News Frontier Xtra - Question of the Month - March

[Brian of Ardagh]

Now I'm confused. Why does this thread exist twice? This one and a shorter one with different posts but exactly the same OP and identical timestamp:

Spoiler

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...-Month-March?p=7473815&viewfull=1#post7473815

That's why I initially thought my post was deleted, it's still in the other thread! [where is it]

The same thread exists in the JWE forum as well, I’m sure they wanted participation from customers outside just the ED players. Which is why I find it odd that FD would limit watching the livestream, live or recorded, to Twitch and Mixer. Although I suppose that’s how things are done these days, companies are more interested in making their messaging available only where they deem necessary and requiring that potential customers seek the messaging out by subscribing to any and all social media outlets.

I remember the community management doing something like this before where they announced a livestream on Twitter and other locations but not the forum. Seems some parts of the “community” are worth talking to and others are not.

 

[rootsrat]

Serious question:

Can you explain to us in more detail how the communication process works within Frontier Developments, when it comes to providing information to the community about upcoming features and releases, timeframes, decisions regarding cut content etc. please? (As much as you're allowed to under company policy, NDA's etc.)

I appreciate you probably won't be able to share all the info, but having more understanding of who decides what and when is shared with the community and how that process works behind the scenes would be great.

Thanks!

 

[Kenneth McGrew]

Hello Commanders,


As this month's Frontier Xtra livestream draws closer, we're looking for our Question of the Month!


What do you want to know about the games industry, Frontier itself, or the Community Managers/Developers? This is your chance to get some insight into the games industry as a whole, and learn all about what it's like, how to get into it or anything else you may be wondering. We dedicate this section of the stream to answering one of your questions, so providing it's relevant to the games industry, please put your questions in this thread and we'll pick this month's favourite to discuss.


If you're struggling for ideas on what to ask, previous questions have asked for information on different ways to get into the industry, what kind of preparation goes into a livestream, and what's a day in the life of a Community Manager at Frontier.


The next Frontier Xtra is 22 March at 15:00 UTC, we can't wait to see you there!

how soon is soon?

 

[Rubbernuke]

Q:

How are the decisions for updates and improvements decided?

FD appear to have an ethos of cost / benefit with updates which is logical to certain point- i.e. if a feature is popular you update it more often. However this seems to break down with features such as Powerplay and CQC where it needs updates to potentially be more popular, but are overlooked as they are played less. This leads to a Catch 22 as unless they are improved they won't be popular, but because they are less popular they don't get the updates.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

What, if any, weight is assigned to the DDF when considering new features to work on (ie npc crew or wingmates or semi persistant / semi transient npcs which can live or die and build rep with us) or is the DDF done and dusted and ED is going in a different direction?

 

[Walter2]

With hindsight, is there now anything that Frontier now think they would have done differently?

Probably many things. Always is in development. Hindsight is brilliant but ultimately useless.

Doesn't everybody have the chance to learn from their mistakes? Just look at . . . er . . .

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

Originally they were supposed to be killable, if you had looked into the game files there were two unfinished powers supposedly to fill in for early deaths.

Now they are invincible.

There was originally meant to be many more powers then what we got.

 

[Rubbernuke]

There was originally meant to be many more powers then what we got.

Indeed. And deposed leaders had a chance of coming back, if slightly different if I recall.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

Indeed. And deposed leaders had a chance of coming back, if slightly different if I recall.

They should have released powerplay as the final update in the first season. It would have given them more time to make it better. More powers with more diverse things to do.

The idea is sound, just poor implementation due to most likely time contraints.

 

[Heater]

When are you going to start fixing the bugs?

 

[Chante Goodman]

The same thread exists in the JWE forum as well, I’m sure they wanted participation from customers outside just the ED players. Which is why I find it odd that FD would limit watching the livestream, live or recorded, to Twitch and Mixer. Although I suppose that’s how things are done these days, companies are more interested in making their messaging available only where they deem necessary and requiring that potential customers seek the messaging out by subscribing to any and all social media outlets.

I remember the community management doing something like this before where they announced a livestream on Twitter and other locations but not the forum. Seems some parts of the “community” are worth talking to and others are not.

It is absolutely not because some parts of the community are worth talking to and others are not. Elite has a well established streaming schedule, Monday lunchtimes and Thursday evenings, which has been ongoing for years. All streams are announced on social media, because people can get immediate notifications for when we are about to go live, whereas they cannot on the forums. We post our FrX streams to Twitch and Mixer as we currently find this to be the best method for people to watch our daytime streams. You can watch replays of the stream after it is posted and, as they are highlighted, they won't disappear. Things like where our livestreams are posted is decided through feedback we have gotten and absolutely not because the members of the community team actively pick and choose who they think are worth talking to.

 

[Riverside]

When are you going to start fixing the bugs?

I think it would be good to see bug fixes & server-side only patches announced in the patch note section. It would raise visibility of the work that FDev do.

 

[Riverside]

It is absolutely not because some parts of the community are worth talking to and others are not. Elite has a well established streaming schedule, Monday lunchtimes and Thursday evenings, which has been ongoing for years. All streams are announced on social media, because people can get immediate notifications for when we are about to go live, whereas they cannot on the forums. We post our FrX streams to Twitch and Mixer as we currently find this to be the best method for people to watch our daytime streams. You can watch replays of the stream after it is posted and, as they are highlighted, they won't disappear. Things like where our livestreams are posted is decided through feedback we have gotten and absolutely not because the members of the community team actively pick and choose who they think are worth talking to.

Why would an announcement on your own official forum not be immediate but Twitter would? I don't use twitter (not your problem) but I also don't track Dev posts on twitter because so much of it is gumph (this is a learning opportunity). This forum was a consistent place to get info, consistency is important.

 

[Shadowdancer]

Which is why I find it odd that FD would limit watching the livestream, live or recorded, to Twitch and Mixer.

I personally think those are far better platforms for live streaming what's a bit of a community event. They mostly focus the running stream and have decent chat functionality. On Youtube I always feel like it's a random offline video with a borderline unusable afterthought chat and all the usual distractions on the side.

 

[Chante Goodman]

Why would an announcement on your own official forum not be immediate but Twitter would? I don't use twitter (not your problem) but I also don't track Dev posts on twitter because so much of it is gumph (this is a learning opportunity). This forum was a consistent place to get info, consistency is important.

This post is purely related to streaming, not updates or anything else. The reason streams are great to be posted to Twitter, is because people can get Twitter notifications sent to their phone from the Elite Dangerous Twitter account when we are about to go live, meaning they can evaluate if they are available and join us. The forums required a lot more time and people had to decide in advance if they could put time aside. We continue to use the forums for news and notes and will, of course, continue to do so in the future.

 

[Riverside]

ETA I do appreciate that you are making an effort, and wish you every success.

 

[Chante Goodman]

This feedback is useful, the team will be able to evaluate whether posting all livestreams on the forums would be useful to community members. The only livestreams that aren't currently posted on the forums are the Monday lunchtime let's plays, all other streams are.

 

[Cocalarix]

FYI, we also get notifications from the Twitch app when you go live. And I'm sure the 2 people using Mixer probably get one too, unless Microsoft is still lagging behind.

 

[mojonaut]

The reason streams are great to be posted to Twitter, .

I have no problem with you posting to 'third' party social media sites, but this forum is your home, your base and where announcements should be posted first.

Not everyone is on or friendface, you folk just never seem to 'get it' do you?

 

[Justinian Octavius]

Question: How does Frontier weigh up the advantages & disadvantages of its current methods of communicating development progress of Elite Dangerous? Developers of other "Games as a Service" software tend to provide a form of rolling updates on their progress, whilst FDev still goes for the impact of the big reveal of new features.

Many thanks,

CMDR Justinian Octavius