I've had Elite Dangerous since beta, and I've gone from really liking the game to finding it boring and back to liking it again. I agree with lots of others that the game is a bit on the shallow side in terms of the players interaction with the galaxy, but that doesn't mean that you can't have some fun with it.
When I started out I played the game in a similar way to how I would have played the original Elite or Frontier:Elite 2, and followed the Buy Goods>Set Course>Fly to Station>Dock>Sell Goods plan. This kept me interested for the first year or so, along with trade missions, but I tired of it while waiting for FD to add new stuff to the game and decided to try bounty hunting. So I started exploring USS's and looking for wanted ships and doing bounty missions. This again ran a bit flat after a while, but Horizons released and I started exploring planets... Well, most of the planets are the same and there's not much to do on them... I got a bit bored of the whole thing and shelved it.
I started playing the game again about 2 weeks ago, but I've changed my style of play. I read in an interview that David Braben is surprised that many of the players have found the game to be a grind and have not explored enough to see the variety in the game. This made me wonder if my approach to the game was all wrong. So, I started with a new Horizons Sidewinder and approached the game like I would any other open world game. Instead of just going from point A to point B buying and selling goods, or hunting targets, I started taking a wider approach, like I would with other open world games where often I wouldn't always tackle missions right away and would take my time over them and explore around. Previously I'd played ED in a very law abiding manner, not bothering with stolen cargo, not taking any smuggling missions, not taking any of the "cut the power" or "open the gate" missions... Basically being lawful in ED is very, very boring... What I've been doing instead is a bit of everything. Some exploring (can't get too far with the Sidey yet, but I almost have enough for a Cobra) both in space and on the more interesting looking planets. I found lots of salvage on planets that's boosted my cash a bit. I've been looking at more of the signal sources (that's gotten me into a couple of scrapes I only just escaped from) and picked up illegal salvage from them to trade on the black market (which I'd ignored in the past). I've even taken more missions types, which I admit I had to look on YouTube to find the solution to a couple (the mission text isn't very clear) but I got thorough them.
So, basically, do more than one thing. Don't just stick to trading as it becomes a grind really quickly. Same with bounty hunting, exploring and piracy. Also take a slightly more ambiguous approach to the law in the game, don't just stick to being Mr Good, but don't be Mr. Evil either. Be somewhere in-between. And finally, explore about. Most missions give you hours to complete them, so when you get to a new system you've never been to, use the time to explore it, look at the planets, drive around on the more geologically interesting ones, look for salvage (if you have the cargo space), check out a few signal sources, pick up the stolen cargo... Sure you might pick up a bounty here or there. But, if you do, get out of the system and wait for the heat to die off before you go back. Most bounties and wanted statuses are only small 5-10 minute things anyway that are usually forgotten if you H-Jump out of the system, at least as far as I've seen so far. Oh and try not to just stick to one system, fly about within the bubble, moving from place to place. You don't need a "home base" your ship is where you live.
When I started out I played the game in a similar way to how I would have played the original Elite or Frontier:Elite 2, and followed the Buy Goods>Set Course>Fly to Station>Dock>Sell Goods plan. This kept me interested for the first year or so, along with trade missions, but I tired of it while waiting for FD to add new stuff to the game and decided to try bounty hunting. So I started exploring USS's and looking for wanted ships and doing bounty missions. This again ran a bit flat after a while, but Horizons released and I started exploring planets... Well, most of the planets are the same and there's not much to do on them... I got a bit bored of the whole thing and shelved it.
I started playing the game again about 2 weeks ago, but I've changed my style of play. I read in an interview that David Braben is surprised that many of the players have found the game to be a grind and have not explored enough to see the variety in the game. This made me wonder if my approach to the game was all wrong. So, I started with a new Horizons Sidewinder and approached the game like I would any other open world game. Instead of just going from point A to point B buying and selling goods, or hunting targets, I started taking a wider approach, like I would with other open world games where often I wouldn't always tackle missions right away and would take my time over them and explore around. Previously I'd played ED in a very law abiding manner, not bothering with stolen cargo, not taking any smuggling missions, not taking any of the "cut the power" or "open the gate" missions... Basically being lawful in ED is very, very boring... What I've been doing instead is a bit of everything. Some exploring (can't get too far with the Sidey yet, but I almost have enough for a Cobra) both in space and on the more interesting looking planets. I found lots of salvage on planets that's boosted my cash a bit. I've been looking at more of the signal sources (that's gotten me into a couple of scrapes I only just escaped from) and picked up illegal salvage from them to trade on the black market (which I'd ignored in the past). I've even taken more missions types, which I admit I had to look on YouTube to find the solution to a couple (the mission text isn't very clear) but I got thorough them.
So, basically, do more than one thing. Don't just stick to trading as it becomes a grind really quickly. Same with bounty hunting, exploring and piracy. Also take a slightly more ambiguous approach to the law in the game, don't just stick to being Mr Good, but don't be Mr. Evil either. Be somewhere in-between. And finally, explore about. Most missions give you hours to complete them, so when you get to a new system you've never been to, use the time to explore it, look at the planets, drive around on the more geologically interesting ones, look for salvage (if you have the cargo space), check out a few signal sources, pick up the stolen cargo... Sure you might pick up a bounty here or there. But, if you do, get out of the system and wait for the heat to die off before you go back. Most bounties and wanted statuses are only small 5-10 minute things anyway that are usually forgotten if you H-Jump out of the system, at least as far as I've seen so far. Oh and try not to just stick to one system, fly about within the bubble, moving from place to place. You don't need a "home base" your ship is where you live.
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