Yeah I agree. This isn't meant to be "OMG Frontier is terri-bad. Soon Chris Roberts will save us ..." thread.
It's about this wonderful game where it's going.
Should Frontier be more open about its development plans
- Thread starter Ghural
- Start date
Yeah I agree. This isn't meant to be "OMG Frontier is terri-bad. Soon Chris Roberts will save us ..." thread.
It's about this wonderful game where it's going.
Then going non-linear when it is not implemented the way they thought it should be.
Users, can't live with them and can't live without them.
Git kool
I would rather Frontier spend more resources working on the game than answering hordes of screaming complainers where nothing is ever enough to satisfy them.
There are times where they should give advance notice for possible changes, such as the recent Blueprint adjustments that needed beta testing. But for the most part, information about future content should remain as general as possible until just before its release.
There are times where they should give advance notice for possible changes, such as the recent Blueprint adjustments that needed beta testing. But for the most part, information about future content should remain as general as possible until just before its release.
I think the current situation is near peak community frustration. We've only got one update ahead that we know anything about, and the details of 2.3 are little more than headlines. We know nothing of 2.4, and as for 3.0, we'll we're just guessing. If it wasn't for the recent first contact we'd probably be boiling over with boredom/frustration at this point. On the plus side this is hopefully the worst it will ever get with the 3.0 announcement hopefully happening soon after 2.3/PS4 so they can start getting the pre-orders in.
Talk about future stuff that hasn't been nailed down? With this community? Somewhere between "no" and "hell, no!"
And even if it's nailed down and discussed in great and exact detail, people will come out in force and find something to justify their paranoid delusion that everyone is out to break their game, divine statements that never were made between innocuous lines, and go "OMG but you promised us X!"
Yeah, better be glad they're communicating at all.
And even if it's nailed down and discussed in great and exact detail, people will come out in force and find something to justify their paranoid delusion that everyone is out to break their game, divine statements that never were made between innocuous lines, and go "OMG but you promised us X!"
Yeah, better be glad they're communicating at all.
The biggest impediment to being more open with development plans is......
Us unfortunately.
Too many gamers (especially the more vocal) have a habit of taking a vague statement of intent as promises set in stone. When things change/slip/implemented differently they scream. Loudly. It gets taken as a personal insult and they're not going to take it any more. They'll threaten legal action and (when that doesn't work) they'll just threaten.
I'm always surprised when we get any information.
Us unfortunately.
Too many gamers (especially the more vocal) have a habit of taking a vague statement of intent as promises set in stone. When things change/slip/implemented differently they scream. Loudly. It gets taken as a personal insult and they're not going to take it any more. They'll threaten legal action and (when that doesn't work) they'll just threaten.
I'm always surprised when we get any information.
No, not its long term plans maybe its short term this is coming soonish (Tm).
That being said it should at least be commutative with its community as a whole. Ok we have the live streams, and out of the last how many there have been personally one was off any interest to me, as it was about the BGS. The others well seem to have gone down with mixed results.
When was the last time this forum saw a Dev update? Just checked 3/3/16. We have great post's with here is the list for this patch etc, then we also get the news letter which lets be honest is more of a recap for people who dont spend time here, there was nothing new in any of the last three news letters or if there was I differently missed it.
I also find it odd we have two Community managers who past the odd, you've been a naughty boy or here is that patch update/this week I'm going to be talking to Joe bloggs about such and such, they dont really interact with the community as a whole, maybe I'm being a bit harsh there, but going on other games and communities I've been involved with other the years the developers of this one really do seem out of touch with their player base.
I dont see FD changing, its their house we are guest all be it paid/paying ones but I love the game and I take their silence as a positive thing as I do hope they are all too busy.
The scary thing is normally when a developer is this quiet about anything and everything the game/software house is going down the swanie
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No. With regards to upcoming features I think the level of communication is just right. Only giving out information about a new feature when they know they can safely include it in the next release is the right thing to do.
The danger with giving out information early is then Frontier would have to back-track or delay, if a feature couldn't be implemented in time or that feature caused issues. The community would then just end up ranting instead of being understanding about development cycles and programming issues.
Imagine if they showed us their development experiments on caves (this is an example and speculation, it doesn't mean caves are coming). Before we know it we would dream up dozens of things we would want to do with/in caves and the community would believe those things are coming, even though Frontier never said they would. This happened a lot in NMS's development cycle and look what happened there. Then if Frontier found they had to cut out caves until they solved a major performance issue, the community would turn up with pitchforks outside their offices. Not a good thing!
Enjoy what we have and then look forward to the announcement live streams. Make your purchase decision on what is in the game now and official announcements, not what you think the game should have. Otherwise you will be disappointed.
The danger with giving out information early is then Frontier would have to back-track or delay, if a feature couldn't be implemented in time or that feature caused issues. The community would then just end up ranting instead of being understanding about development cycles and programming issues.
Imagine if they showed us their development experiments on caves (this is an example and speculation, it doesn't mean caves are coming
). Before we know it we would dream up dozens of things we would want to do with/in caves and the community would believe those things are coming, even though Frontier never said they would. This happened a lot in NMS's development cycle and look what happened there. Then if Frontier found they had to cut out caves until they solved a major performance issue, the community would turn up with pitchforks outside their offices. Not a good thing!Enjoy what we have and then look forward to the announcement live streams. Make your purchase decision on what is in the game now and official announcements, not what you think the game should have. Otherwise you will be disappointed.
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Exactly, its like we are looking at different games/studios. SC is the worst example of development and being open.
Tell me then, what do you know about multi crew or commander creator ?
Or what did you know about engineers, passenger transport or ship launched fighters ?
Let me answer that: next to nothing.
A list of buzzwords without any further information isn't all that helpful.
And it sure isn't sufficient to make buying decisions on.
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No. Not because I wouldn't like to know more about current and future development, but because the community is so unforgiving that everything they announce would lead to a disaster.
They should release information when they feel ready for it.
They should release information when they feel ready for it.
A few peak of the week would be already of good indices
OMG, this is QFT
Being "honest", "capable of producing reliable estimates", and "open" are really orthogonal concepts. The part with the estimates is really hard too.
I'll tell you what I know about commander creator.
It is, a lot of people will be disappointed.
I am a long time user of Poser. To get good results takes a lot of work and only you will see it.
It will be fun to use it for a while but I cannot see may people using it a lot.
Shameless plug.
Here is an image using Poser I collaborated in with a friend.
It is Science Fiction
.A scene where the kid first meets the Scorpions, from the book Dhalgren.
Yeah they could give us more info of in-progress stuff. This does not equate making promises that they cannot hold, it's just... FD is completely opaque when it comes to their current development. In fact we were at least able to glean some info from videos they released that showed, for example, the Imperial Courier ship being worked on. Now we basically have to hang on Ed's lips, or whoever he's on a livestream with, to catch glimpses of what might come in the next month or two.
I think FD does this because they're tired of huge drama tirades in the forum from people who are against features that haven't been in the game yet. I admit I might be guilty of that myself, for example in the case of ship transfers. Don't get me wrong though, I still believe the ship transfer times are fine and I'm actually quite ok with the cost too now, considering the game doesn't have enough credit sinks anyway.
I think FD does this because they're tired of huge drama tirades in the forum from people who are against features that haven't been in the game yet. I admit I might be guilty of that myself, for example in the case of ship transfers. Don't get me wrong though, I still believe the ship transfer times are fine and I'm actually quite ok with the cost too now, considering the game doesn't have enough credit sinks anyway.
Estimates are hell when you have never done something before. A client comes to you and says, hey, i need something that does X, and you have done X before, you have a good basis for giving an estimate. Client comes to you and says we need Y, and you have never done Y, its largely guestimates.
In this case, FD are their own client. Bosses go to the devs and say, "How long for this multicrew stuff? Here are some rough ideas we have!" and the devs should honestly say "I don't have a damn clue mate".
Ok, i'm oversimplifying, tasks are broken down, some of the stuff will be familiar/known, but there are going to be unfamiliar efforts. Perhaps FD did shoot themselves in the foot by initially expecting they would finish Horizons in 1 year, so that's a lesson learned for them. Develop what is going to be released, then announce it when its nearly ready.
I didn't know a question could be so borderline rhetoric.
Of course they should be more open. You couldn't be any LESS open.
We don't need promises, we don't need visions of grandeur. However this game was uniquely sold as a "work in progress" and as such accords a certain level of insight to the development process for something we've put our money down on (money I give freely and willingly, without demanding entitlement in its wake might I add). Unfortunately "left in the dark" would be understatement of the year.
Specifics aside, no idea the direction the game will take in a few weeks, let alone throughout a season, let alone what next season will encompass, let alone the "ten year plan". Hell no, do not rush it - yet something more than patch notes where applicable would kinda be nice.
Of course they should be more open. You couldn't be any LESS open.
We don't need promises, we don't need visions of grandeur. However this game was uniquely sold as a "work in progress" and as such accords a certain level of insight to the development process for something we've put our money down on (money I give freely and willingly, without demanding entitlement in its wake might I add). Unfortunately "left in the dark" would be understatement of the year.
Specifics aside, no idea the direction the game will take in a few weeks, let alone throughout a season, let alone what next season will encompass, let alone the "ten year plan". Hell no, do not rush it - yet something more than patch notes where applicable would kinda be nice.
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