Deleted member 115407
D
Well I'm glad that I'm not alone in my assessment.Wait, what? It's almost like disingenuous hyperbolic drama-mongering.
Distant Worlds 3 expedition is postponed indefinitely (from DW Project Leader Erimus)
- Thread starter StuartGT
- Start date
This ^^
That tweet was made in January when frontier announced the console delay, I think the original intention was to launch dw3 this summer, but console gets delayed, dw3 is put back, then Odyssey release is a disaster, so it gets put on hold indefinitely (not abandoned as some seem to think). Makes absolute sense not to even think of dw3 until the game is on all platforms and works as intended.
Regarding Horizons, it did have a lot of bugs on launch, but the content was mostly good, and I could easily look past the issues. Odyssey feels like I would hate it even if it was working exactly as Frontier intended.
Planetside 2 was gradually eviscerated over the course of several years and it's almost as grindy as Elite...though admittedly it's not as inflationary.
Anyway, the bar for the shooter element to be decent in EDO was not high, but they still failed to meet my exceedingly modest expectations, both as standalone gameplay and how it's been integrated with the rest of the game.
Planetside 2 was gradually eviscerated over the course of several years and it's almost as grindy as Elite...though admittedly it's not as inflationary.
Anyway, the bar for the shooter element to be decent in EDO was not high, but they still failed to meet my exceedingly modest expectations, both as standalone gameplay and how it's been integrated with the rest of the game.
i think what kept many players from judging the game fairly was this shared belief that this was something special. a symbiotic relationship of fantasy between players and frontier. and frontier curb stomping that relationship to please non-players has broken the contract there.
without that suspense of judgement, the game is left standing on its own merits of being a game... and it's not got healthy legs.
just the realization that the thing we love playing was never really a good game all things considered... and what made that tolerable has been poisoned and left uncertain how it will exist going forward.
the only thing that can fix this (not talking about bugs) is something that fdev has not done in a long time and has kind of been bad at doing. we need a new formadine rift /jacques side narrative.
without that suspense of judgement, the game is left standing on its own merits of being a game... and it's not got healthy legs.
just the realization that the thing we love playing was never really a good game all things considered... and what made that tolerable has been poisoned and left uncertain how it will exist going forward.
the only thing that can fix this (not talking about bugs) is something that fdev has not done in a long time and has kind of been bad at doing. we need a new formadine rift /jacques side narrative.
No new lore in Elite Dangerous Odyssey?
My expectations on this particular topic weren't high and, as far as I've been able to tell from the time I've managed to play in game, very little of the in-game background lore of the universe has been updated/enhanced. The Codex has no new text on the main personalities or the "big" topics...
For me the big thing the Odyssey planets are missing is height variation - especially on the low-G worlds where both the mountains and chasms are massively shorter than before - and colour variation (they're mostly shades of grey with tints, whereas the Horizons ones were more saturated). The colouration is probably easy enough for Frontier to tune up as before, but the height issue I expect to take longer.
On the other hand, with the exception of the big height variations, the terrain is considerably more varied at a close-up SRV/foot scale than the Horizons engine normally produced.
So, more interesting to drive around on - especially with the new lifeforms - but much less interesting to fly over, where the small scale variation in terrain evens out to "smooth bit / hilly bit" once you're even a short distance up, and the large-scale variation is mostly absent. Of course, most expedition waypoints are picked for what they look like from the surface anyway...
As far as post-Odyssey expeditions go ... I notice that the Apollo 15 Expedition (254 participants on EDSM) and Artemis Biological Survey (113 participants on EDSM) are both setting off soon. Sure, they're not as big as Distant Worlds ... but when instancing means you're not going to meet more than about 50-100 other people at once at best, does that actually matter? You'll still get to explore the galaxy, socialise at the meetups, make some new discoveries of your own, and so on. I had great fun on expeditions of about that size back in my "primarily exploring" days. They don't have the brand and advertising of Distant Stuff, but both of those two are run by well-established exploration communities. And there'll no doubt be more in future.
On the other hand, with the exception of the big height variations, the terrain is considerably more varied at a close-up SRV/foot scale than the Horizons engine normally produced.
So, more interesting to drive around on - especially with the new lifeforms - but much less interesting to fly over, where the small scale variation in terrain evens out to "smooth bit / hilly bit" once you're even a short distance up, and the large-scale variation is mostly absent. Of course, most expedition waypoints are picked for what they look like from the surface anyway...
As far as post-Odyssey expeditions go ... I notice that the Apollo 15 Expedition (254 participants on EDSM) and Artemis Biological Survey (113 participants on EDSM) are both setting off soon. Sure, they're not as big as Distant Worlds ... but when instancing means you're not going to meet more than about 50-100 other people at once at best, does that actually matter? You'll still get to explore the galaxy, socialise at the meetups, make some new discoveries of your own, and so on. I had great fun on expeditions of about that size back in my "primarily exploring" days. They don't have the brand and advertising of Distant Stuff, but both of those two are run by well-established exploration communities. And there'll no doubt be more in future.
Ozric
Volunteer Moderator
Which will be by the time it is released on consoles.
DW3 was highly unlikely to happen anyway. First, there was the part where "[...] the Distant Worlds organisers have written up a 65-page proposal document for DW3 and have shared these ideas with Frontier.", and well, good luck with that, especially these days. Given the state of the game, I don't think anyone can expect Frontier to do such any time soon. So if relying on Frontier's support to add in-game content for the expedition (like they did with the CGs and station construction in DW2) is out, what remains then is organising an expedition to uncover the new content.
However, FD first announcing that the console release(s) will be split and then the DW3 team announcing that they'll only plan an expedition across all platforms in autumn ensured that that was out as well. With months having gone by then, there should be very little left to find. Unless you expect that Frontier will add a lot of new exploration content for the console release. (Although I do expect that they'll add some new flora and such, so that console players can get their Codex tags too.)
So, to be frank, anyone still hoping for a DW3 would have been set up for disappointment already. At least this comment put such false hopes to rest.
However, FD first announcing that the console release(s) will be split and then the DW3 team announcing that they'll only plan an expedition across all platforms in autumn ensured that that was out as well. With months having gone by then, there should be very little left to find. Unless you expect that Frontier will add a lot of new exploration content for the console release. (Although I do expect that they'll add some new flora and such, so that console players can get their Codex tags too.)
So, to be frank, anyone still hoping for a DW3 would have been set up for disappointment already. At least this comment put such false hopes to rest.
The big question is "when". I sincerely doubt it will hold for this autumn. They have a lot of work just to fix the DLC, and then it can't run as is on console, even if it was holding true to the requirement on Steam.
Ozric
Volunteer Moderator
It's inconsequential.
in my opinion.
You dropped that. It's very consequential to me, and perhaps even a few others.
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Ozric
Volunteer Moderator
No it's inconsequential to this discussion. The expedition wasn't going to take place until it was released on consoles, so it doesn't matter when the console release it.
Obviously in the wider context it matters very much.
The only support from Frontier we were talking about was for promotional purposes and sharing an idea for a community goal.
Just to correct any misunderstanding or misapprehension, the DW organisers were not relying on Frontier for anything. Lessons have definitely been learned from DW2, to the point where many of us were arguing to have nothing whatsoever to do with Frontier on any future expedition. Obviously if Frontier are on board and actually get involved then great, I guess, but it's not the case that DW3 would be relying on Frontier for it to happen.
My bad then, I misunderstood you.
They need to shift focus to the Formula One game now, 100 man team has a new goal.
Ironic, isn't it. A game based around the player not being anyone special, not being the protagonist and the big hero ... and people are still disappointed when it turns out that they still aren't, and Frontier isn't going to do things specifically for them.
The old "personal attention" thing was never going to scale as the game expanded from ~25,000 backers to ~4,000,000 accounts (pre-Epic giveaway) ... and the old Community Leaders in various areas were never as representative as they claimed to be - which Frontier figured out far quicker than they did themselves, of course.
Meanwhile, hundreds of player groups - explorers, combat pilots, politicals, storytellers, etc. - have been getting on with playing the game which actually exists and having fun with that. To say "last of the great community initiatives" as the screenshot in the first post does can only ever be true if you hold a very narrow definition of "community" (and potentially also of "great" and of "initiative", I guess)
That's a shame.
I wonder if anyone elso could be bothered to pick up the reins and organise an expedition? The biggest issue now for any organiser is that the 'boring' M, Y, L, etc. classes which are routinely skipped by 'explorers' as only containing a handful of snowballs, in Odyssey could likely contain some of the most 'interesting' bodies... (the number of 'boring' systems I have picked up in pretty well explored areas is quite surprising, what comes of not filtering out anything, I guess.)
I wonder if anyone elso could be bothered to pick up the reins and organise an expedition? The biggest issue now for any organiser is that the 'boring' M, Y, L, etc. classes which are routinely skipped by 'explorers' as only containing a handful of snowballs, in Odyssey could likely contain some of the most 'interesting' bodies... (the number of 'boring' systems I have picked up in pretty well explored areas is quite surprising, what comes of not filtering out anything, I guess.)
i didn't say personally special. the specialness comes from fdev feeding the players a fantasy they partake in... that feeling of being part of something that goes beyond a normal game... like we're all in this together and fdev is the leader and we all are helping create this thing that's bigger than a game.
what has broken for many is what happens when you find out your leader no longer feels the same way you do about the relationship.
People will continue on, but the negativity that currently permeates is the end of that unrequited love for the game. it will be a long time before those players can feel that again, if ever. and it remains to be seen if there is such a community remaining.