I like the idea of having the 95% insurance (or more for backers) be more variable based on player actions even if it were as simple as reducing based on hours played or some or all of the ranks. Paying a premium to maintain the 95% or get it even higher could allow PvPers & other players that see the rebuy screen a lot to choose the cheaper path for them.
C'mon, this is faintly ridiculous.
- Thread starter Noddie
- Start date
I like the idea of having the 95% insurance (or more for backers) be more variable based on player actions even if it were as simple as reducing based on hours played or some or all of the ranks. Paying a premium to maintain the 95% or get it even higher could allow PvPers & other players that see the rebuy screen a lot to choose the cheaper path for them.
That's the point you appear to be (deliberately?) missing - the early game experience WASN'T tedious for us - it was enjoyable (for me, at least). Taking longer <> Tedious
Now that I do have the credits to do whatever I want with, the game is different. I enjoy the game as it is now (for me), but to say the lead up to get to where I am now was "tedious" is frankly incorrect.
Ask a self-made IRL millionaire and one who has had everything handed to them on a silver plate which one appreciates their wealth more?
With the game in its current state, players are moving onto the "super wealthy" stage so quickly and I fear that they will simply become bored and leave in a much shorter timeframe.
It was tedious to all the people that quit. The "not us" people. That's what FD is trying to prevent.
Have you considered that those that quit might have quit no matter what FD add or subtracted to the game? Which would you rather, the game we have or one tailed to entice those fringe people how purchased the game without really knowing anything about the game?
Sure, there's a variety of reasons people could've quit, but the number one reason people stop playing a game is boredom. They simply don't want to. I don't see how reverting the early game to take longer to complete will encourage more people to want to.
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I think this is an artifact of credits and ‘ship progression’ appearing linear, from the humble Sidey to the might of the Big Three (or Four if you like the pure chonk of the T10). Sure, if that’s your personal measure of progression that’s as good as any other. But what I’ve noticed in my own game, is that the experience started to falter somewhere in the mediums and I ended up trying out half a dozen different fits on a Crusader and Mamba, did a sprinkling of engineering on them, but could never settle on a role for them and they felt a bit... soulless. So I stripped them down and sold the hulls, and with my freshly acquired billions of space-bucks bought an Adder...
My real progression feels more like it’s in the knowledge of the building and engineering ships, and now that credits are not an issue I’ve stopped moving ‘forwards’ through the ship progression and gone ‘backwards’; those little early game ships, with properly applied engineering have a LOT more to offer than when you first move up through them as you’re learning the game’s often obscure mechanics. You can easily miss their potential in your rise to galactic gazillionaire status with a Corvette for every season.
Of course, this is the personal experience of one pilot amongst many, and we’re all free to blaze our own trail in whatever direction we wish. I do not envy the devs the tricky task of balancing in-game earnings for both long-term veterans who’ve struggled up to their amassed fortunes and appreciated every single credit they fought for, and newer players who want a tangible sense of progression and feel like they deserve to be able to catch-up to an original backer in a reasonable timeframe, and not have a feeling of insurmountable grind between themselves and a fleet carrier.
This is a good point...
Faster progression means more players have more ships to buy paintjobs for, etc. So from FDEV's point of view, it probably is a good thing.
However, those players that rush into an Anaconda (or whatever goal-ship they choose), then get blown up the first time they take it into combat because they've not learned to fit or fly it will still probably quit anyway.
The current rate of progression is probably better for FDEV's bottom line, but for the long term health of the game itself (at least for us players), I'm not so sure...
I think that's the crux really, from FDev's perspective the ideal customer will buy the game, play for a while, satisfied with a good rate of progression, buy a few skins then stop playing, content with their achievements.
If the early progression rate is too slow or too fast people won't buy skins for either the larger ships (if progression is too slow & they give up early) or smaller ships (if progression is too fast & they skip them).
I enjoyed the challenge the game presented at launch in 2015 but I can see it was probably too hard for more casual players to get into. Whether it's too easy now I couldn't really say.
More people playing the game is good for everyone, not just Evil Capitalist FD. If the game has enough players, FD will support it with updates and expansions. That's the real long term health of the game. What retains the players might be a subjective thing for us players to debate over, but FD have the data.
I do feel bad for those Freshieconda guys that lose their ships, but hopefully by that point they've invested enough in the game to deal with it. It's not as quick as we think either. We can start fresh and get one same day, so that skews our perception, but genuine new players take longer.
Completely agree. For my part, I tend not to sell ships in this game - I keep them and tweak them later. You're right that, for me at least, the smaller ships are MUCH more fun to fly. A Viper or a Cobra in a RES site is much more fun than a Vette for me - you actually have to fly the small ships, whereas the Corvette is target>hold fire>enemy blows up. I'm happy to hear that you're enjoying those ships - I fear some will be heading out in E-rated Condas and subsequently deciding they don't like this game anymore...
Yeah I agree - a friend and I bought the game at the same time (shortly after Horizons released) - he played quite a lot in those first few months, but has barely loaded it since - perhaps it was too hard for him back then. Similarly, another friend bought the game during the Void Opal boom, and I helped him become an overnight multi-millionaire. He doesn't play now either - not quite sure what to make of that!
Oh no doubt, and it was a little of a fresh revelation when I had the thought. Engineering, for better (unlocking potential) or for worse (grind) is the real game changer I reckon. In the early game the Adder was a mere stepping stone and I didn’t spend much time in it because I wasn’t keen on the offset pilot’s seat, but going back to it, slapping enhanced performance thrusters on it, paying attention to the hull mass and engineering it to squeeze what I could out of it and it can outdance most NPCs of up to competent (I’m not the best pilot!) and lower, and with fixed efficient pulses and a C2 short-range plasma slug rail gun I can stay in the fight longer and have a decent chance of damaging bigger ships; I giggled like a schoolgirl the first time I stripped the shields off an NPC Eagle and took 70% or so hull off it with a single rail shot! The idea is, like you say, to force me to actually learn to fly and fixed weapon dogfight. With paper thin shields and a relatively light hull I need to rely on speed and manoeuvre to avoid damage. It’s been a real game-changer for me!
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Definitely agree with this. Although I wouldn't go as far as calling FD Evil Capitalists
They're a business and they exist to make money - can't blame them for that.As others have pointed out, the real progression now is engineering, and there's no real "quick win" for that (yet!). It's interesting that most of the posts here recently about how mat gathering is such a grind and FDEV should do something about it have been made by new players (many apparently taking advantage of the EPIC giveaway). Whether this impatience is fostered by the fact that they can now get into the larger ships quicker than was possible earlier in the game's life cycle, I couldn't say.
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Whilst this all may be true.... Call me selfish if you like but I am not concerned about other players as I don't like speaking for them. I am only talking about how I personally enjoy the game. Earning rates DO greatly effect my character despitr poster above suggesting long timers have no dog in the fight.
The bottom line is there are different types of games out there with different audiences to speak to. The issue I think is ED launched as 1 type and has changed to another. As someone who loved the long term goals and wanted a robust plausible economy to me it's a step back. To suggest that no one wants a realistic (or plausible) economy everyone wants everything super fast (paraphrasing) I say nonsense. There are lots of games with quite detailed economy such as the X games. I would love some of that in ED
I'm afraid I don't get the context of this statement but personally I would love it if the game was polished to the point that I wasn't constantly going to Inara, EDDB, and other third-party sources to accomplish mundane tasks.
Why am I on a planet scouring for bits of Iron, the most common metal in the universe, when I can buy Gold and Platinum from the market?
Question number eight thousand I randomly ask myself whenever I focus on Engineering....
I can see how the game now appeals more to people who just bought it. The addition of things like SC Assist and auto docking as standard make huge sense. To be honest I enjoy using them - the other day I left my ship to fly itself to the station I wanted to go to once I took a quick bathroom break. I got back to find it in bobbing outside the station and requested docking and left it to get on with it whilst I fed my cat. Then I jumped back in and did my trades and things, before heading off on another mission. You probably won't want to do things like that in risky situations, but when you're just ferrying a ship through a safe system it's fine. I've now got my Imperial Eagle A-Rated and I'm thinking of either grabbing a courier next or heading off to unlock some engineers and engineering the eagle. Or possibly grabbing an adder and some collection limpets and going material gathering. For me the game is about enjoying yourself, not pursuing some high score or a particular ship.
I just think it's funny how I earned enough for quite a nice ship in the overall scheme of things (An a-rated Imperial Eagle) by just slapping a few criminals in the presence of the Police.
I just think it's funny how I earned enough for quite a nice ship in the overall scheme of things (An a-rated Imperial Eagle) by just slapping a few criminals in the presence of the Police.
Yep, I agree. As I mentioned in an post in another thread, when I achieved Exploration Elite (my first Elite rank), I was genuinely disappointed. I'd got it (certainly from Pioneer to Elite) by doing passenger missions. It felt slightly hollow - I'd much rather have had to go off into the black and truly earn it. I suspect this is difficult for some to understand, in exactly the same way that it's difficult for me to understand why some players want to achieve everything yesterday.
Why am I on a planet scouring for bits of Iron, the most common metal in the universe, when I can buy Gold and Platinum from the market?
Question number eight thousand I randomly ask myself whenever I focus on Engineering....
As ridiculous as it is, with a little mental gymnastics you can say the engineers don’t want any pig iron, they want that specific cosmic iron from the stellar forge.
They don’t even need a whole lot of it anyway, just enough to fit in your magic pockets!
Edited for fat fumb forum fart, and great screen name by the way!
I quit counterstrike and Dota 2. I find them both rubbish. Maybe they should totally alter the balance of the game in the hope they drag me back and to hell with existing players.
I AM with you on that one.Why am I on a planet scouring for bits of Iron, the most common metal in the universe, when I can buy Gold and Platinum from the market?
Question number eight thousand I randomly ask myself whenever I focus on Engineering....