"Beyond" free for Horizon owners - LEP musings

[Arindor]

I can't fathom why "Beyond" is free to "Horizon" owners, as this content is clearly (imo) a new "season". Either way, the LEP was always a gamble in my book (and I decided to take that risk). But I do remember saying during PB that it wouldn't surprise me if FD reneged on the LEP at some point.

 

[lenna]

I can't fathom why "Beyond" is free to "Horizon" owners, as this content is clearly (imo) a new "season". Either way, the LEP was always a gamble in my book (and I decided to take that risk). But I do remember saying during PB that it wouldn't surprise me if FD reneged on the LEP at some point.

Legally speaking they would probably be opening themselves for a class action law suit if they officially reneged on the LEP and if they try to side-step it then things could get interesting.

As for why Beyond is free to Horizons owners, FD have already publicly declared the seasons model dead and ED Beyond content would most likely require or expand on ED Horizons content. If they made it free to both ED base and ED Horizons then there would perhaps be a greater degree of (and reasonable justification for) complaints.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Seems so. Will the community cry out if they give it out for free? If you're going to get complaints either way it gives you the freedom to make the decision based on sound reasoning rather than whether there will be complaints.

I like a good dilemma, me

I hope they make the previous version free eventually to try to minimise fragmentation. I could imagine a scenario where once DLC2 is released ED base game is pulled from sale. Over the course of the following 6 months they could cut the cost of horizons upgrade before at the 6 month point (hopefully halfway through dlc 2) everyone gets upgraded to horizons (with Mac users having planetary landing disabled).
My main worry about the length of time between expansions (note worry not complaint) is burnout. I am personally not good with sandboxes, and elite has never been a pure sandbox. There has always been quests, be it getting to elite status, getting to galaxy 8, flying in (or in the case of ED owning) all ships in the game, or unlocking g all engineers.

I hope each major expansion FD come up with long term targets for folk like me to hit. It COULD be megaship ownership once they come, but that depends if FD allow solo players to own one (my own personal flying hanger) and even if they do if they are affordable for a lone wolf who refuses to cheese money earning loopholes.

(But then that would make them trivial for the players who DO cheese the game in large groups :/ )

So I doubt megaship is the answer for me.

 

[Blaze Stark]

Does it seem like the value is off?

They are angry, because a free year seem to devalue the Lifetime pass.

 

[lenna]

They are angry, because a free year seem to devalue the Lifetime pass.

A fair executive summary of the viewpoint of the LEP owners that are complaining.

 

[PiLhEaD]

Hey Astral! This is a very reasonable and understandable post. Hopefully I can put your mind at ease a little.


In addition to all the content talked about at Frontier Expo, we also have some pretty cool things in the works which will be available to purchase. We're not ready to talk about them just yet so we can't give you any details but rest assured that the lifetime expansion pass owners will be looked after and will be getting their hands on premium content as part of their lifetime expansion pass before the end of 2018 and the Beyond series of updates.

I hope that helps,


Zac

It seems this needs re-re-...-posting.

We leppers are still getting content for 'free' that norms will have to pay for.

And to add to my air of smugness, I purchased the LEP in beta for 30£. Aaaah, just bask in my warm glow of smug self satisfaction.....

 

[lenna]

It seems this needs re-re-...-posting.

We leppers are still getting content for 'free' that norms will have to pay for.

Good call on the repost.... but I do not think much of the LEPpers/lepers double entendre

And to add to my air of smugness, I purchased the LEP in beta for 30£. Aaaah, just bask in my warm glow of smug self satisfaction.....

Damn those waskerly LEPs that were sold for the price of Horizons

I think LEP complainers should take particular note of this bit from the quote:-

... the lifetime expansion pass owners will be looked after and will be getting their hands on premium content as part of their lifetime expansion pass before the end of 2018 and the Beyond series of updates. ...

However, this wording does not preclude the same content being included with Horizons as well.

 

[Archvillain]

The big take away for me is that this is the only solid evidence of Frontier's commitment to at least 2022.

This is true, but I personally put a lot of weight on the likelyhood that this is Braben's magnum opus*, so even if the financials got to a point where short-term-profit-chasing shareholders might want to pull the plug, I think Braben would still be inclined to keep it going for all the good non-financial reasons, and when that ceased to be possible, ensure that it remained an ongoing playable live universe. (And since he's (still?) the majority shareholder of FDev, and also has a personal fortune, he has options )
E-D was built from the ground up to be native VR, which is only just starting to touch the mainstream. There's not going to be a technical revolution any time soon that would make a new Elite game make sense, and FDev has the capacity to work on other games so it's not like E-D is limiting him to one project. This is the big one.

*Raspberry Pi will presumably have the greater impact on the world, and while I don't know how involved he was in creating that, I don't think it's Braben's baby the way E-D seems to be.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

There is a lot of word twisting going on here having a go at LEPers who dared to show concern which I think is pretty nasty to be honest. I can only speak for myself but as a LEPer personally I could not care less if out of the blue FD came out with the "DDF" patch which covered the entire DDF and made it free for everyone.

Personally my only worry is whether or not that content is still on the roadmap and I expressed my concern that 3 years without any new paid DLC reduced the chances of the more ambitious parts of the game making it out. I also suggested FD commenting on some broad future would not go amiss.

Some are not worried and that is ok too, but it's not cool to insult and entire group who dare express concern. Asking for an update (which we got) and saying you are worried and expected more than one premium update in 3 years (which we may be getting after all) is not whining imo esp when game direction seems to be changing significantly

 

[bitstorm]

I don't suppose anyone has any figures on how many LEP owners there are?

 

[Juniper]

I don't suppose anyone has any figures on how many LEP owners there are?

Frontier do, obvs.

It includes everyone who backed from Premium Beta and upwards, so from the Kickstarter it's around 1000 people. It was also available in the store for a while.

It's not a huge number in total I expect (compared to the 2.75 million that own the game across all platforms), but not insignificant either.

 

[bitstorm]

Frontier do, obvs.

It includes everyone who backed from Premium Beta and upwards, so from the Kickstarter it's around 1000 people. It was also available in the store for a while.

It's not a huge number in total I expect (compared to the 2.75 million that own the game across all platforms), but not insignificant either.

Hmm. So estimating around a few thousand, maybe 4 to 7000?

Kind of hard to say.

LEP went into the store as an alternative option instead of preordering Horizons, I don't think it was around that long.

Not sure how big the player base was at that time.

Maybe it's possible to infer it from the financial reports?

 

[lenna]

I don't suppose anyone has any figures on how many LEP owners there are?

Why is that at all relevant?

The LEP is effectively a contract with FD that basically means that those that invested in it will receive all game updates for the product for free and the expectation is that a not insignificant number of those updates would be subject to a paywall where non-LEP owners are concerned. It does not preclude others receiving some of those pay-walled updates for free but it is fair to say that the scope of content covered by the LEP should be greater in the long run than the scope of any other non-LEP expansion/pass agreement/license.

 

[popuptoaster]

I backed at £200 and have the LEP and to be honest am pretty disappointed with the way things have gone, a lot of things I was most interested in got dropped or have vanished with no trace and a lot of effort has gone in to things that were not mentioned in the plans and that don't interest me.

If the game, as it is now, had been pitched at me I would not have bought the pass, this next season is a nothingness as far as I can see, its a year of fixing things that should never have been so broken in the first place so I am not surprised its being offered free of charge.

Now I have another year+ to wait to see if FD add some of the things I was looking forwards to or not, backing a kickstarter is risky and i feel like I lost this gamble.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

I don't suppose anyone has any figures on how many LEP owners there are?

Not that many. I would say under 10k at best.

I backed at £200 and have the LEP and to be honest am pretty disappointed with the way things have gone, a lot of things I was most interested in got dropped or have vanished with no trace

In which things you were interested?

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

I backed at £200 and have the LEP and to be honest am pretty disappointed with the way things have gone, a lot of things I was most interested in got dropped or have vanished with no trace and a lot of effort has gone in to things that were not mentioned in the plans and that don't interest me.

Indeed on this we are similar. It's not about what I get for free that worries me, more that the content which hooked me into the LEP is looking more likely may NEVER come and instead we get stuff which I could barely care less about... (And i am not even talking about big ticket items like space legs or atmosphere landings either)

 

[bitstorm]

Why is that at all relevant?

What, in a thread titled LEP musings, where we are discussing how free content for lepers will play out down the line?

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

In which things you were interested?

Not aimed at me but for me
A robust sensible economy with stuff to think about (running costs, docking fees for big ships, etc)

More complexity to ships systems, with equipment failure we would juryrig in space
Big ships needing crew to fly that we would hire and fire of varying ability
NPC wing mates and missions surrounding them
Consequences for actions , being hunted for past crimes, refused docking so having to find hidden illegal based if I want to trade in some systems , possibly having to buy stolen ships rather than shiny new ones if I can't dock in official stations
People we could rescue or otherwise find who would be semi persistent in our game (but could die) who we build relations with.
Missions to deploy say scientist research group on a planet and depending on how well we keep supplying them depends on how well they prosper. Perhaps they allow us to berth our ships for free as a thanks, or if they produce something we get discount etc if we treat them well.

Just more life and persistence in bgs

 

[bitstorm]

I backed at £200 and have the LEP and to be honest am pretty disappointed with the way things have gone, a lot of things I was most interested in got dropped or have vanished with no trace and a lot of effort has gone in to things that were not mentioned in the plans and that don't interest me.

If the game, as it is now, had been pitched at me I would not have bought the pass, this next season is a nothingness as far as I can see, its a year of fixing things that should never have been so broken in the first place so I am not surprised its being offered free of charge.

Now I have another year+ to wait to see if FD add some of the things I was looking forwards to or not, backing a kickstarter is risky and i feel like I lost this gamble.

On the £200 Kickstarter.

It's a bit of a weird one because really the game cost £25, the rest was for backer forum access, boxed copy, free credits on start up, alpha access and so forth.

The extras are what you make of them really.

Understand you dropped £200 which is a big chunk and pretty awesome, but the game part really was just £25.

 

[Arindor]

It seems this needs re-re-...-posting.

Thanks for the re-post!! One never knows what FD are up to, communication not being their forte. However, this was quite reassuring tbh.