Please make the game about more than pushing numbers!

[Red Fox Four]

Everything we do in this game is pushing numbers.

I thought we'd get something cool and immersive with the Powerplay. I figured now we could get some story behind things. Get some characters we can relate to or at least care about. A driver, a force, a catalyst behind the actions we choose and the enemies we make.

But no.

All we got was the bulletin board in a different wrapping.

Carry messages for your faction! Oh yeah, a 'reskinned' version of cargo transport missions on bulletin board.
Destroy enemy security/authority ships! Oh yeah, a 'reskinned' version of the hunt <pirates|bounty hunters|civilians|authority ships> missions on bulletin board.

Frontier, please, can you get a bit more imaginative?

It's super boring when everything we can do in this game is the same exact thing, but in a different interface with some different words around it.

I try to motivate myself to play the game, but when powerplay and bulletin board is the same damn thing, and I got bored of the bulletin board half a year ago, then I find it hard to continue in this game.

The graphics are awesome, the ships feel good, the combat is fun, the immersion is really nice (especially when combined with an Occulus Rift and/or voice attack).

But all that is for nothing when I feel like I am playing Excel in space, and just push numbers. Bring X thousand messages to fortify a system.

I don't even care about my faction. Why should I? There is no interaction with agents of the faction. There's no special mission types that would be a signature for your faction (being shady, honourable, creative, wicked etc). It's just a 2D face plastered over a remade bulletin board where you go to find the closest system where you can push numbers today so you can get an <insert generic bonus> for your faction. Why are there no agents for the opposing factions trying to recruit you by offering amazing deals? Why are there no missions from your faction that force you to make DECISIONS! Nothing in this game is encouraging, discouraging or forcing me to make decisions. Maybe an agent of my faction wants me to murder an official while he's en route with his wife and two small babies to another planet. Then it is up to YOU if you want to be a baby-killer, or if you abandon the mission. And whatever you decide should have CONSEQUENCES. Another thing this game is entirely devoid of. Killing the official and his family would improve your standing with the faction, but it should be a major hit to your personal reputation.

Will traders give good deals to a person who kills babies?
Will your faction still respect your or even allow you to remain with them if you abandon a mission?

Where are the decisions?
Where are the consequences?

I feel like a dead robot just sifting through space, forever glued to the chair of my ship. Am I actually a person in the game, or am I an automated ship controlled by AI?

You tell me!

When you step back and look at the game then it feels like a pretty facade, but it's entirely hollow inside.

Lately I play this game less than 10 hours per month. I step inside the facade, go through the empty rooms, get bored, and leave again.

 

[nexxo]

The game was never meant to be a story. It was meant to be a stage on which you write and act out your own.

In my opinion PowerPlay was a mistake; a deviation from this original intent. It confuses players about the objective of this game, and it becomes neither one nor the other.

 

[nosscar]

redacted, mis read title.

 

[[VR] Frank_G]

The players and powerplay are the story. So everyone decides how deep one gets involved, takes part and what part one fulfills... Its only a bit harder to read, than the usual movie or story driven game stuff but at no point less tense or epic. With the mission system evolving and the game world expanding to the planets, i can already imagine large scale ground based battles, planetary sieges and things like that going on soon. Just jump in your cockpit an be a part of it.

(Oh no... i said deep one... fthagn!)

 

[Steve50]

You can do what I do?

Totally ignore Powerplay, don't align with any faction and simply do your own thing in game for fun and enjoyment?

 

[Engadine]

The game was never meant to be a story. It was meant to be a stage on which you write and act out your own.

In my opinion PowerPlay was a mistake; a deviation from this original intent. It confuses players about the objective of this game, and it becomes neither one nor the other.

Totaly agree with regards to PowerPlay, at least in the way it was just dropped in, or rather on top of the game.

However, although the game was never meant to be a story, I feel the game could benefit from a better underlying/side story to give it more depth, but this has been over looked and what is there poorly implemented. At least if there was it could, or some of it weave into PowerPlay and we wouldn't have had Powers appear that we know nothing about or have any connection with. The same will happen when the Powers change and new ones appear. These newer Powers should already be making some dents in to Galnet with news articles and mini stories developing, but alas this isn't happening, another over sight by Frontier.

Yes, the game is a stage in which you can "Blaze your own trail" but some better back ground story lines would give players the option to take part in moulding this story and out come upon the Galaxy or character should they choose to.

- - - Updated - - -

You can do what I do?

Totally ignore Powerplay, don't align with any faction and simply do your own thing in game for fun and enjoyment?

Exactlty the way I play the game currently and possibly will do for the foreseeable future.

However, even without aligning to a Faction or Pledging to a Power, the actions such players make should still have effects on these, even if incredibly small ones.

 

[Red Fox Four]

What story line can you imagine when there is nothing in the game that adds to or takes from that story?

If I have to imagine and create my entire story exclusively in my own mind then I'm not playing a game. I am day dreaming.

Everything in the game is so generic though that it leaves nothing to inspire your own story.

Where are the pirate havens? Why are are pirate outposts offering exactly the same carbon-copy stuff as other outposts? Why are there no agents or contacts that you can build trust with and learn where to take down better scores, or even special missions for exclusive targets? Why are there no fences I can haggle with for prices? But no, because we are AI stuck in our ships all we can do is interact with the same bulletin board page nomatter where we go.

Where are the bounty hunter hangouts? Why is there no contact I can connect with that provides better deals? Why can't we interact with agents of varying morale standings? Some agents might offer you bounty missions to kill innocents, simply because someone placed a bounty on them. Why is there nothing like that in the game? Should I just take a random bounty hunter mission and play-pretend, in my own mind, the entire story around it?

Why is everything so non-human and isolated that the only feeling of a human element in the game is an automated robot response when you request landing clearance?

How can I feel connected and immersed in a game where everything is completely distant and handled through a bulletin board menu (or powerplay menu, but those are literally the same, just reskinned).

If Frontier expects players to imagine and play-pretend 90% of the game and stories in it, then they should be developing pen and paper roleplaying games and not computer games.

 

[Deng]

This heavy RP crowd man..lol, it's ok it's just a box, climb inside and pretend!! Carve your future young pilot!

"It's dark and smelly in here :'("

But seriously, if it was tailored for the player to make their own story there would be a lot more customization and player orientated areas, shops, jobs, liveries and paintjobs in sync etc. I would love to work for an internal security force and have some underlings, or be part of a merchants guild style thing, but at the moment it's just a box in a room, the story update with player made gal-net content and community goals interwoven is a good start, we'll see where it all goes but removing modding from the games future could be a huge mistake as it only puts more focus on them to fill the gaps, unless we all just carry on using 3rd party software and medium...

 

[Bran Tse Mallory]

OP Is right though, the game is just the same as GTA V. In that game you just watch a 'no point' cut scene, drive somewhere, kill some people, drive somewhere else. Rinse and repeat until you die of boredom just like I almost did - Worst game ever IMO - No depth to the game at all...

But that's just my opinion and you are entitled to your's.

 

[Red Fox Four]

I feel the game could benefit from a better underlying/side story to give it more depth, but this has been over looked and what is there poorly implemented.

That is really the words I am looking for... more depth.

This game is vast like an ocean, but shallow as a puddle.

In one week of playing you can easily do everything there is to do in this game... and then the only thing left is to grind to a bigger ship so you can do exactly the same things on a slightly larger scale.

 

[Witzo]

OP used the word "immersion" three times in one page.

 

[Red Fox Four]

Because this game has none when it comes to the human element. We're all AI trapped in our ships.

 

[Engadine]

That is really the words I am looking for... more depth.

This game is vast like an ocean, but shallow as a puddle.

In one week of playing you can easily do everything there is to do in this game... and then the only thing left is to grind to a bigger ship so you can do exactly the same things on a slightly larger scale.

very much agree, especially the Ocean/Puddle analogy.

- - - Updated - - -

Although Horizons is being developed and it gives us the added option of playing on planet surfaces, this will only spread the game surface out. It certainly isn't going to give it the depth & substance that's currently missing. We'll just have yet other places to pick up and run BB Missions.

 

[Engadine]

In my opinion PowerPlay is just a mini grind within a bigger grind and if anything a harder one to reap rewards from.

 

[nexxo]

However, although the game was never meant to be a story, I feel the game could benefit from a better underlying/side story to give it more depth, but this has been over looked and what is there poorly implemented..

But seriously, if it was tailored for the player to make their own story there would be a lot more customization and player orientated areas, shops, jobs, liveries and paintjobs in sync etc.

I think you (and Red Fox Four) are putting your fingers right on the problem. There is a difference between story and world building, and they often get mixed up.

Take a Shakespearean play. It was acted out on a bare stage with minimal props. To compensate for that, it had a powerful story with rich narrative and florid illustrative word play. You forgot about the stage, got caught up in the story.

Take a film like Star Wars or Star Trek. A simple story, really, but set against a credible, lush backdrop of alien worlds and civilisations. The world building is what made the impact here, as can be witnessed in the tons of fan fiction and third party writers elaborating on their universe.

What people want with Elite Dangerous is more world building. Frontier has got that confused with more narrative. Power Play is the latter. More variety in environments, missions, activities, a working economy and background simulation and even things like ship naming are the former. We need world building, so players can write their own stories in it.

 

[Jukelo]

What story line can you imagine when there is nothing in the game that adds to or takes from that story?

If I have to imagine and create my entire story exclusively in my own mind then I'm not playing a game. I am day dreaming.

Everything in the game is so generic though that it leaves nothing to inspire your own story.

Where are the pirate havens? Why are are pirate outposts offering exactly the same carbon-copy stuff as other outposts? Why are there no agents or contacts that you can build trust with and learn where to take down better scores, or even special missions for exclusive targets? Why are there no fences I can haggle with for prices? But no, because we are AI stuck in our ships all we can do is interact with the same bulletin board page nomatter where we go.

Where are the bounty hunter hangouts? Why is there no contact I can connect with that provides better deals? Why can't we interact with agents of varying morale standings? Some agents might offer you bounty missions to kill innocents, simply because someone placed a bounty on them. Why is there nothing like that in the game? Should I just take a random bounty hunter mission and play-pretend, in my own mind, the entire story around it?

Why is everything so non-human and isolated that the only feeling of a human element in the game is an automated robot response when you request landing clearance?

How can I feel connected and immersed in a game where everything is completely distant and handled through a bulletin board menu (or powerplay menu, but those are literally the same, just reskinned).

If Frontier expects players to imagine and play-pretend 90% of the game and stories in it, then they should be developing pen and paper roleplaying games and not computer games.

This is pretty much spot on.

 

[tomalus]

I pretended I work for Zemina Torval, then she got shot in the knee by tons of bugs.

 

[Zerosum]

.

but ...but... +1

 

[Makaan]

very much agree, especially the Ocean/Puddle analogy.

- - - Updated - - -

Although Horizons is being developed and it gives us the added option of playing on planet surfaces, this will only spread the game surface out. It certainly isn't going to give it the depth & substance that's currently missing. We'll just have yet other places to pick up and run BB Missions.

Although planetary landings is going to be a pretty awesome feature, I think they should have implemented the ability for us to walk around our ships first at the very least.

The executive producer at FD said that walking around will come much later, i.e after horizons.

Which is unfortunate, although landing on rocky planets will greatly add to the immersion we're still not going to truly feel human since we can't get out of the chair.

And in our SRV's we'll be interacting with vendors etc via them controlling automated vehicles.

While these new features are going to be great. I feel that we should at least be able to walk around our ships before anything else, to truly feel that we are not robots stuck in a chair.

As much as I love this game it really needs this feature sooner rather than later.

 

[Crash1099]

You can do what I do?

Totally ignore Powerplay, don't align with any faction and simply do your own thing in game for fun and enjoyment?

Agree with this. Go to lave for some good enjoyment. That is some good enjoyment if you are in for some real player powerplay. Not the fake guys with pictures.