Player Retention

[Thatchinho]

Not quite. This sector is completely closed to commanders. Wouldn't it be much more obvious to simply ask why? What reasons could they possibly have for shutting down an entire sector (not the only one, by the way)? These were the thoughts that were on many players' minds at the time. The fact that this sector is closed is solely on FD's side. And then to simply say "oops, fell in, yummy nix" certainly contributed to some commanders feeling thoroughly alienated.

The cone should have been permit locked when the surrounding sectors originally were. It was just a mistake.

But a lot of (fairly obvious now) future plans for the game had been built around that sector.

What were they supposed to do?

• Sack off all those plans (and any in-game build up that had already happened)?
• God-hand it, and just lock it with no in-game explanation and just cancel the whole thing (which people had been complaining about as an approach)?
• Try and make a bit of something of it, and build a bit of an in-game event and narrative explanation around it?

Personally I think they made the right choice.

 

[d8veh]

People had been saying they wanted to be part of real time Thargoid attacks for ages.

That’s what we got in the Gnosis event

That's true, but the 15,000 players on the Gnosis were not the ones asking for Thargoid attacks. Some took combat ships in hope, particularly player groups who prepared for the event with some providing protection for the rest, but most were in explorers. What were the majority in explorer builds supposed to do with all the Thargoids except get killed, like what happened. Even the player groups were taken by surprise. Their explorers were blown up before the defenders even took off, and many independent explorers were killed before they even got off the pad! If you look at it as a game, it was very interesting and exciting, but immersion makes many pilots fell like it's real life, and the majority felt very cheated. What happened was an appalling disaster - probably the worst thing that ever happened in the game apart from Odyssey. The commanders on the Gnosis jumped on full of hope and instead of what they hoped for, they got disaster.. Don't try to make excuses for what happened.

The Thargoid attack was nothing special. You could get the same or better action in any of the Thargoid hotspots. The only thing special about it was that 15,000 innocent undefended commanders were put on a plate for the Thargoids to massacre.

 

[CMDR Junagu]

I have about 33 pages of friends who have played in the last 3 months (was in at Beta 3300 and used to friend almost any CMDR I happened to be in the same instance as).
I think it's picked up again ok. Playing one game for thousands of hrs is a bit mental, anyway, imo. Not surprised people move on.
DW2 was ace, lots of other player led things are ace. I take part in CGs every now and then but I can't get involved in any of the puzzles or stories since, myself, I just don't like the style. Most of the stories seem to be parodies or straight rip offs of our present times and I just find them a bit lame. Just doesn't sit well with me at all, not entirely sure why, just....meh. I just don't care who's Emperor or President or whatever, or what's going on with a massive corporation, or even the Thargoids (since they barely impinge on players - you have to go to them). Just not interested - the level/scope that FD pitches stories at seems pretty remote to the gameplay.
But I'm not criticising, since I haven't thought up any alternative myself nor managed to get much in the way of player led content going. And at least there is some movement in the background/ animation to the galactic civilisations.
I don't know about player retention but the FC ownership, which was at about 11,000 for at least half a year after they were introduced is now up to nearly 30,000 and spread all over the galaxy. Clearly people are still playing and doing a lot. Putting together all the publicity to let other players know what you are doing is nigh on impossible in game and difficult (I find, anyway) to maintain in the forums/media or whatever, so, given the mind boggling size of the play area, the game is naturally going to feel 99.9% empty.

 

[Thatchinho]

That's true, but the 15,000 players on the Gnosis were not the ones asking for Thargoid attacks. Some took combat ships in hope, particularly player groups who prepared for the event with some providing protection for the rest, but most were in explorers. What were the majority in explorer builds supposed to do with all the Thargoids except get killed, like what happened. Even the player groups were taken by surprise. Their explorers were blown up before the defenders even took off, and many independent explorers were killed before they even got off the pad! If you look at it as a game, it was very interesting and exciting, but immersion makes many pilots fell like it's real life, and the majority felt very cheated. What happened was an appalling disaster - probably the worst thing that ever happened in the game apart from Odyssey. The commanders on the Gnosis jumped on full of hope and instead of what they hoped for, they got disaster.. Don't try to make excuses for what happened.

The Thargoid attack was nothing special. You could get the same or better action in any of the Thargoid hotspots. The only thing special about it was that 15,000 innocent undefended commanders were put on a plate for the Thargoids to massacre.

That trip was an attempt to jump a fleet of 15,000 ships deep into the territory of an alien civilisation.

That’s an extremely warlike thing to do.

Everyone was warned.

It should not have been a surprise to anyone when said alien civilisation retaliated.

What was supposed to happen? Was the alien civilisation supposed to go ‘oh, what’s that some of the pilots of those ships say they’re just harmless explorers, well in that case, better let that full fleet of 15,000 ships jump right in!’

If people choose to ignore the nature of the game and what’s going on in the galaxy, that’s their choice, but they shouldn’t expect everything to revolve around that choice.

Even the player groups were taken by surprise.

Was no one paying any attention whatsoever?

I thought it was made absolutely obvious that the Thargoids were going to attack. I literally don’t know how FD could have made it any clearer without stating it explicitly as a complete spoiler.

I even said in one of the threads at the time that jumping a fleet of 15,000 ships into Thargoid territory was going to be treated as an act of war.

The commanders on the Gnosis jumped on full of hope and instead of what they hoped for, they got disaster..

That’s what life in the ED galaxy is supposed to be like. It’s not supposed to be a warm, caring galaxy.

Bad stuff (very bad stuff) is supposed to happen in the ED galaxy.

Don't try to make excuses for what happened.

Don’t make excuses for ‘it’s a dangerous, hostile universe, where life is cheap, and bad things happen all the time. But I should be completely exempt from that because the galaxy revolves around me.’ attitude.

The Thargoid attack was nothing special. You could get the same or better action in any of the Thargoid hotspots

It was effectively a live ‘station attack/defence’ situation. That couldn’t be had anywhere. And it hasn’t been had since.

The only thing special about it was that 15,000 innocent undefended commanders were put on a plate for the Thargoids to massacre.

Those 15,000 commanders were told that a new, more dangerous Interceptor variant had been identified. They were told that the jump location had very high numbers of them. They were told that the Pilots Federation had permit locked the destination. They were told that despite that, the Gnosis was still going to attempt the jump.

Anyone who went ahead with the jump was neither innocent, and nor were they put on a plate by anyone other than themselves.

 

[AngryAntz]

I wasn't there for that event. Sounds like fun and the fireworks sounded specatular. Jumping into Thargoid Territory with 15000 ships and going "we come in peace" sounds like it ended as expected. Sorry I missed it

As for people leaving... happens in every mmo... people play... they move on... sometimes the come back...sometimes they don't.

I have taken 2 breaks from ED, more breaks than I can count from STO and am currently on another break from EDO (but intend to return at some point). However after having a break from NWO and returning briefly to decide that it was no longer for me, will probably not return.

I have also decided (very quickly) to give New Worlds a break, will return at a later date to see if I want to continue it or not.

Whilst everyone is not me, I have known many people and friends who treat mmo (and games in general) the same way.

 

[d8veh]

What could they have built in that entire sector of space for this single event that would have been worth months of planning?

This was player led, not something that FDev had planned for, so it would have had to have used assets in the game at the time, otherwise planned additions (the already problematic update at the end of 2018 where exploration and mining had significant changes) would have to have been rushed further than they were already.

The Gnosis was jumping to a locked sector. Nobody knew why it was locked nor what was in it. I would bet that some on the gnosis were hoping to get their name on Raxxla. Others could have been hoping for anything.

As I already said, I don't remember anybody making comments like yours before the Gnosis departed.

 

[d8veh]

That trip was an attempt to jump a fleet of 15,000 ships deep into the territory of an alien civilisation.

That’s an extremely warlike thing to do.

Everyone was warned.

It should not have been a surprise to anyone when said alien civilisation retaliated.

What was supposed to happen? Was the alien civilisation supposed to go ‘oh, what’s that some of the pilots of those ships say they’re just harmless explorers, well in that case, better let that full fleet of 15,000 ships jump right in!’

If people choose to ignore the nature of the game and what’s going on in the galaxy, that’s their choice, but they shouldn’t expect everything to revolve around that choice.

Was no one paying any attention whatsoever?

I thought it was made absolutely obvious that the Thargoids were going to attack. I literally don’t know how FD could have made it any clearer without stating it explicitly as a complete spoiler.

I even said in one of the threads at the time that jumping a fleet of 15,000 ships into Thargoid territory was going to be treated as an act of war.


That’s what life in the ED galaxy is supposed to be like. It’s not supposed to be a warm, caring galaxy.

Bad stuff (very bad stuff) is supposed to happen in the ED galaxy.



Don’t make excuses for ‘it’s a dangerous, hostile universe, where life is cheap, and bad things happen all the time. But I should be completely exempt from that because the galaxy revolves around me.’ attitude.



It was effectively a live ‘station attack/defence’ situation. That couldn’t be had anywhere. And it hasn’t been had since.



Those 15,000 commanders were told that a new, more dangerous Interceptor variant had been identified. They were told that the jump location had very high numbers of them. They were told that the Pilots Federation had permit locked the destination. They were told that despite that, the Gnosis was still going to attempt the jump.

Anyone who went ahead with the jump was neither innocent, and nor were they put on a plate by anyone other than themselves.

Nobody made statements like that before the Gnosis departed! It.s easy to be smart when someone gives you the answer.

 

[Trollymctrollerson]

That's true, but the 15,000 players on the Gnosis were not the ones asking for Thargoid attacks. Some took combat ships in hope, particularly player groups who prepared for the event with some providing protection for the rest, but most were in explorers. What were the majority in explorer builds supposed to do with all the Thargoids except get killed, like what happened. Even the player groups were taken by surprise. Their explorers were blown up before the defenders even took off, and many independent explorers were killed before they even got off the pad! If you look at it as a game, it was very interesting and exciting, but immersion makes many pilots fell like it's real life, and the majority felt very cheated. What happened was an appalling disaster - probably the worst thing that ever happened in the game apart from Odyssey. The commanders on the Gnosis jumped on full of hope and instead of what they hoped for, they got disaster.. Don't try to make excuses for what happened.

The Thargoid attack was nothing special. You could get the same or better action in any of the Thargoid hotspots. The only thing special about it was that 15,000 innocent undefended commanders were put on a plate for the Thargoids to massacre.

That description makes it even more hilarious to me. Undoubtedly it unleashed a tsunami of salt but I can't help but think fdev employees were rolling on the floors of the cubicles laughing too hard to breath and slapping high fives.

 

[Maolagin]

The Gnosis was fantastic. Okay, maybe the initial mistake/oversight wasn’t great (but brilliantly FDev) but the resulting chaos and fun was superb.

I put a stripped down AspX on there and then read the reports Thargoids were coming but was too lazy busy to switch to something more capable.

I laughed so hard tears were streaming at one point whilst trying to get off without being immediately blown up, all whilst watching utter carnage around me with other Cmdrs having the same fate. Explosions, rebuys and hilarity all in a desperately unfit for purpose craft, shared with so many others. That was what I paid for thank you very much , and I’ll pay for more of the same Daft times in space - yum yum.

Hear hear! I was there, I exploded less than you'd think (my long range T6 aquitted itself better than it had any right to), I had a blast and even made some friends. All it took was showing up with an open mind about what to expect.

 

[Thatchinho]

Mistakes are fine, but then I expect at least a certain degree of openness in dealing with them. I'm not asking for an apology, just something along the lines of "we made a mistake". Is that so painful?

Well… as it’s you, and you’re generally a good ‘un… ask and you shall receive:

News - Let's talk about Gnosis and the Cone Sector

Greetings Commanders, As you and others may have noticed in the early hours of the morning, a GalNet article on our community site revealed the future fate of the Gnosis’ jump toward the Cone Sector . However, the intended jump was to take place at the normal time of the server tick, however...

forums.frontier.co.uk

I'm pretty sure the damage to the player base would have been far less in this case.

The rest is speculation, and they are certainly very grateful now for any attempt by the community to gloss over this incident.

Who’s attempting to gloss over it?

FD tried to do something new. Bits of it went wrong. The first part should be encouraged. The second part should be fed back on in a constructive way that encourages them to do more new stuff and for them to improve on what went wrong in the previous ones.

 

[Ingram]

I've stopped playing for a while waiting some funny bug get fixed and patch 11 FC interior. That does not mean I dont play it forever.
This game has good potential but unfortunately it's understaffed.

The state of the game is like a packed restaurant.
When ppl got a long queue number, they choose to go nearby for a refresh.

 

[Maolagin]

Very good point, thanks for bringing these up.

I am not aware of the Winking Cat treasure hunt i have been out in the black the last few months.
Don't know much about the Azimuth story line will look into that one.

Just stopped looking at galnet altogether once you left the bubble then? Or any ED media online? That might explain why you think there haven't been any events lately.

 

[Red Rocket]

it’s not about what happened during the Cone sector event but that ED Commanders are looking for game content and will take part in large numbers.

 

[Tikanderoga]

So... a grind? A grind that wipes all your progress over and over again to continue making you grind? Literally the video game equivalent of a hamster wheel that you run on but don't actually go anywhere?

Sort of.
Except every season you have different rewards, mostly cosmetics. But also the parameters and conditions change, which makes the seasons interesting.
Your progress then gets converted to non-seasonal, so technically you don't lose any progress whatsoever. You can keep playing it until kingdom come.
It seems appealing for many players, so Blizzard must be doing something right.

 

[Christopher Roberto]

That's true, but the 15,000 players on the Gnosis were not the ones asking for Thargoid attacks. Some took combat ships in hope, particularly player groups who prepared for the event with some providing protection for the rest, but most were in explorers. What were the majority in explorer builds supposed to do with all the Thargoids except get killed, like what happened.

Ehh it's exploring the unknown though, right? In Elite Dangerous? In a particularly sketch area with various 'no trespassing' signs and dire warnings of doom that weren't heeded? Other than the wobbly way they went about it it sounds kinda neat.

 

[Sysmon]

That's true, but the 15,000 players on the Gnosis were not the ones asking for Thargoid attacks. Some took combat ships in hope, particularly player groups who prepared for the event with some providing protection for the rest, but most were in explorers. What were the majority in explorer builds supposed to do with all the Thargoids except get killed, like what happened. Even the player groups were taken by surprise. Their explorers were blown up before the defenders even took off, and many independent explorers were killed before they even got off the pad! If you look at it as a game, it was very interesting and exciting, but immersion makes many pilots fell like it's real life, and the majority felt very cheated. What happened was an appalling disaster - probably the worst thing that ever happened in the game apart from Odyssey. The commanders on the Gnosis jumped on full of hope and instead of what they hoped for, they got disaster.. Don't try to make excuses for what happened.

The Thargoid attack was nothing special. You could get the same or better action in any of the Thargoid hotspots. The only thing special about it was that 15,000 innocent undefended commanders were put on a plate for the Thargoids to massacre.

Well, they put themselves on the plate. Despite all the warning signs.

S

 

[Thatchinho]

Nobody made statements like that before the Gnosis departed! It.s easy to be smart when someone gives you the answer.

Ah, I see it's 'let's test Thatchinho's ability to find things from the periods which the forum search is still borked for' time!

...

As I specifically said that I'd said it:

Soo, just thought I'd point out that if the Cone Sector is essentially Thargoid territory, then jumping in there with a megaship carrying a fleet of hundreds (thousands?) of ships may well be construed as a major escalation in hostilities.

(From the main thread.)

There's other stuff in the main thread.

Whole other thread on the topic of it here: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/gnosis-might-be-doomed.444639/

 

[Shir]

I had both a xeno fighting ship and an explorer vessel on Gnosis, both relatively cheap ones in case we wouldn't be able to jump back.. I remember the disappointment when we only jumped a couple of systems afar. But they tried to save it afterwards, dodging the Thargoid attacks to take off was fun, I got killed by the Gnosis the second time and got sent to prison

Fun times!

 

[St0rmFury]

That description makes it even more hilarious to me. Undoubtedly it unleashed a tsunami of salt but I can't help but think fdev employees were rolling on the floors of the cubicles laughing too hard to breath and slapping high fives.

I wasn't there for the Gnosis kerfuffle. But from what I've read the most hilarious part is when cmdrs in combat ships tried to fight back against the Thargoids, they incur a fine for using weapons in a no fire zone and got sent to prison hundreds of ly away after getting destroyed so they can't go back to the Gnosis.

 

[Commander Biscuit]

12 million copies and less than 0.10 % play daily and it’s not that people don’t want to play Elite

That's the frustrating part. I'd love to play Elite but haven't wanted to since trying out Odyssey, which I was very excited for. If I could just ignore on-foot gameplay it'd be fine, but the main game has been downgraded because of it.

Plenty of people are now just waiting for the game to get fixed. Some of them much longer than one year.