Elite only rewards players who can spend a ridiculous amount of time playing....

[stocko1111]

The only players who can advance in the game, (to get better weapons, ships etc) are the ones who can spend the most time playing and that's all there is to it. From shooting it out at RES sites, doing the CGs, trading, it all just comes down to if you have the most time to play, then you advance quicker because you earn more credits. I know this kind of makes sense and, it is the case in a lot of other games, but how about missions that don't involve rewards based around credits? How about we get rewarded with ships or equipment instead?

What about missions that make us use our brains such as treasure hunts, cryptic clues, rescuing damsels (or princes!) in distress and bringing them home safely to be rewarded with some kind of experimental weapons or ships. I've played the powerplay beta and, while doing missions unlocks some 'special' items, it's still all about earning credits at the end of the day. If you want get anywhere in this game you need credits. How about some other options for those who don't spend 12 hours a day playing?

 

[Ulysses_W]

What's the rush?
Who are you racing against?
Could it be that you're just a little impatient?

No offence intended, and the above questions are genuine ones.

 

[stocko1111]

What's the rush?
Who are you racing against?
Could it be that you're just a little impatient?

No offence intended, and the above questions are genuine ones.

I'm not rushing at all, I just think that there could be alternative rewards that don't revolve around money.

 

[Obsidian Ant]

What about missions that make us use our brains such as treasure hunts, cryptic clues, rescuing damsels (or princes!) in distress and bringing them home safely to be rewarded with some kind of experimental weapons or ships. I've played the powerplay beta and, while doing missions unlocks some 'special' items, it's still all about earning credits at the end of the day. If you want get anywhere in this game you need credits. How about some other options for those who don't spend 12 hours a day playing?

I really can't fathom why so many people in the community cannot understand why missions like this would be vastly better than the current time sinks we have.

It's really not an issue of how long it take / "what's the rush" etc. The question should be rephrased to "Do we want missions that feel more alive?"

 

[Agrar Therenus]

What's the rush?
Who are you racing against?
Could it be that you're just a little impatient?

No offence intended, and the above questions are genuine ones.

Well, we're now racing against reputation decay.

 

[MattBW]

only rewards people who put in lots of time?

Not far off real life then really...

 

[Erix The Swift]

Considering all the other games available in this day and age where everything is handed out on a silver platter, I'd say it's a very good thing that we have some variation. I only just recently got my Python despite playing since the last reset, and I'm okay with that. Some things take time.

 

[tanthil]

No issue here , i started in january and finally got my A-rated Asp few days ago with 8M in bank, so no rush here

 

[Obsidian Ant]

A bit like real life then really...

For many people games are about escapism and entertainment. No need to mirror the banal aspects of life when there are many more fun things that could be mirrored instead...

 

[streki]

Every MMO I've ever played rewards dedicated players. Otherwise what would keep people playing ?

Having said that, you can do just about everything in ED with only a Cobra and 1 million credits.

 

[MissMeYet]

I want a system where robots will fly my ship (wait..shipS!) on autopilot, doing missions and what-not. Then I can come back from a vacai and find mondo $$$ in my account and buy better robots to fly bigger ships. That would be so much fun. Will 1.4 address this very big hole in gameplay?

 

[Ian Phillips]

Considering all the other games available in this day and age where everything is handed out on a silver platter, I'd say it's a very good thing that we have some variation. I only just recently got my Python despite playing since the last reset, and I'm okay with that. Some things take time.

You have a Python? Damn you're progressing fast!
I have an Asp as my most expensive ship.

 

[Arsen Cross]

I personally feel that doing freelance work consistantly through the bulletin board should rival or surpass dedicating yourself to pure trade, or pure RES site farming, or Pure CG's.

After all we are all members of the Pilots Federation, which if I'm not mistaken is an organization intended to primarly be freelance workers.

Hopefully the increased payouts of missions will address this, as honestly I rather enjoy doing bulletin board missions in their current state. The improvements with powerplay and increased rewards should make my chosen gameplay style feel more rewarding instead of the effect I experienced when I switched to it from trading, which was "this is fun, but I'm not getting paid squat!".

 

[Alex Brentnall]

What about missions that make us use our brains such as treasure hunts, cryptic clues, rescuing damsels (or princes!) in distress and bringing them home safely to be rewarded with some kind of experimental weapons or ships. I've played the powerplay beta and, while doing missions unlocks some 'special' items, it's still all about earning credits at the end of the day. If you want get anywhere in this game you need credits. How about some other options for those who don't spend 12 hours a day playing?

Sort of agree with above posts. For this I would simply point to the unknown artefact thread and drop the mic. Most intelligence matters are story based rewards.
Yes you are right that its a time sink to get higher but thats precisely what it should be, you don't get promoted to CEO in a week putting 2 hours a day in. Ok Elite shouldn't be a second job but I still feel that people take grinding too seriously, its not an MMO and if you do something you enjoy you'll get there eventually.

I enjoy exploring and I enjoy dogfighting so thats what I do, I set my targets low originally (wanted to get to a Cobra) and upped them as my credits did. Too many people seem to be aiming for a top level Anaconda for 600 million and want to get it in two weeks, I don't expect to have a top level Conda for another 3 months and thats with me sitting at 450mil credits at the moment!!

(Not having a go at OP, just i've seen a few of these threads recently and with the update of 1.3 I think we will see faster progression to the higher ships than ever before even if there are elements for the hardcore crowd in there).

 

[Obsidian Ant]

stocko it's a shame everyone is responding to the title of your post rather than your closing paragraph.

Ah except for Alex above!!

 

[Philip Coutts]

I'm not that fussed about my slow progress. That's life and all that, I have a beautiful family that I love spending time with and I accept my progress will be slow. What does really, really worry me is this reputation decay nonsense. It basically means it isn't worth my while attempting to play the powerplay stuff because my rep will almost certainly decrease faster than I can make it. This more than anything else punishes the casual 2 - 3 hours a week gamer.

 

[lovely lovely]

Sort of agree with above posts. For this I would simply point to the unknown artefact thread and drop the mic. Most intelligence matters are story based rewards.
Yes you are right that its a time sink to get higher but thats precisely what it should be, you don't get promoted to CEO in a week putting 2 hours a day in. Ok Elite shouldn't be a second job but I still feel that people take grinding too seriously, its not an MMO and if you do something you enjoy you'll get there eventually.

I enjoy exploring and I enjoy dogfighting so thats what I do, I set my targets low originally (wanted to get to a Cobra) and upped them as my credits did. Too many people seem to be aiming for a top level Anaconda for 600 million and want to get it in two weeks, I don't expect to have a top level Conda for another 3 months and thats with me sitting at 450mil credits at the moment!!

(Not having a go at OP, just i've seen a few of these threads recently and with the update of 1.3 I think we will see faster progression to the higher ships than ever before even if there are elements for the hardcore crowd in there).

I've got more than enough for a conda however my python does just as much if not more than it - can land at outposts to clear those pesky fines/outposts too. I've had one for about 4 months and with it's versatility I've not had the inclination to change. Now if they allow condas to land at outposts on the other hand .....

 

[Abbadon]

i just play as I can, Sometimes I can play all day, but now I just play elite a few hours a week, I got a lot of work. However I managed to buy a medium equipped python, an explorer ship, and a vulture while I was playing. At the launch of 1.3 I am going to buy a miner ship and probably the lakon type. I wont be in the top 10%, I wont get 100% bounty bonus, however I will definitly enjoy the level3 benefits. The top50%? It wont be a chalange, Like u allways achive the top50% in the community goals.

About OP: U realize that the first 3tier is basicly available to anyone the 4th is nothing special and the 5th is for the hardcore gamer as u said. However I dont understand why do u think that the game is just about the top 5-10%!?!? Or u just can let your ego from your squezee?

 

[stocko1111]

Here's an example mission:

You must get out of your current ship and into our Experimental Eagle and track down the President's niece who was last seen in such and such a system. Find out where she is and you can keep the ship.

After all, anyone can buy an Eagle but being told you have to do the mission in a certain type of ship (for stealth, speed etc) would be much better than what we have now, and then your reward is to keep the ship. You're then advancing in a different way to trading for hundreds of hours or shooting at things.

- - - Updated - - -

i just play as I can, Sometimes I can play all day, but now I just play elite a few hours a week, I got a lot of work. However I managed to buy a medium equipped python, an explorer ship, and a vulture while I was playing. At the launch of 1.3 I am going to buy a miner ship and probably the lakon type. I wont be in the top 10%, I wont get 100% bounty bonus, however I will definitly enjoy the level3 benefits. The top50%? It wont be a chalange, Like u allways achive the top50% in the community goals.

About OP: U realize that the first 3tier is basicly available to anyone the 4th is nothing special and the 5th is for the hardcore gamer as u said. However I dont understand why do u think that the game is just about the top 5-10%!?!? Or u just can let your ego from your squezee?

I didn't say anything about getting top 5%, I'm saying that the Elite: Dangerous galaxy could be a whole lot more than a capitalist economy.

 

[brumster]

What about missions that make us use our brains such as treasure hunts, cryptic clues, rescuing damsels (or princes!) in distress and bringing them home safely to be rewarded with some kind of experimental weapons or ships. I've played the powerplay beta and, while doing missions unlocks some 'special' items, it's still all about earning credits at the end of the day. If you want get anywhere in this game you need credits. How about some other options for those who don't spend 12 hours a day playing?

Completely agree. Rewards based on skill would be great (combat skill being the obvious one), but the problem I see is that the fundamental mechanics around flight and combat do not provide a playing field that allows it. At a very simplified level, he with the biggest guns who shoots first wins. I appreciate there's a little more to it than that, but it's not like the good old Air Warrior days where you could have proper David and Goliath battles where mastering your craft is what put you to Elite.

I don't see someone in-game at Elite ranking and think "wow, skillz". I just see "wow, dedicated". I could make the social life jibe, but that's not fair