How do you play ED?

[M00ka]

I don't like the way it looks and the risk of getting laughed out of an AX CZ by a flower ship because my vessel looks like Donald Duck would be too much to bear


Only briefly owned a Clipper, and had the same problem as you - any role I tried to assign to it, another ship could do better, plus it shouldn't be a large pad ship. But you could always try I guess - if you have Guardian gear unlocked, it's pretty easy to build a ship on the fly without wasting too many mats on engineering.

Thanks Obi, I actually enjoy flying the Clipper, I just treat it like a big iCourier. But as you said, I find it hard to define a specific role for it, I have ships that do the different roles better.

I might set it up for a bug hunter, thanks for the input.

 

[Nihila Vex]

How do you play ED?

I would have to say "badly". I've been playing since beta. I've never reached the rank of Elite in any of the three pillars (or advanced from 'Helpless' in CQC - although that's mostly because nobody else plays it).

I've made, at my richest, 50,000,000 credits.

I've never been to Colonia, or to Sagittarius A*.

I've never been in a wing.

I've never been first discover a world, to my knowledge.

I've never beaten a Human player in combat.

I've never seen a Thargoid ship, or visited a barnacle, or those floating fields of spiky things.

I've never hacked anything.

I've never had any Guardian equipment installed, and honestly I don't really understand what it is.

I basically just drive a truck from one space station to another.

 

[M00ka]

I would have to say "badly". I've been playing since beta. I've never reached the rank of Elite in any of the three pillars (or advanced from 'Helpless' in CQC - although that's mostly because nobody else plays it).

I've made, at my richest, 50,000,000 credits.

I've never been to Colonia, or to Sagittarius A*.

I've never been in a wing.

I've never been first discover a world, to my knowledge.

I've never beaten a Human player in combat.

I've never seen a Thargoid ship, or visited a barnacle, or those floating fields of spiky things.

I've never hacked anything.

I've never had any Guardian equipment installed, and honestly I don't really understand what it is.

I basically just drive a truck from one space station to another.

Well some of those things I haven't done either, sure they are on my 'to-do' list but that is a long list. The main thing is are you still enjoying and playing the game? It sounds like you do which is great. To me at least, what you described perfectly fits what I was thinking when I created this thread. Everyone plays this game differently, and everyone plays the game the right way for themselves. Not a lot of games can claim to have that flexibility in playing styles, so bit kudos to the team from FD!

 

[Bigmaec]

Normally Drunk or working on getting there

Best answer and /thread

 

[Jakester13]

Slightly off topic but since I am the OP I think I may be allowed but what are your thoughts of the Clipper as a bug hunter. I have one sitting there that I really don't have a role for except for fun flying, would it work as a Thargoid Thumper?

I have flown a Clipper for a long time because I love it's looks and sound, and it's an excellent multi-role and PVE boat. Missions, mining, trading, bounty-hunting.

BUT....

Shields are weak, and armour too, so I don't think it's best suited for Thargs. Maybe in very skilled hands.

 

[Arkadi]

Normally Drunk or working on getting there

Pleas clarify: Does playing the game makes you want to drink (heavyly)? Or do you want to play the game only when you are slightly drunk (plastered)? Or do you drink and play come what may?

Since I stopped drinking beer and gaming (alot), the wish to grind (alot) has waned (somewhat). Strange, ain't it???

 

[Nihila Vex]

Pleas clarify: Does playing the game makes you want to drink (heavyly)? Or do you want to play the game only when you are slightly drunk (plastered)? Or do you drink and play come what may?

Since I stopped drinking beer and gaming (alot), the wish to grind has wanded. Strange, ain't it???

I can't speak for Heater, but I get a distinctly different kind of fun from ED when I'm drunk.

My only regret is that there isn't a single, huge, game-wide chat channel like the Help channel in EVE. I had some fun times in there with a bit of rum in my system.

 

[biot]

I play ED dressed in my underpants or, ideally, in somebody else's underpants.

 

[Watcher]

One of the main reasons I enjoy ED so much is (IMO at least) there is no right or wrong way to play it. You as the Commander, are solely responsible for your actions, how you play, what you do in game. This got me thinking, just how do others play the game?

Little bit of this an that. I tend to focus on one thing for a bit then drift off to something else - fairly often this is goal directed, 'get this engineer unlocked' for instance. Other times less so, maybe a bit of just trying things out.

Sort of lightly RPing it, my commander doesn't deal in slaves for instance or anything I'd consider too unethical... Maybe that's just me though.

I'd quite like to see a little bit more consequence to what you are doing - in the slaves case people perhaps coming after you in some instances perhaps, or if you've been helping people out things associated with that. There are systems in place that could potentially allow that but I've not really seen it happen so I'm skeptical much of anything along those lines is there.

Currently I'm out on DW2 and that is proving fun and will keep me occupied for a long while yet - kind of curious what the bubble will be like when I get back!

 

[Faded Glory]

• You never really have a plan or a goal, you just do whatever grabs your interest at that given time?

Tends to be this, at least now...

Been playing since premium beta, and I suspect that over time I've tried most (PvE) activities in the game. My main fallbacks now are missions (to provide a goal of some sort) interspersed with exploration trips.

Playing less these days, which is understandable given the length of time I've played, and would probably play even less were it not for VR which is still a great experience.

Have become somewhat disenchanted with the (over) reliance on RNG which makes (IMO) goal oriented play challenging. I do think the game would benefit, feel more real, if things happened for reasons, not because a hidden dice rolled a certain number.

 

[Heater]

Pleas clarify: Does playing the game makes you want to drink (heavyly)? Or do you want to play the game only when you are slightly drunk (plastered)? Or do you drink and play come what may?

Since I stopped drinking beer and gaming (alot), the wish to grind (alot) has waned (somewhat). Strange, ain't it???

All of the above

 

[GeneralIdea1964]

I've played game since tail end of the Alpha stage. My main cmdr has Elite in exploring, and is fairly well advanced in other other areas. I play as the mood takes me. I have examples of most ships dotted all over.

But I'm currently playing my 2nd cmdr and he's being played in iron-man mode. That's quite a challenge. Had several restarts, but its fun

 

[Duck & Jenny]

• Role play your Commander, you have defined a set of rules and follow them, even it is detrimental to your safety?

This best defines my game style. I'll give you some examples. When I go out exploring for more than just a day's jaunt, I'll load my cargo hold with a ton of food cartridges, a ton of geological survey equipment (probes), and if going out for a long time, a ton of water and coffee. This is absolutely meaningless from a gameplay perspective, but it's vital for my roleplay - packing supplies for a "camping trip" is half the fun!

Another example is when I fly passenger missions, I try to fly "gracefully" for the comfort of my passengers. That means slow acceleration and turns, a slow, graceful landing, no boosting, etc. Again, zero gameplay advantage but great for immersion / roleplay. The exception is when I'm smuggling a wanted criminal out of the station.

Speaking of passengers, sometimes when I want to go exploring, I'll take on a distant sightseeing mission, bring some passengers, and then do my own exploring on the way there and back. The roleplay here is that I'm not just exploring for myself, but I'm part of a scientific survey team, and all of us are working together to survey a specific region of space.

I also demand a similar sort of "realism" in my combat. I detest the idea of giant, massive, heavy ships whipping around like Vipers, so I purposefully undersize thrusters on ships like my Anaconda and Cutter (usually by going D rating) to make sure I actually have the inertial I would expect from a large ship like this. I won't be winning any PvP thanks to my need for realism, but that's okay!

I could give more examples, but you get the picture.

 

[Marco Santos]

Im a explorer at the core, i have done a little bit of everything and will continue to, but the main thing i will always be doing, is exploration!
I like to explore and try to be as complete as possible, that means, honk, scan, mapp, explore even the surface of planets and all signals present in system till there is no stone to turn over.

 

[Bill Clement]

I used to play Western style- RPG Lite, a flawed character just making his way out in the Black, like the protagonist in an old cowboy novel. (Anyone remember Louis L'Amour? ) Not too many morals, but a few lines he/I'd never cross- slave trading, murdering innocents, that sort of thing.

That immersion is broken beyond repair, now. I can't think of any good reason why a character in any consistent fiction would be doing any of the ridiculous, dull, boring and repetitive tasks that have to be carried out almost endlessly to obtain enough materials to engineer a ship. My escape from reality has become a rather dull game.

This makes me sad. My hope is that eventually, when I've engineered a few of my ships, I can go back to enjoying new game content as it arrives, rather than pencilling it in to where it'll best suit my engineering efforts...

 

[Nihila Vex]

I used to play Western style- RPG Lite, a flawed character just making his way out in the Black, like the protagonist in an old cowboy novel. (Anyone remember Louis L'Amour? ) Not too many morals, but a few lines he/I'd never cross- slave trading, murdering innocents, that sort of thing.

That immersion is broken beyond repair, now. I can't think of any good reason why a character in any consistent fiction would be doing any of the ridiculous, dull, boring and repetitive tasks that have to be carried out almost endlessly to obtain enough materials to engineer a ship. My escape from reality has become a rather dull game.

This makes me sad. My hope is that eventually, when I've engineered a few of my ships, I can go back to enjoying new game content as it arrives, rather than pencilling it in to where it'll best suit my engineering efforts...

Engineering's been around like it currently is for a fair while, though, hasn't it? Do you think it's that the game has changed to the extent that it's suddenly become un-immersive, or is it possible that some other factor might be impacting on your ability to immerse yourself in it? Speaking entirely personally, and with absolutely no assumptions, insinuations or comparisons intended, I live with quite severe depression and when it ramps up, which it does periodically, I find I lose a lot of my ability to do the imagination thing, and while I still play, I do so much more 'mechanically', if you see what I mean.

Or I fully appreciate you may simply have felt this lack of immersion for a long time now. I'm just curious as to whether it's a recent thing. Again, I'm not trying to make any assumption about you, except to wonder whether there may be something external to the game that's affecting your enjoyment of the gameplay. And I only wonder that because, as I say, engineering doesn't seem to have changed much very recently.

For what it's worth I don't do a lot of engineering, in general, so there may be stuff I've missed. Though, occasionally, I'll go scour a planet for elements or drift through a few wreckage clouds looking for bits and bobs... And, given that that latter activity is basically the first thing we see the Serenity crew doing in Firefly, I've got to be honest it doesn't seem inconsistent with a character who's probably not dissimilar to yours. Not that I'm assuming we're both very obviously Firefly fans, or anything...

 

[Guest193293]

Last few days I've been mostly helping damaged stations and attacked systems.
It's crazy how the thargoids just literally attack systems in the bubble center, just like that..when I can, I try to help by evacuating people and helping fellow commanders by killing those damn thargoids.

Aulin has been a mess since I got there friday, 10+ conflict zone with the thargoids and even minor factions fighting each other.

 

[Phisto Sobanii]

On my best days like the guy pictured in my avatar - Jim Moriarty.

 

[Asmodeus]

I just do stuff.

 

[Wildcard]

Interesting topic, From the day I started playing ED to where I am now and how I play currently are completely different! When I first started playing I had no idea about anything, didn't know how anything worked and died alot. For instance when I started playing I immediately was greeted by what I saw as a massive spectical of beauty of deep space the immense void of potential wonder and I wanted to set out to see it all Right Then and Right There making maybe 11jumps and being introduced to what I called the "ohhh for ** sake are you **** joking me" moment when I realized there was something called Fuel. At which point I was at a dwarf star a very cold star or a very hot gas giant depending on how you choose to look at it. Back then Fuel Rats did not exist if they did I was not aware of them. Much like other facets of the game which introduce me to the "Learning Curve" of the game which was just as steep and immense as the void its self. From that point on I set out to learn anything and everything I could about the game and Im not going to lie it was alot and took a good long while to learn what I needed not just to survive in that pittyful SideWinder but also how to advance and progress.

At that point I started setting goals, Get this X,Y,Z,A,B,C and move on to the next and so it went.
Get money.
How To Get Money
Researched "How To Make Money" (yeah literally googled)
Found EDDB
Did Trade runs in a SideWinder till Cobra
Did more trade runs in a Cobra till Viper
This process repeated until I got to the financial equivalent of an ASPx
Realized I couldn't afford the ASPx or get it until I got Alioth Rep
Ground Alioth Rep (for ever!)
Finally Got AspX
Found out I didnt need Alioth rep and could have purchased for 15% at Li Yong
Did Trade runs in AspX
Did smuggling in AspX making more money
Got Cocky and Died in AspX
Barely made rebuy for AspX
Played for months without rebuy In AspX in High Security Systems Only doing trade runs
made enough for a type 9 did some trade runs
Went back to AspX vowed I would never fly in something so * slow ever again!
Tried mining back in 2015-2016 hated it (boring af)
went back to trade missions
Tried Combat (ugh Time to kill back then sucked)
went back to trade missions

This went on for awhile you get the point eventually the game got updates, we go Engineers. That was my next big goal and I proceeded to unlock Every Single Last Engineer. Built ships, sold ships, got better ships, better weapons. Combat started getting easier. At that point you felt like many others that you had to engineer your ships this was a point in the game that saw alot and I mean Alot of people leaving as we all were going up against NPCs that were better engineered then the players I would love to show old Forum posts but since Fdev has updated their Forums old links are broken which thats really awesome. The game has come along way there's No denying that but covering that up is just weird.

Now its 2019 and I have at one point or another flown or used almost all of the ships minus the Imperial Clipper and Cutter which is my current goal.

I have unlocked and researched every engineer and every mod, Minus some guardian tech; Current goal. I have at this point finally made it out to Colonia, unlocked those engineers, Made another Billion credits, got bored went to Sag A*, I came I saw I said "ehhh thats a little unnerving" hit the tourest beacon and left. I dont know for the life of me what I was expecting I've seen hundreds of Black Holes this was just bigger, You used to be able to fly into them and out the other side and were treated to a Myriad Kaleidoscope of color and light as you looked back out at a Galaxy of stars being shifted around you which is maybe the most visually astounding and awe striking moment I've ever had in this game but that was a brief time and has since been replaced with a occlusion zone that has you drop out of FSD, suffer heat damage then eventually blow up and die. This was the reason I started playing Elite Dangerous to be free to go where I wanted, to explore what I wanted, when I wanted, how I wanted. To see and experience the awe, wonder, splendor and mystery of a galaxy full of stars, planets and possible other sentient races that may be out there that I know full well that mankind will not be around long enough to see atleast I know I wont. Thats the true rub with ED you go in expecting one thing and what you get instead is mostly just empty space. Sure you can fight space aliens (Thargoids) on some certain planets but it doesn't posses anything new you get knocked over or tossed around a few times which is more annoying and agravating then anything until you realize that the AI is stupid. The second most visually appealing spectical is unlocking the guardian tech weapons and modules or checking out a Thargoid crashed ship sight where your treated with light, sound and a single moment of what I fail to call anything other then beauty. Truely which ever dev did those is a true artist and I think that thats what we all want and crave the most how you play the game is a moot point when we are all seeking that one amazingly beautiful spectacle which the game doesn't have alot of and hopfully gets some more content with more.