I almost feel bad for Frontier

[Deleted member 182079]

I feel pretty bad for writing this now, but as much as I love (and perhaps, because I love) Elite I look at the new content, and all I see is some refurbished assets bunged up to resemble a simple fleet carrier 3D model, and other than that a lot of menu screens with numbers. Where even the most basic menu options don't even work (rearm button for example - how is this being missed?!). It does feel pretty half baked and low effort for a large and acclaimed software company like Frontier.

Not only do I feel underwhelmed about this but I'm struggling to reconcile the time it took to deliver this content with what we're actually getting. Maybe the bulk of the work was for stuff happening under the bonnet but for the average end user/player who wants to enjoy a certain audiovisual experience that's going to be a hard sell.

I realise this sounds quite ungrateful in a way because it is free content after all, but I went into the whole FC thing with very modest expectations simply based on prior experience, and still end up disappointed... and a bit sad as well as my (carefully managed) hopes for New Era are on wobbly ground right now.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Anyway, in a few weeks they will axe the prices and costs by a hundred, while buffing mining by a factor of ten again and everybody will rejoice and wallow in the trivializing of yet more features and content that could be great if only Frontier ignored the bloody complaints and powered through towards implementing The Vision rather than the disjointed mess designed and balanced by the youtube divas we currently have.

I think your deluding yourself with that narration. It's how many will interact with the feature in the end. Not forum outrage.

 

[Someone from far away]

It's not players whinging!
It's genuine concern for a game we all love.
Trying to placate everyone is impossible true..
But to release content that's market driven is insidious and definitely not our fault.
Frontier need to get their house in order or watch as it burns. Simples

The most correct solution in my opinion is to postpone the release of fc to December 2020, so they will have at least some time to fix it ...
Because if they just cut the cost, it won't make the fc more playful.

 

[Marklar_]

I feel pretty bad for writing this now, but as much as I love (and perhaps, because I love) Elite I look at the new content, and all I see is some refurbished assets bunged up to resemble a simple fleet carrier 3D model, and other than that a lot of menu screens with numbers. Where even the most basic menu options don't even work (rearm button for example - how is this being missed?!). It does feel pretty half baked and low effort for a large and acclaimed software company like Frontier.

Not only do I feel underwhelmed about this but I'm struggling to reconcile the time it took to deliver this content with what we're actually getting. Maybe the bulk of the work was for stuff happening under the bonnet but for the average end user/player who wants to enjoy a certain audiovisual experience that's going to be a hard sell.

I realise this sounds quite ungrateful in a way because it is free content after all, but I went into the whole FC thing with very modest expectations simply based on prior experience, and still end up disappointed... and a bit sad as well as my (carefully managed) hopes for New Era are on wobbly ground right now.

It has the appearance of a minimal effort to create a gimmick to get their active player numbers up. Not a good sign for the future.

 

[CMDR Carbo]

I differ with you in that I'm looking forward to space legs (though with VR I'm less "needing" of them). The problem here is that the people who DO want the things Frontier provides are being let down by the very thing they asked for.

I don't expect that to be any different with space legs.

 

[yianniv]

It's always the management's fault.

 

[Mengy]

It has the appearance of a minimal effort to create a gimmick to get their active player numbers up. Not a good sign for the future.

People always talk about Elite being in maintenance mode. Two years to develop this fleet carrier feature, honestly the results do seem to support the maintenance mode theories.

Although its more likely due to a very small skeleton crew supporting the live game while everyone else works on whatever the mysterious New Era is.

 

[Someone from far away]

Amen

You need critics, not sycophants, to receive feedback that is useful to improve quality (if you want to improve quality, as business is doing well anycase, EA style)

Well, you can and should fight sycophants.
In particular, now when one of them starts justifying the "late announcement", you don't have to feel sorry for them, you have to remember every time, by the example of fc, what "late announcements" usually lead to.
I'm sure the "new era" will be as unplayable a piece of garbage, no, as in the case of fc designers of all levels tried to glory, but those who were responsible for their playfulness, it seems, they were absolutely indifferent to what they do. With the new era will be the same, it will be announced as late as possible, so that nothing can be fixed, and if nothing can be fixed, why try?

 

[Voidwizard1]

Seen many videos, read many comments, still cannot conceive of a use for a Fleet Carrier as they have been presented.

So even if it cost zero dollars each week and fuel was cheap and 500 ly jumps were standard as along as you had fuel and no cooldown I still would not buy one.

Then the only suggestion from anybody and everybody who defends them is to spend several hours of your valuable time each week mining to continue to be allowed to afford a giant ship that does nothing helpful.

I want new content as bad as the next person, but this is...a disappointment.

 

[Enderby]

This new era malarkey better be really good.

 

[Marklar_]

Although its more likely due to a very small skeleton crew supporting the live game while everyone else works on whatever the mysterious New Era is.

Hope springs eternal

But Lucy keeps pulling the football away.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

People always talk about Elite being in maintenance mode. Two years to develop this fleet carrier feature, honestly the results do seem to support the maintenance mode theories.

Although its more likely due to a very small skeleton crew supporting the live game while everyone else works on whatever the mysterious New Era is.

Yeah, this is what I'm hoping for. There's that word again, 'hope'. It's becoming increasingly short in supply with this CMDR.

 

[Watcher]

I'm in one of the stages of grief, not sure which one. As for posting - some people mine LTDs, others mine LIKES

I find I have more time to post than play, so...

 

[Someone from far away]

Seen many videos, read many comments, still cannot conceive of a use for a Fleet Carrier as they have been presented.

So even if it cost zero dollars each week and fuel was cheap and 500 ly jumps were standard as along as you had fuel and no cooldown I still would not buy one.

Then the only suggestion from anybody and everybody who defends them is to spend several hours of your valuable time each week mining to continue to be allowed to afford a giant ship that does nothing helpful.

I want new content as bad as the next person, but this is...a disappointment.

It's pretty simple, those who defend it, they probably don't care about the elite as a game, as well as fdev as developers, and they don't care about the community.
I think it's important to understand.

 

[Someone from far away]

This new era malarkey better be really good.

She'd really rather be like this, but look at the level where the fc is. She'll be at the same level.

 

[Watcher]

Yup. I think they intentionally wanted it to be really, really expensive and difficult to own a carrier. They might tweak the numbers somewhat, but probably not much. It's almost like they want everyone to feel a bit disappointed with the carrier update to make us all hope for a "proper" update with Next Era.

I think its more that they want some end game content that happens to also add long requested features.

I don't see that having things that are difficult to get and take ongoing to investment to run is necessarily a bad thing, perhaps more of a problem that there isn't really anything here for anyone but that select 'end game lots of time to give it attention' group.

I'd also add that be nice to see more options around upkeep and crew and the like but hey ho.

Anyway, we'll see where things go..

 

[SP_Predicador]

Well, you can and should fight sycophants.
In particular, now when one of them starts justifying the "late announcement", you don't have to feel sorry for them, you have to remember every time, by the example of fc, what "late announcements" usually lead to.
I'm sure the "new era" will be as unplayable a piece of garbage, no, as in the case of fc designers of all levels tried to glory, but those who were responsible for their playfulness, it seems, they were absolutely indifferent to what they do. With the new era will be the same, it will be announced as late as possible, so that nothing can be fixed, and if nothing can be fixed, why try?

I'll try because is my last hope. Because I hope FC would be a disaster because almost none (veteran) worked on it, while all the (veteran) devs were working in the DLC. And FC had been used as a smoke curtain those years.

But, I'm sure more than one white knight is eating its own past words.

I only feel sorry, for all the good people, hyped those years

 

[Good Whiskey]

Amen

You need critics, not sycophants, to receive feedback that is useful to improve quality (if you want to improve quality, as business is doing well anycase, EA style)

Whenever I bring up open development, easily accessible, regular and detailed development updates, and extensive beta testing that is more than a demo or preview, people around here don't like it much. Elite is full of people who believe that Papa Developer should just craft products and deliver them, because a singular vision is preferable to feedback-based design, but I disagree with that. Fundamentally. It took ages for these glorified mobile docking bays with moderate functionality based on existing systems to make an appearence, and they're probably the least Elite thing currently going in Elite.

This game is fun because I'm in the ship. I'm in the SRV. I'm flying. I'm driving. I'm scanning and shooting. Menu management is the least interesting thing about Elite, and from everything I've seen, carriers are basically just that. Menus. Menus you have to fuel. Menus for squadrons. Menus that mean less, even in that context, because they're in a P2P game. Menus. And credits. And numbers. Oh those numbers. God I hate those numbers. The fiddly bits don't keep me coming back. The flying and the driving and the shooting and the scanning... doing the thing... that's why I'm even here in the first place.

 

[Mengy]

Yeah, this is what I'm hoping for. There's that word again, 'hope'. It's becoming increasingly short in supply with this CMDR.

So say we all.

 

[Someone from far away]

But, I'm sure more than one white knight is eating its own past words.

Unfortunately, it's soon to be.
They probably don't remember anything they said anymore, but if they don't remember, I think it's a great excuse to remind them anyway.
Yeah, somewhere in there, inside me too, there's hope that the fdebe will make a new era good, but it's going out by the second.
Besides, rumor has it that the crisis that has broken out now, by summer and autumn, can take on the scale of disaster, so if they don't announce their new era in the next month and open pre-orders, it has every chance of becoming a commercial failure, anyway, as magnificent as it would be.