ANNOUNCEMENT Community Update (22/10)

[[VR] Merkir]

Okay...just to be sure, I actually looked over the OFFICIAL Elite: Dangerous page. Nowhere is mentioned, that E: D is a simulation.

This is really not an affrond. Please give me a hint.

Elite Dangerous - Leave your mark on the galaxy

Elite Dangerous brings gaming’s original open world adventure to the modern generation with a stunning recreation of the entire Milky Way galaxy.

www.elitedangerous.com

The references to the game being a simulation were removed by Frontier from the official website (www.elitedangerous.com) in December last year. Prior to that, the first paragraph on the homepage was:

OUR MILKY WAY
400 billion star systems at an incredible 1:1 scale, with a full galactic and technological simulation based on real scientific principles.

 

[Eliza]

if you answer, with your opinion, each person who expresses their opinion, it certainly is, learn from it

Pardon me, I didn't understood your reply.

 

[Eliza]

I thank you for thinking I'm sane, not something a lot of my friends or family would readily agree with!

Then we're on the same boat.

 

[sollisb]

They're doing both. Majority of the team on New Era, with the remainder working on two Bug Fix updates then Fleet Carriers.

Tell me this Stuart, in all seriousness.. If the current code baseis so bug ridden, as to cause them to defer their current release, how in god's name can the new era code be trusted to match in with the new current codebase after the bug fixes?

All messing and banter aside, it does not make any sense at all. If I know my current codebase has issues before or during development of some new extra code, I'd be wanting to ensure my current code base was clean as possible. To that end, I'd pull the entire team onto the 'git clean' project. That way I know, my new era code is built on and with in mind, a known good base.

Obviously economics play a part, but after many many years, I've learnt, saving today will bite you in the bottom sometime in the future.

 

[Eliza]

The references to the game being a simulation were removed by Frontier from the official website (www.elitedangerous.com) in December last year. Prior to that, the first paragraph on the homepage was:

OUR MILKY WAY
400 billion star systems at an incredible 1:1 scale, with a full galactic and technological simulation based on real scientific principles.

^-^-^
Refers to the simulation of the galaxy, not flight mechanics. As I stated: Simulations are based on real, scientific data.

Edit: So the statement that Elite: Dangerous is "A Space-Flight-Simulator", is simply not correct. The correct description SHOULD be: "Elite: Dangerous is a Space-Flight-Game in a simulated 1:1 Scale of our Milky Way"

 

[znôrt]

Why do we fight each other???

we're bored. don't spoil the fun with your boring logic.

 

[londonx]

being fair ,if you think that there are players who have up to 3 or 4 different accounts, the player base is not very impressive,there are only many accounts, no players

Their point still stands as to make another account you still have to buy another copy!

 

[shadowwar]

FDEV Have a full list of what code is bugged and where the effort needs to go to meet the requirements of the gamer base. However this simple act of delaying again ever since the game started all those years ago. Always delays and very little in terms of the promised content during Kickstarter campaign so many years ago. No space legs. No landing on Atmosphere worlds, instancing is a nightmare of rubber banding and people not visible in any game mode despite being friends in game. Wing requests get seen but cannot be actioned for whatever bug ridden cause. Fixing bugs in code is quite a hard task and if they don want to completely mess the game code base then Sir David Braben had better get his eyes on task and fix it all sooner rather than taking 6 or 8 months.

FDEV Should keep promises.

FDEV Should treat us like adults and share some basic road map details so we can see what is coming. But no! Everything must be hush hush and secret. NDA for anyone who visits their offices and gets a good look around.

Unless something happens positive for the player base then I do feel many of the people who supported ED at Kickstarter may well find something else to play on PC. FDEV You take too long.

 

[londonx]

that's why I said about having complexes, no big or serious company pays attention to them

Are you serious? Been under a rock for the past 5 years?

 

[londonx]

FDEV Have a full list of what code is bugged and where the effort needs to go to meet the requirements of the gamer base. However this simple act of delaying again ever since the game started all those years ago. Always delays and very little in terms of the promised content during Kickstarter campaign so many years ago. No space legs. No landing on Atmosphere worlds, instancing is a nightmare of rubber banding and people not visible in any game mode despite being friends in game. Wing requests get seen but cannot be actioned for whatever bug ridden cause. Fixing bugs in code is quite a hard task and if they don want to completely mess the game code base then Sir David Braben had better get his eyes on task and fix it all sooner rather than taking 6 or 8 months.

FDEV Should keep promises.

FDEV Should treat us like adults and share some basic road map details so we can see what is coming. But no! Everything must be hush hush and secret. NDA for anyone who visits their offices and gets a good look around.

Unless something happens positive for the player base then I do feel many of the people who supported ED at Kickstarter may well find something else to play on PC. FDEV You take too long.

Lets put things into perspective. Only Fleet Carriers and Ice Planets have been delayed. The reason they keep things secret is so people like you dont scream about "broken promises" and delays lol.

You do know that most of the team is working on the "New Era" slated for end of 2020 right?

Don't recall any promises.

 

[londonx]

Essentially Fdev just threw their dummy out of the pram in proper infant style!

Community got on their case about the quality of the work so they postpone this years big release in favour of bug fixing, lol.
Let me see Q2 2020 ends in June, so maybe the carriers will arrive then.

Gotta face it the game has officially been put out to pasture.

Another person who follows the forums but seems to be ignorant that most of the team has been working on "New Era" for the past 1.5 years scheduled for end of 2020. It even mentions it in the very OP that you are replying to! Hmmm very strange, I wonder...

 

[londonx]

Think it's more than fair to criticise the management and development of Elite Dangerous at this point.
The last round of so-called "quality of life improvements" which also saw fresh content take a back-seat were all relatively underwhelming.
Sandro's crime and punishment update was and still is a steaming pile of rubbish.
Engineering moved away from randomness to material-mega-grind while balance is a joke, and no one bothered to check if HGE were even spawning properly until many updates later. With each and every update bringing more and more bugs, and less to actually "do" in-game for the last 2 years (September 2017: The Return) - why has it only dawned on the brains trust to re-focus on development now?. Pretty rich and hard to believe anything is going to really change.
I suspect there's a significant amount of nasty outsourcing going on, and that the last update finally highlighted a root cause of the many botched updates.
The community has been screaming out for fresh content as much as it has been for ridiculously long outstanding bug fixes. Bizarre that for a company as cashed up as frontier (namely because of Elite), that the game has been shelved the way it has.

At that scale of observation it would only be fair to offer your critique once the New Era scope/scale/plans are revealed in detail, considering we have known for the past 1.5 years that most of the team have been working on it, no?

 

[avow555]

Another person who follows the forums but seems to be ignorant that most of the team has been working on "New Era" for the past 1.5 years scheduled for end of 2020. It even mentions it in the very OP that you are replying to! Hmmm very strange, I wonder...

They say a lot of stuff about what they are doing for "2020" but do you believe everything you are told?
Considering the poor state of development and recent patch quality I most certainly question what they allegedly are working on.

Questioning things is far from ignorance.

 

[londonx]

The fiasco of Focussed Feedback and the discussed topics has put a black mark on all of this, along with not improving features like Powerplay, CQC, multicrew while cutting back on lore at the same time. FD has changed direction about three times appears to be wrapped around the development of other titles. Its chaotic.

* If people ask for a more open roadmap*

The roadmap we have is bare bones at best, with very little disclosed until a month way from release. All a lot of people ask for is stuff thats announced two years ago is delivered in a reasonable timeframe and to a decent quality.

I disagree. Why are you ignoring the New Era focus? The only change of direction is when they abandoned the "Season" model of updates after the Horizons season took longer than expected and they were not happy with the reaction to the quality of the content. New Era is their answer but it means prioritisation of workload, particularly after the Beyond revisit to core gameplay to tide us over. Its nothing to do with "other titles" thats just tin-hat paranoia.

 

[londonx]

The current roadmap is just that- current. It does not even take into account old features that have been ignored. The last roadmap I saw had five big blobs and a sentence for each. If we were talking the roadmaps the Star Citizen folks pop out then I'd agree.

My view? Yes FD had to fix things and its a good move- but, as a result of ED being mismanaged with its Brookes / Sandro / current era chopping and changing EDs direction, quality assurance has not kept up with the updated features which themselves have been ignored for even more new features which themselves are half baked- this ignores huge balancing issues that break parts of the game that persist.

I really do hope FD use this time to seriously knuckle down, because they have overreached themselves since probably 1.3. But, is it too late? FD could have done the slow and steady to begin with, and lock in what we expect of them early on with new features seeing quality, considered updates at each point release afterwards.

My beef is not with the need for bug fixing- my annoyance is that it was required in such a dramatic way that has stalled the games forward momentum.

You are a bit late. ED realised that themselves after Horizons in 2017 and abandoned that update method. New Era has been the focus since then, we will get to know if it was worth the lull when they announce the scope of New Era in Summer 2020.

 

[avow555]

Lets put things into perspective. Only Fleet Carriers and Ice Planets have been delayed. The reason they keep things secret is so people like you dont scream about "broken promises" and delays lol.

You do know that most of the team is working on the "New Era" slated for end of 2020 right?

Don't recall any promises.

And how long have they been delayed for?
Don't forget the Panther, it's way overdue.

Keep waving your frontier flag

 

[Rubbernuke]

I disagree. Why are you ignoring the New Era focus? The only change of direction is when they abandoned the "Season" model of updates after the Horizons season took longer than expected and they were not happy with the reaction to the quality of the content. New Era is their answer but it means prioritisation of workload, particularly after the Beyond revisit to core gameplay to tide us over. Its nothing to do with "other titles" thats just tin-hat paranoia.

I am still waiting nearly five years in for FD to update Powerplay, CQC and multicrew. I get they are not popular, but even at the back of the line they still should get something. Plus, the changes would amount to about half the scope of Aprils update. FD tease us with changes, which then vanish and appear a year later.

New era or not, they need to sort out what exists.

 

[shadowwar]

@londonx I don't know how long you have played this game. I have been here and played since the original Beta all those years ago. I am a Founder and backed the game at Kickstarter. Back then there were so many aspirations to attain they convinced me to back the game to a lot of cash at that time. So I did. I am not screaming at all. I am just dissapointed that none of the original Kickstarter wants ever materialised. Ergo broken promises.

 

[Rubbernuke]

You are a bit late. ED realised that themselves after Horizons in 2017 and abandoned that update method. New Era has been the focus since then, we will get to know if it was worth the lull when they announce the scope of New Era in Summer 2020.

New Era is not an excuse to drop crap updates and ignore half baked features for yet another year. It will be six years waiting for Powerplay to see any changes- is that right?

 

[londonx]

And how long have they been delayed for?
Don't forget the Panther, it's way overdue.

Keep waving your frontier flag

Yeah I like waving the flag of logic and perspecitve now and then, keeps you sane.

Is the Panther another one of your "promises"?

Lets see how long "they" have been delayed for....
2017 "Squadron" Carriers were an advertised paper feature for the Squadrons component of the Q4 Beyond season update, they were dropped indefinitely in the Summer to concentrate on other core game mechanics. There was no evidence of any design work or other progress having been made on them, infact ED stated no design work only the scope had been detailed, unlike Ice Planets which had a sneak preview of a WIP before. No new due date was given to either just a plan to release them in future.

2018 March Anncouncement - Most of the team dedicated to New Era while a smaller team due to release minor Quarterly updates aimed at the new player experience.

"Fleet Carriers" were first revealed at Lavecon July 2019 due Dec 2019 update. https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/lavecon-2019-content-reveal.516705/

October 2019 - Fleet carriers delayed until Q2 2020

So a potential delay of ~ 6 months?