If you are top of the food chain you don't need to evolve any further.
Can Frontier Compete?
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If you are top of the food chain you don't need to evolve any further.
Okay, small point to begin with...it's a food web and a lot more complex than chicken>human>crocodile...but I giggled, so thanks for that.
Secondly, if you're drawing that kind of parallel, then food to an organisation would be resources. Ergo, your real intent would be to compare resource inefficiencies between competitors, not the ability for monkeys to club each other to death.
Moreover, with that being the case, anyone still subscribing to Edith Penrose's Resource Based View of the Firm, when studying FD's positional factors, needs their head looking at.
So yeah, if your statement of "If you are top of the food chain you don't need to evolve any further." fell out of a christmas cracker, or maybe was quoted over skype by a $15 an hour Psyche student, it would be something to think about.
Unfortunately.
That's not how it works in gaming industry though.
Mostly if you have been successful game with established name, you will do aright even in heavy competition.
And competition is very sketchy word in entertainment. After all, Netflix and ED does not really compete for my eye balls. When I feel I want to watch some tv, I watch Netflix. When I want to play game which I like - I play ED.
There's some strange obsession with Spartan like culture within PC gaming community, but nothing of that is backed by any facts. It is more and more justified to demand more from devs, sometimes on borderline absurd level.
Do SW Battlefront II bombed because of competition? Or did it bombed on it's own merits, because they showed in lootboxes and gameplay is still pretty much walled garden/on rails shooter experience SW fans most likely won't be very found of?
Gaming is full of safe spaces, games that does one specific thing and does it really well and is financial success for their creators.
As long as you keep fingers on pulse, and do your long term moves confidently, which both FD does, I really fail to see your point here.
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This would proably apply if X and Elite were similar enough, but they are not. Maybe X:BTF was something built on the love of elite, but the X franchise took on a new life along its many sequels, and the actual space flight took a backseat to empire building, economics and large fleet battles. Also EgoSoft time and time again stated that their approach and economic simulation would not work in multiplayer. So I don't see ED and X4 as competing titles, as they cater to different needs, even if they are targeting the same subset of players overall. No reason why an ED owner could not also play X4.
Evolve didn't turn out to be that great.
Whelp, X:Rebirth had bugs and whatnot.
I like the management-style gameplay and hope we'll get some of that in Elite Dangerous. ED doesn't aim to be a spreadsheet game though.
After all the updates of Elite Dangerous Beyond, it should have a solid and deep-enough foundation so that other features like atmospheric landings and space legs can be added in 2019. Also we should get more player owned capital ships, the Fleet Carrier would be just the beginning.
It hasn't been ideal
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The X games, although fun to a certain degree, cannot compete with Elite.
X games have only entertained me for a very limited nr of hours.
The X universe does not give you that real vast, endles space feeling. ED definitely does.
The X game's universe only consists of a limited number of boxes and you will relatively soon have visited them all. ED simulates the ENTIRE Galaxy.
In the X games planets and star were always only skybox pictures. ED has real stellar objects: stars, planets, moons etc.
I hated the fact that a large part of gameplay in the X games consisted of messing around with factories and production chains. I always felt that had nothing to do with a spacesim. It irritated me more than anything.
Star Citizen...
uhmm... I doubt it will ever be a game.
But if it gets released in... let's say... 50 years or so, on my 103d birthday, and if it gets good reviews, I might try it out.
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To be totally fair to the game, those above are actually things you can do in X Rebirth (and you couldn't in previous iterations), especially the part about buying a ship: you can contact a ship seller from your ship and do everything via menu, but you can also land on the platform where the seller is, buy the ship and if the relative drydock is in view from the platform, you could see your ship being built by drones in realtime. Provided the shipyard has all the materials and products required to build and equip the ship as requested, otherwise production will stop and you'll either have to wait until the shipyard gets resupplied, or go out and provide the stuff yourself (buy it elsewhere, produce it if you have the means, or find some ship carrying it and "forcefully borrow" it).
Then, when the ship is ready, dock with it and either order it around and watch it depart from the drydock standing on its cargo platform (vanilla game), or directly from its command bridge (via mod, probably the single most game-changing one as far as immersion is concerned).
It's not about the actual things you can do, more about implementation of said things: as for Rebirth in that particular ship buying aspect, shipyard is visually great, landing is good (and not mandatory), seeing the actual building process is awesome, managing the resources requested may range from compelling to annoying based on personal tastes about game styles...the actual spacelegs are a different thing: walking is clunky, actions are limited, dialogues are repetitive at best, appalling/embarassing on average, NPCs are lackluster/unsettling/dreadful (pick one of your preference, or even all [blah]).
I more or less agree with you on the rest though, the way ED manages to immerse the player in the first person piloting experience is unmatched for me at the moment, and this is what Elite has always been mostly about. I'm in no hurry of seeing a deep economic and management simulation attached to it, that's an aspect X games have always covered rather competently, leaving the actual flying part a bit on the side. And usually, the more you "advance" in your game, the more the direct piloting of ships becomes secondary to economical management and fleet logistics. In ED, you can be a space derelict or a galactic billionaire, it will always be about personally flying your ship around, and nothing else.
Different strokes for different folks. It's not about being in competition, I can't even see the competition between them.
It's not like thoroughly enjoying Bioshock did prevent me from appreciating Dishonored either.
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Whilst I'm not holding my breath, I'll certainly be crossing my fingers. Carriers should be interesting, if it's done properly.
I believe Carriers and Squadrons will be quite simple in their mechanics, but given what 'quite simple' means, I think it will be quite welcome addition - squadron channel, specialized place to call home (not only your home station), where to arrive in ships and fool and party around...I think that alone will be enough.
People expecting territorial conflicts and gang wars most likely will be disappointed at this does not mean control of anything and bases most likely won't be destroyable.
People expecting territorial conflicts and gang wars most likely will be disappointed at this does not mean control of anything and bases most likely won't be destroyable.
My guess as well.
Viajero
Volunteer Moderator
Well, I d hope that FDEV goes a bit less conservative for a change and makes those platforms destroyable and therefore worth fighting for and defend. Would go a long way to add player agency and self drive. It would obviously need to be structured and framed in game according to the instanced nature of the game etc which can be a challenge.
I d also hope these new features and carrier pressence in particular have an impact in the BGS, and are also linked with player groups identification and pledge to minor factions. From that stand point the territorial game could be actually reinforced.
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![[VR] Mad Mike](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/27/27910.jpg?1553527108){kind=avatar}
i think you and I want a similar game, and (if you believe all the guff about SC) its is 1 area where SC may do well...... I suspect if that kind of thing happened in ED after years of all that stuff being "streamlined" out to a simple instant "click and its done" I think too many would complain in ED, so I fear for ED that ship has sailed <flown>.
I can imagine a potential really frustrating scenario where SC has loads of what i want, making me do a lot of the nuts and bolts stuff of going to contacts to get missions and to ship yards to buy or repair ships and to traders to do your business, but (for me) SC failing dismally due to forced PvP and not supporting VR, both areas where ED excels.
its a bit like i can have my sticky toffee pudding, OR i can have my home made hot and creamy vanilla custard, but i cant have them both together, only one or the other ***
*** of course right now SC is not really offering anything YET but i am trying to be glass half fun and still hoping for the best
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I just hope they don't ruin it with MP shenanigans.
I have no idea how they can do that. Nobody can be online 24/7 to protect such things, and even if they are, imbalance in player group sizes would put small groups at the mercy of large groups.
Viajero
Volunteer Moderator
That is what I mean that it would need to be framed within the nature of the instance set up in Elite. It would have to be some kind of ad hoc scenario. Like a specific action that required the carrier pressence in game for a specific goal or limited time pressence, such action to be broadcasted automatically by the game (in mission boards or CG or similar) so both Open and Solo players could interfere via defending or attacking in some way much like CG etc.
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Easy, when docked you can't harm it, problem solved.
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