How to play Elite Dangerous

Kayin

Kayin
I'm figuring out the secret to how to like this game ever so slowly. I am curious if others have arrived at the same conclusion I have.

The best way to play this game, from what I can tell, is to not care about anything.
- Don't care about money, because then you'll end up grinding for money.
- Don't care about your ship, because then you'll want to upgrade it which will cost money and you'll end up caring about money
- Don't care about other ships, because then you'll want them and you'll end up caring about money, and really frustrated that this game just isn't designed for you to hoard things.
- Don't care about ranking up, because then you'll end up grinding for rank.
- Don't care about engineers, because then you'll end up grinding for materials.
- Don't care about getting elite, because then you'll end up grinding for pilot rank.
- Don't care about the destination when you're exploring, because then you won't be exploring, you'll be grinding to a destination.
- Don't care about power play ranks because then you'll end up grinding merits.

I'm pretty sure this game is just designed for you to be an aimless, passionless, goal-less nut job flying around in space simply because you like to fly around in space. If you actually have a goal, you'll probably get frustrated quickly.

I mean, this game really is a power gamer's worse nightmare. For example, engineers had to be DESIGNED to be annoying, time consuming, and painful in every way possible. Think about it, there's no way that could've been an accident. They're likely just something to sip occasionally. Much like a fine whisky. So don't power game. Don't try to achieve everything. Don't really try to achieve anything actually.

It's also best to just not pay attention to ED Marketing. Passenger missions at this point are probably just going to be cargo transport missions that give new missions mid flight, much like how cargo transport missions now give you a new missions mid flight.

So it's best not to care what's coming either. Just enjoy the awesome flight model, which really is awesome. Especially those canyon runs.

My biggest success was to get an Oculus Rift, because that made flying in space great again.

What have you found is the best way to enjoy yourself in this game?
 

Mohrgan

Mohrgan
I find flying for am imaginary cause is what brings me the most fun. I get all chummy with a Faction and I work to their benefit. I oppose the Empire, I support the Fed's, and ignore I the Alliance. It works for me. I never get caught in a grind, because any of the major activities can be used for my purposes. And, in my head I can imagine the satisfaction that I would get if it were somehow real life. In a word: Escapism.
 

Cynaqq

Cynaqq
It's pretty easy actually. No need to write sarcastic forum posts to illustrate how this game was designed and is best played.

Let me show you.

Don't care about anything but your personality in the game. Set yourself a long term goal. Think of ways to effectively and efficiently reach that goal. Break it up to manageable chunks. Choose the right tools for the immediate chunk and use them to take you a step closer to your end goal.

But it's not so interesting and emotion inducing if you say it the way I did, is it?
 

CMDR Redcrest

C
What I have enjoyed is being encouraged (thanks to Engineers) to do stuff I would never normally do. Like mining. Like going to Anarchy systems and blowing up T-6,7,9 but not T-8's. Why are there no T-8's? Just noticed that numerical inconsistency after over a year of playing!
I was lucky that I had a stock of surface materials from before Engineers. The upgrades on offer at the time seemed pointless so I kept them on stock in the event of them being more useful in future. Hence I've never had to look for Yttrium!
I'm enjoying trying to create a lightweight Python with mega thrusters, I want my long range bounty hunting ship! 😀😚
 

Collider

Collider
Not caring about the engineers has helped me immensely to cope with Random quality upgrades that take ages to find and tune. :D
 

Cmdr Esteban

Cmdr Esteban
Cynaqq said:
It's pretty easy actually. No need to write sarcastic forum posts to illustrate how this game was designed and is best played.

Let me show you.

Don't care about anything but your personality in the game. Set yourself a long term goal. Think of ways to effectively and efficiently reach that goal. Break it up to manageable chunks. Choose the right tools for the immediate chunk and use them to take you a step closer to your end goal.

But it's not so interesting and emotion inducing if you say it the way I did, is it?
Click to expand...

Repped. Pretty much my thoughts.

It seems like the OP had to learn not to grind, from his experience of grinding. Fortunately I knew very early on not to even start grinding, but to enjoy a slow and leisurely progression toward my own goals.

Grinding to acquire a fleet of uber ships that you then have to maintain and manage is a bit like having a brood of children - you may think that is a goal implicitly imposed on you by other people's expectations, but it's a choice you make that will ultimately result in a lot of tiring work. You don't have to do it. You never did have to do it.

It's great to learn from your mistakes, but much better to learn from the mistakes of others.
 

Drachenklaue

Drachenklaue
Maybe it has to do with the resilience or patience of the player as well. For instance when I do bounty hunting or combat zone community events, I rarely feel like I'm grinding at all because of the combat. And you get millions of credits for it too!
 

Saxual

S
The recent update motivated me to learn how to fly fa off And use fixed weaponry. Not really something that should be combined but hey there it is.
 

Cynaqq

Cynaqq
Drachenklaue said:
Maybe it has to do with the resilience or patience of the player as well. For instance when I do bounty hunting or combat zone community events, I rarely feel like I'm grinding at all because of the combat. And you get millions of credits for it too!
Click to expand...

Up until 2.1, we were having threads where people were declaring CGs useless and a waste of time, despite there being CGs of every profession every other week.

This is either a culture or a corporate conspiracy which plays out exactly the way it does now time and time again. New major update comes, old timers rejoice. Some complaint meta is created immediately, which has a constant theme. It was 'a mile wide and an inch deep' in the first year. It got mixed in with 'but CQC and PP sucks wth!'. 2.0 brought in 'empty balls of rock and I hate driving the SRV'.

Now that there are lots of stuff to do in the game, 'mile wide and inch deep' doesn't hold water, it's 'it's impossibly hard to play' and 'it's a forced grind'.

These views also always get perpetuated by unsubstantial gaming website articles, steam reviews and e-famous youtube brats.

It's a very destructive culture. I wish they would find some other way to vent out their angst but here we are.
 
Last edited:

Collider

Collider
Cynaqq said:
It's a very destructive culture. I wish they would find some other way to vent out their angst but here we are.
Click to expand...

Perfectly understood.

Also, this sentence got me thinking about the times we say something nice and people and the devs take it all the other way around.

Missions system is awesome. Pls don't touch.

OK, I said it. (We're doomed!) :D
 

Jason S

J
Slow and steady and enjoy the ride.

It helps to have a persistent personality, a mind set that does not get daunted about the scale of a job to a goal. The goals are designed to take a long time and I am glad about that.
 

Agony_Aunt

Agony_Aunt
I have many goals. I just slowly work towards them. If i get bored of one goal, i'll switch to working on another goal for a while. Too many things to do, not enough time is my problem.
 

Ouberos

Ouberos
I set small goals depending on what I'm interested in.

Currently my goal is to perfect my Cobra 3 piracy technique. I can steal from T7's well enough but the T9 still outlasts me (cops turn up before he drops) so I need to work on my load out and thruster control to stay below him. It's harder than I thought in a small ship like the Cobra and is keeping me entertained.

Of course it will be s bit wasteful with only 32 cargo space but that's not the point!
 

Globusdiablo

Globusdiablo
Kayin said:
...My biggest success was to get an Oculus Rift, because that made flying in space great again.

What have you found is the best way to enjoy yourself in this game?
Click to expand...

The big conundrum. Finding purpose in a huge sandbox environment with no end game.

In the beginning I just wanted cash for those big ships with big guns. That took a bit of "grinding". Loved it, as "the grinding" was my means to an end/purpose.
When I achieved that, I needed new purpose.
Now, I randomly support my minor faction of choice. But generally I just putter around the galaxy in either my Python or my FAS as a space bum, waiting to see what the universe might throw at me. And I love that too. :)

And by the way, I can't wait to get my hands on my preferred HMD (Vive) either. Knowing what VR does to E: D has "ruined" the standard monitored game for me. I can't wait! :)

Fly safe
 
Last edited:

smiths121

S
Hello Cmdr Kayin,

I would use the qualification of "do not obsess , and exclusively use one game mechanic to further ....." whatever the object is rather than "do not care about". Taking your first proposition from the list.

Don't care about money, because then you'll end up grinding for money.

I would go with:
Do not obsess about money, exclusively trading between A and B and very rarely C- because you will end up grinding for money and probably go stark raving mad, take your shelds off the type-9 and end up posting rant posts about too much interdiction after patch Z.

Try Cynaqq's advise and set some long term goals and complete them through short term objectives.e it with something else to reach an objective. Its roughly what I do and I have had a ball, diverse things such as expanding a Fed Corporation on the frontier for 9 months with a handful of other players, picking and losing a fight with Contrail in Anlave, Lough community goal.

I would advise understanding the BGS well enough that you can etermine how to use the mechanics you enjoy to set short term objectives to meet your longer term goals by the way.

Oh and lay off the sarcasm juice as well!

Simon
 

Kaocraft

Kaocraft
Cynaqq said:
Now that there are lots of stuff to do in the game, 'mile wide and inch deep' doesn't hold water, it's 'it's impossibly hard to play' and 'it's a forced grind'.
Click to expand...

Its still a mile wide and an inch deep. Having "lots of stuff to do" is breadth, not depth. The depth of a game has to do with the level of interactivity between the game world and the player. Combat, outfitting, and flight mechanics in Elite are deep, because there is complexity, meaningful consequence, and nuance to both your moment to moment decision making and your overall strategic approach. Mining, exploration, trading, and most other activities are simplistic and shallow.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom