My visit to Frontier Developments and the Future of the Game

DukeIronHand

D
Panticus said:
I would rather have nails inserted into my eyeballs than meet the people who can be so dull as to make a great game dull. It must be dull heaven. Like going to church, but duller.
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Now that didn't take long for my good spirits to fade. Should have known not to hang around this most depressing forum too long. And where the hell is that "Ignore User" feature?
 

Enderby

E
DukeIronHand said:
Now that didn't take long for my good spirits to fade. Should have known not to hang around this most depressing forum too long. And where the hell is that "Ignore User" feature?
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You can't be that sensitive a flower that that gets to you?

It made me smile. :D
 
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GG7

G
Sarah Jane Avory said:
I may have tweaked a few things... fixed a few bits that weren't working as intended... :)
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I sure hope this includes the currently Docking Computer! [yesnod]

It is still more or less remains a heavy handed and Lobotomized CLAW in the current 2.3.10 Open Beta.
 
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GG7

G
Obsidian Ant said:
It always comes down to the same old problem. Communication. :(
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If you haven't already... I really hope that you and the others will press Frontier to respond publicly on this very important issue. I know you share all of our concerns regarding the disruption to the game this would cause if handled poorly, as indicated in the current rumors circulating on Reddit.

Not to mention the significant hit to moral and the overall trust in Frontier's judgement if such a weak and ill advised response proves to be true.

Everyone around here knows how this stuff works...

If Frontier remains silent on what was done... Then the rumors on Reddit will become the truth of what was done, and that would be VERY BAD for this game and its community.
 
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ShimEnki

ShimEnki
Kaltern said:
Well,I'm pleased that such esteemed members of Elite Community were given the opportunity to visit the offices and see behind-the-scenes of their favourite game.

I notice that no-one who was in any way critical of the game was invited to go however.

Sorry, but while I respect Ant's work, I don't always agree with it. And it just seemed to me that forum moderators, and a couple of others who have been involved with the game in some manner, were invited.

Why not allow some people who have VALID concerns about the game, to see for themselves what people who already idolise the game were shown? I would be far more inclined to allow myself to believe what a critic says about something, than someone who is the opposite.

Trust me... I want to believe, I want to believe that ALL the concerns I, and many others, have raised over the year or so have been addressed. But lets be honest here - some people's issues are another's features. Not everyone likes Open. Not everyone likes PvP. Yet how do we know that these 'wonderful things' that were seen through the tomb door were only so for those who like those specific things?

Oh I have no doubt I'll get the usual blast of forum flamethrowers - happily I probably blocked everyone who doesn't actually show understanding of what I'm saying - all I ask is to understand where I'm coming from.

It's easy to like snow if you're a snowman.
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This is similar what I was thinking.

Had they invited in addition of course to those with unbending affinity to ED, two or three forum members even, that have not only been around for a spell but have shown they have insight to ED gameplay as opposed to just someone who logs in to achieve their minimum heckling count for the day; but has communicated genuine acidity about the things everyone or most feels/knows and then have them communicate what they gained by such a visit.
CMDRs like myself would be far more influenced by positive statements made by those that have demonstrated they not only experience the frustrations many of us feel but have not been afraid to state it.

It would also show that FDev isn't afraid of showing their truth to genuine ED players that have been willing to state their truth which has opposed the ED fanboi or the easily pleased.
 
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Nomadski

Nomadski
picommander said:
What? If the'd do that I'd never ever would buy an LTP again! "Lifetime" means Lifetime. Period.
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He just means the LTP going back on sale so those that don't currently have it can get it.

I have a lot of questions about FD's financing plans and if LTP's actually have any future use. If not, it will be another thing FD have roughshod over me that I won't be happy about. I fear I won't have any chance at all of getting any answers until some bombshell gets dropped.

Anyways, thanks OP, I'll look forward to E3 in the hope something is being put in that puts the vroom back in for me.
 

Zhark

Zhark
I guess keeping track of development of this game is now the same as the Formidine Rift plot, I have to watch it on Youtube.

This mystical E3 info dump that keeps getting bandied about has got it's work cut out for it. FD have made it just so damn hard to keep an open mind anymore.
 

Mengy

Mengy
sleutelbos said:
Yes, they already told you. If you chose to ignore what they say, then dont complain they tell anything at the same time.
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Not to get into yet another internet debate with you Sleut but I have paid very close attention to everything Frontier has ever said regarding the beige planet issue, a very important topic to me, which actually only amounts to a couple of posts by Frontier in one of Ant's threads on the issue:

Michael Brookes said:
My apologies for not responding sooner, this issue has been on my list to chase up for a while. The reason for the difference being observed on the rocky worlds is the change to the new material system - in theory this is more accurate as it uses the chemical properties to determine the colour (obviously I'm simplifying a bit here!), however the problem is that those colours were based on Earth standard colouration for those materials, and most of those are beige/brown rather than the colours you might observe in the myriad of other possible conditions. We're currently working on a more flexible material system, and this will necessitate a fresh balance pass on these. That's not going to be in 2.3 though.

Michael
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The above is the closest we ever got to any hint that the situation will ever be improved, but it's really only a confirmation that they understand what is causing the beige homogenization. Is anyone working on it now? Is it planned for some future update? Is it even in Frontier's roadmap to be addressed? We do not know any of that, because they haven't told us any of that.

Michael Brookes said:
I suspect it was part of the same change. We've had a few changes so far that will change the planets topography - usually in small amounts, but it will vary.

Michael
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This was in response to a question about the lessened terrain generation from pre-2.2. As was this one below from Anthony Ross, a Frontier programmer:

Anthony Ross said:
There were some changes done which will have affected the geology in some certain circumstances. These were only done as otherwise it was producing terrain that would crash in some cases or have other bad bugs like being able to fly through the terrain. It would result in players being kicked to the main menu, so the issues had to be addressed.
Rocky ice planets were a prime example of some particular combinations of geological data causing rifts too sharp and severe for sensible physics data to be produced. Sometimes the rift would be so sharp, unfortunate sawtoothing artefacts would be produced.
There were cases where overlapping large craters were not being handled quite right, causing drops sheer enough to look wrong and also cause bad physics data again. Sometimes the crater would get filled with very incorrect roughness - fixing this was a scientific accuracy concern.
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So this tells us that the terrain variety was lessened as a result of bug fixes to prevent crashes and clipping, which I agree is important, but a side effect of this is much less interesting planet surfaces for explorers to sightsee on. I think we all can agree that explorers can't afford to be losing "content" at this juncture in the game's life cycle.

And that's it, everything Frontier has ever said regarding the beige surface/lessened terrain issue. I haven't ignored them, they just haven't said very much. And to clarify it for you, that very important point is the source of my and many other's negativity towards Elite right now: the unknown future, the lack of communication, the veil of secrecy. It's very hard to get excited for, let alone buy DLC for, a game which has no planned future or known upcoming content, let alone broken/anemic game mechanics which have little to no communication on solutions for them.

I think it's nice that Frontier invited a group of players to their offices, I really do, but that does not do much to address the core of the problem, which is a lack of communication on the game's future and development. And while E3 will apparently tell us a bit about 2.4, and then we'll later find out a little bit more about 2.4 at some other event, none of that will do much of anything to inform the community about the pressing topics that these forums see post after post about day in and day out. The toxicity has become overwhelming, and it is largely due to a lack of communication on Frontier's part. I do not doubt that many of Frontier's employees are passionate about the game, but so are the players, and this policy of silence and secrecy is doing a lot to kill the player's passions right now.

I'm still paying attention because I love the franchise, and whether or not I ever start playing regularly again depends entirely upon Frontier's future development, but how many won't bother to wait? How many will leave due to lost hope? Ant's video is great as his vids always are, but it's content is the same as every other communication from Frontier: an announcement of a future announcement. Stay tuned for more info! Same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!!!!! No ETA's, no guarantees.

To answer your charge Sleut, I'm not ignoring what Frontier is saying, it's just that unfortunately they aren't saying much of substance for a long time now. Not just on the beige issue, but on almost every single issue.
 
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Bigskill

Bigskill
Any Info regarding future plan for fix Heat cannons and balance this game once forever? :/
They were very fast fix the G1/G5 mod.....
When will we see a different savegame for Open Play and Private group???


Gg FD
 

Wotthe Dickens

Wotthe Dickens
hmmm, interesting.
I think I've read something into this...
I don't think these guys went into FD's offices just to be audio recorded.
I think they were 3D scanned and we're going to get AI characters with avatars / mission givers? :)
 
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