DEV's: Such bad missions and functions I never seen before

[Dragon Breathe]

So this is Feedback and Suggestion forum area, I like to give you some feedback and suggestions...

In the past I played ELITE on C64 and Amiga. Later played all versions of the X-Series from EgoSoft.
Since 6 years I play EvE Online. Now somewhat bored of EvE I saw there exist a new ELITE and thought to give it a try.

So I play for 3 days now and these were 3 days full of annoyance and frustration.

As a new player, but experienced with similar games named above, the first I met in ELITE was a bad
control/keyboard configuration I never seen before. Still try to figure out the logic behind this. But afraid, there is None.
Did you ever hear the term 'barrier-free'?
Game controls feedback 1:
Why behave the ESC key different? Sometimes it just close the window one has actually open. This is logical and expected.
But often it open the players menu and kick you out of the game. Thats not expected.
Suggestion:
Make fundamental game functions (like Configuration Menue's, Saving score, etc.) accessible via F1 to F12 keys.
Use ESC key universal for closing opened menues - just one step back in a function tree with each ESC keystroke.
Game controls feedback 2:
Usage of Cursor key's behave not similar.
Suggestion:
Make Cursor keys working always the same in menues and windows to maneuver easy thru the game.
Game controls feedback 3:
Communication with stations and other things could be much easier. It take to much time to click through the menues until
found the necessary function. Why so difficult?
Suggestion:
Pressing a key (for example 'C') should direct open a communication with the object I target.
So instead of: Pressing '1' - Maneuver to 'Contacts' - choose the Station - choose the "Request landing" it can work like a charm with:
Target Station - press 'C' - Choose desired function OR
Target player - Press 'C' - Choose function (Chat, mail, etc...)
Other important functions may behave in same way.


Now, after spending hours and hours to finish missions I must say I could NOT manage to finish ONLY ONE of these missions successful.
I read a lot of tips in the Forum. Then did missions again considering these tips. But the tips did not help. :-(
Planetary surface missions feedback:
I flew and drove hours and hours to find the mission area and objective. But found nothing.
Where is the sense behind to tell in mission briefing not more as: There is a crashed Pilot nearby, go out rescue him... ?
Nearby? This is really a LOT of information! (just sarkasm)
Then I fly out at a height of 2 KM to see blue circles. Find a lot of blue circles. Maneuver in middle of a blue circle. Go down to surface.
Investigate the surface via flying and driving with SRV for ages. But found nothing. Head on to the next blue circle... Same again.
Nothing to find on surface around the middle of the blue circle. After done this for frustrating 10 hours the last 2 days meanwhile
I only can tell this is the biggest **** I've ever seen. :-(
Suggestion:
1st: More Information in the mission briefing! Give me a Picture of the item I have to find. Give me a distance where to seek.
Give me a direction North, South, East, West (and a compass in SRV an Ship with these directions) where to search for.
2nd: Or give me a working scanner in Ship and SRV to find the mission area and mission item. In year 3000 the technology should be better...
3rd: Or give me a Bookmark of the mission area and mission item.

Space missions feedback:
So I tried space missions: Fly to System xxxx and give the Person named xxxxxx yyyyyy this item in space...
"OK sir. May you tell me a bit more please? A star system is huge. At which planet or station can I find the Person?"
"We dont want to give you too much information, this may harass you. The less info you get, the better will be your annoyance *evil grin*"
So I flew to the system, but the person to hand over the item I did not find. :-(
Suggestion:
1st: More Information in the mission briefing! Give me an idea where to find the person (or Station, or item, etc.).
2nd: Or give me a kind of scanner in Ship which Points me in the right direction. In year 3000 the technology should be better...
3rd: The board computer of my ship should guid me...

May be you should try out one of the X-Series games or EvE Online to get a feeling and knowledge about 'easy access' and 'easy handling'.

So enough for now. If I see/find additional may be I tell you...
But one Thing you should mark. To frustrate and annoy players, especially new ones, is not the best way to make a game successful.
I am just about to throw the game in the next corner and wipe it from harddisk.
And in this case, I cannot tell any buddy of mine seriously to give money for this game...

 

[xondk]

.

So I want to hopefully help you a bit.
1: ESC behaves like a 'back' key, this is very common behaviour in the majority of games, and once you reach the 'main' window hitting it again usually opens a menu, again very common.
2: All this is choice, and all something you can edit in controls to your hearts content, some people like one kind of config some people enjoy another, create the one you like.
3: An interesting suggestion, contextual menu's for targets and similar might be an interesting thing for them to add.

Can't can't comment on missions but X-series and Eve online are _NOT_ in my opinion great examples, mostly because especially with x series the early states of the games are riddle with horrific stuff, Eve online included, if you played during the early years you'd remember how horrifying it was, so yeah.

Comparing Elite Dangerous 1 year old to X-(any really) or Eve online when they were one year old? Elite has way...way....way less issues, compare it with those two games when they are 10 years old?....yeah they have gotten 10 years of polish.. But lets not even mention x-rebirth...
That said I want to make something clear, I enjoyed both X-series and Eve online despite their flaws, but using them as shining flawless examples...is wrong, because they weren't, good games, yes, flawless no.

And there are mechanics that you need to get used to, one thing being that Elite isn't going to hold your hand point you to where you need to go as much as many other games.

 

[DocLooshkin]

Hello, Dragon Breathe. I'm sorry you're experiencing such frustration.

First, I should affirm that ED is not really supposed to be an easy game. As Xondk said, it's meant to be reasonably challenging. That said, the game would benefit from being clearer at times. The basic way missions work isn't always obvious or easy to discover - and in some cases, unreliable programming can make them more difficult or even impossible to complete, without prior, externally-sourced knowledge of how to trigger a needed event.

For understanding missions, I strongly suggest you visit YouTube and look for the ED mission videos there: these will show you the basics of what you're supposed to be doing and how to do it - and sometimes provide useful information about what to do when they fail to work, such as when a contact doesn't spawn as expected.

With patience and effort, ED is a rewarding and enjoyable game. Good luck, old horse.

 

[Dragon Breathe]

Thank you for your reply, xdonk.

So I want to hopefully help you a bit.
1: ESC behaves like a 'back' key, this is very common behaviour in the majority of games, and once you reach the 'main' window hitting it again usually opens a menu, again very common.

Yes thats right, ist common. And it should work always same.
But doesn't in ELITE. For example open the Bulletin Board. Then press ESC. This do not close Bulleting Board, what is expected. It opens the Players Menue.
There are other windows where this happen too. One would expect for pressing ESC to close the actual open window and not to open any other menues.

one thing being that Elite isn't going to hold your hand point you to where you need to go as much as many other games.

Many games do not hold your hand. But they are programmed in a way that reading mission information carefully will lead you to success.
But ELITE don't give you enough information.
Let players fly or drive for hours over a uninteresing landscape with a lot of stones to receive a message at the end that the mission time ran out is really not funny.
It's just boring, time consuming in senseless doings and in the end frustrating.

Especially the planet surface missions need a excessive labour. It is just stupid at the moment with these blue circles which show you a point of interest from 2Km above.
And then when you elevator down to surface it shows nothing and you need to seek for ages to find nothing in the end. Or you find different things, but not what you need for the mission.

 

[Dragon Breathe]

I strongly suggest you visit YouTube and look for the ED mission videos there: these will show you the basics of what you're supposed to be doing and how to do it - and sometimes provide useful information about what to do when they fail to work, such as when a contact doesn't spawn as expected.

Thanks for the hint, DocLooshkin. I already viewed some Youtube Videos. And did what they showed me. But this helped not for the missions on planet surface.
This blue circle thingy is really a mess.
Additional suggestion for the DEVS:
Make circles with different colours. Blue for any kind of POI. Green for the POI which content the mission item of the taken mission.
Do not let the coloured circles disappear when hovering down to surface.
May be this will help a bit to not fly/drive senseless around for hours to receive a message at the end that the time for the mission expired.

With patience and effort, ED is a rewarding and enjoyable game. Good luck, old horse.

I have a lot of patience, but a grotty programming or a lack of information annoys me.
There are ppl on earth which do not have endless time for gaming, often 2 or 3 hours a day only.
These hours to spend for a boring flight over a dull landscape without any success just kill all joy.
Same luck to you and fly safe.