Well, the engineers sure added a lot of fidding and tweaking, so that would definitely count as gameplay for me. But I understand what you're saying 100% here. Most of the features are indeed nothing more than (extremely pretty) eye candy on top of already existing day 1 features.
And the 'drive' is sure missing for me as well. Haven't touched the game for several months already and actually don't see any reason to go back at this moment. I already know I'll be pointing to a star, waiting for it to scan and point to the next. Or get some cargo, drop it somewhere else. And repeat. Same for other 'professions'. Which they even aren't because you're never going to build up any reputation for doing certain jobs. You'll never be known as respected trader or a risky miner or a defender of the law.
It was a selling point that the player was just another insignificant pilot and that you can do whatever you want in a realistic galaxy or something. So yeah, where are the toys to play with? And in the end, everything feels so pointless. It's a game. Games should reward the player. At first, the bigger/better ships are a nice goal. But after that, or even halfway that process, the drive to continue goes away very fast. Exploring; done that. Nothing substantially new for ages. Mining: same. Trading, yeah.. whatever. Prices jiggle around a little but there's not much of a real economy. Or at least I'm not sensing it. Maybe it's there, but it's not presented correctly. Fighting? yep. the meta changes every so often but the goals stay the same: endless streams of nobodies, wars without any consequences to the player (except for credits). Be a saviour one day, be a pirate the next. Nobody cares. Of course, if you accidentally shoot one ship outside a combat zone, you're on a dead list. But apart from that, yeah, go on, kill hundreds of ships from faction X and on return to the station they'll roll out the red carpet.
It tries to be a sandbox but doesn't offer that many tools to toy with.
It tries to be an mmo but has instancing issues and no real mmo features.
It tries to be a living breathing universe, yet there is hardly any action equals reaction (read: consequences!) to whatever the player is doing.
That's not good.
And yes, I also want this game to last for an eternity. So many things are jaw droppingly amazing and makes a man (or woman) drool like a dog. And I mean one of those really excessive droolers! The size of the galaxy, the gfx/art, sound, music, ideas behind it all.. damn man.. sooo good! But where is the real long lasting gameplay for a game that is supposed to be just that?
And yet they are expanding left and right without actually filling in the blanks.
I mean.. for B's sake.. permit systems, powerplay, exploration, cqc and even things like piracy, pirate bases or whatever.. so many unfinished projects.
ok.. wow.. rambling a lot longer than expected.
Anyway.. tl/dr: yeah I agree, there's a lot missing to keep some players interested for the time it takes to fully develop this game. And I am one of them as well.
These baby steps aren't working so well anymore. Two years is too long. Especially if they're gonne be spread out so far into the future.
Maybe it's indeed good to drop this game for a while. Maybe all updates up to season 5 or 6 will make a change noticable enough to trigger that wow-factor again.
And yet... somehow this game acts like a huge anti-matter driven mega magnet... can't stop looking at it. Even when put on hold.
