I've been playing Elite since Beta 1 and have mostly been playing as a bounty hunter. I enjoy combat in the game but it was never the reason I bought the game. I wanted to be an explorer from day 1. But there was a problem, I found it to be nothing more than point at the object, scan, go to the next object, repeat. I wanted so much more than that, I wanted to study a planet, gather data from a star, feel like I was doing more than looking at the pretty sites. So I gave up on it for awhile and focused on combat ever since.
But then arose another problem, the issues with the game that bug most people playing right now where also bugging me as well. I'm talking about the things like before wings when bounty hunting was difficult to earn a living and background simulation being a guessing game to anyone not talking directly to FD and the instancing issues. I found myself hating this game more and more. Then FD went all quiet about Powerplay and I finally had enough. But rather than quit playing all together, I docked my Python and kitted out my Cobra and left the Federation. I figured now was the best time to give exploration a second chance.
My goal: Map out a large section of unexplored space relatively close to known space, the idea being the game's going to expand out bot still be close by what we already know and control so there should be a large number of earth-like worlds and terraformible world to find. I planned on staying out mapping until the Powerplay announcement, go to the closest frontier world and sell the data, go up above the galactic plain to see what it looks like, then speed run to the core from there.
The last two weeks I've been mapping a 150 LY pocket of space about 600 LYs from Sol and have found quite a lot of terraformible worlds, gas giants, and even a earth like world with an icy planet for a moon that has rings. Tedious work at times but very peaceful, especially since I listen to quite a lot of music while out there. It dawned on me yesterday while scanning a system with only 2 gas giants in it but nearly 1000Ls away from each other and thinking to myself they need an in system jump device for things like that when I realized something...
I was having fun again playing ED. Nothing had changed about the game in those two weeks but 1 thing, I was away from everything I hated about playing. I wasn't grinding, there wasn't a feeling of the game isn't finished, I wasn't on the forums reading about various problems or mad because someone doesn't get why I said something and thinks I'm complaining, I was enjoying the game for what it is and why I bought it to begin with.
My point is I took a step back without even realizing it and found myself enjoying just being in control of a ship and doing what I wanted. Does the game have issues, yes, but those issues aren't the be all and end all of this game. Explore, as vague as it is, made me realize the biggest problem with ED isn't what it doesn't have or isn't finished yet, it's biggest problem is getting caught it the grind and getting stuck on a issue and saying that's it, I'm out.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not praising the game here, BUT, I'm not hating on it either, I just came to the conclusion of If we just step back a bit from whatever problem we have with the game we can still have fun with it. The grind is really ED's biggest issue. At this state we should just play the game just to have fun, that big ship you want will still be there to buy 2 months from now, enjoy what's ED has to offer now and slow down a bit.
Just felt I should share how I feel with everyone here. Fly safe CMDRS.
But then arose another problem, the issues with the game that bug most people playing right now where also bugging me as well. I'm talking about the things like before wings when bounty hunting was difficult to earn a living and background simulation being a guessing game to anyone not talking directly to FD and the instancing issues. I found myself hating this game more and more. Then FD went all quiet about Powerplay and I finally had enough. But rather than quit playing all together, I docked my Python and kitted out my Cobra and left the Federation. I figured now was the best time to give exploration a second chance.
My goal: Map out a large section of unexplored space relatively close to known space, the idea being the game's going to expand out bot still be close by what we already know and control so there should be a large number of earth-like worlds and terraformible world to find. I planned on staying out mapping until the Powerplay announcement, go to the closest frontier world and sell the data, go up above the galactic plain to see what it looks like, then speed run to the core from there.
The last two weeks I've been mapping a 150 LY pocket of space about 600 LYs from Sol and have found quite a lot of terraformible worlds, gas giants, and even a earth like world with an icy planet for a moon that has rings. Tedious work at times but very peaceful, especially since I listen to quite a lot of music while out there. It dawned on me yesterday while scanning a system with only 2 gas giants in it but nearly 1000Ls away from each other and thinking to myself they need an in system jump device for things like that when I realized something...
I was having fun again playing ED. Nothing had changed about the game in those two weeks but 1 thing, I was away from everything I hated about playing. I wasn't grinding, there wasn't a feeling of the game isn't finished, I wasn't on the forums reading about various problems or mad because someone doesn't get why I said something and thinks I'm complaining, I was enjoying the game for what it is and why I bought it to begin with.
My point is I took a step back without even realizing it and found myself enjoying just being in control of a ship and doing what I wanted. Does the game have issues, yes, but those issues aren't the be all and end all of this game. Explore, as vague as it is, made me realize the biggest problem with ED isn't what it doesn't have or isn't finished yet, it's biggest problem is getting caught it the grind and getting stuck on a issue and saying that's it, I'm out.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not praising the game here, BUT, I'm not hating on it either, I just came to the conclusion of If we just step back a bit from whatever problem we have with the game we can still have fun with it. The grind is really ED's biggest issue. At this state we should just play the game just to have fun, that big ship you want will still be there to buy 2 months from now, enjoy what's ED has to offer now and slow down a bit.
Just felt I should share how I feel with everyone here. Fly safe CMDRS.
