I gotta say as a new player (been playing about three weeks). It took about a week for me before I realized I probably do not want to continue this journey. I'm still debating on that.
What you guys are saying is absolutely true. First of all, the players in this community that I have experienced are at minimum not helpful, and truthfully it feels like purposefully unhelpful. This feels like a big secret society. I go to the oil rig because that was the advice I got. I get sniped 3 times in a row.
I fly or walk around, and see shops that are all but abandoned, and likely not selling anything. I see people offering healing services for free. I see banks that no one goes into, with areas within to sell items and nothing is on the shelves.
I see people sweating and complaining about it, trying to outsell each other by .01pec and still no one is buying. I see forum post after forum post complaining about bad loot, and I can certainly say I have not had any good loot. My returns are nowhere near 90% (and I have spent hours and hours reading tutorials about how to do this).
I try to search out ways to make money to at least sustain playing this game. I quickly find out, you have to have super high levels to even have a shot at that, and those people are writing on facebook about quitting the game because they cannot survive. (Hairstylist and designer, wont say names)
I do a little crafting and alot of research about crafting. Surprise, get super high levels and then it's a slot machine.
Above all of this though, I explore planet calypso and it feels ULTRA, ultra, disjointed. None of the missions make sense, some of them even incomplete. The only thing I can figure out to do is the iron challenges. Kill a bunch of stuff for a really sad reward (aka spend more money).
There are different cities and areas, but what's the point? They all have the same exact thing. Any building I go into, at any area of the map, has the same TT, RT, Auctioneer, etc.
I'm just rambling at this point but, this is what it feels like for a 3 week player.
-Mindark support ticket has not been answered in three weeks
-There is no story line
-There is no conceivable way to earn enough PED to support game play, much less make a "profit"
-There are no players willing to give good advice, but plenty to try and scam you/take advantage of you, or kill you at the oil field
-the game looks abandoned, it all looks and feels "half baked"
I mean, this is what I've learned - I work on my skills, get those up. Deposit more money and buy better gear, which is exponentially more expensive to run. There is no end game, or steady game that I can see. If you get better gear, it costs more to upkeep, it's almost as if it is counter-intuitive to buy butter equipment. But if you do, you hunt bigger mobs or mine at deeper depths, and have more of a "chance" at hitting that HOF (that people everywhere are saying doesnt happen anymore).
I know this is a rant, but... there are some serious problems with this "game" and it's no wonder there are no waves of new players coming here. It's not new player friendly, it's not mid-level player friendly, and it appears to be getting not even uber-player friendly. There have been several times I've questioned why anyone is here...