There's plenty to like about ED, and "not being Eve" is certainly not one of its problems.
But it has problems - they all fall into one category though, that of the game saying "screw you, play more". I mean, while the game has added more convenience features like SCO drives to avoid the insane tedium of long flights, there's plenty that need updating too. Such as:
exobiology data being lost on death. Why? There's no reason to do this except to annoy you. You keep materials, why not data? You spend a long time on a somewhat frustrating gameplay loop only to die and be told "tough, do it again sucker". There's no trip computer on the SRV so you can't see how far you've gone to the next plant. Why? So the game can laugh at you as you get out to scan a plant only for it to tell you "too bad, you didn't go far enough". When the game refuses to tell you how far you've gone. Why - to create a false engagement of wasting your time on crappy bits.
Why does player convenience features like the autopilots take up slots? So you have to choose between convenience for you as a player, and ship builds. There's literally no sane reason to do this except to annoy the player and create a false sense of engagement again.
Why does cargo carry with the player and not the ship? The game obviously wants us to try different ships and builds, yet then makes moving between them a painful experience. I've even travelled in a shuttle to my mining ship for a bit of mining that I wanted to do, for fun, only to be told I coulnd't get in the ship because my other one had cargo in it (ie limpets) so too bad - the game laughs at me and says I can't play. Even switching ships at the same place switches cargo, which again was a "screw you" moment as the corrosive item I had in my main ship suddenly appeared in my non-resistant ship's cargo bay to burn it up. Again, the game tells me I cannot play because it hates me.
And limpets - why do they take up cargo space, and are not reusable like ammo or fighters? Because the game designer has this idea that gameplay requires you to be forced to make build choices that restrict your gameplay. You want to do some salvage or rescue, well, you have to equip the right limpet controller that is dedicated to that. Which generally means you never do it, because rescue/salvage tends to be something you'd do as a side thing. But in order to do it you have to be dedicated to the task. So nobody really does it. that choice of specialised limpet controllers serves only 1 outcome: saying "screw you player, you cannot have fun". I'd like to do some of that gameplay loops occasionally, but because I don't have these limpet controllers all the time, I can't. Hence, again, the game limits you and says "no".
Why even are limpets held as cargo? Why can't they put themselves back in the cargo bay they came out of? Why do you need to go into a sub menu of a sub menu and click buy/sell limpets (note, doesn't even tell you how many you have so you have to click click click through to find out) in order to buy some, and cannot then restock in a single click. Because the game loves making life hard for you to limit your experience.
Imagine if all limpet controllers could do all tasks, and had a reusable number of limpets in the controller module, and the size and class of controller determined the number of limpets available. Then the game would be better, there's no need to limit players to do only certain tasks when the game design shoudl be all about making all gameplay loops as available as possible. Sure you may specialise between tdae or combat, but limpets are not a dedicated task build. Instead, artificial limitations are imposed solely to make bad design into the gameplay itself.
Why do you have to get out of your ship and walk all the way to the concourse to get odyssey missions? Why is there not a terminal on the hanger lobby where the lifts are? Becuase the game wants to make this time-wasting travel to the concourse part of the gameplay experience, to drag it out as much as possible. Of course I can hand in odyssey missions on the main ship screen... so why is the odyssey terminal missions not even on the same ship mission panel that I can hand them in on?
Why even do we not have a button for supercruise assist? Because the same design philosophy exists that says if its convenient to you, then its no good. You have to suffer to play, because that creates some braindead idea of gameplay. Message to game designer - scrollng through a long list to find the barely highlighted target to use the damn feature I spent a slot on is not good design.
The game should be emphasising the good, fun parts and minimising the friction to being able to play those parts. It tries very hard to do the opposite, for no good reason. So whilst I enjoy the game overall, these design "features" actively make me want to play something else every time I open it up. Its a shame, so my "new player experience" of 3 weeks now, is full of joy at the good bits and head-shaking, and some serious tutting, at the design parts that try hard to deny you that enjoyment.
My ultimate new player experience is that every time I think of playing, something in my head says "why? it hates you" and I can feel that one day I will simply agree with it and stop playing. Probably never to come back. And that would be a shame.
But it has problems - they all fall into one category though, that of the game saying "screw you, play more". I mean, while the game has added more convenience features like SCO drives to avoid the insane tedium of long flights, there's plenty that need updating too. Such as:
exobiology data being lost on death. Why? There's no reason to do this except to annoy you. You keep materials, why not data? You spend a long time on a somewhat frustrating gameplay loop only to die and be told "tough, do it again sucker". There's no trip computer on the SRV so you can't see how far you've gone to the next plant. Why? So the game can laugh at you as you get out to scan a plant only for it to tell you "too bad, you didn't go far enough". When the game refuses to tell you how far you've gone. Why - to create a false engagement of wasting your time on crappy bits.
Why does player convenience features like the autopilots take up slots? So you have to choose between convenience for you as a player, and ship builds. There's literally no sane reason to do this except to annoy the player and create a false sense of engagement again.
Why does cargo carry with the player and not the ship? The game obviously wants us to try different ships and builds, yet then makes moving between them a painful experience. I've even travelled in a shuttle to my mining ship for a bit of mining that I wanted to do, for fun, only to be told I coulnd't get in the ship because my other one had cargo in it (ie limpets) so too bad - the game laughs at me and says I can't play. Even switching ships at the same place switches cargo, which again was a "screw you" moment as the corrosive item I had in my main ship suddenly appeared in my non-resistant ship's cargo bay to burn it up. Again, the game tells me I cannot play because it hates me.
And limpets - why do they take up cargo space, and are not reusable like ammo or fighters? Because the game designer has this idea that gameplay requires you to be forced to make build choices that restrict your gameplay. You want to do some salvage or rescue, well, you have to equip the right limpet controller that is dedicated to that. Which generally means you never do it, because rescue/salvage tends to be something you'd do as a side thing. But in order to do it you have to be dedicated to the task. So nobody really does it. that choice of specialised limpet controllers serves only 1 outcome: saying "screw you player, you cannot have fun". I'd like to do some of that gameplay loops occasionally, but because I don't have these limpet controllers all the time, I can't. Hence, again, the game limits you and says "no".
Why even are limpets held as cargo? Why can't they put themselves back in the cargo bay they came out of? Why do you need to go into a sub menu of a sub menu and click buy/sell limpets (note, doesn't even tell you how many you have so you have to click click click through to find out) in order to buy some, and cannot then restock in a single click. Because the game loves making life hard for you to limit your experience.
Imagine if all limpet controllers could do all tasks, and had a reusable number of limpets in the controller module, and the size and class of controller determined the number of limpets available. Then the game would be better, there's no need to limit players to do only certain tasks when the game design shoudl be all about making all gameplay loops as available as possible. Sure you may specialise between tdae or combat, but limpets are not a dedicated task build. Instead, artificial limitations are imposed solely to make bad design into the gameplay itself.
Why do you have to get out of your ship and walk all the way to the concourse to get odyssey missions? Why is there not a terminal on the hanger lobby where the lifts are? Becuase the game wants to make this time-wasting travel to the concourse part of the gameplay experience, to drag it out as much as possible. Of course I can hand in odyssey missions on the main ship screen... so why is the odyssey terminal missions not even on the same ship mission panel that I can hand them in on?
Why even do we not have a button for supercruise assist? Because the same design philosophy exists that says if its convenient to you, then its no good. You have to suffer to play, because that creates some braindead idea of gameplay. Message to game designer - scrollng through a long list to find the barely highlighted target to use the damn feature I spent a slot on is not good design.
The game should be emphasising the good, fun parts and minimising the friction to being able to play those parts. It tries very hard to do the opposite, for no good reason. So whilst I enjoy the game overall, these design "features" actively make me want to play something else every time I open it up. Its a shame, so my "new player experience" of 3 weeks now, is full of joy at the good bits and head-shaking, and some serious tutting, at the design parts that try hard to deny you that enjoyment.
My ultimate new player experience is that every time I think of playing, something in my head says "why? it hates you" and I can feel that one day I will simply agree with it and stop playing. Probably never to come back. And that would be a shame.
