+rep agree with a lot of OP
My take;
Fdev are doing a lot of 'prep' work with feature they release, and i don't mean they get it ready before publishing it.
They are using each update/season as a ground feature for planned future content (that we don't know anything about). Planets would be the biggest example.. but you can tell from the language we sometimes hear (cant give direct links to references as they where over many live streams, and i'm paraphrasing)
...things like, 'It's all starting to come together' and 'it a foundation for more content (mega ships)' . well we don't want foundations, that's all well and good for Fdev, who have a bigger plan and a check list of prerequisites... we want things to play with, that feel complete.
Much of the game feels like 'place holders', and some of it looks like it wont change (as it's waiting on other features to be added, in a huge Dev web of functions). Its like being given a half finished panting to hang on your all and being told they will come back and finish in a year or so ><
I know its Fdev plan, to get evening perfect (I heard that, don't laugh), so we see this system of setting foundation.. with the occasional random content we don't really want (CQC), but its not working, the community has waited and waited... and we still have foundation feature after foundation feature
The system need to be re-jigged. you cant go down the road of building all the base functions before adding polished game play, even if there is a long term plan.
I kind of agree with your general gist here. This is a tricky one. Frontier have chosen to develop the game live. That is in contrast to Star Citizen, which is more a WIP that is shown off at regular intervals.
Problem is, how do you arrive at complex, buffed, complete gameplay, with no dev time. Seems you cant.
So Frontier are adding what they think are valid, fun features, headline features, such as multi-crew, and along the way, more and more foundation, building block items.
I think patience has to be used, as, well, things wont happen over night ( a game of this complexity and scope will take about 6 years...).
I can see how recent additions can be combined with older, to improve the base game.
Think about power-play. It can (should!) be heavily revised to leverage the MUCH better mission system we have now, and the new locations (mega ships etc). Power Play is PURE grind. With rich, fun missions, I can see it being an option for people once more.
And I'm sure there are many such cycles of revision that Frontier can and will put in place, as things "come together".
I think a key system for game-play, is missions. Frontier have been working on this, and each release, they get better. This bodes well, more complex, rich missions are vital to the game. Please keep on expanding the missions systems FDev.
Look at planets. We can all agree, their pretty dull. Quite bare-bones. But we know FDev are beavering away on it.
One key thing Ill say here. I REALLY want the next few releases to focus on fleshing out the environment we have. Forget headline features. Give us assets, assets, assets please.
More variety in station interiors. Of adverts. Of ground vehicles (NPC for now...). Of outpost styles, station types, open cast mines, roads connection bases etc together, SET DRESSING to bed assets into their environment, such as rubble near walls, dust acretion from storms. etc.
Imagine ED is a model railway. On planets right now, you have cities, towns, outputs and ONE vehicle type, that is ONLY driver by players. So, our model is pretty damn poor. We have no equivalent of model rocks, trees, bushes gravel, etc, that are used in models to bed a building into its environment. locations just kind of sit there, on their environment. Not good. Think about the moon landings. The Apollo sites are peppered with footsteps, jet blasts and buggy tracks. This shows that humans have been there. If you look at all bases, nothing, clean dust around them. Like the asset was just plonked there.
Procedural generation is just fine, but you REALLY have to fight against things LOOKING procedural and un-natural. FDev IMHO need to raise their game in this respect, I feel. Lets make locations feel more bedded in, dirty, organic, unique. They made so many set dressing assets for Planet Coaster, and yet the same concept and production of dressing assets for the procedural system just has not happened here yet.
Another key element still missing, is, LIFE. Lets actually see people, not just Commanders. The scale of the game would really shine if we could see people within stations.Lets see some bustle, other than ships inside stations.
And really, Atmosphered planets HAVE to arrive this year. They may be a little ropey at first, maybe some aspects will need buffing. But lets get them in-game ASAP. I want to fly down and fly through clouds, skip over dunes and lakes, and land on a grassy plain.
Im happy enough then to see atmos planets buffed for quite some time (18 months) and then lets see the first iteration of space legs, with the ability to move in our own ships at first. With stations following 6 months after that (in space and on planet). And then a cyclical expansion of Space legs as more assets are produced, allowing commanders to move around more and more.
