How will Horizons or update 1.4, 1.5 Add Depth to Elite?
People think Elite still doesn't have sufficient depth or incentive to play long-term.
I love Elite Dangerous and it has so much potential. However, to survive and grow for a decade, it must have serious depth. Such as emergent gameplay and plenty of mission variety. Why are there only 3 types of station interiors in the entire galaxy?
Quotes from the subreddit:
WynnTT
I'm disappointed.
What we need is some depth to the game, not lateral sideways movement. The adage mile wide, inch deep still applies to the game.
It won't take long to realise that exploring procedurally generated different coloured rocks will be the same experience in substance as exploring procedurally generated different coloured balls floating in space.
crasher_pt
I'm starting to question if they even know what gameplay depth is.
sacrilegious
Depth greater than that of a small spoon is absolutely necessary for the game's continued future and player retention. As cool as planetary exploration may be, I am not convinced I should spend money on it knowing full well I will rapidly get bored.
FD have made a gorgeous game with excellent immersion but with no compelling reason to play long term.
Skvid
That's what ive been saying. For a game that requires so much imagination to enjoy, people that are enjoying it don't seem to be capable of some simple foresight, they let their imaginations run wild...
But maybe thats the thing... for them a proceduraly generated canyon (yet barren of content) will hold many hours of exploration, tales and enjoyment... Sometimes i wish i had mild autism as well so i was able to enjoy these things like most of people here.
slavik262
For many of us, planetary landings are coming faster than they should.
Many of us got into E: D because while it's fairly spartan now, it shows so much promise. The flight mechanics are phenomenal, and there's potential for so much more. But while there's a lot to do, all of the activities are fairly simple and never change. Conflict zones are just continuous team deathmatches between you, a bunch of NPCs, and on occasion some other players. Exploring is great for sightseeing, but can be described as "drive to places and click on them." The term "mile wide and inch deep" comes to mind.
Despite so much to do, you never get any real sense of progression. You just do the same things, forever, in a bigger/better ship. And that would be fine too, but all of these tasks are so shallow. I'm fine with grinding itself (any progression-based game is going to have it), but the grinding is largely uninteresting after the initial amazement of "WOAH I'M IN SPACE!!!!" wears off. I want to see missions more complex than
Drive to X
Shoot/collect Y
Return them to Z
The Powerplay launch trailer seemed to indicate this was coming (at the 35 second mark), but we ended up with more of the same. Some more complex mission structure, NPC interaction that extends beyond "I pulled you out of supercruise and will be shooting you now", and more ways to meaningfully impact the universe with friends would go a long way for immersion. What's frustrating is that instead of focusing on core gameplay, Frontier seems to be adding more and more breadth (Powerplay, landings), but very little depth.
People think Elite still doesn't have sufficient depth or incentive to play long-term.
I love Elite Dangerous and it has so much potential. However, to survive and grow for a decade, it must have serious depth. Such as emergent gameplay and plenty of mission variety. Why are there only 3 types of station interiors in the entire galaxy?
Quotes from the subreddit:
WynnTT
I'm disappointed.
What we need is some depth to the game, not lateral sideways movement. The adage mile wide, inch deep still applies to the game.
It won't take long to realise that exploring procedurally generated different coloured rocks will be the same experience in substance as exploring procedurally generated different coloured balls floating in space.
crasher_pt
I'm starting to question if they even know what gameplay depth is.
sacrilegious
Depth greater than that of a small spoon is absolutely necessary for the game's continued future and player retention. As cool as planetary exploration may be, I am not convinced I should spend money on it knowing full well I will rapidly get bored.
FD have made a gorgeous game with excellent immersion but with no compelling reason to play long term.
Skvid
That's what ive been saying. For a game that requires so much imagination to enjoy, people that are enjoying it don't seem to be capable of some simple foresight, they let their imaginations run wild...
But maybe thats the thing... for them a proceduraly generated canyon (yet barren of content) will hold many hours of exploration, tales and enjoyment... Sometimes i wish i had mild autism as well so i was able to enjoy these things like most of people here.
slavik262
For many of us, planetary landings are coming faster than they should.
Many of us got into E: D because while it's fairly spartan now, it shows so much promise. The flight mechanics are phenomenal, and there's potential for so much more. But while there's a lot to do, all of the activities are fairly simple and never change. Conflict zones are just continuous team deathmatches between you, a bunch of NPCs, and on occasion some other players. Exploring is great for sightseeing, but can be described as "drive to places and click on them." The term "mile wide and inch deep" comes to mind.
Despite so much to do, you never get any real sense of progression. You just do the same things, forever, in a bigger/better ship. And that would be fine too, but all of these tasks are so shallow. I'm fine with grinding itself (any progression-based game is going to have it), but the grinding is largely uninteresting after the initial amazement of "WOAH I'M IN SPACE!!!!" wears off. I want to see missions more complex than
Drive to X
Shoot/collect Y
Return them to Z
The Powerplay launch trailer seemed to indicate this was coming (at the 35 second mark), but we ended up with more of the same. Some more complex mission structure, NPC interaction that extends beyond "I pulled you out of supercruise and will be shooting you now", and more ways to meaningfully impact the universe with friends would go a long way for immersion. What's frustrating is that instead of focusing on core gameplay, Frontier seems to be adding more and more breadth (Powerplay, landings), but very little depth.
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