Hi all. I bought and played a moderate amount of elite dangerous in 2015. Enjoyed it, but what I really felt was missing was an economic incentive to engage in interactions with other human players (and thus make those interactions less rare).
That said, there are many aspects of the game that are theoretically interactive, and I'm pretty sure I don't understand how they all actually work (e.g. power-play, community goals, etc...). Also, there's "wings", which is fine if you want to team up to kill an NPC or two.
I'm wondering if folks can provide a high level run down of what is in this game (including recent updates) that encourages players to interact and in any sense compete? So long as I get the gist of how those game systems work, that will tell me whether it's worth me spending more $ and money on this game to try to get better at it.
To be more specific, what I really was surprised the game seemed to be missing, was a reason and a way for me to find other players, friend or foe, and have a sensible reason to engage in battles or run away from or in other ways interact with them.
I get that there is piracy, if I take the time to find people who carry precious cargo and get a great piracy ship. And I get that there is bounty hunting, if I invest in an amazing ship and hunt down people with a notorious criminal history. In both cases, though, hunting other humans seems extremely innefficient relative to fighting NPCs, especially for someone with modest ship and resources.
What I felt was lacking was some connection between the politics of the universe and some sense of friend and foe. For instance, if I actually gained something from attacking human players loyal to the Empire (if my faction is at war with them) -- if I'm going to get into the political sphere is there anything that encourages players to engage in war activities, rather than simply carting goods to a random planet in order to shift some abstract political balance? Why have politics and allegiances if that isn't going to encourage player interaction of some kind?
Would appreciate any and all suggestions for whether this game includes features that really would encourage more multiplayer conflict. As it is, it's elite "dangerous" only in the random sense in that some guy with a Vulture and in a bad mood could decide he wants to kill me for fun and hunt me down and do that. And I wouldn't even mind when that happens if he was actually getting something for doing that! But since there's no benefit to him, it just feels like arbitrary aggression, and I can't even enjoy trying to run away or fight back. I'm looking for something economic in the game that allows for multiplayer interactions as a viable and logical thing to both engage in and have to look out for. I'm open to being convinced that that is piracy or bounty hunting or anything else. But I just don't yet see that there is a mutiplayer interaction mechanism that you can actually make a living doing, which basically means it's rare and random.
Thx all for the tips.
That said, there are many aspects of the game that are theoretically interactive, and I'm pretty sure I don't understand how they all actually work (e.g. power-play, community goals, etc...). Also, there's "wings", which is fine if you want to team up to kill an NPC or two.
I'm wondering if folks can provide a high level run down of what is in this game (including recent updates) that encourages players to interact and in any sense compete? So long as I get the gist of how those game systems work, that will tell me whether it's worth me spending more $ and money on this game to try to get better at it.
To be more specific, what I really was surprised the game seemed to be missing, was a reason and a way for me to find other players, friend or foe, and have a sensible reason to engage in battles or run away from or in other ways interact with them.
I get that there is piracy, if I take the time to find people who carry precious cargo and get a great piracy ship. And I get that there is bounty hunting, if I invest in an amazing ship and hunt down people with a notorious criminal history. In both cases, though, hunting other humans seems extremely innefficient relative to fighting NPCs, especially for someone with modest ship and resources.
What I felt was lacking was some connection between the politics of the universe and some sense of friend and foe. For instance, if I actually gained something from attacking human players loyal to the Empire (if my faction is at war with them) -- if I'm going to get into the political sphere is there anything that encourages players to engage in war activities, rather than simply carting goods to a random planet in order to shift some abstract political balance? Why have politics and allegiances if that isn't going to encourage player interaction of some kind?
Would appreciate any and all suggestions for whether this game includes features that really would encourage more multiplayer conflict. As it is, it's elite "dangerous" only in the random sense in that some guy with a Vulture and in a bad mood could decide he wants to kill me for fun and hunt me down and do that. And I wouldn't even mind when that happens if he was actually getting something for doing that! But since there's no benefit to him, it just feels like arbitrary aggression, and I can't even enjoy trying to run away or fight back. I'm looking for something economic in the game that allows for multiplayer interactions as a viable and logical thing to both engage in and have to look out for. I'm open to being convinced that that is piracy or bounty hunting or anything else. But I just don't yet see that there is a mutiplayer interaction mechanism that you can actually make a living doing, which basically means it's rare and random.
Thx all for the tips.