Repeat the same Guardian unlock 18 times? Really?

I UNDERSTAND why the content is gated behind so many unlocks
They're supposed to be hard to acquire...BUT with the Internet "Solution" taking away the puzzle of finding a structure, solving the puzzle and scanning the "Ball of Power" anyone with a Corvette they've ground out will merely pop off to the Synuefe Sector, follow the "How to Guide" and unlock the required 2 Guass, 2 Plasma and be back to the Pleiades for Pew Pew before you can say Jack Robinson...hence the "Grind gate" to slow down acquisition...
Making it so needlessly repetitive is Frustrating though (Isn't it actually 24 Times NOT 18) it would have been better if they'd divided each blueprint into a couple of parts that were each situated at individual sites perhaps...so less unlocks...less repetition but still the same time investment...with travel & familiarising yourself with the site etc...instead of simply board hopping at one site...
 
But then, there wouldn't be more grind?

With out the grind, how do they keep the active player number artificially high for their board meetings?

So far, all they know how to do is to add more grind. Not reduce it like they state.

Yup, more grind. What can we expect later this year? More grind!

If players only want to play because there is a grind, then they deserve to be miserable. Just dont do anything you dont like in a game. If there is nothing you like, play a different game. If you dont feel like playing any game, do something else with your life. It really is that simple.
 
If players only want to play because there is a grind, then they deserve to be miserable. Just dont do anything you dont like in a game. If there is nothing you like, play a different game. If you dont feel like playing any game, do something else with your life. It really is that simple.

I might be a different player... because I never log into this game in order to chase for things; I just do things I enjoy.

When it comes to Guardian tech, I have decided to stay away from it, since most modules doesn't cater for what I enjoy doing in the game. Combat is very uninteresting for me, and if the Guardian FSD booster only adds another 10LYs to whatever jump-range you already have, the gameplay loop in order to get the blueprints and materials are just too much.

Personally, I am looking forward to the new Mining comming in Q4... until then, I stay with the activities I enjoy in the game (mining/trading/mission cargo hauling and a bit of exploration).
 
If players only want to play because there is a grind, then they deserve to be miserable. Just dont do anything you dont like in a game. If there is nothing you like, play a different game. If you dont feel like playing any game, do something else with your life. It really is that simple.

Yes it is. But I doubt it's FD's intention to drive everyone away from the game.

After taking a look at their store analytics, FD now values our time. At about £0.21 per hour on average.
 
I might be a different player... because I never log into this game in order to chase for things; I just do things I enjoy.

I'm 99.999% in agreement with you...I rarely do anything repeatedly or anything I don't enjoy...tending to pick up Mats etc...as I go along...or unlock things piecemeal...I have fallen into the trap with the Guardian blueprints because I obviously wanted to visit and investigate a sample of the new Guardian Structures AND see how far i could get on the new Ram Tah Mission without following a step by step guide...and as I ALSO enjoy the Thargoid Content grabbing the Blueprints for the Gauss and the Plasma while i was already out here unlocking sites...seemed logic and sensible...but even as ED's biggest Fanboi...it did get a bit repetitive...without help I've only found 4 structures that give weapon Blueprints so which (whilst I haven't done it all yet) would mean "rinse and repeat" each one 6 times to get 2 Gauss/2 Plasma...
 
Guardian ruins should be one unlock and done. All rewards received.

This isn't free to play. Fdev aren't selling Tedium bypasses (yet; give it time, it's coming).

If the current team can't do anything but this, then find one that can.
 
This isn't free to play. Fdev aren't selling Tedium bypasses (yet; give it time, it's coming).

yet the game model fully is. i'm really not sure why. it may be coming, or on the agenda (e.g., if you look at tencent). but it doesn't really make sense, that's too much anticipation. my current best guess is for the simple explanation: a mentality thing, a mix of incompetence, entitlement and inter-company power wars. really sad, but not at all uncommon.

If the current team can't do anything but this, then find one that can.

yeah, well, or like has been pointed out, if you don't want to grind then just don't g grind, and if this is too much to ask then just play another game.
 
I UNDERSTAND why the content is gated behind so many unlocks
They're supposed to be hard to acquire...BUT with the Internet "Solution" taking away the puzzle of finding a structure, solving the puzzle and scanning the "Ball of Power" anyone with a Corvette they've ground out will merely pop off to the Synuefe Sector, follow the "How to Guide" and unlock the required 2 Guass, 2 Plasma and be back to the Pleiades for Pew Pew before you can say Jack Robinson...hence the "Grind gate" to slow down acquisition...
Making it so needlessly repetitive is Frustrating though (Isn't it actually 24 Times NOT 18) it would have been better if they'd divided each blueprint into a couple of parts that were each situated at individual sites perhaps...so less unlocks...less repetition but still the same time investment...with travel & familiarising yourself with the site etc...instead of simply board hopping at one site...
I actually do NOT understand why these weapons are behind grind walls.

So someone want to play around with the new weapons and enjoy fighting the Thargoids... but can't unless they do grind.

What does that add?
 
I actually do NOT understand why these weapons are behind grind walls.

So someone want to play around with the new weapons and enjoy fighting the Thargoids... but can't unless they do grind.

What does that add?
There are allot of questional stuff around the goids tbh.. from timesink/grindwall to only 4 weapons per ship. Or even why not just use normal weapons and balans it towards that..

I guess thats why the goids are such a big success and everyone that is a bit combat orientated is in the pleades..
 
I actually do NOT understand why these weapons are behind grind walls.
So someone want to play around with the new weapons and enjoy fighting the Thargoids... but can't unless they do grind.
What does that add?

I didn't say it should be locked behind GRIND walls...just that they should be difficult to acquire (they're exotic alien technology from an Alien species wiped out thousands of years ago after all!!!)...
But for Frontier its ALMOST impossible to make them difficult to acquire by hiding them in remote locations/making the "unlock puzzle" tough to crack...because in an internet world those that want "fast-track" would simply google where/how to unlock them and bingo! Follow the instructions...
So unfortunately the only way to slow down acquisition of them is to make the activity time intensive...I think they've got it wrong...merely upping the numbers of blueprints required makes it very rinse and repeat repetitive especially as they've created a situation where its difficult to avoid board hopping - they'd have been better spreading the requirements out over multiple sites (so it couldn't be completed by board flipping at one site) but lowering the numbers required (EG 2 fragments for each individual weapon...8 sites for 4 weapons) would take as long as the current requirements (keeping the mysterious/exotic aspect) but make it less tedious
 
Looks like they don’t know to do it good.

Certainly looking that way. Increasingly so.

If the current team can't do anything but this, then find one that can.

Christmas can't come quickly enough.

yeah, well, or like has been pointed out, if you don't want to grind then just don't g grind, and if this is too much to ask then just play another game.

If after that the game improves (which let's face it, shouldn't be too difficult for talent)...then the fans of boring grindy messes, can go and find the next boring grindy mess to be "not entirely happy but it's good enough because I lack the skills to push boundaries" with.
 
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I didn't say it should be locked behind GRIND walls...just that they should be difficult to acquire (they're exotic alien technology from an Alien species wiped out thousands of years ago after all!!!)...
But for Frontier its ALMOST impossible to make them difficult to acquire by hiding them in remote locations/making the "unlock puzzle" tough to crack...because in an internet world those that want "fast-track" would simply google where/how to unlock them and bingo! Follow the instructions...
So unfortunately the only way to slow down acquisition of them is to make the activity time intensive...I think they've got it wrong...merely upping the numbers of blueprints required makes it very rinse and repeat repetitive especially as they've created a situation where its difficult to avoid board hopping - they'd have been better spreading the requirements out over multiple sites (so it couldn't be completed by board flipping at one site) but lowering the numbers required (EG 2 fragments for each individual weapon...8 sites for 4 weapons) would take as long as the current requirements (keeping the mysterious/exotic aspect) but make it less tedious
The design is flawed from the get go. Creating an obscure puzzle with a simple game mechanic around it, creates just what you described. People are just following some guide, while doing the very simple tasks. It is a bit like we need to solve a crossword puzzle in order to get the blueprints. But since the questions a too hard, people are just putting in words they found on the internet, 24 times in a row. While most other games make the task per se challenging, ED does it the other way round in general. It is more about figuring out how things work, than doing the things. If you figured it out, the challenge is gone most of the time (apart from some combat scenarios) and leaves only repetition and time effort.

come on who are we kidding.

Looks like they don’t know to do it good.

Plain n simple
On some occasion I get this impression. However, you should't forget, FDev wants/ needs to cater to the existing game and all its fundamentals like: open/ group/ solo, Horizon and non-Horizon owners. Too many compromises have to be made to keep everyone happy (which doesn't work anyway).
 
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The design is flawed from the get go. Creating an obscure puzzle with a simple game mechanic around it, creates just what you described. People are just following some guide, while doing the very simple tasks. It is a bit like we need to solve a crossword puzzle in order to get the blueprints. But since the questions a too hard, people are just putting in words they found on the internet, 24 times in a row. While most other games make the task per se challenging, ED does it the other way round in general. It is more about figuring out how things work, than doing the things. If you figured it out, the challenge is gone most of the time (apart from some combat scenarios) and leaves only repetition and time effort.

On some occasion I get this impression. However, you should't forget, FDev wants/ needs to cater to the existing game and all its fundamentals like: open/ group/ solo, Horizon and non-Horizon owners. Too many compromises have to be made to keep everyone happy (which doesn't work anyway).

The game-design here is awful.
 
I actually do NOT understand why these weapons are behind grind walls.

So someone want to play around with the new weapons and enjoy fighting the Thargoids... but can't unless they do grind.

What does that add?

I somewhat get why they put the guardian stuff behind a grind wall, I just think it's too much, they went way overboard.

The new guardian tech doesn't need engineering/cant be engineered, and thus is ready to use.
Players save the time that they would need to engineer the weapons, so a small unlock requirement is fine in my eyes.

I actually like this new direction of Frontier away from engineering. All the newest tech released appears to be non-engineerable.
It seems like FDEV realized engineers is a balancing nightmare.
 
I somewhat get why they put the guardian stuff behind a grind wall, I just think it's too much, they went way overboard.

The new guardian tech doesn't need engineering/cant be engineered, and thus is ready to use.
Players save the time that they would need to engineer the weapons, so a small unlock requirement is fine in my eyes.

I actually like this new direction of Frontier away from engineering. All the newest tech released appears to be non-engineerable.
It seems like FDEV realized engineers is a balancing nightmare.

I thought the new tech was only working against aliens?
 
I don't understand as well why was it designed that way, to make me repeat getting the blueprints so many times. 4, 5 times is OK, but after that it becomes boring repetition, which is shame because all procedure of opening the GS is quite interesting .
If someone wants to find all systems by himself and get only 1 blueprint from each, then it will take probably 6 months if it is even doable.

I don't complain to often about Elite, but this one is really shame, spoiling interesting experience with grind :)
 
The point that it’s hard to hide something behind a puzzle is right. The internet just destroys that as a mechanic. So how to reward players with a sense of achievement?

Guardian tech is combat focused, isn’t it? Why not hide the Guardian tech behind a set of combat missions that have to be achieved — before the pilots federation will grant you a licence for the new technology? The blueprints idea is just — urgh. Immersion breaking nonsense if we are not in a single player game.

The other thing I’ve been thinking about lately is whether there shouldn’t be some kind of skill ranking for use of a particular ship? I know how to fly two ships fairly well. But put me in one of the big ships and I just don’t know how to fly it yet. Maybe you could be qualified to have Guardian tech on one ship (or class of ships) but not on others? Anyway. Just a thought.

I was reading about the life of one of the most decorated RAF pilots in WW2 recently — and he seems to have died in the end because he flew a plane he wasn’t familiar with.
 
The point that it’s hard to hide something behind a puzzle is right. The internet just destroys that as a mechanic. So how to reward players with a sense of achievement?

Guardian tech is combat focused, isn’t it? Why not hide the Guardian tech behind a set of combat missions that have to be achieved — before the pilots federation will grant you a licence for the new technology? The blueprints idea is just — urgh. Immersion breaking nonsense if we are not in a single player game.

The other thing I’ve been thinking about lately is whether there shouldn’t be some kind of skill ranking for use of a particular ship? I know how to fly two ships fairly well. But put me in one of the big ships and I just don’t know how to fly it yet. Maybe you could be qualified to have Guardian tech on one ship (or class of ships) but not on others? Anyway. Just a thought.

I was reading about the life of one of the most decorated RAF pilots in WW2 recently — and he seems to have died in the end because he flew a plane he wasn’t familiar with.

There is no need to hide guardian tech behind anything. The ran tah mission take upward of 12h to complete. IMO that's slow enough to not require anything else in terms of hoops to jump.

The way it should be : complete the mission normally => have at least access to half of the modules. You know, like In any other adventure game..
 
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