#support3rdparty - Why we temporarily shut down our sites.

[BJB]

Please Support Third Parties

Hi FDEV. The purpose of these tools/sites is simply to make an awesome game even better. Publishing the changes to your interfaces earlier would help those developers significantly.

I find these sites extremely useful and without them I would ignore some aspects of the game completely (especially trading). The other sites are great for gameplay too as they show all sorts of information such as flight maps, logs, inventory, etc... Perhaps not critical information (to me anyway) but they do enhance the whole experience.

For me, "The Game" = Elite Dangerous + Thirds Parties. If the third party sites go away then I have fewer reasons to purchase the next round of ED season passes.

At the end of the day, if you didn't want the community to improve the gameplay then why did you allow access via an API? On the other hand, if you do want the community to improve your game for free then perhaps give them a little bit more support.

 

[biot]

Reading through it seems what third party tools encourage most of all is laziness...pen and paper folks, that's how we did it in 1984!

Maybe you meant this as a tongue in cheek comment. But the unintended irony of you writing this on T'Intenets made me chuckle. Write it in a letter and post it to the forum next time, lazybones!

 

[Jason Heik]

Ever noticed to little paypal donate box on them? Some don't do it for free.

do·na·tion
dōˈnāSH(ə)n/
noun
noun: donation; plural noun: donations

something that is given to a charity, especially a sum of money.
synonyms: gift, contribution, present, pledge, handout, grant, offering

I think between having a donation box, and ''not doing it for free'' there a wall of china, with soldier posted at every 20 feet...

 

[Jex =TE=]

I dont need those tools, ED is perfectly playable without it. You just have to git gut.

git gut? You mean get fat? As in my gut, as in stomach?

What the hewck is "git gut" - oh did you mean Get GOOD? as in, "git gud" - as in the mornonic phrase people use when they don't understand what the argument is? Because "git gud" or "git gut" has nothing to do with being an idiot and playing the game in an even more boring and time consuming way - so saying "git gut" do you mean people should have a more boring time and take 10 times as long to do things? That sounds like an awful game to play....

 

[Vincent]

+1 support for the 3rd party Devs

 

[Andy Whapham]

I agree with the reasons for taking these sites/apps offline. Yes it's bloody irritating but whole heartedly support you in your moves to have a more integrated approach.

I've confidence your efforts will be for the benefits of all concerned!!

All the best

 

[ShadowWolf Kell]

One side just wants to use the tools that enhance their enjoyment of the game...the other side thinks the tool users are not manly enough to play the game "correctly"

As well as a vocal minority, judging by the posts (and I've read them all up to this point.)

 

[Agony_Aunt]

TSome people in here are just really grinding my gears this morning.

This morning? Its always like this

 

[Arkku]

So you are saying your sites don't generate any revenue at all from advertising or click throughs?

Do I have an ad-blocker I don't know about or why don't I recall seeing any ads on these sites?

 

[DarKourS]

Beaucoup de bug sur Update 2.3!!
perte de site très utile pour tout le monde
la fin Elite Dengreous ???

A lot of bug on Update 2.3 !!
Loss of site very useful for everyone
The end Elite Dengreous ???


sorry I'am french

 

[13A]

Good luck guys, I really hope you get something from FD.

You have my support [up]

 

[VariXx]

I couldn't play this game without EDDB or Coriolis.

 

[DCLXVI your God]

I, along with my fellow devs, have put many hundreds of hours into tools supporting your game. All for free.

We are not expecting any payments, but the least we could expect back is some support, information when things are changing before they change, and maybe the occasional mention on the newsletters/video streams (I see plenty of coverage of people making videos etc, which of course are great, but are they really more important than all the tools people use ever day to play this game?)

Rob

And God bless you for your efforts!
I am very grateful.

 

[PogueMaHoon]

You shutting down the sites turn these suggestions into demands. The fact you can't just admit it just make you two fact about it. Which reminds me very much how trade unions act.

Do you..... do you actually not understand what a strike is?

 

[Sonof Hibachi]

FDev, these guys are awesome, show them some love please!

 

[Eldragon]

To all the people complaining about the strike:

You are complaining that a tool has been taken away from you.

The apps on strike are doing so because the tools they use to provide the app have been taken from them.

The hypocrisy is hilarious.

To all the people who say use pen and paper like 1984:

You are posting on the internet using a browser. The maintenance of which requires the free and fair cooperation between thousands of people.

The hypocrisy is hilarious.

To all the people who say they don't use the the tools and denigrating those who do:

You did not get all of your game knowledge on your own. You still use reddit, these forums, the internet in general for advice. Many of those people you interact with use those tools. So you still benefit from them, even if indirectly.

The hypocrisy is hilarious.

 

[ries]

so its a "ED is dying! because we make it so" thread.

 

[Sundae]

I wish that our 3PDevs would have went a bit further and put out a list of things they would like from FDEV. Not necessary as demands but so that FDEV knows exactly what the community needs in order to keep playing/growing/supporting this game. They have started to take their customers for granted over the past year and a half, and it shows. It's about time for a wake up call, between their apathy toward the community and patch after patch of broken features, I am sure they're on thin ice with much of the community.

 

[evoelise]

The third-party developers are doing a huge favour to Frontier; these tools enhance the game and the community no end.

It's a shame Frontier don't seem to realise this and provide the needed co-ordination and support.

 

[samuelb]

FD cannot provide these tools in-game? Of course they could they just don't. They rely on people (like me, amongst others) building tools to make the game a complete experience, yet they make it harder and harder to do so.

I tried to ask about the JSON data changes in 2.3 on the live stream and it was just overlooked - I asked many, many times. I know that this may just be a result of the way live streams work (the comments are plentiful, to say the least) but nothing was mentioned at all - not even a cursory mention of this bare minimum effort (the JSON feed).

I love Elite, I have been here since Beta (missed Alpha by one day) and have many weeks of time invested but I am thoroughly sick of their complete refusal to provide the most basic tools to make the game usable without hours of pointless grind.

"yes, we know you are in a galaxy where 10s of millions of ships are built every year and there are 1000s of stations across light years of space, what makes you think you should have access to basic trading and engineering data in game?"

^ This feels like their approach.

So, come on FD, either make the content or support the makers - you choose, but choose you must or risk losing more and more of your audience.

While I do not agree with the method of complaint used here (I believe it will do more damage than good), I wholeheartedly support and understand the devs point of view.

Fly safe CMDRs

(and come on FD, reply and let us know what's going on - even just to say "we are going to do nothing", at least show us that modicum of respect)