I was flying around in my AspX, getting to grips with nu-mining, when I had a bit of an epiphany.
Unless I'm mistaken, Beyond brought us 4 specific changes to gameplay:-
- C&P.
- Engineering.
- Exploration.
- Mining.
In all these cases, it seems like they've taken a specific thing that was pretty simple and made it more complicated without actually expanding the scope of it very much.
C&P.
Used to be that you paid fines and ran away from bounties until they expired.
Now, lordy, I just don't have the strength.
Suffice to say, there are still fines and bounties but now there are IFs, prisons, hot ships, hot modules and all manner of nonsense.
Ultimately, we now get to pay off fines and bounties.
Engineering.
Used to be random. Boo!
Now you have to collect (or trade) a vast amount more mat's and then power-click your way through a bunch of mod's to get to the one you want.
Ultimately, we now get (usually) better mod's and we get to pick XFX's. Yay!
Exploration.
Used to be honk and then fly out to anything interesting so you can scan it.
Now you have to park in SC, switch modes, enter the FSS, twiddle a bunch of things in a UI that looks like something out of a 1990's RTS and then you fly out to anything interesting and shoot "energy bombs" at it to scan it.
Ultimately, we have to do the same stuff to complete all the possible tasks but we're now forced to look at a UI out of "C&C Space-Wars" to do it.
Mining.
We used to use prospectors to find the good stuff and then shoot at it to obtain it.
Now we have to fire "energy bombs" at rings to find the good stuff, then we have to go to it and scan it with some other doodad to find the good stuff (again) and then we have to use a heap of different gizmos to get the different types of good stuff out of the 'roids.
Now, to be clear, I'm happy to admit that I think these different things have achieved various levels of success.
The changes to engineering are pretty useful and collecting the extra mat's is a non-issue.
The changes to mining are very nicely implemented and make mining much more engaging.
The changes to exploration are useful but the procedures and tools are utter garbage.
C&P is a complete dumpster fire.
Thing is, in all these cases, what they've done is take a specific activity (mining, engineering, discovering bodies in a system etc) and make that activity more convoluted.
What they haven't done is expand the range of activities very much, if at all.
Which is, I think, what's disappointed me about Beyond. [sad]
In almost all cases, I find myself thinking that if they'd stuck with the original system and just changed it in some superficial ways then they probably could have achieved results similar to what we now have - without the effort of devoting a year of updates to it.
I guess the actual changes (with the exception of C&P) are improvements over what we had before but, overall, I find myself disappointed by Beyond and I think it's because I was hoping there'd be more stuff to do, rather than just making the stuff we already do more complex.
To finish on a high note, I have to reitterate that I am really impressed with what mining now is.
It's a really slick and immersive activity.
I just hope it doesn't become the way to earn credits in the game, to the exclusion of almost everything else.
Unless I'm mistaken, Beyond brought us 4 specific changes to gameplay:-
- C&P.
- Engineering.
- Exploration.
- Mining.
In all these cases, it seems like they've taken a specific thing that was pretty simple and made it more complicated without actually expanding the scope of it very much.
C&P.
Used to be that you paid fines and ran away from bounties until they expired.
Now, lordy, I just don't have the strength.
Suffice to say, there are still fines and bounties but now there are IFs, prisons, hot ships, hot modules and all manner of nonsense.
Ultimately, we now get to pay off fines and bounties.
Engineering.
Used to be random. Boo!
Now you have to collect (or trade) a vast amount more mat's and then power-click your way through a bunch of mod's to get to the one you want.
Ultimately, we now get (usually) better mod's and we get to pick XFX's. Yay!
Exploration.
Used to be honk and then fly out to anything interesting so you can scan it.
Now you have to park in SC, switch modes, enter the FSS, twiddle a bunch of things in a UI that looks like something out of a 1990's RTS and then you fly out to anything interesting and shoot "energy bombs" at it to scan it.
Ultimately, we have to do the same stuff to complete all the possible tasks but we're now forced to look at a UI out of "C&C Space-Wars" to do it.
Mining.
We used to use prospectors to find the good stuff and then shoot at it to obtain it.
Now we have to fire "energy bombs" at rings to find the good stuff, then we have to go to it and scan it with some other doodad to find the good stuff (again) and then we have to use a heap of different gizmos to get the different types of good stuff out of the 'roids.
Now, to be clear, I'm happy to admit that I think these different things have achieved various levels of success.
The changes to engineering are pretty useful and collecting the extra mat's is a non-issue.
The changes to mining are very nicely implemented and make mining much more engaging.
The changes to exploration are useful but the procedures and tools are utter garbage.
C&P is a complete dumpster fire.
Thing is, in all these cases, what they've done is take a specific activity (mining, engineering, discovering bodies in a system etc) and make that activity more convoluted.
What they haven't done is expand the range of activities very much, if at all.
Which is, I think, what's disappointed me about Beyond. [sad]
In almost all cases, I find myself thinking that if they'd stuck with the original system and just changed it in some superficial ways then they probably could have achieved results similar to what we now have - without the effort of devoting a year of updates to it.
I guess the actual changes (with the exception of C&P) are improvements over what we had before but, overall, I find myself disappointed by Beyond and I think it's because I was hoping there'd be more stuff to do, rather than just making the stuff we already do more complex.
To finish on a high note, I have to reitterate that I am really impressed with what mining now is.
It's a really slick and immersive activity.
I just hope it doesn't become the way to earn credits in the game, to the exclusion of almost everything else.
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