Gradually Losing Respect for Frontier Development - Here is Why

[ascendence]

... I'm feeling less obliged to defend Frontier.

Well good because you shouldnt feel that way in the first place

The negativity on Reddit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_vmOvfbg90

 

[Fenster]

Blocking doesn't stop people appearing in your instance you know.

Yes it does, refer to the manual.
��

 

[LARY STARKEEPER]

* They absolutely should not have allowed this situation of "well some people can keep their credits" - look at the hoo-ha its caused. What they should have done is said "very sorry, we're rolling back to 50 people, heres a free gift" - but they didnt do that. and you have to ask yourself "why" -
...

a) its not 50 people, its a lot more and theyre not telling you that. OR
b) they have no capability of a rollback at that level (and publically admiiting that would be an issue) OR
c) theyve made a decision to annoy several thousand people rather than 50 "in good faith" thinking it wont cause an issue
...

Like I said : GET THEM OUT ! If they choosed to kept their 5TCr, just get them out of ELITE ! ELITE mean hard working, skills, long play, hardcore gaming ! I can't accept that ! No I can't ! I want to know the names of all of these people and I will grief them for years once I will have my Anaconda if you don't kick them out !

I would be upset if I DID get the 5 Billion. It would ruin the sense of accomplishment I get when seeing a new high balance in my account.

Sure, I could delete save, but then I would lose the progress I had made so far...

So stop crying, you get to actually play the game on the terms intended, while these 50 players just got robbed of their $60 bucks.

If this happened, you will not have to delete your save, you will just have to say to FD : "Take the 5TCr you accidentally gave me", that's all. FD failed by giving them the choise to keep it !
Anyway, you agree that 50 people are more important than ELITE community ?

 

[Kirmit]

Maybe we should identify these billionaires and get them to fund the slaves in Ongkuma, thus giving us a positive impact.

 

[excalibus]

Like I said : GET THEM OUT ! If they choosed to kept their 5MCr, just get them out of ELITE ! ELITE mean hard working, skills, long play, hardcore gaming ! I can't accept that ! No I can't ! I want to know the names of all of these people and I will grief them for years once I will have my Anaconda if you don't kick them out !

Dude!!! Seriously!!! Take a chill pill man

Elite is a game, yes its hard working your way to the top, but their having 5Bn should not affect your gameplay one little bit...

Take a breath...

 

[Dire]

A troll has entered the thread.

Here is a bridge. Don't stay out past sun up.

/------------------------------------------------------\

I'm not in any way trolling - I visit these forums everyday - they are informative and entertaining - but the self indulgent soapboxing just fills page after page with the same few topics - that are ever added by the next special snowflake that thinks it adds any value to the debate by starting yet another thread about CS shortfalls/KS non-fulfilment/"It's Boring"/"It won't run"/5 Billion blahs".


Perhaps I should have suggested a sub-forum for discussion of gameplay? There already is a Tech support one.

 

[Fenster]

Those "accidental billionaires" can keep their credits ? If I knew, I would sold my shields for 5 billions...
... Seriously, many players are hard working to get credits but 50 people have the right to keep 5 billions ? Okay, I want 5 billions too ! Accidentally of course ! Give it to me !
What does those people to get 5 billions ? Nothing ? I've done nothing ! I swear ! Give me 5 billions ! Come on !


... Totally non-sense ! We are in ELITE ! ELITE ! DAMN ! How David could think that community will accept that 50 peoples earned 5 billions credits freely ! Those guys don't have the right to play with us, get them out !

I thought this was a game, not work? (the best game I have ever played btw)... Chill out man...there is no real consequence here
Maybe come back to real world for a while ��

 

[Voron]

Well good because you shouldnt feel that way in the first place



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_vmOvfbg90

Meh.....

 

[Beetlebum]

Having 5 billion credits out of the air is something you can change the game with. You can affect factions, you can give money to friends to do the work. or you can spend the money to grief others. Lets be honest, its not exactly the people with the best morale standard that kept the credits.

I can easily imagine that if I was given 5 billion credits and wanted to grind some people. I bet I could within a week get the first 500 people to either drop the game forever or never play anything again than solo mode. Because my risk = 0. While they may lose hours of work every single time for a bit of riskless lulz.

Its a terrible decission and it will haunt Frontier from now on and to the end of the game. their actions will always be questioned unless they reverse it and remove the credits.

Most people I know already dropped open play due to this. And I have problems playing open game myself as well. Due to the fact of what if I meet one of these on a bad day.

You nailed it to the point. +1 rep.

I too don't play open anymore with all these exploiters flying around in their full maxed anacondas. Maybe I quit the whole game if there will be a measurable impact on the economy or story-missions.

 

[LARY STARKEEPER]

Dude!!! Seriously!!! Take a chill pill man

Elite is a game, yes its hard working your way to the top, but their having 5Bn should not affect your gameplay one little bit...

Take a breath...

Dude... like you said, I absolutely don't worrying about my gameplay, I'm worrying about the ELITE spirit !
And they can affect my gameplay ! They can pirate me, grief me, failed my rank progression by pushing a faction out of a system where I am. They can do many thing ! 5TCr DAMN IT !

I thought this was a game, not work? (the best game I have ever played btw)... Chill out man...there is no real consequence here
Maybe come back to real world for a while ��

Playing ELITE is taking me REAL time, you know ? I'm a family man, I don't have a lot of time playing ELITE, anyway, I find it normal that it's hard to play ELITE, like it was 20y ago. But for 50 people it's now a piece of cake !

@fanboyz
When you will go in an event like Durius, or Senna, in a HIGH CONFLICT ZONE and one of those 5TCr guy will blew you up with a maxed Anaconda, .... just take a chill pill.

 

[bitstorm]

Could you point me at where Michael says the 5 billion people did not cheat or do anything wrong please.

I've looked through and I can't see any such post.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=92233&p=1437939&viewfull=1#post1437939

its in there, specifically;

After shoring up the database, in the early hours of the 2nd of January, we automatically refunded all the affected players for their lost transactions and also granted them a 20% bonus for their troubles. However, during this refund process, a very few (lucky) commanders received more credits than perhaps they were entitled to (5 billion credits in some cases)!

To be clear - these players will not be banned. Over the next 24 hours we will be investigating every affected player and performing individual commander rollbacks where we feel it's fair to - which may include credits, assets and rank where appropriate. We may reach out to individual commanders where this situation may not be straight forward. None of these players will be eligible for the "Race to Elite" competition if we feel they have gained an unfair advantage over the competition.

Which insinuates that the 5B issue was a FD created problem and not player related. Did these people instigate the issue initially and benefit from the fixing that FD did, who knows and you / we are likely to ever know. All that is known is that FD don't think the player did anything wrong, hence taking no action.

Ok but *nowhere* in that do Frontier say the 5 billion people did not cheat or exploit as Excalibus is claiming.

Yes it was Frontier caused but the way it happened, it appears only those who tried to exploit (whether intentionally or not) were affected by the "bug", which is why I am interested in any comment where Frontier specifically state that none of the 5 billion attempted an exploit. At this point I believe such a comment from Frontier doesn't exist specifically because Frontier know that attempting the exploit (again intentionally or not) *was* the initial step required for someone to receive the 5 billion.

 

[Beetlebum]

Dude!!! Seriously!!! Take a chill pill man

Elite is a game, yes its hard working your way to the top, but their having 5Bn should not affect your gameplay one little bit...

How do you know this? They can grief people indefinitely with the strongest ships and without taking any risk. This is ridiculous. How can one defend this?

 

[Craib]

The problem is that Frontier allowed a player to keep a very significant amount of in-game funds that were created in error. It is unprofessional and it's not something that you do as a game company.

why do you feel it's unprofessional to allow the players to keep the money? (I'm not one by the way). As you rightly pointed out it doesn't affect you or your game play. I certainly don't care if the players choose to keep it. Personally I think they are stupid if they do chose to keep it as it, in my opinion, affects the players own game play. They are enough money that they can guy any item and ship what do they do now? They have just lost a large part of the game.

On a slightly sarcastic note : It is something you do as a game company .... FD just did it

I do think it was a strange and certainly generous option offered by FD but it's their choice I feel.

 

[Dukeajuke]

I have been one of the most adamant and positive players when it comes to the defense of this game and its "success", but in a realistic manner. You can ask anyone that knows me: I don't hold back what I see to be a negative. I do not sugar coat what should be expected of developers and actions they should not take. You won't ever have the chance of legitimately accusing me of being a fanboy, because I almost always have negative comments and I don't buy into hype. People that think a game's release is perfect annoy me to no end. There is no perfect release and we should be honest. Sure, I was looking more or less forward to playing this game, but I didn't really pay it that much attention, because I knew what to expect. It comes with experience in seeing it happen for 32 years. When it released, I thought why not, I had the money and got excited to use TrackIR5 in Elite.

• Holiday vacation (I'm fine with it): I defended this on a dozen occasions. Programmers work about 60-80 hours a week. The game just released. They have every right to take the holidays off. Everyone does. That said, the game is online and does need to continue to run and technical support should be available for the most serious issues such as players who purchased accounts not being able to access the game. Technical support is not composed of programmers. Let them off for Christmas Eve and Christmas and New Years. They should be, but they should be available and on the ball with their duties otherwise.
• Recently, a friend purchased the game and there was an error when his card was charged (on the Elite website end). The charge was indeed charged. He could not access his account and login to the game. The charge was reflected on the bank statement. No response from Frontier for a week. Now the charge has been refunded. It's one thing to put 98% of issues on the back burner during the holidays, but these kinds of issues are priority #1 when someone has paid you for a product and service (the game and to be able to play it). Next, the money was placed on another card and charged with that card for a second attempt. The account was created successfully, but now he is unable to play, because the launcher will not launch the game (and will only do so in safe mode).
• Exploiters and / or bugs giving away free money to players: I was in IRC when a lot of this started to happen. The server was acting up. People started getting free money by exploiting the system. I watched people talk about how they were able to do it and some admitted to taking advantage of it. At some point (I'm not sure how it occurred and if it was a result of this same occurrence) players were, in error, given 5 billion credits apparently. Frontier's response? Let them keep it. This illogical response from players that it doesn't effect other players isn't even the issue. I personally could care less that someone has 5 billion credits. The problem is that Frontier allowed a player to keep a very significant amount of in-game funds that were created in error. It is unprofessional and it's not something that you do as a game company.

Understand a few things: it is not one thing. I have defended Frontier entirely. The negativity on Reddit -- I've defended it there too. Not pressing a single button to check if your insurance is covered and losing an expensive ship is your own fault. But there are lots of legitimate concerns. I have said, don't worry about it, these things will be resolved with time. Now as time has gone by I've seen some pretty unprofessional behavior by Frontier that makes you revisit the concerns you've witnessed that you brushed aside and all of these things compounded, you start to realize that they really do need to start to get it together.

I'm just starting to see a pattern here and I'm feeling less obliged to defend Frontier. I've personally had no issues. This is because of what I have witnessed.

Edit: My suggestion to Frontier is to make a public statement outlining how you intend to correct the legitimate concerns that people are having. Let them know you aren't just leaving them out to dry. Also, you should seriously re-think your position on allowing players to keep items/funds that were received in error.

None of your points are valid and it sounds like you must be new to the PC gaming and the MMO gender of games..

• For one they did have a technical support team running over the holidays it's just that they had a crap load of cases. I submitted one for my son and he was taken care of within 48 hours.
• Your friend's CC issue sounds like a rare one, and they did solve it so crying over that is just stupid
• I have yet to play an MMO that wasn't rampid with exploiters at release. In the case of Elite, the exploits have allowed some (and I mean very few) players to accumulate a lot of credits. In this game that has zero effect on you, so it sounds like you are jealous for some reason.. In reality in this game it only hurts the exploiter since gameplay is pretty much ruined for them moving forward.

This game has been one of the more smoother MMO releases I have experienced.

 

[rdizz]

This suggests a problem with your friends pc installation, something the devs have no control over. Further, here in the UK companies only returned to work on Mon everyone shuts down for two weeks over the Christmas period, so they have had two whole days to get back to work and deal with the backlog of tickets; your expectations are frankly ridiculous.

According to FD they worked around the clock including new years. Either they are lying or you are incorrect. Either way I agree with OP. To some eextent

 

[LARY STARKEEPER]

why do you feel it's unprofessional to allow the players to keep the money?

Because when you fix a bug, you also fix all the damages it caused.

 

[Morbad]

their having 5Bn should not affect your gameplay one little bit...

Actually, it should, because that's the intent behind an online only player driven/influenced economic and political universe.

The extent to which is actually does is relatively minor (though hardly absent), for now, but if even half of what's been promised is delivered, it won't remain so for long.

 

[Beetlebum]

why do you feel it's unprofessional to allow the players to keep the money? (I'm not one by the way). As you rightly pointed out it doesn't affect you or your game play. I certainly don't care if the players choose to keep it. Personally I think they are stupid if they do chose to keep it as it, in my opinion, affects the players own game play. They are enough money that they can guy any item and ship what do they do now? They have just lost a large part of the game.

They are in griefer haeaven now. Flying the best ships with best equipment indefinitely to destroy other people's fun. Another billionaire outet himself here in the forum, saying he is now special and does help other players, making himself bounty content. There are even forum attempts to center the roleplay of the universe around these people. Cheating is now officially a gameplay mechanic. This is not the game I payed 120 € for.

 

[Voron]

None of your points are valid..

For one they did have a technical support team running over the holidays it's just that they had a crap load of cases. I submitted one for my son and he was taken care of within 48 hours.

Your friend's card issue sounds like a rare one, and they did solve it so crying over that is just stupid

I have yet to play an MMO that wasn't rampid with exploiters at release. In the case of Elite the exploits have allowed some (and I mean very few) players to accumulate a lot of credits. In this game that has zero effect on you, it only hurts the exploiter since the game is pretty much ruined for them moving forward. Once the money runs out it will no longer be fun for them.

This is been one of the more smoother releases I've seen for an MMO.

Ur debating with him, Its a debate, debating on a forum, no-one cares if its got anything to do with them

 

[catanonia]

mmmm,

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=93997