U're exception which confirms the rule
Colonization and You!
- Thread starter GKhan
- Start date
Maybe they just got bored with following orders and should have tried to play alone or Solo.
Everyone keeps asking "why does everyone that makes these types of suggestions insist on it being Squadron based?".
Because this is a multiplayer game.
The ONLY experience that I had with another player, was my first week when some joker destroyed my cobra. I played in a private group or solo every single day since, until they introduced the Squadrons. I worked hard to recruit new players, and grew to have over 100 members in just a few short weeks. Every single player that joined up, played for about 2-3 months, and then stopped playing. What needs to be addressed, is why. This is just one idea, that I think will generate a LOT of renewed interest as well as provide players something to work for that will hold their interest long term, not only increasing the number of people playing the game, but will also generate more revenue for Frontier so they can continue to develop the game, and keep up with the competition.
There is a lot to love about Elite, but it could be SO much better, and in my opinion, its needs to be real quick like.
Because this is a multiplayer game.
The ONLY experience that I had with another player, was my first week when some joker destroyed my cobra. I played in a private group or solo every single day since, until they introduced the Squadrons. I worked hard to recruit new players, and grew to have over 100 members in just a few short weeks. Every single player that joined up, played for about 2-3 months, and then stopped playing. What needs to be addressed, is why. This is just one idea, that I think will generate a LOT of renewed interest as well as provide players something to work for that will hold their interest long term, not only increasing the number of people playing the game, but will also generate more revenue for Frontier so they can continue to develop the game, and keep up with the competition.
There is a lot to love about Elite, but it could be SO much better, and in my opinion, its needs to be real quick like.
There are no "orders" in our Squad other than play the way you want, and contribute how you want. There are no dues, no mandates or stipulations. We're all here to have fun playing the game the way we want, and the Squadron is there to offer support, community and fellowship.Maybe they just got bored with following orders and should have tried to play alone or Solo.
This is wrong game "to offer support". Every part of MMO is done as BGS. So teams & squadrons serve pure chat purposes.
This is not wow or la2 with 9 different classes to work as whole group.
However, it is fun to do things like trade/war in single system using small ship & new settlements. Does not offer big money though. But this sort of gameplay you could use for teams.
As a new player, do you realize how many things there are to learn and figure out? I met a guy that had been playing nearly a year, and had no idea how to even begin engineering.
ANY multiplayer game is a good place to offer support. My Squadron is not just to chat.. we help each other out, we explore together, we share discoveries and screenshots, we battle together, and hang out. Its really cool to pull in to a station and to actually SEE other players moving about...
Yes, he had to figure how to read. Everything else is in-game (must be read though). I made this way - just reading in-game things.
Help each other/explore / all else -> u steal somebody's discoveries and/or fun. I do not see any reason why you should group up, except u want extra rewards fast. If you play to play, then anybody else just steals ur play's fun. If you play to make 5 billions/hour...well...maybe Elite is not for u.
Yeah, who wants to group up in a multiplayer game.
Yeh ...I played LA2 using 10 accounts at once - it had groups of 9 players of 9 different roles (out of 32 total).
So ye, I preferred to play 9 accounts/windowses at once alone and play with real people only during pvp/sieges. When there are no NPC involved.
Elite is not about grouping, it's about working in same direction - like support same fraction. Grouping is highly optional.
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but would it really have made the other players stick around much more? spending weeks/months on building some colony? unless they followed all the do it all fast guides, then 2-3 months is not much time for an MMO...
and the trend in MMO's is more and more solo players play them, just look at how so many games, changes to this new trend. Look at games like Elder Scrolls Online, ESO, how they changed the requirements of the silver and gold zones, that was there to encourage players to group up, but very few did tha, then they changed this, so now all those previously very hard zones todo solo, as they where essentially group content zones, now got a super easy for most solo players todo, and ESO is far from alone in doing this.
And this change of course is a torn in the side of the hard core MMO players, as they see less and less group content...
And everyone do not need to spend alot of time reading up on how everything works. and in most MMO's there is always going to be players who are willing to teach other players that are willing to listen. but that is not really dependant on guild/squad stuff todo.. it often makes it easier to talk to your "friends" in a group chat. so just a social place to be. The other side of this coin, when you are teaching players, you could be teaching them the wrong things, like how to take every shortcut, which most of the time, also tend to be the most boring repetitive game loops. And you say that players stopped playing with you after 2-3 months. could it be that after making their experience in the short run better, but in the long run, they got burned out, did not want to do it all over again, like engineer a new ship, because the way they got learned how to do it was so bad? That is the danger of rushing "new" players through "new" content..
And then we do have the other side, where players make no progress and simply see no way forward because they do not feel that they want to invest the time learn about stuff. There is simply no single answer to this. Just look at how it is to play a new MMO from the start, and then every new content update, that gives us more and more stuff to do, mechanics to learn etc, we have learned it in chuncks, new players often get tossed into the deep end of this huge pool of game stuff. while had the optin to start in the shallow end and walking out to the deep end.
In fact, fun is already there. I just opened world of small ships & hauling between new settlements. And you can see how those change on each BGS tick depends what you do there.
Player-owned bases are a popular request. Yes we have Carriers now, but having an actual place to call "home" would still be nice.
We also have the rather ridiculous situation where factions/powers/superpowers are squabbling over territory like rats in a sack, while surrounded by a HUGE almost-empty galaxy. Somewhat justifiable when it took weeks to get anywhere (according to lore), but it now takes minutes to cross the Bubble.
Tricky to balance though. Including the player/squadron issue.
At least we now have Odyssey "settlements", a lot smaller than Horizons planetary bases (which are basically cities). A settlement is something that is small enough to be plausibly owned by an individual player. And I don't think an Outpost should be more expensive than a Carrier, considering that the Carrier is bigger, has more pads (including Large pads), and can actually jump. I'd be OK with players being limited to owning settlements and outposts. If there's some mechanism for a large squadron (or just many individual players working together) to expand those, that's OK too.
We also have the rather ridiculous situation where factions/powers/superpowers are squabbling over territory like rats in a sack, while surrounded by a HUGE almost-empty galaxy. Somewhat justifiable when it took weeks to get anywhere (according to lore), but it now takes minutes to cross the Bubble.
Tricky to balance though. Including the player/squadron issue.
At least we now have Odyssey "settlements", a lot smaller than Horizons planetary bases (which are basically cities). A settlement is something that is small enough to be plausibly owned by an individual player. And I don't think an Outpost should be more expensive than a Carrier, considering that the Carrier is bigger, has more pads (including Large pads), and can actually jump. I'd be OK with players being limited to owning settlements and outposts. If there's some mechanism for a large squadron (or just many individual players working together) to expand those, that's OK too.
This isn't something players should be able to throw around willy nilly. If they could, it loses all value. This is something that becomes more valuable the more expensive it becomes, because functionally speaking, it has no other value other than the effort put into it.
So it should be very, very expensive. To give it value, but also to give players something to DO at the endgame where they've got a trillion credits and nothing to spend it on.
ESO is a trash game though. Their group content and gameplay is awful, I played it for a long while and at one point had 4 full guilds running pvp groups from all over the place. The ONLY way that ESO can stay relevant is to try and cater to solo players.
Frontier has TONS of potential, because they havent deviated from the base game so far as to change the entire game 4 or 5 times hoping to keep players interested. ESO went from Veteran levels, to 4 different iterations of "Champion Points". Those folks over at Zenimax and Bethesda screwed up the Elder Scrolls franchise BIG TIME.
How long have you been playing though? Most of us have been through what you are doing dozens of times. Ive been around long enough, I have FC and 1 of every ship, and 2 of the ones I really like so I dont have to switch out mods to perform different tasks. I have worked to take over and defend systems from PMFs, Mined to my hearts content, Explored the depths of the Hawking Gap, Guardian Ruins, killed goids, combat zones, bounty hunting, massacre missions, spent a year running passengers out of the Khan system... Eventually every task begins to feel more like work, and not so much fun.
I have played since the 80's and started on an Amiga. Elite was what got me hooked, and I have never found an open world / space game that I have liked so much. Maybe what is keeping me here is the nostalgia, because at present, its not because it is rewarding. Once you reach a certain point, what is there to do really? I am now sitting in deep space in my FC, with my shiny ships covered in ARX paintjobs - and NO ONE WILL SEE ANY OF IT! Because they dont play anymore...
If to dig so deep, in about 1990 I had friend with zx-spectrum with elite.
Who cares? I see it
I make all that outfits to please my eye....and yeh, that happened for me in last 6 MMOs I played. They always "don't play any more". No game changes will keep people for long.
I don't play that games too, because I'm not interested in elfs any more, I want space ships. No elf change can get me back there.
Well regardless what you think about the game, this is a trend that is ongoing in most MMO's. Where more and more content is being made/added/updated to cater for solo players. And there is a really simple reason for that, more and more of their player base is solo players. Trying to force solo players into group content, is often bad for business. as the solo players leave the game for another one, and if that happens in large numbers, then that means less money to make new content with.
Just look at the Fleet Carrier. proposed group content, that turned into solo content. I was not surprised over that move, as most players in Elite play solo.
No argument from me that FDev have huge potential for developing their game. but lets be realistic here. how much have they managed to capitalize on that potential? Just compare how SRV and SLF differs widely in their implementation, One is only "physical" vehicle, that needs to be restocked at a station/etc, the other one is 3D printed. Only one works with multicrew... One is always telepresence. So here we have two very similar functions, but so widely different implemented, and they are both are part of Horizon season...
And what have they done with the lore? basically nothing.
Look at the Thargoids? they have attacked the bubble, but if you ignore them, for the most part, they are not there. unless you specifically seeks them out.
Nice! So wouldnt you want more people to play Elite? With less players here, less money is being made, which will stifle further development. We need to find ways to entice more players to stick around.