Newcomer / Intro Is this really a game, am I supposed to have fun or be constantly punished?

Paul_

P
Like most any game the key is to Git gud . There are many many how to guides covering every type of game play style. Exploring, mining, trading, missions, and more. Hacks a plenty, if you just take a little time and have a poke around Youtube, you'll see. But it will require some time and effort on your part.
Maybe that should be in the notes at purchase. Warning this game is a bit grindy and takes some considerable time to Git gud.

Ok have a great day.
 

Marvin the Martian

Marvin the Martian
loteq said:
Sorry if this is going to be a rant, but I'm done with this. 50 bucks p*ssed away.

I wish I had known how this game is built before I bought it. It is just wave after wave of frustration. It's not how I want to play a game.

No difficulty level: you are supposed to choose your own difficulty level. Fine. Interesting. But the execution sucks, guys. The tutorials are way too easy, and give you a false sense of security when you adventure into anything else than glorified delivery boy. Hell, Threat level 1 kick your so bad that it's not even funny. I don't mind hard, but this game is so unforgiving that it makes you feel that you are not going to be able to progress, that 'it's not for you, and you need to stay at Threat level 0 forever.

And it's not about realism either: footsoldiers shooting down a spaceship, having to read the forums to play around the crazy, built-in, arbitrary mechanics to get anything done. People seem to find excuses for this to be such a no-fun time.

I wish I could have revived the feeling I had with the original ELite game I used to play. That game was way more fun, despite all the shiny graphics and millions of dollars invested in this.

Shame. I'm done.
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I got really frustrated as well and gave it up after a few days.

Then I started reading. A LOT.

Then I essentially started over. Two weeks later, I'm flying a Imperial Cutter, maxing it out by mining, and opening up all the engineers as I go. (I've got 5 so far and after this mornings mining run I'll open the 6th.)

I'm building a full combat Krait Mk II in the background between trips. Already have level 3 engineered gatling guns, FSD at level 4, sensors at 2. It's a work in progress.

You have to learn your limitations. I did it by reading and figuring out that diving into combat is NOT something you want to do.

My advice: Get yourself a Asp Explorer. That ship is fantastic. It has the best cockpit view in the game. Equip it to do transportation missions and get after it. At first, make sure you set the mission filter to LEGAL only. That will keep you out of trouble.

Then enjoy flying around the galaxy taking people on site seeing tours, delivering people to a destination, etc. That will get you used to the game and it's actually sort of relaxing to do.

Before you know it, you'll have a good deal of money. Then you can look into getting yourself a Python and outfitting it for mining. That's when you start to make what you think are big bucks. It goes pretty quickly after that. Find yourself a good Platinum hot spot and mine the fool out of it. You'll rake in around 35 million per trip.

Then you can plan what you'll do next. For me, it was get the Imperial Cutter as the ultimate mining machine. That is done now. Next is maxing that ship out (I only lack the A rated boosters but they alone cost 150 million) and engineering it while building my combat Krait as I go.

There's a LOT to this game. I mean TONS. Yes, it is hard and makes you want to quit. (Hell, I did the same exact thing you did.)

Trust me: just start reading. You'll figure it out. Now I sit down at the computer and play for 10 minutes...or what feels like 10 minutes...only to find I was in game for three hours. It's that good.

I've done all of this in exactly 208 hours of game time as of this posting.

EDIT TO ADD:

Here's where I gave it up on April 17th: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/the-npc-attacks-are-absolutely-stupid.602396/

Here's where I came back on May 4th: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...other-try-and-now-im-having-a-problem.603045/

And here's what I'm flying now.

1652270484543.png


😁😁😁
 
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Rock Hunter

Rock Hunter
Marvin the Martian said:
Then I essentially started over. Two weeks later, I'm flying a Imperial Cutter,
Click to expand...
That's quite some progression, I think it was months of only playing Elite before I had enough just to pay for an Anaconda without any of the big modules to go with it. Glad to see you came back and have started to enjoy the game....





...and yes, all the usual "I walked eighty miles to school in my bare feet, through the snow with just my older brothers hand-me-down fingerless gloves to keep the frostbite at bay and all on an empty stomach" stories apply:)
 

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous
loteq said:
I wish I could have revived the feeling I had with the original ELite game I used to play.
Click to expand...

I find this game system a little more similar to owning a stick shift car or a musical instrument. Not only in terms of learning curve, but in how many approaches to learning, how many details, and how open it is / how much it is subjective.

I think you should find a commander who is still in the pilot systems with you and take out some black box or liberate the bootleq liquor missions to get bootstrapped. If you are outside the pilot systems feel free to friend me, rupee noon. Take a low end 2-seater like an Adder or whatever. Ask questions as you go that will be hard to think of outside the cockpit and may be hard to articulately search down.

P.S. you can also download the original at https://www.frontierstore.net/games/elite-dangerous-cat/elite1984.html - in 1984 I guess I was playing Asteroids and Moon Patrol personally, funny very funny to compare with Horizons haha!
 

St0rmFury

St0rmFury
Marvin the Martian said:
I got really frustrated as well and gave it up after a few days.

Then I started reading. A LOT.

Then I essentially started over. Two weeks later, I'm flying a Imperial Cutter, maxing it out by mining, and opening up all the engineers as I go. (I've got 5 so far and after this mornings mining run I'll open the 6th.)

I'm building a full combat Krait Mk II in the background between trips. Already have level 3 engineered gatling guns, FSD at level 4, sensors at 2. It's a work in progress.

You have to learn your limitations. I did it by reading and figuring out that diving into combat is NOT something you want to do.

My advice: Get yourself a Asp Explorer. That ship is fantastic. It has the best cockpit view in the game. Equip it to do transportation missions and get after it. At first, make sure you set the mission filter to LEGAL only. That will keep you out of trouble.

Then enjoy flying around the galaxy taking people on site seeing tours, delivering people to a destination, etc. That will get you used to the game and it's actually sort of relaxing to do.

Before you know it, you'll have a good deal of money. Then you can look into getting yourself a Python and outfitting it for mining. That's when you start to make what you think are big bucks. It goes pretty quickly after that. Find yourself a good Platinum hot spot and mine the fool out of it. You'll rake in around 35 million per trip.

Then you can plan what you'll do next. For me, it was get the Imperial Cutter as the ultimate mining machine. That is done now. Next is maxing that ship out (I only lack the A rated boosters but they alone cost 150 million) and engineering it while building my combat Krait as I go.

There's a LOT to this game. I mean TONS. Yes, it is hard and makes you want to quit. (Hell, I did the same exact thing you did.)

Trust me: just start reading. You'll figure it out. Now I sit down at the computer and play for 10 minutes...or what feels like 10 minutes...only to find I was in game for three hours. It's that good.

I've done all of this in exactly 208 hours of game time as of this posting.

EDIT TO ADD:

Here's where I gave it up on April 17th: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/the-npc-attacks-are-absolutely-stupid.602396/

Here's where I came back on May 4th: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...other-try-and-now-im-having-a-problem.603045/

And here's what I'm flying now.

View attachment 306062

😁😁😁
Click to expand...
Oh hey, I remember you. That's quite a turnaround, glad you decided to push on and give it another go!
 

sinisalo

sinisalo
Ah, live and learn, not everything we try will suit us. That's natural.

But the OP was interested or intrigued enough to give it a go, and I reckon there's a game here for you with a little persistence.

People here often use the phrase "steep learning curve", incorrectly, but it's accurate. There is much to learn but it comes fairly quickly, in my view, at least in comparison to deeper simulations like say Falcon 4 or DCS or something. The 'steep' part of the curve reflects the faster learning, otherwise the curve would not be steep!

All of which is to say that if you persist and push through the early walls, Elite opens out in to a wonderful experience, of which you are the commander, pursuing the goals that you find most interesting or rewarding. Like was said above, Elite is a sandbox, and requires imagination and self-motivation, which potential commanders will posses to varying degrees. It's not for everyone and that must be accepted too.
 
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Brian of Earth

Brian of Earth
I'm 7+ years in and my biggest frustration is still RNGeesus. RNGeesus giveth, RNGeesus taketh away LOL. I can't tell you how many rage-quits I've done out of pure frustration because ALL I NEED IS ONE MORE SUIT SCHEMATIC AAAAAAHHHHHHHHRRRRGGGGGGGGG..

..Then I take a bunch of ground missions and spend hours running down hapless NPCs in my SRV GTA-style. Is that wrong?

Then after running down quite a few NPCs I find 1 (ONE) suit schematic and all is right with the world again. If I wasn't on meds keeping me alive this game would kill me (irony?).
 

varonica

varonica
Elite is a game that you will either play with for a few hours and decide it's not for you, or end playing for thousands of hours. I think I am at around 7,000 hours, and at the beginning there were a few things that frustrated me a lot, but I found my niche among all the possible things that can be done in the game and here I am. Give it a little more time OP, go back to basics, do a few easy cargo runs, don't take missions for a while, look around and start enjoying yourself, don't rush the hard stuff and ask questions.
 

Brian of Earth

Brian of Earth
There is one piece of advise I would strongly recommend is that this forum can be a pretty dark place and the closest I ever came to permanently quitting was when I was paying too much attention to this forum and all the DDDDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM it harbors.

I have a bunch of tools I refer to, and occasionally Reddit, etc. But once I get a feel for what's happening here (usually not much between major events), then I'm outta here until an update comes. Some people hang here a lot (there's a ton of GREAT posters here that have way more patience and better insight than me), some people find it drags you down. Just something to think about..
 

aRJay

aRJay
Brian of Earth said:
There is one piece of advise I would strongly recommend is that this forum can be a pretty dark place and the closest I ever came to permanently quitting was when I was paying too much attention to this forum and all the DDDDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM it harbors.

I have a bunch of tools I refer to, and occasionally Reddit, etc. But once I get a feel for what's happening here (usually not much between major events), then I'm outta here until an update comes. Some people hang here a lot (there's a ton of GREAT posters here that have way more patience and better insight than me), some people find it drags you down. Just something to think about..
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You do need to pick and choose which bits of the forum you read, I am still partly convinced that some of the worst offenders are paid to be there to drive people away from Elite and towards some other game.
 

Marvin the Martian

Marvin the Martian
Brian of Earth said:
There is one piece of advise I would strongly recommend is that this forum can be a pretty dark place and the closest I ever came to permanently quitting was when I was paying too much attention to this forum and all the DDDDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM it harbors.
Click to expand...
Odd. I've had a completely different experience. With one exception, all I have found so far is encouragement and help. Granted, I've only been around a month, but so far it has been the most positive gaming forum experience I've ever had.
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
If you are here genuinely asking for help in a polite manner people are more than willing to help. Which is generally what happens in the newcomers section.

Over in the wild west of dangerous discussions though, you get a few disgruntled types making unfounded declarations about the game or it's future simply because they're dissatisfied with one aspect of the game or another and they couch their criticism in passive-aggressive attacks on the devs. We do like to get our snark on when that happens. ;) And some of us get accused of being white-knights when that happens, when it's not true at all, lots of us are plenty critical, we can just do it without flouncing.
 

CMDR SleepyDelegate

CMDR SleepyDelegate
Marvin the Martian said:
Odd. I've had a completely different experience. With one exception, all I have found so far is encouragement and help. Granted, I've only been around a month, but so far it has been the most positive gaming forum experience I've ever had.
Click to expand...

This forum is also very forgiving... You can behave like a spoiled child and people still come and help... I guess this attitude (which I have yet to obtain) is probably a result of years of Yoda training and self-denial, ego control and that kind of graciousness you master, when you spend so much time in space, piloting ships...
 

CMDR Jago Kain

CMDR Jago Kain
I think the causal relationship goes the other way. I used to help people out in Warhammer Online years before I played Elite with the attitude that we were all n00bs once. Only people with deep reserves of patience can get to grips with ED's idiosyncracies.
 

Demonlord79

Demonlord79
loteq said:
And it's not about realism either: footsoldiers shooting down a spaceship, having to read the forums to play around the crazy, built-in, arbitrary mechanics to get anything done. People seem to find excuses for this to be such a no-fun time.
Click to expand...
1: For some reason Frontier Development set default flight controls in the weirdest way, as I have never seen in a flight simulator so fix those first. Everything was backwards for me.

2: The OP on bases foot soldiers is in fact really stupid, per shooting down ships, but I think they fixed that. Anti-Air mounts WIL slaughter any ship so foot soldiers might not be the ones shredding your shields as I thought they were as well. (Someone please correct me if I'm wrong).

3: Ground level missions, don't F around, just go in the way you're supposed to and learn some of the stealth tricks or just take one of your ground vehicles in and blow everything up. (See 5: for ship protection.)

4: Yes, Elite does have a serious learning curve, even from day one in 2015 and at time there was no tutorial, so to speak. But that's the fun in the game is once you learn to fly, that's all you need to know then it's all load-out with weapons and defenses.

5: Yes, I'm a vet with a solid Python, solid Anaconda, solid Imperial Cutter, solid Corvette, and a solid Type 9. But 90% of my time is in the tiny ASPexplorer. The perfect all-round ship (IMO) anyway.
Perfect for escaping pirates, boost is fast as hell, base missions, as you park about 1.5k-2k out and come in to base with ground vehicle. (scan ALL guards before doing anything) that way you always know were they are. That and I do a lot of system exploration.

6: Remember-----THIS IS NOT A FAST-PACED ARCADE GAME, so there will need a lot of experience to prefect your skills. Always remember these forums people will always help you if you need, as you can hopefully see. You can also ask to team up with people in wings to help.

Commander "Demon79" if you need any advice. Can't wing up unless you're in Colonia right now.....:(

PS. Don't ask how many times I've died. You would laugh your ass off, your stomach would hurt and make you throw up, and your eyes would pop out because you're laughing too hard. But the loss in cash would make you cry with sympathy over the loss of a multi-million credit ship even after insurance cost.
Don't give up Commander, see you in the black...o7
 
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WreckRoot

WreckRoot
This game is meant to be documented by the community. It's like with programming - create a good library and soon enough there will be YT videos with passionate users showing others how to do things with it, documenting it better than your own documentation would. There are lots of items you can buy at a DIY store that don't come with full documentation as to what you can do with them, you get that info from elsewhere.
That's ED. When you decide what you want to do, hit YT for a basic tutorial from D2EA or some other fellow and get to it yourself. If you don't like it - 🤷. Go play something else. You should've researched a bit before you bought the game, this "weakness/feature" of ED is well documented in all reviews and opinions on the game across the interwebs.
 
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