There's the argument they have lost any first mover advantage (and eroded good will to boot) by failure to maintain their own imposed delivery schedule and their complete lack of adequate communications throughout season 2.
Have FD lost their way?
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There's the argument they have lost any first mover advantage (and eroded good will to boot) by failure to maintain their own imposed delivery schedule and their complete lack of adequate communications throughout season 2.
I suggest some folks go and look through the design discussion archives, a collection of threads from closed beta, where the developers discussed long term plans with early backers. There is a reason all those threads were archived and not deleted.
The devlopers always planned to include the game mechanics from the previous three games (not just the original elite), with some new mechanics not capable previously due to tech limitations, all wrapped up in a modern graphics engine.
The long term plan for this game really has not changed a great deal, outside of balance and design iterations resulting in some of the minutiae of individual game systems changing. Granted, it may be taking them longer to get new systems and mechanics out of the door than they would perhaps like, but all in all the game is still delivering what was planned long-term.
The devlopers always planned to include the game mechanics from the previous three games (not just the original elite), with some new mechanics not capable previously due to tech limitations, all wrapped up in a modern graphics engine.
The long term plan for this game really has not changed a great deal, outside of balance and design iterations resulting in some of the minutiae of individual game systems changing. Granted, it may be taking them longer to get new systems and mechanics out of the door than they would perhaps like, but all in all the game is still delivering what was planned long-term.
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I think base game sales are a poor indication of people opinion of the game. Rather an indication of successful marketing. I think Horizons is a better indication, and Horizons sales are significantly lower that season 1.
I think it's the same every year before the big games shows FDEV goes quiet and terse with its information and it's the same mularky every year the forum fills up with have they abandoned us and gone to other things.
Wait till after all the game shows then we will know or have a better understanding what is going on and what's coming.
Wait till after all the game shows then we will know or have a better understanding what is going on and what's coming.
Yeah Cater to things like fixing bugs. Adding balance, allowing Elite Dangerous only players to be at least competitive with Horizons players you know things like details.
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Yeah meanwhile almost no work has gone into bugfixes, or polish, or the lack of balance created by all this fancy crap you can mount now.
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What really worries me, it is that there appears to be no clear strategy. We see a string of good concepts - powerplay, CQC, engineers - which then are subsequently wasted in a crappy implementation. It is like they every now and then they meet and throw random ideas on a table then try to implement the one that most catches their imagination, but without a real study. Hey, that just looks like the typical birth of an Hollywood movie
All of the systems feel bolted on, mile wide inch deep, never more true than in Elite Dangerous.
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Have Frontier lost their way? Jury's out I'd say - but it depends on your perception of the way to start with
Still a great game though. And, lets face it, go on any game's forum and you see a lot of the same 'the devs don't know what they are doing' arguments, irrespective of the actual quality of the product.
The quality of Elite Dangerous is not great. There are bugs which affect every area of the game, design decisions which offer no reward for increased risk and increased risk for no reward. The good of being able to go solo at any time is offset by the bad of there being nobody to be pirated only players to get ganked. Combat logging, because the game is too boring to die for no reason. There are so many unresolved issues, and the pace of change is terrible. Lets talk PMF BGS, takes 4 months to be added to the damn game? Please
2 Million in sales, but where are these 2 million customers? Fewer than 10K uniques log every day. Fewer than 50K uniquest log every 2 weeks. Almost nobody who bought the game still plays it. The 2.1 update was a total sham too, they massively re-balanced it and it's still broken.
Well, Fallout 4 sold 12 million copies on PC only (latest numbers from 9 month ago) and has currently about 30k "unique logs every day" on steamspy.
Where are those 11.970.000 customers?
I don't know why you compare ED to subscription model games, since that's not the business model .. and I'm sure you don't know either, other than that comparison fitting your point and the actually relevant one not that much.
If there's anything noteworthy in those numbers than the increase in concurrent users from about 4k to about 5k since the latest additions and the clear upward trend. So while the opinion about the changes on the forums might be negative, the actual numbers don't support that at all.
And yes, FD were incredibly naive to think that adding some connectivity to a game makes it "multiplayer" and their attempts to add more "multiplayer" were half-hearted at best.
But the thing is .. there was not a single noteworthy and successful MMOG release in the last .. at least 5 years. It's almost fair to say that the days of server-client massive multiplayer games is over.
Or do you think Blizzard deliberately did not publish another cash-printing-subscription WoW successor and instead jumped the bandwagon of fast-paced, small team, e-sports? They might be the most mediocre of developers on this planet, not having brought anything new to the scene since their foundation, but they're pretty good at cashing in on trends. The Apple of Computergames.
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Someone needs to stop smelling his own farts. ot pinting fingers (but I am)
They need to rethink how the game and it's add ons are sold. DLC are much better because that is something most players know about.
Blackcompany
Banned
They promised an immersive space sim.
So far, we have an immersive flight model, with arcade boosters, an RNG grind, cosmetics that cost extra, multi crew...And absolutely no depth or meaningful interaction at all.
Trade/smuggling is 90℅ spectating. It Virtually requires a second screen for Netflix and alt+tabbing constantly. Boring is an understatement.
Exploration: see trade, above.
Mining is tedious and unfun.
Combat is meaningless. Just endless spawns to make bank accounts go up. And it's a health potion slightly to boot.
And...That's it. Those are the roles we have. Other than fuel rats, the one emergent role this game has made possible.
Promised a Space sim. So far, they have delivered a loading screen sim with an Excellent flight model and a tacked on free to play style RNG grind.
So far, we have an immersive flight model, with arcade boosters, an RNG grind, cosmetics that cost extra, multi crew...And absolutely no depth or meaningful interaction at all.
Trade/smuggling is 90℅ spectating. It Virtually requires a second screen for Netflix and alt+tabbing constantly. Boring is an understatement.
Exploration: see trade, above.
Mining is tedious and unfun.
Combat is meaningless. Just endless spawns to make bank accounts go up. And it's a health potion slightly to boot.
And...That's it. Those are the roles we have. Other than fuel rats, the one emergent role this game has made possible.
Promised a Space sim. So far, they have delivered a loading screen sim with an Excellent flight model and a tacked on free to play style RNG grind.
Well, truth is, how do you expect mining to be fun? You're MINING. Can't expect that to be a roller coaster of fun. That's probably also the reason they haven'T really done any dev on that side of the game. at least it's in the game.
I think maybe you should just find a game that you'll enjoy more instead of shackling yourself of your own accord here and not having fun. And come back if you think it ever has an update that it makes it fun for you.
Blackcompany
Banned
Don't know about that.
I'm an Explorer, and right now I'm playing NMS for that exclusively. It offers far more interaction, more variety and more things to see. When I explore in ED, my fiance, who can't be bothered with space games, yawns and goes back to her tablet.
When I explore NMS, she asks me to move it to the TV so she can see all the best critters and funky looking planets, and often gets excited about new discoveries, asking to help me name animals we find.
Say what you will about disappointed customers, as both games have their share, but NMS is far more compelling for Exploration at this point. Whatever advantage ED gained by first to market has been thoroughly and completely squandered at this point.
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I don't mine. Ever. Which means missing out on RNGineer content I paid for.
But does this also not beg the question: why would you put a mechanic in your GAME that is openly acknowledged as unfun and/or tedious?
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
Closed as a necro.
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