Is Elite: Dangerous too difficult?

BDelacroix

BDelacroix
Oh my no.

I want to clarify. My job involves flying simulated aircraft. I've been doing that for many years now.
I also have been gaming for more years than that.

So my skill set makes it easier for me than for others.

I know people who do not have this skill set and they had a devil of a time learning the flying skills. They got over it, though. I just "make it look easy".
 

Greasetrap42

Greasetrap42
Navigare Necesse Est said:
Many people are just not willing to spend so much time with one game
Click to expand...

The OP's question was not about time. Or grinding. It was about difficulty.

If a player can get past the first 20 hours of gameplay then the game is likely not too difficult for them. They understand the basic game mechanics, they can fly a ship, they understand the controls & options, they know how to outfit a ship, and they can find info on the internet.

I strongly suspect 95% of the players that ED is too difficult for quit in under 20 hours of gameplay. This game will be too difficult for some people. And congrats to the remaining 5% that persevere and learn to play and enjoy the game.
 

Reggit

Reggit
"I Love Elite! Now - could FDev please change this....and this....also, this this and this......did i mention THIS!?"
".........eee!"

I see alot of Cmdrs complaining about everything...and it is making the game too easy.
BUT - (trying to keep the midground here!) alot of noobs do find it pretty hard - and progressing (even if it is a grind) can be a motivating factor to keep playing...hmmm...

Knowing what FDev are like - i doubt the core game will change much, but id love to see more 'dangerous' area's of the Galaxy. People have mentioned High vs Anarchy, but i think Thargoids are a good example too - more Thargoid 'type stuff' would be welcome. (which is to say, a challenge)
I think alot of people PvP purely because once you reach a certain point - its the only challenge they can get.

In a nutshell - id like to see 'new areas' in the Galaxy where death is all but guaranteed...unless you know what your doing.
 

Titus Balls

Titus Balls
I haven't played ED in ages and recently got myself a PS4 - I started a new commander and I went into it trying to avoid looking anything up.

First up - the new tutorial at the beginning is good - it gets you into the basics and you have a chance to make some money in the new starter area.

After that, things are OK - I think for most players there's enough to get started, and I was able to make a few Million easy and upgrade to a Cobra and a decent one.

After that the curve started getting deeper - I got my first invitation to Felicity Farseer - she wants me to get Meta-Alloys..... OK so where in-game do I get Meta-alloys. As a "casual" gamer I couldn't find that info anywhere. Sure there's info in the commodities page if the station is buying it, but at this point, I had to refresh myself and look online.

So I head out to Maia to pick one up. I dock at Obsidian Orbital and boom I'm given a Dr Palin mission. I attempt it, it wants Thargoid Resin..... OK, where the hell is that (again look online)..... Oh look it's damaging my ship, I need Corrosive cargo holds... where are those.... Not in Maia anymore. Cool, I grabbed some of this resin anyway, let's hand it in... Mission board has a (!) Icon but none of the factions accepts this mission anymore.

Oh cool another engineer..... she wants Soontil Relics... OK back to the internet...

I've played this game since the beta and even today I still think this game is too hard for anyone but a dedicated player.
 

cyberus

C
WR3ND said:
Progressions to your potential goal, maybe. Survival is easy though. Just speaking as a... No worries, bro. I've been playing games with twitch action raised on the NES, back when latency was a thing I had. Sorry if you never got past the first few levels of Battle Toads when you were a kid. It was nice.

Killing is easy. Living... what is in this game anyway? That is my challenger these days. So, I travel a more scenic route.
Click to expand...
Repped for mentioned Battle Toads as an example. Never finished that one no matter how manny attempts.
 

Navigare Necesse Est

Navigare Necesse Est
Greasetrap42 said:
The OP's question was not about time. Or grinding. It was about difficulty.

If a player can get past the first 20 hours of gameplay then the game is likely not too difficult for them. They understand the basic game mechanics, they can fly a ship, they understand the controls & options, they know how to outfit a ship, and they can find info on the internet.

I strongly suspect 95% of the players that ED is too difficult for quit in under 20 hours of gameplay. This game will be too difficult for some people. And congrats to the remaining 5% that persevere and learn to play and enjoy the game.
Click to expand...
It's not difficult - just complex.
 

Nutter

Nutter
Wayland Pentonville said:
Oh, where did you see the announcement about Next Era? I try to keep up-to-date but must have missed that!
Click to expand...
Here
Stephen Benedetti said:
​
DEBT AND DECOMMISSIONING
Being in Debt
  • If the owner is unable to keep up to date with the weekly running costs of their Fleet Carrier, then the Fleet Carrier will go into debt.
  • The debt owed will increase each week if the funds are not added or earned to cover the level of debt accrued.
  • When in the Fleet Carrier goes into debt, all optional services will be disabled and they cannot be re-enabled until the debt is paid (the Fleet Carrier will not operate fully, but it will help to lower the running cost).
  • The owner must pay off all of the debt in the Fleet Carrier bank to get out of debt, and once they do so they can then re-activate any Additional Services on that Fleet Carrier.
  • You can continue to accrue debt for a number of weeks but once it exceeds a set limit, you'll be given a week to resolve your finances or lose the carrier permanently.
  • If this happens, the Fleet Carrier will be shut down and the owner will be notified that the Fleet Carrier has been decommissioned and can no longer be recovered.

Decommissioning a Fleet Carrier
  • As Fleet Carriers have a high upkeep, some Commanders may find themselves wanting to relinquish the responsibilities of maintaining their vessel, and paying the crew.
  • If this situation ever occurs, the owner can decommission their Fleet Carrier.
  • By choosing to decommission the Fleet Carrier, it will go into a pending decommissioned status, and the owner will have a several days until the Fleet Carrier becomes decommissioned.
  • Whilst in this state the Fleet Carrier is pending decommissioned,it is still possible to do a number of functions:
    • Dock at the Fleet Carrier.
    • Sell off services (if in a star system with the Carrier Management service at one of the starports).
    • Retrieve stored cargo.
    • Put commodities up for sale.
  • However, the following will not be possible:
    • Purchase new services.
    • Hire crew.
    • You can continue to accrue debt for a number of weeks but once it exceeds a set limit, you'll be given a week to resolve your finances or lose the carrier permanently.
  • The owner of the Fleet Carrier can cancel the Carrier from pending decommission, if they change their mind.
Decommissioned Fleet Carrier
  • Any Commanders who have stored modules on the Fleet Carrier will be notified when the Fleet Carrier is Decommissioned.
    • Commanders can still transfer their modules and ships elsewhere during this period.
    • If the modules are not transferred, then they will be moved the nearest starport with the Carrier Construction service, and will require a standard charge for transferring those modules to a new location.
  • If your Fleet Carrier is decommissioned it will be taken over by a recovery crew and the owner will be reimbursed for a portion of the Carrier's current value.
    • This value is determined by the contents of the Carrier at the moment it was decommissioned as well as its service time and how far away it is from the nearest Construction Dock.
Click to expand...
 

BigBANGtheory [VR]

BigBANGtheory [VR]
difficulty and repetition are not the same thing, travelling 10,000Ly is barely any more difficult than travelling 100Ly but its just dull af

Solo killing a Thargoid is difficult under certain circumstances
 

CMDR Harada

CMDR Harada
I like Elite BECAUSE it's hard.. been playing since initial release and I still learn things. I watch some CMDRs and I'm blown away by what they can do. Fighting, managing PIPs, heat and shields, and all while in FA off mode... Incredible feats of piloting.

This is a game that rewards dedication. You can 'fly' in 10 minutes. Or you can spend a long time learning to FLY.. Same goes for mining, or exploring.. I'll agree that some parts are almost pure grind, but they are still teaching you something. It's the learning part I enjoy.
 

who?

who?
The hardest part of this game is figuring out / setting up / remembering all the key-bindings!

It now has an exceptionally steep initial learning curve. It's easier for those of us who started playing early on, since we already had the basic controls learned, and just needed to learn the others incrementally (SRV controls, FSS controls, Camera Suite controls etc.) New players now are presented with pages of controls to bind and remember without knowing what they do.

But after that it's a fairly safe, easy experience. Can't crash into planets or stars in supercruise. Black holes are just an idle curiosity. The game is very forgiving of heavy impacts on planets. Can kill NPCs and move to the next system with few or no consequences. Can generally escape interdictions pretty easily. If you've engineered your thrusters, you can probably escape combat (NPCs) easily too.
 

Greasetrap42

Greasetrap42
Navigare Necesse Est said:
It's not difficult - just complex.
Click to expand...

If someone finds something too complex they are having difficulties. Complex for brain = difficult.

Obviously the first 20 hours of this game is going to be too difficult for some players, but not others.

Some players will find the game crazy easy on day 1. Others won't. Players that have a buddy showing them around likely have a big advantage.

Pretty sure I am stating the obvious.
 

Navigare Necesse Est

Navigare Necesse Est
Greasetrap42 said:
If someone finds something too complex they are having difficulties. Complex for brain = difficult.

Obviously the first 20 hours of this game is going to be too difficult for some players, but not others.

Some players will find the game crazy easy on day 1. Others won't. Players that have a buddy showing them around likely have a big advantage.

Pretty sure I am stating the obvious.
Click to expand...

Complex isn't difficult. Just needs time to work into it. Time people maybe won't be willing to spend.
 

[VR] Zakk

[VR] Zakk
The following is my opinion only.

Is ED too hard? No.
Does the game make it unnecessarily difficult for new or casual players to enjoy it? Absolutely.

I never played Elite with the goal to progress through the various ranks as fast as possible. If you measure in-game success by how fast you can make it to your first Anaconda, then I doubt the game will make you feel at home for a long time.

I love Elite for the multitude of opportunities it offers. Trading, mission running, bounty hunting, mining, exploring, powerplaying, human combat, alien combat, pirating, SAR, manipulating the BGS, ship tuning, playing chauffeur, solving mysteries - the possibilities are endless. And for every job, there are suitable ships, from small to large.

I love to try them all, but for a new player, they can be overwhelming. I bet that many players have given up on Elite long before they got an idea of what the game has to offer.

A "virtual test flight" feature might help here. Give players the option to fly A-rated ships on pre-designed guided missions, to test the capabilities of these vessels and explore the opportunities the game offers. Make these missions virtual, like flight school, i.e. they don't count towards your progress.

In the in-game lore, this could be implemented as a sales feature for the different spaceship manufacturers. "Learn why most explorers prefer the AspX over any other vessel in Lakon's virtual exploration showroom. Now available at your local Lakon dealership." This would lead to a mission that allows you to jump into a system stuffed with an earth-like, a glowing gas giant and a ringed landable planet. Scan all planets, land on the landable one, feel how the ship handles.

This should be fairly easy to implement as you need no new assets for that. All you need is a mission designer to create a few missions that deliver a "wow" factor. Plus, you can offer a standard "undock/jump/dock" test flight for every vessel, maybe spiced up with an optional interdiction, to test how a ship handles in combat.

That would allow players to get a "look and feel" for various ships and mission types, while learning how to play the game (make all these test flights guided!). And all that without interfering with the game itself, as the missions are only virtual.

Now, cue the alpha hardcore players who will jump in and yell "No way!!! I had to earn my Anaconda, and if noobz now get it for free, I will quit!!!1!"

But if FDev will keep listening mostly to this rather small player group, I am afraid ED will remain a niche product forever. You may argue that this isn't necessarily a bad thing. But the game could be so much more, and without any cuts into the current experience of established players.
 

Faded Glory

Faded Glory
Sometimes it's challenging to figure out how to do a particular activity, but once you have figured it out it's generally very easy, and sadly very repetitive.

That said, it's always possible to add your own challenge and fun. For example, if it's too easy destroying pirates or pirate lords in one particular ship, there's always the option to try out the same activity is a less powerful ship and change tactics accordingly.
 

wAsh67

W
I arrived late to the party - Jan 2019, at the age of 53

I don't find it too difficult at all.

Admittedly there are aspects that take a lot of practice to achieve a degree of competence at, but that's life.

You get out what you put in.
 
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