Modes ED "Beyond" Disappointing, anyone have similar feelings?

[major_bomba]

MAIN POST UPDATED.

So, this got quite a few clicks, replies and people off.

Also alot of people +1 me, (far more than the amount of zealous defenders in the following thread), so i am not alone stating that "Blaze your way" should be charged with "false advertisement" and renamed to "Grind your way".

I have removed and reorganized the content of this post, so it, hopefully, shows better what i mean and removed the "rant" away.

1. Combat
- single building block present
- CZ/RES/crime sweep is the same renamed instance
- no higher goal nor scenarios/defences/invasions/battlegrounds, just chaotic 1v1 ship grind.
- theres alot of existing mmos showing what can be done to change tech-demo into a campaign that keeps the player having fun
- combat gets boring as it looks exactly the same, single aircarft or wing farming endlessly for claims/coupons/cash

2. Trade
- clicking a slider and jumping between stations
- to ease the grind, people use third party tools to find the best trade route

3. Exploration
- some find it fun
- after scanning N plantets in X systems you have seen everything.

4. Engineers
- no alternative gamestyles, just +% upgrades
- easily recogniezed as the new base powerlevel
- no "options" in the end, more grind to unlock, grind to get mats, grind to get good rolls
- a supposed "fix" - change the lower limit to the current roll - not a fix for anything

5. Magic material storage
- why 1000?
- why teleporting between ships?
- just a lot of why's...

6. Powerplay
- dead.

7. Community goals
- more grind, just a single "scenario" (material transfer/bounties)
- each one revolving around people doing space-trucking


8. Guardians
- one mission that is done by 0.00001% of community on their own
- 1% (maybe) did it with printed out cheatsheets


9. Thargoids
- awesome idea
- game is lacking content
- thargoids have nothing to interfere with as players are either farming red ships in CZ or shoving cargo over.


10. Mining
- limpet design, insanely cumbersome "make 200 tonnes of limpets into 200 tonnes of cargo"
- prospector limpet role design, leads to even greater limpet cargo hold needed
- better than trading - a minigame
- with current rewards, has no impact on the game itself, like petbattles in wow (except pet battles in wow has more content than entire ED)


11. Flying - https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/384871-Blaspheming-against-the-flight-model
- any explanation for maximal speed limits on ships?
- acceleration should be used instead (of max speed) when a more agile ship has to outrun a bigger ship
- yaw/roll/pitch on some ships make no sense. theres no sane explanation for a space craft to have different speeds there

12. People are watching NETFLIX while playing your game and claim they are having fun.


13. Ship design
- why most ppl fly pythons / anacondas?
- there are some niche ships but largely ignored (or treated like stepping stone for python/anaconda/cutter/corvette)
- module sizes are broken. If we take x2 modifier based on cargo racks sizes then it quickly gets ridiculous when you try to estimate the efficiency of given module in regards to its size.
- how much aircraft space does a ADS needs? Size-1. Why big ships have modules sizes down to 3. Unable to split them, leading to a fun situation when a giant craft like cutter can choose between docking computer OR ads but not both, coz there is no space.


14. Ranking with empire/federation
- people complain about loosing sanity when they want to reach the big2 "fast"
- "slow" way means "never", at least for me. (missions are repetitive, restarting in a new system for a new rankup mission feels like a slap)
- no incentive to go thru this grind other than the ships... but even then, anaconda is still pretty good, so why bother.


15. Right now the best way to experience this game is to watch ObsidianAnt's videos.

My main pain with ED is that in a world of possibilities to choose from we got a game that is bare bones with questionable design choices.

Fixes might be coming, eg mining fix is scheduled to happen in q4 next year.

Initially i was making fun of Star citizen, but now im not sure whats better: release a full but incredibly dull grind game, or release modules that are playable, albeit very very short.

Thanks! Fly safe.

 

[LJITimate]

if you dont like it make your own space game. they did listen and said that they would go to the core gameplay in 2018. anyway, I quite like things like landing on moons or trading and combat, I don't know what you are on about

 

[JosiahD]

Well, to each their own I guess. While I've been critical of certain things to do with Elite: Dangerous over the years, I tend to prefer to be a glass half full kind of guy and revel in the fact that I have an Elite game to play, for all its flaws. Is it perfect? Of course not. Is it as bad as some make out? Not in my opinion - I don't even thing the mile wide, inch deep analogy is all that accurate to be honest. Overall I'm happy with the Expo reveals - I would have liked a sneak peek at the new mining and exploration tools that are supposedly coming, but can't say I'm disappointed in what we got at the Expo.

 

[zombieapocalypse]

Maybe they should put you in charge OP? You're clearly full of ideas and an expert in game design and programming.

 

[GreyAreaUK]

I find the codename beyond amusing. For me, the 2018 roadmap look like below-minimal-plan and i find its beyond disappointing. Shocking in fact.

.

Le sigh.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

Nice story. Pretty funny too.

 

[nexxo]

So... you don't like it then?

Take a trip down memory lane and read the reviews of EvE Online and No Man's Sky when they first came out. You'll find some interesting similarities. It takes time for a complex game to develop. Give it time --like, a decade.

 

[Knightshark]

i wouldn't be surprised if they present the next paid expansion shortly after "Beyond" ends. They want to abandon the season model. One way to do this is to develop the expansion first, then sell it, instead of the other way around. So, is is possible they are working on this expansion already and will be during 2018. Beyond that i don't agree with you anyway. What they have shown is great. I just hope the deliver some substantial improvements to mining, trading, and exploration.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Lots in there to like.

Nice rework on visuals
Better mining
Better exploration
More ships
Better missions
Not interested in player squadrons but that is fine I am not against them....


Hugely disappointed FD have still abandoned the NPC equivalents of all the MP features that are in the DDF.
I also wish FD had talked about the longer term future a little in broad strokes because horizons lasting 3 years minimum was unexpected.

So over all a mixed bag for me

 

[major_bomba]

Maybe they should put you in charge OP? You're clearly full of ideas and an expert in game design and programming.

Throwing few ideas around and stating my opinion does not make me an expert. I was just asking, in the title, if anyone thinks the same. I know the messy details of development, was in dev department for quite a lot and last few in devops. As for putting in charge, UK pays too little in tech areas. There are better places. Unless the job can be fully remote. Then maybe!

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

Throwing few ideas around and stating my opinion does not make me an expert. I was just asking, in the title, if anyone thinks the same. I know the messy details of development, was in dev department for quite a lot and last few in devops. As for putting in charge, UK pays too little in tech areas. There are better places. Unless the job can be fully remote. Then maybe!

Well, judging from your post, you wouldn't even qualify as junior for anything, sorry. That was total gamer entitlement and lack of understanding and context.

Good part though - you aren't only one.

 

[Urbanski101]

I understand the frustration and the need to vent but I have to disagree with much of what you said OP.

I don't doubt FDevs passion or skill, however some of the design choices have been baffling.

The Beyond announcement told us roughly what to expect and when but didn't go into lots of real detail. The one thing Sandro did say about engineer rolls has been picked up and dissected by the community, it was one example off the top of his head.

I'm expecting way more core content improvement than was discussed at FX17 but without the details it's all speculation.

I do applaud FDev for Beyond though...it would have been much more profitable to plough on with a new mega feature like space legs or atmospheric planets without fixing the underlying features of the game. The only thing is that I (probably along with everyone else) want to know exactly what they will fix and what improvement will be made....I accept that won't happen until much closer to the patch release / beta test so I'll have to be patient.

Whilst some argue Beyond is a sign that FDev is winding down, I'd argue the opposite, I think that once they address the core features / mechanics it will give them the platform to implement those big updates more seamlessly into the game.

 

[Vardaugas]

FDev should be doing what I want, not what they want. After all, I am a paying customer. They would be bankrupt without me. Which actually may happen if they don't cater to me as I will not give them any more money.

 

[major_bomba]

Lots in there to like.

Nice rework on visuals
Better mining
Better exploration
More ships
Better missions
Not interested in player squadrons but that is fine I am not against them....


Hugely disappointed FD have still abandoned the NPC equivalents of all the MP features that are in the DDF.
I also wish FD had talked about the longer term future a little in broad strokes because horizons lasting 3 years minimum was unexpected.

So over all a mixed bag for me

Visual rework - meh. I played games on atari not because the graphics was awesome but because the game was something new and captivating. Visual side is nice-to-have. But if your foundation is shaking, changing the curtain color is not the smartest decision.

Better mining, yes in q4! So between 12 and 14 months from now. For something that right after release was classified as "tech-demo-alfa" and "needs-redesign".

Beter exploration. I want to believe (tm)

More ships. Yes, but the current options are not competitive. You have few ships that are go-to ships, the rest is just background that some niche player use.

Better missions. Procedural generation will always be boring. Theres a reason that MMOs have teams of ppl working on quest design.

Squadrons, yes! FINALLY SOME PROPER MULTIPLAYER.

All in all. IMHO this is a weak plan. Good one, from a standpoint of "they-cant-possibly-screw-that-up". Theres no possiblity to "under-deliver".

Sad thing is, you have to like ED right now, as theres no other choice. Like in 80s in Poland. When there was meat in the market, it was . But people were willing to kill you for stating that the meat was. It was the only meat they had.

 

[InlineSix]

Dear OP,

I am constantly attacked for criticizing Frontier Developments, but from my POV your little rage quit rant is utter <self censored>.

Frontier has made truck loads of mistakes and the game is far from being bug free or balanced.

BUT (capital letters intended)

This is a small company and a giant package of code. There has to be a focus on something. By selling Horizons and promising delivery they had to focus on new features' implementation - even if that would turn out to be a wild trip for everyone involved.

Now they're focusing on a minimum level of new gadgets and features to emphasize stability, debugging and balancing and you start a rant about it. I'm out of words, honestly.

Come back in 4-6 months, I beg you - and enjoy whatever you will see then.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

Sad thing is, you have to like ED right now, as theres no other choice. Like in 80s in Poland. When there was meat in the market, it was. But people were willing to kill you for stating that the meat was. It was the only meat they had.

Maybe it means your expectations are way off and unrealistic?

 

[InlineSix]

FDev should be doing what I want, not what they want. After all, I am a paying customer. They would be bankrupt without me. Which actually may happen if they don't cater to me as I will not give them any more money.

As this is not a subscription game and gamers grow on trees, they won't ever go bankrupt as long as they can tease new folks into the game by spreading news about ALIENNNNNZZZZZZZZZZZZ - just kidding

 

[CMDR Crumpeteer]

You want to cut the galaxy down to 1/100000000 its current size?

You think you can't trade without EDDB?

You think combat is a "1v1 dogfighting tech demo"?

You think every Thargoid encounter is the same?

You think you've seen everything after 50 systems?

You think the only reason people are still playing is cash exploits?

You think planet surfaces are just for shooting rocks?



Go home OP, you're drunk.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

FDev should be doing what I want, not what they want. After all, I am a paying customer. They would be bankrupt without me. Which actually may happen if they don't cater to me as I will not give them any more money.

It is not how it works. Company rolls out game. People read reviews, buy it, like it, don't like it, play it for a while, get bored of it, move on, come back or don't...that's how life cycle of the game goes.

Now, you don't like something, you provide feedback and see if devs can address that. Not everything can be solved - sometimes - heck, in many times - game is just not click with someone. There's really no need to go on bashing game you don't like. You don't like it, say it, and leave it. Lingering on just makes it worse.

But company and client relationship isn't 'client is always right'. Shocking I know, but reality is, there are limits to everything. You don't pay 1M for FD to fundamentally rewrite game to your liking. If you do, you are an investor...but even then good luck finding support in lines of shareholders.

Sometimes moving on is smartest choice. If you find out you don't like ED in few hours time, you are allowed to receive refund.

 

[charognard]

You want to cut the galaxy down to 1/100000000 its current size?

You think you can't trade without EDDB?

You think combat is a "1v1 dogfighting tech demo"?

You think every Thargoid encounter is the same?

You think you've seen everything after 50 systems?

You think the only reason people are still playing is cash exploits?

You think planet surfaces are just for shooting rocks?



Go home OP, you're drunk.

This, can't say it better...