Hi guys,
Well Elite Dangerous has been released, so they can't claim it's a Alpha, Beta, or Gamma product with "work still left to do". This is effectively what the 1.5 million pounds have bought loyal Elite Dangerous fan, weather you love it, or hate it. It's what we got.
I will be the first to say, there are many fantastic things about the game, the graphics. The sheer vastness of the universe, the detailed ships, and the ability to play with friend and family at will. It is without a doubt one of the best PC Space Sim games released ever.
But.
There's also some very very lazy game mechanics going on as well. So lets discuss these.
1. Fines
Great! You do something wrong, you get a fine. I have no problem with that, it's great. It's realistic. What isn't realistic is how the game deals with repayment of those fines. I left space dock with a 300 credit fine, went exploring, amassed 1.8 million worth of survey data only to be destroyed by a station over a 300 credit fine.
Lets face it, if your loved one was murdered by the police for a 300 credit "speeding ticket" you would be all over that government with lawyers and press. But in the Elite universe, you have a fine? You die. It's that simple.
Class 1 crime: Piracy, murder, shooting at stations
Class 2 crime: Smuggling, trading in stolen goods, hacking cargo bays and stealing cargo.
Class 3 crime: Accidental shield hit while in combat, speeding inside a space station, reckless docking, damage to an unshielded ship while docking.
Players who take bailiff contacts are also authorised to take the value of the fine in cargo in the players hold. Bailiffs make the 25% - 100% extra fee plus a 2000 credit fixed fee.
Bailiff must return to station where contact was issued.
Bailiff are given transponder codes and tracking information for the players ship.
2. Search the random zones
It doesn't matter what job you take, be it, find the black box recorder, or hunt the pirate scum. It all boils down to the same thing. The player must fly around looking for unidentified signal sources. Then hope that the rebel transmissions, black box recorder, or trader with the "system your target is flying around in" turns up.
This has to be the laziest system ever. Worse, it makes game events incredibly predictable, and totally random.
The client should KNOW where the black box or rebel transmissions are, you should be given specific location data for this.
You should also face some kind of challenge. Such as "oh no, the authority ships have just taken the box cause you took too long" or "they are in the process of doing it so you must now kill the authority ship to get it back, or scoop the cargo first while under fire" or "if you are very fast you get away clean".
Rebel transmissions, should follow the same pattern with authority ships.
Military plans should see a great big hulking warship bearing down on you if you are not fast enough.
Contact killings can have ambushes (you thought the boss was there, prepare to die.) followed by "if you spare me, I'll tell you where the boss is."
3. Salvage
If you didn't buy it, everything you scoop is instantly "illegal smuggling"
OMG this is the laziest thing ever. Slap a SALVAGE scanner in the upgrade list, scan the wreck and officially record that you did not destroy that ship, and that you are salvaging the cargo.
Result of action an be.
Sudden communication, OMG you found my Cargo, please return it to THIS station for THIS reward. If you run off with it THEN you are stealing it.
No communication = return cargo to station, if not claimed within 10 minutes of return you get to sell it, if you are contacted you get the value of the original haulage contract.
Discovering prototype technologies, you get contacted by the owners offering the sum of the haulage contract for it's return.
Rival company contacts you, offers you 50% more
You can open it yourself with a random result. It could be "a consumer AI toaster that sings" for example or "a prototype burst laser that delivers 5% more shield damage" or "a shield rating A+ shield generator with a random class".
This is RPG 101, I'm surprised they have not thought of this kind of thing.
How about you guys. What do you thing of Elite Dangerous, what are the three laziest things for you? How would you improve them?
Well Elite Dangerous has been released, so they can't claim it's a Alpha, Beta, or Gamma product with "work still left to do". This is effectively what the 1.5 million pounds have bought loyal Elite Dangerous fan, weather you love it, or hate it. It's what we got.
I will be the first to say, there are many fantastic things about the game, the graphics. The sheer vastness of the universe, the detailed ships, and the ability to play with friend and family at will. It is without a doubt one of the best PC Space Sim games released ever.
But.
There's also some very very lazy game mechanics going on as well. So lets discuss these.
1. Fines
Great! You do something wrong, you get a fine. I have no problem with that, it's great. It's realistic. What isn't realistic is how the game deals with repayment of those fines. I left space dock with a 300 credit fine, went exploring, amassed 1.8 million worth of survey data only to be destroyed by a station over a 300 credit fine.
Lets face it, if your loved one was murdered by the police for a 300 credit "speeding ticket" you would be all over that government with lawyers and press. But in the Elite universe, you have a fine? You die. It's that simple.
Class 1 crime: Piracy, murder, shooting at stations
- Suggested response: Police hail player, player has 3 seconds to retract hard points and cease attack. If player attempts to frameshift, player comes under attack until destroyed. If player escapes then a another 5000 credits are added to his bounty and bounty hunters are authorised to kill on sight.
Class 2 crime: Smuggling, trading in stolen goods, hacking cargo bays and stealing cargo.
- Fine must be paid within 1 hour of crime.
- If fine is not paid within 1 hour, then fine is doubled (due to player not showing up in court)
- If fine is not paid within 3 hours fine is trippled, and the bailiffs come for you.
- Bailifs can be local system authority ships or players, when contacted by either you have 15 seconds to pay them, plus 25% interest or you come under attack.
- While under attack you can pay, but there's not 50% interest in top of original fine, if you pay attack must cease.
- If you fire back 100% interest is added, and if you don't pay you die.
Class 3 crime: Accidental shield hit while in combat, speeding inside a space station, reckless docking, damage to an unshielded ship while docking.
- Fine's of around 300 credit don't deserve lethal responses what they do deserve is an interest rate per hour.
- If the player doesn't pay within 1 hour of fine, then 10% is added up to a maximum fine of 30,000 credits.
- If the 30,000 credits isn't paid within 3 days then bailiff contacts are issued to players.
- After that same rules, if you are interdicted in space then you must pay 25% over the odds once a bailiff contacts you.
- If you attack a bailiff lethal action is authorised.
Players who take bailiff contacts are also authorised to take the value of the fine in cargo in the players hold. Bailiffs make the 25% - 100% extra fee plus a 2000 credit fixed fee.
Bailiff must return to station where contact was issued.
Bailiff are given transponder codes and tracking information for the players ship.
2. Search the random zones
It doesn't matter what job you take, be it, find the black box recorder, or hunt the pirate scum. It all boils down to the same thing. The player must fly around looking for unidentified signal sources. Then hope that the rebel transmissions, black box recorder, or trader with the "system your target is flying around in" turns up.
This has to be the laziest system ever. Worse, it makes game events incredibly predictable, and totally random.
The client should KNOW where the black box or rebel transmissions are, you should be given specific location data for this.
You should also face some kind of challenge. Such as "oh no, the authority ships have just taken the box cause you took too long" or "they are in the process of doing it so you must now kill the authority ship to get it back, or scoop the cargo first while under fire" or "if you are very fast you get away clean".
Rebel transmissions, should follow the same pattern with authority ships.
Military plans should see a great big hulking warship bearing down on you if you are not fast enough.
Contact killings can have ambushes (you thought the boss was there, prepare to die.) followed by "if you spare me, I'll tell you where the boss is."
3. Salvage
If you didn't buy it, everything you scoop is instantly "illegal smuggling"
OMG this is the laziest thing ever. Slap a SALVAGE scanner in the upgrade list, scan the wreck and officially record that you did not destroy that ship, and that you are salvaging the cargo.
Result of action an be.
Sudden communication, OMG you found my Cargo, please return it to THIS station for THIS reward. If you run off with it THEN you are stealing it.
No communication = return cargo to station, if not claimed within 10 minutes of return you get to sell it, if you are contacted you get the value of the original haulage contract.
Discovering prototype technologies, you get contacted by the owners offering the sum of the haulage contract for it's return.
Rival company contacts you, offers you 50% more
You can open it yourself with a random result. It could be "a consumer AI toaster that sings" for example or "a prototype burst laser that delivers 5% more shield damage" or "a shield rating A+ shield generator with a random class".
This is RPG 101, I'm surprised they have not thought of this kind of thing.
How about you guys. What do you thing of Elite Dangerous, what are the three laziest things for you? How would you improve them?
