How difficult should Elite: Dangerous be?

[Fangrim]

Hullos all!

I was just letting my mind wander, and for some odd reason it oce again ended up thinking about Elite Has happened a lot these days...

How difficult would you like Elite to be?

Personally, I'd like it to be hard as nails if you decide to go to anarchy systems in the outer regions of space.

And I mean hard. Hard as in "don't even think of going there before you got firepower, that'd make the Imperial Death Star's arsenal look like two fireflies having a light-your-own-fart-competition".

In the core systems it should be safe... ish.

The learning curve should be steep. By that I mean that if you mess up, you should pay the price. I loved that in the original Elite. Something as simple as manual docking should be just easy enough to be doable, but hard enough to be a challenge. If you fail, you die - and that should cost you.

I don't want a player to be able to take out 100% insurance policies - there should always be a loss when you die (cargo, equipment, credits, etc.)

Edit:
I made a thread about how hard it should be to get the ELITE ranking. Originally I thought about 150 hours, but after reading other people's opinions, I changed my mind.

It should take MUCH more than that. ELITE rating should be something rare and coveted, not something you could get in 2-3 weeks of intensive playing.

 

[robbiec]

Yep sounds about right. Half the fun of the original games was that sense of achievement.
Each mission should finish with a sigh of relief and a cold sweat

 

[Memnoch]

It will be a a balancing act. If it is too easy or too hard it won't be fun., except for those people who like it easy and hard....errm....

I would be leaning towards the hard end of the scale myself but not all the way, what ever that means!

 

[deMangler]

Agreed.
I am very encouraged by what DB said about that feeling of desperately trying to get to the safe zone of a station in the original Elite. Like a thirsty man crossing the desert towards an oasis.
The other day I started an Elite game and I think on my third run between Lave and Zaonce, no ship upgrades yet. I encountered a Thargoid. As soon as I hit it it released Thargons. I don't know how long the fight lasted. I lost track of time. I was whittling down the Thargons while occasionally getting a hit on the mother-ship. A Gecko and a Moray joined in at one point. All the time I was trying to arrange things so that my evasive maneuvers took me closer to the safety zone.

More. Fun. Than. Any. Other. Game. By. Far.

I loved that about the original. If they can re-create that I will be happy.

 

[StarTux]

Simple to pick up, and anyone should be able to achieve moderate success, and then as hard as you say. I do believe Elite without using jump gates makes thing much easier in this regard. Exploring should be challenging, but not impossible

 

[Dr Wookie]

I agree that there should be systems that are relatively safe, and systems that are brutally dangerous. I would also like there to be some kind of in-game mechanism that warns you about this.

Maybe you could get one-trip insurance policies where the premiums depend on your destination, weapons, and combat ranking. If you're too much of a risk, then no-one would insure you! Much like my student houses in Manchester- when I rang up the insurance company for a quote and told my postcode, they basically laughed !

 

[Cosmos]

I do agree with you on the Elite rating; it should represent a huge achievement. How rankings are evaluated will no doubt be a hotly debated topic.

The game should be intuitive to play, especially for new comers, but have great depth and complexity for the advanced gamer. Overcoming difficult challenges in a game can be very rewarding but pitching the difficulty at the right level is key.

The beauty of the Elite universe is that the possibilities are only limited by the imagination.

 

[krisavery]

I agree that there should be a really broad range of danger levels, almost to the point where some systems are terrifying and word spreads about them... no police, just anarchy of the worst kind.

Likewise, there should be areas that have very high presence of security, where you can fly about and get used to your hunk of junk and do some basic trading etc.

But here is what I really want to see... the more dangerous the system or area the higher the rewards of bounty, rareness of gems, minerals etc. And it can be more than just dangerous bad guys.... how about when we eventually get to go down to planets that the weather systems can be dangerous to fly in? High winds... electric storms etc...
How about having to navigate deep into a massive asteroid cave to set up a mine for the most expensive minerals and metals. More skill, more reward.

This to me would be the most natural evolution of the game. If we are going to spend, probably months of our lives in this game accumulatively, then it needs a broad scale, and plenty of challenges.

Well, that's my take on it anyway!

Edit to add another idea...

When it comes to procedural planet creation, and when we can go down there, I really hope that we are able to explore the planet and look for areas to mine (even if it is illegal without some sort of expensive permit) and the long search of the surface eventually bears fruit. With so many planets, it could bring a huge amount to the game. Even down to hijacking a mine (or robbing it) if you happen to find someone elses. Many possibilities.

Maybe I am too hopeful, but I don't think any of this is out of the reach of todays tech,

 

[StarTux]

I actually believe a lot what we want was in Elite, when you check a destination it would tell you whether it was in anarchy or not along with other details.

Their was mention in the trading video that you're unlikely to find much, if any rare resource in the core systems, so its to the unknown systems people will need to look to mine worthy resources with which to profit from.

 

[Mazhurg]

I agree that there should be systems that are relatively safe, and systems that are brutally dangerous. I would also like there to be some kind of in-game mechanism that warns you about this.

I'd go for that, but only on known systems. Part of the exploration has to be the wonders (and terrors) of discovery.

 

[Bounder]

Hopefully it'll be hard enough that us old timers have the edge.

 

[kfriman]

Luckily there is plenty of time for balancing all the bits and pieces together AND we can follow up the progress to give suggestions or completely new ideas. I am pretty confident that the end result will be a total success.

The original Elite was indeed the "Mother of Games" and what a feeling when you got into the docking station after long fights...

 

[Com.Vickers]

I think Elite should really be challenging. The most simply Wording i can think about is; "As it was." And reading the posts before me, also considering all the "Old Farts" here, i guess everybody want's to have it that way.

The Problem i see is the time we live in when it comes to gaming. All games nowadays are made with "Speed success". Means; Jump into the Game, play, lets say 1 hr or 2, and have "something" reached for yourself. Because between 2 Jobs, Child and Wife isn't that much Time left for personal Entertainment anymore. So you must have something as reward in a very short amount of time.

We old Gamers want Games back like they where before Gaming in general has changed. We want to have it tough as Nails. We want to be punished for things go wrong or taking to much risk. Not because we all love Pain, no, because it is normal. Because it will encourage you to make it better next time and be more careful.

It will be a Walk on a Blade for FD to make that happen. The Success of the Game beside from the Backers and Fans, and the Fans itself.

I really hope that David will stick to the Old times and not gets weak.

 

[Carsten]

@Fangrim I agree 100% make it hard.

The worst thing that could happen to ED, ok maybe not the worst , is that it will be to easy.

So lets make sure FD doesnt make it too easy.

 

[Philip Coutts]

I trust FD to get the balance right, it needs to be easy to get started and zip around the central systems. There shouldn't be a huge amount of piracy and poilce help should be around if needed. People should be able to trade away and make some credits before striking out to the more "challenging" systems. It does need to be difficult enough so that progressing takes some time and effort and the Elite ranking really should be for the choosen few who are dedicated to the cause. There's nothing like fighting through a load of pirates in an anarchy system to deliver your cargo for a healthy profit. If you ask people who got to "Elite" in the original game the answer seems to be surprisingly few and that's exactly how it should be.

 

[Perseus]

I'm of the same mind; it should be hard in all respects. If you make mistakes then you pay the price. I want to feel it in my stomach as well as my wallet (in game wallet, that is).
I hope it's a mature game to reflect the fan base.

 

[Kerrash]

I have always been a firm believer that difficultly in games should be entirely down to players choice.

By that I don't mean a selection screen at start but more subtle than that.

If a player chooses to stick to the core systems and slowly build resource, they should have an easy and fun experience.

If you want to turn of all flight assists and jump into the worst neighbourhood for an extreme challenge; I say bring it on!

Ultimately it is up to Frontier to balance, but at the end of the day I feel that the player's ability to choose their own path to enjoyment is the most important factor.

P.S. I myself will be turning off all flight aids and gunning for anything with a heat signature

 

[Cthulhus]

Hard hard and hard please !! All today's game are too easy...

 

[Bones]

This quote springs to mind:

""A life with too much risk is often too short, but a life without risk is no life at all.""

We need some risk to feel alive, in gaming even more so. The hard part is to make sure you have the balance of risk and reward just right, I want to be able to take the risk of entering an anarchic system or exploring a difficult area knowing I can make a large amount of credits or obtain an item of great value with chance and luck on my side, also with the full knowledge that I could lose big time if things went wrong.

Perhaps I will succeed if my luck is in, if not then I lose enough to make it hurt but not enough that the risk is never worth taking in the first place or not fun to try. If I lose I can say I tried and I lost and now its back to trying to make good the damage and still have fun doing so, If I win I will be even happier and perhaps try something like that again (and lose perhaps) but the fun of the "doing" should still be there.

We want a game that slaps you on the wrist sometimes but also manages to reward you and draw you in enough to keep you taking risks..

an interesting article that covers this for those that have the time:

http://gamestudies.org/1101/articles/williams_nesbitt_eidels_elliott

 

[Jays]

It has to be easy enough to be a commercial success but no more. The numbers from the KS will not generate enough cash to keep it in development long term. If it is made as hard as some of you want we will lose it.
Single player gameplay made be able to be ramped up but the MP baseline will be lower.