I’ve been with ED since PremBeta and have progressed through the various roles to the point I have a nearly full spec Clipper and Empire Rank of Lord. I’ve had some great discussions with the forums and members of FD regarding upcoming changes and this has been great.
.
However in the last week I have felt my desire to play reduce. It is like that feeling you get when you complete the campaign on a game like Farcry or CoD. Once you reach the end game your heart isn’t really in it to do all of the little extras.
.
I really want to see ED succeed and become a long term hobby of mine that I can jump in and out of as time permits but right now there are some key things that are stopping that and I fear for my long term interest in ED in the near future. I’m not there yet. I just had the first feelings of, well I guess you can call it boredom.
.
Here is a compilation of the things I believe would give ED real long-term appeal for me. Some I have posted about, some are from other peoples great ideas and observations. I just wanted to get it all in one place and give my take on it for the good of the game.
.
Purpose
ED is a great start at being a sandbox, but even a sandbox needs to have purpose. I can live without a main campaign, it’s quite refreshing actually, but there needs to be depth of purpose that I can get my teeth into. My actions need to matter and need to have a consistency rather than be instant throw away actions. If I kill an NPC, he needs to matter. Not just be a -1 on a faction list and a quick pursuit by his faction IF I don’t nip in and pay a bounty and am all forgiven by everyone.
.
.
Living Universe
Right now the AI element of the game is randomly generated and the illusion isn’t convincing enough. I want to believe that the ships I see in the universe are real, have a real job and interfering with that job (for good or bad) has impact.
.
If a station needs goods then I should see ships getting those goods. I should be able to follow that ship and see its journey from start to finish. This then gives me the feeling that all the other ships have purpose and if I get in the way (conflict, piracy, bounty hunting) that I am hindering that purpose and that in itself has an impact. A chain of events that has repercussions.
.
Right now if I randomly blow away a freighter it has no impact as that wasn’t a real freighter on a real journey carrying real goods. It was just a random spawn. At best I will impact a number in a faction database that is just calculated. I might get in trouble personally but the loss of that freighter has no bearing on anything else.
.
If I decide to prey on freighters only carrying Gold to a given station, that station should see a down turn in gold stock. Real impact from real actions. This in turn should result in increased security for gold transports, sponsored by the Stations faction. Missions should appear for players to run escort and my job at preying on gold freighters should eventually get more and more difficult until I am ultimately pushed out of the system. Gold should then have a boom until the system stabilises.
Real impact on real ships doing real tasks and an event that others can see and get involved in.
.
.
Known Space
Populated space is actually pretty small right now compared to the galaxy we occupy. We know the galaxy is enormous but populated systems only number in the thousands (a few hundred thousand as far as I know). I believe it is realistic to keep track of real AI ships in that much space. Yes it will be a big database and yes it will be a lot to keep track of but the payoff in immersion is immense.
Imagine if a group of players actually embargoed a station and didn’t allow any trade ships (player or ai) through that were carrying goods. That station should dry up and the governing faction should react in a big way. Everyone in and around the system should feel these effects.
.
I play with a few friends and their view of the universe is very different from mine at any given moment. If I jump into a system I will see x number of randomly generated ships with specific names. I then leave. A friend then jumps in a few moments later and sees x number of totally different randomly generated ships. The bubble bursts. Where is the persistence? Where is the illusion that we are in a real shared place? This is what makes my actions feel instant and meaningless.
I can have fun for an hour bounty hunting a nav point but then what? It currently has no bearing on anything tangible and I can come back and do the same thing tomorrow. It will have the same feeling and the same result.
Where is the pirate reaction? Where is the greater police presence to the pirate problem I keep dealing with? Where is the feeling that my “policing” is having any effect on the wider system? Where is the increase in trading traffic because I spent several hours making the trade lanes safer? That is what gives me the feeling of achievement and that is missing right now.
This is why I get bored playing games like battlefield. The map resets, there are 16 new players to kill over and over and at the end of my hour nothing has been achieved beyond a few hundred kills on a sheet that isn’t used for anything further.
.
.
Persistence
Systems persist. Planets persist. Stations persist and even change hands. Factions persist and can be overthrown or gain ground, even expand.
Everything else appears to be generated for individual players at that moment. For this to work as a believable shared universe MMO there needs to be persistence in traffic, security presence, debris from conflicts.
Everything that someone else has seen should be there for me to see in order for my mind to believe I am in a shared universe where my actions affect everyone around me and theirs affect me. Of course I won’t meet everyone and I won’t know everything but the people that I do meet should share my stories and should have seen some of the things I have seen.
I would love for someone to tell me of an epic battle between the Security Services and a group of player pirates. I should be able to go there and see the carnage of their battle and maybe even pick through the wreckage for some illegal salvage.
Real people, real places, real shared experience.
.
.
Summary
I love ED and I want to see it grow and succeed. I want to live in it like a second life and I want it to make me believe it is real and somewhere I can have an impact that is seen by others and somewhere other real people and their actions have an impact on what I experience.
.
There is actually more value in turning up just too late and seeing the carnage of a situation others have experienced than knowing a situation was just spawned in front of me, just like the last 4 times, I will be the only one to see it and when I leave it will never have existed.
.
However in the last week I have felt my desire to play reduce. It is like that feeling you get when you complete the campaign on a game like Farcry or CoD. Once you reach the end game your heart isn’t really in it to do all of the little extras.
.
I really want to see ED succeed and become a long term hobby of mine that I can jump in and out of as time permits but right now there are some key things that are stopping that and I fear for my long term interest in ED in the near future. I’m not there yet. I just had the first feelings of, well I guess you can call it boredom.
.
Here is a compilation of the things I believe would give ED real long-term appeal for me. Some I have posted about, some are from other peoples great ideas and observations. I just wanted to get it all in one place and give my take on it for the good of the game.
.
Purpose
ED is a great start at being a sandbox, but even a sandbox needs to have purpose. I can live without a main campaign, it’s quite refreshing actually, but there needs to be depth of purpose that I can get my teeth into. My actions need to matter and need to have a consistency rather than be instant throw away actions. If I kill an NPC, he needs to matter. Not just be a -1 on a faction list and a quick pursuit by his faction IF I don’t nip in and pay a bounty and am all forgiven by everyone.
.
.
Living Universe
Right now the AI element of the game is randomly generated and the illusion isn’t convincing enough. I want to believe that the ships I see in the universe are real, have a real job and interfering with that job (for good or bad) has impact.
.
If a station needs goods then I should see ships getting those goods. I should be able to follow that ship and see its journey from start to finish. This then gives me the feeling that all the other ships have purpose and if I get in the way (conflict, piracy, bounty hunting) that I am hindering that purpose and that in itself has an impact. A chain of events that has repercussions.
.
Right now if I randomly blow away a freighter it has no impact as that wasn’t a real freighter on a real journey carrying real goods. It was just a random spawn. At best I will impact a number in a faction database that is just calculated. I might get in trouble personally but the loss of that freighter has no bearing on anything else.
.
If I decide to prey on freighters only carrying Gold to a given station, that station should see a down turn in gold stock. Real impact from real actions. This in turn should result in increased security for gold transports, sponsored by the Stations faction. Missions should appear for players to run escort and my job at preying on gold freighters should eventually get more and more difficult until I am ultimately pushed out of the system. Gold should then have a boom until the system stabilises.
Real impact on real ships doing real tasks and an event that others can see and get involved in.
.
.
Known Space
Populated space is actually pretty small right now compared to the galaxy we occupy. We know the galaxy is enormous but populated systems only number in the thousands (a few hundred thousand as far as I know). I believe it is realistic to keep track of real AI ships in that much space. Yes it will be a big database and yes it will be a lot to keep track of but the payoff in immersion is immense.
Imagine if a group of players actually embargoed a station and didn’t allow any trade ships (player or ai) through that were carrying goods. That station should dry up and the governing faction should react in a big way. Everyone in and around the system should feel these effects.
.
I play with a few friends and their view of the universe is very different from mine at any given moment. If I jump into a system I will see x number of randomly generated ships with specific names. I then leave. A friend then jumps in a few moments later and sees x number of totally different randomly generated ships. The bubble bursts. Where is the persistence? Where is the illusion that we are in a real shared place? This is what makes my actions feel instant and meaningless.
I can have fun for an hour bounty hunting a nav point but then what? It currently has no bearing on anything tangible and I can come back and do the same thing tomorrow. It will have the same feeling and the same result.
Where is the pirate reaction? Where is the greater police presence to the pirate problem I keep dealing with? Where is the feeling that my “policing” is having any effect on the wider system? Where is the increase in trading traffic because I spent several hours making the trade lanes safer? That is what gives me the feeling of achievement and that is missing right now.
This is why I get bored playing games like battlefield. The map resets, there are 16 new players to kill over and over and at the end of my hour nothing has been achieved beyond a few hundred kills on a sheet that isn’t used for anything further.
.
.
Persistence
Systems persist. Planets persist. Stations persist and even change hands. Factions persist and can be overthrown or gain ground, even expand.
Everything else appears to be generated for individual players at that moment. For this to work as a believable shared universe MMO there needs to be persistence in traffic, security presence, debris from conflicts.
Everything that someone else has seen should be there for me to see in order for my mind to believe I am in a shared universe where my actions affect everyone around me and theirs affect me. Of course I won’t meet everyone and I won’t know everything but the people that I do meet should share my stories and should have seen some of the things I have seen.
I would love for someone to tell me of an epic battle between the Security Services and a group of player pirates. I should be able to go there and see the carnage of their battle and maybe even pick through the wreckage for some illegal salvage.
Real people, real places, real shared experience.
.
.
Summary
I love ED and I want to see it grow and succeed. I want to live in it like a second life and I want it to make me believe it is real and somewhere I can have an impact that is seen by others and somewhere other real people and their actions have an impact on what I experience.
.
There is actually more value in turning up just too late and seeing the carnage of a situation others have experienced than knowing a situation was just spawned in front of me, just like the last 4 times, I will be the only one to see it and when I leave it will never have existed.
Last edited:
