how to bring players back

[Salmonea]

I dont wanna speak about recent situation. Lets skip it and discuss some possibilities how to bring CMDRs back.

1) squadron stickers
Lot of people and squadrons want wear on ships their own squadron stickers. It could be some CG or possibility to obtain it via ARX currency.

2) another step to RAXXLA
just realse some new rumor or story. There are still lot of people searching for mysteries.

3) weather on planets
I dont think its to much dificult for fdev create some clouds and rain. It should be easy and it could be really big step for game imersion.

4) Build another Colonia
Its about the time do a CG and build third home for humanity. Maybe in the centre of galaxy?

5) Allow to comunity create content
then authorize or not authorize it and in positive case, add it into game.

6) Add possibility to create missions and left messagess on fleet carriers.
People play mostly alone. We need to avoid of loneliness. We need socialization

7) Squadrons should have their own headquaters
the place for role play purpose, for hiring, meetings, diplomacy stuff, events

8) Owning a systems should bring small amout of ARX currency for squadron
There is still no purpose to control systems. It has no benefits

9) investment
Lot of players dont play because have everything, bilions credits included and there is no option to invest such amount of money. We need some new economical mechanism. People in phase of dead end game could do something for comunity.

10) In game squadron alliances
Is nice to have more friends and do stuff together

11) personal emotes for ARX currency.
There is so many skins, but only few emotes. Allow players to buy more.

12) ship interiors
I know its pretty hard to do this, but what about to enter into ship interiors familiar way how to enter into SRV from ship? It could be few rooms depends on ship. And it could be completly separate from instance with current ship location. People love idea of ship interiors. Also there could be purchaseable items via ARX store. Or ship interiors could be a DLC. I guarantine everybody will buy it.

Fdev need to discover they need a money and players need a new content, therefore create something for sale.

 

[SteveWW57]

"We need some new economical mechanism. People in phase of dead end game could do something for comunity."

This one is easy. When you visit systems, the faction controlling any station that you visit taxes you. Communist ones are to be avoided at all costs as they will confiscate all you commodities, "for the greater good". All for increased faction INF.

Steve

 

[Jmanis]

As someone who is all but gone from the game...

1) squadron stickers

No thanks. I'm not going to run back because of stickers.

2) another step to RAXXLA

There's plenty of unresolved mysteries already... Raxxla, if ever found, is ultimately going to be an inconsequential aspect of the game (in practical development terms). It's better the way it is.

3) weather on planets

And what would weather bring? Visual effects only? Not really enticing. But if you're proposing a whole system of weather and game-effects stemming from that, that would be substantially more complex.

4) Build another Colonia

Which would be, besides in a different location like the the Bubble, Colonia, and the other 3 regional pockets, materially different how?

5) Allow to comunity create content

Hell no. Firstly, FD couldn't keep up with reviewing/fact-checking just community-submitted Galnet Articles & PMFs. How would they keep up with wholesale community content generation.

Secondly, the community is full of so many god-awful ideas, and along with the will to execute them. That would just keep me away even more...

6) Add possibility to create missions and left messagess on fleet carriers.

Why is socialisation required? Many players are perfectly happy playing on their own.

I agree with being able to create missions, or rather, supply contracts (for FCs)... I've had other ideas around squadrons (not PMFs), and

7) Squadrons should have their own headquaters

Zzzz. Squadrons shouldn't, because (refer next point)

8) Owning a systems should bring small amout of ARX currency for squadron
There is still no purpose to control systems. It has no benefits

Correct. That's because you don't control systems.
Factions control systems. Players don't own factions.
Players control Squadrons. Squadrons are independent entities (yes, even if pledged), and the general population would have nothing to do with them as squadrons are joined exclusively by members of the Pilot's Federation (us), which is...

"...a secretive organization that oversees and represents the galaxy's independent pilots, almost all of whom are licensed members..."

Not exactly going to have a sign out front saying "Secretive Orgs R US".

9) investment
Lot of players dont play because have everything, bilions credits included and there is no option to invest such amount of money. We need some new economical mechanism. People in phase of dead end game could do something for comunity.

Players have billions of credits rolling in unchecked because the economy is completely bonkers.
Fix the economy, fix excess credits.

A balanced economy and removal of the daft cash-cows that cause this out there is one thing that would be good, because a balanced economy would mean many neglected/ignored professions with interesting mechanics actually become worthwhile.

10) In game squadron alliances
Is nice to have more friends and do stuff together

And do what, exactly, that isn't already achieved by wings? Or even individuals? Or is this another stealth suggestion of 'just add alliances' being 'introduce a whole new game system' of which there's already too many that are under-exploited by FD.

11) personal emotes for ARX currency.
There is so many skins, but only few emotes. Allow players to buy more.

No thanks. I'm not going to rush back to the game because there were new emojis.

12) ship interiors
I know its pretty hard to do this, but what about to enter into ship interiors familiar way how to enter into SRV from ship? It could be few rooms depends on ship. And it could be completly separate from instance with current ship location. People love idea of ship interiors. Also there could be purchaseable items via ARX store. Or ship interiors could be a DLC. I guarantine everybody will buy it.

I wouldn't, so there goes the guarantee. Let's face it, it may be 'true' that people love the idea of ship interiors, just like people 'loved' the idea of the completely unnecessary 'space legs' that became Odyssey... and look where that got them.

Nobody wants "just interiors"... when people talk interiors they talk about boarding, interactions and such.

Fdev need to discover they need a money and players need a new content, therefore create something for sale.

Ah, the fabled "New Content"™. If the above suggestions are "new content", I don't see how this hits the mark to get players back at all. Maybe "New Content" isn't the solution. Most of the above is just "cosmetics" which, while I won't disagree could spin some amount of money like the existing ones, but to bring back players? I think scant few people are going to rush back because they can slap a sticker on their ship and dab after a kill.

So, while there's one or two aspects of some suggestions that make sense, it wouldn't have me, someone who's basically retired-in-place in terms of this game, rushing back.

 

[benoakster]

So, while there's one or two aspects of some suggestions that make sense, it wouldn't have me, someone who's basically retired-in-place in terms of this game, rushing back.

So what would?

 

[Jmanis]

So what would?

- A balanced economy. That in and of itself is a small thesis that I've probably covered off enough in the entire history of my posting here, and underpins the success of anything else I say below. But it includes correcting a host of things with incorrect metrics feeding into the reward. As an example, Delivery missions primarily reward off cargo value, not volume and distance which are the primary dictators of remuneration. That's just the tip of the iceberg, so don't hang much off that.

- Exploitation of existing mechanics and assets. This has been happening with the Thargoid War, but in a clunky way that is introducing the existing mechanics as "new" mechanics using tools exclusively used in that war. Another relevant post I made is here.

- Lean in to the procedural for activities. Recovering a black box from a wreck at a distress call USS should result in a dynamic mission to track the culprit. Destroying the culprit results in optionally recovering cargo, and a signal that leads to their base. Destroying their base leads to an invitation for a reward and further work from the local authorities.

- Completely overhaul the criminal career path to incentivise both general criminal activity and antagonistic postures (e.g an Imperial loyalist wanted throughout Federal space)
Relevant posts:

C&P is back-to-front.

Per the title, this is a thread about why C&P is completely back to front, which is going to precede a post I'll make later in the Suggestions forum with a more fleshed-out thing... plus I wanted to separate some of the discussion from the actual suggestion itself. So with that said. Foreword...

forums.frontier.co.uk

Are we getting a “law and order” overhaul in Odyssey?

FD doesn't want to remove the ability to commit crimes. Crimes, including murder crimes, are supposed to be part of open play. FD could have done all of these things when they updated C&P some number of patches ago, they talked about it, but they chose not to do enforce civility on the game...

forums.frontier.co.uk

- Still leaning into the procedural, make government, state, relevant superpower and security status mean more... during the Odyssey alpha there was some boilerplate text that noted each controller of a facility having a "specialisation" which could tie in to unique services offered around the galaxy. Although this could forseeably be new mechanics, to hinge it off existing mechanics this could look like purchasing of low-level pre-engineered items for a fee tech-broker style.

- Introduce a "reputation" economy, a way to expend reputation with a faction in exchange for otherwise unavailable services, such as a reduction in one notoriety level, clearing of small volume bounties, and there's a whole arc which is another essay about demand-based missions.

- Tied in a little to the rep economy and leaning in to the procedural, flesh out Odyssey on-foot contacts as the old concept of Tier 2 contacts, encouraging people to build reputation directly with a network of contacts, who could be the "inside contact" you have in the faction you're hostile to, and potentially offer better services/opportunities based on how much influence the faction has in the system (or if they own the asset they're located in). Right now, they're just single-mission terminals with the option to ask for a couple more materials with no need to care about them.

- Make exploration actually exploration. There's little sane reason to fit any tooling such as various utility limpets (recon, hatchbreaker, research) and utility scanners (wake scanners etc)

- Introduce careers around military progression (not the daft rank-locked permit system/ship system we currently have). Maybe Powerplay is meant to be that, but this will always stand a reminder of what could have been for me... PP itself needs a total overhaul.

- Fusion activities. This whole concept of Odyssey/Horizons being "embarrasingly standalone" DLCs is what kills them. Flying to a POI and finding a horizons outpost which, unlike Odyssey outposts, is completely uninteractable while on-foot... and well, the distinction between Horizons and Odyssey POI writ large is just plain dumb.

There's a host of other things or detail I could drill into, but that's a good place to pull up I think. But for a good deal of these, while there's definitely a bunch of effort needed to implement, it's just creative use of already existing assets.... which of course you can't "package up and sell"... but what're we trying to achieve here? Get players back? Or get money? ED is a financial success already, and the idea that it needs to spin more money is a dubious one (there's a more readily available argument that the general state of gaming is not in a great place financially... but that's not a problem of the games being generated IMO) . Also, the two don't necessarily overlap enitrely, or I would argue, much at all. Odyssey, which was paid-for DLC, gave us "new stuff" with all the same shortfalls of the existing stuff.... where the shortfalls of the existing stuff is it being completely under-utilised.

Elite's strength is it's procedural generation, but FD doesn't lean into that, sticking to one-shot things that lack procedural depth... the Thargoid war is a great example of this lack of procedural depth. The reason the galaxy is procedurally generated is because it would take too long for the devs to create the whole thing by hand. Populating the universe with content by hand likewise suffers the same fate; it must be procedurally generated... but that generation creates a bunch of mostly-ignorable content if the issues of underlying economic balance aren't resolved.

 

[Jack Winter]

I'd agree with most of the above, I don't think the game really needs big expansions and flashy new stuff..

I'd like for the game to be made more challenging in various ways. Why so many POIs where the enemy is just lining up to be shot one after another, or just points to collect mats with no enemy what so ever. Why are HGEs which drop the highest rated mats threat 0 with no enemies, I'd expect some kind of boss fight.

I'd also like more gameplay bringing together on foot, in SRV, and in ship combat. Maybe a war between the Feds and the Imps which leverages all modes of locomotion instead of a capture the flag. Or other stuff like base raids, etc that need all components for success.

Turn the BGS/PP/C&P into a strategic/tactical part of the game including tasks for solo / unaffiliated players to contribute.

But all just suggestions made many times before. I just wish they made it more interesting and challenging, maybe natural as I've played for many years and know the game by now..

 

[Jmanis]

Turn the BGS/PP/C&P into a strategic/tactical part of the game including tasks for solo / unaffiliated players to contribute.

Yep... there's a very neat balance that can be struck here.

• An unaffiliated, clean pilot has the advantage of volume; they can work with anyone and take well paid jobs from anyone, but their lack of loyalty prevents very well paid activities.
• An affiliated pilot likely wanted in one or two jurisdictions should have the advantage of receiving better-paid activities, in exchange for downside of those actions targeting enemies of the affiliated entity, reducing where the pilot can go in a pinch and exposing them to more danger.
• An unaffiliated, criminal pilot has access to better paid activities, but lacks the volume unless they want to result in denied access to more areas. The exception here is smuggling, which needs a slightly different cut, because success in that looks like being clean, but criminal.

 

[metatheurgist]

Squadron focus is pretty much what poured cold water on the game for me. Most of what you want would drive more people like me away. All that effort they wasted on empty squad crap should've been used to actually enrich the game.

 

[varonica]

3) weather on planets
I dont think its to much dificult for fdev create some clouds and rain. It should be easy and it could be really big step for game imersion.

One of the reasons we can only land on planets with the current atmospheric max pressure is because this pressure doesn't support the formation of clouds and weather for the most part. There are exceptions where sulpher dioxide atmospheres at these pressures and with the correct temperature would result in liquid oceans and rain and clouds, so you will often see yellow planets with less than 1 tenth of an atmosphere that would otherwise be landable but have sulpher dioxide atmospheres. The conclusion here is that FDEV only opened these planets up specifically because they aren't ready to do clouds and rain and oceans and these will have to wait for bodies with higher atmospheric pressures. We won't see clouds, rain and liquid bodies on any of the current planets, these will have to wait for new releases with higher atmospheric pressures. The best we can hope for is dust storms like mars, but not rain or clouds, but even then at ground level you probably wouldn't notice them because the density is so low.

 

[Jmanis]

One of the reasons we can only land on planets with the current atmospheric max pressure is because this pressure doesn't support the formation of clouds and weather for the most part. There are exceptions where sulpher dioxide atmospheres at these pressures and with the correct temperature would result in liquid oceans and rain and clouds, so you will often see yellow planets with less than 1 tenth of an atmosphere that would otherwise be landable but have sulpher dioxide atmospheres. The conclusion here is that FDEV only opened these planets up specifically because they aren't ready to do clouds and rain and oceans and these will have to wait for bodies with higher atmospheric pressures. We won't see clouds, rain and liquid bodies on any of the current planets, these will have to wait for new releases with higher atmospheric pressures. The best we can hope for is dust storms like mars, but not rain or clouds, but even then at ground level you probably wouldn't notice them because the density is so low.

I'd also argue... if we got atmospheric planets... what would they be for? Looking pretty? That's DOA.

Like interiors, I argue people don't generally want "just some window dressing", they want a host of activities revolving around that aspect, which is a whole different value proposition, and not one dependent on interiors or atmospheric planets. Sure, you can craft an activity concept that is dependent on both of those, but I would argue that if that's what's going to save the game, there are a host of other activities which would be equally effective and not dependent on atmo/interiors.

 

[varonica]

I'd also argue... if we got atmospheric planets... what would they be for? Looking pretty? That's DOA.

Oh agreed entirely, apart from looking really nice, the current crop of planets is just more of the same with air and a few different plants. The entire ecosystem generation needs to be redone, and the possibility of finding interesting and unexpected stuff planetside would be nice, not saying exactly like Starfield but it would be nice to find ancient ruins and forgotten temples of dead species, long dead satellites adrift in orbit and, well, there are a million things I would like, strangely enough very few of them require ship interiors but that's an entirely different discussion. But I see it this, we can have interesting and engaging interiors, or we can have interesting and engaging thick atmospheric planets, can we have both, or more to the question, can we have everything everyone wants? No we can't. I really think FDEV are seriously looking at more planets for the future, ship interiors I don't think as much.

 

[Kira Goto]

ship interiors I don't think as much.

I could see some point to more detailed megaship/station interiors(Dedicant, anyone?), for stuff like abandoned ports in Thargoid territory - surely someone would have to periodically ‘wake up’ their thrusters to prevent their orbital trajectory from degrading, instead of this magic where they remain in place steadily for a year without oversight or maintenance*.

*Yes, fully aware this is (probably) game/engine limitation and would likely require Frontier godhand intervention to make the port ‘crash’, plus the creation of a ‘crashed port’ asset that likely does not exist at the moment(if it ever will). Would still be interested in visiting one still floating, though, and hazards wouldn’t be too hard to imagine, I think. Corrosive goo, fires in remaining sealed sections, etc.

Interiors for smaller ships, now, that would be a different subject…

- A balanced economy. That in and of itself is a small thesis that I've probably covered off enough in the entire history of my posting here

As one considering to make an alt now, I am actually a little concerned I might get jumped out of the small ship categories a little too quickly while I won’t have many engineering materials and such gathered up in comparison to those credits. (Whereas I remember, even starting out in ~2020, I had to still put some good work in to earn my way to the next ship I wanted to go through.)

I guess I could always just throttle myself to go through the ships that I want in order to do things differently to my main account. And, on the subject of money farms…

I think Orthrus Interceptors are way overpaid, especially now that they can be found in ubiquitous numbers around spire sites, where they offer even less resistance compared to usual behavior.

I mean, ok, they used to be somewhat rare to locate(or get to spawn within a signal source), but to have them pay more than the hundred times more dangerous Medusa, which is also a much longer kill to achieve(unless you speedrun it, which is not really a sustainable thing to be doing - you kill one and then you’ve got to fix your ship up, if you survive the thermal buildup), is a bit eh.

 

[varonica]

I could see some point to more detailed megaship/station interiors(Dedicant, anyone?), for stuff like abandoned ports in Thargoid territory - surely someone would have to periodically ‘wake up’ their thrusters to prevent their orbital trajectory from degrading, instead of this magic where they remain in place steadily for a year without oversight or maintenance*.

Agreed there, but I think it would be much easier to add useful gameplay to extended station interiors, I would love to be able to walk around the ring gardens for instance, and maybe have to find contacts in corridor complexes that could potentially turn into run and gun fights etc. damaged Megaship interiors, maybe crewed by madmen you have to fight your way through to get to the data logs to find out what happened and etc. I would go for extended station and megaship interiors any time.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Which would be, besides in a different location like the the Bubble, Colonia, and the other 3 regional pockets, materially different how?

I think it's probably better viewed in terms of the construction process being interesting, rather than the end result. We haven't really had a proper "build a new settlement" story since Enclave - getting on for half the game's life ago! - and they were always reasonably popular activities before.

And do what, exactly, that isn't already achieved by wings? Or even individuals?

Even as a generally fairly solitary and unsociable player myself, the multiplayer concepts in ED do suffer a lot from the original design being "multiplayer FFE, 90s style ... oh, and then bolt on an MMO environment".

A basic ability to leave friends/squadron members inbox messages if you're not logged in at the same time, and some way to advertise collaboration opportunities to people who happen to be passing through the same systems without needing to actively instance first, would do a fair bit to make the galaxy feel more occupied.

There's very much an assumption that the process is "meet people outside the game, then organise to meet up in it", which is a bit strange.

 

[Screemonster]

8) Owning a systems should bring small amout of ARX currency for squadron
There is still no purpose to control systems. It has no benefits

Makes me wonder why certain squadrons pursue it so aggressively since there's literally no benefit to doing so...

 

[Factabulous]

Makes me wonder why certain squadrons pursue it so aggressively since there's literally no benefit to doing so...

Not sure all do - once you have a PMF there isn't much to do except expand. Except RP and that doesn't often last long.

ofc this suggestion would do the opposite of what the OP wants - Squadrons don't 'own' systems - factions do - so anyone interested in the passive ARX income would just create their own one-person squadron, link it to the largest faction in the game and watch the ARX flood in for zero work. Or worse still - actually work to make the largest faction even larger...

 

[Rat Catcher]

Build another Colonia

Oh... Has CIDE / SECD ran out of easy targets to crush, so need some more walkovers?

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Unfortunately OP, what you are quickly discovering in this thread is what you think are good ideas are not thought of as good ideas by others.

Don't worry, its perfectly normal. We all want different things.

I don't claim to know what would increase player numbers, but for me, I think FD should at least try and make all planets landable with weather and rivers/oceans and life, but that would be a significant undertaking, one i'm not sure FD is willing to commit to.

ship interiors

After playing Starfield, i'm even less convinced that it would help ED regain player numbers. Yes, I know, in SF the space component is lacking and there is no manual flying, but i just find myself fast traveling the cockpit/exit 99% of the time since walking through the ship really adds nothing for me.

 

[Hellrider]

Why is socialisation required? Many players are perfectly happy playing on their own.

Actually it sounds good. Dont think, that a lot of people dock on my carrier, but I would like make message for them. Especially if I plan longer expedition with my carrier, so they could dock, or run away

 

[Hellrider]

I'd like for the game to be made more challenging in various ways. Why so many POIs where the enemy is just lining up to be shot one after another, or just points to collect mats with no enemy what so ever. Why are HGEs which drop the highest rated mats threat 0 with no enemies, I'd expect some kind of boss fight

Sadly, it is another example of players moaning about "mile wide inch deep".
People want "deep" game, but if they would receive "deep" materials gathering (so basically- higher grade=more challenge) I'm sure, that whole reddit and forum could be flooded with salt tears (and not only, forum has filter, but I think that you get my point)
Of course it is top of iceberg. It could require removing ANY way for relog farms (looks like, that "task kill to farm with relogs" isnt enough, so it should be removed completely, for good of players, which cannot ignore possibility to cheese their progression, and hey, it could lead to rediscovering some things, example some crazy idea like...scanning passing ships, instead relog farm around crashed ship each time, when they deplet their mats).
Basically- a lot of people simply dont understand, that their, demanded "deep" gameplay could often lead directly to...bigger effort.