I disagree, I would discribe it as a game at odds with some of its player.
A Game At Odds with Itself and Why
- Thread starter Blackcompany
- Start date
That feels like being shot with 4 plasma blobs from C4 PA. I have nothing to retaliate. I have to high wake quick.
Blackcompany
Banned
Imagination is not the issue. I have long preferred books to television and movies for this reason.
On the other hand video games are a visual medium. I do not feel that I should have to imagine all of the things Elite lacks. I've tried nonetheless, but it gets old after a time, pretending stations know who you are or that things are happening around you despite zero evidence to support it in the game.
"Use your imagination" to compensate for the lack of entertaining features in a VISUAL medium smacks ofa last desperate defense of fanboys everywhere despite my hatred for that term.
You are lost without imaganition a lot of times in visual Mediums.
Blackcompany
Banned
A not inaccurate description. Unfortunately it seems that the gamers with whom it is most at odds, are those who want the game Mr. Braben talks about having created, as opposed to the game he actually made.
In my opinion you either like the Elite atmosphere, lore and "feeling" enough to keep yourself entertained with the game play mechanics, or you get bored. The mechanics are simple, in fact I would like someone to suggest a single activity in Elite that is difficult to do, not just time consuming.
Me personally? I've got a foot in both camps. I enjoy just flying around. It is simple and meaningless but with the Warthog HOTAS and a nice big screen I get to play space ship commander and it gives me joy
But I am still honest enough to say that it really is absolutely the bare minimum of what would be required for a game... while at the same time being an incredible universe-simulator!
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
Stations controlled by Minor Factions with whom a player has gained sufficient reputation will display in green on the HUD target element - that's one visual indication.
With 2.1, we will see the differing NPC interaction dependent on our reputation with the relevant Minor Faction.
^^^^This (have some rep)
That's all true, BUT, consider what pirating involves? Where are the mechanics to make it more interesting/rewarding? Or is it - as many people term it - in a placehold state?
OK, now Bounty Hunting? Let's consider the mechanics again? You fly into a zone where, for some reason, Wanted's are turning up just to commit suicide... forever. You could blow up a million ships, and still they would come, and the net effect? Nothing... Not a single price change, or security level change... In a placehold state?
Powerplay? IMHO released in a very half-baked fashion. In a placehold state?
While I agree the OP is somewhat alarmist, he is highlighting how thin and unconnected many of the mechanics/professions are in the game... And the worrying thing is, are these mechanics getting fleshed out and made more involved, intelligent and interesting? We'll have to see how Season 2 pans out, but I don't get the impression the goal is to revisit and flesh out much of what is there?
Note: In a live QA session a few months ago we also need to remember when DB was asked when Piracy was going to get some attention and made more involved, the response seemed to be - please excuse me if I'm incorrect of course - what else could you really want?
Last edited:
How can you know that?
Last edited:
Right, Mr. Braben, aka the silent elephant in the room, have anything to add?
“There are a lot of things wrong with the powers,” he says, referring to last year’s powerplay update. “We’re close, but the details stop it from being great. But we can improve it, and we will improve it.”
“There are missions out there I know almost no players have seen,” he says. “But we haven’t communicated it properly. There’s so much in there, and what we see from play patterns is that many do the same thing over and over. In that cycle, they just don’t get to see some of the variation. I’m not blaming players. We got it wrong.”
“I wasn’t making friends with the minor factions. I was missing out on missions. And most players do that,” he says. “It’s a shame, because the missions actually drive you around the galaxy. But if you keep going back to the same place, you won’t venture very far. We need to change the way we communicate that.”
“We have all kinds of players,” he says. “There are those who just go out and explore and are hardly ever in the human bubble. And there are people who spend all their time bounty hunting. I’m happy with that, but I want people to know that there are other things you can do,” he adds. “There’s a lot in the game, but you just have to dig for it. I like that in games. I don’t want to feel like I’m on rails.”
“I love it when people discover new stuff,” says Braben when I ask about the response to Horizons so far. “It’s always interesting to see people’s reactions. The planetary landing stuff makes the galaxy feel even bigger. Even a Sidewinder, when you land and leave the ship, you realise how big it is. You think of it being a tiny little thing the size of a Mini, but it’s actually like a Boeing 737.”
“We used to talk about draw distances in games,” he adds. “But now you can see for a thousand miles. We’ve got an amazing team, and the tech they’ve created is wonderful. It’s a joy to behold. It’s amazing to see a valley, and fly closer, only to see that there’s valleys inside valleys.”
“There are a lot of things wrong with the powers,” he says, referring to last year’s powerplay update. “We’re close, but the details stop it from being great. But we can improve it, and we will improve it.”
“There are missions out there I know almost no players have seen,” he says. “But we haven’t communicated it properly. There’s so much in there, and what we see from play patterns is that many do the same thing over and over. In that cycle, they just don’t get to see some of the variation. I’m not blaming players. We got it wrong.”
“I wasn’t making friends with the minor factions. I was missing out on missions. And most players do that,” he says. “It’s a shame, because the missions actually drive you around the galaxy. But if you keep going back to the same place, you won’t venture very far. We need to change the way we communicate that.”
“We have all kinds of players,” he says. “There are those who just go out and explore and are hardly ever in the human bubble. And there are people who spend all their time bounty hunting. I’m happy with that, but I want people to know that there are other things you can do,” he adds. “There’s a lot in the game, but you just have to dig for it. I like that in games. I don’t want to feel like I’m on rails.”
“I love it when people discover new stuff,” says Braben when I ask about the response to Horizons so far. “It’s always interesting to see people’s reactions. The planetary landing stuff makes the galaxy feel even bigger. Even a Sidewinder, when you land and leave the ship, you realise how big it is. You think of it being a tiny little thing the size of a Mini, but it’s actually like a Boeing 737.”
“We used to talk about draw distances in games,” he adds. “But now you can see for a thousand miles. We’ve got an amazing team, and the tech they’ve created is wonderful. It’s a joy to behold. It’s amazing to see a valley, and fly closer, only to see that there’s valleys inside valleys.”
Last edited:
The thing is, we don't have to make OP reconsider his thoughts. They are his thoughts, and he is entitle to them. We can point out how we disagree on certain assumptions or ideas. You are enjoying the game immensely, I am enjoying some parts immensely, other parts, not so much and think some parts are outright non-existent. Which, I believe is totally expected from a project of the projected magnitude at this early stage.
What I mean is, if the scope of the game, the so called 'vision' of DB is taken for what it seems, it becomes easy to assume this game needs a much larger structure underneath compared to a lot of other games currently in the market. If you set out to make a game which let's you do virtually everything, you kinda need all the basic structures in place which will make something like this happen. It will take time, and it will take more time than a lot of people are ready for. How people react to this is an individual thing. Some are understanding and supportive, some are impatient, some are overly enthusiastic and some are armchair critiques who seem to make a living bashing any and everyone who actually makes something rather than fantasize about stuff.
David Braben's stance on that interview is understandable. If you are trying to market a product, especially if it's in early development, you don't go saying 'there are a myriad of problems we need to fix and also, it's kinda empty right now so you might wanna hold off a few years'. You have to sound optimistic and you have to show confidence in your product. Also, to be fair, he acknowledged the biggest real issue with the game, which is the lack of communication between the game and the player, which leads to the content in the game seem a lot less than it really is. They openly admit this is their fault and judging by the latest dev updates, trying to improve on that front.
It all comes down to one simple fact. Internet gave everyone, from every education background and every age group equal opportunity to voice opinions, and this leads to a very peculiar set of conversations every hour of every day. We have to respect the person and treat everyone equally, however this doesn't mean each and every post on a forum has equal merit. All we can do at the end of the day is to accept forums for what they are.
no much to do?have you played destiny?division?those game are nothing but loot grindfest that you get sucked into but then you realiz(or dont realize) how much time you wasted with no sufficent rewards and even if there are rewards they always get twicked so they are not good anymore
elite dangerous has as much variety as you make it to be,it just takes skill and brains to understand the game-thats what i like about this game-its not dumbed down(at least not yet untill the cry babies make this game a 2 button press and you win game)
elite dangerous has as much variety as you make it to be,it just takes skill and brains to understand the game-thats what i like about this game-its not dumbed down(at least not yet untill the cry babies make this game a 2 button press and you win game)
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
Which would seem to be, to some degree at least, the result of subjective interpretation of what DBOBE has said. Individuals will interpret different things in different ways after all.
OP you clearly haven't been paying attention to the latest dev updates, as it's no secret that the team aren't completely happy with the current state of content. I struggled very hard to continue reading your post after you said 'problematic' which is just a silly word with no meaning anymore other than as a hot word for certain social war tribes.
This seems to be the Braben quote causing the most concern. Is there really a lot to do in the game? I suppose if you like text based narratives combining the few simple game mechanics together for some non-sensical mission and reward that is clearly RNG based, then yeah, there is. But if you are actually looking for different things to do, that require skill as opposed to grinding rank/missions/status then you are out of luck at the moment...
I have high hopes that the 2.1 re-working will at least start to help here, but if none of the fundamental mechanisms are ever going to change then Elite will remain a game for casual players who do not want either their intellect or physical skills challenged...
- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -
What activity in Elite requires skill and brains? Specifically?
Last edited:
Then E: D isn't the game for you. Time to go find something that you can "do stuff" in. That will leave folks like me who have played this game, two hours minimum every night for a year, and still have no issues staying busy.
"There's nothing to do" and "There's nothing I want to do" are two separate things.
Expecting the world to conform to your expectations, without stating what those expectations are (beyond vague generalities) is just whining in my mind.
"There's nothing to do" and "There's nothing I want to do" are two separate things.
Expecting the world to conform to your expectations, without stating what those expectations are (beyond vague generalities) is just whining in my mind.
Playing it. Without the skill to pilot a ship you cant pilot a ship. Without the skill to press the start button you cannot start the Game even
