Just returned from an impromptu visit to Frontier. The main purpose was to do a few little audio bits with the sound team and a special q and a with Ed but..... despite having signed at least 4 NDA and secrecy thingies there is still a little I am allowed to talk about. (Or so The Don confirmed).
Met each and every team there from QA to the service team who look after the tickets to data people and bgs experts to the guys and girls that are working on the missions, store, art, sound, music and core gameplay. The team is as full as it has ever been.
They also live, breathe and love the game as much as Hutton Truckers do. It isn't pr spin.... that office is loaded with crazy enthusiasm. Sandy was wearing his Hutton T-shirt and the poster of Alvin sits at Ed's left shoulder.
DB spent a good time chatting over his vision as well as talking a little about Specialeffect and the Raspberry pi.
Cecil came with me and may have appeared in the audio booth between takes on other audio. As did the Don.
Their sound team appears to be led by the reincarnation of Christopher Reeve. Uncanny.
As for 2.4 and beyond? The comments re quality of life improvements they have made so far are not just window dressing. Every aspect of the game is set to improve piece by piece.
So. My personal thanks to their team for giving up a little of their time. And Hutton thanks to them for listening. At THEIR request I had the opportunity to raise many of the points dear to our hearts from wish lists to frustrations and clever ideas.... most of which came from you all but some were digested from the forums, discord channels and other outlets. . They were listened to, They were noted, I am sure many were filed away.
They are looking forward to seeing many of you at Lavecon.
Video footage from trailers are ALL taken from within the game engine. Swooping ships and combat etc are all flown by hand by a crack team of devs. There is very little post production on the graphics.
The art and marketing teams say they also rely on the beauty of procedurally generated screenshots for the images they use. They watch posted screenies from players and often wish they had spotted them first.
There are hundreds upon hundreds of lines of station background chatter. Some of the staff there have voice talent to do multiple accents including the team member who sounds like Flossy. That isn't her real accent.... I think she MAY actually be Scottish.
They DO have a matrix like view of the galaxy that shows 'big' data and trends. It is very cool. It has its own caretaker. He isn't called Cypher.
Dav actually manually checks reports to do with the BGS. In game, in his ship. I think he was in a courier when I saw him.
There is an Obsidian Ant fan club there. It was like being at a Beatles concert. There was screaming. Underwear wasn't thrown though.
DB, whilst he has an office in the building with a big throne was working from a small desk alongside his team in the heart of things.
The devs DO log in and play the game for a laugh in their lunchtime.
There are elite dangerous branded cushions on the comfy chairs.
The space loach has friends. They live in a big mating ball on Sandro's desk