Just over a year ago I was excited when Powerplay was announced. I expected it to bring longer running story lines to Elite. Stories that players could connect their commander's story line to. (Missions are the shortest story lines in ED in my view.) When Powerplay arrived it turned out quite different. For me it boils down to endlessly repeating 4 mission types to see a few coloured blobs on the Galaxy map change shape and position once a week. After 4 weeks I decided Powerplay was not for me and I never looked back.
I thought: "well... this can happen not all new content has to be to my liking".
This year I was excited about the announcement of The Engineers. To me it sounded like these mysterious people knew something we don't know yet. And them offering improvements to ships is no coincidence. Something big is coming and we need special ships for it! But it turned out quite different again. The Engineers boil down to repetitive game play to earn the privilege to give a sweep to a wheel of fortune that may (or may not) improve my ship or weapons. But for what? Combined with the big step in NPC combat difficulty it seems the goal is to create a combat mayhem arena with lots of "crazy" special weapon effects. But to me it makes combat look cartoonish with coloured lasers and ships spinning crazy fast after impulse hits etc. Also The Engineers lack commodity and module storage causing lock-in for players just like Powerplay does (paints a big target on your back visible everywhere).
After doing just 2 upgrades I caught myself thinking: "Would it be a problem if I just ignored The Engineers?". The answer is: No. They removed engineer upgrades from NPCs, I play PvE, I can still beat the NPCs, so there would be no problem.
This time I'm not going to explain it away. I think this game is in trouble. After seeing the uproar on the forums about grinding, RNG and average players being destroyed by NPCs until they are bankrupt or too afraid to play anymore. I seriously suspect that the development team's vision for the game is quite far removed from what a large number of players is looking for. Certainly what I am looking for. This thought has been in the back of my mind since release when I noticed that official promotion videos for ED contain mostly combat mayhem footage.
So, this is the question I have right now: Where is this game heading for? Right now I'm afraid this good looking, semi-scientifically accurate Galaxy with its unique, great sounding ships and huge potential for sci-fi adventures is heading to become the backdrop for 24/7 combat mayhem that you have to grind special weapons for to survive. I'd really like an answer to that question soon(tm).
I thought: "well... this can happen not all new content has to be to my liking".
This year I was excited about the announcement of The Engineers. To me it sounded like these mysterious people knew something we don't know yet. And them offering improvements to ships is no coincidence. Something big is coming and we need special ships for it! But it turned out quite different again. The Engineers boil down to repetitive game play to earn the privilege to give a sweep to a wheel of fortune that may (or may not) improve my ship or weapons. But for what? Combined with the big step in NPC combat difficulty it seems the goal is to create a combat mayhem arena with lots of "crazy" special weapon effects. But to me it makes combat look cartoonish with coloured lasers and ships spinning crazy fast after impulse hits etc. Also The Engineers lack commodity and module storage causing lock-in for players just like Powerplay does (paints a big target on your back visible everywhere).
After doing just 2 upgrades I caught myself thinking: "Would it be a problem if I just ignored The Engineers?". The answer is: No. They removed engineer upgrades from NPCs, I play PvE, I can still beat the NPCs, so there would be no problem.
This time I'm not going to explain it away. I think this game is in trouble. After seeing the uproar on the forums about grinding, RNG and average players being destroyed by NPCs until they are bankrupt or too afraid to play anymore. I seriously suspect that the development team's vision for the game is quite far removed from what a large number of players is looking for. Certainly what I am looking for. This thought has been in the back of my mind since release when I noticed that official promotion videos for ED contain mostly combat mayhem footage.
So, this is the question I have right now: Where is this game heading for? Right now I'm afraid this good looking, semi-scientifically accurate Galaxy with its unique, great sounding ships and huge potential for sci-fi adventures is heading to become the backdrop for 24/7 combat mayhem that you have to grind special weapons for to survive. I'd really like an answer to that question soon(tm).