Looks like ED is safe from competition until at least 2020

[WorldsGreatestForumDad]

Frontier needs competition. Competition makes companies hungry for growth and their focus switches to solid output because their bottom line comes down to the fact they have to stand on merit and value; it's not automatic because they are the only kid in town.

Frontier desperately need competition. Good competition. It will drive them in a way no commander, or the forums, or any group, ever could. Frontier does good work, when pushed to do good work. They, with the best of respect, really need constant pushing.

Nothing wrong with some healthy competition. Thats for sure!

But im extremely happy with the past few months. Engineers changes, Open only discussions. Even the exploring and mining sneak peeks at Lavecon. Now thats some pretty awesome stuff. And its all for Beyond. We havnt even dabbled in the next set of expansions yet.

So I am happy. My biggest gripe was being able to defend against your attackers in powerplay or the BGS. So it looks like ill be doing powerplay stuff a lot more now instead of the BGS things. Im okay with that.

Id say Elites doing pretty dang good at the moment. But, Im with you on the competition thing. Its healthy for everyone.

 

[Moonlord]

RUMOUR about Starfield (published in Reddit):

"Heads at Bethesda have been noticing a rise in science fiction influenced content in the market (not just the video game market), so they're going to make a game of their own in this genre (they have always wanted to do this anyway, even Todd Howard has). They want to get ahead of games like Elite Dangerous and Star Citizen, and Beyond Good and Evil 2. They want to bundle a lot their previous sci fi ideas into this game.

This game in fact is called Starfield.

You can make your own character, the game looks lot like Fallout 4 but the animations aren't as janky (you can climb on buildings and terrain from skill even).

Combat is similar to Fallout 4, but with better cover mechanic.

This game will use cutting edge procedural generation technology, a lot of the game mechanics rely on it.

There are 4 important planets in the game you can travel between in a system, 3 of them have procedural generated terrain and are fully sized, the other one is a big city planet and has a set map size (maybe around the size of Morrowind's map).

On the galaxy map, there is a section of the map called The Unknown regions where there are endless planets that are generated you can explore, they are fully sized. Planets in themselves have been described as planet sized "dungeons".

Content on the planet is procedurally generated as well like alien species, animals, locations, all of it is generated. You can find things as small as a camp, to something the size of a colony or city on the planets surface (city as in Skyrim sized city).

Your character is silent, and the character is not anyone special.

You choose what planet you want to start game on, you can also choose random planet which will spawn you on a generated planet in the unknown.

There are a lot of ships to buy, probably around 30. They can be from the size of an X-Wing to an Imperial Light Cruiser (you can have a small crew, I don't know the mechanics for this).

There are infinite weapons, comparable to Borderlands system of guns (there are melee weapons too).

There are factions, but even they can be procedurally generated (because of the unknown region mechanic and what you can find on that area), you can also make your own faction.

You can't just join every faction but you can be in multiple at once."

 

[GraXXoR]

Yeah. Bethesda's Starfield is going to be the biggest threat to Elite by far.

The other big dev houses are realising the colossal appetite players have for Space Sims.

Not that colossal.
I bet you JW will be much larger than ED.

Space is basically niche

 

[Sylveria]

But is Elite: Dangerous safe from itself?

That's the question that can keep us up at night.

Well, I dunno about "keeping me up at night", but I do know one thing... If they choose the ED Arena path and I'll be gone for good.

I'd also bet I won't be the only one, either.

I'm not talking about the whinequit and hang out on the forums for years screaming for EVE-in-cockpits gone.

 

[Ziljan]

Elite is further protected by the system depth that most other developers would turn away from, probably what people call the "learning curve".

Even star citizen looks like its not that brave, all the video's ive seen are pretty similar to everspace for controls.. but in 2018 i genuinely have lost interest in it. Its completely done even before its out.

So true, I can't even think of playing any shallow space game as long as Elite exists. It's why I haven't been able to switch to any other game for over 3 years. I like other genres but they seem way too childish to even consider. Thanks for articulating this feeling as a "system depth buffer" I've never heard that term before, but it accurately describes why I'm addicted to Elite.

 

[WorldsGreatestForumDad]

Well, I dunno about "keeping me up at night", but I do know one thing... If they choose the ED Arena path and I'll be gone for good.

I'd also bet I won't be the only one, either.

I'm not talking about the whinequit and hang out on the forums for years screaming for EVE-in-cockpits gone.

Cmon its not that bad. It's completely different. Now PVP will mean something besides griefing.

Unless you're okay with griefing... You'd rather it stay that way? More power to ya. Always thought you enjoyed the dark side.

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

Frontier needs competition.

Im not sure if frontier could handle it. Look at how they collapse into a puddle when they choose to address even minor community issues. Frontier forced to increase the rate of innovation? No way. Not a chance. Looking around their stable though, picking niches seems to their thing, which is a perfect match for their tenacity / way of doing things.

I've never heard that term before, but it accurately describes why I'm addicted to Elite.

Given you too much rep but yeap thats why we're here. Was talking to someone in their late teens on the weekend, yeah same elite is the only game i can put my name to these days.

 

[BL1P]

X4 will hurt FDs solo player count, if they added a 2 or 4 player coop or multiplayer mode it would really hurt.

Unless its another Rebirth

 

[Ozram]

Found no info on starfield to suggest anything bad or good. Hard to even speculate.

 

[A D]

Not saying the OP is wrong, but there are two other multl-player space games that are worth mentioning and may give ED a run for its money:

- Infinity Battlescape
- Dual Universe

Both are in early access and well underway with impressive alpha game footage. I should they have differences to ED which may be enough to mean not having to choose one or the other over ED.

 

[Sylveria]

If I had a pence for every game that was released claiming it was going to be a "WoW killer"...

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

Starfield I believe will be a single player role-playing game set in space. I will likely get it as I am sure it will be great, but at the end of the day it will not be competition to ED. I would still play ED as they will be completely different types of game and I doubt Starfield will have the huge galaxy back ground that ED has to explore.

 

[acg515]

If something comes out in 2020 and knocks Elite Dangerous off, ED will still have been the only real space sim on the market for 6 years running and ultimately has been a good game. I think it's been a success even if it didn't live up to a lot of people's dreams. The early game was very unpolished, true, but it was still better than nothing to play. I knew people back in 2014 who didn't get this game because they wanted to wait for STar Citizen, they are still waiting.

 

[Zplintz]

"Starfield’s teaser has us hoping for Elder Scrolls in space"

And that (I think) is exactly what it will be - I wouldn't get your hopes up for it to be an Elite-like

 

[RooksBailey]

I think you are quite correct, OP. When it comes to what I like to call a sober-minded space game, Elite: Dangerous seems to be it for the moment. And looks to remain so for quite some time. Sure, the game has its problems, and I have certainly joined in on more than a few gripe sessions, but ED is quite the accomplishment as far as I am concerned. It is very much the space game I've wanted to play since the golden era of space games closed so many years ago. For that alone I am always cheering Frontier on in this effort, even if sometimes it is through gritted teeth.

The only possible threat in the near future is X4. Egosoft have learned a great deal from their Rebirth fiasco, and seem to be taking a very ambitious, very community-driven approach to X4. I suspect it may well prove to be a big winner as I think it is more likely we get a game that resembles X3 much more than Rebirth - i.e., a new classic for the genre. Fingers crossed.

Even though Hello Games has done yeoman work rehabilitating NMS, ultimately I don't see that game resembling anything more than a Minecraft in space. That is fine, btw. I like the concept. But Minecraft in space is never going to be a competitor to a game like ED, no matter how fun it may prove to be (so far I only find the game intermittently amusing).

As for SC...well, no need to rehash everything going on with that project.

And as for the other games that are in early release / alpha / or just announced (like Starfield), I've seen too many such games over the last few years never even make it to the launch pad (remember the hype around Limit Theory?), let alone get into orbit in any shape resembling what was initially pitched. I hope some do, but not counting on it.

Space game enthusiasts often like to suggest that the only reason we have had a dearth of space sims is because of some sort of console-centric conspiracy, or some other grudge against PC gaming and sims, but the truth is that making a quality "AAA" space game is almost on par with volunteering for a suicide mission. The failure rate is tremendous - again, just look at all the space games announced to much hype these past few years and compare that to the number that actually made it to a proper v1.0, not to mention a FUN v1.0. Really, despite countless attempts, only a handful ever achieved any sort of lasting success: the Evochron series, the X series, Eve Online (the most successful by far), and now Elite: Dangerous. That is probably the most exclusive club in game design. If you're running a game studio, making a AAA space game is a surefire way to wreck your business.

 

[krylite]

- Infinity Battlescape
- Dual Universe

According to public info, it seems of the two, Dual Universe is slated to be more like Eite in scope, perhaps ambitiously exceeding it in the form of much higher available concurrency of players. Although there are some major differences such as open multiplayer only, mostly player derived economy and organizations, so it could be more like EvE with full 3D.
Infinity: Battlescape seems to be more PvP arena oriented and set to be limited to a single system. "Infinity", the MMO prior to Inifnity:Battlescape was supposed to be the open universe with hundreds of billions of stars but has since been "postponed indefinitely". So ED imo is still differentiated enough to compete with the top two possible future contenders. As for currently, NMS didn't die out like ME:A, but ED is still doing well when taking in comparison of space games and simulators roughly in the same genre. (yes, I'm aware of the privacy changes etc., but taken together under the same conditions uniformly, I'd think steamcharts comparisons can still be substantial as a sample set. For example, one could take a migration, perhaps temporary of genre gamers to Battletech away from ED and Kerbal, both of which used to be relatively higher in the rankings. )


(06/09/18) Steamcharts:

51. Euro Truck Simulator 2
59. RimWorld
61. Spacewar
77. Battletech
82. XCOM 2
93. EVE: Online
99. Elite Dangerous
102. Kerbal Space program
113. Star Trek Online
119. American Truck Simulator
125. Flight Simulator X
127. Space Engineers
138. planetside 2
168. MechWarrior Online
210. No Man's Sky
212. FTL: Faster Than Light
301. Astroneer
314: X-Plane 11
424: DCS World Steam Edition
814. Osiris: New Dawn
829. Everspace

 

[kofeyh]

I bet you JW will be much larger than ED.

It was in the top 3 on twitch yesterday I believe? Apparently nearly every streamer conveniently had a key (I didn't, but then I didn't pre-order because I learned from my Elite: Dangerous pre-order experience). So yes; granted that was essentially launch day it's a pretty solid level of player engagement to do that. I'll be interested to see how long the interest is held? Frontier is a tad fond of repeatability and grind, and I am sure JWE is no exception there. Time will tell. Good on them for giving it a shot, tho.

Elite is niche, folks refuse to accept this, and assume it's footprint is much bigger really than it actually is. Go look on twitch and youtube and look at engagement numbers. That said, the solid PP changes, recent improvements in engineering (now that people have settled back into the groove) stuff like bonus weeks, the new mining and exploration stuff. It's good. It's really promising and my only hope is this place doesn't try to rail-road most all of it.

Frontier need to appeal to a broad enough audience for Elite, to keep it healthy and growing and engaging; the sorts of changes and improvements coming really, honestly, speak to that. I'm actually pleasantly surprised. Cautious, given Frontier has done this before, hinted at cool things; but hopeful.

--

On a more general note, the "my way or the highway" argument with respect to the developer working on mechanics that aren't purely part of the universe or BGS sim is pretty passive-aggressive. Don't assume that Frontier engaging with a broader audience is automatically a lesser-number than a small percentage of recalcitrant commanders. They wouldn't bother if it was.

 

[BigBANGtheory [VR]]

I'm looking forward to X4 personally, but I see it co-existing with Elite not competing against it despite the obvious overlaps in gameplay.

 

[Stigbob]

The more the merrier.

 

[Devari]

You are forgetting VR... you don't play ED, you experience Elite Dangerous! Chris Roberts with a DK1 strapped to his head all those years ago promised us SC would be a VR game. He can barely make this one as a 2D game so ED has nothing to worry about as far as I'm concerned!

VR is certainly nice but I suspect we will see adequate VR support in SC once it hits beta. It just isn't a priority at this point with all the network issues and the fps is too low in the alpha build to enjoy it anyways. It's also hard to predict what retail VR tech will look like in another 3-4 years or even what the upcoming NVIDIA 1180 GPUs are going to be capable of which could also make implementing VR more of a priority in the future. I still haven't gotten into VR yet because my gaming rig is 5 years old and my GPU isn't powerful enough but I will probably look into it once I upgrade my system in another 1-2 years.