The problem with Elite Dangerous is obviously that player agency is very slim. Your purpose for being in Elite is to 'get better stuff', 'get more ships', 'grind some personal stats'. That entirely misses the core premise of the game. David should know this.
However the basic building blocks of an evolving universe are there, yet there is no motivation to interact with these systems because they are a little bit incomplete.
Elite fix part 1:
The solution is obviously for players to be able to impact the BGS to a much greater extent. This is often the problem with MMOs, however Elite seems big enough to actually demonstrate if this is possible.
1. players should be able to take actions against major factions that result in a change of ownership of systems
2. players should be able to take missions that indicate which major faction they are working against (since the mission generation system should be able to lean on which factions are locally available and local systems which are in competition)
3. players should be able to, through missions, impact certain resource availability (since resource mapping is already in) to inflate/deflate demand and cost of product.
4. ideally players should be able to blockade systems against player or ai supply ships.
So this BGS then automatically generates opposite reaction in surrounding systems to motivate players to play the counter roles. But some players will bait the system - thats fine. Thats the game. The more desperate a faction becomes, the more it pays. If major factions are stamped out, that leads to dev input (maybe, they might just want to see the universe evolve). For example, this might lead to the abolishment of slaves because slave happy factions are eradicated
This same faction gameplay could also be grafted onto thargoid incursions, with major faction space being abandoned if thargoids push in. Allow me to ellaborate:
1. Thargoids push from a few angles at systems and shoot up orbital platforms
2. players either loose to thargoids or win, thus pushing them back or they succeed
3. how much resources can be mopped up from destroyed stations indicates how quickly they can be rebuilt if the system is recaptured
4. lost systems stop producing resources
5. you have to go down to settlements with lost orbital stations in order to trade/refuel.
6. maybe explorers need to mark or probe thargoid incursion locations to limit attack sprawl
Ideally Galnet can autogenerate news reports on thatgoid incursions/push back and major faction inflation/withdrawals.
In this way, Elite can play out the grand strategy opera that I assume David Braben was originally shooting for. It will require expanding the BGS since I think user involvement needs to not only tick the local system, but all related systems, and maybe their systems.
But most importantly, I think the safeguard on user agency needs to be lifted in this MMO. There are enough users with their own interests in Elite to create an interesting universe that evolves its own amazing story if it would be allowed to, with 'stable' systems paying low rates, but 'contested' systems demanding resources.
I think a requirement of all of the above is that there is a cool-off of a month or so if a player wants to change allegiance between major factions to prevent spamming the BGS.
Elite fix part 2:
Now, one of the other parts of Elite Dangerous that needs to be fixed is the engineering, and here is my proposal:
When you have an engineered system destroyed, its upgrade is gone. If your ship goes up, maybe that means you loose your engineering modifiers. Maybe that means you need to go back to the engineer to have them re-applied or something.
This has a few good outcomes:
a. engineered parts can be much less of a grind if you have to find more parts to re-apply or try to re-roll for.
b. there is risk in Xploding your ship. More motivation to stay alive at least
c. pvp combat risk means that multi-crew might be more viable if the consequence of loosing your ship is going to cost upgrades or lots of time getting them back.
Elite fix conclusion:
All of the above is easy for FDEV to implement with the existing technology they have developed, but they haven't linked it up for some reason.
There is a very deep game here that is waiting for a good BGS update to flesh out. If FDEV isn't sure how to do it, they should follow the above descriptions. I haven't played Odyssey, but after looking at the reviews, it seems the logical path isn't being pursued.
However the basic building blocks of an evolving universe are there, yet there is no motivation to interact with these systems because they are a little bit incomplete.
Elite fix part 1:
The solution is obviously for players to be able to impact the BGS to a much greater extent. This is often the problem with MMOs, however Elite seems big enough to actually demonstrate if this is possible.
1. players should be able to take actions against major factions that result in a change of ownership of systems
2. players should be able to take missions that indicate which major faction they are working against (since the mission generation system should be able to lean on which factions are locally available and local systems which are in competition)
3. players should be able to, through missions, impact certain resource availability (since resource mapping is already in) to inflate/deflate demand and cost of product.
4. ideally players should be able to blockade systems against player or ai supply ships.
So this BGS then automatically generates opposite reaction in surrounding systems to motivate players to play the counter roles. But some players will bait the system - thats fine. Thats the game. The more desperate a faction becomes, the more it pays. If major factions are stamped out, that leads to dev input (maybe, they might just want to see the universe evolve). For example, this might lead to the abolishment of slaves because slave happy factions are eradicated
This same faction gameplay could also be grafted onto thargoid incursions, with major faction space being abandoned if thargoids push in. Allow me to ellaborate:
1. Thargoids push from a few angles at systems and shoot up orbital platforms
2. players either loose to thargoids or win, thus pushing them back or they succeed
3. how much resources can be mopped up from destroyed stations indicates how quickly they can be rebuilt if the system is recaptured
4. lost systems stop producing resources
5. you have to go down to settlements with lost orbital stations in order to trade/refuel.
6. maybe explorers need to mark or probe thargoid incursion locations to limit attack sprawl
Ideally Galnet can autogenerate news reports on thatgoid incursions/push back and major faction inflation/withdrawals.
In this way, Elite can play out the grand strategy opera that I assume David Braben was originally shooting for. It will require expanding the BGS since I think user involvement needs to not only tick the local system, but all related systems, and maybe their systems.
But most importantly, I think the safeguard on user agency needs to be lifted in this MMO. There are enough users with their own interests in Elite to create an interesting universe that evolves its own amazing story if it would be allowed to, with 'stable' systems paying low rates, but 'contested' systems demanding resources.
I think a requirement of all of the above is that there is a cool-off of a month or so if a player wants to change allegiance between major factions to prevent spamming the BGS.
Elite fix part 2:
Now, one of the other parts of Elite Dangerous that needs to be fixed is the engineering, and here is my proposal:
When you have an engineered system destroyed, its upgrade is gone. If your ship goes up, maybe that means you loose your engineering modifiers. Maybe that means you need to go back to the engineer to have them re-applied or something.
This has a few good outcomes:
a. engineered parts can be much less of a grind if you have to find more parts to re-apply or try to re-roll for.
b. there is risk in Xploding your ship. More motivation to stay alive at least
c. pvp combat risk means that multi-crew might be more viable if the consequence of loosing your ship is going to cost upgrades or lots of time getting them back.
Elite fix conclusion:
All of the above is easy for FDEV to implement with the existing technology they have developed, but they haven't linked it up for some reason.
There is a very deep game here that is waiting for a good BGS update to flesh out. If FDEV isn't sure how to do it, they should follow the above descriptions. I haven't played Odyssey, but after looking at the reviews, it seems the logical path isn't being pursued.
