jUSt PLaY tHe GaMe and You'LL get MaTS!11

[CMDRButtFace]

Really? This seems to be the #1 response from non-casual players. Ok, let me play the game. When I read about Elite before I bought it, combat was my main desire. Big ass space battles are awesome.

1. Decide I want to do some combat
2. Sell my ship and trade for something combat focused
3. Spend whatever left on parts
4. Grab some combat missions that - from their very ing vague description - sound fun
5. Die a bunch of times on the combat missions, quickly realize that because the mission pays low, doesn't mean it will be easy
6. Through trial and error, figure out exactly which combat missions are possible to complete
7. After completing some missions, the soul-crushing realization of how long it will take to progress to conflict zones sets in as I'll need a 150m FDL
8. Decide I need to make more money faster
9. Switch to trading ship
10. Not bad, make about 10m credits, but get very sick of jumping and cruising, miss the thrill of combat. The best hauler is still verrrrry far away from being purchased. Need money even faster.
11. Pick up a Dolphin as I heard passenger missions are nice, can't do anything just yet because you'll want to blow your brains out without an engineered FSD
12. Lookup felicity, need meta alloys
13. Fly a mind-numbing amount of jumps in a non-engineered mid grade FSD to Darnielle's progress, none for sale despite it being "so easy, just buy them!" online
14. Find a spreadsheet containing known locations of them on planets
15. Buy an SRV
16. More ungodly jumps to a planet with barnicles
17. Land, wrestle with glitchy rubbish SRV controls
18. Find barnacle, finally get a meta alloy
19. Yet more netflix and jumping to Felicity
20. Engineer my FSD, get a piddly increase in jumping
21. Rage-sell my dolphin and try mining
22. Time spent vs credit income is utterly ridiculous compared to trading or passenger missions
23. Rage crash my mining ship into the sun
24. Buy an ASP, honk around sytems, quickly get bored of supercruising to planets
25. Go back to Bubble to sell my data, get a laughable amount of credits, not going to jump 5000 lys away doing that ad nauseum to get a higher amount of credits
21. Quit the game because after doing ALLLLLL that over WEEKS of playing and I haven't even made a dent in FSD progress. I've literally been playing the game trying to progress and have for mats.

Oh but GOD FORBID I try to "farm" any mats or lookup clever ways to get mats. No no no, you should just be playing the same missions over and over and over and over again until you get enough for the next level of engineering. You went to Dav's hope to try and get mats faster to save time? LOL, if you had just played the game for 100 more hours you would've had the mats anyways!!!

In summary: why isn't there an "easy/medium/hard" difficulty slider for Solo mode? That way, all the hardcore elite players who play the game 40 hours a week will feel special, and people who have video games as a hobby with only a few hours a week will get satisfaction and progression? Then you can create a subforum specifically for easy mode, that way we don't get condescending elitist responses from someone who has 1000 hours into the game and loves everything about it.

 

[sollisb]

Look on the bright side. You found out quicker than some who spent years hoping Frontier could and would, get their act together.

 

[yelboc]

Screw combat missions. Get over to your nearest High-Res and get stuck in!

 

[Bigmaec]

Yes, the game has a steep learning curve.
No, you don't need a FdL for combat, just use a Vulture. Costs roughly 10 void opals fully A-rated.
Go to a high rez and learn Combat. it has a steep learning curve, and you'll gonna die. We all died.
Git gudder, upgrade your Vulture, it's an endgame ship.

Find people who also love combat, wing up with them, get infos how to get materials.

Don't give up, it's an amazing game, but it IS difficult in the beginning. After your first ship is engineered halfway decent, it gets easier.

 

[Morbad]

In summary: why isn't there an "easy/medium/hard" difficulty slider for Solo mode?

Because all the modes are the same shared game. You can exclude your CMDR from direct encounters with others, but you cannot isolate your CMDR from the effects of other CMDRs on the setting, nor can you prevent your CMDR from contributing to changes that may impact others.

 

[Vardaugas]

Of course, if you start a marathon in full plate armor, you are unlikely to win. Doesn't mean the game was rigged against you.

 

[Muetdhiv3r]

23. Rage crash my mining ship into the sun

Sound fun !

 

[Aashenfox]

Um, it's the casuals that don't understand the issue and say it's fine, but apart from that, I pretty much agree.

 

[Kenneth McGrew]

ah yes because just playing the game out in the black gets you plenty of pharmaceutical isolators....... hundreds of them..... you just have to farm them using the latest meta kinda "just play the game" is what they really mean then you can get back to doing what you came on ED to actually do.

 

[dm06]

In summary: why isn't there an "easy/medium/hard" difficulty slider for Solo mode?

I can imagine easy mode for casual players: Elite Dangerous for mobiles when you drag your ship with a finger between stations.

 

[Midian Cabal]

Weeks of playing?
I had a fully engineered FdL with a Guardian FSD and shield booster in two weeks on my alt account.
Once when you know what you're doing, it's ez-pz lemon squeezy.

 

[yelboc]

Nah.. High res has you covered:

• Wake scans for data mats (dont forget to pack a wake scanner)
• Debris from dead ships give plenty of low/medium mats
• Scanning targets give more data
• You get pew pew as much as you want/can stand - let the cops do most of the work when you start, then work your way up to Haz Res's and CZ in time
• M's CR / hr in a high res as a bonus (dont forget to pack a kill warrant scanner)

Then add a bit of mat mining by relogging at Dav's hope.
Use Material traders for the rest by trading up low level mats for high ones. Also the advantage of G4 to G5 isnt really that much if you get bored.
The irritating part of engineering is the tea grinder..

There - unlimited pew-pew with bonus mats and credits - what else did you want?

 

[cheesenbiscuits]

If you’re in a big rush to do things there are ways an means to do it.
Rather than complain about it,why not ask for some advice?

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Um, it's the casuals that don't understand the issue and say it's fine, but apart from that, I pretty much agree.

I'm pretty casual. I'm so casual that I actually dont play the game. It is the ultimate casualness. No wonder since ED requires a level of professionalism to get anywhere, but I already have a job.

 

[Midian Cabal]

I'm pretty casual. I'm so casual that I actually dont play the game. It is the ultimate casualness. No wonder since ED requires a level of professionalism to get anywhere, but I already have a job.

To some people it's a hobby, to some people it's a job.
I guess that I'm lucky to be paid really well for my hobby.

 

[zimms]

Nah.. High res has you covered:

• Wake scans for data mats (dont forget to pack a wake scanner)
• Debris from dead ships give plenty of low/medium mats
• Scanning targets give more data
• You get pew pew as much as you want/can stand - let the cops do most of the work when you start, then work your way up to Haz Res's and CZ in time
• M's CR / hr in a high res as a bonus (dont forget to pack a kill warrant scanner)

Then add a bit of mat mining by relogging at Dav's hope.
Use Material traders for the rest by trading up low level mats for high ones. Also the advantage of G4 to G5 isnt really that much if you get bored.
The irritating part of engineering is the tea grinder..

There - unlimited pew-pew with bonus mats and credits - what else did you want?

That sounds suspiciously like you're trying to gather materials instead of just playing the game.

 

[sollisb]

Yes, the game has a steep learning curve.
No, you don't need a FdL for combat, just use a Vulture. Costs roughly 10 void opals fully A-rated.
Go to a high rez and learn Combat. it has a steep learning curve, and you'll gonna die. We all died.
Git gudder, upgrade your Vulture, it's an endgame ship.

Find people who also love combat, wing up with them, get infos how to get materials.

Don't give up, it's an amazing game, but it IS difficult in the beginning. After your first ship is engineered halfway decent, it gets easier.

Semi-truths...

A Rated vulture against any engineered ship, is going to lose. If you read his 'story' his problem is the materials gathering, which we all know is a minigame with no other outcome than wanting to bang your head of the nearest lamp-post.

So that leaves him in a high-res, with an ARated vulture against a wing of an Elite Anaconda and 2 gunships.

Let's be honest here.. It takes a lot of hard work just to get a G5DD ship, before that, Frontier designers in their infinte wisdom, decided that putting un-engineered player against their randomly generated engineered ship was a good thing. And if they [the players] wanted to compete, they'd have to jump through some more random of an idea they call material gathering.

 

[Nutter]

I'm not an expert miner but take a ship and crack open a couple of rocks for a minimum of 26 void opels per hour and bish bosh bash you have 200mil easy in a couple of hours

 

[sollisb]

Weeks of playing?
I had a fully engineered FdL with a Guardian FSD and shield booster in two weeks on my alt account.
Once when you know what you're doing, it's ez-pz lemon squeezy.

Haha Weeks... Cutter, fully engineered, multi-billion bank balance, in under 20 hrs... And Elite Trader into the bargain. I did it my way

 

[Bigmaec]

Semi-truths...

A Rated vulture against any engineered ship, is going to lose. If you read his 'story' his problem is the materials gathering, which we all know is a minigame with no other outcome than wanting to bang your head of the nearest lamp-post.

So that leaves him in a high-res, with an ARated vulture against a wing of an Elite Anaconda and 2 gunships.

Let's be honest here.. It takes a lot of hard work just to get a G5DD ship, before that, Frontier designers in their infinte wisdom, decided that putting un-engineered player against their randomly generated engineered ship was a good thing. And if they [the players] wanted to compete, they'd have to jump through some more random of an idea they call material gathering.

I spent the first 300 hours or so without Horizons, added it only later. So don't tell me it's a semi-truth.
There are no engineered Elite Anacondas in a high res which are actively attacking you, so you can easily wait for them to be softened up by system security, arguably that's the only reason to go to a high at all, compared to a haz. You have to pick your fights carefully unengineered, sure, but it is not a big problem. You gather the basic mats this way and that enables you to engineer your Vulture at least to g3 in the relevant parts, at which Point there is no single NPC in a high res that is a danger to a Vulture.

edit to be clear: there are no engineered enemies at all in a high res.