Return from a 3 year absence...

Mostly Hamless

Mostly Hamless
So for no particular reason I can put my finger on I decided to dust off the HOTAS and log back in to E:D for the first time in 3 years. It had been so long that I had pretty much forgotten how to fly my ship that was docked in a station - a little worrying as I was sat in a 578,343,373 Cr rated anaconda!

I was actually pretty excited to see what had changed, and how the game had developed in 3 years. Well, after a good 3 days of playing about, I'm very sad to say that nothing much seems to have changed. All those 'placeholders' and 'features that will get fleshed' out seem to be in the same state that I left them. There's still no point to or fun to gaining imperial/federal rank for example, and far too much seems to hinge on lazy RNG,

Thinking I may turn my hand to exploring and adding to those few 'discovered by' tags I earned eons ago, I embarked on unlocking the Guardian FSD upgrade. There was seemingly zero info given ingame as to how to do this (that familiar feeling again) so I had to turn to google. I didn't want my hand holding, but good god, how on earth is anyone supposed to work this stuff out for themselves! Anyway, after an evening of working out where these pylons were, battling skimmers and the horrendous controllability of the glass SR, I was ready to go for it! I raced around shooting at these pylons before the counter ran down, managing it with a bit of time to spare. However on doing so 4 of the goddamn skimmers pop up and boom, I'm dead. Really Frontier, this is what you've been up to?

I logged out of the game. The prospect of having to jump all the way back to civilisation to buy another glass SRV to do the whole thing all over again just leaves me empty. And all this just to unlock 1 poxy upgrade. It seems evident that the game hasn't learnt anything in those 3 years. This is what people mean when they refer to the grind; it's not struggling with gameplay that's hard or challenging, it's struggling with gameplay that's tedious, fiddly and ultimately pretty dull. What's more, we're expected to complete these tasks multiple times should we want to unlock this content. Well its not much fun the first time around and I cant see the enjoyment factor increasing by doing it over and over again!

So I guess after 944 hours, that's me done with Elite, or this version at any rate (I've been playing since I had a version on the BBC mico in the 80's). It's a shame as I think there is the basis of a great game in there somewhere, it's just buried amidst a mass of time sinks and totally unimagitive development. I 'got gud' but don't feel like I saw the best of what the game has to offer. I just don't have the patience nor inclination to plough on to see it as the game still has no respect for my time. Besides, all the interesting stuff seems to happen on Youtube anyway...

So long Elite, I hope that your next incarnation takes a somewhat different path.

(Yes, you can have my stuff.)
 

CMDR M. Lehman

CMDR M. Lehman
I'm sorry to see that you've come back to, well... essentially the same game after such a long absence. Progress has indeed been slow, with not only no significant new features added, but features actually subtracted from the game (RIP Gal-net and CGs). And when I look at everything that fleet carriers is, they feel far more like a 2.something update from 2016, and not two years of work.

In essence, no one here will blame you for how underwhelmed you are.
 

Susanna

Susanna
CMDR M. Lehman said:
I'm sorry to see that you've come back to, well... essentially the same game after such a long absence. Progress has indeed been slow, with not only no significant new features added, but features actually subtracted from the game (RIP Gal-net and CGs). And when I look at everything that fleet carriers is, they feel far more like a 2.something update from 2016, and not two years of work.

In essence, no one here will blame you for how underwhelmed you are.
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Sad to say but much of the Dev time in the last 3 years has been DOA like multi-crew or a 'work in progress'... That is still in progress. Fleet Carriers, when they go live next month, look like they will be another DOA despite the delays and hype. Some things have had a revision like the FSS (aka the acronym that I'm not allowed to post here), Engineering or core mining (which still gets old fast). So it's not all bad news 🤪

I do share the OPs pain with the Ground Hog Day game play... Grind Addition if ever there was one!

See you again in 3 years! 😊
 
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Ignition

I
zaikoji said:
Awww man.
I hear you, but..
Surely you can enjoy just pootling about? You must’ve liked something about the game if you earned that shiny expensive ship?
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For a lot of people I think is the illusion the game creates, but when you come to the gameplay itself, its mechanics, you realise the game you're playing is shallow and realise the thing it motivated you was just an illusion.
For me the option to shape the factions or beeing a pirate was the thing that motivated me but then I saw the mechanics and omg its so poor of a game, so dull.
I like repetitive stuff but elite is just a few of simple tasks and poorly done.
 

CMDR Tony

C
Totally agree OP.

FDev knows all the ways the game falls on its face but they seem not to care.

I am so apathetic towards FDev and ED these days that I can't motivate myself to write more to explain myself; it will just fall on deaf ears anyway.
 

zaikoji

zaikoji
Ignition said:
For a lot of people I think is the illusion the game creates, but when you come to the gameplay itself, its mechanics, you realise the game you're playing is shallow and realise the thing it motivated you was just an illusion.
For me the option to shape the factions or beeing a pirate was the thing that motivated me but then I saw the mechanics and omg its so poor of a game, so dull.
I like repetitive stuff but elite is just a few of simple tasks and poorly done.
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That’s right, but I live in hope, y’know 🤞🏻
 

[PS4] Filthymick420

[PS4] Filthymick420
GoryDamnPixie said:
Try Warframe or NMS.
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It was sarcasm. The point being if one doesnt like the base game still after x amount of years, they wouldnt logically pay for dlc on a game they find disinteresting.

Personally, i like the game. It could never change and i will move on when another game sparks my interest and becomes my new favorite. But i wont come trudging back to publicly pour salt in my own wound if a game is still the same as it was the last time i played it.

If after 3 years of not playing a game, i returned and immediately remembered why I quit playing, i wouldn't spend $30 on more content for a game im so apparently mad at. 🧂
 

Mostly Hamless

Mostly Hamless
Midian Cabal said:
Many kids grow bored very fast when they have to play in a sandbox or with basic Lego blocks and prefer watching TV.
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Well my kid enjoys lego far more than TV, as do I. However if I plonked her in a sandpit full of concrete, and never so much as gave her a trowel with which to interact with the environment then I wouldn't be surprised if she got bored fast.

Incidently I started to get into D&D about a year ago. Now there's a game where you make your own narrative! No fancy graphics required as you can do it all in your mind, and the basic source material is free. Like in Elite, you level up, complete missions, partake in fairly repetitive combat and solve puzzles. However the amount of grind involved in this game is precisely zero. Make of that what you will.
 

[PS4] Filthymick420

[PS4] Filthymick420
Mostly Hamless said:
GTA is a fully fleshed out game with a compelling and engaging story. The mechanics work well and help rather than hinder enjoyment, with not a placeholder to be seen.

A poor comparison, but do please feel free to have another go.
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You've failed to change my opinion. My comparison is fine a good game is good as is. Good is an opinion as much as its a fact. Good luck changing that
 

Mostly Hamless

Mostly Hamless
Filthymick420 said:
You've failed to change my opinion. My comparison is fine a good game is good as is. Good is an opinion as much as its a fact. Good luck changing that
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If you enjoy the game then I'm happy for you. For me though, if a game developer promises to build on what's there, but after 3 years have only managed to tinker about at the edges and just add more layers of grind, then I'm going to be left disappointed.
 

Midian Cabal

Midian Cabal
Mostly Hamless said:
Well my kid enjoys lego far more than TV, as do I. However if I plonked her in a sandpit full of concrete, and never so much as gave her a trowel with which to interact with the environment then I wouldn't be surprised if she got bored fast.

Incidently I started to get into D&D about a year ago. Now there's a game where you make your own narrative! No fancy graphics required as you can do it all in your mind, and the basic source material is free. Like in Elite, you level up, complete missions, partake in fairly repetitive combat and solve puzzles. However the amount of grind involved in this game is precisely zero. Make of that what you will.
Click to expand...
I couldn't say it better myself: it's all in your mind.
 
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