Let's imagine playing ED without inara, eddb, or other 3rd party sites.
- Thread starter St0rmFury
- Start date
If ED really needed those things, that'd be a valid criticism.
When I first started playing Elite, back in 1984, it quickly became obvious that it'd be a good idea to keep a record of data about the systems I visited.
I'd just started a full-time job and I "borrowed" a ring-binder from work, designed a blank form (on the newfangled office PC) which I could use to record data from the game, printed it out and then photocopied it a hundred times.
I ended-up with hundreds of pages of system data, all sorted by region of the galaxy, which I could use to find stuff or decide where to buy and sell cargo.
I don't see that as "cheating" and, if sites like EDDB and INARA didn't exist, I'd simply be doing it in ED as well.
To me, that's also just "expanding the game-world out into the real-world" and sites like EDDB and INARA achieve that in exactly the same way the ring-binder I had in the 1980's did.
You can gain a basic understanding of how stuff works from within ED and then, if you wanted to, you could log data from every system you visit and use that to your advantage.
It'd be painstaking and long-winded but you could do it.
Sites like EDDB and INARA simply achieve the same result without the hassle of writing heaps of stuff down yourself.
Putting words in my mouth I see, quite distasteful.
Does ED need it though? I argue it doesn't.
You can design a ship without Coriolis.io, but there's a chance it might not be optimal. Are optimal builds necessary to do everything in the game? Absolutely not.
You can find good trades without eddb.io, but there's a chance it might not be a 100% optimal route. Are optimal routes necessary to trade? Absolutely not.
You can find fittings and ships easily enough by checking out most High Tech/Military posts, and it's sane that bigger population usually means more diversity, plus there's always Jameson, which you are actively notified about when you hit Elite and reach the permit. Could you miss the ship/fitting you're after a bit closer to home? Maybe. Does it ruin the game? Absolutely not.
Can you find Thargoids/Thargoid sites and relevant objects for unlocking them without external tools. Definitely; most are even marked on the map. Could you find them quicker with external tools? Sure. Does that break anything? Nope.
Can you find and complete all relevant Guardian stuff without using external tools? Absolutely[1]. Are you going to have a harder time finding all codex entries without a guide or external time? Sure. Is it impossible? No way.
Do you need external tools to discover things/do exploration? Nope
Do you need external tools to do missions? Nope
etc.
People bandy about the term "need" or "required" a bit too freely, when what they mean is "To be 100% optimal you require external tools" which is a whole other thing. Even then, the definition of "need" is completely subjective. I might "need" external tools to optimise a fitting, but someone who can just do that math in their head unassisted won't need it. This is the same issue as for those who consider the so-called 'grind' either "necessary", "mandatory" or otherwise "required". Engineering is unequivocally not required, it just makes some things easier.
[1] Granted, the missions you get at the docks might be very hard to find, but some old Galnet articles at least point to them. Hopefully FD fix that by making those missions available through Ram Tah directly, per the engineer focused feedback.
I don't use them - only to find nearest stations. Otherwise I might as well find all the water worlds and earth like planets and go scan them. I'm not sure but wasn't there an option to purchase system information. Also - I don't understand how to use them lol
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The point is that originally that was part of the game. You have a ship, fly around earning bits of money while looking for upgrades. It was never designed as a game where you follow the meta to earn 100s of millions in a hour, use datascapers to get the closest location for everything so you can have the best ASAP so you can complain the game is shallow.so you just advised someone to waste 3 hours of his life looking for ships and modules
It's the gamers' habit of replacing fun with grind where possible that turned ED into what it is today.
Oh I can stand you, that doesn't mean I won't call out your lies, then again, you are the one throwing ad hominems now
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Oh I can stand you, that doesn't mean I won't call out your lies, then again, you are the one throwing ad hominems now
Lies? Precious!
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Lies? Precious!
regardless of whether one feels FD should invest more resources into making things easier/better searchable, I think it is pretty self-evident that wanting better in-game tools doesn't mean people dont want to think for themselves. What people are arguing is that the 3rd party tools are widely popular, and that it would be better and more elegant if even part of such functionality would be in-game rather than requiring constant alt-tabbing.
Lies? Precious!
Feel free to disagree, but its a bit over-the-top to phrase it as 'not wanting to think'.
As always, I respond in kind