Well I will still be playing it, so not all and I guess a lot like me, many thousands.
Frontier: Please work on the game AI
- Thread starter FuzzySpider
- Start date
Well I will still be playing it, so not all and I guess a lot like me, many thousands.
Well put. Precisely.
If 10,000 players kept playing and paying say for a £20 a year expansion and £20 on skins that would pay £400000 a year for development, (probablyl pays for 5 of their top talent's salary at FD) FD are going to need ten times that probably to keep developing this game and making it better, Do you really think after almost 8 months of development with Wings/PP/CQC we are going to actually see the sort of development you are hoping for?
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Where is this 10,000 active players from?
Out of the 600,000 + players, I would guess its way more than 10,000 active players come future expansions in the next few years.
When the other games in this Genre SC/NMS are released we will see, they are very different games but at the end of the day we only have so much time and money to spend on these types of games. Of my friends that bought the game only I still play at all, I had over ten at one point
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Lol.. you need a job in government mate.
I'm actually amazed that nobody else seems concerned by the revelation that there is currently a bug which is making all the AI behave as if Harmless. This seems to have been buried under all the drama and, given that the post in which it was revealed has been redacted, it looks like somebody wants it to stay that way.
This is a serious blow. Think about it, if correct (and I see no reason to doubt it) it means that all the variance in AI skill we are seeing is a placebo. It has other serious ramifications for future development to the AI. While many of us want harder opponents there are some who have been worried by this because they struggle to kill 'Elite' npc. Consider this. Those 'Elite' npc are actually harmless. If the AI update went in there would suddenly be a number of players who would not be able to successfully fight the majority of the npc.
I don't want to venture too far into tin foil territory, that other thread is doing just fine, but this has me worried. When a significant portion of the game's content relies on players repeatedly killing npc ships in order to fill bars to reach arbitrary trigger points within a time limit you have a problem if an update suddenly means lots of players are getting whacked by npc they previously saw as doable. Perhaps somebody has panicked at FD about the impact this would have and pulled the plug.
We don't know, but don't jump on me for wondering. What we do know is the information that was given to us, even if we were not meant to have that knowledge. As it stands it has killed any desire I have to play the game as a combat pilot. Now I know why fighting npc is all so samey and lacking in challenge... they're all the lowest skill rank. Compare this to the challenging and varied AI which we have been expecting and looking forward to for months and have now had indefinitely postponed. It's pretty tragic for Elite, from a player's perspective.
I would seriously like some clarification from Frontier on this. No , no media speak or evasion. Just tell us straight out what the situation regarding the current AI and plans for future implementation of the work already done. Tell us why you have pulled it and when we can expect it.
Right now, they've lost me as a player and a customer over this. No amount of 'imagination' or fanboy platitudes changes the fact that, as it stands, we have to believe the AI is totally broken. To leave it as such is indefensible.
You actually prefer PP (we haven't played CQC yet but it is a low priority based on current polls) to the kind of AI that we have been discussing above? Personally it feel like another placeholder in a game of placeholders
Ok hoppingdeath. I am going to try one more time with you here.
Yes. That happened. Without evidence to the contrary it opens up the possibly that Frontier developments have decided AI is good enough as is for now.
There is a thread already open discussing those events, and that thread is filled with emotion and accusation. I felt, as someone who is a fan of Frontier and Elite, it was necessary to create a separate discussion about the actual game development in a more dispassionate manner.
Let's just assume, for the sake of argument, that SJA has been moved to something more important. Let's just assume that Frontier fully intend to pick up AI again in the future. It is still important that we, as players, tell them where our own priorities are and what we feel needs addressing. Who knows? Some new idea might come along while she's working on this new project, and that might end up taking up her time.
Developers are not necessarily the best placed people to know what a game needs. They are the best able to make a game, but when it comes to aspects like gameplay games can be superbly built but horrible to play - Too Human is a cautionary tale in how arrogance in game development can lead to disaster.
Ohh and before the inevitable response comes - No. I'm not telling Frontier how to do their jobs. I'm telling them what I want to see. Just like I'm not telling the chef how to cook, I'm telling him what I'd like to eat.
They're perfectly within their rights to ignore me entirely, just as I am within mine to stop spending my money on paintjobs every two months and get something else.
There is no need for any of this to be personal. Whatever happens I wish them well.
Does that explain things better?
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I tried PP and it wasn't for me - so I carried on playing ED. It's not often you get the opportunity in any game to play or not play subsets of it. The game and game engine is genius to be able to support as many varied players as it can (Solo, Groups, PP, non PP).
I'm amazed to keep constantly reading the same regurgitated stuff about parts of the game not being suitable for someone’s taste when you are given more freedom of play style than in most titles combined today! The game is the game.
I do that. I have been interdicted once by a player. Once, and I have been playing since alpha.
I was interdicted by a player in a far superior ship when I had no cargo or bounty so there was no reason for it other than "because I can". My only option was to run away and, because they kept following me and interdicting me, log off and go to bed.
Not particularly emergent, dynamic or interesting.
NPC's form the bulk of my interactions with the game so improving them so they are a challenge seems to be the best way to put the Dangerous back into Elite without making it a tedious slog.
Good for you, you#re completely missing the point though.
Soooooo... this thread IS based on no evidence whatsoever and about Sarah leaving combat AI. As I thought.Ok hoppingdeath. I am going to try one more time with you here.
Yes. That happened. Without evidence to the contrary it opens up the possibly that Frontier developments have decided AI is good enough as is for now.
There is a thread already open discussing those events, and that thread is filled with emotion and accusation. I felt, as someone who is a fan of Frontier and Elite, it was necessary to create a separate discussion about the actual game development in a more dispassionate manner.
Let's just assume, for the sake of argument, that SJA has been moved to something more important. Let's just assume that Frontier full intend to pick up AI again in the future. It is still important that we, as players, tell them where our own priorities are and what we feel needs addressing. Who knows? Some new idea might come along while she's working on this new project, and that might end up taking up her time.
Developers are not necessarily the best placed people to know what a game needs. They are the best able to make a game, but when it comes to aspects like gameplay games can be superbly built but horrible to play - Too Human is a cautionary tale in how arrogance in game development can lead to disaster.
Ohh and before the inevitably response comes - No. I'm not telling Frontier how to do their jobs. I'm telling them what I want to see. Just like I'm not telling the chef how to cook, I'm telling him what I'd like to eat.
They're perfectly within their rights to ignore me entirely, just as I am within mine to stop spending my money on paintjobs every two months and get something else.
There is no need for any of this to be personal. Whatever happens I wish them well.
Does that explain things better?
Not suitable for someones taste?
Let me tell you how much I don't like the look of the Diamondback's cockpit, that is my TASTE, the game is just full of placeholders 8 months after release almost that isn't taste, all the features they have announced are just more empty features full of placeholders, that's FD producing the promised game
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Ignore him he's trolling.
You're not wrong there. But there are players who are struggling against the AI as it is now, which is why a more dynamic level of difficulty is necessary. It could be that they've decided the AI is best left at an "average" level rather than go through the difficult task of having systems of varying levels of difficulty and security. After all, much of the rest of the game has been simplified and left as Frontier moved onto other things.
In a very specific case.
maybe this from yesterday...
@FuzzySpider: I agree on your points about what need to be fixed in priority, but either you're a bit late to join the voices against the perceived waste of development resources in PP and CQC, either you're reacting too fast on some tweets.
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If you want a challenge, here's an idea: strip the A grade equipment from your ship and roll with C grade or worse. No need to thank me.
But hang on! He has 'evidence'!!
I think everyone can see the troll here