What do the player base think of the multiplayer element of Elite Dangerous?

[Screemonster]

Elite lacks a LFG tag, which other multiplayer games have considered standard for years. The multicrew finder is... pretty poor in that regard.
Of course, given certain elements of the playerbase, it'd probably have to come with actual prohibitions on using it to find gank targets, like at an actual minimum being banned from using the party finder if you use it to group up with someone then immediately leave the group and open fire on them.

Hell, one of the things I hear about that effectively killed random multicrew was the risk that every so often you'd just get some jerk who just fired off as many SCBs or heatsinks as possible before they got kicked.

 

[metatheurgist]

Hell, one of the things I hear about that effectively killed random multicrew was the risk that every so often you'd just get some jerk who just fired off as many SCBs or heatsinks as possible before they got kicked.

Part of that stupidity is the inability to determine who actually gets control of what. Don't know if they fixed that....

 

[Riverside]

Part of that stupidity is the inability to determine who actually gets control of what. Don't know if they fixed that....

Some switches were added in the right HUD panel to lock down what a crew member can access, they are visible when multicrew is enabled. I have used crew a lot by inviting a friend or being invited onto their ship via telepresence and since Odyssey, physically entered teammates ships & they have entered mine, although with physical multicrew generally only used it in the current instance on a planet surface. There is a switch to lock out team members joining your ship too.

I've not used the 'looking for crew' option for years, don't trust my knowledge of it's limitations enough to trust a random not to cause me trouble. Same with physical multicrew & swapping instances. If it fails it's really inconvenient so I tend to not do it at all.

 

[ethelred]

Thre design focus seems to be away from MP, that's for sure.

It might be invigorated with some MP only content, such as (stands well back from lit firework) Powerplay but really the issue is with infrastructure, instancing etc. Unless wings and so on are less janky these days? The lack of tools to find like minded people (in game) also indicates that it's not a priority.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

You can look at that another way, it combines the best of both worlds, a single player game effected by a multiplayer universe.

O7

Solo is agimped MP game stripped of a MP. Solo is like playing Battlefield with bots.

 

[Darrack]

It might be invigorated with some MP only content, such as (stands well back from lit firework) Powerplay

Spoiler: Dont go there!

O7

 

[ethelred]

Spoiler: Dont go there!

O7

I haven't played bingo for a while so....

o7

 

[Brrokk]

...

Hell, one of the things I hear about that effectively killed random multicrew was the risk that every so often you'd just get some jerk who just fired off as many SCBs or heatsinks as possible before they got kicked.

I remember someone in the forum boasting about doing exactly that. This is why we can't have nice things. A multicrew reputation system would help; if we could give feedback for one another after a multi session and set a feedback score threshold for matchmaking.

 

[Darrack]

if we could give feedback for one another after a multi session and set a feedback score threshold for matchmaking.

Just like the cesspit that is social media this would get abused, sadly.

O7

 

[sidereal6]

a PvE/PvP board similar to the ground combat board. Players either join as a group or can join empty groups and fill seats

I think that sounds like a great idea. I’d like to add to it: I think FDev should make the mission script system open source.

This doesn’t mean that any random person would be able to create a (poorly designed) mission and it would show up in your game, any more than Linux being open source means that you suddenly get badly written code on your computer. People submit code changes for review, and Linus approves them.

What I suggest is that FDev publish the mission script specification. Community members would write missions and post them here in the forum. The community would debug them (just by sight, without a debugger) and particularly good/popular missions would bubble up for fdevs review.

Even if FDev only agreed to look at the one most popular mission submission each month, that’d be a huge improvement to the game, because the community would come up with really cool ideas.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

I think the coop RES / CZ in ship combat works really well (ignoring network issues) the thargoid stuff especially has been great but even killing pirates or military ships is fun.

trading , exploration etc does not really work for me, if i am doing that i normally just chat with mates on comms and whilst we are in a wing to get the wing bonus should we happen to be at the same place at the same time i generally consider all that stuff single player. (its too hard to defend against attacks and what not - i find the wing beacon too unreliable.
on foot shizzle i have not really given a proper go with friends yet. until recently i was the only one who had Oddy.

PVP is not part of my game........ but i have had a lot of fun in CQC, but it just needs fleshing out... more maps, more modes and bots for those who want them (gears of war does a good job here of catering for all) (Has CQC been fixed yet? i had 7 other mates all geared up for some CQC fun - a few of them were even gonna buy oddy to do it, then people on these forums posted it has been broken for months with radio silence from FD)

I like the idea of the BGS, and have enjoyed plenty of CGs... could be fleshed out of course, i would love to have to supply raw materials to allow access to get the pinacle stuff which is needed for a CG if in a big ship etc (so as to keep the production line running and not just exhaust all supplies locally)..... so sure it could be better but it is still pretty good and i have spent a lot of time enjoying CGs as well as flipping a few systems

 

[[PS4 Pro - PC] earthtone99]

The only thing I don’t really like, is that instances are kind of locked in, & refresh upon dropping out of SC.
I think ED is the only space game without escort missions, just imagine winging up with buddies and flying alongside something that’s actually moving somewhere and defending it along its routing.

 

[LuxDez]

I really want ED to be online, but unfortunately it's just a game with possible co-op.
Yes, there is an "open" in the game, but meeting someone in this game is very rare. There are almost no ways and reasons for interaction between players. Every player who plays more than a week, has more than a billion in his account, can afford any ship, and he does not care about others, because he works with engineers.
Thargoid warfare is the only working mechanic for meeting other players, you can destroy both targoids and players.
Can this be fixed? Yes, it is enough for the FD to remember the mechanics that are already in the game and balance them. For example, mining asteroids and trading has no reward other than making unnecessary money. Faction warfare is completely useless. The ships have no value. Now it all looks perfect for a single player, but it makes the online mode completely useless.
It makes no difference how many legs the commander has, how many motherships attack the bubble, and how many announcements there are on the mission board if there are no tools for interaction between players.

 

[Brrokk]

I really want ED to be online, but unfortunately it's just a game with possible co-op.
Yes, there is an "open" in the game, but meeting someone in this game is very rare. There are almost no ways and reasons for interaction between players. Every player who plays more than a week, has more than a billion in his account, can afford any ship, and he does not care about others, because he works with engineers.
Thargoid warfare is the only working mechanic for meeting other players, you can destroy both targoids and players.
Can this be fixed? Yes, it is enough for the FD to remember the mechanics that are already in the game and balance them. For example, mining asteroids and trading has no reward other than making unnecessary money. Faction warfare is completely useless. The ships have no value. Now it all looks perfect for a single player, but it makes the online mode completely useless.
It makes no difference how many legs the commander has, how many motherships attack the bubble, and how many announcements there are on the mission board if there are no tools for interaction between players.

I think it's just the size of the galaxy. If you want to meet up with people you have to organise it. It's not like just being in a town tavern in other MMOs.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Every player who plays more than a week, has more than a billion in his account, can afford any ship,

Not this player... and its not that i dont want a fleet carrier one day, its just that i refuse to hammer exploity loopholes to make money.

My CMDR is not poor, but the rare time i lose a ship i still really feel it.... but you to tickle on one of the problems in Elite.

a massive unbalance money maker emerges... SOME players flock to it, others think its cheap so dont.

a short while down the road the players who are now multi billionaires are salty because they have nothing to spend their money on and ask for unicorn content which is really expensive to buy to use those credits

which makes those players who DONT want to cheese the game salty because 5 billion credits is an insane amount of cash.

I have no idea how FD can balance that lot now.

 

[Muzz UK]

The only thing I don’t really like, is that instances are kind of locked in, & refresh upon dropping out of SC.
I think ED is the only space game without escort missions, just imagine winging up with buddies and flying alongside something that’s actually moving somewhere and defending it along its routing.

I've always wondered why there is no escort or protect mission in a space game like Elite. I think Frontier have tried to implement something akin to it with the scenarios and wave defence on ground but these aren't the same. The scenario mission is go to a structure choose a side attackers/defenders and kill waves. There's actually nothing to protect as the NPCs don't really target the stations or bases in any sense. As attackers you don't need to destory the strucutre but can shoot at it. The on foot ground ones are fun but there's only a defender mechanic you never assault. Again none of these ever involve other players as there's no mechanic in game to show you where other players are.

I'd like to see a mission where by players group up to destory a mega ship or bulk carrier for example and players on the other side defend it. If engineering balance is a problem why not just loan players a ship, there's no issue getting in and out of Apex transport.... or lend a group of 4 players a ship to pilot and control. With a pvp/pve mission board created players doing these missions could actually be pitted against eachother. Wouldn't work with the current BGS/war state model as there's far too many star systems. Go to a mission board in one of five hub systems. Queue for a mission in the attack or defend group 15 minute cooldown open only mission starts and away you go. Obviously disconnecting and instancing does create problems but I rarely get issues joining the same RES or CONFLICT as others could just create zones like that.

 

[Muzz UK]

Elite lacks a LFG tag, which other multiplayer games have considered standard for years. The multicrew finder is... pretty poor in that regard.
Of course, given certain elements of the playerbase, it'd probably have to come with actual prohibitions on using it to find gank targets, like at an actual minimum being banned from using the party finder if you use it to group up with someone then immediately leave the group and open fire on them.

Hell, one of the things I hear about that effectively killed random multicrew was the risk that every so often you'd just get some jerk who just fired off as many SCBs or heatsinks as possible before they got kicked.

On the multi crew front its still very very limited pilot has 80% of the work and the other works done by turrets or fighters. In a large ship a 4th player essentially has very little or nothing to do in my experience. Given the currenty flight mechanics what task could a 4th player actually undertake? There isn't a mechanic for ship repair that would probably be OP...... I mean the only thing I can thing of is on foot boarding

 

[Darrack]

If engineering balance is a problem why not just loan players a ship

Would rather not have anything that tries to balance ships/engineering around PvP, it always ends in tears, especially when it will effect PVE.
Having a separate instance where this could happen like CQC would be an idea for those who like pew pew, but i think it would just end up the same way with little to no interest.

O7

 

[LuxDez]

Not this player... and its not that i dont want a fleet carrier one day, its just that i refuse to hammer exploity loopholes to make money.

My CMDR is not poor, but the rare time i lose a ship i still really feel it.... but you to tickle on one of the problems in Elite.

a massive unbalance money maker emerges... SOME players flock to it, others think its cheap so dont.

a short while down the road the players who are now multi billionaires are salty because they have nothing to spend their money on and ask for unicorn content which is really expensive to buy to use those credits

which makes those players who DONT want to cheese the game salty because 5 billion credits is an insane amount of cash.

I have no idea how FD can balance that lot now.

My main thought is the lack of interaction between players in the process of earning money, and other aspects of the game.

For example, 4 cmdrs went to destroy pirates or targoids - each of them is autonomous, and cannot help an ally in any way except for the quick destruction of the enemy. There is no way to assemble an auxiliary type 9 that will replenish ammunition, without this any repair is useless and players need to fly to the station.

Or I decided to deliver goods - I am completely autonomous, I have no reason to cooperate with people, my actions will not affect anything except my wallet. A very artisanal interaction is only present in asteroid mining, when someone collects minerals with drones, and someone mines asteroids.

 

[ethelred]

This is pure dynamite but a rework of PP could act as hubs for PvP activity.

It could be used as a framework for weekly* CG like event where each power is doing mining, delivery etc against another power.

In an ideal world that would create a meaningful PvP hub where the whole range of skills are used, but I'm sure we'd find a way to break it.

Having an optional PvP (and Open only) specific activity doesn't seem something they're keen on either to be fair.

The same with PP powers being "clans" in effect, very low interest from Fdev