ANNOUNCEMENT Community Update (22/10)

Rat Catcher · Oct 28, 2019

ifinchy said:
The "PLAY" button has just re-appeared 19:10 hrs GMT

My Pc is just 'sitting' at the (normally not noticed) Logging In screen with a rotating circle...

Oculus - not Steam...

B_E_N_D_E_R · Oct 28, 2019

I am finally in

UltimaWeapons · Oct 28, 2019

Not me, I seem to still be stuck at "Logging in". Restarted multiple times already.

sailor · Oct 28, 2019

Yes its been 10 minutes for me stuck on the logging screen

MC Escher of Space · Oct 28, 2019

Same here, at least 30 mins now.

nexusreject · Oct 28, 2019

Ratkatcher said:
Well the newsletter I received has:

Firstly, thank you for all of your feedback on the September Update, which you've shared with us on the forums, across social media, on livestreams and through the Issue Tracker. There is no doubt that, in addition to the new features, the September Update introduced a number of issues and bugs which caused a lot of frustration. We are really sorry for these issues. We realise that some of the issues had an impact on your ability to enjoy Elite Dangerous. The team have been working hard to address the most critical issues and have already released a series of patches and updates to bring those fixes in as quickly as possible.

However, we know there's more to be done. You've asked for more focus on existing bug/fixes and issues, and for the community to be better integrated into the development process and testing for these upcoming updates.

In order to improve your overall experience, we have decided to refocus our efforts on addressing key issues and bugs. Since the launch of the September Update, we've been taking a deeper look at our internal development roadmap, the way in which we utilise public betas, and the content of our next updates...

So maybe they only hate me...

Nowhere within that text do they say FC have been knocked back to second quarter of next year. They say it right at the start of this thread yes. But nowhere in the newsletter. Is it because more people read the news letter than announcements on the forum...? Yes I think it is. So they want to hold back the stinging reality from those who only surface what is going on at FD. It is that kind of PR tactic that makes everyone mistrust FD. Well that & the continuous false promises.

Rat Catcher · Oct 28, 2019

nexusreject said:
Nowhere within that text do they say FC have been knocked back to second quarter of next year. They say it right at the start of this thread yes. But nowhere in the newsletter. Is it because more people read the news letter than announcements on the forum...? Yes I think it is. So they want to hold back the stinging reality from those who only surface what is going on at FD. It is that kind of PR tactic that makes everyone mistrust FD. Well that & the continuous false promises.

A link was provided in the Newsletter that takes the reader directly to this announcement... Surely anyone interested would have read further? If they choose to ignore the remainder of the article being offered whose fault is that?

nexusreject · Oct 28, 2019

Ratkatcher said:
A link was provided in the Newsletter that takes the reader directly to this announcement... Surely anyone interested would have read further? If they choose to ignore the remainder of the article being offered whose fault is that?

My point was they should be up front with everything. They are not.

JazzyTech · Oct 28, 2019

As a Kickstarter backer I waited years to see this game. Having a game with fewer bugs vs. more features is preferable to me personally. I am looking forward with anticipation to the carrier release (among other improvements), and don't mind the delay.

UltimaWeapons · Oct 28, 2019

Seem to be working for me now

bigcee75 · Oct 28, 2019

So... Fleet Carriers turned up yet or what

Rojo Habe · Oct 28, 2019

Newsletter????

Is that thing still going? I haven't received one in months. Maybe over a year.

EDIT
====

Just checked my subscription. Seems I wasn't subscribed to anything other than Jurassic World Evolution, and I've never received even one of those.

How does this stuff just change itself without any input from me?

I guess theire Store server must be running on windows 10

Diagbar · Oct 29, 2019

Will Flanagan said:
Greetings Commanders,

Following the launch of the September Update last month, we’d like to provide you all with an update on our plans for Elite Dangerous.

Firstly, thank you for all of your feedback on the September Update, which you've shared with us on the forums, across social media, on livestreams and through the Issue Tracker. There is no doubt that, in addition to the new features, the September Update introduced a number of issues and bugs which caused a lot of frustration. We are really sorry for these issues. We realise that some of the issues had an impact on your ability to enjoy Elite Dangerous. The team have been working hard to address the most critical issues and have already released a series of patches and updates to bring those fixes in as quickly as possible.

However, we know there's more to be done. You've asked for more focus on existing bug/fixes and issues, and for the community to be better integrated into the development process and testing for these upcoming updates.

In order to improve your overall experience, we have decided to refocus our efforts on addressing key issues and bugs. Since the launch of the September Update, we've been taking a deeper look at our internal development roadmap, the way in which we utilise public betas, and the content of our next updates.

Here is a summary of our plans:

From now and into next year (2020), the updates will focus almost exclusively on addressing recent and longstanding issues, including those reported in the Issue Tracker, ultimately making the game better.

We are expecting to have a series of these updates, which will be rolled out (approximately) every three to four months.

Each update will also include a public beta that will run prior to the update's release, with a dedicated time to address major issues that appear.

The first of these updates will have its public beta in December, with an expectation that the launch will be early in 2020.

As a result of our updated plans, we have made the difficult decision to defer the release of Fleet Carriers. We are now planning for Fleet Carriers to be released in an update in the second quarter of 2020, rather than in December 2019 as previously stated. This will grant us additional time to refine the feature as well as focusing time on addressing existing reported issues. It will also ensure the state of the game is in a better position to introduce Fleet Carriers, that will provide Commanders even more opportunities to interact with the Milky Way. We understand that this delay will be disappointing for some players, but do know that this decision is one that we do not take lightly, and is made with the best interests of the community and game at heart.

Ultimately, we are confident that this will improve the Elite Dangerous experience for all our players.

The team have been hard at work on the next major milestone, which you may remember we mentioned back in March as our next major paid addition to the game. They’re making fantastic progress and on schedule for release by the end of next year. We are very excited to show you what we’ve been working on. However, we can only announce the content when it’s at the right stage of development, we estimate this will be ready to talk about at some time in summer 2020, after the Fleet Carriers update. We appreciate there is a bit of a wait, but we want to make sure it is ready to be shown before making our full official announcement to the world.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your ongoing and continued support and for helping give us the feedback, steer and insight to make decisions that will benefit the entire community and for your continued passion and dedication.

Heh, and you know, since you transferred fleet Carriers, you could at least tell us the details of what they will be (unless of course they are just megaships, on which the player can land his ships, buy equipment and set a jump point )
At least in this case, the expectation would not have been so disappointingly tedious.
P. S.
And yes, thanks mod. Team for the opportunity to return.
Henceforth, I will try to pay less attention to various kinds of dubious personalities.

Patrick_68000 · Oct 29, 2019

Lightspeed said:
Yes, and you have to wait at home for the delivery. Look out for a midnight black van with blacked out windows.

UPS no doubt.

Wobblin-Gobblin · Oct 29, 2019

Rojo Habe said:
Newsletter????

Is that thing still going? I haven't received one in months. Maybe over a year.

EDIT
====

Just checked my subscription. Seems I wasn't subscribed to anything other than Jurassic World Evolution, and I've never received even one of those.

How does this stuff just change itself without any input from me?

I guess theire Store server must be running on windows 10

N-E-W-S-L-E-T-T-E-R? What is that?

They've cancelled it, i gues.

Rubbernuke · Oct 29, 2019

You had to opt in for newsletters a while back, I suppose to conform to GDPR.

zimms · Oct 29, 2019

Rojo Habe said:
Newsletter????

Is that thing still going? I haven't received one in months. Maybe over a year.

EDIT
====

Just checked my subscription. Seems I wasn't subscribed to anything other than Jurassic World Evolution, and I've never received even one of those.

How does this stuff just change itself without any input from me?

I guess theire Store server must be running on windows 10

It's 2019. They need your consent to send you those and can't just grab you by your inbox.

Frenotx · Oct 29, 2019

I really, really, really hope this includes some balance work, too. I love(d) this game to death and sank countless hours into it, but ultimately just got so frustrated and disappointed with the balance issues that I had to leave. I just couldn't enjoy the game anymore when the foundation was so severely screwed up.

Defensive modules (SCBs, hull reinforcement, etc.) eealy need to not be allowed in standard internal slots. As long as defensive modules are competing for space with all of the other modules needed to interact with the game's content, there will always be a monumental divide between the players going about their business generally trying to engage with / immerse themselves in the world, and players that are only interested in fighting / killing other ships. Making defensive modules military-slot-only, and making sure all ships have at least a few military slots to compensate, would make an enormous difference on unifying the playerbase (at least when it comes to builds, and ship capabilities). It would also help immensely in the challenge of trying to balance player power levels vs. NPCs by narrowing the range of possible survivability levels of player ships.

Engineering is a mess, too, but I'm not sure of how practical it would be to fix at this point. It has always needed to be more about customization, specialization, and side-grading, rather than the absolutely ENORMOUS raw power increase it offers now. Your choice to grandfather old weapons with the big engineering rework however makes me think it's very unlikely you have any desire to ever rectify this issue though, so I'm not holding my breath.

And finally, the systematic demphasis and practical removal of the "blue zone" system with flight is probably the saddest development. The fundamental choice of getting either maximum speed OR maximum maneuverablity, but never both, was the thing that really set Elite: Dangerous' flight system apart. It's what really made me fall in love with the game- the way it felt to fly. Boosting has always allowed you to temporarily ignore that system, but it used to be something you could only do occasionally, and at significant cost. Between engineering, and ships getting released with more and more boosting ability even with factory-spec A-rated stuff (yet more and more floatiness) has changed this, though. Boosting constantly is the norm, which means ignoring the blue zone constantly is the norm. Instead of needing to carefully manage your velocity and engine power, it's all about ping-ponging around, twitch aim with FA-off, and slapping away at massive health pools. I see people refer to actually needing to deal with the blue zone mechanic in the brief moments where they're not boosting refer to it as "stalling". It makes me sad. The soul is gone. All the other balance issues undermine the game heavily, but killing the soul of the flying itself is the thing that ultimately drove the final nail in the coffin of my fun in the game.

zimms · Oct 29, 2019

Frenotx said:
I really, really, really hope this includes some balance work, too. I love(d) this game to death and sank countless hours into it, but ultimately just got so frustrated and disappointed with the balance issues that I had to leave. I just couldn't enjoy the game anymore when the foundation was so severely screwed up.

Defensive modules (SCBs, hull reinforcement, etc.) eealy need to not be allowed in standard internal slots. As long as defensive modules are competing for space with all of the other modules needed to interact with the game's content, there will always be a monumental divide between the players going about their business generally trying to engage with / immerse themselves in the world, and players that are only interested in fighting / killing other ships. Making defensive modules military-slot-only, and making sure all ships have at least a few military slots to compensate, would make an enormous difference on unifying the playerbase (at least when it comes to builds, and ship capabilities). It would also help immensely in the challenge of trying to balance player power levels vs. NPCs by narrowing the range of possible survivability levels of player ships.

Engineering is a mess, too, but I'm not sure of how practical it would be to fix at this point. It has always needed to be more about customization, specialization, and side-grading, rather than the absolutely ENORMOUS raw power increase it offers now. Your choice to grandfather old weapons with the big engineering rework however makes me think it's very unlikely you have any desire to ever rectify this issue though, so I'm not holding my breath.

And finally, the systematic demphasis and practical removal of the "blue zone" system with flight is probably the saddest development. The fundamental choice of getting either maximum speed OR maximum maneuverablity, but never both, was the thing that really set Elite: Dangerous' flight system apart. It's what really made me fall in love with the game- the way it felt to fly. Boosting has always allowed you to temporarily ignore that system, but it used to be something you could only do occasionally, and at significant cost. Between engineering, and ships getting released with more and more boosting ability even with factory-spec A-rated stuff (yet more and more floatiness) has changed this, though. Boosting constantly is the norm, which means ignoring the blue zone constantly is the norm. Instead of needing to carefully manage your velocity and engine power, it's all about ping-ponging around, twitch aim with FA-off, and slapping away at massive health pools. I see people refer to actually needing to deal with the blue zone mechanic in the brief moments where they're not boosting refer to it as "stalling". It makes me sad. The soul is gone. All the other balance issues undermine the game heavily, but killing the soul of the flying itself is the thing that ultimately drove the final nail in the coffin of my fun in the game.

Here's my second thumb as well.

OHMSS · Oct 29, 2019

Frenotx said:
I really, really, really hope this includes some balance work, too. I love(d) this game to death and sank countless hours into it, but ultimately just got so frustrated and disappointed with the balance issues that I had to leave. I just couldn't enjoy the game anymore when the foundation was so severely screwed up.

Defensive modules (SCBs, hull reinforcement, etc.) eealy need to not be allowed in standard internal slots. As long as defensive modules are competing for space with all of the other modules needed to interact with the game's content, there will always be a monumental divide between the players going about their business generally trying to engage with / immerse themselves in the world, and players that are only interested in fighting / killing other ships. Making defensive modules military-slot-only, and making sure all ships have at least a few military slots to compensate, would make an enormous difference on unifying the playerbase (at least when it comes to builds, and ship capabilities). It would also help immensely in the challenge of trying to balance player power levels vs. NPCs by narrowing the range of possible survivability levels of player ships.

Engineering is a mess, too, but I'm not sure of how practical it would be to fix at this point. It has always needed to be more about customization, specialization, and side-grading, rather than the absolutely ENORMOUS raw power increase it offers now. Your choice to grandfather old weapons with the big engineering rework however makes me think it's very unlikely you have any desire to ever rectify this issue though, so I'm not holding my breath.

And finally, the systematic demphasis and practical removal of the "blue zone" system with flight is probably the saddest development. The fundamental choice of getting either maximum speed OR maximum maneuverablity, but never both, was the thing that really set Elite: Dangerous' flight system apart. It's what really made me fall in love with the game- the way it felt to fly. Boosting has always allowed you to temporarily ignore that system, but it used to be something you could only do occasionally, and at significant cost. Between engineering, and ships getting released with more and more boosting ability even with factory-spec A-rated stuff (yet more and more floatiness) has changed this, though. Boosting constantly is the norm, which means ignoring the blue zone constantly is the norm. Instead of needing to carefully manage your velocity and engine power, it's all about ping-ponging around, twitch aim with FA-off, and slapping away at massive health pools. I see people refer to actually needing to deal with the blue zone mechanic in the brief moments where they're not boosting refer to it as "stalling". It makes me sad. The soul is gone. All the other balance issues undermine the game heavily, but killing the soul of the flying itself is the thing that ultimately drove the final nail in the coffin of my fun in the game.

Good post.