geldonyetich wrote: ↑Thu, 2. May 24, 17:30
It's this endgame monotony that the existential crisis ought to target, in my opinion. And leaving you alone in your cage is probably the worst thing they can do.
I fully understand where you're coming from, and I know you only mean well. But a saying comes to mind, maybe you know it: the way to hell is paved with good intentions. You make a grave mistake too many others also do with a passion: telling others what is fun, telling them what they do isn't fun, and enforcing your definition of fun on them. Because trust me bro, I know better than you, I'll liberate you from your mental cage (your choice of words, the mental cage)! Don't you find that a little bit arrogant maybe?
One man's monotony is another's fun and relaxation. You have no right to call my game ruined, no more than I have the right to call your game, your style of playing X4 ruined, or faulty, or flawed, or boring, or whatever. That's the entire point of a sandbox, it is what we want it to be. The devs provide the framework, they don't force anything down our throats. Until now, that is.
My problem isn't that the crisis exists, ill conceived as I find it. My problem is that I have no viable choice here to either engage with it, or not. And no, blackmail is NOT an option. The moment they put a gun to my head and demand money, threatening me with an annoying event lasting for hours, is the moment I was already robbed of a choice.
I'm fine with it being there, as an option, like an optional option. Truly optional. Optional as in it doesn't start when I don't click the button. If someone then goes ahead and wants to spawn in hundreds of hostile overpowered ships, to shake the universe up? Be my guest, to each their own. I'll never tell you that you can't have fun with it.
But don't tell me what I should consider fun, what's allegedly good for me and what isn't, and don't impose your definition of fun on me and my game, telling me it's boring and ruined otherwise. It's not, for me it was perfect the way it was. Just make it optional, truly optional, and I'm happy.
Personally, I won't use it if it stays even remotely the way it is now. Others will, and they'll have fun with it, maybe. Or not, not by beer anyway. Isn't that the ideal state of things, making both sides happy? As it is, it makes me unhappy to a degree that I lose interest in the game. There are many other games, many of them good at what they do. Where I stand, I'm not in a cage, I have total freedom of choice. I play X4 to relax, that's my choice.
To improve the entire mechanic, even if stays the way it is, I'd give it the following structure:
- Reaching 500M in military assets triggers Boso Ta contacting the player
- You can talk with him, or choose not to
-- Not talking -> he waits, unlimited time (as with most other quests)
-- Talking -> he tells you about suspicious Xenon/Kha'ak activity, you can either investigate it as specific coordinates, or tell him "not now"
--- Choosing to investigate triggers the events
--- NOW you have the choice to pay 500M to skip it, 10M to delay, or start immediately
Doing it like that gives you enough warning, and you can opt out and do it at some point later. Then both sides have what they want, without any side being forced into anything. Just like all other main plots you have with Dal Busta. I find that the superior approach. It is a sandbox, after all.
Although I'd like to repeat that spawning ships does break the simulation. I'd find it infinitely better to design a challenge around the simulation, not by breaking it so blatantly.