There was a post here a while back about Elite going into maintenance mode. Basically the author made the argument that given the limited return on investment FDEV sees on Elite, as opposed to Planet Coaster for example, FDEV were basically winding down development of Elite. It rung very true at the time, and from the 2.4 release notes onwards (even before), everything seems to support it. Unfortunately I don't think Elite is ever going to achieve the promise we all saw for it.
I wouldn't go that far with my assumptions. There are still, besides the Q1 and Q4 updates, 2 content updates coming next year, which we don't know anything of yet.
Thing is, most of my personal preferences are to be covered in the Q4 (mining, faction tools, exploration,...), which would be another full year from now on.
If they run into trouble and have to delay that even further... don't know if i'll be still there to see it.
Q1, as much as i appreciate it, is unlikely to bring something to my personal interest.
New ships, o.k., novelty wears off fast.
C&P? Couldn't care less. Trading tools? Definately needed for new players, but i doubt i'll ever get back to bulk trading.
Galnet Audio? Already have EDDI for that. Planetary tech? Most welcome, but again, wears off fast.
I definately need something new to actually DO.
Think it really depends more on the unanounced things to come.
But, if that would be something completely unrelated to the DDF, like CQC (or equally useless for the
main game), well, think that's it then.
We have to wait and see, and hope the patience doesn't run out of gas...
edit: in short, i'm in need of new actual
gameplay, not
features. If you know what i mean.