Frontier, Please Make Odyssey Good

Rat Catcher

Rat Catcher
RicoMJ said:
Dear Frontier Dev. Please don't make the same mistake as CD Projekt Red and Focus Home Interactive. Both game developers enticed me into a pre-order this year and both have released their games in a horrendous state. Because of these experiences, I won't pre-order your game but may buy it if initial reviews are good. If it's a buggy mess, and your base game kinda already is, I won't be buying it at all.

Here's your latest warning:
Cyberpunk 2077: Sony pulls game from PlayStation while Xbox offers refunds

I humbly suggest you go ahead and announce a delay until 3rd quarter 2021 and schedule an extra round of testing and bug fixing.
Just get it out there while the news cycle is demanding game developers do better.
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Just don't pre-order it... If you consider the game to be 'a buggy mess' (which is interesting, but bugs, like beauty, are generally in the eye of the beholder) why spend your money on something you hold such a low opinion of (unless, of course, you won't have the funds available until Q3 2021, which would make sense of your request...) until you are certain it will actually make things better for you?



I'm glad I have a powerful PC - Cyberpunk 2077 performs really well and looks amazing with some processing power behind it...
 

Ian Doncaster

Ian Doncaster
Leadfoot said:
I'm hoping for the best for Odyssey. That said, I've stated before, no sane person buys 1.0 software. I'll wait until everyone else finds the bugs not found during the beta test (which is where they're supposed to be found) and once the first patch is out, THEN I'll get it.

FD knows what's expected by their customer-base. They don't intend to disappoint, and I'm certain that after the first patch comes out the dust will settle and we'll be screaming for the next update of "medium pressure" atmospheric landings. I'll be one of them.
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Yep. The pattern from the previous releases is likely to be followed here:
- Alphas/Betas: some bugs, including some fairly serious ones, found and mostly fixed in Beta. The forums will be divided into "release this now, no need for more testing!" and "this needs at least another six months before release and even then I'll hate it". Frontier will ignore both and continue with its original schedule.
- Release Day: Frontier has inexplicably managed to include some major bug in the live release which wasn't in the Betas and which should have been really obvious, to break some existing gameplay. Maybe beam lasers will end up with a 1000-shot ammunition count, or boost will go up rather than forwards, or donation missions will give credits rather than taking them. It'll shoot straight to the top of the bug tracker votes. Meanwhile, the servers will fall over under the weight of people trying to get in to see the bug for themselves.
- a couple of weeks later, by Patch 2 or 3: All the critical bugs are fixed, Odyssey is basically working, and we can get on to noticing that it's basically "more Elite Dangerous, but with feet" and either hating or liking it accordingly. Meanwhile, the really important bug that three of the installations in Colonia still don't have names on the nav panel two years later remains unfixed and open letters are being prepared.
- three months later: Everyone is basically used to how Odyssey works, getting on with playing it, and demanding that Frontier reveal what the next big expansion will be about.
 

Rat Catcher

Rat Catcher
Ian Doncaster said:
- three months later: Everyone is basically used to how Odyssey works, getting on with playing it, and demanding that Frontier reveal what the next big expansion will be about.
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This is already being mulled over by some... which I find amusing as we still know so little about Odyssey!

I do think your timeline is great though - and am looking forward to playing the buggy alpha, lots!
 

askavir

askavir
IMO ED's sin is not much amount of bugs (except on releases, but "release it now and fix it later" has become the norm in gaming unfortunately), but the fact that some of those bugs break (fully or partially) features and yet are left unattended for many months and in some cases even years. Like looting megaships being broken, probing planets not revealing guardian / thargoid sites unless you either drop from supercruise or relog, the codex only kind of working, this is just out of the top of my head.

I agree that there is way, way too much exaggeration over the amount of bugs in ED, the game as a whole has always been highly playable, but I do wish that, regarding the bugs that do exist (at least the ones with high impact on game features), FD would start treating ED more as a released title, and not as an early access title where broken stuff is due to be addressed "someday".
 
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Urbanski101

Urbanski101
Rebel RDX said:
Good point there are plenty in there.

I'm lucky that I haven't found anything that's ever made me say 'this is terrible, I'll come back when it's fixed' but obviously that is happening for some.
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I'd say a lot on that list is client side issues, player issues, non-issues and not necessarily the fault of ED. If we said that 90% of that list is made up of those then it's still a long list of bugs.

If you've not noticed any then I'd say that's great. TBH I'm not seeing that many bugs these days and the ones I notice are to do with missions and the BGS which are by no means game breaking.

Those who play different aspects of the game from me like PvP, piracy, mega ships, Thargoids etc may see a different set of issues.
 

Beach Cat

Beach Cat
Far from a buggy mess, this age of entitlement and everyone on the internet being an expert in everythig, thinking they can run a country better, make a game better etc etc. its laughable.

ED is a fantastic game but in my opinion lacks personality , Frontier did what most dev;s dont do, that is to build good foundations, most games give in to random peer presure and just add content to keep the whining consumers happy- But yeah Frontier did the right thing were they have great foundations but now imo need to add some life into ED, some decent scripted ai encounters, some difference like say a random fuel stop near a station trying to undercut them.

I love elite and think its the best space mmo out there, anything in life has bugs, has things that dont always go right does not make it a mess.
 

Arindor

Arindor
Amen to that OP, although I expect teething problems from the get-go. Besides, 'good' is a subjective term: one man's meat is, after all, another man's poison. :)
 

avow555

avow555
RicoMJ said:
Dear Frontier Dev. Please don't make the same mistake as CD Projekt Red and Focus Home Interactive. Both game developers enticed me into a pre-order this year and both have released their games in a horrendous state. Because of these experiences, I won't pre-order your game but may buy it if initial reviews are good. If it's a buggy mess, and your base game kinda already is, I won't be buying it at all.

Here's your latest warning:
Cyberpunk 2077: Sony pulls game from PlayStation while Xbox offers refunds

I humbly suggest you go ahead and announce a delay until 3rd quarter 2021 and schedule an extra round of testing and bug fixing.
Just get it out there while the news cycle is demanding game developers do better.
Click to expand...
Buy it if you want to once it's released, simple really.
 

Danieros

D
FightingFirst said:
With the alpha/beta I think people will be able to have a pretty good idea what the state of the game will be like.
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This.

Cyberpunk's problem was well... no real hands-on experience until launch, especially with last-gen consoles. The hyped image of a pure marketing campaign without any realistic impressions from a hands-on experience.
 

Chorda

Chorda
Meanwhile at the Fdev morning team briefing...

David Braben swivels into view in his grand white pleather bubble chair, stroking a cat. "So then, it's decided. Odessey will launch in Q2 of 2021. Our Chinese investors will be pleased. Most pleased indeed. Anything to add, my minions?"

Ed Lewis, visibly cringing, "Master! We have a forum post that might contain vital intelligence that we should discuss. It reads, 'Please make Odyssey Good'."

gasps and murmuring from the collective

Braben, sternly: "Hm. They may have a point. Have we considered this?"

Lewis: "Yes master! .. I mean... no master, please don't beat me! But we can add this to the project outline and reorder workflow priority immediately to accommodate! Once Dav has been repaired he will know exactly what to do, I promise."

Braben, nodding, bald, "Engage."
 
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