I seen a few ways you can progress in a game
1) Ranks / Levels
2) Items / Equipment /Ships
3) Story
4) Unlocks (normally using 1 & 2 maybe even 3)
5) Skill
There may be more, but I cant think of them
I would say ED uses 1,2,4 and 5, its find they don't use story progression, just not that type of game. But its in a rut, this the same old argument," get a bigger ship so you can get more money to get a bigger ship" and this is okay, it works. ED use a mix of ranks and unlock to give items and ships (important part of the game).
Skill lets the player push past a preset boundary, before this was harder to use in game as missions had to be rank unlocked, now its only reputation unlock, an improvement
What I'm not seeing is any sort of game play unlocking, and that's why I feel ED is in a bit of a rut. Let me explain
If your working to getting a bigger ship, is normally to get another bigger ship, or make what your already doing somewhat easier. I may work to upgrade from an adder to a FAS, so I can go from low Res site to High Res site, or take on better paying missions (yet again, good aspect of the game), but it hasn't really opened up any new and exciting opportunities.
I'm no expert on Space game dev (despite what i post in some threads, cus i am opinionated), so not sure how to best add the aspect of unlocking more game play, but I should at least give some examples in order to explain what I'm talking about;
Once you have your big shinny ship, now what... what new stuff can you do with it? better paying mission, higher Cash per hour in a res zone... same old stuff and for what
Well if only we had dangerous regions of space (hope they are adding this soon), where it was nearly imposable to venture into before. Where you really do need to be elite, where all your ship unlocking feels like it meant something. This become what it was all about, and in such places is where ED puts real rarities (not just the same stuff we have, but in more abundance).
This has its issues;
- It would be 'game play' most player could not access for a long time, would just be to hard. This is also where skill comes in, skilled player can get the benefits using less ship unlocks cus they are 'Git GUD' max level
- As part of an update, it would not look too exciting to players. 'hears the new stuff, but it gonna take you month to even get near it'.
- grind (but everything is in this world)
- So many complaints about how hard it is, but better that the real challenging stuff is sectioned off into 'unlockable' (not locked by rank, but by what you have and what you can do) game play, than right in the face of all player who then get mashed to pieces. So these areas would need to be of the trodden path
Maybe when aliens are in game, this will happen. Would be so cool to goto 'A mysterious world in the darkest depths of the Forbidden Zone' and come back with some cool tech.. hay, maybe if you get 2 of the same tech, then you take it to an engineer and they eat it, and it unlocks mods for that special super rare tech
What everyone thoughts on this topic? Do you think there is already game play unlocking? of have ideas for some?
1) Ranks / Levels
2) Items / Equipment /Ships
3) Story
4) Unlocks (normally using 1 & 2 maybe even 3)
5) Skill
There may be more, but I cant think of them
I would say ED uses 1,2,4 and 5, its find they don't use story progression, just not that type of game. But its in a rut, this the same old argument," get a bigger ship so you can get more money to get a bigger ship" and this is okay, it works. ED use a mix of ranks and unlock to give items and ships (important part of the game).
Skill lets the player push past a preset boundary, before this was harder to use in game as missions had to be rank unlocked, now its only reputation unlock, an improvement
What I'm not seeing is any sort of game play unlocking, and that's why I feel ED is in a bit of a rut. Let me explain
If your working to getting a bigger ship, is normally to get another bigger ship, or make what your already doing somewhat easier. I may work to upgrade from an adder to a FAS, so I can go from low Res site to High Res site, or take on better paying missions (yet again, good aspect of the game), but it hasn't really opened up any new and exciting opportunities.
I'm no expert on Space game dev (despite what i post in some threads, cus i am opinionated
), so not sure how to best add the aspect of unlocking more game play, but I should at least give some examples in order to explain what I'm talking about;Once you have your big shinny ship, now what... what new stuff can you do with it? better paying mission, higher Cash per hour in a res zone... same old stuff and for what
Well if only we had dangerous regions of space (hope they are adding this soon), where it was nearly imposable to venture into before. Where you really do need to be elite, where all your ship unlocking feels like it meant something. This become what it was all about, and in such places is where ED puts real rarities (not just the same stuff we have, but in more abundance).
This has its issues;
- It would be 'game play' most player could not access for a long time, would just be to hard. This is also where skill comes in, skilled player can get the benefits using less ship unlocks cus they are 'Git GUD' max level
- As part of an update, it would not look too exciting to players. 'hears the new stuff, but it gonna take you month to even get near it'.
- grind
(but everything is in this world)- So many complaints about how hard it is, but better that the real challenging stuff is sectioned off into 'unlockable' (not locked by rank, but by what you have and what you can do) game play, than right in the face of all player who then get mashed to pieces. So these areas would need to be of the trodden path
Maybe when aliens are in game, this will happen. Would be so cool to goto 'A mysterious world in the darkest depths of the Forbidden Zone' and come back with some cool tech.. hay, maybe if you get 2 of the same tech, then you take it to an engineer and they eat it, and it unlocks mods for that special super rare tech
What everyone thoughts on this topic? Do you think there is already game play unlocking? of have ideas for some?