So back in the playstation 2 days I used to love this game called Colony Wars. I was like, man there are no good space games on XB1! So I googled and saw Elite Dangerous.

This is back in 2014. It was like $30 and a preview version. Found it hard to play and get into.

Fast forward and I'm still jonesing for a good space game. NMS on XB1 is still a month away and I dove back into ED. Bought all the DLC and the planet landing modules. Been watching some youtube vids.

Maaaaaaan, what a time suck! Really trying to decide on a good lane to get into to make some dough pile up. Between mining, passenger missions and courier jobs.

Anyways, I have a ton of games I've downloaded just cause they were free or cheap, or out of curiosity. Glad i've been able to do a deep dive into something that was forgotten on my hd.

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"To Each His Reach"

but.....

Fuck aliens.

It was everything I wanted it to be at the start, I am still pretty impressed with the galaxy they've presented as a sandbox and how it can feel to just explore like that. But it can get really grindy, and a total time-sink, and there's a lack of direction for some things in game that is sort of frustrating, like you need to be looking up online guides and stuff. I stopped touching it after I visited the first engineer and realized what you need to do to get meta alloys and it just didn't seem to make sense. The economy is always changing, I know I might enjoy getting the money for certain things and even trying the jobs that are required, but I don't feel like figuring out which things are booming and what isn't. I wish it had a bit more of a storied direction at times even just to 'get' you to certain parts of the game, but I can see how it's a lot to execute.

Same experience for me.

I've dabbled in most things except mining and tourism, mostly exploring, bounty hunting, and missions.

Did a trip out to Heart & Soul nebula which took weeks of real time grinding. It's definitely a repetative time-suck.

For the last 6 months i've just camped out in a system doing missions and building rep with all the factions, an hour or two here and there. Piled up 275 million credits from that and have no idea what i'll do with them because i'm bored of the grind.

I feel like this is a game for people who live a video game lifestyle, and that's not me. It's a good game if you accept all these aspects though.

I love the fact that it's a deep game with a lot to discover. But sometimes, it's just like you're just grinding to make more dough.

After I finally got a couple of the ships I really wanted, I looked up some engineers. Seems like a headache at first, but their gear is really worth it.

Took one ship of mine from 19ly capacity to 27.5ly capacity in one night. Another I took from 23ly to 30ly. That's my passenger ship too, the one that I usually make the most money with. Got with another engineer to get my mulitcannons some extra umph. I shred these NPC's now.

I'll keep grinding on it when I just need a distraction. Been getting more and more into combat. Trying to figure out what my next ship is going to be. But the new Far Cry Mars joint just dropped and NMS is next week, so we'll see.
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"To Each His Reach"

but.....

Fuck aliens.