Oh, i agree. But they don't want a bunch of old players in their combat PVP game in G5 up against a bunch of new players in G1. I guess the idea of populating pvp matches based on suit level never crossed their minds.
Grind requirements are insane
- Thread starter torloisk
- Start date
Its not about easy, it's about not having a lot of different ways to upgrade one's character.
Grinding is often technically easy but mentally lobotomizing. Hence why many of us have Netflix or some other entertainment on whilst playing Elite.
Borderlands 3 is a fantastic example of fps done right. There is hardly any grinding and the game is at the same time very engaging. If combat missions in Elite Dangerous were more refined and given according to player level and if npcs were able to drop appropriate materials for appropriate upgrades, it would be so much more fun. You would be rewarded for experience and skill.
Being rewarded with fully upgraded suits because one discovered a new ELW or because one discovered a new biological would be awesome. This would be in addition to just gathering mats.
Choice allows for our varied playstyles and personalities.
Sadly, the upper management of Frontier are not willing to devote resources to the above.
They need the resources for Customer Support.
Which leads me to ask where do I get settlement defence plans, because after many hours of gameplay, I not only have none, but I don't recall even ever seeing any: and I've looted a lot of settlements and looked through a lot of mission rewards.
Presumably I need to do something like luck onto the right sort of site at an irregular marker signal source in an independently aligned anarchy in war state for a 10% chance of finding one (and then undoubtedly abuse the login because it's that annoying to do it the proper way). The proper way being to play for 1000 hours. That isn't fun. Lots of the engineer stuff from Horizons was clearly designed to make you do stuff: go exploring, or mining, or shoot stuff: I get that, as at least I found out what mining was like when I otherwise wouldn't have bothered. So Domino Green forces you to check out interstellar taxis. Hero Ferarri foot-based combat zones. But what in god's name is the point of making us find random and very rare crap?
Presumably I need to do something like luck onto the right sort of site at an irregular marker signal source in an independently aligned anarchy in war state for a 10% chance of finding one (and then undoubtedly abuse the login because it's that annoying to do it the proper way). The proper way being to play for 1000 hours. That isn't fun. Lots of the engineer stuff from Horizons was clearly designed to make you do stuff: go exploring, or mining, or shoot stuff: I get that, as at least I found out what mining was like when I otherwise wouldn't have bothered. So Domino Green forces you to check out interstellar taxis. Hero Ferarri foot-based combat zones. But what in god's name is the point of making us find random and very rare crap?
The sad/ironic thing is they've rolled out the JFK moon landing quote about doing it because it was hard, multiple times now.
Yet they take the easy option when it comes to padding content, with extensive grind.
Thanks for the suggestion but I was trying to point out that if you play the game as it was intended then you won’t get far.
I don‘t like losing reputation, killing innocent people or doing unlawful things just to upgrade my suits. I also don’t relog for mats.
Players like me are unfortunately punished by RNG for playing emergent gameplay (tm).
Yeah I've always found it funny that the community seems to think that exploiting the logging system and doing unconventional gameplay, both of which are obviously outside the intended way to play, are perfectly acceptable as if it's an ingame mechanic the tutorials suggest to do.
A properly designed game let's you achieve things in a reasonable way WITHIN the intended framework of the game mechanics.
get a load of this, I just upgrade my G3 Mav to a G4 Mav.. but I still needed 7 more Power Regulators to do so. I had gotten 3 via mission rewards but they are tough to come by. So, I went to the monitor in a settlement and pick up 7 Restore Missions (which then gave me 7 more Power Regulators)... I turned around and went into the store and upgraded my Mav suit using those Power Regulators. Then I simply abandoned the missions. Seems I need to stock up now before this nerfed.
Oh sure, I got fined a lot.. highest was $200k for dropping mission
Oh sure, I got fined a lot.. highest was $200k for dropping mission
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The problem is, it doesn't really work that way in MMOs. In design docs maybe but not in practice. Theres basically those who are maxed out and those who are temporarily not maxed out. ( reminds me of "there's two kinds of motorcyclists" ).
Grind will not prevent the inevitable "everyone G5 everything", it will just result in "everyone G5 everything and bitter about how they got there".
"given the opportunity, players will optimize the fun out of a game" -- Sid Meier
Well, I've got some good news for you if you're willing to read on. I too cannot stand the massacre-10-individuals idea; no doubt I am rubbish at it, but mainly to do with my character and RP - it's not his style.
Watch @Ydiss video - https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/the-definitive-stealth-guide.579192/#post-9233871 - the one thing that massively helped me was the rings on the radar and detection distance. Then read on.
The other day I did a power-up settlement without killing any guards. Here's a simple step-by-step guide about what I did. Note, however, that others here will be able to offer much better advice and methods, but if you're not into combat, this might help you a little further. It's a bit quicker than other stealth methods I've tried too - but can still get you filled with lead if you're not careful. Basically it involves using distraction tactics - the swarming tactic is good for AI to get you killed - here, you use that to draw them away from their positions and use their agressive herd-behaviour stupidity against them:
- Head to the settlement via SRV from the opposite side of the power station, but don't go into the settlement; park the SRV running distance away from the edge of the buildings;
- Before leaving the SRV, switch shields/SYS to 4 pips and engines to 2; forget about weapons - it's up to you which way to face, but I normally face toward the settlement and drive backwards on the escape (make sure you choose appropriate terrain! If there's lots of rocks around, best face away from the settlement);
- Before disembarking, use the superb SRV scanner to see where nearest/dearest scavs are - and use that for the following steps;
- Now head in by foot, taking it slowly - find a guard to target them. Crouch on your way in. Your intent isn't to kill, more to distract;
- Make sure you are between('ish') the guard and your SRV - i.e., do not target a guard to the left or right, unless you've got buildings/terrain for them to cope with. If they're to the left or right with little terrain, re-orient yourself so that there's a line (doesn't need to be completely straight) between the SRV, you and a guard, in that order;
- Stay calm! I cannot stand grenades, so always pre-prep my item wheel to throw shield boosters if I have an "imperial entanglement" (which like Ben and Luke I want to avoid);
- Next - get ready to shoot - again, this is for distraction, NOT to kill - important: switch shields on first - take aim with any weapon, then score a hit on the guard - don't waste ammo - just get them to turn red with anger and for them to sound the alarm;
- High-tail it out of there toward the SRV, and try and lead them away from the settltement (you won't, but that's OK - you want to get them clustered to one side);
- If the terrain is open and I decided to face the settlement with the SRV, I manage pips to fire weapons - when it hits them, they tend to take cover - again not to kill but to really rile them up and get more heading over - don't take too many hits and keep your distance and make sure you keep reversing!
- With the SRV you can now get to a safe distance and use the SRV scanner to see how many there are and where they are;
- Take a wide-drive around the settlement to the PWR side of it, again use the SRV and the scanner to see where the guards are;
- Use the same tactic given in 1 & 2 to park up at the rear of the PWR building if all is good;
- Nip in, re-power, charge your suit and de/re-pressurise & loot;
- Now rinse and repeat for the rest of the buildings that need it - however, if you get them to cluster on the other side efficiently, you might only need to do it once.
First time around it took several attempts to get it right - but once I'd done it, it was a bag of fun. I like the idea of non-lethal mission completion, again I know these are AI but it works for my character RP of avoiding lethal responses unless absolutely necessary.
If you can find rocks and boulders to hide behind, use those; again, tactical use of the SRV some distance from your ship is required. I HATE FPS, but have definitely found my feet. Another thing I've not found mentioned elsewhere is to right-click when holding a weapon and use the target sights - at longer ranges you'll get much higher hit rates and therefore casualties. The right-click method of shooting COMPLETELY changed my combat kill ratios!
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Ah well, I actually got most of my power regulators illegally.
Just shut down someones base and robbed them.
If you don't want to do illegal stuff.... yeah, you're pretty screwed, and you're also missing out probably over half of the game.
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I meant it differently from what I wrote at first.
My point was that if you rely on emergent gameplay (aka blaze your own trail) then the RNG is ridiculous and out of 25 crash sites you get ONE power regulator (as seem fom my screenshots).
And this is not fun, this is simply grind.
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I would be ok with the grind if we had more control. Everything is too RNG. Also mission rewards are so low its ridiculous. I get you can reset larceny missions or whatever to farm.. but its poor design as usual.
You should be able to go to the concourse with a goal in mind like "I need suit schematics". Next when you go "haggle" for more payment you should be able to ask for what you need. Currently everything is so RNG.
Make rep and elite ranks matter, the higher the rep the more options from the list of mats/rewards I can request/haggle for. If not a list to choose what I'm looking for, then make the reward a name and location of a person I can go buy 5+ materials from. Its so silly you need to find "manufacturing instructions" but you can't buy them somewhere even if its a hidden contact etc.
We have been asking for Fdev to respect our time but they seem to not understand this. I've wasted so much time flying to systems... landing... docking... and not finding anything. The reality is you would hit the bar ask around for what you need and based on rep you would get some bread crumbs. Instead you have 90% of the npc standing around with no purpose.
You should be able to go to the concourse with a goal in mind like "I need suit schematics". Next when you go "haggle" for more payment you should be able to ask for what you need. Currently everything is so RNG.
Make rep and elite ranks matter, the higher the rep the more options from the list of mats/rewards I can request/haggle for. If not a list to choose what I'm looking for, then make the reward a name and location of a person I can go buy 5+ materials from. Its so silly you need to find "manufacturing instructions" but you can't buy them somewhere even if its a hidden contact etc.
We have been asking for Fdev to respect our time but they seem to not understand this. I've wasted so much time flying to systems... landing... docking... and not finding anything. The reality is you would hit the bar ask around for what you need and based on rep you would get some bread crumbs. Instead you have 90% of the npc standing around with no purpose.
Well to be sure this is a valid approach but you should be slightly careful about where you do it if you make it a regular habit . You'll lose standings/reputation as well as being fined . One approach I've been using is to jump out maybe 150+ light years from my base system and follow this approach in an independent system to avoid taking a standings hit with the main alliances ( Federal , Alliance , Empire ... )
This would solve pretty much everyone's issues with it.
It'll never happen though, for some reason FD just hate this idea.
It's 10 days since the initial post. I'm grinding my way through and I have to say: The grind is real.
I found a G2 Maverick with reduced battery usage at a vendor. Though, after 10 days looting settlements and other surface sites for about 2 hours per day I still do not have enough materials to upgrade to G4, nor to get the backpack engineered for more storage.
Check this one, Eliteweek and D2EA (Astro) talking about the grind and the material inflation ( a lot of stuff is currently completely useless)
I found a G2 Maverick with reduced battery usage at a vendor. Though, after 10 days looting settlements and other surface sites for about 2 hours per day I still do not have enough materials to upgrade to G4, nor to get the backpack engineered for more storage.
Check this one, Eliteweek and D2EA (Astro) talking about the grind and the material inflation ( a lot of stuff is currently completely useless)
The game should be fun, not work. Because it seems that there are a lot of people here to whom real life presents everything on a plate, so they do nothing in their lives except stupidly grind in all sorts of elites day and night. I don't have to carve out a few hours of MY real life on a pointless grind after work.
Instead of offering interesting gameplay in both single and cooperative mode with many friends (not just three). The developers have replaced everything with a dull grind for the sake of an even bigger and bigger grind.
Instead of offering interesting gameplay in both single and cooperative mode with many friends (not just three). The developers have replaced everything with a dull grind for the sake of an even bigger and bigger grind.
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