I love Elite Dangerous. It's a great game with amazing flight mechanics, and best of all, it allows me to do what most of us will never be able to do in our lifetimes: Explore our galaxy.
However, before the Engineers update, Elite was often referred to as a "sandbox with very little sand". Why?
Bounty Hunting/Combat: NPCs were ridiculously . I love combat, but with the AI being so useless, it hardly felt fulfilling. Plus, what was the point? You went to an RES, killed ships to get credits, in order to be able to buy better ships/modules so you can kill ships faster, so you can get credits faster, so you can... you get the point. The AI being so bad, combat often got boring (excluding PVP, which I really don't care for). What was the point? Getting a bigger, badder and meaner ship? Once you had that ship, then what? A lot of Elite players are sitting on their Anacondas and Corvettes with billions of credits in their accounts and not much to do with them. Once you fit your ship with the "best loadout" available, that was it. Done.
It didn't matter what ship you flew. NPCs loved to just sit there in your crosshairs, so getting kills wasn't hard, at all. In fact, getting a bigger, badder ship progressively made combat more boring. I could literally sit in an FDL and blow anything and everything without even having to move much. I only moved when I had to find a new "camping spot" in which NPCs would once again jump into my crosshairs so I could kill them.
I mean, once you had a bigger, badder ship, everything else below it would melt instantly, and everything else above it would melt *almost* instantly. Vulture? Nevermind the Vulture is a ship with much more maneuverability than an FDL. The agile, fast ships were flown as if they had no thrusters at all. It was utterly pathetic.
It was easy to take on a wing of 3, 4 or even 5 ships, even if 1 or 2 of those ships were Anacondas. It just was like stealing candy from a child. They died, quickly. Yes, there were very very rare times in which I might have lost my shields, and maybe even some hull, but for the most part, it was just... easy.
No matter what you did, there was little or no sense of accomplishment, at all.
Smuggling/Pirating: Never did it, but once again, what was the purpose? Get credits so you can smuggle and pirate better. Woooo. Great.
Exploration: The only thing I love more than combat. It was good, and it hasn't changed much. In fact, often I thought "man, I wanna visit that nebula over there, but I just can't reach it". I spent a lot of my Elite career exploring. At least with exploration you get to see things a lot of people won't see in the bubble, and as an added bonus, you get to slap your name here and there when you are the first to discover something.
Missions: Let's not even go there. The only missions even worth something were the ones to get ranks so you can have access to certain ships. The rest? Not so much. "Oh look, this mission pays a whopping 100,000 credits. Wait, I have to do what? 200ly trip? Yeah... I could go to the RES next door, slap some NPCs silly and make 5 million in an hour... screw that."
I could go on and on, about how many aspects of Elite were pretty shallow.
Now, with Engineers update.
Bounty Hunting/Combat: I jumped into an RES with my FDL, and I kind of knew what to expect, so I was careful on what I should attack. I still wasn't ready, though... Not even close. I picked on a wing of two, a Vulture, and a Diamondback Explorer. Waaait, is this real? Are these two ships REALLY maneuvering and trying their best to stay out of my firing arc while peppering me with bullets? NO WAY. I killed the diamondback, but by then, my shields were gone so I had to tuck my tail between my legs and RUN.
Whoa, I just had to run from an encounter. Back to station, take a very hard look at my setup, what can I change?
I go back, and pick on a Python. Same ship class, similar maneuverability. This time, I prevailed, however, that Python took my shields off and I was close to running again. Killing that one NPC gave me a sense of satisfaction I had not gotten from killing countless NPCs before. One dead NPC. One exhilarated pilot. "I won" I thought "I won! Holy crap!"
The core hasn't changed much. You kill, to get credits, to get better ships, and better loadouts. But this time, "better ships" is a relative term. Smaller ships are more maneuverable, but you can't afford to make mistakes when fighting a bigger ship. Big ships are slower, but pack more power. It is important to look at your loadout, and learn, learn, and learn until you figure out exactly what will work for you. Getting the biggest, baddest ship is now a distant goal, once that is less important than before. Finding the ship that serves your playstyle, equipping it properly, and most of all LEARNING TO FLY IT is the real goal now.
Smuggling/Pirating: Same as above.
Exploration: Wow, it looks like I might be able to reach that far off system I couldn't before. Well, there's a goal, I'm going to work with the Engineers and improve my ASP until I can make that jump, then perhaps, I will get lost in the black for a few weeks.
Missions: They haven't changed much, but it might be my imagination, but missions seem to pay a lot more than they used to. Waait, so I can actually choose to do missions now and actually make a decent amount of cash? Wow.
In short: The Engineers is a great addition to the game. You can now approach the game in different ways. Do you like a ship? Keep it. Instead of shooting for the next ship, why not enhance it? Why not use the Engineers to make your beloved ship what you want it to be?
Do you like combat? My, are you in for a treat. When was the last time an NPC made you feel as if you were almost fighting a human being? I don't know about most of you here, but part of the thrill of combat is the risk of losing, the risk that if you aren't good enough you will die. A thrill that was non-existent before, but oh, it is so real now.
So many people complaining on here, that got used to easy mode. Personally, all I have to say is: THANK YOU FRONTIER.
Thank you for making the game enjoyable, and taking the boredom away. Because Elite, as it was, was pretty much boring and way too easy.
However, before the Engineers update, Elite was often referred to as a "sandbox with very little sand". Why?
Bounty Hunting/Combat: NPCs were ridiculously . I love combat, but with the AI being so useless, it hardly felt fulfilling. Plus, what was the point? You went to an RES, killed ships to get credits, in order to be able to buy better ships/modules so you can kill ships faster, so you can get credits faster, so you can... you get the point. The AI being so bad, combat often got boring (excluding PVP, which I really don't care for). What was the point? Getting a bigger, badder and meaner ship? Once you had that ship, then what? A lot of Elite players are sitting on their Anacondas and Corvettes with billions of credits in their accounts and not much to do with them. Once you fit your ship with the "best loadout" available, that was it. Done.
It didn't matter what ship you flew. NPCs loved to just sit there in your crosshairs, so getting kills wasn't hard, at all. In fact, getting a bigger, badder ship progressively made combat more boring. I could literally sit in an FDL and blow anything and everything without even having to move much. I only moved when I had to find a new "camping spot" in which NPCs would once again jump into my crosshairs so I could kill them.
I mean, once you had a bigger, badder ship, everything else below it would melt instantly, and everything else above it would melt *almost* instantly. Vulture? Nevermind the Vulture is a ship with much more maneuverability than an FDL. The agile, fast ships were flown as if they had no thrusters at all. It was utterly pathetic.
It was easy to take on a wing of 3, 4 or even 5 ships, even if 1 or 2 of those ships were Anacondas. It just was like stealing candy from a child. They died, quickly. Yes, there were very very rare times in which I might have lost my shields, and maybe even some hull, but for the most part, it was just... easy.
No matter what you did, there was little or no sense of accomplishment, at all.
Smuggling/Pirating: Never did it, but once again, what was the purpose? Get credits so you can smuggle and pirate better. Woooo. Great.
Exploration: The only thing I love more than combat. It was good, and it hasn't changed much. In fact, often I thought "man, I wanna visit that nebula over there, but I just can't reach it". I spent a lot of my Elite career exploring. At least with exploration you get to see things a lot of people won't see in the bubble, and as an added bonus, you get to slap your name here and there when you are the first to discover something.
Missions: Let's not even go there. The only missions even worth something were the ones to get ranks so you can have access to certain ships. The rest? Not so much. "Oh look, this mission pays a whopping 100,000 credits. Wait, I have to do what? 200ly trip? Yeah... I could go to the RES next door, slap some NPCs silly and make 5 million in an hour... screw that."
I could go on and on, about how many aspects of Elite were pretty shallow.
Now, with Engineers update.
Bounty Hunting/Combat: I jumped into an RES with my FDL, and I kind of knew what to expect, so I was careful on what I should attack. I still wasn't ready, though... Not even close. I picked on a wing of two, a Vulture, and a Diamondback Explorer. Waaait, is this real? Are these two ships REALLY maneuvering and trying their best to stay out of my firing arc while peppering me with bullets? NO WAY. I killed the diamondback, but by then, my shields were gone so I had to tuck my tail between my legs and RUN.
Whoa, I just had to run from an encounter. Back to station, take a very hard look at my setup, what can I change?
I go back, and pick on a Python. Same ship class, similar maneuverability. This time, I prevailed, however, that Python took my shields off and I was close to running again. Killing that one NPC gave me a sense of satisfaction I had not gotten from killing countless NPCs before. One dead NPC. One exhilarated pilot. "I won" I thought "I won! Holy crap!"
The core hasn't changed much. You kill, to get credits, to get better ships, and better loadouts. But this time, "better ships" is a relative term. Smaller ships are more maneuverable, but you can't afford to make mistakes when fighting a bigger ship. Big ships are slower, but pack more power. It is important to look at your loadout, and learn, learn, and learn until you figure out exactly what will work for you. Getting the biggest, baddest ship is now a distant goal, once that is less important than before. Finding the ship that serves your playstyle, equipping it properly, and most of all LEARNING TO FLY IT is the real goal now.
Smuggling/Pirating: Same as above.
Exploration: Wow, it looks like I might be able to reach that far off system I couldn't before. Well, there's a goal, I'm going to work with the Engineers and improve my ASP until I can make that jump, then perhaps, I will get lost in the black for a few weeks.
Missions: They haven't changed much, but it might be my imagination, but missions seem to pay a lot more than they used to. Waait, so I can actually choose to do missions now and actually make a decent amount of cash? Wow.
In short: The Engineers is a great addition to the game. You can now approach the game in different ways. Do you like a ship? Keep it. Instead of shooting for the next ship, why not enhance it? Why not use the Engineers to make your beloved ship what you want it to be?
Do you like combat? My, are you in for a treat. When was the last time an NPC made you feel as if you were almost fighting a human being? I don't know about most of you here, but part of the thrill of combat is the risk of losing, the risk that if you aren't good enough you will die. A thrill that was non-existent before, but oh, it is so real now.
So many people complaining on here, that got used to easy mode. Personally, all I have to say is: THANK YOU FRONTIER.
Thank you for making the game enjoyable, and taking the boredom away. Because Elite, as it was, was pretty much boring and way too easy.
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