Yup, I guess it was too late to take feedback into account.
Check the date:
Exploration/Codex
18th June
So, yeah, you're right. After they postponed the Exploration Focused Feedback by 6 months, also favouring an Open Only Powerplay grenade dud, it was too late to take feedback into account.
Important enough to spend a considerable amount of time on creating a complete overhaul for exploration mechanics, which is exactly what the vocal part of the exploration community asked them to do.
After 4 years, they did indeed rush a considerable amount of content.
That's why I agree with the idea of a compromise. The best thing you can do to achieve that is to tell people like Burke they should shut up
Shut up! I will never tell anyone to shut up.
, because he doesn't help at all with his whining and insults. (hey Burke, sorry, I love you just as much as I love Ziggy!). Maybe we should start with 'Hey Frontier, thanks for listening to our feedback. We now realise that our feedback was wrong!'
Which feedback did they listen to?
If they wouldn't care for exploration they wouldn't waste time on it. It's probably true that they don't care for your individual exploration style though...
If they would care about exploration they would have given it as much of a stage as the 7 other topics that were discussed. In the order of things, they care more about Powerplay than exploration. And you can ask the fellers who play powerplay how much Frontier cares about that.
Anyway, if you want to understand my position (if there is any) it probably helps when I tell you how I remember it.
Over the last 4 years, the entirety of the vocal exploration community (not everyone, but those were loud enough to get noticed by me) claimed that the ADS is a shallow placeholder and an insult to exploration. I've seen lots of people suggesting a complete overhaul, including detailed concepts which are almost identical to the current implementation. There was nothing but praise for these proposals and the very few people who did say the ADS is good as it is were quickly silenced with the white knight bat (which coincidentally is the same thing that happens now to those who like the FSS). It's possible there was a silent majority who didn't think the ADS needs to go, but they were silent. This got most apparent when Sandro said they are happy with the state of exploration and everyone was like 'you can't say that you are really happy with the shallow ADS nonsense or you don't care for exploraiton!!!'.
Only after the FSS announcement people actually voiced their opinion about how awesome the ADS is and how they love the associated 'gameplay'.
The way I remember it is that people wanted additions to exploration. The ADS was less slighted than the DSS was. There always been the ADS is God Mode camp and the ADS Is Just The Start camp. These two always have been arguing about that. There was no uniform sentiment towards the ADS. And I have been involved with these discussions a lot, so I'm pretty sure it's not as one sided as you claim. There were multiple sentiments towards the ADS
This is simply wrong: " and everyone was like 'you can't say that you are really happy with the shallow ADS nonsense or you don't care for exploraiton!!!'" many simply wanted more tools, not tools taken away from them. And notice how I shy away from terms like "majority" and 'minority".
You are miss-remembering.
So when people say FDEV doesn't listen to feedback or they don't care for exploration that's COMPLETE NONSENSE.
Except the Focused feedback Cycle shows exactly that.
Does that mean everything is perfect? Nope. Can we please everyone and find an agreeable solution? Probably not, but we can try. If we want to get there we need to stop acting like butthurt spoiled brats and start to realise what got us into the situation in the first place: acting like butthurt spoiled brats and demanding changes without knowing what they imply. The best thing that can happen for those who want the ADS back is a mature discussion without name calling, accusations and insults. 'You don't care for me' and 'Everything you do is wrong' isn't the best way to get what you want.
Couple of things. Calling people butthurt spoiled brats doesn't help either. Projecting it onto the person doesn't help ('You don't care for me', instead of "you don't care for exploration"). using hyperbole doesn't help ('Everything you do is wrong' instead of 'removing the ADS altogether is wrong)
Here's a tip, when you rightfully state that using name calling and insults doesn't help the conversation, don't use name calling and insults
edit: Oh, and FYI, I'm way past the stage of expecting I get what I want. I have accepted a long time ago, that isn't going to happen.
I'm just here because I'm a forum addict.