Where is the paid 'content' LEP holder get for 'free'

[Darkfyre99]

I'm sorry but I'm not buying that. Either your definition of "fun" involves boring repetitive gameplay or you quite simply haven't done certain activities. Have you driven around for hours on planets farming mats or done countless base runs to collect hundreds and hundreds of MEF?

Yes, to the former... as a part of team of players who wanted to understand the PG rules behind the distribution of materials on the surface of planets, and I had a blast doing it. Science, even in video games, is fun!

And then they moved collecting that data to the detailed surface scanner. The least they could've done is required taking a few surface samples in order to get that information!

As for the latter, since I never counted how many base runs I've done since Horizons, I would have to answer yes, I have done countless base runs.

In all seriousness, though, I've never needed hundreds of MEFs, or any other G5 material. The ones I've gotten has been more than sufficient for my engineering purposes, and those were gathered via normal game play. Of course, it helps that like everything else in this game, if there's an aspect of it I don't find fun, I'll shelve it until it becomes fun. I never liked the random nature of the first iteration of Engineering, so I banked the G5 materials I'd gotten via normal game play, and waited for Frontier to change how it worked.

That is a grind. Sorry, but it is. Same with searching for High-Grade Emissions signal sources or missions that give EFCs. There are certain activities that had to be done over and over again to get certain mats.

In the case of the former, it takes but a moment to check a USS during the course of my normal game play to see if its something worth my time to investigate. Heck, I've even stopped my FSD charging sometimes because one popped up as it was spooling up. By the time the engineering rules changed, I had what I needed to get my ships up to G5 mods.

In the case of the latter, I again banked my EFCs until the rules changed so I wouldn't need hundreds of them to do the things I'd do with them.

*thinks*

I guess I have been "investing" my precious free time to have fun in the future. I just made sure I had fun getting it in the first place.

If you only ever did "fun" activities there should be massive gaps in your ship roster and Engineering because certain in-game achievements are not going to just "happen" unless you seek out very specific and repetitive activities and do them over and over again.

That is the definition of a grind.

So far, the only potential "gaps" in my ship roster are the Federal Corvette, primarily because I think its absurd that we can rank up with both Superpowers. I don't know how much good will I've got banked with the Federation due to taking certain missions for them during the course of my BGS work, but the Fed Navy progress bar has been at 100% for about three years now. I'm just waiting for another Fed ship sale to complete my roster of Fed ships for any false flag operations I may want to perform, no ranking up required.

I don't yet have the rank for the Imperial Cutter, but that's because I'm in no hurry to get it, since I figure there's at least six more years of life, including paid expansions, left in this game, and I want to save some goals for the future. That being said, thanks to the changes to mission rewards, I'll get there a lot sooner than I would've a year ago if I'd chosen to grind away at it.

As for Engineering... I have yet to go out of my way to unlock any of the Engineers, and I doubt that'll change anytime soon, nor have I yet had to do activities over and over and over again.

There are certainly activities I have yet to do, but given that I anticipate playing this game for many years to come, I'm content to save them for the future. Take the Guardians, for instance. I'm sure there'll be Guardian ruins on the surface of atmospheric planets as well as airless ones, so I'm saving them for when we have those. I think flying in the kinds of environments atmospheric planets will bring will be a lot more fun, and by the time we can land on them, I'll have better exploration tools to find anomalies on them than the old Mark I Eyeball.

 

[PiLhEaD]

...So FDEV said it'll be coming after beyond which we know is slated to be complete towards the end of the year, so expect it around then....

To be clear, FDEV have said that any LEP/premium content is coming after 'Beyond', so after Q4 this year?

If so, I don't suppose there's a link to where they said this Stigbob? Genuinely asking not trying to make a point here, as this would contradict what Zac said in 2017.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

To be clear, FDEV have said that any LEP/premium content is coming after 'Beyond', so after Q4 this year?

If so, I don't suppose there's a link to where they said this Stigbob? Genuinely asking not trying to make a point here, as this would contradict what Zac said in 2017.

Nope. it was said it would come out during the Beyond series of updates. My guess it will be at the same time as the Q4 update.


Here is the quote:

In addition to all the content talked about at Frontier Expo, we also have some pretty cool things in the works which will be available to purchase. We're not ready to talk about them just yet so we can't give you any details but rest assured that the lifetime expansion pass owners will be looked after and will be getting their hands on premium content as part of their lifetime expansion pass before the end of 2018 and the Beyond series of updates.

I hope that helps,


Zac

Link: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?p=6020972&viewfull=1#post6020972


Of course plans may change though and this was said some time ago, so I doubt it is set in stone.

 

[PiLhEaD]

If they give specifics on timings and it happens early or late due to entirely unavoidable circumstances then "they lied"...

And yet this is precisely what FDev have done for the four components of Beyond. So what is the problem with setting out a time line for LEP/premium content?

And again, again, I am NOT asking for them to reveal planned or hoped-for content, despite them happily already trailing Q4 freemium content.

 

[Stigbob]

To be clear, FDEV have said that any LEP/premium content is coming after 'Beyond', so after Q4 this year?

If so, I don't suppose there's a link to where they said this Stigbob? Genuinely asking not trying to make a point here, as this would contradict what Zac said in 2017.

Max already posted it.

 

[PiLhEaD]

Nope. it was said it would come out during the Beyond series of updates. My guess it will be at the same time as the Q4 update....

Thanks, that's the quote I was referencing too, so not after Beyond.

 

[thistle]

It's also worth noting what David Braben said in the 3.1 livestream with Ed. He said there are other things being worked on after Beyond, and "I dont want to spoil ... many people can guess some of the things that are coming ..." with a big grin to camera from Ed.

Other content IS being worked on, some of which I'm sure we can indeed all guess, and after Beyond it will be premium content which LEP holders will get as part of their purchase. Frontier are just doing what they do ... telling us about it in their own time.

(edit - or maybe starting before the end of Beyond as others have pointed out)

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

It's also worth noting what David Braben said in the 3.1 livestream with Ed. He said there are other things being worked on after Beyond, and "I dont want to spoil ... many people can guess some of the things that are coming ..." with a big grin to camera from Ed.

Other content IS being worked on, some of which I'm sure we can indeed all guess, and after Beyond it will be premium content which LEP holders will get as part of their purchase. Frontier are just doing what they do ... telling us about it in their own time.

(edit - or maybe starting before the end of Beyond as others have pointed out)

Agreed. I would expect the programmers that create the tools needed for next years updates to be beavering away at those at the moment while the designers are now working with the tools that the programmers made for them for the Q4 update for the squadrons, mining, exploration and other content that comes with the Q4 update, and that doesn't include whatever the premium content is either.

That seems to be how the process is done with ED from what I can tell from the livestreams.

Seems that there is a lot of work going on with ED at Fdev Towers. Well it seems like a lot for a game that is in maintanence mode.

 

[PiLhEaD]

It's also worth noting what David Braben said in the 3.1 livestream with Ed. He said there are other things being worked on after Beyond, and "I dont want to spoil ... many people can guess some of the things that are coming ..." with a big grin to camera from Ed.....

Yeah I noticed that. He was deffo alluding to hula-people bobbleheads. Deffo!!

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

Yeah I noticed that. He was deffo alluding to hula-people bobbleheads. Deffo!!

Thats probably the premium content.

 

[PiLhEaD]

Thats probably the premium content.

Colour me happy!

 

[Javert]

They don't need a business plan regarding LEP owners: they already have your money. The only monetization scheme they have left for you is paintjobs, and for that they can rely on impulse buying and peer pressure.

"Non-current deferred income is due to be recognised over the expected remaining life of the franchise period. At 31 May 2017 the expected remaining life of the franchise is considered to be four and a half years. The deferred revenue is in respect of Elite Dangerous lifetime expansion passes purchased during the financial year and Elite Dangerous: Horizons revenue in respect of future promised content."

Page 44 of FD's 2017 annual report to shareholders.

This ^^^

FD have money tied up in their balance sheet relating to LEP owners which you can see in the notes of the their financial reports. This means that they recognise that they have undelivered product to provide to LEP owners.

There are 3 categories of LEP owners and it's not clear how much they have still not recognized:
1) LEP that was included in the original kickstarter.
2) LEP that was sold after the kickstarter but before the game was released.
3) LEP that was sold when Horizons was announced.

The notes above seem to suggest that they consider that categories 1 and 2 are delivered as long as they keep the servers running until the end of 2021. However category 3 they acknowledge that they owe product to those people.

In practice, this means they must deliver at least one more paid content in order to meet their minimum LEP obligations, bur from a customer service perspective, if I bought an LEP at the time of Horizons for £130 I'd expect at least 2 major paid expansions (or equivalent) to get value out of that.

Now if this wasn't delivered, some people (and I probably would be included) would probably just shrug and move on given the amount of enjoyment out of the game so far, but the above is more the accounting and legal situation.

We also have the post from Zac last year stating that there will be content for LEP owners in 2018, and that' hasn't been denied so far. In fact, I asked an FD employee about it at Lavecon and he wouldn't confirm or deny anything but just said "LEP owners will be fully looked after" or words to that effect - based on that, I peronally expect an announcement on 2018 paid content within the next month or two, or an announcement that this is delayed until next year.

 

[bladerunner900]

As an LEP holder I did not pay again for Horizons. I also have the Black Friday paint for all craft, a gold AspX skin? and access to the Cobra IV. Not sure what else as it's been a while.

I expect all future 'paid content' will also be free, or included as in theory, I have already paid for it.

 

[S3B4ST13N]

As an LEP holder I did not pay again for Horizons. I also have the Black Friday paint for all craft, a gold AspX skin? and access to the Cobra IV. Not sure what else as it's been a while.

I expect all future 'paid content' will also be free.

CobraIV was given to all players who bought ED in it's first year on PC and XBox (this may or may not come to PS4 as well).

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

This ^^^

FD have money tied up in their balance sheet relating to LEP owners which you can see in the notes of the their financial reports. This means that they recognise that they have undelivered product to provide to LEP owners.

There are 3 categories of LEP owners and it's not clear how much they have still not recognized:
1) LEP that was included in the original kickstarter.
2) LEP that was sold after the kickstarter but before the game was released.
3) LEP that was sold when Horizons was announced.

The notes above seem to suggest that they consider that categories 1 and 2 are delivered as long as they keep the servers running until the end of 2021. However category 3 they acknowledge that they owe product to those people.

In practice, this means they must deliver at least one more paid content in order to meet their minimum LEP obligations, bur from a customer service perspective, if I bought an LEP at the time of Horizons for £130 I'd expect at least 2 major paid expansions (or equivalent) to get value out of that.

Now if this wasn't delivered, some people (and I probably would be included) would probably just shrug and move on given the amount of enjoyment out of the game so far, but the above is more the accounting and legal situation.

We also have the post from Zac last year stating that there will be content for LEP owners in 2018, and that' hasn't been denied so far. In fact, I asked an FD employee about it at Lavecon and he wouldn't confirm or deny anything but just said "LEP owners will be fully looked after" or words to that effect - based on that, I peronally expect an announcement on 2018 paid content within the next month or two, or an announcement that this is delayed until next year.

Also Zac's message was Plural. "we have a number of things in the works" which tell me they are working on more than one premium paid for DLC at the moment.

That is if the statement wasn't a lie of course.

 

[Stigbob]

Also Zac's message was Plural. "we have a number of things in the works" which tell me they are working on more than one premium paid for DLC at the moment.

Or it's been split down into smaller individual chunks, they did say they were moving away from the seasons model after Horizons.

 

[Enderby]

Black friday paint job had nothing to do with LEP, I think. I have it and I’m not a LEPer.

 

[Viajero]

Its not childish.

It's my legal background I'm afraid, spent reading small print.

Be that as it may. If you look into FDEV´s annual reports you will detect how the company had earmarked part of the proceeds from LEP and Horizons pre-purchases as a liability that only becomes actual revenue as time goes by, i.e. when Horizons got released a fraction of all those revenues got realized, but not all. I would need to check but I am pretty sure FDEV still carries a significant portion of all those LEP pre-purchases as a liability.

In other words, FDEV only recognizes those as sales when actual content is released for it, gradually (i.e Horizons has released part of it). If no future content was released for the LPE I am pretty sure FDEV would have a bit of a problem explaining to auditors and HMRC an eventual reclassification from liability to asset as actual revenue for those.

Now, admittedly the proportion of revenues coming from LEP pre-purchaes is probably tiny compared to standard sales, but still.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

Or it's been split down into smaller individual chunks, they did say they were moving away from the seasons model after Horizons.

They said they were moving away from the seasons model, but they didn't mention how big these DLC's will be. For all we know they could be as big as a whole season but just done in one big DLC fully complete and upfront.

We just don't know at the moment.

 

[Drelthar]

Black friday paint job had nothing to do with LEP, I think. I have it and I’m not a LEPer.

The reason this gets lumped together, is because there have been several things which were given to people for pre-ordering, or buying early.

Obviously, someone who bought the LEP, has pre-ordered everything, and bought everything early, so they get any of those offers as well.

Nothing at all is entirely exclusive to LEP holder, they just get everything that is exclusive in any circumstance.