Travelling in the game was clearly broken from the start - why should any game player be forced to endure hundreds of pointless and repetitive button presses and loading screens to get from one location in a game to another - this is ludicrous in the extreme - will it ever be fixed? Or is this forever to be the game's critical legacy...?
In game travel - the critical flaw?
- Thread starter captaincoveman
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The never ending stream of people complaining about travelling in a space travel emulation of the Milky Way is the critical flaw in the Frontier forum. 
Back before ED was a reality there was the DDF. One of the topics up for debate during design was in-system travel.
The original proposal was very, very similar to hoe Start Citizen has implemented things, you would make mini jumps in system, so think of a system as a set of rooms. When you arrive in a systm, you would arrive at the Nav Point in a system. This was actually the original purpose of the point, and was supposed to be a dangerous place as you had to go there, and pirates and bounty hunters would hang out there.
Anyway, us old ones in the DDF that remembered Frontier and First Encounters wanted in system travel similar to those game. We obvioulsy argued well, as the original proposal was dropped for what we have now. So its a case of blame the KS backers, I am not sure it can change now, as othe game mechanics have morphed to meet the new movement mechanic. The one area that has really suffered is Bounty Hunter, Pirate, Trader interaction, or the concept of safe Nav Points and not so safe nav points is all but gone.
I actually like the travel, and using curves to speed things up etc. However I can see why those wanting a more action packed game can see it has dead time before the next bit of the game starts.
Simon
The original proposal was very, very similar to hoe Start Citizen has implemented things, you would make mini jumps in system, so think of a system as a set of rooms. When you arrive in a systm, you would arrive at the Nav Point in a system. This was actually the original purpose of the point, and was supposed to be a dangerous place as you had to go there, and pirates and bounty hunters would hang out there.
Anyway, us old ones in the DDF that remembered Frontier and First Encounters wanted in system travel similar to those game. We obvioulsy argued well, as the original proposal was dropped for what we have now. So its a case of blame the KS backers, I am not sure it can change now, as othe game mechanics have morphed to meet the new movement mechanic. The one area that has really suffered is Bounty Hunter, Pirate, Trader interaction, or the concept of safe Nav Points and not so safe nav points is all but gone.
I actually like the travel, and using curves to speed things up etc. However I can see why those wanting a more action packed game can see it has dead time before the next bit of the game starts.
Simon
Who rationally expects it would take a hundred loading screens to get from one game section to another?
This is a video game of course right?
An easy way of not having to go through a hundred loading screens from one area to another is to make the game more fun - is that allowed?
The never ending stream of people complaining about travelling in a space travel emulation of the Milky Way is the critical flaw in the Frontier forum.
This one is easy to respond to - it's a video game based on computer code - the real milky way is outside right now for your exploration...
Other RPGs have fast travel as standard - that is kind of a staple in the genre - 1500 simple jumps at x hours in a game is simply silly and destroys the game's credibility as a form of entertainment, making it objectively very boring to travel...
Somebody who acknowledges that this is a 1:1 scale reproduction of the galaxy and that the game doesn't force you to go to faraway places anyway.
Depending on what you call a game, this is arguable. There are those who view ED as a game, aka a self-contained piece of entertainment. There are those who see ED as a sandbox, aka a toy with which they can make their own game. There are those who see ED as a platform for roleplay.
Everybody has a different idea of what is fun, people have different views on what the game is about, and even on what is gameplay and what is just busywork.
Is the fact travel across the galaxy takes a long time a critical flaw for ED? For at least one person it seems to be, as clearly you asked the question rethorically, but not everybody sees it that way.
Ah Commander Captain Coveman (thats a mouthful), I see you were referring to jumps rather than insystem, rather negating my history lesson on why insystem is how it is.
I suppose jumping has alays been part of Elite (7LY is I remember right in the first version), so the broken game design has been there since the 80s, I guess that is the reason it is was it is.
I am curious how would you see exploration working without jumping to each system?
Are you thinking of gates or other mechanics to allow you to move around the galaxy instantly? Gates is the reason I have only managed to play a couple of hours of X3. I own all the X series, but I generally hate the travel mechanic in the game. YMMV.
In terms of the bubble, unless you insist on using a combat build combat ship to travel the bubble, its o more than 25 jumps end to end.. Now I now there are reasons to use a combat build, it just does come up that often for me in the bubble. So I do not see "100s" of jumps for other activities, but you could be generalising over multiple sessions in your OP.
Simon
I suppose jumping has alays been part of Elite (7LY is I remember right in the first version), so the broken game design has been there since the 80s, I guess that is the reason it is was it is.
I am curious how would you see exploration working without jumping to each system?
Are you thinking of gates or other mechanics to allow you to move around the galaxy instantly? Gates is the reason I have only managed to play a couple of hours of X3. I own all the X series, but I generally hate the travel mechanic in the game. YMMV.
In terms of the bubble, unless you insist on using a combat build combat ship to travel the bubble, its o more than 25 jumps end to end.. Now I now there are reasons to use a combat build, it just does come up that often for me in the bubble. So I do not see "100s" of jumps for other activities, but you could be generalising over multiple sessions in your OP.
Simon
Whatever ED is it is definitely not a 1:1 representation of the galaxy - heck we don't even know if the milky way has 100 or up to 400 billion stars
The places are not far away as they are in code on planet earth...ED is clearly a video game by any reasonable definition - any other description you are trying to play around with is simply an attempt at semantic distraction.
Boredom is objectively verifiable - watching paint dry, looking at one object for hours, or doing repetitive inputs and seeing the same loading screens in a game hundreds of times are objectively boring activities...unless you object to the basic meanings of words themselves...
Not really bothered how it works Simon as that's a question for the designers - it just should be quicker (on the timescale of minutes not hours) as in most good RPGs to travel the entire map quickly e.g. Final Fantasy etc.
Realism is nice to have in a game in a moderate sense but the real milky way is incredibly huge so why even try to timesink areas of the map in this way, when all this travel system does is simply discourage players from seeing the game's full scope? Life is just too short to make it this difficult to get around in a video game...
Are you representative of game players as a whole across the planet do you think?
Most good rpg games have fast travel as standard...
If a game design element is broken then the simplest option is surely to fix it rather than to stubbornly insist it is "fundamental to the game"?
OP - I do not understand you...
You have a game which is about space travel, and 'realistic' space travel, at least in the games world. Traveling, including docking, landing on moons and planets, and exploring unknown parts of the galaxy (and there are lots) is the central theme of this game.
Yet despite that you complain of the central mechanic of the game - space travel.
What do you want?
A command 'teleport to next NPC to kill', 'teleport to next star port to trade', 'teleport to system XX to explore', and so on?
ED is mainly about space faring, not about jumping about and doing things. During your travels you will meet certain challenges and dangers, you can make errors, sometimes fatal. This is the core of the game, and it is exceedingly well done. And to discuss if ED is an exact model of the Galaxy makes really no sense: Nobody has an exact model of the Galaxy, but you can trust that the ED model is based an star charts and scientific exact estimations how many stars and which distribution of stars exists.
So I really do not understand what you want and why you complain. Maybe ED is not the right game for you?
You have a game which is about space travel, and 'realistic' space travel, at least in the games world. Traveling, including docking, landing on moons and planets, and exploring unknown parts of the galaxy (and there are lots) is the central theme of this game.
Yet despite that you complain of the central mechanic of the game - space travel.
What do you want?
A command 'teleport to next NPC to kill', 'teleport to next star port to trade', 'teleport to system XX to explore', and so on?
ED is mainly about space faring, not about jumping about and doing things. During your travels you will meet certain challenges and dangers, you can make errors, sometimes fatal. This is the core of the game, and it is exceedingly well done. And to discuss if ED is an exact model of the Galaxy makes really no sense: Nobody has an exact model of the Galaxy, but you can trust that the ED model is based an star charts and scientific exact estimations how many stars and which distribution of stars exists.
So I really do not understand what you want and why you complain. Maybe ED is not the right game for you?
It's been this way all along... since before you started, since before I started... since, in fact, 1984.
This is not some unwarranted change they have thrust upon us, this is how it is... EVE Online and (to an extent) No Man's Sky, the only other games of anywhere near the same scope, have similar mechanics.
You will have seen it before joining in any stream.
You knew what you were buying into.
This is not the fault you're looking for.
I love the flight/travel mechanics as they are. This subject has popped up before on this forum and its always the case that its not a popular criticism.
You dont like it, plenty do.
You dont like it, plenty do.
There is no realistic space travel in this game...trust me on this one - it takes several days to get to the moon...
My point is that travel in the game is broken and tedious...nothing more nothing less...
This is objectively verifiable when you compare ED to other rpg games and the travel systems in them.
The travel mechanic is very simplisitc and very repetitive...again objectively verifiable...
It is a fault though I think we agree?
I think it is the critical fault and many people are not going to play the game because of it...I'm not saying you have to travel quickly...take four hours to get from a to b if you like no skin off my nose...
No, it's not a fault, it's a part of the game.
The fault is in assuming everyone else agrees it's a fault.
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