Is Elite: Dangerous too difficult?
- Thread starter Clarion-Z
- Start date
Do you have a link for the announcement about that from FD?
Not saying your wrong just asking for official confirmation.
As a relativley new commander I would say the game is equally tough and easy at the same time. I find mining easy to make credits. Exploration is not bad but I get a little bored out there. Combat I find the most challenging but I still go out and give it a try PVE only. The mission grind helps break things up now and then. So far though I have enjoyed it though and made enough for a partially engineered DBX an unengineered Krait MK ii and a DC mining Aspx (as well as a couple of other ships in between).
There is alot of confusion here from people saying its difficult.
Elite Dangerous is by no means whatsoever Difficult, time consuming yes, and the more time you spend vegetated mining LTD on borann or sat in CZ with heal beams on your team mate and turrets grinding combat rank for you the more "progress" you make in the game via rank or credits.
if rank and credits were earn't by skill the wealth / rank tables would be completely different
Elite Dangerous is by no means whatsoever Difficult, time consuming yes, and the more time you spend vegetated mining LTD on borann or sat in CZ with heal beams on your team mate and turrets grinding combat rank for you the more "progress" you make in the game via rank or credits.
if rank and credits were earn't by skill the wealth / rank tables would be completely different
Like all three of its predecessors, and many games inspired by the Elite series as well, Elite Dangerous has an inverted learning curve compared with a traditional game:
- start out, never having played before, getting your ship to dock is a challenge (or was, before the ADC was fitted by default), even knowing what you should be doing at all is tricky.
- very early game, unlike most other games there's no real difficulty scaling (there is a little bit) or barrier to going somewhere out of your league so you can bite off a lot more than you can chew just through not realising the danger.
- slightly later, reasonable difficulty and challenge as you start to build up your ships, learn how to fly them, get a better understanding of game mechanics.
- very early start of "end game", unlike most other games there's no real difficulty scaling (there is a little bit) or barrier to going somewhere under your league, so once you've got a high-end ship together (which can be very quick if you've read walkthroughs) the game is pretty straightforward from then on. There's no requirement to go to the high-end areas until you've got a ship more than capable of taking them on.
- and it doesn't really change after that
(It's better in this respect than FE2/FFE was, where the curve was utterly broken, and probably comparable to the original Elite in shape but with both more to learn and more "easy strategies" at the end)
Any look at distributions of activity, capability or outcome (CGs, squadron leaderboards, Inara cash distribution, EDSM stats, whatever) shows that the majority of players are beginners and will be climbing the steep part of the learning curve still. The majority of vocal players, however, are unsurprisingly those who have played the game a lot, and are therefore in the shallows at the end of the learning curve.
So it's both too easy and too difficult, and that's probably intrinsic to it being "a bit like Elite". Frontier have rightly been trying to improve the early-game experience: there's less they can do for the late-game experience because no-one has any obligation to go fight Hydras solo in a Freewinder, and increases in the ambient difficulty level would hit beginners much harder than veterans, so would be counterproductive.
- start out, never having played before, getting your ship to dock is a challenge (or was, before the ADC was fitted by default), even knowing what you should be doing at all is tricky.
- very early game, unlike most other games there's no real difficulty scaling (there is a little bit) or barrier to going somewhere out of your league so you can bite off a lot more than you can chew just through not realising the danger.
- slightly later, reasonable difficulty and challenge as you start to build up your ships, learn how to fly them, get a better understanding of game mechanics.
- very early start of "end game", unlike most other games there's no real difficulty scaling (there is a little bit) or barrier to going somewhere under your league, so once you've got a high-end ship together (which can be very quick if you've read walkthroughs) the game is pretty straightforward from then on. There's no requirement to go to the high-end areas until you've got a ship more than capable of taking them on.
- and it doesn't really change after that
(It's better in this respect than FE2/FFE was, where the curve was utterly broken, and probably comparable to the original Elite in shape but with both more to learn and more "easy strategies" at the end)
Any look at distributions of activity, capability or outcome (CGs, squadron leaderboards, Inara cash distribution, EDSM stats, whatever) shows that the majority of players are beginners and will be climbing the steep part of the learning curve still. The majority of vocal players, however, are unsurprisingly those who have played the game a lot, and are therefore in the shallows at the end of the learning curve.
So it's both too easy and too difficult, and that's probably intrinsic to it being "a bit like Elite". Frontier have rightly been trying to improve the early-game experience: there's less they can do for the late-game experience because no-one has any obligation to go fight Hydras solo in a Freewinder, and increases in the ambient difficulty level would hit beginners much harder than veterans, so would be counterproductive.
NO, NOT AT ALL
Please no no, dont try and make it any easier, it's already had every challenge removed due to complaints.
Compared to the original game, this is like a kids game.
NPCs chased you, they were difficult. When you hit high ranks in ED we are attacked by one 1 NPC this should be multiple instead.
The drop out distance from stations was once 17 to 20km out, meaning you had a danger zone and a rush to get to the safe no fire zone of the station. Complaints made fdev lower this to 8km and in some cases on planets is as low as 5km from station.
Block hole once damaged ships, that now changed.
Nothing damages you when out in black, no module damages.
This space has to be the safest easiest game made, nothing you do other than fly to close to a star is dangerous.
Please make it more challenging and realistic, dont ask it to be made even more easier.
Please no no, dont try and make it any easier, it's already had every challenge removed due to complaints.
Compared to the original game, this is like a kids game.
NPCs chased you, they were difficult. When you hit high ranks in ED we are attacked by one 1 NPC this should be multiple instead.
The drop out distance from stations was once 17 to 20km out, meaning you had a danger zone and a rush to get to the safe no fire zone of the station. Complaints made fdev lower this to 8km and in some cases on planets is as low as 5km from station.
Block hole once damaged ships, that now changed.
Nothing damages you when out in black, no module damages.
This space has to be the safest easiest game made, nothing you do other than fly to close to a star is dangerous.
Please make it more challenging and realistic, dont ask it to be made even more easier.
Deleted member 182079
D
It's not difficult. From a complete noob's perspective, it does have a steep enough learning curve though, somewhat flattened by the introduction of the Codex.
When it comes to game progression, people often seem to mistake difficulty with tediousness though. And even there the game is horribly unbalanced - just look at how long/quick it takes for combat vs trade/exploration elite rank. Neither of which is difficult though, it just takes varying degrees of repeatedly doing things in the game.
PvP would be the one area where your skills are truly tested, in terms of knowledge about outfitting, adaptability (due to unexpected player behaviour as opposed to scripted AI) and flying skills.
The rest in Elite is just going through the motions once you know what you're doing.
I still play retro games now and then, some of which I may even have completed back in the days, but struggle to get past the second level now (or back then). Those are difficult.
When it comes to game progression, people often seem to mistake difficulty with tediousness though. And even there the game is horribly unbalanced - just look at how long/quick it takes for combat vs trade/exploration elite rank. Neither of which is difficult though, it just takes varying degrees of repeatedly doing things in the game.
PvP would be the one area where your skills are truly tested, in terms of knowledge about outfitting, adaptability (due to unexpected player behaviour as opposed to scripted AI) and flying skills.
The rest in Elite is just going through the motions once you know what you're doing.
I still play retro games now and then, some of which I may even have completed back in the days, but struggle to get past the second level now (or back then). Those are difficult.
Retire Auto-Dock and Flight Assist NOW!
You have many things to learn, but none of them are particularly difficult (save from PVP, that is). It's just a steep learning curve with a plateau of difficulty at the end. Once you know how to do things, difficulty is non-existant. And that's because in most situations, you have the capability to decide if you fight or flee. It's been literally years since I lost a ship in game. It's just that easy.
The game is missing "something" in that regard. More surprises, things that make you stand on your toes more frequently, unexpected situations... I'm specifically thinking about a game like Escape From Tarkov now... maybe the most punishing game in recent years. It does not matter how many hours you've been playing, how incredibly good you are at it... it's gonna punish you the moment you make a mistake. And there are so many ways you can make a mistake... so many variables at any given moment... As soon as you enter a raid, you KNOW you are in danger. You KNOW you're going to die soon. Even if you don't, the feeling is there.
I miss that in Elite. Not that kind of punishment, but that kind of randomness and those many variables. Elite is very easy to master, you have plenty of time to make decisions, and the number of variables in any given task is so low that it's hard to make an incorrect decision.
Yes, it's a very different kind of game, slower paced, carve your way and all that... but Elite would be a much better game if the difficulty curve was ever-increasing and not flat.
The game is missing "something" in that regard. More surprises, things that make you stand on your toes more frequently, unexpected situations... I'm specifically thinking about a game like Escape From Tarkov now... maybe the most punishing game in recent years. It does not matter how many hours you've been playing, how incredibly good you are at it... it's gonna punish you the moment you make a mistake. And there are so many ways you can make a mistake... so many variables at any given moment... As soon as you enter a raid, you KNOW you are in danger. You KNOW you're going to die soon. Even if you don't, the feeling is there.
I miss that in Elite. Not that kind of punishment, but that kind of randomness and those many variables. Elite is very easy to master, you have plenty of time to make decisions, and the number of variables in any given task is so low that it's hard to make an incorrect decision.
Yes, it's a very different kind of game, slower paced, carve your way and all that... but Elite would be a much better game if the difficulty curve was ever-increasing and not flat.
It's not difficult by any measure... any monkey can grind a bunch of LTDs or haul hundreds of the same type of missions back and forth forever, or follow the road to riches. But if ED is a game, then these activities are the equivalent of writing "I am mining" a million times on the chalkboard.
There's plenty of actual "game" out there rather than hamster treadmill, and it pays peanuts.
Of course,i wait for someone to write "but there's more to the game than credits"... which is patently not true while FD develop new content priced to these treadmill activities.
There's plenty of actual "game" out there rather than hamster treadmill, and it pays peanuts.
Of course,i wait for someone to write "but there's more to the game than credits"... which is patently not true while FD develop new content priced to these treadmill activities.
If this game gets any easier than it already is, then I might as well play Space Invaders. In other words, NO, ED is not too difficult. People are just too lazy 
ps - I don't grind and may need another five years to get a FC if I want one, but I was born before the "I deserve everything NOW" generation, so this doesn't bother me.
ps - I don't grind and may need another five years to get a FC if I want one, but I was born before the "I deserve everything NOW" generation, so this doesn't bother me.
Aside from PvP which escalates in difficulty depending on who you are facing, ED is easy peasy lemon to the sqeezy easy. The old days were hard, today its like some crazy picnic.
Deleted member 182079
D
Hehe, I would love to see player numbers affected if the latter would be implemented! I tried FA Off for a bit, and while I can now stick to a specific point to a rotating station and dock/undock, it becomes pretty tiresome when just trying to get things done (playing on a pretty twitchy Xbox controller).
Might wipe my alt some day and try the Isinona approach though, it does appeal, albeit in small doses.
You'll have to pry SCA from my cold, dead fingers! Assuming only noobs use SCA is a very "noobish" assumption.
I don't know, some of those USS that contain wings of elite ships can be pretty tasty .. and it's probably a good thing you have to bumble into those, looking for it, rather than have them foisted upon upon you.
Difficulty in ED is a bit like this for me, it's slightly masked. Like it's, "easy, easy, easy .. rebuy!". A stupid mistake can do you in or something take you by surprise the first time, you learn to be wary of the next and I don't think that's an all bad thing myself.
I think there are AREAS where the game could be more dangerous .. black holes for eg. or the diff between anarchy and high security systems but on the whole I'm going to stand up for devs here and say the game is pretty on point, playable while allowing you plenty of chances to screw up, especially considering the vast range of player abilites it's having to cater for, all at the same time.
It's always funny to hear this, when in actual fact, it's the exact opposite.In other words, NO, ED is not too difficult. People are just too lazy
Let's face it, the biggest issue is the economy is trashed, and mining and whack-a-mole-income-bugfixing is the cause. The fastest income sources are also the least difficult. Mining is the path of least resistance, and least effort to FCs... i.e it's the lazy path.
Everyone else just wants a functioning economy.
Deleted member 182079
D
SCA is essential for USS hunting alright.
I like to use it for A>B>A trading also, but it would be good if it would tell you from the beginning whether a planet is in the way, or even better, circumvent it automatically. Needs a bit too much nannying still.
It's not difficult, it simply lacks of common sense in many aspects.So many threads needing to reduce the costs of something or make credits more easier to obtain.. or (seen couple) that materials/engineering stuff should be more easy.
Is the game really that hard?
And for those who are going to say "no, but it's just too much grinding": Stop that! Don't grind! You can play without grinding.. unless you actually enjoy it and enjoy complaining about it... then go ahead
He is really really really angry about the carrier upkeep, that is all. There is nothing known about Next Era, that is just spleen venting.
