So I am not completely new to space games having played EVE many years ago an more recently No Mans Sky. I understood that there is a considerable learning curve with Elite Dangerous and I figured I just start off slowly and learn what I need to as I play the game. As recommened I started with the training missions. I have to say I find the training half baked at best. You are told some of what you need to know to complete a task but key elements are left out. As well it seems much of the initial controls are default to the worst possible setting forcing people who are new to the game to have to search around outside of the game to find solutions.
So for example in the initial flight training the controls are set up so you easily find yourself spinning your ship endlessly. I almost quite the game at that point because I couldn't manage to fly without constantly rolling one direction or the next. Well I eventually found out that you need to remap the roll and yaw. Why the game would default to a flight set up that is unworkable and no one uses is beyond me. Combat training I found rather difficult because I had difficulty even seeing the enemy ships, constantly loosing track of where they are. The radar is not really all that intuitive and I wish once you locked a target, that inevitably flies out of view, there would be a red arrow indicator as to where they are offscreen. I found myself constantly moving in all directions just to find the ship(s) that were apparently having no issue seeing me and blowing up my ship. Then in the training I am told about transferring power from other systems to weapons but I am not told what buttons I need to press to accomplish such. Same with countermeasures, your told you can deploy countermeasures to deal with the attack on your ship but not how such is accomplished. If I am in a training mission why bring up something if it's not going to be explained in order to execute such? So many examples of this where you are told to do something in training but only get half the info. Oh and the targetting system seems rather hit n miss. I keep wondering if I am actually hitting the target half the time as I see the enemy ship taking no damage quite often despite unloading my guns into it, sheilds or hull.
The SRV mission was a nightmare. First of all it shouldn't take 10 minutes just to land your ship because you can't find the most perfectly flat surface to land on. Just landing your ship ends up being a tedious chore. Then you get into the SRV and it's like a bull out of the gate at a rodeo. I actually blew it up initially as it was completely out of control with max throttle, flipping it over constantly. Well I exit the game and do some research and it appears I need to turn off "driving assist" which realy isn't an assist at all but more like a brick on the accelerator. Turn off driving assist and then I'm told it's back on. Huh? Hitting the Z button a few more times and eventually it turns off so I can actually drive the SRV. Why the maxed out throttle as deafault, I dunno, makes no sense. Then interestingly you accelerate not by the common 'W' and 'S' buttons but by 'E' and 'Q' why??? What could possibly be the point of that? Would not sticking to the same control scheme of movement used for flight and on foot be optimal?
The Mining mission I just quite shortly after starting because I am there shooting an asteroid for what seems like forever and nothing happens. Also what kind of mining laser only last 5-8 seconds before overheating? How does that make any sense at all? Of course the "training" doesn't tell you what you are doing wrong so...???
Anyways, I understand there is a learning curve and the game goes for more realism but it seems like the game is structured to be far more difficult than it needs to be. At this point I have to spend considerable time outside the game to learn how to play the game and fix certain aspects of the gameplay when I feel I should be able to learn most of what I need to know in game and the default controls should be set to the correct settings for the game to be playable. I'm sure I'm not the first person to start playing Elite Dangerous who's run into gameplay issues like this. I'm open to suggestions and how to mitigate the initial challenges. I want to get further into the game but it seems I am a long way from being able to actually have fun.
So for example in the initial flight training the controls are set up so you easily find yourself spinning your ship endlessly. I almost quite the game at that point because I couldn't manage to fly without constantly rolling one direction or the next. Well I eventually found out that you need to remap the roll and yaw. Why the game would default to a flight set up that is unworkable and no one uses is beyond me. Combat training I found rather difficult because I had difficulty even seeing the enemy ships, constantly loosing track of where they are. The radar is not really all that intuitive and I wish once you locked a target, that inevitably flies out of view, there would be a red arrow indicator as to where they are offscreen. I found myself constantly moving in all directions just to find the ship(s) that were apparently having no issue seeing me and blowing up my ship. Then in the training I am told about transferring power from other systems to weapons but I am not told what buttons I need to press to accomplish such. Same with countermeasures, your told you can deploy countermeasures to deal with the attack on your ship but not how such is accomplished. If I am in a training mission why bring up something if it's not going to be explained in order to execute such? So many examples of this where you are told to do something in training but only get half the info. Oh and the targetting system seems rather hit n miss. I keep wondering if I am actually hitting the target half the time as I see the enemy ship taking no damage quite often despite unloading my guns into it, sheilds or hull.
The SRV mission was a nightmare. First of all it shouldn't take 10 minutes just to land your ship because you can't find the most perfectly flat surface to land on. Just landing your ship ends up being a tedious chore. Then you get into the SRV and it's like a bull out of the gate at a rodeo. I actually blew it up initially as it was completely out of control with max throttle, flipping it over constantly. Well I exit the game and do some research and it appears I need to turn off "driving assist" which realy isn't an assist at all but more like a brick on the accelerator. Turn off driving assist and then I'm told it's back on. Huh? Hitting the Z button a few more times and eventually it turns off so I can actually drive the SRV. Why the maxed out throttle as deafault, I dunno, makes no sense. Then interestingly you accelerate not by the common 'W' and 'S' buttons but by 'E' and 'Q' why??? What could possibly be the point of that? Would not sticking to the same control scheme of movement used for flight and on foot be optimal?
The Mining mission I just quite shortly after starting because I am there shooting an asteroid for what seems like forever and nothing happens. Also what kind of mining laser only last 5-8 seconds before overheating? How does that make any sense at all? Of course the "training" doesn't tell you what you are doing wrong so...???
Anyways, I understand there is a learning curve and the game goes for more realism but it seems like the game is structured to be far more difficult than it needs to be. At this point I have to spend considerable time outside the game to learn how to play the game and fix certain aspects of the gameplay when I feel I should be able to learn most of what I need to know in game and the default controls should be set to the correct settings for the game to be playable. I'm sure I'm not the first person to start playing Elite Dangerous who's run into gameplay issues like this. I'm open to suggestions and how to mitigate the initial challenges. I want to get further into the game but it seems I am a long way from being able to actually have fun.
