This game needs to impose itself upon the player.

[Deleted member 115407]

Everything in this game is too forgiving.

You can escape any NPC simply by boost-boost-jumping away.
NPC Combat is a joke.
Pirated NPCs will literally just sit there and let you pirate them.
Markets are so stable that it's virtually impossible to lose money when trading.
Factions will pay you to find worthless space rocks far-far away that no faction should ever care about.
You can be wanted, with a hold full of the most ludicrous contraband, and you can slip into port just be going silent for a moment (and the traffic controller is like "meh".)
Authority ships are reactive only (they should be all over bounties like stink on...).
Stations are totally passive unless you provoke them.
Thargoids are caged inside USSs, and pose no threat unless you choose to engage them.
Factions hold no grudge(You can descend on a faction like Ghengis Khan, then run a few missions for them and they're like "meh").
Same with superpowers - there is no risk-reward factor when working with/for superpowers (i.e. You can be top rank in both, and they're both like "meh".)
Powerplay is just bad and needs to be completely redesigned.

What did I miss?
In what other ways do you feel that this game fails to impose itself upon you?
How would you like to see this game impose itself upon you to make PvE gameplay more interesting?

Vin

 

[Vedmo]

What did I miss?
In what other ways do you feel that this game fails to impose itself upon you?
How would you like to see this game impose itself upon you to make PvE gameplay more interesting?

Vin

I've spent a fair amount of time in outbreak systems and never once caught space herpes.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

Yup, been saying the same thing for ages.

I had a screenshot that sums up the game perfectly. But I lost it. Lol

But here's the gist of it:

"You're not welcome here, enemy!"
*Requests docking permission*
"Docking permission granted"

Ah, here it is. It's old.

Lol

 

[Captain Thea Kreutzer]

I hope they add more immersive NPC interactions in the future as well. Theyve made it a bit better with the new system but almost every system is still in the green.

 

[zipline]

hush cmdr, keep your voice down, fdevs may hear and nerf some of those things you just called out ... some of us like it just how it is!
o7

 

[Captain Thea Kreutzer]

hush cmdr, keep your voice down, fdevs may hear and nerf some of those things you just called out ... some of us like it just how it is!
o7

Nerf everything

 

[Shinji Ikari]

Elite:Easy

 

[zipline]

Nerf everything

I want my mummy <cries profusely>

 

[Ziljan]

What did I miss?
In what other ways do you feel that this game fails to impose itself upon you?
How would you like to see this game impose itself upon you to make PvE gameplay more interesting?

Vin

Everything you say is spot on. The Galaxy poses no threat, and everything that can actually have a chance to scratch your paint job is locked behind a fence that only you can choose to open.

One item missing from your list is the natural forces of the Galaxy itself. Space is an extreme environment utterly hostile to human life and filled with deadly radiation, extreme temperatures and pressures, volatile stars rapidly changing radius and ejecting massive amounts of deadly material that could damage ships and sensors, bombardment debris in primordial systems, insane magnetic and gravitational fields near neutron stars and black holes, crushing and stretching your ship into spaghetti. Exploring should be one of the most dangerous professions in the game, yet it is the absolute safest. Makes zero sense.

 

[Deleted member 115407]

Yup, been saying the same thing for ages.

I had a screenshot that sums up the game perfectly. But I lost it. Lol

But here's the gist of it:

"You're not welcome here, enemy!"
*Requests docking permission*
"Docking permission granted"

Ah, here it is. It's old.


Lol

Ha - perfect!

 

[Mohrgan]

Yeah, it's totally safe in maxed g5 FdL's and 'Vettes.

 

[Factabulous]

Exploring should be one of the most dangerous professions in the game, yet it is the absolute safest. Makes zero sense.

Makes sense if you've got a load of forum dwellers who complain if they drop out of a jump even marginally near a star...

One of the things I like about 3.3 is that NPC pirates now open fire immediately rather than waiting 10 seconds, but there have been people complaining about that too...

 

[Lightspeed]

Everything in this game is too forgiving.

You can escape any NPC simply by boost-boost-jumping away.

Assuming your pip management is good. Noobs will find it more tricky in the moment.

Combat is a joke.

If you are experienced with PvP, maybe, but any attempt by MoM to upgrade the skill and kill instinct of NPCs is met with forum salt !

Pirated NPCs will literally just sit there and let you pirate them.

Again, if it's made too hard, pirates in Noobacondas complain.

Markets are so stable that it's virtually impossible to lose money when trading.

We are in boom wherever we go .... and credit inflation is out of control

Factions will pay you to find worthless space rocks far-far away that no faction should ever care about.

You have a point, but there's a risk of limited missions, I guess.

You can be wanted, with a hold full of the most ludicrous contraband, and you can slip into port just be going silent for a moment (and the traffic controller is like "meh".)

Definitely potential to make this more exciting !

Authority ships are reactive only (they should be all over bounties like stink on...).
Stations are totally passive unless you provoke them.

But imagine the salt if ....... !

are caged inside USSs, and pose no threat unless you choose to engage them.

There would be huge complaints from commanders (including me) who did not wish to engage. It would be PvP arguments x 100.

Factions hold no grudge(You can descend on a faction like Ghengis Khan, then run a few missions for them and they're like "meh").
Same with superpowers - there is no risk-reward factor when working with/for superpowers (i.e. You can be top rank in both, and they're both like "meh".)
Powerplay is just bad and needs to be completely redesigned.

Needs a lot of work, for sure.

What did I miss?
In what other ways do you feel that this game fails to impose itself upon you?
How would you like to see this game impose itself upon you to make PvE gameplay more interesting?

Vin

Needs a lot of work by FD to get the balance right, and for sure opinion on the right balance is different among us all. There's no real Elite - Easy mode or Elite - Hard mode that allows for variation.

Rep for opening a good discussion ... hope this one runs

 

[Deleted member 115407]

Everything you say is spot on. The Galaxy poses no threat, and everything that can actually have a chance to scratch your paint job is locked behind a fence that only you can choose to open.

One item missing from your list is the natural forces of the Galaxy itself. Space is an extreme environment utterly hostile to human life and filled with deadly radiation, extreme temperatures and pressures, volatile stars rapidly changing radius and ejecting massive amounts of deadly material that could damage ships and sensors, bombardment debris in primordial systems, insane magnetic and gravitational fields near neutron stars and black holes, crushing and stretching your ship into spaghetti. Exploring should be one of the most dangerous professions in the game, yet it is the absolute safest. Makes zero sense.

I hadn't even considered the dangers of "space". Good stuff, guys.

 

[Blackcompany]

Everything you say is spot on. The Galaxy poses no threat, and everything that can actually have a chance to scratch your paint job is locked behind a fence that only you can choose to open.

One item missing from your list is the natural forces of the Galaxy itself. Space is an extreme environment utterly hostile to human life and filled with deadly radiation, extreme temperatures and pressures, volatile stars rapidly changing radius and ejecting massive amounts of deadly material that could damage ships and sensors, bombardment debris in primordial systems, insane magnetic and gravitational fields near neutron stars and black holes, crushing and stretching your ship into spaghetti. Exploring should be one of the most dangerous professions in the game, yet it is the absolute safest. Makes zero sense.

This is a direct result of forced multiplayer. The instancing made necessary by the insistence on multiplayer has killed Consequences in PVE...but multiplayer has also not been allowed to add the agency a game like EVE offers.

Worst of both worlds design.

 

[Deleted member 115407]

Yeah, it's totally safe in maxed g5 FdL's and 'Vettes.

I own neither.

As for maxed g5 - those are standard, in-game mechanics. You don't have to use cheat codes or nothin'.

And I shouldn't have to settle for sub-par outfitting just to feel that the game is challenging me.

 

[Riverside]

I don't disagree with much of the OP's message but I'd like to offer a counterpoint:

There are plenty of games that force the player down a particular path through game limitations (ie it's not openworld). Some of these games might be brilliant at what they do but terrible if you want an openworld game.

I like ED, it's my kind of game in a market with few peers because it allows me to set myself goals and figure out ways to achieve them without breaking certain other (also self-imposed) rules. I don't instance flip for example, I play the cards I'm dealt. I don't look for trouble, I'm not trying to be the best. ED works for me. I don't mind what others do, play your own way but complaining that it doesn't work for you and seeking change at the expense of those that are not complaining doesn't sit well with me. I'm not saying the OP is necessarily doing this.

But just as I don't like the scripted storyline of a tomb raider game say (even though it is very well done), ED isn't all things to all people. Play to it's strengths and imo it's an excellent game, I only wish for more of it. I don't want what it already is to be taken away.

So please make suggestions that add to the game, or at least don't remove toys from others just because you don't use (or like) them. The threat/difficulty from an NPC can scale up as much as you like if the player goes to it (ie it can be avoided). If you want the danger just set a personal rule (eg never leave a USS until it is completed) and have the self restraint to stick to it.

 

[Deleted member 115407]

Rep for opening a good discussion ... hope this one runs

Thanks Lightspeed, good responses. Will get you a better reply later.

 

[Old Duck]

Disclaimer - the following is based on my personal preferences!

Retcon the Engineers and make credits what they used to be, and this will go a long way to fix the game. Rewards are too big and payment for things like fuel and repairs are way too small. "Advanced Maintenance" menu is a vestigial organ of the great game this used to be, when you actually had to chose what you were going to fix because repairs cost so much.

Fix the AI. Now that said, if you turn ED into a Dark Souls game for everyone, that would be bad, but I appreciate that an Elite NPC in a ship equal to your own should be Dark Souls level of difficult. Harmless NPCs, on the other hand..... Of course Engineering is much to blame for the ease of combat in the game.

As an explorer, I'd love to have more reason to do "survival" type stuff. Perhaps equipment failure due to solar storms that force me to land and enact repairs. Junk the AMFU and repair limpets and give us a "mini game" that requires some sort of skill to implement these repairs. Perhaps this will require space legs to fully implement. However, don't overdo it - not every system should be dangerous, but at the very least, make things like Black Holes as dreaded by explorers as the Elite NPCs should be for combat pilots!

I'm not a fan of fishing, which is what current bounty-hunting is. Bounty-hunting should actually require hunting, which requires FDev give us at least some persistent NPCs. Get rid of the resource extraction sites! Remember that mission in Elite 1984 that requires tracking down and destroying a stolen experimental ship? Now that's hunting

On the other hand, I do think it would be awesome to replace RES with pirate asteroid bases in Anarchy systems with lucrative missions tied to them. While I don't think this should require fighting endless waves of pirates like a hazres, at least it would give the option for those who want this. Speaking of Anarchy, make Anarchy scary again!

But if you are going to make Anarchy scary, then Hi-Sec should be relatively safe. However, safe means "boring" and also means "not much money to be made". Reward should scale with risk.

Did I mention that Engineers need to be retconned? Get rid of PowerPlay modules as well, or at least make them available to the general public. As for Guardian weapons, I'm not sure how I feel about those...

 

[Deleted member 115407]

Disclaimer - the following is based on my personal preferences!

Retcon the Engineers and make credits what they used to be, and this will go a long way to fix the game. Rewards are too big and payment for things like fuel and repairs are way too small. "Advanced Maintenance" menu is a vestigial organ of the great game this used to be, when you actually had to chose what you were going to fix because repairs cost so much.

Fix the AI. Now that said, if you turn ED into a Dark Souls game for everyone, that would be bad, but I appreciate that an Elite NPC in a ship equal to your own should be Dark Souls level of difficult. Harmless NPCs, on the other hand..... Of course Engineering is much to blame for the ease of combat in the game.

As an explorer, I'd love to have more reason to do "survival" type stuff. Perhaps equipment failure due to solar storms that force me to land and enact repairs. Junk the AMFU and repair limpets and give us a "mini game" that requires some sort of skill to implement these repairs. Perhaps this will require space legs to fully implement. However, don't overdo it - not every system should be dangerous, but at the very least, make things like Black Holes as dreaded by explorers as the Elite NPCs should be for combat pilots!

I'm not a fan of fishing, which is what current bounty-hunting is. Bounty-hunting should actually require hunting, which requires FDev give us at least some persistent NPCs. Get rid of the resource extraction sites! Remember that mission in Elite 1984 that requires tracking down and destroying a stolen experimental ship? Now that's hunting

On the other hand, I do think it would be awesome to replace RES with pirate asteroid bases in Anarchy systems with lucrative missions tied to them. While I don't think this should require fighting endless waves of pirates like a hazres, at least it would give the option for those who want this. Speaking of Anarchy, make Anarchy scary again!

But if you are going to make Anarchy scary, then Hi-Sec should be relatively safe. However, safe means "boring" and also means "not much money to be made". Reward should scale with risk.

Did I mention that Engineers need to be retconned? Get rid of PowerPlay modules as well, or at least make them available to the general public. As for Guardian weapons, I'm not sure how I feel about those...

Nice. Thanks Duck