In a spaceship flying game new ships are the single biggest boost of content you can get.
Challenger = Chieftain = Crusader, Krait = Python... What's the point?
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In a spaceship flying game new ships are the single biggest boost of content you can get.
You do realize that combat ships can do what you ask, just as passenger ships like the Orca can become potent combat vessels. The Cobra Mk4 and T-10 are great miners, just as the Dropship is a decent short haul trader.
Player choice comes down to how you use it whats available.
Plus, what does FD have in store for the Asp Scout? Sandro singled it out so maybe it will be the scout platform of choice.
Frontier are building to what people use. Most people use combat and generalist ships. The end. Dedicated role ships have historically been compromised to the point of obsolescence and so folks simply use what works; combat ships and multirole.
You are arguing for global variety, which is noble. And I tend to think Q4 may have a couple more ships with long legs? But let's be honest all the "exploration experts" want frontier to take exploration back to walking everywhere with a ball-and-chain attached, ideally if we're blinded and unable to see anything at all, it'll be perfect. But I digress. Most people are looking for variety in combat ships and multirole. I can say that, because Frontier would instead be building endless exploration derivatives if that was the most common activity. For a while, they built ships with a lot of cargo capacity because of trading being a thing. Cutter is pretty much the epitome of that outcome.
People always want to believe their chosen thing is the most popular; they won't all be. That's just how it is, I am afraid. And it's not actually that super different for many developers. They build what people want for the most part.
They can see the player counts, friend, they can see what people are using, where and when. Frontier may not have the finer points down on all mechanics and 'the meta' and struggle a bit due to low play time. But they can see who is using what, when and how often. They're building to the audience. Most of them like shooting, or carrying the kitchen sink. It's why exploration, mining and powerplay are at the bottom of the pile - because most of the loud voices associated are very much against change and the audience size is smaller - that's been true since Alpha.
I agree. But there's no point arguing the numbers, mate. Frontier are just doing what they can at this point; right now that's adding variants to popular ships because that's the path of least resistance.
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Python is like flying a station wagon with paneling on the side. I hate it.
The SLF's aren't bad actually.
I frequently send my SLF to attack Eagles, Sidewinders, Vipers and other small ships and the SLF is pretty much taking them down solo. However the effectiveness of the SLF is heavily dependent on your crew skill.
Example, I had an SLF with fixed weapons and a low skill crew and they were worthless. So I switched to a gimballed SLF and their performance improved dramatically. When the crew gets higher skill you can get fixed weapons for them and they'll be quite deadly (against smaller ships in particular) and assist you nicely with the larger ships since maintaining fire on the ship means the shields get no time to regenerate.
As for the Alliance ships they are so copy-pasta I agree that it seems there is very little difference between them. Personally I fly an engineered shotgun-Chieftain and saw very little reason to pull the trigger on a Challenger purchase when that came out, and I feel the same about the Crusader given that I already have an engineered Krait.
But, with that all said... and putting prejudice and first impressions aside.
If we look at other ships that seem very copy-pasta as well...
Cobra Mk3 vs Cobra Mk4
Viper Mk3 vs Viper Mk4
Asp Scout vs Asp Explorer
Diamondback Scout vs Diamondback Explorer
Fed Dropship vs FAS vs FGS
All of these ships look similar to each other at first glance, and you could argue they are copy-paste of each other with minor alterations (winglets, spoilers etc), but the performance of each ship is vastly different.
I'm fairly confident that if you try Chieftain then Crusader then Challenger there will be significant differences in how they fly, perform and how much you like each one. Even though, at first glance, they all look the same.
The SLF's aren't bad actually.
I frequently send my SLF to attack Eagles, Sidewinders, Vipers and other small ships and the SLF is pretty much taking them down solo. However the effectiveness of the SLF is heavily dependent on your crew skill.
Example, I had an SLF with fixed weapons and a low skill crew and they were worthless. So I switched to a gimballed SLF and their performance improved dramatically. When the crew gets higher skill you can get fixed weapons for them and they'll be quite deadly (against smaller ships in particular) and assist you nicely with the larger ships since maintaining fire on the ship means the shields get no time to regenerate.
As for the Alliance ships they are so copy-pasta I agree that it seems there is very little difference between them. Personally I fly an engineered shotgun-Chieftain and saw very little reason to pull the trigger on a Challenger purchase when that came out, and I feel the same about the Crusader given that I already have an engineered Krait.
But, with that all said... and putting prejudice and first impressions aside.
If we look at other ships that seem very copy-pasta as well...
Cobra Mk3 vs Cobra Mk4
Viper Mk3 vs Viper Mk4
Asp Scout vs Asp Explorer
Diamondback Scout vs Diamondback Explorer
Fed Dropship vs FAS vs FGS
All of these ships look similar to each other at first glance, and you could argue they are copy-paste of each other with minor alterations (winglets, spoilers etc), but the performance of each ship is vastly different.
I'm fairly confident that if you try Chieftain then Crusader then Challenger there will be significant differences in how they fly, perform and how much you like each one. Even though, at first glance, they all look the same.
I disagree. In an open world space ship game with a virtual Milky Way, the best content is new things to do and see in that open world, NOT the spaceships to do them in.
I do not find this is true in a PvE context, sure they can get quickly killed in combat BUT under the control of a decent NPC Crew member (or Human) they can be quite effective.
If you are finding SLFs do not last long enough to be useful then I would look more closely at how you are using them and/or what/who is piloting them. I personally find them at least a bit of a game changer in a PvE combat setting - at the bare minimum they can serve as an effective distraction.
Space ships are the content. Folks are in denial about where the game is at. Ships are the top billing and about the only thing that comes close is using legs on space ships.
If it wasn't for the ships and the flight model and the sense of scale, people would have stopped years ago.
Elite is a game about space ships. So is ED. Expecting more than that is fair enough, but doesn't mean its coming. It's all about the ships, both now and in the future.
ship kits at £8.99 a go and paints at £3.00 a go .... thats the point
that said variety is good, love to see more but geared towards exploration rather than combat combat combat
Seeing more variety in space without all flying the same ship.
Ford Mondeo = Vauxhall Insignia = BMW 3 = Audi A4 = Jaguar XE = Mercedes C = Mazda 6 = VW Passat
Lets just say that the AspX & Krait have completely different roles.
Wrong, it's the activities you can do with them.
How wouldn't I if own a Python?
I figured just by looking at any of their commercials.
You are right, that's preciesly why FD have been developing new things to do since release
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Yea. And unfortunately, all ships recently have a "fly to a combat zone automatic" installed, so you can't do anything else with them. I mean, hey: some people at some time claimed that the Krait would be a great explorer. Some others even stated that they now use the Challenger for their exploration purposes. But I guess they all lied, as the game only ever allows them to take those ships for combat...
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I was talking about gameplay aditions, not ships restrictions.
While that may be true, it's also true that:
1 - Vast majority of combat ships are terrible at any other role.
2 - Combat ships are the majority of available ships.
So there's why having more and more combat ship clones may not be that exciting for many people.
There's a reason why the Krait was the most well received ship in recent years. It's because it was the first ship in quite a long time that could be enjoyed by pretty much everyone, regardless of favorite activity.
