The Galaxy - Is its size now considered to be a barrier to gameplay by the Developers?

Weps

Weps
Tuub t Tute said:
If Winter is really coming, an agile and committed defence force will be needed, or FDev will be forced to Hand of Dev it into a glacial pace to make up for the inability for the majority of players to get involved in a meaningful timeframe and make a difference.
Click to expand...

Don't share that view unfortunately. If their plan is to allow the game world to be shaped by the actions of the casual crowd, then they've picked the wrong crowd. I doubt any of the casual players would have spent weeks and months deciphering the story behind alien artifacts, coordinating outside of the game to do so. Yet this is the very player group the developers are pushing away with their argument for convenience.

19f9rq.jpg
 
Last edited:

warbaby2

warbaby2
Weps said:
Don't share that view unfortunately. If their plan is to allow the game world to be shaped by the actions of the casual crowd, then they've picked the wrong crowd. I doubt any of the casual players would have spent weeks and months deciphering the story behind alien artifacts, coordinating outside of the game to do so. Yet this is the very player group the developers are pushing away with their argument for convenience.

https://i.imgflip.com/19f9rq.jpg
Click to expand...

...and they probably will only start to realize it once the publicity they get from community projects dies off.
 

lysan

lysan
Robert Maynard said:
We will be given the ability to transfer any of our ships to our current dock in 2.2 - there will be no delay in this transfer as the Developers have done some testing and any delay at all was considered to be too much of an impediment to gameplay.

In the recent Gamescom streams a recurring theme was that of "lowering the barriers to gameplay".

It would appear that travelling back to the location of a stored ship to fetch it back to one's location takes too much time and is therefore a barrier to gameplay that is unacceptable in the eyes of the Developers (and a large number of players, of course).

In a game where we have been given, to the best of the abilities of the Developers, a 1:1 interpretation of the our galaxy - with hundreds of billions of stars it seems that the size of the galaxy itself would now appear to be a problem to solve in the eyes of the Developers.

It will be interesting to see what further concessions to convenience we are given in future releases that will facilitate the multi-player aspect of the game.
Click to expand...

I think they got pinned down because of its size. However there are many solutions to that.

First, make some core systems very detailed, use a lot of hand crafted assets. Everything outside will be more for the explore and those who really want to vander around. By keeping all the action in a selective bubble they can also make more functions that are in the lore.

1. Teleportation (setup relays and use them as instant teleporters within the bubble)
2. Station teleportation, commanders can teleport to a hub where you can meet your friends and travel out from there.

Make some Graphical representation like in Mass Effect relays, and place them around for easy access.

If they concentrate all their action to lets say 150 - 200 systems, they could also craft some feature on selectiv planets and make it more attractive.

Exploring the galaxy will always be interresting for some people, but for the masses planetary battles are more on the agenda. (think planet side)
 

MadDogMurdock

MadDogMurdock
warbaby2 said:
Again, you checked the main discussion thread? Most people would be fine with a reasonable time delay... it's still a far cry from a more immersive system where you have to hire a frieghter or pilot to deliver your goods/ship, but it's workable. Space magic isn't.
Click to expand...

If you're checking the main thread then you'll have seen my many comments.
 

Kellan Fell

Kellan Fell
S.H.A.D.O said:
Well said indeed!

FD. wake up, pull your head out of your rear and stop pandering to kiddies who are going to play today and be gone in a month. You have lots of very dedicated and long term fans and you are dumping on them from a height with this utterly crazy notion. it goes against everything that DB has been saying for the last 2+ years.

Stop it and return to your roots. No more dumbing down please, because the casuals you crave to pander to won't be here in a few months time, they'll move on to the next 'flavour of the month' game. This game is VERY good, please do not ruin it.
Click to expand...

This is the core of the matter. The people arguing the most against the instant transfer are the ones who want Elite to remain true to it's principles (as much as possible) and will be the ones playing it in 4 years. The vocal minority for the "quick win" will get their easy Cutter which they can instantly transfer around along with the entire contents of their hangar and soon realise that the open ended nature of the game is completely destroyed by this instant gratification. There is no real reason to play any more, and they will move on to the the next FPS that comes along.

In the end, FD will alienate (and possibly lose) the dedicated core players, and the insta-win types will move on anyway and they'll suddenly find themselves with nobody buying the next season, and the servers slowly closing down. Then there will be a wailing and gnashing of teeth and we'll have to wait another 30 years before the next generation comes again.

Please stop dumbing things down... Please read the forums and for once pander to the whims of your core players not the fly-by-nights who will be gone in 6 months...
 

Bounder

Bounder
What's inconvenient to the devs is ulitimately the incompatibility of the networking model with the core game design.


We could have ED's populist biplane handling, with proper relative time, no mechanical speed limits and all three laws of motion respected, configurable flight assists, and multiplayer. It is technically possible to consolidate the best aspects of all the previous games, and design the 'fun' around the realities of the gameworld, rather than the other way around.


This whole project stepped off the precipice into a trap of its own making, the moment a concensus was reached that it was better to bend the game concept to the MP limitations, than vice versa, and the 'community' (fledgling that most of it was) was near-unanimous in supporting this compromised direction of development.

Predictably, the same community has lapsed into howls of discontent at every further design decision falling out of the "compromise everything!" ethos they themselves conceded to.

Multiplayer FE2, with configurable flight assists for the controlling handling envelopes.. THAT's the game everyone would really enjoy. 100 billion stars is plenty, the galactic plane is much thinner, it could be a fictional dwarf galaxy or perhaps an outer wisp of the Milky Way, whatever... FD's and Braben's priorities regarding the fun in realism are back to front - the real fun to be had in high-energy interstellar spaceflight is all based around velocity and time management. ED's pew-pew sitting on top of that base game would see far greater success, IMO..

We let it happen. We lowered the bar, gave our consent, nay, encouragement, and as you reap, so may you sow...
 

Cmdr Basskicker

C
warbaby2 said:
Don't like the game, don't play it... same level of non-argument.
Click to expand...

The only person instant ship transfer affects is you as an individual. Meaning it can be ignored completely with zero consequences to your in game experience, but please don't let me get in the way of a good whine.
 

LuciusEsox

LuciusEsox
Robert Maynard said:
We will be given the ability to transfer any of our ships to our current dock in 2.2 - there will be no delay in this transfer as the Developers have done some testing and any delay at all was considered to be too much of an impediment to gameplay.

In the recent Gamescom streams a recurring theme was that of "lowering the barriers to gameplay".

It would appear that travelling back to the location of a stored ship to fetch it back to one's location takes too much time and is therefore a barrier to gameplay that is unacceptable in the eyes of the Developers (and a large number of players, of course).

In a game where we have been given, to the best of the abilities of the Developers, a 1:1 interpretation of the our galaxy - with hundreds of billions of stars it seems that the size of the galaxy itself would now appear to be a problem to solve in the eyes of the Developers.

It will be interesting to see what further concessions to convenience we are given in future releases that will facilitate the multi-player aspect of the game.
Click to expand...

I vote just one button.... A win one. When you hit it you get a 20 minute long cutscene with just figures and numbers going up interlaced with you winning glorious space battles all in absolutely gorgeous cutting edge graphics which the only downside will be you will need a 1080 ti to run at 30fps..

Fantastic,,, I cant wait...

Well actually more to the point.... I won't
 

bladerunner900

bladerunner900
Kellan Fell said:
This is the core of the matter. The people arguing the most against the instant transfer are the ones who want Elite to remain true to it's principles (as much as possible) and will be the ones playing it in 4 years. The vocal minority for the "quick win" will get their easy Cutter which they can instantly transfer around along with the entire contents of their hangar and soon realise that the open ended nature of the game is completely destroyed by this instant gratification. There is no real reason to play any more, and they will move on to the the next FPS that comes along.

In the end, FD will alienate (and possibly lose) the dedicated core players, and the insta-win types will move on anyway and they'll suddenly find themselves with nobody buying the next season, and the servers slowly closing down. Then there will be a wailing and gnashing of teeth and we'll have to wait another 30 years before the next generation comes again.

Please stop dumbing things down... Please read the forums and for once pander to the whims of your core players not the fly-by-nights who will be gone in 6 months...
Click to expand...
As a 'core' player. One who has been playing this game and it's predecessors since the 80's, I totally take the opposite stance. Maybe it's because I'm older now and feel the hand of time working against me. Who knows. But I want things sooner now rather than later because of ... time.
 
Last edited:

LuciusEsox

LuciusEsox
Cmdr Basskicker said:
The only person instant ship transfer affects is you as an individual. Meaning it can be ignored completely with zero consequences to your in game experience, but please don't let me get in the way of a good whine.
Click to expand...

Sorry had to answer this.... Yes it WILL effect your game experience. It WILL effect everyones.

The ability to move all your resources to wherever you are instantly has the capacity to change gameplay for everyone so so much.

A
 

OutLord

OutLord
LuciusEsox said:
I vote just one button.... A win one. When you hit it you get a 20 minute long cutscene with just figures and numbers going up interlaced with you winning glorious space battles all in absolutely gorgeous cutting edge graphics which the only downside will be you will need a 1080 ti to run at 30fps..

Fantastic,,, I cant wait...

Well actually more to the point.... I won't
Click to expand...

A good idea except for the cutscene, I don't want to wait that long. I have a life you know!
 
Last edited:

FrodoHobbits

FrodoHobbits
JosiahD said:
Problem is it would, in my opinion, only be a time waste (ie to wait for ship arrival) for those who do not have the imagination to come up with other things to do while waiting. There seems to be some who think that when they click 'transfer ship' that they then need to simply sit there in the dock and wait (if we had a timer)? Like a limpet on a rock? Some of these people obviously lack the imagination to realize that they can still play the game while waiting for the ship transfer, whether it takes an hr, 2 hrs or 6. Run some local trade runs. Scout out the surrounding systems for trade opportunities. Go mine the nearest asteroid belt. Land on some nearby planets and drive around looking for engineer materials. Do some local bounty hunting. Problem is some of these people don't seem to want to actually play the game while waiting because, in my opinion, they're blinkered, fixating on one particular objective - I must have my big heavily armed ship here right this minute so I can go and smash some players or NPCs or what-have-you, or must have their heavy cargo vessel right this minute so they can immediately go take advantage of some CG (that will be there for several days anyway). And if they don't have the imagination to realize that there's a whole plethora of gameplay they can partake in while waiting a couple hrs for a ship to arrive, I still find myself wondering why they're playing THIS game.
Click to expand...
What is this "imagination" thing you keep talking about? Surely it must be a myth ;)
 

Darth CareBear

Darth CareBear
Kicks said:
Yeah - I must have missed them.

Obviously each to their own but I've had to do the above on numerous occasions due to friends being in other places. Sometimes it's taken a bit of time to arrive - but honestly I've always done stuff on the way, or been chatting over skype/TS/Vent while en-route and so it never really bothered me.
Click to expand...

Just curious...you dont have to answer ofc, how much time on average would you have a day to play ED or any other game?

I only ask as the reason would normally be for any developer that player activity, incoming money, their game being played vs other instant instant action games like WoT which they will compete with based on time spent.

I agree that travelling must not be instant, but any argument of immersion, realism, simulation will fall apart if it is ever faced with Braben (frontier) losing cash, burning through resources as what you dont perceive to be barriers is experienced by a majority of casual players they think they are and then do not partake in ED.

I imagine keeping a majority of casual gamers with limited time happier, rather than a smaller minority of hardcore gamers happier makes sense...especially if the majority cover the bills that allow us all to play it?

But Respect!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom