Newcomer / Intro Newbie Impressions - Patch 1.2

[Fellwitch]

Hi all - I just bought the game as 1.2 was being deployed. While I have been having an excellent time so far, I would love to see some commentary on the following points:

1) Future Roadmap - Is there a roadmap somewhere of which features are to be added in the following months or year? I see there are 65 newsletters available, but I was hoping for a more concise list of features to be added so I know what is in the pipeline.
a. Will some sort of crafting ever be implemented (like the refinery for instance) that uses raw minerals to forge higher quality equipment? *Sorry, I just really like how EVE handles the whole economy for equipment*
b. Will we be able to transfer credits to other players?
c. Will there ever be faction specific raids to other factions with switching of territory?
d. Will there ever be Mercantile organizations (i.e. guilds) that can be joined, to help facilitate wings (grouping)?

2) Enemy ship AI
a. There seems to be no difference between a Novice Anaconda and a Master Anaconda, except the payout.
b. Subsystem Targeting - The AI does not seem to do this ever, from what I can tell. I was expecting that expert & master pilots would be doing this.
c. Prioritization - I would expect smaller ships to go after smaller ships, and bigger ships to go after bigger ones.
- Case in point, I saw a solo NPC Pirate Adder attack a NPC Python. This should not happen, ever. It was hilarious to watch it explode though.
d. Weapons loadouts - Why does an Anaconda shoot at me with kinetic weapons when I have full shields? I find the loadouts on the Python & Anacondas to be extremely tame.

3) Conflict zones
a. I assume that the reason the ships are more difficult is because they are using top notch, military grade equipment?

4) Mining and Trading both seem to suck in the beginning. I can see that trading might be worthwhile end-game, but not in the beginning.
a. I blew two days doing trading with my sidewinder, made 60k credits, and then went to the nav beacon and got last hit on an Anaconda and tripled that amount in 5 minutes.
b. Mining I spent 3 hours on and the whole mechanic of picking up Ore is probably the worst "disfeature" in the entire game. It needs to be altered somehow, it sucks.

5) My Biggest Issue

From what I can tell, there is no bonus for logging into Open Play, compared to Solo. I would think that due to the increased risk of Open Play, we should be encouraged to choose this mode along with some added benefit. I say bonus, because if I wrote penalty for Solo mode I am sure there would be some angry people.

I really like playing in Open Play as it feels more alive and I am always wondering if there is some guy waiting at the next star I jump to, to interdict me.

Perhaps this has already been addressed, in which case I apologize, I have really tried my best to search all available information (though I have not read all 65 newsletters yet).


All in all, I am loving the game and am still learning more and more about its little nuances.

 

[Valander]

Interesting points. I will be launching the game for the first time this upcoming weekend, so I'm sure I'll be sharing similar "newbie" impressions soon.

Out of curiosity, what other space-sims have you played, if any?

 

[Fellwitch]

Interesting points. I will be launching the game for the first time this upcoming weekend, so I'm sure I'll be sharing similar "newbie" impressions soon.

Out of curiosity, what other space-sims have you played, if any?

Well, I played Elite II back in the day

Then EVE Online, the X series, Wing Commander Privateer, probably about everything in the past 20 years I would say.

 

[Valander]

Well, I played Elite II back in the day

Then EVE Online, the X series, Wing Commander Privateer, probably about everything in the past 20 years I would say.

Cool. I missed playing Elite II, but did a lot of Wing Commander Privateer, and more recently the Evochron series stuff from Star Wraith.

 

[Dommarraa]

Sorry to be brief, but on my phone.
1. No
a No, this isn't eve
b Probably not
c Almost certainly, maybe in 1.3
d I am sure there already are, look in Groups forum

2 be careful what you ask for, the Ai have been upgraded quite a lot in recent releases

3 yes

4 mining sucks but will be improved eventually. Bh has recently been made far to easy due to pew pew boys whining making trading almost pointless for many

5 no no and more no. Open is broken as it allows murder. I play mobius or solo

 

[affel]

to the other points
1) I believe there is. Search the forums. But only high level stuff afaik.
2) differences between skill levels are actually in the way they fly and their loadout, especially on armor it is quite noticeable.
3) it's a little busieser and you may have a better chance to find higher skilled ships, but other than that... at this point I dont see much of a difference to a RES site as an example either...
4) since 1.2 trading is not the only option to make money anymore. especially when you start out. however, it is still a very good source of money especially once you have the dough for say a T-6. And it actually can be quite OK to trade - you just need to be in the mood . Like a... relaxation session.

5)

I really like playing in Open Play as it feels more alive and I am always wondering if there is some guy waiting at the next star I jump to, to interdict me.

There is your bonus of open play

 

[GeneralIdea1964]

Re: point 2 ... Enemy Ship AI
I think you might be running into the fact that your status is quite low as you've just got started. The game must adjust your opponents to suit your Elite rating and ship loadout. I have been running into anacondas with lots of powerful turret weapons, good shielding and high level pilots and a usually have run away in my Cobra.
You have also met one feature which is if the big ship is being attacked by other ships (npc or cmdr) you can get a kill reward 'just for showing up'.
Re point 5.
The different modes are there just so ...
a) you can either play elite in the old way like when I was young(er ) ie: solo
b) you can group up and just play against friends but not have to put up with others jumping in on 'your' game. ie Group
c) or you can take the risk that there are others out there who will just attack you without reason ie Open.
But from my experience, few Cmdrs bother attacking each other. We are mostly a friendly bunch so are more likely to co-operate on missions with you.
I've not heard if the race to Elite cash prize has been won yet, but there was news of someone claiming it.
FINALLY
welcome to the game. Hope you enjoy it as much as I.

 

[the100thmonkey]

a. Will some sort of crafting ever be implemented (like the refinery for instance) that uses raw minerals to forge higher quality equipment? *Sorry, I just really like how EVE handles the whole economy for equipment*

The developers are on record stating that this is not an executive control game - a central characteristic of EVE. From that comment then, I'd say no, and there are no plans to introduce it.

b. Will we be able to transfer credits to other players?

Dunno. I don't care much either way.

c. Will there ever be faction specific raids to other factions with switching of territory?

This mechanic is already in place, but there's an economic and political effort that takes time to accomplish well before the civil war happens. Obviously, the larger the group/clan/guild you're a member of and the more focused and targeted the efforts, the greater the chances of success. Look for the work of the Mercenaries of Mikunn, the Lugh independence movement and the Elite Diplomatic Corps on the forum.

d. Will there ever be Mercantile organizations (i.e. guilds) that can be joined, to help facilitate wings (grouping)?

See above. There will not be player-controlled space though, I understand. The faction-level conflicts require you to work for the NPC faction.

a. There seems to be no difference between a Novice Anaconda and a Master Anaconda, except the payout.

If you're in RESes bounty-hunting, the large contingent of system authority ships tends to hide the differences in the AI - the NPC Anaconda has so many targets hammering it that it's impossible to really see the difference. Try taking on a kill mission from the bulletin board that offers ~150kcr for killing a named NPC. They're almost always elite Anacondas and they tend to kill you very quickly the first time you do the mission.

b. Subsystem Targeting - The AI does not seem to do this ever, from what I can tell. I was expecting that expert & master pilots would be doing this.

Take advantage of it while you can - I suspect this will be added at a later date. As I understand it, the dev team is not particularly large and AI programming is a very complex undertaking.

c. Prioritization - I would expect smaller ships to go after smaller ships, and bigger ships to go after bigger ones.
- Case in point, I saw a solo NPC Pirate Adder attack a NPC Python. This should not happen, ever. It was hilarious to watch it explode though.

Why should it not happen? The Adder is quite capable of taking down a Python. I would expect to see a significant difference in the combat rankings of the two ships (in favour of the Adder pilot) though. Nevertheless, I do agree that the kinds of engagements one sees and witnesses in standard play is an area that needs more work. Another good example is interdictions: I've been interdicted before by shieldless Sidewinders, who demanded all my cargo. On one occasion, I was in the Vulture, which is basically the combat ship. The engagement lasted 20 seconds, and that was only because the wee tike was moving around and wouldn't hold still. The second time, I was in a combat-ready Asp with 90t of cargo, a good 12 times as much as they could carry. They wanted it all. For a very brief period of time.

d. Weapons loadouts - Why does an Anaconda shoot at me with kinetic weapons when I have full shields? I find the loadouts on the Python & Anacondas to be extremely tame.

The kinetic/thermic distinction is only important up to a point. I don't recommend putting your ship in front of a big snake's nose, regardless of the weapon on the large/huge hardpoint. The ships have a variety of hardpoint sizes, from small to huge (small, medium, large, huge). Depending on hardpoint placement, your orientation in relation to the ship and how the random number generator decided the loadout, the NPC might just be firing at you with what they can hit you with. Additionally, they might "not be able to afford" 16 million credits for an insane gun. Again, you'll find the named NPC assassination missions much more challenging (unless you're kiting them, which pretty much everyone does at least once).

3) Conflict zones
a. I assume that the reason the ships are more difficult is because they are using top notch, military grade equipment?

Pretty much - you'll see more railguns, frag cannons, military bulkheads, plasma accelerators, etc.

4) Mining and Trading both seem to suck in the beginning. I can see that trading might be worthwhile end-game, but not in the beginning.
a. I blew two days doing trading with my sidewinder, made 60k credits, and then went to the nav beacon and got last hit on an Anaconda and tripled that amount in 5 minutes.

This was my experience as well, although the payouts were lower back then. If you find a good trade route and have equipped the Sidey for trading (10t cargo, no shields(!), no discovery scanner), you'll make a maximum of 10,000cr per run. Judicious use of lasers in a RES or nav beacon will net you bounties from ships you have no right to be engaging that happen to be getting their asses whooped by sysauth ships.

b. Mining I spent 3 hours on and the whole mechanic of picking up Ore is probably the worst "disfeature" in the entire game. It needs to be altered somehow, it sucks.

I've never done it - staring at rocks for hours is prima facie boring.

5) My Biggest Issue

From what I can tell, there is no bonus for logging into Open Play, compared to Solo. I would think that due to the increased risk of Open Play, we should be encouraged to choose this mode along with some added benefit. I say bonus, because if I wrote penalty for Solo mode I am sure there would be some angry people.

I really like playing in Open Play as it feels more alive and I am always wondering if there is some guy waiting at the next star I jump to, to interdict me.

Perhaps this has already been addressed, in which case I apologize, I have really tried my best to search all available information (though I have not read all 65 newsletters yet).

All in all, I am loving the game and am still learning more and more about its little nuances.

Why is how other people choose to play their game an issue for you? The fact that other people don't want to interact with you is an issue? I have rather strong feelings about this, so please forgive my directness: Play your game; let others play theirs. (I play open, btw)

 

[Hudsonn]

There shouldn't be any difference bonus for playing open. A lot of people like to play single player and don't want the multiplayer experience. That's their choice, it doesn't change what goes on in Open.