I almost feel bad for Frontier

Han Zulu

Han Zulu
Barking_Mad said:
Surely the big differences though are the BGS and online play and how they touch nearly everything you do in the game? NMS certainly doesn't have any notable BGS issues and its multiplayer is considerably less complex than E:Ds. In style they're similar, but in scope they're very different games.
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Sure. The BGS is definitely something ED has that's complicating things, which is kind'a the point. Elite has a lot of stuff going on, but then, I'm not sure why ice planets, gas giants, atmospheric planets, and many other things would be delayed because of BGS. Certainly the BGS isn't part of those things. When it comes to multiplayer, I think they're on fairly the same level. ED has multicrew, that's the only thing I can think of that's different.

I'm sure FDev would make many changes if they were given another go from the beginning, but on the upside of dropping in larger features first they have a really good idea of what works technically and what doesn't. I'd guess one big problem is staff turnover and people moving between projects. It's one thing staring at 5 years of your own code, quite another to state at 5 years of other peoples code.
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That's true. It's not only your own code you're looking back to, but there's a change of people as well, and I know how it is to jump into someone else's code... it was usually a very terrifying and not very pleasant experience. :D I had a boss once who coded as well. When we got overwhelmed in the dev department, he stepped in, and later when we had to work in his code... uuuugh. Basically, it was a rewrite each time.

And yes, it's also true that you might actually find better solutions if you get the bigger technical mechanics in early on, a form of risk assessment, but then you should do it very early on. Mid project isn't the time to do it. If we had to do something like that, it had to happen in the early beta stages.

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Critical mechanics had to be tested early in production. And there's something interesting Hello Games do, they put in 3D models and apparently code for features and functions sometimes early as a year before release. The exo-crafts were in the code based on data mining findings a long time before they came out, and so has other things over the years. Showing that they try these things much earlier than people know. That's very smart. Not sure if Frontier does that. Haven't seen much of evidence for it.
(/edit)

They've had work ongoing for atmospherics and walking about for at least three years, so I'm hopeful that we're going to see a large improvement in the game come release - with any Covid delays included....
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I believe that's what they're doing for NE. Because of all the different additions they've got stuck in current code to do those additions. To me, the whole thing with "just" doing the carriers now, cancelling of the ice planets, and also being so secretive of the NE, it all just paints the picture to me of a huge rework of their game engine to fit the new mechanics.
 
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Han Zulu

Han Zulu
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Tharrn said:
I am suffering of Schrödingers Carrier. I want one and I don't want one.
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So you're saying that if we go to where your carrier is, it's either there or it's decommissions, but we won't know until then. Essentially it's in a superposition of being both decommission and not at the same time. Awesome! Poor Frontier servers to handle that. Maybe they'll have to start using quantum computers? 🤔
 

Skip Rockbounder

Skip Rockbounder
So, lemme get this right, some of you guys think that FDev is re-writing the game as the 'New Era'?
Does this mean it's a free update you're expecting with all the problems sorted and all the bells and whistles or do you think that the New Era will have a game universe to itself?
Cos I would have thought if it's being re-written it won't run inside the basic framework we have, it'd have to be "Elite Deadly" A new Game from the makers of Elite Dangerous... or whatever
 

Parkmaste

Parkmaste
Skip Rockbounder said:
So, lemme get this right, some of you guys think that FDev is re-writing the game as the 'New Era'?
Does this mean it's a free update you're expecting with all the problems sorted and all the bells and whistles or do you think that the New Era will have a game universe to itself?
Cos I would have thought if it's being re-written it won't run inside the basic framework we have, it'd have to be "Elite Deadly" A new Game from the makers of Elite Dangerous... or whatever
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FD has said New Era is paid content.
 

Arkman07

A
Noddie said:
As far as fleet carriers go - I couldn't be less interested in them. I don't think they shouldn't be in the game because other people might rather like them. But I enjoy flying, not wallowing around in some massive over-sized whale of a ship, so they're not really aimed at me. I do wonder what else FD could have spent their resources on that I would have preferred but that's life. My point is, they're not a draw for me. Put them in the game, or don't. Provided they don't screw up what I do want to do in the game - I don't care. I've never bothered with larger ships because I don't enjoy flying them. I like, agile, fast ships. The Cobra MKIII is great to fly and there is virtually nothing you can't do in it, perhaps with a little engineering, and you can whine about the "Grind" for a 'Konda as much as you like - it really can't do much the Cobra can't it just does it with bigger figures. It's not real money.

I do sometimes wonder if there is someone at FD making some very odd decisions. The game doesn't seem as well-considered as it was on launch with "stuff" being tacked on in haphazard fashion to create the illusion of progress. Things seems to go awry some time shortly after Horizons and it's been weirdly sporadic and without focus since then.

I have no idea what's wrong, but if I had to try to explain it. The Carriers feels a bit like someone wanted them in the game and got them done on the minimal resources they were able scrape together. Someone else didn't want them in and has attempted to neuter them by burdening them with ridiculous costs in order that they fail and they can blame the person who had the original "bad" idea. No idea if that's what's happening - but that's what it feels like to me & is the only way I can explain it.
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I to would say fc's are not for me and that's ok, but I really think what is happening is that the elite team has been developing a lot of new stuff, specifically the December update as well as other things, but they've been trying to finish fleet carrier's when they can fit in the time to do so, as it was really part of the mining update. I also don't know that they did finish the update because we got one carrier, and the whole thing seems smaller than what they intended. Stay strong though as I'm confident they've been primarily focused on those pilotable ships as well as other features.
 

B1rdy

B1rdy
Skip Rockbounder said:
So, lemme get this right, some of you guys think that FDev is re-writing the game as the 'New Era'?
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It was confirmed by FDev staff on an investors conference. They are reworking the code.

Stealthie said:
Kind of beside the point but I guess this is as good a place as any to mention it...

For all the people who burned through a giant pile of credits last week, in the beta, buying and outfitting theif FCs, will FDev be handing out refunds this week?

I've seen a lot of people moaning that they're going to have to go mining - in beta - to earn more credits so they can carry on testing the stuff they want to test.
That seems kind of counterproductive, for the purposes of testing out stuff related to FCs in beta.
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I found this out only after the download finished and immediately removed the beta. Anyone, who is playing the game normally would have spotted this. Either no one at FDev did, no one cared or they did it on some sadistic purpose or to limit the number of potential carriers. But why didn't they just tell us? Or was there something I overlooked in the newsletter?
 

Skip Rockbounder

Skip Rockbounder
B1rdy said:
It was confirmed by FDev staff on an investors conference. They are reworking the code.
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Forgive me, I tend to stop away from business conferences!
So, that means that one team are re-writing the code for a free update, and another team are creating a paid DLC
Yes?
 

Mengy

Mengy
Skip Rockbounder said:
Forgive me, I tend to stop away from business conferences!
So, that means that one team are re-writing the code for a free update, and another team are creating a paid DLC
Yes?
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We don't know for certain as FDev isn't telling us nothing, BUT if the core is being recoded then it will likely work like this:

  • The new core will be a free update for everyone, and it could enable many things the current game can't do.
  • The free update will be accompanied by some big DLC and paid content, possibly Space Legs and Base Building for example, which you would have to buy to get.
 

nosleepdemon

nosleepdemon
With the absolutely roaring success of such design marvels as CQC, Engineers and Powerplay, I am sure that the overwhelmingly positive feedback FD have received for their latest addition in a long and proud lineage comes as no surprise whatsoever to anybody.
 

Skip Rockbounder

Skip Rockbounder
Parkmaste said:
Why would FD secretly spend millions developing an update that they give away for free, when they've already said the update will be paid-for?
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Why would they tell investors that they were re-writing the code if it didn't include the current players? what was the code they were re-writing for if not the core game?
 
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