The game isn't the same anymore.

[shadowhand]

I for one like the SCO drives a lot. I haven't yet replaced all the FSDs on every ship that I own with them, but I suspect I will eventually do that. It's a quality of life upgrade, especially when leaving planets.

I don't always engage the SCO, because it's not always advantageous to do so - if I pop into a system and my destination is 3-400 ls away, there's no point in using it. But having the option means less tedium, especially for distances in the hundreds of thousands of ls.

If anything, SCO drives have opened up parts of the game that I've avoided for years and years simply because I no longer have to wait so long to get to where I'm going.

 

[Vasco Sapien]

They'll need a fairly significant increase to the claim radius to that. I can't remember the minimum jump range to cross Col 70 Sector but 15 LY isn't going to do it.

It will take time, Im not saying it will happen tomorrow.
I believe that the Distant Worlds 3 project are planning to build a chain of colonial locations out from human occupied space towards the Orion molecular complex which includes Barnards Loop. They want to create a launch site for the DW3 in 2026.
So already there is a plan with a large group behind it which are moving in that direction.

 

[Commander Biscuit]

Gamers are like locusts. You could spend 6 months creating content and they will devour it all in 48 hours. And ask for more.

Content does get devoured, but good games that are just fun can be played forever. This is the difference between devs that make fun games and ones that make content. It's not hard to see why devs like that view gamers as locusts. They're catering to the exact kind of audience that devours content and then complaining about it.

Not to say that content doesn't have its place, it does. It boosts player numbers as we can see, but ideally people are coming for the content, and staying for the universe FD has created. The lore, the immersion, and the mystery as SergMx is insightfully pointing out. The things that kept us playing through droughts of development. Right now for some, it feels like there's a drought even with the regular updates. We're missing the stuff that doesn't come with a new ship or new feature.

Hopefully the revenue created from the new ships allows the team to expand to have a writer again. Even then, a writer is not a simple position to bolt onto a dev team and have them start working. Losing Ben and his predecessor isn't something easily righted.

 

[Martind Forlon]

And what are the new questions in Colonization, build one system, build another, build another, build another.... very exciting.

And it exactly is very exciting ... for example I wonder if my initial (and only one so far) claimed and maintained smaller system will develop in the way like I want to have it. The secret si called BGS, and is obvious that it is not your cup of tea because powerplay have many things tied to BGS too, eventhough in different way. Luckily for you I believe there will come more mechanic for the colonisation, however they need to first make it's foundation working right. For now .. either you still have other things to do in ED which you still like to do, or take break may be a good idea. What imo is most important is that it seems that financial situation for this game significantly improved, and it is only one thing which may for everyone bring new things, eventhough is obvious that it cannot be done all overnight.

 

[SergMx]

And it exactly is very exciting ... for example I wonder if my initial (and only one so far) claimed and maintained smaller system will develop in the way like I want to have it. The secret si called BGS, and is obvious that it is not your cup of tea because powerplay have many things tied to BGS too, eventhough in different way. Luckily for you I believe there will come more mechanic for the colonisation, however they need to first make it's foundation working right. For now .. either you still have other things to do in ED which you still like to do, or take break may be a good idea. What imo is most important is that it seems that financial situation for this game significantly improved, and it is only one thing which may for everyone bring new things, eventhough is obvious that it cannot be done all overnight.

I've played Civilization and know how development goes strategically. Can I ask what is so incredible you expect from the development of the Colonized system and how it will be different from a million other already completed systems?

And I don't think it's quite right to tell other people to play or not to play.

 

[DjVortex]

There are no accretion disks

What do you mean by that? Around black holes?

Black holes having humongous enormously bright stunning accretion disks is an extremely widespread common misconception, no doubt boosted significantly by the movie Interstellar. Every single time you see "black holes" discussed eg. in a YouTube video, they will show the one shown in that movie (or, at a minimum, a very similar-looking rendition of a "black hole").

However, the actual fact of reality is that stellar-mass black holes don't have a visible accretion disk. The vast, vast majority of them don't have one at all, of any kind. A small percentage of them are so close to a companion star that part of the gases of the star are falling to the black hole and might form an extremely thin and faint accretion disk, but this is likely to be so faint as to be invisible to human vision.

That's not to say that the depiction of the black hole in Interstellar is unrealistic. In fact, it's very realistic. The thing is that the black hole depicted in the movie is a supermassive black hole (mostly found at galactic centers), not a stellar-mass one. Only supermassive black holes can have a visible accretion disk. And it's not clear that even they all do. Most particularly, it's currently unknown if Sagittarius A* has an accretion disk or not. It might, or it might not (physics support either possibility), but we have no measurements that would corroborate it either way.

The depiction of stellar-mass black holes in ED is actually very realistic: Indeed, if you were to travel to one in real life, it would indeed be completely invisible, it only becoming evident by how it distorts the background when you get close enough. If you are far enough that you can't discern the background distortion, you won't see it at all. It's literally completely black, and will not have any sort of visible accretion disk.

Whether the depiction of Sagittarius A* in ED is realistic (ie. it not having a visible accretion disk), we don't know. It could be.

 

[ꝁestrel]

Content does get devoured, but good games that are just fun can be played forever. This is the difference between devs that make fun games and ones that make content. It's not hard to see why devs like that view gamers as locusts. They're catering to the exact kind of audience that devours content and then complaining about it.

I've been PC gaming since the late 90s. What are these "forever" games you speak of? Genuinely curious.

 

[Stealthie]

Do people (who have been on here longer than my month or so) feel that the SCO drives have spoiled some of the game? I read about the "Hutton run" (no I didn't go to claim a free Anaconda) but I suppose even that is insignificant distance-wise any more in something built for SCO.

So has making space travel faster been a spoiler or a boon?

I'd say neither.

SCO is a new tool, much like every other in the box.
Not sure if FDev had a specific purpose for it when they developed it, and I'm sure it's of particular benefit to players involved in certain activities, but for me it's just another gadget, like a docking computer or supercruise assist.
It helps me break orbit, get out of the range of stars and even zip between HGEs when I'm gathering mat's but it hasn't really revolutionised anything I do in ED.

I mean, it's not like you can just rock up in Alpha Centauri in your daily-driver ship and zip across to Hutton Orbital in 5 minutes because you'd be out of fuel in 60 seconds.
The only way people achieve "revolutionary" things using SCO is with very specialised builds, in much the same way a specialised Anaconda build allows us to jump 90Ly or more... and about as much use in normal ED gameplay.

 

[Commander Biscuit]

I've been PC gaming since the late 90s. What are these "forever" games you speak of? Genuinely curious.

ED is one of them, Dayz would be another. Those at least are my games that I've kept playing for thousands of hours whether there is a regular supply of content or not. Doesn't everyone have some of these games that are just fun to play? I know people are still playing the heck out of Skyrim.

 

[Stealthie]

The only annoyance for me is that its split the new ships from the old.

Very true.

There are several ships that deserve to remain worthwhile but are likely to be overlooked in favor of SCO-compatible ships.

Honestly, I fully expect FDev to start having ship manufacturers "retrofit" SCO functionality into existing ships... once FDev decide there's no more money to be made from however many new ships they've still got in development.

 

[SergMx]

I've been PC gaming since the late 90s. What are these "forever" games you speak of? Genuinely curious.

Where is the development? Remember before GalNet. The colonists flew in and disappeared..... found an obscure structure, etc.

And now what? The 12345 system has been colonized.

 

[DjVortex]

ED is one of them, Dayz would be another. Those at least are my games that I've kept playing for thousands of hours whether there is a regular supply of content or not. Doesn't everyone have some of these games that are just fun to play? I know people are still playing the heck out of Skyrim.

Counter-Strike was released in 2000. People still actively play it to this day.

World of Warcraft was released in 2004, and still being actively played.

 

[Commander Biscuit]

Counter-Strike was released in 2000. People still actively play it to this day.

World of Warcraft was released in 2004, and still being actively played.

CS is a good choice, though WoW has had lots of content updates. Still, lots of people are playing vanilla, TBC, Wrath and don't care for updates beyond that. Probably Minecraft is another game that could halt development entirely and retain a high player count.

 

[Dormant account - pls delete]

I've been PC gaming since the late 90s. What are these "forever" games you speak of? Genuinely curious.

They turn into whole genres. You know those roguelikes? Yeah, they're like Rogue. (1980...)

Civ 4 and Civ 3 still have big followings because gamers like to make a virtue out of them not being Civ 6.

The whole Skyrim ecosystem is another example. (Come to think of it, that's a roguelike really, it's just dressed up in 2.5d!)

 

[ꝁestrel]

ED is one of them, Dayz would be another. Those at least are my games that I've kept playing for thousands of hours whether there is a regular supply of content or not. Doesn't everyone have some of these games that are just fun to play? I know people are still playing the heck out of Skyrim.

Love DayZ! I'm at 2k hours but that doesn't count the original mod which I loved too. DayZ is actively developed though and gets regular content releases. They even did a major engine overhaul some years ago. And Skyrim is entirely supported by modding.

 

[ꝁestrel]

Where is the development?

Honestly? I think Frontier just came out of a crisis (2023-24) where it was fighting for its life.

My prediction for 2024 was that Frontier would get bought out by Tencent. Thankfully my prediction was wrong.

I just don't think mysteries and stories are going to generate enough revenue. I want it too don't get me wrong.

 

[Yure]

I'm sorry for this post but I wouldn't write about it if it was just my opinion, I've been hearing it from other people lately.

I was always interested in playing Elite because it was always a mystery. Finding something mysterious and obscure and trying to figure out what it was.
I remember spending months looking for Guardian bases and tapping every stone there, hoping to find something.

Thargoids, exploring their bases, generating starry skies, spires, exploring the Thargoids themselves - everything is interesting. Even the war - always wondered what would happen next.

There is a whole thread on the forum about Raxxla, people are trying to find it and solve the riddles.

And what do we have now - PP2, Colonization ? And what is mysterious and interesting about it ? Stupid construction or capture, routine.

So what's next for the Elite?

To be fair... We still don't know much about those mysteries. So technically they still exist and in theory we just haven't found them. But I get what they mean. At least back in the day there was a heavy hitter in FDEV saying something like... "Make sure to carry guns while exploring..."(Not an actual quote as more of a paraphrasing.) There was always the hope something WOULD be out there and the person saying it wasn't a lying sack of manure. ... I still hope that was the case, but nothing exciting has ever been found on the back end of an update. It's always found somehow right after an update. Recently things FDEV hints at in Galnet seem to have zero impact. "Hey the Thargoids seem to be searching for something..." Nah... Not true, especially after looking back and the galnets not specifically saying they were looking for something... It was just the implied looking for something. Just feels like the rug got pulled from under you.


Still I'd rather galnets than not.

...Still waiting on Seo Jin to comment on how Tanner hopped on a vulture to save her behind. (WE'VE seen the screen shots of the NPC!)

I understand FDEV's philosophy that no one player is a hero. But at least something actionable is nice... Maybe a behind the scenes thing? Confirm my bucket theory!

 

[Yure]

I am one that thinks it spoils things to a degree (not planning on rage quitting or anything), ED, for me at least, is about patience and sitting back and thinking about the great philosophical questions of our time like : If moderators make a naughty post, do they immediately report themselves. You know, the really big questions.

Or making and having dinner on my way to Hutton.

I know a "go fast" button is what forumites have asked for for years, so I imagine at lot are happy at its inclusion.

Having said that, I do like being able to get out of gravity wells quickly

I have been here since 2015... The new SCO has been an amazing quality of life and it actually makes me want to explore more.

 

[Martind Forlon]

I've played Civilization and know how development goes strategically. Can I ask what is so incredible you expect from the development of the Colonized system and how it will be different from a million other already completed systems?

And I don't think it's quite right to tell other people to play or not to play.

I absolutelly do not care about millions of other systems. I work on build of my own small compact home system and have goals to achieve from look of structures, their variety, chosen economy for stations and overal orientation of system including powerplay influence.

For that second matter ... please do not try get more from my post as I tried to write, it was not my intention in the slightest to say that you should do anything (my English could be issue here). I barely slightly outlined possible ways how to dealt with current state of the game, which will hugely vary for each commander. It is fully up to you how you like to play or use your free time (applies generally to every player).

 

[Stealthie]

I absolutelly do not care about millions of other systems. I work on build of my own small compact home system and have goals to achieve from look of structures, their variety, chosen economy for stations and overal orientation of system including powerplay influence.

See, that's the thing that makes a game "good" IMO.

Subnautica is a useful example there.
I've played it "through" a bunch of times but I've only ever finished it once.
Every other playthrough has ended-up getting sidetracked into some other objective... and the game lets me do that.
I spent one playthrough building a network of structures that link all the islands, I built a huge subsea base in one playthrough and I spent another playthrough building a series of bases that descend down into the deepest areas of the game.

For me, Skyrim is like "going home".
I know every inch of the land, every settlement and every character.
Selecting a bunch of mod's and starting a new playthrough is like putting my feet up and watching a favorite movie.
However... Skyrim is always likely to be fairly "linear";- vampires, dragons and then Miraak, possibly with something else mixed in depending on what mod's I've chosen.
Sure, I can pick whether I want to be a warrior, mage, thief or whatever (and do the various guild quests) but the structure of the game is always the same.

Least ED does well there.
It's a bit of a cliche (and sometimes the source of it's problems) but finding "stuff to do" in ED really is only as limited as your imagination.
I guess there's nothing especially "meaningful" to do in ED (maybe Colonisation is intended to address that?) but from the second you first leave a station in your Sidewinder, you can do almost anything the game has to offer.