Elite - Would it be better as a single player?
- Thread starter ITZC0ATL
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I, on the other hand, have not thought that even once.
For me multiplayer adds nothing, but only acts like a brake on the development of the truly important and essential features.
With the maturity of the game in a few years, perhaps the dynamic galaxy will reveal its true value
I always thought an Elite style game would be great as an MMO. Despite the disputed literal accuracy of the term I'm glad Frontier made it so. I also appreciate they made the option to play it in pseudo-single player mode (solo) as well.
Would it be better as a single player offline game ?
I'm not sure what you mean by 'better', that's rather subjective.
For me personally, I like it the way it is, what it has evolved into.
If you mean in terms of popularity then no as well, I think the co-op gameplay aspect is a big draw card for ED.
Yes it would have been better. Elite was always better as a SP game, and that pedigree probably certainly made it harder for ED.
If Frontier could not 'fix' stuff quickly enough, modders would have found a way. I'd certainly be more likely to be playing it already (rather than waiting on the sidelines for 5 years before the qol stuff drops).
CQC could have been added for those that wanted a PvP/MP ship shooter, but the main game could have been so much deeper and more interesting as a SP game, a true continuation of the Elite story.
If Frontier could not 'fix' stuff quickly enough, modders would have found a way. I'd certainly be more likely to be playing it already (rather than waiting on the sidelines for 5 years before the qol stuff drops).
CQC could have been added for those that wanted a PvP/MP ship shooter, but the main game could have been so much deeper and more interesting as a SP game, a true continuation of the Elite story.
I think you underestimate the strength and engagement of the player communities that so often coalesce around single-player, moddable games.
Personally for me - absolutely yes.
I'd say i really hate modern obsession with multiplayer.
Multiplayer restricts the game from having so much great stuff... Lethal, and i mean really lethal (see e-bomb) weapons. Lack of any "balance" or related concerns. Possibility to use time acceleration and related things. Possibility to save/load whenever you want, interrupt game session whenever you want and generally do things at your own pace. Possibility to use specific version you like, not the "latest and greatest" one. Possibility to cheat. The list can probably go on endlessly...
I'd say i really hate modern obsession with multiplayer.
Multiplayer restricts the game from having so much great stuff... Lethal, and i mean really lethal (see e-bomb) weapons. Lack of any "balance" or related concerns. Possibility to use time acceleration and related things. Possibility to save/load whenever you want, interrupt game session whenever you want and generally do things at your own pace. Possibility to use specific version you like, not the "latest and greatest" one. Possibility to cheat. The list can probably go on endlessly...
Nope.
Two Reasons.
Maybe in seven or eight years, FDev will sunset the game and I hope they keep their promise of releasing the server side code to the community. Once that happens people can mod, hack and offline as much as they want. However, I much prefer what they're doing at the moment.
Two Reasons.
- Mutiplayer is fun when it works - The most positive experiences I've had in this game has always involved multiplayer. wings, hutton trucker convoys, even multi-crew have all added to the experience. I've always got bored with the old frontier series/ Freelancer and X series single player experience after a certain point. This Mutiplayer/ MMO approach gives the game a lot more longevity.
- Too Much Datamining - We all know what will happen. Someone will datamine and hack the game files and then before you know it, the Thargoid homeworld, Raxxla would be exposed and you could forget putting anything nice in the game because it would just get hacked out and the game would be ruined again.
Maybe in seven or eight years, FDev will sunset the game and I hope they keep their promise of releasing the server side code to the community. Once that happens people can mod, hack and offline as much as they want. However, I much prefer what they're doing at the moment.
OP, I pondered a bit and imagined Elite being single player only from the get go. I made myself sad. I wouldn't know the wonders of ED's galaxy or have any drive to care about it. I imagined a world in which I had no idea about Raxxla, the PF's motives, and player faction politics.
It would've been worse off single player.
I get that 'mod extend the lifespan of a game' retoric. It's not like Elite's dying as is. Good games last forever... (Armored Core, Battlefield, BlOps, Worms, Frontier Elite...)
It would've been worse off single player.
I get that 'mod extend the lifespan of a game' retoric. It's not like Elite's dying as is. Good games last forever... (Armored Core, Battlefield, BlOps, Worms, Frontier Elite...)
I watched as a small group of players ripped through the 'mystery' surrounding the Thargoids, the barnacles, the encoded messages, and so on, and posted all their findings on YouTube. I'm sure they had great fun working it all out, but it didn't leave much for the rest of us to do once they'd finished. All we needed to do was go look up their videos and all the mystery went away.
(And then we had extra alien pew-pew, so it was all worthwhile.)
The point is, what you fear, and advance here as a primary reason ED shouldn't have been single-player, is basically "spoilers". But certainly to me, and I'd suspect to other non-hardcore players who might be just as unlikely to get in on that sweet, one-time codebreaking action (no pun intended) in the few days or weeks it's presented to us, it doesn't really make much difference if those spoilers come from hackers or just very clever people swarming all over the puzzle and working it out in a matter of hours.
So, sure: if you put cleverly hidden secrets in the game, then multiplayer or single-player, someone's going to expose them, and then it's up to you to decide whether to go look at their exposés. I don't see that it really makes much difference who's doing the exposing.
On the other hand, if you've created a fulfilling and entertaining game, in its own right, independent of any little Easter eggs or other nuggets you might hide in there, then that potential for exposure becomes less of an issue.
I find this argument absolutely bewildering. "I can't possibly enjoy a game if it's single-player because I can't care about it." Maybe you need to have been brought up with multiplayer games as the norm; but as a certified Old Git®, I can promise you it is perfectly possible to care about a game - even a game world - without a multiplayer option.
Yes, good games last forever (until they stop lasting, anyway). And you've listed some (though I've no idea what that one in the middle of the list is). But only time will tell whether ED can stand among them. The "mods extend lifespan" 'rhetoric', as you call it, is simple logic. The ability to mod a game gives that game another way to evolve, which can help it stave off stagnation and hold its community's interest long after the developers have lost theirs.
I'd go so far as to say that it's actually easier to care about the world in a single player game than it is a multiplayer one. In a single player game the actions you take have a lasting impact on the world. You destroy things, they stay destroyed until you rebuild them. In an MMO that simply is not possible; the world remains the same until the developers decide it's time to change. I have a hard time caring about a world I am unable to influence.
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indeed.... I remember in one Q&A DB kindly answered one of mine (probably others too) questions of whether or not "life" such as wear and tear and "live" on the fly repairing of stations would happen... and DB said it would be nice but not workable as all stations would end up being ruined by players as well as all the workers doing the repairs would be killed.
now... personally i thought it was a weak sauce answer, there are lots of ways this could still work in theory... but i accept it would take more work than in a singple player game, where npcs can be programmed to fill a role and actually stick to said role, where as players are notoriously bad at actually playing the role they are meant to.
example... the alleged cops and robbers game battlefield hardline...... (because cops suicide choppers into people all the time etc in real life right???)
This thread again?
I surely wouldn't play elite if it was single player.
There's solo if people truly want that experience.
As for mods and what not, I guess that'd be cool. Except who would you be enjoying them with?
I love multiplayer. The real human interaction is what gives this shallow ocean of a game it's real potential.
The game would have to have a universe that's more interesting and unique than fallout, and I just don't see frontier being able to do that. They're good, but they're not that good. They can't even make a tutorial or opening cinematic. Everything wouldn't be much different than what we've got now, just text dialogues and copy-pasteaudio radio chatter.
But you know, that's just, like, my opinion ,man.
I surely wouldn't play elite if it was single player.
There's solo if people truly want that experience.
As for mods and what not, I guess that'd be cool. Except who would you be enjoying them with?
I love multiplayer. The real human interaction is what gives this shallow ocean of a game it's real potential.
The game would have to have a universe that's more interesting and unique than fallout, and I just don't see frontier being able to do that. They're good, but they're not that good. They can't even make a tutorial or opening cinematic. Everything wouldn't be much different than what we've got now, just text dialogues and copy-pasteaudio radio chatter.
But you know, that's just, like, my opinion ,man.
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On the other side of that door behind you is a very scary world then. I suggest you never open it /s
As for the OP definitely not, it's 2018, not 1990. Campaign led nonsense, nothanksverymuch. I had a vision all those years ago when playing the 1984 version that all those ships were piloted by real people, well dreams can come true it seems
actually the "new" (ish) tutorial missions are fantastic... and if anything rub salt in your face into how dry the game is.
(wow... i so seem to keep peeing on the game... when in fact i DO love it!)
No.
Next question?
Next question?
I seem to find that, too. For all the time I spend playing ED, and thinking about it when I'm not playing it, I do seem to end up on the grumpy, cantankerous side of these discussions. I should probably try to do something about that, in case people think I'd rather there wasn't an ED to play, and think about when I'm not playing it.
One for Jim Sterling here, I think. "Current Year Argument!"
[video=youtube_share;9w2RMBrmTsk]https://youtu.be/9w2RMBrmTsk[/video]
(You can obviously watch the actual video about Starfox Zero if you want to. It's the intro I'm pointing at. Look. I'm pointing. This is me pointing. Pointy pointy.)
I'm not a young 'un and I did play the originals (FE2 was my favourite game for many years!).
While a single-player game excels at being able to give you a narrative experience, in my experience the open-world elements of Elite games lend themselves to a shared experience, and the majority of my play-time on Elite is spent interacting with other players (in some way). If Elite was not a MMO-lite I'd have already "completed" it long ago and uninstalled it. While I'm predominantly a PVE player, I do always play in Open, and I enjoy that there's other real people out there doing things, even the ones that will kill me. I love that when I hear about a new discovery, I can head over there and see it with other people, or be part of searches for things that involved hundreds of other people, or get involved in conflicts that affect other players, or wing up with my friends and do something, etc. When I was playing the old games, specifically FE2, I used to imagine meeting other players out there in space, despite the fact that I think back then the internet was basically Tim Berners-Lee sending cat memes to the two-dozen other people online (hyperbole for comic effect).
Having said that, I do hope that Fdev makes some time to improve the multiplayer aspects as well as all the other cool stuff they're doing. Instancing is still horrendous (and seems arbitrary and unnecessary a lot of the time). We need to be able to do more activities as a group (Wing missions and the upcoming squadrons and mining changes are a good start, and I hope not an end), we need a better solution than "multicrew" as it's currently implemented, etc. but these are all known and I fully anticipate at least some developments this year on those things.