I backed this game in beta or even before beta i cant remember. I played the beta for a month and lost my motivation then, but can not remember why.
So last week I wanted to give the game another try. ( didnt buyed horizons )
I selled the free Eagle and Viper, buyed a Cobra for Rare Goods Trading at Lave ( which i replaced for an Adder later, more LY jump and rare trading doesnt need much cargo space ), after a few rounds i buyed the ASP Discoverer, read the forum for Robigo, tried it once, could buy instantly after 1 Robigo run the ASP Explorer, made 5 more runs and could buy a python with enough spare money.
So now I have the Gear and a Ship to destroy any AI Vessel without a problem. What to do now ? There is just no goal in this game. I could make more Robigo rounds for a Anaconda but for what ? what should I do then with the Conda besides grinding for the next more expensive Ship.
PowerPlay doesnt give me anything usefull, i would like to do something in direction of PowerPlay that means, working for a party or Faction like Empire, to fight vs other factions for systems but the PP system we have is incredible complicated, it does not give you any direct influence and the waiting time for the next pp-mission is like from a browser game. There is no feeling that a Power or faction really needs me and the whole idea that we have Empire and Fed Power which are fighting each other sounds really unrealistic, maybe a Anarchy Power could do that, but a Military Power like the Empire shouldnt allow something like that.
So besides of that, this game gives me something, I waited since Freelance ( from 2002 ?! ) for a good space game like that, so I would like to share some Ideas that i have with you.
Hyperjumping:
-We should have the ability to decide how many LS we want to drop out before the targeting star with an maximum for sure. I would say 1000LS should be the maximum. So we can decide to target Eranin, set up 500 LS before the star and the we should drop out in the direction where the most gravity-influence is ( this way in most systems it shouldnt be too much away from most stations/planets )
- If a second Star in the same System is away more than 5000LS we should have the ability to jump directly to that Star.
Supercruise:
-We need an Autopilot for SC, i may even be slower than manual flying. But come on, after 80 Hours ingame, SC is just so incredible boring. I tend to read something in the internet or messages on my smartfone while in SC end are often overshooting the target because of that.
-Better speed influence. It is just stupid, like it is now. If you are at 75% Speed and have 5 Seconds until arriving at the Target, it will be enough to go only for a half of a second over 75% and you cant brake anymore enough, to go to the target. All in all i have to say that Supercruise after the first 10 Hours is the most boring feature i ever saw in a Videogame and I am playing since 1995 or something
Alternative Idea for Supercruise/HyperJump:
- If we are in an system, we should hyperjump to Targets which are more than 1000LS away, BUT because there is much gravity around us, the HyperJump Drive will need much more fuel so f.e. jumping to a station 15.000 LS away should take something like 50% of fuel and in general there the fuel price should be much much higher. So that Hyper Jumping to a distant target in the same system will cost very much and you should think about it, if you will get you cash back through trading or something like that.
The sens of a Station/System:
-If a Station is very distant from a Star it should be a special Station. No one would build a Station so much away with high costs, if there isnts something which gives you profit. These Stations should give us special missions or be the target of special missions and/or sell ressources which are really rare.
-Absolutely the same for systems. There is no sens at the moment to go to systems which are at the end of the civilized bubble ( besides Robigo )
Give that systems some love, special missions, commoditys. The need of food or something. Something just give that Systems something ! In the moment they are same as a System in middle like Eranin.
Missions:
-The Missions at the moment are absolutely senseless after you have a few millions like everone has after Rare Goods trading or Robigo Runs. At the moment i have Python and about 15 Million Credits. I will get missions for 10k Credits to max 500k Credits ( very rare ) this is stupid a.f. because missions could some real fun, if we could get something valuable.
-Make some missions which are like Quests-Series. I give an stupid 0815 example.
Imperium/Cubeo
Quest-1
Hello Stranger, we are in need of pilots for our war vs the Federation. But before we can trust we have to see if you will be loyal to us. In the neighbour system we have problems with some bandits in an lowRES zone.
Go and kill 25 Bandits there. Rewards: 50k Credits and some Reputation
Quest-2
Blablabla we trust you now a little bit, we have a secret crate. You have to delivere it to a Warzone, where a Imperial Starship will be wating for you. It might be that the Feds will try to kill you on your way.
Quest-3
Trusting you more and more, you will get a license to to fight for the imperium, go to the warzone abc and kill some feds to help us in our war
Kill 45 Feds in Warzone abc, rewards 250k Credits and after finishing quest permanent license to fight in warzones for the Imperium.
Just something like that would be cool.
Mining:
-Mining should give us more money, so its more valuable like trading and missions/bounty hunting.
-Maybe we could buy drones which will be searching for High quality metals and inform us where they are, so we dont have to gather useless copper. ( so they show us on the radar where are HQ metals )
-Not everyone can mine in every system. You have to buy a mining license. Some factions wont sell it to you without a good reputation.
-Maybe even Mining quests, so some factions love mining, but they have high security rules, so you have to make quests for them to show them that you can mine safely ( and with environmental protection ) than you will get the license.
Building:
-There should really be option to build your own stations in systems which arent belong to no one. We have so many systems and every system would have so much space for like 1000 player based stations ( i think even much much more ) Ok it doenst have to be station which is selling goods. But maybe you could build yourselfe a Home-Station with a Garage for your ships, some cool living room, different things you can buy for your home at AI Stations. Getting Skins from factions and so on. I cant believe that there is no such a feature in a big universe Elite Dangerous have and all the systems beyond the bubble are just senseless at the moment.
PowerPlay
-Total rebuilding PP. There will be only attacking and defending a system. No expansion ect. The Devs or the Server will decide which systems will get attacked from a faction, but after an easy to understand formula. Like Empire wants Eranin, so every system on the way to Eranin is a goal for the Empire.
-When a Systems is attacked, every station will be a maingoal to attack and defend. The Station has module which can be destroyed by a attacking Faction after that the warzone is over and the systems belongs to the new faction. Before a faction can attack the Station there will be a big fight before the Station with very Big Ai-Ships defending. Without Player involvement these fights should take very much time until they ends. But with player involvement they could end much faster.
-PowerPlay only for Multiplayer
-Attacking Systems costs ressources, here comes the sens for traders and miners, they will get equally refunded if they get the goods to the warzones
-Rewards from the factions can be
-- Special licenses for HQ mining belts
-- Skins for Ships and Home-Stations so as special Room-Environments.
-- More Faction based Weapons
-- Trading Discounts
-- Maybe a license to build a Homestation in the system after Win, but with the risk that if the enemy retakes, you could loose the base.
-- Little toys for your ships cockpit, teddybears, wackeldackels, pictures, costumized huds, cooler radars, trading computers and so on.....
- We need Chat-Channels for the Factions for better communication.
-Maybe Peace Treatys, like the feds got overrunned 5 systems from the empire in short time, now the AI will make a peace treaty and short afterwards the Feds will attack the Alliance to get some more systems.
Okay these are only some general ideas.
But I have to say that sometimes I think Frontier does not have a clue how to make a computer game which has motivation for the players. At moment its only a grind and watch simulator, though the universum i fantastic done, but its empty without things to do.
No i didnt played the classic Elite games. But we have a good proverb in german language " Wer nicht mit der Zeit geht, geht mit der Zeit " = who does not move with the times, will be removed over time.
You sold 1.4 Million copys, but that isnt so much and it dont mean that all this guys and girls are playing. If only 50% from my ideas would be implented I even would give you some money every month to play this game as an MMORPG. ( But thats only my opinion )
If you dont give your players some motivation, after Star Citizen is out, no one one who loves Space Games will be playing ED anymore besides the Hardcore fans who love game only for that, that it is exactly like the old elite games but with modern graphics and I doubt that you can make much profit out of lets say 10.000 players world wide. You will want to sell some add ons in the future or wouldnt you ?
For Example i didnt buyed horizons, because there is absolutes no need, no motivations for me to do the same stupid repetetive missions we have on space stations, but do it on planets.
Okay lasts words, its not my intention to insult anyone, not the devs and not the hardcore elite players who loves the game like it is. Just some ideas how Frontier can make more profit through more players who would regularly buy something from frontier ( add ons ect. ) because the players would have some more motivation.
Maybe you could leave the game like it is now, for the HC Elite fans and give out a new reworked version with monthly costs, the same way Rust did it. ( okay, rust dont have monthly costs )
So last week I wanted to give the game another try. ( didnt buyed horizons )
I selled the free Eagle and Viper, buyed a Cobra for Rare Goods Trading at Lave ( which i replaced for an Adder later, more LY jump and rare trading doesnt need much cargo space ), after a few rounds i buyed the ASP Discoverer, read the forum for Robigo, tried it once, could buy instantly after 1 Robigo run the ASP Explorer, made 5 more runs and could buy a python with enough spare money.
So now I have the Gear and a Ship to destroy any AI Vessel without a problem. What to do now ? There is just no goal in this game. I could make more Robigo rounds for a Anaconda but for what ? what should I do then with the Conda besides grinding for the next more expensive Ship.
PowerPlay doesnt give me anything usefull, i would like to do something in direction of PowerPlay that means, working for a party or Faction like Empire, to fight vs other factions for systems but the PP system we have is incredible complicated, it does not give you any direct influence and the waiting time for the next pp-mission is like from a browser game. There is no feeling that a Power or faction really needs me and the whole idea that we have Empire and Fed Power which are fighting each other sounds really unrealistic, maybe a Anarchy Power could do that, but a Military Power like the Empire shouldnt allow something like that.
So besides of that, this game gives me something, I waited since Freelance ( from 2002 ?! ) for a good space game like that, so I would like to share some Ideas that i have with you.
Hyperjumping:
-We should have the ability to decide how many LS we want to drop out before the targeting star with an maximum for sure. I would say 1000LS should be the maximum. So we can decide to target Eranin, set up 500 LS before the star and the we should drop out in the direction where the most gravity-influence is ( this way in most systems it shouldnt be too much away from most stations/planets )
- If a second Star in the same System is away more than 5000LS we should have the ability to jump directly to that Star.
Supercruise:
-We need an Autopilot for SC, i may even be slower than manual flying. But come on, after 80 Hours ingame, SC is just so incredible boring. I tend to read something in the internet or messages on my smartfone while in SC end are often overshooting the target because of that.
-Better speed influence. It is just stupid, like it is now. If you are at 75% Speed and have 5 Seconds until arriving at the Target, it will be enough to go only for a half of a second over 75% and you cant brake anymore enough, to go to the target. All in all i have to say that Supercruise after the first 10 Hours is the most boring feature i ever saw in a Videogame and I am playing since 1995 or something
Alternative Idea for Supercruise/HyperJump:
- If we are in an system, we should hyperjump to Targets which are more than 1000LS away, BUT because there is much gravity around us, the HyperJump Drive will need much more fuel so f.e. jumping to a station 15.000 LS away should take something like 50% of fuel and in general there the fuel price should be much much higher. So that Hyper Jumping to a distant target in the same system will cost very much and you should think about it, if you will get you cash back through trading or something like that.
The sens of a Station/System:
-If a Station is very distant from a Star it should be a special Station. No one would build a Station so much away with high costs, if there isnts something which gives you profit. These Stations should give us special missions or be the target of special missions and/or sell ressources which are really rare.
-Absolutely the same for systems. There is no sens at the moment to go to systems which are at the end of the civilized bubble ( besides Robigo )
Give that systems some love, special missions, commoditys. The need of food or something. Something just give that Systems something ! In the moment they are same as a System in middle like Eranin.
Missions:
-The Missions at the moment are absolutely senseless after you have a few millions like everone has after Rare Goods trading or Robigo Runs. At the moment i have Python and about 15 Million Credits. I will get missions for 10k Credits to max 500k Credits ( very rare ) this is stupid a.f. because missions could some real fun, if we could get something valuable.
-Make some missions which are like Quests-Series. I give an stupid 0815 example.
Imperium/Cubeo
Quest-1
Hello Stranger, we are in need of pilots for our war vs the Federation. But before we can trust we have to see if you will be loyal to us. In the neighbour system we have problems with some bandits in an lowRES zone.
Go and kill 25 Bandits there. Rewards: 50k Credits and some Reputation
Quest-2
Blablabla we trust you now a little bit, we have a secret crate. You have to delivere it to a Warzone, where a Imperial Starship will be wating for you. It might be that the Feds will try to kill you on your way.
Quest-3
Trusting you more and more, you will get a license to to fight for the imperium, go to the warzone abc and kill some feds to help us in our war
Kill 45 Feds in Warzone abc, rewards 250k Credits and after finishing quest permanent license to fight in warzones for the Imperium.
Just something like that would be cool.
Mining:
-Mining should give us more money, so its more valuable like trading and missions/bounty hunting.
-Maybe we could buy drones which will be searching for High quality metals and inform us where they are, so we dont have to gather useless copper. ( so they show us on the radar where are HQ metals )
-Not everyone can mine in every system. You have to buy a mining license. Some factions wont sell it to you without a good reputation.
-Maybe even Mining quests, so some factions love mining, but they have high security rules, so you have to make quests for them to show them that you can mine safely ( and with environmental protection ) than you will get the license.
Building:
-There should really be option to build your own stations in systems which arent belong to no one. We have so many systems and every system would have so much space for like 1000 player based stations ( i think even much much more ) Ok it doenst have to be station which is selling goods. But maybe you could build yourselfe a Home-Station with a Garage for your ships, some cool living room, different things you can buy for your home at AI Stations. Getting Skins from factions and so on. I cant believe that there is no such a feature in a big universe Elite Dangerous have and all the systems beyond the bubble are just senseless at the moment.
PowerPlay
-Total rebuilding PP. There will be only attacking and defending a system. No expansion ect. The Devs or the Server will decide which systems will get attacked from a faction, but after an easy to understand formula. Like Empire wants Eranin, so every system on the way to Eranin is a goal for the Empire.
-When a Systems is attacked, every station will be a maingoal to attack and defend. The Station has module which can be destroyed by a attacking Faction after that the warzone is over and the systems belongs to the new faction. Before a faction can attack the Station there will be a big fight before the Station with very Big Ai-Ships defending. Without Player involvement these fights should take very much time until they ends. But with player involvement they could end much faster.
-PowerPlay only for Multiplayer
-Attacking Systems costs ressources, here comes the sens for traders and miners, they will get equally refunded if they get the goods to the warzones
-Rewards from the factions can be
-- Special licenses for HQ mining belts
-- Skins for Ships and Home-Stations so as special Room-Environments.
-- More Faction based Weapons
-- Trading Discounts
-- Maybe a license to build a Homestation in the system after Win, but with the risk that if the enemy retakes, you could loose the base.
-- Little toys for your ships cockpit, teddybears, wackeldackels, pictures, costumized huds, cooler radars, trading computers and so on.....
- We need Chat-Channels for the Factions for better communication.
-Maybe Peace Treatys, like the feds got overrunned 5 systems from the empire in short time, now the AI will make a peace treaty and short afterwards the Feds will attack the Alliance to get some more systems.
Okay these are only some general ideas.
But I have to say that sometimes I think Frontier does not have a clue how to make a computer game which has motivation for the players. At moment its only a grind and watch simulator, though the universum i fantastic done, but its empty without things to do.
No i didnt played the classic Elite games. But we have a good proverb in german language " Wer nicht mit der Zeit geht, geht mit der Zeit " = who does not move with the times, will be removed over time.
You sold 1.4 Million copys, but that isnt so much and it dont mean that all this guys and girls are playing. If only 50% from my ideas would be implented I even would give you some money every month to play this game as an MMORPG. ( But thats only my opinion )
If you dont give your players some motivation, after Star Citizen is out, no one one who loves Space Games will be playing ED anymore besides the Hardcore fans who love game only for that, that it is exactly like the old elite games but with modern graphics and I doubt that you can make much profit out of lets say 10.000 players world wide. You will want to sell some add ons in the future or wouldnt you ?
For Example i didnt buyed horizons, because there is absolutes no need, no motivations for me to do the same stupid repetetive missions we have on space stations, but do it on planets.
Okay lasts words, its not my intention to insult anyone, not the devs and not the hardcore elite players who loves the game like it is. Just some ideas how Frontier can make more profit through more players who would regularly buy something from frontier ( add ons ect. ) because the players would have some more motivation.
Maybe you could leave the game like it is now, for the HC Elite fans and give out a new reworked version with monthly costs, the same way Rust did it. ( okay, rust dont have monthly costs )
