Jump here, scan this, shoot that, trade these... The galaxy is huge a filling it is a task. I'm not complaining, honestly I have an embarrassingly high number of hours in this game but like everything it could be better.
I'm an aspiring author so I add flare to things, it's what I do. Since I know most of you will tl;dr scan down to the bottom I'm adding header for each item. That being said here are my top 5 things I'd love to see in Elite Dangerous.
1. Story starts
You start the game and are met with 3 beginnings. A bounty Hunter start with a story of revenge, and a used viper mk2 to exact it with. A trade start giving you a hauler, and a lucrative deal with a time limit and pirate troubles. An Explorer start with a sidewinder and a map to an artifact on a world not too far away.
Game starts would give players a decent opportunity to learn the ropes and try out new beginnings. It would also help steer players down the path they eventually want to take.
2 Used ships and permenent damage
You started your space faring career in a used sidewinder and after some time you've grew experience wise and financially as well. Now you're ready to step up to something bigger. A new ship? Too expensive, how about a used one? There's a drydock in CN Bootis in orbit near Sellings City...
You make your way and drop out of cruise to find a long rotating tubular frame structure covered in pads which hold ships of all shapes and sizes. You land and pull up a menu of used ships.
An Anaconda, not the sleek arrow head model sold today but a bulky frieghter with a huge underslung cargo hold. 'Too expensive'... Next you find an Asp scout, not much to say in terms of equipment other than a tuned fsd,(a special used ship find that can still be engineered) 'still a bit too pricey'
Finally you spot it, a Cobra, not a mk3 or mk4, a mk1... An old ship, built before the standardization so she doesn't have the hard points and equipment bays that are universal amoung today's ships but for a decent fee she can be retrofitted to fit them. For the moment she only has retrofitted fsd mountings and optional compartments. Her hardmounted cannons would do in a pinch but she did have one thing going for her, prototype engines, something so rare that you just have to buy her. Problem is her frame is damaged beyond repair and she'd probably rip herself in two if you tried jumping in her. You find a mechanic on the station that can build and install a new one but it'd cost almost as much as the ship did. But after some searching you find in the "junk ships" section a mk1 with a decent frame. They install it quickly and you fly away not too long later, with a ships so uncommon that you can honestly say you found a gem.
Used ships would break us from the 30 ship list without being too complicated to implement, even if they are basically the same as a reskin of their modern counterpart when retrofitted they'd be something new. As for frame and hull damage both could be patched to 100 percent each time they take damage but their overall health would still drop, hull would become weaker as more and more patches appeared on it and the frame would cause systems to perform worse and eventually malfunction. Basically when you hit zero the ship is in limp mode and will barely make it to a station, you're only options are replace the frame and hull or buy a new ship. Replacement possibly being more expensive depending on how bad they are.
This would lead to more money being spent long term to keep a ship alive, especially one you have an attachment to. And would also allow for a new insurance system. Where our current rebuy cost would actually cover a tow and repair of your nearly but not so destroyed ship and for a new one you'd have to pay full price, keeping your ships hull in play throughout its life.
3 No more Exploits! Better the grind...
It took me months of playing the game normally to grind out enough rank and money for my corvette. And once I bought it I felt accomplished, like I had put in enough work to earn it. I could have done what most do though and grind it all out in a couple weeks using exploits like blowing yourself up to respond at a station sooner or running 20 clones of the same mission over and over again. But I wanted to feel like I did something and now I do. I know my opinion is an unpopular one but ask any eve player with their games biggest ship what a grind is... Condos, vette, and Cuts are meant to be end game beasts, not something you can have within the first month of playing. Getting rid of exploits quickly and making the grind more diverse and fun would fix these issues and I feel like waiting till the next big patch to do something about it isn't the rite way to go.
4 Make it a MMO
Imagine you've just left CN Bootis with your newly bought Cobra. Shortly thereafter after you receive a call. 'Alliance navy'... They are planning a sortie against a pirate base. You accept and relieve coordinates to a carrier not too far away. The mission starts in 20 minutes so you quickly jump to its location, being taken into a group PVE instance when you drop out of sc, and see nearly 20 other players dropping in as you dock up to the carrier. Minutes later it jumps, just outside the bubble, and exits near an asteroid base teeming with pirates. You launch with the others and make your first attack run...
Pvp could be the same, replace the base with another carrier. This one filled with federal players. Or break it down into power play and give power play a fun pvp facelift. You see other players but the MMO experience could Definitly use some work...
5. Exploration missions
Boards filled with missions to discover a planet with x minerals for x mining company. Or find a habitable world for x colony initiative. Some goal for us explorers to keep an eye out for.
Like I said I know there are plenty of lists out there but I want feed back and to hear your ideas. I know FD has a direction they want the game to go in but I'd love to see more player feedback being brought into the game.
I'm an aspiring author so I add flare to things, it's what I do. Since I know most of you will tl;dr scan down to the bottom I'm adding header for each item. That being said here are my top 5 things I'd love to see in Elite Dangerous.
1. Story starts
You start the game and are met with 3 beginnings. A bounty Hunter start with a story of revenge, and a used viper mk2 to exact it with. A trade start giving you a hauler, and a lucrative deal with a time limit and pirate troubles. An Explorer start with a sidewinder and a map to an artifact on a world not too far away.
Game starts would give players a decent opportunity to learn the ropes and try out new beginnings. It would also help steer players down the path they eventually want to take.
2 Used ships and permenent damage
You started your space faring career in a used sidewinder and after some time you've grew experience wise and financially as well. Now you're ready to step up to something bigger. A new ship? Too expensive, how about a used one? There's a drydock in CN Bootis in orbit near Sellings City...
You make your way and drop out of cruise to find a long rotating tubular frame structure covered in pads which hold ships of all shapes and sizes. You land and pull up a menu of used ships.
An Anaconda, not the sleek arrow head model sold today but a bulky frieghter with a huge underslung cargo hold. 'Too expensive'... Next you find an Asp scout, not much to say in terms of equipment other than a tuned fsd,(a special used ship find that can still be engineered) 'still a bit too pricey'
Finally you spot it, a Cobra, not a mk3 or mk4, a mk1... An old ship, built before the standardization so she doesn't have the hard points and equipment bays that are universal amoung today's ships but for a decent fee she can be retrofitted to fit them. For the moment she only has retrofitted fsd mountings and optional compartments. Her hardmounted cannons would do in a pinch but she did have one thing going for her, prototype engines, something so rare that you just have to buy her. Problem is her frame is damaged beyond repair and she'd probably rip herself in two if you tried jumping in her. You find a mechanic on the station that can build and install a new one but it'd cost almost as much as the ship did. But after some searching you find in the "junk ships" section a mk1 with a decent frame. They install it quickly and you fly away not too long later, with a ships so uncommon that you can honestly say you found a gem.
Used ships would break us from the 30 ship list without being too complicated to implement, even if they are basically the same as a reskin of their modern counterpart when retrofitted they'd be something new. As for frame and hull damage both could be patched to 100 percent each time they take damage but their overall health would still drop, hull would become weaker as more and more patches appeared on it and the frame would cause systems to perform worse and eventually malfunction. Basically when you hit zero the ship is in limp mode and will barely make it to a station, you're only options are replace the frame and hull or buy a new ship. Replacement possibly being more expensive depending on how bad they are.
This would lead to more money being spent long term to keep a ship alive, especially one you have an attachment to. And would also allow for a new insurance system. Where our current rebuy cost would actually cover a tow and repair of your nearly but not so destroyed ship and for a new one you'd have to pay full price, keeping your ships hull in play throughout its life.
3 No more Exploits! Better the grind...
It took me months of playing the game normally to grind out enough rank and money for my corvette. And once I bought it I felt accomplished, like I had put in enough work to earn it. I could have done what most do though and grind it all out in a couple weeks using exploits like blowing yourself up to respond at a station sooner or running 20 clones of the same mission over and over again. But I wanted to feel like I did something and now I do. I know my opinion is an unpopular one but ask any eve player with their games biggest ship what a grind is... Condos, vette, and Cuts are meant to be end game beasts, not something you can have within the first month of playing. Getting rid of exploits quickly and making the grind more diverse and fun would fix these issues and I feel like waiting till the next big patch to do something about it isn't the rite way to go.
4 Make it a MMO
Imagine you've just left CN Bootis with your newly bought Cobra. Shortly thereafter after you receive a call. 'Alliance navy'... They are planning a sortie against a pirate base. You accept and relieve coordinates to a carrier not too far away. The mission starts in 20 minutes so you quickly jump to its location, being taken into a group PVE instance when you drop out of sc, and see nearly 20 other players dropping in as you dock up to the carrier. Minutes later it jumps, just outside the bubble, and exits near an asteroid base teeming with pirates. You launch with the others and make your first attack run...
Pvp could be the same, replace the base with another carrier. This one filled with federal players. Or break it down into power play and give power play a fun pvp facelift. You see other players but the MMO experience could Definitly use some work...
5. Exploration missions
Boards filled with missions to discover a planet with x minerals for x mining company. Or find a habitable world for x colony initiative. Some goal for us explorers to keep an eye out for.
Like I said I know there are plenty of lists out there but I want feed back and to hear your ideas. I know FD has a direction they want the game to go in but I'd love to see more player feedback being brought into the game.
