Is the Interstellar Initiative a new player turn-off?

[Monkey Pants]

Not a new player, but:

1. Set up a taxi service to Guardian space to take part in a community event, but don't tell people what you will be doing, or how to prepare.
2. Don't stock some useful kit at the event destination (e.g no PDs in outfitting at The Prospect).
3. Make the easiest activity SRV combat orientated when new players are still learning to fly SPACESHIPS.
4. Send them to an area with a known bug: quitting to menu at Ruins can cause a game freeze.

If I was a new player I would be confused, frustrated and stuck 750LY away from general gameplay for a week (or face along journey in a ship maybe not set up for jumping).

Not Dev bashing, just commenting.

MP

 

[Jaggid Edje]

I'm still a relatively new player. I read up on what the requirements were and what I'd be doing and decided not to bother at all.

I got the game to fly ships, I generally skip anything that takes an SRV if I have the choice.

 

[znôrt]

i stopped playing along with frontier's narratives after completing my tenth or so cg (around 2015?). enough was enough. skipped ram tah (but had lots of giggles seeing people's despair), all the puzzles, watched the salomé thing from the very best seat (this forum), etc. i did however participate in the gnosis fiasco and had a lot of fun and it even prompted me to build a thergoid killer ship afterwards, but it turned out fun was an error and not what frontier had intended, go figure.

i don't think this is aimed at new players in particular, it's just more of the same bland pap they have been feeding the masses as a way of 'nurturing the community'. don't ask.

this game is best enjoyed if you ignore frontier completely. play your own game.

 

[Siobhan]

Just sounds like a lot of hassle to me.
Granted CGs we're always good for boosting Cr, but this one looks to be a lot of effort for the potential reward.
I'll wait and see. I guess its a learning experience for the devs too.

 

[Unknown Zombie]

Leading up to this, they were really hyping up piracy and USS scavenging as ways you'd contribute to this initative.

But then they dropped the ball, or something, and now the only good way to contribute is an SRV and mode hopping.

They just need to follow through with the impression they initially gave, and add more guardian commodities to be pirated from ships and add any guardian commodities at all to other USS instances.

 

[Jaggid Edje]

They just need to follow through with the impression they initially gave, and add more guardian commodities to be pirated from ships and add any guardian commodities at all to other USS instances.

As someone who chose not to participate, I'll have to totally agree with you there. My original plan was that I was going to head out and be a part of it, but then player reports on piracy and USS drops changed my mind.

Spoiler

Next week is combat stuff though, so I will participate in that phase I think. Just skipping this whole SRV focused step.

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

My guess is a few veteran players are confused about the interstellar forum initiatives, never mind the newbies.

Im not. Not interested in a ferry. Not interested in weapons. Not familiar with any of the minor factions. I guess frontier are looking to engage the everyone is doing it so im going to do it too players (which seems like a huge hit in elite)... Its nice that they're trying something but its not for me.

 

[Marco Santos]

Its not perfect and they need to learn from the mistakes to be engaging, but... I myself have blueprints to guardian figthers, have lots of guardian materials now, got a decal, had a blast helping out new players on sight so far, visited stuff ive seen only in videos, so was nice, back in the bubble deciding what to do next, but was nice, definatly not wasted time.

 

[GeoJase]

Its not perfect and they need to learn from the mistakes to be engaging, but... I myself have blueprints to guardian figthers, have lots of guardian materials now, got a decal, had a blast helping out new players on sight so far, visited stuff ive seen only in videos, so was nice, back in the bubble deciding what to do next, but was nice, definatly not wasted time.

Same here. Been using time for material farming for the most part, and getting the blueprints.

This stage of the CG itself is pretty unattractive due to the low drop rates of guardian items at USS sites and the 2 cargo limit of SRVs.

 

[Quantis Trap]

CGs (and other group initiatives) used to be one of my favorite things in the game. This was back when:
1) They were new.
2) Making money in the game was infinitely harder (by a factor of 100x maybe) than it is today and CGs were a competitive way to greatly increase (by comparison) your cash.
3) There was a lot of energy behind them and it was infectious.
4) They were generally well thought out and bug free (for the most part) and quickly fixed when there were problems.
None of those things are true any more, so I don't.

 

[Commander Biscuit]

The event was decent but got nerfed into the ground yesterday. I got there a few days early and tootled around salvaging and familiarizing myself with the system. Had no problems filling up on guardian cargo from USS, and then yesterday they flipped a switch, and I went through 256 limpets without finding a single piece of cargo, only materials.

Now bear in mind, this is any cargo whatsoever, not just guardian cargo items. Didn't find one black box, no escape pods, none of the regular junk I usually find. Went back for more limpets with literally nothing in my cargo racks.

Hopefully not participating doesn't lock people out of accessing the modules when the event is over. I'll just bounty hunt for participation, which is not exactly what I expected from this event.

 

[Lightspeed]

The event was decent but got nerfed into the ground yesterday. I got there a few days early and tootled around salvaging and familiarizing myself with the system. Had no problems filling up on guardian cargo from USS, and then yesterday they flipped a switch, and I went through 256 limpets without finding a single piece of cargo, only materials.

Now bear in mind, this is any cargo whatsoever, not just guardian cargo items. Didn't find one black box, no escape pods, none of the regular junk I usually find. Went back for more limpets with literally nothing in my cargo racks.

Hopefully not participating doesn't lock people out of accessing the modules when the event is over. I'll just bounty hunt for participation, which is not exactly what I expected from this event.

The result of all previous CGs is that everyone benefits, regardless of whether they participate or not (thankfully ..... otherwise imagine the salt !) The only exception is the decal, which is achieved by visiting one of the new outposts or megaships.

 

[Jaggid Edje]

The result of all previous CGs is that everyone benefits, regardless of whether they participate or not (thankfully ..... otherwise imagine the salt !) The only exception is the decal, which is achieved by visiting one of the new outposts or megaships.

Speaking of the decal, you know where I can see any screenshots of it on actual ships? All I found with my amateur google-fu is standalone images. I'm not a fan, but maybe seeing it on an actual ship would change my mind.

 

[Lightspeed]

Speaking of the decal, you know where I can see any screenshots of it on actual ships? All I found with my amateur google-fu is standalone images. I'm not a fan, but maybe seeing it on an actual ship would change my mind.

Here it is on the side of my dBX taxi in outfitting ....

 

[punkydrummer01]

The event was decent but got nerfed into the ground yesterday. I got there a few days early and tootled around salvaging and familiarizing myself with the system. Had no problems filling up on guardian cargo from USS, and then yesterday they flipped a switch, and I went through 256 limpets without finding a single piece of cargo, only materials.

Now bear in mind, this is any cargo whatsoever, not just guardian cargo items. Didn't find one black box, no escape pods, none of the regular junk I usually find. Went back for more limpets with literally nothing in my cargo racks.

Hopefully not participating doesn't lock people out of accessing the modules when the event is over. I'll just bounty hunt for participation, which is not exactly what I expected from this event.

Do we know if this was deliberate? Or a bug?

 

[2plex]

I'm just waiting for OA's vid on the whole affair.

 

[Commander Biscuit]

Do we know if this was deliberate? Or a bug?

No idea. It looks like a bug, but could just be on my end. (User error, PEBKAC etc). If it's a server side issue it could've been fixed by now.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

i don't think this is aimed at new players in particular, it's just more of the same bland pap they have been feeding the masses as a way of 'nurturing the community'. don't ask.

this game is best enjoyed if you ignore frontier completely. play your own game.

Very unfortunate - but spot-on.
Although I made two rare exceptions for the sake of supporting the Colonia Region, I generally boycotted CGs entirely after experiencing many of their "issues" in the past.

As an active Participant, I lived through some of the epic disasters that were

• Yembo
• Abres' Mineral Misery
• The Great Betrayal of Kaushpoos

So I learned my lessons the hard way... when it comes to "Frontier supported Narration & Events".
Seems the "We don't call it CGs anymore - but it's still the same-old" Interstellar Initiatives didn't change anything.
(viewed purely from a large Distance or the Forum it's very relaxed though, thanks to sticking to my principles)

 

[Crank Larson]

I suspect new players aren't even aware of it. I don't think it would put anyone off. It's just all a bit meh. "Let's rebrand Community Goals and try to sell them as something different - I know, we can add a taxi ship and then run a couple of CGs after that - everyone will think it's totally different and awesome!".

 

[Commander Biscuit]

I suspect new players aren't even aware of it. I don't think it would put anyone off. It's just all a bit meh. "Let's rebrand Community Goals and try to sell them as something different - I know, we can add a taxi ship and then run a couple of CGs after that - everyone will think it's totally different and awesome!".

The rebrand part baffles me. They're calling it an interstellar initiative, but it still says community goal on all the menus in game. It's like a really low budget rebrand, where you don't even rebrand anything but just tell everyone you did.