State of the game - Address our concerns please

[Bran Tse Mallory]

This is an open plea to someone from the community team at Frontier to address the community about the concerns being voiced here on you're official forums. Every day see's new posts about bugged missions, planets vanishing and just about everything else you can do in game has at least something to be complained about.

Now while I am the first to admit I am a fan boy and love the game to bits, enough is enough you are starting to take the Micheal in my opinion. You released Horizons before the holidays but was it really in a fit state? Did all these problems make it though Q & A before the various betas? If so then I can only say that you're Q & A department need to be asked what did they do? Sorry to be so blunt but the state of the game is just not acceptable to many of you're customers many of whom you have a contract with lasting for the season length of Horizon's.

You really need to at least post a state of the game type letter to try and appease you're current player base, which I can assure you will dwindle very fast if their concerns are not addressed.

The patch you put out yesterday addressed some concerns but went near very few of the issues that get raised. Today for instance Mr. Ant has posted yet more proof of graphic downgrades - if these are optimizations then they are showing either a weakness in you're engine or you are heading towards platform parity which I hope is not the case - PC gaming is on the up due to it being more powerful than either of the two consoles and well you should know it.

So, over to you Frontier, tell us why fanboys and doubters alike should keep the candle burning.


EDIT: To clarify, I have invoked the use of 'Our' not to pretend to speak for everyone that would be condescending. I am using it to encompass those of us who have had issues and would like a little 'something' just to keep our faith that things are being worked on and possibly a time frame. Sorry if you do not agree with my use of the word, I mean no offence.

 

[Certacito]

I love this game more than any other I have played...ever! But, when 1.5 and Horizons dropped, I was expecting additions to the game, not a whole raft of subtractions. I enjoyed the game with its flaws before this point because I could take missions and make money, or even just complete them, sure there wasn't a great deal of variety, but I was happy enough with what was on offer. I thoroughly enjoyed the long range smuggling missions and they were fun and exciting. I had big plans in the form of a bucket list of things I wanted to do and see that would keep me going for years to come! Unfortunately, the missions invariably do not work or disappear upon successful completion and return to base to claim reward. They are worth nothing, and they show up so infrequently in any number that affecting the BGS and a systems control is not possible anymore. FDev gave us an in game minor faction and then removed any means of effectively expanding or maintaining it. In my own home system, I have scoured the mission bulletin boards for the last week or two and very rarely does a mission even come up for my faction despite it being the controlling faction by a decent margin, when they do, they are worthless. I am a Deadly, Entrepreneur, Pathfinder getting the odd mission for 25000Cr! So far the only thing I can say that has not been ruined is my FDL which has gone from kicking botty pre-patch, to kicking botty, burning the bodies and dancing on the ashes! I have played for about 9 months now and have never once been bored, I looked forward to finishing work and getting back to my PC, but lately I find myself logging in and thinking, I just can't be bothered to do that tonight. I spent many a night happily plugging naughty people in RES sites safe in the knowledge that even if I didn't make a fortune compared with other revenue streams, at least I would see some ship of equal or better rank and therefore increase my combat rank. Now I only ever find ships of a rank low enough to make no difference at all to my rank who are worth nothing at all when I have blasted them and they are so few and far between that a High Intensity RES is like a sunday drive in a deserted ghost town and a Hazardous RES is about as Hazardous as eating ice cream. I agree that making money should not be as easy as it has been before now, but the current clampdown is so tight that actually the only people who are likely to keep playing are those that already have a ton of cash and a hangar full of ships already. New players will leave in droves mere days after starting when they are constantly seeing bigger better ships that they can realistically never now hope to own.
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Seriously, I do still love this game, but the amount of things that have been broken in this new season is slowly but surely turning me off it which is a massive shame. I know that, as always, there will be very little if anything that comes out of this thread, but I don't rant on here usually, and I felt like a bit of a vent to be honest.

 

[1984]

Have to agree. I also love ED but. Missions are so bugged now I have stopped doing them. Horizons is so bugged I have stopped landing on planets. Horizons added very little gameplay and nothing I see coming in season 2 is going to change that. In fact what we have now is so screwed up I would stop work on 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 and fix what we already have. Plus yet again this morning server stability issues.

 

[NecoMachina]

I have to agree. The bugs are driving me mad. I LOVE this game, but the bugs are driving me mad! I was really hoping that Horizons was going to address some of the "lack of depth" issues that many feel this game has, but no. I've got to be honest - I find myself having equal amounts fun & frustration in this game lately.

 

[wstephenson]

Horizon is a "point oh" release, of course it has bugs. The main feature 'landing on planets' works well, the associated gameplay (bases, materials and synthesis) works well, the new missions are fairly buggy. There are the usual amount of graphical glitches, hardware related bugs and random brokenness. No need to run around doing a Chicken Little impression - things are no worse than usual for a game with a rolling development release strategy. Sales have been strong and the bugs will be fixed, serious ones in the next couple of weeks, but the majority of them will only be fixed when 2.1 comes out. Mark my words.

 

[Neo Mjolnir]

The main feature 'landing on planets' works well,

No. it doesn't work well. there's more bugs with that feature then anything.falling through planets,low performance,bugged missions,long wait times droping from OC/Glide. if anything it's the most bug riddled feature I've found yet ingame. yeah works well from idea standpoint i guess.

+1 OP hear,hear!

 

[Cyda]

I've decided to have a few months off from Elite until they get some of the bugs squashed and add a bit more content. I never thought I'd say it but I've actually gone back to EVE for my space fix after not playing it for 2-3 years, and after a few days in EVE you realise how much stuff Elite is actually missing and also how poor the Elite missions are. Now don't get me wrong, I am not suggesting for a minute that Elite needs to be more like EVE, they are very different games and both have their pros & cons but FD really should take hints from EVE's missions because they are so much more fun than the ones in Elite.

 

[wstephenson]

No. it doesn't work well. there's more bugs with that feature then anything.falling through planets,low performance,bugged missions,long wait times droping from OC/Glide. if anything it's the most bug riddled feature I've found yet ingame. yeah works well from idea standpoint i guess.

Sorry to hear that it doesn't work well for you. I haven't fallen through a planet since beta, performance is fine for my hardware, island join times are the same as in normal space (i.e. short). Missions are buggy, granted, but once you know to avoid the mission specific cargo ones and multistep the rest work as before. I extrapolate from my experience and the general tone of the forum that most of Horizons works for most people, which is pretty good for a .0 of a major new mode and play environment in a game in rolling release.

I've decided to have a few months off from Elite until they get some of the bugs squashed and add a bit more content. I never thought I'd say it but I've actually gone back to EVE for my space fix after not playing it for 2-3 years, and after a few days in EVE you realise how much stuff Elite is actually missing and also how poor the Elite missions are. Now don't get me wrong, I am not suggesting for a minute that Elite needs to be more like EVE, they are very different games and both have their pros & cons but FD really should take hints from EVE's missions because they are so much more fun than the ones in Elite.

Yes, missions could be more varied and more consistent. I see the current multi-stage mission implementation as very much placeholder for the mechanism to link mission stages, without any effort to create missions where stages have any common thematic or plot content, or to validate that the mission is doable with the current ship/CMDR. FD have said that they intend to concentrate on gameplay and content rather than assets like ships in Horizons, so I'm optimistic.

I'm sure ED will be fresh again for you after playing something else for a while.

 

[Macy]

"Hazardous RES is about as Hazardous as eating ice cream"

Eating Ice cream can be very hazardousif you take a big mouth full.

Yeah I have noticed a big drop in bounty payment value at resource sites. I used to get a couple million each visit, now its hardly ever 1 million.

 

[Halp]

yet another complaints thread. it would be better if you simply stopped and looked at the bright side. everything is fine.

 

[Bran Tse Mallory]

Horizon is a "point oh" release, of course it has bugs. The main feature 'landing on planets' works well, the associated gameplay (bases, materials and synthesis) works well, the new missions are fairly buggy. There are the usual amount of graphical glitches, hardware related bugs and random brokenness. No need to run around doing a Chicken Little impression - things are no worse than usual for a game with a rolling development release strategy. Sales have been strong and the bugs will be fixed, serious ones in the next couple of weeks, but the majority of them will only be fixed when 2.1 comes out. Mark my words.

The bold part is un-acceptable. I work in the industry, I understand how things work quite well and I am certain they are fixing things but the vale of silence that has descended is akin to sticking you're head in the sand and hoping the Lion passes you by. I actually do disagree with you on the level of bugs - this is far to high for the software to have been released given the gaming populations distaste for unfinished work these days.

It might have been better from a PR point of view to announce a delay and take the hit on the chin - ultimately the players would of appreciated getting software that does not cause a melt down on the forums as we have seen over the last two weeks.

I've defended the game to the limits of reason but I now feel it is time for them to come out with a statement of intent on how they plan to roll out fixes, what they acknowledge as a bug and what is actually working as intended but just not explained or that needs to be balanced - just to appease the player base, their customers (some of whom are share holders too).

As for the chicken little comment - please re-read the op. No drama was used and the backhanded insult was rather pathetic too.

 

[SystematicChaos]

I've decided to have a few months off from Elite until they get some of the bugs squashed and add a bit more content. I never thought I'd say it but I've actually gone back to EVE for my space fix after not playing it for 2-3 years, and after a few days in EVE you realise how much stuff Elite is actually missing and also how poor the Elite missions are. Now don't get me wrong, I am not suggesting for a minute that Elite needs to be more like EVE, they are very different games and both have their pros & cons but FD really should take hints from EVE's missions because they are so much more fun than the ones in Elite.

But whatever the faults of ED and there are a fair few at the moment, it's not really fair to compare a game released in 2003 to a game that's barely a year out of general release.

 

[telperion]

The bold part is un-acceptable. I work in the industry, I understand how things work quite well and I am certain they are fixing things but the vale of silence that has descended is akin to sticking you're head in the sand and hoping the Lion passes you by. I actually do disagree with you on the level of bugs - this is far to high for the software to have been released given the gaming populations distaste for unfinished work these days.

It might have been better from a PR point of view to announce a delay and take the hit on the chin - ultimately the players would of appreciated getting software that does not cause a melt down on the forums as we have seen over the last two weeks.

I've defended the game to the limits of reason but I now feel it is time for them to come out with a statement of intent on how they plan to roll out fixes, what they acknowledge as a bug and what is actually working as intended but just not explained or that needs to be balanced - just to appease the player base, their customers (some of whom are share holders too).

As for the chicken little comment - please re-read the op. No drama was used and the backhanded insult was rather pathetic too.

Whilst I agree with you and have, in fact, stopped playing the game until such time as they sort a lot of stuff out, it never ceases to amaze me how people are still commenting on Frontier's almost complete lack of PR understanding and total lack of customer communication in regards to the many and blatant issues with the game.

People have been calling for more transparency, more communication and more openness from Frontier since the game was released with not so much as a pip in response from Frontier. What on earth makes you think they'll change that policy of stony silence now?

 

[Banana's_Are_Good_For_You]

Bugs come and go, some even come back for a cameo.
I'd only suggest patience, they were off on holiday for a while and not all their staff may be back yet and some things take time to fix.

 

[Wasp0]

yet another complaints thread. it would be better if you simply stopped and looked at the bright side. everything is fine.

WHAT???? Everything is fine WOW, wish i had your install, as i agree 1000% with the op. I love this game, and even having Santa bring me Fallout 4, ED has stopped me even installing Fallout 4!!

But the bugs, oh the Bugs........ Nerf the damn Bugs!!!

 

[Cyda]

it's not really fair to compare a game released in 2003 to a game that's barely a year out of general release.

Yeah, I agree, it isn't a fair comparison but EVE's mission structure hasn't changed a great deal since it's release, so it is not like CCP evolved the missions into a finely tuned system and it isn't unrealistic to expect a game released 11 years later to have slightly more advanced or involving missions.

That said, I don't want to turn this into another Elite v EVE argument - I was simply stating that after running the EVE lvl 4 missions for a few days, and having lots of fun doing so, you realise just how much the Elite missions are lacking.

 

[Cerisse]

Certacito has hit the nail on the head for me. I really enjoyed playing pre 2.0, and was so looking forward to Horizons, but tbh, I wish I hadn't bothered getting it.

I found planetary landing interesting the first couple of times, but there is precious little to do once there. I really enjoyed the fact that trading, although not exciting, was profitable, and that hasn't changed, apart from being significantly less profitable now. The CGs are fun as always, but the constant bugs and stuff ups are incredibly frustrating. Combat hasn't changed much IMO, still enjoy that but the AI need a few more brains! I haven't done much exploring but it doesn't interest me at all, so not sure if there is any improvement there. Ranking up and missions are just hopeless at the moment and even the long range smuggling missions (which were great fun and very profitable before 2.0) are much less fun due to the insane difficulty in avoiding scans and needing a big ship to stack a few, with all failing on one scan. This is not a fun mechanic - fail the mission you are delivering if scanned would be fine, but not all of them.

Its a real shame, because ED has the bones of a fantastic game, but the constant content 'nerfing' (and I hate that word!) is ruining it. Seriously, how long is it going to be before a new player (not one who made millions/billions doing trading and the massive-paying long range trading / smuggling runs before that was shut down) can afford one of the new ships, with many, many hours of grinding to get rank to unlock them, let alone gather the credits to afford them and outfit them? I dont mind a bit of grinding for what I want, but at the moment some of these mechanics make that just downright unobtainable in any reasonable timeframe. And as there is precious little end game content short of gathering credits and ships, these need to be made more attainable, not necessarily easy, but do-able within a reasonable time.

Now I fully expect someone to come on and say that its too easy already, and yes, the game is easy once the basics have been mastered, but I bet there wont be too many players ready to wipe a save with loss of rank and credits and start again, easy or not.

Sorry this post is a bit negative, I just see a potentially great game being reduced to mediocrity, and believe me, I really want ED to succeed, as it has so many positives. But please, developers, fix the basic game to be fun again first and then look at adding content later.

 

[Certacito]

Bugs come and go, some even come back for a cameo.
I'd only suggest patience, they were off on holiday for a while and not all their staff may be back yet and some things take time to fix.

I have patience, that's why I am still here and still play almost every night for a couple of hours. I am not sure how much longer that patience can last though when there is little that I can do that is worth the effort or that actually works with any degree of certainty. Who wants to grind for an hour to find that the final stage fails and the whole hour was wasted?

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

This is an open plea to someone from the community team at Frontier to address the community about the concerns being voiced here on you're official forums. Every day see's new posts about bugged missions, planets vanishing and just about everything else you can do in game has at least something to be complained about.

Now while I am the first to admit I am a fan boy and love the game to bits, enough is enough you are starting to take the Micheal in my opinion. You released Horizons before the holidays but was it really in a fit state? Did all these problems make it though Q & A before the various betas? If so then I can only say that you're Q & A department need to be asked what did they do? Sorry to be so blunt but the state of the game is just not acceptable to many of you're customers many of whom you have a contract with lasting for the season length of Horizon's.

You really need to at least post a state of the game type letter to try and appease you're current player base, which I can assure you will dwindle very fast if their concerns are not addressed.

The patch you put out yesterday addressed some concerns but went near very few of the issues that get raised. Today for instance Mr. Ant has posted yet more proof of graphic downgrades - if these are optimizations then they are showing either a weakness in you're engine or you are heading towards platform parity which I hope is not the case - PC gaming is on the up due to it being more powerful than either of the two consoles and well you should know it.

So, over to you Frontier, tell us why fanboys and doubters alike should keep the candle burning.

Quite right. I have stopped posting my concerns with regard to exploring because of this.

I feel it only costs me time and effort, and has no effect whatsoever

 

[fademist]

Yeah, I agree, it isn't a fair comparison but EVE's mission structure hasn't changed a great deal since it's release, so it is not like CCP evolved the missions into a finely tuned system and it isn't unrealistic to expect a game released 11 years later to have slightly more advanced or involving missions.

That said, I don't want to turn this into another Elite v EVE argument - I was simply stating that after running the EVE lvl 4 missions for a few days, and having lots of fun doing so, you realise just how much the Elite missions are lacking.

if u like the click festival ofc;p
i wonder if with this model have the same number of enemies what ppl would say
Elite isnt perfect atm but we only can hope that would be near to that in the future