Waiting 300 seconds to download data... so I wrote this post in the meantime

The Reverend

The Reverend
ferus said:
What kind of gameplay is this?
I restored the power in an empty settlement - there are no alarms, no enemies, no danger to be had.

Why do I have to wait 300 seconds doing literally nothing while I download a bunch of data?

I would understand when trying to steal data that it gives a sense of urgency but in an empty settlement?
It's just a waste of time, nothing else.

Ah, another 140 seconds to go...


EDIT: Found another port in the same settlement... another 150 seconds added to waiting time. Fun!
EDIT2: And a third port with a 60 seconds waiting time.

That is 510 seconds, over 8 minutes thankyouverymuch.
Click to expand...

But imagine how shallow and gimmicky the gameplay would feel if it was instant downloads.

/sarcasm.
 

danteuk

danteuk
5mins of doing nothing.
Frontier have been pushing the limits of 'game play' for years.

5mins in supercruise to get to a station - hands off time.
2mins for docking computer to do it's thing - hands off time.
10seconds for black screen teleporter - hands off time
20seconds running across an empty hanger
10seconds in the lift
20seconds running across concourse to a terminal to take a mission ( because we can't access the onfoot missions from our ships - because FDev don't want to waste our time ? )
20seconds running back to lifts
10seconds in lifts
20seconds running across an empty hanger
10seconds for black screen teleporter - hands off time
20seconds for auto launch - hands off time
5mins in supercruise to get to a planet - hands off time.
45 seconds glide to surface - hands off most of the time
1min for docking computer to do it's thing - hands off time.
30seconds running from ship to building
10seconds getting stopped scanned.
Oops, I forgot I'm carrying an e-breach - bang bang I'm dead. Wake up in a prison 200+ly from my ship with 500cr fine.
Now I have the ultimate 'game play' - sit in a taxi with nothing to do while it flies me to a station where I can then sit and wait some more time for my ship to be transferred back to me!!

I can't actually think of any other game ever where you spend so much time doing literally nothing but waiting. Some times it feels like ED might as well be a turn based game.
 

Murfelton

M
Although capping the downloads is needed, another alternative is to greatly increase the download range, with some kind of “communication barrier” around restricted areas. You could walk away from a lot of other ports, and only have the need to wait in areas where there is a gameplay reason (avoiding detection).
 

Ydiss

Ydiss
Murfelton said:
Although capping the downloads is needed, another alternative is to greatly increase the download range, with some kind of “communication barrier” around restricted areas. You could walk away from a lot of other ports, and only have the need to wait in areas where there is a gameplay reason (avoiding detection).
Click to expand...
Yup, I'd like this. It can be driven entirely by restricted areas.
 

Salen

Salen
All I want with data is for it to tell me if it's useful or not. All Components you pick up are useful in making stuff. A lot of data is not though; oh sure it might be worth some money, but do we need 50 different versions of worthless junk data we can sell for cash, especially when we only have a limited space size, unlike normal ship engineering items where you can have 250 of each (usually)?
 

BadCoffee

B
Some of the data download times have been irritating me for a while. Things like long supercruise flights I can deal with because space is big, and even at FTL it takes time to get across a system. That actually makes sense.

But these data downloads? It's a thousand plus years in the future, you can get real time news no matter where in the galaxy you are, and for some reason it takes minutes to pull data, during which time you can't even do anything else because the wireless range is terrible.
IMO it needs to be chopped down to 2 seconds for small individual files, 5 seconds for medium, and 10, maybe 15 seconds tops for the longest ones. More than that is just wasting time for the sake of wasting time. Staring at a wall and yawning or reading the forums for several minutes while waiting for a download to finish is not good gameplay.
 

NUSQUAM

N
Of the time was a hacking program and you could avoid it with an ebreach or higher access I would think it would be fine. Bit a cap of 90 seconds
 

ImmerseMe

I
I just plan my next trip? Research codex stuff? Do inventory?

Honestly one of the main reasons I came to Elite is because it does not constantly stuff activity down my throat. It's actually hard to get away from that.

Try raiding in an MMO sometime, good lord. At least there's no whining here... well nm ;)
 

Kzak

Kzak
Up the budget for the planetary sites. Surely they have better Wi-Fi than Bluetooth from the early 2000s? Or, give us a cable that can be plugged into the dataport, download everything in 10 seconds but requires you to stay put and not move more than 2m away from the dataport.
 

Guyperson

Guyperson
Download time is closely correlated with the credit value of each data item and since it's split into brackets of multiples rather than being linear, it can ramp rapidly. A 1000cr difference can double the time required around say the 60s mark. eg: 14000cr = 30s or 15000cr = 60s
 

Erei

Erei
I'm jealous, the max I had was 2minutes. And you had 300s.
That seems like peak gameplay. Did you happen to have a video of it ? I'd like to see a stream if you do it again. Seems highly enjoyable.
 

Mr T

Mr T
ferus said:
What kind of gameplay is this?
I restored the power in an empty settlement - there are no alarms, no enemies, no danger to be had.
Click to expand...
I've done a bunch of these power on missions now and have NEVER once had pirates come in after me. The only time was in the tutorial. Has anyone else had any baddies drop in? Wondering if it's bugged.
 

Frankymole

Frankymole
ferus said:
What kind of gameplay is this?
I restored the power in an empty settlement - there are no alarms, no enemies, no danger to be had.

Why do I have to wait 300 seconds doing literally nothing while I download a bunch of data?
Click to expand...
Today's ED update took me 2 hours to download, yesterday's took 18 hours. I guess 5 minutes is progress, but I can't see FDev's launcher/servers managing that much progress even in another 1286 years (or whatever it is)...
 

Mr T

Mr T
Frankymole said:
Today's ED update took me 2 hours to download, yesterday's took 18 hours. I guess 5 minutes is progress, but I can't see FDev's launcher/servers managing that much progress even in another 1286 years (or whatever it is)...
Click to expand...
Are you on dial up? Sorry, old person's joke. Seriously though, you need better internet.
 

Frankymole

Frankymole
Mr T said:
Ok, you're using the launcher? Steam doesn't have that issue, not that it helps you.
Click to expand...
Yes, using the launcher for one account and Epic for the other. My two non-Odyssey accounts are on Epic (second free account) and Steam but I didn't update the latter yet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom