Elite Dangerous is the Largest Empty Sandbox Ever Made

[verminstar]

Do you have a link to the thread handy?

Quoted figure was from erimus so ye can argue with him if ye want...I remembered the poll itself and the debacle that followed, but the exact figure I couldnt recall...if its wrong then its wrong but I do remember the vast majority not wanting that change...and it happened anyway. If its really bugging ye then do a forum search on those old threads cos no I dont have the link to hand and am not incllned to search it out meself just to prove a trivial detail.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

I liked all the update 2.0 -> 2.4. There was something in all of them to like. It's just that I just found too many of the headline features ill-conceived, or misguided. ie: Bucket loads of development time in very question goals.

Thats you. The only headline feature I didn't like was multicrew. Not that I was ever going to use it anyway. And others will have different feeliings on all of them. So when someone say they where all ill recieved, it was for that person, but he can't talk about everyone.

 

[Robert Maynard]

Quoted figure was from erimus so ye can argue with him if ye want...I remembered the poll itself and the debacle that followed, but the exact figure I couldnt recall...if its wrong then its wrong but I do remember the vast majority not wanting that change...and it happened anyway. If its really bugging ye then do a forum search on those old threads cos no I dont have the link to hand and am not incllned to search it out meself just to prove a trivial detail.

Not arguing - seeking clarity, i.e. was the poll instigated by Frontier?

 

[verminstar]

Not arguing - seeking clarity, i.e. was the poll instigated by Frontier?

What difference would that make? And as far as Im aware, no it wasnt because as it turned out, they had their own plans right from the start which meant any and all feedback was pointless ^

 

[EUS]

Another mile wide, inch deep thread.
These started when, Jan 2015?
Or was it during beta?
Either way, there's nothing new here, no new ideas, no new arguments, etc.

 

[Sashenka]

I'm done with ED, I'm just waiting for the single-player spin off with persistent NPCs/Faction, no P2P room in space and meaningful storylines. Also hopefully no RNG^3 upgrades.

 

[Goose4291]

My god, you are so right 'cos pew pew, pew pew, pew pew, "look at my epeen", pew pew, pew pew, pew pew, "nooby rubbish carebear forumdads", pew pew, pew pew, pew pew' is moving the game forward in leaps and bounds isn't it?

It is badly worded, but he kind of has a point in my mind.

Any attempt to make Thargoids into the big bad has been met with indignant "but what about people who can't play at that level" type arguments from the forum as a whole, exactly the same way the new AI was lobotomised pretty badly after engineers dropped (and no, I'm not referring to the broken engineer weapons the AI had given to them).

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

I'm guessing ship transfers. It's the only poll that I can recall Frontier recently running and some people just can't let it go that their vote lost.

ship transfers was the one where FD undoubtedly DID see the light and take the community voice on board. And unsurprisingly the DDF was right all along

 

[lysan]

SAND!

What is sand to you? I'm not sure we are even talking about the same sand in the sandbox?

The galaxy is big, you can't fathom how big it really is, it's mind boggling g huge! Therefore we can't just shovel sand, not matter what kind of sand into the sandbox.

NPC CREW! Now you're talking, there, right there you got some of the finest quality sand ever found in the ED universe, no no, not talking about the type of sand stoved away in the cargo room and only pulled out of the darkness when we need to fight pirates, NO! I'm talking sand fine space sand sitting in my chair next to me and just look mighty fine.

Tools to explore the sandbox! I don't want the machine that goes BING! I would like something more, like actually scanners to give me information about the system I'm in. Composition of minerals, thermal maps, NDA scans, whatever make my exploration more interesting.

Tools to navigate, I would like to get a toolbox in my sandbox, a toolbox regarding navigation, surface navigation, POI navigation, saved location navigation, and a way to set the grindy star travels on automation, I don't want fast travel nor do I want teleportation, I just want to set a course and let my NPC Helmsman/woman do the work.

Surface mining, that is something I always would love to do, first you use the exploration tools to find the minerals, then you set up shop and start mining the heck out of the planet. Whatabout making a contract with a NPC company, they buy the ore from you, and they send out ships to your location and you just keep mining that ore and fill em space trucks, sometimes Pete the Pirate shows up and need a bit of spanking, but you mind your own business at your mining facility outpost

There are some sand for you!

 

[EUS]

ship transfers was the one where FD undoubtedly DID see the light and take the community voice on board. And unsurprisingly the DDF was right all along

But the problem with democracy is that many times the majority is wrong.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

It is badly worded, but he kind of has a point in my mind.

Any attempt to make Thargoids into the big bad has been met with indignant "but what about people who can't play at that level" type arguments from the forum as a whole, exactly the same way the new AI was lobotomised pretty badly after engineers dropped (and no, I'm not referring to the broken engineer weapons the AI had given to them).

my issue with thargoids is not that they are hard to kill, technically my issue isnt with the thargoids at all per se, but it is that unless you play in a group there is no thargoid content. the fix for me however is not to nerf the thargoids but to implement the wingmates we were promised.... so whilst it my SEEM that i am complaining that it is not possible to solo a thargoid, the complaint [from me] is that i should not HAVE to solo a thargoid, even if i am in solo!.

 

[Robert Maynard]

What difference would that make? And as far as Im aware, no it wasnt because as it turned out, they had their own plans right from the start which meant any and all feedback was pointless ^

Context. Frontier are clearly in control of the direction the game takes. To take the Factions out of the BGS would be to change the way that they are interacted with by players - it's perhaps unsurprising that Frontier did not choose to do so.

User created polls regarding upcoming features are not new - there were some before the introduction of multi-crew that were heavily in favour of NPC crew rather than player crew as one example - and Frontier have not yet chosen to implement NPC ships crew (even though they were discussed in the DDF).

The exception would seem to be ship transfer. The announcement that ship transfers were to be instant when they were included in the scope of 2.2 it came as a bit of a surprise to some players - as, when discussed in the DDF, ship transfers would take time. The subsequent unofficial polls and feedback in general spurred Frontier to conduct their own poll - off the forums (to ensure that only those entitled to vote did so) - and the result backed delayed transfer (by a considerable margin).

 

[sovapid]

A majority of us do not want to be playing some redesigned executive control game which merely has an Elite skin.

Citation needed. Where are you getting the statistics to back up the claim of "majority"?

I sure as hell know I don't want to Elite to be limited to game mechanics that were available in 1984.

 

[Sylveria]

Whew, took me a while to catch up to the current level of conversation (6-7+ pages) but I'd like to say there's been a lot of feedback from all perspectives, as usual.

That said, there's a common theme here, which is for all the years this game has been in service, people have consistently (and sometimes repetitively) proposed changes, given feedback on the forums in various threads, etc. and there's always someone who feels like they've been "ignored" or not listened to. (for whatever reason) So we can continue to do these massive threadnoughts over and over again (tried and true method) or we can try something "new" that might actually achieve better results. (emphasis on "might")

I think the BEST thing FD could do at this point, is to-
1) Put out some really in-depth polls to all verified game owners, which shouldn't be hard to do, since they manage the accounts.
(Feedback should include BOTH PvP and PvE aspects of gameplay- not just singular activities but possible future activities that fit within the scope of THIS game.)
2) Review the feedback comes through from those polls, really defining a "bullet point agenda" of common topics/concerns
3) Spend some time really focusing on that feedback and create a "gameplan" from there as to what sort of roadmap we're looking at in the future.
4) Once a roadmap has been developed, PUBLISH information so that it's clear what's been done (so there's no whinging later)
5) Give a solid but reasonable timeframe of development, setting expectations for everyone

I think the MOST important part here is explicit and clear communication (not ambiguous in ANY way) to players of what they can expect to happen in the future, so we can resolve the "where is the game going from here?" question once and for all. This way those who aren't satisfied with the direction the game is going can finally make peace and move on to something more enjoyable for them, or they at least know that they can't use it as an excuse that there's no clear communication.

Just my 2 credits worth, for whatever that's worth.

I really hope you guys will take it into consideration.

(Oh, and as far as the polls- make it to where they actually have to log into their game accounts so there's no "poll padding" going on in terms of feedback)

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

But the problem with democracy is that many times the majority is wrong.

I agree..... which is why i am glad that FD implemented what was in the DDF, and by good fortune that just happened to be what the majority want.

Design by committee is rarely a good choice for an art form, and imo videogames like elite can be considered such....... but, FD dont NEED to design by forum moaners (i include myself as such a moaner ), they already have a great list of design features that they have already signed off on the work from.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

But the problem with democracy is that many times the majority is wrong.

The other side of that coin is that the minority is wrong just as often

 

[ALGOMATIC]

My god, you are so right 'cos pew pew, pew pew, pew pew, "look at my epeen", pew pew, pew pew, pew pew, "nooby rubbish carebear forumdads", pew pew, pew pew, pew pew' is moving the game forward in leaps and bounds isn't it?

You dont say, but honk scoop and docking computers certainly show a massive complexity of skills and depth /s.

I can only imagine the screams of "stop forcing PVE on meh!" If the goids actually start a massive war.

God forbid this game will create a bit more depth and content for the multiplayer part with direct interaction instead of hiding behind Solo safe spaces. That's when the docking computer wont save the incompetent.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Context. Frontier are clearly in control of the direction the game takes. To take the Factions out of the BGS would be to change the way that they are interacted with by players - it's perhaps unsurprising that Frontier did not choose to do so.

The mistake was made when Frontier decided there needed to be player factions around Jaques at all.

 

[GreyAreaUK]

I can only imagine the screams of "stop forcing PVE on meh!" If the goids actually start a massive war.

Unlikely, because Elite is​ a PvE game.

 

[sovapid]

Guilds and player owned ballcocks would be the death of Elite.

SWEET!

Now the "game is gonna die" shoe is on the other foot. We have come full circle!