*** The Official Elite: Dangerous Thread ***

With the new AI, all fun has been sucked out of the game. I've hardly played more than a couple of hours, been interdicted 6 times, 2 of which (including the very first one) were by ships with Engineer weapons (One Anaconda and one Python both high combat ranks). It's cost me somewhere around 8 million credits in that couple of hours, I guess if I play for a week or so I'll be broke.

Going to stop playing for a while to see if they do a bit of rebalancing.
 
melchy said:
With the new AI, all fun has been sucked out of the game. I've hardly played more than a couple of hours, been interdicted 6 times, 2 of which (including the very first one) were by ships with Engineer weapons (One Anaconda and one Python both high combat ranks). It's cost me somewhere around 8 million credits in that couple of hours, I guess if I play for a week or so I'll be broke.

Going to stop playing for a while to see if they do a bit of rebalancing.
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Instead, go and make use of some of the new gameplay elements introduce specifically for Engineer crafting? Sitting outside station pointing you ship at wakes to scan them, so as to dish out random material results, really is cutting edge gameplay in my book! :rolleyes:
 
NeilFawcett said:
Instead, go and make use of some of the new gameplay elements introduce specifically for Engineer crafting? Sitting outside station pointing you ship at wakes to scan them, so as to dish out random material results, really is cutting edge gameplay in my book! :rolleyes:
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It's really quite sad, and telling, that even as an elite founder I haven't been able to summon the desire to want to play this game for months. The gameplay appears to be getting worse, not better. Personally, I don't think FD will turn things around.
 
xaldub said:
It's really quite sad, and telling, that even as an elite founder I haven't been able to summon the desire to want to play this game for months. The gameplay appears to be getting worse, not better. Personally, I don't think FD will turn things around.
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I'm in much the same position.

I cannot fathom how people look at "The Engineers" and see all that development time/effort as a constructive use of time. What could have been achieved in so many other areas with that time?

So what do we have to show for it? Crafting? Is that worth it at the expense of other improvements? And worse still, a huge framework of new mechanics/gameplay to make you earn for crafting, which generally amount to new time sponge random mechanics, which really don't move the game forwards at all.

I fear the game proposed in Kickstarter is not going to appear, and instead we're going to end up with a shadow of what I hoped for, with an ever increasing bunch of shallow mechanics with little depth or interest :(

I do wonder if 2.4 is now going to be the cash grab of "Thargoids" along with a bunch of new mini-games. eg: Hyperspace events with the thargoids attacking you. And/or combat zones with thargoids in. ie: Super simplistic/shallow/safe design.


And what's getting more and more obvious is seemingly the community is dividing on this matter. Those that are getting frustrated at the seeming continued design approach of simple-random-mini-games, and those that are... I've sat here at my PC for the past couple of hours doing stuff, and I've felt no impetuous to play Elite - I feel too myeh about what they've given us in 2.1 as its "selling point". I just see "The Engineers" almost as certain designers wee'ing countless thousands of development hours up a wall that could have been use to instead implement some truly more interesting mechanics/element that would actually move the game forwards :(
 
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Haven't played for months, game just doesn't grab me by the balls despite being a huge fan of the original. Frontier need to stop developing all these add ons no one wants and concentrate on what makes a game grab people by the balls! Dark Age of Camelot still does it for me 12 years on!!

I tried the engineers, and just like Powerplay, CQC it's not anything I wanted or what I think the game needs. They really need to bang their heads together, and quickly to redeem themselves.
 
From my viewpoint the game entered turbulent waters from the moment FD decided to veer towards an online multiplayer model, and in doing so alienated a swathe of people who thought ( and were promised ) they were going to get an immersive single player game.

FD just can't decide what type of game it actually is now ; it's too shallow for an immersive single player experience, and lacks the functionality to be a truly massive multiplayer game. If they want this game to survive they need to decide to go down one route only, and start fleshing out the game accordingly.
 
No game is going to please everyone. I have wasted more hours on ED than any other game I have ever played, by a long way. So far I am liking what I have seen of Engineers although the actual modding element is probably not something I will do that much with beyond greater range FSDs.

I just hope FD don't pander too much to the 12 yr old pew pew element which seems quite vocal on forums. Many of the weapons mods sound a bit cartoonish.

It is a shame they didn't expand the Arena part or have more clearly defined 'war' zones or some similar mechanic so that those who just want a space combat game can be separated from the rest.
 
freebooter said:
No game is going to please everyone. I have wasted more hours on ED than any other game I have ever played, by a long way. So far I am liking what I have seen of Engineers although the actual modding element is probably not something I will do that much with beyond greater range FSDs.


I just hope FD don't pander too much to the 12 yr old pew pew element which seems quite vocal on forums. Many of the weapons mods sound a bit cartoonish.

It is a shame they didn't expand the Arena part or have more clearly defined 'war' zones or some similar mechanic so that those who just want a space combat game can be separated from the rest.
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And (just like Powerplay) I expect "The Engineers" will end up being another of these strange odd ball developments that most people just tinker with for a few hours, before leaving it alone...

But (just like Powerplay) consider all that design/development time that could have been spent on the other sorts of areas you mentioned :( (eg: Platform/station missions to protect the area in a fighter. Imagine doing it with a Wing of CMDRs, or a Wing of NPCs with "protect this", "attack that" commands.) Imagine how such mechanics could then have been also seconded into Powerplay and Community Goals maybe? Alternatively we can, with the new mechanics, sit outside a station scanning wakes for an hour :rolleyes:
 
NeilFawcett said:
And (just like Powerplay) I expect "The Engineers" will end up being another of these strange odd ball developments that most people just tinker with for a few hours, before leaving it alone...

But (just like Powerplay) consider all that design/development time that could have been spent on the other sorts of areas you mentioned :( (eg: Platform/station missions to protect the area in a fighter. Imagine doing it with a Wing of CMDRs, or a Wing of NPCs with "protect this", "attack that" commands.) Imagine how such mechanics could then have been also seconded into Powerplay and Community Goals maybe? Alternatively we can, with the new mechanics, sit outside a station scanning wakes for an hour :rolleyes:
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Image, if they had just added the ability for you to pay another player to protect your ship on a trading run or whilst mining. You put a contract up on a "market", people can then apply to take the job allowing the contract holder to check your stats and ship to decide if they believe you can do the job.
 
I've not played 1.6/2.1 yet but its really sad to see that they look like they have managed to screw up another update. How is this happening? Which parts of the community are they listening to? Will give it a go tomorrow and see what its like but seeing these comments here and on Facebook are really gutting.....
 
Gotta laugh at the complete and utter ****tard at FD who thought it a good idea to allow the NPC ships in 1.6 to have access to the 'Engineered' weaponry of 2.1, when the 1.6 player base doesn't.
 
Malevolence said:
Gotta laugh at the complete and utter ****tard at FD who thought it a good idea to allow the NPC ships in 1.6 to have access to the 'Engineered' weaponry of 2.1, when the 1.6 player base doesn't.
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It is a bit baffling, however they had no choice. If they restricted NPC's from having the mods for 1.6 then that would roll over to 2.1 as both live in the same universe...

Personally I am amazed at how it is being played out. The NPC to hard or OK poll that has been about as toxic a thread as I have seen on any forum, has been deleted. So now it's spilling into other threads.. 1.6 has been Nurffed spectacularly. However go onto the forums with that opinion and it's get good, go PVP, stop moaning....


Edit: Poll thread is now back after a mod "forgot" to reinstate it after moderation....
 
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Malevolence said:
Gotta laugh at the complete and utter ****tard at FD who thought it a good idea to allow the NPC ships in 1.6 to have access to the 'Engineered' weaponry of 2.1, when the 1.6 player base doesn't.
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I'm still confused by the whole mindset of modified weapons. I thought the premise of them was that they wouldn't offer a significant combat advantage in themselves, that would be via the new side effects? I though the whole idea of the modified weapons was to simply allow variety and for them to be tailored to CMDRs liking (eg: 10% more damage at the expense of 15% more energy usage).

And was always concerned about how they would balance all these new affects, when what they already had was still somewhat unbalanced.


So I'll go back to my main point. Why spend all that time developing something that is so questionable, and so niche, when so many other areas are screaming out for development time. Imagine if the Engineers & Crafting's development time had gone into improving all the corner stone professions and their associated mechanics?

Just so so confused and deflated TBH!


BTW - A mate of mine was battling away just trying to do his first crafting of an FSD improvement. He's thus far:-
1) Spent an hour pointing and scanning wakes - Clearly gameplay he didn't enjoyed or found challenging/rewarding.
2) Last night I talked him through finding materials on planetary surfaces - He doesn't enjoy this aspect of the game either, and indeed it was utterly bugged out with two of us in the same instance. If I blew up a rock, it's materials would end up sitting high in the air in his instance. A number of times in fact they just disappeared for both of us.

I believe, he's just given up with it now... So we almost have a Powerplay development all over again. A "cool idea" implemented in such a convoluted uninspired fashion, it risks basically ignored most of the time.


I think I've said before in this thread... I know this sounds harsh, but if I heard a number of the current designers were being replaced, or new ones were at least being brought in, I'd feel there was more hope! We just have IMHO too many questionable design choices being made for this to go on...
 
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Malevolence said:
I think you're missing the point. Given the abortion that this game has recently become with the latest patch, the Sidewinder is chosen because it's free.
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No I got it. I have lost my ship before and had to start over. Doesn't take long to get out of a Sidewinder

It does sound weird though. One of my mates nearly lost his corvette to three vipers
 
Ignoring the argument about time better spent (which I agree with, I see little genuine benefit to the crafting options, just a way to have generated more grind).

Otherwise, seems to be good so far (controversial eh).
The visuals are slightly better, haven't been on a planet much.
I like the re-done combat related AI. I've yet to be interdicted by some pleb in a Viper whilst I'm in my Python. So for example, my last run last night was 172tons of goods over 5 jumps. Was given warning on leaving the spaceport that there was news that I was most probably going to be interdicted, and sure enough, I was, but only the once, and this time by a good NPC in an Anaconda. Makes sense bearing in mind my rank and what I'm flying. Managed to lose the Ana whilst he was trying to interdict me and never had another issue. Brought some genuine "danger" to the game.

From what I've seen, FD have clearly made the game "dangerous", but in a controlled manner. If you wander around in anarchy systems, or assuming that you should be still able to walk all over NPCs, then there's no wonder people are losing ships.

I saw a thread opened by a guy on the forums, complaining about losing his Python. Turned out that he was using a "trade" build Python, i.e. standard hull, no re-enforcements, and was jumped by a pair of good pilots, both in FAS. I've got to ask, why didn't he do the sensible thing and RUN AWAY. A FAS is a tough ship at the best of times. Trying to take on a pair when you're in the wrong ship is just suicide.

Above all, it looks like it simply requires a bit of a re-think of strategies
Personally I took out some little ships first to see what the deal was, so as to minimise potential losses if things really were as bad as made out, and have then worked up from there. No ship losses yet, though I certainly am not going to pick a fight in a loaded transport ship.
Did take out my FAS for a spin last night. This time just to a Nav beacon, again to understand the score. Rather enjoyed it as the enemies were still not a complete pushover.

So my take is:
- Some nice bits have been added, i.e. visuals, traffic control
- Engineers/crafting. Err, so what. I'm guessing I'll do it along the way, but it's not that important to me.
- Missions. I like the updated mission board. Big improvement from my perspective and they "feel" better, just more immersive
- Danger. I like the updated danger factor. Before it was fairly straightforward to just meander around "space truckin". The AI update genuinely adds that danger back in and removes the complacency that previously existed, as you knew that most interdictions were from ships that you knew weren't a genuine threat.
This I see as being the point most complained about, i.e. by players who simply can't adapt, but hey, that's me being controversial.
 
I really don't like the way elite has been going for some time now.

The pointless things they are tacking on when they could be developing the actual game is just sad.

Very disappointed with Frontier.
 
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