Skills or anything quite like it?

Piratescribe

Piratescribe
One of the (only) things I miss about that OTHER space sandbox game, is the process of having to qualify (i.e. skill up) to be able to fly certain ships and use certain equipment. It makes sense, and I like the gamification of it. I'm LOVING E:D, but I'm a little disappointed that the only limit to ship and mod use is creds. As long as you can afford it (and I'm finding after just a few days, I can afford a LOT!) you can fly it.
Is there any aspect of the game that I'm missing, that does incorporate some kind of improvement scheme (aside from money is what matters)?
 

Ian Doncaster

Ian Doncaster
Engineering a ship requires materials, which are generally harder to obtain than credits, and for most engineers some sort of achievement (trade at X ports, obtain a particular permit, get a particular rank, etc.) to unlock. Similarly the various tech broker modules, especially the Guardian ones, mainly have non-credit requirements to obtain.

Most Federal and Imperial ships can't be bought until you have the appropriate rank with those superpowers.

Powerplay modules require doing a (small) amount of work for the specific power.

A couple of recent modules have required obtaining a particular rank in a Community Goal.

Probably something else I've missed, too...
 

Achtung-Goomba

Achtung-Goomba
You’ll have to correct me if I’m wrong, because I’m none too experienced with That Other Space Game, but I think the difference would be in the differing flight models or lack thereof. Not trying to sound dismissive, but isn’t space flight in That Other Game rather abstracted compared to This One? So I’m not sure how such a mechanic, which I assume fits quite well with the stylings of That Game, wouldn’t really translate as well; the closest parallel I can think of apart from from pilot skill (in both games with their differing models) would be the engineering effects on your modules to improve your ship’s capabilities. You’re effectively ‘levelling up’ your spaceship, so to speak.
 

Deleted member 121570

D
Piratescribe said:
One of the (only) things I miss about that OTHER space sandbox game, is the process of having to qualify (i.e. skill up) to be able to fly certain ships and use certain equipment. It makes sense, and I like the gamification of it. I'm LOVING E:D, but I'm a little disappointed that the only limit to ship and mod use is creds. As long as you can afford it (and I'm finding after just a few days, I can afford a LOT!) you can fly it.
Is there any aspect of the game that I'm missing, that does incorporate some kind of improvement scheme (aside from money is what matters)?
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You can fly any ship, but flying em well is the skills progression aspect :)
 

Trollymctrollerson

T
You improve your gear through Engineering. There is no "skill" leveling like in runescape or some other garbage RPG game. The skill comes from you and how you fly. Engineering also requires a slight modicum of understanding so you dont do something stupid like make a kinetic resistant shield generator or a fill a ship with 7 overcharged beam lasers.
 

Dragsham

Dragsham
The road to unlocking engineers is a hard one. Your first ships engineering assuming you go all the way to a particular build your keen on, will take weeks if not months.
To engineer a small fleet (11) of ships with differing specs etc has taken me a year and I'm playing way too much hehe.
That in itself is a reflection of rank and experience as well as piloting skills which develop over time.
Unlocking certain ships albeit a grind is a nessesary evil. But heartily recommended cos the cutter and corvette are both fabulous.
 

Helvellyn

Helvellyn
The lack of explicit skill caps (as opposed to earning enough creds / grinding enough mats) is a positive for E:D. We're supposed to be pilots in that universe, why should there be skill unlocks? Of course there are plenty of other gamey elements around but I'm happy this one's not there. The skill should be your skill to use something properly (particularly as we're not in "mouse click is a substitute for a complex physical action" territory).
 

CMDR D Noize

CMDR D Noize
Piratescribe said:
No, that kinda answers my question... I'm not very familiar with "engineering," but if that's something you have to improve in your "character"/commander before you can get certain benefits, that counts!
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The way I look at engineering in ED is something similar to the Blacksmithing & Enchanting in the Elderscrolls games like Skyrim/Oblivion/Morrowind.

You can get various combinations of standard gear from the bottom tier to the top almost anywhere and make do with it, but if you want the really good stuff to have an advantage over your enemies you need to learn about upgrading your gear and what materials you'll need.

Each engineer comes with a "Quest" and you get a reward at the end in the form of a blueprint you can pin.
 

here_it_comes

here_it_comes
I think it would be flavorful to restrict Federation rank rewarding to combat actions, see that all the Federal ships unlocked are unquestionably military vessels. Will never happen though. The salt would be epic if people couldn't grind their way to the Federation's alpha combat vessel without earning it through blood.
 

Trollymctrollerson

T
[VR] here_it_comes said:
I think it would be flavorful to restrict Federation rank rewarding to combat actions, see that all the Federal ships unlocked are unquestionably military vessels. Will never happen though. The salt would be epic if people couldn't grind their way to the Federation's alpha combat vessel without earning it through blood.
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Mmmm salt flavored. Even better, make the rank up missions as hard as wing assassin missions or harder instead of some data courier milquetoast.
 

varonica

varonica
You are the CMDR, the skill leveling is in you, learning to land and take off, how to neutron star jump, avoiding interdictions, looping around planets, scooping, landing on high grav planets, these are all skill ups, but the difference is you have to learn them, they are you skill ups! Engineering just gives you a better ship, if you can't fly it you are no better off.
 

here_it_comes

here_it_comes
Trollymctrollerson said:
Mmmm salt flavored. Even better, make the rank up missions as hard as wing assassin missions or harder instead of some data courier milquetoast.
Click to expand...

Would be cool. Concurrent combat rank requirements would be easier to implement. Something like;
  • FDS - Competent
  • FAS - Master
  • FGS - Dangerous
  • Corvette - Deadly

varonica said:
You are the CMDR, the skill leveling is in you, learning to land and take off, how to neutron star jump, avoiding interdictions, looping around planets, scooping, landing on high grav planets, these are all skill ups, but the difference is you have to learn them, they are you skill ups! Engineering just gives you a better ship, if you can't fly it you are no better off.
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True, but it's pretty anti-flavor that the Federation would approve a CMDR to fly their warships when they haven't even demonstrated they can handle a Sidewinder in a High Security RES. Not that I think this will change.
 

Madrax573

Madrax573
One of the defining aspects of ED compared to most other games is that there is actually any progression of your 'character' in the game.

If you can do it then your character can do it...

Credits, navy ranks, engineer unlocks are just gates to access some stuff not a progression as such.

How well you do something is down to you and the time spend do the thing you want to master. In this aspect ED is more of a sim than a game. The other aspects are the game in ED.
 

here_it_comes

here_it_comes
Madrax573 said:
One of the defining aspects of ED compared to most other games is that there is actually any progression of your 'character' in the game.

If you can do it then your character can do it...

Credits, navy ranks, engineer unlocks are just gates to access some stuff not a progression as such.

How well you do something is down to you and the time spend do the thing you want to master. In this aspect ED is more of a sim than a game. The other aspects are the game in ED.
Click to expand...

True, but access to faction controlled ships and modules is another story. As demonstrated by faction rank locked ships, modules and permits.
 
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