Elite has no respect for people's time.

I guess for me the goal of life is to enjoy it, and so playing videogames and enjoying myself however I can is deeply fulfilling; it is, to me, productive.

But that completely removes any meaning from the word 'productive'. The way you look at it laying in bed can be productive if you enjoy it enough. Besides, my calvinist culture wont stand for this, idleness is Satan's pillow! :p
 
All I can do is console you with the fact that Frontier gather metrics for all player interactions.
Any part of the game which is not getting enough player involvement can be reviewed and re-balanced.
But with anything, these changes will take time.

I suggest you take a break, try something else and come back later :)
 
But that completely removes any meaning from the word 'productive'. The way you look at it laying in bed can be productive if you enjoy it enough. Besides, my calvinist culture wont stand for this, idleness is Satan's pillow! :p

Sounds like you understand. Laying in bed is productive, to me, so long as I enjoy it enough. Sometimes, rarely, I like to do nothing else. Of course it helps if one has some good company... =)

EDIT: This isn't relevant really but I think it will help people understand. I was raised a scientist. I give no credence to notions I divine and find to hold no value. This has led me to adopt an idiosyncratic, yet robust, approach to life, though I often find I am at odds with the conventions and beliefs of others. Satan and his pillow mean nothing to me, but a good time is a good time - empirically this is all that matters.
 
Last edited:

Ripbudd

Banned
This is perfect example why having space game monopoly is a bad thing. Because there isn't any other released game they will get away with anything. I agree with the wait policy. As for me i spend 100s hours in game so i guess it was worth it.
 
Man, that OP's long post, they just don't respect my time. :)

Any game is as productive and enjoyable as one is prepared for it to be. ED requires some investment; Frontier never said it wouldn't be a huge universe, and based on the original elite, it was always going to have some grind elements. Frontier do what they can to make aspects enjoyable, but it's pretty much your typical large scale multiplayer time sink.
 
This is perfect example why having space game monopoly is a bad thing. Because there isn't any other released game they will get away with anything. I agree with the wait policy. As for me i spend 100s hours in game so i guess it was worth it.

It sounds as if you and I agree on much.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

Man, that OP's long post, they just don't respect my time. :)

Any game is as productive and enjoyable as one is prepared for it to be. ED requires some investment; Frontier never said it wouldn't be a huge universe, and based on the original elite, it was always going to have some grind elements. Frontier do what they can to make aspects enjoyable, but it's pretty much your typical large scale multiplayer time sink.

Touche, sir! If I have indeed wasted your time with my long OP, I can only apologize for my heinous sin =D
 
Sounds like you understand. Laying in bed is productive, to me, so long as I enjoy it enough.

Picturing all those productive people out there that enjoy watching Jeremy Kyle and collecting Job seekers allowance.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

This is perfect example why having space game monopoly is a bad thing. Because there isn't any other released game they will get away with anything. I agree with the wait policy. As for me i spend 100s hours in game so i guess it was worth it.

Can't wait till NMS & SC release, the level of whinging should majorly die down on this forum. I suspect a fair few people only play ED as a substitute for NMS style gameplay.
 
Picturing all those productive people out there that enjoy watching Jeremy Kyle and collecting Job seekers allowance.

If they could only enjoy it such that they were fulfilled, truly would they be blessed. I apply this to my own life with great success.
 
Totally agree with you OP, I've spent a massive amount of my life "playing" Elite, as an explorer I realised I spent most of that time flying through large distances in space getting to a few interesting (and many not so interesting) things to scan, I went sight seeing and again spent most of that time flying large distances in space to see something. I havn't fired the game up now for 2 months and pop back to the forums seeing if FD have added anything good, I don't think they will until more planets a "landable" and even then I can only assume they'll add some grind to that as well. suffice to say I won't be pre ordering season 3 and will pick up subsequent seasons in sales only (if I ever do and it's a big if right now). But what that means is elite is not the game for me.
 
I felt the same way starting out. The answer I most often received wasn't that clarifying: "Play how you want to play," or "You have to find your own thing."

1. Mission Boards are pretty wonky, yes. I've been stuck on Squire for nearly 7 months because it just won't give me the mission to advance.

2. Don't do Missions.
Save up enough money to start Trading, Exploring, Mining, or some form of combat.

I think this is really what people meant when they said, "Find your own thing".

A friend's boyfriend was there to hold my hand getting started or I'd definitely have quit much more early on. I can understand your frustration if you're trying to get anywhere with Missions. They are better than they were by a lot, but they're still very broken.

3. Sites like Inara are best to get out of the slump of trying to understand what systems to use for Trade. I'm sure people can recommend others, but I don't have the links on hand.

4. Engineers are much better now than they were. However, I'd sit down to find the planets that have the materials you need. When I was trying to do Engineers before the most recent patch I lost a week of dedicated play time to trying to get enough materials for 1 attempt. I came back this week from Jaques and got 2 finished in just a few days.

Something to keep in mind about the time... and I realize this is hard to deal with because it hits me often too ... Space is a lot of empty nothing going on 99% of the time. This is really relaxing if you're needing to relax, but it does lack some of the trees and lakes that make other games an easy nothing to become immersed in.


A strategy to try out:

I've found this to be universally reliable in every single video game that involves the letters MMO...
Bulk your Credits. Save, save, save.

1. Determine the most expensive thing in the game.
2. Acquire that much money plus about 1/4 to 2/3's that.
3. This is your single overriding priority.
4. Once you have acquired 1. you can go backwards through the game and play it the way you enjoy.

It's true there are a lot of 'holes' in the credit flow of Elite. The Time to Rewards ratios are all screwed up. However, it's mostly only impactful when it comes to Open play. The hours spent grinding an Engineering upgrade can be lost (my understanding is, anyway) by being killed. So, you know, don't do that. This really limits when we'll use Open play now because who wants to go through that twice? Add to that PvPers making lots of money for being interested in combat verses the other players who aren't and Open took a hard knock recently.

Just play smart though. Play with friends where it is safe to play with friends.
Also, only play where it is productive. There's no rewards at all for getting involved in the UP/UA Mysteries save your own personal enjoyment of it, for example. Whereas if you take an hour a day to Trade you can pull in a enough for a Conda and Type-9 in about a month. Since there's really nothing beyond those you can seriously say you're at the top of the credit mountain in terms of advancement that direction then. So, once there, just go focus where you want.

But ya, the hardest thing to deal with in Elite is always going to be psychological. I think that's what you're hitting right now because I wrote something very similar to this months ago. Then I realized that it was simply I hadn't seen a single bloody tree in the whole game save for when I docked at Fehu once. The game is trying psychologically that way... It needs pets or something, a room to walk around in on your ship from time to time. A window to look out from that you can walk. There's also a need to get up and walk around.

These are, by the way, all the same challenges facing the Mars missions uphead for NASA in real life. They have absolutely no idea how to get people to cope with months and months of space. At least in this we can shut the game off and go outside.
 
With respect, no.

This might be true for you. For me, entertaining myself is the highest art in life. Technically I could be curing cancer or building houses, but since I value the experience of life so highly, enjoying myself (playing videogames or otherwise) is as worthy, to me. I don't argue about what I am.
Thats allright, but a subjectiv personal manner while you where going on about Elite not respicting peoples time in a broad generalization. Elite is there to entertain people but not everything thats made for entertainment will suite you - that doesn't mean said product is at fault.
 
Please, it's not a question of entitlement. Can you not discern from my tone that this is deeper than that? I love this game and it pains me to realize that I don't like playing it. I would only want Elite to be the best game it can be.

I'd never, ever question the value for money that the game has delivered (and you will note that I have not done this). I have never claimed to be "entitled" to more - this seems to be internet hate word that is doing the rounds these years. Like you say, I am thankful for all the good times and move on in good faith.

I simply come from a place of love that would see Elite become all it can, yet is sad because I feel that it can't/ won't.
This is very hard to read, this is text "tone" is very subjective, especially when you start out with saying that Elite is disrespecting your time, yet have played it for as long as you have, that actually does come off as a bit entitled?
 
Picturing all those productive people out there that enjoy watching Jeremy Kyle and collecting Job seekers allowance.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -



Can't wait till NMS & SC release, the level of whinging should majorly die down on this forum. I suspect a fair few people only play ED as a substitute for NMS style gameplay.

personally I feel once SC releases and it lives up to what they are showing us at the mo (and it will) then the only thing that will die on this forum is the user base.(plus SC is getting VR support-I do it already through gear vr)
only the hardcore/hard nosed stubborn peeps who refuse to look at another game or do there homework on the latest workings of it will remain loyal to this old school classic beast.
 
Last edited:
personally I feel once SC releases and it lives up to what they are showing us at the mo (and it will) then the only thing that will die on this forum is the user base.(plus SC is getting VR support-I do it already through gear vr)
only the hardcore/hard nosed stubborn peeps who refuse to look at another game or do there homework on the latest workings of it will remain loyal to this old school classic beast.
SC is pretty, but that is about it, as a backer I am rather disappointed and disillusioned, I still hope it will be great, but pretty pictures aren't enough to convince me anymore.
 
Prior to the Engineer tweak - I'd agree with you. But since the materials rework, with the sole exception of two materials (exquisite focus crystals and to a lesser extent Modular Terminals) - the rest are very doable for your average gamer. I'm not average by any stretch but after the initial learning curve of what materials can be found where - I can promise you that it's the lack of knowledge that is the biggest time sink. I can roll multiples of any lvl 5 upgrade starting from scratch. The prospecting materials, Cadmium or Arsenic as an example. They might be listed as 1.5% on a planet's surface. That's 1.5% weighted against all the other type of prospecting materials and does not take into account per piece or per rock type. Rocks drop 2-5 pieces and there are at least 2 times and more often 3 kinds (possibly 4) types of rocks that all drop a specific loot table. When you take this into account and start to learn what you need to do the 1.5% number more realistically turns into about a 5-10% chance, possibly higher. I've never had to be down on a surface for more than a half hour to get at least a dozen of any given sample in the 1-1.5 range.

Pharmaceutical idolators and similar rare mats. You learn to pay attention to USS's - and soon you will be swimming in them. In an afternoon I collected about 50, half of which was circumstantial.

The only two things you need to keep an eagle eye out for are Exquisite Focus Crystals (currently only mission reward - 1 per) and Modular Terminals (after the initial unlock you really don't ever need them again).

Further -you can get any Engineer up to rank 5 now with easily gathered general common prospector materials.

As for Engineer unlocking - you can probably average 1 engineer unlock per evening if you have the financial resources (infastructure, ships, traveling without caring). 4 hours or so if you are rich, 6 if you are living within insurance rebuy cost.

---

It's ignorance to what needs to be done that is currently slowing most players up - not anything grindy.

---

Also - not everything needs to be grade 5 for you to achieve a significant upgrade, and as a matter of fact Grade 1 have a quality all to themselves - especially if you are trying to coax out a specific trait that isn't listed on the side of the box.

---

As a first step, if you are still interested - I'd strongly recommend ignoring working for any specific upgrade until you've unlocked all the engineers first. In the process of doing so a lot of the knowledge that will save you time in the long run will be revealed. Also, probably the number 1 thing - have a dedicated long range stripped down (to the point where you are comfortable) "go buy commodities" ship. It will save you a ton of time. all but a few commodities can be bought directly off of specific market.

Hope this helps.

I've been playing since Beta and after the recent materials tweak - the engineer content is the least grindy activity that FD has put out in the game. People used ot have to grind for weeks to months to unlock only a fraction of what Engineers impart on you as far as power for just a few nights of time investment (then once unlocked only a few hours for a new ship). 50% jump range increase? 40% thruster speed increase? Shield strength increase? Prior to engineers that took a minimum of 4 weeks + a ~5 hour or more grind for a side-grade (prismatics).

SC is pretty, but that is about it, as a backer I am rather disappointed and disillusioned, I still hope it will be great, but pretty pictures aren't enough to convince me anymore.

Also an SC backer from the beginning. SC simply cannot live up to the hype. I consider my pledge at this point price of admission to what will be one of the most epic gaming culture/community meltdowns that will forever change not just the gaming industry, but the "kickstarter" industry.

It will be glorious.
 
Last edited:
It is very unforgiving, and likes to punish us at every turn. You can loose weeks worth of effort with a simple mistake. I've hated the re-buy cost for a very long time, it's not fun having to re-do all your hard work over and over and over again. It's like chasing your own tail in ED. :(
 
personally I feel once SC releases and it lives up to what they are showing us at the mo (and it will) then the only thing that will die on this forum is the user base.(plus SC is getting VR support-I do it already through gear vr)
only the hardcore/hard nosed stubborn peeps who refuse to look at another game or do there homework on the latest workings of it will remain loyal to this old school classic beast.
Those games are very diffrent, not sure why people always think every game that takes palce in space and spaceship is the same and somehow only one can exist. What elite wants do interests me, what SC wants to do not at all.
 
personally I feel once SC releases and it lives up to what they are showing us at the mo (and it will) then the only thing that will die on this forum is the user base.(plus SC is getting VR support-I do it already through gear vr)
only the hardcore/hard nosed stubborn peeps who refuse to look at another game or do there homework on the latest workings of it will remain loyal to this old school classic beast.

if SC is better than ED i think even the hardcore FD lovers will simply lie about playing it.

of course we will get the inevitable proof posts of playtimes posted and the bickering,but people will always go for the better rather than play sub standard to prove a point and then lie about it ;)

i wonder who knows who ronnie pickering is ..... lol
 
Back
Top Bottom