I wanted to disagree. But when push comes to shove I fear you might be right.
What is plaguing Elite: Dangerous the most??? Content? Player Agency? Reward Balance?
- Thread starter TrailBlazer 143
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I wanted to disagree. But when push comes to shove I fear you might be right.
The ”depth” most players refer to isn’t depth of lore or story or world per say, they are referring to a lack of depth in the game’s mechanics. The core of the game is made up of simple mechanisms for varying aspects which rarely overlap and are for the most part disjointed and separate. When most players say they “want more depth” what they actually mean is they want the physical act of playing the game to be more interactive and more engaging mentally.
And this is, IMHO, ED’s largest problem by a huge margin. It’s why the concept of Beyond’s core improvements was so overwhelmingly popular.
Agreed. These and other similar things are the true shortcomings.
I couldn't give less of a flying fart about the rate of incoming imaginary currency, the lack of memorable experiences are the actual issue. Memorable experiences is what I stand to gain from a videogame. Pretend dollars mean squat.
Does anyone even remember how many gold coins they have on their Skyrim saves? Or caps from the Fallout saves? Or wrens from their Witcher saves? No one? Bueller?
And has the true potential to be overwhelmingly disappointing, because there sure won’t be another revision.
The problem with this game is The Engineers. At least I could ignore Powerplay - but every time I try to engage with this aspect of the game, I come away so frustrated with the micro mechanics and the time consuming RNG nonsense that I quit, furious that I've wasted so much time achieving very little.
Because Police officers are notoriously well paid....I get paid more than any but very senior Police Officers...and trust me I never do anything dangerous, stressful or life threatening...
OP you identified one half of the problem - a poorly and inconsistently scaling rewards system.
The other half is more important though; lack of interesting and varied gameplay scenarios. If we had, for example, combat that took place in any other environment except (a) blank empty patches of space or (b) identical patches of planetary rings, then combat scenarios would be a thousand times more interesting and the longevity of combat-based gameplay would be far far greater. And players would put up with the terribly inconsistent/unbalanced rewards system, because the gameplay would be way more fun.
For example, imagine gameplay scenarios like: heists/base sabotage/virus upload/trench run/base defence/convoy protection... the possibilities are literally endless.
The other half is more important though; lack of interesting and varied gameplay scenarios. If we had, for example, combat that took place in any other environment except (a) blank empty patches of space or (b) identical patches of planetary rings, then combat scenarios would be a thousand times more interesting and the longevity of combat-based gameplay would be far far greater. And players would put up with the terribly inconsistent/unbalanced rewards system, because the gameplay would be way more fun.
For example, imagine gameplay scenarios like: heists/base sabotage/virus upload/trench run/base defence/convoy protection... the possibilities are literally endless.
+Rep
Very well written.
I play for fun BUT also was to progress - is that weird?
I also want to say I disagree with police versus office workers because there are no office workers!
That is, everyone gets attacked - miners, traders, police.
I think the credits per hour should be similar because traders want to buy bigger ships and jump farther, while bounty hunters want more armor and weapons - really everyone needs cash to have fun and progress
No! You're like me: hovering somewhere in between the lines. Elite is FUN to play and has progression but not much progress can be made without the use of "exploits" and repetitive mission grinding so the fun is what keeps me around.
From Progress to Fun bar goes a little like this: Destiny - Fallout - Sea Of Thieves
Destiny (at it's core) is all about chasing numbers and rewards but is controversial about being fun
Fallout a perfect middle ground as it the player is encouraged to chase numbers and rewards but is also fun to play as it doesn't restrict players
Sea Of Thieves doesn't have progression but is fun to play
Problem 1: Disconnect between players in Open, meaning you do your thing and I'll do mine and never shall we cross paths except to say o7 in a slot.
Problem 2: No real single player mode
Problem 3: No user mods
Problem 4: Station board interface doesn't do justice to how well the stations are rendered
Problem 5: Powerplay
Problem 6: Game sanctity must be preserved at all costs!
Problem 2: No real single player mode
[*=1]Players were promised a real single player mode
[*=1]Solo is the "leave me alone" mode
[*=1]Other modes affect your game in Solo (influence, wars, etc...)
[*=1]Player faction complaints affect my game in Solo (nerfing a route I may have found)
Problem 3: No user mods
Problem 4: Station board interface doesn't do justice to how well the stations are rendered
Problem 5: Powerplay
[*=1]Too easy to pledge and leave a power
[*=1]Powers mean nothing in the grand scheme
[*=1]Relies on bribes of special unlocks and Cr bonuses to get anyone interested
[*=1]Takes too long to rank (some people cannot play every week, so it becomes useless to them)
[*=1]Boring, repetitive tasks (entire game suffers from this)
Problem 6: Game sanctity must be preserved at all costs!
- Neutered updates create boring gameplay (nerfing)
[*=1]Loyalists/Fanbois won't allow interesting things to happen (muh lore)
[*=1]Game will decay, be shelved with most of the galaxy unexplored (muh 'mursion)
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My personal feeling is a lack of player agency. Missions are where this is particularly apparent. From taking a mission to completing a mission, the whole process seems largely out of the players' hands. How cool would it be, though, if non-violent interactions with NPC ships could create missions? Or if missions could spawn from scanning Persistent or Procedural Surface Settlements, Mega-ships or CQC assets? Or if missions could spawn from collecting certain items in space, or from scanning the PDB or Data Cores of ship wrecks? Not only are you giving the player agency, you make the galaxy itself feel more *alive*.
Mission wrinkles are another case in point. Instead of largely triggering in a "random", albeit predictable fashion, why not have them more often triggered by player action or inaction? Leaving a certain Mission until the last minute could make a "time bonus" or "enemies incoming" wrinkle more likely to trigger. Success or failure relating to one mission wrinkle should be able to trigger follow-up wrinkles. Success-& degree of success-or even failure of a mission should help determine if a follow-on mission occurs, & what kind of follow-on mission occurs.
Another example of where player agency could matter is by having the Commander's Log be a trigger for various random events in the game (like allies or nemeses....or.random mission offers)
The big one, though, is favours. The ability to call in favours with Engineers, Factions or Powers should be a means for more seasoned players to gain more control over the events in the game....albeit at a cost.
Mission wrinkles are another case in point. Instead of largely triggering in a "random", albeit predictable fashion, why not have them more often triggered by player action or inaction? Leaving a certain Mission until the last minute could make a "time bonus" or "enemies incoming" wrinkle more likely to trigger. Success or failure relating to one mission wrinkle should be able to trigger follow-up wrinkles. Success-& degree of success-or even failure of a mission should help determine if a follow-on mission occurs, & what kind of follow-on mission occurs.
Another example of where player agency could matter is by having the Commander's Log be a trigger for various random events in the game (like allies or nemeses....or.random mission offers)
The big one, though, is favours. The ability to call in favours with Engineers, Factions or Powers should be a means for more seasoned players to gain more control over the events in the game....albeit at a cost.
Funny. I have been accused of being a fanbois, & from where I am sitting its the casual non-fanbois who won't allow interesting things to happen. Make missions more difficult & engaging? Make NPC's more of a challenge? Nope.....nothing is allowed that gets in the way of the almighty "credits per hour".
Oh, yes, so true. They look so great then all you get is that crumby interface.
Well you could have both. Engaging and challenging missions that pay well.
Let us not forget the third kind: those who play for neither fun nor progression (you know who you are).
And heck, now that I think of it, let us not forget the fourth kind: those who post more in the forums than play the game (we know who we are).
More engaging != tanks more damage. FD will just have them tank more damage (and dish more out) but they'll still call your biowaste "tasty cargo" and still do stupid things. If they are going to be stupid, might as well be fun to kill. It's not like there's a limited amount of them or that they pay extraordinarily well.
Missions being more difficult just means NPCs tank more damage and dish more out, or you have to fly to yet another distant system to get a bounty removed from your head. That's not challenging, it's tedious and undesirable. The number of people who are willing to wade through all that is low, but that doesn't make them elite. The board is full of challenging missions now. It's not full of fun ones.
As someone else once said, if I have to use my scroll key on my mouse to read a post, it's going to be boring. There is no problem with ED, there is a problem with some ED players (probably millenials), who want everything now, and want to be drawn to a natural conclusion. by following breadcrumbs. to a given goal, no feathers to collect in ED, get with it, or foxtrot oscar to world of warcraft
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And it's not just the options of the interface - the entire interface is like a spreadsheet of sorts. Outfitting is cool, you have your ship sitting there with HPs displayed and you see things added and removed, but the screens seem built to hit and run. The faction images are the same few people in every system, and it's not as if we don't visit many systems to notice that. They all look like villains from Scooby Doo or something along those lines.
