Finding a meaning in this game

[Schmack]

I play because I set a goal and then try to achieve it. I might shelve some common goals like Guardian and Thargoid activities but maybe one day I will attempt them. I didn't want to explore but eventually I went to Colonia and back. I didn't care for SRVing around planets, but eventually I visited Jameson crash site and many other planets with volcanic activity and other things. I didn't care for engineering but eventually I have engineered all of my ships to G5 level. Initially I only wanted to bounty hunt. Now I rarely bounty hunt. I never cared for mining, now I mine quite often. I used to haul goods and look for deals. Now I rarely haul anything other than what I have mined. Once I only wanted to do combat related activities, now I rarely if ever do those.

So for me the meaning of the game isn't a static thing, but dynamic. Start a new career doing something you didn't want to do originally. You might like it. Build a ship that gets crazy jump range and go try to get 250LY jumps.

I still don't care which faction likes me or doesn't like me. I only care if I want to take missions from them and need to be allied for them to offer missions.

The most fun I ever had with the game was playing in wings. Find some folks to wing up with, you might need go into Open to do that, but you'll have fun because they'll want to to things you probably wouldn't do on your own, like the Fuel Rats or maybe some long distance exploration journeys as a group, or SRV activities on planets with odd physics.

There's almost endless things to do in the game, but those things won't find you. You have to find them.

 

[Axt0n]

Thanks everybody for the answers and the great motivations! I will not start a new career since I've spent so much time and efforts to get all the stuffs I have at the moment.
Instead I will take back my own career and "pretend" to have a fresh start and moving forward by focusing on specific duty.

o7 CMDRs!

 

[Schmack]

Thanks everybody for the answers and the great motivations! I will not start a new career since I've spent so much time and efforts to get all the stuffs I have at the moment.
Instead I will take back my own career and "pretend" to have a fresh start and moving forward by focusing on specific duty.

o7 CMDRs!

When I said "start a new career" I didn't mean wipe your account. If I started a new career IRL I wouldn't need to be bankrupt to do so. Just do something different.

 

[smiths121]

If you find something OP let me know

You need to find your own meaning. Until a few weeks ago I was heavy on the BGS. I have now left that behind, because it would have/was becoming a grind, and not fun. Never do anything if it feels like a grind, this is youe precious recreation time, best not waste it.

Reasons for moving on are not important, and no single thing. I focussed on BGS for three years prior to that, so there is fun to be had. The reasons I did it:
1) Empire building game - the thrill is seeing your empire expand and keeping it, why would you expand in galactic civilization 3 - for the same reason.
2) Gives meaning to the tools - Bounty Hunting, Missions (a lot of missions), Trading, even my engineering decision was influenced by the geo-political and gepgraphical layout of the area of space.
3) I was hoping to rally against Powerplay and turn the faction into a terrorist organisation striking at the fringes of Mahone space. Alas the mechanics were mooted (twice) but have not materialised yet.

You have to find your own meaning, I am not sure it helps if you look for it. We never did, I ended up supporting a Federal Corporate faction, because I met some guys at Community Goals Lugh a forever ago, and we fancied having a go at the BGS after the communnity goals. We went there because ti was quiet, oversaw the first expansion. People started leaving after 6 months, some of us never left - 24 systems later.

Now I too have moved on, I have taken a couple of weeks break, reset my accounts to stop me getting tempted, and it slowly dawns on me I have so much to do, Guardian stuff, Thargoid stuff, new mechanics to play with. I am not looking for meaning at the moment (doing a mission in a siddy has enough meaning), playing more casaul - but I am confident something will pique my interest that fits my more limited time I can put to the game.

So without sounding all Jedi, do not seek meaning - find meaning.

Simon

 

[TheSynopticVision]

Many people will tell you "use your imagination", "role-play". And you know what, many actually manage to put meaning and fun inside a game that offers very little meaning by doing just that. Just consider the complex structure and the dedication of the "science" community in this game, "researching" assets introduced by Frontier with the 2 or 3 tools actually offered by the game (let's shoot at it, let's honk at it, let's ram it). It's like when as kids we'd do "science" on dead leaves or lizards in the garden by using a magnifying lens and some tweezers.

Clearly, no videogame has any kind of momentous rel-life, Important Meaning. The problem with Elite is that its gameplay loops don't even have any in-game meaning/consequences. It is rather a collection of disjointed activities.

You can spend months doing calculations and coordinating with your faction in order to conquest new systems via the BGS. What for? Will your faction be more powerful? Will the stations you conquer now offer special services? Will the systems you conquered now give you a steady income your faction can re-invest in new facilities? Will you even be able to choose if you'd rather relinquish a low-importance system or to build more assets in the primary one? None of this. It's numbers and names on a screen, and nothing more. The BGS could be exactly replicated as a tabletop game with pen and paper.

You can shoot down thousands of thargoid ships, and what for? They won't attack a certain system maybe. What's the consequence of an attacked system? A few stations will be damaged. Are there long-term repercussions on the structure of the Bubble? Do these stations eventually get destroyed? Do we know anything about their endgame? Their motivations? Can we chose to bring the war to us, wherever they come from? Nope. None of this. They're just this ethereal "threat" you can occasionally find floating in space.

You can explore and map millions of worlds. You can earn credits for that, and out of game fame and glory among the community of explorers. But at the end of the day it'll either be: an artistic screenshot or the screenshot of some numbers (the highest-G planet, the largest planet...and so forth). Does this have any consequence in-game? Does the expansion of our knowledge of the galaxy change the expansion plans of the human race? Does the discovery of a terraformable world mean that sooner or later there will be convoys sent out to colonize it? Does the discovery of an earthlike mean that a base could be built on it, with a starport and with the need of new commercial routes? Is there the chance for you to find something unique on some rocky world that would have a long lasting consequence on your gameplay? Nope, none of this.

This can all be summarized in: does the structure of the game (and your experience of it) change as a consequence of individual or collective efforts? Not at all. It's always the same more or less static world, occasionally enriched with "acts of god" when frontier adds new content. The best you can hope is the "comminity goal > thursday downtime > a new station magically appears" loop, itself very very rare.

The people who truly love Elite are those who, likely because trained on the older games where "immagination/roleplay" was a technological necessity, have fun flying around (very likely in VR) and/or coordinating with friends from the community to create content that the game doesn't really have (think about the astounding amount of work that went into organizing DW2). If you are happy to play this pretend game, putting into the game far more than the game will ever give you, you'll have a blast. If you expect a videogame experience updated to what is normal to expect in 2019 (not a hand-holding experience, but a game with refined game mechanics, a dynamic world, and real emergent content) you'll end up pretty fed with after a few months.

 

[ArgusP]

42. The fact that it is pretty and lots of buttons to push an added bonus.

 

[Ceitidh]

Hello Commanders,

I have this game for one year now and maybe for a lot of you is nothing compared how many hours you spent in it, but after this year full of grinding, exploration, bounty, etc, I've come to a conclusion which is bringing me back at the beginning of my journey: what's the meaning of this game?

There isn't one. It's not a game that needs meaning. The only important thing is whether you enjoy playing it or not. I personally play for the simulation aspects, and get frustrated at some of the more arcadey features (like some of the flight dynamics, the 'top speed in space' stuff, etc).

1) Exploration: You spent a lot of hours to travel around the Galaxy, tons of jumps and fuel scoops, just to spot Water/Earth like worlds, but for what? Just to bound your name on that planet? What are the benefits to explore the Universe... in this game?

Some people love to roam the Galaxy looking for new things they haven't seen before. Some go looking for pretty screenshots, and I've seen some really impressive ones. Others, as you say, want to get their names logged on new finds. Personally I always imagined I'd find exploration 'my thing' - but in fact it turned out to be pretty dull. It's improved somewhat with the recent addition of the FSS/DSS sequences, but it could still do with so much more. Atmospheric landings, proper surface mapping, prospecting and surveying, planetary interaction (a la EVE Online) to allow the building of installations for mining, research, etc... But those won't come; they're a different game.

2) BGS: Why do I need to bother to increase the reputation of one specific faction instead of one other? Why do I chose to change the stability of one system instead of another? What are the benefits of this?

None, if you aren't feeling it. Why do you need to bother? You don't. But say you're part of a player faction and you enjoy the communal activity of trying to advance your faction's fortunes, that can be great fun. Or if, like me, you roleplay a reason why your character would be affiliated with a particular group and do BGS work on your own -that can be fun too. But as with most of these features you've questioned, it's about what you bring the game, rather than what the game presents you with.

3) Thargoids: You "can" kill them, but you cannot defeat them, so why should I bother to haunt them down if nothing will change in this "dynamic" universe?

Honestly the Thargoid stuff bores me senseless. I'm just not interested in it At. All. But a lot of people enjoy the combat element, the 'gitting gud'; a lot of people enjoy winging up with friends and, again, making it a communal or 'party' event. With this as well, it's how you approach it. It doesn't have inherent meaning.

4) Bounty, Engineers, Guardian, etc: A lot of MMO games give you rewards / incentive for such activities, well for Guardian you can actually get special blueprints as well as for Engineers, even if the price to pay which is a pure grind activity is far beyond a normal gamer (roughly called Casual Gamer), but in this game, again, why should I bother to involve my self in such activities? Money? Well ok, we need them, but once I will be super-rich, what can I do with all those money?

Buy new ships, try out new loadouts - that's pretty much it. The foundation of the game, as with every Elite title since the original in 1984. is making money to buy kit. Once you've got all the kit... Well, then it's just down to your imagination as to what keeps you playing. What are the goals you set yourself? If you can't think of any, then you're going to find things pretty dull when you've got your A-rated Anaconda, or you've tried out all the ships you're interested in, all the roles and specialisms you're interested in...

The single thread in all this is that this is more a toy than a game. If you're playing football there's a set of rules, specific equipment, a fixed scoring mechanism and a defined way to win. The ball itself is a toy: there are loads of different games and variants that you could play with the ball; football is just one of them. The only limit is what you can make up or imagine.

It's exactly the same here. ED doesn't have a specific scoring mechanism or a single way to win. There are loads of games you could play in this Galaxy of ours. The only limit is what you can make up or imagine. Which isn't to say there's something wrong with you if you can't think of anything to do. It's possible this just isn't your thing. Maybe you want a game with a bit more clear narrative structure - and there's nothing wrong with that. It's a personal preference and many people find playing their way through and winning a challenging linear game much more rewarding than hanging around in empty space wondering what they're supposed to be doing. (Personally I'm the other way around.)

I honestly wish I could tell you what meaning you're supposed to be finding from playing ED, but I can't. Like I said, you bring it with you. If you really want to keep persevering with it then keep reading the forums, or player faction websites, social media pages, etc, and see what meaning other people are finding. You might find some of it resonates with you. Or you might not.

Oh, you could consider reading some of the novels as well, if you haven't already. They're generally not bad and can help make the game world seem a little more alive.

Whatever you decide I hope you find something fulfilling.

 

[Ceitidh]

~opens up a news site, collapses in despair~

Yeah, that's the purpose of the game for me. It stops me from thinking about real life.

Yep. I feel that. I must admit I kind of ducked out a bit while the Nova Imperium storyline was going on. I really didn't need that stuff in my fantasy life as well.

 

[Slange Lands]

Some branches of Hinduism view our actual existances as mere illusion, just like the illusion of traversing the Milky Way in Elite Dangerous.

However illusory both worlds may be, the human beings that we interact with do have some Reality. Our joining together in Elite Dangerous, complaints and all, has taught me that I am not alone in my love of space and a better future. That what makes me happy is shared and similarly experienced by strangers whom I will never meet, but respect and honor nevertheless. That what strikes my consciousness is not an isolated, freak ephemeral event. That ideas shared and grown can be as or more fulfilling than a new material object.

The game, like any technical exercise, is ultimately meaningless. The joy and realization that we are not alone is not.

o7

 

[Seizewell Warrior]

Returned to the game a couple of weeks ago after a gap of about 12 months. Back out exploring again, currently heading up the western side of the galaxy towards the Outer Arm and Beagle Point. It's a strange game to pigeonhole. No doubt it's compelling but equally session after session of jumping through identikit systems to reach nowhere in particular can get a bit mind numbing - especially when you start to consider you have another three or so weeks to get back to the Bubble and cash in all that data.

In hindsight, while not denying Braben & Co.'s vision, a smaller more customised game world might have been more fun - there's a reason the X games, especially Terran Conflict, are so popular (after a couple of years debugging). The that's before we get on the hoary old chestnuts of rebuy insurance and losing weeks of gameplay if you buy the farm out in the Black due to a momentary lack of concentration or adverse game mechanic. Then what should have been fun, interacting with other players in a cooperative spirit has been ruined by ganking which, reading the forums, is as much a problem still now as it was 12 months ago.

 

[Ceitidh]

In hindsight, while not denying Braben & Co.'s vision, a smaller more customised game world might have been more fun - there's a reason the X games, especially Terran Conflict, are so popular (after a couple of years debugging).

I so wanted to love the X games. They're awesomely detailed and just the sort of thing I'd love to see Elite do.

But two things put me off: one, the facile flight mechanic - which I admit is a problem in Elite too, though mitigable just a little with Flight Assist Off. But the main issue for me in X is precisely the element you mention as a plus: in X, the universe seems tiny. Tiny little space boxes linked by a handful of jump corridors; the whole thing giving the impression of everything being crammed together in a way that just makes no sense at all.

Then what should have been fun, interacting with other players in a cooperative spirit has been ruined by ganking which, reading the forums, is as much a problem still now as it was 12 months ago.

That, on the other hand, I can't disagree with at all.

 

[krylite]

I so wanted to love the X games. They're awesomely detailed and just the sort of thing I'd love to see Elite do.

But two things put me off: one, the facile flight mechanic - which I admit is a problem in Elite too, though mitigable just a little with Flight Assist Off. But the main issue for me in X is precisely the element you mention as a plus: in X, the universe seems tiny. Tiny little space boxes linked by a handful of jump corridors; the whole thing giving the impression of everything being crammed together in a way that just makes no sense at all.

This is exactly what the main difference is between ED's bar setting achievement and other games, the "fidelity vs. scope" relationship. Most non-devs or newcomers to the spacegame genre may initially not yet recognize how structurally ED was far in advance a pioneering effort into an MMO shared space verse of immense astronomical scope. In the history of the Elite and X franchises, while Frontier took a break from Elite after FFE in '97 to do some rollercoaster tycoon games and kinectimals, egoSoft attempted to fill a gap with X:btf in '99 which led to the X-franchise. Basically instead of a true interstellar simulator like FE2 and FFE , the X games combined the generic spacesim games (Xwing, WC, privateer, freelancer, etc. )into boxed off limted space zones confined and connected with compass direction gates similar in map to a scrabble crossword puzzle, which was infinitely lower in scope than Elite post FE2 and ED, of course using the same generic illusion of limitless space with the painted backgrounds and static positioned planets. Eventually it may be realized that the technical reality of game dev makes it extremely challenging to include everything as current game tech is nowhere near the sci-fi of TNG's holdeck everything simulator. Imagine if the personal space stations and fleets of X4 were implemented in ED. It would be a wrecked slide show with hundreds of thousands of cmdr accounts trying to show off their personal game assets to everyone else much less in a 3d free movement enviornment already remarkably available with ED when in conjunction with the massive open galaxy worldspace. (another reason why EvE continues to stay 2D spaced where battles with hundreds of pc ships become slideshow or text sessions). The marketing of CIG-SC and initial HG of NMS erroneously gave misconceptions & unrealistic epectations to casual fans where levels of undeserved and undue shame and blame comparisons to ED and FD on the supposedly inferior pace of ED's development. When the truth is the tech, time and resources are nowhere near the level of a national project and tens of thousands of developers creating content so the true expecations to the reality of ED's develpment needs to have long term patience in years or even decades not overblown promises from competitors and ED naysayers.

 

[Seizewell Warrior]

Actually my microchip complex in Asteroid Belt did pretty much slow Terran Conflict to a crawl. However, technical and performance considerations aside, imagine the scope if we could have player constructed stations, mines and fabs driving the economy of ED - now that would be MMO!

I do tend to agree re the "boxes" of X vs. the Stellar Forge of ED, though. There were times when you didn't really think you were in space at all. more so Rebirth with the super highway etc. mechanic.

 

[Midian Cabal]

Did you take a look at the ED Career Chart?

 

[Jenner]

I play Elite because, despite a lot of faults, it is in fact, really, really good fun.

I can't improve upon this answer.

 

[lifeschool-amiga]

The aim for me is to think one step ahead of the next update, and plan ahead. The materials inside Thargoids must be collectable for a reason, so when the next Guardian Weapons engineer comes along and offers to make the changes for a small fee, I can be one step ahead of the game.

Factions will soon have access to mega ships, so its going to cost a lost of cash and also faction stuff, to be able to get your own portable station. It could come in handly when half of the stations in the bubble are broken due to alien attacks. Its getting that way already.

The game seems to be driving people towards playing in Wings, at least as far as alien combat zones, so the aim for me is to find friends and wing up with them to take on the aliens. This is scary and heart pumping, but destroying a Cyclops feels very scary and rewarding when its done. The end game is probably they will be everywhere, so every player will have to deal with encounters sooner or later.

The Guardian stuff at those sites are used in Guardian unlockables, of which there are quite a few more to come I'd guess. I was out at a guardian site the other day, just to unlock another weapon for my experiments. The Data Patterns Im hoping will get some kind of scanner, so we can read them in the Codex.

As for gaining money/trading/passengers, and as for exploration, those are pointless, and you do those for your own esteem. Combat you get parts and items for engineering, so thats not pointless. There may be a bigger end game to finding new Earth-likes, when new bubbles are formed, but the terraforming stuff is going to be years away, after the erm, planetary, erm, atmosphere processing stuff, is in the game.

 

[Ceitidh]

The aim for me is to think one step ahead of the next update, and plan ahead. The materials inside Thargoids must be collectable for a reason, so when the next Guardian Weapons engineer comes along and offers to make the changes for a small fee, I can be one step ahead of the game.

Factions will soon have access to mega ships, so its going to cost a lost of cash and also faction stuff, to be able to get your own portable station. It could come in handly when half of the stations in the bubble are broken due to alien attacks. Its getting that way already.

The game seems to be driving people towards playing in Wings, at least as far as alien combat zones, so the aim for me is to find friends and wing up with them to take on the aliens. This is scary and heart pumping, but destroying a Cyclops feels very scary and rewarding when its done. The end game is probably they will be everywhere, so every player will have to deal with encounters sooner or later.

The Guardian stuff at those sites are used in Guardian unlockables, of which there are quite a few more to come I'd guess. I was out at a guardian site the other day, just to unlock another weapon for my experiments. The Data Patterns Im hoping will get some kind of scanner, so we can read them in the Codex.

As for gaining money/trading/passengers, and as for exploration, those are pointless, and you do those for your own esteem. Combat you get parts and items for engineering, so thats not pointless. There may be a bigger end game to finding new Earth-likes, when new bubbles are formed, but the terraforming stuff is going to be years away, after the erm, planetary, erm, atmosphere processing stuff, is in the game.

I think that's probably the most depressing assessment of the future of the game I've seen yet.

Gods, but Thargoids are dull.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

That's a few good questions by the OP.

The caveat is : the Game doesn't give those answers.
Why? Every Player must find those answers for himself.

One could argue it requires some form of RolePlay, but that's just one of the possible motivations to dig deeper into something or make up personal goals revolving around any of these Gameplay Opportunities.

Just to give my personal example, how my own Gameplay evolved and changed during time (sorry, Wall-of-Text) :

• started off as just any other Newbie in a Sidewinder
• tried various things but quickly got into Mining (a Cobra Mk.III back then, just Mining lasers, a Cargo Scoop and all-manual collection of Fragments)
• Exploration back then I tried (in a Cobra III as well) but almost went crazy after 400LY (I carried a legacy Intermediate Discovery Scanner)
• I went back into Mining but started prospecting for better spots, found me superb Platinum and Palladium places and made very good Credits
• afterwards I went into Trading, which got my a Type-6, a Type-7 and eventually a Type-9

• after initially selling all Ships to afford new ones, the Type-9 afforded me the luxury of owning multiple Ships for the 1st time
• due to lack of knowledge, got caught with Illicit Cargo during a Refueling Stop while docking in Alliance space for the 1st time

-> apart from a multi-Million Credit fine, this nuked my Reputation to Unfriendly with the entire Alliance space

• since that bugged me, I settled in Alliance Space in order to restore my Repuation... worked, but took a >>> long <<< time back then. Alot of time.
• during that time, started working the BGS in my Home System and fought the first Wars for specific Factions
• while running around in Alliance Space, I obviously met numerous other CMDRs
• long story short, I was found supporting Alliance Factions and joined a smaller Group of Folks having exactly the same goal

(basically there's me hitting the BGS hard, at least its very early incarnation of 2015)

- I supported them and basically wrote the 1st basic Guides (Tactical Battlefield Management techniques in Conflict Zones) and how to effectively affect Conflicts to win them rapidly
(basically there's me joining a Group for the 1st time)

- after parting with them again (not their fault, a Patch factually killed Faction ethos and all Factions started handing out Terrorist Missions like candy), moved to a new, remote Mining location

• after about 2 months a PMF got placed there, tossing the entire System Faction (and Influence structure) overboard, since at that time new PMFs were given System and primary Station Control + 60% starting Influence overnight
• after getting in Contact with them, I found they're nice guys so I handed them all the Detailed Information about their brand new neighborhood I had collected already

(here's me building positive diplomatic relations with a regular PMF for the 1st time)

• moved my (considerable) Fleet of Ships to a System at the edge of inhabited space, as I deemed the location unlikely to be "overrun" by a surprise PMF placement
• due to being both a superb Mining and Bounty Hunting location, I stayed and quickly (just for kicks) went fulltime BGS, just to see what I could do
• over time (slow!), I Grade5-Engineered every single of my Ships

• after several Expansions and gaining Control over multiple Systems, I decided to try creating my own BGS PMF, just to see if folks would be interested in spreading Democracy via BGS, not even a serious attempt
• well, 1.5 years later our Group found out (EDDB introduced new Faction Data Tables) our little Faction there was the single largest developed Faction throughout the (EDDB known) Galaxy
• although extremely successful, the overhead of managing such a huge amount of Systems became bland and quite boring over time and Group Membership slowly dropped
• eventually I pulled the plug due to lack of active Members and formally abandoned the Group; the BGS Gameplay (even if successful against all odds) had become stale
• in the meantime, Horizons had been released and Planetary Volcanism introduced. Took a >long< time building the needed skill but I ended up mapping countless sites

• sitting on a huge fleet but nothing really to do anymore, I took interest in Colonia... and moved there
• small place, so I got to meet quite a few other CMDRs while earning good Credits to slowly Transfer my Fleet (= expensive)
• in the meantime, I started participating EDSM and feed my Exploration trips into it (Stats, overviews, see what other Explorers achieved etc.) to spice things up

• didn't take long and I offered my assistance to a BGS Group there, brought a whole potent fleet of Ships and very considerable BGS knowledge (Defensive, Offensive, CI)
• with the Volcanism experience, I mapped a ton of Sites (easier access to G5 Elements) and was able to very actively support the Colonia Project Requests Microresources CG

• after 1.5years of intensive Colonia BGS, V3.3 hit, which unfortunately killed the BGS for almost 2 month and initially took all Balancing off the hinges, rendering it unworkable
• however, spent alot of time Mapping Mining Hotspots, eventually cataloging over 1000 Hotspots in the local area
• due to some internal differences, split ways with the BGS Group and in combination with above decided to abandon the BGS

• left Colonia again and moved back to the old home System of my long-abandoned Group
• facing some 8 Billion Cr in fleet transfer costs, went heavily into Core Mining which got me most Ships transferred already
• to get some variation, I started swapping between Mining and Exploration, I do regular hunts for ELWs that I feed into Marx' comprehensive list of Earth-like Worlds

Today? I'm making long Deep Space Exploration tours and currently visit Galactic Sectors trying to fill in some difficult-to-find things into the Codex.

TL : DR
The activities all by themselves quickly seem repetitive or boring, which is expected and normal.
No later than the personal Assets (Credits, Ships, Engineering, Guardian tweaks etc.) are "done" , it's good to think about reasons "why to do those activities" and give them a personal (or Group-related) purpose.
Until that is achieved, the Game will feel extremely "endgame" - but once those goals are set (whatever they are), new doors open up.
Worked like a charm for me.

That's what makes the difference between i.e. hitting a Conflict zone or go Bounty Hunting just for Credits or a Mission - or fighting it with a Group for a specific purpose.

PS.
Yeah, still learning he new Forum formatting rules xD

 

[Guest193293]

it's not mandatory but I think this is a really great game for role playing, almost necessary to be completely immersed in it, at least for me. But then that's always what I looking for to do in every game lol, only a very few game allow me to do that tho.
I'm not playing a commander, I AM a commander.

 

[Schmack]

I don't see the game funneling players into a certain event or play style. They've actually gone further away from that even with the Thargoids lurking. I could be wrong but the trend seems to be more toward a cycle of gold rushes for career choices. There was a passenger hauling gold rush then shortly after a trading gold rush, we are in the grips of a mining gold rush (only with void opals instead of worthless gold), exploring has been beefed up (no real gold rush but sight seeing did make achieving status in exploration much quicker and easier). Combat was always fairly easy with assisted kills from the police ships as long as we're talking PvE. Sure, some of these gold rushes seem to be based on poor BGS or unintended consequences of some update, but they don't seem to happen to the same career choice over and over. You can even make good money by pirating precious gems from NPCs. The issue becomes what to do with the money.

What I've found over the past couple years is that engineering modules on new builds seems to be pretty enjoyable. What's not enjoyable is the raw materials required to do so. I can pick up other mats simply through combat and scanning of sources, but raw materials can only be mined with lasers or SRV. I like the SRV but easter egg hunting for metallic meteorites gets old. There's no real reason (that I can think of) why it should be so time consuming to find these materials. You can literally spend 8 hours just gathering the materials needed to upgrade one ship's modules. Were it not for brokers, I don't know if I could take it. Even with brokers, the trade rates are a bit ludicrous, since you won't exactly run across an abundance of high grade raw mats for one mat more than for another (unlike manufactured materials in HGEs that you can stock up on in certain systems and trade for others with brokers). Then you to get that last bit of efficiency from your materials, they almost have no effect as you spend 4 or 5 more just to get almost no gain, if you just have to have G5 all the way. That's difficult with shield boosters and anything that your ship can carry in multiples.

So it's not like there's no fun in the game, but the fun gets dampened by grind. This is why we should be able to buy materials. We have all the credits but they are basically useless.