The game sacrifies so much important, cool, and sometimes mandatory features (not only external views) to such a clunky MP experience, that I wonder more and more what it's all about, in fact. I love ED, but right now it sits between two chairs. An uncomfortable position.
My thought is that it is very very hard to make ED an multiplayer in the "classical" sense because it has no skill systhem, does have nothing that "channels" the crowd like for example EVE or WoW.
If Frontier wants multiplayer something people flock to then they need to put incetive into meeting at places, have admins present 24/7
Most developer overlook that part, no mmo has become big without costly staff on all hours of the day, and if in the back ground.
We should have an better trade systhem, stations who are mills of ligh seconds out of entry points have the same prices as stations who are 70ls away from the sun, why go to faar places if not for some delivery job where one has overlooked that fact?
There is great great visuals, but it is all clinical right now, the devs should have groups from the player base take over sectors of space and personalise them, build space stations and play with clutter inside, write stories, what not, there should be an massive crowd based work to make places special.
Richt now achenar and sol have the same stations pretty much, only the name is different.
Ross 128? is an prison systhem, it looks as any other systhem, there is nothing special than that it says so, there are no stations who have special gear, all computer created randomnes, you have seen 50 or let it be 200 but then it is all the same in green.
ED has the foundation to be great but with the scale of its sandbox the devs need to find reliable people, and many of them, in the player base and have them create special places, make places look special, an sort of building set from the computer randomized station building set, clutter collections and so on comes to mind, people make stations and an dev looks at it, says its made ok and puts it into the game, starting out from the central systhems more and more stations become special and have personalitie.
There are many people who are good at writing, so solar systhems can get better text in info beside a few stats.
When you travel around you have the feeling you are actual going to places, not fly 100 lightyears and then dock back at the same station with another name tacked onto the entry.
ED is great what there is, the mechaniks, the sights, everything really really great but it is right now without personalitie and with its scale the devs can not really add much at that given itsd size, so it has to be volunteers who make places special.
Better bulletin systhem, jobs for freighter, we need more of them, as soon one is above 100 cargo capacitie most jobs on bulletin board are not much interesting, i make more grinding up and down the same line of stations with less effort, so as soon standing is allied with an place there is no point in making them for any gain, and to be honest, it would be really cool for traders to travel from port to port and take on paid cargo, that is what freighters do.
Precious metals should be rather rare, as soon one is past like the second million there is no reason to transport bulk, so i was last on an agricultur station to fetch some orders, but never for trade, that is in the higher cap always high tech and refining/extraction
so we need reasions to move bulk items.
ED is great but it is for my opinion right now only an core that needs personalising if it wants to be an viable mmo or even solo player.
