Bit confused by this post, whenever i play Elite i play in a team with my gaming friends, if someone gets interdicted i follow their wake and help out, we travel the galaxy together and share our experiences and if we bump into a larger NPC ship like an anaconda we team up to kill it.
I used to use ts3 in Elite but after using the comms system in game have stopped using ts3 as i found the in game comms added immersion and i prefer its sound.
I really hope by "fundamental elements" you do not mean a chat system as this would not fit the game at all imo and would just be like all other in game chat systems, full of trolls, immersion breaking random waffle and arguments.
Having the option to take a mission as a group would not be a good thing either imo, if i want to take some friends along with me to say help with a particularly difficult bounty hunt then i just ask them to come along..no need for any other mechanic to hold my hand and explain i may need allies.
I'd be interested to know what you require to make this game more of a multi player experience?
The galaxy is huge so unless you actively meet up with friends you'll not be bumping into many players...
This does not mean that player organised events such as the recent betapocalypse were not large multi player battles very much like any MMO i have played in the past. With the release we have been informed various events will take place that players will flock to and that will bring with it the type of multiplayer experience that you are referring to i assume.
Just because Elite imo thankfully does not conform to the stale vision of current MMO's grouping methods does not mean it is not multiplayer.
I don't understand why this concept is so hard to understand except again, I think this is coming from older gamers who legitimately don't understand the difference from this game to another multiplayer game.
One huge, gaping hole in this game that there is NOTHING tying a team together: there's no system in-game to help you jump together, there's no group objectives, no group missions, no way to start your own faction, company, city, whatever.
There's nothing to support it except
pretending that's what you're doing.
As far as taking a bounty together why NOT allow people to do a bounty as a group? Sure, ask for help on your solo bounties like you already do, but there's no OPTION for grouping, and no REASON to do so. There's no motivation - like splitting the credits.
There's nothing to SUPPORT meeting up with friends. Why do I have to even explain this? I can't just jump in with a group of friends in the same spot. It doesn't work like that. We can't do anything for the *benefit* of the group. We can't create our own clan/faction/team of any kind.
Just a FEW fundamental elements hold this game away from being a multiplayer experience and leave it being a solo game, barely more than a simulator. There's no meat, there's no true objective, there's no storyline (unless you want to read text all day long rather than PARTICIPATING in a story), there's nothing group or team-oriented. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE what is already here - but as a multiplayer game, it's seriously lacking the support systems to enable team and group play. It doesn't have to be an MMO cookie-cutter; but it needs a lot more to work as it's "own" style MMO.
Last, the idea of chat system breaking the game... you clearly haven't played another MMO for a LONG time. You have a LOT of control over who and what you pay attention to in a standard chat system.
What would make more sense to me, though, and more realistic for ED, would be voice chat where I can select from my nearby contacts who I want to speak with, and/or initiate the chat with a voice command - for example, "computer, request docking", "computer, contact system security" , "computer, please contact Commander Whatever".
