The End?

[IamMe]

My affinity towards gaming is like the tide, it comes in during winter (which are long and harsh where I live) and goes out in the summer. Giving it some reflection, I'm sure this at least partially influences my sentiments in the OP. For example, Subnautica is my "ED replacement" right now, but am I playing Subnautica at the moment? Nope. My summer games of choice tend to be the short, fast, and hectic PvP games like Overwatch. When I want to relax in the summer, I'd rather sit outside or take a stroll in the woods, not sit in supercruise for minutes at a time or wait for geological POIs to take forever to resolve in the FSS...

So yeah, seasons and weather may have something to do with it. If I lived in a place like Greece along the sea, I might not even be a gamer! If I was, I would probably be using the Nintento Switch while looking out over the Med, LOL.

Three options;
-buy good gaming PC and VR
-move to Greece
- or both

I live 200m from the sea(Adriatic sea) and on the other side aprox 2km away is the huge lake....pretty unique and beautiful place to live.
Yet i play games instead watching tv at night and winters are cold (no snow, cold northern wind from the mountains only...worse than snow) so gaming is always an option.
Yes there is a lot to do outside during spring and summer but autumn and winter is "gaming summer", Greece i

You never know if 2020 update will be basic atmos and legs (perfect combo), i would make sure to experince that on best possible way.
So give yourself a rest from ED, buy good gaming VR capable pc and VR headset, try some flight sims like DCS and IL2-GB or something else till 2020 update is here.

 

[CMDR Pugwash]

I'm still waiting for the game to start.

 

[Tikanderoga]

I'm seeing similar path with ED. The entire appeal of space games for me is DISCOVERY and ADVENTURE. To find something NEVER SEEN BEFORE. After 2 years, ED has very little "new" to see. The wow factor is fading. I just hope Fleet Carriers aren't just limited use bigger ships to engineer. It's sad that the old Freespace 2 with mods are more fun at the moment for me. I even started playing IL-2 1946 as a change of pace. Fly Safe Commander o7.

I'm back to playing Privateer...

 

[Ziljan]

Im finding Kerbal most amusing atm. But my gaming days are nearing an end. I just dont find the time nor the inclination thesedays. I prefer to read a book or listen to music. This is not ED's fault, its just gaming in general and computers. I'm feeling analogue more and more. The digital world is not fullfilling.

Your post got me thinking that the Digital Age is sort of like Plato's Allegory of the Cave, but for the modern age. The people in chains staring at the shadows on the wall could very well be us staring at our smart phones, computers and TV's.

I had this same draw away from digital and towards analog a few years back. I think the reason that digital is so often unsatisfying is because the scope of the reality it offers is so limited compared with real life. This is why I no longer waste my time with arcade-like games and focus more on games that are complex enough to either mimic real life (in the scope of the game) like a real sim (DCS etc) or have intricate (fantasy) mechanics (Divinity 2 etc).

Elite is kind of on that border line where it's just complex enough to be compelling for a few years. The BGS is fairly intricate (though it's been heavily simplified recently), and the combat mechanics have a lot going on under the hood. However, the game has just enough arcade-like elements that the potential for growth is ultimately hindered. For example: If you compare the interactivity of the cockpit to something like even a basic clickable DCS cockpit, then ED seems more like a child's toy. Hence its potential for interesting mechanics is limited and doesn't provide for a "lifetime" of growth like other simulation games do.

You could say that games like DCS require the level of development of an entire AAA title just for each plane/chopper module/DLC and hence each plane costs as much as a game, who would pay that for a space sim? Then you look at how much people are paying per ship on SC... yeah.

I can see why Braben seems to be bored with and ignoring Elite lately. It's just too easy to hit the saturation cap, knowledge wise. Too basic to be compelling for more than a couple years. And it lacks the addictive quality that some gameplay-focused arcade/fantasy MMO games have. So in the end, all it has left is the gear grind & Aliens for PVErs, and the depth of combat mechanics for PVPers.

Sorry for the long winded post! Just breaking down why any game that wants longevity needs to be sufficiently complex like Kerbal or DCS or even Divinity.

 

[RooksBailey]

So long story short, bugs did indeed cause me to hit "The End" quicker than I otherwise would have, and if Frontier ever gets of their Remlock suited butts and fix these bugs, I'll be back for awhile longer, but all it really would do is add one more chapter (perhaps the epilogue) to a book that I feel I've mostly finished. That's why I decided not to make the OP about the bugs but the "book".

I understand completely. For the casual gamer I am, I find ongoing pleasure in even doing repetitive missions like cargo runs, etc. Simple minds, simple pleasures, I guess. That is why there always seems to be another chapter for me to explore in ED. As long as those missions are there for me, missions that give me an excuse to explore new systems and try different activities in those systems, I will always have a good time (I like to RP, so the repetitive content helps frame a story in my head that is unique to me, as opposed to some scripted narrative I am forced into, but that is another story). But this is also why the bugs drive me nuts because I am not asking for a lot from Frontier, just simple, repetitive missions that work the way they are supposed too! It never fails to amuse me how after spending a bunch of hours with Elite I usually find myself wandering over to Eve Online for a few hours because of how polished it is. I never had one game that I really, really like drive me to another that I don't like as much because of frustration before. It is quite the achievement on the part of Frontier.

BTW: I am in complete agreement with your remarks concerning gaming and the seasons. I guess we are both gamers of "feasts and seasons." o7

 

[CHristina]

Yepp the same for all above... as a Prem Beta player and played my dads frontier2 on his old Amiga.. I have the greatest memories of playing Elite 2 with my dad.. with me writing in the 'tables' for the markets.. dad doing the docking... I had high hopes on ED..but after all this time now.. now lost the "bite"...to play...
I loved the game when it started .. it was close combat- like ww2 fighters.. and when a new ship was available .. you could stop a pilot and 'they' would let you fly around them ,so you could have a look.. people would stop and chat about new trade routes...
.. but Now I log in rarely … everyone runs away.. NO one wants to chat 'nice'.. the combat is now like "over the horizons" battle ships.. ( the bigger the guns the better...no skill in the pilots flying?... and there is no limit on the range of 'these' big powered weapons?.. ). and remote cameras for gunners makes it impossible to take on a larger ship by 'hiding in 'their' baffles.(rear.)…….. And now I discover something called a repair laser..W T F is this about???? ...
Well I'm now , looking forward to rebelgalaxy 2... and playing the new releases of Pioneer and OOlite… they are free TOO.. and so like the elite / elite 2 I remember playing..

 

[cheesenbiscuits]

I think the PS4 is running out of grunt as the updates keep coming,it wasn’t always like this it’s just a byproduct of playing an ever evolving game on a system that can’t evolve with it.
I’ve had my pro set to performance mode because i’ve concentrated on combat for a while,last night I approached a planet in the camera suite and was shocked how bad the textures were. Put it into quality mode and it looked great.
I’m assuming the last update pushed the platform a little far,but maybe with some optimisation it will improve.

 

[Old Duck]

I think the PS4 is running out of grunt as the updates keep coming,it wasn’t always like this it’s just a byproduct of playing an ever evolving game on a system that can’t evolve with it.
I’ve had my pro set to performance mode because i’ve concentrated on combat for a while,last night I approached a planet in the camera suite and was shocked how bad the textures were. Put it into quality mode and it looked great.
I’m assuming the last update pushed the platform a little far,but maybe with some optimisation it will improve.

If by system you mean the Cobra engine, then yes I agree. If by system you mean PS4, then I've got dozens of other games that scream, "My PS4 is way more capable than what I'm seeing in ED." In fact, Elite Dangerous is one of the least hardware-utilizing games I own, based on power consumption measurements, showing that it's the engine, not the hardware, that is falling behind.

But FWIW, I never expect ED to look as good on a PS4 Slim as it does a high end gaming PC. I just want it to look as good as my other games when it comes to things like shadows, lighting, textures, and LOD. Heck, I'd be happy if it looked as good now as it did when 2.3 first released on PS4. Updates should never make a game look worse over time, regardless of hardware limitations.

 

[cheesenbiscuits]

The game is designed to run on pc and is adapted to work on the consoles.
FD are the kings of optimisation,I ran ED on a very underwhelming laptop for a few years and was amazed at how well it ran,all be it with a dip in performance immediately after an update,until eventually it couldn’t quite keep up.
That’s when I moved over to the PS4,now we’re possibly experiencing that same power creep(unless some optimisation can fix the issue)and the also the PS4 is on the verge of being superseded by the PS5.
It’s the natural order of things,the PS4 is turning into an old hector and FD are doing what they can.

 

[The Nephilim]

I haven't played it (as I only really play E anyway) but apparently, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Metro Exodus look tremendous on the PS4. If that's the case then the problem is with the optimisation on the PS4.

 

[Old Duck]

I haven't played it (as I only really play E anyway) but apparently, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Metro Exodus look tremendous on the PS4. If that's the case then the problem is with the optimisation on the PS4.

As does Spider-Man, Horizon Zero Dawn, and many other titles. Heck, even the old Skyrim Remastered looks amazing on PS4 (though the character models are obviously dated). I have no doubt that Frontier has been lazy in optimizing updates for PS4 after the initial release. Shame that, because I felt they did a stellar job when they originally brought ED to PS4 back with version 2.3.

Now if only we had more space-based games on PS4! And no, I'm not talking NMS - that's "fake space" (don't tell Trump).

 

[Hanerib]

ED Classic anyone? Actually I would prefer a pixel graphics game with more indepth gameplay and all that cool stuff they thought about doing at some point. (Early game designs 2014 document again). So strange to see games doing the same thing one after another, small indie games often are better at preserving that original vision and concept. Maybe FDev has too many meetings and those became the main point in development. A famous ganker once said FDev should never have listened to the players.

 

[Bob McBobblehead]

The end is only the beginning!

 

[Old Duck]

The end is only the beginning!

Yep, I went to sleep in my spaceship and woke up on a horse in a winter storm fleeing the law with Dutch and the gang. Or did I wake up in an escape pod floating on a water world after aliens shot down my lovely mothership? Too many new beginnings to keep track of!

 

[Old Duck]

Well, I had a good chunk of time off today, and it's a bit of a lazy day, and there was an interesting show on talk radio, so I logged into my alt (who's out exploring) to do a little 'ol fashion honk-n-scan. Sadly it was all the bugs that caused me to log out and say, "Yep. It's over." this time around.

So back to the external drive goes ED. I couldn't play the game if I wanted to in this state, so now I'm starting to wonder if there is any point sticking around the forums, except perhaps for the off-topic and general gaming sections.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

Well, I had a good chunk of time off today, and it's a bit of a lazy day, and there was an interesting show on talk radio, so I logged into my alt (who's out exploring) to do a little 'ol fashion honk-n-scan. Sadly it was all the bugs that caused me to log out and say, "Yep. It's over." this time around.

So back to the external drive goes ED. I couldn't play the game if I wanted to in this state, so now I'm starting to wonder if there is any point sticking around the forums, except perhaps for the off-topic and general gaming sections.

Off Topic is the place to be.

 

[Gully Foyle]

Well, I had a good chunk of time off today, and it's a bit of a lazy day, and there was an interesting show on talk radio, so I logged into my alt (who's out exploring) to do a little 'ol fashion honk-n-scan. Sadly it was all the bugs that caused me to log out and say, "Yep. It's over." this time around.

So back to the external drive goes ED. I couldn't play the game if I wanted to in this state, so now I'm starting to wonder if there is any point sticking around the forums, except perhaps for the off-topic and general gaming sections.

I thought you said you were getting a PC?
I don't know what bugs you're talkin about, must be ps4 ones.

 

[WR3ND]

I took like a month and a half break a little while back, disappointed with the exploration game-play after the Exploration update, of all things. Thought that aspect of how I cared for playing the game would remain viable enough through updates, but as it turned out to be, not quite so much.

Still made it to BP in time for DW2, but just.

Recently I've been contemplating delving into the Engineers meta progression grind more, as it turns out I've mostly been playing the game wrongly these past few years, being more of an arcade shooter than the sci-fi galactic survival sim game I've been playing it as.

People have talked up the learning curve of this game and such, though I've always found it to be fairly easy in terms of survival. I guess the learning curve for the meta is what they meant maybe.

We'll see how it goes.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

I too have taken multiple breaks. The changes in exploration rendered my alt account all but useless. A move to Colonia was refreshing. My main account spends most of it's time trading and mining around Colonia. I generally play only a couple of days a week, now.

I suspect that I am not alone in this pattern. I expect little change until late 2020.

 

[WR3ND]

I too have taken multiple breaks. The changes in exploration rendered my alt account all but useless. A move to Colonia was refreshing. My main account spends most of it's time trading and mining around Colonia. I generally play only a couple of days a week, now.

I suspect that I am not alone in this pattern. I expect little change until late 2020.

Hoping for more survival/sim elements and less arcade shooter ones be implemented myself, but I might well be out of luck in that regard. Frontier seem intent on changing the trajectory for the type of game development they seem to have had in the past. At least that's the way it comes across to me.