FDEV, Are you still there?

[krylite]

I still can't understand the whole 'FD must keep us fully informed' rhetoric some here are demanding. Why should they, most other game publishers don't, and if FD did, what would it achieve? Do you really think that if FD released a statement tomorrow advising that the 2020 upgrade will be atmospheric planets WITH Elite Feet this community will just sit back and say 'Thank You'. Hell no, every one of the professional gaming experts here will have an apocalyptic meltdown. Some will call FD liars, some will demand that that project is brought forward cos you know, these things can be done overnight with two work experience kids, some will rant that they don't want atmospheric planets or Elite Feet, some will demand that all work stop until their favourite bug in the game is fixed. This community just can't be trusted to be told anything at times, because there is this core group that will undermine anything FD does or say they are doing.

Absolutely. I have a similar sentiment about it. HG & NMS got away with a windfall in their initial pre-order infamous initial release with deceptive marketing yet they continued working on quietly for the next year and a half on NMS-next, yet FD doesn't get similar breaks or allowances from the vocal minority naysaying hardly ever.. (where activity on this forum while healthy is a very small percentage of the playerbase outside of & including steam numbers) For sure other publsihers get by with releasing little to no information such as Bethsesda with the upcoming Starfield and Elder Scrolls VI. FD had made statements and announcements when patches or upgrades or upcoming betas were ready, yet all those efforts along with good new features are as usual often taken for granted quickly, then they still get criticized as one of the worst ever on community, ironically again soon after they made the effort to revamp and modernize the forum infrastructure to work better with mobiles. If they announced they were working on specific details of atmospherics there will of course be endless salt about why they weren't working on this other pet feature, or fixing this particular perceived bug. And overall armchair developing as if forum posters had the right to be making development management decisions and prioritizing. Newer players may not notice or be aware, but there are several examples in the past where FD had targeted efforts that updated or changed features with thought to general player base concerns. Such as there used to be concerns posted about the old engineering. FD responded with the new revamp. It was posted often how exploration and mining were neglected. FD responded again with Beyond. C&P had changes. And so on. Many more examples out there. Yet most all are often forgotten they happened or taken for granted quickly as usual.

Today is the 10th of april. I am fretting. It is getting harder to trust FD's word these days. Especially because of these useless hyperbolic adjectives they keep writing.

The announcment on 03/01 used words such as "milestones' and "new phase", which weren't used before in the previous seasons. Rather they refer to the next major phase of the ten-year planning where ED is just beginning to enter the second half, i.e. "phase 2".

 

[znôrt]

No doubt many do not trust them like you blindly do.

not like him, but you can trust on frontier's record up to date.

relax. they have already stopped participating in the forum, all you should expect is announcements, when they come. one day they will come out of the blue with a grin from ear to ear and announce something super super exciting. you mileage will vary, but that's the deal. no amount of protesting, wondering and calling around here will change anything, it will be when it suits them. just relax, or bite your fingernails off, that's your choice ;-)

 

[Ralph Vargr]

I once wrote for a pen-and-paper game company that had the same PR methods as Frontier.

They went bust, and I was paid, in physical product, not cash, at full retail value (normally discounts of 40%+ are common when paid-in-kind), what I was owed.

Players gave up, and moved on. The company had "surprises" and "exciting" in it's vocabulary, too. The company crashed well short of the runway. They never watched the fuel totalizer in customer credibility.

Steam wasn't around, but the US Government, and the State of Illinois were, to collect the taxes. Turned out the cynics were right all along, when the public numbers came out.

 

[Joels]

Man, all I really want right now is this:

The first two of these updates will primarily focus on new player and welcoming experiences, and we will also be introducing a number of quality of life improvements for the entire player base, of which we will have more news on in the coming weeks.

See, when someone says "in the coming weeks", I think two, maybe three weeks. Once you're at the four week mark and past that, you're already in the "months" territory. As of now, it has been one month and one week since this announcement, and we've heard absolutely nothing about the QoL changes or the new player experience changes.

 

[Macros Black]

The Elite dev team is indeed working on things for Elite Dangerous.

He must be really, really busy.

 

[znôrt]

Frontier's record up to date leaves much to be desired, especially regarding bug fixing. Most of what they promised came live only half baked.

i meant they like surprises.

 

[Killnine]

I understand both sides of this "we deserve to be fully informed" and "FD are doing pretty much everything they can" argument. Yes, we, the fans, are very demanding. Mostly, because Elite is not just another game franchise, but something we love passionately. And nothing hurts like the feeling of being let down or outright betrayed by a loved one.

Point being: FD can't possibly please every fan, because we do not represent a uniform mass of people with identical desires. Some will unavoidably feel let down, no matter what FD does. But with the way things are going, namely fiascos like the Gnosis, the stability and other quality issues of the previous update, feature update cancellations and especially the news that major updates and changes are literally years off, we have every right to feel FD "owes us". They absolutely do, if they expect us to hang on for two long years.

 

[Dinaghar]

Do you seriously need a statement from them 'confirming' they are working on the game ? did anybody read 01/03 community update ?
This is ridiculous.

Well, what else is there besides this text? Maybe some screenshots or a short teaser?
They said a few years ago that they were already working on "spacelegs" or "planet with atmosphere and life". So what? All that they can say now is “we work, leave me alone”.
I’m sure if in 2020 they write the same wall of text in which they say "we started working on a new era only in November 2019, wait until 2021" you will refer to it as confirmation already.

 

[babelfisch]

I find the smiley in each dev post a bit passive aggressive.

‘Perceived indifference’, I’d recommend community managers read about it. Communication is key, always. Naysayers and pitchfork holders are inevitable, please don’t let them give power to ‘this is why we can’t have nice things’.

For instance, I’m impatient to know if new clothing options are coming, especially in relation to the superpowers. Why even hide this information if it’s in the pipeline? Drop a few nuggets here and there, keep us hungry and on our toes.

The player community for ED is fantastic, don’t you want to keep it?

I find finding a smiley passive aggressive passive aggressive.

 

[Viajero]

Is it so hard to understand the Patrons's requests?

Some are indeed. Especially when FDev have already precisely posted answering about them, doing exactly already as others have requested here.

The point still is that for many of those patrons who are still asking FDev to post again such statements, that would change very little because they just don’t trust what FDev says in the first place. The only main way to remedy that is by FDev delivering and following through on what they have already said.

Take the (extreme) example of the NMS fans after launch. Following some statements by Sean Murray post launch that convinced very few the only way to regain trust for him has been to just work and deliver. Before that there was basically no post or statement that he could write that would have been enough.

To a much smaller extent the lack of trust in FDev by some patrons here (others may disagree) is really not too dissimilar not only in principle... but also in the way for FDev to address it.

 

[zimms]

The forum is overflowing with posts about bad/non-existing community management and lack of info and all we got was a cynical reply to a knock knock joke.

I mean, why aren't they even trying to do something about this current dumpster fire? Even a quick "just a couple more days" update would be better. That's zero effort but apparently still too much to ask.

 

[Lordxenu]

Don't worry we will get an "Important community announcement" in the next week or so containing 0 information but telling us to go away!

 

[Dinaghar]

Don't worry we will get an "Important community announcement" in the next week or so containing 0 information but telling us to go away!

Haha, yes ... Well, well, the frontiers do not want to say anything concrete about the future of the elite, but I do not want to buy anything in their store. They are so great, saving my money

 

[Viajero]

What about the one request I am voicing in this thread?

It is supposedly one of those patrons's hard requests

As I mentioned above I am pretty sure FDev will post about many of these issues, again, in the future. The point is that posting again similar news will probably not regain much trust among those who have not trusted previous similar statements in the first place. Only actual delivery (or as close as you can get to it) will.

 

[Maro-Val]

Communication on this game has always been pants. Silly excuses that fdev cannot give more info because the playerbase will create hype, or they have allready gave all the info they should, are just that.. silly.
Blaming this amazing playerbase for everything, must stop at some point.
Somebody should teach fdev the meaning of the words "exciting", "surprises", "soon", "invasion", "beta", "focused feedback" first and then maybe, just maybe, we can communicate with them properly.
Personally i prefer the radio silence, because anything that they say, is just hype with absolutelly no indication of what the final release will look like, or when it will come.

 

[Dinaghar]

Communication on this game has always been pants. Silly excuses that fdev cannot give more info because the playerbase will create hype, or they have allready gave all the info they should, are just that.. silly.
Blaming this amazing playerbase for everything, must stop at some point.
Somebody should teach fdev the meaning of the words "exciting", "surprises", "soon", "invasion", "beta", "focused feedback" first and then maybe, just maybe, we can communicate with them properly.
Personally i prefer the radio silence, because anything that they say, is just hype with absolutelly no indication of what the final release will look like, or when it will come.

In fact, everything is easier. Frontiers should supplement their messages with at least some kind of confirmation. Perhaps a few screenshots showing what they are working on.
Without this, it doesn’t make much difference whether they post or not; it’s still zero benefit because there is no way to confirm them, which is an opportunity to refute them

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

Communication on this game has always been pants. Silly excuses that fdev cannot give more info because the playerbase will create hype, or they have allready gave all the info they should, are just that.. silly.
Blaming this amazing playerbase for everything, must stop at some point.
Somebody should teach fdev the meaning of the words "exciting", "surprises", "soon", "invasion", "beta", "focused feedback" first and then maybe, just maybe, we can communicate with them properly.
Personally i prefer the radio silence, because anything that they say, is just hype with absolutelly no indication of what the final release will look like, or when it will come.

To be honest, I thought the Beyond announcement was timely, informative enough, and apart some of the Q4 content, the 'maintenance gameplay revisit season before extending the content' delivery was OK. I thought FDev turned the corner and will do things differently.
Then after Beyond, months of silence only broken by a forum post by a CM, total breakdown of momentum.

I wish we had insider info what is happening at FDev.

 

[Riverside]

Communication on this game has always been pants. Silly excuses that fdev cannot give more info because the playerbase will create hype, or they have allready gave all the info they should, are just that.. silly.
Blaming this amazing playerbase for everything, must stop at some point.
Somebody should teach fdev the meaning of the words "exciting", "surprises", "soon", "invasion", "beta", "focused feedback" first and then maybe, just maybe, we can communicate with them properly.
Personally i prefer the radio silence, because anything that they say, is just hype with absolutelly no indication of what the final release will look like, or when it will come.

No support for silence from me but I think there is considerable room for improvement. Prior to around March 2016 (when the Dev Updates and regular sneak peeks stopped) I thought the communication was excellent.

 

[VR jefranklin18]

Some are indeed. Especially when FDev have already precisely posted answering about them, doing exactly already as others have requested here.

The point still is that for many of those patrons who are still asking FDev to post again such statements, that would change very little because they just don’t trust what FDev says in the first place. The only main way to remedy that is by FDev delivering and following through on what they have already said.

Take the (extreme) example of the NMS fans after launch. Following some statements by Sean Murray post launch that convinced very few the only way to regain trust for him has been to just work and deliver. Before that there was basically no post or statement that he could write that would have been enough.

To a much smaller extent the lack of trust in FDev by some patrons here (others may disagree) is really not too dissimilar not only in principle... but also in the way for FDev to address it.

People using NMS as an example of how radio silence for 18 months can work in a company's favour but there are a number of things to factor in:

1. NMS was not a Kickstarter, it was funded by Sony to get it exclusively on PS4. They had no need to share progress beyond trade shows, which is what they did
2. Sean Murray and team received a lot of social media abuse; I am not aware of that happening to anyone in Frontier (fortunately). Clamming up for 18 months is perfectly reasonable in this regard.
3. Frontier set the precedent during the initial Kickstarter with weekly updates (that contained either concept art or actual in-game progress) and short dev updates from Michael Brookes
4. Frontier stopped those in the run up to Horizons release with the promise that they would return (which they never did)
5. The newsletter has degraded to a regurgitation of what has happened in the last couple of weeks in the community, removing any element of news from it

Frontier have tried to shove the genie back in the bottle and adopt a radio silence, but with the precedent already set during Kickstarter, they cannot rewrite history to suit themselves and expect people not to be annoyed by it. I have said in a previous post in this chain how they could regain that trust, it is up to them if they really want to but their actions to date imply they do not want it.

 

[thistle]

My prediction after reading the last few pages of this thread: when fdev announce the info for this year's updates & the events, as they will in their own time, it will be claimed as having been forced on them by posters in this thread.

I'm calling it