Spent a bit of time last night with the update.
Pretext in terms of where I am in the game: I consider myself pretty experienced, been playing it continuously since 2014, and have dabbled in everything the game has to offer at least once (activities, rank, unlocks, FC ownership, etc.). Wiped my account 3 times since.
Currently my CMDR has about 1.4bn credits in cash, and 3 engineered ships in their fleet (Cobra 5, Cobra 3, Mining Krait 2), so rather modest all things considered, but not broke either - i.e. there's no barrier to engage with Colonisation content from an assets perspective... no FC though. I didn't shortlist any preferred system and went in cold and unorganised, a few hours after launch. I play in Open, but don't play with friends/squadrons. Not interested (anymore - used to be different in the past) to change that.
With that out of the way, my first impressions from the update:
I guess this update is not for me, I hear from others and even say it to myself. But then, I already said the same about PP2.0, which I lost interest in after spending a couple of months with. And looking at the (once again hilariously vague) roadmap for 2025, the next update will be along the same lines (mostly UI based interaction) and not be my cup of tea either.
On the wider content strategy that Frontier is applying these days, I (kind of) get it - Frontier needs to keep players busy so they add grindy gameplay that doesn't take much effort to develop (menu screens and recycled assets while relying on established gameplay loops), along with content that can be monetised easily through the Arx store.
But what I think this game desperately needs (and is probably less easy to monetise, but would give me a reason to remain hooked) is genuinely new space objects (planets, phenomena, stations, interiors, planetside locations, etc.) that come with relevant new gameplay loops - I'm bored stiff doing the same old tasks that I've been doing for the past years, even though the game-world still pulls me back - the Stellar Forge remains the USP of this game, while I can play other aspects in other games and have a better experience with it (such as station building).
At least get those darn shadows fixed though, seriously.
Pretext in terms of where I am in the game: I consider myself pretty experienced, been playing it continuously since 2014, and have dabbled in everything the game has to offer at least once (activities, rank, unlocks, FC ownership, etc.). Wiped my account 3 times since.
Currently my CMDR has about 1.4bn credits in cash, and 3 engineered ships in their fleet (Cobra 5, Cobra 3, Mining Krait 2), so rather modest all things considered, but not broke either - i.e. there's no barrier to engage with Colonisation content from an assets perspective... no FC though. I didn't shortlist any preferred system and went in cold and unorganised, a few hours after launch. I play in Open, but don't play with friends/squadrons. Not interested (anymore - used to be different in the past) to change that.
With that out of the way, my first impressions from the update:
- Shadows are still borked, causing weird artifacting and seizure-inducing flickering in various places (especially at low light locations planetside, but even in and around stations and megaships).
- They sure seem to get a lot of mileage out of Fleet Carrier assets. Is it really too much effort to come up with a unique design for the Colonisation ship, to make it look less than a rearranged LEGO set?
- More menu screens to spend time in, and get stuck in also (playing with a controller, actively fighting the UI which is clearly designed with mouse but no other input devices in mind)
- My initial concerns of the gameloop being focused on A-B hauling have been confirmed, and then some. No other gameplay loops at all (mining at a stretch but it still ends up being A-B hauling ultimately) unless I'm missing something here.
- Even just finding a system inside the bubble that is not a simple 1-4 stars-with-no-other-bodies system took a fair while, as I noticed a lot of claims were already put down. I hesitated picking one on the outskirts as that would mean more jumps without a FC. Will be interesting to see how many make it past the 4 week deadline.
- My initial concerns about severe limitations on customisation on positioning objects have been partially confirmed (can only speak for the initial port to be fair) - the game decided where the initial port will be located (half way on the dark side of a featureless gas giant, as opposed to close orbit to the star).
- The requirements for even a small outpost are (to a player who respects their free time) insane. I have already mentally given up on pursuing even building the initial outpost, can't imagine continuing performing the same A-B hauling to build out the system on my own. While being on the clock (I don't like being pressured into performing tasks under a time limit, I already have a job, and this is a game that's supposed to entertain me).
- As a result of this, I've bounced off this update and likely won't touch it ever again, worse even than PP2.0 which I gave a fair bit of time (but ultimately got bored with also at this stage).
I guess this update is not for me, I hear from others and even say it to myself. But then, I already said the same about PP2.0, which I lost interest in after spending a couple of months with. And looking at the (once again hilariously vague) roadmap for 2025, the next update will be along the same lines (mostly UI based interaction) and not be my cup of tea either.
On the wider content strategy that Frontier is applying these days, I (kind of) get it - Frontier needs to keep players busy so they add grindy gameplay that doesn't take much effort to develop (menu screens and recycled assets while relying on established gameplay loops), along with content that can be monetised easily through the Arx store.
But what I think this game desperately needs (and is probably less easy to monetise, but would give me a reason to remain hooked) is genuinely new space objects (planets, phenomena, stations, interiors, planetside locations, etc.) that come with relevant new gameplay loops - I'm bored stiff doing the same old tasks that I've been doing for the past years, even though the game-world still pulls me back - the Stellar Forge remains the USP of this game, while I can play other aspects in other games and have a better experience with it (such as station building).
At least get those darn shadows fixed though, seriously.
Last edited:
