What do YOU do in E:D? +Suggestions for the future

[Samu]

I'd like to start a discussion about things we could do to take up our time in Elite. It has been said over and over that we can do whatever we'd like and simply write our own story, though I'd like to ask how this has been interpreted by everyone whilst playing. I'm asking for purely constructive replies about what people have found themselves doing and looking forward to spending their time doing. Also, being as realistic as possible could we come up with some suggestions of what could be put into the game to help ward off boredom in the future.

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I'll start off by admitting I am starting to feel repetitiveness in bounty hunting; this is significant to me as (whilst I made my millions doing it) I find trading to be soul-draining, but that is my personal taste and it would be the same in any game.

• Personally I think this could be made better with more involvement of other players. As much as some people don't see the positive side of PVP, it definitely brings significantly more variability to fights.
• My other idea was USSs brought on by certain pirate hunting missions that spawn multiple waves of enemies, explained as the enemy calling for back-up as they die or get low. Back-up is only something I have seen called with the system's security. This wouldn't necessary mean the mission would be less repetitive, but I know that when I take on most missions Its going to involve searching for USSs over and over and it becomes mentally draining.
• Less chance of receiving a counter-offer, again particularly for the 'go there and kill these things' missions. Whilst I really like the feature and any forks in missions are greatly appreciated, whenever I accept these missions I know that the first USS I find will be that counter offer, and I already know what I'm going to do and (assuming I decline) its just a waste of time for me that I have to keep repeating.

Mining has loads of potential to be great!

• Though I think that where it is currently falling down on is that it mostly appeals to people who also wouldn't mind trading, and trading is simply the most profitable thing in the game right now, I digress this is just a balancing issue that I think will be sorted out in the upcoming months.
• Some kind of tractor beam to aid in collecting mined ore.
• I also think it would be a great thing to do in groups. It allows for people to mine, with friends acting as security and someone scooping up ore and taking it to the station to sell etc. Though currently there isn't any way to share the profits within a group, maybe this will be coming in the Wings expansion.

Exploration: Before I even got the game, my first goal was to go to Earth. Why? Because I wanted to! I've since got my permit, had a look around and am very satisfied, even travelled 2.1 million light years into deep space to find something shiny. I found it a fun and game-enriching experience. Though as far as exploration goes after that, is there more that could be added into the game for us to go and find? Maybe even super rare equipment that can't be bought in any market?

As far as the money grind goes, I'm aiming for the Python to make my dream bounty hunting ship.

What ideas do you guys have?

 

[SpacialKatana]

I would so love to be a mod for these forums...

Nice sentiment etc, but it's all been said before...many times...

Happy Xmas.

 

[Samu]

I would so love to be a mod for these forums...

Nice sentiment etc, but it's all been said before...many times...

Happy Xmas.

I'm yet to see any that didn't instantly turn into a war about if the thread starter needs to find an imagination or not, so I'm trying to find a very real list of things to do in the game. Mostly to stop myself from becoming bored too quickly.

-Merry Christmas to you too!

 

[Vasea Azure]

That's funny, I was just about to post the same thread.
Anyway... what I do in ED?
Trading it's not for me so I will not go back to that soon. My main income is hunting wanted NPC`s in my Cobra - still not getting bored and the money is really good for my needs.
Elite is a big planetarium for me at the moment so I'm mostly flying all over the place visiting known stars, looking for something unusual etc. Right now I`m on my way to visit one of the closest nebulas. During the trip I`m making longer stops to scan unknown systems and hunt more wanted guys.
I would not mind human interaction, but I`m at the outskirt of the human systems now so I`m all alone.
For the future I will try PvP, meanwhile I'm pretty sure FD will give us some new stuff to try.

 

[Zephyr]

Trying to pirate, but failing since the universe is apparently completely devoid of players.

 

[Billy Chase]

Thus far I have done a bit of mining, quite a lot of exploration and trading, and absolutely zero combat related stuff. Recently I have chosen a backwater agricultural world that I have begun to support as much as possible. I do bulletin board missions constantly, which not only provides generous income but also made me an ally to the main faction. My commander has chosen this as his new home so he likes to make sure it's a nice place to stay. He has even chosen where on the planet he wants to live when his space-faring days are over.

In the foreseeable future my commander will be off to the unknown with the First Great Expedition, probably spending months of real life time beyond the frontier.

Personally I feel the game already provides ample opportunity to keep busy with a little imagination. If you look back at Frontier or FFE, there really wasn't much more substance and despite this I spent years playing both of these games. Certainly there's ways to improve this game and I'm sure some or all of these will be implemented with time. Some items on my wish-list:
- Improved exploration mechanics, especially an actual effect of wear and tear forcing teamwork if one wants to go very far.
- More different types of bulletin board missions, e.g. passenger missions, exploration missions, mining missions, ...
- Lots of small "cosmetic" improvements such as reducing the transition time between supercruise and normal flight to increase immersion.

 

[Camino Archer]

I trade till I have enough money for an asp, then I explore. Actually I might wait to explore till after they put in the planet landing module because the threads I have been reading about exploring seem pretty dull. Should have had Planetary landing from the get go...The Original did and its what made the game Unique...I plan to find me a far out planet to strip of minerals and gems with my Rovers...Just like I did in the Original.

 

[Archvillain]

My vague plan at the moment is I'll trade to gain money for upgrades, trade bigger, then when I can afford the nice gear, go exploring, maybe transitioning to that via mining which seems like a way to make money while moving towards exploration.

For the future, I would like it if I could eventually aspire to finding an empty system and building my very own small station there. Maybe you can't have more than one. Maybe you get a tiny cut of any player trading that happens at your station. Maybe if there's not enough trade to sustain it, it goes dormant unless you ship in supplies yourself. Maybe...

Basically, I'd like to find a nice little location in the frontier that I can call home

 

[Cmdr. Alhazred]

I mine, and I find it very rewarding. I also do smuggling runs, and I find buying cheap slaves from the Empire and smuggling them into stations in Federation space is very, very profitable, if a bit pricey on fuel. I mostly do that for excitement though! When the tedium of mining wares thin. I've been making my fortune though in the asteroid fields of many systems. It strikes me if one was to mix mining with exploration, you could have some success, if done right. It would likely be more time consuming than just space trucking in the trade game though.

Mining is a ballet dance, and comes with plenty of danger. I've usually got a mixed Mining/Combat rig set up, so that I can cash in on bounties on those free booters that come looking to me for a bit of easy money. I was nearly killed by an Asteroid once too, so anyone who says mining is easy, hasn't tried it yet. Between dedicated combat, such as Pirating or Bounty hunting, and dedicated trade; the life of a Miner/Smuggler suits me best. It has all the good highs and lows.

 

[Zaerion]

Im trying to be a player bounty hunter but im failing rly hard since game does not let me "play my way" with other players
I would love to be a pirate of human players but... well.. did i said that the game does not let me "play my way"?

I even would do some space trucking but... well.. i could go completly harmless and with no shields that i would arrive to my destination without a scrach so.. whats the point? ...

 

[J.M.Braehe]

Deleted incomplete post. Infant pressed the wring button before post was complete and can't be asked to retype on my phone.

 

[Starender]

i find the game to be very good right now, and i have faith for the future


all i want is a ship that is specialized in fight and can explore, around 150 hull mass

 

[Zaerion]

i find the game to be very good right now, and i have faith for the future


all i want is a ship that is specialized in fight and can explore, around 150 hull mass

yea nice , then the " real " usefull ships would be reduced to one if you are not trading focused... plz no , we already have viper and cobra and you can burn the game in those 2 , you dont even need to get an asp or a phyton , there is just no reason to get one of those... because there is no pvp and there is not PVE cos the harderst NPC atm can be killed in a viper with eyes closed.

 

[javac]

Happy Xmas all!

ATM i'm doing ok and loving the game, pulling in enough through trading in my lakon-6. Problem I've got is there's no 6-8mill cred valued ship to expand to. basically, I need to stay in the type 6 until I get a lakon type 7 at 17mill. not sure I can stomach making several hundred trips following the good but now stale trade route to get the next step up. I'm caught in having a wonderful trade route with no alternative right now. Maybe I'll grab a fighter and try bounty hunting but my goal was to get a ship I could call my mobile home, go exploring and spend a week in one area before moving on to another the next week, heading outwards into the deep beyond, hopefully, unlike another poster, to find I'm the only one there. To see that I was the only one passing through in the last 24hrs etc would be cool. Sadly, I'd have to drop the trade route and go in a cobra which is not my fave ship (it's kinda meh for my tastes).

I liked mining in EvE as something to do when bored, and might give it a go. Hunting might also be something fun but again not sure if it will make the creds. I was doing great in beta with missions but now I can't seem to match the trade route. maybe sticking to one group might help though? Anyway, I'm so keen on getting more mid-level ships as the grind from a cobra to a lakon 6 is bad-ish but the one from the 6 is even worse.

 

[anikaiful]

What I do in ED? Depends... at times explore, at times trade, at times poke my nose into USS and see what's there - sort of progressing upwards with Empire reputation and ranks, but I'm in no rush and get easily sidetracked to do something else than what I was doing before in the game - trader changes into explorer the moment I see "unexplored" objects, for example...

 

[Starender]

yea nice , then the " real " usefull ships would be reduced to one if you are not trading focused... plz no , we already have viper and cobra and you can burn the game in those 2 , you dont even need to get an asp or a phyton , there is just no reason to get one of those... because there is no pvp and there is not PVE cos the harderst NPC atm can be killed in a viper with eyes closed.

i don't want big ships, i don't like trading

i want a really costy 150 hull mass ship specialized in fight who can explore to, i surely never will have it anyway since the Cobra exists and everyone seems to own one, but i don't like to be a clone so, i wait...

 

[Hellhawk666]

I spend as much time exploring as possible, funding it from selling exploration data and doing occasional trade runs or missions. The accumulation of wealth as such is unimportant to me except as a way to fit out my ship for better exploration. Currently I'm flying a Cobra with maxed FSD, thrusters, power plant, shields, fuelscoop, scanners and beam lasers. Eventually I'll upgrade to an Asp for the extra jump range, but I'm in no hurry. Flying out in the deep black is my passion - each time I get back I just want to be out there again.

As for what I'd like to see in the game, apart from the big promised landing and first person expansions, a better level of group co-op mechanics would have to top the list. I do feel that the game is slightly directionless at the moment and the precise mechanisms of how group play would happen were never properly addressed in the design stages. The DDF proposals that helped shape the game concentrated heavily on the individual player's experience and hardly touched on group play aspects at all. The one big proposal on groups and alliances has only been implemented in a very simplifed and incomplete manner.

I get the feeling that FD just sort of hoped the group play thing would all fall together, driven by the players. That has happened to an extent, but there are critical mechanisms that are lacking to support it. The communications system is misguided in its design and tedious to use, which is dreadful in a multiplayer game. FD seem to have an almost pathological fear of even the word "guild" and whilst I completely agree that guilds per se are not required in this game I do feel that
FD are doing the game a misservice by not supporting at least a basic level of group activity.

For example, the simple ability to share bounties so two or more players can co-operatively take on assassination or combat missions would be a great addition, as would the ability for two players to share a trade contract, each transporting part of the consignment. The ability to form wings or squadrons so group jumps and encounters can be co-ordinated would also be welcome, and the ability for individuals or groups to build small ouposts would expand the possibilities for emergent gameplay.

 

[javac]

I spend as much time exploring as possible, funding it from selling exploration data


Can you make a few mill credits a day doing this, exploring and selling data? if so, I might try it. I don't fancy just being a trader indefinitely. it'll get boring way to quick.

 

[Samu]

Problem I've got is there's no 6-8mill cred valued ship to expand to.

Try the ASP, it has more cargo space than the Type 6

 

[Shepard]

I tried everything as you have OP. And right now I am back to trading because its the most consistent way of making money. Other things are more fun but after you realize how much time is wasted and you've only made 5% of what you could have made by trading you get frustrated and go back to boring trading. I feel financially punished when I have fun in ED. It's just weird but its true. It feels like if you want to have any financial progress in ED the devs made an effort to force you to grind and be bored. What gives... I'd rather participate in military conflicts have fun, help to turn the wheels of fate so to speak but if I do that I eventually realize that I just spent a whole day shooting ships and nothing much changed...

So I guess in its current state you have to mix and mash to not get bored. Trade some, then go do some bounty hunting after get bored, then after that go do some mining... go back to trading... Rinse, repeat. You'll have an average profit made but nowhere close to what you'd have made if you just traded all that time.