2020 release date discussion

Indeed! What was released 5yrs ago, and added to with Planetary Landings was impressive bar raising stuff... But since then? How much developed has felt like well considered and designed bar raised features? How much has felt rather bolt on or ill considered?

Yes, it was released a technical master piece, but over the past four or so years I think a huge opportunity has largely been squandered by too much poor managment and poor design.

Yep agree with all of this.

Still makes the seeming 'measure twice, build once' approach of a long DLC run seem like a potential improvement. Just doesn't make the epic wait for it any better ;)
 

Deleted member 182079

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Indeed! What was released 5yrs ago, and added to with Planetary Landings was impressive bar raising stuff... But since then? How much developed has felt like well considered and designed bar raised features? How much has felt rather bolt on, shallow or ill considered?

Yes, it was released a technical master piece, but over the past four or so years I think a huge opportunity has largely been squandered by too much poor managment and poor design.
3.3 was a pretty neat update to be fair. But yeah apart from that it's been a bit lacklustre. I still greatly enjoy the game though as it is, despite the many issues plaguing it. I don't know what has to happen for me to stop playing Elite.... FDev pulling the plug I suppose!
 
  • The DLC is a hail mary pass. It's all or nothing. If it does well in the first year, they'll maintain staffing. In a best case scenario, even grow it further. But if it fizzles, the game will too.
I share this feeling too. That's definitely true for myself anyway. If they fail to deliver a reasonable content that we've been waiting for 3 years (yes 3) I'll be done with the game and yes you'll have my stuff (I'll probably pass my licence to someone else for free), but not the hardware (that I can re-use with other games ;))
 
I think it's mainly a mindset issue, it certainly was for me for the first year or so.
That's when i completely stopped projecting my own hopes and expectations into the future development of ED.
Some (many ?) of us had this lingering feeling that "this time" or perhaps "next time" the game will surely catch fire and take off.
The big bang, the huge step forward, the shot in the arm, call it whatever you want.
It never materialized and it never will, the game is what it is. To expect it will ever turn into something radically different (or radically more exciting) with a single update/patch/season is a waste of time for those who actually still are caught up in that mindset.
After almost 5 years there shouldn't really be anyone around anymore clinging to that, if they have even the faintest sense of what has gone before.

This is not a criticism of the game. For all i can tell it has a solid player base, continues to receive updates and features, and is economically viable.
It also appears to me, that a majority of that player base isn't generally unhappy with how things are going.
The 2020 update will be welcomed by many, if not most, of them, and they will continue to play and enjoy ED.
But no, it will not be a milestone, "turnaround", or revolution of any sort, neither will carriers, space legs or atmo planets.
ED will still "just" be ED with all it's warts and wrinkles.
And if anyone after 5 years still believes it will ever be anything else, then sorry, i have to question your judgement.:)
 
Space Legs won't be here in 2020. If the prospect of Fleet Carriers is enough to have the office collectively take a dump in their pants and go back to the drawing board with bug fixes, think what a star quake a whole new game mode will cause? Heck, multicrew doesn't even work properly yet with SRVs. Fleet Carriers might arrive in 2020. Maybe. That will be the most we are getting, lads.
 
Not really here to slag off or question Frontier... couple of friends work in or have worked in game development and testing. I appreciate game design is no longer mashing a few levels together in the world of mass multiplayer games.

I personally think Elite is excellent and a technical master piece when you consider the galaxy size and creation involved plus all the bloody numbers and data that hold it together. However I fully expect 2020 paid expansion to be delayed and release autumn or winter 2020 and not in the 2nd quarter as we've been told.

Will Flanagan recently released the "Fleet carriers" delayed news.

This statement caught my eye about updates:

We are expecting to have a series of these updates, which will be rolled out (approximately) every three to four months.

Given that 2nd quarter of 2020 is less than 6/7 months away his statement would suggest Frontier plan on doing a lot more bug fixing and tweaking of the game. Updates 3-4 months would suggest only two more to drop before 2020 paid update but this statement really makes me feel like Frontier are projecting a lot of working on and fixing of the game.

Either way 2020 is going to be huge if it includes fleet carriers and the leaked content rumours of base building and space legs.

As a life timer and prem beta back this news is frustrating and I really do feel like Elite Dangerous isn't Frontiers priority project anymore but thats fine business IS business at the end of the day. I'm sure the hard working development team and community managers are fully committed. Though I do expect 2020 sales to project the future for the game in terms of development size, I don't think there's any risk of the game being ended or shelved but I predict a smaller dev team if sales are weaker than expected.

Whatever happens I've gotten 2,000 hours out the game and various websites show strong player numbers.

What do you guys think and feel?

I have a LEP and I don't hold out much hope for the future. If they really have over 100 Devs working on this game and this is the best they can do then god help them and us. The next paid expansion will almost certainly be bug riddled, pushed back to late 2021 and nowhere near as good as anyone hopes.

If they can't re-task enough people to put right the side projects in ED without delaying already delayed stuff then it doesn't bode well. I'm pretty sure they won't tell us what the next major expansion will be because they know they won't get anywhere near what they want to do by launch.

I love ED, but FDEV are pretty hopeless :(
 
Is the Plan Co, Hippo Humping Sim and Dino Wars forums as happy as us? Is Powerplay suffering because someone wanted a spider monkey on a rock somewhere?
 
Quote:/ "They’re making fantastic progress and on schedule for release by the end of next year" /end quote ....... "and you'd be amazed at what we had to leave out ...."
 
I dont know what to expect from the DLC so have no expectations.
Whilst bug fixes and QoL improvements are always good to have , I am rather content at the moment, and any new content is always just a bonus
 
2nd quarter starts in April, but lasts until July... and is still 6 months out, maybe up to 9 with still having a Q2 release. Your most basic facts aren't even straight. So, I will disregard the rest.
 
I have a LEP and I don't hold out much hope for the future. If they really have over 100 Devs working on this game and this is the best they can do then god help them and us. The next paid expansion will almost certainly be bug riddled, pushed back to late 2021 and nowhere near as good as anyone hopes.

If they can't re-task enough people to put right the side projects in ED without delaying already delayed stuff then it doesn't bode well. I'm pretty sure they won't tell us what the next major expansion will be because they know they won't get anywhere near what they want to do by launch.

I love ED, but FDEV are pretty hopeless :(

Can we try to remember that these are people, and insulting people's livelyhood is a pretty lousy thing to do? There have been so many attacks on the dev team lately, and it's NOT justified or warrented. Bugs creep into All software. Saying the devs must not be good at their job because there are bugs in the program is a catastrophic failure to understand the complexity of interconnected software design. Things can work flawlessly on the developers machine, and even in every networked machine at Frontiers office, and still fall over when it gets in the wild.

The devs are intelligent professionals deserving of respect, and "thick skin" should never be a professional requirement. Give a little thought to your comments, lest karma find it's way to your (jobs) front door.
 
Can we try to remember that these are people, and insulting people's livelyhood is a pretty lousy thing to do? There have been so many attacks on the dev team lately, and it's NOT justified or warrented. Bugs creep into All software. Saying the devs must not be good at their job because there are bugs in the program is a catastrophic failure to understand the complexity of interconnected software design. Things can work flawlessly on the developers machine, and even in every networked machine at Frontiers office, and still fall over when it gets in the wild.

The devs are intelligent professionals deserving of respect, and "thick skin" should never be a professional requirement. Give a little thought to your comments, lest karma find it's way to your (jobs) front door.

It was hardly the insult of the century and it’s not my fault they stopped beta testing is it.

It’s also not my fault that when they did do beta testing they used to release the updates without fixing half the problems people reported.
 
I've ignored multicrew, powerplay, most of the guardian and thargoid-stuff (I've been interdicted once, I've owned a guardian-booster before DW2 started) and tried a little mining to build up EA in the centre. But I'm interested in PVE and exploring, those things keep me playing. I have 21 weeks of playtime since Dec.2014. I don't like the communication and behavior of FD, it was much better in the past. But I love this game.
 
Similiar to you OP. A bit frustrated, not happy with the decision to delay fleet carriers a second time. Somewhat hopeful for next year. ED is still ED, the same game its always been, and i always enjoyed, and got plenty of hours out of.
 

sollisb

Banned
What I took from his statement besides the obvious,

1. Carriers are not ready and won't be ready, so they're using bugs and the community as an excuse.
2. They're so incompetent they can't even decide or plan the small releases. Every 3 or 4 months?

If we see new paintjobs, then we know they're more interested in Arx sales than they are in development.
 
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