Feedback on Twitch stream

Cmdr Eagleboy · Apr 17, 2014

First - thank you! There's first time for everything, and maybe not everything went smoothly, it was worth the effort, and I loved QA section! Nice flying btw

So my thoughts both cons and pros in no particular order:

#1 No flying while answering - it just felt too taxing so you can't do any of these things properly

You could mix it - do some missions, and then take a pause, and answer some questions;

#2 Good answers to questions - thank you for being open about lot of things we haven't heard before, also some honesty about difficulties;

#3 Damage model - I think what's most interesting that for long time since A1 I wasn't sure we really have any more detailed damage model. So not only this "soon" confirms that it's coming, but it's coming in beta at least. So this got me super stoked;

#4 Honesty about difficulties - it was nice to hear some honesty that networking is hardest part to get right. Together we will get there though, so let's keep spirit alive;

#5 Boosting "play as you like" line - I think what's most important that scope of the game is mentioned a lot, because lot of people still thinks it's either very limited shooter or it's simple as original Elite;

Jack Booted Thug · Apr 18, 2014

The stream was great. Thanks Frontier for putting it up.

insanephoton · Apr 18, 2014

It was a good stream, but maybe next time we could do without the minute or so of fumbling about in the dark at the start

Alien · Apr 18, 2014

Pecisk said:
#1 No flying while answering - it just felt too taxing so you can't do any of these things properly You could mix it - do some missions, and then take a pause, and answer some questions;

I'm not speaking for Kerrash, he is quite capable of answering for himself if he sees this, but I am sure Kerrash will tell you that while it makes things harder, he can answer question while flying.
If you don't fly / play while you answer questions, you'll just sit there doing nothing while you talk, and trust me, talking needs to keep going. Also, if you don't have talking while flying that too is boring.
With a stream like that, you have to have talking and playing.

insanephoton said:
It was a good stream, but maybe next time we could do without the minute or so of fumbling about in the dark at the start

The difference between what happened at the start of Frontier's stream last night and what Kerrash and I do is that Kerrash normally mutes the mic's output before he's ready to go live.

I thought for a first stream, it was good, but here's what I didn't like ...

"And now a question from the forum / Facebook / Twitter ... " yeah it's great you're taking questions from those sources, but you ignored the chat.

"And I'm out of questions" No, we had lots of questions, but again, you ignored the chat. You ignored the very people watching your stream.

It was too short. While 80 minutes might have seemed to be forever for you, it went by too quickly.

You did some of the single player missions ... sorry but Kerrash (before I joined him on the stream) did that months ago.

Oh yeah .... webcam - check ... two people, one fielding questions - check ... playing Elite Dangerous - check ... as they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Kerrash and I are flattered (sincerely, no sarcasm)

-o- · Apr 18, 2014

Alien said:
If you don't fly / play while you answer questions, you'll just sit there doing nothing while you talk, and trust me, talking needs to keep going. Also, if you don't have talking while flying that too is boring.
With a stream like that, you have to have talking and playing.

Well, in this case, I felt the player didn't need to talk himself. There was another FD employee who could have been talking and been providing better information as he was not heavily distracted by playing the game.

With what happened, I felt that the both the answers and gaming were compromised to some degree because the same person was doing both tasks, even though they could have been done seperately, and more effectively, by the 2 people in that stream.

They may have been able to do this with one person in a non-intensive scenario like demonstrating exploring or trading, but combat is a different beast.

Styggron · Apr 18, 2014

Hopefully the recording will be put up for people that were unable to view the stream live.

MrShadowfax · Apr 18, 2014

Styggron said:
Hopefully the recording will be put up for people that were unable to view the stream live.

You can see it here still.

Styggron · Apr 18, 2014

LOL I checked so many times this morning (1:48pm Friday here as I type this) so it just have gone up just after all the times I checked.

Cheers Shadowfax.

Strangely it won't play but hopefully that will fix itself up. I'm sure it will be up on youtube soon enough.

StarTux · Apr 18, 2014

This is excellent, and I am sure they'll pick up on the feedback

. If there was one thing missing from Frontiers involvement with the community it has been this, so it was a good first run.

I really hope they find the time to do an Alpha 4 Twitch stream too on or about the release of the build, and even though one of my questions got answered and answered well I have just thought of another lol.

Alien · Apr 18, 2014

Oh I forgot, one big difference between Kerrash's stream and Frontier's (as our two streams are similar) is that Kerrash and I can pretty much say what we want, whereas Frontier are restricted and have to make sure they can only say what is approved. It might be why a lot of questions were not answered (but literally saying you have no more questions is, imho, insulting)

Qpid Stunt · Apr 18, 2014

Great stream on the single player missions, we all know a LOT of folks have just got their hands on that module as we have seen by the multitude of questions placed here in the furums so for those it must have been very informative, and was none the less interesting for me too being in Alpha.

I too thought the point of having two FD staff present would be that one flies and one fields and answers questions however the pilot seemed to be doing all the flying and talking, which can be done but to give the best demonstration to the general public not involved in the E: D community (yet) I thought it would have been better if the pressure was taken off the pilot and more answered by the fielder. Yes this did happen but not as much as I would have though.

Maybe take turns flying and answering, like "I wanna fly as well, give me a go!!" as many of us do at home. It also puts across the sense that this game is irresistible and everyone wants to play it... NOW!! (like we do!) hehe

Yes lots of questions were missed from the Twitch chat, I understand you were only talking about the single player missions and were probably restricted what you could tell us. However it would have quieted us down and stemmed our questions relating to the future releases if you had reminded us, or acknowledged the questions but just said you cannot comment - or "soon"

Was it 80 mins? OMG It only felt like half an hour - although saying that, my daughter kept asking to reset the router then disappeared so I guess she gave up

To all - yes I know we are pretty much all 30+ but from the early chat in Twitch, was EVERYONE drinking beer or whisky?!! LOL Very funny and nice to chat to and see new names

Really emphasised what a great community this is, even Cmdryan (CMDR Yan not Ryan!) was only told to "sod off" which was as per a post in the Alpha section of the forums.

Great fun and really enjoyed it, keep em coming FD

Arbanax · Apr 18, 2014

I got to catch up with the stream later, if you go to the web page and just click on videos you should see all past streams including this one.

Personally I was disappointed that a number of questions asked had already been asked and answered elsewhere. However having followed this from the kickstarter I appreciate not everyone is clued up as some of us who've been around a while.

As a format for questions and answers with game play, personally I'd have preferred someone else to play and Mark and Alan to talk over it. That way more questions could have been answered without Alan having to multitask, whilst having something to watch as well.

Moreover it seems incredible that you barely scratched the surface of questions raised in the forum, and as one person has said in the chat room. So great first start, obvious room for improvement. And also great way to generate more goodwill, communication and enthusiasm. Well done all.

Thanks

Ab

-o- · Apr 18, 2014

What I found a little surprising was that they actually answered most of the questions. For some reason, I was picturing a third person off camera with their finger on the kill/delay switch if some sensitive/confidential info was accidently leaked out between pew-pews

Such videos by devs are by far the best type of markettiing mechanism, and it is a shame there have not been more of them for both the backers and game's sake.

Cmdr Eagleboy · Apr 18, 2014

I just forgot to add another great Q/A from stream - about amount of content we have seen from actual game. I knew "small percentage of" was right answer, but hearing it from FD itself could put some minds at ease worried about slow pace of content trickling in alpha.

Xzanron · Apr 18, 2014

I liked the twitch stream. Enjoyed it very much. Good answers for the questions.

The one disappointment really was that there wasn't anything new on show. It would have been great to have had a brief look at a developer build to see some of the things we can look forward to in the next few weeks.

ZeeWolf · Apr 18, 2014

I thought it was great! Nice job lads.

I think Frontier are very careful about how they reveal stuff, so this looked like it was to test the water, I totally get why they weren't showing anything unfinished. Look forward to more.

xyphic · Apr 18, 2014

I didn't get to watch live (putting the little one to bed) but I caught up on the stream afterwards. My feedback:

This is a great way of engaging with the community -- it's a shame you didn't start earlier in the process, but it's really very welcome. Please make it a regular thing, and please try to get some of the more "famous" names and forum-goers to take part (and by that I mean Sandro, Mike, Michael, David, etc.). I know that to you guys this is just a software project, but to us it's a massive thing and like it or not there's almost a sense of celebrity about some of the dev team! Use this as an opportunity to build excitement for what's coming.
I know you want to surprise us with Alpha / Beta content, but this is a great medium to give us a little bit more about what's planned, and what stage of development you're at. Use the opportunity to show off some of the great work that you're doing! It doesn't matter if it's rough around the edges.
If you're going to do this as a "let's play" type event, I agree with the previous comments that it would be good to have a non-player answering the bulk of questions. Not so that the answers don't ruin the gameplay, but so that the gameplay doesn't ruin the answers. There was at least one question which had to be repeated because it's difficult to multitask...

All in all, much appreciated.

JeffRyan · Apr 18, 2014

I didn't catch it live (I COMPLETELY FORGOT!!!) but have to say it was a total triumph for Mark and Frontier. Well well done!

PS I don't need famous names! The team in and of themselves are enough for me.

Charles Kelly · Apr 18, 2014

I thought Adam was fine at flying/answering questions. It also meant he could give us some insight into the missions as he played them, especially for the 'Incursion' mission (which I'm still yet to beat!

).

Ayo · Apr 18, 2014

I thought it was great for a first stream and I can't wait for more

I feel that a little more interaction with the live chat would improve it. That is, after all, the biggest advantage of a live stream over a video on YouTube.