I think I finally get it!

[peteuplink]

I've played ED since the premium beta, but I've never really gotten on with the game. it was fine at first, but I found the game to be boring after a while and gave up. I shelved it for a bit and came back to in this weekend and I think I'm actually starting to get it now.

I've been a bit down on ED because I kept trying to play it like the older games. Sure, I can trade, but unlike the older games the AI pirates never seem to show up for me and the game just turns into truck simulator in space with me flying from station to station dropping off cargo with nothing happening in-between. For whatever reason, I simply never get interdicted by any NPC pirates and the game just becomes a boring cycle. I like trading, but I also like there to be a bit of combat in there as well.

However, on my return, I decided to try something different. Instead of stubbornly sticking to trade and cargo missions and trying to play it like the older games expecting the pirates to come after me, I've started taking missions in this order: combat > fetch > cargo > data. I look for assassination missions first, and if there are none I try for a recovery mission or something where I have to locate and return an item or cargo. If there are neither of these I do a cargo or data mission which moves me to a new station where I can start over. So far it's keeping the game fresh and interesting and it's proving to be a lot more fun than just buying cargo and hoping that I'll run into some opposition on-route to my destination.

I guess the lesson here is to try and get out of my comfort zone a bit more often and try something new.

 

[Vandaahl]

I guess the lesson here is to try and get out of my comfort zone a bit more often and try something new.

You Sir, got it indeed

 

[Cmdr Snuffler]

Why limit yourself to missions?
Go explore some nebulas, visit Guardian ruins and unlock their tech, splat a Thargoid, unlock an engineer or two, take a trip to Colonia, go to deciat and annoy some PvP gankers, participate in Community Goals, explore some of the lore in ED, take a trip to the far side of the galaxy exploring, get involved with Canon, Fuel Rats or BuckyBall Racing Club, build a fleet of ships with each ship being very good at a specific role...plus many other things that you can do in ED that aren't just missions.

 

[Oytis57]

Why limit yourself to missions?
Go explore some nebulas, visit Guardian ruins and unlock their tech, splat a Thargoid, unlock an engineer or two, take a trip to Colonia, go to deciat and annoy some PvP gankers, participate in Community Goals, explore some of the lore in ED, take a trip to the far side of the galaxy exploring, get involved with Canon, Fuel Rats or BuckyBall Racing Club, build a fleet of ships with each ship being very good at a specific role...plus many other things that you can do in ED that aren't just missions.

You must have a bad tooth today

 

[CMDR D Noize]

For whatever reason, I simply never get interdicted by any NPC pirates and the game just becomes a boring cycle. I like trading, but I also like there to be a bit of combat in there as well.

From what I understand, random NPC pirates & interdictions are related to your various ranks, particularly Combat Rank.
The higher you are the more hassle you'll get from NPCs and the tougher they'll be, I'm Combat Elite and get hassled just flying through a system a lot of the time.

Also some of the missions will have a little disclaimer in red text saying that enemy ships may be sent after you, I deliberately take Courier Missions for this exact reason as I love the pew pew.

Comfort zones get very stale after a while and it's always good to mix things up a bit from time to time because you might find something new & interesting

 

[peteuplink]

Why limit yourself to missions?
Go explore some nebulas, visit Guardian ruins and unlock their tech, splat a Thargoid, unlock an engineer or two, take a trip to Colonia, go to deciat and annoy some PvP gankers, participate in Community Goals, explore some of the lore in ED, take a trip to the far side of the galaxy exploring, get involved with Canon, Fuel Rats or BuckyBall Racing Club, build a fleet of ships with each ship being very good at a specific role...plus many other things that you can do in ED that aren't just missions.

I'm not so interested in the Guardian and Thargoid stuff, tbh. I always thoguht Thargoids would be more interesting if they were done like the original game. I'm also not so bothered about exploring as you don't really interact with anything you find, it's just something pretty to look at and I can't be fussed doing jump after jump after jump to get to the more interesting stuff. I can get the same experience in a much shorter time looking at photographs of real space phenomena online or using something like Space Engine.

I just want a nice, fun space trading game with occasional shooting... Like the original Elite and FE2. Jumping from station to station, picking up a mission here and there, hauling some cargo and getting to blow some stuff up en-route is really what I want to do. It'd be nice if I could do it by just trading like in the older games,but I don't mind taking on a few combat missions to take away the boredom of staring at a timer and waiting for the right moment to press X to disengage.

 

[Flimley]

Yes. It takes a little while for the Stockholm syndrome to take effect. \o/

Flimley

 

[peteuplink]

From what I understand, random NPC pirates & interdictions are related to your various ranks, particularly Combat Rank.
The higher you are the more hassle you'll get from NPCs and the tougher they'll be, I'm Combat Elite and get hassled just flying through a system a lot of the time.

Also some of the missions will have a little disclaimer in red text saying that enemy ships may be sent after you, I deliberately take Courier Missions for this exact reason as I love the pew pew.

Comfort zones get very stale after a while and it's always good to mix things up a bit from time to time because you might find something new & interesting

I get the "enemy ships may be sent against you" warning. I even get the incoming message that an enemy ship is on it's way to attack me, but it usually pops up after I've arrived at the station and am about to dock.

I also think making your combat and other ranks determine whether or not you get interdicted is a really poor design choice and quite unrealistic. System security rating should be the only thing that determines whether or not you'll meet enemies, like it did in the older games. Anything else feels like the game is wrapping you in cotton wool and the pirates are going "Oh! We can't attack the player, he's too low skilled it'd be unfair!", which I think is a bit daft in a game where simply entering a station without the proper landing clearance, or hovering over the wrong landing pad, gets you blown to bits.

Station security: He's parked in the wrong place! TURN HIM INTO CRISPY ATOMS!
Pirates: Oh look a lone ship. Oh! He's Mostly Harmless...Poor guy. I'll leave him alone.

All that being said, I don't mind taking on combat missions if it breaks up the monotony a bit.

 

[Iron Body]

If you want to get interdicted, just carry a few tons of gold around with you.

 

[CMDR D Noize]

I get the "enemy ships may be sent against you" warning. I even get the incoming message that an enemy ship is on it's way to attack me, but it usually pops up after I've arrived at the station and am about to dock.

Yeah that is a bit annoying, I usually just fly to my destination really slowly and keep an eye on my coms chatter.

As soon as i see the "target acquired/that's the ship I'm looking for" message pop up I hit the breaks and let them come get me.

 

[peteuplink]

If you want to get interdicted, just carry a few tons of gold around with you.

Everyone keeps telling me this, but it doesn't seem to work for me. Never has.