Odyssey refund

[Screemonster]

Well, generally i found the unlocks rather varied and while some were more of a pita than others, all in all the process is quite representative for the activities one is expected to be involved with.

The problems appear only when someone wants to rush the process and is trying to speed-run it.
And gets burned real bad and then quits.
Which seems to be the OP's case.

Nah, Cheung's is particularly unpleasant. While the others might ask you to go out of your way, they're usually only slightly out of your way. Cheung practically demands you be a roaming trader going from one base to the next for a fairly extended trek.

When I first started out, my friends that already had the game were based in Cubeo, so we all hung around there. Most of the engineer invite requirements could be built up hanging around that general area without straying too far, so when people got online we could wing up without one of us being halfway across the bubble.

Most people don't have even close to 50 stations in their casual "milling around taking jobs around their home system" range, so it's not something you can just work your way up to over time while doing the things you actually want to do.

 

[metatheurgist]

Lei Chung was a pita indeed.

FD's policy of catering to people that want honeypots created the problem.

What's the question most people ask now? What system do I go to to grind X/Y/Z? People only end up playing in 6 or 8 systems, even though there's a whole galaxy to explore. I already had most of those 50 systems before engineers even existed because I found it great to just follow my nose and do whatever came my way. I did missions, took opportunistic trades if I knew I was going from one kind of economy to another, I scavenged on planets and sold the loot I found. None of that is worth doing now, just do whatever money fountain of the day is paying out in the same 2 systems.

 

[Bob McBobblehead]

Excellent - more download bandwidth for me

9 days \o/

Edit: Hmm, though I guess if you carry on playing Horizons then you'll still get the download - would you consider not playing for a few weeks at all? Thx!

Nine days to go and still no countdown, Odyssey is doomed.

 

[LeoBartlet]

Nine days to go and still no countdown, Odyssey is doomed.

Don't worry the forum will get increasing hysterical as the days tick down so that serves as its own countdown really.

 

[Hooplah]

Sorry no refunds. Work the new additions and enjoy the challenge figuring them out. Or just select Horizons on the Launch page if you are not up to it. Personalty running around on foot after figuring it out is pretty easy. I expected more with engineering suits but we will see. Learn how do it then post on the Forum complaining about how it is too easy! Others who didn't figured it out may say it is too difficult. I maxed out all my materials but alas Odyssey has new stuff that can only be collected at planet bases. Enjoy the new challenge wearing your spiffy new suit. Maybe friends wearing suits are what the Frontier Devs is looking for.

 

[Factabulous]

Nine days to go and still no countdown, Odyssey is doomed.

Luckily I am a professional photoshopper - odyssey saved \o/

 

[Ian Skippy]

Aha, OP feels like he was slapped in the face! Another explorer revealed! Anyway, since the latest engineering change I have no idea how the generation of it all works anymore, and I never bothered to find out. I have engineered a bunch of small ships fully since then, simply by just flying around, doing what I like to do, and using the traders for the rest. I got myself some efficient heat venting beams for my vulture for the CG. Flew to the engineer, saw I had enough for dozens upon dozens of G5 rolls somehow. This is supposedly impossible to some. Just like it is impossible to fly in Open with small ships and not get griefed. And so forth. Its wild how many things are impossible according to these boards yet seemingly trivially easy in the actual game.

Would I change the engineer unlocks? Sure. Maybe even remove them completely. But the issue here is the one that has plagued MMOs since Everquest: player turns on ape brain, climbs on the hamsterwheel, gets enraged about lack of fun, blames everyone else for his choices. This 'investing my time to get to the endgame content' nonsense. The "I am sure if I just grind for 50 hours I get to the best ship fastest, and then I'll have fun!".

As always, the solution is as easy as it is is obvious: stop doing things that arent fun in computer games. Its not an investment, you are just wasting your life. And if you dont like grinding, and don't like not-grinding, nothing wrong with asking for a refund. Find a game that better matches whatever your ideal gaming session is like.

 

[CMDR Deano The Imperial]

Got the refund for Odyssey a couple of days ago... here's the main reason. Support asked me to post it in the Suggestion Forum so here"s my original mail to them:

Good morning,

For Raxxla's sake, i"ll try to make it short.

Gaming for me is a way to relax, to get my mind off the daily life/routine and usually i play a lot, timewise.
I set myself a goal and when i go to bed i'm normally satisfied with sometimes only small progress, but progress ( light at the end of the tunnel ).
As Elite Dangerous has no real story or game given objectives the player needs to create her/his own objectives.

Fully ok with me, i knew that when i bought the game. Also the grinding for Credits is, in my opinion, comparable to other games, but less variety.
With the introduction of Engineers more grind came to the game but hey, new goals to achieve.
My objective is currently to buy some new ships, engineer them and having fun with them.
Data grinding, go to Jameson Chrashsite, scan the data points, log off to main menu, log in, scan, when full go back to the data trader,
trade data for other missing data, go back and rinse and repeat (light at the end of the tunnel)
Raw materials, go to HIP whatever and the other planet, fill up your materials, go to the material trader, trade for others/lower and rinse and repeat (light at the end of the tunnel)
Manufactured materials........find in EDDB a system with the desired faction state e.g. Outbreak for pharmaceutical stuff, go there, scan the Nav beacon and HOPE to find a HGE from the affected corp with the desired faction state. As nearly all systems have multiple faction states and multiple Coorperations that chance is ....small. If youre lucky to to find the right HGE with the desired faction state and corp, HOPE that is has a timer of more that 30min AND is not a 140000ls away. If you are so lucky, get in the HGE, scoop the material, exit the game, restart the game, fire up your FSD, go back to the HGE and rinse and repeat. As that grind system is purely luck based there is NO LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL.
In the lase week(s) i spent around 30hours flying around finding HGE...wrong corp, wrong state...3 HGE in one system - 2 with the wrong Faction/state and the one i was looking for with 2:30 min left on the timer....
That game mechanic is simply broken, its an Endboss who doesnt show up to the Bossfight.
And if i need to convince myself to log into the game to have the same feeling like i have after work, 8 hours present and nothing achieved/changed than i stop playing that game.

As Odessey has new Engineers i expect the same grinding for other materials. I dont need that.
Ill wait what i can find on Youtube, what bugs there are, hows the grinding and than i decide if ill buy it.

In that context, please proceed with the refund
************************************************************************************************************

...one more thing... when i saw that i had the option between BUYING an Alpha Key and the normal Odyssey i just thought ...what...paying for doing their job ???
And when i later heard that the Alpha was just a liitle part of the to be released Odyssey .... that's a slap in the face for eveybody who paid for it.
So let's see if this game will be still worth playing for me in the near future.

So you got a refund for odyssey just because you couldn't find high grade materials you need in the main game. Seems logical. Why not just go to imperial systems and get 'imperial shielding' and just trade for whatever you need. Trust me, it's a lot quicker than trying to find a needle in a field of haystacks.

Oh and why did they say to post it in suggestions, what are you suggesting?

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Not sure what engineering grind has to do with Odyssey. I mean there will be brain damaging grind for Odyssey too - I don't doubt that. But why not refund ED when you are so unhappy with the engineer grind?

 

[AngryAntz]

Don't worry the forum will get increasing hysterical as the days tick down so that serves as its own countdown really.

forum getting Increasing(ly) hysterical, even more than usual... Oh god I am not going to make through the next 9 days

 

[Deleted member 182079]

Another explorer revealed!

I can't explain why, but this made me glol.

 

[Ian Skippy]

So you got a refund for odyssey just because you couldn't find high grade materials you need in the main game. Seems logical. Why not just go to imperial systems and get 'imperial shielding' and just trade for whatever you need. Trust me, it's a lot quicker than trying to find a needle in a field of haystacks.

Oh and why did they say to post it in suggestions, what are you suggesting?

Just do two missions and you can trade for whatever G5 thingy you want. Or go to literally any combat zone with a ship with limpets and scoop up all the stuff. Then trade for whatever you want. Et cetera. People spend a weekend chasing some outdated guide rather than spend 30 minutes just doing it using their own brains because "trader rates are unfair!". Ok, Einstein, knock yourself out.

I honestly dont know any MMO where you always grab get whatever you need for the highest crafting stuff within half an hour. Always. It is so absurdly simply, fast and trivial, I have no idea what people are doing.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

Oh and why did they say to post it in suggestions, what are you suggesting?

People just want to broadcast their thoughts without much thought put behind them. It's the Bazmeson way.

I blame that android who created Facebook.

 

[Northpin]

Nah, Cheung's is particularly unpleasant. While the others might ask you to go out of your way, they're usually only slightly out of your way. Cheung practically demands you be a roaming trader going from one base to the next for a fairly extended trek.

When I first started out, my friends that already had the game were based in Cubeo, so we all hung around there. Most of the engineer invite requirements could be built up hanging around that general area without straying too far, so when people got online we could wing up without one of us being halfway across the bubble.

Most people don't have even close to 50 stations in their casual "milling around taking jobs around their home system" range, so it's not something you can just work your way up to over time while doing the things you actually want to do.

Yeap, that's what i said - it was a pita (Lori is the other one)
My epic alt had about 25 markets when i decided to unlock LC, like 3-4 months after i actually started to play the alt.
I got the other 25 by loading 25t of gold and plotting an economy route to his base using a populated system filter route and selling 1 in each system with a station closer than 1000ls from the drop-off.
That took care of about 20 stations then i fooled around a bit more around his system.
Took me 2 evenings, plus the months i played the game before i decided to unlock LC.

For the non-adventurous one, Palin&Chloe can be another pita. My epic alt never went far enough, guardians and shard sites being the farthest systems i visited.
Still, i was doing relatively well without LC, and i'm still doing well without Palin and Lori.
My Krait mk2 was good enough for High CZ or bounty hunting using G3 Shields and G3 Drives.

The point is, playing the game will get someone there eventually.
Trying to rush it will guarantee some grade 3 or 4 burns, unless someone has a really thick skin

 

[Ian Skippy]

Yeap, that's what i said - it was a pita (Lori is the other one)
My epic alt had about 25 markets when i decided to unlock LC, like 3-4 months after i actually started to play the alt.
I got the other 25 by loading 25t of gold and plotting an economy route to his base using a populated system filter route and selling 1 in each system with a station closer than 1000ls from the drop-off.
That took care of about 20 stations then i fooled around a bit more around his system.
Took me 2 evenings, plus the months i played the game before i decided to unlock LC.

For the non-adventurous one, Palin&Chloe can be another pita. My epic alt never went far enough, guardians and shard sites being the farthest systems i visited.
Still, i was doing relatively well without LC, and i'm still doing well without Palin and Lori.
My Krait mk2 was good enough for High CZ or bounty hunting using G3 Shields and G3 Drives.

The point is, playing the game will get someone there eventually.
Trying to rush it will guarantee some grade 3 or 4 burns, unless someone has a really thick skin

But why not just reduce it to 10 markets. By then you know how it works, the remaining 40 markets are just annoying. Same with the stupid rare stuff: ask me to get 6, or earn 100k profits using rares so you actually learn how they work. This 'now do it again and again' old style of ED design needs to be completely removed. Its good that the current design philosophy moved away from it, now lets go back and root out all this crap that still lingers around.

 

[Ameeleean]

Maybe someday when Odyssey is live long enough I will be able to land on something, with comfortable gravity, temperature and breathable atmosphere, step out of my ship and fix that malfunctioning reactor manually using toolbox and spare parts in "Spare Parts" optional internal compartment... or when I get attacked by that bloody AI pirate wanting to steal my 1t biowaste (which was left due to market demand being 1t lower that amount of cargo I had) and barely getting out of fight in one piece due to me flying without shields and being forced to fix that canopy with duck-tape in space suit just to be able to get back to station to get proper repairs.
I wish that DLC would enable me to do that ^^ but lets wait and see what will come live.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

I think the only unlock that actively enraged me was the Turner one - Mining 50t of Bromellite pre-3.3 core mining mechanics was a tedious affair, and I happened to do that before I clocked that I needed to unlock the Alioth system permit first. At the time there were no FCs either so I had to dump the cargo and work the mission boards, as NPC pirates kept harassing me for my cargo.

I remember I had to step away from the game for a few days to calm down and do it again "in the right order". 80s game design stuff, that.

The other was probably Tarquin, because the 50t of Fujin Tea had to be delivered in batches of 5t each (that was the market allocation when I had a go at it). More tedious than annoying, but still, not really designed to 'sparkle joy' for whatever reason.

 

[Ian Skippy]

I think the only unlock that actively enraged me was the Turner one - Mining 50t of Bromellite pre-3.3 core mining mechanics was a tedious affair, and I happened to do that before I clocked that I needed to unlock the Alioth system permit first. At the time there were no FCs either so I had to dump the cargo and work the mission boards, as NPC pirates kept harassing me for my cargo.

I remember I had to step away from the game for a few days to calm down and do it again "in the right order". 80s game design stuff, that.

The other was probably Tarquin, because the 50t of Fujin Tea had to be delivered in batches of 5t each (that was the market allocation when I had a go at it). More tedious than annoying, but still, not really designed to 'sparkle joy' for whatever reason.

Keep in mind absolutely zero devs ever unlocked all engineers without cheat accounts.

 

[Northpin]

But why not just reduce it to 10 markets. By then you know how it works, the remaining 40 markets are just annoying. Same with the stupid rare stuff: ask me to get 6, or earn 100k profits using rares so you actually learn how they work. This 'now do it again and again' old style of ED design needs to be completely removed. Its good that the current design philosophy moved away from it, now lets go back and root out all this crap that still lingers around.

No idea...
I guess having to work harder for something will make you value that something more? (generally speaking, not necessarily related to ED) *
Else, it's easy come easy go...

Guess it's hard to balance the grind versus sooo many different player type that ED seem to attract (for some there is none, for other is fk it, i quit)


* Edit: it's also the cause of me getting some alts instead of erasing and starting over.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

No idea...
I guess having to work harder for something will make you value that something more? (generally speaking, not necessarily related to ED) *
Else, it's easy come easy go...

Guess it's hard to balance the grind versus sooo many different player type that ED seem to attract (for some there is none, for other is fk it, i quit)


* Edit: it's also the cause of me getting some alts instead of erasing and starting over.

Ideally the engineer unlocks should make players get familiar with the various concepts in the game (such as black markets), and I think to some extent the game achieves that, but it's also clear FDev ran out of ideas as there are too many fetch quests (in the form of rares) and the same activity being used multiple times (such as the black market example). Which is strange because the sandbox does provide plenty of variation at this stage, and for quite some time now.