A Scream of help from an empty space (An Appeal to FDev)

[Crank Larson]

Refrain from unnecessary criticism here and be reasonable.

So let me get this clear. You expect everyone else to refrain from criticizing your criticism? Doesn't that strike you as a little hypocritical?

There are bugs and issues with the game, yes. But none of the ones you have mentioned are important to me in the slightest.

 

[PiLhEaD]

I stopped reading at 'A DEMAND...'

...however if you are sincere in wishing to suggest improvements, here's the correct place for your input: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/forumdisplay.php/76-Suggestions-amp-Feedback

 

[Agony_Aunt]

A BGS system that does not have any real purpose.

You might want to look into the thousands of players who regularly work the BGS, either as individuals or groups. Maybe joining a player group who work the BGS would help you see this aspect of the game.

 

[Crank Larson]

I'm sorry, but it "doesn't work" for a very large number of people.

It "works" for a much larger number...

 

[CitizenKai]

So let me get this clear. You expect everyone else to refrain from criticizing your criticism? Doesn't that strike you as a little hypocritical?

There are bugs and issues with the game, yes. But none of the ones you have mentioned are important to me in the slightest.

No, I don't think.
This text was written in order to express people's opinions. Think it's still allowed.

You can agree with it or not. It's your choice.

 

[Joe Hammond]

It "works" for a much larger number...

He is so "working", that the statistics show that the game is played by only a few thousand players? Given that millions of people bought the game? It could be better, at least ten thousand players.

 

[Crank Larson]

No, I don't think.

Probably your only accurate statement so far.

He is so "working", that the statistics show that the game is played by only a few thousand players? Given that millions of people bought the game? It could be better, at least ten thousand players.

You haven't got the statistics. FD are the only people that do.

 

[CitizenKai]

Probably your only accurate statement so far.

Please refrain from insults, if possible.

 

[Crank Larson]

Please refrain from insults, if possible.

Eh? I was agreeing with you! I even quoted what you said!

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

He is so "working", that the statistics show that the game is played by only a few thousand players? Given that millions of people bought the game? It could be better, at least ten thousand players.

Conservative calculations put that number on 200 - 300k a week. Number of players at same time online does not work like that for Elite, it's player base logs at different times and weekdays.

 

[CMDR Ellegon]

All of the speakers above. You misunderstood the meaning of the text. It's not about making Elite has become like EVE.

This is a post about what development should continue.
Now we see in the game many small parts that are not useful which give us a very limited gaming experience.
This has to be developed. But it's not happening. A very long time.

All updates released in the last year, do not give us the gaming experience. They did not bring any development and no benefit.
Even the plot, which was formerly one of the strongest parts of this game have been forgotten or abandoned.

The sense of entitlement is strong in this one. He and his group of friends decide how the game development should continue. Hate to break it to you, but: no. Your opinion does not match mine or that of many other commanders. Game development is also not fully aligned with what I would like to see, but overall the direction is just fine. Just now, the first few minutes in beta showed that to me.

 

[Franc Kaos]

The words .. Rome, built and in a day .. spring to mind.

"So far it's taken approximately 1,009,491 days to build Rome. This is based on the traditional founding of the city (21 April 753 BCE), but we should also consider that the city has been sacked and rebuilt several times."

I did the math, that's about 276 years.

http://www.wildscopa.org/news/3801083

Dear gods that's some wait for spacelegs , and yea, I know, patience - but it's a commodity in short supply these days.
Altho', can you imagine where the game would be if they hadn't worked on Powerplay, CQC etc so early on? Multicrew would have been more featured if we were walking about our ships interfacing with panels (engineering, weapons & comms), powerplay integrated into a polished, finished BGS (where choices lead to long lasting consequences), an actual functioning economy with a galactic stock market... (oh right, too Eve, sorry, I'll get me coat).
Point is, finish the foundation before slapping paint on the structure.

 

[CitizenKai]

Conservative calculations put that number on 200 - 300k a week. Number of players at same time online does not work like that for Elite, it's player base logs at different times and weekdays.

Well, now think how big the community would be the project if the development was carried out in a more open format.
Now we get nothing. Exactly. We don't know how many people are working on the game. We don't know what they plan, don't know what they are doing.

But we see that month after month, nothing happens. The project is not developed. We can only see how they add new models, on which we can... watch.
I am a explorer. I like this job, but since the release of the game I got nothing. 3 years of plastic balls. Aaand what do I do?

Besides me, there are those who participate in BGS, those who trade or fight. They also get nothing.
Fighters? Multicrew? It gave the game experience for a... week. Or less.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

"So far it's taken approximately 1,009,491 days to build Rome. This is based on the traditional founding of the city (21 April 753 BCE), but we should also consider that the city has been sacked and rebuilt several times."

http://www.wildscopa.org/news/3801083

Dear gods that's some wait for spacelegs , and yea, I know, patience - but it's a commodity in short supply these days.
Altho', can you imagine where the game would be if they hadn't worked on Powerplay, CQC etc so early on? Multicrew would have been more featured if we were walking about our ships interfacing with panels (engineering, weapons & comms), powerplay integrated into a polished, finished BGS (where choices lead to long lasting consequences), an actual functioning economy with a galactic stock market... (oh right, too Eve, sorry, I'll get me coat).
Point is, finish the foundation before slapping paint on an unfinished structure.

You have strong lack of understanding how long actually some of these things took to develop. CQC was developed by team of 12 people with exclusivity of XBO console players in mind. MC is just a demo for avatars. Code wise it can't do none of those things because code wise it is just another year to even do foundations for that. I could agree on PP but as far as I know, PP is played by few, and looked upon by many, that's why FD decided not to prioritize it.

As for 'actual functioning economy' FD has one, but majority of sales are done by NPC simulation (yes, ED have actual economic goods cycle), and we skim off the surface. As for galactic stock market you would have to be more precise because I doubt anyone here wants to play 'Investor 3303'.

 

[tafkabb]

Game development:

Cheap.
Fast.
Good.

You can only pick two.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

A few questions:

1) As others have said using words like "Demand" and "Screaming" makes the whole thing sound rather childlike for what is actually meant to be a serious thread.

In the end Frontier make games, we buy them or don't buy them. We don't get to make demands, we get to make suggestions.


2) I see the names of 4 groups I don't know anything about and have never heard of. Why have I never heard of you before despite spending literally thousands of hours in game on the forums, livestreams, on reddit, with other groups and generally am all over this game?

So I looked them up:

Eol Prou Group has a forum with 139 posts a lot of which from the OP. For what it's worth - Nice website and good web design. The Frontier Forum page for the group has 34 posts. Unless there's a ton of players hiding in Discord I'd say under 50 players in the group, probably under 20 active. I could be wrong but that's the best guess from the outside
Close Encounters Corps - Inara - 1 player, zero assets shown. 1 controlled system and 2 controlled stations in game. Has a Vk.com page with 517 followers, I opened a few of the member profiles up and a good number were also in The Bright Star Squad so a bit of crossover.
The Bright Star Squad - Controls 3 systems and 5 stations. Has a Vk Page, 377 followers
The home of Light - No details found anywhere just stuff from X:Rebirth and Eve.

Overall summary ~800 players absolute maximum, probably closer to 300 when you discount those who are members of multiple groups and those who are no longer playing the game.
The reason I know nothing about these groups is because they are all Russian groups. Not having a go, its why I've never heard of you guys.

Overall sales at 2.75 million as of last week. Take away those not playing and 2nd/3rd/4th/5th accounts thats probably about 400,000-750,000 active players. Best case your groups which you claim to be a large number represent ~0.002%, most likely case you represent ~0.0004%.


3) Do you guys listen/follow to the FDev announcements? Again not an attack, just saying they are doing a core gameplay revamp after 2.4... Considering we are just in the 2.4 beta that isn't here yet.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/354066-Elite-Dangerous-2-4-and-beyond

Beyond

So with the Horizon season of expansions coming to a close, what is beyond 2.4 I hear you ask? Well, it certainly isn’t the end of this amazing journey… we’re only just getting started!

Our awesome dev team are dedicated to continuing to build and improve the Elite Dangerous experience with an exciting long term vision in mind. We’re happy to be able to confirm that the next major updates following 2.4 will focus on core gameplay, existing features, quality of life and other improvements! We’re delighted to be investing a considerable amount of development and effort into making the core gameplay experience even better for our fantastic community or players.

We’ll be sharing more news on that content and our roadmap at a very special event coming later in the year - more details on this event will be released in the weeks after E3.

On behalf of the entire Elite Dangerous team, thank you for your continued support. We are very excited to embark on the next part of the journey together as we continue to make Elite Dangerous an even more fantastic game and experience for our incredible community of players.

Summary:
Knowing that English is probably not your first language I feel a bit bad about this post. The tone of the OP and thread title has ruined all hope for this because you made it sound way too dramatic and attention seeking rather than a reasonable and thought-out discussion. Unfortunately thats the reason it's been responded to in the way it has (myself included) so I guess sorry but it was never going to go well...

Edit: Also everyone here seems to think your first line saying "we the community" means you are trying to speak to everyone, I read everything and saw the groups mentioned. Next time you should start with the group names like: We (names here) think that this should change <text here> because <explanation here>. And it should change to something like: <Idea here>

Would probably work better

 

[MarkAusten]

You do not speak for me. Please do not assume that you do.

 

[CitizenKai]

Now I don't know what I will see here in the future. Because I don't get any information.
So where are FDev? Let them come and say their own opinion.


If they say - "Sorry guys, we will continue to do everything exactly as it is now. We are not interested in your opinion and we don't want, what you want."
I understand. They are not the only one developers in the world. But I love Elite, and I want it to develop.

 

[Keeperlight]

To me it is very important that the game does not become "sims". Yes, even comets are more important than new clothes! Many times more important!!! But what do we have?


And in general, the author wisely says.

 

[Joe Hammond]

In the end Frontier make games, we buy them or don't buy them. We don't get to make demands, we get to make suggestions.

2) I see the names of 4 groups I don't know anything about and have never heard of. Why have I never heard of you before despite spending literally thousands of hours in game on the forums, livestreams, on reddit, with other groups and generally am all over this game?

3) Do you guys listen/follow to the FDev announcements? Again not an attack, just saying they are doing a core gameplay revamp after 2.4... Considering we are just in the 2.4 beta that isn't here yet.

When there were Horizons, there were beautiful statements about the plans for the game, so much was told. We thought that it was. But in fact, we got even less. And the development time is doubled. We noticed the catch only after patch 2.2. Tell me, and what were we to do? Money does not return, the time spent does not return. Well, we were sitting-silent and patient, hoping that 2.2, 2.3 patches would add something even better. No.
Why? We are not the layer of "casual" players, most of us already have 1000-3000 hours of play. Many of us are fed up. It's boring. All that could be done - done. And not once. So it goes.

Yes, these are Russian groups. The rest do not have a full page on Inara, but their society is not so large, but has a sufficient number of people. These are the first ones with whom we contacted and those who agree to support us. I hope that in time there will be more supporters.

We read, we listen. But empirical experience has instilled in us skepticism over these two years, so we rather believe that they will talk a lot, but act slowly, as usual, and little significant innovations, of course. We were just tired of being tolerant, we wanted to react that way. Personally, I have a pass to closed beta. Tell you that the beginning was not the best way? I had one hour to see, try and understand that all this will not be used on an ongoing basis, except for 3-4 innovations / changes. And all this for 4-6 months of development.