I got my new PC, reinstalled ED and started flying. I did some Power Play and BGS, ending in wrecking my reputation with the Federation. Then I was considering starting some ground AX-battle, but found out that I need some other guns for that, and maybe a suit. But then I checked what I miss of stuff to make those.
First, the experience with the new PC is just great. The visual experience is just awesome. To me visual is very important. I have bought countless ship kits and paint jobs. I even have two ship kits for my carrier. Visual has always been a very important and big part of the experience. But something went wrong on the way, after re-entering the universe after months of absence. The big problem was when I started to plan what was ahead if I were to continue flying. I realized that the visual experience is not enough anymore.
The universe and the mechanics don't make any sense. I don't have any ownership to the game, there is nothing pulling me back, other than the carrier. Mostly because it cost me 32M a week to keep it floating. But you have made it so easy to climb the financial ranks that it doesn't matter anymore. I ranked from regular Elite to Elite V merchant in less than a month. What I'm actually considering is to sell the carrier, just not have that either anymore.
You basically removed the struggle and fight to climb the ranks and struggle to finally afford those big ships. I got a second commander with founders permit flying in an Anaconda. An Amateur, aimless and penniless commander flying a 300M ship. You changed the game from a role playing game, building a reputation and career. Now it is all about grinding for materials to unlock stuff. You can buy anything as a rookie, but it is useless if you want to fly in open. But even that is not the biggest problem.
You missed the great opportunity to lift the game from good to epic when introducing Horizons and Odyssey. Engineering messed up the balance of ships. The once mighty Anaconda is now mostly a big and slow ship, an easy target unless you engineer it, a lot. But you tuned the engineering to make somewhat sense, it got better, but still. Then you introduced squadrons and later the fleet carrier. That was the biggest opportunity to lift the game to another level. PMFs was introduced as part of squadron, but no more than that.
PMFs ended up being not another thing with no big effect on the universe. It's just a club or a common goal for players. In stead you ended up creating war between PMFs in the same Power. Those that wanted to work for their PMF and those fighting for the Power. Like, how many of the PMFs with federal government was also supporting Hudson? I've heard of several wars between those PMFs and the squadrons fighting for Hudson. How many of them ended up leaving the game after being steamrolled every time they tried to fly in open? They even got a name, those commanders - fednecks. Pledged to Hudson and fighting for their federal PMF ended up badly. I can really understand them, that Hudson/Federation relation should be a win. But no. Like I said, some ended up steamrolled by those squadrons not attached to any PMFs, fighting for Hudson. So they gave up.
What I was expecting when squadronds and PMFs was introduced that you would finally give us some bigger ownership to something in the game, other than the CR-draining fleet carrier. I wanted to create a squadron, a community where our members could fight for our minor faction. By doing so we would also benefit from climbing the ranks within our Powers and Superpowers. That was the dream, fight for Hudson and grind for the Corvette at the same time. We would also make alliances with other squadrons under the same umbrella. We could change the galaxy by fighting for our faction, and earn both promotions and merits. That would create epic battles and wars, forge bigger communities with common goals.
But you ended up designing a universe where it is the opposite. I have no ownership to anything in the game. I am head of the squadron, but like so many I've parked the ships. The plan to create a squadron failed, because we have no common goal other that the community itself. I got tired, so I left. I've seen statistics showing that I'm not the only one. The number of active players has gone down. And that scares me a lot, the potential is to big to be wasted like that. You have to start the connections, build a universe that makes sense that gives us the opportunity to be part of it on a bigger scale. I'm a Hudson pilot, and to sum up my experience I will do some role play where I've hired a navy jock as crew to go to war for Hudson. A reality in 9 of 10 wars for Hudson:
Navy Jock: SIR, REPORTING FOR DUTY, SIR!
Me: It is Admiral, not Sir!
Navy Jock: SIR, YES S...Sorry! YES, ADMIRAL!
Me: Now, are you ready to go to war for Hudson?
Navy Jock: YES, LET's FIGHT FOR HUDSON, ADMIRAL!
Me: Great, now jump into a fighter and start killing that federation scum!
Navy Jock: WILL KILL THOse... Federation scum... Admiral? Are you sure?
Me: Yes, of course I'm sure! (and the argument just starts making no sense)
I have done a lot of those wars. The common thing has also been to fight for Hudson. But that's it, always only for Hudson. I could have a PMF that was either Feudal or Patronage, but that is not fighting for Federation. I expected the PMFs to be a packet deal. Fight for both Power and Superpower. Not for Power against Superpower. That big detail would create something new, a greater community actually setting a mark in the galaxy.
A lot of new players in our squadron wanted to grind for the Corvette. But they could not take part in anything involving Power Play. So the ended up doing solo missions. Almost everyone of them burned themselves out on the solo grind. I have not seen any of them online after they got that ship many years ago. Why? Because there was nothing pulling them back, other than the squadron. And like you probably guessed, it was not enough to get them back.
That will be the destiny for more and more players. All the grind for nothing more than a better ship and equipment. Most actions will be random, and they can end up on the wrong side in a conflict. They will not survive long there if it is part of a community war, and loosing your ship is no fun. Even worse if you only fight for no purpose other than winning that single round. To stay in this universe you need a bigger purpose than the grind. That is where I am now. I parked everything for 22 weeks, came back and ran into the same wall, no more grind. I might get back, for some occasional stuff with friends. But that's it, the thrill is gone and the universe is dying.
Will the servers eventually die, and the universe disappear. Will it all end up as a huge solo game, or just die? I'm not very optimistic. I've heard so many times that all suggestions here is just kicking the same dead horse. I'm tired of kicking, tired of grinding. Nothing is pulling me back, other than selling that darn CR-draining carrier.
First, the experience with the new PC is just great. The visual experience is just awesome. To me visual is very important. I have bought countless ship kits and paint jobs. I even have two ship kits for my carrier. Visual has always been a very important and big part of the experience. But something went wrong on the way, after re-entering the universe after months of absence. The big problem was when I started to plan what was ahead if I were to continue flying. I realized that the visual experience is not enough anymore.
The universe and the mechanics don't make any sense. I don't have any ownership to the game, there is nothing pulling me back, other than the carrier. Mostly because it cost me 32M a week to keep it floating. But you have made it so easy to climb the financial ranks that it doesn't matter anymore. I ranked from regular Elite to Elite V merchant in less than a month. What I'm actually considering is to sell the carrier, just not have that either anymore.
You basically removed the struggle and fight to climb the ranks and struggle to finally afford those big ships. I got a second commander with founders permit flying in an Anaconda. An Amateur, aimless and penniless commander flying a 300M ship. You changed the game from a role playing game, building a reputation and career. Now it is all about grinding for materials to unlock stuff. You can buy anything as a rookie, but it is useless if you want to fly in open. But even that is not the biggest problem.
You missed the great opportunity to lift the game from good to epic when introducing Horizons and Odyssey. Engineering messed up the balance of ships. The once mighty Anaconda is now mostly a big and slow ship, an easy target unless you engineer it, a lot. But you tuned the engineering to make somewhat sense, it got better, but still. Then you introduced squadrons and later the fleet carrier. That was the biggest opportunity to lift the game to another level. PMFs was introduced as part of squadron, but no more than that.
PMFs ended up being not another thing with no big effect on the universe. It's just a club or a common goal for players. In stead you ended up creating war between PMFs in the same Power. Those that wanted to work for their PMF and those fighting for the Power. Like, how many of the PMFs with federal government was also supporting Hudson? I've heard of several wars between those PMFs and the squadrons fighting for Hudson. How many of them ended up leaving the game after being steamrolled every time they tried to fly in open? They even got a name, those commanders - fednecks. Pledged to Hudson and fighting for their federal PMF ended up badly. I can really understand them, that Hudson/Federation relation should be a win. But no. Like I said, some ended up steamrolled by those squadrons not attached to any PMFs, fighting for Hudson. So they gave up.
What I was expecting when squadronds and PMFs was introduced that you would finally give us some bigger ownership to something in the game, other than the CR-draining fleet carrier. I wanted to create a squadron, a community where our members could fight for our minor faction. By doing so we would also benefit from climbing the ranks within our Powers and Superpowers. That was the dream, fight for Hudson and grind for the Corvette at the same time. We would also make alliances with other squadrons under the same umbrella. We could change the galaxy by fighting for our faction, and earn both promotions and merits. That would create epic battles and wars, forge bigger communities with common goals.
But you ended up designing a universe where it is the opposite. I have no ownership to anything in the game. I am head of the squadron, but like so many I've parked the ships. The plan to create a squadron failed, because we have no common goal other that the community itself. I got tired, so I left. I've seen statistics showing that I'm not the only one. The number of active players has gone down. And that scares me a lot, the potential is to big to be wasted like that. You have to start the connections, build a universe that makes sense that gives us the opportunity to be part of it on a bigger scale. I'm a Hudson pilot, and to sum up my experience I will do some role play where I've hired a navy jock as crew to go to war for Hudson. A reality in 9 of 10 wars for Hudson:
Navy Jock: SIR, REPORTING FOR DUTY, SIR!
Me: It is Admiral, not Sir!
Navy Jock: SIR, YES S...Sorry! YES, ADMIRAL!
Me: Now, are you ready to go to war for Hudson?
Navy Jock: YES, LET's FIGHT FOR HUDSON, ADMIRAL!
Me: Great, now jump into a fighter and start killing that federation scum!
Navy Jock: WILL KILL THOse... Federation scum... Admiral? Are you sure?
Me: Yes, of course I'm sure! (and the argument just starts making no sense)
I have done a lot of those wars. The common thing has also been to fight for Hudson. But that's it, always only for Hudson. I could have a PMF that was either Feudal or Patronage, but that is not fighting for Federation. I expected the PMFs to be a packet deal. Fight for both Power and Superpower. Not for Power against Superpower. That big detail would create something new, a greater community actually setting a mark in the galaxy.
A lot of new players in our squadron wanted to grind for the Corvette. But they could not take part in anything involving Power Play. So the ended up doing solo missions. Almost everyone of them burned themselves out on the solo grind. I have not seen any of them online after they got that ship many years ago. Why? Because there was nothing pulling them back, other than the squadron. And like you probably guessed, it was not enough to get them back.
That will be the destiny for more and more players. All the grind for nothing more than a better ship and equipment. Most actions will be random, and they can end up on the wrong side in a conflict. They will not survive long there if it is part of a community war, and loosing your ship is no fun. Even worse if you only fight for no purpose other than winning that single round. To stay in this universe you need a bigger purpose than the grind. That is where I am now. I parked everything for 22 weeks, came back and ran into the same wall, no more grind. I might get back, for some occasional stuff with friends. But that's it, the thrill is gone and the universe is dying.
Will the servers eventually die, and the universe disappear. Will it all end up as a huge solo game, or just die? I'm not very optimistic. I've heard so many times that all suggestions here is just kicking the same dead horse. I'm tired of kicking, tired of grinding. Nothing is pulling me back, other than selling that darn CR-draining carrier.
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