Lets try this again, I realize that my earlier post was a bit long so I edited it to get to the central parts:
Horizon is undergoing a slow development and there is little tangible coming out ferequently with the game having a limited scope seen from some gameplay and roleplay perspectives. What I would suggest to change this is to introduce more context through personal stories and missions, which, even though it doesn’t introduce entirely new game mechanics, provides a more complex interaction from the player with different factions, missions, stations and so forth. It would also provide a more nuanced rewards system not only centered around the idea of currency and ships but narrative rewards. A good deal of what Elite dangerous is about is the idea of exploration both of natural phenomena but also human, new factions and so forth. Therefore, I would suggest implementing more context to give these some actual depth and character, not just being an entity manifested as a faction but a faction made up of people.
let me be clear I’m not suggesting voice acting, I’m only suggesting having more text to give a context, a frame in which you can place the actions that your doing, so as to give them more nuance and provide another rewards system which might be more complex than the one of currency.
How to get this to work:
The systems that would allow this to be implemented are mostly in the game already but I have no illusions as to the amount of text that needs to be written to allow for variety and nuance. I realize that the development team is busy with other things and is too small to do too many things at once. However, my suggestion is to use the community, there are so many knowledgeable and passionate people invested in the game already, use these people that know the lore, know the science to speed up the process. You, the developers, are already using the community for feedback, take it a step further, have them send in stories that you can use, lore for systems, science for planets and suns etc. I realize that you can’t sift through it all perhaps, but have them in the forums, only look at the most up voted once, have competitions like that the five most up voted story arch’s a week will be included as missions, set strict parameters so that they are easily included in the game.
Not only will this give more nuance to the game, by having a narrative reward system you give the game some humanity and a richer lore. Furthermore, involving the community, which only wants this game to be published, will minimize the risk of the player base declining as the development cycle isn’t too fast. It will also perhaps bring in new and old players, that have dropped the game, that can get involved and speed up the process of Elite dangerous becoming the game that you want but also we want.
Horizon is undergoing a slow development and there is little tangible coming out ferequently with the game having a limited scope seen from some gameplay and roleplay perspectives. What I would suggest to change this is to introduce more context through personal stories and missions, which, even though it doesn’t introduce entirely new game mechanics, provides a more complex interaction from the player with different factions, missions, stations and so forth. It would also provide a more nuanced rewards system not only centered around the idea of currency and ships but narrative rewards. A good deal of what Elite dangerous is about is the idea of exploration both of natural phenomena but also human, new factions and so forth. Therefore, I would suggest implementing more context to give these some actual depth and character, not just being an entity manifested as a faction but a faction made up of people.
let me be clear I’m not suggesting voice acting, I’m only suggesting having more text to give a context, a frame in which you can place the actions that your doing, so as to give them more nuance and provide another rewards system which might be more complex than the one of currency.
How to get this to work:
The systems that would allow this to be implemented are mostly in the game already but I have no illusions as to the amount of text that needs to be written to allow for variety and nuance. I realize that the development team is busy with other things and is too small to do too many things at once. However, my suggestion is to use the community, there are so many knowledgeable and passionate people invested in the game already, use these people that know the lore, know the science to speed up the process. You, the developers, are already using the community for feedback, take it a step further, have them send in stories that you can use, lore for systems, science for planets and suns etc. I realize that you can’t sift through it all perhaps, but have them in the forums, only look at the most up voted once, have competitions like that the five most up voted story arch’s a week will be included as missions, set strict parameters so that they are easily included in the game.
Not only will this give more nuance to the game, by having a narrative reward system you give the game some humanity and a richer lore. Furthermore, involving the community, which only wants this game to be published, will minimize the risk of the player base declining as the development cycle isn’t too fast. It will also perhaps bring in new and old players, that have dropped the game, that can get involved and speed up the process of Elite dangerous becoming the game that you want but also we want.