A brief, horrible look at Elite Dangerous’ story

[@rtaylor616]

I played Elite in 1984, when I lived in England, a friend would bring his computer over during our midnight shifts and we would play all night. We had sheets and sheets of hand made star charts on graph paper!

[@SamuelAGilio27]

That’s so awesome! I had no idea the game was around for so long!

[@whocareswho]

From around the mid 90's to around the mid noughts I was pretty much glued to Frontier and then First Encounters. Despite the bugs and shortcomings, I still hold these as some of the greatest open games ever. Elite I tried in the 80's but me being perhaps a bit too young to grasp it, or too much into the 80's arcade game style, it didn't grab me the same way the sequels did.

[@Sighman]

I used to play on the ZX Spectrum. Didn't care about the lack of story/plot in the game then, and don't care now. I choose tasks and set out to accomplish them, just like I do in Minecraft and Space Engineers.

[@andrewbailey7999]

@@Sighman Exactly the right way to play! Although given that they've created background lore for everything, the superpowers etc. it'd be cool if there was a little more back story in the codex. Just so I can read up on my history as I'm flying around doing my own thing

[@DougZbikowski]

I had a “Star Chart” book of graph paper with everything cataloged. Played on my C64 😄

[@theangrydiver]

The fact that after 200 hours of playing i didnt even know about guardians... Says it all

[@adarkwind4712]

Ouch.

[@combustiblefire5510]

For the record I covered 100 hours in my first 3 weeks of playing and found out about guardians around 75 and raided my first site

[@theangrydiver]

@@combustiblefire5510 mr. cool guy

[@lawrencepetrillose7303]

Lol I have over 300 and I'm just now finding out about it

[@Sighman]

I'm 1400 hours in and haven't fought any Thargoids yet. I'm just building an AX Krait II to give it a shot. Pun intended.

[@lordsith8319]

I have owned the game since 2014 I didn't even know there was a story

[@pattmahiney]

Facts lmao

[@omega_no_commentary]

there isn't

[@AviatorFox]

"You don't typically get to save the princess..." But when we got the chance, we all fucked it up didn't we Drew?

[@drewwagar]

Kinda. ;)

[@AviatorFox]

@@drewwagar Nooo..... We definitely did. Huge fan of the books! I'm really sorry I couldn't make it to your lore tour.

[@planexshifter]

Lmfao- Yeah, honestly, I am still kinda pissed at him for it-

[@kevinhowe543]

Yep, we trusted Harry

[@Ryan_Winter]

@@drewwagar This might sound very harsh, but I do understand why Frontier didn't support your attempt to wedge your character's story into the official lore. Had they supported Loren, others would have wanted the same for their Gary Stues and Mary Sues, and thus I think you are at least partially responsible for the line "personal narrative".

[@eddiemarohl5789]

Loitering fine in a burning station.... yeah that's me.

[@blakeirvin3011]

Sounds like me trying to learn how to land without the advanced docking computer lmao

[@eddiemarohl5789]

@@blakeirvin3011 lol true I still use my docking computer for my bigger ships though

[@blakeirvin3011]

@@eddiemarohl5789 I'm going to struggle for a while but I'm watching a series of videos on flying with Flight Assist off lol

[@eddiemarohl5789]

@@blakeirvin3011 good luck! I know flying with flight assist off really helped my combat piloting and I hope it can do the same for you

[@MinistryOfMagic_DoM]

@@blakeirvin3011 remember: FA Off is not for flying or combat. All it does is allow you to give full power to any directional thruster other than forward (which always gets 100% power) that you want. With it On you share the power between the other thrusters which automatically help keep you hovering or helping stop your motion. Flight Assist essentially wants to keep you sitting still and going straight. Forward thrusters are separate from directional and are not impacted by FA at all. Don't think flying with FA off all the time makes you a good pilot. It makes you one who doesn't understand why you would ever want to turn it off.

[@jaycorby101]

I remember the beginning of the thargoid narrative... Seeing the posts on reddit and videos and yt.... The galnet articles.. i felt like something was happening.. a mystery was unfolding... But when i get in the game every thing felt the same.. no change in gameplay or atmosphere... Most of the mystery was out of the game .. player would have to go hundreds of light years and mayb interact with a thargoid.. remember feeling let down

[@davekennedy6315]

Yeah, I started playing in may 2017 just before the Thargoids started making their presence known. It was an exciting time encountering them for the first time, players guessing at which weapons could damage the Thargoids. Then the Anti Xeno weapons started appearing and tactics were discussed on forums, KZbin vids and comment sections. The 2017 Expo also made Elites future look incredibly bright. Alas, it's all been downhill since then. Maybe Elite didn't deliver on the kind of profits Frontier wanted, as it feels like they have given the game the absolute bare minimum of Dev time and effort since. NMS showed that delivering regular very high quality, content packed updates can completely revitalise a games fortunes. Frontier just don't seem to care anymore.

[@PaulaBean]

The awesome VR is the only thing keeping me playing this game.

[@imushavem7504]

He also skipped the Thargoid Bubble War on stations and AX Combat Zones, but no sure that is lore, but not sure how it would be considered anything else at this point.

[@fnytnqsladcgqlefzcqxlzlcgj9220]

i was one of the first members of the canonn faction, like before there was a website or anything. i was out 6 hours after the guardian structure was discovered trying to figure out wth puzzle with heaps of other cmdr's, it was great fun. i return 4 years later to see... nothing has happened lmao

[@matiasramirez9093]

Ah yes, Elite, delivering a 2-4 hour story in 6 years

[@willdotexe5653]

i mean the world is 1:1

[@o-wolf]

Can anyone tell me what the ship at 1:11 timestamp is? Thanks in advance

[@o-wolf]

@AllPresidentsAreBastards thanks man 👊🏾🕶️

[@Javusus]

@@o-wolf it's probably a vulture

[@dolorousjohn5499]

@@willdotexe5653 40 hours jumping to systems and 2 hours of game.

[@acidjunkies]

Yamiks talks about Elite Dangerous the way my toxic ex is talking about me :-(

[@urded1145]

There is no plant that can grow on such a salty and acid ground.

[@el_buro]

@@urded1145 besides DN plants but aside from that...

[@QuantumPhoam]

Good pull having Drew collaborate with you in this video. If there ever is such a thing as "Elite Dangerous: Museum", Drew should be the curator. o7 CMDRS, you did a great job with this video!

[@Prenihility]

As a former EVE online player, it's unfortunately looking like Elite is in the same situation EVE cemented itself in post-2009. EVE had a chance to actually go somewhere. They wanted to give players the ability to actually PLAY their characters, and build from that. Even dabbling in atmospheric flight (there's an old video you can find) and none of this ended up happening. Odyssey may not have ship interiors, but if they actually pull through and add a deeper level of interaction; ie: Docking at a station - Talking to an NPC in person - Accepting a mission - Completing said mission. Then that's something. But if all we get is the space multi-tool to collect more BULLSHIT and have the same grindy, content-less gameplay loop there is now, then i'm done with Elite permanently. And all of the fans in ANY online game need to get together, be organized and proactively try and help make their game better. All while unfortunately fighting the "fans" at the same time, who would be happy if FDev released a new, mandatory peripheral for Odyssey that has to be inserted into your mouth and anus. Complete with thermometers, so it knows it's actually in there.

[@johngalt1027]

Eve is now a socialist utopia designed around nullsec and everything else is taxes. Its stagnant and dying.

[@Datttsnake]

The game your looking for is Star Citizen. Even with it's bugs it's shaping up to be better then Elite in every way. There's more depth then Elite. Currently you can already go do missions for some AI in game and it's rather immersive. The problem with Star Citizen currently is it needs its systems like Salvaging and the rest to be worked on and added to get it to a more playable state. Currently the only play styles are Mining, Piracy, and Cargo Hauling. All work rather well and are pretty in-depth minus cargo hauling. Cargo hauling currently lacks the ability to keep track of how many of a substance are in the Verse and will come online with Quanta. Mining is rather in-depth and enjoyable and can make you lots of money. Piracy is fun but is lacking the ability to steal cargo and sell it current and the distortion weapons to knock out engines effect has been taken out due to a bug. Many pirates use a Ship called a Mantis and a Cutlass Blue to interdect miners and cargo runners and keep them there, and then extort them at the risk of otherwise getting a torpedo.

[@johnboyd9713]

At least if you are with an active org in EVE the game actually has the tools to have a "personal narrative" even to this day. But yeah. EVE needs to be pushed forward, not just fleshed out at the edges. I admire CCP for the work they do with EVE, but it needs something dramatic. I really thought Valkyrie was a missed opportunity to go in a new direction, a partial realization of DUST's ambition, but no. I know people mention star citizen a lot, but I don't know if it is going to come close to its promise or even reach EVE. I mean... That's all they have to do. Be an FPS/Actiony version of EVE. Elite Dangerous is cooked. I go there to fly around in VR, but nothing meaningful beyond that is contained within.

[@FurryKeidran98]

@@Datttsnake actually if you steal someone's ship with cargo, take a ship you own and the stolen one to a black market outpost / salvage yard. The stolen cargo will appear as if it is in your ship and you can sell it. It's at least a little work around the devs added until we get cargo transfers and tractor beams working.

[@DaemonJax]

But you're buying Odyssey anyways, right? So, they got your money.

[@drewwagar]

Peeeeerrrsonnalll Naaaarrrative. :) Love it. How I despised that phrase!

[@spartanleonidus238]

Thanks for working with Yamiks on the video...Might have to get some real story from your books in the Elite world CMDR o7

[@killakanzgaming]

Personal narrative. Yeah, because where the hell would you be without a storyboard script to follow?...

[@cmdrterrorfirma4244]

On the one hand ED has kept many players like myself in the game for 5 or 6 years which is pretty impressive. I still like the flight experience and just flying about and doing things in the galaxy but this video does pretty much sum things up. There were some fun events and adventures in the game, but many were short lived and half-hearted. A few things that Yamicks did not mention: There were two early events tied to story and were presented as proto-"community goals": One was the search for the disappearance of Starship One with the then President of the Federation (Jasmina Halsey). Secondly there was an ongoing player involved BGS related event(s) to counter the spreading of a contagious outbreak called the Cerberus Plague which spread from system to system. These were kind of the origin of "community goals" events and were tied to ongoing lore and history related mysteries. But soon after this community goals "Grew up" and then just became weekly money grind events with little to no tie in to in-game mysteries or lore. There were some good times but yes, Fedev has continuously under estimated player involvement and under utilized the amazing background lore they could have turned into a real story.

[@PaulaBean]

I fondly remember the Volynov event.

[@thevaf2825]

When I was first hyperdicted I boosted away to escape whatever was hunting me and my ship kept drifting forward in space and I never got to see the thargoid...... So yeah, my game glitched and I never got to experience the hyperdiction first-hand...

[@redmoon383]

Your ship gets disabled immediately after a hyperdiction. You didnt experience a glitch, you boosted away, got disabled, and kept drifting away until they hyperdiction was over and the interceptors left.

[@bonzairob]

@@redmoon383 That's the glitch - the Thargoids scan empty space behind you instead of your ship. Same thing happened to me, very immersion breaking.

[@thevaf2825]

@@bonzairob Indeed. Also note I was playing in VR was soooo looking forward to this.....

[@thespectator1243]

Please note that there are two versions of the hyperdiction: - in the first itteration it was a scripted event, that always played out in the same way (as scripts go, right?) - later, the hyperdiction was revamped so the Thargoids where more interactive (I'd say "actually AI-controlled, not scripted). It is possible to boost away from the second kind of hyperdiction -altough you WILL get disabaled; but if you fly FA/off you will of course continue drifting at speed. You probably experienced the later kind of interdiction. I have experienced both, and have to say the original interdiction is WAY coooler and the game should make it so that - when you get interdicted the very first time ever - you will experience the first kind of interdiction o7

[@davecrupel2817]

You chose to boost away. You have nothing to regret.

[@davekennedy6315]

The perfect roundup of just how badly Frontier has treated their game and more importantly how badly they have treated their customers/playerbase. They have ruined player created events, have delivered next to no story and sub par updates. My hopes couldn't be lower for Odyssey.

[@youarieyellowmissile]

i Think, the developer want no story. maby, they have other stuff to du, maby they want more a sekend live stile game, maby the dragoidstorry is to komlex to tell to you, whifout to say "You are the first and only personthat see this. nad i repet this all millions people next and befor you" Maby the servers kant handle big groobs of intrestet player, that want explore next parts of story. But Your Rigt! that is to pure. So we can see, to tell a story is art. sins totay! and not mutch people in this wolrd can do this good! maby elite developer are to not got storyteller? and maby they now that? i reped, I Think. because, i Know how hard it is to tell a story. specely millions other peole, that are listen that story, AND be a part in this. Its realy chanange. most games handle this whif: "You are the only one how i tell this!" but clearly, you are a player ass evry els, and you knw it. but that wor well in many games. WOW do this long ago, desteny isolatet you alone in storycutsenes, the division is mostly tellt by pikups, like audiorekordings, vodeorekordings, and your bossfigts. But many games esaly start her story by you, you start your game and the Story. Elite Dangerus Not. And this is her troble, i think. so they have Veeery mutsh chalanging tasks. for big events, that give singel wolrdwide storytelling, its nerly impossibe to handle this. tell whif allredy rekordet things, make you unspecel, and little bit sat, bekaus, you miss that special story. no. some one have see this. and you are only a lisener. and to ly you, that you are the only one, is bad, when you tell that your frend, so, very very challange!

[@serpenthydra]

@@youarieyellowmissile Some story is nice, it provides direction and small rewards that can open up the gameplay loop. It can remain entirely optional, as is ED's stipulation, but having a voice in your ear telling you this or that is nice. And perhaps it could be made multi-optioned simply by providing multiple systems to visit at any one story beat, thus creating a unique thread for almost every player. Considering the amount of specialisation needed in this game and the amount of Lore and content that could prove overwhelming and even oppressive to new players, a story could help direct players towards specific tasks, certain careers and help frame the environment somewhat. Even exploration might feel more inclusive if there were some 'Expedition' heading into unknown territories. That could certainly help players find Guardian sites or explore barnacles and Thargoid resistance efforts, as opposed to being a boring entry in the handbook. If a bit of imagination were implemented I reckon it could be easily added without being a massive issue. And then modified as it befits player feedback...

[@youarieyellowmissile]

@@serpenthydra oh Yes! maby that is the way!

[@serpenthydra]

@@youarieyellowmissile It's one idea, though I don't think Frontier will likely notice it, so we'll just have to keep on boosting our ships to the ground just to spice up the tedium that can be this game....

[@KingofJ95]

Why are the people who hate ED the most, the most ardent players?

[@genericusername546]

Remember, you don't watch a Yamiks video to hear a *good* opinion, you watch it to hear Yamiks opinion.

[@TheYamiks]

it's the BEST opinion

[@n3rdm4n]

SINGLE PLAYER WITH MODS Frontier set up a nice sandbox. Now let people that are good at creating stories... create stories with the elements given.

[@Jayko92279]

The game has some semblance of being a traditional MMO. I always wondered why their couldn't be scripted events and story arcs like one. A campaign that involved some of the lore that could be expanded, but whatever, I still like the game for what it is and that's probably why I want more truthfully.

[@davidcarter4877]

Yamiks doing a lore video? Hoo boy, this is gon be guuud

[@cloud09gaming]

Yamiks becoming E:D's version of Ethys for FF14. I approve!

[@BongoBaggins]

*Narrator's voice*: It wasn't.

[@BalaTheRealOne]

the first burning station... I was there to rescue people. that was my one and only involvement to the fantastic thargiod "storyline"

[@RealLordVoldemort]

My earphones were on maxium and I am now deaf. Last thing I heard was "PeRsOnAl NarRaTiVe"

[@spacedoutorca4550]

Why would you put your headphones on maximum on a Yamiks video, lmao.

[@Mechator_Rex]

Way to go out man.

[@Thomanese]

I'm a little late on this video, but thanks to you both for putting this together! I really like Elite Dangerous right now and this filled me in on its history.

[@cmdrlightwalker_9877]

Man I love elite dangerous, but this vid you made Yamiks really showcases the lack of involvement with the community from the devs. And it kinda shows what you said that its their game not ours, and that to much trailblazing in a game supposed to be about trailblazing is not wanted and punishable.

[@kadimakalgar7087]

Great, very great review ! Thank you so much : I just ended up understanding the deeper meaning of "personal narrative". But I must confess that I also laughed a lot during this brilliant show ! Merci beaucoup TheYamiks :-)

[@DukeStarscream]

Frontier calls it story. Rest calls it grind...

[@PaulaBean]

If they remove VR from the game, I'm gone.

[@toornery]

I have been playing for almost 2 weeks now and this is exactly what I have been searching for thank you Ser very good job appreciate yer work

[@fluffypinkpandas]

I was actually docked on the Gnosis with a "research vessel" being a Krait II completely kitted out with equal parts research scanning equipment as well as heavy shock cannon and AX armaments. After the first wave of research vessels got cleaned out by the thargoids, I disembarked along with the newly arriving backup crew to protect the gnosis while Meta Alloys were being ran to it. I was there with fellow anacondas witnessing an absolute joke of development, as I'd routinely decimate scout fighters with shock cannons. The scout goids wouldn't even move or shoot. They'd keep respawning in the same positions completely bugged and unable to be an animated actor. I trekked back to the bubble and sold everything from my Krait II after taking a week long break.

[@neptuneandtrident]

For Yamiks; ED'S lore may as well be Erectile Dysfunction.

[@seanforsythe78]

For a bit of clarification on the generation ships: most of the ships successful made it to their objective worlds and started new colonies, the generation ships we get to interact with are the ships that DIDN'T make it.

[@skyranger144]

It just seems that having thargoids require special weapons to fight is just a terrible idea.

[@seanforsythe78]

Special weapons that you can only have 4 of at a time.

[@Shrumt]

@@seanforsythe78 and that you’d have to grind for. But what’s new, right?

[@ThatTinyDude]

time to listen to "ED CANNON" as long as it isn't retconned XD

[@OscarSuhRodriguez]

i needed this! super compelled by gameplay but needed a little more

[@DragonsREpic]

The Streisand effect - a social phenomenon that occurs when an attempt to hide, remove, or censor information has the unintended consequence of further publicizing that information, often via the Internet. It is named after American entertainer Barbra Streisand, whose attempt to suppress the California Coastal Records Project's photograph of her residence in Malibu, California, taken to document California coastal erosion, inadvertently drew further attention to it in 2003.

[@pattmahiney]

This sounds really gay and made up and I am living for it. It's my new favorite effect.

[@saladv6069]

@@pattmahiney people saying Chinese president Xi Jinping looks like Winnie the pooh. after banning all traces of Winnie in China it became a catch all derogatory term in the west for Xi, and many people haven't even seen the original photo the comparison was based off of

[@pattmahiney]

@@saladv6069 I should've been more clear lol. The name itself sounds a little weird. The effect I understand

[@DragonsREpic]

@@pattmahiney sooo fake and gay? Haven't heard that in years

[@DragonsREpic]

@@saladv6069 only the Chinese would be offended by Winnie the pooh, poor pooh

[@robertp4634]

Great video thx Yamiks and Drew.

[@alexandergonet4937]

6:32 when i finally got the rank of king in empire, every time i visited a empire owned station they welcomed me with "we highly apreciate your visit" or other formal stuff like that so your influence does changes the behavior of an NPC

[@hans-joachimtenhoope1744]

The Gnosis event was made even worse by trolls who: 1: would shoot at ships from just beyond the no fire zone, shooting back at them would instantly earn you a fine. 2: Lure Targoids after them into the system who would destroy everyone around the Gnosis, The Targoid would linger around the Gnosis untill the troll disconnected. 2a: the Targlets where able to shoot through the station hull, destroying almost all ships who where docked there.

[@sergiv5613]

Am i correct in remembering that the devs confirmed that Raxala was in the game, and that one player has actually been in the system (presumable just jumping through and not finding anything)?

[@kachkeis6920]

Okay, and now I want an ED podcast with Yamiks, Drew Wagar, and the squeezy thing. #goodtimes

[@nicoalvarezp2]

Yes, a 30 minutes yamiks video!!

[@Thedestroyer2031]

Ah yeah, a “brief” video

[@iloveyoushima]

I can't listen to this guy's voice for more than 2 minutes.

[@michalsimanek6988]

this video makes me sad tbh. Such a great game with so much potential but developed by a company who blow every opportunity and make idiotic decisions...

[@spartanleonidus238]

Wistfully so but I have so many hours of fun and they can never take that back. The motivation to play more is pretty low though but there are a scad of other good games out and more coming monthly.

[@PurpleFringe]

I couldn't agree more. Yamiks' comment about the feel of ED and its history being more like a film franchise than a computer game was right on the mark. Fdev is a business of course, but I would have been prepared to pay a regular sub if the content was truly engaging; I wonder how many others would too. Meanwhile, back in the room, let me now take a microsecond to decide whether to take on a passenger mission that would involve almost 20000 jumps in the 3 weeks allowed for it....

[@founderoftheempire8589]

What makes it worse is each dlc is as much as the base game

[@OperatarSmooth]

That all sounds great. The fact you all wreaked doing that jump. You have the story for all that, I think is really great. Thanks for telling it, I just hope one day I will be able to be involved with something like that, but seems all the people involved are a lot smarter then me.

[@hermanvisser4034]

Yamiks, easily one of your best videos ever!

[@Max_Flashheart]

The Guardian Sites & Mission plus unlocking alien tech, Thargoid Interdiction/encounter , Thargoid Bases activating the machine with Guardian tech I really loved.

[@thegwolf]

This is a great summary why I don't waste my life anymore by watching the loading screen of the friendship drive preparing for a jump. (and despite being a beta phase backer, why I don't support FDev anymore) Everything that have been promised in the kickstarter videos "slowly sgetting there" but even when delivered they lack the functionality that the presence of certain features imply. In the case of Planetary Landings it literally means just the ability to touch down on planets, you can go about on the surface and do what with it? Blaze your own trail in FDev's case means - Make your own game, but pay us for providing the sandbox for it then they can't be bothered to include the tools to build our own sand castles.

[@Fru_videos]

Sure, don't mention Colonia at all, what do we matter, right? Actually, me being a Colonist have kind of opposite experience then all you bubble-heads ;) At first we only had Jaques Station, after that Colonia grew to 8 systems and after CEI we have over 70 now, got ourselves the best engineers as well - though we had to unlock higher tiers for their blue prints. My point is, I have witnessed entire region develop from nothing, most of it via player involment and hard work, how's that for an Elite Dangerous’ story? :)

[@staticmetalxbl]

*applauds* well said.

[@BlackKnight288]

This is basically why I a hear everything he said in a positive sentiment, rather than the clear negative he intended. So how does one join Colonia? I'm very interested now

[@DaemonJax]

@@BlackKnight288 No one joins Colonia. It's just a system in the middle of nowhere. There's no reason to go there, unless it happens to be on your way on your trip to the center of the galaxy.

[@VascoAW]

Elite Dangerous is no longer a game. It's a second job; an incessant grind where you are paid peanuts for a huge investment of your time. I have sat in space with my Vive Pro headset on marvelling at the depth of an Imperial Courier's cockpit extending far beyond the dashboard facia - an image that you simply cannot fathom in 2D. I have felt the cramped cockpit of an Imperial Eagle or fighter pressing in on my shoulders and thrilling in the experience of using a small ship or shipboard fighter supporting the larger ships available to players in combat. My palms sweated and my hands shook in the glory of VR combat. Breathtaking is an overused description for the majority of computer games, but it's an accurate description of what I feel in E:D using VR. And for all that, it's an empty experience. If I need money, I'll mine or look for news of the next gold rush. Combat simply doesn't pay the bills. The latest version of Elite remains as much of a game as David Braben remains a developer. He evolved from a developer into a businessman and the game has followed suit. The thrill of the original game from the 80's and it's 90's sequels remains a fond memory. These days, it appears more of a cash cow to allow Frontier to milk fans for the investment capital necessary for other projects. We simply do not matter anymore. The best thing that could happen to this latest iteration of the game is for the community to buy Frontier out and remove David Braben's influence from the game. This is a passionate community and the talent necessary to develop this game into a living, breathing, universe exists within its supporters. Star Citizen would be dead in the water if this game lived up to its full potential, but Frontier simply doesn't have the will to allow it to become so. Perhaps the fanbase does.

[@morrgash]

The story of Elite Dangerous is just like season 8 of Game Of Thrones, 7 seasons of characters and villain build up only to crash and burn miserably in season 8...

[@Magus7777]

The reason for this is also the same one: Original author becoming bored with his own stuff, and too lazy to continue it, at the same time finding out new and clever ways to wring money out of his audience without delivering anything for it...

[@morrgash]

@@Magus7777 Yeah pretty much, i remember the time at the start when i was so excited about the Thargoids story line, sadly that is gone now...

[@jeremy7383]

highest point was a non-FDEV story yet they don't want to continue it.

[@Beery1962]

I really think the developers have failed to understand how people like to play games like these. They thought we'd all go off exploring, but we really just stayed in places we feel comfortable. I suspect the devs want to tell a story of human expansion into the cosmos and invasion of other species' territory, but humans really aren't naturally invasive - we don't do that unless we're forced to.

[@Beery1962]

I like that there are all these mysteries leading to nothing though. After all, that's probably what contact with an alien species would be like. It all reminds me of the book "Solaris", by Stanisław Lem. On the other hand, I do agree that there should be some interaction with the lore that gets forced on the player: as you say, Thargoids should pop up from time to time during supercruise. If that happened, it would be awesome! Then again, I'm the kind of guy who's just happy to be able to fly around the Milky Way Galaxy, so I'm easily pleased.

[@Vanhala]

Community Goals were perhaps the best chance for a followable community narrative. Instead of the community choosing a story outcome (perhaps spread out over a year of plot-driven CGs) they just existed as one-offs with little impact beyond financial or resource rewards - or as part of a planned release (I believe the AX weapons were a CG?). Building a story over 12 months of CGs (maybe 1 CG a month) would give you 12 different opportunities to impact the galactic story with the final payoff for the story creating some sort of larger scale galactic shift. This would have also given the devs 12 months to actually prep that change (provided they wrote 12 months of CGs and had an actual idea of where they were going). So for the last CG you have built to this big reveal i.e. new Emperor elected, new discovery made, new system unlocked etc. There is a payoff that isn't just credits.

[@glenn_r_frank_author]

totally agree. Community goals started or could have been ways for the player base to choose the story narrative direction, but Fdev figured out early on that planning for two possibly story directions, putting in the programming and development time to make each possible alternate universe available and then only one being implemented by the CG outcome was not sustainable or worth the effort so they left the CGs to be money grind events that did not really move the story along.

[@Vanhala]

@@glenn_r_frank_author I don't think that they figured this out at all given they never remotely explored it. What Community Goal had any sort of alternate universe outcome? They saw CGs as merely another way of doing missions, just with everyone doing them together. They saw it as a way of forcing gameplay with credit rewards rather than a lore-based reason. It's never been about actual story or politics or galaxy building for them as evidenced by Yamik's video!

[@glenn_r_frank_author]

@@Vanhala There was one CG early on I remember... September 3301 ... related to the NPC group or in-Galnet group called "Emperor's Dawn" who were a rebellion against the imperial leadership. They were kind of a terrorist faction that if they had won the CG there was a supposed full story line of events that would happen but the community defeated it so... that whole planned timeline of events for Emperor's dawn was tossed out basically. Not sure if there were any other FDEV planned storylines that got smothered because of player actions in CGs but that is one I remember and I think Fdev gave up doing these things like that after that one.

[@peterd9769]

The interior of the Thargoid structure at 20:19 looks like the Zerg briefing room from Starcraft where you get expository dialog before starting a mission.

[@grandsome1]

Elite story's is like real life's story, it doesn't care about you an kinda suck. But real life's story is much better because it's way weirder and actually affects you.

[@TheYamiks]

and yet you clould tell compelling hand crafted "quest-like" stories with nice unique events....right!? oh.. no sorry Elite believe s in procedurally generating everything!

[@grandsome1]

@@TheYamiks Hell, it's not hard to make even Galnet stories affect the player. Like, they just assassinated a prince I think, prices in Empire space could go up, combat mission issued, themed, and have their reward increased. Shit like that, the bare minimum. *sigh* This game should be open source, it's only alive and playable because of the community.

[@Vanhala]

​@@grandsome1 I remember when the Emperor died. I flew to Imperial space expecting.. something? Nope. Wedding barges and the same re-hashed text sprawl. Flew to the capital expecting maybe a funeral procession, maybe the fleet massing to pay their respects. Nope. Just the usual system traffic. Elite: Bare Minimum sums it up though in terms of story/worldbuilding.

[@Ryan_Winter]

@@TheYamiks I understand why people want a plot, as an RPG player I love good stories, but what astonishes me is how a large part of the ED community seems to think, that not providing a "story driven" experience is a refusal unique to Frontier, while most other MMOs never provided a story driven experience either. The problem is that as soon as you have a story everyone who plays the game wants to be THE protagonist, affect the world in a unique way and direct the story in a particular direction. Which is why all MMO's who try to give players that experience settle for a faceless and nameless hero and limit any element of choice to a personal scope, which only affects that single player. Because otherwise you have to deal with vastly divergent in-game situations when players form a group and play together, and then you are only left with the choice to either keep the story-part out of group play in a group-centric game or you discard the "version of events" most players created for themselves or wanted to create for themselves and force the same story onto everyone. There are so many immersion-breaking tripwires that you hardly will make anyone happy. If you think ED's meta-plot is a thin veneer, go back to Star Wars Galaxies, that game never had anything approaching a plot and it was Star Wars. Star Wars The Old Republic promised a story driven experience, but it was a lie, your choices hardly ever made a difference in that game whatsoever. Overall the same events transpired. I know absolutely nobody who felt that TOR handled group play well. I still remember the first Flashpoint, both in the Empire and the Republic, most people hated it when a majority vote decided over the life and death of npcs, but in the end what was even worse was that it made absolutely no difference anyway. Of all the MMO's I've played the one who had the strongest approach towards a story driven experience was interestingly Guild Wars II. You could make meaningful choices that changed your story, it provided a branching story, which made playing multiple characters a rewards experience. But even in that game your choices didn't affect anyone else, only you knew about your story and as such you had a single player experience in an MMORPG. Last but not least, people tend to underestimate effort that is necessary to provide new story driven content after the players burned through the initial batch. If you don't do it procedurally, you have to make hand crafted content and that takes menpower.

[@evilrslade]

Is anyone still playing this enormous grind?

[@zacharym7000]

I jump in every once in a while, but i can't bring myself to really invest my time into it

[@lethalburrito5173]

I managed to log in one last week. I just stared at my ship and the menu... Tried to remember where I left off and I think I was trying to do some engineeri...... Nope aint doing that! Nobody Aint Got Time For That! Exit to desktop.

[@BlindKid4]

i just snagged it for free from epic store, so far the only motivation i have for doing anything is so that i could fly my ship, say what you may the flight mechanics are fucking insane

[@moviesandvisualfx5663]

Just started ! glad I got the WHOLE thing for free ,cozzz well Star Citizen just Won ! Sorry Braben ,you failded ...

[@FJF1085]

I just started playing in October, I enjoy the game so far.

[@cyberdami]

Great video & Collab with Mr Wagar Yamiks! 😉

[@madprophetus]

I didn't realize Drew Wagar was so salty. Feels bad, man. I know he's a passionate fan.

[@FrickinLaserBeams]

The mistake you're making is in thinking that ED is an Elite game. It's not. It's a poorly implemented MMO with an Elite-styled desktop theme. If it were an Elite game, it'd be single-player offline - perhaps with self-hosted server so you could have groups of friends joining in co-op play. Alas, it's an MMO, designed to be an MMO, and that's why you'll never see truly personal narratives, or why you will never matter in the uncaring ED galaxy, because designing any content in ED needs to take into account that said content needs to be able to be played by all players in the MMO, which dictates that the content is always going to be repetitive and on rails. The only truly dynamic content in this Elite-themed MMO, is the player.

[@therealtjpek]

It being an MMO doesn't mean they can't put a little effort in. I mean, you get fined if you try to defend a megaship that's being attacked cause you fired too close to them. And saving escape pods in a distress call gives you a bounty for stealing. What kind of person thinks that those are ok?

[@FrickinLaserBeams]

@@therealtjpek 100% agree with you.

[@lethalburrito5173]

Remember when I encountered thargoid for the first time and almost lost my ship and couldnt quite counter them and then found out I had to reconfigure my ship or whatever to be able to counter their lethal dots. Not enjoyable at all. ED always wants me to grind or change my ship loadout/setup. Since Im proud of my python and the way I set it up for combat, I dont want to change it for thargoid hunting, nor do I want to change it for mining which I need to find materials in order to engineer my weapons. If you like combat ED pretty much says: No. You cant earn much money, theres very little variety and ED just wants you to go mining and grinding. Shame because combat is fairly fun, but ultimately I just feel the game itself just wants to punish you and lock you into endless grinding cycles. I installed No Mans Sky 2 weeks ago and even though they are two different beasts I feel a lot more "free" in NMS combared to the strict and punishing feel I get from ED. NMS has its own problems and the ship controls suck imo compared to ED but just the fact that I can land anywhere, build a base, get a freighter easily, walk around in my freighter, build inside my freighter, follow story missions, easily customize my personal loadout, starship loadout, vehicle loadouts, find materials fairly easily and many other features that ED lacks shows that ED is lagging behind. Not going to say much about SC but when it comes to world presentation and ship design SC looks better. ED certainly lacks something besides spacelegs. A clear narrative or engaging world or improving just how you manage things, its very slow, stale and cumbersome. For story I remember wing commander clearly how it setup the world and defined it. Elite does no such thing. No cutscenes, No talking heads, just pictures and text. No memorable characters or nothing. If NMS gives you ton of toys and options that might be not so well thought out ED gives u nothing. ED is very conservative when it comes to fun and freedom. Its as if they have a "fun-limiter". A commision of beurocrats that often come to the conclusion that: No, that would be too fun, that would give the player too much freedom or that would make the narrative too engaging or combat too interesting, we have to slooow things down....we have to let them grind and then when they are happy with their setup we need to force them to change their loadout and grind some more. Its like giving someone a 4-slot bag and say go explore the world. Oh u need a bigger bag? Well you can zip around the world to get these 4 items that you can combine to expand to 5-slot bag. Oh you want to fight the aliens? For that u need a 7 slot bag. No, the blue 7-slot bag, u need to collect 7 items and combine them to make the bag blue and then raise your standing with this faction, also you need to do mining. But my ship is geared for comb.... I dont care, remove those hardpoints and get some mining equipment! You want better weapons right? Then go be a miner! Cant I just buy the materials i nee....No! The fun will be just around the corner. But first you have to mine! Can I then walk around my shi...No! That would be too fun! Install that mining equipment and go on an arguous jorney that will make you see rocks from all over the galaxy! But I wanted engaging space battles and upgrade my weapons n stuff. No! Do some rep grinding and mining first! You earn nothing from combat. Play in open! But my ship will be ganked, can i turn off PvP? No! Absolutely not! This is the way! And so say we all. The fun factor must never exceed 42%.

[@botep5529]

This is so spot on. I'm fairly new and I feel like the goal that I'm trying to achieve is always behind a tedious wall. If I want to progress in something I have to watch 3 videos on it, refit my taxi ship, travel 300 light years to pick up some stupid shit, drop it off, wait 30 minutes for my combat ship to transfer, get my upgrade, transfer back etc etc. I feel like it takes a day of planning and non gameplay.

[@nrares21]

After watching this video, i must say it's definetly a really weird case. On one hand you have things like the sheer scale of the game, where you have Systems Like Beagle point which take weeks to get to, and they have player-made history behind them, just like The Gnosis and Jaques Station with Colonia, in which the devs acknowledged the community by naming those stations/systems in that way, which is quite unique and an amazing thing to do for a multiplayer game like this, but on the other hand, aside from those things if you weren't part of them then it really feels like its empty. There is no structured grinding or end goal, not much of an end-game or late-game missions or PVE/PVP, no guild wars type things, and many other things that you would see in say... a MMO. They could have done with more missions that would be story driven scripted narrated with multiple session content that would also have logical progression rewards, but they didn't... and its kinda sad they didn't. Is that kind of what you wanted to say with the video?

[@joniskrosis2882]

Rest in peace Console Galnet. Your immersion factor will forever be misses

[@caerleon9176]

I played this game when it came out and I was 11 - loved it and still play it today.

[@mostdysfunctionalfamily2725]

13:14... i remember seeing the recoding from the xbox player who discovered the first thargoid ship... i was part of the group and it was only for exploration screenshots... seeing him get ripped out of hyperspace blew my 17 year old fucking MIND!

[@TaSwavo]

Thanks- I played Elite on the BBC Micro of my neighbour (in University halls) in 83/4 (before it came out somehow because I was only in that hall until June 1984). Loved it and got to Elite (I was on his computer more than he was). But never really got into the lore. Oddly I remember that my main drive (before the drive to become Elite) was to get an auto-docking computer as they were harder to come by in that game and, with no joystick, docking was a lot more tricky. Thanks for this though - much appreciated as I bought ED a few years back but only started playing properly in October 2020.

[@Weeji_420]

Great video Yamiks.

[@PaulaBean]

A nice, long video. Thanks!

[@ij1376]

...The Gnosis Megaship story is infuriating. Trying to jump to a system and basically getting blocked by FDevs...The only revenge I can get is to not give them one more cent of my money. Odyssey *will* suck if it's created by such selfish, negligent, indifferent developers such as these.

[@aangeloraphael9945]

Well... yep that happened.

[@Alswulf]

well made and refreshful: thanks guys!

[@JimPekarek]

4:32 Shots fired 🤣 As an American, I have to admit this is the most accurate representation of American culture I've ever seen wrapped up in a single image.

[@thevaf2825]

With regards to the permit locked systems I'm wondering if it's just the case these systems are bugged and instead of fdev fixing them manually or trying to tune the algorithm so these generate OK, just decided to permit lock them....

[@davekennedy6315]

I believe that most permit locked areas are there purely for Frontier to be able to test on the live server. Nothing more. No Raxxla, no Thargoid home planet, no surviving Guardians, no nothing, just a locked Frontier restricted test area. To think any more than that is to give Frontier credit where it certainly isn't due.

[@doobs46]

@@davekennedy6315 I agree. I think it is the test area in reality but more fun to think of as thargoid home systems locked out to prevent another and bigger war.

[@davekennedy6315]

@@doobs46 I'd LOVE for it to be something incredible, be that Raxxla or some other lovingly handcrafted systems packed full of exciting things to fly or SRV round. But alas that just doesn't seem possible with Frontier as that doesn't tie in with their copy and paste methods. I genuinely think that Elites size has handicapped the game. I would have happily taken 10 systems with stuff to do than the 400 billion near identical systems we have. For a sandbox game to work you need lots of toys and things to do, Elite feels dead, empty and boring.

[@ChaosXOtaku]

i mean how cool would it be to do a story mission that you get from the mission board that has a bunch of smaller missions with one big mission at the end that you could do in a wing all while telling a story

[@ianoag]

My "review quote" for Elite Dangerous: "Here's a ship, here's some credits to get started, there's the Galaxy. Now go out there and see what you can do....."

[@lefty59th18]

Man, you should do more of this kind of videos...

[@TheAngrySaxon1]

It's weird how much hand-holding modern gamers seem to need. I've been playing since before a tutorial even existed, and didn't find it particularly difficult to get started.

[@spartanleonidus238]

Standard sim level difficulty I agree. Getting started wasn't insanely over the top but most games have a little more to help out new players than E:D did at launch. I just smashed my ship's landing gear on the deck of the stations across the galaxy until I got better Lol.

[@vicviper319]

31:20 This is exactly the feeling I had on what Fdev thought of us as I was trying to get back from the prison ship for defending the Gnosis.....

[@xISparkzy]

“Thargoid mothership may be in hip 22460” Well thats seeming to be a pretty good guess right now huh?

[@adrianb4121]

I actually went 2 weeks before attempting to "look around". It wasnt until I was curious about how to do mining. That I went on KZbin. I wanted to "explore" the game on my own before I was clueless about how to do something. Now Im 3 months in and trying to unlock all the engineers and fully engineer my fleet (yes, I have a fleet including a Cutter and Corvette) having watched every KZbin channel on the game, lol

[@JohnZingTTV]

I love this video its brilliant and hilarious this is your best video i've seen so far

[@pr3d4t0r11]

Power Play is actually the living and breathing universe driven by players. It is very very wrong that it is portraited like this not only by TheYamkis but also by other content creators. Here is my story: - started Elite in October; - in November I decided to join Hudson for the Pacifiers - when I joined I had Sidewinder, Cobra, Viper and Vulture with around 20M in the bank; - after that everything sky rocketted - each week there are a lot of objectives suiting any game style. Most importantly I am constantly playing with fellow federation Cmdrs who helped advance my flying and also shared a lot of credits; - last week we were working on an expansion which was heavily opposed by the Imperials. This lead to hunting underminers and oo boy was it sweet when I caught one and he stayed to the death. The thrill going to the station for re-arming and being stalked by an enemy wing of FDLs was also a new experience. - now I have a fully engineered Krait II, FDL as well as Python for mining/trading and Asp for exploring. 500M in the bank. Most importantly all this came naturally and with much enjoyment flying with fellow federation pilots. Plenty to have fun with in Power Play where you can help not only with combat but with trading and exploration as well. Are you afraid to fly in open - a fellow player will be happy to escort you. Fly in Open, fly dangerously and have fun.

[@Pogman30]

Gread vid both. Still liking the long form approach. In two minds whether to send this to my new-player buddy... although I doubt it'll actually put him off.

[@ElErizoSombra]

I have not once encountered a thargoid and i have been playing for 3 years now. The fact that they can add in something that has so much potential and yet have so little effect on basically anything at all goes to show just how little they cared to make a change in the game at all. You would think that year 3305 could have been a year of technological breakthroughs where weapons that could hunt thargoids were much more common. As it stands im not wasting my time to go grind out thargoid killer weapons that are only used against thargoids. I have a whole galaxy to explore. I dont have time for that.

[@user-np7px6hn2e]

i dont play Elite but i enjoy watching your videos. Its so close to being an awesome game! Maybe the answer is to allow players to create a character to be thargoids / pyramid building techno aliens?

[@darthtempest4722]

0:53 omg I didn't know this game was this old holy crap

[@MarcoToniolo]

fun fact... this videos does not plays ... i see ads .. tons of them but no video. [EDIT] after 15 minutes buffering in background .... (almost forgot 'bout it) it started.

[@ENCHANTMEN_]

I can't blame fdev for not having anticipated players trying to jump into systems that were locked off, but imo it would have been cool if they quickly put together some sort of anomaly that hints towards a greater mystery later, like using existing goid/guardian assets to make weird structures or even just putting a giant featureless void-black cube somewhere for players to discover

[@JohnKerrashVirgo]

I wish I did not agree with this as much as I do...

[@TheYamiks]

all know I know all! There is no disagreeing with the great & powerful one!

[@Lunaa64413]

@@TheYamiks execpt me, who is intelligent and know that the story is the way an actual world would work. its supposed to be a world, not just a game with a linear story.

[@LordRenegrade]

Meh screw 'interactive versions of the scribblings'. The scribblings don't interfere with my own canon for the CMDR I made. :P

[@heinyhxc]

You know I haven't really played Elite in years now and it's amazing how much of this story hasn't really changed. Hard to feel like I didn't waste my time lol.

[@foreverspellman]

HAving 1800+ hours in this game, I can attest for the desire for more lore. Not actual books, not outside-of-the-game resources, but even some kind of a story arc. This is a "living, breathing universe" so they said, but lets talk powerplay for example, as a means of aligning to a "faction-like" power. They all have write-ups and a nice picture to go along side like you looked em up in the dictionary, but they all play out as if baskin-robbin's sold 9 different flavors of ice cream but they're all different brands of vanilla. Contrastly, federation/empire wars and factions could've been a real thing to work with. You didn't have to align to either (you could be alliance), but man could you have been suped up if you did. Faction only ships you'd lose if you defacted, powerplay only modules that you'd only keep if you were pledged to a faction... a "story" to work through and learn and unravel as your character goes and learns of crashed landings of other commanders you're tasked to find and attempt to rescue, giving more and more bits of story.... I remember my first time at dav's hope, I was fascinated to learn about the lore of the place and what happened to it. Or the big megaships. I could stumble upon a megaship now in all kinds of systems, but outside of a name change and a skin there's literally nothing different about them. I'm never sent missions to go interact with one, i'm just supposed to have the right tools for the job on my ship and hope I come across one, or purposefully go scout one out, outfit myself (hopefully if the nearby station sells the right modules), and go back to hopelessly try and figure out via trial and error what the right steps are to go through the "minigame event". Instead, I have no reason to care for anything. Empire queen got got? Who cares. It doesn't change anything. Now we've got a community goal! Yay! What is it? OH BRING OBJECT A TO POINT B, just like every other community goal with the exception of like 2. I don't mind the MMO style of it. It's part of the game, and it's hard to make personal stories out of it. Odessy is their make-or-break expansion. It will either provide new ways to play, or just expand exploration like NMS did and you'll see the same 20 variations of plants and flora and fauna across billions of planets. There's potential here and there's a right answer and a wrong one. Unfortunately the history of the game (since I started playing) swings that pendulum on the bad side as an expectation. I hope they learned something.

[@Marskearial]

Well guess what.

[@thatguy9419]

I still don't understand how they think i will buy Odyssey on the off chance it will maybe fix bugs that have been there for years, or finally balance the missions... or all the other problems the game has... i just do not feel like playing this grind fest anymore. I am not that much of a lore person so... it has little weight to me but...

[@spartanleonidus238]

That is why some of us are both sad and glad who bought the Lifetime Expansion Pass or LTE. We don't have to worry...we will get every piece of it without the need to debate buying it anymore. I can just watch and make sure my crash harness is secured. Prepare for impact CMDRs o7

[@TheVeratrix]

Sounds like the dev is just as clueless as me in this game.

[@The_Officer_DWm]

Welp, time to spill a few beans. The Dark Wheel player faction home system is system ID 69268, which translates to system address 3932277478106, which translates to Shinratra Dezhra. That is the programmed home system for the Dark Wheel. Their faction code has no permit data, it’s all empty. Regards, the last Elite: Dangerous data miner/memory scraper.

[@stahmedpendragonguinevere2711]

Great vid thank you!

[@LongTimeAgoNL]

Even though the video sounds a bit negative, the fact that the devs support community driven events and create stations, emblems and paintjobs 'celebrating' said event is pretty cool. I still got my DW2 logo on my ships. I absolutely love it. A bunch of people brought s shitton of stuff to create a station somewhere (i'm not sure where anymore) and the stuff got removed their cargo holds and a station was popped up by the devs. That is dev/community interaction that you dont see in many other games.

[@vincore2845]

I laughed... I cried... I laughed again. Excellent Retrospective! As a player who started in 3305, this video puts into perspective all the spite and disappointment, but also all the hope that is the community. I think FDEv should either invest as recommended here and curate the story, or free up the constraints to allow players to ACTUALLY affect the galaxy in a much more meaningful and permanent way.

[@pattmahiney]

I've been enjoying a lot of elite videos and have currently played for 23 minutes. My theory of Raxxla is that it is some sort of spacial body that hides itself in the light-bending gravity of a black hole while somehow maintaining existence. Possibly due to time dilation? Idk. Fight me. Edit: loved the video. Thanks for being the lore that I'll never get from this game, apparently 😂

[@Fr33k0ur]

Yeah I just started playing ED and doing anything is super confusing. Like I wanna go to the other side of the galaxy and set up a station but it doesn't even tell you how to pick up data to expand a factions influence

[@planexshifter]

The Salome death hurt me I had tried so hard.

[@georgecuttitto9052]

Of all the brilliant minds who have worked on Elite Dangerous, I'd wager not a one of them could design a simple board game. Since day one ED has lacked structural coherence and aesthetic diversity, instead being a series of minigames strewn about a massive galaxy with impossibly homogeneous human constructions and cultures. If not for the exemplary skeletal framework beneath this cavalcade of aimlessness it would have shit itself long ago This game is going to die a slow and quiet death, as Fdev doesn't know what it needs to know to fix it.

[@splatcat3434]

ED is simply undeserving of an install on my new system due to the grind and nerfs to mission rewards at every turn. To be frank, Euro Truck Sim has a better gameplay loop, but only just. (ED > 200 hrs, ETS > 300 hrs) Why do I watch these videos then? Because I really enjoy TheYamiks.

[@Aleksandar6ix]

This was a reminder of why ED can't keep me playing long term. Unless you are fully committed with the community to go looking for any kind of story element that already sucks, there's very little to draw a single player in other than "I feel like being a space captain today" (a couple hours after you figure out what to do and how to do it, you might make it to your destination and it's time for bed!). Lol. (or "I want to go do some combat" only to realise that you are exploring 5000 light years from home and may never actually make it back without suicide.)

[@arseburgers4208]

I used to play 1984 version of this as a kid back in the early 90s through a dos emulator, I instantly recognised the gameplay footage 😁 shame I've only just discovered the modern release!