So to preface this whole thing, after having a SNAFU with the recent Community Goal in Summerland and loosing over 400 million credits toward the event, I had to submit a ticket. The outcome of said ticket was basically, they were unable to do anything about it. As according to support, they don't have the tools to repurpose credits back into whatever it was you had them in prior to turning them in (i.e.- combat bonds, bounties, exploration data, etc.) Or in their exact words: "There isn't a function available to us at present to facilitate that sort of exchange or direct manipulation of the process." After my reply and what I said therein, I was told: "This is the kind of constructive feedback that our game developers are really looking for. I believe if you post this on our suggestions forum, it is likely that it will get noticed. In fact, this has happened to many players in the past(...)" This was said after the suggestion forum was given as a place to put the issue in an earlier response. To which I gave my reply of how in so... many... games... suggestion forums just get buried and almost none of it makes it to the ears of the developers. But after being told it might actually get seen and heard, I figured I'd go ahead and try. And so, well, here's the post.
I also feel the need to add this part in before going any further, as many times I've seen replies to certain topics get trolled off with "lol lern2read" or some version of "learn2play n00b", so lets just get this part out of the way. Yes, I know how to read. Yes, I know how to play, and I've been playing Elite since released in 2014; I am not new to the mechanics of the game or ignorant of the game and its mechanics. Anyways, with that part out of the way, let's continue.
I read the Galnet article and headed for Summerland to fight me some Darkwater. I went directly to the station, exited my ship, went to Frontline and signed up for a conflict zone I thought looked like a good one to farm, and took the Frontline shuttle to the battle. Later on when I was back on the Henry O'Hare station, before going to turn in the combat bonds I had built up to that point, I went to check the mission board to see if there was any sort of registration. There was nothing showing up while on foot on the station to "join" for the event. It's as if it doesn't even exist. There is no option to choose either 'Community goals' or missions or passengers like there is while on a ship. It simply opens up the mission board where you can sort local missions by 'all' or by type. This made me believe you didn't need to sign up for the event and things would be tracked by Frontier on their side of things. This thought was given credence as the last community goal I participated in where a permit-locked system was opened and players had to deliver goods to a visiting Megaship did not have a sign-up, it was just automatically tracked. And the one prior to that I participated in was a community goal for Thargoid Hearts to get a unique ship decal, that goal was, again, without the need to sign up for. Needless to say, I saw no community goal option, just figured I was good, and turned in my bonds. Did this on two seperate occasions which totaled over 400 million. It wasn't until I was browsing a random Reddit post later on about someone asking what to expect in the Summerland system for the event that I just happened to see someone had mentioned in a random reply to "Be sure to sign up for the event before submitting your combat bonds." So I again checked the station and saw nothing. I then desperately ran to my ship, boarded, then checked the mission board. And to my surprise, only viewable while ON your docked ship, was the option to join up for the event. Now you can maybe see where I am going with this.
Never did it occur to me that you can only view something while in a docked ship when you are supposed to have, more or less, the same basic tools for menus on foot that you do while accessing a menu while on a ship. I see the fact you cannot access the community goal section in the mission board while on foot inside a station as a massive oversight for Odyssey players. When a Community Goal can be contributed toward both via activities done on-foot as well as ship-based, but you can only even see the community goal in one of those areas to register, I see that as a problem, and one that is going to lead to things like this. And as I said, I am by no means new to Elite. So I can only imagine the extent something like this happens to the general playerbase of either new or "occasional" players, and even long-term players, and that is apparently backed up by customer support's words of "In fact, this has happened to many players in the past." When some goals don't require registration and only require you to participate, while others do require you to sign up in-game for any progress to be tracked, that information should be front and center, and not have to be found as some PSA comment on some unrelated website, or just by happenstance from a random chat message from a random player. Why Galnet doesn't inheriently give you a "Hey, you need to register for this stuff to count" warning just is beyond me.
So, as to possible fixes. I can see this entire situation being rectified by 1) Firstly, being able to access commuinty goals section while on foot inside a station at a terminal. The fact we can't currently do that I see as nothing but a massive oversight. And 2) Adding to the Galnet article relating to whatever community goal it is, an asterisk at the bottom of "Requires event registration" or "Does not require event registration." Or whatever other wording Frontier would see appropriate or set/setting/lore-friendly. This takes the entire guess work out of the equation by having the article informing the players of the event also explicity stating you either do or don't need to register at the given location for your progress to be tracked and counted.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
I also feel the need to add this part in before going any further, as many times I've seen replies to certain topics get trolled off with "lol lern2read" or some version of "learn2play n00b", so lets just get this part out of the way. Yes, I know how to read. Yes, I know how to play, and I've been playing Elite since released in 2014; I am not new to the mechanics of the game or ignorant of the game and its mechanics. Anyways, with that part out of the way, let's continue.
I read the Galnet article and headed for Summerland to fight me some Darkwater. I went directly to the station, exited my ship, went to Frontline and signed up for a conflict zone I thought looked like a good one to farm, and took the Frontline shuttle to the battle. Later on when I was back on the Henry O'Hare station, before going to turn in the combat bonds I had built up to that point, I went to check the mission board to see if there was any sort of registration. There was nothing showing up while on foot on the station to "join" for the event. It's as if it doesn't even exist. There is no option to choose either 'Community goals' or missions or passengers like there is while on a ship. It simply opens up the mission board where you can sort local missions by 'all' or by type. This made me believe you didn't need to sign up for the event and things would be tracked by Frontier on their side of things. This thought was given credence as the last community goal I participated in where a permit-locked system was opened and players had to deliver goods to a visiting Megaship did not have a sign-up, it was just automatically tracked. And the one prior to that I participated in was a community goal for Thargoid Hearts to get a unique ship decal, that goal was, again, without the need to sign up for. Needless to say, I saw no community goal option, just figured I was good, and turned in my bonds. Did this on two seperate occasions which totaled over 400 million. It wasn't until I was browsing a random Reddit post later on about someone asking what to expect in the Summerland system for the event that I just happened to see someone had mentioned in a random reply to "Be sure to sign up for the event before submitting your combat bonds." So I again checked the station and saw nothing. I then desperately ran to my ship, boarded, then checked the mission board. And to my surprise, only viewable while ON your docked ship, was the option to join up for the event. Now you can maybe see where I am going with this.
Never did it occur to me that you can only view something while in a docked ship when you are supposed to have, more or less, the same basic tools for menus on foot that you do while accessing a menu while on a ship. I see the fact you cannot access the community goal section in the mission board while on foot inside a station as a massive oversight for Odyssey players. When a Community Goal can be contributed toward both via activities done on-foot as well as ship-based, but you can only even see the community goal in one of those areas to register, I see that as a problem, and one that is going to lead to things like this. And as I said, I am by no means new to Elite. So I can only imagine the extent something like this happens to the general playerbase of either new or "occasional" players, and even long-term players, and that is apparently backed up by customer support's words of "In fact, this has happened to many players in the past." When some goals don't require registration and only require you to participate, while others do require you to sign up in-game for any progress to be tracked, that information should be front and center, and not have to be found as some PSA comment on some unrelated website, or just by happenstance from a random chat message from a random player. Why Galnet doesn't inheriently give you a "Hey, you need to register for this stuff to count" warning just is beyond me.
So, as to possible fixes. I can see this entire situation being rectified by 1) Firstly, being able to access commuinty goals section while on foot inside a station at a terminal. The fact we can't currently do that I see as nothing but a massive oversight. And 2) Adding to the Galnet article relating to whatever community goal it is, an asterisk at the bottom of "Requires event registration" or "Does not require event registration." Or whatever other wording Frontier would see appropriate or set/setting/lore-friendly. This takes the entire guess work out of the equation by having the article informing the players of the event also explicity stating you either do or don't need to register at the given location for your progress to be tracked and counted.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
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