The original title was "Is exploration dead?" and I still think that's a good question to help summarise what's going through my mind. I've changed it at the request of several posters.
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Hi,
First post for a long while, the reason being the theme of this post.
I want to collect my thoughts on why exploration is dead to me, and I'd really welcome your input. I want to make a video about it and make an appeal to Frontier with what little sway I have.
I can't really log into Elite at the moment. The reason is I'm just sick to death of it.
That's not a complaint about the game - let's be VERY clear about that. The game has given me well over 1000 hours of the best fun I've had in pretty much any game, and I think it's a fantastic, rich, technologically achieving game. I also recognise and have argued constantly on behalf of Frontier that it is a young game with the most exciting things in store, over years perhaps, but coming.
I just want to get to the root of why I am sick of the game and I'll give you my thoughts and I'd love to hear your opinions too. I do want to say that the answers I will be most interested in will be ones that clearly show they read everything I wrote, rather than just reacting to one thing I said here or there. It really is a confusion I am suffering, and the whole thing needs to be taken together to get to the root of that confusion. The main thing I think you should respect when answering is that I've played over 1000 hours and have been very very very very committed to exploration. If you've played less than that, if it is still reasonably new and fresh to you, then I can't really accept you saying I am wrong about the way I feel about it until you've reached my point. Fair?
Basically, as an explorer at heart, I can't explore the game any more. The reason is that I've seen it all. What have I seen? Well I've done the big journeys across the galaxy and seen all the different parts of the galaxy, all the different nebula types. I've seen every conceivable planet in every variation it comes in, I've seen every variation of planet configuration. I've spent hundreds of hours of just sitting in my cockpit gawking at the full scale galaxy and solar systems. I've spent countless hours pretending its real in my Oculus Rift, exploring like a child with no goal in mind, with goals in mind, my heart fluttering. I've even gone to a cluster that only opened up after neutron boosts with no hope of return and enjoyed being in a scary cut off lonesome place that not many will see. I've landed on every planet type over and over, climbed the biggest mountains, deepest valleys, highest gravities, seen the most alien skies imaginable. I've even explored the bubble, all the different bases, moons around ELWs, I've hunted dream locations like AW ELW pairs and, well all the good stuff. I've organised big expeditions, I feel like I've influenced the game itself with my videos, innovations and community work, I've made guides and really enjoyed that too.
But that's the point, I've seen it all. I've seen it over and over and over, and all I have relived the best experiences to death. There's nothing new for me to see anymore. Yes, there are still hundreds of really interesting combinations and rarities to find but even if I find them, what will I do? I can go and look at them and set my imagination ticking about life there, experience this corner of the galaxy, but that's nothing new. That's repetition to the utmost.
Also, as a side note, I have come to really dislike the landable planets. The more and more I look at them the more bland and bad they look. I understand they are just the most boring type of planet, barren rocks with no atmospheres, but even among them I'd expect more variation than we see. But it's not just the variation, they are just lacking. They really feel like just one huge texture, with some very very repetitive and unrealistic features, especially as they are purely convex. They are way too homogenised, nowhere ever feels unique, you never get the feeling of being in a special place, you never find a really lovely spot that you think "I could actually build a base here, this is an awesome spot". They don't come close to photo real, they don't even look good if you consider them to be stylised. And they seem to get worse every time they are updated. If they looked really real, and had the feeling of being worlds, I'd probably be able to keep going, as being on an alien planet is a magical experience I don't think I can get bored of in a million years. I do it all the time in Space Engine (just look at how much more realistic they look there, at least in lower LoDs, look at the images from Star Citizen - I obviously understand the differences here but you get the idea of what can look good).
So that's where I am at, and I guess the biggest struggle for me is whether the problem is with the game or with me. The last big thing done for explorers was planetary landings, which added hundreds of hours and magic to the game (despite what I just said about them). There have been medium updates and minor ones galore since then, but nothing has done jack diddly squat to add magic to the game (the neutron boost mistake was a mistake! we had to fight for it to be left in game...). Even neutron star boosts barely added anything. We found ONE cool place to go with it, did it in a couple of weeks and basically I've barely touched the game since.
I've immersed myself in the other fantastic aspects of the games and I could write loads about them too but I want to focus on my real love, exploration, in this. The other parts of the game are quite fantastic and everyone should give them all a go, in my opinon.
But what do I want? Of course, I want atmosphere landings, space legs and eventually procedural life. I think that when all 3 of those have rolled out I will have found a game I can literally never get bored of.
But am I lying to myself? IS there a solution? Will these things eventually having me feeling sick to death too?
I have a feeling that's why Frontier aren't rushing them, but I still can't stop feeling a little peeved that here we are nearly 3 years since release, the next year of updates has already been basically laid out as "reworking what's already in the game", and not a single sign of anything significant coming for explorers.
It upsets me, but I can understand that I am being impatient, but I also feel like this game is sold on exploration, but exploration is dead! Do you see my inner struggle? Do you feel it yourself?
I desperately want some love for exploration. I desperately want Frontier to say something about it, I want Brooks or Braben to write a heartfelt blog about it. We know they adore it, but for some reason everything else under the sun is getting unlimited attention, we are getting scripted stuff galore (which is not something as an explorer I care much about...I understand that there are other types of explorers that love that stuff).
I can't play this game right now. I will never leave, the second something really big is announced like atmospheric landings, my explorer's heart will flutter again, I will be back for another 500 ours relishing in it. But when will it be?
Do I have a real, legitimate reason to ask why it isn't here yet? Why it isn't even announced? Why the devs haven't even said a word about why it's not here yet? When it will be?
Ok this is going on and on. Just tell me folks who agree, why is it dead? What can really be done to bring real life back to it? Is such a thing possible or is it something we are all lying to ourselves about? There's no such thing as a gaming galaxy that will give our explorer's heart endless childhood glee?
tl;dr
I really do believe that it's very possible to create a large enough set of variables for the procedural engine that you can make a game that gives you more to explore than you could ever see, with constant variation, that you can't get sick of. I desperately want Frontier to start on that project now, though it feels like that project is on hold for 2 years so far, with no mention of it in their upcoming year's plans, and no mention of why. No mention of anything! Am I just being too optimistic??? That's the crux.
---
Hi,
First post for a long while, the reason being the theme of this post.
I want to collect my thoughts on why exploration is dead to me, and I'd really welcome your input. I want to make a video about it and make an appeal to Frontier with what little sway I have.
I can't really log into Elite at the moment. The reason is I'm just sick to death of it.
That's not a complaint about the game - let's be VERY clear about that. The game has given me well over 1000 hours of the best fun I've had in pretty much any game, and I think it's a fantastic, rich, technologically achieving game. I also recognise and have argued constantly on behalf of Frontier that it is a young game with the most exciting things in store, over years perhaps, but coming.
I just want to get to the root of why I am sick of the game and I'll give you my thoughts and I'd love to hear your opinions too. I do want to say that the answers I will be most interested in will be ones that clearly show they read everything I wrote, rather than just reacting to one thing I said here or there. It really is a confusion I am suffering, and the whole thing needs to be taken together to get to the root of that confusion. The main thing I think you should respect when answering is that I've played over 1000 hours and have been very very very very committed to exploration. If you've played less than that, if it is still reasonably new and fresh to you, then I can't really accept you saying I am wrong about the way I feel about it until you've reached my point. Fair?
Basically, as an explorer at heart, I can't explore the game any more. The reason is that I've seen it all. What have I seen? Well I've done the big journeys across the galaxy and seen all the different parts of the galaxy, all the different nebula types. I've seen every conceivable planet in every variation it comes in, I've seen every variation of planet configuration. I've spent hundreds of hours of just sitting in my cockpit gawking at the full scale galaxy and solar systems. I've spent countless hours pretending its real in my Oculus Rift, exploring like a child with no goal in mind, with goals in mind, my heart fluttering. I've even gone to a cluster that only opened up after neutron boosts with no hope of return and enjoyed being in a scary cut off lonesome place that not many will see. I've landed on every planet type over and over, climbed the biggest mountains, deepest valleys, highest gravities, seen the most alien skies imaginable. I've even explored the bubble, all the different bases, moons around ELWs, I've hunted dream locations like AW ELW pairs and, well all the good stuff. I've organised big expeditions, I feel like I've influenced the game itself with my videos, innovations and community work, I've made guides and really enjoyed that too.
But that's the point, I've seen it all. I've seen it over and over and over, and all I have relived the best experiences to death. There's nothing new for me to see anymore. Yes, there are still hundreds of really interesting combinations and rarities to find but even if I find them, what will I do? I can go and look at them and set my imagination ticking about life there, experience this corner of the galaxy, but that's nothing new. That's repetition to the utmost.
Also, as a side note, I have come to really dislike the landable planets. The more and more I look at them the more bland and bad they look. I understand they are just the most boring type of planet, barren rocks with no atmospheres, but even among them I'd expect more variation than we see. But it's not just the variation, they are just lacking. They really feel like just one huge texture, with some very very repetitive and unrealistic features, especially as they are purely convex. They are way too homogenised, nowhere ever feels unique, you never get the feeling of being in a special place, you never find a really lovely spot that you think "I could actually build a base here, this is an awesome spot". They don't come close to photo real, they don't even look good if you consider them to be stylised. And they seem to get worse every time they are updated. If they looked really real, and had the feeling of being worlds, I'd probably be able to keep going, as being on an alien planet is a magical experience I don't think I can get bored of in a million years. I do it all the time in Space Engine (just look at how much more realistic they look there, at least in lower LoDs, look at the images from Star Citizen - I obviously understand the differences here but you get the idea of what can look good).
So that's where I am at, and I guess the biggest struggle for me is whether the problem is with the game or with me. The last big thing done for explorers was planetary landings, which added hundreds of hours and magic to the game (despite what I just said about them). There have been medium updates and minor ones galore since then, but nothing has done jack diddly squat to add magic to the game (the neutron boost mistake was a mistake! we had to fight for it to be left in game...). Even neutron star boosts barely added anything. We found ONE cool place to go with it, did it in a couple of weeks and basically I've barely touched the game since.
I've immersed myself in the other fantastic aspects of the games and I could write loads about them too but I want to focus on my real love, exploration, in this. The other parts of the game are quite fantastic and everyone should give them all a go, in my opinon.
But what do I want? Of course, I want atmosphere landings, space legs and eventually procedural life. I think that when all 3 of those have rolled out I will have found a game I can literally never get bored of.
But am I lying to myself? IS there a solution? Will these things eventually having me feeling sick to death too?
I have a feeling that's why Frontier aren't rushing them, but I still can't stop feeling a little peeved that here we are nearly 3 years since release, the next year of updates has already been basically laid out as "reworking what's already in the game", and not a single sign of anything significant coming for explorers.
It upsets me, but I can understand that I am being impatient, but I also feel like this game is sold on exploration, but exploration is dead! Do you see my inner struggle? Do you feel it yourself?
I desperately want some love for exploration. I desperately want Frontier to say something about it, I want Brooks or Braben to write a heartfelt blog about it. We know they adore it, but for some reason everything else under the sun is getting unlimited attention, we are getting scripted stuff galore (which is not something as an explorer I care much about...I understand that there are other types of explorers that love that stuff).
I can't play this game right now. I will never leave, the second something really big is announced like atmospheric landings, my explorer's heart will flutter again, I will be back for another 500 ours relishing in it. But when will it be?
Do I have a real, legitimate reason to ask why it isn't here yet? Why it isn't even announced? Why the devs haven't even said a word about why it's not here yet? When it will be?
Ok this is going on and on. Just tell me folks who agree, why is it dead? What can really be done to bring real life back to it? Is such a thing possible or is it something we are all lying to ourselves about? There's no such thing as a gaming galaxy that will give our explorer's heart endless childhood glee?
tl;dr
I really do believe that it's very possible to create a large enough set of variables for the procedural engine that you can make a game that gives you more to explore than you could ever see, with constant variation, that you can't get sick of. I desperately want Frontier to start on that project now, though it feels like that project is on hold for 2 years so far, with no mention of it in their upcoming year's plans, and no mention of why. No mention of anything! Am I just being too optimistic??? That's the crux.
However seek it out and it seems to never be reachable. There is a wisdom hidden beneath this. Why would you search what you already know hoping to discover something you don't ? Frontier gave you a world to explore. But your dreams go further. And even space engine, universe sandbox 2 or star citizen will (at some point) limit your imagination.
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