Greetings fellow Commanders. Before I begin what will be a bit of a rant I would like to state that my Combat, Trade and Exploration ranks are Master, Broker and Ranger respectively. I only mention this to establish that I have considerable experience in every aspect of the game, and have at least dabbled in every major occupation in the galaxy. I also have not had strong enough internet to feel comfortable coming into open so all of my play experience has been in solo, and for my part no less enjoyable even with the lack of player interaction. With that being said, I would like to express a few....concerns.
1. Pirating
I took up the official title of galactic pirate shortly before the Beyond update took place. Bought myself a Python, geared up with all the necessary equipment, and hit the shipping lanes. Took me a few days to get the hang of things, and I lucked out finding a high pop Ag economy in boom in an anarchy system. Took a while longer to perfect the tactic of disabling the ship without destroying it, but eventually I was flying back to my black market contact with my Python loaded with low temp diamonds, my trade rank was rapidly climbing, and my bank account was happy.
Then Beyond happened. All of a sudden, piracy anywhere other than in an Anarchy system is essentially impossible due to ATR. Because I only play in solo, any ship I kill in self defense or on accident builds my notoriety, but for some reason the one point reduction for every two hours in game doesnt apply in solo, so I had maxed my notoriety in a half hour of undermining with no way of reducing it. And my biggest complaint so far: module sniping an npc's power plant no longer seems to disable their ship. I'm not going to post videos or pictures since I don't have any and other Commanders have already posted more than enough video evidence that this is indeed an issue. And all FDev members on here can say is "We will pass this report on for investigation?" And here we have the political hyperbole. The investigation is done. The players have spoken, and presented the necessary evidence. There is either a bug in the game, or something has been rewritten in the game that the players were not informed of. Which is it?
2. Engineers
As I began to progress through combat rank Expert and into Master, I began to realise that what gives players that extra edge in PvP was taking the extra (rather long) amount of time required to engineer every module possible on their ship. This to me was brilliant, even though I never came into open play. It gave me something to strive for, something that told me even though I was ranked Master and could handle most any NPC combatant with ease, coming into PvP would be another ball game entirely and I would need to be heavily engineered and prepared if I wanted to survive in open. I was ok with this.
Then Beyond happened. Engineers can now be accessed remotely, and their materials can be found at some trade markets. While I appreciate the ease of access to engineers that means I no longer have to fly the ship I want to modify (which potentially has an extremely bad FSD range) all the way to the engineer's shop, I feel like these changes have made engineering less of a pretigious and pointed advantage, and more of just another general step in upgrading a new ship.
3. Thargoids
The videos of the first contact with Thargoids were what really got me determined to make it over the massive learning curve of this game. I had already played off and on, but the now simple act of docking my ship was too much of a hassle back then to get any real enjoyment out of the game, but when the Thargoids happened I was determined to really learn this game and delve into it, and by golly I did. A month or so ago I assisted in the evacuation of Benjamin's Rest in 42 n Persei, being personally responsible for transporting over 1000 survivors off of the station and assisting in the recovery of escape pods and personal effects. I have become immersed in the beautiful galaxy that Frontier has given us, and was as giddy as a schoolboy over the possible turns that the story of the Thargoids could take. Anticipation and speculation ran high. Thargoid aggression inched closer and closer to populated space, and as per my last check they have attacked in systems less than 20ly away from the lower edge of the bubble. What would they do next? Where will they go? What is their purpose? What are they after? So many questions and theories....can we communicate with them in some way? Are their ships piloted, or are they one full organic life form? I have been swept up in the speculation and experimentation I have seen from other players, and the presence of an alien race in this game made it even more immense and mind blowing.
Then....you guessed it....Beyond happened. The only thing that has been given to the players by FDev is weapons. Combat ships. Combat technology. Now, with the introduction of the Guardian blueprints, it seems to me as if Frontier is writing their own story for the players to have, instead of allowing the players to work out the story for themselves. Has fighting done anything to slow the Thargoids progression towards the core systems? My fellow Commanders, when in sci fi history has humanity been able to overcome an alien invasion by sheer force alone? Why does it seem as if Frontier is trying to take away our open build-your-own story galaxy and replace it with a fantasy of their own (which by the way, for anyone familiar with the Stargate franchise: Guardian/Thargoids=Ancients/Wraith) that has already been played out in damn near every sci fi game, tv series and movie ever created about an alien war. This is our galaxy, Commanders. We should be allowed to live it the way we want, free of bugs, advanced SWAT teams (lets be honest...that's all ATR is) and formed and regulated storylines.
1. Pirating
I took up the official title of galactic pirate shortly before the Beyond update took place. Bought myself a Python, geared up with all the necessary equipment, and hit the shipping lanes. Took me a few days to get the hang of things, and I lucked out finding a high pop Ag economy in boom in an anarchy system. Took a while longer to perfect the tactic of disabling the ship without destroying it, but eventually I was flying back to my black market contact with my Python loaded with low temp diamonds, my trade rank was rapidly climbing, and my bank account was happy.
Then Beyond happened. All of a sudden, piracy anywhere other than in an Anarchy system is essentially impossible due to ATR. Because I only play in solo, any ship I kill in self defense or on accident builds my notoriety, but for some reason the one point reduction for every two hours in game doesnt apply in solo, so I had maxed my notoriety in a half hour of undermining with no way of reducing it. And my biggest complaint so far: module sniping an npc's power plant no longer seems to disable their ship. I'm not going to post videos or pictures since I don't have any and other Commanders have already posted more than enough video evidence that this is indeed an issue. And all FDev members on here can say is "We will pass this report on for investigation?" And here we have the political hyperbole. The investigation is done. The players have spoken, and presented the necessary evidence. There is either a bug in the game, or something has been rewritten in the game that the players were not informed of. Which is it?
2. Engineers
As I began to progress through combat rank Expert and into Master, I began to realise that what gives players that extra edge in PvP was taking the extra (rather long) amount of time required to engineer every module possible on their ship. This to me was brilliant, even though I never came into open play. It gave me something to strive for, something that told me even though I was ranked Master and could handle most any NPC combatant with ease, coming into PvP would be another ball game entirely and I would need to be heavily engineered and prepared if I wanted to survive in open. I was ok with this.
Then Beyond happened. Engineers can now be accessed remotely, and their materials can be found at some trade markets. While I appreciate the ease of access to engineers that means I no longer have to fly the ship I want to modify (which potentially has an extremely bad FSD range) all the way to the engineer's shop, I feel like these changes have made engineering less of a pretigious and pointed advantage, and more of just another general step in upgrading a new ship.
3. Thargoids
The videos of the first contact with Thargoids were what really got me determined to make it over the massive learning curve of this game. I had already played off and on, but the now simple act of docking my ship was too much of a hassle back then to get any real enjoyment out of the game, but when the Thargoids happened I was determined to really learn this game and delve into it, and by golly I did. A month or so ago I assisted in the evacuation of Benjamin's Rest in 42 n Persei, being personally responsible for transporting over 1000 survivors off of the station and assisting in the recovery of escape pods and personal effects. I have become immersed in the beautiful galaxy that Frontier has given us, and was as giddy as a schoolboy over the possible turns that the story of the Thargoids could take. Anticipation and speculation ran high. Thargoid aggression inched closer and closer to populated space, and as per my last check they have attacked in systems less than 20ly away from the lower edge of the bubble. What would they do next? Where will they go? What is their purpose? What are they after? So many questions and theories....can we communicate with them in some way? Are their ships piloted, or are they one full organic life form? I have been swept up in the speculation and experimentation I have seen from other players, and the presence of an alien race in this game made it even more immense and mind blowing.
Then....you guessed it....Beyond happened. The only thing that has been given to the players by FDev is weapons. Combat ships. Combat technology. Now, with the introduction of the Guardian blueprints, it seems to me as if Frontier is writing their own story for the players to have, instead of allowing the players to work out the story for themselves. Has fighting done anything to slow the Thargoids progression towards the core systems? My fellow Commanders, when in sci fi history has humanity been able to overcome an alien invasion by sheer force alone? Why does it seem as if Frontier is trying to take away our open build-your-own story galaxy and replace it with a fantasy of their own (which by the way, for anyone familiar with the Stargate franchise: Guardian/Thargoids=Ancients/Wraith) that has already been played out in damn near every sci fi game, tv series and movie ever created about an alien war. This is our galaxy, Commanders. We should be allowed to live it the way we want, free of bugs, advanced SWAT teams (lets be honest...that's all ATR is) and formed and regulated storylines.
