It will just keep on getting better and better tbh, its a keeper of game in the long run.
I sincerely hope so, because as of about a week or two ago I simply came to the conclusion, I'm done...
I found myself wondering why am I here at this RES, simply shooting ship after ship knowing there is absolutely no challenge and next to no skill either. A few days before I'd had the same epiphany with trading too.
The whole game is geared towards *grinding* to raise credits, with little or no skill really playing a part. Why aren't mission more engaging? Where are the save/protect missions? Where are the escort mission for just an individual CMDR or a Wing? Where are the stealth missions to spy on a location in an asteroid field without being spotted? Where are the time trial race courses for CMDRs to try and get around a course as quick as possible? Where are the "Gladitorial Arenas" where CMDRs can easily fight each other.
If we consider exploration - Pick any system in the entire galaxy, and tell me the challenge anyone really faces other than having the dedication and will power to press H enough times. What skill, or ingenuity is demonstrated by your arrival 10,000ly away from where you started? Worse still, what truly is offered by exploration? What can you hope to encounter that will "new"? What isn't simply a throw of the same procedural dice after the first few dozen systems you go to?
And what's worse of all, you know you'll never risk actually witness anything different or unusual? Where are those ice geysers on a moon throwing up clouds of ice crystals into space? Where is that gas giant with huge electrical storms? Where are those planets with strange aurora borealis? Where are strange asteroids with tunnels going into them? Where remote planets/moons with mysterious lights periodically on them? Where are those rare encounters with the Generation Ships mentioned in the original Elite? Where is anything to warrant going out exploring?
Yes, ED is a huge sandbox, but the sand is simply spread so thin, after a while you may begin to realise you can't actually do much in there. Frontier need to inject a huge amount of depth and content, but here we are approaching five months after release, and there's no sign of it.
So for now, I'm done with the game. I'll give Powerplay a quick look, but I fear that will be little more than the orchestration of the exact same *grinding* players are already doing for little more than also increasing some graphs for a Power/Faction. I hope it will add some far more interesting mission, eg:-
- Two Power/Factions in conflict, so some missions appear to CMDRs on both sides to go to a conflict zone, and destroy as many enemy ships as possible in X mins. ie: Something that reflects some challenge/skill rather than how much grinding has been done.
- A Power/Faction gives out some missions to CMDRs to protect/escort a convoy from A-->B. The more ships that make it the better they Power/Faction do. The opposing Power/Faction could get missions for the CMDRs to attach that convoy.
^^ But I don't think we'll see anything like that at all. I think we'll still get the same simple missions/gameplay.
There is a lot missing, but it is coming bit by bit as opposed to all at once (Star Citizen). The game is released but not in final state (a different conversation whether it should have been released now or not). A lot of the points you made in your mini review (which was cool btw) are either planned very soon or are stuff that has been mentioned will be worked on. The very next patch addresses a few of your points (mission depth, weapons, equipment) and this is ONLY a free content patch, each major patch has been like a mini dlc (wings, powerplay so far). Once this one is done, the next 'big' patch will be worked on which will add a lot more improvements and/or content!!
