Feedback after 2 weeks of intensive Elite Dangerous

[Urbanski101]

Good post OP

I have to say I agree with most of what you wrote...you will of course be told "ED is probably not for you", "you are playing it wrong", "you need to use your imagination to fill in the gaps", "git gud" etc...

I can see some of those posts here already but everything you say is valid criticism.

At some point in a nearly 5 yr old game you have to stop talking about potential, the reality is that for the meantime, this is what we have and there will be very little in terms of fixes/improvements if we are judging by previous minor updates. Maybe fleet carriers will usher in a whole new swathe of gameplay...then again, maybe not.

So we wait for the end of 2020 in the hope they will actually produce something worthy of our cash and 2+ years of dev time.

 

[Viajero]

FWIW, there are some surprises to be had. For example, not all kill missions are the same. On rare occasion something 'different' (no spoilers) happens. Same thing regarding exploring planet surfaces. I've spent countless hours driving around, but a few times I've encountered some truly unique (and downright spooky) things. These are rare Easter eggs, and I'm actually okay with that because too much of a good thing becomes the 'boring and repetitive' content the OP talks about. For example, NMS has endless amounts of these coveted caves. Meh, it's cool at first, but after awhile it can be added to the 'boring and repetitive' list like everything else.

There are also some 'more rare' assets in the game. I only recently encountered a cool orbital outpost design that I've not seen before, and this is after playing the game for two years!

On the other hand, ED could use a lot more variety in the standard missions, on this I agree. Not necessarily more types of missions, but rather how missions of a specific type play out. For example, all 'retrieve black box' missions feel pretty much the same. Heck, if Frontier would just hire a professional writer to come up with 100 different 'mini-stories' as to WHY I'm retrieving this black box, that would add some variety, and at very little 'cost' to the developer! So while I disagree with a lot of what and how the OP says (especially after only two weeks of playing the game), I do agree that there is room for more variety that won't require Frontier to rebuild the game from the bottom-up.


ps - Why is everyone so obsessed with caves? Where I live there are no caves, yet life is still an adventure!

Fully agree with the sentiment in your post. There is obviously plenty of repetition and repetitive tasks in Elite, but as for those easter eggs or special "wow" moments if they were the norm then they would not really be easter eggs or special wow moments. If everything is epic, then nothing really is. It is a complex and difficult balance act in a game as vast as Elite.

 

[Dr EviI]

This one i get to say you are wrong to. Look up Obsidian Ant's video about the Thargoid machine.

Also, your complaints are starting to sound a little salty... have you considered a low sodium diet?

No I am not salty. Really not. I am just disappointed because short after I had fun with different aspects of Elite I discovered that this was already the end and it makes me sad.It happens with missions, where even after climbing the rank system I discovered that the missions are still the same. It happened after crushing the 10th asteroid. It happened after scanning the 10th planet base and so on. I was always hoping that something more deep would happen this time but it never happened.

I have seen plenty of videos of Obsidian Ant and I have searched a ton of pictures of stuff people can find in Elite Dangerous, but I couldnt find nothing of great interest. Sure, a system with 3 suns looks awesome and you can take a great picture, but I am missing deep gameplay mechanics. Sure a thargoid base will be awesome the first time you find it.

 

[Rick6549]

Looks reasonable to me, except the sound is WAY better than just "ok-good" it's the best sound I've heard in a game ever.

 

[Dr EviI]

Fully agree with the sentiment in your post. There is obviously plenty of repetition and repetitive tasks in Elite, but as for those easter eggs or special "wow" moments if they were the norm then they would not really be easter eggs or special wow moments. If everything is epic, then nothing really is. It is a complex and difficult balance act in a game as vast as Elite.

Can you please give me an example? I really would like to know what lies hidden behind the fog .
Also you are right about a good balance between some special and common stuff, but even the common stuff shouldnt feel shallow and empty.

 

[Viajero]

Can you please give me an example? I really would like to know what lies hidden behind the fog .
Also you are right about a good balance between some special and common stuff, but even the common stuff shouldnt feel shallow and empty.

Well, your mileage may vary, and what you may consider a wow moment may be boring or not really interesting for me or viceversa.

Latest one for me was while doing a mega ship mission where I had to disable the turret systems. When I arrive there the mega ship was under attack by Thargoids and my Krait was totally unprepared for the ocasion. It was a first and a "wow" for me because the fireworks were spectacular and also I really had to carefully plan my moves. Also emotionally I felt a bit of a lowlife because I certainly accelerated the mega ship demise under xeno attack. I could only imagine the faces of the defenders hoping for addiitonal support and then seeing how I disabled their turrets

 

[Glacieredapollo]

Even when you are right about the roleplaying aspect, this is also valid for a pen and paper game where everything happens in your mind.
In a computer game, things should be visualized and happen in the game instead of your mind. Else this arguement excuses everything.
Btw, I played Ultima Online on a roleplay shard and even there, the dungeons were 10 times more complex and diverse than in Elite (sure you can not compare the games, but I want to say that a nice representation in game has no negative effect on role play)

When I find a base on a lost planet, I expect more than just some random blocks representing some buildings with some static turrets. It does not need to be as living as a village in Skyrim, but hell FD did not even try. Its the minium of the minimum they show the players with absolutely no interaction. What about some robots, carrieing wares to some trucks, some robotic arms manufacturing stuff, some flash spots searching the area, walking humans, maybe some guards talking to the player, some landing or starting ships and so on. There is so much this SciFi settings has to offer and FD just put an empty set of some random buildings together with a hand full of turrets.

I really want to say you're wrong... but alas, that would make me a liar

I actually take all this back.

Planetary bases for me aren't just boxes, maybe your graphics settings need to be turned up? I played mechwarrior back in 93 and those bases were literally just boxes. Even Halo, one of the most, if not the most lauded sci-fi game trilogy of all time just used angular shapes with some textures sticking out of the ground to represent forerunner structures. Bungie just used timing and a stunningly great musical score paired with breathtaking atmospheres and landscapes to paint that picture. This is a more realism-centric representation of the galaxy. Could there be beautiful breathtaking moments like in other contemporary games? Definitely... but you're still comparing it to contemporary on-rails games, the focus is on a broader simulation here, as it was in the original Elite.

And I'll also point out that if you've ever flown around bases, there totally are things going on at many bases on planets. Drones picking up wreckage, things to shoot or pick up, or to shoot and disable which actually makes sense, considering that there's no atmospheric landings. If you wanted to criticize the lack of the developers to get that done, I'd fully support your argument.

2 weeks is hardly enough time to fully flesh out this particular game, and that's because of the community and the depth that this community adds, again, because of the shallowness of the game mechanics.

Right now, there's not a better space sim out there. NMS is the only real competitor. EVE is just a point and click 'adventures in statistical superiority' game with pretty backgrounds. Even the biggest complaints about ELITE are mostly topical, people want to see things in ELITE that would catapult it to more than just cult status but the devs are too busy making zoos and dinosaurs

 

[VR SenseiMatty]

Some random placed gysiers or fungi, some special rocks and thats it. No special encounters which encourage you to discover the surface deeper.

^This!

Landing on planets feels too boring because there are no special things you can encounter by just driving around. Some special rocks, huge caves, cracks in the ground, (real) vulcanos, special enemies, some cool bases, more diverse textures for a planet, special resources... . Star systems feel boring as well. And missions are too simple (complexity - not difficulty).

^And this!

I'm not surprised many people don't bother landing on planets. We have a surface literally as huge as a planet but only 1 sq.km is worth to be explorable. We have the surface probes now that highlights POI's, but after this there's nothing else. You land there, you scan the geological/biological stuff for codex voucher, collect a couple of materials and that's all. You can run up and down for the complete surface of the planets but outside of POI's you will never find some other interesting geological stuff. Maybe a crashed ship or a crashed beacon if you're very lucky, but that's not so exciting.
Planetary gameplay has a lot of potential and it would help a lot to feel the huge size of the game and it really needs to be improved by a lot!

 

[Glacieredapollo]

^This!

^And this!

I'm not surprised many people don't bother landing on planets. We have a surface literally as huge as a planet but only 1 sq.km is worth to be explorable. We have the surface probes now that highlights POI's, but after this there's nothing else. You land there, you scan the geological/biological stuff for codex voucher, collect a couple of materials and that's all. You can run up and down for the complete surface of the planets but outside of POI's you will never find some other interesting geological stuff. Maybe a crashed ship or a crashed beacon if you're very lucky, but that's not so exciting.
Planetary gameplay has a lot of potential and it would help a lot to feel the huge size of the game and it really needs to be improved by a lot!

I'm really not trying to be devil's advocate here, I promise lol.

We've all seen the pictures of Mars, maybe some have seen the pictures of Venus surface... how much weird stuff or super crazy geographical formations have they found? Zip. The surface of the planets in Elite are extremely similar to the irl photos of the only other planets we've landed on. Mountains, ravines, canyons, etc. Again, because this is a sim that focuses more on realism.

 

[VR SenseiMatty]

I'm really not trying to be devil's advocate here, I promise lol.

We've all seen the pictures of Mars, maybe some have seen the pictures of Venus surface... how much weird stuff or super crazy geographical formations have they found? Zip. The surface of the planets in Elite are extremely similar to the irl photos of the only other planets we've landed on. Mountains, ravines, canyons, etc. Again, because this is a sim that focuses more on realism.

True, but this is a sci-fi game. We need more "fiction" for the sake of the gameplay. And we still don't know what's out there. Just to make an example, scientist theorized that there could be planets covered with diamonds in our galaxy because of the high pressure and temperature of the planets underlayers. And the surface could be so sharp that it would be impossible to walk on it with our current technology. Remember that reality can be stranger than imagination!

 

[marx]

Some good points there, some bad ones too - others have already highlighted these. I'd just like to add one thing.
You said you played Freelancer and several X games, you liked them all. However, pretty much all your complaints about Elite apply to both of those too. (Except the Elite-specific ones, of course.) The X games at least had base and fleet building, but Freelancer didn't. Yet back then, I found myself playing FL far more than any of the X games... when I tried multiplayer, with PvP. After all, vanilla Freelancer with just PvE was a rather average arcade shooter without much longevity. As mentioned before, you might want to try the same with Elite too. Player interaction adds a whole lot.
You mentioned the problem of engineering for PvP, of course, but you can also side-step that with CQC. Personally, I can very much recommend it, although bear in mind that it's still a different kind of PvP than what you'll get in the game. (In both good ways and bad. For example, I do wish we had reasons to fight at installations.)

 

[sewerratuk]

You do realize that the purpose of the new POIs are mainly to accelerate surface mining and that it's already a huge step into the direction of NMS' gaga-land?

Surface mining, whats that?
Do you mean shooting rocks or was there something in the 'leak' hinting there may actually be surface mining

 

[VR SenseiMatty]

You do realize that the purpose of the new POIs are mainly to accelerate surface mining and that it's already a huge step into the direction of NMS' gaga-land? You probably should tell a noob what we had before and set this into the right perspective... and then think twice what you're really wishing for. Please don't throw the last remaining simulation aspects out of the pram: In a real simulation you could call yourself lucky if you find 'something' one in thousand planets.

That said, I still hope once in a far future we'll see POIs of geological unusual formations and not just the volcanic activities that we got now.

If you're only interested in farming materials there you go. Exploring and farming/mining are still two different things.

 

[Old Duck]

you will of course be told "ED is probably not for you",

It may not be. Perhaps I'm reading the OP wrong, but it feels like he's saying, "I like a few things about this game, but the majority of things I dislike because of XYZ."

As you all know, I'm no white knight, but I feel my stance has always been "I like the majority of things about this game, but a few things I dislike because of XYZ."

See the difference?

 

[KarmaCop]

Seems to me you understand the mechanics & depth of Elite far too well for only 2 weeks play!

Good read, but noob?...no! However, good points? (where I have a frame of reference)...yes!

 

[Urbanski101]

It may not be. Perhaps I'm reading the OP wrong, but it feels like he's saying, "I like a few things about this game, but the majority of things I dislike because of XYZ."

As you all know, I'm no white knight, but I feel my stance has always been "I like the majority of things about this game, but a few things I dislike because of XYZ."

See the difference?

I get that and do see the difference. I feel the same way as you.

However this seems to be genuine feedback from a newish player rather than someone trolling. It's the internet so I could be very wrong but the points made do feel genuine and from someone who has played and tried to enjoy it.

This forum can be quite hostile towards criticism (and praise), it's not one of it's best features. I think the ED community is something of a cult which shares many of the characteristics of one, both good and bad.

 

[Glacieredapollo]

True, but this is a sci-fi game. We need more "fiction" for the sake of the gameplay. And we still don't know what's out there. Just to make an example, scientist theorized that there could be planets covered with diamonds in our galaxy because of the high pressure and temperature of the planets underlayers. And the surface could be so sharp that it would be impossible to walk on it with our current technology. Remember that reality can be stranger than imagination!

I'll get on board with your sentiment that the game could use more fiction. But I'm not going to say it 'needs' it, that's an opinion. While I definitely lean toward agreeing with you, I'm not sure pure fantasy is what attracts people to this game. Look at black mirror, the horror lies in how few degrees of separation lie between the episode and real life. I feel this game is pushing to utilize the same draw, albeit not for horror. This could very well be an extremely realistic representation of 1200 years from now, where theoretical or fantasy physics aren't entertained and it's just an actual possible future. For instance; the frame shift drive is based on technology that NASA has already expressed interest in developing and thinks is viable with exotic material (Alcubierre drive). And while scientists hypothesize these diamond planets may exist, Starforge has only ever been shown to produce procedural generation that resembles real discoveries supported by existing data (though I suppose you could throw green gas giants in my face by that argument). In summation, I believe the draw for most people is that this is the closest to exploring the actual milky way galaxy that we'll ever actually get in our lifetimes.

 

[Old Duck]

This forum can be quite hostile towards criticism (and praise), it's not one of it's best features. I think the ED community is something of a cult which shares many of the characteristics of one, both good and bad.

Having been on the receiving end of that hostility more times than not, I completely agree. The cult will insist that you have to love EVERYTHING about the game, which is hogwash. They also chant things like, "I don't experience any bugs" and "Go find another game to play" if somebody makes the most innocent of requests for a specific change.

However...

I like the core of what ED is, and that includes what many newer players feel is boring ("Give us caves on every planet!") or a grind ("Give us G5 mats for scanning a nav beacon!"). AFAIK, we've not explored any caves on Mars or the Moon IRL, and I actually prefer ED's realism over NMS's fantasy land approach. I also feel the game has suffered because Frontier has caved to the "I'm a working dad, so give me easy mode!" crowd. Young noobs, get off my lawn game!

That's not to say that there isn't a compromise that would make both the OP and myself happy (like story-driven missions with some actual diversity).

 

[Urbanski101]

Having been on the receiving end of that hostility more times than not, I completely agree. The cult will insist that you have to love EVERYTHING about the game, which is hogwash. They also chant things like, "I don't experience any bugs" and "Go find another game to play" if somebody makes the most innocent of requests for a specific change.

However...

I like the core of what ED is, and that includes what many newer players feel is boring ("Give us caves on every planet!") or a grind ("Give us G5 mats for scanning a nav beacon!"). AFAIK, we've not explored any caves on Mars or the Moon IRL, and I actually prefer ED's realism over NMS's fantasy land approach. I also feel the game has suffered because Frontier has caved to the "I'm a working dad, so give me easy mode!" crowd. Young noobs, get off my lawn game!

That's not to say that there isn't a compromise that would make both the OP and myself happy (like story-driven missions with some actual diversity).

Well said

 

[Glacieredapollo]

The cult will insist that you have to love EVERYTHING about the game

But this cult has the BEST koolaid too