So, with Elite Dangerous: Odyssey just around the corner and the stat, scope, and time creep going up and up and up with every new item we have to engineer, I think it would be a good time to speculate on what quality of life changes and rebalances could be applied to some of the "older" content.
For a new player starting fresh today, they are at a distinct disadvantage to a player who has poured countless hours in to Engineering, Credit gathering, unlocking the myriad engineers and advanced tech through brokers.
In order for these newer players (and any existing player that may not have spent the hundreds of hours grinding out all this stuff), I believe that Frontier should look at a way to streamline some of this older content. It is not uncommon when a new expansion is released that older content has requirements reduced, as it allows newer players to catch up and helps to promote the latest new features.
EDIT
Perhaps I came up with this idea from the wrong angle. This is not about giving new players everything served on a silver platter. This is a way to look at some of the systems in the game and how they can be improved by streamlining some cumbersome and time consuming mechanics.
It is not a way to invalidate any veteran player's achievements
It is not a way for a new player get a fully engineered anaconda in a couple of days. (I'm pretty sure that's already mostly possible anyway...)
It is a way to reduce the overall number of different things there are to collect, given that we'll be having another entire game worth of materials and collectibles in Odyssey.
END EDIT
On Credits:
Credit gains have increased so, so much since launch. I don't think there is much to be done on this front. A new player can get access to all the ships pretty quickly, but since the real focus is on engineering upgrades these days I don't think it's such a bad thing. Whatever balance passes FDev do, it's going to annoy someone. Personally I think credit gains are too high, and could be done with a nerf across the board. But overall I believe people are comfortable with this.
On Unlocking Engineers:
If we compare a couple of engineers:
I'd opt for a reduction of unlock requirements. Some are a bit easy to unlock like Todd - especially after combat reward rebalancing, so he's fine. Some could be eased up on. 50 of a rare good that only stocks in batches of 6, a lot of unnecessary back and forth.
On Engineering:
Purely focusing on applying engineering upgrades, and not looking at balancing at all (That is a whole other thing). I think it's fairly ok. When you have the right materials that is. I think my ideas around streamlining engineers will be more affected by the Material Gathering section.
On Material Gathering:
There are currently 3 types of material. Within each material there are around 8 classes of mats. And each class has around 5 tiers. So that makes... around 120 different types of materials to collect. Plus there's going to be a whole bunch more come Odyssey. That is a lot of currency bloat.
There are also the Material Traders which allow you to transfer materials around, which kind of renders a lot of low level material gathering pointless. Why gather a bunch of T1 mats when you can go find a higher grade and trade down for dozens of them.
I'd do one of two things:
1.
2.
In both instances, keep the traders. Solution 1 they'd behave exactly as now but with less tiers. Solution 2 they still allow you to trade across classes. Just with a simpler UI.
On Advanced Tech Brokers:
I guess if the material gathering stuff was implemented, these blueprints would be affected in a good way, so there's less gathering up of materials for specific ones.
I think the obvious one is the Weapons that require each tier and frame to be unlocked separately. There are 9 Shock Cannon unlocks. Why? Same with the Guardian unlocks, 6 different variations of each weapon. Just make them 1 per. Unnecessary time wasting.
If some kind of pass like this was done, it would lessen the enormous time required to get to the stage that existing and veteran players are currently sat at. It helps to level the playing field in PvP, as a newby can build up ships capable of going nose to nose with a vet PvP ship.
And finally, if the time required to earn these things are less, maybe people won't relog Jameson's crash site as much. Poor guy, let him rest in peace.
I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts.
For a new player starting fresh today, they are at a distinct disadvantage to a player who has poured countless hours in to Engineering, Credit gathering, unlocking the myriad engineers and advanced tech through brokers.
In order for these newer players (and any existing player that may not have spent the hundreds of hours grinding out all this stuff), I believe that Frontier should look at a way to streamline some of this older content. It is not uncommon when a new expansion is released that older content has requirements reduced, as it allows newer players to catch up and helps to promote the latest new features.
EDIT
Perhaps I came up with this idea from the wrong angle. This is not about giving new players everything served on a silver platter. This is a way to look at some of the systems in the game and how they can be improved by streamlining some cumbersome and time consuming mechanics.
It is not a way to invalidate any veteran player's achievements
It is not a way for a new player get a fully engineered anaconda in a couple of days. (I'm pretty sure that's already mostly possible anyway...)
It is a way to reduce the overall number of different things there are to collect, given that we'll be having another entire game worth of materials and collectibles in Odyssey.
END EDIT
On Credits:
Credit gains have increased so, so much since launch. I don't think there is much to be done on this front. A new player can get access to all the ships pretty quickly, but since the real focus is on engineering upgrades these days I don't think it's such a bad thing. Whatever balance passes FDev do, it's going to annoy someone. Personally I think credit gains are too high, and could be done with a nerf across the board. But overall I believe people are comfortable with this.
On Unlocking Engineers:
If we compare a couple of engineers:
- Unlock Todd McQuinn by giving him 100K in bounties. That's 10 mins in a REZ.
- Tiana Fortune requires 50 Decoded Emission Data. That's sitting and scanning a load of ships hoping for the right drop.
- Didi Vatermannn. 50 Lavian Brandy. They sell in batches of 6. Why not just ask for 6. That's a lot of brandy...
I'd opt for a reduction of unlock requirements. Some are a bit easy to unlock like Todd - especially after combat reward rebalancing, so he's fine. Some could be eased up on. 50 of a rare good that only stocks in batches of 6, a lot of unnecessary back and forth.
On Engineering:
Purely focusing on applying engineering upgrades, and not looking at balancing at all (That is a whole other thing). I think it's fairly ok. When you have the right materials that is. I think my ideas around streamlining engineers will be more affected by the Material Gathering section.
On Material Gathering:
There are currently 3 types of material. Within each material there are around 8 classes of mats. And each class has around 5 tiers. So that makes... around 120 different types of materials to collect. Plus there's going to be a whole bunch more come Odyssey. That is a lot of currency bloat.
There are also the Material Traders which allow you to transfer materials around, which kind of renders a lot of low level material gathering pointless. Why gather a bunch of T1 mats when you can go find a higher grade and trade down for dozens of them.
I'd do one of two things:
1.
- Remove the bottom tier mats. Keep Tiers 3 and above. 120 currencies becomes 72. Nearly halved the amount of stuff you have to worry about.
- Redistribute the remaining materials across the engineering blueprints and synths.
2.
- Collect all materials of each class into a single currency. 120 becomes 24.
- You gather materials as they are, but they're converted into a currency value. Tier 1 gives you 3 "Encoded materials", Tier 2 gives you 6, and so on. Now you're not having to go find a trader and swap up and down mats every time you need a specific material for an upgrade.
In both instances, keep the traders. Solution 1 they'd behave exactly as now but with less tiers. Solution 2 they still allow you to trade across classes. Just with a simpler UI.
On Advanced Tech Brokers:
I guess if the material gathering stuff was implemented, these blueprints would be affected in a good way, so there's less gathering up of materials for specific ones.
I think the obvious one is the Weapons that require each tier and frame to be unlocked separately. There are 9 Shock Cannon unlocks. Why? Same with the Guardian unlocks, 6 different variations of each weapon. Just make them 1 per. Unnecessary time wasting.
If some kind of pass like this was done, it would lessen the enormous time required to get to the stage that existing and veteran players are currently sat at. It helps to level the playing field in PvP, as a newby can build up ships capable of going nose to nose with a vet PvP ship.
And finally, if the time required to earn these things are less, maybe people won't relog Jameson's crash site as much. Poor guy, let him rest in peace.
I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts.
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