Why is this game so unneccesarily inconvenient?

[Stealthie]

Personally, I think FPS's are far too time-consuming and tedious, what with all that running around from one place to another.
Instead, it'd be far more efficient if all the NPC characters just marched past the player in single file so they could all be gunned down one immediately after the other.

Equally, in a football game, let's get rid of all that time-consuming nonsense whereby players have to run around the pitch and simply replace it with a 90-minute penalty shoot-out.
That would be far more engaging and exciting.

Clearly, this sort of thinking would improve almost every game enormously.

 

[Pyrobee]

This seems to be the go to answer for enyone trying to defend the tedious bits of the game....

What is tedious to one person isn't to another. Personally find trading like watching paint dry, unless it's at a trade CG in open, but that doesn't mean others don't like doing it in solo.

 

[BimblesDidums]

It seems that Cracked Industrial Firmware has been removed from the mission boards. This is a game breaker for me as I have managed a whopping 3 of them from ground installations within the last week. Sorry, but this is just .

 

[Pyrobee]

It seems that Cracked Industrial Firmware has been removed from the mission boards. This is a game breaker for me as I have managed a whopping 3 of them from ground installations within the last week. Sorry, but this is just .

Or you are out of favor with the RNG gods.

 

[architect1337]

3: Planetary crap.

And then, you accept missions or buy resources. Guess what? Now you have to take off and find that in plenty of cases, your destination system is obscured by the very planet you're on. Proceed to spend minutes to get out of the fricken planet, turn around, and jump. Meanwhile you're already having a mental breakdown and wonder why the hell you landed on the planet, and promise to yourself you will never do that again voluntarily.

Quick tip for this one (as there are for your other points) - Go into Options-> Controls and bind the 'Supercruise' button to a specific key (it's ubound by default). Now, if you get the dreaded 'planet obscured' message when you try to Jump, press the 'Supercruise' key to only go into Supercruise. You'll leave the planet much faster this way without having to deselect your target system. Once out of the atmosphere, line up to your target system and use the usual jump key.

If you are doing this, it's also worth binding the command 'Select next system on route'. You can then target a system, explore your current system by targeting them, then hit the 'target next system on route' button to go back to where you were going without having to go back to the galaxy map.

Finally, the filter system on option '1' is useful. Select it and only show Suns, Stations, settlements etc to clean up this of things like asteroids, unexplored planets etc.

 

[BimblesDidums]

Or you are out of favor with the RNG gods.

Been checking the boards for a week, you saying that's ok, that I don't see any CIF?

 

[MickyG1982]

Quick tip for this one (as there are for your other points) - Go into Options-> Controls and bind the 'Supercruise' button to a specific key (it's ubound by default). Now, if you get the dreaded 'planet obscured' message when you try to Jump, press the 'Supercruise' key to only go into Supercruise. You'll leave the planet much faster this way and can still set your target system while landed on the planet.

I think the game should let you try to hyperspace jump... Then let you slam into the planet obscuring your target - game over, rebuy...

 

[Zambrick]

Edit: it posted before I was finished? The hell.


Anyway, I came back from a 3 month hiatus, figured that Commanders just may have something interesting for me.
Multicrew looked nice but for some reason I have not yet figured out how to even get it working for me. Whatever. I had unfinished business anyway.

Except... nothing really changed I guess. I left after one hour because I had the same issue that caused me to quit: everything is so gorram inconvenient.


1: Finding crap.
Want a specific module? Well go ahead and visit a dozen stations. Your ship is useless without the modules. Yet you have to go spend hours to collect everything you need.
How hard can it be to make a module finder, huh? Why can't I just do a search? Does it make things too easy? Screw you. I was killed by a goddamn NPC and I could not fight back reliably and I was dead before I knew it. Why? Because my ship did not have the goddamn shield I wanted, and I was searching for the shield for the past 2 hours already. Seriously, go screw yourselves.

2: Trading crap.
Want to find a trade route? Well if you don't have a second screen and/or never heard of EDDB, you're out of luck kiddo, trading ain't for you. If you want to trade then, go visit every goddamn station, write down the fricken prices. Figure it out. Except I see you already moved back into a combat ship and went to that RES. Yep, so many do that.
Again, how fricken hard can it be to have a price finder in the actual game, huh?
But noooo, you would rather spend months on developing a fancy face generator instead of developing practical stuff. And then there's idiot players who encourage that kind of development. The hell is wrong with you?

3: Planetary crap.
Why, oh why, do we even have surface installations? I find that those are the most worthless timewasters and I just want to get on with my day.
First, you have to land on the planet. This takes longer than just landing on a station. But ok.
And then, you accept missions or buy resources. Guess what? Now you have to take off and find that in plenty of cases, your destination system is obscured by the very planet you're on. Proceed to spend minutes to get out of the fricken planet, turn around, and jump. Meanwhile you're already having a mental breakdown and wonder why the hell you landed on the planet, and promise to yourself you will never do that again voluntarily.

4: Travel crap.
Seriously the whole idea that celestial objects slow you down in supercruise is nonsense and the only reason why this mechanic is there is to slow you down. Literally, it has no other purpose. Because apparently things are not inconvenient enough already that you have to visit dozens of stations or surfaces to even get basic crap done, no, you have to do that slowly or else you will not fully appreciate space.

5: Engineer crap.
"This planet has like, 5% germanium yo"
Cool, so 1 in 20 chance to find it? Meaning I seriously have to go shoot like 20 rocks to have even a decent chance at finding this mineral I need? (I know, chances don't work like that, but whatever) I dunno about you but I find that the wave scanner is pointless. Because of 1 single thing: all of the stuff you are finding is at the surface in big rocks that look different than other rocks. I bet with some optical scanning device from the 34th century you can find that crap from orbit. I want pinpoint locations. I want to know exactly where to look, and NOT memorize the different kind of wave signatures and then HOPE that this one rock has what I need and I can fricken move on with my day. Because I really do not want to roam around on these planets longer than needed. They're boring; if you're seen one, you've seen them all.


And that's just of the top of my head. Thing is... why are these not being worked on?
"Muh immersion?" If anything the fact that crap is inconvenient will make me realize it's a game because in a real universe, stuff like this would definitely be there to make things more convenient for pilots.
In general, everything that I need to do before I can do something else is boring. Because I want to specifically do the "something else" because I find THAT the fun part. Yet in 9 out of 10 cases in Elite, it just has to be made harder than it needs to be to actually do that.

Agree with all but Number 3. As it is one of the only things that makes actual sense in the game. No you cant fly through a planet in order to jump to another star. Seems reasonable.

 

[Pyrobee]

Been checking the boards for a week, you saying that's ok, that I don't see any CIF?

What material is attatched to a mission is randomly generated and you could have just been unlucky on the dice role, personally I try to not go looking for a material as that is when it becomes grindy.

 

[BimblesDidums]

What material is attatched to a mission is randomly generated and you could have just been unlucky on the dice role, personally I try to not go looking for a material as that is when it becomes grindy.

I've asked around and it seems its bugged. Fdev are looking into apparently.

 

[Muzz UK]

Edit: it posted before I was finished? The hell.


Anyway, I came back from a 3 month hiatus, figured that Commanders just may have something interesting for me.
Multicrew looked nice but for some reason I have not yet figured out how to even get it working for me. Whatever. I had unfinished business anyway.

Except... nothing really changed I guess. I left after one hour because I had the same issue that caused me to quit: everything is so gorram inconvenient.


1: Finding crap.
Want a specific module? Well go ahead and visit a dozen stations. Your ship is useless without the modules. Yet you have to go spend hours to collect everything you need.
How hard can it be to make a module finder, huh? Why can't I just do a search? Does it make things too easy? Screw you. I was killed by a goddamn NPC and I could not fight back reliably and I was dead before I knew it. Why? Because my ship did not have the goddamn shield I wanted, and I was searching for the shield for the past 2 hours already. Seriously, go screw yourselves.

2: Trading crap.
Want to find a trade route? Well if you don't have a second screen and/or never heard of EDDB, you're out of luck kiddo, trading ain't for you. If you want to trade then, go visit every goddamn station, write down the fricken prices. Figure it out. Except I see you already moved back into a combat ship and went to that RES. Yep, so many do that.
Again, how fricken hard can it be to have a price finder in the actual game, huh?
But noooo, you would rather spend months on developing a fancy face generator instead of developing practical stuff. And then there's idiot players who encourage that kind of development. The hell is wrong with you?

3: Planetary crap.
Why, oh why, do we even have surface installations? I find that those are the most worthless timewasters and I just want to get on with my day.
First, you have to land on the planet. This takes longer than just landing on a station. But ok.
And then, you accept missions or buy resources. Guess what? Now you have to take off and find that in plenty of cases, your destination system is obscured by the very planet you're on. Proceed to spend minutes to get out of the fricken planet, turn around, and jump. Meanwhile you're already having a mental breakdown and wonder why the hell you landed on the planet, and promise to yourself you will never do that again voluntarily.

4: Travel crap.
Seriously the whole idea that celestial objects slow you down in supercruise is nonsense and the only reason why this mechanic is there is to slow you down. Literally, it has no other purpose. Because apparently things are not inconvenient enough already that you have to visit dozens of stations or surfaces to even get basic crap done, no, you have to do that slowly or else you will not fully appreciate space.

5: Engineer crap.
"This planet has like, 5% germanium yo"
Cool, so 1 in 20 chance to find it? Meaning I seriously have to go shoot like 20 rocks to have even a decent chance at finding this mineral I need? (I know, chances don't work like that, but whatever) I dunno about you but I find that the wave scanner is pointless. Because of 1 single thing: all of the stuff you are finding is at the surface in big rocks that look different than other rocks. I bet with some optical scanning device from the 34th century you can find that crap from orbit. I want pinpoint locations. I want to know exactly where to look, and NOT memorize the different kind of wave signatures and then HOPE that this one rock has what I need and I can fricken move on with my day. Because I really do not want to roam around on these planets longer than needed. They're boring; if you're seen one, you've seen them all.


And that's just of the top of my head. Thing is... why are these not being worked on?
"Muh immersion?" If anything the fact that crap is inconvenient will make me realize it's a game because in a real universe, stuff like this would definitely be there to make things more convenient for pilots.
In general, everything that I need to do before I can do something else is boring. Because I want to specifically do the "something else" because I find THAT the fun part. Yet in 9 out of 10 cases in Elite, it just has to be made harder than it needs to be to actually do that.

I'm no maths god but technically 5% of planet would not give you a 1 in 20 chance. Other variables such as location of the 5% and other materials would factor in this! Depends how the RNG works I guess!!!!!

 

[Darkfyre99]

And now reply part two, Electric Boogaloo...

There are a number of quality of life improvements I would make, that IMO would improve the game for the better:

2: Trading crap.
Want to find a trade route? Well if you don't have a second screen and/or never heard of EDDB, you're out of luck kiddo, trading ain't for you. If you want to trade then, go visit every goddamn station, write down the fricken prices. Figure it out. Except I see you already moved back into a combat ship and went to that RES. Yep, so many do that.
Again, how fricken hard can it be to have a price finder in the actual game, huh?
But noooo, you would rather spend months on developing a fancy face generator instead of developing practical stuff. And then there's idiot players who encourage that kind of development. The hell is wrong with you?

I very much wish there were options to sort the commodities board. There are scores of commodities on the average board, but only a handful that are relevant to the next stop of my journey.

4: Travel crap.
Seriously the whole idea that celestial objects slow you down in supercruise is nonsense and the only reason why this mechanic is there is to slow you down. Literally, it has no other purpose. Because apparently things are not inconvenient enough already that you have to visit dozens of stations or surfaces to even get basic crap done, no, you have to do that slowly or else you will not fully appreciate space.

Bring back the original iteration of Supercruise.

The mass shadow nerf didn't noticeably decrease optimal travel times IMO. It still takes a couple of minutes to get arrive at a station within one kls of its primary. Instead, the nerf removed the more interesting aspects of the terrain within star systems. The original version of Supercruise had places where an inattentive or ignorant Commander could become becalmed, making these natural choke points for player pirates to lurk. It also had ever shifting fast travel routes through a system, inviting players to be engaged in what they're doing.

Now, system terrain is fairly flat and dull, with the occasional speed bump along the way. Frontier made a grave mistake caving in to the "I don't wanna learn nothin' " crowd.

5: Engineer crap.
"This planet has like, 5% germanium yo"
Cool, so 1 in 20 chance to find it? Meaning I seriously have to go shoot like 20 rocks to have even a decent chance at finding this mineral I need? (I know, chances don't work like that, but whatever) I dunno about you but I find that the wave scanner is pointless. Because of 1 single thing: all of the stuff you are finding is at the surface in big rocks that look different than other rocks. I bet with some optical scanning device from the 34th century you can find that crap from orbit. I want pinpoint locations. I want to know exactly where to look, and NOT memorize the different kind of wave signatures and then HOPE that this one rock has what I need and I can fricken move on with my day. Because I really do not want to roam around on these planets longer than needed. They're boring; if you're seen one, you've seen them all.

I'd like to see more specialized SRVs, as opposed to the "Jack of all Trades, Master of None" Scarab we currently have available. SRVs that are optimized for combat, prospecting, or mining.

 

[-Denali-]

It seems that Cracked Industrial Firmware has been removed from the mission boards. This is a game breaker for me as I have managed a whopping 3 of them from ground installations within the last week. Sorry, but this is just .

That figures! I just started searching for these again and haven't found any either. I went back to running courier missions since I got so many from them in the past. I'm also not seeing very many missions available in general. Like, a station with 3 factions in boom only have 1 mission available between all of them? I thought I was just having bad luck yesterday. I even resorted to mode switching and still saw hardly any available missions.

Honestly I hate running around surface installations just to have a chance that maybe I'll get 1 data type I need. I don't understand why they just don't guarantee that x things will always give x data/material. How hard could that be? If you know you will get a specific reward from a specific place or thing the time sink is an investment. As it is the time sink is just a time suck, and like with the exquisite focus crystals it's really hard to tell if something is actually bugged or you're just unlucky. RNG for this sort of thing is just poor design!

 

[Blackcompany]

Elite is more than entertainment. It is a game with goals to be attained, a BGS to work, people to pirate from (my fave), among other things. People crying about this game being to hard to attain have hurt it in alot of way. Look at the NPCs. there were weak for a long time, then FD gave them some teeth. People started getting bit and crying for nerfs til they are now back to the only way you should die from them is getting to engrossed in a netflix show on another screen. What I am saying is to many people want the instant gratification of the "IWin" button.

No one is crying about it being too hard. That's a straw man YOU Constructed for lack of logical, reasoned arguments with which to contradict the OP. Nice try...Err, not really.

Seen this so many times here. The OP didn't say it was too hard. He said - OBJECTIVELY CORRECTLY - that game contrives to be as inconvenient as possible to inflate time. Which is factually true.

Now, refute THAT STATEMENT.

- - - Updated - - -

This is the OP's exact point. The info may be in the game but it isn't convenient. You're actually making his point for him.



Addressing these one at a time:

1. I like an Easter Egg Hunt as much as the next guy, but hunting for a needle in a 400 billion system haystack is neither enjoyable nor entertaining. Using the fan fiction, novels to hunt down Raxxla is one thing, endlessly plowing around on planets in an SRV looking for Arsenic is another entirely. For those who enjoy the second part of this, then let's introduce an economy where you can sell your Arsenic, and people like me who would rather poke toothpicks in their eyes than spend their limited game time following noise lines on a wave scanner can buy the materiels from vendors.
2. I like flying my ship too. I love swooping through ring segmets in a dog fight or even maneuvering among the queues to jostle for psition in the docking slot. What I don't count as "flying my ship" is simply pressing the 'J' key, avoiding the star and pressing the 'J' key again 26 times to travel 1000 LY, or having to keep adjusting the stick and throttle by tiny amounts to avoid missing a space station for 20 minutes in supercruise. This is not flying by ANY strecth of the imagination, it is a tedious exercise. If it is an enjoyable part of the game, why do so many people use it as an opportunity to watch stuff on Netflix?

This seems to be the go to answer for enyone trying to defend the tedious bits of the game....

Well said. The defenders will keep driving away potential paying customers until they no longer have a game to play. Fear not.

 

[[DOOK] Droogie]

Inconvenient might be the wrong word. Clunky, unintuitive, cumbersome, or convoluted might be better.

Instead of nice graphs, Galnet information, and some good tools to use, we have this

 

[TheChafing]

The mass shadow nerf didn't noticeably decrease optimal travel times IMO. It still takes a couple of minutes to get arrive at a station within one kls of its primary. Instead, the nerf removed the more interesting aspects of the terrain within star systems. The original version of Supercruise had places where an inattentive or ignorant Commander could become becalmed, making these natural choke points for player pirates to lurk. It also had ever shifting fast travel routes through a system, inviting players to be engaged in what they're doing.

That sounds super cool. I guess the one drawback is that, you end up having to do supercruise so often that eventually, having to really work at it would get tedious.

 

[Darth Ender]

Nobody's going to be able to defend the time sink barriers, rng laziness, incomplete core mechanics and the black box roadmap that leaves much of the playbase questioning the sanity of the developers.

It's the same concerns that have been with the game since Wings was introduced. It's only gotten worse as releases have been made and none of the glaring issues present from the beginning have been given any priority attention.

There's been tons of ideas thrown out over the last couple of years. Nobody thinks fdev is going to actually listen to any of them ...they're just frustrated that low hanging fruit that is so integral to the game is being side-tracked for what ends up being a crippled new feature because it's sitting on top of a foundation that is both incomplete and basically bad for any long term playing.

The only thing the playbase has in common with it's single player, multiplayer, casual, and hardcore demographics is that they're frustrated that there's no transparency, and so no hope that any of this is going to be focused on anytime soon. All that does is foster negativity and pessimism.

 

[BlackSpaceCowboy]

I get a feeling that some of the game designers believe that searching is fun. They think searching stations, USSs, POIs etc is fun.

People had to complain a lot to get rid of a lot of the searching.

 

[Quester91]

That's actually a pretty good question op

Truth is fdevs consider time sink and needlessly complex mechanics as, somewhat, content.
And in a game where content is scarce and every aspect of it feels like a placeholder, you need a ton of time sinks to hide as best as you can the lack of it.

 

[Wylie28]

Nobody's going to be able to defend the time sink barriers, rng laziness, incomplete core mechanics and the black box roadmap that leaves much of the playbase questioning the sanity of the developers.

It's the same concerns that have been with the game since Wings was introduced. It's only gotten worse as releases have been made and none of the glaring issues present from the beginning have been given any priority attention.

There's been tons of ideas thrown out over the last couple of years. Nobody thinks fdev is going to actually listen to any of them ...they're just frustrated that low hanging fruit that is so integral to the game is being side-tracked for what ends up being a crippled new feature because it's sitting on top of a foundation that is both incomplete and basically bad for any long term playing.

The only thing the playbase has in common with it's single player, multiplayer, casual, and hardcore demographics is that they're frustrated that there's no transparency, and so no hope that any of this is going to be focused on anytime soon. All that does is foster negativity and pessimism.

Right because Star Citizen recieves less flak with its completely transparent development