The upgrade recipe along with the materials drops reminds me of one of those games you'd see at a McDonald's or some other fast food place, where you collect all the pieces and if you complete the set you get some big prize. The missing piece is always the control point, and makes collecting all the others basically an act in futility but it gets your hopes up short term until you learn to recognize these tactics companies use to lure you into this silly carrot chase.
This is why people find work arounds. This is why people relog at mission crash sites 100 times to get materials, and why people sell SDPs and the like to bartenders on their own fleet carriers, then transfer them back and do again. Most people don't want to spend a week trying to find a settlement defense plan, much less 10, and forum anecdotes about someone finding several once upon a time don't resolve the issue.
People are going to do whatever gets them to their goal, and most of the time the goal isn't to grind. Maybe that shortens the life of the game for them, maybe it doesn't. If these people already have that play style then the game isn't a life commitment in the 1st place. I don't think the game should be made easier to suit those folks. I do, however, think the expectations should take into consideration the reward vs time required to achieve.
If we couldn't sell or buy (or trade) materials, would everyone be just as content finding all those graphene mats, optical lens, aerogels and just ignoring anything that's not in your current build recipe? It seems the developers at least understood that much, ergo the trading at the bartender. In EDO, the magical missing piece is always data. It's not a coincidence that radioactivity and smear campaigns are plentiful but weapon test data and settlement defense plans are rare. FDev even capitulated a bit by offering a bypass of 3 level on some weapons and suits by offering them one-off at the pioneer stores, first come first serve.
The legacy game offered materials but the game wasn't simply a conduit to materials. I played the game for years before I started collecting mats for upgrading. In EDO, you basically start upgrading right away, and the game is just a conduit for upgrading. It's upgrading to be better at getting materials to upgrade, unless you PvP.
But if I am being totally honest, outside of chasing suit and weapon upgrades, what's in EDO where settlements and missions are related? Reputation can be gained without ever stepping foot on the surface of a station or planet. So when you're fully updated on all your suits and your weapons, most of EDO is basically material suppliers pretending to be settlements. Once you don't need their materials, what then? Will you still go there and just ignore the materials? Maybe an assassination, maybe a power recovery? Perhaps if you're participating in the Thargoid narrative and repowering settlements, that's something. Apart from selling these materials to commanders who don't want the grind, I don't see any other content in EDO after only a few weeks that Horizons wasn't already providing. I do like the views though. (exobiology notwithstanding in any of this).
It seems to me there's plenty work arounds for everything already if It only took me a few weeks without even grinding to upgrade everything. I just didn't do the game advertised routes. I took the forum advertised routes instead.
This is why people find work arounds. This is why people relog at mission crash sites 100 times to get materials, and why people sell SDPs and the like to bartenders on their own fleet carriers, then transfer them back and do again. Most people don't want to spend a week trying to find a settlement defense plan, much less 10, and forum anecdotes about someone finding several once upon a time don't resolve the issue.
People are going to do whatever gets them to their goal, and most of the time the goal isn't to grind. Maybe that shortens the life of the game for them, maybe it doesn't. If these people already have that play style then the game isn't a life commitment in the 1st place. I don't think the game should be made easier to suit those folks. I do, however, think the expectations should take into consideration the reward vs time required to achieve.
If we couldn't sell or buy (or trade) materials, would everyone be just as content finding all those graphene mats, optical lens, aerogels and just ignoring anything that's not in your current build recipe? It seems the developers at least understood that much, ergo the trading at the bartender. In EDO, the magical missing piece is always data. It's not a coincidence that radioactivity and smear campaigns are plentiful but weapon test data and settlement defense plans are rare. FDev even capitulated a bit by offering a bypass of 3 level on some weapons and suits by offering them one-off at the pioneer stores, first come first serve.
The legacy game offered materials but the game wasn't simply a conduit to materials. I played the game for years before I started collecting mats for upgrading. In EDO, you basically start upgrading right away, and the game is just a conduit for upgrading. It's upgrading to be better at getting materials to upgrade, unless you PvP.
But if I am being totally honest, outside of chasing suit and weapon upgrades, what's in EDO where settlements and missions are related? Reputation can be gained without ever stepping foot on the surface of a station or planet. So when you're fully updated on all your suits and your weapons, most of EDO is basically material suppliers pretending to be settlements. Once you don't need their materials, what then? Will you still go there and just ignore the materials? Maybe an assassination, maybe a power recovery? Perhaps if you're participating in the Thargoid narrative and repowering settlements, that's something. Apart from selling these materials to commanders who don't want the grind, I don't see any other content in EDO after only a few weeks that Horizons wasn't already providing. I do like the views though. (exobiology notwithstanding in any of this).
It seems to me there's plenty work arounds for everything already if It only took me a few weeks without even grinding to upgrade everything. I just didn't do the game advertised routes. I took the forum advertised routes instead.
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