Video Game Story Telling: Frontier's biggest strength.

[ZeeWolf]

It's in Galnet, even tells you where commanders are finding alien sites, right there in the game. Not sure it matters if the people finding them first are players or NPC cut scenes, it's still there. If you aren't willing to follow the obscure paths - then does it matter that the path you follow is opened up by players? They could just be NPCs for all you know, they do stuff and Galnet reports on stuff happening and you read the news items and go see what's going on. Also there are nav beacons all around places like Lave that tell you about the history of the Thargoids.

Personally don't care much for forced narrative in open world multiplayer, just gives you a few hours of tedious well trodden stuff that goes out of date fast. What is the alternative? Everyone follows some extremely sign posted stuff and all gets to be the first one to discover the Thargoids? Just don't look on social media..shh your the first commander, well done you, achievement unlocked?

The Thargoids themselves were always the stuff of Playground rumor and I think Frontier are bringing them back via a very appropriate manner.

ED isn't just the sum of it's software and I think that's a good thing. If I choose to read an ED novel or follow an ED community forum and it unlocks some easter-egg or gives me some insight into the lore I think that's a good thing and well in keeping with the franchise. You will find it with any franchise anyway, people always find more by working together and following the community - doesn't matter what it is, skyrim or mario or GTA.

 

[Knightshark]

A non forum goer or game media reader could play ED for years without knowing about the background story.
It's not about lack of hand holding or even that the story isn't any good, and last of all about "saving the universe" (really, can we stop with that nonsense ?).
It's about the game barely giving you any hint, not just about what is going on, but that there's something going on at all.
At least nudging the uninitiated into the general direction where he can pick up the thread isn't an unreasonable request ?
And all of that isn't even taking into account the need for out of game tools in order to be able to follow it.
ED does some things very well and others not so well, just to keep it civil.
Getting it's players aboard with regard to the story line isn't one of it's strength'.
In general the game has always been rather obscure about various aspects, the learning curve in ED isn't steep because the game is overly difficult, it's steep because it has a knack for lacking documentation.

This is unfortunately true. Latest example, the Thargoid base. GalNet reported the system where the bases were found. But there was no info on which planet, nor where on the planet.
I have no clue how i am supposed to find these without external resources. There was no marker, no message, nothing at all that would help me in game. If i didn't look online, i would be quite angry now. Of course, i know that online is the first place i should look. But that also entails that i rarely experience a discovery first in game, but rather on Imgur or YouTube.

 

[B1rdy]

But that also entails that i rarely experience a discovery first in game, but rather on Imgur or YouTube.

Because the odds finding the "needle in the haystack", as DBOBE himself puts it, are strongly against you as a single player. This is what stops me from looking for things.

 

[Knightshark]

Because the odds finding the "needle in the haystack", as DBOBE himself puts it, are strongly against you as a single player. This is what stops me from looking for things.

Sorry, i didn't express myself very well. I meant that i rarely see something in game before i have seen it online, because there are no in-game tools/info to find it. Thargoid base is just one example. But that hold for almost everything. When i want to see something i have to check online first (eg asteriod bases, megaships, cqc assets, any thargoid related stuff). I don't care if i am the first who finds something, i leave that to the awesome canonn guys and girls.

 

[Franc Kaos]

2. Forums - The Cannon thread is a barrier to entry. If anyone thinks that having all the games interesting features all mixed up in one thread is a good way to do things then please explain why we need anything more than just one thread for the entire game? I know the people working on the mysteries are having fun and finding out some great information but when it's all dumped together it becomes useless. I've railed against this approach before but got shouted down by people claiming it's fine and that this is how real science is done... Utter . The replies in this thread show what a terrible job is being done getting any of this information out to players. When I have seen a CMDR post a discovery in the main forum area I also see within one page them being told to post it in the Cannon thread - as if anything that is found automatically becomes the property of Cannon. I know this is not the case but how does it look to new players... Many PS4 players will be coming here to find out information on the game only to find that most of it is lost inside 40,000 pages of posts and a top down spoiler list of the discoveries made so far - All the mystery is removed when you read the list as it currently is.

TL;DR The Cannon thread killed the story for me.

Amen, and indeed, Halelulah!

It's not shocking at all. Think about it this way: if you restricted yourself to just playing the game without using any 3rd party tools or out of game information or knowledge - no forums, no youtube, etc - would you honestly even know that this game had a story to follow?

Crazy thing is the tools are already ingame for showing this stuff to players, passenger missions. Problem is, it seems to take months before they're added to the game (after being discovered), like, last time I played there was a passenger job out to some geysers (and why are they so rare anyways?) Kind'a on a break at the moment but are the Millenium ships even on passenger routes yet?

 

[DefiledDragon]

the proper breadcrumb trail would be going to pleiades and talking with the locals, maybe getting a mission or two to search for something, or as someone proposed, a regular mission with an unexpected outcome of stumbling over something... The possibilities are there, they just need to decide and code it in game.

That would be awesome, but it would never happen because that would make ED like "those other games" and ED can't be like "those other games" because ED has to be it's own thing. It's ED's way, or the highway, because you know, "blaze your own trail" and all that...

 

[Blackcompany]

You realize you can read Galnet anywhere now right?

A non forum goer or game media reader could play ED for years without knowing about the background story.
It's not about lack of hand holding or even that the story isn't any good, and last of all about "saving the universe" (really, can we stop with that nonsense ?).
It's about the game barely giving you any hint, not just about what is going on, but that there's something going on at all.
At least nudging the uninitiated into the general direction where he can pick up the thread isn't an unreasonable request ?
And all of that isn't even taking into account the need for out of game tools in order to be able to follow it.
ED does some things very well and others not so well, just to keep it civil.
Getting it's players aboard with regard to the story line isn't one of it's strength'.
In general the game has always been rather obscure about various aspects, the learning curve in ED isn't steep because the game is overly difficult, it's steep because it has a knack for lacking documentation.

Great point. Completely agree.

 

[DefiledDragon]

There is a lot they could do better, but IMO it's not the stuff some people are complaining about in this thread.

So what's better? Having sub optimal story telling or CoD in space? I choose the former.

Those are not the only options. You know that, right?

 

[Skyjack]

Love the story with all my heart, one of the best scifi narratives ever.

Hate the amount of real life cryptography and spectrography - if i wanted that i'd be playing hacknet and uplink, except even those don't have that much real life skill. Hate PBY (play by youtube), a clear step down in storytelling from FFE.

 

[shadragon]

[1] Put interesting stuff, like all the info in the Canonn thread on Galnet

You think choking Galnet with a threadnaut will improve things? Have you ever listened to chaotic and disorganized mess that is the Canon Discord? No. Just no.

As for story telling, it's there for whoever wants to participate. It does not lead you by the hand, as other games do (and a lot of people want). It simply serves up clues you can solve yourself or work together as a community. That's why Elite is different. That's why it isn't a cookie cutter shoot-em-up with an on-rails story, BFG and boss fights. That's why I love it.

If you don't think that, then you bought the wrong game.

 

[verminstar]

I do! But, as usual, the same old crowd have sharpened their pitchforks to whinge their little behinds off. The crowd I play with most nights, and the hundreds that comment in the various ED groups on Xbox feel the same way, they just know better than to ever come to these forums!

There is actually quite a demand for the approach FD have taken, with their story evolving in real time. It's one of the most original things I've seen in over 35 years of gaming, I feel they are still finding their feet with it a bit but admire them for trying something so ambitious.

Just so happens Im an xbone player too...which ED groups are ye a member of?

 

[DefiledDragon]

It does not lead you by the hand

Eh? Doesn't Galnet tell you what systems the latest goings on are happening in? If that's not leading you by the hand, what is?

 

[Martian Successor]

It does not lead you by the hand

Funny because I could swear Ed Lewis totally led us by the hand in that livestream one day before E3. He literally recieved a clue that only his account could receive and then went about unlocking the next steps for us as we watched.

 

[crushdepth]

You think choking Galnet with a threadnaut will improve things? Have you ever listened to chaotic and disorganized mess that is the Canon Discord? No. Just no.

As for story telling, it's there for whoever wants to participate. It does not lead you by the hand, as other games do (and a lot of people want). It simply serves up clues you can solve yourself or work together as a community. That's why Elite is different. That's why it isn't a cookie cutter shoot-em-up with an on-rails story, BFG and boss fights. That's why I love it.

If you don't think that, then you bought the wrong game.

I think UNCHOKING Galnet with all the useless background simulation junk and putting some actual information in there would be a fine move. They actually asked the community once if we wanted all that ermm "stuff", we said no and then they left it there.

The 'leading by the hand' argument is very tired. You can have content and stories and engaging gameplay without leading by the hand and without endless grind.

The real reason we have endless RNG is because it is cheap and easy.

 

[SnowyNI]

space spim is correct, in fact I've never seen so much spim in my life!

 

[avow555]

What story, not been conected in any way to any story since launch.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

Just want to give hats off to Frontier for surprising me over the past year. What was a (great) bare bones space spim is truly filling out, and one of the biggest shockers I've come to realize is just how Frontier excels at video game storytelling. And by video game storytelling, I mean they let the gamers tell the story. They give just the right tools, the right mysteries and they steer the playerbase to it. The community catches on fire, everyone begins to know what's going on and all of sudden Frontier has created an event that people are talking about. They are giving their own accounts, experiences, and I genuinely believe this is what interactive entertainment should be about. There will always be room for games with cutscenes and straightforward plot, but Frontier has taken a different road and it's paid off well in my humble opinion. Hats off to them for a great year of great storytelling.

Going forward, I do have some constructive criticism and encouragement.

1. Continue creating and pushing mysteries, far after the Thargoids are revealed and the content has been implemented. This galaxy is big, and there's an endless amount of secrets to hide.

2. Create newer ways to introduce players who don't follow the forums or reddit to these mysteries. Sometimes text hints, galnet, blog updates are a bit dry. There has to be a better way to nudge the playerbase along.

3. Better ways to tell if a planet or system has something to hide. I've noticed players have literally been counting load times when dropping to a planet to tell if it had a guardian base. Perhaps explorers with the right rank should be able to get scanners that at least give an indication of a system is hot or cold when it comes to secret bases, crashed megaships and forms of alien life.

4. Atmospheric planets! imagine alien bases, crashed ships, life, cave systems, mysteries on planets with real weather, storms, dangers galore. This opens up the ability to put brand new assets into a much more unique setting.

Anyway I'm sure a good chunk of this is being worked on as it is. But those are my two cents and just wanted to tell FD to keep it up. The game has a bright future if they continue capturing gamers imaginations like they have.

How much credit did they give you in the Frontier Store?

 

[koop26]

Without reading every single comment on 5 pages, is there a single one who agrees with the OP? I almost feel sorry fer FD as that is a clear message that they are simply failing in the story department and failing hard. Even the usual white knights arent defending them on this point ^

I've had a decent chunk of reps for my OP in this thread, so I think there's some support out there from the player base about the way Frontier tackles story in this game.

There has been constructive criticism of Frontier's storytelling that has helped myself and others grasp just what Frontier needs to do to create a mechanism to bring more players into the mystery of Elite's Universe, without holding their hand completely. Keep in mind, this was a criticsm I also had in the OP.

There are others who hate the way Elite tells the story in the same way I love it. You're just a cog in the machine. The real universe doesn't care about you, Elite's universe doesn't care about you. You're not the chosen one, and your participation is a negigible difference to anything and anyone for thousands of lightyears and beyond. You deliver cartographic data for pennies on the dollar, you murder hundreds of stupid space pirates so your station pads your ego as you dock. You trade 1,000 cogs at a 15% profit markup and go do it again. Elite should always be about player choice, and the best way to tell a story in giving the player a choice to chase the story or not.

There's also some unconstructive trolls, and those that are being rude because they can't believe someone has a difference of opinion. Whatever works for you. You'll get no response from me.

 

[Celery Jack]

I believe that frontier tells a story at a realistic pace, if you see a story on the news it can take months to years sometimes to get all the details.

 

[Soopyyy]

I believe that frontier tells a story at a realistic pace, if you see a story on the news it can take months to years sometimes to get all the details.

In 1735 maybe...