The difficulty level of this game

[Dr Roly]

There are lots of people thinking combat in ED is too easy at the moment (I'm one of them). There are lots of people thinking ED is too difficult to in the early game, which it probably is if you are not used to space games.

Regarding difficulty, there are two things this game needs:
1) It should offer a challenge to more experienced players with more powerfull ships.
2) It should be fun. Players should be able to explore and enjoy the game without getting mercilessly killed, griefed or suiciding every ten minutes.

Surely what we need is for systems to have a range of danger levels? My suggestions are
- Jumping into an Anarchic system should be scary, not a playground for the well-heeled bounty hunter to go through wanted Anacondas and Pythons like a hot knife through butter.
- Well established systems should be kept relatively safe.
- However, some established systems should have conflict zones, militarised areas etc that offer a range of difficulty levels to suit all players.
- Unxeplored systems should be potentially dangerous. You could meet an AI Sidewinder in one encounter and a maybe an Anaconda supported by a wing of Vipers the next. However, a properly equipped exploration ship (even a cheap one) should, WITH SKILL, be able to escape from a tough encounter.
- There are plenty of players now with well equipped top-tier ships. We need to have some AI that offer a challenge. The 150k cr kill missions are no challenge if you have a well equipped Viper. Let's have some 15mil cr kill missions where you go up against a fleet of dropships, or an Anaconda with support craft.

I LOVE this game. FD - what you've achieved is amazing. But, it really needs to offer a challenge to Commanders of all abilities, experience and exuipment levels.

 

[Bangfish]

I still have hope since the design of ED allows for it. Even some basic mechanics that must remain consistent can cater to both care-bears and hardcores alike. Let's take landing as an example. There is an automated landing computer in the game. So people who keep failing at landing just buy the module (and sacrifice a ship slot). Having problems crashing into the walls? Buy <insert care-bear name module here>.

All it takes is to introduce dangerous/safe systems for combat challenge and some care-bear modules for basic mechanics. Then hopefully Frontier can get rid of the current laughably easy difficulty while still keeping the CoD crowd (at least for a few months before they leave to consume yet another easy game).

 

[CMDR Canaris]

Honestly, I feel the game isn't difficult at all if you apply common sense, don't rush into things, and read, re-read, and read again everything available to you.

 

[nexxo]

I think that Frontier should ignore all the "It's too hard" whining and stick to its vision. And it should print a disclaimer on the box:
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"This ride is not for the weak".
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There. Everybody knows where they stand.

 

[Ghostile]

I think that Frontier should ignore all the "It's too hard" whining and stick to its vision. And it should print a disclaimer on the box:
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"This ride is not for the weak".
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There. Everybody knows where they stand.

I think the Frontier should ignore all the whiners who want to return the series back to 30 years ago and plummet Frontiers profit, which could be used to make the game even better and bigger, instead of making it an actually good game by giving content to all players, from good to bad, by making the difficulty of areas notably different.

 

[Dr Roly]

I think that Frontier should ignore all the "It's too hard" whining and stick to its vision. And it should print a disclaimer on the box:
-
"This ride is not for the weak".
-
There. Everybody knows where they stand.

Wow, GREAT idea :/ Let's put new players off the game and thereby cut FDs revenue stream so they have less of a reason to develop and support ED.

What I'm saying is this game can be made more appealing to new, experienced, casual and hardcore gamers alike.

Edit: Ghostile, you got there first!

 

[Dodger Long]

Absolutely.. any one who cant land or enter a space station should not be playing ELITE. period. stop making this Game easy for the Newbies. ITS called ELITE for a reason.
Blade Runner

 

[TheArtist]

There are lots of people thinking combat in ED is too easy at the moment (I'm one of them).

Im convinced that you should make at least 4 more threads with this same topic, because theres clearly not enough of them about this topic and your stance is definatly most important to the developers.... Just saying..

 

[ParaB]

My main problem with ED at the moment is that barely a week after launch the NPCs basically have stopped being a challenge for me. And I consider myself a 'relaxed' player who really hasn't put in gazillion of hours.

Elite: Mostly Harmless.

 

[Antigonos]

2) It should be fun. Players should be able to explore and enjoy the game without getting mercilessly killed, griefed or suiciding every ten minutes.

this is weird, i wasnt any of that the last 12 months. Are you playing a different game than me?

 

[parazaine]

I agree in general....difficulty is not high enough at present and that is most apparent in Anarchies. Interdictions are rare and easy to avoid.....they should scale depending on the system government with anarchies and feudal states being dangerous. Another thing that i have found puzzling is the general lack of 'wanted' commanders in lawless systems, it seems that as nothing is illegal in anarchies, pirates are not gaining 'wanted' status for attacking ships etc.

In the original Elite, where you had no choice (especially early on with a basic ship) but to travel through different groups of hostiles in an Anarchy on the way to the station...you had to be fairly well equipped and combat-savvy to make it there in one piece....so far in this game (as i've seen commented elsewhere), Anarchies are the safest places to be with the added bonus that you can bounty hunt, hunt USS's for 'stolen' cargo and attack innocent traders all with no risk to wanted status.

Veteran players will also remember that in the original game there was 'Wanted' status and there was also 'Fugitive' status....which so far i have not seen. The difference, so far as i remember was that Wanted did not automatically trigger a lethal response whereas Fugitive would.

There still seem to be some bugs relating to wanted status with anomolies such as security vessels becoming wanted to their own faction etc...this is a bug that has been around in one form or another for some time

Back on topic...the learning curve for this type of game has always been steep and lowering the difficulty for new players in, i guess, an attempt to make the game more accessible will lead, in the long-term to the opposite effect as they gain the requisite skills and rapidly approach the 'no-challenge' level

 

[Llewelyn]

I remember back in the original elite, taking that first flight out and having big troubles trying to kill up to 4 pirates with the poxy little pulse laser. After a while saved up for a beam laser, then finally to that military laser. Got all the way to elite, then decided to start over - you know what, that poxy little pulse laser wasn't all bad, I was slicing and dicing those pirates up without any bothers whatsoever.

Yes you start the game out with a pretty crappy spaceship and equipment, but more importantly, you start it out with little to no flying skills whatsoever. And yes it's really tough out there. Those of us who've flown alpha/beta/gamma have many, many months of skill built up, and quite frankly most of us can fly rings around the new player, even when we're both flying stock sidewinders. When the game is made easy for those starting out, it's made less thrilling for those who have been playing for sometime. And when the new guy has a couple million light years of flight time under their belt, they'll also find things less thrilling too.

But FD need a fine balance, it mustn't be too difficult for the new player or the player base will dry up. But also it mustn't be made too easy so that the ace pilots give up from monotony. At any given point in time, there will always be people who think this game is too easy, while others are thinking it's too hard. I have no idea if the balance is right - I used to have trouble staying alive, but 3-4 months in and it's not so difficult any more.

 

[Renegade Roach]

I think the Frontier should ignore all the whiners who want to return the series back to 30 years ago and plummet Frontiers profit, which could be used to make the game even better and bigger, instead of making it an actually good game by giving content to all players, from good to bad, by making the difficulty of areas notably different.

There is plenty of easy content for new players, the start has been made easier than it was in beta and if you pay even the slightest bit of attention to what you are doing the risks for new players are fairly minimal. The issue is that most people have never played a game with a punishing death mechanic and thus rage when they get hit by it, they've been mollycoddled by the vast majority of games they play.

Even then the death penalty is not too harsh as long as you accept that it is what it is and plan accordingly, ie make sure you can cover your insurance. Many of the people complaining have simply been a little lazy or stupid in their approach to the game and waded in without taking the time to think.

Yes the game should cater for all skill levels, but that means not reducing what we have in an attempt to pander to the vocal minority representing the lowest common denominator who come to these forums and kick up a fuss as soon as something is a little challenging.

 

[Llewelyn]

Absolutely.. any one who cant land or enter a space station should not be playing ELITE. period. stop making this Game easy for the Newbies. ITS called ELITE for a reason.
Blade Runner

My flight instructor told me that one time - if you can't land a plane, maybe flying isn't for you. Not that I was the one having landing troubles, his previous student had hours of flying time and still couldn't come to grips with landing.

 

[lakofsth]

Can we make difficulty progressive and adaptive?

There are a few ways:

- adapt to the ship and load-out - better ship, better equipped adversaries.
- adapt to the player's abilities - based on performance in previous encounters, ramp the skill level for next encounter up or down incrementally
...versus a baseline which comes from the environment (rich democracy <----> poor anarchy).

- same goes for other aspects... trading, mining...

This would normalize a lot of gameplay (de-facto nerf, but towards mean instead of biased to one or other end) but may help both ends of the difficulty spectrum to coexist in the game.

 

[TheArtist]

Another thing that i have found puzzling is the general lack of 'wanted' commanders in lawless systems, it seems that as nothing is illegal in anarchies, pirates are not gaining 'wanted' status for attacking ships etc.

You must be a genius! Took you some time to fiddle out that theres no wanted status in Anarchies because theres nothing illegal but hey, there you go, hehe!

 

[cptzipzap]

My flight instructor told me that one time - if you can't land a plane, maybe flying isn't for you. Not that I was the one having landing troubles, his previous student had hours of flying time and still couldn't come to grips with landing.

this statement shows a complete lack of knowledge about how a brain works and learns. being a teacher is interacting with learning brains. the last thing this guy should do is to teach. sadly neurology isnt a must for most todays teachers.

 

[Dr Roly]

this is weird, i wasnt any of that the last 12 months. Are you playing a different game than me?

It may well have been an plain sailing for us. However, I've seen plenty of comments from new players saying it's too hard. I occasionally stop to chat noobs ingame and several have been struggling with the basics.

Im convinced that you should make at least 4 more threads with this same topic, because theres clearly not enough of them about this topic and your stance is definatly most important to the developers.... Just saying..

Weight of numbers. Hopefully more people commenting about the same things, in a reasoned manner, will increase the likelihood of someone noticing. Of course I may be totally wrong.

 

[Ghostile]

Can we make difficulty progressive and adaptive?

There are a few ways:

- adapt to the ship and load-out - better ship, better equipped adversaries.
- adapt to the player's abilities - based on performance in previous encounters, ramp the skill level for next encounter up or down incrementally

1. Would work quite well, but that might bring some uproar when a really good player finds it gets too easy, or when a bad players starts to get kicked in the head, thus forcing both to find that optimal ship and loadout instead of progressing in the ships.
2. Would work only in Solo play. If you could decide the difficulty or the enemies, what prevents you from grefing bad players by leading these extra hard pirates to their mining operation?

 

[nexxo]

I think the Frontier should ignore all the whiners who want to return the series back to 30 years ago and plummet Frontiers profit, which could be used to make the game even better and bigger, instead of making it an actually good game by giving content to all players, from good to bad, by making the difficulty of areas notably different.

Wow, GREAT idea :/ Let's put new players off the game and thereby cut FDs revenue stream so they have less of a reason to develop and support ED.

What I'm saying is this game can be made more appealing to new, experienced, casual and hardcore gamers alike.

Edit: Ghostile, you got there first!

While you have a point, I am reminded of the recent Rocky Balboa-inspired Xbox commercial: "Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. it will beat you to your knees if you let it. Nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!". Obviously games try to appeal by offering a challenge. So why should Elite Dangerous (the clue is in the name) be any different?
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You can't please everybody all of the time. Pick your market, and give them the best product you can. But trying to be all things to everybody is a sure way to mediocrity, failure and bankruptcy.