First off, I love Elite, it's the only Sci Fi game out there with a solid grounding in reality. I adore that and it helps me relate to and understand the game.
However, this realism puts folks off as they endlessly complain about the distances and the scale citing games with 120KM diameter worlds as better and those just plain mess with my obsessive scientific nature. I believe that they're complaining about distance and scale because the golden goose that this game has.. had to offer is the emergent gameplay facilitated by the BGS, Interstellar initiatives and powerplay.
These changes would be the deal maker that would have me back in Elite for the Longhaul as I simply love this game, it's aesthetic, design, grounded sense of reality and it's light application of handwavium. However, I find myself unable to invest in the game anymore as I got my ship, I got my engineering and I got good, my friends and I got so good that many of the pilots and groups we fought simply switched play modes.
However, Most any input you have can be mitigated by folks behind an invisible barrier, I've heard all the arguments and I won't be checking back to hear them all again about how wrong and stupid I am, I know you're going to say it.
My suggestion for the perfect Elite Dangerous as it is now:
Powerplay, straight up, Open Only. You can go PG and you can go SOLO to collect rewards but any cargo, any fighting, any hostile actions have to be done in Open Only. Killing enemy power NPC's in Solo or PG should net no merits and no influence, simply bounties or bonds.
Missions collected and conducted in Open should reward influence for that faction as well as cash and reputation. Missions conducted in wing should do so to a greater degree in open to reward playing with your friends, not punish it.
Missions conducted in Solo and PG should give cash rewards and rep but no faction influence.
Exploration should be entirely unaffected by play modes as it is perfect to do solo, with friends or just to relax.
I believe this arrangement with some fine tuning and finishing would accommodate all play styles and yes, some folks would have to compromise but really what's the point in having competitive elements when server limitations and game modes entirely remove the competition from them.
The only real changes to people's game play this would make is you couldn't be in Private or Solo installing a power, faction or superpower that you want, under the noses of everyone who doesn't want it without repercussion. You can still earn money, you can still grind rank, you can still explore, engineer, dogfight, all that and more in private and solo but you can't flag up for PvP and then go AWOL.
However, this realism puts folks off as they endlessly complain about the distances and the scale citing games with 120KM diameter worlds as better and those just plain mess with my obsessive scientific nature. I believe that they're complaining about distance and scale because the golden goose that this game has.. had to offer is the emergent gameplay facilitated by the BGS, Interstellar initiatives and powerplay.
These changes would be the deal maker that would have me back in Elite for the Longhaul as I simply love this game, it's aesthetic, design, grounded sense of reality and it's light application of handwavium. However, I find myself unable to invest in the game anymore as I got my ship, I got my engineering and I got good, my friends and I got so good that many of the pilots and groups we fought simply switched play modes.
However, Most any input you have can be mitigated by folks behind an invisible barrier, I've heard all the arguments and I won't be checking back to hear them all again about how wrong and stupid I am, I know you're going to say it.
My suggestion for the perfect Elite Dangerous as it is now:
Powerplay, straight up, Open Only. You can go PG and you can go SOLO to collect rewards but any cargo, any fighting, any hostile actions have to be done in Open Only. Killing enemy power NPC's in Solo or PG should net no merits and no influence, simply bounties or bonds.
Missions collected and conducted in Open should reward influence for that faction as well as cash and reputation. Missions conducted in wing should do so to a greater degree in open to reward playing with your friends, not punish it.
Missions conducted in Solo and PG should give cash rewards and rep but no faction influence.
Exploration should be entirely unaffected by play modes as it is perfect to do solo, with friends or just to relax.
I believe this arrangement with some fine tuning and finishing would accommodate all play styles and yes, some folks would have to compromise but really what's the point in having competitive elements when server limitations and game modes entirely remove the competition from them.
The only real changes to people's game play this would make is you couldn't be in Private or Solo installing a power, faction or superpower that you want, under the noses of everyone who doesn't want it without repercussion. You can still earn money, you can still grind rank, you can still explore, engineer, dogfight, all that and more in private and solo but you can't flag up for PvP and then go AWOL.