Sell Elite: Dangerous; give me a number.

[amadeus1171]

Hello FD,

Just as the title says. What number would you sell Elite: Dangerous for? Or are you willing to spin it off into a subsidiary?

I know the engine is proprietary and only the subsidiary spinoff would be viable to use the Cobra engine. But as a sale, Elite: Dangerous could be rewritten in a different engine and take advantage of its features. Algorithms, design, and mechanisms would be needed to reimplement the game in another engine. And with new engine, the developers would be able to coordinate with the engine creators to implement features specific to Elite: Dangerous.

Why use a third party engine? Using a third party engine would split responsibilities into two companies. The engine company would focus specifically on engine features, including implementing features necessary for Elite: Dangerous, as stated above, and fix engine bugs as they pop up, not only to support Elite: Dangerous, but other clients they may have. Having other clients is a huge incentive for fixing bugs because licensing is how they make their money.

I ask this because FD doesn't seem to have the time or resources to properly develop and manage Elite: Dangerous. It is an incredible game and could become so much more if it had the proper resources and talent.

 

[Ezren]

This would be a great idea, except for the core concept and the idea that you can just "put" a game into another engine entirely.

 

[babelfisch]

Just hypothetical or are you aiming for the most pointless thread of the month award? You can't have that, it's mine.

 

[amadeus1171]

This would be a great idea, except for the core concept and the idea that you can just "put" a game into another engine entirely.

I never said it would be easy.

How much engineering went into creating Elite: Dangerous will determine the difficulty in rewriting the game. It can go quickly from using a completely engineered game and remapping the new engine's features to the game's requirements, to a total reengineering and rewire of the code if there is little or no engineering.

But we won't know the difficulty till the process is started, will we?

 

[amadeus1171]

Just hypothetical or are you aiming for the most pointless thread of the month award? You can't have that, it's mine.

Don't troll.

 

[babelfisch]

Don't troll.

It's a serious question. I actually like discussing pointless hypothetical questions as long as nobody is serious about it.

 

[amadeus1171]

It's a serious question. I actually like discussing pointless hypothetical questions as long as nobody is serious about it.

It's both.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

FD have given no indication they are not happy with the Cobra engine. Plus the Cobra engine is core to all their new games as far as i know and a long term investment for them.

 

[babelfisch]

It's both.

Let's see...

• Frontier isn't going to sell the game / IP to another developer.
• Which publisher and developer do you have in mind to take over? I guess it's pretty unlikely that someone would buy it, they could rather save the money and develop their own game.
• Which Engine do you have in mind? How do you know ED can be ported to it? I guess lots of stuff in the Cobra engine is designed to meet the very specific and special requirements of the game.
• Why do you think a different engine would be better suited?
• Why do you think a different developer would do a better job?

 

[Ezren]

I never said it would be easy.

How much engineering went into creating Elite: Dangerous will determine the difficulty in rewriting the game. It can go quickly from using a completely engineered game and remapping the new engine's features to the game's requirements, to a total reengineering and rewire of the code if there is little or no engineering.

But we won't know the difficulty till the process is started, will we?

We don't need to know because your idea is "since we can't fix everything in Elite, let's rebuild literally everything in Elite and then fix everything in Elite".

You're trying to solve a flat tire by putting all of your old car's parts on a new car, including the flat tire. Problem: solved!

 

[Ian Skippy]

This is the dumbest thing I've read all day and I just came from reddit.

 

[Jukelo]

This is the dumbest thing I've read all day and I just came from reddit.

For now, maybe.

 

[amadeus1171]

This is the dumbest thing I've read all day and I just came from reddit.

This made me laugh.

 

[Schmack]

I wrote Jeff Bezos a letter asking him something similar about Amazon because my plan is to buy it

 

[Globusdiablo]

Let's see...

• Frontier isn't going to sell the game / IP to another developer.
• Which publisher and developer do you have in mind to take over? I guess it's pretty unlikely that someone would buy it, they could rather save the money and develop their own game.
• Which Engine do you have in mind? How do you know ED can be ported to it? I guess lots of stuff in the Cobra engine is designed to meet the very specific and special requirements of the game.
• Why do you think a different engine would be better suited?
• Why do you think a different developer would do a better job?

Not even a hint of sarcasm. Oddly confusing.

 

[Ambroza]

This would be a great idea, except for the core concept and the idea that you can just "put" a game into another engine entirely.

You can, it's just a lot of work. OpenMW is a project to create an entirely new engine for Morrowind, for example.

 

[Dutchman141]

I'm honestly sorry but is the OP serious or not?

 

[Ezren]

You can, it's just a lot of work. OpenMW is a project to create an entirely new engine for Morrowind, for example.

That's a misleading comparison, as that's creating an engine to work within the confines of an existing game. This is about just putting ED on another engine that wasn't built for it.

Huge difference.

 

[Dutchman141]

It's too soon to tell

Thanks, that was reassuring.

 

[Craith]

about trifiddy, I guess.

otoh, I've seen what other engines make of space games ... please stick with the Cobra Engine, which is built from the ground to support realistic stellar distances and down to at least vehicle scale range - seamlessly. It is not perfect, but it is the best engine for this kind of game that I've seen.