Is it as boring for everyone but Elite Veterans?

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Btw, buy a rift and do all this in vr.

Whilst I did enjoy the game before the DK2 launched this is so true. In truth I would not in all honesty reccomened anyone buying a DK2 now, that ship sailed 11 months ago..... however I do wonder if I would enjoy the game half as much as i do without the headset.

Why play a game flying a spaceship when you can be IN the space ship. Cant wait for the production units to launch. All the presence of the DK2 without all the sacrifices in image quality.

That being said.

yes you can have fun in an eagle and make money (I still dust mine off from time to time) BUT ED is not for everyone and is not a game I would blindly reccomend to everyone without asking them to do some homework.

its a bit like marmite (except I personally hate marmite but love ED - but then I am an 84er so..................)

ED is not without its issues, imo there IS a lack of content and a lack of "surprises" but What ED is is a very capable remake of the 1984 game, with some nice additions from Frontier, along with a simulated milkyway and multiplayer support.

Whether that is enough or not for now.... well that again comes back to ED is not for everyone.

Going forward however there is so much potential for the game. Whether the game will come close to realising the potential or just being a "so close but not quite" only time will tell imo.

Using a building analogy however, the house may not be finished but its foundations are incredible (again imo)

 

[disco]

I started playing Elite (with many long breaks) in Beta, but the game still feels... empty..., like a Cruising-Simulator of sorts.

I've played original Elite back in the 80s, Frontier and FFE a decade or two later, played each of them at least a year or two continuously every single day without getting bored. Then ED came along and I was bored within hours. There just isn't anything to do. Yes, you can fight, you can trade, you can explore but all of it becomes boring within 30 minutes. I agree, the game indeed feels empty. It's like a well done base for missing content. The base itself is not enough, we need content, lots of it.

 

[_Flin_]

So now I have a few questions for the veterans out there:
1) Is there a way to make at least a bit of profit with an eagle that's not super-upgraded?
2) Is there any way of having fun while doing it?
3) Is it in any way possible to finish a mission in under 30 minutes (that's really what bugs me the most, the lengthy fly times just to "get there").
4) Is there any fun activity I might not know about (Powerplay really doesn't seem to be it).

You are going about it the wrong way. Usually you should have a plan what to do before you lift off (e.g. at which kind of economy you can sell Polymers, and go there). You have no clue what you want to do, and try out things that are too tough. First you should earn some dough and upgrade your ship. The Eagle is not a trading ship, it is a fighter.

1) Yes, there are plenty.
- Explore: Fly to unknown systems and explore planets. Parallax until you visually identify planets, then fly next to them (500 Ls) and fire the scanner. Then target them and identify.
- Salvage: Find a black market. Fly around the station in supercruise at 30 km/s until you happen to come across "weak signal sources". You will find some goodies in there you can sell at the black market.
- Bounty Hunt: Equip a Kill Warrant Scanner and fly to planets with Rings (not Icy). There you should come across Ressource Extraction Sites. Go into a Low Intensity one, look for Wanted ships, Scan them with the kill warrant scanner and shoot them.
- I could mention rare trading and mining, but those are better done in a Hauler, not an Eagle. So is trading.

2) The game offers a variety of things. Missions. Combat. Trading. Exploration. Mining. Background Simulation. Community Goals. Powerplay. Wings. Try them. Find out what is fun FOR YOU. Then do it.

3) Yes. You might want to get a better Frameshift Drive, though.

4)
The background simulation. Adopting a minor faction and manipulating influence values for them to take over a system, expand into other systems and take them over, and make them a mini-Empire.
Community Goals.
Bounty Hunting.
Rare Trading.

 

[Kitiara]

As Medwyn put it : you are between a rock and a hard plate.

I guess that if you're between a rock and a hard place, you should equip your ship for mining.

 

[cpbtrading]

In answer to the OP thread title. I'm a vet, hate that word, lets say I played the original back in 84'. I was an adult too, even back then.
.
But your not wrong, but many are. Probably those that played the original at 5yrs old.
.
ED is as boring as ****, sorry, must not swear ! Its not good or interesting, lets say.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

edit: Bah, my bad

 

[lysan]

We are getting there, when PL gets into the game we will start to se more content. I for one can't wait to get down to the surface and someday get out of my ship.

 

[ChaosCloud]

We are getting there, when PL gets into the game we will start to se more content. I for one can't wait to get down to the surface and someday get out of my ship.

Well, I can hardly imagine how that's supposed to add something longterm.
Wouldn't it suffer the same way exploration does? There are billions of stars you can fly, but they quickly end up blending together to a mush of "just the same a billion times".

 

[Vasea Azure]

Well, I can hardly imagine how that's supposed to add something longterm.
Wouldn't it suffer the same way exploration does? There are billions of stars you can fly, but they quickly end up blending together to a mush of "just the same a billion times".

Well to be honest, from my experience with SpaceEngine - it can add lots of long term goals for explorers. If FD adds nice procedural generation to every landable planet (add some randomly generated life, oh boy!) I can see myself spending days on looking for some interesting terrain formations or canyons to fly thoru.
For me simple barren terrain with mountains and stuff to fly over would be enough to suck me in the game completely.

 

[CMDR Derrida]

There is a new fashion for Elite veterans to clear save and start again. Been considering it myself so I can rediscover all the small ships and fight bigger bully ships But I'm not quite insane enough to throw away all my credits just yet

 

[KING5TON]

There is a new fashion for Elite veterans to clear save and start again. Been considering it myself so I can rediscover all the small ships and fight bigger bully ships But I'm not quite insane enough to throw away all my credits just yet

Just go store your ship, buy a sidey and make a note of your credit balance. Then pretend that amount doesn't exist and any new credits you earn are your balance.

That way you can enjoy the benefits of wiping your save without actually wiping your save.
I planned to do this if any of my friends actually bought the game so we could co-op together.
That won't happen tho till there's a major price drop.

 

[Schmack]

As many learn soon enough, the "fun" of the game is the greed of wanting more and seeing it come to fruition through hard work. You start experiencing that with the Sidewinder and as you progress through careers (trading, hunting, pirating, smuggling, exploring, etc.. ) you want different types of ships with different loadouts. There's the consensus types for each career type. For trading, it's the anaconda 1st by most, then the T9 for those who don't mind slow maple syrup runs as long as they see big profits. For hunters, the Vulture is a great stepping stone ship, but you eventually want a Python or FDL or something along those lines. The explorer wants jump range and such so Asp or Diamondback Explorer (some prefer other ships that have decent range).

Either way, the point is that you max out your ability to do what you want to do in the game. Once you get there however, you might find you didn't really want to do it, you just wanted the tools to do it. You might then start on a different path, but eventually the game will bore you because you've maxed out your toolbox and you don't really want to do any work. What changes that or prevents it is flying in groups with other players. There's an entirely different realm when you fly in a wing of real players. You do what they do or they do what you do, and it's fun again. Then you're only playing for fun but each of you is still getting credits for doing what you're doing. I think that's how the game was meant to be played.

 

[Oopsie Daisy]

I started playing Elite (with many long breaks) in Beta, but the game still feels... empty..., like a Cruising-Simulator of sorts.

Is there a trick to make the experience more enjoyable? Just to give you an example of what I mean, here is my experience with the game from today's session (~2 hrs):

I started the game and saw that my ship (just an Eagle from one of my previous sessions a couple of months ago) was stranded with 0 fuel in a remote System. So I destroyed the ship and got reset to a space station. I familiarised myself with the controls (5 mins tops). I then tried finding a mission I could do for a little excitement. I searched the missions board only to find out that no mission was suited for my level and reputation (Harmless). As this part of the game was locked to me, I then bought 2 slots of polymers because they were around 150 CR below average price. I couldn't afford anything else that would net a profit on average, so at least I would get a little extra money from it.
I then began my search for a market to sell the polymers and get that mission I was trying to get in the first place. I raced (cruise simulated) towards Systems names I knew (which meant they were "starter" Systems, as I don't have much experience in the game). However, after 4 or 5 jumps, with landing at at least one or two stations in every system, I was still at zero missions and not one of them would buy my polymers for more than maybe a 20 CR profit. As I am not that much of an experienced pilot (I don't suck at it either though!), all of this took me maybe 45 minutes. Until I finally came across a mission I could accept (and that looked very promising for 43k credits!). The polymers however were still in cargo hold...
For the first time in this session of already ~1 hr I felt something like excitement. I was to hunt a pirate named "Merlyn" in a system just 2 jumps off (still took me a couple of minutes to get there, mind you).

So I jumped there and... the System looked totally empty. I fired up the scanner and suddenly a couple of unidentified objects popped up. I flew to at least 4 - all of which turned out to be planets without anything to them. I scanned a few more times and saw an unidentified Signal in the system, cruised there and finally found my mark. Unfortunately he was accompanied by 2 of his pirate friends. So the three of them really shot up my ride and I had to flee after a short firefight.
I then turned off the game because:
1) I was not going manage to repair my ship and handle those pirates in the ~1:30h I had to kill him in and return for the mission debrief. So I would have lost another couple of CRs to the penalty on mission failure (penalties are still in there, aren't they?)
2) I did not want to spend another 40+ minutes searching for another mission just for the off-chance I might be able to handle it.
3) I was very, VERY frustrated how playing for almost 2 hrs resulted in a net loss (and that alone would not have been a huge problem, but I did not make a single Credit in all that time, despite really trying)


So now I have a few questions for the veterans out there:
1) Is there a way to make at least a bit of profit with an eagle that's not super-upgraded?
2) Is there any way of having fun while doing it?
3) Is it in any way possible to finish a mission in under 30 minutes (that's really what bugs me the most, the lengthy fly times just to "get there").
4) Is there any fun activity I might not know about (Powerplay really doesn't seem to be it).

To the programmers:
1) I really want to enjoy this game, but you make it soooo hard to find anything fun to do for a relatively unexperienced player.
2) What's the reason for having a huge galaxy, if it's completely empty?
3) Has this been play-tested? What did the testers have to say about the long cruise times?
4) Do you really think this is in any way "fun"?

Yes, this game is very rough for new players, at least for some people (myself included). The fanboys are quick with the "it's elite", "it's dangerous" thing, but that's just an evasion.

Once you get past the initial hurdles, the game becomes a grind for credits to work your way up to the ship(s) you want. I tried exploration, but that gets boring fast due to the procedural nature the galaxy is rendered; and you have to deal with all your credits in one basket (you scan millions in CRs of stuff only to lose it all if you get taken out by a pirate or ganker, so you probably want to return to Known Space in Solo).

I tried trading but that is the most boring career in this game IMO (but people say it is the most profitable). Turns out mining is kinda fun so I do that.

The mission (quests?) system is frustrating as most of the missions I want to do are not available for one reason or another (wrong rank usually, either I am too low in rank or too high; just can't win it seems).

The game definitely feels unfinished and certainly unpolished and it suffers from the "mile wide, inch deep" syndrome. Some people appear to overcome it by RPing with themselves.

I find that while I am playing the game I find I am wishing I was part of some sort of guild system so that my efforts could contribute to guild objectives, but there are massive threads on this topic already so I'll say no more.

All in all, this is the game I play on a blue moon, when the mood strikes me. It seems that it was designed for people who played the original series from the 80s and are nostalgic for their childhood, so it suffers the "rose tinted glasses" syndrome. But I am confident that in time, it will become a more interesting game, more engaging, and one I play a lot more of as FD adds more to it.

 

[xXCheeChowXx]

I like the game and have fun with it. The way I see it is: people are different and have different likes, So maybe this type of game just isn't your cup of tea....LOL @ Chann's remark about ARMA 3...so true so true.....BTW Don't feed the trolls.

 

[19th hole]

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=170128