I paid the full price for the CMDR pack on XBox 4 years ago, then paid the full price for it again on PC 3 years ago, then again paid full price for it for my son a year ago on PC, then bought an Alt when it went on sale on Steam for £10 for Horizons + CMDR Pack earlier this year and whilst I haven't used it yet, I did get a free alt on Epic too. That's because I'm invested in the game, clearly you are too, but someone getting it for £5 or Free purely because of the price, rather than because they actually want to play a space game, means they're probably going to walk away from the game at some point, either because it's too easy, or too hard, or they got ganked too often.
ANNOUNCEMENT Game Balancing Pt.2
- Thread starter Bruce G
- Start date
I paid the full price for the CMDR pack on XBox 4 years ago, then paid the full price for it again on PC 3 years ago, then again paid full price for it for my son a year ago on PC, then bought an Alt when it went on sale on Steam for £10 for Horizons + CMDR Pack earlier this year and whilst I haven't used it yet, I did get a free alt on Epic too. That's because I'm invested in the game, clearly you are too, but someone getting it for £5 or Free purely because of the price, rather than because they actually want to play a space game, means they're probably going to walk away from the game at some point, either because it's too easy, or too hard, or they got ganked too often.
Elite in a grind game, i'm helping several new commanders by gaving them some help (= credits share from missions) to get a decent ship that can give them a decent amount of credit and all they need to get material and stuff for engineers by themself. There are people that are fine with the game and are still playing after a month, there are people that i lost contacts after a week, but these people will left the game even in sidewinter and game progression step by step.
Having a ship is only the start, there are tons of stuff to have done, but if you don't like the game structure that is extremely repetitive, you will quit after few time.
We have people in squadron that have paused the game for a while for the same motive and come back after a while, so it's not a matter of having big money or fast money making, you need some stimulus every some times like comunity goal that give you some unique modules like in the new one that is started.
Having a ship is only the start, there are tons of stuff to have done, but if you don't like the game structure that is extremely repetitive, you will quit after few time.
We have people in squadron that have paused the game for a while for the same motive and come back after a while, so it's not a matter of having big money or fast money making, you need some stimulus every some times like comunity goal that give you some unique modules like in the new one that is started.
Actually having the galaxy to ourselves would solve many of the problems with balancing the game, if there was only Solo mode it would’t be an issue if one player had earned their way to a FC in 5 years while another was struggling to get one after 5 days. Of course the social player would hate it.
- FTFY, try to keep politics out of the forums they get unpleasant enough already.
- Immersion can be a delicate thing easily broken by things you are aware of but not involved with.
- True but it can be difficult for those partway up the ladder to appreciate why just because someone has started up it years after they did they should reach the top at the same time.
1. Would you prefer I said Capitalist dictator? Feel free to find me evidence of one ever existing and I'll happily change the line to that...
2. Immersion can be a delicate thing, but it's still upto you how immersed you feel and whether or not that's the be all and end all of your game, not everyone wants it. I don't pretend to be immersed in the the Elite Universe, it's a game and I play it as a game. It's a game I care about, a game I want to play well and achieve things in, but I'm not under some illusion I'm actually flying a spaceship in the next millenium. I get that some people want that, but that's upto them to create that for themselves, not the game.
3. The fact I've been playing for 4 years has absolutely no bearing on whether or not someone new to the game should get advantages I didn't get, or access to stuff faster than I did, it isn't my problem, nor do I intend to make it my problem. What becomes my problem, is when people who want to dictate the way the game works to suit their own niche, or satisfy their immersion requirements, affects my game and everyone else who doesn't fit that niche.
No.
Dictator is quite descriptive enough.
they tend to come with a very specific ism I'm afraid...
Yes, changing solo into full offline would be remove all this issues, but too late on it.
With it players could edit own save, and own all possible things after 10 minutes, and nobody care it
Solo mode is a valid way for someone to still take part in and complete a CG when the system is full of gankers who want to do nothing more than annoy other players, it's also a valid way to do certain grinding where the risk is high to new commanders, like visit deciat to engineer their first ship when the system is swarming with morons in fully engineered ships who want to ruin other peoples day and force them out of the game. You should be less concerned with what everyone else is doing and concentrate on how you play the game, you'll feel far less stressed.
Thats a very selfish attitude to have.
I'm not suggesting these changes for myself. My intentions are around keeping new players progression at a good pace without spoiling the fun too soon, whilst at the same time keeping credit earnings for veterans enough to maintain upkeep for carriers and still be able to have money for new ships and rebuys.
Like I said before, A popular game is a healthy game. A balanced progression for new players will keep more of those players playing for longer.
yes solo is a valid way for that stuff, i always go to engineer bases in solo or PG to avoid those people
The problem is, you can't really do that, if someone wants to take their sidey mining, then buy a hauler, then buy an Adder, then buy a Cobra and so on and keep going back to mining until they've got a Cutter, why aren't they allowed to do that? That might be all they want to do and they might do the whole thing in Solo if they're not interested in joining the community. You have to accept I'm afraid, we all do, that people will only play this game if they like it, actually, running from Sidey to Cutter in 3 days is unlikely to see someone who WANTS to play the game walk away from it, what is likely to see someone walk away from it, is if the Cutter is 2 years gameplay away. I think whilst the bounty payments could still be tweaked further, the balance is coming and that's the trick, balance.
I've got 3 alts, all three play in different ways, one has done everything and anything, the other is an explorer and the last one I haven't actually started with yet, but is likely to be a BGS slave. But that's because I love the game, I didn't particularly enjoy the grind to get to a ship that was worth using, it was frustrating and seemed a pointless grind to be able to actually experience the depth in the game, guardian sites, engineering, exploring, etc. I know the game was once just a basic grind to the top ship and nothing more, but there's so much more in the game now. You want reality, this is it, people find things they can exploit (Mining, Bounty Hunting, Trading) and they do that until they've got enough money to do what they want, that's life, why would the game be any different?
It is also a good way to mitigate against lag, rubberbanding and extremely low frame rates in high traffic areas and areas with a high concentration of interactive objects such as a shard site.
It is a valid way of doing anything you want in the game.
yes the grind was and is frustrating especailly if its things that are no fun, i was happy about the mining nerf because mining seemed like the nly viable option for a carreer since all other acktivities i tried out gave mere poket change in comparison, especially combat where you had to get a massacre mission with a full wing to perhaps get about 30mil for one mission with a varying durations.
Now i can get good money with bounty hunting even without having to stack wing massacres with full wing. If you think about it if what i hear is true and mining still gives about 100mil/h it isnt that garbage either now and actually makes sense. Things like precios stones (painite is good looking, look it up on google images) do pay good IRL too but the pre nerf ammount was really ridiculous compared to other things im my opinion. It can stay how it is now i think though, 100mil/h should still be good.
In that case you might as well just give new players every ship in the game at the start.
I'm talking about good pacing. Pacing that feels right. Pacing that see's a player earn new ships at a steady and enjoyable pace.
I think if you can earn a cutter in a day that's too quick. I think if you could earn it in a week that's great, I think if it took a month to earn a cutter that would be a bit too grindy.
It took me an age to earn my Python, and that surely put as many players off as it did draw them in.
25m credits per hour is not a small amount to earn. Think about it.
It equates to:
10 minutes to earn a Vulture
2 hours to earn a Cheiftain
3 hours to earn an FDL
6 hours to earn a Conda.
That is NOT a grind. In fact, its the opposite compared to what most veterans had to do back in the day.
100m credits per hour is silly money for a new player. And ruins the progressions completely.
The complicating issue is then modules and engineering, thats where the time goes these days. You can't buy that with credits.
Yes you're right, and I think they have the right balance with engineers currently.
But..buut..but!...carrier! This is only important thing!
the issue here is that what is a good pace seems to be diferent from persone to person. i find the Credits you eran should go up with your ranks and in mining that does seem to be a case at least a bit, this is something i notinced last time i was wing mining. I am curently a broker in trade rank and my friend is and was a ELite in trading and he found much more painite then I did, He often found 30-50% painite content while i rarely found more then 20% if i scanned the rock first. in combat how much you earn depends more on your ship i think but rank seems to influence how high the NPC are ranked and how much combat missions pay.
But..buut..but!...carrier! This is only important thing!
A carrier is true endgame. If a player loves the game enough, then they will save up and get one, eventually.
That's another way balance could be achieved, by giving more rewards the higher your rank.