"working on something secret for PC and Mac"

Around 7:20 in this video he you uploaded on Youtube today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RD6rmO_28s

I love his pause afterwards...whoops... :D


Watch the entire steam for that matter (that video is part 2)...there is some other goofies in there. ;)

But no, let's remember...the design proposals have been ABANDONED!!!!!! :p

Yes! That's great news! You made my day, Tinman! Really looking forward to T2 NPCs finally becoming reality! :)




Well, we knew they are on their todo list for some time now. Question is when - and it feels like natural extension of things as they are.

No, we knew there was a great thread about persistent NPCs in the DDA, but the best dev statement from the last six months I could find on the forum at least slightly touches the subject was this:

Better continuity is something we want.

So for me the question wasn't "when", yet, but still "if"!

There is not a single quote from a dev after release December last year that specifically confirmed the Tier 2 NPCs are still on their TODO list. (unless you show me a quote that proves otherwise, than I will eat my words) I have honestly waited for any tiny tidbit of information specifically concerning persistent NPCs over the last 6 months, so I think I would have noticed if they have said anything like that.

So, yes, this "revelation" by Kerrash is indeed big news and makes me a very happy puppy!
 
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Apologies for being a doofus, but what are tier 2 ncps?

3st tier NPCs are current ones - spawned, not entirely persistent, however not disappearing outright neither. You can follow them in supercruise, out of supercruise, sometimes they disappear (that's a bug), sometimes they don't. They will get improved but they won't be anything but passing memory
2nd tier NPCs is when 3rd tier NPC becomes 'persistent', becoming a contact for you to engage. For example, for smuggling such web of contacts would allow you to profit more than regular black markets. Such 2nd tier NPCs also will enable passenger transportation missions, as they are will give you dynamic choices during transportation. Overreaching idea - as far as I understand it - 3rd tier NPCs are 'numb mass' of people, however 2nd tier NPCs are NPCs which suddenly become important and persistent - to you.

At least that's how I remember it anyway.

edit: good ninjad by nedeaalex
 
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tier 1: big npcs like power leaders
tier 2: contacts and merchants and generally the persistent ones who make the world feel alive
tier 3: the dummies we have now non-persistent

Great thanks. In my view id rather they did this first before landings and thargoids. This would compliment multi-tiered missions as well I would imagine.
 
Apologies for being a doofus, but what are tier 2 ncps?

Perfectly fine question. This is the proposal from the Design Decision/Discussion Archive:

TIER 2 CHARACTERS
Tier 2 characters are characters that persist for players, but can be interacted with directly. There is a per player list of tier 2 characters and they are identified by the following characteristics:

  • Players can interact with the character directly.
  • Character can be killed by players or by events.
  • Character can be created via an event, by the game or promoted from tier 3.
  • Character can be promoted from tier 2 by being known to a large number of players.
  • Characters can issue missions.

TIER 2 CHARACTER EXAMPLES

  • Faction leader underlings that the player deals directly with
  • Mission targets
  • Mission providers
  • Pilots of NPC vessels that the player has previously interacted with
  • Player contacts

Read the whole post to get an idea of the whole "NPC tiers" concept! :)
 
Kerrash has alluded to having seen things before. I'm sure a couple of weeks ago he mentioned having seen a WIP planetary landing also followed by an 'oops' face.

I think he does it on purpose ;-) if not, I don't think Frontier should worry too much about this level of leakage as it just fuels healthy speculation.

Keep up the good work Kerrash.
 
Great thanks. In my view id rather they did this first before landings and thargoids. This would compliment multi-tiered missions as well I would imagine.

Yeah, this along with ship naming and proper gravity wells is what would make the game pretty much complete for me. If they manage to somehow make more people play in Open so the world feels even more alive(this means no griefers ofc) it would be perfect.

- - - Updated - - -

Is it an in-ship terminal that we can use to play the original Elite on?

Hearthstone :p
 
It's funny. With Powerplay's beta, the top two tiers only allowed a small percentage of participants to qualify originally, presumably as a way of making sure there is more organised decision making and less fifth-columning of Preparation. I wonder if the intention was to make these dedicated players a sort of real life roleplay of a Tier 2 NPC?

I really do hope that it is consolidation of the game foundations before adding more half-backed stuff to it.
Something in the line of better missions (like branching missions (escort, protect outpost, find pirate base,... )).
A bit more exploration content / mystery / investigation / salvage, based on the three clue rule / node design.

Also, better PP integration to the game base would not hurt.

Otherwise, the game will end up an unholly minigame patchwork mess. Once the game foundations are solid, add stuff like planetary landing,
multicrew ships and whatever cool things them come up with.

In a similar thread, I suggested that perhaps planetary landings and walking - and come to think of it now, Powerplay itself - are additional foundations that haven't arrived yet. Once these are in place, and the various gameplay mechanics allowed to settle down and integrate together fully (instead of having one section of walking, one section of planetary landing, one section of Powerplay etc.), then the full fleshing out of content and adventure and thrills can start.
 
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It's funny. With Powerplay's beta, the top two tiers only allowed a small percentage of participants to qualify originally, presumably as a way of making sure there is more organised decision making and less fifth-columning of Preparation. I wonder if the intention was to make these dedicated players a sort of real life roleplay of a Tier 2 NPC?



In a similar thread, I suggested that perhaps planetary landings and walking - and come to think of it now, Powerplay itself - are additional foundations that haven't arrived yet. Once these are in place, and the various gameplay mechanics allowed to settle down and integrate together fully (instead of having one section of walking, one section of planetary landing, one section of Powerplay etc.), then the full fleshing out of content and adventure and thrills can start.

Not sure how major 'paid' updates such as planetary landings and FPS modes will ever be integrated into the core game, it would impact on those without it.
I think that the core game will progress with tweaks, ships and hopefully some missing career choices etc but all else will be meta with only superficial effects being seen in the wider game as in PP. I would like to be wrong but given what we are currently seeing I fear I am not and I am pretty sure that they said paid content would be outside of the core game experience i.e. optional.
 
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I don't want to be a party pooper but "We're really working on something guys, just wait!" is hardly newsworthy. Working on the game is their job after all.
It's like clapping after the pilot makes a successful landing.
 
I'm just disappointed that there will be news... at the soonest in august...

I'd expected to at least hear something PC related at E3 like when the first payed expansion is coming as we all want to walk around our [bleeping] ships. I'm afraid at gamescom we'll just be hearing other console news and maybe the big secret that they're working on yet another new PC game... or an expansion patch for the powerplay system.

So in short, Big disappointment at the lack of PC news and the turn to consoles. Can't they just go back into beta and release new stuff in small patches rather then months and months of waiting for... powerplay... (yes, I'm a casual SOLO player).

Just my opinion on this so no need to attack this opinion as that would be just silly opinionated chatter. Still love the game but would like to see PC be a big priority again. But my feeling says that Elite is loosing momentum which is a bad thing in my book. (I got a big book you know!)

Keeping my fingers crossed that this won't be another forgotten (and maybe unfinished) game.
 
I agree with OP

personally - I'm MORE interested in actual game content / life / variety in the galaxy than planetary landings / walking around ships.

Please please please FDevs - the next update needs to be for the solo players: we want a galaxy that is ALIVE

*edit - and that doesn't mean Thargoids. That means HUMAN life.
 
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It sounds like there's not planning on any major patches before Gamescom. That means there will be 11 weeks before 1.3 and even the announcement of the next major patch. So in the very, very best scenario, where they announce the update at Gamescom and it goes on test servers at once, that's 3 months between updates.
 
Can't they just go back into beta and release new stuff in small patches rather then months and months of waiting for... powerplay... (yes, I'm a casual SOLO player).

Just want to point out that they have released just as many updates (at the same times) as last year.

Alpha 1 = First release
Alpha 2 = ED 1.1
Alpha 3 = ED 1.2
Alpha 4 / Premium Beta 1 (same build) = ED 1.3
Premium Beta 2 = the upcoming CQC for XBox
Beta 1 (end of May, beginning of August) = We don't know yet, probably 1.4.
 
From the newsletter:-



Please let it be core game improvements. Please let it be deeper, tiered missions. Please let it be more stuff to witness/encounter during general flight. Please let it be more stuff to discover/see while exploring. Please let it be PvP combat related mechanics. Please let it be game mechanics promoting emergent game play.

The ED universe is huge, please let's have some truly interesting/inventive stuff going on in it.


Please no more grind endorsing board games.... :)

Amen. But unfortunately none of those are as 'sexy' to the public at large as a nice, big, paid expansion. Hopefully, if there are more people working on Elite than ever before stuff is going on in parallel, rather than being diverted from the core game.
 
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