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

[[VR] optimal_909]

The irony being that yer one line oh so constructive comment is also complaining about others complaining

Well done...there is now a level zero ^

What constructivity do you exactly expect after the 1000th thread about content, that increase in intensity when an update is due?
This stuff has been flamed to death already, we are years into the cycle, everyone knows what to expect from the game - whose fundamentals won't change no matter how hard anyone complains.

It is what it is, deal with it Mr Level Zero.

 

[orange_apecs]

[video=youtube;VE8B4KptyVI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE8B4KptyVI[/video]

I can't see why content like this couldn't be created.
All the ingredients are available. We have USS and random missions that appear in the inbox of the ship. Since Galnet now has a voice, the random missions could have a voice as well.
We have capital ship battles already (yes I know they spawn infrequently but they do happen).
We have timers running in instances (for example the guardian ruin timer).
Therefore random mission spawns (i.e. USS) and message received in ship. If you accept then the mission objective appears. If you want to wing up then you can ("I've brought friends"). Jump into the mission objective and the battle starts, at which point you have so long to destroy so many fighters of the opposing faction. If you fail then the opposing ship wins, if you succeed then your ship wins and you get paid.
Come on Frontier - the ingredients are all there, make it happen

 

[Vorxian]

I think there is content in the cupboard, just not enough of it and not varied enough. Also not all the ingredients go well togther either. You want the recipe's to mix together to make the dish great, but that is not happening at the moment.

I disagree with the perspective that the ED Kitchen is lacking in ingredients. However, to continue the kitchen analogy, I can see how the provided ingredients may not suit everyone.

You both have me nodding...

I was harsh, it's not completely empty- there's enough to provide some basic functional things to try.. but... Lets just say that: Greg Wallace will not be putting anyone through to the next round

 

[Vedmo]

EVE is the extreme example of guilds going way too far, as you said it's just a game.

The key is denial of actual effective territorial control, without that it all falls flat which is why it's such a common demand. It's also one of the reasons the modes are such a good idea, everything being optional means no player or group can ever dictate.

My apologies for going off topic, but this is a pressing matter.


How has Mrs. Stigbob taken to the moustache?

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

You both have me nodding...

I was harsh, it's not completely empty- there's enough to provide some basic functional things to try.. but... Lets just say that: Greg Wallace will not be putting anyone through to the next round

Must spread some rep. That made me laugh in the office. Glad nobody was around.

 

[lenna]

I can't see why content like this couldn't be created.
All the ingredients are available. We have USS and random missions that appear in the inbox of the ship. Since Galnet now has a voice, the random missions could have a voice as well.

GalNet audio is somewhat different - that seems to be purely a text-to-speech convertor - what would be required for what you are suggesting is another thing entirely.

However, as a general idea I think the kind of mission you are talking about should be feasible (sans the voice perhaps).

BUT... I would think it is less likely to be Major Power v. Major Power and more likely Human v. Alien.

 

[verminstar]

right then lovely people.... even Verminstar

Let's knock off the baiting and flaming and get back on topic please.

It's Friday and Sunny (well here it is) and let's all play nicely.

Thanks all.

Sky is black here and about to start chucking it down...but I agree all the same ^

 

[orange_apecs]

GalNet audio is somewhat different - that seems to be purely a text-to-speech convertor - what would be required for what you are suggesting is another thing entirely.

Random inbox missions appear as text already Only needs a tweak to have them auto read out.

 

[Mengy]

i know this sentiment exists because i have suggested these ideas before. But IMO fdev can only do so much to provide content in such a massive game. but improving the social dimension of ED creates fertile ground for players to engage and create their own sense of purpose within the game world.

This is true, in a game world of this size Frontier can only do so much to fill it up. That is why mechanics are so very important to a sandbox style game like Elite, because well designed mechanics can provide emergent and unexpected situations which encourage the player to interact with said sandbox. THIS is the meat of what Elite is missing.

Games like Skyrim and WoW nail this down tight, their mechanics allow all manners of unexpected situations to arise. A simple fetch quest in Skyrim can take you through a journey the likes of which you never expected simply by the mechanics of the world interacting with the player along the way, forcing them to make decisions and take actions they could not predict. Elite needs more of this, more detailed mechanics to it’s core actions which allow much more player decisions and forces them to react to unexpected situations. Those are the kinds of things which makes playing sandbox games fun and interesting long term. Without them the sandbox can feel empty or stretched thin and repetitive, even predictable, thus the common description of “a mile wide but an inch deep” for ED.

New bolt on features can’t provide these mechanics, it requires revising the foundation of the game and improving it’s core. It requires Frontier to go back to things they’ve already done and improve upon them. My hope is that the rest of Beyond focuses on this and less on new bolt on features.

 

[Maro-Val]

I can't see why content like this couldn't be created.
All the ingredients are available. We have USS and random missions that appear in the inbox of the ship. Since Galnet now has a voice, the random missions could have a voice as well.
We have capital ship battles already (yes I know they spawn infrequently but they do happen).
We have timers running in instances (for example the guardian ruin timer).
Therefore random mission spawns (i.e. USS) and message received in ship. If you accept then the mission objective appears. If you want to wing up then you can ("I've brought friends"). Jump into the mission objective and the battle starts, at which point you have so long to destroy so many fighters of the opposing faction. If you fail then the opposing ship wins, if you succeed then your ship wins and you get paid.
Come on Frontier - the ingredients are all there, make it happen

We 're getting there lol.

 

[Watcher]

My take is that ED has a persistence problem.
You need procedural generation (and thus RNG) to populate such a massive galaxy but, especially on this scale, is at odds with the needs of persistence. Persistence being characters, or places or pretty much anything that has some amount of state that carries forwards over time and is changeable in a recognisably meaningful way.
We do have this in terms of faction ranks but this doesn't do too much. I don't feel I'm building up a relationship with anyone in these factions, I'm not greeted with respect to my past actions in any specific way and my future actions will not change this. Stations don't change much (though the thargoid attacks have of course done this) and you can't, for instance, drop something on a planet and come back to it - things don't stick around..
So the world is very ephemeral.
So, if you want a personal narrative, which I think many do, it is a bit difficult to deliver within this. You can tick up a few counters here, you can unlock some things but I don't feel I'm really getting to know anywhere or changing anything much.
In some sense this is fine, but a bit more personal involvement would be good. It would be nice to feel a bit more personally known in my core allied factions and to be able to have longer term changes to notice.
I think some RPG light elements in relation to crew could do something here and maybe something extra around Engineers - that at least constrains where to do these things a bit. Maybe build out things in the contacts panel for contacts with allied factions that are outside the normal mission structure - something that might later lend itself towards spacelegs integration.
More ship related customisation and/or how they come - every Anaconda has those annoying wires? Why not differentiated wear and tear and idiosyncrasies (at least visually) in the cockpit so if your ship blows up the new one actually feels like a different ship. Have some wear and tear mechanics and more internal customisation.. Maybe do more will ship death and salvageable hulks - maybe you can go back and try to do something with your old dead ship..

Anyway.

Bit of a ramble

I think there are some relatively low hanging fruit here but, yeah, otherwise going to be tough. I hope FD can make some progress here, I think EDs great but it could be even better!

 

[lenna]

Random inbox missions appear as text already Only needs a tweak to have them auto read out.

The problem may be in the voice aspect - it would be rather stilted compared with what was included in the video and possibly detract from the gameplay.

 

[Stigbob]

My apologies for going off topic, but this is a pressing matter.


How has Mrs. Stigbob taken to the moustache?

No problem I'm rather hirsute IRL, she was less understanding of my flirty exchanges with Jason Barron.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

My take is that ED has a persistence problem.
You need procedural generation (and thus RNG) to populate such a massive galaxy but, especially on this scale, is at odds with the needs of persistence. Persistence being characters, or places or pretty much anything that has some amount of state that carries forwards over time and is changeable in a recognisably meaningful way.
We do have this in terms of faction ranks but this doesn't do too much. I don't feel I'm building up a relationship with anyone in these factions, I'm not greeted with respect to my past actions in any specific way and my future actions will not change this. Stations don't change much (though the thargoid attacks have of course done this) and you can't, for instance, drop something on a planet and come back to it - things don't stick around..
So the world is very ephemeral.
So, if you want a personal narrative, which I think many do, it is a bit difficult to deliver within this. You can tick up a few counters here, you can unlock some things but I don't feel I'm really getting to know anywhere or changing anything much.
In some sense this is fine, but a bit more personal involvement would be good. It would be nice to feel a bit more personally known in my core allied factions and to be able to have longer term changes to notice.
I think some RPG light elements in relation to crew could do something here and maybe something extra around Engineers - that at least constrains where to do these things a bit. Maybe build out things in the contacts panel for contacts with allied factions that are outside the normal mission structure - something that might later lend itself towards spacelegs integration.
More ship related customisation and/or how they come - every Anaconda has those annoying wires? Why not differentiated wear and tear and idiosyncrasies (at least visually) in the cockpit so if your ship blows up the new one actually feels like a different ship. Have some wear and tear mechanics and more internal customisation.. Maybe do more will ship death and salvageable hulks - maybe you can go back and try to do something with your old dead ship..

Anyway.

Bit of a ramble

I think there are some relatively low hanging fruit here but, yeah, otherwise going to be tough. I hope FD can make some progress here, I think EDs great but it could be even better!

Procedural generation doesn't have anything to do with RNG. You can have procedural generation and persistance or semi-persistance perfectly fine.

 

[orange_apecs]

The problem may be in the voice aspect - it would be rather stilted compared with what was included in the video and possibly detract from the gameplay.

True. But if the ship was saying "Incoming Message from Federal Navy. Request for Assistance. 1 million combat bond available". I know it's not quite the video but better than "Incoming message" or "Incoming Mission Critical Message". I'm not thinking full voice acting, just a slightly better random mission system.

 

[lenna]

True. But if the ship was saying "Incoming Message from Federal Navy. Request for Assistance. 1 million combat bond available". I know it's not quite the video but better than "Incoming message" or "Incoming Mission Critical Message". I'm not thinking full voice acting, just a slightly better random mission system.

Good call - thanks for the clarification.

FD may already have something like that on the cards - I vaguely recall there being mention of military career type gameplay which would kind of fit with your idea.

"SOS - <Faction/Power/NPC X> requests assistance in <Sector Y>." (with more details in the message) is the kind of thing I can see being done.

The message could have different forms depending on if the attacker is human or alien.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

True. But if the ship was saying "Incoming Message from Federal Navy. Request for Assistance. 1 million combat bond available". I know it's not quite the video but better than "Incoming message" or "Incoming Mission Critical Message". I'm not thinking full voice acting, just a slightly better random mission system.

I like that. It would add a bit more flavour.

 

[Jex =TE=]

First off, Max was not insulting you. Secondly, I am not wrong despite your protestations (at least based on the post I originally responded to).

We have all heard the "inch deep, mile wide" refrain and your "lack of depth" comments combined with disdain for the work FD have done to date speaks volumes - it is the same tired old arguments summed up in a single paragraph with a nice tidy bow. If you think this is mis-representing what you meant then perhaps you should rephrase your question, because that is exactly how it read.

Where content and ED is concerned, we know FD are working on several different aspects for 3.0. What they are working on for the next 6-12 months (perhaps longer) is unlikely to significantly change in nature regardless of what is discussed here.

As the author of my own comment - who do you think is best positioned to educate you? You're so blind you can't even see you're literally telling the author that he's wrong about what he wrote rather than, like an educated person would do, ask for clarification - Not only that, but having to waste time trying to point out that you cannot tell someone there point is wrong especially after they've repeatedly told you that you're wrong but hey, let's just keep going back and forth shall we? I know you can't shut up so let's go another 10 pages of you pointlessly trying to convince nobody that you're right and what I said I meant I didn't actually mean but thank god you came along and let me knew what I really meant.

Apologies to Max if they weren't directed at me.

 

[lenna]

As the author of my own comment

Not everyone can see how their own post can be interpreted by others, this definitely applies in this case given your reaction. I pointed out how your comment was interpreted (in the context of the topic of this thread) so rather than persisting with your arrogant tirade, how about taking on board what I have said and actually saying what you meant in the first place.

As for Max's comment - it does not matter who it was directed at, it was hardly an insult (direct or otherwise).

 

[Snowymonk]

There is a lot of varied content within Elite. Lots of different things to do. Frontier are adding new things and variants of existing things on a regular basis.

For a game that has been available for so long, Frontier are surprisingly invested in continuing to develop content. There are some developers out there that will have moved onto other games long before now.

A lot of the people that are complaining that there isn't any new content in Elite are players who played the game for a long time.
They have exhausted everything that Frontier have put in the game and are moaning that there isn't anything left to do.

For those moaning about lack of content, can you please quantify your argument with how many hours you have been playing to date. For the initial outlay / purchase of the game that you have made, how many other pursuits would give the same value for money?

I suspect that sites such as http://www.gamelengths.com/ will show you that you compared to the norm, you will have had value for money.