Again
What is a veteran?
(The term is bandied about by various players but never explaining what their 'interpretation' of the term might be)
Again
What is a veteran?
(The term is bandied about by various players but never explaining what their 'interpretation' of the term might be)
In what galaxy could you:
Expecting to get interdicted by the cops when carrying illegal goods isn't particularly realistic either, at least not if you've not been doing it for quite a while. In real life cops can only really check your car at national borders or inspection points, and that's in two dimensions and on a much smaller scale. This game exists in three dimensions over entire solar systems, but typically with populations in the millions, billions at most, and most of those are on the planets.
That's millions of times more area with a fraction the number of people to patrol it.
Most of your other critiques follow a similar problem.
Frankly, your suggestions create just about as many problems as they solve. Not the least of which being that the core of the game is made up of the more casual players, who won't stick around to try to re-earn the dozens of hours of effort they just lost when their ship got blown up, but will rather just quit the game.
You'll end up playing alone in a vast and empty universe. And you can already do that. It's called Solo.
Do you have cargo in your hold? You're not supposed to cheeze it, you're supposed to let them discover valuables and let the mayhem of you mining, your slf having something to do, and the npc police coming to help. Its pretty fun and a good light show with everything happening at once.
Naah i don't think you'll be able to mix max boast 4 trillion credits per hour with this, just for the fun, and better than no buff at all. Maybe the point is so you can mine anywhere you feel like rather than just one spot in the milky way.
You seem to mistake "Space Sim" for "Space Survival".For a space simulation game, Elite Dangerous has lost all sense of realism. Over the years, they’ve added and buffed rewards while minimizing or removing risks so it just doesn't feel real anymore.
In what galaxy could you:
There is no suspension of disbelief. It’s just disbelief. They kept making it easier to make money while taking away or minimizing risks.
- Get full bounties for a couple pew-pew shots when cops do all the damage?
- Always escape interdiction from every pirate?
- Hardly get interdicted by cops when wanted or carrying illegal goods even in high security systems?
- Have a 5% rebuy insurance for any ship but you don’t pay for any insurance installments??? What company would offer that?
- Make millions in mining risk free?
- Sell millions in LTDs in a never ending gold rush due to a broken supply/demand system?
- Buy your OWN fleet carrier? For a squadron - ok. Single commander - just no.
This isn’t an argument to change the game since there are many players who are perfectly happy with their fleet carriers. There’s lots of explorers who are perfectly happy roaming the galaxy. And it’s still a tough game for new players.
But there should be a realism mode for those veteran players who want to experience ED as a more genuine space sim the way it was meant to be played. If you want big ships and gobs of cash, it should be really tough to get there just like in the original Elite game.
Mining should only be in Res Zones (this was the original intent) and the best areas, (pristine metallic rings, hotspots) should be in a Haz Res. Cops should hop into low, medium, high Res areas based on system security level only when a crime has been committed, just like with interdictions and not constantly patrol the area.
Interdiction evasion from NPCs should be much more difficult and based on your ship’s maneuverability.
Bounty hunting payout should be based on damage dealt. You do most of the damage, you get most of the bounty.
Mission payouts should be nerfed significantly and rewards should be based on risk and time/effort needed.
Trade profits should be nerfed especially for tritium, military fabrics, basic meds in Outbreak (or add significant risk if hauling those commodities) but smuggling illegal commodities should be buffed due to the additional risk.
Explo data should be nerfed.
And yes, it should be Open Only.
No easy money. Credits will feel rightfully earned. Pirating will be a legitimate profession again (legitimately illegitimate?). There won’t be just one or two dominant ways to generate credits. Trader, miner, smuggler, bounty hunter, salvager will all be viable careers.
I started playing with self-imposed rules a couple years ago to try to recreate this more realistic galaxy and after hundreds of hours of testing, they work reasonably well (e.g. submitting to all interdictions) but it would be far better to have a separate mode to play from scratch. I’m constantly resetting my accounts and tweaking these rules but would love if others could help better refine these while I hope longingly that FDev adds this new mode of gameplay (which I would gladly pay for). And it shouldn’t be hard to implement since nothing would need to be added to the game, just tweak the existing mechanics.
But since that’s not likely, my dream is to have a good-sized veteran player group where everyone follows and tweaks these rules for the most realistic gameplay possible. Violators will be kicked. Gankers would be welcomed! The galaxy should be a dangerous place!
If you’re interested in joining a group of us who play this way and rediscover this great game or just watch us flail around the galaxy, check us out. We need more feedback and based on a lot of forum posts, I think there are a lot of experienced players out there who would love to play this way (or already play with similar rules).
![]()
Discord - Group Chat That’s All Fun & Games
Discord is great for playing games and chilling with friends, or even building a worldwide community. Customize your own space to talk, play, and hang out.discord.gg
Here are the current rules:
ED Veteran Rules
OPEN only
Must submit to all NPC interdictions. Can evade player interdictions.
Reset your commander or get a new account
Get standard sidey loadout without SRV
Bounty Hunting: (no help from cops). Only in low/medium/high Res areas or Nav Beacon in Anarchy systems (KWS required) or Haz Res/CNB in any system.
Exploration: No explo data until Entrepreneur.
Mining: Can only mine in Res areas until Tycoon. Must stay near center of Res areas.
Missions:
PAX: Only Saud Kruger ships can use Business, First or Luxury class PAX modules.
- Penniless: No missions
- Mostly penniless: < 10K mission reward
- Peddler: < 25K mission reward
- Dealer < 50K mission reward
- Merchant: < 100K mission reward
- Broker: < 250K mission reward
- Entrepreneur: Can do any mission
- Exceptions: Can do any mining missions or fed/imperial rank up missions regardless of trade rank.
Trading: No profit margins > 2500 per ton until Broker.
Optional Rules (bold are recommended)
Crimes against me: OFF/ON
Engineering: Yes/No
3rd party apps (outfitting): Yes/No
3rd party apps (trade): Yes/No
3rd party apps (mining spots): Yes/No
Ship loss: 50% rebuy, lose the ship, permadeath
As for risk/reward, for those players who want risk isn't it its own reward?
Then when you exit SC in the ring, there should be a realistic chance that another ship is anywhere near your position rather than guaranteed no matter what. I'd place that realism chance at about 0.00000001% that you would literally and realistically exit SC within 7KM of another ship.Mining should only be in Res Zones (this was the original intent) and the best areas, (pristine metallic rings, hotspots) should be in a Haz Res. Cops should hop into low, medium, high Res areas based on system security level only when a crime has been committed, just like with interdictions and not constantly patrol the area.
Performing an interdiction should be equally difficult. Why is it fair that interdictions are ridiculously simple to initiate, but should be incredibly hard to evade? Interdictions shouldn't be so frequent if they are to be a significant event.Interdiction evasion from NPCs should be much more difficult and based on your ship’s maneuverability.
Sure, bounty hunting pays crap anyways, so, why not.Bounty hunting payout should be based on damage dealt. You do most of the damage, you get most of the bounty.
I think we've passed this opportunity a long time ago. It would only be fair to new/newer players if everyone's account/ship balance got reset to 0 so that everyone starts on a level playing ground. Furthermore, you can't make things so hard for your largest player base that it would take them a decade to reach an anaconda. If every mechanic in this game only appealed to players who have 4 hours+ every day to play the game in order to make any meaningful progress, then it won't last long as a game. I think the trick is to add something beyond credit payouts that hard core players can work towards without harming the general appeal of the game to casual players. This used to be Elite rankings, but they're tied to making credits, so... we need something else.Mission payouts should be nerfed significantly and rewards should be based on risk and time/effort needed.
Nah, just add something for the hardcore player as referenced above.Trade profits should be nerfed especially for tritium, military fabrics, basic meds in Outbreak (or add significant risk if hauling those commodities) but smuggling illegal commodities should be buffed due to the additional risk.
Explo data should be nerfed.
Nope, and you can thank consoles for this.And yes, it should be Open Only.
I agree with more definition and game play around careers, but again, credits shouldn't be the measurement of success within the game, instead, the measurement of success should be more content. Other aspects of doing missions in careers could provide further benefits to the player (i.e. smugglers unlock items that further their careers as smugglers while they gain experience as a smuggler). Having objectives within careers could allow players to personalize their play styles by career and place progress on activities within the career rather than credits earned.No easy money. Credits will feel rightfully earned. Pirating will be a legitimate profession again (legitimately illegitimate?). There won’t be just one or two dominant ways to generate credits. Trader, miner, smuggler, bounty hunter, salvager will all be viable careers.
That's literally the bottom line. The mode structure is clever and innovative, and provides diverse game experiences for different types of players, which increases the appeal of the game and its profitability. Any sensible person realises that all we different player types need each other in order to have the game we enjoy.All I see whenever I see these "Elite needs to be Open only and PVP focused", all I read is "I want to have more noobs to get easy kills from."
Elite's Open/Solo structure is perfectly fine, and helps keep player numbers higher than they would be if it were strictly Open.
Exactly. I dont understand why PVP players feel that the current structure is such an affront to their livelihood.That's literally the bottom line. The mode structure is clever and innovative, and provides diverse game experiences for different types of players, which increases the appeal of the game and its profitability. Any sensible person realises that all we different player types need each other in order to have the game we enjoy.
Moaning that someone else is using the structure in a different way to you is about as stupid as it's possible to be in this game environment.
Everyone should use the modes to get the game experience they want (and there's no need to stick to only one, although that's fine too).
Exactly. I dont understand why PVP players feel that the current structure is such an affront to their livelihood.
...if the ED galaxy was made more dangerous with NPCs, then it could be risky enough in Solo.
It wont change, and im not a 'PvP player' in this game, because there is no point in being.. but imagine if there were no modes, no blocking, no instancing.
Player groups could blockade a system with high LTD sell prices. Other players come to fight those players to clear the route. A massive PvP war organically forms. Ive seen similar situations develop in other games and they are amazing. but they absolutely require that people cant just turn on invisible invincible mode and ignore the initial blockade, or the war never even develops.
This game is crap as an open PvP game because of modes, blocking and instancing. It didnt have to be, it could have been amazing.. but its just a single player game in the end. (Any talk of 'cooperative PvE' is total nonsense. ALL PvE in this game can be completed solo, there are no 'raid' equivalents where multiple ships with different builds are needed)
All of that blockading stuff also requires that there is one instance for everything - also that every platform was cross platform, and in that one instance.
This is not feasible.