Elite is the most grindy game I've ever played

[Dippy]

As an ex EVE player OP is taking the urine.

EVE online is the biggest grind fest of all, I was involved in beta for EVE online. The early days were the biggest grind ever.
I played until about 2008 as the game requires far too much time. Logging on to change training etc.

ED I don't play a lot of, as I don't have the time mostly and I don't want to kill the game as I know am in for the long haul.

Horizons will get me going again for a few months and then ED will be given a rest when I have smashed it.

I have yet to kill a single ship in ED.

 

[c64orinoco]

Grinding in Elite Dangerous is very much a choice. You chose to grind, if that's what you want to do.

Want an Annaconda? You'll have to earn it; just like in RL if you want to drive a Ferrari you are going to have to earn it - and you might find it a bit of a grind to earn that!

You don't need an Annaconda to 'win' Elite. You don't need a Ferrari to 'win' RL. Neither example actually has a 'win' condition - you don't become Benevolent OverRuler of the Galaxy, nor do you become immortal in Elite

If you choose to view Elite status in al three professions as the 'win' condition, yes you will 'grind' and you might find yourself bored. Once you have Elite, then what? Visit every star in the Galaxy? That would be a bit of a grind.

You can happily tool around in an Eagle, or Hauler, and never fly a large, expensive freighter, and still attain Elite.

The best way to give yourself goals other than 'grind' until I get Conda is to socialise; whether that is taking part in PowerPlay - lots of people sneer at it, but have you tried it? Have you jumped into Reddit and got into the offline planning with other players? It's rather good - join Antal support Utopia!

Maybe you'd prefer racing? Join the Buckyball Racing League, or the Elite Racers. It's great fun.

Or if being social isn't your thing, make your own story. Elite Dangerous doesn't give you a 'story' or a 'plot' - it's up to you to provide those. Do that and you will have much more fun and a lot less grind.

As a last point I have noticed there is correlation between 'grinding', 'greifing' and 'whining' - those who complain about the 'g's tend to 'w' as well. Likely because by 'grinding' they over-estimate the actual value of their fictional spacecraft and see it as a real physical item bought for real cash. If that's the case then maybe Elite Dangerous is not the game for you - it's ok to not enjoy a genre. I hate RTS and Tower Defence games. I think they're rubbish, but I don't spend my time posting on their forums that their games are too 'grindy' and don't have enough ship to ship space combat in them. I also don't demand refunds because they weren't what I wanted, I just think 'bah, waste of money, don't buy games like that'.

Loosing the sense of entitlement helps, too.

 

[nats]

At the moment it is true the game presently has very poor grinding type gameplay, as practically the whole game revolves around the pursuit of wealth and there is very little else meaningful to do, very little immersion or surprise, very little if any soulful reward for playing. It very very badly needs an injection of fun. I am still hopeful Frontier will turn it around sometime in the future but I might not be here by then of course, as it depends what kind of plan they are working to. I am practically at the point where I am ready to give up on it as a game.

I enjoyed grinding in Frontier and FFE but there were so many other fantastic things that you never really felt you were grinding although you were. In those games you could spiral down to an evocative landing on a surface base and they were often varied, as were the airless spaceports and space stations, you could speed up time to watch the sun rise whilst you sat on the surface reading a magazine for clues, you could take on a mission to a planet, getting given some specialist equipment for the mission, and having to dodge many enemies on the way, you could follow bounties around the galaxy and ambush them, you had to wait for landing clearance, pay for a landing, hire crew, take on passengers and make sure you had life support for animal cargo, you had aliens trying to attack you, you had really enjoyable jousting like combat matches where you could get better from experience... ED has none of this.

Its presently a very poor imitation of the previous superb games. But I dont think Frontier has the talent required anymore to make a great game or they would have already made one by now, and they havent.

 

[Soon(TM)]

It's only a grind if you choose to trade. The other careers are not really a grind.

The repetition of the game, copy and paste assets and lack of life is more of a concern to me.

 

[popuptoaster]

Go and look up "Sidewinder to Anaconda in 24hrs" on YouTube.

There is no grind in this game unless you make one, you don't NEED the biggest most expensive ships but if you WANT them you can get them quickly enough even without the occasional community goals that can speed things along.

 

[robbyp]

Elite is not being if you decide its not all about credits or rank. In fact it's so varied as long as you set good goals on a week by week basis and keep on changing what you are doing!

A grind game? Try any of those fps shooters. Same thing on each level. GTA V. Same thing repeat repeat. What video game does not have repeative play.

With Elite you can choose what you do, when you want, and you have many options

 

[AdriánGuth]

I play 1200hs and never grind. Play for fun not for credits.

 

[Dbrn47]

There are no goals in elite , its a life sim. do what you want.

It isn't a life sim and I can only do what the developers put into the game. That's not a state of mind either.

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not to be clichee but maybe this game is not for you... and if you dont like it , what are you doing here?

The best argument I've seen you come up with in regards to whether the game is a grind or not.

 

[Privata]

It isn't a life sim and I can only do what the developers put into the game. That's not a state of mind either.

I get the feeling you just want to hate the game.
I have the time of my life with elite , and play it as I am the pilot and live my life in the game.
my story is unique , every CMDRs is as well

 

[Dbrn47]

It's only a grind if you choose to trade. The other careers are not really a grind.

The repetition of the game, copy and paste assets and lack of life is more of a concern to me.

If there was less of the latter, the previous would be minimized. And one career isn't less grindy than the others.

What does combat (or insert other career with minor variation) gameplay consist of? Flying to your nearest instance of choice, RES, Nav Beacon, Combat Zone, or simply interdict people in Supercruise.

Oh interdicting sounds cool! Yea it is, but then you realize you don't actually need to do that, you can just go to an instance where you really don't need to take the extra time.

Then what? Sit in said instance of choice and shoot things endlessly as things spawn endlessly.

What about missions, those sound fun. Well, they can be, but really you're just directed to a system where you do the same thing you'd do in one of the mentioned instances.

To what end? Well... you earn credits or combat rank.

For what purpose? To buy and upgrade other ships and eventually be able to go into Founder's World to buy things at a cheaper price.

For what purpose? To shoot things in said instances harder.

So what's the end game? There is no end game, blaze your own trail! In an instance! Shooting infinitely spawning ships! Infinitely!

So there is no end game and I actually don't even need to buy a new ship? Nope!

So what's the point in playing? It's all about the fun man! It's what you make of it!

It actually sounds like a grind with no real purpose... No no! That's just a state of mind, blaze your own trail! Go make your own fun!

Shouldn't the game just be designed to be fun? Oh it is and there will be more! This is just the foundation! Are you not entertained?

The game has been out for a year though right? Are you not entertained?

What about Exploration? Hoooooooonk!

..... Entertained?

Note: I'm mostly trying to be funny, even if there is some harsh reality in there.


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I get the feeling you just want to hate the game.
I have the time of my life with elite , and play it as I am the pilot and live my life in the game.
my story is unique , every CMDRs is as well

Quite the opposite, this Genre and RPGs are my favorite Genres. I want to love the hell out of this game every minute of every day. However, I am limited by my lack of ability to be easily entertained, my curse of noticing lightly disguised repetition and my hunger for deep, meaningful gameplay.

 

[the100thmonkey]

Grind is not a state a mind, it's a consequence of progression based gameplay. You are either good at hiding the grind in your game with depth, story or otherwise or you lay it out so obviously that it hurts. So far they have done nothing to really hide the grind, they've just added added more things to grind toward. It is NOT up to the player to not grind, you grind as soon as you begin playing the game so that you can earn credits to upgrade your grindship so that you can grind faster to get into a bigger grindship sooner. At a certain point you become happy with your grindship and don't need to upgrade it or get into a bigger grindship, so then it's about 'grinding fun'. You repeat the tasks that you enjoy the most over and over under the veil of fun, the grind is there, you've just chosen to ignore it because you are having fun. Not everyone is so easily entertained for endless hours and the grind reveals itself to players that demand more sooner.

It's said that this is what Elite was all about to begin with, that's fine. Let's not try to pretend or delude people into believing it's not there though. There are plenty of statistics, bars, percentages, credit reminders, options and the general speed in which they move to constantly remind you it's there. You can ignore it in order to just have fun, but you can't ignore it out of existence.

You've just described every game ever.

 

[AdriánGuth]

This "people" who think that elite is grinding, should learn about isinona

 

[Noddie]

Ah...That's up to you.

The only objectives are what you set yourself. If that is to get credits (the closest thing elite has to a score), then it can get grindy. If your objective is to have fun, explore and try stuff then you don't need to grind at all.

Entirely up to you.

 

[Privata]

Quite the opposite, this Genre and RPGs are my favorite Genres. I want to love the hell out of this game every minute of every day. However, I am limited by my lack of ability to be easily entertained, my curse of noticing lightly disguised repetition and my hunger for deep, meaningful gameplay.

Well , I can be like that as well. for some reason elite has never upset me much.
But elite does everything I wanted a game like this to do :
forget the singleplayer story mode and focus on what would be the ''end game'' in other space sims , elite dangerous for me is all about the lore and like I said the lifesim elements now , you disagree with me on the lifesim side of things and thats fine for me what that means is : I play the role of my pilot , I live his life when I play the game , the world around me changes and advances if I stay back and do nothing then I stay behind whiles the world moves on without me. I do what I want in the game fly around helping the alliance were I can undermine Mr.Hudson , mine and explore I have my own narative that just happenes over time and I dont even do it on purpose.
and have been moraly conflicted over passed events I have done.

thats being said I can say the game is repetetive , but most of the time I find that argument is used for all space games from the good old X to the horrible Freelancer all get called boring and shallow because ''all'' you do if fly and shoot or fly and trade.
I love this game because its an open world Xwing alliance set in a full scale galaxy with intresting lore and nice gameplay (like Xwing alliance)

however Elite is far from over and I think the first 3 or so seasons will be the building blocks
Season 1 : The basics
Season 2 : Enchancing the basics (Cmdr creation , planet exploration (without atmosphere)
Season 3 : I have no idea but I think it will be more of the exansion of the base game , but when that is done I can be sure they will start making it one of the deepest games of all time.

but , I am one of the players who played a bounty hunter in X² and would wait in front of a jumpgate in blackhole sun for a xenon to fly threw.

 

[AdriánGuth]

when people sais elite is grinding they dont understand the beauty
[video=youtube;9dHENa4bVDs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dHENa4bVDs[/video]

 

[Grumpy181155]

What is a grind? Is it having to do something repeatedly to achieve an end goal? If that is the definition of grind then yes ED is a grind but I look at it a different way. When I eventually make Elite and a high rank then I will be proud of the work that I needed to do to get that. It seem as if some people equate grind with work needed to make the achievement, almost as if they expect to have the highest rank and Elite within a couple of months of gaming and when their rank doesn't change every couple of hours they start complaining.
.
I have been playing for just under a year and I am still very much enjoying it. I am only a Baron, Dangerous, Entrepreneur, and Pathfinder but I am still enjoying myself and having fun. I obviously don't grind. I don't find a lucrative trade route and flog it death until my eyes bleed. I don't sit in CZ and rack up kill after kill for days on end. I do find a good trade route and then run a couple of cargo runs, make a bit of money and then my eyes drift back to the Galactic chart and I start wondering what is just over there that I haven't seen yet and off I go again. I will drop into the occasional Haz Res for a little pew pew and so on. I can see myself still playing ED in a couple of years time and probably still not be Elite at anything but then again making it to Elite, while that is a great achievement, is not the end game.

 

[Dbrn47]

Well , I can be like that as well. for some reason elite has never upset me much.
But elite does everything I wanted a game like this to do :
forget the singleplayer story mode and focus on what would be the ''end game'' in other space sims , elite dangerous for me is all about the lore and like I said the lifesim elements now , you disagree with me on the lifesim side of things and thats fine for me what that means is : I play the role of my pilot , I live his life when I play the game , the world around me changes and advances if I stay back and do nothing then I stay behind whiles the world moves on without me. I do what I want in the game fly around helping the alliance were I can undermine Mr.Hudson , mine and explore I have my own narative that just happenes over time and I dont even do it on purpose.
and have been moraly conflicted over passed events I have done.

thats being said I can say the game is repetetive , but most of the time I find that argument is used for all space games from the good old X to the horrible Freelancer all get called boring and shallow because ''all'' you do if fly and shoot or fly and trade.
I love this game because its an open world Xwing alliance set in a full scale galaxy with intresting lore and nice gameplay (like Xwing alliance)

however Elite is far from over and I think the first 3 or so seasons will be the building blocks
Season 1 : The basics
Season 2 : Enchancing the basics (Cmdr creation , planet exploration (without atmosphere)
Season 3 : I have no idea but I think it will be more of the exansion of the base game , but when that is done I can be sure they will start making it one of the deepest games of all time.

but , I am one of the players who played a bounty hunter in X² and would wait in front of a jumpgate in blackhole sun for a xenon to fly threw.

I'm aware of the foundation argument. This is why I'm giving them until the end of season 2 with news about what is in season 3 before I think on my final decision about whether to move on or not. Chances are, I will have quite a few reasons to stick around. Planetary landings and the initial Horizons content and crafting is a good reason to get this expansion, but how long until the novelty wears off and the base rears its ugly cheeks at me again? Your mileage will obviously vary. I remain optimistic overall, but cautiously and without blind fandom. I know there is a plan and I suspect that it is good, but without details, impatience tends to set in.

I played the hell out of X3 Albion Prelude, by the way. Probably the most hours I've sunk into any game of the genre to date.

 

[Kubicide]

Yep, it's a grind-fest. And agree it's one of - if not - the most "grindy" game I've ever played. Almost every game has a grind element to it but in E D it is absolutely a core main element that's not hidden by clever game elements. There's actually little else in the game other than grind mechanics for roles, ships/outfitting, discoveries, CGs, PP, rep, credits, etc., - they all involve grinds intended to lead to Elite status. One has to either like it or leave it I guess.

 

[Privata]

I'm aware of the foundation argument. This is why I'm giving them until the end of season 2 with news about what is in season 3 before I think on my final decision about whether to move on or not. Chances are, I will have quite a few reasons to stick around. Planetary landings and the initial Horizons content and crafting is a good reason to get this expansion, but how long until the novelty wears off and the base rears its ugly cheeks at me again? Your mileage will obviously vary. I remain optimistic overall, but cautiously and without blind fandom. I know there is a plan and I suspect that it is good, but without details, impatience tends to set in.

I played the hell out of X3 Albion Prelude, by the way. Probably the most hours I've sunk into any game of the genre to date.

I liked X3AP. felt it lacked in terms of ''new'' content but for the price and the fact it was mostly made by fans (most of the ships are from XTMTC)
I think the space game I played the most of in total is X² and for me Elite dangerous is the game that managed to get that feeling of magic for me.
but everyone looks at things in different ways. I hope you end up having fun , if S2 fails you my bet would be to try something else and maybe come back at S5 or something.

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Yep, it's a grind-fest. And agree it's one of - if not - the most "grindy" game I've ever played. Almost every game has a grind element to it but in E D it is absolutely a core main element that's not hidden by clever game elements. There's actually little else in the game other than grind mechanics for roles, ships/outfitting, discoveries, CGs, PP, rep, credits, etc., - they all involve grinds intended to lead to Elite status. One has to either like it or leave it I guess.

I disagree , for me grind is when there a goal like : you must be Lv3 to go to bacon town , elite does not do that you can do 90% of the content from day1.
being elite in the game is a badge of honour and is not an end goal because there is no end game in elite , it goes on for ever.
and the gameplay is clever because all that flying your spaceship and so on , that the game not the grind...

 

[raok]

It is the grindiest game for me as well. I agree that it is like the predecessors, but that does not make it any less grindy.

People saying that we do not understand the beauty, etc. And then the question, why do you grind? etc. etc.

The truth is, the same people here who are defending Elite, because of what not... So to the truth, they would enjoy a lot more from Elite if it actually had a content.

I am still playing, and I have ~+800h behind. Soon after I started to play the game, I noticed the lack of content and so did everyone else (very soon). I continued, because I saw it so obvious that the devs would notice this as well, because 100% from people who I knew playing Elite, agreed with me. Most of them quit the Elite, or uninstalled and said that maybe will try it again, after it has some content, maybe. Some said that the grindiest game ever and will never touch it again.

So it was something that would be fixed soon, right? #1 priority, obviously, very obvious. Something I thought to be a no-brainer. So wrong I was...

I have very high hopes for the year 2016.