What's Wrong With Elite.

Let me start off by saying I'm a bit of a defender of Frontier and Elite: Dangerous. And I am NOT a backer, player or fan of Star Citizen. To be honest, I have no intention of playing the game, though when it's released and if it's decently optimised, I might give it a whirl. But the other night at 4am or somesuch I came across this video.

[video=youtube;Ab9q5ZQw20M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ab9q5ZQw20M[/video]

It's a guy. Doing a cargo run. That's it. He hauling stuff from A to B. And honestly, it made me relook at our own game and the problems with it. He's just going to A and flying that stuff back to B and it's more exciting than anything I've come across in ED outside of first contact videos last year.

Because there's a sense of tension, an immersion he isn't even aiming for and would probably laugh at me for suggesting he was immersed. But he was, it's in every syllable he speaks.

We lack that, and I think we lack it for a few reasons when doing missions or hauling cargo. Modes are definitely a part of it (and I'm a long-time defender of keeping the modes, I'm not suggesting we pull them, but I am re-examining my ideas on what would happen if we did) and I don't think I could play that tense all the time. Space Legs is another part of it, and I think this video goes some way (to me at least) as to part of what Space Legs brings, even with little extra gameplay. That sense of vulnerability when you leave your space-tank. I think brighter (and more objective) people should look at this and figure what (if anything) we should be looking to learn from it.

Obisidian Ant's video is also part of what this thread is answering. I don't think we'd be in such a rush to earn money if earning it was more fun.

[video=youtube;5G0nXeYYUQM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5G0nXeYYUQM&feature=youtu.be[/video]

I still love the game (even if I am taking a break from it) but I think some things could be better.
 
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Let me start off by saying I'm a bit of a defender of Frontier and Elite: Dangerous. And I am NOT a backer, player or fan of Star Citizen. To be honest, I have no intention of playing the game, though when it's released and if it's decently optimised, I might give it a whirl. But the other night at 4am or somesuch I came across this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ab9q5ZQw20M

It's a guy. Doing a cargo run. That's it. He hauling stuff from A to B. And honestly, it made me relook at our own game and the problems with it. He's just going to A and flying that stuff back to B and it's more exciting than anything I've come across in ED outside of first contact videos last year.

Because there's a sense of tension, an immersion he isn't even aiming for and would probably laugh at me for suggesting he was immersed. But he was, it's in every syllable he speaks.

We lack that, and I think we lack it for a few reasons when doing missions or hauling cargo. Modes are definitely a part of it (and I'm a long-time defender of keeping the modes, I'm not suggesting we pull them, but I am re-examining my ideas on what would happen if we did) and I don't think I could play that tense all the time. Space Legs is another part of it, and I think this video goes some way (to me at least) as to part of what Space Legs brings, even with little extra gameplay. That sense of vulnerability when you leave your space-tank. I think brighter (and more objective) people should look at this and figure what (if anything) we should be looking to learn from it.

Obisidian Ant's video is also part of what this thread is answering. I don't think we'd be in such a rush to earn money if earning it was more fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5G0nXeYYUQM&feature=youtu.be

I still love the game (even if I am taking a break from it) but I think some things could be better.

I'm starting to think the odd un-accidental gold rush could be a good thing. Not by accident however.
 
Just play the game (or don't) - maybe a game that leads you by the nose is more your style ?

I get that sentiment. I've been playing since Alpha, so obviously I like the game. But I wouldn't disagree there's things that could be improved, especially now we're past the three year mark since 1.0. I think Beyond is going some way to improving the game and hopefully the next paid expansions will add some things in. But some basic things like grinding missions are worth looking at.
 
I'm starting to think the odd un-accidental gold rush could be a good thing. Not by accident however.

well there SHOULD be gold rush type things as in real life, which dry up as the availability of the newly discovered stuff reduces, or becomes harder to get. this is why i prefer pristine when mining. but you never really get a real gold rush in mining, where you stumble into a ring with most of the roids pure low temp diamond, and the place you foudn them becomes a persistent 'gold rush res' for a while. THAT would be exciting, especially when the 'pirate lord' players turn up in open. not that i would be in open myself, but different strokes and all that.
 
well there SHOULD be gold rush type things as in real life, which dry up as the availability of the newly discovered stuff reduces, or becomes harder to get. this is why i prefer pristine when mining. but you never really get a real gold rush in mining, where you stumble into a ring with most of the roids pure low temp diamond, and the place you foudn them becomes a persistent 'gold rush res' for a while. THAT would be exciting, especially when the 'pirate lord' players turn up in open. not that i would be in open myself, but different strokes and all that.

I know real gold rushes for miners are a thing that's supposed to be in Beyond later in the year. The ol' 'hitting the mother load'.
 
It's just a usual stream trying to hype SC to be more than what it currently is, a single system collection of cryengine framed levels , severely buggy and slow and perpetually at a pre-alpha state year after year. The illusion is that SC can do this in a large workable scope of ED, when it currently can't be done otherwise ED would already have spacelegs gameplay combined with what we have now with ED 3.0.1 beyond. This promulgated illusion is basically the biggest ponzi ever seen on kickstarter and the crowd funding scene where over 150 million has been wasted or recycled into expensive techdemos and trailer dreams and over a dozen of cig-arrets shell companies around the globe to stuff and funnel cash when the shtf day comes.

www.dereksmart.com

I believe ED will get there to that "immersive" cryengine-glossy look someday (already a great job in seated view now with beyond 3.0.1) in fp & rpg combined with what we have now, but it may take years , a decade or even more.
 
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I definitely find myself agreeing with every point made by ObsidianAnt. I did participate in the skimmer gold rush but got bored once I had amassed 440 mil. I went back to my home system and bought an Anaconda, outfitted it for Deep Space exploration, and set off to do what I really wanted.
 
Yes, the mission system really needs a good overhaul. The past few credit fountains are from stacking missions from mode switching. They could just make missions persist across the modes instead each having their own.
Or ... if you take a mission in open, you complete it in open.

Some other random thoughts from my experience with the mission system:

In terms of rewards... yeah make some of the in game activities more meaningful or rewarding ... I once stumbled on a signal and found some escape pods... I got some measly pay for that ... not even enough for a ship re-buy. Now when I see those... I just don't bother.

In game messages for time bonuses ... the pay for the extra effort is laughable and I don't bother with them at all.

Assassinate pirate lords... so I am given a planet to search for them ... after 20 mins (sometimes more) flying around I find the mission signal source ... fun?
 
I get that sentiment. I've been playing since Alpha, so obviously I like the game. But I wouldn't disagree there's things that could be improved, especially now we're past the three year mark since 1.0. I think Beyond is going some way to improving the game and hopefully the next paid expansions will add some things in. But some basic things like grinding missions are worth looking at.

Agreed, but in this game you make your own gameplay. Personally, I am playing the Ram Tah missions, and engaging in having tech broker items, each to their own I guess, but one thing this game is nos not, is a first person shooter :D
 
i'll tell you what's wrong with elite: the game design team. which is a shame, elite being a game.

other than that, it has some damn cool aspects, and could be so much frikken better ...

but as others said: that's just how it is, play the game or don't, video celebrities are irrelevant.
 
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Maybe I'm missing something because I watched it without audio and skipped parts of it, but it seems pretty basic space trucking stuff, not fundamentally different from what we have.

But yes, a big part of what makes it look cool is the space legs. Although it serves to emphasise an issue ED also has - a marked lack of NPC crew of any kind. Watch him be all alone on that huge ship of his... imagine what it would be like if he had an NPC pilot he could leave to the helm while he goes around inspecting cargo (or whatever) or if he had a bunch of bodyguards to escort him while he visits the trading outpost.

The right way to make trading actually interesting would be to implement real economics, so that you can actually play the markets and not just be a hauler. It's an A to B grind because that's how it's been implemented (in ED at least, I don't know of SC's deeper plan for the economy)

Basic A to B hauling could only be interesting to me if the flight / navigation used actual orbital mechanics, but neither SC nor ED seem interested in that. It's just point your ship at the destination and beeline it there, while ignoring any real physics that could get in the way.
 
I've played a bit of SC 3.0 since it came out.

Its almost there tbh. Considering where both games are going to be in 12 months time I think that will be it for Elite.
 
Theres a lot wrong with ED, but theres also a lot it does right, and without breaking any of the forum rules as to what I think is wrong with it as that falls within them I leave it here.
 
Ugh! I think your video had the OPPOSITE effect to the one you intended...
Whilst I LOVE ELite...there is (it would be foolish to deny) ALOT wrong with it...
And I've held out a sneaky hope that just MAYBE Star Citizen could offer MORE of what I wanted...after all its protracted development period COULD imply...that it will be more complex, fleshed out and immersive...
So...her you post a video talking about a simple Cargo Hauling run being MORE immersive...I'm excited...
What am i hoping for...
Complex navigation and Systems, complex flight, detailed comm's and Air Traffic Control, realistic Flight Procedures around stations etc etc...you know an actual sense of FLYING a space ship...
What do we get Elite...but with what looks like a man in a suit of armour running up to the spaceship to get in...
WHAT a dissapointment...
Oh and a reminder to everyone that Bangs on about Space Legs...look at it... ARE you thinking???
 
I can imagine how quickly a lot of people will get bored of having to walk/run through your ship every time to get to the cockpit to take off and leave a starport (and vice versa). Some people in this game don't even want to have to dock in the first place or even use SC.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to be able to walk around my ship and around starports, but the novelty will wear off quickly if there is no interesting gameplay associated with it.
 
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