you can get some AHA moments, but you do need to go there and explore some systems
check this out - i got all those wonders in a single 3 days trip - to me they were quite spectacular, granted exploration is not for everyone
A message to Frontier From D2EA
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you can get some AHA moments, but you do need to go there and explore some systems
check this out - i got all those wonders in a single 3 days trip - to me they were quite spectacular, granted exploration is not for everyone
@Alec Turner
Ask AgonyAunt about the jump timers, just saying.
Ask AgonyAunt about the jump timers, just saying.
I mean like a literal bingo where you have a bunch of random exploration goals (first footfall on an icy moon, first discover 3 green gas giants etc) and you need to complete a set of them to complete the card/mission. The puzzle element comes from knowing which ones are easy and which ones are hard. Less like the linear tourist missions and more like the Ram Tah missions and that are non-linear.
I'm sure there are indeed jump timer issues, not arguing that. But that's one specific thing. I could moan about bookmarks ... but I wouldn't dream of tying that in to a larger "naff bookmarks" == "exploration/travel gameplay is deeply broken" narrative.
OK cool, like that a lot! Yes please ... exploration missions, there's a thing that's really missing! (and I'm not talking tourist beacon stuff, which I suspect was FD's attempt to give people an excuse to go out there).
I have easily over 20k hours in Black Desert Online, which released the same year as ED. The game still has so much new going regularly and vastly improved QoL that the player numbers are currently on the rise despite summer, and I expect to still be playing it after 40k hours. The downside is that the game can be overwhelming for new players.
ED is on a downward spiral, and even the white knights on these forums here become fewer and fewer and sound more and more desperate....pretty much like the CMs on the ED livestreams...
Speaking of which, after a month of silence, there will be a new livestream today. But I'm afraid today is also the day I realized I can't be bothered to tune in anymore. There's only so much community screenshot and twitch drop fluff I can endure.
There will be a clip of the relevant two minutes on Reddit anyway.
Either I’m looking at it with the wrong mindset, or it’s because of behind-the-scenes stuff that I can’t know, but…
My impression with the Thargoid War stuff is that in part, it currently doesn’t feel like the effort being put into it is justified by what comes out at the other end.
I mean, sure, Titans and the Revenant scenario are nice(Glaives have mixed reception, if you want me to mention them… but they are largely combat-oriented), but otherwise most of U15 has mostly just been some CGs to set up for probably more modules to unlock, with other fairly inconsequential filler CGs here and there. And as of late, at most two GalNets per week.
I get that the game is (nearly?) 10 years old, so the frequency of content drops and what’s in them isn’t going to be as high, but the glacial pace of the current narrative, while most of it is just “Here’s a module, go get it, play for 1-3 hours and wait for the next unlock, which might only be combat-focused”, and two GalNets per week… I’m not convinced that’s cutting it.
Comparing now to all the puzzles(some requiring brute force, others not) of the Azimuth resurgence, and the leadup of the ‘Stargoid’ arrivals(as well as the first 2-3 months of the war), doesn’t quite feel the same.
I suppose part of the ‘issue’, if you can even call it that, is the giant void surrounding the Thargoids that Frontier doesn’t seem to want to fill in at anything other than a very… very slow pace. Doesn’t leave much room for puzzles in relation to them - but the filler content for the low zones also leaves things to be desired.
Especially since the ‘war sim’ has us bogging a vastly superior alien force down in a soon-to-be stalemate, in large part due to a nonsensical use of tissue sampling as a feature that was not properly balanced out relative to the effort it takes. (Excluding the time… which only becomes a factor once going into the ~17-15 ly and closer range to the Maelstroms and certain populated system retakes take a week or longer to get done… while barely actually fighting off the occupying force.)
But if you actually try to retake those systems with combat as primary focus? Might as well not bother. Omumba around Maelstrom Hadad saw a good effort to reach somewhere around 46-47% progress toward the end of the cycle… and 33% of that got wiped out today again. Some more balancing would be needed for those, but they’ve seemingly stopped bothering with that entirely(excluding some background tweaks found by players) for a few months too. When it was supposed to be what keeps the players entertained… instead, it’s been turned into a very flavorless joke of a gameplay system.
TL;DR is that the current high focus on the war narrative currently doesn’t feel like it is the main development focus when it should be… well, is. Most of U15 has felt more like downtime waiting for the actually meaningful narrative developments to come along, instead of a few strings of interesting stuff here and there, with some rather pointless filler thrown in between. The current state of the ‘war’ doesn’t help that as it’s become bogged down in ‘Don’t fight the Thargoids and still push them away with such “efficiency” that the most fun pieces of the content are no longer available - frequently - for over a month now’.
If U16 doesn’t bring some kind of plot twist to break this false illusion that humans are somehow in the impression of ‘winning’, it’s going to make the stale system even more stale. Thus bleeding off more of the players that are actually interested in it.
(The Federal election charade also keeps getting pushed off to neverland… and I kind of want to see where that nonsense is going because Rackham and Archer are so dumb it’s funny.)
My impression with the Thargoid War stuff is that in part, it currently doesn’t feel like the effort being put into it is justified by what comes out at the other end.
I mean, sure, Titans and the Revenant scenario are nice(Glaives have mixed reception, if you want me to mention them… but they are largely combat-oriented), but otherwise most of U15 has mostly just been some CGs to set up for probably more modules to unlock, with other fairly inconsequential filler CGs here and there. And as of late, at most two GalNets per week.
I get that the game is (nearly?) 10 years old, so the frequency of content drops and what’s in them isn’t going to be as high, but the glacial pace of the current narrative, while most of it is just “Here’s a module, go get it, play for 1-3 hours and wait for the next unlock, which might only be combat-focused”, and two GalNets per week… I’m not convinced that’s cutting it.
Comparing now to all the puzzles(some requiring brute force, others not) of the Azimuth resurgence, and the leadup of the ‘Stargoid’ arrivals(as well as the first 2-3 months of the war), doesn’t quite feel the same.
I suppose part of the ‘issue’, if you can even call it that, is the giant void surrounding the Thargoids that Frontier doesn’t seem to want to fill in at anything other than a very… very slow pace. Doesn’t leave much room for puzzles in relation to them - but the filler content for the low zones also leaves things to be desired.
Especially since the ‘war sim’ has us bogging a vastly superior alien force down in a soon-to-be stalemate, in large part due to a nonsensical use of tissue sampling as a feature that was not properly balanced out relative to the effort it takes. (Excluding the time… which only becomes a factor once going into the ~17-15 ly and closer range to the Maelstroms and certain populated system retakes take a week or longer to get done… while barely actually fighting off the occupying force.)
But if you actually try to retake those systems with combat as primary focus? Might as well not bother. Omumba around Maelstrom Hadad saw a good effort to reach somewhere around 46-47% progress toward the end of the cycle… and 33% of that got wiped out today again. Some more balancing would be needed for those, but they’ve seemingly stopped bothering with that entirely(excluding some background tweaks found by players) for a few months too. When it was supposed to be what keeps the players entertained… instead, it’s been turned into a very flavorless joke of a gameplay system.
TL;DR is that the current high focus on the war narrative currently doesn’t feel like it is the main development focus when it should be… well, is. Most of U15 has felt more like downtime waiting for the actually meaningful narrative developments to come along, instead of a few strings of interesting stuff here and there, with some rather pointless filler thrown in between. The current state of the ‘war’ doesn’t help that as it’s become bogged down in ‘Don’t fight the Thargoids and still push them away with such “efficiency” that the most fun pieces of the content are no longer available - frequently - for over a month now’.
If U16 doesn’t bring some kind of plot twist to break this false illusion that humans are somehow in the impression of ‘winning’, it’s going to make the stale system even more stale. Thus bleeding off more of the players that are actually interested in it.
(The Federal election charade also keeps getting pushed off to neverland… and I kind of want to see where that nonsense is going because Rackham and Archer are so dumb it’s funny.)
@Alec Turner
I directed you to AA because he talked a good game about it at the time..
Nothing more, nothing less.
Your choice.
I directed you to AA because he talked a good game about it at the time..
Nothing more, nothing less.
Your choice.
Is there a post/video you can send me a link to? Or do you mean just generally have a chat with AA? I don't have a fleet carrier so my interest in FC jump timer specifics is limited but I'll gladly go and read/watch something informative on the subject to improve my general understanding of the issues.
@Alec Turner
AA and his friends told me what they were pushing for. He seemed to have some info regarding it but i had just come back after 2 years out.
Just ask, judge for yourself.
Seemed legit to me, no reason to lie.
AA and his friends told me what they were pushing for. He seemed to have some info regarding it but i had just come back after 2 years out.
Just ask, judge for yourself.
Seemed legit to me, no reason to lie.
DTEA speaks about 2/3 players not wanting thargoid content based on his viewers, which is probably not really representative of even small percentage of Elite community. I think that Frontier has more than enough numbers of players participating in specific content and they make decisions based on that. Not to mention that based on Inara statistics war against Thargoids is going very well and since december playerbase is steadily winning. Meaning enought players fight Thargoids.
Also to fight Thargoids you don't need to actually fight them - I personally started doing rescue missions, building ship fast enough to house 150 refugees and escape Thargoid interfictions so... I had my fun while not being combat oriented.
I'm explorer mainly so I'd love of course more content to exploration, but playerbase demanded for years some grand narrative, events happening in galaxy and when we got it you start hearing people complaining...
Elite was grindy, repetetive and slow-paced since beginning so we couldn't expect anything else from this grand narration. It'll take probably half more year to clear out Thargoid's, then we'll see what Frontier prepared for us. If then we'll get another "oh no, Thargoids attack again and they doubled in numbers so you have another weapon to grind" - then I'll admit that Frontier has no idea where to take the game. But until then - I have faith.
Another point he makes is that people should not be forced into different gameplay styles: explorer should only be exploring, miner only mining etc. But seriously - this is just whining IMO. If you have FC you can afford stocking up Tritium which he stated is impossible without lots of credits. True but really? If you can pay 5kkk credits for carrier then you surely can pay 10kk to stock more than enough tritium to not ever worry about it...
Another point - he demands automation of many processes of game (mining, traveling). But that is totally in oposit of the "spirit of Elite" IMO. What's point of playing the game with automating lots of it core gameplay loops? Not to mention that it would just make good players better and increase entry level for new players.
Overall I don't see anything interesting in his video, purely clickbait and whining (also I hate "content creators" demanding from their audience to spread the message. This should be banned). Probably burned out as well, which is totally normal. I find it unhealthy for people to focus on one game for many many years - take your breaks, people, you'll loose nothing from taking it and you can gain a lot of mental health this way.
Also to fight Thargoids you don't need to actually fight them - I personally started doing rescue missions, building ship fast enough to house 150 refugees and escape Thargoid interfictions so... I had my fun while not being combat oriented.
I'm explorer mainly so I'd love of course more content to exploration, but playerbase demanded for years some grand narrative, events happening in galaxy and when we got it you start hearing people complaining...
Elite was grindy, repetetive and slow-paced since beginning so we couldn't expect anything else from this grand narration. It'll take probably half more year to clear out Thargoid's, then we'll see what Frontier prepared for us. If then we'll get another "oh no, Thargoids attack again and they doubled in numbers so you have another weapon to grind" - then I'll admit that Frontier has no idea where to take the game. But until then - I have faith.
Another point he makes is that people should not be forced into different gameplay styles: explorer should only be exploring, miner only mining etc. But seriously - this is just whining IMO. If you have FC you can afford stocking up Tritium which he stated is impossible without lots of credits. True but really? If you can pay 5kkk credits for carrier then you surely can pay 10kk to stock more than enough tritium to not ever worry about it...
Another point - he demands automation of many processes of game (mining, traveling). But that is totally in oposit of the "spirit of Elite" IMO. What's point of playing the game with automating lots of it core gameplay loops? Not to mention that it would just make good players better and increase entry level for new players.
Overall I don't see anything interesting in his video, purely clickbait and whining (also I hate "content creators" demanding from their audience to spread the message. This should be banned). Probably burned out as well, which is totally normal. I find it unhealthy for people to focus on one game for many many years - take your breaks, people, you'll loose nothing from taking it and you can gain a lot of mental health this way.
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rootsrat
Volunteer Moderator
I could support point 6 as being a valid, objective and universal criticism. The rest is a subjective and personal "I want this to be in the game" kind of a list.
Might as well been a post in Suggestion forums ¯\(ツ)/¯
You really can't compare skimpy, asian MMORPG to hardcore sci-fi flying sim, can you? 99% of ppl who play BDO (that I know personally) are doing it because of nudity and fancy animations.
He stepped into the same trap as many content creators before him, believing their own little bubble represents "the community". Surprise: It doesn't.
Those who cry "boo only Thargoid shooting" conveniently leave the non-combat bits the war brought out. Before I got into actually shooting goids in the face I tremendously enjoyed flying rescue missions. Which, incidentally, also takes a huge load off material collection as they pay very well.
No matter what Frontier do, some will always be dissatisfied or disappointed with the choices Frontier make. And because creators like D2EA have built up a certain following, they assume they speak from an authoritative position, when in reality they speak for their bubble at best.
Yeah that rubbed me the wrong way too. By now it is obvious that Frontier don't want carriers to be automated traveling platforms. And I agree with that. Want to take your carrier and your whole fleet with you on your trip? Pay for the fuel and do the jumps. That is the price for convenience. Nobody forces you to explore with a carrier. I leave mine in the bubble when I go exploring.
I noticed that too. While he says his youtube is still just a hobby, the truth is he probably doesn't want to forego the ad revenue, but is completely burned out on the game.
As another note: What struck me as either naive or malicious, depending on how you want to see it, was his spiel of "think how many ships could have been made for the time the Maelstrom took to implement". I get it, the war doesn't ticke his fancy, but taking away the awesome experience the Maelstrom centers are for another multirole ship? That's just silly.
and in the spirit of the suggestion forum, the video also claimed to speak "for the community". Checks out.
At one point or another, all Youtubers seem to succumb to delusions of grandeur.
Actually I'm mainly playing for the ships. My 5th big ship is in the works.
rootsrat
Volunteer Moderator
BDO is developed by a studio that counts over 400 employees (info from 2018) and they have 1 game, which BDO (not counting some mobile pooware).
Elite had around a 100 people working on it in its best years, not to mention all of the other game FDEV now has in development. Not quite comparable scenarios TBH.
Saying that, I do not disagree with Elite being seemingly pushed more and more into the cleaning tools closet in FDEV Towers - or that's the impression I'm getting.
But it's not really true, isn't it?
We got a new srv, carrier interiors, new settlement missions, thargoid settlement related content PLUS a whole lot of generic ED content in the form of new modules, an entirely new thargoid bgs like mechanics, new thargoid ships, cap ships and content.
Edit not to mention that Horizons (2.0) was launched at the end of 2015, Beyond (3.0) in February 2018, Odyssey (4.0) May 2021.
So the cycle is quite wide spaced anyway.
However, given how bad the Odyssey launch was, i doubt there is any new DLC planned for 2024 or 2025.
I actually think December 2024 (the tenth anniversary) has some solid chances to be the grand finale for Elite Dangerous
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You can't say this, it might be used as an excuse not to stream at all!
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