Preamble:
So I suppose this post has been building up for a while - first off it's not a "bye I'm leaving" nor a vague threat to Frontier - but it's a culmination of 26 months of playing this game from Premium Beta until now. The inflection point is that my initial enthusiasm for the game has waned to the point I feel that a long overdue Titus rant needed to be posted
For me probably the most fun thing I've done with ED was a meta-gameplay of making my videos - since September 2014 I've done a total of 13, so that's an average of one every two months - they are time consuming to make.
In the early days there wasn't even a debug camera, but it helped. A lot of the time was spent finding interesting locations and then putting them together. I had more time to do this - but now not so much. 12 was released in January, 13 was in May.
And part of it is what I realise is the biggest commodity in Elite Dangerous is exactly that - time. The game has been designed this way because you cannot inject money into the game from the real world.
I see this from plenty people here in the forums, and on reddit and steam - the low grumble of complaints has become rather loud.
My personal perspective:
So where am I going with this... ?
In part I feel the direction that Frontier have been pushing the design is that instead of being a space simulator and MMO, they have instead created a game where you have to "do all the levels". They want us to grind time to have access to part of the game. If this was a small game then maybe that wouldn’t be so bad - but it’s a game that simulates a whole galaxy and spreads the game over a very large surface area.
That is, if I want to take part in The Engineers I have to:
* Bounty Hunt to collect materials (fine - this is my preferred career and what I enjoy with the time I play the game)
* Possibly do a bit of piracy to also collect material (not really what I want to do because I prefer to be chaotic good)
* Mine asteroids (I definitely don't want to do this, I find the mechanic laborious and far too time consuming)
* Mission run (I'd do this, but a lot of missions still appear bugged or do things like change targets to stations 300k ls inside systems)
* SRV - Drive across tens of KM of barren planet surfaces to shoot tiny rocks and hope they contain some magic space dust.
To access the engineers as well I have to collect their golden tickets like meta alloys - and to do that I have to travel to one of the far locations in the hope I can possibly collect something, or have to wait.
In that there is no exploration, which linked to the above bit about the video is another thing I enjoy about this game. The only thing exploration has linked to the game is the occasional community goals where you can make more money out of selling the data.
I've never taken part in Powerplay - but I feel it’s exactly the same. If I wanted to access the good stuff in that then I would have to spend weeks doing merit collection, helping push around magic bean counters to keep some omnipotent overlords happy. Again, simply no time - nor any real interest since these characters have little or no impact on me wanting to be a bounty hunter for hire.
With the upcoming releases I feel that they are continuing to push on features that large parts of the community, including me, won't really care about. Multi-crew ships - cool feature if you play with friends, but as we know from years of argument on here and reddit that there are lots of solo players, even in open and private groups. Personally I will appreciate the ship-launched fighters though.
"So Titus, are you getting to the point?" I hear you cry! (and I realise this is a bit of a rambling post)
I am one of the people adding my voice to tell Frontier that if they don’t listen to the players and work on quality of life features for Elite: Dangerous then they will see an ever-growing frustrated base leave and it will take a long time to gain their trust back, if ever.
And this isn’t the first time I’ve said this kind of thing - go back to Beta, I was vocal then about what I saw as a whole bunch of mis-steps, some of which are yet to be corrected.
I read the forums and reddit a lot and I see a lot of people make lots of similar requests - some wildly out there (no you're not getting offline mode!) - but many are absolutely reasonable, and I think Frontier's idea for the game is starting to tilt too far from what their community are asking for. Namely:
* The ability to buy and sell materials and data - Out there, there are people who have plenty time to play this game and collect the materials and data, and plenty people who don’t have time to.
If I want to make a nice roast dinner, I would go out and buy the ingredients and then make the meal. I might expect that I gather some vegetables from the garden but I don’t expect to have to go kill the animal and butcher it. Someone else does that and I buy the goods.
* The RNG Debate - Linked to the above problem with time, another failure on the part of The Engineers is the RNG. I was willing to give it a try, to give a pass on this - but after using it I see how flawed it is and I’m not prepared to spend any materials because if I get a bad roll it might take me several days to be able to find the replacement materials to try again.
I’m now leaning towards the idea that all module levels should be open and work on the same principle of synthesis - that if I want a Level 5 module then I understand the requirements to get it - that is I choose to put my time into it. As it current stands I can go for a Level 5 module and still get something terrible and all that time has been wasted.
* Module storage and transfer - I, and many other are one-ship players. If we do partake in the engineers then it means that if we want to keep the modules that we’ve spent all that effort on then we have to essentially triple the effort we put into the game - to have enough money to not only buy a new ship and cover the insurance costs, but then to spend the time finding the materials again and then hope that we roll something good.
* Module sales - I’m not 100% sure on this one as I haven’t done it, but I hazard a guess that if I enhance a module and then sell it, that module disappears into the ether - all that effort wasted. Again linked to time, players who have time could create modules that other players could buy directly. If I have a limited edition item I’d probably stick it on Ebay and auction or sell to the highest bidder
I think the middle two could be hugely mitigated by the first one - have the ability for us to sell our materials and data on an open market - maybe limit it to High Tech systems. Similarly the last one could limited to high-tech systems and allow players to put up items on something similar to the bulletin board - allowing transfer for hard cash.
Like I said, this is about quality of life features. This game doesn’t run on subscriptions - it comes from base sales, plus the willingness of players to buy future seasons, plus all the little nick-nacks like Skins, Bobbleheads and ship kits (which I’ve not bought into yet).
I’m lucky in that I have a lifetime subscriptions, I don’t need to give Frontier any more money to enjoy this game - but a large proportion of their customers do.
Take a step back Frontier - listen to the people playing your game. Yes it’s your game but if people are not enjoying it then they won’t be playing it for much longer.
Fin
TL;DR - The commodity of Elite: Dangerous is time, and Frontier provide no quality of life tools to mitigate that by allowing us to throw imaginary credits at time to lessen in.
Postscript:
Oh another thing I've since thought of - the lore and story line - again unless you have time to be part of is pretty much non existent in-game. I see bits and pieces of it around the internet - but in game I feel I have zero idea about what's going on.
So I suppose this post has been building up for a while - first off it's not a "bye I'm leaving" nor a vague threat to Frontier - but it's a culmination of 26 months of playing this game from Premium Beta until now. The inflection point is that my initial enthusiasm for the game has waned to the point I feel that a long overdue Titus rant needed to be posted
For me probably the most fun thing I've done with ED was a meta-gameplay of making my videos - since September 2014 I've done a total of 13, so that's an average of one every two months - they are time consuming to make.
In the early days there wasn't even a debug camera, but it helped. A lot of the time was spent finding interesting locations and then putting them together. I had more time to do this - but now not so much. 12 was released in January, 13 was in May.
And part of it is what I realise is the biggest commodity in Elite Dangerous is exactly that - time. The game has been designed this way because you cannot inject money into the game from the real world.
I see this from plenty people here in the forums, and on reddit and steam - the low grumble of complaints has become rather loud.
My personal perspective:
This year alone I've:
* Had a family holiday in Devon
* Had a diving trip in Lanzarote
* Had a holiday in France
* Had a holiday in Finland
* About to take a holiday to Kenya for two weeks in July
* Take a two week holiday in Peru in August
* Another week dive trip in Rhodes in September
On top of that a 40 hour work week, with roughly an hour of commuting a day. Live with a partner who isn't a gamer. Own a dog, who needs walked. Scuba dive and enjoy photography. Spend time with friends and enjoy their company, try enjoy the sun (because it can be rare in the UK) by spending my time outside.
I also try spice things up by not playing Elite Dangerous all the time, because it isn’t the only video game in the world - but I wish it was the game I wanted to play all the time (but it isn’t).
Edit: As mentioned below yes that's a lot of holidays - but when you're planning a family then you need to get those out the way while you can so it's less luck more timing
* Had a family holiday in Devon
* Had a diving trip in Lanzarote
* Had a holiday in France
* Had a holiday in Finland
* About to take a holiday to Kenya for two weeks in July
* Take a two week holiday in Peru in August
* Another week dive trip in Rhodes in September
On top of that a 40 hour work week, with roughly an hour of commuting a day. Live with a partner who isn't a gamer. Own a dog, who needs walked. Scuba dive and enjoy photography. Spend time with friends and enjoy their company, try enjoy the sun (because it can be rare in the UK) by spending my time outside.
I also try spice things up by not playing Elite Dangerous all the time, because it isn’t the only video game in the world - but I wish it was the game I wanted to play all the time (but it isn’t).
Edit: As mentioned below yes that's a lot of holidays - but when you're planning a family then you need to get those out the way while you can so it's less luck more timing
So where am I going with this... ?
In part I feel the direction that Frontier have been pushing the design is that instead of being a space simulator and MMO, they have instead created a game where you have to "do all the levels". They want us to grind time to have access to part of the game. If this was a small game then maybe that wouldn’t be so bad - but it’s a game that simulates a whole galaxy and spreads the game over a very large surface area.
That is, if I want to take part in The Engineers I have to:
* Bounty Hunt to collect materials (fine - this is my preferred career and what I enjoy with the time I play the game)
* Possibly do a bit of piracy to also collect material (not really what I want to do because I prefer to be chaotic good)
* Mine asteroids (I definitely don't want to do this, I find the mechanic laborious and far too time consuming)
* Mission run (I'd do this, but a lot of missions still appear bugged or do things like change targets to stations 300k ls inside systems)
* SRV - Drive across tens of KM of barren planet surfaces to shoot tiny rocks and hope they contain some magic space dust.
To access the engineers as well I have to collect their golden tickets like meta alloys - and to do that I have to travel to one of the far locations in the hope I can possibly collect something, or have to wait.
In that there is no exploration, which linked to the above bit about the video is another thing I enjoy about this game. The only thing exploration has linked to the game is the occasional community goals where you can make more money out of selling the data.
I've never taken part in Powerplay - but I feel it’s exactly the same. If I wanted to access the good stuff in that then I would have to spend weeks doing merit collection, helping push around magic bean counters to keep some omnipotent overlords happy. Again, simply no time - nor any real interest since these characters have little or no impact on me wanting to be a bounty hunter for hire.
With the upcoming releases I feel that they are continuing to push on features that large parts of the community, including me, won't really care about. Multi-crew ships - cool feature if you play with friends, but as we know from years of argument on here and reddit that there are lots of solo players, even in open and private groups. Personally I will appreciate the ship-launched fighters though.
"So Titus, are you getting to the point?" I hear you cry! (and I realise this is a bit of a rambling post)
I am one of the people adding my voice to tell Frontier that if they don’t listen to the players and work on quality of life features for Elite: Dangerous then they will see an ever-growing frustrated base leave and it will take a long time to gain their trust back, if ever.
And this isn’t the first time I’ve said this kind of thing - go back to Beta, I was vocal then about what I saw as a whole bunch of mis-steps, some of which are yet to be corrected.
I read the forums and reddit a lot and I see a lot of people make lots of similar requests - some wildly out there (no you're not getting offline mode!) - but many are absolutely reasonable, and I think Frontier's idea for the game is starting to tilt too far from what their community are asking for. Namely:
* The ability to buy and sell materials and data - Out there, there are people who have plenty time to play this game and collect the materials and data, and plenty people who don’t have time to.
If I want to make a nice roast dinner, I would go out and buy the ingredients and then make the meal. I might expect that I gather some vegetables from the garden but I don’t expect to have to go kill the animal and butcher it. Someone else does that and I buy the goods.
* The RNG Debate - Linked to the above problem with time, another failure on the part of The Engineers is the RNG. I was willing to give it a try, to give a pass on this - but after using it I see how flawed it is and I’m not prepared to spend any materials because if I get a bad roll it might take me several days to be able to find the replacement materials to try again.
I’m now leaning towards the idea that all module levels should be open and work on the same principle of synthesis - that if I want a Level 5 module then I understand the requirements to get it - that is I choose to put my time into it. As it current stands I can go for a Level 5 module and still get something terrible and all that time has been wasted.
* Module storage and transfer - I, and many other are one-ship players. If we do partake in the engineers then it means that if we want to keep the modules that we’ve spent all that effort on then we have to essentially triple the effort we put into the game - to have enough money to not only buy a new ship and cover the insurance costs, but then to spend the time finding the materials again and then hope that we roll something good.
* Module sales - I’m not 100% sure on this one as I haven’t done it, but I hazard a guess that if I enhance a module and then sell it, that module disappears into the ether - all that effort wasted. Again linked to time, players who have time could create modules that other players could buy directly. If I have a limited edition item I’d probably stick it on Ebay and auction or sell to the highest bidder
I think the middle two could be hugely mitigated by the first one - have the ability for us to sell our materials and data on an open market - maybe limit it to High Tech systems. Similarly the last one could limited to high-tech systems and allow players to put up items on something similar to the bulletin board - allowing transfer for hard cash.
Like I said, this is about quality of life features. This game doesn’t run on subscriptions - it comes from base sales, plus the willingness of players to buy future seasons, plus all the little nick-nacks like Skins, Bobbleheads and ship kits (which I’ve not bought into yet).
I’m lucky in that I have a lifetime subscriptions, I don’t need to give Frontier any more money to enjoy this game - but a large proportion of their customers do.
Take a step back Frontier - listen to the people playing your game. Yes it’s your game but if people are not enjoying it then they won’t be playing it for much longer.
Fin
TL;DR - The commodity of Elite: Dangerous is time, and Frontier provide no quality of life tools to mitigate that by allowing us to throw imaginary credits at time to lessen in.
Postscript:
Oh another thing I've since thought of - the lore and story line - again unless you have time to be part of is pretty much non existent in-game. I see bits and pieces of it around the internet - but in game I feel I have zero idea about what's going on.
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