The QoL passes need to happen as soon as odyssey is out. I know heads are down and things are being worked on but there are glaring issues that, if continued, I believe will serve to be detriment to the continuing playerbase and only leave the niche groups active before terribly long.
Payouts and Mining Rushes
Firstly, it's a glaring issue that mining is overbalanced. The payouts for rare minerals is not an issue. The way demand works is. Demand should function much like it would in the real world, or for a closer example, how it works on a carrier. It doesn't reset every 10 minutes. A carrier puts a buy order for 20,000 Biowaste. That demand should be satisfied, and they should buy no more once that "buy order" gets satisfied.
Variances in the payout and galactic average could still be influenced by BGS and system states, which isn't an issue. It wouldn't interfere and it would force miners especially, or even those of us that buy the materials for mining missions, to think carefully, and possibly even go out further and explore and sell at other stations, dramatically toning down the number of FC's in a certain location, as well as encouraging exploration for better selling markets.
I myself was very happy with sub-surface missle deposits, it brought mining to a new level for me, not simply requiring me to piece together fragments, but literally requiring skill to be proficient with it. I enjoy that mechanic and i'm happy it's in the game.
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Balance Passes
The rest of the activities in the game need a serious balance pass. I have 0 interest in transporting passengers, trading, and to a larger extent, even bounty hunting because it doesn't reward my time effectively. I don't want an assassination mission to pay me 2 mil, I want it to pay me at least double that. I don't want to see missions on the mission board when i'm elite in it's category, that are less than elite, unless I specify that I want to do lower 'rank' missions. If I'm elite, i should expect that I would take jobs that pay me for my time. I'm a "veteran" according to the game, and shouldn't be insulted by being offered a mission for less than 200k to bring jimmy to the neighboring star system. The rest of the game is being largely ignored simply because the best way to make money, far beyond any other means, is mining.
If you diversify your worthwhile activities, you'll have much higher chances that new players will venture off and try new things. I didn't even have any interest in mining because back then (when it was just laser mining) it sounded complicated to me, as a new player. But then I wanted armor for my vette and had to go mine for the engineer. I enjoyed that it forced me into trying new things, and I did find that I liked it more than I thought.
Powerplay
Redesigning powerplay from the ground up sounds out of the question, given the niche group that cares about it. However, something must be done in regards to it, because currently it's merely a few words and a picture of someone, and an offer for a specific module, that you get to keep when you're done. Powerplay would be much more interesting with two major changes. Firstly, make it so that if you are not aligned with that power, you don't get to use it's modules. This obviously would require a rebalancing of what those modules do, but I feel like it would make it more of a meaningful choice as a player.
I also would love to see powerplay shape the bubble in greater ways than it already does. Even with all the time i've spent, I couldn't tell you how to find out that LYR sells discounted ships/modules in his systems. Not only that, being that he is a services merchant at heart, it would make sense to offer power specific missions - missions only available within that powers realm of influence that are themed towards that power. This would bring out the themes of each powerplay faction and allow a player to find and live in an area of the galaxy that best suits their playstyle. That said, missions like this would be available elsewhere, but be generic and obviously pay less. If i'm taking a power-specific mission, and i'm aligned with that power, I should be given a special bonus for working for them. This leads into the money balancing thing. I want so much to care about the federation or empire, but all I really know is that they offer cutters or corvettes, from a general perspective. The potential here that isn't tapped yet is astounding, given that "workign for a power" and the whole merit system is desperate for an overhaul too. How can I keep up my standing with a superpower over months at a time so easily, when every single week my merits when working for a power get halved? If I choose a power I should be in support of them, not a slave to working for merits. There's plenty of other things to do in the galaxy.
Variance
I like the additions to exploration that you've done, with the lightning storms,and some of the easier to find places on planets... but that still doesn't make planets very exciting to visit. I'm not expecting a full on "no mans sky" experience, but it sure would be nice to be incentivized to visit more planets. Guess that's more of a personal thing, but I feel like despite having the statistical BGS influences, that my actions don't really matter in the galaxy. I know it's a big galaxy, but what's my place? I can't align publically to a minor faction, I can't justly support a superpower or powerplay because there's not much difference in terms of gameplay for either. I can do a lot of varied things and a lot of those things are wonderful, but if you stick me in a galaxy and say "go figure it out" without any real meaningful way to find it in-game, how am I supposed to know what's out there?
Just a few thoughts, and best wishes to the new stuff coming that hopefully fixes some of this.
Payouts and Mining Rushes
Firstly, it's a glaring issue that mining is overbalanced. The payouts for rare minerals is not an issue. The way demand works is. Demand should function much like it would in the real world, or for a closer example, how it works on a carrier. It doesn't reset every 10 minutes. A carrier puts a buy order for 20,000 Biowaste. That demand should be satisfied, and they should buy no more once that "buy order" gets satisfied.
Variances in the payout and galactic average could still be influenced by BGS and system states, which isn't an issue. It wouldn't interfere and it would force miners especially, or even those of us that buy the materials for mining missions, to think carefully, and possibly even go out further and explore and sell at other stations, dramatically toning down the number of FC's in a certain location, as well as encouraging exploration for better selling markets.
I myself was very happy with sub-surface missle deposits, it brought mining to a new level for me, not simply requiring me to piece together fragments, but literally requiring skill to be proficient with it. I enjoy that mechanic and i'm happy it's in the game.
~~
Balance Passes
The rest of the activities in the game need a serious balance pass. I have 0 interest in transporting passengers, trading, and to a larger extent, even bounty hunting because it doesn't reward my time effectively. I don't want an assassination mission to pay me 2 mil, I want it to pay me at least double that. I don't want to see missions on the mission board when i'm elite in it's category, that are less than elite, unless I specify that I want to do lower 'rank' missions. If I'm elite, i should expect that I would take jobs that pay me for my time. I'm a "veteran" according to the game, and shouldn't be insulted by being offered a mission for less than 200k to bring jimmy to the neighboring star system. The rest of the game is being largely ignored simply because the best way to make money, far beyond any other means, is mining.
If you diversify your worthwhile activities, you'll have much higher chances that new players will venture off and try new things. I didn't even have any interest in mining because back then (when it was just laser mining) it sounded complicated to me, as a new player. But then I wanted armor for my vette and had to go mine for the engineer. I enjoyed that it forced me into trying new things, and I did find that I liked it more than I thought.
Powerplay
Redesigning powerplay from the ground up sounds out of the question, given the niche group that cares about it. However, something must be done in regards to it, because currently it's merely a few words and a picture of someone, and an offer for a specific module, that you get to keep when you're done. Powerplay would be much more interesting with two major changes. Firstly, make it so that if you are not aligned with that power, you don't get to use it's modules. This obviously would require a rebalancing of what those modules do, but I feel like it would make it more of a meaningful choice as a player.
I also would love to see powerplay shape the bubble in greater ways than it already does. Even with all the time i've spent, I couldn't tell you how to find out that LYR sells discounted ships/modules in his systems. Not only that, being that he is a services merchant at heart, it would make sense to offer power specific missions - missions only available within that powers realm of influence that are themed towards that power. This would bring out the themes of each powerplay faction and allow a player to find and live in an area of the galaxy that best suits their playstyle. That said, missions like this would be available elsewhere, but be generic and obviously pay less. If i'm taking a power-specific mission, and i'm aligned with that power, I should be given a special bonus for working for them. This leads into the money balancing thing. I want so much to care about the federation or empire, but all I really know is that they offer cutters or corvettes, from a general perspective. The potential here that isn't tapped yet is astounding, given that "workign for a power" and the whole merit system is desperate for an overhaul too. How can I keep up my standing with a superpower over months at a time so easily, when every single week my merits when working for a power get halved? If I choose a power I should be in support of them, not a slave to working for merits. There's plenty of other things to do in the galaxy.
Variance
I like the additions to exploration that you've done, with the lightning storms,and some of the easier to find places on planets... but that still doesn't make planets very exciting to visit. I'm not expecting a full on "no mans sky" experience, but it sure would be nice to be incentivized to visit more planets. Guess that's more of a personal thing, but I feel like despite having the statistical BGS influences, that my actions don't really matter in the galaxy. I know it's a big galaxy, but what's my place? I can't align publically to a minor faction, I can't justly support a superpower or powerplay because there's not much difference in terms of gameplay for either. I can do a lot of varied things and a lot of those things are wonderful, but if you stick me in a galaxy and say "go figure it out" without any real meaningful way to find it in-game, how am I supposed to know what's out there?
Just a few thoughts, and best wishes to the new stuff coming that hopefully fixes some of this.
