How to deliver an in-game narrative (John Jameson)

Globusdiablo

Globusdiablo
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Disclaimer: Though I've been around a long time, I consider myself a casual player.

If you want the majority of your players to enjoy your content creation, you must first follow these simple steps:

1. Make the new content/story/lore readily available from within the game. Doh...
2. Have a working navigation system. We're flying spaceships in the future after all.
3. Make any requirements needed to partake in this new content abundantly clear.

Now, let's see how many FD can check.

1. Nope. I haven't seen any mention of this new content in-game.
2. Nope. This ridiculous triangulation business is, well ridiculous.
3. Nope. I flew out there. Spent a good half hour trying to triangulate my way there. Found nothing to click on. Nothing to lock on to.
Apparently you need an SRV to access this content?... I actually don't know. I haven't been able to find any information regarding this matter neither in-game nor on the net...
I accept the usual suspects to hammer me with Git Gud and what not, but the fact remains; if this game is supposed to be accessible to more than a handful of die hard players, FD staff really need to pull their socks up on the matter of communicating content. Across the board.

I for one won't be bothered by new content leaks any more as I'm clearly not the target demographic, read also; casual player.
 

IcyScope

IcyScope
Couldn't agree more. Subscriptions to Reddit / Forms / Twitter / Youtube should not be required to play a game. I have missed out on a lot of "content" actually for the reasons you stated above. With that said, I'm out near Sag A right now so I couldn't take part even if I wanted to.
 

S3B4ST13N

S
I'm really intrigued by the story unfolding in ED; the way they are bringing to our attention though.. it's just .. wrong.
Apparently there was this whole fluff about some chick called Salami and how some plonker with a wizard hat apparently killed her and nobody saw it coming...missed that story by weeks.
Why? Simply because there was nothing to draw me into it.

For example, why not have "Story Content" flag on missions? This will tell me that this mission is important, and will chain to other missions that ultimately lead me somewhere. Of course, with Salami a cold corpse floating around some distant star because of this "player decisions so therefore it's a once off thing per big story" .. it's impossible to play that story .. I have to read about it on forums, or some dudes book.

There's nothing wrong with adding campaign material to a game like ED; with certain points being inaccessible to other players so they can't interrupt your experience. Or, if in a wing, same deal only the missions are harder.

But this .. "oh, there's a story there." "Where?" "Like 500ly that way" .. no. Sod ya.
 
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Pville_Piper

Pville_Piper
Yes, git gud and google it! :rolleyes:

I feel that there should be a scanner that can pick out items, possibly as small as an escape pod from orbit. Maybe pointing out an area to investigate. How people are finding this stuff is beyond me. I flew out to the Jameson wreck sight for grins and it was a real pain trying to fly the latitude and longitude coordinates. I've done this a few times and it never gets any better. Get there and logs were interesting. It's nothing but a frustration to fly the coordinates and I really don't want to do that crap to fly to all of the INRA sites.

So after that I flew to the other moon to check out the INRA base... Nothing to lock onto, can't see anything from orbit or even near glide altitude and I didn't have the coordinates. After a few passes I said the heck with it and left. This has been pretty much my entire experience with 2.4. Stopped by the Non-Human POI to see a thargoid... Check. Went to a thargoid site... Check. Then, on my way out of the area I got hyperdicted... Check. I did the Palin missions... Check. So I didn't have to fly the coordinates again I scanned the wreck. Which had the scan point several meters down, in the ground! Putting my SRV on it's nose and tapping the thrusters backwards until the scan point lined up... Really?

There is nothing really to see here. I know 2.4 is supposed to roll out over months but I really don't want to spend my precious play time flying around some other beige a planet/moon in very low orbit, hoping to find a site that you can't lock onto from a distance. Not that it would work properly if you could as I saw in one of the systems that the "wreck" site was actually in orbit and when I dropped into the POI all I found was a satellite...

There just isn't any game play associated with any of this. Want to find a thargoid, no problem! Just fly to nearly any star system in the Pleiades nebula and drop into any of thousands billions of non-human POIs and presto-majico, there they are! The only real interaction you have is to kill them but you better bring friends and make sure your weapons haven't passed their expiration date (AKA the latest nurf update)!

It gets old very fast. If this is a narrative driven gameplay then I'd say someone needs to wake up the narrator...
 

Tiny_Rick

Banned
Tiny_Rick
I, too, am a filthy casual, so take from this what you will!

I'm fullbore 1000% in agreement with transparency with new content requirements, but I'm conflicted on the other points. No, ED doesn't have an in-game nav calculator, but the community does. Correct, there is essentially zero story, but there's deep and meaningful lore that's created through community groups. There's no handholding from FD when it comes to figuring out things beyond games mechanics, but lots of support from the community.

Beginning to see a trend? It's because I have found, empirically, that the things ED lacks within the confines of the game, the community expands and augments. Coriolis, eddb, hotdoy, and that genius with Down to Earth Astronomy, are all responses to what the game lacks. But in a sense, it doesn't mean the game is lacking; rather, I've found that the community augments my gameplay better than FD could.

Just another casual defending this ridiculously awesome game.
 
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Genus

Genus
Couldn't agree more.

The approach needs to change across the board for me. These boards are invaluable to actually get to experience stuff in game, as I won't touch Reddit. Which means I'm sure I miss out on stuff.
 

Globusdiablo

Globusdiablo
Tiny_Rick said:
I, too, am a filthy casual, so take from this what you will!

I'm fullbore 1000% in agreement with transparency with new content requirements, but I'm conflicted on the other points. No, ED doesn't have an in-game nav calculator, but the community does. Correct, there is essentially zero story, but there's deep and meaningful lore that's created through community groups. There's no handholding from FD when it comes to figuring out things beyond games mechanics, but lots of support from the community.

Beginning to see a trend? It's because I have found, empirically, that the things ED lacks within the confines of the game, the community expands and augments. Coriolis, eddb, hotdoy, and that genius with Down to Earth Astronomy, are all responses to what the game lacks. But in a sense, it doesn't mean the game is lacking; rather, I've found that the community augments my gameplay better than FD could.

Just another casual defending this ridiculously awesome game.
Click to expand...

Filthy casual
fanboi
rather... ;)
 

SushiCW

SushiCW
Hugely agree with #1 and #3. #2 seems to just be about the sub-problem of getting to coordinates on a planet, but IMHO that's acceptable as-is. It's an entirely in-game learnable skill.
 

kpmop

K
Huh. Gotta say that despite being a moan thread, I do agree.

If not for the forums (and OK the last newsletter) I'd have never known about them - certainly not via anything in-game anyway. And then there's the current method of locating & flying to these sites - PAINFUL. At the very least there should be some kind of sensor blip or something to aim at when you get close.

Hopefully the navigation method and the lack of in-game information (both of which have been screaming to be improved for a while now) will be part of the early Beyond improvements.

Saying all that though: it was worth the effort - FD made a good job of the sites and the log messages...
 

Chainguns

C
Pville_Piper said:
Maybe pointing out an area to investigate. How people are finding this stuff is beyond me. I flew out to the Jameson wreck sight for grins and it was a real pain trying to fly the latitude and longitude coordinates.
Click to expand...

Do you really want to know? Serious question, because I'm concerned you won't like the answer. Look away if you're faint hearted.... still here? OK, don't say I didn't warn you though.... Deep breath... These things are found by using your PCs resource monitor. Your CPU isn't normally doing much in space with just a skybox and some tiny dots, but when you reach a planet with a 'hidden' site or base, suddenly you have a load of geometry that needs doing and then it 'spikes' even from seemingly impossibly high altitudes. The GPU always picks up a bit around planets but the CPU is usually twiddling its proverbial thumbs if it's only a barren potato.

So there you go - never ask a magician the secret of their tricks, you'll never be able to watch the performance with the same awe again.
 
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EUS

EUS
Chainguns said:
Do you really want to know? Serious question, because I'm concerned you won't like the answer. Look away if you're faint hearted.... still here? OK, don't say I didn't warn you though.... Deep breath... These things are found by using your PCs resource monitor. Your CPU isn't normally doing much in space with just a skybox and some tiny dots, but when you reach a planet with a 'hidden' site or base, suddenly you have a load of geometry that needs doing and then it 'spikes'. The GPU always picks up a bit around planets but the CPU is usually twiddling it's proverbial thumbs if it's only a barren potato.

So there you go - never ask a magician the secret of their tricks, you'll never be able to watch the performance with the same awe again.
Click to expand...
That is hilarious.
 
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