I lost faith in FDev years ago. Their inability to resolve fundamental issues (like the wing displacement bug) was the seed of the realisation, but there are many parts to it.
FDev don't appear to play their own game as gamers; it seems they start the game up to test basic functionality and that's it. If you want an example of this systemic issue, I would point to the Power Play rebalance a while back. That came about because (for the first time since introducing Power Play) they actually talked to Power Players and found out how the game was actually played. When showed in-game how it was done they were shocked. How the hell can you be shocked at how your own game is played??? Do you not run analysis? Do you not place people in game to take part?
Further, you can see it in the live streams, especially in the latest one. Ed sets off on a long trip without a fuel scoop. Without an ADS to scan planets at the far end. Without having practiced using coordinates to land. How does a community manager do a live stream without having done a dry run before hand? What? How unprepared can you be? How can you not know how to target something in an SRV?
Elite has stopped being a 'choose your own path' game. It's not about choice, it's about an ever shrinking horizon of what FDev can be bothered to support. Where are all the old mission types? If the mission board still offered every type of mission we've seen since release, with a decent number offered on the board, board hopping would be a thing of the past. Instead, we get herded towards the latest content. Didn't play that content when it was in the game (or it was removed before you purchased) so sad for you. And, ok, so they haven't put your particular favoured type of gameplay in the "too hard" basket yet... the important word there is 'yet'.
FDev's 'personal narrative' regarding Elite is a series of missed opportunities, of half delivered promises, and a pursuit of what interests FDev, not what the community wants or needs. Of social tools that are needed but still only hinted at. Of half implemented gameplay that has been abandoned. Of the implementing of new features with new UIs when the old one would do (you have a perfectly useful filter UI, why can't we use that to set what limpets will/won't collect).
Where are the 'mini-CGs' created by player activity? Where is Freedom Fighters, the bridge between Power Play and the BGS, to finally rationalise the insane political scene?
FDev make changes so infrequently they feel they have to make big adjustments. The community says "there's a balance issue; you can do either A or B to solve it". FDev does A and B, and it swings too far. Or they do A and C and ruin it. Or they do C and D and it swings so far it created exploits. Because they do big, monolithic patches they are afraid of small adjustments.
Most MMOS run permanent live beta servers. Most MMOs do little adjustments as well as big patches. FDev say "it's not an MMO!" and then miss every opportunity to learn from the mistakes that MMOs have made in the past.
And then there is the insanity of the lack of in-game tools. We have FDev running hundreds of servers providing the game to the community. All the data is there. So... can we search prices (just like we can today, in 2018)? No, we have to collect the data from the game, transmit it to 3rd party servers (which all cost money, consume electricity and rare earths, and produce CO2) so that FDev can... what? Maintain lore consistency with the 80's, so that Braben can say "use a pencil and a notepad", as if that was part of the fun of Elite in the 80's? Insanity.
Rather than force third party developers to replicate the ENTIRE dataset MULTIPLE TIMES, they should have provided a query-able API just like the community asked for three years ago. There should have been a bi-directional interface to allow mods and tools to directly interface with the in-game UI, providing seamless, immersive functionality, while at the same time allowing the use of a common dataset. It drives player choice (you don't have to use the tool) while at the same time saving literally tonnes of CO2 and rare-earths being used up to duplicate a dataset over and over and over and over.
At this point, I wonder if FDev aren't so far down the rabbit hole they won't ever find their way back out. I hope they can. Elite is an amazing foundation to build on, but it seems that FDev may have lost their way, pursuing what interests them rather than balancing that with what the community wants and needs. It's starting to feel that Elite is less and less a glorious online community and more and more a vehicle for selling ship kits and paintjobs.
![[VR] Mad Mike](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/27/27910.jpg?1553527108){kind=avatar}
