Would You Explore More if Return Was Easier?
- Thread starter Schmack
- Start date
How is that any different from nerfing a ship after several commanders have already maxed out in it or changing other aspects of the game where new players come in and have to struggle now to get to where everyone else is? Do you think any aspect of the game that makes it easier or harder than before is unfair for the veteran and/or new user?
These responses are interesting. People don't seem to mind spending that much time jumping from system to system as long as there's something there for them when they arrive. They are not interested in the scan data, maybe because it doesn't pay well or maybe because there's no sense of accomplishment. It's just getting credits they could get hunting in a resource extraction site.
Let's assume that something was there, now you've discovered something. It's 2500 light-years out or more. How do you get back to it quickly and do anything with it?
This also makes me wonder what is the significance of having however many billions systems the developer says this game has. We are never going to explore them, and if we did it's basically reproducing a photograph with a random number generator. Is the goal to explore these things or is it just a way to pass time? Obviously there's nothing out there to explore. It's all about getting to this or that system as a bucket list item. that's unfortunate also because one third of our accomplishment marker is exploration. Most of mine has been done in populated systems, I have discovered a few systems myself a few hundred light-years out but I saw no reason to go out any further. I probably would have though if I could have returned easier. Once I get bored out there I'm ready to go back and I don't want to spend a lot of time.
No... watering down content @ this point should come way down the list
don't like it... don't do it
don't like it... don't do it
Cradle2Grave
Banned
Not sure how it can be made 'funner' but at present it's so boring.
Like quite a lot of this game
Like quite a lot of this game
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I don't believe it's a lack of "things" (ie strange alien stuff) but more a lack of things "to do" : all you do is press 1 button and jump to the next system, or for an extra credit supercruise over to something and target it ...and that's it!
For example: When you are flying about and you're interdicted there's a really good "mini game" for interdiction. It's not just press a button and largest device wins, no, you have to fight for it and depending upon how well you do determines the outcome. What if there was something similar (some kind of mini-game) that was both interesting; required skill; and depending upon how well you do reveals extra things about the system .. more things to do / samples to collect / anomalies to scan / comets to watch and catalogue / etc ...
Not sure how it can be made 'funner' but at present it's so boring.
Like quite a lot of this game
class act ... "baiting" answer/comment
Returning home used to be the most fun bit about exploring. Knowing that for those last 20 or so jumps you would be running a gauntlet of psychopathic NPCs with the risk of total loss of your data. That was an amazing experience and really got the heart pumping and adrenalin flowing. It wasn't realistic with NPCs not really having any reason to be out there or attack (and usually with ships that couldn't even get there!) but it was *fun*. Sadly, I've not had that level of excitement in ED since 1.1 was released
My personal opinion? If the trip back is boring you didn't plan your route properly. Let's say you pick out 4 or 5 points of interest. The closest point of interest should be your last stop on your 20,000ly round trip, not your first.
I considered that, and here's a few thoughts:
- The nature of human political control is such that a large diaspora would not be likely to happen unless humans change profoundly. Those in power would not want new colonies arising all over the galaxy because those might become powers some day and come back to haunt them. In fact I doubt the current situation - where anyone can buy an armed ship - would ever happen. Politicians would lose control over "their" populations way too fast and then there would be no value in being politicians.
- Human civilizations are resource-greedy and there may be a lot of interdependencies we don't understand right now. I think FD gets this more or less right with the various plagues and "Plugh Station needs medicine!" CGs. A human outpost 20,000ly away would be at much much greater risk of catastrophic - something - than one 100ly away, where help is hours not days away. Think back to the 12th/13th century on Earth where there were occasionally entire towns wiped out by raiders or pirates, or fire or famine or disease. Humans build vertically and horizontally integrated civilizations because we're more likely to survive if we do.
I would expect human "fringers" like the European settlers that colonized North America to break away and establish colonies way out, past political control. The Puritan religious fanatics that settled the East Coast of the US left England because they were so unpopular there, they looked for a place where they could go start anew. I would expect that sort of thing to be all over the galaxy of Elite, actually. Or, rather, their bones and the wreckage of their ships.. Pirates, famine, disease, hostile wildlife... It's a huge aspect of possible game-play that FD hasn't looked at, yet. "The Lost Colony" Or imagine what happens if the lost colony militarizes and the rest of human space encounters a psychopathic armed equivalent of Daesh? (and that's why in my first point above, I would expect human politicians to try to prevent that scenario)
Edit: I always liked the old "generations ship" scenario. Some crazy cult pools everything they can get their hands on and launches off to find a new eden. And when they get 1000ly out, they discover nobody thought to bring a can opener and they all die.
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Like, for example, Heathrow Terminal 3? Is that a point of interest? because that's where I often end up at the end of a journey. I don't, fully, follow the logic.
And.. how do you know where the points of interest are, if you are exploring? Surely, by definition, you don't know where anything is?
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I think a big part of exploration in ED is the isolation, for better or worse. When you're 15 kylies from the bubble, it would ruin that isolation if I could "insta-jump" (or something close) back. So I don't think it would improve the game (for me, at least).
I also disagree with the characterization of exploration as "jump honk jump honk", though I could imagine it would be quite boring if played that way. For me it's more "jump - honk - find interesting objects - fly to said objects - scan - maybe find some interesting angles for pics - jump..." And frankly I don't think I will get bored of it soon But then I find find bounty hunting a bit dull, so what do I know
I also disagree with the characterization of exploration as "jump honk jump honk", though I could imagine it would be quite boring if played that way. For me it's more "jump - honk - find interesting objects - fly to said objects - scan - maybe find some interesting angles for pics - jump..." And frankly I don't think I will get bored of it soon
But then I find find bounty hunting a bit dull, so what do I know 
mg Exploring is my fave thing in the game so far.
what I'd like to see is more stellar objects / effects: Comets, planetoids, acretion discs, more interesting stuff with close / contact binaries - and of course: ANOMOLIES!!!!
what I'd like to see is more stellar objects / effects: Comets, planetoids, acretion discs, more interesting stuff with close / contact binaries - and of course: ANOMOLIES!!!!
Space version of the Donner Party.
Yeah, well, there's also that.
Some of us enjoy thinking about logistics*; I miss the old days when if you were an archer in a dungeon crawl you actually had to think about packing as many arrows as you were going to need. Because, you know, straight pieces of wood don't grow on trees in the depths of a dungeon... In Elite land I do not like the fact that our ships are basically flawlessly functional and never wear at all. So we can go across the galaxy as safely as switching from one side of the couch to another.
The problem is that the safety of exploring and the infallibility of equipment makes it plausible to just stay out there indefinitely with no danger at all. Which does make it boring.
(* because we understand that logistics is warfare)
Also - money for asteroid belts (if they are metallic/ metal rich)
I'm willing to bet some would. Certainly not me though
Cradle2Grave
Banned
It takes zero skill to explore. Just a willingness to do the same thing over n over n over again.