Although I've been playing ED since Premium Beta, by the time of 1.3 (Power Play) in June I was quite bored of what ED had to offer, and although Power Play gave a brief respite, it was far too repetitive (and grindy) to keep my interest for long. So for the last 6 months I've mostly avoided playing ED, occasionally dipping in again in the hopes my absence might have rekindled my interest (but sadly it never did, nor did the supposedly improved missions of 1.4 either).
Also, to give a bit of context: I'm probably in the minority here, as I was a fan of the original Frontier: Elite 2 (and later FFE aka Elite 3). I backed ED on Kickstarter in the hopes of seeing a modern multiplayer 'remake' of it. Elite Dangerous had a lot of good points, but it never really felt like a remake of Frontier Elite 2, due to missing many things - landing on planets being the biggest & most obvious omission. So I had been eagerly anticipating Horizons.
I am happy to report that being able to land on planets (at ports) makes ED feel much more worthwhile (to me). Finally it feels like I'm going somewhere real, not just a nondescript location in the blackness of space. I wouldn't expect everyone to understand nor feel the same way, but I'm sure there must be a segment of players out there like me. And finally it brings me the "Frontier: Elite 2" feeling that had been lacking from Elite Dangerous.
But I suspect that simply landing on planets wouldn't have been enough to actually get me playing again for long, as my gaming expectations have increased a lot in the 20+ years since Frontier Elite 2 was released. This is where thebuggy SRV comes in. Contrary to some of the moaning on Reddit & the forums, the buggy SRV actually provides a fair bit of new gameplay, and increases the variety of available missions enough for me to happily play ED again (for how long I don't know - certainly FD need to be working on more mission types for future updates).
But just like learning to fly your ship in the original Elite Dangerous, there is quite a steep learning curve to thebuggy SRV, and the game doesn't hold your hands. If you are expecting to just deploy the SRV, and zoom about a planet running into interesting things (like say in Skyrim where you can hardly move for ancient ruins waiting to be explored)... then you will be sorely disappointed. First you need to learn to control your buggy SRV in different gravities, and part of that means finding controls that work for you (see below). Then you need to learn to interpret the scanner, which takes quite a bit of experimenting to learn to fully make use of. Only then will you be able to easily find materials that you can collect (such that the effort feels worthwhile), and only then will you be able to easily find the various POIs that are somewhere within those blue circles on your ship radar.
(I should mention that if you are trying to steer thebuggy SRV solely using your keyboard, then you will find it hard to control (typically swerving too hard & then spinning out of control). FD have some work to do here, to make it as controllable as on other PC driving games (brief taps of the left/right keys should only turn your steering wheel a small amount). However, if you add steering using the mouse, then it's much easier to handle, even when driving at full speed.)
On their own, collecting materials & the various POIs would not be enough to keep me entertained. Thankfully FD have provided various missions that involve settlements (surface places that you can't directly land at & so require yourbuggy SRV to reach). These seem quite varied in size & layout, and scattered inside them are various objects you can interact with (especially "data terminals"). Often you need to collect data from a particular terminal, or disable the power generator for part of the settlement. There are security shields & doors that protect the more sensitive parts of settlements, and getting past them is sometimes the key to getting to the object needed to complete your mission - and as there is more than one way to get past the shields & doors, part of the fun is working out the best way. Once you have gotten to the object, and done what is needed, the settlement will usually become hostile to you, so you then have to leg it back to your ship as quick as possible, while taking firing from the defences! So settlement missions are definitely a fun part of Horizons, but frustrating until you have worked out how to use the "Data Link" (it could definitely be easier to use than it is & is something I feel FD need to work on).
I also like the fact that NPC ships land & take-off from ports (surface places that you CAN directly land at), as it gives a much-needed feeling of life to the places. (But more needs to be done in this area, as patrolling skimmers don't really do it for me.) Contrary to settlements, I haven't yet found much use to driving around ports, plus they tend to be mazes, so something else FD need to work on.
Overall I feel that all these new elements combine to give a fair bit of gameplay variety, certainly enough to get me playing ED again for the time being. Do they make you much money yet? Not really. If you only do things in ED that make you lots of money, and have become bored of ED, then I strongly recommend changing your mindset, and look for fun things to do (instead of concentrating on making money). Gaining money and/or reputation should be a nice bonus for doing stuff, not your primary goal. Having said that, FD really do need to increase the payouts & reputation gains from missions, as currently they are laughable. Especially for reputation, where it takes several "High reputation" missions for my reputation to increase by a measly 1%.
Horizons is marked as "Early Access" for a reason: There ARE bugs. What affected me the most are some missions being uncompletable and/or result in negative reputation from the faction that you completed the mission for. At the moment the only solution is to avoid those missions, or in some cases learn to work-around the bug. I also find that some textures (particularly large rocks & man-made structures) are often very low-res. You will have to accept these issues, until FD fix them (and their history with ED suggests that they will be fixed during January, but by Xmas seems a bit much to hope for.)
The final thing which got me to love Horizons was to stop reading all those negative Horizons threads on Reddit (and these forums to a lesser extent), as it just warps your perception, making it much harder to see all the fun stuff that is actually there waiting for you to discover it, and making you feel negative about the good stuff you have found.
Also, to give a bit of context: I'm probably in the minority here, as I was a fan of the original Frontier: Elite 2 (and later FFE aka Elite 3). I backed ED on Kickstarter in the hopes of seeing a modern multiplayer 'remake' of it. Elite Dangerous had a lot of good points, but it never really felt like a remake of Frontier Elite 2, due to missing many things - landing on planets being the biggest & most obvious omission. So I had been eagerly anticipating Horizons.
I am happy to report that being able to land on planets (at ports) makes ED feel much more worthwhile (to me). Finally it feels like I'm going somewhere real, not just a nondescript location in the blackness of space. I wouldn't expect everyone to understand nor feel the same way, but I'm sure there must be a segment of players out there like me. And finally it brings me the "Frontier: Elite 2" feeling that had been lacking from Elite Dangerous.
But I suspect that simply landing on planets wouldn't have been enough to actually get me playing again for long, as my gaming expectations have increased a lot in the 20+ years since Frontier Elite 2 was released. This is where the
But just like learning to fly your ship in the original Elite Dangerous, there is quite a steep learning curve to the
(I should mention that if you are trying to steer the
On their own, collecting materials & the various POIs would not be enough to keep me entertained. Thankfully FD have provided various missions that involve settlements (surface places that you can't directly land at & so require your
I also like the fact that NPC ships land & take-off from ports (surface places that you CAN directly land at), as it gives a much-needed feeling of life to the places. (But more needs to be done in this area, as patrolling skimmers don't really do it for me.) Contrary to settlements, I haven't yet found much use to driving around ports, plus they tend to be mazes, so something else FD need to work on.
Overall I feel that all these new elements combine to give a fair bit of gameplay variety, certainly enough to get me playing ED again for the time being. Do they make you much money yet? Not really. If you only do things in ED that make you lots of money, and have become bored of ED, then I strongly recommend changing your mindset, and look for fun things to do (instead of concentrating on making money). Gaining money and/or reputation should be a nice bonus for doing stuff, not your primary goal. Having said that, FD really do need to increase the payouts & reputation gains from missions, as currently they are laughable. Especially for reputation, where it takes several "High reputation" missions for my reputation to increase by a measly 1%.
Horizons is marked as "Early Access" for a reason: There ARE bugs. What affected me the most are some missions being uncompletable and/or result in negative reputation from the faction that you completed the mission for. At the moment the only solution is to avoid those missions, or in some cases learn to work-around the bug. I also find that some textures (particularly large rocks & man-made structures) are often very low-res. You will have to accept these issues, until FD fix them (and their history with ED suggests that they will be fixed during January, but by Xmas seems a bit much to hope for.)
The final thing which got me to love Horizons was to stop reading all those negative Horizons threads on Reddit (and these forums to a lesser extent), as it just warps your perception, making it much harder to see all the fun stuff that is actually there waiting for you to discover it, and making you feel negative about the good stuff you have found.
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