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Elite Dangerous: Horizons |OT| Just scratching the surface

SmartBase

Member
I think I've finally burned out on the game. I've tried to keep doing different activities to compensate for the lack of depth in all of them but it isn't enough any more.
 

Volimar

Member
Fixed vs Gimbal Weapons:
We think there’s still too big a gap between fixed and gimballed weapons – fixed weapons do have a substantially higher damage in most cases, but this isn’t offsetting the current benefit to time-on-target the gimbals provide. We’d like to make the choice between these two more interesting, but without making the raw damage gap wider. To do this we’re looking at giving fixed weapons improvements to efficiency and their ability to sustain fire, and making gimbals less of a guarantee to hit – they will still perform the intended job of levelling the playing field a little for new players or those using less accurate control systems, but do so in a hopefully more interesting way and to a slightly lesser extent.


SHIT! Looks like I'll finally have to git gud.
 
I think I've finally burned out on the game. I've tried to keep doing different activities to compensate for the lack of depth in all of them but it isn't enough any more.

Me too. Like many with busy family lives a lot of the game isn't attainable for me. Did manage to get from AspX to Python before passenger missions were nerfed.

I tend to treat Elite as something I dip in and out of. So once there are some more updates I'll probably be back.
 

Burny

Member
I think I've finally burned out on the game. I've tried to keep doing different activities to compensate for the lack of depth in all of them but it isn't enough any more.

Go to the official forums, complain about the reasons.

Wait for apologists to come in...

  • Gid gud!
  • But mah immersion!
  • But simulation!
  • This game is not for you, CoD instant gratification kiddy! This requires time, planning, ... (aka: braindead grind and lots of Netflix in normal people's terms)
  • But griefers!

Did I forget something?

Backed on Kickstarter, never got given a code, contacted them on forums/Kickstarter never got a response. Shame as I would have liked to at least try it.

Wow, LTTP much! :D As was said above, contact their support, enjoy, burn out, wait for updates, enjoy again, repeat. Feel free to complain away or rave about it in here. ;) Mandatory advise for you if you ever get into exploring: whatever nice looking thing you want to screenshot, always make sure your own ship covers most of it! ;-)
 

derFeef

Member
I think I've finally burned out on the game. I've tried to keep doing different activities to compensate for the lack of depth in all of them but it isn't enough any more.

Yep. I did not even check out the new update :( There is just nothing there if you are not big on earning new ships and scanning things.
 

DrBo42

Member
Go to the official forums, complain about the reasons.

Wait for apologists to come in...

  • Gid gud!
  • But mah immersion!
  • But simulation!
  • This game is not for you, CoD instant gratification kiddy! This requires time, planning, ... (aka: braindead grind and lots of Netflix in normal people's terms)
  • But griefers!

Did I forget something?



Wow, LTTP much! :D As was said above, contact their support, enjoy, burn out, wait for updates, enjoy again, repeat. Feel free to complain away or rave about it in here. ;) Mandatory advise for you if you ever get into exploring: whatever nice looking thing you want to screenshot, always make sure your own ship covers most of it! ;-)

One of my favorite moments in Elite discussion was during a FD official community stream where Edward Lewis (Community Manager) was talking about his Distant Worlds journey.

Specifically when he said just how much Netflix or podcasts he needed to get through it. When your community mouthpiece is talking about needing podcasts and media to get through playing an aspect of the game he's paid to promote...you've got some issues.

Sadly I don't see even a hint of that changing. Not sure how there isn't a thread on just how boring and shallow exploration is every day until they address it. There's so much out there and it's so very bland. Fuckin' powerplay is getting updates before exploration. It's insane.


As for taking screenshots as an explorer (your primary role) see this subreddit for composition tips https://www.reddit.com/r/aspsinfrontofthings/
 

Burny

Member
Sadly I don't see even a hint of that changing. Not sure how there isn't a thread on just how boring and shallow exploration is every day until they address it. There's so much out there and it's so very bland. Fuckin' powerplay is getting updates before exploration. It's insane.

Should ask Mengy to publish a regular Elite exploration blog, every time they play the game, focusing on the underlying mechanics and game design.

Day 1:

Hit "J" 2015 times. Pointed the ship at 65 different stellar bodies. Waited about a cumulated 90 minutes for scans to complete. Spend another 60 driving around suns to refuel. Landed twice and drove the SRV in circles.

Rewatched the first three episodes of "Breaking Bad", Season 1.

Day 2:

...
 
I know, I know.. "another neutron star pic?", but been steadily making my way towards the center of the galaxy at my casual / agonizing pace. I'm into areas where the star density has increased vastly, so I'm encountering these more and more.

GSNB7h3.png

It's just beautiful seeing these, and kinda neat to just cut power and crank the audio up to listen to the eerie background noises Frontier plays when you're near one of these.
 
Go to the official forums, complain about the reasons.

Wait for apologists to come in...

  • Gid gud!
  • But mah immersion!
  • But simulation!
  • This game is not for you, CoD instant gratification kiddy! This requires time, planning, ... (aka: braindead grind and lots of Netflix in normal people's terms)
  • But griefers!

Did I forget something?

there was actually a really nice feedback thread on there I saw yesterday. not an avalanche of assholes posting image macros either.

here https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/304393-Fdev-your-killing-our-player-faction!

at least when I read it, it was still very good. almost every post with nice not positive feedback
 

la_briola

Member
I know, I know.. "another neutron star pic?", but been steadily making my way towards the center of the galaxy at my casual / agonizing pace. I'm into areas where the star density has increased vastly, so I'm encountering these more and more.



It's just beautiful seeing these, and kinda neat to just cut power and crank the audio up to listen to the eerie background noises Frontier plays when you're near one of these.

Beautiful.
 

Mengy

wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
Should ask Mengy to publish a regular Elite exploration blog, every time they play the game, focusing on the underlying mechanics and game design.

Day 1:

Hit "J" 2015 times. Pointed the ship at 65 different stellar bodies. Waited about a cumulated 90 minutes for scans to complete. Spend another 60 driving around suns to refuel. Landed twice and drove the SRV in circles.

Rewatched the first three episodes of "Breaking Bad", Season 1.

Day 2:

...

LOL! But yeah, exploration in Elite can be kind of like that, sadly enough. I still enjoy it though, it’s the hunt for interesting and scenic places that keeps me doing it. That hunt is just filled with a lot of mundane stuff too. I watch youtube videos while I fly, or listen to podcasts, it makes the hunt bearable.

But then every now and then you find something like THIS and suddenly it’s all worth it:



Yep. I did not even check out the new update :( There is just nothing there if you are not big on earning new ships and scanning things.

Eh, honestly the 2.2 update added a lot of great stuff to the game, I think it’s my favorite patch so far. The passenger missions are done really well IMHO, especially now that they finally have the payouts sorted and fixed again. Long range PAX jobs are pretty much exploration missions, I’m finding them a lot of fun actually. And the geysers and fumeroles you can now find on planet surfaces are implemented really well. My biggest gripe is that they are hard to find, there needs to be some mechanic implemented that can be used to actually search for them, currently it’s a lot of luck. And the new fighters are surprisingly fun to use, both for combat and just messing around in. And these are just the big hitters, 2.2 brought with it a huge amount of QOL improvements too:

- Neutron star boosting
- New graphics for neutrons and white dwarfs
- Galaxy map route plotter fixed finally!!!!
- Surface maps for planets
- Module storage
- Ship transfers
- Pre-hyperspace info popup

And that’s just off the top of my head.

Nah, 2.2 was a really great update, IMHO, and I hope it’s a trend that continues from Frontier.
 
Yeah, 2.2 is my fav patch so far, too.

I also only play a few hours 1-2 days a week, given how busy I am at work right now, so I'm far less likely to burn out :)
 

derFeef

Member
Guess I need to look into it. :) But I barely have any money and I just think you have to put in too much time to get some satisfaction back. First time finding wreckages, be surprised by white dwarves, cruisng around planets and looking for stuff or great vistas is what I loved the most - I don't have this anymore.
 

Burny

Member
there was actually a really nice feedback thread on there I saw yesterday. not an avalanche of assholes posting image macros either.

here https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/304393-Fdev-your-killing-our-player-faction!

at least when I read it, it was still very good. almost every post with nice not positive feedback

Yeah, there can be useful feedback. Overall, the Elite community is pretty good in this regards. As long as it doesn't touch on what people think is immersion or simulation though. People were having fits over the CQC rank being added to the right info panel. Not a part of Elite, immersion breaking bla.


If you want to have fun on the official forums, mention guilds and global chat. :p
 
What do you all think of the upcoming combat, engineer, and Powerplay changes? Reddit is saying that the changes address a ton of requests from the community, but I'm not familiar enough with common complains to know if that's true or not.
 

Mengy

wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
What do you all think of the upcoming combat, engineer, and Powerplay changes? Reddit is saying that the changes address a ton of requests from the community, but I'm not familiar enough with common complains to know if that's true or not.

They are all good changes for combat oriented players. For players like me they are nerfs, as gimballed weapons will be worse after the update while fixed will be stronger, so yeah, I’m not personally very excited about that. I really don’t think that gimbals needed nerfing, but whatever.

Basically, for traders and explorers, it will be even more critical than ever to run from fights ASAP, as we will have even less of a chance defending ourselves as we do now.
 

Mugen08

Member
What do you all think of the upcoming combat, engineer, and Powerplay changes? Reddit is saying that the changes address a ton of requests from the community, but I'm not familiar enough with common complains to know if that's true or not.

I agree with Mengy, but then it seems to be my story with Elite: By the time I hear about some good way to make money or do combat that particular thing is nerfed right after I have invested enough time and money to get a quick taste of said minor success. I bought my first gimballed lasers a couble of days ago and I spent dozens of hours grinding for them and to rebuild my ASP in order to do the now formerly lucrative passenger missions. Furthermore I have had the ASP forever as I never seem to be able to make enough cash to get a more expensive ship. Still, enjoy exploring for the community goal atm, hope it won't be done right before I am back in the bubble. Would like to sell a bit to both the Children and the Federation, even though that money should not be too much when compared to selling the many scans themselves.
 
a bunch of threads about combatlogging on frontier forums now, came across it because eurogamer wrote a thing. never understand how people care about this.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...rs-are-trying-to-get-frontier-to-fix-cheating

but then, even if I've played a lot in open, all the interaction with other players I've had is saying hello in chat as we head in our separate directions. never had any interest in hunting anyone down, and never been interdicted by another player. I've seen a couple of sdc morons stream and be really upset and report someone when specific players they target and stalk log off or network glitch out. who is going to take that report seriously from those morons.
 

DrBo42

Member
a bunch of threads about combatlogging on frontier forums now, came across it because eurogamer wrote a thing. never understand how people care about this.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...rs-are-trying-to-get-frontier-to-fix-cheating

but then, even if I've played a lot in open, all the interaction with other players I've had is saying hello in chat as we head in our separate directions. never had any interest in hunting anyone down, and never been interdicted by another player. I've seen a couple of sdc morons stream and be really upset and report someone when specific players they target and stalk log off or network glitch out. who is going to take that report seriously from those morons.

If you're in open, you're opting in to engaging with other players. Pulling the plug or alt-f4ing when someone opens fire on you kinda defeats the purpose. It's worse in other games when hunting players is sometimes essential to survive like DayZ etc.
 

Not Spaceghost

Spaceghost
If you don't want to run the risk of being killed just play in one of the many private groups or in solo mode.

Playing in open for player interaction also includes the bad, combat logging is a huge morale killer because it ruins pvp (even ganking) and kills any of the risk associated with playing in open.

Seriously though, PvP in elite is an important part of the game and needs to be actively encouraged more. As it's one of the few parts of the game that is genuinely player driven.
 

Volimar

Member
I don't play in open so I've never dealt with combat logging. Most of the time it's a legit interaction where you should just take your punishment, but in cases where people are huge assholes and do things like go silent and wait for you to boost into them near a station...yeah I'm okay with ruining their climax.
 

Not Spaceghost

Spaceghost
I have run into CMDRs who just wanna wing up and kill everything in a haz RES and ive met CMDRs who hunted me down across an entire solar system and even succeeded. I have been killed completely unprovoked and picked fights I knew I stood no chance of winning. I have lost more than I have made in PvP but I keep at it because it's engaging to interact with other players on any level in this game.

Using combat logging as moral policing of what is and isn't an ethical is still meh and actively sucks the fun out of things for at least one person in the exchange which is a sign of bad design.

If you ask me though i don't think combat logging is anything more than a symptom of the fact that pvp in this game has a huge barrier to entry thanks to engineers. If two A rated FdLs meet and one is fully engineered and the other is sporting a couple of rank 2 mods you might as well be in a sidewinder. That's kind of demoralizing.

So in many levels i fully understand why it's even a thing since most pvp engagements have a very one sidedness to them and brew a very "why bother" attitude.

Sure the CQC mode tried to make it a more even ground experience but you can't fly what you want there and no one even really plays it.
 
There are a few things that Frontier could do that would go some way to addressing these issues:


  • Increase the likelihood of aggressive PvP players being matched against each other in the same game instances.
  • Strengthen and increase the numbers of the security forces in proportion to the player’s bounty and allow them to track criminally aggressive PvP players across neutral or superpower affiliated systems.
  • Make the bounty proportionate to the difference between the value of the player’s ships and/or wings. Anaconda vs. Anaconda is a fair fight resulting in a relatively small increase in bounty. A wing of four fully upgraded Anacondas vs. a Hauler results in a huge increase in notoriety.
  • (my favourite) Increase the bounty on those who initiate PvP combat against non-wanted players and enable a Dark Souls style covenant / guild for players dedicated to bringing them to justice. A hundred million for nailing a persistent griefer? Yes, please.
If well implemented, any or all of those things should give a nice risk / reward balance to PvP focussed players, whilst making them think twice before griefing newbies.
 

Not Spaceghost

Spaceghost
Yeah those would be great changes, alternatively something like a sector of the bubble where PVP engagements payout more would be great.

And maybe even nerfing all combat and shield engineer mods or making them way easier to get (like literally just costing money instead of materials) would be a really nice thing preventing players who haven't dumped 100+ hours into the engineer grind from being completely outclassed. It might even encourage non horizon players to actually want to participate.
 

DrBo42

Member
There are a few things that Frontier could do that would go some way to addressing these issues:



  • [*]Increase the likelihood of aggressive PvP players being matched against each other in the same game instances.
  • Strengthen and increase the numbers of the security forces in proportion to the player’s bounty and allow them to track criminally aggressive PvP players across neutral or superpower affiliated systems.
  • Make the bounty proportionate to the difference between the value of the player’s ships and/or wings. Anaconda vs. Anaconda is a fair fight resulting in a relatively small increase in bounty. A wing of four fully upgraded Anacondas vs. a Hauler results in a huge increase in notoriety.
    [*](my favourite) Increase the bounty on those who initiate PvP combat against non-wanted players and enable a Dark Souls style covenant / guild for players dedicated to bringing them to justice. A hundred million for nailing a persistent griefer? Yes, please.
If well implemented, any or all of those things should give a nice risk / reward balance to PvP focussed players, whilst making them think twice before griefing newbies.

First - Considering how large the galaxy is and the already sketchy instancing and low player max, this would never amount to anything.
Second - How would you stop someone from their own group from cashing this in?
 
First - Considering how large the galaxy is and the already sketchy instancing and low player max, this would never amount to anything.
Second - How would you stop someone from their own group from cashing this in?

Good point on number one. There would be nothing to be lost by applying the principle, but I've got to agree that occasions when it would be applicable might be relatively rare.

As for point two, there are definitely options. Tweaking buy-back costs might be one, but I'd go with this: bounties are evenly distributed to everyone attached to a wing, whether or not they actually land a blow in the combat. Taking out a team-mate reduces your own bounty by half that amount or less - after all, you're an outlaw, you don't get to complain about the niceties.

So, for example, a wing of three pirates hits an innocent trader and picks up a bounty of a combined bounty 30,000 credits, or 10,000 each. Commander A later takes down Commander B. Commander A reduces his bounty to 5,000 and makes make an enemy in the process. Commander B's bounty is reduced to 5,000 - he's not dead after all - and he has to pay his re-buy cost. Commander C is still an outlaw with 10,000 on his head.

It might need a little adjusting, but something along those lines should provide opportunities for a little profitable backstabbing without too much exploitation going on.
 

Jedi2016

Member
There's a few ways to handle combat logging, IMO, in ways that don't require Frontier to spend time reviewing accounts and banning people:

Make it so a disconnect does not instantly remove your ship from the online game. Like in other MMOs, where an offline user will suddenly become unresponsive, but still "there" and still killable. Add a timeout similar to the regular logoff timer.. 15-30 seconds until the ship disappears. That will remove the (apparent) monetary reasons for combat-logging, in that your ship will still be blown to smithereens and you're still stuck with a rebuy.

Or, have the system note whether the user logged off the system properly or disconnected suddenly. Easy enough to do, just have the server log a small flag when a user "Saves and Exits", and if that flag isn't there when the user attempts to reconnect (indicating a "invalid" logoff), then the user is restricted from accessing Open Play for X amount of time, maybe a few hours, and that value goes up the more it happens. But they're still able to access Private Groups and Solo play.
 

HelloMeow

Member
There's a few ways to handle combat logging, IMO, in ways that don't require Frontier to spend time reviewing accounts and banning people:

Make it so a disconnect does not instantly remove your ship from the online game. Like in other MMOs, where an offline user will suddenly become unresponsive, but still "there" and still killable. Add a timeout similar to the regular logoff timer.. 15-30 seconds until the ship disappears. That will remove the (apparent) monetary reasons for combat-logging, in that your ship will still be blown to smithereens and you're still stuck with a rebuy.

The game is p2p, so that won't work. Taking damage and dying is handled on the client. That's why you can't kill combat loggers when their ship is still visible even though they are disconnected.

It would need a complete overhaul of the networking and I don't see that happening.
 

zorbsie

Member
Cool that the sale is on for Xbox as well. But I'm bummed that they took down the gold skin for the Anaconda. That's really the only one I wanted to get.
 

SmartBase

Member
Me too. Like many with busy family lives a lot of the game isn't attainable for me. Did manage to get from AspX to Python before passenger missions were nerfed.

I tend to treat Elite as something I dip in and out of. So once there are some more updates I'll probably be back.

Yep. I did not even check out the new update :( There is just nothing there if you are not big on earning new ships and scanning things.

My problem is I have more than enough time for a slow burn but every time I try Elite nowadays I feel like I could be doing something more fun.

Go to the official forums, complain about the reasons.

Wait for apologists to come in...

  • Gid gud!
  • But mah immersion!
  • But simulation!
  • This game is not for you, CoD instant gratification kiddy! This requires time, planning, ... (aka: braindead grind and lots of Netflix in normal people's terms)
  • But griefers!

Did I forget something?



Wow, LTTP much! :D As was said above, contact their support, enjoy, burn out, wait for updates, enjoy again, repeat. Feel free to complain away or rave about it in here. ;) Mandatory advise for you if you ever get into exploring: whatever nice looking thing you want to screenshot, always make sure your own ship covers most of it! ;-)

What little hope I had for the game's design dissipated when I joined and posted the official forums, people really don't like having sand in their sandbox.
 

Burny

Member
My problem is I have more than enough time for a slow burn but every time I try Elite nowadays I feel like I could be doing something more fun.

Ah, that reminds me of another one of my favorite apologist arguments!

"There is no grind! It's all about the way you play and your attitude. Nobody forces you to use the slightly exploitative process of gaining credits/ranks/mats, that is however so ridiculously more effective at gaining those things, as to render every other potential way obsolete. You're not forced to experience any of the game's content after all and could just stick to your Sidewinder and starting system to have a good time."
 

Agremont

Member
Just traveled 8000+ ly to find out I have about 3ly to little range to make it to my destination. The fucking place demands jump ranges close to 90 ly.

Oh well that's one 20 mil mission to hell.

At least I got some exploration data out of it though.
 

Mengy

wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
Just traveled 8000+ ly to find out I have about 3ly to little range to make it to my destination. The fucking place demands jump ranges close to 90 ly.

Oh well that's one 20 mil mission to hell.

At least I got some exploration data out of it though.

Out of curiosity, where was the mission target that you couldn't reach?
 

Pomerlaw

Member
Me too. Like many with busy family lives a lot of the game isn't attainable for me. Did manage to get from AspX to Python before passenger missions were nerfed.

I tend to treat Elite as something I dip in and out of. So once there are some more updates I'll probably be back.

Sadly I'm at this point too. This game lacks respect for those of us who have busy lives. If I'm lucky and get an hour to play, I sure as hell don't want to be hyperspacing/supercruising all the time. But that's what I end up doing most of the time.

I still think the flight model / galaxy are amazing.

I'll be back too.
 
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