I was flying around these days in a certain system in order to unlock one of the engineers, the one with the FSD drive improvement, when I noticed one of those new carriers sitting around the system, next to 30 other exactly same carriers. It's name was 'The reason we grind'.. Hmm.. I thought to myself, what a shame so many people are lost chasing 'the next unlock & accomplishment' and once they achieve the ultimate one, they just leave it standing there doing nothing. This was after chatting a bit in the system chats with various people and noticing a prevailing trend. Lots of people seem to complain about 'long travels' & 'grinding'. Hmm.
Now don't get me wrong. I've been there done that. Back in 1999 when I played my first MMORPG - Ultima Online, I made sure to meticulously study every nook & cranny on online forums such as these before even entering the game, until I got the most high end stuff possible. Then I just went PvPing day & night until I perfected my skills as well. Then one day, I just quit because there was nothing else to do. Looking back, I wish I had spent more time just enjoying the scenery and just enjoying the game at the lower levels. Once you have a high end character, it is not easy to go back and enjoy the lower level stuff. I also spent few years designing an MMORPG UO shard, so I know all the mechanics of gameplay that try to keep people busy for the sake of keeping them busy. Don't fall for those traps, take it slow and enjoy the journey.
Before I played Ultima Online, I had played another game with a huge world. That game was Elite 3 - The First Encounters. The release I had was buggy as hell but I played it day and night. Always looking forward about coming from school and reading the last edition of the galactic newspapers while cruising in super speed to the next planet. I finished the game again in 2006, then 2015 and lastly 2 years ago.
Two weeks ago, when I heard that Elite Dangerous was going for free on Epic I couldn't wait to give it a try. I had hesitated in the past because I had put my MMORPG days behind me. Being married with a full time job and a toddler daughter, the days are long gone of power gaming 12 hours a day and pwning noobs. These days I am lucky to get maybe 2 or 3 hours per day for gaming during the week. So with Epic giving it for free.. I said to myself I've got nothing to lose.
I have to say I am extremely positively surprised this game is very much playable and enjoyable with no grinding or MMORPG chasing for the 'next unlock'. I don't mean to criticize players who go for the power gaming. To be honest, If I had the time to game 8-12 hours a day.. sure.. I would've probably went to become an end game PvP player but here I want to offer a different perspective a different way of approaching the game and maybe inspire few other fathers of just stopping and smelling the roses instead of feeling bad for not having enough time to get an Anaconda.
First and foremost, get your motivations for playing this game right. Is this the right game for you? As a big fan of Elite 3, for me there was no doubt. The only thing I hoped for is that the game would not be too 'modernized' with lots of cut scenes and few mini games in between. Luckily, the core gameplay of Elite is still here. I am missing a bit of a story layer, something like Freelancer would've been nice but then again, storytelling was never what made Elite the best game ever (based on some people that include me)
In my case, I love this game for two reasons. First, I just love space. I've always been an astronomy buff so having 1:1 scale & Newtonian physics (most of the time) is just such a big blast. Circling that planet and
feeling its gravity is more than enough for me. I don't care if I am in a sidewinder or in an Anaconda, the experience is mostly the same.
The second reason is I just love blowing other ships up. Ideally I would love to do it in PvP but I don't have the time for that. So Resource Extraction zones and bounties have so far provided more than enough of that with over 40 ships shot down.
What I discovered real fast is that the level of grinding to achieve these two goals were absolutely minimal. Basically zero. I spent few hours in my sidewinder learning the controls, doing some Boom delivery missions and in no time I had the opportunity to buy my all time favourite ship (from Elite 3). But of course, the legendary Cobra MK3. I used to fly it there with a class 3 Military Drive which offered a record 27 Ly of jump.
Several Boom delivery missions later, with some planet landings and recoveries in between, which I enjoyed a lot as it allowed me to jump across 20 different systems I slowly but surely maxed out all the upgrades of my favorite ship. Then I got really lucky with having a Boom delivery of 54 Tritium for about 6.5 million which at this level is a LOT of money. I had to store my shield in storage and just take the risk. Got interdicted TWICE doing this run and I almost didn't make it but the experience was awesome. The lack of saving in this game meant an adrenaline rush that I haven't felt since the days of Ultima Online.
So here I am with over 17 hours played in the game, not being bored at all. I refuse to grind even if it means I will likely be playing the next 50-100 hours in the Cobra MK3. Having some bounty sessions in between, unlocking some engineers and slowly improving the ship to its maxed out state. I hate mining though so quite likely I will never gather all the required materials. Perhaps I will unlock the Guardians stuff as well. I try not to read too many guides or watch too many videos. What is the point of reading a book or watching a movie if you check all the spoilers on the internet first? I try to explore and discover most of the stuff alone and rely on a guide only when I get stuck. Then there is the whole discovery path. I look forward with visiting some far away star systems and just enjoying the astronomical background of the game. Playing some of the lore in the Codex seems also like a nice thing I should do. Then also visiting Sol and landing on the moon might be fun.. so there is a motivation for blowing a lot of ships up to get my Elite status. All of this is going to ensure lots and lots of fun... with no grinding.
Some people say the game is not very suited for casual players. I disagree. It is all about having a certain attitude towards the game. In some ways it is actually perfect for casual players. I can jump in for couple of hours at a time in Solo mode, do few missions, dock and go to sleep.
You may say .. oh but wait until you get to 1000 hours, you will get bored. Well.. this is a video game after all. Very few video games should be interesting past 200 hours played. If I get bored after 200 hours I would just say... Amazing job David Braben, you have managed to keep me at a game for longer that 99% of the rest of video games I've ever played.
