I am just about ready to give up on Elite Dangerous Horizons and go Investigate "No Mans Sky" which I dont want to do as I played the original Elite on the BBC Model B+ I loved that game and I like the look and feel of this reinvention but the gameplay is just too disheartening for me as somebody who earns, or tries to earn, credits through trading. I do not think the model that governs the balance between the two main money making professions Bounty Hunting/Combat and Trading in Open Play is right imho. My choice is to trade and accept that occasionally I will get attacked I assume other traders and explorers have made a similar choice. I am just finding the game logic that seems to underpin the way these two basic modes of play overlap in the game incredibly frustrating. So some points and scenarios
1. Basic freighters with large cargo bays are slow with virtually no armaments so unless you are travelling in a wing you have no chance against some of the npcs that attack you once your reach a certain trader status
2. The frequency at which traders get attacked and destroyed by vastly superior npcs is too high. As a solo player I reckon I can get 5 trading missions completed, if I am lucky, before getting destroyed
3. The level of npcs sent against traders doing trade quests should be linked solely to their combat status NOT influenced by their trader status, several people have commented this does not appear to be the case, and I agree with them. For search and destroy type missions the level of npc sent against players should be determined by their combat status, doesnt seem that difficult?
4. Linked to 2 and 3 above ship replacement costs are too high given the frequency with which ships get destroyed. Speaking personally my Vulture costs about 0.7 million cr to replace which is what I can earn in about 1 hours worth of trading. So my experience is grind for an hour, get destroyed, no profit, rinse and repeat as a trader I just cant seem to make the progress necessary to get a better ship.
5. So some of you might say "Why is this guy flying around in a Vulture doing trading missions??" Well its desparation basically given point 1 a lone freighter just gets picked off too easily, so I saved up to get a Cobra MkIV which was a compromise between cargo and armaments I thought I could live with but no due to 2 and 3 above I still got destroyed at the same frequency and it cost me more to replace so I decided to take another hit on cargo and try a vulture same thing but my replacement costs have gone up.
6. What is it with the galactic police. I was doing the community quest to collect Gold and return it to LFF 133. It took an hours play to work out the trade routes to fill my cargo bay of 16T because no one location seemed to sell more than 4T at a time fair enough. So I collect my 16T about to fly out of LFF 133 on my last jump to base to hand in and what happens? Immediately on leaving No Fire Zone I get attacked by two Federal Fanatics, I returned to No Fire Zone to allow police to see off the criminals ... but no they just flew around eating doughnuts so I was forced to turn and defend myself and guess what I must have hit one of them because within seconds there was about 6 police on me and I was destroyed but not before I saw my original attackers fly off scott free. So is there a point to this you ask, well yes there is. If police around stations are going to enforce the rules of the station then they should respond as quicky to an npc breaking the rules (in this case attacking me in the no fire zone) as they do to players breaking the rules in my case inadvertedly hiting one of them. Incidentally I think first shot on police should be a warning issued not total annhilation I mean its not as though any player can actually destroy a police ship even if they tried on purpose.
So love the look and feel of the game but stunning graphics is icing on the cake its the gameplay that makes people keep playing and I have mounting reservations about the gameplay strategy that underpins elite dangerous horizons. I would be interested to hear other peoples experiences and if you have anytips on how you have made trading work for you would love to hear them, always willing to learn
Vega69
1. Basic freighters with large cargo bays are slow with virtually no armaments so unless you are travelling in a wing you have no chance against some of the npcs that attack you once your reach a certain trader status
2. The frequency at which traders get attacked and destroyed by vastly superior npcs is too high. As a solo player I reckon I can get 5 trading missions completed, if I am lucky, before getting destroyed
3. The level of npcs sent against traders doing trade quests should be linked solely to their combat status NOT influenced by their trader status, several people have commented this does not appear to be the case, and I agree with them. For search and destroy type missions the level of npc sent against players should be determined by their combat status, doesnt seem that difficult?
4. Linked to 2 and 3 above ship replacement costs are too high given the frequency with which ships get destroyed. Speaking personally my Vulture costs about 0.7 million cr to replace which is what I can earn in about 1 hours worth of trading. So my experience is grind for an hour, get destroyed, no profit, rinse and repeat as a trader I just cant seem to make the progress necessary to get a better ship.
5. So some of you might say "Why is this guy flying around in a Vulture doing trading missions??" Well its desparation basically given point 1 a lone freighter just gets picked off too easily, so I saved up to get a Cobra MkIV which was a compromise between cargo and armaments I thought I could live with but no due to 2 and 3 above I still got destroyed at the same frequency and it cost me more to replace so I decided to take another hit on cargo and try a vulture same thing but my replacement costs have gone up.
6. What is it with the galactic police. I was doing the community quest to collect Gold and return it to LFF 133. It took an hours play to work out the trade routes to fill my cargo bay of 16T because no one location seemed to sell more than 4T at a time fair enough. So I collect my 16T about to fly out of LFF 133 on my last jump to base to hand in and what happens? Immediately on leaving No Fire Zone I get attacked by two Federal Fanatics, I returned to No Fire Zone to allow police to see off the criminals ... but no they just flew around eating doughnuts so I was forced to turn and defend myself and guess what I must have hit one of them because within seconds there was about 6 police on me and I was destroyed but not before I saw my original attackers fly off scott free. So is there a point to this you ask, well yes there is. If police around stations are going to enforce the rules of the station then they should respond as quicky to an npc breaking the rules (in this case attacking me in the no fire zone) as they do to players breaking the rules in my case inadvertedly hiting one of them. Incidentally I think first shot on police should be a warning issued not total annhilation I mean its not as though any player can actually destroy a police ship even if they tried on purpose.
So love the look and feel of the game but stunning graphics is icing on the cake its the gameplay that makes people keep playing and I have mounting reservations about the gameplay strategy that underpins elite dangerous horizons. I would be interested to hear other peoples experiences and if you have anytips on how you have made trading work for you would love to hear them, always willing to learn
Vega69
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