Can you please restrict NPC indications for Trade Missions to 1 or 2.

[Greasetrap42]

Those risk ratings are most of the time completely misleading. "Risky" missions often result in no threat at all, while I've been attacked by Deadly Anaconda chains for regular courier missions that had no risk rating associated whatsoever.

Saying they are "most of the time completely misleading" I disagree.

Missions that are elite level (or skull symbol) send more difficult enemies after you.

And missions that say additional ships might be sent after you... usually there are additional ships sent after you.

 

[V'larr]

Yes, they should. They should even take longer.

You clearly don't respect your own time enough if you think you should dedicate years of your life to a single title to get a sign of progress.

 

[V'larr]

For many MMO's it does indeed take years to reach end game level.....games that let you get to end game really quickly generally don't retain players very long because they basically finish everything and there's nothing to do until a DLC or something is released, and by that time they have often moved on to new games. So the point of having content that takes a long time to complete is, obviously, to keep player interest for longer.

Which is exactly part of why MMORPG game design is so flawed and toxic for its userbase. Games that "let you get to endgame" are plentiful and often quite popular, the difference is whether there is a substantial endgame to enjoy or not - which this game "does" have, or at least has great potential for. There's a difference between having enjoyable content and having an endless grind treadmill (that most MMORPGs are happy to let their players funnel their IRL cash into propelling some kind of extra momentum on the endless treadmill...).

 

[V'larr]

Saying they are "most of the time completely misleading" I disagree.

Missions that are elite level (or skull symbol) send more difficult enemies after you.

And missions that say additional ships might be sent after you... usually there are additional ships sent after you.

In my experience, it is inconsistent at best - with an exception for wing missions, which...one would expect to guarantee a spawn, really.

 

[Felix DiCestria]

Indeed it took me about a year to get a Python and about two years to get an Anaconda, which I'm still engineering, while I started playing at the launch of the PlayStation version of the game, but my point is, SHOULD things take that long in this game?!

What's your in game time? Also what's your usual method of earning credits?

 

[TobiasFuzz]

You clearly don't respect your own time enough if you think you should dedicate years of your life to a single title to get a sign of progress.

You dont need "years". A casual player can reach the endgame stuff in average 6 months. Even faster if you really want to. I did not grind credits or engineers, just played the game as my time let me. One year and 3 months into now...guess what? Without concentrating on any special goal i have a almost fully engineered conda plus other ships, a FC and 8 Billions onboard. Had to go into BGS stuff to keep me interested in the game.

 

[varonica]

Which is exactly part of why MMORPG game design is so flawed and toxic for its userbase. Games that "let you get to endgame" are plentiful and often quite popular, the difference is whether there is a substantial endgame to enjoy or not - which this game "does" have, or at least has great potential for. There's a difference between having enjoyable content and having an endless grind treadmill (that most MMORPGs are happy to let their players funnel their IRL cash into propelling some kind of extra momentum on the endless treadmill...).

I played Guild Wars 2 for around 6 months, got 2 max level characters in that time, top level gear and weapons etc, the only thing that kept me there that long were the jumping games, once I mastered all those that was basically it, nothing left to do except wait and run the same stuff over the over again until a DLC is released. On the other hand I have played LOTRO for around ten years, I have 1 max level character, I played Atlantica Online for around the same amount of time until it started to die out, only 1 max level character there as well, I have 1 pilot in ED, been playing since 2015.

Yes games that let you get to end game content are plentiful and popular, but they are rarely popular with the same people 6 months later, they rely on the short attention span, big spending casuals who basically move from game to game, those games are toxic, they push and push players into spending a lot of money because those players are only there for a short time, cosmetics, skill boosts, weapons, armour, pets, mounts and etc, it's push, push, push, now that's what toxic is. They don't care about story or long term player engagement, as long as the players spend X average dollars per month or week that's all they care about, even if it's a an entirely different player.

 

[V'larr]

You dont need "years". A casual player can reach the endgame stuff in average 6 months. Even faster if you really want to. I did not grind credits or engineers, just played the game as my time let me. One year and 3 months into now...guess what? Without concentrating on any special goal i have a almost fully engineered conda plus other ships, a FC and 8 Billions onboard. Had to go into BGS stuff to keep me interested in the game.

I wasn't disputing that it doesn't take years, currently. Your statement was that it should. I take direct issue with that idea. Progression should never be the be-all-end-all goal of a game experience, and any time it is, you have a sub-par game experience on your hands.

 

[V'larr]

I played Guild Wars 2 for around 6 months, got 2 max level characters in that time, top level gear and weapons etc, the only thing that kept me there that long were the jumping games, once I mastered all those that was basically it, nothing left to do except wait and run the same stuff over the over again until a DLC is released. On the other hand I have played LOTRO for around ten years, I have 1 max level character, I played Atlantica Online for around the same amount of time until it started to die out, only 1 max level character there as well, I have 1 pilot in ED, been playing since 2015.

Yes games that let you get to end game content are plentiful and popular, but they are rarely popular with the same people 6 months later, they rely on the short attention span, big spending casuals who basically move from game to game, those games are toxic, they push and push players into spending a lot of money because those players are only there for a short time, cosmetics, skill boosts, weapons, armour, pets, mounts and etc, it's push, push, push, now that's what toxic is. They don't care about story or long term player engagement, as long as the players spend X average dollars per month or week that's all they care about, even if it's a an entirely different player.

On this, we are agreed. The mental conditioning that has been done to the MMORPG crowd over the past decade, or even two really, is nothing short of criminal in my eyes, the same kind of brain-washing that invasive advertising companies and political movements love to try using to control people's behavior with. It's tragic, really, and the only real solution is for people's self-awareness to be improved.

At least, in the circumstance of the gaming world, we have the option of also, instead, finding and creating better and healthier games.

 

[TiberiusDuval]

Pretty many in these forums say game is too easy and too achieving top tier stuff is too fast. Then others complain about it being too difficult and grindy.
Seems to me, that there is no way keeping all satisfied.

 

[Felix DiCestria]

I played Guild Wars 2 for around 6 months, got 2 max level characters in that time, top level gear and weapons etc, the only thing that kept me there that long were the jumping games, once I mastered all those that was basically it, nothing left to do except wait and run the same stuff over the over again until a DLC is released. On the other hand I have played LOTRO for around ten years, I have 1 max level character, I played Atlantica Online for around the same amount of time until it started to die out, only 1 max level character there as well, I have 1 pilot in ED, been playing since 2015.

Yes games that let you get to end game content are plentiful and popular, but they are rarely popular with the same people 6 months later, they rely on the short attention span, big spending casuals who basically move from game to game, those games are toxic, they push and push players into spending a lot of money because those players are only there for a short time, cosmetics, skill boosts, weapons, armour, pets, mounts and etc, it's push, push, push, now that's what toxic is. They don't care about story or long term player engagement, as long as the players spend X average dollars per month or week that's all they care about, even if it's a an entirely different player.

Very much agree, though I have 6 Cmdrs now.
(A main, an exploration alt and another alt with less defined role who seems to be becoming an unengineered clone of my main) all repeated from console to PC now...

 

[varonica]

I wasn't disputing that it doesn't take years, currently. Your statement was that it should. I take direct issue with that idea. Progression should never be the be-all-end-all goal of a game experience, and any time it is, you have a sub-par game experience on your hands.

Umm, progression IS the game, it is for almost every game I have ever played, even the ones that let you get to end game fast, progression is the game. What happens as games get older and player base starts falling off is they compress the beginning game content somehow, for instance in LOTRO you can buy what they Valars that alllow you to create a new character and instantly have them only 10 level from cap, that also happened in AO. You progress levels, you progress through the story line as you level up and get better gear, this is why there's always an influx of old but no longer active players whenever a popular game gets a DLC, they come to play the new content.

Very much agree, though I have 6 Cmdrs now.
(A main, an exploration alt and another alt with less defined role who seems to be becoming an unengineered clone of my main) all repeated from console to PC now...

Well I actually have about 6 characters in LOTRO, but most of them are only crafting alts, basically advance enough so they can do the required crafting, then they sit in the crafting hall and never leave, they never actually go out and adventure like my cap character.

 

[V'larr]

Umm, progression IS the game, it is for almost every game I have ever played, even the ones that let you get to end game fast, progression is the game. What happens as games get older and player base starts falling off is they compress the beginning game content somehow, for instance in LOTRO you can buy what they Valars that alllow you to create a new character and instantly have them only 10 level from cap, that also happened in AO. You progress levels, you progress through the story line as you level up and get better gear, this is why there's always an influx of old but no longer active players whenever a popular game gets a DLC, they come to play the new content.



Well I actually have about 6 characters in LOTRO, but most of them are only crafting alts, basically advance enough so they can do the required crafting, then they sit in the crafting hall and never leave, they never actually go out and adventure like my cap character.

Well, given you've essentially admitted to an inclination towards playing MMORPGs, it's not hard to see why you'd think that "progression is the game", because it's so often true for that genre of game - in many cases it's intrinsic to the experience, as you describe. And in my view, it is a large part of why MMORPG game design is flawed in its very nature. You yourself point out that it often results in players dropping out until there's more progression to experience. That's what happens when your game has nothing to do besides "obtain progression".

It's a rare animal when an MMORPG has developers willing to think outside of that self-constructed box.