I’m pretty sure it’s just Zak. ;)
I think the word was ‘challenge’? maybe? Most modern games do not challenge you, are designed not to; it’s games as ‘painting by numbers’. You follow a path and the game lets you do tasks and stuff and after about 10 hours you have ‘finished’ the game. Modern game design, for a large part.
Now ED is not a modern game like that, heck you can sink hundreds of hours into this as it is, there is a huge ‘real’ galaxy out there to discover. But what ED does suffer from is a certain lack of that old ‘challenge’, just in general. I mean docking is childs play compared to the original game (and maybe that is a good thing?). It’s difficult to put my finger on exactly why i’m playing FFED3D+AndyJ instead of ED, but part of it is i was looking for a true upgrade of the whole Elite series in a new Elite game, and even if the Kickstarter did not promise that in the initial release, i was going for the ‘expansions’ version of ED to carry on from where the series from Elite (1986)> Frontier and FEE (and in some ways the FFED3D hack) had brought us to prior to the Elite: Dangerous announcement.
So yeah ED is fine, for a modern (slightly less challenging) version of the original game, but in some ways it is just as ‘sparse’ as that original game is as played today. Games are more sophisticated now, we are, but ED still has stuff about it in it’s game design (UI, balance, pretty much everywhere if you really want to find it) that is as obtuse as gaming back in 1986 often was, and that is a shame, and i don’t know why it is like that.
Still having had to bite the ‘always online’ bullet because i love Elite so much, i’m here for the long haul and by the time i finally venture out into the actual game i should be a pretty good FA Off pilot and it will feel more like the better versions of Elite that were Frontier and FFE, oh and the expansions will probably be here and i can do seamless planet landings and take-offs, and maybe the little UI niggles will have been solved (like why reset my scanner range from what i set it to all the time?Just keep it at longest range by default game ffs!? etc)
KevinC
4323
I’d agree that Elite lacks any real challenge, in terms of difficult content that is challenging to complete. The rumblings from Michael Brookes make it sound like this may be changing in 1.3.
New Frontier trading update:
Total unit sales now exceed 500,000
pyrhic
4325
There’s nothing more challenging than humans zak and nothing makes a game more real than having to out-think other players for real.
I remember logging in a 4am so that i could run my toon to southshore in (relative) safety in a heavy pvp environment(wow), or running contraband cargo to a low-sec system a couple hops out of Rens(Eve), or pillaging the northern airfield on a crowded server(Dayz)…and in all those cases, there is absolutely no way the developer could have coded such a…tense, real, and alive environment. It was so because there was risk and because there was an inherent randomness…i had no idea of what people were thinking and/or doing. I was acting/reacting to the game world and if there was a ship appearing on my scope it wasn’t because of some line of program that said if player (x) is unoccupied for duration (y) then give him (z) to play with…it’s because…heh, someone might want what i have and i better have a response to that. And a good game system allows for this very thing - a faster ship, or low pop times or…something.
I dunno…i absolutely respect your right to say ‘omg, no, i don’t want to need to deal with it’, particularly because that’s exactly who i was once (and still am at times…particularly when dayz gets heavy and i’m feeling like…man, this is way too stressful right now), but at the same time i’d ask you think about what you’re saying - that the developer isn’t building challenging environments, and yet MP is too much…
I’d argue, MP is actually where it should be - and the developers challenge is to create the environment that rewards…innovation. It’s something that eve really hit well - there’s this balance between risk/reward and what you might want to do and yet not want to do. For instance, through thousands of hours of Eve, i never once pirated someone - yet i was occasionally a victim (and in one bizarre twist, i was bait)…so i have this very…structured…view of how eve is played. And yet, for all those hours i played, there were people who went totally the other way - and spent hours looking for good targets (and failed often…either not finding targets, or finding targets too hot to handle)…and their view of the game would be remarkably different…two sides of the same coin.
I really think you should try online ED…not because it’ a full-blown eve experience, but rather, because it’s not. In all the hours i’ve played, i’ve yet to have a single MP encounter and yet…i know it could happen. I could be out killing some big targets and someone can investigate me…and something might just happen…but that still lends a thrill to the game…we do these things, not to escape life, but to prevent life from escaping us.
Latest newsletter with details on the powerplay update is now up and it looks amaaaaaazing.
KevinC
4328
Yay, the “game” part of the game is finally getting filled in! Really looking forward to the next update. Has there been any word on when it’s rolling out?
The newsletter says May. No specific date, but I guess with this much content and gameplay changes being added the beta will run at least two weeks, so mid-May for beta, later in the month for release.
The MMOness of it all puts me to sleep. This feature isn’t enough to bring me back, but at least they’re trying.
Well, I still want to play the game, but am really with you on the MMO stuff. I’ll stick to Mobius PG and avoid the politics.
KevinC
4332
I don’t play in Open and have no interest in engaging the playerbase at large but I still feel like the Power Play content is applicable to me.
I think you’d be better off going back to X3. What are you expecting from Elite that it pretty much doesn’t already have? Besides Newtonian physics and a “real” flight model, of course.
Razgon
4334
I’d love AI wingmen, meaningful story and exploration alongside as well. Plenty of things to wish for :-) Oh, and mining that isn’t killing me by lulling me to sleep. I’d love to be able to hire helpers, build my own home and tons of other stuff.
Never played X3 in the first place. Time marches on.
Razgon
4337
Indeed - I don’t find X3 all that appealing. Scharmers - whats up with the wishing us to go away??
We need to stick together against him!
I prefer Elite lean and mean. I don’t want all of the “I want my own house, and galactic space fleet, and trading company, and rich single player story…” Veruca Salt stuff in it. Elite never had that stuff in it.
Never played X3 in the first place. Time marches on.
Then you’re missing out IRT building up a space fleet, having your own business, building your stuff, etc. X3:TC and XC:AP do all of that in spades. And it’s not exactly an ugly, antiquated space sim, either.
Indeed - I don’t find X3 all that appealing.
Why??? It has everything you want!
KevinC
4340
If Scharmers kicks you out you can spend a few nights on my couch, if you need. Space truckers gotta look out for each other.
