Been a backer since alpha 4, so I'd like to think I know most things about the game.
All I do in Elite is make money off of combat, since I feel it is the strongest part of the game with the most potential. Bounty hunting, assassinations, pvp interdicting in high security space, combat zones, you name it. If it requires ammo and a lack of remorse I've done it.
So I spent all morning at Sorbago after reading about the slave free-ing crap on Gal net and how the empire sent two caps to deal with the peasants.
First of all, freaking sweet. If you haven't gotten in the instance and heard something like "capital signature detected" or some such only to turn around and see the empire cap warping in, you have to see it.
Second, good amount of chaos going on. Only saw a few other players, but as more arrive I can see it becoming pretty hectic in a good way. The capital was returning fire and engaging targets; very cool. However a lot of the modules had zero percent health and were still functioning (turrets, lasers, stuff like that). I sided with the slaves to see if I could damage the cap. It took a while, but I saw it go from about 63% to 55% ish. I wonder what happens at 0%... Overall, the capital did NOT seem to have an effective impact on the battle. Guns were too inaccurate and weak. That actually goes the same for most NPC ships in the zone. You can cycle through all enemy/friendly targets, but you'd be lucky if a few had their shields down let alone hull damage.
Third, ship types. On both sides, very few faction specific ships. Nice to see the new Empire fighter and clipper in the battle, but there were very few of them on the empire side, and there were even a few on the other side which was kind of odd. A lot of cobras and a lot of vipers with a few asps and condas. Sometimes there was also a surplus of one ship type. The entire enemy force is in cobras? Really? Force some variety here. I thought I was up against the empire, not cobra commander and all his followers.
Forth, declaring a faction. I think this should only be able to be selected once for the duration of the conflict. The fact I can warp in and out to change factions is lame, and the only reason to do it is if there are other players in the instance on the opposite team. Competition is good Frontier, and at the end of the day PvP and Player interaction is what is going to make your game last, whether you agree or not. Fighting NPCs all day WILL get old. Especially since the AI sucks at dogfighting. It's really more just farming at that point.
Fifth, kill rewards. This needs immediate attention. 3000 for any kill on any ship. Imperial fighter? burst of laser for the shield and one more will kill one. 3K. Anaconda you've been shooting for 5 minutes? also 3K. Bigger/more durable ships need larger kill rewards to simply justify combat zones as a viable way to make money.
Example:
Imperial fighter: 1000
Eagle: 1500
Cobra: 5000 (they are tanky af)
Viper: 4000 (less tanky but fast)
Clipper: 6000
Asp: 8000
Conda: 10,000
Captial ship kill(?)- 500,000
The above reward suggestions are what I feel is fair, but I could be wrong. I could go back to assassination missions and make ~150-250K an hour, but those are less fun. I quite enjoy intense and chaotic dogfights that elite has to offer. I want to do this, but the game is clearly telling me it's not worth it.
Finally, there needs to be some kind of end-game/ end-state to these conflicts. If these little wars would pop up one day and last a few days at a time, there needs to be some influence when one side is clearly winning against the other. Maybe record all kills during the conflict for example and decide on an outcome of some significance. Just ending it and starting a war in another system would be anti-climactic. Maybe something like this: If the war is 24 hrs long, and if a certain amount of empire caps are destroyed in that time, the rebels win and it is no longer an empire controlled sector. If that cap ship destruction count is not met, Empire wins and continues to enslave the locals with some effect on the economy or whatever and providing certain benefits to the player if he/she participated in the winning faction. Long story short, make it MATTER. I don't want to log on one day and see that the conflicts ended, another wars been started in another system, that is going to turn out to be the same grind with the only difference being a text description or a different capital ship skin. You have the best flight model and space dogfighting game I've ever played, yet you refuse to capitalize on it, or if you do, you haven't proved it yet.
Also as a last note, Capital ship zones and high/low intensity zones are the exact same but with/without a cap ship in them, and like I said when the cap has almost no effect on the battle it feels pointless.
edit 1: Forgot a clipper kill reward
All I do in Elite is make money off of combat, since I feel it is the strongest part of the game with the most potential. Bounty hunting, assassinations, pvp interdicting in high security space, combat zones, you name it. If it requires ammo and a lack of remorse I've done it.
So I spent all morning at Sorbago after reading about the slave free-ing crap on Gal net and how the empire sent two caps to deal with the peasants.
First of all, freaking sweet. If you haven't gotten in the instance and heard something like "capital signature detected" or some such only to turn around and see the empire cap warping in, you have to see it.
Second, good amount of chaos going on. Only saw a few other players, but as more arrive I can see it becoming pretty hectic in a good way. The capital was returning fire and engaging targets; very cool. However a lot of the modules had zero percent health and were still functioning (turrets, lasers, stuff like that). I sided with the slaves to see if I could damage the cap. It took a while, but I saw it go from about 63% to 55% ish. I wonder what happens at 0%... Overall, the capital did NOT seem to have an effective impact on the battle. Guns were too inaccurate and weak. That actually goes the same for most NPC ships in the zone. You can cycle through all enemy/friendly targets, but you'd be lucky if a few had their shields down let alone hull damage.
Third, ship types. On both sides, very few faction specific ships. Nice to see the new Empire fighter and clipper in the battle, but there were very few of them on the empire side, and there were even a few on the other side which was kind of odd. A lot of cobras and a lot of vipers with a few asps and condas. Sometimes there was also a surplus of one ship type. The entire enemy force is in cobras? Really? Force some variety here. I thought I was up against the empire, not cobra commander and all his followers.
Forth, declaring a faction. I think this should only be able to be selected once for the duration of the conflict. The fact I can warp in and out to change factions is lame, and the only reason to do it is if there are other players in the instance on the opposite team. Competition is good Frontier, and at the end of the day PvP and Player interaction is what is going to make your game last, whether you agree or not. Fighting NPCs all day WILL get old. Especially since the AI sucks at dogfighting. It's really more just farming at that point.
Fifth, kill rewards. This needs immediate attention. 3000 for any kill on any ship. Imperial fighter? burst of laser for the shield and one more will kill one. 3K. Anaconda you've been shooting for 5 minutes? also 3K. Bigger/more durable ships need larger kill rewards to simply justify combat zones as a viable way to make money.
Example:
Imperial fighter: 1000
Eagle: 1500
Cobra: 5000 (they are tanky af)
Viper: 4000 (less tanky but fast)
Clipper: 6000
Asp: 8000
Conda: 10,000
Captial ship kill(?)- 500,000
The above reward suggestions are what I feel is fair, but I could be wrong. I could go back to assassination missions and make ~150-250K an hour, but those are less fun. I quite enjoy intense and chaotic dogfights that elite has to offer. I want to do this, but the game is clearly telling me it's not worth it.
Finally, there needs to be some kind of end-game/ end-state to these conflicts. If these little wars would pop up one day and last a few days at a time, there needs to be some influence when one side is clearly winning against the other. Maybe record all kills during the conflict for example and decide on an outcome of some significance. Just ending it and starting a war in another system would be anti-climactic. Maybe something like this: If the war is 24 hrs long, and if a certain amount of empire caps are destroyed in that time, the rebels win and it is no longer an empire controlled sector. If that cap ship destruction count is not met, Empire wins and continues to enslave the locals with some effect on the economy or whatever and providing certain benefits to the player if he/she participated in the winning faction. Long story short, make it MATTER. I don't want to log on one day and see that the conflicts ended, another wars been started in another system, that is going to turn out to be the same grind with the only difference being a text description or a different capital ship skin. You have the best flight model and space dogfighting game I've ever played, yet you refuse to capitalize on it, or if you do, you haven't proved it yet.
Also as a last note, Capital ship zones and high/low intensity zones are the exact same but with/without a cap ship in them, and like I said when the cap has almost no effect on the battle it feels pointless.
edit 1: Forgot a clipper kill reward
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