Is this really it? Is this the whole game? Did I miss something?

[atxferret]

So I've probably put about 20-30 hours into the game now, and I'm still having trouble...well, I'm having trouble locating the game, to be honest. I'm bored!

Combat = Shoot at NPC shipos that pretty much just fly around in big arcs or charge you head on. Have OP ship or hope the NPCs don't get the last kill. Turn in kill mission (if you have one) and collect NPC bounty money. Repeat. Upgrade ship maybe to blow up things better.

Exploration = Hyperspace a lot. Scan. Sell information to NPC.

Trading = Get mission. Hyperspace. Turn in mission. Repeat. OR use information from the Internet to find out where to buy things, hyperspace, then sell them and repeat. Possibly upgrade ship to carry more.

PVP/Pirate = Blow things up. Get money and/or goods. Sell goods. Repeat.

Mining = Pew asteroid. Sell to NPC. Repeat.

I get that there is great detail in the getting from place to place, the stations, the ships, the docking, and all of that, but that's all just fluff. Where's the actual game? And if we're not testing it now, what kind of condition is the rest of the game going to be in when the game launches in less than a month? Where is this dynamic economy we were told about? How is this a sandbox when it's extremely limited what you can and cannot do by the fact that there's just nothing out there to see or do? How are we even supposed to role play when the galaxy in which we're playing basically does not exist beyond having a few solid objects scattered around with no history behind them? Besides, how would role playing work when you'll never see the same person twice at any gathering place due to the fact that all high population areas are instanced?

I see people saying that this game is supposed to be "freeform" or whatever, but how is it more free than any other game, other than that they give you no real reason to do anything? I can go wherever I want in EVE. I can go wherever I want in WoW once I hit max level. I can go anywhere I want in Archeage once I hit max level. That's what passes as "sandbox" these days? Just the ability to go anywhere and smack anything without any reason to do so? I can wander aimlessly in almost any video game, but even in those games that aren't "sandbox" games, there's usually something interesting to see. Here, it's just a planet I can't interact with, or a space station that looks just like dozens of other space stations. Woot?

I guess TL;DR, where is this game that we've all spent so much money on? Did they really spend all those millions in Kickstarter funds on being extremely detailed on the getting from here to there while forgetting to give us a reason to do so?

Please, tell me I'm missing something here, because otherwise, I don't think I've ever been more disappointed in a game in which I had such high hopes. Are we really only getting a bare-bones space combat and trading simulation, with tons of detailed fluff and no actual substance? And don't give me the "wait until launch to complain" . The game launches in a month, and what's already here is nearly unplayable at times. This is it, and I suspect even the most devoted of fanboys have realized this. We're getting a smoother (hopefully) version of exactly what we're playing, and have been playing for a few months now.

 

[777Driver]

Yes you are missing something, a lot in fact.. An imagination (and patience) The game will evolve. At present I am having a lot of fun with the game mechanics, but of course one persons version of fun is another persons idea of sheer boredom. last night I just went exploring, found a beautiful system called SETING, spent hours there cruising around listening to music.

It's also been mentioned many times before - If you have the cash flow, get a BK gamer to attach to your seat, TrackIR,HOTAS,biggest 3D TV you can afford.. I find myself totally immersed, just a simple trade run is bliss for me.

 

[Asp Explorer]

I completely agree with you. Is this really it? Is this the whole life? Did I miss something?

Work = spend your time generating profits for some other entity. Get minimal pay in return. Facepalm.
Exploration = go someplace new, and be disallowed entry because you don't understand the rules of their sky-fairy. Delayed Facepalm.
Trading = buy heaps of tat on Ebay, and hope to flog it off for a profit as a powerseller. Repeat. Facepalm as you realize you just bought it yourself.
Mining = dig hole in backyard, look for gold/oil/unobtanium. Don't find any and wonder why your landlord/neighbour is angry with you and your power and internet are off. Facepalm.
Pirate = threaten your nearest financial establishment with violence in exchange for cash. Get cash. Get imprisoned. You won't have any opportunity to Facepalm.

Play Elite = do anything you like, understand it's a work in progress at the moment and it's all fluid.

 

[atxferret]

I completely agree with you. Is this really it? Is this the whole life? Did I miss something?

Work = spend your time generating profits for some other entity. Get minimal pay in return. Facepalm.
Exploration = go someplace new, and be disallowed entry because you don't understand the rules of their sky-fairy. Delayed Facepalm.
Trading = buy heaps of tat on Ebay, and hope to flog it off for a profit as a powerseller. Repeat. Facepalm as you realize you just bought it yourself.
Mining = dig hole in backyard, look for gold/oil/unobtanium. Don't find any and wonder why your landlord/neighbour is angry with you and your power and internet are off. Facepalm.
Pirate = threaten your nearest financial establishment with violence in exchange for cash. Get cash. Get imprisoned. You won't have any opportunity to Facepalm.

Play Elite = do anything you like, understand it's a work in progress at the moment and it's all fluid.

I can't "do anything". All I can do is murder up NPCs that suck at fighting back, murder other players maybe, or sell or trade things to other NPCs. That's pretty darn limited if you ask me. In what game can I not do this?

*oh, I can also gather resources, AKA mining. To sell to NPCs. WHOOOOO....

 

[Mhiester]

An imagination

I could flip over a couch, throw a blanket over it, and put a lite-brite inside and pretend it's a spaceship with more meaningful goals than Elite offers right now (sorry, that was a bit harsh Frontier. I do hope you have something up your sleeve)

 

[Asp Explorer]

Decide what you want to do first. Do you want to mine, trade, or bounty hunt, or pirate, or explore? Decide on one.
And then forget that decision, because you can do all of them at the same time. If you want to specialise, you can work towards a ship and equipment that makes it easier, but you can do absolutely everything in the starter Sidewinder if you put a mining laser and refinery on it.

In-game limitations are countered by persistence and being inventive - there are no "level-ups" to go through before you can unlock stuff, with the exception of available Credits. The whole end-game is available at the start if you are creative enough.

 

[777Driver]

I could flip over a couch, throw a blanket over it, and put a lite-brite inside and pretend it's a spaceship with more meaningful goals than Elite offers right now (sorry, that was a bit harsh Frontier. I do hope you have something up your sleeve)

Give it a try, let me know how you get on.. Oh be sure to upload some pics here

 

[atxferret]

I could flip over a couch, throw a blanket over it, and put a lite-brite inside and pretend it's a spaceship with more meaningful goals than Elite offers right now (sorry, that was a bit harsh Frontier. I do hope you have something up your sleeve)

LOL exactly. I can use my imagination for free. I paid money for a game.

 

[AndersonDG]

I can't "do anything". All I can do is murder up NPCs that suck at fighting back, murder other players maybe, or sell or trade things to other NPCs. That's pretty darn limited if you ask me. In what game can I not do this?

The game is far from finished and what's important to keep in mind that we're only playing what needs to absolutely be tested by the developers. There are features that will be in the game that simply aren't needed to be tested in Beta phase as we aren't the only people capable of testing the game, Frontier can test internally as well.

Personally, if the game released exactly as it is right now or with only a few new features I would still enjoy it and play it for hours. A game like this is about the experience and the journey. Yes, mining is relatively the same process over and over again but that isn't what makes it enjoyable. It's the fact that you can explore and find new places to mine and make a living off of it. There are things that are far more repetitive in other games that don't hold your attention and that's what separates them from Elite: Dangerous.

The game is a space simulator with an entire galaxy to explore. If you don't like the idea of trading commodities back and forth and see that as boring then you don't have to, that's the beauty of it. The same thing goes for every other profession in the game.

 

[Asp Explorer]

LOL exactly. I can use my imagination for free. I paid money for a game.

You donated to a cause. We just have to see what the devs release next.

 

[atxferret]

Decide what you want to do first. Do you want to mine, trade, or bounty hunt, or pirate, or explore? Decide on one.
And then forget that decision, because you can do all of them at the same time. If you want to specialise, you can work towards a ship and equipment that makes it easier, but you can do absolutely everything in the starter Sidewinder if you put a mining laser and refinery on it.

In-game limitations are countered by persistence and being inventive - there are no "level-ups" to go through before you can unlock stuff, with the exception of available Credits. The whole end-game is available at the start if you are creative enough.

What limitations? What end-game? You're telling me to open all the doors and look behind them when I'm standing in an empty, open field. There's no mystery here. You blow things up or you sell things to NPCs. Or you spend a lot of money, take a lot of hallucinogens, and fly around aimlessly if you're 777Driver, apparently.

 

[Asp Explorer]

What limitations? What end-game? You're telling me to open all the doors and look behind them when I'm standing in an empty, open field. There's no mystery here. You blow things up or you sell things to NPCs. Or you spend a lot of money, take a lot of hallucinogens, and fly around aimlessly if you're 777Driver, apparently.

That's pretty much it. What's to complain about?

 

[AndersonDG]

What limitations? What end-game? You're telling me to open all the doors and look behind them when I'm standing in an empty, open field. There's no mystery here. You blow things up or you sell things to NPCs. Or you spend a lot of money, take a lot of hallucinogens, and fly around aimlessly if you're 777Driver, apparently.

What exactly do you mean by end-game, really? In a traditional MMO the "end-game" is almost always something that takes time to get to and once you're there you do the same thing over and over again in the hopes of improving your character.

If that's what you want it's already in the game. Improve yourself as a pilot but the point is that you can do that from the start in Elite: Dangerous. What do you feel is missing from the game?

 

[atxferret]

The game is far from finished and what's important to keep in mind that we're only playing what needs to absolutely be tested by the developers. There are features that will be in the game that simply aren't needed to be tested in Beta phase as we aren't the only people capable of testing the game, Frontier can test internally as well.

Personally, if the game released exactly as it is right now or with only a few new features I would still enjoy it and play it for hours. A game like this is about the experience and the journey. Yes, mining is relatively the same process over and over again but that isn't what makes it enjoyable. It's the fact that you can explore and find new places to mine and make a living off of it. There are things that are far more repetitive in other games that don't hold your attention and that's what separates them from Elite: Dangerous.

The game is a space simulator with an entire galaxy to explore. If you don't like the idea of trading commodities back and forth and see that as boring then you don't have to, that's the beauty of it. The same thing goes for every other profession in the game.

You know, people keep saying that it's far from done, but we have zero reason to believe that to be the case. The game is repetitive, hard to learn, and pointless and unrewarding once you do learn it, unless you really enjoy doing the same things over and over again for hours on end with zero feedback from the game and zero immersion other than "ooh, look, a spaceship...in a station...as opposed to that other station that looked just like this station..." There are Facebook games that have more depth and more different things to explore than this. Simply throwing some planets out there with different names on them and scattering some asteroids around does not make places "new", and it certainly doesn't make them interesting.

 

[Mhiester]

The game is far from finished and what's important to keep in mind that we're only playing what needs to absolutely be tested by the developers

Release is a tad close for us to be using "far from finished," with finished meaning "complete enough for full release that won't mimic WWII Online or X: Rebirth."

I can't tell you how much I hope you're right though, on Frontier keeping things from us until gamma/release. Even if they mess up the release, I'm sure it will eventually get better, but a lot of people will be turned off to the idea of ever looking at the game again. Even if you and I stay around, membership in the Pilot's Federation will suffer, and the galaxy will feel lonelier than ever (especially for all of the open play users, who enjoy the company of other commanders).

 

[777Driver]

What limitations? What end-game? You're telling me to open all the doors and look behind them when I'm standing in an empty, open field. There's no mystery here. You blow things up or you sell things to NPCs. Or you spend a lot of money, take a lot of hallucinogens, and fly around aimlessly if you're 777Driver, apparently.

Oh no dude, those tripping day's are well behind me, have a family now. And as far as flying round aimlessly, relaxing, listening to music and upgrading my ship.. Well fortunately my life outside my man cave is exciting enough, for me ED is about relaxing. As I said, each to their own.

And if you haven't read what the dev's plan for the game over the next few years then that's just your laziness. If you are just being a troll, well hey that's nothing new, been fun reading you whinge tho

 

[atxferret]

What exactly do you mean by end-game, really? In a traditional MMO the "end-game" is almost always something that takes time to get to and once you're there you do the same thing over and over again in the hopes of improving your character.

If that's what you want it's already in the game. Improve yourself as a pilot but the point is that you can do that from the start in Elite: Dangerous. What do you feel is missing from the game?

The game is missing from the game. There's no reason to become a better pilot when the NPCs fly mostly straight and the cops are probably going to get the last hit anyway unless you're so OP that you instantly pop them, which means you can be a total crap pilot and it won't matter. And there's no reason to do that anyway. It's just a mission that says "Hey, go do that...alright cool, you did that, here's some credits." The game makes zero attempt at immersion aside from trying to make the ship somewhat realistic. And I wasn't the one talking about "end-game", I was quoting someone else and I have no idea what he was talking about with that, either. I guess he was trying to put it in MMO terms.

 

[Asp Explorer]

You know, people keep saying that it's far from done, but we have zero reason to believe that to be the case. The game is repetitive, hard to learn, and pointless and unrewarding once you do learn it, unless you really enjoy doing the same things over and over again for hours on end with zero feedback from the game and zero immersion other than "ooh, look, a spaceship...in a station...as opposed to that other station that looked just like this station..." There are Facebook games that have more depth and more different things to explore than this. Simply throwing some planets out there with different names on them and scattering some asteroids around does not make places "new", and it certainly doesn't make them interesting.

Have you ever looked up at night? Seen all those points of light? How many of them are there?
They were all exactly the same - points of light, apart from the Sun and Moon, until the invention of the telescope - and suddenly Saturn had "ears". There are sights out there, all they need is discovery, and that takes ingenuity and effort.

 

[avow555]

I am thoroughly enjoying testing the Beta just now and looking forward to more content when it arrives.
Perhaps the OP doesn't like this game style but it is the grandaddy of sandbox and the Space genre and it's conceivable that this game is not for the OP.

 

[atxferret]

Release is a tad close for us to be using "far from finished," with finished meaning "complete enough for full release that won't mimic WWII Online or X: Rebirth."

I can't tell you how much I hope you're right though, on Frontier keeping things from us until gamma/release. Even if they mess up the release, I'm sure it will eventually get better, but a lot of people will be turned off to the idea of ever looking at the game again. Even if you and I stay around, membership in the Pilot's Federation will suffer, and the galaxy will feel lonelier than ever (especially for all of the open play users, who enjoy the company of other commanders).

Agreed with all of the above. Right now, other players are nothing but a mild obstacle when docking, which feels pointless. But then you do solo and the game feels lonely, empty, and still pretty pointless. I feel like I'm testing concepts for a game that hasn't been made yet, and I hope they do come up with some magic somewhere, but if they do, it's not going to be beta tested, so I'm not sure that's going to be any better.

And Mhiester, don't forget the people that are going to be driven away by the complete lack of instruction on how to actually play what little game is here...

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Have you ever looked up at night? Seen all those points of light? How many of them are there?
They were all exactly the same - points of light, apart from the Sun and Moon, until the invention of the telescope - and suddenly Saturn had "ears". There are sights out there, all they need is discovery, and that takes ingenuity and effort.

If you're still talking about the game (which is nothing like what you said), it takes zero ingenuity, effort or anything else, nor is there anything to discover there, ever. You point ship, hit hyperdrive, stop, get fuel, repeat until you get there, and...stop at the nearest station for more fuel and wonder why you just spent half an hour doing that. The real thing has already been infinitely more interesting and eye opening than the pretty, non-interactive graphics in this game.