I'm a Kickstarter backer of Elite Dangerous, I've been playing it since June (Premium Beta), and I've been a fan of all the previous Elite games, so I'm not some newbie with wrong ideas about what it should be like. Due to a post by someone else, I had a bit of a brainwave that I wanted to share. This isn't an unhelpful criticism of ED, but rather it's suggestions on how it can be improved.
Most of the time when someone on these forums says it's boring, people who'll defend ED against any criticism (rather than try to understand the other's point of view) will claim they want to be "spoon fed excitement" (or similar). Those arguments are invalid here, because my essential claim is that ED is too easy (but it's more complex than that, so I hope you'll read the rest of my lengthy post before replying).
The kind of boredom I'm talking about is the kind that sets in after you've mastered all of ED's many complexities (which I found was a fun learning curve), and after you've done lots of missions, gone to many different kinds of star systems, and tried pretty much everything that ED has to offer. At that point repetition or "grind" sets in, because of two issues I've discussed many times before:
1. There are a very limited set of missions & types of enemy to encounter. (It's blindingly obvious that Frontier need to add more kinds of missions, so I'm hopeful they are working on this issue as a priority.)
2. Multiplayer should provide variety that the game itself lacks, but it doesn't as multiplayer interaction is very hampered by the limited ways people can work together as a team. (This has been discussed to the death, and Frontier are planning to greatly improve it with a "Wings" update, probably sometime in the next few months.)
I am sure that Frontier Developments will eventually improve ED (as they did during Beta/Gamma), but I'm hoping my suggestions will help them get there quicker. EDIT: I should state that I still enjoy playing ED *sometimes*, but I can no-longer play it for long stints without finding boredom setting in, and several times I've had to take a week or mores break to recover from grinding "burn-out". And lots of Beta players are starting to complain of boredom, so I am not alone.
My main insight, and the reason for this post, is that repetition & grinding doesn't HAVE to be boring. The reason it's boring is that it's mostly too easy, and thus provides no challenge. Without any real challenge, repetition becomes boring, as it's just mindless repetition. There are other openworld & sandbox games which are quite repetitive, but that repetition isn't boring because they are still very challenging. Examples include The Long Dark (the most repetitive game I know, yet I still find it fun after 45 hours because just surviving is a real challenge), and Fallout 3 (it didn't become boring until I got so powerful that I could go into any area & attack any monster without worrying). In fact I would say that most games become boring once there is no challenge. Well, ED doesn't have any challenge after you've mastered it's various complexities, and so it becomes boring. So it needs to be made harder.
Here are some ways that ED is too easy:
1. There are no star systems which are really dangerous, such that'd you have to think twice before going there. Imagine that a bounty target is in a dangerous system, or you can trade a commodity at great profit in a dangerous system, or you want to escape a bounty hunter by going to a dangerous system.
Anarchy systems should be dangerous, but they're not significantly so, and they're actually safer in a way because you can start shooting as soon as someone interdicts you (without waiting to scan them or them to shoot you first). At the very least Anarchies, and low security systems to a lesser degree, should be swarming with high-level pirate NPCs. To balance this, pirate NPCs need fixing such that they don't shoot unless you've got cargo, and not before giving you a proper chance to drop your cargo (for me they usually shoot on sight after a couple of seconds). (There should of course still be some bloodthirsty crazy NPCs, that are just out to kill you, but they don't count as pirates.)
2. NPC ships are mostly too easy. That wasn't always the case. NPC difficulty was dropped during Gamma, I think around the time they linked NPC difficulty to their Elite rating. "Harmless" NPCs still need to be easy, but their skill should increase much quicker (with higher ratings), while "Elite" NPCs should be almost unkillable (without needing to be in an Anaconda). I also find it ridiculous that I'm frequently interdicted by pirates who don't have any shields - think for a minute how stupid that is.
EDIT: 2.5. You can Boost to escape from almost any enemies. This means that if I see multiple enemies, I don't even need to worry about engaging them, as I can always escape. Combat would be more fun, and places would be riskier, if I was forced to fight. Since traders can loose everything, ED would need to be more lenient on people carrying most of their net wealth in cargo. It's not an ideal solution, but neither is the current situation.
3. The Sidewinder is too powerful. I don't run into enough human players, so it might just be that the NPCs are too easy (see above). But I have read other people say the same thing. Players in a vanilla Sidewinder should fear just about any other ship, but as it currently stands I can go just about anywhere in a basic Sidewinder to do trading, bounty hunting & missions. So this is partly down to there being no really dangerous star systems, but the Sidewinder should still be a rubbish ship that you sell for an Eagle or Cobra as soon as you humanly can. Upgrading ships in earlier Elite games used to be essential if you wanted to stay alive, but now it's mostly just a question of wanting more utility slots & internal slots.
There needs to be more of a difference between each ship, as you go up the expense scale. I suggest the shields & hull should be much worse at the lower end. If the Sidewinder's shields & hull crumpled after a few laser shots, it would really feel like a rubbish ship that you want to upgrade or replace ASAP.
And once you reach a Cobra or Viper, there is almost no incentive to go further (unless you are a trader) & their expense makes it almost impossible to go higher anyway (unless you are a trader).
4. When you die, there is almost no penalty (unless you are a trader). This would be easily fixed by Fronter implementing their planned Ironman Mode, where everyone in it only comes across other Ironaman Mode players (plus NPCs of course), and dying is much much harsher: You either loose everything (effectively deleting your Save Game & starting from scratch), or you choose to carry on in the non-Ironman universe (if you are a wuss). Then every single encounter with a hostile ship (NPC or player) would be very stressful, because you literally risk loosing everything. This is something I previously suggested which would make ED much more like The Long Dark.
I have some alternative thoughts on this here:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=91298&p=1426581&viewfull=1#post1426581
5. Ships don't cost much to maintain. Imagine if you were a trader (or bounty hunter or whatever) barely managing to stay financially afloat (never mind any dreams of buying a better ship), just like Han Solo (from Star Wars) or Malcolm Reynolds (from Firefly). Then you'd have a real reason to take risky/illegal ventures (which were potentially very profitable). This would again make ED play more like The Long Dark.... however it would also be the biggest & most controversial change to the game, fundamentally changing how it plays, so it would be very hard to get right without upsetting a lot of people. Maybe they could make this an entirely different game mode (like Ironman, or perhaps even as part of Ironman Mode)? EDIT: It has been pointed out to me that the cost of maintaining big trading ships IS rather high already, but I'd still like it to be a problem for ships as small as a Cobra or Hauler.
Fundamentally most of these issues are balance issues. The sort of thing which Frontier should have sorted out before releasing the game, unfortunately they rushed the release of the game (IMHO a few months too early). I also suspect (as other people have claimed) that with each influx of new players in Beta & Gamma, Frontier reduced the games difficulty because a vocal few would complain the game was too hard. Unfortunately they went way too far, and made the game so easy that it's just boring.
I must also add that not everyone finds ED boring. Some people are obviously fine playing a repetitive easy game. That's absolutely fine, but unfortunately not everyone is like that. In fact I'd suggest that a sizable fraction of players aren't like that, and if Frontier hope to retain players for more than a few months they need to do something about the game's lack of long-term difficulty. Without retaining players, there may not be enough to buy the Expansion packs (DLC) that Frontier hope will sustain the development of ED for many years. I'm sure most of us want to get Landing On Planets, or Stealing Someone Else's Ship, so even if you don't find ED boring you still have a reason for wanting other people to keep playing.
Most of the time when someone on these forums says it's boring, people who'll defend ED against any criticism (rather than try to understand the other's point of view) will claim they want to be "spoon fed excitement" (or similar). Those arguments are invalid here, because my essential claim is that ED is too easy (but it's more complex than that, so I hope you'll read the rest of my lengthy post before replying).
The kind of boredom I'm talking about is the kind that sets in after you've mastered all of ED's many complexities (which I found was a fun learning curve), and after you've done lots of missions, gone to many different kinds of star systems, and tried pretty much everything that ED has to offer. At that point repetition or "grind" sets in, because of two issues I've discussed many times before:
1. There are a very limited set of missions & types of enemy to encounter. (It's blindingly obvious that Frontier need to add more kinds of missions, so I'm hopeful they are working on this issue as a priority.)
2. Multiplayer should provide variety that the game itself lacks, but it doesn't as multiplayer interaction is very hampered by the limited ways people can work together as a team. (This has been discussed to the death, and Frontier are planning to greatly improve it with a "Wings" update, probably sometime in the next few months.)
I am sure that Frontier Developments will eventually improve ED (as they did during Beta/Gamma), but I'm hoping my suggestions will help them get there quicker. EDIT: I should state that I still enjoy playing ED *sometimes*, but I can no-longer play it for long stints without finding boredom setting in, and several times I've had to take a week or mores break to recover from grinding "burn-out". And lots of Beta players are starting to complain of boredom, so I am not alone.
My main insight, and the reason for this post, is that repetition & grinding doesn't HAVE to be boring. The reason it's boring is that it's mostly too easy, and thus provides no challenge. Without any real challenge, repetition becomes boring, as it's just mindless repetition. There are other openworld & sandbox games which are quite repetitive, but that repetition isn't boring because they are still very challenging. Examples include The Long Dark (the most repetitive game I know, yet I still find it fun after 45 hours because just surviving is a real challenge), and Fallout 3 (it didn't become boring until I got so powerful that I could go into any area & attack any monster without worrying). In fact I would say that most games become boring once there is no challenge. Well, ED doesn't have any challenge after you've mastered it's various complexities, and so it becomes boring. So it needs to be made harder.
Here are some ways that ED is too easy:
1. There are no star systems which are really dangerous, such that'd you have to think twice before going there. Imagine that a bounty target is in a dangerous system, or you can trade a commodity at great profit in a dangerous system, or you want to escape a bounty hunter by going to a dangerous system.
Anarchy systems should be dangerous, but they're not significantly so, and they're actually safer in a way because you can start shooting as soon as someone interdicts you (without waiting to scan them or them to shoot you first). At the very least Anarchies, and low security systems to a lesser degree, should be swarming with high-level pirate NPCs. To balance this, pirate NPCs need fixing such that they don't shoot unless you've got cargo, and not before giving you a proper chance to drop your cargo (for me they usually shoot on sight after a couple of seconds). (There should of course still be some bloodthirsty crazy NPCs, that are just out to kill you, but they don't count as pirates.)
2. NPC ships are mostly too easy. That wasn't always the case. NPC difficulty was dropped during Gamma, I think around the time they linked NPC difficulty to their Elite rating. "Harmless" NPCs still need to be easy, but their skill should increase much quicker (with higher ratings), while "Elite" NPCs should be almost unkillable (without needing to be in an Anaconda). I also find it ridiculous that I'm frequently interdicted by pirates who don't have any shields - think for a minute how stupid that is.
EDIT: 2.5. You can Boost to escape from almost any enemies. This means that if I see multiple enemies, I don't even need to worry about engaging them, as I can always escape. Combat would be more fun, and places would be riskier, if I was forced to fight. Since traders can loose everything, ED would need to be more lenient on people carrying most of their net wealth in cargo. It's not an ideal solution, but neither is the current situation.
3. The Sidewinder is too powerful. I don't run into enough human players, so it might just be that the NPCs are too easy (see above). But I have read other people say the same thing. Players in a vanilla Sidewinder should fear just about any other ship, but as it currently stands I can go just about anywhere in a basic Sidewinder to do trading, bounty hunting & missions. So this is partly down to there being no really dangerous star systems, but the Sidewinder should still be a rubbish ship that you sell for an Eagle or Cobra as soon as you humanly can. Upgrading ships in earlier Elite games used to be essential if you wanted to stay alive, but now it's mostly just a question of wanting more utility slots & internal slots.
There needs to be more of a difference between each ship, as you go up the expense scale. I suggest the shields & hull should be much worse at the lower end. If the Sidewinder's shields & hull crumpled after a few laser shots, it would really feel like a rubbish ship that you want to upgrade or replace ASAP.
And once you reach a Cobra or Viper, there is almost no incentive to go further (unless you are a trader) & their expense makes it almost impossible to go higher anyway (unless you are a trader).
4. When you die, there is almost no penalty (unless you are a trader). This would be easily fixed by Fronter implementing their planned Ironman Mode, where everyone in it only comes across other Ironaman Mode players (plus NPCs of course), and dying is much much harsher: You either loose everything (effectively deleting your Save Game & starting from scratch), or you choose to carry on in the non-Ironman universe (if you are a wuss). Then every single encounter with a hostile ship (NPC or player) would be very stressful, because you literally risk loosing everything. This is something I previously suggested which would make ED much more like The Long Dark.
I have some alternative thoughts on this here:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=91298&p=1426581&viewfull=1#post1426581
5. Ships don't cost much to maintain. Imagine if you were a trader (or bounty hunter or whatever) barely managing to stay financially afloat (never mind any dreams of buying a better ship), just like Han Solo (from Star Wars) or Malcolm Reynolds (from Firefly). Then you'd have a real reason to take risky/illegal ventures (which were potentially very profitable). This would again make ED play more like The Long Dark.... however it would also be the biggest & most controversial change to the game, fundamentally changing how it plays, so it would be very hard to get right without upsetting a lot of people. Maybe they could make this an entirely different game mode (like Ironman, or perhaps even as part of Ironman Mode)? EDIT: It has been pointed out to me that the cost of maintaining big trading ships IS rather high already, but I'd still like it to be a problem for ships as small as a Cobra or Hauler.
Fundamentally most of these issues are balance issues. The sort of thing which Frontier should have sorted out before releasing the game, unfortunately they rushed the release of the game (IMHO a few months too early). I also suspect (as other people have claimed) that with each influx of new players in Beta & Gamma, Frontier reduced the games difficulty because a vocal few would complain the game was too hard. Unfortunately they went way too far, and made the game so easy that it's just boring.
I must also add that not everyone finds ED boring. Some people are obviously fine playing a repetitive easy game. That's absolutely fine, but unfortunately not everyone is like that. In fact I'd suggest that a sizable fraction of players aren't like that, and if Frontier hope to retain players for more than a few months they need to do something about the game's lack of long-term difficulty. Without retaining players, there may not be enough to buy the Expansion packs (DLC) that Frontier hope will sustain the development of ED for many years. I'm sure most of us want to get Landing On Planets, or Stealing Someone Else's Ship, so even if you don't find ED boring you still have a reason for wanting other people to keep playing.
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