It feels like someone is doing their job wrong

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I personally know players who were very excited for multicrew. Then it was nerfed hard right before it released, killing the enthusiasm. Best way to kill an interesting feature is to nerfbat it right before release, it will flip a lot of interest the other way around.
 
And Harmless Rank back in the 80's would be today's Elite rank. Orignial Elite was hard, that rank meant something.

not really. I played the original game on a BBC model B, and the AI was pretty dumb, always kept on flying in a straight line, even the feared thargoids (wich were really easy, just kill the mothership). And oh military lasers helped. Everyone and their dog was Elite back then in a few months. but then it was the only spacegame you could play.
 
Have we gotten a statement from FDEV about 2.3 besides the "salty" comment in their followup patch notes? Maybe a "We're sorry and we're taking steps so this doesn't happen again?" Basic PR fire fighting? Nothing?
 
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Whom ever had the final go/no go decision on dropping 2.3. There's one.
Rather the one who axed all planned features post-2.0 / 2.1 in the meaningful "quality delay" time. Even if 2.3 was going to release bug free, it doesn't contain anything interesting if you look at it up close. Megaships/Asteroid bases? Meh. Currently different station graphics. Multicrew? Even with original non-nerfed rewards, all it can do is pew-pew. Boring. Holo me? Cool, my screenies are prettier with my ugly face in, that's a plus. New alien cutscenes? Aliens hate me so much I didn't even see the first one. Debug cam? Cool but way long overdue, but it makes my screenies prettier. Not my gameplay though.

I hope they are finished with this "let's port this game to consoles season" and concentrate now on rapid development of season 3. And not on Planet Coasters or Hollywood IPs or other ... non-elitey things.

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Basic PR fire fighting? Nothing?

It would probably be akin to trying to put out a forest fire with a glass of water. Let it burn, they thought.
 
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Have we gotten a statement from ED about 2.3 besides the "salty" comment in their followup patch notes? Maybe a "We're sorry and we're taking steps so this doesn't happen again?" Basic PR fire fighting? Nothing?

No.

And heck, even if it wasn't an apology, and an actual attempt at explaining why the decision was made, the things that led to it, an inside perspective about something that from the outside seemed to be an absolutely atrocious decision.
 
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The game design process makes a lot more sense when you look at it from the point of view of the minimum viable product necessary to maximise the profitability, rather than to make an enjoyable long term gaming experience. It's a cash cow based on brand recognition, like damn near every major game and movie for the last decade. It's not a "passion project" or "braben's baby" or whatever other silly byline they threw out to goad in the whales. Every feature, first and foremost, is designed with the thought "how can we make money from this?" as opposed to "how will this enhance the gameplay experience?" The latter thought barely makes it in the end if they have time, if it even gets asked at all.

Exactly!! +rep
 
The game design process makes a lot more sense when you look at it from the point of view of the minimum viable product necessary to maximise the profitability, rather than to make an enjoyable long term gaming experience. It's a cash cow based on brand recognition, like damn near every major game and movie for the last decade. It's not a "passion project" or "braben's baby" or whatever other silly byline they threw out to goad in the whales. Every feature, first and foremost, is designed with the thought "how can we make money from this?" as opposed to "how will this enhance the gameplay experience?" The latter thought barely makes it in the end if they have time, if it even gets asked at all.

Ooh. Yes.
 
It would be a much better "MVP" if the general game design was consistent, where it's not. I'm not talking about the laundry list of features, which are of various quality, but of the core game design, what are people actually doing in that universe.
And there we hit the main snag, this game is a solo game with MMO gameplay slapped on top of it, without any of the actual MMO positive trappings (communities, interaction). Is it an MMO ? is it a solo game ? By being fuzzy on their positioning they lose the audience. If i want to play an MMO, fine, i'll expect a rich social interaction, huge amount of players in instances, player driver economy, player groups with roles in various aspects of the game (*ingame* not on Reddit..), to offset the unavoidable grind that comes with the territory. Or is it a solo game, then i expect a rich scenario with custom tailored NPC's catering to a rich enough series of "quest lines" with increasing rewards, and challenging but enticing gameplay all along.
The problem is, it's neither. We have the downside of a solo game (lifeless, no social interaction) and the downside of an MMO (intense grind, bland universe interaction) without any of the benefits. We can talk about the "features" for thousands of pages, like i said some are good some are not, in the end it doesnt matter because they're window dressing. What's lacking is a meaningful universe. By listening to a certain fringe of the community that want their 1980's Elite experience, and "NOT EVE" which is plain stupid, they missed the mark on what would have been another cult hit. If you want to create a multiplayer experience, start with the good ideas learned from all previous multiplayer experiences, starting with other space MMO's (i'll cite Eve and Jumpgate), they have ups and downs, keep the good ideas avoid the bad ones and improve upon past experiences. Instead what we got is "Let's avoid all the good ideas coming from these games and keep the grind"...
Let me be clear i enjoy this game due to its unparalleled VR experience, combat is fun (and now, somewhat balanced), been doing some SRV antics with a friend and had a bit of fun there. The assets (graphics, sound) are top notch, that's also not the issue. I'm still disappointed i didnt find a gameplay experience as good as 15+ year old games, and i suspect many lost patience over this too.
 
58 pages and we have not gotten any closer to who is doing their job wrong.

That's easy, in the parlance of the Minbari, he's grey, he is the candle who stands betwixt the dark (upper management) and the light (developers, artists and dreamers) and his remit is to protect the light from the dark. However, if balance isn't maintained you get
1) Developers - everything you'd want in the perfect game but never released (SC)
2) Management - that'll do and we can charge extra for those things (ED)

I want to know what happened to David Braben, that last interview he was barely a mouth piece, trotted out to pacify the fan base, what happened to the fire in your belly?

Designer, a leader, a... <sound of black helicopters in the distance>
 
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