The core gameplay is boring

[rootsrat]

Aaaaah...

Sorry to point out but, you are quite bad at writing capt.'s logs apparently. A captain writes logs including his motivation, plans and purpose. Then lists the outcomes and gives a review. Also can talk about hopes from the future.

If you give a literal report of the most basic movements without assigning any purpose to them, of course you are left with a pretty boring list of same stuff. When someone asks you what you did with your day, do you answer in the most literal form possible?

Wednesday. I went to work. Meh.
Thursday. I went to work. Meh.
Friday. I went to work then watched a movie. Meh.

......

Wednesday. I woke up in the morning and the sun was already up. What a beautiful day! - was my first thought. I had toast with a strawberry marmelade my other half made the other day. The sweetness was pouring out of my mind, as I was making my way to the bus stop. The bus was late, as usual, but I managed to make it to the office on time. I logged in to Frontier forums and started reading my subscribed threads. I then followed up on a project that kept me busy for the last 4 months and managed to close it down. FINALLY! What a relief. I left for home with a feeling of personal accomplishment. What a day!



Excuse my poor attempt, I'm not a native speaker.

 

[mistohise]

I'm not sure what the "more" is that people are looking for when they play Elite.

For me, this game is great. I can try to shoot things and get blown up, I can try to trade and get blown up, I can try missions and get blown up. I get blown up a lot, lately, but that's part of the experience.

I have logged literally hundreds of play hours in this game. To me, that's not a game that has nothing in it. The fact that the game is still evolving and has a long development path ahead of it frankly amazes me, because it's great right now.

Sure, it's not perfect, there's areas to improve on, but firstly I have every expectation that they will be improved on, and secondly, whilst that happens, there's an entire galaxy to fly around in.

I think that frontier have done a great job in re-modeling elite for the current generation of PC capabilities. Around the time that Elite appeared on kickstarter, there were a few other campaigns that I also signed up to. *none* has gotten anywhere near the level that Elite has made it to. If people remember how fantastic Populous was, just look at Godus now. You want an example of how badly things can go, there's one right there. I've probably played that for about a half an hour.

 

[Abomination]

I disagree. Have a look at these Commander Logs: http://www.eliteandreal.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=24&sid=cac62f4128079a980c31611a257b331d

I see a lot of make-belief in these logs.
When players write about doing something, they do it mostly for make-belief reasons, not for some reason the game throws at us.
Pretending to have a reason to do something isn't a reason to do something.
I've docked/landed at so many places right now.
The only time I had ANY feeling of attachment to one of the minor factions was when it was 'needed' to get a permit or for a CG.
So what if there are two factions fighting each other in a CZ?
You go in, select one faction and kill them all. Next minute, you go in, select the other faction and kill them all. Go back to station, collect credits and it's done.
Does anybody cares what ships you killed? no.
Hop to a system. Any info about the minor factions? no.
So why 'work' for any of them?
Sure, there is a reason. One to be exactly: to get your status up to friendly or allied so you get better missions.
So now you're allied with some minor faction. Do any of the other factions in that system care one single bit? no.
Now go exploring.
Why do it? Answer: because it gives nice screenshots and it increases your exploration rank. That's it.
So you sell exploration data to a specific system. Does it change anything? no.
Hope you see my point.
Hope even more the devs will see it...
(eagerly awaiting the 'faces'/missions update, this might improve things a lot.. still.. they seem to have a lot of problems getting missions to work correctly!)

 

[rootsrat]

I see a lot of make-belief in these logs.
When players write about doing something, they do it mostly for make-belief reasons, not for some reason the game throws at us.
Pretending to have a reason to do something isn't a reason to do something.
I've docked/landed at so many places right now.
The only time I had ANY feeling of attachment to one of the minor factions was when it was 'needed' to get a permit or for a CG.
So what if there are two factions fighting each other in a CZ?
You go in, select one faction and kill them all. Next minute, you go in, select the other faction and kill them all. Go back to station, collect credits and it's done.
Does anybody cares what ships you killed? no.
Hop to a system. Any info about the minor factions? no.
So why 'work' for any of them?
Sure, there is a reason. One to be exactly: to get your status up to friendly or allied so you get better missions.
So now you're allied with some minor faction. Do any of the other factions in that system care one single bit? no.
Now go exploring.
Why do it? Answer: because it gives nice screenshots and it increases your exploration rank. That's it.
So you sell exploration data to a specific system. Does it change anything? no.
Hope you see my point.
Hope even more the devs will see it...
(eagerly awaiting the 'faces'/missions update, this might improve things a lot.. still.. they seem to have a lot of problems getting missions to work correctly!)

Now you are entirely incorrect. Doing all these things changes the galaxy. Factions expand, states change, lockdowns are issued, economic booms occur, wars happen... Like I said before - making your own story was always the ESSENCE of Elite, as a series. If you don't understand that, maybe it really <drumroll> isn't the game for you? I'm sorry it's not what you want, but that's the way it is. I am not going to convince you, it seems, so I'll stop trying now. I expressed my opinion and tried my best to explain what Elite is all about FOR ME. It's obviously something entirely different for you and personally, I don't really care that much. Just tried to show you my point of view.

 

[CTCParadox]

Aaaaah...

Sorry to point out but, you are quite bad at writing capt.'s logs apparently. A captain writes logs including his motivation, plans and purpose. Then lists the outcomes and gives a review. Also can talk about hopes from the future.

If you give a literal report of the most basic movements without assigning any purpose to them, of course you are left with a pretty boring list of same stuff. When someone asks you what you did with your day, do you answer in the most literal form possible?

I mean I tried, you can have a look on Inara if you like.
I kept it up for a couple of days with motivation and whatnot but the background information is so lacking it just felt like fan-fiction.

CMDR CTCParadox

 

[mistohise]

I see a lot of make-belief in these logs.
When players write about doing something, they do it mostly for make-belief reasons, not for some reason the game throws at us.

Yes. It does tend to help when playing games to have an imagination.

 

[CTCParadox]

Yes. It does tend to help when playing games to have an imagination.

If I wanted to make things up I'd go dungeon master for my mates.

CMDR CTCParadox

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

I see a lot of make-belief in these logs.
When players write about doing something, they do it mostly for make-belief reasons, not for some reason the game throws at us.

Yeah I know. It's the best thing about Distant Worlds. There's not a mission that says: go forth and visit that system and gain rep or credits or stuff.

Pretending to have a reason to do something isn't a reason to do something.

My word. So if the game doesn't dictate a reason, there's no reason?

 

[ErikMaintainer]

The opportunity of finding a system that nobody else has ever visited is enough of a challenge for me. I love it, and I do not need FD to add any Eve-esque mechanics to the game in order to make it 'more enjoyable'.

 

[Abomination]

Now you are entirely incorrect. Doing all these things changes the galaxy. Factions expand, states change, lockdowns are issued, economic booms occur, wars happen... Like I said before - making your own story was always the ESSENCE of Elite, as a series. If you don't understand that, maybe it really <drumroll> isn't the game for you? I'm sorry it's not what you want, but that's the way it is. I am not going to convince you, it seems, so I'll stop trying now. I expressed my opinion and tried my best to explain what Elite is all about FOR ME. It's obviously something entirely different for you and personally, I don't really care that much. Just tried to show you my point of view.

You don't have to convince me to keep playing.
I love this game a lot for all the things this game does immensly great, so that's really not the issue.
But I also understand the complaints people are making and wonder when my 'burn out' time comes. I know for certain it will be years before the 'final' season if things don't change.
I also know things CAN change outcome of actions the minor factions make, but the player is hardly aware of these changes unless he/she invests a lot of time in spreadsheets and reading vague clues on these forums that suggest how things work.
If there's anything in the game that can be influenced, it's not showing it to the player.

 

[Jex =TE=]

The funnest time ive had in Elite was learning to fly.

Technically you were learning to float? LOL

 

[rootsrat]

You don't have to convince me to keep playing.
I love this game a lot for all the things this game does immensly great, so that's really not the issue.
But I also understand the complaints people are making and wonder when my 'burn out' time comes. I know for certain it will be years before the 'final' season if things don't change.
I also know things CAN change outcome of actions the minor factions make, but the player is hardly aware of these changes unless he/she invests a lot of time in spreadsheets and reading vague clues on these forums that suggest how things work.
If there's anything in the game that can be influenced, it's not showing it to the player.

With this I agree. The inner workings and rules of background simulation need to be explain in detail. A lot of people say that and it's a shame that Frontier keeps us in the dark in that respect. Luckily I'm a minor faction leader and have a guy that THRIVES on testing BGS. He does a great job of figuring out how things work and it's fun for him. If not for him though, I'd probably gave up trying to expand my faction long time ago...

I can totally see how that can be frustrating.

 

[Abomination]

Yeah I know. It's the best thing about Distant Worlds. There's not a mission that says: go forth and visit that system and gain rep or credits or stuff.

And that's a lot of fun indeed.
Same as working together with the hutton truckers or helping out / chatting with other players during CG's.
Would be great if we actually had exploration missions though.. would help a lot.

My word. So if the game doesn't dictate a reason, there's no reason?

Yep. It just becomes a means to get your credit balance or some rank bar up. Nothing more.

 

[Jex =TE=]

just a little note for the OP, you do understand that ED has a 10 year (with a bit under 9 years left) development plan right??? So the game you are playing now, may well indeed be a far basic version of the game in 9 years time...

Yes it has its repetitive aspects, no doubt about it, yes aspects of the game seem shallow and indeed are at some level... ultimately no less shallow or repetitive than any of the previous releases in the elite franchise...

Will those things improve over time? I guess we will know in 9 years time

A 10 year plan announced WELL after the launch of the game which was never mentioned before during beta afaik. So they basically made that up at some point after launch. Now, I'll leave it up to people to make up their own minds as to why they came out with this plan.

Of course, to think that anyone will be playing this game in 5 years, yet alone 10 is nuts. Other than the addicts who we can't take seriously, nobody is going to be playing 5 years of simplified game play and in that time, other games are going to come out.

So lets assume that 5 years down the road, FD decide they can't continue with their 10 year plan. What happens then? They leave the game in whatever state it is and there's nothing to say they'll make even 5 years.

 

[Boomer Kay]

I also know things CAN change outcome of actions the minor factions make, but the player is hardly aware of these changes unless he/she invests a lot of time in spreadsheets and reading vague clues on these forums that suggest how things work.

Which is actually exactly the game some of us - or at least me - have been waiting for since like forever.
A game where I can involve myself -or not- depending on my mood.
Even better - a game where I can play in Solo Mode, while contributing to a community goal or barnacle (re)search or Powerplay and be part of that playergroup, without having to deal with any of the "open" stuff.

This is in regards to the "Game design philosophy" and has nothing to do with missing features or bugs or anything like that.

 

[Jex =TE=]

I get up, go to work, come back, eat and sleep. Everything in my life revolves around these four things. Is my life boring? No, it most certainly isn't. I might have to try extreme sleeping.....

No it doesn't and you have to do those things to live. What a stupid argument.

 

[Jex =TE=]

All games are repetitive but not all games are boring with bad designed gameplay.

I thik I played 60 hours at most because of the graphics mostly.

Sorry to say something bad about your beloved game.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -



Maybe yes, but as I said in the OP, I don't mind to do repetitive tastsk if the gameplay is fun. The mechanics needs some complexity, the more complex they are then the more repetitive tasks you can do!

A lot of games are repetitive but that does nothing to address how much fun or how boring they are. It's not an argument to say "All games are repetitive" when it's clear that some things repetitive are fun to do whereas others are clearly not.

 

[sirius42]

Oh yay, a quote to add to my signature.

Thx your welcome

 

[SnowyNI]

Lord of the Rings - just a little guy that takes a piece of jewellery to a mountain and a bad guy tries to stop him. No depth.
Space Odyssey - just a bunch of monkeys praying to a stone and a couple of guys going in a space ship to Jupiter.
Ubik - just a story about stuff that falls apart. No depth.
Mass Effect - just a game about a bloke that saves the world. No depth.

Your fault, not Frintier's. There was/is depth to Elite storylines, maybe you just couldn't find it?

See, and here's where your wrong...
1st LOTRO, be it somewhat behind a level wall, you could do and go as you please, and if you had read the book, you knew all about hat was going on, yet we (I) still played it (RPing in it was a blast - EDFBs you have no imagination mode? lol). Guess what, it had a story (That personally I found boring, good for it's time, but boring!). (Yes I still have the lifetime pass, in fact only one I ever bought (and got burnt with)).

Never saw 2 & 3 - don't think I want too.

4th - that game was awful. Scripted junk with from what I hear a very bad ending (never looked near the last one - 2 was boring!).

Hope that helped.

 

[Jex =TE=]

It's only boring if you have no imagination.

Set you're own goals, give your cmdr a backstory and play to that (fed/imp sympathiser,retired pirate, galactic serial killer in hiding etc...). Find some friends and work towards something, anything. Dare I say it, blaze you're own trail

No disrespect intended to the OP, but you get out what you put in.

Nope it's fun if you have no imagination so don't play this used up, tired canard here. Imagination requires an open mind plus the ability to think and dream. This is what makes it impossible to play a game as dull as ED. You have to close off your mind to ingore the repetitive nature of the game and convince yourself it's fun.