So Sandro Sammarco has moved aside. Who has taken the reins then?

[FrogsFriend]

Aww, I'll miss Sandro's boundless enthusiasm. I wonder what 'mystery game' he's working on now?

 

[Kurgol]

Sandro Sammarco is happily moving on to a new project at Frontier Developments

Powerplay, nail, coffin?

 

[Whitehair]

Hammer too.

 

[Morbad]

Sandro never bothered me. Best of fortune to him in his next project.

Any non-purely speculative ideas on what the implications for ED are?

Willing to bet the grandfather modules left in circulation or being used is abysmally small, much less bathe chance to interact with someone with them.

There are six grandfathered modules on my vette, one on my FDL, four on my Vulture, and three on my Krait Mk II. I'm only one player, but I've got a lot of hours, and my CMDRs contacts logs since 3.0 dropped contain thousands of names.

There are also advantages they provide that can influence gameplay for others, without any direct interaction being necessary. For example, the longest jump ranges in the game are with ships that have now impossible to attain mass, optimal mass, and/or power secondaries, and there are undoubtedly many systems now off limits to anyone without the right grandfathered modules.

All modified weapons and shields should be removed and put back to unmodified modules if the ship is destroyed.
Problem solved.

I haven't lost any ships in live since 2.3 and I'm an Open-only PvP-oriented player, so that could take quite a while to remove grandfathered modules from use.

It may never happen for the more exploration or trade oriented mods.

If they were to adjust it, it would mean reverski missile spam builds would be the general go too build (Because people are utter scrubs).

Seekers can be thoroughly countered without TLB and TLB cannot always counter seekers. The two are only tenuously linked.

 

[TheMegaTurnip]

Seekers can be thoroughly countered without TLB and TLB cannot always counter seekers. The two are only tenuously linked.

Except emmisive is also a thing. So not really.


Packhounds particularly. Overwhelm PDT's, Basically ignore ECM, has a massive magazine, a ridiculous number of reloads and particularly high vs module DPS.

Short of tabing silent running on/off there really is not a hugely viable counter to missiles. Speed is one with a decent success rate, but apart from that, nada.

 

[sgurr]

You and the loach will be missed Sandro, gl with the new project.


ps. yes to grandfathered module balancing please

 

[Snarfbuckle]

Packhounds particularly. Overwhelm PDT's, Basically ignore ECM, has a massive magazine, a ridiculous number of reloads and particularly high vs module DPS.

And at the same time - they are the only real FUN missile.

 

[Riverside]

Hello all,

We wanted to address a couple of things we've seen in this thread, and stop any speculation or completely unnecessary negativity.

Sandy is indeed working on another project at Frontier, he's very happy and healthy and this is an opportunity for us to feel excited for the well-earned opportunities he's got ahead.
If you keep an eye on the future of Frontier, and our games, you'll know doubt hear from him in future.

I also think it's important to change the perception that Elite Dangerous was one person's game. Sandro was only one of the Lead Designers on Elite Dangerous, and in fact, his title was changed to Principle Designer to avoid this very confusion, both internally and externally. We have a huge team working on Elite Dangerous, and no single person makes any of the decisions on their own. Every idea, piece of feedback or design decision is considered by a number of people on the team. Whether that's Laurence Oldham, the game director, Adam Woods, the Executive Producer, or one of the other designers such as Barry Clarke, Adam Bourke-Waite, Steve Kirby etc and the list goes on...

We're currently very hard at work on Beyond - Chapter Four. The largest update of the year (free to all owners of Horizons) hasn't been released yet, and there's so much to engage in when it does arrive (more news on that soon). We aren't ready to talk about the future of Elite, but as usual, keep an eye on our social media channels and the forums for more information.

Specifically and Importantly: Sandro Sammarco is happily moving on to a new project at Frontier Developments, and although we'll miss the incredible contributions he made to the game, and his endless enthusiasm, dedication and hard work towards the project, this is very standard for games development and the future of Elite Dangerous will not be negatively affected by it.

Thanks everyone, let's remember to keep this place kind and this community full of love.

Ed

Thanks for the update. I will continue to wait for more information about the game on social media channels and the forums. Good luck to Sandro, good luck to all.

 

[Old Duck]

I heard this on the most recent love stream. I'm curious who is lead designer now and what this means for the future of Elite Dangerous?

I am

Long live the elephants!

 

[ALien8ed]

After not seeing him during any recent livestreams this comes as no surprise.

Best of luck to the beige cowboy.

 

[magnaram]

probably from beign the visible face and the main interface with the 'community'. whoever was responsible for the design decisions he was the one having to hold them up them in public, and i guess it is included in his pay check to at least act convinced and personally vouch for them. he was also presented as 'lead designer' which easily conveys the meaning that he was 'the lead designer', which implies some sort of decision power and responsibility, and he indeed actively assumed that public role much more than that of just a spokesperson. i certainly was under that vague impression at first, although i was well aware that any such position has always to deal with a lot of pressure and external forces and factors anyway.

so he had to be the guy to bring the bad news, and the one who is missed during the blackouts. it wouldn't be the first case of corporate dynamics burning out an individual, though i have no idea about the reasons of him moving on. moving on, that's life. i wish him all the best.

I think you're wrong. Edward Lewis has had to face more times and take more blows than Sammarco. Ed has been more harmed by saying things instead of being like Sammarco and giving interviews so as not to say anything.

 

[Lightspeed]

If you keep an eye on the future of Frontier, and our games, you'll know doubt hear from him in future.

I knew it. He's on Raxxla and will be discovered living there later, with a colony of loaches !

 

[znôrt]

I think you're wrong. Edward Lewis has had to face more times and take more blows than Sammarco.

if you say so. i don't see the point in even arguing this. anyway ed lewis is also more of the athletic type (but then he didn't have a voodoo loach ...) [haha]

 

[Morbad]

Except emmisive is also a thing.

Emissive is one of the reasons why TLB itself is far from an ideal counter. It increases lock range and reduces lock time enough that getting off missiles between TLB hits is often very possible.

Short of tabing silent running on/off there really is not a hugely viable counter to missiles. Speed is one with a decent success rate, but apart from that, nada.

Shields, hull with high explosive resistance, MRP + AFMU, frags (a few shots of screening shell, which is a common mod anyway, will clear any munitions in their cone of fire), rolling the ship before impact so that missiles impact the side with the least number of exposed externals, etc. More pro-active defenses, like destroying their weapons before they destroy yours, may also be viable, depending on the match up.

Yes, seekers and packhounds can be very potent, but to say they have no counters, or that TLB is the only viable counter, is false.

 

[Para Handy]

What about the Space Loach?

[where is it]

 

[MottiKhan]

Well, this is an odd thread. It seems to be going in many different directions at once.

Anyway, good luck and bright future to Sandro.

 

[Jockey79]

What about the Space Loach?

[where is it]

I keep asking this, I want to know who will look after space loach.

If no one else will, my daughter will. It'd have lots of company as she has a whole bed just for stuffed toys and teddies.
Plus she said it was "cute" when she first seen it on a livestream.

 

[Micha]

You guys rock.

And Ed, please invite Sandro to some 3.3 launch stream to say some goodbye to us...I know he might return at some point, after all, he is not going anywhere, but all these years of ED has been under spaceloach sign.

Yes, absolutely seconded; please invite Sandro to the Chapter 4 launch stream!

Would be very nice to see him say "fly safe/dangerous" to everybody instead of just quietly disappearing until his next project sees the light of day.

 

[Micha]

I'm not sure where this misconception comes from, but Sandro Sammarco has never been in charge of the Elite Dangerous project. That is the job of the Game Director. Laurence Oldman has been Game Director on Elite Dangerous for a very long time now (unless I'm mistaken, for much of the entire development). Before that, the Game Director on Elite Dangerous was David Braben.

I never intimated he was "in charge"; I merely commented on the publicly available information. Being lead designer does imply you're "in charge" of design, that doesn't mean the project as a whole though.

However, Ed's cleared that up by stating there's several "lead designers" on the project. In other words, it's just the name of the job title these people have, not necessarily the actual job role.

 

[zimms]

Thirded. I'd really love to see Sandro again on an Elite live stream!