Gave Elite another try after Beyond 4. But missions are still no fun and there is still no progress

[Kaocraft]

Frontier have had more than enough time to develop a meaningful and coherent mission system. They just twiddle their thumbs and tweak surface features like NPC faces and menu layouts. Let's face it, this is all it will ever be. Frontier can't deliver.

 

[Misty_Dark]

I mean really.... who came up with the idea of such a mission type where you have to wait for SEVERAL hours until your targets may or may not spawn into your site so you can complete your mission? That is stupid! Give the player at least the coordinates of their base or their fleet so you can hunt them.
For Thargoids we are not good enough so all we can do is fighting in missions or sites and combat zones but it all feels the same. You have the same little ships fighting randomly with others and you try to make your money by hitting the dying ships before they explode. That feels not very satisfying.
Combat zones would be great IF there wouldnt spawn unlimted new ships like in each other site. It feels not like you can make any progress. I read that now after a week or so one side can win.. but it can take a week! That is waaaay to long. We want to fight for one side and we want to win or lose a battle in one game session at max. Because it feels very strange if we logg off and the next day we fly again to the conflict zone with the same situation as if we did nothing the day before.

Kill pirate missions have several options...


* Resource extraction sites
* Nav Beacon
* Interdict them in super cruise
* Find them in mission signal sources.



You appear to only have tried to use the two first options


Thargoids, there are several different sizes of these, and start with the scouts, that works work with normal weapons. And then get some AX weapons or unlock guardian weapons if you want to try the bigger ones.



Combat zones can now be won. you enter and pledge to a side, and get a conflict meter and once it is flled for either side, the current combat zone is either lost or won. There is also sub-mission, to take out commander, and protect your commander, take out Spec Ops ships, or kill some special ships or protect some special ships. etc. The only downside at the moment is that you cannot do these with other players, not in Wing or Multicrew. Several bug reports about this.



So there is plenty of changes, that you have ignored and not checked up on. Try reading all the patch notes for each update would be a good start.

 

[babelfisch]

I suspect, with the reasonable presumption the OP is genuine, that was merely an example. They don't have fun doing missions and don't feel there is progress. The rest is just "an example". So it's not that he didn't think of using the new tools: he didn't have fun a year ago playing Elite and isn't having fun playing now.

Given which the hints on how to get the mission is speaking past him. He doesn't like the game.

i just don't see why he wanted to tell everyone. We don't force him to play. Not even the most rabid PvPer would demand he stay so the PvPer can PvP. Tip the hat, say bye and let him find fun elsewhere. He's grown up. We aren't his parents. He can find fun without us being obligated to tell him how to have it.

Well maybe he would like it if he wouldn't fail at the most basic things...

 

[Stigbob]

I mean really.... who came up with the idea of such a mission type where you have to wait for SEVERAL hours until your targets may or may not spawn into your site so you can complete your mission? That is stupid! Give the player at least the coordinates of their base or their fleet so you can hunt them.
For Thargoids we are not good enough so all we can do is fighting in missions or sites and combat zones but it all feels the same. You have the same little ships fighting randomly with others and you try to make your money by hitting the dying ships before they explode. That feels not very satisfying.
Combat zones would be great IF there wouldnt spawn unlimted new ships like in each other site. It feels not like you can make any progress. I read that now after a week or so one side can win.. but it can take a week! That is waaaay to long. We want to fight for one side and we want to win or lose a battle in one game session at max. Because it feels very strange if we logg off and the next day we fly again to the conflict zone with the same situation as if we did nothing the day before.

On a pirate massacre every time you enter SC you'll get a mission signal source which has missions target pirates in it. You can also find them in SC also res sites and the nav beacon. If its taking you hours you really are doing it wrong and ignoring them all.

CZ now have a fixed round time the enemy all warp out when defeated takes about ten minutes/one ammo load. So no infinite waves there.

I don't want your stuff, too salty.

 

[Sylow]

Well maybe he would like it if he wouldn't fail at the most basic things...

.
Which makes me wonder what you want to say with that. It can be interpreted as "the game doesn't tell things clear enough".
That's what basically happened here. The OP doesn't know about some things here. It's easy to put him at fault, but honestly, the game also is not good in teaching these things.
.
So yes, for the OP i dare to say: read things up, learn how mechanics work. You failed the mission, you got a bad impression, but things are not as bad as they seemed to you. With a bit more information about the game at hand and a bit more understanding how things run, it can be quite enjoyable.
.
But i also have to say: this is one of the problems of the game. It has a really steep learning curve and new things still get added. At the same time, it's hard to get really good instructions in game and there's many things which we veterans here know, but the game doesn't teach you about them at all. Due to the size and complexity of the game, it's a herculean task to provide new players all the information they need in the game on time. But for player retention, it probably is worth the effort.
.

 

[Stigbob]

.
Which makes me wonder what you want to say with that. It can be interpreted as "the game doesn't tell things clear enough".
That's what basically happened here. The OP doesn't know about some things here. It's easy to put him at fault, but honestly, the game also is not good in teaching these things.
.
So yes, for the OP i dare to say: read things up, learn how mechanics work. You failed the mission, you got a bad impression, but things are not as bad as they seemed to you. With a bit more information about the game at hand and a bit more understanding how things run, it can be quite enjoyable.
.
But i also have to say: this is one of the problems of the game. It has a really steep learning curve and new things still get added. At the same time, it's hard to get really good instructions in game and there's many things which we veterans here know, but the game doesn't teach you about them at all. Due to the size and complexity of the game, it's a herculean task to provide new players all the information they need in the game on time. But for player retention, it probably is worth the effort.
.

There's an audio message "mission signal source detected" and its bright blue in navigation. No one explained it to me and I found it immediately.

 

[Sterling MH]

Well maybe he would like it if he wouldn't fail at the most basic things...

So maybe the advice is best served as "There are more new mechanics, go look at the FD training videos and read the new manual to see what else is there before you give up completely" then.

If he's determined not to like the game, this puts it all back on him without giving him a way to claim victimhood, making him right for flouncing off. Or at least make everyone else the bad guy.

He can find his own fun. In the new mechanics, in the old ones, or in a new game. If he leaves, I hope he has so much fun in another game that he forgets Elite. Everyone wins, except those who would prefer to make his playing the game even more miserable by ganking and griefing him. They'd prefer an already softened target.

Nobody else.

 

[Sylow]

There's an audio message "mission signal source detected" and its bright blue in navigation. No one explained it to me and I found it immediately.

.
No. I it's already beyond the problem here. When I read the OP, the core issue is that he didn't know that he could "honk". That he could find the target in the FSS. Or that he could -scan- the nav beacon to get the data. He wrote that they were near the nav beacon, waiting for targets, which is different to scanning it and moving to the destination.
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Such basic things are known to us. But I think I also learned about some of these mechanics changes and updates only from patch notes and the forum here. I wouldn't be aware, where inside the game that information would be taught. But due to the sheer number of systems on our spaceships and how they work, it's really hard to present all the necessary information at the right time. Deliver it too early and it won't be understood and get lost. Deliver it too late and the player is already frustrated.
.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

I hear people say this all the time, and I give the reply all the time: You’re doing it wrong.

This is not the standard-issue Internet You’re-Doing-It-Wrong, But an honest You’re Doing It Wrong.

These are neither that hard nor that time consuming, and that should have been clue #1.

Just as an example, if your mission was to Destroy 10 Random Imperial ships, would you look for them in Alliance space? Or Federal space? Why not try Imperial space?

If your mission was Scan Earth, would you complain that it wasn’t found in Achenar?

Well, probably.

I’m afraid I’m going to have to leave this to you to figure out where you went wrong and how to correct, but all the clues are here.

 

[Notwyn]

Pfffttt... another useless thread about someone who couldn't be bothered to find out about or use the new stuff provided.

These are getting as bad as the "Open Letter" to FD. Sigh.

Don't bother coming back again OP, it still will not be a game for you. Ever.

 

[babelfisch]

.
Which makes me wonder what you want to say with that. It can be interpreted as "the game doesn't tell things clear enough".
That's what basically happened here. The OP doesn't know about some things here. It's easy to put him at fault, but honestly, the game also is not good in teaching these things.
.
So yes, for the OP i dare to say: read things up, learn how mechanics work. You failed the mission, you got a bad impression, but things are not as bad as they seemed to you. With a bit more information about the game at hand and a bit more understanding how things run, it can be quite enjoyable.
.
But i also have to say: this is one of the problems of the game. It has a really steep learning curve and new things still get added. At the same time, it's hard to get really good instructions in game and there's many things which we veterans here know, but the game doesn't teach you about them at all. Due to the size and complexity of the game, it's a herculean task to provide new players all the information they need in the game on time. But for player retention, it probably is worth the effort.
.

There isn't nothing wrong with being ignorant, people can always ask questions nicely and get lots of tips from the community. Or they can act like a Richard.

Anyway, I agree that the game isn't very friendly to newcomers, but that's probably because it's more complex than your average FPS and teaching people everything about Elite in game would probably take weeks...

Sterling is right, this type of game is not for everyone. I, for example, enjoy learning new things and wouldn't blame the devs for my ignorance.

 

[jonesskill]

Add to the "Not fun" on missions matter some stuff:

Boards that don't refresh anymore. (The 10 min timer actually don't generate a new board with diferent missions, that timer only generate a few more missions to add on the old board - So that crap missions wil never despawn)
So you can't choose your missions anymore, you need to do the missions that the board offer, if you want.

 

[Dr EviI]

Thank you guys for the good feedback! Will give it another try and try to use my scanner to find some interesting spots. And later I will try the CZs. Hope you are right. I really want to like this game but so far it always became boring after a short while.

 

[Stigbob]

.
No. I it's already beyond the problem here. When I read the OP, the core issue is that he didn't know that he could "honk". That he could find the target in the FSS. Or that he could -scan- the nav beacon to get the data. He wrote that they were near the nav beacon, waiting for targets, which is different to scanning it and moving to the destination.
.
Such basic things are known to us. But I think I also learned about some of these mechanics changes and updates only from patch notes and the forum here. I wouldn't be aware, where inside the game that information would be taught. But due to the sheer number of systems on our spaceships and how they work, it's really hard to present all the necessary information at the right time. Deliver it too early and it won't be understood and get lost. Deliver it too late and the player is already frustrated.
.

You don't need to honk visit the nav beacon or open FSS to get mission signals.

 

[Stigbob]

Thank you guys for the good feedback! Will give it another try and try to use my scanner to find some interesting spots. And later I will try the CZs. Hope you are right. I really want to like this game but so far it always became boring after a short while.

If you scan the nav beacon (drop into its location target the beacon itself and wait a bit) all signals in the system will be revealed.

 

[Sylow]

You don't need to honk visit the nav beacon or open FSS to get mission signals.

.
But those indicate where you have to go to find them. Or do you now suggest to randomly go around a system with like 40 bodies and circle each of them half a dozen times, to see if something pops up there?
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You can find them at random, but that can be very time consuming and frustrating. The tools are there to eliminate this. But currently it's not a given that everybody knows how to use them. And yes, the current "solution" is that people have to check around outside of the game, and us veterans have to give all the help we can provide. As seen above, the OP received the info and will try again.
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All I am arguing is that it would also be helpful if the game would hand more info to the player. But I also know that it's not easy. There's so many things you should tell people about, the game is very complex and it's very hard to strike the right balance between giving all necessary information and spamming people and not doing any good. So it's not like we could expect it to still be done before xmas.
.

 

[sollisb]

Beyond making it so you can't easily roll the board now, I'm finding the mission system actually broken. I was on for 30 mins and picked up the exact same missions twice, exact same 10m exact same 1 jump exact same semiconductors, exact same destination, exact same failed NPC AI.

So all in all, credits are rolling in. And yep, the res sites are a waste of time.

 

[Stigbob]

.
But those indicate where you have to go to find them. Or do you now suggest to randomly go around a system with like 40 bodies and circle each of them half a dozen times, to see if something pops up there?
.
You can find them at random, but that can be very time consuming and frustrating. The tools are there to eliminate this. But currently it's not a given that everybody knows how to use them. And yes, the current "solution" is that people have to check around outside of the game, and us veterans have to give all the help we can provide. As seen above, the OP received the info and will try again.
.
All I am arguing is that it would also be helpful if the game would hand more info to the player. But I also know that it's not easy. There's so many things you should tell people about, the game is very complex and it's very hard to strike the right balance between giving all necessary information and spamming people and not doing any good. So it's not like we could expect it to still be done before xmas.
.

You don't need to honk visit the nav beacon or open FSS to find mission signals, they are visible (and bright blue) in the nav panel on entrance to the system/SC transition and come with an audio prompt.

 

[Stigbob]

Beyond making it so you can't easily roll the board now, I'm finding the mission system actually broken. I was on for 30 mins and picked up the exact same missions twice, exact same 10m exact same 1 jump exact same semiconductors, exact same destination, exact same failed NPC AI.

So all in all, credits are rolling in. And yep, the res sites are a waste of time.

I don't believe you.

 

[Sylow]

You don't need to honk visit the nav beacon or open FSS to find mission signals, they are visible (and bright blue) in the nav panel on entrance to the system/SC transition and come with an audio prompt.

.
Hmm. It's like that since this patch? I haven't done missions since the patch, but during the beta I still had to honk to get the mission related USS.
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