A BIG Rant

[Renegade Roach]

Maybe FD changed their mind when they started to read some of the comments here, or are you saying that if FD do release the roadmap, everyone will be finally happy and the complaints stop?

I wasn't 'saying' anything, just informing you as to why some people are annoyed that FD have decided to go back on that commitment since you seem to be unaware.

And yeah, agree with SlugwormX, the 'you lack imagination' line is weak and does seem to come from those who either can't imagine anything better or are simply trying to claim some false intellectual superiority.

 

[LeetNoob]

The only thing this thread says, is ‘anyone with different opinions to me about this game is wrong and a whiner’.
I agree some people go overboard in the criticism on this forum but at least they have suggestions on improvement etc. It’s the forum for the game, what do you expect here? Also, similar to what you said about powerplay, if you don’t like it, you don’t have to read it.

This thread is the biggest whine I’ve seen in a long time.
As for ‘give them a rest’. From what? Their jobs? If they have such a long term development plan, expect them to get constant feedback and suggestions on that development. Especially after the ‘answer to the question nobody asked’ which is powerplay hit us.

Really OP, what are you trying to achieve here? A hug from an FD developer for standing up for them? This is pathetically self-centered and short sighted.

 

[Moriarte]

Come on guys, the staff of FD do know what they are doing, and are trying to please a very diverse group of players over a varied set of operating systems. We don't know what their plans are, maybe that is all they are are plans. Let them do their job without the continuous demands for things we may think are urgent but in the overall scheme of things could still be years away.

In the land of rainbows and pink unicorns & elves - an argument about diversity is a strong one. In the real world it helps to have a plan and share it, so one can get feedback and pre-emptively remove sharp angles before it's too late (hello, power play). It also helps the stock market investors to make a decision. I bought Battlefield 4 premium and knew exactly what the plan was - 5 major expansions, with solid dates of arrival. Sure, the dates were shifting along the way (talking mere weeks here), but the framework was good enough to leave room for many surprises, new guns, gadgets, vehicles, balancing, etc.

FD understands that DLC's are probably years away, given the size of the team, the amount of work to be done and British working hours, so they create hype (uhh, we really wanna tell ya what's coming, but we can't cause.. err ..we won't!) to keep the crowd guessing, to prevent people from leaving and to lure new ones into mysteria. I say this is amateur. I don't enjoy being treated like an idiot, I'd like to know what's coming instead of being a hamster, yelling - hype! hype! for no reason - a rough date of arrival, a sketch of an idea will go a long way, because it is fair and best for everyone, including FD. But maybe that's just me.

Maybe we need more mystery & hype and less common sense.

 

[tarks382]

That's not a rant: it's a seriers of quite well-constructed and cogent observations.

Please: can we have some proper rants in the forum. This is lowering the quality of ranting generally.

Re: All of the above (and probably below). NOW we're ranting! Keep it up!

 

[MarcusReed]

Forcing all player to participate in PP is the worse idea ever. FDEV was very smart to let all aspect of the game be optional. "Blaze your own trail" would be a lie if I had to report in the Hudson and get ran out of system not under his control. Would be a waste of colonized space honestly.

 

[Jukelo]

People say there is nothing to do in the game, because when you compare what we have right now and what we are supposed to get according to the DDA, there is a significant gap. Sure people can find cool stuff to do using their imagination, but they could probably do that without spending 50€ on an unfinished game anyway. I'm a tabletop roleplayer, if I want to use my imagination I have better media to do it than a video game that is actively fighting against my immersion into its universe.

Btw I'm 28, and like most players you so love to disparage, I have played both old and new games all my life, from both ends of the spectrum, story driven games, sandbox games, open world games doing both. I don't need direction to enjoy a well made game. I do however need tools. Atm ED has barely any sand, and not only did the game not give me a bucket, but it's also cut off both my hands so I have to make do with bloody stumps and my feet, when I was promised a whole beach just for myself, the whole castle builder set of tools, and an excavator on top of that.

 

[MarcusReed]

People say there is nothing to do in the game, because when you compare what we have right now and what we are supposed to get according to the DDA, there is a significant gap. Sure people can find cool stuff to do using their imagination, but they could probably do that without spending 50€ on an unfinished game anyway. I'm a tabletop roleplayer, if I want to use my imagination I have better media to do it than a video game that is actively fighting against my immersion into its universe.

Btw I'm 28, and like most players you so love to disparage, I have played both old and new games all my life, from both sides of the spectrum, story driven games, sandbox games, open world games doing both. I don't need direction to enjoy a well made game. I do however need tools. Atm ED has barely any sand, and not only did the game not give me a bucket, but it's also cut off both my hands so I have to make do with bloody stumps and my feet, when I was promised a whole beach just for myself, the whole castle builder set of tools, and an excavator on top of that.

Good thing FDEV never promised to put anything from The DDA into the game

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Maybe we need more mystery & hype and less common sense.

just to sit on the fence, i do believe there is room for both.l

For instance i (personally) do not want to know anything about the thargoids.... that they ARE coming is enough.... but yeah, everything else (apart from maybe other new aliens as well)is fair game.

R

Good thing FDEV never promised to put anything from The DDA into the game

promised... no!... but remember the Design DECISION forum was what many signed up for, not the design DISCUSSION forum. for the longest of times politicians have tried to change the meaning of their words slightly........ but that is very hard to do now thanks to google et al

 

[jabokai]

Good thing FDEV never promised to put anything from The DDA into the game

Indeed. Good thing they spent all that time and effort developing interesting and deep game mechanisms, not to mention the thousands of hours the DDF spent helping tweak them too, only to have it as a historical archive of "what won't be in the game". Very good thing that.

 

[excalibus]

rants and whines... so far that is all I have read in this thread...


as for roadmaps the only roadmap FDev should give is one wiht pins showing the towns across the world where all the players who brought this game live...

the only roadmap statement they actually need to give at this point is 'Dec 2014 We released E: D' and as for features to come, I would love to see more DEV DIARIES on youtube but we all know that planetary landings and walking around our ships (which seems almost pointless in an eagle) are things to come...

I would love to see a FPS side to elite when it comes to planetary landings and perhaps an option down the track to disable a ship, and BOARD IT and TAKE IT OVER as your own..

Imagine fighting an anaconda until its disabled and then pulling up in a sidewinder and boarding it then shooting the captain and crew and taking it as your own

 

[Firestarter]

In my own opinion, I believe PP should be all encompassing. You should not have got an option whether to participate or not. On release, every player should have had to Pledge to a power, after that it was up to them if they got involved. But by pledging, they are part of the universe and get the benefits and the danger involved..

NO. But otherwise OK. If they make everyone join a power it will be dead by Christmas.

After a while in software development you just get thick skinned. You develop the stuff you can do and everything else is put on the back burner. You fix the bugs you can fix, with an eye on what's causing most problems but also what's easiest to fix.

Allowing people to rant simply allows them to let off steam. The developers don't actually listen to them. That would be silly.

 

[MarcusReed]

Indeed. Good thing they spent all that time and effort developing interesting and deep game mechanisms, not to mention the thousands of hours the DDF spent helping tweak them too, only to have it as a historical archive of "what won't be in the game". Very good thing that.

Indeed. I am sure we are all very aware of other games over promising game mechanics and features. Would everyone rather have ED still in development trying to squeeze every little feature talked about into the game ( Star Citizen ) or have the awesome game we have now with free updates and future expansions planned?

 

[dayrth]

THIS SUCKS THERE IS NOTHING TO DO
God if I hear this whine one more time I am going to, hell I don't know, shake my head in disbelief. It seems there are a lot of players who are bored with the game, and I would guess that the majority of those come from a certain demographic age wise. They are use to having structured games, with everything laid out for them in a nice linear line. They need instant gratification, if they don't they don't know if they are progressing or not. They need goals, they need an End Boss to beat. What piffle, Elite was never about that, it was always about doing your own thing. If you can't think up something to do, then maybe the fault isn't with the game but with your lack of imagination. I suspect a lot won't do some of the less action things like exploration and mining because it doesn't rake in the credits and there is no bravado or bragging attributed. Be brave, be daring, try doing something that might sound boring, you might just find it is a lot more enjoyable than you thought.

I agree with everything you say, but especially this. There is so much of, 'I bought this game and now I'm bored with it'. If you knew what you were buying, why do you expect something else. If you bought this game without knowing what it was, why? Wasn't that a silly thing to do? Because you bought this game and it turned out not to suit you does not entitle you to demand FD write you a new one.

My other pet hate is the classic 'So much of this game is broken, FD should fix it before doing other stuff'. Very little is broken. FD have been very good at responding to bug reports and patching the game. Runs very smoothly now, at least for me.
What most people who say this really mean is, 'some things don't work the way I would like them too'.

Don't get me wrong, if anyone would like to see a change in a feature or something else added, then they should say so. Some good ideas are discovered this way, but a rant just saying 'it don't work, fix it NOW or else', is completely unhelpful and very annoying.

There, that was a rant about rants, inspired by a rant about rants

 

[Jukelo]

R

Good thing FDEV never promised to put anything from The DDA into the game

Good thing you didn't adress my entire post, right?

As for the DDA, would be a real shame if they actually used the DDA to make a good game, wouldn't it? As it stands, it's me who is ashamed I was such an Elite and Frontier fanboy I bought into the hype and got the game on day one without even checking and more importantly made other people do the same, who have long stopped playing the game for its lack of actual gameplay.

Indeed. I am sure we are all very aware of other games over promising game mechanics and features. Would everyone rather have ED still in development trying to squeeze every little feature talked about into the game ( Star Citizen ) or have the awesome game we have now with free updates and future expansions planned?

I would much rather they postponed release by at least another year until they had an actual game rather than a proof of concept.

 

[jabokai]

Indeed. I am sure we are all very aware of other games over promising game mechanics and features. Would everyone rather have ED still in development trying to squeeze every little feature talked about into the game ( Star Citizen ) or have the awesome game we have now with free updates and future expansions planned?

I'd have preferred if the game had the long gamma phase that DB originally talked about - he intimated that it could be a year or more long to get it right. If that time had been spent bringing the DDA to life instead of the bolt-on minigames than hell yes, I'd rather have waited! Unlike yourself I don't think the current game is awesome - it has some great bones and great potential but it's very weak in an awful lot of areas, IMHO.

 

[PhazonAran]

Yes, I am OLD, some here might say dumb, and as a geezer, well that is up for interpretation. Funny, I played the original Elite and can't remember a campaign, and the only scenario was trying to keep away from the Thargoids - the rest was up to the player.

I wasn't trying to insult you personnally, sorry if you took it like that. What I meant is that "the game sux there's nothing to do" is a dumb statement, but "you're young, you just want instant gratification" is equally dumb.

The first Elite may not have a campaign, but the next ones ?

You seem very jaded with the game, can you direct me to your list of suggestions on how you can improve it? I also believe no one is forcing you to play, or is there a secret group of Devs and Mods I haven't heard about?

I introduced some of my friends to Warframe, we're having a blast with it and with Spintires too, surprisingly.

As for a list of suggestions, I'd be more than happy to oblige ! Note that they are oriented on the way of what I would call immersion.

- Human in stations just like it was done in the E3 2014 trailer.

- Radio comms : we desperately need human presence. We could also have a radio chatter background that would change dynamically depending on the situation (combat, etc...). The radio chatter chatter background of the EvE Valkyrie trailer was really good.

- Please notice the startup animation in the EvE Valkyrie trailer, now that's what I call immersion.

- More stellar events, like gas clouds. Just like in Freelancer, you could have hidden pirate bases, you scanners effectiveness would be reduced and you could be ambushed. But the gas clouds would be gold mines... Literally More stellar events of any kind would be great though.

- Introduce real objectives in conflict zones. Right now, when a system is at war, nothing happens except for those lost-in-space conflict zones. It's business as usual. Or maybe we'll see the misery on the stations once we'll be able to walk in them. But I'd like to see real objectives in conflict zones, like capture the sation, protect the spy satellite, destroy the enemy fleet (for big conflicts with cap ships), protect our Dropships so they can land on the ground. And once we have planetary landings, we could even provide air support to the ground forces or even pilot the goddam Dropship to deliver the troops.

- ̶ ̶s̶p̶a̶c̶e̶ ̶d̶r̶a̶g̶o̶n̶s̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶p̶a̶c̶e̶ ̶K̶h̶a̶l̶e̶e̶s̶i̶.̶ ̶A̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶ ̶s̶p̶a̶c̶e̶ ̶k̶r̶a̶k̶e̶n̶.̶

I don't wanna use my imagination for all of that, I'd really like to see that in-game. But I fear I'm dreaming a bit too much. But I keep in mind that the game is still work in progress.

There is so much potential for ED... Just 2 more weeks before the Gamescom announcement.

 

[MarcusReed]

Good thing you didn't adress my entire post, right?

As for the DDA, would be a real shame if they actually used the DDA to make a good game, wouldn't it? As it stands, it's me who is ashamed I was such an Elite and Frontier fanboy I bought into the hype and got the game on day one without even checking and more importantly made other people do the same, who have long stopped playing the game for its lack of actual gameplay
I would much rather they postponed release by at least another year until they had an actual game rather than a proof of concept.

I have to say, I am very happy you are not in charge at FDEV. When I have acual game time in my busy week I still enjoy ED for what it is now and can appreciate that more is yet to come. I guess my memory of what EVE and WOW was in its first year helps me understand games of this scope development.

- - - Updated - - -

I'd have preferred if the game had the long gamma phase that DB originally talked about - he intimated that it could be a year or more long to get it right. If that time had been spent bringing the DDA to life instead of the bolt-on minigames than hell yes, I'd rather have waited! Unlike yourself I don't think the current game is awesome - it has some great bones and great potential but it's very weak in an awful lot of areas, IMHO.

Can you name another game of EDs scope that was a perfect 10/10 its first year of release?

 

[the100thmonkey]

Is this a rant about rants?

If someone posts in here contesting you, is that a rant about a rant about a rant?

It's emergent gameplay.

 

[{SAS}Stalker]

It's emergent gameplay.

If they put this forum "in game" then everyone would have something to do!

 

[Monkey Kombat]

Completely agree with you, especially the part about people complaining that there is nothing to do (and I expect there will be a lot more of those now that the game is out on the Xbox One).

I however, have to disagree on forcing players to ally with a faction. Some of us like to be independent and do whatever job is handed to us if the price is right, regardless of the faction. I guess you could attribute that to my pre-Rebel Alliance Han Solo & Lando Calrission fantasies.