A message to Frontier From D2EA

[Helmut Grokenberger]

I'm not a fan of D2EA but he has access to many more commanders through his streams and his PMF , so you could argue that they have a better feel for the game than the odd player and a couple of mates who play the game ??
They could be wrong but if you ask 100 consoles players if edo is a flop you can imagine the answer , now ask 100 pc players the answer is going to be different . Now ask 50 50 you going to get a better feel of how the game is going ?

they are still in their own bubble and, at best, representing their bubble, and not "the community". In truth, if you look at the comment sections, their bubble contains a lot of burned out, disappointed or bitter ex-players who either stuck around because of Star Citizen, or to chime in with the choir of "we know best".

Yet guys like D2EA regularly claim to speak for "the community". It's a subtle difference, but if he had used the phrase "my community" instead of "the community" he would get less flak for it.

 

[Cmdr. Numa]

I assume there was nothing much new announced in today's live stream?

They announced the planned launch date of U16 and that a stability patch will come between U16 and U17, and that next month they'll have an U17 teaser. Other than that they had 3 devs on, who just played a quiz. Overall it was one of the worst streams in regards to news, and that after no stream in a month.

 

[Disemboweled Ego]

Frontier will drop a bombshell U16 preview later today covering all the bases

Ah yes, the base building update - I think that's actually likely in the future now because of the leaks ages ago and how FDev seems to stick to long term plans instead of getting distracted by things such as fixing long running player complaints.

 

[Morbad]

While I do agree with the general point about not forcing gameplay loops, there should definitely be combat gameplay (even PvP) where having someone with a refinery and a mining laser (or at least a lumbering supply tender as an FC intermediary, if FCs need to exist) should be a practical logistical requirement.

First thought ... "64% of you voted you were either negative or neutral".

Errrr, OK sure. The phrase that comes to mind is ..

.. 'cos that graph looks pretty balanced to me, if anything ever so slightly tending towards positive.

That graph looks exactly as stated...nearly two-thirds of people would probably not miss the Thargoid content if it vanished overnight. This is not even remotely in contradiction with the idea that there are more people that like the content than actively dislike the content.

I don't see how the data was spun, let alone tortured, in this guy's presentation of it.

You really can't compare skimpy, asian MMORPG to hardcore sci-fi flying sim, can you? 99% of ppl who play BDO (that I know personally) are doing it because of nudity and fancy animations.

Elite: Dangerous isn't particularly hardcore in it's sim elements.

Anyway, all games should have gratuitous nudity, combined with ultra-plausible armor mechanisms, so the only way anyone gets to see any skin is through judicious application of semi-armor-piercing high-explosive incendiary ammunition.

He stepped into the same trap as many content creators before him, believing their own little bubble represents "the community". Surprise: It doesn't.

The sample size is large and almost certainly broad enough to be generally representative. 1.6k votes is a lot of votes.

I don't watch many of his videos, have never voted on one of his polls, but dismissing them as non-representative is as silly as dismissing Steam statistics (and I wouldn't touch Steam with a ten-foot pole).

In truth, if you look at the comment sections, their bubble contains a lot of burned out, disappointed or bitter ex-players who either stuck around because of Star Citizen, or to chime in with the choir of "we know best".

If that subset is itself representative, then the poll sounds even more representative than I originally assumed from the subscriber and vote count.

 

[avow555]

Well I'm glad My mate dave made the video as the current state of the game is pretty abysmal.

 

[Ted Striker]

He's correct about the main and most important point, regardless of your opinion on the points: They are focusing on their zoo and dinosaur games and not Elite. This game isn't their money maker. It's not going to receive their love and attention.

D2EA used to be pretty passionate about this game but he has largely moved on, as have a lot of us. I watched him often. He had a genuine love of the game. A lot of us did. Past tense though.

If they come up with something beyond Odyssey, like an expansion that focuses on exploration, players would return. Give us a reason to venture out into the unknown aside from finding odd stellar forge oddities. Not sure they'll commit the resources to that though because like I said this game won't be receiving their love and attention anymore.

 

[Mark Zero]

I really enjoyed the part of the video when at the beginning, while complaining about the Thargoid War, D2EA said that Frontier should devote their resources to "things that impact everyone no matter what they want to do". And then near the end of the video, he went on this whole thing about how Elite is outclassed by some other game in every category except Exploration (the thing he most cares about, coincidence right?) and therefore Frontier should devote their limited resources to Exploration.

As a PvE pilot who mostly enjoys combat/bounty hunting, I found his hypocrisy very entertaining.

 

[IstvaanDCIV]

Abandoning the "feature rework" and not giving us a new roadmap gives us nothing to look forward to long term either - things have been this dire for a while it's just that now that we've seen the roadmap play out there's less hope for the future.

Has there been a definitive statement from FDev to that effect? Or have they just stopped talking about it?

 

[Banana's_Are_Good_For_You]

So. many explorers about the place?
I honestly wouldn't mind hearing some suggestims that don't involve interiors...

 

[Disemboweled Ego]

Has there been a definitive statement from FDev to that effect? Or have they just stopped talking about it?

Nothing definite, I think what they said was that they were looking into it and it turned out to be more work than initially planned so it's been postponed, but might happen in a future update - which highlights the issues we have without a roadmap. At this point it's not something that we've been promised though so I wouldn't expect it without a further announcement.

 

[Northpin]

It is sad that you think that DTEA is only about clicks

Why? He's running a business.

He has been a proponent of the game for a long time

That doesnt mean he cannot use his proponency for the game to increase his clicks, viewers, subscribers, ultimately making more money.

Just keep in mind that it's a business and the main scope is to get more views/subscribers which translates in money and sponsors with means more money.

 

[Kira Goto]

Is this the channel that does the grind guides?

Plenty of those abound, but he has done guides on the ‘most effective’ ways to get stuff… among others. There’s also a few basic ‘How to’, and ship build, videos present.

The goids are just distracting you from the fact that you lost so badly at the start of it...

And I’m convinced they’re preparing “Slap in the face 2.0” as we speak.

 

[photomankc]

1. Too much focus on the thargoid war right now

Probably, but that's the arc and they obviously wanted it to be impactful despite perhaps not really being that.

1. New ships

Yeah, could do with something new to see in front of things

1. FC jumping should be 5 minute spooling and 15 minutes cooldown

Disagree entirely. It's already very short if you have absolutely anything to do first. When exploring I prefer to time it so I land on the carrier with just a couple minutes left before the next jump then run ahead to it's next destination.

1. More ways to acquire tritium in the black instead of just mining

Just make mining Tritium yield more and the NPC market for buying it very low. Then it is player driven pricing and less painful to fuel a few more jumps.

1. FDev should lean on ED's strength as a space sim and focus more on exploration

Agree. They need to add more to it though. Things that are interesting to find and ways to actually interact with them when you do.

1. Odyssey has been released for 2 years but there's been nothing new since then (no new suits, guns, equipment)

Not sure we need much new there. I want more interesting missions, different types of missions like the cargo containers one (Need to fight way into a defended building and extract something from hostile settlement for instance). Rescue. More ways to include cooperative missions. Multi-part missions where you need to find something or meet someone to exchange the rabbits foot. Maybe that means fighting into a prisoner. I want this way more than more suits to engineer or guns to switch.



Just my thoughts.

 

[robbyp]

I feel about this video like Lauren Cooper would do.

 

[Banana's_Are_Good_For_You]

Kira Goto
Thank you.

I'll ask the goids to suck out your brains last. It's the least i can do...

 

[BDelacroix]

Even for those who enjoyed the thargoid stuff have gotten bored with it. I haven't played since it was obvious that the alien fighting was really all about skinning them.
My friend and I kept up with collecting the ingredients for each other needed to visit the titans. Then, there was nothing new to do. Except maybe skinning them in some form or another. Huge barrier to get in and if you get a little bad luck or mess up just a little bit, you're time getting there is wasted. Doesn't matter, though, since there seems to be no real reason to go there other than to say you have.

 

[Kira Goto]

Kira Goto
Thank you.

I'll ask the goids to suck out your brains last. It's the least i can do...

What makes you think I haven’t had the pleasure? Well, they only poked around, seeing as I’m obviously still alive.

RP jokes aside, I do really hope there’s some kind of twist to break up the way the “war” has gone. What’s going on currently has basically broken my interest in it, on top of weariness.

 

[yianniv]

But technically the cutter should be the medium ship and the clipper the large as in the naval ships

Hence the gigantic steps of the cutter stairs. The ship model is magnified.

 

[Disemboweled Ego]

Ok here's a wild competing theory on why player numbers are down that just occurred to me:

If you check recent steam reviews, many of them mention login issues and the launcher being extremely bad.

I use the 3rd party min-ed-launcher myself to get the game to start up faster and because it made running on linux way less painful.

What if Elite is losing players even before they can even crash their first sidewinder into the landing pad (without first requesting docking of course)?

On the latest Frameshift Live they seemingly out of nowhere mentioned that there'll be a new launcher. It's commonly agreed upon that the launcher sucks, but it's not something that people talk about and request changes to since people learn to live with it. Maybe that first impression is more important for the bottom line than adding a new ship if new players quit even before starting the game?

Yeah it doesn't make the actual gameplay better or more interesting, but when all you have is a skewed poll and steam charts you got to take these outside factors into account and think of the entirety of the new player experience too. That's probably something that's way under represented overall because for most Elite players it seems like having more players doesn't make the game better.

 

[yianniv]

So when he points out that the interest in the game is declining, it is exclusively from his own community - or is he also considering other data sources?

I think it's fair to say that with 100k subs, he speaks with a bit more cred than the average forumite.

Yes, but it's becoming common practice to shoot the messenger.