To those who keep saying Elite Dangerous is too hard.....

[FoxTwo]

... it is not. Trust me on this. Read the story below.

Why do I say that? Because I've just "converted" yet another friend on Steam to get Elite. Now, this fellow is the LEAST likely candidate ever to play a space sim. He's an RTS and mouse-clicky nut. Hates most games that are "first person", especially FPSes. He likes to see "the big picture" like he does in RTS and TBS games. First person view "limits" him too much.

Through the months he'd seen me post screenshots and videos up on Steam. I didn't know he actually bought ED until I saw him play it via Steam, and Raptr announced that he was streaming his very first "blind" play on Twitch.

So I went and watched his stream.

Here is a first-timer, upon loading up ED, jumped straight into it without tutorials. He took off and docked JUST FINE. A little shaky maybe, some overshoots of landing pads, but he did NOT crash. He also had to ask me how to stop in Supercruise Yeah that one he couldn't figure out for himself.

But otherwise, he was trading his way around the Galaxy.

He didn't complain that the markets were ruined. He didn't complain that the NPCs were interdicting him all the time he flew very slowly in SC (30km/sec while he looked at the Galaxy Map). He even tried to fight off an Asp in his dinky little Sidewinder, and he got rammed when the Asp fell to around 29% hull. Look guys, total n00b with NO combat experience managed to hold his own in a fight with an Asp for 5 to 10 mins. Ok that ramming might be his fault too cuz he boosted straight at the Asp...

The only disappointment in this whole affair was that for some reason the matchmaking servers weren't working right. We couldn't talk in-game. We had voice-comms for about the first 10 mins or so, but after that voice comms closed. We had "Unable to send transmission" even in text chat. I even flew to LHS 3447 and hung around outside the station but I couldn't see his ship, and he couldn't see me. We couldn't get ourselves into the same instance (or bubble, or island whatever). We fell back to using Steam for communication instead of in-game.

At the end, he just said he never thought he would have so much fun in a first person space game. That's it. Oh yes, that and complaining about the matchmaking thing. He wanted me to show him around but since we couldn't see each other...

So to all the new players who keep saying the game is "too hard"... no it is not.

 

[Cmdr Thrudd]

Friends of mine who got the game (some of which I'd spoken to about Elite and others who seemed to get it out the blue that I'd not expected) have been similar. Apart from the odd spot of confusion over mechanics they've been really enjoying the experience and working things out.

 

[Sargon]

How is it that the saying goes? "Where there's a will, there's a way."?

 

[Xannen]

I'd be interested to see if he still finds it as fun in two months from now after he's been trading endlessly and looking at essentially the same systems and docks over and over.

Then again, if he's into MOBAs, he is probably used to looking at the same gameplay over and over again..

 

[Xbob42]

I don't know who could possibly think this game is hard. It's brain-dead easy. The AI can't fight for crap, trading routes are guaranteed mindless money, there's barely any players to fight in open play... The biggest challenge is just learning all the mechanics because the game is super opaque. I think they do that to make it seem more complex than it really is, to add some sort of faux mystique and make you think there's so much to do. Collect bounties, do boring trade routes, do boring mining... Or maybe do some broken pirating. Oh, and "explore," by warping to what feels like the same instance over and over with randomly assorted planets and stars that you can't do anything with.

 

[TUXER]

I'd be interested to see if he still finds it as fun in two months from now after he's been trading endlessly and looking at essentially the same systems and docks over and over.

Then again, if he's into MOBAs, he is probably used to looking at the same gameplay over and over again..

I think the challenge in the gaming industry is that if you could afford to make a game that would hold a persons interest for the rest of their life it would indeed be very expensive. but also limit you from ever making more money from it.

in other words, sometimes its ok to play more than one game..

 

[Bambi]

Is anyone saying that? I think the contention is that it's too easy.

 

[Gods3nt]

Maybe this guy has experience in other flight + space games. I came here straight from Evochron and DCS, I too didn't suffer starting off with flying and combat. Maybe I struggle with earning credits, but that's about it. To be fair, there are players with no experience in anything related to this type of play. So I can see this being an option as well.

 

[FoxTwo]

I'd be interested to see if he still finds it as fun in two months from now after he's been trading endlessly and looking at essentially the same systems and docks over and over.

Then again, if he's into MOBAs, he is probably used to looking at the same gameplay over and over again..

That is beside the point of the OP.

It's about how the game is NOT difficult, not how long it can keep someone's interest I personally don't see this friend continue playing ED for more than a month or so - he has a habit of "game-hopping".

 

[Cmdr Esteban]

...he has a habit of "game-hopping".

I've got a friend/work colleague who is like that. Every other week he's always telling me about the newest game he has just started playing, and whenever I say "that sounds good, but I'm still playing ED", he gets the same confused and befuddled look on his face as he did all the previous times when we had that conversation since May this year, and all the previous times for six months before that when my response was "that sounds good, but I'm still playing Skyrim". He just can't comprehend long attention spans.

 

[Krait_79]

Problem is there are so many games out there were you can select easy. People do that then win all the time giving them the impression they are the dogs danglies.

Then when they play this they cry unfair because they can't dumb everything down!