As an LEP owner, what are both your expectations from the game going forward and what you'd hope for it?

[Agony_Aunt]

Not a LEP owner, so I don't have an opinion on that. Question that should be asked is are there any LEP owners (kickstart funders) that feel that the money they spend on the LEP has been used to produce other games instead and not enough resources were invested in the development of ED?

Money is fungible.

The only way it could be shown that FD spent LEP money on something else would be if FD didn't have enough money from other sources to do that something else without the LEP money.

 

[andrewg_oz]

I bought my LEP when it was last made available at the top price, which was quite a bit, from memory.

At the time Horizons had been announced, just about exactly one year after the official release of the game. That set my expectation of paid expansions being an annual event, and I'd get my money's worth after 4 or so years. It hasn't worked out like that, so in that respect I'm disappointed. By now I thought we'd be walking around, flying through gas giant clouds, or at least getting some atmosphere on rocky/icy worlds.

On the other hand I'm still playing Elite Dangerous every chance I get, and I reckon when calculating $/hr played I've well and truly got value for my LEP money - just not the content. I don't want to think about how much I've spent on cosmetics.

 

[Comandante]

LEPers. I love that one. I am a LEPer!

Anyway, I hope we'll get both, space legs and atmos in 2020.

Always the optimist, I'd like to agree with your thoughts on this.

However, I think legs will come out, possibly with a tiered approach to atmospheric landings - first rocky/icy planets with atmosphere, with the final phase being ELWs and WWs and all other in between. I think ELWs will be a time in coming - there's so much to cater for WRT procedural elements. Not saying legs is easy, but it's a more 'controlled' environment (space stations, ships etc.).

But hey, I am sure I remember DB saying about entering an ELW and seeing dinosaurs or that sort of thing - should be easy since they did Jurassic Park

Roll on 2020, see what we get.

 

[babelfisch]

LEPers. I love that one. I am a LEPer!



Always the optimist, I'd like to agree with your thoughts on this.

However, I think legs will come out, possibly with a tiered approach to atmospheric landings - first rocky/icy planets with atmosphere, with the final phase being ELWs and WWs and all other in between. I think ELWs will be a time in coming - there's so much to cater for WRT procedural elements. Not saying legs is easy, but it's a more 'controlled' environment (space stations, ships etc.).

But hey, I am sure I remember DB saying about entering an ELW and seeing dinosaurs or that sort of thing - should be easy since they did Jurassic Park

Roll on 2020, see what we get.

I think the game will see at least two more paid expansions so I don't expect ELW's for 2020.

2020:

• space legs
• basic atmospheric planets
• basic base building / fleet carriers

2022:

• ELWs
• expanded base building
• NPC crew and wings

Including some QOL stuff the game will be pretty much feature complete at this point, if the game is still running another expansion will come out taking us to another galaxy.

 

[Faded Glory]

I've certainly had value for money playing the game (and I say that having bought an LEP, a computer capable of playing the game on a monitor, a Rift and subsequently a GPU capable of running that!). That's a bit of money, but I've played for a long time, and still do. It's irresistible to get into a spaceship and fly it in VR!

The fact we've had no paid for content for a while didn't upset me, but I have been underwhelmed by what has been introduced since Horizons (and some before that), certainly in terms of gameplay.

At some point, FD must have decided that RNG was a super duper way to populate the gameworld with activities, but for me, the longer I've played the more the RNG has just irritated me. Why am I being offered millions of credits to deliver some stuff when nothing happens during the mission simply because RNG decided this wasn't the right mission to spawn enemies? And honestly, when the RNG does decide it's the right time, why is every single enemy exactly the same? I guess the fact that there's no indication that this is going to change is disappointing.

Oops... I think that was a rant!

Anyway, the only thing that I was disappointed with from the LEP side was the rather poor attempt to 'make it right' with the ship skins and bobbleheads. Really? I don't think I had any of the ships that the skins were for, and a couple of Christmas bobbleheads? Whoever thought that was a good idea was for me at least way off the mark. To give away 'free' stuff and for people still not to be universally happy is not what I would call a great PR success.

 

[Drelthar]

To give away 'free' stuff and for people still not to be universally happy is not what I would call a great PR success.

It would have a made a lot more sense to give people some "credit" to use how they wanted.

I still didn't really want store stuff though, but that would have pleased any of the people who like the store stuff.

 

[Faded Glory]

It would have a made a lot more sense to give people some "credit" to use how they wanted.

I still didn't really want store stuff though, but that would have pleased any of the people who like the store stuff.

Indeed. I don't particularly have a great interest in cosmetics, I've bought a few skins and a nameplate or two, but if you're going to give something away as a 'thank you and sorry for the delay', at least try to make it something a person might want.

 

[bitstorm]

It would have a made a lot more sense to give people some "credit" to use how they wanted.

I still didn't really want store stuff though, but that would have pleased any of the people who like the store stuff.

I presume the issue there is the store doesn't support it.

Every time I've returned a sub-par skin I've asked for credit but they've never been able to do it.

 

[Drelthar]

I presume the issue there is the store doesn't support it.

Every time I've returned a sub-par skin I've asked for credit but they've never been able to do it.

Sigh.

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

Not a LEP owner, so I don't have an opinion on that. Question that should be asked is are there any LEP owners (kickstart funders) that feel that the money they spend on the LEP has been used to produce other games instead and not enough resources were invested in the development of ED?

I mean, it's normal that money earned from one game is invested in the production of future games, but I would probably feel unhappy if the money from my LEP was used to finance other games if I had the feeling not enough money and development went in the game I bought the LEP for or promises were made and not fulfilled and I didn't get the value out of the LEP.

Other publishers are often scrutinized if they spend KS money on something else than the project that the money was raised for.

I really don't think it was anything like you're imagining.

Frontier were less panhandling than generating preorders via the kickstarter campaign. From the pcgamer article in golgots post, do you really think frontier would have just dropped a much larger investment if the kickstarter failed? ~10 million on development isn't something you risk at the whim of a kickstarter campaign for much less.

I don't think anyone can seriously suggest they were not going to release elite if the kickstarter failed, put it that way.

One of the tradshow interviews with braben i think he referred to kickstarter as marketing.. though it was a long time ago.

 

[lenna]

This is a continuation of the conversation here. → https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...ss-holders-update.462900/page-45#post-7816706

Naturally if you feel this thread is of no value and the topic doesn't warrant further conversation, feel free to complain about it in hopes that it'll be closed as well.

For the rest of us, as per the actual topic of the thread: How do you think things are going so far? Is the game all that you had hoped and expected it to be by now? And, what is your outlook for the potential of the game going forward?

I am sorry, but as an LEP owner I do not recall the paint packs/bobble heads referred to in that thread and it certainly was not what I bought the LEP for - such free stuff is nice but is more a "wooden spoon" consolation prize IMO.

That being said, I do not really have any issues with FD's pace of development to date - I do however have major objections to the changes to exploration mechanics, the ADS mechanics should never have been removed IMO. I also feel the mini-game approach of blob-hunt/space-golf adds nothing of value and is idiotic in nature. I get where FD were going with the radio-telescope type mechanics for system scanning but it was a major mis-step IMO. As was the arguably unnecessary introduction of analysis and combat modes - or at least the unnecessary repetitive "you need to switch mode" warnings for this unit to function.

Going forward, (system/planetary scanning mechanics aside) what I am looking forward to most is support for atmospheric planetary flight and landing. I can see plenty of potential scope for such features but I think we will all have to keep our expectations in check if/when it is ever implemented. Space legs could be a double edged sword, I see it could have some value in some cases BUT I think I can live with out it - I would be more interested in seeing new variants of SRVs.

 

[VR Golgot]

I really don't think it was anything like you're imagining.

Frontier were less panhandling than generating preorders via the kickstarter campaign. From the pcgamer article in golgots post, do you really think frontier would have just dropped a much larger investment if the kickstarter failed? ~10 million on development isn't something you risk at the whim of a kickstarter campaign for much less.

I don't think anyone can seriously suggest they were not going to release elite if the kickstarter failed, put it that way.

One of the tradshow interviews with braben i think he referred to kickstarter as marketing.. though it was a long time ago.

Actually it does seem that the Kickstarter was pretty key, in that it proved there was a market out there:

PCGN: You mentioned in the Kickstarter that you’ve struggled to get this project off the ground. That it’s been a battle. Can you give me a bit of background to that? What’s been going on?

DB: The primary reason is that the project has been done as a skunkworks project, the issue is that because it’s not a project with an official release, or that sort of thing, you end up pulling people away to work on other projects. The advantage of this: it becomes a proper official project and it gets the priority.

DB:It’s still at a skunkworks stage now, and the plan is to increase it beyond that once we’ve got the thumbs up from Kickstarter.

PCGN: What if it doesn’t work? What if you don’t get the funds?

DB: It will be a tragic shame. But actually, it will probably be for the best. If there isn’t the interest in the game, then it’s probably better to know sooner rather than later. I mean, I’ll be very upset about it, I won’t deny it, but it’s a sensible plan.

But ultimately yeah, it was the trigger for them investing fully in the game. (So fair play to them using profits as they saw fit, so long as they still commited to the long-term pitches sold in the LEPs).

It's been a while coming, but they still seem to be . (And using standard '120k pa per dev' cost calculations, my back of the napkin workings suggest the 100+ ED devs will be paid via other franchises's profits, as it were, to see it to 2020 release...)

What comes around goes around perhaps

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

Actually it does seem that the Kickstarter was pretty key, in that it proved there was a market out there:

But ultimately yeah, it was the trigger for them investing fully in the game. (So fair play to them using profits as they saw fit, so long as they still commited to the long-term pitches sold in the LEPs).

It's been a while coming, but they still seem to be . (And using standard '120k pa per dev' cost calculations, my back of the napkin workings suggest the 100+ ED devs will be paid via other franchises's profits, as it were, to see it to 2020 release...)

What comes around goes around perhaps

Right, good point. Which does still match the idea it was a marketing exercise. Good to be wrong about the kickstarter at least in the sense they would have actually cancelled elite without it it succeeding. Im pretty sure everyone was focusing on star citizen at the time (it was still innocent then) and it felt like chris roberts and david braben had a phone call and was convinced it was a good idea so did a 'me too' thing.

So the kickstarter promoted elite from a prototype to a formal project, got it.

EDIT: Hang on, that doesn't change the fact they didn't actually need the money and were doing what amounted to a preorder run. I feel for anyone who gets a charity buff off kickstarter, but i wouldn't call call foul at all because the rewards were excellent.. id take any of those rewards today if they were offered again, including the lep for 80? pounds

 

[babelfisch]

Actually it does seem that the Kickstarter was pretty key, in that it proved there was a market out there:





But ultimately yeah, it was the trigger for them investing fully in the game. (So fair play to them using profits as they saw fit, so long as they still commited to the long-term pitches sold in the LEPs).

It's been a while coming, but they still seem to be . (And using standard '120k pa per dev' cost calculations, my back of the napkin workings suggest the 100+ ED devs will be paid via other franchises's profits, as it were, to see it to 2020 release...)

What comes around goes around perhaps

The original plan was to release a cheap budget title (£10 per unit). The succesful Kickstarter convinced them to throw more money at it and to develop a full priced game.

 

[VR Golgot]

The original plan was to release a cheap budget title (£10 per unit). The succesful Kickstarter convinced them to throw more money at it and to develop a full priced game.

Oh wow, can you dig up a source for that? That would have been a different game

 

[babelfisch]

Oh wow, can you dig up a source for that? That would have been a different game

Investegate |Frontier Dev PLC Announcements | Frontier Dev PLC: Trading Statement

Investegate announcements from Frontier Dev PLC, Trading Statement

www.investegate.co.uk

When these scenarios were prepared, the Board assumed a typical average unit price of £10. However, a higher release price of US$60/£40 per unit has been set by the Group based on the expected quality of the game, and therefore the Group is currently receiving greater revenue from fewer units sold.