After looking at the new beta, I have a few comments. It is time for serious discussion AND the DEVS to listen to us.

[MikeMart]

That's quite an interesting discussion there !!!

Actually, If I hadn't had my wingmates, I would have left a long time ago. I came back first for the Engineers and that's when I met my wing companions. Now we are a core of players connecting almost every night and playing Elite together ; the same way we would meet at the bar and have a beer and have a talk about our day. Elite is just the same every day beer, with the very same taste... The only interest I truly have in Elite right now, is gathering with friends spread all over Europe and interested in sharing their thoughts while flying a virtual spaceship.

 

[CMDR MadRaptor]

Maybe 'the game we want to make' morphed at some point into meaning 'the game we'll be able to cobble together'.

It seems like we just need to get use to this new structure that comes with making this major games. It seems like the different cores are done separately but with the whole picture always in mind, once each individual part is complete or ready enough to integrate then it gets integrated. That's just the nature of these new types of proc gen open worlds epics.

SC isn't even one whole piece yet and that gets tons of praise. The only thing that came in one piece was NMS and that was so rushed and mishandled that it bombed greatly. One all the cores are in place then can we truly understand what we have. But we do get glimpses and the possibilities and if you think of the roadmap they might have in place then you can see how things we have now will be fleshed out.

I think the whole time it has been what can we cobble together, but maybe more of how do we get all these systems to work together as a whole and what can we do easier and faster so we can give the players something to enjoy while waiting for the best bits.

 

[Jex =TE=]

WOW only 6000 people concurrently playing out of 899953 that sucks

HEY!!!!

It's only just beating Farming Simulator so I don't know what you're on about!

 

[Astirian]

exactly!
size of galaxy at this point is irrelevant.
maybe all this silence from devs is cos they realise those KS goals are out of reach so they focused creating multicrew pew pew game with aliens.

Hopefully they're getting all the MMO checklist cr=p out of the way so they can start delivering some richer content. My secret hope is that they read all this stuff biting their tongues whilst Ed's skull looks like it's about to explode.

I think even on a psychological level, having atmospheres will seriously improve the game, there's just something about looking up at the sky. It'll add more variety. Variety is good, some worlds will feel more real. Alien and Moon are terrific movies but they feel so claustrophobic, which is perfect for their context. I was surprised at how much having mission giver portraits, passengers and different station interiors made a difference to me. Adds to the 'life' in the galaxy. That's why I'm also excited for megaships and asteroid bases and quietly hopeful for the chained mission feature.

The ultimate, eventually, would be Elite Feet coupled with more involved multi-part missions (against rich lore) but like Sandro pointed out, it's an entire new game merged into this one, so will take a while, programatically just getting movement inside a thing that's already moving sounds like a frikkin' Einstein fever dream to me.

Elite Dangerous always was more of an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) at release compared to Star Citizen (which is why I waited till Horizons came), almost like a HD Remaster of the first game, in the loosest sense, but with SO MUCH potential, which is why we're here talking (for the most part ). Both approaches have both positive and negative aspects. I.e: You got to play Elite pretty early, you have to wait for Jesus 2 to play Star Citizen. (I've backed and am a huge fan of both)

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Why would you give negative rep? That post was solid gold. And Taylor Swift is awesome so quit hating, yo.

That woman is a National Treasure!

 

[Duckfat]

HEY!!!!

It's only just beating Farming Simulator so I don't know what you're on about!

Can't hold a candle to Goat Simulator though.

 

[IamMe]

Jeez, 50hrs, that's a lot of time for a really boring game!

50h for a "sandbox" is equal zero

 

[Astirian]

You eat cardboard? I hope you put butter on it a least!

Made my day, lmao: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abVJLOPBnXU (NSFW?)

 

[Jex =TE=]

Best i can say, its coming.

I'm still very much enjoying the game after over 1 year of playing.
The Devs said colonizing makes sense.
My hopes are they mean US literally, building bases of various types for personal use, ie mining, colony etc, storage of ore, small personal orbitals.
Put all those supplies to work, use ALL the ores and metals for increasing reasons. Give me a reason to mine indite in MASS and haul it somewhere.
Let ME manufacture ships and deliver them etc

Maybe i'm dreaming BUT IMO, stuff like this will hold a great deal more people. people like building things, using all their effort to expand into things they can call their own.

During Kickstarter and launch, the Devs categorically stated there would be no player built structures or anything like that. If they're changing their minds on that, it probably means they'll have to re-engineer the code to add it in.

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This comment makes the thread totally irrelevant. You don't speak for me and don't begin to presume the right to make that assumption.

Got it?

Then you need to look up the word "generalisation"

Most people that bought the game on steam are not playing. Therefore most people presumably do not find the game engaging enough to either play it outright or play it so little as not to be counted.

 

[verminstar]

During Kickstarter and launch, the Devs categorically stated there would be no player built structures or anything like that. If they're changing their minds on that, it probably means they'll have to re-engineer the code to add it in.

This line right here was a nail in the coffin fer me...its one the things I most wanted to see. Having owned and managed an entire network of POS in eve, that was one the most rewarding gaming experience I had in the 7 years I played there.

I know, this aint eve before someone bounces all over that...Im just making a comment about how that line ye wrote does nothing to encourage me to stay here...nothing whatsoever.

A silly dream to have yer own little place to call home? To some, it will be. To me, that dream was a reason to stay and invest serious time and effort into...this game currently seems to have an ever decreasing number of reasons...today is not a good day...

verm out ^

 

[Jex =TE=]

Just a couple of cents:

I started way back when the game came out. I wanted to get a big ship and fly it around. I got to a Clipper, and then put down the keyboard for a while. Like a year or maybe more. The Conda was soooo far away.

When I came back, I didn't have Horizons, so it was basically the same game. I played for a few weeks, found that hauling poop was really profitable, decided I was back in, then bought Horizons. Wow, there was suddenly a ton of stuff to do now that I could land on planets. That, to me, was a huge increase in the number of things to do.

Now, I've recently ground my way up to a Cutter, and have it fairly well spec'd. It's a totally overpowered beast, and I love it. It's all I ever wanted. So after this past weekend, I was trying to figure out what to do now that I have my trophy. Sure, I can get Elite in things, but who really cares. It's an achievement that comes with no bonuses. I can drop into RES sites and fight for hours on end with my shields never going down, which is cool, but not a challenge. I am truly one of those people that has goals, does what is available to achieve them, and then plays with my new shiny toy.

So, what I wanted:

1. Corvettes and Cutters in RES High sites and assassination missions. I need a challenge.
2. Maybe take a trip to Jaques. I've never been that far, but there are like 300 jumps from here to there on the Neutron Highway, and that's a lot of jumps. But at least with the Neutrons, it's engaging to overcharge without blowing up.
3. Multicrew Mining Ship. That could be really fun, having a couple buddies on the guns and a fighter while I mine stuff. This will be happening.

But, one post earlier made me think big. Fallout 4-style settlements. A crafting system where you mine or trade things to make other things, instead of just sell them. Hire a staff of NPC captains to fly your trades around for you. Hire an engineer to build a new type of space ship for you. There would be a reason to login every day and check on your progress while you were away. I think that's a massive reason to keep playing, and a reason why all of the pay-to-play apps have gotten so profitable.

So, I don't think that the game is lacking, I think that it has immersion, and I feel the Horizons line of updates have been beneficial, but I see room for improvement in the big scope. Hopefully these things will come, but until then I'll just be flying a giant ship which is amazing.

You don't think the game is lacking but what brought you back to it was hauling poop. No disrespect, if that's your thing but most people want slightly more out of a game and this is where the issue lies. Some people are fine with doing repetitive tasks and taking their time over it but it doesn't really make much of a game and the reason why we're seeing so many threads that are basically saying the same thing - give us content!

 

[KWAiRT]

Maybe 'the game we want to make' morphed at some point into meaning 'the game we'll be able to cobble together'.

Bingo bango bongo... repped

Not to mention it's de-evolved into a sandbox pvp game with little to no concept at all just bolt on development and constant rebalancing for the pvp folks. This game had a philosophy with Braben behind it and all the ideas were solid. Instead replaced with Sandros version of RUST in space and now we're violating those philosophies and approaching the p2w segment. What is next free to play? Magical pips are ok but sharing exploration data in multi crew isn't? At this point I would rather they just remove their horrible background sim and stop making excuses for lazy development.

 

[VR Golgot]

This line right here was a nail in the coffin fer me...its one the things I most wanted to see. Having owned and managed an entire network of POS in eve, that was one the most rewarding gaming experience I had in the 7 years I played there.

I know, this aint eve before someone bounces all over that...Im just making a comment about how that line ye wrote does nothing to encourage me to stay here...nothing whatsoever.

A silly dream to have yer own little place to call home? To some, it will be. To me, that dream was a reason to stay and invest serious time and effort into...this game currently seems to have an ever decreasing number of reasons...today is not a good day...

verm out ^

Has anyone got a reference for the player-builds being ruled out? I know of a set of old quotes that are suggestive that something like that may come, although possibly only in the form of ownership. IE stuff like:

Q: My question is, if we can buy multiple ships - will there be any possibility of crewing those ships with computer generated people so you could send ships out to trade on their own. Additionally, if you have enough money, any chance you could actually build a base, buy ships for police duties and such?
A: This is the sort of thing we will look at down the line. We want to avoid the game feeling like 'playing a spreadsheet' though, but these features are certainly on our radar. ^{November 2014 Q&A}
​

Q: Will I be able to buy a shop on a space station so I can get a rolling income while I explore?
A: That is something we have thought about, including buying whole stations as well. Because obviously if you're setting out in the unknown you might be the person that arrives with that Ocellus station... That's something that I want to come with time. ^{Sept 2014 Vid - 23m18s}
​

Of course these aspirations may have fallen away, but when or where were they discounted outright?

 

[Jex =TE=]

Surely if people have been leaving the game as much as the forums have claimed,there wouldn't be anyone left!

The participation numbers on the threads here aren't exactly brilliant.

 

[Hexcaliber]

Christ on a bike, cry more.

It is perfectly normal in online games for people to take breaks, it does not spell doom, launch week idiots were claiming it would be dead by now, more than 2 years later and it is still going strong. ED is a long term project, set to be developed over years; anyone who thought they would play day in day out throughout it's lifetime is a muppet, it was never going to happen, it's a computer game, not a surrogate for real life.

I am willing to bet a significant proportion of those currently whining play in solo, it is no wonder you are tired of hauling from point A to point B and back again, with the harmless AI that you cried so passionately for in the forums anytime the developers gave them a leg up.

This is at it's heart a multiplayer online sandbox game, it is not a clone of a 30 year old single player game. It takes content from all three of the previous games in the series re-imagines them with modern tech and places it all into the multiplayer realm. Most of the content comes from player interactions, emergent gaming anyone? "Oh noes some nasty no life might kill me and I will have to spend a few million out of the billions I have made trading in solo to rebuy my ship". How about you get some friends to fly protection while you haul, or better yet, outfit a combat ship, grab those friends and stamp your claim on the region of space you find so appealing. Work against local player factions, undermine their holdings, take out their traders and miners.

Stop waiting for the developers to shove content down your throats, try creating your own with other players, you may surprise yourselves.

Further stop looking at each new update in isolation. They form part of a much larger whole that has been planned since day one. A whole that also happens to be a mammoth undertaking that must be developed and released as stand-alone units in order to release new content within a reasonable time frame.

If the current state of the game really bothers you that much take a break without the pity party in the forums. Come back in 6 months, or a year, your life wont end because you no longer play Elite everyday, the game will still be here when you return and will have more new content for you to explore.

 

[Jex =TE=]

You don't speak for anyone other than yourself. There have been over 2 million copies of this game sold, and the likelihood that you have spoken with the majority is zero. It's unlikely that you have spoken to more than 100, yet you claim that your soapbox post is what most people want? Get over yourself.

There's been over 2 million units sold, not copies as I understand it. A unit can be a skin or a bobble-head

 

[verminstar]

Has anyone got a reference for the player-builds being ruled out? I know of a set of old quotes that are suggestive that something like that may come, although possibly only in the form of ownership. IE stuff like:



Of course these aspirations may have fallen away, but when or where were they discounted outright?

I have no idea...I hear this from players who were ks players and Im only here 9 months, so I literally have no memory of so called roadmap. I have searched and found nothing...the search continues but patience aint what they were and my time on this forum is decreasing along with my time in the game. Im caring less than I used to.

There are other symptoms...thats just one the big 2 with the other being the ongoing issue with exploration not being developed. The two reeasons relate to each other as I wanna be as far away from the toxicity of the bubble as I can get.

Anyway whatever...

 

[Deadspin]

.....the bubble isn't toxic.

Generally, it's people who claim the bubble is toxic that are actually toxic and posting from PG/Solo.

 

[Jex =TE=]

A galaxy still empty of game mechanics for explorers. And I'll put Elite away again, a potential paying customer just waiting in the wings for content that may never come, yet was alluded to three years ago. That right there is IMHO what's causing the bitterness that so many are feeling towards Elite Dangerous right now: a feeling of being misled and decieved. The No Man's Sky phenomenon on a slower and more drawn out scale.

It's empty for PVE combateers as well unless you like playing whach-a-mole. Combat is as boring as everything else after you've done it a few times. It's the same stuff - nothing unexpected happens. People who are gamers recognize the flaws, those people that aren't gamers don't get it.

 

[verminstar]

.....the bubble isn't toxic.

Generally, it's people who claim the bubble is toxic that are actually toxic and posting from PG/Solo.

Fair enough...like I said...whatever ^

 

[Jex =TE=]

I don't know...

I'm in that boat of having over 4k hours played, really appreciate what ED is and still enjoy - but

I look back at something like Passenger Missions. Nice addition to the game. Plenty of upside potential.

Then I have to ask myself, "What is/was it about Passenger Missions that was such a huge development challenge that we had to wait for it until CQC, Power Pray, SRV's, and probably other things I've forgotten about, were added in?" That's the type of decision making at FD that leaves me puzzled.

Oh, and then the best part - looks like Passenger Mission payments get the hard nerf in 2.3.

So we waited 2 years to get something that we think actually adds to game-play a bit, looks like it could/should have been added a long time ago, and it's already up for the nerf hammer.

So is it any wonder that some of the early players are leaving?

I'm not the terribly creative type, but I've seen videos from others like Obsidian Ant who make great suggestions for game improvement ideas that don't look very difficult to develop and yet we continue to get the grandiose feature flops that don't seem to add much.

I'll take planet surface navigation bookmarks and the ability to plot a landing to a specific lat/long on a planet surface - and a working SRV scanner over a Holo-me. It's not that I don't like Holo-me, and I understand that it's a precursor to space legs, but I don't see it as a necessity for multi-crew. So we hear space legs is still a long way off so why doesn't FD focus on some simple things that will give them and the players more bang for the buck.

It's been said many times that too many things just feel like placeholders. Looking back at how long the Orca has been in the game makes refuting that a bit difficult.

We still talk about improving missions and just this week I get a mission that sends a redirect to another port for delivery, but then can't be cashed in at the destination.

FD seems to spend lot of time going over the same ground, like the whole constant PvP re-balance fetish they seem to have, while rolling out overly aggressive half-baked new features that seem dubious at best in improving game play.

I don't really know... maybe just burning out.

Sadly, too many of the players I used to fly with are already gone.

It's funny because prior to passenger missions being added, many of us asked suspected they'd be nothing more than trumped up delivery missions and even said that they're no big deal. In FE2, they were no big deal - they were the same as any other mission.

Think of it like this. Take away delivery mission and let's pretend that frontier announce "2.4 : DELIVERY MISSIONS!!" is anyone going to be excited about that? No! just like they shouldn't be for passengers missions which must have taken a week to code in. Wowee, now we get to fly to other systems for a slightly different reason. Passengers should never have been an update, it should have just been added in as part of the ongoing development, not heralded as a feature. So basically FD coded in something easy and quick and pushed it out as if it was some huge achievement. Weak sauce, quick and simple, not "feature update worthy" in the same way "2.4 DELIVERY MISSONS" would have everyone here going "WTH FDev!?"