So, how many social media accounts do I need to have in order to experience the "story"?

[mojonaut]

I'm out the game until Q1 2018 update, until then I watch Blind Pew videos, more entertaining than the game and is all I need to keep me updated and they appeal to my weird sense of humour

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIcfszK4KEIRvK5bgy7FYXg

 

[Urbanski101]

Not sure what to say here.

The OP has a totally valid point, none of the actual 'story' or 'lore' is accessible in the game, galnet is a mess if you want to find anything.

If you wanted to be part of the cannon group you'd spend most of your time on forums and chatting outside of the game because there are no tools to do this in game.

Apparently the fact FDev totally overlooked this until now seems to be fine with most people on the forum...go figure.

The truth is that without this forum and other outside info sources finding anything out about this game (like engineers, thargoids, formadine rift) is next to impossible, the info doesn't really exist in game which is ridiculous if you think about it.

They will at some point next year release a codex which will hopefully be a source of data about all things ED...I reserve judgement until I see it.

 

[sidereal6]

Elite needs a single-player campaign

Multiple campaigns, actually - one for each major in-game-story event.

The only things Fdev needs to do in order to implement this is:

(1) set up a server like the beta server. The BGS can (actually should) be turned off. The server would be locked to single-player only.

(2) implement cut scenes tied to missions. A cut scene plays when you accept a mission and/or when you complete one.

Those two things would allow FDev to develop a reasonable single-player campaign. The purpose of the campaigns would be to allow players to experience parts of the story independent of their open-world character (independent, meaning, I'm not suggesting that your ships or bank account be available in the single-player campaign, or that ships/credits earned in the campaign be transferred back out to your main account).

I'll give an example: something that happened in the ED story is that thargoid bases were discovered. I've never actually been to one of these bases. I keep meaning to, but just don't have the time. I've only seen them on youtube. A single-player campaign story line could be this:

(1) you log onto the "Thargoids Return" single-player campaign server. The date says January 3302 (that is, the single player campaign takes place in the "past" from the perspective of the open world server). Your commander's name is Joe. You have a Corbra. You're docked at some port (but it's not where your open-world character left off).

(2) a cutscene plays. It's a mission offer. The actor is notably sketchy about what you're being asked to transport.

(3) cutscene over, you're dropped into Elite Dangerous just as if you were in the open world (except as noted above). You have your cargo and mission. You can do whatever you want, including fail the mission, if you want to - you can always restart the campaign.

(4) you deliver the cargo and get another cutscene explaining that what you just delivered is a map to a thargoid base. Here are the coordinates.

Obviously, a better writer could make something more engaging than that, but that's the core functionality that's needed to let people experience the cool stuff that's in the game, without having to shoehorn it into the open world.

There should be single-player campaigns that explain the relationship between Aisling Duval and Arissa Lavigny-Duval. There should be a campaign that explains how Hudson became president. There should be a campaign that reenacts the Salome thing, the discovery of barnacles, brain trees, thargoids, etc. The cutscenes should be used to emerse the player in the various cultures of the major factions (the system description for Archenar mentions the unique accept of the inhabitants).

Basically, you should be able to play these campaigns and then you go, "ah ok, got it, this makes sense to me now" and then go back to open world.

I mean look, imagine if there was an open-world game based on Game of Thrones. You could play a sell-sword and go anywhere you like. That's great. But without the show and/or the books, very little of it would actually make sense to you. Worse, you would likely never be at the right place at the right time to experience any of the really interesting events. An open-world MMO game like that seems like a good idea, but without a way to experience the important/interesting things, it's really not.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

Elite needs a single-player campaign

Multiple campaigns, actually - one for each major in-game-story event.

The only things Fdev needs to do in order to implement this is:

(1) set up a server like the beta server. The BGS can (actually should) be turned off. The server would be locked to single-player only.

(2) implement cut scenes tied to missions. A cut scene plays when you accept a mission and/or when you complete one.

Those two things would allow FDev to develop a reasonable single-player campaign. The purpose of the campaigns would be to allow players to experience parts of the story independent of their open-world character (independent, meaning, I'm not suggesting that your ships or bank account be available in the single-player campaign, or that ships/credits earned in the campaign be transferred back out to your main account).

I'll give an example: something that happened in the ED story is that thargoid bases were discovered. I've never actually been to one of these bases. I keep meaning to, but just don't have the time. I've only seen them on youtube. A single-player campaign story line could be this:

(1) you log onto the "Thargoids Return" single-player campaign server. The date says January 3302 (that is, the single player campaign takes place in the "past" from the perspective of the open world server). Your commander's name is Joe. You have a Corbra. You're docked at some port (but it's not where your open-world character left off).

(2) a cutscene plays. It's a mission offer. The actor is notably sketchy about what you're being asked to transport.

(3) cutscene over, you're dropped into Elite Dangerous just as if you were in the open world (except as noted above). You have your cargo and mission. You can do whatever you want, including fail the mission, if you want to - you can always restart the campaign.

(4) you deliver the cargo and get another cutscene explaining that what you just delivered is a map to a thargoid base. Here are the coordinates.

Obviously, a better writer could make something more engaging than that, but that's the core functionality that's needed to let people experience the cool stuff that's in the game, without having to shoehorn it into the open world.

There should be single-player campaigns that explain the relationship between Aisling Duval and Arissa Lavigny-Duval. There should be a campaign that explains how Hudson became president. There should be a campaign that reenacts the Salome thing, the discovery of barnacles, brain trees, thargoids, etc. The cutscenes should be used to emerse the player in the various cultures of the major factions (the system description for Archenar mentions the unique accept of the inhabitants).

Basically, you should be able to play these campaigns and then you go, "ah ok, got it, this makes sense to me now" and then go back to open world.

I mean look, imagine if there was an open-world game based on Game of Thrones. You could play a sell-sword and go anywhere you like. That's great. But without the show and/or the books, very little of it would actually make sense to you. Worse, you would likely never be at the right place at the right time to experience any of the really interesting events. An open-world MMO game like that seems like a good idea, but without a way to experience the important/interesting things, it's really not.

Nah, not for me. I would prefer they spend all the development time on something else, like better gameplay mechanics which we will be getting next year.

 

[Jenner]

Elite doesn't have a story. Elite has Events and Lore.

Lore is the stuff you go read about.

Events, like finding the dead alien ship, discovery of the Guardian Ruins, discovery of the once-lost Generation Ships just happen. Someone stumbles upon these things, makes a video, rides their 15 minutes of fame, and the rest of us keep hauling dried fruits and nuts to starving children in famine-ridden systems.

The Story of Elite is your story. The one you tell. How the events around you affect your day-to-day, the adventures you get involved in, your trials and tribulations, song-worthy victories and epic defeats.

I'm all for more directed narrative, but you are essentially correct about the game. There are things to discover, sure.... the generation ships, the Thargoid bases, little things here and there. Those are not so much narrative in the traditional sense. Yeah, the forum, social media, YouTube, etc. are the go places to find where these things are in the-game, but it's not the same as experiencing a 'story' outside of the game. There is no linear 'story' even in-the game.

The story of Elite is really whatever you make for yourself.

I'd love to see some personalized story telling, though. I think navy ranking would be ideal for this.

 

[lokvette]

I dont know, I have maybe one social media account and I dont use that for anything ED related. I do watch OA's vid's among some other youtubers that do ED, but you dont need an account for that.

Never used nor intend to start using Twitter for anything, that place speaks for itself in its own name. Reddit I visit once a day again you dont need an account for that unless you want to post.

What I know about the story I have got from youtube, and the odd thread here not that I've read any of the main story ones mostly as they have now become mega threads, so all you really need is this place if you have half a day to read all about it or go exploring and watch youtube while you do it

 

[IndigoWyrd]

What he said.
Galnet and this forum are essential - I never use reddit or facebook or twitter to find out about in game discoveries and events. YouTube has a number of content creaters and ObsidianAnt is one of the best to keep up with things happening in game.

The Galaxy is 400 billion systems - do you seriously expect the 'story' to unfold in the systems you happen to visit - and when you happen to visit them ? - it's a multi-player game with commanders all over the globe and from every time zone - people find and report on stuff as and when they find stuff.

I can't stand reddit. Between a layout that looks like it was developed by a brain-damaged waterhead with three thumbs and the toxicity of the community there at large.. it makes this place look and feel like a grade-school playground.

I am very looking forward to GalNet Audio, and perhaps in the future, GalNet Video as well. Being able to catch up on the latest goings-on while in deep space is a boon, but having to do so in full-screen, with the potential for pirate, alien, alien-pirate attack, or even unscheduled planetary lithobraking as you sift through the M Seeking, F Seeking, O Seeking, Power Play updates and gossip columns for the juicy news of interest is, well... c'mon seriously? 34th century and the best there is to offer on the only news feed in space is a digital newspaper? And it doesn't even have a search function? AND it occupies my entire field of view?

It's one of those things that should have only left the drawing board to go into the circular file from day -1.

On the subject of search features... this forum could use one - a real one. The one it comes with is... sketchy is optimistic. But yes, between these two things, it is possible to stay pretty much up-to-date on all the latest goings on across the galaxy. Perhaps not always intuitively, but still possible.

 

[CMDR-AD]

This point, the necessity of external sources of information to have any hope of keeping up with in-game events, used to bug me worse. I still terribly dislike it, but I get why it's done this way.

A good example is that Galnet article posted earlier in this thread. Yes, it does tell CMDRs that Hermitage has seen some interesting INRA discoveries. I stumble because the design for gameplay related to this hint is brute force searching of an entire planet, for a location which our ships cannot detect in ANY WAY. Even when my ship is parked in the middle of the site, it's completely undetectable.

The design is relying on the fact that out of a massive number of CMDRs who will search (by various means, some such as playing with low graphics settings and looking for graphics glitches) and will post the find online. Then the majority of other players will follow the online spoilers to visit the sites, or simply watch on YouTube.

I tend to see a Galnet posting like that, and imagine a gameplay design where a CMDR reads the article and heads to Hermitage. Engage with a few minor factions in the area, and while developing some reputation using the Missions system, some Follow-On or Inbox missions come along which set the player off on a mission taking them very near the INRA base. Give the special missions related to this content flavor texts that encourage and develop the sense that something mysterious or unknown may be involved.

I must give credit where it's due, several of the INRA base sites I've visited do link the story to other locations (even down to the planet). But again, they are designed depending on brute force searches by masses of players, with the vast majority of visitors simply flying direct to Lat/Long coordinates found in spoilers online.

Again, as in the first case, if those hinted systems (or a few neighboring systems, for those in unpopulated systems) used the minor factions and missions system to steer the player, all of this could be played and experienced 100% in-game, by every player, with no feats of brute force searching, even with our ships still being unable to detect the INRA (or whatever) sites from just meters away. And a completely optional experience, too, for those who do wish to use spoilers and cut past the gameplay.

And what is that, like 1 or 2 custom missions for each site?

I would like to underscore that what I write above isn't something I'm saying is "wrong" with how Elite is designed. The current design is, I think, deliberate and aimed at reinforcing the social/MMO aspects of the Elite experience. It's merely that this isn't what comes to my own mind, as a player sitting in the ship, reading Galnet and thinking about how I should play next to get deeper into that event. It often doesn't work that way, and the external stuff is really necessary for getting the most from the game.

 

[Saool]

None.

There are no external sites or pages you need to keep up on the plot and story.

However if you want to be at the cutting edge of things that are going on, then being part of groups like Canonn help. Many discoveries are made by teams in larger groups so being in those groups and joining discord channels and saying hello and asking to help is the way to go.

Of course some discoveries are very time critical, and are down to being around and in contact with people and the right time. There are also some external tools that will help. Working out that there is information hidden in a sound or signal is not somthing that can be done in game today, and is a criticism that has been levelled before.

But social media? Nothing.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

Since this game is a job, you need Linked In.

 

[Haramir]

FDEV have Great technically abilities but very bad Skills in Game Design.

They implement multicrew and want us Hunting thargoids in groups, but they have forgotten to implement the tools for Group Administration and Social Aspects like Group search. Same with Story Reling.

 

[Cosmos]

Wait, there's people who actually play Elite for the story?


In all seriousness, yeah, it seems the only way for at least a partially interesting story, is through youtube and/or the forums.

Yeah the storyline is very poorly delivered. It really lets down the game and the mersion when one has to trawl the forums, reddit and youtube.. They really could do better than ascii text.

 

[akaliel]

FDEV have Great technically abilities but very bad Skills in Game Design.

They implement multicrew and want us Hunting thargoids in groups, but they have forgotten to implement the tools for Group Administration and Social Aspects like Group search. Same with Story Reling.

It's worse than you know. When Multi-crewing with AX turrets the gunner actually has to fight the auto-lock on constantly when trying to hit the hearts. And he can't target subtargets either, so it's all pretty useless. You're far more effective just winging up, or even fighting solo, than taking a crewmate.