Elite Franchise Life Ends In December 2021?

As a LEP owner I expect several more paid DLCs to arrive to fulfil my expectations of the £160 I've spent on the initial game and the LEP.
ED+Horizons has been on sale for as little as £20.
Development has dropped from a season pass per year to 3 years of maintenance mode.
Multicrew and holome are the precursor to spacelegs and I feel cheated that they were ever included in Horizons.


So no, I dont feel I've had anywhere near the delivered DLC that I expect for my money and I'm disappointed that FDEV have put ED on hold until 2020 due to the new VR console releases. But then its been on hold more or less since horizons dropped.

Apart from the valid points (no paid expansions) your definition of maintenance mode is wrong.
 
As a LEP owner I expect several more paid DLCs to arrive to fulfil my expectations of the £160 I've spent on the initial game and the LEP.
ED+Horizons has been on sale for as little as £20.
For the umpteenth time... you can't compare the LEP price to the price of a product on sale 4 years after release without looking dishonest.
You can compare the 160 pounds you paid to the release price of Elite (40 pounds ?) and Horizons (30 pounds ?). This way you're still at a big loss and have all rights to
be miffed, but at least the comparison isn't apples and oranges.


[Where do you get 160 pounds by the way? The wiki says 80/100/130 pounds as options. 130 - 10 loyalty bonus +40 pounds for base game?] now I read it myself - sorry...
 
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Viajero

Volunteer Moderator
Yes and not.

And still, it wasn't either sold or advertised as "one season pass every three years"

There is really no "yes and no". Elite was simply not advertised as "a season pass per year" or any number of years.

FDEV simply has remained silent until the moment has come for the specific announcement for the date reveal for each of the expansions.
 
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There is really no "yes and no". Elite was simply not advertised as "a season pass per year" or any number of years.

FDEV simply has remained silent until the moment has come for the specific announcement for the date reveal for each of the expansions.

yes, exactly like the newletter 29 on legs and atmospheric...

They have been so silent with us while telling their shareholder that elit will be developed till 2021...

Come on: let's be serious here...
 
People don't invest in ED, they invest in FD. Now people might invest in FD with the primary interest being ED, but it's still FD they invest in. And as an investor if your investment is doing well, why would you pull out?

I don't think that contradicts what I was saying. :)

You are correct, people invest in FD, but they invest in it for it's portfolio and that includes ED. If they don't like what's in the portfolio, then they won't invest. And an ED with a shortened life-span, could "spoil" that portolio.

And that's what I was suggesting to IndigoWyrd: if enough investors don't see FD as worth it, somethings gotta give, including ED, and possibley, FD itself. And all that report about ED's longevity was for was a metric for investors to decide.




What is this re-write you are talking about. It's the first I have heard of this. Please can you show me where they have said this.

What I do know is that in 2020 they intend to release an expansion for the current game.

From here: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...date-(01-03)?p=7460198&viewfull=1#post7460198

So when is this re-write coming?

Well, to be fair, I believe the "Next Era" needs to include a rewrite. Current Elite seems to be based on the older model of Frontier: Elite II which was written for single user computers in a time when there was no Internet or even much networked gameplay. This is exactly how the current game feels and what I think is holding the game back. If they want to ensure the games survival, then they need to rework it so that it feels like something more modern; something that allows a greater degree of interaction than what we currently have. I even think there are some hints that they are moving in that direction, like the recent rewrite of the mission server. Or the reworking of rescue missions so that you could actually rescue someone. And that WOULD require a rewrite of some (not necessarily all) of the code base.

Or so I think.
 
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I don't think that contradicts what I was saying. :)

You are correct, people invest in FD, but they invest in it for it's portfolio and that includes ED. If they don't like what's in the portfolio, then they won't invest. And an ED with a shortened life-span, could "spoil" that portolio.

And that's what I was suggesting to IndigoWyrd: if enough investors don't see FD as worth it, somethings gotta give, including ED, and possibley, FD itself. And all that report about ED's longevity was for was a metric for investors to decide.
They don't have to like what's in the portfolio though. They just have to be satisfied that FD are running their overall business in a way that will net them a sufficient return on their investment to justify the investment. (Not saying that liking/disliking the Portfolio won't be a consideration for some, I hasten to add.)

You were saying that if investors see the game as dying they might leave. And sure, they might but in general unless they see that as meaning the business dying why would they? And why would they see a single game dying as the business dying?

There's a new IP title this year. Then there's a new IP licence just been signed. The 2020 ED release will generate a load of income. Who, as an investor, is going to be looking at that and thinking 'company is dying, better get out'?

You were saying that if enough investors leave the game will die. My point is that the game looks pretty safe on that front.
 
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They don't have to like what's in the portfolio though. They just have to be satisfied that FD are running their overall business in a way that will net them a sufficient return on their investment to justify the investment. (Not saying that liking/disliking the Portfolio won't be a consideration for some, I hasten to add.)

You were saying that if investors see the game as dying they might leave. And sure, they might but in general unless they see that as meaning the business dying why would they? And why would they see a single game dying as the business dying?

There's a new IP title this year. Then there's a new IP licence just been signed. The 2020 ED release will generate a load of income. Who, as an investor, is going to be looking at that and thinking 'company is dying, better get out'?

You were saying that if enough investors leave the game will die. My point is that the game looks pretty safe on that front.
Shhh, shhh... WhiteBusiness and NoseYouPoor (names have been changed to protect their fragile identities) are proclaiming that the game is doomed (maybe the company too? I'm unsure if their comments have contained such nuance) so please kindly dispense with your sensible & logical thinking, craft a doomsday banner, and begin moaning too... it's the future :)
 
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Viajero

Volunteer Moderator
yes, exactly like the newletter 29 on legs and atmospheric...

Where in Newsletter 29 it is said that there will be "a season pass per year"?

They have been so silent with us while telling their shareholder that elit will be developed till 2021...

The annual reports are 100% public, not just for shareholders. But either way you seem to have misunderstood what they say: If Elite is still returning reasonable profits by 2021 (and there are no other technical requirements or limitations), why would FDEV stop it?
 
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I don't think that contradicts what I was saying. :)

You are correct, people invest in FD, but they invest in it for it's portfolio and that includes ED. If they don't like what's in the portfolio, then they won't invest. And an ED with a shortened life-span, could "spoil" that portolio.

And that's what I was suggesting to IndigoWyrd: if enough investors don't see FD as worth it, somethings gotta give, including ED, and possibley, FD itself. And all that report about ED's longevity was for was a metric for investors to decide.






Well, to be fair, I believe the "Next Era" needs to include a rewrite. Current Elite seems to be based on the older model of Frontier: Elite II which was written for single user computers in a time when there was no Internet or even much networked gameplay. This is exactly how the current game feels and what I think is holding the game back. If they want to ensure the games survival, then they need to rework it so that it feels like something more modern; something that allows a greater degree of interaction than what we currently have. I even think there are some hints that they are moving in that direction, like the recent rewrite of the mission server. Or the reworking of rescue missions so that you could actually rescue someone. And that WOULD require a rewrite of some (not necessarily all) of the code base.

Or so I think.

Then we will have to agree to disagree. While some code will be re-written as happens with most expansions, I very much doubt that two years is long enough to completely re-right all of the code base and create an expansion. As to the way ED works, most of the time it works just great for me, whether I am in a wing or on my own.

Personally I am happy with the way multiplayer is handled at the moment (apart from multicrew).
 
Sadly that it the case with Non Disclosure Agreements I'm afraid.

I really do fully understand that you would like to see proof and there's quite a few hundred thousand other paying customers who are also fans of Elite who would as well, but unless you get invited to tour Frontier and see for yourself then you'll have to take the word of others who have.

How much you want to believe (or disbelieve) of what's said is of course entirely up to you.

Sorry I can be of more help to reassure you further.

I hope that some may take what I say at face value.

The best way to fix this is for someone with a track record of being occasionally critical but not overly negative and still an active player of ED gets an invite as independent verification that a) the team is about 100 strong and b) there is stuff being worked on (obviously having signed an NDA).

I am willing to volunteer myself for this task (plus I am only an hour away from Cambridge) ;)
 
It's a bookkeeping term to indicate how long FD expect to be relevant. Nothing to do with commitment. FD will keep produce DLCs as long people will buy them.
Understand what you mean, but to clarify...

They will keep producing DLC's until:-
1) It is no longer profitable to do so - ie: If only a dozen people are buying a £10 DLC, they may not consider it worthwhile.
2) The development (ie: team and resources involved) isn't deemed less profitable than if it was instead dedicated to another project etc. ie: If the ED folks were to work instead on project X and produce five times the revenue, it might be deemed "time to move on."
 
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