Planning to sell an expansion over an incomplete game is wrong!

[faluc]

... For example I should be able to work out that with a certain configuration I can fire continuously for 10 seconds and then it requires an additional 10 seconds to fully recharge.
I don't think I can do that at the moment.

Thanks to these fellow players, you actually CAN calculate how long can you fire, and how much damage you do! And how much damage you can take with your shield setup.

weapon damage vs shield https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=140240
SYS PIP Shield Damage Resistance https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=138536
shield cell charges https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=137188

 

[PhazonAran]

I do wish the trading aspect of the game was a bit deeper. You have a fair point there for sure. Does anyone know what kind of price to expect for this expansion? That detail will dictate whether I'm annoyed or not. (BTW is pi-ss-ed actually considered a swear word? Its filtering it out as if it is. Is this a British thing? Its certainly not considered offensive in the states)

I think David Braben stated that the expansions would be 15£/€/$. Can't remember when or where he said it though, so I might be wrong.

 

[Iskariot]

I Think in some ways they have done well, I personally can accept that it is a WIP and more will be added later (some of it paid content) and that is perfectluy OK with me, but what is annoying is that we expected the new paid addons be be actually NEW stuff, not stuff that was expected from the previous games such as the seamless atmospheric flight that was in FE2 and FFE, Or Thargoids that existed in the very first game.

I do not quit get what you are saying here.
I suspect atmospheric flight will be part of the paid for planetary landing package. I think that makes good technical sense.
About the planetary landing package we knew from the start that it would be one of the expansions.

As far as the Thargoids are concerned... where did you get from that they will be in a paid for expansion? That really surprises me.
That is not what I think at all. If you are right then I agree with you about this, but I don't think you are. FD never said that or did they?

 

[stoicfury]

Yup. As soon as a thread starts, "Before any torch carrying fly boys yelling...", you know the poster KNOWS he is wrong from the get go. Aaaaaand, yup. He's wrong.

You didn't even say why he's wrong. Why bother replying at all if you have nothing worthwhile to say?

 

[Cosmo]

"Planing to sell an expansion over an incomplete game is wrong!" this idea is keep bugging me since i heard it from David. As the players who are now playing the game know that game is incomplete (if i have to give a rate it will be %50).

They released a bare bones version of ED that's being expanded with free updates. I think Elite was ready for release after the Wings update. Powerplay is very important too for the galaxy simulation, multiplayer PVE and PVP among other things.

The paid expansions will have enough new content and features to validate the price (Planetary Landing and First Person Features). There's no subscription fee.

Basic Structure of an Economy

[*]Raw Resources
[*]Raw Resources ---> Refined Resources
[*]Refined Resources ---> Industrial Goods
[*]Industrial Goods ----> Luxury Goods / Tech Goods / Agri-Cultural Goods etc etc etc

So for this structure to work there will be limited or time limited resources be needed. So this will give birth to Supply - Demand mechanic. Well what we have right now is "Unlimited Resources + Refined Goods + Industrial Goods+ etc,etc,etc" we players or NPCs have no control over these. What i mean by this,

The economy, supply and demand should work naturally as you said. We also need player crafting for a complete economic cycle (Production and Consumption).

with all this fire power what is it doing when shields down?..........Guesses?.. no? It starts to Circleeeeeeeeee, the god damn Circleeeeeeeeeeee, it can kill with all his weapons in 10 sec but it chooses to Circleeeeeee. This stupid combat behaviour has to change, there is tons of combat moves you can give to that Anaconda or to any ship in the game but you have given one Script and that is "If shields down, do Circle" command. I suggest to good ED Developers to play the "Wing Commander" game series, you'll see what i mean by manuvers + NPC Wing Play (one busying you with manuvers and other one hunting you from the back, by busying i mean intentionaly doing it not escaping from you)

The AI pilots should be smarter with more strategic maneuvers for 1 vs 1 and wings. The Dangerous and Elite ranked NPC pilots must be difficult to beat.

 

[Chevy66]

As far as the Thargoids are concerned... where did you get from that they will be in a paid for expansion? That really surprises me.
That is not what I think at all. If you are right then I agree with you about this, but I don't think you are. FD never said that or did they?

Thargoids wouldn't work if they weren't available to everyone, how would you fight them in a wing with someone who couldn't see them?

 

[ashbashbeard]

Erm, it was explained from the beginning that they were going to be paid expansions.

From the use of graphics etc, ED is a more complex game than F:EII despite having less features. 3D modelling such detailed ships takes ages, along with programming shaders etc. F:EII was impressive, and most likely coded in assembly like the original Elite, but it's still didn't need the same effort to pull off.

 

[CaptainKremmen]

Before any torch carrying fly boys yelling, know that i love Elite games and i have big gratitude for the Developers who made this game. What i'm going to explain is how i feel right now with the game's current situation.

"Planing to sell an expansion over an incomplete game is wrong!"

OP, can you please add an 'n' to "planing"? (ie. edit post).

I've asked the mods to fix the thread title, as you can't edit that.

Cheers!

 

[Sir.Tj]

Fixed title

 

[Iskariot]

Thargoids wouldn't work if they weren't available to everyone, how would you fight them in a wing with someone who couldn't see them?

I agree with you. Thargoids are a fundamental part of the Elite universe's dangers the players have to face. It would be absurd if people who do not buy a 'Thargoid Expansion' would therefore never encounter them.

 

[excalibus]

got to about page 5 and grew kind of tired lol...

OP has some points but it is ALL based on his opinion that a complete game was not released... When the fact is, a complete game was released... Maybe not 'complete' by some peoples definitions or expectations but none the less a complete game was released...

FDev have always maintained they will continue to add to the game over time, add new features, fix problems that arise, increase the content etc, some of this will be free and some of it will be released as PAID DLC. This has never been not the case...

Now before 'yall git yer knickas in a knot' a complete game is one where you can perform all the functions the game offers you, no unimplemented options that you can see, no unimplemented features that where placeholders during alpha, beta development etc. To that end ED was complete, we do know that FDev will continue to add things to the game, new ships, new missions, bug fixes, new features etc, and we do know that some of the new features will require purchase before being allowed to access them.

Sure planetary landings where in frontier, and it would have been fantastic if they had been able to implement them in the base game, however that was not part of their development plan for the initial release stage of the game and is part of their development plan for a paid expansion, I will happily buy the expansion once it is released.

I am very pleased with FDevs development of the game to date, with the number of free upgrade releases, beta tests on new versions and new major upgrades etc...

Some of this is not only my opinion but fact... Check out youtube videos where DB has had interviews about the state of the game at release, and look at the dev forums for information on updates and upgrades etc...

Anyone who feels dissatisfied with their '50 euro' game really should go and spend time trying to design a better game of their own

 

[Jognt]

For those that say Elite Dangerous is 'complete', do you mean that the game is working as intended at the moment? Because it's not... If you're trading or pirating, then maybe. The galaxy map does not update faction color automatically, the majority of missions is bugged, professions aren't profitably/working (smuggling anyone?), half the game is not working the way it should, some serious FPS issues on high end systems, bad lag in instances at times, random disconnects.

My father might want to play elite on a Rift when it comes out, but at this moment I can't recommend Elite at all because I'd have to tell him "yeah that doesn't work quite right yet" for over half the stuff you can do in the game!


If you really do think that the current version of Elite is release-worthy, then you are either a young person that does not know any better, or you are blinded.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

For those that say Elite Dangerous is 'complete', do you mean that the game is working as intended at the moment? Because it's not... If you're trading or pirating, then maybe. The galaxy map does not update faction color automatically, the majority of missions is bugged, professions aren't profitably/working (smuggling anyone?), half the game is not working the way it should, some serious FPS issues on high end systems, bad lag in instances at times, random disconnects.

My father might want to play elite on a Rift when it comes out, but at this moment I can't recommend Elite at all because I'd have to tell him "yeah that doesn't work quite right yet" for over half the stuff you can do in the game!


If you really do think that the current version of Elite is release-worthy, then you are either a young person that does not know any better, or you are blinded.

You are both wrong and correct. The current version is incomplete or unfinished/unpolished whatever. The version that will be there with FREE updates like wings was and powerplay will be.
The paid expansions will be expansions, they will not complete the game.


At the end of the day you can pay £1000 for train simulator DLC on steam, its the same principal that its your own fault if you buy it. Do your research before spending money and don't blame people for your mistake. Back on topic this thread to me seems pointless for the explained above reason that the expansions are not there to complete the game.

 

[Iskariot]

If you really do think that the current version of Elite is release-worthy, then you are either a young person that does not know any better, or you are blinded.

Or just patient and understanding perhaps?
I do not think that Elite is feature complete. But I do think that it is a fun game as it is now.
I must have put in a few hundred hours by now and have had great fun. I even bought an expensive HOTAS just for ED. Totally worth it as far as I am concerned.

But I do believe the game needs fleshing out to reach it's full potential. I also knew that from the start when I bought the game and the expansion pass.
ED is a huge project on a never before seen scale. I consider it a journey and enjoy being part of it. It will take time and many more updates to make ED the spacesim that rules them all. I am confident it will get there and I believe the fan base will grow exponentially when stuff like planetary landings, EVA, walking around ships and stations and FPA are implemented.

 

[Komemiute]

Or just patient and understanding perhaps?
I do not think that Elite is feature complete. But I do think that it is a fun game as it is now.
I must have put in a few hundred hours by now and have had great fun. I even bought an expensive HOTAS just for ED. Totally worth it as far as I am concerned.

But I do believe the game needs fleshing out to reach it's full potential. I also knew that from the start when I bought the game and the expansion pass.
ED is a huge project on a never before seen scale. I consider it a journey and enjoy being part of it. It will take time and many more updates to make ED the spacesim that rules them all. I am confident it will get there and I believe the fan base will grow exponentially when stuff like planetary landings, EVA, walking around ships and stations and FPA are implemented.

+1. Too many times people keep complaining about rushed games and when some devs are taking the right time to do stuff suddenly it's all "MOOOVE!"

 

[Smugallo]

expansions = game more complete.

 

[Ydiss]

Or just patient and understanding perhaps?
I do not think that Elite is feature complete. But I do think that it is a fun game as it is now.
I must have put in a few hundred hours by now and have had great fun. I even bought an expensive HOTAS just for ED. Totally worth it as far as I am concerned.

But I do believe the game needs fleshing out to reach it's full potential. I also knew that from the start when I bought the game and the expansion pass.
ED is a huge project on a never before seen scale. I consider it a journey and enjoy being part of it. It will take time and many more updates to make ED the spacesim that rules them all. I am confident it will get there and I believe the fan base will grow exponentially when stuff like planetary landings, EVA, walking around ships and stations and FPA are implemented.

Agreed and +1.

It's. often ignored that the scale of ED, given the size of the team, is huge. I wouldn't say it's never been seen before. Yes, the galaxy is unfathomable in scale but the hand crafted content isn't. When you look at GTAV as an example, the scale of the content that fills the game world, it dwarfs ED.

But anyone who has finished the game and sat through the stupendously gigantic behemoth that is the credits roll will know it took a team size of many orders of magnitude greater than FD.

And the same goes for how much it cost to create.

The important thing to take from this comparison, in relation to this thread, is that even gtav wasn't technically "complete" when it launched on the consoles initially. It's had tons and tons of updates, particularly to the multi player section.

And everyone knows it'll eventually get paid for expansion stories at some point, if the previous games are anything to go by (I'm actually looking forward to them)

ED is a fantastic achievement even as it is, given the funds and size of FD.

 

[xyphic]

Before any torch carrying fly boys yelling

Not a good start to a post. You've already alienated half your audience.

"Planing to sell an expansion over an incomplete game is wrong!"

That depends. If you were promised something to be part of the base game and the developer decided to then charge for those features, that would be wrong. However, in this case that isn't what has happened. If you got into the game at pre-release it was clear that the game would not include "walking around" or "planetary landings" which were slated for expansions from the start. You had the choice to buy the lifetime expansion pack at a heavy discount. If you got into the game post-release, then you bought a product with a defined specification where there was plenty of information in the form of reviews, videos and forum posts for you to make an informed decision about the game. If you bought post-release, you have no right to complain that it's incomplete because as far as you're concerned it isn't.

Those of us in it from the beginning and who had access to the DDF/DDA *do* have the right to claim the game is incomplete, because there were a lot of mechanics that got missed out because of the game's rushed release. What's clear though is that Frontier are committed to adding new features for free. For us pre-releasers, that starts to bring the game up to where we expected it to be. For the post-releasers, they're getting new content for free and should be happy with that.

1 - Planetary landing - This ability has in 2mb Floppy version of the game and this ability is expected when they are making this game from the start, game released and we dont have it

This point has been made by many already but just because an older incarnation had a feature doesn't mean that a newer incarnation will. The volume of complaints if Frontier had released something with the same fidelity as FE2 would have been phenomenal. Better that they do it properly, and they feel that means it should be a (paid for) expansion. The great thing about this is that we can expect *more than* just what we saw in FE2 and FFE.

2- Ship Boarding - This should not be an expansion ability, for just selling your "FPS Playing Style" you cant force us buying it.You should do this "Ship Boarding" with "Hired NPC Marines", we do not need to see them in action or be there actually. Voiced Text Briefing and statistical Text information can do the job. The Marines' Experience effects the success rate and those Marines who survived the mission get experience and improve the future Mission Successes.

There's already enough in the way of dice rolling in the game that ship boarding in this way wouldn't cut it. If you were to have your ship taken off you simply because another player beat you at top trumps (with a side of yahtzee) the complaints would be incredible. What Frontier want from this is a mechanic that's exciting, takes skill and immerses you in the game. It seems they want it to be in the form of an FPS game, so to defend your ship from ingress you have to get out of your seat -- or one of your crew would... -- and actually stop them from taking over. As with planetary landing, this is something that I want Frontier to get right and so take their time over.

1 - The Missions :

I agree with these points. Missions were not what they could have been. Frontier clearly agree otherwise they wouldn't be reworking them.

2 - Wings

This is where we get into the economics of game development and examine why Frontier released when they did, and why they view 1.0 as release complete. Clearly the Wings update was in progress when Release 1.0 occurred. It was too much work to get done in just a couple of months after release. That leads me to assume that it wasn't something that occurred after the fact. So why didn't they wait and include it? There's no simple answer to this, so here's the complex one:

Frontier's business model for ED consisted of selling copies of the game in various pre-release forms (Alpha / Premium Beta / Beta) at higher-than-normal prices. This enabled them to get a large injection of cash on top of a bit of private investment and a large credit facility. They already had some liquid cash floating around the business too. They also sold preorders of the final game, but as a business they cannot count those sales as liquid. The money they'd taken for them is effectively untouchable until they release the game. So, with the money they had they went ahead with a large team and made excellent progress over 2 years. But there comes a point where cash runs short and the business has to make tough choices. Do they eat into the credit facility and keep running for a few months? The big risk would be that all their pre-orders cancel and their cash in-potentia disappears and the company folds; everyone loses! Do they reduce headcount on ED? Hello redundancies and longer development times! Or do they put together a release that contains enough functionality to be classed as a viable game and plan on back-filling later? This is the option they chose, with the worst case being that they didn't make enough to continue development but everyone who ordered a game gets a game. And not a bad one at that.

It was a hard choice, but one that had to be made and you're right that the timing was such that they caught the Christmas rush. That's sound business sense and nothing more. I'm sure that everyone involved in the development of the game wished that they could have had another 6 months but that clearly wasn't viable.

3 - Trading

I agree that trade and the background simulation could stand to be more complex. This should go hand-in-hand with the "dangerous" part of the game title where the reward increases with risk. Unfortunately this is going to be very difficult for Frontier to reconcile at this point as many of the mechanics (e.g. RES, nav beacons) are ingrained and any large changes would be met with resistance by a large proportion of the userbase who *don't* want it to change.

4 - Combat :

As some have said, if you're getting into circle battles there are things you can do to improve your combat skills. What I *don't* like about the game at the moment is that the range of ability of NPCs isn't wide enough. It's too easy for players in small ships to take out an Elite Anaconda. I know that Frontier's AI experts are on the case though, so I really hope that combat gets harder in the next couple of releases.

5- Items:

Agree that there should be more technical detail about weapons and modules in general.

 

[boborene]

Before any torch carrying fly boys yelling, know that i love Elite games and i have big gratitude for the Developers who made this game. What i'm going to explain is how i feel right now with the game's current situation.

"Planing to sell an expansion over an incomplete game is wrong!" this idea is keep bugging me since i heard it from David. As the players who are now playing the game know that game is incomplete (if i have to give a rate it will be %50). I'm 38 years old and playing this game from the first elite, i have a good history with the game and knows its game mechanics, so when i bought the game , my first impression is "Thats it, this is what Elite should be", then after playing from 01.01.2015 to this date 21.05.2015, realizing that there are tons of incomplete things in the game that has made previous Elite games awesome and planing to sell us those game abilities with money, this is not just.

What they are planing to sell us with money why we should against these :

1 - Planetary landing - This ability has in 2mb Floppy version of the game and this ability is expected when they are making this game from the start, game released and we dont have it

2- Ship Boarding - This should not be an expansion ability, for just selling your "FPS Playing Style" you cant force us buying it.You should do this "Ship Boarding" with "Hired NPC Marines", we do not need to see them in action or be there actually. Voiced Text Briefing and statistical Text information can do the job. The Marines' Experience effects the success rate and those Marines who survived the mission get experience and improve the future Mission Successes.


What should be in the game since it released "Day One" :

1 - The Missions : As we know that they will fix the missions with "Power Play" , they said they will scale the missions with the player's progress (Combat Rating . Explore Rating and Trade Rating + Faction Rating (System Controlling Faction and Sub Factions Rating). So they have waited nearly 6 months to implement this and made us kill the "Resource Extraction NPCs + NAV Point NPCs + UUN NPCs over and over and over and over, with no variety and plus to this "You have rewarded 16.000 Credits from mission delivery", are you kidding me!! 16.000 credits for killing 20 pirate (worth of 1.000.000 Credit) and you are rewarding me 16.000 credit for completing the mission. Now after 6 Months you are saying we'll fix this , you had fixed it before you release the game because this is not a "BUG" , this is the game future which it has supposed to be at the first release.

2 - Wings : Yes the famous "Wings Update", "UPDATE", hmm, Fix me if i'm wrong but you have planned this game as a Space Sim MMORPG right? cause game interactions effecting game universe and the players in it and player to player actions effecting game mechanics, so this game is designed to be played Multiplayer (even our data stored online, including saves). So how come you havent thought this "Wings Ability" from the start, i'm seriously wondering , if your answer is "We had to release the game at "Christmas Sale Madness" to earn money front, then you fooled us with it because you sold game at your website with the tag of "Elite : Dangerous is Released" you havent wrote there " Elite Dangerous is Released with %50 Complete" or "Elite Dangerous ***BETA*** Released" there will be no other answer to this cause the game is half baked right now and this proves it.

3 - Trading : Again this obvious game future has been broken from the start and they said they'll fix it at "Power Play" , but we dont know how they are going to do it. Probably most of you have played X- Beyond the Frontier game series, that game represents best trading mechanic at the game sector. So how could be a good economy;

Basic Structure of an Economy

1. Raw Resources
2. Raw Resources ---> Refined Resources
3. Refined Resources ---> Industrial Goods
4. Industrial Goods ----> Luxury Goods / Tech Goods / Agri-Cultural Goods etc etc etc

So for this structure to work there will be limited or time limited resources be needed. So this will give birth to Supply - Demand mechanic. Well what we have right now is "Unlimited Resources + Refined Goods + Industrial Goods+ etc,etc,etc" we players or NPCs have no control over these. What i mean by this,

Forexample; Lets say "Station X" needs "Cobalt Ore" , so what does "Station X" need to do

1. Need to send its own Ore Mining Ships to Asteroid Belts / send its Tradeships to other sectors to get "Cobalt Ore" / Players needs to feed the station with the Cobalt Ore
2. Those ships needs to dock to the station and supply it with the "Cobalt Ore" needed
3. After Processing "Cobalt ore" to a "Good" then list it at its sell order
4. If the "Cobalt Ore" stock starting to drop from "Surplus" then the price of the "Goods" go up

So what does this do good to us;

1. If Station supply chain broken "Mining ships / Trade Ships" destroyed at the process then prices go up (Pirating Opportunity + Piracy for Manupulating the System Economy by the Traders)
2. So when you want to buy "X Good" you'll see that its production is very low (right now the production is based on time , no matter what heppens it is producing goods from out of nowhere, like a god), or you'll see no produced "goods" because the supply has broken
3. This fragile trade system has been accomplished by 2 games 1 - X Beyond The Frontier Series , 2 - Eve Online. If you want dynamic economy you have to deliver the leashes of the economy (%80) to the players (%20 for basic items that is coming from the planets (medicine, grain etc etc) , you can deliver that %10 of that %20 to players when you implement Planetary Landing and the Living Cities to the game)

4 - Combat : At last we have come to most exciting and fragile system of the game. The combat is mostly predictable , what i mean;lets have an example of a Viper NPC Pirate and you have a Cobra. As players we know that Viper can out manuver the Cobra, but out gunned against Cobra, if Cobra catch the Viper from the back then its over, realy?, no! , because Viper and all of the ships, i mean ALL ,counting Anaconda, doing this manuver;

• As soon as all ships which has lost its shield starts to turn around you in circles, no matter the size, no matter the guns it has, doing maniacly this move. Have you ever seen an Elite Anaconda from up close, no?, when it choose to attack you it fires 2 x Plasma Cannons (if it gets you 90 Degree of its Crosshair), 2 x Plasma Cannon can take down ASP, Cobra , Viper ......small size of everything and the rest of his Beams and Pulses and Multicannons, it is a one hell of a Flying Castle, but.......... with all this fire power what is it doing when shields down?..........Guesses?.. no? It starts to Circleeeeeeeeee, the god damn Circleeeeeeeeeeee, it can kill with all his weapons in 10 sec but it chooses to Circleeeeeee. This stupid combat behaviour has to change, there is tons of combat moves you can give to that Anaconda or to any ship in the game but you have given one Script and that is "If shields down, do Circle" command. I suggest to good ED Developers to play the "Wing Commander" game series, you'll see what i mean by manuvers + NPC Wing Play (one busying you with manuvers and other one hunting you from the back, by busying i mean intentionaly doing it not escaping from you)

5- Items: Why you hate us, seriously, I am sure you have intentionaly created most of the items for to make us paranoid. What am i talking about? This;

1. All weapons "Weapon System Capacitor Usage" "BARSSSSSSSSSS" / "BLOCKSSSSSSS" some has 2 bars, some has 3 , 4 , 5 .................., "BARS" / "BLOCKS" arent a measure!!! kWh and Jule is a measure for energy usage and those measures needs numbers , not blocks. Why i'm saying ;because right now my Pulse Laser E3 Describtion saying 4 BARS and i dont know how much of that A7 Class Power Distribution (61.000 kWh) (Recharge 6.100 kWh) compansate that 4 BARRRRRRRRSSSS. So what we players do we buy highest Power Distributor, then we buy weapons and go out the station , leave the firing range 10km, then start activating weapons by group, 2x Pulse Shooot Shoooott Shoott , ok Stable, now 3x Pulse shoot shoot , hmm going down in 20 sec. Why are we doing this, because 6.100 kWh / 4 BARS means nothing, gives you nothing. But you are definitely know what that 4 BARS means, because you have created them, so my question is why dont you give the exact numbers instead of BARS / BLOCKS to us.

Note : If you have done this for 14 year old Play Station / Xbox Kids , then tell their families to teach their children basic maths forexp: 1 Block + 1 Block = 2 Blocks

These are my thoughts about the game as a fan of the game. I'll edit if i come up with things i want to share with you.

Have a nice day.

Complete agree with you, and get a full quote.

 

[excalibus]

For those that say Elite Dangerous is 'complete', do you mean that the game is working as intended at the moment? Because it's not... If you're trading or pirating, then maybe. The galaxy map does not update faction color automatically, the majority of missions is bugged, professions aren't profitably/working (smuggling anyone?), half the game is not working the way it should, some serious FPS issues on high end systems, bad lag in instances at times, random disconnects.

My father might want to play elite on a Rift when it comes out, but at this moment I can't recommend Elite at all because I'd have to tell him "yeah that doesn't work quite right yet" for over half the stuff you can do in the game!


If you really do think that the current version of Elite is release-worthy, then you are either a young person that does not know any better, or you are blinded.

We all know (and to some extent expect) the game will contain bugs and that patches and upgrades post release will occur to fix issues... That does not take away from my previous statement in any way that the game as released was technically complete because it was... Yes missions are getting reworked to fix some current issues (assasination mission branching etc) and, for alll we know, possibly to allow the actions performed by players after the powerplay update is released to work correctly... the other 'issues' you mention, FPS issues, Lag, Disconnects are nothing to do with weather or not the game was released complete or not, they are technical issues that some of which may be identifiable and fixable and others may just be the player or network infrastructure beyond FDevs control.

I for one am neither blinded OR young, I am middle aged, played various video games for over 30 years including quite a few multiplayer online games and MMO's, Was it release worthy, by todays standards yes it was, perhaps by the standards back in the 80's - 90's no because back then they often did not release until it was as bug free as possible due to the hard copy nature of releasing compared to todays digital medium which is more conducive to release 'as is' and patch after release scenerio.

As for smuggling, it works, maybe not as we would prefer but you can smuggle goods, hopefully they will improve it some to make it more 'profitable', bounty hunting works, exploring works. mining works, even being a psychopath works albeit without enough consequences, piracy on the other hand is difficult to do unless you are in an organised group, and even then its problematic and that is something FDev should address for solo, PVE and open pirates to make it easier to initiate a piracy attack compared to being a psychopath...

On another note, the background sim does work, it is possible for players to affect systems and to affect governments, it does take some serious time and effort to do so but it is entirely possible to cause civil wars, change in government factions, maniplating the market prices (I have done and seen this first hand)...