Category: 1: Lave Radio Episode

Download the episode directly from here.

In-Game Events – what’s happened this week?

1. Feed the galaxy Is this why famine states are so rare? More food that Aldi’s..

Questions

1. Response to the Grind Question from Ryan P Bodfist :- 
   1. Hi Lave Radio Crew,
      
      You asked for some feedback grind in ED – here’s my take…
      
      ED is a great game and the ED Developers are incredibly good at what they do in so many respects so don’t want it become too much of a rant…. But there have been some odd decisions made in the game at times I feel….
      
      In terms of grind – I’d break it down into 2 categories;-
      
      
      1. Wild goose chases that make no sense.
      2. Repetitious game loops that have no variation in
         Challenge
   2. Wild goose chases that make no sense
      
      Now there are wild goose chases that make sense – for example searching for Alien ruins etc – that’s fine. But here are some examples
      of the case in point – though there are others ;-
      
      
      1. Searching for material traders.
         Firstly, it isn’t enjoyable to spend hours searching through probable systems where they might be – it’s simply not fun game play. Secondly, how does it make sense that material traders would not be advertising their location – they are selling a service and they want to make money. Why, why, mcwhy? (the last one was for the Scottish folk amongst the crew… ) It just feels like artificial difficulty for the sake of it. It becomes a grind. Furthermore – all people end up doing is using online resources to find them all – so it takes people out of the game as well and fails to achieve what it was trying to do anyway!
         Solutions:
         
         
         1. Simply make them all visible in the galaxy map – I’ve
            still got to travel there after all
         2. If you really insist on make some game play out of finding these then make information a commodity that can be gained from factions etc –
            give me a way of finding the information out that makes some kind of sense.
      2. Randomly searching for ships and equipment
         
         Why do I have to fly around and dock at each station to find out if they are selling the thing I want – It not believable and it isn’t fun game play. Again I have to go out of the game to get this information and I don’t want to do that.
         
         Solutions:
         
         Make this information visible to me within a radius in the
         game from stations.
      3. Searching for materials.
         
         Put some challenges in the game that make getting materials deterministic
         rather than just on a dice roll. I know missions do this to an extent, but I think there needs to be more ways. Make information a commodity – maybe a tip
         off on a base that has a stockpile of a particular materials that I can
         infiltrate. A tip off on a large ship giving me exactly what it’s carrying – so I don’t waste my time getting a criminal record and get none of the materials I wanted because of a dice roll.
         
         That not to say get rid of the lucky dice roll way of getting this stuff as well – but make it more involving. For example, a random find in a salvage wreck gives me a document that details a site on a planet with loads of material x, or a base that I can infiltrate or a reward for rescuing a ship under attack, or perhaps when I hand in a rescued escape pod etc.
      4. Only being able to pin one engineer blueprint…
         
         I understand the limitation of not being able to get the engineer bonuses without visiting them – fine. But why can I only pin one blue print? Again – is it believable and does it improve gameplay? No and No. Just feels like an artificial restriction for no obvious gameplay benefit.
   3. Repetitive game loops that have no variation in challenge
      
      The other aspect of the game that I find “grindy” is the repetitious loops that offer no variation in challenge or game play. In short these become a grind not just because of the amount of times I have to do it but because there’s no variation in challenge – it gets dull pretty quick.
      1. Missions
         
         Missions get a bit “grindy” for me because they are just a bit of a forgone conclusion. Mostly they are go somewhere, evade the NPC interdictions (which I never fail – when was the last time you failed an NPC interdiction?). I never get anything I don’t expect, no variation in challenge – it all just feels like I just have to turn up. Because of this it becomes a grind just to get credits/materials rather than something that could be exiting and have some tension/emotional content at the same time.
         1. Solutions:
            
            More variety in challenge – keep me on my toes. Make NPC interdictions an actual threat. Get rid of no fire zones around anarchy stations so I can get attacked whilst I’m docking / un-docking in some cases – opt in risk isn’t risk…. I need to feel some emotion – some tension then its exiting – I need to feel I’m not totally safe at all times (Other than getting “Ganked” of course – but that’s not the kind of risk I’m looking for….)
      2. Guardian sites
         
         Firstly, how am I supposed to know where these are in game?
         Secondly, why so far away? Why can’t I buy them for large
         amounts of money, or get them in other ways. 
   4. Hard missions perhaps when I become an ally with a faction etc. I hate having to do the same one or two things thing over and over and having to fly so far. Give me the option of harder less repetitive tasks to get this stuff – so I can choose the easy “grindy” way or several different hard challenging exciting ways – where there’s a real element of
      tension and risk (i.e. I accept I may fail but if I win it’s worth it…)
   5. Anyway – that’s my 10p worth.
      
      By the way – thanks for all the work in doing the Lave Radio
      show over the years its been running – much appreciated. Makes my drive into and out of Cambridge much less of a
      grind 🙂
      
      Best Regards,
      Commander Ryan P Bodfirst
2. No response to the Question about Fleet Carriers? – CMDR Ade Mason in the Lave server:
   1. “Do you guys think that the Fleet Carriers should be given free to Lifetime Expansion holders, like me, and I assume the both of you?”
   2. Cmdr Ade Mason : “For my point and in addition, my understanding is that fleet carriers are almost a cosmetic, I know this was discussed in episode 257, so I don’t want to linger on it, I don’t think they’ll give any more than a transport/support option for your fleet of ships rather than having them stored at stations, also many players don’t play for credits, so they’d be priced out of potentially ever owning one if the hypothetical value of one is let’s say 5 billion for argument sake, it’ll then only be for the elite only players who already have billions, as the latest updates have been about getting new players into the game, I cannot see FDev releasing something that only a small percentage of players will afford to have access to! It’s not in keeping with the structure of the game, just some additional thoughts, so giving one free to a LEP holder wouldn’t be a game breaker, but would give them a nod and thanks for the support.”
3. New Question – Cmdr Thane didn’t realise that the ship compass could be used to locate his landing pad. What piece of functionality did you miss, until someone pointed it out to you? (And maybe needs to be included in the new Tutorials)?

Main discussion

• Patch Notes
• Content Reveal Livestream – September Update – Recap
  • September Update – Content Reveal
  • Elite Dangerous – September Update: First Look – The Price of Arx, Earnable Cosmetics, New Training
  • ARX FAQ
  • ARX and FD point conversion

• Decals – 50 to 150 ARX
• Individual Fighter and SRV Paint Jobs – 460 to 3280 ARX
• Individual Ship Paint Jobs – 620 to 5,520 ARX
• Individual Bobbleheads – 2,450 to 6,450 ARX
• COVAS – 8,850 ARX
• Ship Kits (sold in Bundles) – 11,750 to 13,520 ARX

Community Corner

1. We Have competition, the Loose Screws Elite Dangerous podcast is available covering similar topics as ourselves but in ‘merican. Hello to Dyrvol and Dravenous13