What will ED look like at the end of the 10-year plan?

[hookandsling]

You missed out my comment saying the galaxy is great and a big advantage for Elite over SC.

I might dislike the lack of depth of ED, but I'm not dumb. Neither would I still be there asking for improvement if I would think the game was doomed.

Yes you did. Accept my apologies.
That makes the second post in this thread I failed to read properly. Blaming tiredness and grumpiness of a 4 hour drive with warring kids for uncharacteristically tetchy reply. Normal constructive service resumed after a nights sleep..

 

[VR Golgot]

*Sigh* Okay, I'll humor you and write this reply. There's nothing in any of your links that says anything about a ten year or even 5 year plan, nothing...

If you do run across any real evidence from FDev please follow-up!

The 10-year plan thing does seem to stem from the Lavecon paraphrase. Seemingly from the horse's mouth, but probably after a few pints, and more a dream endgame than anything.

The most official thing we seem to have is FD's May 2015 Financial Report, as 'who?' mentioned earlier, which had the 'expected remaining life of the franchise period' at 6.5 years. Good enough for you?

Not a declaration of guaranteed annual updates over that period for sure, but the intention there to spread the Lifetime Pass cash over that period suggests long-game thinking, and an expectation of significant costs being incurred beyond server maintenance etc. To my amateur eye anyway. Plas 6 yrs seems about right to get the main (crazily ambitious) roadmap stuff in

---

What Privata's links do show is that a lot of your initial statements were off though IE regarding FD claiming planetary landings would be in at launch etc etc. I think you're probably right that they do some stuff 'on the fly', but it seems pretty clear that they do also have a roadmap for the cornerstone stuff like atmospheric landings and space legs etc.

 

[WR3ND]

Well, I certainly didn't come up with the "ten year plan."

Maybe we should come up with our own ten year plans. Ten is an important number after all, seeing as most of us have 10 fingers which we can use to easily count to 1023 on. The question is, do I teach my baby daughter to count using binary, or would that give her trouble in school? (The "number 132" might prove to be the most controversial. )

 

[VR Golgot]

Well, I certainly didn't come up with the "ten year plan."

I never suggested you were drinking with horses!

 

[interfector]

"10 year plan" is not something that community made up. i remember braben saying that they have 10yr plan for this game, in one of the streams at beginning of 2015. i really don't feel like looking through their past broadcasts on twitch, but he definitely did say that.

 

[WR3ND]

"10 year plan" is not something that community made up. i remember braben saying that they have 10yr plan for this game, in one of the streams at beginning of 2015. i really don't feel like looking through their past broadcasts on twitch, but he definitely did say that.

I've looked for some of the streams before. Seems they don't all stick around for posterity, unfortunately. There were some interesting ones I wouldn't mind revisiting. Hopefully they share them and keep them on YouTube going forward. I prefer their format a bit more anyway.

 

[X-Terminator]

It's already going to VR so in 10yrs VR will be contact lens or a hat and we close our eyes to block out the overlay it receives. Electronics are simply blocks of test gear which then get combined to the very latest open tech materials. Just look at Graphine being 250 times the hardness of steel which came from a lead pencil!
OR in 10yrs the East will have started WWIII and we will be all sitting in underground bunkers playing boardgames.

 

[xondk]

It's funny you bring up Elite 3, because many games from the 90's and early 00's are arguably more expansive, immersive and interactive experiences than their analogues today. Compare Skyrim with Daggerfall for example, CoDBlops3 with Doom 2, or Watch Dogs with Deus Ex.

Unfortunately, it is because as graphics have improved, many players expectations to the graphics have risen as well, but the two do not follow each other, I would dare say where graphic improvement is fairly linear, expectations go higher and higher and higher, and purely on graphics, though we are seeing a trend of late where graphics are down prioritized and the games are doing great regardless, so perhaps the expectations when it comes to graphics have maxed out? for now? But before the last year, people were expecting more from graphics then actual gameplay and story, and developers tried to deliver, which ended up with games that looked great, but were generally terrible, and maybe that's why people now have begun to accept that graphics isn't everything, though I am inclined to give minecraft some credit for it as well, and yes there are still those that will complain about certain graphics, but in general it is quite a lot less then what it was through the last 10-15 years.
So hopefully we can begin to see games focusing more on the gameplay and stories and such, you know stuff actually in the game, rather then games being "oooh shiny"

Edit: note, to be fair, casual gaming and mobile gaming has probably also done its part in making people realize graphics don't need to be the absolutely most shiny.

 

[Jason S]

How can any of us have any idea at all. It all depends on the companies focus and market forces.

 

[xondk]

It's already going to VR so in 10yrs VR will be contact lens or a hat and we close our eyes to block out the overlay it receives. Electronics are simply blocks of test gear which then get combined to the very latest open tech materials. Just look at Graphine being 250 times the hardness of steel which came from a lead pencil!
OR in 10yrs the East will have started WWIII and we will be all sitting in underground bunkers playing boardgames.

The potential is there, only drawback will be if there's any thing that will hold it back, though with technology software wise and hardware wise it shouldn't be a problem, at least not on the scale of how oil companies have held back the electric car development.

 

[WR3ND]

Unfortunately, it is because as graphics have improved, many players expectations to the graphics have risen as well, but the two do not follow each other, I would dare say where graphic improvement is fairly linear, expectations go higher and higher and higher, and purely on graphics, though we are seeing a trend of late where graphics are down prioritized and the games are doing great regardless, so perhaps the expectations when it comes to graphics have maxed out? for now? But before the last year, people were expecting more from graphics then actual gameplay and story, and developers tried to deliver, which ended up with games that looked great, but were generally terrible, and maybe that's why people now have begun to accept that graphics isn't everything, though I am inclined to give minecraft some credit for it as well, and yes there are still those that will complain about certain graphics, but in general it is quite a lot less then what it was through the last 10-15 years.
So hopefully we can begin to see games focusing more on the gameplay and stories and such, you know stuff actually in the game, rather then games being "oooh shiny"

Edit: note, to be fair, casual gaming and mobile gaming has probably also done its part in making people realize graphics don't need to be the absolutely most shiny.

I agree that Minecraft helped with this trend, along with other indie games that don't, or at least didn't, have the big 3D engines to easily work with. Braid comes to mind. But also, there seems to be some retro "pixel art" nostalgia too.

Graphics are great for a game like this though, which is in many ways a space simulator. Exploring the vastness and beauty of this galaxy is definitely part of the appeal of the game to me. Hopefully they can continue to improve upon it over time and add in things such a accretion disks, and so on.

 

[WR3ND]

The potential is there, only drawback will be if there's any thing that will hold it back, though with technology software wise and hardware wise it shouldn't be a problem, at least not on the scale of how oil companies have held back the electric car development.

Realistically, I doubt well see the vast improvements that are theoretically possible pan out all that well. (I certainly don't want to wear VR contacts, for example.) Looking back over the past 10 years, things haven't really advanced all that much. I'm not saying that there won't be improvements and advancements though, of course, just that people seem to tend to dream about and hype up "the future" more than it likely deserves.

 

[Zeta Legion]

I agree that Minecraft helped with this trend, along with other indie games that don't, or at least didn't, have the big 3D engines to easily work with. Braid comes to mind. But also, there seems to be some retro "pixel art" nostalgia too.

Graphics are great for a game like this though, which is in many ways a space simulator. Exploring the vastness and beauty of this galaxy is definitely part of the appeal of the game to me. Hopefully they can continue to improve upon it over time and add in things such a accretion disks, and so on.

I agree that graphics have their place. It's unfortunate that so many games are focusing on prohibitively expensive graphical engines and laboring for months or years over tiny visual details (see also: The Order 1886) that they forget to make a compelling game to go with the visuals which seem to exist primarily to try to sell console/GPU upgrades to the buying public. Especially since such graphically focused games tend to age very poorly visually (focusing more on graphical photorealism than a unique style) and are destined to be forgotten the moment the next vapid tech demo game comes out. This principle also applies to other gimmicks, like motion controls, 3D, or VR.

That said there are some games where strong visuals are very important. Good visuals come from having a good game engine, which typically aren't cheap to develop (if for some reason you need a custom built one) and the licensing fees can be steep for an existing one. Sims like ED and RPGs like TW3 work best with high quality visuals and animations as they aid in player immersion. Fallout 4 by comparison looks... okay, but due to the 2001-era engine it's built on runs like garbage, and it kinda takes the player out of the moment when the game starts chugging on cutting-edge hardware. Good game engines are pretty important. Not worth bankrupting your company to develop though. Looking at you, Square Enix.

 

[lysan]

It's already going to VR so in 10yrs VR will be contact lens or a hat and we close our eyes to block out the overlay it receives. Electronics are simply blocks of test gear which then get combined to the very latest open tech materials. Just look at Graphine being 250 times the hardness of steel which came from a lead pencil!
OR in 10yrs the East will have started WWIII and we will be all sitting in underground bunkers playing boardgames.

If that ever happens (i really hope not) the only thing you will be playing with are your "Anaconda". We will be back to the stone age for sure.

 

[samuelb]

As I enter my system in the capital ship "Death to all Humans", I note several hostile targets around my station "Internal Debate". Scanning them reveals.. Thargoids. Not again this is the third time this month, this is becoming tedious. I call my station defences to life and charge my particle canons and plasma turrets. Into the fray we go....

 

[WeirdWizard]

Realistically, I doubt well see the vast improvements that are theoretically possible pan out all that well. (I certainly don't want to wear VR contacts, for example.) Looking back over the past 10 years, things haven't really advanced all that much. I'm not saying that there won't be improvements and advancements though, of course, just that people seem to tend to dream about and hype up "the future" more than it likely deserves.

VR in contacts could happen in 10 years but this sort of thing is very hard to predict as it depends on breakthroughs that haven't happened yet. What we will have is vastly lighter higher res headsets with curved displays that fill the visual field and much faster computers to render the images for us. 10 years really is a long time, I know 2006 doesn't sound like long ago but that predates the first iPhone by a year and android by 2 years. Smartphones have come a huge way since those first models and have really driven the light high res screen technology forward. In fact screen tech has been undergoing a revolution in that period and there are all manner of interesting things coming down the line. 2005 was the year HD Ready was introduced as a standard which i think was only 720p. Likewise chip/gfx technology has continued it's onward march (2006 was the year Oblivion came out).

 

[WR3ND]

...

Fair point. I was going to say that some of the main advances in consumer products have been smart phone related.

Looking back at processing power (overall, not specifically on mobile platforms), data storage, and various connection speeds, while there have definitely been improvements, they're a bit underwhelming, in my opinion.

 

[xondk]

Realistically, I doubt well see the vast improvements that are theoretically possible pan out all that well. (I certainly don't want to wear VR contacts, for example.) Looking back over the past 10 years, things haven't really advanced all that much. I'm not saying that there won't be improvements and advancements though, of course, just that people seem to tend to dream about and hype up "the future" more than it likely deserves.

Well yes, sort off, true, graphics have kind of reached a point the last...what 2-4 years where new games look great, and 'more' comes in terms of fx's physics and whatnot, which is a great thing, but make no mistake, things have advanced a lot, I'd say graphics reached that point in 2012, which yeah is four years ago we reached that point or near there about, but I would say, saying things haven't improved is maybe if you don't consider the improvements important to games, and there's a lot of those over the years, especially with physics and similar simulation stuff, that the average person doesn't really 'see'

 

[Spudulika]

E in 10 years
Getting rid of p2p, it'll play entirely on "the cloud."
All ships will be Cobra variants, even so, the Asp Ex will still be the most popular ship
As part of the season 7 update, "Friendship Drive", you have to make at least 2 friendly posts to other players on their Galspan Social Media page before you can make long jumps.
There will be multiple forms of currency based on each occupation that allow players to buy specialized equipment that often have nothing to do with that profession.
Piracy will once again be a problem as pvp players spend their "Explorer Bucks" to buy "Solomode Tunnelers" to invade solomode. To defend against this, solo players can spend their "PvP Coins" to purchase "Tunnel Shields".
All trade goods will be replaced with "Printer Cartridges" for 3d printers that have replaced all forms of production. In most station economies, "Printer Cartridges" are spent producing more "Printer Cartridges" to sell as the economy slowly enters its final death spiral.
Most stars have run out of fuel long ago causing the Fuel Rats to expand into towing services as stations have infinite fuel as long as they have printer cartridges. A few still live on the edge, collecting fuel from the few remaining fuel producing stars but are being hunted down by Aislings current activist campaign "Stop Eating Stars You Stupid Meanie".
Everyone continues waiting for the Thargoids to reveal themselves while the majority of Frontier's dev staff no longer even remembers what that word means and just makes vague posts about it to keep riots from breaking out
The UA's, Barnacles and the season 3 discovery of Starfish have all been revealed to be a creation of Hudson to distract everyone from his secret affair with Torval
The Powerplay mechanic has been changed dramatically and power rankings are now determined by SRV races, the type of race and location determined by last weeks winner
NPC pilots Ai have been upgraded and now contain highly advanced conversational code borrowed from Microsoft. As such, all npc pilots are now very chatty but also racist bigots.
Lastly, Exploration has been drastically changed since season 6 "LIMPETS FOR EVERYONE!" as everyone now employs Exploration Limpets which zoom around sectors scanning everything for you and beams the information back to your ship, even if you're in another sector

Great post

 

[NMS]

The way I feel at the moment, I can't see ED making it past v3.00 (whatever that may contain).

This is also my feeling.

In the first year, ED really promised something better, but then came Horizons, being launched in a hurry and without content.

Let's see if this update 2.1 really will make a difference.