Game's future

[Imo]

After more than 30 weeks of play I feel a bit bored too. Three and a half years after release we are still facing dull, rocky planets with no atmosphere, no clouds, no trees, no cities and no life. When Horizons arrived I really hoped the game will be on the right path.

But instead, we got Horizons with not a lot of horizons. Except rocky planets. The great vision of David Braben can still be found in the kickstarter videos but rarely in the game even today. The "Thargoids", well, these jellyfish flowers are nonsense and don't add anything great to the game.

The incredible amount if engineering stuff turned things upside down, replacing a nice fight with the attempt to disable your opponent with your magic effects first instead.

And don't ask the explorers how exciting it is to press the scan-this-stellar-body-button thousands of times in a row only to end up with nothing than a few more Credits you can still not buy anything for to build up your own home on a suitable earth-like planet...

 

[StuartGT]

The game has been at around 4k concurrent players fo over a year now. This seems to be the standard for ED now.

It's most likely made up of die hards and a few players popping back every now and again to see if anything has got any better.

Game isn't dead, it's sort of in limbo mode, player base isn't going up or down.

Wouldn't say it's stagnant, but definitely not on the up.

ED has always been a niche game TBH.

The daily peak concurrency chart from SteamDB, upon which I've drawn a horizontal line at 4k concurrent players:

Using the data on SteamCharts, the average concurrency for:

• The past 12 months = 4656
• 2018 (so far) = 4914
• 2017 = 4661
• 2016 = 3673
• 2015 = 4492

From Brett C two weeks back:

And as they have recently said that more people are playing ED then ever before, I think we can take those steam stats as being pretty useless, unless of course they were lying.

It feels as if people are using Steam stats as the be-all-end-all argument that "Elite Dangerous is [dieing|dead|abandoned|on the death bed]".

Unfortunately for those folks that are attempting to use Steam's player count as ammo for the above... Steam stats only paint a very small picture of our actual player counts.

Elite Dangerous was not originally released on and locked to the Steam platform in 2014. It was made with our own client patcher, our own accounts system, our own developed systems. Completely split away from Steam. We do not force people to launch the game through Steam. At last check, players can download Elite Dangerous from Steam, and not have the Steam client running at all while playing Elite.

Meanwhile, here's the traffic data from /r/EliteDangerous:

To me, the playerbase and wider community appear be both healthy and steadily increasing.

 

[Alpenmilch]

No you don't. You think you love her but since you wish she would change you don't love who she is. You love your vision of her and not her. In that case SHE should leave you.

Braben, please stay. I was an Idiot....You are perfect...I will do anything!

That day.... fear for it.

Let the Servers last forever!

 

[Burke]

And don't ask the explorers how exciting it is to press the scan-this-stellar-body-button thousands of times in a row only to end up with nothing than a few more Credits you can still not buy anything for to build up your own home on a suitable earth-like planet...

I never really cared wht planets i found i was perfectly happy to just go exploring. Its just that i had to engineer my ship first. It was the combat rank grind that really did it for me, its drained all the enjoyment out of the game like it was designed to. I just wanted to go exploring, so i bought another game where i can. I could have given that money to fdev and the strange thing is i dont think they even care.

 

[babelfisch]

I never really cared wht planets i found i was perfectly happy to just go exploring. Its just that i had to engineer my ship first. It was the combat rank grind that really did it for me, its drained all the enjoyment out of the game like it was designed to. I just wanted to go exploring, so i bought another game where i can. I could have given that money to fdev and the strange thing is i dont think they even care.

Yes, they probably don't care about your money. They got plenty.

On the Engineer thing, I am sure you could've gone exploring without unlocking that single Engineer who requires you to be Dangerous.

 

[BluStar]

Good luck OP. Although you are right, and that the fact is the game is dying in the context of sales are declining for the player base, the fanbase will be very, very eager and "emotionally responsive" to tell you that you are wrong. They don't have a clue on the facts of course. But the fanbase will still tell you that you are wrong because... because... they said so I guess. And that's what will make them happy.

Fact is, as you pointed out, the game is dying in the sense of not attracting new players as all games do after they peak. But this fierce fanbase cannot handle these simple facts.

So as to the future? FDev are already telling us what they think of the future which, right now is for 2018, "don't do much". Nothing, absolutely nothing has happened to expand the game or extend the gameplay in the past 15-20 months yet this fanbase will tell you the world has been rocked and changed beyond what you could... you could... only imagine if you shut your eyes and use your imagination. Nope, it hasn't changed.

dont worry mate, i very well know that forums are filled with these kind of people, the people that are actually unhappy and dont care if the game is going to improve or not a re already gone, as we can see in declining playerbase especially lately

all i did was made a thread while stating my concern about the game, wanting it to get better and wondering how others feel about it
all i have so far recieved mostly is that i am immature, people been calling me autistic indirectly, telling me that im some kind of teen and i dont really know what anymore, that really just proves Their maturity and their biased thinking

and yes i knew ill get these responses, but im blunt and never cared about what some guy in basement will tell me what i am for stating out my opinion about state of the game

im actually 24 year old, i studied engineering and im working for company building machines, so yeah, im very much a child and have no clue what im talking about

 

[rp198419]

I don't think ED is doomed by any means but I agree with others who have said ED is in maintenance mode, relying on new players' fascination and initial excitement and sales from the store.

Yesterday, after a 6 month break (after 1,500 hours or so of playing ED) I logged in to finish Palin. I had all the mats for G5 DD (I already had G3 DD) but still needed the sensor fragments. Off I went and after a very frustrating time I eventually found the wreck, ignored the fragments deliberately placed to be inaccessible and blew up the canisters instead, got the fragments, went to Palins's base.

And it was there that I understood what is intrinsically wrong with ED: It is not designed to be fun, but to be as frustrating as possible in every possible way, relying on combat and giant flowers floating in space where there should be real content.

I couldn't just up the DD. First I had to waste time and mats (which had accumulated over hundreds of hours) to go from G1-5. After all the effort and frustrations already spent, this incompetent FD design team would not be content until frustration was complete. They could not think in terms of 'reward' for the player; only of wasting players' time.

Now I have the G5 DD I will log out again until Q4 at the end of December as the game at present is offering little of interest. A 400 billion star wasteland devoid of gameplay.

ED is not doomed, even if it is frustrating but it is, presently anyway, far from sufficiently interesting to warrant time being spent playing it.

ED is imo the perfect example of a potentially brilliant game that has been ruined by incompetent, has-been, dated designers (audio and VR excepted) who couldn't give a damn about those who actually play ED and live in the real world outside of FD's offices.

 

[Burke]

Yes, they probably don't care about your money. They got plenty.

On the Engineer thing, I am sure you could've gone exploring without unlocking that single Engineer who requires you to be Dangerous.

Fdev wanted me to do it. Or they wouldnt have hidden what i want behind that grind. It didnt have to be a boring single location bore fest but they made it that way

 

[Burke]

ED is imo the perfect example of a potentially brilliant game that has been ruined by incompetent

They have certainly squandered the name "elite" and it wont be there to use again. Sometimes i wonder if all this was ever meant to be was boost to VR sales cause lets be brutally honest, VR is never going to be big time no matter how much they try to tell gamers they want it. Its sad.. the potential was and still is huge. I also wonder if the grind is designed to make you angry and make you quit. What do they care if you buy it and then never play?

 

[Stigbob]

I never really cared wht planets i found i was perfectly happy to just go exploring. Its just that i had to engineer my ship first. It was the combat rank grind that really did it for me, its drained all the enjoyment out of the game like it was designed to. I just wanted to go exploring, so i bought another game where i can. I could have given that money to fdev and the strange thing is i dont think they even care.

Horse apples you only need an FSD upgrade for exploring, no need at all for any combat rank. Farseer unlock is based on low explorer rank.

 

[Burke]

Horse apples you only need an FSD upgrade for exploring, no need at all for any combat rank. Farseer unlock is based on low explorer rank.

This will go round in circles so all i will say is that i have been exploring unengineered and now i want a ship thats actually good at it and to my designs. If i cant have the engineered ship its not worth going, for me.

 

[rp198419]

cause lets be brutally honest, VR is never going to be big time no matter how much they try to tell gamers they want it.

Really? I think Amazon may have something to say about that judging by the number of Oculus purchasers.....and that 's not including new developers coming onto the scene.

Read this: https://www.ibc.org/tech-advances/see-the-future-vr-headsets-and-hardware-trends/2696.article

 

[babelfisch]

Fdev wanted me to do it. Or they wouldnt have hidden what i want behind that grind. It didnt have to be a boring single location bore fest but they made it that way

The Dangerous combat rank doesn't unlock exploration specific Engineers. It's Lori Jameson and her only blueprint for explorers is the detailed surface scanner which you don't need or probably also get from someone else.

 

[Burke]

@rp198419 Its the next bit of shiny they want you to buy. Its like 3D tvs.


Lori jameson has one more level of life support aswell.

 

[Stigbob]

This will go round in circles so all i will say is that i have been exploring unengineered and now i want a ship thats actually good at it and to my designs. If i cant have the engineered ship its not worth going, for me.

You are complaining about having to do something optional that you've wrongly decided is vital but don't want to do. This is an entirely self inflicted problem.

 

[Makaan]

I don't think ED is doomed by any means but I agree with others who have said ED is in maintenance mode, relying on new players' fascination and initial excitement and sales from the store.

Yesterday, after a 6-month break (after 1,500 hours or so of playing ED) I logged in to finish Palin. I had all the mats for G5 DD (I already had G3 DD) but still needed the sensor fragments. Off I went and after a very frustrating time I eventually found the wreck, ignored the fragments deliberately placed to be inaccessible and blew up the canistersinstead, got the fragments, went to Palins's base.

And it was there that I understood what is intrinsically wrong with ED: It is not designed to be fun, but to be as frustrating as possible in every possible way, relying on combat and giant flowers floating in space where there should be real content.

I couldn't just up the DD. First I had to waste time and mats (which had accumulated over hundreds of hours) to go from G1-5. After all the effort and frustrations already spent, this incompetent FD design team would not be content until frustration was complete. They could not think in terms of 'reward' for the player; only of wasting players' time.

Now I have the G5 DD I will log out again until Q4 at the end of December as the game at present is offering little of interest. A 400 billion star wasteland devoid of gameplay.

ED is not doomed, even if it is frustrating but it is, presently anyway, far from sufficiently interesting to warrant time being spent playing it.

ED is imo the perfect example of a potentially brilliant game that has been ruined by incompetent, has-been, dated designers (audio and VR excepted) who couldn't give a damn about those who actually play ED and live in the real world outside of FD's offices.

Yeah, they really should remove the requirement of having to roll grade 1 once, grade 2 twice, grade 3 three times, grade 4 four times, and grade 5 five times for each module/weapon/utility mount once you hit grade 5 access with said Engineer. It's ridiculous.

 

[babelfisch]

Yeah, they really should remove the requirement of having to roll grade 1 once, grade 2 twice, grade 3 three times, grade 4 four times, and grade 5 five times for each module/weapon/utility mount once you hit grade 5 access with said Engineer. It's ridiculous.

That's some criticism I can agree with. I also think some unlock requirements are ridiculous.

 

[RymdLazer]

Braben, please stay. I was an Idiot....You are perfect...I will do anything!



That day.... fear for it.

Let the Servers last forever!

Actually I wish FD would refund a bunch of people here and block them from anything ED forever. A brutal breakup from a abusive relationship. Lovely

 

[Flash_Baggins]

dont worry mate, i very well know that forums are filled with these kind of people, the people that are actually unhappy and dont care if the game is going to improve or not a re already gone, as we can see in declining playerbase especially lately

all i did was made a thread while stating my concern about the game, wanting it to get better and wondering how others feel about it
all i have so far recieved mostly is that i am immature, people been calling me autistic indirectly, telling me that im some kind of teen and i dont really know what anymore, that really just proves Their maturity and their biased thinking

and yes i knew ill get these responses, but im blunt and never cared about what some guy in basement will tell me what i am for stating out my opinion about state of the game

im actually 24 year old, i studied engineering and im working for company building machines, so yeah, im very much a child and have no clue what im talking about

Actually, rereading the OP you also made assumptions on the entirety of the playerbase based on your own opinions from the data that you had seen, at which point you then say to others that you are laughing at their comments.

I must also mention the fact that you dont know how many players arent playing on steam. I got the game before it was on steam and I still just use the launcher rather than through steam, I would be interested to know how those figures affect the overall values.

On a note about the game and the state of the game I agree that FD need to do something and they need to do it quick, hopefully Q4 will be the beginning to fixing many of the games design problems. The game is by no means doomed, theres still thousands of people playing concurrently. However newer features draw more people in as well so if FD get their act together and add features that are relevant, easy to access and fun then itll draw back old players as well as new ones.

 

[Brrokk]

Crumbs, it's a game. If it's fun to play, play it, otherwise play a different one. There's no need to agonize over what it will be like next year or how many other people are playing it.