yeah so don't fly those when you are trying to make money
It's like you are fundamentally incorrect that the game is about some sort of level-up style progression to the largest ships or something crazy like that.
News Implementation of a dedicated mission server
yeah so don't fly those when you are trying to make money
It's like you are fundamentally incorrect that the game is about some sort of level-up style progression to the largest ships or something crazy like that.
I'm not actually suggesting that the game is supposed to be one of purely linear progression from small to large ship. It would be a little odd if I did since despite the fact I own two Anacondas (an explorer and a mining ship), a Corvette, a Cutter and a T-9, I've spent more time flying Pythons than all of those put together and am actually parked at an outpost in one right now.
We're all free to play the game in whatever way we want, including flying nothing larger than a Hauler if if that's what floats your boat.
That doesn't change the fact that the simple existence of large ships would usually be deemed sufficient reason for a game to include content specifically aimed at allowing a player to maximise revenue when choosing to use them. Progression in that way may not be required but in a game which is about 'blazing your own trail' it should certainly exist as a valid gameplay choice for players whose trail happens to lead along that path.
There seems to be a peculiar kind of inverse snobbery amongst some of the player base here where players who do want to follow a progression path are looked down on by players who are happy with a non-linear gameplay route and it completely misses the point that those things do not have to be a binary choice in terms of content provision to begin with. In an open world game, they should actually coexist in perfect harmony without any need whatsoever to start applying value judgements to each other's gameplay or telling someone that they're not playing the game correctly.
Just taking one fairly obvious example, we can buy a passenger ship which has eleven internals the smallest of which is a class 3, with two class six and two class five slots locked for passenger cabins or cargo racks only and is one of only three ships that can equip luxury cabins. Is it really an unreasonable expectation that it might be possible to then fill it with luxury passenger missions? 'lol noob, fly a Dolphin instead' isn't actually an answer to that issue, at least not one which I think any sensible game designer would acknowledge.
Edit: In fact I'll just add for the avoidance of any doubt whatsoever that I'm 47, played the original Elite on a 48k Spectrum and FE2 on my Amiga. I probably racked up more hours in FE2 than 90% of the people who post on this forum. Believe me, one thing I do not need is a lecture on what the game is supposed to be.
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It is already entirely possible to maximize revenue in the endgame ships, but I disagree entirely that it should be the same simple point-and-click process as a newbie flying their first missions in a Sidewinder. Do you remember when video games got harder when you got to the later levels?
My problem is that the players who are grinding and board flipping also whine incessantly on the forums about how much of a grind everything is and how incompetent FDev is at DESIGN and LOGIC. These moronic whiners dance around like they are the kings of Elite and everything should be handed to them on gilt platters because THEY ARE A PAYING CUSTOMER!!! (btw, these are all arguments that I've seen on these forums and elsewhere) I'm the antithesis of that.
I certainly do. I remember when you bought a full price new release game accepting that depending on how good you were, you may simply never be able to complete it. I could give you a list from personal experience if I thought about it but off the top of my head, I never finished Team 17's Projext X in its original release format. I don't feel any shame about that because as wikipedia notes 'The game is composed of five levels. Many players never completed the second one (which had a very difficult ending), and most of the rest never went past level three'
Now that was a game.Granted there are some games out there that still provide a serious challenge but the fact that they're remarked on (I'm thinking of a game like Dark Souls as an example) does demonstrate just how far the mainstream has moved away from that. We're in the age of 'everybody gets a prize' and I'm generally as uncomfortable with that as most Gen X'ers.
You don't need to convince me that you've seen the things you mentioned above at all, I've seen enough of them myself to know you're right. I certainly don't expect the game to hand me stuff on a gilded platter but after just under 3,000 hours and as of two nights ago finally triple Elite, I also think I'm a bit past the gilded platter stage by now. Dues have definitely been paid.
Also, despite the impression you might have gained from my comments in this thread I have never been a regular board flipper. I'll admit that I have done it , primarily on occasions when the sheer frustration of board after board with literally nothing on it that I wanted to actually do just got too much but it's not the usual way I play the game by any stretch of the imagination. Something that will probably give you as good an idea as anything about how I play the game is that back when Robigo smuggling missions were a thing (and my largest ship was an Asp into which pretty much all my credits had been poured) I did them because I enjoyed the gameplay of a 400LY pursuit by several npcs but despite enjoying them, I deliberately limited the amount that I ultimately did because I knew that I would end up killing the game for myself if I just milked them for a few billion credits.
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Uhh ohh I agree with you for long time
Every now and again I find myself in agreement with Red and it bugs the hell out of me.
+1 and agree with the whole post, but want to comment on your edit. I'm 62, Elite on C64 was actually my very first computer game (I think it was in 1986) and since then I'm totally sold on this game - up to now. But I'm very reluctant to powder my arguments with my age or experience. That's usually not going all too well and I still remember when I was young and rebuked with those very same 'arguments'. I still know how stupid that feels. Let me teach you that form someone 15 years older... oh wait...
But other than that, I totally agree with your post.
Noted - I wasn't really trying to support my arguments with that, it was more just trying to show that I'm sufficiently engaged with the franchise (a word I hate applying to games to begin with) that I really do understand the ethos behind it and in particular that it's never been about linear progression as the 'right' or even only way to play. I can see how it could come across that way though. I'd actually assumed the guy I was replying to was a similar age to me - it was really more about saying 'we're not that different in outlook' than anything else.
I think over time a lot of players will at least buy large ships because we have to spend our credits on something, but none of the Elite games have ever been about reaching a point where you 'win' by doing that. Or more accurately, we all reach a point where we 'win' but it's only by achieving the goals that we set for ourselves to begin with. The game itself doesn't provide victory conditions for us. Which is a good thing because there are no shortage of games that do if that's what someone wants.
You must have been a full-on geek if you were gaming on a C64 in 1986
I mean I was 15, people expected kids to be getting into computers but there were a hell of a lot fewer adult gamers around in those days. Kudos to you for realising that growing up is vastly overrated.Don't worry, we'll have a chat about Brexit or something later mate and normality will return
I don't hate everyone who board flips apart from the specific and unequivocally negative effects that it has had other people. I don't care about other commander's ranks or success. I hate the argument (that seems to come from a lot of sock puppet accounts, fwiw) that tries to normalize and justify using an exploit. Just own up, cheater dudes.
I'm happy they remove the board flipping option. It was annoying doing this stuff. But it was more annoying having no missions or just one per system(mostly did 1 hop haulage missions) to do.
I'm quite surprised about the hate board flipping gets, it always appeared to me that it's just regular business. Don't know about the BGS(whats that) stuff but for hauling it gave me 4-6 missions to one destination instead of 6 missions for 6 destinations. Also did that when ranking up to baron (Wu guinagi, hip 7xxxx).
Also i'm looking forward to the USS changes, they are necessary when mission availability gets cut down so you can also do the USS related missions(a no-go for me right now).
Altough I hope they also rework the mission generation. It would also make the 10% increase not necessary.
I'm quite surprised about the hate board flipping gets, it always appeared to me that it's just regular business. Don't know about the BGS(whats that) stuff but for hauling it gave me 4-6 missions to one destination instead of 6 missions for 6 destinations. Also did that when ranking up to baron (Wu guinagi, hip 7xxxx).
Also i'm looking forward to the USS changes, they are necessary when mission availability gets cut down so you can also do the USS related missions(a no-go for me right now).
Altough I hope they also rework the mission generation. It would also make the 10% increase not necessary.
The missions are still rank locked, aren't they? I certainly see missions I"m not qualified to do...
But I'm being picky. I agree with the gist of your post. I'm reasonably new but regularly see 1million credit plus local transportation offers.
Now, what might be an idea is a bidding system; Professor Plum wants to go to the Library System which is 33Ly away. How much are you willing to do it for. NPC would necessarily have to bid against you...
Thanks guys, I suddenly feel young again, lol. ZX81 in 82, BBC-B a few years later and also dangerously close to the five oh. Played the first one to death, for at least a decade and it literally only had three missions. Didn't really get into Frontier and skipped F2 but also had other things going on. Waited a very long time for Dangerous, but the second childhood was worth the patience.
Saving up for VR so I can start my third...
Saving up for VR so I can start my third...
They are not. Only filter left is reputation. Cargo size went away with introducing depot.
On the missions no the rank lock went. Each mission still has a rank and warns you if they're above your current rank but you can accept them just fine.
The sad thing within the context of this thread is that as far as I know the whole reason they were unlocked was as a cheap (in resource terms) way of getting more missions on the board available for everybody.
There have been several increases in the number of available missions, including increasing the variety of templates, increasing the size etc in an attempt to ease the complaints before this action to eliminate board flipping. I think it may be that if that '2.8%' figure had been calculated at various previous points in the game's history we would see a downward trend as issues are addressed (or people wanting more get fed up & leave). Maybe this is being done now because the amount of dissatisfaction is now low enough that this final cause for complaint is being addressed.
I thought one of the motivations for increasing rank was to open up those more lucrative missions, particularly the Elite ranked Trade ones. I thought it was a shame they were opened up to all, but there is benefit in allowing players to jump straight to the more challenging templates if they want to too.
I don't use how-to guides or 3rd party apps, and I think one of the issues is the rate of progress expectation that comes from some of those how-to guides and 3rd party apps.
I'm optimistic that this change will encourage those that currently promote exploiting to switch over to a more refined 'how to spot a gold rush' approach to their 'helpful' cheat-sheets.
If you'd be listening to the feedback, this topic wouldn't have blown out of proportions already.
Missions are broken (massacre missions), payout is lousy (1m Cr for 10'000 units of mined water), payout isn't proportionate to risk (Wing assassination mission pays the same solo with increased risk). Just to name a few...
IIRC there were lots of people on the forum weeping that it wasn't fair that their not even Harmless yet commander was not allowed to get all those credits just because they weren't Elite yet. This was changed then people started complaining that the mission generated NPCs where to tough.
Well yes. It's possible for something to be too easy and for a change to make that thing too hard. And different people have different ideas of what's too easy & what's too hard for them based on their ability & their comfort level.
So no level will suit everyone. The Game Designer decides at what level they want the difficulty to be for that scenario to make it a challenge for their target audience.
Here's the first link a google search for Comfort Stretch Panic gave me:
https://www.crowe-associates.co.uk/coaching-and-mentoring-skills/comfort-stretch-panic-coaching-tool/
This will work if the new mission board offers 3* the number of missions with a 5 min refresh. Basically that's the mechanic of board flipping imo.
Board flipping is about 2 minute refresh.
The filter is for reward type. We're wanting a filter for data delivery, source and return, etc. What would also be supremely awesome would be a sort. That way we'd not have to scroll through the entire list multiple times(since it pops to top when you accept something) just to get missions to one place.
Yes! .. so much this.
I don't know if these threads ever get looked at by FDev but the UI for missions could really do with some basic work like that.
As for refreshing. Just make a 'Refresh' button, and people can click on that to reload when they want. It can be rate-limited so it's not spammy but that doesn't seem beyond the realms of possibility to me.