Game balance changes opinion

Discussion in 'Experimental Features Discussion' started by Zenopath, May 21, 2021.

  1. Zenopath

    Zenopath Lieutenant

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    Overall I like the changes to the starter single player story progression, here are a few thoughts I've had so far.

    1) Not having access to all the starting resources of the Hindenburg (story line quest CV) because it is Admin Core invulnerable is a good idea. In the past I felt that just rushing to that wreck and looting it was basically all you need to setup a basic CV at very low level with minimal effort, which shotcircuited normal progression...

    2) I like Sanctuary. The vendors there give you access to drill and drill charges, and at a high price, small amount of rare ores. This makes it feel like the coins and credits I gather in early game mean something and can be put to use right away.

    3) I am not sure I like how the polaris faction is cool with you looting all their stuff. In between Sanctuary, Trading Station, and Top Disillery there is a lot of lootable stuff that again makes early game scaristy pretty meaningless. You are guaranteed lots of T2 weapons, and very likely a heavy armor. Then you buy some multirole armor mods from vendor and that is enough to make the story line pirate base pretty easy...

    4) There are two ways to get a lot of credits early on. One is to sell the data chip given to you that you are supposed to turn into Kessius, which, there's a good chance a lot of players who maybe didn't read quest or are willing to skip quest step by clicking the box in the PDA mission log will end up either unable to continue quest (if they don't know how to skip step) or getting a lot of credits they shouldn't have.

    The other way is to sell the technological artifact from the tomb. Theres a vendor robot on the top floor (past a door marked restricted) who will accept it. As Kessius doesn't seem to require that you turn in the technological artifact, that's a easy 9k credits right there. But since you'd have to search Sanctuary pretty carefully to find that vendor, I doubt many players will find him. I don't know if that's cool secret reward for being methodical, or error that quest doesn't ask for the disk... but 9k credits at that point of game easily affords you to buy a lot of stuff from vendors.

    5) I like how you have to risk an ambush to go get the SV damaged Dart... but it seems a bit random difficulty. First game there was a nasty ambush waiting for me, a patrol right on top of the portal, second time I started a new game, I got the SV without firing a shot. Also, given that base attacks are triggered when you get hostile with Xirax, it's probably a bad idea to force the player to go hostile with them that early in game. The ramp up of difficulty when you probably have no base defences is considerable. It might be better to spawn the portal somewhere outside of Xirax territory, and have scripted bad guys who are always present, and wont affect your rep with Xirax (like the group guarding the civilian prisoner at the Hindenburg)

    Those are my thoughts on the very early game Single player game. Feel free to reply if you agree or disagree.
     
    #1
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  2. Escarli

    Escarli Rear Admiral

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    The admin core on the hindenburg can be destroyed.
     
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  3. Zenopath

    Zenopath Lieutenant

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    Huh, I actually hadn't even tried, thought that you couldn't. I would think that's probably a bug.
     
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  4. Escarli

    Escarli Rear Admiral

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    The core is pre damaged hence why you can destroy it. No idea if that's the intent or not @Hummel-o-War ?

    You can mine under it and then destroy the core or can shoot it if you get the right angle through the blocks where they meet on the edges
     
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  5. Miznit

    Miznit Lieutenant

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    OK, I gotta go try this now. I'll report back on the success or failure of this mission. Unless I forget.

    EDIT FOR MY REPORT:
    Well, I forgot I hadn't done the missions yet, so got to fight the bad guys. BUT, I slipped a bit of C4 into a gap, blew the core, and put my own in it's spot. I can thus confirm that you CAN destroy the core on this one. But, more importantly, I remembered to come back and report. Yay me!

    CHEERS!
     
    #5
    Last edited: May 22, 2021
  6. Nathan Jurgens

    Nathan Jurgens Lieutenant

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    Normally any POI that is marked as a regenerative POI, will not allow you to replace the core, but now, it appears you can, and add stuff to the POI but it will still reset and lose everything you change.

    Not even a warning that its a regenerative POI
     
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  7. Runebane

    Runebane Ensign

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    #1 Yes and no, I do like the slowing down of progression, however I am not liking almost being forced to have a warp SV to make my first CV. At least in my play through there are no lootable crashed CVs to get enough Neo from. Actually, no lootable crashed CVs at all. However, I can, in solo, just play the bed game and buy Neo from the vendors but that's F-ing rubbish in my opinion. I don't want that to be the way to get your first CV and I don't want to be force to build an SV for the sole purpose of being able to warp to a Neo deposit. Just my opinion and playstyle. Now, I do like not being able to spawn my first CV in the first 4 hours of game play, but there has to be a happy middle on this one.

    #2 I'm going to preface this with I haven't played vanilla in ages, however last time I played vanilla it was like I'm saying (10.5 area). I like the Sanctuary but I do not like the vendors. On my last vanilla playthrough you havd vendors that buy the small weapons and plain multitools at the planetary trade station and you had a Mining Corp (different area) that sells Minerals. But this, you lose more than you gain. Because there is no one in the sector (space and planet) that buys the plain weapons. So I think if they had kept he trading station this would have been good, but it really seems like a step back. At least in my 1.5 playthrough.

    #3 if you use the teleporter at the Sanctuary it's actually Civilian faction, not Polaris. Even though it has Polaris written big and bold on the side of it. But yes, it appears that on the starting planet everyone is cool with stealing... Now, I understand Top Brewery letting you loot because they intended you to stock up before raiding the pirates. But that was before you could just trade for the item and before 1.5 the Eggs were still considered Polaris only if you looted those you got bad faction. Honestly, I prefer that even though on this playthrough I'm looting everything like a criminal. Only I'm not labeled as such...

    #4 Now I had a lot, I mean a LOT of bugs with the story line so I'm not sure my experience is typical. However, I was able to sell stuff after I passed the point of giving Kessiuis his stuff. I did not have to manually progress the story line. I did every chapter have to manually use admin commands to get every story line chapter to go, but that had nothing to do with selling data as I had to do that for chapter one where you get the data chip. If you're saying that on a normal run through he takes it from you, then yes that is a danger to make it something people can click a bypass button and still sell it. Though I would not say a 1 time thing of 5k-ish credits is a lot of early on money. I had a multiple weapons worth close to that to sell by that point as well (laser rifle and minigun, a couple of each plus other weapons). However, I do agree if the NPC was supposed to take it that it should not be sellable.

    #5 I disagree here. It's so easy to build you're own SV or spawn a factory SV at this point that the extra risk does not result in extra reward. Now, I say this not having done it. If the SV has a warp drive, then I take this back. I'm assuming you're getting the same shitty SV from before with missing engines etc... Also, the whole point is that we got thrown into this galaxy with the Zirax ambushing us and basically declaring war on Humans. What I don't get is how we can actually gain faction with them. As they seem dead set on killing any human that invades this galaxy... that's what seems the most weird is that I can start killing Talons and Pols and get friendly with the people that ambushed my people and started this war...
     
    #7
  8. Zenopath

    Zenopath Lieutenant

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    Worth noting that you can buy enough neo from vendors to build a deconstructor for your base, then you get a fair amount of resources from deconstructing all the weapons you find. I tend to disassemble anything that isn't T2... you get a lot of rare materials from disassembling laser rifles for example, like a surprising amount actually.


    The SV you get from ambush is fully flyable, (no warp core), though it is missing a left thruster. It's somewhat less damaged than the old one. It's not a big deal to get actually. Jump in portal, use the detector to find it, run towards it, careful not to shoot anything. My main complaint is that if you do kill a Xirex during this little adventure, you will start getting base attacks. If you aren't prepared for that, it is going to suck. It feels like a noob trab to me, like, a way to screw over a new player who has no defenses on their base at this stage of game.
     
    #8
  9. TerriWild

    TerriWild Ensign

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    Well with my starting approach it's all meaningless what you mentioned.
    First things i do is skipping the story until i have more than enough resources and credits.
    Survival Rule Number one: bet on the safe ways, get rich and then say yawn, i don't care for risks.
    The balancing Question is Pointless for me at least. (My opininion)

    Some tricks i learned while playing elite dangerous always make it just a matter of gametime until i have more
    resource income than spending them.

    Well if you want a hardcore mode beyond reforged i can try to make a scenario that fullfills it.
    It's just editing yamls an changing constants against your odds.
    How Hard do you wan't it? Or how realistic?

    If you can tell me that i might be able to work on a scenario.
     
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  10. Zenopath

    Zenopath Lieutenant

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    Well, I mean, only reason I'm playing experimental is to see the new story changes. Of course you could skip the whole storyline. You pretty much have to if you are playing on a multiplayer server, for example. But if you wanted to compare what was faster progression, doing your own thing or doing the story missions, I'd say story missions are way faster, if only because of how much free loot you get from the polaris sites and raiding the pirate base...

    It is also worth noting that you can reasonably accomplish the story missions up to the point of getting the epic mining drill using only the loot and free SV provided without ever having to mine for anything. Which is cool, especially when you consider that the Epic Mining drill is amazing. Much faster than a normal mining drill.
     
    #10
    Last edited: May 24, 2021
  11. Miznit

    Miznit Lieutenant

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    Yeah, in my play-through, not shooting anything wasn't an option. O teleported in, hit my ping tool, started running to the SV, and got jumped by 5 raptors. I won the fight, but I hadda shoot 'em. No Zirax were harmed in the process, however. I DID end up accidentally flying right next to a Zirax Defense POI, but it didn't shoot at me, so my escape was ok.
     
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