Horizons Player Difficulty Levels now needed in Elite Dangerous

regardless of if this is a good idea or not, I think you will be waiting a long loooong time for it to happen. Do not hold your breath, it is something the devs have shown no interest in at all, and i think are more interested in trying to balance the game by security zones and what not.
 
So, what if they don't? How does that affect my, or your, game?

In case you missed the inference in my post. Easy Mode would only give you a percentage of the rewards (cash and rank) that you get for combat, exploring and trading. So someone on Easy Street would find it difficult to upgrade to better ships and weapons.
That kinda stops it from being an Easy mode though - if it ends up equally challenging or taking lots longer on a game where many of those same folk also complain it's a constant grind sadly won't be accepted.
There is a "Finish" in the game? Does that mean that I'll have to stop when I get to Elite? I don't think so...
...
How does it make it unfair, I fail to follow?
If I come across a beginner in PvP (not that I do PvP myself) who styles himself Elite by playing Easy Mode. Will that make him better in combat than me. Anymore than buying a shark's teeth paint job.
There's no strict "finish" as there are so many goals - but taking for example to guy who wants to be a combat pilot and see the anaconda as their "finish" - the guy on easy mode gets to elite and his anaconda, goes into a fight with someone who's played hard in a Asp and gets his butt handed to him shredded to nothing on a plate..... then comes screaming OP....

Which is kinda exactly where we are now with the updated AI in a way.

Once you've gotten far in easy your game experience has forked from the rest of the galaxy. Maybe you could actually have three whole easy/medium/hard galaxies - but the server load for that is VAST and it'd be impossible to switch between them without real problems with how each galaxy would progress at different rates. If this is meant to be an "all in it together" game then that breaks it
 
regardless of if this is a good idea or not, I think you will be waiting a long loooong time for it to happen. Do not hold your breath, it is something the devs have shown no interest in at all, and i think are more interested in trying to balance the game by security zones and what not.

As they should.
 
Having myself lost a fair bit of cash to the now stupidity difficult NPC's that can blow you away in the time it takes to sneeze, along with having read many similar accounts posted here and elsewhere, of players being bombed back to the stone age with only their Sidewinder and a thousand credits left, perhaps it's time the Frontier Devs seriously consider introducing a game level option...
Easy for the traders, miners and explorers and beginners (who will quit playing this game before they may their first ship upgrade) who don't want to get blown away by npc's every 5 minutes i.e. those not wanting to deal with the npc's on a regular run.
Normal for experienced players who don't mind a little combat in a navigation beacon etc and can cope with the occasional interdiction by npc's.
Hard for the testosterone junkies that like the npc's to have enough teeth to be challenging.
Very Hard for the testosterone junkies that have become experienced enough to play with flight assist off and enjoy a real challenge with npc's presenting a real challenge.

Now the obvious critism to this is how this would impact upon ranking which currently prevents this kind of game level mechanics being implicated easily. Elite in Easy will not mean the same as Elite in Very hard.
Simple... Introduce more levels by expanding the current model so that say Competent in combat rank now translates to level x.
Here is an example...
Harmless... Level 1,2,3,4
Mostly Harmless... Level 5,6,7,8 (or 1,2,3,4)
Cadet... Level 9,10,11,12 (or 1,2,3,4)
Competent... Level 13,14,15,16 (or 1,2,3,4)
Master... Level 17,18,19,20 (or 1,2,3,4)

I think that is enough to illustrate the idea. The same can be applied to exploration and trade ranks.

At present an Explorer can spend months out in the black only to find that their ship is blown away as they come back to the bubble. Personally, that makes for really shi##y game play imho with months of game time wasted.

Similarly a trader can get his nice new conda blown away after spending months saving up for it.

The game is way too combat orientated for my liking. Elite was originally (so I believe) intended to be an exploration orientated game with some combat thrown in for those that enjoy that. However it seems that the boys have taken over the show and the game has become almost exclusively combat orientated. With the release of 2.1 this has now been taken to an unacceptable level imho.

Combat is now not optional, it's now imperative that you are armed to the teeth and know how to use them effectively even if you are not combat orientated in order to simply survive (and even then surviving currently looks very problematic...).

I know I'm going to get called all the sissy names in the book for this post, but frankly I don't give a wet kipper. I'm a paying customer too, and as such I should be enabled to enjoy the game as much as the testosterone junkies.

Frontier, PLEASE redress the game mechanics to enable your regular Jo players to enjoy this game to, otherwise I fear your subscriber base will suffer with the game becoming a dedicated combat orientated space sim (of which there are all ready way to many to pick from).

There are ladies playing this game to and I would like us to be considered in how the game is shaped and developed.

OP has to be a troll, right?

I consider myself a feminist, and someone crying that "ladies need to be considered" because it's too hard is ridiculous.

This isn't a win only game. It's Elite. You have to put effort into accomplishing what you want to do.
The quickest way to ruin a game is to make it that the 'end game' is within everybody's reach. The 'end game' is exactly that. The End.

Please don't tell me that because you're a woman you need things easy. It's both offensive and wrong.
 
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OP has to be a troll, right?

I consider myself a feminist, and someone crying that "ladies need to be considered" because it's too hard is ridiculous.

This isn't a win only game. It's Elite. You have to put effort into accomplishing what you want to do.
The quickest way to ruin a game is to make it that the 'end game' is within everybody's reach. The 'end game' is exactly that. The End.

Please don't tell me that because you're a woman you need things easy. It's both offensive and wrong.

I believe you would be the Troll, not the OP.
 
I believe you would be the Troll, not the OP.

Really?

Entering a discussion declaring that, because of your gender, the game should be easier because 'ladies' can't handle it.

That's a reasonable argument? You really think a legitimate person would make such a request?

Get real.
 
Really?! Less than a week in. Two deaths and your asking for a refund? WOW...
Since 2.1 dropped, I have:

-Continued to fly my a-rated DBS to:
1-Conduct 'experimental chemical recovery missions'. Even stacked two of these at once.
2-Put over 1.1million creds into the Bounty Hunting CG at Ngolibardu
3-Evaded interdiction from many different rated NPCs, in many various ships (nothing bigger than a clipper so far)
4-Been interdicted by and then either destroyed or escaped from a number of various rated NPCs in various ships (up to & including FAS/FDS/Clippers)
5-BHunted in RESs and taken down everything up to Anacondas.

-Flown my T7 to:
1-Contribute 1400t to the current trade CG
2-Scored two (2) kills along the way.

I have yet to be destroyed....

I am not an Elite rated pilot. I am not even rated Dangerous. My current rating is 75% Expert.

It's just not that difficult. Forget your previous play style. NPCs are no longer graduates of the Anakin Skywalker flight school (spinning's a good trick).

They will fight back, they will flee, they will use tactics. Yes, there are some crazy weapon cool down / fire rate bugs to be found and squashed, but I'm sure FD are working feverishly to correct those.

Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.

I'm not hardcore. I play a few hours on the weekends and an hour or two total during the week. If I can do it....

Toffs
( '-')7

OK but that's not the point I believe.

I attended all NESPELEVE, NGOLIBARDU, MEHET, NEITS, never stopped, only the fight is important now ok, i cam make some money and have fun whith that, but I wanted to be doing trade now and I haven't been able to do.

There are many alternatives to do combat, RES, conflict zones, system political instability , enemy powers, CGs . If you want to fight just choose which.

strong security systems infested with enemies is funny, be interdicted by enemies in Nanomam, Zacary Hudson headquarters every .... time.

You cannot choose not to engage.
 
I am sure that there are levels already built into this game.

The missions have a level of ease, which corresponds to the level of payout.

Mining has a level of ease, based on location (LOW, HIGH and HAZ) and corresponding payout of resources gathered and interference by Pirates.

BH has a similar level of ease, as the type and ferocity of NPCs at the LOW, HIGH and HAZ REs sites does vary and so does the payout.

Combat zobnes also have LOW and HIGH intensity, which has a level of challenge commensurate with difficulty.

Trading (An area I havent done for a while), there are levels of risk and reward, trading rares high risk of interdiction as you are travelling long distances to get maximum reward, trading Biowaste short hops low return.

Interdiction in High Sec you have System security dropping in within 30 secs to help out (as a trader by this time you will be long gone after 4 PIPS Sys and boost a few times),interdiction in Anarchy high risk of death unless you do the trader shuffle and boost away asap (note the video recently posted which showed a number of tips about evading interdiction death which include High warp to another system and also turning and boosting past enemy).

Bases have varying levels of difficult + to +++ and varying levels of payout and reward.

The challenge is realizing your limits as a player and concentrating on the winnable objectives and not considering all opportunities as completable (they may eb as you improve you skills or ship, or ship loadout.

I run from Elite NPCs, I do not engage with wings of 3 or more pirates, I hold my fire when other ships are potentially crossing my firing line on a target, I try not to die in this Dangerous game.....
 
*scratches head*

Really?

You're suggesting a difficulty setting - were you thinking that should only apply when people are newbies and then it turns off? Because if not then the difficulty setting will still applies months after they've finished being newbies

Offline mode would have to be a different game - but why not if there's demand for it.

Then, Frontier has to get a better matchmaking with the NPCs that interdict you. There is no fun in being interdicted multiple times by dangerous or deadly NPCs when you're only harmless.
 
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