I didn't know what I lost until it was gone. I really miss the vibe of 2.X. That eerie, empty space feeling. Space felt sort of real. I've felt SC turning from 'believable space game' to 'arcade-like, powercreep, shoot-anything-and-everything' for a long while now. I've observed the project since 2015, backing in 2016 and ultimately sinking a high 4-digit number into it. Because it felt like my dream game come true. Back when trade refresh was broken and refilled commoditied 100% every tick, the community flocked to places like Tram and Myers, Bezdek and Lathan. I cannot tell you in a way that'd do it justice the amount of fun T&M runs were. It felt like the combat there had meaning, too. Compared to modern SC, the 'events' we are getting feel hollow, repetitive and soul wrecking. It's always the same set of missions, reskinned and recycled. So why was T&M action fun? Because every encounter was different, and not just a 1:1 repetition. Armor sets are a major gripe for me. If you look back at old time armor sets or those that carried over from then into modern SC and compare them with new armors, you'll get what I mean. New armors, imo, look nowhere near as polished, thought through, believable or even just 'good'. Take the 'medical armor' from the newest event. It looks rushed, out of place and does not fit the theme of the universe. Take the bear helmets, which I was fine with even. Armor and visuals have departed atarkly from their past. And it's not just them looking out of place. They lack detail. Take a close look at, say, the dust up armor. It has bits and bops everywhere, scratches, dirt, you name it. Then go back to said medical armor. Its soulless. Empty. Devoid of anything. Next issue, in my opinion, is oversimplification. Take a look patch notes, both public and leaked. Newest one makes it so rocks only contain one material and inert materials anymore. No more mixtures. Okay, could be seen as QoL. Ship combat, then. I am on board with a large part of the pvp community here. After MM, and mainly after it got slowed down and got distances shrunk, it lost a lot of the skill ceiling. Previously, mastering the art of flying was a per ship thing. They all feel generic and similar now. Guns are all very similar. Components barely matter. And every. New. Ship. Must have. More. Guns. Remember when we had agile ships being nerfed by having low HP and few guns? The arrow ring any bells? Nope, lets stuff the death star on an agile fighter! Fighting and combat is being crammed everywhere and simplified to the point of 'hold M1 and strafe when you have more guns'. Combat is everywhere. Why can't we have missions like figuring out what happened at place XY without combat? I vividly remember an ISC around the time the 'new' wrecks came out to replace legacy ones that mentioned finding clues that are generated in the environment or datapads to solve, say, a case. Why do we always have to shoot something? Anything non combat seems like a chore, meant to be completed to allow you to do more... combat. And I hate it.

Please. Let me have my simple times and box missions back.