At something of a Loss

[Mohenjo]

So... I've been kicking around for some time now, and I find myself at something of a loss. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be DOING.

To illustrate, let me describe a typical day.

I fly from the base I'm parked at. I'm in the Pleiades, because I wanted to come help with the Thargoids. My plan is to go to one of the damaged stations, help with the evac. So, I jump to the system. On my way to the base, I see a googolplex of Non-Human signals. So, I stop to investigate. They always, ALWAYS go exactly the same way.

I warp down. A Thargoid ship is scanning some wrecks, sees me and zooms over to scan me, disabling me in the process. I try to target him, but I can't get any data of any kind. I go to comms, can't communicate with him. I try to use my data scanner, can't get close enough to him without him going hostile and attacking me. Can't fight him, partly because I can't target him, partly because my weapons won't hurt him, and partly because there's no way I can withstand HIS weapons (I'm flying a Federal Dropship).

So, I sit there and watch until he flies away.

Atmospheric, but pretty boring. There's nothing I can DO to interact with the Thargoid ship, apart from shooting at it, which is suicide.


As an explorer, I like to look around here and there, and I come upon a Thargoid ground base. I land nearby, and drive around the hub. There are scavengers floating around, so I data scan them. There are little organic spires here and there, so I data scan them. There are a few data nodes I can scan, but they provide no real information, just a mail message about unknown damage, broken links and so forth. There are seemingly doors into the central structure, but they don't open, and there seems to be no way to open them.

Now, I could go around shooting at things, but that's exactly what I'm trying to AVOID. Unfortunately, there seems to be nothing else to DO with any of it.

So, I'm at something of a loss. Sure, I can go help the "evacuation" (which doesn't actually DO anything, it's just a mission to be repeated ad infinitum), but that gets pretty dull after a while too. I just don't feel like I'm DOING anything, and I'm unsure what I'm supposed to do.

Am I missing something? What's the deal here?

 

[Shiro Akai]

Well... welcome to the sandbox. A place with infinite possibilities. But if you don't bring your own toys and plan - there's little to do as there is no one to provide any goal. If you don't have set some hard goal, the game may look "ocean wide, inch deep". And even if you have some idea about how you want to play - actual game mechanics are so limited it quickly turn up boring, repetitive and uninteresting.

Blaze your own trail... yeah, sure. Either ride along the tracks (thagroid hunting - you HAVE TO pick the right ship, outfit it in THE RIGHT way and engineer it CORRECTLY) or pick your own way and face all what is lacking. Some may say that working towards the right ship,outfitting/engineering IS the way the game should be played. But there's another issue - time sink. When I'm given an opportunity to play "my way" I expect to pick it right away and slowly but steadily progress. With ED I have to do things totally out of "my way" in order to prepare base for my actual play style.

Which is calculated to take months. Sorry for all the negatives, in a grumpy mood atm and tired of forcing myself to see the bright side. ED is fine game. But sometimes I drop the rose tinted glasses and see all that is wrong (imo).

 

[krylite]

Am I missing something? What's the deal here?

You'll need the shutdown field neutralizer and the research limpet controller.

http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Shutdown_Field_Neutraliser
http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Limpet_Controller/Research
http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Corrosion_Resistant_Cargo_Rack

 

[Schlack]

Your best bet is to join up with a player group. You will get assistance in techniques, info on the game and company for your activities. There are a variety of groups doing lots of different things. Background sim. Piracy. Exploration. Science. Pvp. thargoid stuff.

 

[Susanna]

Ummm. You are, I suspect, not someone that reads much of the forums or follows along on YouTube.

There is plenty to keep your entertained! For example...

Spoiler

[video=youtube_share;eDUoC9FZXec]https://youtu.be/eDUoC9FZXec[/video]

Obsidian Ants videos are a good jumping off point and I would recommend that you subscribe to his channel and many others on YouTube as well...

Engaging the Thargoids is an art in itself and again, there are plenty of YouTube videos that cover this too... Both outfitting, and combat.

Perhaps some time invested in finding people with channels that you find helpful might be a good road map forwards?

 

[Alec Turner]

Well, on the subject of the alien base, how to get inside and what to do once you're in there I believe I can help!

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...achine-go-quot-medieval-quot-on-Guardian-tech

 

[Abomination]

So, I'm at something of a loss. Sure, I can go help the "evacuation" (which doesn't actually DO anything, it's just a mission to be repeated ad infinitum), but that gets pretty dull after a while too. I just don't feel like I'm DOING anything, and I'm unsure what I'm supposed to do.

If Frontier would add a bar telling us how many people still need to be evacuated, that would already add much to a feeling of having an actual purpose.. IF that's even a real thing in the BGS right now [where is it].
There's still plenty to improve. Having a purpose is one that seems to be greatly overlooked.

 

[Mohenjo]

If Frontier would add a bar telling us how many people still need to be evacuated, that would already add much to a feeling of having an actual purpose.. IF that's even a real thing in the BGS right now [where is it].
There's still plenty to improve. Having a purpose is one that seems to be greatly overlooked.

a, I actually thought it would be a community goal, that sort of thing where you actually get the sense you're working toward something.
Y

 

[CMDR Carbo]

I can understand your confusion. A lot of this stuff is found out collectively by the player base and posted on the forum. I would advise having a look at the Aliens and Exploration sections of this forum if you look for information.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/forumdisplay.php/217-Aliens

e.g. How to access the alien surface structures (unknown structure)

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...arnacles-Unknown-Structures-Crashed-Ships-etc

The way the game is made, it's very hard to find out all this stuff yourself, it's more like a community effort.
Happy exploring.

 

[Noctover]

ED is an apartment complex full of doors, and behind each door is effectively an interactive video, nothing more.

Sometimes the same room of interactive videos may have different wallpaper (IE, "saving refugees" being dressed up passenger missions) but essentially the same thing.

Once you have interacted with these videos in the 2-3 ways possible to do so, it leave little replayability.

This is why many like myself have ED on ice, awaiting some depth.

 

[Adhock]

Which is calculated to take months. Sorry for all the negatives, in a grumpy mood atm and tired of forcing myself to see the bright side. ED is fine game. But sometimes I drop the rose tinted glasses and see all that is wrong (imo).

You see negatives. I see opportunity.

A year back I was finally given the push to create my own Player Minor Faction by the story of another player who did something similar and was actually succeeding in his one man bid to take over a star system.

So I did. I'm someone who enjoys puttering around aimlessly and I like the combat. I'm an Explorer/Combat person who enjoyed military life.

The solution was obvious. Make a PMF that background. Thus was born the Federal 322nd Hellrazer Expeditionary Force. Federation because I not only prefer their cultural outlook of Tech First but I'm already a part of the Federal Navy because I like the look of their ships and want to own them. The Hellrazers are a group of Soldiers and Scientists overseen by the Federation Navy as the Government Arm of Exploration into the Deep Black.

What? You think the Superpowers would rely entirely on the goodwill of picky and greedy freelancers for their data?

Now where to put them?

Obviously they need to be close to the edge of the bubble. I found a system not far from the edge surrounded by other systems. All of which more or less owned by dictatorships and anarchy. All low security.

Aha! A place to seed the Federation ideas of Freedom and Democracy! Not only that but all the systems were relatively low security. What better place to build goodwill by establishing a beacon of Order and Safety in a sector ravaged and torn by war and rampant piracy? (It helps that my PMF type and allegiances lets me get High Security.)

The stage is set and the pieces are in place.

I've spend the last few months attempting to gain total control over my home system (With a year break because of a glitch) by myself. Yes it's projected to take months but it's a goal I can measure progress for.

I could do it far sooner but like everyone else here who seems to think Elite is a pile of garbage, I have a life outside the game and I only get a few hours a day plus weekends to play Elite.

I also have to do a lot of other things in order to establish myself in the system. A lot of what I'm doing now involves trading and boring missions to affect the influence of the system so I can do a lot of equalization to trigger the necessary states to achieve system dominance.

But I have fun with it. Famine is running rampant through my system right now for some reason (strange because my home system is agricultural so food is right there) and I can use that as a narrative point for the coming war.

And that's just phase 1. I have other future projects and goals directly leaping off the conclusion of my current efforts.

Sure. What I'm doing right now may not be glorious or even exciting. But there's a measure of progress that I can see and so far projections look good for accomplishing my goal. Knowing that even the most boring repetitive missions are leading up to an achievement keeps me going.

Having a purpose is one that seems to be greatly overlooked.

Having a purpose is something one finds for one's self in a sandbox. This ain't your usual Themepark game.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

So... I've been kicking around for some time now, and I find myself at something of a loss. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be DOING.

To illustrate, let me describe a typical day.

I fly from the base I'm parked at. I'm in the Pleiades, because I wanted to come help with the Thargoids. My plan is to go to one of the damaged stations, help with the evac. So, I jump to the system. On my way to the base, I see a googolplex of Non-Human signals. So, I stop to investigate. They always, ALWAYS go exactly the same way.

I warp down. A Thargoid ship is scanning some wrecks, sees me and zooms over to scan me, disabling me in the process. I try to target him, but I can't get any data of any kind. I go to comms, can't communicate with him. I try to use my data scanner, can't get close enough to him without him going hostile and attacking me. Can't fight him, partly because I can't target him, partly because my weapons won't hurt him, and partly because there's no way I can withstand HIS weapons (I'm flying a Federal Dropship).

So, I sit there and watch until he flies away.

Atmospheric, but pretty boring. There's nothing I can DO to interact with the Thargoid ship, apart from shooting at it, which is suicide.


As an explorer, I like to look around here and there, and I come upon a Thargoid ground base. I land nearby, and drive around the hub. There are scavengers floating around, so I data scan them. There are little organic spires here and there, so I data scan them. There are a few data nodes I can scan, but they provide no real information, just a mail message about unknown damage, broken links and so forth. There are seemingly doors into the central structure, but they don't open, and there seems to be no way to open them.

Now, I could go around shooting at things, but that's exactly what I'm trying to AVOID. Unfortunately, there seems to be nothing else to DO with any of it.

So, I'm at something of a loss. Sure, I can go help the "evacuation" (which doesn't actually DO anything, it's just a mission to be repeated ad infinitum), but that gets pretty dull after a while too. I just don't feel like I'm DOING anything, and I'm unsure what I'm supposed to do.

Am I missing something? What's the deal here?

You don't know how to interact with Thargoids is the problem here.

1. Install a Xeno-scanner. You can scan them while they scan you.
2. A shut-down field neutralizer will enable you prevent their EMP, but they shouldn't normally be doing this right off the bat.
3. Once you've scanned them, you can sub-system target them if you should choose to engage them.
4. Carry cargo - there are things they seem to like, experiment and find out. We know they like meta-alloys for sure. You can drop other things to see if they like those or not. (Try giving them some onion head).

5. Research limpets will provoke them - you're sticking something to them that is cutting off a piece of their ships after all. If you're going to try this, load up on heat sinks and use Silent Running to keep them from finding you.
6. They can be engaged and destroyed in a well-outfitted Drop Shop, but you'll need to be a heck of a good combat pilot, and you will need AX weapons - minimum of an AX Missile and AX Machinegun, the more the merrier.

Otherwise, you can simply hang back and watch them, as this is the extent of interactions we have. You can try other things - try communicating with them in Morse code using your ship lights.

 

[Schmack]

You can also try playing G, A, F, (octave lower) F, C to see if they flip upside down and respond.

 

[Mohenjo]

The thing is, installing all those special doohickeys means my carefully constructed ship is broken. I don't HAVE extra space for another scanner. I LIKE my weapon loadout. Moreover, I'm not looking to fight the Thargoids if I can avoid it. The real problem is, I think, that they're all the same. The Thargoids are never doing anything any different, there's never any other kind of Thargoid, it's just the same thing every time.

Besides, it's not just the Thargoid signals that are an issue.

I encounter any kind of signal, I've got no desire to check them out. There's no excitement in "discovering" something, because it's always going to be the same thing.

- Degraded Emissions with useless junk, perhaps a data beacon with something completely irrelevant in it.
- A Convoy sailing along, or under attack by an armada... meaning I can't fight them, I'd be outgunned badly.
- A Distress Call, in which someone is under attack by an armada... meaning I'd be outnumbered and outgunned and have no chance of fighting back.

There's no point in investigating them, because there will either be nothing to do and nothing of value there, or an armada of enemies I can't fight back against. There's ALWAYS an Anaconda, and it usually has several escorts, any one of which would be a significant fight.

So, I feel no excitement when I encounter these things, no desire to investigate them.

I suppose what I'd like to see is this:
- Thargoids doing different kinds of things. Not sure what to suggest here.
- More interesting things in Degraded signals... Perhaps instead of meaningless drivel about illegal firmware or something, scanning a private beacon might generate a mission, to rescue survivors, or deliver data, or something.
- Less overwhelming odds in all the combat situations. Even "low" threat signals are overwhelming, with AT LEAST an Anaconda (which outguns and outpowers me all on its own) and 2 or more escorts (usually Vultures, which are a THREAT on their own...). That needs to be scaled back a bit.