Distant Worlds 3 expedition is postponed indefinitely (from DW Project Leader Erimus)

[Rubbernuke]

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)

For me the biggest bone of contention is FD not supporting the tools for these things to flourish. Powerplay done well could have been a Star Wars Squadrons for free, multicrew could have made piloting ships in teams actually useful and worth it, stations could have been Mos Eisley like players hubs, fleet carriers could have been leg club houses done right.... the only thing FD have actually got right is the BGS, and even then it feels disconnected from stations (which I thought would reflect the BGS states).

 

[Dr. Nagi]

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.

It was always a maybe, if we deem the new content worth the effort (because it is quite a big effort to organise a DW). There are no other reasons than those publicly said for it not happening.

 

[Rock-Hermit]

They need to shift focus to the Formula One game now, 100 man team has a new goal.

Well elite is 7 years in to its 10 year plan now, and games only have so much longevity. The formula one management game may be their next 'baby', so it makes sense focus could be shifting.

 

[Dr. Nagi]

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.)

There's other expeditions being organised all the time. Just chgeck on EDSM regularly.

 

[robbyp]

One mans opinion. Thats it.

 

[Erei]

One mans opinion. Thats it.

Just like everyone's else. Yet some people are more listened than others.

 

[Rat Catcher]

One mans opinion. Thats it.

It seems to me that many people appear to have forgotten that 99% of the landables in Horizons are of little interest, or different from 'the rest' - but are exceedingly eager to lambast Odyssey landables as 'worse' than horizons, which is curious

 

[robbyp]

From what i've seen, the planets in Odyssey are much better. They are more realistic. Yes Pomeche 2C was fun, but it was completely computerish.

 

[Erei]

From what i've seen, the planets in Odyssey are much better. They are more realistic. Yes Pomeche 2C was fun, but it was completely computerish.

Anybody who has ever worked on Heightmaps and their application inside a videogame can spot the artifacts a mile away.

Since not everyone did it, it may be harder to notice, but I wouldn't know since I did and it's glaring to me.

 

[Whitmann]

Just like everyone's else. Yet some people are more listened than others.

Tbf Erimus, like it or not - and he's no show-off whatsoever - has a standing in the community and has been at the forefront of some very notable things, so his quote has been noted on here and in Obsidian Ant's latest video, but it's being reacted to as though it's a DW3 statement or something, not just a post of frustration made somewhere online.

 

[Deleted member 115407]

From what i've seen, the planets in Odyssey are much better. They are more realistic. Yes Pomeche 2C was fun, but it was completely computerish.

Yeah, they need to do a second or third pass on the planetary tech. Some planets are really nice looking, while others look very raw.

 

[Erei]

Tbf Erimus, like it or not - and he's no show-off whatsoever - has a standing in the community and has been at the forefront of some very notable things, so his quote has been noted on here and in Obsidian Ant's latest video, but it's being reacted to as though it's a DW3 statement or something, not just a post of frustration made somewhere online.

I've seen someone say OA relatively negative videos were a "betrayal", and hope that "frontier would remember in the future".

Some people are willing to do anything to deny a problem exist.

 

[Ettanin]

It's sad when explorer community, one of the most welcoming in the game is so upset with the status quo. Fingers crossed we will get out from this mess "pulling a Sean Murray" in the process...

I don't think Frontier has the spine to commit a Hello Games tbf.

 

[Rubbernuke]

I don't think Frontier has the spine to commit a Hello Games tbf.

The difference is Hello Games has two (?) games, FD have several on the go. ED is well past its mid life, EDO failing might bring its EOL date closer rather than extend it.

 

[robbyp]

Ed has a long life ahead of it. Lots of new players and sales to make. It's still making money for frontier. I'm happy to continue to make new content for it

 

[SgtMajRaz]

The difference is Hello Games has two (?) games, FD have several on the go. ED is well past its mid life, EDO failing might bring its EOL date closer rather than extend it.

EDO is big enough to be considered a revitalizing expansion that's meant to stave of EoL. Not only that, but it's meant to bring in a whole slew of new PC players that won't touch it with a 10 foot pole because of the review ratings. Interesting to see how it pans out going forward.

I wonder when this roadmap is going to release. We have truly become Star Citizen when the next big thing people are looking forward to is a freaking roadmap.

 

[Erei]

The difference is Hello Games has two (?) games, FD have several on the go. ED is well past its mid life, EDO failing might bring its EOL date closer rather than extend it.

Especially now that ED is no longer the only child and dream of Braben as it was when it launched. They have multiple solid licenses and a lot of people to feed. And shareholders to please.

 

[CMDR ZerØ]

Anybody who has ever worked on Heightmaps and their application inside a videogame can spot the artifacts a mile away.

Since not everyone did it, it may be harder to notice, but I wouldn't know since I did and it's glaring to me.

I haven't worked on heightmaps personally, but have worked on similar stuff and the artifacting is pretty obvious.

Also there are a lot of people in this thread misunderstanding something - I don't think most people have a problem with "boring" planets. They have a problem with the visually broken planets. Tiling textures (not even rotated, just straight up copy-pasted across the surface), LOD issues, the great "yogurtification", etc.

 

[Bigmaec]

lol

Yeah, they for sure welcomed you out quite fast

I bet there was one lone voice in the meeting "But they talk about space legs guys, surely we need to do something in space..."

And then he flew promptly out of the window...

I'm having fun

No real explorer here...

This. Yet not a week goes by without explorers doing their usual "omg I am slapped in the face, it's not fair, I is small and they is big!" Calimero rant. Worse, every time anyone else gets anything explorers run around yelling that it's not fair someone else got anything. I know literal toddlers that are better behaved than these louder parts of the explo community.

But sure, they are upset again. Fine. Join the queue.

New modules? What about us out there at the fringe?
New content? What about us out there at the fringe?
New ships? What about us out there at the fringe?
No one ever thinks about the explorers

It seems to me that many people appear to have forgotten that 99% of the landables in Horizons are of little interest, or different from 'the rest' - but are exceedingly eager to lambast Odyssey landables as 'worse' than horizons, which is curious

This. Odyssey planets are much better than Horizons planets.

 

[Ian Skippy]

I've seen very little repetitiveness. Sure, I've seen some bugs, but there were also a load of bugs on horizons launch. It took a long time for those planets to look okayish. There seems to be a rather premature and in my view a childish reaction.

That makes little sense. Just because things were done poorly in the past doesn't make it any better that it's done poorly now.