Elite: Lessons from X universe and EvE Online.

I have played many hours of Elite and have come to a conclusion,

Ships need purpose. The Background sim needs to come to the foreground.
Player owned assets need purpose

How many players own assets in Elite that just sit in some dock collecting dust? Why can't these ships be provided pilots that do tasks? Exploration, mining, survey scanning, trading, etc.
Any income made percent gets sent back to the player. Not huge, but enough so that its worthwhile but also has a semblance of risk. These ships would be target able by players and part of a foreground simulation. (read up on X3 Universe traders for an idea of where I am going on this.) if they get destroyed you need to authorize the insurance cost.
Your scout ships could explore the system and find the most lucrative routes, mining ships that passively generate income and resources. Maybe mining fleets that go out and have a player owned capital ship mining operation.
All this could fund rebuys, this could fund player carriers, this could provide materials that you could pick up.
This could provide targets for players to hit, different player groups vying for control.
This simulates the vast economy that is in eve without drowning it in spread sheets and analysis.
Give you an example Player group A finds in discord that their mining convoy was discovered and attacked, they declare war on that player group.
Now wars in systems would be funded and manned by player owned ships and assets. Imagine being in a fight and seeing your anaconda turret boat with your ship kit, your paint job fighting. This gives a level of emotional attachment that makes games like XCOM amazing.

Elite does not need a narrative, it needs the foundation for players to make their own stories.

The ability to log in and manage a fleet of ships that is directly responsible for the war efforts of my player group would be a dream come true, Having to outfit traders, escorts, scouts, fighters with my own money would mean players sitting on billions of credits would have a substantial money sink. The End game would be massive wars for territory through out the milky way with actual assets on the line. having to deal with the needs and training of my own pilots and crews would be much more welcome that shuffling mission boards. Being able to have my hard earned ships escort me into battle would be amazing.
I don't think these features are really far reaching with what we have existing right now.
This gives endgame, eliminates the credit grind we have seen since Robigo, gives player owned assets an actual use when not flying, allows people to play when away creates a dynamic narrative that allows FDEV to focus on features and not narrative.

Ideally I would like to see player owned bases, stations, outposts, cap ships etc... have them destructible and the ability to take them over.
 
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I think the main reason is because elite isn't a management game. It is also something I have no wish to see within the game either. I would much prefer development time to go on other stuff.

And a massive no to player owned stations, outposts etc. I am happy for players to have their own personal base somewhere, but it shouldn't be attached to the background sim.

Basically for most of what you said, it would be a big no.
 
I think the main reason is because elite isn't a management game. It is also something I have no wish to see within the game either. I would much prefer development time to go on other stuff.

And a massive no to player owned stations, outposts etc. I am happy for players to have their own personal base somewhere, but it shouldn't be attached to the background sim.

Basically for most of what you said, it would be a big no.

This....and

Yes to money sinks for rich pilots....no to everything else....sorry.
 
Or just play X and Eve

Too lazy, too simplistic and potentially bad for Elite in the long run.

While I wouldn't go back to EvE nor X from E : D, *YES*, *OBVIOUSLY*, some good ideas could be borrowed, adapted, modified from these great video games and this would do wonders.

Now, I agree, the core philosophy of EvE Online shouldn't be duplicated by Frontier. But I'm not worried : they wouldn't do such a thing ...
 
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Can we throw in some Biotic powers, learn to speak alien languages one word at a time, and make war with a race of cat-like humanoids while we're at it?
And then when we need a break, can we land on a planet dominated by giant, rideable roller coasters too?
 
Well if you want my honest reasoning for all this, I want to be able to make credits passively so I can afford the re buy of the larger ships. I don't like playing open for this reason, the credit grind is a real thing. I can't afford to fit a vette or cutter but with 65-70 million re buy that is a lot of grinding if you lose that ship 4-5 times when I finally get the cash do buy the fitting.

I don't even want to log into Elite as of late to play I am burnt out, I don't care about the thargoids, powerplay, I enjoy exploring trading and mining I wish I could scale those up to more than just go from smaller ship to bigger ship. I wish I could build my assets and work with others to and develop our own story in the game.
 
I don't even want to log into Elite as of late to play I am burnt out, I don't care about the thargoids, powerplay, I enjoy exploring trading and mining I wish I could scale those up to more than just go from smaller ship to bigger ship. I wish I could build my assets and work with others to and develop our own story in the game.
Hey Saber, have you started your own player faction? As we have and we are doing just as you describe here.
Sorry that you are burnt out, your idea of trading and mining with friends and developing your own story line sounds great and doable out on the edge of the bubble. It sounds like fun and I am sure you can find others to join you or join a group that is doing this?
 
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Well if you want my honest reasoning for all this, I want to be able to make credits passively so I can afford the re buy of the larger ships. I don't like playing open for this reason, the credit grind is a real thing. I can't afford to fit a vette or cutter but with 65-70 million re buy that is a lot of grinding if you lose that ship 4-5 times when I finally get the cash do buy the fitting.

I don't even want to log into Elite as of late to play I am burnt out, I don't care about the thargoids, powerplay, I enjoy exploring trading and mining I wish I could scale those up to more than just go from smaller ship to bigger ship. I wish I could build my assets and work with others to and develop our own story in the game.

There's a credit grind now too?

How? Where? When? I must have missed it somehow.

I get a bit burned out from Elite from time to time too.. that's why I have Mass Effect: Andromeda, No Man's Sky, Watch Dogs 2, and The Witcher 3 all unfinished.

A change of pace is good, it keeps you fresh and able to enjoy what's going on around you.

If you want passive credits, work yourself up to rank 5 with any Power in Power Play, collect your quota without fast tracking, and enjoy a 50m/wk pay check, as long as you log in at least on Wednesdays and put in enough effort to maintain your rank.

Other than that, Elite was never meant to be a passive game, hence no passive income. You want paid, you work. Where do you think you are, some socialist galaxy?
 
Games have always been about inspiration of mechanics and design from other games so it's silly for people to disregard things like that. EVE itself took inspiration from earlier Elite games to create a very unique game in its own right. There's things both Star Citizen and Elite can take from EVE as well considering both try to place a big emphasis on MMO aspects.

When people say look at X or EVE it doesn't mean copy it 1:1 but if you have knowledge of EVE then you will realise how its faction warfare system for example would be a very good fit for Elite and improve what Power Play could have been. Power Play is essentially EVE's FW system but without the depth, which I've always found a shame since it has the potential. For those unacquainted with it, you can read up here: https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Faction_warfare
 
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This kind of attitude is why people do just that. I guess taking suggestions is heresy here and driving potential long term players and customers away is commonplace.

There are a large number of Eve defectors here, who left the Grief-and-Grind of Eve for something a bit more civilized. I did say "a bit more civilized", so wanting to Eve-ize Elite rubs salt in old wounds.

And since X is a single player game, and Elite is not... despite the number of people who play in Solo, it can never really be the same.

Suggestions are one thing, and there's a whole sub-forum for them. Discussions on the other hand... no matter what you discuss there will always be at least one person who takes up the opposing side.
I will take up the opposing side just to (try to) have a good debate.
 
Too lazy, too simplistic and potentially bad for Elite in the long run.

I think FD are pretty clear they don't was us to be managers. So it possibly is that simple.


This kind of attitude is why people do just that. I guess taking suggestions is heresy here and driving potential long term players and customers away is commonplace.

I haven't seen any evidence of that. The game will never be perfect for everyone. Everybody gets to state their opinion - including me. If it was aimed at FD he could have used the suggestions forum.
 
It's not just X and Eve. I've never played those, but have come across several other games that allow you to do some combination of those things.

They all have one thing in common. They're not ED.
Non-Elite games also have their own inherit issues and are by no means perfect in and of themselves. By all means, look at other games for inspiration, but look at the whole rather than cherry picking.
 
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If they somehow managed to marry X3 TC's management gameplay to ED's flight model I would probably die in front of the computer.

That would be perfection, not just the flight model, the best parts of X3TC ported into ED. Played the X-series for 10 years, it has a huge amount quirks/bugs/terrible gameplay, but the whole management system is excellent.
 
I spent a lot of time in the various guises of the X-Universe too.
I stopped playing because I realized that every time I started the game I had 10s of millions more in the bank than I had when I shut it down, which is mega meh.

One great feature of ED is, that notwithstanding exploits and cheats, the developers seem to want people to only make progress by actually playing, not just by setting up an NPC empire.
 
Well if you want my honest reasoning for all this, I want to be able to make credits passively so I can afford the re buy of the larger ships. I don't like playing open for this reason, the credit grind is a real thing. I can't afford to fit a vette or cutter but with 65-70 million re buy that is a lot of grinding if you lose that ship 4-5 times when I finally get the cash do buy the fitting.

I don't even want to log into Elite as of late to play I am burnt out, I don't care about the thargoids, powerplay, I enjoy exploring trading and mining I wish I could scale those up to more than just go from smaller ship to bigger ship. I wish I could build my assets and work with others to and develop our own story in the game.

https://youtu.be/h-bEn2aLJ7U?t=65

From the creator himself albeit dated somewhat:

Paraphrased: "No passive income as it would change the nature of the game. Elite is a game about flying a ship not looking at tables and spreadsheets turning it into a resource management game."


So yeah, sorry to say it won't happen, other games do that which is fine but its not Elite, Elite is a pilot and a ship.

Combine Exploration and Powerplay (Li Yong Rui) for ridiculous exploration profits. Mining I'm unsure of the best way to earn credits. If all else fails get into the latest exploit and rack up a few billion in savings, apparently a sidewinder can do 40mil/hr as of the post today on Reddit so it shouldn't take long...
 
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I'm sure most Elite players would totally enjoy building a complex NPC empire, that other people could blow up when the owners are offline :p

X works and is fun only because it's single player. And I'm not really seeing much inspiration from Eve here, except maybe building something and blowing player assets up.
 
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