[O.A. VIDEO] Does Elite Dangerous Have a Content Problem?

Since "content" is limited to the procedural Galaxy (which still lacks alot! to be an interesting place), Gameplay mechanics, Assets (i.e. Barnacles, Guardian Ruins, Stations) and Gear of any type you can get (Ships/Equipment/RNGineering), there is more than one problem.

a) no Sandbox

Nothing needs to be said about it. The Game relies on central planning, fixed assets, fixed Scripts, fixed mechanics and fixed outsomes. Unless Frontier approves or moves something, nothing happens with sole exception of the limited BGS effects.

b) Q4 might extend our "more of the same Syndrome" Galaxy that only sports a mere few handfull of Stars & Planets, multiplied Billions of times.
At least a few tiny Details came to be, Cones and the new Planet Shaders. That's not much, but at least something.

c) Mechanics != Gameplay

...at least when you're not programming exclusively for Android/iOS or Consoles (as a casual title).
Still lacking tons of variation and scenarios, things just become predictable. Plus, Mechanics have the ugly nature of being... well.. mechanical. They can be easily gamed and prone to be exploited.

d) Assets have actually come a long way - but still have long ways to go

How about a MegaStation with 200 Pads? Unauthorized Installations that each look and work different? A Pirate Base that's not just an Outpost with a skull illuminated (which remains in place even after a lawful Fed/Alliance/Imperial Faction takes over xD )
Nothing against Standardization, but docking at a certain Station Economy is 100% the same somewhere in the Pleiades, as it is in Colonia. No difference, no character that would suit the location.
Could use more variation, more customization to build character with regard to the region it was built.

Plus : Players can't construct their own assets. No Sandbox, no colonization, no FOBs, no nothing. Just spectators as usual, manual intervention needed or a CG to change anything. Can't even improve or add a Facility at an existing Asset.
There's all that long-term motivation and gameplay potential going out the window; actually it was never inside, not invited.

e) The Gear

Our beloved mobile prison cells.
Actually we got a very nice selection, so on the content part our Ship variety doesn't look bad at all IMHO.

Problem is : you can still only follow the handful of activities that the Scripted Game allows. That's it.
No amount of different Ships can remedy doing the exact same things over and over.
Having to run the same principle hoops (Grind) to outfit or RNGineer/Guardian your Ship clearly doesn't help that.

------------------------------
Either Frontier
- allows Players to create and deliver their own content (= transition the Script Monster into a real Sandbox and provide the Nucleus & Tools for the Players to start building something)
- or they face the prospect of having to add and micromanage a few dozen new professions, create 50-100 new Tourist attractions and add several hundred smaller discoveries somewhere into the Galaxy every year just to keep Explorers busy
.... or continues to toss mechanical Unlock-Grindwork, 1980's gameplay and inject cyclic PowerCreep into the pond in a hope to create "game time"

I guess a fair verdict is due not before the V3 Beyond Season completes.


My money is on number 3.
 
Either Frontier
- allows Players to create and deliver their own content (= transition the Script Monster into a real Sandbox and provide the Nucleus & Tools for the Players to start building something)
- or they face the prospect of having to add and micromanage a few dozen new professions, create 50-100 new Tourist attractions and add several hundred smaller discoveries somewhere into the Galaxy every year just to keep Explorers busy
.... or continues to toss mechanical Unlock-Grindwork, 1980's gameplay and inject cyclic PowerCreep into the pond in a hope to create "game time"

I guess a fair verdict is due not before the V3 Beyond Season completes.
Option 1 - Defiintely not... we do not want ED to mutate into EvE
Option 2 - Unnecessary in the main, the galaxy is procedurally generated and RPG mechanics are totally unnecessary
Option 3 - Typical entitled trolling
 

verminstar

Banned
Maybe for you, but that is not really close to accurate. The economy system may be fixed but there was still PvE gameplay to be had after completion of the plot line. Not as much as some other games but it is still there.

As for playing Freelancer? If you disable IPv6 then you should be able to run it on most modern Windows. TCP/IPv6 in the OS kills the network for Freelancer. Given the age of the game you should be able to run it in a Virtual Machine on modern hardware.

I actually dont have a pc at all...real life circumstances made mortgage payments more important than a 2k games machine, and the old one kicked the bucket. I got an old laptop that can still run it, but the old vanilla mode now would be more nostalgia than anything else.

I used to know some guys who just played with the pve aspect of the game fer years...pvp was certainly possible but rare on the smaller private servers. The regulars got to know each other and kept their distance and the admins were brutal and without any mercy. I should know cos I was one of them fer about a year. Used to go under the name of Chaos ^
 
Content problems? Isn't this the problem every gamer faces with thousands of hours played?

[video=youtube;oD9QgXTT5Uc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD9QgXTT5Uc[/video]
 

verminstar

Banned
I used to play a freelancer mod called hostile universe where you played as a pirate and everything was much tougher, that was loads of fun made vanilla look rubbish.

Sounds familiar to what used to run on sir warwicks servers back in the day...basically, yer starting ship was a lvl 6 anubis, ye has 100k and when ye undock fer the first time, yer rep with the resident cops is hostile and everything tries to kill ye the second yer out the hatch. And once yer out, ye cant get back in...and on death which was fairly common the first 3 or 4 times, ye just wake up in the same place. The npc were a lot stronger than the vanilla 1.1 versions, and in pirate territory, it was common to come across nomads who are normally restricted to the top two systems.

Sound familiar?
 

Deleted member 38366

D
Option 1 - Defiintely not... we do not want ED to mutate into EvE
Option 2 - Unnecessary in the main, the galaxy is procedurally generated and RPG mechanics are totally unnecessary
Option 3 - Typical entitled trolling

1) Nobody has claimed it had to turn into EVE. No need for that. Superficial response.
2) Yes, lots of procedurally generated nothing that offers little or no Gameplay value, RPG mechanics provide long-term engagement options. Hardly would call that unnecessary in a long-term Game that gasps for long-term Gameplay elements.
3) another superficial troll-answer entirely ignoring reality

I'm afraid the trolling part is on you with this one.
(I'd be totally fine if you stated "I love the Game exactly like it is and I don't see any need for such changes". That'd be the difference between a valid Opinion and the unqualified/unsubstantial troll post you made)
 

verminstar

Banned
Option 1 - Defiintely not... we do not want ED to mutate into EvE
Option 2 - Unnecessary in the main, the galaxy is procedurally generated and RPG mechanics are totally unnecessary
Option 3 - Typical entitled trolling

Nobody is suggesting eve...true its been a long standing and fairly easily described as one of the foundation building blocks of that entire game. Fer some of us, they were half the appeal of the game...the ability to put down roots in a little corner of space.

Forget about eve...nobody wants eve...but that desire to put some roots down, even if only temporary would be better than being nothing more than a cosmic gypsy which is how it is now. The desire to have that mechanic is strong and while I know you dont agree at all, you also know the desire to have it has not gone away...if anything, it has intensified.

RPG elements not important? Are you really being serious? I just read it as that and Im just seriously lost fer words. The RPG element is perfect for this game, the potential is certainly there simply not being realized.
 
True :) I've developed my personal favourite act in one of those, specifically when I pick up and a lady tells me her records show I was in a car accident that wasn't my fault.
I reply that I have been indeed.
'Was it serious?' says she.
'Yes, quite so: I died', say I.

It usually takes no more than 10 seconds of awkward silence before they hang up. The rest of my day is bliss.

Even better... before they get their blurb out, just say..."It's done...but there's blood everywhere!"
 
Option 1 - Defiintely not... we do not want ED to mutate into EvE
Option 2 - Unnecessary in the main, the galaxy is procedurally generated and RPG mechanics are totally unnecessary
Option 3 - Typical entitled trolling

Never played eve, but letting players build things would be a huge step forward IMHO. FD's RNG content has been pretty bad and seems they aren't able to fix it, letting players generate their own content would add a lot to the game.
 
Option 1 - Defiintely not... we do not want ED to mutate into EvE
Option 2 - Unnecessary in the main, the galaxy is procedurally generated and RPG mechanics are totally unnecessary
Option 3 - Typical entitled trolling

I'm so sick of this disingenuous assertion that providing players with emergent tools would somehow turn the game into EVE.

Typical contrarian trolling.
 
Last edited:
I'm so sick of this disingenuous assertion that providing players with emergent tools would somehow turn the game into EVE.

Typical contrarian trolling.

I think it's a legitimate fear rather than trolling, and as someone who played EVE for far too many hours, let me tell you, EVE is the last game Frontier should be copying.
 
I think it's a legitimate fear rather than trolling, and as someone who played EVE for far too many hours, let me tell you, EVE is the last game Frontier should be copying.

Nope...purely judging on post content over the entire forum, in this case it's most definitely contrarian trolling :)
 
Since "content" is limited to the procedural Galaxy (which still lacks alot! to be an interesting place), Gameplay mechanics, Assets (i.e. Barnacles, Guardian Ruins, Stations) and Gear of any type you can get (Ships/Equipment/RNGineering), there is more than one problem.

a) no Sandbox

Nothing needs to be said about it. The Game relies on central planning, fixed assets, fixed Scripts, fixed mechanics and fixed outsomes. Unless Frontier approves or moves something, nothing happens with sole exception of the limited BGS effects.

b) Q4 might extend our "more of the same Syndrome" Galaxy that only sports a mere few handfull of Stars & Planets, multiplied Billions of times.
At least a few tiny Details came to be, Cones and the new Planet Shaders. That's not much, but at least something.

c) Mechanics != Gameplay

...at least when you're not programming exclusively for Android/iOS or Consoles (as a casual title).
Still lacking tons of variation and scenarios, things just become predictable. Plus, Mechanics have the ugly nature of being... well.. mechanical. They can be easily gamed and prone to be exploited.

d) Assets have actually come a long way - but still have long ways to go

How about a MegaStation with 200 Pads? Unauthorized Installations that each look and work different? A Pirate Base that's not just an Outpost with a skull illuminated (which remains in place even after a lawful Fed/Alliance/Imperial Faction takes over xD )
Nothing against Standardization, but docking at a certain Station Economy is 100% the same somewhere in the Pleiades, as it is in Colonia. No difference, no character that would suit the location.
Could use more variation, more customization to build character with regard to the region it was built.

Plus : Players can't construct their own assets. No Sandbox, no colonization, no FOBs, no nothing. Just spectators as usual, manual intervention needed or a CG to change anything. Can't even improve or add a Facility at an existing Asset.
There's all that long-term motivation and gameplay potential going out the window; actually it was never inside, not invited.

e) The Gear

Our beloved mobile prison cells.
Actually we got a very nice selection, so on the content part our Ship variety doesn't look bad at all IMHO.

Problem is : you can still only follow the handful of activities that the Scripted Game allows. That's it.
No amount of different Ships can remedy doing the exact same things over and over.
Having to run the same principle hoops (Grind) to outfit or RNGineer/Guardian your Ship clearly doesn't help that.

------------------------------
Either Frontier
- allows Players to create and deliver their own content (= transition the Script Monster into a real Sandbox and provide the Nucleus & Tools for the Players to start building something)
- or they face the prospect of having to add and micromanage a few dozen new professions, create 50-100 new Tourist attractions and add several hundred smaller discoveries somewhere into the Galaxy every year just to keep Explorers busy
.... or continues to toss mechanical Unlock-Grindwork, 1980's gameplay and inject cyclic PowerCreep into the pond in a hope to create "game time"

I guess a fair verdict is due not before the V3 Beyond Season completes.


The game doesn't really require a "grand RPG narrative", but that doesn't mean they cannot do more to enhance each players' individual "mini-narrative". Missions & tip-offs that can arise as much from the player's actions-past & present-as they can from perusing a Mission Board. Better & more varied text to help sell the *why?* of the missions we do, & far more varied locales, difficulties & dangers involved in the completion of those missions.....as well as greater variety in which future directions completing/failing those missions can lead (mission chains should be spawned as much by failure as by success IMHO). These are the keys to allowing players to create more of a personal narrative, without the need to make every player "the hero who saves the entire galaxy".

Freeing up Community Goals so that they can be, more or less, generated automatically by BGS changes would help in that regard too, especially if those Community Goals were more often competitive, & could spawn complications during their run.

Making Factions far more of a lynch pin for our relations with the other players within the Galaxy (Super-Powers, Powers & Engineers) & giving us more tools for how to deal with said Factions (favours, pledging etc).

Giving players more tools to "physically" interact with the environment would be great too. Something more than Shoot or Scan ;).
 
Ive mentioned this in other threads. And the anniversary just happened.

But Drew Wagars Salmoe Event was the funnest time I have had in Elite Dangerous.

1000's of people working together, It was a good story and a great ending.

There was so many people taking part that day. The blockade was something like 500 light years.

I wish we had more stuff like that.
 
Nobody is suggesting eve...true its been a long standing and fairly easily described as one of the foundation building blocks of that entire game. Fer some of us, they were half the appeal of the game...the ability to put down roots in a little corner of space.

Forget about eve...nobody wants eve...but that desire to put some roots down, even if only temporary would be better than being nothing more than a cosmic gypsy which is how it is now. The desire to have that mechanic is strong and while I know you dont agree at all, you also know the desire to have it has not gone away...if anything, it has intensified.

RPG elements not important? Are you really being serious? I just read it as that and Im just seriously lost fer words. The RPG element is perfect for this game, the potential is certainly there simply not being realized.
We know that squadron/wing carriers are (apparently) on the books for the Beyond series of updates and I would expect that mechanic to be effectively a small movable but probably not pilotable base of operations. Such a mechanic is as far as I think FD should go wrt the "putting down roots" aspect. Further more, I would expect the carriers to be restricted to instances where owner/authorised players are present. An exception to my opposition to player bases might be something that would only really be viable or relevant after the introduction of space legs and that is for players to be able to buy/rent space on NPC owned and controlled facilities (something along the lines of ESO homes). This general stance has often been ridiculed by those asking for building mechanics and the upshot of it is that at least some want a cross-instance impact from their base building efforts - something I am opposed to in any shape or form, that is where the EvE comparison comes in.

Let me be clearer about the "RPG elements" aspect, I am referring to FD canned RPG-esque content such as hand crafted player focused stories and other things that are best suited to proper RPG games. I am not opposed to the general principles of basically being able to align yourself with a minor faction and perform one or more procedurally generated mission chains for them - arguably the 3.0 mission reward changes at least in part facilitates this to some degree. Nor am I essentially opposed to the principle of being granted law enforcement, privateer, or military licenses by given factions - such mechanics may grant you some latitude or more support in areas the relevant factions have influence. Such things are not to my mind RPG gameplay, and the mention of RPG gameplay oft refers more to the elements I am opposed to in the context of ED rather than the subtle mechanic aspects I am not opposed to.
 
Last edited:
Ive mentioned this in other threads. And the anniversary just happened.

But Drew Wagars Salmoe Event was the funnest time I have had in Elite Dangerous.

1000's of people working together, It was a good story and a great ending.

There was so many people taking part that day. The blockade was something like 500 light years.

I wish we had more stuff like that.

Did you read his post mortem by chance? He goes into detail on many of the game's failings with regard to social tools and events.
 
I'm so sick of this disingenuous assertion that providing players with emergent tools would somehow turn the game into EVE.

Typical contrarian trolling.

You could argue that proposing any EVE style or even EVE light mechanics for a game specifically designed to avoid them from the ground up is contrarian trolling. Personally I have no issues with social tools as long as there is never functional player territorial control, as that's what triggers all the toxic craziness in EVE. Credit transfer or credit pooling is the same, and facilitates exploits or ban evasion.

Let people join whatever group they like and own stations or whatever, but don't let them start setting landing permission/trade discounts/demanding people pay dues or anything else that would effect lone pilots just doing their own thing. Some people just go a bit strange when given any control over other people.

Imagine what SDC would do with the IFF controls of a starports defenses.
 
You could argue that proposing any EVE style or even EVE light mechanics for a game specifically designed to avoid them from the ground up is contrarian trolling. Personally I have no issues with social tools as long as there is never functional player territorial control, as that's what triggers all the toxic craziness in EVE. Credit transfer or credit pooling is the same, and facilitates exploits or ban evasion.

Let people join whatever group they like and own stations or whatever, but don't let them start setting landing permission/trade discounts/demanding people pay dues or anything else that would effect lone pilots just doing their own thing. Some people just go a bit strange when given any control over other people.

Imagine what SDC would do with the IFF controls of a starports defenses.

I never got to play EVE. But that sounds fun.
 
I never got to play EVE. But that sounds fun.

It's free to play now I think.

I tried it on some free trials years ago, it was superficially a bit like homeworld except you couldn't maneuver on the up down axis (even now I think) so I binned it as space is three dimensional or badly depicted. It seemed to be the bee's knee's for wannabe space dictators who used to bang on in this forum about how great it was and that ED must become just like it right now if not sooner.
 
Back
Top Bottom