Greetings!
My post is here mainly for the devs to read. I don't aim to start a discussion or have any effect beside the devs reading it and maybe profiting out of it for the future.
First of all, I have Merc edition, Horizons, and did not participate in alpha nor betas.
I play alone, with my wife, with a friend, and got 2 more friends to play, and any mix of these. Did a few hours solo play & private group but mostly Open.
Did not play the original Elite, didn't hear about it in the time. (Yes I am not from UK or US) But I always had affinity towards space games of any kind. Loved X-wing and the such when I was a kid.
But that's it about the background. I will write a detailed Personal oppinion on the whole game from my personal viewpoint. My goal is to give a useful feedback.
I like the game. It is one of my favourite games.
Imo the flight model beats everything on the marker by a large margin. Has the action of more arcade stuff like Freelancer with the seriousness of IL-2. Pure win, and also spectacular. FA off makes it even better. Don't change it, its the closest to perfect possible. 10/10
Ships: They look awesome, sound even better, have characteristics. Very well done. I do not agree with all the design choices but thus sometimes surprise me in a good way. And we have enough of them atm. Could add more paintjobs, would buy more (even tho I am not the type to buy stuff like that). I'd add a few more ships with time but not a big deal, just to inject some freshness. 8-9/10
Sounds: don't think I should elaborate. Although more radio chatter could do wonders (2.1 traffic control is THE very best step towards this). 9/10
Handling, interface, handy stuff, etc.
retty good, have no trouble handling anything, just enough keys on my keyboard to bind the stuff. Bookmarks were the biggest flaw, now handled. Ship HUD color customization is the last issue I feel needed (built in, not the problematic half-proper workaround). 8/10
And now onto the important parts.
Galaxy map / Scope: Interesting choice with the 1:1 scale. It translates to me that this is a simulator not just a game. Very good for PR, also very impressive feat, even at the cost of mandatory servers. Although it brings the most part of problems in other areas. But it is in place now so we can only focus on profiting from it.
Factions: This is the main thing tied to the galaxy size. They are too many. Simple as that. Too many and too forgettable, even with the few hand crafted names. In a space this big who cares about a faction with 1 outpost. I just can't get personal about factions. Also the Federation and Empire (ye and Alliance) are too big to be personal about. Its only good for sayings like "Better dead than.."
I think it became obvious for others too quickly, hence the Powerplay. 2/10
Powerplay: No. They are the other side of the horse. Again they are too big, too generalized (well the portraits and namings to make them personalized ends up them being unimaginable. We don't see a group or power, we see a name and a face). They feel like some personal mega-cults of some odd figures. They don't represent groups too weel, they represent 10 persons, most of whom I don't like. I think all the factions and groups should have gone into a middle ground of the present ones. EG.: Sirius Corporation: a bubble on the map of some 150 systems, with the details of a current power in war with these 4-5 other corportions / terrorist groups / pirates / militaries / etc. /etc. There should be about 50-100 factions on the whole map, all hand crafted but nothing too fancy. xy mining, zx navy, zy pirates, you catch my drift. With political relations, rewards and missions to do, system bonuses etc. All Visible on the galaxy map like PP currently, joinable, supportable. 50-100 is enought for "Have you heard of xy at all?" while also not too much for "OMG A declared war on D, what will happen to metal prices now?!"
Overall Powerplay just put another bad layer on an already lacking layer. I'd be better off witout, even if it got removed in flight. 1/10
Surface / SRV: Holy f@kin' god. You actually did it. Nobody expected it a few years ago that something like this would exist! I think it gave many people a very special feel for a while. Kudos for that. I was dreaming like 10 hours landing and driving on planets. But then I woke up and I realized that I cant do on surfaces. POIs are too few, not varied enough, not WORTH it at all. Also the SRV is a nightmare to drive (poor handling, not to mention the turret). And it is very tedious with the blue circles, etc. AND it is strongly encouraged to do because of the materials and synthesis. Absolutely lacking overall. Not to mention it is not even a space sim.
The basic idea is very nice, but I'd have waited 1-2 Years! with this feature. But now that it is here, is should get tremendous amount of love, things to do, and generally content and reward to make people WANT to drive in SRV, not to force them to do it. I loved to land and drive into craters for a few hours. Now I'd refuse to do it for 20 mins even for money. 10/10 for the actual realization of landing on planets in a 1:1 scale galaxy, but 2/10 from a long run gameplay perspective (and that's what sells and make people stay now imo).
CQC: Yes I see that it had to come. And it also seems good on paper. A place to fight, play short sessions, and train without risking your charachter and work invested. Also with rewards for it in the career. Sounds awesome. TBH, it seems like a better training sim for the game. I ran that single player training ragged, even after launch. But tbh I never even tried cqc. CBA. Not interested. Doesnt add anything to the career. Maybe (I really hope) it hooked some people who then tried the main game or at least financed the project for a month. But for me it doesnt add anything to the game at all, 0. ?/10 I dont rate this, cause it was a smart move and it looks good on paper even in hindsight, but it's technically not even part of the game.
Engineers: Haven't played enough to be sure But my impressions: new materials are okay, more types less adjectives would be better tho (again harder to differentiate = less charcteristics). Material inventory needs rehaul. Already too much carried but not enough at the same time. I dont like to throw loot out the hatch, but I have to. Hard work to obtain, and most of it is no use. Also, too many different sources for mods = I can't choose activity, it is mandtory for mods to do certain things (no good). Also, too visible RNG, come on, the sliders and even a @#&°$¤Đ a casino wheel. Outrageous. RNG sure but not like this. Although RNG on drops, and RNG on results feels a bit too much, Because I feel I CAN'T just play and end up with the right mats. I need to do extensive off-game research to know what to jettison, what to pick up, where and when to use it. I am forced to research not even simple spreadsheets in length. The people whom I play with will only use the whole engineers feature if I do the research for them, and I am not sure I will (I am somewhat more than casual about this game, somewhat; but they aren't because life). The mods themselves are an excellent idea. 4-5/10 very good idea, long term replayability so to say but needs revamped material / RNG system.
And now about the roles / activities present:
Bounty Hunting: my main game and income source. It works. The better AI is a blessing. The rewards are okay. I like it. But there are things to improve. First of all the AI should scale a lot More depending on their combat rank. Elite ranked AI should wreck almost everyone, and Harmless AI should just ram into asteroids sometimes. More differentiation, make the rank count. So people can choose their own difficulty in game = crying solved for all (with rewards scaling respectively). Of course there could be some more gme features about it, like more use for the wake scanners in BH etc but not urgent. Maybe with time add some fun twists to BH. 7/10 no more only cause no significant AI rank scaling
Mining: my second most loved activity in game. I used to love it in the scooping days. That said the limpets were needed. But now it is boring, cause you dont need skill, nor brain. Just time and basic knowledge to mine. You did it so well I trust you can improve it. But add something to it that makes me want to not ALT-Tab after launching limpets. Not sure about rating, my wife still likes it, my friend wont even try at gunpoint, I got bored with limpets. 4-7/10
Trading: too complicated for me without the right rewards. I check the commodities, read the description, check my station, my system economy type, planet types, stytem info, station info, everything. I read all info avaialbe (ALL) about neighboring systems. I figure out that X should sell for more in xy system. I double check everything and trade routes. OK. I buy the stuff. I fly there and I Don't turn a proft. . I try it again a few times. Result seems random. hmm. I read forums, watch youtube etc. I also fly around in a couple systems, land on station and take extensive note on paper. I summarize my data and point out another route. I buy the stuff fly there and I turn a profit. A very low profit for the time invested even with a proper ship. . I google. I find sites and apps telling me trade routes. I use them and voilá I turn a decent profit. Actually I earn so much I kinda feel about mining an BH after this. But it is boring so I dont trade much, mostly rares for the fun of it and the sights. 3/10 boring, rewards research outside of the game not inside (not good), rewards ppl with big ships (okay this is uavoidable because capitalism). In other games I like to trade, here I don't. Not sure about fixing it.. didn't even think about it that's how much I don't feel like trading in Elite. But I think it needs some love. Although the rare trading is a lot more acceptable.
Smuggling: I really like this aspect, some excitement right? High risk high reward. It works. I did some smuggling runs on my early days, still plan to do it in bigger ships. But it is not as good as it could be. One of my best memories in life are the Cardamine runs in Freelancer back then, through asteroid belts and wormholes up untill planet Manhattan. Won't ever forget that. You guys should try that, maybe gives ideas how to improve smuggling, but it is already acceptable as is. Just you know.. could be more fun. Han Solo is a a smuggler as well, we should feel epic after a good haul. But after the 10th run you just auto-sneak in (or any other method) and it turns into more profitable trading. 6/10
Exploration: Never rielly sank into it. One of the first things I did after launch was to fly to Coalsack with my wife on New Year's eve. Was awesome. It was good to be so alone so far from home. But it got old for me very soon. That's by far my lowest rank. I admire the people who fly over to Beagle Point and the likes. I just feel there aren't enough stuff to see and find to make me invest so much time. Again I bring an example from Freelancer: did you remember what it was like to fly around the debries fields the 4th time to find that damn pirate base in a ship almost fried by radiation, mines, exploding gas pockets and chased by police and npc BHs? When I landed at last it often felt like salvation. Especially if I had some illegal cargo on me to smuggle through the half sector. Can't really give rating, cause many people seem to love it to bits but I cant commit to a long journey with excitement. Maybe it's just not my thing. But more things to find is awesome. I mean More, not +2, but +20 types of things.
Combat: conflict zones. Good as it is kinda. Thargoids will buff it up. The ability to land on capital ships or something alike would spice it up tho. Otherwise it is good. 7/10
Pirating: seriously?! Worst profession by a large margin. PVE and PVP alike. While everyone likes pirates to some degree. Needs a complete rethink. It is a very very good opportunity for players to feel special and also an integral part of any space theme content. Desperately needs to exist. I bet all those lone wolves would love to be on one of the sides of piracy (pirates vs BHs). The hardware exists as a basis, thats a good start (hatchbraker, fsd interdictor). 1/10
Missions: Seems better, not played enough to be sure about them. But I know that it is important. Most players like their hands held. That's what missions should do. But the recent improvements seem pretty good, so Cheers. No rating cause I haven't extensively tested the current mission system, but certainly better than before.
PVP: too risky, needs lots of credits so it's mostly restricted to non-casual players. Perhaps some 0 rebuy cost events / areas / community goals could turn it up a notch. It feels that many players just avoid it like the plague because they only see a way to lose their hard earned credits. They aren't really wrong about this. And no CQC is not PVP, that's CQC. Also, combat log should be more hard to pull off while newbies should be able to avoid it (double timer?). A low sec / high sec system or something along those lines should make areas for newbies to avoid and PVPers gather for more encounters. More extensive multiple-system community goals perhaps (like, bring xy commodity to zx station from this smallish bubble of systems). ?/10
Conclusion: This is a good game. It aspires to things unheard of. It does some things extremely well and in extremely high quality. But effectively it is a good, polished and detailed simulator, and meanwhile a pretty half-finished game. But with the later changes (like 2.1) it tries to be more like a game. And that is good, because most people want a space game not a hardcore space sim. I like the sim elements, and I don't want an arcade space shooter. But Elite should become a GAME. And to some extent a shiny one. These were my ideas what I would personally do to make it a better Game, and I would not do other things to keep it the SIM it is good being at. And I have to add that if there were at all any other Space SIMs or the likes, they could become my choices. But fact is that there are no games like this for more than a decade (ye mmos and single player stuff but thats another world, and even than they didn't really hit the bar). And that's why many people are here. Should keep them here cause I dont want to fly alone in Elite for a decade at least.
Thanks for reading, I hope I gave some useful feedback. In case a question arises I gladly clarify or add more information (I dont really think it wasn't a long enough post tho). I tried to be honest and precise and not needlessly misemotional. Also, if I offend anyone or you find my post differing from your oppinion I just want to say it is only representing my own personal viewpoint, might be false for everyone else. But I hope it helps a tiny bit, I'd like this game to prosper (not like I have a choice ).
CMDR Vylon
My post is here mainly for the devs to read. I don't aim to start a discussion or have any effect beside the devs reading it and maybe profiting out of it for the future.
First of all, I have Merc edition, Horizons, and did not participate in alpha nor betas.
I play alone, with my wife, with a friend, and got 2 more friends to play, and any mix of these. Did a few hours solo play & private group but mostly Open.
Did not play the original Elite, didn't hear about it in the time. (Yes I am not from UK or US) But I always had affinity towards space games of any kind. Loved X-wing and the such when I was a kid.
But that's it about the background. I will write a detailed Personal oppinion on the whole game from my personal viewpoint. My goal is to give a useful feedback.
I like the game. It is one of my favourite games.
Imo the flight model beats everything on the marker by a large margin. Has the action of more arcade stuff like Freelancer with the seriousness of IL-2. Pure win, and also spectacular. FA off makes it even better. Don't change it, its the closest to perfect possible. 10/10
Ships: They look awesome, sound even better, have characteristics. Very well done. I do not agree with all the design choices but thus sometimes surprise me in a good way. And we have enough of them atm. Could add more paintjobs, would buy more (even tho I am not the type to buy stuff like that). I'd add a few more ships with time but not a big deal, just to inject some freshness. 8-9/10
Sounds: don't think I should elaborate. Although more radio chatter could do wonders (2.1 traffic control is THE very best step towards this). 9/10
Handling, interface, handy stuff, etc.
retty good, have no trouble handling anything, just enough keys on my keyboard to bind the stuff. Bookmarks were the biggest flaw, now handled. Ship HUD color customization is the last issue I feel needed (built in, not the problematic half-proper workaround). 8/10And now onto the important parts.
Galaxy map / Scope: Interesting choice with the 1:1 scale. It translates to me that this is a simulator not just a game. Very good for PR, also very impressive feat, even at the cost of mandatory servers. Although it brings the most part of problems in other areas. But it is in place now so we can only focus on profiting from it.
Factions: This is the main thing tied to the galaxy size. They are too many. Simple as that. Too many and too forgettable, even with the few hand crafted names. In a space this big who cares about a faction with 1 outpost. I just can't get personal about factions. Also the Federation and Empire (ye and Alliance) are too big to be personal about. Its only good for sayings like "Better dead than.."
I think it became obvious for others too quickly, hence the Powerplay. 2/10
Powerplay: No. They are the other side of the horse. Again they are too big, too generalized (well the portraits and namings to make them personalized ends up them being unimaginable. We don't see a group or power, we see a name and a face). They feel like some personal mega-cults of some odd figures. They don't represent groups too weel, they represent 10 persons, most of whom I don't like. I think all the factions and groups should have gone into a middle ground of the present ones. EG.: Sirius Corporation: a bubble on the map of some 150 systems, with the details of a current power in war with these 4-5 other corportions / terrorist groups / pirates / militaries / etc. /etc. There should be about 50-100 factions on the whole map, all hand crafted but nothing too fancy. xy mining, zx navy, zy pirates, you catch my drift. With political relations, rewards and missions to do, system bonuses etc. All Visible on the galaxy map like PP currently, joinable, supportable. 50-100 is enought for "Have you heard of xy at all?" while also not too much for "OMG A declared war on D, what will happen to metal prices now?!"
Overall Powerplay just put another bad layer on an already lacking layer. I'd be better off witout, even if it got removed in flight. 1/10
Surface / SRV: Holy f@kin' god. You actually did it. Nobody expected it a few years ago that something like this would exist! I think it gave many people a very special feel for a while. Kudos for that. I was dreaming like 10 hours landing and driving on planets. But then I woke up and I realized that I cant do on surfaces. POIs are too few, not varied enough, not WORTH it at all. Also the SRV is a nightmare to drive (poor handling, not to mention the turret). And it is very tedious with the blue circles, etc. AND it is strongly encouraged to do because of the materials and synthesis. Absolutely lacking overall. Not to mention it is not even a space sim.
The basic idea is very nice, but I'd have waited 1-2 Years! with this feature. But now that it is here, is should get tremendous amount of love, things to do, and generally content and reward to make people WANT to drive in SRV, not to force them to do it. I loved to land and drive into craters for a few hours. Now I'd refuse to do it for 20 mins even for money. 10/10 for the actual realization of landing on planets in a 1:1 scale galaxy, but 2/10 from a long run gameplay perspective (and that's what sells and make people stay now imo).
CQC: Yes I see that it had to come. And it also seems good on paper. A place to fight, play short sessions, and train without risking your charachter and work invested. Also with rewards for it in the career. Sounds awesome. TBH, it seems like a better training sim for the game. I ran that single player training ragged, even after launch. But tbh I never even tried cqc. CBA. Not interested. Doesnt add anything to the career. Maybe (I really hope) it hooked some people who then tried the main game or at least financed the project for a month. But for me it doesnt add anything to the game at all, 0. ?/10 I dont rate this, cause it was a smart move and it looks good on paper even in hindsight, but it's technically not even part of the game.
Engineers: Haven't played enough to be sure But my impressions: new materials are okay, more types less adjectives would be better tho (again harder to differentiate = less charcteristics). Material inventory needs rehaul. Already too much carried but not enough at the same time. I dont like to throw loot out the hatch, but I have to. Hard work to obtain, and most of it is no use. Also, too many different sources for mods = I can't choose activity, it is mandtory for mods to do certain things (no good). Also, too visible RNG, come on, the sliders and even a @#&°$¤Đ a casino wheel. Outrageous. RNG sure but not like this. Although RNG on drops, and RNG on results feels a bit too much, Because I feel I CAN'T just play and end up with the right mats. I need to do extensive off-game research to know what to jettison, what to pick up, where and when to use it. I am forced to research not even simple spreadsheets in length. The people whom I play with will only use the whole engineers feature if I do the research for them, and I am not sure I will (I am somewhat more than casual about this game, somewhat; but they aren't because life). The mods themselves are an excellent idea. 4-5/10 very good idea, long term replayability so to say but needs revamped material / RNG system.
And now about the roles / activities present:
Bounty Hunting: my main game and income source. It works. The better AI is a blessing. The rewards are okay. I like it. But there are things to improve. First of all the AI should scale a lot More depending on their combat rank. Elite ranked AI should wreck almost everyone, and Harmless AI should just ram into asteroids sometimes. More differentiation, make the rank count. So people can choose their own difficulty in game = crying solved for all (with rewards scaling respectively). Of course there could be some more gme features about it, like more use for the wake scanners in BH etc but not urgent. Maybe with time add some fun twists to BH. 7/10 no more only cause no significant AI rank scaling
Mining: my second most loved activity in game. I used to love it in the scooping days. That said the limpets were needed. But now it is boring, cause you dont need skill, nor brain. Just time and basic knowledge to mine. You did it so well I trust you can improve it. But add something to it that makes me want to not ALT-Tab after launching limpets. Not sure about rating, my wife still likes it, my friend wont even try at gunpoint, I got bored with limpets. 4-7/10
Trading: too complicated for me without the right rewards. I check the commodities, read the description, check my station, my system economy type, planet types, stytem info, station info, everything. I read all info avaialbe (ALL) about neighboring systems. I figure out that X should sell for more in xy system. I double check everything and trade routes. OK. I buy the stuff. I fly there and I Don't turn a proft. . I try it again a few times. Result seems random. hmm. I read forums, watch youtube etc. I also fly around in a couple systems, land on station and take extensive note on paper. I summarize my data and point out another route. I buy the stuff fly there and I turn a profit. A very low profit for the time invested even with a proper ship. . I google. I find sites and apps telling me trade routes. I use them and voilá I turn a decent profit. Actually I earn so much I kinda feel about mining an BH after this. But it is boring so I dont trade much, mostly rares for the fun of it and the sights. 3/10 boring, rewards research outside of the game not inside (not good), rewards ppl with big ships (okay this is uavoidable because capitalism). In other games I like to trade, here I don't. Not sure about fixing it.. didn't even think about it that's how much I don't feel like trading in Elite. But I think it needs some love. Although the rare trading is a lot more acceptable.
Smuggling: I really like this aspect, some excitement right? High risk high reward. It works. I did some smuggling runs on my early days, still plan to do it in bigger ships. But it is not as good as it could be. One of my best memories in life are the Cardamine runs in Freelancer back then, through asteroid belts and wormholes up untill planet Manhattan. Won't ever forget that. You guys should try that, maybe gives ideas how to improve smuggling, but it is already acceptable as is. Just you know.. could be more fun. Han Solo is a a smuggler as well, we should feel epic after a good haul. But after the 10th run you just auto-sneak in (or any other method) and it turns into more profitable trading. 6/10
Exploration: Never rielly sank into it. One of the first things I did after launch was to fly to Coalsack with my wife on New Year's eve. Was awesome. It was good to be so alone so far from home. But it got old for me very soon. That's by far my lowest rank. I admire the people who fly over to Beagle Point and the likes. I just feel there aren't enough stuff to see and find to make me invest so much time. Again I bring an example from Freelancer: did you remember what it was like to fly around the debries fields the 4th time to find that damn pirate base in a ship almost fried by radiation, mines, exploding gas pockets and chased by police and npc BHs? When I landed at last it often felt like salvation. Especially if I had some illegal cargo on me to smuggle through the half sector. Can't really give rating, cause many people seem to love it to bits but I cant commit to a long journey with excitement. Maybe it's just not my thing. But more things to find is awesome. I mean More, not +2, but +20 types of things.
Combat: conflict zones. Good as it is kinda. Thargoids will buff it up. The ability to land on capital ships or something alike would spice it up tho. Otherwise it is good. 7/10
Pirating: seriously?! Worst profession by a large margin. PVE and PVP alike. While everyone likes pirates to some degree. Needs a complete rethink. It is a very very good opportunity for players to feel special and also an integral part of any space theme content. Desperately needs to exist. I bet all those lone wolves would love to be on one of the sides of piracy (pirates vs BHs). The hardware exists as a basis, thats a good start (hatchbraker, fsd interdictor). 1/10
Missions: Seems better, not played enough to be sure about them. But I know that it is important. Most players like their hands held. That's what missions should do. But the recent improvements seem pretty good, so Cheers. No rating cause I haven't extensively tested the current mission system, but certainly better than before.
PVP: too risky, needs lots of credits so it's mostly restricted to non-casual players. Perhaps some 0 rebuy cost events / areas / community goals could turn it up a notch. It feels that many players just avoid it like the plague because they only see a way to lose their hard earned credits. They aren't really wrong about this. And no CQC is not PVP, that's CQC. Also, combat log should be more hard to pull off while newbies should be able to avoid it (double timer?). A low sec / high sec system or something along those lines should make areas for newbies to avoid and PVPers gather for more encounters. More extensive multiple-system community goals perhaps (like, bring xy commodity to zx station from this smallish bubble of systems). ?/10
Conclusion: This is a good game. It aspires to things unheard of. It does some things extremely well and in extremely high quality. But effectively it is a good, polished and detailed simulator, and meanwhile a pretty half-finished game. But with the later changes (like 2.1) it tries to be more like a game. And that is good, because most people want a space game not a hardcore space sim. I like the sim elements, and I don't want an arcade space shooter. But Elite should become a GAME. And to some extent a shiny one. These were my ideas what I would personally do to make it a better Game, and I would not do other things to keep it the SIM it is good being at. And I have to add that if there were at all any other Space SIMs or the likes, they could become my choices. But fact is that there are no games like this for more than a decade (ye mmos and single player stuff but thats another world, and even than they didn't really hit the bar). And that's why many people are here. Should keep them here cause I dont want to fly alone in Elite for a decade at least.
Thanks for reading, I hope I gave some useful feedback. In case a question arises I gladly clarify or add more information (I dont really think it wasn't a long enough post tho
). I tried to be honest and precise and not needlessly misemotional. Also, if I offend anyone or you find my post differing from your oppinion I just want to say it is only representing my own personal viewpoint, might be false for everyone else. But I hope it helps a tiny bit, I'd like this game to prosper (not like I have a choice ).CMDR Vylon
