This game is a great recreation of the style and hardships of games during the early 80’s, from having to spend hours figuring out everything from quests (where the details to completion are scattered around like broken puzzle pieces), to the graphical immersion of a brand new Amiga space adventure.
Unfortunately this is also a modern game with…………Multiplayer, and it lacks the fundamentals of any socially based game that is the very nature of Multiplayer and MMO’s in general. These features are what I call “The Core” of todays Socially based games, and Elite Dangerous is exactly that, a Multiplayer game. Thats something that may be hard to swallow for those still playing with their nostalgia filter set to maximum.
The Core Basic game features allow for player interactions and communication with little to no need to seek outside sources such as forums, Social media sites and other external Hubs. These game feature are, Player listings, Recent interaction players tab, Group(guild)listings, Group Tags, Group centric quests, Galaxy Chats, System chats and other sub channels such as faction chats and many other ways to encourage positive interactions between players, including reasons to engage in PVP. Privacy filters can be set for those who wish to remain in a state of isolation, but the lack of in game community building tools needs to be addressed.
We need to start with adding at least some of “The Core” blocks of socially based games to this Multiplayer rendition of the elite series, and adjust some of the design decisions. To much of Elite requires players to seek outside the game (Forums ect..) in order to locate others to interact with by expanding their friends list or joining a group. These fundamentals need to be assessable in game from a listing with basic information on a group tab to aid players in their decision and facilitate the process of growing groups.
This is especially problematic since Elite has now released its season 2 expansion Horizons with the focus being on adding new “shiny” toys to grab the attention of its customers while keeping the focus away from whats lacking in the base game. This may not be intentional, but its certainly following the pattern of what has become common practice in game development.
This doesn't mean I’m against a new season of expansions, but I do believe their needs to be some attention payed to the game systems and lack there of in some cases. Systems that leave players with very limited interactions with each other, or limited to potentially negative interactions such as pirates demanding cargo in exchange for their life. Theres has to be more to interaction with other players besides getting interdicted and seeing the lights of other ships that may not even be a player.
The very fear of being subject to the intentions of other players has left this game in a state of 3 play modes when there needs to be only one. Bridging the gap between players who wish to play in peace and those who desire more sinister activities is not as difficult or elusive as its seems to appear. There’s no reason we cant have a Flag system where PVP is activated by a toggle when games more than 10 years ago have done it. Balancing would most certainly need to be done to avoid abuse, but a simple timer to change between PVP and PVE, and and option for PVE’ers to disable targeting players to avoid accidents should suffice allowing a seamless world of players engaging in activities to support a thriving galaxy.
The Powerplay Factions: Nowhere have I seen any large scale battles over territory, near a station or anywhere. Why is that? Why do we have indestructible stations with no game play involving the assault on a competing faction's territory. Station should have a period of time where they are vulnerable to attack by enemy factions (not destructible, but out of commission needing to be repaired). Send a system wide message notifying players X station is in danger in x minuets. This adds game play for players to get involved in the shaping of the galaxy while at the same time bringing players together for a cause. Combat players get to attack in waves of ships(PVP or PVE), tradesmen and miners have obvious reasons to haul in goods for the repair of their station that extend beyond the numbers game of the Background simulation.
There's a lot of focus on advancing your faction ranks by making delivery missions and hardly any on assault mission on enemy factions. Allow players to “sign up” for PVP either by accepting an assault or defense mission with a clear warning message, or by a system flag that enables them to PVP all the time as mentioned above. This would allow for Powerplay players to engage in PVP based missions when they choose to accept the dangers, and return to Powerplay deliveries or rate trading in solitude when it suits them while still able to engage in player interaction at hot spots or stations. The galaxy less divided.
Faction Ships: Why does the enemy faction know who I am when I’m in my own unmarked vessel? Did I become public enemy #1 just because I joined a power? This is a huge loss in game immersion. We need to be able to engage in activities of subterfuge, Smuggles need specific ships with hidden cargo holds resistant to scans for example. Players need to be able to perform faction activities with the “threat” of being discovered or caught in the act without the all seeing eyes labeling them every scan even though their unmarked with no history of being a member of any faction. so unless I’m flying into enemy territory with a marked vessel (That i want) or I’ve made my name as a renowned smuggler, murder in that sector the scans of my ship shouldn't give away my loyalties.
Interdiction of neutral or unwanted players: The very act of interdicting these players should be a crime. You are forcefully taking a player away from their own world and into yours, this is an act of hostility.
Closing:
What We have here is a failure to communicate, players are left with a “background” game that takes ungodly amounts of investigation to see whats taking place behind the scenes which supports the recreation of the style and hardships of games during the early 80’s, but fails with incorporating player participation in todays group centric Multiplayer games. Every quest doesn't need to be a cold case with zero leads to the mission competition. Players stop bothering with quests entirely because they’re either not profitable, not available due to faction status, ship limitations or simply have zero leads on where the target is to complete the quests to create a huge time sink for those who enjoys wondering aimless for hours.
Note:
It may seem odd for a player who actively engages in murdering as many players as feasible in a days time to advocate on behave of PVE players, but I cant do that if this game declines. I like this game and want it to thrive and unfortunately the 3 games modes combined with little to no community building tools centered around a 30 year old game philosophy is going to slowly choke the life out of support from anyone not old enough to enjoy reliving the glory days, who incidentally aren't getting any younger.
Unfortunately this is also a modern game with…………Multiplayer, and it lacks the fundamentals of any socially based game that is the very nature of Multiplayer and MMO’s in general. These features are what I call “The Core” of todays Socially based games, and Elite Dangerous is exactly that, a Multiplayer game. Thats something that may be hard to swallow for those still playing with their nostalgia filter set to maximum.
The Core Basic game features allow for player interactions and communication with little to no need to seek outside sources such as forums, Social media sites and other external Hubs. These game feature are, Player listings, Recent interaction players tab, Group(guild)listings, Group Tags, Group centric quests, Galaxy Chats, System chats and other sub channels such as faction chats and many other ways to encourage positive interactions between players, including reasons to engage in PVP. Privacy filters can be set for those who wish to remain in a state of isolation, but the lack of in game community building tools needs to be addressed.
We need to start with adding at least some of “The Core” blocks of socially based games to this Multiplayer rendition of the elite series, and adjust some of the design decisions. To much of Elite requires players to seek outside the game (Forums ect..) in order to locate others to interact with by expanding their friends list or joining a group. These fundamentals need to be assessable in game from a listing with basic information on a group tab to aid players in their decision and facilitate the process of growing groups.
This is especially problematic since Elite has now released its season 2 expansion Horizons with the focus being on adding new “shiny” toys to grab the attention of its customers while keeping the focus away from whats lacking in the base game. This may not be intentional, but its certainly following the pattern of what has become common practice in game development.
This doesn't mean I’m against a new season of expansions, but I do believe their needs to be some attention payed to the game systems and lack there of in some cases. Systems that leave players with very limited interactions with each other, or limited to potentially negative interactions such as pirates demanding cargo in exchange for their life. Theres has to be more to interaction with other players besides getting interdicted and seeing the lights of other ships that may not even be a player.
The very fear of being subject to the intentions of other players has left this game in a state of 3 play modes when there needs to be only one. Bridging the gap between players who wish to play in peace and those who desire more sinister activities is not as difficult or elusive as its seems to appear. There’s no reason we cant have a Flag system where PVP is activated by a toggle when games more than 10 years ago have done it. Balancing would most certainly need to be done to avoid abuse, but a simple timer to change between PVP and PVE, and and option for PVE’ers to disable targeting players to avoid accidents should suffice allowing a seamless world of players engaging in activities to support a thriving galaxy.
The Powerplay Factions: Nowhere have I seen any large scale battles over territory, near a station or anywhere. Why is that? Why do we have indestructible stations with no game play involving the assault on a competing faction's territory. Station should have a period of time where they are vulnerable to attack by enemy factions (not destructible, but out of commission needing to be repaired). Send a system wide message notifying players X station is in danger in x minuets. This adds game play for players to get involved in the shaping of the galaxy while at the same time bringing players together for a cause. Combat players get to attack in waves of ships(PVP or PVE), tradesmen and miners have obvious reasons to haul in goods for the repair of their station that extend beyond the numbers game of the Background simulation.
There's a lot of focus on advancing your faction ranks by making delivery missions and hardly any on assault mission on enemy factions. Allow players to “sign up” for PVP either by accepting an assault or defense mission with a clear warning message, or by a system flag that enables them to PVP all the time as mentioned above. This would allow for Powerplay players to engage in PVP based missions when they choose to accept the dangers, and return to Powerplay deliveries or rate trading in solitude when it suits them while still able to engage in player interaction at hot spots or stations. The galaxy less divided.
Faction Ships: Why does the enemy faction know who I am when I’m in my own unmarked vessel? Did I become public enemy #1 just because I joined a power? This is a huge loss in game immersion. We need to be able to engage in activities of subterfuge, Smuggles need specific ships with hidden cargo holds resistant to scans for example. Players need to be able to perform faction activities with the “threat” of being discovered or caught in the act without the all seeing eyes labeling them every scan even though their unmarked with no history of being a member of any faction. so unless I’m flying into enemy territory with a marked vessel (That i want) or I’ve made my name as a renowned smuggler, murder in that sector the scans of my ship shouldn't give away my loyalties.
Interdiction of neutral or unwanted players: The very act of interdicting these players should be a crime. You are forcefully taking a player away from their own world and into yours, this is an act of hostility.
Closing:
What We have here is a failure to communicate, players are left with a “background” game that takes ungodly amounts of investigation to see whats taking place behind the scenes which supports the recreation of the style and hardships of games during the early 80’s, but fails with incorporating player participation in todays group centric Multiplayer games. Every quest doesn't need to be a cold case with zero leads to the mission competition. Players stop bothering with quests entirely because they’re either not profitable, not available due to faction status, ship limitations or simply have zero leads on where the target is to complete the quests to create a huge time sink for those who enjoys wondering aimless for hours.
Note:
It may seem odd for a player who actively engages in murdering as many players as feasible in a days time to advocate on behave of PVE players, but I cant do that if this game declines. I like this game and want it to thrive and unfortunately the 3 games modes combined with little to no community building tools centered around a 30 year old game philosophy is going to slowly choke the life out of support from anyone not old enough to enjoy reliving the glory days, who incidentally aren't getting any younger.
