Deleted member 240538
D
I'm old, have played both Elite (BBC Micro, others) and Frontier (Amiga), i-War, x3, Freelancer, plus various others.
I'll be honest - I backed then pulled my Kickstarter bid, because I could not really support the whole "persistent online solo play" model.
So far, I've explored over 20k Ly away, traded, been PvP'd, got a bunch of reasonable l33t ratings, even randomly encountered, and run away screaming from, various Thargoids.
I roll random quirks for my Pilots. Permadeath being a potential one, my first, RIP
, my current one has multiple "lives" but must take any mission I see that involves tea. Small concessions to role-play, I know.
Feedback: Game
It behaves exactly as I would have expected of a modern Elite game - which is what I would want.
I went to a system in a "war" state, flew around conflicts for about 10 minutes, but I did not see a single battle. Likely a restriction of the amount of maintainable AI battles.
Pirates come across as pointless in an economy where it is easy to make money. The amount of wanted pilots makes me think the infrastructure to support a life outside the "corporate universe" must be a little lavish. At least they have the sense to ask for the "right" amount of cargo befitting their own ship when accosting you, unlike most people:
So, I hear the The Borg liked Lave Dock.
Interdicting both AI and real players is stupidly easy; the interdiction target almost stays completely still for PvP. Why such a lack of a skill?
IMO, being an outlaw should be a skilled career choice, but since you can do a wide orbit of a system's sun at 2-5c, a top class FSD interdiction is able to tag players entering the system before they even know it.
Enemy "thermal attack" bypasses the shields and the ship explodes in seconds - ok...I guess I missed that being a thing.
Some of the AI names are oddly specific, but more amusing for it - "Mortimer VanCleef" indeed
You are approved for automated duck
<(^)
(____)
Feedback: Missions
Hunting multiple bounty targets takes an age (e.g. kill 6 faction Z pirates), and is not worth the effort. I get more "random" action by sitting at the star in a random low security system and just engaging anything with a bounty - but even that pays peanuts.
Compare that to, let's say, running 784 units, sorry tonnes, of cargo for 7+ million profit which takes a 12 minute return trip.
Missions with "Steal x units of yyyyy", are just pointless when it's produced for peanuts. My theft of 4 units of clothing is really going to have a significant impact on a faction's influence. How about I intercept their delivery fleet instead? No? Ok then.....
Feedback: AI interaction
Pirates don't even scan your precious cargo of 8 food cartridges to work out whether it's worth them bothering with interdiction, whilst a Type-9 that you just passed in the system cruises onwards unimpeded. I can just about hear the lol's.
Why not make the pirate interdict the Type-9 and give me the option to assist on a distress beacon?
Whilst running multiple missions that had possibility of "ships being sent", I've been hit by 3 interdictions in a row, with no pause between. They were all just happily queuing up waiting their turn? No conflict of interest?
AI system patrols happily wander past pirates and "wanted" bounties. At least, until they start firing. Do scanners break outside the station limits? If I scan a wanted target and he deploys hardpoints, the security in the system should be all over it.
Being interdicted should be seen as a hostile action under all circumstances. Indeed, your in-game states that the only people "legally" allowed to interdict are security forces. Shouldn't I, as a legal and clean entity, be transmitting any infraction to all stations as soon as it happens?
Feedback: UI
Any reason the UI overlays are not moddable? Would love to be able to make certain elements smaller, move certain things to somewhere more visually prominent, and remove some others. And change some of the ghastly colours.
The galactic map keeps forgetting my preferences for "show only large landing sites" and "ignore planetary landings".
The popup boxes when you hover over a system should have a close tool - they're both persistent and annoying. That thing took lessons from clippy, and graduated with honours.
In the commodities market, the comparison selector UI for suggested markets doesn't have an option to exclude landing pads not appropriate to my ship.
The time underneath the distance indicator when approaching a celestial body/object/station is pretty hopeless as an actual indicator of remaining travel time.
Supercruise assist and scan warnings persist too long in the middle of the main display.
Options -> Controls; really needs a search/filter box.
Mission board filters should be next to each other, rather than apart.
Suggestions
This is what I've come to after playing a few months. Sure, the game has been going for more than five years, so you will have probably heard these already.
1) After you do sufficient bounties, or blow up someone's sister, you could end up with a nemesis (or faction) that harries you randomly if you stick around the same systems too long.
2) Almost Every AI pilot, regardless of their chosen career, has the woman/man of mystery as their pilot portrait, including tour bus captains/barge weddings/maitre'd or whatever they are. Some differences there would go a long way; I mean Frontier had more variety, cheesy though it was. Sure, pirates aren't about to show their real face, but they love us enough to send us text messages.
3) On a similar note, the AI text comms chatter could use a LOT more variety; surely that's just adding lines in a text file? Not all barge weddings will end in "this is the happiest day...", and not all cruise liners are in the top one percent. Run an ARX competition for one-liners, or similar.
4) When pitching the ship in a hard turn, about a sixth of the UI, including speed and and significant portion of radar is pushed from the main display. I understand that this is to give an impression of a speed, and that might be important some people wanting immersion without VR. However, since maintaining speed "in the blue" significantly affects your craft turn rate, and how detrimental this is to effective combat, I would rather there was an option to turn this UI movement off completely.
5) PvP: Piracy and ganking is far too consequence-free. You'd have zero safe havens for the behaviour of some people.
Is piracy that much a "solo" occupation choice in E? Even though you're really easy to identify (thanks, spaceBook?), it was trivial to pay off my bounties, and had no long term consequences.
6) I would prefer targeting and navigation to be separately managed things, so I can do target scanning/combat and still be aware of where I need to go without having to retarget the navigation every time.
7) No circular trade route navigation option?
8) If you wanted to give me the sales option for all current and future cosmetics in a single payment, disabling the need for ARX in its entirety, I probably wouldn't say no if it was a reasonable cost - say, the equivalent of a 9.99 a month subscription for two or three years.
9) If I wanted to retire and re-roll a new Commander, can I not bequeath them an inheritance?
10) Temporary system outlaw for gankers with rep, plus something able to stop them entering a station, like the starport gates of old. If they come within 4km of a station, the gate denies them egress, they are immediately told they are wanted, and then opened fire on.
11) The Full Spectrum Scanner needs some upgrade lovin' to widen the scan zones or similar.
12) It should be possible to drop into a system at a second (or third) star, even if that means going via another system to get the right angle. Maybe that needs to be an Engineer thing.
13) It would be nice (like Frontier) to request prices once in a system and within a reasonable range of a station, rather than having to dock with it.
14) From the commodities board, a right click option or mini-icon on the station/market that just allows us to "plot course" would be nice.
15) Can you please update the tracker when accessing the commodities board to reflect the remaining required goods in delivery missions? The mission tracker does it properly, so it seems like an oversight. On that similar note, it is far more relevant to know how many you have left to complete the contract, rather than the number you have delivered.
16) Missing some opportunities for interesting global stats, e.g.
How many suns we've extinguished as an expression of hydrogen fuel used.
How much tea was hauled by players in the last 24hrs.
How many light years covered by Thargoid ships in the last 24hrs.
17) Sometimes, there are just too many buttons. All you really need with your fighter bay support: "Attack that guy, then anything else, then back to base when done".
18) One engineer's guide from 2016 advocates mission stacking and blowing up your ship to shortcut back to the station, in order to grind credits. I can't begin to even believe that is still a thing.
19) The disjointed game - Where to find appropriate tech for your ship should not be a website-visiting exercise. In Frontier, it just made more sense that high-tech, as well as the large military ports, had the better gear selection.
20) Use of the Steam workshop to allow people to create ship decals and add-ons, has to be better than early retirement.
Addendum
I took part in the "Famine Prevention" event. IMO, you really missed a trick (or treat) or 5.
Bugs?
I have "Safe" dropped from frameshift into the back geometry of starports on more than one occasion - seems to be mostly orbis starports when approached from the rear.
Autopilot keeps pranging larger ships, particularly the Type-9 heavy, on many station entrances as it tries to fly too far to one side, rather than centrally - far more appropriate for a craft that wide. It also hits certain raised gantries inside stations pretty consistently - e.g. dock 25 in Lunan Hub@Beta Triangulai Australis and dock 10 in Virchow dock@LFT 1300
Why I'm not playing anymore
It started as a mixed bag, but overall, it is pretty positive. However, it comes down to this: I'm a casual player, and I don't want the grind.
The amounts of non-ingame research required to be "competitive". Honestly, it's got levels of tediousness that would give Excel/PowerPoint games a run for their money.
I just want to buy a decent "military drive" for exploration, not grind through 5 tiers of engineers to get a "decent" range.
Reminds me too much of the MMOs of old. "Join a guild/clan/spaceBook group" - just to get on? Thank you, but no.
Where's my forced mis-jump? Happy travels, Commanders
I'll be honest - I backed then pulled my Kickstarter bid, because I could not really support the whole "persistent online solo play" model.
So far, I've explored over 20k Ly away, traded, been PvP'd, got a bunch of reasonable l33t ratings, even randomly encountered, and run away screaming from, various Thargoids.
I roll random quirks for my Pilots. Permadeath being a potential one, my first, RIP
, my current one has multiple "lives" but must take any mission I see that involves tea. Small concessions to role-play, I know.Feedback: Game
It behaves exactly as I would have expected of a modern Elite game - which is what I would want.
- Gone is the time drift for travel, hello realtime hyperspace.
- Graphically, it looks amazing in 4k
- Thanks for not blacklisting Linux/Proton; yes, I am aware my config is unsupported.
- Gone is the management of fuel as cargo, however, I did enjoy being able to reduce fuel for extra cargo space.
I went to a system in a "war" state, flew around conflicts for about 10 minutes, but I did not see a single battle. Likely a restriction of the amount of maintainable AI battles.
Pirates come across as pointless in an economy where it is easy to make money. The amount of wanted pilots makes me think the infrastructure to support a life outside the "corporate universe" must be a little lavish. At least they have the sense to ask for the "right" amount of cargo befitting their own ship when accosting you, unlike most people:
....so I logged and went to solo mode. Lame, but a move is the only thing to do with ***hats.
So, I hear the The Borg liked Lave Dock.
Interdicting both AI and real players is stupidly easy; the interdiction target almost stays completely still for PvP. Why such a lack of a skill?
IMO, being an outlaw should be a skilled career choice, but since you can do a wide orbit of a system's sun at 2-5c, a top class FSD interdiction is able to tag players entering the system before they even know it.
Enemy "thermal attack" bypasses the shields and the ship explodes in seconds - ok...I guess I missed that being a thing.
Some of the AI names are oddly specific, but more amusing for it - "Mortimer VanCleef" indeed
You are approved for automated duck
<(^)
(____)
Feedback: Missions
Hunting multiple bounty targets takes an age (e.g. kill 6 faction Z pirates), and is not worth the effort. I get more "random" action by sitting at the star in a random low security system and just engaging anything with a bounty - but even that pays peanuts.
Compare that to, let's say, running 784 units, sorry tonnes, of cargo for 7+ million profit which takes a 12 minute return trip.
Missions with "Steal x units of yyyyy", are just pointless when it's produced for peanuts. My theft of 4 units of clothing is really going to have a significant impact on a faction's influence. How about I intercept their delivery fleet instead? No? Ok then.....
Feedback: AI interaction
Pirates don't even scan your precious cargo of 8 food cartridges to work out whether it's worth them bothering with interdiction, whilst a Type-9 that you just passed in the system cruises onwards unimpeded. I can just about hear the lol's.
Why not make the pirate interdict the Type-9 and give me the option to assist on a distress beacon?
Whilst running multiple missions that had possibility of "ships being sent", I've been hit by 3 interdictions in a row, with no pause between. They were all just happily queuing up waiting their turn? No conflict of interest?
AI system patrols happily wander past pirates and "wanted" bounties. At least, until they start firing. Do scanners break outside the station limits? If I scan a wanted target and he deploys hardpoints, the security in the system should be all over it.
Being interdicted should be seen as a hostile action under all circumstances. Indeed, your in-game states that the only people "legally" allowed to interdict are security forces. Shouldn't I, as a legal and clean entity, be transmitting any infraction to all stations as soon as it happens?
Feedback: UI
Any reason the UI overlays are not moddable? Would love to be able to make certain elements smaller, move certain things to somewhere more visually prominent, and remove some others. And change some of the ghastly colours.
The galactic map keeps forgetting my preferences for "show only large landing sites" and "ignore planetary landings".
The popup boxes when you hover over a system should have a close tool - they're both persistent and annoying. That thing took lessons from clippy, and graduated with honours.
In the commodities market, the comparison selector UI for suggested markets doesn't have an option to exclude landing pads not appropriate to my ship.
The time underneath the distance indicator when approaching a celestial body/object/station is pretty hopeless as an actual indicator of remaining travel time.
Supercruise assist and scan warnings persist too long in the middle of the main display.
Options -> Controls; really needs a search/filter box.
Mission board filters should be next to each other, rather than apart.
Suggestions
This is what I've come to after playing a few months. Sure, the game has been going for more than five years, so you will have probably heard these already.
1) After you do sufficient bounties, or blow up someone's sister, you could end up with a nemesis (or faction) that harries you randomly if you stick around the same systems too long.
2) Almost Every AI pilot, regardless of their chosen career, has the woman/man of mystery as their pilot portrait, including tour bus captains/barge weddings/maitre'd or whatever they are. Some differences there would go a long way; I mean Frontier had more variety, cheesy though it was. Sure, pirates aren't about to show their real face, but they love us enough to send us text messages.
3) On a similar note, the AI text comms chatter could use a LOT more variety; surely that's just adding lines in a text file? Not all barge weddings will end in "this is the happiest day...", and not all cruise liners are in the top one percent. Run an ARX competition for one-liners, or similar.
4) When pitching the ship in a hard turn, about a sixth of the UI, including speed and and significant portion of radar is pushed from the main display. I understand that this is to give an impression of a speed, and that might be important some people wanting immersion without VR. However, since maintaining speed "in the blue" significantly affects your craft turn rate, and how detrimental this is to effective combat, I would rather there was an option to turn this UI movement off completely.
5) PvP: Piracy and ganking is far too consequence-free. You'd have zero safe havens for the behaviour of some people.
Is piracy that much a "solo" occupation choice in E
? Even though you're really easy to identify (thanks, spaceBook?), it was trivial to pay off my bounties, and had no long term consequences.6) I would prefer targeting and navigation to be separately managed things, so I can do target scanning/combat and still be aware of where I need to go without having to retarget the navigation every time.
7) No circular trade route navigation option?
8) If you wanted to give me the sales option for all current and future cosmetics in a single payment, disabling the need for ARX in its entirety, I probably wouldn't say no if it was a reasonable cost - say, the equivalent of a 9.99 a month subscription for two or three years.
9) If I wanted to retire and re-roll a new Commander, can I not bequeath them an inheritance?
10) Temporary system outlaw for gankers with rep, plus something able to stop them entering a station, like the starport gates of old. If they come within 4km of a station, the gate denies them egress, they are immediately told they are wanted, and then opened fire on.
11) The Full Spectrum Scanner needs some upgrade lovin' to widen the scan zones or similar.
12) It should be possible to drop into a system at a second (or third) star, even if that means going via another system to get the right angle. Maybe that needs to be an Engineer thing.
13) It would be nice (like Frontier) to request prices once in a system and within a reasonable range of a station, rather than having to dock with it.
14) From the commodities board, a right click option or mini-icon on the station/market that just allows us to "plot course" would be nice.
15) Can you please update the tracker when accessing the commodities board to reflect the remaining required goods in delivery missions? The mission tracker does it properly, so it seems like an oversight. On that similar note, it is far more relevant to know how many you have left to complete the contract, rather than the number you have delivered.
16) Missing some opportunities for interesting global stats, e.g.
How many suns we've extinguished as an expression of hydrogen fuel used.
How much tea was hauled by players in the last 24hrs.
How many light years covered by Thargoid ships in the last 24hrs.
17) Sometimes, there are just too many buttons. All you really need with your fighter bay support: "Attack that guy, then anything else, then back to base when done".
18) One engineer's guide from 2016 advocates mission stacking and blowing up your ship to shortcut back to the station, in order to grind credits. I can't begin to even believe that is still a thing.
19) The disjointed game - Where to find appropriate tech for your ship should not be a website-visiting exercise. In Frontier, it just made more sense that high-tech, as well as the large military ports, had the better gear selection.
20) Use of the Steam workshop to allow people to create ship decals and add-ons, has to be better than early retirement.
Addendum
I took part in the "Famine Prevention" event. IMO, you really missed a trick (or treat) or 5.
- Special Missions for transporting scientists from all over the galaxy to assist?
- Missions for specialist equipment that requires building and transport, e.g. Engineers?
- Resources for all those extra people?
- No bonuses to those wanting to do bounty hunting in the system?
- No option to increase the AI security, because extra ships and extra cargo mean extra piracy (and PvP)?
- People were definitely blocking large ports in multiplayer - should be automatically ejected after a 5 minute docking time, or more stations available. I dropped to solo mode to get cargo through.
- Taught me that two autopilots just can't agree that fitting two Imperial Clippers through a docking channel at the same time does not work.
- Would be nice if the event climaxed with all the waste being dumped, only to have it evolve into a tentacled horror that spawned Thargoid pods...just in time for Halloween. Cliche, but could be made into something fun.
Bugs?
I have "Safe" dropped from frameshift into the back geometry of starports on more than one occasion - seems to be mostly orbis starports when approached from the rear.
Autopilot keeps pranging larger ships, particularly the Type-9 heavy, on many station entrances as it tries to fly too far to one side, rather than centrally - far more appropriate for a craft that wide. It also hits certain raised gantries inside stations pretty consistently - e.g. dock 25 in Lunan Hub@Beta Triangulai Australis and dock 10 in Virchow dock@LFT 1300
Why I'm not playing anymore
It started as a mixed bag, but overall, it is pretty positive. However, it comes down to this: I'm a casual player, and I don't want the grind.
The amounts of non-ingame research required to be "competitive". Honestly, it's got levels of tediousness that would give Excel/PowerPoint games a run for their money.
I just want to buy a decent "military drive" for exploration, not grind through 5 tiers of engineers to get a "decent" range.
Reminds me too much of the MMOs of old. "Join a guild/clan/spaceBook group" - just to get on? Thank you, but no.
Where's my forced mis-jump? Happy travels, Commanders
