It seems no other developer can do that too.
So guess question is - do people are simply impatient and demanding?
My life experience says that it is more the case than it is failing of FD.
Around 110 - 120 people.
Will Elite Dangerous have Atmospheric Landings, Space Legs or Procedural Cities by 2019?
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It seems no other developer can do that too.
So guess question is - do people are simply impatient and demanding?
My life experience says that it is more the case than it is failing of FD.
Around 110 - 120 people.
Mmm and I get a worrying feeling about squadrons going the same way.
Someone in this mess said it best. Atmospheric landing and space legs are just indie covering. If FDEV wants to be able to reach their ten year marker they will need to work on gameplay and storyline to make it enticing and replayable. Exploration needs a buff with meaningful tools. Right now all you do is scan, see if there is anything worth time and effort and leave. Those left behind have and should mean something somewhere, help even if you give players a default 5ls radius that says anomaly detected and would be nice.
Mining as well. Currently mining while enjoyable by some has quite a few faults . 1 it's boring. You literally grind away your time doing less efficient work. You fill your cargo with these ores and when you come to a station they need every thing BUT what you have in your hold. You get the quests and you have to keep throwing out other stuff just to make it possible to carry what you need.
I would love space legs, but I'd settle for a bar with gossip of tip offs in the meantime.
Atmospheric Planetary landing will just be a huge consumption of resources. For what... Trees? I would prefer giving players the ability to spend money on buildings, on a planet. To test it out, have them only be able to do it one one planet. Now you have players painting the canvas instead of artists and programmers. But more importantly, it brings a money sump into the game and allows the opportunity to bring further engaging game play, with faction buildings.
Some on really needs to work on storyline/quests. Game has soooo much potential with what is already implemented, yet the lifeblood of the game is stiffled by tourist beacons, CGs, and to some extent galnet.
Mining as well. Currently mining while enjoyable by some has quite a few faults . 1 it's boring. You literally grind away your time doing less efficient work. You fill your cargo with these ores and when you come to a station they need every thing BUT what you have in your hold. You get the quests and you have to keep throwing out other stuff just to make it possible to carry what you need.
I would love space legs, but I'd settle for a bar with gossip of tip offs in the meantime.
Atmospheric Planetary landing will just be a huge consumption of resources. For what... Trees? I would prefer giving players the ability to spend money on buildings, on a planet. To test it out, have them only be able to do it one one planet. Now you have players painting the canvas instead of artists and programmers. But more importantly, it brings a money sump into the game and allows the opportunity to bring further engaging game play, with faction buildings.
Some on really needs to work on storyline/quests. Game has soooo much potential with what is already implemented, yet the lifeblood of the game is stiffled by tourist beacons, CGs, and to some extent galnet.
My idea of thinking is that power play should be available to everyone, PvE and PvP. Also powers should be providing some kind of gameplay to the unpledged too.
Well some of this is obviously just personal opinion. Wings I have hardly used and have seen them to be a waste of time, but I wouldn't want others to not enjoy wings. I have loved doing passenger missions and my SLF and NPC. But I think they could be seriously expanded upon.
Engineers i'm fine with. I think the only one I think was a true waste is CQC. While I do agree with you about power play, it has a lot of potential to get a lot better. I would be happy if they did a whole years worth of work to fully flesh it out, connecting it to the BGS to make it compelling gameplay instead of the utter grind it is today.
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That's such a good example of why I can't take you serious.
Changing the HUD colour is something that's impossible in 99,9% of all other games. Puke organge is a completely subjective statement and I guess if you would ask all players they would say it's not very important to them. So if that's what decides between failure and success for you I just don't give much about your judgement.
Your lies about skeleton crew also don't make it better.
Are you sure? I remember solid information about 150-160 people plus a team 70 strong working on general tech which could be used for Elite. So at least 220 working on Elite related stuff.
I wanted to go with lowest number I know. Of course I believe FD moves in and out people for creating let's say new graphics assets, so team size grows and shrrinks, but there's immutable base size which constantly works for game.
And where is the source for your skeleton crew "fact"?
The devs are certainly very responsive and have always been quite honest regarding their design intentions, and when they say they have bigger plans for the future of Elite, I do not doubt it. Still, there's no denying that Elite is currently in a slump development-wise. We can only hope that the fleshing-out releases can breathe some much needed life into it, and that the late 2018 exploration releases will be worth the wait. Otherwise, Frontier will likely have a tough time selling the beyond the Beyond releases (oh who am I kidding? Barring the trumpocalypse we'll all buy it!)
The fact that the Beyond series is free is a bit of a goodwill gambit on Frontier's part. It sends the double message that A) they are a company of high integrity and B) that the trend of winding down the intensity of their release cycles will continue for at least another year. A three+ years long season was certainly not what we imagined in August 2015. Horizons owners are certainly getting our money's worth! But it raises serious doubts about whether this winding down trend will continue into 2019, and if the post-Beyond era will be the beginning of the true maintenance mode?
The fact that the Beyond series is free is a bit of a goodwill gambit on Frontier's part. It sends the double message that A) they are a company of high integrity and B) that the trend of winding down the intensity of their release cycles will continue for at least another year. A three+ years long season was certainly not what we imagined in August 2015. Horizons owners are certainly getting our money's worth! But it raises serious doubts about whether this winding down trend will continue into 2019, and if the post-Beyond era will be the beginning of the true maintenance mode?
There are two reasons for that - way GUI has been designed does not allow easy mapping of colours without breaking holographic interface UI emulates, and FD has provided unofficial means to change that for years. Small thing as this can baloon and eat up dev time and managers usually wants to avid that.
And fact that I have seen tons of colour settings and frankly haven't seen good reason why I would change away from default. Except maybe for Imperial ships who blue leds most likely clashes with orange.
This is issue I never take such posts seriously - because of "barbones" claims especially. Game is anything but not barebones at this point.
Because FD will give project more people for space legs development time if they will see benefit and potential profit. Currently core team works on game, and they don't crunch out new graphics assets at will. They however can cover minor and medium level improvements to code, which is goal of Beyond. It is basically clearing house.
If and when space legs come it will be completely different team, most likely twice as size.
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ignoring all the other stuff i disagree with you on, to answer your last question....
because it would be a paid DLC and not a free addon, where as a new system map (and dont get me wrong i would like an orrery as much as the next person) would be expected to be free.
I have my issues with ED but I do not think you are being fair.
Even the hud colour... hell, i need it more than most (anyone who plays in VR using the vive or rift can tell you pentile displays do not like orange, when compared to green) but how do you know it is trivial? FD have to weigh up cost to benefit... this is something they have failed to do in past updates.... just look at CQC. presumably significant costs there and only a dedicated few seem to use it (i am one btw, its a nice little addon) but i do not think with hind sight it was a good decision.
On the original question....
I imagine atmospheric landings will happen, it's not on the road map we've been shown for next year, but there is talk of additional paid for updates, so there is a remote chance that might be one of them, but going on current information, I'd guess 2019 (but we might find out more over the next month).
I don't think we'll ever get space legs in the way we imagine it, unless it turns up as a sort of CQC like separate game mode. What we might get, is a remote drone, this would let us make repairs on the outside of the ship or fly inside other ships or bases to scavenge or repair things.
The problem is, what do we actually want space legs for? I think I want it, but not sure what I'd do with it after the first few "oh look I can walk round my ship/some bits of a station" moments, and if we want fps style gameplay, well that's a different game. Either way, I don't think it'll happen unless it's a separate game mode, and that's 2020 at least.
Procedural cities, there are already the large bases, so in theory, big city things could exist. Again, we'd need a reason for them to exist, otherwise they'd be like the current cqc structures in game, look cool but no reason to visit twice. I guess it would add to the texture of the environment, anyway, I suppose it's possible, might turn up in two years or so if they did.
I think, the reason we want all of these things is more about the fact that currently we are lacking gameplay in what we already have (especially for people who have been playing this for a while). If combat, exploration, mining, trading and research all had development, we'd probably not care so much about space legs etc. If "beyond" adds in more depth to the existing mechanics, then we'd be happy. The mistake would be to just add on more "headline" features without improving the current core, in my opinion
Honesty time, I was at the expo, I was, happy but not thrilled when the beyond road map was explained, I guess that it's less exciting to hear "were going to make the stuff you already have better", than it is to hear "look, totally new things you never expected". But, I was secretly hoping to hear something like space legs or atmospherics lol, oh well.
I imagine atmospheric landings will happen, it's not on the road map we've been shown for next year, but there is talk of additional paid for updates, so there is a remote chance that might be one of them, but going on current information, I'd guess 2019 (but we might find out more over the next month).
I don't think we'll ever get space legs in the way we imagine it, unless it turns up as a sort of CQC like separate game mode. What we might get, is a remote drone, this would let us make repairs on the outside of the ship or fly inside other ships or bases to scavenge or repair things.
The problem is, what do we actually want space legs for? I think I want it, but not sure what I'd do with it after the first few "oh look I can walk round my ship/some bits of a station" moments, and if we want fps style gameplay, well that's a different game. Either way, I don't think it'll happen unless it's a separate game mode, and that's 2020 at least.
Procedural cities, there are already the large bases, so in theory, big city things could exist. Again, we'd need a reason for them to exist, otherwise they'd be like the current cqc structures in game, look cool but no reason to visit twice. I guess it would add to the texture of the environment, anyway, I suppose it's possible, might turn up in two years or so if they did.
I think, the reason we want all of these things is more about the fact that currently we are lacking gameplay in what we already have (especially for people who have been playing this for a while). If combat, exploration, mining, trading and research all had development, we'd probably not care so much about space legs etc. If "beyond" adds in more depth to the existing mechanics, then we'd be happy. The mistake would be to just add on more "headline" features without improving the current core, in my opinion
Honesty time, I was at the expo, I was, happy but not thrilled when the beyond road map was explained, I guess that it's less exciting to hear "were going to make the stuff you already have better", than it is to hear "look, totally new things you never expected". But, I was secretly hoping to hear something like space legs or atmospherics lol, oh well.
Not sure why it was the case with so many people considering FD signalled they will work on core game next year. Also, as Zac answer indicates, they are working on paid for dlcs for ED. They just don't talk about them yet.
Oh I wasn't unhappy, just making the point that it's not as exciting to hear about improvement than it is to hear about totally new, unexpected things, that's just human nature though.
He has none. Everyone that say this is talking rubbish, as they don't know. We can only go by what FDev actually say. Sure they could be lying to us, but I will trust them over some person spouting something on the forums with zero evidence.
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I understand
Considering work FD has done on missions and NPC avatars and now they are working on voice synth I am way more excited that for space legs. Because if it means more of 'ohh I met this pirate in game which didn't shoot me but offered me a job and it took me on espionage mission in Empire territory' then I want that way more than any space legs at the moment to be frank. Because all those are *pre-requirements* for space legs.
As there is a new paid for DLC coming probably at the sametime as the Q4 update, there will likely be an annoucment on it at the next Expo. I suspect it will be atmospheric planets, but it will be basic ones. Could also be Gas Giants too. This will nicely tie in with the new tech that is coming with planets and the updated exploration mechanics which will hopefully make exploring these atmospheric planets a lot more fun and interesting.
While I also would like to see this - and this is most believable scenario in case - I am more curious what next paid for DLC model will be. I think natural gateways (you can't land here if you don't have DLC) makes complete sense and have been working well so far - people seem not be that confused about what they can or can't do in game - so it feels no brainer for me. However, I wonder what size DLC will be and how much it will cost. If it will be just primitive atmospheric planets will Earth likes will have it's own gateway/DLC? Despite what people think Horizons packed huge amount of content...will landing on gas giant cost 25€? How it will work in the end?
It seems FD still figuring this out as well. I personally think season idea wasn't that bad, unfortunately, people hate season passes due of fact they don't know what they are getting, and it grinds them more than actual full DLC release would. So it is quite a challenge to figure this one out for FD. If they can figure out and pack paid for DLC for end of 2018/2019 with new features and gameplay and sell for face value, it will be their own personal victory.
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surely it would be madness to split it up too small.... imo the size of horizons was ok, but if every little featire is an optional paywall how can we ever hope for interesting multipart missions using all of the features of the game.
if seasons isnt to be a thing, then if the game is to develop as i hope it does and not be a disjointed mishmash of unattached game mechanics then the only other way is DLCs, every bit as big as horizons, but for the most part feature complete and paid for at point of sale - ie the traditional dlc model. i truly hope this is what FD are working towards and in part explains why horizons has dragged on, and continues to drag on so long (marketing aside "beyond" IS still horizons imo)
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