Yes but that is what makes an mmo, interaction with other people. As it is ED might as well be an offline game because of the complete lack of ability to interact with others. Even the chat system is poor. And this is an issue as it is being discussed in other threads.
I was hoping the ED seasons were going to make a big difference and push it towards being a proper mmo but it seems not, shame as I have a lot of love for the game.
As it stands ED might as well be a single player game with a co op option. Mmo means playing, interacting with others in a persistant universe and this is definitely not that.
That's kinda the root cause of the problem in my opinion:
Some people play Elite for the MMO.
Some people play because they enjoyed the original Elite.
Some play waiting for that other game to be finished and made into a proper game.
Some wanted an RPG, Arcade, Simulator, Action/Adventure etc etc etc.
There are many different people playing Elite for different reasons. The risk Frontier had in making this game is that nobody really wants a true MMO because it'd be too similar to the goliaths out there called WOW & Eve. I mean how many successful MMO's have there been since they've cornered the market, I can only really think of League of Legends and that Star Wars one that lasted a few months before hiding in a corner..
I mean what's to stop me going on a website and selling credits for real money. Currently the game's EULA forbids it but also it'd take a few hours to transfer meaningful amounts via cargo drop. If player trading in an uncontrolled form were introduced I could just get the donor player to set up a mission/cargo transfer etc for 1T of cargo being with 300mil credits and take that.
I get the interaction part and wanting more meaningful stuff with player, I really do. I also think it's poor that 90% of the times I see players nothing happens, no comms, no encounter etc. BUT I honestly think player controlled trading will not be beneficial on the whole and the same with player credit transfers.
Yeah, one of my favorite things to do in sandbox games/RPGs is crafting items to sell. Becoming a blacksmith in a Medieval-type game or a miner/refiner in a game like Eve, etc. I couldn't help but be disappointed when there was nothing remotely close to it in this game.
I would like nothing better than to be able to become a rare material miner to sell much needed components to people looking to take advantage of Engineers. I'd love to be able to build up a business out of it. Maybe hire some bodyguards since carrying rare materials isn't always conducive to good health.
One of the main points of the game is that you start out as just another "cog in the machine". But it feels like you can never be anything but a cog, and that's a little frustrating.
Also get that, who doesn't want to be Han Solo or CMDR Agent2090 "Hero of space", sadly this game was never meant to be that. Not sure if you played the original games but this is kinda the running theme.
Expanding on my comments above my idea of Utopia would be:
1) An action adventure story focussed Elite game where you follow the Empire/Fed/Alliance storyline through the Thargoid invasion etc. <- Single player/up to 4 player co-op
2) A simulator game for those enthusiasts with true physics (or as close as humanly possible), no flight assist etc etc <- One large server
3) A true MMO with no private/solo options
Although the cost of making these would be colossal but that way I could do exploring in the sim, combat and story in (1) and either ignore the MMO or get involved with guilds etc without fear of being told I can't go exploring for 3 months because they need me to guard X patch of space for the next 3 days
