally opposed to it.
I don't actually mind that the game involves some prep-work before heading off into adventure.
I just wish it could be a bit more interesting.
Here's the quote:
If you read that as 'claiming forum seniority' then there really isn't any point having a discussion with you. It is exactly what I said it was - an attempt to illustrate to you that I involve myself in the full range of game activities.
I know you have been been playing the game and posting on the forums longer than me, plus as you said 'forum seniority' is a ludicrous concept to begin with, so why on earth would I try to 'pull rank' on you? You really have to put work in to twist what I wrote into that.
If you don't know why you went down the forum posting timeline path, then I certainly don't.
I play it with larger goals broken down into smaller ones. My meta is to collect every ship in hull order...been doing that for a couple of years and am about to get the FGS. But my goal wasn't to get the FGS, it was to gain rank to Ensign. To do that I did salvage and courier missions in and around Tun, interspersed with the odd passenger mission when I wanted to relax and take in some sights, honking and scanning along the way for extra profit...I need money to outfit the FGS after all. Also, I'm quite close to Explorer Elite so that's another goal...about 27% to go.
I made further money towards the FGS by mining...something I like doing and find relaxing...struggling to find mining missions for the extra income though.
I take breaks from my ship collecting now and again...going back to my older ships and just having some fun with them. I'll be doing DWII later this year once Q4 update drops, so that'll put a stop to ship collecting for quite a while. So another smaller goal recently was getting my AspX FSD to G5 and light-weighting some internals. 54Ly on that baby now. DWII should give me plenty of cash for outfitting the larger ships when I get back!
So yeah, smaller goals leading to bigger ones keeps it interesting for me.
I made further money towards the FGS by mining...something I like doing and find relaxing...struggling to find mining missions for the extra income though.
I take breaks from my ship collecting now and again...going back to my older ships and just having some fun with them. I'll be doing DWII later this year once Q4 update drops, so that'll put a stop to ship collecting for quite a while. So another smaller goal recently was getting my AspX FSD to G5 and light-weighting some internals. 54Ly on that baby now. DWII should give me plenty of cash for outfitting the larger ships when I get back!
So yeah, smaller goals leading to bigger ones keeps it interesting for me.
It's the words after 'two years'. Sorry, I forgot your complete inability to admit you were wrong.
I don't see anything in Red's post which alludes to this.
Am I missing something? [where is it]
I told you yesterday red, don't expect any more effort posts or anything beyond cursory skim reading.
Stig seems under the impression that Red was/is lording it over people because he stated he's been on the forum for however long.
Other people might have just considered that Red was simply stating his forum time to inform Stig and others that he's been around a while and has a firm grasp of the game and its mechanics.
In other news I just checked my Elite account and I bought the beta package on the 25/09/14* so I beat them both in terms of how long I've been around.
*This forum account is however quite new as I asked for my old account to be deleted some time ago.
That's fine by me. Probably a good idea not to make posts misrepresenting what other people say when you're not even reading their content though.
By the way, since your memory failed you here's the relevance of Myanmar.
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...nything-against-CL-quot-Here-is-why?p=6320557
Oh look, it's the last time you did exactly the same thing. See, that's why I kicked against it this time - I don't expect everything I write on here to gain universal approval but you have form for deliberately misrepresenting people's comments and as I said last time, it's pretty low behaviour.
It's just a video game and it's related forum it's not worth getting upset about, which is probably why I'm not holding any ancient forum grudges as I can't tell any one moaner from another.
Last edited:
No grudge here either, I only remembered the above incident when prompted by its similarity to yesterday's. As I said to Scotttttttt yesterday, it's not the first time we've disagreed and opinions being what they are it may well not be the last. There are also plenty of occasions when I've agreed with you. I respond to posts not posters, unless a pattern of behaviour presents itself that makes me question the intentions of the poster concerned.
For clarity though, I'm not 'upset' about a video game or its forum. It's the entirely deliberate misrepresentation of my comments that is irksome, particularly when they are being misrepresented as a comment which I would never actually make to begin with because it would be nonsensical. I find that equally irritating in any aspect of my personal or professional life. The easiest way to deal with that situation and remove my need to highlight it would be for you to simply stop doing it. I'm perfectly happy to leave this here and see if you can do that in future.