An open letter to Frontier Development

[Old Duck]

Then go read a book. Games are meant to be played, not imagined.

Many games let you do both (eg: Skyrim).

 

[Sylow]

Then go read a book. Games are meant to be played, not imagined.

Then you are actually terribly wrong here. Elite right from the start was not only about moving a bunch of pixels through some black space and use a line of extra pixels to turn other bunches of pixels into clouds of pixels. I mean, purely technically that was what you mostly did. And purely technically, that's still what people do on the game today.

All the rest happens in your mind. And that's not just to this game, but many others. Denying the games the part of imagination paints a very poor and sorry picture of those games and people playing them that way.

 

[Sanya V. Juutilainen]

You just "overthought" my thoughts. Just seed a USS, nothing fancy, into a system that's mentioned at GalNet. Everything else is up to the commander to find...no missionboard-changes. In this case GalNet is the mission-board.

Hunting down the mentioned thief? Sure...put an NPC in the game. "Convince" him to drop the Gold-Container he stole from the last bank-robbery. We already have all the tools to pirate someone.

I didn't have a whole storyline in mind though...just some simple distractions like the "Tipp-Offs" you get ocassionally.

Just "misuse" or "alter" the already implemented things ingame.

I see this "not so hard" and "nothing fancy" thrown around here. The reality is probably quite different, though - this IS fancy. USSs are already tied-in to mission boards. they are tied in to NPCs as well (how else would you get USS from a mission with an NPC?).

So basically by manually seeding anything, you can break anything. As far as I know, nothing in the game added manually did ever seem like "we spent five minutes on this", it usually looked more like days to weeks of work.

Though sure, it could be done. Either spend a day on checking every such addition (and have some broken ones anyway) or spend a month or two with whole team on creating a solid enough side system that allows such simple things to be added and then checks automatically (possibly delaying other content, but welp, can't be helped for GalNet).

Nothing fancy.

 

[Eliza]

I see this "not so hard" and "nothing fancy" thrown around here. The reality is probably quite different, though - this IS fancy. USSs are already tied-in to mission boards. they are tied in to NPCs as well (how else would you get USS from a mission with an NPC?).

So basically by manually seeding anything, you can break anything. As far as I know, nothing in the game added manually did ever seem like "we spent five minutes on this", it usually looked more like days to weeks of work.

Though sure, it could be done. Either spend a day on checking every such addition (and have some broken ones anyway) or spend a month or two with whole team on creating a solid enough side system that allows such simple things to be added and then checks automatically (possibly delaying other content, but welp, can't be helped for GalNet).

Nothing fancy.

Got your point here, but FDEV managed to make The Gnosis jump every Thursday. They managed to sent Goids on a killing spree through the bubble every week. They even managed Eagle Eye to provide us with encoded messages where to pinpoint the next attack-run. So they already did more then I propose in the past.

 

[zimms]

Then go read a book. Games are meant to be played, not imagined.

Then go play a game. Opinions are meant to be discussed on the forum, not shouted down.

What i said is decent and yes there are man babies and dolly throwers. Those words are NOT rude or insulting, they are factual adjectives of some of the people

 

[Jukelo]

Greetings Commanders,

We would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to voice their concerns and feedback around the reduction of GalNet articles, as well as sharing with us suggestions on ways that we could utilise existing community groups and content to re-introduce them.

We wanted to expand a little more on the details of what led us to this decision. While the previous narratives that were told through GalNet articles gave an insight into what life was like in the 3300's, they also gave players an expectation that these stories were unfolding in-game, and that commanders could fly out to the system and see or even engage with what was happening (which they could not). This, in part, contributed to our reason to shift the focus of GalNet articles to in-game narratives and occurrences, over out-of-game ones.

However, we also want to mention that the narrative/writing team are not solely responsible for writing GalNet articles, but also a number of other duties that contribute to the creation of Elite Dangerous. With the advent of the Fleet Carriers update and the 2020 release, their efforts have been focused on ensuring that all of the text required for it is done in time. Although they are an extremely talented team, they are a small team, which means that we had to prioritise some content over other content, such as GalNet articles. Although we love seeing the incredible content the community news outlets create, editing and implementing it into the game still demands a degree of focus that we do not have currently in scope for the writing team.

We hope that provides some context to why, at the current time, the plans for GalNet articles are unlikely to change. That said, we have passed this feedback on to the team for consideration and will keep you updated if there are any changes.

Thanks for the input Stephen.
I must Echo Ian Doncaster though: ED was always meant to be a long-term project, meaning there would be the requirement to both keep the live game running and at the same time develop new expansions. As you describe it, the narrative team doesn't have the resources to do both at the same time and must focus (understandably) on the upcoming expansion.I hope Frontier acknowledges this is not a tenable position in the long run. Keeping the live game somewhat fresh is important to secure sales of the future expansions. And I would assume that 2020 isn't going to be the last expansion to ED, so are we going to see this very same situation repeat itself in 2021 or 2022, when the narrative guys are needed again? And are we again going to have to chose between either new content and features or fixes to issues created years ago by some update which blindly changed aspects of the game without addressing all the problems it would create in other areas?

Of course this was always going to be a problem, but it's also not the first time the community raises its concerns regarding the pitfalls of developing and releasing the game piece-meal.

 

[Eliza]

I DEMAND that FDev MUST implement a button to this very forum! Jesus Christ!!!

 

[Old Duck]

I DEMAND that FDev MUST implement a button to this very forum! Jesus Christ!!!

Braben may be legendary, but he isn't Jesus.

 

[Sylow]

What i said is decent and yes there are man babies and dolly throwers. Those words are NOT rude or insulting, they are factual adjectives of some of the people that think,

That's an interesting point of view. Based on that, I might make you a list of terms generally used for people with such attitude. But while the list would be factually correct, I am very certain that it would also result in a moderator giving me some break from the forums.

Okay, let's see a raise of hands - how many of you own dolls, and out of that small subset, how many of you throw your dolls?

Hmm. Does throwing a plush pet at your goddaughter count?

 

[Eliza]

Braben may be legendary, but he isn't Jesus.

Oh...prayed to the false god...my bad!

 

[TheSisko]

Thanks for the feedback Stephen, but this:

With the advent of the Fleet Carriers update and the 2020 release, their efforts have been focused on ensuring that all of the text required for it is done in time.

...puzzles me. If the text-work for FCs is still being done now then the December release date was never going to be met, regardless of any Open Letters flying around.

 

[Badmiker]

(Reply to OP, not engaging in navel-gazing insults)

Yes to all of this. Galnet should/could be a great source for engagement with the game. FDev have built a fantastic simulation with good game mechanics and continue to create new content for it but there is a real disconnect between the community and the game. FDev's wariness and unwillingness to allow community content into the game is in contrast to the original kickstarter which rewarded engagement with game content. It's great spotting/hearing kickstarter's input even now.

As a relatively recent returnee to the galaxy I've found it really hard to find out what's going on. The Galaxy appears mostly empty: it shouldnt take requests on an out-fof-game forum to point players in the direction of good game content. FDev; you arent just missing out on some great stuff, you are failing as a business to both reap the rewards from your work and to draw in new players.

Why doesn't FDev/Galnet have a 'submit news' function to feed in items to the existing Galnet? It would need moderating at the FDev end but why not look on it as a rolling 'kickstarter' campaign which is inputting new content into the world?

Hell, what if this forum was accessible in-game? No changes, no extra work required, just a new, top line, section for events?

 

[Old Duck]

Oh...prayed to the false god...my bad!

One thing Braben and Jesus have in common - both are in paradise doing who-knows-what as their followers eagerly await their return, LOL.

 

[amigacooke {macOS}]

One thing Braben and Jesus have in common - both are in paradise doing who-knows-what as their followers eagerly await their return, LOL.

I'm not sure Cambridge counts as paradise, even when the sun's out.

 

[Factabulous]

Why doesn't FDev/Galnet have a 'submit news' function to feed in items to the existing Galnet? It would need moderating at the FDev end but why not look on it as a rolling 'kickstarter' campaign which is inputting new content into the world?

Hell, what if this forum was accessible in-game? No changes, no extra work required, just a new, top line, section for events?

You have a very strange definition of 'no work required'...

Maybe if everyone who wants the fluff back could say how many months they are willing to delay FC and New Era in order to add the fluff it would help change fdevs mind. Though I doubt you will be able to persuade them to put New Era back more than 6 months as they already announced it would be next financial year. I guess they could postpone FC again - if that's what you really want - but I believe some people are waiting for new content and may disagree ...

 

[Crazy Joe]

We wanted to expand a little more on the details of what led us to this decision. While the previous narratives that were told through GalNet articles gave an insight into what life was like in the 3300's, they also gave players an expectation that these stories were unfolding in-game, and that commanders could fly out to the system and see or even engage with what was happening (which they could not). This, in part, contributed to our reason to shift the focus of GalNet articles to in-game narratives and occurrences, over out-of-game ones.

While I understand the reasoning for this change, the simpler change would have been to clarify to players which posts were "background stories to make the universe seem more lived in" and which ones where "player involved stories". That way you would have solved the issue of wild goose chases without diminishing the atmosphere setting property of Galnet. Just removing the "background stories" seems to me to be a very drastic way of resolving frustration for those players.

However, we also want to mention that the narrative/writing team are not solely responsible for writing GalNet articles, but also a number of other duties that contribute to the creation of Elite Dangerous. With the advent of the Fleet Carriers update and the 2020 release, their efforts have been focused on ensuring that all of the text required for it is done in time.

Why do people who quote this part seem to ignore the "and the 2020 release" part of the statement. Why are they so convinced that the "Fleet Carriers" part is why the writing team is unable to write Galnet articles? This completely mystifies me...

 

[StuartGT]

Okay, let's see a raise of hands - how many of you own dolls, and out of that small subset, how many of you throw your dolls?

Do WH40k armies count as dolls? If so, yes

 

[Sanya V. Juutilainen]

Got your point here, but FDEV managed to make The Gnosis jump every Thursday. They managed to sent Goids on a killing spree through the bubble every week. They even managed Eagle Eye to provide us with encoded messages where to pinpoint the next attack-run. So they already did more then I propose in the past.

You are mixing stuff together, in my opinion.

The Gnosis jump probably needed at least a week or two of work. Just to make it jump, yes.
The Thargoids invasion was an effort that has been prepared for months, including its systems.
Eagle Eye is a simple output of "where do the thargoids attack as we tell them" and as such probably took the least time - yet it still took some time.

The overall message is - all of these systems had work on it done to be functional. GalNet doesn't have anything like that, it's just a writing output and if you wanted it integrated, it would have to be programmed first, which would take time, possibly a lot of it. And then it becomes a matter of preference - do they work on GalNet integration, elite feet, carriers, combat improvements or any other of ten thousand of systems the game has / can possibly have?

(Or you'd do it manually, which could possibly take even more time in the long run, which is why FDev doesn't do it.)

 

[Sanya V. Juutilainen]

Thanks for the feedback Stephen, but this:



...puzzles me. If the text-work for FCs is still being done now then the December release date was never going to be met, regardless of any Open Letters flying around.

Quite simple. The texts were to be done last, meaning roughly in December. Postponing the carriers means that they didn't need to be done and as such will be done before the release day (May/June?), as that's when texts are usually done. Right now the team is - in my opinion - working more on the 2020 big update, because even so far from its deadline big parts of it have to be finalized by now, simply because of its scope (2+ years of programming).

This order is done, because that's how stuff is finalized. And you don't end up writing 300 texts for carrier and then writing 200 more, because 200/300 got cut after changes.

 

[Eliza]

You are mixing stuff together, in my opinion.

The Gnosis jump probably needed at least a week or two of work. Just to make it jump, yes.
The Thargoids invasion was an effort that has been prepared for months, including its systems.
Eagle Eye is a simple output of "where do the thargoids attack as we tell them" and as such probably took the least time - yet it still took some time.

The overall message is - all of these systems had work on it done to be functional. GalNet doesn't have anything like that, it's just a writing output and if you wanted it integrated, it would have to be programmed first, which would take time, possibly a lot of it. And then it becomes a matter of preference - do they work on GalNet integration, elite feet, carriers, combat improvements or any other of ten thousand of systems the game has / can possibly have?

(Or you'd do it manually, which could possibly take even more time in the long run, which is why FDev doesn't do it.)

Well...I really don't know if it's complictated or not. I'm no coder. I just would be glad to read / hear some of the community created stuff that's going on in the Galaxy, like the OP mentioned. All these Expeditions, Bucky Ball Racing Events and so forth. Would bring GalNet alive again.