I'm soooo bored now, short review of ED and suggestions

Ethanol on my circuits

E
I don't usually post forums like this but to see a game with this much potential go down the poop pipe is really frustrating.
I will keep my suggestions short for the sake of the reader.

Firstly what does Elite have going for it?


  • It's super sexy graphics and interstellar objects setup are really awe inspiring
  • The sounds are amazing and the music is good too
  • It's a sandbox (nothing beats a good sandbox)
  • NPCs change their interaction with you and others based on reputation and yours / others actions
  • It's a really good flight simulator (in space!)
  • Supercruise is a great way to get around
What is bad.. and how to improve it

MISSIONS, they suck. No worthwhile reward (although reputation boost is nice). Not go there kill one anaconda get reward, christ who thought of that?​


  • ​​EXPLORATION - Missions for exploration (on a different tab maybe). They send you out to seek out earth like planets, new rings to mine etc. Great rewards for them.
  • COMBAT - Make instanced zones (like the ones in eve online), lots of enemies, sometimes you might have to bring friends. Have timed events happen in them, triggers, mission objects, fun!
  • SMUGGLING - Maybe increase reward on these too. Have ways to help pirate factions growth.
  • TRADE - Increase the reward (like a lot). I actually quite like them as they tie in with improving what the local faction need at the moment to fight famine, war etc.
  • MINING - New missions that actually track what you mined, make you seek out a particular ore/mineral type and reward you handsomely.

TRADE is broken! We know this already. It's something i liked doing a lot in other games and spent days studying markets. In this it's really trashy no depth to it.


  • ​Improve how you manage the economies.
  • Detailed analytical data for each of the systems factions, on how well they are doing in each area of trade. What are they growing in? What products do they need?
  • Ways you can affect the local systems economies and show this in the data. Goods supply (It gives people incentive to get involved in the persistent growth aspects)
  • Stocks and shares in independent factions (based on local growth, maybe cap amount you can have). Could give people a reason to fight over growing groups.
  • Reduce cargo size on all ships? Maybe to limit the amount of money made in trade overall. More reward will be given if you seek out trade opportunities rather than doing A->B->A all your life. This would eliminate the need for tools like elitetradingtool and its variants.
  • Improved UI , showing all products (see prototype trade ui for elite dangerous) also look to other games like EvE they do trading better than anyone

MINING is really bad! Now I love mining, if I had it my way i'd be doing it half the time and the other half missions / interacting with people. Now I know the developer has said it's in its infancy, but I am sure they won't improve it for a long time. This is because mining has a small piece of the player base pie, but you can make it really great, there are lots of people who would actually enjoy it if it was more involved/rewarding. Just look at what Star Citizen are doing with their mining system. It looks amazing


  • Drones to help you collect ore, no more scooping unless maybe a really rare thing get's chipped off that you have to scoop.
  • Increase the % yields to big ass numbers to make it profitable.
  • Have some dynamic gameplay, chunks fall off , different parts of the asteroid have different value. Equipping more than one laser might actually help you mine faster.
  • The scope for mining is huge just look at other games and other threads here for suggestions.
  • Make the act of mining affect the local economy, what you sell to the stations will have a much bigger influence on economy growth. Only if it was mined material (track it with a 'mined' tag on the metal/ore in the cargo)

Tell me what you think! Personally I will probably work on getting my faction reps up then shelve this game and hope for the best for now
 

Rifter

Rifter
Totally agree with you on all point! I think it will come to be known as the game that never really was, in coming generations.I would love to see the player churn statistics... that is the number of people who logged in to play and how long it took them before they uninstalled it...But FD aren't interested in making the game fun... they are only interested in making money.... Sad but true!
 

Jaybong

Jaybong
On mining, are you really going to compare Elite's currently playable and most likely guaranteed to be updated mining system to a proof of concept?
 

Ethanol on my circuits

E
Jaybong said:
On mining, are you really going to compare Elite's currently playable and most likely guaranteed to be updated mining system to a proof of concept?
Click to expand...

If only 10% of this concept is implemented it would still be 100 times better than what we have here. So in this case yes I will be comparing it.

I respect peoples wish to defend the game they love but come on , don't you want better? Also we paid money for this too remember. Expansions will not be free
 

Doctor Axel

Doctor Axel
cherbert said:
Why do you need a mission to tell you to go and do that? Just go and do it. You will get paid.
Click to expand...

While I tend to agree, it would be pretty cool to get a little extra incentive to search for something specific - it would also be a nice boost to exploration rewards. More mission variety is never bad.

With that said - yeah, missions need more variety, mining needs some love, and trade could use a short review/balance pass. None of the above leaves me bored... quite the opposite. Maybe I'm easy to please. =)
 

Top Cat

T
Ethanol on my circuits said:
TRADE is broken! We know this already.
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No, it isnt and we dont.

Just so you know, the definition of broken is "not working or out of order".

Does it work? Can you buy things in one place, move them to another and sell them, sometimes at a profit, sometimes at a loss? Yes you can. So I dont agree that trading is broken.

It might not have the depth you want, but that isnt the same as being broken.
 

Rifter

Rifter
Whiterose said:
Shock horror! read it here first....business tries to make money.....Oh and your idea of fun, is not necessarily any one elses idea of fun. Each to their own.
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When a media project becomes solely about making money the quality of content is lessened.... Look at the music industry as an example.... I didn't buy the game so FD could get rich.... I bought the game so I could have some fun... apparently this was secondary on FD's to do list.
 

Top Cat

T
Rifter said:
When a media project becomes solely about making money the quality of content is lessened.... Look at the music industry as an example.... I didn't buy the game so FD could get rich.... I bought the game so I could have some fun... apparently this was secondary on FD's to do list.
Click to expand...

Exactly. FD have always said they are building the game they want to build. Whether you, as an individual, happen to like it or not is irrelevant to them.
 

BigBossLucas

BigBossLucas
+1 Rep on your approach, but you missed something, a Job for the Orca, there are no passengers, no fun, and any good mission or logic behind the 'passengers' liners as it is now.
 
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