Half-Baked
- Thread starter Old Duck
- Start date
That's actually not true. The engineering update brought us 'powerplant operating at reduced efficiency' as a by-product of the PvP angle but there are storylines to follow too, that use assets in the game for longer; For example if you download listening post transmissions and follow to source.
I had one bookmarked weeks ago that my megaship taxi (Gnosis) just brought me in range of .. dug out the bookmark today, travelled to it and hey presto found a research ship and it's associated discovery, along with shiplogs and more breadcrumbs to follow on. I won't say what, as spoiler and while it's not directly linked to the BGS yet, which might be what the OP is talking about, don't think there isn't stuff like that out there if you're prepared to explore, because there is.
The CODEX is brand spanking new remember too, a 3.3 update but if you look up reported discoveries that's one way to pick up the breadcrumb rather than bumping into blindly. Be warned though, some of the audiologs are hella spooky.
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The half-baked is something i agree on many aspects. It's most obvious for PP, CQC and Engineers. All of them were hurried out of the doorway, ready or not. (And keep in mind, it obviously were internal release milestones! We players only got told about the release date a few weeks before it happened. So FD already at that time could've just moved internal milestones around and opted for quality. Unfortunately they did not. )
How these things were done very much reminded me on a place i once worked. It was common joke that the delivery date was kept, quality was added later. It was common practice in that company to tie management rewards to keeping delivery dates. So the managers, down to team level, did everything they could to keep the delivery dates, while not caring too much on how the customer would react to it. People still there tell me that after a few too many delivery fiaskos, the company by now supposedly has learned from that, things are not run like that any more. I can't tell, it was like that till i left.
On the positive: we complained about that to FD. We had a voting about it. FD promised to adjust. They already did a year of "less content, more upgrades". And while people already forgot about it, the last year had a lot of fixes. Look at threads a year ago, people were complaining about things we already forgot about. For the next big content patch, they decided to take a lot of time. (They could just have kept up the old expansion schedule. It would've made them more money on short term than not bringing any expansions at all, although it on any longer term probably would've killed the game. )
So we can just hope that whatever comes next will be of better quality. The base design counts, that's where time is spent best. For demonstration, look at Engineers. It was hurried out of the doorway. Michael Brookes at some time admitted that they first had more ambitious plans, but they couldn't have implemented that on the given timeline, so they settled for what we actually got. Later they had to spend a lot of time on just improving engineers a bit. And they still are merely "meh" and not really good. Would that time have been spent earlier, instead of sacrificing so much to keep the release milestone, they could actually be great.
So yes, we obviously had a stretch of hurried deliveries, where quality was sacrificed in favor of releasing it earlier. Now we have a longer stretch till the next delivery happens. There's at least hope that this longer development time will be used for better quality.
How these things were done very much reminded me on a place i once worked. It was common joke that the delivery date was kept, quality was added later. It was common practice in that company to tie management rewards to keeping delivery dates. So the managers, down to team level, did everything they could to keep the delivery dates, while not caring too much on how the customer would react to it. People still there tell me that after a few too many delivery fiaskos, the company by now supposedly has learned from that, things are not run like that any more. I can't tell, it was like that till i left.
On the positive: we complained about that to FD. We had a voting about it. FD promised to adjust. They already did a year of "less content, more upgrades". And while people already forgot about it, the last year had a lot of fixes. Look at threads a year ago, people were complaining about things we already forgot about. For the next big content patch, they decided to take a lot of time. (They could just have kept up the old expansion schedule. It would've made them more money on short term than not bringing any expansions at all, although it on any longer term probably would've killed the game. )
So we can just hope that whatever comes next will be of better quality. The base design counts, that's where time is spent best. For demonstration, look at Engineers. It was hurried out of the doorway. Michael Brookes at some time admitted that they first had more ambitious plans, but they couldn't have implemented that on the given timeline, so they settled for what we actually got. Later they had to spend a lot of time on just improving engineers a bit. And they still are merely "meh" and not really good. Would that time have been spent earlier, instead of sacrificing so much to keep the release milestone, they could actually be great.
So yes, we obviously had a stretch of hurried deliveries, where quality was sacrificed in favor of releasing it earlier. Now we have a longer stretch till the next delivery happens. There's at least hope that this longer development time will be used for better quality.
I don't know what to say Duck. Looks like your transformation to a full ED naysayer and FD basher is complete. I'd hoped it wouldn't turn out this way for you and that you wouldn't be swayed by the earlier naysaying and trollish elements with misguided and inaccurate and unrealistic presumptions on the reality of game development tech today, and independent publisher survival and financial concerns. But I guess you've become one of full on naysaying elements on this forum, continuing on to foreseeable perpetuity of the game on this forum. That said, with all due respect I'd enjoyed your postings for the most part and you're still one of the better and well-spirited/humorous naysayers.
For myself, having had played FFE & FE2 , I was initially miffed with ED that they did away with the stardreamer sublight mode and didn't the like the idea of supercruise. Then I quickly understood MMO shared verse limitations, and that the supercruise was actually a well done graduation into a ftl cruising mode for the Elite franchise, a better warp speed simulator than even the StarTrek games themselves and then was overwhelmingly amazed at how much the games works on such a massive scope, such a good revamp of FE2 to dream levels, and continues to get improved. I still maintain Frontier and FD have done the best they could while financially maintaining stability as an independent publisher without having to resort to unsavory and unprincipled low depths of marketing that CIG/SC had fallen to or other major publishers who would never attempt or pioneer ED's galactic model sim ambition in favor of today's corporatized focus of the game industry. I think most of FD staff love the game, as they mentioned they realize the depth of interest in the game from the players, and always want to make it better. It just takes time and long-term patience and I can't see how it helps to blame , cajole or pressure them to improve the game faster when they are already well committed and doing the best they can. Anyways, peace and best of it, o7.
For myself, having had played FFE & FE2 , I was initially miffed with ED that they did away with the stardreamer sublight mode and didn't the like the idea of supercruise. Then I quickly understood MMO shared verse limitations, and that the supercruise was actually a well done graduation into a ftl cruising mode for the Elite franchise, a better warp speed simulator than even the StarTrek games themselves and then was overwhelmingly amazed at how much the games works on such a massive scope, such a good revamp of FE2 to dream levels, and continues to get improved. I still maintain Frontier and FD have done the best they could while financially maintaining stability as an independent publisher without having to resort to unsavory and unprincipled low depths of marketing that CIG/SC had fallen to or other major publishers who would never attempt or pioneer ED's galactic model sim ambition in favor of today's corporatized focus of the game industry. I think most of FD staff love the game, as they mentioned they realize the depth of interest in the game from the players, and always want to make it better. It just takes time and long-term patience and I can't see how it helps to blame , cajole or pressure them to improve the game faster when they are already well committed and doing the best they can. Anyways, peace and best of it, o7.
I consider myself a half-baked ED naysayer and FDev basher. If you are honest and have followed all my posts, then you know I have and continue to say many good things about the game and the developers who have worked magic with things like the Stellar Forge. But I'll never be a Tom Cruise wannabe member of the "Church of Frontier". Braben may not be the devil, but he's no Messiah either.
By the way, you forgot to blame my PS4 for all these problems
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The regressions..... ugh.
Players: There is a bug with this.
Time passes
FD: We fixed it!
6 months later
Players: The bug is back.
Time passes
FD: We fixed it!
6 months later.
Players: Yeah, about that bug again....
Old Duck - i wouldn't do PP the justice of calling it half-baked. I think it spent 5 minutes in the general vicinity of something mildly warm. The rest isn't too bad, and overall, while some things could do with work, some things work well. Of course, there is room for improvement just about everywhere, but there always will be, no matter what FD do. Players can always dream up ways they want things to be "improved", and of course, those "improvements" will not be to the liking of others.
ED remains one my favourite games of all time and one of my most played. And i think that is true for many people, including some of those who are critical of it. That says quite something positive for something that is so "half baked"
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He's not the messiah! He's a very naughty boy!
More likely completely schizophrenic with multiple personality disorders... Oh, wait... [sour]
Which feedback. And one person's better can be someone else's crap.
I prefer Fdev to make the game they want to make, warts and all, or make the game I want, but I know that isn't going to happen unless I make my own game .
Well, my feedback actually. Everyone else's ideas are dumb. Only I have good ideas. Anyone who says otherwise is clearly wrong.
Braben: Fdev make a feature request/suggestion section in the forum, so we can see what the players want next.
Players: Please make the gameplay deeper, add atmospheric planets and legs with cool new gameplay associated.
Braben: Fdev what are the players asking for?
Fdev: they keep asking deeper gameplay, atmospheric planets and legs.
Braben: Ok let's give them new weapons
Fdev: ...uhm ok... and what about their requests?
Braben: ok ok, add a couple of new combat ships and tell them that we're very excited about their feedbacks.
Players: Please make the gameplay deeper, add atmospheric planets and legs with cool new gameplay associated.
Braben: Fdev what are the players asking for?
Fdev: they keep asking deeper gameplay, atmospheric planets and legs.
Braben: Ok let's give them new weapons
Fdev: ...uhm ok... and what about their requests?
Braben: ok ok, add a couple of new combat ships and tell them that we're very excited about their feedbacks.
Repped
But I prefer the term "half-'whatyousiton'".
But I prefer the term "half-'whatyousiton'".
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I feel this. Deeply.
I love this game. I'd say it's consuming, but sometimes it feels more like consumption[/I (but as in the disease rather than mere using of resources).
This half-bakedness is in almost every unfinished, unpolished aspect of this maddenly wonderful environment that FDev's (half)created -- the all-too-obvious missed potential of something conceptualized but never brought fully to fruition, either through lack of imagination, interest, or resources.
So many of this game's regular touchpoints (at least for those doing missions and interacting with content around the bubble) are glaring, in-your-face raspberries trumpeting what could have been.
It feels like there's a monthly meeting, on a Friday at 6pm, when most folks are thinking of heading home and have already mentally checked out. The requirement is that you show up in a conference room (where admittedly, there's probably one can of free soda and a single slice of pizza (but no more!) for each (mandatory) attendee -- you know, to take the sting out of this unfortunately schedule requirement. And every person has to bring ONE cool idea to "evolve" the game (because, you know, the 2019 BAFTA awards says Elite Dangerous is tops in this category and we've made a big deal of this to shareholders!). And nobody can leave the meeting until everybody has pitched their idea. But everyone knows that if their idea takes more than 10-15 seconds to pitch, they'll become pariah, because, hey, it's already after 6pm on a Friday, right?
Then, on the following Monday, at an 8am meeting (when most of the producers and their dev leads wouldn't otherwise be in before 0930, those who pitched the top six ideas have to deliver their resource estimates (which, of course, they worked on all weekend, right?). Then those resource estimates are cut by 90% and assigned between the available interns and newest, junior development hires. Then THOSE unfortunates are told they have one week to get enough of a framework done for their work to be checked in, QA'd, and pushed live ...eventually. Then maybe one day, whatever was left uncoded from the original idea, might be revisited. And, you know, evolved.
How else do one explain inexplicable appearances of content like the new, abysmal USS/HGE implementation abomination? Or those lame mysterious tips that could be so interesting...but aren't. Those new, waste-of-time mission:source USS's? The new content and stations that are appearing willy nilly...without any actually interesting use, purpose, or challenges for players? The go-nowhere "Community" goals? The most passive-aggressive, seemingly stalled, alien invasion in the history of gaming? The ongoing PP intrigue and GalNet news that...ultimately...goes nowhere and means nothing, even to those struggling to immerse themselves in it.
If we didn't love this game so much, none of that would be nearly as maddening as it is.
But we do. And it is.
I'm just thankful that the ship selection, and the engineering depth, and the countless permutations that are balanced enough to make PvP highly variable and fun, exist for when the PvE has long since grown stale. At least that...THAT they did pretty amazingly, when you consider the incredible challenge.
I love this game. I'd say it's consuming, but sometimes it feels more like consumption[/I (but as in the disease rather than mere using of resources).
This half-bakedness is in almost every unfinished, unpolished aspect of this maddenly wonderful environment that FDev's (half)created -- the all-too-obvious missed potential of something conceptualized but never brought fully to fruition, either through lack of imagination, interest, or resources.
So many of this game's regular touchpoints (at least for those doing missions and interacting with content around the bubble) are glaring, in-your-face raspberries trumpeting what could have been.
It feels like there's a monthly meeting, on a Friday at 6pm, when most folks are thinking of heading home and have already mentally checked out. The requirement is that you show up in a conference room (where admittedly, there's probably one can of free soda and a single slice of pizza (but no more!) for each (mandatory) attendee -- you know, to take the sting out of this unfortunately schedule requirement. And every person has to bring ONE cool idea to "evolve" the game (because, you know, the 2019 BAFTA awards says Elite Dangerous is tops in this category and we've made a big deal of this to shareholders!). And nobody can leave the meeting until everybody has pitched their idea. But everyone knows that if their idea takes more than 10-15 seconds to pitch, they'll become pariah, because, hey, it's already after 6pm on a Friday, right?
Then, on the following Monday, at an 8am meeting (when most of the producers and their dev leads wouldn't otherwise be in before 0930, those who pitched the top six ideas have to deliver their resource estimates (which, of course, they worked on all weekend, right?). Then those resource estimates are cut by 90% and assigned between the available interns and newest, junior development hires. Then THOSE unfortunates are told they have one week to get enough of a framework done for their work to be checked in, QA'd, and pushed live ...eventually. Then maybe one day, whatever was left uncoded from the original idea, might be revisited. And, you know, evolved.
How else do one explain inexplicable appearances of content like the new, abysmal USS/HGE implementation abomination? Or those lame mysterious tips that could be so interesting...but aren't. Those new, waste-of-time mission:source USS's? The new content and stations that are appearing willy nilly...without any actually interesting use, purpose, or challenges for players? The go-nowhere "Community" goals? The most passive-aggressive, seemingly stalled, alien invasion in the history of gaming? The ongoing PP intrigue and GalNet news that...ultimately...goes nowhere and means nothing, even to those struggling to immerse themselves in it.
If we didn't love this game so much, none of that would be nearly as maddening as it is.
But we do. And it is.
I'm just thankful that the ship selection, and the engineering depth, and the countless permutations that are balanced enough to make PvP highly variable and fun, exist for when the PvE has long since grown stale. At least that...THAT they did pretty amazingly, when you consider the incredible challenge.
I take this as a glass-half-empty post. In a good way. If you were satisfied with how things were, in the glass-half-full way, you'd be happy as-is. But being a glass-half-empty type, you see the potential for more. I only hope that you, like me, think that the potential for so much more that Elite Dangerous has in spades is being slowly and elaborately filled by Frontier. As they have been doing for a long time.
Patience, young one. All good things etc.
SI wouldn't give it one sixteenth baked.
Mary Berry wouldn't even try and be nice about it. She'd have blown this joint right after getting her first Hauler.
Worst space game I own.
Mary Berry wouldn't even try and be nice about it. She'd have blown this joint right after getting her first Hauler.
Worst space game I own.