Yes, this is another thread about lack of depth in ED, I know it's been covered 1000 times before, I've posted on many a thread about this issue myself. I am bringing it up again because I love ED and believe this is the most significant issue facing it today and we should continue to talk about it . I'm not pointing fingers or even angry in any way, Frontier have done an amazing job on this game, and I have very high hopes for it's future. Nonetheless I do think it has room for improvement, so here I go.
So this is an issue I've been thinking about for some time, what exactly is it that makes ED feel so shallow. My subconscious must have been working on this problem on it's own, because it just struck me over the head from seemingly out of nowhere. What I believe is the reason that this game lacks depth, is the lack of any significant decision making in the game.
Let me expand on this a little. In my opinion the deepest games are the ones that force a player to make a lasting decision, something that will stick with them until the end. Here are some examples of what I mean.
Any classic RPG is about building a character, to do this you must decide what you want that character to be, whether that be wizard, thief, warrior, whatever. But the point is, once you've made that decision, there is no going back. Once I've built a character, it's mine until I restart the game. In skyrim for example, once I've become a mage specializing in destruction magic, I can't easily change it into a sword wielding warrior, and then into a thief on a whim. The decisions I make early in the game impact who I am at the end.
Another, entirely different, but arguably one of the deepest games is the civilization series. why? because that game is basically only about making decisions that will have an impact on the game. the same can be said for the simcity franchise, because it's entirely about making a decision that lasts, where should I put my airport? That 's an important decision to make, one that impacts how my whole city works.
The witcher, also good depth, even though it discards with most of the classic RPG model. You can't choose a class or a name for that matter, or really customize the character in any significant way, But it creates depth because decisions you make can drastically alter the entire outcome of the game. I think the witcher 2 has something like 16 different possible endings.
FTL, a lesser known game, and one that you can play start to finish in only an hour or two, nonetheless, very deep. Every playthrough will be different and every single decision you make in any one playthrough could be the difference between winning and losing, there is a definite depth and strategy to the game, even if it's only 16 bit.
Now Elite: Dangerous. As far as I can tell, there is absolutely nothing for me to decide in ED that can't simply be undone on a whim. When I started playing, it didn't feel this way because money was a concern for me. Which ship I bought seemed at the time to be somewhat significant, but now that I'm rich, I can hop from any ship to the next as I like. Powerplay let's me join and leave any faction pretty well however I like with no impact on the game, (getting hunted for a few days doesn't count, that's not a lasting consequence). Bounties disappear after a week so that I could murder 100 of a factions NPC's and a week later be doing missions for them. There are no decisions to make in this game other than "what should I do today", there is no strategy whatsoever in Elite: Dangerous.
The way I look at the problem is this. ED is an RPG whether you like it or not, but here's the kicker, you're not actually playing the role a space ship pilot, you are playing the role of the space ship itself. You can choose the class of ship and outfit it the way you want just like you do with a classic RPG character. In Skyrim I can be a thief that uses illusion magic, in ED I can be an eagle that uses railguns. But here's where ED differs, although it absolutely is a role playing game, it's a terrible one.
Just imagine if in skyrim, you could decide at any moment to completely remake your character from the bottom up. All the depth of the game would be gone, who cares what you do in the first half of the game if it has no lasting impact in the second half. But this is what ED is right now, I can change ships on a whim and outfit it as I like, decide to be a bounty hunter one day and a pirate the next, Join this power this week, next week try another. No lasting decisions whatsoever.
If we were then to make ED more like a classic RPG, it would mean choosing your ship at the beginning of the game and then upgrading it as you play without ever being able to switch ships. That's obviously nonsense, and not what I'm saying at all, we shouldn't turn ED into skyrim. what could be done though is make the things we do impact the game more, so that I can't just decide to be a pirate one day, and a bounty hunter the next. Lock me into a few decisions, like which major power I choose, make bounties on our heads permanent until death. Make the things I do count somehow so that I actually have to decide if I want to do them.
anyway, rant over, thanks for reading, feel free to disagree with me.
So this is an issue I've been thinking about for some time, what exactly is it that makes ED feel so shallow. My subconscious must have been working on this problem on it's own, because it just struck me over the head from seemingly out of nowhere. What I believe is the reason that this game lacks depth, is the lack of any significant decision making in the game.
Let me expand on this a little. In my opinion the deepest games are the ones that force a player to make a lasting decision, something that will stick with them until the end. Here are some examples of what I mean.
Any classic RPG is about building a character, to do this you must decide what you want that character to be, whether that be wizard, thief, warrior, whatever. But the point is, once you've made that decision, there is no going back. Once I've built a character, it's mine until I restart the game. In skyrim for example, once I've become a mage specializing in destruction magic, I can't easily change it into a sword wielding warrior, and then into a thief on a whim. The decisions I make early in the game impact who I am at the end.
Another, entirely different, but arguably one of the deepest games is the civilization series. why? because that game is basically only about making decisions that will have an impact on the game. the same can be said for the simcity franchise, because it's entirely about making a decision that lasts, where should I put my airport? That 's an important decision to make, one that impacts how my whole city works.
The witcher, also good depth, even though it discards with most of the classic RPG model. You can't choose a class or a name for that matter, or really customize the character in any significant way, But it creates depth because decisions you make can drastically alter the entire outcome of the game. I think the witcher 2 has something like 16 different possible endings.
FTL, a lesser known game, and one that you can play start to finish in only an hour or two, nonetheless, very deep. Every playthrough will be different and every single decision you make in any one playthrough could be the difference between winning and losing, there is a definite depth and strategy to the game, even if it's only 16 bit.
Now Elite: Dangerous. As far as I can tell, there is absolutely nothing for me to decide in ED that can't simply be undone on a whim. When I started playing, it didn't feel this way because money was a concern for me. Which ship I bought seemed at the time to be somewhat significant, but now that I'm rich, I can hop from any ship to the next as I like. Powerplay let's me join and leave any faction pretty well however I like with no impact on the game, (getting hunted for a few days doesn't count, that's not a lasting consequence). Bounties disappear after a week so that I could murder 100 of a factions NPC's and a week later be doing missions for them. There are no decisions to make in this game other than "what should I do today", there is no strategy whatsoever in Elite: Dangerous.
The way I look at the problem is this. ED is an RPG whether you like it or not, but here's the kicker, you're not actually playing the role a space ship pilot, you are playing the role of the space ship itself. You can choose the class of ship and outfit it the way you want just like you do with a classic RPG character. In Skyrim I can be a thief that uses illusion magic, in ED I can be an eagle that uses railguns. But here's where ED differs, although it absolutely is a role playing game, it's a terrible one.
Just imagine if in skyrim, you could decide at any moment to completely remake your character from the bottom up. All the depth of the game would be gone, who cares what you do in the first half of the game if it has no lasting impact in the second half. But this is what ED is right now, I can change ships on a whim and outfit it as I like, decide to be a bounty hunter one day and a pirate the next, Join this power this week, next week try another. No lasting decisions whatsoever.
If we were then to make ED more like a classic RPG, it would mean choosing your ship at the beginning of the game and then upgrading it as you play without ever being able to switch ships. That's obviously nonsense, and not what I'm saying at all, we shouldn't turn ED into skyrim. what could be done though is make the things we do impact the game more, so that I can't just decide to be a pirate one day, and a bounty hunter the next. Lock me into a few decisions, like which major power I choose, make bounties on our heads permanent until death. Make the things I do count somehow so that I actually have to decide if I want to do them.
anyway, rant over, thanks for reading, feel free to disagree with me.
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