#support3rdparty - Why we temporarily shut down our sites.

[Ozric]

It seems like a higher level of communication was being established but was not followed through on by Frontier. I don't think any of this would have happened if Fdev didn't step up their support and communication with 3rd party devs in the first place.

They dropped the ball here, the least they could do is acknowledge that. The most they could do is bring it up to what they appeared to be doing before they went dark.

I partially agree, because I don't think they should ever have stepped up their support. The only reason this was done was because (as the OP says) they had already started pulling apart the companion API and reverse engineering it to do what they want. Look at rares trading and EDMC, is that FD's fault because there's a "bug" in the not officially supported API, or is it more of an issue that a 3rd party app that you have to supply your username and password too can actually affect the game?

There was plenty of discussion at the time and (as I have said before) FD still said that supporting it was low on their list of priorities, all of the 3PD involved in that discussion knew that. How does it help trying to get FD to stand up, say what they have said in the past and then take abuse from the community for it? What good does that possibly do, especially at the moment given the abuse that has been directed at them recently?

You know what? I would settle with '' Good communication '' As in '' Frontier aknowledge the fact that a lot if not most of the player base uses tools that are made by 3rd party '' Right now, in every department of Frontier, they seem either understaffed or unwilling to answer request that doesn't come with a bug report...

So they're understaffed and all you want is them to say yes we know a lot of the community use these tools... I don't think you have grasped what is being asked for here, because it's not that.

 

[ShadowWolf Kell]

Cake news?

Not exactly. The Milkier Way. I'm tagging it!

 

[Kraytex1]

Oh no... down... what do I do on the weekend now?!? 3rd Party Devs need some support - I give you my (mental) support and I press fingers you get the attention that you need in order to grow the infrastructure around and with ED. In fact, such infrastructure helps growing the community and ED.

You know before 3rd party tools we all used to come here and talk about where to find things and where to upgrade stuff.. Good times!

 

[Wildthing]

My Sig states my stance in this.

Fly safe Commander's o7

 

[DCLXVI your God]

Thanks for the input. Next!

My pleasure, little man.
May God grant you the ability to understand. [yesnod]

Safe journey!

 

[Typhus d'Isinor]

I was about to head out from Quince for an adventure in the Perseus Arm in my DBx (helps it is the opposite direction from the thargs too.) Now I will have to wait until EDSM comes back online

These tools have been invaluable and are part of my and many players game experience...this thread already passed 80 pages of comments...why in the real 3303 galaxy wouldn't tools like these exist?

ED generates a massive amount of information. These applications distill and contextualize all that data so I can fly with purpose (and in the right direction).

In fact, not only should FD share more info with these guys/gals they should integrate ports to these apps in some way. These developers play and love the game and the game's ethos as much as the other players and the FD devs.

 

[CMDR Carbo]

I'm only here for the cake...

...There is cake right?

The cake isn't finished yet it still needs some icing which will be applied when Winter is coming.

 

[Punch Drinklots]

I'm trying to upgrade my thrusters to DD5 and I just want to say, "Thank you inara for making it easier to find cadmium".

Because goddamn there's no way I'm flying around with surface scanners praying to the RNG gods that I get lucky and find a rock with cadmium on it. If that's "intended gameplay" then you can stick it up your butt . This game wouldn't be a tenth of what it is without 3rd-party cartographers. If they go away I will not be purchasing the next Season Pass.

 

[Viajero]

I approve of this OP

 

[drew]

And this isn't Frontier's event. And I don't see how the tools affect it.

This is correct. The 29th is being organised by me and lots of other community members, it is thus a community event. FDev have helped at various levels, but it is not run by them.

Cheers,

Drew.

 

[Seishiroa]

Somehow Frontiers behaviour towards you supprises no one...

They just don't communicate.

 

[Javert]

I feel a disturbance in force... as if 1,000,000 Sat-Nav's were all unaccessible.....

Ha ha this was my thought to - reading this is like giving an insight into what would happen if GPS system was switched off.

 

[xyphic]

What? They took time while working on the 2.3 update to TAKE OUT INFORMATION FROM THE API! And now, you're invoking the fact that they are busy sorting out update issues? Maybe if they DIDN'T spend time to take it out of the API, maybe there would be less update issues, don't you think?

That's a simplistic view. If Frontier are being sensible about it, the information in the API will be generated programmatically. It's actually really easy for changes to get merged out (especially if there are humans involved in the merge process) or perhaps a typo introduced that causes the serialiser to miss particular data, or perhaps something got commented out during a debugging session and never got uncommented. There are plenty of ways that things like this can happen without it being a deliberate action.

The issue here is that Frontier are seen as being tardy in their responses to requests for information about whether this is a bug or a deliberate omission.

 

[ChiefRedCloud]

Where I find, and appreciate, the apps provided by the 3rd party vendors it's clear they could have informed everyone of their temporary closure in a line or two but instead they chose to present their grievances to you, the players. Further feeding both sides of the argument. Those that are frustrated with things as they are and those that are more or less happy with what they have.

Personally I do not see this helping the ED community even if I see the frustration (from reading he forums). I have not been here long enough to know how broken this game is according to some. I do see that it is an interesting and ambitious project. And it appears to be very complex and beautiful.

I have no idea why there isn't a dialogue between venders and ED but I do not feel that this will help.

Well back to space ....

Chief

 

[Ciel Noir]

Support

3rd Party provides content the game sorely needs. I understand Frontier is extremely busy with game updates and events. But maybe more transparency with regards to this is needed.

 

[tarks382]

This is correct. The 29th being organised by me and lots of other community members, it is thus a community event. FDev have helped at various levels, but it is not run by them.

Cheers,

Drew.

Last word, anyone?

 

[CMDR MrChips]

You're welcome to use notepads and pencils but since I'm on a computer, I prefer using intelligent tools. I already don't have too much time to give the game and I won't spend half my time updating my spreadsheets in Excel, thank you very much!

You mean you don't like spending your leisure time on menial clerical tasks? Get off my lawn you entitled millenial snowflake, back in my day notepads were a luxury, I had to record market prices by piling up bits of gravel after 18 hours down't pit, etc etc

 

[ShimEnki]

I full support the 3rd-party developers in this event and after reading the ungrateful replies in this thread that these developers get I propose to prolong the event for duration of the whole month of May.

Thanks to every third-party developer for their voluntary work to make ED a great game.

Indeed.

I would think that with the ability of these 3rd party developers, they would be incalculably better off nourishing an entity that's far more appreciative and communicative and with much higher tone. If FD has any tone at all!

My vote is to pull the plug and leave it pulled and move on to much higher ground--which would not be hard to find!

 

[Xolarix]

Without you guys, it shows the obscene lack of actual playability of Elite Dangerous in many, MANY aspects.

So I applaud your move. It takes some balls to off thousands of ED players. I really hope those ED players will direct their anger at FDEV and tell them to get their crap together and start adding in some basic convenience tools.
Of course an API is nice, but really, good game design should mean that players don't need third-party tools. I can understand if third-party tools are developed for niche, specialized activities.
But practically requiring third-party tools for core gameplay is just idiotic. And yes, this is true. I really want to dare anyone to play Elite without those tools, and "race" with someone who does use those tools... measure the difference for yourself. The fact that third-party tools can make such a difference (which I *know* will be strongly in favor of the one using the tools) is telling enough.

ED is a great game. But man... ED definitely have some of the worst flaws I've ever seen.

 

[biot]

I think using 3rd party sites and apps is cheating.
I also think that manually writing down anything is also cheating.
Navigating on wits alone or using the tools offered in the game is also cheating.
The game is clearly designed to be played with a blindfold and boxing gloves and you should all be ashamed of yourselves for not sticking to the vision.

If you are playing Ironman you also need to superglue up your ears.