@devari
Let's simplify the discussion
Is the game broken?
Some parts of it are, yes.
Net code that doesn't work
That would be the mission boards that are still not working properly.
Multiple consistent Crashes
Yes, this happens frequently under various circumstances, especially during multicrew.
The textures might not be completely "missing" but there are still severe graphics problems. I've had severe texture flickering when driving on planetary surfaces for several months, it's some sort of lighting issue. Also star textures don't load in for a few seconds when jumping to a new system, the textures are initially extremely low-res and it destroys immersion, and that still isn't fixed. If I were exploring I'd be very disappointed as it would be basically immersion destroying all the time.
No, but that's a very specific issue.
The only reason that this isn't an issue is because your computer is running most of the game for you on your local client. If you check your bandwith you'll see that the main issues occur when there is another CMDR in your instance who you are connected to with the P2P connection.
Yes, that happens rather frequently when the servers are having problems. Either the game won't load at all or the game can't retrieve missions from the mission server.
Menus that are unintuitive.
Yes, this is getting slightly better but the UI is not one of Elite's strengths.
Menus that don't go to the pages they claim to represent.
No, but it can still take 10-20 seconds to load the Galaxy or System maps at times. When this happens it's a problem because your ship still continues doing whatever it was doing when you selected the menu option with no player input. There is currently no way to "cancel" out of a menu loading attempt if your ship is in danger which means you can crash into stuff or get blown up without having any way to react while the map loads.
Interaction with various system does not give the desired consequence that the game has broadcasted.
Yes, this happens all the time, especially with broken system states and mission generation. Problems with massacre missions and War system states is probably the most common issue, but there are all sorts of BGS problems that are not working properly.
Flight model that is incomprehensible.
I wouldn't call it "incomprehensible", but it could certainly use some improvements.
All the Star systems that are too far apart, and planets that are a jumbled mess of polygons.
I'm not even sure what you mean by this. What you're describing there is a game that isn't even at the alpha stage.
Yes, those areas I mentioned would be considered broken for a AAA game that is now three years after launch, especially a game like Elite that relies heavily on immersion and consistency to hold a player's attention.
It is also incomplete based on what FD told us they were going to be developing for Horizons, and what we had expected to see in terms of improvements to core game mechanics 3 years after launch.
incomplete 1:
missing headline features atmosphere,
Incomplete 2: space legs.
Incomplete 3:
Original Design goal for a smaller niche audience, and not a large demographic, to bring an online multiplayer aspect to a harsh, unhelpful procedurally generated galaxy which is a money collecting grindfest with no other loftier goal. (Except Elite 3 which had the inra-thargoid story)
Which will miss out on mmo staples such as player communications, clans, guilds, ability to block, punish players for exploiting game mechanics, circumventing intended mechanics and griefing other online players.
You have enough funds and resources to pick 2 of the above and fix
Which ones would you prioritize?
I'm not even expecting FD to go anywhere near space legs or atmospheric planets, I can tell that FD will never put in the resources needed to even start to work on those issues. So essentially I would be looking at addressing option 3. FD will barely be giving the Elite development team enough resources to do that properly.
What I would like to see prioritized is the following (in no particular order):
1. Crime and punishment system that makes sense and provides real consequences that limit griefing and trolling. They are working on this right now, so we will probably see it improved within the next year.
2. Consistent economy and mission rewards where players can afford to operate larger ships and have a reason to use them. This is still a massive mess and basically means that players have to continually search the forums for the most lucrative income generating methods and spam them until they're nerfed. This causes tremendous imbalances in the gameplay, especially for new players who often want to set larger ships as a gameplay goal but can't achieve it without finding new semi-exploitive methods to earn income.
3. Consistent combat mechanics where the risk/reward features are balanced. They've more or less got the Engineering aspects balanced (at least as well as they can balance them) but the rest of the combat features really need to be looked at. This means looking at things like giving multicrew pilots a way to be saved from ship destruction. Spending 12 hours to retrain a Dangerous pilot is not an acceptable risk/reward balance. It also means that mutlicrew game balance needs to be addressed as it is very rewarding for the CMDR flying the multicrew ship (pip bonus and rebuy discount) but very unrewarding for a new player (5% incomes are not really worth it at all).
4. Trading needs an in-game tool with accurate system states and there needs to be some way to identify or predict commodity values when searching for trade routes. This has gone far too long without being addressed and without third-party sites trading is for too frustrating.
5. New features need to add complexity and depth to the game and remain useful for starting players all the way through to "endgame" players with billions of credits. This will require careful balancing, for example, with player-owned carriers there is not going to be a single ship that can do this properly. They are probably going to need to develop different "sizes" of carriers to allow the gameplay to be accessible to everyone. They could use "small" carriers (inexpensive to operate but limited to small pad ships) so that a small group of relatively new players can use the new game mechanics, "medium" carriers (expanded to medium pads) for more experienced CMDRs and "large" carriers (most expensive but can handle large pad ships) as "endgame" content. Otherwise carrier are just going to end up like ship transfers, they will be treated like a massive "credit sink" for players with billions of credits but won't be used by the majority of the playerbase.
Notice that I haven't said anything about bug fixes, those are assumed to be necessary as an ongoing maintenance of the game like any other online game and should happen at the same time as these other improvements are happenign. I also haven't said anything about expanding exploration, I realize that is a lost cause as the game does not have the depth needed to even address this issue. I could also care less about the Thargoids as they've already turned them into very limited niche content that most players will ignore. At this point I just want to see the core gameplay features function well and to see new features designed so that the entire community can use and enjoy them.
