[Video] Open letter from community to Elite Dangerous

I'm actually just picky about who I'm willing to play video games spaceships with.

I'm sure.

If anyone tries to sell you something at tens or even hundreds of times the actual value of the thing they are probably not on the level.

Video games are worth about £50 you do the math.

What's this?
Frontier selling Elite kickstarter packages for up to £5000? Imagine my shock.
 
I'll give you a scenario: You have a new account and want to get into competitive PvP, so you will need:
  • A PvP capable ship (FDL, Chieftain, Mamba, FAS etc)
  • Have a second ship capable of doing all the milk runs and mining that is required to earn credits & unlock engineers, i.e a decent multipurpose ship
  • Lots of credits, you'll need to be able to afford to A rate your PvP ship as well as LOTS of rebuys for it (probably want at least 300 million cr minimum)
  • You need to Engineer, this means you will also need
    • Discover & unlock each of the primary engineers (power, thrusters, distributor, weapons, shields, armour, utitilies, sensors, interdictors)
      • This usually involves acquiring something annoying like rare goods which are quantity capped, or items which are only available as mission rewards such as Modular Terminals
      • Can also involve other activities such as mining, bounty hunting, exploration or simply flying far enough away from your start system (torture for those who do not enjoy exploration)
    • Lots of assorted materials of varying type (and a high quantity of each, at least 40 per mat really)
    • Getting allied with some key factions where key engineers are gated behind system permits (Sirius, Alioth, Sol, Shinrarta Dezhra, Achenar )
      • You will need to run missions for those factions, bounty hunt or trade large amounts of cargo with their controlled stations
    • You will need to grade 5 each engineer... until you do that you spend many more materials per upgrade on each level
    • Move your PvP ship modules around the bubble which can be a chore, especially for things like armour which you cannot put on another ship with higher jump range.
  • You will need to move your PvP ship & modules around the bubble to be in close proximity to the weekly (when their were CGs) player hot-spots
Trying to do all that in a realistic time frame without grinding is impossible, if you didn't you'd lose interest in PvP before you ever got to do any... And I didn't even include navy ranks, powerplay modules or guardian/broker tech.
So the obvious answer is to have God builds you can buy for Arx without having to grind, right?
 
Sure, there is no grind as long as you have no focused goals, or really any skill based goals at all. If all a player cares about is randomly wobbling through the private/solo pve aspect of the game then it's a moot point. The second you actually develop a goal, especially one that involves skill, your perspective on grind changes considerably.

Your entire argument on this point is nothing more than mocking the players who have different goals then you (or any goals, for that matter), and isn't particularly informed since the closest you ever get to even being in the vicinity of their point is poking at them and making fun on this forum.

The real skill lies in achieving goals whilst enjoying yourself without the grind. My current goal is triple elite by getting the exploration one done. I keep getting distracted by all kinds of other fun stuff though.

It'll happen as there's no rush, and I'm fine with that.
 
Sure, there is no grind as long as you have no focused goals, or really any skill based goals at all. If all a player cares about is randomly wobbling through the private/solo pve aspect of the game then it's a moot point. The second you actually develop a goal, especially one that involves skill, your perspective on grind changes considerably.

Your entire argument on this point is nothing more than mocking the players who have different goals then you (or any goals, for that matter), and isn't particularly informed since the closest you ever get to even being in the vicinity of their point is poking at them and making fun on this forum.

I dont know. My main goal lately is to keep Carcosa safe from factions trying to impose their laws. Been flying a few different ships into Conflict Zones with some others, had some fun, won a war, went to bed. It didnt feel like a grind to me, because flying spaceships in CZs in VR is super fun.

I think the issue is that some people somehow still think that an open-world game means everything you can think of doing should be fun to everyone. But that seems a bit naive to me. This game is obviously not designed with the idea that people would regard PvP as a full-time job. As such you can do it if you want, but it likely aint going to be fun.
 
I dont know. My main goal lately is to keep Carcosa safe from factions trying to impose their laws. Been flying a few different ships into Conflict Zones with some others, had some fun, won a war, went to bed. It didnt feel like a grind to me, because flying spaceships in CZs in VR is super fun.

I think the issue is that some people somehow still think that an open-world game means everything you can think of doing should be fun to everyone. But that seems a bit naive to me. This game is obviously not designed with the idea that people would regard PvP as a full-time job. As such you can do it if you want, but it likely aint going to be fun.

I'd agree if and only if a big portion of their marketing wasn't about combat and pew pew.
 
The real skill lies in achieving goals whilst enjoying yourself without the grind. My current goal is triple elite by getting the exploration one done. I keep getting distracted by all kinds of other fun stuff though.

It'll happen as there's no rush, and I'm fine with that.
On a personal level I can respect that; blaze your own path. The problem I have is not with how you play the game, but rather in how you use your own lack of focus as a yardstick with which to mock other players who do in fact have to grind their rears off to get where they're going, whether you have the experience to recognize it or not.
 
You're actually doing quite well! Excellent :)

I'd just like to interject a personal viewpoint and hope I can follow your exemplary example:

The PvP players of the game do have to amass a large amount of materials and resources to build ship(s) survivable against other, carefully considered builds. Even in PvE a 'vanilla' ship soon becomes a liability as NPC's become engineered (not terribly smart - but clever enough to wake out if they take too much damage) so engineering materials will be required also.

The only difference (regarding materials) between the 2 play types is that the PvE player is more likely to amass the materials 'on the go' as the requirement is less urgent.

About the only 'placation' I could offer to the PvP player is to treat the 'needed' grind as a rite of passage into their chosen play style. No criticism or argument about the need, it is obvious - but it should be made clearer to those wishing to pursue this path that to get there the journey will not be a bed of roses :)

The engineer grind-wall is so punishing though, it obliterated the once thriving PvP playerbase and reduced it to a few hundred enthusiasts... No real room for people who might want to try it out. You have to go full-hog on grind to even have a chance. I've been working on a second account, I've put 100+ hours in and my FDL still isn't ready (using all shortcuts available).. it's such bad design.

Fdev really should have a look at my CQC extension idea... there has to be a way to arrange quick, easy and fair main ship PvP matches in this game... they have the facility but they limit it to fighters. Such a shame.
 
I dont think there is a point in pretending there is some equivalence here, or between SC and literally any other game when it comes to p2w and monetization. You can argue it is no big deal to you, but pretending the issue doesnt exist is not likely to have you be taken seriously by others.

I don't think P2W was his complain here, given the post to which he replied.
 
I'd agree if and only if a big portion of their marketing wasn't about combat and pew pew.

Combat? Sure. I've always considered combat front&center to the entire Elite franchise since the very beginning. But pvp was always something you 'can do' although it would be 'rare'. As far as I know every trailer the last five years heavily focused combat, but pvp? If they even acknowledge MP, it is about coop combat vs NPCs...
 
On a personal level I can respect that; blaze your own path. The problem I have is not with how you play the game, but rather in how you use your own lack of focus as a yardstick with which to mock other players who do in fact have to grind their rears off to get where they're going, whether you have the experience to recognize it or not.

I don't have an issue with your approach to the game Jason, I'm just aware you burnt out possibly as a result of thinking you had to grind to do it.

If you ever come back let me know and you can show me how it's done. I don't clog or menu-log and there'll be no salt at all.

Although last time we both got blasted without even managing to meet up.
 
No it's not stupid. What we're seeing on these forums is a willing acceptance to use workarounds when it suits to alleviate the dependence on FDev to actually test and quality assure their product. But God forbid someone uses the same workaround to benefit them, then it called exploiting.
So you did know the answer already? Hence my charge it being a stupid question.

Yes, semantics are a drag now and then, and sometimes you have to do a little evil in order to do a greater good. Where you draw that line, its up to you, but usually it is pretty easy to determine a balance point. When you ask why you can't earn 7 mil in 5 seconds, but must do something else in order to prevent a softlock, then I'll stick to my previous post.

Besides, you don't come across a someone that cares much about what the 'majority' of this boards thinks about whatever, regardless the side of the fence. So stop pretending you can't blaze your own trail...
 
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He countered the criticism of monetization by pointing at a single item, sold only once, to one person, over half a decade ago. That is a desperate attempt to seek false equivalence and mitigating criticism that way.

No, I'm pointing out selective criticisms... both Fdev and CIG have OFFERED players to purchase extremely expensive items to help fund their games in their early stages. The only difference is that CIG have used it as an ongoing funding model (in Alpha phase) where as Frontier stopped with kickstarter (unless you count lifetime passes of course).
 
No, I'm pointing out selective criticisms... both Fdev and CIG have OFFERED players to purchase extremely expensive items to help fund their games in their early stages. The only difference is that CIG have used it as an ongoing funding model (in Alpha phase) where as Frontier stopped with kickstarter (unless you count lifetime passes of course).

I can think of other differences. Anyway, there is a SC topic if you want to discuss that further. I am sure people will be excited to hear about the skill-based, balanced and simply fun PvP experiences you might be able to share there.
 
No, the answer is to add a main ship dueling mode to CQC that players don't have to grind engineers, mats and credits to take part in. Simples.

Start a discord for a PG and recruit players to have PVP matches. No need for rebuy if you agree its shields only and you can even bring your main ship.

Do it in an anarchy so there's no fines in case people have report crimes on.

You'll need to do it in a PG or the griefers will turn up just to spoil everyones fun.
 
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