Odyssey Progress
- Thread starter David Braben
- Start date
I'm a dev and I say leave the QA guys out of this. The blame rests squarely on the C-suits. Not the developers, not the QA guys, not even the Project Manager, but on a C-suit who said "I don't care the state it's in, push it out of the door before fiscal year end, I want my results".
Always a Black Adder after 10 minutes of mining with return to the main menu... So cool....
Yes, I think David should definitely rethink his policy with development teams (It is possible that the people in charge of his communication with the development teams simply did not report to him about the problems of the game and that he did not have time to communicate directly with the development teams, although it is likely that he was well aware of the problems of the game, but, decided to look the other way).
as well as community politics, ignorance of what is really happening has raised expectations in people.
Well if one considers the end of May to be the deadline for a 'successful release' (assuming from the OP it cannot be considered that yet) there is still time
100%. Whilst the devs and QA often get a bad rep for patch releases that break more than they fix, this one really isn't their doing.
It was clear to everyone that the game was unfit for release at RRP. It needs at least six months more development I'd say before we even get to 'minimum viable product'.
And they did it anyway. To appease their shareholders and to hell with everyone else (including us, the customers).
That decision was made much higher up, and the poor devs & QA just had to do the best they could in rubbish circumstances that were forced upon them (including splitting the player base & delaying the console launch - perhaps an internal compromise that was made?)
I'm a dev myself, and this is a common occurrence in badly run companies. I've been on the receiving end of it more than once. Don't blame the devs. Blame Braben, or those directly under him who made this decision to release too early. But as CEO, the buck stops with Braben, whose halo has not just slipped, it's fallen off and smashed.
Lets just blame the entire lot of em, Bean counters and everyone else, there more than enough to go around
Lets just blame the entire lot of em, Bean counters and everyone else, there more than enough to go around
You can blame whoever you want - but blame only works if you are a) wanting to find the root of the issues that have been plaguing E: D for years now & have now come to a head with ED: O and b) want to make sure that above everything else, this must never be allowed to happen again. Heads don't need to roll - but attitudes definitely need to change IMO.
Some of us might be critical (myself included), but I think we all want Frontier and E: D to ultimately succeed.
The responsibility for the failed release also lies with that part of the community who didn't care about the state of the game and those who wanted odyssey to fail. these people vehemently defended the silence of fd as their white knights, i think their names are well known.100%. Whilst the devs and QA often get a bad rep for patch releases that break more than they fix, this one really isn't their doing.
It was clear to everyone that the game was unfit for release at RRP. It needs at least six months more development I'd say before we even get to 'minimum viable product'.
And they did it anyway. To appease their shareholders and to hell with everyone else (including us, the customers).
That decision was made much higher up, and the poor devs & QA just had to do the best they could in rubbish circumstances that were forced upon them (including splitting the player base & delaying the console launch - perhaps an internal compromise that was made?)
I'm a dev myself, and this is a common occurrence in badly run companies. I've been on the receiving end of it more than once. Don't blame the devs. Blame Braben, or those directly under him who made this decision to release too early. But as CEO, the buck stops with Braben, whose halo has not just slipped, it's fallen off and smashed.
They are just as responsible for the failed odyssey launch and low ratings as those who decided to starve the community of information.
You're always going to get white knights in every game, because hype is propagandic in nature, and that precludes rational thought. Like any release, the hype machine for Odyssey was gradually ramped up through and after Alpha. The recent 'gifts' to anointed "influencers" being one example of that - although even they are having a really hard time putting a positive spin on this.
The gifts were admittedly very cool, and I'm happy DtEA got one, it was heartwarming watching him open it. It's a pity they would be overshadowed by the launch because they were a really nice gesture...
All I can say is that I want the Space Loach back. Who would have thought that.
It's not just technical problems, it's a downhill journey in design all over the place. As an example, please compare outfitting in Odyssey to the original version as in Horizons. It's completely overloaded, confusing and leads to user errors like erroneously selling engineered modules that did cost dozens of hours to make them. The new UX is way worse than the old one which was clear, concise and task-oriented. Whatever the concept behind the new "Carrier" UI may be, it's inferior and annoying and I'm starting to hate it.
Saying this hurts me, because I love the game and Odyssey too and put more than 4k hours (25 weeks in 24x7 terms) of my precious leisure time into playing it. Odyssey has many great ideas and many aspects work quite well and are cool and exciting and really fun, and I do share the overall vision. But other, and vital, parts just suck, and VR among them in particular. For that part is completely unplayable as it stands, and not just because of performance issues. Don't let your flagship game go down in flames like this.
O7,
It's not just technical problems, it's a downhill journey in design all over the place. As an example, please compare outfitting in Odyssey to the original version as in Horizons. It's completely overloaded, confusing and leads to user errors like erroneously selling engineered modules that did cost dozens of hours to make them. The new UX is way worse than the old one which was clear, concise and task-oriented. Whatever the concept behind the new "Carrier" UI may be, it's inferior and annoying and I'm starting to hate it.
Saying this hurts me, because I love the game and Odyssey too and put more than 4k hours (25 weeks in 24x7 terms) of my precious leisure time into playing it. Odyssey has many great ideas and many aspects work quite well and are cool and exciting and really fun, and I do share the overall vision. But other, and vital, parts just suck, and VR among them in particular. For that part is completely unplayable as it stands, and not just because of performance issues. Don't let your flagship game go down in flames like this.
O7,
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Nah, actually what they've released now is more like an alpha version, whereas what they released a month and a half ago was a stretched-out technical demo.
![[DAX]](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/192/192803.jpg?1553527180){kind=avatar}
I want to blame those who designed that ugly and unusable UI. And those who approved it to development. These guys broke every existing rule of good UI/UX design - from safety (e.g. default set to sell the module without any warning in Outfitting) to usability (increased number of clicks in general, removal of previously existing functionality in maps and helm menu etc). Why fix something that hasn't broken and has worked well for years? Just to get some new fancy look?
probably 5 frames per lightyearBut at what framerate? That is the little detail I'd like to know.
Hey if you can reset your controls and audio settings without any warning or prompt in the main menu, what makes you think any more attention is going to be paid to the in-game settings. Frontier Do Not Learn.
Frontier are a publicly traded company on the stock exchange. They don't do 'gestures'. Someone put a lot of time, thought, effort and money into creating those, and yes - they are indeed very cool - but they weren't sent out of the goodness of anyone's heart. To spend money like that means they think there is some indirect benefit to them. And by sending it to some "influencers" (and not others) they were basically hoping that, whilst not necessarily getting positive reviews, just slightly less negative and willing to overlook things. Which would lead to more sales.
Yamiks can be dismissed by many as a crank. Obsidian Ant - less so.
It's all psychology. That's why it was part of the hype IMO.
Nah, we can do better. To jog your memory:
"Docking request will never be a key. It's a process"
"Lack of cargo insurance is gameplay"
"No commodity storage at stations because you will hack the BGS"
... yeah no thanks. Like said hire someone who has all engineers unlocked, has over 1000 hrs in the game and the big 3 engineered up to G5
Yeah, I know. I am trying to find positives thoughFrontier are a publicly traded company on the stock exchange. They don't do 'gestures'. Someone put a lot of time, thought, effort and money into creating those, and yes - they are indeed very cool - but they weren't sent out of the goodness of anyone's heart. To spend money like that means they think there is some indirect benefit to them. And by sending it to some "influencers" (and not others) they were basically hoping that, whilst not necessarily getting positive reviews, just slightly less negative and willing to overlook things. Which would lead to more sales.
It's all psychology. That's why it was part of the hype IMO.