Would you buy a single player narrative DLC for ED?

[dannysquid]

There were missions in Elite in 1984.. Not sure how adding a campaign DLC is any different in principle, especially as it would be optional..

This is my thought too.

But because ELITE is a game where people who've played for literally thousands of hours seriously complain about it having no content I worry that a few hours of story missions would be finished and dismissed as a waste of time before the beta period ended!

I think you need persistent NPCs and procedural storytelling (which is a huge time-sink development pipe dream probably) and space legs. There's a limit to how interesting the story could be if you can't leave your ship.

 

[Han Zulu]

This is my thought too.

But because ELITE is a game where people who've played for literally thousands of hours seriously complain about it having no content I worry that a few hours of story missions would be finished and dismissed as a waste of time before the beta period ended!

I think you need persistent NPCs and procedural storytelling (which is a huge time-sink development pipe dream probably) and space legs. There's a limit to how interesting the story could be if you can't leave your ship.

And dialogue, with the ability to make different decisions with different outcomes.

 

[Kaocraft]

This is my thought too.

But because ELITE is a game where people who've played for literally thousands of hours seriously complain about it having no content I worry that a few hours of story missions would be finished and dismissed as a waste of time before the beta period ended!

I think you need persistent NPCs and procedural storytelling (which is a huge time-sink development pipe dream probably) and space legs. There's a limit to how interesting the story could be if you can't leave your ship.

Here's a thought: maybe they've spent thousands of hours searching for content and finding none. A six to eight hour, well designed, story-driven adventure with a satisfying challenge curve and an actual conclusion, might be a good thing. I wouldn't want to eliminate the existing rinse-repeat mmorpg treadmill experience which currently makes up 100% of Elite, but it sure could be complimented by something a bit more in depth and lavishly presented. I'm not so interested in cutscenes but Id like some multi-stage setpiece battles against named NPCs with stakes to the outcome, some bespoke environments to fly through where I need to complete a series of specific coherent objectives, maybe some NPC wingmates to join on a mission, etc. Sure you could wait for space legs and atmospheric landings but you don't really need it. Let's have some crazy Ram Tah missions to capture a space Whale or something.

 

[NomadRomeo]

Sure I'll buy it!

Imagine playing a campaing about Jameson's life or even Salomé...

...Hmmm, not Salomé, I know how poorly it ends.

 

[Garris]

Nope

 

[Tikanderoga]

A campaign might be interesting, but not if it's just text wall after text wall. We got plenty of those already.
Also it should have some effect on things, like unlocking systems, or get access to otherwise restricted modules, or some unique modules, otherwise not purchasable, which then gets upgraded to higher grades. Heaps of possibilities there.
Of course, it would be optional, just like everything else is in this game. Not sure I'd make it a DLC, as it might be considered Pay2Win, depending on the rewards.

 

[Borko]

Again, yes. Privateer had it right in the nineties; the story missions were there, but nothing required you to do them. You could screw about all you liked and Sandoval would still be waiting in New Detroit.

 

[Mercy Killing]

No.



What I -would- buy however..... is a single player offline version of the game that has no engineers at all. Not even for the NPC's.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Nope, it would be the principle as that would indicate to me that the entire direction of Elite has changed. So I'd head off to other places.. possibly X4

but that said, I don't see it happening.

the direction has already changed... at least a campaign DLC would be single player stuff for a change..... but multiplayer only wingmates, multiplayer only ships crew, multiplayer only squadrons (and presumably megaships if they ever come), engineers which are closer to wizards enchanting weapons than engineers...... none of those features / limitations were ever hinted at in the design archives.

that leaked video with the scripted voice acted mission is for me the most exciting thing i have seen in Elite since 1st seeing the teaser with the cobra landing on the rocky moon in 2015 (it actually reminds me a bit of that scripted battle video way back before alpha launched with the 2 megaships duking it out)

bring it on

PS I am not an expert on the X games but.. iirc every one of them have a campaign in dont they?

 

[Leper Messiah]

I would buy it in a heartbeat (one caveat....as long as the length was worth the money). I just watched the PSVR XWing battlefront mission again and it's just drool worthy (once you ignore the gawd awful Battlefront UI elements)...I HATE the way modern games are so multiplayer focused.....I want a modern XWing or TIE fighter game with compelling storys that link into the films....also a modern Freespace game.

 

[Sberla101]

Games like GTA V have a single player campaign in their open world sandbox. When you're done with the campaign it becomes a pure sandbox. They then sell a few DLC additional campaigns.

Is this possible in ED? Would you buy a DLC single-player campaign that had a story and was only playable in SOLO?

Yes! But with italian translation.

 

[Kaltern]

In principle, sure, a story campaign within the Elite universe could be very good, providing the lore is used properly, current in-game events are involved and the actual storytelling/voice acting is spot on.

However, (and while I personally don't care) the moment you get a reward for completing the DLC campaign, is the moment the fabled words 'Pay 2 Win' will be shouted far and wide.

I would love, for example, to take part in another secret Sirius operation. Now in a perfectly ideal world, you could have story branch choices - do you go along with the operation and eventually allow Sirius to succeed in destroying something in an as-yet publicly unknown system with some Thargoid threat, or do you betray them and eventually take part in taking the attack force down?

Such stories would need to be completely separate from the 'real' game world, as it wouldn't make sense for Galnet to mention something that players haven't taken part in - or with multiple endings. So it would need to be totally self-contained. Except for the rewards. Rewards would probably need to be something that isn't particularly better than anything in the current game world, but perhaps could be unique in its appearance rather than function - I don't think that would cause too many grumblings - many paint jobs are impossible to just get without doing 'something', so I don't really see an issue here.

I think the bottom line, is that should you wish to not partake in a DLC campaign, then you lose nothing, and the DLC has no bearing on your particular game.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

In principle, sure, a story campaign within the Elite universe could be very good, providing the lore is used properly, current in-game events are involved and the actual storytelling/voice acting is spot on.

However, (and while I personally don't care) the moment you get a reward for completing the DLC campaign, is the moment the fabled words 'Pay 2 Win' will be shouted far and wide.

I would love, for example, to take part in another secret Sirius operation. Now in a perfectly ideal world, you could have story branch choices - do you go along with the operation and eventually allow Sirius to succeed in destroying something in an as-yet publicly unknown system with some Thargoid threat, or do you betray them and eventually take part in taking the attack force down?

Such stories would need to be completely separate from the 'real' game world, as it wouldn't make sense for Galnet to mention something that players haven't taken part in - or with multiple endings. So it would need to be totally self-contained. Except for the rewards. Rewards would probably need to be something that isn't particularly better than anything in the current game world, but perhaps could be unique in its appearance rather than function - I don't think that would cause too many grumblings - many paint jobs are impossible to just get without doing 'something', so I don't really see an issue here.

I think the bottom line, is that should you wish to not partake in a DLC campaign, then you lose nothing, and the DLC has no bearing on your particular game.

i would do these missions even without unique weapons..... i would do them with relish if i could unlock unique ship skins, space suits and bobble heads (ideally ones not available in the store for cash but even if they are that is cool). no P2W then, but at the same time would make me actually care about personalising my ship - currently i have not even bothered putting on some of my skins such is my disinterest in them, because they were bought out of game with cash not earned in game.

 

[ChrisF0001]

Absolutely not, no way. For many reasons:

- I don't need to be led by the nose through someone else's story to make my own fun.

- I feel that it would damage the persistent / 'real' feel of the world for everyone to have had the same 'unique' story. (Hey, what a coincidence, you discovered Raxxla first too!) I know, there's not necessarily all that much already or whatever salt there is to mine there, but let's not make it worse!

- To be any good it would have to have a lot of time, money and resources spent on it, and I'm much rather FD spent those resources on other things. Like fixing stuff, or atmospheric planets, or space legs, or allowing my NPC pilot to survive, or...

- And basically, what that other poster said about it signalling a change in direction of the game. Elite is supposed to be a sandbox game, and yet the forums seem to be full of people who stand around in the sandbox full of toys and complain that the movie sucks...

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Elite is supposed to be a sandbox game, and yet the forums seem to be full of people who stand around in the sandbox full of toys and complain that the movie sucks...

Elite is advertised as many things. I suppose it depends on your definition of a sandbox. I consider minecraft with all the bad guys removed as a sandbox. That is the last thing i want elite to be.

I want elite to be a some what plausible setting if i happened to live 1000+ years in the future (in a universe where FTL travel is possible) where you start off as a broke pilot who has been given access to a battered old sidewinder and you can try to make a go of it.. This i would say is at odds with a genuine sandbox game.

however you are not wrong, elite is sold as a sandbox game as well......... along with being sold as a single player game (albeit in a forced BGS where we all participate), a multiplayer game and an MMO.

 

[ChrisF0001]

Elite is advertised as many things. I suppose it depends on your definition of a sandbox. I consider minecraft with all the bad guys removed as a sandbox. That is the last thing i want elite to be.

I was going with the definition that 'There are lots of possible things to do, and you can do any or all or none of them'. That was what I always thought the term 'sandbox game' meant, so that's what I'm sticking with.

(Google now suggests to me that at least some wiki editors seem to think that 'changing the world' is involved, but given that one of the first games for which the term was used - GTA, of course - provides no ability to change anything in the world permanently, I darkly suspect that someone somewhere thought 'Minecraft is a sandbox game, therefore sandbox games are like Minecraft, right?' and has been spreading confusion...)

In any case, I think it's safe to say that although sandbox games may have a 'story mode' or similar without ceasing to be sandboxes (whatever your definition), they are in no sense required to have one. So whether or not you expect there to be world-changing tools, an open world or many different gameplay mechanisms, showing up to a 'sandbox' game and complaining that there's no 'story' feels like someone is missing the point. Particularly when such people then complain that the sandbox isn't 'deep' or there's no 'content'.

...Sorry, I guess that became a bit of a rant. But that's what we do around here, right?

 

[Mugur]

I would buy any content related to Elite, DLC, campain, add-on, period.

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

My gut feeling is elite hasn't been whole because of not having this. Its needed here.

I'm probably too random with this, but over the years i think the lack of this content from a marketing perspective has actually effected what frontier has done in the sandbox.. i swear i've felt a few times frontier have done something to appease a particular part of the player base that they may not necessarily have done if they could have said 'thats okay, go play this other experience'. They didn't need to nerf the core progression so much in the sandbox i think.. and other things too, time has lost the memory of.

 

[xaisis]

I would like to play such a thing, i like good story telling

 

[GeneralIdea1964]

I'm ambivalent.
For the most part, Elite players seem to have created their own tasks.
Blaze your own trail and all that.
Probably would not pay for it.
I rarely follow story mode in other multi-player games.