Is Elite: Dangerous too difficult?

When I quit ED (which I do on a regular basis), I stick around for the Other Games section as well. But when I'm not interested in ED, I'm truly not interested in ED. Anyway, to each their own, but I when I like a game, I tend to dismiss the opinions of those who hate it, because it's obvious the game was not designed for them in the first place. Many of us do not want ED to become the game that the haters dream of.
Good thing people are different, then.
 
Glad you didn't! And I couldn't resist being sarky back :p
It's OK... If I was going to be totally objectionable (I couldn't use the word I'd prefer!) I'd have been as caustic as the forum rules permit... As I'm sure you would have too!
All of the topics that hit on gameplay / playstyles will be fun, but a little light humour helps 👍
 
When I quit ED (which I do on a regular basis), I stick around for the Other Games section as well. But when I'm not interested in ED, I'm truly not interested in ED. Anyway, to each their own, but I when I like a game, I tend to dismiss the opinions of those who hate it, because it's obvious the game was not designed for them in the first place. Many of us do not want ED to become the game that the haters dream of.

So there you have it.

But who are these haters and what do they dream of? Please do tell.

I would say that quitting ED on a regular basis may mean the game, in some way, maybe actually wasn't designed for you.

Anyways I hope you're comfy in your echo chamber and have plenty of cushions.
 
yeah would be nice to rescue some escape pod for the station, 2,3k credits each one, nice. oh, but ive spend 5k in fuel. No way.
lets try some npc pirating, oh nice, i can stole some ltd from mining npc and then sell to black market. oh no, wait, npc not longer carry valuable minerals, theres a ticket open from months but who care about that?
okok, lets try some conflict zone, no, they are grinding. some hazardous res..mh, grinding again. maybe exploration! oh, really grinding without action.
 
I thought it had a steep learning curve when i first started, but it's been dumbed down a lot to cater for a wider scope of gamer maybe. nowadays you have silly assist modules so you don't even need to learn to fly your own ship, and they throw credits at you which imo has taken any danger out of the game(lose your cutter just go mining for half hour np).
 
Absolutely not. Back when I started it could have been qualified as difficult, because of the steep learning curve.

But now, with the hundreds of videos that tell you how to reach the corvette in 2 hours, its laughable.

As for the rest, all you have to do is play in solo, and you enter basically cheat mode. And honestly I believe its a shame. Any game that exist its defined and built around one concept. Challenge. You take out the challenge, you take out the fun. One might argue that sandboxes don't follow this rule, and its partially true. A sandbox however relies on the player creating its own challenges.

Elite however, is NOT a sandbox game. Some players wish it was, but its not. And it will never be. It is however an MMO, but its a broken MMO, because the developers allowed to players to keep influencing the world they are in as if they where playing in the same leveled field in solo mode.
Except they are not, indeed they are exempt of any interaction, or any opposition to their actions via the solo mode. Therefore, the open mode becomes meaningless, except for those that absolutely want to interact with others. But ultimately any effort to influence in the BGS will be nullified by a much larger group that is indeed invincible, and invisible. Ergo, cheat mode.
 
Many of us do not want ED to become the game that the haters dream of.

That is a very interesting point.

Everybody has their wishes and dreams. Some post well thought suggestions while others have tantrums.

The game will obviously be too hard for some, easy for others. Fun for some, not for others. Many won't like the game at all. Some players will complain. Some won't have the aptitude to excel at the game and become very frustrated. Some will seek out better or more fun ways to enjoy their gaming experience, some won't. There are lots of customers out there.
 
But who are these haters and what do they dream of? Please do tell.

I would say that quitting ED on a regular basis may mean the game, in some way, maybe actually wasn't designed for you.

There are certain individuals on these forums that very clearly do not like the game. They have only negative things to say. Repeatedly. Ad nauseum. There are some that don't even play the game. Not sure their motives, most well adjusted people would not hang out on forums for something they don't like.

It is normal to take a break from games. Especially awesome games that you inadvertently overplay and get tired of. I'm sure most gamers here have quit games only to return 6-12 months later.
 
Err, how would you know what I enjoy? Who are you to say I'd enjoy it more if I did this or that? Presuming much? How do you know how I play?

It's all the same old bleating: play the game MY way. Think what I think. Blah blah blah. It's been like this for years.

The game has too much grinding. It's plain to see. Now, you can dodge it or avoid it altogether. But it's there. It's like saying dogs don't bark. You can put ear muffs on, but denying the dog bark mechanic doesn't exist is crazy.

The grinding conveniently covers the actual lack of game content.

I wonder if these threads are more about 'Oh look at me, I'm playing the right way, I've got the Braben spirit... and you haven't. Oh harketh to my wise words!' Seems more ego and the height of patronisation than anything else.

To those who truly try to patronise: Put a cork in it, it's recycled garbage. What you going to tell me next, it doesn't rain unless you think it is, save it for the art school common room zzzzzzz
Just saying you can overdo it and it becomes the total sum goal.
play however you like that's the way the game is designed if you want to grind grind away.
 
First: Why would anyone playing the game 'their way' see things from another person's perspective - it is a game each of us play according to how we interpret it, surely?

Because, ideally, they're being informed of the other individuals playstyle and preferences and actually using that information in their feedback rather than simply discarding it and giving advice as if the other person's way of playing should match their own.

Third: Grind is self imposed, in my opinion, as I don't ... So, naturally, I won't ask you to agree with my opinion as I wouldn't ask the same from you.

I'll agree with you in as much as preference of playstyle might make upgrades a more or less frequent thing. If messing around with ships and loadouts is what you're all about and how you get you're kicks then yes, you're going to run into much more grind than someone who like floating around in the black and touching every interesting planet they find. Some seem to think of it as "rushing to G5" or whatever as they're viewing the upgrade system as a singular, long term goal. Others like myself just want to play with space legos so to speak and may frequently break down and rebuild the same ship because we had an idea we want to test. The argument gets contradictory when being told we should "just play the game," when, for me at least, that is just playing the game.

So sure, you may not grind but that means your play is either very different or very slow compared to my own. In the latter case best case the game goes from grindy to unnecessarily inflated. In the former, I guess you just don't care.
 
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I've often wished there was an ingame simulator, game within the game if you like, where you could configure various loadouts and try them without having to torch materials. Case in point, I recently fitted all the small medium and large hardpoints on my corvette with modified burst lasers with the kinetic "inertial impact" special effect - I can't remember the base mod - but upon trying them the ship couldnae hit the broadside of a farragut because of the jitter from the kinetic special effect, that was a barrel load of materials wasted.
 
I've often wished there was an ingame simulator, game within the game if you like, where you could configure various loadouts and try them without having to torch materials. Case in point, I recently fitted all the small medium and large hardpoints on my corvette with modified burst lasers with the kinetic "inertial impact" special effect - I can't remember the base mod - but upon trying them the ship couldnae hit the broadside of a farragut because of the jitter from the kinetic special effect, that was a barrel load of materials wasted.

Inertial impact sounds so good until you see it in action. I feel your pain.
 
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 :)

I don't think it's too difficult at all, especially if you compare it to the older games in the series. It's much easier to make money in ED than it was in Elite 84, FE2 or FFE. Combat is much easier than in Elite 84 (where it was pretty easy to run into much tougher ships early on) and FE2/FFE (where you had to learn how to fight with Newtonian physics). You also had a much higher chance of encountering pirates in the older games, where pirates tend to be more absent in ED overall. And docking is way easier than Elite 84. I don't count docking in FE2 or FFE as you could just use the auopilot.... Though it got it wrong quite a bit.
 
I only found it to be easy after I engineered my ships which took me well over 100 hours of playtime, the first week was rough for sure, it's certainly the game with the steepest learning curve I've ever played and that's good.
 
That's a complicated question OP.


Is it difficult to pick up? Somewhat. There is a definite learning curve to properly piloting a ship and outfitting it. Even more so once you go down the rabbit hole of engineering, but that can all be solved with a few well chosen tutorial videos from YouTube and bookmarking Inara as well as EDDB. (Since the game is hot garbage at actually explaining things to players and displaying proper information)


Is it difficult to play once you know what you are doing? Not even a little bit.


The "difficulty" of Elite lies in the time required to actually play it well. The endless hours grinding rep to get things like ships and permits. The hours you will spend just getting from A to B. (Especially before you get an engineered FSD) The constant grinding of materials for engineering. The hours you will spend trying out the various ships to find one that clicks with you and then the numerous hours you will spend trying to find the best build for it that fits your play style.


The difficulty in Elite is being patient enough to play it and tolerate it's numerous shortcomings. Not the actual game itself.
 
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