My thoughts on where things are going.

[Winterwalker]

Repped for being optimistic!

For the most part I share your optimism... in part.

Yeah. I definitely understand how this, early access to Season 2, has been less than ideal for many people, but at least we've had a game to play and even get a level of input into it. For me it's mostly that the funding is backwards, when there isn't a huge publishing company behind FD, paying for all development before a finalised product is released.

Speaking for myself I actually like peaking behind the curtain a bit, though when I boot the game I forget all that, do what I can do in the game, don't sweat what I can't (yet) and there's already more things I like to do than I have time for in real life already.

Lastly, as far as people dismissing FD's abilities as coders goes, I come from a different place because I run on a £99 laptop (integrated graphics, 4GB RAM, dual core .. waaaay below minimum specs) and yet, I can play ED, which shouldn't even be possible. I was a KS backer but never thought I'd actually play ED (good for 10 year olds I thought, I played Oolite) .. lucky for me though, the code is really efficient.

Cheers for the rep Cmdr. +1

 

[StiTch]

Your notion that the game is PvP-focused is unequivocally wrong.

For example, I have directly had it stated to me that FD do not want smaller ships to be able to stand toe-to-toe with a big ship - that is, if a more skilled pilot in small ship goes against a low-skilled pilot in big ship, they want the bigger ship to still win.

Any PvP player will tell you that the aim of PvP is a nutshell is balance, in the name of skill-based combat. Please can we stop equating "combat" updates with "PvP focused development".

As it happens any ED PvP player will also tell you that the level of PvP content available is disgustingly low.

With regards to burning out, I can see it easily being done. This is a game where no matter what you're engaged in some level of repetition, and in the case of combat etc. spend your time getting to grips with enacting that repetition with greater precision, or in the case of exploration etc. simply repeat and repeat ad naseum. And of course, especially players like forum-goers get passionately involved in their profession enough to drain them further.

There's enough content here a player could reasonably entertain themselves for a very long time, but that'd involve changing up the gamestyle once in a while, and will harm the pride of some. I know that if I finally lost my rag with straight up combat I'd either get involved with PP roleplay, serious deep-space exploration, create myself a single ship that can do literally anything and just be a lone wanderer for a while, support a minor faction.... the content is there, but you have to drag your head out whatever you're stuck in sometimes to consider it all.

 

[Besensec]

Interesting... A word about the often stated 'miles wide, inch deep'.

Although I really liked your comment on the idea of depth, I have to say that the "strange" expectations were originally set by Frontier during the KS, and while promoting Horizons. There is a lot of material from 2012 to December 2015 in which they talk in detail about what each feature will entail. Just check their old videos in their youtube channel, in particular the videos in which they talk about the future of Elite.

How could it be that some are still using such argument in spite of all the evidence against it?

 

[Besensec]

But the nameplates were an indication of where they want the game to be located business-wise. A trademark, merchandise seller, possibility of whale milking in cosmetics store (now with even more reasons as we got a fully fledged camera system at last).

You want to know what is scary? That after the PS4 release, they will start selling something called Frontier points, at least on that platform. How does that sound? [noob]

How will store currency work on the PS4™?
Players will be able to purchase Frontier Points from the PlayStation®Store. These points can then be used to purchase Ship items, such as Paint Jobs, Ship Kits and Bobbleheads from the Frontier Store via an in-game link.

EDIT: I just realized they have been doing it already on Xbox One for almost a year.

Time to move on for those people or... go on suffering.

Ha ha, this has nothing to do with suffering and being sad, you small little thing.

 

[Kaa Mchorror]

Although I really liked your comment on the idea of depth, I have to say that the "strange" expectations were originally set by Frontier during the KS, and while promoting Horizons. There is a lot of material from 2012 to December 2015 in which they talk in detail about what each feature will entail. Just check their old videos in their youtube channel, in particular the videos in which they talk about the future of Elite.

How could it be that some are still using such argument in spite of all the evidence against it?

You have never followed a games development closely before have you? Stuff gets cut. You may want to do something but find out later that it either will take up too much time or how it was originally envisioned won't work. It happens.
That's why I prefer developers to not communicate about things that are not close to being finished.

 

[Besensec]

You have never followed a games development closely before have you?

Yes I have, since the nineties, and my opinion is that this new trend of et has to stop. The problem is people like you legitimizing it with the most bizarre of rationalizations.

(They still owe me a $1000 3D printed model and now they are ignoring PMs ...)

What do you mean?

 

[Vorxian]

A word about the often stated 'miles wide, inch deep'.

Aye it's certainly a rabbit hole!

I think fdev's Stellar Forge is a masterpiece. Absolute masterpiece. It's a work of art. It's a shame Elite Dangerous couldn't merge with Unknown worlds and integrate Subnautica lol.. or, perhaps Empyrion Galactic Survival get rid of their system maps, and integrate the Stellar Forge ! [haha]

What i'm getting at is that what FDEV have here is absolutely a galaxy in width. Just need a little depth, a little more meat on the bone, and some work to allow folks to purchase a ship between them, and crew it like Pulsar Lost Colony. I think it'll be almost the perfect game. Add content based on that, with space legs, and there will be nothing you cannot do...

There we go - If Ark Survival, Elite Dangerous, Subnautica and Pulsar Lost Colony had a four-way baby, it would be the perfect game! [cool][cool][cool]

 

[Mendaharin Tusca]

Did they make any PVP usable roles for multicrew?
Multicrew in general is useless in PVP. A full wing is stronger, gunner role is useless because who even uses turrets, and only a few ships carry SLFs and the pilot would be of better use in his own engineered ship anyway.
Another PVE feature.

Except for the fact that you can call in your friends on a few seconds notice even if they are 20000ly away, there's that, and a crewed ship is a lot stronger than a single player ship.

 

[Vandaahl]

What do you mean?

It was one of the rewards of a very high (if not max) kickstarter level.

 

[Vorxian]

You have never followed a games development closely before have you? Stuff gets cut. You may want to do something but find out later that it either will take up too much time or how it was originally envisioned won't work. It happens.
That's why I prefer developers to not communicate about things that are not close to being finished.

Or the absolute opposite. Be open, transparent, do dev updates weekly, show the community what they're working on.. If something is complex, have someone from the design team tell the community why.. Open door policy, and absolute 1 to 1 relationships between design team and community will help. The only time it doesn't work is if you deliberately want to hide stuff because of fear of outrage.. but.. if nothing to hide, this symbiotic relationship is far more productive and better for PR than cloak 'n' dagger, secrecy, silence and bitter forum posting.

So.. Sure stuff will be cut out.. and stuff will be dropped, and stuff just cannot be done.. we get that. That's why I PREFER communication, and better information on what is being worked on and why. That way we can be on the devs side, than seemingly against them.

 

[Cobra1984]

Well I for one have found this thread to be a good and interesting read. There's just one thing I'd love to know from the folks who are taking long breaks away from the game -

Are you not gripped on the edge of your seat by the unfolding storyline? How can you possibly take a break?

 

[Maro-Val]

Well I for one have found this thread to be a good and interesting read. There's just one thing I'd love to know from the folks who are taking long breaks away from the game -

Are you not gripped on the edge of your seat by the unfolding storyline? How can you possibly take a break?

i was trying for months to folow the storyline especially about aliens, barnacles, formidine rift. Then i got dissapointed by the countless bugs that are tied to those storyline bits that frontier implants every now and then.

 

[NMS]

It was one of the rewards of a very high (if not max) kickstarter level.

+£500* Have a physical 3D model of a Cobra Mk III to scale (approx. 15cm) shipped to you (Delivery March 2014)
+£700* Have a physical 3D model of an Anaconda to scale (approx. 35 cm) shipped to you (Delivery March 2014)
+£400* Have a physical 3D model of a Viper Mk II to scale (approx. 10 cm) shipped to you (Delivery March 2014)
+£700* Have a physical 3D model of a partial cut-away (revealing the interior) of a Cobra Mk III to scale (approx. 15cm) shipped to you (Delivery March 2014)
+£950* Have a physical 3D model of a partial cut-away (revealing the interior) of an Anaconda to scale (approx. 35cm) shipped to you (Delivery March 2014)
+£550* Have a physical 3D model of a partial cut-away (revealing the interior) of a Viper Mk II to scale (approx. 10cm) shipped to you (Delivery March 2014)

And this?
Has anyone received this?

+£20* Have a quality A3 concept art print (Delivery February 2013)
+£35* Have a signed (by David Braben) quality A3 concept art print (Delivery February 2013)

Or it was all part of the broken promises.

Just curious.

 

[mojonaut]

.. and all the time growing more and more bitter towards FD and their "way" of handling things (They still owe me a $1000 3D printed model and now they are ignoring PMs ...)

Wow that's really bad, I thought they were taking the urine over the 'Art' book, which finally appeared, but this is a whole new level of ' we have your money so suck it up'.

It says delivery March 2014 don't you have a legal case on this for a refund?

For anyone not familiar with the kickstarter deals https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1461411552/elite-dangerous

check out the comments while you're there.

 

[Besensec]

+£500* Have a physical 3D model of a Cobra Mk III to scale (approx. 15cm) shipped to you (Delivery March 2014)
+£700* Have a physical 3D model of an Anaconda to scale (approx. 35 cm) shipped to you (Delivery March 2014)
+£400* Have a physical 3D model of a Viper Mk II to scale (approx. 10 cm) shipped to you (Delivery March 2014)
+£700* Have a physical 3D model of a partial cut-away (revealing the interior) of a Cobra Mk III to scale (approx. 15cm) shipped to you (Delivery March 2014)
+£950* Have a physical 3D model of a partial cut-away (revealing the interior) of an Anaconda to scale (approx. 35cm) shipped to you (Delivery March 2014)
+£550* Have a physical 3D model of a partial cut-away (revealing the interior) of a Viper Mk II to scale (approx. 10cm) shipped to you (Delivery March 2014)

And this?
Has anyone received this?

+£20* Have a quality A3 concept art print (Delivery February 2013)
+£35* Have a signed (by David Braben) quality A3 concept art print (Delivery February 2013)

Or it was all part of the broken promises.

Just curious.

I am not even religious, but <swearing>!

 

[dreamer1986]

I agree OP, have some rep.

 

[Mengy]

Well I for one have found this thread to be a good and interesting read. There's just one thing I'd love to know from the folks who are taking long breaks away from the game -
Are you not gripped on the edge of your seat by the unfolding storyline? How can you possibly take a break?

I actively took part in investigating the ruins when they were first discovered, and I’ve been out to the Rift many times and helped look for a few of the beacon bases, but the constant bugs in all of it ruined it for me. And now that so much of our early ruins work gets erased with every new patch as ruins change in configuration (hopefully never again!!), yeah now I’m just reading about it all as it happens along the way. And the whole Rift thing, we still have no idea what is out there, or even what to be looking for, and to date nothing interesting has been found without a CG or engineer telling us where to go to find newly implemented content, so “eh”.

Honestly though, no I’m not too eager about the unfolding storyline, because I see where it’s all heading: a big war, either between human factions or with aliens or even both. Which means more combat content and updates. Which means not much for me to enjoy, sadly. I have the strange feeling that I’ll be skipping S3 the way things look like they are headed.

 

[verminstar]

Well I for one have found this thread to be a good and interesting read. There's just one thing I'd love to know from the folks who are taking long breaks away from the game -

Are you not gripped on the edge of your seat by the unfolding storyline? How can you possibly take a break?

Tried to get involved last year only to find that the "discoveries" weren't all they were cracked upto be...there was never anything to be found, just activated at certain times to help move their own agenda forward with the players tagging along fer the ride best we could. The more I got into it, the less impressed I became with frontier...without a doubt when tracing back to where the rot started, it was the formidine rift fiasco.

After that, the spark of enthusiasm faded to the point where I stopped caring, and just follow the forums outta morbid curiosity in the very slim hope that things will improve. When I learned what 2.3 was, I gave up entirely and haven't played at all since. Giving them till 2.4 before I vanish utterly...or be impressed enough to play again...but 2.4 is the cut off point where that decision is taken.

With the mess Ive seen so far in season two, they gonna have to pull something special outta the hat otherwise...

The current theme has been pew pew, building upto all out war and alien invasion...somehow I cant see exploration taking any priorities in there anywhere, just more of the same...bla bla bla whatever losing interest here ^

 

[The Wallet Inspector]

I really am glad that popular opinion on this forum has turned against the sad direction this game is being taken. Hopefully, this will lead to some positive changes. Either that or it may go free to play (lol jk, maybe?)

 

[VR Golgot]

So.. Sure stuff will be cut out.. and stuff will be dropped, and stuff just cannot be done.. we get that. That's why I PREFER communication, and better information on what is being worked on and why. That way we can be on the devs side, than seemingly against them.

The problem is there's ample evidence that a lot of guys *don't* get that. Multicrew proved that really amply. Like really really amply.

I want know as much as possible about dev, but ultimately I kinda subscribe to this dev's view (a blog post I've seen shared by various outfits in response to fan rage, a DICE dev being the last ones re Battlefront. Seems to be a respected opinion in the industry anyway). Sections of the community take absolutely everything as a promise despite any caveats, and don't care about any tech or creative walls that get hit etc. Then they blow up if the caveats hold true. Then they rage on the devs. Then communication shuts down again.

Even if you can get beyond that, you come up against other stuff that they really won't want to share re financials limiting or guiding direction. IE the community could come up with some great points about things that could be done re Exploration, and FDev could just be thinking 'But we need to keep the dev tipped towards combat because that's what our stats show is most popular, and marketing say it brings the most sales' etc etc. Or they'll be thinking: 'We could refocus that way, but we'd have to lay of a third off this art team if that was the focus' etc. There are some decisions where they're really unlikely to want to draw back the curtain.

Open dev is a dream. Or possibly a nightmare