Just don't feel like logging in...

Nothing wrong with setting a game aside.
I never understood the mentality of treating every game like its the last one you will ever buy. Playing explicitly one game for years on end is bad; I know, I have done it and have friends that have even done so with WoW.
Play a game, expend the existing features, take a break, come back and try the new stuff.
I am on my ED break after playing from august until Mid-January. I will come back when some new stuff is out of beta. I have access but after play-testing all those kickstarter beta's over the past 2 years I must stick to more complete games (ED actually being one of the most complete of the Beta's I have played to be honest)
There is nothing more satisfying than coming back to a game and seeing all the new stuff that was gradually rolled out.
When you sit and play the same game over and over and watch each single feature roll out it bit by bit, the changes will not be as noticeable.
I used to play eve on and off for 8 years or so, whenever I came back to it, there was a lot of rebalance, polish, and new features.
Taking breaks will make it feel new.
As an example..
Key games I have played in the last 8 years and how I have spaced them out over that time:

-RTS games alternating between Homeworld 2, Dawn of War, Supreme Commander. All very different flavours of RTS, I used to alternate them on a daily basis. Except homeworld which I had to binge through the story because it was so darn good and I was using a projector screen at the time.

-Eve online alternated with X3 Terran conflict. Leaving 2 years between each solid 3 month X3 binge.

-There is a grey area here, I must have been doing non-stop eve while I was in vfx school.

-Battlefield Bad Company 2. The best $5 steam sale I ever bought.

-X3 then lengthened but my RTS needs came back and started playing StarCraft 2 when it came out.

-Battlenet for almost a year straight with StarCraft 2.

-Battlefield 3 for a ridiculous amount of time. Arma2 Map making and scripting came into play at some point.

-My childhood flightsim phase was able to return when I discovered Lock-on. (joystick purchased for...x3...was finally put to proper use) (lock-on was old and discontinued by the time I actually played it)

-DCS flight sim.
----
The dreaded early access Dynasty begins
----
-Minecraft

-Planetary Annihilation

-Kerbal Space program

-DayZ

I alternated through these games for the last few years. And I obviously have tried other quicker games which I don't need to mention.

My current game alternation this year, excluding some note-able albeit easily consumed games such as Shadows of Mordor:

DayZ
Elite : Dangerous
Arma3 both using DUWS and making my own maps.
Kerbal Space Program
Darkest Dungeon (created by my former Art Director, Chris Bourassa)<---bloody fantastic fun
Dwarf Fortress
DCS: A-10c

These 6 games here. These are always improving and changing. With proper spacing of play, and not playing over and over when nothing new is to be done, I will never be bored.
 
If we at least had something to look forward to, some idea of what the game will be like, when fully fleshed out. They surely DO have the vision and definitive plans.. but they keep it secret to be able to pitch exclusive info month by month by droplets to online magazines. Attracting potential players, ignoring the existing players.

I do wonder, what these potential players think, when they check out forums and see, that the game feels dead inside and there are no plans, no road map. Just the tidbits from newsletters with very little info.

Perhaps FDEV forgets, that forums are almost primary reference and source of info for people considering getting into massive multiplayer games (not meaning mmo, just listing properties of ED:) ).
 
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I haven't logged in for about two weeks now. I pop on here to see if any good news is on the horizon. I'm still waiting for that amazing mythical real build that was being held back during gamma that the white nights kept telling us about...lol. I sit and think about logging on, but then the feeling goes away as I can think of many actual stimulating things to do.
 

BlackReign

Banned
I must admit I'm not sure about ED at the moment.

This isn't a "bye, I'm outta here, toys-thrown-outta-pram-door-slammed" good bye. I'm just bemused about the game, and don't much feel like playing it right now.

To set a scene: Beta backer. Played a bit, not too much, wanted to see where it would go. Played a little Gamma, thought there would be a wipe, didn't have much time to play once I'd realised there wasn't, so started on the 16th with approx the same as everyone else. Now sitting on about 200M/cr, courtesy of a t9 and a hefty time spent trading.

I've done some mining, bounty hunting, smuggling and trading. I've not played 12 hour days. I've mostly played 1-2 hours a day, on the days I have played. I haven't exactly spent every waking moment in the game. I say this to illustrate that I'm not "burned out".

I just....don't see the point right now.

Trading is a grind, and I've done quite a lot of it, and no longer enjoy it.

Fair enough, do something else.

But what?

Here is some feedback. Two points:

1) The first MAJOR issue that I have with ED is that there's no point to any of it, no goals beyond what you set yourself. And that's like looking down at your kitchen floor and deciding you will spend the next hour deliberately stepping on every corner of every tile, as a self-imposed objective, and calling it fun. It's a kitchen sandbox where you can play the way you want to play. Which is fun. Right.

So I set myself an objective to hit 200Mcr. Done that. It allows me to buy pretty much any ship in the game (excluding the 'Conda, really) and play it. But play it to do what?

I don't want to BH. It's pew pew without a purpose.
I don't feel an urge to explore. There's 400 billion uncharted stars out there, and when I've finished exploring them for hours, scanning the same old stuff again and again, there'll still be 400 billion uncharted stars out there (plus or minus a few).
I don't feel an urge to mine. No, that's not true. I've done some mining. I feel an urge to go and clean my kitchen before I do any more mining. Ever.
I don't want to be a jerk and turn pirate.
I've been-there-done-that on trading.
I deliberately haven't pursued naval mission ranks because there is no content there. I thought I would wait to see what story missions and rank content will (eventually, ultimately, many, many updates from now) be introduced, and enjoy playing them when they are. There is no value to be had in the ranks (as I see it) at this point, so no point playing the missions. I don't need a Clipper. I might get one anyway, but go no further. Perhaps. If I can be bothered.

I want some MISSIONS (that have a point and aren't repetitive drivel). I want a STORY (at least a skeleton of one). I want a PURPOSE.

And ED doesn't really have any of that.

And poorly implemented "community missions" or landing on planets won't give it any, either.

2) The second MAJOR issue that I have with ED is that it actually all feels a bit false. A bit of a lie. A bit of under-delivered promises and smoke-and-mirrors to cover holes.

Players do NOT have influence (e.g. Lugh) - FDev had to add that in after the event when there was an outcry that nothing had happened.
Players' rep activities do NOT influence environments. Much testing has been done.
Players' trading activities do NOT influence the market.
NPCs play to different rules (e.g. FSD under mass lock)
NPCs turn up in stations where there were none before...
NPCs turn up in random cruise-dropouts in mining belts where there were none before...

....it's all a bit cheaty. A bit botched. A bit....crap, really.

Basically, the ED world exists irrespective of whatever we, the players, do within it. So what's the point of doing anything?


In before
#it'snotthegameforyou
#I'mstillplayingandIthinkit'sgreatandeveryonewhodoesn'tthinksodoesn'tgethegame
#it'sstillinbeta


TL;DR

Like many others, I'd love ED to be successful. But, to be successful, it has to be a whole lot more than it currently is.

More content.
More soul.
More polish.
More interaction.

Right now, it falls a very, very long way short of that.

Right now, it simply isn't fun to play.

A.


P.s. Awesome sounds though. Best sounds in-game evaaa.

Alot of cmdrs feel the same. This place will be far less populated 6 months from now.
 
I haven't logged in for about two weeks now. I pop on here to see if any good news is on the horizon. I'm still waiting for that amazing mythical real build that was being held back during gamma that the white nights kept telling us about...lol. I sit and think about logging on, but then the feeling goes away as I can think of many actual stimulating things to do.


At at some point the fan boys will join us...

At some point the money will stop flowing to the sock puppets then we will miss their empty positive posts.

We as a community need to make a stand, how I can not say, I only win I could!

30 years of dreams multiplied by 300,000 players all gone.

it's like a house I would walk past as a child I always dreamed one day would be mine, seen again as flats empty and boarded up.

FD may have failed to match our dreams, but we have failed as a community to shape their actions.

We still play, aimless and fragmented, squabbling over nerfs and a future not yet written.

will we go with a whimper or a bang?
 
the game only has combat and trade. Exploration doesn't count because you know where everything is in the galaxy, you can see it on the map. Also all you do is scan a system and get money, nothing fun in that. Sure the big galaxy adds immersion and atmosphere but beyond that from a gameplay standpoint, the only thing in elite is combat/trading for now.

Then you have the broken non existent multiplayer, you can't even properly conversate with people in game. You can barely fly with a friend sometimes maybe. You can't do any missions together. No coop nothing.

The elements are there for the foundation of a good game. But they need another year of pure content and gameplay enhancement especially along the multiplayer lines. When people can do multiplayer missions together, etc, and really delve into the mmo aspect of the game, plus the content expansions like walking on ships/stations with all the added gameplay that should bring with it, then it will be closer to being a fully realized game.

Also theyve shot themselves in the foot with the something for everyone philosophy, being trying to be everything to everyone, its nothing to no one. Having solo mode and open mode is just a pure design flaw. People you can't see in the universe can change the universe which removes the fun of the simulation MMO wise. So if commander group A is fighting for a civil war for a particular NPC group to take over a system and commander group B is fighting for another group, group B can do all their work in solo mode, and group A can't stop them.

But if it was all open, you could have more interesting gameplay by players trying to blockade and actually 'hold' the system for their faction. So its just dumb and superficial. If Elite survives I will be PLEASANTLY surprised. But I don't see it.
 
Was posting this in another thread that got locked. Just pasting it in here because I'm not letting the typing go to waste, and it is relevant to the thread.

Maybe it is flame bait, but the OP does have some valid points. I don't think there should be any compensation or anything. "Buyer beware" is life. I personally would like a little more info on what mechanics / content would at least like to be added. I read every email, and before I got really bored of the game the last couple weeks, I read the forums very frequently. I still have no idea what goals the team is looking to give us. Do I want wings? Heck yeah. Do they matter if they don't add some goal or other content to do something with them? Nope. Right now I feel like we've been given a beautiful sandbox, with nice sand ...but no buckets, shovels, little army men or anything else -- just a square full of awesome sand. I can only make zen drawings and erase them for so long.

I love the look and feel of the game. Flying and fighting feels as good as any space game ever made (and personally I think feels better than SC). That said, I haven't logged in for a week or more. I don't feel like there is any goal to work toward. I've got a pimped out Viper and have made a few exploration runs into the black. Is my goal to get another bigger ship in which I can do the same boring stuff? I know about planetary landing, and walking around ships and other future plans. What I want to know is what do they have planned for the next couple months as far as content, not tweaks or grouping mechanics. I mean stuff that isn't in the game now, which will be added to increase gameplay options and give us toys for the sandbox. That is what I logged into the forum looking for. I haven't seen it. So this so-called "flamebait" thread seems the best place to vent my frustration. I hate that I have a game I love so many aspects of, that completely bored me to tears after a month and now I have to play the same old, tired games I've spent hundreds or thousands of hours on and very much want to replace. But after a thousand or more hours they are still more entertaining.
 

Hyperlethal

Banned
Im wrestling with the same concern! its like it wants to be both a single player and a multiplayer at once and agame without actually being a game lol. One example of this is that mony making (except trading) doesn't even begin to scale with the player. so i figure Oh well guess the bigger ships are just for occasions but still that's pretty unfair to those of us who just dont want to jump on the trade train. i bet the guy with a T-9 in his hanger isnt so worried about his python getting destroyed from tme to time. im uncomfortable to even take my cobra into combat with a half mil buy back which is a lot of wanted sidewinders.

I think the devs wanted it to cater for everyone. if you dont want to go pew pewing then chill out and run some trade routs etc. enjoy the galaxy and such. but as it turns out the game is so middle-of-the-road that it caters to no one save for truck simulator fans. as OP says there is no point in doing anything :(

IMHO this game has made a grave mistake in making the grind the primary part of gameplay! it should either redesign the whole rebuy system or just scale the earning potential. let us chose one faction to support and put in rewards for doing so! its not much to ask.

Im hoping all this is coming in the form of patches but right now im basically playing the way i want (combating) and if i run out of mony for my final rebuy il move on to another game.
 
I like playing it and hope that one day, it will become a good game. I still play but in solo because of all the cheating and whiners that you'll get in any online game. I come back and play for a while but it doesn't hold my attention so much that I can't wait to load it up and play some more. The problem is that players are getting fed up with little content and tedious play that they are already leaving. If the servers get too under-populated, they will probably close them down, then everyone suffers since there's no offline mode for them to play on. If that happens, I'd expect an offline mode to come out immediately or a full refund since I can no longer play the game I've paid for. At the moment, I'm doing mostly trading with a few missions just to get a change of scenery but, without the ability to compare markets prices and such in game, it's getting really tedious and my notebook is already full up. I can't keep on doing manual notes, especially if prices change frequently if they bring in a dynamic market.

TBH: I think FD set themselves unrealistic goals on release dates and such and another year of development before release may not have gone amiss.
 
Purpose of Elite: Dangerous

The purpose always was and is to become an Elite Combateer. That is to reach the rank of Elite which you do by winning lots of battles. In ED you can also become Elite in Exploration and in Trading.:eek:
 
Yeah. People vs some big boss objective sounds fun IF they allow solo players to hire NPCs to enjoy it also. I don't really want to play with people and have to schedule around others for "an objective". Separating content is a bad move.

Plus I'm baffled by the whole wings thing. You really want to follow a trader for hours for a fraction of the profit? It will just enable group coordinated killing until actual content is in the game.

You are right it is super baffling.

EVE online had the option for contracts and escorts and it. was. never. used.
 
Generally I must say that this game is not turning out to be what I had hoped or expected.

I have currently 1.5 mill credits and a maxed out Cobra. I dont need anything else. I can do everything this game has to offer in my Cobra.
To me thats the end of "progression" in any game (Im not a trader btw):
- I dont need more money since I never die
- I dont need bigger ships since they will only increase the costs

The 1.1 upcomming version doesnt look to change that situation.
- I dont care about the python changes (since I will never fly one)
- Why would I help a generic NPC faction build a station via comunity goals?
- Fines on interdictions tries to harm the already sparce player-to-player interaction
- Friendly fire changes means only that I can fight without paying as much attention as I have been used to

I had really hoped that this would be the game I couldnt stay away from. I had really hoped that it would be like my EVE experience, where I played on a near daily basis for 6 straight years (2004-2010).

Instead I feel like I've "finished" a game thats not suppose to be finished. I cant progress any further in any meaningfull way - there are no goals left (that interest me):
- Anaconda kill missions are about looking for a randomly spawned uss. I cant get better at it - no skill involved.
- I was made an ally to a minor faction after 5 missions, and nothing changed beyond the greeting when asking for docking clearance.
- Im never interdicted, not even by players

I had hoped that this would be the game where I could set a distant goal, and head for it. But there just arent any goals that are difficult to reach, and once you get there nothing changes. I had hoped for a good multiplayer experience. I had hoped there would be something to do together with friends.

In the end its my own fault. I cant blame a game developer for not sharing my hopes and dreams. They make the game they want, and its sadly not turning out to be a game for me.

What I can blame the game developer for is lack of focus. When the executive producer of ED announces that he will be executively producing another Tycoon game, it just cant be good for ED.
There is NO way that move will benefit this game. A company with 200 developers (as impressive as that my sound) will struggle to do both well. Especially since ED is realeased already and could end on the lower prioritized end.

What I can blame the game developer for is not having a connected development process. The game just feels disconnected once you get a little hang of things. The launch trailer is a very visible cue of this... a video showing gameplay, ship moves and other things not actually in the game. Even the ED community manager couldnt bring it on himself to call it anything other than "a good mood piece". It displays in plain daylight that the teams within the company arent working together. If they use something like Scrum, they certainly seem to need someone in the role of "product owner" or "stakeholder" to step up and connect the dots.

Finally, when the NPC AI developer states on these forums that she is having difficulties handling the negativity, it comes off a bit sad. Its not negativity, but involved players broken hopes and dreams.

Wings...
... is not the answer. There is nothing in this game that I can do better with a partner. Also the p2p nature of the game means that if 2 wings go up against each other, half of them might not see anything. And if the wings are a bit large the player cap gets in the way.

So, what to do for me? If any of you have some constructive suggestions - then please let me know. Either by PM or just replying here.
This game is certanly not something that can be played for years straight. 3.5 month, with a couple of days a week feels more right (thats what I have been able to put into ED). And that is perfectly fine, if that was the goal of the developers. But if they want me to stay longer - they sure have lots to do.

As for a new game, I have discovered "Infinifactory", a great puzzle game that teases my mind. A strange contrast to the great multiplayer space experience I otherwise was craving.
 
The purpose always was and is to become an Elite Combateer. That is to reach the rank of Elite which you do by winning lots of battles. In ED you can also become Elite in Exploration and in Trading.:eek:

That may have satisfied in 1984, and years later for the sequels. But as a means to urge players to continue playing in an empty game in 2015 I cannot accept that. The post above articulates other concerns around how Frontier have approached this internally. Shifts in focus to other games are expected, of course they would be, but there's a massive flaw in their operational strategy and processes: Elite Dangerous is not a single product release with a finite cycle, its a long term commitment to evolve an online multiplayer over a number of years. They surely must have thought about creating almost a separate division internally to handle nothing but ED, from development to marketing to PR to design and so on. But I see nothing of that in the way this game is being treated. I see a complete lack of understanding of what I means to product an online multiplayer and the focus required. I see a complete lack of experience from marketing and PR in the way it handles basic media presence. There's an entire sense of lack of cohesion within Frontier right now when a global gaming and science community is watching them.

Was posting this in another thread that got locked. Just pasting it in here because I'm not letting the typing go to waste, and it is relevant to the thread.
- Yes, I started that one with the Dangerous or Endangered review and it followed the same well crafted sentiments shared here. Sadly someone decided to turn it into a Star Citizen trollfest so the Mod closed it. But if you've not read the thread I'd recommend it because there are some very pertinent points raised. I hope this thread remains open and true without degenerating the same way.
 
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Finally, when the NPC AI developer states on these forums that she is having difficulties handling the negativity, it comes off a bit sad. Its not negativity, but involved players broken hopes and dreams.

What a great post!

As far the AI developer part goes, I agree as well. Unless FD have said that Elite is 100% complete and perfect, then surely they would be open to concerns about their product.

For someone to say they want to post more but find it too negative here is a very backhanded way of telling us to complain less, whether the concerns are valid or not. If listening to feedback is too difficult, I'd suggest getting a community manager to collate the feedback and present it to each department in a more easily digestible format. Coming to the forums and telling players they're too negative, when there are clearly things wrong with this game, is not the best way to do things.

It actually reinforces my feeling that FD are a little out of touch with where their game is at and how it compares with player expectations (whether fostered by FD, or simply by what other games offer in the year 2015), and where it's headed, for the future.

When I think about things like that, it gets really hard to log in.
 
What I can blame the game developer for is lack of focus. When the executive producer of ED announces that he will be executively producing another Tycoon game, it just cant be good for ED.
There is NO way that move will benefit this game. A company with 200 developers (as impressive as that my sound) will struggle to do both well. Especially since ED is realeased already and could end on the lower prioritized end.

Well this part isn't really true. Tycoons is probably the only way ED will get finished. Most players in this game were backers, meaning they gave their money years ago. That money has long been spent. The new player haven't injected enough money in. They need the Tycoon as a cash cow to bring in money, so some can be diverted back into ED. Paid expansion alone won't support this game. Expansion require New Features. These feature won't really address the current shortcomings, those fixes need to be free.

Many players won't pay for planetary landings, and walking around their ship if the core problems aren't fixed FIRST. Income is needed, Tycoon sell.
 
Coming to the forums and telling players they're too negative, when there are clearly things wrong with this game, is not the best way to do things.

I wouldn't go that far but I do get the sense Frontier are completely naive in how they approach community management and PR. I'm also under the impression they control the Elite Dangerous sub-reddit, so in effect can massage how the game appears by making negativity vanish. The fact this thread is still waiting for any kind of acknowledgement from them is staggering and also very deflating. They wouldn't be met with vitriol, that's not what this entire post is about.
 
Well they could tell us that certain things aren't working as intended, like the background sim. Say they are aware and go play some other part of the game for now. Or explain the rules governing these things if they are working, but are unclear. The could lay out a road map, without committing to a time table. Tell us what their priorities are. Or ASK us about ours. Not just sending out newsletters talking about how awesome every thing is...
 
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