Why is the story content wasted?

[Arthur Z.]

I understand, that FD wants to create a living galaxy, but it is such a waste.

It would be great if any new player that joins Elite could play through all the events that happened over the years (e.g. discovering Unknown Artifacts, first Thargoin interdiction, Barnacles, The Guardians, etc.). If you compare it to something like Sea of Thieves, the story content can be played and re-played many times!

While making these events "live" is great for people already playing the game (or living in the game rather), it's an absolute waste for casual players or news players and leaves the game empty for like 99% of the remaining time.

Please FD, can we have all past events bundled into a quest line or something? It's really embarrassing to invite friends to play Elite, and actually having NOTHING for them to do, because they don't know the game, and have no way of experiencing the Elite story to get emotionally started

 

[Santa de Lapland]

Hopefully they will make a single player / offline version for us (and new buyers) just before servers go offline.

It could follow whole Galnet stuff from launch of the game and all CG´s (maybe even with much more easy credits) in very compressed time-line, and still have months or even years to play (just as with Elite´s I remember from 90´s).

We can always hope, and I quess it would be easy last money grab from ED for FD, so who knows...

 

[Achtung-Goomba]

I missed a lot of the good stuff myself as a late-coming console peasant, but the trouble with this is the narrative develops in real-time essentially, so once it’s done, it’s done. I can’t really see a way around that sorry.

 

[Achtung-Goomba]

As for nothing to do, depends on how you see the current narrative threads in Galnet that are part of the story the devs have planned up until the release of Odyssey. Before the Christmas break it was quite heavy on the CGs with the NMLA attacks and subsequent Marlinist crackdown, the supply of the refugees as they fled that, the buildup of naval assets by two of the main superpowers, internal tensions within the Empire and Federation, the upcoming Alliance elections and the effect that the hostile takeover of Lakon by Core Dynamics could have on that, and the return of the Thargoids, with somewhat of a vengeance... all in all, it looks like things might well be heating up in the Bubble and building to some big events if the writers have a bit of courage to shake the galactic landscape a bit!

 

[Speedcuffs]

narrative develops in real-time essentially,

Yes, I get what OP is saying, but you've hit the nail on the head here.
It only really worked at the time because of player involvement and interactions. Working with, or against a lot of other players. Don't think any of it really stands up on its own. Kinda thing.

 

[M00ka]

I think what some are forgetting is just how damn smart segments of the player base are. Whenever FD drops a crumb for their latest 'mystery' there are groups of players who will devote their entire resources to solve the puzzle. So it gets solved within hours not the weeks FD probably envisaged. So really, what chance with an individual Commander have to be the one to solve the latest puzzle when he is up against organizations like Cannonn etc who live for this type of stuff.

 

[Achtung-Goomba]

I think what some are forgetting is just how damn smart segments of the player base are. Whenever FD drops a crumb for their latest 'mystery' there are groups of players who will devote their entire resources to solve the puzzle. So it gets solved within hours not the weeks FD probably envisaged. So really, what chance with an individual Commander have to be the one to solve the latest puzzle when he is up against organizations like Cannonn etc who live for this type of stuff.

We get to live the story vicariously on the forums.

 

[MadDogMurdock]

The closest thing to reliving the story would be the Ram Tah missions, but without outside guidance I’m not sure how new players are supposed to know about them or how to get the Thargoid stuff for the second one.

 

[Jmanis]

I think what some are forgetting is just how damn smart segments of the player base are. Whenever FD drops a crumb for their latest 'mystery' there are groups of players who will devote their entire resources to solve the puzzle. So it gets solved within hours not the weeks FD probably envisaged. So really, what chance with an individual Commander have to be the one to solve the latest puzzle when he is up against organizations like Cannonn etc who live for this type of stuff.

So, this is where FD miss a trick somewhat, and they should be introducing clues via the tip-off system and otherwise "gated" interactions.

For those unfamiliar, a "Tip Off" happens when you complete a substantial amount of missions with a faction. It comes in the form of a message along with some coordinates to visit, and a "decryption key" for a data point at the provided location... this isn't actually an item or represented in any of your cargo holdings anywhere... I'm not actually sure how they work, they just do.

Either way, the coordinates in the tip-off will be a shipwreck, installation or some other surface feature. There will usually be a data core at each site.... now... if you simply stumbled on the site and scanned the data core, it reports decryption failed, and you get a token amount of credits.

If you got the Tip Off though, and subsequently have the decryption key, you get the "full" data package, which is a much larger (though still not very large by today's standards) amount of credits, and a narrative message. That's usually where that particular trail ends, but there's no reason that message couldn't be a clue itself, and lead to something else, and then to something else, before finally hitting the end goal of <whatever>.

And then instead of having some vague clues to the location of something which a subset of the community can work out instantly, while others would struggle immensely, you get a trickle of clues and other things get released as players actually play the game, rather than the "OK, it's solved, job done" situation we usually have.

That's not to say puzzles/encoded messages/vague clues are bad... they could actually be part of the data messages received to progress that tip-off... it's just that instead of putting a hint in Galnet or tweeting stuff which is a clear "OK now there's something to do".... the game somewhat randomly pushes a "pub rumour" onto a random player who's been working a faction for a while, and they progress from there.

Note the use of the term "rumour"? Yeah, thats deliberate too >.> codexrumourscough

 

[Arthur Z.]

I missed a lot of the good stuff myself as a late-coming console peasant, but the trouble with this is the narrative develops in real-time essentially, so once it’s done, it’s done. I can’t really see a way around that sorry.

You can always add Galnet articles only for the player with the story (heck you can even have a separate Galnet section for that if you really want to). Everything can be tweaked, and it does not have to be solo! That's what instancing is for.

Even with the hardest riddles can be tweaked to be included into the story content (woth some clues probably if needed?). The riddles can be as hard as they want them to be while they are "live" and after some time a "lighter" version can be added to the story campaign.

There is absoulutely no reason not to do it... I mean sure, there are technical reasons, but they don't seem much harder than current individual missions and instances. Man, you can even have burning stations in Open but hidden from other players in a permit locked system accessable only to a player with the story mission.

Just a waste of great content and opportunity to make the game more popular.

 

[M00ka]

So, this is where FD miss a trick somewhat, and they should be introducing clues via the tip-off system and otherwise "gated" interactions.

For those unfamiliar, a "Tip Off" happens when you complete a substantial amount of missions with a faction. It comes in the form of a message along with some coordinates to visit, and a "decryption key" for a data point at the provided location... this isn't actually an item or represented in any of your cargo holdings anywhere... I'm not actually sure how they work, they just do.

Either way, the coordinates in the tip-off will be a shipwreck, installation or some other surface feature. There will usually be a data core at each site.... now... if you simply stumbled on the site and scanned the data core, it reports decryption failed, and you get a token amount of credits.

If you got the Tip Off though, and subsequently have the decryption key, you get the "full" data package, which is a much larger (though still not very large by today's standards) amount of credits, and a narrative message. That's usually where that particular trail ends, but there's no reason that message couldn't be a clue itself, and lead to something else, and then to something else, before finally hitting the end goal of <whatever>.

And then instead of having some vague clues to the location of something which a subset of the community can work out instantly, while others would struggle immensely, you get a trickle of clues and other things get released as players actually play the game, rather than the "OK, it's solved, job done" situation we usually have.

That's not to say puzzles/encoded messages/vague clues are bad... they could actually be part of the data messages received to progress that tip-off... it's just that instead of putting a hint in Galnet or tweeting stuff which is a clear "OK now there's something to do".... the game somewhat randomly pushes a "pub rumour" onto a random player who's been working a faction for a while, and they progress from there.

Note the use of the term "rumour"? Yeah, thats deliberate too >.> codexrumourscough

Mate, 100% agree. So many times FD have created something within the game but only gone part way with it. It is like the are making aspects of the game for the lowest common denominator and not realising that the majority of players are actually quite good at solving puzzles or at least following clues.

Take your Tip Off suggestion. I did a couple of those when they first started to appear but they went no where. Lots of flying for what, some cargo to pick up (often not that valuable either), some mats, and a data package. All of that for what could take a player an hour to do, especially if he had to go back 'home' and change ships to get to the destination. But the sad thing is that after all of that - NOTHING. No follow up, no new hints to other wrecks. Basically there were poorly designed one-off missions that didn't reward the participating player for the effort involved.

But they could have been so much better. For example, you get the original Tip Off and complete it. Instead of getting the trash one gets now, you get some decent goodies but more importantly, you download a message detailing where the ship had come from and that there was something valuable the ship was after but never got to obtain it. The message then goes on to tell you that if you want to know more you need to visit 'mysterious stranger' at some location. So you do, they tell you about some lost treasure and give you the location and off you go. You get there, find the treasure but there is yet another message stating the next tip - and so on and so on. You, as the Commander can quit the quest at any time for no penalty, but you can also continue as long as you want to with continuous tips being generated. Also I would like to see the rewards part changed up, instead of just boring credits, reward the player with something meaningful, like a reward to fill certain mat levels to 100% or free engineered modules (just standard modules engineered normally, nothing special, just a reward - like instead of receiving 1,000,000 credits you get the option of receiving a 5A FSD, engineered to G5 Increased Range with the Mass Manager experimental applied).

These Tip Off type of missions already exist in the game, surely it wouldn't be that difficult to somehow link them that they could be a continuous quest for a Commander?

 

[Jmanis]

<snip>

Yup! There's just so many mechanics which have so much potential, but are just used in niche, inconsequential situations. It's why I can't get excited about things like Space Legs... Legs won't fix the fact missions, quests and other activities are still just bland one-step affairs which fail to exploit the mechanics the game offers.

 

[Arindor]

I loved the puzzles but found that they were a little too high brow through a lack of technical know how (e.g. images in audio). But the way the community worked together was wonderful to see in the forum, so it would be nice if something similar happened in Odyssey which was accessible to the majority.

 

[M00ka]

Yup! There's just so many mechanics which have so much potential, but are just used in niche, inconsequential situations. It's why I can't get excited about things like Space Legs... Legs won't fix the fact missions, quests and other activities are still just bland one-step affairs which fail to exploit the mechanics the game offers.

I distinctly remember my first 'Tip Off' mission. Received it when I was having fun in a HiRez so I had to stop that, fly back to my home station, and change ships so I could actually get to this mysterious destination (and have the ability to drive the final distance, don't normally carry SRV's in my combat ships lol). After a few jumps, and dead reckoning navigation to the coordinates I found the crashed ship - felt quite good about myself at that stage. Then it went down hill, found the 'reward' was 4 containers of Food Cartridges (wohoo I'm rich) and a standard data package. I keep on waiting for the next part, the real reward, the next clue to the mystery to appear - but nothing. Packed up and few home, don't think I have done another since.

But it could have been so much more ..... what a waste by FD, what a waste

 

[Misty_Dark]

There are certain aspects of the game that totally could be done with story missions.

I think the ranking up with Empire and Federation could be nicely done with story missions, telling us their stories and their view on events... so as you progress and do things, visit places etc (nice way to get us to visit permit locked systems etc, etc,

And this would also have worked nicely for telling us the Alliance story....



Also we could have some nice Exploration story missions, like the sites that where used in the previous Thargoid encounter, or visit the sites for the Project Dynasty, etc, etc.


and with the Codex we have now, this could fill up nicely as we progress through the story...



Other uses for story missions could be PowerPlay modules. and just like with the Empire/Federation (and Alliance) , we could learn the story about these powers, and the story behind their Powerplay modules ...

 

[Misty_Dark]

I distinctly remember my first 'Tip Off' mission. Received it when I was having fun in a HiRez so I had to stop that, fly back to my home station, and change ships so I could actually get to this mysterious destination (and have the ability to drive the final distance, don't normally carry SRV's in my combat ships lol). After a few jumps, and dead reckoning navigation to the coordinates I found the crashed ship - felt quite good about myself at that stage. Then it went down hill, found the 'reward' was 4 containers of Food Cartridges (wohoo I'm rich) and a standard data package. I keep on waiting for the next part, the real reward, the next clue to the mystery to appear - but nothing. Packed up and few home, don't think I have done another since.

But it could have been so much more ..... what a waste by FD, what a waste

about the same experience I had, at one time I had over 15 tip off locations, that I did not bother visiting, did not feel that is was worth the effort.

 

[pnellesen]

I want to see more story content like the Ram Tah missions. I stumbled upon them while unlocking him for Engineering, and they were some of the most enjoyable experiences I've had in the game (even if they did get repetitive after a while).

 

[Sapyx]

Just to play Devil's Advocate for a minute...

Do we know, for certain, that completing 100 Tip-Off missions isn't the prerequisite for getting the Dark Wheel invite?

 

[metatheurgist]

The codex could be doing a lot more in this respect but it a large part of it is this weird check-off list that is a obsessive's nightmare.

 

[M00ka]

The codex could be doing a lot more in this respect but it a large part of it is this weird check-off list that is a obsessive's nightmare.

Fully agree, to be honest I was quite disappointed with the CODEX, definitely not what I envisaged it to be. I was hoping for something that was more directed at the Commander, something useful.

For me, I would have loved it to be more informative. To drop into a system, then check to CODEX to find out if anything interesting has been discovered there. Yes, talking about personal comments input by us the Commanders. Nothing strange, just things like:

• The second station, 'ABC' is quite nice to look at internally.
• The sixth planet is great if you need Arsenic, found a heap at xx/yy coordinates
• Don't bother looking for HGE's was here 'dd/mm/yy' and didn't find one of them.

Maybe it could be the last 5 Commander Logs that appear, just decent information about the system. And the comments could have a simple Up/Down vote, too many down votes and it is removed from the Top 5 or similar.

I just think something like this would be a lot more beneficial to the average player and what we currently have and it would be player driven i.e. only as good as what WE put into it.