Hello There CMDRS.
I have no idea if Devs read these but here goes.
I've recently returned to Elite after a very long break. It had nothing to do with the game and more to do with my poor setup, old laptop, space to play and overly addictive personality traits. My motorbike and car took up the large percentage of my time aswell as severe depression but I digress.
I love Elite and have played every game since the first ( David Braben you visionary legend ). I see many complaints so I thought I'd put together a post of what I'd want to see going forward. I have also thought of my favourite sci-fi shows like Babylon 5, Star Trek and Stargate and many many years of reading some great sci-fi books, for inspiration.
I'm not well up on all the various parts of the game so please tell me if what I am saying has already been implemented or is going to be and whether you thinkit's the right way to go ( we're all different and want different things and I understand it's aboot finding a balance). Remember this is purely my own opinionand I don't expect any agreement so play nice
)
1: First, I understand that the game shouldn't be quick and easy but please for the love of the Gods, make it easier ( slightly ) to get encoded materials for engineers, whether grinding or otherwise. Raws are ok and manufactured absolutely fine.
2: I think it'd be nice to have an Alliance ranking structure. Also for ranking up to actually mean something above just acces to specific ships. More on that below.
3: I thought perhaps, that ranking up with 1 power ( be it one of the secondary powers r the main 3 ), has a direct affect with your standing with other powers, perhaps afecting where you can go and whether an opposition power react negatively or even aggresively to you. You could even become an agent inside another power. I'm honestly not sure how this would or could work, vis a vis engineers and purchases of power specific ships.
4: I think a cool idea would be at high rank, fisrstly NPCs and powers react differently to you in respect of your rank and maybe at max rank you get your own personal piece of planetary land to develop as your own from the State? Again, at that high rank, you would alienate yourself to the other powers ( depending on their current statuses against each other ), making the choice of who to align with more important. Maybe if you change sides you lose your priviliges as a traitor?
I think I'm right in saying that players can already affect the way systems develop etc??
5: I'd like to see exactly what we saw last year, 3 to 4 new ships a year. For me personally I get great joy of seeing new designs and finding ways to make them fit into what you're doing. The Type 8 and Mandalay are great examples. I think the Type 8 is an awesome design. Totally has Millenium Falcon vibes to me. And the Mandaly is gorgeous. Reminds me totally of a sleeker Firefly.
Thankfully it looks like Frontier are alreadsy going this way. Panther Clipper anyone?)
6: Is it possible to make it easier to discern places and items after using the DSS? It's very difficult right now, in my opinion too much. I like the way the FSS works though.
7: I know this has been already asked for and spoken aboot at length, and I accept ( more than some folk from what I have seen ), that it is extremely difficult resource wise, staff wise and money wise, as well as being unsure how far the game engine can be pushed as it is right now, but Earth like planet landing would be great. How cool would it be to fly through huge Citys on for example on Sol or Achenar. Fly over the Imperial Palace maybe? I like that thought. The videos and screenshots would be immense!
8: Obviously keep the storys moving forward.New threats or intruige and obviously the Powers jostling for position. Maybe a coup or a split of a power into another entity? The blue haired Empire Lady maybe trying to reform the Empire into something new and more honourable. How would the rank and file people feel aboot that?
9: I know a great many people disagree on this point and I respect their perspective but I couldn;t care less about ship interiors. At first it will be a cool novelty but very quickly become old hat. Reminds me of being able to wonder round your ship in Star Wars online. After a time it just became meh and a chore.
I'd much rather the Devs spent their precious time, effort and funds on developing the core game and other more important aspects.
10: I have no interest in the on foot side of the game ( I play to fly aboot space. Plenty of on foot games if I'd like.Even the SRV annoys me though not as much as it did at first and I have sort of got the hang of it ), so I'll leave suggestions on that front to others. Can you do multi-crew where someone does a foot mission and the other CMDR handles the SRV or the Ship?
11: Elite, however much we love it, will always be a relatively niche product, so never set the World on fire. Frankly I'm incredibly thankful that folks at Frontier believe in it enough to keep this passion product moving forward. With that in mind I am fine with the way ARX currently works. I would NEVER want it to go to subscription only, I think that would be a disaster but I'm happy to drop a fiver or a tenner every month or few months for the joy the game gives me ( It's a pint or a pack of ciggarettes worth and you get far more for it than you do with just a single night out on the town ) though quite obviously this has a ceiling once you have all the items you want. How you'd tweak that I am unsure. Keep offering new pack designs I suppose?
Going back to the power pledging, perhaps you could be able to earn extra ARX doing missions for your pledged power and depending on your attained rank? Just a thought.
That's just off the top of my head ( which is a mush of randomness and fog at the best of times. I'll add any further thoughts as they pop into my head.
Some final thoughts...
Part of the problem with games like Elite for the general public, is it requires an amount of patience ( and other than combat ) a more chilled and long term gaming experience. Most of us enjoy this and happily accept this ( Space is huge so getting things done isn't as simple as clicking your fingers....that would entirely miss the point ), especially those of us in older generations.. ( Apparently I'm Gen X whatever that means?
).
Unfortunately the younger generations ( Not ALL of you ) are more inclined to expect instant gratification, fast pace and lots of action. All the minutiae and parts that require patience in between just frustrate and bore them. Some seem to have lost the ability to take in a more immersive and relaxed playing style. You see exactly the same thing with modern movies and TV shows.
I'm not saying they should be ignored ( far from it ) and financially Eliote need to keep them on board so it's an incredibly fine ( and probably frustrating balancing act ) trying to keep folk hooked, without changing the soul and core of the game going forward. You can not please 100 percent of the audience 100 percent of the time.
Anyhow, may Elite continue for many many years to come. It is absolutely unique and the gaming world would be lesser for not having it around.
P.s. what's the deal with psychotic NPCs ramming you in station airlocks, even if you fly with care and try to take urgent action to avoid!?
I have no idea if Devs read these but here goes.
I've recently returned to Elite after a very long break. It had nothing to do with the game and more to do with my poor setup, old laptop, space to play and overly addictive personality traits. My motorbike and car took up the large percentage of my time aswell as severe depression but I digress.
I love Elite and have played every game since the first ( David Braben you visionary legend ). I see many complaints so I thought I'd put together a post of what I'd want to see going forward. I have also thought of my favourite sci-fi shows like Babylon 5, Star Trek and Stargate and many many years of reading some great sci-fi books, for inspiration.
I'm not well up on all the various parts of the game so please tell me if what I am saying has already been implemented or is going to be and whether you thinkit's the right way to go ( we're all different and want different things and I understand it's aboot finding a balance). Remember this is purely my own opinionand I don't expect any agreement so play nice
)1: First, I understand that the game shouldn't be quick and easy but please for the love of the Gods, make it easier ( slightly ) to get encoded materials for engineers, whether grinding or otherwise. Raws are ok and manufactured absolutely fine.
2: I think it'd be nice to have an Alliance ranking structure. Also for ranking up to actually mean something above just acces to specific ships. More on that below.
3: I thought perhaps, that ranking up with 1 power ( be it one of the secondary powers r the main 3 ), has a direct affect with your standing with other powers, perhaps afecting where you can go and whether an opposition power react negatively or even aggresively to you. You could even become an agent inside another power. I'm honestly not sure how this would or could work, vis a vis engineers and purchases of power specific ships.
4: I think a cool idea would be at high rank, fisrstly NPCs and powers react differently to you in respect of your rank and maybe at max rank you get your own personal piece of planetary land to develop as your own from the State? Again, at that high rank, you would alienate yourself to the other powers ( depending on their current statuses against each other ), making the choice of who to align with more important. Maybe if you change sides you lose your priviliges as a traitor?
I think I'm right in saying that players can already affect the way systems develop etc??
5: I'd like to see exactly what we saw last year, 3 to 4 new ships a year. For me personally I get great joy of seeing new designs and finding ways to make them fit into what you're doing. The Type 8 and Mandalay are great examples. I think the Type 8 is an awesome design. Totally has Millenium Falcon vibes to me. And the Mandaly is gorgeous. Reminds me totally of a sleeker Firefly.
Thankfully it looks like Frontier are alreadsy going this way. Panther Clipper anyone?
)6: Is it possible to make it easier to discern places and items after using the DSS? It's very difficult right now, in my opinion too much. I like the way the FSS works though.
7: I know this has been already asked for and spoken aboot at length, and I accept ( more than some folk from what I have seen ), that it is extremely difficult resource wise, staff wise and money wise, as well as being unsure how far the game engine can be pushed as it is right now, but Earth like planet landing would be great. How cool would it be to fly through huge Citys on for example on Sol or Achenar. Fly over the Imperial Palace maybe? I like that thought. The videos and screenshots would be immense!
8: Obviously keep the storys moving forward.New threats or intruige and obviously the Powers jostling for position. Maybe a coup or a split of a power into another entity? The blue haired Empire Lady maybe trying to reform the Empire into something new and more honourable. How would the rank and file people feel aboot that?
9: I know a great many people disagree on this point and I respect their perspective but I couldn;t care less about ship interiors. At first it will be a cool novelty but very quickly become old hat. Reminds me of being able to wonder round your ship in Star Wars online. After a time it just became meh and a chore.
I'd much rather the Devs spent their precious time, effort and funds on developing the core game and other more important aspects.
10: I have no interest in the on foot side of the game ( I play to fly aboot space. Plenty of on foot games if I'd like.Even the SRV annoys me though not as much as it did at first and I have sort of got the hang of it ), so I'll leave suggestions on that front to others. Can you do multi-crew where someone does a foot mission and the other CMDR handles the SRV or the Ship?
11: Elite, however much we love it, will always be a relatively niche product, so never set the World on fire. Frankly I'm incredibly thankful that folks at Frontier believe in it enough to keep this passion product moving forward. With that in mind I am fine with the way ARX currently works. I would NEVER want it to go to subscription only, I think that would be a disaster but I'm happy to drop a fiver or a tenner every month or few months for the joy the game gives me ( It's a pint or a pack of ciggarettes worth and you get far more for it than you do with just a single night out on the town ) though quite obviously this has a ceiling once you have all the items you want. How you'd tweak that I am unsure. Keep offering new pack designs I suppose?
Going back to the power pledging, perhaps you could be able to earn extra ARX doing missions for your pledged power and depending on your attained rank? Just a thought.
That's just off the top of my head ( which is a mush of randomness and fog at the best of times. I'll add any further thoughts as they pop into my head.
Some final thoughts...
Part of the problem with games like Elite for the general public, is it requires an amount of patience ( and other than combat ) a more chilled and long term gaming experience. Most of us enjoy this and happily accept this ( Space is huge so getting things done isn't as simple as clicking your fingers....that would entirely miss the point ), especially those of us in older generations.. ( Apparently I'm Gen X whatever that means?
).Unfortunately the younger generations ( Not ALL of you ) are more inclined to expect instant gratification, fast pace and lots of action. All the minutiae and parts that require patience in between just frustrate and bore them. Some seem to have lost the ability to take in a more immersive and relaxed playing style. You see exactly the same thing with modern movies and TV shows.
I'm not saying they should be ignored ( far from it ) and financially Eliote need to keep them on board so it's an incredibly fine ( and probably frustrating balancing act ) trying to keep folk hooked, without changing the soul and core of the game going forward. You can not please 100 percent of the audience 100 percent of the time.
Anyhow, may Elite continue for many many years to come. It is absolutely unique and the gaming world would be lesser for not having it around.
P.s. what's the deal with psychotic NPCs ramming you in station airlocks, even if you fly with care and try to take urgent action to avoid!?
