I come from a background of playing games like Eve Online and X3, I'm a bit young to have played the original Elite, Frontier, or even the wing commander games, and I sadly missed out on freelancer, but I hope you wont hold that against me. After playing ED for a while and reading through some of the threads on the forums, I decided to throw my voice into the mix and see what people think. I've noticed a few things about the game that really stand out to me, and that other players don't seem to be talking about much. Let me preface this by saying I really like the game so far, and I'm in love with the potential I see in it going forward. The sound design completely nails it on every single point. The graphics look good, and run astonishingly well. I was actually a little amazed that I could run the game completely maxed out at a constant 60FPS on my system. The fundamental mechanics that drive the combat, trading, movement, and all the rest are enjoyable enough to soften the edges of the grind. The fun of just being in the ED world flying around without really doing anything more complicated than zipping between bits of the starting station in a sidewinder lasted much longer than I should probably openly admit, and in the end I moved on from that point not out of boredom, but out of a desire to explore and discover just what the game had to offer. I think that's something really quite special to find in a game. I could carry on at length about the things I like in this game, however I think it's more constructive (and probably more interesting) to focus on the things that I don't.
The main issue ED suffers from right now, as far as I can see, is a complete lack of any way to meaningfully play cooperatively. While I understand that some players might prefer to play alone, I find it hard to believe that anyone would be actively be against being able to join up with a group of like minded players to accomplish something you couldn't do on your own. Not to mention that while have and will continue to recommend this game to anyone who will listen, knowing that I'll be able to share more interesting and varied experiences with those people if they do get the game is just that much more motivation. It also seems to me that so many of the points of contention that exist within the player base would be resolved if cooperative play were more fully implemented.
Imagine for example the ability for traders to hire bounty hunters to escort them, pirates grouping up to overcome the escorts, and traders forming larger convoys to stay safe. The image of WWII supply convoys crossing the Atlantic with the looming threat German U-boats comes to mind, and it's really enticing to me. Imagine miners mining away and refining ore, and dumping it for transport ships to take to market, while bounty hunters patrol around, checking and double checking their scanners. Both of these scenarios offer up benefits for players on all sides of the equation. Traders get an option to have dependable and consistent security against players and NPCs which opens new avenues of profit that may have been previously too risky, some of the players more inclined to play solo might find the extra security enough to make the thrill of risking their cargo in open play worth while. Bounty hunters get some new income options, and a chance have goals and objectives to work at, even if they don't end up shooting much. Pirates get more interesting and varied targets to pursue, and a more engaging PvP experiences in general. Not to mention that cooperative gameplay would help to clump players up a bit more in this big wide galaxy. We'll have reasons, and hopefully ways, to seek each other out and interact. There are currently a number of things holding that kind of gameplay back in elite, and it is my view that the game is suffering greatly from it.
What do you think? Too much eve on my brain?
The main issue ED suffers from right now, as far as I can see, is a complete lack of any way to meaningfully play cooperatively. While I understand that some players might prefer to play alone, I find it hard to believe that anyone would be actively be against being able to join up with a group of like minded players to accomplish something you couldn't do on your own. Not to mention that while have and will continue to recommend this game to anyone who will listen, knowing that I'll be able to share more interesting and varied experiences with those people if they do get the game is just that much more motivation. It also seems to me that so many of the points of contention that exist within the player base would be resolved if cooperative play were more fully implemented.
Imagine for example the ability for traders to hire bounty hunters to escort them, pirates grouping up to overcome the escorts, and traders forming larger convoys to stay safe. The image of WWII supply convoys crossing the Atlantic with the looming threat German U-boats comes to mind, and it's really enticing to me. Imagine miners mining away and refining ore, and dumping it for transport ships to take to market, while bounty hunters patrol around, checking and double checking their scanners. Both of these scenarios offer up benefits for players on all sides of the equation. Traders get an option to have dependable and consistent security against players and NPCs which opens new avenues of profit that may have been previously too risky, some of the players more inclined to play solo might find the extra security enough to make the thrill of risking their cargo in open play worth while. Bounty hunters get some new income options, and a chance have goals and objectives to work at, even if they don't end up shooting much. Pirates get more interesting and varied targets to pursue, and a more engaging PvP experiences in general. Not to mention that cooperative gameplay would help to clump players up a bit more in this big wide galaxy. We'll have reasons, and hopefully ways, to seek each other out and interact. There are currently a number of things holding that kind of gameplay back in elite, and it is my view that the game is suffering greatly from it.
What do you think? Too much eve on my brain?
