My suggestions

[Burgerking]

1. More excitement! Better, more complex and through this much more exciting missions and mission mechanics.
   Seriously, for this, take a look at the X-Wing and TIE-Fighter games finally! You could develop a naval career or stuff like that from this.
   It would be really nice to have some sort of mini campaigns in the style the Xwing games had. For example instead of these dumb delivery requirements for the engineers.
   Why not having to solve a mini campaign with lets say 6-8 story driven missions? That would be so much more entertaining and connecting to the game world. You could tell a story about every single engineer. Doing engineering wouldn't be grinding only anymore. Some of the USS could also trigger scripted actions from NPCs. Perhaps with voice acted communication chatter?!
   Really, take a good look at the old XWing and TIEFighter games and the outstanding mission elements there (i.e. escorts, cargo transfers, ship capturing, base attacks, and much more).
   I'm sure we could use some of it really good for the Bulletin Board Missions in ED.
2. More life! More usable space or planetary structures. Lets say let us deliver stuff directly to dedicated container depots, medical stations, military outposts, pirate settlements. The existing stations and bases are not varied and interesting enough. Add more traffic like NPC shuttles, mule-ships, repair drones, huge harvesters or mining vehicles and stuff like that. All places in game feel pretty much bleak and dead at the moment. You won’t be able to avoid actual 3D in game human characters any longer in my opinion. Voice acting for all radio messages.
3. More space exploration! Maybe that’s on it’s way for „Beyond“, but we need much, much, much more interesting and varied stuff to discover in space and on planets. Exploration is way too monotonous at the moment.

The stuff announced for „Beyond“ is nice, but it’s not enough to bring this game significantly further.
The game at it’s current state is too sterile, the implementation too „gutless“ in some ways.

 

[MBaldelli]

[*]More life! More usable space or planetary structures. Lets say let us deliver stuff directly to dedicated container depots, medical stations, military outposts, pirate settlements. The existing stations and bases are not varied and interesting enough. Add more traffic like NPC shuttles, mule-ships, repair drones, huge harvesters or mining vehicles and stuff like that. All places in game feel pretty much bleak and dead at the moment. You won’t be able to avoid actual 3D in game human characters any longer in my opinion. Voice acting for all radio messages.

[*]More space exploration! Maybe that’s on it’s way for „Beyond“, but we need much, much, much more interesting and varied stuff to discover in space and on planets. Exploration is way too monotonous at the moment.

I can tell you're an X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter fan...

All right, one nitpick... And the second is more a suggestion than a nitpick.

I don't want more NPC ships in the game. First off, the bigger ships -- like the Orca, Beluga, Type 9, Anaconda and Corvette -- don't recognize players in the environment, making them positive hazards to smaller manned/commander ships. In fact I often joke that the Beluga should be given a bumper sticker on the back that reads, We Brake for NOONE. Because no matter how I take precaution, they always seem to be getting in my face or up my tailpipe.

The smaller ships do about the same thing, but don't suffer from inertia as much as the larger ships making them a bit easier to avoid.

And like it or not, but being dead/vacant is about right for smaller systems/stations than larger. For larger it would still be sparse even with routine trading/cargo missions. Imagine how big the Bubble is and how much bigger the Milky Way is. Seeing other Commanders would be rare because of those massive sizes and expanses. Hell, I should be seeing no USS outside of 100 LY (and not at 5,000+ LY as I did during the last exploration mission).

This game is more like something Asimov or McDevitt would write and not Lucas or Rodenberry.

As for exploration.. Well... We're still waiting to land on planets with atmospheres. Couple this with the fact the devs maintain there are secrets out there in the Milky Way that's still not discovered. Until they are, I suspect you have something to do when it comes to exploration.

 

[Burgerking]

I can tell you're an X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter fan...

I am. These games had the best and most diverse and complex mission mechanics of all 1st person space games (Wing Commander included) of all time. More than 20 years later we can only dream of this standard. This is really embarrassing and disappointing.

 

[varonica]

I am. These games had the best and most diverse and complex mission mechanics of all 1st person space games (Wing Commander included) of all time. More than 20 years later we can only dream of this standard. This is really embarrassing and disappointing.

I suspect you are going to get the "this is not Xwing v tai fighter, eve,wing commander or any of those other games, this is an Elite game," so don't be to put out when you do!

Now I have never played any of the original Elite games, but many of the backers the of kick starter were players and they expect an Elite type game, and this is where we get a lot of conflict between new players and old timers, because Elite Dangerous is essentially the re-imagining of those original games using the latest technology and software. I have gone back and looked over the lore and the philosophy of those old games, you are just a tiny cog in an immense and uncaring universe, not a hero known across the galaxy. If Star Citizen ever gets released (no flames please), that will be far more similar to the games you look back on fondly. I don't think the makers of ED have the same outlook as you on what a space exploration and trading game should be like, but it is their game and I doubt it will ever be changed to what you want.

I have been playing for a while now and I still enjoy it, if it was the game you describe I probably wouldn't be playing it at all because I specifically looked for a game that suited my tastes when looking at space games and would have rejected it as unsuitable. The makers can't satisfy everyone, the game would be to cumbersome and unwieldy, but things do change, I look forward to more exploration mechanics, but I don't think your desires will be satisfied. When we do finally get out into the universe proper (as I hope we do) then I think it will be far more like ED than any of the other games out now and coming in the future, that's what I want. When I say universe I don't mean hyperdrive and all the game guff, I mean the guts of it, the universe itself, cold, uncaring and wonderful and amazing at the same time.

 

[Burgerking]

It would be well worth the time to have a look at the mechanics and possibilities these game had. I agree, ED isn’t a Xwing game, shouldn’t and doesn’t want to. But: There are many aspects of Elite that could benefit from taking a deeper look at these old games. Many mission types of our bulletin board could be made much more interesting using those mechanics.

We do have naval ranks in ED without having any kind of decent naval missions.

 

[Syrelai]

I'm not sure about the x-wing games as I haven't really had much experience with them, but even without different mission types, I'd feel much better having a reason to care which "side" I'm on, Federation, Empire, or even in Power Play.

I could not care less right now who's who in Power Play. I have no reason to align and do work for a power because, outside of getting their specific module and dropping them immediately, I have no reason to stay aligned. I want to care, but I have no reason to truly care about one or the other.

If I align to a Power that has a unique module, I should be able to get it unlocked on lets say, rank 2 or 3, so that I can keep it as long as i'm with that power. The moment I drop that power, I lose it, as it's that Power's unique specialty.

More engaging missions would be nice, for sure... but at the same rate, the work necessary for that aside from perhaps a minor overhaul of powerplay mechanics I think is a bit more realistic, just my opinion.