ObsidianAnt: 3305 Elite Dangerous - New Player Minor Factions, Frontier's AGM, Scourge Decal

[Viajero]

Re the AGM twit, I imagine that any significant upcoming DLC (as the new era one seems to be) would include a significant element of code improvement and even re-writes in some areas anyways. Just to be expected. I would caution against reading this as a complete overhaul of the game code base or an end to all actual or perceived issues though.

 

[Speedcuffs]

Re the AGM twit, I imagine that any significant upcoming DLC (as the new era one seems to be) would include a significant element of code improvement and even re-writes in some areas anyways. Just to be expected. I would caution against reading this as a complete overhaul of the game code base or an end to all actual or perceived issues though.

Rampant speculation! \o/

 

[VR SenseiMatty]

So the hype train has started embarking passengers to an unkown destination.
It could be everything or nothing but we're all happy that at least there is a train.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Oh, I don't make fun of Star Citizen, just the people that bought into it with thousand dollar limited ships and the like. Imagine if the Cobra Mk IV was a thousand dollar exclusive.

Cheers.

Afaik everything in SC is purchasable with in game credits .... Or has that changed now like the PvP slider and backburnering of VR?

I don't think we will know how bad the ship issue will be untill launch. Make them too easy to earn and those who paid lots may be furious. Too hard and 90% of players will never get to fly them.

Personally tho in principle of it takes a 1000 hrs to be able to buy the most expensive ship in the game (from starting a brand new character) I am ok with it. IF it takes 10,000 hrs or £500 then I guess that content will essentially not get used.

I am hoping these ships will be like an expensive version of the cobra III I have on my account when I start a new game... (I have never taken it, why would I take away the fun of earning it?)

Thing is I spose I never had a problem in elite with money earning being a grind and have the opposite issue now so of all the things in SC that worry me, that ain't one of them

 

[VR SenseiMatty]

Afaik everything in SC is purchasable with in game credits .... Or has that changed now like the PvP slider and backburnering of VR?

I don't think we will know how bad the ship issue will be untill launch. Make them too easy to earn and those who paid lots may be furious. Too hard and 90% of players will never get to fly them.

Personally tho in principle of it takes a 1000 hrs to be able to buy the most expensive ship in the game (from starting a brand new character) I am ok with it. IF it takes 10,000 hrs or £500 then I guess that content will essentially not get used.

I am hoping these ships will be like an expensive version of the cobra III I have on my account when I start a new game... (I have never taken it, why would I take away the fun of earning it?)

I'm quite sure when the game will be released all players fleet will be reset. Paying for the ships only gives you the right to use them in the Alpha version.
If you ask to SC fan boys they will tell you that they are happy to contribute to the game development by buying these ships and they don't care to lose them once the game goes live.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

I'm quite sure when the game will be released all players fleet will be reset. Paying for the ships only gives you the right to use them in the Alpha version.
If you ask to SC fan boys they will tell you that they are happy to contribute to the game development by buying these ships and they don't care to lose them once the game goes live.

I am 99% certain you are mistaken mate. I only have one and it's not a crazy one (300i) and it specifically states I will start the game with it in my hanger with..... 2 months I think insurance. The only thing in SC which worries me is the land purchases in advance . Apparently some land is better than others so people buying choice plots now will have something no one else can get even if they put in the legwork .
To pull back on topic this is something I do not think FD would ever do.

 

[Viajero]

"The codebase will be renewed with a paid expansion"
Uhmm... Eh?

He's not talking about the requested improvement for this year, he's talking about the New Era I guess.
So if you don't pay you stay with the Italian mess? (I'm Italian, I can say so)
And what about Legs, Atmospheric Planets.... ah yes... they're not ready to talk about the interesting part...

I saw this video and I dropped my jaw when I saw the quote from Braben himself say "fixes will be in the paid expansion"... So we have to PAY for bug fixes.... Just Wow.

I mean firstly, does that not just confirm that the game's code is a mess, as we suspected, but that it's SUCH a mess, it requires bascially a complete recode to the point of justifying hitting up the player base for money to pay for it.

Bug fixes and overall improvements for the code base have always been free. For example players without Horizons have always seen their clients updated aswell every patch with all those, all the way starting from 1.5.

 

[WR3ND]

Afaik everything in SC is purchasable with in game credits .... Or has that changed now like the PvP slider and backburnering of VR?

I don't think we will know how bad the ship issue will be untill launch. Make them too easy to earn and those who paid lots may be furious. Too hard and 90% of players will never get to fly them.

Personally tho in principle of it takes a 1000 hrs to be able to buy the most expensive ship in the game (from starting a brand new character) I am ok with it. IF it takes 10,000 hrs or £500 then I guess that content will essentially not get used.

I am hoping these ships will be like an expensive version of the cobra III I have on my account when I start a new game... (I have never taken it, why would I take away the fun of earning it?)

Thing is I spose I never had a problem in elite with money earning being a grind and have the opposite issue now so of all the things in SC that worry me, that ain't one of them

Sorry, but I can't rationalize falling for the marketing hype of digital video game content that hard, nor taking advantage of people who are vulnerable to that sort of thing to that extent and expect to still be taken seriously in the real world.

From my perspective, in retrospect and as this game currently stands, I think the price of my 2015 LEP was largely unjustified. That's not to say that I necessarily regret buying it and don't enjoy this game and don't want to support it; water under the bridge and lessons learned, but would I have bought it if I knew then what I know now four years on? No, I would not have. I'd have the same game and game content that I have now minus a few cosmetic options I got for free and an extra 135 USD in my wallet.

Of course your mileage may vary.

 

[babelfisch]

I saw this video and I dropped my jaw when I saw the quote from Braben himself say "fixes will be in the paid expansion"... So we have to PAY for bug fixes.... Just Wow.

I mean firstly, does that not just confirm that the game's code is a mess, as we suspected, but that it's SUCH a mess, it requires bascially a complete recode to the point of justifying hitting up the player base for money to pay for it.

What makes you think that bug fixes won't be available for owners of the base game?

 

[Rubbernuke]

Will fixes done for the next few patches make it into 2020 rewrite? Or, is it 2020 work will be added early into our wonky build?

 

[Speedcuffs]

The complaint is that I'd rather everyone benefit from such a revamp and not put it behind a paywall. See I'm not selfish, I don't think of this game and community in terms of what I personally get out of it. I understand that regardless of how much or little the members of this community put into the game, we've ALL have had to deal with these frustrations, so to then say "We are revamping the game" which should be a point of unbridled joy, it's spoiled when the caveat attached to it, "it's in the next paid expansion."

So thus we are paying for the fixes. Now I'm hoping he was meaning the revamp will come out at the same time as the next paid expansion not as what it grammatically sounds like the fixes and new codebase are in the paid expansion and thus must pay to get those improvements.

The thing about paid expansions in general is they segregate the community, and in turn certain design limitations and principles have to follow when making content, you have to constantly consider, do they have THIS expansion, do they have THAT expansion, exactly where will a particular piece of content lie in the spectrum of the game.

A perfect example, albeit a small fix thankfully, was the inclusion of planetary materials in mining belts, because Fdev realized "oh crud, you can't engineer unless you have Horizons to land and gather materials." Even though Engineers is technically in the base game not horizons, the materials could only be gathered if your had the ability to land on planets. So they had to make it so materials could also be found in space.

So as you add paid expansion after paid expansion, you start having to keep track and consider having to make work-arounds in case there might be a dependency that will creep up.

I think part of why the game is in the state that it's in is not JUST the technical coding issues, but the design philosophy. I think Fdev has plenty of other monetization strategies they could use to make their money that don't need to potentially segregate the community.

Pretty certain you can't do engineering without Horizons.

 

[WR3ND]

What makes you think that bug fixes won't be available for owners of the base game?

To be fair, the wording of the statement was perhaps less than ideal and I can see why it could be misconstrued.

 

[thistle]

I'm quite sure when the game will be released all players fleet will be reset. Paying for the ships only gives you the right to use them in the Alpha version.

Oh dear lordy no, they get those ships and the skins and everything else they've bought on final release*.

*lol

 

[VR SenseiMatty]

To be fair, the wording of the statement was perhaps less than ideal and I can see why it could be misconstrued.

In general they always say that X feature or improvement will be extended or available to all existing players. This time he only talked about a paid content so it's very misleading and I'm not so sure.
We have to remember that fdev dropped mac support last year so they could also drop supporting some older game version from a certain point. This we don't know yet. Everything is possible.
If they come up with core improvement and some of the kick starter promised features (atmospheric and legs) I will buy the next dlc without any sort of doubt.
If they instead want to sell only the core improvement as dlc then I have definitely some problem.

 

[Yaffle]

Please stay on topic.

If you wish to discuss Star Citizen, please head over here - https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/star-citizen-discussion-thread-v11.529121

You can keep yourself occupied by reading the preceding 100,000 posts on it too, if you want to.

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

And I was completely rebuffed when I wrote, that essentially it will be a new game with retaining player progress.

To be fair, the wording of the statement was perhaps less than ideal and I can see why it could be misconstrued.

I don't think they can maintain the both versions at the same time, it doesn't make sense. I'd say everyone will get the new version in a feature-trimmed format, with whatever new features being a paid 'expansion'.

 

[WR3ND]

And I was completely rebuffed when I wrote, that essentially it will be a new game with retaining player progress.



I don't think they can maintain the both versions at the same time, it doesn't make sense. I'd say everyone will get the new version in a feature-trimmed format, with whatever new features being a paid 'expansion'.

Regarding the old era, I don't see why it couldn't just be an under the hood update/patch for the current game as well. This is presumably a game code issue, not a game support issue on the customer side of things. Maybe they're meaning that selling the new era expansion will facilitate the codebase improvements.

I wouldn't equate trimming features with code improvement. That's like saying you're curing the disease by killing the patient. If we presume they're trying to force people into buying the update instead of luring them in with new content, then yeah, maybe.

On the other hand, I suppose you could say that they may have painted themselves into a corner and implemented game-play features in ways they never really wanted to to begin with. That'd be a game design rewrite not just a codebase rewrite though. For me, that'd be rather worrisome about which side of the coin it'd land on regarding the elements of the game I like and those I don't care so much for.

 

[GonzTheMalificent]

Also a code rewrite will make big new additions easier to implement and test?

Its like put a second floor on your bungalow / ranch house, or demolish it and building a complete new two storey house......maybe...….

 

[zimms]

Wow - some people really read this differently that I did. 'renewed' and 'rationalised' isn't a how I would describe a rewrite - and the GI guy seemed to be happy they already have good coding QA practices, so no change required there...

View attachment 150654

Yeah, this all reads like non-news to me. Basically all David Braben said was that they will fix bugs and still plan on releasing a paid DLC. That's it. The rest is rather confusing.

QA team isn't picking up bugs. What does he mean by that? They aren't able to catch bugs before the release or there aren't any? Elite is built to very rigorous … maritime engineering standards? Unfortunately the last releases didn't confirm that. And the new "rationalised"(?) codebase will fix all current & future ills? Yeah...

 

[Stealthie]

"The codebase will be renewed with a paid expansion"
Uhmm... Eh?

He's not talking about the requested improvement for this year, he's talking about the New Era I guess.
So if you don't pay you stay with the Italian mess? (I'm Italian, I can say so)
And what about Legs, Atmospheric Planets.... ah yes... they're not ready to talk about the interesting part...

Yeah, I'd just ignore that statement if I were you. It's nonsense.

There won't be a paid expansion that "renews the codebase".

It's an on-line game, it's a multiplayer game and a paid expansion is an optional purchase.
Pretty much ALL of those things mean it'd be impossible to release a "renewed codebase" as a paid expansion.

If FDev do ever release a "renewed codebase" it'll be a free update - available to all existing customers - that may or may not be released at the same time as a paid expansion.