Current State and Future of Elite Dangerous Questions and Concerns.

[MangoMan]

Dear Frontier,

Considering how much work is still left to do on this game and how much you plan to add and what little there is to do content wise now, how do you justify selling this game as a finished product? It is obviously still in development. Not only that but it is my understanding that you are taking ship boarding and walking freely around space stations and making them paid expansion packs when you have a a $60 price tag on your game. Why aren't these things included in the game itself for free? When I think of a space simulator these type of actions are some the first things I think of. I really enjoy this game but these things cannot be ignored.

Sincerely,
Worried Consumer

 

[Neokortex]

Ah well, they lowered the price allready 10%. And yes, the update was painful but I like playing the game since couple of weeks day by day

 

[MangoMan]

I find it ridiculous that they are saying their game is finished when it clearly isn't, and they are already planning expansions packs.

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expansion packs of ripped content at that

 

[blitzspear]

Whilst i understand the frustration.......... be honest, if we waited for software (games or apps or Operating systems) to be bug free........... we'd still be using DOS 5 and WFW 3.11.
The most popular OS in recent times XP used on over 250,000,000 systems even 10+ yrs after its introduction and after its end of life STILL has bugs in it...
To expect them to WAIT until it was bug free is unrealistic. They continue to patch and strive to enhance the game so lets just enjoy the ride.

 

[sbdags]

Dear Frontier,

Considering how much work is still left to do on this game and how much you plan to add and what little there is to do content wise now, how do you justify selling this game as a finished product? It is obviously still in development. Not only that but it is my understanding that you are taking ship boarding and walking freely around space stations and making them paid expansion packs when you have a a $60 price tag on your game. Why aren't these things included in the game itself for free? When I think of a space simulator these type of actions are some the first things I think of. I really enjoy this game but these things cannot be ignored.

Sincerely,
Worried Consumer

Really? 'Little to do'? I find your post very condescending and not based on fact. Planned expansions were explained and clearly laid out well before the game was released.

This is not how you write to a game company asking them what their future plans are ...

 

[MangoMan]

I never mentioned bugs in my above posts, just that it was unfinished. What I was refering mostly to is the lack of gameplay mechanics they still plan on adding. I really don't mind waiting for them to finish the game, it just makes me upset they're selling their game as "finished" when it is no where finished.

 

[HeimdallofHavn]

Mr, Mango.

There was already a full game in there at launch.

Players have sunk more than a hundred hours into it, way more than most tripple A games.

This was always going to be an ongoing development.

The game will never be complete.

The same thing applies to many online gaming projects these days.

But, if you have sunk hundreds of hours into it.... Of course it will get a bit samey, but you surely have already gotten your money's worth many times over.

Just take a break. Come back for the next patch, or the next time you feel like a bit of space pew pew.

Stay tuned next week for E3.

 

[micky1984]

Dear Frontier,

Considering how much work is still left to do on this game and how much you plan to add and what little there is to do content wise now, how do you justify selling this game as a finished product? It is obviously still in development. Not only that but it is my understanding that you are taking ship boarding and walking freely around space stations and making them paid expansion packs when you have a a $60 price tag on your game. Why aren't these things included in the game itself for free? When I think of a space simulator these type of actions are some the first things I think of. I really enjoy this game but these things cannot be ignored.

Sincerely,
Worried Consumer

it was never sold as a finished product and if you look you wil be hard pressed to find any PC game over the last decade that did not need major updates and patching as for your concerns i dont care what you think ! are you a founder ? i guess your not

 

[Meddy]

People seem increasingly keen to ignore the fact that modern games are exponentially more complicated beasts than those of 15, even 5, years ago. In the same way a Casio calculator has more code than the original Apollo mission computer, modern games (and software in general) are huge unweildy beasts. A bug-free release is a thing of the past for projects of even moderate size, particularly when servers, the internet and the to-the-power-of-X amount of hardware and connection configurations that devs must anticipate are thrown into the mix. It is fundamentally impossible and we as consumers must grow to accept that.

That being said it still falls to the developer to minimise the extent of bugs on release. I feel frontier's beta testing model is flawed (backers only?!). They have limited their testing crowd to a select group that will never grow, in terms of numbers, ambition or scope. The same tired eyes will not spot a problem after the Nth time. They have a stagnant testing pool. It needs to be fully open or at least randomised.

In terms of content it is, as op says, disheartening that ED seems lacking in basic features, let alone anticipated features that appear to be held back for paid expansion. My earlier argument of games being more complicated to make has bearing here, but, still, I don't remember the last game I played with class (ships) based gameplay with gear (modules) that lacked an inventory or storage.

Mind you, in my heart I know I'd sooner pay £20 to walk around my asp after piloting a 1k ly run. Sit at my captain's desk (complete with bottle of brandy and an ornamental sextant) while staring out a port window at nebulae or white dwarf shining through the rings of a gas giant whilst a selection of the classical music from auto dock plays.

Who needs inventories or bookmarks?

 

[Mohrgan]

Tired old thread. Silly old opinion. This childish view get a re-cycle every time a new player starts to explore. Do some research before you drag out the dead horse.

 

[Schmack]

Whilst i understand the frustration.......... be honest, if we waited for software (games or apps or Operating systems) to be bug free........... we'd still be using DOS 5 and WFW 3.11.
The most popular OS in recent times XP used on over 250,000,000 systems even 10+ yrs after its introduction and after its end of life STILL has bugs in it...
To expect them to WAIT until it was bug free is unrealistic. They continue to patch and strive to enhance the game so lets just enjoy the ride.

Your retort is a Coulter/Moore analogy. It's the other extreme, a bifurcation. No one asked for a bug free game, but when the game isn't playable for more than half the content months after release, it's not nit picking to point it out. Otherwise, "sure, US bombed Hiroshima... but if you're going to wait for a world where no one ever scratches their finger, we'd still be in the womb".

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People seem increasingly keen to ignore the fact that modern games are exponentially more complicated beasts than those of 15, even 5, years ago. In the same way a Casio calculator has more code than the original Apollo mission computer, modern games (and software in general) are huge unweildy beasts. A bug-free release is a thing of the past for projects of even moderate size, particularly when servers the internet and the to-the-power-of-X amount if hardware and connection configurations that devs must anticipate. It is fundamentally impossible and we as consumers must grow to accept that.

That being said it still falls to the developer to minimise the extent of bugs on release. I feel frontier's beta testing model is flawed (backers only?!). They have limited their testing crowd to a select group that will never grow, in terms of numbers, ambition or scope. The same tired eyes will not spot a problem after the Nth time. They have a stagnant testing pool. It needs to be fully open or at least randomised.

In terms of content it is, as op says, disheartening that ED seems lacking in basic features, let alone anticipated features that appear to be held back for paid expansion. My earlier argument of games being more complicated to make has bearing here, but, still, I don't remember the last game I played with class (ships) based gameplay with gear (modules) that lacked an inventory or storage.

Mind you, in my heart I know I'd sooner pay £20 to walk around my asp after piloting a 1k ly run. Sit at my captain's desk (complete with bottle of brandy and an ornamental sextant) while staring out a port window at nebulae or white dwarf shining through the rings of a gas giant whilst a selection of the classical music from auto dock plays.

Who needs inventories or bookmarks?

Cars are also more complicated than they were 20 years ago. That doesn't mean I'm ok if mine doesn't run.

People who complain about these things aren't nit picking, just look at the avalanche of disgruntled users starting threads here. It's not a nuance. Playing fanboi for the game doesn't do anything to alleviate the frustration these people feel, who've paid IRL moneey for something they feel like isn't what they were told it was, not what it was a month ago even. Will it be fixed? Some will, if it's bugs, but some is just clipping the casual player noise out of the signal of more dedicated users by raising the threshold levels in the form of lower awards and more mundane missions.

But yeah

 

[Meddy]

People who complain about these things aren't nit picking, just look at the avalanche of disgruntled users starting threads here. It's not a nuance. Playing fanboi for the game doesn't do anything to alleviate the frustration these people feel, who've paid IRL moneey for something they feel like isn't what they were told it was, not what it was a month ago even. Will it be fixed? Some will, if it's bugs, but some is just clipping the casual player noise out of the signal of more dedicated users by raising the threshold levels in the form of lower awards and more mundane missions.

But yeah

Don't get me wrong! I'm no fanboy, and the recent issues have been frustrating as hell (and really really could have been avoided, hence my rant on FDs beta policy). My issue really is people expecting clean releases these days, or quick turnarounds on fixes in systems that are genuinely rediculously complicated. The hiccups were just rather large and horribly mishandled this time.

And in terms of gameplay issues, there's a reason I'm out in the black avoiding the rather poor progression and rewards. I've got my own game out here! With my imaginary brandy

PS. PS. Seen the new land rovers? With all the superfluous electronics? What a -poor show those things are. Exponentially more complicated vehicles with exponentially more things to go wrong with them.

 

[ffr]

I find it ridiculous that they are saying their game is finished when it clearly isn't

I agree with micky1984 . Nowhere have I seen FD claim ED is finished product. If they did advertise it as finished product, I think they'd be back in trouble with UK Trading Standards and Advertising Standards Authority real quick.

it is my understanding that you are taking ship boarding and walking freely around space stations and making them paid expansion packs

Likewise I do not believe FD have ever said ship boarding, walking (or planetary landing) will be paid expansion packs.

They have said a lot from which some hopeful Lifetime Expansion Pass buyers might have inferred they will be paid expansion packs. But that's different. In particular the Lifetime Expansion Pass advert seemed carefully worded to avoid actually saying this.

Also note that Wings 1.2, announced to players as an "update", was reported to investors as an "expansion". On that basis, FD has already provided three expansions.

EDIT: Now I find David Braben says it here: www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/03/12/david-braben-on-fan-anger-interview/ "We’ve said things like going down to planet surfaces, walking around inside your spaceship, getting out of your ship, all of those things would be part of paid updates." ... assuming 'updates' equals 'expansions'.

 

[MangoMan]

it was never sold as a finished product and if you look you wil be hard pressed to find any PC game over the last decade that did not need major updates and patching as for your concerns i dont care what you think ! are you a founder ? i guess your not

it most certainly WAS sold as a finished product!

 

[{SAS}Stalker]

If only they had anounced at the very beginning that planetary landing and walking around your ship was to be a paid for DLC then all this hurt could be avoided.

Oh wait....

 

[Alien]

Likewise I do not believe FD have ever said ship boarding, walking (or planetary landing) will be paid expansion packs.

They have said a lot from which some hopeful Lifetime Expansion Pass buyers might have inferred they will be paid expansion packs. But that's different. In particular the Lifetime Expansion Pass advert seemed carefully worded to avoid actually saying this.

Also note that Wings 1.2, announced to players as an "update", was reported to investors as an "expansion". On that basis, FD has already provided three expansions.

Sorry, but Frontier have said, right from the kickstarter days, that there will be at least two paid expansions, one would be EVA (Extra-Vehicular Activity) and the other would be SPL (Seamless Planetary Landings). They said these paid expansion packs would see the first released one year after the official release of the game.

Nothing about the expansions has been inferred or implied by Frontier, and it's easily checkable with a little research, ableit the information is about two years old now, as Frontier have said nothing about them for a long time. People on this forum (and elsewhere) may have distorted facts in retelling them.

EDIT see? ...

If only they had anounced at the very beginning that planetary landing and walking around your ship was to be a paid for DLC then all this hurt could be avoided.

Oh wait....

 

[Celvin Aarden]

This is getting old fast. Personally, I come here to discuss a game I've grown to love, but there are so many threads with complaints over the tiniest details. Constructive feedback is one thing but come on... you paid 40€ for this, not a fortune. The entitlement is ridiculous, your moneys worth was well invested after 5 hours by todays standard, assuming you actually enjoyed those hours. If you didn't, then why are you even here shouting about this and that?

Get over it and enjoy the ride, it'll be so much more fun that way.

 

[Drink!]

Another one of these threads....
Seems like the thing to do when you just want people to notice you on the forums.

 

[micky1984]

it most certainly WAS sold as a finished product!

ok show me ?

 

[Flavourless]

This is getting old fast. Personally, I come here to discuss a game I've grown to love, but there are so many threads with complaints over the tiniest details. Constructive feedback is one thing but come on... you paid 40€ for this, not a fortune. The entitlement is ridiculous, your moneys worth was well invested after 5 hours by todays standard, assuming you actually enjoyed those hours. If you didn't, then why are you even here shouting about this and that?

Get over it and enjoy the ride, it'll be so much more fun that way.

There is not an iota of constructive feedback in this post.
It is just one of the way too many pointless complaints about other people complaining that litter this forum.

My feedback is that people should think twice (at least) about posting if they have nothing to say that can be used to improve peoples' enjoyment of the forum or the game itself.

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Sorry, but Frontier have said, right from the kickstarter days, that there will be at least two paid expansions...

They said also there would be a true solo mode. It means nothing.