ObsidianAnt: Frontier - What The HECK Is Going On With Elite Dangerous?

[Rat Catcher]

Is the kickstarter officially finished and delivered then?

The game was produced, so the kickstarter campaign was successful... So yes.

Has frontier either delivered all the content promised

Were there "promises", or just intent?

finished the game, and then moved forward onto something different?

It certainly looks like they consider so, although the folk who believe there were 'promises' would, naturally, offer a different opinion.

The game is being tucked up and put to sleep, apparently, We've kissed goodbye to EDO on consoles, had the response that the issues with new planetary technology are not being addressed, and 11 major updates on the expansion released almost a year ago - yet it remains an expansion where performance doesn't come close to that of the base game... Perhaps U12 will be announced as the final one, we'll all have to wait and see.

Edit: added "where performance" for clarity.

 

[Rat Catcher]

Do you honestly believe its fair to dismiss the expectations that frontier themselves created and sold the game with?

Fair? Does anyone who gambles complain about "fair" when they lose?

 

[Vinman]

Why has this post become a shooting down of the messenger OA? I mean everyone is entitled to their opinion, follow him, like him or not, much of the community is feeling the same way.

He didn't even post this here, someone else did.

I think regardless of everyone's personal outlook, it's not wrong for FDEV to receive positive and negative feedback.

Why can't we all be adults and talk civilly about wanting the best for our beloved game.

 

[Cmdr Eratosthenes]

Let's face it, the guy is a low quality bait merchant. We're talking a block of pilchards that have been left in your Esky in the sun for a week quality

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

The game was produced, so the kickstarter campaign was successful... So yes.

Were there "promises", or just intent?

It certainly looks like they consider so, although the folk who believe there were 'promises' would, naturally, offer a different opinion.

The majority of my opinion actually agrees with you. The premise of the video in the op, and all the attention since, seems to think that a vast majority of players thinks otherwise. If you could get them to accept that the kickstarter is over, maybe alot of the problem would go away. Then get everyone to stop associating it with an mmo, and the last remaining problems would also go away.

Elite horizons is amazing as a single player sandbox simulator. I'm playing it alot again. Just as i was getting into my backlog All it takes is cutting away the bad bits and the expectations. What's left is great.

The game is being tucked up and put to sleep, apparently, We've kissed goodbye to EDO on consoles, had the response that the issues with new planetary technology are not being addressed, and 11 major updates on the expansion released almost a year ago - yet it remains an expansion where performance doesn't come close to that of the base game... Perhaps U12 will be announced as the final one, we'll all have to wait and see.

Edit: added "where performance" for clarity.

What are you expecting from update 12? I doubt it will let me play it on my main computer with 3 gigs of vram so i can only consider it through others. Would be nice if the texture setting reduced vram usage. How about that.

 

[Banana's_Are_Good_For_You]

I like bananas.

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

Fair? Does anyone who gambles complain about "fair" when they lose?

Assume frontier has a higher moral standing than a gambling merchant or roadside swindler?

 

[babelfisch]

Is the kickstarter officially finished and delivered then? Has frontier either delivered all the content promised, finished the game, and then moved forward onto something different?

I would never do this, but you need to understand that money for expected future delivery was what sold the game, and critically, made everyone handwave all its issues for the first 3 years. Until its settled, these expectations will be present.

Do you honestly believe its fair to dismiss the expectations that frontier themselves created and sold the game with?

Counter: David braben let slip that the kickstarter was nothing more than a marketing proof of concept, they weren't pan handling for development funds like the true purpose of kickstarter, so frontier internally may have a very different outlook. Its worth factoring that in as well. Source was the 2016 conference thing they did.

I hope the game will be developed for a few more years, but if they would stop releasing updates tomorrow I would still consider it fair in regards to Kickstarter. I understand that it was the first Kickstarter game for some people in the community and they didn't know what it really is, so they got a few wrong expectations. But I wouldn't blame Frontier for something that is quite normal.

Currently I can't think of a single Kickstarter game that got a similar amount of updates and longtime support like Elite Dangerous, and even after 10 years they are still very close to the original vision. Many dev studios can't even follow a vision for more than a year and yet here we are, walking around under blue skies.

As always, that doesn't mean I am against criticism. Communication is bad, Odyssey still needs improvements, lots of bugs, etc. But Kickstarter was 10 years ago. I consider myself lucky that we even have a game.

 

[Rat Catcher]

The majority of my opinion actually agrees with you. The premise of the video in the op, and all the attention since, seems to think that a vast majority of players thinks otherwise. If you could get them to accept that the kickstarter is over, maybe alot of the problem would go away. Then get everyone to stop associating it with an mmo, and the last remaining problems would also go away.

This is a gaming forum, from reading around a couple of others it appears to be common practise that any comment by a developer about someting they would like to include is regarded as a firm promise, and internet rage and tears follow when these unreal expectations are not met. The same approach is evident here also, isn't it?

Elite horizons is amazing as a single player sandbox simulator. I'm playing it alot again. Just as i was getting into my backlog All it takes is cutting away the bad bits and the expectations. What's left is great.

I'm certain you believe this, which is very positive, isn't it?

What are you expecting from update 12? I doubt it will let me play it on my main computer with 3 gigs of vram so i can only consider it through others. Would be nice if the texture setting reduced vram usage. How about that.

What am I expecting from U12?
Good question - with a simple answer, fortunately: Nothing...
Performance will not receive the "significant increase" promised last year, so what we have is what we keep... Hopefully Horizons on PC will receive the update to the Odyssey client, although I doubt that will happen...

Will you be able to play the Odyssey expansion with your humble PC? I doubt it...

 

[Rat Catcher]

Assume frontier has a higher moral standing than a gambling merchant or roadside swindler?

The backers were gambling, is that difficult to understand? (as were the LEP purchasers)

 

[Viajero]

Assume frontier has a higher moral standing than a gambling merchant or roadside swindler?

They probably do. Gambling merchants rely on gambling exclusively for their business. FDEV on the other hand and for the most part just sells very specific and concrete "what you see is what you get" products, there is no speculation or gambling involved and you have all kinds of reviews for those allowing you to decide before a purchase. Unless you want to turn this into a LEP thread of course, the vast majority of the Elite market has not paid for intent or speculation, it has paid for very specific products.

 

[Sluggy71]

Let's face it, the guy is a low quality bait merchant. We're talking a block of pilchards that have been left in your Esky in the sun for a week quality

Actually he isn't, unlike your low-effort post. Get off your high horse.

 

[Rat Catcher]

They probably do. Gambling merchants rely on gambling exclusively for their business. FDEV on the other hand and for the most part just sells very specific and concrete "what you see is what you get" products, there is no speculation or gambling involved. Unless you want to turn this into a LEP thread the majority of the Elite market has not paid for intent or speculation.

Had I not been 'out of the loop' for 3 years working when the kickstarter launched I would certainly have opted in, but I wasn't keeping track of PC gaming so missed it. Such is life.

I've been playing ED for 5 years, which is amazing value for so little outlay, and have played the Odyssey expansion for around 1,000 hours now... No other game I have bought comes close to ED in hours played - and enjoyed - which has surprised me.

If it winds down in the coming months, I won't consider it 'unfair', it has been a great journey, but, just like any other journey, it will end.

 

[Viajero]

Had I not been 'out of the loop' for 3 years working when the kickstarter launched I would certainly have opted in, but I wasn't keeping track of PC gaming so missed it. Such is life.

I've been playing ED for 5 years, which is amazing value for so little outlay, and have played the Odyssey expansion for around 1,000 hours now... No other game I have bought comes close to ED in hours played - and enjoyed - which has surprised me.

If it winds down in the coming months, I won't consider it 'unfair', it has been a great journey, but, just like any other journey, it will end.

Fully agree. Braben has delivered quite a bit of his original intentions. And there is still a possibility more is yet to come. Either way things will have to come to a end at some point, and after almost a decade already (wow!) Elite should start behaving like many other mature products. It is only normal that the end may be probably closer than it was 5 years ago. Even Braben may want to retire at some point!

 

[xzanfr]

To reiterate what I suggested earlier, it would be great obsidian orbital is destroyed as part of the story.

OA seems like a decent guy and appears to be winding down his ED content in favour of other things, which is great for him and his fans.

To mirror OA's rise and fall in this in game by destroying the station that bears his name would be poetic - it was created as part of the story that OA was involved in and could be destroyed as part of the same story potentially triggering the on foot Thargoids, as mentioned by robbyp.

Frontier need to be a bit braver with the story, hopefully as the game comes in to it's twilight months they will do so.

 

[Bottom Hat]

by the way

Im good thanks dude, yourself?

Although I managed to mess up the quote, so perhaps still suboptimal!

 

[Morbad]

Does anyone who gambles complain about "fair" when they lose?

Only if the odds were concealed or misrepresented. I'm sure there are those that would argue this is the case with Elite: Dangerous.

Assume frontier has a higher moral standing than a gambling merchant or roadside swindler?

False equivalence, as an honest purveyor of gambling games isn't a swindler. The games are fair and the house thrives on the inevitable outcome of pure mathematical probabilities allowed to run over enough iterations.

Anyway, no. I do not expect any successful business to prioritize anything that would be recognizable as a system of morals, except as a token gesture to capture market segments that pretend they concerned with such things enough to pay for it. The most ethical 'corporate person', distilled into a human body, would be a monster and would be hunted down and destroyed as such. The whole reason such legal fictions exist is that collective evil is apparently far more tolerable to society than individual evil.

 

[[VR] Zakk]

If it winds down in the coming months, I won't consider it 'unfair', it has been a great journey, but, just like any other journey, it will end.

Elite gave me fantastic value for money. I paid Frontier full retail for the original game and for Horizons (like you, I missed the Kickstarter campaign back in the days). And in the "hours per € spent" category, Elite easily claims a top in the top 5 list of my personal gaming hall of fame.

I guess the reason for my undeniable frustration is that I feel the end could have been avoided, if it hadn't been for a series of bad decisions. Would have been better for me, would have been better for Frontier.

But despite the thousands of hours I spent on it, it's still their game, not mine.

 

[Rat Catcher]

Only if the odds were concealed or misrepresented. I'm sure there are those that would argue this is the case with Elite: Dangerous.

That attitude is very evident on this forum, indeed.

 

[Viajero]

That attitude is very evident on this forum, indeed.

Especially when those odds are rewritten or willfully misinterpreted by the audience.