Stuggling With For Purpose In ED

BigPickle · Dec 20, 2014

Stuggling With Purpose In ED

Hi all,

Not sure how the rest of you feel but if I'm honest, I'm struggling to want to fire up ED. I have a hefty rig, DK2 and a butt kicker which makes gaming a great exprience, yet I'm really feeling like ED just isnt what I thought it was going to be. One of things I was so excited about upon release was having a campaign/story of sorts to play through.

Having traded, done a little mining, explored and fought for a bit what exactly is left to do without a story play? Emptiness, 400 billion star systems of emptiness to warp and supercruise through.

Dont think this is a whining dev bashing thread because its not, but being a backer and watching the pace grow as release nears, its been quite an anti-climax if I'm truely honest.

Is story/campaign due to kick in later on? if we dont get anything of that nature, essentially what we have is a space travel simulator with side activities such a dogfighting, trading and mining. What kind of a life span could that have. For me its already run its course because over time its not very envolving.

Hope some of you can suggest some things to help put the fire back into ED.

Regards
Cmdr Bigpickle

oomwat · Dec 20, 2014

Here you go ... a player generated purpose: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=73506

BigPickle · Dec 20, 2014

This is part of what I'm talking about. I do not wish to role play and make believe my own story, that is why I paid for and supported this game, to be led through a story as well as open world play.
The reason why your having to do this is because their is no story other than on news bulletins, which is all very well but when the bulletins dont match the empty space it just makes this game feel souless.

Even if I take on the player based objective, nothing will happen apart from less minerals, change of economy etc Its just fantasy, I paid my money for a game onscreen not in my head game. I just dont understand what is happening here.

Muthax · Dec 20, 2014

I think it was clear from the beginning tha the game was going to have story arcs but not the way you seem to allude to (campiagns). They inject content but the rest is left to the users, like the example oomwat linked. Or at least was clear to me. They were going to remake Elite with modern graphics. I am pretty sure that's what I got 8and there are still bits missing but I am not in a hurry)

People don't HAVE to do it, they WANT to do it. THAT is the reason they backed up the project
I am not sure what was yours

BigPickle · Dec 20, 2014

Me neither now, but Its just as well they, want to do it because there is no alternative. That is bad in my opinion.

The game looks great, sounds great but everytime I tell someone about ED they ask "is that all you can do"? Fact is its repetative and quite frankly boring. Its a space travel sim at the moment with hints of side activites.
Just not enough content or story arcs as you put it, not enough players, not enough life and ive not got enough time to spend fantasizing over make believe stories when that is what a game should do for me like the other Elites did far better than this.

I never thought I'd feel this but CR is probably rubbing his hands together even more now because he knows he's just snapped up the average player to his cause, Elite Dangerous is so niche with the game being this way.

Muthax · Dec 20, 2014

BigPickle said:
Me neither now

That happens. I nuked 20€ last month on Valkyrie Chronicles for PC without really checking how the game worked and basing my purchase only on a reviewers assessment of "a great mix of JRPG and TPS"

I uninstalled it after one hour
Luckily it was just 20

But hang in there, 'content' will be created for you by other players and FD, keep an eye on galnet!

Hope you stick round and have fun

Zvanya · Dec 20, 2014

BigPickle said:
I do not wish to role play and make believe my own story, that is why I paid for and supported this game, to be led

I'm surprised someone would actually say this.

tsh · Dec 20, 2014

I was never expecting to need to play along with my own story either. THe whole MP thing leaves me a little cold, but there doesn't seem to be much else (beyond the basic engine ofcourse)

BigPickle · Dec 20, 2014

I wouldnt be saying it if there was plenty of stuff to do but there just isnt. Every single side mission is primarily about going from point A to point B, no true experience created for you.

I mean honestly, when the new players "novelty" wears off, how many do you think will still play ED if it stays this way.

I can imagine what ever i choose which is great but, then game wont reflect what I have imagined and done because it lacks the ability to do so other than economically, making it for me totally pointless to play.

Tar Stone · Dec 20, 2014

I know what you're getting at Mr. Bigpickle. There's a big disconnect between the Galnet stuff and what you experience in game.

Also - Just getting to a system 200ly away should be exciting and involve lots of stuff along the way. It doesn't.

Even if you did have to cross through an anarchy system, and even if they did make anarchies dangerous, all you do is jump in and jump out.

It's a gorgeous and unique experience right now, unfortunately for me that experience has carried me as far as it can.

Sargon · Dec 20, 2014

One of the things I don't like about games is the scripted stories. They rob a game of replay value.
Scripted storylines in MMORPG's amass people at the very same NPC's all taking the same missions, all doing the same thing, while not truly changing anything in the virtual world they're in.
Would this be what you expected ED to be?

StarTux · Dec 20, 2014

I suspect you may need the game to mature more, the potential for much better interactions and deeper plots when they allow us to get out and walk around should solve that problem. And that without involving planetary landings.

Hopefully it will be what I expect...(ie smuggle package to a bar called Braben's bar and deliver to Fred, who works behind the bar...).

Eldonorian · Dec 20, 2014

What we need here is a good ol' fashion conflict the players can get involved in. A conflict so great it effects the economy in a galactic way, and make resources so scarce in the core systems that the factions involved are FORCED to go out and find new ones. Just a idea.

Muthax · Dec 20, 2014

Eldonorian said:
What we need here is a good ol' fashion conflict the players can get involved in. A conflict so great it effects the economy in a galactic way, and make resources so scarce in the core systems that the factions involved are FORCED to go out and find new ones. Just a idea.

Like Sorbago?

Darkflame · Dec 20, 2014

Story and open play is not mutually exclusive things. Elite can have a good story (or rather stories), and I still hope they will come in time.

However, given the size of the galaxy making scripted storys between - say - a few stations and scripts is probably not worth it as not many players will discover it.
Frontier thus (I think) will be spending the effort to try to make more dynamic stories emerging from NCPs wants and needs. This is tricky, but look up their canceled plans for "The Outsider" maybe some of that tech gets in.

In the meantime they could give players some (optional) direction right now, as well as some lore and a sense of "life" even without explicit stories;

1. In game encyclopaedia that expands as you explore and scan stuff. Gives us background lore, extra information. Context to where we are and its history. There is a little bit of this on the galaxy map. But it would be nice to slowly have more and more for planets, ships, stations etc.
The encyclopaedia would be via your ships computer, and something to read while traveling far in SC

2. To give some direction to players a little lost about what to do, I honestly think an achievement system will help. Sure, achievements can be mind-blowingly sucky ("Well done! You watched the title sequence"). Not talking about them.
But a in-ship logbook of things to check off.
These things could either provide genuine challenges, pointing out pretty sites, or drawing attention to things the developers think is nifty.
Dont call them achievements either - certificates? medals? - something more in-universe. Again, another menu in your ship for you to look at occasionally when your wondering what to do.

These are not long term fixes, but I do think both would be relatively little development effort and add a fair bit.

Sallen · Dec 20, 2014

I would like to have short story arcs, like becoming part of the military, exploration missions with more than 1 step, passenger missions with branching mini-plot...

In any case I'd settle for lots of text (encyclopedia) for stuff that you have to unlock by exploring, for example. And put in extra backstory and lore please.

terminatahx · Dec 20, 2014

BigPickle said:
Hi all,

Not sure how the rest of you feel but if I'm honest, I'm struggling to want to fire up ED. I have a hefty rig, DK2 and a butt kicker which makes gaming a great exprience, yet I'm really feeling like ED just isnt what I thought it was going to be. One of things I was so excited about upon release was having a campaign/story of sorts to play through.

Having traded, done a little mining, explored and fought for a bit what exactly is left to do without a story play? Emptiness, 400 billion star systems of emptiness to warp and supercruise through.

Dont think this is a whining dev bashing thread because its not, but being a backer and watching the pace grow as release nears, its been quite an anti-climax if I'm truely honest.

Is story/campaign due to kick in later on? if we dont get anything of that nature, essentially what we have is a space travel simulator with side activities such a dogfighting, trading and mining. What kind of a life span could that have. For me its already run its course because over time its not very envolving.

Hope some of you can suggest some things to help put the fire back into ED.

Regards
Cmdr Bigpickle

I've been very disappointed with the released version and have expressed it vehemently on this forum. Anger and disappointments aside, I still try to get some fun out of the game as I do like the fact that it's a space sim, and it's open. There is no linear story, because WE are the story. You make the ED story by your actions, alliances, victories, defeats, etc...

I guess what I'm trying to say is, give it some more effort and time, perhaps a fuill month. There are some major flaws in the game that will dampen your enjoyability (trade is the biggest), so hopefully these issues will get resolved within the next month. Not confident, but hopeful. If after a month, you still feel the same..............

obliterator · Dec 20, 2014

BigPickle said:
This is part of what I'm talking about. I do not wish to role play and make believe my own story, that is why I paid for and supported this game, to be led through a story as well as open world play.
The reason why your having to do this is because their is no story other than on news bulletins, which is all very well but when the bulletins dont match the empty space it just makes this game feel souless.

Even if I take on the player based objective, nothing will happen apart from less minerals, change of economy etc Its just fantasy, I paid my money for a game onscreen not in my head game. I just dont understand what is happening here.

You know that storymodes in videogames are also just make believe in your head, right?

It was made pretty clear right from the beginning that this was a sandbox game. That means no storymode, no campaign, nothing to tell you what to do or where to go. That's kind of the main point of the game.

I would like to have short story arcs, like becoming part of the military, exploration missions with more than 1 step, passenger missions with branching mini-plot...

That would be a great compromise, as it would not really break the "self-made story" of the player.

Jack Reaver · Dec 20, 2014

As much as I've tried to get into this game since early Beta I just can't bring myself to play for more than 30 mins or so. Just too repetitive, one system and starship basically looks and feels the same as the last. Shelved it for now waiting for more content.

JR.

withnail · Dec 20, 2014

It's early days for the simulation. The stuff that happened at Lugh was probably really useful for them, hopefully they will tweak it so that it is possible to overthrow governments.

They seem to be slow on developing the Empire story, I thought they would be doing that with both barrels on launch day.