Should I Stay Or Should I Go

[Brian of Ardagh]

The title is a rhetorical question so there's no need to answer.

[video=youtube;bY-zmJ1VCQI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY-zmJ1VCQI[/video]

A few months ago, possibly shorter, I decided to take a break from ED, enough of a break that I took apart my flight cockpit; although I didn't delete my character, my install or journal files. Many of the reasons I took a break were the same as some of the posts in threads like "Half-Baked" and "Losing the will (to grind)" as well as complaints in similar threads.

What's funny is I did this to myself, I was happy since 2015 just tooling around in my Cobra with a few 10s of millions of assets but I had avoided much of the game or any desire to "advance". Then I decided to try the new mining, made myself a few 100s of millions of assets, then I thought I'd try some of the other gameplay rather than sit on the fence. That was my downfall, I realized that I wasn't happy playing ED as much as I was happy roleplaying an itinerant delivery person and minor explorer.

I was hoping that when 2019 started we would hear about what would arrive this year and it might help me decide to return to playing. Seeing as the "new era" is coming in late 2020 I've been on the fence about returning.

After reading those other threads and having just listened to Dr. Kai on Lave Radio I realize that I can and should stay but I'll need to ignore the parts of the game I don't want to play. I can't, sadly, play with the larger community due to my poor network. So I'm stuck in Solo, in a galaxy only filled with NPCs. But the part of ED I love is still there, the part where I'll be flying my ship around exploring the nooks & crannies of the galaxy or occasionally doing deliveries for small factions. I will engineer when/if I want, take a few passenger missions of easygoing NPCs, and might even mine here and there. I don't need a billion credits, I have no interest in PowerPlay, I don't care about the Thargoids, and I don't care that much about combat, although I want to be good enough to destroy any ship that interdicts me. I won't be taking any jobs where I might get attacked by an NPC above my level.

Finally, remember, this is just my opinion and every player has their own. I might find some parts of the game "half-baked" while others love those parts of the game. I'm going to play the parts that I enjoy and ignore the rest, like I did when I started. I'm also crazy enough to think I'll get this cockpit chair which I'll use to fly but also drive as I like racing simulators.

 

[Mohrgan]

I think this realization i the crux of the 'blaze your own path' part of the game. Try out anything that sounds good, and sort out your likes and dislikes.

My game is mostly about the support of my favored Factions. But, I do run off to splat some bugs, and see somewhere new. I think E|D has enough spices in it to account for a wide variety of activities and interests.

Let what you read here connect, inform, and educate you on the game, but don't let it steal the fun you find in-game.

Fly crazy Commander. o7

 

[Vedmo]

I had to go full steam to get everything and burn out before coming back to find my ED Zen, and it certainly isn't grindy or tiresome for me now. I do what I want when I want, and it rarely requires any of what I gained while burning out.

The whole state of mind thing really does apply to my experience with this game.

 

[Deleted member 115407]

I don't know why Elite elicits this kind of pondering. Maybe it's because folks are afraid they'll miss out on whatever story elements there are.

Anyway, it's a video game just like any other video game. Pick it up and put it down whenever it suits you.

 

[StuartGT]

Okay.

I don't know why Elite elicits this kind of pondering. Maybe it's because folks are afraid they'll miss out on whatever story elements there are. Anyway, it's a video game just like any other video game. Pick it up and put it down whenever it suits you.

Same.

 

[willisit]

Why not do what you want to? I don't really know why we would make that decision for you - or why you'd want us to. It's a fabulous game in its own right. The usual nay-sayers won't change that for me, but then again, I'm not waiting on a future we might not get. Play it for what it is, or don't. 2020 will still happen with or without any of us.

Or, continue as you are and work through your back-catalogue. I have 100s of games I should be playing instead of ED.

 

[znôrt]

that I took apart my flight cockpit

this is my biggest hurdle for playing right now, mine isn't permanent and takes 10 mins to set up and another 10 mins to tear down, and i don't want to play without it.

but yeah, you did that to yourself, you should have stuck to the game's 'framework', which is fantastic. the actual "content" is just filler and copypaste grade bollox, gets boring quite fast.

 

[Daniel Cloudsifter]

OP,

Like you I like to run around being a delivery person. Hopping from station to station is fun. I have made the grind/climb up to much larger ships and a huge fleet, but that is still the core of what I do. I like making my own "Bubble" of systems where I'm allied with nearly everyone and have lots of missions I can take. I enjoy bounty hunting in my Corvette or Krait II to gain faction. However, I also love doing planetary scan missions in my Cobra MK III or Krait II.

Occasionally, I'll wander off and end up at some far flung station from my bubble and start the process again. Sometimes I also like to do the large/lucrative cargo runs in my Cutter or T-9.

Currently I'm taking a break from all that and exploring with the Distant Worlds 2 expedition in my Krait Phantom. That was tedious at first - often 150+ jumps (50.1 ly range) to each waypoint, with lots of scanning along the way. That recently flipped into an andrenaline fueled rush when I decided to allow the computer to plot courses using Neutron star jumps. Now it's only about 64 jumps between waypoints. But that isn't the best part: the last leg had me constantly neutron star jumping for the last 28 jumps. It would chain four jumps in a row, then a refuel star, and repeat. That meant jumping 850ly in about 15 minutes! And then doing it again. And again. It was a rush.

So there is fun to be had in the game and surprises await you if try something different. I just hope all my favorite systems aren't trashed by the Thargoids by the time I get back from this expedition.

As a side note, I have a similar cockpit chair. It's only partially setup. I'll finish putting it together, and finally use my HOTAS and rudder petals, once I move from my apartment to a new house in the next few months.

Happy trails!

 

[Crank Larson]

Now?

 

[Jack Schitt]

I don't know why Elite elicits this kind of pondering. Maybe it's because folks are afraid they'll miss out on whatever story elements there are.

This was the best I could come up with, too. Is it an MMO thing? It's not a genre I ever caught the bug for, so the mindset is perhaps something I can never engage with. Do other MMOs elicit similar responses in their players, or is it something unique to ED?

I've always treated the Elite games as simulations first, games second. Elite was a very basic Han Solo simulator in an era when nothing even close had existed before, Frontier was a sort of galaxy-on-a-floppy-disc simulator with a bit of RPG layered on top, and ED is a whole galactic environment simulator with some MMO features. The idea that there was a thing or things that I absolutely had to achieve was never a driver for me, even in the earliest iterations in which a sense of "completion" was something attainable. I never came close to an Elite ranking in any of the 8-bit versions, for instance, nor did I set myself any arbitrary goals such as visiting every planet in every galaxy. I didn't try to play out the storyline in First Encounters once I realised some missions had "real" time limits. I just had fun doing what I enjoyed doing. It just never occurred to me that by not doing other things I was somehow missing out. I no more felt the need to tick real or imaginary achievement boxes in Elite than I did to visit every airport in Microsoft Flight Simulator (although I know flight sim fans who have done exactly that).

I guess ED is a bit different in that some achievements are indirectly competitive due to the multiplayer nature; the only time I've felt a push to do something against the clock recently was getting First Mapped on the worlds in my Kickstarter station's system. But in general I treat it the same way as the earlier games, or any other game with simulation aspects. Sometimes I'll aim for a small goal (collecting enough Engineer mats for a particular upgrade, or taking advantage of a Void Opal-style credit rush) but mostly I just play it when I need to switch off and enter a fantasy world for an hour or two. No different to what I was doing when I was 14.

I do occasionally ponder whether it's me that's the oddball, and that I should be aiming to tick every box as many seem to advocate. The game doesn't demand this of me, but the responses of the community towards the game sometimes make me wonder. While having no sense of in-game FOMO, might I be suffering from a sort of meta-FOMO?

 

[Brian of Ardagh]

I don't know why Elite elicits this kind of pondering. Maybe it's because folks are afraid they'll miss out on whatever story elements there are.

Anyway, it's a video game just like any other video game. Pick it up and put it down whenever it suits you.

I wouldn't say I was pondering, just explaining how I felt about the game and that I will pickup the game again but play differently that I did when I quit. That seems to be human-nature as most game forums have a plethora of posters that explain why they like, dislike, or discuss how they would like the game to be.

As to missing out on story elements, I would say that Elite isn't a game like any other, or at least most. If I play Elder Scrolls Online I can miss playing it for months and I can still play the story. With Elite, any story elements are discovered as the game progresses, I can't feel like I've discovered the Thargoids myself as the discovery is a single event in time, the galaxy moves on without you if you don't play. Since my preferred play style was to just fly around and/or do deliveries, I just put those discoveries down to reading the news. Even then I don't feel that they are engaging me in any way and can be ignored.

Maybe the "game needs to impose itself upon the player" but then that's more pondering I guess.

 

[Brian of Ardagh]

Why not do what you want to? I don't really know why we would make that decision for you - or why you'd want us to. It's a fabulous game in its own right. The usual nay-sayers won't change that for me, but then again, I'm not waiting on a future we might not get. Play it for what it is, or don't. 2020 will still happen with or without any of us.

Or, continue as you are and work through your back-catalogue. I have 100s of games I should be playing instead of ED.

I didn't ask anyone to make the decision for me, that's why my first line was that the title is a rhetorical question.

As to having a back catalogue, yes I have 100s of games as well. I have quite a few on my PC and about 120 on my Xbox, all of which I wish had the time to play. Problem is that games like ESO, Destiny, and Elite are the kind of games you don't really "finish", there's usually something new to do. In some ways I miss the single-player campaign based games that I used to play, at least with those you knew when it was done. These days most developers seem keen to produce games that keep you coming back day after day.

 

[Saool]

If you play something long enough, you will get bored of it. I think this is mostly understood and accepted. For me this came with ED about half way through last year. I still played, just not as much, and it was mostly some idle trade runs in the HIP 20 Cluster.

DW2 came at the right time. This is keeping me focused and occupied for months. Once done, I will idle my was back via a stop off for a while in Colonia. I will be in no rush, unless something significant happens in he story, that has actual game implications, or someone discovers something epic. That way I will meander home over the course of this year.

 

[babelfisch]

The title is a rhetorical question so there's no need to answer.



A few months ago, possibly shorter, I decided to take a break from ED, enough of a break that I took apart my flight cockpit; although I didn't delete my character, my install or journal files. Many of the reasons I took a break were the same as some of the posts in threads like "Half-Baked" and "Losing the will (to grind)" as well as complaints in similar threads.

What's funny is I did this to myself, I was happy since 2015 just tooling around in my Cobra with a few 10s of millions of assets but I had avoided much of the game or any desire to "advance". Then I decided to try the new mining, made myself a few 100s of millions of assets, then I thought I'd try some of the other gameplay rather than sit on the fence. That was my downfall, I realized that I wasn't happy playing ED as much as I was happy roleplaying an itinerant delivery person and minor explorer.

I was hoping that when 2019 started we would hear about what would arrive this year and it might help me decide to return to playing. Seeing as the "new era" is coming in late 2020 I've been on the fence about returning.

After reading those other threads and having just listened to Dr. Kai on Lave Radio I realize that I can and should stay but I'll need to ignore the parts of the game I don't want to play. I can't, sadly, play with the larger community due to my poor network. So I'm stuck in Solo, in a galaxy only filled with NPCs. But the part of ED I love is still there, the part where I'll be flying my ship around exploring the nooks & crannies of the galaxy or occasionally doing deliveries for small factions. I will engineer when/if I want, take a few passenger missions of easygoing NPCs, and might even mine here and there. I don't need a billion credits, I have no interest in PowerPlay, I don't care about the Thargoids, and I don't care that much about combat, although I want to be good enough to destroy any ship that interdicts me. I won't be taking any jobs where I might get attacked by an NPC above my level.

Finally, remember, this is just my opinion and every player has their own. I might find some parts of the game "half-baked" while others love those parts of the game. I'm going to play the parts that I enjoy and ignore the rest, like I did when I started. I'm also crazy enough to think I'll get this cockpit chair which I'll use to fly but also drive as I like racing simulators.

Nominated for post of the month.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

If you go, there will be trouble
And if you stay it will be double

 

[Jaiotu]

I've been on a hiatus from playing Elite: Dangerous for well over a year. I do logon from time to time and play a few hours here and there ... but nothing like when the game was first released and I spend several hours playing every single day.

I still love the game but, frankly, it became something close to an addiction. I'm more balanced now and involved in my world outside of Elite Dangerous. Losing 14 kilos and adopting a healthier diet has helped a lot too.

 

[Crank Larson]

If you go, there will be trouble
And if you stay it will be double

Now?

 

[Old Duck]

I might find some parts of the game "half-baked" while others love those parts of the game. I'm going to play the parts that I enjoy and ignore the rest,

This is what I've done. Thankfully there are still parts of this game that I enjoy that make ED unique and special in my collection of games. Even if the entire game was rubbish, I'd keep it for the Galaxy Map, which I find a useful "tool" for IRL hobbies like stargazing.

like I did when I started..

Sad thing for me is that I enjoyed many more aspects of the game when I started than I do now. This boils down mostly to subsequent bugs and broken design. If I hadn't enjoyed combat initially, then I wouldn't know how bad NPC AI has become over time. If I hadn't enjoyed sightseeing (visiting game assets like Thargoid bases and generation ships), I wouldn't notice how the broken graphics shaders (shadows) on PS4 has visually ruined this experience. If I didn't enjoy deep-space exploration, I would have never noticed how the stars just "disappear" after a few jumps while in the Heart and Soul region. The list goes on..

Over the approximately two years since I started playing, Frontier has systematically been "killing off" activities I once enjoyed, leaving me with very little left to do. Thankfully, they haven't destroyed everything I enjoy, but man they are close.

 

[Deleted member 115407]

I wouldn't say I was pondering, just explaining how I felt about the game and that I will pickup the game again but play differently that I did when I quit. That seems to be human-nature as most game forums have a plethora of posters that explain why they like, dislike, or discuss how they would like the game to be.

As to missing out on story elements, I would say that Elite isn't a game like any other, or at least most. If I play Elder Scrolls Online I can miss playing it for months and I can still play the story. With Elite, any story elements are discovered as the game progresses, I can't feel like I've discovered the Thargoids myself as the discovery is a single event in time, the galaxy moves on without you if you don't play. Since my preferred play style was to just fly around and/or do deliveries, I just put those discoveries down to reading the news. Even then I don't feel that they are engaging me in any way and can be ignored.

Maybe the "game needs to impose itself upon the player" but then that's more pondering I guess.

heh - to be fair, about 99% of the player base doesn't get to feel like they discovered the Thargoids

 

[Lobey]

If you like core mining and want a bit of excitement when selling - I recommend selling in Keries in open - had some genuine ruthless pirate activity there last night.
These aren't the "polite" stop yarr type - straight in with hatchbreakers and packhounds - luckily I too have packhounds and decent point defense- was a really good test of my Cobra 4's ability to hang in and escape with a full cargo of Alexandrite, LTD's and Void opals.
I often fear folks are too easily scared away from open - it's where the game really shines as far as I'm concerned - no AI can compete or co-operate with you as well as other players can. And simple "jousting" pvp does not do it justice either.
"Tired" of elite ? - want to put the "dangerous" back in ? - take to open and see what you can achieve.