Progression / Endgame?

[Black2key]

Hey Elite community, new here!
I love how the game is taking shape but I am wondering on how do you progress further in the game when you have upgraded your ship to your liking [and how long would that take?] earned alot of money and played countless missions?
Since we dont have any big longterm projects that we can build [spacestations / own apartment / blueprints / crafting] there seems "nothing" to do?

Yours,
Black2key

 

[Obsidian Ant]

Elite isn't about "progression" or "endgame" in the sense you mean it.

Elite 2, was about many different things - but essentially it was something different for each person. The game was a vast universe that the player was dropped into, where they lived, played and often died.

Although yes, you could change your ship and accumulate wealth, this wasn't done in a linear fashion. Whilst yes there were missions, these were not completed in a linear fashion.

A player simply played in the world they had been given.

It is my highest hope that Elite Dangerous has no linear progression and that it therefore needs no "endgame". I'm hoping for a vast open world that I can simply live and play within, just like I could in the previous Elite games.

 

[Texas Stu]

burn the earth and boil the sea...

 

[Asp Explorer]

Hey Elite community, new here!
I love how the game is taking shape but I am wondering on how do you progress further in the game when you have upgraded your ship to your liking [and how long would that take?] earned alot of money and played countless missions?
Since we dont have any big longterm projects that we can build [spacestations / own apartment / blueprints / crafting] there seems "nothing" to do?

Yours,
Black2key

On the contrary - there is everything to do!

The beauty of a game like Elite is that there are no levels. You don't have to wait to do end-game content and grind endless mob kills to be able to be let out the starting area. You have instant access to the entire universe from the very beginning!

Sure, your equipment will be meager, and you won't have much idea of the mechanics, but there is nothing stopping you taking your little starter ship to the deepest depths of space, discovering something, and becoming an ultratrillionaire. Or you can do trading runs, build up enough cash to outfit yourself with whatever you like, become the best railgun gunner in the universe, and be paid a fortune to escort lardy trader.

You can pick a side and go spying for your faction, or assassinate them for another faction. You can demand other pilots give you their cargo for free - they may laugh at your little ship, but if you have the skills to pull it off they will have no choice. Endless possibilities. I think you'll have fun!

 

[Mazhurg]

Elite Dangerous play model is not a theme park, where you will be led to the park's attractions.

There will be missions (simulation generated), and may even have a story arc or two (devs inputs?) and the game is planned to be essentially a huge sandbox for spaceship pilots who will have to actually go and find stuff (to do).

Note that there is no mention above of builder, designer, leader, corporation boss or architect. Whether it be fighting, trading, exploring, getting involved in politics or a gamut of other activities there will always be stuff to do as a pilot and it should be varied enough and of a quality such as to keep you coming back. The simulation universe is planned to be living, ever changing and dynamic. Will there be some redundancy, I am certain there will be, but hopefully they will be kept to a minimum.

At least in the first release. Expansions will add to the scope of what you, as a spaceship pilot, will be able to do.

 

[Andrew Sayers]

Welcome Black2key

As Granite says, Elite is more about the wonder of the universe than the strength of the individual. That means "progression" in the traditional sense isn't such a good metric for what you can do.

Getting better ships (and ship content) will indeed be a big part of the game, as will your Elite rating and your reputation, but those are really just tools you can use to get reach whatever goals you set yourself. For example, many people will become explorers, venturing out beyond the frontier to see what's in the game's hundred billion star systems. You'll probably have an easier life if you get some specialised explorer kit or enough reputation to pick up some missions, but there's nothing to stop you diving into the big black right on day one.

 

[Black2key]

Elite isn't about "progression" or "endgame" in the sense you mean it.

Elite 2, was about many different things - but essentially it was something different for each person. The game was a vast universe that the player was dropped into, where they lived, played and often died.

A player simply played in the world they had been given.

I am all for a sandboxy universe but in order to live and play in such an open, non linear world, you need options to unfold your freedom. Currently, you can fly fight and trade in this game and thats it. For some gamers though, there needs to be a reason, a greater goal than just personal achievement for "why" they fly like a maniac through the galaxy. (not talking about fixed missions). Something they can work for. Whether it is upgrading your ship to maximum or building something worthwile, players should have a goal to strife for. A motive to actually log in and play the game. Right now ED seems more like flies chasing other flies.

tl;dr: worried that we have too few activites / varity of playstyles that we can waste our time on and as a consequence the game could get repetitive.


Edit: Saw all the replies, they werent there a few minutes ago haha. it sort of eases me that there indeed are a few options like factions and the elite rating help. I really hope that the 100 billion star galaxy will have a huge variety on planets and stations with different cargo we can visit so that it wont be stale after the 10th galaxy.

 

[Andrew Sayers]

tl;dr: worried that we have too few activites / varity of playstyles that we can waste our time on and as a consequence the game could get repetitive.

Check out the design discussion archive - these are the developers' detailed concepts for what will go in the game. I think you'll find plenty in there to keep you interested

 

[Shishakli]

Hey Elite community, new here!
I love how the game is taking shape but I am wondering on how do you progress further in the game when you have upgraded your ship to your liking [and how long would that take?] earned alot of money and played countless missions?
Since we dont have any big longterm projects that we can build [spacestations / own apartment / blueprints / crafting] there seems "nothing" to do?

Yours,
Black2key

I found that to be a "problem" in elite and then again in Frontier. Once I had owned all the upgrades and in Frontier... Owned all the ships and tried every gameplay item until I'd tried them all... I was pretty much done. I quickly learned that exploration was an academic adventure with nothing to really see.

There are 3 things that make me think E will hold more appeal to me

1. The combat is MUCH better than the first 3 games. If nothing else, it's more visceral and I wager much more satisfying (like how adding rag doll physics made gta 4 more fun for me than gta 3)

2. Ironman mode. If I find myself progressing too quickly, I might have to tackle ironman mode an live on the edge of my seat (works well in dayz)

3. Exploration. The fact that exploration is a gameplay mechanic and a commodity is very appealing to me. Plus I bet FD has put a lot of effort into giving us pretty things to find.

Beyond that, I'm interested to see how the "evolving galaxy' plays out. I bet to start with its pretty ordinary, but as time goes by, I can see narratives playing out in the politics and people of the galaxy that we can get involved in. I can see players in certain Factions being invited to find habitable planets and then support the effortless to colonise said planet once found.

Beyond that we start wondering into the realm of making elite something it's not.

 

[Slawkenbergius]

For some gamers though, there needs to be a reason, a greater goal than just personal achievement for "why" they fly like a maniac through the galaxy. (not talking about fixed missions). Something they can work for.

As it stands, I think the game is well set up for role-players who are into the fiction side of things. If you're a die-hard Imp or Fed, there will probably be events that can be exploited to help your chosen faction expand. It could end up as semi-passive PVP, where you don't even have to fight another ship to be competing against other players. Simply propping up imperial trade routes counts as doing your bit.

I do hope conventional pew-pew PVP turns out good though, and we get our equivalent of Anor Londo in Dark Souls. People flying around in their best ships, knowing for sure that there'll be someone else nearby looking for a battle.

Also, we don't know where Frontier will go with future updates. Player-owned stations is definitely on the cards, even if it's been a bit controversial.

 

[Dejay]

Well your ultimate goal is to become "Elite", and you can get the elite rating in different categories as trader, bounty hunter, assasin, pirate, miner etc. Basically that is a grind, because most probably gaining rating will be slow whether you are a good or a bad pilot.
I also hope there will be accomplishments for helping out factions like the federation, alliance, or independent star systems.
One of the great things is also the mission generator, that is based on the evolving universe. If a planet has a plague, you'll get missions to get medicines. If a new space station gets build, you can help with the construction or hinder it by helping parties opposed to the new space station. So there will always be something to do.

But nobody really wants the "hamster wheel" mechanic that WoW established. If the gameplay gets old, you should either quit or set your own goals, besides the elite rating. The devs could add new higher level equipment etc to earn but that would just be more of the same old same old. Playing the same game mechanic just for new purple items can be fun, but burns people out. It's not really rewarding, it's an unnatural and unhealthy gameplay style. I'm sure there will be some of that, equipment you will only get when advancing in a certain career or something like that.

But generally the devs plan to add actual new gameplay, new things to do and achieve in the universe, instead of just adding new content. Instead of "more of the same" you'll get new gameplay mechanics that actually makes the game more complex in a fun way.
Planned extensions include first person activities (boarding other ships and space stations) and seamless planetary landings (big game hunting was mentioned for example, maybe you'll be able to build a zoo later?). Adding new gameplay is of course a far better approach.

Themepark games like WoW or SWTor can't really do that, because they have to model and create every single level. The procedural generation allows for far more flexibility. A single new rule for generation can affect the whole universe and make new gameplay elements really work throughout the game. Maybe we'll get spying missions on space stations? We don't know yet. But the technical approach and vastness of the universe allows for far more things. Theoretically you could blow up a space station, the game could still work. In themeparks, you can never kill the messenger, because then you couldn't complete a quest or something.

 

[Nagual]

One of the aspects of FFE was that even if you had lots of cash and got the biggest baddest ship etc, if you wanted to certain activities especially some of the military missions, you needed to downgrade your ship to something like the viper, mainly for the jump range so you could actually complete the missions on time.

This meant you had to make sacrifices, do you take better weapons OR better shields? I hope this sort of decisions are still needed at all stages in my E: D career. Constant reassessment of my ship and modules in order to complete either in game tasks or ones that I give myself. There should never be a ship that does all at all times, otherwise you end up in a situation that the OP puts forward, that feeling you need more and more challenge.

 

[Hellhawk666]

Sandbox games can start to lose their shine after the initial excitement wears off, it's true. I did find this with both Elite and Frontier, but it took a long time for the boredom to set in. I enjoyed Elite in particular way longer than I enjoyed Freelancer once the single story arc had finished and group combat on servers was all that remained. I also enjoyed Elite WAY longer than SWTOR, which was getting boring and grindy by level 15, and WAY WAY longer than any of the Mass Effect games, which began to feel awfully constricting very quickly.

Also bear in mind that E:D will have two features that are not in many sandbox games, or any of the previous Elite games: Injected broad-effect (maybe galaxy spanning?) events added periodically by the devs ; and extra missions that will only open up after high levels of reputation are reached - in effect, end-game content that is not really end-game content

 

[Ixnatifual]

Elite: Dangerous is a space sim. It's not an MMORPG. The OP seems a bit genre confused here. You won't get XP, levels, gather healers and tanks and shoot a 20 foot high ship in its ankles.

 

[Steve_T]

It's all about the grind.
First trading, then kills.

 

[Chock]

The progression and what you do is based around how much you explore its possibilities. Basically Elite gives you the open road and says: 'off you go'. Frankly, that's got more possibilities than any game with built-in levels and built-in progression. You probably will not live long enough to be able to visit even a tenth of the planets it will have in it. And that's what makes it cool.

 

[parablax]

The original elite was had no real story as part of the game-play.
However times have moved on and there is no reason why there cannot be optional story arcs for you to pursue in the universe.

Although the primary object will be to build up your ship/equipment etc to explore all the game-play mechanics to their full potential, it would be good to have some meaning behind it.

There is not point being 'elite' and extremely wealthy if you can't put it to good use.

Some optional story arcs that I would love to see:

- Searching for lost family member, your progression in the game could give you more influence to find clues to their whereabouts (imagine if they had been captured by the thargoids!).

- Rescuing your 'birth planet' from a warring fraction.

Basically, anything from the Firefly series would be really cool as well.

 

[Philip Coutts]

What do you do in any game you "finish"? You play it again! The real beauty of Elite and of ED is that there really is no end but if you really wanted you could go right back to the start and take a different path. The really clever thing about ED though, is you could choose to start again with exactly the same career path but the game will play in a completely different manner. I think reaching Elite is going to be really really tough and remember there are different ways to reach Elite this time.

 

[Kroy]

This question has been asked before, further replies are available, if you have access to the alpha forum.

http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=10830


1) Elite: Dangerous simulates society in space. If you're in to that sort of thing, then you will always have something to do to turn the tide of one NPC faction or another

2) It's multiplayer, and you can bet your bottom dollar that people will find a way to make to make it competitive and interesting. Despite the lack of formal guild and alliance content, the meta game will be great for organised players.

3) In Multiplayer, E: D has PvP. PvP is about skill. You can always get better. When games have leveling treadmills to grind, you often forget about skill and stop when you ding 50. But as with First Person Shooters, you can always find challenge with players who are better than you. If you enjoy that challenge, you should never be bored

4) It's a sandbox. Not like a Minecraft Sandbox where you can build stuff, but a sandbox in which you're given the tools to "play" with and then left to get on with it. In sandboxes you can be limited by your imagination (or lack thereof)

5) The game will receive updates, so there will be new shiny stuff to play with from time-to-time and never more than soon™.

6) Injected events. Special events. Yet to see how this will work, and in my experience of online-games, these are the first thing to go to the wall when the sh*t hits the fan, But it has been mentioned. You could always dust off your Elite player to bring to these events.

 

[KING5TON]

Buying all the ships
Buying all the upgrades
Increasing all your Elite ranks
Increasing all your reputations

These things will no doubt take a long while to do.

FD will be adding to the game post release.
You have landing on planets to look forward to and all the gameplay options that may involve.
You have First person to look forward to and all the gameplay options that may involve.
After that we'll no doubt get expansions that add more ships, more modules, more sectors of space, more events etc...

Outside of this there's plenty of messing about things you could do.