We were promised atmospheric planetary landings

[Jex =TE=]

Two thoughts come to mind from your comment .... first the longevity of ED ... Freelancer comes to mind. It came out in 2003 and to my knowledge is still played by quite a few. Why? It's an open world type game where a little imagination goes a long way towards enjoying yourself.

And I'm sure your aware other similar games are still in Alpha after a number of years and yet, still have a large following.

OP, No one is denying that such content as atmosphere would be interesting. And it's a challenge we may yet see. But till then, let us appreciate what we have and enjoy it.

Chief

Quite a few? How many is that - 30 people? Without numbers your anecdotal evidence doesn't help. We can all say our favourite games have a thriving community but fail to realise hardly anybody is actually playing it because we look at it with rose coloured glasses.

You need to provide which games and what numbers - saying "A large following" means nothing. If it turns out by large you mean a few thousand players then guess what - devs aren't getting out of bed to go and make a game for them.

Even LOTRO is still going ten years later, and are just about to release a new paid for expansion. If a mmo is done well, it can last a long time. I think that the core updates will likely determine how long the game lasts though. If FDev get these right, then I can see ED lasting for a very long time into the future.

You've made a ton of posts recently where you've stated you don't think ED has been made well or your not happy with it's direction. Given those posts, how do you think ED will stand the test of time?

PS - there's also nothing wrong with ED not being here in 10-15 years time either. God, some of you make it sound like the end of the world and quit getting emotional over a computer game. ED dying off just paves the way for ED2 right?

 

[Aashenfox]

OK well I'm going off reality, that's all I can keep on repeating. I think a lot of you don't like to hear it but what I'm saying is factual. I already said that doesn't mean it's sealed but if anyone here thinks that ED will definitely be alive in 10-15 years time with FDev still working on it I think you're dreaming

Our stubbornness should tell you volumes about why this game will last longer than others. You are aware we are still ont he same original developer since 1985, sure he's more of a creative lead now, but come on, this is a very unique IP. Please take your blinkers off, respectfully.

 

[Jex =TE=]

Our stubbornness should tell you volumes about why this game will last longer than others. You are aware we are still ont he same original developer since 1985, sure he's more of a creative lead now, but come on, this is a very unique IP. Please take your blinkers off, respectfully.

LOL ok. I'm well aware thanks having played the original and about 1000 games since then. Doesn't matter if it's a unique IP - most people weren't playing computer games in 1985 and have no clue what Elite is. It's only in the last decade or two that gaming has really kicked off and become more mainstream and that was 2 decades after the original came out. The IP doesn't matter either - people don't play games because of games long passed. They play games on the merit of the game and how much enjoyment they get from it - that's what keeps games alive.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

You've made a ton of posts recently where you've stated you don't think ED has been made well or your not happy with it's direction. Given those posts, how do you think ED will stand the test of time?

PS - there's also nothing wrong with ED not being here in 10-15 years time either. God, some of you make it sound like the end of the world and quit getting emotional over a computer game. ED dying off just paves the way for ED2 right?

Mostly I love playing the game, but yep I think they made some wrong choices. Powerplay being the biggest one, it has the potential to be superb though. No wing or multi-crew content, and core areas need some serious improvement.

But luckily FDev agree with that and will be updating the core and existing gameplay features, so I am happier with the direction and will be interested to see what comes with 2.4 (from what little I have seen, its looking good) and the future content in october. As long as they get these done well, as I stated above, I can see ED lasting a long time.

DB has already said that there will be no ED2. So I expect them to continue to push ED for as long as possible.

 

[Jenner]

The fact that FD are bringing ED to new platforms still and are continuing to release content means there is still a market for it. Obviously there will be a point of diminishing returns upon which it no longer makes financial sense to support it, but all signs point to that being some distance off.

 

[dognosh]

I have temporarily solved my lack of atmospheric landing capability in ED. I land on Beige then I have Alexa play rain forest sounds, and I weave to go round imaginary trees and brooks(no,not Michael)

 

[Jex =TE=]

Mostly I love playing the game, but yep I think they made some wrong choices. Powerplay being the biggest one, it has the potential to be superb though. No wing or multi-crew content, and core areas need some serious improvement.

But luckily FDev agree with that and will be updating the core and existing gameplay features, so I am happier with the direction and will be interested to see what comes with 2.4 (from what little I have seen, its looking good) and the future content in october. As long as they get these done well, as I stated above, I can see ED lasting a long time.

DB has already said that there will be no ED2. So I expect them to continue to push ED for as long as possible.

Yes, yes of course there won't be an ED2. If anybody takes that seriously idk what to say. So if the projected sales of ED2 were $10 billion there wouldn't be an ED2? Also, why the heck not!?? Seriously there's not going to be a sequel? Who does that!? lol

I think the next DLC is going to be telling. Many people were put off over Horizons and then the cash shop and the name plate fiasco so I would imagine that a lot of people are waiting to see what S3 holds. If it dives, I'll give up on ED and hope something else comes along which may or may not be SC - I have a horrible feeling that it's going to look great and everything but is going to fail to deliver but we'll see in another 7 years time

 

[Jex =TE=]

The fact that FD are bringing ED to new platforms still and are continuing to release content means there is still a market for it. Obviously there will be a point of diminishing returns upon which it no longer makes financial sense to support it, but all signs point to that being some distance off.

All that means is they're looking to make more cash off of captured audience. It might even tell you that the last 2 markets have failed and the PS4 is their last hope to keep ED alive. We can draw any conclusions we want when we have no data but I think you're right about time - there's still a lot to do with the game and people are hoping to see deeper content which is coming next DLC

 

[CMDR Ellegon]

Guys, currently we have rocky biomeless balls with 3-6 geysers on them because of some technical issue with distribution. Landable Earth likes? Forests? Animals? Cities?! Thats way way in the future... or even galaxy far far away. I`m very pessimistic.

I am fairly optimistic, because of Planet Coaster. It pretty much has all these elements and it is running on the same game engine. So I guess it is just a matter of time and technology platform. I doubt that anything but high-end PCs of today will be able to run an Elite Dangerous with Space Legs, rich walkable structures, landable Earth-like planets with realistic atmosphere, weather and water.

Can the current consoles do it? Doubtable. So these features might only appear on PC ones the next generation consoles are at least on the horizon.

Also, try to imagine the outcry on the forum, if they released all these advanced features next year and set a minimum hardware requirement, let's say of a GTX 1080ti and AMD Threadripper or Intel Core i9 with 64 GB of RAM.... So no, a few years at least, until more performance is on hand for a reasonable subset of the player base. Just take a peak at SC hardware requirements for Ultra settings and reasonably smooth performance....

 

[Red Martian]

Yes, yes of course there won't be an ED2. If anybody takes that seriously idk what to say. So if the projected sales of ED2 were $10 billion there wouldn't be an ED2? Also, why the heck not!?? Seriously there's not going to be a sequel? Who does that!? lol

I think the next DLC is going to be telling. Many people were put off over Horizons and then the cash shop and the name plate fiasco so I would imagine that a lot of people are waiting to see what S3 holds. If it dives, I'll give up on ED and hope something else comes along which may or may not be SC - I have a horrible feeling that it's going to look great and everything but is going to fail to deliver but we'll see in another 7 years time

People will squabble over everything, but that doesn't mean disastrous things will happen. The whole nameplate thing? I didn't care, and still don't. Buying cosmetic extras helps support the game, and doesn't affect gameplay in a P2W scenario. The so-called controversies and fiasco are sturm and drang. Nothing more. People still play, even as they gripe and complain. Welcome to the 21st century of entertainment media.

 

[Quantis Trap]

As usual ... Much ado about nothing!

If Cmdr Braben wants it to live it will live. He may even offer a path forward past him before he dies. Who knows.

 

[Ignition]

David said the opposite. Anyone can add clouds and trees - which is all you need to do - but the hard part is using it to add gameplay. What do you do on an atmospheric world?

FD added non atmospheric planets and forgot to add the gameplay.

I see no point in more empty stuff.

 

[Lestat]

The question people need to ask them self is this. Do we let Frontier Do Minor upgrades and slowly get what we want or the other two options.

1 Do we want a remake of No man sky which look great at the start but after a few hours it kinda lame

2 Or a game like Star Citizen which been in Alpha stage for 3 years.

 

[krylite]

As someone who is himself playing games since 1985 including most of the important ones on PC and all the major consoles to date, except xbox one (hey, I'm getting old nowadays), as well as being a significant player in THE MMO of our times, AND being a sim type player, I do feel I know what I'm talking about. The last 10 years of gaming has gone by in an instant for me. P.M. me for my resume if you like, but I will not be going out of my way to prove any of my claimed history, like I say, I'm too old for all that nowadays.

P.S. since you mentioned VR, meh, that's not the future. I have a DK2 and a CV-1, but I've been into 3d gaming technologies since the first shutter glasses appeared, oooh, 24 years ago? Edimensional, was really clever kit back then, we were overclocking our CRT monitors to get as many hz as poss to make the experience better, but yeh, I was playing pinball fantasies in 3d 20 years ago. So I know a thing or two about where that's going too, if you're interested (hint: Microsoft hololens meets google glass, that's the future).

Besides all of what you say, the games you refer to as falling by the wayside were not like Elite, and that is all that's relevant here. Elite is unique, it does not need to conform to gaming norms to retain its hardcore of players. Yes, there will come a time when we are a lot less, but we'll be enough for a long time yet, please, trust me.

Myself, I will continue to clamor for more meaningful pve content to make this a better fit to your description of an mmo, but not because I think that's important for Elite's success, just because that's what I would like for myself and a lot of other players who share my vision.

I agree that ED could very well be in it's own niche in open world space gaming. As we've seen, updates can include major revisions of multi gigabytes, thanks to today's internet download speed, a whole new update equivalent to ED2 or "Elite: Deadly" is made trivial.
As Jack Schitt mentioned in a prior post, the Flight Simulator niche franchise which the Elite franchise was practically a contemporary of in the past decades, is very much alive today with FSX now 12 years old, in its current steam and Prepard3Dv3 incarnations. (www.avsim.com, www.simmarket.com , https://simviation.com/1/front-page, www.pmdg.com, www.flightsimlabs.com, etc.). Granted that much of the ongoing continued commerce of FSX is in it's 3rd party development profits sold to the niche base, Frontier so far, seems to have their own in-house teams for expansions. For the future, I hope the equivalent of whatever they plan to substitute for "seasons" is enough of a game changer that it becomes practically a new ED game in terms of new sales and continued longevity.

I think the most important and crucial MMO aspect that ED has incorporated so far in terms of the players are the profiles databases. So even if the game gets revamped into a new version, the persistence of the player base with their items, modules and ships including paintjobs and effects, and also perhaps the BGS can easily be ported into the new version.

 

[robbyp]

So the original Op was silly. Isn't it time to let the thread die?

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Yes, yes of course there won't be an ED2. If anybody takes that seriously idk what to say. So if the projected sales of ED2 were $10 billion there wouldn't be an ED2? Also, why the heck not!?? Seriously there's not going to be a sequel? Who does that!? lol

When a sales person trying to sell over a £100 add on to a piece of software says buy this and know you are covered for the life of elite , then yep i take that pretty seriously... At the very least if "elite deadly" came out i would expect a copy of the game complete with lifetime pass

 

[shreddog]

We could have landable Earth Likes released already, and it would looks something like Space Engine.

Or we have patience and wait and we might have something like this..

Spoiler

[video=youtube_share;ZMVz3oUCagw]https://youtu.be/ZMVz3oUCagw[/video]

 

[Xenith]

The fact that FD are bringing ED to new platforms still and are continuing to release content means there is still a market for it. Obviously there will be a point of diminishing returns upon which it no longer makes financial sense to support it, but all signs point to that being some distance off.

A long way off, I suspect. Now that they have access to Sony's market, there's a whole untapped consumer base to be reached. It's not as if they have many options where space games are concerned, so ED should do well.

 

[Spacecat]

+rep. Made me laugh lol

Hey, we can drive around and shoot rocks, but with clouds!

 

[Cmdr Aeries Hunter]

With the plethora of flight simulator games (just google it), they are not inventing anything new, so don't know why it is so hard. The mechanics, code etc is all out there. From what I have seen many of them have amazing graphics too. A bunch of talented people like Fdev should be able to do the same surely.

As for procedural cities, caves, whatever. Bethesda did that way back in 1996 with daggerfall. An entire continent was procedurally done and the dungeons within. Again nothing new there. The basics have all been done before.