IMO adding campaigns to the game, which you could optionally do to progress, would work. The kind of stuff in the old privateer games, in FREELANCER, etc - you can earn credits and get bigger and stronger ships by participating in the story line. It would require hand-crafted non-procedural implementation, but I think a sizeable portion of the player base would enjoy it. Even for those who have done it all already could enjoy it and take part in it.
SOLVED!
Just don't ask how much is costs!
Just don't ask how much is costs!
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You can't have a linear campaign with ship/money rewards without messing with the sandbox, you could do say a military campaign that ends with up with you being kicked out of the military and the ships taken away but the end should be a sidey and 1000 credits.
So I've observed a decent portion of this forum is taken up with people complaining about the relentless grind. So what's the solution? Since engineers was introduced it feels the community of this game is polarised between people who like the grind (or at least defend it) and those who don't. I personally don't object to a bit of grind but I do really feel it's just too much in ED now. If I was 16 and could spend 5 hours a night flying around waiting for USS to spawn I would do that, but I'm 33 with a family and a job so can only spare a few hours each week. I want to be able to enjoy the game. Where I think (and It's just my opinion) FDev have made a big error is thinking engineers would be an optional process for players. In reality it has become a necessity to endure before you can do what you really want to.
Anyway, we all know there are differing opinions but in the aim of being reconciliary is there a solution that would suit all of us? Please don't one side tell the other it's their fault for not understanding the game and to stop playing. At the end of the day It's a product and FDev are a business. To tell paying customers it's their fault they aren't happy so they should go away is a suicidal business approach. If FDev change the product after I've paid for it and it materially alters it I'm legally entitled to a refund. Let's not encourage that kind of situation.
So - ideas to make the game more engaging to the broader player base? Let's keep it constructive if we can please.
Cheers.
In the particular case of Engineers:
This was meant to be a mountain to climb. The mountain was meant to be quite steep, that is why the RNG in the original iteration was so harsh...yes, you could bypass each level...but the RNG outcome was so variable that you could get top tier rolls that were worse than lower levels...this, for myself...and it appears many others...was unacceptable. I played the engineers the first day, realized the problem...and walked away.
With this iteration...I am guaranteed a marginal quality increase of any roll PLUS never receiving a roll worse than my current level. This is great, I...and i am sure many more players, now are involved with Engineers.
However, to maintain the mountain climb, the devs had to do something that would equal the previous climb. The current situation is what the devs expectations were from the original plan..in time and effort. To weaken the mountain climb would be devaluing the process.
So, basically, that is the difference between RNG systems and Non-RNG systems. Non-RNG systems are basically grind based...regardless of how well the grind is hidden. RNG looks like a quicker climb...but it is not true, since people have a poorer understanding of chance based events.
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I think everyone should take a chill pill, realize that this game is very impressive in many ways, but that it also has some faults that deserve improvement sooner rather than later.
Creating crap posts directed at the Devs and yelling down anyone that tries to find the enjoyment in the game doesn't help, nor does telling people to "just have fun" or "the grind is in the mind" is helpful in spurring meaningful discussions on how the game can be improved.
I can't argue with the material traders either. It seems to be geared primarily for trading down, and in some way it's relatively similar to the old engineering method. You go and farm G5 materials since most/all engineers were at G5 in the old system. With the new system, you still hunt for G5 (or G4) mats and just trade down to fill up the lower tier mats. I'd like to see a bit more balance in the trading up or at least across (eg G5 to G5).
For material gathering a good portion of materials/data can be tracked to more specific ship types, system states, etc, so the comparison to other games doesn't completely stack up, but I get your general point.
We technically do have a filter via the sensor, we just have to use our eyes/ears. I do feel that it'll be nice if/when planetary generation tech gets to the point where you can go to specific parts of a planet that would contain higher parts of said elements (impact craters/etc).
But it's not consistent across all mats/data. For example, wake scans... They have always been the bane of my existence in this game, there's very little 'need' for it outside of piracy/assassination missions, so if you need it for engineering you really need to farm it. What I don't like most about them is that the scans themselves have no bearing on the ship type (unlike ship scans).
The grind is intentional. There is no solving it. The grind is mindless busy work.
If it was stripped away or streamlined, most players would realize how bare bones the game is and probably quit.
If it was stripped away or streamlined, most players would realize how bare bones the game is and probably quit.
Thats one way to put it, and frankly after playing the game for too many hours I can see where you coming from.
It'll calm down once the traditional patch "wah" subsides, the problem is FDEV are patching like champions so it's currently constant.
I think that it's great that the game provides for players of all inclination no matter how casual, but this strikes me as being pretty sanctimonious. If you have only a casual interest in advancement then the system in place is fine because you don't particularly care about the end results, just the random journey getting there. Nothing wrong with that. On the other hand, if you're a player who is more intense and goal oriented, this person might not be so interested in the journey itself, but rather the end result. To this latter player, extreme performance and carefully met quotas, amounts and outcomes are extremely important. They are usually people with hundreds of millions in credits (if not billions), all the engineers unlocked since they debuted, and hundreds if not thousands of g5 rolls, and most assuredly not "Oh welp" about flying any ship that isn't fully maxed in every way possible.
Your post and attitude in general, as well as a number of others who chronically push the line that can be summarized as "Who cares how long it takes you to find an HGE in space with some specific material needed to complete your new gun suite, just go do something else randomly for a while! That's what I do and look how happy I am! Of course, I've only unlocked three of the engineers, have no more than half a dozen g3 rolls that I just got around to doing tee hee!" Which is fine when you're playing to your own crowd of professionally indolent underachievers, but it kind of falls flat when people such as myself who engage with this game in every way possible and simply want more from it. Just my 2 cents, buddy
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Yes.
If you have permanent campaign rewards I rock up in a heavily engineered ship walk all over the opposition in short order and then sell the ships I've been awarded but not bothered to use. Repeat as necessary for easy space money.
You'd also be unable to give away rank or rank locked ships because it would upset the grinders.
It's a big old galaxy and we are just independent pilots, we can't all save the same princess.
It's choosing to ignore everything and focus only on the one repetitive thing that does it.
I don't try to stop anyone saying what they want to say, I might disagree but I'd never try to stop them.
What you are currently doing is trying (and failing obviously) to stop me from saying what I want to say, which isn't going to work and given your previous sentence is Olympic grade hypocrisy.
You couldn't be more wrong about all of that it's absolutely fine to tell people that their opinions are wrong, and why.
This isn't a safespace it's a forum, you should expect to experience more than one viewpoint.
Bob, you're wrong. And not just a little wrong, but like alcaps WRONG. Got it? You. are. wrong.
Wrong wrong or <raises eyebrow suggestively> right wrong ?.
What you are is insulting, rude and disgusting. The only reason you appear to hang around like a bad smell is to be purely antagonist, adding nothing to a discussion. While simultaneously looking down on others for having a different experience and view point.
That is his intention, to bait people in a flame session to prove his macho-ness, and shutdown a discussion that may cut the number of such threads occurring on the forum. Id say he was shooting himself in the foot, but really he enjoys this more than the game by the looks of it.
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This a thousand times with chocolate syrup on top. Elite Dangerous isn't the story-driven space epic that lots of people want it to be, and so lots of people are disappointed.
If you are looking for a modern Freelancer equivalent, then (sadly) you need to look elsewhere. Elite Dangerous cannot be everything to everyone.
P.S. That's not to say that ED cannot be improved. It still has huge scope for improvements (without turning it into a completely different game), but I'm not so sure they would make the unhappy players any happier.
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