There, I said it. And I am talking about PvE 
We're now not just a few years into this game since inception but actual release, and we have this unusual "multiplayer only" game (i.e. no offline) that has no actual multiplayer content.
Wings? Tags that allow players to designate themselves in a team...and shoot the same opponents you can stomp over in Solo. The same applies to multicrew.
Roles supporting each other? What need? I love that trade dividends were implemented to support trade escorts...and what happened with it? If I escort my bud through his trade route, I'm basically jumping between two stations to get a dividend when I could just trade myself.
PowerPlay? It is, in effect, the same PvE activities we already have under the banner of a competition. It is best won doing repetitive BGS work alone.
Thargoids? I'll half give 'em that. They're the first opponents tough enough that most players probably cannot solo them. However, this does not change that they are still among the most repetitive activities in the game; "drop into signal, kill, jump out, repeat". Even the variants are just effectively different coloured thargs with more hearts. And while the intended direction for the narrative is war, remember we blaze our own trails: not all of us are anti-alien.
Please consider that while we have tools to make teams better we still have no actual reason to play together other than the reasons we create ourselves.
What's the best way to resolve this? Revisit risk/reward. As this is fairly meaningless within ED atm, I'd appreciate revisiting this most fundamental concept, and use it to help scale available encounters in the game - for scaling to the universe (rather than to player rank) is hugely untapped.
Anarchy HazRES? Dump wings of over-engineered killer pirates in there (Give SJA some rein boys!), as well as traders with serious lewts. High sec HazRES? Not quite so lethal. Anarchy station in famine? They really need that food, especially as others are less keen to save their bacon; missions for food relief there should pay high, but piracy in the region should leave traders with food defending themselves to hand that food in.
The best part? Because it's all scaled to location, it's effectively optional/consensual. One cannot be upset it's forcing too much difficulty in their face, because that's only relevant if you deliberately travel to an anarchy system and start BHing at the hard sites. Anarchies are known to be the deadly pits of the galaxy, and I've seen some inspiring quotes from FD folk attesting to this, but right now they're as tame as everywhere else - and reward no better, criminal or otherwise.
For all the negativity, ED has immense potential. Despite my love of PvP I have a small group of friends I know IRL, three of whom have played the game since it was a black screen with lines all those years ago, and do little more than PvE and spar occasionally with them. But even with them as casual players, we now ask ourselves "okay, so we'll meet up later...what we gonna do?" - and there's never a real answer, because combat at RES or CZ is just an exercise in mindless slaughter. More than just myself, and my hybrid FGS won't lose one ring of shields in an entire session.
We were actually semi entertained in the days following 2.1 with the better NPCs and wings of 7 odd clippers dropping in. Give us something to do as a group again guys.
Update: as per new Pixelbandits podcast, Ed Lewis has confirmed wing missions can be taken solo.
So we still have no multiplayer content and none in the works - just a regurgitation of solo content that splits the rewards at the end.
Good job guys.
We're now not just a few years into this game since inception but actual release, and we have this unusual "multiplayer only" game (i.e. no offline) that has no actual multiplayer content.
Wings? Tags that allow players to designate themselves in a team...and shoot the same opponents you can stomp over in Solo. The same applies to multicrew.
Roles supporting each other? What need? I love that trade dividends were implemented to support trade escorts...and what happened with it? If I escort my bud through his trade route, I'm basically jumping between two stations to get a dividend when I could just trade myself.
PowerPlay? It is, in effect, the same PvE activities we already have under the banner of a competition. It is best won doing repetitive BGS work alone.
Thargoids? I'll half give 'em that. They're the first opponents tough enough that most players probably cannot solo them. However, this does not change that they are still among the most repetitive activities in the game; "drop into signal, kill, jump out, repeat". Even the variants are just effectively different coloured thargs with more hearts. And while the intended direction for the narrative is war, remember we blaze our own trails: not all of us are anti-alien.
Please consider that while we have tools to make teams better we still have no actual reason to play together other than the reasons we create ourselves.
What's the best way to resolve this? Revisit risk/reward. As this is fairly meaningless within ED atm, I'd appreciate revisiting this most fundamental concept, and use it to help scale available encounters in the game - for scaling to the universe (rather than to player rank) is hugely untapped.
Anarchy HazRES? Dump wings of over-engineered killer pirates in there (Give SJA some rein boys!), as well as traders with serious lewts. High sec HazRES? Not quite so lethal. Anarchy station in famine? They really need that food, especially as others are less keen to save their bacon; missions for food relief there should pay high, but piracy in the region should leave traders with food defending themselves to hand that food in.
The best part? Because it's all scaled to location, it's effectively optional/consensual. One cannot be upset it's forcing too much difficulty in their face, because that's only relevant if you deliberately travel to an anarchy system and start BHing at the hard sites. Anarchies are known to be the deadly pits of the galaxy, and I've seen some inspiring quotes from FD folk attesting to this, but right now they're as tame as everywhere else - and reward no better, criminal or otherwise.
For all the negativity, ED has immense potential. Despite my love of PvP I have a small group of friends I know IRL, three of whom have played the game since it was a black screen with lines all those years ago, and do little more than PvE and spar occasionally with them. But even with them as casual players, we now ask ourselves "okay, so we'll meet up later...what we gonna do?" - and there's never a real answer, because combat at RES or CZ is just an exercise in mindless slaughter. More than just myself, and my hybrid FGS won't lose one ring of shields in an entire session.
We were actually semi entertained in the days following 2.1 with the better NPCs and wings of 7 odd clippers dropping in. Give us something to do as a group again guys.
Update: as per new Pixelbandits podcast, Ed Lewis has confirmed wing missions can be taken solo.
So we still have no multiplayer content and none in the works - just a regurgitation of solo content that splits the rewards at the end.
Good job guys.
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