This, ladies and gentlemen, is bounty hunting. We can only hope in-game tools develop this further.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czqGrxujscg
watching Isinona's videos are exactly why I'm playing Elite now. It was awesome to see the flight mechanics in action, let alone his "story." It doesn't matter that it's "player hunting a player." What matters is THIS is actual bounty hunting. Not hunting lemmings in a slaughter-fest in a RES. I hate going into RES because there's zero immersion or reason for it, this includes NAV beacons as well. I only fight in CZs because at least there, it makes sense, it's a battlefield in a war.
This is what you could do in Elite 84: Get a mission to track down and destroy a ship. You're told where it was last seen. You go there and dock at the station. Through a cludge, the planet information screen in the station was replaced with a bit of local gossip. These bits of gossip revealed the next location you should check. Eventually you got close enough to encounter it in space and kill it. That mission, in 84, was more bounty hunting than any of the missions in E:D.
Today, you could do a lot better with the mechanics already available. You could check the BB to see if he was last sighted. NPCs in space could squawk gossip about how "he just barely escaped the dread pirate X" or "did you hear about that guy in Sector blah?". Signal sources may contain clues in wreckage. And finally, you can chase your target through space in a series of jumps requiring a wake scanner. So much untapped potential. That's without adding walking into a seedy bar in FP and asking some questions.
FD can do better.
exactly.
There's still kill pirate missions aren't there, where you have to go to a nearby system and kill a number of pirates?
but that's a far cry and very shallow version of what actually should be going on. It's not the "pew pew" of bounty hunting. It's the Boba Fett attached to the back of the Star Destoryer, following the trash and the Milennium Falcon to Bespin that I think we're all after. Or at least some modicum thereof. Sad truth too, plenty of games before had that kind of content, well before "internet access required" and even before 3D game engines were standard.
just off the top of my head, games that have you "track something" and find the whereabouts I can think of are:
Sid Meyer's Pirates (2005)
GUN (2005)
Red Dead Redemption (2010)
DC Universe Online (2011)
and those are just the games I can think of myself off the top of my head that I've personally played. At its simplest game mechanics, it's exactly what "Metatheurgist" said the original Elite had, back in 84...
and that's why I seriously find the game lacking.
it's too easy to break this game down cynically to "no pont" "no depth" "just a grind"
it's not necessarily there is a lack of depth really. Just more a lack of
motivation. I play the BGS, I know under what appears to be a very shallow puddle is a deep chasm ready to sink your truck lol. But the actual motivation to do so, to play in it, is just lacking.
[video=youtube;uwk-GB1r7B0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwk-GB1r7B0[/video]
I actually replied to this thread, because I didn't want to start my own. AND because, with 2.1/1.6 nearing release, I'm hoping FDEV has taken notice to everyone's statements.
and yeah, "in a nutshell"
"kill _ pirates" is honestly an insult to our intelligence by calling it "bounty hunting."
and I agree 100% with practically all the statements made in these fine videos by people braver than me to share themselves on the internet lol
[video=youtube;qjOsK8gZ1vc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjOsK8gZ1vc[/video]
[video=youtube;ymyEZHP5mrk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymyEZHP5mrk[/video]
and the interview in PCGamer or whichever one it was, has gotten me excited the most about 1.6
[video=youtube;9fH7pjI8h8M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fH7pjI8h8M[/video]
I hope in my deepest still warm and fuzzy place FDEV understands that 2.1/1.6 could in fact be a "make it or break it" moment for this game's tenure.
