Drew Wagar's Thoughts

[Pug]

Never seen so many contradictions in one post. If your wild guess that "they are only reacting out of financial motivation" was even half true, there would have been much easier ways to squeeze the last coin out of this community.

And by the way, Tencent "instead of" Sumo has already been settled:

Tencent have bought another game developer, so let's see how big their collection is now

Tencent announced they're set to buy UK game developer Sumo Digital, the folks behind games like Crackdown 3, but they own so much of the industry already.

www.rockpapershotgun.com

This forum, this post, this thread are like Drew's video, it is around 95% scripted. It's just that Drews scripting does not offer any obfuscation/spin just his own informed personal thoughts and opinion.
I think he feels sad that something with so much potential and also that he poured so much time into went down this path.

As in relation to the game, if you are here long enough you see the same misguidance being used throughout any semi-contentious post. Positively and Negatively, its always the same personages.

Great video Drew, sad to see you joining the masses. o7 Cmdr

Regards
Pug

 

[jojon]

...and the final content will have been very carefully reviewed by Frontier.

Thanks for quelling that uncertainty. :7

According to Drew, yes - several events which were supposed to take place after Premonition haven't, while other events (which contradict them?) have.

Oh, they had things lined up? That's quite interesting, even if no more than academic at this point. :7

 

[Scrappy]

I have simple rule, anyone saying ship interriors would get boring fast does not belong to dev team because he clearly doesn't understand their playerbase playstyle. Fun fact: I quit ED after buying Odyssey even faster than quitting early NMS. NMS made huge comeback, but what will we get from FDEV that NEVER listens to players?

 

[Rat Catcher]

clearly doesn't understand their playerbase playstyle

Is the entire (or even a significant percentage) playerbase wanting ship interiors? From some comments here, even walking the length of the docking bay is tiresome...

Perhaps Frotier do understand the majority of their playerbase?

 

[Rat Catcher]

but what will we get from FDEV that NEVER listens to players?

Didn't they listen to actual players when the sampling tool from EDO was modified to remove the twitch part of the scan?

 

[amigacooke]

I have simple rule, anyone saying ship interriors would get boring fast does not belong to dev team because he clearly doesn't understand their playerbase playstyle. Fun fact: I quit ED after buying Odyssey even faster than quitting early NMS. NMS made huge comeback, but what will we get from FDEV that NEVER listens to players?

A third form of engineering?

 

[Ozric]

According to Drew, yes - several events which were supposed to take place after Premonition haven't, while other events (which contradict them?) have.

He can't say any more because of NDAs,

Technically, he couldn't say that much.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

Is the entire (or even a significant percentage) playerbase wanting ship interiors? From some comments here, even walking the length of the docking bay is tiresome...

Perhaps Frotier do understand the majority of their playerbase?

In X4 you can skip on-foot travel at the press of a button. At first I thought, ok Elite is multiplayer so not really possible, but then again they could actually easily implement a QoL feature that allows both wandering about your ship/landing pad and skipping to the concourse straightaway; because suicidewinding already exists, and now that FDev will introduce those escape pods on megaships/FCs... why not. It's not like there's any gameplay involved that gives players skipping the ship/concourse commute an unfair advantage?

 

[Frop]

It's not like there's any gameplay involved that gives players skipping the ship/concourse commute an unfair advantage?

No, but those repeated traversals and transitions do add up to some juicy time-spent-in-game statistics.

 

[Rat Catcher]

In X4 you can skip on-foot travel at the press of a button. At first I thought, ok Elite is multiplayer so not really possible, but then again they could actually easily implement a QoL feature that allows both wandering about your ship/landing pad and skipping to the concourse straightaway; because suicidewinding already exists, and now that FDev will introduce those escape pods on megaships/FCs... why not. It's not like there's any gameplay involved that gives players skipping the ship/concourse commute an unfair advantage?

As I said, perhaps Frontier do understand their playerbase better than the poster indicated?

It is such comments that remind me of folk quoting steam stats here to 'prove' only 5,000 people play the game... (well, 5,000 did play during ONE of the TWENTY FOUR hours in a day!) Frontier have sufficient analytics to be able to define "at least 12 explorer types" (remember 3.3 launch time) so are probalby aware of what most of us are doing much of the time.

Ship interiors are a nice emotive subject, I'm sure there actually are players who would love to just walk around their ships aimlessly, but have the feeling that there are insufficient to incentivise Frontier into throwing money at it to develop the content. EDO is probably going to go much over budget before it is considered 'complete', if the extra costs, plus a good margin, are not recouped, I doubt the purse string holders will be enthusiastic to sink further money into content that may get the same treatment / reception as EDO.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

As I said, perhaps Frontier do understand their playerbase better than the poster indicated?

It is such comments that remind me of folk quoting steam stats here to 'prove' only 5,000 people play the game... (well, 5,000 did play during ONE of the TWENTY FOUR hours in a day!) Frontier have sufficient analytics to be able to define "at least 12 explorer types" (remember 3.3 launch time) so are probalby aware of what most of us are doing much of the time.

Ship interiors are a nice emotive subject, I'm sure there actually are players who would love to just walk around their ships aimlessly, but have the feeling that there are insufficient to incentivise Frontier into throwing money at it to develop the content. EDO is probably going to go much over budget before it is considered 'complete', if the extra costs, plus a good margin, are not recouped, I doubt the purse string holders will be enthusiastic to sink further money into content that may get the same treatment / reception as EDO.

Well, my post was more a musing since I'm more open to ship interiors since I started playing X4 than I used to before. And to be fair they're not exactly complex - I'd call it cockpit x 1.5 (nothing like what they have in SC, which imo is way overkill and a waste of dev time, but then that game's business model is ship sales so ), but it's all that's needed to add a significant amount of immersion to a game...

I'm sure ship interiors will never happen in reality in Elite, they couldn't even jazz up ship exteriors sufficiently with EDO (cough Cutter stairs cough). One thing's for sure though, I wouldn't pay for ship interiors separately. A free update, sure why not.

 

[Rat Catcher]

I'm sure ship interiors will never happen in reality in Elite

That is likely to be correct, even NMS has basic interiors for freighters and they are pretty boring, but my gut feeling is that whatever Frontier produced along those lines would be lambasted by this 'community' from whatever stance taken...

Only the future can tell, and my crystal ball stopped working just before the launch of CP2077...

 

[Old Duck]

One thing's for sure though, I wouldn't pay for ship interiors separately. A free update, sure why not.

I would pay for interiors if it was done correctly. This means things like damage control, decoration (a pretty large subset of MMO players love decorating their "homes"), and NPC crew and crew management. I would LOVE to have a flyable SSV Normandy with Subnautica "decoration" and repair mechanics in an open world game like Elite with a customizable NPC crew like Dragon's Dogma.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

That is likely to be correct, even NMS has basic interiors for freighters and they are pretty boring, but my gut feeling is that whatever Frontier produced along those lines would be lambasted by this 'community' from whatever stance taken...

Only the future can tell, and my crystal ball stopped working just before the launch of CP2077...

Ah, I can easily tune out of other people's noise as long as I like what they'd deliver problem is there's always a relatively high risk of me being part of that noise of course depending on the delivery of the 'final' product!

Edit... since you mentioned CP2077.. I actually preordered it, albeit a couple of days in advance, just to get the preload going really, and already knew it wouldn't be in perfect shape. Still managed to get decent mileage out of it (currently about 120 hours, which isn't much compared to Elite but up there with similar SP games, like Rockstar's, Fallouts, Witchers, etc.).

 

[Chase Quinnell]

Let's face it, it's not that there's 'no lore'. It's that it's not compatible with the Drewniverse™

I didn't see where Drew was complaining about lore, but if that's truly one of his gripes, then this seems pretty obvious.

 

[Old Duck]

In X4 you can skip on-foot travel at the press of a button. At first I thought, ok Elite is multiplayer so not really possible, but then again they could actually easily implement a QoL feature that allows both wandering about your ship/landing pad and skipping to the concourse straightaway; because suicidewinding already exists, and now that FDev will introduce those escape pods on megaships/FCs... why not. It's not like there's any gameplay involved that gives players skipping the ship/concourse commute an unfair advantage?

As a role-player, I never use the "insta-cockpit" key because it feels too gamey, but I did do the work to discover and unlock teleporter technology, and I'm not afraid to beam down to station and back to my ship again. However, I avoid the trans-system teleport, because again that feels too gamey.

Even with the teleporter, there are times I'm just in the mood to land at a station the "old fashioned" way, get out of my seat, walk down the ramp, and look up at my ship in wonder. I also find walks between my ship and a specific office on a space station the perfect opportunity to interview and hire new crew members.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

I would pay for interiors if it was done correctly. This means things like damage control, decoration (a pretty large subset of MMO players love decorating their "homes"), and NPC crew and crew management. I would LOVE to have a flyable SSV Normandy with Subnautica "decoration" and repair mechanics in an open world game like Elite with a customizable NPC crew like Dragon's Dogma.

I suppose everyone's pain barrier lies at different points when it comes to pDLC... the salt that Frontier harvested from me over the past half year or so greatly diminished mine

 

[Rat Catcher]

Edit... since you mentioned CP2077.. I actually preordered it, albeit a couple of days in advance, just to get the preload going really, and already knew it wouldn't be in perfect shape

I ordered the same as you, the PC version was very well behaved on launch day, with only minor glitches. Graphically it is beautiful and the game world and characters well realised - Johnny killed the game for me, rather than bugs. I had no idea that "my" character was going to be completely hijacked. I played about 25 hours before closing the game down, I've not gone back. (and left the game forum, after a bleat a couple of days in about the hijack - how I wish the ED forumites had such sense!)

It changed from RPG to Action game somewhere, I just didn't enjoy their choice of storyline, is all.

The error could have been avoided completely had I waited a week or so, but it is water under the bridge, no worries.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

I ordered the same as you, the PC version was very well behaved on launch day, with only minor glitches. Graphically it is beautiful and the game world and characters well realised - Johnny killed the game for me, rather than bugs. I had no idea that "my" character was going to be completely hijacked. I played about 25 hours before closing the game down, I've not gone back. (and left the game forum, after a bleat a couple of days in about the hijack - how I wish the ED forumites had such sense!)

It changed from RPG to Action game somewhere, I just didn't enjoy their choice of storyline, is all.

The error could have been avoided completely had I waited a week or so, but it is water under the bridge, no worries.

That's a shame really, because I think the story and writing of characters is definitely a strong point of the game - and some of the side missions, similar to The Witcher 3, are able to compete in terms of quality - the poorest aspect of it (and source of most bugs & glitches) is the open map and GTA inspired content (although from a sightseeing perspective, the map is darn impressive to look at).

I mostly ignored that on my first playthrough (female Corpo, focusing on stealth and hacking... replicating a scene akin to ET209 from Robocop while remotely and watching the mayhem unfold from a safe distance was epic stuff) as I played through that before CDPR rolled out patches that addressed the more half-baked optional content.

In my second playthrough (male Nomad, heavy combat focus) I tried more of the optional bits and it's almost like playing a new DLC. But I always considered the game more of an action game with RPG bits bolted on than the other way around. A bit like Fallout 4, but with more action even.

These days I really loathe stories in computer games, but 2077's is one of the better ones imo. And Keanu seemed to enjoy himself - his performance came across less wooden than in most of his movies tbf.

 

[Rat Catcher]

That's a shame really,

It is the way things go, I fell for the hype too!

I'm not berating the game, only the way the 'prime' character developed with no back door.

The game itself, and most of the mission chains are well put together, both city and wastelands are well done - it, like Odyssey for you - just couldn't give me something to stay interested in! I don't think it is a bad game, far from it, just not one that kept me involved, which is all down to me.