This is going to be a long post but I will break it up into sections, if you want to get right to the meat of it, skip some.
Who am I?
__Hi all, I made a profile just for this. I've played for about 6-700 hours or so on xbox because controller and have thought long and hard about what this game could be and why exactly it is unsatisfying. Generally I will come back to ED with a ship build idea, have a lot of fun building it, then use it for a bit to check out new stuff, resort to some pve combat, get bored and go on another hiatus.
__I've seen/done most everything the game has to offer: brain trees, guardian stuff, mining, exploration, been to the center, got the mug, etc. The only exception is thargoid combat. I don't like that I have to outfit my ship very specifically to do that one thing, without any of the tools (weapons) that I have grown fond of and gotten proficient with; The risk/reward is also so poor that it just leaves me with little interest to participate. I am 50-70% away from being elite ranked in any of the 3 categories. This was all with just playing how I wanted to, with the only grind I suffered through being the fed rank grind for my 'vette, that was soul crushing.
__With some recent changes and a more developed thought process into exactly what I could do about it, I decided it, why not. People say that FDEV doesn't listen, but if I don't post I'll never know. FDEV, if you are reading, regardless of what you think of my ideas, please at least comment that you read it and if you are going to show it to decision makers at the company. This will help build a little goodwill with the community and show that you actually are listening.
Thats a brief summary, so lets move on. To fix/improve it we first have to recognize:
The Problems (or areas that could be better)
I have ideas to improve or fix every one of these, and will put that in the section after this, consider this a table of contents.
1. The big one: ED feels empty and lifeless.
_Ever heard "wide as the ocean, deep as a puddle"?
2. Missions are a snooze fest
3. Spacelegs are too daunting and large a feature to implement as wanted
_Yes, we're going to talk about EliteFeet, no it isn't the main focus.
4. Underused weapons
5. Fun or efficient money making, pick ONLY ONE.
6. Wings feel clunky
There may be more added later but these are the biggest issues as I see them. Lets move on to expanding the problems and proposing solutions.
The big empty
If you don't feel like ED is empty, you aren't playing it, full stop. I don't think this needs a whole lot of explanation.
This can be fixed in a number of ways, and some of these will also help fix other listed problems.
First this we need to do is add a sense of life and scale.
To do this, we are going to change the large station experience.
First off, the mail slot has a forcefield thing you pass through that holds in atmosphere, lets use that.
When you land, you will have a simplified station menu
on the right:
-one button for repair all and rearm, right beside it, a button, detailed maintenance, that will allow you to fix or rearm specific things individually, like we have now.
-below that, a refuel all
-to the right of refuel, a limpit slider to restock them.
on the left:
-Station quartermaster (just a better, more immersive name for commodities.)
--lets keep trading fast.
-outfitting
-shipyard
-remote workshop
-maybe more
in the middle:
-we have galnet on our ship, remove that.
-add a big button, move to pilot federation lounge.
Heres where things get exciting.
Pilot Federation Lounge
When you click that button, an animation plays, where you get out of your chair, walk to the door on the bridge, the door opens and then the screen fades to black (for now)
The screen fades back in and you are in one of those buildings to the side of the landing pad, or if underground, a room to the side with glass paneling looking out to your ship.
Out the window, you see some npcs doing random idle animations like, connecting a large hose, welding, polishing, or whatever to your ship. Trucks and utility vehicle can be seen occasionally driving up and putting shipments of food/water into the cargo bay.
-This adds a sense of life and scale. these ships are really huge but never feel like it.
In the lounge there are several npcs behind desks and a few idle animation randomly generated pilots on couches, eating or whatever.
along the bottom of the screen there is a long, translucent shortcut bar:
Missions | Passengers | Board Ship | Allies | Contacts
When you click one, a SHORT animation plays as you character walks to that area
Missions
Takes you to a holo bulletin board that your player interacts with.
Passengers
The only option where your ship is no longer in view, you look through a one way mirror to see a large room with 2 sections. The larger section is like an airport waiting area, and the smaller section is a bar where the VIPs are.
pressing right or left cycles through randomly generated npcs in the lobby, and pulls up a holo to the side of what their mission is.
up and down switches from VIP to economy more quickly.
The rewards will float above their heads at all times for quality of life.
-adds life.
Board Ship takes you back to the default screen where you are looking at your ship. click for a pop up "Prepare for dust off?" and again to confirm to take you back to your ship with a short animation
-screen fades to black, fades back in, you're on the tarmac in a open top shuttle thing driving you to your ship, you look up at it as you drive up to it, (npcs are disconnecting hoses and disengaging their idle animations) then back down as the vehicle stops and you get out walking to and up the landing gear stairs/door to enter the ship.
screen fades to black and fades in again with you in your seat.
--This adds a massive sense of scale that is sorely needed.
Allies
This is your crew lounge.
Here you can see your active crew milling about with some idle animations at a bar or something.
You are at an terminal with a few options: Hire New | Assign Crew | Create Wing
Yeah you read that right.
You can outfit a ship and if it is at the same station, assign it to an AI crew member for a wing.
-This allows some immersion and role playing. Wings are cool and break up the endless jousting or circles in fights, while allowing different tactics. Do you both focus down one ship fast, or balance it out? Let one ship take the aggro so you can to fly-bys with devastating alpha strikes? Variety is the spice of life my friend.
-you can actually outfit a support vessel now.
-You can also have them drive a cargo ship and you protect them with a combat build, or the other way around.
--As a balancing result, npcs are almost always in a wing, and you can only have 1 AI wingmate.
--further balance, AI do not know how to use heal beams. (you can heal them though)
--balance extended, AI cannot launch fighters (no matryoshka doll effect)
Crew changes
-Crew that pilot one of your ships in a wing with you use the existing pay structure (10% pay cut when trained from harmless to elite)
-Crew that pilot SLFs get paid 50,000 flat for any kill that they participate in.
Yes this will give an advantage to players in AI wings. but this is a game that is supposed to be fun. It will add variety and fun without being a crippling credit burden, as it should.
Class 3 module: crew escape pod launcher (self explanatory)
Contacts
Takes you to a Pilots Federation intermediary
"Hey there spud what can I do for you"
lists contacts in conversation menu
contacts changes:
-Authority contact
--Has local bounties and galaxy wide bounties and a reputation bar exclusive to that system
---Local bounties can go up to a +30% bonus scaling on rep.
---Galaxy bounties start at -50% and can get to -25%
---At max rank, fines and bounties under 500cr will be waived with 0 notoriety
---At 0 notoriety you are never taken to a penal colony upon paying your bounty/fine
-Combat bonds
--Your rep with the faction can increase or decrease payouts by +/- 25%
-Black market
--Prices still lower for stolen goods, however
--Prices for illegal goods is higher than galactic average (at least) guaranteed.
(Risk/reward needs to make sense)
--If caught with illegal goods, you are ordered to jettison the illegal cargo, if you comply you will only be fined, say, 500/t and the cargo will be destroyed. If you do not comply, you will gain a large bounty and be fired upon.
-Power contact
--Power play is one can of worms I'm not gunna open.
-Search and Rescue
--the category is a bit redundant., put this under authority contact and have the rewards be the usual money as well as a large reputation boost for the authority contact, as well as the controlling faction and the major faction (empire/federation) associated with the controlling faction, if present.
-Material trader
--Slightly reduce trade penalty in same category, keep cross trading penalty the same.
-Universal Cartographics
--Now under contacts. I'll leave this be and see how the new exploration feels before suggesting changes.
--However, First discovered, completely scanned systems with ADS need to have a massive credit bonus as well as rank bonus.
-Interstellar factors (If applicable)
--has system exclusive rep bar.
--start at -0% payout for local bounties and scales to -60% payout the farther the closest system with that faction in it is.
--rep can reduce this effect to 0%-30%
--because local bounties are available to get bonuses according to rep from authority contact, this still highly encourages players to use them first, or suffer a large opportunity cost.
-- ISF can clean bounties off of any ship or module, including ones in storage, so long as the notoriety is 0
Outposts will only have the option to go to Pilots federation lounge once in the hanger bay.
All of these changes could be implemented piece by piece and use current assets as the framework. These changes make the game more immersive, feel deeper and more alive, add a sense of scale, and make the player feel more impactful and recognized.
In aggregation, these will increase playtime, player satisfaction, and goodwill without increasing grind and using existing framework.
Whew, that was a doozie, I know. Moving on.
Missions are dull and monotonous
First off, we are keeping all existing missions. the ability to have an AI wingmate will allow for some variety in the angle of attack as well as making them feel fresh again.
We are going to change the mission board though.
-Upon entering the mission board, you will click one of several options
--Combat, mining, trading, etc.
-The mission board will then populate with only those missions so you can choose what you want to do.
We will also be adding new missions:
-Run an escort
--protect a trade vessel on its route
-High value target wants to explore
--You protect a VIPs ship while he sightsee's
---This allows combat focused ships to see some cool explorer stuff
-more to come
Along with these new missions, we will add some variation in the way they play out.
possibilities include:
-you are set up.
--the FSD of your protectee malfunctions and pulls you both out of slip space.
--the ship has major malfunctions and pirates attack, killing it. You have to kill a few pirates and then track down the pirate leader, assasination mission style, to recover the black box and clear your name. If you collect the escape pod as well, you receive full mission payout.
-Pirate/assassination interdiction
--go pew pew till they go boom boom
--scaling bonus (based on enemy rank) per kill
--Protectee must live, if he is blown up, recover his escape pod for 50% payout. These escape pods are mission essential and you cannot turn them in to the authority contact.
-Salvage stop (trader only)
--stop at a ship wreckage field and wait a while for the cargo ship to look for loot
-- you can also collect some loot
--Pirates may or may not attack
-Planetary survey (VIP only)
--the VIP wants to check out a peculiar area on a planet.
--could be skimmer site, could be guardian, w/e.
-- the VIP will land and after a short time send out an SRV that will go to a set objective.
--you have the option of providing overwatch from the air or joining him on the ground in srv.
--protect him from skimmers or something
--if he successfully scans the thing he wanted to, mission payout +20%
--To prevent annoyances, SRVs us telepresence, so if his srv dies, you only fail the optional bonus, hes still alive.
These and more can happen at random during your missions and will make them more varied and interesting. Along with your AI wing capability, this allows you to have some interactions with NPCs other than just blowing them up or ignoring them, giving ED some life and variance.
Thargoid mission can be added on a scripted basis and would help lead new players through the experience and make it more fun in the later missions.
Too much free choice makes a game feel empty and boring, it is not always the answer.
For the first mission, maybe escort some science vessels to a thargoid site and back
the next one, do the same thing but a thargoid attacks and you are ordered to jump away with the science vessel while a ship stays behind to die and distract it.
next, with a large wing, go and hunt the area where it happened and get lead through how to deal with it and kill it, with npc allies and AUDIO INSTRUCTIONS.
etc.
The Spacelegs.
This is simpler than it looks. With my proposed changes to the station interface, you can start with set animations, and then move from that slowly to real spacelegs.
A few notes though
-only able to (eventually) walk around on the tarmac, lounge, or ship while it is docked.
Underused/not viable weapons
I'm looking at you, missiles and cannons. I realise some of these changes might not be right on the money with their values, and those can be fiddled with. Also, the game has been steadily pushed towards a mostly PvE experience, so this will not hurt anyone most likely. I'm fine with weapons being more suited to a certain niche, but they should all be Pve Viable, as that is what the vast majority of people play this game
-Cannons
--Standard 1100m/s shot speed across all fixed classes
---950m/s for gimballed and turreted
-- standard clip of 8, ammo maximum 250
--Cannons are higher risk without higher reward compared to multicannons. Better play should be rewarded with a higher skill ceiling and with a lower skill floor, therefore,
--+20% damage at all ranks.
--The goal is to have cannons outperform and outlast multicannons by around 5-10% if all shots connect.
-Missiles
Missiles should be really, really cool, and they're only use is destroying hardpoints once shields are down, however, once the enemy's shields are down, the battle it pretty much over anyways. This is the main reason no one uses them.
They need to be a viable option for a secondary weapon, or as an only weapon for traders who get interdicted, to just blow their load and pray.
-x2 rate of fire for class 2 slot
-x4 rate of fire for class 3 slot
--This just makes sense when you look at the actual models of the things.
-increase ammo capacity by 50% at all ranks
-Add a few engineering options:
--Frag munitions (G5 maxed)
---increase damage 250% (only 150% for seekers)
---very little damage to modules
---damage type changed 50%K 25%T 25%E
--- -50% ammo capacity
--- + 20% distributor draw
--Thermite charge (G5 maxed)
---DMG 200% (100% for seeker)
---no damage to modules
---Damage type changed 75%thermal 25% absolute
---+20% velocity
--- -50% ammo capacity
--- +20% distributor draw
--- +30% thermal load
Maybe some more as well. Missiles are cool, lets make them more useful.
Torpedos
These are supposed to be bunker busting semi-nuclear boom buddies. They have the best experimental effect in the game but that is, unfortunately, the only thing they are good for. They really need to go BOOM, especially for their absurd price.
-DMG increase from 180 (120+60(guaranteed breach dmg) --> 300 (120+180 guaranteed breach dmg)
Alternatively, and possibly more fun,
-class 1 has 2 ammo
-class 2 has 4 ammo
-class 3 has 8 ammo
--Total cost to restock stays the same. (basically half price per torpedo)
Torpedos need to be more effective on big ships than small ships.
-velocity from 250 -> 300
Smaller ships, as well as fast ships will still just be able to boost away, while slow ships like condas, vettes, type 10s, and other things will have a bad day, but they will not feel so damn anemic.
Fun or Money, pick one
This has been an issue for a long time. Most of this has been fixed with the above changes, giving the player a more focused board on what they want to do, and making the missions more fun and variable with the possibility of an AI wingmate.
there does need to be some additional fixes though.
-If it is combat related, payouts increase by 50%
--risk/reward, simple as that.
-tone down the massacre missions
--no one needs to pick from 12 unstackable missions that take a while to complete, from each faction.
Wings feel clunky.
They have always felt kind of bad to me, not a very cohesive experience that feels more like just playing in the same instance with a friend.
-Person A creates wing, and is now the wing leader.
--In slipspace, within a certain area of influence around the wing leaders ship, the wingmates FSDs are slaved to the leaders
--This auto forces the same speed and trajectory as the wing leader, as well as dropping them out, wing leader first, then 5-10 seconds after, the wingmates automatically
--a wingmate can escape this area of influence by disabling the feature via right console, emergency dropping, or continuing to force their ship in a different trajectory.
This will promote a more cohesive experience that will feel more like a wing, and will look like how the NPCs do it.
In normal space, the same thing is true, but only for ships who have stowed their hardpoints.
-this is auto disengaged whenever the leader or anyone requests docking.
Miscellaneous
Add more ranks, just for the hell of it. They are only for players and have no in game effects like the earlier ranks do. Only for bragging rights. its easy, just
ELITE 1,2,3,4, etc.
Closing
Alright guys, if you've made it this far, you're really a trooper. Thanks for sticking with me. I wrote this because I care a lot about elite and really want it to succeed, and believe I have addressed within the core problems and ways to fix them that can be implemented gradually, piece by piece, while reusing as many assets as possible.
I want ED to continue to move forward and above all, gain some depth and life!
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this and any suggestions you may want to change or add.
I think FDEV is trying to make the game better but are a bit to cautious with the updates. I don't blame them, the community is so jaded that every changes seems to upset people, even if its for the better. To some degree, they just have to push forward and stop being afraid, but it is by no means a simple task.
Cut em some slack.
To FDEV, you really need to start being more transparent with us. it would go a long way to dissolve a lot of salt and perhaps bring back some of the more jaded players from the brink. Communication really is key. For a role model look at Warframe's devs, Digital Extremes. They communicate and listen to their players, and they play straight with them.
If they can't do something they say that.
if they are issues, they are known.
They tell us when they are trying to squash a really evasive and nasty bug and are having a hard time. They play their own game quite a lot and try to engage with community members, especially the loud ones.
I know you guys could be like that if you really tried.
Thanks for making my favorite space sim (unfortunately I can't call it a game yet), and I can't wait to see what you're going to do with it.
P.S. the best way to increase game time, profit, and new players will be to make the game more FUN, not increase grind.
Who am I?
__Hi all, I made a profile just for this. I've played for about 6-700 hours or so on xbox because controller and have thought long and hard about what this game could be and why exactly it is unsatisfying. Generally I will come back to ED with a ship build idea, have a lot of fun building it, then use it for a bit to check out new stuff, resort to some pve combat, get bored and go on another hiatus.
__I've seen/done most everything the game has to offer: brain trees, guardian stuff, mining, exploration, been to the center, got the mug, etc. The only exception is thargoid combat. I don't like that I have to outfit my ship very specifically to do that one thing, without any of the tools (weapons) that I have grown fond of and gotten proficient with; The risk/reward is also so poor that it just leaves me with little interest to participate. I am 50-70% away from being elite ranked in any of the 3 categories. This was all with just playing how I wanted to, with the only grind I suffered through being the fed rank grind for my 'vette, that was soul crushing.
__With some recent changes and a more developed thought process into exactly what I could do about it, I decided it, why not. People say that FDEV doesn't listen, but if I don't post I'll never know. FDEV, if you are reading, regardless of what you think of my ideas, please at least comment that you read it and if you are going to show it to decision makers at the company. This will help build a little goodwill with the community and show that you actually are listening.
Thats a brief summary, so lets move on. To fix/improve it we first have to recognize:
The Problems (or areas that could be better)
I have ideas to improve or fix every one of these, and will put that in the section after this, consider this a table of contents.
1. The big one: ED feels empty and lifeless.
_Ever heard "wide as the ocean, deep as a puddle"?
2. Missions are a snooze fest
3. Spacelegs are too daunting and large a feature to implement as wanted
_Yes, we're going to talk about EliteFeet, no it isn't the main focus.
4. Underused weapons
5. Fun or efficient money making, pick ONLY ONE.
6. Wings feel clunky
There may be more added later but these are the biggest issues as I see them. Lets move on to expanding the problems and proposing solutions.
The big empty
If you don't feel like ED is empty, you aren't playing it, full stop. I don't think this needs a whole lot of explanation.
This can be fixed in a number of ways, and some of these will also help fix other listed problems.
First this we need to do is add a sense of life and scale.
To do this, we are going to change the large station experience.
First off, the mail slot has a forcefield thing you pass through that holds in atmosphere, lets use that.
When you land, you will have a simplified station menu
on the right:
-one button for repair all and rearm, right beside it, a button, detailed maintenance, that will allow you to fix or rearm specific things individually, like we have now.
-below that, a refuel all
-to the right of refuel, a limpit slider to restock them.
on the left:
-Station quartermaster (just a better, more immersive name for commodities.)
--lets keep trading fast.
-outfitting
-shipyard
-remote workshop
-maybe more
in the middle:
-we have galnet on our ship, remove that.
-add a big button, move to pilot federation lounge.
Heres where things get exciting.
Pilot Federation Lounge
When you click that button, an animation plays, where you get out of your chair, walk to the door on the bridge, the door opens and then the screen fades to black (for now)
The screen fades back in and you are in one of those buildings to the side of the landing pad, or if underground, a room to the side with glass paneling looking out to your ship.
Out the window, you see some npcs doing random idle animations like, connecting a large hose, welding, polishing, or whatever to your ship. Trucks and utility vehicle can be seen occasionally driving up and putting shipments of food/water into the cargo bay.
-This adds a sense of life and scale. these ships are really huge but never feel like it.
In the lounge there are several npcs behind desks and a few idle animation randomly generated pilots on couches, eating or whatever.
along the bottom of the screen there is a long, translucent shortcut bar:
Missions | Passengers | Board Ship | Allies | Contacts
When you click one, a SHORT animation plays as you character walks to that area
Missions
Takes you to a holo bulletin board that your player interacts with.
Passengers
The only option where your ship is no longer in view, you look through a one way mirror to see a large room with 2 sections. The larger section is like an airport waiting area, and the smaller section is a bar where the VIPs are.
pressing right or left cycles through randomly generated npcs in the lobby, and pulls up a holo to the side of what their mission is.
up and down switches from VIP to economy more quickly.
The rewards will float above their heads at all times for quality of life.
-adds life.
Board Ship takes you back to the default screen where you are looking at your ship. click for a pop up "Prepare for dust off?" and again to confirm to take you back to your ship with a short animation
-screen fades to black, fades back in, you're on the tarmac in a open top shuttle thing driving you to your ship, you look up at it as you drive up to it, (npcs are disconnecting hoses and disengaging their idle animations) then back down as the vehicle stops and you get out walking to and up the landing gear stairs/door to enter the ship.
screen fades to black and fades in again with you in your seat.
--This adds a massive sense of scale that is sorely needed.
Allies
This is your crew lounge.
Here you can see your active crew milling about with some idle animations at a bar or something.
You are at an terminal with a few options: Hire New | Assign Crew | Create Wing
Yeah you read that right.
You can outfit a ship and if it is at the same station, assign it to an AI crew member for a wing.
-This allows some immersion and role playing. Wings are cool and break up the endless jousting or circles in fights, while allowing different tactics. Do you both focus down one ship fast, or balance it out? Let one ship take the aggro so you can to fly-bys with devastating alpha strikes? Variety is the spice of life my friend.
-you can actually outfit a support vessel now.
-You can also have them drive a cargo ship and you protect them with a combat build, or the other way around.
--As a balancing result, npcs are almost always in a wing, and you can only have 1 AI wingmate.
--further balance, AI do not know how to use heal beams. (you can heal them though)
--balance extended, AI cannot launch fighters (no matryoshka doll effect)
Crew changes
-Crew that pilot one of your ships in a wing with you use the existing pay structure (10% pay cut when trained from harmless to elite)
-Crew that pilot SLFs get paid 50,000 flat for any kill that they participate in.
Yes this will give an advantage to players in AI wings. but this is a game that is supposed to be fun. It will add variety and fun without being a crippling credit burden, as it should.
Class 3 module: crew escape pod launcher (self explanatory)
Contacts
Takes you to a Pilots Federation intermediary
"Hey there spud what can I do for you"
lists contacts in conversation menu
contacts changes:
-Authority contact
--Has local bounties and galaxy wide bounties and a reputation bar exclusive to that system
---Local bounties can go up to a +30% bonus scaling on rep.
---Galaxy bounties start at -50% and can get to -25%
---At max rank, fines and bounties under 500cr will be waived with 0 notoriety
---At 0 notoriety you are never taken to a penal colony upon paying your bounty/fine
-Combat bonds
--Your rep with the faction can increase or decrease payouts by +/- 25%
-Black market
--Prices still lower for stolen goods, however
--Prices for illegal goods is higher than galactic average (at least) guaranteed.
(Risk/reward needs to make sense)
--If caught with illegal goods, you are ordered to jettison the illegal cargo, if you comply you will only be fined, say, 500/t and the cargo will be destroyed. If you do not comply, you will gain a large bounty and be fired upon.
-Power contact
--Power play is one can of worms I'm not gunna open.
-Search and Rescue
--the category is a bit redundant., put this under authority contact and have the rewards be the usual money as well as a large reputation boost for the authority contact, as well as the controlling faction and the major faction (empire/federation) associated with the controlling faction, if present.
-Material trader
--Slightly reduce trade penalty in same category, keep cross trading penalty the same.
-Universal Cartographics
--Now under contacts. I'll leave this be and see how the new exploration feels before suggesting changes.
--However, First discovered, completely scanned systems with ADS need to have a massive credit bonus as well as rank bonus.
-Interstellar factors (If applicable)
--has system exclusive rep bar.
--start at -0% payout for local bounties and scales to -60% payout the farther the closest system with that faction in it is.
--rep can reduce this effect to 0%-30%
--because local bounties are available to get bonuses according to rep from authority contact, this still highly encourages players to use them first, or suffer a large opportunity cost.
-- ISF can clean bounties off of any ship or module, including ones in storage, so long as the notoriety is 0
Outposts will only have the option to go to Pilots federation lounge once in the hanger bay.
All of these changes could be implemented piece by piece and use current assets as the framework. These changes make the game more immersive, feel deeper and more alive, add a sense of scale, and make the player feel more impactful and recognized.
In aggregation, these will increase playtime, player satisfaction, and goodwill without increasing grind and using existing framework.
Whew, that was a doozie, I know. Moving on.
Missions are dull and monotonous
First off, we are keeping all existing missions. the ability to have an AI wingmate will allow for some variety in the angle of attack as well as making them feel fresh again.
We are going to change the mission board though.
-Upon entering the mission board, you will click one of several options
--Combat, mining, trading, etc.
-The mission board will then populate with only those missions so you can choose what you want to do.
We will also be adding new missions:
-Run an escort
--protect a trade vessel on its route
-High value target wants to explore
--You protect a VIPs ship while he sightsee's
---This allows combat focused ships to see some cool explorer stuff
-more to come
Along with these new missions, we will add some variation in the way they play out.
possibilities include:
-you are set up.
--the FSD of your protectee malfunctions and pulls you both out of slip space.
--the ship has major malfunctions and pirates attack, killing it. You have to kill a few pirates and then track down the pirate leader, assasination mission style, to recover the black box and clear your name. If you collect the escape pod as well, you receive full mission payout.
-Pirate/assassination interdiction
--go pew pew till they go boom boom
--scaling bonus (based on enemy rank) per kill
--Protectee must live, if he is blown up, recover his escape pod for 50% payout. These escape pods are mission essential and you cannot turn them in to the authority contact.
-Salvage stop (trader only)
--stop at a ship wreckage field and wait a while for the cargo ship to look for loot
-- you can also collect some loot
--Pirates may or may not attack
-Planetary survey (VIP only)
--the VIP wants to check out a peculiar area on a planet.
--could be skimmer site, could be guardian, w/e.
-- the VIP will land and after a short time send out an SRV that will go to a set objective.
--you have the option of providing overwatch from the air or joining him on the ground in srv.
--protect him from skimmers or something
--if he successfully scans the thing he wanted to, mission payout +20%
--To prevent annoyances, SRVs us telepresence, so if his srv dies, you only fail the optional bonus, hes still alive.
These and more can happen at random during your missions and will make them more varied and interesting. Along with your AI wing capability, this allows you to have some interactions with NPCs other than just blowing them up or ignoring them, giving ED some life and variance.
Thargoid mission can be added on a scripted basis and would help lead new players through the experience and make it more fun in the later missions.
Too much free choice makes a game feel empty and boring, it is not always the answer.
For the first mission, maybe escort some science vessels to a thargoid site and back
the next one, do the same thing but a thargoid attacks and you are ordered to jump away with the science vessel while a ship stays behind to die and distract it.
next, with a large wing, go and hunt the area where it happened and get lead through how to deal with it and kill it, with npc allies and AUDIO INSTRUCTIONS.
etc.
The Spacelegs.
This is simpler than it looks. With my proposed changes to the station interface, you can start with set animations, and then move from that slowly to real spacelegs.
A few notes though
-only able to (eventually) walk around on the tarmac, lounge, or ship while it is docked.
Underused/not viable weapons
I'm looking at you, missiles and cannons. I realise some of these changes might not be right on the money with their values, and those can be fiddled with. Also, the game has been steadily pushed towards a mostly PvE experience, so this will not hurt anyone most likely. I'm fine with weapons being more suited to a certain niche, but they should all be Pve Viable, as that is what the vast majority of people play this game
-Cannons
--Standard 1100m/s shot speed across all fixed classes
---950m/s for gimballed and turreted
-- standard clip of 8, ammo maximum 250
--Cannons are higher risk without higher reward compared to multicannons. Better play should be rewarded with a higher skill ceiling and with a lower skill floor, therefore,
--+20% damage at all ranks.
--The goal is to have cannons outperform and outlast multicannons by around 5-10% if all shots connect.
-Missiles
Missiles should be really, really cool, and they're only use is destroying hardpoints once shields are down, however, once the enemy's shields are down, the battle it pretty much over anyways. This is the main reason no one uses them.
They need to be a viable option for a secondary weapon, or as an only weapon for traders who get interdicted, to just blow their load and pray.
-x2 rate of fire for class 2 slot
-x4 rate of fire for class 3 slot
--This just makes sense when you look at the actual models of the things.
-increase ammo capacity by 50% at all ranks
-Add a few engineering options:
--Frag munitions (G5 maxed)
---increase damage 250% (only 150% for seekers)
---very little damage to modules
---damage type changed 50%K 25%T 25%E
--- -50% ammo capacity
--- + 20% distributor draw
--Thermite charge (G5 maxed)
---DMG 200% (100% for seeker)
---no damage to modules
---Damage type changed 75%thermal 25% absolute
---+20% velocity
--- -50% ammo capacity
--- +20% distributor draw
--- +30% thermal load
Maybe some more as well. Missiles are cool, lets make them more useful.
Torpedos
These are supposed to be bunker busting semi-nuclear boom buddies. They have the best experimental effect in the game but that is, unfortunately, the only thing they are good for. They really need to go BOOM, especially for their absurd price.
-DMG increase from 180 (120+60(guaranteed breach dmg) --> 300 (120+180 guaranteed breach dmg)
Alternatively, and possibly more fun,
-class 1 has 2 ammo
-class 2 has 4 ammo
-class 3 has 8 ammo
--Total cost to restock stays the same. (basically half price per torpedo)
Torpedos need to be more effective on big ships than small ships.
-velocity from 250 -> 300
Smaller ships, as well as fast ships will still just be able to boost away, while slow ships like condas, vettes, type 10s, and other things will have a bad day, but they will not feel so damn anemic.
Fun or Money, pick one
This has been an issue for a long time. Most of this has been fixed with the above changes, giving the player a more focused board on what they want to do, and making the missions more fun and variable with the possibility of an AI wingmate.
there does need to be some additional fixes though.
-If it is combat related, payouts increase by 50%
--risk/reward, simple as that.
-tone down the massacre missions
--no one needs to pick from 12 unstackable missions that take a while to complete, from each faction.
Wings feel clunky.
They have always felt kind of bad to me, not a very cohesive experience that feels more like just playing in the same instance with a friend.
-Person A creates wing, and is now the wing leader.
--In slipspace, within a certain area of influence around the wing leaders ship, the wingmates FSDs are slaved to the leaders
--This auto forces the same speed and trajectory as the wing leader, as well as dropping them out, wing leader first, then 5-10 seconds after, the wingmates automatically
--a wingmate can escape this area of influence by disabling the feature via right console, emergency dropping, or continuing to force their ship in a different trajectory.
This will promote a more cohesive experience that will feel more like a wing, and will look like how the NPCs do it.
In normal space, the same thing is true, but only for ships who have stowed their hardpoints.
-this is auto disengaged whenever the leader or anyone requests docking.
Miscellaneous
Add more ranks, just for the hell of it. They are only for players and have no in game effects like the earlier ranks do. Only for bragging rights. its easy, just
ELITE 1,2,3,4, etc.
Closing
Alright guys, if you've made it this far, you're really a trooper. Thanks for sticking with me. I wrote this because I care a lot about elite and really want it to succeed, and believe I have addressed within the core problems and ways to fix them that can be implemented gradually, piece by piece, while reusing as many assets as possible.
I want ED to continue to move forward and above all, gain some depth and life!
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this and any suggestions you may want to change or add.
I think FDEV is trying to make the game better but are a bit to cautious with the updates. I don't blame them, the community is so jaded that every changes seems to upset people, even if its for the better. To some degree, they just have to push forward and stop being afraid, but it is by no means a simple task.
Cut em some slack.
To FDEV, you really need to start being more transparent with us. it would go a long way to dissolve a lot of salt and perhaps bring back some of the more jaded players from the brink. Communication really is key. For a role model look at Warframe's devs, Digital Extremes. They communicate and listen to their players, and they play straight with them.
If they can't do something they say that.
if they are issues, they are known.
They tell us when they are trying to squash a really evasive and nasty bug and are having a hard time. They play their own game quite a lot and try to engage with community members, especially the loud ones.
I know you guys could be like that if you really tried.
Thanks for making my favorite space sim (unfortunately I can't call it a game yet), and I can't wait to see what you're going to do with it.
P.S. the best way to increase game time, profit, and new players will be to make the game more FUN, not increase grind.
