Newcomer / Intro Just can't find any fun, what am I doing wrong?

Hello everybody

Like the title says: I just can't find any fun in this game (yet). I've played it since the release yesterday around 12 hours. I know it's not a lot, but from a game I excpect even with a high learning curve at least some aspects that gives you fun. I haven't found any yet.

When I read the forums, it looks like I'm not the only person with those thoughts. People say, there's mining, military, fighting and many more. Just... where?

I started with courier missions, which gave around 5'000 credits if I was lucky. Takes around 20 to 30 min. Very boring, that's not the way I want to spend my free time. I tried trading, checked systems for goods, the map, flew to stations and wrote down the prices on a piece of paper. Highest profit in this: 500 credits in like 10 min. Then I thought: Let's see what this universe is like. Went to different "unknown" systems, explored the sun and sold this kind of data at stations in other systems. Just the same here, it's like item farming in any old MMORPG. Started to look for pirates or just ships with bounty... well, was hard at least I found one with an 8'000 bounty. Killed it and well, don't know where I can hand it in. After that, I accepted a kill mission. The target should be in one of 3 possible systems, after 3 hours I couldn't find him and docked frustrated on a station where I accepted another mission, where I should destroy 3 ships. Title is something like "Kill ships: Traders", but I just can't find any of this ship nor faction.

Whatever... I have a strong impression, that this game wants to simulate space how it is: boring. Or what the hell am I doing wrong?
 
Your UI Panel will tell you who is paying the bounty--if it's one of the Big 3 (allied, fed, empire) just go to a station aligned with them and once into the station menu, go hit contacts and then I think you hit the second selection in the next menu--there will be a list of either fines you owe or bounties you can redeem. Good bet is, return to a station in the system you killed the chap in.

Where to do what:

Bounty Hunting: find a nav point (near the sun in known systems) and jump out of supercruise there. Scan all incoming ships for Wanted status by targeting them, and kill the ones marked as such.
Military: I'll let someone else who has done this explain.
Mining: you'll need a mining laser and a refinery, then go find yourself some space rocks (can be found at Extraction Sites near ringed planets). I haven't done much of this yet either, but it's doable.
Piracy: buy a cargo scanner and limpet mine, and attack traders with tasty cargo. Knock their shields down, and then let loose with a limpet mine to blow open their cargo hatch. Watch for system authorities. Sell goods at a station with a black market (found under Contacts at the stations that have them).
Rare goods trading: find stations with rare commodities, and then take them great distances for very attractive profits. Works best with smaller ships, since rare goods are in short supply.
Regular trading: exploit supply/demand imbalances and profit. Larger ships are key here.

Missions to kill pirates can be a pain--I avoid those. Killing traders is easy--just find non-wanted ships flying a hauler, type-6, etc., and kill them. Bad news is, that's going to cost you more in bounty than you'll make in the mission in all likelihood, so perhaps you just won't pay the fine and run from the cops all the time. That can be exciting all in its own right.

Finally, there is extreme bounty hunting: track human players with bounties, especially sizable ones. I can promise you that will get your blood pumping.

I hope you find your niche, Commander!
 
helpful post dragoniv, the other thing a lot of people are looking past is this is day one/two.. we need to expect to start out small. As I understand it as your reputation with factions increases you get offered better and more lucrative jobs.

I agree though, there is a steep learning curve and it can be a bit tricky to find out where to go without jumping online to lookup tips.
 
many of us like the game but have been vehemantly complaining to FD about the lack of content. FD r not listening so far and have added ZERO new content. The game is beautiful and the flight characteristics r fantastic but theres just not a lot to do and game gets boring quick.
 
many of us like the game but have been vehemantly complaining to FD about the lack of content. FD r not listening so far and have added ZERO new content. The game is beautiful and the flight characteristics r fantastic but theres just not a lot to do and game gets boring quick.

Many does not make most. Most of us find that more content would be helpful, but the game is plenty fun today and likely to just get better over time.
 
many of us like the game but have been vehemantly complaining to FD about the lack of content. FD r not listening so far and have added ZERO new content. The game is beautiful and the flight characteristics r fantastic but theres just not a lot to do and game gets boring quick.

You reply is not constructive at all, I have seen several of your posts and they are all negative and trying to put people off. Please don't do this and let the people who actually want to help OP help him to have fun with this game, he paid money for it too. If you have nothing constructive to say, please don't post. But if you do have something constructive to say which can actually help people, please do so. :)
 
helpful post dragoniv, the other thing a lot of people are looking past is this is day one/two.. we need to expect to start out small. As I understand it as your reputation with factions increases you get offered better and more lucrative jobs.

I agree though, there is a steep learning curve and it can be a bit tricky to find out where to go without jumping online to lookup tips.

Keep trying commander.
My feeling was exactly the same when I started playing elite at the beta.

This game will not drive you.
You have to fix your objectives.

For example :
You want to be an elite bounty hunter. Ok fine !

Objective n°1, first step is to grab enough credits to get an eagle.
The problem is, you only have a poor sidewinder with no money.

So, to get money, the easiest noob way is exploration !! Sell your weapon and even your shield.
You'll be lighter and you'll be able to make bigger jump between system. I strongly recommend to buy a fuel scoop to not be lost in space !

You already have a dicoverer scanner on your sidewinder, try to fly to an unknown system and activate your scanner.
Sometimes you'll discover something sometimes not.
Remember, it is not because your scanner didn't detect something that there is nothing to discover. You are maybe too far (the first scanner have a small range).
Try to fly around and try to spot some moving star in the sky, when you find one, go to it and continue to activate your scanner.

When you discover some unknown object, target him and try to get close (10 sl or 5 sl) and you'll automatically scan the object/planet / moon / sun.
Do it for everything you discover this way.

To sell your data, go to a station and Cartographics and then get the $$$
If you can't it is because you are to close from your discovery system, try to find an another system where you can sell it.

The second way to make $$ is to accept express delivery. Sell you weapons and shield (it will open more mission since you can jump far away)
You can add some more space for your cargo to accept better mission too.



Objective n°2. Equipment !

Ok dude you have your eagle, start stoping at unidentified nav points.
Scan the ships there and destroy any wanted guy !

But always be sure to keep 5k or 10k credits in case you die to rebuy your ship.

Buy an FSD interdictor and you'll be able to stop ship whil in supercruise !
Buy a better generator and better weapon.
Makes some mission and grab more & more $$$

etc...


Objective n°3

Got one ship specialized for each things ..
One for trade (hawler are nice at start)
one to fight, eagle then viper
One to explore / mining Adder ...

you cna buy a verstile one : cobra MK3.


there are a tons of things to do ^^
Keep trying ! :)

good fly commander !
 
Thanks for the replies, especially to dragoniv

I prefer games with complexity to the most AAA titles, which in my opinion, don't have such. Especially to full real flight simulations I'm addicted. From this perspective, ED has a really nice flight physic, still it feels like it doesn't know if it wants to be a simulation or a simplified version. That hyperspace drive (warp, however it's called) for example just makes me feel like I don't have full control over my ship. Don't know if you can turn off, but my ship accelerates and decelerates automatically. Sometimes it's not possible to give more or less power which results in overshooting the target.

However, I see my roll in a spacesim in the military way. Camping the nav point sounds like a good idea, still it feels more like a pirate than a military space pilot.
There are 3 factions (I'm in the blue area, federation I guess), isn't it possible to join their military and fight against the others? Honestly, I don't want to search 30 to 60 min for a fight. Or maybe it's just like some said, that there isn't enough content yet.
 
Or what the hell am I doing wrong?

The missions. Don't do them. They are not fun. Pick them up if they coincide with something you were going to do anyway.

But you do need to find something fun. I like the combat in the game. General nav point hunting is OK but there is not much of a backdrop. However sight seeing in the asteroid belts at extraction points is a change of scenery and much welcome. The war zone fights are also a change. By the time you have a maxed viper/cobra the danger in the combat has largely gone though :(

I like hunting for trade routes even if I don't have the patience to run them more than once.

Before I got 1.6mil cred for the advanced scanner, I used to enjoy squinting out of my 3 screens for moving dots scanning systems. The advanced scanner ruined that game though :(

I like finding the other starter systems to see how they are set up.
 
Your ship automatically slowing down is a function of nearing planetary or stellar gravity wells - the FSD is limited in speed based on proximity to them.

You can definitely become a military pilot, but you'll have to become friendly with one of the major factions to do so, which can be a long and arduous process - unfortunately not a career you can immediately jump into.
 
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On the other hand: this is Elite. Elite never had much content (AFAIR only First Encounters had something resembling a rather thin story line). That's part of its style. Go and do - or don't. Don't expect to be led through the game. It's all about your ambition and curiosity.

By the way, a mission takes me just a few of minutes, mostly depending on how far I have to travel in-system (I usually avoid systems with more than one star). But even in the worst cases I doubt it's more than 10 minutes for a cargo or delivery run.
 
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I think ED is more of an experience. I don't think you're going to really find any depth to the gameplay. Everything seems really basic. The draw to the game seems to be that carrot on a stick to get richer and richer, but I have a feeling once that drive runs out, you wont have much to chase.
 
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