[Video] The need for credits & unrewarding gameplay

[Cervantes01]

Before beyond landed earning credits wasn't an issue, rewards seemed to be just about right, the most generous I'd seen in the last two or three years and progress to bigger ships wasn't impossible.

Now with Beyond deployed general missions are back on the stingy side, I'd recently wiped my save to have a fresh start with 3.0 and don't think that I'll ever see an anaconda again lol.

 

[tagos]

Another great vid.

I can kind of live with a bit of credit grinding. It’s having to then grind endlessly for materials to gamble with at Engineers that kills me.

I’m finding the enjoyment per hour of gameplay payoff compared to other games just isn’t cutting it. I just cannot face tbe engineering grind all over again.

 

[CMDR Mayhem]

Nice vid Yamiks.
For some reason(usually in sandbox games), everyone thinks that if the "grind" is removed, that you wont play anymore because you have nothing to progress for. Which I never have understood. Are you playing ED for the "grind"?! or are you playing for the result of grinding?
It is like the logic that people believe: if you legalize cocaine, that tomorrow everyone will be doing cocaine. It is simply not true.
I like you, started enjoying and playing the game more when I had enough credits from "grinding".
When you have enough credits to setup any ship for any activity, that's where the fun starts IMHO.

 

[Kalo Shin]

I don't personally care about how much money anyone has, but I do wonder if those who want 'enough to do what they want' are mainly pvpers who just want the biggest engineered ship so they can continually get blown up without any consequences in some sort of Elite Arena (irony optional). There's undoubtedly a core of players trying to scratch a space pew pew itch that only ED goes some way to scratching (as the alternatives are limited) and because it's not as they like it we get a lot of salt.

Now that might be fine as a choice of playstyle, even if it avoids the general essence of the game, but maybe some perspective is required when discussing this issue.

As someone who wanted money to do what I want, no, that is not what I did with it. The only thing beyond mark 1 engineer on my ship are the FSD, and engines. And I love to PVP is the thing, having literally watched someone do the puzzle for the Guardian Blueprints and then brutally murdering their SRV and them as they got to their ship so I could steal the weapon blueprint from it. but I certainly don't want a game where I have no penalties, I want a game where I have penalties, jobs that fit my pay grade, and enough money at the VERY least where I am legitimately not afraid to play a video game, which is what it was before the gold rush I used.

 

[CMNDRMK]

Sure. But without billions, that choice can limit ship selection. And I think you’ll find the crux of the issue is actually choice. Because if people have choice, they can play as they see fit, not as someone else does.

If people don’t have choice, then they are all forced to play the same way. Are you quite certain that couldn’t possibly be a factor?

The logical extension of your argument is that every player should start with every ship and there should be no credits just an interface via which you can configure every ship the way you want it. This would give maximum choice.

 

[CMDR ANCALAGON]

Sure. But without billions, that choice can limit ship selection. And I think you’ll find the crux of the issue is actually choice. Because if people have choice, they can play as they see fit, not as someone else does.

If people don’t have choice, then they are all forced to play the same way. Are you quite certain that couldn’t possibly be a factor?

Sorry, but not having billions is not limiting ship selection. I've never had a credit balance over $650M, and half of that came after I moved from PvP scenarios back to exploration.

The only logical need for billions is if one has a very high rebuy and is at repeatedly at high risk of having to pay it.

Say I have a $50mil rebuy, and $250mil CR, and not engaged in PvP Combat. It is extreemly unlikely that I would burn through eight rebuys before I could earn enough money to cover additional rebuys.

If I'm engaged in PvP Combat as my primary game play then I have a problem, because I really only have opportunity for expenses that I cannot replenish.

If I am not engaged in PvP Combat as my primary game play then most of my activities generate income with infrequent unplanned expenses, and once I have the ship and modules that I desire, I have very few meaningful expenses at all.

 

[Mohrgan]

The idea of needing billions in-game to enjoy the game is pretty much dispelled by Yamiks video at the top of this thread. Did anyone see anything other than an AspX or SRV? Just how much in the way of credits do you need for a maxed out AspX with an SRV? Billions?

OP made an entire twelve plus minute video with E|D beauty shots through out with a ship with a six million credit initial purchase. My explorer AspX tops out at seventeen million. How much of a grind is there to get twenty or thirty million in-game now? When the rewards for playing a game outweigh just playing a game who's fault is that exactly?

 

[Eldragon]

The idea of needing billions in-game to enjoy the game is pretty much dispelled by Yamiks video at the top of this thread. Did anyone see anything other than an AspX or SRV? Just how much in the way of credits do you need for a maxed out AspX with an SRV? Billions?

OP made an entire twelve plus minute video with E|D beauty shots through out with a ship with a six million credit initial purchase. My explorer AspX tops out at seventeen million. How much of a grind is there to get twenty or thirty million in-game now? When the rewards for playing a game outweigh just playing a game who's fault is that exactly?

You clearly missed the entire point of the video. In fact the video explicitly calls out your mentality and mocks it.

 

[Mohrgan]

You clearly missed the entire point of the video. In fact the video explicitly calls out your mentality and mocks it.

And I intended to mock right back. Answer the question. Why the need for billions? Envy?

Pre-mocking doesn't excuse the point.

 

[verminstar]

And I intended to mock right back. Answer the question. Why the need for billions? Envy?

Pre-mocking doesn't excuse the point.

Why do you care why someone else wants billions? Why should they justify it at all?

 

[Mohrgan]

Why do you care why someone else wants billions? Why should they justify it at all?

I don't. I've said it plenty of times, that if people want to run the get-rich-quick-schemes they are welcomes to do it. What I am pointing out, is don't go blaming FD for the Grind if you do it to yourself. There is no real 'Need', it's a matter of 'Want'. As in my post above, you can be a famous video maker with an AspX and an SRV. Billions, only of you want to.

 

[Yamiks]

The idea of needing billions in-game to enjoy the game is pretty much dispelled by Yamiks video at the top of this thread. Did anyone see anything other than an AspX or SRV? Just how much in the way of credits do you need for a maxed out AspX with an SRV? Billions?

OP made an entire twelve plus minute video with E|D beauty shots through out with a ship with a six million credit initial purchase. My explorer AspX tops out at seventeen million. How much of a grind is there to get twenty or thirty million in-game now? When the rewards for playing a game outweigh just playing a game who's fault is that exactly?

ok .. soo you cant deny that a huge part of ED is in the fact that ships create part of that experience.. soo having so many sdhips behind the rank system and grind wall does get in the way of enjoying ALL that this game has to offer!

 

[Hellakitty]

ok .. soo you cant deny that a huge part of ED is in the fact that ships create part of that experience.. soo having so many sdhips behind the rank system and grind wall does get in the way of enjoying ALL that this game has to offer!

Of course it gets in the way of enjoying the game.

You can't hilariously gangbang ram an Elite NPC Anaconda to death with a wing of your friends in Cobras. You can in Corvettes. There's nothing better than steaming into a CZ in a bright pink Corvette and being the very antithesis of sci-fi space battles like something out of an aborted Rocket League clone. An engineered FdL screaming it's wide arcs of hellfire death and destruction are great fun. Getting stuck on the toast rack every damn time with that Beluga is hilarious to your friends outside the station watching you because you claimed this was the one time you were going to make it in unscathed. ExploraCutters now get 40LY range, making them very viable. Why not chart the distant stars in ultimate luxury and look fricking awesome with a ship kit while doing it.

New ship unlocks = fun.
New ship unlocks = potentially more £££ for Fdev from the store.

 

[Faybs]

I think the root cause here is that the game is so huge, and there are so few distinct types of things to do (really, it all comes down to "go to a specific spot and do a single, simple thing") that it becomes repetitive fairly fast. Once you're good at doing all the things, the only thing left to do is go for the high score. What's the number that you can make go up? your credit balance. And so people become fixated on making money, even long after there's nothing left to spend it on. The only fix I can think of is for FDev to devise new game mechanics (original ones, not more places to point your ship at and hold a button, or shoot at piñata until it gives up the goodies). The guardian puzzles was a good step in that direction, but of course they ran that into the ground as well. I think if they can introduce a brand new, novel game mechanic at least once a year most people will stop obsessing over their balance and play the new games.