Frontier Needs Money (new Dev Update from Michael).

[AnnuverScotinExile]

If you've got some idea in your mind that Sarah Jane Avory is writing Mac-specific AI and Xbox-specific AI and Windows-specific AI (just for example) you need to go ask your school for a refund.

Now there's an idea. The Mac AI could quit the instance if it finds a player using a PC. The XBox AI could wander around at random shooting things and swearing. The PC AI could go round with a chip on its shoulder and stop fighting its current target if an XBox player appears, and go trample the noob.

- - - Updated - - -

Here's another thing that's kind of cool you can worry about: the theme park game is going to suck all the features out of.... Oh, no, wait, no it's not because the engineers at FD appear to have been smart enough to code the theme park game using the same underlying engine as E. Fancy that. The upper-level features, where the game-play is at - that's another story of course. But I suspect it's a whole different team working on that and they're glad they're not having to write the graphics code.

So they will share code for things like people wandering about? We can expect geeks and dinosaurs in the space ports? If we are willing to pony up £100 we can have an NPC bar tender on your favourite space port modelled after you? Now there's a money sink that should pay for the servers for the next decade!

https://www.frontierstore.net/planet-coaster-vip-staff-pass.html

 

[SAB380]

I've always said Elite should be on all the big platforms.
The reason many of us are here is because we played games on the systems available to us in the early 1980s.
What is the point of a new Elite on PC if its just us old guys and all the kids are on consoles?
Hopefully the PS4 version will happen by end of 2016.
I want young guys and girls discovering Elite on their systems and becoming addicted and then in 20+ years they can be grumpy middle aged people demanding a 75yr old Braben don't change anything when developing Elite 5.

I want to land on the planets, park on a floating city on a gas giant, walk around my spaceship and then outfit it to withstand the pressure of deep ocean exploration.

So give me vanity items to buy to decorate the inside of my ship.
Have some aesthetic cockpit upgrades purchasable with real money as well as in game currency.
Give me more paint jobs to buy.

Let people buy the in game ships with real money.
What do I care if someone buys an Anaconda for US$500?
Who gives a ? I traded up to a Conda for free. I'll thank them for helping support the game.


What they launched was essentially an OS to build a game on. With 1.3 we are starting to get toward a real game!
Don't we all want to see them get to 3.7 and have all the big expansions in there

 

[Tod]

Now Xbox is already out, I am hopeful PS4 version will be out before the end of 2015. Can't think of any reason it wouldn't be

 

[AnnuverScotinExile]

Now Xbox is already out, I am hopeful PS4 version will be out before the end of 2015. Can't think of any reason it wouldn't be

Apart from an exclusivity deal with Microsoft, of course.

I think it is quite likely that there will be a PS4 version for Christmas. But it does depend on that Microsoft deal, and we do not have (and will not have) details of what that is. The fact that we expect CQC on the PC at the end of the year is encouraging, of course. But XBox exclusivity and E: D content exclusivity do not have to have the same dates.

 

[Noisy Cosmos]

No problem with more players. All are welcome and it's a good idea that the community grows, but, please, distribute time in the just manner. Like other users sayd: I always support the game buying new cosmetic things and I want more of them.

 

[Alien]

The fact that we expect CQC on the PC at the end of the year is encouraging, of course. But XBox exclusivity and E: D content exclusivity do not have to have the same dates.

Expecting CQC at the end of the year is not encouraging to me. IF ... we get CQC on the PC at the end of the year, to me, that means we won't get the first paid expansion ... and I think Frontier really need to uphold that promise (first paid expansion one year after official release) to help restore some faith in the community. It's always possible, of course, the PC could see both CQC and the first paid expansion by the end of the year.

 

[Winterwalker]

Expecting CQC at the end of the year is not encouraging to me. IF ... we get CQC on the PC at the end of the year, to me, that means we won't get the first paid expansion ... and I think Frontier really need to uphold that promise (first paid expansion one year after official release) to help restore some faith in the community. It's always possible, of course, the PC could see both CQC and the first paid expansion by the end of the year.

I think the delay between CQC on xbox now and PC at the end of the year, isn't because FD need to build CQC assets (between now and later this year), they must have those assets already? To me it could be the other way around .. implementing CQC for PC now, might tie up the construction of a.n. other expansion, that could constitute any "new" Christmas release. (CQC more as a migration between platforms, than an actual development?)

 

[n13L5]

So Michael explicitly says in the new update here: The most obvious benefit comes from the income. We have chosen not to go down the route of subscriptions or 'pay to win', but we do need income to support the game, and so far most of that is coming from adding new customers, so it is in all our interests to get more people playing. You know what? That's absolutely fine with me. I welcome CQC, I welcome the XBox guys. The more money there is for development the better for everyone. (Speaking of which, you really should make decals and paint jobs in the store a priority). This week was a bad coincidence for me. I contributed to some of the negativity in the forum, but for a completely different reason. I wanted PC NEWS from E3, I wanted news about the paid expansions (First Expansion Coming Xmas 2015!) or something. But I was not, have not and shall not be upset about Frontier broadening their revenue stream and welcome their attempts to do so. Thanks for not going 'pay to win'! Just my two euro-cent.

I told them in January to get their cosmetic item store in shape and I've told them again about 2 weeks ago................ I have no clue what the hold up is on offering more stuff to sell.................... I've spent just over 140 Euros on paint jobs.................... This isn't because I find them to be so great, nor is it because I love the fact that you never get to see any of it, its because I want them to have money to fix the game...................... But apparently, its too damned hard to make some decals and an onion head skin for more ships than just the Cobra................. Yeah, sorry I have to use dots, cause the forum is killing my paragraph spacing since 2 days ago.

 

[AnnuverScotinExile]

Expecting CQC at the end of the year is not encouraging to me. IF ... we get CQC on the PC at the end of the year, to me, that means we won't get the first paid expansion ... and I think Frontier really need to uphold that promise (first paid expansion one year after official release) to help restore some faith in the community. It's always possible, of course, the PC could see both CQC and the first paid expansion by the end of the year.

The 'encouraging' comment was specifically to do with the timing of the PS4 release, as is clear from the post you quoted.

The amount of effort to make CQC available on the PC will be slight. It already exists, dev have been testing it for a while now. Given the multi-platform Cobra engine, we know that if it works on one box, it will work on the others with relatively little effort.

From a development point of view, the first expansion (FD have not given anything like a firm date, so expecting it after a year is just speculation) is independent of the core team, since it is being built by a separate development team. So I see CQC and the first expansion as being a relatively 'resource free' lump of new functionality for the PC platform. Yes, there will be some work, but it shold not tie the core game folks up until Christmas. So I think the question to be answered is what other stuff are we getting on the PC between now and Christmas?

 

[Zelos1983]

I've always said Elite should be on all the big platforms.
The reason many of us are here is because we played games on the systems available to us in the early 1980s.
What is the point of a new Elite on PC if its just us old guys and all the kids are on consoles?

Consoles were great from the late 70ies 'til mid 90ies. The console era is basically over as everything is now consolidated on PCs and standardized x86 hardware.

But yes, the game should be released multi-plattform, which mainly includes Linux and OSX.

 

[Alien]

I told them in January to get their cosmetic item store in shape

I hope that's just a badly worded comment and you aren't really so arrogant as to believe you have any right to "tell" Frontier to do anything.
We as customers can express what we'd like to see, I have said many times, I'd like every paintjob for every ship ... but I'm not "telling" Frontier to do it.

 

[Derath]

I hope that's just a badly worded comment and you aren't really so arrogant as to believe you have any right to "tell" Frontier to do anything.
We as customers can express what we'd like to see, I have said many times, I'd like every paintjob for every ship ... but I'm not "telling" Frontier to do it.

Ahh its one of those things, everyone has the right to tell frontier to do things, they just have the right to ignore them.

It doesn't change that many of them are great ideas whether demanded, requested or unasked.

 

[kirkkh]

It's a sinking ship, keep adding people to bucket out the water.

 

[John Smallberries]

Out of curiosity, does anyone who plays with a mouse like the nerfed yaw?

Anyways, I'm brutally disappointed, but I see the line has been drawn. I just wish I had known before I plunked down my money.

 

[Dariusz1989]

Out of curiosity, does anyone who plays with a mouse like the nerfed yaw?

Anyways, I'm brutally disappointed, but I see the line has been drawn. I just wish I had known before I plunked down my money.

same here. Just waiting for other spaceships games. Cant wait for no mans sky eve and others. This Elite game will die off very quickly when competition release their versions.

 

[Deleted member 37733]

I tend to moan a good bit as well, doesn't mean I don't love the game, I just get bored/frustrated sometimes with Frontiers weird marketing thingy. Bought the XBOX version as well, and looking forward to playing my main on my big telly

I didn't think your CMDR transferred?

 

[Privata]

When I get back into my job back I am going to buy every single paint job in the market ! (well , maybe not in one go , maybe say 20 every month)

 

[SAB380]

Consoles were great from the late 70ies 'til mid 90ies. The console era is basically over as everything is now consolidated on PCs and standardized x86 hardware.

But yes, the game should be released multi-plattform, which mainly includes Linux and OSX.

lol I knew at least one poster would have to be 'that guy'

 

[SAB380]

Expecting CQC at the end of the year is not encouraging to me. IF ... we get CQC on the PC at the end of the year, to me, that means we won't get the first paid expansion ... and I think Frontier really need to uphold that promise (first paid expansion one year after official release) to help restore some faith in the community. It's always possible, of course, the PC could see both CQC and the first paid expansion by the end of the year.

The first paid expansion date was not a promise, it was an estimate, just like the retail release date.

They ended up (from memory) releasing 9 months after estimated release date and I think we all agree, it was really still released earlier than it should have been. Right until the last few days of gamma, people were still saying, 'well they are obviously saving a lot of surprises for release'

Until we get an official answer, I'm assuming that we should at LEAST double the original estimate, maybe a lot more....

 

[[HJ]-RedRaven]

Its a game - I'm trying not to be over-invested in something I have very little control over (and unfortunately I missed out on being part of the FFD discussions/early development anyway).

I don't care about cosmetic stuff over some basic skins and decals. You can hardly see it on your ship yourself anyway - my Python has the merest hint of red visible from the front windscreen, and its not like other CMDRs come to poke their nose in front of my ship anyway.

I'm more interested in increasing the depth and (balanced) complexity of missions, both Powerplay related and on the bulletin boards. I like making my own way (in Open) but having mission threads of varying types available makes it easier to jump in if you're tired/just want to blow stuff up/unwind/be entertained etc. At the moment its all just placeholder stuff.

I'm giving it time and enjoying PP in the meantime, even if it is a bit silly no merit-balancing.